RQS Critical 1st Grow

Germinated the seeds in the RQS Starters Kit, wasn't a huge fan, but i'm still learning the germination process. 2/3 seeds sucessfully germinated in the starter kit, but 1 of those looks unhealthy and has no leaves. The other 1 looks good. Transplanted in to 1x 2 Gallon and 1x 3 Gallon smart pots after 7 days of sprouting from the soil. Watering was just spraying 6.0 pH water around the seedling.

Growth was stunted for a few weeks so no interesting pictures. I think I put it in soil too early. I will not use the RQS Starter Kit for germination again, I am more comfortable with other methods.

Growth has picked up again now she's more used to the soil. Topped this week so let's see how the recovery goes. Have been watering with much more volume now the roots are growing out more.

Flooded properly for the first time this week and the plant reacted very well. Growth still seems a bit slow but i'm hoping it will be worth the wait. I would like to veg for 2-3 more weeks at this rate and then switch to flower. I've got some software i've written controlling the lights, fans, and before I go away i'll install a water pump. I can control it all from my phone, so we will see how that goes. Edit after 4 days: A good bit of growth, enough to start LST with some metal gardening hooks. There is a bit of yellowing on some of the leaves, not sure what that is but I'll keep an eye on it. I've moved the light a bit further away just in case it's that.

Been away for 2 weeks holiday. Watered twice by a friend while I was away. All new growth looks healthy! There are a few older leaves still not looking great.

Plant was getting too wide for the garden hooks so I brought in the SCRoG net to keep training outwards. Soil takes longer than I would like to dry out, so i'm watering less frequently than expected.

I have done 1 last round of LST just in case this is why she's not growing so fast. I want to give the plant a few days without training to see if it's that which is slowing the growth. Everything else seems healthy.

Just over 2 weeks in to flower. Starting to stretch a bit and can see some pistils on the main tops. Looks like a good distribution of tops and all of them are still getting plenty of light. I need to clean up and defoliate a bit. Any other advice welcome.

The flower stretch was in full progress and she was getting thirsty. Then I split the stem!! Everything looked right until I was cleaning up the underside of the canopy and I pushed one of the gardening hooks deeper in to the soil to maintain a level canopy and I split the stem. I'm unsure if to finish the grow to see if she recovers, or if I should cut my losses and start a new plant now. Any advice welcome!

Taped and zip-tied the split stem. Plant still looks healthy and flowers are still growing strong. I've not been doing very much handling since the stem snapped, I want to give at least 1 week before I start more defoliation.

Easy week of not much action. Just watering when dry ~ every 2 days. Stem never really grew a knuckle where the stem split, but everything seems to still be growing ok.

Another week of not much work, just watering every couple of days when dry. Some pistils are starting to turn brown, all trichomes are obviously still clear so far. The buds did not grow or fatten up very much this week, I hope that part comes in the next week or two!

Just watering when needed this week, still following instructions for nutrients. Flowers didn't fatten up very much yet. I'm a little concerned since other grow diaries for the same strain seem to have fatter buds by now, but my plant has had extra stress so maybe it's delayed. Hoping to see progress over the next week.

I've been away for 5 days but the plants have been watered by friends. No other effort. I'm a bit concerned at the size of the buds. They all still look small and I would have hoped to see them a bit fatter by now from looking at other diaries. 95% of trichomes are still clear so we still have time for buds to fatten up before chopping.

Changed nutrient amounts according to BioBizz feeding schedule. More BioBloom and much more Top-Max. Still not a lot of activity with the plant. Trichomes are clear, no fattening of buds. All still looks fairly healthy to me.

Again, not a lot of action. Watering when needed and not a lot of growth from the plant. Thanks to the people who have commented with advice, I will up my nutrients and I will see if I can find a quick fix to improve temperatures especially at night.

I have added more BioBloom this week. Plant stinks more and I think we've got a bit of accelerated growth. Trichomes are still clear so it's not ready to harvest but I hope it hurries up so I can start a new grow!

This is the first time using BioBizz nutrients and I was always unsure whether to adjust the pH of my water+nutrients. I messaged BioBizz on Instagram and they were really helpful. Turns out my pH is too far outside of the range and I should have been using pH-. I've watered with proper pH'd water+nutes once so far. Everything still looks healthy, trichomes are still mostly clear. I'm staying patient even though the grow is super slow. I will invest in a heat mat for the tent soon to see if better temps help.

Same again, just keeping her alive! I've started to notice some yellow tips that look like nutrient burn after a bit of Googling. I'll bring the concentration back down a little bit. Trichomes still look mostly clear. I've just started germinating a bagseed which is potential for the next grow is this one hurries up out of the tent ;)

Brought nutrients back down having seen yellow tips. I'm hoping to flush soon since more of the trichomes are looking cloudy. Other than that, progress is slow and steady.

Progress continues... More of the trichomes are looking cloudy so i've stopped using nutrients to begin the flush. Some of the leaves near the flowers have started to get a bit of a purple? colour. Looking forward to finally harvesting and starting the next one.

Another week passes on the long long Critical flowering period. Not sure what's going on but i'm riding it out. Not much else to update on. Enjoy some more pics, some with flash.

A good first grow. Not because of the yield or quality of the buds, but for experience and lessons learned. I harvested the plant on 7th March, dried for 6 days and then trimmed. I ended up with an almost embarrassing 12g of bud and about the same in trim. Since harvesting, I wanted to wire up a potentiometer to my LED driver so I can use dimming on the next grow. In doing this, I noticed that the way I had my LED dimming wires connected meant that the driver was delivering only a small percentage of the max current. This means I was growing with far less than my expected 200W of lights all along. This explains why the buds weren't fattening and I had slow growth I guess! I've made mistakes during germination, veg (pH), flower (nutrients), and during the whole grow with the lights. The plant can only do as well as the conditions it is provided and so i've ended up with a disappointing yield, but I'm optimistic for the next one. The new grows (Vanilla Kush and 8 Ball Kush from Barney's Farm) are already off to a better start and already have more light (as seedlings) than this Critical did throughout its who life 😄