Zkittlez - i49 seeds- CMH - First Grow

HERE WE GO! Week #1, and my first grow, the excitement is real. A few weeks ago I ordered a 4'x4'x7' Grow Tent with a CMH 315W light and a 4" Carbon Filter and Fan with various other items. I did a lot of research in the last few months but this will be my first grow. I am expecting to make a lot of mistakes and hope to gain some experience along the way. I have been collecting things for this hobby to the point where I feel I have everything for this particular grow. Just looking for a successful grow with the use of a few techniques and making it to harvest with something on the scale. I don't know any experts on the subject so I joined this site to track my progress and get some tips from the community as we go through this journey together. Week#1: I followed the recommended germination method from the seed vendor which was to soak seeds in water for 18 hr and sink them. Then put them in paper towel until the tap roots are 1 - 2 cm then put them into the grow medium. The seed germinated last week and I put the seed in a plastic cup with Promix HP. I plan on using smart pots with 3 Gal of Promix HP as a soilless grow medium. I tried using a standard 100W LED light (Really 18W) to start them but changed it the CMH , with the CMH the room is running a bit hot at 28C, I think I will need to turn up the exhaust fan. The seedling sprouted fast and is already 3 inch. I will have to move it to the smart pot next week. Just using regular tap water and spray distilled on the leaf at the moment. Once it's in the 3 Gal pot I will start with the nutrients later in the next week. Its been a successful first week in my opinion, comments and feedback are welcome.

Week 2 was a great success in my opinion. Got two new nodes and the leaves are doing well. I installed two fans in the room, it really helped keep the heat down, that CMH light adds 10 degrees to the grow tent easy. I also started nutrients this week, I will increasing them next week. I lowered my lights to 24 inch but I think the leaves are starting to curly just ever so slightly. I think I will have to bring them up to 30 inch until it grows a bit. My PH meter also came in this week so I was able to measure the solution PH. I ordered a soil tester as well so I am curious to know that the soil reads. Overall I am pleased with the progress this week so you next week.

Overall this was a great week, the plant has doubled in size this week. I started lst but as it's my first time so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. The plan is to try and pull the plant to grow in a curve while providing the most light exposure. I have also topped the plant at the end of the week since I was 6 nodes in my growth. I took a picture the day after and the two stems on the side are starting to grow out so I take this as a good sign. I am half way through the veg stage now and its at 9 inch. It's taking well to the nutrients increase. One small concern is that the roots have come threw the bottom of the bag. I used a 3 gallon smart pot and the roots have push thought the bottom and of hanging to the overflow dish.

The plant is doing very well this week, I have continued to do some LST to get the main stem to curve. It recovered well from the topping but I am not sure if topping the top node off is enough. Some of the leaves are huge on this plant, they are bigger than my hand. At this point I have about 2 weeks left until I flip to flowering. I pruned a few yellow leave on the bottom which are not getting any light at this point due to the large amount of leaves from the top. This one is coming along great for my first grow.

Week 5 and I think she is ready to flower. I am flipping the switch next week and we will see if she sprouts. At this point she measure 17 inch, but that is holding the branches down with LST. It would be a lot taller if I didn't pull the main stem to ensure that the branches would have lots of space. I also have to start trimming some of the fan leaves at the bottom this week to get it ready from the transition. There is lots of leave in her so I will have to do something to ensure that she can flower properly. But then again I heard they are suppose to grow double their size in the flower stage.

This is the last veg week, the plant has grown quite a bit at this point its 25 inch. I heard that they double in size in the flower period which concerns me because my grow tent is tall enough to handle 4 to 5 feet plants without getting too close to the lights. The plant is drinking more water and I found that I had to increase its water intake between watering. Next week is flowering stage so lets see what that will bring.

We are in our first week of flower. The plant is now 32 inch tall and with the light requiring 24" inch I am running out of room fast. My LST was not that successful I guess since the plant is tall. I will have to find a better way to pull it down next time. I trimmed some of the bottom leaves last week and took a few more out this week. I am waiting for next week to trim the fan leaves off to ensure that light can reach everywhere. Other than this the plant is transitioning well and is health.

So the plant has officially double in size at this point, I don't know what to do to keep it down. It is getting close to the CHM now and wont have much room to grow from there. I can't tie it down at this stage, I tried that at the beginning and it worked for the first few weeks but in the last two week it has grown so fast. I will be happy if it produces large buds at this point, on the positive side the bud are starting to appear so that's a good sign. I hope the nutrients will feed them to produce large buds, I am not knowledgeable in this. I see other with smaller plants but large, I am hoping it will work out. Anyone have any tips that would be appreciated. Thanks,

Week 9 and I think the plant has reach its max height at 46 inches. I was concerned since its very close to the light at this point, I was able to move the light up a bit more as I took it off the adjustable straps and just tieing it to the top pole in the tent. The buds are growing nicely, not sure how big they tend to get. I see others with tight bud clusters but mine are spaced out. Is it a light or nutrient thing? I am not sure. Still have 5 weeks to go until harvest so I am hoping they get fat until then.

Week 10 and buds are growing allow the cola. I am hoping that they will get fat and produce a high yield. I don't know if this is something that comes from the nutrients or the lights as this is my first grow. I found that my plant has grown tall but the buds are small compare to others at this stage. Should I be trimming more so the buds get more light?

Week 11 or Day 77 or Day 35 of flowering. The buds are filling up and forming a cola. They are not fat yet but I will have about 3 weeks or so to go so I am hoping on getting fat colas. Next week I will trim some of the fan leaves out to make more room for light to pass through. There are still some big leave on the top that is shading the bottom buds. I hope it wont stun the growth since I may have to take a fair bit off. Lessons learned from this grow is that I should have FIMed or topped more than once. I ended up with 5 large colas, and two small ones. I think that will impact my yield, as it grew tall as opposed to more colas and a bushier plant.

Week 12 and we are a few weeks away from harvest. Cola are long but I don't think my buds are going to get too fat. The remaining fan leave are starting to die off on their own so I pick them off every other day or so. I am curious to see what kind of yield I get from this one. At this point it the first grow so I am learning, I think next time I'm getting a trellis net to ScrOG and doing some Fiming and topping at multiple times to get about 8 to 10 colas for more bud sites.

Week 13, so technically I'm in the harvesting window. Bad news this week my crop was infested by spider mites. I came in during the week to water and the plant were dipping down and very dry. Many of the leaves were dead and the buds were covered in webs. The sprung over night, I was surprised to how fast it infested. I treated the plants a couple days ago, they are looking better but the buds got brown after the treatment. I'll keep watering them, and hope they don't come back. At this point I'm a week away for harvesting so I'll just flush this week and th en harvest. Hopefully they can last the week.

Here we go my first journey into this hobby is almost complete. It has a citrus and earthy taste and its was smooth. Starting with the good, the seed germinated quickly, I had a small tap root in 24 hours. After a couple of bumps, my fault, the plant started growing. It grew quickly, tall and strong in the first few weeks as well as in the first week of flowering. It was reacting well to its training but grew too fast for me to keep up. I will know for next time as this was one of many lessons learned. Overall this plant was very healthy with large leaves and the bud was nice size in my opinion. Now for the challenges I faced, the quick growth was hard to keep the LST in check. It grew so high that I had to take the lights off the pullies and raise to higher. Thinking back I should have done another round or two of topping and fimming as I only ended up with 6 good colas which may have affected my yield. In the last week I was infested with spider mites, and moving forward I am not sure how to prevent this from happening again, they are so small they can just crawl in from anywhere. After hanging my plant to dry in the tent I left the fan and carbon filter on high to prevent the smell. I check on it a few times and cut the bud in the jars on the 7th day but I think I waited too long. The buds were extremely dry and crumbled, I ended up with only an ounce from my plant and looking at the size while it grew it looked like I would get a couple of ounces at least. Next time I will turn off the fan and let the carbon filter on med/low to let it dry. Overall I enjoyed my first harvest and hope to learn to grow bigger and better buds from the next time. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.