First Grow

First serious attempt at a grow. Mostly doing this to help keep a track of what I'm doing. Advice is welcome. Using a coco coir mixed with some organic potting soil, worm castings and lots of perlite. Under 2x 200W (actual draw) full spectrum LEDs and 200W CFL. Pics are 7 to 10 days from germination. They stretched a lot after the first couple of days after sprouting so just repotted into final pots asap. Bit of slow grow as my basement is still a bit chilly from winter, but trying my best to keep the temps up. Watering with a light mix of General Hydroponics 3 part at less than 1/4 strength for seedlings as per bottle directions plus a bit of misting the top of the coco mux to keep it damp.

Plants are growing slowly and showing signs of stress still. Curled leaves and purplish stems/stalks. I determined it was a combination of light stress and high pH in the medium. Watered mostly with just CalMag solution this week including a heavy watering/flush to try to get the pH down and lower the output PPMs in the runoff which were very high. Also raised the LEDs to be more in line with the manufacturer recommendations, was cheating them too close. Overall i think ive addressed the main issues now but unfortunately feel the plants are now 3-5 days behind where i think they should be. But growth has quickened by the end of the week so hopefully we're getting back on track.

So we're at the end of week three now. Progress has been slow going, clearly some mistakes were made early on and the plants have been struggling since. More and more I suspect I did a poor buffer of the coco mix and this is causing some nutrient deficiencies and related issues. Might also be dealing with some mites and starting taking precautions against that. So been giving a CalMag foliar spray and adding a little epson salt into the solution to boost Mag levels for the plants. Overall though they are still growing and I've made adjustments to the mix throughout the week trying to get the runoff pH down, which is currently sitting up at 7.5. hence the low input pH this week. Plants seem to responding well the to adjustments and growth has started speeding up by the end of the week. Giving it a few more days and we'll see if they are ready for some LST.

So the at the start of the week the plants were growing slowly but steadily. Felt they looked good enough to try LST for the first time. Bit of gamble with the Magnum as it isn't looking great. I end up not doing LST for it, but the 1/4 Pounders and Pineapple Express are all taking to LST well. Wish the the plants had a bit more height, still very short between 3 3/4" to 4 1/4" on April 4th. Struggling with some high PPM's (up to 1.5EC) and pH (7.7) in the runoff through the week. By the end of the week they were starting to show some signs of deficiencies or Nute lockout so I started lowering the fert solution to around 0.6-0.8 EC and between 4.5-5.5pH. Hoping I'm getting things dialed in now and the plants starting improving and growing more soon. 😐

ok, so this week a lot happened! Tons of growth now, first signs of the plants showing sex and starting to stretch. next week we'll be into flower. Still trying to get my nutrient solution down, seeing signs of N toxicity and possible Cal/Mag def, especially with the Magnum, but the 1/4 Pounders are very green as well. Scared to do a flush, don't think it is that bad yet, so I started lowering the amount of N in my mix, eventually cut the Gro out entirely and adding more Bloom now, trying to keep it at or below 1EC. Seems to be working as the plants are all perking up and responding to more frequent fert at a lower EC. Other issues are I think I might have barnacle mites on the stalk? Not sure, they don't seem to change or hurt the plants, Also seem to getting fungus gnats now with the more frequent watering. been treating with neem oil and diatomaceous earth. Might also let it the medium dry out for a day here and here to keep the gnats under control but I'm worried about letting the pH spike. Overall good progress this week.😀

We are solidly into flower now! Plants are growing like stink, between 1/4" and up to an 1" a day! Nice smell starting to fill the space. Had a bit of an issue with gnats infesting the medium however, been battling that the past week. Not controlled yet but reducing the numbers quickly with neem oil/insecticidal soap treatments and I'm getting some predatory mites/nematodes shortly, hope they'll be gone soon. The Magnum is looking a bit lime/yellowish lately, and QP#2 is starting to show signs as well. nothing obviously out of wack that I can tell so I think they are just hungry, I'm starting to slowly increase the nutes in general as they are all growing so quickly now. The Pineapple Express so far is the star of the show, looking very nice and healthy, would probably be over 3' tall without the LST.

Plants are looking pretty good. Still stretching a bit, especially the Magnum and Pineapple Express. Expected more hieght from the Quarter Pounders based on the breeders description, maybe they'll have a late stretch? Keeping fert between 1-1.2EC and pH of 5.7ish. Done a bit more LST. Flowers looking nice, and the Pineapple Express is smelling wonderful. Getting excited.

Things are going well for 3 out of 4 plants. The Quarter Pounders and Pineapple Express are budding up nicely now and starting to smell so nice. But the Magnum seems to be lagging behind. Its definitely in flower and throwing lots of hairs but next to no frost/trichome so far. Bit confused as this is supposed to be a faster auto apparently, around 60-80days i think and were on 57-57 now and we have a long ways to go still, it's still in full stretch going on 3 weeks now. Whereas the Pineapple Express seems to be right on schedule, its stretch has started to slow down and the buds are developing nicely. Wonderful smell, it totally smells like Pineapple/Sweet/tropical. Hope i managed to preserve the terps through the cure when this is done, its going to be nice. And on the flip side, the Quarter Pounders, which were advertised as long/XL autos needing 85+ days, seem to be the furthest along of the bunch. They've slowed their stretch rather quickly and are staying short and stocky when these were supposed to be tall autos (2M!), so nowhere near the size. But the buds on these are forming up great and getting nice and frosty already. I've done some light defoliation on all the plants to help with air flow and light penetration, little bit more LST, mostly small adjustments. Some light touches of burn on some of the newer growth here and there so I've backed off on the nutrients trying to keep it just under 1EC. Runoff pH was running a little high for a long time but recently started to swing down to 5.6.

Good progress this week. A touch of nute burn early in the week due to a swing in pH I think, otherwise things are going well. Did a touch more LST and some defoliation to open up the plant and adjust the cola spacing for light penetration and airflow. Plants are smelling and looking great with the exception of the Magnum, which I'm just not sure what to think about right now. It's starting to bulk up but hardly any trichome production still and weak smell. I cannot wait to try the Pineapple Express, waiting is going to be the hardest part of this final stretch! (I hope 😉)

Making good progress. Quarter Pounders are putting on weight and frosting up nicely. The Pineapple Express smells amazing and looks great. Buds not huge but still stacking up slowly. Looking like its getting close, lots of cloudy trichomes now, maybe another week or so before harvest? Magnum finally started to bulk up nicely and produce more visible trichomes. It and the QP's probably 2-3+ weeks still at least I think.

We're at around day 77 from seed. Had some signs of light stress early in the week on the Quarter Pounders. Raised lights and backed off on the nutes a little bit. Only QP#1 seems to have been harmed, the buds have started growing in fluffy and loose and might be trying to foxtail or something. Otherwise everything else is going smoothly. QP#2 is looking ok, buds are developing slowly but it is bulking up and the bud structure is nice and tight so far. The Magnum is actually looking great, buds swelling very quickly now, the first set of pistils are turning brown and it's still throwing more out like crazy. Trichomes have finally shown up as well. Bud structure is dense. Pleasantly surprised how nice it is turning out. And Pineapple Express is plugging away very nicely. I thought it might have been finishing around now but it is still slowing throwing out more pistils and bulking up so I'm giving it another week, maybe two. Smells amazing.

Other than on going battles with fungus gnats everything is going well. Acquired a ph soil meter and confirmed medium pH is close to where it should be, some minor adjustment and other than that just trying to be patient with the Pineapple Express. Getting close to harvest window I think as we approach day 50 of flower. The rest still have weeks left.