Growing your own cannabis gives you complete control of the products you use, the method, and – to an extent – the quality of your weed. This gives you the opportunity to explore different growing techniques, genetics, and even drying strategies.
Cultivating marijuana requires time and effort but enjoying the fruits of your labor is unparalleled.
This grow journal explores the process of growing iced Grapefruit cannabis strain and the associated costs.
This grow started out with the following:
- Seeds/Strain – Iced Grapefruit
- Grow Tent – 3’ x 3’ x 6’
- Light – 1200W Mars Hydro II, 18/6 light cycle
- Soil – Fox Farm Happy Frog
- Nutes – Advanced Nutrients – Iguana Juice
The total cost for these supplies plus pots, stools, tower fan, timer, and jiffy pellets is $1,177. It’s already a months since the seeds sprouted from the ground so here’s a quick refresher to get you all caught up.
Grower: Versai
Location: NA
Yield: 536.70 grams, dried
June 8th
Germinated the seeds in warm water and soaked paper towel.
June 11th
The seeds were planted in Jiffy pellets, placed on PC tower at 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
June 13th
10 of 10 seeds sprouted.
June 19th
Each seed was transplanted to a 1 quart pot. The temperatures are 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, and 50-60% room humidity under fluorescent shop lights.
June 26th
The plants were watered, the LED was raised to 18 inches. With the lights on, the temperature is 82 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit and room humidity is 40%. When turned off, temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit with room humidity of 60%.
June 29th
Once again, the plants were watered and the lights were raised one inch higher to accommodate the fast growing leaves without burning them.
At this point, 9 of the plants were transferred under the LED while the 10th plant was left under the fluorescent lamp as a control. The LED plants started to show discoloration and spotting which were eventually identified as nute deficiency. It seems the LED plants must have good appetite to have eaten all their nutes a week early.
Someone suggested Advanced Nutrients – Iguana Juice. It’s an organic mix which is also pH perfect and will be 6.0 no matter what water you mix it into. The lights were also raised 3 to 4 inches to try and help their heat stress.
July 2nd
They were watered with 3mL/Liter of Iguana Juice.
July 4th
The new leaves are showing signs of improvement. They were watered with 4mL/L of Iguana Juice.
July 9th
Roots are showing out of the bottom holes of the quart pots and they’ve become root bound now. They’ve finally been transferred into 9-inch square pots which are about 3 gallons each.
Here they are after the transplant. Photo on the right is 24 hours after.
July 13th
Here’s how they look today.
They were watered yesterday with 3mL/L of Iguana Juice and 1.5mL/L CalMag. There’s been a lot of new, green growth since then. It’s a welcome sight because they were starting to look deficient again, mostly yellowing between the veins. Temperatures are 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and room humidity is 50%.
Now for the bad news. While watering them yesterday, a measurement string taped to the side got swept into one of the LED’s fans. Now, it doesn’t spin anymore. Time to replace the fan.
July 15th
The plants are showing new discolorations!
This is the center plant. She has always looked more yellow and stressed than the others. The leaves are very narrow and taco-ing a bit like they are heat stressed but the leaf temperature is 80 degrees Fahrenheit and room humidity is 50%. The soil is also wetter than its neighbor’s for some reason. The light is 16 inches away.
Some of the other plants have this yellowing between the veins on middle—tier fan leaves. There’s also a small amount of brown spots or speckling. Here are a couple of good images of the most severe yellowing on one of the plants. The veins are still green and very distinct. These have appeared in the past three days since the last feeding.
Otherwise, they’re all still looking very healthy and greener. A few of the plants aren’t showing any signs of discoloration or stress. They have all stretched a bit though. Internodes used to be about a centimeter. Now, they’re a little over an inch. The pH of the nute solution seems to be a bit high at 7.5.
July 16th
After reviewing the plant abuse chart and a couple other deficiency pictorials, the diagnosis is deficiency due to pH lockout, specifically zinc, iron, and possibly manganese.
The lights were raised to 19 inches above the tallest plant. They’re all 10 to 12 inches high now and climate has been generally the same. Going to water tomorrow but can’t decide whether to incorporate nutes.
The top branches are being bent to help thicken them up. They all recovered and popped back up except for the stressed one in the center. Here’s how they look today.
July 18th
This morning, the first and third nodes on all the plants were pruned. After pruning, they were watered with 2 liters each with 1.5mL/L CalMag, and 2.5mL/L blackstrap molasses. The solution was also pH-ed to 6.3 on a test strip.
After watering, the remaining branches were spread out and tied down to the rim of the pot with garden wire. Most the plants have 8 tops, two have 6, and one has 7. The plants are now about 8 inches tall after pruning.
The main motivation for doing all this is to eliminate the lowest branches that would be crowded, shaded and producing popcorn buds. Focusing the plant’s energy on 4 to 8 tops will make those tops larger, denser, and more substantial in general.
Here are images immediately after tying down (left) and 12 hours after (right).
July 19th
After yesterday’s efforts, the sea of green was achieved.
The one plant in the center is yellowing again. It’s yellowing from the inside out on younger leaves, has purple stems, and previously had a high pH. The light is 24 inches above her.
After looking online, the yellowing tips usually mean they are overfed which can also cause nutrient lockout.
July 20th
Not much today. The middle nodes were exposed and everything else overlapping a potential bud site was trimmed off. How do they look?
July 23rd
More overlapping fan leaves were removed. Some of the lowest shoots which haven’t been showing growth were also pinched off. This will continue every few days until a few weeks into flowering.
July 26th
They’re so beautiful
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