Penguin59
Member
Introduction
Hi guys, this is a documentation of my very first grow. This guide is a combination of documenting the problems and successes of my first attempt to grow, and the methods I have learned and picked up from books and this forum in particular that I want to share with all of you. This guide is also about how my particular plant responded to the growing methods I was using and finally, I’ll discuss improvements and considerations for any grows I attempt in the future.
I’ll first just give an outline of what I started with and the trials and tribulations that befell this grow. The seeds I started with were a pack of 5x White Widow feminised seeds from Nirvana. I germinated 4 of the 5 seeds and kept 1 for a rainy day
1 of the seeds failed to germinate and died, the other 3 grew up to be strong plants. 2 of those plants I gave to a mate in order to keep 1 of them as a mother plant to take clones from and the other to grow for bud. I also kept one for myself for bud. The plant that he was growing for bud, began suffering from nute burn and my mate flushed the medium to combat this. However the soil wasn’t draining well at all and the soil became like mud and the plant subsequently wilted and died. So we ended up with 1 plant that I’m growing myself for bud and my mate still has his mother plant that we take clones from.
Equipment used
Marijuana Horticulture The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible by Jorge Cervantes
Ph soil tester
Ph liquid tester
Soil Moister tester
Watering bottle
Rain water
Measuring tape
Pruning Scissors
Temperature & humidity gauges
Lemon Juice to lower ph
“THC” brand Veg & Flowering nutes
4x Cool white & 4x Warm white CFLs for vegetative stage
1x 400w HPS light for flowering stage
Stealth grow box for vegetative stage
Small Greenhouse
Grow tent for flowering stage (1.2mx1.2mx2m with mylar coated walls)
I would say that all of these tools I used are essential for a successful grow. The ph testers, moisture tester, temperature/humidity gauges and Jorge’s book were completely invaluable. My plant would have surely died without those items in particular.
What Cannabis Plants Need to Live
There are 5 things that cannabis plants need to survive. Light, Water, Ventilation, Nutrients and a good growing medium. If you are taking care of all these areas well, you will grow a great plant that will harvest a satisfying amount of product, lol. Basically, you can make your grow as cheap or as expensive as you want. Be warned though, you could buy a custom, Rolls Royce standard, grow room however if these 5 areas aren’t covered, there’ll be little to no reward.
Soil Mix
The ideal soil mix is 90% loam soil and 10% dolomite lime. Loam soil is the perfect combination of sand, silt and clay and allows the roots to move easily through the soil. Dolomite lime acts as a ph buffer and doesn’t let the ph of the soil rise above 7.0. The ideal ph level when growing plants in a soil medium is 6.5-7.0.
Loam soil is not available readily in my area so I use the following mix. There are thousands of combinations of soil mixes you can make however this one has worked very well for me and gave me no problems at all. The soil mix should include 80% organic potting soil, 10% vermiculite/perlite and 10% dolomite lime. I didn’t use dolomite lime for this grow and my soil had ph issues as a result, however I will use dolomite lime in the future. If organic soil is to be used, buy a potting mix with ‘SaturAid’ or similar to avoid hydroscopic soil. Hydroscopic soil is soil that rejects water particles and has difficulty absorbing water as a result. This is a result of how some potting soil is made in the factory. Most potting mixes are simply tree bark, some actual soil and is packed full of nutrients. If you suspect your soil is hydroscopic in that even when you’re watering, it doesn’t seem as if the soil is soaking it up, a simple remedy is to add a couple drops of detergent into the water you water with and after a few feedings, the soil should be absorbing the water with no problems and you can go back to using pure water again.
Watering
Watering your plants is fairly straight forward, the moisture measurer is your best friend for this section. Before I bought one of these metres, I was under-watering. The soil was crusty dry and my plant was wilting as a result. I then gave it a good drenching of rain water and it perked back up within hours. If you can, only use distilled or rain water to water and make sure that its room temperature so it doesn’t shock the roots by being too cold. If you must use tap water, put the water in a container and let it stand for 24 hours. The chlorine that is added to tap water will evaporate in this time and will be less harmful to the plants.
You can be quite liberal with giving your plants water as long as your growing medium drains well. If the soil has vermiculite/perlite in it as well as good drainage holes in the bottom of the pot you shouldn’t ever need to worry about overwatering. However, just make sure the soil doesn’t turn to mud because this will create serious problems.
Lighting
I would recommend in the strongest possible terms to invest in an HPS light for all phases of growing except the early seedling stage. A good rule of thumb would be to use CFL lights until the plant has 4 sets of true leaves and the 5th set on the way, then the plant will be strong enough to be under an HPS light. However, if you must use CFL lights as your source of lighting for the entire grow, you are firstly cheating yourself out of bud because a cannabis plant will increase its yield by 10% if you use an HID light such as a high pressure sodium light or metal halide light. Also using an HID light will minimise stretching as the plants won’t have to strain themselves to soak up the light that they need. In my experience however, I have been told to stay away from metal halide lights as I have heard several reports that they are quite damaging to the naked eye. People I have spoken to have reported a loss of vision after using metal halide lights over several years of growing. These are all just anecdotes and I don’t have any real evidence to back up my claim but I’m still gonna stick with HPS bulbs from now on. Anyway, if you must use CFLs, it’s best to stick with cool white bulbs for the vegetative stage as their Kelvin scale rating for cool white is around 4,000k which is better for vegging. Then when you want to induce flowering, swap to warm white CFLs as their Kelvin scale rating will be about 2,700k which is a better spectrum for flowering.
I had to use CFLs for the vegetative stage because the stealth box I built can only have a maximum of 4 CFL lights mounted to the top of the box. I couldn’t use an HPS light because it simply wouldn’t have fit. When the plant outgrew the stealth grow box I had I induced flowering and changed the light cycle to 12/12 and moved the plant to the grow tent. I then used my 400w HPS light to finish out the flowering cycle and left the light hanging approximately 30cm (1 foot) from the top canopy of the plant.
Flushing
In my opinion, the soil medium should be flushed at least once every 1-2 weeks in order to remove excess salt build-up within the soil. The soil should also be flushed any time you change nutrients or change the growth cycle of the plant from vegetative stage to flowering stage for example. I ran into an issue with toxicity in the soil as will be outlined below, because I wasn’t flushing my plant at all. I now flush once a week. This White Widow strain seems to release a lot of salt into the soil so I’m very conscious of flushing these days.
Pruning/Topping
Pruning is a great way to control your plant’s growth. Pruning should be done strategically and not whenever you feel like it. Basically whatever part of the plant you decide to prune, the plant will put all of its growing energy into the remaining growing tips. For example, if you top the plant or prune the upper leaves, the plant will put all of its energy into the lower branches and side laterals instead and the plant will begin to grow quite bushy. Conversely, if you cut away the lower branches and laterals, the plant will soar upwards and the top cola(s) will grow tall and strong, making the plant taller.
The pruning I did in the vegetative stage was pruning back the lower branches so that there was great ventilation around the main stem of the plant. I also removed any damaged leaves or old leaves that were in the process of dying. The only pruning I have done in the flowering stage is pruning away the bottom most leaves that are receiving little to no light or older leaves that have yellowed and are dying.
I topped my plant right after the seedling stage was completed and I ended up with 2 growing tips that are now my 2 main colas. Right at the start of the flowering cycle, I tried the ‘FIM’ technique I learned from Jorge Cervantes’s Bible on one of the side branches. I left the opposing branch to grow normally to get a comparison going. The ‘FIM’ technique is where you snip the base of the growing tip you wish to top, however you only cut half of the new growing tip and leave the other half on the plant. The plant will then grow 4 new growing tips instead of 2. I used the ‘FIM’ technique on one of the side branches, not one of the main colas but I did it too late and this side branch didn’t grow nearly as high as I would have liked but at least I know the technique worked well and I will be using this technique on future grows.
Germination
Spray paper towels with water, place seeds on paper towel, spray second layer of paper towels and place over seeds. Place in a glad bag, seal, and leave in a dark, warm place for 2-3 days. Best thing for seeds at this stage are moisture and warmth.
Seedling Cycle
Light cycle: 24/0- lights are on continuously
Lighting: Cool white (4,000k) fluorescent bulbs
Time: 2-4 weeks
Watering: Once a day
Nutrient Regimen: No nutrients should need to be given unless leaf tips show signs of yellowing
When the taproot appears, fill a 10cm pot with the good quality soil mix I outlined above. Drench the pot with rain water and wait for water to drain. Place seed just under the surface of the soil, cover with a thin layer of soil and give a couple more sprays of rain water.
Water the soil once a day with room temperature rain water directly into the soil. Do not spray the leaves as this will cause the new leaves to sweat under the heat of the lights and wilt. Also fill a tray with rain water and place the pot in it in order for the soil at the bottom of the pot to soak up more water. When the seed sprouts and grows out a little, place a wooden skewer in the soil with one end split in half and use that end to prop up the new stem. This will minimise stretching and allow the plant to grow completely vertically. Let the sprout grow until the roots appear at the bottom of the pot and then move onto transplanting. The seedling stage is complete when 4 sets of leaves have appeared and the fifth set is appearing.
Transplanting
When the roots start appearing through the bottom drainage holes of the pots, it’s time to transplant. Soak the plant well the night before you transplant.
Fill ¼ of the bigger pot with the original soil mix then place the plant, including the pot, inside the bigger pot. Continue to fill soil around the outside of the smaller pot until the bigger pot is full. Then remove the plant from the smaller pot and place in the now open hole of the bigger pot. Fill the soil around the stem of the plant and give a good soak of water.
Vegetative Cycle
Light cycle: 24/0- lights are on continuously
Lighting: 1x HPS bulb
Time: Until desired height is reached
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Half strength nutrient solution every watering for 1 week then full strength every watering
A grower can leave the plants in the vegetative cycle for however long the ideal time is for the circumstances of each grower. For example, if one is using the ‘Sea of Green’ technique, the plants may not even need the vegetative phase at all and the grower can go straight from the seedling stage to flowering. The vegetative stage can also be cut out if the grow space size is an issue. I.e. the plants simply won’t fit in the grow space if the plant is too tall. I let my plant veg for only 1 week before I induced flowering and the plant was only 1 foot tall. However if one has the space, any future grow I do I will let the plant veg until it reaches about 2 feet and then I’ll induce flowering.
An issue or two that I ran into while in the vegetative phase was that I believe I had a nutrient lockout of some sort because the ph rose to a little above 7.0 and the plant started to show copper patches on the leaves. These copper patches could also be consistent with salt toxicity in the soil. I hadn’t been flushing the plant at all and as soon as I gave it a flush, and brought the ph level down, the leaves that were already affected stayed the same, but new growth from then on had no issues.
Cloning
Just before commencing the flowering cycle you may choose to take clones from your plant(s). Choose a lower branch from the strongest plant(s) as the lower branches is where the most hormones are. Trim the largest leaves on this branch and leave the plant alone for 1-2 days in order for it to heal. You should leave 1 set of fan leaves and a growing tip on the branch you intend to clone.
Sterilise your pruning shears or scissors and make a 45 degree angle cut 1-2 inches below the set of fan leaves. Next, slice the bottom half inch of the stem in half and dip in a rooting hormone solution. I prefer to use jiffy pellets over rockwool as a cloning medium. The jiffy pellets when soaked in water will grow to their full size within minutes whereas rockwool must be soaked overnight and the pellets are much more malleable under your fingers than rockwool cubes. Also there is some soil and nutrients in the jiffy pellets so it gives the clones a good kick-start at life. Jiffy pellets are also the easiest to transplant into a soil pot once they’ve rooted.
If clones are taken from a healthy mother plant they will root in the jiffy pellets in about a week. Over the course of the week they may wilt and look to be on their death bed but they will perk right up after a couple of days.
I would also highly recommend using a heated mat placed underneath the clones to help them root. My friend and I attempted our first cloning in rockwool cubes with no heat mat and almost all of the clones died or took close to 3 weeks to take root. We then tried again with jiffy pellets and a heat mat and all of those clones took root within 1 week and are now super healthy plants.
Pre-Flowering Cycle aka “The Stretch”
Light cycle: 12/12- half light, half dark
Lighting: 1x 400 watt HPS bulb
Time: 1-2 weeks
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Half strength nutrient solution every watering for 1 week then full strength every watering
Before switching the lights to a 12/12 cycle after the vegetative cycle, it is recommended to induce a 36 hour darkness period. This will signal strongly to the plants that winter is well and truly coming and may result in pre-flowers appearing up to 1 week earlier than normal.
Flowering Cycle
Light cycle: 12/12- half light, half dark
Lighting: 1x 400 watt HPS bulb
Time: 7-8 weeks
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Full strength every watering
The plant will stretch another 1-2 feet during this growth cycle depending on lighting and can remain up to half a metre from the lighting source. During the flowering stage, some leaves may yellow however this is normal as the plant is receiving less nitrogen and putting all its energy into developing buds.
Pre-harvest Preparation
10-14 days before harvest the grower should cease giving the plants chemical nutrients. In the final 2 weeks of flowering the plant will have no added chemicals in its foliage or buds and will be a much smoother smoke. I have heard that commercial growers keep feeding their plants with chemical nutrients until 2 days before harvest and then flushing the soil with a flushing liquid designed to remove chemicals from the medium. You should also stop watering the plant a couple of days before harvest in order to speed up drying time. Finally, 24 hours before harvest, some growers report that they give the plant 24 hours of darkness which allegedly forces the plant to produce a few extra resin glands before harvest.
Harvesting, Drying and Curing
I will add to this section when I have harvested my plant and will update this guide accordingly. At the moment there is only 2 weeks to go!
Improvements and Consideration for Future Grows
My first grow has been quite a successful one when looking at all the problems I had to overcome. There won’t be a huge amount that I’ll have to change for my second grow but I have outlined a few considerations below. It’s interesting to note that the plant that I’m growing that you see in the tent, while this plant was in the seedling stage, I dropped a CFL light on it and broke its stem. I propped the plant up with a wooden stake and it still looked quite healthy, however it still couldn’t stand up on its own after 1 week. I thought it was dead so I gave up on it and left it in another room in the dark without water, light or ventilation. I checked on it a couple of days later and it had already grown its second set of true leaves and was standing up by itself. It’s hard to imagine that from such a terrible start at life, this plant is now about to be harvested and turned out to be my strongest plant! I guess the lesson I learned is that cannabis is quite a vigorous plant and it wants to live and almost thrives on neglect, lol. Basically these plants will grow in spite of you and will find a way to live regardless of how you treat them so I’ve learnt never to give up unless the plant actually shrivels up and dies.
The first consideration I noted was that I have heard several recommendations to use black strap molasses during the flowering cycle . Using black strap molasses is rumoured to add 20% to the yield of your plant so it’s definitely something I want to get involved with when I return to Australia.
A couple of techniques that I wish to use in the future in order to maximise the space of my tent is to utilise the ‘Low-Stress-Training’ technique or maybe the ‘Screen of Green’ technique. I think I will make use of the ‘FIM’ topping technique on the top colas to maximise the growing tips I have for bud and to make the plant bushier and more manageable. I will then use a screen to separate out all of the growing tips and give an even amount of light to all the budding sites.
I will also invest in some ph down solution. I would have used some for this grow but money was a concern so I had to use lemon juice instead. It worked reasonably well but ph down solution is far more effective and reliable.
Thanks all for taking the time to read my guide. Obviously I will update it if people have any advice or recommendations to add. I will also update the ‘harvesting’ section when I harvest my baby in just over 2 weeks!
Penguin
Hi guys, this is a documentation of my very first grow. This guide is a combination of documenting the problems and successes of my first attempt to grow, and the methods I have learned and picked up from books and this forum in particular that I want to share with all of you. This guide is also about how my particular plant responded to the growing methods I was using and finally, I’ll discuss improvements and considerations for any grows I attempt in the future.
I’ll first just give an outline of what I started with and the trials and tribulations that befell this grow. The seeds I started with were a pack of 5x White Widow feminised seeds from Nirvana. I germinated 4 of the 5 seeds and kept 1 for a rainy day
1 of the seeds failed to germinate and died, the other 3 grew up to be strong plants. 2 of those plants I gave to a mate in order to keep 1 of them as a mother plant to take clones from and the other to grow for bud. I also kept one for myself for bud. The plant that he was growing for bud, began suffering from nute burn and my mate flushed the medium to combat this. However the soil wasn’t draining well at all and the soil became like mud and the plant subsequently wilted and died. So we ended up with 1 plant that I’m growing myself for bud and my mate still has his mother plant that we take clones from.Equipment used
Marijuana Horticulture The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible by Jorge Cervantes
Ph soil tester
Ph liquid tester
Soil Moister tester
Watering bottle
Rain water
Measuring tape
Pruning Scissors
Temperature & humidity gauges
Lemon Juice to lower ph
“THC” brand Veg & Flowering nutes
4x Cool white & 4x Warm white CFLs for vegetative stage
1x 400w HPS light for flowering stage
Stealth grow box for vegetative stage
Small Greenhouse
Grow tent for flowering stage (1.2mx1.2mx2m with mylar coated walls)
I would say that all of these tools I used are essential for a successful grow. The ph testers, moisture tester, temperature/humidity gauges and Jorge’s book were completely invaluable. My plant would have surely died without those items in particular.
What Cannabis Plants Need to Live
There are 5 things that cannabis plants need to survive. Light, Water, Ventilation, Nutrients and a good growing medium. If you are taking care of all these areas well, you will grow a great plant that will harvest a satisfying amount of product, lol. Basically, you can make your grow as cheap or as expensive as you want. Be warned though, you could buy a custom, Rolls Royce standard, grow room however if these 5 areas aren’t covered, there’ll be little to no reward.
Soil Mix
The ideal soil mix is 90% loam soil and 10% dolomite lime. Loam soil is the perfect combination of sand, silt and clay and allows the roots to move easily through the soil. Dolomite lime acts as a ph buffer and doesn’t let the ph of the soil rise above 7.0. The ideal ph level when growing plants in a soil medium is 6.5-7.0.
Loam soil is not available readily in my area so I use the following mix. There are thousands of combinations of soil mixes you can make however this one has worked very well for me and gave me no problems at all. The soil mix should include 80% organic potting soil, 10% vermiculite/perlite and 10% dolomite lime. I didn’t use dolomite lime for this grow and my soil had ph issues as a result, however I will use dolomite lime in the future. If organic soil is to be used, buy a potting mix with ‘SaturAid’ or similar to avoid hydroscopic soil. Hydroscopic soil is soil that rejects water particles and has difficulty absorbing water as a result. This is a result of how some potting soil is made in the factory. Most potting mixes are simply tree bark, some actual soil and is packed full of nutrients. If you suspect your soil is hydroscopic in that even when you’re watering, it doesn’t seem as if the soil is soaking it up, a simple remedy is to add a couple drops of detergent into the water you water with and after a few feedings, the soil should be absorbing the water with no problems and you can go back to using pure water again.
Watering
Watering your plants is fairly straight forward, the moisture measurer is your best friend for this section. Before I bought one of these metres, I was under-watering. The soil was crusty dry and my plant was wilting as a result. I then gave it a good drenching of rain water and it perked back up within hours. If you can, only use distilled or rain water to water and make sure that its room temperature so it doesn’t shock the roots by being too cold. If you must use tap water, put the water in a container and let it stand for 24 hours. The chlorine that is added to tap water will evaporate in this time and will be less harmful to the plants.
You can be quite liberal with giving your plants water as long as your growing medium drains well. If the soil has vermiculite/perlite in it as well as good drainage holes in the bottom of the pot you shouldn’t ever need to worry about overwatering. However, just make sure the soil doesn’t turn to mud because this will create serious problems.
Lighting
I would recommend in the strongest possible terms to invest in an HPS light for all phases of growing except the early seedling stage. A good rule of thumb would be to use CFL lights until the plant has 4 sets of true leaves and the 5th set on the way, then the plant will be strong enough to be under an HPS light. However, if you must use CFL lights as your source of lighting for the entire grow, you are firstly cheating yourself out of bud because a cannabis plant will increase its yield by 10% if you use an HID light such as a high pressure sodium light or metal halide light. Also using an HID light will minimise stretching as the plants won’t have to strain themselves to soak up the light that they need. In my experience however, I have been told to stay away from metal halide lights as I have heard several reports that they are quite damaging to the naked eye. People I have spoken to have reported a loss of vision after using metal halide lights over several years of growing. These are all just anecdotes and I don’t have any real evidence to back up my claim but I’m still gonna stick with HPS bulbs from now on. Anyway, if you must use CFLs, it’s best to stick with cool white bulbs for the vegetative stage as their Kelvin scale rating for cool white is around 4,000k which is better for vegging. Then when you want to induce flowering, swap to warm white CFLs as their Kelvin scale rating will be about 2,700k which is a better spectrum for flowering.
I had to use CFLs for the vegetative stage because the stealth box I built can only have a maximum of 4 CFL lights mounted to the top of the box. I couldn’t use an HPS light because it simply wouldn’t have fit. When the plant outgrew the stealth grow box I had I induced flowering and changed the light cycle to 12/12 and moved the plant to the grow tent. I then used my 400w HPS light to finish out the flowering cycle and left the light hanging approximately 30cm (1 foot) from the top canopy of the plant.
Flushing
In my opinion, the soil medium should be flushed at least once every 1-2 weeks in order to remove excess salt build-up within the soil. The soil should also be flushed any time you change nutrients or change the growth cycle of the plant from vegetative stage to flowering stage for example. I ran into an issue with toxicity in the soil as will be outlined below, because I wasn’t flushing my plant at all. I now flush once a week. This White Widow strain seems to release a lot of salt into the soil so I’m very conscious of flushing these days.
Pruning/Topping
Pruning is a great way to control your plant’s growth. Pruning should be done strategically and not whenever you feel like it. Basically whatever part of the plant you decide to prune, the plant will put all of its growing energy into the remaining growing tips. For example, if you top the plant or prune the upper leaves, the plant will put all of its energy into the lower branches and side laterals instead and the plant will begin to grow quite bushy. Conversely, if you cut away the lower branches and laterals, the plant will soar upwards and the top cola(s) will grow tall and strong, making the plant taller.
The pruning I did in the vegetative stage was pruning back the lower branches so that there was great ventilation around the main stem of the plant. I also removed any damaged leaves or old leaves that were in the process of dying. The only pruning I have done in the flowering stage is pruning away the bottom most leaves that are receiving little to no light or older leaves that have yellowed and are dying.
I topped my plant right after the seedling stage was completed and I ended up with 2 growing tips that are now my 2 main colas. Right at the start of the flowering cycle, I tried the ‘FIM’ technique I learned from Jorge Cervantes’s Bible on one of the side branches. I left the opposing branch to grow normally to get a comparison going. The ‘FIM’ technique is where you snip the base of the growing tip you wish to top, however you only cut half of the new growing tip and leave the other half on the plant. The plant will then grow 4 new growing tips instead of 2. I used the ‘FIM’ technique on one of the side branches, not one of the main colas but I did it too late and this side branch didn’t grow nearly as high as I would have liked but at least I know the technique worked well and I will be using this technique on future grows.
Germination
Spray paper towels with water, place seeds on paper towel, spray second layer of paper towels and place over seeds. Place in a glad bag, seal, and leave in a dark, warm place for 2-3 days. Best thing for seeds at this stage are moisture and warmth.
Seedling Cycle
Light cycle: 24/0- lights are on continuously
Lighting: Cool white (4,000k) fluorescent bulbs
Time: 2-4 weeks
Watering: Once a day
Nutrient Regimen: No nutrients should need to be given unless leaf tips show signs of yellowing
When the taproot appears, fill a 10cm pot with the good quality soil mix I outlined above. Drench the pot with rain water and wait for water to drain. Place seed just under the surface of the soil, cover with a thin layer of soil and give a couple more sprays of rain water.
Water the soil once a day with room temperature rain water directly into the soil. Do not spray the leaves as this will cause the new leaves to sweat under the heat of the lights and wilt. Also fill a tray with rain water and place the pot in it in order for the soil at the bottom of the pot to soak up more water. When the seed sprouts and grows out a little, place a wooden skewer in the soil with one end split in half and use that end to prop up the new stem. This will minimise stretching and allow the plant to grow completely vertically. Let the sprout grow until the roots appear at the bottom of the pot and then move onto transplanting. The seedling stage is complete when 4 sets of leaves have appeared and the fifth set is appearing.
Transplanting
When the roots start appearing through the bottom drainage holes of the pots, it’s time to transplant. Soak the plant well the night before you transplant.
Fill ¼ of the bigger pot with the original soil mix then place the plant, including the pot, inside the bigger pot. Continue to fill soil around the outside of the smaller pot until the bigger pot is full. Then remove the plant from the smaller pot and place in the now open hole of the bigger pot. Fill the soil around the stem of the plant and give a good soak of water.
Vegetative Cycle
Light cycle: 24/0- lights are on continuously
Lighting: 1x HPS bulb
Time: Until desired height is reached
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Half strength nutrient solution every watering for 1 week then full strength every watering
A grower can leave the plants in the vegetative cycle for however long the ideal time is for the circumstances of each grower. For example, if one is using the ‘Sea of Green’ technique, the plants may not even need the vegetative phase at all and the grower can go straight from the seedling stage to flowering. The vegetative stage can also be cut out if the grow space size is an issue. I.e. the plants simply won’t fit in the grow space if the plant is too tall. I let my plant veg for only 1 week before I induced flowering and the plant was only 1 foot tall. However if one has the space, any future grow I do I will let the plant veg until it reaches about 2 feet and then I’ll induce flowering.
An issue or two that I ran into while in the vegetative phase was that I believe I had a nutrient lockout of some sort because the ph rose to a little above 7.0 and the plant started to show copper patches on the leaves. These copper patches could also be consistent with salt toxicity in the soil. I hadn’t been flushing the plant at all and as soon as I gave it a flush, and brought the ph level down, the leaves that were already affected stayed the same, but new growth from then on had no issues.
Cloning
Just before commencing the flowering cycle you may choose to take clones from your plant(s). Choose a lower branch from the strongest plant(s) as the lower branches is where the most hormones are. Trim the largest leaves on this branch and leave the plant alone for 1-2 days in order for it to heal. You should leave 1 set of fan leaves and a growing tip on the branch you intend to clone.
Sterilise your pruning shears or scissors and make a 45 degree angle cut 1-2 inches below the set of fan leaves. Next, slice the bottom half inch of the stem in half and dip in a rooting hormone solution. I prefer to use jiffy pellets over rockwool as a cloning medium. The jiffy pellets when soaked in water will grow to their full size within minutes whereas rockwool must be soaked overnight and the pellets are much more malleable under your fingers than rockwool cubes. Also there is some soil and nutrients in the jiffy pellets so it gives the clones a good kick-start at life. Jiffy pellets are also the easiest to transplant into a soil pot once they’ve rooted.
If clones are taken from a healthy mother plant they will root in the jiffy pellets in about a week. Over the course of the week they may wilt and look to be on their death bed but they will perk right up after a couple of days.
I would also highly recommend using a heated mat placed underneath the clones to help them root. My friend and I attempted our first cloning in rockwool cubes with no heat mat and almost all of the clones died or took close to 3 weeks to take root. We then tried again with jiffy pellets and a heat mat and all of those clones took root within 1 week and are now super healthy plants.
Pre-Flowering Cycle aka “The Stretch”
Light cycle: 12/12- half light, half dark
Lighting: 1x 400 watt HPS bulb
Time: 1-2 weeks
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Half strength nutrient solution every watering for 1 week then full strength every watering
Before switching the lights to a 12/12 cycle after the vegetative cycle, it is recommended to induce a 36 hour darkness period. This will signal strongly to the plants that winter is well and truly coming and may result in pre-flowers appearing up to 1 week earlier than normal.
Flowering Cycle
Light cycle: 12/12- half light, half dark
Lighting: 1x 400 watt HPS bulb
Time: 7-8 weeks
Watering: Once every 2-3 days
Nutrient Regimen: Full strength every watering
The plant will stretch another 1-2 feet during this growth cycle depending on lighting and can remain up to half a metre from the lighting source. During the flowering stage, some leaves may yellow however this is normal as the plant is receiving less nitrogen and putting all its energy into developing buds.
Pre-harvest Preparation
10-14 days before harvest the grower should cease giving the plants chemical nutrients. In the final 2 weeks of flowering the plant will have no added chemicals in its foliage or buds and will be a much smoother smoke. I have heard that commercial growers keep feeding their plants with chemical nutrients until 2 days before harvest and then flushing the soil with a flushing liquid designed to remove chemicals from the medium. You should also stop watering the plant a couple of days before harvest in order to speed up drying time. Finally, 24 hours before harvest, some growers report that they give the plant 24 hours of darkness which allegedly forces the plant to produce a few extra resin glands before harvest.
Harvesting, Drying and Curing
I will add to this section when I have harvested my plant and will update this guide accordingly. At the moment there is only 2 weeks to go!
Improvements and Consideration for Future Grows
My first grow has been quite a successful one when looking at all the problems I had to overcome. There won’t be a huge amount that I’ll have to change for my second grow but I have outlined a few considerations below. It’s interesting to note that the plant that I’m growing that you see in the tent, while this plant was in the seedling stage, I dropped a CFL light on it and broke its stem. I propped the plant up with a wooden stake and it still looked quite healthy, however it still couldn’t stand up on its own after 1 week. I thought it was dead so I gave up on it and left it in another room in the dark without water, light or ventilation. I checked on it a couple of days later and it had already grown its second set of true leaves and was standing up by itself. It’s hard to imagine that from such a terrible start at life, this plant is now about to be harvested and turned out to be my strongest plant! I guess the lesson I learned is that cannabis is quite a vigorous plant and it wants to live and almost thrives on neglect, lol. Basically these plants will grow in spite of you and will find a way to live regardless of how you treat them so I’ve learnt never to give up unless the plant actually shrivels up and dies.
The first consideration I noted was that I have heard several recommendations to use black strap molasses during the flowering cycle . Using black strap molasses is rumoured to add 20% to the yield of your plant so it’s definitely something I want to get involved with when I return to Australia.
A couple of techniques that I wish to use in the future in order to maximise the space of my tent is to utilise the ‘Low-Stress-Training’ technique or maybe the ‘Screen of Green’ technique. I think I will make use of the ‘FIM’ topping technique on the top colas to maximise the growing tips I have for bud and to make the plant bushier and more manageable. I will then use a screen to separate out all of the growing tips and give an even amount of light to all the budding sites.
I will also invest in some ph down solution. I would have used some for this grow but money was a concern so I had to use lemon juice instead. It worked reasonably well but ph down solution is far more effective and reliable.
Thanks all for taking the time to read my guide. Obviously I will update it if people have any advice or recommendations to add. I will also update the ‘harvesting’ section when I harvest my baby in just over 2 weeks!
Penguin
