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So I came home one day after the neighbor threw me a nug for the night since i was running out. I have to admit, I haven't seen a seed in years and just became a homeowner in the last two years.
Long story short, I finally mustarded up the courage tell her I'd love to grow a few. She agreed! I throw 8 seeds directly in some mixed potting soil with some H20 and sure enough, 7/8 popped.
So the fun begins. Will admit, the amazon shopping is quite an experiences. Lights, Tent, fans on the way..
Has the cable guy stop by and noticed them outside so i figured that was best time to move them in.
First time growing but amazon had everything I needed to kick off this indoor grow.
Sadly, we did lose one after just about two weeks.
After the transplant, they really blew up. Seemed like they were growing an inch over night.
Started running into heat issues but the new carbon filter really helped keep the mid day temps down.
Only problem- my nights are cooling down more than I’d like.
Learning to LST was quite an experience. Still anxious on when I can finally see if they’re ladies or not!
Alright, I got antsy and wanted to flower these girls early...
I figured that these would blow up once we did the flip so I figured I’d throw out the scrog
So after the first week of the flip, I kept an eye out for the little nut sacks to ruin my grow...
Seeing as they were just neighbors seeds, no idea if they were fem’ed or not.
Sure enough, 4/5 indoor plants ended up being boys. My heart was broken.
So I’m comes the two outdoor back ups. They’re about 1/3 the size and not trained at all but flipping them to 12/12 now to see what they are...
Must have hit some luck because 1 of the 2 outdoor plants are showing to be female while one looks to possibly be a hermy.... no bueno
Either way - I must admit that I love finding reasons to stop down and check on the ladies. They're responding well to the waterings. This was the first time i'd went 3 days w/o water due to being out of town. They responded well once watered.
Noticing small black flies around the tent these days. I did get some Neem oil that i've been using for the last 2 weeks and now that they're flowering, I need to stop using it. Would love to hear how I can get rid of these guys...
Last but not least - just ordered some Critical Purple Auto's from Grower's Choice. I think the wife realized that I found some passion in a hobby and I kept bugging her about wanting to try legit seeds. Should be here on Tuesday but going to wait that out for winter once the first crop is harvested.
Update #2: confirmed, one of the plants turned hermy on me. Going to take some recent advice and keep pulling off any sacks.
Based on first look, only about 2 stalks show sacks, and even then, they’re only on one side.
More to come!
Why did my pistols turn red so quickly? I did add some neem oil and recently began running CalMag but immediately stopped...
Finally got ph tester and realized I’m running way to high. Got up/down coming.
Any ideas??? Should I worry or do anything? Also, no males in there
It could be one or a combination of things. Spraying anything on your flowers is usually a last ditch effort to save them from insects or disease. Next using neem oil that is too strong can cause a bit of burn. Lastly if you do need to spray always spray with the lights off and let them dry off under a fan before you put the lights back on. Sometimes the light can magnify the water droplets and cause a bit of burn. Lastly you may want to consider raising your lights a bit 600watts is pretty strong even if they are pulling a true 350-400 watts 12 inches is very close. I would go by the manufacturers recomendations then lower them a few inches twice a week. Until you find the sweet spot. I personally use a PPF/PAR meter to measure the intensity. The good news is your buds will continue to grow and throw out new white pistils and in a few weeks you will barely notice the pistils that dried prematurely. Hope this helps put your mind to rest.
Week 11: Will have to admit, the smell continues to seep out of my tent, even with the 4" carbon filter. The wife had mentioned something to me so now i'm starting to try and find the best backup plan to help. Unfotunately, I don't have an exhaust vent that I can connect the exhaust to in order to run out of my house, so it's literally just blowing out in the basement....
The good news is that the cola's are really starting to develop! I still don't have my jewelers scope, but I'm going to order one soon as I can really start to see the trichomes.
One little pain is that the little plants have to have their own mix of nutes as they're not responding well to the same mix as the bigger plant. The bigger plant seems to be kicking ass (imo), so i'm not changing anything besides my various PH levels. I also heard from my neighbor (old man who has apparently grown for decades) that I should throw some clover honey in my warm, PH'd water and it will give the smoke a less-harsher hit. I guess we'll see.... She's responding well to it, so full steam ahead!
One last tid bit - if you have any idea how to tell when you're two weeks out, can you please share? I've heard I should flush with just PH water and then maybe 48 hour dark before the cut? I'm sure I'm a few weeks out, but trying to start thinking ahead..
Thanks for reading! better week 11 pics to come.
Help! I have The biggest question of them all, what is the best advice you can give to a first time grower who thinks they’re heading into harvest? When, how, curing, etc...
I got jeweler loop and I do see some that are cloudy on the large colas. Not so much on the smalls ones.
When you think your done wait another week and if she's still packing on weight then wait another week. Normally your pods that hold seeds will swallow the white hairs and swell and stack untill it looks like pods on pods 😂 I know my technical terms are wrong hope this is understandable.
Week 11:
So I’m heading to a buddies bachelor party next weekend and couldn’t help myself.... I cut the smallest of the 3 and started hanging her up so we can try some.
22g wet
Curious to see what she weighs dry. this plant was outside in this tiny cup until I had to bring them in and immediately flower.
As you’ll see, had to upgrade my lights since I just sprouted a couple of my newest seeds in the other diary. This light looks legit and didn’t cost me but $85. Excited to see the yield.
Still trying to figure out when to cut the big girl down and how... all suggestions welcome. I feel like she’s getting close!
End of Week 11 / Start Week 12 Update:
Well, I thought I was about a week or two out until I upgraded my jewelers loop only to find that 1/5 Terps were showing a light amber color. She'd been under dark for about 12 hour and then another 4 until I said today's the day!
I'd flushed her out about a week ago and she's been feed straight tap water for the past 3 watering cycles. As I've mentioned, I really only had 1 fully grown plant as one of them was a tiny, little outdoor plant that I'd brought in pretty late in the year. So, most of my weight came from the big girl.
I first thought I was only going to chop the main stem and hang her up to dry but I've really been reading into the different types of harvest/curing and it seems like the best mix is to do a multi-cut, light wet trim and follow up with a clean up / dry trim once she's dried out.
Pre Trim:
Total Weight: 351g
Post Trim:
Plant 1: 253g
Plant 2: 58g
I'm really excited to see what these girls end up yeilding.
Will have to admit, this has easily become my new favorite hobby!
I have 5 more seeds rolling on the side, 3 of which have finally sprouted. I went all-in and purchased some Grower's Choice Crit. Purps and Mexican Haze, so really excited to get my tent back and get rolling on some auto's!!!!
SMOKE REPORT:
Finally got the last weigh ins:
Plant 1: 49g dry
Plant 2: 11g
All in all, I have to be very pleased with the haul on this one. The smell still isn't where i'd expect it to be but then again, I probably harvested a weeeee bit early. Oops.
Taste is great, still has that berry smell when you crack open a fresh nug. Onto the autos!!!!
You’ve been advised wisely by @Philindicus
Auto correct will getchya every time whether you type or speak the word pistils! The silent T doesn’t help I found. Prompts me to design a cap slogan:
Make America Stoned
More Pistils. Less Pistols
Red pistils are often a false sign of readiness, caused by heat or low humidity (you want low RH during flower) or maybe genetic to the strain. You will want a digital microscope to get a good look at your trichomes. Over time you will learn to associate the type of high you most enjoy with overall trichome color/cloudiness. Even after many years of growing I recently misjudged maturity with my naked eye - she looked ready! But a quick look under the mic proved she is several weeks away. You only recently discovered you need to monitor pH. You will be very happy with the performance of your microscope because it helps you harvest at the correct time. Enjoy!
@growdoctordc, I will definitely go pick me up one now. And I swear, every time I type pistils it jumps back!!!
Thanks for the advice, always very much appreciated. It’s such a learning experience.
Hey there!
I use a carbon filter and it doesn't smell. Might I suggest a couple things (and I will post a picture of my exhaust setup on my "CLONE" diary in a few minutes if you want to go look at it):
1. Are you using your fan to suck air out or push it in?
If you have a setup where you are using a fan to force clean air INTO the tent, and then your exhaust port is just a tube to the filter, you're going to be forcing air out any microscoping holes etc in the tent! This is called positive pressure. There's nothing wrong with positive pressure, except it forces the environment inside the tent, to go outside the tent.
I use negative pressure. On my intake port, is just a darkener (angled baffle thing to allow air in but keep light out). Then my fan is EXTERNAL to the tent. I use a length of RUBBER-COATED (light proof, smell proof) ducting to run from my exhaust port to the intake for the fan, then the same rubber-coated ducting to run from the exhaust of the fan into the charcoal filter. This way, rather than forcing air out all the little holes in the fabric of the tent and what not, you're sucking air IN to these holes and out the fan!
WARNING: Negative pressure will cause your tent sides to suck in. This is actually what you want -- HOWEVER, too much is bad. I'd recommend getting a rheostat for your fan if you use negative pressure, so you can set it to whatever you want. For example, my fan/filter combo moves 150CFM, but for a 2x2x5 tent I only need 30CFM. I use a rheostat to put the fan on the absolute lowest the rheostat will allow it to go, which provides about 45CFM. I get great negative air pressure.
2. If you are using negative pressure, are you using rubber-coated ducting and are your clamps tight enough? Any holes in your rubber-coated ducting? Does your filter meet or exceed the CFM at which your fan is currently running (this can cause any weak points in your ducting or filter to open up into holes, even if they are virtually microscopic it's not good)?
@PurpsInMyCloset, weird! I don't understand why you're having issues then :( My 2x2 tent is in a tiny little 8x8 office and this is the freshest smelling air in the house! Usually when people complain about smells it's because they are using positive air pressure and/or the system isn't completely sealed. Hope you find a solution.
@Jwjoh, thank you for sharing your set up!
I also use the negative pressure method and I set my fan speed up so that it’s not totally sucking in the sides of the tent, but it’s noticeable.
Problem is - I think my exhaust just spitting out the air directly only my basement may be the issue? I was trying to see if I can set this up into my furnace exhaust that runs thru the chimney and that way I don’t really care if there extra smell leakage but I was told not to touch the ducts as it will compromise my furnace exhaust.
I’m trying to see my best options of further masking the smell...
Good looking grow. If you truly think you have a hermed plant, just pull the balls off as often as you can and you should be fine; that is if there isn't an excessive amount of them! The small black flies are more than likely Fungus Gnats and almost impossible to avoid when using soil as your medium. That being said, get some sticky yellow fly trap sheets to hang in your tent, and at least once a week apply some of that neem oil to your top soil only. Make sure you let your soil dry out as much as possible before watering again!
@PurpsInMyCloset, I would say it's worth it! If the hermie is absolutely riddled with the "bananas" then toss it to prevent any pollenation. However, if it's only one or two sites, just check it every day, or even cut the branch that has it so you don't have to worry about it! I've done it in the past; they take more work, but worth it rather than losing the weeks you had put in previously.
@Cloyy, thank you for the advice. I actually diluted the neem oil a bit more since i'm being overly cautious, but I started spraying this last week and noticing today that they flies are actually not really around anymore.
As for the hermy - a bit disappointed and conflicted as I know the other two are 100% female and I'd love to avoid seeds in the bud, but if this works, maybe its worth a shot?
Thanks again!
PurpsInMyCloset
