First Grow (Chem Cookies + Lemon Pound Cake)

I moved to the pacific northwest from a very conservative state not too long ago, and for some reason I had myself convinced that I wouldn't end up being one of those people that spends hundreds of dollars every month on weed alone. Turns out it's a lot more tempting when you don't have to go through the trouble of hiding it. A while back, I'd discussed the same thing with a few friends who happened to be growing their own weed indoors. They described the basic life cycle of cannabis, the equipment and dedication necessary, and even provided me with a little starter kit with some pots and seeds. The process seemed so incredibly daunting, however. Also, I couldn't just not smoke weed to save money for growing my own, it's way more fun to have the instant gratification.

A little over a month ago, I changed my mind for some reason. I think I was browsing around Lowe's and saw some reflective insulation and reflective tape that I thought would work perfectly for a DIY tent inside of the (mostly) unused hallway closet. I picked a couple of seeds that I thought I'd really like, and started germinating them while doing a bunch of research on how to take care of them. I ended up cutting some PVC pipe in a box shape to hold the reflective insulation together, in order to be able to somewhat control the environment. I also happened to get a really good deal on a UFO grow light, which I figured would be good enough until I could afford some real lights. Everything came together surprisingly well.

I didn't think of starting a grow journal until about a week ago, so I'll be posting progress up to the last 34 days from today. After that, I'll try to update every week or so.

With my life story out of the way, here's my first grow. I appreciate any comments and/or constructive feedback. Please be gentle since I'm still new.

I picked out 2 Chem Cookies seeds and 2 Lemon Pound Cake seeds to keep in my closet grow room. I have no idea whether or not these seeds are feminized. In retrospect, I shouldn't have mixed sativas with indicas, but it's a little bit too late. I decided to germinate them using the paper towel method, placing the seeds on top of damp paper towels inside of a large tupperware container, covered with plastic wrap and placed on top of my computer for warmth. Three out of the four seeds popped within 24 hours, and the last one after an additional 24 hours.



( 8/18 )

After the last one popped, I prepared 4 small plastic pots (about 4") with Black Gold Natural & Organic potting mix. I'd read about seedling stretching, so to try to combat this, I didn't fill the pots all the way, so that I could bury the stems more after seeing any stretching, if needed. I planted the germinated seeds about half an inch into the soil, and misted until there were a few drops of runoff water. Despite my best efforts, one of the seeds ended up on the ground before being potted. Three days later, the Lemon Pound Cake seeds sprouted. Another three days after that, the two Chem Cookies seeds sprouted, the one I dropped sprouting later in the day.


(8/21) Here's one of the Lemon Pound Cake sprouts, which came up first.

I decided to keep these plants in a humidity dome while they were this young, and the only light I had at the time was a 10W LED strip about 6 inches from the plants. I opened the dome and misted them daily. They did stretch quite a bit, so I finally bought a better light for them, and placed them in the grow room on an 18/6 timer, with a small fan for some air circulation. I couldn't tell you how stoked I was to see them actually growing. About a year ago, I tried germinating a few bag seeds that ended up dying and molding since I forgot to keep the paper towel damp enough. I did my best to lightly mist my plants rather than drowning them.


(8/24) Both sativas have their first sets of true leaves.



(8/26) Now all of them!


(8/27) A Lemon Pound Cake showing its second set just a day later.



(9/1) Watering before transplanting.

At this point, I decided to invest in some more equipment for my grow. I ordered five 3-gallon fabric pots from amazon, then went to my local hydroponics store and purchased a bottle of FF Grow Big, a pH testing kit and pH up/down, a hygrometer+thermometer, a 60x magnifying lens for use with cell phone cameras, a bag of FF Ocean Forest, and a bag of FF Happy Frog.

Around this time, I also decided for some reason that it'd be a really good idea to transplant. I think I saw a root coming out of the bottom of a plastic pot and decided it was time. I made a 1:1 mixture of the Happy Frog and Ocean Forest for my seedlings, misting the soil as I mixed. I then thought that it'd be a genius idea to also water all of the soil in the pots, despite my intentional light misting done earlier. They were then left on flat baking sheets.

Additionally, I damaged the roots on one of the Chem Cookies during transplanting (the same one I accidentally dropped after germination). It seems to have stunted the growth pretty badly, and some new leaves still grow twisted together.

Despite giving them a disgusting amount of water for how small they were, they didn't look too miserable. I'm sure growth (and fungus gnat population) would've been more ideal if I'd only watered near the stem like I originally intended, but I'm trying to forgive myself for silly mistakes on my first grow.


(9/1) Immediately after transplanting.


(9/2) I assigned blue labels for the Chem Cookies, and white labels for the Lemon Pound Cake. I mislabeled the Chem Cookies seedling I damaged as a Lemon Pound Cake, which I didn't notice until much later on.


(9/5)



( 9/8 ) Growth remained fairly steady.


(9/10) I decided to fill up an extra fabric pot I had with the same soil I mixed for the plants. I compared it to the weight of the other pots, and I felt that they were similar to each other, and the top 2 inches of soil were fairly dry. I decided to wait until the next morning to water, since I still saw some fungus gnats jumping around the topsoil.


At this point, I was pretty much over the moon, since I genuinely didn't think I'd make it this far. I was under the assumption that these plants were particularly difficult to cultivate, based on how many articles I'd read trying to sell me products that I ABSOLUTELY NEED in order to not kill my plants or end up with shitty weed. I decided to stop treating weed like it was some delicate and dainty houseplant, and instead I started treating it like a normal outdoor crop. Sometimes I spent literal hours in the grow closet, fawning over my babies. I'm sure they appreciated the extra carbon dioxide, but I figured I'd be better off letting them do their own thing. So far, the results have been excellent.


(9/11) I finally decided to water my plants. The fungus gnats were really annoying me, so I mixed a few tablespoons of spinosad in with my tap water, and adjusted the pH to ~6.5-6.8. Because of this, I ended up killing some predatory mites in my soil that actually kill fungus gnat larvae. Oops.

After watering that day, I spent some time using some critical thinking skills. The fungus gnat population wasn't anywhere near what it was before the watering with spinosad, but they were still buzzing around my face and I couldn't deal with it. I decided that it might not be a good thing to have wet fabric pots on a flat surface where they can't dry out at all. I happened to have an unused wire shelf lying around that perfectly fits 4 plants.


(9/12)

As you can see, I received some new lights on that day, as well. Following this thread, I found an insanely good deal on a 260W 2x2 LED light bar set. At 70% power, 24" from the canopy, my plants were drooping within an hour. They seem to be okay with 55-60% for right now at this height. These lights also run much, much hotter than my tiny UFO grow light, so I made a makeshift exhaust vent by cutting a hole in the top of the grow room, programming an arduino to run a spare computer fan at full power, and placing the fan in the hole I made. It's starting to get chilly outside, so it's easy to maintain temp ranges from 70F at night to 81F during the day. RH stays around 40-60%.


(9/14) The plants seem to like it.

(9/15) Elevating the pots helped with the fungus gnats and overwatering. The soil was already bone dry, and my plants looked a little sad, so I watered again. A lot of the water just ran down the sides of the pot, so I mixed one drop of dish soap in per gallon of water.


(9/16) I rearranged some of the plants, under the assumption that they were bending too much. I think I just watered too quickly and the main stem got moved a bit. I also saw what I thought might've been a preflower, but I know exactly nothing about sexing cannabis early.


(9/17) Growth has really started to explode. I finally fixed the labeling, as well. The two in the center are my Lemon Pound Cake, and the two on the outside are my Chem Cookies. The one on the right is the one that had stunted growth, so I'm surprised to see it doing so well.

By now, my plants had 7 nodes, and I was doing research on topping and cloning (and cloning tops). I also felt that it might be a good idea to start feeding my plants, and I wanted to top them just before I fed them, since I figured the root system was probably fairly healthy. I prepared 3 jiffy pellets and a humidity dome for the plants I decided to top, leaving the stunted Chem Cookies alone for now, since it wasn't quite the height of the other plants. I also added a shelf above my grow lights for my clones/seedlings, in the hopes that the heat coming from the lights would keep my young plants warmer, and in less intense light.


( 9/18 ) Before watering and topping.


7 hours after watering and topping.


3 tops, trimmed and placed in jiffy pellets. I'm pressing the big fan leaves I trimmed from these.


A better look at my shelving unit inside the grow room.

For this watering, I tried to take things really slowly, misting about a liter of plain tap water on the soil of each pot, one at a time so it had time to soak in. After that, I misted each pot once again with another liter of water, this time with 1.5tsp/gal of FF Grow Big, one at a time. Afterwards, they required approximately 0.7 liters of fertilized water before the soil was completely saturated. I didn't have any issues with air pockets this way, but it was a real pain in the ass without a mister.


(9/20) I woke up and tested the soil, and it felt like they were going to need water within a few hours, so I just decided to water them anyways. I used the same method described above, using only plain tap water this time. I'm almost overwhelmed by how quickly they're growing. I'm most likely going to need to water them again in 2 more days, and I'll probably use the same 1.5tsp/gal of FF Grow Big until they start looking hungry again. Soon might also be a good time to do some LST, since I've noticed large fan leaves covering smaller ones.

So I guessed correctly, the plants were very thirsty first thing in the morning. I fed them again using the same 1.5tsp/gal of Grow Big liquid concentrate, and each plant ended up needing about .75 gallons of water for some runoff.


I also ended up topping the sorta stunted Chem Cookies plant. I wanted to top above the 5th node, but I was worried about making it shorter than the other plants, so I topped above the 6th node instead. I debated on topping my other plants a few more times, but I think I'll just let them grow into the (not yet made) scrog net, and then tuck new growth until the net is a little less than half full before flipping.


Here they are after watering. It's only been a little over a month and it feels like they keep growing faster and faster.


I'm also pressing a couple leaves I thought were cute.


Here's a tiny leaf that's growing out of a warped looking fan leaf (the stunted Chem Cookies). This is the first time I've seen something like this on a plant I've grown.

I guess I can't go back and edit my previous post, but 9/22 marked the beginning of ~Week 6~ .

Today I watered with tap water until plenty of runoff (noticed some salt buildup on the side of a couple pots). I also finally got around to making the netting for my scrog, and I rearranged my grow room to accommodate.


The box fan, tiny humidifier, and desk fan have all been moved to the upper shelves. I intentionally pointed the box fan's airflow upwards, but the highest setting ends up sucking the dome off of my mini greenhouse. I didn't notice until about half an hour later. I misted them, put the dome back on and waited an hour, and they perked back up.


Update on the leaf leaf. I really want to see how big it can get, but I want to start flowering in the next few days or so.

Finally, here's a look at the net I built using some ceiling hooks screwed into the PVC pipe holding the insulation together, and I really tried to measure some hemp wick out in something close to 2.5" squares.



In order to make the screen a little more even, my plan is to find a way to create some more tension in the center sections of the netting, probably by tying those sections to the shelves. As these plants are no longer easily moveable, I'm also going to have to figure out a way to drain runoff water without spilling into the tent.

Another dilemma, these plants look like they're ready to flip. Since this is my first grow, I don't know exactly how long to expect to wait before having to harvest. Unfortunately, in addition to this, I have obligations that will require me to be away from my plants for 3 days, exactly 2 months from now, which I understand is the average flowering time. Additionally, I don't think I have the necessary space for another 2 weeks of veg with these plants, especially without knowing gender.

I've read so many horror stories about friends neglecting their flowering plants, I think I might try out bluemats with maybe some small fraction of blooming nutrients depending on how they're doing.

Other than that, my grow space has a barely noticeable light leak coming from the top exhaust, so I might solve that issue with a dark blanket in between the closet door and the grow room door. Some of my plants have a few fingers that show pH flux, but I doubt it's a mistake I'll make again. I'm really happy with how they're coming along so far.

I'm open to suggestions and feedback.

So I'm a pro grower and accidentally snapped a branch on one of the Chem Cookies plants. It wasn't hanging on by much, and I didn't wanna spend a bunch of time waiting for it to maybe repair that branch, or maybe die. I'm propagating the broken branch in a glass of water, so we'll see how that goes.


(9/29) The leftmost plant is the one that was damaged. It was pretty wilty for a day, but it's perked up a little bit since then.




And here they are today. They seem to be happy with being watered every day, but I think they're also showing some signs of deficiencies, which makes sense if I'm only using half of the amount recommended on the bottle. I might up it to 75% and see how they do.



Pictured above is a Lemon Pound Cake. They seem to have way more foliage than my indicas, and I'm not sure if it might be that my light isn't strong enough. It's a 260W 2x2 fixture in a ~4x2x5 tent, so I raised the lights to 24" above the canopy, and adjusted them from 70% to about 80% power. I'll raise it to 100% over the next couple days, and hopefully that'll help my plants.

Additionally, all this foliage makes it incredibly difficult to water, and lots of leaves are touching each other because frankly my grow space is too small, and I'd be so so sad if I lost my first grow to mold. I was thinking about chopping a decent amount of the lower leaves over the course of the next few days, as they're beginning to die anyways. There are also a few branches I think will never become anything, since they're so shaded from the top of the canopy, so I think I might as well get rid of them. After I do a little defoliation, I wanted to give them a week or so, then take some cuttings from each plant. I think this will help solve my problem with how crowded it is in the grow room.

Another week after that, training the new tops, I'll most likely flip to flower.

Looks good. Keep it going….

I noticed what looks like a nitrogen deficiency, especially in my sativas. The lower leaves were turning yellow and falling off at a rate I didn't like. Up until a few days ago, I was watering every other day, which I don't think is enough for these plants. The soil was always bone dry on watering days. I'm still running my fertilizer at 1/2 strength, but I'm now watering them every day.


(10/3) This is when I started wondering if I might have an issue, especially thinking about how dark green all my leaves used to be. My initial reaction was to turn down my lights, since I had recently raised them from 18" to 24" above the canopy, increasing the intensity to compensate. Some of the growth closest to the lights were also burning at the tips, which solidified the idea that it might be light burn.


(10/4) I waited a day before doing anything to see if the lower leaves would continue yellowing this way, which they did. After seeing this, I decided to start my new feeding schedule; 1.5tsp FFGB/gal water, 1 gallon of water per plant, daily.


Before watering today, I topped the 3 plants that I didn't break a big stem off of. I only took one cutting from each plant, since they don't look the healthiest right now, and I only took cuttings from the tallest branches, so that I might be able to save some space. The yellowing seems to be getting better, and new growth isn't burning anymore after turning my lights down to 60%.


Two of the cuttings are in peat pellets, the other two are in water mixed with a few drops of 3% peroxide. The cutting on the right looks like it's either rooting fairly well or dying very slowly. That's the fun of gardening, I think.


Here's what looks like roots trying to grow through my fabric pots.

I also saw some female preflowers on the Chem Cookies plant I broke the stem off of!


I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of growth, but I think I'll flip to 12/12 one week after today.

Looking good and watching this grow. I grew on (Lowes) racks just like that on my first grow before I got my tent just without the reflective surround. I used two racks then connected them with two of shelves I wasnt using making it 60 x 54 Enjoyed the adjustability just had to time my lighting with the sunlight that was coming in through french doors in that room. Bought the tent to change my light cycles to off peak hours with the power company. Peak is 24 cents a kilowatt off peak is 8 cents per kilowatt.

RamblinEvilMushroom said:

I noticed what looks like a nitrogen deficiency, especially in my sativas. The lower leaves were turning yellow and falling off at a rate I didn't like. Up until a few days ago, I was watering every other day, which I don't think is enough for these plants. The soil was always bone dry on watering days. I'm still running my fertilizer at 1/2 strength, but I'm now watering them every day.

View attachment 5004150
(10/3) This is when I started wondering if I might have an issue, especially thinking about how dark green all my leaves used to be. My initial reaction was to turn down my lights, since I had recently raised them from 18" to 24" above the canopy, increasing the intensity to compensate. Some of the growth closest to the lights were also burning at the tips, which solidified the idea that it might be light burn.

View attachment 5004149
(10/4) I waited a day before doing anything to see if the lower leaves would continue yellowing this way, which they did. After seeing this, I decided to start my new feeding schedule; 1.5tsp FFGB/gal water, 1 gallon of water per plant, daily.

~Week 7~
​

View attachment 5004147
Before watering today, I topped the 3 plants that I didn't break a big stem off of. I only took one cutting from each plant, since they don't look the healthiest right now, and I only took cuttings from the tallest branches, so that I might be able to save some space. The yellowing seems to be getting better, and new growth isn't burning anymore after turning my lights down to 60%.

View attachment 5004167
Two of the cuttings are in peat pellets, the other two are in water mixed with a few drops of 3% peroxide. The cutting on the right looks like it's either rooting fairly well or dying very slowly. That's the fun of gardening, I think.

View attachment 5004152
Here's what looks like roots trying to grow through my fabric pots.

I also saw some female preflowers on the Chem Cookies plant I broke the stem off of!
View attachment 5004148

I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of growth, but I think I'll flip to 12/12 one week after today.

Click to expand...

I heard twine wasn't great in a grow because the fibers can get in your buds. Plus they absorb water which could cause rot.