First Grow Ever

Started recording diary from seed plant, soaked it between wet paper tissues for about 3 days and as soon as the taproot was showing it was planted, and about 4 days later it popped out of the soil.

Put in the rest of the lights - a vertical LED 10 W light, 3500K, on day 10. On day 11 put in the 50 W UFO LED, 6000K. Initially I was only using a 25W CFL, 6000K, which I realised wasn't enough, so as soon as I put the other lights the temperature immediately went up which hopefully gave the plant a nicer environment. Trying to water when the soil is 80% dry. Ends up being approximately every 3 days. Need to get an electric pH meter as I'm currently using pH papers which are frustrating to use.

Growing nicely, I hope..? But I've noticed the leaves started twisting, this is especially visible in the day 18 photos. I've tried doing some research but Google's not been the most helpful. My best guess would be pH issues, as I'm using strips which are not reliable. I have ordered an electronic pH meter but unfortunately I won't get it until 2 weeks later. Day 21 update: leaves are looking much better after advice from a grower here! The fans are now on a timer turning on and off regularly which has helped the leaves straighten a bit and the new growth seems to be healthy. I turned off at the beginning of this week the LED bar light as I was worried it was getting too hot and too bright for it. Not sure if it was a good idea but the plant seems not to mind it. It also started getting smelly this week which is very exciting! Most likely going to start LST next week.

No real issues with the plant itself so far, but since the heating has been turned off so the humidity has been all over the place, as well as the temperature. It would go from daytime temperature 25-27 °C with 40-50% RH to nighttime temperature of 18-19 °C and up to 75% RH. It has stabilised a bit over the past few days, ran a heater which helps increase the temperature a bit and lower the humidity. Also started very gently some LST, hopefully I'm doing it right. Noticed on day 25 that some signs of preflower are showing? Any comments would be appreciated to see whether I'm guessing it correctly! Will be going away for 5 days, thought it will still be looked after by someone else, but I'm worried anyway about the flower. Hence why I'm uploading an update so early. :P

Uploading this a little bit earlier... Came back home a few days ago and my goodness how much the flower has grown! It has very visible signs of preflower now. Very exciting! Only worries are the appearing yellow spots on the leaves, anyone know what it may be? Had trouble managing the temperature lately, very low lately but sometimes I run the heater. Did a bit more of LST this week. Day 34 update: Seems like the spots haven't really expanded or gotten worse, except on one leaf. Gonna keep an eye on it. Watered twice this week with nutrients, ended up being 0.25 ml per watering as I split the liter for two waterings. Will water tomorrow without to go easy with the nutes. Next week I'll probably switch the diary to flower! Height is short enough, which I'm relieved about. Expecting a growth spurt these coming weeks though... I hope it hasn't been stunted from the colder temps, don't want the yield to be affected.

This week has been a bit stressful to say the least. So the spots kind of stopped, or so I thought. There's a few new dark spots popping up here and there, nothing major - yet. If my guessing is correct it's due to a cal/mag deficiency which apparently is something that appears around the start of flower. I went to my local hardware/gardening shop and I couldn't find anything that was just CalMag!!! So the closest thing was a universal nutrient, organic, that has NPK, copper, iron, etc. as well as mag and cal. Some leaves are turning yellow, yet some are fine. The older growth seems to be more affected, and their stems have become dark purple. Not sure whether this is a deficiency, or due to the lower temps. I watered this week once on Day 35 with Bio Bloom, about 500 ml, so roughly 0.25ml of Bloom in that dose. This morning (Day 38) I watered with about 0.5ml of the Universal Nutrients, with pH'd to 6.2 tapwater. The water amount was also roughly 500 ml, so again, there must've been less than 0.5ml of the nutrients. Now I'm paranoid about giving it nute burn!!! Here's hoping everything sorts itself out. :( I'm not touching or watering with any nutes this weekend to be safe. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. Day 40 update - After a bit of reading, I am starting to think that the spots and yellowing on the leaves, as well as the dark purple petioles all over the plant is in fact a phosphorus deficiency. The leaves have also been growing a bit green-blue which I initially attributed to healthy grow - turns out it's one of P deficiency symptoms! Tomorrow I will water with about 1.5 ml/l of Bio Bloom, and most likely will water a whole liter this time as it's been a little underwatered I think. Won't do it in one go as I don't want to flush it, probably one half tomorrow morning and then the rest in the evening or on the morning of day 42.

Things getting better this week, compared to last! Have been giving it more nutes lately, watered twice this week. On day 41 with 1.5 ml/l of Bio Bloom and about 1 ml/l of the Universal Nutrients which helped a lot for the plant to recover from the P deficiency, or what I think it was. Watered in total about 1.5 l of water hence it didn't need another watering until day 45. That day I gave only 1 ml/l of Bio Bloom and about 0.5 ml/l of the Universal Nutrients. Next watering I think I'll omit the Uni nutes as it has a high content of Nitrogen. Leaves are getting a little bit frosty and the buds are getting bigger by the day!!! How exciting. :) The smell is getting stronger as well, for my next grows I might try to do a DIY carbon filter to see if it helps at all. Smell isn't exactly a problem but it could become with smellier strains. Constantly wondering how long it still has to go! Cheers. 👈

Bit of defoliation this week, buds don't look much bigger than before. Hopefully this coming week they'll fatten up as a good amount of the trichomes are turning milky and a couple are amber. Will leave the lights on 24/7 the following week. Watered this week twice with nutes, first time 1 ml, second time 2 ml, and a few times without.

Buds have gotten significantly bigger this week! Hoping to harvest in either 2 or 3 weeks. The smell is rather strong now though, smells like citrus, sometimes earthy, and sweet, yet still noticeably a cannabis smell, but a pleasant one. Luckily most of it is confined to one room, the one where the grow box is in. Have watered three times, once with 450 ml of water with 2 ml/l nutes, and a few days later the rest 550 ml with 2 ml/l. Afterwards I watered a whole liter with 2 ml of nutes. Next watering will be without nutes to avoid nute burn, but the flower is thirsty! I'm surprised at how much water it's consuming so quickly. I have also significantly defoliated the plant this week, nothing massive, but it was a couple dozen leaves at least in total, as it was getting crowded, some leaves kept rubbing against the walls and sometimes touching a lamp, as well as taking off some smaller ones from the middle to improve air circulation as a few budsites are very close to each other and I want to avoid mold. From some of the trimmed sugar leaves I left them to dry for a day and tried to vape them... And my god! I got high!!! I was pleasantly surprised that such a small amount actually worked. Mind you I wasn't stoned or anything but I could definitely feel it! I can't wait for harvest. Sure... I haven't smoked in months but still. It was very rewarding! The latest I'm planning to harvest is at week 12, so by then I hope either they will be ripe enough or just right. I will keep checking the trichomes regularly, though it's hard for me to judge as a first timer. Here's hoping for a harvest to come soon!

Apologies for the lack of photos this week and a belated update! Been busy. Buds have been slowly ripening, though the temperature and humidity was all over the place this week. From 23 C to almost 30 C, and 40% RH to 70% RH. Only towards the end did it stabilise. Watered a few times, most of it with Bio Bizz Bio Bloom, as it seems to help the flowers to swell up. I think at this stage I am starting to realise what were the mistakes and problems that affected it the most were, what may have slowed it down or affected the harvest, as I don't think the buds will get much bigger within the week, since they'll have to be harvested on week 12 due to a house inspection coming soon. But then again, it is my first attempt so even the fact I'm getting a harvest is incredible! Peace. ☮️

Apologies for the late update! I was away all week last week so this is being uploaded on week 12. Nothing much has changed since last week other than the pistils have all gotten dark now and most of the trichomes are cloudy now with a few amber ones. Before my trip I cut off one nug add I was worried it was getting too crowded, and in order to avoid bud rot I cut it off. It was also a good sample. I left it to dry for the week, and as this is being written on week 12, I tried the sample and wow... It's some pretty good stuff!!! Sure, the taste isn't there yet as it wasn't cured, but the smell is wonderful, the buds are sticky and covered in resin. I can't wait for harvest! No nutes this week either as the person who was looking after it only watered with plain water every few days.

What a fun and interesting experience! Unfortunately I couldn't weigh the wet weight, so that will unfortunately have to be a mystery. The dry weight is approximately 11-15 g in total for everything. The reason I am doubtful is because during harvest I had to throw away a few buds that had early signs of bud rot... I tried to take a picture but it doesn't show up very clearly, but it's there! It looked completely off so to be safe I chucked the majority of the main cola. So with all those parts (and some parts I have consumed heh) it could've maybe gone up to 15-16 g dry weight. I managed to make some mistakes during drying though, unfortunately I left it to dry too long and the weed became a bit brittle. Perhaps the poor trim job contributed as well, but hey... First try. The final dry weight was, I checked, 11 g. Not too bad for a first try! Definitely something. I was aiming for 20 but 11 is still something and I'm not complaining. I know most of it is due to my mistakes, and the rest probably due to the unpredictable weather affecting the grow. I have then made some cannabutter from the trim and, hopefully that's gonna be some good stuff. The weed is very frosty and covered in trichomes, so it could've been good for hash, but being a budget grower I don't have all the equipment for hash. So far that's it. I will update this post in the near future for a more thorough description whenever I think of what to put in, but for now, peace! ☮️