So, beginning my 4th grow in 3.5 years or so.
Single plant. Apple fritter photo from ILGM.
Had some seeds from last grow that had issues either not germinating or rotting immediately after germinating. I suspect there is something in my water that’s causing this.
So purchased 5 new ones. This time decided to use distilled water. First seed popped with exuberance! Its now in its forever pot (a bit early) under a clear solo cup.
20 gallon mesh pot with fox farm ocean forest. Will once again be using bergmans nutrients. Found them the be effective and extremely easy for a relative beginner.
For lighting i have 8 vivosun a100 at a total of 800 led watts. Each light has a built in fan and is controlled by my phone lol.
Also set up to add uv into flower this time.
Sprinkled a bit of diatomaceous earth on top of soil to help with white fly larvae and am ready with captain jacks dead bug for after she grows up a bit. This is my first winter grow so will have to relearn my ventilation strategy until I can afford the AC Infinity tent conditioner.
Made a lot of noob mistakes along the way, but thankfully because of the fine upstanding citizens here i have not lost a crop! Thats a bigger deal when you grow only one at a time!
Thanks guys and gals!
These are my essentials. The pH meter can also go directly in your soil! Need the calibration solutions! It comes with only a couple small packets. Good to have 2 small sealable jars so it can be reused. Learned to make sure there is a check mark by “pH” or it needs to be calibrated.
Bergmans nutes. Won’t need the seedling booster as the soil is already loaded. I start in with grow time after about a month. Then follow schedule after that. I have only ever used the seedling booster when reusing soil.
I mixed in about 2 tbsp of the dynomyco in with the soil to promote root zone symbiosis. Not sure it’s needed with this soil, but it has seemed to help in the past.
The massive amount of dirt and the excess of lighting could seem unnecessary, and probably is. But I will not hit the ceiling of my capabilities with one plant. I know the soil and light are not limiting factors. My knowledge and skill are. Also, I noticed a significant difference in my final results with the side lights being the same as top lights. Every single bud on my last plant was/is a smokable bud! Lower area side light penetration seems to be a major factor, at least in my unique situation. Which seems to make it much less necessary to do hard core defoliation as lower branches normally removed can also produce wonderful fruit
With my first grow i guess i got lucky. Or maybe just hyper focused on things I didn’t completely understand. Made my mistakes after launch. The next two really struggled to get out of the ground! I’d have to say, so far the hardest part for me is getting them past seedlings. Between stunting, damping off, not sprouting at all or rotting immediately after sprouting.
I am discovering that it is crucial to maximize growth in the beginning if you care about length of grow vs yield. The last 2 took 5 months or so till harvest because of issues. Spending all that time and energy for a couple zs would kinda hurt!
I only grow 1 at a time and only indoors. If you are growing several at a time this may not be as important. I only grow medium to compact plants because of limited space. But I’m getting a half to 3/4 lb dried material per plant even as inexperienced as I am.
I finally have my lighting where i want it. Last major thing is temp and humidity control.
Toyed with the idea of hydro. But after many messy mishaps with hydro tomatoes Ive decided that much water has no business in my attic🤣
It is and has been a very interesting journey! Thanks for sharing it with me!
I have thought about changing to coco at some point. I guess for me it would have to be recirculating type thing cause I can’t stand there with water can in hand daily.
I have a recirculating deepwater culture system i built for my tomates. If i adapt that tech it might bring the ends together for me. But I’ll experiment with tomatoes first
Almost doubled in size in just a few days! This one’s off to a heluva start😎
Almost time to decide my training strategy. Not sure if i want to top this time. Only a couple weeks from seedling and its already taking its branch building to the next level.
Hoping to maximize grow time to maybe flip to flower earlier and not compromise yield too badly.
My grows have tended to run long because of mistakes, lack of experience and straight up ignorance. Not knowing how big a plant could get affects your timing decisions too. But the more I do this the more comfortable it feels.
Topped her today. I have always been jumpy about this part and usually wait a bit longer. But at this stage, switching the growth to the branches will allow the lower branches which are already growing nicely to jump ahead a bit and catch up with what should be 2 new main colas.
So I guess this is sort of a grow journal-ish… First one that I’ve felt I wasn’t having to evolve mid swing. But if I fall flat on my face ya have a front row seat🤪
Will tag along. Just keep this one going and you’ll have all your grows in one place. Failures and success. Its easier too if end up with multiple things going at once.
As this is the first time I have started a grow in winter, I didn’t consider the humidity. I live in the deep south where humidity remains pretty high most of the year. I have a dehumidifier for that reason. I usually like to run it between 55% and 65%rh but it has been between 40-45%rh.
Plant is growing like crazy! Haven’t started nutes yet so I’m less worried about high VPD over feeding her.
The humidity will likely return to normal, but I’m wondering if anyone has any guidance about what is a safe lower threshold for rh?
