Three Amigos - First Grow!

MosephVonMo Day 0: I'm growing in a 4' by 2' tent. I decided to start with auto flower because they seemed hassle-free. I'm using a four light T5 HO system with two 6400k and two 3000k. (I plan on buying more lights when I can) My pot size is two 3 gallon and one Two gallon. I'm sprouting in water/paper towel, then planting seedlings in red solo cups with sprouting mix, fox Farm Ocean Forest, and perlite. I will then transplant into Fox Farm/perlite mix in two weeks or when there is two sets of leaves. The temp is a steady 78 degrees so far on a test equipment run. I'll keep you posted. Any advice is welcomed. Day 2: All seeds have sprouted their taproot! The Tangerine Dream seemed to have the strongest root but all three look promising. I decided to go ahead and plant them into their home pots since they are auto flower and have a short veg time. This eliminates the worry about shock what with me being a newb at this and not having experience with transplanting. I also decided to use 2 gal pots to be frugal with the soil. If my yield suffers from it, I'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned. I'm happy all beans are ALIVE! Can't wait to see the little babies poke out of the soil. I think I'll use expanding soil pucks for sprouting next time. I think it would be the easiest and safest way to plant the seeds, especially since I'm not an experienced gardener. Day 4: Tangerine dream was the first to break through. Still waiting for the other two to join us. They are so cute at this age! Day 5: Yay! all are out and growing! I may be a little paranoid but Critical Purple and Gorilla Glue seem a bit stunted compared to Tangerine Dream, and they already have their first set of real leaves? Is that a sign of issues or normal? Tangerine Dream is looking good! I'll start posting weekly now unless things come up. Cheers!

MosephVonMo We are entering week 2 and plants seem happy. I noticed either a bit nute burn from the soil or light burn, so I raised the lights and started giving the plants a 2 hr rest with lights off. I also give them a little water mist before lights out to make sure humidity stays optimum. I did plant them directly in Fox Farm Ocean Forest with a good scoop of sprouting mix at the top to buffer the seedlings from the hot soil, so it might have been a little too much for them. Either way, the issue has worked itself out and the newer sets of leaves look healthy. The gorilla glue and critical purple stretched a tiny bit more than tangerine dream. I started adding 1 tsp per gal unsulphured molasses to every other water. As always, suggestions and advice welcomed. Happy growing!

MosephVonMo Week 3 begins! I noticed a couple gnats so I put a solid layer of perlite over the soil and cut back on watering. They are looking gorgeous. Each strain is showing some unique traits now.

MosephVonMo Entering Week 4 - Gorilla Glue stretched a bit too much for my liking but she looks healthy, maybe her sativa genes took over. First time giving nutes and they took off! I gave them 2 tsp of Big Bloom per gal once because they only need watering twice a week. Pre-flowers are forming on all three. Does that mean they are in official flowering mode? I added more light, but balancing temps has been a challenge. I will probably go back to one fixture with 8 lamps. I turned down the HO lights to half output to keep the temp stable and added a cheap led grow strip I came across in WalMart. I don't know if it will make a difference but every bit helps I guess. Pistils are starting to form now.

MosephVonMo They grew a lot last week. Let's hope they keep the good momentum going! I want to defoliate Tangerine Dream and Critical Purple but I'm afraid to mess them up. I wanted to grow this first batch untouched, just to become acquainted to their natural characteristics before I try lst or fiming. Plus I'm a chicken shit and I don't want to hurt them. Gorilla Glue has been a beast! I cut back on the big bloom and molasses, seemed a bit too much for them. Ok, I ended up taking away the huge fan leaves that were shading the bud sites and some under the canopy. How nerve wracking, but I'm glad I did because they really seemed to respond well to it almost immediately.

MosephVonMo TD = Tangerine Dream CP = Critical Purple GG = Grorilla Glue Haven't changed the routine. I trim a leaf here and there as need. I've trimmed only 1 leaf off of GG because it was shading a bud site. I'm worried about the weight of the buds on GG later on when they get plump, seems like the buds might get pretty big. I can't wait to see what next week brings! I have two more GG seeds in paper towels. I'll be planting them in pots today or tomorrow and thus a new diary will begin! A light scent is beginning to creep out of the closet and into the bedroom with the door open, even with the air scrubber on 24/7.

MosephVonMo This week had me so discombobulated. I started two new grows, two new GG autos that I will be posting about soon. I was too excited and didn't plan it out, so many issues. I'll definitely stagger two at a time instead of three from now on. Space and getting my arms in without hurting anyone was an issue. Having the new ones in the way seemed to throw me off of a rhythm. I have no timer, so I'm pretty much dependent on being home at the right time. I had something unavoidable come up so I couldn't leave the lights on at their normal rest and ended up falling asleep after lights out so that the rest period lasted 11 hrs! All lessons learned fo sho! My older girls are budding up and spreading out but it's getting cramped! I think I'm starting to see the first sugar chrystals! Yee haw!

MosephVonMo Well, another week on the books. A few of GG's leaves are yellow, not sure if its just her clock winding down or if I should be worried. I'm gonna cut back on watering just in case I've been keeping her too wet. The other girls seem to be a week or so behind GG, they stretched a bit this past week. I was going to try the frozen water bottle tip that was suggested to me for controlling the temps but, Autumn is finally kicking in. It's been 10 degrees cooler outside all week and the tent is barely touching 80 at its peak temp. I'm keeping some water bottles in the freezer for next time.

MosephVonMo GG's big fan leaves started to die rapidly. They were yellowing faster than normal in my opinion. I also noticed a sour smell like wet socks almost. So I did some research and GG was definitely rootbound. A almost 4ft plant in a 2 gal will do that I suppose. I just had to try the 2 gallons, never again! I cut the bottom of the pot off and plopped her in a bucket of fresh soil. This was the least invasive way I could think of and it seemed to do it. I staked her up just in case. She seems to be holding on but her buds have slowed fattening up. Flushing her and just going day by day now. Critical Purp is doing good. Tangy is supposed to have the same life cycle as GG according to the manufacturer but she sure looks less mature. I need to figure out what will make my buds bigger. Any advice?

MosephVonMo Just waiting to see some amber now. Flushing CP now and GG since last week. I think TD will have an extra week of ripening longer than the others. For my first time, I'm satisfied with this grow.

MosephVonMo I should have waited longer to get the full effect but I'm very satisfied overall. Yield is approx 1.5-2 ounces and a decent daytime chillax smoke that is similar to my high THC daytime vape. My advice is to give this girl the biggest pot you can manage because she will thank you for it. Other than she didn't like the temp to go over 78 degrees and her roots wanting more room, she is an easy to please strain. I Can't wait to finish curing. Updates to come. I'll post pics of it jarred soon.000

MosephVonMo This week was pretty uneventful for Tangy and Critical Purp. Just ripening buds at this point. Tangy's buds have gotten bigger but are still runty. I'll probably use the whole plant for tincture when she's ready. Critical purple has become the star of the show recently. She is a small low rider but her buds are beautiful. GG is still curing on the shelf.

MosephVonMo ... waiting.

MosephVonMo Harvesting in the next day or so. Stay tuned. Yeehaw!

MosephVonMo Hands down my favorite strain grown so far. A short, dense little indica dom with plentiful buds. The yield wasn't super big (about an oz) but the buds were dense and potent. I'm really surprised how nice it smokes without curing yet. I got a light taste of taco shell but that's just me.

MosephVonMo Tangerine dream is a tasty strain, light and lemony so far and she has yet to cure. She grew fairly tall for a indoor closet grow (2ft or so) but the yield wasn't so great (1 oz or so). Even with the small yield she was worth the grow for the medium level of cbd and high level of thc. The secondary buds were really small but I was planning to make tincture anyway and the little buds will provide a potent kick. The smoke is a pleasant uplift. I found myself happy, talkative, and motivated to get off my butt. I suffer from depression so this strain is a perfect daytime medicine for me. All in all, a nice strain worth exploring again. Maybe now that summer is over I can get bigger denser buds without the tent peaking over 80 degrees.