TrippyDBA's Indoor Soil Tropical Berry Grow Journal - 2015/2016

[TrippyDBA]

Howdy folks - it took a little while to get the seeds across the border, but they arrived safe and sound and here we go off and running. First the pertinent info:

What strain is it? 710 Genetics Tropical Berry (from True North Seed Bank)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? Mostly Indica
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Right now just potting soil, started in a Solo cup
Size of light? 150W 6500K CFL from Home Depot
Is it aircooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? ~72 degrees F, a little warmer right by the plant
RH of Room/cab? ~50%
PH of media or res? Unknown
Any Pests? No
How often are you watering? Small amounts daily or every other day
Type and strength of ferts used? None


So I received them on Dec 17 and immediately dropped one into water for 12 hours to start the germination process, and it worked fine:

I popped her into a moist paper towel for three days:

This is after 1 day in soil:

2 days old:

3 days old:

5 days old:

7 days old:

Today - 9 days old:

I am a little concerned that the leaves seem big and saggy (even though they're still plenty green) while the stem actually seems too small for the big leaves...thoughts?

 

[McSmokin]

Im thinking that you might be over watering. But I'm new to the hobby. Ill be subscribing to this thread to see what other people think if you dont mind.

Sent from my SM-G920V using 420

 

[TrippyDBA]

The more the merrier!

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[TrippyDBA]

Howdy all - sorry for the delay. I've been capturing good pics of the progress, but been too busy with work to sit down and put together an update. Finally have a chance...so enjoy!

12 days old - first day in new pot

15 days old

16 days old - broke off a small branch

20 days old

23 days old - broken branch screaming at me

24 days old part 1 - tried to FIM the top and two sides

24 days old part 2

24 days old part 3 - more tying down big leaves

28 days old - transplanted to 3.5 gallon pot

28 days old - close up of FIM

34 days old part 1

34 days old part 2 - close up of side the was FIM'd

38 days old - you can see more bending of the big leaves out of the way

40 days old

41 days old

43 days old part 1

43 days old part 2

I'm just wondering how much longer to let it veg. The problem is it's only about 5.5 inches tall, I feel like it should be taller, no branch is long enough to bend to the sides. I planned to try fluxing or something like that, but it's just too short.

 

[TrippyDBA]

Also forgot to mention - for lighting I have two of the Home Depot CFL's (2800 lumens, 6500k, something like 42 watts) and one Walmart CFL (2100 lumens, 5000k, ~30 watts). I don't have the boxes in front of me, but those are the about what the numbers are.

I keep the lights within a few inches of the plant at all times, and I rotate the plant every 8-12 hours or so, so the lights hit each part of the plant equally.

 

[TrippyDBA]

I decided this girl was just too bushy...trimmed up a few of the leaves on the top side that were shading the growth areas underneath. If I was able to bend a leaf out of the way I did it because I have read that the plant needs the leaves for photosynthesis and getting rid of waste.

The trimmings:

The new look:

Notice in these two pics that the oldest leaves on the very bottom are many times larger than the newest growth. There just aren't any leaves that big anymore.

 

[TrippyDBA]

We've hit 8 weeks. It was getting so crowded that I've decided to clean things up and aim for one cola per branch (I think that's the right terminology). So far so good. The response to all the trimming seemed to actually be positive. Many of the limbs look too weak right now to support any colas of decent size (especially at the end), so I'll be waiting at least a few more weeks before switching to flower even if signs that she's ready to switch start to show.

You can really see the cleaning in this view. The nice thing is everything seems symmetric, so I would expect flowering to be pretty even.

Getting excited, started researching making hard candies; I had some breath mints when I was in Seattle that were awesome. I popped them in my carry on in a regular mint container and no one even looked twice

 

[TrippyDBA]

In case you're wondering, I did leave all the trimmings right in the pot. I actually will mix them in a bit better once they dry up. This is a trick I learned from the engineers at Scott's when I was doing some work with them. They strongly recommended not bagging or raking your lawn after you mow (as long as you cut it often enough that the trimmings aren't so thick they are smothering the live grass).

Their position was that lawn trimmings are a fantastic free source of nutrients. I think this practice is safe enough to try here, and I hope the decomposed leaves diminish the amount of nutrient loss and keep the soil plenty vital for reuse next grow...

 

[TrippyDBA]

This is about one week into flower. All the branches are tied down to achieve about as even spacing and level top as I can. I'll adjust as the grow continues...

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.