Bella The First

BeMusedFarm Seed pop and seedling stage

BeMusedFarm Seedling stage progressed well. Have continued to water/mist with molasses added 2.5 gallons distilled water with one teaspoon molasses. Seeded cover crop of clover at the end of week one. Today, at end of week 2 the cover seedlings are present. Due to a few gnats around I sprayed the entire tent with Trifecta RTU crop control. I will continue to monitor and spray as needed. So far. So good. UPDATE: Identified the reason for fungus gnats was needing to adjust my watering schedule. Not knowing exactly what she was needing I was misting/watering too often. ( 3x day light top mist) This type of watering does not allow for deep root growth, and tends to keep the top soil to warm and wet for plant use ( better rooting ) and a great place for gnats. I will be stopping all watering until the pot is light weight and dry to first knuckle depth. I will resume watering again when conditions are right. Hope my failures save your heartache!

BeMusedFarm (12/2: Update:) We are into Seedling/Veg: Week 3 already! Today it appears the the fungus gnats are on the fast decline. I treated the soil as well the cloth pot as well as misted RTU Trifecta into the fan stream; allowing it to settle onto all spaces including the delicate Bella. Happy to report that after removing old yellow sticky traps and replacing with new, there has not been one gnat in the past 3 hours. There is no damage to the little plant and I consider this early success; avoiding a bigger infestation~ I began LST today with gently "pulling" her branches in hopes of stimulating bushier/low growth. Also used a wooden skewer to aerate the soil. She looks healthy and happy today! (12/3: Update:) I have continued to withhold water until the pot is light and dry; thus removing the "home" for fungus gnats. I am finding success so far! I have also gently "staked" her for support and as she is into her 3rd week and showing 3 nodes I have decided to do her first FIMing. I have added photos. I hope her youthful age and health will allow her to recover quickly. So far, so good. (12/4) Starting last night she started to recover. This morning she looks fantastic! I hope she continues. Still monitoring for gnats. 2 overnight. I will treat tomorrow after she recovers another day post FIM. Peace (12/4) Decided to spray the soil with RTU Trifecta. There were some gnats and I did not want to wait. I think she will be fine. I will update tomorrow! (12/4) Decided to spray one round of RTU again. WIll check in a.m. (12/5) Gave a pretty good deep watering at her base. RTU mist seems to have helped. I chose to top dress with diatomaceous earth for added prevention of gnats. Due to RTU spray and the assault to the soil, the clover appears to have stunted. If needed in a week, I will reseed. She looks pretty dang good today. Very little sign of stress. Took out from under grow light to check her color and leaves. No problems and good strong leaves fanning out. :) (12/6) Loaded up a few pics for Week 3 Day 6. She looks great! There we zero gnats on yellow stick flag overnight. That is success! I will keep an eye out. She isn't getting tall very quickly, however, she is getting wider, little by little. Growth is slower than I anticipated, however, she is growing and there are no signs on her leaves or stem that she isn't getting what she needs. I will continue to do what I do! Peace!

BeMusedFarm 12/8: Start of week 4. The gnats have been controlled and there has not been a new gnat this week. I will treat again when she recovers from what I believe to be wind burn. 12/9: After more research I feel confident that what she has experienced is wind burn. 12/10: Today she looks to be on the mend. I adjusted the fans a final time to make sure that she is fluttering but not being rattled. I thought I had adjusted the fans correctly before, being that they were not directed onto her and on low, but I guess it was still too much. She is short and fat. Slow growth and since I have not grown this strain and I am going all organic.. I expect slow progress.

BeMusedFarm (12/17) Week 5: She has not had a recurrence of gnats. That is good news! I have continued to do gently LST and will be bending her when I have more upward stretch. Her stem is thick and she is squat. I believe this is do to giving light off to the sides which cause bushing. I did this in hope to get more bud sites. It does appear to have worked. I torn on leaf attempting to pull her over for LST. I will leave it for another couple of days before staking her. She looks green with a couple of spots. I watered and the water left a burn. I have not done that again. She has a slight peppery smell when handling the leaves. It is nice and herby. That's it for today. The holidays are upon us and I am busy! I will update each week but not daily; hopefully every other.