First time grow, Thelma and Louise

[Sblurb]

Hi, I started growing because I have an arthritic hip. Well one thing led to another which led to another. I am growing the devils lettuce. I am not a huge smoker but, I do enjoy. For every step of my grow I have read this website thoroughly. What I love is that when it comes to PH Sirius says, I wouldn't even worry about PH on my first grow. On trimming Nebula says it is not super necessary to trim autos. Well I don't need to be told to be lazy twice. So here they are. Thelma and Louise (Nebula used to name her plants). Thelma is a Gelato auto. Louse is a Godzilla cookies. I picked up an auto pack at Herbies, which was recoomended somewhere else. Anyway. Now that I have gone this far. Two things. One a recommendation on CBD or my original journey. The second is I have a spreadsheet I use to journal and inventory this mess. I anyone has one that they use I would love to see it. Thank you for your patience.

[Blowdout2269]

Looks like a pretty good start for not managing your pH.
Tell us more about your grow?

[Sblurb]

Boy will I. I am growing using the super soil from Natures Living like they describe here. I bought the autoflower variety. They were so slow at first, that I started adding a 5-1-1 Fish based food that I got at Lowes. It really smells but I think it helped. Going for organic. Bought a Marshydro 27" X 27" tent kit. It has 150 Watt light and includes about everything. Started with 1/2 light. Was going to name them after Disney princesses but dropped Thelma on her head in transplant. I had to go darker. I live on the base of the mountains in Winchester VA. I have always drunk the tap water. I think we have pretty good water here. My humidity is kind of low so I spritz them twice a day with this really nice spray bottle I got at Lowes. i have all the stuff to test PH, but thought I'd wait and see if I had problems (lazy). I am over the moon with how things have worked out. I am really hopeful.

[LemonBud]

I live at the base of the mountains to and the water is very hard if you have city water. If you have soil like fox farms they say you dont need to ph its already ph to 6.5-6.8 until after 4 weeks then it and the nutrients will desolve. What are you going to do after 4-5 weeks when there needing bigger lights and space. Just giving heads up. By the way winchester pretty much sucks. Thats why I bought a house in Bunker Hill. Anyone else live nearby lets trade buds. LOL Theres a girl out at the state line gas station on 11 that I give her a few buds and she helps testing, Good Luck Peace Out

[SoOrbudgal]

Welcome to home growing Sblurb it's a great hobby for enjoying indoor gardening. Your plants look healthy and lush enjoy the grow.

[OldManGrower]

Far be it for me to disagree with the Wizards of Weed but I have found that I never had a truly successful grow until I measured my PH in and out. I have also found that I greatly increased my yields by defoliating, but we must all go our own way and it is your first grow. I do have a very positive suggestion. Use some weed to make a salve or ointment. I have done it and it works great on aches and pains. I apply only a very tiny bit to where it hurts and the pain dissipates or moderates rapidly. It is much more effective for body and joint aches than CBD in any form, Your plants are lovely.

[dilvish]

The living soil is ideal if you are not checking your PH. PH too high or low can wreck a plant but only in terms of yield. Hell anyone can germinate seeds, chuck them into some decent soil and have them grow. The trick is to get them to grow properly so that they produce flower/buds. I've seen many a new grower think their plants are doing well only to find that after 3 months the buds are tiny even though the plant may be big.
Realistically if you have all the equipment, do the diligence and test the PH of the water with or without nutrients. You may be happy with the plants now but disappointed when it's time to harvest. Remember the leaves contain virtually no CBD or THC and so the important part of the plant is the buds.

[Sblurb]

I have learned from 65+ years on this planet that when people talk to you like a child, you are probably the idiot. I will take my shame of not ph testing on the next grow. This one I tried to defoliate. Dilvish said I should in a wonderful way. I hope there is an afterlife too my friend. Dofoliage. new criticism welcomed. TAj

[Blowdout2269]

I hope that you haven't taken offense to any of these comments. We're happy to have you here. And I hope I can speak for all of the community when I say; If ya want to be serious about growing yourself some good buds, you need to study a bit, pay attention to your crop(maybe even take notes like myself), and be willing to accept some criticism from the group(good or bad) when you share comments and questions.
Like many here tend to say...anyone can grow "some weed", but we're trying to grow phenomenal cannabis flowers. For me, quality comes before quantity every time.
We're happy to have ya, good luck on the remainder of the grow!

[golfnrl]

Sblurb...welcome aboard. My first cannabis grow was in soil. I started there not knowing anything and thought that soil is the easiest to grow in. The first harvest was respectable, at least for me. I made mistakes along the way, still do, honestly. But then comments such as those made in this thread began to make sense. I switched over to coco coir because I want to be able to control and keep track of when and what nutrients the plants are receiving. And you can't overwater in coco, which was a real issue for me in soil. You know, the whole love them to death thing. Since I have been applying the knowledge learned from growers on this forum and the advice compiled by Sirius and Nebula on GWE my grows are better and harvests are better, hands down. I laughed when I read the comment about being an idiot...I can relate. But Blowdout2269 is correct in everything that was stated. I have made salve from my harvests for pain relief, as I have osteoarthritis in my hands...thc infused salve is great. Nothing like the feeling of providing a natural form of pain relief that you made yourself. Oh, and I switched to the autopot system and haven't looked back. I like that you have a name for your girls. I started out that way but haven't done that for a grow or two. Not naming the girls seems so impersonal...do you talk to your plants? I do. Do you breathe on them? I read on here somewhere that the CO2 we exhale is absorbed by the plants and they take in some of your essence. I may have been stoned when I read that but it clicked and now that's what I do. Some people play music in their grow space. I haven't tried that but I do wonder. My best advice is keep doing what you're doing. You'll figure what out works for you and what doesn't. IMHO the most important things are lights, circulation/ventilation/PH/nutrients, not necessarily in any order. I'm not a very good note taker...so I can't help you with the spreadsheet. sorry about that.

[Sblurb]

Thanks to everyone. No worries about my feelings. I am ex military and raised a house full of independent women. Alligators should have such thick skin I really have worked on my houseplants and take pride int their health. I'm just having trouble seeing these as "work" plants like my tomatoes. I'm sure in 2 years I'll look forward to cutting the chafe. But for now they still are my stinky friends. TAJ

[OldManGrower]

You are fine until the plants talk back.

[Blowdout2269]

Just a thought - you can add some dolomite lime to your soil and it will help buffer the pH for you. Because I am also guilty of not really managing my pH through an entire living soil grow. Supposed to be an add-water-only grow, right? Lol. But I do add 1/2 to a whole cup of DL(depending on pot size). I only check the runoff a handful of times throughout the grow and always come in between 6&7. But I've built my own living soil, so I like to see how its evolving.