RQS Royal Dwarf- 1st time budget grow.

Welcome to day 102, and my final entry for this grow. As a brief recap I’ll cover some key points so you get an overview of the lifecycle from planning to harvesting. I started growing mid COVID lockdown so it was pretty hard to get any supplies or growing equipment. No tents, no lights, no fans etc Anyhow, I managed to get together enough stuff to get a two plant grow going. The basis was an foldable Ikea wardrobe so floor space was a big issue. Due to this I went with RQS Royal Dwarf as they’re small plants and I wanted a practice grow before investing more money. I mean, I didn’t know if I’d suck a growing or if I’d even produce anything useable. I underestimated the tools for growing and had to react to situations as they happened rather than preemptive. I didn’t have a ph tester so at week three I ran into issues with one plant which was stunted and didn’t really recover. This could easily have been avoided if I had a ph tester from the get go. I used RQS easygrow in the soil when the seeds were first planted. I boosted this with Biobizz bloom booster once they started flowering. This worked but I think I’d be more comfortable using liquid based feed rather than pellets. I’d like to control exactly what is being fed and when. A lot of leaf issues can either be too much or not enough nutrients so I think it’s important to take this a bit more seriously from the beginning. This isn’t an issue with easygrow, it worked well but I think I’d like more control. Even switching to the boost tablets would give me that security. Temperature was the big issue for my grow. The room I used had direct light in the afternoon so the tent would rocket in temp to 30+c. My fan could cope and I couldn’t get anything bigger so I had to open everything up and hope. Getting a magnifying device is essential - simple as that. Get something 60x mag or an electronic microscope from eBay. My small stunned plant produced 15g dry from a wet weight of 65g The bigger plant was harvested in two parts The top produced 15g dry from a wet weight of 92g The base of the plant gave me 45g dry from a wet weight of 253g So total dry weight is 105g or just over 3oz. Now, as this is my 1st time I’m super paranoid about mould so I over dried the buds so they’re lighter than they should be. I’ll use Bovida 58s in the cure jars and let them level out. If I see any major increase in weight I’ll update the post in a week or so. Not a huge amount but given one plant was pretty much written off after week three I’m happy with what I have. It certainly enough to keep me going until I harvest my 2nd grow which will be on a much bigger scale with a new 120-120 mammoth tent, Mars hydro sp3000 and RAM fan and carbon filter. I’m not 100% certain on what seeds I’ll grow but I have some RQS northern lights autos, a few Royal dwarf and I want to get a CBD grow going too. It’s been an enjoyable experience, really rewarding to smoke my own gear that’s been tailored to my taste and grown with care. So, the big question....... the smoke. I use a Dynavap M 2019 with a full bowl of medium grind. The small plant - 5 day dry after 48 hours dark. Slight hay smell but nice fruity aroma. Head buzz with no mong or couch lock Top of big plant - 10 day dry - no dark Sweet notes of mango citrus Solid head buzz and energetic. Main plant - 11 day dry after 48 hours of dark Strong mango fruit pine smell Only just dry so no chance to try. I definitely thing a 10 day dry gives nicer buds. I wanted to add the project costs Project Cost The led Light was £40 But I sold it for sold for £40 When I finished the grow so this isn’t included as a cost. Mylar £45 Seeds n stuff from RQS £50 Soil £10 Timer £5 Perlite £10 Vent Tube £10 Clip on fan £10 Extraction fan £25 Ph tester £7 Thermometer £10 Dehumidifier £20 Ph test kit £5 Bio bizz Ph- £20 Bio bizz - Bio Bloom £9 Jars - free Microscope £20 Total spend £256 That’s around £80 per oz - but that’s not taking into account that I still have 5 more seeds from that purchase and I still have all of the nutrients and equipment. I think the actual cost not including electricity was around £17 an oz 😳