1st Plant Critical Purple

😃 Pretty excited. This is my 2nd attempt. Last time seedlings were placed in a window and I think the A/C was too much for them. I also used miracle grow potting soil in the yellow bag. This round will be in a full controlled environment in the basement. Ambient room temp is 73 degrees, 50%-60% humidity, and I am using MG moisture control potting soil in the blue bag. So far so good!

So far so good. Plants are growing great. bright and healthy. Time to transfer to a bigger pot. So, out with the solo cup, in with the 5-gallon grow bags.

One of the plants is experiencing some issues. Growth is slower. Some of the leaves are showing signs of light burn. Decided to name them Cheek and Chong, with the little one being Cheech. The 1st attempt I names Harold and Kumar. Maybe they died from a shortage of White Castles. 😕

Chonga is doing nicely at 7", Cheecha still a little behind. The soil has been staying moist for awhile, even with light watering and I was worried about root rot. So, I let them go about a week without watering. After a light watering with the remaining 1 ml/2Qt nutrient/water solution (about 1 cup each plant), I took the plunge and decided to try Topping (or FIMing), which I did a few days after watering. I'm also concerned about soil PH. I've been testing it with the 3-in-1 tester, but it always reads about 7. I tried the thing out in pure vinegar, but it gave the same results. So, soil PH is anybody's guess. I eventually bought a digital PH tester for liquids. BIG CHANGE: On Day 27, I switched over to a new, 1200W LED grow light.

LIGHT: Playing around with various heights on the new light. Worried, because Cheecha is not doing well at all. Can't tell if it is nutrient burn, light burn, root rot, or dehydration. WATER: Getting ready for a trip this week, so allowing the soil to dry a few days, then I'll give each plant a good watering with a mild fertilizer mix. TRAINING: The topping looks like it worked well, with noticeable new leaves appearing.

Wow! Things are much better. Looks like drying out the soil and then giving a heavy watering with a light nutrient mix did the trick! I now have the light at about 13" and it seems to be about right. Someone told me the the gap between each level of fan leaves is large because my light was too far and the plant was stretching itself to reach. Going away for another trip, so repeating the dry soil/heavy watering process, this time with the recommended fertilizer mix (10ml/gal). Gave each plant about 1/4 gallon of water/food mix.

As a nube, I'm not 100% sure that flowering has begun, but noticed an increased amount of new growth where the flowers should start to appear. So, on day 46, I began to transition over to the Flowering Stage. LIGHT CYCLE: Switched from 18/6 to 12/12. But, to minimize interruptions to the dark periods, I adjusted the start time from 5am-10pm (Ugh, just realized that's only 17, not 18 hours). The new schedule is now 6am to 6pm. LIGHT: For this week, to encourage both growth and flowering, I've switched on the Red LEDs in combination with the Blue LEDs. However, I raised the light up about 4 inches to try and avoid light burn. WATER/NUTRIENTS: I'm still watering with the remaining NPK mixture, but only about a cup per day.

Well, I've confirmed through sources that we officially entered the flowering stage as of last week. Time for some adjustments. Just prior to confirming flowering, I did one last trim, removing the larger fan leaves at the top to allow more light to the bottom. Good thing I did this now, as any later I've been told will shock them too much. With confirmed flowering, I switched over from both blue and red lights to just red. I also lowered the lights closer to about 9 inches after being assured that they won't burn the leaves any. With the transition, I gave the plants one last watering with the N-P-P mixture.

At the beginning of this week I switched over to blooming fertilizer and gave both plants about 1/4 gallon, beginning with 12ml/gal mix each type. Made a huge rookie error, and left the lights on for 24 hours beginning on day 58. I was out sick and didn't discover it for a few days. Poor girls, their soil dried a bit and they drooped for a couple days. I switched them back to 12 hours after discovering what had happened on day 62. I also bumped up their nutrient ratio to Heavy feeding (4 teaspoons per gallon) of Tiger Bloom and a little less than General Feeding (4 tablespoons per gallon) of Big Bloom, giving them 1 Qt of water/nutrient mix at lights out time. The next day they bounced right back to life! :-)

Plants are doing nicely on their own. I have learned to be more hands-off and let them take their own pace. I check soil dryness every few days and add water/nutrients when dry past my first knuckle. Sticking with the same nutrient mix as it seems to be doing the trick. If you watch the timelapse, you'll see a moment of panic when the reflector fell over onto Cheecha. But, in the long run, what doesn't kill them seems to be making them stronger. Cheecha is now almost the same height as her sister Chonga. We're in Fall now, so the room is getting a little cooler, but above 70 degrees F. Humidity is also starting to drop a bit too.

Really happy with the progress. Not as full as others I've seen, but I've learned a lot in the process and will be better prepared from the start to grow big beautiful plants next time. Especially happy that Chonga has grown so much stronger and is now the exact same height as sister Chonga. Both plants have reached 21 inches.

Trying to be more hands-off. So far this week all is well. Gave each plant about a quart of plain distilled water this weekend. Looked good all week, but by mid-day Thursday, they were drooping quite a bit. So today (Thurs.) I gave them a thorough watering with nutrients. Great news, little Cheecha is officially 2 inches taller than Chonga!

Well, so much for taking the hands-off approach. Winter is coming and the heater has been on, which is drying out the air more. Temperature is the same in the grow room, but humidity has plunged to 23%. Gave the plants a thorough watering with nutrients last week. Today and the rest of the week, I'm going to treat them to just plain water until next week. UPDATE: Humidity definitely the culprit. Placed a small humidifier by the plants on Wednesday, and they sprang right back. All is going well now. Seed description says flowering phase of 11 Weeks. Should expect to begin harvesting around Dec. 20th (4 weeks from now).

Now that we got the humidity back to normal, I treated each plant to fresh nutrients. The pistils on Chonga are starting to turn brown, indicating it'll be time to harvest soon (despite my 20 Dec prediction). Cheecha's pistils are still long and bright, so we still may be on track for her harvest in December. I'm going to start flushing Chonga this week while maintaining nutrients for Cheecha. UPDATE: I finally caved and bought a Grow Tent! almost immediately the temp rose from 73 to 77 degrees. Humidity is stable at 34%. I'm going to wait until Chonga is harvested before introducing the humidifier again to dehydrate chonga a little prior to harvest.

Final week before harvest. Pistils have turned brown all over on one plant, but not the other. Been trying to take close-ups of trichomes with phone, but can't tell if they are clear, milky or brown. Caved in and bought a hand-held microscope with light. Beautiful ❤️ just hard as heck to stay in focus doing hand held. Not sure if I should be clipping samples to look at on a flat surface. Stopped fertilizing and flushed the more mature plant last week. The other one is showing signs of ripeness now, so flushed it to early this week.

I now recognize the value of proper humidity. I think I let my plants dry out a little too much at 35% from not checking the humidifier water level every day.