CocoVSoil, A Zkittles OG Auto Experiment

24/11 - The little bugger broke ground overnight! She's currently sharing a tent with 3 plants that are mid/late flower. I have raised her pot up off the floor of the tent to reduce the amount of light she's getting compared to the flowering plants. I worry that the heat of the then may cause issues. As I type this, the final piece of the puzzle has dispatched to get my 2nd tent up and running, arriving tomorrow (Hopefully). She will soon have a space of her own and I'm germinating another Zkittles OG friend for her to grow old together with. 25/11 - My Marshydro TSL2000 arrived today, this little seedling now has the whole tent to herself. Her sisters are enjoying their new set up. 26/11 - Now things get more interesting. Fresh medium arrived today, trying a soil grow alongside this Coco one. Planted a germinated Zkittles OG seed in a small pot today. 27/11 - No changes today. Lil Coco Zkittles hasn't grown at all since she surfaced. Almost definitely due to lack of oxygen in her massive wet 5 Gallon pot. Should have started smaller and transplanted. Oh well. At least it's giving Lil Soil Zkittles a chance to catch up. 29/11 - Good news and bad news. Soil Zkittles has broken above the surface and is looking healthy. On the other side of the tent however, Coco Zkittles is having some issues, Probably overwatering.

1/12 - Alright! Week 2 and we're seeing more progress. Soil Zkittles has now grown taller than Coco Zkittles, she is doing very well just from the nutrients in the soil. I'm watering him minimally, just giving the top of the soil a light spray of water daily. Coco Zkittles pot has dried out now, I have started giving half strength nutrients, plus a little Calmag & Root stim. Watering lightly in a ring around the seedling. 4/12 - Steady progress. 5/12 - Wetted the top of both growing mediums with Cal-mag water. Coco Zkittles is cupping her leaves slightly. Took the grow tent down to 27.5c from 29c.

12/12 - Growing well. Coco Zkittles has developed a slight discoloration at the tips of her first set of leaves. She is also lighter in color than her soil sister. Maybe time to bump up the nutrient dosage? Soil Zkittles is a little behind in development. 13/12 - After a bowl (or two) of lovely Stardawg last night, I could think clearly. I had the realization that my leaf tips are telling me I'm feeding too many nutes, not too few. I was feeding her half strength nutes every other watering, I will make it less frequent. 15/12 - Coco Zkittles has started on her 3rd node and cotyledons dying off. Time to top soon? 17/12 - Raised Soil Zkittles so she's level with coco zkittles. Should have done this from day one. If she responds well I may try lowing the light a little. Coco Zkittles starting to fade from green to yellow so I fed her nutes (half strength again) for the first time this week.

19/12 - We're rolling into week 4, feeling a little small. I have a feeling we're going to be moving from seedling to veg with a fair old growth spurt this week. Let's find out. Soil Zkittles has responded well to being raised so I lowered my light by 14cm. Hopefully, this will kick start the growth spurt. I just noticed, while uploading these photos that Coco Zkittlez's leaves are curling up at the edges ever so slightly, I suspect windburn due to the tower fan I turned on mid last week (Probably should have put that in this diary) however it is curious that Soil Zkittles, who has less shelter from the fan, is fine. Coco Zkittles is still a lighter shade of green than Soil Z, but better than she was. 22/12 - S Zkit growing well. I'm just giving her a light spray every other day with plain tap water, ph'd down to 6. C Zkit's gone more yellow so I've made her up a fresh batch of nuted water detailed above. 23/12 - S Zkit is looking a little sad and droopy. I'm thinking it's starting to get a little rootbound in her starter pot. I don't want to go straight to a 20L pot and I'll be ordering 12L pots on payday (Tomorrow). Hope she's okay until then. C Zkit is returning to a healthy green colour. 24/12 - S Zkit is definitely wanting for a bigger pot. Seems to go through a full watering in about 12 hours! 12 Litre pots arriving Monday, tempted to just go straight for a 20L. I will think it over today. C Zkit's doing really well, working hard on her 4th node.

27/12 - 12L Pots arrived a day early. Attempted my first transplant. It didn't go terribly but S Zkit's a little wonky now. I gave her a little twisty tie as a support. Hopefully she doesn't mind her new pot. I also watered her with a 1ml/L of Rootstim. C Zkit is looking rather squat compared to her sister. Also showing some kind of issue. Not had time to figure out what it is yet.

1/1 - It's all going awry. S Zkit still can't stand up under her own weight and has rolled straight into flowering. Despite been a week younger C Zkit is looking rather stunted and shows no signs of flowering. Rough week, 3/1 - Not touched the plants since last update. Forgot to mention that I fed nutes on 1/1. This is the first time I fed S Zkit nutes. Fed with Grow nutes despite the pistils. Wondering if I left it too late to transplant & start nutes that's why she's gone into flowering while so small. V little change in C Zkit's progress. This grow, my first on growdiaries but 3rd for me, has been the most problematic so far and I'm not entirely sure why. Considering cutting my losses and shutting the tent down. I'm not sure that the yield will be worth the electricity & nutes invested. I can retire the girls into my larger tent to live out the rest of their days and I can see what kind of yield I get. I'll monitor progress for a few more days before making a decision. 11/1 - Killing off this grow. My first failure. Coco Zkit's now dead as she was my last plant in Coco. Soil Zkit will live on alongside my Northern Lights grow but she will not be getting much attention. I'm just curious to see what she will do.