I suppose like many, I get enjoyment from growing things. A large cluster of chamomile popped up this spring from seed I’d forgotten I’d planted last summer. While planting strawberries, I found a potato I’d planted 2 years ago. Anyhow, I’ve amassed a handful of various autos in anticipation of seeing them grow for the first time. I’m going to start with 5 from the server fundraiser.
Fem Auto Mix 22, from a member here. Rector decided to get them started, 5/5 germinated, given a little worm dookie plug and stuck into pro mix that I added a bit too much perlite to. First week of march was pretty warm so I got a bit over eager. A bit early for outdoors as the weather predicted frost a couple days after they shed their helmets, so they got R. Kelly’d with the intention of only having them in for a week or so until I felt confident there’d be no more frost.
I’ve read to avoid transplanting or allowing root bind and a number of other things to avoid. I got these paper pots as a gift, ran it by a couple other folks and we all determined these should be safe just for a bit until I can put them in their final spots.
Structure wise, they’re all looking pretty good 14 days from sprout. At 14 days, I’m hoping to get them in transplanted and out within the week, but the cold weather prevented me. The one off by itself was a day behind the others popping its shell and has exhibited some goofy growth. Eventually settling on growing two tops, as shown at around 28 days from sprout. They’re starving though, and I know I need to be careful with this fancy new LED. ~2nd-3rd week in I dropped a few prills of osmocote as they were really looking poor. I realized I probably had the LED too close or turned up too high, moved it away from the plants quite a bit. Looking poor the weekend I’ve set to put them out.
All I need to really do is remember not to leave the closet door open… dun dun DUNNN.
Around the 3rd week, I popped two Double Grapes from a kind member. They’re into their second week. No fuckery with the light this time, it’s up high and on full powa. The missing plants got transplanted. The one remaining was my intended sacrifice, but the cat decided to nibble a few leaves of it, some tomatoes and peppers. I’ll still be sacrificing it, just a little worse for wear. I went ahead and up potted it, it’s a simple osmocote fed SIP, 1 gallon of medium and .25 gal res. Pealed most of the paper off all of them when I TPd, each time telling my self I’d be more careful than last time. They tore rather easily, the tap roots that is. I probably should’ve left the paper on there, but I didn’t.
Double grapes are looking good, approaching 3 weeks. It’s because I put a bunch of worm shit in there with them. They’re getting used to sun, holes awaiting.
Ah yes, the other ones. Here they are at around 28 days. I transplanted them directly on top of a handful of the worm bin (worms, shit and all), 5 gal promix with some Espoma Garden Tone and worm casts that’d been cooking for a good three weeks. The oddball that topped itself went into the ground, with similar amendments. I gave one away.
Well, well. Always nice to see positive results. The osmocote loves me and me, it. As does the plant my little kitty loves, apparently. The osmocote loves you, too. Quite the bounce back for 6 days, I think it’s around 35 days from being put into dirt from sprouted seed. The white balance is off a bit on the right photo, not quite as pale as it appears.
The ones I put outside went into full flower mode with zero stretch. You following along at home are probably saying “well, I could’ve told you that was going happen.” Well, ya didn’t, didja? It’s not like you could’ve, anyhow. Ah, the old hindsight. Couple girthy little gals. In real time, we should be around 55 days from sprout. I’ll add some more profile shots of them soon. I’d say they’re about 10" tall.
Here’s a pretty up to date shot of the ones under the 24 hour unintended closet. It’s about double the height of the ones outside and is just now really starting to flower.
I’ve resisted defoliating a bit. I’ve got all the lower branches trained to one side. Been watching the leaves yellow and have added a bit of epsom and calnit to the watering cycle. Those leaves are gonna be worm food by the weekend’s end. Maybe.
How about a little look at whats going on inside these buckets with the hose pipe built in. “Anything can be a SIP if you try hard enough.” -unknown
1.6 gallon trash cans from general dollar, foam meat tray cut to shape and… you guessed it, a bit of old hose cut to length. I pre-chopped this one years ago with a lawnmower, not required or even recommended. Don’t forget to poke a hole in for the overflow. Nice little ~1 quart reservoirs is the idea. The majority of the osmocote is distributed through the wicking section and a nice handful of worm shit for the transplant to sit directly atop of.
For the training, I’ve been developing a scissor technique. It doesn’t require scissors, i just happened to have them in my hand when I was thinking about bending the plant over, noticed I had string tied to them and viola. Works pretty well to get all the branches on one side. I did trim a few of the larger leaves that were directly blocking bud sites up top on the “big” FAM22 and quite a few of the smaller ones on the lowers.
Oh yea, I realized those double grapes weren’t going to appreciate the change in photoperiod if I put them outside, so in the closet they’ll live. I might have something resembling an even canopy soon.
Here’s a shot of the ones outside to give an idea of scale. They’re some smelly little gals and stout too, would probably flip over a powerwheel. Little plants, big lessons. Those are allegedly 5 gallon fabric pots. I bought them off a roadside wizard who was selling them as “shopping bags” 2fer $1 amongst a bunch of other pallet liquidation wares. Must not have been a big seller as he let me get ~40 of them for 15 bucks. There were a couple alleged 10 gallon ones in there as well.
Anyhow, looks like I’m getting upgraded from a fat joint harvest to philly titan.Looks like trichomes are starting to cloud. Some more than others, but sooon. I’ve not ammended or done anything to these since I put them in the ground/pots. The Espoma garden tone is a 3-4-4 that reeks of chicken shit. I planned on giving a bit of Alaska Fish fertilizer in the early days but holy hell that stuff stinks. I’m not sure if a neighbors dog or one of the various hard and soft shell opossum species lurking about did it, but the bottle was dragged out in the yard. Figured I’d save the plants from the possible attack. Watered au natural from the heavens and straight out of the 7.0 tap. Leafy little things, hopefully they’re housing the aphids, not the calyxs.
These little ladies stink. One has a pretty distinct tire/rubber smoke smell. One is a sweet rotting flesh and the other is puppy shit. All in a good way, of course
The indoor ones are in various states of wtf. I’ll get some pics of them soon. I passed out several of those FAM22 beans to friends and am starting to hear back with happy reports. It’s also time to start thinking about photo beans and which to pick from of the massive pile I’ve been blessed with by OG co-ops.
