My personal grow journal

Set to watching @Oldsoldier1976

My grow is not too far ahead of yours right now

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I really do like your system. How big does your root ball get when you do it like that. I saw that stalk and that was an amazing thickness. I have read and I hope I got this right. Part of the trick for growing that thick center branch and that is the constant air flow around the plant.

My worry in this grow is that I am two months behind due to a failure on my part. More of failure to prepare and have everything on hand to include knowledge. I had no idea how much it was going to take to get started. Not in terms of dollar costs, but in terms of really learning the process. I plan to continue through this but I am going to have to force the girls to flower sooner rather than later. Taking in the harvest and curing the buds before I fly to Incheon South Korea in mid September is going to put a tight hold on. I might be able to enlist some help at home to aerate the jars but I have to get it to that point. I think based upon my projections think it is going to be a close thing. I will be posting pictures along the way so if you see something that might help I would take it under advisement. I will love to see how your grow goes this time as well. What strain are you doing and do you always start from seed? I actually love the bonsai effect you create with your canopy.

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The light is 24 inches above the canopy. It’s not on full blast yet though it is going on a 20/4 schedule. My plants also didn’t germinate at the same time. The Maui is younger by a week. The first seed I tried failed to germinate. I had to hurry to get the second Maui seed to germinate. It looks really good so far. It is only one pair of leaves behind. These are both photo I think so I should be able to send them into flower on my command. At least that’s the plan.

This is my first time using this system… it’s in a single 13 gal bucket, probably holds ten gallons of water when it’s full, the root ball will easily fill a 5 gal bucket

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Kind of what I expected. Thanks.

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Here is what the girls are looking like this morning. Yesterday was the first watering in 5 days. When I watered them yesterday I used 1 quart split between them. I have been monitoring the soil with a moisture meter. The entire 5 gallon pot marked at the top of the dry range.

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@Myfriendis410 This isn’t a problem question as I see my two girls are doing very well. I am just wondering when they will start to gain some height. The lights are about 24 inches above the tops of the plants. Both of them are about the same height but as you can see the Durban Poison is just ahead of the Maui I think by a week. The other question I have is do I need to worry about the time difference for each plant. The flower on Maui is 9 to 11 and Duran is 8 to 10. I only have one tent so I plan on putting them both in flower at the same time. Will that one week difference in age and the one week difference in flower going to be a problem?

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I started two seeds one of each a Maui and Durban. The Durban germinated and I was able to plant it. I let the Maui try 3 more days and started another not knowing if it was going to grow. Well it never did and the second one did and I planted her about 7 days late. I was able to plant the Maui but now one week behind the faster flowering Durban. With the large difference will I need to be extra vigilant with the flower? I have a small 4 foot tall tent to hang the Durban to dry while the Maui continues to flower. I could harvest and hang it in there.

I just gave them one short night at the time change. Shouldn’t be a problem with the different ages. I have one that’s 2 weeks behind the others and I’m flipping them all.

Good as long as you are here in a couple of months when I go to flip the girls. :slight_smile: :worried:

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It’s almost impossible to have multiple plants ready at the same time. I’ve done 6 plants at once and they NEVER finish at the same time. Besides; with multiple plants you will really appreciate staggering your harvest out. It gets tiresome haha.

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Thanks @Myfriendis410 . So to help me plan ahead. I have the approximate flowering time for each of my plants. Approximately how long will drying take? I think I am okay once they go into cure because I can have someone open my jars while I am away. I do need to get them dried by early September.

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You should be all done and enjoying your harvest by September.

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I gave the girls some water. It had been about 5 days yesterday my moisture meter told me that the pots were at the bottom of the green reading bordering on red. They don’t show signs of over watering over feeding too much light. They just seem so healthy. I’m trying to picture how they are going to look as they flower in the tent. I have got a 4x4 tent and the girls are in 5 gallon fabric pots.

The one on the right is a Durban Poison and the one on the left is Maui Wowie. The Durban is just sprouting the 5th pair of leaves from the center stalk. The Maui is on the 4th pair.

Is letting mother nature make the branches better for my first grow? Or should I force a few extra branches? If I do start force by topping or pinching off the top at what point or after how many inches or segments should I let go?

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Depending on how much vertical space you have, topping may be necessary. I top at the 5th or 6th node. I also like to try to open up my plants to get light down into the center and topping makes opening up the top easier for me.

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Currently they are short in comparison to the tent. They are in a grow tent 4x4x80". I believe that gives me about a 6 foot grow height minus the grow pot and drain pan.

I wonder if my light is too close. They are not stretching much and staying kind of compact. It is my first time ever growing pot so I am very nervous. Since transplant these two have not seen a full to capacity watering. They also have not been fed any additional nutrients. They have had two small waterings of 1 pint each. This was because they are in a 5 gallon pot and the roots can’t quite just reach the bottom. So I have kept a moisture read on the soil around the root ball 5 inches or so down. When I watered I added Cal-Mag and Si. The Si is silica based upon what I read in relation to growing. The plants use silica to make the stems stronger and leaves get a better connection to the food source.

Anyway given my current stage of growth and my 80 inch grow space how much longer and how bad is it if I miss the right spot to snip?

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It’s hard to tell from the top down pic but I count the first 3 finger leaves as the first node. I have topped them at 4 and topped them at 6. If your node spacing is compact, like it appears, you may want to consider not topping at all. Just remember, when you do flip to flower, plan for your plant to double in size. It may not stretch quite that much but it will definitely stretch so plan for the extra height including your lights.

If you miss, it’s called a fim (f@#$ I Missed). If you fim, you can get up to 4 main colas as opposed to 2 with a topped plant. This is all to control height and also to help lower branches catch up. The trick to indoor growing is to utilize as much light as you can and a flat canopy that’s spread out evenly is most efficient.

I personally like to keep mine as low as possible. The Kind soil that I use has a theory that a shorter plant delivers food to the tops more efficiently than a tall one because they claim it takes more energy to get the goodies up there. I don’t know if that’s factual or not but logically it seems to make sense.

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Thank you. It is difficult to see the tops in the pictures. I am considering taking the top two open fans to allow light below. After the gym today I am going to take her out of the tent and inspect her lower stalk to see if there are signs of a branch or two coming. If so that might be my move. Otherwise I am going to let her be for a little while longer to see what she does. Thanks for the reply. I looked up FIM and topping and now have a better understanding of it.

Still nervous though. LOL

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I wouldn’t take any healthy leaves off at this point. Your fan leaves are your plant’s solar panels. Remember, it’s a weed, it will grow. First grows are full of worry and uncertainty but relax, smoke one and let them do their thing. They look good, don’t sweat it.

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