My First Time Growing

[Lady Cannafan]

Sorry B A R, I had a lot of things in my head that it could have stood for, Here's just a few examples I just came up with:
Bad Ass Rocker
Beyond Any Relief
Big Ass Romulan
Big And Romantic
Black And Relieved
Buzzed And Relaxing
Braced And Ready
Breakin' All Rules

Could have stood for anything! Sorry, But I sure am glad your

here! To me you were just (in the back of my mind) Big And Reliable!

Smokey

And reliable he is!

 

[Smokeater]

Another thing I've been meaning to mention but keep forgetting. Early on when I was talking to Smokey he mentioned that he currently has a bowl or two of weed a week to smoke and knows it helps him feel more comfortable. He also mentioned that finding seeds in the small amount of cannabis he does get is quite rare. That means that the seeds he's found have a big chance of being hermie seeds.

Hermie is one of those jargon words. Because Smoke is new I'll explain it so he and others reading understand. Usually, in order to get seeds, a male pot plant needs to pollinate the female. Cannabis is an odd plant because it has the ability to shoot out a couple of male flowers on an already flowering female plant and make seeds. Most commonly this happens as a last ditch effort for the plant to reproduce when it's become stressed and senses that the end may be near, or if it is left in flower for a long time after it was harvest-able. If you find one or two seeds in a bud and the rest of the pot is seed free, there is a good chance those seeds are hermaphrodite, or "hermie" seeds. They are the product of asexual as opposed to sexual reproduction.

Hermie seeds are almost always female. There is a very good chance that Harley, Casey, Jordan, and Minnie will all be female plants since Smokey rarely finds seeds in his medicine. Did all the seeds come out of the same bud/batch, Smokey?

The down side to hermie seeds is their offspring are more likely to go hermie and pollinate themselves than plants grown from non-hermie seeds which are the product of normal sexual reproduction.

No, I found Harley and Casey and a while later in another bag found Minnie and Jordans seeds. But hardly any of the weed ever has seeds in it on any batch. My son also keeps an eye out for seeds for me and he hasn't found any yet from the friend he gets it from. He was surprised when I told him that "in the old days, when I was young" all the bags were full of seeds that had to be pulled out before you smoked them to avoid them popping and leaving burn holes in your shirt. Thanks for ALL the info as well as the help PJ (once again). I think I answered all the questions you've asked so far. But I still have more more to ready.

 

[Smokeater]

Here's a couple of picture of my 4x2x4h tent. It has the same Mars Reflector 144x5w light. The two plants are hanging out in there and will be moved into my flowering tent as I harvest the plants in there. They are in 10 gallon pots. There is a three gallon pot in there for size reference.

This next pictures show what four 3 gallon pots look like in the tent. The plant in there is the clone I'm sexing in the flower tent right now. It would easily fit in the other end of the tent where the pots are staggered back-to-front. It's an all sativa plant so doesn't have the fat leaves and tight nodes of Smokey's plant but is basically the size that Harley and Casey are now.

When a plant is introduced to the flowering tent LST will be useful for pulling limbs so the plant has a rectangular shape. There is 24" of room from the front to the back of the tent for each plant, but only 12" of room side to side.

Does that make sense?

I don't quite understand the rectangular thing you are talking about. Do you mean I need to LST each one into a rectangle? I can certainly work on that if that's what your saying. I am happy to do so in fact! If I got that wrong, let me know.

 

[Smokeater]

PJ, Just for info. My son was doing some recycling last night while we were up and found 2-2 liter bottles and a little bigger one that had cheese balls in it. They are all clear, so I will be using black duct tape on them until I have the money to buy black spray paint. I also have 1 milk jug. I humbly ask for your recommendation in which are the best to use ?

Thanks!
Smokey

 

[arteekay]

I don't quite understand the rectangular thing you are talking about. Do you mean I need to LST each one into a rectangle? I can certainly work on that if that's what your saying. I am happy to do so in fact! If I got that wrong, let me know.

Many people, particularly in large grow spaces (rooms not tents) just train their plants into basically a circle. When dealing with a tent, a rectangle is better so that all can fit beside each other rather than than being offset.

Not critical by any means, but helpful.

 

[Smokeater]

Thanks again to everyone who has put so much time into helping me, You will never quite realize how much your help has done or made me feel. Someday, when the legal thing is no longer an issue and we all can afford it, I would love to meet with all of you in person and have a 420 get together! I know it will be years, but is something I have been hoping for, for a while now. You "guys" are so great to me!

 

[Smokeater]

Many people, particularly in large grow spaces (rooms not tents) just train their plants into basically a circle. When dealing with a tent, a rectangle is better so that all can fit beside each other rather than than being offset.

Not critical by any means, but helpful.

Thanks Arteekay, Now I get it. I need to train my plants to fit the shape of the tent conveniently and take up less space. I will start working on that as soon as I get the tent up on the table. (It came today and I do need a sheet of plywood just a little bigger to hole the tent and let me sit to water, tuck, LST, etc.

Thank you!

 

[Dr Bob]

I thought you might like this pic Smoke.

This was a flower group in 3 gallon pots that vegged right at 6 weeks or so before going into flower. Maybe even a bit less. I got just over an ounce from each and that was under essentially the same lights you are running. The pic shows a new light that was just hung up but wasn't there 5 minutes before. This was before I went to the PeeJay soil and it has made a big difference.

But it does show 3G pots after 6 weeks veg with light LST and some tomato cage work. If you follow what PeeJay is suggesting then you would see at least that much with each plant harvested and frankly likely more with the much better soil setup.


Bob

 

[Smokeater]

I thought you might like this pic Smoke.

This was a flower group in 3 gallon pots that vegged right at 6 weeks or so before going into flower. Maybe even a bit less. I got just over an ounce from each and that was under essentially the same lights you are running. The pic shows a new light that was just hung up but wasn't there 5 minutes before. This was before I went to the PeeJay soil and it has made a big difference.

But it does show 3G pots after 6 weeks veg with light LST and some tomato cage work. If you follow what PeeJay is suggesting then you would see at least that much with each plant harvested and frankly likely more with the much better soil setup.


Bob

Thanks Doc, I do appreciate the photo to help me get an idea of what's being discussed.

 

[PeeJay]

Here ya go, Smokey. I went ahead and did a LST on that clone to show you. It's structurally a very different plant than yours but should give you the jist of what we're aiming for.

Here's the plant before:

And here it is after:

This strain is leggier than yours but you can see what I did. I used twine for tying and a knife to make holes in the pot. Notice that the twine around the stem is not pulled tight rather I tied a loop.

Then I threaded the twine through the hole I'd made in the pot and pulled the tied limb down. I pulled limbs to either one side of the pot or the other. The ends of the branches are going to start growing back vertical again but I've successfully pulled them so the plant has a more rectangular shape .

 

[Smokeater]

Here ya go, Smokey. I went ahead and did a LST on that clone to show you. It's structurally a very different plant than yours but should give you the jist of what we're aiming for.


This strain is leggier than yours but you can see what I did. I used twine for tying and a knife to make holes in the pot. Notice that the twine around the stem is not pulled tight rather I tied a loop.


Then I threaded the twine through the hole I'd made in the pot and pulled the tied limb down. I pulled limbs to either one side of the pot or the other. The ends of the branches are going to start growing back vertical again but I've successfully pulled them so the plant has a more rectangular shape .

O.K. I see exactly what you mean. Thank You, Hopefully we can run to home depot for plywood tomorrow to pick up a piece for the top of the table. Once that's in place, I can sit in front of the tent and be able to do the LST training without a problem. Thanks for the pic's, I see what I need to do now.
Also, I now have 2 - 2 liter bottles and 1 milk jug. I rinsed and taped up a 2 liter bottle with black duct tape to avoid the transparency and will transplant Jordan into it soon. I think that's what you said I should do, correct me if I'm wrong please. I'm not rushing into anything yet, so take your time.

 

[PeeJay]

Nice! I don't know how much room there is where the tent is, but if you get the plywood cut 5'6" x 4' 4" or something like that then you'd have a handy shelf on one end to set a watering can or tools on.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Smokey, just to be sure...you have drainage holes in the bottles and jugs right?
Ask me why I ask that....lesson learned the hard way. One of those really simple things that can get overlooked.

 

[Smokeater]

Nice! I don't know how much room there is where the tent is, but if you get the plywood cut 5'6" x 4' 4" or something like that then you'd have a handy shelf on one end to set a watering can or tools on.

Excellent idea, I didn't think of that. I'm hoping that home depot will cut the plywood into the size I need (My son told me last night that he thought they did that for customers) for the tent and shelf on it. Thanks for the quick thinking. I was planning on just cutting it a little bigger than the tent until now. Now I'll have them cut it to the size that will give me a shelf.

Thank you!

 

[ShiggityFlip]

They will totally cut it at the store. I have done that many times myself.

 

[Smokeater]

Smokey, just to be sure...you have drainage holes in the bottles and jugs right?
Ask me why I ask that....lesson learned the hard way. One of those really simple things that can get overlooked.

Yes, I cut 4, approximately 1" triangular each into the bottom and will do the same with the others.

Sounds like something I would do without realizing it until too late.

Thank you for the reminder!

 

[Smokeater]

They will totally cut it at the store. I have done that many times myself.

Thanks Shiggity, That confirms it then. I don't have to worry about finding a way to get it cut. I'm planning on buying a 4' by 8 ' and also have them cut a piece that I can use in the sliding glass door next to the tent to ventilate it outside.

 

[Dennise]

High Smoke... I have a pic that can show you how easy it is to bend em' over.... She is much smaller andd doesn't have the foliage hiding it... I in no way would change anything PJ has told you but this is just an easy to see pic.... These were taken a few days ago....

These were taken today....

 

[Smokeater]

High Smoke... I have a pic that can show you how easy it is to bend em' over.... She is much smaller andd doesn't have the foliage hiding it... I in no way would change anything PJ has told you but this is just an easy to see pic.... These were taken a few days ago....

These were taken today....

Thanks Dennise, Those pic's help me understand. Are those walnuts your growing in?? I haven't seen that yet.

Smokey

 

[Radogast]

It will take 4-5 weeks for a seedling to get as big as the big plant. You'll move a big plant out of the bookcase every 10-15 days and plant a new seed.

The footprint of the big plants right now is about 1 square foot. You have 8 square feet to work with in the flowering tent. Flowering takes about 65 days (depending on the strain) from when the plant starts a 12/12 schedule. That means that you'll have 4-5 plants in the flowering tent at the same time once everything is full. That works out to one plant ready to harvest roughly every 15 days, too.

That's what's making sense to me based on the spaces you have available. There are some good eyes here that may have some other ideas. I'm going to ramble on a bit more in a bit to give them food for thought when they consider things.

PeeJay - since noone has said it yet - This is a mighty fine plan!

Simple, elegant, fast and effective. In my opinion, a very good plan

The largest difficulty I see is finding enough seeds to plant 2-3 per month. Clones would be nice in order to have a consistent, repeatable, high quality product, but the smallest cloner I know of is the 8-site 1-Gallon Clone Bucket. I use it. It would be big enough for his needs, but would take up a 9" space in his cupboard. Obviously, there are enough free seeds floating around that seeds can appear, but it is expensive to buy a steady supply of the best seeds for Mr & Mrs Smokeater's needs. I wish I had a stash of feminised seeds to share. I hate to take up valuable grow space with male plants.