Garage Grower's First Grow - First Journal - Soil - CFL

[Garage Grower]

gave her another feed tonight, cut back the nutes to 1/2 strength in prep for the flush. ordered a loupe today because that 60-100x scope is really hard to get a clear view and I don't want to let it get too far.

temp & humidity has been remaining steady, around 70-ish degrees and around 30-35% rh, buds are still filling in but the "fattening" seems to have stalled.

Seems the last H2O2 treatment dealt the final blow, because when I fed tonight I didn't see a single gnat jump

That's it for now - on to the pics:

 

[Garage Grower]

Looks like it's gonna be a nice Christmas. Still coming along smoothly. It seems I hardly got any stretch during flower, though they ARE starting to fill out in thickness. I did a little bit more trimming. not a bunch, just a some of the tiniest popcorns and a few of the shortest, thinnest branches.

As usual, some pics. Standard size Sharpie marker in a couple for size comparison.

 

[Garage Grower]

no pics tonight. Started her flushing with plain water. Went out earlier today and got a couple more bottles of peroxide and a bottle of lemon juice so I have the materials ready for washing the buds when I harvest.

From what I can make out with my overpowered (60x) scope, I've probably got somewhere around 1 to just over 2 weeks to go til I chop. I ordered an 8-lens watch repair magnifier headband from "that giant online Brazilian Jungle store" it's got interchangeable lenses that can magnify anywhere from 1.5x up to 28x. That should give me a much better view of what's going on with overall trichome maturity rather than seeing just 5-10 at a time with the 60x I'm using now. According to tracking, it should be arriving tomorrow. I'll see if maybe I can rig it up somehow to take pics through that magnifier, but I have a feeling the camera's auto-focus is going to cause havoc trying to shoot through a rigged-up contraption, so I'm not too hopeful on that LOL.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

These look awesome! Its a shame I couldn't make it in here until now.

Did you notice anything with the gnats or did you just use peroxide as a precaution? I have noticed a few gnats everytime I check my plants (they are just seedlings). Do you think I should use peroxide or this organic neem/grape seed spray I have?

Good luck in the upcoming weeks!

 

[Jesstar]

A few drops of natural(ish) dishsoap mixed with 500mL of water, sprayed over the top of my soil a little while after feeding did wonders. Within an hour there were little bodies of the poor little buggers. Plants don't seem phased that I can tell.

That was great advice I received from Sphnx.

Sorry to jump in, GG. Please correct anything incorrect I may have passed on..

-J.

 

[Garage Grower]

That's fine Jess

ClosedCircuit, I didn't really have anything near an infestation. I'd get a few jump around when I'd water. The gnats themselves are just an annoyance. What Jess did (with the dish soap spray) is a common and effective treatment for the gnats themselves. What I did with the peroxide doesn't do much (if anything) for the gnats, but it's an effective chemical-free way of getting rid of the larvae.

As I said, my gnats weren't that bad, and I probably would've done just fine if I didn't treat for the larvae... I figured since I had the peroxide, why not?? plus it has the advantage of helping give a boost of O2 to the soil, which can help the roots out a bit.

My magnifying headband arrived today. Haven't gone in to the plant yet tonight, but preliminary tests tell me it should work really well for what I need it for.

Will update a little later, possibly with a few more pics.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

Jess & Garage thanks for the advice. I've used dish soap before with other plants for aphids and never had much luck. Then I found this organic vegetable pesticide cleaner they sell at a couple local grocery stores here, and even a Kroger. It destroyed the aphid population in only one application. I'm a little worried about using it before my plants are mature. I have similar worries with dish soap.

This afternoon during lights out I sprayed the base of the plants and soil surface with diluted apple cider vinegar. I have the real unfiltered kind so its a little more harsh. When lights came back on I didn't notice any gnats but its probably too soon to tell. I put out a small Tupperware full of water to help raise RH...maybe ill put a little lemon juice and sugar to attract them...and seal the deal!!

 

[Garage Grower]

to clarify, or add on to what I said above... the gnats themselves are just an annoyance... the LARVAE can be potentially harmful to the root system (I forgot that line)

on to my update.
magnifying headband works GREAT for me to view trichs. I have hardly any amber (maybe a couple here, a couple there). right now, it's roughly 60 cloudy/40 clear, maybe just a BIT more cloudy. I'll continue to monitor each night, but I'm thinking it may be a little closer to one week than two til harvest.

Using one of the magnifying lenses held in front of the camera got me SLIGHTLY better pics once I got the magnifier centered over the camera lens. The first pic you can see a little bit of the magnifier frame. I didn't take any whole plant shots because there's not a whole lot of visible change going on in regards to the whole plant that would be visible in a pic. One drastic development I noticed was that the colas - while they're not super long or fat, are rock-hard dense. I've minimized handling the cola directly so as not to disturb trichomes, but now in viewing with the magnifier, I need to hold them a bit just to keep them steady. After the first couple I thought, damn these things are heavy so I gave em a slight squeeze... all very hard with just the slightest spongy give to them... sort of like squeezing a bicycle tire.

Bud pics:

 

[Jesstar]

Mmmmmm. Yummm. What's your watt count these days, GG? All still CFL?

PC,

-J.

 

[Garage Grower]

still the same light rig. 344w of all CFL, mostly 2700k

 

[Jesstar]

Great result. I'm running 2x 24w 6500k over my Biodiesel Mass seedling, 3x 24w 6500k over my Chocolope youngster and 1x 24w 2700k, 1x 24w 6500k and 1x 125w 2700k over my purple that has just started flowering. All in the same cupboard though so they kind of all share a bit of light.. I'm thinking of switching my purple into the single side of the wardrobe and keeping the other two where they are, then moving the lights so Purpy gets only 6500k and the others get only 2700. What are thoughts? It would give me a bit more room to work(and I could close the door properly) but it would also mean the lights are distributed between the two areas.. Hmmmm..

-J.

 

[Garage Grower]

The more lights you can give each plant, the better. I'd add a few more if I could, but I just don't have the room for it in my cab.

in veg, you're better with all (or mostly) 6500k (or as high as you can find) and for flower, 2700k is preferred. Right now, I'm running 2x23w 6500, 4x42w 2700 and 2x65w 2700

 

[Garage Grower]

WOW! been real busy the last week and a half between work and personal/family - Christmas preparations and all. sorry I haven't updated lately. I gave her the chop and hung to dry on the 19th... over the last few days I've been pulling them off the line as they dried, gave em a trim and put in a jar with a Boveda 65% Humidipak. I finally pulled the last few from the cabinet this morning.

When I cut them down, I just cut the branch near the base and cut off any remaining full fan leaves that had no trichs on them. Then I hung the branch with all the sugar leaves still in tact. Once they were dried and pulled from the cabinet, THEN I gave the buds their final manicure. the trimmings (mostly sugar leaf tips and stray hairs from the bud, as well as any tiny popcorns) I also put into the curing jar. These trimmings I'll use to either make butter (if there's enough) or I'll just mix them with tobacco in my cigarette machine (I have an injector machine, I make my own filtered cigs).

preliminary smoke report... I pulled one of the earlier buds from the jar and put it in my glass pipe for the most direct flavor (no paper, no water filtering, etc). the overall taste was really nice. fairly thick smoke, sort of a skunky/piney taste on initial draw, but then a very fine hint of citrus on exhale. It was a LITTLE harsh, but nothing horrible, and I'm sure as the cure continues it'll get smoother. but for the high it gave, I could definitely live with the slight harshness if for some reason it doesn't go away over time.

My usual night time treat of 3-5 hits produced a sort of tingly head high for the first 30-40 min. at that time, the body feeling started to kick in and was VERY relaxing... not a sleepy couch-lock where it takes full effort and concentration to even move (which I HATE), but a super comfortable relaxed feeling... like I just had an hour or more of the most intense deep tissue massage all over (but no "happy ending" LOL). I was able to remain wide awake and alert for the next couple hours until I WANTED to go to bed (WANTED to, not HAD to). When I laid down at that point, the head feeling got less tingly and more matching the relaxed feeling my body had been experiencing. I fell asleep rather easily and had a really great night's sleep.

I haven't taken final weight yet, but plan to later tonight after my kid is in bed. When I do, I'll take a pic of the final product and report on the yield. Hard to guess this point on the weight, other than this is far and away the largest quantity I've ever possessed at one time LOL (just about fills a quart sized container). Then again, when I used to buy, I'd only buy 1/8 or 1/4oz at a time. Whatever I got with this, I'm definitely very happy at my first-shot results.

I'm thinking sometime shortly after new year I'll pop one of my Heavyweight Fruit Punch seeds (Sativa dominant) and get that going for a harvest probably some time in April.

For those of you who have followed til the end - thanks for hanging in there, your comments, encouragement and assistance when needed.

 

[Garage Grower]

I'm shocked I broke an ounce!!!
final weight is 30g, which if I recall, 1oz = 28.something g right? YES!!!!

and yes, I did tare the scale for the plastic bowl before I put the nugs in.

Granted, that was the entire contents of my jar which included a few popcorns and the sugar leaf trimmings... I'll give maybe a gram or two, so lets call it an even ounce of actual nice buds

Well, that concludes this grow from seed to harvest. Thanks for joining the ride.

Brief recap:
Nirvana's Northern Lights Feminized
initially sprouted in generic soil mix (not "potting soil"). no name brand that I can recall, with a few handfuls perlite & vermiculite thrown in
about 2 weeks after sprout, transplanted to final container with Fox Farms Ocean Forest
8 CFL bulbs in home-made hood... for veg: 8x23w 6500k. for flower: 2x23w 6500k, 4x42w 2700k, 2x65w 2700k
plywood cabinet in my unheated garage lined with Reflectix (for insulation and light reflection) cabinet heated with smallest ceramic space heater I could find (about $15-20 at Wally's)
Fox Farm trio nutrients... Grow Big started around 3rd or 4th week of veg, big bloom and tiger bloom started 1 week before flip to flower. next grow I plan to start big bloom 1 week after sprout (roughly what FF says in their chart)
lighting schedule was diminishing... started at 24/0. then as time went on decreased... 20/4, 19/5, 18/6, 16/8 for veg... then flower began 12/12, then 11/13, 10/14 and finally 8/16.
entire flower cycle I added molasses to watering (just with the water, not with the nutes)

feed/water was pretty much alternating throughout as the soil became dry finger-deep... feed, water, feed, water, etc.

harvest & weight pics:

 

[GreenKitty]

Congratulations on your harvest!

Oh and merry christmas

 

[Garage Grower]

Thanks GK... yes, this was a very nice Christmas surprise

 

[Garage Grower]

Moderators, this grow is done, if you want to move this to completed journals.

Thanks

 

[David Bowman]

Thanks for sharing your grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here: Journals in Progress

Hope all is well in your world.

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine.

 

[My1stGro]

Check Me Out Guys> My1stGro - New Member & Grower Journey Journal

 

[Jesstar]

Thanks for sharing GG. Looking forward to the next one.

-J.