First Timer w/ GG#4, by i49

Official, last retroactive Veg, Week 1. The journal is now complete! Nothing special here, just seedlings. Used the standard 10-16 hour soak followed up by roughly 16hrs in Paper Towel, tapped then sowed.

Second week of Veg and everything is going just dandy at this point. There's trouble to come but up until this point they've done really well and shown no signs of heat/light stress. No feeding until 3 week of Veg. Notes of the week: -Feel like I over conditioned my seeding soil w/ perlite. A little too airy but is doing fine, just needs to be re-dampened more then I'd like to be doing.

Second week and healthy as I hoped they would be. Planning the pot up and move to the big tent in just a few days from these pictures. Was very confident at this point and happy I got through the first 2 'danger weeks' and didn't kill them off. So, thumbs up👍 Note: When first germinating, I felt I had an in-viable seed that dropped like a rock when placed into the jar. So I added another as a per caution. Next day the 'sinker' came back up and was fine. So I'm aware that I have 5 here but when will be, unfortunately, terminated. From the beginning, when I knew all five would eventually pop, I started to try and find a home for the 5th. No takers, no where. If it was an auto, no problem. But no one I knew of or even people they knew of were in the same growth cycle as her. That or they simply didn't have room. You'll notice that in week 3, one of the girls mysteriously disappear. I'm sorry to say but she was terminated in order to stay legal. It didn't feel good, and I tried to find a home, but this was just unfortunate and from lack of growing experience.

This was a pretty bad week with lots of problems that arouse due to a few factors that I had identified and fixed, over time, but really shouldn't have happened in the first place. I feel it was a mixture of being new to growing, impatience and lack of intuition that lead me to this point but after a full week of remedies and fixing my errors the plants bounced back. During this time, however, I feel I lost at least 3 weeks of Veg from all this stress and stunting. Here is a list of mistakes I made, compounding into much larger ones: 1. Used too tall of a germination/seedling cup (Solo) and instead of filling it only 2/3's or half I filled it to the top. The cup is about 6.5 inches high and the pots I potted up too were only 7.5" in depth. No room for the roots to grow and they bound QUICKLY. No longer filling past 2/3's to leave tapping room and also room to shore up stems if need be. 2. I know plastic pots can be fine, but the 1.57G plastic pots were wider then they were tall w/ very, very poor aeration. With improper watering (non-localized) I quickly saturated the medium with no roots to take it up. Now we are root bound and drowning...plants are not looking good. 3. Under-conditioned soil. When I opened the bag of Ocean Forest I knew something was off. It was hard as a brick and didn't fluff out when I cut the bag. I've seen and used this soil before and it wasn't right...so I used it anyway!(Not smart. Needed to pitch it). Anyways, it was not conditioned properly and I didn't take the steps necessary in adding perlite or other, to loam up the soil and make it so it didn't hold on to every bloody drop of water I gave. Now we're drowning, bound and the soil is too dense to give up water or let new lateral roots to tap into...easily at least. 4. At this point I have not watered the girls for over 8 days! since they won't take up any water but have taken the nutrients from it. Now there is a clear Cal-mag and phosphorous deficiency with a Nitrogen one on the way. But I can't feed or I'll compound the problem. I felt like there was no turning back and I had essentially failed and killed these girls off, or at least it was only a matter of days or a week. Was told by other growers I know to pitch them and try again. That it was only losing a few weeks and it would be better to just give er another go. I actually did agree with them but felt sick about terminating them when nothing that happened is or was their fault. I did this and I was responsible for it. From a non grower, I was told this. (verbatim)"If you want to be a real farmer and you want to truly learn the horticulture, the remedies and the propagation of cannabis, you don't get to cut and run. A real farmer accepts his mistakes and will do everything in their power to remedy those mistakes until the bitter end. If the crop still fails the farmer cannot be faulted for not trying. A farmer can be faulted if they cut and run without an attempt and this isn't true growing. Many farmers don't have the choice to cut and run, either. For them, their crop is their livelihood and to lose it would be devastating. So, even if you're not a true cannabis farmer yet, act like your crop is your livelihood and that it must be saved and/or maintained at any cost. In future you won't hesitate to fix your mistakes and be far more willing to accept and remedy them". There was more to what he said, but this is the long and short of it. I didn't listen to my grower buddies/acquaintances and took the advice to at the very least, try and be a real farmer and fix my mistakes. Remedies and Fixes used until Positive results: 1. Drilled numerous extra holes in bottom of plastic pots with a fan pointing into the pan and rebounding back up in an attempt to pull some of the water from the soil. Damaged roots while doing, but no choice. Result: Didn't work. Still no proper aeration and the girls stayed water logged. 2. Took 2" of top soil off the pot and replaced with highly conditioned Dutch Treat potting soil in another attempt to aerate the lower half a bit better. Result: Didn't work. Improved Aeration and dissipated moisture but I'm still root bound and semi-water logged w/ deficiencies. 3. No choice but to transplant. I knew fully that no matter what I did at this point, it wasn't going to fix all the problems I had. Time to do an emergency pot up. Purchased x4, 3 gallon fabric geopots and moved them quickly. Should have done this first. Result: It worked and again, should have been my first course of action ( You live you learn). Soil dried and I was finally able to tackle my deficiency problem now. The girls got a balanced micro/grow/bloom w/ cal-mag treatment as soon possible and both visible deficiencies subsided or halted within 2 days. GG#4, plant #1 became the runt here. The cal-mag deficiency pulled most the chlorophyll from a few of it's main fan leaves and eventually I had to cut them when they started to dry up and furl. This did fix them up. After a week or so the bound roots started to make their way into the fresh 3.5 inches of soil, deficiencies dropped, color came back in full and the speedy Vegetative growth was back in full swing. #1 just stayed a little smaller with a noticeably smaller main stem. I don't care, I was very happy and felt like a good farmer for not giving up and pitching them. At the time of this retro-active Veg diary, my plants are 4 days away from the chop w/ what looks like a very healthy, abundant and potent crop. To think if I was to abandon them like I had planned, I'd never get to see them in all their glory today. DON'T GIVE UP! IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER!

Week 5 of Veg was a stressful but good one. At the beginning of the week I had serious issues that were killing the girls and at the end of the week I had to do an emergency transplant from 1.57 gallon thick plastic pots to 3 gallon fabric pots. The reasons for this are numerous and all user error. Learned some hard lessons that many small, seemingly innocuous, mistakes can turn into some seriously big, plant-life threatening problems. Also a lesson for me that no matter how much I read and how much I talk to people about growing, I'm going to make mistakes through actual, practical experience. There were also deficiency issues I was dealing with this week (Certain it was Cal-mag/zinc) specifically affecting GG#4, plant #1. This is where she became the 'runt' of the group. She was young and her largest set of fan leaves were pretty damaged. Eventually, after the deficiency was rectified, I removed the leaves as the damage was too much and there was no bringing them back. Those two fan leaves I took made a huge difference and were about 1/3rd of what she had. She never fully recovered and that's pretty clear from the flowering photos and the size of her stems/stalks. Notes of the week: -Topped two sections, for the second time. I will not be topping this much in future and plan on heavier LST to accomplish my desired # of tops -This grow should not have taken this long, but with the stunting, root binding and deficiencies I estimated 2-3 weeks of Veg time were lost in this time. Not totally ecstatic about what went on and the mistakes I made, but man did I learn a lot and man am I glad I didn't just straight up kill them with those mistakes.

By the end of week 6 I had finally remedied a few problems with the girls that were causing some serious stunting and nutrient lockout (sub-sequentially causing a nutrient deficiency). In retrospect I feel I could have saved at least 2 weeks of Veg if it weren't for the mistakes I had made. BUT! I followed through and brought them back and couldn't be happier that they made it. These were my faults, after all, not theirs, so I'm very happy to see them thriving at this moment in the grow. Hopefully, smoother days in the future for the ladies. Note of the week: Deficiencies and stunting has been rectified and the plants are going in to full training now that they're healthy enough to move forward. I did not start my LST until these issues were fixed since anything I did would probably just cause more stress, shock and stunting. "You live you Learn" Happy Growing all.

Week 7 was a good week and all the girls are doing well, bouncing back from some pretty bad conditions that I had inadvertently created. The mistakes I made to create the issue will be covered in earlier weeks. Long story short, an estimated 2 weeks of veg could have been cut off my grow time if I didn't face some root binding, nute deficiencies and stunting problems. You live you learn and they bounced back, so all good! This pictures are still when the girls are in Training and just when they've started to really push, roughly .5 to 1" in height per day. Note of the week: Plants have been potted up to their final 5 gallon, fabric pot homes. No signs of shock or stunting noticed. They grew like nothing happened.

Week 7 of Veg went pretty well. Still training in most of these photos to fill up the tent before flower. Using your basic plant tie wires, clips and bamboo sticks to accomplish the LST. I also don't defoliate much ( Just the lower 6-9" pending on height/strain type), and let the girls do the shedding themselves. In future I do plan on doing heavier defoliation and focusing just on my main colas but for now this is a comfort factor and I don't want to take what I shouldn't and I don't want cause any unnecessary stress for the time being. Note of the week: I keep my plants (4 in total) in a 2 and 2 rotation for feeding nutrients and water. If the two girls in the back get nutes, the two in the front do not until next feed. I do this just in case I effed up the feed mix or the plants have an adverse reaction to my nutrient mix. It's doubtful this will happen but is a checks and balance's sort of thing. If I screw up realllly bad, at least I haven't harmed all 4 and can adjust the feeding schedule accordingly, as to not hurt or kill the remaining ladies. I know it's a bit paranoid, but it's another comfort factor to protect myself from a complete loss if something was to happen.

This was a good week. I started feeding the "transitions" feeding schedule in prep for flower. My cutoff for plant height, in Veg, was going to be 34-36" to accommodate the flowering stretch and leave adequate room for a buffer b/t my light and the girls. At 31 " this week I knew I was super close to having to flip. Also, removed more tie wires, as there's just nowhere for them to go anymore... I filled the space the best I could and didn't want the plants to get hung up on each other if and when I have to rotate them. Thanks for reading. Cheers all, and happy growing.

Due to lack of time, at the time, I did not upload or post the progress seen in Veg. Decided to Retroactively update one week, one per day (hopefully) until the Diarie is completed up to now. Don't know if any one cares about the Veg time of my grow, I just wanted a complete journal on here, hahaha. Also, I ran a 24/0 hr Veg cycle, so the majority of the pictures are that beautiful, harsh pink color that burns into your corneas. Sorry about that, and I'll make sure to include anything and everything I actually took under natural light. Cheers, and thanks for reading! Note and Observation of the week: GG#4, plant #3 is the runt of the bunch and I can see already that she won't yield as much as her sisters. This was due to some mistakes I made in early veg which resulted in some stunting which never fully recovered. The notes of my mistakes will be updated in the earlier weeks of this diary.

Decided to start my Journal very late and am already at end of week 5 with this current grow, but have decided to add pertinent pictures and environmental readings from the beginning of flower to completion. Total of 3, GG#4's. Feeding of General Hydroponics Flora Grow series Week 1 , flowering schedule, "Drain to Waste" program. I'm here looking for any grow tips you may have to optimize my current and future projects and to learn as much as humanly possible from the many that have come before me. Thanks so much for reading, hope pictures are decent enough quality. I'll try to include as many natural light photos as possible for as long as possible. Cheers!

2nd Week of Flower with Balanced tap feeding, 8 Gallons @ 6.0 and 200ppm. No negative signs of deficiencies, heat/ light stress or abnormalities.

Week Three looking pretty good. Stretch appears to be complete and the girls are now starting to put on mass and pushing as many new pistils as they can muster. Nutrient Feed of General Hydroponics Flora grow series, week 3 schedule for "Drain to Waste Program". I apologize for the picture quality as most were taking with the LED light in operation. From Week 6 onward (Where I will be in a couple days from this post) I will take pictures before the girls go to sleep for the night

Strong Growth on all 4 girls. Bud mass is starting to show it's weight and the girls are getting heavier by the day. Feeding of 8 Gallons, Tap @ 6.0 and 200ppm for 2 or 4 every second feeding. Haven't had any issues so far with this feeding schedule so I'll continue to use this schedule until or if something changes👌

About half way through flower, the plants all seem to be doing well and the Black Rhino has been propped up to create an even canopy. GG's internode spacing ranges from 1 to 1.75 inches per inter-node length. Mass is starting to show in the drooping of the colas and I will be applying a wide, non static cloth around the circumference to help hold it's form and weight. As mentioned previously, all pictures after this point will be without the LED in operation to give a much clearer view. Thanks for looking at these pink monstrosities!!

This week (Day 35-42) has so far shown very healthy, sturdy and exceptional bud growth. As previously mentioned in past weekly comments, all photos from here on out will be without the LED in operation for better viewing as to allow for better constructive criticism from the community.

Week 7 (Day 43-49) starting to show the full potential of their end result. Bud mass is in full force and pushing everyday. All readings have been falling into mostly optimal levels but am still working on managing my RH % during flower. Currently dropped to 41% and if I can hold that, we're in business. Applied plant yoyo's at the recommendation of user @Cbalderson60 to manage the weight of my colas as they're starting to spread and lean into one another. Installed 10 and will be applying another 10 yoyo's to the front remaining girls, when the package arrives. Thanks again to Cbalderson60 for answering my question previously and for directing me to these yoyos. If any user sees a problem that needs to be addressed, please don't hesitate to drop me a line. I'm always willing to learn new techniques and grow practices from people that have already been there/ done that. Thanks for reading and happy growing (All pictures are from Day 43 and will add more pictures at end of week 7 on day 48)

Coming into week 8 (Day 50-56) and everything seems to be in order. I spoke with another user on this site and he was kind enough to give me advice on when to start my flush. I was uncertain what my Trichs were supposed to look like at that time. Could only find info on when to harvest based on trichs not when to flush, so many thanks to @weedawan for giving me a heads up. After this advice I decided to stop my nutrient feeding all together (was going to do one more before flush) and have started my 7-12 day flush schedule, hopefully landing my harvest somewhere's around Nov. 5th/6th (day 59/60 flower, tentatively). After doing some research and asking around my local hydroponics shop, I picked up some 'Flawless Finish' by Advanced Nutrients. First round of flushing consisted of 2 gallons of balanced tap & 15mL of FF, per plant. Thirty minutes afterwards and after removing/testing runoff, I applied an additional 2 gallons of balanced Tap with no FF solution. From the looks of the runoff alone, the Flawless Finish did it's job and pulled quite a bit of excess nutes from the soil (based on color of runoff and ppm testing)...much more then I would have anticipated was there. After they dry well enough I plan on applying the same process for a 2nd and final time before I plan on cutting them down. I have photos with my 60x magnifyer, but here's the thing, I can't take pictures if my life depended on it and the stillness required to take these photos is not something I possess. I'm a naturally shaky handed and somewhat anxious person, lol. Out of the 30-40 I attempted to take, only about 4-5 came out ok. I'm going to include them, but please don't judge the plant based on my crappy camera work. Notes of the week so far: -Foliage color is finally starting to change as they start to turn in on themselves. A nice, slow, even spread and I'm not concerned at all. Color changes are pretty evident on 2 of the girls from the photos. -I will continue to retroactively update my Veg period when I can👍 -I have edited this journal to be a GG#4 only grow and have taken out all of the single Black Rhino photo's and grow information. I decided to include the BR in a separate journal as her journey was unique and she's kinda been ignored in this diary the entire time, anyway. -I'm expecting about 1-2 ounces of under growth (popcorn nuggets) but that's not a problem. I already set up a plan with a friend of mine to take it all too and she is going to teach me how to press hash, make cannibutter and teach me some cannabis baking methods. In future I don't want this much popcorn product and have a plan to lollipop my girls during my next grow.

After week eight's (day 49-56) flush with flawless finish, along with an additional flush in the last two days, all the girls have started to show positive signs of wrapping up soon here. Average PPM readings I took after the most recent flush averaged out to 420-ish PPM (My tap is 220) so I feel confident they will drop the remaining excess nutrients on their third and final flush a few days before I cut them down. *Used same process for flush as week 8* Notes of the week: -I love the colors. Haven't been here before and it's like seeing autumn😊 -Harvest will land on Nov. 6th or 7th, pending on the final PPM readings -On the same day as harvest and the beginning of drying in the main tent, I'll be starting x2 Do Si Do's and either x2 NL's or x2 blue cookies. I received the NL's for free from my seed bank and now I don't know which one to grow...blue cookie or NL. If you're reading this and have an opinion, please weigh in. Good problem to have though👍. Thanks for reading, happy growing and Cheers!

👋👏👋Quick shout out to the following: @Mrs_Larimar, @Suicidal, @ROM101, @BeanswithPork, @BuddingBudda, @Visions, @Girlybudz, @ghostface00132, @Weedawan and @Cbalderson60. Whether you gave me advice, well wishes and/or support, I am more then grateful to have all of you rooting for the success of this grow and your moral support as a newbie to growing. It can be intimidating not knowing what to expect your first grow, but after finding growdiaries.com and all of you, I know I will have continued success in the future. So! Thank you again and thanks to GrowDiaries.com for providing such a great journaling site and for helping connect passionate growers in one place. Also, a personal thank you to i49 seed bank for their incredibly good customer service, great genetics, free seeds and overall great grow support. They have done nothing but impress me and I am looking forward to continue growing through them. THANKS i49!!!! The numbers: GG#4, plant #1 - 23 Grams ( .82 ounce) GG#4, plant #2 - 26 Grams ( .92 ounce) GG#4, plant #3 - 26 Grams ( .92 ounce) GG#4, plant #1, 2 and 3 popcorn nuggets- 36 grams (1.28 ounce) GG#4, plant #1, 2 and 3 shake/milled flower for concentrates- 79 grams (2.8 ounce) Total Whole Bud - 111 Grams (3.96 Ounce) Total, All together- 190 Grams (6.7 Ounce) Average of total product PER plant - 63.33 Grams ( 2.26 ounce) Hey! Pretty under-whelming numbers in terms of yield but the quality is certainly there (haven't done a THC/CBD test yet but I see I did not hit the breeders projected 27%. Feels much more like a 20/21%. Will test near future). I see all the little things/techniques I can implement in my next grow to increase these numbers. With these girls I did hardly any pruning or defoliating throughout, using only LST and topping. This resulted in many, many tops with low quantities of product on each. Estimated 14-18 tops per plant and would like to lollipop/prune/train for a max of 8-10 main tops per plant, while also taking much more undergrowth away with it in an attempt to focus the girls energy on fewer tops with larger yields rather then many tops with lower yields. (Note: I guess I got complacent and I am missing pictures of GG#4, plant 1. This includes the undergrowth basket, chop down, stem and stock....Not sure how I missed that, but she exists! Trust me!) All Shake and the majority of popcorn nuggets are going in for oil and/or canni-budder to store and/or use as needed. I have no idea what I'm doing but I have a close friend that is going to teach me the process' in making concentrates! Pretty excited to do some baking, it's been years! Remaining popcorn nuggets and whole bud will be for smoke and nothing else: So, long story short, I am very happy. The yield could certainly be higher but all I really wanted, at the end of the day, was to propagate a successful crop. I feel like I've done that and the quality and potency of the crop is there.... just not that much of it, hahaha. I am more then excited to continue growing and refining the practice of growing and have already started 3 new strains (4 plants). These strains are Northern Lights, Blue Cookies and Do Si Dos. Their diaries will begin tomorrow as their nearing 5 days old. Thanks again for everyone/anyone that reads this, has followed this grow, has given advice or just sent a kind word here and there. It's greatly appreciated and I'm happy to be apart of this community. I'm a dude that has ZERO social media accounts but this site, this community, is incredible.