HTL's #1: Purple Bud & White Haze, 2 x 2.5, LED 210W

[HereToLearn]

HereToLearn’s First Grow Journal
Purple Bud & White Haze Auto​

Space 2' x 2.5' x 6' closet, 4'' exhaust fan
Light Kind LED K3 Series L300 (actual wattage 210w)
Strains Purple Bud Feminized (Sensi Seeds) 75% Indica, compact height, heavy yield, flowering 50-65 days. "Rich pine-sandalwood aroma with sweet undertones."
White Haze Automatic (White Label) 50% Sativa/50% Indica, medium height, medium yield, flowering 45-65 days. "Strong and sharp sweet-spicy aroma."
Pots 4 gallon square fabric pots
Soil 3 parts Biobizz Light-Mix, 1 part Coco Coir, 1 part Perlite
Amendments Mycorrhiza, Worm Castings, Bat Guano, Blood meal, Bone meal, Fish Meal & Palm Tree Ashes
Nutrients Advanced Nutrients Grow A&B, Bloom A&B, CalMag, Rhino Skin (Silica), Biobizz Alg-A-Mic (Kelp Extract), Rhizoflora Terpinator, SM-90, Molasses & Epsom Salt

Hi, and welcome to my first grow journal!

I started researching how to grow mid May this year and started my first grow at the end of July. I love journaling and taking pictures so I kept a grow journal to keep track of everything throughout the grow. My boyfriend helps me with my grow but unfortunately he doesn't share my fascination nor my passion for the growing process. So imagine my joy when I stumbled upon this forum a few days ago and realized that there were people sharing their grow journals online, giving each other feedback and advice! What a marvelous thing!

So here I am (quite nervous to be honest), sharing my first grow journal. Looking forward to learning from all of the skilled growers here on here.

and thank you for reading, HTL

 

[Orlando Scout]

Welcome to !!! I understand being nervous I just started my first journal as well. Don't worry though if you make a mistake nobody is going to laugh or make fun of you. They will just show you how to fix it and how to avoid it in the future. Ill hang around if you don't mind. Nice intro by the way.

 

[HereToLearn]

I originally wrote this grow journal for my eyes only, so forgive me if it gets lenghty at times. I'm very proud of this grow so far even with the numerous mistakes and foolish decisions I've made throughout. I'm excited to be approaching harvest and even more excited to have you join me for it! Thank you for being here. — HTL

July 28th
Started germinating 3 Purple Bud seeds in peat bricks (soaked in 25ºC water) kept in a glass container with the lid loosely attached to retain moisture and create a humid environment. Kept them between 25-30ºC.
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July 30th — V1
2/3 seeds had popped out of the soil this morning. Hoping that the third seed is just a slow starter. Kept the seedlings in the glass container but removed the lid. Our grow room isn’t finished yet so for now I’m keeping them in the kitchen window.
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August 3rd - V5
Seedlings have now grown to about 5 cm but their leaves are still quite small. Seems they’re stretching due to lack of light. Noticed a small root coming out the bottom of one of the peat bricks which means they are just about ready to be transplanted.
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August 4th — V6
Seedlings have now grown to about 6 cm tall and one of them started toppling over. Cut 6x 5mm holes in the bottom of two clear plastic cups. Mixed 3 parts Biobizz Light-Mix, 1 part Coco and 1 part Perlite. Placed the peat bricks and covered around 1 ½ cm of the stems with soil to provide some stability. Watered with room temp water until water came out the bottom of the cups. I do not have a pH meter yet.

Seedlings are growing very slowly due to their subpar environment. Fashioned a temporary grow light out of a 8w LED grow light from IKEA that I had lying around, put a sheet of white baking paper over the light in an attempt to filter the light and make it a bit weaker cause I was worried it’d be too strong for the seedlings, being about 30 cm away from them. Placed the humidifier next to the plants to provide some humidity and airflow. Not optimal, but the best I can do until the grow room is finished. Lights out at 11:30pm because we lost power.
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August 5th — V7
The seedlings seem to have grown a bit more today. Both looking healthy albeit a bit etiolated. Soil is still moist throughout. Finally accepted that the third seed was a dud and threw it out. RIP seed 2018-2018.

The boyfriend installed an electrical socket in the grow room and I did some final cleaning, so it’s FINALLY ready for the seedlings to move in! Moved the setup into the grow room, set humidifier to 60% RH. Temp in the grow room is steady at 23-24ºC. Added a coffee machine timer to the temporary grow light for now. Activated the 2 hour function before going to bed at 01:30am → lights out at 03:30am.

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August 6th — V8
Woke up at 5am and noticed that the lights were off in the grow room so the timer worked as intended. Lights on at 9am. Seedlings have grown just a tiny bit more the past 2 days. Temp at 18.5ºC, a bit lower than I’d like. Concerned that the temp will be too low in the grow room as the weather grows cooler. Put in an old space heater we’ve had for our car in the winter. While the boyfriend was trying to set it up the temp shot up to 32.9ºC for a short while, but he quickly brought it down to a steady 28ºC.

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August 7th — V9
Lights on at 09am, temp at 22-23ºC and seems to have been steady throughout the night. It’s been 3 days since I watered and the soil has started to dry out a bit. Had the same problem with the space heater again; tried to turn it up just a tiny bit and the temp rose to 32-34ºC. I quickly turned down the heater and aired out the grow room. Temp stayed steady at 26-27ºC for the rest of the day. I need better equipment for temperature control...
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August 8th — V10
Getting anxious for the LED grow light to arrive. The pH meter arrived — tested the tap water which is quite alkaline at around pH 8-8.5. Still waiting for the ph Up & Down to arrive, going to use lemon juice to lower the pH for now. The leaves of one one of the seedlings are really curled upwards or ”taco-ed”, so I propped up the light on a box (about 30cm higher), worried it’s light stress.
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August 9th — V11
The top of the soil has dried out a bit but there’s still moisture in the soil, thinking of watering today or tomorrow. Some roots are showing through the clear plastic cups.

And there’s a tiny sprout of some sort? Haha!

Afternoon and decided to water. Adjusted pH to 6.2 using lemon juice as the pH Up & Down hasn’t arrived yet. Watered until there was some runoff. Runoff at pH 6.5, lower than expected. The seedling which’ top leaves had curled/”taco-ed” started recovering a few hours after watering. Thinking now that it wasn’t light burn but heat stress so I moved the light back down again. REALLY anxious for the LED grow light to arrive now…

The boyfriend set up a thermostat so now I have better control over temps. The White Haze Auto seeds I ordered arrived, going to germinate one of them soon.
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August 10th — V12
The thermo/hygrometer I ordered arrived.

Girls seem to have recovered from the heat stress.
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August 11th — V13
RH was at 70% this morning as I hadn’t turned down the humidifier settings in anticipation of the lower night temps. Lesson learnt. Kept temp and RH stable throughout the day; 28.5ºC, 45-50% RH. Temporarily added some left over Mylar (old photography gear) around the plants to make the most of the little light I have. Contacted support regarding the LED grow light. Two weeks since I placed the order, hopeful it’ll arrive early next week.
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August 12th — V14
Morning: 23.6ºC, 55% RH — perfect! Plants are coming along nicely considering their less than ideal environment. Roots are growing healthily and starting to circle the bottom of the cups. 3 days since watering and soil is now fairly dry, time to give the girls their first feeding.

The one I’ve called the "runt of the litter" seem to have outgrown her sister! I might have named the girls… I just couldn’t help myself!

Didn’t have time to transplant today, decided to at least give the girls their first feeding. Didn’t know how much water I’d need so I mixed 1 litre with ½ ml Grow Part A, ½ ml Grow Part B & ½ ml Alg-A-Mic and adjusted pH to 6.2. Watered until I had some runoff. Ended up only using 100 ml per plant.
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August 13th — V15
Was aiming to transplant the girls today but ended up spending the little time I had available washing and rinsing the coco coir approx 20 times to get rid of the NPK 20-20-20 (that I didn’t realize it had in it when I bought it). Washed two plastic pots to transplant into. Finally got word on the LED light today and hopefully it’ll be here soon.
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August 14th — V16
Found a small blue light on the back of the humidifier that I had missed and covered it up with black tape.

Roots have grown so much since just yesterday!

Time to transplant the girls. 3 parts Biobizz Light-Mix, 1 part Coco Coir and 1 part Perlite; moistened and mixed very thoroughly. Added 1 tbsp Mycorrhiza per pot, lightly mixed into the soil at the ‘root zone’, all around the sides and bottom of the holes.

Mixed up 4 litres of water, 3 ml Grow Part A & 3 ml Part B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, pH 6.5. Used the water to both moisten the soil and to water the plants after transplanting. Runoff water at pH 6.3, so it seems I rinsed the coco coir well enough and the soil pH is within the desired range. Nice!
Temp and RH in the grow room is steady but the light situation is even worse after transplanting, now that the plants are so far apart... come on LED light, arrive already!
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August 15th — V17
Plants are looking a bit limp today. They have now grown to their 5th node, planning on topping at the 6th node once they have grown a bit more.
Started germinating one of the White Haze Auto seeds.

The grow light FINALLY arrived! Can’t wait to see how the plants will react to the increase in light. Set up the light approx 1 meter above the canopy to let the girls adjust slowly. Lowering the light in 3-7 days (as per Kind LEDs recommendation). The grow light don’t have a built-in timer so I need to buy one asap.

Taco (left) and Runt (right).
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August 17th — PB V19 — WH 1
Runt is significantly larger than Taco, possibly due to the heat stress Taco experienced in early veg?
The White Haze popped during the evening, around 52 hours after I started germinating it in the peat brick. We really need to get that timer for the LED light soon to make it easier for ourselves.

Taco (left) Runt (right).
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[HereToLearn]

August 18th — PB V20 — WH 2
3 days since the LED light was installed. Propped up the girls on plastic crates to get them a bit closer - they’re now 80 cm away from the LED light. The PBs have now grown 6 nodes: tomorrow I will top the girls and give them their third watering+feeding. Taco is a slightly slower drinker with her smaller size, should have watered Runt today and Taco tomorrow. But oh well, live and learn.
The PBs have now grown 6 nodes: tomorrow I will top the girls and give them their third watering+feeding. Taco is a slightly slower drinker with her smaller size, should have watered Runt today and Taco tomorrow. But oh well, live and learn.

The White Haze is looking super cute!
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August 19th — PB V21 — WH 3
A root was coming out the bottom of the peat brick so transplanted WH. Mixed up some soil, coco and perlite, sprayed it with plain pH 6.2 water and mixed thoroughly. Filled a ‘solo cup’ with holes cut through the bottom with the soil, leaving the top of the peat brick barely covered. The WH seedling is looking a lot sturdier than the PB seedlings did.

Such a plump little baby!

The PBs were looking thirsty (leaves drooping a bit, especially on Runt) and the pots were feeling pretty light. Gave each girl 1 litre of water with 1 ml CalMag, 2 ml each of Grow A&B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic and adjusted pH to 6.5. Filled a spray bottle with some of the water and moistened the top of the soil (saw this tip at a forum somewhere) before watering to get the water to more easily soak into the soil. Runoff at pH 6.6 for both girls - good!

The PBs have now grown 6 nodes. Decided to try ‘FIMing’ on Taco and a ‘Micro Topping’ on Runt to see which technique I prefer. Letting the girls recover for about a week before starting any LST.

Taco after FIMing (top) and Runt after micro topping (bottom). Runt's pot (black) has a larger circumference and Runt is now significantly larger!
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August 20th — PB V22 — WH 4
Our grow closet temp has been 29ºC+ the past few days. And it's impossible to get an AC cause they are sold out everywhere because of the insanely hot weather... Bah!
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August 22nd — PB V24 — WH 6
The PBs roots are starting to poke out of the drainage holes. Aiming to transplant and start LST on both girls this weekend or early next week.
Finally bought and set up a timer for the grow light so I don't have to remember to set the coffee machine timer every night. Watered WH, pH 6.0.
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August 23rd — PB V25 — WH 7
Runt’s pot is super light and she is drooping a little bit, time to water her. 1 litre 24ºC water, 0,5 ml Fish Mix, 0,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 2 ml Grow A and 2 ml Grow B, pHed to 6.5. Runoff pH 6.7. Taco’s pot is still heavy and the leaves are perky so I'm giving her another day or two before I water. Temp is consistent at 27-28ºC, a bit better since having the door open but we have to get it even lower, and soon! For now I’ve opened the door to the closet and placed a second fan blowing cool air from the bedroom into the closet. Temp at 24.5ºC two hours later, good for now…
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August 24th — PB V26 — WH 8
PANIC MODE ACTIVATED I noticed this morning that the grow light timer hasn’t turned off these past two night... because it was set to ‘ON’ and not ‘AUTO’. That means that the girls will have had 64 hours of uninterrupted light by the time the lights turn off tonight. No bueno...

Roots are showing through the sides and bottom of WHs cup. The PBs are getting really bushy. All of the lower node sites are growing like crazy. Can’t wait for the plant ties to get here so we I can get started with LST.
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August 25th — PB V27 — WH 9
Leaves on both PBs are looking a tiny bit clawed; possible wind burn or some deficiency? Taco is feeling very light, time to water her. Gave her the same as Runt got yesterday; 1 litre water, 0,5 ml Fish Mix, 0,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 2 ml Grow A and 2 ml Grow B, pHed to 6.5. Runoff pH 6.7. Trying to learn how much pH Down to use cause I keep missing the mark and having to go back and forth with pH Up and Down.

Worried that the stems on the PBs are getting too thick and that it’ll be difficult to train them soon. So I decided to get the LST started with some yarn for now, replacing it with plant ties once they arrive.

Did a light defoliation and removed some fan leaves that were touching the soil.
Noticed a few very small brown spots on one of the removed leaves. Unfortunately I do not know which one of the PBs the leaf came from.

Curious me playing with the pocket microscope...
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August 26th — PB V28 — WH 10
Runt’s pot is super light and she is looking a bit droopy so mixed up 1,2 litre of water with 1 ml CalMag, ½ ml Rhino Skin, 2 ml each of Grow A&B, ½ ml Alg-A-Mic, ½ ml SM-90, pH 6.3. ~%20 runoff at pH 6.7.
Working on lowering our daytime temps. Added a fan blowing against the intake. Put the space heater in the grow room, at 21ºC so it'll heat it up in case we get a sudden cold spell. Reset the thermometers min/max so we could see how it fares during the night.
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August 27th — PB V29 — WH 11
Min temp after the night at 21ºC, setup worked as intended — hurray! Daytime temps between 26-27ºC today, much better than before. The boyfriend built a little sealed box for the fan blowing air to the intake, creating somewhat of an active intake. Propped the plants up higher so the canopy of the PBs is closer to the grow light (45 cm). We also put the mylar up on the walls.

Two days after LST and the girls look like they have made a full recovery, they are looking strong and all tops have turned upwards. Training all of the branches flat as soon as the plant ties arrive.
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August 28th — PB V30 — WH 12
Outdoor temps will be between 16-22ºC this week. As the outdoor temps grow colder it'll hopefully be easier to control this heat. Temp has been steady at ~26ºC during the day and ~22ºC at night.

The boyfriend bought some chains so that we could lower the light and not have to keep the plants propped up. Now we can easily adjust the light to whatever height we need it at. He also bought a booster fan and installed that to improve our exhaust. Tomorrow we are planning to put up a big oscillating fan in the ceiling.

Plant ties arrived. Spent a good hour training the PBs, pretty proud of how they turned out. Considering whether I should defoliate and remove some tops that are too low or in the way. The girls are very compact with tight node spacing and they’re very bushy.

Watered Taco; 1 litre with 1 ml CalMag, ½ ml Rhino Skin, 2 ml each of Grow A&B, ½ ml Alg-A-Mic, ½ ml SM-90, phEd to 6.2. ~10% runoff (need to give a bit more water next time) at pH 6.5. Tomorrow I have to transplant WH; roots are really starting to fill the plastic cup and she is getting thirsty.
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August 29th — PB V31 — WH 13
The PBs responded well to yesterday’s training; tops have turned fully upwards again. So I decided to train them even more agressively. Removed some of the tops that were growing from the ‘underside’ of the main stem and removed several fan leaves that were making things too crowded. Letting the girls recover for a day or two and then I’m transplanting them.

Watered Runt; 1,2 litre with 1/2 ml CalMag, 2 ml each of Grow A&B, ½ ml Rhino Skin, ½ ml Alg-A-Mic, ½ ml SM-90, ph 6.6. ~15% runoff at pH 6.7.

Taco (left) and Runt (right) after their third training session.

Transplanted WH into her final 4 gallon fabric pot. Read somewhere that since Autos have such a short amount of time in veg you want to make sure not to stunt their growth through too many transplants or excessive training.

Mixed my own version of the organic "super soil" that many were praising online. I'll be using that mix for all three girls.
~4 litres of organic soil, ~2 litres of perlite, ~½ litre coco coir, ~½ litre worm castings with ¼ dl each of bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, fish meal, palm tree ashes and mycorrhizae. Moistened the soil lightly and filled half of the pot. Filled the remaining half with a less “hot” soil mix: 3 parts Biobizz Light Mix, 1 part perlite and 1 part coco.
After transplanting I carefully watered WH with 200 ml water at pH 6.6 with ½ ml Alg-A-Mic added to help with transplant stress. Topped her at the third node. Here’s hoping that she recovers quickly and that this doesn’t stunt her growth.

WH looking tiny in her giant pot.
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August 30th — PB V32 — WH 14
PBs are recovering nicely; 14 hours later and the tops have all turned upwards. The girls seem practically unfazed by the training! PiC and I are discussing in which ways we can control grow room temps but we are yet to come to a practical solution. For now the door to the grow room stands open during the day to keep the temp down to 24ºC.
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September 1st — PB V34 — WH 16
Transplanted the PBs today. Mixed 12 liters of organic soil, 5 liters Biobizz Light Mix, 5 liters of coco coir, 5 liters of perlite, 3 liters of worm castings and ¾ dl each of bat guano, blood meal, bone meal, fish meal, palm tree ashes and mycorrhiza. Mixed everything together very thoroughly & moistened the soil mix lightly before making space for the old pots and transplanting. Watered with plain pH 6.5 water until I got some runoff.

Runt's (left) and Taco's (right) root systems.
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September 2nd — PB V35 — WH 17
Gave Prime her first feeding. 250 ml water with 1 ml CalMag, ½ ml Grow A, ½ ml Grow B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, pHed to 6.6.
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September 5th — PB V38 — WH 20
Fed the PBs; each got 1 litre water with 2 ml CalMag, 1 ml Rhino Skin, 3 ml each of Grow A & B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, ½ ml SM-90, 1/2 tsp Molasses, pH 6.5.
Gave Prime her second feeding; 250 ml water with 1 ml CalMag, ½ ml Alg-A-Mic and 1 tsp Molasses, pHed to 6.4.
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[HereToLearn]

September 6th — PB V39 — WH 21
Did some LST on both PBs to make their canopy even and separate the tops. The boyfriend wanted to be a part of the training so while I trained Runt he followed along and trained Taco. A few hours later and they have already turned upwards! They are really quite strong and healthy plants, recovering quickly from everything we do to them.

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September 7th — PB V40 — WH 22
We will be gone for 5 days so I gave all three girls plenty of plain pH 6.5 water. Hoping that they will be fine with that until we get back home. I am a bit nervous about leaving them but we've left the door open to keep temps down and placed a second fan blowing air from the bedroom into the growroom. We covered the window with a thick blanket to keep the room dark.
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September 12th — PB V46 — WH 28
Got back home after 5 days away and the plants have grown SO MUCH while we were gone! They look super healthy, show no signs of underwatering or distress and temperatures have stayed within limits. Yay! And WH has gone into full flowering while we were gone! Double yay!

Watered the PBs with 4 litres of water each with 1 ml Rhino Skin, 1 ml CalMag, 4 ml each of Grow A & B, 1 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp molasses, ½ tbsp raw unfiltered honey, pHed to 6.2. Runoff at 7.0, probably because of how long they went without water? Next watering I’ll try to bring down the pH!
Watered WH with 2 litres of water with 1 ml Rhino Skin, 2 ml CalMag, 2 ml Grow A, 2 ml Grow B, ½ ml SM-90, ~1 tsp molasses, pHed to 6.5. Forgot to check runoff.
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September 13th — PB V47 — WH 29
The boyfriend and I lollipopped, defoliated and LSTd the PBs. Runt is LITERAL PERFECTION; an even canopy in a perfect circle. Taco on the other hand well… not so much. Guess which one I worked on. Haha!
Giving them a few days to recover from the training and grow a bit more before I flip to 12/12.

Runt (left) and Taco (right) after their fourth LST session.
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17/9 PB Day 50 - WH Day 32
Holy f*ck are they growing fast… I'm fascinated and in awe of these amazing plants. Flipping to 12/12 in a few days.

2 days between these 2 pictures. Just wow. Super pleased with how even the canopy is!
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September 18th — PB V51 — WH 33
Watered the PBs with 4 litres of water with 2 ml Rhino Skin, 2 ml CalMag, 3 ml each of Grow A & B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, 3 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses, ½ tbsp Honey. pHed to 6.2, watered Taco, runoff at 7.1! Way too high still, so I lowering the pH to 5.5 and then watered Runt, runoff at 6.9...
WH got 3 litres of water with 4 ml (saw that a double dose of CalMag was recommended for autos) CalMag, 2 ml Rhino skin, 1 ml each of Grow A & B and Bloom A & B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1,5 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses. pHed to 5.8, runoff at 6.9 aswell. Will try to use an even lower pH next watering.
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September 20th — PB V53 — WH 35
Today we made the switch to 12/12! So excited to witness the flowering stretch for the first time!
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September 23rd — PB F3 — WH 38
Runt was looking droopy, waited too long between waterings. PBs each got 4 litres of water with 1 ml Rhino Skin, 1 ml CalMag, 3 ml each of Grow A & B, 1 ml each of Bloom A & B, 3 ml Terpinator, 2 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses, ½ tbsp Honey. pHed to 6.2, runoff at 7.0 for Runt and 7.1 for Taco. pH is still way too high...
WH got 4 litres of water with 2 ml Rhino skin, 3 ml CalMag, 2 ml each of Grow A & B, 1 ml Bloom A & B, 1 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1,5 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses. pHed to 5.9, forgot to check runoff.
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September 27th — PB F7 — WH 42
Evening — Runt is really droopy! Should have watered her this morning, she is drinking MUCH more than the other girls. Gave her with 4 litres with 2 ml each of Grow A & B and Bloom A & B, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp Molasses and a pinch of Epsom salt at pH 6.2. Frogot to check runoff. Ten minutes later Runt had recovered fully.

Runt (front left), WH (front right) and Taco (back right) in the grow room.
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September 29th — PB F9 — WH 44
Outdoor temperatures have dropped to 0-10ºC night/day so the grow room is doing much better temperature wise. Temperature is kept at 24ºC during the light cycle and 20ºC during the dark cycle. Humidity is kept <40%RH.

Runt is growing at an explosive rate and the plants barely fit in the grow room any more! Later today we’ll give all of the plants some much needed TLC — water Taco and WH, defoliate and train all three girls to make more space and switching the pots around so they all get an even amount of light. Taco needs to be propped up a bit as she is a bit shorter than Runt and WH.

I realize more and more that the two PBs are extremely different. I thought that Taco was growing slower than Runt and was therefore less healthy but I realize now that it's because they are two different phenotypes! I can't believe it took me this long to suspect that and look it up, and surely the Purple Bud information states that there are two distinctly differeny phenos.

The leaves look different in shape, size, colour and shinyness; Runt's leaves are large, dark green and shiny whilst Taco's are smaller, paler and matte. Runt's new growth gets very bright green whilst Taco's is almost as dark as the older parts of the plant. Taco is much smaller in stature and is already producing loads of white pistils whilst Runt still has none.
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October 2nd — PB F12 — WH 47
Watered Runt.
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October 3rd — PB F13 — WH 48
Watered Taco & Prime. Taco got 3 litres with 1 ml CalMag, 1 ml Rhino Skin, 2 ml each of Grow A&B and Bloom A&B, 1,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp molasses, ½ tbsp raw unfiltered honey. pHed to 6.1, runoff at 6.8.

WH got 3 litres with 2 ml Rhino Skin, 3 ml CalMag, 3 ml each of Bloom A&B, 1,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp molasses, ½ tbsp raw unfiltered honey. pHed to 6.2, runoff at 6.7.

My boyfriend was helping me and trying to bend Prime’s 2 top branches, pulled too far down on the stem and accidentally split the main stem to about 2 cm into it. We patched it up well with duct tape but the boyfriend felt bad for being clumsy, the poor thing. I cheered him up by telling him that people split and break stems and branches all the time and the plants bounce back really fast. I'm not worried at all.
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October 4th — PB F14 — WH 49
All girls are looking happy and healthy. WH isn't visibly affected by the stem splitting. Runts soil still feels a bit cold/moist but the pot feels quite light, unsure whether to water her.
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October 5th — PB F15 — WH 50
Runt was looking droopy this morning, so I should indeed have watered her yesterday. Trial and error. Noticed a teeny tiny bit of tip burn on all three girls, perhaps I'm giving them a bit too much nutrients. I will keep an eye on them.
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October 7th — PB F17 — WH 52
Took a good look at the PBs and did some LST on both to get the canopy as even as I could. A few of the lower/middle leaves on Taco has slightly crispy brown tips and edges and are a slight bit yellowed, but I think it's only from the leaves being in shade. Runt is still literal perfection and healthy as can be.

Runt (left) and Taco (right). Taco is significantly ahead in flowering.

Watered the PBS - each got 3 litres with 2 ml Rhino Skin, 3 ml each of Bloom A & B, 1,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1,5 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp Molasses, ½ tbsp honey & a pinch of Epsom Salt. Runoff was barely enough to measure, especially for Runt. pH in 6.0, out 6.8. Next time we’ll give them 4 litres of water.
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October 9th — PB F19 — WH 54
The pH problems on all three plants are really making me worried that they're getting nutrient lockouts, so I decided to flush them. Flushed Prime with approximately 30 litres of 6.5pH plain water. After the flush I watered with 4 litres of water with 1,5 ml Rhino Skin, 3 ml CalMag, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 1,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 1,5 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp Molasses, and a pinch of Epsom Salt, pH 6.2. Runoff at 6.9... it still didn't change? I don't understand why I can't get the pH down. Decided not to flush the other plants since it didn't seem to have any effect on pH and I didn't want to stress them unnecessarily.
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October 10th — PB F20 — WH 56
Watered the PBs; each got 4 litres of water with 2 ml CalMag, 2 ml Rhino Skin, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 1,5 ml Alg-A-Mic, 2 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses, ½ tbsp Honey, a pinch of Epsom Salt, pH 6.1, runoff at 7.1.
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October 14th — PB F24 — WH 60
Watered all three girls. WH got 4 litres with 2 ml CalMag, 2 ml Rhino Skin, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 2 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tbsp Molasses, and a pinch of Epsom Salt, pHed to 6.2. Runt and Taco each got 4 litres with 2 ml CalMag, 2 ml Rhino Skin, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 2 ml SM-90, ½ tbsp Molasses and a pinch of Epsom Salt, pHed to 6.2.

Gave a first look at WH’s trichomes through the microscope and the trichomes are still fully clear. She’s starting to swell up and getting more frosty each day, but she still has a few weeks to go by the looks of it. She is really starting to smell wonderfully; a sweet and spicy lemony aroma.

A couple of Taco’s lower leaves have yellowed and fallen off, probably simply from them not getting any light anymore. — it has a slightly less bright spot in the grow room and a quite thick canopy — so I’m not too worried about it being any sort of deficiency.

As the boyfriend was watering the girls I asked about pH and realized that he had misunderstood me and had been adjusting the pH BEFORE adding the nutrients... Which explains the weird leaf symptoms we’ve been having on all three girls that I haven’t been able to pinpoint! Now I know that the symptoms are caused by pH fluctuations, which is known to cause some pretty strange symptoms. Glad we found out now rather than later. Yay for figuring things out and learning from mistakes!
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October 17th — PB F27 — WH 63
Watered Prime with 4 litres with 4 ml CalMag, 2 ml Rhino Skin, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 2 ml SM-90, 10 ml Terpinator, 1 tsp Molasses, 1 tsp Honey. pHed to 6.2, runoff at 6.9. Watered the PBs with 4 litres each with 2 ml Rhino Skin, 4 ml CalMag, 4 ml each of Bloom A & B, 2 ml SM-90, 5 ml Terpinator, ½ tsp Molasses, pHed to 6.2. Runt’s runoff at 7.1, Taco’s at 7.2.

Top view of Runt. One of WH's top colas, she's around day 37 of flower / week 6 of flower.

Took a good look at the WH. About 50% of the pistils have started turning amber in colour and curling in. The trichomes are about 50/50 clear/cloudy. Will keep track of the state of her pistils and trichomes but my guess is she’s got about 2 weeks to go before I start flushing.

My first trichome pictures!
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October 19th — PB F29 — WH 65
Cut one small bud off of WH to sample because the boyfriend and I were both all too curious. Plus it’s basically a first grow tradition, right?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

October 20th — PB F30 — WH 66
For the past few days I’ve been considering whether I should do a major defoliation or not as I’ve seen such conflicting information on whether it’s a good technique or not. Some claim defoliation is pointless, that it’s bad for your plant or even that it decreases one's yield. But the majority seem to agree that defoliation has many benefits in an indoor grow. So I decided to stick to defoliating the PBs, despite it being 30 days post flip and maybe a bit late to do so. But I think they will recover just fine considering how healthy and strong they seem.

Runts canopy has stayed almost completely flush even through the stretch!

One of Taco's buds (top left) compared to one of Runt's buds (top right). Not as obvious in these pictures but Taco's way ahead of Runt in the flowering process.
Taco's leaves (bottom left) are half the size of Runt's (bottom right), a much paler, matter green and feel flimsier. Took 47 leaves from Runt and 31 from Taco.
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[HereToLearn]

October 21st — PB F31 — WH 67
I’ve been researching about growing all day yesterday and today and have acquired a plethora of new knowledge. Throughout this grow I’ve realized more and more just how little I know about growing. Going into this grow I thought I had it all figured out; that with all of my equipment and knowledge I would pull off my first grow like a pro. Oh boy was I wrong hahaha! Let me introduce to you..

Pesky pH Problems
A Retrospective Review of My Cannabis Grow Issues
Caused by Over Complication, Rushed Decisions and My Lack of Better Knowledge​

Still freaking out over runoff pH being higher than what the internet told me was optimal. Thinking that either my soil must be too alkaline or that something else must be wrong, I rush to get help from the internet. A watering guide tells me to water with a lower pH than normal, or even flush my plants, to “fix” the high runoff pH.

So I 1) made the decision to flush my White Haze (which had the highest runoff pH of all my three plants coming in at pH 7.4!) which I found out later that very day caused unnecessary stress to the plant and should only have been done as a very last measure... and it didn’t even end up changing the runoff pH. Womp womp...

Realizing my mistake with the White Haze I 2) decided to follow recommendations for my two Purple Bud plants and go for a slow change and simply water as normal but lowering the pH to compensate. After several waterings the runoff pH had remained roughly the same. It didn’t make any sense to me. Meanwhile my boyfriend kept mistakenly adjusting pH before adding nutes resulting in way more alkaline water compared to the acidic water I made. So we had unknowingly caused extreme pH fluctuations. Yikes. And then I read that you shouldn’t water with a pH outside of the recommended range of 6.2-6.8 either way, which I had been doing all the way down to pH 5.5. Double yikes.

Happy to at least have found out about our mistakes sooner rather than later and thinking that I had at least solved the mystery as to why the pH stayed unchanged I 3) started watering with pH 6.2 instead. Thinking that now everything will surely work out. But still the runoff stayed at pH 7.2-7.4. And now the whole thing makes even less sense to me. Why wouldn’t the pH change the way the guide said it would. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.

And today I find out that I should have never tried to adjust runoff pH in the first place as it has NOTHING to do with the pH that's in the soil?! Even more congusing! This source says that only thing you need to measure in your runoff is ppm, to see if you’re giving your plants too much/too little nutrients. That by continuing to change the pH all I ended up achieving was stressed out plants with nutrient lockouts, pH fluctuation symptoms and a likely diminished yield.

My plants never showed any major symptoms pointing to deficiencies or lockouts but simply because a guide that said “runoff should be pH 6.0-7.0” and because I wanted so desperately to do everything right I ended up fucking with plants that were seemingly doing just fine and ended up hurting them. And I still don't even know whether I should care about runoff pH or not.

Lesson learned from all of this? Read your plants. Don’t rush decisions. Read up on things properly. Consult MANY other growers before changing things you’re unsure about. And last but not least; if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it.

 

[HereToLearn]

Welcome to !!! I understand being nervous I just started my first journal as well. Don't worry though if you make a mistake nobody is going to laugh or make fun of you. They will just show you how to fix it and how to avoid it in the future. Ill hang around if you don't mind. Nice intro by the way.

Thanks so much Scout! And I'm glad you liked my introduction and that you wanna stick around
All I've seen on this forum so far is kindness, so my nervousness is just anticipation and excitement!

 

[HereToLearn]

@Dusted @AngryBird @Bilbobudkin420 Thank you guys again for the warm welcome. Here are my three girls! I hope you'll stick around

 

[AngryBird]

Hi
Of course I will!!
So welcome again and this time to journal section

 

[AngryBird]

By the looks of it, you know what you are doing pretty well beautifully written journal too.

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Nice one. Look perfectly happy!. Leaves look a little dark with some purpling on the stems, could be genetics but also could be attributed to overfeeding but i dont see any burn so ima say genetics. Good job HTL!

 

[Dutchman1990]

Looking great HTL your girls are looking happy and are growing some nice flowers for you! Should be a good harvest! Keep it green!

 

[HereToLearn]

By the looks of it, you know what you are doing pretty well beautifully written journal too.

Oh wow, thank you AngryBird *blushes* I really put my heart into this grow and this journal. So that makes me so very happy to hear!

Nice one. Look perfectly happy!. Leaves look a little dark with some purpling on the stems, could be genetics but also could be attributed to overfeeding but i dont see any burn so ima say genetics. Good job HTL!

Thank you thank you Bilbo! I was worried about the purpling too, but they've been like that pretty much since the start so I also think it's just their genetics. Looking forward to seeing that purple colour in the flowers as well. Purple Bud is known for just that, purple buds in contrast to green sugarleaves. Here's hoping that ending with some cooler night temps does the trick and I'll get to see it!

Looking great HTL your girls are looking happy and are growing some nice flowers for you! Should be a good harvest! Keep it green!

Thank you kindly Dutchman! I'm happy with how happy they seem despite my numerous mistakes. I'm looking so much forward to my first harvest

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Oh wow, thank you AngryBird *blushes* I really put my heart into this grow and this journal. So that makes me so very happy to hear!


Thank you thank you Bilbo! I was worried about the purpling too, but they've been like that pretty much since the start so I also think it's just their genetics. Looking forward to seeing that purple colour in the flowers as well. Purple Bud is known for just that, purple buds in contrast to green sugarleaves. Here's hoping that ending with some cooler night temps does the trick and I'll get to see it!

Using colder water can have the same effect aswell without having to mess with your environment. Pretty sure one or 2 of the moderators at @420 have used this technique.

 

[HereToLearn]

Using colder water can have the same effect aswell without having to mess with your environment. Pretty sure one or 2 of the moderators at @420 have used this technique.

That's rather clever, thank you for the advice. I'll look it up!

 

[AngryBird]

See.. That is why this forum us simply the best.
Sharing, caring and helping out

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

See.. That is why this forum us simply the best.
Sharing, caring and helping out

That's rather clever, thank you for the advice. I'll look it up!

 

[Pennywise]

You've done well HTL, looks like your first grow will be a big success! I wouldn't freak out about run off numbers unless you're seeing deficiencies which I'm not seeing at the moment. Remember loving your plants to death is a real thing! Lol

 

[HereToLearn]

October 22nd — PB F32 — WH 68
Today I read that different soil additives affect soil pH greatly (Source). Bone meal, wood ashes and peat moss increases soil pH whilst blood meal, fish meal and bat guano lowers pH. When I planted the girls I roughly followed the original “super soil” recipe to make sure that the amounts I added were proportional. But couldn’t get a hold of the Dolomite they had in their soil mix, which is used to lower pH greatly. So I simply made my mix without it, which I have now realized must explain why my soil is so alkaline.
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October 23rd — PB F33 — WH 69
I’ve gained lots of new knowledge these past few days and I’m finally starting to understand how the hell nutrients really work and how much to use of each during different growth stages. Many guides that I've previously found online made it sound so easy, as if there are simple two stages; veg and flower... But thanks to everyone here on the 420magazine forums I know better now. And I'm excited to start doing it right, and to save money along the way!
I’ve realized that I desperately need a ppm meter if I want to get this right.

The small spots of necrosis on the leaves of all three girls seem to pertain to phosphorus deficiency (and the pH fluctuations) which makes sense to me now. The nutrients I have been using (Advanced Nutrients and other supplements) has not been providing enough phosphorus. And I think my girls might have also gotten a tad too much Nitrogen. So I did the math and came up with a 1-3-3 feed for now, using bat guano for extra phosphorus as that was my only supplement/additive rich in phosphorus. Since I don’t have a ppm meter (ordering one for my next grow) I aimed for a lower than recommended dose. I’ll keep a close eye on them the following days.

Each of the PBs got 2 ml Cal-Mag (4-0-0), ½ ml Epsom Salts, 4 ml Bloom B (2-4-8), Terpinator (0-0-4), 2.5 g Bat Guano (1-10-1) and ½ tsp Molasses. pH 6.2, watered until quite a bit of runoff. Runoff still at pH 7.4.
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[HereToLearn]

You've done well HTL, looks like your first grow will be a big success! I wouldn't freak out about run off numbers unless you're seeing deficiencies which I'm not seeing at the moment. Remember loving your plants to death is a real thing! Lol

Thank you Pennywise! That means a lot coming from you. All of this positive feedback is making me feel really happy and confident (and maybe even a bit emotional, but you never heard that from me!).

And yes, I'm definitely guilty of loving them a tad too much. As the grow progresses I calm down more and more, most days I only check on them once in the morning. Which I see as an achievement for a beginner grower... it truly is hard to leave them alone