(Outdoor, 1st ever grow) Northernberry

I'm rather amused at how responsive #7 is to light. They've all tended to lean towards it, and I've regularly rotated all of them so they don't grow too far over to 1 side - but #7 can re-angle her top towards the light very quickly, quickly enough that I find myself giving her half a rotation several times a day.

The first 3 are showing no signs of improvement but all I've changed is their watering cycle - if the soil was to blame then I guess I shouldn't see any improvement, but at least I know the new ones are in a better mix if that is the case

Well, todays a good day.

#6 had a couple roots popping through the bottom of her jiffy pot when I checked on her this morning, and has since been placed in a larger plastic pot aside #7 - Her 2nd 'pair' of true leaves are coming in but right now I just see 1, not 2... probably just folded together. Compared to the rest, it's leaf shape no longer looks a lot shorter or the slightest bit wider - but they've still got relatively rounded points. Must be a diff phenotype.

#7 seems taller every time I check, bigger than #6 and all the rest at just 3 days old with 1 pair of good looking true leaves.

That cracked seed never did germ, but the other one did - I'll refer to it as #8 for now.

#8 germinated in the last day or 2 and was put in soil - it's now emerging cotyledons first and I don't know if the shell is attached somewhere below the soil line or if it broke off. It's the first one to not come out shell-first, and it's cotyledons (just the tips are popping out) are looking kind of yellowish

...and the 9th seed which I put in paper towel yesterday morning has now got about a half inch of taproot and is going into dirt!

I said good bye to #1 today. Neither it or #'s 2/3 have shown any improvement from their condition and I'm low on space. At 33 days old it is smaller than the 2 that are 3 and 8 days old, so I decided to free up some space and see first hand what the root development was like. I cut open the jiffy pot and broke apart the dirt (was actually expecting to see roots without breaking the dirt but whatever) to find there were barely any roots at all. They didn't penetrate downwards more than a centimeter from where the seed had been planted, and the few visible straggly roots that I could find were in a very small space and all dark in color. Does this sound like root rot?

Given the root growth of #6 (I'm not going to count #7 because it's taproot went to the bottom at planting) which reached and penetrated the bottom of the Jiffy Pot in a week, I expected a lot more than #1 had to offer... Even if it spent it's first 11 healthy days growing the same way as #6 & #7, then stopped root development entirely when it's green became yellow, it would have definitely had more than it did... Assuming #2 & #3 (who are similar above ground) had similar root development, do you think they are dead? Also, would overwatering alone mess up a plant in early stages of growth that much? If not, what would?

An interesting thing about those first 3 is that they all went to shit on the same day in a very short time, despite having sprouted over a 2-3 day period and having no drastic environmental changes (that I'm aware of) the night they went bad.

thanks for the support, I really think these newer ones are going to get farther - but even if I pull all 3 of the first ones (I'm leaving 2 for now) I'd still appreciate any insights regarding their death so to avoid the possibility of reenacting it with the rest. If it was bad soil, overwatering, low humidity, or getting scorched by the light - It won't happen to the new ones because all those factors have been taken care of

I'll see if I can pick up some SuperThrive tomorrow and give #2/3 a few drops just for kicks but I'm not really expecting anything - I'll probably pull them in a week or so. After seeing #1's roots (or lack-thereof) I don't think these girls are worth the effort except to learn from

of the sick 3 I don't think I dug any up, but my doing so out of impatience with #4/5 is probably why those 2 didn't sprout.

I'm just happy I have 3 (#8 is now standing/opening up) healthy ones on their way, and I'll be happier when they reach 11 days old and don't die but I'm pretty sure it won't happen again as several factors have changed and they all seem to be moving along quicker in their first few days than the other 3 did... #7 is about 3 inches, not including the stem beneath all the dirt I added at transplanting - at just 3 days old, so if you count the entire height from before dirt was added she's growing well over an inch a day and towering over the scronny yellow ones still in jiffy pots - and #6 is coming pretty nicely too. If #8 follows in their footsteps she'll be standing 1-1.5 inches tall tomorrow evening and be ready for a bigger pot within the next 7 days or so - I can only dream until then

haha actually come to think of it, I think the only 2 that didn't sprout were the ones I dug up to check on - I think I gave up hope on them too early with 'em, I've heard of plants taking up to a week to sprout after germinating.

It's all good, one less mistake to make in the future. I'm expecting 20 skunkberry seeds in the mail and will be doing an indoor grow in the fall.

edit: OK nvm, I looked at my notes and ONE of the ones I dug up did sprout but was one of the sick ones - and the other one I dug up did not sprout - leaving one non-sprouter that I never touched after germinating/planting. Probably wasn't a good idea regardless of weather it caused 1 not to sprout and/or 1 to become sick. I'll just let them be from now on, I think that's one of the best things I've done with #6/7

I wasn't saying that was the only reason just a possible contributing factor. I was guilty of the same type of thing myself. I'm sorry if I came across the wrong way with the comment.
Good to hear that the new babies are doing good.
Good luck, it sounds like you've got things under control now.

P.S. Sure wish you could post pics, even though you give excellent descriptions it would undoubtedly be nice.

All insight is welcome and I won't take offense to anything of that nature, I'm new at this and appreciate any info I can get

#6 is doing well, about 2" tall with leaves a little bigger than my fingernail that have rounded tips. It's 2nd pair (of true leaves) is coming in but 1 of them is about 10x bigger than the other... hence my not seeing it at first!

My god #7 is going insane with growth and I'm guessing this would be "stretching" as it's not fast-maturing as much as it just likes vertical growth - it's about 4" tall with the largest leaves yet developed by any of the bunch, yet no sign of a 2nd pair yet.

#8 is standing up and its cotyledons are a lot darker now, it's about half an inch tall and it's first pair of trueleaves are starting. They are of the same pointy shape as every other plant except #6.

still waiting on #9 to surface, I'll make sure to be extra placement with this one.


I don't know if their early days are when they grow the fastest or slowest, but if #7 keeps growing at the rate it has been, I'll have to put it outside in a week or two. I couldn't find superthrive @ Home Depot or my local garden center so I may buy some online - I plan on using it mainly for transplanting as these plants will be going through 2 interim pots to develop a dense inner-root system before going into the ground or a final very large plant pot (was thinking like 20 gallons) - SuperThrive is reputed as doing wonders against transplant shock so it would probably be worth the investment with the plans I've got so far.

I also have some 12-0-0 blood meal I'm not using yet, and may mix a little bit of it along with some P/K containing fertilizer into some potting soil for when they're ready to go into bigger pots. It's been suggested I use "dnf" but I'm not sure exactly what that is so if anyone knows please tell me

This forum has revealed a wealth of information to me and I'm glad I discovered it - you guys rock

#8 is moving along faster than expected! Her 1st set of true leaves is still tiny but she's about 2" tall and rooted through her jiffy pot last night so I've put her in a larger pot alongside #6 & #7.

#9 had me worried for a few hours - emerged root first in a little arc like the hairs on homers head, but later unbent and poked her cotyledons up out of the ground.

#7 has finally got a 2nd little pair of true leaves coming in

...and the difference in size between the 2 leaves on #6's second set isn't as big now - before 1 side was about 10x bigger than the other, but now the small one is catching up and is about a 3rd the size of it's counterpart.

oGipRotRe said:

PeakSeedsBC is where I got them, they do ship to the US but they charge $40/10 seeds to US customers $30 to canadian... and yeah I thought it was a little strange that NL#5 & blueberry are both often marketed as being better for indoor grows, but I've heard (both from growers and from M.J. at peak seeds) that NB does well outdoors - but then again some people also say northern lights does alright inside and out. I plan on keeping them inside until I'm certain the weather will be consistently easy, and also to give them a shake after heavy rain in later stages to prevent bud rot. If when I move my first 2 seedlings outside they wither away and die in a week, I'll know the next ones probably won't make it either (at least under the same conditions) I hope I don't give this whole experimentation thing more credit than is due, because it sure seems like I'll be relying on it!

Click to expand...

Mine should be here any day. I got the variety 20 pack from them.

nice, good luck with your grow!

I would have got the variety pack but wanted to know what I was growing, unfortunately I didn't hear about the 2 for 1 SB special after I placed my order... I hear SB is their best strain anyway (well easy to grow and high yielding, some say a little less potent than NB)

Will you be doing a journal of your peak variety grow?

designating them NB#'s now because I expect to have some SB's starting soon

NB6 (12 days old)
- sprouted May 25th
- transplanted June 2nd
- just under 2" tall
- 2 pairs of trueleaves, the smaller ones almost twice as big as the cotyledons.

NB7 (7 days old)
- sprouted May 30th
- transplanted may 31st - lol
- about 4" tall - has slowed down in vertical growth
- 2 pairs of trueleaves. 1st pair is biggest of the 4 living plants, and it's 2nd is still new and quite small.

NB8 (4 days old)
- sprouted June 2nd
- transplanted June 4th
- nearly 4" tall - really stretching out but I don't mind
- 1 pair of true leaves, about the 3x size of her cotyledons

NB9 (2 days old)
- sprouted on June 4th
- not yet transplanted
- 1 1/4" tall
- a wee little baby pair of true leaves

All of them have much fatter stems than the first 3 that I wound up killing ever had, perhaps an indication of how that soil was affecting their roots? I don't know, but even when these things first sprout they seem to have a fatter stem than the others did. I'm not sure which changed factors are the reasons behind it but these plants are maturing much faster than the other ones were prior to their unexpected deaths... Since NB6 is 12 days old and hasn't gone to shit yet I celebrated with tinfoil + 2L coke bottle + bucket + icy water + some fine kush buds



keep in mind when I say transplanted I don't mean dug up or anything - I started using Jiffy Pots which are biodegradable and can by penetrated by roots... so you just have to put the entire thing inside another pot without any messy stuff and without stressing out the plants.

So there appears to be some hope for my grow! I may be down to just 4 plants (saving last 2 seeds so these will be the only 4 plants) but if they live, things are looking good. Peaks varieties have a pretty good reputation for having high female counts, but I'd be happy to get ONE girl to harvest.

peace

A friend of mine who has no internet is selling his car and wants me to help him list it online - he's got a digital camera that I'll be taking to my place to upload some pictures of his car to my computer so I'll take the opportunity to snap a few picks of my babies

He doesn't know I'm growing though and I'd rather keep it that way so I'm going to have to double check and triple check to make sure I format that damn card before I give it back to him haha

#9 outgrew its jiffy pot and has gone into a larger plastic pot

#7 has gone outside, bringing me to a whole new problem.

The grow-site I had my heart set on was hard to access 3 months ago when I scouted it out. When I went out there today I was pleased to see it was even more difficult to reach now that everything had grown out over spring, but after getting all scratched up and getting less then 1/4 of the way there I wasn't really all that pleased any more... I can't get there at all! Furthermore, the places I could get were either not secluded enough to meet my security standards or heavily shaded. How does partial sunshine compare to a weak fluro setup? I've always been advised to seek 5+ hours of direct sunlight, do plants that receive less than 3 hours of direct sunshine per day have any serious problems other than slow growth? The spot it's in right now probably gets a couple hours of direct sunlight in the evening and MAY get some morning sun too (I'll know tomorrow morning).

If my current spot doesn't meet light requirements I'm not sure what I'll do... I'll keep looking for a new spot - I'm tempted to carve my way through blackberries with a freaking machete but that draws a lot of attention and opens up an obvious path to wherever I would get myself by doing so, so I don't think that's a great idea.

If you recall my mentioning NB6's 2nd leaf pair came in very unevenly (1 leaf much larger than it's counterpart) you may be interested to hear that it's doing the same thing with new growth! I'm not sure weather the 2nd leaf set is growing new blades or this is the 3rd leaf set, but either way it looks strange.

There are 4 little bits of leaf coming in at the top, 2 on each side. Last night I thought it was growing 2 leaves on one side and none on the other, but it turns out the other 2 are just really really small. Is this common? I wonder if it's going to keep doing this as it grows o_0

I didn't get out to see NB7 today or how much sun it gets in the morning, I'll check it out soon - but in the mean time I'm going to keep looking for a better spot for her.

NB6 is the smallest and most mature of the bunch, just a little less stretchy I guess. NB8 is seeing some expansion in her first pair of true leaves along with a white fuzz growing all over her upper stem near the leaves. NB9 is about 2" tall, with deep dark green cotyledons and 1 pair of true leaves still fairly small (just a little bigger than the cotyledons)

I'm going to go check on NB7 and see how she's doing. It rained a little bit last night so I shouldn't have to water her any time soon but I want to see how the outdoors has affected her. I'll check out the morning sunshine tomorrow or the day after.

I went out to cover NB7 today because it's been pouring out, only to find I either hid her too well or not good enough. I checked on it recently too, to get it in a brighter spot - but today I couldn't find it. I'll go look more tomorrow :/

went back with my flash light still couldn't find NB7... but I did find a few plastic pots about 5 minutes away from the area she originally was. Why would someone take plant pots deep into the forest to do anything other than what I was doing there?

spots about a 20 minute walk off a remote logging road through bush, so it would be quite the coincidence if my site was another growers site too. I spent a couple hours there, first looking for NB7 and then once I found those pots I looked for more evidence of someone else having been present.

The dumb thing is I can't even say if NB7 was discovered or not, it was only out for a couple days in a very very quiet area and I honestly don't remember exactly where I put her for better light, just the rough area it was in. I probably criss-crossed a quarter acre looking for her, a bigger area than I recall considering when looking for a spot to move her too - but my memory is bad and I'm also one of those people who spends 5 minutes looking for my keys before checking my pockets

The indoor ladies are looking good.

NB6 is on it's 3rd leafset, what I originally thought was it's 3rd pair of true leaves turned out to be more blades to the 2nd. Very strange how she's growing. The new blades to her 2nd pair of leaves are small on one side and big on the other, so each individual leaf has a small pedal on one side and a big one on the other side if it's central pedal. The 3rd pairs leaves appear equal in proportions so I guess it's just those 2 that are growing funny.

NB8 is taller than NB6, got her 3rd pair of true leaves 1 day later than NB6 (today) and all of her first 2 pairs are much larger than those of the other girls inside.

NB9's 2nd pair of trueleaves are still quite small.

NB7 was most likely discovered by someone and ripped off. I doubt I misplaced her and it's not like law enforcement had anything to do with it. I'm just amazed that someone came around that neck of the woods and found her in that short a time period. She was on a hillside (south-facing, part of the reason I picked my site) - maybe during the rain storm she somehow toppled over and rolled down the hill on her own! About as unlikely as someone finding her. I'll look more and find a new site to put these other 3 in.