Hello Rollituppers
First post in the forum after lurking for a while. Figured I should finally introduce myself and my little potted indica girl. I thought about posting a new thread or a grow journal but posting in this thread seemed appropriate as I'm in Toronto.
A little background first: I'm a long time smoker...often but not heavy. I grew 12 plants outdoor in two plots about 15 years ago and was getting some really nice results. Then after I had decided to give them one more week before harvesting, I came back to find them ALL gone. Nothing but stumps. The greedy bastards didn't even leave me a bud. Needless to say that experience soured me on growing...until this year.
I'm a bit of a gardening nut. From vegetables to flowers to succulents, I spend most of the non-snow months outside getting my hands dirty. This year I was inspired by my neighbour who grew two really nice little girls last year without really doing anything the 'right' way. So I thought I'd grow one plant just for the fun and experience.
My friend at work sourced out 4 clones for me since I didn't want to deal with sexing the lone plant I was going to grow. I picked the strongest and healthiest plant and then found adoptive homes for the remaining three.
I don't know what strain she is yet other than some kind of Indica. He said he'll find out for me and I'll update when I know.
I used worm castings, compost, native soil, perlite, mycorrhizae, and some peat moss for the soil mix. I used (gasp!) miracle gro to get them going since it is loaded with N and my soil tests showed a bit of a deficiency. I'm now off the chemicals and have been supplying her with hen manure, aerated worm tea, and some kelp. Still figuring out what to feed her when she starts to flower. I am thinking prob first week of August here so I have a bit of time. Suggestions welcome.
I got the clones on may 28 and transplanted them up to about 1 litre pots on June 3. I then moved her into her permanent home on June 21 which is a large pot that once held a small tree. Not sure in terms of volume, but it's about 18" diameter, tapers slightly towards the base, and is 14" tall. What is that, 10 gallons? 15 maybe? I've added about an inch or so of wood chip mulch on top of the soil.
As for training and pruning, I FIM'd a few times around 2nd week of June and then stressed the stem a bit close to end of June. Other than that I've just been trimming the lowest leaves (mostly to keep her looking sexy).
She's now growing like crazy and is as of right now about 32" tall and about 36" at her widest. She's a really dense plant and super healthy (I think). The leaves are a deep green with what seems to be an almost blueish tinge around the edges.
One of my main concerns right now is that she is parked in the corner of the yard that gets the most sun (almost 12 hours right now) but is also near my neighbours security light which stays on all night. I am sure that will have a major effect on her willingness to produce big buds if I don't move her. The spot I'm thinking of is dark enough at night but also gets at least a few hours less sun. Unless someone has other ideas, I'm going to go with the lesser of two evils and move her there in 2 weeks.
Here are pictures with dates to show progress. The most recent one was taken on Wednesday morning.
Thanks for reading this long-ass post. I'd love any and all feedback and suggestions.
Oh and btw, her name is Liz
