Bubba Kush - CSI

ElNass 🌱 Week 1 — Learning Bubba’s Pace The first real week of this journey is officially underway. 💚 After waiting more than two years to finally grow something from CSI Humboldt, it’s pretty exciting to finally see this little Bubba Kush starting her life. Before beginning the run, I spent quite a bit of time researching Bubba Kush and talking to other growers about what to expect from her. One thing comes up again and again: Bubba is slow. Really slow. Some growers even recommend extremely long vegetative periods, sometimes around three months, if the goal is to build a sizeable plant before flowering. I’ve also come across claims suggesting that Bubba’s naturally slow growth may be related to relatively inefficient respiration or metabolism. I haven’t found enough solid scientific evidence yet to treat that explanation as fact, but it’s something I’d really like to investigate further during this run. Another recurring observation is that Bubba doesn’t seem to appreciate very high light intensity. Because of that, I’m deliberately starting with relatively low PPFD rather than trying to push her from day one. I’ll gradually adjust the intensity according to her response and document how she behaves along the way. ? A different start this time I’m also approaching the beginning of this run differently from my previous grows. Instead of planting directly into my 113 L living soil/no-till bed, Bubba will spend her first few weeks in a small plastic pot filled with a very simple light mix: peat moss + worm castings + pumice + a small amount of kelp meal. There’s a practical reason behind this decision. If Bubba really is as slow during early vegetative growth as everyone says, there’s little reason to occupy the entire grow space with the 113 L container from day one. Starting small allows me to use the space much more efficiently while she establishes herself. Once the root system has properly colonized the starter pot and the plant is ready for the next stage, she’ll be transplanted into the 113 L established living soil, where she’ll have access to the full volume of soil and the mature ecosystem that has developed through the previous cycles. That’s when the real experiment begins. ? Another cycle for the living soil Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to perform a soil analysis before starting this cycle, so there’s still some uncertainty regarding the current nutrient balance of the 113 L bed. During the previous run, I noticed some foliage lightening around the stretch, which made me suspect that nitrogen mineralization may have struggled to keep pace with peak plant demand. But I’m deliberately not correcting a problem before it actually exists. Bubba’s slow vegetative development should give me plenty of time after transplant to observe how she interacts with the soil. If I begin seeing a consistent deficiency developing, I’ll intervene early with an appropriate top dress. Until then, I’m letting the ecosystem work. Observation over assumptions That’s probably going to be the theme of this entire run. I’ve read plenty about Bubba Kush before growing her: slow growth, relatively low light preference, unusual metabolism, long vegetative periods… Now I finally have the opportunity to see how much of that actually translates into the plant growing in front of me. So rather than forcing Bubba into the way I normally grow, I’m going to adapt the environment to her response and document everything along the way. Growth rate, PPFD tolerance, morphology, nutrient demand, root development, branching, stretch, aroma and eventually flower development. For now: Low PPFD. Gentle VPD. A simple light mix. No unnecessary feeding. And absolutely no rush. If she wants to take her time, she can. Once she’s ready, 113 litres of established living soil will be waiting for her. ?🌱 This time, Bubba sets the pace. 💚

ElNass WEEK 2 — BUBBA KUSH 🌱 | CSI Humboldt Slow means slow. 😅 Week 2 is over, and Bubba Kush is already showing me exactly why this cultivar has a reputation for taking its time. Growth has been pretty slow, but during the last few days I also started noticing some yellowing on the cotyledons and first leaves. Since she was growing in a very lightly amended mix, my first thought was that she might simply be starting to run out of available nutrition. But when I transplanted her, I found something else: the root zone was much drier than I expected and still relatively underdeveloped. So the issue may have been a combination of limited nutrition, low moisture and simply Bubba being Bubba. Instead of trying to fix everything with more inputs, I decided to move her into the 113 L living soil bed a little earlier than originally planned. The soil has been rehydrated and now I’ll let the biology, the roots and the plant do their thing. Light is still intentionally conservative at around 220 PPFD. No reason to push photosynthesis while the root system is recovering and adapting to its new home. Not every week has to look perfect. Sometimes the most interesting part of a grow is figuring out what the plant is trying to tell you. Now she has space, moisture and an entire living ecosystem underneath her. Let’s see what Bubba does with it. 🌱💚 Bubba Kush — CSI Humboldt Week 2 | Living Soil | No-Till