Hello all, starting up my first thread as a post-grow summary of my first experience with autoflowers and cannabis cultivation. 
Since cannabis is now medically legal in our state, and I've told anyone who'd listen that all I needed was a change in laws to start up my garden, I set off this summer to acquire all of the permits and licenses to set up my own grow. Papers in hand, I ordered roughly $800 worth of stuff (tent, exhaust fan, light, tools, etc) and bought my first batch of seeds.
Due to a mishap in packaging, I was missing one of the strains I was most excited about (Zkittlez) but luckily had enough other varieties to satisfy a first run: Blue Amnesia XXL from Dinafem, LSD from Barney's Farm, Cheese, and Gelato both from Canuck Seeds.
I used 3 gallon fabric pots, with plain coco + 15%-ish perlite, amended with Dr. Earth organic dry amendments (1/2: 4-4-4; 1/2: 2-8-4) at the rate recommended on the label. I started all four seeds directly in the amended coco, and all four germinated in about four days. I just kept them under clear plastic cups until they outgrew them.
My one major screw-up was over-watering early on. Being a noob, and only having outdoor gardening experience, I violated what would become the most important rule I would learn: STOP MESSING WITH THE PLANTS. Give them ONLY what they need and no more. A tiny plant needs a small amount of water, small amount of wind, small amount of light. Too much of any of that stuff and you're off in the weeds in a bad way.
So, slightly stunted and delayed, I pressed on and was rewarded by plants that knew better about what to do than I did.
I played around with LST and learned a ton about exactly how the plants branch and develop. Reading and watching videos really can give you a lot of basic knowledge, but you'll never find out in-depth until you do it for yourself. I mostly just used plant ties and binder clips to pull branches down to the edges of the pot, but late in flower I came up with a variation to open up the canopy on a more mature plant. By stretching opposing branches between a bamboo rod or similar, I was able to REALLY spread out the canopy.
Anyway, with a growth delay of a week or more beyond what the genetics said, three of the four were ready for harvest. Although my non-smoking wife has been SUPER understanding, I knew that the scent of three drying plants in the house would push her over the edge. So I bought a small tent to hang my drying plants in and connected it to the intake of my main tent, utilizing the constant pull of the fan to pull the air from the drying tent through the carbon filter. It worked perfectly, and actually a little TOO well. I overdried these first three, but I'm happy to report that they ended up just fine.
The Blue Amnesia XXL was a short, stocky plant with HUGE buds, so I had to cut that one apart into racquetball-sized chunks or smaller so it would dry well. The other two I just chopped and hung up. The LSD was the slow poke, going a full 3 weeks longer than the rest and maybe could've gone longer. The trichomes finally started to change to amber, the pistils were getting more mature, and leaves were finally beginning to fade.
In the end, I ended up with around two ounces each of the Gelato, Cheese, and LSD, and a little over an ounce of Blue Amnesia. After several weeks of curing, the Gelato is by far the tastiest smoke, with Cheese right behind in flavor but much stronger effect. The Blue Amnesia is actually a really sweet-smelling, delicate scent, but still really potent. I'm still waiting on the LSD to cure.
If I had any 'complaints' at all, they would all be related to my technique rather than the tools or genetics. The plant genetics are all really great, flavorful, potent strains that are easily some of the best cannabis I've had the pleasure to encounter. That may say more about my choice of suppliers in the distant past than anything else.
Over all, it was a great experience, and my goals for the second grow that I'm just getting ready to begin are: denser buds/higher yield. But then I suppose that's everyone's goal for the next grow.
- Peace
Since cannabis is now medically legal in our state, and I've told anyone who'd listen that all I needed was a change in laws to start up my garden, I set off this summer to acquire all of the permits and licenses to set up my own grow. Papers in hand, I ordered roughly $800 worth of stuff (tent, exhaust fan, light, tools, etc) and bought my first batch of seeds.
Due to a mishap in packaging, I was missing one of the strains I was most excited about (Zkittlez) but luckily had enough other varieties to satisfy a first run: Blue Amnesia XXL from Dinafem, LSD from Barney's Farm, Cheese, and Gelato both from Canuck Seeds.
I used 3 gallon fabric pots, with plain coco + 15%-ish perlite, amended with Dr. Earth organic dry amendments (1/2: 4-4-4; 1/2: 2-8-4) at the rate recommended on the label. I started all four seeds directly in the amended coco, and all four germinated in about four days. I just kept them under clear plastic cups until they outgrew them.
My one major screw-up was over-watering early on. Being a noob, and only having outdoor gardening experience, I violated what would become the most important rule I would learn: STOP MESSING WITH THE PLANTS.
Give them ONLY what they need and no more. A tiny plant needs a small amount of water, small amount of wind, small amount of light. Too much of any of that stuff and you're off in the weeds in a bad way. So, slightly stunted and delayed, I pressed on and was rewarded by plants that knew better about what to do than I did.
I played around with LST and learned a ton about exactly how the plants branch and develop. Reading and watching videos really can give you a lot of basic knowledge, but you'll never find out in-depth until you do it for yourself. I mostly just used plant ties and binder clips to pull branches down to the edges of the pot, but late in flower I came up with a variation to open up the canopy on a more mature plant. By stretching opposing branches between a bamboo rod or similar, I was able to REALLY spread out the canopy.
Anyway, with a growth delay of a week or more beyond what the genetics said, three of the four were ready for harvest. Although my non-smoking wife has been SUPER understanding, I knew that the scent of three drying plants in the house would push her over the edge. So I bought a small tent to hang my drying plants in and connected it to the intake of my main tent, utilizing the constant pull of the fan to pull the air from the drying tent through the carbon filter. It worked perfectly, and actually a little TOO well. I overdried these first three, but I'm happy to report that they ended up just fine.
The Blue Amnesia XXL was a short, stocky plant with HUGE buds, so I had to cut that one apart into racquetball-sized chunks or smaller so it would dry well. The other two I just chopped and hung up. The LSD was the slow poke, going a full 3 weeks longer than the rest and maybe could've gone longer. The trichomes finally started to change to amber, the pistils were getting more mature, and leaves were finally beginning to fade.
In the end, I ended up with around two ounces each of the Gelato, Cheese, and LSD, and a little over an ounce of Blue Amnesia. After several weeks of curing, the Gelato is by far the tastiest smoke, with Cheese right behind in flavor but much stronger effect. The Blue Amnesia is actually a really sweet-smelling, delicate scent, but still really potent. I'm still waiting on the LSD to cure.
If I had any 'complaints' at all, they would all be related to my technique rather than the tools or genetics. The plant genetics are all really great, flavorful, potent strains that are easily some of the best cannabis I've had the pleasure to encounter. That may say more about my choice of suppliers in the distant past than anything else.
Over all, it was a great experience, and my goals for the second grow that I'm just getting ready to begin are: denser buds/higher yield. But then I suppose that's everyone's goal for the next grow.
- Peace
a first grow is not learning how to grow,its learning how not to grow 
keep it simple/less is more/less ya do less can go wrong 
a nice variety of smoke :smoking:
