The Mustard Tiger's First Dirty Indoor LED Grow - Fall 2016 - Extra Greasy!

[MustardTiger]

Hello Everyone!

I am new to the forum and new to gardening. I am a long-time smoker and finally just said, "enough being dependent on others for my medicine!" and decided to start my own grow. I have some personal issues and I did introduce myself in the intro part of the forum. I don't want to get into here but I have had an enlightening as far as what I need to do. GROW!!! Here is my journal for my first grow.

To start, I had tried like many people in their teenage years to grow some weed. It failed miserably and I tried a few times only to have it end with poor results. Now Im 35 and have put a generous amount of money toward this project. I have also done a tremendous amount of research in the last 20 years and jumped into this head first. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right. Even with all the knowledge I have gleaned, nothing could prepare me for the journey I have started. These ladies have become my surrogate family after being tossed out by my ex-wife. I'm not like weird or anything but I have become every protective and I wonder what it will be like to chop my ladies down at the end. I think it will be quite the experience.

I thought I knew some stuff but like Jon Snow, I know nothing…

Here’s what I have for stats:
5 plants currently in flower week 4
Room size – roughly 8’x8’x8’
Grow area – 8’x 8’x 4’
Lights – 2x 900W LED
Strain – Completely unknown, saved & found beaners from my personal stash.
Growing Medium – Fox Farm Ocean Forest and General Hydroponics CocoTek Bale Coco Growing Media. The ratio is one bag soil to half one block of coco
Pots – 8 gallon Gardenmate air bags
Nutrients – Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula: Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom // Botanicare Cal Mag Plus // Great White Mycorrhizae
PH – 6- 6.5 // No pests or insects
Ventilation - XtremepowerUS 8" Inline Duct Fan 770 CFM vented directly out the chimney. No filter.
I can’t think of much else, but I’m sure there is more to cover.

NOTE: Any mention of a brand name that is not sponsored by 420Magazine is mentioned purely for informational purposes. I am NOT selling or endorsing anything. I’m a regular guy, nothing more. All the products I have purchased were bought prior to me finding this forum and deciding to post my grow. Everything I use was researched by me and I really want to make it clear I am not selling or advertising anything. In fact, I think I would like to change some things and I think it’s important to know what I start with vs. any suggestions I may receive from the community. It’s my first journal and I really don’t know all the rules and certainly do not want to go through writing all this out just to be banned for something I didn’t know about. So, please let me know if I do anything wrong.

On to the journal!
I started this grow early Sept. and kinda built this up as I went along. I thought when I started I had what I needed and turns out I didn’t so the grow in veg was really long. Knowing that now I wish I had been able to flower sooner as these ladies have gotten long and lanky. I am half way through week 4 of flower and things are starting to really pop!

These are seeds I had held onto from the odd one that I would find every few months or so. I had started with 10 and 7 took to root. After the seedling stage I had 6 left. In the first picture I had originally wanted to only grow the 3 pictured. However, I got attached to these ladies and decided to keep em all, bought a second light and we shall see what happens.

I also had them in 16 gallon bags which seemed like overkill. So I put em all in the 8 gallon bags and I think 8 is just right for the room I have.

They are under 2 900W LEDS. I am really happy so far with the LEDs.

Here's some more from the first set of photos from 10-6

 

[MustardTiger]

Here is the second set of pictures from 10-09-2016

 

[MustardTiger]

The next photo set from 10-21-16.

Here is my Light setup. I added the fluorescent just to fill in the gap. So bright...

Just some pics, not much happening now. The leaves n some of the plants have started twisting kinda odd.

 

[MustardTiger]

Photo post 10-25-16
Down to 5 plants. I had remove a hermie(?) that was hiding in the corner. It was sad,but necessary.

Im starting to see the fruits of my labor. Pun intended...

Pretty cool to see this finally...

The largest fan leaf was larger than my hand. I think it was 7 1/2" long on the middle leaf.

Right after I took these pictures I got a little bit crazy and experimented with lolipopping. It seems to make sense. I know some people swear by it and others condone it vehemently. I figure now, during my first grow, would be the best time to find stuff out. I spend a bit of time watching videos, reading and extrapolating my own process. Three of these plants have grown very odd. They are long and lanky and I think they are sativa. They have thinner leaves and the nodes are spread out. They're also a lighter green and so far, the bud isn't getting very hard yet. I think sativa take a little longer in flower though. Because I had to wait an extra week to flower, these 3 got taller than I wanted to. Then there was the stretch. I wasn't expecting SOO much stretch. They shot up like the Moon was yanking on 'em. I have my lights at the max height I can achieve currently and they were brushing up on the panel. The other two plants I think are indica. They have broad leaves, are darker and the bud has started to form right away.

So, I had found out that if you wanted to do any lolipopping, the third week is a good time to do it. I was apprehensive to try this. I made some mistakes. But I think it worked and it has pushed the energy to the main tips instead of all those "low hanging fruit". During the process, I had to cut down the tops of the tallest plants. I don't know if I should have but I really can't adjust the lights up anymore, and when I tried to bend one it busted. So I sacrificed some. Learned stuff...
I will post current photos later today. Yesterday I had tried putting up an afterthought tomato cage thingy on the lanky plant. Boy, was that a mistake, but I followed through with it. The two indicas have started to take off! I am excited now and will be posting probably every other day as this project grows on...

 

[MustardTiger]

Flowering Day 20
From here on I will be updating daily if possible. This is a journal after all. It will help me keep track of things as well.
I was wrong and off by a week in my stats section. This Monday, the 31st, Halloween will be the start of week 4. This is cool cause it's almost like I just added another week of flowering. At the rate they are going I'm expecting some decent results.
I'm surprised at how little they need water. It might be because I lollipopped the shit out of these plants. I might have over done it, and I feel kinda bad about it. But like I said before, your first grow is the one you learn the most on. I took this to heart, and probably father than that with the amount of veg growth I removed. I ripped a lot off. The three sativas look sad and twiggy. Perhaps that's how they are supposed to be. Tomorrow if the leaves are looking droopy I will water with nutes.
I have already started thinking of my next grow. Not that this one is bad. I just know what I wanna do. I have plenty of time to tend to this garden and want to get even more serious with it. I will be ordering some seeds once I gather the funds. Dam little things are pricey! I have done a bit of looking around and think I will be ordering from the King. Oh yeah, the Crop King. I figure if they are good enough to be sponsored by 420Mag, then they are good enough for me. If anyone that has ordered from them wanna share their experience that would be very cool. I certainly will once that time comes.
I wanna get a couple different strains as I think I have enough room to do so. I would really like to try training the plants to grow multiple big fat greasy colas. I know there's a few ways to do this. I was trying to do it with this grow but the growth got weird when I had to extend their veg. I think the MOST important thing when it comes to training the plants is maintaining a nice even canopy. So, if I can get at least two different strains going I would be doing good. I would like to have a high THC plant and one with high CBD. If anyone has any suggestions of strains you have had good luck with growing indoors and/or with LEDs, let me know.
Speaking of LEDs. Wow, I am impressed. So happy I purchased a second light too. These ladies are getting blasted from above. Full spectrum is the shit! I will get another when I can afford it. Either that or I have another plan for some inexpensive supplemental LED lighting to fill in the few areas with less light.
There are LED light strips that you can get for cheap and I have seen videos of people that take these strips, cut them down and line them up on panels and wire them up. You can make a very large panel of LEDs for less than $30. Probably cheaper if you already have 12V power adapters and the OSB or whatever you were to mount it on. So, some of those strips, some glue, copper wire, panel material, and a soldering iron and you got a nice low power light system. Hang these on the walls vertically, above the canopy and bamm, light everywhere!!!! (When I do this I will be making a thread about it.)
I never really mentioned that I had purchased a nice little veg tent in addition to my flowering room. It's 24â€x48â€x60†and way better quality that I expected. The main thing I wanted from it was negative light penetration. I also purchased 2 LED T8 tubes and installed them in a regular fluorescent shroud. I had to remove the ballast inside the shroud and wire the LED tubes in directly to the AC. I felt all McGuyver-like. Felt good when the lights popped on. If you are wondering anything about the lights, shoot a message. They are 5200K and are more than enough for that space. The blue spectrum is perfect for the veg state and the one plant I kept as the mother is doing well. I feel bad cause I have left her in a smaller container to keep her growth stunted. I took a gamble by keeping her and I am 95% sure it is just like those indicas. I am quite happy about that. They seem to be growing the best and look like something out of a magazine.
I decided to name the plants as I do not have any idea what strain they are. Annabelle, Belinda, Christina, Delta, and Ethel. This will help with keeping them in order. It will help with posting photos too I think. Cheesy maybe, but effective.
Here are the pictures I took today. I can't wait until the next time the lights come on to go see them again. Every time I see something new, and it's just relaxing to be in there.

Heres my favorite part, the close ups.

I found this one bud that has brown tips. Just one. This only one bud. Kinda odd. Any thoughts?

 

[MustardTiger]

I wonder what today will bring!? I need to do some watering. The buds on the 2 indicas are starting to feel thick.

 

[MustardTiger]

I found some ladybugs! Woohoo!!!

 

[nivek]

Heya friend,, peace to you,, just a thot iffin I might, I have no right and should just keep quiet but a quick look at your journal, some thots, two things, peace to ya,, i can not read it and I can not see it either,, too many words all stuck together and pics out the ying yang,purp ones to boot, peace friend,,

 

[MustardTiger]

The pics are purple because they are under full spectrum LEDs.
Im not sure what u mean about the words being stuck together.
Do you think I should put spaces between the paragraphs?
Im not to sure about you use of the English language.
Thanks for responding though!

 

[MustardTiger]

Flowering Day 21

Horror of Hallows Eve!

So today I went to check on my ladies and to my horror I found these little balls hidden under some flower foliage. I have been very careful with keeping any males from perverting my crop. But low, there they are testes.

I will post picks of the ones I found. I removed them immediately. If there are any community pros that would like to chime in, this would be the time cause I don't know if should just scrap the whole plant or if just removing the bad bud is ok. Any help would be cool. I haven't gotten very much (not really any at all) traffic on this journal so I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or what. Either way I need help...

These are the little bastards on a piece of tape. This is in a completely different room on another floor and I still feel icky having them here. They were destroyed.

 

[MustardTiger]

Flowering Day 21

Besides the testes terror of earlier, I took some pics without the LEDs on. Shows the green better.

I think I may have overdone it on this journal with the pics. I haven't gotten any response to this grow yet. I will continue until the end though. And hopefully I did the right thing with the testes and removing them and not the whole plant. It is my fav plant too. Murphy's law...

 

[MustardTiger]

I don't mind having my thread edited because I had an unsponsored LED name in the stats section. Name or not, they are great lights and will speak for themselves. I don't mind having a light that nobody else has, and probably never heard of. If you want to know about the lights that I use, hit me up...

 

[nivek]

Heya musty,, cheers to ya, ya, me English is not too good, I failed grade two,, ha,, kidding, I write funny is all, should hear me talk,,ha

Yes, the paragraphs are too large,, too easy to get lost whilst reading,, and yes agin, too many pics,, and green so much more appealing to me Ole eyes

And yes agin,, that male,, you can try and pick em all off but iffin its a male, there will be no female buds bud

Best with a male to rid yourself of the possible disaster. Best karma sent and I will check out yer journal a bit more later friend,, cheers to ya

Ok, it is a hermie, hermaphrodite, both male and female,, me, I would ditch it, and quick, it is ready to pollinate very very soon

I personally had to chuck a male just yesterday,, hard to do, indeed, but one feels much better after it's done,,ha

 

[MustardTiger]

Thats cool, I appreciate your use of the language. I just gotta read it twice so maybe that makes up for the long paragraphs... LOL
So I removed the little budlets with the balls. The rest of the plant has a bunch of buds on it without the balls. Its like the best plant there. So if I leave it it will germinate all or just itself?

 

[Dwight Monk]

Thats cool, I appreciate your use of the language. I just gotta read it twice so maybe that makes up for the long paragraphs... LOL
So I removed the little budlets with the balls. The rest of the plant has a bunch of buds on it without the balls. Its like the best plant there. So if I leave it it will germinate all or just itself?

Pollen spreads by the wind, and bug/animals etc.... touching it and spreading it. If those are pollen sacks then when they burst it goes all over (I'm still learning, so I can't tell a female preflower ball from a male ball yet, so I make no comments of what sex I think it is), and it could spread being on your clothes/hands/shoe etc.. also same as way animals spread it in nature.

 

[nivek]

Yep, what the monk said,, it will pollinate everything in sight, it really has to go, besty or not, it is far too much maintenance to keep on top of it,, imo

It only takes one seed infested, okay, two, seed infested plants or even whole grows to learn that salvaging a hermie is not worth it,, i know I have been there, indeed

Cheers

 

[MustardTiger]

Ok, In the morning when the light comes back on I will remove her... erm it. Thanks for the input!

 

[AngryBird]

Hi
sorry to hear about the hermies, but they will pollinate and better to take them out. You are doing well for a first time grower

I never ha a hermie, but I have killed so many seedlings.. everything we have to go through is a lesson for next time

 

[MustardTiger]

Thanks peeps. Him/her was removed and all is well. I hope... I'm glad you all were here to point me in the right direction. I would have just kept it and learned my lesson the hard way. This is exactly why I joined the forum, THANKS!

I did harvest what nuggets there were. They are in a separate room and drying. Im assuming they will taste like hell and not have any high, but it was still cool to play farmer for a little bit. Get a feel for whats in store.

I have to look at the positive... Now there is more room for new growth, right? Sounds good to me!

And you all were right, I do feel better knowing its outta there now. Sigh of relief, I hope thats the last one...

 

[MustardTiger]

I just thought this was a great demographic of the two strains. Got it off of the Nirvana Seeds website.