First Grow Worries - CBD @ 10 weeks tickTicktick - Down The Rabbit Hole A "few" questions.

[Nsomnia]

Imaged titled "they had so much hope"dates July 2019.... Sigh

actually have to make the inital post short cause I gotta shower and sleep I was up all night comparing all the seed sellers in my country I could find for something to try to start next week as a backup/project 2.

------BACKGROUND AND OTHER INFO RELATING FOR READERS----

Anyways (sorry for any grammer or confusios had a stroke 3 years ago) never injested much but with my country legalizing a while ago I decided this spring to try to grow some CBD Critical Mango from growerschoiceseeds out of Cali.

I wanted a truely high CBD strain to take any issues with anxiety/paranoia that has turned me off of all but the smallest tokes over my life and because we can buy full spectrum CBD capsules here now and they really are... well something.., elbow grease, left handed hammer etc. So I may be in the whole CBD craze but the little bit ive tried has killed any anxiety (and im almost done taking benzos after years of it and it leading ultimatly to my stroke from a detox seizure down the stairs) only in capsule form from the good ol government, which I guess is "full spectrum" la de dah. My dog has some capsules from some other companies showing up tomorrow to compare B) The bulk produced not so often lab tested CBD cappsules vs C) reccomended reddit searching for the best 2 vendors to try "non full spectrum CBD oil" and compare it to A) the last few suppliers from disps which has been amazing everytime I've gotten some (legalization daym and a couple othjer times but supply has been stupid low cause its cool now or else people are finally realizing they are generally "well being" chemicals and are just draining supply.

So I decided to grow my legal amount of plants and got the CBD Critical Mango noted above to start pinching the cost issue in the bud since I'm on disability after the stoke and even 3-4 plants wdone half-craped will last me forever especially made into edibled or oils. Also I really _want_ to learn. Since my stroke I've stopped doing everything I used to enjoy to fill every waking minute of mylife. Now its just Eat/TV/Sleep and ugh Drink to get through the days, Except when I splurge on some cannabinoid oil then happy happy happy.

I ordered April 8th of this year (2019) and I beleive I had them all 3 wet-paper towel germ'ed in the great 24-48 hours and put in some various containers I had sitting around the house with (my first mistake) dense garden soil fthat was the cheapest 1.99/50lbs from Superstore.

They went on great as far as my knowledge went (about none, and its still very very minimal due to my issues researching due to the accident causing blindness in both eyes and memory issues (which actually isnt bad tonight considering I stayed up all night and day searching every bank I could and sorting out the post-legalization-junk from the real jems and basically came down to... I made the right choice with the CND Critical Mango. Due to my current issues and also after recently trying some regular herb from the store, even low THC and moderate CBD stuff I cant smoke mostly anything. More than 0.06125gr without getting totally paranoid is impossible unless its a lucky strain or high CBD to kill the inner brain effects. Like I said I've beeen shy/anxious etc. my whole life and this plant has always turned that into a near panic attack with anymore than a puff or two.

Now I look at the CBD Critical Mango a second ti0me and im worried 1:1 THC/cannabinoids may be too much for me, of course thats so dependant on so many things and ive considered buying some but was hoping to just taste my plants since I dont "need" to smoke. Just the right cannabinoid strain really makes any issues I have with my brain/life/health anything a heck-of-a-boat-load better. Truely is magic snake oil of the gods.


---------------- THE PROBLEM AKA TL:BUT ILL READ THIS ---------------

So now to the BIG issue as far as I'm condenered is I did the math just this friday night or last night or whatever and its been 140 odd days or soemthing since germination and while I've seen nodes and finally some bud sites (I think I'm still noob level 1000 only my growing up gardening in the country has helped a bit) recemt;y as I've had them outside for half of summer after starting inside with a 600-1000 effective watt amazon grow light (cant even remember off the top of my head, draws 50 watts each in Bloom and Veg so a max of 100W or so with both on (which I did up until recently).

There has been some stress for sure being repotted at least 2 times and one girl 3 (who was going to die but finally crawled back). At least with all the time I've learned to take clones no problem I have a bunch sitting in my cloning chamber right now cause I just did my first "ok lets hack some old leaves off" pruning (again I havnt researched much of anything other than the basics of the plant structure, life cycle, lighting and temp.)

I MAY have had the pH around a 5.5-5.8 level for most of the latter 60% of the grow, the pH meter i bought is well.. weird and I have to actually try using the calibration powders one day to get it going properly, and learn a bit better about the best way to test soil and hydration substanceses pHs')

I've had some leaves die especially once the girls got as tangled as the 1970s Playboy nudes. A bit of leaf tip death (1-5mm) on probably 25% of the leaves, especailly the older ones because I never pruned until well day 150 or whatever it is this weekend. Figured I'd let nature take its course and not being an auto I know things can vary and I've read/heard that April planting can be August/september harvest, not to mention I've induced stress a few times and had plain black muddy dirt for the first month or two until I finally got some "Pro Gro Orchid Mix" mixed with a lot of extra coco coir and random nature stuff like leaves especially any that got dead spots cut/fell off/got pruned.

I'm mostly scared to prune because I dont know exactly where the bud sites are supposed to be on well, basically any strain or family and then I've been FIM'ing on and off at the top growth of each branch.

Other than that got timer going fine I think (currently about 14 On from sunrise to just around sunset roughly. I lost my timer a few times too so it was never consistant, although for vegging I had at least my 100W at-the-wall LED light on 18-24 hours a day and from time to time I've had ventilation. Changing from black dirt to "orchid mix" I thik has been the best choice for them so far. We'll see with pruning once I learn to actually do that. And then I'd like to monster and mother and such, cant afford many fem'd seeds on my income and I have a spare bedroom with nothing in it expect my current grow table/fan/light.
I probably should have done 1 plant with my setup too not 3 I think im definitly under lighting them as well as even the 1 gallon cloth bags they finally got moved into are abit small I think, roots are all the way around them when I moved from my "tupperware + herb keeper" grow to actual 1gal grow bags I could see they were alot happier. I hope the little bit of (almost totally random) pruning helps as well as the fairly recent switch to TIMED 12 on 12 off light cycle and now back indoors for consistanmcy with temperature and humidity etc.

-------THE CONCLUSIONS FOR NOW----

TLR I tried growing CBD Critical Mango for my first canna grow ever 3 plants indoors, then outdoors, then transplanted, thne back indoors just a couple days ago as its getting cool. I know alot of this I can get from the internet and trust me I have hundreds of bookmarks and saved .htm files I just dont have the energy with my brain so, learn by experimentation. Just everytime I paid 3-5$ for 20mg of fullspec CBD caps its nice for a bit but then I realize thats not sustainable on many peoplse budgets. I'm sure there are strains out there since I've seen SO many ineteresting CBD crosses from not just Canada but around the world that something out there might actually be smokeable without going to the 1% THC|10% cannabinoids stuff.

 

[Nsomnia]

Please keep posts to below 10,000 charactesr. I dunno why getting my brain smashed so hard made me turn into a what doy ou call those people who drag things (and posts particularilly) on forever on so many tangents and unneeded deatils?


CONTINUED ---THE END FOR TONIGHT----


If only CBD seeds werent so pricey on my income and due to this experiance I'm thinking of doing a CBD autoflower at that. I wish there was somthing I could affordable get a bunch of and mess around with (I have alot of houses that can have me "watch" their 4 plants to make for some interesting experiemnts over time thats for sure. I never knew id just love the plants so much seeing as I generally hate THC.



Pics are available and of course any questions will be answered (if you hate long posts just say keep it short Crap Weasle and Forrest Trump), I'm getting an Amazon return 45% off 3D printer tourn aparet to get tweaked to perfection at the same time recently as well as TRYING to get back to my old 16 hours a day in-front of the computer down to just a couple tops and only with bad prescription help due to the freaking offset blindness and memory issues, however I've realized that growing even ifI have no idea what I'm doing when I spend 5 hors trimming burnt tips off the leaves or just looking and talking and trying to figure out how to jimmy rig my grow setup a bit better until I can afford or construct something thats not 50% red-neck 50% cheap nerd attempt. I laughed at grow tents wher I was Amazoning equipment. Now I get some reasons why they would be useful for cycled grows but also just cleanliness and organization.

So.,.. Gettinb etter but a LONG way to go and im very worried about hermies going to males after over 120-30-40 whatever days with no visable (is it fruiting?... buds)

Thanks for any comments, tips, links, videos, laughter, smart remarks, sighs etc. I love it all. Just glad to have someplace to put this down after staying up all night last night thinking omg I've destroyed this trio I should get an autoflower CBD just do 1 and learn SLOWLY. Quality not quantity. i just have a feeling after electrion theres gonna be some limits added or things changed big time but thats for another sub-forum!

Thanks bothers, sisters, and space monkeys.


Edit: Just read a post and I think I have an inkling. I am probably N heavy. I beleive I've added synthetic N high fertalizer to a couple water jugs here and there, might be like 16-16-16 butI think more like 24-14-16. Also have some nitrogen spikes in the soil off and on now I'm thinking/realizint that is probably not helping bring on fruiuting,

So many deatils, such a science. You always say "How hard can it be" until you try. I wonder if my cheapo pH meter reads 8.5+ (peaked) all the time even if I poor 2.0pH water over the contacts simply because of over nitrogrenation I had some old farm rule stuck in my head or some of the reading I did when I was REALLY excited to get growing and have lots of my own mediucine in no times and nitrogen stuck in my head. Might be time to get the dirt going abit better than just the Pro Mix Orchid" stuff w/ extra perelite, woodchips and a few other small bits. I have started composting for this exact reason, nice balanced soil! I really have to get my butt off the couch and READ THE ANUAL FOR THE pH reader.

Edit 2: Yep the random nutes and soil addatives I've been using are all nitrogen rich, the random nute top up forexample is 24-8-16 I beleive I was in "okay what to buy at the absoluite minimum to get these things going big fast and ready to fruit then we can learn" well the time hasnt come, maybe cause Ive been pumping extra nitrogen in (nitrogen rich new soil, ferts and nutes etc). Might be time for some thing else. I scoffed at the idea of buying those 30-40 dollar 500ml bottles of "Bloom" "Veg" "Sleep" "Flush" etc. things. Although the algae I do buy into, I just never bought any I think thats for nitrogen anyway. With fresh Home Hardware Pro Mix (thats the brand aha!) Orchid soil x 1kg with my 2kg of black dirt and a bunch of other stuff sitting around oh and the coco coir and other moisture aiding natural things but anyways I shoudnt need to ADD any nutrients on say 4lb substrate to a plant. At least for one or two cycles. I definitly can go buy soil and ferts and whatever though its really cheap, its the "magic dope nutrients" on Amazon that seem way overpried.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

As you are discovering, there is a lot to growing cannabis. And there are certain minimal things you need to do this. I understand being on a budget, but unfortunately, there are just some things you are going to have to find a way to buy or you will not be able to get a good harvest.

First, before we get into things like strain, let's talk about your grow environnment. As it sounds like you are in a legal place, is there a reason you do not have your plants outside taking advantage of the (free) sunshine? I ask this because you need more (way more) light. Two 50W lights are simply not enough to really grow anything. Even though they say that they are 600-1000W effective....they are not. Just as an example, I am planning an indoor grow this winter in a 5 x 5 tent. I will be using 3 lights--a 1000W HPS, a 700W Led and a 768W LED. Plants also usually grow way larger outside than they do inside. We still have about 6 weeks left until harvest if growing outdoors and in the northern part of the northern hemisphere. Is it possible for you to put the plants outdoors again?

If not, I want to make sure you understand the importance of the dark period being 100% dark with absolutely NO interruptions of that dark. You cannot just peak in for a second, you cannot have indicator lights on equipment, you cannot have a sliver of light escaping through the door--absolutely no light for the 12 hours the lights are off. You might want to read up a bit more on the life cycle of the plant.

Next, you need ventilation. This cannot be an on again and off again thing. Plants need a continual supply of fresh air (CO2) for proper photosynthesis. This means that you need a means to bring in fresh air to your space. Most of us draw in fresh air passively from a source outside the grow space and use a fan to exhaust the CO2 depleted air out of the space.

Next, let's talk soil and nutrients. This is the home your plants live in and the food they eat. The $30-40 bottles of nutrients should not be scoffed at. Cannabis is a fast growing annual that has somewhat specific nutrient needs that these products meet. You cannot just willy-nilly throw whatever at your plants. The same goes for making up soil mixes. Cannabis needs specific things at specific times in its life. I make up a super soil mix that has been developed to provide the right things at the right time. And even super soils need to be fed throughout the season. You will not get away with not feeding your plants. Composting is an excellent idea. You might want to check into raising red wigglers, too. If you want to grow organic, you will have to stop using chemical fertilizers and you will have to watch the soil you use. Anything with chemical nutrients in it will kill any good microbes in the organic soil. I suspect the leaves dying is the result of nutrient burn from too much/too strong food.

I am thinking that even a 1:1 will be too much THC for you if you are as sensitive to it as it sounds. And a lot of the time, when actually tested, the CBD doesn't measure up. High CBD hemp is being grown all over the country. It is required to have virtually no THC in it. I do not know if seeds are available in small quantities to home growers, but you might want to check this out.

I am sorry for what you are going through. My sis had a stroke and I understand your trials. Hang in there and keep working your way back!

 

[Nsomnia]

As you are discovering, there is a lot to growing cannabis. And there are certain minimal things you need to do this. I understand being on a budget, but unfortunately, there are just some things you are going to have to find a way to buy or you will not be able to get a good harvest.

I am sorry for what you are going through. My sis had a stroke and I understand your trials. Hang in there and keep working your way back!

Thanks for the quick ideas! Also I'll post some pictures now, as fast as I can recover fomr sleepless nights doing 3D Printer teardown and reassembly lately along with this now, that I've seen threads that do so soon so keep an eye out for those. '
I added a couple 120mm computer fans to do lateral flow left and right as well as from before I have a little USB desk fan that at least moves air around. So now every plant (next time one at a time!) gets some airflow at least. I was using the room fan off and on but it blows so hard even on minimum from the other side of the room and uses more power than the lights.

I'm currently using it for a makeshift mount for my grow lights. I've been thinking about buying one of those little indoor greenhouse things with pantry style shelving. Think thats a good idea? Very easy to duct air in and mount anything. Just would have to find a 2 shelve one cause even these indica majors are a fair hight (short than I tthought though).

I've noticed the root ball takes up basicalyl the entire 1 gallon grow bags. It was at over 50% when I transplanted aroundougly.... July 1st? maybe I should spend the crazy sum of 15 dollars on a set of 2,3 or even 5 gallons. Dirt and substrate is cheap and I have a ton of room (at least right now with no proper setup)

Still going to measure the pH soon cause at first I thouht it was pretty high (8.5-8.1 and now I'm thinking I overcompensated with about 100ml of pH down over the last 100 days or so. I have a chinese pH meter which is great because my 3-in-1 sensor pike broke or doesnt do the humidiity reading, anyways it read a 5.3 or so when I mixed some soil into a measuring cup with water and took a reading yesterday. Thats when I made my next watering regimine a little basic.
( Speaking of humidiity what should the humidity be around the plants in an open room or outdoors? That reminds me, I'm currently inside because our building had the owners come do an inspection and so the manger said can you move those inside for a week or so please ) and because I feel indoors is more controlable and stable (plus I got the room) and its starting to hit the 7-10c range at night here in Middle latitude canuck land.

I did the first round of trimming and some more FIM'ing on Friday. I think im gonna read up and watch videos on trimming before I go any further cause basically other than the top pair and the fresh browth to be top pair branches, I have no idea what I'm _not_ supposed to trim. And a plant with few leaves seems so unintuitive to the country and some farm raised part of me.

Oh I took an entire rooting chamber full of cuttings from what I did trim off, we'll see if any of those take hold, I did have one from dead-growth/dieing stems but when I transplanted out of the peat pellet it died in short order.

I had a sativa (I think, its getting tall fast) plant that was sharing the grow bag with the plant that alkmost died when transplanted until it had a small root ball to transplant to my inital root growth and hardening up container (I used tthat container on one of my plants to grow in until I found out it was WAY to the max too small but it makes a great way to get a plant you can pull out and transplant damn fine.

I'm keeping the lights on Veg [off] Bloom [on] and I tweaked my timer to 6 hours from light to dark basically, the room has blackout blinds but I open them during the day for extra light and the window for ventilation obviously otherwise the door is kept shut at night, during the day the cat likes to sit in my office chair sitting in there.
I will probably buy another LED light maybe one from china to keep the cost down cause next time I think I'm only gonna grow one MAYBE two at a time (and stagger the plantings a bit.. plus more plans once I get a mother plant or my cloning technique gets perfected, I CANT wait to learn and perfect the method for the 60 day harvest for CBD strains, all my friends are like me anxious and unsocial and so high THC makes us paranoid very easily whereas the cannabinoid boom since legalization has made it great for us, I mean I wanna buy one of the 1:15 or 1:25 strains just to see if its like taking oil only with a mild mind change if you ingest enough from the little bit of THC)
I do currently have a ~3200K CFL 900lum light near them as well as a ~2300K 400lum light above them for the last couple months although again more off-and-on than constant.
--This makes me think all the micro-shocks is what have made thewse plants slow and hesitant and even a little sickly.

Are the HPS lights really worth the extra cost and energy consumption? Most LED setups have like mine, a red shited fruiting mode and the regular spectrum veg mode (although I've had both running more often than not just because my 3-in-1 meter has low to middle light readings a lot of the time especially without direct sunshine.
I'll have to decide between that or a 2nd LED cause the budget is a little tight right now due to excesseve spending lately and I still intend to buy a higher CBD ratio strain and an autoflower and maybe even a fast cycle from somewhere soon (I was going to before I posted this!)

I do have money though, so if you can recommend anything I should add please let me know. I dont get the idea of grow tends, a bubbler or any hydro setup isnt right for me yet or even ever maybe. So I guess id be looking more at proper Veg-Fruit set of a liquid concoction and maybe something for microvitamins (or is a little Miracle Grow dissolvable general high Nitro fertalizer for the first couple weeks of watering a little by little probably going to add all the miconutirents I need? (doubt it)
I've seen the MaCaPh or whatever thing and added it to my products to buy list but I relaly need to do research or get advice on things I should always have on hand to make tings work fast, effeciently, preferably on the DIY/Cheap/China discount scale. If there is an amazon list with descriptions or an article that would be great (and writing this down is what helps me most cause when I have time and remember then I have notess eseentially I can come back and read here).

I resisted the urge to spend anything buying a more suited 1:2 or more ratio autoflowering strain even just one seed (altohugh going through all the canadian and dutch seed suppliers makes me really interested in some CBD+fast+Auto strains), thankfully after seeing a couple posts here and getting my thoughts down like this has helped me save that cash although I know I need to get at least one going SOON because if the CND Mango isnt right cannabinoids for me or the THC comes through too strong it'll be a waste. Thats why of the ~300 seeds I have in a bag from a friend I've only sproutd about 11 and only 3 germd/lived and only 1 is actually going now right, I have NO interest in growing anything that will get me baked/stoned cause it usually bring son paranoia and unease plus I have _no_ idea what strain it is we'll get more deatils when she grows bigger.


So yeah Amazon List/Post/Article on plant health kinda things I should definitly have on hand, HPS light vs another switchable spectrum LED opinions, getting flowering to come on now ideas/tricks, other products I should probably have on hand or consider in general, grow-tend/shelved micro-greenhouse opinions and whatever else you can think of. PICS I PROMISE SOON, when I catch up on sleep spend a nihtt sleepless looking at seeds and another one trimming and adding some jerry rigged crap to my indoor table took up anoher whole night. I need some sleep! Thankfully I have a few gvng CBD caps avail and get my non gvnt ones tomorrow to try!

Thanks again everyone for even reading and allowing me to get my thoughts, ideas and questions down without any bad vibes.

 

[Nsomnia]

Took some pictures but didn't save peopwrly ny phone has been weird lately. Here is my photos from June to late July fight Bout when they would have fruited beautifully if I had set the conditions right. I kept the light on 14 to 20 hours a day still (rzbdkmlg again learning slow)

Let me know how I was doing in days 25 and 50 roughly. Give or take 5 days for a stout non auto fem Critical Mango CBD I'll get the rest of the pics and take some currents Fyr I get some sleep. In now bacj to thinoing I should grab a few quick CBD autos to have something to do more or less properly from the start AND I could learn about micro nuts and nessecsry items to have on hand as well as as get better St the basics and start on the intermediate stuff.

http://imgur.com/gallery/IQSVop0 - the gallery "June and July"

Thanks.

 

[Nsomnia]

They are looking a better green with the right light cycle and constant Temp now. Gonna look for pruning guide to give them the biggest chance to bud and not be a waste plus all those cuttings I took arnt molding yet. Still think a auto seed might be faster with my experience and current setup hah going to look at a indoor greenhouse or something though and def a little more light than the 50w bloom led the window during some of the day and a habddfuk if low temp 50 to 900 lumen bulbs randomly around since the one LED setup isn't gonna cover 2 pkabds let alone 3.

I feel better posting here just not satisfied yet. If I can get these to fruit and clone successfully especially during fruitjg with w cutting I'll be happy and do much better round 2.

Randomly found some 15-30-15 apparently natural feet today with lots of micro nutes at the dollar store haha. Gonna see if that will help induce fruitjgn since I most likely have nitrogen to kingdom come. Some more fresh woodchips to add I'd I do any repotting or loose soil mixing but if I end up just saying f it and buying a couple auto CBDs may leave those ones to nature outside or something similar. They have been a great first textbook just sucks j didn't realize how stressed and stuck in veg they have been till now. I guess just didntnpsy enough attention I mean i havnt even checked my ph properly since like week 7 and being throwing low pH water on it for ages thinking it was basic I think they was a bad call too ahoid only 5ake a bit to setup the pH meter half decent.

Got some reading to do that's for sure. I finally made a shortcut to my downloaded articles from all over online on all the basics might try to read in bed a bit here this week.

 

[Nsomnia]

Sorry guys I've been so busy with these girls and getting proper equipment for clone/next time and other stuff around here I totallyl forgot abou this thread.

I think it might be potassium deficiency as the uk grow guide site of all the "illnesses" it matches closest with the browning tips and quickly crisping growth that falls off as well as fairly firm leaves, and manganese sounds like it could be a little too, I've been trying to flush a little bit as I was adding high nitrogen stuff quite often along with tropical soil addatives like coco so kinda flushing it out now while I wait for a PPM meter and I have to (remember) to do a pH check.

Am i correct when checking pH you dissolve a pinch of soil in ~100ml of water and stick your probe in there trying not to get any soil on it? I want to buy some test stripes beuase I find the meter so hard to use this way.

I did have a little bitof charcoal early on added to the mix so that would help for potass but I ordered a pound of potassium sufate along with my bigger grow bags and the 3 in 1 test meter to go with my ph meter. Thinking about adding some light too but I keep forgettting that I think im gonna move into a sub 100$ indoor tent with my 50+50w light plus I got light strips and lots of high output bulbs of various temperatures and types if needed at various stages.

I think getting pH down will be most important cause >7 and you can lock nute out I think as well as too low I think magnesium cant be absorbed? I also noticed quite a few of 3 leaf sets which can indicate stuck in veg I beleive. I have no idea even after reading a few ideas what the early bud site stages look like, I have to say I dont even see any pistoles. I dont think. But im doing a lot of reading and learning finally instead of "set it and forget it". The light change to 12/12 and fully dark area during lights out plus a steadier warmer temp plus some air blowing over seems to have helped make them seem more alive at least, Poor things are totally root locked with the soil though I remember when I moved them to the 3gal bags they came out whole mostly but easily shook off. Now I cant even take the topsoil off anywhere without getting dense root hair+root filled soil. Hopefully that will help them not be under or over nutritioned.

"re-flowers emerge from the nodes of both male and female cannabis plants. Close eye-ball inspection of the higher nodes close to the top of the main stem is the easiest way to identify emerging pre-flowers. Essentially, you are looking for two very fine white hairs protruding from a tiny growth on the node. These hairs are really pistils emerging from a calyx just like what happens later in bloom with the flowers."

Based on that. Got nodes and I've seen the kinda triangle things showing a node or whatever but havnt seen any proper pustloles/bud sites. I will try to rmemeber to take some updated pics and post ASAP, I moved this sites bookmark back to the top of the list!

Thanks.