(Outdoor, 1st ever grow) Northernberry

just finished transplanting NB6 & NB9 into bigger bots. Despite being 10 days older, NB6 was a bit behind in vertical growth and foliage & root development. Both had reached the bottom of their pots but NB9s root system was significantly more dense, but NB6 may catch up because I expect NB9 to have some significant transplant shock (I damaged a large area of her lower root mass due to mishandling). I gave each of them a generous watering with molasses mix and hope they handle the xplant well.

Before transplanting, I mixed 1 cup of blood meal and 2 crushed eggshells into the soil in each of the larger pots. I'm going to start saving eggshells and adding them to the soil for calcium.

I have a bit more space than I thought with my current setup, I hadn't even realized the cupboard I've got them in had height-adjustable shelves, and thought that I would need to go out and spend some money if NB9 grew into the light but luckily I got myself an extra 6" of vertical space by putting the shelf to the lowest position. I'm still going to have to get a stealthy setup with more room soon so any low-cost suggestions would be appreciated. I do have a nifty little cabinet that could work with some LSTing but I'm far from a handy man and I'd probably need to cut some holes and install some fans for ventilation.

Oh yeah and NB6 should be 25 days hold and NB9 15 days if I'm not mistaken. Up until now the only feeding they've been getting has been foliar misting with the terracycle stuff... now I gave them each a cup of blood meal for nitrogen - and I'll soon start watering them with half strength terracycle mix.

actually I don't think they went through any shock at all, both have grown noticeably today and it's the first vertical increase I've noticed on NB6 in like a week. Kind of surprising to not see any suffering after what I did to the lower third of NB9's roots!

If I'm able to get pics within the next few days NB6 will look much much smaller but that's because she was planted deeper down and buried up to the bottom leaves like my granny used to do with tomatoes.

I also finally noticed they both are on their 4th leaf set, probably have been for a few days judging by their size but I didn't pay attention.

Sounds good man, keep up the good work.
Size differential or not, pics would definately be a bonus.

thanks, I may be be borrowing a digital cam shortly. Yours sure do look good bigguy

I've got a bit of LST action going on with NB9, using some bent pieces of coat-hanger wire... forgot LST doesn't just help with keeping things unnoticed, it'll also help me be a little more efficient with my limited space for the time being

well no happy ending to my story, I went back out to check on the note to find that it had been removed and the branch-formation untouched... well at least it was read

oGipRotRe said:

well no happy ending to my story, I went back out to check on the note to find that it had been removed and the branch-formation untouched... well at least it was read

Click to expand...

Well that was rather anti-climatic.
It should have been more like.....
I went back to the scene of the plant-napping and saw someone lurking under a blind that had apparently been constructed of local vegatation. I confronted the lurking figure and the plant in question was at his side..... he lunged at me and I sidestepped his attack sending him through the blind. I quickly snatched up my stolen property and started running through the brush towards home. Once on my back porch she finally was placed in the grow room with her siblings where she grew to become a plethora of budding goodness.
OK a bit dramatic, but it sounded good I thought.

...almost as good as brown dirt warrior!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

Pics at last (borrowed a buddies camera)

...I know, these were long overdue.

NB6 is the smaller one to the left, NB9 the bigger one tied down with a piece of a coat hanger.

oGipRotRe said:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

Pics at last (borrowed a buddies camera)

...I know, these were long overdue.

NB6 is the smaller one to the left, NB9 the bigger one tied down with a piece of a coat hanger.

Click to expand...

I couldn't find a drumming smilie, although I'm sure Jimmyspaz or Twisty would have one, so I hope the fanfare of pot leaves will do.
Nice job with the bondage on nb9, starting her off early I see.
Thanks for the pics, they're coming along nicely from what I can see.

thanks

in those pics, NB6 (smaller one) is @ 29 days and her bigger-but-younger sister is 19 days old. Starting the LST on NB9 right now to buy more time before having to change my setup, so she doesn't grow into the light

I'm going to top NB6 in a week or 2 to try and get 2+ tops, and I'm going to prune over 1/3 of NB9's leaves at the same time to see if I can make her bush out with tighter nodes... and compare the results!

I bet if I had gotten hold of a camera when growing the first 3 plants, someone could have saved me the trouble of watering & monitoring dead plants for a month! LOL

Well it looks like they're going into a bit of a growth spurt, they're probably liking the new pots and loving the nitrogen. Both are bushing out their foliage like nuts, NB6 is on it's 6th true leaf set and losing it's cotyledons, and NB9 is on her 5th leaf set.

each of them were having trouble getting one leaf off the ground ever since I've been bending them over backwards, and as troubled as they looked I decided to snip them off. I've heard that undergrowth on an LST'd bush should regularly be trimmed, should I be concerned with this yet (or at all)?

thanks

oh and I'll try to get a couple more pics sometime soon

NB9 appears to me having a bit of trouble, either nute burn or because I haven't been testing the waters pH. One of her leaves have a yellow-beige blotch on one side, and some browning on the pointy edges down the other side all the way to the tip.

If it IS nute burn, what should I do since the only way I've really fed her is with stuff mixed into the soil @ last transplanting? My first thought was flushing but given blood meal has quite a bit of water-soluble nitrogen that could worsen it by increasing the nutrient update... maybe? I'll give her some time and see what happens, give people here a chance to respond, and do a bit of searching around for some answers myself.

actually it looks a bit like potassium def. from some pics I've seen online

NB6 is super-duper droopy. I tried a slow-release water spike thingy while I was away for a little while and the damn thing drained a 600ml pop bottle in a few days, so it's pretty safe to say that she just may have been over watered! NB9's soil must have been packed more densely or something because her bottle was still like 80% full in the same time period that the other one drained completely. She's doing well, lots of new secondary growth getting started, she's on her 7th node and I just FIM'd her. The coloration that was happening on her lower leaves has totally stopped in progression but hasn't gone away, but she's doing pretty well overall. In case it was a difficency in something other than nitrogen (which she should have a lot of) I had a bit of that teracycle stuff mixed into the bottle of water that she was spiked with for the last few days. She's about 8" long (but curled in a C shape) with her highest leaf tips less than 3" above ground, as a result of the LST I've been doing (upside down V shaped coat-hanger fragments stuck into the dirt pinning her stem down halfway between nodes). NB6 on the other hand doesn't appear to have grown at all since I gave her that water-spike, which (at the speed they've been going) indicates that it must have emptied quite quickly after I put it in, maybe even the first day. I checked out some info on h2o2 flushing and the crap about it helping oxidize the soil and prevent root-rot really seemed dearly relevant to NB6's condition having just been overwatered, despite the fact that big guy suggested it BEFORE I had this problem. Thanks... you managed to deliver advice earlier than I thought possible! When I came back to find her like this the first thing that popped into my head is what I read about h2o2 before leaving. Really does blow my mind, then again the kush may have helped with that too!

Well I think NB6 may be done for, as she's showing no signs of recovery since the watering spike incident. I'll never try one of those damn things again unless it's in a 20 gallon pot. Her leaves are still hanging down but I wouldn't call them "droopy" any more, as they seem rigid/brittle... she's really a mess

NB9 is keeping a steady growth pace but a couple of her leaves have little white segments towards the tips, not too what it's a sign of. I also don't know how she's responding to the FIMming, right now her growth tip just looks like a mess and I can't tell what it's doing. Maybe I cut too high up and she's got 2 little leaves that were like 90% removed and now healing, I can't really tell but I imagine I'll be able to tomorrow or the day after.

I'll be starting some Skunkberry's from seeds soon, another DJ Blueberry variety by peak seeds (BCBD's skunk #1 x DJ short's blueberry) so if NB6 is a gonner at least I'll have some more room.

If anyone is ever concidering using a water spike that attatches to pop/water bottles, advertised as holding up to 2L bottles and releasing it over 2.5-3 weeks at a speed determined by the soil moisture for ideal moisture at all times, BE CAUTIOUS. This thing obviously reacts to other variables than the level of moisture in the soil it's embedded in because in 2 pots side by side it soaked the hell out of 1, draining the entire 600ml bottle, and barely watered the other one at all. I don't know what the difference was between 1 pot and the other, but the "ideal soil moisture" apparently means anything from damp/dry to mud because that was the range I experienced my first time using them.

Oh and some GOOD news: I believe NB9 is preflowering and showing off some girly goods! Tough to tell, I'll try to get hold of my buddies camera again and snap some pics

oGipRotRe said:

NB9 is keeping a steady growth pace but a couple of her leaves have little white segments towards the tips, not too what it's a sign of.

Click to expand...

Bright yellow or white leaf tips means you're at the maximum nute level before burn. You might want to back it down a little.