First Grow AF

The other two seeds had radicles but seemed to stall out. Tried paper towels but ended up putting them in substrate too on 1/2. Hope they just need a little more time to cook. Week 1 of seedling life for 2 of 4 seeds. Helmet head on one seedling, the other shakes it pretty well. One looking a little better than the other at this point. Keeping soil moist, no need to water or add nutrients yet. chandler running slightly behind Rachel. Chandlers cotyledons looked a little damaged but seems to be getting started ok. Phoebe seed has died. Monica looks like cotyledons are developing but we will see..: for now not giving up on her!

Week 2 of veg is here! A little worried about Chandler. Showing some vein chlorosis/yellowing of veins, not really the leaves between the veins. Rachel seems to be doing great. Monica is barely peeping o through the soil. Ursula is now in substrate but I might end up doing a second diary as they are now 2 weeks behind the first flight. 1/10 Gave another 100ml distilled water on Wednesday. Chandlers newer leaves don’t appear to have any or have as many yellow veins right now. Will continue to monitor. 1/11 I am just about ready to give up on Monica 😔 it doesn’t look like she has progressed at all in her pot. I learned several things from my first germ— don’t delay in removing from water and potting soil. Keep stable temp, darkness, humidity when checking/transplanting. Will give it just a few more days before I officially call it.

Starting 3rd week of veg, feeling cautiously hopeful. This week I hope to pot these babes up into my 5 gallon. Chandlers vein issues seem to be contained to the first set of true leaves so I’m hoping that issue is behind us. RIP Monica seed and Phoebe seed. Godspeed Ursula! 1/17 potting up day! I debated whether I wanted to plan for 1 pot up or place directly in final pots. I went with smaller fabric pots and the top of week 3 seems like it was the right time for these seeds. The roots were baaarely touching the fabric pots, not a lot of root loss or damage moving up. Nervous as hell though! I hope they do ok in their new homes. Last day of week 3 veg. I feel like I’ve gotten a hang of the grow conditions and keeping things consistent. Still need work on my nutrient plan but so far the soil and big pots have been very forgiving! Watering every 3-5 days now depending on how the soil feels and weighs. Ursula had a rough start but am seeing true leaves finally, I hope she pulls through! Watered deeply. No nutrients again, relying on fox farms happy frog to carry me through these first weeks. Slight smell developing devil

Let’s gooooo! Onto week 4. The ladies are doing nicely, really growing into their new pots well it seems. Still have only used minimal nutrients. Looking forward I will need to finalize my feeding plans. I need to drop my plants lower to get them further from the light. Faint smell in the tent. I’m gonna keep on keepin on! 1/27 I believe I can see signs Rachel is female. feminized seeds but always good to check cool

Week 5, going to say veg but am seeing some pre-flower activity on a Rachel. Chandler is tracking a few days behind. I gave nutrients an easy start, applying half strength according to fox farm guide. I’m watering slowly, pouring over til saturated and running off through grow bag. I’ve been collecting runoff to measure. Slightly concerned about ph bring low, will try to correct this week. Watering once every 3-5 days. I just dropped the level of my plants down,

First week or so of flowering, focused on getting ph on point and increasing nutrition. Still doing half strength trio ff plus cal mag. 1/week rn. New growth seems to have lighter tips a day or 2 after nutrients so I’m going easy. Chandler about 1.5 weeks behind

Well here we are into week 7! Rachel is coming along nicely. I think I’ve gotten a hang of ph control. Dialing in on ramping up nutrients this week!

Start of week 3 of flower. Week 8 above ground. Rachel is coming along nicely I think?! Some challenges showing up keeping the ph in line. Always tending to have slightly more acidic runoff than I’d like. Will continue to try to dial in and hope that solves some of the lead issues I’ve noticed on a few leaves of each plant. Watering once every 4 days or so. Almost halfway through week 3 and my poor Rachel could be looking better. I believe she’s showing signs of the effects of me not having a great handle on the ph and let it drift too low. I tried a rinse with ph-ed water, runoff started showing about 6.2 moving in right direction. Trying my hand a foliar feed of cal mal with a little surfactant in there a few hours before lights off. Will try to keep my vpd in ideal range and hope I can offset what I hope I correctly identified as cal mag deficiency due to low ph. We shall see! Chandler truck in along. Sunday update, I’ve removed some of the larger problematic fan leaves they were too far gone. I’m encouraged by the runoff being in better range for Rachel. Once she dries I’m hoping I can get her back on track with nutrients. Chandler lookin good, has creeped past Rachel in height, topping and all! Rookie error in lighting has distance between flowers looking a little sad right now but let’s see if she can make up for it in these last few weeks.

Here we are, start of 4 weeks of flower. Struggling with some fade and sad looking leaves mid canopy on Rachel. I’ve been removing the super problematic looking older leaves. Just hope she has enough health to make it to the finish line. Colas are bulking up significantly. Working hard to get that ph up. Day 69 from germination (3/11). I feel like I’m hanging on for dear life! Leaves suddenly not looking great at all on Rachel. I dont know if its end of life stage or I really just struggled with my ph til the end. Either way, i thank Rachel for her hard work and endurance. I think I’m a week to 10 days out if I can make it. Chandler looking a little less sad. My best guess at troubleshooting the leaves and knowing my low ph history gave some cal mag and will see how she reacts. Chandler has maybe 3 weeks or so to go. Hang in there girls!

I feel like I’m off the rails entering week 10! I’m definitely on trichome watch for Rachel. Chandler still has a few weeks more. But I noticed a significant decline in leaf health in Rachel particularly. I have several suspects: My low ph problems are coming to bite me big time. I did have some poor watering practices week before last as well (I was sick and they went thirsty too long). I just hope I can careen this and stick a somewhat decent landing, come on weed gods, be the wind in my sails! Haha

Week 11, day 4. Chandler was thirsty so I watered the gals. I am having much happier looking plants since switching from fully distilled water to my basement tap water, supplementing the distilled (about an 80-20 mix, introduced gradually). I let water sit at least 2 days before using, and am seeing about an 8ph starting point, which gets right to the sweet spot once nutrients are added. So I think I like this watering strategy. Damaged leaves did not improve so I trimmed them. Took some close up pics of the trichomes. I think harvest is near for Rachel. Chandler might need another week or 2. Amazing the differences in plants, same genetics, different growing conditions. I topped Chandler, and made an error in his lighting in the first half of the grow so he got lesser light than Rachel for most of his formative growth. Will be interesting to compare the harvests!

Holding. Will update later tonight.

Final week, let’s gooooo! I let the gals get away from me for a bit as I waited for chop time. So the edges are a little crispy on the leaves but otherwise, I’d say we had a successful first grow!

Way to go Rachel!