Gwn's first Medicine Grow

[Gwn]

Hi everyone! I am creating my first (legal) medical marijuana grow journal. I'm very excited as I've never successfully grown marijuana from start to finish. I have a 4x4x5.5 tent, 400w mh/hps, two inline fans and carbon scrubber. It's a soil grow as I'm an avid produce gardener. I have attached some images.

 

[dreamer042]

Looking like you are off to a fine a start. :thumb_up:

Are you just doing the single plant? Which strain? Are you gonna go with LST techniques or supercropping or similar methods to get them colas?

P.S. - If you just going with the one plant, you've quite a bit of extra light space that could be well filled with a cactus friend or two. 8)

 

[Gwn]

Looking like you are off to a fine a start. :thumb_up:

Are you just doing the single plant? Which strain? Are you gonna go with LST techniques or supercropping or similar methods to get them colas?

P.S. - If you just going with the one plant, you've quite a bit of extra light space that could be well filled with a cactus friend or two. 8)

Thanks dreamer! I am just testing the waters with a single topping and some LST. I will be pinning the stem horizontal in the next day or two in an attempt to provide more cola sites. I've done quite a bit of reading over the years; I'll likely attempt a few of the techniques to get a feel. I will be starting some feminized hybrid seeds "Lemon Cookies" in the coming days as I do have some vegative growing capacity in a separate tent.

The strain is an unknown indica of the current single plant.

I have some viable yopo and morning glory I plan to add to the mix soon. I have yet to order some cacti seeds, but they are next on the list!

 

[Gwn]

I've started my LST. I'm going to let little Mary recover from this initial bend for a few days before spreading her out back around the pot!

 

[Gwn]

Well little Mary is coming along nicely. The LST has proven extremely effective for producing multiple cola production sites. I will be training and thinning her tomorrow, but I thought I would share the progress from the second training.

 

[○]

That lst is looking real nice. Great job for a first time.

 

[Gwn]

That lst is looking real nice. Great job for a first time.

Thanks tatt! There has been a bit of a learning curve. Marijuana really does not like water! I let the soil go nearly bone dry before waterings now.

 

[○]

That lst is looking real nice. Great job for a first time.

Thanks tatt! There has been a bit of a learning curve. Marijuana really does not like water! I let the soil go nearly bone dry before waterings now.

Yeah, you get a feel sooner or later in how the plant will respond to water, especially at each stage, plus many other factors - temp, rh, intake/exhaust, sq ft, etc and how all those things can affect transpiration and whatnot. I typically go by the feel of the pot - totally dry or near dry vs watered, lift the corner and get the feeling n weight, and over time it just takes a quick moment to lift up the corner and know by the weight.

Just did my first grow over the last few months and I learned a nice bit, some trial and error but got a nice harvest at the end. Nice to see someone else new. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[arcologist]

Consider building a scrog net with PVC pipe and really thick fishing line/natural twine. I prefer about 2" spacing. You will be able to control the growth much more easily and make a monster wide plant with 50+ tops if you veg long enough (yield goes up about 1.5-2x for every extra week, but be careful you don't run out of room because they stretch 2x-3x in height depending on strain during flower). Grow the plant's tops horizontally under the scrog net, pulling them back under to the next square each time they are 3" over the top of the net, aim for 1 top/bud site per square. You should have a very wide plant that is only 1-2" over the net when you flip to flowering. At this point you stop training them unless you run out of vertical space.

Weeks 2-3 of flower the tops stretch and should end up 8-12" over the net, lower light if they stretch too fast, too tall and they will shadow lower buds too much. After stretch, pull off all fan leaves that block lower bud sites, usually all but the lowest and top leaves. It's critical to have direct light on lower buds or yield will be greatly reduced, don't be shy with pulling leaves, they will grow more leaves around the buds (hence directing nutrients to buds instead of fan leaves). You can also tie down branches to let more light in to the lower buds. I also remove any growth or bud sites much below the net height (8" over dirt).

When you get into mid-late flower, pay careful attention to humidity, especially at night or you can have mold problems in the best buds. Keep it around 50%, and ensure there is air movement through the entire plant. Don't let buds lean onto each other or other surfaces (e.g. scrog net, leaves), this can cause localized pockets of high humidity that eventually mold and rot. On harvest, break down the plant into 1ft branches, pull off major fan leaves, then hang them to dry as-is in 50% humidity. If you trim them while wet, or use too low humidity, they dry too fast and you end up with crispy bud that smokes poorly and has little smell/flavor (terpenes carried away by water vapor). I've tried both ways and it is much better to trim dry. Hang dry about 7 days in darkness with good airflow until stem bends (but not quite snaps). Trim with small scissors with fine point (sewing scissors work well) over a plastic bin (capture kief). Place in glass jars and burp jars every few days (as you consume). Turn the trim into edibles (coconut oil soak) or do a solvent extract/evap (naphtha or acetone) to get concentrates.

 

[Gwn]

It's been a while so I thought I'd give an update. I've switched over to flowering. I thinned little Mary quite a bit, maybe too much. But a little thinner is ok, I'm mostly worried about mold. It's my first time so it's definitely a learning experience.

Arcologist- thanks for the detailed reply! I definitely plan to scrog for my next harvest, but this was my first time, and I only had one plant.

I've started a whole bunch of clones for the next grow (scrog). Hope you like the pics!

 

[Tommi]

Looks amazing @Gwn. Do the lollipopping, check your RH. Pruning the bottom of the plant to let the better airflow (especially considering it is indica), it's called lollipopping. Oscillating fan is a good thing, helps to replicate the breeze of outdoors, helping the plants to transpirate CO2.

Some tips: never have dead leaves and stuff like that in your growing area, it quickly attracts diseases and pests. Electricity plus water is bad, that wire and a bowl of water looks scary, just sayin' :shock: . To always know the perfect position for your HPS, tie a yarn nearby the light, it's 35 centimeters or 14 inches for 400w HPS. If you harvest it a bit later, rather than earlier, it will have more medical benefits (because it will produce more CBD, trust me). Now your tips of the leaves are curling and clawing, it could be because of nutrient burn (and many other things of course). Don't use too much nutrients, it will not help the plant, it will accumulate in buds making them taste bad, and burn bad. Don't forget to use only water for last 2 weeks of flowering, it is called flushing (if only someone told me that while I was growing for first time!).

There's as well a fun way to cure the buds I must share, even though you are not nearing the harvest yet. You will need: jar, caliber III hygrometer. Dry the buds until the stems bends/snaps, but not breaks. Put them in a jar along with caliber III hygrometer. The readings as follows.

+70% RH - too wet, needs to sit outside the jar to dry for 12-24 hours, depending.
65-70% RH - the product is almost in the cure zone, if you will. It can be slowly brought to optimum RH by opening the lid for 2-4 hours.
60-65% RH - the stems snap, the product feels a bit sticky, and it is curing.
55-60% RH - at this point it can be stored for an extended period (3 months or more) without worrying about mold. The product will continue to cure.

Have fun growing the medicine :thumb_up:

 

[Ulim]

:want:
A small tip. For tropical plants i found it to be best to wash the seeds according to the germination tatics (Heat bath or something depends on plant)
And then just place em into a platic cup with lid below the grow lights.
The soil gets sterilised by soakin some water into it and then microwaving.
Then you quickly sow the seeds and close it.

This way you can evade lotsa mold problems/Gnats. Usually you also need to wait quite some time for some seeds to start.
Crack open the top of the cup once or twice tho so the plants get some fresh air.
This is for example lots of starfruit seeds I started from storebought fruit.
They took a long time to start (3 weeks in wet soil almost) but once they all cracked open I tranferred them into my cup.
Im also lookin into simulating tropical forest better.
I have tropical crabs so I already got that knawligge. Just gotta put it into practice.

 

[Gwn]

Looks amazing @Gwn. Do the lollipopping, check your RH. Pruning the bottom of the plant to let the better airflow (especially considering it is indica), it's called lollipopping. Oscillating fan is a good thing, helps to replicate the breeze of outdoors, helping the plants to transpirate CO2.

Some tips: never have dead leaves and stuff like that in your growing area, it quickly attracts diseases and pests. Electricity plus water is bad, that wire and a bowl of water looks scary, just sayin' :shock: . To always know the perfect position for your HPS, tie a yarn nearby the light, it's 35 centimeters or 14 inches for 400w HPS. If you harvest it a bit later, rather than earlier, it will have more medical benefits (because it will produce more CBD, trust me). Now your tips of the leaves are curling and clawing, it could be because of nutrient burn (and many other things of course). Don't use too much nutrients, it will not help the plant, it will accumulate in buds making them taste bad, and burn bad. Don't forget to use only water for last 2 weeks of flowering, it is called flushing (if only someone told me that while I was growing for first time!).

There's as well a fun way to cure the buds I must share, even though you are not nearing the harvest yet. You will need: jar, caliber III hygrometer. Dry the buds until the stems bends/snaps, but not breaks. Put them in a jar along with caliber III hygrometer. The readings as follows.

+70% RH - too wet, needs to sit outside the jar to dry for 12-24 hours, depending.
65-70% RH - the product is almost in the cure zone, if you will. It can be slowly brought to optimum RH by opening the lid for 2-4 hours.
60-65% RH - the stems snap, the product feels a bit sticky, and it is curing.
55-60% RH - at this point it can be stored for an extended period (3 months or more) without worrying about mold. The product will continue to cure.

Have fun growing the medicine :thumb_up:

Thanks Tommi for the detailed reply!

I will admit I did leave it too long for clearing out the dead low lying leaves. I have a spidermite attack now. My other 70 house plants have had an issue for the past few weeks with them, and when lollipoping I believe they got on the cannabis. I've used some natural pyrethrin in an attempt to get some control.

I will definitely try the early pull, and curing techniques that you've enclosed. I am authorized to produce due to some mild anxiety and CBD rich strains are my main focus.

I've been waiting for my local hydroponic shop to restock some fans as they only have currently non oscillating. I also have a Co2 bottle that I used to use for my aquariums,.... I'm considering argumenting my tent with it.

PS: the "wire" you mentioned is actually the ratchet string to raise the cool tube! I have raised it as suggested.

Ulim, I'm fairly certain that marijuana is not tropical lol, but good advice none the less! I do have a plethora of tropical plants. They seem most happy when I crank the humidifier and mist twice a day.

 

[Tommi]

I will definitely try the early pull

Whoops, it's actually late pull! Early pull gives stimulant properties to cannabis, users sometimes tends to become psychotic. Pretty good example are skunk growers, harvesting too early...

100x microscope is a great tool to harvest at the time of your preference. The good timed chop will give best qualities. However, medicinal growers will harvest as late as 90% of trichomes becoming amber. The timing of CBD peaking. The terpene content is amazing as well when you harvest a bit later, rather than earlier.

Great idea to grow CBD strains as medications.

Bottled CO2 are great. Take note, growth will speed up, the plant will uptake water and nutrients a bit faster. The plant will tolerate higher temperatures as well. There is CO2 buckets and CO2 bags as well, that produces CO2 from organic sources and are very easy to use! Make sure CO2 doesn't gets to root level, it is healthy for canopy, but toxic to roots. Good idea is to add oscillating fan pointing upwards.

Edit: sorry about the light, you can put it as close to plant as 6 inches or 15 centimeters, as long as you can hold your hand without it getting too hot. Putting it closer than that, may result in light pollution. Graph. Bad advice! Forgive me @Gwn :d

Best of luck @Gwn, enjoy growing this amazing plant. :thumb_up: