bootleggar
Member
Hey guys, first post on RIU, but I've been watching the forums for several months (how many times have you heard that). I've gained practically all my growing knowledge from this site, so I thought I'd give back by sharing my recent experience. I spent months meticulously planning my micro-cab grow, and had the perfect window of time to accomplish it and enjoy the process. After much research, I decided to grow hempy style, with a drainage tray below the plants, cfl for lights, and orion fans for active intake and exhaust -- intake drawing cool air from outside, exhaust filtered through small diy carbon filter blowing into my room.
My first and really only mistake after all this planning was to use bag seed, which I thought was a great idea for a first grow. Started with 5 seeds, after germination, two plants grew strong during seedling phase, so I kept them. I grew these two plants like they were my children, used fox farm hydro nutes and brita water ph'd to ~6.1, and all was great for the first four weeks -- only issue growing was some light burn on the leaf tips from a few hot days while I wasn't around to raise the lights. Most days were around 78 degrees, nights around 55 degrees (sometimes getting into the 40's until I changed my intake setup, then nights stayed around mid 60's). No signs of deficiencies.
I was feeling really proud to make it to the flowering stage, about 10 days ago I switched to 12/12. To my shock, I Immediately began seeing the preflower pods. I gave the plants the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe those pods will bloom into beautiful white pistols! What a dream... Well, needless to say this did not happen. After about a week of seeing these single pods turn into bunches of pods, I knew I was in denial and my plants were both male. I pitched one of them without hesitation, but the other had beautiful indica pheno's and I just couldn't bring myself to chop it down. The ten days I mentioned passed, and here I am with an ironic twist. Not only is this plant male, but it released some of its pollen the other day -- and man, I am highly allergic! HAHA -- Adding insult to injury, I am now wheezing and congested while writing this post, and left buddless after all this damn effort!
I can't say I didn't enjoy the progress, patience, and discipline of growing, but I have to admit I saw all my time and money invested flush down the toilet (literally). A tip of the hat goes out to all of you who endure the intricacies of growing, and are still able to enjoy it, and share your knowledge. Peace roll-it-up, and all the folks who took the time to read!
My first and really only mistake after all this planning was to use bag seed, which I thought was a great idea for a first grow. Started with 5 seeds, after germination, two plants grew strong during seedling phase, so I kept them. I grew these two plants like they were my children, used fox farm hydro nutes and brita water ph'd to ~6.1, and all was great for the first four weeks -- only issue growing was some light burn on the leaf tips from a few hot days while I wasn't around to raise the lights. Most days were around 78 degrees, nights around 55 degrees (sometimes getting into the 40's until I changed my intake setup, then nights stayed around mid 60's). No signs of deficiencies.
I was feeling really proud to make it to the flowering stage, about 10 days ago I switched to 12/12. To my shock, I Immediately began seeing the preflower pods. I gave the plants the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe those pods will bloom into beautiful white pistols! What a dream... Well, needless to say this did not happen. After about a week of seeing these single pods turn into bunches of pods, I knew I was in denial and my plants were both male. I pitched one of them without hesitation, but the other had beautiful indica pheno's and I just couldn't bring myself to chop it down. The ten days I mentioned passed, and here I am with an ironic twist. Not only is this plant male, but it released some of its pollen the other day -- and man, I am highly allergic! HAHA -- Adding insult to injury, I am now wheezing and congested while writing this post, and left buddless after all this damn effort!
I can't say I didn't enjoy the progress, patience, and discipline of growing, but I have to admit I saw all my time and money invested flush down the toilet (literally). A tip of the hat goes out to all of you who endure the intricacies of growing, and are still able to enjoy it, and share your knowledge. Peace roll-it-up, and all the folks who took the time to read!
