Mack Meets Cinderella In Soil - A Love Story In Flux

[MackMcMacMac]

So excited to see my latest seed pop. She's a photoperiod feminized Cinderella-99 by Sumo (Princess X Cinderella 88 genetics). I picked this strain for a) sativa, b) high THC, c) grows short to live in my CheapAss® 2x2x4 grow tent.

She's currently in the 5-gallon space bucket under 2 "daylight" (high spectrum) CFLs about 4 inches from the dirt. When she's a week or two old, I'll move her into the tent with Janie. Soil will be FFOF, and eventually she'll move into a 3-gallon felt grow bag.

This is the plant I intend to mangle via fluxing. I'm probably going to mess this up, but the technique looks so cool, I must try it! (Thanks, Light Addict, wherever you are!) Feel free to jump in if you have advice or comments. (Please! LOL) I don't know what the <bleep> I'm doing...


10/17/2017
Dropped seed into 1/4 cup water.

10/18/2017
Seed sank to the bottom when tapped. Planted in moistened starter pellet within a solo cup of FFOF soil.

10/21/2017 10:02 AM
0 days old (sprouted).

10/22/2017 7:11 AM
1 day old. Cotyledons are unfurled. She's looking fine so far! Cutie little. I shall dub her "Katya."

 

[VexGrows]

Sub'd up for sure!


On road, but will revist and read up soon.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Hi VexGrows, great to see you! I'm excited about this grow, but I know I'll mess it up. I see you've done the fluxing, too, so I'll run over and peek at your journal.

 

[VexGrows]

Thanks!!

ScrogDawg sent me this way. .

I'm excited to see you rock this flux!!

I made a few mistakes, but learned so much from them. You got this, we're here to help!! Feel free to explore my journals. You may get some ideas. .

Just be gentle with her....trust me. Ha! .

With that being said, let the torture begin!! .

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Whoa. Her roots started growing out the cuts in the bottom of the solo cup, so I transplanted her into a 3-gallon felt grow bag yesterday at the start of her dark period. To get her out, I had to cut a couple of those roots. <cringe> Wasn't the best timing, either, but I was too high earlier in the day to chance it (didn't want to hurt her). Woke up this morning to find her happy as can be.

 

[Van Stank]

Congrats on the successful transplant and good luck on your fluxing adventure!!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Thank you! I'm excited and scared, but I've LSTed my first two plants, so this can't be too different. Just LST on steroids? .

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Katya's 13 days old today. So I topped her this morning.

I'd planned to microtop her after the third node, but I waited too long and the fourth node was already out (still young tho). So I plucked off the tiny top, leaving the fourth node intact. But...

The first try went awry -- only the tips of the top came out. I actually said, "F*ck. I missed." LOL But I grabbed it a little farther down and plucked off the top, so I saved her from a FIM. haha Hope I didn't kill her...

Here she is before:

And here she is after:

 

[Van Stank]

Looking good Mac!!! Healthy girl!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

I've got what looks like heat stress going on, even though the temps in the bucket are 70-78° F. I have a humidifier in the room next to the space bucket, so the avg RH in the bucket is 50%. IDK why she's not loving this environment!

Gave her a trim of the lower two nodes. I didn't think I'd be messing up this early in the grow!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

I was sure I'd fucked up her topping, but she's looking pretty good up there. Yesterday, I gave her about 96oz water (pH 6.36) with FoxFarms Grow Big and Big Bloom. She seems happy this morning. Wedged a pencil on top to start bending the new tops out toward the sides of the pot. I'm tempted to trim off her lower fan leaves and aux branches, but I'll wait a wee bit longer.

 

[Van Stank]

Interesting approach to bending the branches. Looking good Mac!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Hi Van Stank,

Yeah, in LSTing my two previous plants (the only ones I've ever grown), I found myself trying a little too hard to bend the new tops, so I decided to try pushing down with something lightweight rather than pulling them. When they're longer, I'll switch to wire ties.

Last night, she graduated to an emery board. This morning, she's up to cardboard! I figure I can cut wider pieces of cardboard to suit her growth until the tops are long enough to use gardening staples or wire ties.

I went ahead and trimmed her. I hope I didn't overdo it... The lack of underneath nodes made balancing the cardboard a little more challenging!

 

[MackMcMacMac]

11/11/2017
21 days (3 weeks) old. Used gardening wire to pull her tops down. With her lower nodes trimmed away, she looks VERY tall for fluxing. This is going to be… interesting. Probably should have waited before feeding her nutes. One option is to transplant her into a larger container and bury some of her stem to get her Y closer to the dirt. Apparently, some have done this with great success.

11/12/2017
22 days old. She's recovering well from the haircut. The pencil/emery board/cardboard trick worked well. There's a little bit of greenery in the center of her Y left over from my poor topping job that looks like it's trying to grow. Should I let it? heh Might as well. Can always cut it off later.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Katya is 4 weeks old today, so we celebrated by moving her into a 5-gallon felt pot. I fastened a craft hoop to the inside to help maintain the shape of the pot and to lash her branches.

Gave her a little trim yesterday to remove the big fan leaves that were in my way. Also pinched off the fubared top in the center and one of the up-facing side nodes. Here she is a few days ago, before the trim:

And after:

Struggling to keep RH above 40%. Though the humidifier is IN the tent, it's barely keeping up. I'm either struggling with high RH or low. It never seems to be just right.

I'm happy with how she's coming along. Because I don't have a ton of space in the tent, I may not let her get a lot bigger before I go vertical. I think this would work better with a short indica than a short sativa.

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Kat is 31 days old. Time for a little trim.

Before:

After:

 

[MackMcMacMac]

Katya turned 5 weeks old this weekend. She's coming along nicely. I'll have to trim her up tomorrow. Fed her 1/2 gallon water with FoxFarms Grow Big and Big Bloom (recommended feeding amounts) last night. Hey Macky, I think she likes it!

Here she is on her 5 week birthday:

And 2 days later, 8 hours after nutes:

 

[Van Stank]

Starting to come along nicely Mac! What size pot is she in?

 

[MackMcMacMac]

She's in a 5-gallon felt grow bag. I'd like to put her in a bigger one, but I have a tiny tent. She barely fits now, and I was hoping to squeeze my next plant in there! Hah

 

[Van Stank]

Ok, thanks Mac. I would certainly watch how tall you let her go before flipping her if you have any height worries. One thing you could look at.....I think Geopots has short fabric pots that are bigger. I think they have 10 gallons that are only like 7 inches tall (they are very wide) so that could be an option if you really wanted to go bigger. Only problem with bigger is the plants tend to get bigger as well!!