Kief Doctors First ChemDawg Practice Grow Journal 2013

[KiefDoctor]

Hello, and welcome everyone.

This is my first grow and first grow journal as well. In it I will document the progress of my single little ChemDawg baby that I am growing as a practice plant.
I acquired the seeds from bud that either was a Hermie plant, or was pollinated by a Hermie. Either way I would to say now that I am aware that many people dislike hermie's and would discourage anyone from growing them, however I am only growing this plant as a test of my ability to grow a strong healthy plant and whether or not it produces a lot, a little, or no bud is completely irrelevant to me in this case.
That being said, I will also be growing a number of plants that will comprise this years main crop and will be documented in a separate journal.

Here are my plans. (tentative)

I will start the seedlings indoors and grow them in a vegetative state until the weather clears up and then transplant them outside.

Or I will continue to develop the single plant indoors and induce flowering inside.

This is my first ever grow so I'm still figuring all this out as I go.

Now on to some more relevant information:

Several days ago (between 2/15/2013 and 2/17/2013) I placed three whitish seeds in a clear plastic 20oz solo cup after soaking them in water for 24 hours. The soil is from my back yard. I planted them about 1 cm deep into the top of the soil and lightly moistened it.

I was skeptical as to whether any of them would sprout based on the seeds weak appearance. I thanked Jah for the opportunity to grow this herb, and kept them properly watered over the next few days, and to my surprise, before I went to bed on Wednesday night (Technically Thursday Morning at 12:30 am) I checked on the cup and saw the white stem of a seedling poking out of the surface of the soil. The feeling you get of success is one of the best feelings you can experience and is impossible to describe.

Heres the photo:

After I calmed down I finally was able to fall asleep and when I woke up at around 9:30 am The little stem had risen up to show me it's little dicot form with two nice little cotyledons (seed leaves).

Now it's 1:14 pm on Thursday afternoon 2/21/2013 and I'm getting ready to leave. I have to leave home for a few days and I will be back late Saturday night.

I wasn't really expecting the seeds to sprout so I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. I only have a 15 watt or so CFL light that I put about two inches from the seedling. I hope it will be okay for these few days while I'm away. I have a budget of $150 to spend on lights and fertilizers (just for the moment) so if anyone has any suggestions on how to get the most for the money that would be great.

Thanks for reading so far,
Jah bless,
Kief

 

[OG1969]

Welcome to 420, nice to see those little girls pop up isnt it. Could go a few different ways and just expand on the cfls more with higher watts and the Roots Organic nutes have a master grow pack with everything you will need for about 45 plus shipping again just a thought. Happy growing and looking forward to the grow, Peace OG.

P.S if you are gonna go cfl get two different spectrum bulbs I.E. 2700k and 6500k, more so for flowering. Only have one cfl I use for the little girls for about a week then they go under Halide or HPS

 

[OG1969]

Check through the Journals and all the info here great read and very educational on growing plus there are a ton of CFL grows out there to check out.

 

[Electricthom]

Welcome KD. That light should be ok for now. Get her out of yard dirt and into a good medium soil or coco, nothing to hot little girls burn easy from nutes, what ever nutrient brand you want to use and a PH meter. I tried ph test strips and had problems because of it. A $13 pen meter off Amazon fixed that and wouldn't have cost more than strips if I got that in the first place. And add lights as you can. Be aware I started under $100 and it gets crazy fun and after a year and $1000-$1200 I grow better Meds than I ever could have afforded buy.

 

[KiefDoctor]

Thanks for all the info OG.

Electric, The reason I put her in native soil is that our soil is pretty fertile and I want her to acclimatize to that kind of soil in case I transfer her outside. I don't know if it will matter in the end, and maybe putting her in some potting soil would be best.

 

[Electricthom]

Be careful with poting soils they can have nutes in them that can be too strong for seedlings. That's why I went with Coco 2Ltr Hempy's I control the level of food, good drainage and if I need to transplant they get a nice healthy rootball that I've put into coco and soil both with good results.

 

[OG1969]

There are some good soils out there I use the Roots Organic line of soils as well as the nutes in 5 gallon smart pots and two are in 5 gallon buckets the remainder are waiting for transplant and they will go into 3 gallon smart pots with the roots soil, but I do add more perlite to the mix I like drainage and if I have to water more frequently that is fine by me, and with a couple higher wattage CFL'S could be a nice compact grow, OG

 

[KiefDoctor]

What would you recommend as the highest watt CFL OG? I was thinking of going with about 6-8 23 watt CFL's as it would overall be cheaper than 1 or 2 higher watt CFL's.

I've also been using a lux calculator to determine a rough estimate of how much light will be hitting my plant.

UPDATE:

The two first true leaves have appeared, they are less than 1 cm long right now, also the stem has turned a darker reddish brown color and has white fuzz on it. I made a new mix of soil till I can purchase something better, it's something like 1 part humus, 1 part compost, 1 part sand, 1 part perlite .75 parts pumice.


I'm concerned because the little thing seems to be growing quite slowly. It may be due to the low wattage light, which I think is most likely.

Still figuring out how often to water and all that.

Also I've seen people use lids on trays or saran wrap over cups to create a terrarium like effect (increase humidity) I decided to put some misted saran wrap over the seedling, I was wondering if that is a good thing to do or not.

More Photos soon.

Till Next Time.

Kief.

 

[KiefDoctor]

UPDATE: Kief Doctors First ChemDawg Practice Grow Journal 2013

Yesterday, February 25, 2013 I purchased 4 new 23 watt fluorescent lights, I currently have 3 of them supplying light to the plant while waiting to get a few more fixtures.
The lights are daylight balanced at 6500K, The little seedling seems to be loving it, I believe my previous light was a soft white 2,700K balanced or somewhere between 3000-4000K So the plant is liking the more natural light.

Here are some pics of the current set up:

Here's a container pic:

And another close-up:

Thanks for reading.

 

[KiefDoctor]

I noticed this morning some weird brownish spot of the edges of the first two true leaves. Is this just new growth, or does it have to do with a nutrient/growing conditions issue?

Here's a pic.

 

[KiefDoctor]

Hey Everyone, It's been a few days since my last post, and man have they been rough. The little things been through a lot of stress, and I've been forced to re locate her outside.

She's lookin good though.

 

[Smokemupm8]

Theyll come along soon mate.. Just give em another week or so. And about the little patches on edges, dont stress as long as it doesnt get worse you should be ok, my sprout had burn on one leaf for some reson but is now fine. But as said becareful about what you use for soil. I make my own mix mostly HUMUS soil its 100% organic with active microbes and n,p,k.. great stuff And then I mix couple things in and ready to roll. You need your soil active for the roots to feed properly and for optimal health, the happier the roots the happier the plant.
So just make sure later when you feed too that you keep tabs off what and when you feed so you dont over feed etc; Goodluk, Smokemup

 

[KiefDoctor]

Thanks Smokeemup.
Right now I've got her in a mix of humus, compost, sand and perlite. I've fed her once when I watered about 3 days ago with a 1/3 strength solution of high nitrogen (10-2-1) bat guano. Its been wet outside so I've actually had to try and keep her dry.

I was planning on switching to a coco coir/perlite soil less mix, But seeing as I can no longer grow indoors, I'll have to decide whether to plan directly in ground on some good slightly amended soil, or to grow in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[BIGBADBAZ]

Hey atb with your grow matey im sure you,le turn em around!
as alwayz nuff respect.......

 

[Smokemupm8]

No worries Kief
Well mate, all I can say is that I always make my own soil blend - as the shit ya buy (from gardening shops ) is usually fairly basic and not really spec'd for Ganja!!
Hydro or growing supply shops will of course have some more suited stuff for growing the weed as they need some N,P,K and also microbes help!!
If you can get HUMUS soil, that AWSUMNESS - I use about 60% of this, some Dolomite Cal/mag spread through, not too much, And also I do use some good quality pot mix not made of pine bark tho,about 25%, then some fine Pea straw mulch mixed through it all and then also mix a little slow release ferts, they re meant to last about 3 months so it just helps later on of your soil is a little less active or leeched of nutes that there may still be some nutes being gradually broken down. With this for a few weeks of Veg growing , I dont need to feed any nutes, Just water. Sometimes I may give a light drink of Seasol ( seaweed extract ) which IMO is great stuff too
This is all they usually need until I put into final pot, which Ill make about 60% of the soil in the transplanting pot the same as I mentioned above, tho dont need to add any slow release ferts as not to long after this youll probably be feeding your plant with some fertilisers soon anyway. It is your call with what you do of course buddy DONT HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!!
Just a little info on what I do, and my plants grow well in this and its also a fairly aerated mix too. Best of luck. Smokemup

 

[KiefDoctor]

Some Assholes came and dumped my pot out and destroyed my baby. For now this grow is unfortunately over.
Don't people realize it's like ripping someones heart out and stomping all over it, It's like cutting off someones arms and telling them to play catch. Oh well.
My next grow will be about 40 indica sweeties, outdoors, starting around May 1st. Stay tuned and look for my next Journal.


Till then, Peace, Love and Prosperity.

Kief

 

[Truth Seeker]

Thanks for sharing your grow with us.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

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

If so, please start one here:
Journals in Progress

In the future, whenever you complete a journal, please use the Report Post feature found at the bottom left of every post, so we can be alerted to move it for you.

Hope all is well in your world.

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