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My seeds from arrived within a week and sprouted ready for soil in three days. Into the soil they went and the learning experience began. I have never really tried to cultivate with and real effort before, but I am making a true beginner's attempt with what' would be considered "beginner" equipment, nutrients, and methods. So far it has far exceeded my expectations. *Note since I am starting this diary in week 11 of this grow, I will be posting in past tense i guess...
I am impressed with these seeds, this light, and this whole entire thing right now. I honestly have no idea at this point about nutrients, so I use nothing but distilled water ph'd to 6.5 and 68 degree f daily and using a spritz bottle on them once or twice a day sometimes.
kept up same routine as last week, they really started coming out. sorry I only got one pic this week but trust me after this I took a lot more. and things really got interesting next week when we lost power for about 24 days total....
This week the insanity began. The day after I transplanted these girls my power went out and they sat in darkness for 2 or more hours while I dug out and hooked up the generator. I also started its first nutrients with no clue what I was doing (still really don't) I made up 3 seperate gallons of distilled water with approx 2 tsp of the three respective Fox Farms nutrients I have. I only watered and fed about 3 cups per day with the feeding falling every 3rd day. I also continued to spritz the foliage twice a day. At this point what little hope I had for this grow kinda went out the door...but I carry on...
Still out of electric but my generator is holding strong. Somehow in the confusion I got them off onto a 17/7 light cycle for a few days before noticing and just decided to roll with it. It being an ice storm that took out my electric it gets pretty cold around here but I manage to keep kerosene heater going most of the time. Colder than I want them to be but I just gotta go with with I get I guess... They really seem to be doing pretty well though. I might have mentioned that I have 0 ventilation and 0 air movement inside the tent but open the doors and refresh the air twice daily, this also has helped keep the heat up as much as possible in these rough conditioins.
Still out of power but wow look what happened after adding nutrients and keeping the generatior going. I have to go to the gas station every three days to fill up 7 gas jugs and kerosene cans to keep my needs met out here. Electric did come back on for about 6 hours one day but week back out and these girls got and early bedtime one evening and a late wake up the next morning when my generator gave me problems for a while, but so far things look salvageable. I can def see a difference in the plant sizes one has struggled her whole life but I am amazed at how they have held on so strong thru a very stressful grow experience!
I am beginning to enjoy this at this moment when these girls start looking really pretty like this, I never dreamed my first grow would go this well so far. As you can tell I haven't changed anything yet and the only defoliating I've done is yellowed leaves No training method applied at all just letting them grow cause I got no clue what to do, but i watch a video later in the week and make my first attempt at cleaning out the canopy(kinda) was too scared really to do anything dramatic at all.
I have no idea if i was ready to go to flowering yet or not, kinda think i shoulda done it earlier since i didn't top or train these ladies, I didn't take into consideration my grow space limits as I was a noob, but ya know, it'll be fun to take what I've learned on this first attempt and apply it to my second grow. At this stage I am very pleased with them however do notice some lighter leaf discoloration after feeding so i know I'm not mixing it correctly at this point but I carry on.
I cut a few of the big sunleaves off to allow some sun to penetrate and took off most small foliage on the bottom of the lower stems, i realize I probably did this a little later than i should have so I was extremely minimal when it came to defoliating.). Still they look wonderful to me at this point its funny I have one skinny lady and one fat bushy one. Oh yeah, power went out on me again one last time and these girls had an extended sleep one day of about 15hrs darkness, but my inexperienced eye haven't noticed any ill effects. Power and lights have been solid from here on out though....
Got a 4" exhaust fan system from vivosun as well as a 6" circulation fan, trying to bring and keep humidity levels in low 40s. These girls look amazing to a first time grower let me tell you! Ok so I'm all caught up with this diary now. Time to see where it takes me and I plan to continue a weekly update with plenty of pictures.
Wow! I couldn't stop taking pictures of these beauties and I know they will only get more beautiful. I'm trying to figure out when I should stop my nutrients before my final push to harvest. I read I should stop all nutrients go straight water the last two weeks, I'm an impatient noobie wantin' smoke a doobie, and they look like they are getting close to me, but according to flower cycle recommendations they have at least another 28 days to hit a 49 day flower cycle. that's the shortest end of the recommended flower cycle, do ya'll think I really got another 4 weeks flower left in there or am I looking at a possible shorter flower cycle this time? I believe I veg'd a week too long but I don't know, these are looking amazing to a first timer like me with now access to high end stuff in my area so I am happy so far.
Ok, so I didn't do much defoliating or pruning ever, I'm on week 11, day 25 of a 49-63 day flower cycle. Should I do any type of defoliating now or just let it go to the end? What about just the big leaves or middle leaves? I think just let it go now, right? Thanks all
Beginning week 11 they are still doing amazing. I'm keeping a constant eye on them for any signs of trouble but so far I've been very fortunate. A couple more weeks of flower i am guessing according to the flower schedule of the strain. This will be my first ever harvest so I have read what to look for but have never personally witnessed it by eye. I think maybe one more week of nutrients then switch to only water for the final two weeks or could I push it longer and what risks do I run if I do push it longer?
*MID-WEEK UPDATE* They are looking amazing still though I am concerned about bud rot. I have a small odor of stale water but have none anywhere even sitting in the pots, the humidity stays down in the low 30's execpt one night where it hit 99 for a couple hours but since then it has stayed very low and dry. I can see no signs of rot but know it's hard to detect and with the smell I am smelling I am concerned. I have them in a tent with the door open and an exhaust fan plus two circulation fans now running on them now, so I hope I avoid any problems. I believe I am going to need to harvest in two cycles taking the main colas first and letting the lower plants finish maturing. I've never harvested before so this is all new and experimental to me so I appreciate all the tips I am able to learn and try here on growdiaries. thanks to all who post here.
Beginning of week 12 and they are still doing great. I did notice two leaves on one plant are missing some parts and I'm not sure what happened. I have found no sign of pest except the occasional "stink bug" i have to run out of the tent. I have caught my dog taking nips at the leaves when my back was turned a couple times so I'm hoping these are just two leaves he might have bit off instead of a hidden pest that's munching on my plant. A couple more weeks of flower and I'll be doing my first harvest and I am like a kid at Christmas.
I have learned so much during this first grow I'm amazed these girls look as good as they do after all the mistakes I've made. So I finally figured out that my ph meter was intended for use in soil and not the water(ordered a new one) then I figured out I could test the ph of my medium and found out it was 7.5 (coco - way too high). I have done a gradual flush for a few days now and it's down to 6.5 (still high) but with only 3 1/2 weeks left and they look fine to me, I'm just gonna finish them off as is. I know my bud size suffered and other things I'm sure, but for a first time grow I am very happy with these results so far. I already have two more grows going and am applying what I've learned here so it can only get better. I do worry about bud rot in the end of this cycle, but my humidity is really staying too low so I may not need to worry too much. I struggle to see a humidity level above 45, it's normally stays around 35 in there. Thanks all for checking out my grow and sharing yours with me.
I noticed the first few amber trichomes on my top bud yesterday with 23 days left for recommended flower time. How long does the color change take normally on the trichomes? I think I need to take the top two colas first and let the bottom catch up. My 1st harvest ever, any tips?
Wait until the pistils are 95-98% brown, this will give you buds with peak THC and terpenes.
Letting all the pistils go brown will give you flowers with reduced THC, but with elevated CBD and CBN levels, producing buds with a sleepy and heavy body stone rather than a mind warping head high.
So depending on which type of effect you prefer, let these parameters guide your harvest timing.
At this stage you still have a while to go.
I would suggest harvesting the whole plant at the same time, once you remove large portion of the plant, it freaks out and its metabolism is really stressed, meaning it takes ages for the second pick buds to finish and in my experience, they are never as good as the early harvest buds, possibly due to the freaked out metabolism caused by the giant shock of removing large portions of the plant being unable to support any further trichome development.
Personally, I believe harvesting by pistil colour is far more indicative for harvest timing, as trichome colour alone can be misleading, as some plants will never get amber trichomes, while others will have 50% amber trichomes after only 4 weeks of flowering.
Pistil colour will indicate the plants level of maturity precisely, as it is plant health which dictates trichome quality, not trichome colour.
Hope this helps,..............
Organoman.
Just over 2 weeks till my first ever harvest and I'm giddy as a school girl. Amazing to see this process thru. I'm hooked on growing now and appreciate all the gromies out there sharing their knowledge and skills with me.
I am approximately 8 days away from first harvest in my life and I am giddy-as-a-schoolgirl. These two girls took all the abuse and ignorance of the process I could throw at them and they kept standing tall. The PH has been way too high for the first 13 weeks, I didn't follow any type of regular or recommended feeding schedule, my power went out for about 25 days in Feb. so they had light cycle issues as well as cold issues, I didn't really do any type of training or defoliating either. With all that said, LOOK AT THOSE GIRLS! For my first time I'm so happy. I gotta give credit where it's due I believe and that goes to Weedseedsexpress.com for these beautiful Blue Dream Feminized seeds and to Viparspectra for their PAR600T led light and Fox Farms for their amazing Coco Loco and trio of nutes. I have learned so much by just jumping in and gettin my hands dirty and just doing it. I already have two more grows underway and have began applying what I have learned from here and other sources such as topping and LST. Thanks to all the help that everyone has offered. I will update again before and after harvest next week hopefully.
Wow, look how they are really coming alive as they near the end of their life cycle! I have literally had to argue myself down from harvesting these two girls everyday for the past 3 weeks (cause I'm a newbie and a pothead and impatient). Thankfully I listened to everyone and let these girls finish to the end. I never expected these girls to be so beautiful. I did a flush on them and plan to do one final one before putting them to bed for their final time. I have only given water for the past week. I am planning on harvesting in a few days now. This being my first time growing I realize now this set up being in the room I spend most my time in has been terrible for an impatient, broke & out-of-smoke, pot head. I am amazed at the difference's between the two plants both being the same strain but exhibiting completely different characteristics. 1 plant is tall, skinny, dark green, and piney/fuel smelling, while the 2nd plant is short, bushy, light green, sour/rotten fruit smelling. I wish i had more experience here because I think I have a unique pheno here between these two but I have no clue how to preserve a mother plant right now. Or maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm still learning, ya know. I'm growing another one of these girls now and my buddy is also growing one so I will be able to have something to compare them to., It's getting hot in the evenings upstairs now so I had to come up with a cheap way to cool my girls. So I made a hillbilly cooler to vent cold air into my tent when needed. Thanks for checking out my feeble attempt to grow something beautiful. Stay safe and happy growing.
The girls are starting their fade to the finish. Trichomes are around 40 percent amber on the very top bud but still only about 5-10 percent amber on the middle buds. I'm calling these ladies done! I feel like I veg'd them a little longer than I wanted to but they used the breeders recommended flower time of 64 days. I can't wait to sample these two to see the differences. I plan on putting them to bed for 48hrs tonight (sun 5/10) @ 7pm and cutting them down Tuesday night. Did I mention this is my very first time I've grown. I am simply amazed at the results especially after all the power issues I ran up against and not knowing anything about PH, PPM, or how to properly feed nutrients. This has been a learn-as-I-go grow and I have enjoyed it so much. I am now a cultivator for life. I have so many plans in my head right now, I'm sure any veteran grower has gone thru the same experience, lol. Anyway, thanks for checking out my grow, stay safe, and happy growing. Come back in 3 days for the harvest update.
This has been one of the most rewarding experience's of my life. My first grow was a complete success in my opinion. I had so many environmental issues to deal with I am amazed how well these girls did. Gotta give credit to weedseedsexpress.com for this resilient strain. I dealt with power issues for 25 days in Feb and it was cold too, but they pulled thru and finished with a flourish. It is amazing to me to see two different phenos in the same strain showing themselves. One plant grew tall & skinny with diesel/piney smell and the other grew short & bushy with a sour/sweet smell. I can't wait to see how they smoke! I will update the journal in a few days with a dry weight and taste. Thanks for checking out my grow and thank you to all the countless people here and other places that have helped this "newbie' grow something beautiful.
ShadokinVeil
