EsotericGrows - 1st Time Soil Grow - Royal Dwarf Grow Journal - 2015

EsotericGrows

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2x Royal Dwarf – Feminized Seeds
Specimin #2 and Specimin #3 (S#2 & S#3)
Seed Bank: Royal Queen Seeds

With a similar genetic background to our Easy Bud but crossed with Skunk to create a new autoflowering feminized variety. We call this bonsai-like autoflowering variety Royal Dwarf.

Royal Dwarf is a very compact plant. This compact structure, along with its tight buds, make it ideal for growing indoors or outdoors in reduced spaces. It is a mix of some of our best autoflowering strains crossed with an exceptional skunk female, which was then was crossed back to the autoflowering parent to retain its amazing autoflowering ability.

The skunk has given it a different flavour and slightly larger yield than other autoflowering varieties. This compact plant can produce up to 60 g a plant. Like most Skunk hybrids, Royal Dwarf has a very strong aroma and hard resin-covered buds.

Small and mighty, Royal Dwarf grows quickly, reaching an average height of 40 to 60 cm. Ready for harvest in just 8 to 9 weeks. The effect is much like a good old Skunk variety. It gives a mild social high and relaxing body stone. Small and easy to grow, this plant is great for any grower wanting to try out a different autoflowering variety.

THC 13%
CBD Low
Yield Indoor 150-200gr m2
Yield Outdoor 30-80 grams per plant dried
Height Indoor 40 - 70 cm
Height Outdoor 50 - 90 cm
Flowering time 6-7 Weeks
Harvest month 8-9 weeks after sprouting
Genetic Background Skunk x Ruderalis
Type Sativa: 60% Indica: 10% Ruderalis: 30%
Effect Physical stoned
SPECIMIN #2 & #3 PROGRESS LOG

Soil & Fertilizers



Lighting Used
Sun-GLO T8 Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb 15W 46cm, 18in



Day 1 (April 18, 2015) – During Evening. Germinated S#2 seed by placing it in a jar of water. Germinated S#3 seed in a wet paper towel.

Day 5 (April 22, 2015) – This was an exciting day for me since I was off work and able to follow this specimins progress throughout the day! The wet paper tower method worked much better and sprouted S#3 quicker and more prominently than the S#2 that was germinated in a jar of water. The seed that was placed in water just barely starting showing signs of birth. This seemed to be the case for all types of auto flowering seeds I tried no matter which strain. Paper towel just worked better than dropping directly in water. I just used room temperature tap water to germinate the seeds. I didn't let the water sit uncovered for a day as was suggested in some books I read which is supposed to release the chlorine from the water. The tap water in my area doesn't seem to have much chlorine and most of the seeds seem to have germinated fine despite skipping this step.


Day 4: S#2 Seed in jar of water


Day 4: S#3 Seed sprouting in paper towel

Day 5 (April 22, 2015) - S#3: I diluted ¼ of a 12g plant-prod All Purpose Fertilizer 20-20-20 pre-measured packet into 10 cups of water. I filled the filled the Jiffy Pots with the peat-based ORGANIC VEGETABLE & HERB MIX and of I then poured the 20-20-20 fertilizer water mixture into the pot until it saturated the grow medium and started draining from the bottom of the pot.



Day 5 (April 22, 2015) – S#3: Once the pot was prepared with the growing medium and moistened I moved the Royal Dwarf sprout into the pot. In just a couple hours it went from looking like the previous picture to this one.



Day 5 (April 22, 2015) – I couldn't believe the changes in next 2 hour period after I put a flourescent light from an old aquarium I used to own over the pot. The sprout stood up like it had a hard on for the light and started straightening out and stretching towards the light. These 2 photos were taken just 2 hours apart. This progress had me excited about what was going to happen with this thing since it seemed to have such a huge head start on all the other plants including the other Royal Dwarf seed that I tried germinating in a different manner.

Day 5 (April 22, 2015) – S#2 - I took the second seed, S#2 and moved it from the water to paper towel method in the morning since that seemed to be working better than dropping seeds directly into water. Later in the day I put it in grow medium that came with McKenzie Herb Garden Grow Kit that I had purchased at a Walmart. The blend it came with seemed to dry super fast and not hold moisture very well.

Day 6 (April 23, 2015) – During Evening.

S#2 This Mckenzie herb and garden growing kit grow medium did not seem ideal for cannabis. It dried so much more quickly than the other soils I tried and didn't seem to retain any moisture. Because the grow medium dried out so quickly I poured it out onto a glass container to sift through it to carefully recover the seed and move it to a different grow medium. I understand this probably causes a lot of stress and may kill the plant/seed ability to recover but if I leave it as is I don't think the plant would survive anyhow.



Here's the S#2 I was able to find it and it's showing severe signs of lack water and the sprout that came out of the seed has started shriveling up. A lesson on what not to use to grow expensive cannabis seeds in. I dropped the seed into a fresh jiffy pot filled with the pro mix that seems to be working well so far.


Day 7 (April 24, 2015) S#3 – During Morning. Holy crap man...what happened to this thing overnight?



The plant went from thriving to stretching sideways. Also the base of the stem seemed thinner than the rest. I wasn't sure if it was water deficiency or light stress that caused this overnight.



The soil seemed a bit dry so I added a bit of water and moved the light source further away from the plant. Within no time at all it stood straight up again. It makes me nervous that it flexes so easily though.

Day 8 (April 25, 2015) S#3


Solid green, appears to look healthy.

Day 9 (April 26, 2015) S#3



Started bending down away from the light. Soil looking a bit dry but it felt moist enough an inch or so deep.

Day 10 (April 27, 2015) S#3 –


Appears to be a good colour.

Day 11 (April 28, 2015) S#3 –



I put her in direct sunlight by the window during daylight hours. She started to twist a bit so I gave her some water in the early evening while the sun was still shining.

Moved her back under the SUNGLO 15W acquarium light during the times it's not getting direct sunlight. Still keeping under the sunglo 15w acquirium lights 24 hours a day when there's no sunlight available.

I'm thinking I better pickup some decent CFLs tomorrow because I'm not going to be able to afford the LED's I want for a while and I'm afraid that the Sunglo I'm using does not have the proper light spectrums for cannabis to thrive. It definitely likes the direct sunlight though.

Also the shrivelled up S#2 I moved from the Mckenzie Herb & Garden mix into the pro mix hadn't showed any progress the last few days so I recovered the seed again and put it back into wet paper towel to try to breath some life back into it. I'm pretty sure it's a goner at this point but going to try and save it even though I'll probably kill it from all the stress.

This is my first time grow so any suggestions and/or recommendations are greatly appreciated.
 
Day 14 (May 1, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 15 (May 2, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 17 (May 4, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 19 (May 6, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 22 (May 9, 2015) S#3 — I picked up some vermiculite and perlite to add to the soil mix of future plants and when I transplant to a bigger container I'll add 25% vermiculite/perlite mix to the soil. We were also hit by a record breaking heat wave that brought the temp to 30 degree celcius which cranked up the little file cabinet with poor ventilation up to 40 degrees celcius and these guys started scorching overnight while I was asleep. I decided I needed better ventilation so I'd turn to a welder friend to help me mod it. In the end I would up moving to a bigger wooden closet that I could mod myself.

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Day 24 (May 11, 2015) S#3 — I picked up some sockets & power bars for CFL bulbs. I got a variety of 2700K and 6500k bulbs at 23w and 42 w.

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Day 26 (May 13, 2015) S#3 —

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Subbed if you have any questions feel free to ask. Next time get some of those jiffy pods for your seedlings and also try to put your seedlings in to the soil sooner it's easier for them to adjust to the medium and with seedlings less nutrients is more. It encourages a healthy root growth for the little ones. The little ones are searching for light thats why they're streching like that.
 
Thanks Spart, I've started reading some of your other posts...some very good info in there and I really like how you use elastics to bend your plants to your will. I guess I've got a lot of learning to do for training the plants and shaping them the way I want for optimal yield. When you say "jiffy pods for your seedlings" are you referring to this product: Jiffy-7® ? Pellets - Jiffy Products (Jiffy-7® — Peat Pellets and Coco Pellets). The next thing I'm going to look at is trying to get some clones off this thing. The thing I like about it most is they say it has a Flowering time of 6-7 Weeks and a the harvest month 8-9 weeks after sprouting. I'm guessing that's why it's growing so much faster and larger in the beginning than the other strains. The northern lights auto is still super small and even the 2 fast 2 vast auto is pretty small compared to the dwarf.

After doing further reading early in the grow I realize now that the sunglo fluorescent lamp was pretty useless for growing plants and things really started happening when I changed up the lighting source to 10,000 lumens total from an array of CFL bulbs. I read that direct sunlight outdoors gives off approximately 10,000 lumens so right now I'm running 3x 23w 1600 lumen 6500k CFL's, 1x 42w 2600 lumen 6500k CFL, and 1x 42w 2600 lumen 2700k CFL during the vegetation stage. That's only 150 watts of power consumption total so it's no different than me leaving on 2 75w incandescent bulbs all the time in terms of electricity used and it seems to have made the plants very happy. The thin stem is now thickening out and it's sprouting up so much quicker than all the other plants.

I think I'm probably being wasteful with my light source since I don't have a reflector or Mylar lining to reflect the wasted light back onto the plants but I'm just using what resources I have at my disposal for now and will add those once I'm able to acquire them.

Another important lesson I've learned from you Spart is to really gotta watch out for my cat... those little critters always running infront of us and tripping us up...spilling strike auto dirt all over the place. haha Luckily I haven't taken a spill yet from Kiki but I know I do gotta secure my lighting better because it's come close to falling and crushing my plants a few times already.
 
My little cheesy auto literally has one light on her for a few hours each night but again she's an outdoor one. I personally wouldn't bother taking a clone from an autoflower as they are limited to the life spain of the mother plant and wont grow much after the colon is taken. Figure if you take the clone 4 weeks into growth she'll have an additional 4 -5 weeks til harvest with establishing a root system as well. I didn't spill the dirt the entire plant did a flip and landed on her head. Doesn't matter tho it was only a few days til full rippen. Are these going to be staying indoors or going outdoors?? If there staying inside I wouldn't be putting them in the sun as they would get a different spectrum of lighting and might shock them into becoming hermaphrodites. Have you thought of instead of getting a bunch of cfls just getting one 125w or two 60w mixed spectrum.
 
Day 27 (May 14, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 28 (May 15, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 29 (May 16, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 30 (May 17, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 31 (May 18, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 33 (May 20, 2015) S#3 —

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Day 34 (May 21, 2015) S#3 —

I wanted to link to a thread from Cruiser on this day Re: New growth from Cotyledons? for future reference. I'm curious about Cotyledons and I want to learn more about what they are, what a node is and pruning/trimming/training/cloning techniques people use.

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That's some good Promix Shouldn't need any additional Fertilizer, at least not until she uses up what's in the mix. I would let the water sit overnight before watering, just in case. You don't want to kill what's in your mix.

How about a picture of your setup, I used pipe cleaners to hang my fluorescent lights. I don't know, it could just be me but I like all 6500k bulbs in veg and a mix in flower.
 
I personally wouldn't bother taking a clone from an autoflower as they are limited to the life spain of the mother plant and wont grow much after the colon is taken. Figure if you take the clone 4 weeks into growth she'll have an additional 4 -5 weeks til harvest with establishing a root system as well.

OMG thank you for pointing that out. I feel so foolish for not paying enough attention to the description of the plant and catching that it was auto-flowering. For some reason I thought the dwarf was the only non auto-flowering seed variety that I had purchased because they didn't suffix "AUTO" at the end of the name of the strain. They just listed it as Royal Dwarf Feminized and not Royal Dwarf Auto Feminized - so I totally missed that it was an Auto...even though it clearly says it's auto-flowering in the description. OK so the clone idea is off the table and I guess if I don't get a decent yield from these within their time span than I'm out $100 for the 8 seeds I bought so I gotta make the remaining grow time count on these and start from scratch when finding a new mother plant to grow indoors during the fall and winter months.

Are these going to be staying indoors or going outdoors?? If there staying inside I wouldn't be putting them in the sun as they would get a different spectrum of lighting and might shock them into becoming hermaphrodites.

They're all different strains I'm growing and I guess outdoors would be optimal for them. I'll have to make that decision this weekend since May 24 is the usually the recommended outdoor planting date in our climate. So far I have been giving the dwarf some window sunlight for 4-5 hours during the afternoons when the direct sunlight shines into this side of the house.

Have you thought of instead of getting a bunch of cfls just getting one 125w or two 60w mixed spectrum.

Yes I found some I wanted to order from 1000bulbs.com and I found some LED grow lights and nutrients I wanted to buy from amazon but unfortunately they don't accept paypal. I haven't got my credit card yet that I'm waiting on so I can do the online purchases that require a credit card and don't accept debit from Canadian bank cards. To got the seeds I used using a $100 visa gift card but I didn't want to have to keep using gift cards for every online purchase so I'm just waiting on my mastercard to arrive. The 23w bulbs are more accessible from local retailers but the largest I could find was 42w at local retailers and it cost $20 for a single 42w 2600 lumen 6500k bulb at home depot - so not cheap. I lucked out with the 42w 2700k bulbs and found a limited stock of them and bought all 5 they had for $3 each. If I could find where to get higher wattage bulbs at a reasonable price without requiring a credit card I'd be happy to pick some up.
 
Day 35 (May 22, 2015) S#3 — I decided to transplant it into a larger container today because I thought it was outgrowing the container it was currently in. Unfortunately a bunch of roots detatched when I removed it from the old container but at least they looked really healthy.

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Just curious but whats the size of your grow space

Here's what I've got to work with for grow space.

How about a picture of your setup, I used pipe cleaners to hang my fluorescent lights. I don't know, it could just be me but I like all 6500k bulbs in veg and a mix in flower.

I still don't have a permanent setup completed yet. I guess this is what my temp setup looks like at the moment...but sometimes I move them to the window to get direct sunlight and I usually lean a board across to cover them up and shade the bright light from blinding me:
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I thought I read that both types are useful during veg but mostly useful is 6500k because it uses more blue during veg and uses more red during flower. Did I read wrong and red isn't useful during veg?

Whats the ec on that soil on that soil??

What's ec mean?
 
Should say on the bag. For an surface area of that size and with the height of the growth area I'm gonna suggest you make a reflector as soon as possible, there's plenty of examples for them on this site.

It doesn't say anything on the bag about ec. Here's all my meter readings.


Light meter, I believe this measurement is in lumens and I noticed just a half inch distance from the lights makes a huge difference.
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This is the moisture meter function measuring the moisture of the grow medium. It's pretty much perfect at dead center of the "good" mark.
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Here's a closeup of the pH meter function.
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To measure the pH I had to collect soil below 2" of the surface of the container the plant is growing in and mix it with water until it turns to mud. Then after wiping off the tester probe with a soft dry cloth I had to insert it 4-5" into the sample of "mud"for one minute before taking note of the reading.
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Here's the measurement of the temperature and humidity where I've been growing them. Eventually I'll be using these tools to get the closet and file cabinet all modded with ventilation, lighting, power and fans for aeration all setup properly so it's ready to grow in.
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I'm still not sure how to measure ec or where to find that information on the bag it came in. I couldn't see it on there anywhere.
 
I read the article here and I don't have any of the required tools for measuring EC.

The ph is high.. are you using phed your water at all or just using tap water?

I'm just using tap water, it's from the well - we live on a farm. I don't think it's got chlorine added like city water.
 
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