First Grow Chocolate Orange

Waiting for sprouts but ready for when they decide to show!

Well, my first germination didn't go to plan. After a week in soil pellets in the airing cupboard something wasn't right so I dug them out and found that they weren't doing anything. I soaked new seeds for 24hours, placed them in kitchen roll in a plastic tub in the airing cupboard and in a couple of days they had roots. I carefully moved them to soil pellets (one root was bout 2.5cm) and put them in their final pots (XL Auto Pots as they're not in the most accessible place and I want to make sure they don't dry out). They've been there a couple of days now and they seem to be sprouting nicely... I guess only time will tell! I've got them in the tent with the extractor fan off most of the time to maintain humidity of between 60 and 80%. I've got a tube heater nest to the pots to keep them warm and a larger heater maintaining general warmth with a thermostat set to 25C. Lights are on 24 hours at the moment at and are around 24" from the top of the pots. Exciting times for my first grow... fingers crossed!

She's growing well and looks healthy but is quite a bit smaller than the Jack Herer which is in the same tent. She has a very slight smell from really close up but not very noticeable. I don't think she'll be ready to start LST early next week, maybe towards the end of the week.

It's 3 weeks since she sprouted now and she seems to be growing well. She's still quite a bit smaller than the Jack Herer which is in the same tent but growth seems to be picking up. I have a feeling she's going to be taller than the Jack so I've started some LST by starting to bend over the entire plant (very gently). I'm hoping I'll start to see signs of flowering next week but I don't know if that's just wishful thinking! I've started adding some nutes, not a lot because I'm using Autopots - just adding about 500ml of water with Plant Magic Oldtimer Grow (1ml) every couple of days. Planning on moving onto Bloom after a couple of more feeds. I've done some mores LST on this one, bending the top over as much as possible to reduce height.

As expected she's started to show some good signs of flowering, hopefully we're about half way to harvest now - I've set a target date of the 6th of June, no idea how that will pan out but we'll give it a go! This plant is quite a bit more open that the Jack Herer I have in the same tent but I also think she has the potential to be quite a bit taller so I've carried on with the LST and tucking leaves which seems to be working well. That said she is bulking out a bit more now so I might have to consider some defoliation - not sure how well she's take it so any advice appreciated. My humidity had been really high at night because of having to turn off the extractor fan due to noise. This week I managed to sort out the fan so that it's pretty much silent, my issue was vibration of the fan unit rather than air noise - if anyone's having similar problems get in touch and I'll try to give you some tips. I also removed the Autopots reservoir from the tent - I'd initially put it in there because I was worried about leaks but also thought that the water would get nice and warm so the roots wouldn't get shocked. Now that it's out I have a bit more room in the tent for my two growing girls (see my Jack Herer diary too). My humidity is still a little higher than I'd like so I'll be trying to sort that out this week. The plant is looking healthy with around 10 main bud sites, the LST has worked to keep her short and she's far more flexible that the Jack Herer. I think the main bits of LST are done now and any more will just be slight adjustments - for a first attempt I think I've done OK in keeping the canopy fairly even. In terms of nutrients I've stuck to my plan, she had a couple of feeds of grow before I moved on to Plant Magic Oldtimer Bloom. The smell off both plants is pretty amazing now - can't wait to sample the goods (if it continues going to plan!).

Lots of growth this week and working to solve the humidity issues. I think it's probably because of the size of my pots but these girls just won't stop growing! I think I'm going to have to consider some defoliation for her next week. I noticed some rust spots on some of the leaves this week, I'm fairly certain that it's down to the humidity. Where leaves were gathering condensation they seem to have discoloured, probably because of magnifying the light - I'm just a beginner though so I'm happy for other people's opinions. I've kept feeding her a little bloom every couple of days, there was a little bit of yellowing to the tips of some leaves which I though could be down to nute burn but I'm not too worried about it at the moment. I think this plant has overtaken the Jack Herer now, she seems to be flowering a lot more. She smells divine - really strong citrus notes, I think she's going to be tasty! To fix the humidity issues I diverted the extraction duct to another room which seems to have made a big difference, RH is now consistently under 57% and usually around 55% - still not ideal but I don't think I'll get it much lower. I've moved the fan so that there's plenty of air moving over the canopy - hopefully enough to keep away the mould as the grow progresses.