First Grow || Puff the Magic Dragon!

BigBadLion Hey everyone! 😃 This is my first time growing anything. I assembled the LEDs by myself and everything else was bought pretty much "done". I'm still learning a lot and this first week was indeed quite extreme. The first days were the worst because I was getting quite anxious since I wasn't sure if the method I used to germinate the seed was done correctly (or even optimal) but in the end everything worked out well! 😍 Some days after I noticed the shell from the seedling wasn't getting off 😱 And after reading around I found out that what was happening to "Puff" was called "helmet head" and most of the times it'll fall off by itself but I was still worried because the pictures I saw seemed a bit different compared to what was happening to my seedling so I tried to remove the "skin" that was surrounding the cotyledons by watering its the sides with a Q-tip and some lukewarm water. I waited 15 minutes and then gently pull it off. 😃 I think I did it well because the plant quickly opened itself and the leafs seem to be growing again! I'll keep this updated so if anyone has any kind if helpful information it'd be great to know! And before I forget to mention it, I called the plant "Puff the Magic Dragon" as a charm of good luck! 😜 Thanks for reading! 😀

BigBadLion Well, it's finally time for an update, right? And for a newbie like me this week has been quite eventful! 😲 After last week's "Helmet Head" (which I suppose was my fault for not burying the seed deep enough 😱) her leaves started to look twisty, Honestly don't know why that happened but my three hypothesis are: because that's just the way she is, because I didn't properly bury the seed or I made a mistake somewhere else. However I also think she looks pretty and this makes her look quite "special" 👍. In her 6-7th day after sprouting I noticed her leaves started to look even more twisty and she was about to outgrow her cup. I worried and decided that it was the right moment to transplant her. At first I didn't know "how" to do it and all I knew is that I could shock her if I did it wrong (which worried me haha 😨). None of the sites I checked really specified any kind of information regarding how I should prepare the medium for the new plant (just some vague information here and there) so I came with the idea to just water it bit and then "massage" the soil to avoid making it "lumpy" and I feel it did work out well in the end! I feel I didn't shock her much and in her second day she was growing even more as well! Nice! 😍 Next week I'll start feeding Puff with some nutrients but the PPM of the tap water where I live is somewhat high (around 600) and it's electroconductivity is around 1200 us/cm but a lot of growers in here still use it (they just wait for chlorine to evaporate) so I'll try doing the same. I'll use half dose of Biobizz Bio Grow and half dose of another product called Gold Sunshine from Quemanta (which is Cal-Mag with some amino acids) and see how things develop! 😃 I'll try to see if I can make my DSLR take the photos for future timelapses, because my webcam sucks for that job! Thanks everyone for reading 😉

BigBadLion Hey everyone! This week's update is a little late because I had a lot of work and my camera wasn't working as expected for some reason! Anyway, this week Puff has shown a lot of growth this week! I also decided to let her grow naturally (that means no LST or Topping, because I fear I might end stressing her!) I will repeat as well that this is my very first attempt at growing cannabis and I'm still quite unsure how much water I should use. I always read that I always need to have some runoff water but I have no idea how much water that's supposed to be (I don't want to end using too many fertilizers or too much water because I fear that might end hurting my plant more than actually helping her!). During this week I watered twice, the first one was with 250ml (some few days later the tips of her leaves started to turn yellow) and the second one (after growing a lot) was with 1 liter. I never had runoff water. Besides that I think Puff is growing nice! My only worry right now tho (besides of the slight yellowing in her tips, which stopped) is that some of her leaves are starting to wrinkle a little, specially the parts where the leaves "meet". Anyway, I'll post more photos about that issue next week and how it's progressing. Thanks everyone for reading! :D

BigBadLion Sorry again for the late update! I wanna start with the good news! So far I'm super impressed with Puff, she looks wonderful and holy cow, she grows fast! She's HUGE right now! I can also tell this week is when she was about to go into flowering and that I could be sure that she was going to be a girl! And let me say it, It felt quite nice to know it for sure (I feared I was going to stress her and turn into a herm, haha.) Besides the good news, not all of them were good. I kept feeding her half dose of nutrients and I fear that ended hurting her. There was some slight yellowing in her tips and I was clueless (I still don't know) what's happening to her, it's obvious it's some kind of deficiency... but which one?. Was it because she was growing and I was slow at rising the lights? Maybe some kind of toxicity? Or maybe I needed to add more nutrients and she was starving? I still don't know but in the end I just added some extra nutrients into the mix, hoping that maybe she just needed some more "food" (after all, I was checking the pH and other details). She did improve but some slight yellowing was still there. Will keep everyone updated with what happens next, because next week it'll be the first one of her flowering stage! Wee! :D

BigBadLion SHE'S HUGE! I'm extremely impressed on how much she has grown the past few days and how much progress she had shown in so little time. This week (previous, my bad) started with some little flowers but now they are huge! And probably they are going to get even bigger! This week was also quite extreme. Puff was showing some deficiencies and I think that's because I wasn't using enough fertilizers (half a dose for Biobizz Light-Mix) but after reading I think I managed to get the issues under control (I hope!). She's no longer getting more "yellow", right now she's on a "light greenish" color and I hope that gets better with time. The leaves at the bottom are lost now but I suppose that's somewhat normal. Thanks for reading! :D

BigBadLion Another week and another update in this adventure! :D So far I think things have been going well with Puff, the buds are getting fatter (or that's what I think!) and every day she's getting more and more "frosty" and smelly! 👽 Not everything was great this week tho, I think my plant is going thru something and I'm not quite sure what's the cause. I check/adjust the pH and I try to use water with low ppm... so my only option is that I underfed her when she was growing (or maybe what's happening is just normal and I'm overreacting) and these are the results! Anyway, there are all the photos! Thanks everyone! Any kind of comment would be awesome! 😻

BigBadLion Hey everyone! Here's another update! Allow me to start by saying that this week has been weird but at he same it has quite rewarding! I believe I've learnt a lot! (more about this later). I believe Puff's flowers look beautiful. There has been a lot of trichomes development (froooosssty!) and terpenes are now present pretty much everywhere! 😍 Obviously tho not everything is perfect, there's still a lot of yellow in her leaves and even when the trichomes are getting more and more notorious I believe she's a little behind as there should be more of them so probably there's some damage that I won't be able to fix in time before I harvest her (all because of the yellowing!) This week I changed the amount of nutrients that I was feeding her and I believe the yellowing is getting better (or at least not getting worse, hard to tell for me, even with all the photos I've taken!) but like how I said before, I believe the yellowing made some permanent damage to Puff (hopefully I'm wrong tho). A lot of the lower leaves have dried and fallen from her too, the ones at the bottom! :'( Also, some hours before making this update (day 2 of week 8) and while I was reading about plant deficiencies I checked the recommended nutrient schedule one more time just to be sure everything was OK... and that's when I noticed the mistake that I made for so many weeks! I was using the wrong chart for Puff! My soil is Light-Mix, not All-Mix 😨😱 (at this stage I should've been feeding Puff with 4 ml/l and I was just using 1 ml/l)... yikes! 😩 So the whole problem is probably a deficiency of Nitrogen and Potassium (or at least, that's what I think!) since the other products have a normal amount of Phosphorus. If anyone knows better please let me know! 🙏 I also think that I might need to delay the harvest for at least one or two weeks (so I can properly flush the roots) but that will depend on the trichomes. Ouch! 😥 Next week I'll add more BioGrow and hopefully the plants will start getting a little more green again! Thanks again for reading and sorry for making this update so long! 😖 PD: I don't think my plant is suffering from Mal-Mag deficiencies (I hope! 🙏) since Gold Sunshine is a Cal-Mag supplement with aminoacids. I also have my plants in a proper watering schedule (2-3 times a week and I weight and put my finger in the soil to see if they need water)... but I'll let everyone know next week! Nitrogen and Potassium might be the ones at fault!

BigBadLion Hey everyone! 😁 Another week, another update and I've learnt a lot this week! It seems my theory that I was underfeeding Puff was right (I mean, it's not rocket science and I confused charts haha) and I had to do something to fix this issue! Some people I talked with recommended me to buy a product called "Revive" from Advanced Nutrients since it would help with a faster recovery than just adapting the nutrients... and it seems it works! I applied it twice (this week's post) and the next and the improvements are really noticeable! (specially now!) My concern now tho is when I should start flushing! Puff should be ready soon and supposedly I should start doing it two weeks before harvest... and I should harvest when trichomes are 50 cloudy and 50 amber... but how can I tell when I those two weeks are close? The trichomes should be 20% amber? 10% amber? It's confusing! 😱 I know as well that the two weeks flush is just a number, I could also flush for one week but I still don't know WHEN it'll be the right time to start doing it but I think that by the middle of the next week or by the end of it I'll start doing it. Anyway, thanks everyone for reading this update! 😃 Next week I'll have more news! 😜

BigBadLion Hey everyone! 😎 Another week and another update! Gladly this week has been more relaxed compared to the previous ones but some interesting things happened! The yellowing is pretty much gone (there's still some but nothing too serious compared how it looked at the start of the previous week and there are some photos showing how the leafs have changed!). The plant also grew 2 centimeters which is amazing and near the end of this week I started to notice the very first amber trichomes which means I might be really close to start flushing and then harvest! I also used a new product this week (Brown Sugar) and I think it's helping! The buds look nice and I think they've gotten a little bigger/thicker (the calyxes specially)! There were some new pistils growing too which made me worry first but I suppose I shouldn't worry about them for now! Anyway, thanks for reading! Next week I'll have more updates! ;)

BigBadLion Happy new year everyone! Sorry for the late update but I was somewhat busy and didn't have enough time to make this post! (and probably on saturday I'll update the next week too!) This week is when I started with the flush and to be honest it felt weird because I needed to use SO MUCH WATER to properly do it and I didn't have enough the first time I did it, so the 2nd time I watered her I used about 6 times more compared to the last time! A lot! She has also started to show some yellowing (not too much) and I suppose that's normal considering at what stage she is. I'll flush for a total of two weeks and I've been checking the trichomes closely! I'll also try to aim for mostly cloudy and a little of amber to see how it feels. Thanks for reading! :D

BigBadLion Hey everyone! 👋 Another update! And this time it was also late, but not as much as the previous one! :P This is the Puff's last week before harvest! I've been flushing her for two weeks with Flawless Finish and at the start of the week is when the leaves started to show some more serious yellowing. Nothing too serious as I was expecting to actually see that. At the same time I've been constantly checking the trichomes to know their progressing in case I had to harvest before the end of the week but everything was just fine. Initially my idea was to harvest when the trichomes were 50% cloudy and 50% amber but ultimately decided to go for mostly cloudy and a little ambar! I have everything ready for next week and I'm both excited and sad! I grew attached to the plant but at the same time I know it needs to reach a conclusion! Thanks everyone for reading! :D

BigBadLion Well, here we are! The final moment and Puff is finally ready! 😃 This was my very first growth experience ever and I had a blast while I was doing it! 😎 Puff took a total of 86 days from seed till it was ready to smoke/vape/whatever or 77 days till harvest. All that's left now is to cure her to improve her effects and taste! About the experience itself? Well, I won't deny it, it was super rewarding and I loved it! The most memorable moments were when she sprouted (because I had the weird idea that I messed things up and nothing was going to happen 😭), when the first set of leaves appeared, the first flowers or when the flowers started to get big! All those were very remarkable moments... and sure, I know I made tons of mistakes but I'm hopeful that I won't make them again (please!) in the future. I'm eager to start my next growth! 😍 Also, when I gave her a try I must say that I felt incredibly sensitive everywhere (in a good way) and food tasted amazingly well (but it didn't make me feel hungry)! Maybe this information will help someone! Oh, also. Puff was grown with other 4 sisters and each of them took a 5th of the grow tent space and one COB for each of them. That's why it says I only used 50w on her! And... thanks to everyone for reading my reports! Hopefully they were good and I hope my questions might might find them useful (even when they might've been a little too obvious for some!) 😳 Thanks again and good smokes! 🙌