My First Grow: Organic S.A.D Auto + QB96

Put her into darkness before lights on on day 79. I plan on pulling her out and harvesting on day 82. My grow is based on everything I've learned from watching MrCanucksGrow on YouTube, definitely check him out if you are interested in growing organically. The grow was eventually moved into a 3x2 Vivosun grow tent. I have 2 4"inline fans pulling through a 4"carbon filter. I am using an HLG QB96 Elite V2 powered by a Meanwell HLG-150H-54A (somehow running at 215W (not even maxed)). I started out by mixing up some Coco coir and my amendments. I use Gaia Green (Dr Earth works the same and if in Aus I was going to use thrive organics range(their npk is different though)) and since I am mixing the amendments in before planting I will be using 4 tablespoons per gallon of medium (this has recently changed to 2 tablespoons per gallon with Gaia Green). The ratio used was 75-25 of Gaia Green 4-4-4 all purpose to Gaia Green 2-8-4 power bloom. Since I used a 5 gallon fabric pot I needed 15 tablespoons of 4-4-4 and 5 tablespoons of 2-8-4. After amending I added perlite to about 10-15% but use whatever you feel comfortable with up to 30% IMO. 50% is apparently great for cuttings and seedlings if your going to be transplanting but I have not tried this. Using organic dry amendments in coco coir turns the growing method into more of a dirt style grow. You absolutely need to maintain the pH between 6.5 and 6.8 to protect the microbial life organic gardening promotes. With all of that in place it was time to pop the seed directly into the dirt. You can germinate however you would like, be it; with a cup of water and then a paper towel when they sink, with just a wet paper towel and a baggie in a warm spot, or as nature intended straight in the medium. When germinating straight in the medium care must be taken not to disturb the seed as this is the most fragile stage of its life. Water with either a spray bottle or fill up the plants saucer so water can travel upwards with capillary action. After 2-3 days she sprouts, keep her in a dome for a day or two to keep the humidity up and still take care while watering as it is far to easy to uproot a seedling at this age. -added later- don't use a humidity dome for seedlings, only clones. The extra humidity from the dome can promote seed death due to damping-off, just killed my first seed.. Gentle watering when dry, pHd between 6.5-6.8, is done for the first couple of weeks. Take the time to lift the container to get an idea of what it feels like dry as optimal watering will lead to optimal growth. The plant is watered when dry with a watering can after the first couple of weeks, as soon as she can handle it this makes watering easier. Always pH! When the plant has enough height feel free to tie her over, my LST efforts weren't the best but doing this gave me plenty of growth on side branches (my newer grows show better LST). I did this a little too early IMO on this grow, more height would have been nice. On day 35 it was time to top dress! Because we are now top dressing we only use 2 tablespoons per gallon of medium, I will also use a 50-50 mix this time as we are in flower. 5 tablespoons of Gaia Green 4-4-4 all purpose and 5 tablespoons of Gaia Green 2-8-4 power bloom are used. If I had known that this was going to be the last feed I would have used 2.5 tbsp 4-4-4 to 7.5 tbsp of 2-8-4 to give her more phosphorus during flowering. After this it was just adjusting lst when needed and watering (pHd between 6.5-6.8) when dry. This was done all the way up until morning 79 before lights on (trichs wouldn't amber) when she was then put into darkness until day 82 where she was then chopped down and hung whole to dry. Now I wait....