Fat Banana // Royal Dwarf // Fast Eddy

first time grower, here. i have equipment from years of starting veggie seeds indoors (zone 6b), so i'm trying to reuse as much as i can and supplement where i need to. i'm just having fun with it, and not setting my expectations too high. i've thrown many a baby plant into the compost bin over the years, and i'm assuming that i'll get there at some point with cannabis as well. i'm looking forward to the new learnings. just by reading threads on RIU over the past few days, i've already learned plenty that i can apply to the veggies next year.
maybe a bit esoteric here, but i'm growing because i'm seeking more connection to the plant that provides so much in kind to me.

Seeds from Royal Queen Seeds
>> 3 Royal Dwarf - Auto
>> 3 Fat Banana - Auto
>> 2 Fast Eddy (CBD) - Auto
*Germinated after 3 days on paper towels (but not quite sure why I bothered with paper towels since I've started literally 1000's of veggie and fruit seeds over the years and never once used this method - maybe because they were 800%+ more in cost than any other seed I've purchased)
*Popped them in Happy Frog after 5 days - fresh bag from my favorite shop; decided against using some old stuff that's been in the shed since spring
*Plan on moving them into bigger air bags in a couple of days as their only potting up (hopefully); letting them get settled a bit before I handle them - had to go with what I had when the tails were getting too long for the paper towels and all I had were 4" pots at the time
*Sticking with Happy Frog for the bigger pots but plan to amend a bit with Dr Earth products at transfer and for feedings (if needed)
*Today is day 9, keeping them at 24 hr light until Sunday when they're getting moved to 18/6 - currently they're outside for a bit while it's 70 and overcast.
*Lights are 4' T5's; using a basement closet with fans for now. if i need to go with a tent, i'll get one but i'm hoping to avoid that. watching mr canuck's YT closet grows has inspired me.

Day 15
Moved everything to 3 gallon pots
Medium is 70% FFHF, 15% perlite, 15% worm castings.
Amended with Dr Earth Flower Girl (1/3 cup) and Dr Earth Veg (3/4 cup)

Day 23
watering every-other-day with dechlorinated tap water
18/6 light schedule

Looking good. Don't bring them outside though, good way to pick up pests and infest your growspace.
Those t-5's will only be good enough for another 2 weeks or so. I would at least invest in a decent full spectrum led with a dimmer to get you started.
Good choice on the dr earth. Next time ammend your soil ahead of time and keep it slightly damp so those nutrients start breaking down before you even pop a plant in it.
Nice work! I'll be watching

day 30
watering 500ml every day-and-a-half, depending on how the soil feels
temps are 70-72* and rh is around 55-57%
moved them to the closet with the new (to them) light - ES 300; the bottom plant got a bit burned from the T5's on the last day before they were moved
planning on top dressing this week with some EWC and Dr Earth FG, probably closer to day 36
overall they all look pretty good and i'm just really enjoying the new hobby.
(had the lights on for the pic, but not really looking for leaf color feedback or having any issues with that)

Getting your hands on some 4-4-4 would be beneficial about now. I think you'll find that when the plant goes into flower and goes through the stretch in the first 2 weeks, the flower girl and ewc will not have enough nitrogen. The plant will begin to cannabalize itself from the bottom up using stored nitrogen in the leaves.

If you add it soon, it will be broken down and available when you flip. There is some in the happy frog, but that will be depleted before you flower.

day 37
watering 750ml every other day
top dressed on day 31 w equal parts EWC, Dr Earth FG and Dr Earth Veg
attempted some LST on all four
ES300 is at about 60%, schedule is set for 16/8
cruising along, dealing with the gnats of course. basement is starting to smell like a skunk den which isn't so great. planning on running a purifier in the next few days to deal with that.

day 46
flowering is officially here. i turned the lights up to 100% and then noticed some leave damage so i've backed off a bit and raised the lights. attempted to tie down a couple more branches and broke them. lesson learned - they're not as bendy as they were a few weeks ago.

day 51
yesterday i did a trim and more LST. i've been learning my way through how to handle these plants, and i'm glad that i decided to do 3 different strains in this first 4 plant run. i'm finally out-growing my closet so i bit the bullet on a tent which should be here in a couple of days. i need to get another light as well...i see how this get to be a $$ hobby haha! but i'm only buying what i need, when i need it. i also purchased a vent kit for the tent.
this morning i did a heavy feeding of FF B&B to help feed the flowers. not seeing any additional leaf damage like i posted about last week, so my suspicions that it was light damage seem to be correct. i cannot find any other pests or insects other than the gnats, which are being knocked back more and more each day.

day 60
moved to a 4x4 tent on 11/24 (day 54) and top dressed with 2T/gallon of DrE FG and 3T/gallon of EWC
set up the ventilation system on 11/27 (day 57) which has really impacted the humidity soooooo i'm waiting on a new humidifier to be delivered today.
overall the plants are doing pretty good; i'm very pleased with the results so far. still have a ways to go obviously but loving watching the progress each day.

day 66 pics
on day 65 fed full strength FF B&B along with 1 qt water; pretty much been doing 1 qt water a day.
conditions in tent are 70* lights on, 65* lights off. RH is averaging at 45-50%.
feel like i might be chopping these at the change of the year, or maybe first week of 2024.

fat banana auto


fast eddy (CBD) auto


royal dwarf auto

day 72
humming along with watering and feeding. water 1x day, feeding 2x week --> 1/2 teaspoon FF B&B per quart. each plant is getting 1 1/2 qt water a day. now it's just a waiting game.
fast eddy CBD - as for size and vigor, this one appears to be doing the best of the four plants.

family photo - back is fast eddy (left) and fat banana (right); front two are both royal dwarf

still at least a couple of weeks left

royal dwarf close-up

fat banana - this is like the smallest of the bunch and the flowers are pretty small as well.

day 79...nothing exciting going on other than watering. fed a little bit of molasses today for shits and giggles.

day 86
harvested the fat banana (smallest of the group)
drying in 60*/60% humidity

just trimmed up the fat banana, and placed it all in grove bags for a two week cure
wet weight was 10oz / 304g
all dried and trimmed the total weight was 1.1oz / 30g
today i also took down one of the royal dwarf girls. wet weight is 17.8oz / 504g.

Were you running 18/6 or 16/8?

Seem under lit for the space , 20/4 would of been better .

Temps are way too low.

final post, now that everything is cured and i've smoked and vaped all three...
royal dwarf: (2 plants) 99 /98 days total; 6.3 oz total; nice little head buzz and dry mouth within minutes, should last me a while
fat banana: 80 days total; 1.1 oz; more relaxing effect (i overdried this and rehydrated it with fresh bud)
fast eddy: 102 days total; 6 oz; surprisingly buzzy for supposedly being very low in thc, really fuely. gonna put this one in regular rotation