Yennefer the mutant seedling!

CarbonMonster I am hoping to fill my entire 4'x4' grow tent with a single plant, using the ScrOG technique. The goal is a single stem ScrOG, using the manifold technique, with Coco as the medium and Drain-to-Waste as the nutrient delivery approach. I started off cutting corners, and paid the price early. I live in a dry climate and often don't bother providing seedlings optimal humidity until they are ready for full strength nutrients when I move them into the tent. Instead, I water them once a day by the window where they enjoy natural sunlight. Alberta, in Canada, is one of the sunniest places on earth and is great for this approach. And usually, this works out for me. My yields will never be maxed, my grow cycles are longer than most, but I deploy the 80/20 rule to growing weed and enjoy automating as much as I can. I get 75% of the yield in 125% of the time, but with only 25% of the effort ;-) Usually! This time however I believe it has caused my seedling to grow abnormally. I will post a better photo for the following week, but you can faintly see in this picture that one leaf has two tips. I hoped this was just a small mutation, I was going to remove most of the growth below the 4th node anyway once the plant was ready to be trained. But this seedling had more twists in store for me (literally!) See you next week.

CarbonMonster After about a week of just giving my seedling water, I started giving her a mild nutrient mix. The difference between these photos and the last is only 5 days, but you can really see the seedling respond to the nutrients. While I was happy about the growth, and was sure I had a healthy root system, I have become quite troubled by the seedlings mutation. Cannabis stalks grow upwards, from one node to the next. They push fan leaves outwards, to absorb light which fuels more growth. They also push out auxiliary shoots sideways that can develop into secondary colas if they are exposed to light. It's a pattern all growers know and love, but instead of this familiar development, this seedling was "growing into itself". I was waiting for the growth of the second node, but in its place, I saw the first set of serrated leaves of the plant become more entangled with the budding growth. This was quite a shame because this strain has amazing potential. Last season I harvested 4 plants from the same batch of seeds. My LST was so effective at filling the space in my tent, and this strain was so responsive to it, that I was giving away plants mid-veg stage because I figured I would have the same yield no matter how many plants were in the tent, as every square inch of space was filling with colas, crowding out each other. I mention this because I became convinced that with even better plant training, I could fill the space with only two or even a single plant. After some research into manifolding, I germinated a single seed with this goal in mind. The stock of seed had shown me it's potential before, and this seedling had so much promise! But she was mutated! and I had no backup seedlings. So I decided to move forward with my mutant. Like Yennefer of Vengerberg, she was deformed, but she held great promise and potential beauty. I am determined to see it through with this seedling, Yen, and see what we can make of her.

CarbonMonster Following the Witcher theme, Yennifer had her deformity removed this week! After monitoring the situation, I determined that the second node was not going to push through her "hunchback". I also noticed some very healthy and developed auxiliary shoots, but the plant was continuing to commit resources to the primary cola, which of course was growing abnormally. I decided to take a pretty big risk and to cut off the abnormal growth, and in doing so, "top" the plant at the first and only node. I have never topped a plant on the first node before, and certainly never this early in her development. Poor Yen has faced severe hardship early in her life. She may not survive the surgery, I have placed a bag around her cup to increase her local humidity, reducing any stress on the plant I can. You can see in the picture a few minutes after the cut, water was already pouring from the wound. Yen will need to cauterize herself and forget her old self if she is to survive. Yen's destiny was always to be a "manifold" plant with a single hub, rejecting growth of the central cola. Her destiny was thrust upon her early and harshly, but if she survives, this surgery could be the start of plant "training" that can fill a 4'x4' tent with a single stem. I don't expect much growth in the coming weeks, as Yen struggles to recover and redirect resources to her new main shutes. Please wish your best for our young witch.

CarbonMonster Yen successfully survived her surgery and seems to be thriving despite the trauma. While growth might have slowed down a touch, I am still quite shocked by how well the plant managed the premature topping. An impressive amount of growth has occurred in a week, with a full set of fan leaves coming in, and ideal root system development. The early topping has turned Yen into a prime plant for ScrOG, and the node where it occurred will be our "manifold" node. This will allow it to evenly distribute resources to both branches of the plant, which will be important for a ScrOG grow. As you can see in my last picture, I have already started LST, pulling on of the nodes to the side of the pot away from the sun. My hope is that in a few days the other node will have stretched towards the sun, creating more space between the nodes and slowly turning Yen's "Y" shape form into a "T". Normally once I see roots at the bottom of the cup I will transplant to a larger pot, however, because this grow is in coco, I feel I have another week where I can focus on LST, I will transplant when I have a prominent second layer of nodes.