Botched Grow

~~~~~2/25/18 - Third time ever growing Mary J. First grow was a mess, second grow was decent (1-1.5 oz.) Learning more with every week. After two failed seeds (they cracked open, but never sent out a taproot) the third finally took! Seed from a 00 Seeds autoflower variety pack. Individual seeds weren't labeled, so it's a mystery strain. Hope to harvest before a long vaca at the beginning of June--if it's not ready, so be it. I couldn't waste a whole 3 months and not at least try! ~~~~~2/26/18 - So remember that second seed I said had failed? Well...it didn't. It took 7 whole days, but it pierced the surface of the peat pod. The takeaways are: 1. Be it peat pod or paper towel, make sure the seed isn't totally saturated. She didn't start cranking out a taproot until I let a lot of the excess moisture dry off (~3 days after planting.) A guess, but I think something about the medium starting to go dry triggers the seed to send out a taproot to seek out more moisture. 2. Patience patience PATIENCE. Seeds are built to produce a plant. If the seed isnt blatantly rotten, it may still have life in it. Treat it right, and it may surprise you. Sure as fuck surprised me! Everything I had read online said after 5-6 days of unresponsiveness, a seed is dead. Fuck everything I had read. Had to buy a second grow light. Was heartbroken to learn the one I already have isn't 200W, but rather 125W. Not surprised, though. Definitely explains my underwhelming harvest last grow. They really need to sort out the wattage rating system for LED's! New light pulls 210 actual watts from the wall, so I'm looking to have about 335W of LED between two plants. ~~~~~3/1/18 - Girls look good. The towel-germed/non-surprise sprout looked rather droopy and her leaves were darker. She's since perked up gotten some color in her leaves, but the leaves are still a little droopy-looking. A look on GrowWeedEasy seemed to indicate overwatering, and I suspect I might have done that when I inoculated the soil. Since 2/25, I've let her be. Even after 4 days, the soil is still damp to the touch, which to me confirms that her roots may have indeed been drenched. The surprise seed is bigger, seems to be growing slightly faster, and is a vibrant green from stem to leaf tip. Goals for next week: 1) Don't kill them with love. 2) Name them! Since I dont know their exact strains, I gotta find something better to call them than "surprise seed" and "non-surprise seed."

~~~~~3/3/18 - Surface of soil felt dry to the touch, so I watered them. Roughly 1.5 oz (a shot glass) each of 6.0 pH water. ~~~~~3/5/18 - Watered. Approximately 4.5 oz (3 shot glasses) each of 6.3 pH water. My mystery girls now have names. After much careful thought: The shorter one/the one popped in the paper towel/the "non-surprise" seed is named Mauve, after the color of her stem. The taller one/the one in the peat pod/the "surprise" seed is named Fae, meaning faith, trust, & confidence--a reminder of what I must practice as a cannabis grower. I had almost given up and thrown her out after 6 days, but I held off for just one more, and she rewarded me with a fat little sprout--and is now the larger of the two seedlings, no less! Faith, trust & confidence. Fae is about 1.75 inches tall. Mauve is at about 1.25. Mauve is noticeably smaller, but still putting out her second set of serrated leaves, so I'm guessing it's just her strain/genetics. ~~~~~3/9/18 - Watered & Fed. Approximately 200 ml each of pH 6.3 water with: -Big Bloom: 3/4 tsp -Floralicious Plus: one drop (~0.1ml) both in a liter of water. I only used slightly less than a quarter of the mixture. I wasn't even going to feed the girls until next week, but both their growths have slowed almost to a halt. Fae's leaves also look a little on the yellow side. They're both still seedlings, but I only fed them with nute additives--not proper fertilizers--and in fractions of the recommended doses, so I don't think they'll get burned. Going away for the weekend. Pleasepleaseplease don't come home to dead plants! 🙏

~~~~~3/12/18 - Watered & fed. Came back late Sunday (3/11/18) and checked on the girls. They weren't dead, but had turned a new shade of yellow. They looked hungry af! No wilting or browning, so I'm hoping the nutrient deficiencies weren't at a point of no return. First thing in the morning, they got their first full-course veg feeding: -3/4 tsp Big Bloom -1/4 tsp Grow Big -1/8 tsp Earth Juice OilyCann (cal-mag supplement) all miixed into a one liter of pH 6.3 water. I gave approx 1/4 L of solution to each plant. All nutes were given at half the dosages listed on the bottles. Now my mind is swimming with how much bigger my girls could have been if I hadn't let them get this hungry. All I can think of is how many weeks I've set my harvest back because of this hiccup during the very first couple of weeks of veg. Is it weird to take this so personally?😩 ... I've been looking up images of cannabis plants at day 14, and every plant that pops up is at least twice as big as my largest. I'll be going on a long trip at the end of May, and if these girls aren't ready before then, it'll have been 3 months of time, money and materials for nothing. They're autoflowers, and I've been told up and down that they shouldn't take longer than 90 days. But based on what I'm seeing online, and based on their rate of growth (for which I feel at fault for letting them starve) I'm getting really doubtful that they'll be harvestable by the end of May. March is already halfway done, which leaves only two months to grow & mature, and they haven't even grown any fan leaves yet. Should I just cut my losses and wait til after my trip to start over? If anyone reads my journal and reads this, comment below. I need some wisdom, please! ~~~~~3/15/18 - Watered. pH 6.3 water, didn't measure amount--enough to fill their little cup-spaces to the brim twice. The nutes did their jobs! The girls' growing has accelerated, their color is coming back, and they're both putting out new growth. I'll start watering them regularly now, I think their roots are now established enough to handle it. Plus I think the extra water will help them grow a little faster. Decided I will not be pulling them up (surprise, surprise!) and if they're not ready before I leave for my trip, I will try to make some kind of arrangement to have them watered until I get back. I'll figure it out when I get there, but until then, I can't just give up without trying! Grow and learn; faith, trust, and confidence...here goes nothing! ~~~~~3/17/18 - Watered. Inoculated the soil outside the cup-spaces of both, and filled in the cup-space of Fae. Inoculation solution had: -0.75 tsp Big Bloom, -0.25 tsp Supre Myco Tea -0.25 tsp molasses all in 1 liter of pH 6.3 water. I was beginning to wonder if the girls' slow growth was because their roots were growing in a small column of moist soil, and couldn't spread further into the dry surrounding soil. Mauve is still too small to fill around, but I think Fae could handle it. My hope is that if they're able to stretch their roots out, they'll stretch their leaves/branches out too. Dunno if there's any hard science behind the concept, but at this point, I'll try anything to move them along!

~~~~~3/23/18 - Watered and fed: -Big Bloom: 3/4 tsp -Grow Big: 1/4 tsp Both in 1/2 a liter of pH 6.3 water. Equals 1.5 tsp/L Big Bloom, and 1/2 tsp/L of Grow Big. Fae was showing signs of nutrient deficiencies again. The fertilizer I had given her wasn't enough. Gave her a full-strength dose. Had to wait until the soil dried out from when I inoculated it, though. It stayed wet the entire week. Even today, it was still quite moist 1/2 inch below the surface. I don't want to overwater her, but she needs nutrients badly. Her growth is weeks behind what's normal for an autoflower, the oldest leaves on her are completely yellow, and the newer leaves are deathly pale. She's going to be a shrimpy plant, and my harvest will likely be a fraction of what could've been reasonably expected. Mauve's newer leaves are green, but streaked. Don't know if its deficiency or genetics, but I slipped her some fertilizer too. Mauve is laughably small. I doubt she'll get taller than 2 feet, and I doubt she'll yield any more than 1/2 - 3/4 an ounce at best. I get sad whenever I look in my grow tent. My last grow went so well (for a newbie like me) compared to this one. I guess I'll just have to see how they take to the fertilizer now. If they love it, and their growth explodes, then happy days. If they die...well, I'm not sure if I'd even be that torn up about it. But what a waste of some expensive seeds and nutrients it would be!

~~~~~3/26/18 - Watered, pH 6.3 water. Didn't measure amount; enough to wet the soil all around. Set up the fan to circulate air & jostle the girls a little to make their stems nice and strong. Noticed a couple tiny flies start buzzing around when I opened the tent. Wasn't able to catch/ID one, but going to put up some flypaper very soon. Fae is starting to green up (again.) Determined to keep her green this time! Mauve is catching up, but her leaves are still splotchy. Hoping it's just genetics, since her growth rate and color seem to be okay otherwise. Feeling more optimistic since the last post. I figure even if I only get a half an ounce per plant, that's still a successful grow. Not impressive by any stretch, but successful nonetheless, and it'd still be an ounce more than I have now. I'm not growing for profit or show, I'm growing because I love to grow. Learn from the mistakes of the last grow and apply the lessons to this one. Learn from the mistakes of this grow, and apply the lessons to the next. Thought for the week: A rep from Earth Juice at NE CannaCon looked at pics of my yellow sprouts on the app, chuckled and said, "I'll take nutrient deficiencies over nutrient overdose any day. Nutrient deficiency will turn your sprouts yellow. Nutrient overdose will turn your sprouts dead!" ~~~~~3/28/18. Watered, pH 6.3. Amount not measured. The leaves started drooping slightly and the soil was dry 1/4" deep, so I figured they were thirsty. Filled in Mauve's cup space, so now she's even shorter than ever! However, where Fae may be much taller, Mauve is fixing to be much bushier. I think she may have some indica genetics in her! Thinking of FIMing Fae soon so she doesnt get too lanky. Going to do some research to see if she's too young for it. ~~~~~3/29/18. FIMed both Fae and Mauve. The research I did said that they should have at least 6 new growth nodes (3 pairs) up their bodies to FIM, and that typically, younger plants can recover faster than older plants. I FIMed Fae to try and bush her out more, and I figured since Mauve already looks like a bush-inclined strain, FIMing would compliment her genetics. Either way, the goal is more colas and (proverbially) squeezing as much juice from this stone as I can. ~~~~~3/31/18. Watered and fed. On the menu this week: -Big Bloom: 1.5 tsp/L -Grow Big: 3/8 tsp/L -Floralicious Plus: 3 drops -Molasses: 1/4 tsp/L I used a half-dose of Grow Big, but a full dose of Big Bloom. Big Bloom has a very low NPK ratio, so it isn't likely to burn. I hoping the extra organic extracts in it will beef up this crappy soil and make my girls burst out of their pots! I gave Fae a watering with the whole mixutre, and I diluted the mixture to half-strength for Mauve. Fae was starting to turn pale again. I dont know what strain Fae is, but I'm terrified of it. I think you could grow Fae in a hydroponic system circulating undiluted liquid nutrients, and she'd thrive. I burned my last plant with the amount of nutrients I've given Fae so far, and she's hungry for more after a couple weeks! I've never seen any plant of any species gobble up nutrients like Fae. I feel like Seymor in Little Shop of Horrors. She's probably going to yield bud that'll make me see my spirit animal. They seem to have taken well to the FIMing. Mauve is already showing signs of recovery. I may have snipped too low on Fae, but worst case scenario, I topped her rather than FIMed her. The nodes below the cut look perfectly fine. Despite the FIMing, Fae grew taller still. I'm wondering if she needs more light. I'll probably rig up my 45W panel for her.

~~~~~4/1/18 - Set up my 45W panel as supplementary lighting for Fae. Hopefully this will get her to bush out a little more. ~~~~~4/3/18 - Fae seems to love the extra light. The nodes at her FIM site have exploded with lush-green new growth. Mauve also loves the extra light, but I didnt cut low enough when I FIMed her. Just topped her instead, right above the second set of branches. It looks like I may have nute-burned Mauve when I slipped her some of the nutrients I gave Fae. It doesn't look too bad at the moment, just gotta lay off her for a while. Hopefully it'll even itself out without causing too much trouble. It's amazing the difference in nutrient requirements between the two plants! One plant cant enough fertilizer, the other burns with the same amount. If you've never grown two different strains side-by-side, it's an incredible learning experience--it really takes you out of your comfort zone as an amateur grower & forces you to be more attuned to your plants and their needs. ~~~~~4/4/18 - Watered Mauve. Her soil was dry 1/2" deep, and I wanted to wash down some of those excess nutes. Fae's soil was still moist, so I held off watering her. No signs of nute burn on Fae. In fact, the new growth she's sporting is the greenest Ive ever seen any part of her! One odd thing, though: Fae's new growth looks really really bushy--to the point of looking crowded. The new growth doesnt seem to be stretching or extending at all, it's just getting fatter. It's like four new leaves are all coming out of the same node. It looks very healthy, but will it spread out? FELLOW GROWERS: Can you shed some light on this? Is this normal? Will Fae's branches spread out eventually, or did I just turn her into a palm tree? ~~~~~4/6/18 - Watered both. No height measurements made.

~~~~~4/10/18 - Watered and fed. Mauve and Fae each got a half liter of their own mixture: Mauve: -1/8 tsp/half L (1/4 tsp/L) Oily Cann -3 drops (~.03 ml)/half L (.06 ml/L) Floralicious Plus Fae: -1/4 tsp/half L (1/2 tsp/L) Grow Big -1/4 tsp/half L (1/2 tsp/L) Tiger Bloom -1/2 tsp/half L (1 tsp/L) Big Bloom -1/8 tsp/half L (1/4 tsp/L) Oily Cann Fae went into flowering. I'm thoroughly disappointed. I guess that's the drawback to autoflowers: If they're slow to start, or if you encounter issues during the veg stage, you dont have the time you need to fix the issue before it starts flowering. Now I'm stuck with a single-stalk plant less than a foot high going into flowering. Ugh! Mauve is still in veg, and is branching out nicely. I should LST her, but... 1) I don't know if I'll find the time to do it. 2) I dont know how much she'll respond to it before she starts blooming, too. Mauve, my smallest plant, is now my last hope to get any kind of decent yield from this trainwreck of a grow.😣

~~~~~4/19/18 - Watered + 1/4 tsp/L molasses. I switched the 125W light + 45W panel for the 200W light. Definitely more red and blue wavelengths than the 125W (which is pure 3000K white,) but it still puts out a decent amount of some white...contrary to what the photos show! Mauve has officially surpassed Fae in height, and has bud nodes the whole length of her stem, but Fae has already started sporting some trichomes. The new light should help--each plant now has two COBs all to itself, and the hanging cables are longer, so the light is sitting closer to them. Mauve's clearly still growing. She's more sensitive to nutes than Fae, but if I can nurture & feed her right, I'm hoping that each bud node on her stem will become a gram nug. I haven't fed her for a while (save for the Floralicious I gave her a couple weeks ago,) and I'm hoping the the nitrogen levels are low enough that I could slip her some more Grow Big in her next feeding--that stuff really seems to light a fire under her ass. The challenge is on: Two piddly plants handicapped at germination. How much can I get from them???

~~~~~4/22/18 - Watered and fed. Nute blend: -Big Bloom: 3/4 tsp/L -Grow Big: 1/4 tsp/L -Tiger Bloom: 1/4 tsp/L -Oily Cann: 1/4 tsp/L All in 1L of pH-adjusted water. Aside from leaves starting to turn yellow, they look good. Not sure if the leaves turning yellow is from nute burn or hunger. They only started turning yellow last week when I hadn't fed them in two waterings, making me think it was hunger. I guess we'll see. The way these two suck up nutes, I dont think it'll be an issue. Worst case, I just go 2-3 waterings without feeding them again. Cleaned up some of the lower fan leaves on Mauve. Goal was to focus growth into new buds and also get more light to the buds lower on the stem. Also snipped away two large leaves covering buds on Fae--they gained noticeable size within 24 hours. Re: Mauve & Fae's genetics: A buddy of mine who I consider a cannabis connoisseur said yesterday that Mauve's sativa genetics are blatantly obvious (her "tower of flower" structure,) and he was willing to bet that Fae is an indica. Considering both came from a sativa strain mixpack, I'm doubtful that Fae is primarily indica, although she may be a hybrid. I think her bushiness is undoubtedly due to her stunted growth and her FIMing right before she bloomed. ~~~~~4/25/18 - Watered (both.) Fed (Fae.) Fae still looked yellow, and given her insatiable appetite, I guessed that she was still hungry...especially now that she's pumping out trichomes! Fed her a half liter (500 mL) of the following: -Tiger Bloom: 1/8 tsp/500mL (1/4 tsp/L) -Grow Big: 1/16 tsp/500mL (1/8 tsp/L) -Floralicious Plus: 1 drop Even if Fae gets burned, she sucks up nutes so voraciously, she'd sort herself out in a couple weeks. I can no longer say both my plants are under a foot--Mauve hit the 13" mark. If she keeps getting taller, I'll have to move the light up, or her top will get cooked. I finally got to test some soil for the first time this grow! Gave Mauve a ton (ie just over a liter) of water, and lo and behold, some runoff came out the bottom. Ran it through my soil test kit and got a long awaited glimpse at Mauve's soil conditions: N = very high. Granted I just fed her last watering, but this might explain why she burns easily. P = very high. Just where it should be during blooming. Must keep it up! K = very high. Where my crappy soil sucks in N and P, it rules in K. I've never had an issue with K in any grow to date. pH = 6.0-6.5. Just what all the literature says soil should be. The takeaway: Given Mauve's nutrient sensitivity, I'll probably lay off feeding her for a while, and continue monitoring the soil. She looks as green as ever and is shooting up like a rocket. Next watering, I'll drench Fae and test her soil too. Her nute levels will either be high enough to burn a hole through the test tubes, or 0 because she's a fatass that eats everything. ~~~~~4/27/18 - Watered + Micorbes: -Supre Myco Tea: 1/4 tsp/L The girls looked thirsty (starting to droop.) Stuck my finger in the soil, and sure enough, it was dry 1/4" down. I drenched the soil two days ago, don't know how it dried up already. Might be the extra heat from the bigger light. Whatever, all too easy to water! I also threw in some micorbes because I havent used any since I first innoculated the soil. I dont use micorbe supps regularly. I'm fairly sure that once a soil has micorbes in it, it will always have microbes in it. They reproduce on their own, and I really dont see a point in constantly putting more in. I just use molasses throughout the plant cycle to keep them happy and multiplying. Drenched Fae and collected her runoff. Was dumbfounded with the results: N: medium. This explains her yellowing leaves. P: medium. No surprise there--she's pumping out resin. K: medium. First time a plant of mine has ever made the K below high. I'm frightened. pH: 7.0-7.5. This both really concerned and baffled me. Fae gets exactly the same water as Mauve--how in the hell was Mauve's pH 6.5 but Fae's slightly alkaline?? The only difference in treatment I can think of is I give Fae more nutes than Mauve, which I'm thinking has to be the cause. Otherwise, they both get exactly the same water & nutes at the exact same times. This is why marijuana is the devil's plant...it defies all science and logic! I'm also completely bewildered at Fae's nute levels. I fed her twice in a row and her nutes are still medium-level. This plant is a black hole. There's absolutely nothing I can throw at her that will burn her. Too much isn't enough with Fae. Whatever strain she is, one of her parents is Ayahuasca, I sure of it. I'm scared to harvest her. I could probably get high just smelling her. I gave Mauve just as much water as last time, but got no runoff. I dont understand how the soil got dry enough for a 3 gallon pot to suck up 1.5L water after just 2 days. This has been a really weird week. If anyone reads these, please please PLEASE leave a comment with some insight/wisdom. Going forward: I'm going to lay off feeding Mauve until her nute levels go back down. Fae is going to get fed full doses of nutes from now on. If she doesn't burn, she'll be the first strain I've ever seen that could handle full doses.

~~~~~5/1/18 - Watered, fed Fae. Fae's nutes: Tiger Bloom: 0.5 tsp/L Big Bloom: 0.75 tsp/L Floralicious Plus: 0.25 mL/L Molasses: 0.25 tsp/L Fae got a full dose of Tiger Bloom. She's the first plant I've ever used a full-strength dose of Fox Farm on. I love Fox Farm nutes, but it's well-known that their recommended doses will fry plants. Fae could be the first I've seen to withstand it! I also gave Fae water that was pH'd to 5.5-6.0. Hopefully that evens out her 7-7.5 soil pH. Floralicious Plus has been bothering me for a while regarding dosage. The label says 1 tsp/5 gal, which I assumed meant to only use it in drops at a time when mixing only a liter of solution. Well, I did the math, and it came out to 0.26 ml/L. That's still a tiny amount, but when I measured it using a 1 ml pipette, it was significantly more than I had been previously giving. I wonder if the drops I'd been using this whole time even did anything at all! Lesson: Make the most of your nutes and do your homework. You could be over- or under-feeding your plants! Mauve got a good soaking, and I tested her runoff. Her nute levels are holding steady. Probably wont need to fed her for a while still. pH is perfect, as always. ~~~~~5/5/18 - Watered + CalMag: -OilyCann: 0.25 tsp/L Hope the CalMag clears up the bit of yellowing on both of them. Other than that, they look good. Fae has stopped gaining height, but keeps putting out new calyxes with resin, Mauve's flowers are slowly getting bigger, she's certainly still getting taller. Tested runoff of both: Looks like I probably wont need to feed them the next couple waterings. Fae's soil is slightly >7.0 again, gonna have to adjust her pH. Mauve's soil pH dropped from 6.5 to 6.0. Go figure.

~~~~~5/10/18 - Watered. This will probably be the only time this week I water them--I'm noticing that my soil holds moisture a lot longer than I thought. Won't feed them this week. Fae looks terrible. Her smaller sugar leaves are turning bright yellow/white. There are tiny brown spots throughout the yellow areas. I have no idea what's wrong. All my homework has lead to three plausible issues: -Nute burn--maybe that full dose did her in...although her N levels looked just fine. -Heat stress--the temp in the tent reached 90+ degrees a couple days earlier in the week...although Mauve is fine -pH Lockout--Fae's soil pH has consistently been registering above 7.0 the last couple weeks. I'm wondering if this is causing nutrient lockout for her. I flushed her with roughly a gallon of pH 5.0 water, and will have to keep an eye on her. This aspect of cannabis cultivation frustrates me to no end.😧 Everywhere I look for answers, no two sources give me the same one. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, and meanwhile, Fae is slowly dying. Eff this! Mauve looks good. Her flowers are fattening up, bit by bit. I know she has haze genetics in her. What other strain takes this frigging long to flower? I'm so sick of hazes, sick of waiting nearly 6 months for barely an ounce of bud!

~~~~~5/15/18 - Watered + molasses. Runoff test for both plants revealed nutes were off the charts. Absolutely no clue where they came from--had to be the molasses. What is the NPK rating for molasses anyway?? Internet research says 1-0-5, but that doesnt account for the spike in N or P that I saw. No other possibility that I can see, though; some molasses had to have gotten into the runoff. Fae is continuing to crisp up, Mauve is losing her lower leaves too. I'm 99% it's nute toxicity.💀😷 Plan of action: A formal flush next watering. Probably wont make too much of a difference to Fae, but it could do Mauve some good. Hoping Fae ripens in the next 10 days, want to put her out of her misery. ~~~~~5/18/18 - Flushed both Fae and Mauve. Used 1/2 tsp Sledgehammer for 1 gal of pH 6.0 water. To each, I gave 2 gal of water + Sledgehammer and 1 gal of plain pH 6 water. I'm not sure about Sledgehammer. It's 10% "active ingredient" (yucca saponin) and 90% "inert ingredients." But what are the inert ingredients? Why does the stuff look thick & dark brown? What's in it?? Also, the more saturated the soil becomes with it, the SLOWER water seems to flow through--which directly contradicts the label, which says it makes water flow faster through the growing medium! Fae is nearly ready to harvest. Some of her trichomes are starting to turn amber. I'll likely harvest her in another week--before my trip, so I won't come back to an all-amber plant. Glad I flushed her today!

Didn't even bother curing the plants. Dried them, decarbed them, and poured Everclear over them. Love the tincture, though! Mauve: Uplifting, mood enhancer. Great before a day out & about. Fae: Uplifting, but makes you stupid. Jumbles your thoughts, hard to speak in full sentences. Not sedative, no couchlock. Good for a day off when you can clear your schedule and don't have to interact with anyone.