Never smoked/First grow

It's been about one and a half weeks. All three seedlings are doing well. The weather has been really variable, some hot sunny days and some rainy. Things seem to be going good so far...

Plants are doing great, all three were transplanted 4 days ago into 3 gallon bags. Added myco to the ocean forest and watered. I'm trying out some blumats, not sure I'll rely on them much. Temps have been up and down and I'm a little worried it's too hot in the greenhouse so I bought a shade cloth. I'll try that out and see if I can get the temp down when needed. I've got an exhaust fan set up and a fan in the greenhouse as well which are helping.

3 weeks into veg and these 3 are doing great. I've set up some watering systems as I need to take some brief trips. I'm using Blumats as passive backup and a solar system as my active system. Very simple and working well so far. I also started an integrated pest control plan using diatomaceous earth, sticky traps and neem oil. I'm growing in a greenhouse with other plants and some of them are having minor pest issues so I figured I would just start trying to protect the entire operation. Amazed at how well they are growing.

All plants did well while I was away and look to be thriving. One plant seems to be ahead of the others in regards to flowering. One is a bit small even though I think they are all getting about the same light. I think this week I'll start adding some tiger bloom to help with the flowers/buds.

They have started flowering and the growth has been amazing to watch. I guess this is why they call it the "stretch". The bigger of the 3 plants is a little behind in buds, the one slightly smaller is forming a lot of buds and they are looking healthy. The runt of the bunch looks healthy but less than half the size. I started adding Tiger Bloom every other day, about 1.5ml/half liter for each plant. It's been colder and higher humidity lately but I think it's looking warmer ahead. I'm a little worried about humidity being too high at night but with an outdoor grow there is only so much I can do. I am adding a vent fan controller off a humidity controller for the nights to help a little.

All three plants are doing well, still growing and budding like crazy. Even the runt has almost caught up with the other two. Buds are getting more numerous and bigger. Unfortunately there's a heat wave where I live so I'm a little worried about I'll effects. It's into the mid 90s F during the day. I've added additional ventilation to hopefully help and there's always been a fan running. The plants seen fine but I've heard the heat can hurt the buds. I'm not stressed about this though, just learning and having fun with this. Edit# I got a simple digital microscope and got a look at the trichomes developing.

Still going really strong. Plants aren't getting taller but the buds are getting much larger. I did some cautious defoliation but was careful not to cut too much. Microscope is showing more mature trichomes and some of the pistils are turning brown. Saw a few amber trichomes but I think I still have a week or two left.

Buds are really filling out, the pistils are turning brown and plants are getting frosty. I did see evidence that some trichomes are turning amber but didn't get any good pictures with my microscope. I think I've got my drying chamber set up so I think I'm almost ready. One plant looks like I could harvest it in a week and the two others are looking a week behind maybe. I'm not in a rush, they are looking great.

The buds are looking good and maturing nicely. The big news this week is I noticed some spots on the leaves and looked at them under a microscope and found spider mites. Before flowering I had been treating with neem oil but stopped. The infestation isn't terrible because I had already started defoliating and I really cut back everything I could now. Since I'm close to harvest I could maybe just let things go for another week and do nothing but instead I ordered 1500 ladybugs to try to clean up the plants before harvest and also protect the rest of my plants. Bummer but it really doesn't look like a major issue. I will wash my plants before drying regardless to help clean up things as well.

A lot going on as I get closer to harvest. I'm laughing to myself because I've never smoked pot but I'm already getting paranoid lol. There are so many minor concerns I'm feeling like I should harvest but it's clearly a little early. The mites are under control with the ladybugs doing there job well. I saw some leaves that looked a little burned from too much fertilizer so I backed off my already low dose and then I got leaves yellowing lol. I had some mold despite having a fan going so I added another fan and reorganized my greenhouse to get better airflow. It's been so hot I'm seeing foxtailing on the runt that was the slowest to grow and develop. Lastly a guy from the city came to my house to look for a manhole of all things he thought was in my backyard, there isn't one of course, but I had to let him back there. There's no way he didn't smell and see in the greenhouse and the almost ready to harvest plants... This is legal but now I'm a target for theft possibly. I want to go another couple of weeks but I'm getting more and more worried about it lol. I'll try to stay patient a little longer! Update! I found some bud rot! This plant has and mold in it's leaves that I have been removing. It was clear there wasn't enough airflow so I rearranged my greenhouse and removed a couple plants and added another fan. Too late. It looks early and wasn't everywhere so I I removed any questionable bud and then cleaned my tol and hands. If I see any signs of spreading I'll remove the plant.

After discovering the bud rot on the plant in the corner I chopped off everything that was suspect and rearranged my greenhouse for better airflow and added a second fan. I decided to harvest the plant that was next to it as it looked mature judging the trichome appearance. This grow is all about fun and learning and I wanted to make sure I got something all the way through the process even if it's not optimal. That's been drying for about a week. I washed that with 4 washes, hydrogen peroxide, lemon and baking soda, and two cold water rinses. I inspected it really closely as well to make sure there were no signs of rot. The sick plant is now isolated and most of it looks great. The top cola is changing a bit and I'm not sure if it's rot or normal changes at the end of flowering. The two other plants are looking great. One is the runt of the three stress killer seeds and the last smallest plan is actually a fast Eddy from the first seeds I planted and made a bunch of mistakes. This plant is stunted but I let it grow just to see what would happen and it's at 12 or 13 weeks now. I'll let everything go another week and harvest.

The last few weeks were quite the roller coaster. The first plant I emergency harvested is already dry and trimmed and curing. I'll made tincture with the trimming. I did my 4 washes again before setting up to dry. I found that one of my spare rooms had about perfect setting for drying and the smell wasn't bad with a fan and carbon filter running. After the aggressive removal of bud rot I didn't lose much more and lesson learned about over crowding. It was a really fun experience overall, thanks for the helpful comments and I'll return with a report after I finally try it. I've decided on a herb vape. Good luck and happy growing!