Bag Seed First Grow

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This week was rough and I made some major errors here. Basically right after that beg of week 2 picture they went downhill, went all yellow and started to burn on the leaves, slowed growth and not looking healthy. I lost 1 plant. First error was before I started, I used regular potting soil and its muddy and has too much mulch, retains water weirdly, not good. Second error was watering every day, I guess I didn't think much of it as the first week I'd water a very small amount each day but it added up and I eventually started adding more. Third error was nutes, I added full strength nutrients at the beginning of week 2 and immediately messed the plants up. I learned a lot this week and it will enhance every grow from here on out, I'm glad the plants didn't react well to my poor handling of the seedlings, made me learn how to correct and what I did wrong. My remedy: I transplanted everybody to proper soil and dissembled the root block and all full soil transplant, took a look at the roots and they were pale white which is ok they didn't get completely messed up, and now they are much better setup for the future. Strict watering schedule now, I've learned what I need to do and sticking to that, after each transplant I did a full flush with regular PH 6.5 water to flush any nutrient lock away and get them situated. I also raised the lights a bit to rule that out. They already started their recovery, the one on the far left (in the first photo back left) is doing really well, leaves perking up and getting its green color back and showing faster growth. This plant was my transplant test, I didnt want to ruin the whole crop by transplanting so I did it to this one first and it showed signs of recovery so I did the rest. The others are only 24 hours or so past transplant so need a couple more days to show recovery. Overall I probably delayed my grow two weeks lol but hey if they make it I'll be happy.

This week was much better and I feel better overall about the grow. Did transplants for new soil in week 2 and they gradually recovered and gradually sped up growth. One did not recover (back middle) and it's kind of on the same nodes as the others but it's clearly stunted and will likely die over the next few weeks or earlier. I will be experimenting with this one and likely throw it outside for a possible bonsai plant on my deck or something. Drastic change in the color of the plants in the two pictures, they are clearly much healthier. The left most plant I believe I over watered again but I think it's mainly because I kept a lot of the original soil in the transplant and it's taking it's toll, the others were more drastic transplants where I removed ALL soil, slower recovery but it's showing the value now. I should be transplanting them this weekend to 1 gal pots, so I will give them a few more days to fill in some roots and then they will get their next home. They may not be super ready for it due to some of the delays but I think it will work well for a couple reasons (self justification) they will get more nutrients from the new soil, they can spread out wider and taller because the node spacing is like less then a CM and lastly because I want to do another transplant into 5 gal or so later before flower so middle of week 4 lines up with that. Overall the best week yet and looking forward to this upcoming week for more growth. I will admit though that I have increased anxiety for how this grow will be, I just have this feeling that they will never grow much larger even given another 5-6 weeks to veg. I'm probably wrong but I can't deny I feel that way. I have grown before once, smoked my own, probably 11 years ago and I remember the unforgiving pain of waiting and anticipation for the next phase or to smoke. That hasn't gone away yet but I'm trying to evolve. I find myself wanting time to move on and whatnot, other than maybe Christmas time as a young child this is the only thing that can facilitate those thoughts in my head, not vacations or really anything else. I'm sure my future self reading this is saying "Chill out pothead, you'll get your fix".

This week was good, the whole growing thing kinda clicked. In summary the plants are doing well now and definitely at home in the 1 gallons, they pretty much doubled in size and are now entering the true vegetation stage. I topped the front right plant, at about day 25, I just wanted to test it out on one plant for now. It seems to be doing well. I finally calibrated and used my expensive Ph meter this week... my tap water rang in at a whopping 7.5. I was using stips prior to this and they are at least 1.0 Ph off. In fact, back at the beginning of week two I used Ph up since I thought it was low due to the strips and probably fed the plants 8.0+ Ph, I'm positive of this now. That's why they went yellow, I fed them early nutes which was stupid but it was the Ph that really messed them up. That's why they never fully recovered and have been in somewhat of a "limp mode" with soil probably in the 7.5-8.0 range. I also read my PPM of the tap water and its like 295, which is ok, I have filtered at 200. So I discovered this at the beginning of the week and I have watered them twice with Ph 6.2 water to compensate (200 PPM filtered water without additives except Ph down). Their runoff of the last watering had a PPM of ~475 and a Ph of 6.8-7.0. I consider this recovered and feeling pretty good. The best circumstance is that I discovered the Ph problem before I really watered them after transplant, so I didn't wet the whole soil with 7.5 Ph water, so almost a clean canvas there minus the transplanted soil which was probably pretty high Ph. After doing the measurements and knowing exactly how the soil is I feel much more in control of this grow. Like next watering I will probably add nutes and have the PH around 6.0 to 6.2 and that should raise the PPM of the soil a bit and bring the Ph down to near 6.5 ish. I have a feeling I should get some really good growth in week 5, they also need it.

Well this week was the most fun with growing I've had. No hiccups really, I did a top on the back left, I did LST on the back right, the front right I like double topped and so it's got 4 tops now so trying to space those out. The front left is my control and the healthiest, I will LST this weekend on that one. After the last couple waterings I have brought the PH down to around 6.5-6.8 for all of them so they are healthy for them. They have again at least doubled in size (or successful training at least) this week, which again they needed. Fed the first set of nutrients, probably did like 1/4 nutes but a little more of the Buddha Grow so they would get Nitrogen. Will be watering just PHed water next round at probably 200 PPM. They are on like a 4 day water cycle right now but I sense that speeding up really soon. These plants probably should have died, I know that now especially with the health Pineapple next to them that's bigger on day 10 then these on day 21. But they are healthy for them right now.

Week 6 was pretty good. You can see in the pictures that there was a lot of change but still just not what I want them to get to, they seem like micro plants at this point but maybe they will surprise me later. Did a lot of LST pretty much daily just getting the branches exposed to light. One of the plants showed female preflowers so I just transplanted it to a 5 gallon when I knew for sure, the roots weren't taking over the pot as much as I thought so I will hold off on transplants for a bit for any others even if they show female preflowers. It's nice to know I won't be screwed out of all the plants, I do see early early female parts on one of the others but not certain yet. Did another round of nutes this week and added the Elemental (cal mag) to help out.

Well this week has good news and bad news. The good news is that the female plant that I transplanted to a 5 gallon is doing great with good color and growth. The bad news is that the other 3 plants are not doing well and have poor color and poor growth. I transplanted one of them that I think is female into a 5 gallon and added some nitrogen rich dry amendments and that should help it get back to life, the other two are likely throw aways at this point. I did a flush on them this week to try and help out and the PH was just super high like one had 7.1 and I couldn't get it below 7.0 after multiple gallons thru it, I think that ones toast, its neon yellow. No biggie though, if the two in 5 gallons make it and get some decent nugs I'll be happy. At this point I'm just nursing them back to health and nothing special except for the LST every couple days. I'm thinking sometime within the next 5-10 days I'm flipping to flower, only reason I'm waiting at this point is the Auto Pineapple to have a little more veg. I'm not even sure the change would make it flower any earlier but I don't want to waste any veg time on it.

This week was a pretty big transformation. Two plants are outski, male or female, don't care they died as far as I am concerned. The good news is the two other plants are growing really well, one of them filling up the 5 gallon in it's first week and going from neon-green/yellow to normal. Already switched to flower so next week will be an update on that, otherwise will just keep on going. Having bug problems on the other grow (pineapple auto) but whatever I'll try my best, hopefully these two don't get any trouble since I'm catching the other one hopefully early.

About a week into flowering at this point. Both plants seem to be healthy and stretching. Both definitely female at this point. I'm feeling great other then the root aphids in the Pineapple, I fear that it will eventually infect these plants but I'm trying to keep positive. I nuked the Pineapple with regular non-organic insecticide, the hard stuff no neem oil bs, it seems to have worked but I still saw around 4 root aphids since the nuke (over 4 days), so another one when that's ready but man I'm scared about these two. I can't bring myself to insecticide these ones since it's such a drastic move, I know it won't kill the plant but I just don't want to risk the plant/bud taste and safety unless it's absolutely necessary. I gave foundational nutes to the tall plant like today, as in the picture you can see it needed some nutes, runoff was like 1000PPM after the top dressing, I think it's probably fine, we'll see. The other shorter one hasn't gotten nutes yet in the 5 gallon so that will probably be this week with half and half foundational and bloom top dressing.

Week 2 of flower went really well. Both plants grew really well and right where they should be in maturity. I did top dressings of grow/foundation, week 3 of flower I will start adding the bloom top dress. The tall one in front has it's main cola really far extended, I don't really want to like supercrop, not sure how I am going to deal with it but a staggered harvest is looking likely. Nug formation is starting and getting pretty pretty excited, they have plenty of time though with no rush.

Finally starting to see these nugs forming, plants seem to be doing well. They are yellowish, honestly they have been on the lighter side this whole time but definitely look even lighter now that they are in flower. I don't know really what the deal is with this, I know the nutrients are good and I can tell they are growing without issues. Also only a couple leaves have like deficiency signs, most are nice and smooth, couple got some phosphorous def but I hadn't given bloom nutes yet, gave them bloom nutes and haven't seen anymore of that. Trichomes came in this week, feeling pretty good about their status.

Plants are a weird color but I think that's just them because they are growing pretty well. Lost a bunch of leaves on the bottom side of both plants, a self defoliation. Not worried about these girls, they are coming along nicely.

Neon girls with a bit of purple. These things are on a train going somewhere just hope it's to a real harvest. Fattening up, fed more nutes from the bottle this time. Found Hypoaspis Miles all over the fabric pots, not sure how I didn't see them earlier (saw them today everywhere). I used my Loupe and compared to pictures online and for sure they are Hypoaspis which isn't bad but it isn't good either because I hate bugs. I'm just gonna ride this thing out, too close to the finish line to do really anything.

Week 6 of flower completed. Plants are killing off their fans leaves which I'm not thrilled about, organic soil is definitely not my style, prepping my next grow to be DWC. I'll give liquid organic nutes next watering to try and help out here and preserve fan leaves but I kinda think the ball is rolling on the fade and not much I can do. I looked at the trichs and seeing some changes on top buds, even a few amber. I'm hoping to harvest in about 2-3 weeks, just hoping the plants don't cannibalize themselves to death before then. Putting in an initial yield guess: 1.5 OZ combined off both plants.

Been adding in the full Aurora Innovations organic line this week, every watering. They seem better with those added with the amendments, which I've stopped. Little bit greener and not killing off leaves as fast which is great. Pretty much decided I'm chopping the end of week 17, least that weekend, so 14-17 days from now. Unless they REALLY look underdone, but I think they will be ready.

On flower day 56, harvesting in about 9-10 days. Not feeding anymore, just letting them finish up. Bud looks and smells great, got some foxtailing on the main cola of one of the plants but least theres some variation because the other plant is more rounded nugs.

Entering the last week, definitely ready to get these cut down. After this initial grow I'm moving to DWC, already got it started outside this tent. Soil seems easy at first and it kinda is, hard to massively screw up and kill your plants. Though what I've learned is that it's kinda gross tbh, soil inside, the bugs and dirt and smell and everything just kinda gross and over it, the nutrients and ph in soil levels are not easy to maintain either and there's no starting from scratch, you gotta live with your mistakes. Also the organic way is great but I noticed major delays in nute uptake and you really need to build a solid foundation, my plants were like all over the place (like the Pineapple that you can see in the top right of the overall pic above has been so weird with like some branches looking great and others not growing and turning yellow way to early. Possibly bad genetics. Anyway my next post will be harvest most likely.

Last week of the grow, cutting tomorrow so thats 71/72 days of flower. Nugs look great, loving the style on the back left one, looks dense. Hard to wait to cut, I really think that they could go for another week before they start waning, but I need to open the tent up and I think they are ready now. Final predictions: Back left plant: 26g Front plant: 24g