New Grower Lowryder #2 Indoor Stealthy Sun Grow

[Tracer Productions]

GOAL: Captain's log. My situation requires stealth, and I'm not looking for maximum yields or anything. I just want 1 or 2 small plants to make it to harvest and I'll be ecstatic. (I have 3 Lowryder seeds & 4 Cherry Wine hemp seeds that I might try to plant outdoors later). I'm a very part-time smoker who usually smokes high-quality hemp & CBD strains, so this is all a hobby for me. If I make it to harvest this will be my first time. (Virgin!) I've had to abort several grow attempts in the past for stealth reasons but have a better setup this time so hopefully it will work out!

Container: 18oz. Hefty cup (similar to red Solo cup)
Soil: Black Gold organic
Light Source: South-facing window + 20 watt LED lamps (clamp on gooseneck RundA brand)
Fertilizer: None until Week 6 or 7; only if necessary
Location: Zone 7a

WEEK 1

GERMINATION: I set out a cup of hot tap water for 24 hours to let the chlorine & other chemicals evaporate before dunking my Lowryder [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] seed in. While the seed didn't sink at first, it eventually did with a few pokes once the water warmed up. I then placed it in the dark closet overnight.

Upon waking, I poured the cup of water onto some folded paper towels on a plastic frisbee & drained off the excess. This is the method I used for the remainder of germination (24 hours or so).

PLANTING: I watered my soil first & poked a half-inch hole in the middle of the cup. I carefully picked up the seed with my (clean) fingers & placed it, root down, in the hole. I covered the seed with a gentle sprinkling of dry soil without packing it down but being sure to cover it thoroughly so the soil wouldn't wash away with watering. I kept the medium damp the whole time before the sprout was visible.

It took around 48 hours for my Lowryder sprout to become visible. I planted it on a Saturday night & it showed itself on Tuesday morning. By Tuesday night, it was standing tall with two cotyledons & a tiny set of leaves! At this point, the sprout was looking a bit over-watered & I was afraid of the dreaded "damping off," which happened to my poppy seedlings earlier in the year. So I made a pact not to water as often in vegetative phase. New watering sched: Once a week from the top & once a week from the bottom in the tray, with light misting of the plant itself in between. Added more drainage holes with a small kitchen knife to help prevent sogginess.




Tonight I lined the inside of a popcorn tin with aluminum foil to set my cup in to help maximize the weak LED lights. Still not sure how that's going to work...might get too hot so I'll have to check the temperature often. The seedling is getting a good 7 hours of direct sunlight in the windowsill, so the LEDs are just for evening use. I'm also setting the little guy in front of a strong floor fan for an hour or so each night to strengthen the stem.



Updates weekly!

 

[WalterW]

Good luck and I hope you make it to the finish line,
Lowryder [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG] was the first plant I managed to finish, albeit she was probably 2 joints worth, but I felt some satisfaction.
From what I can recall she was definitely not shy in terms of smell, would suggest some sort of smell concealment.
The weed I grow these days doesn't have the typical "cannabis smell" we know in this area where everyone on the street smoke,

 

[bakEQuatorial]

I planned my current and first grow very similar to yours. Difference being my location was the balcony instead. My supplemental light of choice was T8 fluorescents.

First problem i faced was over estimating direct light hours. You are very lucky to have 7. I only have half your duration cos I have a roof over the balcony. So i need to rely more on lights.

The LEDs are definitely much smarter than my choice of fluorescents. I have a feeling you will be adding much more in the weeks to come. And they will be easy to add on in quantities.

Ppl here are amazing. Just ask away and the masters here will enlighten!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tracer Productions]

Nice! Thanks for the feedback, y'all. Smell is definitely a concern... My madre knows about the plant but the other family members never come in my room so hopefully it won't be an issue. I have a large walk-in closet that I can throw everything in if my room gets searched unexpectedly. Maybe spray some Mango Breeze room spray...

I am VERY glad to have all that direct sunlight. I just don't know that I can leave the plant in the window when it gets recognizable for fear of it being seen... but perhaps I can get enough light when Dad's away to make due. I've labeled the plant "Hibiscus Kenaf" which looks identical to pot...and is even called 'cannabinus' because it looks so similar. Not sure if he'll fall for that, lol. He's no botanist but neither am I.

The LEDs are a total of 20 watts, which is not strong enough to do much good. I'd prefer CFLs but couldn't find a fixture or lamp that would work in my closet. The LEDs were only $10 on eBay which seems like a good deal to me! I'm super broke & only have Paypal as a payment option so my choices are kinda limited.

 

[Shinramen]

Nice! Thanks for the feedback, y'all. Smell is definitely a concern... My madre knows about the plant but the other family members never come in my room so hopefully it won't be an issue. I have a large walk-in closet that I can throw everything in if my room gets searched unexpectedly. Maybe spray some Mango Breeze room spray...

I am VERY glad to have all that direct sunlight. I just don't know that I can leave the plant in the window when it gets recognizable for fear of it being seen... but perhaps I can get enough light when Dad's away to make due. I've labeled the plant "Hibiscus Kenaf" which looks identical to pot...and is even called 'cannabinus' because it looks so similar. Not sure if he'll fall for that, lol. He's no botanist but neither am I.

The LEDs are a total of 20 watts, which is not strong enough to do much good. I'd prefer CFLs but couldn't find a fixture or lamp that would work in my closet. The LEDs were only $10 on eBay which seems like a good deal to me! I'm super broke & only have Paypal as a payment option so my choices are kinda limited.

Yo what's good mangs. I too popped a seed for fun and left it out on my balcony.. however there's only a limit of sun throughout the day so that's bad. They're super small too. As for being stealth mode you most def need a carbon filter once they start to flower. Oh boy you're dad and whole family will eventually find out. It will seriously reek the whole house just sayinnn

 

[Tracer Productions]

Dang! The secret's out with my mom but if dad smells it I'm a goner. We have tons of skunks around here so maybe he'll mistake it for that. Seriously tho, I'll look into getting a filter if there's one that's not ginormous. My closet is full of clothes & running out of space! Good thing I'm only running one plant at a time in a tiny Solo Cup or things could get out of control, smell-wise & size-wise.

I plan to get a better light supplement than these crappy LEDs pretty soon. Keeping it as cheap & basic as possible tho. Will be switching over to CFLs or adding them to what I've got now, but I'll save the details for my next journal update. Thanks for da input! I need all the help I can get.

 

[Arthur]

You just took me on a time trip, 30 years into the past! thanks!

 

[Tracer Productions]

WEEK 2

This week started off with a couple of dreary cloudy days, so my plant got more LED light than usual. Still not sure how much it's responding to these lights, but my eyeballs certainly don't like them. I've decided to switch to CFL in April when my birthday money comes in. It will be cheaper considering I can't afford a fancy LED lightbox anyway. Gonna go with two 40 watt bulbs in one of these reflectors to supplement the 7 hours of sun she gets each day. Can always add more later since they're dirt cheap. I figure that should be better than the 20 watts of LED she gets now... or maybe they can somehow be used together? Haven't really thought that far ahead yet. I do have one question: Which is a better source of light: the windowsill on a very cloudy day, or a 20 watt LED bulb setup like mine with the plant surrounded by reflective material? We've got lots of stormy days coming up in the next few months is why I ask.

I also decided my stem needed more fan time to strengthen/thicken it up a bit. It's doing fine now but could get a little top-heavy later. I added a tad more soil on top to help support the stem. It's not stretching or anything. Just thinking ahead because, you know, new parent jitters.

I noticed mid-week that the verrrry tip of some of the older leaves is crispy & brown. Plus the plant looks a bit raggedy & not quite as unicolor as it should. The serrated edges are kinda bent in different directions--not curled up or down but just raggedy looking. After scouring Grow Weed Easy, I think the problem could be one of two things: the soil was too "hot" & nutrient lockout has happened, or the LEDs have been placed too close & are causing light/heat stress. The solution to the first problem is just to continue watering with plain water & eventually it will correct itself. Luckily I'm not using any additional fertilizers or that would make the problem worse. And the LED thing is easy to fix. I've moved them up a notch on my dresser drawers to see if that helps and am temporarily removing the aluminum foil can.

There might've also been an under-watering issue due to sticking to a strict schedule rather than listening to what the plant & soil were telling me (thanks, OCD). That could potentially make the nutrient issue worse if indeed the soil was "hot" to begin with. And apparently Solo cups dry out faster than large containers so I've got to do better about watching the soil to see when it needs water. I've started using bottled water instead of tap so at least I know the pH & what minerals it contains. Edit: Yep, the plant is dark green & the leaves are more sturdy & thick after watering last night.
Imagine...a newbie grower UNDER-watering their baby!!! <--- For SHAME!

But overall the plant is growing as rapidly as could be expected. I guess I'll find out in the next couple of weeks whether I've got a boy or a girl here. If it's male, I'll just pull it & start my other two seeds of the same strain. (They were shipped to me from Holland in a marker & are covered in blue ink that washed off when I popped the first one in the water to germ... took me a minute to realize what that was! But it doesn't seem to have affected their virility). If THOSE are also male, I guess I'll try to obtain some from a vendor who takes Paypal, as that's my only payment option. I'm looking at Sensible Seeds dot com right now. They've got some affordable short-height autos from Kera seeds. But surely at least one of the three here will be female. I bought these Lowryders on eBay from a Dutch vendor & they took several months to get here. Would be a shame if I miss out on the Summer growing season due to a bunch of male seeds & no U.S. vendors, but that's the chance you take when you buy non-feminized seeds I guess!




The above photos are from the beginning of Week 2. The second set of leaves has grown more since then, as you'll see below. There is the faintest hint of sage & other terps now when you get really close to the plant, and you can see teeny tiny sparkles on the leaves when you look up close. Ahhh... planty goodness.



Oh yeah, the grass spraying people came this week & walked right up to my window. I pulled the plant out all slick-like & replaced it with an empty cup labeled "Hibiscus Kenaf [HASHTAG]#2[/HASHTAG]". Hopefully they didn't see. Mom says they're dopers anyway but I obviously don't want anyone spotting it! [HASHTAG]#StealthFirst[/HASHTAG]

 

[Tracer Productions]

Well, my plant's sex showed itself this week. Unfortunately it's looking like a male. My heart is broken but at least I've got two more seeds to play around with & got started early enough so all is not lost. Will definitely be buying feminized seeds from here on out.


Beginning of Week 3

The pics I've included below aren't very clear but I've been looking with a magnifying glass & they definitely look like balls. They even have the "watermelon stripes" that the pollen sacs tend to have. And they're starting to form in clusters. The plant itself is tall & spindly like a male too with lots of spaces between the branches, which I doubt is due to stretching as it gets tons of sun & additional light--20 hours per day on average. (And it even shows signs of "taco'ing" leaves as if there's light burn going on, so if anything it gets too much light). And the stipules are uncrossed and claw-like which also point to maleness. I see no signs of female life here.

BUT on the plus side, I learned that there are things you can do to (sometimes) influence the sex of your plant, which I didn't know going into this grow. Turns out I did them all wrong! Underwatering, heat stress, low humidity...all happened. Don't know how I missed that since it's on Grow Weed Easy but I skimmed right over it somehow. Next time will be different. I look forward to getting my CFLs set up, though I gotta say, these $10 LEDs were a great investment. I haven't felt they were too weak at all and have actually had to move them up multiple times.







If anyone here thinks this might be a female, please speak now before I pull it up. I know the pics aren't sharp enough to tell but I've been obsessively researching all week & I'm convinced it's a dood. But since this is my 1st real grow I thought I'd ask others to be sure. Just don't want pollen spewing out in my grow space. This thing has gotten HUGE in the last few days!

(I'll spare you all the long, boring journals when I start over with new seeds. Will probably just post mini-updates & pick up where I left off at Week 3 with the longer entries if I get any girls. This can't be fun to read but it sure is fun to write!)

 

[Shinramen]

Well, my plant's sex showed itself this week. Unfortunately it's looking like a male. My heart is broken but at least I've got two more seeds to play around with & got started early enough so all is not lost. Will definitely be buying feminized seeds from here on out.


Beginning of Week 3

The pics I've included below aren't very clear but I've been looking with a magnifying glass & they definitely look like balls. They even have the "watermelon stripes" that the pollen sacs tend to have. And they're starting to form in clusters. The plant itself is tall & spindly like a male too with lots of spaces between the branches, which I doubt is due to stretching as it gets tons of sun & additional light--20 hours per day on average. (And it even shows signs of "taco'ing" leaves as if there's light burn going on, so if anything it gets too much light). And the stipules are uncrossed and claw-like which also point to maleness. I see no signs of female life here.

BUT on the plus side, I learned that there are things you can do to (sometimes) influence the sex of your plant, which I didn't know going into this grow. Turns out I did them all wrong! Underwatering, heat stress, low humidity...all happened. Don't know how I missed that since it's on Grow Weed Easy but I skimmed right over it somehow. Next time will be different. I look forward to getting my CFLs set up, though I gotta say, these $10 LEDs were a great investment. I haven't felt they were too weak at all and have actually had to move them up multiple times.







If anyone here thinks this might be a female, please speak now before I pull it up. I know the pics aren't sharp enough to tell but I've been obsessively researching all week & I'm convinced it's a dood. But since this is my 1st real grow I thought I'd ask others to be sure. Just don't want pollen spewing out in my grow space. This thing has gotten HUGE in the last few days!

(I'll spare you all the long, boring journals when I start over with new seeds. Will probably just post mini-updates & pick up where I left off at Week 3 with the longer entries if I get any girls. This can't be fun to read but it sure is fun to write!)

By the way ur explaining it is most def a male. How come you didn't by fem seeds in the first place? If it's a good strain you should keep it somewhere else and let it pop some seeds in the future. But yeah looks of it it's a male.