Turning the lights back on

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...and then I went upstairs.
The little cabbages haven't grown much. They've just gotten fatter and rootier. Still no stretch.
The seedling mix has gone sour, as evidenced by the rusty blotches on the first adult leaves. Time to repot.
Let's talk about supercropping!
Supercropping means different things to different people. In the cannabis world, it is used to describe a method by which strategic pinching off is used to promote side growth, often in anticipation of a sea of green or even screen of green (SOG and SCROG, respectively) flower cycle.
In the commercial greenhouse world, it's an entirely different concept. And that's the world I cut my teeth in: maximise ratio of exposed leaf surface to exposed soil surface at all stages of growth. Light hitting soil is wasted wattage. Pot up only to the minimum increment necessary to allow healthy root growth. Do it frequently. Let the plants tell you when they need a bigger apartment.
Nursery style supercropping depends upon having a range of pots in increments where each one is incrementally increasing soil volume of the last, and the canopy is allowed to grow almost solid before potting up.
I started with cells that hold about 8 cubic inches soil. Today I moved to pots that hold about 18.
Note in pics:
- low leaf spotting showing that the starting mix is sour
-down turned leaves and stunting showing heat stress (it has been near 90 here yikes) combined with root bound condition
- good root formation, roots starting to curl around the chines of the pot . This makes it easier to transplant without damage.
I have let the cells go fairly dry to allow the soil to shrink and release easily from each cell. New dirt goes in new pots. I'm using canna bio terra. Level is set so the seedling is submerged in dirt up to its seed leaves. Holding the cell upside down, gently grasp/support around stem as you poke the base of the cell until the rootball releases. Plant, backfill with more dirt, water in, done.
I like to plant so the original cube is a diamond in the new pot. It seems to encourage healthy root exploration.
The first watering was 2ml/L each canna aqua Vega (yup sue me I used hydro juice on my dirt omg I'm kicked out of the club) and a humic acid supplement. Total ppm about 800, applied at pH 6.9. Sour soil in the previous pot went with them; gotta knock that back, even if it's only a small percentage of the total current volume.
Let's see how they look in 24h. I may hit them with a Silica Blast foliar if this Indian summer keeps up. Seriously, they look overheated. But they will be fine.
Back under the t5. Going to fix myself an evening bowl now.
 

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The little guys have taken well to their new homes and are going through a growth spurt. I fed them last night with 4ml/l pure blend pro grow, 2ml/l humic acid supplement, 2ml/l calmag at pH 6.9. The total ppm was about 1300 but I only checked because the meter was right there. We're not in water here lol!
Also gave them a foliar of 2ml/l gh micro to head off a mild mg deficiency im noticing.
I moved them another inch or two down from the light, as they've grown too close.
They've gotten bushy and have >4 adult nodes so I'm planning to do the first pinch later this week.
 

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Thank you, its always nice when they come up and behave themselves during the vulnerable seedling period! The fugly one was an old bagseed and may just get culled since it's such a disaster of a plant. And I've got some interesting genetics I need to make space for soon!
 
lol. I didn’t look closely enough. The fugly one is probably straight out of thecannabiskid420’s breeding program...

I had a Buckeye Purple plants once that was essentially a 6” football shaped plant. Wouldn’t grow. Just stayed 6” and football shaped. It killed me to terminate it. I probably should have just kept it as a house plant along with my 20 year old green poinsettia and 3” tall saguaro cactus that is at least 25 years old. Kind of an Island of Misfit Plants...
 
That's an OLD poinsettia. I've got a 120 year old thanksgiving cactus and a schefflera that is minimum 60, but those are long lived as houseplants commonly. I grow lots of zygo adjacent cacti which don't mind being ignored for long periods.
 
Time to pinch!
Y'all remember those old element commercials? I PINCH!
I'm at like 7 or 8 nodes now but the plants are so squat I've just let them be. Until now....
Dun dun DUNNNN...
Pretty simple concept, break apical dominance by removing the new growth closest to the light, which actually releases hormones suppressing side shoots, and by doing that, let the side shoots grow uncontrolled until hormones balance out but by then the plant is bushier.
Under lights, bushy is better than tall. The distance between ow too hot by the bulb and not enough light is really not that much, especially under non-hid lamps, so a more compact, flatter canopy idealizes light usage. Back to the supercropping concept here- flatter wider canopy with minimal light to ground means more efficient use of available wattage.
Just go into the top sprouts and remove the newest node that has developed. Done.
You can see there's one funky one that self topped (oops I mean got mangled in the first transplant) and I only pinched the more dominant branch.
The next 2 pics are a before and after of a normal one.
 

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The poinsettia is in back. I damn near killed a Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus that is in the foreground. It is from my grandmother that I remember from when I was in at least 2nd grade living at her house so it is 50+ years old. Last winter I was pretty laid up so I lapsed on my plant care. Killed 2 Chinese Hibiscus plants that were at least a decade old. I am still sad about that. I have a bunch of coral bells in my garden from another grandmother that my mother passed on to me that are from roots(pronounced ruts) from my mother’s childhood. I have passed some of those on to my son at his new to him house. I am not very bright but I try to be the sun for my plants...
12E35E25-0037-4654-837B-ADB80E2C6967.jpeg
 
I like that trying to be the sun comment : )
Blurry but looks like rounded lobes ergo thanksgiving cactus. Much much harder to come by these days. The pointy ones are sold at home depot blooming in late december. Another photoperiod sensitive genus like our sticky friend!
Mine belonged to a friend's great grandmother and her dad gave it to me when I was in her wedding. He has a whole sunroom of heirloom zygo that would make a botanist drool. I've taken some cuts to spread the love. All of the cacti that behave like succulents are delightfully shareable!
 
I am a little buzzed and try act deep when I am. When I am not a little buzzed, I am usually pretty shallow all the time though...
 
And I have 3 ‘name your puritanical holiday’ cacti that are all seemingly Halloween cacti because they are all flowering after spending the summer outside in the northeast shade. Pics to follow...
 
Existing grow chugging along and time to hatch some new eggs... not going to out the egg donor (feel free to out yourself if you like, kind sir). One double whammy grape cross and one triple whammy over easy with extra sauce lemon extravaganja. Two of my favorite flavors to be found in our favorite chameleon vegetable!
Same deal; damp towels, flat plastic jewel cases, and the top of a cfl lamp in my den. Because cfls have a place in the growroom, if only for the mild and predictable warmth they put out.
Ok apparently I can't upload pics anymore, and also when I logged in today it forced a password reset. I'll try again tomorrow. : /
Edit: I'm being asked to log back in every time I go to a new thread. Server update?
 

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Mojo back atcha.
How bout some more happy little trees? New pots, 4" square x 6" deep half n half canna bio and mixed origin compost with bone/fish/kelp meal. It came like that lol not my usual indoor choice but hey, gotta get some more moisture retention since they have been sucking down so much juice.
Also back on the heat mat. It's been chilly here at night and I'm seeing some lockout on low leaves which I assume is cold dirt since they have been fed well and with pH balanced fert solution.
I weighted one down that was growing into the light... not quite ready for hid yet. Next week ; )
Ok it's kicking me off again halfway through upload. I'm going to bed.
 

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Oh FFS this happened LITERALLY overnight. In dirt now. Using the canna stuff with a hint of compost. This is the grape krush x bunch o grapes. Those beans were ready for action!
I just had to fire up my mh400 just to make room under the low wattage stuff. Lol yasss
 

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Yay! We have hit the month mark since the current crop broke ground. Plus a day or two but here we are. They all went under mh400 today. I am happy with this schedule, its about what i expected. They are feeding at 4ml/l pure blend pro grow plus 1ml/l gh micro, and getting a gh micro + calmag 1 ml/l each foliar every other day . They could probably take more in their water, but I'm working up gently.
Here's an example of the simplest LST every grower should be totally comfortable with, because it is so useful for that one frisky plant that wants to crawl into the light! Just take a bead, or a lug nut, depending on how big your plant is, loop some string through it, and then loop it over the top of the stem so the whole plant curves over.
And just in time for some space to open up in the nursery, I present to you the October class of grapey -leaning ganj hybrids courtesy of mr. U! Hi guys!
Ok well no dice on pics til tomorrow, ugh" file too large"?! I think my neighbor forgot to pay his wifi bill.

The bum.
 

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