Drooping leaves, nitrogen deficiency, and other tribulations: an update

Hello friends,

You may or may not remember my post from about a month ago. By the grace of whatever, back in mid June I was out for my run when I came upon a lovely plant on the side of the curb being unceremoniously condemned to death. Maybe the owner was moving and couldn't take it. Maybe they were just fed up. I dunno. I took it as a sign from the cosmos that it was a chance for me to try something that I've always wanted to do: grow and cultivate my own marijuana! So, I brought the plant home and started this journey.

Here is what it looked like when I found it on the road:

By it's very nature -- finding a random plant on the side of the road without any info or context -- there was a lot unknowns and issues right out of the gate. First off, it soon became clear that the previous owner of the plant...well...used some unorthodox methods. First, the bizarre potting situation, wherein the plant was inside a terra cotta pot that had its bottom broken off, which was in turn placed inside of another plastic pot. Wtf. Other issue is that it's not just one plant in there, but four that were planted in the same pot. I really can't imagine why the previous owner did this. Poor thing got so rootbound while in the little terra cotta that separating them was not a possibility. Also, inexplicably, there were all these carbon pads you can see in the picture on top of the soil and even buried inside of it too. I don't know if this was part of the irrigation setup the person had, but it made no fucking sense to me.

Also to its detriment, it had a pretty wicked spider mite infestation. AND to top it all off, it was suffering from a nutrient deficiency that was steadily sapping its lower half of life & greenness:

It wasn't looking good.

I immediately realized that I was pretty out of my element so I started doing research and posted here and got some good advice. Went to my local hydro shop and got some good insight there too. I started treating the spider mite infestation, got it on a nute schedule with FF grow big & big bloom, and repotted it into a 15-gal smart pot in roots organic medium mid June.

Here is what she looked like after reporting last month:

Here is what she looks like as of this morning:



I am still awfully new at this and learning as I go. And, I am still dealing with all the elements that come from growing a plant that you don't know the full history of. That said, I think she (definitely a female --there are pistils everywhere but kind of hard to photo with a phone: ) has rebounded nicely and should survive. I've topped it off and the canopy just exploded with growth and she seems pretty darn happy. It's a full outdoor grow in Colorado, so I expect based on talking to other people that it should begin flowering sometime in August and be ready for harvest sometime in October, hopefully. Spider mites continue to be a concern, but seems to be more managed than it had been. Going to mix up my insecticides that I use and see if I can kick it once and for all. Other concerns at the moment involve some canoeing leaves and when to start thinning out the foliage. But, point is that she is surviving, which is really my primary concern for a very first grow.

Learning so much and am so excited to do a grow next year of my very own, starting from scratch in proper potting configurations with proper nutes and medium and just knowing more wtf is going on.

Comments and insight are appreciated! Thanks for reading!


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Thanks for the kind words. Feels like a victory resuscitating it. Will feel like a bigger victory to shepherd it to the finish line.


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