DIY Cheap Noob Indoor Amnesia Haze grow

So, we are on week 4, technically you could most likely switch to flower (light cycle 12/12) by the end of this week, specially if you decided not to transplant to a bigger pot. However, the more time you veg your cannabis plant, the bigger the yield ( depending on how good you are on keeping the plant well fed and in a decent environment). My plant recovered from the transplant by the next day, but try to not switch to flower if your plant is under any stress (battling diseases, pests, nutrient deficiencies or harsh environment). In my case, I will veg until I am happy with the size of the plant, but be careful, as many strains tend to stretch once they enter the flowering stage, so the size of the plant can get out of control pretty fast! As a rule of thumb (specially for beginners), grow the plant to a third or up to half of the size of the available space, to avoid any issues and keep your grow as convenient as possible. I am still keeping the same environment as before. I still feed once, then tap water (ph to 6.5) on the next, then feed again, etc. <Training> Depending on when you topped, you would have about 6-8 tops branching directly from the main stem. After the plant recovered from the topping, I did low stress training on it to expose the growing tips to direct light. You will see in the picture that before the LST, the big fan leaves were blocking the light, but after the LST all of the plant tops are exposed. LST is done by GENTLY bending the leaves/branches into a flat canopy and pulling them in place with a thread clamped to the side of the pot with a clothespin. It takes a few minutes every week, depending on how fast your plant is growing. You can make your plant have any kind of crazy structures, but as long as you keep the canopy flat to get the most of your growing lights, you should be OK. If you are following along with my grow, here is an explanation of the structure that I've planned for the plant. (From figure) Basically there will be 8 branches coming from the different nodes on the main stem. All will be bent to be kept at the same height. I will be careful to keep each branch (future cola) away from the others to increase airflow. Its better to have a slightly less dense canopy for beginners, as you avoid having to deal with mold and budrot. Depending on how big you want the plant to be, you could top each branch to have 16 medium colas, instead of 8 medium/large colas. <Homemade CAL-MAG> Most nutrient solutions will have some calcium and magnesium, along with other micro-nutrients which are needed just in trace amounts. Also, most municipal waters also have calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron, so as long as you keep a correct pH, and a healthy soil, you shouldn't have to worry too much about these elements. However, some cannabis strains are known for being heavy feeders and requiring extra calcium and magnesium. If you notice slow growth, yellowing on the newest growth, deformed growth and brown spots on the leaves you might have a micro nutrient deficiency. If you want to prevent this problem, or you know that you have a Cal-Mag hungry strain, you can supplement calcium and magnesium into your regular watering or spraying the leaves directly. If you dont want to pay for an expensive bottle calmag, you can make your own. Here is the recipe: 1. Calcium-> crush calcium carbonate (eggshells, chalk, etc) as finely as you can, then add vinegar, let it sit for a day or two and voila you have your calcium ions floating in water (yes pH should be neutral now that the chalk and vinegar have neutralized each other) (from wikipedia of calcium carbonate : CaCO3(s) + 2 H+(aq) → Ca2+(aq) + CO2(g) + H2O(l) ). Finally, check the EC of your water and add the calcium water you made until you increased the EC about 0.875 mS/cm more. 2. Magnesium + Sulfur-> just check the EC of your water and add Epsom salts until you increased the EC about 0.875 mS/cm more. Add it to the water you will give your plants until you have 0.16 mS/cm of homemade calmag... In my case (0.25 mS/cm tap water + 0.875 mS/cm calcium +0.875 mS/cm magnesium and sulfur) the mix turns out to be 2.0 0.875 mS/cm. So it takes about 100 ml/liter to get to a 0.16 mS/cm concentration of calmag.Now I am not an expert on calmag either, but this is what works for me. This mixture "revived" my first plant and I've used it on other crops too (peppers and flowers), even directly as foliar spay. You could use a higher EC if you have any deficiencies showing. *** Update *** I accidentally overbent one branch (It cracked but remained attached to the stem). Oops ! If this happens to you, don't worry, you have 2 options, either you simply tape it back where it belongs (and you could add some aloe Vera or honey to help it heal) or you just take your cutting, place it in water, next to the window (adding rooting hormones makes the process faster and more reliable) and wait for it to develop roots for planting it to the ground. Initially I fixed the branch, but later I decided that having 2 plants instead of one from my mistake could be a good thing. You will be amazed at how forgiving cannabis plants are, search for grafting cannabis plants and you will see how people are able to just tape a bunch of branches from different strains to a single cannabis plant with little more than tape, honey and some patience.