Oh great, apparently we're growing now!

Hi all! I'm a total newbie at this whole thing. And, I'm not even going to be using! We're looking into the details of getting my husband a medical use licence in our state, and while on vacation out of state he tried pot to see if it worked for his pain. It was GREAT. His pain is usually 8/9/10 but the pot brought it to nearly NOTHING! WOOT! Nothing we've tried from the pharmacy worked even a third as well! :D BTW, he's had pain from scoliosis and then a spinal fusion surgery 20 years ago, but 18 months ago he sneezed and threw out his back. It's been getting worse and worse and worse and worse ever since. We still have about 12K in medical debts to pay while the insurance has paid close to 1/2 MILLION for everything we've been doing to try to help him plus the ER visits for falling down the stairs and various treatments and scans that have helped nearly none...

So we got a 1/4 ounce from a relative's connection while we were gone... and apparently we got 28 seeds in it.

Yes, you read that right. TWENTY. EIGHT. SEEDS. And this isn't crap weed, it's good quality (not *best*, but pretty darn good according to my husband who used a LOT 20 years ago! He only has had better a COUPLE times, and he smoked pot a TON over 10 years all throughout western NY and surrounding areas). He's never grown before either, so we're just figuring this out.

He "borrowed" one of my nursery flats I use in springtime, and put in a bunch of jiffy 7 seed starters. *sigh* We now have 24 seedlings (would have been 25, but one's stem snapped cleanly in half when he dropped the flat while bringing it out to show me! Oops). We potted them up since a few had the taproot already showing through the mesh. They are now in 3" jiffy squares (four in 4" plastic pots as I only had 20 3" pots). Nearly all have their first set of true leaves (only 2 or 3 don't), and 2 are showing a second set of trues about to grow! They are about 1 3/4" at most right now, mostly because they were in the dark until this afternoon, but a few hours of evening light (not direct) allowed them to go from lime green to a nice medium green that should darken tomorrow I'd think. :D And of course, he didn't tell me until a few hours ago about this or they'd have had good growing light from the START. (you should see my GARDEN right now! :D )

So... They are currently out in our greenhouse/shed (LOCKED) right at the windows so they'll have light during the day. Soon I'll have it set up in our basement for them to be under a fluorecent 4' fixture (sometime tomorrow or Saturday) for 18-24 hours/day. Next payday (5 days away) we'll get the lights we need to set up the plants in our closet.

I'll get pics in the morning. From the looks of things, some are at least 3-4 days after cracking shell and a couple are only within a day.

Guessing that these are going to be mostly male from the stress of being DROPPED, no light, and repotting (though with the J7s it may not be an issue)... How soon should we set them at 12/12 to check gender on maybe half of them? Or more, as we don't have a TON of space to get these to "full" size. I've read you can switch any time but I'm thinking after we pinch the 4th node, let them have another 3-4 leaf nodes before the switch. Thoughts?

If we switch light for gender, how long does it take to usually show the sex, and how bad is that stress to check gender then put back into veg state? How likely is that to make any females herm out? If we did the light switch in, say, 3-4 weeks, how big would these plants likely get on average (for average street-sold pot strains, whatever that means)? How long do you suggest we let them grow before we make them flower? How likely is this an auto type? How could we tell if it's auto or not?

Also, how many CFLs do you think we'll need, as well as how much space???? :wtf: Serriously, I NEVER thought I'd have ANYWHERE near this number of plants to deal with of this sort. I jokingly told my husband that I could just claim it's another of my flowering plants I can put in my garden... I LOVE flowers.... ;) (They'd blend quite well in with the dahlias until they start their flowering phase!)

Now to figure out how to get 24 plants inside my closet... *sigh* I'll also have to get some good 6" or 8" pots now... either that or plant all my rosebushes already, even though I didn't want to do that until next spring since they are so young and thin still. At least I'd have enough large pots for about 14 plants in our closet then (and I MAY be able to fit them well in there... maybe. It's 2.5' deep but at least 10' long if I want to use ALL that space...)

Sorry for rambling, but it's a start to this odd journey. :) At least we have a decent chance to help my hubby be out of pain! :dance:

(Note: next time, dear husband, we shall only plant a FEW at a time, k? Heck, even 10 are managible! But 28 seeds at once on your FIRST TRY???? REALLY????)


Note to self - Start half in 3" jiffies and half in 7s next time to compare. Heck, use 10 in each to compare how well they do to get to the point of needing to be upped to 6/7/8" pots to see if there is a difference. Also, try making a mixture for them for seedlings and up (hum/verm and hum/verm/comp/man mixes

Another note to self - find correct separate NPK ingredients FINALLY to make the mixes we need for the specific plants. BETTER GROWTH ON ALL PLANTS THIS WAY, DUMMY. :)

welcome, Buggy
I like to 'pop' lots of seed and pick the best to grow. Of course when I buy seed from the vendors I really can't afford that, only with 'free' seeds.
You can grow 16 or more plants in a square meter space or you can just grow a half dozen. This depends on the pot size and how long you're going to veg them. Basically, you'll want to fill the footprint with pots. I use 3 gallon bags for sea of green and 5 gallon pails for larger plants. You can use larger or smaller.
A 10 foot x 2.5 foot space will require a lot of lighting and ventilation. Use reflective panels or tent to corral the light.

Check out some grow logs that feature similar methods to yours. here's one of my recent grows. And another

Good luck~

You are asking a bunch of ?'s that are relevant but most can wait at this point. Take your time to do it correctly. If there is limited space just do 12-20 seedlings this way all will come to fruition. Sounds like ya also understand plant structure & growth so it should be fairly simple. Stick with the basics visa vie proper soil mix, lighting & nutrients. You do have time with nutes so get the soil/lighting correct & yea 24/7 lights would works just fine! Hope ur hubby feels better. Peace


:thumbsup:

Update. :)

So, two plants so far barely growing - unsure why, but I bet while moving them the seed casings might have loosened so the plant didn't have to struggle to grow. One of the two for sure has baby leaves just starting to grow at least, while the other has the nodes for them but hasn't done anything. One other babe had a bruised stem, so I had to use rooting powder yesterday to try saving it and mounded dirt around the stem nearly up to the leaves. It's now doing much better and seems perky - I think it will live. :) If we lose it, not a huge deal as we have SO MANY.

About 3/4 have their second set of true leaves already, and a few have visible stem above the cotyledons... The two smallest just barely have their first leaves, but all are getting nice a big! :)

My husband also thinks they are getting a smell to them already. Great, just great... ;) So we'll have to get some GOOD carbon filters for the house! :)

Luckily, I "get" plants fairly well. I also do have a variety of fertilizers and fert components already, so I may be able to skip getting special ones. Happy plants for now. Can hardly wait to see how well they start springing up.

Looking for your opinions on this: Considering how MANY plants we have, how long would you let them veg before moving them to 12/12 lighting? We would like to have about twice as much as my hubby needs as supply between the end of this grow and the end of the next - 5-6 months?. So guessing/estimating we have 6 girls (considering the stress they've had plus they are just plain bag seed plants), how big would they need to each be to give 1/2 ounce plus each? And would you suggest making them show gender then return to veg state so we can weed out the boys, or leave as is? With what I've read, you can set them to flower from day 1... But we do want a decent crop too!

Am I correct in my research that the plants will double or more in height during "flower" stage?

Oh, and since we're gonna pinch them likely at node 3 or 4, do you consider with these the 3rd true leaves to be 3, or the 2nd set of true leaves to be 3? Thanks! (I do this with other plants normally in my garden yearly, too)

Shovel, why do you aerate your "teas"? How does that effect the "brew" for the plants? Asking especially since I have a few plants I have to give teas to in my reg garden, and I'm wondering the difference. :) I think I've learned a lot looking through everything here, really. Looking forward to the next few weeks! :D

Pics from 4 days ago in the evening - 3.5 days before the next set.
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To look how much the babies have grown! :)
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Showing some of how they are developing in this stage
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Runt with the first set of leaves growing. Cracked seed ~7/25?
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The poor babe that cracked it's stem (thanks to Hubby dropping it during transplant we think). Was pretty bad yesterday, but looks happy now. Shows the mounding of dirt around the stem to help it re-root with the rooting powder. :)
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Fingers crossed for low boy numbers. :) :vader1:

no need for carbon filters yet. try some Glade plugin air fresheners or equal. some smell shitty so don't buy a bunch until you find a flavor you like.

Today is the day for lights! :) Still deciding between two choices. Also will need to get a sheet of drywall to put up the closet to divide the space in half. Whole thing is about 17' from one side to the other with two sets of doors and about 4' in the middle (approximate numbers - have not measured). About 2.5' or so deep, and 10' high. As we WANT to be able to use the closet as a closet too, we'll be using half to grow and ~half for normal closet use. :) Our tarantulas live in the closet as well and I doubt they'd like the high light conditions!

Pics up later. All but three are growing beautifully. The snapped-stem baby is still recovering nicely. I think once it's rerooted properly it will explode like the others are. The two that had their casings taken off (one for sure by hubby, one likely when dug out of the dirt since it was too far down - confirmed by husband as well) are both struggling. One has baby real leaves that are SLOWLY growing, and the other's cotys are all dried up but have teeny tiny regular leaves. Fairly sure that one will die, but we're hopeful. I'm considering putting in a bit of growth fert in with that one to help it out since the feeder leaves are gone. I'll let you know my results.

Because of not wanting to keep buying from elsewhere longer than we have to (REALLY great price IMO, but still), we're thinking about switching them to 12/12 shortly after the recover from being topped. We'll top them once after they get their 4th set of leaves (we can see the baby set of #3 on some!), and once they are recovered and growing a bit they will be put onto 12/12. For now they are on regular outside light but will be moved to between 18/6 and 20/4 tonight. Even with the switch, we should have enough medicine from the smaller plants to last until the next harvest. :)

Update. :) It's been awhile, but they are all looking GREAT. Down to 19 for whatever reason (weak stems we think), and one of the minis is still with us. It even is growing another set of leaves!!! :wtf: The 19 don't include the runt as it would NOT be growing in the same rate as the others. S/he will be placed outside soon for the rest of the local growing season to see what happens I think. :)

All others have started on their 4th sets of leaves, so all were topped at that level. They are recovering quickly - colas are all showing and working on growth after only a day (some have been 4 days now). Very very VERY happy with the results.

We ended up with tube F.L.s at 6500K but lowish lumens. I'm waiting until my next payday (10 days away) to get other lights and fixtures so as they can have side lighting as well and be switched to 12/12. Using SOG method to start. Because I'm a noob at this plant, I'm just going with miracle grow bloom for the bloom phase for now. If I have time/energy to do so this next weekend, I'll see if we can get a more specific alternative... But for now, it should be a good start. Again, we're only growing for my husband's medical use, no sharing or selling (although I might share on occasion if/when needed for pain or migraine issues of my own! better than the scripts I've had in the past!)... Thus, the number of plants we have even if most are boys, we should still have WAY more than enough for him for quite awhile. And if we still have to get it our usual way for a little bit in between crops, I think we'll be OK. :)

Only thing is, these kids are really starting to smell. It's not aweful as if someone smoked it inside the house, but it's like someone has an open bag inside a drawer that is cracked open. Instead they are in a closet, but there are cracks around it... *sigh* Just what we need. Stinky baby plants cluttering up my closet space! LOL!

Pics later. They are GORGEOUS! Growing fast and healthy - in miracle grow soil, btw. The started in Jiffy 7s, but transplanted into 3" fiber pots with MG flower potting mix. Will use the same later in the next upgrade (next weekend likely) into either my 1 gal pots currently containing roses outside that need planting as well as the old pots sitting around, OR be put into milk jugs - all of course steralized before hand. :)

So it's been awhile. :)

After about a month of growth, all have been repotted to 2 gallon or 4 gallon pots (5 in the 4g). Happy, healthy, 19 young growing smelly plants.

They stink up my bedroom BADLY. With payday 2 days away, we'll be getting smell under control as well as better ventilation and light control. Currently we're at about 18 hours light per day, but the closet leaks light BADLY. That will be corrected Thursday so we can switch them to 12/12.

Preflowers are showing on ALL plants, and I have great hope that most are females from the looks of it. At least half LOOK like they have the little hairs coming out, although I'm reserved over whether they may be the calyx only - we'll see. As I've not dealt with this type of plant before, I'm trying to be patient. BUT, I see so many with positive "female" signs! :) Looking at other pics online, I THINK I'll be good with figuring out who's male and female as long as I keep up with it.

Currently 1 plant outside and 18 inside under two 4' FL lamps currently - lights are 6500K in color, this week we'll be switching to 2700 and CFLs. We'll be taking power strips, plugging in 3 adapters in each for plug-to-socket and use high wattage CFLs at 2700 color. As many as I can fit in the area we'll looking at. :) We'll likely keep the 6500 strip lights for now until we find out who's male so we can cut down on closet space usage. :) Males will be put outside within the middle of a ton of plants so they can grow a decent amount of pollen (my husband's plan) so we can fert one bud site for seeds to grow later.

I'm quite happy with the results. I was VERY cautious with my first pinching, and I didn't pinch enough for them to split. In the past 2 days I've done a proper pinching (I THINK), and it looks like they will be growing well.

We're still on Miracle Grow soil, which I'm fine with. As a beginner, we're also going to use MG Bloom Booster when it's needed. So far, quite happy with the plants, and the plants seem to be happy with our growth for them. :)

BTW, They REEK. Whenever we walk into our room, it's like a LARGE bag of good quality smokables was left open! I'm wondering if it's an auto-flower type as well as the preflowers are growing. I do know we had a couple days with lower light levels (one of our light's ballast broke so we needed to replace, plus light was on for about 15 hours only a couple days in a row), so that may have lead to such, but... Dunno. We'll see. :) 12/12 will be cheaper for sure with lighting, but I'm not too worried.

Buggy

Hi all. 1 week into flowering now. Still at 19 total, but should be "weeding" out the boys soon. :) Don't want to take anything out too soon before making SURE they are boys, but...

Still on same lighting - 6500K tube fluros for now, but within a day or two we're switching to 2700K CFLS - plenty to let a blind man see for sure in there! :) Just wanted to give them a chance for as must regular growth before they started really flowering.

Using Miracle Gro for tomatos at first, but just switched with the water last night to M.G. bloom booster (15/30/15). Next grow (whenever that is) will likely have a different nute mix. Don't know, but I'm happy with what we've got. Lots of great growth!

New batch of fungal gnats just hatched yesterday, so put more neem oil on everything. Overwatered and the bottom 1/2" of the trays they are sitting in (not enough to let the pots soak it up on all but 1 tray) has water with a high load of neem oil concentrate in it to help kill them. Those are full of dead flyers, but still working on the last few (might still be hatching?). Fly strip next, then beer trap... until they are gone. :)

LOTS of pics in next post. I've numbered the plants to keep track of them so I know who to pull when. I have my suspicions for male/female on a few plants, will be keeping my eye on them daily to check for more signs to make sure. :)

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Last post! :) Just trying to keep a record of the best photos each week for sexing clues. I'll have less next week for SURE. Likely less tomorrow!

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Let me know your thoughts. Any suspected males are gonna be separated after tomorrow I think so I have time to make up my mind for whether or not I believe they are male or not. They won't be killed for awhile - I'll still be checking them out to be sure before they are axed!

(note - fairly sure 9 and 10 are males so far, but those are the only ones I'm more than 50% sure on so far)

I hate Monsanto like poison (Miracle Grow, Scott). Good luck with your grow though.

Buggy you're doing great. Its a plant, you're a gardener, the growing part will be easy. Sexing isn't as dificult as it seems, once they fully declare their sex, you'll see how easy it is to tell difference. The next step that will be different from other plants is judging ripeness & when to harvest. Then drying/curing. If you've ever cured tobacco, you're half way there. The cool part is, you have a green thumb, mj's light (except the photoperiod to fruit is reversed), water, nutrition requirements aren't all that much different from tomatoes. Just keep posting pics & reports & any of us old heads will be more than glad to advise on ripeness, harvest & curing. Some of these youngens approach this like its a complicated, expensive endeavor. Don't believe it. You have two of the best here already advising you, stick with them, they know their shit & they're great guys too. If tlranger replys to your post, take heed to him too, he's right on par with the other 2. I just wanted to reassure you that you're doing great, & with the advisors you have, you can't go wrong. Happy gardening hon. Its always great to see another girl here! BTW cannabis-seeds is a girl too. Just saying.

They do look like males. Keep up the good wor!

Ok, I went through all the plants and did a water flush to clean out any old water and old ferts. Also washed off all the neem from the outside of the pots so it didn't build up.

And... most seem to be boys. :mad: No for-sure females either. :( Crap.

What are everyone's favorite ideas for using the boys? (other than fire wood?) Hubby wants to smoke them, but knows there's little THC in them. He also wants to put one outside for a bit to allow us to collect some pollen to make seeds in the future. My thought is lots of butter or hash. Never did either of those of course before, so... Yep, gotta do a lot of reading.

Now for pics to keep up the records.

1) Possible male
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2) No indication
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3) male :(
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4) male
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5) Male
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6) no indication
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Two more sets... Give me a minute...

7) no real indication...
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8) male
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9) male
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10) male
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11) male
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12) 95% likely male
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13) possible male?
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14) male
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15) unknown
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16) male
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17) male
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18) maybe male?
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19) unknown
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so... 8 that have some chance of being female (SOME)... 11 can be chopped? Will be deciding soon. *sigh* Even with 4 plants, we should likely have enough medicine to last my husband until we can have more produced. *sigh*

Males are quicker to declare sex than females (usually), so the ones that haven't said a word are probably girls. You can increase your chance of females with ethylene gas. Its easy to do this old school. Just place bowls of ripening fruit around. Bananas & peaches ripen fast & therfore put out a higher concentration of ethelene than say apples. Keep an eye peeled for those damned little fruit flys! Put pest strips (hanging) in your grow space, if they still make them. I do this the same time I put them in 12/12. The youngens with their high tech ways would have you going to great expenses with filled tanks of manufactured gas & emitters, but not necessary. Your biggest expense my way might be eliminating fruit flys. I've never had the need to try & 'turn' males to females, but it might be worth the try since you have so many males.
You could let your fastest male mature, then collect & save the pollen in something small, like a 35mm film canister or sm baby food jar & store in the freezer. Unless one of the guys have an idea what to do with them, I personally would turn them into compost. You could dry & smoke the leaves & get somewhat of a buzz, but I can't stand the taste. Up to & your guy.
Peace!

P.S. you can use your neem oil on those pesky little fruit flys. Prevention & cure! ;-)

Thanks Catbuds! Hadn't heard about M2F idea before. Ethelene uses will be my next search for info. :)


Shopping list: Bananas - some ripe, some semi (must have some to snack on later!)
more sticky traps
sand to keep other eggs laid (have a cloud of the ijit gnats right now)

Recently read of some who make the males into butter - not sure if he wants any medibles or just smokables. We'll see. But I don't want to keep so much space used just for dang useless boys. They will get culled or moved tomorrow. :)


EDIT:
Found this on another site (bing search), which was taken from a plant site:
Functions of Ethylene
Ethylene is known to affect the following plant processes (Davies, 1995; Mauseth, 1991; Raven, 1992; Salisbury and Ross, 1992):

â?¢Stimulates the release of dormancy.

â?¢Stimulates shoot and root growth and differentiation (triple response)

â?¢May have a role in adventitious root formation.

â?¢Stimulates leaf and fruit abscission.

â?¢Stimulates Bromiliad flower induction.

â?¢Induction of femaleness in dioecious flowers.

â?¢Stimulates flower opening.

â?¢Stimulates flower and leaf senescence.

â?¢Stimulates fruit ripening.

Ethylene has been found not harmful or toxic to humans in the concentrations found in ripening rooms.
In fact, ethylene was used medically as a anesthetic in concentrations significantly greater than that found in a ripening room. However, ethylene is often targeted as the reason for difficulty in breathing in ripening rooms; what can affect some people is usually either:
a) Carbon Dioxide (CO2,) levels: CO2, is produced by the ripening fruit in the room and levels increase over time, or
b) Oxygen levels: The oxygen in the room when loaded is taken in by the ripening fruit. This sometimes will make breathing in a ripening room difficult. The increased CO2, and decreased oxygen levels are the main reasons for venting the ripening room.


So I may have been wrong in what I said before.

Now here's the kicker, 5 grams of ethylene costs roughly $600 USD.




(thus, will be doing this as well for future grows! And tomorrow we'll be getting bananas.)

Catbuds: Do you have fruit around the entire time of blooming, or just the first while until showing strongly female? How affective is it in your opinion (what are your general m:f ratios? :) Thanks!

I usually have to ask other people to save me pollen! But I also soak my seeds in apple juice, hoping that may also encourage feminism. Not sure, it doesn't hurt. Once I decide what I want to continue out if my grow, I revegatate then clone. Now a days, I usually only use seed if I have nothing to clone from. Hell I haven't changed strains for around 25yrs, maybe more. That's the reason for my posts about small strains. All the new ones out, & I haven't tried them yet! Right now I have no seeds or anything to clone from, so I'll be hitting up the seed banks. There are threads on here about re-veg if you want to give it a try. Play around with stuff, it's fun. Hey fun's a girl thing, remember Cindy Lawpener (spelling)? LOL! GIRLS RULE!

P.S. almost forgot to answer your question. I usually keep fruit in there till the buds are about the length of the first joint on my pinky finger. Change out the fruit before it rots. Guess you figured that! Ha! Ha! Get the guys thoughts on ethelene too. There's more than one way to do anything & they might have ideas on this too. I've often wondered about mango. Hey, it would double as air freshener!

Damned, I'm gettin' silly. Must be past my bed time!
Peace!

Like they said, once you found the first one for sure the others get easier, compost pile, or smoke if your buy ruling tobacco.

Impressive start, I don't think the fifty-fifty boys-girls is one of m.nature's rules, have seen extremes my self, but forcing sex change, I bet will come back and bite you

Reveging works

Thanks CB and TL.

All the possible girls are hosting a peach and banana in the pots... They will be frozen and used either as fertilizer or banana bread later on so no waste!

Boys weren't touched today as kids decided to be wanting to spend time with me. :) Can't blame them too much, but the morning shall bring their deaths! (evil cackle! DUNDUNDUN!) The plants' that is, not the children. That would be more frowned upon (maybe?) than my forest. ;)

It's sad that I'm killing off over half of what I've worked so hard on. :( I NEARLY want to go for feminized seeds next time, but too expensive for poor people like me.

Instead, I'll be planting a number of seeds soon to allow enough time for them to be harvested so as hubby doesn't run out of his meds in the meantime. I'll also take some clones from the for-sure good girls too as assurance, and try revegging too. :) Shouldn't be too hard considering all the plants I've brought back from the brink of death (clearance racks at box stores!).


I didn't look closer at anyone today, but I'm planning on doing a half-strength MG bloom boost spray on the leaves in the next day or two. There are no buds started, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm also working on getting the other nutes for use soon - likely FF or similar. Just have to wait a couple pay days. (big bill this check, birthday right after the next. THEN I should be able to - hate tight budgets, but have to pay for meds and dr visits) Update soon on gender issues.

Also, we're likely seeing a local doc group for his MM certification soon. They aren't badly priced, we just have to do the state fee plus doc fee (under $200 for it all it looks like!) and we'll be able to have 2/3 of the current plants... ;) it's why the nutes have to wait a while. We have good enough nutes although they are a little strong in nitrogen and aren't "organic", but it's OK for a first grow for just him. In a few more grows I'll likely start using my own home-made mix like I do for my other plants, but I'm not positive I won't scar them too hard either right off the bat. :/

More tomorrow or Tues. :)

Small update.

I did a quick check of the boys this morn (one sickie kid in my house, so not much time to do anything), and one has a female flower on it. :wtf: Effect from the banana in the pot?

Totally a boy before yesterday - balls EVERYWHERE. Will check number later, gotta get to work.

WOOT! 1 girl so far - #13 of all things. Too bad I didn't see she was a girl last Friday the 13th 2013 ;) LOL! 15 may also be a girl. I think it was #8 that had the single female flower on it? Everything was a bit mixed up thanks to hubby looking at everyone earlier. Oh well. But most of the boys are chopped and hanging upsidedown as someone wants to try smoking them. *sigh* I'll try to get him to make hash at least, but... Oh well.

BUT YAY! First girl! Camera out of batteries, so pics tomorrow. ;)

Boys beat the blank. Pretty weak & taste like crap. If I smoke too much male I usually get a headache. They make very low grade hash so I never felt it was worth the time & effort. Then again, I silk screened, & there are better ways to do it. Maybe tlranger or shovle can coach you through some better methods. But if it were me, I'd maybe only keep some to tide me over till my buds were ready or I cold get some.
Know about the battery thing. B.S. degree in photo + 20yrs pro. Ruined a wedding I shot once over battery (re-chargeable didn't hold charge), nearly got sued! Horticulture was always my main thing though. Best thing about photog was I could work florist/greenhouses full time & photog on the side. Kept me from getting bored.
Everything will fall into place for you &by the end of next season you'll be asking yourself what took you so long. I can't wait for you to harvest & enjoy your first grow. Its really a big thrill!
Girls rule! PEACE.

I get rid of all males into compost, no trace and the most good out of it

zero use for males except pollinating for seed.

Shovel, Ranger, I totally agree! I really don't think there's any reason to hang them up, but... *sigh* HE thinks he should. Apparently when he was younger and smoking for fun, he and his friends would always smoke one friend's dad's males (grew a lot in his attic apparently, and had a huge can of pollen - which is another reason we're keeping one boy so husband can start his own pollen collection). Yeah. Sure. Whatever.

So far I've chopped down 7 completely.

Two fairly obvious males I "topped" again and have fruit around them JUST to experiment. I'm going to see if it will rebud with female flowers. It's been made fairly short, and I'll LST it if needed, but I'll hide it in the outdoor garden around a forest of roses, raspberries, lilies, and glads IF it rebuds with female flowers. It will stay outside so any pollen released (if it does) won't affect the females. We'll see what happens.

1 is likely male, but I'm still unsure so better safe than sorry so it's not chopped until I see lots of balls on sticks instead of tiny baby balls in a few spots. Peach and banana in the pot to encourage. ;)

5 are still unknown for male or female. Not enough signs yet, but should be soon. A couple show SOME signs but aren't big enough yet to be clear.

4 are FEMALES though! :D YAY! One has TEENY TINY hairs, so it almost was on the unknown list. But no, I saw two barely-there hairs just sticking out of a flower port. :)

So, to compare for my records with the pictures of who's what so far:

1 - unknown

2 - unknown

3 - unknown

4 - DEAD male

5 - likely male

6 - female - VERY small hairs on one flower

7 - unknown

8 - DEAD male

9 - DEAD male

10 - DEAD male

11 - DEAD male

12 - DEAD male

13 - female

14 - male, topped

15 - female

16 - DEAD male

17 - male, topped

18 - female!

19 - unknown


With current use, we need only about 1 ounce per 4 weeks in combination with other medications to generally help with his pain. So if we only have 4 females total, that should be plenty for when these are harvested for us to start a new crop. (before drying, that is). We'll see. But I'm REALLY happy with the current report of 4 girls. :) I've worked hard on these and want a good harvest! Heck, I won't be profitting from the crop other than paying that much less in medical costs for my husband (who's pretty expensive, BTW, with everything he needs let alone his cannabis treatment!). It's gonna save us a LOT of money this way. Very pleased that this should mean that we don't have to purchase more of this med possibly ever again as long as we're careful with out supply and grow cycles. :)

Error - never mind. :)

New update. :)

Just keeping records so I can see how it goes from the older pics. :)
1 - FEMALE

2 - FEMALE

3 - still unknown

5 - DEAD now. :)

6 - poss female - saw tiny hairs I thought before but can't find tonight. no indications of being male, so very hopeful

7 - still unknown

13 - STILL FEMALE

14 - male, topped to see if girly flowers appear out of PURE curiosity. Will be dead soon I think. :)

15 - STILL GIRL

17 - male, topped. Seeing how flowers happen with fruit...

18 - STILL FEMALE

19 - unknown still...


So, of 19
6 Gals
10 Guys (8 are dead, 2 experiments to see if ethylene gas can cause female flowers if just from fruit - I'm a science nut, so just for fun)
3 still confused about their future. :)


So 28 seeds planted to start, over 20% end up being producers (likely - no idea if some will herm!). Not too bad all things considered! Possibly even 1/3 are producers! Heck, only 2/3 even lived to show gender because we're new at this (husband dropped the tray apparently THREE TIMES between planting and repotting the first time! some seeds likely lost, some plants broke stems...). Quite happy that we didn't get, say, 20 females! EEK! How can THAT fit in my closet unless they stay in solo cups?!? :D Maybe will do in the future if it's feasible, just to see what happens.


OH!!! Just thought of a good use for male plants - at least the leaves. :) Seasoning! I'll see how it may add flavor to various dishes, as I like to try new things with spices on occasion. :) As they are low in TCH but high in other chemicals and phytonutrients, it should be safe for the whole family although I'll be looking into that before I let the kids try any!

I was reading something recently about juicing raw cannabis and how good it is for you, leaves and all. The thc acid is not active on the brain until decarboxylation process (heating) which changes this to the active cannabinoid thc. I plan on using my leaf as described next harvest.

I also read somewhere cannabis is a whole food, if you include the seeds (which you would eat whole, not juiced). Just keep in mind that ANY leafy substance dulls the cutting edges of the extractor basket & you get a brand that gives you the option of ordering new ones. A lot cheaper than replacing the whole juicer. (Helpful household hints from the cheap old biddie). LOL.

PEACE.

Oh, also wanted to put how I just calculated how much electricity I'm using. :)

Looking at my electricity rates and what I'm doing with lights this time, for a total grow I'm paying less than $20 for lights I think. As I'm not needing any extra fans, cooling, etc over what I already have (fan going in the same room most of the time, so closet doors open often for air circulation), it's really cheap. That's with 4 40watt fluros during veg (yeah, not enough IMO for what we had going, but it was a start grow with limited funds! next time, it'll be less plants with the same amount of light so should be even better results). Flower is 10 23w CFLS.

So far, I THINK I've only used about $9.51 for lighting since we started nearly 2 months ago. For a while, though, the plants were outside so that did help SOME with the lights. But from here out, I should use another $9.56 if it's 6 more weeks, or $12.75 for 8 more weeks. We're 2 weeks into flower so far... :) So at most I'm GUESSING it's $23 in electricity for the plants. :)

CHEAP. If I stay with the same nutes (likely wont, but if) I won't need more for another 4-5 grows at least!

All I'll need is to get more soil each time (depending on the type I get, could be cheap or could be not so cheap... About $24 for what I got this time)... And containers. I think we'll try for 1 gallon ones next time with a better SOG method with small plants put into 12/12 very quickly - about 2 weeks after breaking from seed. Just to see. :) We have enough 2 gallons in case we veg longer with less plants. All depends on the number of plants, mostly.


As for genders, tonight's thoughts in next post to keep things organized for me. :)

Hey Buggy! Your plans sound great. I grow on the cheap indoors too. Dont need much since my indoor is only 'tide me overs' till the much bigger out door grow. Dont know if you've done this already or not, but flat white paint around your grow room/closet will reflect that light back unto the plants for optimal light usage. I sometimes lay a fluorescent fixture on the floor, on its back between the plants. Provides extra light where plant would be shaded, that plus the white paint adds a boost at minimal cost.:smokin:

~~~~~~~~~PEACE!~~~~~~~~

WOW. Ok. Just went through them with a fine-toothed comb... well, at least, with a magnifying glass! :)

1 - GIRL
2 - GIRL
3 - GIRL
6 - GIRL
7 - GIRL
13 - GIRL
15 - GIRL
18 - GIRL
19 - GIRL!


WOW. Catbuds, you were right - all those that hadn't made up their minds basically were girls. A couple I was thinking were likely boys but were given the benefit of the doubt, were boys. One I thought was likely a boy, has two TINY SKINNY hairs coming out - one from one spot, one from another.

Also, one looked completely gender free until I saw the end of a tiny skinny hair sticking out of the flower bud. It's less than 1/8" long, but it was a hair sticking out of the right spot and it wasn't dust - I tried brushing it off just in case! :)

The two boys that are in there don't show any flowers again yet, so no idea how my experiment is going yet.

Will be giving a 1/2 strength of MG bloom fert tomorrow or Saturday too. Also, since I'm dealing with ANOTHER set of stupid fungal gnats, I'm doing an aspirin-water foliar feed first for increased robustness against pest problems (I don't have a local source of willow branches, which I'd use instead if I could for plain salicylic acid bath for the plants). I'll also be getting a lot of diotimacious earth to put on the soil to kill the jerks. :) Hate bugs. I'll be mixing in a decent amount of DE with the soil from now on when planting or repotting. Heck, I may go to the store to see what other ferts I can find easily Saturday that has less nitrogen than my 15-30-15 mix currently. :) If I can find a decent priced organic and microbe introducer I'll likely do so as well. :)

Wow. If we even get 1/2 ounce per plant dried, we'll have enough to last until a next harvest. If we get the higher end of what's possible for a new with my set up, we'll have enough for a YEAR! WOOHOO!

It's nice to see the girls start, the difference is there after you have seen both. I have to watch elec, sometimes they quesstimate and it comes back later. But it's still cheap for the hobby, and what you get for our time a effort.

They put new 'smart meters' in my area a while back. Read it right from their computers, no more estimated bills. If you still have the older type meters, you MAY be in for a suprise when you get your 'actual reading'. See when your last 'actual reading' was & count forward 3 months & then you should know when your REAL bill will come in. It may varry by area, but ours used to be quaterly. Forgot about that. Hope you don't get an unpleasant suprise. If you have the newer 'smart meter', then your good to go.

~~~~~~~~~~PEACE~~~~~~~~~~

Catbuds,

I estimate electricity cost because of the actual charge they have for electricity per kwh - not the bill. Heck, the bill for now goes to my parents and we pay them back from there! And with how much we have to run the air/heat at our place, $10~ more per month doesn't affect it much. (husband's pain is greatly increased with high or low temps...) Also, we do get a larger bill every few months because our gas is from the same company but is only quarterly for some odd reason. But, as we're dealing with just my income, my parents are helping us with a few basic bills when needed right now too - until disability starts, at least, which could be another 5-12 months...


Also, getting mosquito dunks tomorrow I think instead of the DE. I'll do DE for each soil set in the future, but the dunks should kill those larva for me and a vac plus fly strips should get the adults. *sigh* yay for Walmart being right near my work! I'll check to see if they have any decent ferts too (depending on the store, you can find some odd good items too! Found some really good things for the outside garden in the past, so you never know).

MG is nasty. Sometime you'll taste that shit in your buds, even when you've flushed well. Watch out for walmarts store brand called expert gardener. DON'T get it, just a cheap version of MG. If you're stuck with MG or equalivent, don't use it past mid bud. Find a fish emulsion somewhere, but still flush prior to harvest. If you can't find something healthier than MG, still stop using it mid bud & go to plain water. The buds will end up a little smaller, but they won't be full of metalic chemicals that you can taste & are not healthy for you, & the bud will taste much sweeter. Use 1 Tablespoon epsom salts per gal of water toward the end (omit for last wk). This will add magnesium, if deficient in this, bud will not burn when you try to smoke your dried harvest. While there are better liquid organics than fish emulsion out there, they're more expensive. Fish emulsion is a good food & you can't beat it for the price.
~~~~~~~~~~~~PEACE!~~~~~~~~~~~~