Indoor Surf's Up

[SledDriver71]

I started a second grow Surf's Up* as the first one nears completion.
This time, I'm trying out two autoflower strains from Mephisto: Forgotten Cookies and Stilton Special. Thank You Only1Sky
This grow will benefit from the knowledge refined and especially the better lighting acquired during my first grow: "On The Road To Find Out", so I expect even better outcomes.

As is my practice, the seeds were soaked for 5 hours in filtered water then placed in thoroughly rinsed out paper towels last night.
I just checked and they both have partially opened and are "trying to escape". By tomorrow night, I expect them to be ready for planting.
I'll post "baby pictures" once the tap roots are ready for planting.

*Surf's Up by Brian Wilson (of course)

 

[SledDriver71]

Forgotten cookies is now planted

The Stilton is having birthing difficulties.
It seems to have a third shell or "egg tooth" blocking the exit of the root.

Anybody seen this before?

 

[SledDriver71]

Forgotten cookies is now planted

View attachment 1472370

The Stilton is having birthing difficulties.
It seems to have a third shell or "egg tooth" blocking the exit of the root.

View attachment 1472372

Anybody seen this before?

The Stilton Special was a no go.
White ooze started seeping out and when the seed was opened ... just a decayed mush inside.

Restarted the process with my last seed of the type.

 

[SledDriver71]

Back on track now with a 4 day offset between the two plants.

Forgotten Cookies has erupted from the soil.

Stilton Special has sprouted normally and is now in soil

Tic Toc .... Tic Toc

 

[SledDriver71]

The "surfing" season is coming to a close for this grow.
Despite the problems, both plants have reached the point of imminent harvest.
Both are 90+ days since planting.

Both had tough "childhoods":

The first Stilton was a bust in that the seed did not germinate normally. The second Stilton did germinate somewhat normally except it only had a single cotyledon so grew very slowly for the first two weeks after germination and planting. This resulted in a vertically stunted plant but good branches that are currently trained and dotted with buds. After the bud rot issues with the first grow, I developed a kind of "bud spreader clip" to keep emerging buds along the main stems from growing into each other. This allows for better airflow so things don't get stagnant.

The real odd ball is the Forgotten Cookies.
It seemed to have germinated normally until the last bit of seed hull fell off and I realized that both cotyledons were damaged at their distal ends.
For whatever reason, the plant only produced 3 bladed leaves after the first internode.
Additionally, the normal bilateral symmetry and 90 degree rotation alternation of internodes was changed to an alternating two branch followed by a one branch internode set.
This pattern of three was repeated a few times until the plant self bifurcated into two main stems and an explosion of branches, some of which also self bifurcated.
Once flowering had started I noticed the pistils and ovaries were much larger than normal... maybe 50% larger.
Buds growing along vertical stems are flattened and rather fan shaped as if they are avoiding the stems.
I now call this Franken Cookies.

I'll add some photos later.