Grow guide for girl guide cookies grown inside (auto)

[bluebach]

Ok, not really a grow guide, more a personal diary that I’m happy to share with you all.

First of all, thanks to santero for inviting me to your wonderful forum that I wouldn’t have found without him. Kudos.

It’s been a rum few days. I only have up until the 23rd of December when I got to my mum’s for xmas, so I needed a quick growing strain. I bought some Auto Girl Scout Cookies from Gorilla seeds. They weren’t too expensive and they kind of arrived on time (there was a postal strike at the time, doh).

I put them in some plant magic soil 5 or 6 days ago and only two of them germed. But yesterday, I found the other one just rising above the surface, so I quickly un-buried her, Put her under a 10w LED with a halogen over it for warmth. Now, 24 hours later she is as strong and stout as the other two I got in my micro box. CFL’s 23w, both blue and red spectrum. All I got left. Checked the temps. They are pretty warm - like 28C, so all good. They looked a bit ropey to start with, but they are coming along.

This is a first post and I don’t know how to preview, so I’ll just take a chance this works out ok, I’ll edit if I can.

Thanks for such a great forum. Thanks for the welcome. If I can contribute in some small way, I’m happy.

[bluelizard]

Taking a seat, good luck!

[MrMayhem1134]

Good luck. I’ll follow along to see if you harvest in time for christmas .

[Floyd]

Following.

[bluebach]

What a week or two. It’s been up and down. Spent all day today setting up my DS-60 – what a nightmare. Then setting up the fan. The filter. The ballast for the HPS bulb. All good though. Even got some photos.

One of the seeds that didn’t quite pop decided to rear its head and then I put it under a 10w blue spectrum LED with a poly bag over its head, then it went absolutely wild. It’s my biggest girl at the moment.

I’m just going to put this up for now as I have a few more photos but I’m still getting a feel for how things work here. When this goes up, I’ll post the other ones I have and give a run down of where I’m at.

[ColeLennon]

Nice @bluebach I like GSC in anything

[bluebach]

OK, we good!

That big girl in the front there hogging all the limelight is the one seed that nearly didn 't pop. When it did finally show signs of life I had to clean it off and put it in to intensive care! I must say, that poly bag really kept all the humidity in and it was only 24 hours before it sprouted bigger than the other girls that came to life days before.

We’re a couple of weeks ahead now. I must say, I never reared 3 girls together before in my microbox. So it was jigging about and finding bulbs, finding if the new LED bulbs I had would work, working out the watts needed. I burned a couple of leaves here and there, but that was the plant rearing up at the back and getting burned on the ballast. Not an ideal way to do things. I’m a novice.

Anyway, final couple of shots from my microbox.

Actually, tell a lie, last shot from the microbox.

Here are the new girls all getting set up and ready in their new home in the DS-60 while I was faffing about with 7.5L pots and Plant Magic soil.

See next post…

The cannabis plant never ceases to amaze me. I’m not on top of my game at the moment and it’s been years since I did a grow. I’ve lost half the shit I had and have had to buy it again. I’m hoping my old Rhino Pro filter is good, if not, I’ve got funds to get a new one straight away. I heard these little Girl Scout Cookies can be a bit ‘noisy’, shall we say?

I only had a few grow granules left and I thougth there might just be enough to sprinkle in to the 3 pots. But like an idiot, when I did the smallest girl first, I forgot to put them in! Doh! And the fact the plant nearly half fell apart after repotting, well, I wasn’t going to do it again. She’s good though. These are right little fighters. The other two girls got what was left, even the big bully. So I expect things to go a bit haywire in the next few days, or maybe hopefully they will find a way to even out.

I put 1ml per 2 litre of water of Plant Magic Bio-Silicon, and I shared this out between the 3 girls, all of them potted up in to 7.5L pots.

I was quite impressed of how those LED lights work. I had them half an inch from the plants when they were growing and there was no burn (bit of burn came from ballast at the back). I had to put in a CFL to keep temps up and because it had a longer throw and covered the other plant. 3 plants is awkward. Not ideal. I rotated them every day.

Ok, enough talk. I got my RVK fan all set up. It’s just trickling now, but it’s ready to go.

Oh and I only put them under a 150w HPS Sunmaster Dual Spectrum for now. Going through a Lumatek Digital Ballast. It’s on the 150w setting of course. In a day or two when I get a feel, I’ll put in the 250w bulb I have (same make) and then when it’s ready to flower, I’ll hit that SUPER LUMENS button, baby! Oh yeah.

The reason I wanted to do this grow, even though I’m not very well right now, is because the price of electricity is going through the roof, and I’m on a pre-payment meter (means I pay more) so I put in nearly 300 quid (pay on the old tariff while it lasts). The price of electricity goes up next month as well. I guess LED will by my next grow. I can just about afford to do this right now.

I’ll be making sure everything is cut down a few days before the 23rd of December when I go to my mum’s for Xmas. 24th is Xmas eve. So cutting it a bit fine really, but what the hell.

Oh yeah, these are the girls in their new home:

See next post…

I’ve heard a lot of good things about these Auto Girl Scout Cookies.

So far, I’m pretty impressed with how badly they have been treated, but they really know how to bounce back. In the next few days things will even out for them. I’ve got some Old Timer’s organ Bloom for them, plus some Plant Magic Old Timer’s organic Grow.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Any tips you can give, or criticisms, will be gratefully accepted.

[bluebach]

Ok, there was a limit to only being allowed to post one picture for new users. No problemo.

This is from the last post –

Here are the new girls all getting set up and ready in their new home in the DS-60

while I was faffing about with 7.5L pots and Plant Magic soil.

[bluebach]

This is the last picture I couldn’t post because I’m a new user -

Oh yeah, these are the girls in their new home:

[bluebach]

Small little update. I’ve had the girls under a 150w HPS light all this time but now I think it might be time to change up. Also, I was going to do an 18/6 light cycle but I’m not sure about that anymore. I got less than six weeks till these girls need to be chopped down. Wondering if giving them that extra light might benefit. I don’t know. It might be a waste.

Anyway, giving them another day or two under 150w as they seem to like it a lot!

Temps are about 25/26 in the tent. Humidity is a bit more than 50 percent, but it’s ok. They are taking hold now. I’m going to give them another watering with 1ml/2L of Bio-Silicon, then that’s when I’ll probably put them up to 250w HPS. I need to cook these girls quickly!

EDIT:
Oh yeah, I gave at least 1ml/2L of Bio-Silicon, sometimes it might have been more like 1.5ml. Less is more. But sometimes, a bit more is more!

[bluebach]

One of the girls got a nip out of their leaf. I didn’t see any creepy crawlies but still. One off, never happened again. All good.

It’s been a few days since watering and I’m glad to say they still not dried out. Tomorrow though they will need to get watered again. I’ll do the final 1ml of 2L of Bio-Silicon, then we good.

This 150W HPS bulb has done me proud. Temps were right. Don’t forget I’m a novice grower and I don’t know what I’m doing. This makes it easier.

I don’t know whether to stick with this bulb for the next water cycle or step up. I’m inclined to just keep wtih it. The plants are growing mad!

I also don’t know if I’m going to top them and do some LST or not. I’ll work it out as I go. Anyway, they need watering tomorrow. I’ll probably keep them on the 150w HPS. 24 hour cycle. Maybe then next watering I’ll step up to 250w HPS, then cut back to 18/6 cycle. We’ll see. All going good so far.

[ColeLennon]

Coming along nicely, great growing @bluebach props

[bluebach]

So one of the pots was dry and ready for watering, the other two not so much, but I’m trying to get them in cycle. It’s a real pain working with pots this size in this DS-60 tent. I think they might be a bit big!

Whatever, it’s done now. So I gave them each another 2L or so with 1ml of Bio-silicon. That’s it now for that. I have kept the 150w HPS bulb as temps are the same and it gets colder next week so that will be a good time to change up. The plants seems quite happy and it’s hovering around 26C in the tent so it’s all good.

The plants have kind of all caught up with each other now so I’m rotating them best I can to catch the little light the 150w HPS gives out. Remember, one seed took a good few days more to germinate and then it went wild when I put it in a plastic bag shroud. That is the first photo there - it’s the most green of the plants, also the smallest now as the others have caught up again. They seem to be piggy-backing each other. I guess nature finds a way…

I think the pots are definitely too big for the time and the yield I will expect. If I got to LST’ing and super-cropping them each one could easily fill the tent by itself. I found it hard to buy pots in the UK, don’t know why, prices are sky high and delivery times are slow. I also had the soil (plant magic) that I needed to use up, so no big deal, but what a pain to water them. I’m letting them trickle a bit after watering, seems to be working so far.

This morning when I opened the tent I got a serious waft of you know what! Good stuff! I guess that Rhino Pro filter is still working then, I was worried I might have needed to buy another one but I think it’s got enough life left in it to the end of grow. Less than six weeks now. I guess they will be cut down a little early, but whatever, it has to be…

Those pots are heavy when filled with a couple of liters of water and I accidentally cut some leaves (doh) but there’s enough foliage to be going on with. Next watering in a few days when temps drop will be perfect time to stick in that 250w HPS dual spectrum I got. I’ve got a nice Lumatek digital ballast - Ballasts Lumatek | Digital Ballasts | Light Ballast | Electronic Ballast

that accomodates the 150w HPS and the 250W and it has a thing called Super Lumens where it cranks the bulb a bit higher again. No idea if it works or not. It seems to. I can’t see me using this gear if I ever do another grow. It’s gonna be LED for me from now on.

I know that I can grow one plant in a microbox under 3 x 35w CFL and get 2oz from the plant. Problem is the smell. Ona blocks help a bit but it won’t cut it with a smelly girl like a Girl Scout Cookie. I grew NL5 strain before like that and it was not too ‘noisy’ at all and a superb smoke. I’ve not smoked for years now so I’m looking forward to getting this grow finalised.

One thing I’m doing as well is turning the RVK fan up a notch when I go to sleep, it drops temps only by a degree or two, but I feel safer with the plants being left alone like that. Also, even though it’s a 24 hour light cycle for them, it doesn’t hurt to drop a little bit as part of the cycle. I’d really love to go to town and grow just one plant in a SCROG in just one tent, but this will have to do for now.

Final couple of photos after I got the girls settled in for the night:

[bluebach]

It’s like the day of the triffids in here man. It’s going wild!

The smell is just fucking stinky. I might need to get a new Rhino. I rubbed a couple of the girls up earlier this evening and the smell was just pure dank! Just re-arranging some leaves, I wasn’t trying to interfere with her, officer…

What a pain in the ass it is growing three plants like this in a tent this size. They are spilling over everywhere. Still got the 150W HPS going. Temps are to drop at end of week, that’s when I will blast up to 250W HPS. It’s been rather warm for the time of year these last few days/weeks. Temps in November in UK can be 10 degrees less, easy.

It was much easier growing 4 plants or even 2. I wouldn’t know what to do to LST or super-crop these girls. They are just bushing out too much. I guess it’s a good problem to have. They are making most of the light they have. That 150W HPS might not seem like much but at these temps the girls are loving it. Sure, there was a better way to grow them, but I’m a novice.

I was leaving the fan on next to nothing the last night, just to keep temps up. There is but a trickle coming out of it if you put your hand next to it. I’m going to step it up a notch tonight - not much at all - because I think temps are warm enough - and because I want the girls to start getting the airflow now because they are seriously bushing out. I’m more worried about pests and mould than low temps…

I have no idea what I am doing. Then again, these girls have never lived before like this, either…

I’ve re-arranged the pots, I’ve twisted and turned them around. I’ve got some Plant Magic Grow to give over the next few feeds, then some Bloom for after that. Only 5 weeks now!

I envy you growers with the space to bring a girl up to her proper yield. This is just messing about. But it’s ok, it’s fun. And in a month or so’s time I’m going to have some stuff to roll in to a ball to smoke or put in to a cake to bake.

I’m thankful for the new forum. Respect to those that got it going.

[bluebach]

Well, this was meant to be as much of a guide as it was a diary. You follow it at your own peril. I’m just spitting out what I’m doing. It remains to be seen if it pays dividends or not.

I spent a few hours tonight working out nutes. It’s that time. The Bio-Silicon stage is over and I got to say I love that stuff. It really does seem to toughen the plants up and get them ready for the big bad world they are about to face.

So next up is Plant Magic Grow. I only got time to give them two feeds of this. Less is more. I mean less really is more with this. Don’t overdo it. Autos need less nutes (or so the theory goes). And Auto Girl Scout Cookies need even less (if you believe what you read). You aren’t ever going to grow a monster plant by putting in an extra ml in to your drink for your girls, but you might just mess it all up and cripple them for later. LESS IS MORE.

With that in mind, I’m just going to do two more feeds (coming up next) with the Plant Magic Grow. Low doses as well. Girls are doing fine so far.

I will then cross over to Plant Magic Organic Old Timer’s Bloom. I aim to get 3 feeds in with that before I flush and just give a clean drink of water to the girls before they get chopped down. These may overlap, but not by much. I’ve got some Cal/Mag if needed but most times I’ve grown it hasn’t been needed.

And that’s it!

Temps drop here in the UK in a few days. It will be a new watering for the girls. I’ll step up to the 250w HPS - that will keep things consistent.

I don’t want to mess about with HST/LST stuff this time around. The girls are already massive and I can’t see what I am doing. LST’ing one of them means doing it for all three of them and I can’t handle the stress of that. I’m not sure they can either with the limited time they have. LST’ing is a magical thing – I’ve had great results with it, but it does need that extra day or two for it all to take hold (in my limited experience). And I don’t have that here.

So that’s 2 more waterings with Plant Magic Grow. 3 more with Old Timer’s Bloom. One week or so to flush. Just 3 days to cure and dry out before I put them in to Mason Jars and take them to my Mum’s in a hold-all so I can burp them every day or so! I’m sure the neighbours won’t mind. Good job she doesn’t have any neighbours, in fact.

Talk about cutting it fine!

This is a merciless grow. Every grow I have done has had its constraints and its shortcomings. Time is at the premium here.

I said on the other forum that this would be my last grow. I meant it. But I don’t think it will be now. I’m going to have to switch over to LED that much is obvious. I may even need to experiment with new growing mediums.

Also it’s getting a little stinky here and so I’ve ordered a few new ONA Pro blocks.

I’m really impressed with these Gorilla AGSC’s. It’s a shame I couldn’t have given them the best home they deserved from an early age. The proof is in the pudding. And as long as I give them a bit of attention, they keep rewarding me for my efforts. These are good plants. The smell is absolutely filthy. But it’s all contained so far. But next week I may need to order another Rhino to hook up to my RVK.

I’ll be back with photos in a couple of days time and that will probably be when I get things hooked up to the 250W HPS system. Then these girls are going to go through the roof. You always think they won’t have time to catch up. I know this grow they could definitely use a few days more to reach proper flowering maturity. But so what? They will get there and I’ll have some sick dank buds for my pot. Putting it that way sounds crass. I mean: I will have some really nice flowered organic buds that will have a very fresh aroma.

Enough chit chat, now it’s back to not burning my girls to death by having the HPS too low in the tent.

[ColeLennon]

Going to be busting at the seams 5-6 in bloom. Way to grow @bluebach

[bluebach]

Stop me if I’m boring you guys. Had to read up a bit more tonight and work out what’s going on.

I just realised that this grow was technically started on Saturday 22 October. I mean, at that point, only 2 seeds had germed. A few days later, due to a different propogation method, not only had the 3rd seed germed, but it had BLOOMED.

So I’m taking the 22/Oct/22 as ‘Ground Zero’ so to speak. It’s an average. But a good one.

Every time I open this tent now the smell is getting ‘HONKY’ man! I’m trying not to disturb the leaves but every time I have to brush my hand through its hair, it’s just pure filth! What have I started? I always went with easy to grow and low pungency strains like NL5 and they have done me proud. It’s true, they are great starter strains. But now we are stepping up a notch. Thing is, the girls are still quite short and stout. This is a good thing by the way, Indica dominant, for sure. But the other night I tilted my 150W HPS lamp and one of the girls sprouted higher. I was thinking ‘doh’ what have I done, then I thought, no, this is a good thing. So I swapped plants and I put the other short girl in her space and she should put on a inch or two tomorrow when I check the tent.

The plant directly under the 150W HPS was quite dry - dry enough to water - but no no no - you don’t get any special treatment. The other plants have got a good day in them yet. So tomorrow I will water all the girls, and then I will change up to the 250W HPS I have been holding back on. It’s not being stingey with the electricity, it was just to get them going good. They are going good now so all of them will get blasted tomorrow.

I’m going to stick with 24 hour light cycle for now. I may (may!) drop to a few hours of darkness, but really, like I said, I’ve got the money to cover the leccy for now. Things get a lot more expensive new year and in spring. This makes it easier for me. I’m pretty sure I could drop to 18/6 or 20/4 and things would still be the same, but it gets me an easy way to keep temp fluctuations down and all that nastiness that comes from mould and damp, which I have in my flat. These girls got their own little ecosystem going on and I don’t wan to mess with that. Temps drop in a few days, but the higher 250W HPS will raise temps. Also my RVK fan is only on no.2 in the day and no.3 when I go to sleep. Way I have it wired up that is nothing. I’ve got another couple of notches to go to master their environment.

I ordered a coupld of ONA blocks yesterday – bloody hell - 20 quid mate! – no matter. If I need to get a new Rhino then I will. I might have to. I haven’t quite had 6 months use out of my Rhino Pro, but to be fair, it’s been lying around for a year or two, so just thankful it’s working at all, which it is. Hopefully the ONA blocks will calm the honkiness down a bit.

Planting 3 pots in a tent this size is a fools errand I have come to realise. It’s probably why you don’t see that many grows like this (might be wrong). Also the big 7.5L pots make those girls think they are living in some wide real estate when in actuality they are very quickly touching the boundaries. But they learn quick. Nature finds a way to grow, but it also finds a way to restrain itself when it has to.

As I said, this will be the first grow I don’t mess with HST/LST. I got beginner’s luck before with that (as you will know if you saw my posts on the other forum). But because these plants are so short and stout, I feel like I need to raise them up not tie them down. This is an absolutely great strain to grow for a novice like me, in constrained conditions. If all these girls don’t make it to a super yield, it will have been my fault not theirs. The absolute stink coming off them in almost pre-flower lets me know I got some great genetics here.

So I’m trying to balance them out height wise. One girls has a stem on her like a world-class bodybuilder, the other one has one like one of those ‘weedy blokes’ you see at the beach! LOL. But hard to say who is who, because in competition and with a bit of love and care, each one of them find a way to out-compete the other ones. If it’s not by wider fan leaves, or greater height, it’s by stronger stem strength. In my very novice opinion of course. This is just a grow guide for me to refer back to later, not for anyone else to take seriously what I say.

So yeah, the pots were too big. My germination regimen was off-whack and made it much more difficult - making not just me but the girls having to play catch up. But hell, I think they’re having fun! I know I am!

I’ve still got a good bit of grow space left in this tent. So my job now is to get the girls higher before they leave veg stage and enter flower stage, where of course, they won’t significantly grow in height. Usually the opposite problem that I have. But there’s still a few days of veg to go yet. There’s only so much I can rotate them so there is no great science to it, it’s more needs be. I got to say dropping the fan down a notch at night has not hurt at all. Good move.

These AGSC’s are known for being very forgiving and for being quite stout. I got to say that I got the best of the genetics here. And considering they were only like 15 quid to buy for the three, I can’t complain at all. Having said that, I could not find another seed seller or another strain that fulfilled my requirements. Short grow time, short length, no expert knowledge needed, high yield…

But you need to know about smell management. These girls are already kicking up a fuss and they haven’t even reached flowering yet. You will need great ventilation and something like a Rhino Pro, and a decent fan, like I have (RVK). Those ONA blocks help too for those times when you have to open the tent and check/water them.

All this is old news to you master growers here. Excuse me if I’m covering old ground.

With all that said, it’s time for pics and to STFU!

The changing up to a 250W HPS should have been done a bit sooner in the cycle, for sure, but it’s been a very mild winter here so far, with temps only about to drop about 10C in the next few days. I’ve waited for this to happen, but next watering, probably tomorrow, they get some new sunshine again. They won’t know what’s hit them. They’re already going wild with all the love and attention they are getting. And things only get better from here for them!

It’s going to be a great Xmas for one of us!

[valleymicro]

Looks good. Impressive so far.

[bluebach]

I shouldn’t have tempted fate. This angers the growing gods.

When I woke up this morning the plant at the back of the tent had seriously wilted. I mean seriously as in oh fuck it’s dead. Problem was, or good thing depending on how you look at it, one side was seriously more wilted than the other. No breakfast for me!

I wanted to water them last night but I pushed it. These plants have been under-watered if anything. I’ve not been feeling great with little flare ups here and there of ME. Last night was particularly bad. I just couldn’t manage it. All the same, I checked them and they all seemed like they would last another 8 hours while I would get some sleep. Wrong!

When I pulled all the girls out the tent to water them I could see that the one that wilted at the back was super light, plus it had cracked around the rim. This one was going to be hard to water because it all goes down the sides. My bad. Doh!

I was surprised to see how well the other two girls were going. One had caught up a bit. Lovely colour. No major problems at all.

But damn, if I hadn’t tried to murder this other girl by neglecting her. I learned a valuable lesson today. I know it wasn’t totally my fault - I wasn’t feeling well. But if I’d known my girl was going to half die, I would have found the strength for her.

I’ll show you which one I’m talking about in a minute. But let me tell you - what a day! Watering it so it could accept moisture. Not putting it back under hot lights. Molly-coddling it like a newborn.

This is the girl from a week ago:

Notice the long stalks from main stem to leaf.

These were the other two girls from a week ago:

The valuable lesson I learned is that height matters less than elongated offshoot stems from the main stem. Too long with the offshoot stems and if you get an under-watering crisis (for whatever reason) that girl will be less able to sustain the damage.

I put her back in the tent. Didn’t over water. Didn’t put her under strong lights. I made sure the other girls were good because I’m not losing them two as well.

It happened about 8:30 this morning when I found her wilted. By 10:00 this morning she didn’t look much better. I propped her up best I could put her back to a good position in the tent. Checked on her around mid-day, and I could see that some leaves had dried out and curled - not bringing them back. Irreparable damage.

I still didn’t give up on her though. The other two plants were strong enough to look after their little sister for the day and the propped her up like big sisters do. But there’s only so much you can do…

Through the day I’ve been wondering what to do. I realised I might have to cull this little girl because she’ll just be a drain on the other two - who, to be honest - really look like they could use that space for themselves. In a way it was making my decision easier. She is the shortest of all the girls as well, btw.

The other two girls look like they want to go hog wild. I think they would really love that space by themselves. It’s why I haven’t bothered messing with HST/LST. Plus they are the shortest girls I’ve ever grown. All good.

One thing I realised is that it’s not a good idea to grow three plants in a square space. Maybe if you had a triangle! 2 plants good! 4 plants good. Whatever, they all get an equidistant amount of light.

Light propagates by the inverse square law which kind of favours ‘squares’ doh. To my limited physics understanding. But it gets a whole lot more complicated again when you try to include triangles, which form better in to a circle. I’ll stop there, and any physicists in the house can show me where I’m going wrong.

Whatever, the first bugbear with this grow was one of the seeds not germing at the same time as the others. But I’m not going to blame that. This fuck up is on me and me solely, because this was a rookie mistake.

Anyway, enough of the blame game and beating myself up. I felt so drained this afternoon with my ME still playing up I took a nap. While contemplating I realised I had three options:

1: I cull the girl I under-watered, and I leave the tent to the two other girls who are fine.
2: I struggle on with the crippled girl, hindering the growth of the other two girls.
3: I cull the girl I crippled and LST the other two girls in a SCROG.

I’m leaving it a bit late in the day to SCROG. And truth be told, when I had a look at those girls earlier (the healthy ones) even though they are different shapes they still have similar size and are of similar health. I don’t want to mess with them just to make up for my fuck up and then lose them as well.

At the same time, before writing this, I thought the neglected girl would be worse, but she was picking up, albeit with some permanent damage. I really don’t know what to do.

I’m not after yield, I’m not selling.

I just want to grow beautiful plants. But I’m loathe to kill one girl off even if I could get a higher yield with the other two in the tent.

At the same time, I’ll chop this girl down straight away if I think she will interfere with my other two very healthy plants.

What to do?

Some more shots of the damage:

You can see she’s not happy!

Close up:

It’s a real quandary what to do.

These girls were supposed to go under a new 250W HPS today, stepped up from the 150W HPS. But I dared not to do that. The last thing I wanted to do was heat-stress that neglected girl.

And temps are dropping here. Ambient temps are the same but they will go down tomorrow as the cold kicks in in the next day or two.

I’m really 50/50 on this - I don’t mind culling the neglected girl and giving better life to her sisters - at the same time, I don’t want to write off a half-decent plant that is still showing all signs of life, even if it will be stunted.

Whatever I do, this is a loss for me. It was my fuck up, even if I wasn’t feeliing well.

My takes from this:

Don’t grow 3 plants in one square tent.

Always grow one more seed (at least) than you need, in case it germs later.

Get that watering schedule on point and equal for ALL plants as early as possible.

Do NOT over water.

Do NOT UNDER_WATER

Never let soil get so dry it’s cracking and the pot is super light.

Don’t be afraid to water your girls even if you still got a bit of moisture in the pot. You need that moisture to carry the new watering through. It’s better than the soil being bone dry.

This isn’t the end of the world. I only bought 3 seeds instead of more because I thought one might mess up, but it was me that messed up in the end. I don’t like growing just two plants in a tent this size, when I can grow four. Growing three really complicates things in my limited experience. It can be done, and with similar yield, but for me it’s about the fun and the max health of the plants.

I made a few wrong design decisions along the way with this grow. Which really shouldn’t be taken as a guide now unless you want to learn how to not mess up.

If I got to pull that girl though, I will. I thought I could even make a small little micro-box for her, to get the best out of what she has left. So much life to give. And I got a lot of love to give. It’s easier when you do a big grow, I suppose. You can just cull whatever as you need. But when you just got 2 or 3 plants, it kind of becomes personal.

One last shot from the tent for some perspective as they settle down for the night:

Don’t let the height fool you, the neglected girl on the left is being kept lower because I don’t want her to get too much heat. I won’t change up to 250W tonight - I’ll do it tomorrow. I should have done it before really. Just looking for an easy life. And look where that got me!

I just took a few last photos to help you decide (if you can advise me at all) - girl is still fighting - but her sisters could really use that room -

These photos were taken 16 hours later after me finding her wilted this morning. I think she has done well to recover. I can probably find another home for her. But I think it’s time to get her out of the tent and let the other two girls go wild under the new 250W HPS I’m going to put in tomorrow.

What do you think?

Oh, btw, I woke up yesterday with the HPS bulb turned off and all the lights in my house flickering (well, the lampshades). I thought the bulb was broken. But it does this now and again. It was off for an hour or two and by the time I got to check the 250W bulb which was working I tested the 150W again in case. Working again. It’s a real shit hole where I live, but it makes me wonder what goes on at night when I’m asleep. This is why I won’t be doing a 18/6 or 20/4 cycle from now on. It’ll just be constant 24 hours.

There isn’t a moment’s rest when you do a grow.

My respect for other growers who do such great work and have their shit together so much - well it just went up a notch again.

[bluebach]

Just had another flicker down with the lights. Ready to go to bed. Thought I’d check the plants just in case.

150W HPS switched off. All plants wilting a bit. WTF. I pay top dollar for my electricity.

I’m afraid to go to sleep now.

The HPS seems to switch off when it does not get enough current. But if it doesn’t get a certain amount of current to boost it to start up again, it stays off. Maybe this is why I got a dead plant. Who knows how long it was in there with no light.

This is more than disheartening. If I fucked up I can deal with it. But if I got sub 3rd World power supply there is nothing I can do. These plants could die right at the end of cycle.

I’m sleeping now with the lights on and one eye open. I’m really really pissed off. I don’t need this stress right now.

I guess putting in a 250W HPS will only make it cut out more and take more ‘ballast’ to start up. Btw, my whole place has been checked for electrics and is all good. I got all the proper safety mechanisms in place. It’s 100 percent! Or so I thought.

Fuck this bullshit.

If I hadn’t caught this tonight, all my plants would be dead tomorrow.