By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Day 1 - Starting germination this morning using the Crop King method. It's similar to others but I'm using this one as my guideline.
Day 2 - Seeds have been floating in the shot glass of spring water for 16 hours at an average temp of around 77F / 47%H. Just moved them to the paper towel phase. Now they are on top of the tent where its warmer and the ceiling fan can stir up the air a bit. 77d/55h now.
Day 3 - It's now been 48 hours in the paper towels so i checked and sure enough 6 of the 7 have germinated. One still looks the same. I'd say temp was on avg 77 and hum 50%. They need to go 1 or 2 more days I think...
Day 4 - transplanted the 6 germinated seeds from the paper towels to Rapid Rooter plugs, then into 2 domes. First i put some soaked and rinsed clay balls in the bottom of the dome. Added a shot glass or 2 more of spring water to each. Seeds get placed in the plugs, I give more spring water to each seedling using an eye dropper, covered the domes, and now they're in the tent on top of a medium size cardboard box (to get them off the floor). Tent @ 76.5 / 44. I will try to raise the hum to 50. Lights are as high up vertically as they will go and are set to the lowest intensity - they are on a 20 on/4off schedule - off between 10am and 2pm. The remaining not-yet-germinated seed goes back in the dark in it's wet paper towel. She's only been in there for 67 hours after all. No time for panic!
Day 5 - Still have one seed that doesn't seem to want to live. We'll give her another day or 2.
Day 6 - She sinks in the shot glass so i put her back in the paper towels. 5 of 6 planted seedlings have sprouted in their little dome houses.
Day 7 - 6 of 6 have sprouted while we lost 1 seed. I knew it when it sank in the shot glass of water. Increased light intensity to 25%. Lights are 48 inches above the seedlings. I will lower that to 36 inches in a couple days.
Things to improve on next time - germinate in a darker place - plant seedlings a little deeper in the plug - lower lights earlier and to proper intensity per manufacturer recommendations (50% - and 18" above plants)
Day 8 - things progressing as per the plan! But what do I know... this is my first grow lol
Day 9 - seed coat still attached to one seedling. I'll put on the magnification glasses and see if I can resolve this. One dome off and one still on at this point. Seed coat coming off by itself. YAY. Changed light schedule from 20/4 to 18/6. Lights 30" above the babies.
Day 10 - finally found the info i was searching for relating to my little germinated seeds. I know now that the lights I bought should be 18" above the tallest plant, set them for 25% intensity, and put them on a 18/6 schedule! So that's what I did...
Day 12 - moved 2 of 6 babies into their 5 gal pots because of root growth in the dome. Will prob transplant 2 more tomorrow - I will check for roots coming out of the Rapid Rooter plugs. The remaining 2 are still kinda tiny and may be the runts of the litter. They look good tho...
Rookie mistake - i brought in the soil from the garage which is colder. I did not let it come up to room temp. Installed the plugs with the substrate temp being 62. The warming mats are now on and bringing the temp up to 70. Going on the list of things to do better next time...
Rookie mistake - another note to remind me that it might be better to plant the germinated seeds into the plugs while they are already in the soil? We will see how it goes and decide later. So i need to germinate in the rapid rooter plugs and NOT germinate them in paper towels and then move the seedlings, already germinated, into the plugs.
Day 14 - have 2 tall, 2 medium, and 2 short little seedlings now growing in their 5 gallon pots. I think the difference was because of my germinating in paper towels and then over watering the plugs. My first grow so I'm not beating myself up at all. They all look fairly good. My understanding is that auto-flowers start their rapid growth around 20 days...
Day 15 - not thrilled with the progress. Gotta figure out why my warming mats are acting weird. One turns on and the temp actually goes down... The tent sits on a slab which is cooler than ambient air. First deep watering approx 32oz per 5 gal pot. Raising lights to 24 inches and increasing intensity to 50%.
Note to self: Before the next grow get the tent off the ground a couple inches to allow for air flow. The mats are working perfectly now - (I had the 2 sensors switched lol)
Day 17 - deep watering - 32oz/plant. upped humidity to 60%. That's all I can do with what I currently have. Also increased tent temps to 80 during the day. IMHO they're now looking pretty good for being a little behind in their schedule. Looking better each day so I'm excited!
Day 18 - (New Years Day) - A wiser soul than me advised that I would be watering a LOT now and this was correct. They seem to be very thirsty! So far I've resisted the urge to over water so that's good. But watering a little deeper each time and that's also good. I've reconfigured the tent a bit, cleaned up some wiring, and it's certainly way more efficient now I think. Things are still going according to the loosely laid plan so I can't complain. Happy New Year everyone! Almost forgot to say that I installed the new Grower House Pot Elevators and they are made well that's for sure. I will be ordering a few more in the coming days!
NOTE - I'm investing a little cash into 1) my germination area 2) better heat and humidity controls for inside the tent - the controls will connect to a reptile humidifier and a tiny heater. Yes I watch a lot of YouTube... We'll see what happens.
NOTE - Am watering all 6 plants with 1.5 gallons distilled each time - (now) Ph adjusted above 6. Light green on my regent is a sweet spot I think. Between 6 and 6.5 I figure.
DUH - remembered I had a brand new TS1000 in the closet. Now I have 3! Perfect! This year is ending nicely!
Day 21 - increased light intensity from 50 to 75%. Changed light schedule from 18/6 to 20/4. All are looking healthy.
My 5 gal cloth pots are layered with approx 1/3 Cali Super Soil (bottom) and 2/3 Fox Farm Ocean Forest (top). I assume when the roots reach the super soil all nutes will be supplied. But what happens until then? Should i provide nutes until they reach the SS and if so what kind?
Do nothing for now. You can usually go 3-4 weeks with Ocean Forest and no additional nutrients. Your super soil layer on the bottom could buy you more time for needing more nutes. Just keep an eye on your plants and listen to what they are telling you. This site (https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-symptoms-pictures) has pictures that show many of the most common problems you might have.
I am not a fan of layering soils. I want all the soil working. But super soil can be really good stuff!
Make sure you water slowly and deeply, especially when the plants get larger. Early on you want to water beyond where you think the roots are. Roots will not grow into dry soil so you want nice moist soil for them to seek out. Then when the plants get bigger feel the bottom of the pot to make sure you are getting water all the way to the bottom. You can feel and see the sides of the pot to feel how you are watering the sides. Just make sure to water slowly. Water takes the path of least resistance so if water erupts out the side of the pot, water more slowly so it's soaking the soil and not blowing out the side.
Fabric pots evaporate a lot of water so don't be surprised if you need to water heavily every day.
With 19 liter (5 gal) pots I'm watering every day and each pot takes 1.5 - 2 liter of water when in late veg & early flower.
Day 22 - Watered deeply. 1.5 gals overall. Light = 18", 20/4, @75% intensity - I water with ph adjusted (lower 6s) distilled. Pics of the tallest and best looking one above.
Day 24 - they are growing incredibly fast. Light intensity and distance are kept at manufacturers recommendations. Right now 18 inches and 75% intensity. Added a 2L reptile style humidifier. It's inside the tent for now and hooked up to a sensor that will hopefully keep the humidity at or around 60%. I also have a small 200w heater ready to go but I don't think I'll need that very often...
Day 25 - everyone's looking good. The runt is coming along and the new humidifier is working great! All I have going in the grow room is some humidification otherwise the tent is self sufficient. Loving life... Watered late...
Day 27 - these are growing fast now. The tallest has some small hairs. Looking very healthy. Watered deeply.
Day 28 - Last day of this week. These babies have grown a lot this week. Posted a couple pics from today.
Day 29 (1/11/21) - These ladies are growing fast. Reduced humidity from 60 to 50 inside the tent.
Day 30 - trimmed a bit (first time). Performed first LST by bending leaves back and out of the way of new growth.
Day 31 - watered
Day 33 - last trimming performed as 4 of 6 are in the pre-flower stage. Will start the transition to flower on day 37.
Day 34 - watered deeply and slowly. felt the bottom of the cloth pot and verified I got some down to the bottom...
Day 35 - did a final LST and set lights to manufacturers flowering recommendations - 18" / 100%. And yes they look pretty gnarly now but I heard they will recover quick. This being my first real LST I can totally see how you can get better yields by doing this.
For example I look up Afghan Kush Ryder. The overview says "flowering takes 45-55 days" and then in the description part it says "Flowering - 70 days". I assume it means once you reach the flowering stage it will flower for 45-55 days and harvest in 70. Am I close? Thx!
Day 36 1/18/22 - Doubled in height last week! raised lights 7 inches above manufacturer recommendation. Gonna try to stretch the ladies a bit this week. I feel I have the watering part down as I water slowly and (now) I feel the bottom of the cloth pots to make sure I got it down all the way.
Day 37 - a little more LST as I was late to the party of understanding just how important LST, and other techniques, are to increasing your yield. Once you do LST the first time it becomes completely obvious that this is necessary. Plants now need water at different times so I will no longer be documenting when I water. Also I think I correctly diagnosed a wind burn issue and therefore have raised the offending fan a bit.
Day 39 - Noticing a little yellowing on some of the leaf tips and found a little more of what I'm calling wind burn on another plant. I moved one of the fans, set the lights back to 75% intensity, and lowered them back to about 20 inches above tops (Mars says 18 inches). I think the ladies will like this better than 3 Mars TS1000's at full intensity inside a 4x4x66 tent (450W total).
Note - I'm struggling a bit with temps in this small room. Hard to keep the tent under 80. Then at night the substrate gets down to 66 along with the room temps. So, during the day, when it gets too warm inside the tent, I open the doors and things are OK again. This is not a long term solution cause I can't be opening and closing it every day. Plus it's winter and the outside temps go into the 20's (F) at night. Run the AC in winter? No way. I can't imagine what I'll have to do when outside temps go into the upper 90's every day. So what is the long term solution you say? I've just about made up my mind to do away with the tents and dedicate the entire room for growing. I see myself growing 12 of the same or similar ladies per grow - one grow at a time and I can only fit these if the tents go. I'm currently figuring out what is involved besides grabbing an AC unit and venting it and the room up into the attic. That is what I'm thinking at the moment.
Day 41 - upped my game cause I knew that I could not be accurate using my current ph testing solution. Could only get kinda close maybe sorta. So I picked up a BlueLab PH pen (recommended by the "420 Scene"). Long story short it looks like I've been feeding the ladies something near 7.0. Now I am able to get 6.3 or 6.4 consistently. Maybe I want to be at 6.5. Not sure so I'm going for 6.3 +/- 1 for now. Hoping they like it better!
Day 42 - life is good. This was a fun week!
Day 43 - 1/25/22 - only grew 1/2 inch last week (not entirely true as overall the canopy grew more than the tallest one). I'm changing up watering a bit and giving them a smaller drink in-between deep watering. Gives the lower part of the substrate a little more time to dry out a bit and they seem to like it. Also gonna get some Black-strap molasses today and incorporate it into watering. Have to do more research on when and how to use it first but I can see how it would be beneficial. Also - will be removing the tents and building out the grow room and plan to be done by this time next week. Dedicating the smallest bedroom in the house for growing meds. This way I can grow 12 at a time, can grow tall varieties up to 7 feet, and it should be easier to control . The room is 10x10 with a ceiling that goes from 8 to 10 foot. Thinking that 6 Mars TS1000's will work very nicely to cover the grow area. I already have 3 of them so it's only another $400. I freakin love those lights! The only other thing I will need is an AC unit and I have my eye on one right now... Would have needed the AC unit eventually regardless.
Note to self - when transplanting into their final pot raise the substrate level to just below the top. I was surprised how mush it will compact thru the grow. Currently it sits about 3" below the top. More soil means more nutrients... Rookie mistake!
Day 44 - figured out that I have a phosphorus deficiency. I hope that's right. Let's see how good I am at diagnosing a plant problem! Picked up some Tiger Bloom after researching. Watered with it today. We will see what happens!
Day 46 - Visited my somewhat local Hydro store yesterday and picked up some Cal-Mag (CM). Watered 2 (dry) ladies this morning but the others won't be ready for water till tomorrow. Noticed the one most in trouble doesn't seem to be taking up water quite as fast as the others. I will let that one dry out for as long as it takes before giving it a drink of CM.
Note to self - FF Ocean Forest will run out of nutes after approx 30 days so I need to start providing them at that time. That's a huge thing to know! This whole process is just too much fun!
Day 48 - All now have had their first round of CalMag and Tiger Bloom as well as some Sweet and Sticky from Humboldts. Did a trim to expose lower buds from upper leaves. I don't think I over did it. Needs another trim in a few days. Provided a recent pics of the crew...
I diagnosed these pics and added some Tiger Bloom (2-8-4). Now I'm thinking I need some CalMag. Do you have any recommendations? Adding the Tiger Bloom was the first nute I have ever added. See substrate used. 4 of 6 plants have variations of this and it's slowly getting worse.
I think it was smart to add in some Tiger Bloom in case it was lacking a bit of P.
CalMg is also a good option. The spots look like calcium issues but also potassium.
however potassium will be covered in tiger bloom as well.
Give it some calmg and check how its doing in the following week.
I'd also raise your ph to 6.5 in soil grows
Best Of Luck
Day 50 - 2/1/22 - All have now received 2 rounds of Tiger Bloom +Sweet and Sticky and 2 rounds of Cal-Mag and Sweet + Sticky - and they freaking LOVE IT! Maybe it's genetics but the buds on the 2 more mature ones are fattening up nicely. A noticeable change from yesterday. I am on the right track... I gotta start thinking about the Harvest, Drying, and Curing stages! Day 70 is the general harvest day...
Day 53 - 16 days till harvest (maybe) says the genetic description. So I did my first flush with filtered and Ph'd water. Almost a gallon per plant. Wondering if there will be a final push to fatten up the buds. Either way this has already been a successful grow!
Note to self - be aware of the changing light to plant distance. I had the bigger one a little too close and she told me via yellowing leaves. Caught it in time but still a rookie mistake!
Day 56 - gave them some FF Big Bloom. Not sure exactly why... I'm pretty sure I was thinking, finally, about micro-nutrients. Overall I started applying nutes a little too late - another rookie mistake. But this is how we learn. We go thru the process! Gonna add a couple new pics from this Windows Surface Pro 7 camera. Never used it before now. Let's see if it's better in the bright lights...
Howdy peeps. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on Burp Lids. I'm nearing my first harvest and think that maybe these are worth getting. Does anyone here use these? Thanks in advance!
Or you can just untwist the jar lid. ;) Can't see this is worth the extra expense especially if it's just your first harvest and you don't have dozens of jars to work with.
Day 57 - 2/9/22 - The house has an awesome sweet smell. I could actually detect the grow as I walked up to the house from across the street. No worries. Everything is looking good as far as I can tell. A couple of them look like they've been dusted with baby powder. 13 days till harvest per the seed bank.
Day 59 - Just wanted to make sure I made a note regarding the largest plant having way too many 3 fingered leafs. This is the one that got too close to the lights for too long and started to yellow. Well it looks like light stress causes this (3 finger leafs). I just realized this a few days ago after doing research on something else. Dang it she was trying to talk to me for a couple/three weeks but I did not understand what she was trying to tell me. Now I do. I picked a small and relatively easy strain as my first grow precisely for this reason. To learn from. Second grow should be much better from all the things I've learned. Also checked trichomes on each plant and they are all still clear. Not ready for harvest.
Day 64 - 2/15/22 - 7 days till harvest according the the seed bank. All tricomes are clear as of yesterday. Keeping a real close eye on them at this point (DUH). Defoliated all 6 yesterday. What I did was to cut off anything not related to an actual bud - In other words I trimmed everything except sugar leaves. Picked out that idea from an article by a grower. Made sense to me... There is a really sweet smell that's really strong near the tent. AND NOW I CAN ACTUALLY SEE WHAT APPEARS TO BE SOME PURPLE! Who knew? Having more fun than I expected.
Day 66 - Spa day. All 6 got a 6.5ph back-strap molasses flush while in the shower today. That was a really good idea actually. That'll be the last flush until harvest I think.
Day 67 - My other grow moved into the tent - 3 White Widows (gonna be monsters).
Day 69 - tomorrow harvest day? I'll take another peak at the tri's in a few mins...
Day 70 - alleged day of harvest. Well not so fast! Tri's on all 6 are still clear although one might be turning a bit cloudy. Fed them a light watering of 1/2 Tbsp Epsom salt and 1 tsp Tiger Bloom - 1 gal @6.3 for all 6. BTW I'm going with 6.3Ph from now on with all grows. Tiger Bloom because I wanted to give them a tiny bit of nutes for this last push. I'm supposed to receive my new Blue Labs TDS/EC pen today but I can say the soil is (most likely) not saturated with anything at all. Well maybe with molasses lol... I will play with the pen and get some useful info today. Here's the latest pics of everyone getting along beautifully in the tent. Gonna move the tent this weekend and get started on the room.
2/22 - Moving forward I'm gonna dispense with the day numbers and just use the date. Provided a tiny bit of Epsom Salt and Tiger Bloom in a light watering. All plants have a few newer sugar leaves that are nice and green! I took a close look at some numbers and now believe the breeders harvest date would land on March 8. Good thing as Grow #2 is gonna be taking over by then. We will see.
3/2 - Sorry for the delay had a couple life events happening and it was hard keeping up with the diary every day. Everyone looking as good. On autopilot pretty much. Seems like half maybe getting close to harvest. Feeding them just good water for the rest of the grow.
3/7 - The grow room is finished and all 9 ladies have moved in. Major upgrade to lighting as well - picked up 2 Mars FC-6500's for the new room. The new setup will allow me to grow larger varieties and will be easier for every aspect of growing. BTW I did have a 4x4 tent in there which was silly. Life is getting back to normal now. Retirement is good!
3/9 - Just a quick note to reveal my first harvest. It was time. All 6 were wet trimmed while still in their pot, then chopped and placed into the drying room. Didn't think to weigh them wet... I had a total blast growing these ladies. Learned tons from the experience as well. These are small but seem to yield well. You could grow these just about anywhere I think.
3/15 - After 5 full days drying is over and now they are in quart jars. These buds are amazing diamond encrusted little nuggets of joy that's for sure. Trimmed off all sticks so what's in the jars should be completely burnable. God this was fun!!! BTW I will be writing a synopsis of my "First Official Grow" soon.
DaBeers
