Newbie's First Grow Journal

Well, my Blueberry that I CS'd awhile ago started dropping seeds today!! :) In my excitement, I harvested the rest of that plant and drying it out in my closet.. After some reading I probably shouldn't have done that and just let it continue?
 
aint it cool!? i get so excited everytime i get new seeds especially the feminized i make it like being a mini grow god for a minute, yeah prolly should have waited a bit but if you can make them dry real slow the seeds will continue to finish in the cut buds
 
It dropped 6 seeds, so even if the rest doesn't ripen, I'm happy! I CS'd a female plant and produced seeds! Wahoo! Happy days... lol I have the seeds drying now on a paper towel.. Though they are probably already dry since they dropped? Next, I'll try an entire plant and pollinate another.. This one self-pollinated..
 
the selfed seeds will be like clones of its mother since the genetics are closed, if seeds drop they are generally ready to plant but i like to refrig them a few days to winter them and improve germ rates, take the cost of a seed you bought divide it by all the seeds that germ and you see the cost plummet to an acceptable cost lol i think this is why they charge so much they know many of us only buy a strain once!
 
I have you to thank for BID! your guidance is what helped me CS'd that plant and obtain seeds! Even if I only get the 6, I am happy with the results for my first try.. I will attempt it again with these 6 seeds but will CS the entire plant and pollinate another.. :) I am hoping I get a few more thru the drying process though
 
yeah theres prolly a few more stashed away in there for ya, your most welcome i love to give back to this community it has given me so much,, if i can help someone get to their goal with less stress and a happy result it makes me feel good , your plan to dedicate 2 plants to cs/fem seed is a good one thats how i like to do it seems to get more and bettter quality seeds, dont forget to save some of the pollen to cross with other autos, all that pollen is feminized and will make fem seeds on any plant you use it on, that cs pollen is valuable stuff
 
I harvested more seeds last night.. Didn't count them all but I bet its 100 or more! :)

My first plant harvest I let site on my drying net for 4 days, then into brown paper bags for 4 days then Monday night I'll put in mason jars. I bought an attachment for my Foodsaver vacuum sealer which will vacuum seal the jars.. Was watching a Youtube video about curing and they say the best way was to vacuum seal the buds but I don't want to crush mine so will just use the jar method but sealed and burp twice a day for a week. Its amazing how much they shrink during drying! I had cola's the size of soda cans and they shrunk down to MUCH smaller diameters! lol They were hard heavy buds and now light & fluffy,, I'll weigh them all up tomorrow night when they go into the jars to see what the total was from her.

I have another plant ready to harvest now which was the other short one next to her in the tent. She's in the closet for 2 days of darkness and will harvest her later this evening. :)
 
yah its real disapointing at times when they shrink but as you get better at the grow game and your technique gets better you will see the amount of shrinkage decrease, and the hardness will remain, last harvest one of my plants only lost a bit over 50% weight and nugs actually got a bit harder after the cure,
 
Hey Newb, It seems we have similar drying techniques!
I also use a net to hang some buds on while fan circulates air, and some smaller ones I too, put on paper bags:)
And as you said about buds shrinking - Mate, I feel ya!! My last harvest I had a few 2ft long buds and they also were least the thickness of a can of coke and wider, but after drying were just shy of a cans width.. Heres couple pics of before harvest and some buds..
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Some buds at harvest
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Last pic was of my dry bud...
 
Oh man! You tease!!! Love those bud pic's!! What strain is it? How long do you dry on the net and then in paper bags? Looks like you might have suffered from nut burn like I did? Now that I have the PPM pen and never go over 1400ppm and keep the PH around 6.5, I got the situation under control. My closet grow is lush and green with big fat buds growing.. :)

Well, I harvested another last night, this one sat in total darkness for 2 days before harvest.. Its a little bigger than the last one, yield was a bit more but not a lot. Total weight so far on the first harvested plant was 74.6 grams. Its now in vacuum sealed mason jars.. I got the attachment in for my Foodsaver, does a great job vacuum sealing the jars!! I'll post some pictures of it tonight..

Here is a couple pic's from last nights harvest.
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Hey mate how are ya?
Lol... Wasnt trying to show boat mate, I was actually surprised in the size of the buds too!! She blew up pretty quickly and soon I had a monster growing!
I usually air dry mine in the nets, or hung from a clothes horse via pegs or such for usually just over a week @ room temp about 15*C, and constant circulating air. I check them often, once the stems hard and the bud is nearly dry ( I usually break a bud apart ) I prepare it for cure process, I usually put buds into zip lock bags for a day or 2 to try draw moisture out from the centre to the outside of buds, then theyre ready for cure in jars or such. Vaccuum seal bags are awsum!:thumb: And your harvest looks good mate:)
Some tasty nugs to toke on there Im sure!! I used to give plants 48hr dark b4 harvest, but IMO, if anything 24hrs will do for me..
The strain of my last grow, the pics you saw, were C99xPR, She grew to 6'3 in her pot - just taller than me! And was 4.5ft wide, would have been wider if given the space, I actually had 2 whole branches that grew bugger all due to the big buds above, So quite possibly, if i had the space - Id have yielded close to a pound from 1 plant in 15 weeks in soil organic nutes.. But I was burgled and yeah, was only left the 4, 2ft buds which were over 6oz dry, so her potential was just awsum IMO.. Best yielding plant so far for me, but I didnt get to keep all the weed and get to weigh it all dry, so it dont count I guess..
My current grow tho, I WILL NOT BE LOSING HER BUDS - Ill be making sure of that!!! Anyways, thanks for the comments mate, Take it easy, Chat soon - Smokemup..
 
Well, all but 1 plant has been harvested! Was a LONG ass time in coming! lol This was my first time trimming.. OMG! there has to be a better way!! 3 hours a plant.. Whew! 6 plants down, one going down today and the Problem Child till has a ways to go..

The plants in my clone closet are getting big so might move a few into the tent now that its about vacant.. :) One thing I noticed, I had taken a clone from the Problem Child and it too is having a hard time budding! So now I know its nothing I did wrong, just in her genetic's I guess..

Since buying the PPM pen and being carefull with nutes, the clones are all budding really nice and all lush green! No issues yet..

The more I read up on vacuum sealing jars for curing the more I didn't like that idea. After a couple days I started a regular jar method and bup for 10 minutes a couple time a day.. Still has that "hay" smell (actually, smells more like tea) but hoping it goes away and the true smell comes out. I put a RH pen inside the jar and its running about 57% RH, quite steady..
 
Yeah they got out of hand fast! I veg'd for 2 months before going 12/12. Not sure about the yield yet but with 8 plants I can tell you have have ample stash now! lol I think I averaged 3 oz per plant.. But time will tell. I have then in various stages right now. Brown Paper bags, jars and still one on the drying rack and the problem child is still in the tent.. I moved 4 from my closet into the tent now since I have room available. Those only veg;d for a month.. Used a CFL light and not to excited about the progress of those buds.. they are still all quite small but getting red hairs already.. Not the big fat hard buds I got from HPS lights.. They are in their 6th week of flowering so I'm hoping they will bulk up.

I bought 5 Caliber III RH sticks from amazon and have those in some of the jars right now. Its holding at about 65%.. The first batch that I harvested is at about 55%, still has that "hay" smell though untill you break up a bud and then get the nice aroma. Friends and family have already dipped into those 2 jars, so only have 1 jar left of it! lol Its a potent smoke though even if it doesn't have the aroma I was hoping for.
 
I'm still in the curing stage but rough weighing tonight shows about 21 to 22 oz's total from 7 plants.. Average about 3 oz's per plant.. I probably would have had a lot better yield if I bought my PPM pen in the beginning and paid closer attention to PH as well..

In my closet grow (which 4 out of the 7 are in the tent now), I monitored PH and PPM at each feeding and also gave attention to soil PH.. They are in their 6 week of flowering and are in perfect condition! Not a problem yet, beautiful green leaves! Love the Skywalker's green, just awesome! I'm keeping the PPM around 1400 using less than half of what Fox Farm's feeding chart says to use!

In the closet under the CFL light, the buds are light and fluffy, not fat and hard.. After 2 weeks of being in the tent, the 4 in there put on a lot of weight! I may just have to move the other 3 in there now!

I'll post some pictures of the finished bud when its cured.. I have been sampling.. First plant I took down was way late! Its still a good smoke but not as potent as her sisters.. She yielded only 2.5 oz's, there is about 1oz left after friends & family got into it.. :)
 
isnt it cool to be able to share and not really worry or care how much they take!? i had a friend pick up a 9 gm nug (nice dill pickle size) and joke about taking it and i said if you want it take ..he was like "REALLY?!" i said sure i know you have those migraines you need it, i refused when he tried giving me $ told him im not doing it for that reason, needless to say he thinks im cool lol, yeah you will see your yields just get bigger and bigger as you keep growing, at some point you may be trying to figure out how to get it to keep, thaats my problem i dont know what to do with all of it to keep it fresh, im not a heavy smoker so it build up pretty fast lol oh darn not a bad problem to have:thumb:
 
Thanks for sharing your grow with us.

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