So a friend of mine and I were a little antsy to get growing and our seeds were going to be delayed 3-5 weeks, so we decided to grab a local clone (no seeds available in San Diego, who knew?), and give it a whirl.
We set the unit up in my garage in SoCal, which admittedly this is the absolute worst time to grow in there. Humidity will hang around 50% but temp will vary between 75-95.
We setup the unit with RO water, and hooked it up while soaking the coco pod. Once we got the clones roots exposed we cut the coco pod through it’s radius all the way through (straight down- next time I might try and spiral). Then, we slid the coco pod over the stem of the clone with just a little bit of the roots exposed below the pod. (Sorry, we don’t have pics. Again, we were antsy)
3 days later she’s looking ok, factoring in some shock. The roots poking out of the bottom are longer than when we started and the roots out of the side are all new; the spreading of the pod is also showing roots pushing through.
7 days later (Day 10) and we have some signs of struggle. We have seen some small bugs flying around, not sure exactly what they are. The new growth on top is looking good, and the roots are definitely coming through more now. We’re in a tense waiting period knowing most things are working against us.
Day 21 and we had done some pruning of the completely dead fan leaves (2-3). We’re still seeing struggle up top but growth below. Bugs are less but still present. We still don’t have seeds to replace with, and we’re barely using any electricity or water, so we keep on waiting.
[Note: We also realized we put the wrong email in, so the first water change wasn’t until 14 days (we did have 1 top off in between).]
Day 27 and she’s now showing some improvements. Very few bugs left.
Day 31 we bend
Day 36 she’s doing great, no signs of issues yet and just one or two little bugs flying around. Topped her today.
Day 41 we installed the chiller and got the water down to 64 degrees. Simultaneously did some light pruning of some large fan leaves from the top covering the right side. Cleared some low dead leaves as well.
