Whats up everyone! I'm Jaygull. This is my first grow journal and my first time growing. I thought I would start a journal here so that I can look back on it to see my progress, remember all the mistakes I made so that hopefully I won't make them again, other members here can give me some pointers, and perhaps this may help out other newbies like myself.
So why "Cart before the horse" you ask? Well I've never even tried MJ. Not once. I'm in California and we just recently made it legal for recreational use. Unfortunately we can't buy it yet and I'm interested to try things out. I thought I'd grow a little to see how I like it as a replacement for alcohol.
I'd been doing quite a bit of research/reading to see what was involved and how to go about things. I've also doen a fair amount of gardening (planted in the ground, not pots and not from seed) so I thought this shouldn't be too hard. I ordered some Bubblelicious auto-flowering feminized seeds from nirvanashop.com which got me 5 seeds, plus 10 of their mystery seeds. Being one who values hands on experience I dove in and got started with the Bubblelicious seeds right away. Knowing what I know now I wish I had started with the mystery seeds as my learning experience. So here's whats happened with the seeds so far.
BL #1 - I mixed my own soil using packaged garden soil, peet, perlite, vermiculite and worm castings. I germinated it in a solo cup and it sprouted in a week. Then the mistakes began. I barely let the first set of true leaves come up before transplanting to a 5 gallon container and started all sorts of over-watering problems. Not to mention being an outdoor grow in January was probably way to cold for it. The little greenhouse tent I had it in did little to keep it warm at night and was too much heat and humidity during the day. It never grew much more than 2 small sets of leaves.
BL #2 - I still hadn't figured out my problem. I decided to plant it directly in a 5 gallon container. It sprouted in about a week and then the over-watering problems started again. The little plant just drowns in the big pots. Its still alive, almost 2 months old and barely bigger than a quarter.
BL #3 - I kind of started to figure out my over-watering problem by this point. So I checked out what potting soil I could get locally and what the grow community was saying about it. I found Kellogs potting soil was generally thought to be too woody but people have had success with it. I picked some of that up and planted seed 3 in a 5 gallon container. It sprouted in about a week and then fell to the same fate as the last 2 seeds. to much water in a 5 gallon container just doesn't dry out fast enough. By this time I finally started to learn that. I've since transplanted it to a 1 gallon container but it hasn't helped. the root ball was so small when I transplanted it that it easily would have fit into a solo cup. And that was after over 1 month.
BL #4 - I finally started learning my over-watering lesson. I started in a solo cup using some Jiffy seedling mix. This one sprouted in about 5 days. The stem was growing nice and long and the first set of leaves was growing bigger than any of my previous plants had. Then I transplanted it to a 2 gallon air-pot, probably too soon. Its in a mix of the Kellogs potting soil, perlite and Jiffy seedling mix. Its been in the air pot for only about 5 days but its actually doing pretty good showing noticeable growth. The airpot dries out much faster than the regular pot so I'm hoping I can keep a handle on it. The airpot is actually a fish pond filter basket but it holds the soil and gives plenty of air from the bottom and sides.
BL #5 - I just planted this one in Jiffy mix in a solo cup 2 days ago and I'm waiting for it to sprout. I'm determined to leave this one alone in its solo cup until its roots are more established before transplanting. I ordered a real airpot and some fox farm soil which will be here before this one gets transplanted.
MYS #1 - I planted one of the mystery seeds in a Jiffy mix solo cup about 5 days ago. I'm still waiting for it to sprout. I may just use this plant as a learning experience since I have no idea what it will be.
Hopefully all this isn't too long winded but I wanted to get that out there for posterity. I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow.
So why "Cart before the horse" you ask? Well I've never even tried MJ. Not once. I'm in California and we just recently made it legal for recreational use. Unfortunately we can't buy it yet and I'm interested to try things out. I thought I'd grow a little to see how I like it as a replacement for alcohol.
I'd been doing quite a bit of research/reading to see what was involved and how to go about things. I've also doen a fair amount of gardening (planted in the ground, not pots and not from seed) so I thought this shouldn't be too hard. I ordered some Bubblelicious auto-flowering feminized seeds from nirvanashop.com which got me 5 seeds, plus 10 of their mystery seeds. Being one who values hands on experience I dove in and got started with the Bubblelicious seeds right away. Knowing what I know now I wish I had started with the mystery seeds as my learning experience. So here's whats happened with the seeds so far.
BL #1 - I mixed my own soil using packaged garden soil, peet, perlite, vermiculite and worm castings. I germinated it in a solo cup and it sprouted in a week. Then the mistakes began. I barely let the first set of true leaves come up before transplanting to a 5 gallon container and started all sorts of over-watering problems. Not to mention being an outdoor grow in January was probably way to cold for it. The little greenhouse tent I had it in did little to keep it warm at night and was too much heat and humidity during the day. It never grew much more than 2 small sets of leaves.
BL #2 - I still hadn't figured out my problem. I decided to plant it directly in a 5 gallon container. It sprouted in about a week and then the over-watering problems started again. The little plant just drowns in the big pots. Its still alive, almost 2 months old and barely bigger than a quarter.
BL #3 - I kind of started to figure out my over-watering problem by this point. So I checked out what potting soil I could get locally and what the grow community was saying about it. I found Kellogs potting soil was generally thought to be too woody but people have had success with it. I picked some of that up and planted seed 3 in a 5 gallon container. It sprouted in about a week and then fell to the same fate as the last 2 seeds. to much water in a 5 gallon container just doesn't dry out fast enough. By this time I finally started to learn that. I've since transplanted it to a 1 gallon container but it hasn't helped. the root ball was so small when I transplanted it that it easily would have fit into a solo cup. And that was after over 1 month.
BL #4 - I finally started learning my over-watering lesson. I started in a solo cup using some Jiffy seedling mix. This one sprouted in about 5 days. The stem was growing nice and long and the first set of leaves was growing bigger than any of my previous plants had. Then I transplanted it to a 2 gallon air-pot, probably too soon. Its in a mix of the Kellogs potting soil, perlite and Jiffy seedling mix. Its been in the air pot for only about 5 days but its actually doing pretty good showing noticeable growth. The airpot dries out much faster than the regular pot so I'm hoping I can keep a handle on it. The airpot is actually a fish pond filter basket but it holds the soil and gives plenty of air from the bottom and sides.
BL #5 - I just planted this one in Jiffy mix in a solo cup 2 days ago and I'm waiting for it to sprout. I'm determined to leave this one alone in its solo cup until its roots are more established before transplanting. I ordered a real airpot and some fox farm soil which will be here before this one gets transplanted.
MYS #1 - I planted one of the mystery seeds in a Jiffy mix solo cup about 5 days ago. I'm still waiting for it to sprout. I may just use this plant as a learning experience since I have no idea what it will be.
Hopefully all this isn't too long winded but I wanted to get that out there for posterity. I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow.
