Noob's First Grow: Indoor, Coco, 4 Plants

Old Salt said:
Tim the Tool Man Taylor :D

GrowMau5 has a good tutorial on his YouTube channel.

PurpleGunRack has a thread Build Your Own LED Grow Light that will also provide insight.
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Thank you Mr. Salt! I will check those resources out. I admire the fact that you are building your own - impressive! I don't have the skills to take that on, but I am curious to see how one goes about doing so. I hope it is a successful and fulfilling project for you.
 
I think that the hybrids that I am growing for my first attempt are pretty well-known. Given I am a complete novice, I picked strains that had a good reputation, I could obtain seeds easily/affordably, and had the profile and effects that I thought Mrs. Bard and I would enjoy – partly recreational, partly medicinal. For my own future reference, I’d like to be able to come back and review this information; in case it is helpful to anyone else, here are the descriptions of the four sisters that are in their pots right now. This information and the descriptions come from the vendor’s website:

Girl Scout Cookies [FEM/PHOTO]:
The strain of GSC or Girl Scout Cookies is a hybrid product that is known as a combination of Durban Poison and OG Kush is it includes indica component of OG Kush and sativa of Durban Poison.
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Trainwreck [FEM/PHOTO]:
Trainwreck, a Sativa-dominant Hybrid is known for its effects that hit like a freight train. This strain provides a surge of adrenaline, awakening creativity and happiness. Trainwreck is very popular among patients suffering from ADHD, anxiety, stress, migraines, headaches, PTSD, and chronic aches and pain.
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Purple Kush [FEM/AUTO]:
Purple Kush is world renowned for its purple leaves and strong high. It emerged from the Oakland area of California in one of the oldest legal medical marijuana areas of the United States known as “Oaksterdam”. Purple Kush offers blissful, long-lasting euphoria, and rids the body of pain, sleepiness and stress.
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Green Crack [FEM/PHOTO]:
Green Crack is known as the standard bearer for crystal-clear energy and focus. It can provide a mental clear-headedness that can sustain throughout a long day. It is considered one of the best daytime medicines for patients needing relief from fatigue, stress and depression.
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Hey Bard! Once you are ready to start trying to build a light, just ask on here and there are plenty of people who can give you a parts list to make ordering parts easier.

Nice breakdown of your strains!
 
Mr. Magoo said:
Hey Bard! Once you are ready to start trying to build a light, just ask on here and there are plenty of people who can give you a parts list to make ordering parts easier.

Nice breakdown of your strains!
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Thanks Magoo!!! I am definitely curious to learn how someone builds a light, but my actually doing it... a long way off. Lots of other things higher up the list for me to try first. I think I'll be content watching a few videos, learning a bit more about the inner workings, etc. But I'll leave the reality of building to folks with more innate talent in that realm than I will ever have. Appreciate the offer, though. Maybe someday I will feel up to that challenge.

Glad you like the little write-up on the strains. As I said, probably not much news-worthy there for the experienced/knowledgeable, but maybe a noob like myself will stumble across the listing and find it helpful as a starting point.

Hope that you are having a great weekend.
 
Good afternoon, everyone!

Hope the weekend is treating you well. We had a week or two of lovely spring weather here, but yesterday and today we are back to winter - snow on the ground, again.

:oops:

Oh well, good excuse to stay indoor and catch up with the plants.

I think they have improved quite a bit since my last posting. Following @Asesino85 excellent advice, I have not been changing multiple variables over the past several days. Instead, I left everything alone for a couple of days, and then yesterday gave them a watering with a higher level of Cal/Mag, but everything else the same. It was an idea that @Derbybud mentioned very early - calcium deficiency, and I think that he was right.

Anyhow, I am pretty pleased... wish that they would get a little bit more height on them, but the new growth is coming fast, furious, and good quality. Maybe I am growing a "ground cover" without realizing it.

Leaves might still be a little dark, but I don't want to mess with anything more in the nutrient solution for at least a couple of days. The old "burned" leaves on the GSC remain as a reminder to me to watch for warning signs earlier!

What do all of you think?

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I would highly recommend not posting blurple pics if you want people to see problems in the leaves. It's impossible to tell. What I can note though is they do seem to be recovering from the transplant and growing well. Calcium is important throughout the grow but also very important in the early stages.

Here is something else to consider. If you are using my feed schedule and your plants don't seem to be going as fast as mine do (I'd highly recommend comparing how far along you are and the size of your plants vs mine. I try to put the days in my titles of my updates for that reason) then maybe it is best to repeat a week of feed instead of moving on to the next week. It would help also to include how far along your girls are every once and a while so we can do the same thing to help. It's hard to go to a journal and have to go through the whole thing to figure out how many days into the grow someone is! Especially if you follow 50-60 journals ;)
 
If you put a small lamp or dangle a CFL lightbulb in there you can flip it on flip off your other lights and snap some pics. My guess is they're doing great. The leaves look healthier than before, shape wise. The best part about photo period plants is that veg times dont matter too much. Yeah its sweet to flip in 4 to 6 weeks but 8 weeks is a more realistic veg time. Also the size and vigor of the plant at flip is really the most important aspect. You can often double your yield with less than 50% longer veg times. Especially with good training
 
Thanks guys, good comments and suggestions. In response:

1) Adding the "Day Number" is a smart idea, especially to be able to compare to others' plants. Just to make sure I am clear.... The seeds were started in paper towels on March 4. Tap roots appears on March 6 or 7. Moved to rockwool cubes on March 7. Above ground/cotyledons on March 9. "True leaves" on March 14. Into solo cups March 18. Into 3-gallon fabric pots on March 26. Perhaps a naïve question, but what is the convention for defining "Day 1" - true leaves emerging? In which case, today would be Day 18, I think?

2) Agree on the purple light photos. Was just a bit rushed earlier, but was excited to share that the leaves were more rigid and new growth emerging. I will post white-light photos tomorrow or the next day - I like the idea of having a regular bulb nearby to do so. I'll set that up.

3) Yes, @Asesino85 I am still feeding based off of your schedule, but I haven't advanced a week/increased concentration levels for more than a week - in fact, I dropped back to a lower EC with the brown spots/yellow leaves several days ago (but kept the NPK ratios the same). What I did change was Cal/Mag level (increased from 0.3 to 0.4 EC yesterday morning, so they have had a couple of waterings at that level). They had been getting 0.3 EC Cal/Mag since the very early days. In addition, I charged/buffered the coir with Cal/Mag even before planting. But it seems like these little gals needed more calcium in particular, as I am not seeing the vein discoloration that I understand signals a Mg shortfall.

4) Intriguing idea to raise the height of the light, or turn one unit off. I will think about that, but I will hold off for a couple more days, just to let things stabilize with the change in EC that I introduced recently.

Better pictures to follow in next day or so, I promise! Thanks for the feedback.
 
I always started counting day 1 veg the day they pop above ground. Don't be afraid to feed them calmag. They use more than you would think.
 
Pennywise said:
I always started counting day 1 veg the day they pop above ground. Don't be afraid to feed them calmag. They use more than you would think.
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Same and totally agree with the calmag.
 
Great! Then tomorrow, April 1st, will officially be Day 24!

I will stick with the current nutrient formula (with 0.4 EC calmag) for another couple of days, and then revisit. I'll either adjust lighting or increase cal/mag to 0.5. I had been hesitant to push the calmag too hard, out of concern for nutrient lock-out from excessive calcium. Sounds like that is not a significant risk at these levels.

Fantastic!
 
On a different note... today's culinary project was gummies. I used a lot of @Dutchman1990 and @Preston9mm recipes, with a couple of tweaks (rehydrated gelatin before starting, used a double-boiler to control temperature better, reduced amount of infused oil significantly, as it has a good concentration of THC). Dusted with a combination of white sugar and citric acid to create a real pucker. I like the "two-layers" look (raspberry and blueberry). Each gummy has about 10mg of THC, plus some CBD.

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Awesome! They look tasty! I would indulge for sure haha
 
You're welcome to have some, Dutch. But I've read about your dosage preferences - I'll need to make a bigger/stronger batch!
 
Mr. Magoo said:
Great lookin gummies! Makes me want to eat some of mine. Too late for that though!
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Alas, it is a "school night." These are treats for tomorrow - they have "Red Dragon" from a friend of mine. I understand that is packs quite a punch (for a light-weight like me).
 
Good evening, or rather good morning, everyone! Yesterday (4/1) got away from me, and so I am up late finishing up a few chores. I did get to have a little fun, peaking in the tent to water and to take a few photos. Today is DAY 24 of veg.

I am pretty pleased with what I saw, but would appreciate the experts on this forum sharing their reactions. I'm pleased because:

1) no more apparent brown spots. I think the increase in cal/mag has worked to address the calcium deficiency from a week ago.

2) In addition to lots of new leaves emerging, they are getting some height to them!

3) The colour of the leaves has lightened up quite a bit, from the dark green a week or so ago, to a medium green. No yellow that I can see, and so I think the nutrient formula is at the right EC.

Here are some photos, taken under "regular" fluorescent lights:

Green Crack
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Day 24 Green Crack

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Day 24 Green Crack


GSC
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Day 24 GSC

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Day 24 GSC


Trainwreck
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Day 24 Trainwreck

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Day 24 Trainwreck


Purple Kush
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Day 24 Purple Kush

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Day 24 Purple Kush

My plan from here is to leave everything status quo for a few more days, and then take the nutrient solution up by about 0.05. What do all of you think?

Hope that your Monday wasn't too brutal, and that today treats all of you well.
 
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