Day 17: All aboard!
After a several-month hiatus for work on my house, I've got another grow in motion. The tents have been set up for a few weeks, but since contractors have still been dropping in without warning it was strictly peppers and tomatoes. Once the nights are consistently warmer here I'll transition them outside, though I'm tempted to take a few pepper cuttings to keep inside too.
Anyway, growing weed! (I'm excited about the peppers too though)
This setup is broadly similar to my previous grows: coco with a smattering of perlite and hydroton, hydroponic nutrients (Dyna-Gro), a mix of fems and regs in small pots, and mostly bottom-feeding starting a couple weeks in. The fem seeds are in new containers, 0.75L orchid pots (MCO 12) I saw at a gardening store that seem perfect for bottom-feeding: they have a raised section in the middle, lots of holes for drainage, and a couple channels for water to run through to the center. I'll see if I prefer them to the 1L air-pots. The regs are in reused ice cream pints with a couple holes drilled and hydroton on the bottom -- a slightly smaller container because there were more regs packed in together on the right.
This time I'm trying to get ahead of problems that came up in my last two grows. Last time I got way too busy with work & the house and didn't water to runoff often enough, which eventually led to problems from salt buildup. I'll be more consistent about that this time around. The white circulation fan is on top of a plastic takeout tub from some Tom Yum, that way the fan is above the lip of the windowboxes so there's air circulation down to where the stems break the surface, which will hopefully keep pythium (or whatever it was) from attacking the stems.
On the left (center and back) are two Mephisto Walter White bx1s that have been vigorous from day one. That and their Old School Mango Haze are two of the strains I'm most excited about right now; this is a batch of other quick autos to go with the WWbx1s, and next batch will probably be OSMH and some other longer flowering sativas.
Front left is a Sweet Seeds Sweet Trainwreck Auto. I grabbed a pack because I like Trainwreck, I like autos that finish around 65 days, and I've been pretty happy with the Sweet Seeds lines I've tried so far (Dark Devil, Red Pure CBD, and particularly S.A.D. Auto). It sprouted a couple days behind the others, and for a couple days after I wasn't even sure it was still alive, but then resumed growing as if nothing had happened. The seed line has been discontinued for a bit, and I guess the seeds were a couple years old when I got them. Maybe that's why the seedling was so lethargic, maybe it was just bad luck or my environment (too dry? too cold?). I wouldn't be surprised if it finishes a week later than the others or ends up smaller, but it's here for the ride.
The right windowbox has four Gnome Automatics Bobby's Widow regs and a World of Seeds Pakistan Ryder. Three of the four Bobby's Widows have been just as vigorous as the WW bx1s, though #3 needed help shedding its shell and has been growing pretty wonky since, but each node has looked more normal than the previous. (There were two other BWs, six total -- one didn't sprout, the other sprouted but turned upside-down and showed no signs of life for days after (we've all been there), so those two were eventually culled.)
BW #3, with asymmetric growth from the start. The first node came out of the seed pretty mangled.
BW #2 was the first to show sex (and the only so far), with two clear stamens on day 16 from sprout and a couple more forming, visible with a loupe. I cut off the first stamens to buy time, because my second tent for the males has like thirty pepper plants in right now and it's been a cold spring so far. In the worst case I can stick it in my pollen isolation bin, though it may not be the only male and the bin only comfortably fits one.
The Pakistan Ryder (one of two; #1 germed but didn't sprout) is also a bit behind. It broke the surface the same day as the Sweet Trainwreck, but has been fine after that -- it's just four or so days behind the others. The other World of Seeds autos I've grown (Wild Thailand Ryder and Neville's Haze Ryder) were really good, and while searching for more NHR seeds I found a seedbank with a clearance sale on several other (probably old) WoS packs. Other strains I've tried with prominent Pakistani Chitral Kush lineage had me curious about growing a fully Pakistani seed line, and some old posts here had good things to say about PR, so I decided to give that a try.
After taking these pictures I topped both WWbx1s and three of the four Bobby's Widows above the fourth node (leaving #3 as is). I will probably top the Pakistan Ryder in a few days (once there's a clear cut above its fourth node), and the Sweet Trainwreck if it catches up.
The peppers in this tent are yellow ghost peppers and Thai "Compact" from PepperJoe's. They're packed in too tight here, but they'll have plenty of room outside.
After a several-month hiatus for work on my house, I've got another grow in motion. The tents have been set up for a few weeks, but since contractors have still been dropping in without warning it was strictly peppers and tomatoes. Once the nights are consistently warmer here I'll transition them outside, though I'm tempted to take a few pepper cuttings to keep inside too.
Anyway, growing weed! (I'm excited about the peppers too though)
This setup is broadly similar to my previous grows: coco with a smattering of perlite and hydroton, hydroponic nutrients (Dyna-Gro), a mix of fems and regs in small pots, and mostly bottom-feeding starting a couple weeks in. The fem seeds are in new containers, 0.75L orchid pots (MCO 12) I saw at a gardening store that seem perfect for bottom-feeding: they have a raised section in the middle, lots of holes for drainage, and a couple channels for water to run through to the center. I'll see if I prefer them to the 1L air-pots. The regs are in reused ice cream pints with a couple holes drilled and hydroton on the bottom -- a slightly smaller container because there were more regs packed in together on the right.
This time I'm trying to get ahead of problems that came up in my last two grows. Last time I got way too busy with work & the house and didn't water to runoff often enough, which eventually led to problems from salt buildup. I'll be more consistent about that this time around. The white circulation fan is on top of a plastic takeout tub from some Tom Yum, that way the fan is above the lip of the windowboxes so there's air circulation down to where the stems break the surface, which will hopefully keep pythium (or whatever it was) from attacking the stems.
On the left (center and back) are two Mephisto Walter White bx1s that have been vigorous from day one. That and their Old School Mango Haze are two of the strains I'm most excited about right now; this is a batch of other quick autos to go with the WWbx1s, and next batch will probably be OSMH and some other longer flowering sativas.
Front left is a Sweet Seeds Sweet Trainwreck Auto. I grabbed a pack because I like Trainwreck, I like autos that finish around 65 days, and I've been pretty happy with the Sweet Seeds lines I've tried so far (Dark Devil, Red Pure CBD, and particularly S.A.D. Auto). It sprouted a couple days behind the others, and for a couple days after I wasn't even sure it was still alive, but then resumed growing as if nothing had happened. The seed line has been discontinued for a bit, and I guess the seeds were a couple years old when I got them. Maybe that's why the seedling was so lethargic, maybe it was just bad luck or my environment (too dry? too cold?). I wouldn't be surprised if it finishes a week later than the others or ends up smaller, but it's here for the ride.
The right windowbox has four Gnome Automatics Bobby's Widow regs and a World of Seeds Pakistan Ryder. Three of the four Bobby's Widows have been just as vigorous as the WW bx1s, though #3 needed help shedding its shell and has been growing pretty wonky since, but each node has looked more normal than the previous. (There were two other BWs, six total -- one didn't sprout, the other sprouted but turned upside-down and showed no signs of life for days after (we've all been there), so those two were eventually culled.)
BW #3, with asymmetric growth from the start. The first node came out of the seed pretty mangled.
BW #2 was the first to show sex (and the only so far), with two clear stamens on day 16 from sprout and a couple more forming, visible with a loupe. I cut off the first stamens to buy time, because my second tent for the males has like thirty pepper plants in right now and it's been a cold spring so far. In the worst case I can stick it in my pollen isolation bin, though it may not be the only male and the bin only comfortably fits one.
The Pakistan Ryder (one of two; #1 germed but didn't sprout) is also a bit behind. It broke the surface the same day as the Sweet Trainwreck, but has been fine after that -- it's just four or so days behind the others. The other World of Seeds autos I've grown (Wild Thailand Ryder and Neville's Haze Ryder) were really good, and while searching for more NHR seeds I found a seedbank with a clearance sale on several other (probably old) WoS packs. Other strains I've tried with prominent Pakistani Chitral Kush lineage had me curious about growing a fully Pakistani seed line, and some old posts here had good things to say about PR, so I decided to give that a try.
After taking these pictures I topped both WWbx1s and three of the four Bobby's Widows above the fourth node (leaving #3 as is). I will probably top the Pakistan Ryder in a few days (once there's a clear cut above its fourth node), and the Sweet Trainwreck if it catches up.
The peppers in this tent are yellow ghost peppers and Thai "Compact" from PepperJoe's. They're packed in too tight here, but they'll have plenty of room outside.
