My First Grow

I killed him.. (sniffle) Burned alive.. its one of the harsher ways to die.. well.. at least the stalk, I dried the leaves out, never know, maybe itll be worth it or for baking. So the second biggest plant is a girl! I can see little white hair growing out - So Im excited. I think 4 of the remaining 5 are girls. 1 is a male I think but Ill let him go another day or so.

I cant sleep at night. I dream of bubblebuckets and purple buds. I couldnt stop thinking about Sativa plants. I really think I would enjoy sativa more. Is White Widow or AK47 hard to grow? Im willing to put money into my system, though I would like to stay with the CFL lighting, simply because I like it. Ive got a good exhaust/carbon scrubber, and Im really thinking of a seperate veg/flower area. I really only want maybe 4 plants at a time.

Can I clone after flowering? Can I clone using the smaller bottom limbs that wouldnt be in the light really? Ideally Id like to grab 4 clones for bubbler buckets that I plan on building next week. Well - back to the real world.

Carthoris

 

So I took another plant out. Had a few balls on it. The biggest one is definitely female, and one of the smaller ones, though it doesnt appear to be showing any male or female parts seems to have a cola on the top? Does this happen often? Well, its about a week or 10 days since I swapped the lights. Some of them were obviously male. I figure Im at the number I wanted right now. If I had 2 Id be happy. So I think Im good. Off to bed!

Carthoris.

 

I think I figured out why its called a weed. They grow 3 inches a day. I was almost positive this was a indica, and it probably is... however its growing fast even with the lights right on it. I had the lights 2 inches away, and the plant grew 3 inches into the light. Is there any way to tell if its indica or sativa?

I now have three, today the plants grew so much that it was very obvious that one was a male with a huge male bud on top in one day. If I didnt check them for a few days its a good chance they would of popped in 2 more days - they were already the size of seeds and they were nonexistant yesterday. 2 of them are definately females, I think the 3rd is a male. So two out of four... Im OK with that, Ill get to give those two room to grow.

I think I might of been underwatering them all along... I was so paranoid about watering them too much that I was just giving them enough to keep the soil from being dry. So I gave them a gallon last night and today they were rocking. I have about 18 inches left in my grow area - I might have to raise the top up another 12. I should of topped it I guess or tied it down.

So I have 2 females and 1 more male I think, Ill know tommorrow. So 2 females I think. Im going to put them in seperate containers. Ive been just pulling the males out, any reason to not just kind of pull the females out when I transplant them? should I scoop them out of the dirt with my hands? If I have 2, I have pots already for them that are square. I see the male buds on the plant I took out. Ive never seen a budding marijuana plant cept in pictures. Im really excited.

Could I grow the entire time with Soft lights? I have 4 23/100w cfl soft, and 2 23/100 daylight, and then 2 68/300 watt soft light cfl. Will they mature faster with more lights in veg or do they just grow bigger? Im stoned. hehe...

i love weed.

carthoris = redeyed

 

In the RV section at Walmart there is a 4 foot section of RV Holding Tank Deodorizers. The reason I mention this is because they make this stuff to put in the shit tank of a RV. If it can deodorize that - It has to be capable of deodorizing weed doesnt it? They have about 20 different types for under 10 bucks. Liquid, solid, gel, whatever you want. They have some of the same stuff that you put in a portapotty to kill the scent. Anyone think this will work?

Also, they have MH/hps for pretty cheap too. I assume its just a matter of rewiring it to use? Well, Im off to work - everyone have a good day.

Carthoris

 

So, today is the 19th. 16 days into flowering. I have some yellowing on lower leafs. I dont have a PH tester so I cant test, but Im going to throw a capful of vinegar in my next watering session. I have 3 girls, and they all have buds growing. Nice long white hairs. I made a reflector out of cookie sheets from the dollar tree. They fit almost perfectly. I will take pictures of that soon. I bought some buckets today - 2.78 at lowes. Dark grey, they are on sale. I also have some net pots, hydroton, and rockwool coming. What is the best hydro nutrient for beginners? Im thinking General Hydro because Ive read it is forgiving.

 

The buds are awesome... there are a lot of them.. I probably have 1/2 + ounce if I lopped them now. When does a majority of the bud growing happen? Towards the beginning middle or end of the flowering cycle?

So, I decided I needed to add some minerals and probably lower the PH. So I mixed me up some of my normal Miracle Grow(flowering type) and I peed in the bottle, then threw in some vinegar. I think shook it all up, and watered the girls. Nitrate, lower PH, and nutes in one shot. I also added a spot light and another bulb to get more light on the shortest of the plants. Hopefully it helps. Ill take some more pictures soon!

Carthoris

 

Its been 24 hours since I changed the lights to 12/12. I dropped them to 11/13 yesterday. I have to leave the country around the middle of April, and Im concerned they wouldnt be ready to harvest. Should I drop them to 10/14? Ive got some more pictures. They seem to be budding nicely to me, but what do I know? Can anyone with some experience tell me if they seem to be well along? 24 days into flowering, but 7 of those was sexing I guess? When I count flowering do I count how many days or from the time they start budding? Ive got about 20 days left for these plants whether they are ready or not... Will it finish in this time? If I have to, I can get my dad to baby sit them, but I am worried to death about them under my dads care. He isnt exactly a farmer, and I might come home to stripped down stalks with no buds left and him laying on the couch eating cheetos. lol.

If they seem finished by the time I leave, can I hang them to dry for 2 weeks without me here? If I just hang them upside down in a 75 degree room for 2 weeks will they dry to a crisp? Ive put so much thought and love into these, and I think Im doing great, but if I screwed this up now it would be like convincing a sexy girl to do me and then lasting 5 seconds when you get it in her.

One of the plants is a lot taller than the others. These are bag seed. Even though I love them and they get good attention this is my first grow, and using CFLs to boot. I started them out wrong, I stretched them some. Ive had a few yellow leaves. Im feeding them miracle grow blooming flowers blend 15-30-15. It seems like they are growing in spite of me almost. I try my best. I have 9 lights right now. 2 62W 2700k, 4 26w 2700k, and 3 26w 5700k. I will probably be buying a 400W HPS when I get back. Of my 3 plants, the biggest one is well... the biggest. The other two look nicer but maybe like they are a week behind the other. The big one keeps wanting to grow into the lights every day.

Picture 1 is a picture of the two smaller plants.
Picture 2 is a picture of the first foot of the biggest plant.
Picture 3 is the cola of one of the smaller plants.
Picture 4 is the same plant as pic 3, the whole plant.
Picture 5 is the second set of buds down on the biggest plant.
Picture 6 is the biggest plant zoomed out a bit.


If anyone has any suggestions about the last few weeks, or about drying with the fact Ill be gone for 2 weeks, please, any ideas are welcome!

Carthoris.

 

I have read the sticky. My issue is that Ill be out of the country. Now, I could get my dad to take care of it, but hes not that good at things. What Im asking is how fast can I dry it, or alternatively how slow. If I can put it on a screen with the lights on at the top of my grow box for 12 hours with the exhaust sucking off the moisture I can do that. I want to dry/cure it right, Im just concerned about being gone for 2 weeks - Im not 100% sure Im going to have the crop ready for harvest, its going to be close. I just worry about giving my dad detailed instructions.

 

So I bought a 7 dollar fan to blow on the lights today. I also bought a lot of beer... so im off to bed before I decide to bother my girls while they are sleeping.. mmm buds... lol

 

In the end, I got about 2 ounces out of this setup. This is absolute abuse of the plants - I tried my best without buying anything good for them. I got some great weed out of it. The tops of the colas were easily the best weed anyone I let smoke some had ever had. The bottoms werent as good but they were still OK. This was out of bag seeds, in buckets without drainage. With MG slow release soil and MG ferts. I did use perlite in the soil as well as some regular potting soil. I think straight MG would of killed them. I also poured vinegar in the water and peed in it once. lol. It still came out good. I learned so much from the first grow and it has encouraged me to do more. I love growing.

This was harvested weeks early due to leaving the country and some issues with the plants I was having. Ill be taking pictures of my new grow soon.

Carthoris.

 

Now Im doing a Hydro Grow. Ive invested some money into it. I still have makeshift equipment and most of it is homemade. I did however spend about 500-600 dollars. Check out my grow - (click on my name and look at my other posts.)