Very First Grow - I’m all In!

The first week that I took pictures. The seeds all popped within 24 hours of paper towel germination, after 24 hours in h2O2 and water. Transferred to super soil mix and rockwool respectively.

Confused on whether the first week is of seed germ or when it sprout so went with this as week 2. Since they all germinated I was kind of in a spot. Let them go or grow all. So after days of obsessive research I decided that just a single grow area wouldn’t do and decided that I’d in growing 9 plants at the same time, im gonna need more room and more light. So I built a space in my basement with reflective Mylar, exhaust fan, lighting (2 400w lights) and de-humid and humidifiers.

Learned about vpd chart. Obsessed over getting it perfect as I was afraid to lose any plants since I had gone overboard w my commitment to the grow. Plants doing well, although I def over watered as I didn’t realize it’s worse than under watering. Watching to see if they were ok about every hour. Strangely relaxing and satisfying although they felt like my new children now

Feeding ph’d water to soil plants and GH Flora series with hydro guard and cal max additions. Trying to get things set up as I was going to be away for a week and had a babysitter coming to watch the kids.

Between weeks 4/5 I was away. Beforehand I applied literally all the techniques I had seen used, LST, Topping, Mainlining (not full manifold), defoliation and super cropping. Figured worse case scenario they die and I learn some stuff. Plus wanted to let the watering/feeding be all that was needed by my Garden sitter when I was gone. I had not added any soil and nutrients info previously so here go: Soil - Super Soil mix (modded) in 5 gal Fabric pots 2 lb worm castings mixed throughout Natures Living Super Soil/ Fox Farms Ocean Forest (lower 1/3) Fox Farms Ocean Forest/FF Coco Loco mix (middle1/3) Fox Farms Coco Loco (top 1/3) Plant success Orco Mycorrhizae 3ml per gal or sprayed on roots at transplant PH’d water @ 6.5 w cal/mag added DWC - 5 gal DWC w 2 air stones per container (top feed disabled) General Hydroponics Flora Trio Feeding at 1/2 recommended of normal dosage Water ph @ 6.0 w Botanicare Hydroguard

Over the last week and a half the flowering really took off. Continued the light defoliation and LST to keep the spaces open on bushier plants. The super cropping and mainlining really made a difference in how the plants reacted. I even pulled some stems away from the base of the main stem accidentally and they recovered well. LST is def a beneficial technique when the timing is so quick and they are so bushy I probably stunted them in some ways but for my first go, I am very happy. Now that I am seeing the flowers starting I can’t help but to just look at them and day dream a little. Truly satisfying to see the hard work starting to come to fruition.

Another week and lots of progress. The dwc plants (3x Aeque Bubba Kush Mintz, 1x FB Gorilla Punch) are stretching big time. They are drinking and eating well so I bumped the pom do around 900 and they have responded super well. Used some super cropping to get some of the un topped stems lower on 2 plants. Defoliation was needed. Not many flower sites so far and kind of soft stems, thought might be due to lack of silica. Is on order. Will see how those continue to do. Soil plants (FB Mimosa Cake x2, FB Gorilla cookies x1, FB Gorilla Punch x2) are doing well but there’s a few concerns. The mimosa took to dropping like they were thirsty, but they didn’t take the watering to well. I checked the soil ph and it was high so I did a flush w lower oh water. Ppm also high so no extra feed. Also thought maybe wind burn so placed away from fan. Will monitor as they were the best looking and growing well. The gorilla punch is the tall boy and got the early test run of manifolding and topping as my experiment in those techniques. It’s seems to be super happy and healthy so there’s something to those techniques. Finally the fav so far for me is gorilla cookies (a feeebie!). It’s stacking buds and getting frosty. Smells skunky and is just a happy plant. If I lose every other one I would be ok but not if something happens to that one. I think that one will be done sooner than the others.

Good progress. Buds getting fatter so I’m happy. Starting to see some amber hairs and the smell is strong. Bubba Kush Mintz - after upping the PPM and EC to 1100 and 2.0-2.5 the plants are really responding well. One is slightly behind and I can’t be mad. It will get there I think. Definitely gonna be a pushing them a bit harder over the next few weeks and see if they can take a good push since they have responded super well. The DWC plants are all drinking like crazy. I might dial back the nutrients just a bit if the remaining nutrients in res are remaining high. Learning a lot! Gorilla Punch - 3 plants, one is DWC the other two soil. The one soil plant had an issue and I flushed it and it’s responding well now but might be a bit smaller at the end. The other soil one that I did a mainline/manifold to is the biggest by far in soil. It’s also starting to fade a little not sure if it’s that time or the nutrients are being depleted from the soil. Added a little molasses to see if it helps. In the next few weeks I will add some dry kool bloom also. It’s really beautiful to look ate The DWC plant is a giant. It’s about 3 feet tall with a ton of bud sites. It’s about 2x2 ft wide also hoping it keeps up the good work. Gorilla cookies is my fav. The buds are thick and frosty. That one’s getting some fade also. I think running the 24/0 lighting has pushed them about a week ahead from seed so we prob have another few weeks before she’s ready. I checked the trichomes with a usb magnifier and they’re all still clear with just a touch cloudy and a couple amber. The general consensus is to “wait two weeks” so I’m being patient but we are on the home stretch. Getting my drying space ready for harvest also. Overall really happy!