Grow #1, RQS Easy Bud!

So it's been a scary first week! Had the seedlings over a second hand vivarium heat mat set at 24 degrees and they sprouted 12 hours later! Allowed them time to spread their leaves out a bit, but unfortunately the right hand seedling got caught in its own seed shell and had a half day handicap over the other seedling. Ita noticeable as I type this as she's a good centimeter shorter than the other seedling. I'm sure they will both do just fine. Learning lots and lots every day from this site and youtube with different growers around the world. As a new starter to this hobby it's incredibly exciting and feels really satisfying to see day on day progress. The Easy Start plugs were transplanted directly in to room temperature coco coir / perlite 70/30 mix, lightly misted with water and left alone. They seem to be getting used to their new environments as the growth this last 24 hours has been great and really promising to see. Taking it very slowly, lots of research and consultation with the wife as we go. Remember, I'm a literal 0 experience newbie when it comes to this, I've only ever smoked it in the past never even considered growing it for us myself. Will be upgrading to a Mars Hydro TS600 soon, and have a carbon filter / inlibe fan setup on order that should be here in a week. Temperatures are good in the tent along with humidity, today I have introduced a clip fan to direct air at the plants to keep circulation up. The fan is at its lowest setting and movement on the medium or in the plants is minimal, so it won't stress them too hard at such an early stage. No nutrients or anything just yet, only room temperature water and done very sparingly. Plants are housed in 7l fabric pots raised off the tent floor by cooling racks, allowing for half an inch of airflow under each pot, and allowing for drainage should my watering be too excessive. Will be going in to 11l pots when the time is right for the remainder of their grow, I would have planted them directly to the 11l ones but unfortunately they didn't arrive in the post in time. Officially the end of week one and nothings caught fire, neither seedling has died and I'm more excited than when I started. I'll see you at the end of week 2! I take daily photos and keep a written grow journal so nothing will be missed, any help and advice would be greatly appreciated! *EDIT* Realised I'd totally got my days wrong! We are currently (28/11) only 5 days in after sprouting! So we haven't finished the first week, more updates and pictures below! Please keep checking as I'll be updating until the first week is actually done. So today is 28/11. One plant still ahead of the other, fan width and height wise but still looking in good health and colour. Been watering very lightly testing for moisture by hand. Made and order today for Biobizz Grow and Bloom, some PH down solution and a bottle of CalMag. Will be introducing feeding as per their nutrition chart, and perhaps even at a lower dose than they recommend (please advise as I've seen strong recommendations to run at 1/4 strength?). Tent is running well, good temperatures and the light seems to be providing plenty of light to this pair of Easy Bud. Really excited and seeing good growth every day! Wednesday 29th November Small update today, both plants are continuing to grow at a steady consistent rate. Gained 1cm in width and height between the pair of them. Fingers crossed we see some more dramatic growth in the next week or so! Thursday 30 November Officially one week of growth! Both the plants are still alive, I brought them out in to better lighting for a few photos. One is still ahead of the other, but both have hained exactly 1cm in width across their main leaves, and both have pushed out their second set fairly rapidly! Introducing CalMag to watering today, 0.5ml to a liter, but won't be watering until tomorrow morning as substrate is still wet. Smaller plant has a change of colour on the tips of its leaves, I'm hopeful this isn't anything to worry about? Will see how she fares the next 24 hours, but officially this is the end of week 1!

Friday 1st December 2023 So today marks the start of week 2! Both plants are growing every day, everything seems to be going well so far! The TS600 *should* be arriving this weekend so that will be a nice upgrade. I've started with nutes today, introduced CalMag, Biobizz Grow and Canna Rhizotonic whilst following all feeding advice I can find online. Got my PH Pen calibrated properly today, after mixing my first batch of feed the PH was 8.7! I'm glad I took the time to review those readings as I'm sure this would've been very bad for the plants. Brought the PH down to 6.5 on the nose and gave both plants a good watering, won't give them anymore for a few days and see how they respond over the next few hours. Fingers crossed! Any advice on watering, feeding and nutrients would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Saturday 2nd December The post man must've hated me today! Lots of stuff delivered for the tent and I've installed it all, up and running! Gone for a 4 inch inlibe fan with carbon filter exhausting out the top of the tent, completely invisible from the outside, almost silent and feels like good airflow. My Mars Hydro TS600 also arrived, so hooray for no more purple photos! The light intensity is a huge increase over the amazon special in the tent prior to this, but it's done well so far so I'll stash it away as an emergency backup unit. The TS600 seems to be a perfect fit in the 80x80 tent, it's exceptionally light and wickedly bright. Here's to hoping the plants benefit from a few conscious upgrades 😊 No watering today as media still damp, plants looking healthy and pushing out more leaves every time I check them. Hopefully we are doing well so far! Sunday 3rd December Plants are continuing to grow well, I do think the new light has made a good difference to them! Have made a point of swapping the pots left to right and rotating the plants to make sure they get even light coverage. Using the extractor and carbon filter now as the plants have started to give off an aroma. Going well and nothing seems to be struggling, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and follow my feed schedules. See you tomorrow! Monday 4th December Plants looking great again. After doing research decided to go up to my 11L pots in plenty of time to prevent as much stress as possible. Surrounded the old fabric pots with coir, surgically removed the old 7L pot with a razor blade and lifted it out ever so carefully. Went super smoothly, the roots are nowhere near the outer edges of the 7L pots anyway so they just slid out with minimal disturbance to the plants or the substrate around them. I hope this was successful as I took extra care and followed some good guidance. Lightly watered to encourage the roots to their new home, fingers crossed they hardly noticed what happened and have minimal stress as a result, but I'm expecting growth to slow as a result and I'll take it nice and steady from here. Tuesday 5th December Checked the plants at 7am before work and they looked very sorry for themselves. Droopy and exhausted looking, I spent the whole day at work convinced I'd come home to two dead plants from transplant shock. Instead I've come home to two ladies that have stretched their legs and grown even more! Super relieved, let's see how they go this next few days with more space to root in to 😁 Wednesday 7th December Plants are doing great! Spreading out and growing really well, the soil was bone dry when I checked them at 7pm so I mixed a fresh batch of nutrients up and gave them a steady watering. Lots of new leaf development, I'm really happy so far 🙂 Thursday 8th December Came home from work to lots more growth, as a first time grower it's absolutely amazing just how fast these things grow! They don't seem to be struggling at all and I'm being really careful watering them. I have also introduced a cheap 2L humidifier for the tent, running it on low to see how it affects the overall humidity as it keeps dipping low. It's winter here so really dry with central heating. I guess we keep going as we have been and see what week 3 brings us!

Friday 8th December The first day of week 3! 15 days in to their lives and they seem to be doing really well! Again, complete novice with this being my first grow but they are getting bigger every day and they look really healthy to me! As this is my first grow I won't be doing any radical techniques or using any fancy products, just a budget super steady auto grow. Any tips or advice as always will be met with nothing but gratitude, so please speak up if I could be doing anything differently to help my plants along! The cheap Aliexpress humidifier has worked an absolute treat and brought humidity up to 60%, much much better than the 35-45 seen before. Not much else to report, see you again tomorrow! Saturday 9th December Scattered a layer of worm castings over the surface of the pots. Adjusted my fan to give a bit more of a direct breeze too. Plants growing really well and looking strong. Started with some light LST today to make sure everything grows as well as it can. Will not be doing anything hard core, remember it's my first ever grow! Sunday 10th December Nothing eventful to report! Plants are still growing well, added a bit more LST to some branches that are lengthening, and directed the fan at them more for direct breeze. No watering today, just keeping an eye on them for now. Have another delivery from Royal Queen Seeds coming this week, have x3 Northern Lights auto, x3 Fat Banana auto, x5 blue cheese auto and x1 Royal Creamatic seeds on their way. Very excited to plan the next grow! Will be planting the next seeds approx 3 weeks prior to harvest of these Easy Bud so I can get a head start on next harvest. Monday 11th December Lots of growth whilst out at work today! Plants have responded really well to the LST, stems are thickening and the plants are really picking up in height! Adding Canna Cannazym to their feed schedule today to ensure old roots are broken down and reused by the plants. As a lovely extra surprise, my left plant seems to be showing she's a lady and is now in preflower! Got some photos, really excited to see this happening! Nothing showing on the right hand plant but she is a bit behind and has been since her shell helmet. Really proud of progress so far, will keep doing what I'm doing! Tuesday 12th December Nothing much to report, plants are continuing to grow really nicely, no signs of issues on the leaves so I'll keep doing what I've been doing, it seems to be going well so far! Lots more preflower growth on the left plant, still no signs of anything on the right plant but I'm hopeful something will show in the next few days. Ordered some Vitalink Silicon Max after doing some research, hopefully the plants will see a good benefit from it. Thursday 14th December Terrible news today. One plant is well in to preflower and growing well, unfortunately noticed that my second plant has developed pollen sacs. Took some time and confirmed 8 of these sacs starting. After researching im aware if it were to release pollen it could ruin the other plant, so I took the decision to remove the plant and start from seed. I have no other environment to grow a herm solo, so it's for the best and part of growing I suppose. Very disheartened but the survivor is looking better every day. See you tomorrow! 😁

Friday 15th December First day of week 4 commences, unfortunately a plant down but marching on with a smile on my face 🙂 She's growing at a great pace, everything is going really well and the plant overall from what research I've done, and from other peoples grow diaries seems to be doing really bloody well. I'm excited to see this plant all the way to harvest, so here's to hoping we make it that far! I've planted a new Northern Lights Auto today, spent 24 hours in a glass of water before going in an RQS easy plug. Hoping that this will line up timing wise with harvesting this easy bud so it's well in to its growth. I'm going to post less frequently moving forwards just because I'm aware viewers flicking through minimal growth day to day may be boring, so I'll be posting semi regularly or at important moments moving forward. I'll also be starting a new diary for the Northern Lights as she goes, thanks for checking in!

Saturday 23rd December I think we are officially now in flower! Lots of bud sites developing well, leaves are looking great, have introduced Shogun Sumo Boost to try and maximise whatever yield we manage to create! Really proud of the progress, performing light defoliation (1-2 leaves) once every 3 days. Still using LST but more to arrange stems for better light penetration over the whole plant. We move on in to week 5, approx 1 month to harvest!

Friday 29th December 2023 Week six is here! Still seeing brilliant growth, can see a massive increase in water uptake and I'm currently watering at a rate of a liter per day. Lots and lots of bud sites forming, I'm over the moon with how healthy the plant looks overall, as a first timer it's reassuring to see it go so well for so long on a first run. Saturday 30th December 2023 Had a big day today! Decided to swap rooms that my HS80 tent was in to free room up for my wife, and give me more room around the tent. New spot is much better and the tent is back to normal operation, both plants are growing really well. Still feeding as per feed guides, removed one large fan leaf in the last 2 days - looking at the growth I estimate I'll have 5 good main colas, with plenty of smaller bud sites down low. Fingers crossed! See you soon!

Friday 5th January The first day of week 7 is here. The plant is going from strength to strength, it has a really good number of bud sites forming and appears to be putting out trichomes all over now. As a first timer, I cannot believe we've got this far and I'm so excited to see this grow to the end. By my timings we should be thinking about harvesting this by the end of January. Still feeding as per manufacturers recommendations, the plant is getting thirstier and I'm at just over 1l per day now. Seems to be going super well! 😁

Friday 12th January 2024 The first day of week 8! The plant is well in to flower, each bud site it fattening nicely and the grow is going really smoothly so far. Had no issues with the tent, any of the equipment and this little Easy Bud has thrived under a complete newcomer. A* awarded to Royal Queen Seeds for their genetics I suppose! Stopped using PK13/14 and have been doing 1L feeds with and without nutes on a one on one off schedule. Everything is going really well, I'm hoping that in a weeks time we *may* consider starting to flush, but I'll take any input from anyone reading on when to start! Thursday 18th January Day 55 is upon us, a day shy of starting week 9! The plant is doing really well, remember I'm a total novice and this is my first ever grow, but look at her! All the buds are getting bigger every day, I honestly cannot believe I've got this far and in all honesty, I haven't had any dramas whatsoever throughout the whole grow. I slowed right down doing diary updates as I have been really busy at work, but I've been as strict as day 1 with feeding, monitoring and keeping the grow environment as dialled as possible to keep things consistent. I can only thank this site for the massive knowledge its provided me as having pictures to sit and stare at take out a massive amount of guess work as a newbie. I've also gained a great deal of knowledge from YouTube and general Google searches. I can't thanks RQS enough not only for the seeds that seem to have great genetics, but also for their huge and comprehensive help and guides section on their site, it's been an amazing resource for learning and helped me prevent some disasters along the way. Hoping to harvest in the next week or two, but I'll take it patiently and keep an eye on those trichomes. Still feeding at a reduced rate and she seems to be trucking along just fine. I've added a photo of the plant through a x30 loupe and I do apologise for the terrible photography I have shaky hands. But all looks to be coming along just great. Tomorrow is day 1 of week 9, see you there!

Week 9 commences! Friday 19th January 2024 Currently feeding the plant 1.5L of feed per day, everything seems to be going really well. Keeping an eye on those trichomes, will be harvesting soon hopefully! Thursday 25th January 2024 Day 62 is here and we have a war wound to discuss! Me and my wife have 3 pugs that live at home with us, and unfortunately one little terror (pictured) found her way upstairs to the room with my tent in it whilst I was moving things around. I turned, tripped over said terror and fell across the top of this plant, by some miracle not totally flattening it but unfortunately I have caused the top bud to snap off as pictured. Looking at this bud with my loupe it looks as if it was majority milky with a smattering of amber. Its a dense, solid bud that looks like it was ready to harvest anyway, so I suppose an impromptu selective harvest was forced on me by my pug! It's a real shame as the plant has lost its majesty, but it has a very even canopy now so I'm hoping it will develop lovely and evenly up to harvest day. I've done a quick wet trim of the bud that was the casualty, I'll allow it to dry and add that to my end weight total. What an evening!

Week 10 begins! Friday 26th January 2024 Hey guys, the finish line approaches! The plant is still looking great and doesn't appear to have suffered too much losing its head to the pug shenanigans. That top bud is in an airing cupboard drying slowly, can't wait to have a smoke of my first ever home grown bud. I think she has a week left in her. Most diaries I've seen of this strain show a 10-11 week total grow period, she's quite stout but producing plenty of flower and I can see a wave of change in the colour of the leaves as she matures. Really fucking proud of my progress for a first timer, seriously this isn't a cliche when I say if I can do it, so can you. I've watched hours of YouTube videos, looked through lots of diaries and honestly it's been an absolute delight start to (almost) finish. I'm going to start flushing the plant from today, so I'm guessing I'll see a big change in the leaves over the next week or so. Hoping that we will be harvesting this plant in 7 days time. I'm also going to upgrade the extractor in the tent to a 6 inch unit and recycle the weak 4 inch one I have now to make a DIY bud drying box. The variety this hobby provides is amazing to me, I'm hooked!

The end. Fin.