1st grow ever, lot's of mistakes. Lol

So, my first grow ever. Started doing research but I was no way near prepare to grow yet so I was victim of bad salesman's thanks toy ignorance. Well, first the grow room(picture 1), I bought a 40x40x100cm grow space, whith a "100w" LED panel and a "325w" CFL, seller told me I can grow 4 plants with that and I believe him. Once the kit arrived it was obvious to me not only that I couldn't grow 4 plants, but I wasn't going to grow not even 1 with those light. By that time I had read plenty more and I was convinced to use CFL all the way so I put my hands on work. I installed 8 socket and put 8 25w cfl to work(picture 2), plus the shitty led screen and the 65w cfl been able to get 22k lux at the seedling at 35cm of the light and 46k lux at 15 cm of the bulb. Not to shabby I thought, till I see the temperature over 35°c(it's summer and I live in a desert)....so had to leave the door open losing a few thousand lux.

As you can see 2 of my plants stop growing. At that time I thought that the heat and the stress of the transplant were my problems. Later that week my phmeter arrive and after a runoff water test could see another BIG problem. My soil was at 4.5 pH way to acid for this plants. It was a big disappointment because the guy on the growshop told my that it was a great soil, phed at 6.2 and I trust him. Flush it few times now, can't get to correct it. Still is in the low 5. Heat becoming a great problems, can't get temperature below 30 on grow space, not even with ac and only 4 of the 8 cfl on. Really studying LED technology to build one(I love new protects haha)

So, nothing new, I try some lst, not to sure of what I'm doing at this point. On the other hand LEDs arrived, I'd been putting it together these days. Change my extractor to a bigger one and, still with the door open put a fan pointing the plants. Temperature drops few degrees. Cheers!

So they start making buds, really anxious to finish my LEDs at this point. I took pics with the camera and don't have much photos. At this stage it was obvious to me that my harvest isn't going to have a beginner luck bonus. They are growing very slow and showing signs of pH problems. Anyway still trying my best and reading and also learning from the girls. Next week I'll try defoliation and see what happen.

Hello people! First of all sorry but no photos of the ladies tonight, can't find any. They were in bad shape all week, with leaves yellowing and tilting down. My first guess was the light, since I have seen none of this type. The new light is a 300w LED cob with full spectrum diodes. Although the most comercial brands uses 3w diodes I opted for the 50w model because it was dramatically cheaper. Teory wise they should work ok. They run much cooler and with some changes to my setup now I can finally close the door and leave the girls in peace. Returning to the plants, they were in really bad shape. So I take a shot and transplant the bigger one to a 12l bucket. Her roots were all over the place, in deed they were sofocating Y leave the smaller one outside on the sun hopping the best, and the other 2 on the grow space.

Sorry guys, rough week at work, don't have many pictures. The big ladies seem to be recovering well, although is all yellowish now. Leaves are back on top and grow seems to be speeding up. pH of soil is still really bad. I put some "Cal viva"(don't know the English name) and watered. I could leave the pH at 5.7 Wich not good but is better than 4.5 haha.

So, here we are. From now on I'd be updating this regularly and with good pics. As you can see it has changed very little. For me, the bud looks cool. Thanks to the defoliation and the lst y have grow another colas but smaller ones, definitely two techniques I will improve the best that I can. This journal is far for ending but it has giving me a lot of energy to get bigger and better. Lots of problems to overcome, but happy to do it!

So, last night made huge effort trying to correct the pH and appears to be ok so far. Hope it keep that way. Feed them with top bloom, doubled the dosis, if burn leaves appear I will go back the dosis. Photos are slightly touch, just trying to get colors more accurate because of the blue flash of my phone camera.

Hi guys! So I think I'm getting to the finish line, I'll try to get a microscope to see the tricomes but I think she is almost ready. Gave her last feed yestarday and for now on I'll give her only phed tap water. I kind of copy BKG co2 technic but not so cool haha, but looks like is working since bud are winning weight really fast. Also, I have a doubt, could it be that I have two different strains? If you look pic 4 and 5 you could see the visual differences between the two colas. That's it for now. Cheers everybody!

Ok, so I stoped feed them, just tap water. All the leaves are showing nutrient burn so I belive it was the right choice to stop. Buds are winning a good weight, they have plenty of cristals, sticky and compact and even if they do not smell that much they do have a really sweet smell, make me want to eat them haha. Also tricomes are not developing in the purple branches, so I think my LED has more power that I tought, next grow I should build a bigger grow space with plenty of room for plants and a good space for light, I think 14" in flowering will be ok. I allready order a few more LEDs to the factory so a will be playing with those during my next grow. Anyway, hope you guys like this grow and can learn for my mistakes. Cheers!

Definitely a trip I enjoy very much. I'll start my next grow the moment I can get seeds