First timer: GDP 2009

Well my first time grow; I've been smoking for about 4 years now and have been wanting to grow for about three. I just never had anywhere respectively to do so. I've been meaning to post this 3 weeks ago when I began but I just haven't gotten around to it until now.

Equipment:

HomeBOX XL Seconds
Sunleaves Pioneer Jr VII
Sunleaves BLOOM Bulbs
Sunleaves 6" inline fan
Sunleaves Air Pump w/ two air-stones
A vertical osillating fan from Wal-Mart
Hydrom/Therm Display
Timer

Nutes:
FoxFarm - Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom
General Hydroponics - Diamond Nector


I chose to go with the Pioneer lighting because I could save money with electricity and it would be less work/money to keep my grow tent ventilated well.

I took a trip to San Francisco and went by the dispensary called Sanctuary, I've always thought their clones looked very healthy. I picked up four GDP clones on 08/10/09.

August 11, 2009



August 12, 2009


Osilatting fan and my reservoir, and air-pump.





August 18, 2009

I was given two clones by someone and they didn't look so good, especially compared to mine. Being a newbie I figured maybe they just need time under the light.



August 19, 2009

You can see the difference in the given clone and my originals. The leaves just drooped and drooped.



The yellow leaf was there before this date, and before the new clones were introduced. My local hydro store advised me to flush all my clones with water which I did and it made a big difference.



A closer picture of that droopy clone.



August 25, 2009

The day after this I removed the two clones that I was given. One didn't grow at all and a leaf turned completely greyish brown. The other still drooped and had yellow dots on one leaf like spider-mites (lucky me).



I also began to notice curling on the leaves of my healthy clones. The local hydro store said it's most likely a deficiency, but he said he also read somewhere it can be a sign of spider-mites.







August 27, 2009

As I said at this point I removed those two mistakes so now just four originals remain (with curling issues).





This leaf I took into the store on August 28th. I took another curling leaf from a different plant and one healthy looking leaf from another. Well they checked it out in the scope and had tons of spider-mite eggs...shitty.









Overall it's going fairly well aside from bastard spider-mites. I purchased Doktor Doom and I fumigated on the 28th, and will continue to do so once a week for 5 weeks. I'm fairly sure this will solve my problem, as I think I caught this quickly. I just checked on the plants today and they look healthy aside from curling. Don't really see any leaves getting attacked (looking yellow or spotting).

Thanks to anyone who as checked out this entire post! I've been meaning to get this all up, and almost 4 weeks in now so thats why this so damn long.

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Well an entire month has passed since I've posting any updates or new photos so here I am.

5 weeks of using Doktor Doom has also passed and I have rid myself of those spider-mites. Just before beginning flowering I did one final spray (week 6 of fumigating) with AzaMax to be extra cautious. Couldn't find any eggs with my microscope or live mites.

September 3, 2009





You can notice two plants seem to be growing sideways a bit. If you look at the first pics of this journal the stem always seemed to go sideways even as a clone. I'm not too concerned, wouldn't it be like LST in a way? If someone thinks it's wise to pull the stem back straight, let me know, I'd like the most yield possible.



Some weird things on the leaves...mainly bottom leaves though.



September 11, 2009







September 20, 2009

Everything is looking good. No issues really to report.







September 25, 2009



One of the leaners.





September 27, 2009

Sometimes I've moved the buckets around. Just because some plants got a bit taller so I move them accordingly so they don't get burned by the light because it is slightly slanted.



You can definitely see this one leaning. I've changed it to face away from the light thinking it might start to pull itself, true?





September 29, 2009

Some leaves look really yellow, and the yellow started at the tips then went back. But about two days later it seemed the plant was healing itself because the leaves began to turn green again.





One of the bottom crap leaves.



October 1, 2009

Transition to flower. Switched my bulbs to the BLOOM bulbs, and my timer to 12/12. Decided to go 8pm on 8am off, for two reasons; one I get off of work at 6pm so my old light cycle was shitty because I couldn't see my plants until 11pm and two cooler in nights, warmer in days.



Now I've introduced more nutrients: Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, Cha Ching. But currently only using Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, and the Open Sesame; following the schedule.



And that it for now, I'm probably going to visit them tonight and get some more pictures.

I also flushed them on the 1st. Then fed them the flower nutes. I'm pretty excited, only about two months until harvest for my first time and all looks good!

So does anyone think I should attempt to straighten my plants that seem to grow at almost a 45 degree angle? Or just leave them, maybe it'll kind of be like LST.

Welcome plants looking good just let them lean over one of mine outside leaned way over after the rain thought it was broken but its growing good are those t5 lights was looking in to them but decided on 2 150s happy growing

DSB65 said:

Welcome plants looking good just let them lean over one of mine outside leaned way over after the rain thought it was broken but its growing good are those t5 lights was looking in to them but decided on 2 150s happy growing

Click to expand...

Yeah it's the Sunleaves Pioneer Jr

JJ Bones said:

So does anyone think I should attempt to straighten my plants that seem to grow at almost a 45 degree angle? Or just leave them, maybe it'll kind of be like LST.

Click to expand...

I mean they should eventually straighten out but maybe they are facing the lights? Or is the light directly above them?

If it doesnt bounce back i would help it out a bit

Wemp said:

I mean they should eventually straighten out but maybe they are facing the lights? Or is the light directly above them?

If it doesnt bounce back i would help it out a bit

Click to expand...

The light is directly above them, however you can see in my flower pictures I faced a plant leaning away from the light range, hoping it will start to pull back.

Someone on another forum suggested I help it out because once buds form the cola might be really heavy for a sideways stem.

So any suggestions on how exactly I should go about straightening?

JJ Bones said:

The light is directly above them, however you can see in my flower pictures I faced a plant leaning away from the light range, hoping it will start to pull back.

Someone on another forum suggested I help it out because once buds form the cola might be really heavy for a sideways stem.

So any suggestions on how exactly I should go about straightening?

Click to expand...

If the light doesnt bring it back up then i would use stakes and tie it up.

Well almost at 5 weeks flower now so here's a major update.

October 4, 2009







October 7, 2009





October 9, 2009



October 14, 2009







October 16, 2009

I made a pretty large mistake with my plants. On this date I watered them. But watering them posed somewhat of a challenge do to location.









October 23, 2009

This is a combination of dead leaves from all four plants. Not sure if this amount of dead leaves is normal, maybe someone with experience can chime in and let me know.





I wanted to water on this day, however I needed more RO water and needed to change my nutrient mixture. I just decided to do that following day, but it turned into two days later.





October 25, 2009

So as I said above, I didn't get to water my plants until this day, which is 9 days without water. I learned a lesson, and will always be sure to water with plain water at the least if I am put in that situation again.



I had placed a plate of rice to try and help the humidity. I didn't have an exhaust fan at this point, so I feel it was hot, and lack of water made them feel like shit. Was typically 80-82 degrees in the tent, with about 50% humidity.







October 26, 2009

Well yesterday I did feed the plants. And they definitely look better as the leaves are not drooping as much. However I do have a good amount of yellow leaves now, but overall the plant seems like it can recover.







Also you may notice in my pictures I added a couple CFL's into my grow space, just to try and give the lower leaves a bit more light. I made sure to get 2700k for flower.

October 28, 2009

Finally got the exhaust fan. It is the exact same CFM (160) as my intake, so no negative pressure. I really should have gotten it sooner, but gotten learn from mistakes. It keeps my humidity and temperature at a perfect setting, typically around 40% humidity, and 73-75 degrees.





Plants seem to be recovering pretty well. Still some odd-ball leaves but overall looks fairly healthy.



I fed the plants on this day. I added Humbolt Honey, sweetener, and plan to use it the rest of flower. I also have gotten some addition things to help with flowering. I was given some Gravitity, and I purchased, House & Garden Shooting Powder, Snow Storm, and the sweetener.

I will make sure to give at least half fertilizer when I begin applying the Gravitity.

Update for month of November.

November 4, 2009



Some leaves doing crazy things.







November 8, 2009

Some leaves died off completely. I believe this is normal when flowering.







November 13, 2009









November 16, 2009







November 19, 2009





Not sure if I mentioned previously but I finally did get some bamboo to help support my leaners.







November 23, 2009

I first started to flush my plants beginning this day, I used RO water. And I flushed every two days.







November 25, 2009







Flushing in bathroom, bathtub. Wanted a picture in normal lighting.



November 27, 2009







November 29, 2009





November 30, 2009

Exactly 60 days flower.







And a nice picture from my Canon rather then cell phone.

So I am planning to harvest tonight. I'm going to check the trichomes first, but I'm fairly confident they're going to be ready.

I have decided to just through up some string and hang my buds rather then purchase a dry net. I am going to leave all my fans in place to keep my temperature and humidity at a decent level.

I am somewhat worried that light will sneak in from my inline fan, but i really don't think it's going to be bright enough to mess anything up.

I am going to dry until stems snap, and then I plan on beginning my curing process.

As mentioned above I was going to do it on the 1st, but decided to give it a bit more time. It smelled amazing, looked amazing especially with the flash from my camera reflecting off all the trichomes.

12/04/09













I really like this picture



Man trimming was quite a task. I was sure it'd take me an hour or two longer then a normal person, being that it was my first experience, but I didn't expect it to last for 5 hours. But still worth it once you see all the bud that was hiding behind leaves.









12/10/09

Well now I know to plan out a large span of time when it comes to trimming the next grow. I kept saying to myself, "This is the greatest, shittiest thing ever." I checked on day 6 of drying and the stems were snapping on just about every one I tried.



Buds really got skinny, sucks but I know thats how it is.



Overall a great first time experience, I was proud of my finished product. I ended up yielding 85.5 grams, so about 3 ounces. Almost an ounce a plant, not bad for soil grow, flower at 2 ft, with T5's IMO.

After I pulled them from the string I put the buds into a brown paper bag and folded the top of it. I kept it in there for about a week, shaking it every day or so. Then I put my buds into jars to finish the curing process.

what was the end product like? We have virtually the same setup, my first grow too. That was a fun read!!