12 Months of Seeds to Smoke

12 Months of Seeds to Smoke. A Series of Grows.

Grow 1: Lowlife Autoflower (Blueberry x LowRider)

This journal’s going to be a little different. Instead of being a journal full of questions and answers, it’s going to be an adventure with a ton of pictures. An adventure of someone who has no idea how to grow but is willing to take a shot at it. The goal is to provide everyone who follows, entertainment! And a little bit of education. Buckle up, put your helmet on, and prepare to witness a lot of money being spent, a lot of newbie mistakes being made, and hopefully a little bit of smoke being grown. I plan on detailing every step no matter how ridiculous or genius it may be for the next 12 months. Please feel free to comment on my mistakes and successes.

And away we GROW…

Initial investment:
1 – BC Northern Bloombox $3200
10 – Lowlife Autoflowering seeds from WOS $240
3 – Visits to the local hydro store for supplies
(PH meter/fluids, PPM meter, heating pad, CO2 tank…) $445
1 – Dr visit to legalize it (I’m in California) $95
1 – Medical Marijuana Patient card from the Dr office as a souvenir $35

So far, as I add up these receipts, I’m not very entertained. I’m a bit sick to my stomach with the money I’ve spent but what the hell, it’s all in the name of science…

Lazy Eyes said:

12 Months of Seeds to Smoke. A Series of Grows.

Grow 1: Lowlife Autoflower (Blueberry x LowRider)

This journal’s going to be a little different. Instead of being a journal full of questions and answers, it’s going to be an adventure with a ton of pictures. An adventure of someone who has no idea how to grow but is willing to take a shot at it. The goal is to provide everyone who follows, entertainment! And a little bit of education. Buckle up, put your helmet on, and prepare to witness a lot of money being spent, a lot of newbie mistakes being made, and hopefully a little bit of smoke being grown. I plan on detailing every step no matter how ridiculous or genius it may be for the next 12 months. Please feel free to comment on my mistakes and successes.

And away we GROW…

Initial investment:
1 – BC Northern Bloombox $3200
10 – Lowlife Autoflowering seeds from WOS $240
3 – Visits to the local hydro store for supplies
(PH meter/fluids, PPM meter, heating pad, CO2 tank…) $445
1 – Dr visit to legalize it (I’m in California) $95
1 – Medical Marijuana Patient card from the Dr office as a souvenir $35

So far, as I add up these receipts, I’m not very entertained. I’m a bit sick to my stomach with the money I’ve spent but what the hell, it’s all in the name of science…

Click to expand...

Im down!!!!

1/22/2010 – All 10 seeds go into a cup of PH balanced Arrowhead distilled water to soak. Initially they all floated. Over the next 30 hours, they sunk, one at a time to the bottom of the glass. They didn’t appear to be cracked. That’s kind of odd isn’t it?

1/23/2010 – Newbie mistake #1. I soaked my 1 inch rock wool cubes in PH balanced water for about an hour before planting the seeds. I’ve since learned that I should’ve soaked the rock wool for 24 hours before planting the seeds. The 24 hours isn’t needed to help the rock wool absorb water like most people think. It’s to allow the water absorbed into the rock wool to balance the PH levels throughout the rock wool cube. Oops! Into the clone dome, onto the heating pad, and under a towel they go.

1/26/2010 – Sprouts! They seemed to sprout up like, well… a weed. As soon as sprouts come up they should be moved out of the warmth and dark into the comfort of a CFL bulb right? But what if they all don’t sprout? Should I move the few seed that successfully germinated into the veg chamber and leave the others in their warm dark place to mature? Mistake #2. Yes, I suppose. Plants are living organisms which means they’re all different. The matured ones should move on and the premature ones should stay behind until they were ready to move on. Damn! I just decreased Grow #1 by almost 50%.

I’m not convinced the death of 4 seeds was entirely my fault. Although I may be new at growing, I don’t think these seeds were very fresh. Fresh seeds are best right? It’s been very difficult to find any information on growing Lowlife. That leads me to believe Lowlife isn’t a very popular strain and is very challenging to grow.

1/29/2010 – There are only 6 seedlings growing out of the original 10. Make that 5 seedling. While I was sleeping one of them fell over. It fell over and pinched itself off. I tried to save it using toothpicks as a splint, but it didn’t work. Another fallen soldier. I drank a beer for him, I mean her…

1/31/2010 – It’s been a bad month. I’ve had a 50% loss in my first grow. Is that normal? Regardless of the losses, the time has come to move the remaining troopers to the next level. I see roots and that means it’s time for a new home. Bring on the 3” rock wool cubes. This time I soaked the 3” rock wool cubes in PH balanced Arrowhead distilled water and 1/3 of the recommended seedling nutrients for 24 hours. Mistake #3. Too early for nutrients. This strain has been noted as being very sensitive to nutrients. By morning, 4 of my 5 seedlings showed signs of nutrient burn on their tiny little leaves.

My original thought process was, an autoflowering plant would be easier to grow in a completely unknown medium. I figured having a plant that grows itself would allow me to learn the bloombox and how a hydro grow works. I thought I would be more of a spectator then a participant. I under estimated how sensitive an autoflowering plant can be.

2/1/2010 – What would a series be without a continuation? I received an email today that my Himalayan Gold and Big Bang seeds have been shipped. I should see them in approximately 14 business days. What should grow 3 be?

Running Tally - $4015 (approx)
New seeds – Himalyayn Gold & Big Bang $105

2/3/2010 – Seedlings have recovered from nutrient burn, adjusted to the 3” rock wool, and survived fully exposed/uncovered in the veg chamber. They’re ready, I think, to move into the flowering chamber under the HPS bulb.

I read this strain should be exposed to a 20/4 light schedule from seedling through flowering. I re-programmed my bloombox accordingly. This is a very difficult schedule considering the box is in my bedroom and is only off from midnight to 4 am. Sleep is over rated anyways.

2/3/2010 – After the day job I picked up 15 gallons of water. 5 to drink and 10 to fill the hydro tub. Reverse osmosis water from the grocery store, I PH’d the water to 5.6. The plants are very scrawny but developing nice roots.

2/6/2010 – I have one strong plant, another showing healthy signs, and three runts. I foiled the baskets because rock wool can develop mold from being exposed to light for so long. Better safe then sorry right?

2/7/2010 - Pictures from last night.

2/7/2010 - More pictures. Everyone loves pictures.

Im on board.

(nothing in this post is meant bad, so please don't take anything negative, just trying to help a tad w/ a few q's)

Quick Q. did you condition your rockwool before using it? (its off the charts if you dont and will murder whatever you drop in it.)

Even though there in wool you shouldn't have to give the seedling nutes until it gets to the 2nd or 3rd node (mother nature pre-packs them with some goodies for initial growth).

If you germ the seeds in the wool (remember put point tip down and only as deep as the seed is wide) i wouldn't even put them in a dark place, drop them in the veg room. they will have heat there and insta light when they poke through. if you germ in paper towel (NO!NO!) or a glass of water then light is very bad since it will kill the newly developing taproot. so if you bury it put it in the veg area. (do not over saturate, only water it if the soil dries up. otherwise watering aint doin nothin but helping mother nature turn it into compost)

Take a step back, take a deep breath. NO LEAVE THAT PLANT ALONE. look don't touch

This is gonna be a fun ride. more for you but hey, least i get to see the pRoN right? :

I'm glad to see a couple of people have taken interest in watching me attempt to grow.

I made another mistake. I hate it when I do that. I'm actually a very organized and exact person but it happens to the best of us. I dropped my PH pen! Completely submerged it in the water. At least today was my day off, another trip to the hydro store. Add another $45 to the tally (stupid mistake).

With my shiny new PH meter in hand, I checked my water. OUCH! Way too high. The water in my tub read 7.2. I immediately raided the the 5 gallons of water in the kitchen and mixed up a gallon of much lower PH level water. It didn't help much. PH was still too high. So I decided to drain the tub and refill it. Like I said, today was my day off so I didn't have much else to do. I went to the store and refilled my jugs with 15 gallons of fresh reverse osmosis water (again 10 for the box and 5 to drink).

I PH'd 5 gallons at a time and added nutrients! I followed the 2nd week seedling schedule from the advanced nutrients website. A total of 1.5oz of Sensi Grow A&B in 10 gallons of water.

Come one, come all. RUNTS...

i gotta say lowlife is a bad breeder it seems like iv ordered lowlifes white russian fem and the blueberry fem and got 2/5 were male on the white russian and 4\10 with the blueberry and one of the blueberry females grew small and retarded im never buying lowlife again sorry if this is killing your buzz but i felt i needed to tell ya and see if you think the same

SidV said:

Im on board.

(nothing in this post is meant bad, so please don't take anything negative, just trying to help a tad w/ a few q's)

Quick Q. did you condition your rockwool before using it? (its off the charts if you dont and will murder whatever you drop in it.)

Even though there in wool you shouldn't have to give the seedling nutes until it gets to the 2nd or 3rd node (mother nature pre-packs them with some goodies for initial growth).

If you germ the seeds in the wool (remember put point tip down and only as deep as the seed is wide) i wouldn't even put them in a dark place, drop them in the veg room. they will have heat there and insta light when they poke through. if you germ in paper towel (NO!NO!) or a glass of water then light is very bad since it will kill the newly developing taproot. so if you bury it put it in the veg area. (do not over saturate, only water it if the soil dries up. otherwise watering aint doin nothin but helping mother nature turn it into compost)

Take a step back, take a deep breath. NO LEAVE THAT PLANT ALONE. look don't touch

This is gonna be a fun ride. more for you but hey, least i get to see the pRoN right? :

Click to expand...

It takes a lot for me to be offended.

No conditioning other then soaking the wool in PH balanced water. What other conditioning is there?

As for the nutrients, I was following the grow guide. A very, very little bit of nutrients to help jump start everything.

When It came to germinating the seeds, there was no tap root when I planted them. I soaked them in water for 30 hours or so and then planted them in wool. None of the seeds had visibly cracked, I just figured 30 hours was pushing how long they should be in the water.

This is such a cool emoticon

acidbox420 said:

i gotta say lowlife is a bad breeder it seems like iv ordered lowlifes white russian fem and the blueberry fem and got 2/5 were male on the white russian and 4\10 with the blueberry and one of the blueberry females grew small and retarded im never buying lowlife again sorry if this is killing your buzz but i felt i needed to tell ya and see if you think the same

Click to expand...

I have some serious retarded or handicap plants growing right now. I'll try my best to help them along, but I won't be buying any more.

It's like going to Burger King and seeing that big, juicy, flavorful looking burger on the menu and opening the bag.... Only to discover an over cooked, tiny little patty on a week old bun!

Don't give up...you can do it. I think that you should slow down...rather than going dumping anymore loot on seeds go get a bag of smoke and start with them. Thats what I did that way if I did jack something up I would be out what ever I had into the grow. Now I see that you have some B.A. gear. I think that maybe rather then running all of what the box has to offer maybe start with just a few small plants...Just a suggestion and my .02

I think that you will be very pleased with your initial investment when you finally get your feet wet. all of this could easily be built for less $ but you got a comp;lete package and everything you need to succeed and hey it's portable too I have been thinking of getting one in the future because i'm not handy at all and after a few decent crops it will pay for itself. I'm watchin...

Between work and a leaking water pipe, I haven't been able to update.

The Bloom Box has already showed its value. I had a leaking pipe in my apartment that required the manager and plumbers to come and go for a week while I was work. Locked the bedroom door and there was no sign of what was going on in the next room. That was the whole point of spending the money on good equipment.

Some pics from a few days ago.

I've working on keeping the PH levels between 5.6 - 6.2, it's proving to be very challenging. The PH has been rising very quickly which is a good thing. At least I know the plants are eating well. I can't just add water because my tub only holds 10 gallons. I have to draw water out of the tub, PH it and pour it back into the tub.

Sunday was the day to drain and refill the tub. I raised the amount of Sensi Grow A & B. I'm using the nutrient calculator from the Advanced Nutrient website as a guideline. Super cool!

http://www.advancednutrients.com/nutcalc3public/

And how could I forget, seeds arrived. 6 Big Bang and 6 Himalayan Gold all fem'd. I'll set those aside for a few more weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of nice mother plants.