@bill yeah, the plan was initially to ring them up and ask them whether I should bring it over to them or if they want to get it, but just dunking it in paint will probably be the easiest way, even if it makes me feel horrible...
@Lil Dab I love growing me some autos in some tiny spaces, I just can't help it - efficiency is king in my mind. Beautiful little plants you got there!
But now, for the good and the bad news - the good news is, I finally found time again to post today, bad news is, one of the cherries died T_T RIP!
Guess that's what can happen when you try too many different weird things all at once - however, her sister pushed through and will survive.
Same nutrient regime, same lamp, same everything, as usual. So I take it the living sister is the tougher one
Honestly I'm not too mad about it, now I get to stay within the legal 3 plant limit, and I get to turn off at least one lamp, generating a bit less heat.
So what went wrong? 6 things I know of, maybe more - a quick postmortem:
A) I pushed the plants too hard to "save time" - instead of my usual 3-day-stop in a small container with clay pellets and a heated pad under it, I moved them directly to DWC
B) They never rooted - well, plant D did by now, but C never showed a root through the bottom
C) I may have messed up the rockwool cube with oily residue from the fresh scalpel knife I used to cut it to size - maybe weed dislikes knife oil...
D) The room the seeds/seelings/tiny plants were in was very hot from the two Lemon Kix growing under hundreds of watts - may just have been too warm as well
E) The self-built lamps are not above suspicion, I had luck with them at first but both plants reacted strongly when moved too close too soon
F) Nutrient burn - pushed them too hard on the feed, despite trying to stay within somewhat normal parameters
So, note to self: just push slightly less hard, make sure they have normal conditions (nothing too crazy), and they'll be fine.
The log doesn't quite end here, but it's only about a single plant from now on.
The last few days of our beloved plant C, starting with day 10:
Day 12:
Day 14:
Day 16:
Day 18:
Day 20:
Welp, that's that for plant C, requiescat in pace...
And here's the apparently somewhat stronger (or more determined to survive anyway) plant D:
Day 10:
Day 12:
Day 14:
Day 16:
Day 18:
Day 20:
Both are horribly late, but at least one survived. I learned my lessons, and next time I'll keep a closer eye on them too, instead of just focusing on my main grows.
I still have a few tricks up my sleeve to hopefully make this crazy idea work, but that'll come later, let's just see if dear D will make it first. That's all for now, folks!