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Well, well, well... the long awaited process has begun. Cheers to never paying for good gas again.
Day 1: Dropped 12 seeds (6 strains * 2 seeds each) into 6 glasses of water and labelled them appropriately.
Day 2: Noticed 60% of seeds dropped within 12 hrs 100% within 24 hrs.. transferred to paper towel in plastic bag.. Some tap roots already emerged
Day 3: Placed seeds onto paper towels in six separate plastic bags labelled appropriately around 8p.. 12 hours later tap roots had emerged on 80% of seeds.
Day 4: Seeds went in the soil around 2p and by 9p our two seeds with the strongest tap roots had emerged from the soil 💪🏾. (also added two clones to the mix).. Took the last couple days to test out the AC infinity controller seedling recipe to see if it would keep levels I’d be happy with and after a few modifications I’m happy to say I think it’s working well.
Day 5: VPD/RH/Temp Numbers are all looking good. Had an issue with my controller not turning off the lights, but I changed the automated setting so it should be on 16/8 now (off from noon to 8P) Seeds all seem moist I even saw a water droplet on one of the leaves, so I'm going to hold off on watering until tomorrow... then probably Friday or Saturday after that. 7 of 12 seeds are above soil and showing cotyledons, 4 of 12 have fan leaves already. Growth is quickly happening!
Day 6: 10/12 seeds are above soil. I might’ve messed up the auto flower we planted directly in the five gallon pot, but we will see. 11 days or so until we out grow the seedling tray.
Day 7: 11/12 seeds are above soil. The soil in the 5 gallon pot looked very compacted, so I broke it up a bit and the seed popped within 24 hours. I’d say this was a successful germination week! Changed the light time to off from 10a to 6p for temp purposes. Coasting between 70/75 day/night, right at 70% RH, and .8 VPD.
Week 1 Veg Day 1: Things look good. When bottom watering the seed tray I noticed the roots had grown through the bottom of the seed tray. Will decide what size to move up to and when to start taking the PH for watering / fertilizing. Need to grab more soil too, these babies are growing fast.
Week 1 Veg Day 4: had a couple days of just watching and watering intermittently, but the time has come to repot these seedlings! I’d say we are into veg as we move into these new pots for both the autos and the photos in this grow. I know we don’t have to (slash shouldn’t) transplant auto’s… but I only have so much space and didn’t have enough soil when the seeds popped.. and didn’t really know whether living soil would be too hot to start autos in.
Decided to move the kids to 2 gallon pots though, and will probably let the autos stay here and upgrade the photos in about a month. Should just be watering and watching for the next week. Moving some of the autos outside in 2/3 weeks, will start PH monitoring water asap, and will continue to look into fertilizer options.
Week 2 Day 2: Things are going well. We had some high humidity and a little algae, so I increased the fan level. There was also some slight bubbling in the leaves which could be due to the humidity, so I'm keeping an eye on that. Otherwise, things are looking good. Planning to water today (8/8), and keep an eye on them for the rest of the week. Feels like patience is key at this point. Will need to decide on feed schedule soon, and will be PH'ing my water for the first time today. Will also continue researching LST methods.
Week 2 Day 7: Still struggling with high humidity. My grow is in my basement, and in the summer it stays around 70% RH. When the tent was at 80% RH I opened the vents and had the airflow running pretty high. I couldn’t come up with any other way to decrease it, so I went to Facebook marketplace and got a dehumidifier. Ran it overnight in the basement yesterday and the humidity has not really changed and there were barely droplets of water in it 😭. I’m going to try putting it in the tent if things don’t change.
Week 3 Day 1: whew! I feel like we catching our stride! Last week was a battle with the numbers. The AC infinity Vegetative recipe had my devices all over the place (like my lights refused to come on and go off on schedule as they had been).
Thennnn once I got the schedule together the humidity starting rising like a MFer! I think the rain last week contributed to it and of course it’s summer so that doesn’t help. I broke and got a dehumidifier on Facebook marketplace and now the humidity is under control, but the temps are up to 85 during the day sometimes! I opened two vents, so I’m hoping this balances it all out. Will start LST, and feeding later this week.. early next week!
Week 3 Day 5: Well, well, well.. things are looking manageable and for that I am grateful. Humidity is still higher than desired.. humidifier is working.. but it’s not pumping the water out into my drain hole. I’m on vacation for the weekend, and washed clothes before I left and it jumped up again. So I’m hoping it continues to drop, because we did notice some powdery mildew. We think it’s due to the large number of plants in this 3x3 tent.. but we cut that off and spread them out and moved the fans and are hoping for the best. Plants have been topped and are ready to get started with low stress training and will be moved up to 5 gallon pots. That’s all folks, signing off.. almost one month in!
Big ole buds
PS - Big shout out to Good Hope Hydroponics for supporting me all throughout my grow! I wouldn’t have nearly as much confidence in the information I’ve got so far without them. Thanks as well for the Microbial Mass Pro!! We will figure out how we want to incorporate this into our grow for some testing soon!!
Week 4: We are officially one month into our grow! things have been going pretty smooth so far and that’s exciting!! Yesterday we picked up our Gaia Green 4-4-4, repotted one watermelon zkittles into 5gal, and we we watered both Sunday and yesterday (oops). With that and the topping done, we plan to give them the week to recover and then start LST and feeding. You’ll notice a large number of plants were moved outside… those were all auto seeds that we got for free from Seedsman and Perry’s Magic Beans (Northern Lights, Critical + 2.0, M+M, and High C) shout out to them!! In a week or so the clones will be moved out and we will have our final 4 in the tent.
Week 5: 8/24 we fed the kids for the first time!! We followed the instructions for Gaia Green All Purpose application and went ahead and grabbed the Bloom fertilizer as well, so we are ready for that transition. We did top all our auto flowers except one and they slowed down their growth a bit, but we have two strong main stems on all of them, so I'm excited to see how those fare outside. I've heard that everyone lives by Kelp, so we got some liquid seaweed and have been adding that to our waterings along with the Miicrobial Mass Pro. Considering grabbing the roots organic terp tea bloom boost or the Athena bloom set-up to see how we feel about this synthetic vs. organic fertilizer discussion and to get some growth happening on these autos. We started LST, but I wish there was more info on like what i'm supposed to be doing fr - feels like I'm just bending the stem 😳 (but we will see how that shakes out)...
I want to get this Watermelon Zkittles and Gelat.OG out of their 2 gallon pots and into their final 5 gallon pots. I see some stress which, could be them getting adjusted to the nutrients we are providing, but they might need more room to grow. Our tent is a 3x3 and we have 2 watermelon skittles in there, 2 gelatos.og's, and 2 clones in there.. FARRRR too packed. Trying my best to not get rid of two plants, but my partner is adamant about borrowing a tent or maybe getting one given to us. All I know is we need a solution and quick so we don't fuck up a good thing.
WELP! That's all folks. Til next time.
Week 6: A month and a half in!! I really can't believe it to be honest. Our focus has been on repotting the plants from 2 gallons to 5 gallons, making sure we have an understanding of what's happening with the plant as we attempt (emphasis on attempt) to Low Stress Train them, and getting a watering routine down that doesn't involve weekly trips to Whole Foods for RO water. In terms of LST, we are trying to move the plant in a circle around the pot, but have found that when we move our wire to the opposite side of the pots 2/3 times a week it helps expose new tops to the light.
Curious to learn more about that process, and also must warn everyone to CHECK THE SELLER REVIEWS when shopping on Facebook Marketplace. This dehumidifier saga has gone on far too long, and the only positive thing I can say is that it's running continually. The amount I spent fixing this up and going back and forth to this man, I could've got a dehumidifier for a whole lung room. Considering doing a foliar application of the Poseidonzime, but since we fed liquid nutrients for the first time we are giving them a little break. Week 6/7 was a bit slower for us, as I had some company in town and was preparing to head down to ATL for Labor Day Prideeee (notice I installed a ring cam so I can keep a close eye on the kids).
Week 7: I spent the bulk of this week OOO! I was nervous about traveling because I know myself and when I'm gone.. I'm GONE. So I made sure to water the plants before leaving town, they didn't get a deep bottom watering, but they did get two smaller waterings about 5 days from each other. Things are getting bushy! No major problems, you'll notice the Watermelon Zkittles on the left. I did accidentally clip a branch while defoliating, but I put it in a jar of water and 7 days later we have roots!!! It's awesome to know that the plants could be mothers at this stage.
I have a ton to learn about all of this, but most importantly we HAVE to find more space.. preferably another tent set up to separate these clones and possibly start preparing for more of a perpetual grow as we wrap up the outdoor grow we have going. Nothing else to share this week, hope you enjoy the photos from my ring camera (installed before leaving town, so we could keep an eye on the kids).
Think Big!!!
Week 8 Day 1: how did we get here?! No major issues. Still learning the ropes when it comes to LST, so the focus these next couple weeks is getting this canopy flat and ready for flower. Any advice is much appreciated. Still need to get those clones out of the tent and need to think about any changes to fertilizing schedule over the next couple weeks. Kids were fed liquid nutrients for the second time 9/8, and will be recieving them once a week moving forward (hopefully every other watering). Gotta find a way to make watering a smoother process tho, might invest in a home RO filter 😂
Big dreams being discussed, this could be the start of the only cultivation, breeding, and distribution center that has a primary focus on re-entry and subsequent business development.. That’s how you do socially responsible business and policy.
You heard me?
What would you do to the new tops to avoid them being too much taller than the remaining canopy if you top late (like wk 3)? Connect them to the pot below the topping? above the topping? Chiropractic bend them? I plan to start SCROG in next 2/3wks
if you aren't too far into bloom, it'll be a negative effect. what you cut off won't grow out and it'll only result in lower yield.
LST it.. bend it down, even if temporarily until the other stuff catches up. HST is a good option later in blom of they stretch too much into lights and start damaging themselves.
so, topping is great as long as there is time for it to grow out. sometimes more branches off the same limb is not teh best option though.. you'll just spread what that limb can provide for way too thinly.
if you are using a scrog you should have put it down sooner and this wouldn't be an issue. you just keep bending the branch under "next" square of net. this keeps it even until you fill out aobut 70% of space. at that point if you flip it should fill in the rest easily with the 4+ weeks of growth that remains after flipping to bloom. you still have to do some minor LST to keep it perfectly even if you want to... sometimes it just takes bending a branch down in the morning and the time it takes for it to recover something can catch up uite a bit in that time.. repeat until satisfied... bigger variation may need a multi-day tie-down.. but then can release it later once things even out.
so many options, but it shouldn't be a ton of effort or work.. if so, change behaviour.
I've only fed using Gaia Green 4-4-4 once to date and notice no deficiencies. Should I re-feed fully with Gaia Green 4-4-4 in two weeks or add some of the power bloom during that feed? Would you reccomend adding any other nutrients to my grow?
I would not switch to power bloom on its own, mix it with a bit of all purpose as the N content of power bloom is to low.
I also find gaia green needs some extra Mg, if they have not shown signs already.
I also would only flip nutrients after the stretch. but can add in a nice PK booster when light cycle switches for a onetime boost
Good Luck!
Week 9: Still coasting, but on the last day of this week the plants showed some major signs of being both thirsty and wanting some more nutrients. Not only were some leaves dried and shriveled, but others were limp and some new leaves started showing slight loss of green.
I'm attributing this to our delay in watering the plants this week and it being time for another round of 444. This will be their last full Veg fertilizing, before we flip. In 3/4 weeks we will feed half strength 444, half strength 284, another round of bloom boost, some recharge for the soil and we will hope for the biggest, densest, dankest mugs possible! Idk how I forgot to mention but at this point our babies are mothers! We let some of the branches get a little longer than we should before snipping and voila.. an opportunity for a new plant and maintained genetics.
A little behind on the scrog net, getting 2 plants out this tent, and feeding extra silica.. but I think our babies are gonna push through.
Week 14: Welp..... Life Happens okay people!
I went to Atlanta and had a friend watch the kids.. when I got back I failed to jump into action and the next thing you know right when we get the plants on track... I go to Houston and come back to them even worse than they were when I went to Atlanta. :( In a lot of ways the entire schedule is off - we are at over 3 months of Veg.. had to chop off almost 17 inches of height because we'd let them get too tall for our 6 foot tent.. we've got 6 photos in a 3x3 and have missed many opportunities to feed and LST with the SCROG net just going up this week.. Are there things I want to do different next time? Absolutely.... but the beauty of life is that we grow whether we win or loose. Taking each of these lessons in stride, pushing through the rest of the grow... and planning for improvements next go around. First thing up... Getting an in house RO water filter.. next-up better genetics.. and better planning..
As for now.. bare with us as we push through this back half of the grow!
Week 15: We are heading into flower! I noticed the G3000 instructions say for early flower to set the plants to an 18/6 timeframe, bring the light to 12" distance from the canopy, and increase the amount of light to 60%.. I'm in the business of following instructions, so I did this.. and hope I notice some stretching... I will say I noticed some browning on the edge of some leaves... but I also gave the plants two rounds of the Terp Tea and their first round of flower fertilizer on (10/18) so that might be contributing... Will be keeping an eye out for light burn and will be working to stay on top of watering. At least 2 times a week... with just under a gallon of water per feeding per plant.
Week 16: *whewww* well technically this is the first full week of Flower... I followed the directions and went to 18/6 for "Early Flower".. but in the future I will refer to this as pre-flower and will start this about a month before going into Flower... I think this helps make the flip more pronounced and will help with a more consistent flower in my tent. Who knows tho?
We do see pistils - so that's exciting... and tbh I was saying we vegged for too long.. but who knows, maybe we will have an extensive root system and will be able to support larger buds! Nothing is really a loss at this point, and I will say I'm even learning more about myself. I'm a thinker I like to process things, I like doing it with people.. and I don't mind making mistakes... but I rather them be calculated.. So I know what to do or not to do in the future... I'm realizing my partner is more of a tinkerer.. he always has big ideas and likes to use his energy to move toward them.... I think we complement each other because my thoughts would've led me toward stopping the growth of this project a long time ago.. but I'm happy it's still going!
Week 17: Things are getting serious! Day 2 of this week we started our first major flower defoliation. Never did I ever imagine it would take this long to trim up these plants! This is what happens when you... stuff the tent and don't stay on top of early LST. Word to all other growers... Get a tent that opens all the way around if you are going to stuff it over capacity. Another thing I never would've expected, how much I would learn as I went through this process. When this all started I heard " Really all you have to do if you go organic is topdress your fertilizer once a month and PH your water... and boy was that a bit misleading.. We definitely could've vegged a much shorter time, in smaller pots, and wouldn't have had as much of a learning curve.... but what I will say is doing this for a larger number of plants really helps make the science make sense.
For example, everyone talks about using Cal Mag.. and I always wondered.. if my base fertilizer has everything it needs for the month.. then why do I need boosters and additional nutrients... But it's starting to occur to me that 1. Gaia Green is a base fertilizer for all plants... Cannabis has it's own nutrient needs.. furthermore each strain has it's own nutrient needs.. 2. Cannabis needs a LOT of water and a lot of energy to produce the quality of buds I like to smoke... investing in a water set-up and nutrient line up that's meant to go through flower for cannabis is crucial.... More lessons to come I'm sure.. but we got the netting looking better, and the plants are looking heathy.. So I hope they start putting on some height and buds soon!! Until later this week.
- Big Ole Buds
Week 18: 😅 I hope the work we put in this week, sets us up for a successful next couple weeks. We really pushed through the rest of our flower defoliation. I think we learned alot through this process. Every branch can not live on. Branches and primary growth points are two very different things. We also learned that flower and veg have different needs. I am now noticing the soil is almost bone dry in about 4/5 days, so by the 3rd day the plants need more water...
This is important to note.. as we will be traveling for the holidays for the next two weeks (NOLA, HOU, RIO). May God be with us over these next few weeks. I'm glad I have a ring camera installed in the tent for times like these... but I would not recommend purchasing this camera for the purpose of a grow tent cam. Will be trying the Wyze or another type of camera for more timelapse content in the future. Will check back in later this week with pictures from my friend that will be watering for us.
Week 4 Flower (11/24 - 11/30): Well, well, well... This was the week of thanksgiving and both of the kids parents were out of the state! We had to call in uncle Marcus to come and tend to them. We set him up with the second batch of tea on 11/18 (I'm sure I've given them like at least 4-7 batches of tea so far even though the feeding instructions said start during week 3...) but honestly, I feel like it was a good decision. The canopy isn't as leveled as I would like it to be, butttt there are ton's of bud sites coming up.
I did a healthy defoliation (that honestly scared me).. but I think it was for the better removing any overlapping leaves, lower branches that were not receiving much light, and new branches below the top three nodes that were stretching to get light. The new branches were the hardest to remove, as it was hard to tell whether they could live on as new bud sites... but remembering that most of those were beneath the top of the canopy and that all energy is transferred energy.. guided our defoliation. We were home for exactly 24 hours between 11/17 and 12/1 and that is when we prepared another tea for the plants to get 11/27 from there they got one more watering of plain water before another tea to kick off week 5. The stretch is in full effect and they might get a little taller, but we can clearly see where the buds will be packing on weight soon.
Week 5 (11/30 - 12/6): Things are getting excitingggggggg!! I had to get some gloves because the buds are getting sticky -icky -ickyyyyy. I mean over these two weeks you wouldn't even recognize this tent. The flowers have really packed on some size and the smell is increasing by the day. It feels like we are coasting and just need to keep things watered at this point, but we have our lights up as high as they can go, so we are hoping we don't get too much more of a stretch from the plants. Next week will be our last topdress for these plants with our Gaia Green 2-8-4, and from there we will have about 4/6 more waterings with our terp tea and we will be just about done with our feeding schedule.
We are considering another layer of trellis, and we had to upgrade our PH pen AGAIN.. so to all new growers, don't waist the money, get the Blue Lab from the start and take good care of it. We learned our lesson with $20. Otherwise, I don't have much to say other than stand by for some big ole harvests coming your way.
Check out our before and after pics!
Well.. Well... Well... We did it!! I'm so proud of the journey.
Excited to keep learning more, but very proud of this being our first grow. Things to do different: Stress ourselves out less.. lol
Automatic watering system coming soon... New genetics...
bigolebuds
