Cat Dad’s Five Strain Fiasco

Hey all,

I’m a rookie with some lofty goals, so I hope you will enjoy reading through this grow and much as I’ve enjoyed learning about this hobby throughout the process. Be warned, you’ll read some cringy stuff from my earlier days (We’re talking window sill setup and Miracle Grow). As the grow continues however, hopefully you’ll see the positive changes that take place – from window sill setup to fully ventilated 4x4’ tents with full spectrum LEDs. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m certainly leaps and bounds more knowledgeable that before.

I’ve posted sporadically and randomly before, but as I’ve learned my way around the forum, I realize in hindsight a post under the “grow journal” category would have been more helpful for continued feedback from the community. That said, allow me to reintroduce myself and my first time grow. I’m currently in the second week of a 12/12 light cycle, but will be back logging my progress thus far. I currently have five strains growing, one of which is an autoflower (I know, I know, terrible planning in hindsight, but we’ll address that in the next post).

Currently I’m growing ILGM White Widow Auto, ILGM Big Bud Fem, ILGM Chocolope Fem, ILGM Amnesia Haze Fem, and a mystery strain pulled from some seedy bud (Cherry Pie, according to its origin source).

My journey started when I purchased bud that had seeds in it. I half jokingly wanted to grow them in my window sill as a novelty for when family and friends came over. And so began my grow of the first four Cherry Pie (?) seeds around November 2021. Surprisingly, they grew quite well with almost no knowledge at the time. I continued letting the first four do their thing until February when my first ILGM seeds came. This brings us finally to the “birthday” for all the plants I have growing currently: 14 Feb 2022. To be continued in the next post …


A picture of the “first four,” whose clones still survive today in my current grow.

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So I’ve half jokingly labeled this grow a fiasco because, well, I lacked any sort of planning when my seeds came in the mail. I figured there would be a significant rate of seedling death since I was still such a beginner. For better or worse, however, that didn’t really happen. Virtually everything survived and I just couldn’t bring myself to chuck the survivors.

Which brings us to what survived the first month
-5x Cherry Pie(?) Fem (cloned from flowering mothers)
-4x Cherry Pie(?) Fem (seed grown)
-2x Amnesia Haze Fem
-2x Chocolope Fem
-3x Big Bud Fem
-4x White Widow Auto

I know, an absolutely mad lad move. I currently have them divided amongst three 4x4’ tents, but we’ll get to that in coming posts.


February 14, 2022: Beginning of grow for seed grown plants, ignore incorrectly labeled chocolate diesel. Should say cherry pie


Same date, a few of the clones pulled from the “first four”

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It is at this point I graduated to a… greenhouse? No, not a grow tent, but we’re learning, People! In any case, better than a widow sill. I also purchased some cheap Chinese lights from Amazon. At this stage, all the plants have graduated from the first month of the dome.


ah yes, grow tent Version 1.0 as I call it. Not ideal, but better than nothing at the time


about one month old, was running about 220 actual watts from the crappy lights I was using

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As my canna-cranium began to expand with knowledge from the countless posts I was reading and YouTube videos I was watching, I realized I was totally screwing up some very important things: lighting, nutrients, growing medium, soil. Alright so EVERYTHING. But I did purchase two grow tents initially thinking 20 plants should comfortably fit in two 4x4s (HA).


Vivosun 4x4 with slightly better cheap Amazon LEDS installed now


final tent installed at the advice of folks from the forum. This is how my grow room looks to this day.

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Early veg update. Date: March 12. Plants have been split into two tents. One tent has two Chinese LEDs pushing a total of 400 actual watts, and one mow has a Mars Hydro TS4000.

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Date: March 20. Clones are doing extraordinarily well compared to their seed grown sisters. Many already have 10+ branches. It was also at this point I learned that I had accidentally monster cropped them, since they were taken from a flowering mother. Compares to the seed grown sisters, you can clearly see the difference in plants of the same “age.”


one of the five clones


seed grown sisters for comparison taken at the same time

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Hi there. lets see some pics of the ladies for this month. You have your hands full. I can’t imagine the lovely smell when they all grow up.

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March 22. The clones are ready for some light defoliation and LST.


before defol


after some defol and LST

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Within the next hour I should be caught up on backlogging in one post and caught up to present day! Stay tuned for some MAJOR changes from my posts a few weeks ago.

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Okie dokie…gonna be stalking you on this thread. How many cats? I had 4, but my Earl died 2 weeks ago. :unamused:

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Your girls look marvelous!

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March 28. Well, things are starting to get… a bit tight. At this stage, it seems like they’re growing back leaves literally as quickly as I’m clipping them. I’m LST-ing the crap out of them now, using bamboo spills and florist wire. I found this method to give me a lot more control and precision with the branch growth and overall shape I was going for.


*Tent 1: 9x Cherry Pie and 2x Amnesia Haze


Tent 2: 4x white widow auto, 3x big bud, 2x chocolope

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Oh no I’m sorry to hear that :frowning:

I have three babies, they sometimes help me in the grow room so you might spot a kitty or two in coming posts!

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I’m good at spotting the cat hairs on sticky buds. :joy:

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March 31. Today is the day I flip to flower. I KNOW! Things are still super tight but I finally have a third 450W light coming and can commission the final tent. I also plan on scrambling the order of the plants in a strategic way once the third light arrives. The White Widows are also beginning to flower which coincides finely with the photos they’re growing alongside, which should only be about two weeks behind once they start showing pistols.


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Alright everyone. The moment you’ve all been waiting for: preset day. I’m proud to present a little overview of how this train wreck of a grow has turned into something that shows real potential.


back row: Big Bud x3. front row from left to right: Cherry Pie x2, White Widow Auto x1

back row: Amnesia Haze x2. Middle row left to right: Chocolope, Cherry Pie x2. Front row left to right:White Widow Auto, Chocolope

back row left to right: Cherry Pie x2. middle row left to right: White Widow, Cherry Pie, White Widow. Front Row left to right: Cherry Pie x2

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@dirtydave @alexankh @BudzMS @Newt @Storm @Mark0427 @CurrDogg420 @OGIncognito @plumbdand @Aussie_autos

You all have been kind with your welcome and advice, just wanted to include everyone who’s helped me so far.

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trim party at your house in a couple months. You’re going to be busy.

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By the way, the Amnesia Haze strain is no joke. It and it’s sister are literally double the height of its sisters (now I see why so many strains can be a challenge in a single tent).

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Thanks for the tag @CatDadPower! I started scrolling back, and I was like whoa I totally missed this journal, and then I saw it was only two hours old. :rofl:

Great stuff man. :handshake: Reminds me of my first time. :smiling_face_with_tear: I’ll be watching for sure.

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