Molasses As Marijuana Fertilizer? Organic Fertilizer Tricks For Your Grow.
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
Perhaps some of you home growers (or those interested in starting your own grow) have heard of using molasses to improve growth and increase bud size, etc. What’s the story behind this… Will molasses “sweeten up” your buds? Read More…
Auto Blueberry – Windowsill Grow! and “How Do I Know When It’s Time To Harvest?”
Auto Blueberry grown in a windowsill box.
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
A while back I received some free seeds with an order, and decided to sow them in a windowsill box next to some spinach and lettuce, just to see what might happen. The window has southern exposure and receives plenty of direct sunlight, although with the limited soil volume and competition with neighboring plants, I was unsure what to expect. Here are the two freebie seeds after 8 weeks of sunshine and regular watering:
Auto Blueberry & Pineapple Express; harmonious neighbors.
I hadn’t grown an autoflowering blueberry strain before, and was curious to see if the “blue” traits would really come through. As you can see, I wasn’t disappointed. The sugar leaves and buds have developed a purplish tinge, although the aroma is Read More…
Paperback Book Now Available!
We’ve been receiving a lot of requests for a print version of our “How To Grow Cannabis At Home” ebook, so we’ve now made a paperback B&W version of it available on Lulu.com (click here).
Thanks for all your emails and I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog!
Best Holiday Wishes for the 2014 Season,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
Using Your Own Marijuana Seeds From A Previous Grow
Critical+ crossed with Afghan Kush – what will the offspring look like?
We get a lot of questions about cross-breeding your own marijuana strains and saving seeds. Here are a few thoughts on what you can do, and what you can expect.
First of all, saving your own seeds is entirely possible, and really rather easy to do. If you have ordered a non-feminized cannabis strain (maybe this is a reason to finally do so?) all you’ll need to do is keep a strong male plant after you separate males from females (see our post on sexing plants here).
You’ll need to collect pollen from the male plant and selectively pollinate Read More…
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#8: Catching up – Marijuana Pants Near The End Of Flowering
One Month into Flowering – Dinafem Critical +
Thanks for tuning in again, and my apologies about not sticking to weekly updates as I had hoped to do.
The plants are actually now harvested, and I am surprised at the results. You’ll soon see that 100 Watts (or a hair more) of CFL lighting can make you a rather happy home grower. But I digress… We first need to catch up with some pictures from last week showing our two plants in the final weeks of flowering. They fattened up nicely, although the Double Gum/Afghan Kush cross kept itself well hidden in a wreath of dark green leaves.
The above photo is from a little over 2 weeks ago – showing the Dinafem Critical + plant at four weeks of flowering. Below are some more pictures from last week (Nov 9th) at about 6 weeks into flowering. Checking the trichomes showed a lot of milky heads and even a few browned (oxidized) trichomes, so the time was coming for harvest this week.
Here are some pictures of the Critical + plant last week:
Not bad for an easy home grow/hardware tore/CFL grow! Be sure to pick up our ebook for all the right tips on getting these kind of results at home!
The DG x AK cross could have gone another week or more – the buds just weren’t quite as developed as the Crit+, and she looked like she wanted to make yet another stretch up for the sky! That’s how it is with some Sativa hybrids (the Double Gum genes) and crossbred plants are always unpredictable:
Up, up and away… the DG x AK cross-bred plant wants to keep going.
Alright – next week I will post the harvest photos. Be sure to come back and see what this project was able to produce! The Dinafen Critical + pictures above should give you a hint…
Best Regards,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
What Do Marijuana Plants Look Like After 3 Weeks Of Flowering?
Here are some pictures from an LED Grow that we have running parallel to the 100 Watt CFL Grow that I have featured in recent posts. I thought it might interest readers to have a comparative peek at how buds look after 3 weeks of flowering under LED lamps compared to how they look after 3 Weeks under 100 (or so) watts of CFL.
I haven’t attempted to color-correct the raw images here – the LED lamps tend to create a psychedelic-looking deep red/purple light, whereas the CFL 2700k bulbs are more typical of what you’d expect in a room (soft white).
First of all, for those of you following our 100 Watt CF grow, here are pictures of the Dinafem Critical + (first) and Afghan Kush x Double Gum cross (second).
Dinafem Critical + after approx. 3 Weeks flowering.
Afghan Kush / Double Gum cross, after 3 Weeks Flowering.
The AKxDG has recently made a more Sativa-like turn (despite the early indications of Indica-dominance due to the wide leaves), growing taller and leafier at the top, and with buds along the stem, instead of a dense cluster at the top. The Critical + plant is doing very well under the CFL lights, and promises to be an excellent producer under low-wattage conditions.
The following are shots of an LED grow (multiple 125 Watt lamps are in use) where we currently have an African Sativa land-race strain that has been flowering for just under 3 Weeks (started them just after the 100 Watt CFL grow plants):
LED Sativa Grow, approx 3 Weeks flowering – Bud Closeup
LED Sativa Grow, approx 3 Weeks flowering – One Plant From Above
Although LED lighting may be too expensive for the budget home grower, I feel that the added expense may be worth the upgrade over the long term. The buds under the LED lamps show healthier, more robust growth in a slightly shorter period of time – compare the fullness of the buds, and density of pistil growth to the above CFL grow pictures.
On the other hand, the startup costs for the CFL grow are next to nothing compared to an LED lighting rig! Stay tuned and we’ll see what the CFL plants look like next week as we start the 2 week (or so) countdown to harvest time.
Best Regards,
Glenn Panik
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#6: What Should A Marijuana Plant Look Like After Two Weeks Of Flowering?
Dinafem Critical+ 2 Weeks Flowering
After two weeks of flowering, the two female plants in this grow are looking great – lots of white pistils, and calyxes beginning to thicken at the bases. This is really a low-maintenance part of the grow. The light schedule is 12 on/12 off, and the plants are getting alternating waterings of plain water and our “Sweet Jane Molasses Drink” (see the next upcoming post for the recipe and why molasses is a great fertilizer/soil booster).
The lights are switched to 2700k bulbs, and I must note that the total wattage is in fact up closer to 150 Watts at this point. The most efficient CFL 2700 Watt bulbs I found for this “homestyle” grow are 33 Watts each. I replaced four 25 Watt 6500k bulbs with 33 Watt 2700k bulbs, for a total of 132 Watts of lighting. This is “cheating” in a way, since I wanted to stick to around 100 Watts, but I felt it was more fitting to keep two bulbs on each plant instead of reducing the lighting during flowering, which would be a bad idea. If you are running a similar low-wattage grow, I suggest you err on the higher side for lighting during flowering, as this is critical for bud formation.
I know some comments will come in to the effect of “Why don’t you put them under 250 Watts HPS for flowering!? You won’t get fat buds under CFL bulbs!!” Well, why not put them under 600 Watts then? Or just outside in the full sun? Well, that’s not the point of this particular grow journal!
I know there are a lot of growers out there who would like to use hardware store supplies, and keep their power consumption down for various reasons. This journal is here to show what someone growing under these conditions can expect if they otherwise follow proper growing techniques. The above photo is the Dinafem Critical+ plant, and the following photo the Afghan Kush / Double Gum crossbreed. Both plants are now 8 weeks old (give or take a day or two) and have been flowering for just over two weeks.
Afghan Kush x Double Gum, 2 Weeks Of Flowering, Close On One Cola
If you are looking to reproduce this kind of grow (or a larger home grow), then you should pick up our eBook along with the various grow materials you will need – in fact, the book will help you prepare your grow so that your plants will be healthy, happy, flowering plants in just two months, too!
Be back soon with more,
GP
[Author and Medical Marijuana Grower Glenn Panik’s “How To Grow Cannabis At Home: A Guide To Indoor Medical Marijuana Growing”, is available on iTunes book here, or for the Amazon Kindle . You can also order the ‘stealth title’ of our information-packed ebook for the Kindle here. Protect your privacy!]
Can I grow marijuana from bag seed / street seeds? 5 Reasons to buy seeds.
For the budget grower, or in a place where you can’t legally order seeds, you’re probably wondering if you can grow marijuana from the seeds found “in the bag”. It is, hands down, the most common question I get from those considering about growing their own. The answer is yes! But…
There are a few reasons that someone looking to grow their own would want to buy seeds from a seed bank/dispensary/head shop/etc. Let me start with the positive and tell you why this will work, and then tell you the downsides, and you can weigh it out for yourself. Read More…
How To Top / Trim A Marijuana Plant To Keep It “Short”
Looking for the terminal bud on a sativa-dominant marijuana plant.
One of the problems faced by home growers is the daunting prognostication of the height your plants may reach! If you have chosen a Sativa strain (or even a sativa mix), you may be looking at the potential for the plant to reach 6 to 8 feet in height (growing conditions permitting) by the end of your grow. Yipes! That’s just a teeny bit bigger than my grow cabinet…
Autoflowering strain growers take note: Don’t top/trim your plants – they won’t like it, and don’t need it. They’re on a tight growth schedule, and most varieties won’t reach more than 3-4 feet tall.
The particularly tricky part is that Read More…
100 Watt CFL Grow / Update#2: What Should A Marijuana Plant Look Like At 2 Weeks Old?
One of the most common questions asked by novice growers is “What should my plants look like at x days/weeks old?”
Naturally, anyone putting their time and effort into a project wants to have a point of reference against which to judge their own progress (or that of their pants, in this case). The answer is:
Plants will vary in size and appearance depending on a variety of factors: Genetics, soil, lighting, nutrients, temperature, handling, and the elusive “green thumb” factor. As you can imagine, a plant growing outdoors under full sun in June (northern hemisphere) will be a lot bigger at 2 weeks old than a plant growing in a converted computer case running 50 watts of lighting!
In any case, cannabis plants do tend to develop certain physical characteristics at certain times in their life span (first true leaves after 3 – 4 days, alternating nodes after 30+ days of vegetative growth, calyxes and pistils after a week of flowering light schedule, for example). Barring any problems, after two weeks of vegetative growth, you can expect to see a plant with several sets of leaves, and are likely to be able to smell that characteristic “mary jane” smell on your fingers after gently rubbing the leaves.
Don’t be surprised if your plants leaves alternate between “reaching up” towards the light and “sloping downwards” towards the ground – this is normal. Leaf color will range from an intense, deep green to a light yellow-green or “lime” color. What isn’t normal is yellow leaves with stunted-looking new growth, patches of brown or browned edges, dark spots or a mottled look to the leaves, or leaves curling up into a sort of “taco” shape.
Here are some shots from our current 100 Watt CFL grow. A two-week old Dinafem Critical + plant. She’s (yes, “she” – this is the only feminized seed in this grow) looking quite healthy and of good size for the humble 100Watt grow. She’s ready for transplantation into the larger final grow pot.
Next is a picture of a 10-day-old “Royal Queen Seeds Automatic x Double Gum” cross Read More…
Cannabis Growing 