1st Grow - Budget Window Box

24 hours in water cup for the seed, then another day in a wet paper towel in the cupboard. Placed the taproot down into a small dent in the soil and sprinkled soil over it. Put the drip pan over top with a sprayed lid to keep moisture in. I'm excited to learn a lot over the next few months. How cool it is to be in a legal climate and get into the hobby. Started it all by acquiring a 3 gal fabric pot and Fox Farms soil.

Been experiencing a heat wave of sorts, so moving the plants to an interior closet and a more powerful fan at a distance have helped cool things down and shoe away little flies. I won't be changing the name to the more apt, "Budget Bedroom Bucket." Been watering with 5.6 ph as I believe the soil is slightly higher than 7 at the moment.

There were some pesky flies this week that the fan alone wasn't going to shoe away, though I was pleased that a single sticky strip has eradicated them. I've been watering every other day or so with a 32 oz bottle - mostly going by the weight of the pot because I've read that's a good habit to get into. With enough smaller leaves coming in, I'm looking forward to low-stress training soon enough. Perhaps another week until that starts and at least that long before I consider throwing any nutes in. I'd like to see the leaves perk up and some of the daintier ones grow in size.

Haven't started nutrients yet but been watering every couple days or so and managing the growth to keep things as symmetrical as possible. The curvy sprout is starting to bulk up and become sturdy, so bending it to light the inner nodes will commence shortly. Setting a goal to establish a 5x2 shared grow space for the pot and add a DIY ~150 watt LED.

Earlier in the week, I noticed some slight yellowing in the new small leaves on top and the first couple nodes. She's only about a foot tall a month in, so I'm staying humble in my expectations and simply want to keep it healthy while it transitions into and through flowering. In the meantime, this gives me a chance to acclimate myself to disciplined watering practices, nutrient management, and garnering a more controllable space to grow bigger in the future.

She's really stretching at this point, so I want to treat it right through the finish. Bud sites have popped up all over and the top is trying to shoot to the ceiling. Sniffing the main cola surprised me with some citrusy aromas. I've only used veg nutrients up to this point, so I will look into bloom/terp 'roids to give it an extra boost periodically going forward. Will need to research proper flushing practices to be sure nothing is left over though. Hard to believe it's already 36 days from sprout, putting it about halfway through its expected cycle.

Stuck to the same watering schedule and didn't do much training or anything during this week of the grow. Sort of just letting her do her thing while I figure out some other variables of the grow. I need to start fabricating a fixture for some LEDs and consider some bloom nutrients.

Holy cow, what a week [and some change]. I was on autopilot with caring for the plant and more focused on building the LED light fixture. I watered on 9/5, a couple days after giving the same nutrients I used since a few weeks into this plant's life. Coming home from work the following day had me worried as if it'd been overwatered, but a growweedeasy article helped me correctly identify that I burned it with vegging nutes too far into it's flowering. A quick flush with PH'd water helped perk the leaves up by the following afternoon. On a brighter note and a similarly valuable learning experience. The ~200W Vero 29 setup came from Alibaba and I made do with what angle aluminum I could get my hands on. The MeanWell 185H driver pushes these lights pretty well and everything is much more directed toward the plant than the CFL setup. Nice to take out a soldering iron and put some sweat into this project. I will need to secure the COBs a bit more because the heatsinks didn't have proper tapped holes, so I'll get some high temp tape to get this thing through the finish. Overall, a productive week and I can't wait to see what some bloom nutes and better lighting provide for the last few weeks of flower.

Fall colors came through in a hurry! I was plucking curled, yellow leaves just about every night. Some tops became heavy that it cracked the branches down under its own weight. Which makes me think I could have provided some better nutrients for stalk strength early on, but also done more to stake things down ahead of time. I've since ordered some bamboo shoots to tie things in for future grows. Now we're nearing the expected harvest time I am watching things closely and smelling the sweet aroma often. The last nutrients I gave her was some CalMag on 9/15, so I'll be watering regularly to flush things out start chopping from the main cola downward as everything else catches up.

A few more days of just water for the pot leads me to chop-down weekend. The top and first few side branches nugs had not gained size in some time, the fall colors had turned, and most importantly I was seeing swaths of amber trichomes through the jeweler's loupe. Given the uneven grow, I left a few branches to finish up more while I test the pantry hanging spot carved out. First chopped wet weight came in at about 100 grams.

First diary and plant ever completed! Amazing to smoke the stuff tended to over just 13 weeks. Excited to keep up with the hobby and keep the environment up to support the best dank I'm capable of producing. Really interested to see if the LED Cobs and better attention to nutritional needs will produce more dense nugs next go around.