First Grow!

I soaked the seeds in water for 24 hours, then popped them into Root Riot plugs. They're in a starter dome on a warmer mat. I was pretty surprised to be seeing a sprout on day 3! Currently not really doing anything to control temperature or humidity since they're on the mat and under the dome, but once I see some leaves I'll try to get that under control. I also realized after soaking the seeds that while I ordered all autos, the freebies (which I'm starting) are actually photoperiod. Oops! I guess my super easy beginner grow will have one more element of challenge than I expected! Day 5 - Just keeping them moist, waiting for them to pop up a little more. Put them under the LEDs for more warmth.

Still trying to get humidity ironed out in that room. I'll start nutrients once I get a real leaf, I'm thinking GH Maxi series because I wanted to keep my first grow as simple as possible, and that seems pretty darn simple (and I've had good luck with it for other plants). Day 10: Started watering with nutrients since I've got some serrated leaves. Using a blend of MaxiGro, Bio Roots, and CaliMagic because... that's what I have on hand (from other gardening). I'm open to suggestions or revision, I just wanted to keep this first grow pretty simple. Day 10 Update: Whoops! Just realized the full nutrient schedule lists a different amount for seedlings than what's on the bag! Good thing I caught it early. They'll just get one day of turbo nutes. Day 12: Checked roots and they're healthy little buggers! I probably should have moved them to the next pots a few days ago, but here we are. Moved them to ~12oz newspaper transplant pots with buffered coir and rice husk. Roots looked healthy. Day 14: The very tippy tips of the biggest leaves are looking a bit burnt, so I just gave water today to flush and in case they're getting too much nutrient.

Plants are filling out but not growing up much. One of them seems to be showing some spots on the leaves. I'm going to get some filtered water to use for fertigation this week, I think the starting TDS of my tap water is too high. Maybe. Who knows. I'm figuring it out! Day 18: Plant on the left in the photos is looking like it has some nutrient deficiencies, but plant on the right looks ok. Gonna move them to the next pot today.

I upped the CalMag and Flora Bloom a bit to help with some of the nutrient deficiency from last week. All the new leaves look way better. Considering FIM-ing this week, but I want to have more healthy leaves before I do anything. Day 24 - I bit the bullet and FIMed. I top my tomatoes, peppers, and herbs all the time with no problem, why is topping the cannabis so scary? I'm at 4 nodes and the new growth his all looking pretty good, so I went for it.

Still looking good. They seem to be filling out after FIMing. Looks like there might be a tiny bit of light burn on the tippy tips of the new leaves, so I'll look at raising the light. Also, the girls are getting kinda dank, so I might be investing in a grow tent/carbon scrubber soon. Day 30: Spotted a couple of fungus gnats, so I'm cutting back on the humidity a bit. Dusted tops of coir with diatomaceous earth, and spacing out watering a bit, better air circulation, will probably get some sand today, maybe spinosad? There's just a couple, and there seem to have been fewer since adding the DE and fan. We'll see! Day 31: Got some GnatNix and applied to the top. I also got some Spinosad just so I don't have to make another trip later, but I'm going to hold off for a day or two before applying it to see how the GnatNix does. Day 33: Had to move the plants around a little, so I got some pics. Only saw two gnats today, and they were pretty sluggish (enough that I could grab them by hand). Hopefully the end is in sight! Grow tent came today, gonna set it up tomorrow and get the girls moved into their own condo! Day 35: Moved them into the new tent. Can finally raise the light to a more appropriate height and filter some of that dank air. Pulled off a couple of older leaves.

Still getting crispy edges. I'm pretty sure that in my effort to correct perceived nutrient deficiencies, I was actually giving them nutrient burn. I re-mixed the nutes, dialed down the TDS and got the pH a smidge lower. Hopefully lessons learned, onward and upward, etc. I'm going to switch to distilled water as soon as I can because even with filtered water, my starting TDS is higher than I'd like. I feel like I'm watering it down a lot to get it into range. Anyway, they're looking a little haggard, but they're still growing and hopefully it's all fixed. Day 42: Started LST and then... Bad news for me! I found out today that when I set up the new tent, for some reason, all of the outlets in that room are on the same circuit as the light switch so after carefully setting my timer and everything, the plants have probably only been getting a couple of hours of light per day. It's corrected now, but I'm not sure if I should just switch them to flower? Definitely working out allllll the bugs on this first grow!

Giving them one last week of veg and then flipping to flower. I feel like a ton of stuff has gone wrong on this grow, but at the same time, they're still growing and I guess that's what counts! All the same, I'm kind of ready to wrap this one up so I can apply what I've learned to the next grow and hopefully have it go smoother. Some really light LST with velcro strips and some very light defoliation, just to get better penetration (and get some of the most raggedy leaves). I guess the reassuring thing about plants is that they want to stay alive, so it's kind of amazing how much can go wrong and they'll keep going. Ultimately, as long as I get to harvest, I'm calling it a win!

Since the growth is looking a lot better now, I decided to just run out the veg nutrient mix I have, then switch to flower, so this is probably the last week of veg. I've been keeping the velcro bands snug for some light LST. I think after this grow, I might punch holes and add grommets around the edges of the (fabric) pots so that I have more tie points for LST next time.

Transitioned to 12/12 this week. New growth looking good. Just starting to get some stretch. Height is hard to measure since I keep bending it down and out as it grows, but they're spreading nicely. Looks like I'll have 2 very main colas, but several other nice ones (a couple of which might end up being about as big as the mains).

Second week of flowering done. Seem to be getting a bit more stretch. Been doing some minor defoliating to get more light into the plant, looks like I'll have lots of secondary bud sites (fingers crossed). I've been mixing nutrients to about 700 ppm but watering it down to half strength when I water, which seems to have helped a lot of the nutrient issues. I guess it was all just nutrient burn after all. Womp womp.

Just starting to see pistils on Day 74! I took some photos, but it's just like one tiny little pistil sticking up here and there, so it's not much to look at. Other than that, grow going good. New growth looking pretty good, still stretching, etc. Just starting to see some pistils. Switching nutes at end of week/beginning of week 12.

Switched nutrients to early bloom at beginning of week. A few pistils showing up, new growth all looking good. Looks like I'll have a few big bud sites, and a few smaller ones. More pistils showing up throughout the week, but still just looks pretty veg-y.

Diluting solution more again this week, had some slight browning on tips. Overall, buds seem to be developing pretty well. Switching up nutrient solution as soon as this jug runs out (early next week).

Switching nutrients to "Mid Bloom" ratios as of Sunday (I've been starting and ending my weeks on Thursday, so this is like a half week of early, half week of mid).

It's been a crazy week. I didn't get as many pictures as usual due to... you know, everything. Coronavirus, quarantine, job instability, etc. I did some minor defoliation, strapped down a few more branches, and moved the pots a little farther apart. They're still doing ok, adjusting nutrients and trying to keep everything balanced.

Tweaking nutrients a bit this week. Added a bit more floralicious so that it doesn't get halved when I dilute the rest. Also upped the CalMag a bit because I was getting some pale margins. We'll see as the week goes on. Buds are starting to actually look like buds, but looking at the other diaries, mine seem way behind! Hopefully they do a lot of developing soon.

Pretty uneventful week. Watering schedule spaced out a bit because I've been home more. Everything looking pretty ok, but hoping the buds start to fatten up some.

Still seem to be lagging a little bit in the bud department, but at least one is filling out some. Starting to get a little more glittery looking on the sugar leaves. I'm getting impatient!

Buds thickening up. Finally starting to show some blueberry genetics & turning a really pretty purple color. Got some KoolBloom to start using next week. I think maybe my P values have been a little low, hence the straggling buds? This grow has definitely taken longer than I expected, can't wait to wrap it up and try some autos next!

Buds are turning a really beautiful purple color. One plant seems to be stretching and the other is fattening up. Hopefully they meet in the middle! Could just be timing, but they really did seem to start developing faster when I added the KoolBloom. This seems to be taking a lot longer than expected for them to mature, but I don't know if it's just because so many people are growing autos or what? Or maybe this is why these seeds were freebies...

Buds still developing. I've always wondered why the plants were so different, but now the coloring is even so different I'm wondering if these freebies were different phenotypes or something.

Still defoliating leaves as the turn yellow. Looked at adjusting the LST, but most of the stems are pretty firm by now, not a lot of flexy green ones. Buds on the taller plant are filling out a lot, looking pretty hairy. The shorter/bushier plant is looking pretty sparkly, but still not getting a lot of pistils. Not sure if the Koolbloom really helped that much or if it was just timing, but the buds definitely started developing a lot faster since I added it. Ready to wrap this grow up! Come on, girls!

Still looking pretty good. Starting to keep track of the trichs. Adding this entry mid-week, so I should have more details in a few days. Week ending about how it started. Slower plant catching up with more pistils, though also looking maybe a bit nitrogen deficient? I'll add a couple drops of Gro for it, perhaps.

Pistils starting to curl and darken a bit. Trichs still looking pretty clear. Hopefully I'm wrapping this up in the next week or so. Added a smidge more Gro to address some nitrogen issues and it seems to have cleared up.

Trichs are almost all milky, but none seem to be amber. Mixed another gallon of "final week" solution, so I'm going to run through that (maybe 4 days?) then check again. If I see some amber, I'll start to flush, if not... another gallon of "final week". Everything about this grow is taking so... long... I'm tempted to just start flushing once it's 100% milky and not even wait for any amber, just because with my luck that'll be another month! Other than that grow going pretty good. Some leaves are yellowing, but it looks more like ... fall foliage than a nute deficiency. Might also be that the one plant seems to be a couple weeks behind, so it might actually still need a little more N since it's not as far into bloom. We'll see. Spotted a few fungus gnats this week. Dissolved some more mosquito bits and they've cut back. I've got some cuttings of some of my carnivorous plants to put in my next grow.

Started flush this week. Trichs looked pretty uniformly cloudly, and pistils were about half red. Debated waiting another week to start flushing, but everything is crazy right now and I kind of just need to wrap this up. Still a bit annoyed that one plant is looking ready and the other is still putting out fluffy pistils and clear trichs, but so be it. Let that be a lesson in unreliable genetics! This one isn't going to make any High Times centerfolds, but I'm ok with it for my first grow. I definitely feel like I have a better handle on heading into my next grow.

This grow cycle was a struggle, but I'm glad I got it out of the way. I feel like even just using known genetics next time, I'll have way smoother sailing. I'll also be prepared for almost anything that could go wrong, since I feel like I hit every bump in the road on this one.