Project Bonsai! Seed To Weed. A Full Step Journal Of Bonsai. Blueberry Train Wreck!

zefben · Mar 9, 2015

Hello hello!

Welcome to what I'm calling" Project Bonsai!" . I recently came into 174 seeds for free! Of those 154 were a hybrid strain called "Blueberry Train Wreck" it smokes soooo... Well! Well anyways. I have had an obsession with bonsai sense I watched the first Karate Kid! So I am a new first time grower with one mystery plant growing from bag seed. So with these many many seeds I decided to do a detailed grow! And here is how I am going to do it!

not to bore you now but the last paragraph will be a small Bio and and equipment I plant to use.

I have 3 different methods to germinating my 24 Blueberry train wreck seeds:
- 6 - Standard paper towel in bag method.
- 6 - Seed Scarification /w standard paper towel in bag method.
- 12 - Jiffy pot seed/clone starters.

All of witch are also being placed onto a Seed/Clone heating mat.

I intend to check the seeds in 3 days time and transplant those that germinate into solo cups and smaller mediums to restrict the growth.

I have my current short "Mystery bag seed" girl we will call "Leia" who is roughly 2 months old. I want to flower her in a month or so.

The Plan:

1. once my girls sprout and I get either my first set of leafs on them all or at least a few per plant. Depending on growth rate.. Now I will be doing LST'ing, Super Cropping, F.I.M.ing, tying some down. Maybe even try for crazy shapes!

2. Once they are at an average good heath and had time to adapt to the training I'm going to do to them to get the desired shapes. At this point I will put them and Leia into Flower!

3. While in flower I will be training them as well and keeping them short. Clean and trained. Of course using certain training methods to track the growth paters and even the end yield of them all!

4. Enjoy!

so I am using a PlatinumLED P300 light.
60T x 42W x 24D reflective tent.
Super Thrive to promote strong roots!
nutrients depending on the size of the title ones! I can post a photo.
My PH balance will be 5.5 to 6.5 or I will adjust accordingly.
Growth medium I plan to use nothing larger than a solo cup. (As of now) I have a few shot glass size pots.
I have gotten my tent down to 7% RH and a solid temp of 78.9 through testing fan speeds of my fan and filter.

Bio: I am a new grower, however I did 6 straight months of hardcore reading, research and taking notes on growing marijuana. I feel pretty well with my knowledge to feel like I'll get a above average yield with my knowledge and $1100 set up! Not trying to sound cocky haha. Now I have the huge disadvantage of never having the hands on grow exp under my belt! So everything is on the fly and as I go! So this is what I am :) I have a high level of attention to detail and documentation! (Ex-Military Medic of 7 years) so that is why this is so detailed!

So let me know what you think of my first real blog style post!

Any suggestions, questions, things you think I should also try and track! I will even could tthe nodes on each plant if that could help! I have yet to find a in debth bonsai grow log! If you know of one let me know!!

zefben · Mar 9, 2015

This is Leia - she was stressed by my friend who has a bachelors in horticulture. She was doing some checks and things for me :) and got a healthy report! She is a little droopy today! I'm sure tomorrow she will increase in size!

This is my PlatinumLED P300

Calixylon · Mar 9, 2015

Not to be a buzzkill, but keeping a bonsai weed plant is going to take some skills, especially if your not gonna grow in anything bigger than a solo cup, and wanna try shot glasses. Your gonna be watering multiple times a day, but if your really intrested check out the yogurt cup challenge on icmag. I think that may help you get going, and possibly help you out when you run I to issues.

zefben · Mar 9, 2015

@ calixylon I'm not planning on having a bunch of 5 year old bonsai, just something I can get the basic shape, and get a little bug to gift to someone. I think this would be a good gift. And just really fun experiment! Because I want people to chime in and give advise. Or tell me to try something there way so they can even see growth and I learn in the process!

zefben · Mar 9, 2015

So essentially I'm growing these to gift out and fun harvest. And if I get a good one I may let it expand into a larger bonsai.

Leia my current plant I got to thicken her stem within 3-5 days to almost a half inch. From easly a quarter inch. And she has stolled all vertical growth after LSTing her stem so much. Crazy node growth though. And is widening daily.

zefben · Mar 9, 2015

Calixylon said:
Not to be a buzzkill, but keeping a bonsai weed plant is going to take some skills, especially if your not gonna grow in anything bigger than a solo cup, and wanna try shot glasses. Your gonna be watering multiple times a day, but if your really intrested check out the yogurt cup challenge on icmag. I think that may help you get going, and possibly help you out when you run I to issues.

Does that make more sense coming from my prospective? :)

Toaster79 · Mar 11, 2015

Here's my 6 month old plant serving me as a mother. I took a clone of a plant and put it in flower as soon as it rooted. The clone stretched fro 2" to 9" and was the put under a 18W cfl kitchen light for 24h cycle to reveg. When I need cuts I put her in the veg cabinet or on a window ledge to promote growth and take cuts. She's a little over a foot tall now and will be taking some cuts next week.

4+ months ago:

Today:

She's in 1L pot getting nothing but green compost tea. She'll never grow into a tree unless I decide so

This is the original plant the cut has been taken from:

So bonsai is totaly feasible.

Keep it green!

+++++Vibes

Calixylon · Mar 11, 2015

I thought you were trying to attempt doing a bonsai grow ie, small small pots, root pruning, intensive training with wire for shaping. This is more of a micro grow, there's a thread on overgrow about keeping bonsai moms that's what I thought you meant you were going for. What your doing right now is completly feasible

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31919

zefben · Mar 11, 2015

@Toaster79 & @Calixylon

Sweet! I love the pics!! So my goal is to take feedback, tips, and ideas on how to train these girls once they germinate. I'm kicking Leia into flower in 30-40 days, so I will also turn some of the little ones! Not all. I want to make crazy plants like this, but better,

.

I got waaaay more seeds than I expected so I'm going to have some fun with it and want anyone else's involvement! Even if I were to try something specific for someone for fun if they didn't have the seeds to play with!

@Calixylon I actually do want to try some of those techniques, small small pots, and I do plan to do intense training with wire and training, why not? The only thing that makes these advanced growing techniques is that I've never tried them! I learned how to do a intraosseous iv & cricothyroidotomy in the navy! So I'm sure I can learn to make some cool bonsai with everyone's help on here and my shear tenacity!

zefben · Mar 11, 2015

Also the reason I'm doing the 2 bags with one set of seeds scared up and one set not. Another 12 in soil pods to germ. I'm experimenting to try and get a few percentages and averages on steps from germination all the way up to height, weight, health, and quality. Lol

Toaster79 · Mar 11, 2015

Like you see you can shape your plants any possible way you want. You just need to decide what the plant should look like when you're done with training. Use every possible technique to achieve your goal. Should be fun no matter what. I train my plants due to limited grow space which is 20"x40" and 5' in height so training is a must. But I'm sticking to mainlining. Combine techniques like LST, supercroping, toping, fiming,.... whatever you like. Were growing sturdy plants which can take abuse beyond our beliefs.

Keep it green

zefben · Mar 11, 2015

@Toaster79 nice! I actually got super interested in advanced training when I was daily bending my main stem on Leia and trying to thicken it. But I seemed to of gotten maxed out at about 1/4 inch, but then I tied her down aggressively and she literally went from a 1/4 inch to just under 3/4 inch. And I got to see the dramatic effect! I've defoliated her a few times and she has always come back better than before!!

zefben · Mar 18, 2015

So on day 2 of seed germination I got 5/6 success on the scarification, and 1/6 on standard paper towel. (It's only day two)

Well after planting I so far have walked out with 9 seedlings. So as such I have transplanted them into some fun small pots! The super small pot I want to send right into flower to see what the results are, also i am working n trying to build a super small micro closet lol. (Pics soon to come)