lacucaracha's grow journal

i recently started a micro grow in my closet and figured i'd keep track of it on here cuz this is my first solo grow. i'm using 2 26 watt cfl's (6500k) and will be adding a 3rd soon. i used the wet paper towel/ziplock method to sprout 5 seeds, 3 of which are planted in miracle grow (i ran out so used garden soil for the other two, i will switch them over when i transplant). so far one has sprouted and its first set of true leaves are slightly larger than the cotyledons, i'm not surprised the other 4 havent popped up yet because i started them 2-3 days later than the first but i'm hoping they'll come along soon. i will post pics of the first sprout and my set up soon (i lost my camera somewhere in my room)

 

so two more of my seeds have sprouted, the seed leaves were just starting to poke up when i checked them tonight. i found my camera and just need batteries now so i should have pics up tomorrow. also some bad news, i'm pretty sure i have spider mites crawling around in my dirt. i sprayed some neem oil on them but i'm not positive it will work, i've only ever used it for insects, never arachnids...

 

finally some pictures! the biggest one sprouted sunday, the two tiny ones did last night, also a pic of my setup

 

the biggest one is a week old now so i figured i'd post pics of the progress

 

i transplanted them yesterday because i was having some issues with the containers they were in. for soil i used miracle grow organic and perlite 2:1 and i plan on fertilizing soon.

 

they seem to be doing well for the most part, although i had a bit of a pH problem with the oldest one (top pic), it seems to be a bit stunted and has some minor yellowing to the leaves but hopefully i've fixed the problem and it starts to bounce back now

 

so i had some problems with these guys a few days back (yellowing and brown spots on the leaves) but on the advice of some gc posters i transplanted them and they already seem to be perking up. the first set of pics is from sunday when they werent doing so hot

 

so i'm just going to go through and repost the pics so far, i got mad sketch last night and deleted my photobucket account, using tinypic from now on haha

5/25





5/30



6/4







6/9







6/13







6/15







i just switched them to 10/14 starting last night, i know they are really tiny still but i'm ok with that, i have a limited deadline to work with(moving at the end of august) and want to make sure i have enough time to let them finish up and be ready to go in jars. more pics in a few days

 

some new pics. they have been on 10/14 for 3 days now. i will post close ups when the preflowers start to show

 

they are looking good but unfortunatly i'm 99% sure the little indica is a male, i'm going to give it another day to be sure tho, i will post closeups before i pull it

 

the little indica did turn out male so i pulled it. the other two are looking a little sad, i had a problem with some kind of fly(not a white fly, aside from that i'm not sure) and it looks like they drained some of the chlorophil from the leaves but manual erradication seems to have worked, no signs of them in like 2 days(fingers crossed) still no signs on sex on the two sativas but i'm keeping my eyes peeled









and a quick shot of the male i pulled

 

i had a tiny bit more trouble with bugs (you can see it on some of the leaves) but i havent seen them for atleast 3 or 4 days so hopefully thats the end of that. both of my remaining plants have shown sex, 1 male and 1 female, the taller plant is a male, i tried to put a decent shot of the male but idk if its clear (definitly is irl tho) the female i didnt even bother trying to get a shot of the pistils with my crap camera (but they are definitly there too) i will probably put up one more set of pics before i leave for vacation (they are finally on a timer so i will just water them good before i go)

 

i would use the site but i've had problems (it always says something about me not being authorized or something? i dont remember exactly its been awhile since i've tried). i'm not planning on adding lighting to this grow, i've been working with a really small budget (havent been able to find a job this summer despite my best efforts, so overall i've invested less than $30 into this grow) and a timeline (moving at the end of august to somewhere growing just isnt feasable) so basically this year was more of a learning year, in the future (when i have stable income and a better place) i plan on investing more and actually doing a serious grow. despite the tiny scraggly plants i would call this a success just given the experience i've gotten, what little bud i get from this will just be a bonus

 

i pulled the other male today so i could have all my light focused on the female

the male before i pulled it





the female (hopefully you can see the pistils in the 2nd and 3rd pic, my camera sucks)







this is how my setup looks now

 

things have been going well, more bud sights are showing up and the plant is continuing to grow at a steady(but slow) rate. i think it may need more fertilizer than i have been giving it (i've been pretty conservative, i dont want to burn it) but aside from that its fine

 

back from VT and glad to find my bro didnt kill the plant while i was gone, needs some fertilizer (which i plan on doing tomorrow) but aside from that it looks good, way more bud sites now than when i left

 

so i'm nearing the end, i know she's nowhere near ready but i'm going to flush in a day or two because i have to chop her down in a little over 2 weeks so i can move out :/ anyways she's getting fuzzier by the day and i'm just hoping to get something smokable out of this, but if not i'll add her to my scrap jar for the next time i make a batch of hash

 

so this will be the second to last set of pics before i chop, i plan on cutting it down either the night of the 23rd or the morning of the 24th. i also realized i've had fungus gnats for a while, they were little bugs i mentioned back in july. i wish i realized what they were sooner but i'm not too broke up over it because i know its a mistake i wont make again. i think i have them eradicated for the most part(dont see any more adults) via yellow sticky traps and manual eradication for the adults and 4:1 H2O and H2O2 applied to the soil for the larva but i will put down another slice of potato tomorrow to check for the larva again. i may or may not post pics of the final yeild but i will prob atleast make a quick reply on whether it was smokable or not...

 

so i'm a moron and forgot to take a picture of the plant before i chopped it and took off the bottom fan leaves but i started snapping pics as soon as i remembered(the first 5 pics), also took more at the end when i was done clipping(wish i had gotten some before though, it really seemed to shoot up alot in the last 4 days or so). these are from monday btw but i didnt get around to posting them til today. i plan to hang it til til the night before i have to move and then putting it in a brown paper bag with shreddings to finish up drying before i throw it in the jar.