Day 22, 9/30/2021: Things... got a little out of hand tonight hahaha. Seed 2 has gotten supertopped, not supercropped. (I'm so sorry, my girl.) Aside from that, the plant clips look like they'll work if we really keep on top of them--the rate the ladies are growing, the clips will either stunt the branches or they'll just snap. I'm going to enlist my husband to check on things once during the day and move the clips as needed.
Day 23: The clips won't be a good solution for training the branches: found one clip in the dirt and a stem broken clean off. They'll still be helpful to me for visually organizing what needs to be done during the daily maintenance, but for now I'm going to try adding some velcro cable ties to the toolbox since they should stick well to the sides of the pot.
Day 24: Seed 1's cotyledons were snipped off tonight. It felt like taking training wheels off a bicycle.
Way to go, kiddo!
The velcro cable ties seem GREAT for training! They're still rougher than I'd like on the hook side of the tie, but much less damaging than the twist ties. Though they're not reversible: they have to wrap around the branches hook side facing inwards so they're facing the right way to attach to both itself and the pot. If they don't feel secure, just rub the tie and the pot together to cause a little friction and the hooks will catch more strands of fabric. I don't know if "felted" is the right descriptor for the scaping fabric they make the pots out of, but it acts kind of like an acrylic/wool blend in that the hooks will still stick, but not as well as they would to an animal-derived fabric like 100% wool. I chained a couple of them together to manage two branches that were close together, and also used some twist tie to really extend the reach of another cable tie. I definitely prefer the velcro strips out of everything I've tried so far, and particularly like the cable tie design due to the slot at one end that lets me wrap a stem for better hold.
Velcro tie wrapped around a branch and stuck to the pot to hold it in place
I'm keeping an eye on both plants as a few leaves on each show new signs of damage on old growth. Similar to before, there are yellow spots with brown edges forming. Damage appears to affect leaf tips first, then moves into the edge of the leaf, and from there, progresses inwards. Given that the new growth still looks healthy (and plentiful!), I'm going to work off the assumption that the lime I added last week is leaching its way into the soil too slowly to keep up with everything the plant needs (it's not a fast-acting additive like cal-mag is), so any leaves that are already damaged or produce less sugar will be the first to be sacrificed. I further amended Seed 2's soil by adding this morning's coffee grounds when the pH tested a little on the high side (7.5).
A liquid pH and nutrient test kit should be coming in this week, and that oughta help me keep a good handle on when the soil starts to run out of nutrients.
Day 25: Growth continues to look really thick and I've taken off the last few plastic training clips. Seed 2 is starting to push out some pistils so I think the next thing I'm going to be looking to do is defoliate. Seed 1 has what looks like just a couple of pistils up, and she's thinking about taking the next step. Anyone got any suggestions or tips for defoliating? How do you decide when to start and which leaves should go? If there's one thing I've learned from studying different types of biology for decades, it's that nature's pretty good at optimizing. Any healthy, typically-developing living thing will have its growth patterns down really well to meet its need to reproduce and continue the species. Who am I to argue with nature? It was hard enough to prune that center stalk to keep it from hogging all the energy and materials because our needs diverged, now I'm supposed to start sacrificing leaves? She needs her leaves! I'll need to figure out a good way to prioritize which leaves get cut first. Dead/dying/heavily damaged > leaves with obviously inadequate light > smallest leaves farthest from a bud site?
Some early-middle growth leaves on Seed 2 were starting to look really stressed and were losing color and younger leaves looked pale, so I checked the pH and started dosing fertilizers. I started off light with approx. 5 ml of the FoxFarm Grow Big and ~15 ml of Big Bloom in the water reservoir, half of the recommended dose.
Day 26: Talked with some friends about what to look for in determining when it's time to start defoliating. The idea is to open up bud sites to more air and light and decrease the amount of energy and materials the plant is spending on churning out new stems and leaves that won't have the chance to catch up in growth before fully transitioning from vegetative to flowering. Give the buds every opportunity to grow into their best selves. Both ladies are showing off pistils (with Seed 1 just starting and Seed 2 being a day or two further along), so I started clearing away some of the small (I dunno what to call them) "terminal leaves" that won't lead to new branches, any terminal leaves below the canopy, leaves showing extensive damage, and tiny new branches sprouting off the main stem. (It was really more like regular maintenance with a thorough inspection.)
Day 27: I got my NPKpH test kit in and collected some soil from a couple inches below the surface and at the side of the pot to minimize root damage. Now that it's been collected and thoroughly mixed with water, I have to let it settle. Fuck it, I'll test everything in the morning.
Aside from Seed 2's higher nutrient demands, her growth is also a lot more spread out and wandering in comparison to Seed 1. Seed 1 is showing some really dense, really compact growth. These traits seem to be in line with Seed 1 being Forum Stomper and Seed 2 being the Bearsquanch OG (3BOG x Samsquanch OG). There has to be a better name than that, right? Three cubs in a trenchcoat? Bearfoot OG? Anyway, I went ahead and labeled them.
Seed 1's growing more pistils. I got a pretty picture of one bud site, but it's only pretty. It's not a good picture of what I was aiming for, but here's Forum Stomper strutting her stuff (foreground):
Day 28, 10/6/2021: I started adding the morning's coffee grounds to each pot because the pH is still reading 7.0+. Both plants are also showing damage from continued calcium/magnesium deficiencies so I caved and bought a jug of cal-mag solution that I'll start adding to the water supply when it comes in. Aside from that and a little bit of what looks like nutrient burn on some of the tips of Seed 1's leaves (sorry buddy), both plants look good. This week's done!
Check out some of these nodes!
And the highest petal count I've seen so far, just because it cracks me up every time:
Current
Week 4, start
Week 4, end
Day 23: The clips won't be a good solution for training the branches: found one clip in the dirt and a stem broken clean off. They'll still be helpful to me for visually organizing what needs to be done during the daily maintenance, but for now I'm going to try adding some velcro cable ties to the toolbox since they should stick well to the sides of the pot.
Day 24: Seed 1's cotyledons were snipped off tonight. It felt like taking training wheels off a bicycle.
Way to go, kiddo!The velcro cable ties seem GREAT for training! They're still rougher than I'd like on the hook side of the tie, but much less damaging than the twist ties. Though they're not reversible: they have to wrap around the branches hook side facing inwards so they're facing the right way to attach to both itself and the pot. If they don't feel secure, just rub the tie and the pot together to cause a little friction and the hooks will catch more strands of fabric. I don't know if "felted" is the right descriptor for the scaping fabric they make the pots out of, but it acts kind of like an acrylic/wool blend in that the hooks will still stick, but not as well as they would to an animal-derived fabric like 100% wool. I chained a couple of them together to manage two branches that were close together, and also used some twist tie to really extend the reach of another cable tie. I definitely prefer the velcro strips out of everything I've tried so far, and particularly like the cable tie design due to the slot at one end that lets me wrap a stem for better hold.
Velcro tie wrapped around a branch and stuck to the pot to hold it in place
I'm keeping an eye on both plants as a few leaves on each show new signs of damage on old growth. Similar to before, there are yellow spots with brown edges forming. Damage appears to affect leaf tips first, then moves into the edge of the leaf, and from there, progresses inwards. Given that the new growth still looks healthy (and plentiful!), I'm going to work off the assumption that the lime I added last week is leaching its way into the soil too slowly to keep up with everything the plant needs (it's not a fast-acting additive like cal-mag is), so any leaves that are already damaged or produce less sugar will be the first to be sacrificed. I further amended Seed 2's soil by adding this morning's coffee grounds when the pH tested a little on the high side (7.5).
A liquid pH and nutrient test kit should be coming in this week, and that oughta help me keep a good handle on when the soil starts to run out of nutrients.
Day 25: Growth continues to look really thick and I've taken off the last few plastic training clips. Seed 2 is starting to push out some pistils so I think the next thing I'm going to be looking to do is defoliate. Seed 1 has what looks like just a couple of pistils up, and she's thinking about taking the next step. Anyone got any suggestions or tips for defoliating? How do you decide when to start and which leaves should go? If there's one thing I've learned from studying different types of biology for decades, it's that nature's pretty good at optimizing. Any healthy, typically-developing living thing will have its growth patterns down really well to meet its need to reproduce and continue the species. Who am I to argue with nature? It was hard enough to prune that center stalk to keep it from hogging all the energy and materials because our needs diverged, now I'm supposed to start sacrificing leaves? She needs her leaves! I'll need to figure out a good way to prioritize which leaves get cut first. Dead/dying/heavily damaged > leaves with obviously inadequate light > smallest leaves farthest from a bud site?
Some early-middle growth leaves on Seed 2 were starting to look really stressed and were losing color and younger leaves looked pale, so I checked the pH and started dosing fertilizers. I started off light with approx. 5 ml of the FoxFarm Grow Big and ~15 ml of Big Bloom in the water reservoir, half of the recommended dose.
Day 26: Talked with some friends about what to look for in determining when it's time to start defoliating. The idea is to open up bud sites to more air and light and decrease the amount of energy and materials the plant is spending on churning out new stems and leaves that won't have the chance to catch up in growth before fully transitioning from vegetative to flowering. Give the buds every opportunity to grow into their best selves. Both ladies are showing off pistils (with Seed 1 just starting and Seed 2 being a day or two further along), so I started clearing away some of the small (I dunno what to call them) "terminal leaves" that won't lead to new branches, any terminal leaves below the canopy, leaves showing extensive damage, and tiny new branches sprouting off the main stem. (It was really more like regular maintenance with a thorough inspection.)
Day 27: I got my NPKpH test kit in and collected some soil from a couple inches below the surface and at the side of the pot to minimize root damage. Now that it's been collected and thoroughly mixed with water, I have to let it settle. Fuck it, I'll test everything in the morning.
Aside from Seed 2's higher nutrient demands, her growth is also a lot more spread out and wandering in comparison to Seed 1. Seed 1 is showing some really dense, really compact growth. These traits seem to be in line with Seed 1 being Forum Stomper and Seed 2 being the Bearsquanch OG (3BOG x Samsquanch OG). There has to be a better name than that, right? Three cubs in a trenchcoat? Bearfoot OG? Anyway, I went ahead and labeled them.
Seed 1's growing more pistils. I got a pretty picture of one bud site, but it's only pretty. It's not a good picture of what I was aiming for, but here's Forum Stomper strutting her stuff (foreground):
Day 28, 10/6/2021: I started adding the morning's coffee grounds to each pot because the pH is still reading 7.0+. Both plants are also showing damage from continued calcium/magnesium deficiencies so I caved and bought a jug of cal-mag solution that I'll start adding to the water supply when it comes in. Aside from that and a little bit of what looks like nutrient burn on some of the tips of Seed 1's leaves (sorry buddy), both plants look good. This week's done!
Check out some of these nodes!
And the highest petal count I've seen so far, just because it cracks me up every time:
Current
Week 4, start
Week 4, end
