First Grow - LED - Lemon Skunk - NYC Diesel & Pineapple Express

[afghanicaman]

As I said in my title, this will be my first grow. Well, maybe not technically, but for all intents and purposes lets just assume that it is. My initial test run involved clip lights and cree LED bulbs from Home Depot, Miracle Gro soil, Tin foil walls, and a few bag seeds lol. So yeah, this is kinda my very first "beginning to have somewhat of a clue" attempt at cannabis cultivation. I recently (and finally) obtained my medical card in my home state so I'm legit, and an old friend has also registered me as one of his caregivers. So this will be the first of what I hope will be increasingly better harvests over time.

I've assembled a simple but (hopefully) effective room on a budget. My tent is 40x40x70, and inside it is a Mars Hydro Reflector 96 LED panel and (2) Mars Hydro 300's. I was really on the fence about LED when I started this, but in the end it just won out because of my location etc. Obviously wanna minimize the energy usage issues, but it was just a better fit for my location cuz of heat/air circulation etc. We'll see how it goes, but I am sure as I evolve as a grower I will be doing plenty of experimenting.

Since I began this project I find myself constantly scouring eBay, adding another light here, another tent there. Oh boy I can see already see where my OCD is taking this lol.

No bag seeds this time, I ordered from Herbie's and got some feminized Lemon Skunk by Greenhouse, NY Diesel by Vision, Pineapple Express by Zambeza, and then I got a Bubbas Gift freebie. So if anyone has experience with any of these strains and has any pointers, I am all ears lol. Happy to report that all 10 of the beans from my first order sprouted and are looking healthy as I type this.

TO BE CONTINUED...PICS TO FOLLOW

 

[420Guardian]

re: First Grow - LED - Lemon Skunk, NYC Diesel & Pineapple Express

Lookin forward to seeing some pics

 

[afghanicaman]

re: First Grow - LED - Lemon Skunk - NYC Diesel & Pineapple Express

Ok, so I began the germination process roughly 29 days ago, and by January 6th all 10 plants had popped up outta the dirt. I started them in standard nursery containers with straight up Fox Farm "Happy Frog" soil. Unfortunately I used a combination of (7) bigger containers and (3) smaller because it was simply what I had on hand at the time. But as they grew over the past month, by the time I transplanted them the ones in the bigger pots had more root growth and are still the bigger and stronger of the bunch. I wish I had just been consistent because now I have three midget plants who are healthy but noticeably smaller than their sisters. Smal detail, lesson learned.

About a week or so ago I moved them into 3 gallon breathable "smart pots" using a mix of Fox Farm "Happy Frog" and "Ocean Forest" soils. And they seem to really be starting to take off more from there.

 

[MajinGreen]

re: First Grow - LED - Lemon Skunk - NYC Diesel & Pineapple Express

Sexy

 

[afghanicaman]

First February update...flipped em to 12/12 about a week and a half ago, on Feb 5. Starting to see pistils forming all over the place. They stayed fairly squat and developed densely thru veg, although I am definitely beginning to see some noticeable upward growth over the past week. The lemon plants are the tallest with the most hearty stems, the pineapple plants are wider with more spacing between the nodes, and many small calyx sites forming all over the place. Only recently did i give them their first feeding of Earth Juice, and I kept it very diluted. Also gave them some unsulphered organic blackstrap molasses for the first time on day 3 of 12/12.

To be continued...

 

[Squeektoi]

They are looking good, I'll be checking in on this one..
Interested to see how the pineapples grow for u

 

[ItsNatural]

Damn bro Im in too. I too am growing a couple Lemon Skunks, With a Mars reflector, AND using Earth Juice. LOL Im also growing a couple Money Makers by Strain Hunters. Great Minds Think Alike.

 

[afghanicaman]

Damn bro Im in too. I too am growing a couple Lemon Skunks, With a Mars reflector, AND using Earth Juice. LOL Im also growing a couple Money Makers by Strain Hunters. Great Minds Think Alike.

YOOOO thats wassup! haha you have some pics up of yours??

 

[afghanicaman]

So I am exactly 4 weeks into flower this weekend, about halfaway thru or slightly less. Everything looks to be going very well so far, although there might be tiny signs of a pest in paradise. More on that later. I've been giving them light weekly feedings of Earth Juice bloom mixed at 2 tsp per gallon, as well as modest additions of unsulphured organic blackstrap molasses here n there. The Lemon Skunks got really leggy over the past 2 weeks and are tall and skinny and seem to get good light penetration because of it. The diesel plants are short and squat, kinda busy with thick fan leaves. The pineapple plants are also short and more spread out, although the leaves are a thinner and show more sativa qualities. I will I had more space to really let them go, but I am pleased for where they are at so far for my first legit grow attempt. This has been such an amazing learning experience so far. I'm addicted to the process and I cant say I have had a funner hobby in my life haha. The harvest will just be the cherry on top

These pics are probably a week old at this point, so around week 3 of flower. But below is a pic of the Bubba's Gift freebie yesterday. She's getting so pretty

 

[ItsNatural]

YOOOO thats wassup! haha you have some pics up of yours??

Here are a couple pics. Nothing to brag about. Im about to switch to flower. But feel free to stop by my journal bro. Would love the company.
Your ladies are looking great. Is Bloom and the molasses all your giving it?
The back 2 are the LS

here are solo pics

 

[afghanicaman]

Here are a couple pics. Nothing to brag about. Im about to switch to flower. But feel free to stop by my journal bro. Would love the company.
Your ladies are looking great. Is Bloom and the molasses all your giving it?
The back 2 are the LS

here are solo pics

Nice bro, I will totally keep an eye on your journal too. I'd love to follow what someone else is getting with a very similar setup. Except I see you are scrogging, which I totally was gonna try next on the plants I have vegging now. Right on, I will be around.

But yeah man kept it very simple...used a mix of FF Happy Frog and Ocean Forest, and just let the soil feed them for the first few weeks..a little before I ended veg I gave them an Earth Juice Grow feeding, then the first feeding I did after I went to 12/12 was a light mix of both Grow and Bloom. Then after that just Bloom since. And I always kinda began with light mixtures and gradually worked my way up. I went pretty easy on the nutes.

 

[afghanicaman]

Just a random observation post while I sit here and roast a bowl haha, but a side note related to this grow. A small little detail I have enjoyed seeing is getting a strange and different looking pheno in one of the strains. It's just kinda weird and cool looking. Both the pineapple and lemon strains are extremely consistent with the characteristics they display from plant to plant. They just look like damn near triplet sisters, all three of each. But I got a strange wildcard NY Diesel plant that looks absolutely nothing like the other two. It looks nothing like anything in the tent, even the shade of green in its leaves is noticeably lighter than every other plant in there. It has really thick bushlike fan leaves, very hearty looking. But the weirdest thing is the budsites. These look very compact and dense, almost like little cauliflower nuggets, as opposed to the protruding white hairs every like the others I have pictured. Just a unique looking bud structure. Something with that seed genetics took on much different traits from its own sisters. I will post pics when the lights come back on tomorrow haha.

 

[HiddenGrow]

I like your style man

how tall were the girls before you switched to flower?

 

[ItsNatural]

It will be nice to see how yours do compared to mine as far as letting it go free and scrogging. I prolly should have kept it simple and let them grow free with a little LST but I figure growing the LS with the Money makers ( which arent suppose to stretch that much) I figure it was a good way to help keep the canopy even. You look like you have a pretty good canopy going. Aside from a couple run aways in the back. Are you going to leave in dark for 24 hrs or so before harvest?

 

[afghanicaman]

Yes I am. The runaways in the back are actually the LS plants. The pics I put up in mid February they all had a much closer canopy height, so you can get an idea how much those took off in comparison to the other strains in the past few weeks. Although I have added light as I've gone. My flower tent now has 2 Mars 96 and a 48 reflector.

 

[afghanicaman]

Well they were all around knee height when I started flower, but that's taking into account the 3 gallon pots.

 

[nuggs78]

Nice grow man plants look great.

 

[ItsNatural]

Yes I am. The runaways in the back are actually the LS plants. The pics I put up in mid February they all had a much closer canopy height, so you can get an idea how much those took off in comparison to the other strains in the past few weeks. Although I have added light as I've gone. My flower tent now has 2 Mars 96 and a 48 reflector.

WHOA thats alot of power. Make me want t grunt like Tim the Tool Man Taylor. Got any pics of your set up now?

 

[afghanicaman]

WHOA thats alot of power. Make me want t grunt like Tim the Tool Man Taylor. Got any pics of your set up now?

haha right on bro, you know how it goes. got my first light or two then just got addicted to shopping. picked up the 48 used on eBay for $60. eventually wanted another reflector 96 because I really liked my first one. but it was all kinda necessitated by adding a second tent. when i began this project i had one tent and a few lights, but i quickly added a second so I could have both veg and flower tents working simultaneously.

i started with a 3.5 x 3.5 x 6 tent and initially only trying to buy a second cheapy 2 x 4 x 6 just to veg 2 or 3 plants in at a time. the eBay seller either made a mistake or hooked me up, but he shipped me a 4 x 4 x 7 haha big difference. that became the flower tent with the reflectors and i moved all other lights to my original and it became the veg tent. in that one i have 2 small mars hydro (non reflector) 300w's and a few clip lights I outfitted with Miracle LED ultra grow bulbs. inside that one right now I have a few new babies I hatched as well as a few GSC clones I picked up from a local grower I met.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Haha, afghanicaman, the set-up is better now. Plants look very healthy. I will follow your journal.