First grow, in greenhouse, from bag seed

I'm posting this so I don't forget some of the details as the months go on. I welcome posts in my GJ because I want to try to avoid failure w/ these plants!

Got a whole bunch of seeds from a tasty bag - almost 100% germination. The only fatalities I had were if I knocked off baby leaves (1) and when one plant got all tangled in it's seed casing and shriveled up dead before I could help it.

Got about 11 plants that are in various stages at this point. I got an Earthbox w/ the intention of using it for tomatos but thought that given our high heat here, a pot w/ constant water (without investing in hydro) might be cool for my babies. I picked out 4 to put in there (the Earthbox instructions said 4 plants would be the "right" number for semi large veggies, so I went w/ that). The rest are going in or have gone into pots.

These were sprouted around 3/17 - 3/22


One of them was pretty deformed.


Here it is next to it's sister (hopefully they are both girls!).


About 4 days ago (so Monday), I started to see telltale signs on the most mature one...but still not sure if it's a female.


As I said, they are all in a greenhouse, so I'm dependant on the sun's natural hours. I'd have to bring them in and create a grow closet to have more light control. I do have other plants in the greenhouse too - veggies and fruit.

Here's a funny little freak plant I have - this photo is from the beginning of this week.


But the little freak seems to be doing well - I'm just gonna keep growing it! This is a photo from moments ago:

Here's what the largest one is doing today - that's the first mutant you see in the background. As you may be able to tell, it's not looking as deformed - it has symetrical leaves on both sides now.


Are those little things preflowers?
Closer view -


closer....


still closer...

I guess I should mention that I'm using rainwater on them - that's all I've got here...our whole house is on it. I am hand-watering right now, but plan on transforming existing sprinkler type set up fastened to the greenhouse roof into drip system and maybe a mister or two. It's going to get hot and dry pretty quick around here outside. Must be prepared.

Fan(s) are on 24/7 - greenhouse gets HOT during the day with exhaust fans and me going in misting. Hope they like hot!

Here's what they look like today, stretching to the toasty late-day sun.


Here's my little mutant, happily growing! If it always produces leaf sets in 3's and it's a female, think it'll produce 1/3 more buds?

Nice looking set you got there joebuck! You living on just rainwater?

Hey there - yup, just rain. We've only had to have water delivered once. It's a pretty cool way to have water. If we could just work out solar or wind power, we could be off the grid.

This one plant is really taking off. I planted it around 3/29. Is it normal for plants to grow so slowly and stretchy with sunlight? It's a super healthy plant, so I can't complain about that - it smells real nice already!


Here's what that one looks like compared to it's pals in the Earthbox.


And here's just a bonus shot of a couple that I have in pots. They are a little droopy this morning, but it's misting rain outside and very humid, so I'm thinking they are just a little bloated.


Input, comments welcome!

BTW, the Press n' Seal over the soil is on there to retain some of the moisture that seeps out of the soil. Seems to work great - it's on my tomato plants too and they love it.

Is it normal for semi-outdoors (in greenhouse) plants to grow at this rate? They grow alot everyday and the stems are getting bigger, but they seem slow compared to the indoor grows I see on RIU. I'd wonder if it was the Earthbox, but the plants I have in pots are about the same so I'm thinking it's just the sunlight.

Thoughts?

Hiya

Looking nice & healthy - the shoots your seeing are new nodes, they're a little young for flowers yet,
As for the speed their growing, weed grows REALLY fast

Keep up the good work xx

I think they might be mites. Ugh. I'll have to find something to treat with while I wait for Neem oil to come in the mail.

Here's how the little 3 leaved mutant is doing today:

Lost some of the plants to the bug infestation. Damn thrips. I think the big plant will be fine as well as one in a pot and the little mutant. I considered bringing the mutant inside and growing it under CFLs but I haven't decided. I'm sad about the plants that didn't make it, but just ONE good female plant will work for what I need to contain my migraines.

Here's the "big" one - I still can't tell the sex. I thought I saw balls but I'm still not sure and since none of the other plants are as mature, I still have time to decide on what I'm going to do if the big one is a male. I cut off some of the badly affected leaves as I didn't want them to just hang there all sad and brown. (You can see the bug stickies in the background...amazing what they catch.)


Here's another view - if you have any input or comments, PLEASE SHARE!


Here's my little mutant, still going strong, although it needs to be repotted badly, but I need to go get more soil. I'll probably replant it this weekend. The stuff on the leaves is just water.


And for sympathy, I'm including this sad photo. 4 plants look just like this. The bugs are under control, so I'm leaving these affected plants to see if by chance they recover - I've not given up hope that they may come back stronger! A girl can dream, right?

The big plant has cupping leaves, which I've posted to plant problems.





Meanwhile, the other 2 larger plants are growing nicely. I repotted the mutant this weekend because it had totally outgrown it's pot and I knew I'd get no further in the tiny pot it was in. Sorry it's blurry - but you get the idea.



Here's the other one that's doing nicely.

the curled browning leaves are from over watering. looks good otherwise.

Could high humidity cause that cupping under? Otherwise, I'm not sure how to decrease the water in the Earthbox.

i'm not familiar with an earth box. it looks really wet.

I'm going to go pour some of the water out of the bottom and give it a few hours. We're at 87% ambient humidity right now - it's probably just as high in the greenhouse, so maybe they are just getting suffocated by all of the water. I'll crank up the fan too.

How are those plants doing Joebuck?

Hey bulldog (and everyone!) -

It's HOT here - greenhouse was well over 110 degrees very quickly today - we got out a canvas drop cloth and covered the greenhouse. There is plenty of light but it definitely cut the heat drastically! With some misting, the temp wsent down to 95 within 10 minutes. It's going to cool off tonight but yowza! I guess I'll just have to take these suckers inside near windows when we get really hot here this year.

So here are some photos - the leaves aren't cupping like they were, but they still look like they are a tad droopy. BUT, I think the plant is just surging with growth right now - new leaves are churning out so quickly it's like I could watch it grow.

Here's the big one - the mister is a size reference.


Here's the lovely new growth!


Here's the little mutant, happily growing away (it's droopy because of the misting that I did - I had to cool everybody down before I took photos..priorities, ya know?).


Here's the other good size one in a pot. Beautiful symetry, huh?


I'm also happy to report that there is new growth on a couple of the plants that I thought wouldn't make it due to thrips, but my photos were blurry, so I'll take some in a couple of days. Maybe it's like an unnatural sort of trimming and I'll end up with MONSTERS!?!

BTW, when should I trim/FIM/etc? I'm having trouble figuring out where I am before I might expect them to start to show sex and flower. If anyone wants to let me know based on what you see, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Rock on!

SO much going on!

The big plant is growing like an inch and a half a day. It was only 70 here at 2:00pm but the greenhouse is a nice moist green smelling 82. I just wanted to sit in there with a book and relax!

On Tuesday, I notied that the bigger plant in the pot (not the Earthbox plant) was getting these odd appendages.


Today, here's how it looks from the side and the top:
Side


Top




Are those preflowers or what (I've never done this before and most pics on the web don't help with the "tween" stages.)?!?!?!

Our little mutant is just growning so nice & steady - it's got 1/3 more to produce in leaves, but it seems to be gaining an inch at least a day. It's crazy to watch them grow right now.


And happily, even some of the bug traumatized plants are making a vaiant comeback! (Hooray! "Get up, Champ, get up!!!)


Here's the big one - going to have to do some obstruction stuff on the windows soon!




So can anyone see sex of these yet or is it me that's just confused about all of the little parts showing on them...or am I being impatient. I was kinda thinking that after they get X sets of fan leaves (3's, 5's, then 7's) then they would show sex/preflower, ramp into flowering....but I'm going to go do some reading and see what I can figure out. I figure I'll have some boys and girls in the mix (I hope I'll be able to figure it out and or that they don't hermie), but at that point, I don't know if I'll bother seperating them out - it was decent weed, I'd rather like to have a whole lotta seeds now that I am going through this with these plants. I'd feel experienced doing it again.

Seeing where my plants are at this time 5/15, what's my timeline now? Anyone want to contribute a guess? Is it about 2 months till harvest? (Sooner 'twoud be nice but don't want to rush anything!)