Growing is very hard

madeofmetal

Active Member
I'm on my 3rd grow (organic soil) and I watch my plants like a hawk but it's very hard to tell what's happening when flowering slows down, plants look droopy, triches do not mature to cloudy or amber, etc. I'm in my 12th week of flowering (indica/sativa acapulco and hawaiian hybrids), buds have swelled but can't get my triches to turn cloudy no matter how well I feed, water, ventilate them, etc. (I have not lost any leaves nor have any leaves turned yellow.) My last grow same thing happened and gave up after 12-13 weeks and plants produced zero high. And I have an autoflower which is in its 13th week of flowering and triches are still clear. I have no idea what to do with it.

I just got smart and started using Foxfarm bloom products instead of the commercial junk and maybe I'll see results.
 

Slipon

Well-Known Member
do you keep feeding it nitrogen in late flowering ? do you make a flush before 12/12 ? do you have high tempetures ? do the plants foxtail or hermie ?
 

Slipon

Well-Known Member
Ooh yea .. and you can get products like GH Ripen that have hormons in it that tricker the final pase .. do some research here
 

Clown Baby

Well-Known Member
pics would help. But if you arent losing leaves then you are doing something right.

Some plants just take a long time to flower. Try indicas next time if you're impatient.
 

thehole

New Member
Sounds like you need to "keep it simple".

Ditch full organic. Use the entire FoxFarm lineup- big grow, big bloom(organic), tiger bloom, open sesame, beastie bloomz, chaching, kangaroots(organic) and microbe(organic). Follow the feeding chart for the most part and should no longer have issues.

It's best to use FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil with a mix of perlite and lime, worm castings are great to and this mix of organic soil and big bloom along with the partial chemical ferts work great and is simple to maintain.

I've done supersoils which are great and full organic if you do it right, but I've also used and use the Earth Juice lineup(full organic) Flora Formula, Canna lineup and currently FoxFarms and out of all these the best success and most easy system was FoxFarms hands down.

So you have to make a choice. If you wish to do FULL organics you should read up and learn about making and maintaining your own supersoil. The only good organic choice. I love Earth Juice but it can be a big learning curve and the products themselves do not always have good shelf life.

After my current EJ and FF grow I will be strictly using FoxFarm only from now on as it works for me, until I get to a new location in a year or two and go back to supersoils.

It isn't very hard.
 

cc08150

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you need to grow something that takes way less time to mature. Pick a more Indica dominant plant that only takes 7-9 weeks. Sativa plants are not really for beginner growers, as they are more picky on nutrients and can require 13+ weeks to fully mature. Some Sativa's like different light schedules than the normal 12/12 flowering most plants do great on, it just depends on the genetics.
 

Moebius

Well-Known Member
Next time choose an 8 week indica finisher. Maybe an Exodus Cheese? ..... or 9.5 week Lemon Skunk (if you don't mind some stretch)

You'll have to do something seriously wrong to not see lovely golden trichs appear (if thats what you want)

Regarding your current predicament; If in the past you went 13 weeks get ready for a 15-16 week'er.
 

brotherjericho

Well-Known Member
Yeah, sativa doms can try your patience as a new grower. My Neville's Haze took 90+ days to get mature, but it was well worth the wait. Early bud tests gave me a racy, paranoid high but when mature, a much more calming but cerebral high.

Patience is the key. If you want a sativa high, fuck those who tell you to grow an indica dom. Just learn to wait, it is worth it.
 

cc08150

Well-Known Member
ditch the sativas man. the highs gay anyway imo.. if i wanted a racing heart and to be wide awake id take coke
Not all Sativas are racy, you obviously have not tried many to make a broad spectrum statement like that. Thai strains are more on the racy, electric side. Hazes, if matured properly give a more cerebral, calming, and talkative/creative feeling like brotherjericho said above. I'm all about a good haze...just got done growing Delahaze which is a great smoke day or night, and I plan on growing jacks cleaner 2 pretty soon to give her a try...
 
Hi madeofmetal, you might be reassured to know that you're not the only one to have these specific problems (trichs not turning cloudy or amber and weed giving no high), I've been having exactly the same problems for the last 5 or six grows!!!! I haven't worked out exactly what the problem was but I think it probably has something to do with heat/light intensity (in my case) and I hope I'll work it out this time round. At the end of the last grow I found out that I'd been using my adjust-a-wing reflector upside down so that might be part of the problem at least. Don't give up, you're not alone!
 

RollupRick

Active Member
KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Growing is a piece of cake - IF you keep it simple and basic. The more you fook around with nutes or fancy this, fancy that, the more you're going to fook up. Watching the plants like a hawk is also another indicator, you're focusing too much on it and adjusting/tweaking at the slightest thing. They're not meant to be perfect looking like in a catalogue, they're real living things that have inperfections, and inperfections aren't worth worrying about.

Love and obsess over any cannabis plant at your own peril. We all love them, but they hate being coddled.
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Growing is a piece of cake - IF you keep it simple and basic. The more you fook around with nutes or fancy this, fancy that, the more you're going to fook up. Watching the plants like a hawk is also another indicator, you're focusing too much on it and adjusting/tweaking at the slightest thing. They're not meant to be perfect looking like in a catalogue, they're real living things that have inperfections, and inperfections aren't worth worrying about.

Love and obsess over any cannabis plant at your own peril. We all love them, but they hate being coddled.
Very good advise,makes em soo sexy.....Gravity from Humbolt will help you
 

Rottedroots

Well-Known Member
Metal my man!! You sounds like your so close to the finish line AND winning the race and you got " zero high ". That freakin blows big time! Are you growing a named variety a gift or what?. Frankly it almost sounds like ditch weed to me. Is that possible? The ditch weed I have seen looks very sativa like and produces zero high as well but I just don't remember if it budded up like yours has. Hell yeh I have quick dried or zapped plenty of unripe buds over the past 30 years and I still got stoned off it. :sad:
:leaf:
Sumpin ain't right and it's certainly ain't fair to put four plus months into your grow for nothing. Maybe you have a history of kicking puppies and the bad karma is now kicking in. Good luck and be patient. I don't care if it's indica or sativa, If you have four months invested just keep waiting. I would be so bummed out. :wall:

Pics sure would be interesting..
 

WeedKillsBrainCells

Well-Known Member
Not all Sativas are racy, you obviously have not tried many to make a broad spectrum statement like that. Thai strains are more on the racy, electric side. Hazes, if matured properly give a more cerebral, calming, and talkative/creative feeling like brotherjericho said above. I'm all about a good haze...just got done growing Delahaze which is a great smoke day or night, and I plan on growing jacks cleaner 2 pretty soon to give her a try...
ive tried lots of different strains and so mustve tried at least some sativa before, but youre right in that i havent tried a lot of pure sativas. The one I did try was pure african landrace sativa though as I got a cheap ounce of the stuff. The fact it was schwaggy obviously put me off but it was definitely too much like the thai you described. I havent tried any hazes mainly kushes, I dont know if id pay money for daytime smokes but id be willing to try actual well grown sativas i suppose
 

Vindicated

Well-Known Member
The easiest way to garden outside that I've ever found is to build a 3' x 3' x 6" raised bed, fill it with different brands of organic potting soil, then water using a soaker hose set to a timer. The raised bed cost $8 to build using untreated lumber from Home Depot, the soaker hose was $10 at Target, and the timer cost me around $35 at Lowes and I set it for 3-min every other day. What I like best about this method is that it looks nice, doesn't require any digging, it's inexpensive, and it practically runs itself.

For potting soil I originally used a blend of Kellogg Patio Plus ($4 a bag), Super Soil ($6 a bag), Fox Farm ($12 a bag), Earth Grow ($5 a bag), and Roots Organic ($30 a bag). More recently I've just been using the Kellogg Patio plus and I haven't noticed a difference. I've also done side by side grows in containers testing FF vs Roots Vs all the other brands. Roots appears to be the best, but barely. To me it's really not worth the extra price, especially when fertilizers will more than make up for it.

Optionally you can buy Water Crystals for around $8, soak them in water for 3-4 hours, then amend them into your potting soil a few days before you plant anything.

Before you start planting you want to soak the bed really good and test the system for at least 48 hours. Next, get your seeds -- you're best bet when starting out is you buy feminized F1 hybrids -- and soak them for 5-10 minutes (max). Once your done soaking your seeds, roll them around in an mycorrhizal inoculant like Great White (ask for a free sample, they give you enough to dust over a 100 seeds), then sow them 1/2 inch deep directly in the garden in early to mid March (check the Farmer's Almanac for your "Zone" and your "Last Frost Date" and plant at that time).

Or if sowing outside makes you uneasy, you can start indoors in Feb with a very simple light setup in your closet. A single 125W bulb should give you enough lighting for aprox two months of growth but I prefer to not go past four weeks. When starting indoors, you want to use one gallon containers (ideally fabric grow pots) and fill it with a seed starting mix made of peat moss or coir. Fox Farm Light Warrior and Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Mix are good choices. Keep the CFL lights 2-3 inches from the plant. Remember to soak the soil and allow the excess water to drain for a few minutes before you sow your seeds. Wait three weeks then begin hardening the plants off.

Just before you harden them off, it's best to lightly mist your plants with water and apply a light dusting of Diatomaceous Earth. This will prevent an early infestation and set you off to a good start. And unlike insecticides, DE will never cause a toxicity, so it's perfect for seedlings and delicate plants.

Start the hardening off process by bringing your plants outside at the end of week three very early in the morning for 1-2 hours. Repeat the next day, but leave them for 3-4 hours. Do it again, this time go a little longer, except try to remember to move them into to the shade around noon then put them back into full sun after 3PM. By the end of week four they are ready to be transplanted. Simply dig a hole deep enough to fit the entire container or 2" wider and deeper than your plant's root ball. Water just before you plant. Burry the plant. Back fill in the potting soil. Tamp down lightly with a shovel, then lightly water again being careful not to water so hard as to cause the plant to shift or fall.

From here on out all you need to do is dust your plants once a week for about a 2 months, then switch to a horticultural oil (e.g. neem oil, hemp oil, sesame oil, tea tree, fish oil, or even extra virgin olive oil) for another two months by applying 2 tsp of oil + 1 tsp dawn dish soap + 1 gallon of room temperature water, then switch to light insecticide, and back to DE. Always rotate so pests don't build a resistance.

That's it. The hardest part is researching the seeds, filling the raised bed, and going out once a month to apply your insecticide. IF your plants grow so quickly that you feel you need to fertilize (and I've grown 20' Sativas that didn't need any fertlizers from start to finish) buy Kellogg All Purpose Organic Fertilizer (NPK 4-4-4) and mix one cup to five gallons of water. Pour into the root area once in 1-2 times during veg and once during flower. That's it!
 
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