8 Cola Mainline - First Grow

2x2growing I didn’t know about grow diaries until week 6 of veg so that’s why there are empty week slots. And few pictures of the plant in early veg. This is my first indoor grow so, I have a long journey ahead of me..I got a free seed so thought I would use this plant as a test run as well as giving mainlining a shot to try something different. Seedling sprouted September 6th, 2020

2x2growing First couple weeks is pretty boring lol. Weeks 1-2 was just grown in soil. No nutrients. Under a mars hydro ts600 with a 18/6 light cycle.

2x2growing I didn’t have any pics of the grow that week unfortunately:(

2x2growing Started feeding nutrients at week 3. Third topping was done in week 4. The plant is now set up for 8 colas and will just be vegged to widen out a bit.

2x2growing Went higher on the feeding to see how the plant responds. Plants been handling it well so far. Started removing branch sites as I am going for colas. Also upgraded to the optic 2 around week 4. Been running it on 50% because it’s been frying my plants lol well, guess it’s good problem Pics taken at end of week 5

2x2growing Continuing to veg the plant out. For hopefully 2 more weeks max. Adjusting branch ties and removing branch sites but leaving fan leaves. Same nutrient feeding as last week. Also dimmed lights back to 50%. Tried running it at max power for a day and the plants weren’t too happy about it lol

2x2growing Week 7 has been a rather quick learning curve as we encountered our first couple issues but are bouncing back now. Since this is my first indoor I expected to run into a few obstacles. I was going to flip her into flower at the start of week 8 but I’m still waiting for some parts to come in. So we’ll have to wait about one more week. As I’m writing this we are on day 44. The only thing different about this week compared to last is that we are now running the cobs at 100% (up until this week we were running them at 50%),doubled the amount of water and cut our nutrients down 50%.

2x2growing Still running into some issues this week so I want to make sure everything is running smooth before transitioning into flower. Hopefully by next week we’ll be good to go? This is my first time running nutrients so I’m still trying to find my methods. As well as working with a grow light which may have burned my plants slightly. Turned lights back down to 70% and raised the light a few inches. As far as training goes we are removing branch sites up to the tips on each branch. We also trained one of the branches towards the center to create room for the other colas and use up the empty space. I may just go for vertical growth for the rest of the week before sending her into flower.

2x2growing Week 9 has been off to a really rough start.. after a bunch of diagnostics I feel that I am experiencing nutrient lock out most likely from the soil I am using which is ocean forest soil combined with the nutrients I am using. I’ve always heard of how “hot” this soil can be but didn’t think it was that bad lol All I can say is I will probably never grow in this soil again.. I have cut out all the nutes (straight water with 12ml per L of 3% hydrogen peroxide). Switched back to 18/6 light cycle. Raised the lights and set the cobs to 100%. Won’t bother sending the plant into flower until things are looking more stable again. I’m really itching to send her into flower considering how long we’ve been vegging but I just have to be patient.🙃

2x2growing Can’t believe we are going into week 10 of veg🙄 I’m still trying to bounce back from what appears to be nutrient burn which in turn is causing a lockout.. Just been feeding straight water for a week now and it seems to be getting better. I don’t want to run any flushing agents so I’ll have to take the slow recovery time. Also defoliated a lot of the effected fan leaves. Let’s hope this plant will pull through this week🤞

2x2growing Finally starting the flowering stage🤘Ended up vegging a lot longer than planned but ran into issues and wanted to make sure everything was looking better. I’m going to go pretty easy on the nutrients this week as I’m still traumatized from the nute burn we’re recovering from lol (been feeding straight tap water for the last 2 weeks). If you’re growing in fox farm ocean forest soil I would recommend not feeding nutrients in the veg stage. I will just be leaving the plant alone for the most part until the stretching phase is finished. I’ve never flowered a plant indoors before so I’m really curious to see how this goes🤔

2x2growing First week of flower has been really exciting! The plant has already doubled in height and still no bud sights so there’s definitely some more stretching left Still finding that I need to dial the nutrients down a little more..which is odd because I’m feeding a low dose. Overall she’s growing well. I ended up caving in and defoliated her as the foliage was getting dense, blocking all the light to the lower branches. Hoping everything continues to run smoothly🤞

2x2growing So far things have been going smoothly for the most part🤞 Still finding that I need to dail my nutrients down a bit as I’m still encountering a slight nutrient imbalance. Also ended up defoliating a little sooner than planned as the foliage was getting too dense. Overall she’s been handling everything very well that I’ve been throwing at her. The waiting game continues. Happy growing everyone✌️

2x2growing As I am writing this we are on day 22 of flower. I did a heavy end of week 3 defoliation. Went a lot heavier than I would’ve liked but I really don’t want to risk any mold issues. Still encountering a slight nutrient imbalance. Being my first indoor grow I still am learning and there is still so much more to learn. Overall she’s been doing very well considering she’s been sick most of life. But makes me question how much better she would be had I not ran into issues...We did a flush with straight water to hopefully stabilize things a bit. Really hoping she’s pulls through this week🤞 Good luck everyone.

2x2growing As I’m writing this we are on the start of week 5. We’ve encountered a phosphorus deficiency at week 3 which was mis diagnosed as nutrient burns at first. But have since corrected it and doesn’t seem to be spreading. Unfortunately she lost quite a few fan leaves although I am curious to see how she turns out with an “extreme defoliation” method. Being my first indoor grow I expected to run into issues and am glad I experienced these issues as I now know what to look for and how to correct it. “You live and you learn”, as they say. Just increasing our feeding schedule and making sure that I dry out the pot completely before watering. As well as checking to see my deficiency hasn’t spread.

2x2growing Nothing has really changed this week. Just watering with nutrients and checking for any nutrient imbalances. I had a slight phosphorus deficiency last week but seems to have stopped spreading but unfortunately damaged most of her fan leaves. However, she is still bulking up nicely! The waiting game continues. Happy growing everyone✌️

2x2growing As I’m writing this we are on the start of week 7 of flower. Started off by defoliating the plant to let the lower buds ripen. As I’ve heard this is good time in the flower cycle to do so. As well as this will be the last week that I feed her nutrients. I may only end up growing her for 8 weeks because I want very few amber trichomes. But we’ll see as she goes. Overall I’m really excited to harvest my first indoor grow😁 she’s frosting up so nicely and is really starting to really smell now. I can see why this strain has been such a classic through the years. It’s also a nostalgic strain for me, taking me back to my high school days lol.

2x2growing Starting the flushing period finally😁🤘 Lowered the lights a few inches to help finish off the buds and feeding water only for the rest of the grow. I’m so excited to harvest this girl! Buds are starting to fall over from they’re weight and the smell is starting to get really strong now.

2x2growing Today, January 15th,2021(Day 60 of flower). We have finally cut down my first grow🤘🤠 I could’ve cut her down sooner but wanted to try get some colour out of her and unfortunately just a lot of yellow leaves instead of purple. Oh well, must be this pheno. Otherwise she looks very frosty and smells very fruity. Just let the pot dry out. Cut all 8 branches and hung them inside my tent. I did all of the defoliation in the last couple weeks of flower so there wasn’t too much to do. I will be keeping my temps at 19 degrees Celsius and 60% humidity for hopefully the next week and a half before I start the curing phase. Really excited to see what I got out of this plant and if mainlining was justified:) Thanks for stopping by. Happy growing✌️

2x2growing Were finally here! It’s been a long 4 months guys, wow😱😱 This was my first indoor grow and I have to say I am very proud of how she turned out:) She was a free seed that I wasn’t sure was even going to make it lol. To see her in the end in her final form was such a fulfilling feeling☺️ The training we did turned out beautifully😍 the constant topping and low stress training allowed me to have a much wider plant than it was tall. Also, really proud of the fact that I didn’t snap a single branch the entire grow! And she had some CRAZY bends. The mainlining technique also really helped as I was left with all smokable buds with very few popcorn. Definitely will consider mainlining again in the future but will implement different techniques to hopefully reduce veg time. The learning curve was rather steep. Encountered a few issues as expected but we persevered and in the end came out with way more knowledge than I expected and it’s only going to make our future grows that much better. I’ve already started my next diary so I hope you guys stay tuned!! I want to thank everyone who followed this grow and left all your positive comments and advice whenever I had questions. The growdiaries community really is the best community around😁 Until the next time guys. Happy growing!💚✌️