I got bored and decided to throw this up so everyone can see how my first grow is going. First off a little info on the strain I'm growing:
STRAIN: Aurora Indica
THC CONTENT %: Up to 22%
CBD %: Up to 0.1%
INDICA / SATIVA %: 90% / 10%
INDOOR YIELD: 10 to 14 ounces per square meter
HEIGHT: 3-3.5 ft
FLOWERING TIME: 7-9 weeks
I'm growing in a closet. Started with 5 feminized seeds I got from Nirvana shop. Gotta say if you're gunna buy online go thru them. Fast delivery, no hassles and the seeds were great. Tossed them in a cup of water and 24 hours later they had popped a sprout. Planted them sprout down on July 4th about an inch into soil. Also planted them in a styrofoam cup at first. The soil I am using is formula 707 by roots. I have a 600 watt hps/mh light setup with adjustable ballast. So... I plugged in my MH light, cranked setting to 50%, on an 18-6 auto timed lighting schedule. Then I absolutely drowned my cups in water (regular from the tap) and waited for my seeds to grow.
Now something about me. I do not smoke weed. I did not know anything about weed before June. I spent approximately 400 bucks getting oscillating fan, AC unit, lights, and everything else I needed to grow this damn plant. I'm also not very patient. So this was the hardest part for me... Waiting to see if they were gunna sprout or if I had already killed them and wasted my money. I put the seeds in soil the night of july 4th. Two nights later on July 6th I still see nothing. I was getting a little nervous and alot impatient. I knew I wasnt supposed to do this but i dug down in the soil on one of my plants looking for signs of life. I figured I had to know, and if I killed one of them I still had 4 left. I don't think I've ever been as gentle with anything in my life and I didnt have to dig far down. I saw the root and it looked alive. So I gently cover it back up and pray that what i did didnt just kill it.
I wake up the third morning, about 12-14 hours after "unearthing" my root, and can't believe what i see. Growth. And not just out of one cup but all 5. I was shocked a plant could grow that fast overnight. Here are the first pictures I took of my beauties.
7/7/17:
Now I don't remember what days I watered exactly. I still don't have an exact watering schedule. From day one of successfully sprouting the seeds my biggest concern was to over water. All the research I did plainly told you that it was better to underwater than to overwater. So I have watered only when I felt my plants absolutely needed it. Sometimes 24-36 hours after I can tell the soil is dry. All I do is drown them in water til the soil cant take anymore. Then wait 2-4 days until the soil is bone dry and pulled in enough oxygen and repeat process. Also I should note I'm using strait tap water. The PH level must be fine in it as my plants aren't showing issues. I figured if they didnt like the water they would show me and I could change to bottled.
7/9/17:
At this point I'm also misting them with strait water every morning. No nutrients because the soil has plenty for a few weeks. And AI doesn't require as many nutes as other strains anyways.
7/12/17:
As you can see in one of these photos one of my plants was not growing the same way the others were. I was kinda worried about it but after speaking with a friend and doing a bit more research i learned it would be fine. Remember, I had only been researching weed and growing for a few weeks. I had no clue what this plant was doing ha.
7/16/17:
After two weeks my plants are looking fine. I'm wondering when to give them a dose of nutrients at this point. The soil claims it has enough nutrients in it for 2 weeks. The research I did warned me about nutrient burn.I once again erred on the side of caution. Waiting for my plants to tell me they needed nutes.
Also I have turned my ballast up to 75%.
7/20/17:
7/23/17:
I know the photos arent crystal clear, I never realized I would be posting them on a forum. So I do apologize about the quality of the photos. You can't really see it here but my plants were turning a lighter green with a little bit of yellowing. Not much. I figured it was time to give them some nutrients. I gave half the recommended dose of Mission fertilizer 4-1-3 Grow Grecer. From here til I switched to 12-12 I also misted with nitrogen every 2-3 days.
Now when I planted these in styrofoam cups my plan was to just pop the cups down in the soil and let the roots grow thru the styrofoam. I read you could do that an I didnt want to transplant. Cuz... I have never grown anything before in my life. I didn't want to take the risk of killing my plants because I have no experience transplanting. After speaking with my friend he told me the styrofoam could slow down growth. Still not sure if thats true but he was very confident about it and he's a smart guy so I decided to trust his judgement. He assured me transplanting is incredibly simple and he had never killed a plant by doing it. So I figure hell why not.
7/24/17:
I transplanted somewhere around week 3. July 28ish. My obvious concern was... Are they gunna die now, did I somehow fuck this up? Turns out transplanting is actually incredibly simple. They all lived. I planted three in one bag, two in the other bag. Each bag contains 20 galons of soil. I've also cranked my ballast up to 100%. So now its 600 watts of MH light beaming down on them.
8/3/17:
8/4/17:
8/5/17:
So it's been a little over a month now and my girls are growing. At this point I'm wondering when to switch them to 12-12. I'm also wondering if i need to trim, lollipop, supercrop etc. I decide to wait another week before switching to 12-12. I also like to experiment. So what I'm doing is letting the three grow their own way. I'll only trim off any dead or really yellowed leaves on bottom. The other two I will trim up pretty decent. There are arguments for and against lollipopping and over trimming. At the end I can see which plant produced more and will know what route to take my next grow.
8/8/17:
8/9/17:
By the yellow hue of these next photos you can tell I switched to 12-12. Obviously I put the HPS light in. Ballast at 100%. I'm very surprised by how full they got in 9 days. I've stopped misting with nitrogen. But I have given them a dose of Mission Fertilizer 3-1-5 Bloom Flor. 50% the recommended amount.
8/18/17:
From here on out I will try and take better photos to post. Here you can see where i trimmed and where i didnt.
8/20/17:
8/22/17:
It's been a few days since I've watered. My girls are needing it. Not gunna post a pic today because they basically look the same. Overall I think my plants are doing good. I now have full faith they will survive to harvest. Which i hear is when the trichomes are amber. So yea, everything above is pretty much what I've got for now. I will keep updating. Once again I'm still learning alot. I will be monster cropping these girls after harvest. So much to learn. I already know someone will ask this question so I will answer before it's asked. Why grow if you dont smoke? Good question. The answer is I'm hoping to switch from alcohol to weed after harvest. That alcohol bill is pretty massive ha. Also growing is turning out to be a very enjoyable hobby. I would recommend it to anyone. Smokers or not.
Any questions or critiques feel free.
STRAIN: Aurora Indica
THC CONTENT %: Up to 22%
CBD %: Up to 0.1%
INDICA / SATIVA %: 90% / 10%
INDOOR YIELD: 10 to 14 ounces per square meter
HEIGHT: 3-3.5 ft
FLOWERING TIME: 7-9 weeks
I'm growing in a closet. Started with 5 feminized seeds I got from Nirvana shop. Gotta say if you're gunna buy online go thru them. Fast delivery, no hassles and the seeds were great. Tossed them in a cup of water and 24 hours later they had popped a sprout. Planted them sprout down on July 4th about an inch into soil. Also planted them in a styrofoam cup at first. The soil I am using is formula 707 by roots. I have a 600 watt hps/mh light setup with adjustable ballast. So... I plugged in my MH light, cranked setting to 50%, on an 18-6 auto timed lighting schedule. Then I absolutely drowned my cups in water (regular from the tap) and waited for my seeds to grow.
Now something about me. I do not smoke weed. I did not know anything about weed before June. I spent approximately 400 bucks getting oscillating fan, AC unit, lights, and everything else I needed to grow this damn plant. I'm also not very patient. So this was the hardest part for me... Waiting to see if they were gunna sprout or if I had already killed them and wasted my money. I put the seeds in soil the night of july 4th. Two nights later on July 6th I still see nothing. I was getting a little nervous and alot impatient. I knew I wasnt supposed to do this but i dug down in the soil on one of my plants looking for signs of life. I figured I had to know, and if I killed one of them I still had 4 left. I don't think I've ever been as gentle with anything in my life and I didnt have to dig far down. I saw the root and it looked alive. So I gently cover it back up and pray that what i did didnt just kill it.
I wake up the third morning, about 12-14 hours after "unearthing" my root, and can't believe what i see. Growth. And not just out of one cup but all 5. I was shocked a plant could grow that fast overnight. Here are the first pictures I took of my beauties.
7/7/17:
Now I don't remember what days I watered exactly. I still don't have an exact watering schedule. From day one of successfully sprouting the seeds my biggest concern was to over water. All the research I did plainly told you that it was better to underwater than to overwater. So I have watered only when I felt my plants absolutely needed it. Sometimes 24-36 hours after I can tell the soil is dry. All I do is drown them in water til the soil cant take anymore. Then wait 2-4 days until the soil is bone dry and pulled in enough oxygen and repeat process. Also I should note I'm using strait tap water. The PH level must be fine in it as my plants aren't showing issues. I figured if they didnt like the water they would show me and I could change to bottled.
7/9/17:
At this point I'm also misting them with strait water every morning. No nutrients because the soil has plenty for a few weeks. And AI doesn't require as many nutes as other strains anyways.
7/12/17:
As you can see in one of these photos one of my plants was not growing the same way the others were. I was kinda worried about it but after speaking with a friend and doing a bit more research i learned it would be fine. Remember, I had only been researching weed and growing for a few weeks. I had no clue what this plant was doing ha.
7/16/17:
After two weeks my plants are looking fine. I'm wondering when to give them a dose of nutrients at this point. The soil claims it has enough nutrients in it for 2 weeks. The research I did warned me about nutrient burn.I once again erred on the side of caution. Waiting for my plants to tell me they needed nutes.
Also I have turned my ballast up to 75%.
7/20/17:
7/23/17:
I know the photos arent crystal clear, I never realized I would be posting them on a forum. So I do apologize about the quality of the photos. You can't really see it here but my plants were turning a lighter green with a little bit of yellowing. Not much. I figured it was time to give them some nutrients. I gave half the recommended dose of Mission fertilizer 4-1-3 Grow Grecer. From here til I switched to 12-12 I also misted with nitrogen every 2-3 days.
Now when I planted these in styrofoam cups my plan was to just pop the cups down in the soil and let the roots grow thru the styrofoam. I read you could do that an I didnt want to transplant. Cuz... I have never grown anything before in my life. I didn't want to take the risk of killing my plants because I have no experience transplanting. After speaking with my friend he told me the styrofoam could slow down growth. Still not sure if thats true but he was very confident about it and he's a smart guy so I decided to trust his judgement. He assured me transplanting is incredibly simple and he had never killed a plant by doing it. So I figure hell why not.
7/24/17:
I transplanted somewhere around week 3. July 28ish. My obvious concern was... Are they gunna die now, did I somehow fuck this up? Turns out transplanting is actually incredibly simple. They all lived. I planted three in one bag, two in the other bag. Each bag contains 20 galons of soil. I've also cranked my ballast up to 100%. So now its 600 watts of MH light beaming down on them.
8/3/17:
8/4/17:
8/5/17:
So it's been a little over a month now and my girls are growing. At this point I'm wondering when to switch them to 12-12. I'm also wondering if i need to trim, lollipop, supercrop etc. I decide to wait another week before switching to 12-12. I also like to experiment. So what I'm doing is letting the three grow their own way. I'll only trim off any dead or really yellowed leaves on bottom. The other two I will trim up pretty decent. There are arguments for and against lollipopping and over trimming. At the end I can see which plant produced more and will know what route to take my next grow.
8/8/17:
8/9/17:
By the yellow hue of these next photos you can tell I switched to 12-12. Obviously I put the HPS light in. Ballast at 100%. I'm very surprised by how full they got in 9 days. I've stopped misting with nitrogen. But I have given them a dose of Mission Fertilizer 3-1-5 Bloom Flor. 50% the recommended amount.
8/18/17:
From here on out I will try and take better photos to post. Here you can see where i trimmed and where i didnt.
8/20/17:
8/22/17:
It's been a few days since I've watered. My girls are needing it. Not gunna post a pic today because they basically look the same. Overall I think my plants are doing good. I now have full faith they will survive to harvest. Which i hear is when the trichomes are amber. So yea, everything above is pretty much what I've got for now. I will keep updating. Once again I'm still learning alot. I will be monster cropping these girls after harvest. So much to learn. I already know someone will ask this question so I will answer before it's asked. Why grow if you dont smoke? Good question. The answer is I'm hoping to switch from alcohol to weed after harvest. That alcohol bill is pretty massive ha. Also growing is turning out to be a very enjoyable hobby. I would recommend it to anyone. Smokers or not.
Any questions or critiques feel free.
