My First Grow And Grow Journal Using All FoxFarm Products

I posted this in the grow journal section but nobody was replying, so I deleted it there and put it here. This is my very first grow, and I know I'll need your guys and girls help and advice. I planted all my seeds in the middle of May. I started with little organic cups from the local dollar general store.

I have been using FoxFarm ocean forest potting soil ever since I started. I'm also using FoxFarm's Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom liquid fertilizers. I've transplanted them Two times so far. I have several questions to ask at this point.

Here is a list of questions I need to ask.

#1. When do I top these babies to produce more bud?

#2. What can I use for pest control that's safe for them?

#3. Do they look like they need anything?

#4. What do I use for stakes to hold them up nice later on?

#5. How do I tell whether they're male or female?

Check all the pictures out and tell me what you think especially about topping them and when. They're all bagseed, so all the money I got in them is the potting soil, cups, and buckets.

Edited by CrippleKid, 07 June 2011 - 11:07 PM.
Made it better to look at.

I wish somebody would give me some advice on these beautiful plants. I know they're bag seed, but y'all guys can help me through the process. I really need advice on when to top them and ECT.

i have arrived!

lol

nice to see youve got something growing man.

#1. When do I top these babies to produce more bud?
According to the pictures you can top them any time, give it a week more, ive been told its 4 leaf sets and then just top them, but if your growing outdoors, i would try to SUPER CROP them hoes.

#2. What can I use for pest control that's safe for them?

There are a bunch of soil toppers that stop bugs. but they will all hurt your plant if used for too long.

im not experianced with outdoor so i dunno.

#3. Do they look like they need anything?

Time.

#4. What do I use for stakes to hold them up nice later on?
Bamboo stakes are great, or chop sticks.

you wanna use twist ties and bamboo stakes.

#5. How do I tell whether they're male or female?
You cant yet, but soon they will show sex.
if you see balls, thats bad, if you see little calyxes and hairs thats GOOD!

anything else?

Hey man these little guys are looking nice so far. Stakes would be nice as a precautionary method just so they have support in case you knock one over or something. I'm not sure what common pest control is outdoors and it will probably be different for different pests. What I recommend is picking yourself up a good book on how to grow Medical Marijuana, I picked up The Cannabis Grow Bible which has answered alot of my questions and will probably help you out too. There are tons of photos and solutions for different problems you may encounter. But there are tons of different books out there so If you have a Barnes and Noble or some kind of large book store around you, take a trip over there and flip through all the marijuana cultivation books they have to see which one works for you.

It looks to me like you are watering them to much. And they seem to be strecthing out a bit.

pest control: go buy some praying mantis eggs, or ladybugs hehe. i got lucky i got natural mantis's in my backyard on my grape vines so i think the wolf spiders and mantis's do a nice job at keeping bugs away.

i was going to say try lady bugs and neem oil for pest control.

i have arrived!

lol

nice to see youve got something growing man.

#1. When do I top these babies to produce more bud?
According to the pictures you can top them any time, give it a week more, ive been told its 4 leaf sets and then just top them, but if your growing outdoors, i would try to SUPER CROP them hoes.

#2. What can I use for pest control that's safe for them?

There are a bunch of soil toppers that stop bugs. but they will all hurt your plant if used for too long.

im not experianced with outdoor so i dunno.

#3. Do they look like they need anything?

Time.

#4. What do I use for stakes to hold them up nice later on?
Bamboo stakes are great, or chop sticks.

you wanna use twist ties and bamboo stakes.

#5. How do I tell whether they're male or female?
You cant yet, but soon they will show sex.
if you see balls, thats bad, if you see little calyxes and hairs thats GOOD!

anything else?

What does super crop mean? I'll wait one week and then top them. I couldn't do it without you guys!

Update! I've topped them at the 5th intersection.

They are all looking ok but two of them.

Those two have serious bite marks and one to two dead leaves, but the tops of them look stunning.

Should I trim the dead leaves or just leave them?

I bought stents and use bread ties to hold them straight up.

My only question now is what's next guys and girls?

keep the leafs until the fall off.

another thing would be to transplant to a 5 gal pot or bigger.

Super cropping consists of Pretty much breaking the steam at the base, and staking it back up and taping the wound back up so it can heal.

after it heals it basically creates a SUPER HIGHWAY for nutrients and such, it makes the plant WAY stronger and they get enormous!

what kind of seed was it?

as the symmetrical structure is leading me to believe they are males.

i dunno why but when i see lanky symmetrical plants they always end up male.

#2. What can I use for pest control that's safe for them?
Neem Oil and you can make an insecticidal soap using baking soda if you look up the recipe.

#3. Do they look like they need anything?
I'd start them on 1/4 strength nutes if you haven't yet.

#4. What do I use for stakes to hold them up nice later on?
Any thin metal pole really. They sell green ones that my dad used to use for tomatos and I'm gunna use those. You could use snow markers too or anything along those lines.

#5. How do I tell whether they're male or female?
Thats where I'm at right now. Both will start off with little green balls between the stem and the main stalk. As they develop, pistils will shoot up from those little green balls if they're female.. if not, its a male

These plants are stretching out too much.

My plants were also started at the middle of May and look identical to yours. I just topped them last night at the 4th node.

I used a 5 gallon paint bucket from Walmart to put them in. They're $4.00 a piece. I spray painted the outside of them black. I would like to know if it's natural for two horns as I call them to shoot up after you top them? It's at the top of the stems.

I will have more pictures soon.

after you top you should see twice as many tops come up.

This is what they look like after I topped them.
They're almost twice this size now though.
I should get a good crop off these. At least I hope I do.

If there's any advice you can give shoot it my way please.

Edited by CrippleKid, 26 June 2011 - 04:19 PM.
Wanted to make the text look cleaner.

So, it's July now and they're growing wonderfully.

These are my three favorite ones out of the nine I have growing.

I just bought three more five gallon buckets making a total of five.

They seem to grow bigger in the five gallon buckets than they do in the two and a half gallon buckets.

I did get a little off track with the FoxFarm products and bought some miracle grow potting soil to help fill the new three gallon buckets.

They'll have two and a half gallon of miracle grow and FoxFarm potting soil.

I want to know what y'all think so far so let me know.

Looking good dude, you should Super Crop it though.