Lebrons Second Grow

lebrongrows 1:28 : A week after they sprouted and they're looking fairly healthy. A bit leggy again but I turned up the lights since. Looking good for now. Temp hi 70's in the day and low 70's at night. Humidty in the 65-75 range. Looking good for now

lebrongrows 1/31: Transplanted the plants. Could have waited a bit longer imo but my roommates were worried we were taking too long. Overall fairly successful operation I would say. The first few plants were a a tiny bit messy and we accidentally cut or ripped off a few roots, but I quickly found an easy way to cut off the bottom of the solo cups, and then a vertical slit, letting us kinda of slide out the soil into our bigger 7 gal pots without harming or touching the roots much. About the medium, we went with an around equal parts of happy frog with our old soil, which was Near Source organic potting mix we had found at home depot. Our old soil had pretty much zero perlite and was extremely barky, which we realized was a big culprit of our last grows' failure (bad drainage and aeration). Combined with the happy frog, the plants seem to be doing fine, at least much better than last time, but I'm sure there are still better medium options out there. Oh we also mixed in around 15-20% perlite to help with drainage/aeration this time. 2/2: Plants have all seemed to settle in and actually continue growing quite steadily which is appeasing. Was worried some of them would have some stunted growth due to our rudimentary transplants at first. We also have dropped the temp and humidity a tad as they're a bit more than just seedlings now, and fastbuds' website doesn't recommend that tropical of a climate. Leaves are now about 4-5 in wide. Stems are thickening, more and more new emerging leaves. 2/3: Walked in the tent this morning to refill the humidifier and its starting to smell a tiny bit. Its getting exciting, fingers crossed we don't mess anything up 2/6: Now officially two weeks since the girls sprouted. Updated with some more recent pictures. The bigger plants are around 9 in wide now. As for the smell, its definitely gotten stronger. Def noticeable when you open the tent up, and then it kind of fades away as you acclimate. But yea I really wasn't expecting it to smell at all till a while from now, but no complaints fs. Some of the plants have been slightly droopy, while still looking healthy otherwise, so I'm gonna wait a bit before watering them again. Still no nutrients also. Lights are about 65% strong now, before they were 60% for a bit less than a week, and 50% before that. I also numbered the plants, so we can keep track of individual growth all while moving the plants around every weekish (i'm not sure how my different lights compare exactly, and humidity and heat and airflow may not be completely the same throughout the tent).

lebrongrows 2/11: Now officially been 3 weeks since plant. Overall pretty happy with how things are going. I realized I had been slightly overwatering the plants a week ago, so I left them to dry a bit for 5 or so days, and watered them lightly yesterday morning. Will probably water them tomorrow, and this time I'm thinking of adding in a very light dose of nutrients for the first time. Overall, plants look fairly healthy. We have 2, maybe 3 phenotypes, one being super bushy and dense, the other less so but still fairly compact. The plants had been a bit droopy the last week, which is why I waited to water for a bit, but it seems they are perking back up slowly. The bushier phenotype also seems to droop a bit more. One of the plants is significantly smaller than the others, while still looking fairly healthy. Its somewhat on track in terms of number of fan leaves, it just doesn't have the vertical and horizontal growth of the others. My roommates said they kinda fucked up the roots when transplanting, so i'm hoping its just a bit stunted and will reel the others back in soon. Oh, and when I walked in the tent a few days ago in the morning, the temp was at 102f. I have no idea how it got to that, but it musn't have been for long because the plants seem fine other than maybe 4 tiny bleached spots on 2 of the plants. I'm hoping the plants get a bit leggier, as the new nodes under the bigger fan leaves are really struggling to get any light. I don't think I will do anything for now besides a very light dose of nutrients next feed, but might get into some lst, topping, and defoliage in the next week. Need to do some research to decide if we try mainlining, scrog, or other techniques. Light settings still the same also, might raise them a few inches in the next week. 2/15: Topped all the plants. Didn't have time to get lst material but will start that hopefully tomorrow or day after. Not sure if we should defoliate some of the upper fan leaves that are fully covering the new nodes coming in from under. Plants looked fairly droopy all day, I'm hoping its from underwatering, and i'm fairly confident it is. Watered them tonight, this time 0.75 gallons each, so almost double the amount of last time. Will probably stick to this amount for the next week or two. Still stuck to the same nutrient ratio: 5 tsp big bloom and 2.5 tsp grow big per 2 gallons (our watering bucket is 2 gallon). I think next feed will probably be straight water to flush the soil a bit, but not completely sure yet. Was also pretty confused as to why some of the pots had significantly more runoff than others. Hoping to continue to see growth, and less droop. The straggler is also finally starting to speed up a bit. Most plants are around 8-9 in tall besides the straggler, about half as tall. 2/17: Plants look very healthy overall. A lot less droopy, and definitely got some decent size now. Noticed one plant has some sort of bleaching that I'm fairly certain is cal mag deficiency. Makes sense since we haven't introduced any cal mag at all, so I will go buy some today. Gonna water tomorrow as the pots are already pretty much dry. Trying to add a video with detailed view of all the plants from different angles but doesn't seem like uploading is working

lebrongrows 2/18: 4 weeks since we planted them. Some of the new nodes since topping are starting to come in. Also finally got to doing some lst. First time, so I didn't rlly know what I was doing all that much, but my main goal was to pull branches outward and have more light reaching all the nodes. I should definitely have topped and done LST earlier, but oh well, now I know for next time. I also removed some of the new fan leaves that were covering the new nodes. My roommate wanted to experiment with the smallest one so removed some of its big fan leaves. I don't really think that was the right call, but whatever we'll see what happens. Would also have loved to try mainlining but its also pretty late for that. It would have slowed down veg quite a bit too, and since we have to go home from college in early may, they have to be harvested by then. Gonna water later this afternoon as well. 2/19: Watered them last night. 0.75 gallons each. 4 tsp grow big, 6 tsp big bloom, 1.5 tsp calimagic per 2 gallons. I'm not sure why I didn't realize earlier I can just partially tuck the higher fan leaves under the lower nodes coming in. It makes the plant look droopy since big leaves are tucked, but I feel like it helps the lower nodes receive light and catch up, while being able to keep the fan leaves without cutting them. The small plant has 10 main nodes, and the rest have between 12-14, with many smaller additional nodes coming in under. I'm not sure how much I should try to grow these smaller nodes on the lower branches, or if I should just snip them off. Main focus right now is to get the nodes at similar hight and horizontal grow. 2/23: Watered this morning. Should have watered last night but my roommates were asleep and I was a bit too lazy to do it myself (took me an hour last time to do it all myself). I think I'm gonna start filling up a 5 gallon bucket instead of the 2 gallon one I was using, since I won't have to spend as much time refilling the water, nutrients, and get correct ph. Nutes doseage was 3 tsp grow big, 6 tsp big bloom, 2 tsp calimagic per 2 gallons. Roughly 0.8 gallons each plant. Ran out of big bloom for a few of the plants, but I don't think that should cause any big issues. Me and my roommate were debating if we should feed them nutes this water, or do straight water and calmag. Ended up feeding them since I didn't think we already have much salt buildup, but I think we will do a straight water and calmag flush next time. I also remembered we have a TDS meter, so I used it for the first time. Water in was about 750 or so ppm, and runoff was about 1350. I think thats kinda high for runoff, but like I said we will flush next time, and plants look healthy for the most part. Will definitely look more into that starting now. Also, the ph meter I had previously bought is complete garbage, so I had only been setting ph to around 6.2-6.5 with one of those visual mixing solution kit. I'd been doing this before mixing nutrients, and hoping that they don't throw the ph values off too much. I know this is pretty reckless and stupid, but it seems to somehow be working for now. I think it's probably a better idea we get a working ph meter so we can make sure levels are good after mixing in nutrients, but I'm feeling a bit lazy and frugal to buy a meter, so we'll see. Overall, plants look fairly healthy. They were a bit droopy today because I think I waited a bit too long before watering them, but oh well. One of the two plants that is a leggier and less bushy phenotype is turning pretty yellow however. I'm assuming it's a nitrogen deficiency but I'm not certain. Seems to have gotten a bit worse the last few days, but I'm hoping things will sort themselves out. Might also just up the doseage for grow big, which contains more nitrogen than big bloom. On a few of the other plants, the older and lower fan leaves also seemed to have some spotting resulting from calcium deficiency. Newer leaves all seem fine, and with the recentish addition of calmagic, I'm hoping this won't be an issue going forward. Have also been snipping very small nodes that are coming in on the lower branches. Not snipping them all, just trying to predict which ones have a chance at reaching quality light and developing into good colas. Anything I think will turn into larf im just snipping. Looking back on the last few weeks, there are a lot of things I have learned that I hope to carry over to our next grow next year. I should have started lst and topping sooner, I understand how much and often to water them much better now, and there are a plethora of other small things that I have learned. I wish I didn't cut corners on some small things and overall was a bit more attentive to details, but for how well it seems to be going, I really can't complain. I'm incredibly stoked about how this is going, and I still can't believe I'm growing these plants with my roommates in our garage as a college student.

lebrongrows 3/3: Day 39, last daw of veg. Snipped off a lot of fans leaves hanging lower down. Trying to remove anything I think won't reach the canopy in 1-2 weeks but i'm being pretty conservative since im a bit scared to over defoliate. Some of the older fan leaves were yellowing, but I continue to think thats calmag defficiency and I need to up the dose. Also they got fed only calmag and water last friday because we thought it might be a good idea to flush before flower. Fed them again last night too. 0.9ish gallons each. 3 tsp grow big, 1 tsp tiger bloom, 1 teaspoon calmag per gallon. Gonna tweak those numbers around probably. EC was 1600 for our water/nlutrients and runoff was 2400 if i remember correctly. I also LSTed some of the higher nodes to bring them down a bit.

lebrongrows 3/5: Watered them with 1.5 tsp calimagic, 9.6 tsp big bloom, 2 tsp tiger bloom per gallon, 1.2 gallons each. Been realizing that we were watering way too fast, so we tried to take our time but it seems like water just still rushes down. Right now, EC in was 2200 and out was 3500, if not higher. I think that means our plant isn't uptaking enough nutrients, but our plants also look pretty ok. We might try to flush or somethig to lower salt buildup but not sure. Oh also some very first signs of trichomes coming in if im not mistaken so pretty excited 3/8: Gonna water tn. Ran out of big bloom again, so will see what we do for nute doseage. Plants look amazing I will say. Tallest ones are around 26.5 inches at the moment. The straggler is still considerably smaller than the rest at 16 in tall, but it looks very healthy nonetheless. Many of the plants have a node or two well below the canopy, so I was debating snipping them, but I think my roommates want to keep them. I'm guessing they'll turn to larf, but eh we can just use that for hash or eddibles or something. Also, the very first pistol hairs are coming in which is super exciting. Smell is getting a bit stronger id say, but nothing insane yet. Since switching to flower, we've had some pretty cold night temps in the high 50s and low 60s. Been trying to get the heating on point, but its been a bit of a challenge without opening the tent too often. Especially difficult because we're having 40f swings between night and day in colorado atm. Me and my roomates will all be gone next week for spring break, so will have to figure out how to dial in temp, rh, and find someone to water them and check them every day or two. 3/10: Added a net to try to help even out the canopy.

lebrongrows 3/24: Got back last night from spring break. Plants looked a bit neglected, but kinda what I expected after a week of my absence. Me and my roommates had been gone for over a week so we had a friend water them and look over them while we were gone. Not certain how consistent temp/humidity/watering/nutes were but oh well, they don't look horrible. Plants had a decent amount of yellowing/dried leaves, but I'm assuming thats because of a heat wave we got earlier last week combined with irregular watering. Started snipping off a lot of that unhealthier growth last night, but got a decent amount of work left since the canopies are incredibly dense. If we reuse this same tent setup next year I think 6 plants max would definitely be more efficient for our light space. Super happy with how they're coming along but I think we have too many plants for our lights, and less plants would allow for more even canopy and light penetration, leading to similar yield and possibly higher average quality bud. Pretty difficult right now to get all the nodes enough light, but planning on probably using all the larf to make hash and eddies. Buds look pretty great though and leaves are starting to get sugary! Will upload more pictures later.

lebrongrows 3/29: Same old, for the most part. Trichomes are really starting to come in which is super cool. Smelling stronger and more 'terpeney'. Leaves showing symptoms of slight nute burn, so will give them less tiger bloom next feed. Its interesting because some of the phenotypes that have grown much bigger seem to have very mild nitrogen toxicity. I'm assuming those phenotypes are able to uptake nitrogen more easily which lead to much more growth, but also shows as they're uptaking a bit too much, with some leaf tips having a slight claw. Taller plants also seem to have a bit less dense stacking, but still stoked on how all the buds are looking. I'm guessing we will get a lot of larf, but we're gonna planning on turning that all into ice bubble hash hopefully. We also haven't really had temps dialed. Been super super hot here in Colorado for the past few weeks, with temps reaching almost 90f, leading to very hot day temps in the tent. Our exhaust was just feeding into the garage with not really anywhere to go, so heat was recycling back into the tent. Combined with the lights emitting a lot of heat, it was pretty difficult to get day temps down. We have our lights on from 6pm-6am to try to counteract the temps, but still. Also installed an ac unit in the garage yesterday and opened a window. Problem is night temps are still pretty cold; in the 30's and 40's. so when the lights switch off at 6am, garage immediately drops to 50's. Also would prefer window to not always be open since I don't want bugs coming into the garage and my room right next to it. Been continuing to defoliate every few days. Pretty wild how much i've snipped off since switching to flower. I'd guess at least a cubic foot or two equalling to a few pounds of leaves.

lebrongrows 3/5: Buds are getting denser. One plant is yellowing a bit, and another has purple vein patterns at the tips and edges of leaves. Also found a seed a few days ago and right behind it a banana on one a branch of the plant next to the door in the tent. Im guessing its from environmental stress including a combination of temp swings and me sometimes opening the tent when the lights r off to turn on the heater, letting in a bit of light. Snipped it off with the banana as well. Had me stressing a bit, worried it might spread to other plants, but as of right now I havent found a single other seed or banana on any other plants, so hoping its all good.

lebrongrows 4/8: Exactly 11 weeks or 77 days since planting. Getting frostier and growing bud mass slowly. Spent a good chunk of time the last few days trying my best to remove all popcorn buds lower on the branches. There are still a significant amount of smaller buds left, I just felt bad removing them after the plant had already spent energy making them. I think they will turn out to be tiny nugs, or even if they're too small we'll use them to make hash. I've learned I've been defoliating not enough and too late this whole process, so I know better for next time. Oh also, came back home from the gym last night to the garage smelling like burnt plastic. I open the tent, and what do you know, lights are off and our timer for the lights has completley melted, with some of the prongs still suck in the extension cord it was plugged into! Not sure exactly what happened, but I'm assuming it was either a bad connection on one prong leading to some arc flashing or something similar, or we had been pushing max current this whole time, and the cheap timer decided to give out. Who knows, but definitely spooked us a bit considering we had the best case scenario, and things could have easily gone up in flames. Right now we're just manually plugging in and out the lights, but we're gonna need to get a new heavy duty timer because we can't wake up every day at 5:30 am to turn off the lights. Also, been meaning to mention this for a long time, but its crazy how different the various phenotypes look, especially now in flower. Two of the plants have had dark purple stems since veg, while the rest are either light green, or a combination of light green and purple streaks. One of the plants with a mixed stem has flowers that closely resemble those with the purple stems, but I still believe they are different phenotypes. Then between those with the greener stems, they all look more similar, but one has much whiter buds, and some of them have different hues of green leaves and flowers. I would guess between the 10 plants, there are between 3-5 phenos, with fairly differing colors.

lebrongrows 4/16: A little bit more bud mass but no crazy changes since last week. Realizing we shoulda swiched to nutes with higher PK and less N, as the plants look a bit leafy overall. Some phenos more than others, and I attribute this to just genetics uptaking nutrients differently, but once again its intriguing to see the differences. Ran out of tiger bloom so they only got calimagic last water. Debating driving to the grow store to get late-flower nutes, but I'm feeling a bit lazy to spend two hours on the round trip, especially since we'd only be feeding them for another weekish. 4/20: Yesterday morning the lights stayed on for an extra 8 hours and when we realized, the tent was also 92 degrees. The plants had already been due for a water, and rh was like 15-20 or something, so they looked like shit to be real. We just watered them right after with calimagic water and theyre looking better already. Dissapointing to have made a mistake like this, but atleast they're almost done. A good portion of big leaves were super yellowed out so I snipped many. Also spent a decent bit of time snipping small fan leaves at the top of the colas that aren't big enough to generate energy but block other nodes. Trying to get a good balance of energy, light distribution, and airflow to the plants. Also accidentally cut off a nug on a branch, about halfway down relative to other nodes, so I trimmed it and will dry and cure it to get an early taste. Looks promising for now, and can't wait for harvest. Also forgot to mention I made cannabutter last week with some larf I had cut like close to a month ago, and it came out not tasting great which was to be expected, but still got me blasted.

lebrongrows 5/5: Harvested 1 plant 4 days ago, and harvested two more last night. I wanted to keep them longer but I this was the longest we could go given time restraints for other things. I wasn't able to see any amber trichomes on the buds, but a few on some sugar leaves. The plants also still have a good amount of white pistils. From our rough calculations, we estimate the plants will produce around 2 oz each, totaling 20oz, or 566g. My roommate is going to keep two of the plants longer, and I think we'll harvest the other 5 tomorrow. Each plant has 4-6 main colas, with some other, smaller colas, and a decent amount of lower branches and buds. The top buds are of decent size, though not the densest. I think some occasional heat spikes, and overall low humidity and slightly high daytime temps caused them to foxtail a bit. They aren't overly airy either however, and actually seem fairly sugary. If i were to guess, I'd say around 20% strength. I think giving them a bit more time to fully mature would be ideal, but we have to harvest them soon. Crazy the colors on some of these I will say. One of the phenos is especially purple, its pretty crazy looking at it, but for some reason the camera can't capture the color much. As for the rest of the phenos, all but two of the plants seem to have purple and pinking buds, but with varying shades of purple and green on the fan and sugar leaves. I also included some pics I took on a film camera from a few weeks ago.