Gia Greens Living Soil & Blueberry Strain

[Sask420grow]

What strain is it?
4 Blueberries and 1 Heisenberg

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid?
The blueberry is Indica and the Heisenberg is predominantly Sativa

What percentages?
Unknown

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Currently in vegetative state.

If in Veg... For how long?
I got the as clones on December 28th and they were cut 20 days prior too that

This is the blueberry on the 29th of December.
I got the Heisenberg a month after I got the four blueberries. I don’t have any pictures of when I first got the Heisenberg but it was dieing. Got it from brother who had it under cfl light that wasn’t doing anything for the plant so he gave to me to put under the 1000w MH.
This is a pic of the Heisenberg two weeks after I got it and saved it!

Looks good now. Small problem with it was that the dog ate the top of it when I was watering them haha. Was a good ole fim so I left it. Later in the grow this fim is wonderful!


If in Flower stage... For how long?
Not sure when I plan to flower them. Wanted to do 2 months in veg and 2 months in flower but they have had a rough go so far in veg. Many lockouts and deficiencies as you will see later in the detailed descriptions
Indoor or outdoor?
Growing indoors. Had to build a indoor grow tent in order to regulate the temperature the light gives off. Plan was to veg and flower indoors but since it’s getting close to outdoor season I might just plant them outdoors to continue veg and end the flower in October... stay tuned for updates.
Soil or Hydro?
Gia greens living soil is what I am using. I figured the Gia greens is pretty self sustaining so that is what I went with it. I’m a first time grower so easier the better. Welp, growing cannabis is nothing but easy haha. I’ve had some real highs and lows during this grow based on soil PH! More in the detailed discriptions on this but the short of it is the soil ph went from 7 to 4 to 8.8 in that order in less then a month!!!! Yikes.
If soil... what is in your mix?
Gia greens living soil with 40% perlite Recently amended it with worm casting and Neptune’s fish and seaweed fertilizer.
If soil... What size pot?
Started them in 1g plastic pots. About a month into the grow I had to transplant them. Went from 1g to 3g Home Depot pale With holes drilled in bottom. A month after that I transplanted them into 5g smart pots. The transplants were somewhat successful in that they rebounded the plants from hard times (lockouts, deficiencies) but I made the mistakes of not transplanting to LARGER pots. Instead I went to the one size higher which was only about an inch or two of fresh soil around the old stuff which was where my problem was. Long story. Stay tuned for details

Size of light?
Started them under 1000w HPS on a 24hr light schedule (didn’t have timers and such)
About a month into veg I was able to change the bulb too a 1000w MH. Been under that for the past month and a half. Distance from the bulb to the canopy has varied. I’ve read that with larger bulbs to have them a good distance away so a started them 31in away from the bulb. The next two months I’ve been moving them too all different distances ranging from 41in-21in. I haven’t really found a sweet spot yet.
Is it aircooled?
Someday.
Temp of Room/cab?
Room temps have been somewhat consistent. Started the grow in a cooler room 72-78f. When I built the tent I incorporated a cool air intake that brings cold air from outside ( live in Saskatchewan so it’s cold here in winter months. -25c average. So I was being that into the tent. Had a space heater with a temp setting so if it got below 72 the heater would kick on and warm the room back up. Worked great until the cold snap ended. Now it’s -2c outside and 84f in the grow tent. The tent is a 5x5x8
RH of Room/cab?
Humidity is often 40% and above. I have two humidifier on 24/7. A hot air one and a cold air one. Also soak two towels and drape them over a table under the lights to get more humidity. And two cups of standing water haha. Gotta do what you gotta do
PH of media or res?
The PH is a touchy subject for me in this grow. Not sure If ive mentioned it but this is my first grow and I didn’t realize ph was soooo detrimental too plants and nutrient uptake. Big time learning curve this has been.
Soil ph is 7.4 out of the bag. Water ph is 8.9 out of the tap and after sitting 24hrs.
What I did too correct this ph right from the start of the grow has made the ph world in my grow room go upside down I think. I was under the impression that in soil the water ph needs to be between 6.2-6.7in order for the plant to uptake nutrients properly. Ok great. What did I use to bring the ph down you ask?... vinager!! It worked great at being the ph down. At the time I was using ph test stripes you use for a hot tube or pool. The reading after I added a few drops of vinager went from 8.9 too 5.7-6 (test stripes to only ballpark estimate). I watered the plants with this concoction and then let them sit for 3-4 days and did it again. Another 3-4 days pass and I water pretty heavily to get some runoff so I can test it. Wellllllll, I tested the run off and the soil ph is now 4!!!!!! Omg. Panic transplant time!! More to come in the details

Any Pests ?
Aphids from Gia green LIVING soil haha
No big deal.
How often are you watering?
When I first got them I belief I was overwatering. I did some research and found I was doing both overwatering and underwatering at the same time. How? Well I was watering every 2-3 days but only watering a litre each. I believe this is when all my problems arose. Here a sample of what you will see in the detailed description of this grow and what I mean by problems...

Lockout!! Starting to come back. Took a lot of work but I think they will be fine outside haha
Type and strength of ferts used?
Gia greens living soil. Amended with worm casting and Neptune’s fish and seaweed fertilizer. Will be adding a all purpose top dressing soon to all.




What a journey this has been so far.
I’m a first time grower. Have never grown anything prior beside the little flowers in the front yard flower beds haha.
December 28th I purchase 4 blueberry strain clones. He tells me the clones are 20 days old and not to transplant until they plant is at least as big as the pot they are In (1gallon plastic).

This is how I had the room set up for the first few days. The temps were pretty high even with three oscillating fans going over the plants. Humidity was very low 0-10%.
So I knew I had to do something to remedy the environment or else all’s for nothing.
I decide to build a smaller room inside that room. New plan is to do a perpetual harvest with two rooms.

Boom, so that’s what I do. This is the veg room which is a 5x5x8 space. I installed a exhaust fan (bathroom fan from Home Depot). I also install a cold air intake that takes the outside air which in winter is -25c regularly, and puts it into the room. I plug in a space heater to be sure it doesn’t get too cold. Temps inside are now 72-75f aslong as the outside air is colder then -15c. If it’s gets warmer (spring) I’ll need to install a window ac. As you can see I had the fans facing upward in the hopes it will blow the heat to the exhaust fan. Somewhat worked.

This picture is from two weeks after I got them. They have grown a decent amount.

this is time stamped for January 6th. Two have great growth while two seem stunted.

January 8th just after there first transplant. I did this transplant because the soil in the previous container was messed up. I did a heavy eating to test the soil ph and it reads4?! Reason for this is I was using vinager to drop the ph of the water I was feeding. I believe by using this I killed off a
Lot of the microbial life in the soil which in turn acidified the soil. Or it was simply a reCtion to the vinager and the soil. None the less I had Too do something fast because the girls were very droopy and losing there colour. By having a soil ph of 4 the plant was not able to uptake nutrients and got locked out due to the soil ph. I figured the watering at a higher ph won’t work fast enough so I decided to transplant. Problem with the transplant was that the old soil that I wanted to get rid of was very wet still from the heavy watering I gave them two days prior. So I couldn’t take much of the old stuff off. And to top that off the pales i transplanted them into was only an inch bigger around!! Wow. Smh. Newb grower fails.

This is a day after transplant. They seem to be peeking up a bit I see some new growth which is great.
I can’t add anymore pictures right now as I’m at my limit of 10 so I’ll continue this in the comments section.
Thank you for reading and having interest. I look forward to reading the comments and hope to see some tips and advice as I said, I’m a newb haha.

To be continued...

 

[Sask420grow]

So yea the next thing that happened was it showed sex!!!! Already showing sex?!? I contact my local hydro shop and they say it could have been a few factors such as; 24hr light under HPS lighting. The transplant itself could have stressed the plant making it think its gonna die soon haha. The lockout/deficiency its facing in the root zone. They suggested I change the light schedule to a 18/6 and hope they revert back to veg. I was hesitant on this as adding darkness usually kicks photoperiod plants to flower but I did some research on it and found they are right so that is what I did. They still shoot pistols every node to this day but haven’t gone into full bloom so I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing haha. Hope. Here’s a picture dated January 9th. One day after transplan.
stresssed our plants

Next is what I was not sure about and still to this day am not sure about. Defoliation
Picture below dated January 12th is what I took off all four plants. It’s a decent amount but was told is needed in order to get light to the lower branches/shoots.

The plants themselves seem to like being defoliated. This is a picture of them a few hours afterward (January 12th few hours after defoliating)

As you can see. I defoliated quit a bit from each plant. They are praying and continue to pray for a few days until watering.

This picture is dated January 15th, three days after defoliating.

Training day January 16th.
For training all I did was bend and secure. No topping. No fimming. Just bend and secure. I wanted to copy what I have seen on YouTube. Specifically a YouTubed called hydrohygro. Dudes growing single plants with 1-1.5lbs each plant but he uses ALL LST and HST training techniques. I’m still learning so I figured the bend and secure method is best. Lex on YouTube shows a great intro video for this method.
Anyway. The plants seem to not mind the LST training I’ve done. As you will see in the next picture they perk up pretty fast and continue there growth. The thing I’m noticing most about all this is how long it’s taking my plants to actually grow. The inter nodes are very tight but I kinda want them to shoot up. I know they will during early flower but I’m not expecting a large shoot at that time becuaee they are dominant Indica..
I’m at my limit of 10 pictures so I will continue this on the next comment

To be continued...

 

[Sask420grow]

January 19th. Lots of new growth poking through the canopy. I believe the training is working but what’s up with the yellow tops? The whole plants seem to be turning a light green colour..

All four seem to have the same thing happening. Weird.

This is a picture from a day later. Seems to be getting worse. Also the plants looks like they are getting really full. Maybe the pots are becoming rootbound?!

January 22nd. Starting too look root bound. Lots of droopy
Leaves that Look full but haven’t watered in few days...

January 24th. Pretty sure I need to transplant these girls. Something is wrong and I can’t figure it out. Best thing I can think of is new soil. The next picture is in normal light so you can see the light green/yellowing that I see

Dated January 28th. As u can see. It’s deficeint in something. Looks like another lockout but I don’t see how as I have been PHing the water to 6.5 with a ph down I got from Walmart (was in a bind on a Sunday).

Later on I find out that adding acidifiers to living soil is a bad idea. Kills the microbes. It’s for hydro mainly.,.,. Didn’t know that. So chances are this is a result of that!!

Transplant time. As you can see the roots look white and healthy on this one. Two others didn’t have as much root and were a tinge of brown. Possible root rot?
Here is an example of my newb grower. Notice there is only about an inch around the old soil to fit new soil...

I tried to break off as much old soil as I could but wasn’t very successful. The roots were holding the soil pretty good and I didn’t want to damage the roots any more then already is.
And another newb move I made was buying perlite and only adding it to the bottom 1-2inches of the pot alone... yea. I put a layer of perlite down then put the living soil over top of that. That’s what the bag said to do hahahaha. Owell. To this day (March 14th) those with the layer of perlite are doing the best.

february 2nd. They still not doing to well. The leaves are now starting to get chlorosis pretty bad. I’m pretty sure it is a ph problem but need to wait for the ph pen I ordered off amizon to arrive.
At my max picture uploads so I will continue this in the next comment.

To be continued...

 

[Sask420grow]

February 9th. This is one of the plants I did not transplant. It doesn’t look as horrible as the other two but still needs attention.

February 13. The orange pale is the Heisenberg I got a week prior. Not sure why I didn’t take any pictures before but it looked so small with a 3-4mm stock haha. As you can see in this picture it has grown substantially since getting it. I got it in a 1g pot but the soil was soaked so I did a transplant soon after getting it. It has blown up big time since then.
The other plants are very light green with two plants showing major chlorosis. Very yellow. Not looking good.

February 20th This part is funny. On the February 13th watering my dog ate the top off the Heisenberg plant. This picture is from a few days later after it rebounded from the topping/fimming. Looks awesome. Like it was done by a pro haha.

This is also from February 20th. As you see the plants looks stressed. Got my ph pen. Tested the soil runoff and it’s reading stupid high. 8.8-9.5!!! Omg. Time for another emergency transplant.
This time I’m going to transplant the two that look real bad and leave the other two and just amend the soil. I went to hydro shop and got some Neptune’s fish and seaweed firtilizer. Gonna use this also to hopefully get them some sort of nutrients.

Well. That all got put on hold. I got real sick and couldn’t do what was planned. Ended up just watering them with nutrients (Neptune’s fish and seaweed). Transplant was postponed till March 1st here’s a pictures just prior to the transplant.

this transplant was different then the rest. This time I got ALL the old soil out of the root ball. All that was left was massive amounts of roots haha. I then added the perlite to the soil at roughly 40% so there is lots of drainage. Noticed the roots on the first one were tinged brown. Still lots that were good white but still had some brown. The second one didn’t have that at all. All white clean roots. The inch of perlite on the bottom was covered in roots. So it looked salvageable and that’s what I’m trying to do. Salvage this disaster. Timeline is out the window as these should be in flower by now. So I’m gonna veg them till conditions are on to put outside.
Here’s some more pics of before the last major transplant.

Maxed out on picture uploads. Will continue in comments
To be continued...

 

[Sask420grow]

Here are some pictures of the Heisenberg on the same day. March 1st. It looks great haha

Gorgeous

March 7th plants still look yellow. Tips are turning brown and crispy. Leaves all over are pretty crispy. Next step/plan is too defoliate/lollipop the ones I had to transplant. I’m hoping by doing this it will focus its energy on growing new tops. I have all the shoots I want. Just need it to get healthy again.

Notice the leaves are thin and narrow. They are looking Sativa but there blueberry which is Indica. How do I get these leaves to fatten up like the Heisenberg’s? On the plus side. The yellowing has stopped. And the plants are still growing shoots. Just slow. Still gotta get the soil ph in check.

This is the Heisenberg in March 7th. Notice all the interior shoots haha. That’s awesome. Damn dog is a green thumb for sure. One bite=14 shoots haha. And it looks healthy. It doesn’t like water as much as the blueberries but I think I picked up on that in time. Love the fish and seaweed. The others seem to also like it. Starting to make me think the soil has been depleted of its nutrients therefore there eating themselves to get what’s needed? Not sure.

Welp. Here we are March 10th. The other pics are all in the grow tent so the ligh doesn’t show the true nature of what I’ve been dealing with. Prior to the last transplant these plants were ALL yellow like you see on the tips here. The new soil is for sure helping these girls back on there feet. I’ve amended all the soil with worm castings. Not as strong as prescribed but still adding it haha. Also the fish and seaweed stuff. I’m pretty sure the first time I fed them it they got nutrient burn as shown in the last picture. I dried them out pretty good after I noticed it. Stopped. After finding out vinager was a bad idea I went searching for another alternative and found lemon juice is natural. The ph is t to drastic and it can be used in living soils. So that is what I’ve been using for the past three weeks or so. There was a time though that I used the Home Depot stuff which I believe killed the microbes. That’s when the yellowing and such got worse and worse. Adding the worm casting and using the fish fertilizer should bring those things back to life but I’m sure it will take time. Time time time haha. Owell. That’s how it goes in a first grow sometimes I guess. Nothing but learning.

Here Heisenberg Tom March 9th. Looks all good besides this brown spots I noticed after I fed them fish aquarium water. Could be a little spilled on them that I didn’t notice and burned the leaves. Not sure... other then that. She looks goooood. I’m happy with this one for sure.
Believe it or not. This is one of those plants that had the major yellowing. Notice the new growth coming in nice green. Some of the old is fading to greeen. I see green instead of yellow!! It’s working.

Max pictures dropped.

As you can see. I’ve been through a good time with these girls and they probably get stress just at my presents haha. I’m always stressing them in one way or another. Most times unintended haha.
Tomorrow I will post my full summary without pictures and more detail in description. Thanks for reading along.

 

[Sask420grow]

Here are some pictures of the Heisenberg on the same day. March 1st. It looks great haha

Gorgeous

March 7th plants still look yellow. Tips are turning brown and crispy. Leaves all over are pretty crispy. Next step/plan is too defoliate/lollipop the ones I had to transplant. I’m hoping by doing this it will focus its energy on growing new tops. I have all the shoots I want. Just need it to get healthy again.

Notice the leaves are thin and narrow. They are looking Sativa but there blueberry which is Indica. How do I get these leaves to fatten up like the Heisenberg’s? On the plus side. The yellowing has stopped. And the plants are still growing shoots. Just slow. Still gotta get the soil ph in check.

This is the Heisenberg in March 7th. Notice all the interior shoots haha. That’s awesome. Damn dog is a green thumb for sure. One bite=14 shoots haha. And it looks healthy. It doesn’t like water as much as the blueberries but I think I picked up on that in time. Love the fish and seaweed. The others seem to also like it. Starting to make me think the soil has been depleted of its nutrients therefore there eating themselves to get what’s needed? Not sure.

Welp. Here we are March 10th. The other pics are all in the grow tent so the ligh doesn’t show the true nature of what I’ve been dealing with. Prior to the last transplant these plants were ALL yellow like you see on the tips here. The new soil is for sure helping these girls back on there feet. I’ve amended all the soil with worm castings. Not as strong as prescribed but still adding it haha. Also the fish and seaweed stuff. I’m pretty sure the first time I fed them it they got nutrient burn as shown in the last picture. I dried them out pretty good after I noticed it. Stopped. After finding out vinager was a bad idea I went searching for another alternative and found lemon juice is natural. The ph is t to drastic and it can be used in living soils. So that is what I’ve been using for the past three weeks or so. There was a time though that I used the Home Depot stuff which I believe killed the microbes. That’s when the yellowing and such got worse and worse. Adding the worm casting and using the fish fertilizer should bring those things back to life but I’m sure it will take time. Time time time haha. Owell. That’s how it goes in a first grow sometimes I guess. Nothing but learning.

Here Heisenberg Tom March 9th. Looks all good besides this brown spots I noticed after I fed them fish aquarium water. Could be a little spilled on them that I didn’t notice and burned the leaves. Not sure... other then that. She looks goooood. I’m happy with this one for sure.
Believe it or not. This is one of those plants that had the major yellowing. Notice the new growth coming in nice green. Some of the old is fading to greeen. I see green instead of yellow!! It’s working.