Koalajesus grows cannabis

Hello!

I've just started growing this March, but have enjoyed the good ol' mary jane for some time and thought I'd finally make my own supply now that it's legal in my area.

I'm starting this journal to give some sort of documentation to my grow other than taking a quick picture.
Additionally, I'm pretty embarrassed by my grow even though I know it could be worse. I can just be obsessive about things and if it's not absolutely perfect (like some of you people's fantastic grows on RIU) I just feel ashamed. Hopefully this will make me more accepting of my mistakes and not so harsh a critic on myself.
Lastly, I'm very open to any comments and advice regarding the grow.

TLDR at the bottom if you just wanna look at pics and not go through my essay.

I ordered some good genetics, but I started before I got them since I had all the equipment and a few bag seeds that have been laying around the house.

Run down of setup:
48"x48"x80" Tent
2 x Spider Farmer SF1000D (Samsung LM301D)
2 x Vivosun VS1000 (Samsung LM301H)
Currently, just one of the VS1000s are on, 75%, 24" above the top of the canopy
18/6 light schedule, light is on 7pm-1pm
Intake and outtake 6" inline Fans, one fan has a built in speed controller, but the speeds are max, almost max, and high....still works though
Using it as the outtake currently with the other fan at it's medium setting for intake
Oscillating clip fan providing some wind for the plant
5 Gallon Fabric Pot
50/50 mix of Fox Farms Coco Loco mix and coco coir
RO Water, PH'd to 6.0-6.2
Dyna Glo Foliage Pro (only recently)
Temperature is 79-80 lights on, 72-73 lights off, RH is 48%-56%.

Started by germinating 3 bag seeds using the paper towel method, all cracked with roots, but only 1 had even really grew into a seedling. The others seemed to die off after sprouting. Leaving the lone plant, don't knowing anything about it besides it's from dispo weed and it's indica dominant to say the least. I have a few guesses for strains, but that's whatever.

Overall, a lot has changed since the start of the grow. Learned many lessons that will hopefully make my next grow much smoother, prettier, and less stressful.

So, seeds sprouted roots on 3/10, placed in rapid rooter and first noticed cotyledons coming up 3/12 and it's been going along since.

On 3/19 I had transplanted the young plant to the 5 gallon fabric pot. At this point, I actually had 4 of the SF1000Ds (no dimmers so 100%) all on the one young plant, ~34" away. It was also in 100% Coco Loco mix.



The plant actually seemed to be doing well even with every single one of these conditions being unfavorable.

Around the end of March (can't remember the actual date) I made my first bend to the top for LST. Now that I type this out, it's also when all the bad stuff really kicked in, probably didn't like the stress already being kinds unhealthy. Anyways....

4/1 is the first photo I have where the highlighter leaves begin. More than likely from the excessive light intensity and possibly triggered from LST.



Over the next week, the largest fan leaves began showing burnt tips that slowly grew. Haven't been using any nutrients so checked the PPM on the next watering, almost 3000 reading....

Grabbed some coco coir, prepped it, out the pot she went and into a 50/50 mix of Coco Loco and coco coir. New PPM ~900 at the time. Adjusted lights as well to have just one of the SF1000Ds, brought it down to 26" and put it closer to the corner. All done on 4/8.

Let the plant grow out, but putting in a reflective corner and the light being closer, the highlighter tips got full burnt and curled. RIP. It all clicked why most higher model LEDs have dimmable drivers. Managed to hot the refund deadline the day of and sent a 2 pack of the SF1000Ds back and in return got the 2 Vivosun VS1000s.

To say the least, big difference between the D and H diodes. Not too mention temperature, either the H is cooler or the engineered build of the VS1000 is better than the SF1000D.

Back to the grow. 4/15, VS1000s up and 1 running at 25% and 24" to start. Was a little scared of burning it and growing highlighter leaves, so started out slow. I first thought it was still happening, but it was just new growth growing out of it and into a more healthy tone of green.



However, peace was short lived as the burns kept coming on large fan leaves. On 4/21, made the decision to flush the medium and lowered the PPM to 300.

It seemed to have loved the flush and was showing healthy signs the next couple days. Burns stopped creeping on the tips and things seemed to stabilize.

For watering, I now add 1ml of Dyna Gro Foliage Pro to 1gal RO water every other time I go to water. That's 20% the recommended dose, seems to be doing well.



4/24, still no signs of sex and man was it looking real bushy. I'd been on the fence with trimming leaves cause of all my mistakes so far, but I picked up the pruners and went to work. Thinned it out and a bit, tied it up some, and called it good.



Not all was good though....checking the trimmed leaves I noticed some weird coloring, black spots and some kind of white scratches. Not too hard to research that I have a Thrip attack happening. If it's not one thing it's another....

Grabbed some cold pressed neem oil, followed instructions for mix, did a light spray both on top and below the foliage on 4/26.

Besides the thrips, the plant recovered extremely quickly and seemed to respond well. I even trimmed one site down to just the top two growths and it's brand new growth coming out (I believe it's called lollipopping?) with it recovering well too. Cannabis definitely is resilient considering the torture this one has received.

Today marks day 49/week 7 of overall growth. Not sure when vegetative stage actually started and I've seen conflicting information in research. So I'm just sticking with reaching a desired size before flipping.

Added some non toxic sticky traps to the bottom of the pot yesterday, but no captures as of yet. I have only seen 4 of them since I noticed the issue 4 days ago. They crawl along the pot during watering, but I have never found one on the plant itself during "morning" or "evening" of the lights. Keeping a close eye on this for now.



Okay, so future plans are still up in the air. I'm not sure when to put up the trellis or when to flip. I feel like it's still too small.
Total tent height is 80"
Closest lights can go is 12" from the top
Pot on riser is 11" tall
Plant is 7" tall at the highest point in the canopy
Closest plants will be from light is 12"

Quick math and I still have 38" of growth room at the moment.

From research, it seems at best you can expect the plant to triple in height. At 21", seems underwhelming. Unless it'll stretch more than that or I don't have a complete understanding of the sizing.

Also, need some recommendations on flowering nutes. There's so much out there I feel like as long as the NPK ratios are right, it should be good, I think?

TLDR:
For those that don't wanna read my ramblings. It's a 4x4 tent with LED lighting. Seed cracked on 3/10, bunch of changes throughout due to first grow learnings and mistakes, closing in on decision to flip while battling some thrips.

I'll be updating this every couple days or so. Feel free to comment or drop advice, I'll do my best to take it well, but I already think I'm bad, so go easy on me.

Quick update!

Yesterday (4/30) I had tied down the main stem a bit more, went around adjusting all the ties to the different sites to even the canopy and expose some new areas I wanted to grow out.



Overall, the recovery was quick and already going up again.



It's day 52 since the tap root cracked out of the seed. Growth has been a bit slow due to my mistakes and still trying to get the light height right.

Since acquiring the VS1000, I started super low, 25%, 24". Overtime I've raised the intensity to 75% and kept height at 24". At 75% it seems to irritate some of the new growth and is still causing the highlighter issues.

I didn't want to bring the intensity back down because I know I need good light penetration to feed all these growing branches. Raised lights to 30".

I'm looking for some advice/recommendations on a few things.

1. I'm thinking about setting up my first layer of trellis netting since the plants canopy is right at 7"-8" from the base. Sounds like a good plan? And if so, I can still keep letting it fill for maybe a week and a half to two weeks before flipping? Or should I go longer?

2. I'm thinking about changing my lighting arrangement as well for the trellis and to set the stage for flower. I want to center the plant in the 4x4, currently it's towards the back to align straight with the light that is on the back support. Once centered, align the second VS1000 with the other with the center of the tent, keep them spread apart, bring up the height to maybe 32"-34". Then start at 75% on both and try to dial in from there.
Does this sound like a decent plan? Or is it too much for the plant?

3. This one is more of a reassurance question, but I snapped these photos just about an hour or so before lights out. Over the last week or two I have noticed that it drops before nighttime. I've read it's just the rhythm of the plant knowing when it's about to sleep. Or that it just means it's got all the light it needs for the day. Bunch of different stuff online and of course each plant can be different.

Got some other photos for reference attached. Anyone is welcome to drop advice, recommendations, or general commentary. Just be friendly is all I ask.

Well, thanks for reading through!

Updates updates updates!

Pictures are down below, TLDR(Too Long, Didn't Read) at the bottom.

Well, I actually first want to say I know the main plant has taken a turn for the worse, but its still going and I'm gonna stick with it the whole ride.

Answering my own question from the previous update:

1. For a trellis netting, think about how you'll be able to access the tent as the plant grows into it and locks in place in a way. Letting plant grow a bit taller and positioning trellis just high enough to let my hand slip under with side doors of tent open. This leads to my starting height being from base about 11". Almost there, trellis might go up tomorrow just for to get going.

2. Lighting arrangement came out as a decent plan, but it's too much for the plant. Like way too much, severe transformations of bleaching and burning. Dialed lights back to %50, currently 30" high. I know, I know. Not a crazy high PPFD/DLI/LUX, but I'm worried to burn again, so starting low and going from there. Due to this, running in veg longer than planned. Whoops...whatever though, learning experience!

3. Definitely a circadian rhythm of the plant prepping for sleep and being awake and wanting them light rays.

Alright, now to the meat and potatoes of this thing.

5/5


I haven't made any changes to the light arrangement yet, but signs of the light stress are there, just like when it was younger.

I was in distress over the bottom foliage that was being eaten away by fungal gnats and made a rash decision. Despite just recently defoliating I went ahead and did it again....



Not only did I cut it up, but I thought I should move the lights while I'm at it. Two VS1000s @ 24", 50% power. 1 of the lights, same height, 75% was bringing on the highlighter so I reduced the intensity, but increased the coverage with the second light.

Never again. I can tell it slowed growth doing it again. Additionally, I've learned this only just a few days ago but I should wait for those internodal areas that will be blocked by shade to grow out even just a bit more than what I was trying to cut some at. It resulted in me pretty much causing a recovery focus on those small areas as many came back just a bit cut up on the leaves. Ones that had longer stems stayed gone.

I've certainly began the stunting (me at the time didn't know this) and it gets worse from here.

5/6


Big mad. Didn't like the light intensity from both being on despite reduction to 50%. Kept @ 50%, adjusted light height to 30".

5/8


Still mad, but I think it's getting a bit better at this point light wise. Nutrient wise, burns and being upset all on the lowers it seems. The dark leaves tell me nitrogen toxicity, plus the leaves are doing the reverse taco/canoe. Not good.

Temperature: 78F-79F during daylight, 71F-72F during night

Humidity: 55%-58% during daylight, 50%-52% during night

Watering: Once every 48 hours, 1.5 gallons fed with Pro-Tekt and Foliage Pro. Over the course of the past 2 weeks I've brought the dose of FP up to 40% and Pro Tekt was introduced at 40% of the lower end of the recommended dose. PH is 6.0-6.2

Medium: A mix of FF Coco Loco and coco coir, 50/50. The FFCL is something I won't use again. Too hot in nutrients, and all the added material makes it hold onto water a lot longer.

5/15


Well, here we are at today's posting. Day 66 from seed. And it's going....okay. Not as great as planned, but it is what it is. Could be worse, I guess?

So despite having pretty ideal humidity, my leaves still felt dry. There is an oscillating clip fan attached to the pole, angled, and on low power aiming at the plant, but nothing to cause it to be so dry.

My air exchange in the tent though by my math resulted in all air being changed out every ~30 seconds. Made some changes and now and I'm at 1 minute and a couple seconds for all the air to be changed out. The leafs have felt better since this change.

At this point, I'm pretty sad that I've messed up so much, but I think I can still get this to produce.

TLDR
Got too crazy with the cutting, played with the lights, got burned. Still having nutrient problems from the FF Coco Loco. I'm working through a lot of growing pains on my first go at this, but I can feel my confidence in a future grows increasing. Seeing this all the way to the end!

Just gonna stay positive and keep growing. Thanks for reading!

Update time! Actually not one that'll contain a ton of happenings and a week apart.

Welp, from all the LST I did the branches are very stretched out length wise and it honestly looked like it was struggling to hold up as it grows.

5/16, put up a supporting net. I got two nets when I first started and wasn't sure I was gonna even use them with just the one plant, but here we are.


Then here is today, 5/18


All the branches are starting to pop up more and growth seems to be moving along at a better rate now. I was hoping to have the net a bit higher, but I think this was the right move.

Mini project has been started on the side as well. I pretty much did this in distress over my main plant and it's condition and all my mistakes. So I wanted to see what I could pull off with a little more lessons learned.

Used some random bag seeds a friend lent me. Conditions were not ideal...3 years in a dime bag in a closet/room not really looked after. Out of 9 seeds I tried, 3 popped, only 2 came up. They were wonky to start, but are doing better, just slow.

Seeds broke the medium on 4/27. One is mutated though and split itself early! Neat to see.

5/10


5/15


5/18


I know when I enter flower they won't be that big, but they'll be something and just some more experience is what I'm needing.

So yeah, not the prettiest and cleanest grow, but it's something and I'm pretty confident as I debate heading into flower soon.

Thanks for checking it out!

Update!

So on day 70 from seed cracking, I said fuck it and flipped to flower, light schedule being 7pm-7am.

So this is the start of the 3rd day. I also put the lights to max, but they are still pretty high up.

All my mistakes piled up have made it hard to diagnose just about anything, but I'm sticking to half strength nutes for now.

Basically running DynaGro's Pro Tekt, Mag Pro, and Bloom according to their chart, but at 50%.



I suppose it's going pretty well, but I'm honestly not sure. It's growing, that's for sure, but we'll see as things develop.

Stay tuned.

Time for an update!

Okay, so this morning was the end of day 7 under flowering light schedule.

Overall, things seem to be going well still, seeing good growth, but not as much of an explosion as I was expecting. We'll wait and see though, only just getting started.

Picture of what it was looking like 5/23


And then this morning, an hour before lights turn off.


I have made some recent changes as I've observed it grow over the past week. So I have two lights close together in a rectangle going from the top (of the image) to the bottom. This light structure definitely caused growth down the center of the plant to increase while the sides were not getting as much light and growing slower.

I've had issues from light in the past of this grow and why a lot of the tips are nice and crispy (whoops). However, it's been taking 100% from the VS1000s without problems the past week and a half. Decided to rearrange and add lights I wasn't using at the time.

Now there are 2 VS1000s and 2 SF1000s hanging up and squared out to create an even light distribution. Let's see how the plant likes it.

Additionally bumped the feeding up to 75% recommend doses.

Other than that, nothing much going on. I know it's not that pretty compared to some of the grows on here, but I'm enjoying myself. There are so many things I wish I could go back and do differently, but you live and you learn. Hoping to stick a good landing for this one and move on to greener tents in the future.

Thanks for checking this out! As a reminder, comments and questions are welcome. Advice is always nice too, but don't shred me apart!

Have good day!

Alright alright alright! This update could be called the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good. I noticed the beginnings of pistils forming in between the calyxes and was pumped to see them develop. Checking in on the plant this morning, the end of day 9 since transitioning to a flowering light schedule...




Looks like things are gonna get hairy! This is the first sign of sex since it popped out of the ground 78 days ago. Pretty excited for the upcoming weeks!

The bad. Long story short, highlighter leaves are back. My previous posts show where I had this issue before. I'm like 95% sure it's light intensity related. The most recent change to trigger this was turning on the two SF1000Ds I had to the two VS1000s. The lighting is in a spread out square with the same model lights being diagonal from each other. Crazy thing is, I've had the lights hanging 36" from canopy when there was just the two, but after adding the others I bumped it to 40" and this is still happening.


New growth at many (not all) branches are starting to exhibit this behavior.


It seems like this plant is just super sensitive to light I guess? I really have no idea. It doesn't help that I've made many mistakes resulting in this array of problems.

The ugly. I haven't shown much of the plant other than the top because you can't see as many issues as you can from some side angles. Here they are...




Yup. I know. It's like those pictures that just get worse the more you look at it. Ignore what's going on to the left, learnt real quick about feeding nutrients heavier/earlier than what I should've.

For the main plant, I've been very lightly pulling on leaves to see if they come off. I'm tempted to defoliate some of the super strugglers, but I feel like I've trimmed too much already in the past and it needs some more growth before it can support me hacking away.

Well, that's about it for now. Hoping I can make it to the finish line with something smokable. Thanks for checking it out and have a good day!

Update!

Continuing off my last post and the bad area specifically. Never should have added the additional SF1000Ds. Either this plant is light sensitive, or maybe the intensity really was too much? Hard to believe though since the lights were 40"+ above the canopy at all times.

Just a day after the yellowing in the previous post.


Decided this was too much and turned off the SF1000s. Just a day later after that:


Already so much more healthy green coming in. The rest of plant is enjoying the change back as well. Probably gonna leave it as these two for the rest of the grow unless I see excessive stretching occurring.

I'm starting to feel discouraged though. I keep making changes then wondering why I even did it because it just hurt the plant and has now scarred it for another couple weeks. Pretty much repeating my past mistakes. Things are so scrambled with the plant, all sorts of different symptoms and issues that I don't think anyone could figure out all the problems.

However, my fiancé keeps reminding me it's a learning experience and to absorb as much as I can to make the next grow better. Definitely lucky to have that support considering how big of a mess I've made with this plant!

Gonna keep at it for now and hope I can at least make it to the finish line.




Other than that, not much going on besides nearly every problem hitting my main plant.

If you have some encouraging words or maybe a good comeback story for one of your plants, I'd appreciate hearing it! Trying to keep positive vibes despite all my mistakes.

Have a good day!

Quick update.

Haven't posted in awhile because I'm just embarrassed by how the plant looks overall. Leaves are all over the place from my mistakes, and light issues continue to plague me.

Anyways, these pictures were taken this morning, then end of day 21 since flipping to 12/12.







Whole plant looks pretty bad, but some individual branches look pretty nice. Still moving through flower and hoping to finish with something.

Anyways, thanks for checking it out! Have a good day.

Well, it's been awhile since I've made an update!

So, my main plant is developing pretty well! Still minor problems, but I am pretty excited with the progress.

Currently the picture posted are 38 days since changing the light schedule to 12/12


Now, in a post awhile back I mentioned a side project grow that I started to grow alongside my main, but with some changes. It was two random bag seeds that popped out of a dozen from a 5 year old dime bag a friend had in a drawer. One mutated itself so hard and I wasn't ready for that and I killed it off with poor care.

That left one plant to work with and try to apply some of the things I've learned in the 5 weeks of my first grow.

You can actually see these little guys in my photos, just never really pointed them out. The top right one in previous posts is the one that mutated and died. The bottom left was the last one standing.

I do and don't regret starting this side grow. It was tough because I couldn't bring lights closer for the small ones because of my main plant. Not to mention I switched to 12/12 while they were relatively little. So I just let them go as is with an improved feeding regime and the knowledge I've gained.

This plant came out of the ground 4/27. Here is a photo from 6/4, when it passed the net finally.


Now, here is the plant on 6/27.


Picture is a little blurry for air movement, I'll try to add a better picture later tonight.

Here's what the flowers looked like the same day.


Overall really pleased with the growth and health of my second plant. Hoping to be able to stick the landing on both these, though the main will finish much sooner of course since it was more mature at the time of flip.

Thanks for checking things out! Have a good day!

Just posting a bit better photo of the second plant. Little more hairy action now too.



I know she's a bit leggy, but that's just from how the light was hanging for her when she was young. Happy with how she's going and I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing and hope it keeps up.