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My very first grow! Germinated these ladies in Jiffy Peat Pellets and moved them to the nursery bags filled with Canna Coco. My research has told me that Gelato is susceptible to transplant shock, but these nursery bags seem like they will make it easier to transplant as all you have to do is cut the bottom of the bag and slide everything into your prepared, larger pot.
Moved from the "seedling" to "week 1 veg" nutrients, but at ½ strength to start.
Plants tolerated 1/2 strength nutes well last week, so I mixed up nutes for this week at ¾ strength. When I went to feed, noticed roots starting to poke out of sides of bag, so I need to transplant them to their final pot (3 gal fabric). Gelato is susceptible to transplant shock, so I didn't want to transplant and increase nutes on the same day. If plants tolerate this feed well, will transplant on next feed day. (Just saw a grow diary by Tripaholic88 who transplanted Gelato twice in 2 weeks with no problem, so I'm probably being paranoid...but I'm OK with that on my first grow)
Also noticed what could be the start of some heat/light stress, so I raised the light a few inches to compensate for plant growth and get back to approx 24" from top of plants.
Am struggling to keep the humidity up...waiting on humidifier ordered a week ago.
By end of week, thought I noticed the beginning of some tip burn, so I'm going back to nutrients at ½ strength and changing the lights to an 18/6 schedule.
The girls drank an entire gallon in one sitting! Did some minor defoliation, just the leaves touching the coco
Gelato A (tall girl): started LST and HST (supercropping/Kushman technique)
Gelato B: topped with an intention to mainline. Going to try to clone the top.
I topped Gelato B and was going to mainline it, but I may have waited a bit too long to top her and some lower branches had already grown up to "top" level...so I'm just going to let this go and see how it works out.
Poor Gelato A is getting pinched and bent and restrained to within an inch of her life...apparently I'm a cruel mistress... :)
RE: Feeding - was trying to let the girls work a bit for their water and only feed when they needed it, but my run-off numbers went through the roof, so I flushed with water until the numbers were back in range. I will increase feeding to at least every other day.
New, larger tent (8x4x7) and new lights (Mars Hydro TSW 2000) for flowering arrived. Once everything was assembled, moved the girls over to the new tent under the new lights (started at 65%, worked up to 75%) in prep to start flowering nutes/light schedule next week.
Spent most of the week monitoring ppm's in run-off. Am going to increase to daily feeding next week (and sooner in future grows).
Also did final defoliation in prep for flower, took clones from Gelato A.
Starting Tiger Bloom off at ¼ strength...the girls haven't liked anything over ½ strength yet. My effing PH pen needs calibrated (grrr) and the stupid calibration fluid won't be here until tomorrow sometime.
Also starting the girls off under the new MarsHydro TSW2000 lights, so I started the week off at 75% power and worked up to 100% by the end of the week.
Am struggling to keep the humidity down. Tried an "Eva Dry E500"...so far, no good. :( Waiting for a motorized dehumidifier to arrive from Amazon.
Made a trellis/net. First attempt (bamboo) wasn't great because the bamboo wasn't braced enough. have been using these half circle plant supports, so I replaced the bamboo with four 3 ft garden stakes. Am ready for the 2 week stretch!!!
BALLS!!! Woke up this morning, excited because the plants have started the 2 week stretch, and BALLS on one of the plants (Gelato B, the slightly smaller plant that I had topped). Effing balls...
Meanwhile, I'm still holding out hope for the other plant....I'm still telling myself she looks female...but this week should tell us for sure...
@Ferenc, Thanks...it's all good though. I learned a LOT...I put the males out in my (large, wooded) yard thinking the deer might enjoy it ~ they don't seem to care about it, but I still got to see how they grew out and what effect the topping, LST and HST had ~ more great lessons for later grows. Anyway, thanks for the support. :)
For humidity , easy solution :
1.Plant / frost fleece dome DIY, its just a breathable plastic, but it protects young plants from almost everything except no watering ;))
You can keep plant two-3 weeks easy under it
2. Hanger and wet bath towel, or hoodie, anything fat fabric and big and off course - wet ! Just item starts to stink after couple proper waterings and you will have to water it in your own rhythm, at mines in tent i needed up to 3 fat towels , but it always worked.
I never grow in soiless and have no knowledge, but i guess you started to feed girl a bit too early, she has everything inside of seed for proper up to first two weeks of development. Check this point one more time, especially i don't remember, that you have to use such quantities, even at late stage of flower for plants who brought up to 100 g , i never fed so much as you your little baby, but again i grow in soil, could be wrong...
Good luck !