Total Newb & Mostly Natural

This is my very first grow, and because of that, I'm opting not to invest too much in equipment or other stuff. I am interested in seeing what happens with the conditions I have at hand to help me figure out what may be most optimal in the future. These girls will be grown at least mostly outdoors in 2-3 gallon pots. I'm using just organic, store-bought soil and compost. I will likely move to compost tea and use some other natural methods for adding nutrients and controlling pests as necessary, but currently that is all I am planning. Plans may change as I go. My goal is to keep the plants healthy and happy, and I am less concerned about driving production. This is a bit of an exercise is seeing how self-sustaining I can be for my supply, because a little last a long time for me. (And what better time to try self-sustaining than during a pandemic, right?) I started these in paper egg cartons because it was what I had around, which I now realize were way to small to get these started. Next time I'll probably make newspaper pots to start them in so I can better adjust the size. Because of the lack of room, I more quickly than I would have liked moved them on into their final pots. They seem to have taken that transition well though and are looking strong and happy so far. The temps have been pretty weird for mid-May, so I have been moving them indoors at night, and making sure to move them out into the sun as early as I can to let them get as much as possible while we're still in kind of a cool, gray spring here. There are massive outdoor lights on an apartment building behind my house, so I am going to have to figure out a way to provide them with some more shade/darkness at night. That's on my agenda for next week!

Plants are now named Inky, Pinky, Blinky (and one of another strain is Dot.) That's partly because one of them - Blinky - had something strange going on with her leaves and looked like she was kind of winking. They were sort of fused together for a while, which then seems to have made the next set grow weirdly too. Now that a third set is starting to show, it looks like she might grow out of it. I fashioned a way to throw a tarp over them at night to account for the street light in the back. Everyone still seems to be happy and healthy, though my challenge for next week looks to be whatever has decided to start snacking on one of the plants. Pinky was looking the strongest, but I think some grasshoppers have stopped by. She's the only one with any evidence of pests so far, so I'll be putting down some diatomaceous earth around then all to be safe.

This week felt questionable, like, an I really doing any of this right and are these all just going to die out not produce anything? I'm going to attribute that feeling to having to deal with pests and just the reality that I'm not using additional nutrients right now other than what is in the packaged soil (Nature's Care). So, yeah, this is probably not going to be as productive, but it is still fun and interesting so far. Finally got some diatomaceous earth for Pinky, as she's still being eaten by something. Some of Inky's leaves were doing a kind of weird crinkle, but Blinky looks to kind of be outgrowing the weirdness of her leaves. I think she will always be a little lopsided though.

We got a ton of rain since last week including two pretty bad storms, one where I brought everyone inside because I was worried the wind would rip them up. I was worried they had gotten too much water all the same, and they probably did, but after the rain it got very hot and that has made everyone pretty happy. I think this week has shown the most growth yet. I've been kind of guessing at height the last few weeks but I had to measure today to really know and while I think I've been off each week, I do think it is possible they have almost doubled in height over the last week. I was worried last week about growth, so I bought some Alaska Fish Fertilizer, but haven't used any yet. I may or may not when I go to water again, but it looks like we might get more rain so I may not be eating for a while. Started to trim off a few bottom leaves, but I'm still mostly leaving them alone to do their thing.