What's up my fellow Cannabis Lovers and Enthusiasts!? It's time to welcome you all back to another edition of:
"After Hours" with The Anarchists!
Macronut Tester Bean Update!
Picking up from my last post, I had just put our germinating Brothers-In-Farms Genetics Tester Beans, created by @bifbeans breeder Macronut, into a moist paper towel, sealed it inside a ziplock, and then placed inside an Xbox game case! As I mentioned, I was worried about not getting the new tent in time to set up and start the plants in their permanent environment!
But, instead of waiting on the tent, I decided to go ahead and get everything prepped and ready for planting, because I knew I was going to have to get these babies in the dirt before too long!
Now, since these are auto-flowering beans, I have have learned (thanks to Macronut) that these babies will need to go right into their forever planter as soon as they are planted! If you start them in a smaller pot and transplant, you run a much higher risk of stunting the plant, or killing it off completely!
So, keeping that in mind, I decided I'll be using the same 5-Gallon bucket setup that I used for my outdoor grow! I've made sure to mix the dirt around in the buckets, so hopefully I don't have any issues from reusing the soil! The 4 buckets I chose to use haven't been used since the early stages of my outdoor grow, and have been kept separate in our shed to help keep any critters out!
I brought them inside on November 15th, to start warming up the dirt to room temperature, so that way it wouldn't be too cold for the freshly germinated beans!
Taking another tip from various BIF Discord Members, I decided to go with a plastic "dome" to cover the seeds until the pop and start to grow! This will help with humidity levels, which should help the seedling to thrive, but I guess we will see how it goes!
Since everything I do is extremely budgeted, I just used some water bottles and cut them in half to act as my dome! I've seen others use clear solo cups, so I figured this work just fine for what I needed! I know that the light is a little small, but for temporary purposes, I think it will work just fine for what I need!
After spending the last 4 days germinating, I feared the worst would happen to these beauties, so I decided to go ahead and plant them on November 17th! The tails on these girls were huge, and unlike any tail I have ever seen! They had even started to grow little nubs, ready to extend their root system!
I was also really surprised to find that the taproot tails of the [Durban Express x Toasted Tangerine] had started to grow inside of the folded paper towel through the pores! It was crazy to see, and I wish I would have taken a picture before I (very carefully) removed them!
The [Toasted Tangerine F2] beans had massive taproots formed as well, and you can see the swollen portion of the root, which had actually begun forming new, fibrous root structures!
The [Durban Express x Toasted Tangerine] Tester Beans!
The [Toasted Tangerine F2] Tester Beans!
The pictures don't show it very well, but I planted these girlies around a half inch into the soil, and covered it with about one quarter of an inch or so! I wanted the new seedlings to have a little resistance when trying to pop, but I didn't want them to be buried and struggle trying to reach the light they will so desperately need!
As to lighting and temperature, I was also told to follow a VDP chart if at all possible. This means that I have to make sure the humidity is in a constant range compared to the temperature, in order for these plants to flourish! I do feel like this will be a lot easier once I have the tent setup, which I ended up getting just a few hours after planting! I'm really excited about this new setup, which I luckily got for free, so I will definitely have an upcoming post about that as well!
As of right now, I do have a temporary heater set up to help with soil temperatures and VDP levels, which to my surprise, has helped out a lot! Just look at the progress these babies have made in little less than 24 hours after planting!!
I can't wait to see the continued progress on these beauties, and if they continue to grow like this, I hope that these babies will get massive!! 💚
I do believe it's safe to say that these beans are officially seedlings as of November 19th! Take a look at how they look only 36 hours after planting!
The [Durban Express x Toasted Tangerine] seedlings are about 2 inches tall already, stretching up to that germination light!
The [Toasted Tangerine] seedlings are only about 1 inch tall or so, but they are also looking like they are doing well in the temporary closet setup!
Being new to Auto-Flowering plants, I had a lot of questions, and Macronut was very helpful in answering a lot of those questions himself! Among some of the topics we discussed, he informed me that I can start using nutrients right away with these plants, so that is something I'll definitely be attempting that during this grow!
As of right now, I only have one style of liquid nutrients and a dry fertilizer, so I hope that mixing in some used coffee grounds will boost the potassium levels enough for the time being until I can purchase different liquid nutrients to increase the Potash and Potassium levels to prevent deficiencies! On that note, I'll go into more detail about the specific nutrients that I'll be using in an upcoming post!
Personally, I'm looking at the Greenleaf Nutrients line, which is actually backed, and promoted by, BIF Beans! I'm not completely sure if you can purchase the line of nutrients with crypto, but it's definitely something I'm going to ask about! 💚
During my morning checkup of the plants on Sunday, November the 20th, I decided to go ahead and start to nute these babies with the Fox Farms "Grow Big" Liquid Nutrients! Following the directions on the back, I mixed 2.5 mL into 1 Gallon of water; from there, I filled an empty water bottle and divided it as evenly as I could to our new seedlings!
I ended up leaving the domes off the rest of the day, and then checking on them later in the afternoon, I didn't notice any visible signs of distress, so I went ahead and repeated the same process again! I've been limiting the amount of water I've given them as much as possible, to help the roots stretch and seek out the water, but I don't want the soil to be too dry either!
Checking on them again later in the evening, I decided to cover up some of the base stems of the [Durban Express x Toasted Tangerine] testers to prevent too long of legs in the early stages, and help promote new root growth! I did prove this to work during Our Very First Grow, although, the only reason I was able to verify this was because I had to uproot a male plant! It was a truly amazing sight to see!
As of this point, I have been running a 24/0 light schedule, namely due to the fact that Macronut himself runs the same light schedule to help with heating, which the seedlings do seem to truly love! The only problem, is I'm going to have to transplant my ISC testers here soon as well, so I really need to get to work on that tent! I did get most of it set up, but getting everything else rearranged and reorganized has been a challenge! After I move them into the tent, I will be changing the lighting schedule to 18/6 until the ISC testers are ready to flower! (More details on why coming soon!)
And just to keep it up to date before publishing, I haven't noticed any I'll effects from the Fox Farm "Grow Big" Nutrients I have them on Sunday, I decided to go ahead and mix up a batch of Schultz Slow Release Tomato Fertilizer that I crushed into a powder! However, I'll wait to share some more info on that in an upcoming post! :)
But, moving forward I'll be dividing this into two separate posts, one for each strain, as I don't feel like any of these testers needs to be fighting for glory in a post! Also, that will help keep everything more accurate and strain specific moving forward, being able to see what works for each strain individually!
I hope you all have a great week, and don't forget to tune-in next week for another "After Hours" Update! Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! ✌️💚
All Brothers-In-Farms Genetics (BIF/BIFBeans.com) Logos/Breeder Information used with permission by the awesome BIFBeans.com Team!
Banners and Blog Dividers custom created using Canva, using BIFBeans.com Logos by permission.
Signature provided by @doze, stop by his blog to see his newest Hive inspired creations!
"Saturday Savers Club" banner provided by the @eddie-earner and @susie-saver's Saturday Savers Club blog!
All photos used were taken on my trusty old Motorola Moto G Stylus!