I finally built up the nerve to order some seeds, and they finally arrived last week. At first I considered a microgrow using PC cases, but 10-15g per plant is far too little reward. Instead, I found the smallest tent that would still fit in my closet. It's been years since my first grow (one plant), so I germed various bagseed to work out any kinks in the setup and my methods. I'm using the following for this grow: 3'x1.7'x5' tent 240W Blackstar LED 125W CFL Fox Farm soil & nutes Strains: Unk#1 (U1-A): This seems to be sativa dominant Unk#2 (U2-A,B): One seems to be sativa dominant in height and foliage, the other short like indica but with same sativa type foliage Unk#3 (U3-A,B): The star of the show, bagseed from some primo bud and is an indica strain. The beans are old and were slow to germ, but I managed to get two sprouts out of four. Good thing, since I now only have three of these left. I'm starting this journal late because I had not planned to buy seeds from a seedbank. But now that I have three real strains germed (I'll create a separate journal and link to it in a later post), I hope to benefit from the feedback the community can give during the flowering stage of the schwag. Age from sprout (v/f): U1-A: 35/7 U2-A: 35/7; U2-B:30/7 U3-A: 28/0; U3-B:25/0 Plants were started in solo cups and then moved to #3 smart pots. Followed included feeding schedule with FF nutes, except no nutes were given during first two weeks. U1-A: Happy plant, no issues. Foliage noticeably a deep green. Added Cal/Mag to diet at wk2. Start nutes in wk2, along with U2 strain. U2-A,B: Happy until wk2, when Calcium deficiency arose. Added Cal/Mag to diet. Lower fan leaves begin yellowing a few days later, but pH of runoff is within normal range, so start on 2/3 strength nutes. Work up to full strength nutes at end of wk 3. Now after one week in 12/12, full nutes diet is giving N toxicity. Sheesh!! U3-A,B: Beautiful, happy plant. Both started out with gnarly leaf deformation until 3rd node. Thought about LST, but more preoccupied with U2 issues. Both are going in the tent when U3-B hits 28 days. I also have another unknown indica strain, but I think I'll play with those as a solo-grow. I germed those right before I got some real seeds. I'm really happy to see the sativas, I get to sharpen my non-existent SCRoG techniques. I've also been obsessed in trying to determine their sex, and I think one is male and the other female. I've attached some pics (U1-A, U2-A, U2-A), if anyone can confirm. Full pics tomorrow when daylight cycle comes round.
After recovering through several mishaps last week, its time to update the journal... I took pictures of my plants the day after my initial post, so I might as well throw them up. This is when I noticed slight leaf discoloration on 3rd-4th fan leaves from the top on both U3 plants, and what seemed to be isolated N deficiency or nute burn on U3-A. I RO flushed both and upped pH on U3-B.
The Nights of Maiming You've heard it before, nothing outrageous...my light strip fell (not once, but twice) and sheered 4 branches all tolled on U3-A. Pics are after the cleaning up after first incident. The second pic is the remaining strand keeping one of the branches attached. Despite some of the wonder stories I've read, the branch did not survive the assualt.
Fast forward a week... Age from sprout (v/f): U1-A: 35/18 showed female on day 45 U2-A: 35/18 showed female on day 44 U2-B: 30/18 showed female on day 39 U3-A (The Cripple): 34/5 showed female on day 39, and has recovered from its traumatic event. U3-B:28/8 showed female on day 34 Well, all female plants . Normally one gets excited about these things, but I planned on two being male. Specifically so I have adequate space in my tent. Pics show how crowded it is in there...had to add side lights for the indicas. The cripple (center) gets whatever it can stretch for. Teenage bud porn attached.
The Cripple has done a rather remarkable thing. It has morphed one of the side branches into a second main stem of equal height, and I can barely determine which is the primary. Going to get a two-headed cola off of her, which is rather awesome since so little light is getting to the lower branches. U1-A (back): Squeezed the stem and rolled to get a whiff of awesomeness...hope the bud tastes as good. Last pic is rogue lower branch that wants to dominate in height...lots of light getting to lower sites. U2-A (front): Squeeze/roll to get a whiff of meh...hope the bud tastes better. Center pic is of corner branch getting lots of light. U2-B: Squeeze/roll to get a whiff of awesomeness. Looks like the mother's genes are partial to indica phenos, since U2-A is a sativa and doesn't have a great smell. Nice closeup of bud formation. U3-A,B: Squeeze/roll to get a whiff of awesomeness...pretty certain the momma was a name brand strain. Took out for watering and to examine U3-A morphed stem. I'm betting on the U2-B indica finishing first in the beginning of Jan and hope she produces at least an ounce. Counting bud sites on the sativas, I'll get over 2oz if each site produces 1/16, but they probably won't be done before mid-Jan.
Welcome to my grow, Sweet Leaf! Eh-heh, eh-heh, eh-heh, eh-heh. Enter Sabbath riff. One thing to remember about these LEDs - they don't truly represent the wattage due to variation in AC line clarity. I've read most LEDs put out about 65% of the rated W in the average home. I got the 240W, which is around 160W, instead of the 135W model which actually uses 90W on average. Welcome to my grow, Ford!
I've been thinking about modding my screen to be able to move the indicas closer to the light. If I mod it, I risk irreparable damage to the netting. My first thought is using a soldering gun to melt the synthetic string at the intersections I want to cut out, but I need to experiment and know that it will be a precarious operation to perform in back of the tent. My second thought is to craft a 4sqin frame that I can glue to the net, cut the string and then tie back into the 4in frame. My option without modding is to just squeeze the main cola through a square, but that will cause the plant to be fixed permanently and I won't be able to take them out if they need special attention. Thoughts, anyone?
More pics!! Now that I've found the attachment feature, updates can be a little more organized. U1-A,U2-A (35/24) Dropped the screen down a bit to expose a few more bud sites. Rogue branch of U1-A really filling out fast...wish all the sites looked like this after two weeks. U2-B (30/24) Haven't found anything out of the ordinary since the helical leaf. U3-A (34/11) The two-headed cripple budding out. One head was shy and hid behind a leaf. U3-B (28/14) She's stretching more than the others, need to do something soon with the screen. One of the string tie-offs is on the indica side, so I've decided I'll simply move this tie-off to the last sativa site, somewhere near the center, leaving 2in strips on the indica side. There should be enough slack in the netting to widen this and slip the main cola through. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that I can keep them in tent until harvest. Edit: Now I don't know about moving the tie-off...the strips will be left to right and not front to back. This complicates things.
I don't think that helical leaf will make a difference I did some research on it and really couldn't find much on it. But it's a leaf probably the genetics but everything is looking great!!!!
Here's what I did for the screen. The drawback is the lowered screen shades the indicas more and doesn't allow light to penetrate to the lowest bud sites as before. May just take these from U3s for clones before they get too far into flower. U2-B (in back) is over 2 weeks in flower and I need her to finish first, so I'm not touching her.
Morning blades, Needs some help with a plant today. Watered with w/o nutes yesterday and U1-A (back) is looking like this when I woke up this morning.
Yeah, looks like N toxicity but I can't see why. I used the same RO water on the other sativa and the back right indica and they are just fine.
Here she is after flushing, yesterday. The leaves are brittle and dry, like they're not getting water. Delving under the canopy, I found she has P deficiency. She is on the exact same diet as U2-A,B.
Let's give some attention to the rest of the grow... U2-B (30/30): 21 days since first flower U3-A (34/17): 12 days since first flower and looking like she'll be a two-headed monster. U3-B (28/20): 16 days since first flower and looking sweet...wish I knew the strain.
Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend. I'm keeping a watchful eye on U1-A for signs of hermy and I think she's gone and done the dirty deed. Has this plant gone hermy? Here are the best pics I could get at the moment. This pic seems to show three bulbous sacs, like seed pods, rather than banana-shaped pollen sacs.