Electric Fruit Punch Indoor Grow

3/22 - starting spring grow ... using a new bean provider this time out (HighGradeSeeds) and EFP is a first time grow. EFP is a hybrid of HGS and here's what they have to say about it:

70% indica - 30% sativa. indoor/greenhouse. Electric Fruit Punch is an exclusive cross between the legendary blueberry and mango strains. As the name implies you get extremely fruity flavor that packs a HUGE (HGS's emphasis) punch! Big yielder of high octane bud! Amazing aroma! Finishes in 9 weeks and easy to grow. Height: 4ft Flowering time: 9 weeks Yield: 3.0oz+ per plant.

I am germinating 3 beans and I am expecting 2 ladies but should be able to accommodate 3 if they show up. I am low balling my yield to 1-1.5 oz per lady. My kit is a homebox (32x32x63), 250 watt MH (for seedlings/veg) - HPS (for flowering); soil grow (using a local company - first nonFoxFarm grow). i am using activated carbon and an inline fan as well as a lavender grow (this is a first for me) in the grow area to keep any odor down.

germination method:

i'm scarifying seeds then a 24 hour soak (distilled water) followed by beans in the fold of a damp paper towel between plates and kept around 90 degrees. i expect they will all pop in 3 days (or less), at which time i plan to plant in jiffy pellets.

hope you enjoy the journal....

 

3/24 - all seeds have popped and are headed into Jiffy pellets. typically with grows I use CFLs for the early stages, but for this grow I am using a 250w MH bulb and will put them under 14/10 light schedule. the humidity is around 60 percent and the temp is around 74 degrees. So i need names for the trio....since the strain is reminiscent of fruity pebbles cereal i was thinking a cartoon themed name (ie: Huey, Lewie, Dewey) ... any suggestions.

 

3/25: the first seedlet made it above ground....surprisingly it wasn't the one with the longest tail. since i am not using fox farm soils this go around i have to figure out soon which dirt i am going with....also i am picking up some local (NYC) compost. the plan is to mix the compost with the dirt and to use very (very) light (quarter strength) nute regiment once a week for veg and in the last week of veg to start the bloom nute regiment.

 

3/28: the beans that have popped seem to be stretching ... so i moved them closer (within 12-18 inches) to MH and moved them to a temporary 'home' - sbux short cups. I probably will keep them in these cups until they have a few sets of true leaves. the third bean looks like its about to pop which means 100 percent germination (yay!!!). still having figured out what i am going to name the ladies or the theme for the names...any suggestions?

 

4/4: just finished up my first official week of veg....the third finally popp'd but it's a little slow to grow. started feeding FoxFarm Big Grow (5ml/gal). I think I'm going to have to chuck it if it doesn't pick up soon. Also will probably keep 'em in the sbux cups until there's a forth set of leaves. The pics below is of the biggest one in the bunch ... who I've dubbed 'venti' for now.....

 

So here's a vid of the babies....I'm trying to decide what to do with the runt of the liter. part of me understands that it's not as big as the other one's because i planted it upside down...so it had to expend energy to right itself and then to pop above ground. so my fan is on a speedster and is running at about 85% capacity...and as you can hear (or not hear) my computer is louder (it's running the cleveland show). I'm running an MH bulb thus the blueish tint of the video. the seedlings are in the sbux short cups and behind 'em are tomato seedlings, and behind the thermometer you'll see lavender (3 pots) and rosemary which is hanging out in the tent until i'm certain the last frost has happened for the area. however i am planning to keep the lavender around as a odor control....any thoughts from those who have done similarly -- a natural in tent odor deterrent? is there something better than lavender that might work? should I worry about cross pollination?

 

4/7: the seedlings have been BEASTing....I think I found the humidity sweet spot. even the runt of the litter has grown significantly over the last couple of days. I had been keeping the humidity around late-thirties to the low forties. For the last couple of days I've had the humidity between the mid-forties to the low fifties (OK ... more like 50-51 percent tops)...so I've decided to temporarily name the liter (in honor of sbux cups) after sbux size options.

there's venti (the biggest), grande ... and tall for the runt of the batch.

 

4/8: a little concerned as my biggest baby is 2.75 inches tall after 2.5 weeks. i usually only veg for 4 weeks and at this rate i'm looking at going into flowering around 6inchs which means it will make out at 12-18inches tops. this may turn out to be my worse grow yet. i expected the indica heavy strain to be short ... just not this short. any ideas why the ladies are so little....any ideas?

 

bump....

 

i'll bump up the light for a 16/8 .. which is consistent with previous grows and see if that gives me a little veg growth.

 

yeah, i did a drainage hole for the sbux cups....you know i've never done a 24/0 light schedule. i usually do an 18/6 schedule with no problems....i'm just a firm believer there's stuff that happens when the lights are off and there's a diminished return on the extra hours of lighting. it's definitely not an auto-flowering strain for the most part i don't do auto-flowering or feminized seeds. the grow cooperative i volunteer with does do some auto flowering strains from time to time so i'm familiar with the slow start usually around the autos...

i've bumped the light cycle up to the 18/6 and i'm committed to it for the next week or so to see if i get some growth....i'll also probably move them to peat pots or grow bags incase it's a thing of the cups being so small the roots have maximized its space and its stunting any veg growth....

 

4/10: (name that deficiency edition)

overall the babies are looking lovely and i have started seeing the first set of 5 finger leaves on them. i transplanted them to bigger peat pots and all of the roots where nice and healthy looking (bright white and thick) ....but one of the plants (senorita grande) seems to have a deficiency of some sort. i am guessing phosphorus deficiency....but I am not sure. So GC do you recognize the symptoms below from any of your grows?

 

@ burindino: i'm using ffarm's happy frog potting soil...and with 'grande' i've been using a local organic soil (peter's and helena's soil) with castings and about a 20% perlite mix.

@ OH thanks for the info (and the love) ... i was planning to pick up ffarm's bush doctor microbe brew which i was hoping to stimulate some root growth (and by extension some above ground growth)...but i'll pick up the root66 and some mycos and transplant them to 3gal grow bags (black on the inside/white on the outside).

i'll post some pics in the next day or so....

 

4/17 (day 25): i've hit the 3 week mark and the plants are starting to get pungent and for the most part there are 3 sets of true leaves and we've hit the 5-leaf mark. i've always managed 9 leaves and once had an 11 point leaf on sativa dominant plants. there's some secondary leaves coming in around the nodes which i'll probably trim them this week (why have the plants expend energy on new leaf growth when what i want is height and bud production once i start flowering in a few weeks). the sickly one is still ... sickly but it's growing new leaves. i've transplanted them all to grow bags (3 gal for the smallest two and 5 gal for venti). i've added foxfarm's microbrew to the nute mix of tiger bloom, grow big, and big bloom. they've grown some in height ... they're all around 4-5inches tall which i think it's all about indica.