First Grow - LA Widow - 2015

[fathom]

Hello wonderful people of 420magazine!

I am one week into my first ever grow. I am a keen gardener and am hoping that experience I have at my allotment will come in handy but I am well aware that fruit and veg are very different to cannabis. So, I would really appreciate any input that anyone may have into how I am doing things.

I am growing LA Widow from Kerra Seeds. I purchased them in Amsterdam from a shop that was not a specialist shop, it was more like a supermarket for the munchies, so, I am really hoping that I have purchased decent seeds. I attempted to germinate two seeds, one turned out to be a complete dud, it wouldn't even activate in a glass of water, which I tried after 4 days of it not doing a thing in wet cotton. The other did germinate and was planted after the taproot was roughly 1cm. Within 3 days she was around 4 inches tall and developing her first set of leafs.

Searching the web for images or videos of LA Widow is showing barely any results, in-fact the majority of results were me introducing myself at this site. I am now really curious about this strain since I can't find much on it at all.

Here she is at 3 days old...

And here she is after 8 days...
(it took me a while to figure out that I needed to use the flash on the camera under the lights to get a good shot)

I water her with 100ml of tap water every day. I only use tap water that has been left to air for several days to evaporate any chlorine that may be in the water. I can't remember where I read that but it makes sense to me. The top of the plant is being kept at 0.5m from the light as the manufacturer of the light recommends.

This is a soil grow. I am currently running the light 24hrs a day. I am waiting on supplies to finish building the box it is growing in. I built a wooden frame and will be covering it with thick black plastic sheeting. I am going to glue Mylar sheets to the inside side of the black sheeting, then cut the sizes once dry and staple gun them on. I have velcro for a door that I will make out of the same sheeting, the door will simply peel off at the front.

I am pretty worried about using "feed" for my plant as I am completely new to this and do not want to over do it and harm the plant. I was looking into a purely organic way of feeding her and discovered that fresh diluted human urine is the best way to go. Can anyone weigh in on that? I am not sure about how diluted and how often this should be done. Ideally this will be a purely organic grow.

I will keep you all posted of my progress.

Here is what I am using.

A 300w 9 band LED
Canaterra Professional Soil
An oscillating fan

 

[uhewekguilw]

Ok I'm in. I can't help you with organic but I know piss has nitrogen in it so I'm sure it will work, but it might smell up your house... if your LED manufacturer isn't a sponsor, I'd advise you don't speak or write what LED they are. Posts somehow completely disappear when non-sponsored LED'S are mentioned
Good luck on your first grow. If I can help with anything, I'll try. But organics is new to me also.
GB80

Oh yeah to 420mag!

 

[fathom]

Thanks for such a fast reply! I was actually concerned about mentioning the manufacturer and had read that in the rules. I asked in my introduction thread about that and the reply I got was that those rules are just for manufacturers making posts. I tried to find the list of manufacturers allowed but it wasn't linked in the rules (it said click here to view the list, but it was not a link). I am not a manufacturer. But, you have a high reputation on here also so I am a little confused now whether or not I am allowed to post that.

Here is that thread with the question and reply...
Hello lovely people of the internet

Yea I am a little worried about my house smelling like a toilet to be honest. Was hoping that once I get a carbon filter for the smell that it would also take out the potential pee smell too.

Thanks again

 

[Dave Groomer]

Subbed. I use the Fox Farm trio of nutes. But don't worry you won't need any for a bit yet.

 

[fathom]

At what point will my soil be drained of the nutrients it contains? I guess what I am asking is that at what point do you think I will have to start adding in nutrients to the soil? And, is there any way I can test the soil by taking soil samples?

 

[fathom]

You read my mind! See above. You answered that a split second before I asked it. Trippy

 

[uhewekguilw]

3 - 4 weeks you could start giving nutes. Unless you get a mutant plant that just grows really fast. I started nutes with mine at 2 weeks old since it wouldn't grow..

For the LED- I have had posts deleted for mentioning non-sponsored LED'S. It's because there are people who come on here and just bash on the sponsors and promote their brand of light. It only applies to LED'S though. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I would hope that they would just delete the name and not the post since you are new.
GB80

 

[fathom]

Here she is on day 9. I noticed a small mark on her which I have circled in the image. I looked back at yesterdays pix and noticed it was present then too. Last night she got 1.5 litres of spring water. This is the first time she has been watered with spring water (store bought) . I thought that perhaps it was the spring water until I looked back at yesterdays pix.

Would it be a good idea to test water for its ph before applying it to the plant. I think I should be doing that. The water was not labeled with a ph value, I just watered it without thinking properly.

This will be her only watering for 7 days now, unless the soil dries to a crisp in that time. I will test the soil with my finger since that cheap piece of Chinese tech I am using is seemingly inaccurate. I will water her once the soil is dry up to my knuckle.

The water ran out of the bottom of the container into the tub that the pot is sitting in so I know I have decent drainage. I got all of the excess water up with a towel to prevent super high humidity. The humidity level did rise (obviously) after that 1.5 litres and got to 64%. I guess thats perhaps a little high. The temp peaked at 28c.

Thanks for you're help. I hope I get enough experience to help others one day. I really appreciate this.

 

[herby40]

looking great, im in

Herb

 

[fathom]

looking great, im in

Herb

Thanks Herb. I can't get over how great this community is! I feel at home here! Peace

 

[uhewekguilw]

Humidity in veg isn't an issue unless you don't have enough air circulation. If humidity gets that high, just be sure you are moving plenty of air over the plants.
Don't worry about the spot right now. However in about a week or two, you will want to start it on some calcium, magnesium and iron supplement. Don't go crazy with the calmag or you can lock out other important nutes. I believe there are organic ones out there if you are staying with the organic theme. She's looking nice!
GB80

 

[fathom]

Humidity in veg isn't an issue unless you don't have enough air circulation. If humidity gets that high, just be sure you are moving plenty of air over the plants.
Don't worry about the spot right now. However in about a week or two, you will want to start it on some calcium, magnesium and iron supplement. Don't go crazy with the calmag or you can lock out other important nutes. I believe there are organic ones out there if you are staying with the organic theme. She's looking nice!
GB80

Thanks for the advice. In my garden I have a compost bin. Over the last year it has taken all of my left over plant matter (veg,fruit, teabags (a lot) coffee grinds (a lot) and anything that I have "cut back" in my garden. I have peed on it around 20 times and have let the rain on it for the last few months. It smells like a farm, not like pee.

I have been looking at how to make a tea out of compost. I know that this compost is full of nutrients, I have taken great care over it, even to go as far as to cover the top with holly bush cuttings so that the neighbours cats can't use it as litter, which was something I was really concerned about. I know that cat and dog waste is just awful for compost. In fact, toxic.

I would love to find out if anyone knows of any ways to test for nutrients without sending soil samples off to a lab. I want to make a tea to water her with by using a pair of women tights filled with the compost in a big bin of water. But the problem is knowing levels of every nutrients in the water. I don't want to burn her and like wise I don't want to under feed her.

Any ideas?

And yes, thanks to you, I have made sure that there is a good breeze over her head now. I was getting a little worried that it might be too strong on her , she was waving around a bit too much when I was moving the fan and thought she might end up snapping. So, I put the breeze just above her, enough to hit her slightly but the majority of air is blowing over her.

Again, thanks!

 

[RockyMTNnug]

I'm sure you can talk about any LED light, as long as you aren't trying to advertise for that manufacturer.

 

[uhewekguilw]

I'm sure you can talk about any LED light, as long as you aren't trying to advertise for that manufacturer.

Not so sure about that. Talking about them is advertising in the eyes of the LED sponsors. I've had posts removed and pm's from mods telling me my post was deleted for mentioning non-sponsored LED'S. It shouldn't be an issue, people should be able to say what light they grow with and how they like it to inform others. I guess 420mag just had a lot of sponsors get mad about someone posting using top of the line lights and downing sponsors lights so they put the regulations in to keep the drama down. Who knows??? I've been warned enough not to make waves about it...so I figured I'd just inform others before hand.
GB80

 

[fathom]

Day 10 picture post. Nothing significant to report.

 

[fathom]

OK girls and boys I have a horrible feeling that I have a male. I read somewhere that if you get growth at the nodes then it is likely to be male. However, I also read that males have long lengths of stem in-between each node which is not happening. Can I get your eyes on this please? She (I hope) is only 2 weeks old. Here is a pic under magnification...

I really hope this is not a dude!

Thanks lovely people

 

[fathom]

Sorry, duplicated my post

 

[uhewekguilw]

You are going to have to wait a while to really find out. Once you flip to 12/12 you will know for sure. Males will not grow white pistils, they will grow clusters of "balls". You can top one, stick the top in soil and throw it into flower if you want to know for sure.

 

[sciguy]

yeah it usually takes a couple more weeks to start telling sex, mine usually start showing around 5 weeks in veg. If you grow clones, you wont have that worry unless they hermie, since you know they are already female. clones can start showing sex earlier on, and monster cropped clones, that's a whole other story.

 

[fathom]

Hey. Here she is on day 13. I know I said I would leave it a week before watering again but the soil was getting completely drained of moisture. Was dry up to my knuckle. So, I watered her with a litre of 20 part water 1 part fresh pee. I cant see any problems yet, but like I said, I am new to this. How is she looking?

Fathom