First Grow

Johnny5thesim 5 of these seeds germinated using crop king directions. All 5 were quick to produce a taproot, about 2 days. Using double cup setup of solo cups. The seeds had popped out the very next morning after planting them. Humidity is low, as it’s been cold outside.. So I added a Bionaire Humidifier. It added about 6% only:(. I started with a 6” fan and filter combo, which was too much for my 4x4 tent even on low. I was also using a tower fan on low oscillation.

Johnny5thesim Everything went fairly well. A little bit of curling started on one plant. It never became anything. And I am not sure what caused it. Thinking back, it may have been slightly too much wind. And the curling was maybe an attempt for the plant to slow transpiration. And because I am new to this, I got super concerned thinking this was the beginning of problems. I was wrong. I was very light on watering. I only used a spray bottle, no nutrients.

Johnny5thesim This week went well. I started my nutrients day 13. The leaves were over growing the solo cup edges. So I did my transplant on day 19. I went back and forth about pot size for upgrade. But ultimately decided to go straight into their final home. 5 Gallon smart pots. I used plant elevators and saucers for each one. This is definitely doable. But did learn to only lightly water. I definitely wasn’t watering till run off. Quantities of around 1L or so around the leaf edges.

Johnny5thesim This week went well. Started to see some good growth. Everything looking healthy, aside from one plant. I went into a state of concern again. Checked for pests, considered nutrient imbalances. Tried doing a bit of a heavier feeding on her. In the end, I think it came down to, too much wind on her. I removed the affected leaves. And closely monitored it. I also had one droopy plant. Which I think she was working on her root system. Because when she picked back up, she went into a growth explosion. And ever since has been my strongest healthiest plant by far. I am about to ready to try topping.

Johnny5thesim I topped all the girls this week. Just a quick snip, leaving behind a small stump. They did not appear to go into any shock afterwards, and vigourously grew all week. No more new leaf damage on the one plant that was having issues last week. I think diffusing the air from the fan stopped windburn. And the droopy plant has picked it self up and is looking great! I’ve renamed it from Bertha(back right) to “The Beast”. From this point through till where I’m at now(6 weeks) this plant is considerably more developed then all others. I’ve also noticed that my front left plant, Is not growing as quickly as the others. All others seem to accelerate In growth aside from this one. It still looks nice and healthy and has super tight nodes, but is not growing as quickly as the others. All others seem to accelerate their growth beyond this one. It still looks nice and healthy and has super tight nodes.

Johnny5thesim Everything is going great. I’ve been doing more LST. making sure to open up the middle. I’ve also slowly cranked each node over, to expose the growth sites underneath. This has worked wonders for bringing the canopy together. My big dilemma now, is do I remove fan leaves blocking light to the lower bud sites. I did this on one plant, and it seems to be producing way more growth at the lower sites(pic included) Does anyone think this is a good or bad idea? I’m still at only 3/4 strength on nutrients. I’ve not seen any deficiencies, and it doesn’t feel right to throw full strength just yet. I’m now watering 4L on each plant, every 3-4 days. Salt buildup is a possibility in my mind. As I don’t really water to runoff. Cold weather is also proving to be a major challenge to keeping humidity up. I don’t go below 30% though. Also, all 5 are ladies! They are showing stigmas quite prominently!

Johnny5thesim This week went well. I was noticing some yellowing tips, and finally got a TDS meter. I watered until runoff to find I had 2800 ppm. I put about 10 to 12 L of reverse osmosis pH water, until I got runoff down to about 800 ppm. Within two days the yellowing stopped has almost gone entirely on the one plant. And the other that had a little bit, it appears to be receding. Because I went from a solo cup into a 5 gallon smart pot. I did smaller waterings all through my vegetative stage. Doing 1-2L, and gradually adding more and more as they grew. And always allowing it to dry out. I was concerned that watering to runoff would leave me wet for too many days. Using promix hp. I have learned that it tends to dry out pretty quickly. Next grow I’ll like add another transplant size into the middle. But i could have likely just soaked it without issues. I also did some defoliation this week. Clearing out lower stuff that was inhibiting my watering. And wasn’t likely to produce anything worthy for me. I also did some select removal of interior fan leaves to open up the growth tips. And at the same time sinching down branches to widen things up. This seems to have really worked in providing an even canopy. My concern is if all this tips do in fact become buds. Is this too dense now? If not, I feel like my harvest could be quite nice. I will be flipping to flower on day 47. I feel like I should have already. As these things look like they are going to explode. But I wanted to be sure plant health was optimal before flipping. And still @3/4 strength on nutrients. I’m considering upping once into flower. But I want to research a bit first. Flowering has commenced! Day 48 and they have just gone through a 24 hour dark period. Somehow, my well watered plant I call the beast, drank all she had. And when I came home her tops were actually bending over drooping. I was freaked right out. I mixed up some nutrients. And poured them in. And literally before my eyes she stiffened back up. Like it never happened...phew! And amazing to see it do that.

Johnny5thesim This week went well. Starting to stretch now. Everything looks healthy. I’m removing small lower bud sites that are below the canopy. Needing to water every 4 days in my 5 gallon promix. Still seeing really high PPM on runoff. I was so worried and tried flushing several times, bringing PPM down low. Only to find after a 900 ppm feed, I would get runoff again at 2000ppm. I’m convinced the promix has some buffering agent runoff, or some such thing that affects runoff PPM. I’m still feeding at 3/4 strength. 3ml/L

Johnny5thesim This week went week again. One plants I’ve nicknamed “sickly” due to ph issues it had early on. Is showing some weird colouring on the leaves. I thoroughly inspected the leaves and no pests are present. I tried doing some searching online. As well as asking in some forums. People say PH issues. But I’m at 5.6-5.7 going in. And 6.0 coming out. I think it’s a cal/mag issue. Still, advanced nutrients support says to go full strength and don’t add cal mag.

Johnny5thesim So far, so good! Stretching is almost done I hope. They are starting to stack on the buds. Still seeing discolouration on the one plant. I’m was going to go full strength. But I think my problem is nutrient lockout from overfeeding. So I did a plain water on day 69.

Johnny5thesim This week went well. Starting to see a pronounced calcium deficiency in one plant. At this point I’m confused. As my nutrient maker assures there is enough calcium in my feeds. Otherwise, everything is going great. And things are moving along nicely!

Johnny5thesim Another good week! Calcium deficiency is proving hard to defeat. No noticeable slowing of growth or anything negative. Buds are stacking on nicely and starting to frost up!

Johnny5thesim Still haven’t been able to get the calcium issue under control. I started cal mag plus week 12, but can’t quite tell if it’s stopped the issue. Despite this, the plants are still growing nicely. Flowers are looking great to me. I am also now convinced my Promix HP has buffers that do break down, and this adds up to high run off numbers. Which in turn caused me to chase a ghost trying to keep the output ppm in range of what I thought it should be. I am noticing the PH is slowly dropping. It was 6.0 always. And is around 5.6 now. I’m so close to the end I think I can skim by.

Johnny5thesim This week is going well. Still chasing high ppms on runoff. Next grow I’m ignoring ppm runoff figures. I can correlate ppm rise with ph drop. And I’m convinced it’s the last of the dolomite buffer in the promix that’s giving me high runoff. From now on, I’ll just be checking PH on runoff as a way to monitor the state of the medium. And not checking PPM. I’ll instead monitor the plant for over/under feeding. I am also now seeing some yellowing of the leaves. But my trichomes are turning amber and I think they are dying off, and sucking the last bit they can from the leaves. Branches are starting to weigh down pretty good. But they are sturdy and will hold up. And they are frosting up like crazy! I’m going to start my flush pretty quick. I just want to see some more amber!

Johnny5thesim This week went well. Getting closer to the end. Still battling deficiencies. I couldn’t ever seem to get that under control. Next grow I’ll be adding more calcium in the veg phase. I’m also considering a medium change. I think this long flowering strain has used up all the dolomitic lime in my promix hp that’s used as a ph buffer. Aside from affecting runoff numbers. My ph is starting to slowly drop. My ph perfect seems to keep it in range and hold it. But it’s definitely not the constant 6.0 I was always getting. It runs off at like 5.2-5.4

Johnny5thesim This week had some odd stuff. The one weird plant I have that’s all lanky and different the others, seems to have sprouted a few hundred nanners overnight. I plucked every single one I could find. I’m pretty close to harvest. So I’m going to just carry on. I started my flush this week. As the trichomes are where I think they should be. I’m seeing new pistil growth and the start of some foxtailing. One other plant also had a nanner.... I’ve not had any heat issues, light issues or anything else on the two that had them. I would like to see some more amber, as it’s like 5%. But it’s been over a week since any changes on trichomes. And the new pistil growth, along with reduced water uptake and extreme yellowing has me thinking its time.

Johnny5thesim This grow went very well. Definitely battled some issues with calcium deficiency. And one of the 4 went outright hermie at the end. Causing me to scrap it. It’s now curing for 2 days. The hay smell and taste is already going away. And it’s been replaced by a really sweet fruity smell. I think it’s going to be excellent after curing. Yield was great, I only counted premium buds and separated out the larf. The plant I call “sickly” yielded 81g. Eagle yielded 90g. And “the beast” yielded 138g. Larf was 46 grams! The buds are dense and beautiful. Sticky to the touch. And just look amazing to me. All in all. This was a fun experience. I’m looking forward to my next grow already. Zkittlez auto by fastbuds.00