SweetLeafGrow
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Greetings and thank you for this place to share our common experiences!
Since the state where I live has allowed FREEDOM to cultivate my own medicine, I have decided to give it a go since I live on a fixed income and do not have the resources to buy from a legal dispensary. I plan to journal this grow here and hope to learn from those willing to share their expertise. Since I just found the THC FARMER forum, I will explain how I got where I am, now just about the end of week 3 veg as I understand it.
I chose to go organic and have since learned there are challenges and I have a LOT to learn. But I had invested the $ and am going with it! I started using Coast of Maine Platinum organic soil. I had originally planned to use the Coast of Maine suggested supplements, but was unable due to their unavailability. To replace these suggested amendments, I found other organic products that I thought might be similar in NPK to use instead. These products include some fish bone meal, and Roots Organics Terp Tea Grow and Bloom.
I bought a MarsHydro grow tent kit which has a MarsHydro TSW 2000 LED. I positioned the light about half way up the tent and dialed it down to 25%. Inline fan with carbon filter at top of tent, smaller fan blowing on the bottom of the tent, and a dehumidifier, which I know I will need to keep our high humidity under control during flowering.
I started out purchasing some Gorilla Glue #4 seeds. My first mistake was to plant these in the "hot" Coast of Maine soil in 4" peat pots. I planted the seeds directly into the soil and kept the soil moist. All 4 seeds were sprouted within 7 days. As nutrient burn started to show itself in the seedlings, I realized what I had done through some research. I bought some regular potting soil and transplanted them into some 1/2 gallon plastic pots with Coast of Maine soil in the bottom 1/4 of the pot and the regular potting soil the rest of the way. Flushed them through and the nutrient burn problem was fixed. I learned that next time I will get some soil specifically for seedlings. I also was having some issues with overwatering, which I think affected one of the plants more than the other 3 but am learning not to overwater.
The seedlings were about 4 weeks old, when I figured they had outgrown their 1/2 gallon pots. I transplanted them into 5 gallon pots and the roots system looked great, very well established. Nice and white with no brown or yellowing and they were definitely ready to be transplanted. Not sure what the protocol is for the transition from seedling to veg, but for my purposes, I will say that they were seedlings for 4 weeks after sprouting, then I count the 5th week as the first week of veg. Today, the end of week 3 veg will be in 3 days from now. I am also not doing a lot of LST, but have been topping (done with that now) and just set up a SCROG that I will directing the branches into as they grow higher.
I've since had a bit of an overwatering problem but learning the new pots each time and getting better at knowing when they need water. But I have also had a difficult time diagnosing what is wrong when I have noticed problems. For one, I do know there were times I watered when it was not time yet, especially since going into the 5 gal pots. I also realized that I was probably getting nutrient lockout for two reasons. We are in a very rural area and live on a well. I got a PH meter and a PPM meter and tested our well water. It PH's at 8.0 with a ppm reading of 600+. Through my research, these two reading are way off! So I started buying distilled water and bought a water distiller to make more at home. (Plus I can use this to make my RSO medicine in a safer way). The distilled water reads at 7.0 PH and 4 PPM. Nearest I could tell, before I switched to distilled water, I was having a phosphorous deficiency. I knew my soil was good to go so the lockout theory was my best bet. I was getting darker green veins and yellowing in between of the leaves on one plant pretty heavy (back left). The others started getting a metallic, blue-green hue to the leaves. Changing the water seems to have taken care of my nutrient uptake issues and things are going well. I also, after transplanting to the 5 gal pots, top dressed (perhaps I should not have done this but it doesn't seem to have hurt anything) with a small amount (1 tbsp) of fishbone meal and a light dose of the Terp Tea bloom for a quicker phosphorous dose, and topped it all of with a 1/2" layer of worm castings, and watered to runoff.
I will post a few photos, and I am curious if anyone has an opinion on these plants. First off, these were all supposed to be Gorilla Glue #4 Feminized (bought from i49). Two of the plants are nearly identical, one is much shorter with very close internodal distances (front right) , and the last one (back left) has been somewhat of a problem child. The problem child has always been a weaker plant, last to sprout, but has a surprisingly good structure to the stems and branches. However, it's growth seems stunted compared to the others and it still has the dark veins with yellowing in between. I had thought about culling this one but have yet to in hopes she will come out of whatever I did to her.
My plan is 4 weeks in veg and then flip to 12/12 lighting schedule for flower. I hope to hear from folks much more experienced than I for your guidance and knowledge. Thanks in advance!
If I think of other details I will list them here and hope to keep this journal of my first grow up to date as things proceed!
Since the state where I live has allowed FREEDOM to cultivate my own medicine, I have decided to give it a go since I live on a fixed income and do not have the resources to buy from a legal dispensary. I plan to journal this grow here and hope to learn from those willing to share their expertise. Since I just found the THC FARMER forum, I will explain how I got where I am, now just about the end of week 3 veg as I understand it.
I chose to go organic and have since learned there are challenges and I have a LOT to learn. But I had invested the $ and am going with it! I started using Coast of Maine Platinum organic soil. I had originally planned to use the Coast of Maine suggested supplements, but was unable due to their unavailability. To replace these suggested amendments, I found other organic products that I thought might be similar in NPK to use instead. These products include some fish bone meal, and Roots Organics Terp Tea Grow and Bloom.
I bought a MarsHydro grow tent kit which has a MarsHydro TSW 2000 LED. I positioned the light about half way up the tent and dialed it down to 25%. Inline fan with carbon filter at top of tent, smaller fan blowing on the bottom of the tent, and a dehumidifier, which I know I will need to keep our high humidity under control during flowering.
I started out purchasing some Gorilla Glue #4 seeds. My first mistake was to plant these in the "hot" Coast of Maine soil in 4" peat pots. I planted the seeds directly into the soil and kept the soil moist. All 4 seeds were sprouted within 7 days. As nutrient burn started to show itself in the seedlings, I realized what I had done through some research. I bought some regular potting soil and transplanted them into some 1/2 gallon plastic pots with Coast of Maine soil in the bottom 1/4 of the pot and the regular potting soil the rest of the way. Flushed them through and the nutrient burn problem was fixed. I learned that next time I will get some soil specifically for seedlings. I also was having some issues with overwatering, which I think affected one of the plants more than the other 3 but am learning not to overwater.
The seedlings were about 4 weeks old, when I figured they had outgrown their 1/2 gallon pots. I transplanted them into 5 gallon pots and the roots system looked great, very well established. Nice and white with no brown or yellowing and they were definitely ready to be transplanted. Not sure what the protocol is for the transition from seedling to veg, but for my purposes, I will say that they were seedlings for 4 weeks after sprouting, then I count the 5th week as the first week of veg. Today, the end of week 3 veg will be in 3 days from now. I am also not doing a lot of LST, but have been topping (done with that now) and just set up a SCROG that I will directing the branches into as they grow higher.
I've since had a bit of an overwatering problem but learning the new pots each time and getting better at knowing when they need water. But I have also had a difficult time diagnosing what is wrong when I have noticed problems. For one, I do know there were times I watered when it was not time yet, especially since going into the 5 gal pots. I also realized that I was probably getting nutrient lockout for two reasons. We are in a very rural area and live on a well. I got a PH meter and a PPM meter and tested our well water. It PH's at 8.0 with a ppm reading of 600+. Through my research, these two reading are way off! So I started buying distilled water and bought a water distiller to make more at home. (Plus I can use this to make my RSO medicine in a safer way). The distilled water reads at 7.0 PH and 4 PPM. Nearest I could tell, before I switched to distilled water, I was having a phosphorous deficiency. I knew my soil was good to go so the lockout theory was my best bet. I was getting darker green veins and yellowing in between of the leaves on one plant pretty heavy (back left). The others started getting a metallic, blue-green hue to the leaves. Changing the water seems to have taken care of my nutrient uptake issues and things are going well. I also, after transplanting to the 5 gal pots, top dressed (perhaps I should not have done this but it doesn't seem to have hurt anything) with a small amount (1 tbsp) of fishbone meal and a light dose of the Terp Tea bloom for a quicker phosphorous dose, and topped it all of with a 1/2" layer of worm castings, and watered to runoff.
I will post a few photos, and I am curious if anyone has an opinion on these plants. First off, these were all supposed to be Gorilla Glue #4 Feminized (bought from i49). Two of the plants are nearly identical, one is much shorter with very close internodal distances (front right) , and the last one (back left) has been somewhat of a problem child. The problem child has always been a weaker plant, last to sprout, but has a surprisingly good structure to the stems and branches. However, it's growth seems stunted compared to the others and it still has the dark veins with yellowing in between. I had thought about culling this one but have yet to in hopes she will come out of whatever I did to her.
My plan is 4 weeks in veg and then flip to 12/12 lighting schedule for flower. I hope to hear from folks much more experienced than I for your guidance and knowledge. Thanks in advance!
If I think of other details I will list them here and hope to keep this journal of my first grow up to date as things proceed!