First grow, Sweet ZZ RQS

This is my first time ever attempting to grow my own cannabis. I am currently one week in and have already faced my fair share of set-up frustration. I am using a lumatek attis 200w led light in a secret jardin DS60 tent (60x60). I choose this tent for the fact it can be customised to place inlets and outlets wherever the user wishes and its size fitted perfectly in my closest. I did a test run of my set-up, with light and extractor fan on full power and was quickly introduced to negative pressure. I didn't want to leave tent door open to counteract this so ordered extra passive air inlet vent, that delayed my start by a week but fixed/balanced this issue. The grow tent heat is higher than I expected being led. But I assume this is from being in a closet and I'm currently working on a way to pull cooler air into my closet/room while in turn venting air away from being recycled back into the tent. Seed germination was quick and broke soil the day after planting. Seedling took off at first even felt it was stretching a bit. I have kept my light at 35cm but changed intensity as seed matured. The heat issue as mentioned before has caused me to run my extractor fan at higher speed which in turn I believe has affected my humidity (30%). As an effort to try and fix the humidity, i placed half a plastic bottle over the plant an sprayed with water, hoping to cause a greenhouse effect. A few days later my plant is doing really well despite humidity and growing healthy.

Week 2 and we are growing nicely. Sweet ZZ from royal queen seeds has spread her wings and taking off. Great growth from week one. My first week I had some air flow and heat issues in my closet, that lead me to buy an extra passive air vent for my tent. I have also used ducting to vent the warm air away from my closest into the roof space. Along with this I removed a square from my closet door to allow cooler air from my room to be pulled in. After this I was able to reduce my extractor fan by 50%. Its been a straight forward week with no issues, I'm currently running my lumatek attis 200w at 80% and will do throughout the veg part of the grow, then full power during flowering. Just watering this week again, I'm contemplating maybe starting a feed next week. I'm also wondering if I should try LST on her in coming weeks. But i might just be bitting off more than i can chew, trying to learn too much too quickly. I will study the process this week and see if I can get the confidence to try it. Would like to say Thank You for the support I have received in week one, makes running the diary more enjoyable. Much appreciated.

Week 3 and this Sweet ZZ is cruising along. I went for it and decided to try some LST. So at the start of week 3 I tied her and trimmed of the bigger fan leaves. She was a strong girl with thick stem and I was worried that I would break the stem or branches. After I had finished I thought I had over done it with the defoliation. During the week I gave her a feed of biobizz Alg-a-mic to help with recovery and every day you could see her bouncing back. I patiently waited until the end of the week and repeated the process over again. I also gave her a first feed tonight with biobizz fish mix and biobizz topmax. Although you can't see in the pictures, she has began to show signs of flowering already and its only week 3. I know auto flowers are short veg but was expecting to be end of week 4 before I seen signs. Possibly could have start LST a week earlier. Been a fun week with trying my hand at learning/experiencing LST. Bit more practice and I will get better. Happy growing.

Week 4 and we are already flowering. I adjusted my lumatek attis to full power (200w) and hopefully all she wanted was the extra light and will start packing on the growth again. I started LST in week 3 and continued through week 4. There's a possibility that I have maybe over done the trimming in week 3 and stressed her a little too much going into week 4. I clearly noticed a slowing in her bouncing back from the LST. I have been growing a Bubblegum along side this sweet zz and the sweet zz has aways been the biggest strongest plant, but after week 3 into week 4 she has slowed down and been overtook by the bubble gum. I have faith that with some rest she will pick up the pace and impress me. All in all its been a pleasant week with no real issues. I'm hoping with the light on full power and no lst or trimming next week i will have this girl showing some impressive growth.

Week 5 and its been a hard week on my sweet zz lady. Stressful week filled with so many first time grower mistakes. I think in this week I commited every growing sin there is. First error i made was to over water which i believe in turn lead to over feeding. And to add insult to injury my ph tester was off and the water ph level was actually 8.2 and not the ph6.5 I believed I was feeding her. So all in all i have over watered and caused her to be sad/stressed and droopy, then over fed causing nutrient burn on the leaves and most likely nutrient lock out. Also signs of calcium and magnesium deficiency have well and truly set in. Its been a heart breaking week. Was almost going to pull the plug and scrap the grow. But then if I was to give up, what would I learn. I guess the best way of learning how to do something is learning how not to do it. First time growing and I have to admit, having a first few great growing weeks had maybe made me over confident and that's when the mistakes began. I am not going to give up on her and I will see this grow through to the end and learn from it. To tackle all my problem's I first let her dry out for 3 days then I flushed her with ph adjusted water only (new ph pen properly calibrated). I removed the worst of the infected leaves and any others that have deteriorated as the week went on. When she was ready for more water I added in some biobizz cal-mag to try and get on top of her calcium and magnesium deficiency. I'm watching her closely and will never take her for granted again. I hope all this hasn't been to stressful on her and I can get her to harvest. Shout out to those how took the time to give me some much needed advise this week, was truly appreciated. Many thanks.

Week 6 done and my sweet zz is showing some signs of improvement. Has been a hard few weeks on her, but its all part of the learning curve. Over feeding and over watering was very stressful on her. As of this week I have been slowly bringing back the nutrients, maybe to little to late I'm afraid. Some leaves are still showing some yellowing and deficiency. I believe now that I am on the side of under feeding her from being overly cautious. Still need to learn to find the right balance. Starting week 7 tomorrow I will be upping the feeding doses and hoping this will boost her along. Been a nerve wrecking few weeks and I will be keeping close eye on her.

Week 7 and my Sweet ZZ is looking alot more healthier and frosty. Its been a bumpy few weeks and I'm still battling some issues with her, but I'm happy with what I have learned so far. I have been taught a few lessons the hard way and I won't be to quick to forget, as she suffered for it. At the beginning of this week I increased her nutrients as I had been slighty over cautious and I believe this has helped her along. She smells great, the bubs are fattening up nicely and the crystal production good. I have went from being devastated about this grow to excited to get her to harvest and enjoying a nice smoke. Happy growing.

Week 8 and my Sweet ZZ is coming along great and her buds are fattening up nicely. I will let her run for another week as I think she will be pretty much ready for harvest goin into week 10. I'm excited, even with a week or two of stunted growth with my novice mistakes in the early flowering weeks I have managed to get her back to a healthier form. All is left now is to patiently wait for her to finish.

Week9 for my Sweet ZZ and she is doing good, buds have put on alittle weight which I'm excited about. I have been flushing this week and will most likely be harvesting this lady at the beginning of next week. Had run this Sweet ZZ along side a bubblegum auto and I believe the Sweet ZZ has the bigger yield of the two after proving herself more forgiving of my mistakes and recovering better. Looking forward to next week to see what she offers me. To be honest I will not complain and be delighted with what ever she gives. Happy growing.

My first attempt at growing my own and it was an emotional roller coaster. First few weeks and my Sweet ZZ thrived, responded well to my attempt at LST and even began flowering after just 3 weeks of veg. My confidence was through the roof and I was loving life. This was short lived however as being over confident it seems is a quick route to disaster. Come week 4/5 when I managed to over water, overfeed and cause a nutrient lock out. I paid for these beginner sins with loss of growth, yield and heart ache. I tried my best and learned alot in the process and managed to get to harvest with some nice looking buds to show for it. I'm sure this will serve to make me a better grower for these experiences. Thankfully I had came across growdairies when I was researching and planning my first grow. The community is amazing and supportive, the growers are helpful an make you feel at ease with their willingness to help and kind comments. I don't think I would have had a successful first grow to harvest if it wasn't for the help of the growdairies community. The yield was OK considering the mistakes I made. The buds where tight and the crystal production was good. Was a joy to try, smooth and tasty. Will cure for longer and I'm sure this will be the best I've had although I sure I'm being biased. Big thank you to growdairies and all the grower that kept me motivated to finish and help me through my grow, much appreciated.