New Grower [First Grow] - Pink Panama, Galaxy Brain, Zkittlez, in Coco/Perlite

[Bill.de.Cat]

They are basically running off the stored energy in the seed at this point. I'd give it a few days before messing around too much. Could put a drop of water directly on the casing to see if it helps it slip out. They looking good, don't kill em with kindness.

 

[Don't Fear the Reefer]

Sorry can't help, but would like to say that they are very impressive pictures, well done.

 

[TheFerret]

I spray/mist sprouts with the shell still on to encourage it to come off. After a few days try some tweezers if its still on.

 

[Scroger]

They are basically running off the stored energy in the seed at this point. I'd give it a few days before messing around too much. Could put a drop of water directly on the casing to see if it helps it slip out. They looking good, don't kill em with kindness.

Thank you man! I just needed to wait a few hours, it was cracking open more every minute. I'm just nervous on my first grow hahah, I don't want to lose one and only have two plants to harvest.

Do you have any experience with coco? I know people say it's hard to overwater, I'm worried I'm doing that but I can't be sure. I water them twice a day, making a ring around the outside of the plant. Like you said, I'm worried I'm killing them with kindness. I'm just very new to this and don't know specifically how wet coco should be, I just know it's never supposed to dry out.

 

[Scroger]

Hey guys, snapped some pics of day 8 since sprout. They were a little slow going at first, but I think there will be exponential growth. I'm starting to actually see the smallest bit of progress every 12 hours when I go to feed! The little one is Pink Panama. It was the smallest taproot on germination, it was just barely cracked. Do you think it always be kind of a runt, or does it just need some extra days maybe? Thanks for checking out my grow!

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Might surpass the others when they get going.

 

[Scroger]

Day 12 update! It felt like they didn't grow at all day 5 to 10, but almost doubled in size by day 12. Compared to others I've seen, they look a bit small, especially the Pink Panama. But to me they are growing fast!

They seemed so stagnant and sickly light green for a while. I was following the nute strength of advice on Reddit. I was only giving them about .2ec-.3ec for the first and second week. But I see much more conflicting advice to go at least .8ec throughout the grow. So I've started that the past couple days. It's too early to say, but at least the color came right back into the plants. I'll update if it seems to vastly improve them or not. Thanks for checking out the journal!

 

[Scroger]

Day 25 update! Plants really blow up, huh? Last update I thought having 8 leaves was "big", I had no idea what I was in for.

So at this point I'm not really sure what to do. I topped the Galaxy Brain a few days ago, because it was by far the tallest and I read that it's a plant that can already get pretty tall. Should I top the Pink Panama or Zkittlez? If not topping, when do I defoliate? And how do I know what to defoliate? (Bonus: does the spotting on the Galaxy Brain and Zkittlez look concerning?)


They are starting to get tiny bud sites and it's definitely in the transition phase. They are starting to smell a bit too. Hopefully next update I'll have a few little nugs! Thanks for checking in!

 

[Scroger]

Hey guys, I had some things come up and I never finished my journal. I'm sorry about that. I'm going to update this journal all at once since harvest was some time ago. I'll also be posting two new journals as I want to get back into the community a bit more!

DISCLAIMER: Any opinions or negatives mentioned about these strains is entirely based on my mistakes, I do not blame the breeders or strains for any pitfalls.

My final dry weights were
Night Owl Galaxy Brain: 5.8oz
Mephisto Pink Panama: 2.7oz
Fastbuds Zkittlez: 4.6oz

By a mile, my favorite strain was/is Galaxy Brain. It was suggested to me not to defoliate or train much on my first grow, and this strain still produced very well all the way down. The effects are strong, it hits smooth, and it turns a really nice dark purple when it's all ground up. Pink Panama suffered greatly from the low defoliation. It was very bushy, and the bottom half was completely undeveloped. The top looked and smelled nice, but I believe I dried it way too fast, as it's very harsh, and the somewhat fruity smell is now very dry and earthy smelling. The Zkittlez was bud top to bottom, the thing was absolutely stacked. Unfortunately, likely due to not watering 2-3x a day like the Zkittlez demanded, it hermed at some point and I didn't notice, so now most of the bud has seeds in it, at least 3-5 seeds per bud. The bud size was slightly deceptive, as they shrunk into the smallest bud out of the entire tent. Some of the buds went from being the width of my hand, to the width of a thumb. I have no guess as to why it shrunk so much compared to the others.

Overall my biggest takeaways from my first grow are to defoliate/train more, and be MUCH more prepared for the drying, as I completely ruined every main cola, along with a very poor job at drying everything else. I didn't have a dry tent, so I hung them to dry in blacked out paper bags in an active tent. It was just way too hot for them to dry properly.

Galaxy Brain left, Pink Panama middle, Zkittlez right

Galaxy Brain left, Pink Panama middle, Zkittlez right

Galaxy Brain

Zkittlez

Pink Panama

I don't really have shots of the Zkittlez and Pink Panama buds after drying, they're a little nondescript. I'm in love with Galaxy Brain though.

 

[TheFerret]

Thanks for the update! Loving that last shot of the ground up stuff it looks great. Seeds aren't so bad!