Hello all and welcome to the much anticipated beginning of vegetation for these five Epsilon F1 Autos from Royal Queen Seeds.
Allow me to introduce Ally, Normani, Lauren, Dinah, and Camila. All five girls have pushed put their 2nd node (3 fingers) and node 3 is on the way out. I expect all five girls to take off from here, and so the next seven days are going to be big.
I will start fertigation today.
For comparison purposes the Day 1 here means Day 1 of veg. For Ally, Normani, and Lauren this is day 11 since breaking ground, for Dinah day 10, and for Camila it is day 9. For the rest of this grow I will increment days from here but it's really easy to work out days since breaking ground as it is a simple matter of day + 10, 9, or 8 respectively.
Day 1: Fertigated 2l.
Day 2: Right ok. Can you actually believe this response in 24h? The poor girls were STARVING. Wow look at the change in color! Wow look at the growth!! Ally is most advanced, Camila least. It is fascinating so see them develop! They are growing faster and faster now.
So let us talk about the elephant in the room a little bit. Phenotypes. At the moment there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this crop will be anything other than uniform. Nevertheless there are some clear differences in some of the girls. So let's have a look shall we:
Ally (center), Normani (closest to the middle purple basil), and Lauren (opposite side to Normani): These three girls are not quite identical, but it is a pretty challenging game of spot the difference.
Dinah: Okay so Dinah is coming in noticeably darker than her sisters, with a little more tendency to claw, and with quite a bit larger and more angular serrations. Her first leaves are also a different shape.
Camila: Little Camila had a twin, but I killed her with some overzealous tweezing before I realised what I had. She came in with only one cotyledon, and she came in last. Her first leaves are quite different to the rest of Fifth Harmony. She is also showing slighty more narrow leaves. She is lastly also very slightly more pale than her sisters.
Are these phenotype differences? I mean in terms of the environment, feeding, watering, substrate, temperature, light, airflow... well these girls are all in the same pot, so unless I am particularly haphazard in my mixing and fertigation (which I can assure you I am not) I do not think it likely that these ladies have significant enough environmental difference to account for these quite clear visual differences. I am absolutely fascinated to continue to witness this, and it has only now occurred to me what a great privilege it is to be able to grow the world first F1 cannabis hybrids, and what an astounding honor to be one of the very first hobby growers to do so! The fact that RQS made this happen by not only supplying the seeds and other merch and goodies, but also sending expedited international shipping so as to fit within my arbitrary timescales is almost unbelievable. When these guys (on their website) say that it is their belief and mission to forge the path to worldwide legalisation, they are not hollow corporate whispers, it is their core of being. Cannabis everywhere is truly blessed to have such a worthy and proactive ambassador. Bravo RQS!
I have adjusted the timer such that the main tent is now getting 20/4 upped from 18/6. After monitoring DLI at 18/6 for a week I am unhappy with the overall level but because of the varying heights of the plants I am limited in what I can do in adjusting the light height. Some areas were only getting 20 DLI. So I have rearranged to have the taller plants on the edges and the lowest in the middle and doing it this way all plants are getting between 35 and 50 DLI at 20/4 - although one or two cola tips here and there are getting 55. Will monitor for a week.
Day 3: Well look at this growth again!! These ladies have responded to feeding really well. Fertigated 3l.
Day 4: Growth is accelerating fast, these ladies will be ready for their first training soon. I am starting to formulate an idea what to do. I am thinking of topping Ally and LST on the rest.
Day 6: Fertigated 3l. Ladies growing fast now. Will soon be time to start training. However! The secondary nodes are developing strongly. Hmmm
Day 7: Fertigated 3l. Defoliated the three fingered leaves from Ally and tucked the five fingered under other plants.
End if week summary: Well when they said "hybrid vigour" they were not joking. Look at day 1 and day 7 side by side after approx 6 days into veg growth. Wow.