First time grower needs some help

[delld]

Hope some out there can help. I'm a first time grower using a closet that is 2ft X 4 ft, mylar lined, with a 420W sodium grow light. The girls are in 8" square pots planted in Pro-Mix potting and seeding mixture with nothing else added. The girls are in just about at the 6 week after going to the 12/12 light cycle. I have been watering at about 1qt per day and once a week have substituted 1qt fertilized water using Expert Gardner Bloom Burst 10-52-10 at 1 teaspoon per gallon. The fan leaves and the larger bud-adjacent leaves have been yellowing and droppin off and some have been either spotting with yellow and brown areas or yellowing and curling then turning brown. I did not water yesterday but I found that the soil was still moist up to to the top so I will check several time throughout today to see how it feels. The plants have budded up nicely and the pistels are starting to turn brown with pretty good trichome formation. The several buds I've taken, dried and smoked were quite skunky and a good good buzz. The seeds are somewhat random from an accumulation of seeds from previous bags that I thought were good enough to save. I want to wait till I have several batches grown and mastered the process before I start investing in good seeds. The other question I have is around having what appear to be male- fertilized seeds when I didn't see any evidence of male plants. About 6 years I tried my hand with a Phototron but did not do very well. During that attempt I happened to allow a male to drop pollen in the Phototron. I did not use the Phototron to veg the girls up but I am using a grow chamber in the same area of my basement (my grow closet is in a second story bedroom so not nearby). Does pollen stay viable that long? If not, I must have a herm hiding amongst my girls but I certainly didn't see (or recognize) any male flowers in the process. This brings up another question then, if it was residual, old pollon. What is the best way to clean up a grow area between batches? Can you experts please answer. :smoker:

 

[Syrup]

Well, I'm not an expert, but so long as ALL of the leaves aren't falling off you'll be okay. Yellowing and dying is natural in the flowering process, especially 6 weeks into it, since most of the nutrients the leaves need are going straight to the buds. If the buds still look healthy and are still progressing, that's what matters. There's no escaping death for old leaves.

I'm not too sure if the pollen can still be effective after all that time, but I usually use bleach to sterilize the area. I've never gotten pollen on any of my girls after using bleach.

 

[noobie97]

Yeah dude, it's fine. That's what happens in flowering.

 

[delld]

Thanks for the info guys. I will be monitoring my moisture more closely from now on with a moisture meter and watering accordingly. When I checked the moisture today it spiked the meter. The last day I watered was Friday morning so I expect to have to water again tomorrow. You all know how a loving dad treats his girls and its so easy to overdo it sometimes. I'll be saving all my drop off to try my hand at hash making when this batch is done.

 

[Shavosgrrl]

Good luck with everything and keep updating! Did you have pictures of the lovely ladies?
As for sanitizing, use a bleach mixture like syrup said. Sounds like you are doing everything else right though!

 

[delld]

Here is an attempt to post some pictures of my girls.

 

[Shavosgrrl]

LOOKIN GOOD!!!!!!!!! For a first timer.. you did awesome

 

[delld]

Thanks. As you probably know "The wai-ai-ai-ting is the hardest part".

 

[delld]

To all,

Everything turned out very well with my girls. I harvested, dried in computer paper boxes for three weeks and then transferred to jars which I am opening every day about 4-6 hours to air out. Since I used seeds from various bags each plant is diffenent in taste and buzz. I am saving the seeds (there were sure lots of them)for future grows and carefully segregating and tracking seeds from each batch. I got about 1 1/2 ounces (dried bud) off one plant and about 1 ounce off the other three. This was without any pruning and the plants ended up about 36" tall at harvest. I have just put 6 more plants into the 12/12 cycle and I have pruned the top only to try that this time around. These 6 were from one very skunky batch bought and I think grown locally and I'm very curious how this batch will turn out. I certainly have gained valuable experience growing the first closet batch and I will definately continue to grow more. I think maybe 2 or three more batches of personally gathered seeds and then I will invest in some more exotic seeds. My next project will be to try to make hash using Sadu Sam's Secret water extraction technique with all the trim. Buzz on all.