Since this is my first grow, I didn't put anything up before today because I wanted to believe I would have some success. The fact that I have something growing I believe I will now.
Things I have learned so far:
1. Germinating a cannabis seed is pretty much the same as any other seed, except much more expensive. I tried one seed from three different strains and I had only one successfully germinate. As I did even more research into cannabis seeds, it seems the ones I got were of lower quality. They were lighter in color and floated in water. This was disappointing, to say the least.
2. Heat control in a grow tent is more difficult than I anticipated. I have a small space heater inside the tent and plenty of airflow, but it stays on the higher end of the acceptable levels. I need to do more research on temperature ranges and heating methods.
3. It is not nearly as time-consuming as I was expecting. I have to say it, many articles and blogs are written and make growing cannabis appear to be super technical and difficult, but that is not the case. I already know that the growing part is not hard, adjusting the quality of the final product is going to be more difficult. For this grow I decided my measure of success is simply usable flower in the end.
Hey dude
First time grower here also & like you still finding my feet in this incredible world. I'm very new to this site but I gotta say the community here is fuckin' awesome. I've asked numerous questions & have always had excellent advice come back.
Good luck with your grow ๐
Hey there friend. Congratulations on getting into growing cannabis! I think you are gonna really like it here at growdiaries. looking at your diary, Would you be alright with me offering some pointers to get you off on the right track ? So cannabis plants LOVE heat and humidity. It is the buds that hate it. In veg we want to take advantage of this fact to help our plants grow along much quicker and more vigorously. In veg we can look for temps of 79-84 MAX with lights on & no more than 9 degrees less with lights off. If we allow for too much temperature swing between lights on and lights off while the plant is still growing vertically up to day 20 of flower, We will cause the plant to stretch ALOT which we do not want. So in veg & early flower, Keeping our temperature gaps nice and close between lights on and off is key. Utilizing humidity in our rooms during veg will also help out a lot with more rapid growth but we must introduce it properly. In our rooms we have our temperature and humidity set-points, But when we combine those 2 it forms a third set-point which is the most important & that is called VPD, Vapor pressure deficit.
I strongly recommend every new grower or old grower who has not learned it yet, To study and understand it & implement it into your room, Logging your numbers daily.
https://cerescann.com/importance-of-measuring-vpd/
For soil, We generally want to go for a PH of 6.1.
This website does a GREAT job of illustrating it with a nice graph & very good detailed explanation for soil.
https://autoflowerseedshop.com/cannabis-ph-chart-guide/
As we briefly touched on before, During veg & early flower we want our temperature gap's nice and tight to avoid stretch. Why exactly our plants stretch in response to this is a genetic trigger being activated by the environmental stress essentially telling the plant the end of the season is closer than it really is. In veg & early flower the plant is still in its first stage of development which is to grow up wide and tall so when it produces seed, It can cast them out nicely. Remember, Whether we are growing our plants for seed or bud their genetic responses do not change as they gh sidedo not know any different. Once the plant has finished that first stage of growth by weeks 4-6 of flower with most strains, It is by day 20 of flower. Autoflowers you have to watch for it, But once the plant has finished this goal its new mission is to focus 100% on producing nice big flower clusters & to get very sticky so it can attract pollen to it successfully.
So once that vertical growth is finished, We actually now want to begin to expose our plants to larger temperature swings between lights on and lights off. This will help activate that genetic response and allow us to draw out the most potential from the strain utilizing the plants genetic triggers to environmental stresses at the right times. We can also take this a step further with doing light deprivation in the last 2 weeks using less light to simulate cloud cover. Very cold feed temps on the last flush is very good too. If you do not have them already, Get yourself a good PAR meter & thermal laser temp gun to monitor your plant top temperatures & optimize how much light your plants are getting. We are currently in the middle of producing a very comprehensive tutorial series for everybody to learn from & understand how to grow the highest level craft cannabis all on their own. If this interests you please check out our youtube and subscribe. The first 2 episodes are out the next one is coming in a few days. If you should ever have any questions or need any help, Please feel free to follow my profile and shoot me a DM. I will gladly help you with the pull down & make sure you get the best quality harvest possible as it is the most important step of the entire process.
Good luck my friend!