MeLoco Weed

New Medical Marijuana patient being treated for Glaucoma. This is my very first attempt at growing Marijuana. I struggled a long time over weather or not to post this on-line, but have ultimately decided that I WILL NOT BE AFRAID! I am protected under RCW69.51a.040(3)(b) & WAC246-75-010. Washington State Law gives me the right to grow Marijuana for personal medical use, and that is exactly what I am doing.

This will serve as a diary & weekly update. I encourage suggestions but I am somewhat bound by my budget. My area will evolve with my plants. My plants are 5 weeks old now and have already gone through several area remodels. I have done quite a bit of research and read several guides, including The Cannabis Grow Bible, so I am not completely clueless. But all I know so far is what I've read.

To begin I'm going to go back and explain what I did (right and wrong) in the previous 5 weeks.

8/2

Seed Germination.
I used a technique taught to me in grade school:
Take 2 napkins place one upon a small dish, scatter a few seeds on the napkin place the other napkin on top and add room temperature tap water. I let mine soak in 1/8" of standing water to ensure they don't dry out. I tucked this away somewhere dark and warm for 24 hours.

It is worth mentioning that I did not buy these seeds from a bank or anything. I do not know what kind or how many different strains I have. I do know that some of them are over a year old and may not be any good. I'm willing to give it a shot anyway.

8/3
Planting Seeds
I didn't do exactly the right thing here, I literally went out to the garage and got an old dried up bag of soil from a completely unrelated project last year. It was all dried up and not looking very good. I used it anyway. I had been reading The Cannabis Grow Bible and thought that I could regenerate the soil with a nice long flush of water. This particular soil was loaded with wood chips, very organic material, it was really rough. I had my doubts as to whether or not anything would grow at all, there wasn't much dirt in it. But this is, after all, an experiment, so anything goes.

I had a couple of those biodegradable plant starter sheets laying around (don't ever use those) so I soaked them for 20 minutes and went to town planting 5 or 6 seeds in each little cup. I figured if even 1 in 5 grow I'll be lucky. I put the sheets down inside a glass casserole dish and left them in a half inch of standing water. I used a small desk lamp and a helical fluorescent bulb placed about 4" above the soil, and commenced the 18/6 lighting regiment.

On about the 4th day, I saw the first sprout reaching the surface, I thought the seed had floated to the top. Over the course of the next two weeks I saw a second and a third and then 5 and 7 sprouts, then some cups that sprouted 2.3 & 4 in each cup. When all was said and done I had about 14 plants in 6 cups. I had to make the call to pull out some of the sprouts, although I did leave one pot with 2 plants in it, more on that later.

8/16
I have 7 plants in 6 pots 2-4 inches tall. I am transplanting them into larger pots and switching to a different grow medium. I thought it might be good to get another really coarse soil again. I got Miracle Grow for Orchids. That was a bad move, although I didn't know it at the time. I also starting another experiment germinating 5 more seeds with this same soil.

I did go get some flat white paint and a 4' fluorescent shop light. I got a regular tube and a special plant tube. If I had to go with fluorescence's, I thought a mix might be good. I also got (2) 4' lengths of chain to suspend the light. I created a nice white environment and the plants seemed to thrive for the first week.

I started using a fungicide to mist them with. I got paranoid from reading about spider mites. I started by misting them twice a day with the recommended dosage, everything looked fine for a while.

8/23
OH NOZE
the lower leaves on my ladies are turning yellow, I think I may have burnt them with the fungicide. I take no action at first, I just watch with great concern. The leaves get worse and the yellowing spreads to other leaves, over the next week I watch them wither away and I'm quite worried about them. Also I have no idea what the PH of the soil is that I'm using, it could be all wrong, at any rate something is effecting my plants, I stop misting with the fungicide. Also it's been really hot, sometimes reaching 95, I'm trying to get good airflow on them without blowing them over.

9/2
I got another light more bulbs and a soil testing kit and proceeded to test the Orchid grow medium. the PH registered somewhere in the 5.5-6.0 range. I went and got some Miracle Grow Moisture Control. I heard somewhere that it was pretty good out of the package. I tested the MGMC and the PH was around 7 to 7.5 which I believe is far closer to neutral right? I also tested the nitrogen to see if it would be needing any. The soil tested High in nitrogen so I definitely don't want to put any in yet.

9/3
Clipping off the damaged leaves, I have determined that it would be better to remove the damaged leaves and allow the plant to focus on other parts of the plant instead of trying to repair the damage.

9/5
I try the FIM topping method on one of my ladies, let's see what happens. I think it's a lady anyway, can't be sure yet.

9/7
This brings me up to date. The Plants are looking much better, they seem more relaxed, and things have cooled off quite a bit, down to mid 70s temps. I don't know if it was the bug juice that burned my plants, the crappy orchid grow medium, or the heat stress, but I hope I don't see any more of that. I have my plants in an actual Grow Box now and they look happy for the time being. I could write a lot more but I am quickly running out of gas, I will be happy to elaborate on everything I skipped in the next few days.

This is the Fungicide in question:
Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, California Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Co-ops, Menus, Reviews, Los Angeles :: Photo :: Fungicide
Let me know if you have any experience with this product please.

Here are just a few pics, the rest are in my photos under Grow Log if you're interested.
Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, California Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Co-ops, Menus, Reviews, Los Angeles :: Photo :: Skunk Mama 5 Weeks
Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, California Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Co-ops, Menus, Reviews, Los Angeles :: Photo :: Tallest First Generation
Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, California Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Co-ops, Menus, Reviews, Los Angeles :: Photo :: Grow Box

Maybe someone can direct me as to how to show these picks within the text? I'd sure be grateful, the "insert image" option does not seem to work properly.

Sorry about the long dry read; maybe this video will make up for it.
Cannabis.com - Medical Marijuana, Medical Cannabis, California Club, News, Videos, Dispensary, Co-op, Co-ops, Menus, Reviews, Los Angeles :: Video :: First Peek at 5 Weeks

Thanks. Meloco