A Couples First Try Growing

I’m not sure if it’s the right time to start a new phase, but since more than a week has passed, I’ll just keep going. All 4 plants are developing pretty much the same, although one is still more stretched than the others. I don’t think there’s much I can do about that right now. On 12.10, we gave all 4 plants 0.8L of water mixed with 2 ml of Hesi Bloom Complex. I don’t have an electric pH meter yet, but I tested the water with pH strips, which showed 6.2. And we named each one after female Elden Ring characters. Ranni, Malenia, Miquella, Marika. I’m really eager to turn on the Autopot system because the grow tent is quite far from us, and cycling there is exhausting. I started tracking how many trips I’ve made so I can feel proud of the workout once the buds are ready! So far, I’ve clocked about 125 km However, another Autopot user mentioned that it can take up to 3 weeks before the plants can start feeding from the system, so I’ll wait for now. IMPORTANT UPDATE 13.10 I made another mistake, and I’m not sure how much it will affect the plants. I accidentally used Hesi Bloom Complex instead of TNT Complex. A day later, the plants seem to have handled it okay, but we’ll see. I’ve now bought all the fertilizers I need and will follow Hesi’s feeding schedule from next week. I might need to flush the soil, but I’ll wait and see. This is our second mistake in our first grow, but hopefully, we’ll still get good results. Growing has been pretty stressful so far, lol! Update 14.10: Since the plants seem to be doing fine despite the wrong fertilizer, I’ve increased the LED light intensity from 20% to 40%. Update 15.10: The plants appear to be enjoying the additional light. I’m just waiting for them to need water again so I can start using the correct fertilizers, haha. Update 17.10: I didn’t check on the plants for a day, and when I did, I noticed a spot on one of the leaves. It could be from thrips, although I haven’t seen any insects yet. I’ll keep a very close eye on how this develops. Otherwise, the plants seem to be growing well. My plan is to water them one more time with 50% of the Hesi-recommended nutrients, just to be careful after the fertilizer mix-up. I also want to start using the Autopot system, so I’ll water the plants with around 2L of water and 50% Hesi nutrients. Then I plan to fill the Autopot tank with 10L of water and 100% of the Hesi-recommended dose, and switch it on right after watering, as the manufacturer suggests. Update 18.10: The spot on the leaf hasn’t changed since yesterday. We followed through with the plan I mentioned before. While watering, one of the plants bent heavily to the side, so we’ll see if it sustained any damage. We stabilized it, along with another plant, using gardening wire—something I’ve never used before. We also turned on the Autopot system. I’m, once again, worried that we might have started it too early or messed something up, but fingers crossed everything will be fine. Update 19.10 I can’t tell yet if the plants are feeding themselves from the Autopot system. I accidentally damaged one of the leaves on our strongest-looking plant, so I ended up cutting off the damaged part. When we first prepared the pots, we didn’t fill them up all the way, even though we had extra soil. So, I decided to top them off today—better late than never. While vacuuming the soil that spilled on the ground, I damaged the leaf I mentioned earlier, which is why I had to trim it.

Update 20.10: It's a new week, so I thought I’d share a side-view photo. All the plants are looking good, though 2 out of the 4 are a bit smaller than the others. I still can’t tell if the Autopot system is working, but I’ve come up with the idea to measure the distance between the top of the tank and the water level. If it decreases over the next two days, it should mean the system is working. Update 21.10: The damaged leaf has developed small yellowish spots, but I don’t think it’s too concerning. I’ll be cutting off those leaves when I top the plants in about a week, right before they go through the ScrOG net. The water level in the Autopot tank has decreased by just over 1 cm, but that’s still a small change, so I’m not completely convinced the plants are ready for the system yet. I’ll keep an eye on it—if the level keeps dropping, it’s obviously working. Update 24.10: I don’t have much news. The leaves are slightly curled up at the edges, which usually indicates too much fertilizer, so I added more tap water to the Autopot tank. I’ve also started using a technique called "Pulse," where you stop the flow from the tank for a day or so to stress the plant and encourage root growth. I’ll be very careful with it, though, because I don’t want to mess anything up, so I’ll likely turn the system back on tomorrow.

Update 27.10: Hi there, it’s a new week, and everything has been going well so far. The two plants in the back are still a bit smaller than those in the front. I have no idea why since I measured to make sure the pots are centered in the tent. On a positive note, the Autopot system is definitely working! (i Think lol) Tomorrow, I’ll be topping the plants for the first time, right before they go through the ScrOG net in about 1-2 weeks. Fingers crossed I don’t mess it up! Update 28.10: As planned, I topped all four plants today and went ahead with the first defoliation. It was really stressful at first, but after I got going, it actually turned out to be pretty fun! I kept three nodes plus an extra leaf pair on each plant—it just felt better to leave that extra leaf pair. I’m slightly worried that I may have messed something up, but in my opinion, all the plants are looking really good. I won’t have time to check on them tomorrow, so the next update will be on 30.10, when I’ll increase the light intensity to 60%. In about a week (or a little more), I’ll start with the first layer of the ScrOG net—I have a second layer for it as well. Update 30.10: The plants are looking great, and they seem noticeably larger than two days ago. One plant is still a bit smaller than the others—maybe just genetics, not sure. I cleaned out the Autopot tank and refilled it with fresh water and fertilizers. I also fixed a small mistake in the way I’d hung the lamp and increased the light intensity to 60%. My new fan arrived—a 30W MonkeyFan. My grow guru suggested a stronger fan, as my old one was only 15W. I didn’t have a screwdriver today, so I’ll hang it up tomorrow, along with finally installing the BetterNet. Update 31.10: I did what I planned yesterday. I hung up the new 30W MonkeyFan, and it’s way stronger than the previous one. I also installed the BetterNet, and everything went smoothly. All the plants are looking great. Update 2.11: The plants are growing at a great rate. I noticed a hole in one leaf, possibly from topping, and on the same plant, one of the new nodes has slightly unhealthy-looking edges. I checked closely with my handheld microscope for any insects but couldn’t spot any. Since the plant itself and its growth rate look great, I’m trying not to be too concerned. Tomorrow starts a new week, which might even be the last veg week—next week, we’re definitely hitting the ScrOG net. So far, I’ve clocked in a total of 300 km on my bike to visit the tent, which is 5.8 km away. You can see how often I’m checking up on it!

Update 3.11. It’s a new week again! This week, ScrOG will finally start. This might even be the last week of veg, though I’ll wait and see how things develop. I’ll switch to flowering once most of the canopies from the net are filled with a node. The Autopot system is working great, but next run, I want to get the Airdome base for the pots and maybe switch to a solid fertilizer so I only have water in the tank. I’m already thinking about which seeds to get for my next run—maybe something with a more sativa-heavy profile. Update 6.11 I removed some unwanted nodes and leaves and started bending the first nodes into the desired canopy positions. I also bought a 25L/24h capacity dehumidifier since my humidity has been constantly around 75%. The plants are all looking great, and the smell is starting to pick up too. Update 8.11 The dehumidifier still hasn’t arrived, unfortunately. The plants are all looking great, except for one node that I accidentally broke at its base while trying to bend it into the ScrOG net. It didn’t break fully, so I’m hopeful it can still recover. I also removed some leaves that were blocking other nodes. Update 10.11 Today is the last day of veg! The nodes on the back-left plant haven’t quite made it through the net yet, but since all the others are taking off in size, I think it’s time to start flowering tomorrow. The one node I nearly broke hasn’t fully recovered, but it hasn’t worsened either, so I’ll leave it and see how it goes. I’m super excited to begin the flowering stage—it’s funny to think that if they need around 8 weeks, harvest will fall right around New Year! Oh and the dehumidifier still hasn’t arrived yet.

Update 11.11. First day of flowering! I bumped the light intensity up to 80%, set the schedule to 12/12, and raised the LED height. Switched over to the bloom fertilizers too. All plants are looking fantastic, though the one node that was nearly broken still hasn’t recovered—I might need to cut it if it doesn’t improve. Update 17.11. Last day of the first week of flowering! Three out of four plants are developing great, but the back-left one is quite a bit smaller. Unfortunately, I can’t raise its level because of the Autopot system, so it won’t develop the same as the others. Didn’t do much this week aside from setting up the second ScrOG net and removing a few leaves and some nodes. I’ve decided to hold off on removing any more nodes until around two weeks from now when I’ll lollipop all the plants. The dehumidifier I got is doing an amazing job—it feels like the plants are loving it, and they’ve started drinking a lot more water.

Update 18.11: Everything is looking great besides the one smaller plant in the back left, which is still lagging behind the others. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do to help it because of the Autopot system. Sorry for the late update—I’ve been really busy with work! Update 22.11 Today was defoliation day! My grow mentor advised me to remove the "big sun leaves"—basically the leaves that sprouted directly from the main stem, as well as others of the same size since they block airflow. I followed their advice and did exactly that. I really hope I didn’t cut off too much, but my mentor assured me that I didn’t, so I’m feeling pretty hopeful that everything will continue to go smoothly. Growing is so much fun!

Update 25.11 The third week of flowering has officially started, and the first buds are forming—so exciting! Everything is looking great so far. Update 28.11 I removed some nodes that had grown too far vertically from their colas, as well as a few leaves.

Update 3.12. Due to stress at work, I couldn’t keep up with updating the diary, sorry about that. The plants are developing well, but the stretch has been (and still is) completely crazy and really caught me off guard. I had to rearrange how I hung my lights to create more space, while also bending down the tallest buds to prevent light burn, as they got as close as 10 cm to the LEDs. I could and should have used the nets more effectively to manage this, but as I said, the insane stretch really surprised me. The height difference between the tallest and smallest plant is over 40 cm, which I find absurd, considering I treated and fed all the plants the same. Oh well, that’s the randomness of working with seeds, I guess.

Update 9.12: Forgot to update here! The height of the plants really exploded, especially one of them, which is now way too close to the LEDs. I’ve had to bend the tallest colas down using garden wire. For the next run, I definitely want to make better use of the ScrOG net to avoid this situation. That said, all the plants are looking healthy and developing well—even the smaller one has caught up a little bit. This run has already taught me why working with a mother plant and clones would be preferable in the future.

Update 20.12: Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong thinking everything was going well. One of my plants is forming seeds all over, which obviously means it came into contact with male pollen. I have no clue where the pollen came from—either I accidentally brought it in, or it entered while we were letting fresh air into the apartment. I’ve checked all of my plants thoroughly and couldn’t find any “bananas” or other signs of hermaphroditism. But this plant is absolutely full of seeds, so I’ll be doing an emergency harvest tomorrow. It’s not going to improve THC-wise, so there’s no point in waiting. Another plant has around 4–8 buds with visible seeds as well. I’ll be cutting those buds off too. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time; I really needed a solid harvest from this grow. I just hope the other plants don’t get affected further. I’m also worried about the plant sharing the same base in the Autopot system as the seeded one. It might not get water properly now. What a disaster—rip.

Update 23.12: Due to Christmas, I didn’t have time to update this diary earlier. Last week, we had to do an emergency harvest and take out 2 of the 4 plants. The reason? They somehow came into contact with pollen. I couldn’t find any bananas, though I did notice some light brown residue on the roots. It didn’t smell, so I think it’s an early stage of root rot. Still, I can’t explain how there were so many seeds on two plants without spotting any bananas or other signs like leaf problems or poor growth. The remaining plants are still developing and don’t have nearly as many seeds, so I’ve decided to keep them running and hope for the best. Since this is our first grow, a big harvest would’ve been amazing for us, but oh well—live and learn. I think I already know what went wrong. The clay pebbles I used at the base of the pots didn’t provide the aeration I’d hoped for, unlike the AutoPot AirBase + Airdome system, which I’ve already bought for the next run. I also forgot to install a small air pump in the water tank to keep the water circulating and oxygenated, so it’s likely the water went stagnant. I’m confident these improvements will make the second run much better. Funny side story: I told my dad about all this, and he just laughed and told me to relax. Back in his day, all the weed they had was full of seeds! 😂