First Grow: Living the Dream

Germinated seeds and planted in jiffy pots. Fed small amounts of PH'd water only until jiffy pot was just moist. Germinated on a Sunday, planted on a Monday and sprouted by Wednesday. Transferred to pots on the Friday. The medium used is a 70:30 coco coir to perlite mix. I'll be transferring into small pots first then 5 gal pots on week 3 or so.

After plants were potted I started with a small amount of nutrients in this week. Since this is my very first time I am sticking to a nutrient guide I found from GrowWeedEasy.com which starts the grow off with a very small amount of nutrients. I have been feeding them plain PH'd water in between feedings. They have been consistently taking feedings every 2 days. Trying not to baby the plants as a rookie is very hard but I find myself obsessing over them and checking in on them much too often. Trying to avoid touching the plants or readjusting everything is difficult lol.

Nutrients being bumped up slightly this week, staying consistent with the CalMag. At the beginning of the week I made the mistake of handling the plants too much and damaged the stem on the Tangerine Dream plant. I was trying to move the plant out of the way to water it at the stem in a small circle so as not to add too much water. I read that once the plant has been transplanted into a large pot it's best just to water in a small circle around the plant to avoid over watering. In doing so I almost snapped the stalk! I directed airflow at the plants stem and noticed after a few days that it was getting thick and stronger. No more handling the plants from now on. Near the end of this week I realized that there was not enough medium in my pots and started worrying about the plants becoming rootbound later in the grow. I followed a coco coir potting recipe from GWE but it wasn't enough. I hydrated the remaining coco and mixed in my perlite and vey carefully lifted the plants up in the pot then filled in the sides with the extra coco mix. I raised both plants up a few inches and felt better. After 24hrs I noticed the plants were very droopy! I was able to determine that this was most likely transplant shock and I more than likely exposed the roots to light when I raised the plant beds up. Becoming a bit concerned near the end of this wk but seeing the plants bounce back at the end of the week was relieving. The Blue Dream plant bounced back nicely but the Tangerine Dream is still looking a bit sad.

So the plants bounced back from the transplant shock early in the week. I've cut down the amount of water I've been giving the plants significantly. Last week I fed them water until I got about 5-10% runoff but then noticed this Monday and Tuesday that the Tangerine Dream plant particularly looked droopy. I sourced some troubleshooting guides online and determined that I had overfed the plants with too much water. To remedy this I directed airflow directly at the fabric pots and cranked them both up to full speed. It took 3 days but the medium finally dried out and the plants looked normal. The BD plant is looking fantastic and the TD plant has rebounded a lot but still isn't 100%. For the first feeding of the week I gave only 2 cups of PH'd water and noticed 2 days later that they had responded positively to this change. For the second feeding I gave 3 cups of nute water and will update the results later in the week. I'll wait another week before I start feeding until run off occurs. Temperatures in my location have dropped significantly so I'm switching the light to a 24hrs to keep the heat up. Already after a day and a bit the plants look healthier. Will update more at the end of the week. ***Update***: Plants are really looking great nearing the end of wk 4. On Thursday of this week I shifted things around in the tent. I moved the plants down from the middle shelf and placed them on 2 tall bucket lowering them to about 12 inches away from the light. I also started LST on the Blue Dream plant as it was a bit further along than the Tangerine Dream plant. The new watering amounts worked out really well and the TD plant is back to 100%! They've both already gained some extra height in response to the new light distance. Within about 48hrs the TD plant grew approximately an inch or so taller. I'll start the LST on her this wknd or tonight (Fri). The BD plant has responded very well to the LST and I will continue pinning the main stem down around the perimeter of the pot. Hopefully the TD plant catches up soon. TD;DR - the plants were droopy at the beginning of the wk so I fed less water and the plants responded positively to this change. Near the end of the week I raised the light height up to 12 inches and started LST to which the plants have had a positive reaction to.

Treating this like week 4 of VEG due to the fact I started from seed so week 1 is really like week 0 (zero). Pretty straight forward week. Bumped up the FloraBloom a bit. Plants are looking really healthy! I finally got a light meter that measure LUX and FC and have been slowly bumping up the LUX this week by lowering the T5 LED's closer to the plants. At first I had the light really low but then raised it to about 16 inches, it was a guessing game! When I got the light meter I took a measurement and realized that the plants weren't getting enough light and that these light meters are a useful tool. At 16" the LUX meter showed a reading of about 12,000 LUX and I need to be somewhere between 15,000 and 50,000! I'm learning that these new T5 LED's are designed to sit really close to the plants for better absorption. It's colder now and doing this helps keeps temps up so it's a win win. By weeks end the plants should be receiving approx 35,000 LUX. The LST is going well also so I'm going to continue with that for another week of VEG before I flip these plants over to the flowering side of the tent and bump the light up significantly with the LED Quantum Board with deep red ultraviolet LEDS. Can't wait! Plants have also slowly been taking on more water as I have been increasing the feedings by 1 cup every time. They are now able to take a full feeding with run off. PH is in the range going in and out.

Another week gone by. Same feeding schedule as last wk. Got the watering technique pretty much down at this point. PH levels going in and out are looking good and being fluctuated. Last week I went to about 6.1-6.3 and this wk I went back down to 5.8. Temperature has been a bit of a concern and I think my Tangerine Dream plant is stunted for this reason. It's getting colder and colder here so it's been a challenge to keep the temp up. A few dips down to the 19C mark on the overnights but it's been few and far between. I'll flip the Blue Dream over to flower this Sunday and keep the Tangerine Dream in veg for another week in order to catch up a bit. No major issues to discuss, just getting better at leaving the plants alone and being patient. Starting to smell pretty good in the tent!

At the start of the week I switched my plants over to the Flower side of the tent and posted a picture on Reddit. After reading some feedback and only 24hrs at 12/12 I decided to veg the plants for a few more weeks to let them fill out even more. Also, as you can see in the pics I snapped the main stem of the Tangerine Dream plant! I carefully taped the stem with some duct tape and after about 2 days the plant healed itself and bounced back successfully! Phewf!! Close call.. The plants are getting mad bushy now!! A lot of little bud sites popping up from the main stem from the areas I've exposed due to the LST. Things are looking pretty good. The only thing that was slightly concerning is that I changed the nute amounts for a transition phase and made 4 gallons of it so I didn't want to just chuck it and decided to continue feeding them even though I switched them back to veg. Next week I'll continue with the veg feeding amounts from the previous week. So eager to switch them over but I need to exhibit some patience here... My yields will thank me! Probably at least a week more of Veg after this one. Plants are taking on at least a gallon of water each before run off now every 48 - 60 hrs.

Plants are getting bushy and the Tangerine Dream bounced back nicely from the broken stem. The tip has regained some life and it continues to grow. I peaked behind the duct tap and it's healing but not completely yet, which is fine. Just need to be gentle and patient. As long as it's growing I think I'm ok! Both plants are taking up a lot of space in the veg side of the tent so they will be flipped this Sunday for sure. Parts of each plant are sticking outside of the lights scope and have fully filled in the space within the pots so I think it's time. Upped the cal mag this wk and continued the feeding schedule as the last few wks. I've been continuing the LST and wrapping the main steam around the perimeter of the pot. It's been time consuming doing the LST to all the little off shoots but it'll pay off in yields hopefully. Doing my best to keep the plants low and bushy due to my height constraints. Will need to be diligent when I flip them for the next few wks! Looking forward to the switch this wknd!

Plants switched to the Flowering side this wk. Continuing LST, watching for the big flowering stretch that really hasn't come yet. A bit worried about temperature and humidity levels because it's cold here and the QB really raises the temp but when the AC Infinity kicks on and sucks air into the tent the humidity dips down to around 35% or sometimes lower. So have been trying to balance that a bit this wk without buying any expensive equipment. If I set the temperature for the fan to kick on a little higher it has seemed to remedy this issue but temps are getting up to around 26 at times in order to maintain a 40% humidity. Plants are taking in a bit more water now, approx 1.25 liters each every 2 days or so. Trying to maintain a 10-20% runoff to deal with salt build up. Some discoloration on the TD fan leaf, will have to keep an eye out. Everything else is looking healthy. Slight defoliation on fan leaves at the very bottom of the plant, especially ones that are discolored or touching the medium. Smell is getting stronger! Dipping the temps down when the plants are sleeping as I read it helps with trichome production.

Plants are ok but a deficiency has come up due to being away from the plants over the Christmas holidays. They were watered then left for 4 days and seem to have a Nitrogen deficiency mixed in with a bit of a Magnesium deficiency (maybe?). I skipped the water only feeding and fed back to back nutes, hopefully they will bounce back in the following week. Starting to defoliate the lower leaves and smaller bud sites lacking light exposure. Still super nervous about this bc it's my first grow but you have to start somewhere I guess. Poor plants... I have faith tho!

Flowering Day 18 - Plants looking a lot better after back to back nute feeds, bud sites looking really pretty. Things are getting exciting! F19 - Both plants were defoliated a little more.. I'm taking my time with this bc I've never done it before and am nervous about removing potential bud sites F21 - Tops of plants looking healthy but starting to notice some discoloration on the bottom fan leaves, could this be due to the defoliation? I looked it up and it seems to be a magnesium deficiency. I'm going to increase CalMag at next nute feeding and flush with extra water as I've read on GWE this helps to alleviate the issue.

- plants were controversially defoliated at the start of this week, nervous about this but it's my first grow and I'm open to experimentation - last wk I recognized that I had a deficiency, lower/older fan leaves were yellowing, dying and showing signs of a cal/mag deficiency - with a little research on cocoforcannabis.com I was able to establish that this indeed was the case and I realized I had been feeding my plants incorrectly basically for this entire grow - I discovered the meaning of Electrical Conductivity (EC) which is the measure of the amount of salt in your fertilized water (amount of nutrients inside the water) - until this wk I had been watering the plants alternating between plain PH'd water and fertilized water, this is an incorrect method to feed plants in coco coir - I have learned that when you alternate like this in coco it causes a salt build up in the root zone and EC readings to sky rocket to dangerous levels - When EC is too high at the root zone it interferes with the plants ability to absorb water (osmosis) - Also, my PH levels were consistently too low (around 5.6-5.8) at the root zone, causing the plant to not be able to absorb CalMag (as it's absorbed at 6.2) - I learned how to accurately measure run off, both for EC and PH - EC and PH run off values will be closely monitored for the duration of the grow Solution: - EC readings at root zone at this stage in the grow should be approximately 1600, mine were approx 2800! Danger zone! Should be approx 300 more than in flow - plants were flushed with half strength nutrient water at double the regular amount at a 6.5 PH - after waiting 10 mins, more of the same water was added creating a small amount of run off - EC run off readings were approx 1400 for Tangerine and about 900 for Blue with a PH for both in the 6.3-6.4 range - higher PH should solve my the deficiency issue - EC should correct itself with consistent fertigation events - will aim for 1-2x daily fertigation for the remainder of the grow, always with nutrients added to the irrigation water Results: - defoliation seems to be affecting the plants positively, in the pictures from initial defoliation to end of the week, plant looks like it's fattened up and pointing it's leaves skyward - could also be a result of the flush - overall plants seem to be doing well and ready for wk 5! Learned a lot this wk! It's been a lot of fun to problem solve and I'm super happy to have found cocoforcannabis!

- Sh*t is getting REAL! Plants are starting to bloom nicely - plants seem to be reacting positively to the daily fertigations (feedings with nutrients in the water) - tent smells like orange creamsicle and sweet candy, it's incredible! - BD showing signs of light stress, or at least what I believe to be light stress due to the fact that the PH of the in flow and run off is consistently within range and the EC levels are within target leading me to rule out 'nute burn' (I could be wrong tho) - light was moved up about an inch and the tip burn seems to have discontinued it's growth up the leaves - raised the RH slightly up to 50% after more reading on Coco for Cannabis - some slight defoliation around the larger colas to help improve airflow - fans were also directed more at the colas - definitely realizing why people only tend to grow one strain at a time due to the fact that I'm having various small fluctuations in PH and EC from both plants after feeding them the same nutrient water - it's almost like I would have to make 2 different batches at different EC and PH levels, which is something I'll probably start in the next wk.. creating even more work for myself

- plants are taking in daily feedings without issue - buds have really exploded this week and it's been exciting to watch - colours are starting to come out in both plants, especially the Tangerine Dream - EC targets have mainly been the same as last wk - lowered PH down to 5.8 in order to absorb more manganese but run off still showing a PH above 6 - nothing super new to report other that I'm getting pretty excited

- Wk 7 of Flowering - Added some Liquid KoolBloom to the mix this wk - Not sure if this is a bad thing to introduce suddenly but I got my hands on some and though 'what the hell' - buds are getting much fatter, not sure if this is a direct result though - started feeding at lower PH to absorb more manganese but then what looks like a manganese deficiency started popping up in my BD plant, will monitor run off PH and EC - plants still small amazing and are starting to show some heat stress signs because I lowered the humidity in the tent gradually by 2% every day until I got down to 43% - some of the leaves are starting to curl so I'm guessing it's stressing the plants slightly - I've read it's good to lower humidity for the last few wks of flower for good taste/smell, so we'll see - trichomes are more abundant but I was expecting more tbh, we'll see what happens in the next few wks!

- Plants are doing well and getting really close - On close inspection with a jewelers loupe I can see a good amount of cloudy trichomes but will wait a bit longer for some more amber - Continue feeding as before dropping the KoolBloom down 1ml per gallon - Next week I will most like start the flushing process with FloraKleen as soon as I see amber trichomes showing up - Getting close! Excited

- Plants taking their time to mature - Starting to feel what others say about this being the most impatient time due to the fact I'm excited for harvest but don't want to rush it - Trichomes are still taking their time to turn cloudy, slow and steady

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Would def recommend this one to beginners. She jumped around a bit on the run off PH and EC levels but mostly was a pleasure to grow.