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I'm a veteran grower of vegetables but this is my first cannabis grow. Using a 2x4x5 tent under 1 VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 300W LED and 1 MEIZHI Reflector-Series 300W LED.
Day 1: Have my seeds soaking in water (PH 6). 3 seeds Wonder Women Regular and 3 seeds Girl Scout Cookie Feminized. The picture has 5 of each (10 total), but 4 seeds went to my brother for his grow. Plan to leave them there for 24 hours before planting them in seed starter.
Day 2: Moved seeds to propagation dome in grow tent. Adding BioAg VAM to the starter plugs. RH is low in the tent (mid 30’s), but because the seeds are under a dome that I spray with water twice a day I don't think it will affect them much until I can get a humidifier. Also, using my tent to start some of the vegetables for my garden at the same time. I’ll transplant them outside before I move the cannabis plants to their final pots.
Day 3: RH is still in the mid 30’s. I’ve added a grow tray with an inch of water by the fan in the hope of correcting this. Getting a humidifier tomorrow. Have yet to see any growth.
Day 4: While installing the cheap humidifier I found that the timer for my lights is no longer working. It just stays on all the time. Shame, it was less than a month old. I have ordered a new one, different brand, that should be here tomorrow. Will return the old one this week.
Day 5: New timer installed. The humidifier is keeping RH at around 65. I’d like it to be higher, but the humidifier is very cheap and does not have an accurate knob for adjustment. Pretty much only low and high. High gets the RH into the 90’s. What’s better at this stage: mid 60’s or high 90’s? I’m seeing one of the GSC and one WW seedlings poking out of the soil.
Day 6: GSC 1-3 and WW 1-2 have sprouted.
Day 7: Some good growth on the seedlings. Wonder Women 3 has yet to sprout and Girl Scout Cookie 1 has yet to grow any true leaves.
Day 8: Have moved lady's to 16oz solo cups, using Jiffy Organic Seed Starter Mix. Still holding out hope for GSC 1 and WW 3.
Day 10: Yesterday I thought I saw WW#3 pop out of the soil, but upon closer inspection realized that it was a root poking out. I decided to carefully dig up the seed to see what was happening. She was dead. The root had separated from the rest of the seed and was beginning to rot. In the pic above you can see the root and the barely sprouted seed beneath it. In other news, all except GSC #1 have started on their second set of serrated leaves.
Day 12: The second set of serrated leaves have grown to the size of the cotyledon leaves and the lady's have become much thirstier. I'm now giving each of them about 4-8 oz of water every 2-3 days. I've also started to slowly bring the rH down. I plan to get it to 50 some time next week.
Day 15: GSC #1 has started to grow serrated leaves, but they appear to me malformed. Have moved the grow light closer. Now 50cm above plants. rH is now 55%. Plants have not had much vertical growth yet. Only about 1cm from when they sprouted. Don’t know if that is typical.
Day 18: Roots have started poking out the bottom of some of the solo cups and the leaves have reached the edges of the cup. I have read that this is the time to transplant to a bigger pot, but when I checked the roots they have not filled the cup yet. I want to wait for the roots to spread out in the soil a little more, give them their first feeding, then wait a day or two before transplanting them to the 5-gallon fabric pots with the nutrient hot FFOF.
Day 19: Finally found a simple solution to the terrible hanging hardware that came with the grow lights. I’ve tried different ways to attach the wires, tried zip ties, etc. My solution: 15mm Lanyard Clip Hooks. By using these hooks and two ratchet hangers I have reduced the hanging distance by about 28cm. In the future I might upgrade the hooks to a bigger more robust size, but this will do for now. I’ve also moved the power strip outside of the tent. All the wires and plugs were getting in the way. Finally, I’ve giving the plants their first feeding at ¼ strength. Have noticed that the Wonder Woman has started to have a scent.
Day 21: Transplant Day. Have transplanted the ladies into 5-gallon fabric pots. I’m using FFOF with 20% per-lite mixed in. I’ve transplanted all four of the viable plants, but my plan is only to raise three to completion. I’m waiting for the Wonder Women to express its sex with pre-flowers. I’ve heard it can take up to 6 weeks. If they’re both female, I’ll give one away to a friend who is thinking about starting a grow. I have not thrown about the deformed one, as there is no reason to transplant it yet, and I’m a little curious how it will grow. If the tent starts getting crowded it will be the first to go.
Day 23: The plants have recovered from their transplant shock.
Day 25: Six nodes have matured on the plants so, according to the literature that I have read, it is time to start the main-lining or mani-folding process. I intend to use Nebula's Manifold technique. First I sterilized my clippers in alcohol to prevent contamination. I cut between the third and fourth nodes, leaving some stem above the third node to help prevent the splitting from the stresses of training. I then removed the growth below the third node.
Day 28: The plants have recovered from the pruning and I have begun the training process using metal coat hangers with a ‘U’ shape bent on top and pressed into the soil. I have noticed that light brown spots have appeared on the fan leaves for the Wonder Woman plants. Maybe calcium deficiency? Next feeding will increase CaMg+.
Day 33: Plants have grown enough to remove the fan leaves from the original third node.
Day 35: Have continued with mainline training. Plants have now grow new second node and started on third. The new leaves do not have any spots.
Day 39: Have removed 2nd and 4th nodes, as well as fan leaves for the 1st node. Will wait for the 3rd node to develop some more before removing its fan leaves.
Day 42: Plants have recovered from pruning shock. Have removed fan leaves from 3rd node. WW 2 is slowest to recover and the slowest growing (far right) while GSC 2 is the quickest (far left). WW 2 is right next to the intake vent while GSC 2 is the farthest. I will try moving the plants in the coming weeks and see if that is effecting them.
Day 46: Slight increase in water use, from .3gallon/day to .35gallon/day. Humidity has been a little low for the past 2 weeks because of a cold front that came through. Hovering around 40. Watering every 3-4 days, and feeding every third watering. Just continuing with LST, and waiting for the plant to grow some before flowering.
Day 49: Have moved WW 2 away from the intake vent. Will see if this has any effect on the slow growth. Have seen a white substance develop on some of the fabric pots. Don't know what it is.
Day 49 (added): White substance on outside of fabric pots (pic added). Have sprayed a little vinegar on a small part to determine if it is a fungus, mold, or salts. A few hours later, after the vinegar had dried, I found that the majority of the white is gone, but there is some discoloration(pic added). It is also stiff where there is discoloration. Perhaps I have excess salts and a fungus/mold? I will change the air flow in the tent and keep a better eye on the humidity and see if it fixes itself. If it doesn't, maybe spray it all with vinegar? As for the salts, I thought I was being gentle with the nutrients, 1 feeding then 2 plane Ph'd waters. I don't see anything wrong with the plants. I think I will continue this and keep an extra careful watch for signs of nutrient problems.
I used to think it was salts as well, and it may be.
However, someone else provided a better explanation: It's actually mold. Not the scary kind, but it's growing on the outside. Develops more with excess water. You can use iso to get it off, but I do this between grows instead of while the plant is still inside.
Either way, it seems to make the bags breathe quite a bit less. Those pots don't seem to drain right.
Day 50: Did a large defoliation. This should allow better airflow. Damaged one of WW 2’s stems a little while training it. Hopefully it can recover. Have decided to add General Hydroponics Armor SI to help with the plant’s strength. Don’t plan to do anymore defoliation until the switch to flower in another 2-3 weeks.
Day 52:
Day 56: Plants have recovered from the defoliation. First time I’ve allowed them to get some height. Grew 1.5 inches from last week. Had to do some training to keep all the growth at the same height, but overall very minor. White fungus/mold has not grown any larger in the last week after I changed the fan positioning and removed 2 bends from the exhaust vent ducting.
Day 61/Day 1 Flower: Tallest plant has reached 9 inches, so I have switched to flower. Did a defoliation to remove leaves that were not getting light. I have removed the wire tie downs and have added a plant cage to the three biggest plants. WW 2 is still so stunted that I did not remove its tie downs and did not give it a cage.
Day 63/Day 3 Flower: Not much changed.
Day 67/Day 6 Flower: Noticed GSC 3 has the tips of the leaves curling down and some brown spots on the edges. My research says it could be a nutrient excess problem or a moisture problem. I will leave it be for a little while and see if the new growth has the same problem.
Day 70/ Day 9 Flower: The metal cages are not working as well as I had hoped. I wanted to use them to be able to move the plants in and out of the tent if necessary, but I am having a hard time training the plants into a flat top. I have removed them and installed a trellis to correct the problem.
Day 72/Day Flower 10: WW 1 is male, and so must be removed from the grow. C'est la vie.
Day 77/Day Flower 15: GSC 2 and 3 have started to show pistils. WW 2 only has a few. Humidity has been too high this week. Now that the rains has mostly passed hopefully the humidity will fall.
Day 81/Day Flower 19: GSC 2’s lower leaves have become yellow/brown and are limp. It happened very quickly, I went away for the weekend and came back to this. I believe it is caused by nitrogen deficiency. I have increased the frequency of nutrient feeding and the plant has perked up, hopefully the discoloration will not spread.
Day 82/Day Flower 20: Defoliation day.
Day 84/Day Flower 22: WW has shown some pistil growth. The humidity has fallen a little, but more rain is coming this week. Might need to get a dehumidifier if this keeps up. GSC 2 has had some new discoloration. I will up the nutrient mix.
Day 91/Day Flower 29: The increase in nutrients has stopped the problems with GSC 2’s leaves. The new problem is tiny flying insects, like fruit flies. There aren’t that many. I maybe see 2-3 flying around. I have added a sticky trap, hopefully that will take care of the problem.
Day 94/Day Flower 32: Thanks to the help from several people from this site, I have identified the flying pests as fungus gnats. I will monitor the soil's dampness and have decided to try the hydrogen peroxide treatment (mixing 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide with 4 parts water) and pouring it into the soil.
Day 97/Day Flower 35: The hydrogen peroxide treatment did not seem to work at all. I have more of them than ever flying around. Maybe I did the treatment wrong? Rather than try the same thing again, I have decided to use Neem oil in the soil, since they had it in stock at the local super store.
Day 98/Day Flower 36: I have added crystal kitty litter to the tent to try to passively lower the humidity, which is hovering around 71%. Checked it 5 hours later, and the humidity has fallen to 65%. I will keep it for the next week (maybe add more) while I spend some time looking for a cheap dehumidifier. If the litter gets rH down to the low – mid 50’s I’ll just keep the passive system. I have added the neem oil to the soil.
Day 105/Day Flower 43: Many problems have been solved this week. I have added a dehumidifier to the room where I have my grow tent. Feels very nice to have that under control after struggling with it for several weeks. The passive system had an effect, just not a great enough one for the humidity I was experiencing. The Neem oil has had a drastic effect on the fungus gnat population. My sticky traps only have a few on them after several days. I use a spray bottle to treat the soil and even aiming for the soil only, the mist it makes drifts up into the buds. I think I will wash the buds after harvest to make sure to remove it all, even though this is an indoor grow. Using less water this week than the last several. Maybe the plants need less after the stretch?
Day 108/Day Flower 46: I am approaching the harvest window according to the breeders’ website and the pistils have started to turn brown, I decided to purchase a magnifier and begin checking the trichomes.
Day 111/Day Flower 49: The magnifier has arrived. Took some clippings from the plants. I see clear and amber trichomes. They seem to have skipped the cloudy phase. I thought that it would be a clear transition, clear-cloudy-amber, based on what I read. Perhaps my inexperienced eye can’t see the difference?
Looking at the pistils and trichomes I can't tell if I should start flushing yet. Should I start the flushing process now in anticipation of harvest in 1 - 2 weeks, or wait?
Edited: Milky trichomes with some Amber yes definitely time to flush in soil especially as someone else mentioned magnesium is a pain to leach out of the plant you shouldn’t feed anymore Calmag products or products containing high amounts of Mg at least 3 weeks prior to harvest. As a side not off topic I can see a “creamy” residue on the leaves at first I thought it could be powdery mildew but I’ve read through some of the later weeks 15,16 you where spraying a neem oil solution? Did you use a surfactant like gentle soap? Yes I agree I would be washing those buds in a H202 solution @20c before drying, to get all that muck off the leaves. Otherwise nice looking plant well done, on to the next now. Hit me up if you are unsure on what to do, or have any questions
Day 112/Day Flower 50: I have started the flushing process. I am watering with plan PH’d water until about 20%-30% runs out the bottom and then am using a wet/dry Vac to remove the excess water.
Day 118/Day Flower 56: Some of the fan leaves have started to yellow, won’t be long until harvest.
Day 122/Day Flower 60: More of the leaves are yellowing, including the sugar leaves near the buds.
Day 124/Day Flower 62: Have tasted the juice from a leaf stem that I broke off, and taste nothing but water. The runoff from the flushing is all but clear, and I do not taste anything bitter from the leaves. More of the leaves have yellowed, including sugar leaves near the bud for GSC 2. The exception is the Wonder Woman, who’s sugar leaves have gotten darker.
Day 125/Day Flower 63: GSC 2 has started to develop some purple coloring. Looking very nice. The pics for the trichomes are from the buds as opposed to the sugar leaves I used last time. I think WW is closest to harvest based on them.
Wonder Woman was the runt of this grow. She did not take as readily to the (admittedly hard) training I was putting them through, and produced the lowest yield and the most popcorn bud (as a percentage of total yield). But she smokes beautifully. Very much a head high and makes me want to move. Its helped with my migraines which was 90% of what I wanted it for.
Took nearly 6 hours to complete the harvest and trimming. Much longer than I had anticipated. 7.25 oz wet. I washed the bud first in 4 gallons of water with 5oz lemon juice and 5oz Hydrogen peroxide. Then in 4 gallons of water with baking soda added till a ph greater than 8.6. Finally, in 4 gallons of plan distilled water. I did see a slight sheen on the lemon/H2O2 bucket, maybe the neem oil? The rest of the debris was gnats, dirt, and trim that was stuck to the bud (a testament to my poor trimming skills).
I have decided to take some of the buds from each plant and try the water cure method. I have never tried any cured in such a way and am curious. The rest will be cured the traditional way by drying them for 1-2 weeks in my grow tent at 50% rh, followed by a jar cure for 2-4 weeks. The water cure shouldn’t take nearly as long according what I have read.
Made dry ice kief from the trim. Used about 3 lb of dry ice. Got 4g from the 120-micron bag and 14g from the 220-mircon bag. I thought the yield would be higher.
The water cure took 10 days to complete. 8 days in jars with the water getting changed every day and 2 days drying under a fan. The water got very cloudy every day, but was not brown in color. It smelled a bit like cucumber and sushi rice. My guess is its caused by the starches, sugars, and chlorophyll being leached out. The bud has almost no smell when smoked. Very smooth.
Made e-juice using the some of the kief. 50/50 mix PG/VG. 4 Grams of the 220 Kief and 36 ml liquid. Put them in a mason jar together and sous vide them for 2h30m at the highest temp it could go (211 f), shaking every 20min. Filtered through a coffee filter and left to cool overnight. Added some flavor to the e-juice and tried it. Not as strong as I expected. Will have to up the ratio next time. Otherwise good.
Final weights for harvest :
Traditional Cured Bud: WW - 1.3oz / GSC 2 – 2.0oz / GSC 3 – 2.3oz.
Water Cured Bud: WW - 5g / GSC 2 – 5g / GSC 3 – 4g
Kief from trim: 120- 4g / 22 - 14g
She took to training like a champ, almost no issues with her. She did take much longer to mature than was promised by the supplier, but maybe that's due to my growing skills, or lack there of. She tastes sweet and makes me feel relaxed. A good strain to end the day with or help with insomnia.
I have decided to take some of the buds from each plant and try the water cure method. I have never tried any cured in such a way and am curious. The rest will be cured the traditional way by drying them for 1-2 weeks in my grow tent at 50% rh, followed by a jar cure for 2-4 weeks. The water cure shouldn’t take nearly as long according what I have read.
Made dry ice kief from the trim. Used about 3 lb of dry ice. Got 4g from the 120-micron bag and 14g from the 220-mircon bag. I thought the yield would be higher.
The water cure took 10 days to complete. 8 days in jars with the water getting changed every day and 2 days drying under a fan. The water got very cloudy every day, but was not brown in color. It smelled a bit like cucumber and sushi rice. My guess is its caused by the starches, sugars, and chlorophyll being leached out. The bud has almost no smell when smoked. Very smooth.
Made e-juice using the some of the kief. 50/50 mix PG/VG. 4 Grams of the 220 Kief and 36 ml liquid. Put them in a mason jar together and sous vide them for 2h30m at the highest temp it could go (211 f), shaking every 20min. Filtered through a coffee filter and left to cool overnight. Added some flavor to the e-juice and tried it. Not as strong as I expected. Will have to up the ratio next time. Otherwise good.
Final weights for harvest:
Traditional Cured Bud: WW - 1.3oz / GSC 2 – 2.0oz / GSC 3 – 2.3oz.
Total: 5.6oz
Water Cured Bud: WW - 5g / GSC 2 – 5g / GSC 3 – 4g.
Total 14g
Kief from trim: 120- 4g / 22 - 14g.
Total 18g
The little flies are gnats, they lay eggs in the top, moist, 1" of mediums like coir or soil.
They don't specifically attack the cannabis but they will eat the roots to get to what they're actually looking for.
Make sure the soil is drying out to an inch depth. If you can't get rid of them that way without making them too thirsty (bad during flower), try topdressing with diatomaceous earth, but be aware that it has very high pH and needs to be used sparingly.
https://www.growweedeasy.com/fungus-gnats
@Jaindoh,
Thanks for the info. I looked up fungus gnats, after reading the link you provided, and decided the first treatment I will try will be hydrogen peroxide. 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide to 4 parts water. I'll try the diatomaceous earth if that doesn't work. Thanks.
Cloudy trichs are hit and miss, so don’t be concerned. Cap color is more indicative of maturity level, and remember they will continue to mature a bit after harvest.
Only your GSC2 has begun ambering. They’re not ready by my criteria, but you may like it differently. Harvested mostly clear, your high will be energetic and of short duration, and there are times I enjoy that high. At half amber you will be very stoned. Enjoy
Training doing great. Not sure about your nutrient line, but I add Potassium Silicate (Armor Si by GH) during these phases; the vigor in the stems and sturdiness for training goes through the roof. Also great for the roots and keeping insects, heat, cold from shocking the plant.
Soil already has silica in it, which helps, but I'm not sure of the content in FFOF. Your line may already have potassium silicate in it, and you can definitely get away without it, but would definitely recommend if you want to train this heavily. Not sure if you will be able to add it, but it's worth looking into.
Looking great =)
@BucketBrigade, The plants really take to training. This is my first grow for cannabis, but not my first time training a plant. Trying this with my vegetable garden would be extremely frustrating. lol
nice! first grows are always scary but exciting, feel free to ask us any questions -- if i cant answer someone probably can =)
nirvana breeds good stuff! what size final container you thinking? fabric/air pot?
@Jaindoh, Thanks for the welcome.
I'm going to use 5-gallon fabric pots with FFOF with perlite added. My goal is to grow three of these lady's to completion.
The only thing I'll a little concerned about is my Girl Scout Cookie #1. Unlike the others, all it has is its first leaves (cotyledons I think they're called) and no "true" leaves. Its the odd one out. Is it just delayed or is there something wrong with it?
What I gathered about more affordable dehumidifiers sadly was poor. I ended up dropping over 300 bucks on a 300w rated for like 400-500 sq feet.
Thing is, it's worth it's weight in gold. The density you get from 45% over 65% is no joke. Not having to worry about mold to the same degree. It was a stretch on my budget but I haven't regretted it a bit.
I have the same problem with tiny gnats. My friend also has had issues with them. We found that it was the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil mix they were coming from.... i hit them late evening with neem oil. Dont see quite so many after treatment
@Legoman, it will need to be pretty strong to work. Over the counter peroxide isn't really strong enough. And remember it will kill all of the good stuff in the soil too. I started using Natural Organics Soil, Perlite and Mushroom compost. I am hoping to get the rest of the pest as I harvest. I pulled one today and have it a hangin. Once my tent is clear i'll bleach wipe the entire surface.
@Newbie_Grower,
I'm also using Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Seems to be a lot of options to deal with them. I'm starting with the hydrogen peroxide because I already have some on hand.
Legoman
