Cannabis Grow

This is a guide written by me for me on how to cultivate cannabis in a grow tent. This is my first time growing so I am looking everywhere online to try to start out with as high quality a grow as possible with median cost and effort. One of the other goals I have is to get to harvest fairly quickly. This means the training techniques I use need to be as low stress to the plant as possible. This is also the reason I am growing 3 medium plants and not 2 large plants. The reason we are not doing more has to do with the legal limit of flowering plants (3 in Colorado) and the cost of caring for more plants. I will be growing photoperiod plants for my first grow because I want the full grow experience and the ability to clone.

I will be tracking the grow on growdiaries.com

Supplies

Environment Setup

Figuring out what size space you have to play with and how many plants you want to grow will determine the tent you buy. Then you need enough flower power in your lights for that floor space. The ventilation you get needs to be able to push enough air to cool the inside of the tent and have a variable control so you can get your environment to the optimal temp/humidity. The carbon filter is a must if you are venting into an open room but it also will require the fan to blow a bit harder. This is the final list I came up with after bargain hunting on Amazon.

About Lights

So I am sticking with LED lights because they save power. I fell into the beginners light trap and got blurple lights. Now the problem with these lights have to do with spectrum and actual power. The two “600w” lights I got are actual draw of ~200w. These lights should be fine for a veg tent. But I want a more powerful light for flower. I am leaning towards a quantum board from HLG. They are full spectrum and require less wattage for a high quality bud. Blurple lights are recommend 500w for my tent at 50w/sqft. QB are recommended 240w for my tent at 30w/sqft. I was looking at this board. The larger spread of the XL makes for a more even canopy and 260w should hit the light required.

Strain

The strain you grow is entirely up to preference but each one comes with differences to consider. Sativas grow more bushy and Indicas are naturally taller. Autoflowers will flower no matter the light they receive so they are often suggested for beginners. Photoperiods veg and flower based on the light they receive so you can control the size of the plant by adjusting when you want flowering to begin.

Alaskan Thunderfuck is one of the strains that I have always personally revered. It gives me a great clear head high and tastes of cream soda or pine. I have also read that it has a good yield and around 20% THC.

I bought 5 seeds in case there are any issues with the grow.

Soil

The medium I will be growing in is soil. Soil requires less regular attention to nutrient levels than hydro or coco coir so it is recommended for first time growers. It WILL still require added nutrients once the plant uses all that is in the soil (~3 weeks).

Soil can also get very complicated as some people mix their own. So we are going to go with a proven nutrient mixture made for cannabis, FoxFarm Ocean Forest. I will also mix in about 33%(to make parts easy, 2 parts soil to 1 part perlite)  perlite to allow more oxygen to get to the roots. The extra air will dry the soil faster making it close to impossible for me to over water, a common problem for first time growers.

I will start the plants off in a seed starter such as Rapid Rooter plugs so it has some padding from nutrient burn in the first week.

Nutrients

I am pretty clueless on nutrients since this is my first grow but I do want to get maximum plant growth. So I am choosing to trust FoxFarm’s experts and purchase there 12pk starter kit it comes with a full feeding schedule that should help out a lot. I could have gone with just the trio but I have read good things about there other products and this seems like the best way to test them out.

The Dirty Dozen® Starter Pack contains nine pint liquids: Kangaroots®, Microbe Brew®, Bembé®, SledgeHammer®, Flowers Kiss®, Boomerang®, Big Bloom®, Tiger Bloom®, & Grow Big® and three 6-Ounce solubles: Open Sesame®, Beastie Bloomz®, & Cha Ching®.

Main Trio

Big Bloom- Full grow

Grow Big- Veg

Tiger Bloom- Flower

Helper Nutts

Flowers Kiss- Full grow spray

Boomerang- Recovery

Kangaroots- Every other week

Microbe Brew- Every other week

Bembe- First buds

Bud Fatteners

Open Sesame- Early flower

Beastie Bloomz- Mid flower

Cha Ching- Late flower

Misc

Still need some way to water the plants lol

Total Cost $676 for full grow all supplies

Tent Layout

This will be the spacing of the tent at the end of the grow. It's important to calculate max grow height so you know when to switch to flower. And how to manage your canopy

Grow Plan

Pot Prep

Starting soil is 2 parts FFOF : 1 part perlite with a thin layer of just perlite at the bottom of the pot as a screen to help drainage.

I flushed the soil until the runoff of each pot was around 500 ppm

☮️ 450 ppm

💜 535 ppm

😃 530 ppm

Germination

1. Soak seeds in warm tap water with no pH adjustment (75°f, ~7pH, ~100 ppm) ~18h or until they sink when tapped.
2. Soak Rapid Rooter(rr) in tap water while seeds soak.
3. Rid the rr of excess water. Think the moisture level of a damp paper towel.
4. Place the seed in the rr ~.5in deep and plug the top hole with a piece of rr.
5. I am placing the rr in the starter pot to germinate so that the tap root can grow unrestricted from the beginning. I will keep it mostly exposed until I see the first leaves so I can manipulate its moisture level easily.
6. Keep the rr moist until water leaves are visible.

Seedling

16/8 light cycle

Grow lights only for the first week or so then full lights

32oz cups to give the plants a little more room before transplant

Don't let the plant be wet when the lights are on. Don't spray unless it's lights out and there is plenty of time to dry before the lights turn on.

Early Veg

At ~3 nodes transfer to 2 gal pot

At ~5 nodes top to 4 nodes and trim bottom node so we have 3 main nodes, 6 main branches

Give a few days to recover then LST main branches to the ground

Late Veg

Scrog net set up around 10 in

Trim to ~20-32 bud per plant to give each cola 9-16 square inches, less would be better. Keep the colas with the strongest stems

Will want to use the trimmings to clone so need to get that set up.

Switch to Flower

Clone before switch to flower

We want an even canopy of plants at about ~10-12in

Switch to 12/12 light cycle

Mid Flower

Around 16in trim under the scrog net (lollipop)

Late Flower

If we are having problems with plants getting too close to the lights put down another net to keep the canopy even and safe ~18in

Cloning

Keep a few clones of each plant so that we can start a new grow with the best phenotype.

Ordered dome, razors and CloneX. Just waiting for everything to come in before cloning. I am going to be cutting a lot off to get the right number of colas (20-30/plant) so I will have a lot of clones to choose from.

 I want a good selection of cuts around 6-8". Cut at a 45° angle and scrap the base of each cut lightly. Cut the leaves so about 60% remain. Then dip it in the CloneX then lightly put it into a cup of water to move to the humidity dome.

Humidity dome should have a very thin layer of water at the base. RapidRooter should have been soaking overnight and placed in cells. Stick the clone in the RapidRooter and pinch the hole to get a snug fit. Spray the whole set up liberally with water and close the dome with the vent closed. Set in closet and wait. Spray morning and night to maintain humidity. When roots develop pick your favorites and put them in slightly bigger cell pots with soil. Eventually we will have a little forest. It should be obvious which ones to keep after flowering

Journal

4/24/19 Ordered 5 Alaskan Thunderfuck seeds for $64.19, <$13 each

4/27/19 Got the lights

4/29/19 got the tent and put it up

Tents quality is a mix of good and subpar it will definitely work well for me. The metal frame is nice the material could definitely be better there are very few light leaks but they are there.

All water used at this stage is plain tap water

Soak

5/4 6pm Seeds put in water to soak. Need to check them between 6am and 12am tomorrow. Started soaking the rr.

Day 0 Germ

5/5 6am Seeds sink when tapped. Placed in rr as per diagram. The ☮️ seed had cracked but the other two had not. I'm a little worried about how rough I was getting the seeds in the rr hole (I pushed them in with a screwdriver about .5in). Next time cutting the rr open to insert the seeds might be a better idea. I sprayed everything to keep it moist and put a 5 gal fabric pot over them as a makeshift humidity dome of sorts. Check back at 12 remember to keep everything moist NOT soaked.

5/5 1pm 72°f 68rh sprayed each rr twice and sprayed the humidity pot 10x to increase humidity

Day 1 Germ

5/6 6am Sprayed rr 2x and sprayed pot to increase rh

5/6 12pm Sprayed rr 2x and sprayed pot to increase rh

5/6 6pm added water to the tray to hopefully keep the humidity higher, longer. Probably should have done this from the start. I hope at least one will push up overnight. Although it seems 4 days to sprout is pretty average. I'll start worrying about it if nothing happens in a week.

Threw on a plastic bag instead of the pot as a humidity dome. It covers the water tray as well so low humidity shouldn't be an issue.

Day 2 Germ

5/7 6am added 3mL water to each rr

Don't add water for a while. Let them dry up.

12pm I'm sorry but I messed with the seeds. I was worried I covered the rr too much so I uncovered them and peaked ☮️ and 💜 have tails. I think I put 😃 too deep because I couldn't see it. I should have left them in the water longer and used paper towel method so I could see what's going on. Growing takes so much patience.

Day 3 Germ 18/6

5/8 6am ☮️ and 💜 have poked through about an inch each they both have fairly yellow leaves. 😃 Showed some root sticking through so I looklightly covered it with dirt so it can push it's leaves out with out light hurting the roots.

Removed shopping bag and replaced with a clear ziplock on each pot so that light can reach them. I burned a hole in the top of each bag to try to reduce to humidity in the bag to around 70-80rH. Removed bags, I think the seedlings need more oxygen. I put trays of water in the tent to try to raise the humidity in the whole tent.

Turned both veg lights on. The close one is 2ft away and the far one is 3ft. Check at 12pm for stretching to adjust lights. Lights out at 12am. Timer NOT properly set atm.

Photos are color adjusted on my phone I need to get a simple photo light setup. Order is Peace,Love and Happiness

5/8 2pm They all look green!

4pm Bought a humidifier with humidistat to get the humidity to the right place 70° 60rh. Put lights on timer and added extension cord.

1am Couldn't help put peak and they all opened up!

5/9 Day 1 Seedlings

Don't really need to do much but keep an eye on temp/humidity.

8am ☮️ 1.25” 💜 1.5” 😃 ⅝”

6pm Turned on both light switches

Day 2 Seedlings

5/10 8am

Before topping with soil ☮️ 1.5” 💜 1.7” 😃 1.1” from rr

Topped each pot with moist soil

Watered 6 ml each

5/11 Filled humidifier

Day 4 seedlings

5/12 Filled humidifier, a small second set of leaves is beginning to emerge. Will probably want to water tomorrow.

Day 5 Seedlings

5/13

Watered 9 ml each and thin layer of water in tray

Tall x Wide

☮️ 1.25” x 1.5”

💜 1.5” x 1.25”

😃 1.5” x 1.7”

Day 6

5/14

Move Day

Transported plants to their new tent location at my new place down the road. Set them in the sun while tearing down and setting up the tent. Got intake ducting since the garden shed has no ventilation. I may mess with the light timing so I'm not running lights during the heat of the day. Hopefully they didn't get too stressed by the move.

Day 7

5/15

Second set of leaves are developing, roots are still developing

First flood feed

Mixed ~15ml Big Bloom and ~5ml Boomerang into a pur filter pitcher. Feed mix was 350 ppm and 6.8 ph. Filled each cup with water until there was a layer of water in the pan. Soil should be completely saturated with water so it should be 3-5 days before a watering. Schedule should alternate between feeds and waterings.

☮️ has the beginnings of her 3rd set of leaves no stems

💜 & 😃 have clear stems but no 3rd set of leaves yet

Just an observation. They will probably all have stems and 3rd leaves by tomorrow.

Day 8

5/16

Took video of current state

Day 9

5/17

Day 10 (1/11th) of the way to harvest (maybe)

5/18

So with the current set up the tent dropped to around 40°f last night. I had a heater set up but it couldn't offset the cold night air and exhaust fan. So I got a temperature controller and hooked the exhaust fan and heater to it. I still need to play with the settings to get the right temps and still keep good air flow..

10pm Plants all look very happy.

☮️ 3rd set has started growing its 2nd fan leaves, I think because it got knocked over during the move it is growing differently.

💜 & 😃 have thicker & longer stems but are just starting development of 3rd set of leaves

Day 11

5/19

Flood watered plants. Used the container that had the old food in it so there is a bit of residue from that. 6.5pH 262 ppm 56° water was a little cold, probably should have left it in the tent for a bit.

☮️💜😃

Day 12

5/20

Took video of current state.

Day 13

5/21

Snow knocked the power out last night. According to the electric company it happened around 4.30. The low temp was 36°f 😥 At 6.30, I grabbed them all out of the tent and brought them inside until the power gets fixed.

~8.20 power came back on put them back in the tent.

Downloaded a LUX meter. The canopy was at 20k so I moved the light closer to achieve 30k. I will keep a close eye on the plants to see if this has the desired effect. (LUX meter caps out no good after seed stage)

Day 14

5/22

Day 15

5/23

New light ~3ft to get ~30k lumens. Maxed out phone lumen meter. New light is dope! HLG 260w XL made from kit!

Plants are very dry going to feed.

Mixed ~15ml Big Bloom and ~5ml Boomerang into 1/2 pur filter pitcher. Feed was 6.6pH, 633ppm and 63f. Filled each cup with water until there was a layer of water in the pan. Soil should be completely saturated with water so it should be 3-5 days before a watering. They should be very happy tomorrow.

Day 16

5/24

Took video of current state.

Day 17

5/25

Day 18

5/26

Day 19

5/27

I think plants were showing signs of too much light (leaves twisting and tacoing). So I moved the light up a little higher so it's ~3'4" from the canopy. If this continues I may have to turn the wattage down.

Watered plants. 6.66pH 171ppm 64°f.

Checked bottom of pots. Happiness is showing roots peeking out the drainage holes so I think transplanting needs to happen tomorrow.

Day 20

5/28

Transplanted! From 32 oz cup to 2 gal smart pot. They did have quite a root ball which maybe the reason there growth has been kinda stunted lately. They should be happy plants by tomorrow if the transplant went smoothly and a few more days if not. Cleaned tent. The main reason I didn't transplant earlier is I was worried about how delicate the stems are. I may just do red Solo cups next time to make the first transplant easier to do earlier. The soil I transplanted into was watered lightly with plain tap water. I may have to water again sooner than later (2-3 days).

Day 21

5/29

The plants seem happy! I trained down the lower set of fan leaves to get more light to the new growth.

Day 22

5/30

Soil is looking dry. Probably need to water tomorrow.

Day 23

5/31

Did some more LST of fan leaves to get light to new growth. They are all on there 5th node rn. I will probably top tomorrow along with a water. I want to end up with 8 main branches or 4 main nodes.

Topped 💜 & ☮️ to 4 nodes 1-4. 😃 Is still a little small to top so I'll wait a day or two. Definitely water tomorrow!

Day 24

6/1

Feed the plants about ⅓ gal of feed each. Mix was

15ml BB, 6ml Boom, 3ml Roots, 3ml Brew, 9ml Grow. 2ml pH up. 6.3 pH 1440 ppm. I need a bigger watering can.

Topped 😃 and trained branches down. I'm excited to see how they each grow going forward!

Day 25

6/2

A little more LST. 💜 Is taking off, I have ¾ of her nodes staked down. I think 1 of ☮️ nodes and 0 of 😃 nodes are staked down. They should all have decent branch growth in a week or less.

Day 26

6/3

Flood watered plants. pH 6.46. Sprayed some of the spray feed on plants because the leaves were already wet but then blew off the excess. Your supposed to spray at lights out if I ever remember. They should be good on water for 3-4 days although I’m not sure how quickly the fabric pot dries out.

Day 28

6/5

Plants showed signs of insects. Sprayed with Neem Oil, will need to do every 7-10 days. I may have overdone it but we will find out tomorrow.

Day 29

6/6

6/7

Feed plants. Watered the plants with ⅓ gal of water then mixed and added feed. Feed was 15ml BB, 6 Boom, 9 Grow, 3 Brew and 3 Roots.

6/11

Flood Watered plants. Need to transplant asap.

Humidifier was left on high so everything was super wet. Sprayed with Neem Oil 1.5 teaspoon and Flower Kiss 2ml to 32oz.

6/12

Transplanted to 5gal smart pots

6/15

Second topping

All of love

All but the top of peace

None of happiness

6/16

Flood Watered 2gal to each 5 gal pot

I need a large water tank at least 6 gal

6/17 Finished topping peace

Happiness is doing weird stuff. She keeps wanting to grow up and is having a hard time bushing out.

6/18

Topped top 2 nodes of happiness.

6/20

Neem oil and leaf spray.

6/21

Added scrog net and removed humidifier.

Took off some fan leaves. All from main stem and a few extra to give the plants better airflow.

6/23

Fed plants. Pre watered each about 1 gal. The 5 gal bucket was filled to the Advevertencia sign (use slightly less next time). Added 4 tbsp BB, 4 tbsp GB, 2 tbsp Boom, 1 tbsp roots, 1 tbsp Brew, 2 tsp Open. Ppm 1675 pH of 6.5. Fed till runoff, Each got around 1.3 gal. Runoff pH around 6.

6/26

Sprayed plants 1 tbsp leaf feed, 2 tbsp neem oil, 1 tbsp soap about 36oz water.

6/27

Watered plants phed to 6.5. fill up the bucket more next time. Topped tops are about 2-3 nodes each right now.

Planning to clone(and heavily defoliate) tomorrow so I watered a bit earlier to flush a bit of nutes and get the parts I'm going to be cloning nice and hydrated. If we only keep the tops we will have 16/plant I want to keep 4-8 other branches. But it will be based off which branches look the thickest which means we may be using the lower branches as clones and keeping more of the top.

Basically take clones off everything else.

6/28

Heavy defoliation and clones!

Cleaned everything up off the plant that we don't want going into flower. Large leaves on the main stems and small branches that were made into clones.

The plants are shaped as follow

*Branch numbers are From top to bottom

😃 22 colas 6,6,8,2

☮️ 22 colas 8,6,4,4

💜 26 colas 12,8,6,0

Here is the before and after shots

6/30

Cleaned up small buds and spread out plants a bit more. I think a week to flower is still a good estimate.

7/2 lowered lights some.

7/3 plants are showing signs of nutrition burn or heat stress. I flushed the plants with 10 gallons shared among the three I added 10 teaspoons of sledgehammer to each 5 gallons of water.runoff pH in the beginning was around 6 and we lowered it to round 5.5. hopefully she pirks up.

7/6 Set the lights to stay on all day and night. First 12h of darkness starts tomorrow to start flowering! Lights will be on from 6pm to 6am to try and fight the summer heat.

Flower

7/7 First 12h of darkness. Sprayed with 1 tbsp leaf feed, 2 tbsp neem oil, 1 tbsp soap about 36oz water. Removed as many little branches as I could and spread the plant out with the scrog. We should have a burst of growth in the next week.

7/10 They all are pretty dried out. I am watering today and they should bounce back quick but I have to keep a better eye out on the soil.

Light feed of 1 tbsp Big Bloom 1 tbsp grow big 1 tbsp tiger tiger bloom one teaspoon boomerang one teaspoon microbrew half of a teaspoon of open sesame

Mix is 1150 ppm but only like 2 gal I already added like 3 gal of phed water.

Adjusted scrog net.

7/14 Defoliated and adjusted scrog net. Lost a top to carelessness

7/15 watered

7/19 feed 3x week 6 amounts in 5 gal bucket ~900ppm

7/23 watered

7/27 watered

7/31 feed wk 3 flower x3 need to check more regularly they were wilting

8/2 barely watered to get them through the weekend

8/4 flood watered. Heavily defoliated the plants and spread them out for the last time with the lower net.

8/7 fed week 4 flower nutes x3 need more pH up

8/10 flood watered, first sugar showing on leafs

It

8/13 Fed week 5 flower nutes x3

8/16 Flood watered

8/19 Fed week 6 flower nutes x3

8/22 Flood watered. 💜 Is changing color.

8/25 Fed week 7 nutes x3

8/28 Flood watered

8/31 Fed week 8 nutes x3 probably 2-3 more weeks

9/3 Flood watered

9/6 Fed week 8 nutes again minus the big Bloom cause we ran out.

9/9 Flood watered

9/12 Fed week 8 nutes again minus the big Bloom

9/15 flood watered

9/18 Fed week 8 nutes again minus the big Bloom

9/21 flood watered

9/24 fed same

9/27 flood watered

9/30 Light feed thinking a week or so

10/3 flood Watered

10/6 flood watered

10/9 flood Watered (kinda flushing)

10/12 watered

10/15 watered

10/18 I am ready to harvest the plants so I did not water. We are going to wait 3 days with lights going regularly. Then harvest the plants on the 21st.

10/20 Unplugged lights. We are officially in Dry mode.

10/23 Cut down buds and hung to dry. Trimmed the dead leafs and large fan leaves.

Left 3 are the left plant middle 2 are the middle plant and right 2 are the right plant. I think the right plant has the most mass. But it may have had the most water too. Need to get a scale.

10/26 The few buds I dried separately are done drying.

10/27 Drying is done! Did the final trim. Took all day about 11 hours. I have 4 turkey bags 1 with trim, and 1 for each plant. May have been a bit moist.

Curing has begun!

10/31 Put bud in Mason jars with hydrometers

11/1 1:71 #1:65 #2:66 #3:71. Aired out 1&#3 for an hour.

11/3 1:67 #1:64 #2:66 #3:70. Took out #3 and spread out on trim sheet for an hour. Quickly open and closed the other jars cause they are the correct rh but I think they need fresh oxygen. If the rh drops too much don't do again.

11/4 1:67 #1:65 #2:66 #3:66 looking good

Took a nug each for science. Open and shook each jar. Bud still tastes a bit harsh but the flavor and smoothness is coming out. Way better than the last sample.

11/5 1:67 #1:64 #2:65 #3:66

11/6 1:67 #1:64 #2:65 #3:66 Shook and opened #1 & #2 for 15min. (Or burped for 15) Burped 1 & #3 for 30min.

11/7 1:66 #1:63 #2:65 #3:66

11/8 1:67 #1:63 #2:65 #3:66

Burped #1 for 10, the rest for 30

11/9 1:66 #1:64 #2:65 #3:66

Burped #1 for 10, the rest for 30

11/10 1:66 #1:63 #2:64 #3:65

Burped #1 for 10, the rest for 45

11/12 1:65 #1:63 #2:64 #3:65 burped 10

11/14 1:65 #1:63 #2:64 #3:65 burped 10

11/17 1:65 #1:62 #2:63 #3:65 burped 30

11/18 1:65 #1:62 #2:63 #3:64

11/20 1:66 #1:62 #2:64 #3:65 burped 30

11/21 1:64 #1:60 #2:63 #3:63 burped 40

Used all of #1 to make Cannaoil

11/28 #2:61 #3:63 burped 10

12/1 #2:61 #3:65 burped 10

12/1 #2:61 #3:64 burped 10

 So after some testing. Plant 1 is bad for smoking but will be great for edibles. Plant 2 is a very smooth pleasant smoke with a sativa high. Plant 3 is heavy hitting and gives more of an indica high.

Switch to flower when most of canopy is formed at 8u~1foot and the tops are nicely matured.

July 7th -8 weeks later is Sept. 1

God's Gift Auto

Day 0

6/2

Got the seeds and started soaking them in tap water. Plan to soak 36 hrs.

6/3

2 of the seeds have opened up. Moving to moist paper towel to try to get taproots going before moving to RRs.

6/17

OnSo I had 2 going strong had them in 5 gal pots and everything. Then one of the fucking lights fell and killed one last night. To be fair I did attach it to a hanger. That was a poor call. But we have a roasted plant now. Only 1 of the Gods Gift left hopefully she's a good one.

6/28

She's looking good, growing slowly.

7/3

Fed auto 1 gal of water with 1 tbsp big Bloom

7/9

Watered 1 gal

7/10

LST is working really well I'm pretty surprised.

7/13 Soil is still very moist.

7/19 Watered auto and trimmed

7/28 Watered

7/31 Feed ~ 2gal 2tbsp grow and 1tbos big

8/4 She has been getting watered by the rain. I will feed around the 8th

8/7 Feed 2tbsp grow and 1tbsp big

8/10 Watered

8/13 fed 2tbsp grow 2 tbsp big

8/31 neem oil and flood Watered

dead

Clones

6/28 Clones taken.

7/9 Clones seem to have established roots. Replaced water in tray with light fed of 375ppm.

Vents fully open and lid ajar. Need to harden off and transplant to cell pots with soil.

7/13 Transplanted clones into 4x4 cell pots. I saved the 4 best looking clones from each plant so we now have 12 clones. There roots looked well developed but not root bound yet. Only 1 of the cloning attempts failed and that is because it had 0 growth tips. They should take off with the nutes on the soil.

7/19 I think I over watered the clones the first time. Maybe do less next time.

Clones did ok but I had to get rid of them. Because of housing situation.