My First Try

This is my first attempt at growing a marijuana plant. I ordered seeds from Bud Aroma, the source and strains are above. I'm using VIPARSPECTRA LED 300W grow lights. VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower ttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B4GQ6MO/ I have an auto-watering planter. It's plastic and I'm growing directly in it -- no bags or anything. I was too anxious to get started to wait to buy and receive bags. About 2 gallons. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XH4X1RL/ I started it in inert, nutrient-less fiber soil (it came with the planter). I mistakenly provided a massive amount of nutrients the first day -- I believe it was 6 tablespoons total. I won't feed them again for a week or more. I want to see how they do after that boost. Hopefully, I didn't burn them. The first three plants poked their heads out for a first look this morning. The other three popped out later in the afternoon. There's one Pineapple Express and five Northern Light.

They're growing! I can see the first true marijuana leaves coming out. The plants look a little sickly. It could be too close to the LED or from all the nutrients I accidentally fed them during the first week. We'll see. I added water this week to dilute the solution of nutrients from last week. I also started spraying daily with Neem. A thin layer of white fungus or something had formed over some of the growing medium. I need to ph my water. Just got a tester yesterday, so that's on deck. Also going to invest in a small grow tent in the coming week. UPDATE: I emptied the water and am letting the medium dry out a bit before I add water to the auto-watering pot. I am also going to transplant the slower-growing plants into separate pots today. Discovered my water ph is a little high. I also think the leaves are getting light burn. I've moved the light farther away. UPDATE AGAIN: I've set up my grow tent and transplanted some of the plants. See pictures.

Be sure to go back and read last week's diary. I added a bunch of stuff over the course of the week. I update as I go each week. So, I have the new set-up. I've moved the lights back, which the plants seem to like. I emptied the water from the auto-watering pot to let the roots dry out a little. I'll add water again and nutrients today. I'm going to use a very light solution of nutrients -- probably a teaspoon or less. I moved the slower-growing and/or weak plants to their own pots (watered through a wick system), leaving three healthy in the main pot. I may lose one or two of the weaker plants. Hopefully, they're males. I added an oscillating fan that blows a slight breeze over the plants every once in a while. That may strengthen stems. UPDATE: I phed my water on Saturday (beginning of my week) and fed the plants nutrients. I added more on Monday, since even my best plants are starting to look a little yellow around the edges. UPDATE 2: Added nutrients on Tuesday. Plants in main pot are looking healthy. One in smaller pot looks like it may die. Other two are still holding out. UPDATE 3: Added nutrients Wednesday and lowered lights. Plants getting greener again. Moved one plant from main pot to the pot the dying plant was in. I think I killed it during transplant, though.

I dumped the water and added new today with nutrients. Two plants are looking really healthy. I'll focus on these now and let the others slowly grow on the side. The one I transplanted late is dead. Will update more as it develops. UPDATE: Largest plant is drooping a lot. I'm assuming the auto-waterer over-watered again. Avoid this flower pot. I emptied the water and am letting it dry out a bit before watering again. UPDATE: The auto-waterer soaked the large plant. I've poked holes in the medium and lowered the light to just above the plants to hopefully help dry it out quickly. Also have a fan on it. UPDATE: The plant dried out enough that it's looking healthy again. Yay!

I've started turning the light off for twelve hours at a time. I'm not trying to get them to flower, just arrest their growth a little. I don't want them to get too big for my space. I bent one plant's top to make it grow sideways a little. Looks to be working. Everything looks healthy. I'll feed again this week. If I can keep them from getting over-watered again, we should be good to go. More as it progresses. --- UPDATE: I fed them again yesterday. Looking good. I topped the tallest. I may go ahead and switch to 12/12 and start flowering. They haven't shown their sex yet that I can see, but I guess I'll figure that out pretty quickly. UPDATE: I moved them to flowering. Getting too tall otherwise.

Plants are getting too tall for my tent. I switched them to flowering mid-last week. Can't tell sex yet. Overall, looking quite good. I'm fairly happy with it. Set up my carbon filter last week, too. Works great. UPDATE: Changed to 23 dark and 1 light hours.

Still going strong. Fed them last week and am waiting for them to dry out again. Looks like I may have a female. The pre-flowers are small, so it's still hard to tell. I've included some pictures -- as best as I can get. UPDATE: Well, we have droopiness. I think the salt build-up in the medium got too high. I rinsed it twice and have let it dry out. Just fed her again today.

I think the salt buildup in the medium is hurting the plants. I rinsed the medium twice and then fed again. We shall see. I think I have at least two females. UPDATE: I believe they are all females!

We have buds! All plants are now showing buds. All ladies. Yay! Not much other news this week. Plant is still sorta droopy, so I'm letting it dry out.

I let the pot dry out and added new water and nutrients. I started phing distilled water because of the high salt content in my faucet water. The plants ion the main pot are still droopy. Not sure what to do to fix that.