Jl01's Blue Dream Indoor Grow: First Time Grower, 2019

[jl01]

Hello All,

I'm (very) new around these parts (introduction post from earlier today here.) I'm embarking on my very first cannabis grow, so without further ado, here we go. This is probably premature since the plants are still in the seedling stage, but I'm going to press on and pretend I'm not likely to have to scrap this journal.

What strain is it? 2x Blue Dream (feminized), 1x Super Lemon Haze (Not sure if it's feminized)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Blue Dream 80/20 sativa/indica (apparently), SLH 100% Sativa
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Seedling stage at the moment
Indoor or outdoor?
Soil or Hydro? Fox Farms Happy Frog Soil now, but I may build my own organic soil with HF as a base when I transplant them
Size of light? 1x 600w LED and 1x 1000w LED (cheap amazon lights, but whatever)
Temp of Room/cab? Holding steady at about 75F and 60%RH now, but I don't have strict control mechanisms so that may change according to the weather. Basement stays fairly constant compared to the rest of the house, though.
Type and strength of ferts used? For now using liquid seaweed diluted in water (about 2ml/quart), Once they're nice and rooted I also have some URB and plan on using compost teas.

Okay so here's the scoop: I started germinating several Blue Dream and Super Lemon Haze seeds a couple of weeks ago, but as soon as I started them in the wet paper towels, I was called out of town for work on very short notice, basically I had to leave the next morning. I stuck them into FF Happy Frog soil in solo cups and left town for a week. When I got back, I realized I made a mistake and forgot to label the plants (rookie mistake, won't be the last), and only one had sprouted. I'm like 90% sure it's one of the Blue Dreams though.

So the night I returned, I put 1 seed of each strain into paper towels. The idea, I guess, is that growing one more of each will help me identify which strain the 'mystery' plant is, plus I have a 4' x 4' grow tent, which should handle three plants. I'm thinking I'll just hold the original plant in veg for an extra week while the other two catch up. Hope that isn't a flawed plan?

Original 'mystery' strain:

When I saw that it had sprouted, the shell was still hanging on to one of the leaves. Having not been around the previous week, it kind of messed up the leaf since I couldn't remove it. You can see the leaf closest to the camera is pretty deformed (sorry about the lighting). No big deal though, seems to be growing fine.

New Blue Dream:

After germinating in a wet paper towel, this gal quickly peeked out of the soil. The shell was still pretty firmly attached, though, and I'm not sure if I should manually remove it with a pair of tweezers or something? Maybe someone more experienced can give me some direction.

The 'new' Super Lemon Haze took an extra day to develop a tap root, but I put it into HF soil yesterday and still no sign of it sprouting.

Anyways, sorry if this post is longer than you folks are used to. Hope for this to be a successful grow!

 

[Alafornia]

Let it be for now and give it a little time. You're off to a great start. Congratulations!

 

[Backlipslide]

 

[John Wick]

I'm in and liking it so far.

 

[Magicdvdfarm]

That’s a one big bag of popcorn enjoy. Lol

 

[Magicdvdfarm]

Also in for the ride. I remember my first grow also. So exciting. Cheers happy growing. Magic

 

[Van Stank]

Hey there.....gonna grab this bean bag over here in the corner and watch you do your thang! Cheers!

 

[jl01]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the warm welcome!

A quick update:

Plant #1, the original 'mystery' strain (that I'm pretty sure is Blue Dream) is getting a bit bigger, starting to see roots on the edges of the cup (they're transparent). [sidebar: will the roots at the edge of the cup be damaged by the light? Should I consider stacking them into an opaque solo cup?]

Not much else to report, continuing to water intermittently. Damaged leaf never straightened out but it adds character, I guess.

Pictures:

As for Plant #2 the confirmed blue dream, she started to shed her shell and I helped her out on the last little bit. Not sure if it helped, but I placed a clear ziploc bag over the cup to make sure it stayed nice and humid. I took it off for pictures but I replaced it and I'll probably take if off for good tomorrow.

I keep a normal white light LED panel in the corner of the tent, and it's on the timer with the grow LED they're under. I think it makes the pictures look cool.

As for Plant #3, the new super lemon haze, I saw no sign of it emerging from the surface so I carefully pulled dirt out from the top of where it was and saw that the tap root hadn't grown at all since when I planted it. I guess that probably means it's about done for. I got those from a non-reputable source, and I guess I'm not surprised I haven't gotten any to germinate. On the other hand, I guess it does add a bit of confidence that Plant #1 is, in fact, blue dream.

So, my last question is should I try to germinate one more seed to go with the two blue dreams, or will it present problems to get them all to flower at the right time? I have a cache of 1:1 cbd:thc seeds I got from a highly reputable source that would make a great addition, but I'm not sure if it's too late. Starting to germintate it tonight would make it 5 days behind Plant #2 and 14 days behind Plant #1.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Backlipslide]

Roots don’t care for light all that much. You can battle that problem by dropping those cups in some darker coloured cups. red or blue will work. Just drop your previous cup into a darker one you will be fine!

 

[John Wick]

Roots don’t care for light all that much. You can battle that problem by dropping those cups in some darker coloured cups. red or blue will work. Just drop your previous cup into a darker one you will be fine!

 

[jl01]

A little bit to report: I decided that I did want to go ahead and try to get a third plant going, so I started to germinate the 1:1 cbd/thc strain called CBD Cream & Cheese I got from Seedsman. I have it in a bag folded in a wet paper towel downstairs, I think it'll be ready to stick into soil by tomorrow.

Since the plants are all offset by more than a week each, it may be tricky getting them to fill out correctly when it comes time to switch them to flower. I'm planning on topping and using a scrog net, so it might just be that the first plant fills out the most space in the net, the second one gets a bit less, and the third plant will have the least amount of buds getting light. I'm not really worried about that affecting the viability of the grow, but it might make things trickier than they needed to be for my first grow. Yolo I guess..

While I'm making a post, I figured I would take the time to post a pic of my grow setup. I mentioned this in the initial post, but this is a 4x4 grow tent with the 'amazon special' lights, nothing too fancy. I'm currently doing a bit of vegetable gardening so I'm taking advantage of the setup to get some broccoli, collared greens, and Brussel sprouts started before I put them into the ground outside.

You can see all the small white cups with the vegetables getting started in them. I also got a basil plant while I was at the garden center because I heard it helps with pest control. I figured I would keep it into the tent while it can get light and then put it into a pot in my kitchen window later on.

A couple of pictures of Plant #1

Plant 2 seems to be doing okay as well, taking her time.

Anyways, that's all I got. Not sure how often I'll be posting, I guess each time something interesting develops, but thanks for following along so far.

 

[John Wick]

I'm going to follow along, so post !

 

[Opar]

Pulling up a chair, welcome and can’t wait to watch your plants grow!

 

[Backlipslide]

Nice set up! Everything’s looking great!

I’ll be waiting for your next update!

 

[Backlipslide]

Since the plants are of set by a week or how ever long, have you considered just topping and training in a quad line? You will enjoy being able to freely remove them from the tent if you do that. If not no worries bro!

 

[Van Stank]

A week really isn't that big of a difference in plants as long as they are all healthy. How long do you intend on vegging the older plants for?

 

[jl01]

Since the plants are of set by a week or how ever long, have you considered just topping and training in a quad line? You will enjoy being able to freely remove them from the tent if you do that. If not no worries bro!

Hey, thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't really heard of that technique until you mentioned it. Unfortunately it looks like there aren't a ton of resources/tutorials on it, but I think I kind of get it. I was able to find some grow journals on this site and a couple others that used the technique, but is there anywhere you know of that has an explicit tutorial on it?

Scrogging seems to have tutorials all over the internet, so that might be what I'm most comfortable with at the moment, but I still have a few weeks before I need to start topping/training so I suppose I can play it by ear.

 

[jl01]

A week really isn't that big of a difference in plants as long as they are all healthy. How long do you intend on vegging the older plants for?

I'm still researching a little bit on exactly how long I need to veg my plants before switching to flower. I guess the biggest constraining factor for a typical indoor grow is just having adequate space? I was planning on filling out a scrog net with my three plants and letting them go about a week to stretch a bit before switching to flower. Is that the general principal behind Scrogging? With three plants going, it might fill up quickly in a 4x4 tent

 

[1969gtx]

I guess it's all about timing and available space. If you have the space and no time deadlines, then let them veg until you feel they are big enough to fill your space comfortably, factoring in the future stretch that comes with early bloom. This will vary greatly with different strains, but plan on a minimum of 30 percent stretch. Here is an example, with 5 plants in a 4x4. Vegged for 70 days, in flower now for 10 days.
I feel like I waited a little too long in veg, because it's getting full.
The two closest and on each side of the door is the same as you just started, cream and cheese cbd.
Once again, many many variables. Genetics, lights, nutrients, ect will all play a part.
I'm no expert on the matter, but I thought you could use an example, if nothing else, just to see some cream and cheese!

 

[Backlipslide]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't really heard of that technique until you mentioned it. Unfortunately it looks like there aren't a ton of resources/tutorials on it, but I think I kind of get it. I was able to find some grow journals on this site and a couple others that used the technique, but is there anywhere you know of that has an explicit tutorial on it?

Scrogging seems to have tutorials all over the internet, so that might be what I'm most comfortable with at the moment, but I still have a few weeks before I need to start topping/training so I suppose I can play it by ear.

I can’t remember exactly who it is, but I think it’s @Dutchman1990 that has a great quad line thread. Forgive me if I’m wrong, maybe Dutchman will know who’s it is.

You can always swing by my journal and check out how I train my plants. I have no tutorial, but you could probably get the gist of it.

For time of vegging, if space isn’t a factor, then I like to veg for no shorter then 60 days. Again, there’s a lot of variables to go off of there.

I like to top above the fifth internode. Remove the bottom two, leaving three in tact. Once it’s topped, the plant will focus on other parts of the plant, and you will notice her growing horizontally, rather then vertically.

Once the branches come in above the fan leaves. Those are the parts of the plant you want to train (tie down).

This is an example of what I do/did to my DA1 plant.