Nano Grow - Mephisto Autos

Setup has begun! Teeny tiny bonsai hydro is goin' down here. Comparing Mephisto autos in soil hybrid and hydro (DWC). I'm running a 1.9L mason jar with a 3" net pot that fits perfectly under the lid. Found a tiny air feed and bubbler perfect for this setup. Spray painted the mason jar purple... but in a garage near freezing so the paint job was kinda crap. Might paint over it with gloss white or black. Planning to use General Hydroponics 3 part, with Hydroguard for the fact that room temp is often high enough to worry about. Fun will be had. 8 tight little colas is the idea. Really hoping the bright Pink of the genetics will come through!

She struggled a little to shed her seed pod, but seems to be doing well now. Never done a nano grow before, nor DWC without top feeding... so I'm wondering if the rock wool is too wet. Capillary action seems super strong, as surface of the rock wool cube is always wet to the touch. I'll give her a little time before making any serious changes :)

Week went well with first real leaves poppin' out. Moved from seedling to early veg nutrients. What can I say, a nano grow for a single plant is easy lol.

MID WEEK UPDATE: Decided (based on input from @AnneW and @Silky) that it was time to train. Chopped it waaay down. Now to build something to train it to. So this lady is proof that they come in all shapes and sizes... no symmetry really to speak of it seems. one side of the plant is growing really well, but the other side definitely seems stunted. Not clear if this is related to early calyx issues or what but it's not really an issue... yet... Swapped out the nutrient bath and noticed that after a couple days the leaves were starting to point upwards. strange, I thought. @AnneW suggested maybe a pH issue. Checked, and yup it had crept up to 6.5. Re-balanced down to 5.6 or so and it cleared right up. Really looking forward to seeing how the shape of the plant takes on character in the next couple of weeks.

Added 2 videos on preparing a nutrient solution and pH balancing the solution. This week saw aggressive topping (mid week 4) and some serious leaf damage. Not sure if the leaf damage is from the topping, nutrients, etc. I did a flush and solution swap, cleaned the air stone and inside of the jar etc. Built the trellis and started training. I'll cut away whatever trellis doesn't end up getting used once flowering starts. Creepy Don Santa is watching this grow closely. That cat of his is trouble.

did all the topping I plan to do and she's responding just fine. found a touch of fuzz on the old seed pod forming on the rockwool and removed it, as well as snipping off the internodal leaves that had some brown spots... and now she's clean and symmetrical! very definitely an improvement from a couple weeks ago :) did not do a full nutrient swap this week, so no pics or videos of the root system just yet... maybe mid week. tuned back the nutes just a tiny bit (mixed same nute in 1700 ml instead of 1500). not sure why, mostly instinct and to help keep it small (the whole point, really). she's fun to grow! if you've never tried a desktop nano grow... i highly recommend it 😊👌😺

Algae is an asshole. Thought things were going really well... and then found a bit of algae in the rockwool.... No biggie I figure. Wrong. Left it one night, and today (Sunday) open the jar to find algae in all the roots. Not cool. Well, I needed to swap the nutrients anyway, and was going to do a major bonsai pruning... so why not also wash everything, plant included, in mild hydrogen peroxide solution? Sure, THAT's fun. Made the decision to swap Hydroguard for H2O2 as well, since the water is room temp (21-22 C) and the H2O2 supposedly helps prevent algae.... and keeps away root rot even in higher solution temperatures. Oh, and H2O2 is also seemingly a buffer... making getting the pH right in that small jar strange - needed WAY more pH down than without the hydrogen peroxide. Fingers crossed that the major life disturbances will help manage the algae and not just put the nails in the coffin.

BOOM - nuked that faking algae! Yeaaaah. See last week for what happened and how I treated it. What does a teeny tiny plant happy to be just starting to think about flowering look like? THIS lady. Suffice to say, things perked up a lot this week. Goes to show that H2O2 is a great addition if your solution temp is on the high side. Not a lot of pics or detail updates this week. Spent the week will all kinds of sick in the fam. Later growmies - more and better details next week.

Started just letting this lady grow (the Cosmic Queen). Training is as done as it will be. She's small! Her cousins, the Strawberry Nugs, are doing well but will update with other pics of them soon enough. Ran out of time and camera battery... and don't have a ton of time for diaries with a sick family this week (again, urgh, hate flu season in Ontario). Flowering is started, for sure, and given how slow she's been to mature, there are definitely many weeks left. Fun to watch, this one, and now that the algae is under control practically zero maintenance. Weekly solution change is all :)

So here are the cousins: Mephisto Cosmic Queen and Strawberry Nuggets. They seem to be doing a fair bit better than their Russian counterpart... but that's likely a result of the jars. These jars are 'amber' and the Original Russian is in a painted jar... likely letting in more light, and had some serious algae issues. take a look at the stalk and branches... huge for such a small jar :) trouble I'm having is deciding how much to trim off in the name of a bonsai look, vs. yield. I've already trimmed off so many shoots that would have become smaller colas. It kills me, lol! seriously though, now that i've got the pH issue sorted this really is much easier to grow than the bigger plant i've got that needs a chilled nutrient solution, with a pump and water lines etc.