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In the run-up to my first grow I have been reading through countless grow diaries, forum posts & opinion pieces looking for that one definitive, never fails method of growing a nice plant. To say I felt a bit overwhelmed is an understatement, with that in mind I have decided to make this diary to record any successes or failures I have by giving my plant little more than it's three basic needs soil, water & light, while using the little common sense I have when it comes to growing to give it a helping hand along the way.
For germination I decided to use the glass of water method as that was one thing most people tend to agree on. Rather than leaving it in the water until it sprouted it's tap root I originally wanted to move it to a damp paper towel before planting, I instead opted to move it directly to it's pot. The reason behind this was the temperature swings I tend to have at home this time of the year, it can swing from a comfortable 22 degrees while I'm at home to a colder than I would like 10 degrees shortly after I go to work.
So 16-18 hours after dropping the seed in the glass of water it sunk to the bottom and I moved it to it's pot in my grow tent where it's between 20-22 degrees all the time, the soil seems to be really nice and airy with decent run off (I checked run off prior to planting the seed to make sure everything seemed ok). The soil is moist with a Ph of 6.0-6.5 (I get slightly different readings depending which part of the soil I check)
So now I guess it's just a waiting game until the seedling breaks cover :)
03/01/22:
Seedling just poked it's head out of the soil this evening! So that's 4 days from soaking the seed in water to seedling stage which I'm pretty happy with, not sure if it's considered fast or not?
04/01:
Seems to be going really well so far! PH is a tad higher than i would like, and I'm a little unsure about how far my grow light should be. I'm using a spectromaster 300w full spectrum CFL https://spectromaster.com/product-eng-1016-Spectromaster-CFL-300W-8U-2100-6400-K-DUAL.html if anybody has any experience with it I would love some feedback!
05/01:
It would seem I was right to worry about the strength of my grow light, she's doubled in height in less than 24 hours! Having said this the stalk seems strong and isn't bending (I know it looks like she's leaning to one side in the pic, I'm just terrible at photography) I read somewhere that young plants can be kept on a 22-24 hour light schedule at first to stop stretching, could 18 hours be a bit short?
Luckily I didn't fill the pot all the way to the top and so I'll add more soil to support her. Will probably also lower my light a bit more and look at a replacement because if it's having this much trouble giving a seedling enough light I don't have much hope for veg/flowering!
06/01:
She's looking much better this morning! I topped up the soil to support the long stem last night which i think was the right call as she did stretch a bit more but there's definately more growth on the leaves so very happy with that! I also pointed my monkey fan slightly more towards her just to help streghten the stem a bit more.
My original top layer of soil looked wet because I had been misting it before the seedling broke cover to keep moisture & humidity up, it was barely damp to the touch but kept a bit of a shine for some reason. Ever since the seedling sprouted I have been giving it a shot glass of RO water directly around the stem.
I wish I could choose everybody who answered my grow question as the correct answer, loads of usefull info! Cheers everybody 😁
09/01:
True leaves are starting to come on nicely, she's stopped stretching which is great. Pretty sure my grow light was to far at the begining.
I will also be starting a second diary, decided to have a back up plant in case i make a complete shambles of this one. Learning as I grow you could say :)
It can surely be genetic but I’d consider your lighting as well.
This is kinda normal in my experience, to shoot up
Quick like that in a short period, however - if it continues over the next day or two.. that’s an issue.
My guess is it won’t stretch more like that.. but start seeing growth in the leaves.
As long as it can support itself I don’t worry too much about that stretching in the beginning.
12/01:
Second set of true leaves is starting to come out, really unsure if my expectations were a bit ambitious but i think she's growing a bit slowly. There isn't that many grow diaries on this strain so haven't really been able to make much of a comparison.
Hopefully i'll see a bit more growth this week :)
16/01
Not really a lot to add... she's still growing :) I know the soil always looks super damp in my pics but that's just because I tend to take the pictures straight after watering, I usually give them around 80-100 ml per 24-36 hours.
So I've been using only RO water since she sprouted, have I effectively washed away all the nutrients in the soil? Should I start feeding her just a little bit of nutes to compensate?
Yes it will, But the amount will be so minor it would not make a difference. You are in soil so you don't want to have much runoff anyways. Your depending on the microbe life inside the soil to break it down into nutrients for your plant. So if you water with a lot of runoff you can wash away this life and cause issues.
As for feeding it would depend on how rich your soil is. Are you organic and by feeding your top dressing organic compounds. Or are you going to start using salt based nutrients?
17/01
So I have had serious doubts about my 300W CFL grow light since day 1 so I decided to instead opt for a Mars Hydro TS1000. Looking forward to seeing if there's any difference!
With regards to my previous grow question, my tap water, while drinkable tastes terrible and has a higher than normal amount of chlorine which i heard is terrible for plants. Hence the RO water. Got hit by a really cold spell last week and I struggled to keep the tent above 16 degrees C but it's starting to get back to normal now so hopefully will see some good growth :)
20/01
So I may have set her back by a couple of day's with the new light, apart from the apparent change in wavelength from CFL to led that can cause some stress I also gave her 100% on the dimmer. Just a quick note to any newbies out there, the Mars Hydro TS1000 gives you a recommended distance from the canopy for each stage of growth but not recommended power, if your girl is at my stage of growth use 25-30%.
On the bright side she has adapted nicely and no lasting damage seems to have been done. Seeing signs of growth all over and she's back to praying :)
23/01
She recovered from the change of light nicely! She's growing like a superstar now and just got her first feed today. Gonna take it easy on the nutrients, really don't wanna stress her out anymore. I have been turning up the light strength daily and she's currently happy at 50%.
Can changing light source cause stress to your plant? Yesterday I changed from a CFL to a 150w Mars Hydro LED and this morning she looked a bit "sad". I took the photo straight after watering hence the damp soil.
25/01
The last couple of day's have seen a lot of new branches starting to form while the main stem has tripled in thickness.
Pretty sure this growing out rather than up is my girl's way of prepping for flowering, I fully expect to see signs of pre flowers at some point this week.
Probably a bit late but started adding some power roots to her feed, hopefully I'm not too late.
27/01
Growth is still going strong, it's still colder than I would like but it doesn't seem to be bothering her much. Thinking of adding a bit of co2 to my tent, a freind mentioned you can just buy some sort of baggies. If anybody has any experience with them would love some opinions.
30/01
Some great growth past few day's, she's looking much bushier and the secondary branches are starting to come on real nice! Tried to bend her over but think i've left it to late because she wouldn't budge without putting more stress than I was comfortable with.
Both plants have started drooping 30 minutes before I switch off the lights and perk up again about an hour after I switch them on, haven't been able to find a definitive reason for this but it seems common enough and she's looking real good. Still gave me a fright first time I saw it though 🤣
Pretty sure she's just about to enter flowering pics in grow question.
01/02
Last day of this grow week and first sight of pistils 😁 seeing a speed up of growth also, the side branches in particular are starting to shoot up nicely.
Should I start straight away with flowering nutes, carry on with veg nutes or I was thinking about skipping a feed just to clean up the soil a bit. Thoughts?
06/02
Bit late at posting this week, seeing some really nice growth and pistils are still showing up. Started bending some fan leaves out of the way to make space for the new shoots coming out.
Saw the tiniest bit of Nute burn on the lower leaves, it was barely noticeable but I have only given her plain water the past 2 days. Back on the nutes today and I have started mixing veg and bloom nutes, will see how that goes!
One of the main things I wish I could do better is monitor conditions in the tent, gonna be starting a diary as I try to add some monitoring & automation to the tent 😁
08/02
She's definitely stretching now! Most of the side branches have reached the canopy now and are starting to straighten out. Pistils seem to be coming on nicely also.
The info on this strain said 10 weeks from seed to harvest, reckon I'll probably be overshooting that but don't care so long as it's a good harvest.
11/2
Safe to say flowering has officially begun now 😁 she's stretching and bud's are starting to form nicely.
Put in a scrog net to try and train them a bit as they stretch, will see how that goes.
13/2:
Not a whole lot to say, she's still doing nicely😁 gotta watch out for watering though she got super thirsty all of a sudden.
17/02
Still stretching, think I took her off the grow nutrients too soon. She's been looking a bit tired the past 2 days and the new growth wasn't very vibrant looking, I added a touch of terra grow with her last feed and she's looking much better.
22/02
Stretch has ended but she's still growing slightly upwards. Buds have started to fatten up ever so slightly the past 2 days. Starting to really look forward to harvest 😁
Loads of contradictory stuff out there about pistils turning dark during flowering. Some say it's normal early on because you get multiple rounds of growth others say it can mean it's been pollinated. Do mine look ok?
Checked few diaries myself. Just looks like the way she grows and maybe it's just starting a lil earlier. Autos have a mind of their own you'll never get the same strain to grow more or less the same with autos 90% of the time. She looks healthy and happy bro.
25/02
Bud's are starting to fatten up nicely, I got new pistil growth also which put my mind at rest that they were turning brown too early. Convinced that my choice of pot size has impacted her final size pretty hard, I had chosen a 6L pot at the beginning believing it would be big enough for an auto flower as I had read that they stay small. Her younger sister however has now overtaken her in size by quite a bit. glad to see the buds are getting shiny now :) you can only notice it if you take pictures with the flash on but still!
05/03
So life has been getting in the way of keeping this diary up to date as much as I would like but I'm glad to say that my girls are doing good :) This one's buds are fattening up nicely and I can now see the trich's if i zoom in enough with my camera. Going to get a magnifying glass today so i can get a better idea about when to harvest though.
Leaves at the bottom of the plant are beginning to die off but the top growth looks good, if a bit pale. I reckon she'll need another 2 weeks or so before harvest.
I would like to mention that over the past week I have been relying more and more on the tent monitoring system I have been setting up, and in today's day and age where technology is so readily available I think everybody should invest in some sort of monitoring system, no matter how simple or complicated.
08/03
Buds are fattening up realy nicely, pictures don't do them justice! Still haven't got round to getting a magnifying glass...
Would say early to cut 100 percent agree you need a jeweler loop so you can see the color of the trichomes best of luck hope it taste nice well done for you 1st bro 😁👌😎
12/03
All the bud sites are growing nicely, got a small amount of nute burn on the tips so just gave her plain water the last 2 day's. Will start with bloom nutes again today at half dosage. Finally got a magnifying glass 😀and everything looks in order. Trichs are still growing and clear.
14/03
Just maintenance now, lower leaves are starting to die off but she looks healthy up top. probably start flushing at the end of next week
22/03
Started the flush! Reckon she has 2 more weeks top's so super psyched! buds are starting to fatten up and pistils are starting to brown up and curl back. I think the trichs are starting to cloud up but my magnifying glass isn't good enough to be 100% sure...
Gonna need to keep an eye on the top cola because it is definitely getting a bit heavy so might need to add some support
26/03
So after a week long flush the bigger fan leaves are yellowing up real quick, they had already started to change color but this has really sped things up! I'm hoping i didn't flush too soon, the trichomes are definitely milky but I can't see any amber... having said this my magnifying glass isn't the greatest and all other signs are pointing to her nearly being ready for the chop. Reckon this is the final week 😬
28/03
Not a whole lot more to add, pistils are steadily turning darker and the fan leaves are continuing to die. At the moment I'm expecting to chop her on Thursday! Can't wait!!
Been flushing for the past week, the larger fan leaves are starting too turn yellow faster than I had anticipated but trich's haven't started turning amber yet. All the other sign's point towards her being about a week away from the chop but I'm a bit worried that I flushed early
Any time from now to a week will be plenty for this plant.
Not all plants get amber trichomes by the way, therefore basing your harvest based entirely/exclusively according to trichome colour has some problems associated with it.
Once your plants have 98-99% brown pistils, it means her life is almost over, therefore harvesting just before she goes into decline, will give you buds with peak cannabinoid levels. Once she is past this point, as indicated by 100% brown pistils, THC breaks down quite rapidly into CBD and CBN, which are 2 non-psychoactive cannabinoids that produce a sleepy effect, but don't actually get you high.
Anyway, you are right on track to harvest as planned.
Hope this helps, Organoman.
Super happy with this grow, I learned soo much and I'm really looking forward to putting all that knowledge into practice in the future. The whole point of this diary was to see just how hands off you can be when growing your own bud and I think I can safely say that it only needs to be as difficult as you want to make it.
Let me explain, I really didn't put much effort in to this grow, the only training I did was introducing a scrog net and occasionally poking a side branch through a new square. As far as nutrients go, I definitely didn't use anywhere near the amount I see some people using and I never checked things like EC and ppm. The pot I planted in was about half the size most people would recommend. My grow light is regarded as the "budget option" (budget option or not I really can't recommend it enough), my soil was the cheapest stuff I found at the garden center and I still have a harvest that I'm proud of when all I really did was plant the seed, make sure she had a decent amount of light and fresh air, make sure the Ph didn't get too out of whack, watered her when she needed it and add some nutrients. She took care of the rest 😀
All of the above isn't to say that there isn't any point in spending more money or time on your grow! There are countless grows on here that are absolutely amazing, and I will definitely continue to learn from them but for people like me, who just want to grow some weed and don't have the time to go in to every fine detail which you need to do to justify buying the top of the line stuff, you can just plant the seed and follow these easy steps
1: Water when she needs it, not when some guideline say's you should
2: The importance of correct Ph can't be overstated
3: Do some training, even if it's just a scrog net
4: Do give some nutes but keep in mind less is more
5: When in doubt ask for help on here!
In closing I would like to thank everybody who followed this diary and answered my grow questions, you are all awesome!! Happy growing everybody!!
clueless_smoker
