Indoor Teetee tries to bounce back!!!

[Teetee]

Thanks once again for joining me on another grow.

I started my last one off with new hope on the New Year in a new house.... there were no initial issues... they were planted direct into Solo cups.... and they germinated fine..... great growth in the first 2 weeks.

...then it all went wrong.

I usually repot into the final 25L airpots around the 10-14 day mark, but this time I was delayed by Landlord visits and repairs, and it was well into flowering when I repotted them from the tiny party cups into massive 25L airpots.
This caused them to re-veg lower down and restart the flowering cycle.

I had already brought them back from the dead from dehydration a few times while in the Solo cups, so I was surprised to get anything at all in the end.

Because they re-vegged, I lost sizable quantities to mould.... the early bud that had developed had overmatured before the flowering in the new growth was complete. I also hadn't bothered to add a couple of air circulation fans above the canopy.... only one down below.

Anyway, it was clear to me that it was gonna be a crap grow, so I planted some new seeds in Solo cups, timing it so I could have the 25L airpots currently in use, ready for the new ones when they needed re-potting.

Cash is an issue.... COVID aside, I was on a tight budget. Hence the lack of air circulation fans, and the reluctance to buy a few new 25L airpots.
Also new house = new water. I used to use lovely fresh EC 0 rainwater from deep in the countryside... now I'm on townwater... EC 0.2 and reeks of chlorine.... so I'm having to re-think my feed mixes.

That's enough excuses...... after 3 years of moderate success and increasing quality and quantity, I need to bounce back from that crap grow.... I've got loads of time at home, self isolating, restricted to working 2 days a week..... a good opportunity to spend time with my plants and correct all these issues.

I thought I should use a couple of older seeds from my collection, along with a couple of reliable favourite newer ones for insurance.... all Autos.

Eventually I decided on....

• Daiquiri Lime and Colorado Cookies by Dutch Passion (one of each), sent to me 4 years ago back in April 2016 by @DutchPassionTony
• Night Queen (x1) also from Tony at Dutch Passion received in May 2018
• Blue Amnesia XXL by Dinafem also received in May 2018 this time from @Dinafem-Mark

I planted the 4 seeds direct in Solo cups filled with coco soaked in EC 0.7 nutrient mix, covered them in clingfilm (for humidity) and some thick card (to keep them in the dark) and left them in a corner iof the tent (for warmth) to germinate. I'm running 4x Skyline 400 LEDs courtesy of my old mate @muddy-ledhydroponic.....

There they are...... on the very right, under the red cardboard, while the others are on day 68.

The Colorado Cookie, Night Queen and Blue Amnesia took 3 days to pop up through the surface of the coco.... the DL took a day extra.

Here they are on day 3 - clockwise from the top left, Blue Amnesia, Night Queen, Colorado Cookie and a day 2 Daiquiri Lime still under wraps....


As always I love Night Queen for it's heavy hit, and Blue Amnesia is a tasty big producer.

The Colorado Cookie is an old favourite and the Daiquiri Lime has earned me a spot on the Dutch Passion blog in the past.... another massive potential yielder!
I'm pleased these both germinated, as the seeds were over 4 years old.... kept in a fridge all that time (and survived being flooded twice due to power failures).
100% succesful germination for 18 grows doing on average 4 plants each time.... my brain is aching at the complexity of the mathematics.

Here they are on day 10.....

clockwise from top left... DL, NQ, BA, CC

I had 2 bags of Coco ready to move them into bigger pots, but all I had were the 25L airpots that are already in use. The old plants were at day 79... and they probably had another 3 weeks on them, so I wouldn't have those 25L airpots available for the new grow until after day 30, which as you now know, is WAY too late.

Even if I had the cash for 4 new 25L airpots, I didn't have the room for all that in the one tent, so I decided to get some cheap plastic 5L 'normal' pots and move them over in a few days time.

I've got some 5L airpots, but they are tricky to move into 25L airpots later on. The roots get disturbed and that can slow down growth for upto 3 days at a cruical time.
I figured the smooth conical shape of the regular 5L plastic pots will be easier to transplant as I can use the pot to make the right shaped hole in the coco in the 25L airpot, remove the pot and pop the plant in the hole.

On day 14 I re-potted them from the Solo cups, into 5L standard pots..... but was so stoned I lost track of the labelling, DOH!

I think I know which one is the Daiquiri Lime as she was looking a bit funny in the day 10 pic above. She was a bit darker green and developing a couple of patches on her early leaves.... too much Nitrogen?

This is the DL on day 17 (I think).....


I had to identify the others by guessing the development order, and double checked by comparing the first set of single leaves from day 10 with those of day 17. It did my head in looking for any similarities and differences in the leaf edges, but both methods came up with the same answers.....

.....so here goes.....

The Colarado Cookie is also showing signs of too much Nitrogen, but again is developing well.....


Blue Amnesia was the least developed on day 10, but she's looking good and growing vigorously here on day 17....


and the Night Queen was tallest, looking fantastic....


That's enough for now, I'll bring you up to date in the next post!

 

[Teetee]

OK, so far, so good, I rectified one mistake from the last grow by moving them out of the Solo cups before they got too big.

As it was, even by day 14 the tap root had hit the bottom of the cup, but hey, that's good timing for me.

The only cock up so far is the strain names.... I lost track of the labels during the transplant..... but there's another cock up on the horizon.

The old grow was really dragging on.

Here's the oldies on day 98 with the young 'uns in the middle on day 29, literally begging to be re-potted.....

Clockwise from top left, the old plants are as follows.... Blue Amnesia, Toofless Alien, Night Queen and Cookies.
Clockwise from the top, the new plants are as follows.... Colorado Cookies, Daiquiri Lime, Blue Amnesia and Night Queen.

Because the old ones were taking so bloody long, it wasn't until the new ones were on day 39 when I was able to re-pot them again from the 5L pots into 25L airpots......

Yup, repotting on day 39.... when will I learn?

Anyway, despite the late repotting, they are doing OK..... well, the Colorado Cookies and the Blue Amnesia are great, the Daquiri Lime is smaller, and a bit on the droopy side, but still flowering OK, while the Night Queen is enormous and has slowed it's flowering down....

clockwise from top left... NQ, DL, BA, NQ with the last bit of Dinafem Cookies in the middle, finishing off.

As you can see, I've thrown in a load of stakes to open them up to the circulating air and the lighting.

Individually, staring with Colorado Cookies, nicely into flower, but showing some possible Cal-Mag issue?


I'm taking no chances with mould this time. Those stakes will make a difference!


Blue Amnesia is also flowering well, although her leaves maybe a little pale green?


Daiquiri Lime has always been a bit on the darker green side, and her leaves are always droopy despite her drinking the same as the others.
She's flowering, but is not at the rate of the BA and CC....


Because of Nitrogen toxicity being the suspect for the DL symptoms, I have reduced the feed strength for them all which is why the others are showing signs of various deficiencies... I may have to start doing separate feeds S.

The Night Queen is also acting strangely.... Getting wide and tall, and although she is in early flowering, it seems like flower development has slowed down. Repotting has obviously stimulated another re-veg, so I'm hoping she'll get back into flowering soon.


So to bring you completely up to date, here's a group shot, yesterday at day 59....

clockwise from the back.... NQ, DL, BA, CC

As the NQ is still in veg, I haven't changed her feeds.... but the others have been on PK13/14 this last 4-5 days.
Blue Amnesia is still very pale....


.... but from above you can see she has a lot of bud on her....


.... and her main cola is stacking up nicely....


Colorado Cookies is also doing well....


Spreading them out with stakes has allowed the light to penetrate deep into the plant to give nice fat sticky buds.....


... and her main cola's looking sweet.....


Daiquiri Lime is still moody, but kind of getting there....


You can see how less developed her main cola is compared to CC and BA....


Finally Night Queen... getting bigger and bigger....


That main cola is stretching close to the lights...


This morning, I decided to supercrop her to even out the canopy. I used pliers to crimp the stem at my chosen point, then a bit of finger squeezing, and over she went!

I spent a bit of time arranging the stems and holding things in place with soft wire.....


From (almost) above, you can see how long that main stem had become. I had to put a stake in the DL pot to support it... it really needed to be supercropped!


I checked a few hours later and the tips were all pointing up, so she's OK!

On reflection (at 4.15am) I'm beginning to think this might not be a Night Queen. Usually they are the first to finish, and the one I call Colorado Cookie is looking more like a Night Queen.

Daiquiri Lime gets MASSIVE and my previous ones went much longer, so maybe the one I'm calling Night Queen is actually the Daquiri?
Even though I cocked up the names, I was sure the DL was correct???

Oh, I don't know.... it certainly looks like they are all mis-named, so I will continue as I have started, until I have a rub of some trichomes and a sniff of some fingers..... I don't like doing this unless I have to!

Anyway, that's all for now, stay safe!

 

[Teetee]

Where is everyone???
@muddy-ledhydroponic @NG420 @otuaflower @hope2grow @Iriee Vibez @Taipan @Ribbzzy @the green bandit @smokeyfromau @pop22 @Vapo ... don't forget about little old Teetee!

I've definately mis-named them S.... I cocked it up during the first re-pot.

What I used to call Colorado Cookies is actually the Night Queen... she always comes in first as a 70 day finisher, and her buds have that familiar strawberry scent on them that I love so much..

The one I used to call the Night Queen... I began to think that she has to be the Daiquiri Lime... it is a DP XXL strain, and my previous grows all went HUGE... this plant looks very similar to my old Daiquiri Limes, and they went over 100 days giving me well over 13 ounces! Then I rubbed a sticky leaf, and without a doubt, that's a Blue Amnesia.... another big one one it's way!

The originally named Daiquiri Lime is definately a Daiquiri Lime, my fingers stink of zingy citrus after I handle her. I think that's the only one I correctly named after the repotting mix up.

That leaves the one I called Blue Amnesia... she must be, by process of elimination, the Colorado Cookie.... I can't remember what she smelled like before, but she's not Blueberry Boot Polish like the Blue Amnesia, and there's no blast of Lime...... she stinks but I can't put my finger on what it is....

Confused????? welcome to my world!!!

Here they all are as a group on day 67.....
clockwise from the top... Blue Amnesia XXL, Daiquiri Lime, Colorado Cookie and Night Queen

The Night Queen (formerly Colorado Cookies) is closest to finishing......


.... from above, you can see how the staking out has given her a good spread and is now choc full of bud....


Here's her main cola....


.... and those trichomes are all milky with a couple of ambers dotted around.


I'll start taking her down tomorrow night.

The actual Colorado Cookie is also close to finishing,. Her buds are filling out and are covered on trichs.... kinda earthy / fruity...


Her main cola is shaping up nicely....


The Daquiri Lime is a shorter plant with loads of dark green foliage. She's spent much of her time looking droopy, but dark green, and drinking the same amount as the others.

I decided to test the EC of the run off a few weeks back. When they were in the 5L pots, I was giving them an EC 0.8 feed.
I repotted them on day 39 and upped the feed strength to EC 0.9 ... mainly cos the Blue Amnesia and Colorado Cookie were getting a bit pale.

I tested the run off on day 45, and they were all giving me back EC 1.0, so I backed off on the feeds, giving them EC 0.8 again.
I kept it like that for a few days, but I was still getting run off at EC 0.9 so I dropped the feed again to EC 0.7 on day 51.

That worked, the run off ECs dropped to EC 0.6.

I kept them on that level till day 55, then I moved on, making an EC 0.8 feed with PK 13/14. This gave me run offs at EC 0.7, so I maintained that for 5 days then moved back to regular feed at EC 0.8, and have been increasing the A&B slowly every 3 days or so, until I'm now at EC 0.9, and they are giving a run off at EC 0.7.

As a result of all this fannying around, the Colorado Cookie, which was very pale, has now greened up a bit more, and the sulky Daiquiri Lime has perked up.

Here's the Daiquiri Lime.....


Here's the main cola, peeking through those stakes....


... certainlly a few weeks behind the CC and NQ, but as you can see from the close up, the buds are coming on fine....


That just leaves the Blue Amnesia. The one I used to call Night Queen.
She's a big girl... I had to supercrop her main stem, now she's taking up a fair bit of space.....


Her supercropped main cola is settling into place, and the buds are starting to develop....


There's plenty of side stems all staked out and beginning to bud up....


The pistils look a bit strange... a kind of purplish colour.... all the flowers on the plant look like this, I hope they are OK.
Here's a close up of a bud tip with natural lighting, and you'll see what I mean about those pistils....


I hope they aren't early flowers that will be covered over with newer bud and over-mature before the plant is ready.... that's how I ended up with loads of mouldy bud last time.

I was giving her the same EC 0.7 feed I was giving the others on day 51.
Run off was EC 0.6, but the plant was looking a bit pale, and I was getting the odd leaf die, but she was slowly flowering, gradually picking up in pace, so yesterday I put her on a PK 13/14 feed at EC 0.8, like the one I gave the others. I'm hoping that will kick start her into filling out.

I'll go back on the regular feed after 5 days of the PK, and slowly up the A&B like I did on the others, and push her to the finish line!

So there you are folks, hope you are keeping safe and making the most of this time of self isolation by getting as stoned as possible!

Over here, restrictions are loosening up, and I'm back to a very busy 5 days a week again

During the lockdown, I was on a 2 day week, and getting hammered the rest of the time. As much as i'm glad to be back at work, I do miss having all that time off.

I didn't manage to do everything that I wanted to do during lockdown, but I still got a lot done.... I just wish I used my time more effectively.... those last few days just whizzed by, just like they do when you're on holiday.

If you are still locked down, enjoy it, re-charge and re-organize.... you may not get another chance like this again, cos hopefully before you know it, you'll be back at work, slaving away.

More next week!

 

[Ribbzzy]

Growing can be a bitch sometimes eh!

When things are going well, it's flying, when it goes bad, it's FUBAR.

We are our own worst enemy sometimes

You still managed to pull it over the line though, nice one

 

[hope2grow]

Gettin them fat budsticks on now brother.. great job when you stake your girls out do you just then attach the side branches to your stakes?? I assume to pull them away from the main cola to let more light into the 'middle'? Does a great job.. although I may have some trouble staking out my 3L airpots

 

[Iriee Vibez]

Looking great,as usual, Teetee! You have completely bounced back with this grow, after the issues you had. That NQ looks ready to go, and I wouldn’t worry abou the color on the last plant’s pistils. She just has an exotic hue, which is going to lead to some exotic smoke!

‘thanks for the sage lockdown advice, too. I am purposely gonna try and get a bit more Recharging out of my time on lockdown!

Cheers!

 

[Taipan]

Looking good teetee bro.
Working from home and trying to stay safe. UK death is crazy. over 34700 dead.
Hope they find vaccine soon.
Stay safe bro.

 

[pop22]

I think my best contribution to AFN is my transplanting experiments. First let's talk pots. solo cups suck! Roots and medium cling to the sides and don't like to release the rootball easily. commercial black plastic pots are better and worth the money. my favorite though are soft plastic containers like yogurt and cottage cheese come in. Light water the plant 5 minutes before transplant and they slip right out easily. Would be nice if there were a source for these containers, I've been saving them for a long time to have enough lol!

And the gauge that I feel is the best for judging transplant time is, transplant as soon as the canopy is as wide as the starter pot. Usually 7-10 days. Using this guideline, I see growth in as little as 12 hours from transplant, they don't stall at all. Got guests? Get up in the middle of the night and get your transplanting done............. LOL! I would hehehe.

And yet, for all your trials and tribulations, your still looking at a fine crop!

 

[NG420]

Hey teetee!

nice to see the plants getting chunky and greasy despite their ups and downs.

sign of a true pro is working through the problems and you smashed that!

I know the feeling of misnaming, it happened with the first saber grow i did i was calling orangebud night queen

good sign they have reduced the lockdown in AUS and you're back at work. Im dreading it, if i only someone paid me to smoke weed.

Peace

 

[pop22]

Yeah I got a couple right now the tags are missing on and haven't a clue which is which lol!