Expert Seeds - California Orange

11/2 - Soaked seeds overnight 11/3 - Soaked 2" GroDan Rockwool cube in 5.5pH water, drained, then soaked in 5.5pH water with .5ml/l GH RapidStart. Placed seed inside (no paper-towel method, this time). I plan on using the GH Flora Series Performance Pack on this grow to compare usage against the DynaGro line I'm using on another grow. I had purchased the GH set just prior to being donated the DynaGro line and I have enough of each to run two plants in dwc with each line to compare. I'll be starting at with 25% dilution of the recommended dosage of base nutrients and increasing up to 50% dilution before deciding whether or not to go further. This will be my first time using any GH products other than RapidStart. 11/6 - First signs of life. Attempted to streamline my process by germinating right in the rockwool cubes. So far, so good. I also upped the size of the rockwool cubes to 2" instead of the little 1" ones I have used in the past. Makeshift humidity dome fashioned from 2L bottle. 11/7 - Finally fully broken through the surface. Placed her in a separate propagation area in my grow tent under a 2' 4-bulb T5HO Fluorescent fixture. she will be on a 24/0 schedule for the time being and will probably have a fan placed on her tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by my garden! Regular updates are always on Sundays and other mid-week updates occur all the time. Stay tuned in and, as always, Happy Growing!

11/12 - Technically, today is Day 6 since germ, but it is the start of the second week since I started this run (seeds soaked on 11/3). Choose your own timeline, but this is how I am choosing to document this grow. Anyways, on with the show. Not a ton to report this early on. Temps are a little chillier than I'd like just outside the grow space, but currently still manageable. I will be further insulating my grow space over the coming week, so those temps should stabilize and improve my tent conditions before she goes into a bucket. She's about an inch tall and an excellent healthy green color. I am curious to see how the GH nutes treat her over the coming weeks. The aim is to start her on 1/4 strength nutes just before her cotyledons start to be consumed. Then progress her up to 1/2 strength (or more, if she wants it) over a couple weeks. 11/14 - I went ahead and transferred her into a 3.5 Gallon bubble bucket with 1/4 strength nutes. The bucket holds just a hair over 2 gallons to touch the bottom of the net pot. I have been top feeding the nutrient solution ~1oz at a time (using a shotglass) every few hours when I check in on her. Color and growth is just excellent and that first picture is just amazing. Her lineage is Orange Velvet x Jack the Ripper and I have high expectations for her considering her heritage. On the Jack the Ripper side, she is a Jamaican Haze and Northern Lights lineage. And on the Orange Velvet side, she has Afghani Skunk lineage. Thanks for stopping by the garden! All questions and comments are welcome, and, as always, Happy Growing!

Sorry, everyone, for the late update. Things have been hectic around the house, but the garden has stayed calm. This lady finally has roots in the water, so I expect her growth to accelerate over the next few weeks. She is showing a few minor imperfections, but I am choosing to relax and not micromanage them quite so much. At least if I do have any issues, she is a photo so she doesn't have to be rushed to recover. I will update with more pictures once lights come on later today. Thanks to everyone checking out my grow, and, as always, Happy Growing!

11/25 - This is start of week 4 of life, week 2 of real veg (by my standards, anyways). Her color was a little light a few days ago, but the issue is resolving since I bumped her nutes up. I am using the schedule linked from GWE (https://www.growweedeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Recirculating-Nutrient-Schedule-custom.jpg), but I also am using the additives provided by the Performance Pack and will be noting them on the weeks where they are used (RapidStart added at half-strength of GH Advanced Schedule; FloraBlend added at half-strength). She measures about 500 ppm (1.0ec) including ~200 ppm (0.4ec) for the tap value. She is holding pretty consistent res temp of 67-69F and gets ~10LPM of air in a 2"x4" can-style airstone. I always add Hydroguard since temps have been known to go over 72F in the res during certain parts of the year. She is growing noticeably every day and soon it will be time to top her and start her on LST. I'm not sure how high I want to go before leveling her off this time. True ScrOG would say as short as possible (3-6"), but I have the available height (6'). I am trying to get the maximum out of my lights since they are only JUST the right size for the flowering space I currently have (3'x3'), which is why I think using a ScrOG will be the most effective use of my setup. I do intend on moving her over to a 5 gallon bucket when I flip her to flower, but that will still leave me plenty of height to work with. I'm not sure if I will go with the soloScrOG like I am using in my Auto ladies, but likely something similar. Any questions or comments please feel free to drop a line. Thanks for stopping by the garden, and, as always, Happy Growing!

12/1 - Here we are at Day 1 of week 5. D35. She has grown some absolutely massive fans and her stem is getting nice and thick. She showed a spot or two of calcium deficiency, but I added 1.25ml/Gal of Bloom City CalMag to hopefully help going forward. Anyways. Vegging on like crazy and looking forward to a good bit of LST to start soon. She is going to be vegging for another 3-4 weeks, most likely, before I'll be able to flip her to 12/12. Good news though is that she will only have one other plant in that space once she starts to flower. I plan on a 4-way top. First topping was done this past week and the next one will be in another week or so. At that point I plan on removing some of her lower foliage and starting to create the tabletop that the ScrOG will sit on. The ScrOG screen for this one will be 2'x1.5'. In the 3x3 space she will have half of it to herself and can reach around the outside of the 2' screen if necessary to fill that extra space. Thanks for stopping by the garden, and, as always, Happy Growing!

12/8 - Today is the start of week 6. I trimmed off some of her lower foliage and supercropped all her branches. Yes. All of them. It's a test to see if I can slow her down enough to not be a monster come time to flip to flower. Now I've started debating between putting her under a ScrOG or just letting her stack buds up to the light. We shall see how she grows. Changed out her nute regiment for hopefully a more tailored NER and appropriate EC considering tap value (150). So she is being fed ~650ppm (1.3ec) nutes. The only deviation I made from the nute schedule was adding the Floralicious Plus. I had some gifted to me and I decided to give it a try. Man is that stuff intense. Anyways, thanks for stopping by the garden, and, as always, Happy Growing!

12/24 - This is, in fact, week 7 (seeds got wet 11/3). Today, 24 December, I changed her to 12/12. I will not start counting flowering days until I see pistils. Other than that, it's been nothing but insanely vigorous growth. Lights are adjusted to 18" above canopy and temps are on the cool side, but they seem quite happy with it. I will do very selective defoliation (pruning) and focus mostly on letting her do what she does best. She is definitely going to test the vertical capacity of my tent and will require some training and likely support as she starts to bud. Thanks for checking out the garden, and, as always, Happy Growing!

12/30 - Today is the start of Week 8. I marked this week as flowering since I am expecting to see pistils this week. She was flipped to 12/12 on 25 December. I am concerned about how much they will stretch over the next two weeks, but if my calculations are correct, they should finish stretch with 8-10" distance from the lights, once the lights are mounted to the top of the tent. I am prepared to do some HST to keep them shorter, if needed, but I'm going to just move forward with good practices and see what happens currently. 1/2/2020 - Here she is, 7 full-cycle days since flip and she is finally showing internodal pistils. No pistils on her tips yet, but they should show soon. Until then, she will stay on flip-to-pistils nutrients. ~15" from the light; 31" tall. Thanks for stopping by the garden, and, as always, Happy Growing!

1/5/2020 - Finally! Changed her over to the "Early Bloom" nutes. Reduced FloraGro and increased FloraMicro and FloraBloom as well as added Liquid KoolBloom. As you can see she is unbelievably happy and those two pictures of the leaf issues are the only places she has shown any issues. I was only able to see these as a result of removing her from the tent. Had I not done so, I wouldn't have known about them until harvest day. Anyways, buds are starting to form and she has started slowing down, nearing the end of stretch. Hopefully she will peak out about here so her buds will stay in the optimal 30-40cm distance from the light. This should place most of her primary buds in the 600-700umol range, which is about as optimal as I can get in such a space currently. Thanks for stopping by the garden and keep an eye out for further updates as flowering progresses. Grower Love, ~Spaz

Wow! She has been upgraded to a 4x4 tent with 600w of flowering lights (2x Mars Hydro TSL2000; 300w each) and she is LOVING IT! Continuing on the Early Bloom nute schedule and holding a super-solid pH/EC through the end of this week. Her uptake has started to slow, so I'm thinking that she is close to being done with stretch. She is definitely going crazy with buds as it looks to me like they swell more each day. I've been very happy with her growth so far; impressed even. I'm just hoping that the increased lighting doesn't cause her to herm due to the close distance. Updates will continue weekly, and, until then, Grower Love and thanks for stopping by the garden. ~Spaz