SOIL Summer Comeback Grow '24!

[UndergroundFarmer]

Once again I will be growing in living soil, worms and all! The lineup is fluid right now but I do have five sprouts and need a few more to round things out. I stashed all my seeds in the fridge last year but I'm afraid it was too late for some varieties like Malawi (dang it). Here are the babies as of now:



I've got Scarlet Sunset, Scarlet Runtz, Scarlet Galaxy, Pineapple Express and Sweet Zombie above ground now. I've dropped another seed for Scarlet Grapes, Lavender, Liberty Haze and Dark Phoenix. That was my last Malawi seed in the upper left cup and I'm giving them until the weekend before I transplant what I've got and try another round of seeds. I need the four Scarlet autos for one tent and four feminized photos for the other 4x4 tent and I've got two excellent ones going already. Any extra seedlings from the next round go into five gallon pots in the smaller tents.

In the pickers in the 4x4s, I will try growing them the way I did with a Pink Kush CBD auto that grew while I was supposed to be away from all of that. I will start the seedlings at the ends of the pickers farthest from center and train the stem to grow out to the other edge of the picker and then up with all the stems from the growth nodes trained to grow to the sides. This was way easier and faster than manifolding and it worked great with the Pink Kush auto. I may try something similar in the five gallon pots - like training the stem to grow along the edge in a circle and up.

I'll be back with more baby pics soon - I hope.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Liberty Haze has just poked it head above dirt! That's three sprouts for each picker so I'm about 75% of the way there for the first phase of this new grow. C'mon Scarlet Grapes!

[No3odiesShad0w]

Pineapple is a heavy feeder. Just an FYI. I totally underfed mine but she still turned out great. When I open the Cannatrol it just smells like pineapples and strawberries from there 🥰. My Sweet Zombie is just starting to flower. She just started her stretch.

Loving your selecting. I'll definitely be keeping watch of this grow.

If you're trying to edit the picture from a mobile device, that's why it's not going away. I posted pictures before and tried deleting them on my phone and they wouldn't go away. I had to login on my desktop computer to be able to successfully delete pictures from a post. IDK if mods are aware of the issue or the huge lag issue. Sometimes I have to wait like 5 min before a response posts or my thread updates post. But that could be a bandwidth issue.

[Bowhunterwoody]

It's been super slow lately.

[Allenpro]

I just finished a PAE and I can 2nd that heavy feeder, I dont think I even burnt a leaf tip. I have grown several PAE's from all from Barneys and years apart and I always get a nearly identical pheno's

[No3odiesShad0w]

Allenpro good to know! I have 2 more Barney's farm seeds for the pineapple Express. I might try get out again in the spring.

[UndergroundFarmer]

At last it feels like a real grow! The three Scarlets I have are in their pickers:


Scarlet Runtz Scarlet Galaxy


Scarlet Sunset Reserved for S. Grapes


The white powder in front of the tent door is diatomaceous earth. The zipper on the tent is somewhat compromised so I salted the entrance like in an old episode of Supernatural to keep out waterbugs that like to chew tender plants. I'm still waiting on sprouts to finish out the tents. Usually I have them by Wednesday when I start them on the weekend so I'm hoping I get a few new babies tomorrow. Sweet Zombie and Pineapple Express are close to needing to be transplanted. Liberty Haze got a little stuck at the ends of its cotyledons so I had to help it and the baby leaves are a little behind where they should be but the plant is growing.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Great news! Yesterday I made my first trip to my grow shop in about six months to get a new clip fan and the shop owner still recognized me which I why I go there and why I'd trust any vendors he allowed to operate in his store. At the back of the store, Timothy Wills of Tree1four Genetics (STL area code is 314) was selling seeds from their latest creation "Quasimodo".



As you can see, I purchased the "baller" pack of 7 seeds which meant you get a nice child-resistant stash jar with a complimentary eighth of Quasimodo! A guy can get couchlocked just from being in the same room where this jar is opened. My buds were the purple pheno and it was definitely a one-hitter-quitter variety and it's a good thing we waited until sundown to try it.

So I ran home and put two of them in a takeout box on a paper towel wet with some water and aloe powder and one already popped overnight and is in a picker! I did the same with a few more Scarlet Grapes seeds the day before and now have done the same with that sprout. I like to start seeds in solo cups with soil because it's more forgiving if I can't check on them often enough because of work but it's been a little too inefficient lately.

Here's the auto tent now:


Back - Scarlet Runtz and Scarlet Galaxy
Front - Scarlet Sunset and Scarlet Grapes
I've finally gotten to a place where it's time to train these three older ones. I may replace the bamboo with soft wire or just cut the bamboo so the bits that stick out won't be getting bumped while I'm working. The more they stretch toward the light source in the center, the faster they fill out the grow space. The substance around the plants is DE to keep water bugs off. The bugs haven't returned and better still, I've fixed the zipper pull that was leaving unzipped places in the door where they could crawl in.

Here's the photo tent:


Back - Sweet Zombie and Pineapple Express.
Front - Quasimodo and Liberty Haze.
I still need a fan to sit on the floor but at least there is a new clip fan going in here now. One thing about these pickers - they are rough on tent floor liners because they are always putting overflow water on the floor. I think if I ever build an ergonomically friendly grow room, I will set them off the floor about knee high and in some kind of drain tray. The Liberty Haze seedling isn't doing too well and will very likely be replaced with that second Quasimodo seed when it pops. I think I will be trying to make some of my own feminized seeds this grow because so many of these varieties are just that good that I don't want the seeds to run out.

Hope all of you here in the states have a great Memorial Day weekend and good wishes for the rest of you too!

[SoOrbudgal]

What a great gift you lucky duck.

[No3odiesShad0w]

My Sweet Zombie has just started blooming and stretching. I have a feeling there's going to be a nice amount of buds

[UndergroundFarmer]

OK. So after some bad luck - Scarlet Grapes is not happening this grow. I've popped a Scarlet Galaxy bean for a replacement and I had to pop two more Quasimodos for the same reason. I moved them directly into the pickers from the paper towel and they didn't make it. I used the last few rooter plugs on hand to hatch these three new ones and they worked fine. I've moved the plugs into solo cups with soil around them where they'll stay until they are ready for transplant.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I had to resow too. Shit happens sometimes. Luck of the draw, bad genetics, dud, user error or anything else. We move on and keep going for the best 👍

[Going2fast]

Sorry brother. Age happens. Got more if you want to try again. Galaxy is a heavy sativa. She's going to get big. Thank you for the love.

[UndergroundFarmer]

Thanks for your support. I wouldn't refuse more beans for sure. But one of them wasn't actually dead! Post to follow.

[UndergroundFarmer]

So - one of the Quasimodos wasn't dead! I moved both of them directly to soil in the pickers after they popped on the paper towel. I found one of them dead about three days later and no sign of the other one. Then, the day before the pictures were taken, I found a helmet head a little bit off from where I remembered placing the sprout. I waited for the cotyledons to open to be sure it was cannabis and not cover crop and found this:



Here's a wider view of the photo tent:



The sprout can be seen in the right front picker if you zoom in. The Liberty Haze seedling is not getting any better or worse, it's just slowly getting bigger somehow.

Here's the auto tent:



All I need now is to transplant the other Scarlet Galaxy when it's ready - hopefully in a few more days.

Here's the new sprouts:



I know. The hard water deposits and organic stuff seeping from the bottoms of the cups look nasty. This tray is getting a good scrubbing before the next round of beans go in. I may buy more rooter plugs, maybe not. I think the advantage of the plugs is the material keeps the seeds from getting waterlogged while keeping them moist enough to sprout. Also, if the seed is a dud it's much easier to find it. I prefer to just start good seeds in soil and let nature do its thing though. I'm doing a bit of a hybrid here with the plugs set in soil so they can get nutrients as soon as the roots get outside the plug. I used to do something similar in hydro using clay pellets instead of soil to keep the plugs upright while the roots develop.

The extra Quasimodo will go in a five gallon pots and maybe I'll try my hand at making some feminized seeds from her just to keep this stuff on hand it it produces bud as good as the sample. Next round will happen soon. I might just try and make some Tangie fem seeds from my homemade regs from a few years back. Those all stayed in cold storage and should germinate fine.

[UndergroundFarmer]

I think I sunburned those new seedlings. I forgot that the LED I'm using in the seedling tent has to hang higher up than the old fluorescent one. I'll know in a few more days whether or not they'll make it. The surprise Quasi is doing fine though. I've also started six Tangie seeds (one for each unoccupied pot) as the side project. I will probably make some fems from one of these for convenience's sake next time it's grown.

Happy Friday!!

[No3odiesShad0w]

Ouch. I caught my mistake after 2 days so she was fine. Not for those 2 days she was getting over 1500ppfd

[UndergroundFarmer]

It looks like all three of the burned sprouts won't make it. I do at least have a live sprout in seven of the eight pickers and two of those are Quasimodos. I now have six Tangie seedlings in six of the seven five-gallon pots too. I might move that Liberty Haze seedling into the other pot if the Quasi seedling dies for sure.

Here's the Scarlets:

The tie-down system is working decently. I just wished I'd used cannabenders to make a better turn for the stalk near ground level.

Here's the photo tent:

Everybody seems happy enough. The two at back looked a lot better a few hours later. I've got two Quasimodo seedlings joining late and this tent is ready to rock.

And then there's this thing:

It just keeps trying to grow.