First Grow

le_epic_doge Had a few bagseeds sitting around and I wanted to try a grow. Germinated with paper towel for about 2 days then planted in a solo cup. Using Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil. Used a 65w 6500k CFL for seedling stage

le_epic_doge Still using the 65w Cfl at this point. I started giving it nutes this week using the GH drain-to-waste guide.

le_epic_doge Transplanted into a 1 gallon pot this week. Also finally started using the Viparspectra VT300 grow light, I kept the CFL I was previously using for veg and put it into another socket off to the side for more light.

le_epic_doge Some pretty decent growth in week 4. I was still unaware that wind burn was even a thing so I had a small desk fan pointed directly at the canopy which probably slowed growth a bit. Also transplanted from the ~1 gallon pot to about a 2 or 2.5 gallon pot.

le_epic_doge Topped the main stem about halfway through the week. Also finally discovered that the "claw" leaves weren't because of nutrient deficiencies/toxicities, but were a result of the fan I had blowing directly at the top of the plant.

le_epic_doge Nice growth this week. Topped the 2 new growths from the previous top for 4 main growths and defoliated some of the wind damaged leaves.

le_epic_doge Had some problems early in this week with nute burn so I flushed and lowered the amount of nutes by half. Supercropped a few main branches and continued with light defoliation. Completed final transplant into 5 gallon bucket which it responded well to.

le_epic_doge Good growth this week. I continued defoliating the largest fan leaves and supercropped a few more of the taller branches to keep it at a reasonable height.

le_epic_doge Was going to do another week of veg but it was starting to outgrown my space so I decided to just switch to flowering. Flushed with about 4-5 gallons of 7 ph water, though runoff was stuck at about 5. It doesn't seem to be affecting growth. I gave it a few waterings with water that had a few TBSPs of baking soda added as I heard that was supposed to help raise soil ph. I also further reduced the concentration of nutrients by another 25% (now 37.5% of original recommended amount), as well as reducing how much nute water it got. Didn't see any new nutrient burn after either watering with nutrients but there's now a strange coloration in a few of the smaller, new branches' leaves. This doesn't seem to have affected growth either. Also got a hygrometer/thermometer so I could accurately keep track of those things instead of guessing.

le_epic_doge Really good week for my girl. Showed a bit of stretch, growing 4 inches. I managed to bring the runoff pH back to at least 6.0 using a gallon of water and some baking soda. Bud sites are also looking pretty busy, pretty psyched about the flowers starting to come in.

le_epic_doge Because of the stretch, my light was getting a little close to the canopy so in addition to giving the light more space, I used a rack from the shelf thing I have the bucket on to function as a sort of scrog. It has a pretty good shape for weaving the branches through and already is helping even out the height and space out the colas. Trichomes also started to come in on and around the bud sites, the only smell comes from touching the area and smells very sweet. I think I'm probably finished with defoliation, I left the top 2 sets of leaves as well as the ones growing out of the colas. Runoff ph was about a 6.5-7 so any ph issues appear to have been fixed and the coloration looks very healthy.

le_epic_doge As per the recommendation of a few people I trimmed up the lower portion fairly heavily. Did so in 2 sessions over 2 days and it drastically helped airflow as most of the space was taken up by leaves. In retrospect I probably should have waited a few days in between trimmings because there wasn't much change for a few days afterwards. I also tried to take a clone from one of the clippings but after 4 days it still hadn't shown any sign of rooting. While moving the 2 CFLs, one of them fell and broke at the top, I was using the bluer light temp CFL to try to veg the clone but after it didn't root I just moved it back into the main space to replace the one that broke. Buds are starting to smell, it's pretty unnoticeable unless you're close up.

le_epic_doge Well "she" is now also a "he". Between the questionable genetics that come from bagseed and my occasional sloppiness with light leaks and too late pruning, she hermied. Spotted a few nanners about 3 days into the week and by that time it looks like they already pollinated because after looking around some more I started to see seed pods and a few balls. Unfortunate because the colas were just starting to fill out. I've been plucking all nanners, seeds, and any balls I see but it seems futile. I have several questions which i will post individually in the comments later.

le_epic_doge Last week of nutes before I flush. Did a bit more defoliating at the top because at this point why not try to expose the lower budsites? Not much else to say for this week, just waiting it out for a couple more weeks.

le_epic_doge Last full week. Started flushing this week, gave it a gallon of pHed water the first few waterings, then ran an extra half gallon which flushed the soil pretty well. A few leaves have already lost color so it's clear the flush is working so far and the buds and smaller leaves have sort of started to show purple around the edges. I'll probably harvest at 110 days, flush should be more than done by then.

le_epic_doge Day 109 (53 of flower) and it's harvest time. Weight of the untrimmed buds: top of canopy buds-224.6g/7.9oz, popcorn/larfy buds-62.8g/2.2oz. Gonna do a dry trim because the humidity is about right from what I've read. Overall a very educational experience for my first ever grow and if I decide to grow again I'll have the knowledge to really make it a great grow. *Update* Just under 1 week after harvest. Buds took about 4 days to dry (some of which was in the open curing jar) and have been curing for a few days. Its starting to regain its dank smell but still mostly the post harvest chlorophyll smell. Also about 5-7 grams of small, untrimmed bud as well as probably 5-10 grams of trim/sugar leaves that will probably be used for butter or something.