Step By Step Blueberry & Northern Lights Autos By Farside

Like Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. Its been 2 full days. Another day or two and we should see some activity. Longest I've ever had to wait was 10 days for one to break ground. That was brutal.

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Ay the 3 day mark we have some activity. One of the Northern Lights is up.

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And that tiny white speck in the middle of this picture looks like a Blueberry trying to find her way out.

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Maybe in another 24 hours I'll see the other two.
 
Three and a half days since starting the seeds. The second Northern Lights made her presence known.

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The first Blueberry hasn't straightened up yet and I don't see any sign of the second yet.

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The Northern's may get their transplant into 5 gallon fabric pots tomorrow, or if I feel ambitious, later today. I like to get them in their final pots before the tap root makes it to the bottom of the Jiffy pellet and turns sideways when it runs into the plastic tray. I want it to be able to straight down to the bottom of it's big pot.
 
4 out of 4 is always a good feeling. You can see that the second Blueberry is making her way from underground (the one in the back). That makes 25 for 26 for my career, and the one that didn't sprout was the grow I tried the paper towel method of spouting instead of Jiffy pellets. Not to say there is anything wrong with doing it that way, many have excellent results. Maybe it's just something I'm not good at, hence I stick with where I get my best results.

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Hence I stick to where I get my best results...
that's it mate.. why we have saying like, more than one way to skin a shin on a bumper bar (I think that's how it said). Might be something about skinning cats but who does that? :rofl: hope all are well mate..
 
Hence I stick to where I get my best results...
that's it mate.. why we have saying like, more than one way to skin a shin on a bumper bar (I think that's how it said). Might be something about skinning cats but who does that? :rofl: hope all are well mate..

You mean you don't skin cats down under? Doesn't all that fur get stuck in your teeth? :hmmmm: Actually the cats being referred to in that saying are catfish.
 
Didn't know that about cats. Makes more sense now :rofl: that was meant to be tow bar also.. I've never hit my shin on the bumper :rofl:
 
And its Transplanting Day! Everyone is up. We'll call this Day 1.

I start by filling my 5 gallon grow bags with ProMix BX, and compacting down some with my hand as I go. I fill it almost all the way to the top since when I water in the soil, everything will settle in a little. If I didn't compact it the settling would leave me with a container that was far from full.

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Next I water in the soil with 1 gallon of a light feed mix. 1/4 tsp of Foliage Pro, 1/4 tsp of Pro Tekt, 1nd 1/8 tsp of PH Down to get me to my desired PH of 6.5.

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When I'm done I have about 3/4 inch from the top of the soil to the rim on the grow bag. The Blueberrys have a little less soil than the Northerns because I was at the end of my bag of ProMix. I didn't think it was worth running to the store for a half inch more soil for each of the Blueberry's bags.
 
Here are the 4 seedlings ready for transplanting.

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You can see that the tap root hasn't come out of the bottom of the Jiffy Pellet yet, which is my goal. I want it to come straight down out of the pellet and towards the bottom of the grow bag.

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The exterior of the Jiffy Pellet has a mesh around it to hold it together. I know they say that the roots can grow through it but I don't want anything that may hinder the roots from easily expanding. I carefully make a small cut at the bottom of the mesh then tear the rest away using care.

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Here is the resulting pellet ready to be transplanted.

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Next I dig a hole about the size of the Jiffy Pellet in my soil. I want the hole to be just slightly deeper then the pellet is tall. I set the soil I dug out to make the hole off to the side. I'll need it to back fill around the pellet once I put it in.

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Here is the Pellet sitting in the hole. If the hole is too deep, I add some of the soil I dug out back into the hole. If It's too shallow I dig out more. I'm looking for the soil level to be about 1/4 inch above the top of the pellet when its sitting in the hole.

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Once the depth is correct, I use the soil that came from the hole to back fill around the pellet and a small amount will cover the top of the pellet. I gently press the soil around the sides and down from the top to make sure there is good contact between the pellet and the new soil. I don't want any voids but I'm not pressing so had as to smash anything, namely the tap root of the plant. Here is the finished product.

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Not pictured, I water around the base of the seedling. Its just a few ounces each to make sure everyone has a decent initial drink and the pellet and ProMix have good contact with each other. It will be days before they need another drink. They are all nestled in the tent and all four candles are lit. Blueberries are on the left, Northern Lights on the right.

Day 1

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My feeding regime will look something like this. I put it together for photo period plants so I will make adjustments for autos. I'm going to follow the vegetative growth schedule until I see signs that the plant wants to bloom. Past experience should put it around the 4 week mark, but in the event that it takes longer, I will duplicate week 4's feed until I see the change over. If it's sooner then I'll skip to the bloom feed (week 5 in the table and beyond) and run that until the plant is ready to harvest.

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