First time in a long long time, starting very small...

[sp838]

Pro-Mix HP which I believ other than the mycorrhizae doesn't have any other nutrients added.

Here's a wider view of my setup btw, so much nice sun coming today. And now realizing I need to clean my windows

 

[Goodshit97]

Pro-Mix HP which I believ other than the mycorrhizae doesn't have any other nutrients added.

Here's a wider view of my setup btw, so much nice sun coming today. And now realizing I need to clean my windows


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Youll be good to feed in promix then. As far as i know its a zero base media.

 

[sp838]

Good morning everyone, happy Friday. Time for an end of week update.

The plant has been making progress with new growth, however on Wednesday I noticed some concerning "behavior" — the day started off well with the plant looking vigorous and perky, but by the late afternoon a couple of the leaves started looking droopy. Was a bit worried that on Thursday morning it would be even worse, but didn't do anything to it, just thought I'd wait and see.

Thursday morning the leaves were all upright again, though not quite as vigorously as before. Was wondering if maybe, in addition to the usual worry of too much water, it was getting too much light. By last night the drooping came back worse, with all the leaves looking floppy. I decided to take a look and find out what was going on.

Gently worked the soil out if the cup and I was super amazed to see the plant was already pretty much rootbound! Yes, though the medium was mostly loose and on the dry side I also noticed some sogginess, and the paper cup it was in (with lots of holes poked through) was also damp. So I popped her in a new cup and turned out the lights, thinking today would be the day for transplanting.

Woke up this morning and the plant was looking a little better than last night. Filled a three gallon fabric pot with 100% Pro-Mix HP, popped the plant back out of the cup, dusted all the visible roots with rooting powder (Bontone2 indole-3 butyric acid) and popped it in. Gave the medium a light watering of plain water, and now hoping for the best.

Was truly shocked and amazed at how well developed the roots are, was not expecting it to be that far along. Of course this is happening now as we are getting hit with a bomb cyclone and the air is super dry. Going to be tough managing my environmentals over the next few days, but hoping this transplant is what was needed.

Will update on Monday hopefully with good news. Here are some photos. First one is happy plant, then the scary droopies from last night. Roots, and after repotting.

Thanks everyone!

 

[sp838]

Been a while without an update. The plant was very happy to be transplanted, but something that I did not anticipate was how much more sun it would be getting in its nee pot. Before in the paper cup it was protected from most direct sunlight. The 3 gallon pot is a good 12" higher up and the plant is now getting hit with direct sunlight from about 10am until about 4pm. This will only increase obviously every day until June.

Temperatures also go up accordingly and humidity drops hard. It's been a bit trickier to maintain a decent minimum humidity, luckily it hasn't been a very cold winter. Last weekend we had some single digit weather along with full sun and my windowsill was blazingly bright hot and dry.

Since transplanting I've watered once, a good soaking just about 2/3rds of a gallon dechlorinated NYC tap water with Fox Farm bottles 1&2 at seedling strength dilution. Plant seemed to love it. That was last Wednesday. No water, no spritzing or foliar feeding, just humidifiers running.

I've been pumping my humidifiers and shielding the plant at times during the day, so it's still going. But definitely seems to be growing slowly, I'm sure due to the harsh environment it's in.

At approx. ~42 days since sprouting, the plant seems stunted. And it looks like it has started flowering. It is normal for these to appear during veg.? These are clearly female flowers no?

The ironic thing is that these conditions on. my windowsill are better suited for a flowering plant...

Thanks! Will update again on Wednesday which is when I will be watering again. I am rethinking my entire micro grow approach already based on this ongoing test.

 

[sp838]

Would like to add that these are Bruce Banner autoflowers, so maybe normal to start flowering at ~42 days?

Either way, only 5" tall plant after this much time is not a great result lol

 

[sp838]

Wednesday update — got up before the lights came on to water her. Not sure if that actually makes a difference but felt like I should do it at least once lol

Plant is growing pretty well now it seems. Leaves are a little on the pale green side, probably still getting acclimated to all the light. If anyone has any pointers on how to best ramp up light intensity, I'd love to hear them.

Definitely started flowering, but will wait until next watering before starting to use the "tiger bloom" nutrients.

Wondering how much longer this little auto will have, the estimate on Herbies was 65-70 days and I'm already on day ~45. Funny thing is, its one good cotyledon is still hanging on!

 

[sp838]

Plant growing steadily, seems happy, pistils forming at every node now.

Noticing some purple color coming into some of the fan leaf stems. Looked it up and read that red / purple coloration along with pale green leaf color was a sign of phosphorous and magnesium deficiency. So, looking forward to the next watering to give her a feeding.

Cloudy and damp here last few days, so the plant is getting a rest from all the sun. I saw recently in a scholarly study from UC Colorado that light levels above 1000 ppfd were not useable by the plant without adding CO2. So I will be working on limiting how much she gets going forward.

Happy Friday everyone!

 

[RootsRuler]

Looking good. Just keep an eye out to make sure she doesn't go out of range or show leaf signs of stress or disease.

 

[sp838]

Sunday update: she's growing really well, better now than at any point since sprouting. This has shown the crucial importance of the early sprout and seedling stages. Had I been better at managing her needs early on the plant would probably twice this size by now. But that's the whole point of this execise!

Since last Sunday when she was barely pushing 5", she almost doubled her size at ~9" today. The soil is still a little damp at the very bottom of the pot, so while I may not wait until Wednesday, I will hold off on watering today.

I'm champing at the bit though — really want to get some nutrients in there. Should I start the Tiger Bloom yet or continue with the veg nutes only? She's definitely budding...

Thanks everyone!!! Happy Sunday!

 

[sp838]

Another question: should I trim off the bottom leaves and tiny branches? Or just leave them alone?

 

[sp838]

Hello all. Nine weeks in.... Budding pretty hard, still growing vertically too, not much yet in the way of trichromes.

I opted not to do any bending, and haven't really done any pruning either. Tempted to remove the largest fan leaves, and a bunch of smaller leaves at the bottom.

Would that stress the plant in bad way? Or would it help redirect energy to the flowering? Would appreciate some feedback. Watering day is tomorrow. Thanks!!!

 

[RootsRuler]

Pruning off a few leaves at the bottom shouldn't affect the plant.

 

[RootsRuler]

BTW looking good so far. Now that you've grown an autoflower you get to start thinking about keeping it where it's at or attempting to setup a more serious grow area and start playing with photoperiod seeds. The autoflowers are nice but are somewhat predetermined in their size and output. Photoperiod seeds allow you to grow your plant as large as you want before you flower it increasing yield.

Just a thought if you are enjoying your experience and want to delve further into it or try and produce more per grow.

 

[Mothman]

Hello all. Nine weeks in.... Budding pretty hard, still growing vertically too, not much yet in the way of trichromes.

I opted not to do any bending, and haven't really done any pruning either. Tempted to remove the largest fan leaves, and a bunch of smaller leaves at the bottom.

Would that stress the plant in bad way? Or would it help redirect energy to the flowering? Would appreciate some feedback. Watering day is tomorrow. Thanks!!!

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Removing lower leaves is a technique often used with photos to focus activity at the top, but I have no experience with autos.

Remember, each green leaf is a photosynthesis factory feeding the plant. Fewer leaves means less photosynthesis unless they are already not getting light.

Great looking plant!

 

[Mothman]

Removing lower leaves is a technique often used with photos to focus activity at the top, but I have no experience with autos.

Remember, each green leaf is a photosynthesis factory feeding the plant. Fewer leaves means less photosynthesis unless they are already not getting light.

Great looking plant!

Also, consider the breeder’s grow timeline like @TSD considers speed limits—they’re suggestions.

 

[RootsRuler]

Removing lower leaves is a technique often used with photos to focus activity at the top, but I have no experience with autos.

Remember, each green leaf is a photosynthesis factory feeding the plant. Fewer leaves means less photosynthesis unless they are already not getting light.

Great looking plant!

I would think that removing bottom leaves like that would also go a long way in regards to keeping PM and other diseases from getting a foothold.

 

[sp838]

Thank you so much for the replies.

start thinking about keeping it where it's at or attempting to setup a more serious grow area and start playing with photoperiod seeds.
[...]
Just a thought if you are enjoying your experience and want to delve further into it or try and produce more per grow

@RootsRuler – I would LOVE to grow photos. Right now I don't have the physical capability to set up a large enough grow room with total control of the light and humidity. So I'm forced to do what I can with this space, the tradeoff is I get to use the amazing natural sunlight from this window. Some day though!!!! In the meantime I am working on some ideas, at the very least will be setting up a small enclosed space for germination > seedling > early veg phases in which I can better control temps and humidity. This plant was really stressed at first when it was a baby due to the low humidity and temperature swings, but really seemed to take off after it got past the most tender stages. So my thought is to get to a pretty robust veg stage while enclosed, do some LST training and bending, and once the plant either outgrows its little tent or shows signs of flowering, I'd move it out into the windowsill area. I have one more of these BB autos, so could be a good way to do some comparative science.

Great looking plant!

@Mothman – Thank you!!! Started out rough but she is definitely looking proud now! This is why I haven't attempted any bending or pruning, she was under so much stress at first (all due to my cluelessness) that I am hesitant to do anything more.

each green leaf is a photosynthesis factory feeding the plant. Fewer leaves means less photosynthesis unless they are already not getting light.

Pruning off a few leaves at the bottom shouldn't affect the plant.

The ones I'm eyeing for clipping are the largest fan leaves near the top, they are blocking a lot of light from the smaller Xmas tree branches on the sides... The plant only has about two weeks leftI think, according to the breeder it finishes in 11 weeks. Part of me wants to clip, other part of me feels like I should just chill, absorb the stuff I've learned so far, carry this through to harvest, and experiment with higher stress techniques on the next grows.

 

[RootsRuler]

If it's just a few leaves and they're blocking light then you can trim them with no ill effects.

 

[Dave55]

...and apparently making all the mistakes too!

Hello all, started my first grow now that it's legal in my state, finally. I'm in an apartment, with a wife and pets so can't do anything big or elaborate. I want to attempt to just grow one nice little healthy plant at once, in a short amount of time to harvest, and then repeat the process as I gain understanding.

I set up small area in the living room by a very big, very bright unobstructed SSE facing window. I am using the 2022 updated SF1000 LED in addition to the daylight, and will be attempting to grow in soil. My temps range between 77 and 66F, humidity from 66 to 44%. Using a humidifier to boost humidity, it's on two hours at a time, off two hours at a time, all day. The lows are when it's not running.

Using autoflower seeds from Herbies, starting with Bruce Banner which they recommended as a good beginner indoor strain. I already killed one seed by not reading anything before attempting to sprout it (I can list all the things I now know I did wrong if you'd like haha) Got a second seed to sprout but it's off to an odd start, only one cotyledon leaf has emerged and it's growing very very slowly:

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It's very hard for some reason for my old-ass iphone 8 to get a good closeup shot, but it definitely seems to be growing, and it doesn't look like it's rotting or yellowing (yet?), it's been slowly doing this weird emerging for a week now (I put the sprout in peat pellet last Monday the 26th.)

I watered it lightly today with some hydrogen peroxide treated dechlorinated tap water (ph 6), after reading that it can hep with sprouts and seedlings in general and specifically with oxygenating the roots and preventing root rot. So we'll see where it is a few more days I guess. I started sprouting another seed in case this one doesn't make it.

I know my setup is minimal and under-engineered at best, honestly that's part of the challenge I am setting for myself in these first grows. Thirty years ago, freshman year in college, a buddy of mine grew a smokeable single cola with nothing but a fluorescent lamp from the hardware store, hidden inside a cardboard box under a heap of seemingly dirty laundry with a small desk fan for ventilation. He kept it hidden from the RA's for an entire semester and grew something worth smoking, I figure I can and should be able to reproduce at least that on my windowsill.

If you've made it thus far, thanks for reading, I'll be updating my progress or lack thereof here, on this attempted super-micro micro grow.....

Best just sit back n watch it grow patiently lol

 

[sp838]

Updating this thread with this week's events: started noticing some copper colored discoloration on some leaves, which was quickly diagnosed by all you amazing people as being too much N, with likely P and cal mag deficiencies.

My soil PH was ok but I flushed with fresh water anyway, and then fed with adjusted nutrients. I trimmed off the worst leaves and now a few days later, looks happy. Less clawing on the affected leaves, and more perky overall.

The pistils have all been uniformly white until today I think I spotted the first orange ones. I hope this means there's still some time for the buds to fill out and for more trichromes to develop. The plant is still pretty much odorless, hoping for that to pick up a little too.

Fingers crossed we can get to the finish line without any other issues...