RQS Royal Dwarf- 1st time budget grow.

This is my first grow so I’m learning loads. Will update as I go but I’m trying not to overlove the plants and let them be. I started this during lockdown when nothing was available so my choices were limited to what I could get, rather than what I wanted. I had a foldable ikea wardrobe (£15) so decided to use that as a base because no grow tents were available. It was lined with diamond Mylar (£45) for 10meters. The light is a vander LED from eBay (£40) Not ideal but it’s what I could get in the time I had to set things up. I germinated two seeds using the paper towel method. After 24 hours there was no change to their appearance so I left them for a further 24 hours. During this time they sprouted and grew to 2 inches in length. At this point I thought I blew it before I’d started but I progressed to setting them into their 11L fabric pots. As you can see, after two days they’re looking health and ready to grow. I’m using easy boost nutrition (25g per plant) which was mixed with perlite and compost. I can’t get my hands on a ph tester so I’m using bottled water at 7.0 which I know is a little high but I’m sure that’s lower than the tap water. Until my tester arrives later this week I’m giving them the bottled stuff as it’s a known ph. Tent temp is around 30 in the daytime so only time will tell if this is too high. I may need a bigger fan to move more air. Currently I have a small 6 inch fan moving air around the tent and a bathroom extractor fan at the top of the tent venting outside. Humidity is currently an unknown as I’m waiting on a tester. I’d imagine it’s 80 ish going by feel. Total spend for the project is around £170 including seeds, Mylar, light, fans , flexible ducting compost, perlite, nutrition etc.

Technically this is week 1.5 but to fit in with a weekly update I’ll call this week 2. I managed to borrow a soil tester and have a ph of 6.5. Perfect. I’m still using bottled water at 7.0 as my ph tested still hasn’t arrived. I’m currently watering the two plants with 100ml of water each in the morning and then a further 50 to 100 ml in the evening. It appears to be working well as there growing strong and I’m not seeing any issues. I dropped the light down by 15cm to be 30cm above the plants. Again, they appear to be enjoying this so I’ll continue unless I see any issues with the leaves. I added some shots of their grow space so people can see what’s possible on a budget. Hopefully I’ll get some good results but looking back on other grow diaries with Royal Dwarf I appear to be on track. I’ll continue with the light and watering schedules and see what happens. Now they have some leaf area I expect their growth to accelerate. I’ll increase the watering accordingly. So that’s it for another week 👍🏻 Update. I took these pictures in the morning but later that day I noticed the small one had slight yellowing of the tips and the bigger one had started to pray. I’ve lifted the light by 10cm to 40cm above the highest point of the plants as I think it’s light stress causing both symptoms.

For reference I’ve messed up the time line if anyone is checking out the picture in reference to their grow. And for future me looking back ( hello 👍🏻 ) when I use this to grow the remaining three Royal Dwarf seeds. The two seeds in this diary were moved to soil on the 2nd July after a three day germination period. Today - Saturday July 18th is their 2nd week in soil - grow tent. This diary entry it will be week 3 but it’s actually only the end of week 2.......... day 17 in soil clear Good 😂 A mixed week this week. As this is my fist grow I’m learning loads and still reviewing lots of data, YouTube videos etc to understand the art. I have two plants. Plant 1 is really beefing up and plant 2 is a much smaller and having some issues. I don’t know which one is normal ? Is 1 super big and 2 normal or is 1 normal and 2 small? Plant 2 started the week with slight discoloured tips to two leaves. This progressed to slight yellowing so I assumed the light was too low and raised it by 10cm. After two days the yellowing continued so I thought it might be a nitrogen deficiency and added some coffee grinds to the first couple of inches of soil. Only time will tell if this works, but the tent smells nice 👍🏻 Temp and humidity My tent was hovering around 30c so I have opened it up to reduce this to 27c. Humidity is a concern as I live in a humid place by the sea so RH is usually around 80. I’ve ordered a small dehumidifier which I’ll hang in the tent during the grow and drying period. I think this is the right move given what I’ve revised over the past week. I did think about ditching plant 2 and starting again but I’ve decided to continue and see what happens. After all, this is a learning period and it can’t be perfect all the time. It could even be the seed given they are two seeds grown in the same conditions etc. That’s it. Day 17 👍🏻

So this is day 24 in soil for both plants and look at the difference ! It’s amazing how tow seeds from the same batch, germinated and grown in the same conditions can be so different. Plant 1 is starting to give off a slight pine-citrus smell which is pleasant. It’s about 12cm tall and around 19cm wide. This week was the start of the low stress training to get some light to the lower leaves. He’s loving this and no problems or stress. Watering has gone up to 500ml per day and the ph reducer arrived so it’s getting some fine 6.3 in its system. Plant 2 is being a bit annoying and never looks happy. 10 cm across and about 9 cm tall. Last week we started with some yellowing of the bottom leaf tips. I gave them some coffee for added nitrogen and things cleared up. This week I’m looking at more yellow tips and some slight browning. One of the days the tent did hit 33c due to an issue with my fan. This could be the reason or could it be nutrient burn ? I went with RQS easy grow which is a pellet mix that’s added to the soil once and then that feeds the plan for the duration of the grow. I suppose if there was a clump and the roots find it ,it could cause issues. Unlikely, but I don’t know what else it could be. Any suggestions welcome. The digital temp and humidity readout is great so I’m please I finally have that. Keeping the temp down to under 29 is a challenge as the lights put out quite a bit of heat. I need to move more air so playing around with different fans. So that’s it. Another week. One big boy and one yellow tipped gimp.

A mixed bag for the past 7 days since my last diary entry. Plant 1, the big guy is doing well. I’ve been working on the LST and tucking which looks like it’s doing well. He’s about 18cm tall and 18cm wide. There has been some yellowing of some of the tips and a slight brown patch appear on a couple of the leaves but I’m not too worried as this week I changed the ph of the water. I finally managed to get a ph tester and can confirm I’m watering 6.3 - 6.5. I’m still confused by ph testing run off. Plant 2, the little guy is just a pain in the arse. Not growing well and never happy with the anything I do to remediate. Still has some brown tips and slight yellowing - I’ll keep trying but I think this guy is pretty much a practice plant as I can’t see it producing anything worthwhile. Size around 11cm tall and 11cm wide but very few leaves and not very strong.

Since last Saturdays diary entry the boys have started flowering. Smell has increased to a lovely pine citrus aroma with hints of peach. This is day 38 for the plants so they’re running along fast with solid growth everyday. Big guys is still killing it and super healthy but little guy is small but ahead in the flowering game. Lots of bud growth on a super small plant. Weird but give me a big bud and I’ll be happy 😜. The big plant is a little behind in his flowering game but that’s ok. As these are dwarf plants I finding it hard to LST. The branches aren’t long enough to pull them away to make a path for the light. Due to this I’ve loosely tied the main leaves together for a day to get some light into the main stem which is packed with new growth. Everything I’ve read says to not remove the main leaves so this is pretty much my only option. I’ll experiment this week and see how things go. As the grow moves along I’m finding the weak links in my grow set up. The extraction fan is too small so that will be upgraded in my next tent. The light puts out too much heat so I’m running in the high 20s which means I need more airflow which is tough in a small tent. The humidity has crept up so I also added a small dehumidifier to help. I got to grips with the watering ph so the runoff is now in the 6s so both plants look healthy. Now that they’re flowering im adding 1ml per L of BioBizz bio-bloom to see if that does anything for them. The big plant is getting 1.L of water every 3 days and the little guy getting 0.6L over the same period. So there we are. Any tips questions or advice welcome.

Welcome to day 45 for my two plant lockdown budget grow. I don’t think you could get two more different plants from the same seeds growing in the same conditions at the same time. plant 1 is so damn bushy that it’s hard to get decent light penetration to the lower areas. I think it’s too late to consider defoliation and as it’s an auto I don’t wasn’t to risk it. Any tips on this ? One huge balls up this week. While LSTing I lassoed the man stem too far up and it snapped at the main bud. I taped it back together and made a splint to hold things but it annoyed me greatly. It doesn’t look like if has effected the growth and the bud is still thriving so I may have gotten away with it. Plant 2 has always been an odd little stumpy thing but it’s still kicking out buds n growth so it must be happy. The leaves are all super tight so I can’t LST it, I just let it do it’s thing. I’m concerned that I’ll have one super dense bud and so trying to mitigate again bud rot. Anyone ever seen a plant do this ? Any advice or help would be appreciated. Oh, the smell. The little guy is super pungent. I have the tent vented to outside and you can smell it in the garden. I think Ive created a monster 🧟‍♂️ Ph is good and the bio-bizz bio-bloom is effective and easy to use. Watering is around 1l every 3 days for the big guy and 0.6 for the small one.

Welcome to day 52 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. plant 1 is a big fella. This week has been a big growth spurt with good growth on the buds and branch length. This has enabled me to really LST the buds into the light and they’re loving life. When I initially moved the seedling 🌱 into the soil I didn’t fill the pots enough. Well, I though I did but it compacted more than I expected. I’m now paying the price for that as I think it stunted the plant. I know it’s a dwarf strain but there are so many branches and so little space for them to develop. That’s a lesson for the next grow - fill the pots more than you think you’ll need. One huge balls up last week was snapping the main stem and bud while LSTing. I lassoed the man stem too far up and it broke so I taped it back together. One week later and they are no issues at all. The plant continues to grow and there are no problems with the buds above or below the break point. Plant 2 is an odd little stumpy thing but this week it’s remembered how to grow leaves and it’s started to get a bit wider. I’m pretty sure that this is a different strain to the Royal Dwarf I purchased. It’s a different colour, texture and the smell is totally different to Plant 1. I think it may be a Blue cheese but can’t be totally sure. I’m not mad at this but it would explain their totally different appearance and smell. I’ll contact RQS and see what they say. Humidity is still a concern. RH in the tent is around 50 in the day and 60 at night with the fans staying on. This is with a small dehumidifier running 24-7 so I’m not sure what I can do to drop this by another 10 points. Any suggestions appreciated. Getting ready for the next two weeks and reviewing flush and harvest techniques.

Welcome to day 61 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. plant 1 is the bigger fella. In the last 7 days since my last update it’s just house keeping and keeping the guy happy. Buds are getting bigger and it’s looking healthy . No change to feed, watering or light. I’ve started removing a few bigger leaves to open up the light path. This has worked well as it’s a small plant but bushy so conscious of moisture and mould caused by leaf overlap. Two weeks ago when I split the stem LSTing resulted in the same effect as topping. This means I have to main stems and two main buds. Happy side effect from a potential disaster. No real leaf Trichomes to speak of so we are still quite a few weeks away from flushing and harvest. Plant 2 is the small stubby guy. Basically he’s just one big bud on a stick and looks a bit like a corndog 😂 He’s all Trichomed up and getting sticky so I decided to flush him a few days ago on the 8th week anniversary. I did this as I think he will be ready to harvest in 2 weeks so as this is my first grow I want to experiment and try things. He isn’t going to produce much so I figure I’ll harvest ASAP and make room in my limited tent for Plant 1 and make sure that plant produces as much as possible. My loupe is only x30 magnification so I can see the Trichomes but in not enough detail to identify their change from clear to cloudy. I’ve ordered a new one with 30x 60x and 90x so that should be here in the next few days and give me the details I need. A note for 1st time growers. You really do need a jewellers loupe of at least 50x magnification. Buy one as they’re only a few euro, pounds, dollars and it would be a shame to mess up a grow so close to the end for the sake of a cheap piece of equipment.

Welcome to day 67 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. plant 1 is the bigger of the two, still very small but it’s what I’ve got 😂 In the last 7 days since my last update it’s just house keeping and keeping the guy happy. Buds are getting bigger and it’s looking healthy. No change to feed, watering or light. Buds are still filling out but not many leaf Trichomes at the moment. Hopefully more to come soon as we are in week 9 so only a few weeks away from what would be a normal auto flush and harvest. In the last 48 hours there has been a few leaves which have lightened in colour to a yellow. The whole leaf has changed at the same time so I’m not sure if this is an indication of an issue or if the leaves are being drained before the final ripening. Plant 2 is the small stubby guy. He’s all Trichomed up and getting sticky so I decided to flush him a on the 8th week anniversary. Followed up with another flush on the 9th week anniversary so monitoring the trichrome colour every day for changes. I hope he’s ready soon as it stinks. He’s such a smelly guy. The new x30 x60 x90 loupe arrived and frankly its shit. The 30x is ok but not enough magnification to clearly see the colour change. The 60 and 90 are just too focus sensitive to get a good look. I’ll figure something out. I’m planning of sticking plant 2 in darkness for 48 hours prior to the chop. I don’t know if this is bullshit but it’s a small plant so nothing to lose by giving it a try.

Welcome to day 74 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. Plant 2 was flushed on the 8th and again 9th week anniversary. On the 10th anniversary it placed in a dark box with a fan for 48 hours prior to being chopped as I expected it to have finished. At the time 90% of pistils were brown but only 2-3% of the Trichomes were amber. I just checked it over and there was no change to the appearance with 90% brown pistils and 2-3% amber trichomes. I expected to see much more amber in the trichomes so obviously I went too soon on this one. I put it back in the tent and I’ll monitor daily for progress. Basic noob mistake but I am a noob so it’s part of the learning process. I’m not going to flush plant 1 but I stopped adding any nutrients to the water on week 9. It’s all milky now with 5% amber so i’ll chop once I see a decent amount more amber showing on the Trichomes. Not sure when this will be as the pistols are still 90% white so I’ll monitor daily. The opposite problem I have with the other plant. The leaves are continuing to turn yellow. This concerned me last week as it started overnight and looked severe but the plants fine and so think it’s just finishing off before harvest. I’m not gonna lie, the drying process has been filling me with dread since I started the grow. I don’t want to screw up at such a late stage. Another week. More mistakes and challenges but I’m learning and enjoying the process. I just picked up a 120x120 tent so I’m looking for a new led light and growing on a bigger scale next time.

Welcome to day 81 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. Big news. Plant 2 was chopped on day 76. 65 grams wet so it’s drying off now and I’ll update with a final weight when complete. I know it’s a runt but so many things we’re learnt by keeping it alive to the end. Life didn’t start well for this guy with it being long at the germination stage and sticking to the tissue. Anyhow, I kept him alive and although the harvest is small, I learned way more than if it were a text book grow. Plant 1 is blowing up. Nice buds reaching the end of their development. Trichomes are just moving from cloudy to amber so sometime soon I’ll give 48 hours of darkness before harvest. No feed for two weeks so the leaves are being consumed rather than flushing. So much information regarding do, or do not flush. I’ll try for myself. I know the top buds will be slightly more advanced than the lower, but I want to experiment and experience the difference between the trichome changes. I think this is important knowledge for future grows, and boy, the future grows are going to be much bigger. I’m compiling a list of components based on my experience learned from this grow. Temperature management is essential so reviewing fan and carbon filter specs. After looking around I picked up a mars hydro sp3000 , I don’t think it’s beatable at the price. My new tent will be a mammoth 120x120x200. Yes I know a single light won’t fill that but it will fill a 120x80 space for auto flowers and that’s what I want. The additional floor space will be used for fans , dehumidifier etc. It also gives me scope to install another sp3000 at a later date and have perfect 4x4 light coverage. So, the first grow is coming to an end. Can’t wait for the next 👍🏻

Welcome to day 88 ( in soil ) for my two plant lockdown budget grow. Plant 2 was chopped on day 76. 65 grams wet and a HUGE 15 grams dry LOL 😂. The picture shows 12g on the scales - Obviously I had to try some and it’s surprisingly good even without curing. I left it to hang in a large 2.5sq foot cardboard box with an extractor fan for 5 days. Temp was 20c most of the time and humidity between 50-60 day and night. So we’re winning - the budget lockdown grow has produced something useable. Not a huge amount but that was never the point of all this, it was to lean and expand my knowledge for phase 2 👍🏻 Plant 1 is still chugging along. On day 84 I chopped the top half of the plant as it was done. The Trichomes were in the 20% amber range, which is what I decided I wanted. Weight was 93 grams wet - trimmed. Which should give 1oz when dry. I’ll update the totals next week The lower part of the plant is going back in the tent to finish off. It will now be open to every available photon which it awesome. There are some nice buds that are slowly changing to amber so this should speed things up. I’d estimate the lower of the plant to be another 100-120 grams wet so with any luck I’ll have 2.2oz of dry weight from a dwarf plant 35cm high by 40cm wide. The plant has been on water only for the past two weeks . I’ve probably lost some bud size but the plant has depleted the leaf reserves which I wanted to do. My timing has been pretty much perfect 👌🏻 Later this week I’ll put the plant in the dark for 48 hours before harvest. I didn’t do this with the top of the plant so it will be interesting to compare the final product from different methods. Very rewarding and enjoyable.

Welcome to day 95. A brief recap. Plant 2 was chopped on day 76. It was a weird mutant so produced 65 grams wet and a HUGE 15 grams dry. It had 48 hours of dark and then hung to dry for 5 days. It has been curing since. Plant 1 was the bigger guy On day 87 I chopped the top of the plant as it was 20% amber. No dark. Weight was 93 grams wet - trimmed This has now been drying for 7 days and will need a few more before it’s jarred up to cure. The main part of the plant was chopped on day 92 after 48 hours of dark - wet- trimmed weight was 253 grams. That’s with the main stalk but that’s pretty damn good for a plant measuring only 35cm tall and 40cm wide. 346 grams wet - trimmed in total. I’ll update with dry weights next week once they’ve had a chance to dry and I’ve removed the buds. Even with a 70% reduction in weight we’re looking at around 100grams (3oz) of useable material. Just an estimate but I think it will be less. Later

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 😳