joe-grow's first grow

[joe-grow]

Hey Bodom, thanks for dropping by, and the compliment! I think far away, and in that lighting, they don't look too bad. These current photos may tell a different story.

As promised, I snuck in early to snap a few photos before the 'sun' came up on the girls. They still show some decent buds coming through, such as the first photo. However, the next three should be made into posters -

This is your plant .... this is your plant too close to a 600W HPS lamp. Any questions?

joe-grow Reviewed by joe-grow on 01-20-2007. joe-grow's first grow Long time reader, first time poster. Long time smoker, first time grower. So, I've finally decided to take the plunge into growing. I spent the last month just reading up on the postings here, as well as some magazines I picked up at a local hydro store. This board was the most helpful, and I hope to repay that help with a grow report which I hope helps at least one other person out. During this time, I'm sure I will ask for assistance from some of you out there, and I hope that I am Rating: 5

[Bodom Children Of]

Damn, sorry to see that.

[joe-grow]

Here we are, almost 9 weeks into flowering now. Buds are getting bigger and dense, and my drooling is almost substituting for water refills.

Currently, I am on water only. In about two days of going with straight water (no nutrients), leaves started turning yellow at an extremely fast rate. In the third photo below, This bud's leaves went past yellow, and into a brown. This was not caused by light burn, but something else. Anyone have a clue what this means? Any input on how they look now would be appreciated.

The runt of the pack is turning out to be the biggest producer. This could be attributed, at least in part, to it's lack of height. The other two just grew too tall and too much was burned as a result. It is looking very white right now. I hope that I didn't start flushing too soon. I started at 8 weeks. Since this is bag seed, I didn't know what to expect. I hoped for an 8 week flowering period. Well, when I hit 8 weeks and knew they weren't ready, I hoped for 10. Now that I'm approaching week 9, and plan to start the next step in flushing (FloraKleen), I hope I wasn't premature.

Attached are some bud shots of some of the nicer looking buds (or at least the easiest to get a decent photo of). The last one isn't a bad looking bud, but it has some strange looking leaves. I figure that the buds are draining their stored nutrients from the leaves, causing the yellowing. But, this particular leave just doesn't look right. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[joe-grow]

Here we are at ten weeks. It's seems like it's been a very long time since I adopted these plants. Since the beginning seedlings were planted, it's been well over three months now. I think I may start my next seedlings next week. This crop is looking worse each day. Hopefully, something will come of it, and provide the proper motivation to continue down this road of self reliance.

Last Friday (1/26), I chopped down one of the branches. I was hoping to have some dried before the Super Bowl. I trimmed them up, and placed them in a dark place to dry until the big game. Periodically, I would check on them. Once, I sampled. Ok, twice. The second time was a big disappointment - I found a seed!

The total weight of what I cut down (shown in first photo) was a little over 22 grams. Yesterday, after five days of drying, it was about 5 grams. The smoke tastes unpleasant, and the high is very mild. After the high wears off, I get this nice headache. The taste is difficult to describe, but it tastes like what I would imagine smoking a fresh plant might taste like. Hopefully, by the game, that will be gone.

The buds are very dry and crumble in your hands. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but they don't feel like buds I've bought on the street.

Looking over the remaining plants, I have yet to find why a seed has appeared. I suppose I'll have no way of knowing until harvest. I don't think I'm fully aware of what to look for. I found this seed in my grinder, when prepping a sample for vaping.

One plant has a bud that looks downright sickly. It's part of the one that has the most healthy buds, so I'm not sure what to think. All the buds on that plant seem to have some dark leaves. I'll try to get a close up photo to post for comments. Right now, the plants are sleeping.

I'm almost a week into my flushing solution (two weeks flushing overall). Most buds still look very white, with very minimal brown pistils. I know, I should get a microscope to check them out closer. I hope to get one this weekend. Due to certain other circumstances, I may have to chop them down this weekend. I hope something smokable comes of them.

[invision]

hey joe,

you need to cure those buds as i had the same problem, i dried my smoke and rolled one and didnt really get high, i was pissed at all this work for nothing.

so i ignored them and let them cure 3 weeks and the smell and taste was simply amazing to have, the high was right on not too intense but better than what i had on hand.

if they are too crispy add a little lettuce in there for a hour or 2 then remove it they should have sucked some moisture into them but make sure you dont cure them to wet or mold can occur.

dont be disapointed for a 1st grow there is nothing wrong with mistakes along the way i had them myself last and this grow but learning to correct the problem as it starts will give you better knowlegde of how the plant reacts to certain situations.

looks good to me just cure them and then try it out.

[joe-grow]

Great suggestion, invision! I added the lettuce for a couple hours, and voila, I had some moist buds again. I will continue to check for mold, as you suggested. I will also refrain from throwing out these buds, in hopes that the cannabis fairy will come down and bless my buds, making them worth smoking. If not, I suppose I could experiment with some canna-oil or butter or something like that.

I believe that today is the day. In reviewing the buds last night, it seems if I don't chop the plant soon, more buds are going to look like the one in the second photo attached. As you might be able to see, the planter seems to be having trouble holding the plants down - they must be top heavy .... I'm a big fan of top-heavy ladies

So, these are probably the last shots of my first plants before they are hung up to dry. I was going to do it last night, but decided to wait one more day. Next shots - the drying stage.

I'm already planning on putting some seeds in starter cubes as soon as I get the current plants hung. Then, I will be making some modifications to the cabinet while they germinate. Any suggested improvements are appreciated! One item I hope to implement is the glass shield like invision's cabinet.

[invision]

wow man yous should be happy eith all that bud gawd damn

[joe-grow]

Thanks invision! I hope to be exclaiming the same thing in a month or so, when it's all dried, and had a little cure time.

Tonight's the night - I plan to chop them down. I may not get to post photos right away .... I need to run some string in that cabinet to hang the buds from. Since I don't have a continually recycling garden in there (yet), I'll just clean out the planter, run some strings from side to side in the cabinet. I'll leave the fans on but unplug the lights.

[joe-grow]

It's done (finally)! It took me about five hours to get it done, but I did it. I harvested my plants. I can't believe it took that long. The major reason was the crispy parts that I needed to trim off. It looks like I harvested a decent amount. I didn't weigh it yet, since I was just too beat. The dry weight it what matters to me anyway. Hopefully, after some curing, these buds will hold me over until the next harvest. :jointsmile:

Now the real patience begins. I've got these buds just hanging there, calling me to drop them in my vaporizer. :weedpoke:

Attached are the harvest photos. I've removed the lights and hung some string in the cabinet. The exhaust fan is running. The first is the overall. What you see is most of what was harvested. There's a few pieces that I couldn't hang, plus the few samples that were snagged during the grow. The next two are closer shots of each row.

I think that one of the seeds must have been a different strain than the other two. One of the plants had significantly less bud, and it was very dark, with a lot less pistols than the other two. It looked almost purple. I'll have to get some close up shots of a couple buds to demonstrate the difference. I'm just too beat to do any more now. I was so excited about finally getting done, that I had to post my results.