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Time runs slowly when you're really waiting for your plants to grow 🌱.
At first I got frustrated because my first seed took its sweet time to sprout. It was my fault, I thought if I left the seed (between moist kitchen paper) in the sun, it would receive a kick. Eventually, I found out they were supposed to be in the darkness. By then I had lost my hope in seed #1. So I started 4 extra seeds (1 auto and 3 photoperiod) to see what happens. To my surprise, seed #1 sprouted the following day. This triggered my anxiety though: what if ALL OF THEM succeed??? I had NO SUPPLIES. Moreover, how can I avoid visitors in my place?? What if neighbors can smell it (that woman is such a bitch!)? Will my mother cry her brains out thinking I'm a drug addict that won't be received in heaven? I should have thought things through.
But I didn't. I couldn't actually. I acquired my seeds more than one year ago and then, paralysis. I guess the thought of balancing many variables makes me anxious by itself. Mostly because of my parents. I like them in my house, and they will never be cool about me planting cannabis. My mother would be specially hurt. She's a sweet person, but strongly religious and was doctrinated against drugs her whole life. I introduced the conversation many times, trying to explain that there are classes of drugs, that cannabis is different from methamphetamine, and for God's sake, how can someone addicted to coffee and sleeping pills be so judgmental about innocent flowers?? Every attempt is a major frustration. I love cannabis. It helped me question the world I was presented as a child. It helps me in my pursuit of meaning. Of religiosity. It helps me to enjoy people (they're the worst when I'm sober!!!) And be generous in my interactions. It's fun, and I'm a much more active person when I'm on it. Because without it, I'm this cynical and cold person that detachs itself from the world, feeling above it. I know quite perfectly that I'm not superior to the world or people, but somehow a strong sense of individuality unbridledly grew on me and now, and I'm imprisoned by it. Weed reminds me I'm part of a whole, and that's comforting. The idea that we evolved through the eras as a community and that we own ourselves to each other is renforced, and it aligns with my ethical views. Althought these thoughts are always in my mind, the feelings are more easily emulated with MJ's little help. Mommy doesn't get that. And she will try HARD to make me feel guilty. Therefore, I must avoid confrontation!
All that calculus, that pondering, took so much psychological energy, that i just didn't use my seeds. Everytime I thought about which lights i should get, my head wondered around and around, avoiding the million underlying thoughts about how to navigate this relationship without hurt my equally loving and manipulative mother (my father is just a hippocratic hollier than thou, so I find it easier to deal with him because I don't care). In summary, that's why I just started the seeds. With no lights. No fans. No tent. Nothing but a sunny windowsill. Bad idea?? Hahahahaha, yeah definitely. The heart got in the way.
Anyways, shortly after, 3 out of 4 seeds started to root. Well... That makes me... A farmer! 😃 Funny thing is that all that anxiety is at its peak right before the action. Once you're on the move, the path feels smoother.
I started giving only sunlight to my plants (it's October though, oopsyyyy), and miraculously plant #1 germinated. She's a surviver!! It's my first time planting something from scratch, but i have other plants (potted palm trees ans such) at home and they're just fine. The cannabis though were special baby plants, treated like superstars. But babies (kids at least) can be spoiled by excessive care. And just like babies, you should NOT drown them! I got so worried about not letting my plants dry out that i overwatered them. The photoperiod ones didn't germinate, the auto #2 started to develop some mold in the bottom its burger king cup. She however look just fine. I'm afraid it is too early to report it, so I'll gamble: I'll wait for the 2 sets of normal leaves. Now that I'm more conscious about watering it, I'm hopping the problem will be contained until the time for repotting comes. Let's hope 🤞 Plant #1 is growing strong. I get the feeling she will be the only one that will last in the end. Anyways, I'm learning with the process and now I, at least got some LED lights.
The plants are still very small but they started to smell. By now both of them are repotted (one is in a 20cm/4l and the other is in a 25/7l). It was hard to report both of them because the soil was not compacted enough and desintegrated when transplanted. They seem to be doing fine though. The soil was mixed with 20% vermiculite and I put some fertilizers before transplanting.
In one of the plants, I attempted to initiate LST, but the stem is being dragged rather than bending.. I'm afraid of tearing everything down. Still have to confirm if my plants are females
Hello!
Surprisingly my plants are doing great!!! I say surprisingly because it's my first grow and it hasn't been hard until here. Here's some topics:
1) Preflowering: Both my plants have started to show those little white hairs, so I got two girls 😃 (Shakira and Gertrudes)
2) LST - I tied an helicoidal wire to Gertrude's, so I can control it's growth. It was fun and it makes it easier for the light to reach the bottom. Shakira however, I tried to bend her with a cotton string. it didn't work, so I may use the hard wire on it IF I reppot it. It's time (i read we have to do it once the leaves reach the borders of the pot) the but honestly, it feels like i reppoted them two days ago 😶. I'm also wondering if I should cut some fan leaves, so the plant can focus its strength in growing branches/flowers/new leaves, but since defoliation is not for amateurs (according to... "The internet"), so I shouldn't do it. I enjoy doing it on my other (non cannabis) plants though. I'll probably cut a few just for the satisfaction 🤭
3) Setup - I finally got a growing tent. A small and short one so I can put it in the closet. I also bought a carbon filter and an extractor, so I feel very professional 😜😜😜 I'm partially happy and partially worried because I had to do some electricians job myself. Despite of my nickname and picture, I'm a girl who usually relies on the father to do these kind of work, but this time I had to roll up my sleeves and deal with it in the name of secrecy. It's been working really fine for the last few days, so maybe I should relax a bit more about it. I'm satisfied with the quality of the items I purchased too.
4) Stealth - Parents came to visit and didn't hear the humming or noticed the cable coming out of my closet. Also, I bought this ONA (fresh linen) and OMG that's strong! Awesome to remove odors (really), but the smell can be a bit overpowering. I don't let it share space with my plants because I read it will change the taste and smell of the buds. It useful in major areas of the house after the plant's sunbath. When they're inside the tent, the carbon filter does its job. Let's hope this can be true all the way through the flowering stage.
5) Environment - The lights are doing a good work on keeping my tent in the perfect temperature (70°F or 21°C), so I haven't worried about turning the heater on. The humidity oscillates between 51 and 60 when the extractor is on. I got a silica dehumidifier so I don't need to turn another item to the electricity, but I see NO DIFFERENCE whether it is in or out of the tent. 😐 Wondering if this humidity levels will be OK for flowering stage or if I'll really need to buy an electric one. Such small items are ridiculously expensive in my country, so I may push it until i feel the need.
6) Watering and lights - 18/06 + sunbath at the living room 🤭, and the watering i play by the ear. So it's difficult to measure how many milliliters they have per day, specially because they are in different size pots. So basically i stick my finger in the soil and when its almost dry, i put maybe 200ml. Not enough to come out of the bottom. I know that let it drain is what some people suggest, but im more afraid of overwatering than underwatering. They seem to enjoy.
7) PH/Nutrients - Not monitoring it so far.
I have a pair of scissors and I'm not afraid of using it!
I was dying to give defoliation a shot, but maybe I went a bit crazy.
I'm a beginner and apparently the rule is that you should cut bottom big fan leaves, to be safe. Since this is an autoflower, apparently they don't have as much time to recover and fan leaves store nutrients for the plant. My problem is that my dehumidifier didn't arrive, so there has been quite some humidity (above 70) in the tent. Since the tent is small for two plants, the leaves in touch start to develop these little water droplets. So, i started to remove leaves one day. Not many, just two. The following day I was feeling braver and did some more. And then some more. And more. i have no clue if it was bellow 20%, the plant still has a lot of leaves I want to cut. Some diaries here have these beautifully trimmed plants, with 80% flower in relation to leaves. How do you guys get it???? Anyways, I'll stop now, they look "aireted" enough. I'll give another shot in two weeks, in the middle of the flowering.
Accidents: Decided to bend all the branches of Shakira, to get a seastar shape, but i snapped one of them (it was hanging by 1/4 of it). I immediately mend it with tape. But then I decided to undo the work and do it again, stressing the poor plant even more. That was a couple of hours after i reppoted her. Fortunately, after 6 days she recovered well.
Also, Gertrudes stem got a bit strangled due to my training. And she's not growing so fast as Shakira, which is all the way though flowering (i ...guess???). I'm not sure why. Her pot is smaller, and I'd like to report her but there wouldn't be space in my tent then :(
uneventful week. They're getting more dense by the day. Gertrudes (the Helicoidal one) apparently will have several smaller colas. Shakira is getting taller and the LST didn't quite worked on her. although she just has one cola, it apparently will have a lot a weed. In the end of the process I'll know which procedure will result in more yelds. For now, it seems that the one that had less interventions will win the game.
Flowers everywhere!
I successfully reppoted Gertrudes, she's growing strong.
Some fan leaves were getting yellow, i think it's either a nutrient deficiency or it's time for them to simply die. :/
Anyways, today I gave them both a haircut. Hope they can make it ok.
It's been cold and very difficult to control the humidity. I have both an electric and a silica dehumidifier, plus the extractor to help circulate the air. Yet, humidity are commonly above 70. Now my plants have much less leaves, i hope the humidity problem can be attenuated.
1) new yellow leaves with brown spots started to show up in Shakira. They are not easily plucked but they fell papery and "break easily". Possibilities are:
- it's a calcium deficiency, but the pH is fine (6). CalMag is on its way.
- the temperature of the water was too cold so there may be a problem with the nutrients Absorption
- i defoliated too much and that generated nutrient deficiencies (not sure if this is a possibility)
- because humidity is being a bitch, it can be a fungus. BUT she is sitted VERY close to another plant that doesn't how the same Simpsons. Fungicide is on its way too.
2) Gertrude's development is late compared to Shakira. Sher buds are still made only by white pistils. I wonder if I fucked up when I transplanted her to a new pot and now she won't grow, or if she's just slower because she USED TO BE in a smaller pot and have a high pH.
Other than that plants are ok, and humidity is constantly high even though the dehumidifier is on 24hrs a day.
Both of them are now showing deficiencies. Shakira, although displaying stronger nutrient deficiencies (brown spots, yellow leaves), has more well developed flowers. Gertrude's started to show brown edges and yelowish pale leaves at the top. This week I've been using cal-mag and a fertilizer that i use for normal plants at the house. Haven't seen any improvement, but the plants seem to not getting worse. i think its nothing to worry about. The store delayed my delivery for nutrients, i hope when they get home my plants start to grow faster.
Well well. My nutrients arrived and I've been using them this week. The plants seem happier but I'm a bit paranoid and in a hurry to harvest them. So, in the end of the day i just used these nutrients for a week, because tomorrow I'll start the flushing process. I also got a second carbon filter because the one I had was not working anymore. And I've been using it for only 2 months! That's pathetic. I believe the problem is the high umidity. Since my tent is small ive been using a small dehumidifier, but that ain't enough. I comonly have 75% humidity (it's 90 outside). Anyways, I'll give ONA a little rest now and wait for the harvest. I also removed some leaves. I know... I've heard it is not good to remove leaves at this point, but i felt like it. All along the growth of my plants I've been removing leaves according to 'how i felt' so this time I removed a couple of the old ones and some that were on the way between the light and my buds. They'll be fine.
OMG! So happy i finally harvested!
Shakira and Gertrudes are two fat girls!
The whole growing process was smooth. Both plants had nutrient deficiencies late flowering but it was my fault because I wasn't feeding them :p the problem stopped when I started using calmag and the bloom/micro.
They were string from the begining: i drowned them when they were seedlings, one of them had some mold in the root at that time. But, as soon as I changed pits and corrected my watering there was nothing to worry about.
I struggled to observe the trichomes with my cellphone camera hahahahhaha, i still think they're 30% clear but when I noticed a couple of amber ones it was my cue to turn off the lights! I'm not a fan of couch lock effect, so let's see how it went. I'm sure the amber trichomes were not even 10%, so I guess I'm good.
Also, i chopped my plants when they completed exactly 77 days from the moment they showed up above the ground.
Humidity was a bitch and with a small tent I had no alternative but to use a small dehumidifier from Amazon. It did NOT help that much. I hope they can dry with humidity around 75%, I'm having one small fan blowing on too of them (i know I'm not supposed to but it's 100% outside). Reaching 55 seems like an intangible dream :(
I enjoyed the while process of growing, it was easy but i got paranoid far too many times.
On the other hand I DETESTED to trim it. Im exhausted, my shoulders hurt and I have NO IDEA if I did it too much or not enough.
Hoping drying and curing to be smooth as well.
If anyone is reading this, thank you for hanging on with me :)
Ps. it's too potent and the smoke is soft, almost too easy to be smoke
Still letting them to enjoy the sunshine during the day. At night they are just about 15cm from the lights, but i don't see signs of light burn. A couple of days ago, one of them was showing a white fuzzy mold in the base of the pot probably because of overwattering, today I'll be repotting it. Didn't do it before because the plant is too small and since it's an auto, i didn't want to stress it right away. I let the soil dry a bit and treated with peroxide. It apparently worked.
MrBz21
