Blue Dream 1st Grow

Edit: The girls have sprouted on day 4! One Friday morning and the second that evening! So exciting! I took a few photos Saturday morning for progress that I’m adding to this week. I watered a little less than every other day waiting until the soil was dry about a knuckle down with just tap water that is around 7ph from my test. No nutes for now. For goals, I got a space heater for the tent and that’s been keeping the tent at a very solid 71-76 temp range. The tent is still a bit dry around 20-38% RH, so I ordered a humidifier to hopefully get that under control closer you 40-50% RH. I’m thinking of experimenting with LST with one of the two plants to see the differences between that and a natural grow. Pics from exactly one week from planting. Onto week 2! Cheers! ——————————————————————————————————————————————— Hello everyone, I'm starting my first grow of Fastbuds Blue Dream'matic. I've been doing quite a lot of reading and I'm ready to give it a try! Any tips would be appreciated! I'll start the diary off with a few photos of the initial set-up, then will update next week hopefully with more pictures to end week 1. I'm using Fox Farm Happy Frog soil as a medium and the Fox Farm trio (Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom) for nutrients in a 10" pot with an integrated saucer. The grow tent is a Vivosun 48"x24"x60" I have the lights on a timer set to a schedule of 18hr on from 7pm-1pm and 6 hr off to hopefully warm up the tent during the evening as we are still in the colder season for my area. I have the seeds planted about a knuckle down and lightly covered with soil and spritzed with a watering can to keep the soil around the seed moist but not soaked per some of the recommendations of what I'm reading for growing seeds directly in the final container. I do have the integrated saucer disconnected from the pot and have the pot sitting on the raised ends molded into the saucer to enable more drainage and to use as a water catch plate once I start to water more and more. I will hold off on starting nutrients until I'm a bit more comfortable with the watering schedule and the plant is a bit farther along. Once I do start adding nutrients I'll be adding about half strength and then ramping up to match the feeding schedule from FF. My challenges for the upcoming week will be to monitor the humidity and temp as they're a bit lower than what I'm reading is ideal for growing, and to see how I can work on getting those things raised in my tent. In addition, I'll be playing with my watering amount to make sure the seeds get enough water but not too much That's it for now. Cheers!

Day 10: Good so far! BD2 seems to be drinking more water than BD1 since last watering 3 days ago. I gave BD2 a bit more water today to wet the soil a bit. Debating whether I should start nutrients this week or next. I set up a half gallon with 1.5 tsp big bloom PH around 6.1-6.9 for whenever I decide to start feeding. Day 14: These two are chugging along quite nicely! I gave each about 250mL of water mixed with the big bloom as a trial to see sensitivity at this stage. I’ll plan to use plain water next time and feed again next week if things are still looking good! Note to self: apparently nutrients settle at the bottom of the water jug after a day or two so shake well before feeding! Also, the humidifier came in the mail! Now time to figure out a spot to add the humidifier, around my my space heater and the pots. Things are getting cozy in the tent. That will be a project for tomorrow ......I’ll give the girls real names soon. Promise Onwards to Week 3! Cheers!

Day 17: Set up the humidifier in the tent finally! I arranged it how I think would get the plants out of the way for any hot air blowing from the heater. Let me know what everyone thinks of the new set up. I used regular water for watering 250mL. Had a bit of a scare as BD2 fell over during watering. We propped her back up and used some extra soil to help make sure she stays up. Day 21: It’s so awesome to check the plants and see how much they progress every 12 hours or so now that we have the time to check multiple times everyday..... BD1 is beginning to take on that signature smell if you get up close, and BD2 is starting to hint at giving off the smell. Another 250mL of water because I honestly forgot to feed with the nutrient water. Next time.... Good news is that they don’t seem to hate the first round of feeding! I noticed one of the leaves On BD2 has one curl on it. Should I be worried? Also, names are finally decided. Yes! BD1 will now henceforth be named Bella. BD2 will take on the moniker of Daisy. I will put in some time to go back and update names of pictures. Finally, I’m thinking either this upcoming week or the week after I will attempt to LST them both. Any tips on the technique would be appreciated! I will wait until both Bella and Daisy get to their fourth node or a bit more to start. Thank you for reading this far! The girls starting to smell of flower made me start looking at more seeds. What do you think my next grow should be? I prefer Sativa/Sativa Dominant hybrids. I believe that’s it for now. Happy growing, stay safe, and stay healthy! Cheers!

Day 24: Both Bella and Daisy are starting to giving off that awesome smell now. That definitely fills me with joy and determination. I fed them yesterday with 250 mL of the nutrient/water mix. No signs of any injuries from nutrient burn so I’ll count that as a blessing, but I’ll still be keeping an eye out. I tried my first LST without topping today with my co-grower, and that was an interesting adventure. After wrestling with the plant ties a bit, I found that the plant stems are still pliable in this stage so they bent easily, stayed that way, and did not break thank goodness without having to tie them down. I then afterwards lightly put a plant tie around the stem to make sure she doesn’t grow back straight up. I do update every Wednesday and Sunday so check back around then! It doesn’t seem to count as an update if I edit the week on Sunday. Day 28: When they say it only takes a few hours for the girls to start growing back upwards after LST they mean it! After I tied them down before bed I woke up to find them pointing back up. I tied them again, but now I fear of over-stressing the plant so I’ll refrain from further training until they get a bit bigger. The girls are back to straight water this week as I found one of the lower leaf tips yellowing. No other leaves seem to be affected so I’ll just keep an eye on these until next Sunday to put them back on nutrients. Otherwise these girls are looking strong and starting to grow like crazy! I expect about one more week until the girls start flowering as i started the day count from planting the seed not from sprouting. Also, shoutout to everyone helping out with my question. I’m much more careful not to get water on the leaves now during watering. This is a great community and thank you everyone for being so awesome through this journey. Much love! Onto the next week! Cheers!

Day 31: The girls have gone and surprised me! The day after I said they’ll need another week before they start flowering they go sprouting pistils on me! I’ve switched the LED lights to the flowering setting now to support their growing endeavors. Today they’ve grown noticeably in size. Wow! Also I’ve noticed the soil drys up much quicker. I’ve had to water on Tuesday the usual 250mL of plain water. The soil already feels like it’s drying again. The growing girls need more water it seems. With the growth spurt and everything looking healthy I think I’ll mix up the extra flowering nutrients and feed them Thursday 250mL. Also, I’ll plan to up the amount of water to 500mL per watering starting Sunday. I’ll post an update Sunday and add the nutrient mix numbers. Stay tuned! Day 35: Bella and Daisy are really ramping up their growing this week. About quadruple their size since last Sunday. insane! Bigger plants means they’re more thirsty. I also forgot to water them on Thursday so I watered them yesterday at 500mL plain water to make up for it. I’ll plan to feed them this week since they’ve shown such strong growth. Onto next week! Cheers!

Day 38: Each day getting about 1-2 inches of growth. We’re up to 18” today.Wow! Watered on Sunday 1L water to gauge how much water the girls need and I think it was a hair too much. I’m gonna back it down to 750mL/watering for now and see if the girls give a better response to that. Mixed up some more nutrients to feed Thursday. Stay tuned! I’ll update my nutrient numbers Sunday. I may have did some math incorrectly on how much of the grow big and tiger bloom to add to the current mix, so I’ll keep a close eye on any odd leaves. Day 40: I trimmed so some lower bud sites don’t get covered by the older, larger fan leaves. I hope this gives some extra love to the lower sites for more flowers 💐. I noticed one leaf seemed chewed up. See picture. I haven’t found any traces of bugs or anything, but I’m really worried something is getting into the tent at night :( Day 42: Both girls measuring at 23” tall each today. More and more bud sites are forming. So exciting 🤩🤩 I’ve maxed out the height of light in the tent without some kind of extra accommodation, so I hope the girls don’t get too much taller. Since we’re at 18” lamp height from top of plant I don’t foresee too many issues if they get a little taller. Fed them tonight plain water. 750mL water seems to be the perfect amount of water and the girls are responding well to it. I’ll keep this schedule until they start drinking more again. The girls seem to have not noticed some leaves missing as they look to be chugging along quite nicely. Nutrient mix: I diluted my current mix of big bloom back to a half gallon with plain water. Then added 1tsp of grow big and tiger bloom to the mix which is a little more than I wanted to add. 750mL of nutrient mix per plant on Thursday (day 39). I’ll make sure to do a better mix next bottle as this feeding used up all of the mix I made. I don’t think the girls show any negative signs as of yet. Time will tell, but I’m positive these girls will start showing some awesome growth in the next few weeks 💪 Onto next week! Cheers and Happy growing!

Day 45: 750mL water per plant looks to be what these girls like fore now. More bud sites are developing, and the girls are continuing to look lovely. Trichomes are developing all around the main stem now and the leaves look sugary and sweet 👌. Trimmed a few more of the lower fan leaves covering bud sites to encourage more bud growth. The girls are starting to fight over space so I’ve separated them in the tent. Free to grow as much as they want. The growth in height has slowed down quite a bit, but they’re pretty close to the light now. Hopefully it doesn’t end up stressing the main cola too much. Fingers crossed.🤞 Day 49: So far so good another 750mL of plain water for each girl. More and more colas popping up, and the girls are starting to smell like berries!! Ahh! So proud of these girls. The bud sites are starting to look like the final product and I’m starting to drool a bit every time I check in. No signs of heat stress yet. Also ive removed the humidifier in the tent. The girls produce quite a lot of humidity all by themselves now. I think I’ll do one last feed next week before riding off the rest of the grow with plain ol’ H20 As always, constructive critique and tips are welcome. On to next week!! 🎺🎺🎺 Cheers!

Day 52: Bella is 27” tall and Daisy is 25” tall! They just keep stretching! 750mL of nutrient fed per plant tonight. I figure this will be one of the last mixes I make before final flush. If the girls seem to do well next week on these I’ll do another feed at this strength and finish off any remaining nutrients and switch to plain water. Measurements above! Day 56: Finally looks like the girls have stopped stretching. 750mL of water per plant today again. Some of the pistils are turning orange so it sounds like we’re coming into the home stretch of flowering. I’m hoping another 4 weeks, but the girls may be ready in about 2 weeks. Time will tell. I hope everyone has been staying safe and enjoying time to themselves with various quarantine. From me, I want to say hang in there, you’re doing great! All of you! Onwards! Cheers!

Day 59: 750mL of water per plant. The girls’ pistils are turning more and more orange, meaning they’re almost ready! Trimming leaves that were covering some bud sites to get them more light. I was planning to feed them once more, but I think I’m going to start the flush. The grow room is starting smell very beautifully. Trichomes still look clear but they’re starting to cover the flower and the buds are starting to fatten up 👌👌👌 Day 63: Another 750mL of plain water/plant. The girls have gone and stunk up the whole grow room now. Opening the door every morning to the room to be met with a pleasant aroma is amazing. Opening the tent to an intoxicating smell of flower is so exciting. I’m holding back my eagerness to want to harvest sooner rather than later until I can convince myself the trichomes are mostly cloudy and beginning to turn amber before beginning the chop. 🌀.🌀 More and more young buds are popping up down low so I may have to harvest each plants main stem first and let the younger buds develop more before I will harvest the lower buds. Reflection: The longer I go with the natural grow the more I’m seeing the benefits of topping/LST to keep the plant shorter and lighting more spread out among the flower growth and development. I’m very excited to see how much this plant will yield before I start experimenting with different training techniques to hopefully increase yield. Then I can see for myself and share with others another data point between natural and other plant training methods 🤩 Home stretch! Onto week 10 Cheers!

Sorry everyone! Updating this passed week has not been possible, but I have a full weeks update worth of pictures and another update coming tomorrow! Enjoy! Day 70: watered on Wednesday (Day66) and Sunday (Day 70) 750mL of water. Bella started to get top heavy so we tied her up with some support. The girls smell so fruity it’s been hard to keep myself from wanting to harvest already. I’ve been keeping myself in check by reviewing trichrome progress almost daily. The main cola’s pistils have turned a dark orange and the trichomes are definitely still clear. As I write this on day 72, I’ve found that the bud sites look even more covered in trichomes this week so that reassures me the girls are just doing their thing still. Respect ✊ I’m most likely going to have to harvest in two batches as the main coals are maturing faster than the lower coals unsurprisingly. I was really hoping they’d be ready for me to cut during the long weekend, but alas can’t rush quality. It’s looking like the end of week 11 is going to be the start of cut one for daisy and Bella. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to wait until week 12, but I’m really rooting for harvest this weekend. I would describe the smell as of now like fruity pebbles. Odd, but delicious smelling. 😋 I hope everyone is staying safe and enjoyed the weekend. This weekend was GORGEOUS here in terms of weather Cheers!