I don't know about the beauty contest. I have to see a picture of you first.
But plants looks great

You just need stronger lights. The LED you are using might say 1000 wts, but it is probably more like 400, if you are lucky. You might want to try a 1000 wt High Output Sodium setup or an LED COB system that has a higher output. The plants look healthy and you have decent trichome production. You are definitely on the right track! Great job for only your second plant! You will be a Master Breeder before you know it.

SkunkworkSeeds said:

You just need stronger lights. The LED you are using might say 1000 wts, but it is probably more like 400, if you are lucky. You might want to try a 1000 wt High Output Sodium setup or an LED COB system that has a higher output. The plants look healthy and you have decent trichome production. You are definitely on the right track! Great job for only your second plant! You will be a Master Breeder before you know it.

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Thank you

@richard.c33 ,
Hi, you discovered that gardening can be a satisfying hobby and I agree. For me it can help me uncouple from some other stressful things in life. But also it can be a real stress sometimes, so there are some negatives. Once the beginning phase is over and if you don't get to hyper focuced or obsessive it gets nice. When you reach a more experienced level then some things creep in that can corrupt the niceness of it. If you keep a calm balanced attitude through it all, I believe it can be an overall positive in life.

I'm new to posting here too and perhaps we can stay in touch and support each other from time to time. I have a little more experience and some different experience than you do right now and I can give you some solid tips to help you along the way. These websites with forums can be a help, but also deteimental at times and you have to keep your head, if you know what I mean.

I would like to ask, Why do you grow cannabis and what your goal is... if you have one? Give me some good details about it.

I saw your pictures and noticed that you started off well. Your plants look nice. But you could maximize your yield and overall potency by taking better advantage of your space and equipment. You have a flat light source coming from the top and that light gets weaker the further away from it. So you have this prime light up top and weak light at the bottom. A plant outside in the sun gets light from various angles as the sun arcs across the sky and over millions of years they have used their shape to take maximum advantage of it. But in your artificial environment, the light is coming from only above. So if you shape your plant to take advantage of that, you will get more high quality flower. Right now the top of your plant gets all the good light and the stuff down low gets the least making it weak and small, less potent. That is wasted energy. Using a trellis or LST you can create a flat canopy that has all the flowering sites getting the best light and airflow, all being top quality buds. That is my tip. Learn to shape your plants to make the best use of your space and equipment.

I have a grow diary up where you can see an example.

Scroll down to May 17th and May 19th area and you get a photo where you can see sideways into a small grow tent. Notice how the bottoms of the plants are kept pruned because I don't want any foliage of bud sites there. Its still a work in progress but I am thining out that canopy gradually to allow better airflow... there is a lot of small leaves, but this is not the usual case. Even the male in the diary is shaped like this, just for convenience. A nice cherry tree shape is better than the stalk of corn shape to have around and work with. This is also a great shape for taking clones. Usually its much easier and straightforward, but the plant in the diary are a little strange in how they are. Up near the top, you can see how the plants looked before being spread out on the trellis/net I made from gardening wire. The work is to get that flat canopy like a blanket of buds getting that good light, and keeping the airflow good. That is how you get all your buds the best they can be. You could use this style in your next grow. It may be fun for you to be more actively involved with the plants, shaping them.

It's not always necessary to use this trellis, and in the other diary I have not been using one and the plants can be shaped to be free standing and have the right shape through training.
The pictures dont show that so well yet but you can tell there is no main stem towering up anwhere, so here is a photo of one of them looking down on it. Its still early but those 6- ish bud sites are relatively over a flat area and any scraggly little stuff lower has been removed. One wire pulling the main stem did that. It changes how the cytokinin flows in the plant, encouraging side branches to grow.

Here is one in training, you see how the light now reaches the middle of the plant and soon that secondary growth will grow and start becoming top bud sites soon on level with the apical meristem.



I don't cut my plants because its not necessary. Cutting the main stem like some people do creates a physical damage and the plants stop growing for a few to several days and that open wound is a chance/pathway for infection to enter. I use low stress training because I want my plants to stay growing, and it can be done in vegetative stage and in flowering with no problem.

Other than that, the only other tip I want to share with you right now is about genetics. This is the foundation of your grow. Its fine to start with the common mass produced polyhybrid stuff, give-away quality freebie seeds, or even found mystery bag seed. But don't get stuck there like most are. There is some truly amazing quality connoisseur genetics, real breeding quality out there that is much better than the "stuff we all get" swag. But for now, get your methods down, enjoy some weed in the bong/jars. You have a great start. Good work on getting healthy plants to harvest time!

First of all I appreciate your time and information, I’ll give a small background of myself. I grew up smoking with the cool kids of course but now I’m 51 I have severe neck pain so the use of my garage got limited. So instead of paying for weed I wanted to try growing it, last years plant was my first it didn’t produce any massive amounts but it was grown by me so I was pretty impressed. It wasn’t till this plant that I’m experiencing a true excitement out of the entire process so far. I just want to grow some good enjoyable bud, I work 2nd shift so coming home, burning one and just sitting watching these plant grow and learning tips from the pros like you. I’m gonna work on my set up after she’s done because I do want to get more into training due to my failed attempt on this plant at least now I definitely know what not to use. Hope you have a great weekend I appreciate it again.

richard.c33 said:

First of all I appreciate your time and information, I’ll give a small background of myself. I grew up smoking with the cool kids of course but now I’m 51 I have severe neck pain so the use of my garage got limited. So instead of paying for weed I wanted to try growing it, last years plant was my first it didn’t produce any massive amounts but it was grown by me so I was pretty impressed. It wasn’t till this plant that I’m experiencing a true excitement out of the entire process so far. I just want to grow some good enjoyable bud, I work 2nd shift so coming home, burning one and just sitting watching these plant grow and learning tips from the pros like you. I’m gonna work on my set up after she’s done because I do want to get more into training due to my failed attempt on this plant at least now I definitely know what not to use. Hope you have a great weekend I appreciate it again.

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Ouch! (Photo) I am no pro, but I am a hobby grower that mostly has successful runs of top quality flower. You can achieve that fairly quickly yourself. Have a good weekend.