jalajaslet
Member
Hello to all on this messaging board. This is my first post with you guys I have been actively contributing to the Michigan Medical Cannabis Community since early December 2008 and have been lurking here in your shadows. I thought I would take the time today to speak up and make my presence known now.....
I am very new to the growth process, and although being very familiar with the final product, I am clueless when it comes to nurturing the little beauties to the consumption stage. I must also admit that I have NEVER had a good relationship with ANY plant. I think the only ones I haven't "killed" or in some way "allowed" to turn brown and fall over either from too much of something or NOT enough of another has been a single cactus.
However, I am disabled and therefor on a very limited income, so learning to nurture this plant and grow the best possible medication is a very important mission for me. I am starting off very small with some bagseed. Some pretty decent and recently obtained and some from a can my mother had saved from probably 20 years ago. She recently passed and we found this old katydids can full of seeds some in smaller bags, others in bigger; So I took a handful of them and threw them in a container full of a very weak solution of miracle grow and water, and let them soak for a few days, then I got rid of the floating ones and planted the ones that sunk in these little expanding plugs. I had expanded the plugs with a miracle grow tomato plant food solution and put them in a closet that measures 5'x4' with 8 foot ceilings.
I attempted to germinate 18 seed and only two sprouted. I have since learned that Miracle Grow is a NONO and have worked hard to keep these two alive. They are currently 5 weeks old and living in 1 gallon pots. I Use Fox Farms Nutrients, Tiger Bloom, Big Bloom, and Organic Plant Food.
I have now had them in flowering for 5 nights, looking daily for signs of sexual orientation. I kept them in my 4*5 closet until yesterdy and then had to move them down to the basement because trying to run a 400w industrial MH light in that closet, I couldn't keep temps under control no matter how hard I tried to. While in the closet prior to putting them into flower They were under 6 32w CFL lightbulbs and grew to 11 1/2 inches. I then started them on a 12/12 under the MH light, but as I stated it was simply TOOO HOTTT in the cloest, so I moved them to a small office area in my basement and attempted to insulate the room to sustain them. It normally gets down to the mid to lower 50's in this room as I am in Michigan and it has been very cold here recently. However I laid a carpet on the floor, and hung heavy white Quilting on the walls. I also run the light from Midnight to noon and my reason for this is two fold. First it keeps the room heated up during the coldest hours of the day when the heat in the house is turned down and everyone is asleep and allows someone to be awake if we find we have to put a small space heater in the room during the off light times. and ALSO because having a NEW 400w Metal Halide bulb burning during the dark hours of midnight - noon makes it appear outwardly like a simply got a night high power light for outside on my garage, since the pull on the electric is during dark hours and not in the middle of the day. My Two plants are now about 15 and 17 inches respectively. The 17" one has been named Missy and the 15" one named the Dame`. Originally Missy was the only one of the 16 treated with Miracle Grow that sprouted and the Dame was not treated with MG. For the first 3 weeks Missy struggled and I was believing the MG advice I had been given, as Missy was weak and deformed at first and the Dame was strong and healthy. However I must admit that Missy is now Much Prettier, the leaves are almost fluffy looking the stretch is minimul and the stems are close together she is much deeper green and 2 inches talller. The dame is stringy looking to me, large gaps between stems and much lighter green. The leaves on both are curling under a little at the tips and in the process of putting the MH light in the closet and getting the disance right I managed to crisp a couple of leaves on both of them, whch really discourages me. Now I need to figure out EXACTLY how to sex them without a magnifying glass, cause I don't have one right now and can't afford to go buy on right now. cause i am hoping they are both females, but at the same time I don't want to loose them both cause I don't know which one is a male. I am already concern cause of the way I put them into flower. I started the flowering and did it noon to midnight for 3 days, then I moved them to the basement cause of the heat issue and reversed their light cycle by having them in light for 24 hours and then going to the midnight-noon cycle. Which they ill now remain on till harvest. I think they probably need to be put in bigger pots, but I am trying to give them a few days since I understand that stressing them to much can influence their sex to males. In the last few days I have put them in a 12/12, trimmed some dead leaves from the bottom of them, dramatically changed their room temps by moving them to the basement, burned a couple of their leaves by trying to get their light height right, let them spend 24 hours under light and them switching from noon- midnight to midnight to noon..
Now that I have given you all this information, I am looking forward to every ones help and guidance as these are my first two into flowering, but I have 11 sprouts now that are 2 weeks old and about 1 month behind these two. It is my objective to have approximately 12 plants a month harvesting once I get better at all of this... I will post picts soon for all to see and critique...
Thanks,
Jayla
. I decided to keep Mister through to flower for a couple of reasons. 1) I am new at this and just can't bare the thought of throwing away ANY bud.
...just yet. Most of what I have been getting on the streets the last month must be male as I am getting half weight in beans with each purchase. So I figure if I can pay for males, I can live with one I have grown until I can get everything dialed in and get to where I am working with ALL females..
..lol 2) My better half seconds the above notion with more vigor than I
. 3) I am going to practice training skills on him..I mean its not like I can stress him into turning male..:wink:..4) eventually I will attempt some of the recipes I have seen on here to utilize him for some canna butter or canna oil or something
. 
. Once I got everything settled around here I actually have her in the basement room with 7 of the 11 sprouts that are now going on 6 weeks old and have been flowering for almost 2 weeks now. I put all 11 of them into flowering at 4 weeks. Four have already proven themselves to be males
. All of the males have now found themselves grouped together under 3 (23w) CFL bulbs in my bedroom closet. Unfortunately along with Missy being Mister, Lovely is also Lover. I will bring him through to seed also, as he is the only one of many seeds that were gifted to me at Christmas/New Year by a family member, that germinated successfully and I really want a female of this particular plant, so I will bring him out to seed along with Mister to get their seeds
. Oh and Mister did his first pollen dump today. I checked into the closet where him and the other 4 males are at and found some dust on Lovers leaf. At first I wasn't certain what it was
:
and that little bastard Mister...He was pretty growing up, but he was just bagseed, some I am certain I have plenty of, so the hell with his little pollen pissen ass.....It's off with his head in the morning. I will though keep Lovely like I said I am going to harvest some pollen from him and was actually thinking about covering a few of Dame's stems with a plastic bag full of Lovely Pollen and see what I get from Lovely and a 20 y/o power plant. If anyone can dirrect me on how to do this with out f^ up my buds on her I would appreciate it.
....OH....... thats nice...Night All
