Hi everyone! This is my third grow. I'm learning from mistakes, and developing a style. Here's a preface (skip the italics to skip the recap): My first grow of AK-48 and Aurora Indica looked great upon harvest, but when it came time to enjoy the fruits of my labor, it was a big let-down. The AKs were weak, the Aurora Indicas were potent, both looked nice, but both tasted AWFUL. Not bashing the strains, this was 100% operator error. My second grow used my remaining Aurora Indica seeds -- but this time with FANTASTIC results: PRETTY, POTENT, AND SMOOTH! Here's what I think I did wrong the first time and what I did differently the second: 1st time - Too many chemicals/nutes : FFOF + Maxigro (or Maxibloom) + a drop of superthive (during veg) + PH up each feeding 2nd time- Let FFOF provide the nutes during veg, using straight tap water (PH 7). At 12/12 added maxibloom to tap water until PH 6, noted the amount added, and then just added this amount every time thereafter, so I only had to tune in the PH the one time. 1st time - fed on a schedule 2nd time - fed based on visuals 1st time - chopped everything at once 2nd time - harvested each plant on its own time, finishing times, same strain, varied by almost 3 weeks! 1st time - did not wash plants before drying 2nd time - washed using this method: 1. cut stalks from plant for hanging and trim. 2. fill three 5 gallon buckets with water. 3. add 5 bottles of H202 to the first, a cup of lemon juice and a cup of baking soda to the second, nothing to the third. 4. dip and gently swish stalks for 30 seconds in bucket 1, then 2, then 3, then shake off excess water and hang. Take a look at the water. If your grow room is like mine (carpeted, frequented by cats, open to the rest of the house during lights on), there will be an astonishing amount of dust, dander, carpet fiber, hair, crud floating in the water. Now get out your lupe and look at the trichomes. NO VISIBLE DIFFERENCE. I tried this after reading about it (google "bud washing", ignore the people who are bashing it without trying it, try it yourself on a small stalk next time and see for yourself!). 1st time - dried on a screen in a room with moving air from small fan for 7 days until stems snapped (as advised in many articles) before jarring 2nd time - dried hanging in cool room with no air movement for 3 days until just slightly dried, and jarred with #62 humidipaks And those four changes made all the difference! The second run has only been in jars one week. Even this early, it's really, really nice. The first run is going to butter, it tastes that bad. And so here goes GROW #3.... this using freebee fem seeds that came with an order. LEMON WALKER from the Grow Your Own Collection by DNA Genetics, and CHERRY BOMB from Bomb Seeds. These lil' fellas have been in the dirt about 12 days under a CFL. They will grow under a HO 4 ft 8-bulb Quantum T-5, in 3 gallon pots of FFOF/perlite (3:1) in an open closet in a carpeted room that gets a lot of traffic from both humans and cats, with a small fan about 6 feet away keeping them moving They will be fed General Hydroponics Maxigro during veg (if needed), and Maxibloom during flower. I've already determined how much nutes to add to tap water to bring it down from ph 7 to ph 6. They'll be fed with this strength dilution when needed and i won't bother with PH testing and adjustment. Otherwise, they get tap water. They will probably be scrogged. They will be washed before drying and curing. AT LEAST THAT'S THE PLAN! SUB UP AND STAY TUNED!
I hear ya... the first grow is a TEACHER... Also , I went through a mean learning curve with cloning... second time was MUCH better.
Brief update -- Lemon Walkers and Cherry Bombs all looking nice, have been in soil for 5 weeks from seed. Installed scrog screen 9 inches above soil line and just starting to train the plants. One Cherry Bomb was born a siamese-twin. I topped the twins once, and the other plants topped and topped again. They're in FFOF, and haven't asked for nutes yet.
46 days from planting seeds, 8 days into 12/12 -- the one on the right is Cherry Bomb, the other two are Lemon Walker. They're in FFOF and haven't asked for nutes yet. Gave the other Cherry Bomb and some Lemon Walker cuttings to a friend.
Hey, Johnny, figured I'd check in. You're definitely looking good and I hope that I somehow helped in influencing your "style." Cheers!
One other thing that I wanted to mention, and this may be off-base as I typically do hydro, but I don't wait for plants to ask for nutes. I start them out slowly (typically with 1/4 of recommended dosage) and ramp up from there, looking for the first signs of burn before backing off. This can be risky, as you risk salt-locking a plant, but it's one thing that helps get me the yields that I'm used to. Again, may be a bit different for soil, and everything is always variable depending upon strain and so many other little variables, so of course YMMV.