By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
Geminated 2 HSO Blue Dream CBD seeds in a cup of water overnight for about 12 hrs. Then transferred to a damp paper towel between two plates and placed it on top of a heating pad on low to maintain some warmth. Seeds popped within 12 hrs of transfer and planted into soil after another 12 hrs when the tap roots were about 1/4in. (36hr total) One seed was dark brown, but the other was much lighter and almost white which I didn't expect to be viable. Surprisingly the lighter seed popped first and seemed to be growing fine. I named her Lucy because she was almost translucent and the other Mary.
Seeds were planted into peat pots with Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I added about 25% more perlite to lighten it up. Each pot watered with tap water pHed down to 6.2 and placed in tent under 450watt LED set to 60 veg / 30 bloom lighting.
After 2 days ,Lucy sprouted first. Mary came up a little slower with her shell still stuck on. It fell off after another day or so. I added a humidifier to keep the RH up between 50-40%. Watering every 2 days when cups felt dry and light weight.
On day 5 I added .5ml of Bio Root to 16oz of water. Each pot took less than 8oz each.
Seeing good growth at the start of Week 2 as the second set of small leaves started to come in. I switched the light cycle to 20/4 to give them a little rest while continuing to add .5ml of BioRoot to 16oz of water every two days. Plants seemed to like it and looked healthy.
Mary turned out to be a late bloomer and began growing vigorously while Lucy seemed to slow down significantly. I transplanted both on day 14 after the roots started poking out the bottom of the peat pots. I think this was because the bottom always seemed to be the most saturated with water and stay soft. Each seedling went into a 5 gallon fabric pot with FFOF soil mixed with about 20% more perlite and 4 tbsp of dolomite lime. I removed the whole peat pot and just planted directly into the soil. Will probably just use solo cups next time.
Mixed 1 gal of water with more BioRoot and a small amount of BioWeed to help them rebound. Each pot took about 1/2 gal each. I removed the humidifier as the larger pots seems to keep the RH between 45-60% with the exhaust fan running. May need to add it back in after a few days.
Week 3 has definitely been an interesting one...I finally figured out how to take better photos through the grow glasses...Mary has had huge growth progress and Lucy is seriously struggling.
A few days in I noticed that Lucy's fan leaves hadn't separated and seemed to be stuck together at the stem. As they got bigger, the weight seemed to drag the whole plant down and was basically leaning almost on its side. There didn't seem to be any new growth coming up either. So I propped it up to wait an see what happened. In a day or so I noticed some growth coming out of the side of the stem below where the leaves were connected. It seemed to be splitting the stem as it grew out and sure enough as it emerged the new growth split the fan leaves. I'm guessing because the leaves were never able to establish strong stems they just kind of dropped down and she was looking pretty sad.
I moved Lucy closer to the fan to get more breeze strengthening her structure, and in another day or so the leaves started to picked themselves up a bit. She's not looking very promising, but I figure I'll stick it out and see if she bounces back.
When I checked the run off from this weeks watering - PH was 7.6 and TDS was reading 1975ppm. I had added Dolomite Lime to the soil as some had recommended. Could this cause the high PH levels? Any suggestions on how to bring it down? Worried about nutrient lockout. Thanks!
Lime will raise the ph. Are you ph’ing your water down when watering? I’d ph the water down to 5.5-6.0. That should help bring down the ph in your soil. Good luck!
Saw some explosive growth from Mary this week and some interesting new growth with Lucy.
I had been pH balancing the water down to 6.2-6.3 from the start, but took some of the suggestions below and lowered it to 6.0 for the big water and then did a small supplementary water mid week with it down to 5.5. Haven't seen any deficiencies yet so I'm not stressing too much. Still not giving any nutrients beyond a small amount of BioRoot and just letting the organic soil do it's thing.
I noticed Mary had some huge leaf sets with 7 and 9 fingers coming in. Definitely cool since I never realized they could grow that many.
This week I started some training. I tried the FIM technique to top Mary. I liked the possibility of a quicker recovery over topping. Also tried LST to move the lower large fan leaves out of the way to get light to the lower branches. Mary's main stalk was too strong at this point to just bend over so I worked on moving the leaves. Seems to be working well and a few of the lower branches are making their way up.
Lucy is growing super bushy with leaf sets coming out in every direction. Due to he struggles in week 3 she seems to have split her stem in a couple different directions on her own. So I'm just going to see where that goes.
I will only be vegging for 2 more weeks after this so along with the BioRoot I started adding a small amount of Grow nutrients during watering. Noticed a slight deficiency on Lucy's lower leaves later in the week that I will try to deal with during the next feeding. Still dealing with high runoff pH but it doesn't seem to be effecting too much and I will continue to water with 5.5 - 6pH.
Anyone have any recommendations on defoliating the lower large leaves? Is this something I should try or just continue with LST?
Did some more intensive training this week in preparation for flower. Lucy was growing into a tangled mess so I tried some light defoliating to open her up to a bit to more light. Mary has been looking great and growing tall, so I started placing the lower branches around to make room to tie down the top more once they grow out a bit.
I cut back the watering volume slightly to fit in 2 waterings per week. Added a small dose of grow nutes for both along with a little CalMag for Lucy who was showing some brown spots on the upper leaves. Runoff pH has started to come down to the lower 7s, so will continue watering with 5.8-6.0 as it seems to be working.
This will be my last week in Veg. I decided to transition slowly into flower, decreasing the light time by 1 hour each day and dialing up the Bloom setting of the light. So today the ladies will have their first 12/12 day at 100% Bloom on the lights.
Lucy has started stretching quite a bit and is about the same height as Mary's lowest branches. I've noticed how much lighter green she is compared to how much bluer Mary is. And her leaves basically stand straight up. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on Lucy going into flower and hope she doesn't Herm.
I worked mostly on evening out Mary's canopy and have it down to 13" tall right now. Waiting for the top to grow out a bit more and then will lower those down to meet the rest. She can now double in height during the stretch and I should still be good with proper light distance, but I'm still going to tie them down along the way as much as I can. The tent is getting crowded!
Going to dial up the nutrients in flower to the full feeding schedule outlined on the GO Box. Mary seems to be taking everything I throw at her without batting an eye. Lucy is kind of all over the map. If anyone else is using General Organics, any advice would be appreciated!
First week of flower and all is going smooth and steady. Mary is really thriving and starting some small bud formation. She didn't stretch as much as I expected this week, but whatever height she gained I tied back down a bit. I also upped the nutrients and started to transition into bloom feeding. She's eating it up.
This week as also been a philosophical battle about what to do with Lucy. She hasn't shown any signs of flowering yet or much promise that she will. Her growth is all over the place and was getting super stringy. I tried tying her down to manage it but it's been difficult. She may be fighting for light because sadly she has been getting pushed further and further aside to make room for Mary. I've considered pulling her out of the tent completely to use the valuable light and space to allow Mary to finish strong. But I also feel bad giving up on her. So today I decided to release all her bonds and stick her in the back corner of the tent to stretch and fend for herself. We'll see what happens...
Got busy the last few weeks and wasn't able to update, so will be updating 3 consecutive weeks.
This week I saw some significant stretch in Lucy. She shot up from about 15" to over 20." I did release all her LST bonds so she could grow wild. Still not showing much bud development tho.
Mary also gained a few inches and her buds are starting to come in.
Took them out of the tent to get some daylight shots and really examine their growth. I was mainly trying to see if Lucy decided to turn into Larry, since she wasn't showing any bud development, but didn't find any evidence of pollen sacs.
Mary really exploded her bud development this week and is starting to smell very nice. Since she has been such a hearty plant, I decided to try taking a few clones from the bottom branches early in the week. I wasn't planning on cloning since I have such a small operation, but I figured I would try it out and maybe keep Mary's linage around for a while.
Steady as she goes this week. The tent smells amazing with a piney citrus musk. Marys starting to glisten and the very tips of her white pistils are turning orange.
The height difference between the two is crazy. I know Mary is tied down a bit but Lucy is standing over 6in taller. I haven't moved the light, as it hasn't seemed to cause any bleaching or burning on either plant. Lucy has actually started to produce some buds, even though she's pushed way off to the side and her top leaves are basically touching the light.
Early in the week I started noticing yellowing on Mary's lower leaves. I thought maybe she needed a little more nitrogen so I upped the bloom nutrients a bit. I haven't been using CalMag because I added Lime to the soil and they didn't seem to ask for it. But I added a little on the last feeding.
Later in the week, the leaves started to develop more brown spots on the tips / edges and seem to be dying off. Trying to sort out if this is a deficiency or burn?
Can anyone help sort out the issue I'm seeing on the lower leaves? I think I'm either between nutrient burn or potassium deficiency? I did up the nutrients a bit this week when I saw yellowing, but also have had high runoff pH the whole grow. Though haven't seen any other issues.
First of all, without clear pictures of the affected leaves I can't be sure of what exactly it is.
A deficiency at the end of the stretch, beginning stages of bud production is normal, if it shows on the lower leaves with dark / metallic blue spots and withering it is phosphorous deficiency, sometimes it also comes with red / purple petioles (stems attached to leaves); chlorosis (yellowing) starting at the tip and edges of the lower leaves with rust spots close to the edge of the leaves if it is potassium deficiency. If it looks like homogeneous yellowing with no spots, it's nitrogen deficiency.
During stretch, some nitrogen deficiency is quite normal, since the plant explode with growth; P and or K deficiency after stretch is normal too, it just means that the feeding needs to be stronger or done more often). Your bloom nute is 2-4-4, I would up the dose or frequency, what is the EC / PPM of your feedings? At this stage I usually feed 1.3 EC / 650 PPM.
As for soil run off PPM's, don't pay that much attention to it, it's just a way to see how exhausted your soil is and how much nutes your plant is taking related to your feeding. Mine starts at 10.000 PPM (yes 10 thousand PPM) and when it's at 5.500 PPM my plants show definitive signs of deficiencies and it is when I have to start feeding; at the end of the flowering stage, even with feedings, my run off PPM is between 1.000 PPM and 3.000 PPM, as long as you run off PPM is not increasing you are good to go.
Increased the nutrients and watering frequency this week to try and fix the potassium deficiency. I figure it was a result of the soil being exhausted and not feeding heavy enough. I don't think it was due to ph in-balance as the soil has leaned on the side of strongly alkaline for the whole grow and it seems potassium is still available in that range.
Will see in the next week if it helps.
Seems like heavier feedings have helped the deficiency. Seeing much less yellowing and little to no browning or necrosis. The buds haven't fattened up as much as I expected, possibly due to the deficiency? Also, where it's my first grow - i don't know what to expect. haha
The leaves and tops of buds have been turning purple over the last couple of weeks as night temps have been in the low 60s, which is really cool to see.
Still trying to figure out how to properly read the trichome color to determine when they will be ready for harvest. I think its going to be a couple more weeks. Going to start flushing next week.
I think they are starting to finish up. I gave one last feeding at the beginning of the week before switching to straight water.
Mary looks like she is ready to come down but I think I'll let her go a few more days to be sure. Lucy still needs a little more time, so I moved her over directly under the light to get more exposure.
After moving them around, I realized how much more purple Mary turned on the side closest to the fan. Must have been chilly.
Looking forward to harvesting these ladies and trying the smoke!
Overall, I think this was a solid first grow. I learned quite a bit and definitely identified a few areas for improvement. Now I feel I can be more aggressive with some of the plant training and feed heavier with nutrients, especially during flower. I'm also looking into setting up better lighting to drive energy further into the canopy. The top buds were all solid, but lower down the stems were mostly fluff.
Really enjoying the smoke and looking forward to the next grow!
Skill_Murray
