COCO COIR 1st Time Grower Starting on Bagseed ♥ harvest window??

[Ykitty]

Hello all!

I'm not quite sure how to start this so I'm just going to dive right in! TLDR at the end ♥

I love growing plants in general so I figured I would try my hand at growing weed, especially to save a bit of money since I was smoking more than usual at the time I started growing. (I eased up though, but I'm still happy I learned to grow.) After reading almost every post I could find, I followed the Mini Grow Tent blog post since it seemed manageable for me. So most of my setup items I purchased from those amazon links because I wasn't trying to mess this up, and "out cheap" the system. Also, any question I had regarding growing, I could search off this website. Defoliation was the only thing that I had to look up more info on (cause I was scared . )

Setup:.

• 2x2x4 (2 long x 2 width x 4 high) cool grows grow tent
• 3x3ft LED Mars Hydro TS 1000W grow light with the dimmer
• Ac Infinity 4" Cloudline Exhaust fan + ac Infinity carbon scrubber filter + hygrometer
• Humidifier (for vegetative, currently don't use in flowering)
• A little fan with a few different settings
• General Hydroponics Flora Series Performance Pack Kit (from my local hydro store, everything else is amazon)
• CaliMag Supplement
• Plant platter for height + water drainage

I started out by

• Cookie Dough Bagseed germinated in paper towel
• Planted in solo cup til ~5th set of leaves came in (i think)
• Moved to fabric pot since then and it's been thriving in it.

I followed the instructions straight from the side of the box, with consideration of everything I've read from the grow weed easy blog posts and it's been going well so far. I've had a few nutrient hiccups, but I check on my plant at 1+ times a day, so it was easy for me to catch and diagnose them from the plant doctor stuff. I do still have some red in my stems but overall, the plant doesn't seem unhealthy and I've fixed the pH accordingly as needed. I was running an 18-6 hr light schedule, but got a timer ~ 1/4 of the way through so I'm sure I missed a few hours in the beginning. The plant got very very bushy so I moved and cut off 1 leaf here or there in order to allow airflow. I did defoliate the plant on the day I changed the schedule to 12-12. I eased into defoliation, instead of a mass cut. I did my best version of lollipopping without cutting off any bud sites. Then, the plant bushed out again so I did a small defoliated once more ~ a week or so later. I felt a bit more comfortable on my final defoliation on the third week, so I went ahead and cut off all of the large fan leaves and most of the medium leaves. I left very few tiny leaves ~ 1" down to the stem because I did not want to harm those bud sites. I only cut off fan leaves before watering the plant so I did not (hopefully) take a lot of sustainability from it.

Anyways, to the part I came here for. I was originally going to share my adventure through this for advice and what not, which I'll still take friendly advice, but now I'm a bit confused on when to harvest. I'm on week 13 even though I planned to flush on week 12 according to the box, and harvest on week 14, however, I didn't feel my plant was ready for harvest so I haven't flushed it. I'm still giving it the week 11 (ripen) nutrients on the package and the plant is still doing good. I did read that coco coir can lose nutrients very fast in the flush cycle so I should do it 3-10 days before I harvest, but how long is my harvest window?

TLDR: I followed mini grow tent blog post, bought most of that stuff, put it together, germinated a cookie dough bagseed in paper towel, put it in a solo cup, repotted at 5th set of leaves. It's going well. I used a lot of LST, I defoliated. yada yada.. you know the drill. The pistils are not majority brown and curled so I don't want to flush, but I'm getting amber trichomes so I don't want to wait too long. When does my harvest window end?

I tried really hard to take pictures of the trichomes cause I know they're supposed to be cloudy, but I'm going to buy a magnifying glass soon. I'm just wondering if I wait for the pistils to turn brown and curl, will the amber trichomes take over? I'm not trying to have a very couch lock-y strain.

I can upload more photos of my overall grow since I started, but I will do that tomorrow since I decided to write this at 3 am. If anyone could help, that'd be awesome and I'll update this with any information if I happened to miss something that would help decipher my girl's harvest window ♥

Tysm!

[Bootsy]

Hey. nice job. In my past, the harvest winodw has varied big time depending on strains, but in my opinion covers a week or two. I also dont like couch lock so try to avoid too much amber. from the photos it really looks like yours have somje time left and is hard to believe you are 13 weeks of flowering. Cant see your amber, but pistils really still looking fresh so i would wait awhile yet as it looks far from mature. I guess 1 to 2 weeks. supposedly, the trichomes are the true indicator to look for so -if you can afford one of the little microcopes available ($30 - ish) it really would be a fun addition and you would feel more sure to actually see them. Re flushing in coco - I once flushed for almost 2 weeks and still didnt get to the point of nutrient deficiency and no yellowing, so I havent been afraid of starting flushing too early since then. getting yellowing leaves has seemed to correspond with my best tasting buds. My opinions for what it's worth. Your light and ventilation choices = excellent.

[Ykitty]

Thanks so much! That means a lot, I was very fearful to begin, but I'm glad I did.
So, yeah I just know the seed came out of an eighth of a strain called Cookie Dough which should be GSC x (something? i'll find the jar..) but the internet just tells me it's a GSC phenotype. I roughly followed the GSC requirements and it seems to be working out really good (:
Oh! I want to say maybe I phrased my op weird? I'm on my 13th week overall (4 week veg) and roughly my 9th week of flowering? Sorry, the weeks are pretty jumbled in my head, so I'm definitely waiting a couple weeks before touching them. I've ordered a magnifier so that should come soon and then I'll have a better idea about the trichomes.

As far as the flushing goes, that's good to know, thank you! My girl has been very dramatic when even the slightest thing changes, so I don't know if I'll do the whole 2 weeks, but I'll definitely feel it out for sure. Mmm that's interesting! Is it cause they're using the last essence of life sort of? I'm sure there's a science behind it haha.

I appreciate the thoughts, so thank you!

[RagWeedDWC]

I agree with Bootsy, couple of weeks at least, nice grow! When reading your spec's i wondered about 1000w in a small space, the heat and strength of light would be an issue. I use a MARS HYDRO SP 250, I have approximately the same space. However, your plants look awesome so rethinking my light thoughts.

[RetiredGuy]

The TS1000 being used is 150W from the wall not 1000W.

[RagWeedDWC]

Jeezzz, now that makes more sense, nice grow.

[SoOrbudgal]

You are correct a mondo with the specs on that light RetiredGuy . This is good for 1 photo plant and light focused on the center. It's fine for that tent the plant seems to like it. It's a decent small footprint but i wouldn't grow much more than 1 photo strain at a time, but might be able to grow 2 autos and rotating them around the light every few days? Yes that plant is minimum 5wks away from harvest do to the lower watts so it's gonna take longer in my opinion. But hey this is your first and don't compare with others who've grown for many years, this is how we all learned and found out about lights, grow medium all the tricks of the trade.

Your going to harvest some weed and it's a great feeling when you learn to dry and let it cure if you can wait LOL. Also start with fem seeds less worry. Did you try and take cutting and are you cloning ?