BBD32's First Grow - 6 Strains - 12 Plants - 1000W - Medical Grow!

[BBD32]

Hello all, like it says in the title I am starting my first grow with 12 plants. This is a medical grow. Here in Michigan we are allowed no more than 12 plants and no more than 2.5 ounces of usable medicine per patient. I am going to be doing a perpetual grow, hopefully my timing isn't too far off since I want to stay completely legal.

I am a caregiver only and do not smoke myself. I only have 1 patient and am doing this for free (Patient is family). Ive always wanted to try growing even though I don't smoke so this actually worked out quite well for me. If all goes well and I end up really enjoying it, i may take on additional patients requiring a donation but thats TBD. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a journal at first but decided it is better than constantly posting in the FAQ section.

Enough about me, here is what I am working with:

What strain? 2x-LSD 1x-Super Silver Haze 2x-Super Lemon Haze 2x-Northern Lights 4x-Pineapple Chunk 1x-Blue Cheese
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Not positive.
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Vegging
If in Veg... For how long? Seeds were Planted 3-3-15 (53 Days)
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Using M3 (Michigan Made Mix)
If soil... What size pot? 5 gal
Size of light? 1000w Magnum XXXL Hood w/ Lumatek dimmable ballast
Is it air-cooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? Lights off 65-68 & Lights on 76-78
RH of Room/cab? Lights off 31-35 & Lights on 45-48
PH of media or res? 6.5
Any Pests ? Not yet
How often are you watering? 4-5 Days
Type and strength of ferts used? None... Using start to finish soil

I planted the seeds in small pots and kept them under a 4-bulb T5 HO 54w 6500k bulbs. But I have ran into many issues. The first issue was pH lockout. Started with Pro mix and after 4 weeks and 4" plants I realized the mix was at a pH of 8.2. I then transplanted into M3 soil mix and kept a close eye on the pH. Next was some sort of deficiency followed by slight burning of the leaves and heat stress.

I am going to be adding an additional 1000w MH within the next week or so because there is not a whole lot of light penetrating to the lower half of the plants. First chance I get I am going to put together a quick flowering room so I can start switching some of the plants over. The plan is to continuously move 2 plants every 2 weeks from seedling room to veg to flower. Hopefully without a month long growth halt that will work out to about 2.5 ounces every couple of weeks.

If you have any suggestions, concerns, criticisms, or questions please feel free to voice them below. Im looking for all the help I can get.

So let me catch you up really quick...

Started out very slow!!! Roughly 2 weeks from seed.

Then I realized the pH was way too high in the pro-mix and transplanted at exactly 5 weeks from seed.

Here they are 4-13-15 at 41 days... Going under 1000w MH for the first time.

47 Days

And finally 4-26-15 Yesterday (Day 55)

The tallest ones are about 14" and the smallest around 10"... I know, TINY for 53 days of vegging. So feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.

 

[BBD32]

I would like to get some opinions on how close I should be to to my goal of 2.5 every 2 weeks. I understand that my first few harvests of two plants should be considerably lower then my goal, but I'm hoping that by the time I harvest the oldest 2 plants I won't be over 1.25 ounces a plant. I also know it's difficult to predict a final result, but what I'm looking for is just to make sure I won't be way over or way under.

 

[BBD32]

Any idea if i should be close to my goal? Also I will add a couple more photos in just a little bit.

 

[Dan Ultra]

Subbed!

You should probably be able to hit 1-1.5 ounces per plant. Give or take.

They look nice and healthy.

Keep in mind that the longer they stay in veg, the more they will produce. So since you started them all at the same time, your later harvests will be bigger

 

[BBD32]

Welcome... And having the last plants too big is a major concern for me. Could I strip a few nodes off before flowering to keep the yield down? Or will that cause too much stress on the plants?

 

[Dan Ultra]

Yeah, but that would be a real big waste. You could always top them and take clones and then have your next plants set up as well.

 

[BBD32]

I do have 2 other patients that want to sign up with me, I was just hoping to have a harvest or 2 under my belt before I branched out. But im not sure I could bring myself to throw away all that bud. I think I'm going to flower the weakest plants to make room to take clones from the strongest ones. Like you suggested.

Oh and I probably should have posted above that all my seeds are femanized and ordered from Herbies.

 

[BBD32]

As promised, more pics... Going to give them some water tomorrow, that will make it 5 days since the last watering.

 

[BBD32]

I was reading some other journals and it seems purple have very different opinions on defoliating. Is this something I should consider doing?

 

[Dan Ultra]

I am a big fan of defol

 

[BBD32]

I may end up giving that a whirl. Well patient #2 paperwork is in the mail so now I don't have to worry about going over. Here's a couple more pics.

Is there anything else I should be doing? Anymore topping? FIM? Or just let them grow from here on out?

 

[BBD32]

Has anyone else used this M3? Aka ( Michigan made mix... Aka medical marijuana mix.) I'm just wondering if anyone added any nutrients. This last watering I gave them some organic calmag and they seem to like it. So now I'm wondering what else I could try.

 

[BBD32]

I did the light feeding of the calmag a couple days ago... I will be upping the amount next time since they really took off after receiving it. I had something come up though so these will have to stay in veg for another couple weeks before I switch any to flower.

Here's a few more pics.

 

[BBD32]

Got some free time tomorrow so I will be hooking up my 2nd 1000w MH light. Just like the first its a xxxl hood and using a lumatek ballast. Having 12 plants under a single 1000w light was clearly not going to work. The plan was to have a 1k in the veg and 2k in the flower room. Im picking up a couple more lights in the morning, new plan is 2k/3k in the veg and 2k/3k in the flower. I will have 5 setups total so we will see which room needs the 3rd light, hopefully i won't have to buy anymore than that.

 

[Dan Ultra]

That's some bills right there. Typically 100-150W per plant is ideal, as long as the footprint is wide enough. I take it heat is not a concern?

 

[BBD32]

The thing I'm concerned with is the light penetration. With the single 1k light my lights footprint forces me to keep the plants touching each other. Makes it very difficult to water and rotate the plants when they're so close. As for the heat, I have the room staying roughly 72-74 degrees now without any type of air conditioning. The warmer it gets outside the better it is for my grow room because my furnace won't kick on. If needed I have a 13k btu portable air conditioner/heater I can use.

Well I ended up buying 4 more hoods. I now have 6 total, hopefully I don't have to use them all but at least I have them if I do. Decided to go with 1 more large hood for veg and 3 medium sized hoods for flowering, everything I've read says the concentrated light during flowering will really help with the lower bud production. I will have the 2nd large 1k hooked up tonight. Also had to add a carbon filter with an 8" hurricane inline fan to cut down on smell. Not worried about anyone noticing but the smell is pretty much taking over the entire house.

 

[Steviodaddio]

Glad to see you're investing in some good equipment. Have you invested into a light controller/timer yet for your ballasts? I use the Titan Helios and I would recommend them to everyone. Also, do you run your ballasts at 120v or 240v?

Just out of curiosity, why are you worried about yielding too much!? Never hurts to keep extra bud around curing for patients or dispensaries. If you're worried about the 2.5 oz per patient of usable bud, if it's curing until "X" date then it is not considered usable. Slap your extra in the biggest jars you can find with humidity packs and slap a big label that says "Curing Until XX/XX/XXXX".

As far as light penetration, go out and get some gumby string/wire and start training them, LST style, which can help with penetration and a higher yield.

When do you plan on flipping these ladies over to 12/12? They're looking great, I'll be around for the remainder of this.

 

[BBD32]

I am currently running 120v without a light controller. That is something I am going to be getting shortly. I couldn't wait to get these planted so as you can tell from the pics they are not in a great environment. I have started building 2 actual grow rooms that will hopefully be done before too long. I am going to have the new rooms running 240v with the controller.

As for being worried about yielding too much, I had no idea I could just label the bud as curing. That bit of info is exactly why i love this site. I also just found out that dispensaries are still buying. There aren't any around me but there are a few within a couple hours of me. Apparently they pay 140-250/oz depending on their testing of THC content. I'm not super thrilled about them testing in house since they can simply claim its poor product and pay bottom dollar.

LST is something I considered but not having any experience I figured I'd stick to the basics… Topping and FIM'ing. for the first harvest or two. However at the rate these have been growing I may not have a choice but to try LST sooner. I really should have had the first couple plants switched to 12/12 by now but I'm holding out till my room gets done. As of now they are roughly 21" w/o the pot obviously. There is one that is taking its time and is probably only 16" and a couple that have a top or two reaching above 24".

I really appreciate the input and suggestions… If you think of anything else, I'm all ears.

Will be adding new pics within a day or two.

 

[Steviodaddio]

It's the little things that keep you alive.

Get those puppies on 240v asap, it will also run the ballasts better and at peak performance (aiding in less heat production, smoother power to bulbs, longer ballast life, etc)

If you have the option get your product tested elsewhere and bring the documentation of it to them. I know there are places in Lansing and Novi, two of the largest in the state if I remember correctly. I have dispensaries around me that are shady (I'm relatively near one of the more popular cities to have them) and if they come back with something way off of your test results use your better judgement on a sale unless you're happy with 150 an ounce and want to recoup some of your money quickly. Have heard of some pretty crazy low balling stories from other growers in my area where they try to get high quality bud for like 125 an ounce and then flip it for 500-700. Stories though, would love to prove them wrong by getting offered a decent price for something brought in. We may find out soon enough.

LST'ing is a breeze and it doesn't require much work. Tie a few of the branches down so the light penetrates better and you've done pretty well already. Just try to avoid breaking or bending them too much where it kinks.

I would also recommend putting tomato cages or some sort of support cage around or a support netting above them because it would have saved me a ton of time once you get deep into flower and branches start getting heavy. Just my .02 to save you a bit of time and headache down the road.

Wish I could find out what city you're near but I know there's a lot of discrete people on here for good reasons, myself included.

 

[BBD32]

Finding out how potent my product is, was half the reason i started growing. lol so I will definitely be getting my best bud tested. I did have a question though. I am growing in 5 gallon pots and wanted to know if it was possible to transplant into 7 or 10 without cutting up the pots they are in? Since they are staying in veg longer than I anticipated, becoming root bound is another of my worries.