First Grow: Dance World

Leaxdude said:

Here we are at day 30 of flower, 120 days since planting the seed. I opened the tent to find a lot of yellow leaves. Upon further inspection, I also noticed a lot of purple stems (the main trunk is green & woody). Though the yellow leaves didn't appear to have the nitrogen deficiency the veins were not green, I headed off to the grow shop for some nutrients. Speaking to a grow master, he said that the yellow leaves and purple stems are normal as the plant is concentrating its energy on the flowers. I considered a flower boost, but this time, I'm just sticking with the soil.

I told him that I was using cloth pots and I seem to be watering them quite often (every two days or so) and that is normal as well, because the pots create a lot of evaporation and air to the roots. My problem with overwatering/underwatering is pretty much solved. It has been underwatering.
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They are still pretty small, but growing...stretching. The smell, though not strong, is enough to consider a filter. I can imagine what a diesel might smell like. It is fairly pleasant and slightly pot-like. As you come into the room, you notice it, but eventually, you get used to it. One of the reasons for this strain is the lack of a strong smell, but it is present.

Two more months (?) to go!

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God bless you man,
Those plants are screwed up.
How long have you been gone and not watered them?
I have been right where you are at,
I have killed more plants, mishandled more plants , slaughtered more clones over feed more plants than anyone alive I think,
If there was a court of law for cannabis murder I would be guilty and given life.
Figure out what went wrong and learn and go on. It's fun
Well sometimes not. But do not quit.

What are your growing conditions like?
Temperature, humidity etc?
Don't get fancy with the nets and things, let's just grow a nice couple of plants or so , get used to it one thing at a time
Just use some lite dirt, mix it with garden lime and pearlite , put it in a pot,
Under your lamp,
Then get GH or AN micro and bloom ONLY .
Take a gallon of clean pure water, prefferable RO but as long as it's not bad water put 5 ml a gallon of micro first then ten ml a gallon of bloom and pour it on them ,
Then first week of bloom increase to ?6 and 12 , second week of bloom 7 and 14 , in dirt water with pH water to around 6 every other feeding
Last two weeks nothing but pH ballanced water , flush with plenty of water the week before the last week .
Keep temps at around 75 degrees humidity between 35 and 50 percent ,

Yea, kinda seem a bit small for how long they vegged. Three months they should be masive.
Oh well like he said above you learn as you go, and overwattering could have stunted them bad at first.

berulakide said:

Yea, kinda seem a bit small for how long they vegged. Three months they should be masive.
Oh well like he said above you learn as you go, and overwattering could have stunted them bad at first.

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With plenty of perlite it will be hard for him to over water, he will just have to water all the time

I like the variety choice. I'd like to try Dancehall. I don't know about the yellow leaves though. It's a little early in flower for that I think? So I'd do what max420 says and add some GH or AN bloom nutes to your water, probably every other water.
Oh and micro too.

seems to be initially overwatering, you possibly have experienced underwatering at some point to :/... you don't need water running-off when watering in soil, coco is different as it doesn't hold water like soil does and flows right through coco, try determine how aerated your medium is as soil doesn't like too much water, for smaller pots water fast at the base of the stem/middle of the pot allowing the water to splash/pool covering all of the soil so to equally drain through to the bottom of the pot,careful not water excessively long, you shouldn't see runoff in soil.
water slowly around the edges and the middle in bigger pots/ground, being really careful to not overwater, use appropriate sized watering can for soil so to not drench (again don't matter for coco) especially when just transplanted into the larger medium.
Next step is crucial, you have a window lets say around 24hrs where your medium will be dry and will finally get the oxygen it has been dying for, if you do not give the roots the oxygen they need they will be fucked (watering early/Overwatering) and takes time to re-grow the roots that were damaged, if you hit this dry period/sweet spot your plants will love it and you will very quickly understand and appreciate the results of giving the medium a full dry out when hand watering like this, a few things to note.. in coco it is hard to overwater in a single watering as it doesn't hold much water, soil you can fuck up just by giving it too much water in one go, however nearly all new growers will still overwater even in coco because of one reason which is crucial, let me state this again Let the medium fully DRY out..... the reason most people fall victim to overwatering is because they water TOO SOON and don't let the medium dry out.
So let the medium fully dry, not just the top soil/coco, then water when you feel its DRY (looking, feeling the medium and picking up your pot can help you determine this)
that's why I said around 24hrs after being fully dry is when you might begin to worry of the plant wanting water but around this time and before this is perfect and what the plant wants and craves for, it wants oxygen..
if your medium is bone dry for lets say 30+ hrs then you will start to see leaves really sagging and wanting some water, so watering and drying cycles are extremely important, you are growing roots essentially the growth above the soil helps translate your roots health and problems. watering properly shows you fully healthy plants with leaves 'praying' towards the light, if you miss the watering sweet spot, forsure you will not see your plants do this until close to or maybe far past your next watering, of course depending on how badly when you decided to water..
One more time... let. your. medium. dry.
If your temps aren't completely out of range that's a start, humidity is important but shouldn't cause abnormally slow growth like you have seen but low humidity a long with too close of a light or slightly hot temps and a fan blowing air across canopy is enough reason to understand slow growth (still your plants seem small must off fucked the roots a lot I'm guessing mostly overwatering..)
especially when plants are small/weak, don't have a fan blowing across them unless you have good/high humidity, even with high humidity you don't want your plant or leaves blowing around much/ directly in a fans path as it can cause wind burn
Let them do their thing, cannabis is one of the fastest growing plants, don't try do to much don't stress, relax, give the plants some time, be patient keep it to the basics and just understand how important watering actually is.
You have probably overwatered and could have possibly in compensation waited too long to water another time and experienced under-watering them as well, so don't think too hard what you may or not have done cause you probably done many things far from perfect it would be impossible to know everything you did to stray from full health and vigor.

find that sweet spot without letting it getting bone dry for longer than a day but don't water too early both is so important , remember as your roots grow this sweet spot (time to water) will come by much faster as they drink more/faster.
Whatever the case now you understand watering is extremely important, miss it by 1 day and your fucked water early by 1 day and either way your fucked if you miss this by a decent bit...
Become proficient at watering then you will see what's up....

its not a hard activity just very important to follow every time like clockwork

I can't stress this enough, water plants individually, well maybe this is obvious to you, but if you had say 15 plants you might try water some of them together... DO NOT water unless needed... do not choke your plants by watering early, they are trying to get oxygen and don't need water..esp if crowded Check regularly as to not let any dry overly long, it does happen as drying is essential as you just cant cut corners and water too early (even though it will stunt em, if you forget/don't water you have easily 2days more like 3-4 where you could get it back to life but it wont really grow/have vigor for awhile) at the expense of sounding silly I hope repeated some of that shit enough for you to take on board

It is now 4.5 months since planting the seed and 1.5 months since switching to flower. As you can see, there are some pretty good bud colas and, you may be able to see, some smaller ones trying to peek from below. Though I did trim off a couple small branches from below, I decided not to trim off the ones here because they seemed viable. The ones I trimmed were too small and didn't look to be able to create any good buds so I trimmed them to prevent energy wasted on them.

You can also see that Lefty still isn't as tall and vibrant as Righty. I believe it has to do with the base of the trunk. As you can see in the picture, the base has been pinched over then up. This probably happened during sprouting and I didn't see it to fix it at that time. Anyway, Lefty is still budding and pretty healthy, even though she is a pygmy.



I think I'm getting the watering down. This soil seems to be draining properly. I think one of the issues is I was told to rough-up the top before watering and I think that helps. Also, with the larger container (3 gal pot vs keg cup), there is more surface area and the water drains better. I'm not 100% sure if it is draining through the entire pot (as opposed to channels), but I think it is.

The smell is getting stronger, and, though I enjoy it, it is becoming a little strong for an average consumer. If I ever grow a stronger strain I will definitely have install a filter.

A note about the soil. As mentioned, I used Happy Frog exclusively in this grow. I took a virgin tent and am in a room with no other plants, so relatively sterile. I have had no bugs at all in this grow, so I am pretty confident that the soil was/is free of insect eggs or larva.

We are now at 5 months since planting the seed and two months of flowering. The stretch & growth seems to have stopped and now the buds are filling up.

There are quite a number of small flowers starting in the lower section and I am debating on weather or not to trim them. As this is just a first time experiment, I am leaving them and seeing what can happen. My gut says to trim them in favor of the main buds, but I'm not sure how much energy they are sapping from the plant. Almost all of the sugar leaves are gone now and some that are in the buds are starting to turn.

The smell seems to be tapering off a bit. I think this is because I am used to it. Not very strong, but a sweet smelling sweat socks...if that makes sense.

The trichomes don't appear to be very tall, but they are there. They are clear now and some may be turning cloudy. My loupe isn't very large, so it's hard to see.

Very good. You will only get better from here,
Good on you

March 15. It is now 5.5 months since planting the seeds 2.5 months since switching to flower and and it's time to harvest. I determined that it is harvest time because the larger buds don't seem to be getting any bigger and most of the THC crystal tops have turned to amber.

This is the first harvest. I say "first" because the plan is to harvest just the larger buds and keep the minor buds on the plant to see if they will grow. They are so small and sickly, that I might as well give it a try.

Before trim


After trim

If I had to guess, I would say this is about 1-1.5oz, which makes this grow about .06grams per watt. Not a great yield. For some reason, I'm keeping Lefty and Righty separate when trimming & curing. I doubt it matters, but I did. The buds are not very dense. They are rather loose.

March 21. After four days of drying, they were bone dry and brittle. At least the outer leaves are. It is winter here and very dry. So, I put them in the jars and started curing. The humidity gets to about 50%, so I air them out for a couple hours a day. They don't smell that great, so I'm hoping that will mellow with age.

This is what the remaining plants look like (bad color):

Unlike what other people call grow diary, this one is the real grow diary. keep it up

Leaxdude said:

March 15. It is now 5.5 months since planting the seeds 2.5 months since switching to flower and and it's time to harvest. I determined that it is harvest time because the larger buds don't seem to be getting any bigger and most of the THC crystal tops have turned to amber.

This is the first harvest. I say "first" because the plan is to harvest just the larger buds and keep the minor buds on the plant to see if they will grow. They are so small and sickly, that I might as well give it a try.
View attachment 4109825
Before trim

View attachment 4109825
After trim

If I had to guess, I would say this is about 1-1.5oz, which makes this grow about .06grams per watt. Not a great yield. For some reason, I'm keeping Lefty and Righty separate when trimming & curing. I doubt it matters, but I did. The buds are not very dense. They are rather loose.

March 21. After four days of drying, they were bone dry and brittle. At least the outer leaves are. It is winter here and very dry. So, I put them in the jars and started curing. The humidity gets to about 50%, so I air them out for a couple hours a day. They don't smell that great, so I'm hoping that will mellow with age.

This is what the remaining plants look like (bad color):
View attachment 4109827

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When you try it let us know if you like it?

It has been 21 days since harvest, and here is an update.

I have the buds sealed with a hydrometer. Each day, I open it up for an hour or two to air out. The smell started as something bad and sour. Kind of like rotting hay. By now, that smell is starting to mellow out to something more like mellow or wet buds. The hydrometers started at around 50% and slowly dropped to around 40%, so I added a carrot and got the humidity up and now, we're at a steady 60-70%.

By now, the entire lot has reduced in physical size and appears to be about an ounce. Both batches smell the same, so I'll probably just end up mixing them. While they were growing, Lefty definitely looked like Indica while Righty looked like Sativa, but since they both look and smell the same in cure, they are the same strain.

Meanwhile, the main plants are still under the lights and continuing bud growth. The THC stalks are mostly amber, but some are clear or white. It's a mixed bag as some flowers are over mature and some are just starting. I'm not going to care that much for them. When I harvest them, I'm not going to trim the sugar leaves and will go straight to drying.
(I wish I could take good pics under the grow light)

Here we are 6.5 months since planting, 3.5 months since flowering stage.



I call this my "second harvest," because I first harvested the bigger buds and left the rest to continue. The results from the first harvest, all cured and ready, weighs 1.1oz or 31.18g. I doubt it's even worth taking to a dispensary. The buds are soft and loose and, without a piece of carrot in the container, can be very dry and brittle. There is a fair amount of shake, but probably not enough to get any hash.

My guess is that it is the strain that kills all the extra leaves and also kills the sugar leaves. The die-off started when I switched to 12/12, and I didn't do anything different. The dead, dry sugar leaves help make the buds feel kind of crispy.

My results were not what I was expecting as the harvest for two plants and 600W was around an ounce. Of all the things that could have resulted in that, I have the following causes:
Strain
Not enough light
Root binding
No extra nutes
Overwatering
Underwatering
SCROG screen too low (not LST properly)
Not vegged long enough

While any one is possible, a combination of all is more likely, but the strain is probably the biggest factor. The strain was fairly easy to grow, but not easy to master. I think it is probably more of a "Medium" to "Hard" strain and not really for beginners.

I will take the summer off because my grow room is in a place which is not easy to cool control and it can get hot in there. So, I will try again in the fall, probably with one plant (I only have 1 Dance World seed left) under the same conditions.

good luck with the next grow. have a nice summer.

A review from my buddy-

The first harvest of Dance World was not bad at all, especially for a first timer. Frosty, green and purple, the buds are skinny, typical of a sativa dominant strain. It smells funky like the primate habitat at the zoo. A bit dry, possibly the result of hasty curing. I thought it was going to be harsh, but...Burns well with good smoke, no popping or crackling. Taste is decent, floral and a little spicy, with an overall pleasant aftertaste. The buzz is light and happy and relaxing. No anxiety or nervous feelings that I sometimes get with sativa. It is not a couch-lock heavy sedative or downer, but instead an uplifting attitude adjustment.

I like it, and would recommend this strain for helping to reduce depression, worries, anxiety, and as a mood enhancer.

Well done! Happy growing!