Subliminal's First Grow Ever

[subliminal]

Ok so here goes.
My grow is different. I started with seeds that I have no idea what strain or anything else about them except my girlfriend said she enjoyed the smoke from the buds they came from. The story is long and doesn’t need to be repeated here. Look for my introduction thread for more info on it.
My seeds started by being blown off my patio table and into my yard. I noticed them growing and stretching under my apricot tree and transplanted the best looking ones into small ½ gallon pots. From there I have been piecing together stuff best I can day to day and improving what I can when I can. I’ll document as best I can as I post these pictures.
Medium: Soil
Lights: 2 CFL 200W/2 LED 100w + a 250W HPS for Veg in different stages of growth. In my flower closet I am running a 250W HPS.
Nutes: basically normal green house stuff but high % water soluble fert that is listed as 15-12-12. I cut their suggested mixture to about ¼ strength.
October 23rd is when I discovered the sprouts:

I waited a few days to let them establish some roots and then I transplanted to ½ gallon pots and rigged up some lighting while I figured stuff out.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures as they matured as I was doing heavy reading on GWE and 420Mag forums/tutorials. But I have a few once I set them up in a new area. I weeded them down to 4 plants that I thought were gonna make it. I have never grown cannabis before but sweet lord I grow tomatos and peppers every year.

Here they are about a month after I transplanted….see the stretching? My grow CFL was way too low powered and way too far away…(the 4 on the right were seeds I planted after the fact, I’ll show some pics of those too later on)

After some super reading sessions of tutorials and forums at both GWE and 420mag, I came to one true conclusion….I am stupid, but not unwilling to learn. I was over thinking things and I really didn’t have the equipment or money to get a gigantic yield. Instead, I employed some extra HPS lights and ballasts I had in storage for my workplace lighting and payed more attention to my watering schedule and training methods and calmed down a little. I think it’s easy to get lost in playing with your plants too much.
I had 4 biggish plants going and I was attempting to sex them every single day… and then I saw this on two of them:

This was a hard day. I tossed two of the four I had been spending so much time on…Thank you tutorials! This is still strange to me because they had been on 24 hour light and I am not sure why they should have shown SO much sex. The great part of it was, I was able to practice my pruning without worry since they were garbage can no matter what… bright side?

I had been spending so much time reading and figuring out the best way to propagate bigger yields, I think I overlooked the initial stretch my plants had before I topped and started training them. I read about mainlining(nugbuckets) and manifolding(Nebula) and did that for the two big females I had remaining….(Dec 17th)

They are both happy and doing well, I just think the initial stretch of both are going to limit their growth pattern and yield…
This is a pic of the 2 big “yard girls” in the flower hut. Taken Dec 19th right as they were added to the flower hut. Both have been manifolded.

And this was taken moments ago. 12-28-18

More to come….

 

[AngryBird]

Hi,
You have done a good job
Your girls look happy.
Obviously your seeds are regular seeds and not feminised.

I do need to say, at flower, they might want a bit more light.
For next time, cfl can go way closer and that would eliminate the stretch of seedlings.

 

[subliminal]

Hey AngryBird, I appreciate your input and I love to learn. The added stretch was noted and I think it was because they were under a tree in early fall and my not having lights set up for them at transplant. I'm thinking of adding a few cfl 200W to the flower box. What do you think? I know my wattage is on the low side, but I have what I have, if you know what I mean.
My new seed grows are much tighter, but I really want to document my accidental grow

 

[subliminal]

Figured I'd slip in a few photos of the plants I have in Veg/Training as well. Two of these are clones off the yard girls and the other three are from seed. I am attempting different training methods on each of them as to learn what results I can get first hand. Also, none are showing sex yet, so I'm only positive on the clones.
This is my baby. It grew short and stout from seed. I topped it at the third node after it had grown its fourth node. The lower growth caught up so fast after the topping I decided not to defoliate below the node and instead trained the lower growths for maximum light penetration instead on manifolding. I have defoliated the growth nodes themselves. I’d age this one at about 35 days.

These next two I am attempting to spiral/down train. They appear to be two different strains, as you can tell by the vastly different leaf sizes on exactly the same age plants, and under the exact same conditions throughout their growth. They are both about 28 days old from seed. Both have been topped at the third node, the one in the blue pot took a little longer to get there… but its leaves are much bigger and not as abundant. Neither have been defoliated yet, just some leaf bending to get those bottom colas some light. In a few of the pictures, it looks like there is a bit of yellowing on some leaf tips, but that’s not the case, it’s just in the picture. I know because it made me run over and check them just now when I noticed it… lol

And these last two are the clones from the yard girls. I haven’t done much to them yet, just tied them down to the pot in order to promote some bush building. They were taken right before I switched the girls into flower. I cloned them in the expanding peat pellets until they both had tap roots showing(which only took four days with generic rooting hormones), then transplanted into these ½ gallon pots. Under low strength CFL for cloning and now both sitting under a LED/CFL mix pretty low wattage. Nothing has been topped and yes, the yellowing on these pics is real..but that can be expected from the cloning process as they were growing roots.

I also have two clones in a bubbleponics setup I made, but they aren’t doing much. They have been in there as long as these two clones and really are just doing the John Travolta… You know, staying alive? No real growth, but they have grown some tap roots in the last few days so… who knows.

Thanks for reading everyone. I’ll update the yard girls later tonight when they get to their light hours. They really started their stretch yesterday.

-Sub

 

[subliminal]

Here's a quick little update. Taken last night. YG1 on the left is really bushing and stretching. YG2 on the right is starting to show her thing and I think she'll catch up quick. She's always been the more robust of the two. Taken early into day 11 of flower.

All of this while this is going on outside. Gotta love it. Taken 5 and 3 years into awesomeness.

Happy New Year
-Sub

 

[JamesOaceO]

Hey @subliminal Happy New Year! Your grow looks like it is going good. Too funny about the history of the Yard Girls....love it. I, too, read the threads on manifolds and am going to try that with the Chem Dawg I'm working with now. I'll check back in and see how things are going now and then.

 

[subliminal]

@JamesOaceO Drop a link when you get it going, I'd like to follow. I'm sort of regressing from the tutorial as I'm leaving nodes I shouldn't be...but my spread of the mainline was so far, I decided to leave some growth for the middle. They are all on the main 3rd node though. I've read about lots of success doing it like I am. It's more nebula leaning and a little less stress than nugbuckets.

My next seed, I'm gonna attempt a flux like @Light Addict. I have a box built for it already. If you read my introductions, you'll know I don't smoke much...I'm more of a whiskey guy. I'm doing this to give the GF some relief. Makes me a little more open to experimentation. I love plants though, and this has been eye opening to me to how much fun it is. I told my Mom when she was here over Christmas that I wish I had majored in horticulture instead of computer science. lol

-Happy New Year brother

 

[subliminal]

Hey guys, here's my next update. Whatever I am doing, it seems to be working. Remember, I am remedial in my nutes and stuff, I just pay a lot of attention to my plants. They got reversed in their light cycle cause it's easier to keep them warm with lights on when it's 7F outside after midmight.. check these beauties at early day 14 flowering.

I hope everyone gets as much joy as I do from having this much fun!

-Sub

 

[subliminal]

By the way, that's my kitty Bowie. He was found under a bush outside my restaurant the day David Bowie died. Jan 10th, 2016. He's a pretty awesome cat

 

[subliminal]

As a follow up, these are pics from the plants I have in Veg. Have a little K deficiency in #1 and some nute burn on some of the others. It's a lesson that every plant is different and that you can't water them all the same. I'm attempting to correct all the problems plant by plant, and I'll keep you all updated on my successful(all of them)attempts.

 

[Griffen loki]

The grow is looking awesome. Your training is great it’s hard to believe it’s your first grow,you definitely have a green thumbgreat pics too

 

[subliminal]

The grow is looking awesome. Your training is great it’s hard to believe it’s your first grow,you definitely have a green thumbgreat pics too

I really appreciate the positive feedback @Griffen loki . I am doing the best I can, and I learn more every single day..if not every single minute. I'm reading an article about root rot right now lol.

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

wow dude. what help is it you might need exactly ???. you are doing brilliantly. reading up has done you wonders here. even grabbed some of the celebrities of the 420 community @AngryBird . going to enjoy this one with you and have to agree on the fun thing too but when things go awry , thats when it gets stressful. I am experienced grower of approx 15 years but a 1st time user of rdwc , without support my firls would have been fed to death and root rotted to nothing. Now have a jungle of manifolded, fluxed , mainlined , supercropped and non-scrogged buds to enjoy watching grow. Fluxing is the same as manifolding basically. i find 4-way manifold to be the best for my room now. perfect for low height and apex roof. had a great 1 plant , 10oz scrog of super iced grapefruit, so know the techniques do work well.

 

[AngryBird]

Lol ganja, It is just plain old me
He is an awesome grower and it is a pure pleasure to hang out here.

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

 

[subliminal]

I'm up-potting the plant in the yellow pot today(the one in Veg). She is still showing K deficiency and it's definitely moving up. I was poking around and looking for a more organic solution, as she was just recovering from a little nute burn and I'd hate to add more of what she doesn't need. So I am making some banana/egg shell tea right now. I'm going to treat her new soil with that. Not sure if this is going to work, but I'll keep you guys/gals posted.

Edit. I'm noticing that she is starting to show what looks like long pistil growth or am I crazy? I didn't even think about a bag seed being an auto. What are the chances?

 

[subliminal]

I decided to ixnay the up-potting because of those buds. I just gave her a good tea bath and now we'll play the waiting game.

 

[subliminal]

wow dude. what help is it you might need exactly ???. you are doing brilliantly. reading up has done you wonders here. even grabbed some of the celebrities of the 420 community @AngryBird . going to enjoy this one with you and have to agree on the fun thing too but when things go awry , thats when it gets stressful. I am experienced grower of approx 15 years but a 1st time user of rdwc , without support my firls would have been fed to death and root rotted to nothing. Now have a jungle of manifolded, fluxed , mainlined , supercropped and non-scrogged buds to enjoy watching grow. Fluxing is the same as manifolding basically. i find 4-way manifold to be the best for my room now. perfect for low height and apex roof. had a great 1 plant , 10oz scrog of super iced grapefruit, so know the techniques do work well.

People like AngryBird, Emilya, LightAddict, Pennywise, fanleaf and YOU have inspired me through your write ups and grow journals. Other people have been an incredible help as well, and I'm not trying to leave anyone out. This community is amazing. I hope to one day contribute as much to the community as you have, and hopefully at least 1/100th of what I've taken out of it.

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

People like AngryBird, Emilya, LightAddict, Pennywise, fanleaf and YOU have inspired me through your write ups and grow journals. Other people have been an incredible help as well, and I'm not trying to leave anyone out. This community is amazing. I hope to one day contribute as much to the community as you have, and hopefully at least 1/100th of what I've taken out of it.

wow thankyou so much bud. love this community amd the folks you get to meet too. to see the grows and growers , go through so many challenges and issues , then to see the community rally to their posts , is heart warming. tou will gain so much confidence here with the results YOU get from choosing the advice and tips you follow or try. so much fun to be had with the ways to grow and the end results too. Nothing beats your iwn lived and cherished buds to smoke. you are more than welcome to ride along with my grows and comment in any way you need to , even if it seems like an obvious question or been discussed previously. It takes time.to absorb all of the amazing stuff you will see and read.

 

[subliminal]

wow thankyou so much bud. love this community amd the folks you get to meet too. to see the grows and growers , go through so many challenges and issues , then to see the community rally to their posts , is heart warming. tou will gain so much confidence here with the results YOU get from choosing the advice and tips you follow or try. so much fun to be had with the ways to grow and the end results too. Nothing beats your iwn lived and cherished buds to smoke. you are more than welcome to ride along with my grows and comment in any way you need to , even if it seems like an obvious question or been discussed previously. It takes time.to absorb all of the amazing stuff you will see and read.

dude, I have already followed and I will continue to. Expect stupid uninformed advice on all your threads from now on. Lol , so kidding. I might pop in and say hello from time to time, but I think for the foreseeable future, I'll be the one with questions. Thank you for all the help you provide to all of us.

-sub

p.s. what are your thoughts on my tea bath I did earlier today?