First Grow Hulkberry

This is my first grow ever, germinated 5 hulkberry seeds and they all popped. Transplanted them into the clay pebbles and they seemed to take off. I only have 4 buckets so the 5th plant is still in the seed tray. They are growing really quickly

Nice growth in week 2. 3 of the plants are right in line with one another. One is lagging behind, but she was a couple of days behind them from germination. The main stem broke on one off the plants, too much breeze from the fan. I didn't add the fans until week 2, my mistake. Its seemed to recover and is growing fine though. I will top them for the first time in a few days.

The ladies seemed to recover well from the topping and are growing quickly. I out our 5th plant in some soil because I can't just let her die. Ph has been around 5.9 to 6.0 throughout the week, I add ph down when it creeps to 6.2. I forgot to mention im using ro water. My tap water had a starting ppm of 450 and that was going to complicate my efforts. I've noticed that after adding nutrients, cal mag and hydrogaurd my ph is right at 5.8 after mixing and resting for 12 hours. (I used fish tank heaters to bring the temperature up to 67 degrees before cycling water). My big mistake this week was putting some nutrient water in a spray bottle and getting some water on the leaves. "Betty" the slower plant in hydro has leaf damage and there are a handful of spots on a larger fan leaf on "lily". Otherwise it may be a mag deficiency for Betty. Being small and ph above 6.0 she may not be getting it. Or she's just more sensitive to the nutrient levels.

Growth continued along strong, noticed some downturned leaf tips and a slight yellow developing. Ppm was at 670, I was 2 days away from my water change so I added some clean water with cal mag and ph'd to 5.9, it dropped down to 590 ppm. Changed my water and have the ppm at 460 now. I topped 3 of the plants for 8 mains, the 4th is lagging behind so I'm going to leave her with 4 for the rest of the grow. If they hit 24 inches tall next week we will flip to flower. They are about 7 inches post topping.

I lowered my ppm to 470 for this week. We've named the plants Betty, Lilly, Arya and Daenerys, and Groot (clockwise from top left, Groot in the center). I think one more week before flipping to flower. I think Betty is more of a sativa phenotype with her thinner leaves and branches. The other 3 in hydro seem to be more indica dominant but I'm not sure, I'm still learning the signs. Groot is harder to tell being in soil and not getting much attention outside of watering. Her leaves are thinner than the big 3. I'll be looking up how to take clones this next week, I know I should clip them before flipping to flower. Not sure on the best way to go about it. Was thinking of using an 55 gal aquarium I have sitting empty.

Nice week of growth. The girls are about 13 inches on average, D and L are taller. Betty definitely seems like a sativa pheno compared to her sisters. I found some brown algae in my tubs, I did some research and discovered I needed to cover my net pots to eliminate light pollution getting into the tubs. There were only a couple of small spots, I was able to remove it by hand. I slapped some foil on the tubs and made sure each lid was completely sealed. PH has been holding pretty steady and I haven't seen much drift at all. Towards the end of the week it struck me that the stretch is coming. I did some rough calculations on my current height and max height ill be able to have and I feel I should flip to flower by the end of the week when I swap new water in. Another week of veg and a stretch may be too tall with my lights. So I changed the water late on day 42, pulled some fan leaves and adjusted my light timer so when they went out in the morning they'll be off for 12 hours. I've left the MH bulb in for the flip to help control the stretch this first week. I read you can leave it for the first 2 to 3 weeks but depending how this upcoming week of stretch goes I may pop in the HPS during early week 2 of flower to get a little extra height if I think I need it. Was not ready to take clones, I may try to pull some on day 47 coming up, just a busy time of year.

So the first week of flower is done. They stretched up to about 16 inches by day 49. I left the mh in for about 5 days and became impatient and concerned on being too short lol. First grow learning. Betty has become the tallest overall by about a half inch. She is also more nutrient sensitive than the others. I took cuttings for clones on day 46, picked up an aeroponic cloning machine at my local shop. They are all standing tall but no roots yet. I find it challenging to get my fans orientated correctly. The clip on fans are not easily manipulated to where I want them pointing. On the last day of flower I changed the water. Mix of veg and bloom nutes. This week was an even split between them, for week 8 its more of a 66 percent bloom 33 percent grow. Checking the roots, my net pot covers seem to be working, they look pristine and white and no brown anywhere. Hydrogaurd bless. Wow the HPS light makes for terrible pictures. I'm trying to get them just before the light comes on or after but work makes it challenging as they sleep while I'm gone and the lights flip on just after I'm normally home.