What is your biggest question about growing cannabis?

[BCOutdoorBudz]

I'm seeing predator bugs and lots of beneficials around my outdoor, soldier Beetles and ladybugs to be precise. That made me worry that they are there feeding on the unwanted bugs. So in I checked my plants all over, tops and bottoms of leaves and stems and found no damage and 1 solitary aphid. There are also ton of regular flies hanging out in my plants, like houseflies and I can't find much info on them and if the are bad or good or why they are hanging out in my plants. Should I be worried? I made some spray I'm trying out when the sun goes down all natural with garlic and hot peppers just to protect from bad pests and not scare away the good kind. Any advice or is this normal? I'm to buy some dill and other companion plants to help me out just in case and plant those tonight. I'm a rookie and want to nip this in the bud before my buds get nipped. Any suggestions or advice or if I even have a problem lol or am I worrying too much. Plants are all seperated by 10m to make sure if they ever get to one they can't just walk across and affect the others.

[FurnaceBoi]

The flies that get into my house seem to gravitate to my grow room. I don't see any damage and as far as I know they won't do anything. They are basically just warming up on top of your leaves. My sister is a professor of horticulture she says the Flies are a no harm. The aphid however might indicate an ant colony and the Ants will bring more aphids

If it is just ants, she recommends Borax and ant traps in a circle to cut off ants going in and out.

the ants themselves are harmless but they do farm aphids like slaves

[Gvegas]

Why do some of my plants have 7 fingers and some have.9 supposedly they are of the same strain

[Daskahn]

The more fingers a leaf has usually indicates the healthier the plant is

[aliendong]

I'm thinking my plants are ready for chopping but just want to be sure. This is my first grow so trying to not mess anything up. I switched to 12/12 54 days ago. I've checked several bud sites and the trichomes look more or less the same as below.

[SoOrbudgal]

Well it's cloudy if you like it that way. And are you looking at buds or leaf for trichs?

[RagWeedDWC]

That is about where I like to start flushing, couple of days later harvest. I like the type of pot I can hit once in the morning and be good to at least after lunch. If you wait until you have more amber then it will be a more stony high.

[OldManGrower]

Pick those puppies pronto.

[SoOrbudgal]

Here's what you need.

[NuggetMan]

This is a great example! I wish you had shown me this a while back because it is a decisional choice as to exactly when to harvest. Question: Would not the tops closer to light indicate this better as compared to the buds down lower??? Basically like frosting running down the sides of a cake more so outer than inner. See what I'm getting at?

[StillHigh1982]

Sweet, thanks. That's a cool picture, to actually see the different shades of clear all next to each other really helps to distinguish them from one another. It would be a poster I would buy for sure.

[FurnaceBoi]

Here's what you need.

Awesome pic. Just copied that.

[aliendong]

Thanks guys I'm going to keep an eye on them and harvest in the next few days. Pumped to finally get them drying! A friend told me to harvest before too much amber starts showing since they'll mature a bit more during drying, is that true?

[SoOrbudgal]

Well aliendong i can't say that they " mature " with curing i would say more that they get smoother and the high changes as the days go by with the cure. When you chop it down hang the branches in a darker room with air flow for few days. Take a tiny bud and smoke it test the mind/body reaction, do it at 2wks and notice a change (these buds should be in jars at 2wks and burp it daily take lids off till squishy but not crispy) that 1 month mark in the jar is going to change your world LOL I hope. Yes if you like wake & bake harvest your plant now after flushing. Have fun

[NuggetMan]

Depending on where you live and your current weather conditions, this will influence the first 3-7 days of drying, when buds are right to the touch ( you don't want them crispy!) and squeeze test ( the bounce back test after gently and lightly being squeezed), put them in holey (the size of a pencil for the holes) 1 gallon or 1 quart ( depends on how much you have) zip lock bags to finish drying and begins the curing process which again depends on where you live and current weather conditions. This could take an additional 3-10 days before ready to put in jars to complete the curing process. From there, it's your call... I learned this from my son and this really made a difference in the buds!!! Where I live, I used aluminum pans for each bag and would check the "dryness" and rotate the bags. I check about every 4 hours. And in case you did not know, you got to control the humidity in the curing jars! My High recommendation - use those humidity packs! This is where I had problems before, now my buds are chunky and dense!

My time from chop to jar was less than 7 days, 3 days from cut down to 3-4 days in baggies, then to jars to finish cure. from there you can "check it out".

This makes the difference in the quality of what you labored to grow pay off. It's got to burn right!

[gman420]

What humidity packs did you use?

[SoOrbudgal]

I don't use any humidity packs gman420 after doing this most my adult life plus my area is not high in humidity we are dryer.

[NuggetMan]

It's the humidity in the jar when it is closed as the buds cure is what I was referring to the use of those humidi-paks in the jars. It keeps it at 62%, and if you are in a dryer area this will help them not to dry out fast. It's like smoking meat long and slow...

[SoOrbudgal]

NuggetMan yes i know but i never had a issue because we can't keep weed long enough for it to go to dry. I know what your saying for long term storage. Yeah for long and slow it's how i cure. Except now we are smoking homegrown less than a month old we are waiting to harvest our outdoor.

[organic3]

Have you seen tops of my strong stuff buds before

[SoOrbudgal]

You burnt the tops

[FurnaceBoi]

Light burn for sure. They're bleached.

[FurnaceBoi]

Well. I just came into a few hundred bucks. Got offered a new 5x5 for $150 , which I have reduced to 109 with gift cards.

I was thinking 16 Plants in 3-gallon grow bags. Sea of green

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0132LPUTE/..._CkCoFb1NCF1MV

Ideas

I think a 16 plant setup running on clones will be perfect for me. If anyone has another unique small space 5x5 setup please let me know

[StillHigh1982]

I have a 5x10 and I did 12 plants and it was maxed. Now I only do 8. 12 is possible but it's a serious pain in the ass to defoliate and add yoyos, sog netting is a pain too in a tent that wide, reaching the middle without getting covered in resin is a learned skill for sure. Each plant needs at least 2 square feet but more like 3 if you want space to screw around in the tent. Depending on the way you are going to train, I'd say 10 plants max in 5x5, and that's for a packed house.

[Superjd]

Getting the plant-to-tent ratio right to avoid wasting seeds then getting the veg duration for photos. Example - I just got a new 4x4 tent and germinated 13 auto seeds, obviously way too much upon further research. Looks like I’ll be scrapping 5 and moving 2 to another tent. In short, a waste. Thanks experts!

[NuggetMan]

Do you really need 16 plants??? Wow!!!

[FurnaceBoi]

I just bought a 5x5 I was thinking 16 also. In 3 gal. NuggetMan. Your opinion would be appreciated.

[Superjd]

It was a total exaggeration and I’m scaling down to 4, 3 in larger and 1 in smaller tent. It was nice to see those all growing nicely but totally unmanageable.

[NuggetMan]

just to give you an idea, here are 6 freshly transplanted plants in 3 gallon pots. This next picture is one of my grows indoors with no tent and look at the space it took up... there were 8 in 3 gallon pots. You would still need breathing room for plants to grow and bush out...