Hey everyone, back with another update from my grow tent, though things aren't going as well as I hoped this month since some pests have invaded :/
LSD-25 #1
I forgot the exact date I planted my LSDs but they’re about 2 months old now.
The first one is turning out pretty good, the buds are becoming large and turning a nice purple color. It has a strong flowery smell very similar to the Blackberry I grew before it, and It didn't have any problems like burns or deficiencies.
Now it's getting attacked by Thrips though and the leaves are getting damaged. I'm sure it's causing it to slow down since they're basically draining the plant slowly and I've already removed quite a few leaves that were totally dried/eaten up.
LSD-25 #2
I planted the second LSD in a smaller pot cause I didn't have a larger one on hand, and it was doing great up until I started seeing orange/rusty patches. I'm pretty sure it's not a fungus because there are no spores that I can see or feel and it would have probably spread to the other plants by now.
I gave it some cal/mag and it seems to have stopped getting worse so that was probably the issue. The leaves near the top bud are the worst infected and I'm worried about mold if they start dying off so not sure if I should pull them out. I'm sure it stalled a bit due to the deficiency, it hasn't turned as purple or smell as strongly as the other LSD.
Northern Lights Auto
Emerged about 5 weeks ago and growing pretty bushy though the top leaves were getting a bit droopy, I think it's because they're so thin and it was close to the light so I moved it a bit further away for now and it's already looking better.
I actually snapped her main stem halfway through by mistake while attempting to train her a few weeks ago :) and considered starting it over since I have limited space, it was a free seed and didn’t want half a plant, but I decided to let it live and it healed just fine after a few days, it actually exploded in growth after that especially in the side branches so guessing maybe it had a similar effect to topping but to a lesser extent.
I guess I should be trimming off some of the lower leaves/bud sites too. I see that a lot of people do it and read that it could make the plant focus its energy on the remaining bud sites so they're bigger and more compact, but I'm freezing the “unsmokable” stuff for hash/oil anyway so there's no waste and didn’t want to stress them out if I don’t have to. Though I might start doing it to reduce humidity levels since my tent is getting packed.
Blackberry Auto
Man these Blackberries are sensitive, although I think its growing well in terms of size, it's showing the same leaf burns as my previous blackberries.. I was really careful with the nutrients this time and I changed the soil to an organic "light mix" to prevent this problem but it didn’t seem to help.
Kinda disappointed since my previous 2 burned and I wanted to get it better this time D:
I've planted my last 2 Blackberry seeds in bigger pots, and I think I’ll just not feed them any nutrients until they start flowering this time around and see how it goes.
Thrips
As mentioned above now I have an infestation of Thrips (at least that's what I think they are from some google searching) which I'm 99% sure arrived with the new Biobizz soil I got. They've spread to every plant and are slowly sucking the sap out of the leaves so I need to get rid of them. I also don’t want them moving into the rest of the apartment which seems inevitable if they just keep multiplying. I've read that they’re a common problem and people use Neem oil and insecticidal soaps to get rid of them but you can't apply them after the plants have started flowering, also heard that Neem oil might be harmful to humans so would rather not use it at all if I don't have to.
Even if I harvest early and start over, what prevents them from coming back from new soil? Should I treat it with insecticide before using it? I guess that defeats the purpose of using organic soil/nutrients if you're killing the stuff inside it. Does anyone have any experience with Thrips or similar pests and how to deal with them? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading!