School of Weed

Hi all, this is my first grow!!!!! I have spent the last year researching the internet for all the info I could find and have finally gone for it. To be fair, two months later than I wanted due to some confusion over where we were to be living. But that is all in the past so, onwards and upwards. I should start by explaining the name of the diary - "School of Weed". I am growing Jack Herrer and Black Sugar, so JACK BLACK as in the actor from School of Rock. And as I am learning as I go along, this is the School of Weed. And for sure, I will be the one being schooled!!!! I have started in Solo cups and will transplant when I feel the time is right. I have two Jacks and one Sugar in BioBizz All Mix. I then have one Jack and one Sugar in Black Magic soil. This is purely down to availability of Black Magic soil. I am playing it by ear with the watering and just giving them enough when they look dry. No nutrients yet as they are all in "super" soil. To be honest, I am really pleased with how this first week has gone and am looking forward to week number two and all the adventures that will bring. I love this website as you can learn a lot and it seems like a really supportive community (special shoutout to Valhalla's Garden for what seems like an unlimited supply of good vibes that he spreads on here). Give this diary a follow if you want to see a newbie make mistakes and learn along the way. Please feel free to comment with any help or advice at any time, it will always be appreciated. Also give me a follow if you love randomly inserted Star Wars quotes and maybe some of my Star Wars toy collection popping up amongst the plants, ha ha. And after all, as Obi Wan said - "Who is more foolish. The fool, or the fool who follows him?" May The Grow be with you, always.

Well, that is week two in the bag and I am very happy with how the girls are progressing. If you look at the photos, you will see that three of the plants are pretty even with each other. While I have one Jack that is racing ahead, must be a fast phenotype. While I also have a runt of the litter with one of my Black Sugars. Suppose I should expect the indicas to be a little shorter, at least that is what I am telling myself. Ha ha. I have given them 100ml of water each every other day when the top soil looks dry. On one feed this week I divided just 1ml of BioBizz Bio Grow in the water between all the plants, just for a little kick and to bring the ph down in the water a touch. Tomorrow is transplant day. They are going into five gallon pots and a bigger tent. Wish me luck people. Hope you have all had good weeks too. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey there fellow growers. As I said last week, I wanted to transplant last Sunday, but didn’t get the time to do it until Thursday. And as you can see from the root pictures I have posted, I believe I left it too late. This has upset me a bit as I hope that I haven’t permanently stunted them by doing this. The roots themselves look healthy and the leaves are a lovely green colour and also look healthy, so maybe I am being a bit hard on myself. Please leave a comment if you think I should be worried or if you think I am gonna be alright. I just think that looking at other diaries, they seem quite short and without too much leaf for their age (18 days above ground). Anyway, onwards and upwards into week four. Hoping for a more positive week this next week. As I say, please feel free to leave a comment, all comments and advice are more than welcome. Until next time, May The Grow be with you, always.

Hi fellow growers. Hope you have all had good productive weeks. So this is me at the end of week four and I am pretty happy. I was feeling a bit down at the end of last week after I felt I had left transplanting a few days too late. But they seem to have kicked on with no problems in their new permanent homes of five gallon pots. I was so happy at how they had settled in their new pots that I decided to start their manifold process on Friday. You can see from the photos how skinny they are now looking, but again I am happy with how that went. Now to spend the next week checking to see if they kick on from their severe haircuts. As I say though, I am happier with how things have gone this week. I was originally planning a six week veg, but I can see this turning into eight weeks. But let’s play it by ear. As always, any tips or comments are greatly appreciated. Big thank you to Stinkfox for his kind words and support last week. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hi gang. Hope everybody is keeping well and your plants are just as healthy. End of week five and I am pretty darn happy with the progress. The manifold cut doesn’t seem to have slowed them or hurt them in any way, so I am pleased with that. If you look closely at Jack 2, you may see where I clipped her a bit to close in the manifold and took a chunk out of her trunk. She seems to be fine though and has healed up lovely. Must say though that none of them are especially thirsty (especially the Sugars), so I may just be watering once a week. I will play it by ear though as I keep a good eye on them. Nervous first time father, ha ha. I just gave them a couple of litres of water each this week with 5ml of Bio Grow in. And within hours their arms were reaching for the lights, so I think they liked it. They look so healthy, I can’t really complain. Two to three more weeks in veg I think. Hope you all have good weeks. May The Grow be with you, always.

End of week six everybody. Hope you are all well and your plants are just as healthy. All the plants grew nice and healthy again this week. They all look really strong and I have even now stopped referring to one of my Black Sugars as a runt, because he is going strong. He is now referred to as “Black Sugar 1” as you will see in the photos. So a couple of changes this week. I am just fresh off doing the second (and final) cut of my Nebula Manifold. This will (should) give me eight nice large colas. A few more weeks in veg I think and we will flip to flower. Gave them all a nice drink of plain water after the cut too. Gave the Jacks four litres each and the Black Sugars got two litres each. The Sugars are nowhere near as thirsty as the Jacks. Don’t know if Sativas are normally thirstier, but that is what I am finding. The other change I made this week was to have a small radiator on in the tent overnight. The reasons for this is to stop the severe drop in night temperatures I experienced in the early part of this week and to bring my humidity down a bit. And I have to say that it has worked a treat in both respects. All in all, I can have absolutely no complaints this week. I am just so impatient to flip to flower 😂. See you all next week everyone, hope you all have great weeks. May The Grow be with you, always.

End of week seven and a very quiet week this week. I think the second manifold cut at the end of week six really shocked them and they barely grew for the first five days afterwards. They now seem back to normal and are growing away happily. Hopefully more to report next week folks. Hope you all have good weeks. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey all. As usual, hope you are all as healthy as your plants. A quiet week again this week while the plants have been vegging away. I took off the bigger fan leaves to make sure all effort goes into new veg growth. As you can see from the photos, they are all looking so healthy, which is pleasing. One more week of veg tops and then we flip to flower. Can’t wait. Hope you all have good weeks. May The Grow be with you, always.

Happy weekend everyone. Hope you and your plants are all healthy. On Tuesday this week I decided to flip to flower as I believe both of these strains like to stretch a fair bit. Let's see if that is the case. Gave them all a big plain water and trimmed off fan leaves before flipping. They looked very bare and I had the panic of thinking that I may have taken too many fan leaves. The humidity went up to 65% at one point because of it. So I cranked my little heater up to raise the temperature and drop the humidity. They have gained a lot of fan leaves back in their first four days of stretch and the humidity is coming back down accordingly. PHEW!!!!! I feel these next few weeks will be crucial and will really shape how this grow will finish up. Y'all gotta pray for me 😂. See you all next week. As always, any comments or tips are greatly appreciated. As is some love for my grow of course 😀 May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey everybody. Hope you and your plants are nice and healthy. Quiet week this week. Just a week of flowering stretch and new leaf growth. Everything nice and healthy and growing well I believe. Been really battling humidity this week due to the bastard inclement weather 😂. Think I finally have it under control though and have it back down in the 40’s. Onwards to next week for the last week of stretch and then looking forward to some fat buds starting to form. A quick side note to say rest in peace to Peter Mayhew. The Wookiee will forever roar for me. God speed Rebel. Catch you next week guys. Have a great week. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey all. As usual I will start by saying that I hope your plants are as healthy as you all are. Well, The Darling Buds of May (British reference there), FLOWERING HAS STARTED!!!!! So excited as you can tell. Have a look at the photos and see the very early stages of those pistils bursting out. Thought I would give them their three week since flip trim today which went well overall apart from when taking one leaf I accidentally took the small bud next to it. Heartbreaking was not the word 😢. Felt it was a good trim though and left plenty of leaf to help them keep growing, whilst making sure light was not blocked by leaves. Looking forward to seeing those buds start to really fill out. Have great weeks everyone. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey everyone. Hope you and your plants are in rude health as always. If you look through my photos for the week, they perfectly tell the story of the how it has gone. It started off good with the flowering progressing nicely. But then, it was feeding time midweek. I gave each plant 3 litres of water each. In that 3 litres there was - 2.5ml of Bio Grow (which is half of last week) - 5ml of Bloom (same as last week) - 2.5ml of Top Max (same as last week). And all of this was in a litre more than the previous week’s feed as they seem to be getting thirstier. But then, DISASTER!!!!! 😂 Nutrient burn, aaaaaaaaargh!!!! As you can see from the photos, it is just on a random few leaves and a few burnt tips here and there. All other leaves look healthy and flowering still thriving. So I didn’t panic (not like me 😂). I decided; instead of flushing immediately, I would keep a close eye on them to make sure the burn didn’t spread. Fortunately, it didn’t. So I didn’t flush and just let them handle it themselves. And handle it they seem to have done. The burn is very sparse on three plants, a little worse on one and non existent on another. So I think I got away with one here. I have been working on a cycle of two waterings a week. One at the weekend and one midweek that has nutes in it. But for the next couple of weeks, I am just going to do plain ph corrected waterings. Might add some bloom if I am feeling frivolous as I think it is the Bio Grow that burnt them. I was always a bit suspicious of using that in flower anyway. But let’s see how we go. One thing for sure, whatever happens, I will keep you updated on here. Have a good week all. May The Grow be with you, always.

Happy Saturday guys and gals. Hope you have all had good weeks. So after last weeks nutrient burn escapade, I decided to stop using Bio Grow as it looked like nitrogen burn to me. So on Thursday I gave them 4 litres of water each with 5ml of Bio Bloom and 2.5ml of Top Max. And there seems to be no new burn anywhere. So I think my suspicions of not using Bio Grow in flower were proved right. I must say that I was amazed when people were saying to use it anyway because of the high nitrogen content. But I thought they would know better as I am only on my first grow. Maybe should have trusted myself a bit more. Anyway, no harm done as this week as you will see from the photos, they are flowering nicely. I am battling high humidity at the moment. I have even seen it push up to 67% 🙀. I have a dehumidifier in there and have wiped my overspill trays out today. So let’s see if that helps. Maybe I need to switch from two big waterings a week to four smaller ones? Let’s live and learn together shall we. Onwards to another beautiful week together my fellow growers. May it be a good one for all. May The Grow be with you, always.

Happy Saturday (if you are reading on the day I am uploading 😂) everyone. Hope you and your plants are happy and healthy. Really slow, uneventful week this week. Just mostly battling with the humidity still. It’s still in the upper 50’s, sometimes broaching the mid 60’s. But I am keeping the air moving so hoping I am alright. I don’t know if the high humidity is slowing down my bud growth though. They don’t seem to be fattening as quick as I thought they would. I suppose I should just be happy they look healthy to be fair. Onwards to another week and hopefully it is a week of fattening buds. Hope you all have weeks filled with fat buds, ideal humidity and amazing blazing. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hi all. Hope you are doing well and your plants are too. Another quiet week this week. A couple of overnight growth spurts with not much change the rest of the week. But seeing today that the buds are starting to grow and firm up. Hopefully they will keep fattening from here on out. Still got that high humidity going on, but I can’t stress about it as I have done everything I can to keep it down, it’s just bloody humid at the minute 🤷‍♂️🏻. Have good weeks y’all and keep them plants growing healthy. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hi all, another week down and I hope you and your grows are blooming. Another really slow week where I don’t feel my buds are really stacking on any weight at all. In fact, I am a bit concerned that they may be foxtailing. Anybody who is reading this, what’s your opinion? Are they foxtailing or not? I was only hoping for a couple weeks more flower as I am seeing lots of orange pistils, but they seem to be shooting new white ones too!!!! So do they just need longer than I think??? Today (15.6.2019) is day 53 of flower. Will they pile on weight in the next couple of weeks? Am I just stressed because I am inexperienced? So many questions and nothing to smoke to ease my mind 😂. If you have any tips or tricks that you can impart on me or even if you are going to confirm my fears and tell me that I have fucked up somewhere, then please tell me. I would rather know because that is how we all learn. And obviously if I shouldn’t be worried and I am actually a growing god, then please feel free to say that too 😂😂😂. Anyway, hope you all have great weeks full of fat buds and no foxtailing 😂. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hi all. Hope you have had nice weeks and your grows are going well. We seem to be fattening up a bit this week. Not just me but also the buds 😂. That is all I really have to report this week. Thank you to everybody who gave me advice after my queries last week. You all really helped. Onwards to the next week where hopefully the buds keep packing on weight. Have a good one all. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey everybody, hope you and all your ladies are doing well. Holy shit is it hot here this weekend 😂. The perfect time for getting some seedlings on the go to be honest as it is also humid as hell too. Unfortunately, I am in late flower 😂. Still, looking good this week though as you can see from the photos. Buds starting to fatten up. My Sugars not so much as my Jacks. But staying true to the genetics, the sativa Jacks are bigger and airier. And the indica Sugars are tight and dense. I have put a time limit on this grow though and two weeks today they are coming down. So just PH’d water from here on out. Planning a couple of days of darkness at the end and a good dry. As I am getting to the end of the grow, I am looking back on it and seeing what I have learnt. But also thinking on the appreciation that I have for the community on here. Y’all really are the best of the internet and restore my faith in humanity. I always knew people who blazed were the best of people, but this grow has confirmed that. Special shout outs to Stinkfox and U.K. Grows Too in that respect. Great guys doing big things out here. The best of people ✌️🏻. Have great weeks everyone. May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey all. Hope you and your ladies have had a good week. When I update this time next week, my girls will be having two days in the dark before they get the chop 😬. Just had ph’d water this week and will get the same for the next week too. Big thanks to my man Stinkfox who advised me to drop my lights for the last couple of weeks to give them that extra bud fattening push to the end. And it has worked. And still with a week to go 👍🏻. Have great weeks full of massive growth, strong smells and sticky buds. And remember, May The Grow be with you, always.

Hey everyone, hope you are all ok. Last week of flower right here. They went into 48 hours of darkness last night before the chop. Still not as big as I wanted, but hopefully lessons learned for next grow. See you all soon with a harvest report. May The Grow be with you, always.

So as it turned out, I only got 0.8 ounces out of two plants. If you see my panic from a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t why they weren’t growing. I finally figured it out when I emptied the five gallon pots of their soil. The roots have never expanded from the size they were in the solo cups!!! The rootbound was worse than I could have ever known, but hey, lesson learned. The weed I did get off them though was quality. Vaping, not smoking and boy did that vapour hit me hard. Had to go and get some fresh air 😂

See the Black Sugar harvest for the reasons of why it was a small harvest. But in the same vein as the Sugar, this is some top quality weed. Gets me soooooo high and for hours too. Thank you again to everyone who helped and gave encouragement on this grow cycle. A few weeks away from growing now and then I am gonna knock some Northern Lights Autos I think. May The Grow be with you, always.