Critical Kush, first grow

[richkel]

Hi Folks,

I'm too lazy to post a real grow log, but I thought I'd post a few pics and tell a little about my first growing experience to date.

Bought two feminized Critical-Kush seeds. Starting directly in Pro-mix HP (seemed like an easy way to go), but after 10 days...nothing. I did a little digging and replanted the seeds much shallower. One sprouted on 10/10. I think the other was too waterlogged, and I couldn't get it to go. Still I was thrilled to have a sprout going and proceeded to abuse it by typical newbie over watering, excessive nutes, and late transplanting. After a ton of reading and good help from folks on this site, she started to come around. (Yay!) My original intent was for a small plant just to get something to smoke, but after reading so much about yield improvements, I decided to grow it out some. I did one round of thinning undergrowth, removing bud shading leaves, and F.I.M.ing the main stem, then after a little growth I topped it in a few higher branches. She looked good, but scared me twice now by wilting noticeably around 9:00 PM (2 hours before the lights timed out). Fortunately it was revived by morning. My humidity has been low (30s) so I added a humidifier this morning. She looked great today so I'm anxious to see if it wilts again. I plan to trim a few shading leaves tomorrow, but I want to give her the rest of the week to recover and grow before I put her in the blooming room. I hope it's still a girl.

Overall I've learned allot, spent a bit, enjoyed it very much, and can't wait to grow more. I'm sure most growers know...when the plant is happy, I'm happy.


Looking great after transplant two days ago. Maybe a little pale on top. Lamp too close?

9:00 PM wilt

After some trimming and thinning

the dreaded "claw"

hello new world .

[Schmokin]

Cool. Looking real good for your first go. My best advice to you would be - leave her alone a bit. All these techniques are great and work brilliantly but what you want is some bud. Get her flowering, see how it all works and learn as you go. Once you have grown a plant from seed to fruition you will have a better understanding of how they grow and what to expect. Plenty of time to play with the next one.
It's a bit like cooking - I always try a recipe straight first, then I start messing around and adding exotic spices.

[richkel]

Yes, excellent advice Schmokin. I promise to leave her alone til she goes to the bloom room Monday. She'll have a 600W HPS all to her self.

Here's a pick of a Lemon-Kush seedling next in line. It's a happy looking plant IMHO

[Schmokin]

She looks very happy. A happy ganja plant is one of the nicest sights in the world. ;-)

[richkel]

bloom time

Here it is heading for the bloom room. It's probably a little small for it's age but it seems healthy and I think I did a good job of pruning undergrowth, removing shading fan leaves, topping, and tying branches to get all the growing sites some direct light. I gave it a "light" flushing, ending with light transition nutes. Hope I got it right.




The bad thing about going to 12/12 is that's 6 hours less for me to dote and tinker. But I've got a couple lemon-kush started to play with. I think they are attractive green and symmetrical plants.

[Schmokin]

She looks great. Vibrant and healthy. I hear that Critical Kush can be a heavy cropper. You've got some good looking growing heads that should give you some nice colas. There a couple of different Critical Kush phenos, some of which stretch a little more than others so it will be interesting to see how she goes.
I just read about Lemon Kush, looks like it will grow with a similar pattern to the CK so you will have an idea of what to expect and have a good tinker with those. Are they feminized or will you need to sex them?

[richkel]

Thanks Schmokin,

I hope I can get a good yield, but first I'll be very happy just to see it's all girl.

The lemon-kush are from feminized seeds.

[richkel]

2-1/2 weeks in the bloom room. Far as I can tell she's all female :-). Main stems are getting tall...that's good, right?

[richkel]

Starting 4th week of bloom. I gave her a flush and re-nute. (general hydroponics at about 380 ppm) I wish it would green up a little. I would increase the nute strength but there are some tips with a tiny bit of yellow and brown. Otherwise it seems healthy and has lots of bud sites.

[Blaze4daze]

Rich

Nice work, your going to have some nice buds from your plant. Way to grow!

[richkel]

Thanks B4D, Should I be worried about the general yellowing?

[Schmokin]

Looking great. I agree with you about the nute strength. In my experience it is always best to hold off. If I am ever in doubt as to whether to up the nutes or not, I always choose not. It's the best cautionary principle.
You got a lot of bud sites there, she is going to explode during the second half of flowering.

[Blaze4daze]

Thanks B4D, Should I be worried about the general yellowing?

Rich

Are you letting her dry~out a bit, between watering/feeding? Sometimes yellowing is from too much watering. Try letting her go a bit longer, before you feed/water her. That might help.

[richkel]

I was thinking that this morning B4D. I was worried about pH so I didn't let her dry out all the way before doing the flush. The run-off from the flush showed 5.5 pH (I was getting 6.5 on soil samples) and only 375 ppm on the TDS meter. I don't think it needed the flush. It's hard, but I promise to let her really dry out before watering again.

I know the pH drops aren't very precise, but are they generally accurate?

[richkel]

Clones too!

A while back when I was pruning my Critical-Kush I had a couple nice cuttings I hated to throw out. I didn't have any rooting hormone, but I had some MG seeding mix and it said it was good for cuttings. I filled a couple small cups, poked the cuttings in and kept it moist. In a couple weeks I noticed some growth so I transplanted to larger containers. I was surprised at how much root development there was. I grew them some, topped a couple times and put them in the bloom room today. We'll see what happens.