teejacks
- 200
- 93
I joined a month or so ago and this site is awesome! I have had a green thumb my whole life and growing my own medicine has become quite a fun and interesting hobby. I would like to share what I have done to help some other people out on here hopefully. This is my first year growing cannabis and so far I am very pleased with my results. Lots of reading and research that has helped me get to this stage. This has honestly been quite easy (so far) as these plants are so resilient. I had a branch break 90% trying to train it but I taped it back together and it healed fully. Research is EVERYTHING! I am NOT an expert. I still learn things all the time.
So let me introduce my "ladies". Got a combo pack of feminized seeds (either god bud, blueberry, bc big bud, or nuken) seeing as I am experimenting I wanted different strains. I got a great deal on the seeds because they all came together in the same vial! Oops. Next year I am going to get seeds that are labeled lol. Might grow a couple strains that have a ratio of 1:1 thc:cbd as I like the benefits CBD has on myself. These plants this year have very little CBD I believe.
Anyways, I started them inside first week of April under a 400w cheap LED that seemed to work out just fine. I used dixie cups that had pro mix soil with no amendments. Then moved them to bigger pots about two or three weeks later with very little dry amendments added. Moved them outside second week of May after hardening them off for just a couple days. In a safe and secure spot in the middle of the bush! Now they get about 5-6 hours of direct sunlight a day. Feeding schedule is very simple and all organic. I amended the soil in the raised beds with bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, glacial rock dust, chicken manure, earth worm castings, vermiculite, peat moss, simple top soil and black mulch on top (gets hotttttt, don't go black, its all I had). Soil underneath looks like mostly rocky sand which makes for good runoff. Weekly feeding all year has been sprouted corn and mung bean seeds. Each month I will top dress with glacial rock dust and kelp meal. I then added European night crawlers and red wigglers to the soil in June to hopefully create air passageways for the roots to breathe and poop all over the soil.
I also planted some plants around the garden bed that are supposed to act as a natural pest deterrent. Added some flowers to attract pollinators (next year I will use marigolds), basil, peppermint, lavender, coriander, and yarrow. Yes they all take up nutrients but its alllllll good. A little critter ate the coriander within a week and the basil lasted quite a while but died off from not getting enough sunlight. I was first using insect frass as a weekly foliar spray (neem seed oil is hard to get in Canada). I know it sounds weird but it worked and bugs are pooping all over my plants regardless. One plant had a dock spider turn a top into a spider nest (should have got a picture of nest but just wanted it off asap) and it stunted the plants growth. The next week after the plant was infested with caterpillars. SO, I used a foliar spray called END ALL which seemed to work. Then used BTK the next week and rotating ever since with no insect frass. I will stop spraying soon and hope for the best.
As far as training and topping goes I tried two different strategies. An early top at about the fourth node and then a late top at about the tenth node (about three feet high). Early topping is usually for indoor growers and late topping is for outdoor growers from what I gathered. But it all comes down to personal preference and how often you tend to your plants. I only see these plants once a week at best so I prefer the later top as it gives the plants a stronger structure. Both plants that I topped at the fourth node are doing great but one I stretched out too much and the base of the plant is cracked in two but the plant is still killing it. Crazy stuff. I did about three major toppings but next year I will do more to keep the height down.
I think a major key to my success so far has been the raised garden beds. This allows the roots to go as deep as they want to go into the ground in search of nutrients and water, therefore increasing in size. Another key to my success is doing the research BEFORE I run into any problems. I had written out a yearly plan on what I am going to feed with a proper timeline. How do you start these inside? Where am I going to plant them? Where am I going to dry them? How do you train these plants to get a big yield? I already have other plans for next year that includes better spacing, a cover crop, better netting for support and a taller fence (scared about deer).
Thanks for reading my essay everybody and I hope someone can get something from this! I'm probably forgetting some details. If anybody has anything to add that would benefit me that would be great as well!
Thanks everybody
day one outside, make initial wiring wider next year
late top, stretch two tops out then top again
early top filling up the insides
the plant i stretched too far
lower branches starting to catch up
making the fence wider
stretchinggggg and supportingggg
attempt at supercropping
Trees. explosion of growth in july
Trees. !12ft high is biggest. 6 ft high is smallest. uneven ground
:cool:
So let me introduce my "ladies". Got a combo pack of feminized seeds (either god bud, blueberry, bc big bud, or nuken) seeing as I am experimenting I wanted different strains. I got a great deal on the seeds because they all came together in the same vial! Oops. Next year I am going to get seeds that are labeled lol. Might grow a couple strains that have a ratio of 1:1 thc:cbd as I like the benefits CBD has on myself. These plants this year have very little CBD I believe.
Anyways, I started them inside first week of April under a 400w cheap LED that seemed to work out just fine. I used dixie cups that had pro mix soil with no amendments. Then moved them to bigger pots about two or three weeks later with very little dry amendments added. Moved them outside second week of May after hardening them off for just a couple days. In a safe and secure spot in the middle of the bush! Now they get about 5-6 hours of direct sunlight a day. Feeding schedule is very simple and all organic. I amended the soil in the raised beds with bone meal, blood meal, kelp meal, glacial rock dust, chicken manure, earth worm castings, vermiculite, peat moss, simple top soil and black mulch on top (gets hotttttt, don't go black, its all I had). Soil underneath looks like mostly rocky sand which makes for good runoff. Weekly feeding all year has been sprouted corn and mung bean seeds. Each month I will top dress with glacial rock dust and kelp meal. I then added European night crawlers and red wigglers to the soil in June to hopefully create air passageways for the roots to breathe and poop all over the soil.
I also planted some plants around the garden bed that are supposed to act as a natural pest deterrent. Added some flowers to attract pollinators (next year I will use marigolds), basil, peppermint, lavender, coriander, and yarrow. Yes they all take up nutrients but its alllllll good. A little critter ate the coriander within a week and the basil lasted quite a while but died off from not getting enough sunlight. I was first using insect frass as a weekly foliar spray (neem seed oil is hard to get in Canada). I know it sounds weird but it worked and bugs are pooping all over my plants regardless. One plant had a dock spider turn a top into a spider nest (should have got a picture of nest but just wanted it off asap) and it stunted the plants growth. The next week after the plant was infested with caterpillars. SO, I used a foliar spray called END ALL which seemed to work. Then used BTK the next week and rotating ever since with no insect frass. I will stop spraying soon and hope for the best.
As far as training and topping goes I tried two different strategies. An early top at about the fourth node and then a late top at about the tenth node (about three feet high). Early topping is usually for indoor growers and late topping is for outdoor growers from what I gathered. But it all comes down to personal preference and how often you tend to your plants. I only see these plants once a week at best so I prefer the later top as it gives the plants a stronger structure. Both plants that I topped at the fourth node are doing great but one I stretched out too much and the base of the plant is cracked in two but the plant is still killing it. Crazy stuff. I did about three major toppings but next year I will do more to keep the height down.
I think a major key to my success so far has been the raised garden beds. This allows the roots to go as deep as they want to go into the ground in search of nutrients and water, therefore increasing in size. Another key to my success is doing the research BEFORE I run into any problems. I had written out a yearly plan on what I am going to feed with a proper timeline. How do you start these inside? Where am I going to plant them? Where am I going to dry them? How do you train these plants to get a big yield? I already have other plans for next year that includes better spacing, a cover crop, better netting for support and a taller fence (scared about deer).
Thanks for reading my essay everybody and I hope someone can get something from this! I'm probably forgetting some details. If anybody has anything to add that would benefit me that would be great as well!
Thanks everybody
day one outside, make initial wiring wider next year
late top, stretch two tops out then top again
early top filling up the insides
the plant i stretched too far
lower branches starting to catch up
making the fence wider
stretchinggggg and supportingggg
attempt at supercropping
Trees. explosion of growth in july
Trees. !12ft high is biggest. 6 ft high is smallest. uneven ground
:cool: