Auto Bomb in a tent (noob-grow - tips are warmly welcomed)

I suspected light stress for a while. But I'm using CFL, and keep the plants 10 cm (4 inches) from the bulb..

 

Damn, I've been looking all over the internet for info on nute problems, and that's the single best chart I've ever seen!
From what I can deduce, it's suffering from several micro-nute deficiencies (Cal, mag and zinc). I think I can rule out light stress, cause the other plant is taller than this one, and it has perfectly healthy leaves on the top.

I suspect that it's due to pH problems (the nute problems), cause I'm a moronic idiot; I bought shitty pH strips instead of a decent pH meter. So I can't accurately adjust pH. I'm gonna get a proper pH meter someday, but not quite yet (they're quite pricey, after all). So my strategy: I'll alternate between watering with water adjusted to about pH 6.5, and water adjusted to a pH slightly below 7 - that way I'm hoping the soil will stay moderately balanced.

Also, I managed to find some molasses today in a health store, and both plants have been watered with half a teaspoon per 2.5 liters (about 1 teaspoon per gallon). I kept the dose low to gently make the plants used to it. Anyway, that's what I say now to cover up the fact that I fucked up and used the wrong type of spoon when mixing the water

 

Day 67

Despite several nute problems (especially on Rosemary), both plants seem to be thriving.

Leslie

The accidental super cropping I did on her turned out to be a blessing; instead of having one main cola like Rosemary, she now has about 11 (counting from the above picture). The place in which I accidentally broke her stem has healed into a sturdy ball, so I was able to tie down the main cola to the other colas' levels.


Her flowers are still very young, but looking through the microscope I saw several trichomes in development.

Rosemary

She's doing really well - big, dense nugs (especially the main cola). And she's started to develop a sweet lemon scent. She still has nute deficiencies, like I wrote in my previous posts. But the symptoms haven't gotten worse in a long time. Many of her pistils have turned brown, but I'm hoping that she still has a long way to go before chopping day.

Porn

I keep being amazed about how good my phone's camera is - I barely even need a microscope to see the color of the trichs!

 

Amen to that! I stick to maximum half of Biobizz' recommended amounts, and I've stopped using grow nutes for Rosemary altogether (to reduce N) - only Bloom and Top Max. And molasses, of course - wish I'd gotten some earlier!

 

Day 77

It's about 3 weeks until harvest! Leslie is mature enough soon, and Rosemary is almost already there.

Leslie

The buds are still quite small, and the pistils only about 50% amber at the max. Somehow I don't dare to hope for much bigger buds than this.

Rosemary

I'd say she's about harvest ready; only ~20% white pistils, most trichomes are cloudy, a few are amber. But she'll have to wait a bit for her sister.

Trichomes


These aren't good trichome pics, cause I took them with my phone camera through my 60x handheld microscope. But I think it's apparent, that Rosemary has a higher trich density than Leslie.

Overview


Porn
I've been neglecting Leslie for this section up until now, simply because Rosemary has always been more developed. But I realize now that it's unfair to favor one over the other, so today they both become porn stars, for your viewing pleasure.

 

Day 89

About a week until harvest! The plants are definitely nearing the end of their lives, with most of their top leaves being yellow and brittle - whether or not it's natural or due to me being a noob, I have no idea

Leslie

Her buds aren't as big as I could've hoped, but they've grown since last time. A few amber trichomes have appeared on the buds, and most of the pistils are brown. But no matter what, she has a week left.

Rosemary

She has this one monstrous main cola, while the other buds are considerably smaller, about the same size as Leslie's buds. The smaller buds on Rosemary does look more mature than Leslie's buds, however.

She started to grow tiny "sticks" of bud, about half an inch thick, from her main cola a while ago.

Porn

This is a closeup of one of Rosemary's side buds. I'll admit I've gotten lazier nearing the end of the harvest. I don't keep a watering schedule anymore, cause I know it's just gonna be watering with plain water whenever it's dry. It's been three days since the last watering, and the soil is still wet in both pots. So I take that as a sign that I'm within the harvest window. My plan is one final watering sometime during next week, then Thursday I'll switch off the lights and leave them in darkness for a couple of days before chop

I wonder what my yield will be - being a noob, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea

 

Thanks
It's good to know I'm doing it right. I know for a fact that I've made some mistakes, but the plants forgave me - whether it's because it's an easy strain, or because growing weed is easier than I anticipated, remains to be seen.

But I definitely couldn't have done it without help from GC, you guys have been amazing!

 

Harvest day!
The day finally arrived (yesterday)! Perhaps Leslie wasn't 100% ready, but she has lots of cloudy trichs, so I have high hopes (pun intended).

First, a last look at the girls

It felt so weird, after all this time watering them, caring for them, etc, to just cut them down. A little sad, in fact - I'm gonna miss them. BUT, I'll probably feel differently in a couple of weeks when they're ready to smoke

Leslie

She's always been struggling to keep up; not only was she 4 days younger than her sister, she was 16 days late with flowering. As a seedling, she had weird leaves and I feared a bit for her. But she grew taller than her sister (so much that I had to train her), with a much bigger stem! She didn't have a ginormous main cola like Rosemary, but most of her buds have the same size as Rosemary's best side buds.

Rosemary

The big sister, always ahead in development. Always having weird nute issues, but she pulled through! A beautiful, big main cola and nice dank side buds! She's more mature than her sister, and has a few amber trichs - I guess she's gonna be more relaxing than Leslie.

Chop chop
Their final 2 days were spent in complete darkness, for better trich maturation. We cut off all side branches, leaving only the main cola. Then we trimmed the leaves (removing bigger leaves, cutting the tips off the sugar leaves) - pretty much what you're supposed to do.

Leslie

A nice handful of buds! I'm looking forward


Rosemary

A nice PILE of buds - too big for a handful

Hanging the buds

There it is, my yield! I made sure to color code them, so I can tell Leslie from Rosemary - I'll be keeping them in separate jars as well. There are 4 strings with bud hanging from them: 1 in the top, and 3 in the bottom.

Wet weights
I weighed the plants after trimming (stems included):

• Leslie: ~170 g
• Rosemary: ~210 g

So, if my calculations are correct, I could be looking at 95 g of dried bud?

Roots
I guess this is an often overlooked part of harvesting, but I was really excited to see if the roots were healthy, and I couldn't do that before harvest.

I'm not one to pat my own back, but in this case I'll make an exception - I'm proud of those roots

And finally, porn!

 

Update
Today we tried smoking the charas from the scissors we used. The amount of charas would've amounted to less than a 0.5" diameter ball and we were two people sharing it, so we had low expectations. However, halfway through it, it hit us like a brick! I definitely have high hopes for this harvest

 

Drying - day 3
The buds started to get crispy on the outside, yet still the stems were bendy. Guess I've gone with too high fan settings!

Anyway, I decided to cut off the buds and put them in jars:


I weighed them before doing so. Leslie has 29 grams of bud, and Rosemary has 37.grams. So I guess my yield is about 66 grams - that is, if they're done drying; obviously I'll be checking on them for moisture frequently. If they get too damp again, I'll dry them in paper bags.

I must admit I'd hoped for more than 66 grams. But I guess for a first grow, it's a good start!

Leslie could definitely have matured longer; she has long orange pistils everywhere!

I apologize that I don't have more pictures this time, but frankly, they look dry and awful
I really hope that they'll look better after curing!!!

 

I know, but trust me, I'm being very cautious! I let em burp for 15 minutes twice a day, and at those times I check the buds. Leslie built up too much moisture, so I had to remove her from her jar and paper bag her, but she dried up again (dry to the touch, snappy stems) so she's back in the jar for now. I figure, rather a bit too moist than a bit too dry, as long as I react quickly.

Rosemary stayed in the jar, and she seems to now have the perfect consistency; dry to the touch, snappy stems. Leslie smells like hay (though I'm sure that'll change with curing), but for some reason Rosemary has the most intense, sweet, pungent and lemony smell I've ever experienced, when I open the jar!

Also, I've tried smoking a bit of Rosemary - still a bit harsh, but the effect is awesome! For some reason, though, it tastes like diesel, and it's definitely not supposed to!!

 

I might not be able to stop myself from trying it occasionally, in those two weeks - but well, I gotta open the jar daily for burping anyways

It's just weird; I read that there are 3 phases of odor, when curing: hay, ammonia and dank. Leslie's definitely in the hay phase, but rosemary seem to have skipped directly to dank. If she's gonna get anymore powerful over the next weeks, sealed jars almost won't be enough to hold the odor back! :O

 

Conclusion
The buds have been curing for a week, and they've been burping for 15 minutes everyday during that week. Now I'm turning it down to burping a couple of times a week.

Rosemary

Since day 1 of curing, she's smelled incredibly dank! We've been smoking her everyday for the last week, and the effect is potent and calming. However, still a bit harsh on the lunges - but that should improve over the next week, I guess.



Leslie

She still smells like hay when the jar is opened, but I'm hoping it'll change over the next week. She was probably harvested too early, cause the pistils are long and numerous. We haven't tried smoking her yet - we're waiting for a proper smell.




Although they still aren't completely done curing, I'm considering this journal as finished. I would like to thank everyone who's been following my first grow and helping me achieve what I think is a great result for a first-timer!

My next grow: 707 Headband