Alright so this will be my first real grow and my first journal. I am really making this thread so that I can keep track of my progress during this grow and to learn from any mistakes I make along the way. With that in mind, I have never grown a plant in my life and so everything from what products to buy and how to get everything set up is completely new to me and took me about 3-4 months of searching and planning to finally settle on a setup. I was looking for a setup that wouldn't be too expensive and yet still produce high quality medicine. I did a lot of research just looking into different LED companies and I found a lot of misinformation out there. I sifted through thousands of pages of reviews, grow journals, YouTube videos, etc. trying to decide what was going to be right for my set up and for me. The rest of the research was simple enough and so after gathering everything together, here I am. I'm going to keep a pretty meticulous journal here and probably update once every other day for the next 2-3 weeks before things start getting interesting and then I'll go to every day. As for the set up I ended up with... 2 Platinum LED P300 Lights in a 3x3x6 Apollo Horticulture Grow Tent 6" Hyperfan 315 CFM Inline Fan w/ Speed Controller 6" x 16" Phresh Carbon Filter 2 Air King 6" Clip-On Fans With this set up I plan on eventually moving down to 2 or 3 strains once I find the ones I want. I will be running 4 5-Gallon Smart Pots in this 3x3 space. My plan is let them veg a little longer than usual so that they fill up the 3x3 once I make the switch to 12/12 but this will NOT be the case for my first run through as I will be running 5 plants in 5 gallon smart pots and only keeping them in Veg for 30-45 days. Here are the strains I will be running... 710 Genetics C99 Haze I am a huge fan of Cindy 99, When I was in Denver I had a really tasty C99 and so I knew I wanted to run one in my first grow but I also wanted a good Sativa-dominant Hybrid so when I saw this, I figured I'd give it a shot. Emerald Triangle G13 x Blueberry Headband Not much to say here, Legendary strains in this mix with G13, Blueberry, OG Kush, and Sour D. How could you possibly go wrong? Going to keep a real close eye on this one to see how it turns out. As a 60/40 Sativa/Indica I'm really looking forward to the effects on this one. Humboldt Seed Organization Blue Dream I've heard good things about HSO and their Blue Dream. From everything I've read this will be a great pain relief strain that won't couch lock me. Barneys Farm Pineapple Chunk Can't really say much about this. Another hybrid that sounds like it's what I am looking for. I do prefer the Sativa dominant Hybrids and I tried to stay away from straight sativas as I heard they are a pain to grow. Eventually I will give them a shot but for now, Hybrids it is. Paradise Seeds White Widow White Widow. Enough Said. Was a freebie thrown in with my order and figured I'd grow one based on the fact that it's White Widow. All of these strains will be running in Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil mixed 60/40 with Perlite. I do not have any Nutrients aside from CalMag and some pH Up and Down. I do plan on running Nutes but I haven't settled on exactly what I will be using yet. After everything is said and done I have spent around 1800 dollars on getting all of this set up. I was aiming for 1000 originally but realized after doing research that this was not going to get me what I wanted. I upped that to 1500 with the permission of my better half and now that everything is set up and running that jumped a bit with the misc. stuff that I needed for this grow. Good news is that I am set up for at least another 3 runs and the only thing I should need to purchase is Nutrients. In the end it should all be worth it and after 1 or 2 harvests all of this should have paid for itself. That's all for now. Enough Rambling from me. Next post incoming with pictures!
http://imgur.com/VWPG6FR - Empty Tent. http://imgur.com/Lo9Gpi2 - Getting work done. http://imgur.com/LBTJuyZ - Seeds Germinating. http://imgur.com/WN8r8Gx<span class="redactor-invisible-space"> - Cindy <3</span> http://imgur.com/sTAUGWa - 4 more popped. Killed off 1 of the widows because it didn't look healthy at all and didn't have the space. <span class="redactor-invisible-space"></span> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">http://imgur.com/4IIjiyE<span class="redactor-invisible-space"> - Getting ready to put 4 in their final 5-gallon resting place.</span></span> http://imgur.com/IKEK32w - 6 in there. 4 in 5-gallons. 2 in solo cups which will eventually go in 3 or 5 gallons. <span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space"></span></span>
Just a quick update. 2 of the first seeds that popped have started to grow a 2nd set of leaves! Super excited about any growth at this point. Just watered them and going to switching off the lights. I forgot to mention in my first post I'll be running a staggered lighting schedule. Doing 20/4 for 1 week. 18/6 for 1 week. 16/8 for 1 week. 14/10 for 1 week and then switching over to 12/12 to flower. This is the G13 x Blueberry Headband And this is the Cindy 99 Haze.
Alright, another quick update. I switched around how I am going to have these set up. I had 7 out of 8 seeds pop and I didn't want to destroy anything so I switched them over to 3 gallons. The 2 White Widows were already transplanted into 5 gallons and so I left them there. I have 2 Pineapple Chunks in the back. C99 Haze right in the middle. G13 x Blueberry Headband on the left and the Blue Dream on the right and the WW's in the front. If these won't fit later on I'll probably take the 2 Widows out and set them up in another room and let them veg while the others move into flower. Cindy moving right a long. G13 x Blueberry Headband continuing to grow. Think we can officially call this Day 1 of Veg.
Another update. Just transplanted Cindy and the G13 as the roots were starting to push to the bottom of their solo cups. Gave them all some water and now we wait... I was a little worried about my first Pineapple Chunk as she had a very slight yellowing to one of her leaves but it's been slowly turning green as time goes on and I think it's just because I germ'd her in the FFOF and it took her awhile to catch up. Honestly I think the Widow's are out performing all the other girls seeing as how they were the last to pop. Cindy G13 x Blueberry Headband Blue Dream Pineapple Chunk #1 Pineapple Chunk #2 White Widow #1 White Widow #2
Wow! What a difference 5 days makes! I had to go out of town this weekend and was a little worried about my girls. I gave them a good feeding and kept them on a 20/4 cycle all weekend. Got home tonight and it seems like a few of them really started to get moving. I took the 2nd Pineapple Chunk out of the solo cup and now they are all in their final pots. Cindy and the G13 are still recovering from being transplanted I believe but there is still a lot of growth on them. I am seeing some issues with curling and odd growth but it just might be the way they are growing. Not too sure. Blue Dream looking super nice. Cindy still recovering. G13 still growing. Pineapple #1 has nice big leaves. Outgrew the Solo Cup. White Widow #1 got huge. Biggest plant I believe at this point. White Widow #2 looking big as well!
Alright so another update. I topped all the girls aside from the Cindy Haze. I think she was still recovering and wanted to give her some more time. It seems to be paying off as she's perked up. I fed them all on the 7th as they were looking a little dry. Also, Got my nutes in yesterday. As this is my first grow I wanted to keep it simple. Going to be running Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur Line along with Humboldt's Secret Golden Tree. I wanted something simple for my first grow and I'm sure I'll be adding to this in the future, but for now that's it aside from a little CalMag. That's about it for now. Here's pics from a few hours ago (about a day and a half after topping) Nutrients in finally! Blue Dream and Pineapple Chunk Cindy looking nice. G13 x Blueberry Headband White Widow #1 White Widow #2
So not a whole lot to update on. Fed them a very small dose of nutes on the 9th. Switched light schedule to 18/6 on the 10th. Lights going off at 6 PM coming on at Midnight. Will probably continue this for another month. Today the 13th is Day 15 and I was expecting to Veg for about 45 days. Moved my set up a bit to accommodate the 6 girls for best development. Moved lights higher up as the plants seem to be growing super bushy and not very tall. I developed a deficiency or something on the White Widow #1. I believe that it's because this leaf was laying on the soil after I fed her last on the 9th, I'll just keep a close eye on her and hope this doesn't require anything else. New Set up. White Widow's in the front. Followed by Cindy Haze and Blue Dream, Followed by G13xBlueberry Headband and Pineapple Chunk Problem on leaf.. White Widow #1
Alright, not a whole lot going on. Just more vegging. The White Widow seems to be slowly recovering and that's good. It's starting to get crowded with these 6. I'm almost 100% certain I am going to pick up another P300 and run 3 of them. I need to find a way to hang them together though so I don't need to use 3 different hangers. Had to move the plants to the middle for more room. Blue Dream looking excellent. Pineapple Chunk looking bushy. Cindy Haze in the back still recovering from being topped. This one seems to be growing odd. Might need to pull more leaves off this one. The "Accident" Widow and the G13 x Blueberry Headband in the back.
Same old same old. Topped again yesterday and did some more training. A little bit of defoliation and now I'm just letting them grow until I'm done vegging aside from some more light training. A little bit of deficiency showing in the Widows. Going to keep an eye on them and do some readjusting. I haven't fed the 5 gallons (the 2 white widows) in almost a week and it's still not dried out so I'm starting to get a little worried. Blue Dream from the top. Reacting nicely to the training. Blue Dream from underneath. Stems looking nice and thick. Cindy Haze from the top. Cindy Haze from the side. Made a mistake while defoliating and ended up cutting the other side of the bottom branches. Will end up pulling the whole thing to the side and tying her down. G13 x Blueberry Headband. G13 x Blueberry Headband from the side. Will tie this one down as well after a little more growth. Pineapple Chunk still looking like my best plant. Pineapple Chunk from underneath. White Widow #1 and #2 have been giving me the most problems so far. I'm almost ready to ditch them if they don't start perking up in the next couple of weeks. Day 23 Veg.
Another update for you. All the girls started to develop pre-flowers. I forgot to write down which ones were showing female but off the top of my head, Pineapple Chunk, Both White Widows, and Blue Dream are all female I believe. Still waiting on G13 and Cindy to show their sex. They've all grown so bushy with the training that I am starting to run out of space in my tent so I pulled all the tie downs to let them stretch a little. The water issue I was having fixed itself after I flushed and fed last week. The 2nd White Widow has taken a lot of torture and she is looking super bushy and much healthier. I am really interested in how this plant is going to flower since it essentially has 2 main stems and not a lot of side nodes. This was taken on the 26th. Showing the full set up you can see I'm running out of space! Blue Dream looking sad but she just woke up and is a bit underwatered. Cindy Haze. G13 x Blueberry Headband Pineapple Chunk still a big old bush. White Widow #1 White Widow #2 recovering from all the abuse finally. Stem looking a little purple, but super thick all the way up from here. Super strong stems. That's it for this update. Probably going to flip to flower in the next 2 weeks (We are at Day 31). Going to try to hold out as long as possible.
Not really much to update on. This is almost exactly 24 hours after the major pruning that I did yesterday. They are growing back sooo fast. Might have to move my time table up. Great underneath shot. From the top!
Alright so just got back from a weekend at the in-laws. Girls got a little dried out and some of the lower leaves needed to be picked off (Maybe 5-10 leaves from all 6 girls so not too bad). Fed them their last Veg nutes as I will flip them to 12/12 on Tuesday. Wanted to give them a day to recover from under-feeding. I'm completely wall to wall to wall in this tent and I'm a little worried about space. Hopefully cause I squeezed them in, they will prop themselves against each other. Other than that not much to report. Stuff should start getting interesting in the next few weeks. Blue Dream still the shortest girl but I tied her down late. Cindy Haze looking bushy. G13 x Blueberry Headband Pineapple Chunk continuing to grow up AND out. White Widow #2 come a looong way. Almost a perfect square footprint from the top. Canopy Shot. White Widows in the back. Forgot to take a picture of the 1st White Widow but she's looking just as nice as #2.
Alright so we are on Day 4 of Flower now. The stretch is real and I don't think that I'm going to have enough room but we'll give it a shot! Did a little shopping. Picked up a mechanical timer cause my Smart Timer wasn't very smart. New pruners for the inevitable trimming I will have to do and Molasses and Budswel for extra oomph in flower. Didn't get a chance to take pictures of the White Widows as I was running late for work but they are doing good and I'll make sure to get them next go around. Blue Dream starting to stretch, still super bushy and very dense. Cindy x Haze looking nice. G13 x Blueberry Headband is turning out to be very nice. Pineapple Chunk super super bushy for being in a 3 gal. Can't wait to see the buds start to form. Stuffs for the garden.
Alright so I misspoke last post. I'm on Day 8 of Flower now. Gave them their first Bloom cycle of nutes. Gave them Connoisseur A+B, CalMag+, Golden Tree, Budswel, and HiBrix Molasses. Spent some time at Lowes and picked up some PVC pipe and connectors to make a Trellis Net for my tent as I was worried about running out of height. I also bought enough PVC and connectors to shorten it for next go around and can add a 2nd net if it gets too out of hand. The G13 and Blue Dream are both starting to smell. As soon as I moved them I could smell the berry smell. I'm super excited about the next couple of weeks. Blue Dream has really come around. This was my shortest plant going into flower and she caught right up with the rest of the gals. Cindy 99 x Haze still looking nice. G13 x Blueberry Headband! I think this Pineapple Chunk will really take to the net! White Widow #1 looking super bushy. The 2nd white widow has come such a long way since I thought I almost killed her! They are loving these 5 gallon pots! Trellis Level 9001 activated. Money Shot! Money Shot 2!