My First Grow!

[nick17]

I just started my first grow a few days ago, my seedling just came up and it's looking good. While it is my first time growing cannabis (I recently received my card and permission to grow) it is not my first time in horticulture. I'm well versed in most matters plant related. I would love some tips that are cannabis specific! If you see the signs of something wrong please tell! I love constructive criticism!

This is Day One! (As of showing the first photosynthesizing leaves)

The cotyledon are a little curled under, I don't think it was because of anything in the soil though.

 

[nick17]

I didn't really mention the specifics. This is obviously from seed. The strain is Royal Queen's Special Queen #1 (fem). I purchased a few seeds through a dispensery, I will see how I do with my first grow before growing more. It is a taller predominantly Indica hybrid, I'll be keeping it quite small. I don't have a ton of money so I'll be using cfl lighting (2 40w) (2 20W) with only the 40s to start! The soil is an organic mix that I use with my tomato seedlings into adulthood and after a few weeks I have some Dyna-Grow that I also used on tomatoes and a couple of other tropical plants!

 

[Alkhemist]

hey there Nick!

look forward to seeing your grow as it's your first cannabis grow you'll no doubt find there are alot of similarities with tomatoes especially with signs of toxicity or deficiency etc but will be along for the ride
you should have little to worry about with your horticultural background.. more just refining your grow setup to suit your needs in terms of space and your goals etc(although everyones goals are generally the same lol best possible quality medicine + highest possible yield ;]) and possibly looking at different lighting cycles for vegetative stages e.g GLR, 18/6, 24 etc but thats all part of the fun of horticulture- experimenting and discovering better ways of growing a plant although, as you would know, different strains tend to like different tweaks here n there but again.. knowing all that is an awesome experience!

look forward to watching your lovely little lady bloom into a stunning voluptuous woman!! lol

all the best

 

[nick17]

Thanks! Your Grow journals are sweet BTW!

 

[nick17]

hey there Nick!

look forward to seeing your grow as it's your first cannabis grow you'll no doubt find there are alot of similarities with tomatoes especially with signs of toxicity or deficiency etc but will be along for the ride
you should have little to worry about with your horticultural background.. more just refining your grow setup to suit your needs in terms of space and your goals etc(although everyones goals are generally the same lol best possible quality medicine + highest possible yield ;]) and possibly looking at different lighting cycles for vegetative stages e.g GLR, 18/6, 24 etc but thats all part of the fun of horticulture- experimenting and discovering better ways of growing a plant although, as you would know, different strains tend to like different tweaks here n there but again.. knowing all that is an awesome experience!

look forward to watching your lovely little lady bloom into a stunning voluptuous woman!! lol

all the best

Thanks! I have heard that tomatoes are similar, I've also worked with hopus and a tobacco, but of course marijuana is where my heart is. I'll probably start off on a 24 hr/day schedule and see how she does, I've always grow tomatoes under 75W cfls 18/6 so we'll see!

 

[nick17]

Today nothing new happened so I didn't feel the need to take a new picture. I figure for the first two weeks I'll go one picture a day, then after that I'll go more in depth with my progress. As for the plant, it is doing fine. It's housed in a makeshift grow box in a closet. The temperature and airflow are good for tomatoes so I assumed they'll be good for cannabis. The first set of photosynthesizing leaves have grown to be about as big as the cotyledon. As far as the cotyledon curling under, that probably had to do with how deep I put the seed? None of the true leaves are curled so I'm not worried.
The soil is extremely light with organic decomposed peat moss, small perlite particles that have been allowed to age with the soil, and the rest is good ole mulched garden soil. I've ph'd the same mixture before and found it to be almost perfect after adding decomp'd manure, coffee, and aging to reduce burn. The result is an extremely productive soil that is very safe to plant young plants and even seeds in. I usually plant acid reducing grasses in the soil before microwave sanitation and planting.

 

[nick17]

So today is day three. Again, there's not a lot of new growth. The first set of leaves is coming in nicely, you can see the tiny nubs of the second set of leaves which should be three fanned. In maybe a week the growth will be picked up enough to see something new daily, but I won't publish a daily photo until that rapid growth starts.

 

[nick17]

I just realized the fist day, I accidentely wrote this was a mostly indica hybrid, however, I misspoke, this is actaully a 50/50 (Power Bud x Skunk) hybrid strain, which is why I'll be utilizing more techniques to keep it shorter and bushier.

 

[nick17]

Day 5: Again, no major changes, the first leaf set is now fairly large and the second set is growing in. The plant appears to like the environment it's in. The grow box itself stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees with a slight breeze. The humidity hovers but with the grow box door shut it appears to be around 50-70. This will stay fairly high until it comes to flowering, at which point I'll drop it to get those tricomes to produce as much THC as possible.

Day 5, she's standing pretty well straight up, The 40W lights are on full about 3-5 inches away from the plant, there is virtually no heat felt on my hand next to the plant so there's no issue there.

 

[Jimmy6000]

Your plants look a little small for 5 days.I would try to back the light off some.They dont need much a first,but I am a newbe,so Its just my opinion.

 

[nick17]

I did just move the light yesterday, I am also new at this too. I decided to back off the lights about two more inches to just over 5. I put the two cfl's at around four inches as of yesterday and with only 80W total I don't know how much this would interfere, it was pretty much in the dark for the first few days with only one 13W cfl about 8 inches above it. I called a friend who works at a dispensary and he said it could take a couple days to get going. Thanks for the input! This probably won't be my only mistake, luckily I don't think it'l hurt it!

 

[nick17]

Here's another Day 5 picture, this is about 12 hours after the first one, I won't have my camera with me tomorrow and I don't know if I'll be able to update anything. There was a little bit of growth between the half a day. I should be able to take a new picture early Tuesday then I might start doing dailys.

 

[bigblunts209]

Its growing nice!

 

[nick17]

Early Day 7. Or say 6.5... Today, again, nothing new. I do think the growth has picked up a little bit. The third set of leaves are now visible.

 

[Alkhemist]

hey brother!

your baby is looking just fine! you'll see in the first 2 weeks of the seedling stage(=rooted seedling and early vegetative stages) growth is slower due to root systems forming and the plants ability to take up more nutrients is established.. laying down that foundation of roots takes a short time but is well worth it if not rushed! good things take a little time, so they say after that you should start to see some more pronounced growth e.g. week 3-4 and onwards(mid-late vegetative growth stages right up to the transition to flowering)
she's chugging along just wonderfully bro and i look forward to see what you are going to do with her do you think you use any branch training techs at all? or possibly defoliation when she starts to shoot off? how large do you think you will veg her? and what brand of nutrients will you be going with? feeding schedule?
sorry for the interrogation! lol just curious
ive just entered into flowering this week and have decided to tie the lats and main leaders down to allow for a deeper light penetration and have gone with a light defoliation only to reveal shaded bud sites.. apart from that im trying to keep things as simple as possible ;] but one thing i have noticed... i tend to change my mind 100x before i actually do a thing! loL

all the best brother!

 

[Alkhemist]

ah sorry dude! i just went over your entries again and saw you will be using some dyna-grow later on.. doh :]

 

[dadadenny]

Nick you have an amazing camera, in one pic you can see a nats ass. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and level of knowledge is gona make for a good grow.
i sure agree with this, "ive just entered into flowering this week and have decided to tie the lats and main leaders down to allow for a deeper light penetration and have gone with a light defoliation only to reveal shaded bud sites.. apart from that im trying to keep things as simple as possible ;] but one thing i have noticed... i tend to change my mind 100x before i actually do a thing! loL"
As if I had writen it myself, but without that funny aksent.

 

[nick17]

@Alkhemist No problem! I'm here for interaction with other growers! As far as branch training techniques, I've has a lot of success with slight defoliation and branch tying as well as like you said, simple techniques like large leaf defoliation. I too want to keep thing as simple as possible. For my feeding schedule starting in maybe a week, I'll be doing a four day rotation of day 1: feeding (with water) day 2: no water, day 3: Full watering day 4: no water. I'll see how that goes. Like you said also, I'll probably change my mind a dozen times before actually doing something. lol. As far as the length of vegging, I'm planning on going 1.5-2 months or half the height of my grow box (about 3.5 feet) whichever comes first. I want it to be as mature as possible, but at the same time, I do have limited space, and as this grow is for my personal supply, it doesn't need to be a giant grow. I plan on taking it slow. I'd rather spend my time watching it grow and end up with an amazing final product rather than rush it and have a sub par final product!

 

[wildbill38]

plant will grow, i like em when there lil like that.
But when they turn into flower children is the fun part.
Keep em green.

 

[mcloadie]

With your horticultural background this wayyyyyyyy fun! Now you get to apply all your knowlege to the weed. I have hort bckgrnd also, with a dose of ag mixed in. Looks great so far......FUNdamentals, with the tweaking per variety and specimen..........ooooeeeeyah!