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I'm in the 5th week now and all the girls are flowering and doing well, I think. I'll fill in the weeks and get up to date.
Pre soaked in water, after 12 hours 1 seed had sunk. Added a drop of Hydrogen Peroxide and within 30 minutes the other 3 sank. Seeds placed in a lite version of it's future grow medium that had been prepared in the centre of its 5 gallon airpot. All 4 seeds popped their heads within 36 hours from planting.
AC unit broke down which obviously caused problems with temps and RH with outside temps min/max 24c/36c and RH swinging between 50/90%. Ice cooled fans managed to keep things at a sweaty 30 in the open tent, RH was up and down like a yoyo. I also moved the whole setup to a north facing wall which knocked 1c off the temps.
All in all a very quick and easy germination turned into a hot and traumatic first week for these girls.
Things got worse in week 2, a lot worse :)
Caterpillars, Mites and Leaf Miners!
So after the first week and getting the AC fixed I realized that I had a pest infection on these babies, tiny caterpillars had started munching on the new leaves. Also clear signs of leaf miners on a couple of seedlings. Under the closer inspection I also spotted a few black spider mites. Worst of all I was totally unprepared for a pest infection at such an early stage. I had nothing at hand so I removed all visible caterpillars and knocked up a homemade mix of crushed garlic, chili, onion, vinegar, coconut oil and water. stewed it a bit and gave them a spray and pray.
Ordered some Neem oil and hoped for a speedy delivery and that the homemade mix would have a positive effect.
Next week we go to war! 😁
Feeling a bit disheartened after a stressful couple of weeks it was time to do battle against these pests. The Neem oil was on it's way, plants got another spray with the homemade mix (it seemed to be working) after a days rest.
What was supposed to be the Neem arrives after a couple days, only that inside the package was a packet of unspecified seeds. Great! So needed something quick to help the plants and more so to quell my anxiety.
I have problems sourcing anything locally, but Pyroligneous acid aka Wood Vinegar or Smoke Water is readily available, so after a quick bit of research it seemed that it wouldn't hurt to give the girls a dose. I foliage sprayed with the specified dilution the first day and treated the soil the following day.
Neem spray is once again en route, in the mean time I gave the girls a day off and the following day sprayed again with the homemade mix. Towards the end of the week the Neem spray arrived, by this time the pest situation seemed to be under control but I gave them a spray with the Neem just to make sure and as a preventative measure.
With the heat/humidity issues of the 1st/2nd week and the pest situation of the 2nd/3rd week the plants are starting to look better.
Next week - A gift from nature moves into the grow space.
The new week started with the discovery of a rather large red spider mite at the base of the Purple Lemonade. Pretty disappointing after the previous weeks endeavors to eliminate all pests.
Little did I know that nature had sent me a gift that just loves eating Spider Mites. First thing every morning I check the garden for snakes as I let my dogs out. (among other species in the last 2 years I've removed 7 Monocled Cobras from the property, 4 from actually inside the house. Just lately there is a King Cobra hanging around) anyway, at the back of the house for the first time that I've ever seen there is a sea of Ladybugs, on closer inspection of the long grass where they are sitting there are literally thousands of spider mites and the ladybugs were having a feast. I collected about 50 ladybugs and put them on some poor plants growing outside that I use as guinea pigs to confirm that they don't munch on the plants. After this I collected another 40 and put them in the indoor space where they seem to be quite happy. Since that day I haven't seen a single mite or other pest on the plants. Oddly, I was reading about and thinking of possibly ordering some the night before they suddenly turned up in the garden the following morning. Manifestation or something :)
Plants received their first Veg nutes at 1/2 the dose recommended on the bottle in the photo. I'm not sure of the composition of these nutes, they are from the same supplier as my grow mediums and are designed specifically for cannabis, as is the soil I got from them. I will list what's in the soil later.
Other than that a pretty good week with some nice growth, did have a short power cut that took out my PC when the power surged upon return. Luckily all electrics in the tent were unaffected.
Week 4 of veg was the most problem free so far. Lots of growth and things really starting to take shape. Started some lite LST on Gorilla Cookie and a few ties on the other strains. Removed some of the lower leaves that were lagging and damaged from the earlier pests invasion.
By the end of the week all strains were pre-flowering with Purple Punch leading the way (all bud and few leaves) and Gorilla Glue in last place. Not surprisingly these two strains were the least and most effected by the pests.
Purple Lemonade is a shorty but looking good I think, maybe stunted growth due to the pest/heat issues in the first couple of weeks?
Gorilla Cookie is nice and bushy with plenty of bud sites.
Although for the time being I'm pest free I'm keeping the Ladybugs in the tent. As there is hopefully no food for them on the plants so I keep them happy with a few raisins soaked in water with a couple of drops of raw honey mixed in. This seems to keep them happy and they stay mostly in the semi open tent.
I let the pots dry out for 2 days for the first time since I started the grow. They were thirsty when they woke up on the last day of this week and this is when they received their first dose of flowering nutes. Again 50% of the recommended dose consisting of 50/50 veg/flowering nutes.
So pretty much up to date with the diaries now.
This is my first grow so I would really appreciate any advice, tips and pointers from the experts here :)
Finishing off the first week of flowering and watching the buds grow :)
All strains seem to be happy with with 1L water with 12ml nutes 25/75 veg/bloom each, every other day.
Missed the defoliating deadline in veg mode but have done some very light defoliation this week, I should do more I know and will once flowering is a bit more established.
A bit more LST, again on the careful side. The next grow will get the full treatment :)
Of course things were going too well, a couple of hours ago while I was working on climate stabilization contra running costs (I got my first power bill since grow start) I noticed 100's of very small ants all carrying eggs exiting the base of my Gorilla Glue's airpot. I had been trying to work out why she in general seemed a bit laggy. Now I might have the reason, grabbed the Neem as 1st defense and gave what I could see a good spray. For those that I couldn't see and were probably munching on the root system and tunneling through the medium I added 4 tablespoons of fresh coffee grounds and 6ml of Wood Vinegar (pyroligneous acid) to 1L water and gave the Glue a soaking. This all happened just before lights out so now hopefully by lights on the ants will be gone and the Glue will start to perk up.
Yesterday I flipped the switches on the LEDS to include deep and IR light to the spectrum.
All in all a good week I think, any tips and advice always welcome :)
*Update
Gorilla Glue is looking much better 12h after the treatment for the ant infestation. Coffee grounds and wood vinegar, natural, safe, effective and cheap as well. I have Cinnamon as well now, so I'm well prepared for any future ant invasions :)
I've moved on from pest infections! The ants nesting in the Gorilla Glue have been dealt with using a wood vinegar soil drench and a mix of coffee grounds, cinnamon and tapioca starch sprinkled on the top of the soil, I also sprayed Neem on the pot bases and now I'm ant free.
This week I've had other issues to deal with though.
I didn't get the memo about needing to add Calmag to the water if using RO. As can be seen on the pics (I think) the effects of a Magnesium deficiency are showing, especially in Gorilla Cookie. I gave each of the plants 2 and then 3ml of Calmag with a day in-between. Now 5 days later all plants are looking much better.
I've almost weaned the plants off of the Veg nutes, still not sure if I should add a little Veg nutes anyway when adding Bloom nutes. Any advice on this matter would be appreciated.
Checked the bottom of the pots, healthy white fluffy roots poking through the bottom on all of them. I was thinking that Glue's roots may have soaking in run-off, this wasn't the case though as although the growing through he bottom of the pot the roots aren't long enough to reach the drip-tray.
Banana Purple Punch - Continuing to do well with no obvious issues (not to a noob anyway) :)
Gorilla Cookie - Calmag deficiency problems
Purple Lemonade - No real problems for the midget
Gorilla Glue - Starting to look better after last weeks ant infestation. Now she can manage a whole 18hour of light without lagging like crazy. Hopefully next week will show some increase in the bud growth.
Decided to use the free space in the middle of the tent and kicked off a LSD Auto from Barney's Farm and will add it's own 85w LED in a couple of days. It should break soil today with a bit of luck. After the Cal/Mag deficiencies I've decided to use tap water for this strain. My tap water comes from the jungle, it goes through a filtration system and chlorine is added. I let the water sit and de-chlorinate for at least 48 hours before using. I might start drinking it myself I've never been too keen on RO water anyway.:). If all goes well with the 'Jungle Juice" I will use it all future grows. I could even source the water direct from the jungle stream before it gets chlorinated/filtered, but straight from the tap would be better, already tired of going out to the RO water dispenser every other day.
Added another batch of Ladybugs to the grow. I don't have pests at the moment and want it to stay that way.
All in a all a good week, could have been better, could have been worse. Lets see what next week brings :)
Happy Growing :)
My first grow and can't help wondering about how much dry bud I can expect judging by the photos of the 4 Autos I have in their 7th week now.
Thx for any input 🙏
maybe 30g on the small ones and 60-70 on the bigger ones? 150-200g dried/cured?
really depends on how they fill out. some buds are denser than others and can surprise you. when it ripens, imagine the buds shrunk to about half the size of what they are on the plant and can guess more accurately. Some of those colas might end up much fatter than we can tell from theses pictures.
Photoperiod plants can have more consistent outcomes and if you want can run them on same timeline, more or les. Though you may need more powerful lights for a 12 hour cycle vs autoflowers (18h -> 12h requires 150% of intensity over 12 to provide what was once given over 18, same cost in watts, though)
Have you got any hermie plants in your area as some of them look like they have pods if they have the other plants will be seeded buds and they will not be as potent as they will concentrate on seed production
So week 7 was interesting, seeing more signs of cal/mag deficiencies but also seeing a lot of amber trichomes on the main colas on all but Gorilla Glue
Banana Purple Punch - Doing well, day 54 and lots of amber trichomes on main cola
Gorilla Cookie - Looking very colorful, a bit like a Tequila Sunrise,
Purple Lemonade - Small, tight and compact and very sticky
Gorilla Glue - Looking great, lots of small buds that will hopefully fatten up a bit.
Thinking of harvesting the main colas apart from Glue as they seem to be ripe and showing lots of amber trichomes and the lower buds could use more light intensity. Any advice on this would be appreciated, I was thinking of treating the cut site with fresh aloe and then put a baggie over the cut stem with an elastic band around it, just to seal it up a bit. Is this the way to go.
Just an observation, I was expecting them to drink a lot more than they are doing, they all just don't seem to want water. 1 litre every second day with nutes and 1ml calmag and Banana Punch for example will still spit 200-250ml of that out. Lemonade can go 3-4 days on a litre. I water very slowly to avoid too much run off as I think that the 20% thing is more for non-organic grows. Yesterday was the 1st time I saw symptoms of under watering, Cookie started to droop but quickly picked up after being watered.
Week 8 will be interesting for sure, looking forward to it :)
An earlier update this week than usual.
3 ladies lost their heads yesterday after only 55 days from seed. All 3 main colas loaded with amber trichomes and the lower buds screaming for more light I felt I had to do it. Together on the scales the 3 colas weighed 92g trimmed wet. All LST ties were undone and the lower branches starting sending the buds towards the light, I made sure they were all very thirsty before the chop, The reaction to being chopped, untied and watered with a dose of nutes was amazing to watch.
Today all 3 plants are looking as if nothing happened. In fact they are imo looking better than ever. The lower buds are getting so much more light now and will hopefully fatten up over the next week or so.
Feeling very optimistic and looking on cue for a 4/20 full harvest of the 3 if they can, and I can wait that long :)
*Uploaded pics of how the ladies are doing 36 hours after the chop.
*4/20 update
Happy 4/20 to everyone :)
It's been a very busy 10 days and im still staggered harvesting.
Lemonade - 100% harvested
Cookie - 50% - 2 chops
Banana - 25% - 1 chop
Glue - Glue has has now taken center stage and is benefiting from all 5 lights now. After a lot of problems with her she now seems to be picking up and could drop the most weight out of the 4 strains.
Plants are handling this all very well, lower buds are getting fatter and exploding in trichomes and no signs of stress at all. S
All strains are already smooth, tasty and very moreish :)
Have weed in jars, weed drying and weed still on the stem plus 5 new ladies ready to take over the space.
Best ever 4/20 for me for sure.
I'll do a harvest update for each strain as they finish.
Good tasty stuff, easy to grow it basically grew itself while watching the others having their difficulties, will defiantly grow again. Total 44g trimmed and dried.
@MrGrowthSpurt, I have a magnifying glass and to get an even closer look I use a camera and zoom in on what is being shown in the magnifying glass then view the image on a big screen.
@thaigrow420, awesome!!! That would be sweet to Harvest on 4/20. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙏🏾 How are you determining whether or not they are ready? I'm assuming you have a loupe or microscope to zoom in on the trichromes right?
@MrGrowthSpurt, Thank you, not quite there yet though. If the plants and myself can wait 8 days until 4/20 then that will probably the harvest date if they are ready by then. I'll update with a few pics of how they are looking now a bit later on after dark time.
I can't give you any advice on feeding as you are using different nutrients than i do , but you could definitely top the banana purple punch next time , it responded perfectly in my case at least. By the way your plants look healthier than mine 👌
@thaigrow420, You WILL get some rewards from your ladies . Don't worry about that.
The first grow is always a hard run. Especially with autoflowers. Because it's all about timing. Light, Water, humidity, nutrients. But i bet you will learn fast. So just keep it up .
🤛
@@Dakaka, Considering their rough start I am so far well pleased with the plants. The way things are looking, it looks like I should get something to taste from the ladies :)
Fantastic grow. Very well done for a first-time 😃 especially indoor since that is more difficult. Reading throughout the journal i would have feared for budrot with the high humidity levels u had to deal with but very good it didn't happen. I bet u had a lot of airflow going on in the room?
I hope for a very good and tasty harvest and I'm gonna follow along with your next grow.
Happy growing 🙏
@Clutch, Thank you. Things are turning out great even after a rough start. 100% of Gorilla Glue and 50% of Banana are still on the stem growing, the rest is drying/curing. The staggered harvesting seems to be working well, I didn't expect it to take so long though :)
Will update with harvest details when its all in jars.
Well done, I really enjoy the holistic approach to pest control and simply achieving a harvest, I have no doubt that your next run will be even better than this one. What made you interested in growing your own crop, and what affected your choice of strain?
@Addonexus, Thank you :) Very close to the finish line now, I will be checking for amber trichomes later after they wake up. Maybe harvest on 4/20 :)
The main reason I started this project was the expense of quality weed here in Thailand with 1g costing more than the daily average wage. With growing becoming legal here it was a no brainer, I just should have started earlier :) Strain choice was mainly for high THC content, other than that it was pretty random.
The drying process is going better than expected, I'm drying next to the grow space in a wardrobe. 22-24c and 50-60% RH. Im keeping the drying space 5c cooler than outside by placing a frozen solid 6 liter dunk of water in a big bucket with a lid. I'm running a PC fan that was not doing much in the tent this gives a nice gentle ventilation. Outside temps are 27-34 celcius so the AC is already busting the bank, the ice block will save me going bankrupt :)
Last night the plants together had lost 67% of weight and were dry enough to smoke, even without curing all 3 strains were a smooth, very sticky experience equaling any top shelf available here. Most probably they go in jars later today.
I've found better success putting my dry nutrients into water and bubbling it for 36 hours before feeding. It helps the plant balance into the food easier and I would also raise those lights further away when growing.
Lovely looking lady, very lush and full bodied.
Plant is also nice. 🤣
Has very lovely color. Some nice fade.
Good luck with the rest of your grows.. cracking 1st attempt. To deal with such a large amount of pests in an indoor grow.. crazy. Ants and everything. I hate creepies. I find Yellow Sticky traps are great. Also, ethanol 1:2 mix with water will help kill any larva.. also Hydro proxoide H202 3-6% 1-3 r 1-5 ratio with water will also help. They're so many many better products than neem oil. You'll find, much better. But, the yellow traps or sticky paper, wipe underneath your leafs, as that's were mites lay their eggs. H202/ethanol for the ants, until you get something for them, i know you got to your harvests. So, next time. I'm sure you've found your own ways..
Congrats, especially with you dealth with. Hope you get a bountiful harvest
Hey Growmie,
Thanks a bunch for growing our Strains, and sharing this diary with us :)
We hope that it was a nice experience, and that you enjoy the harvest!
Have a good one
Thaigrow420
