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Step 6

The first feed.

I generally don't feed plants for the first 28 days (which in this case is the entire veg cycle) and when I do it is with a gentle guano tea (see above). I personally keep my feeding schedules fairly low providing a low stength guano tea every week after the first four and until the last 2 or 3, some people feed more, some less, strain to strain will need different amounts to grow optimally but you only learn that over time and through experience. There is NO right feeding schedule.

Step 6a

Training and/or topping. Whilst in this veg stage it can be worth training your plant to grow lower by tieing it down or topping it. I personally prefer low stress methods and hence tend to opt for tieing my plants rather than topping.





Step 6b

Sexing your plants. Now you can do this waiting for preflowers (in veg or early flower) to develop (see this thread) or you can take a cutting and flower that, for a beginner the first is probably the one to take. Either way, remove the males unless you want to make seeds.

Once you've sexed your plants you can ditch the males and continue training the females or put them into flower. This depends on how long veg time you want and big you want your plants to be. I've vegged from as little 28 days from seed to as much as 100 days from seed.



Step 6c

Gathering your next crop. Before flowering your plants it is worth taking several cuttings off your best females in order to keep your genetic line and to guarantee that in your next round you will only have females.

I take cuttings using Oasis (sponge like material available from florists, normally used for flower arrangements) and the way to do it is a thread in itself but briefly:

1. Water mother plant thoroughly;
2. Pre soak Oasis blocks and make 3/4 inch deep holes in them using the centre (ink) piece of a biro;
3. Cut off the branch (an hour or so after watering mum) above last growing nodes (so that the branch will be replaced) ensuring that there will be a growing node under the ground and another (or two) above the ground;
4. Re make this cut but at a 45 degree angle;
5. Scarate the end of the cutting (place the end between the scissor blades and run it up and down almost as if you were peeling it);
6. Optionally add a little rooting hormone into the hole in the Oasis cube and insert your cutting.
7. Place these cuttings in a saucer of water and replace water every 24 hours. Keep these saucers on a heating mat and under and moisture dome with some air flow.
8. When rooted place cuttings, Oasis cube and all, into a soil filled pot.

Step 7

Moving to flowering. When your plant is the size and width that you want it to be when you begin flowering (remember plants will double in height during flowering) you simply switch the lighting pattern to 12 hours on and 12 hours off (a few use 10 on and 14 hours off).

Whilst there is some truth that a Cannabis plant isn't sexually mature until it's internodal growth is showing alternate phyllotaxy (branching is no longer opposite) most strains have enough non tropical genes in them to allow them to be forced to maturity at a much younger age than nature would prescribe. Equally, many many strains show preflowers whilst retaining opposite phyllotaxy far far earlier than they show alternate phyllotaxy, hell, alternate phyllotaxy isn't even something people generally talk about unless they grow tropical sativas that need a maturation period.

And since we don't want big plants, we're going to force these babies. Before flowering is commenced it is worth giving one last veg strength feeding to ensure good solid stem growth through the initial s t r e t c h phase in flowering (2 to 3 weeks)



After this feed switch to a more flowering orientated fert (see above) or else you could slow the flowering process down and lessen the final possible yield.

For the first 10 days to two weeks the plants will s t r e t c h upwards faster than at any other stage in growth and if you are using flouro's it is here that you will have to really work at keeping your lights as close as possible without actually touching the plants. After this initial stretch buds will begin to form and fatten.












The last two weeks are the key in putting on weight but during these final two weeks it is worth giving your plants nothing to eat but plain water in order to flush any chemicals out of them in the run up to harvest. You should see them begin to eat the nutrience stored inside themselves, seeing the leaves turn to yellow.

Step 8

Pre harvest. In the last week before harvest keep a close eye on the trichomes of your bud and when the majority have changed from transulcent to white (and maybe a few to amber) you know your bud is ready to be cut.

As this time approaches (a couple of days before the cut) I place my plants in a slightly shaded area of the garden to allow for extra resin growth and remove most of the fan leaves to make manicuring easier. As mentioned above, I also only water at this stage, no food.

Step 9

Harvest and manicure. The day before harvest don't water your plant, that way you will not have quite so much moisture in it. When harvest comes try to harvest in the morning (after dark period) to maximise THC content of the resin.

Chop the plants buds of and remove the majority of leaf material (which can be saved for the bubble bags to make hash if they are nice and resiney) using sharp scissors. No explanation is needed really of this process at it is self explanatory. The first time you do it it is also fun, after that, well, it becomes a chore.

Check out a thread called [URL="http://www.yahooka.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550 90&highlight=phallic"Phallic/URL] for some pictures of a manicure in progress.

Step 10

Drying and curing. Hang your manicured bud out to dry in a temperate and dark space with plenty of air movement (but not air blowing directly onto the buds as this will dry them too fast and produce a crispy bud) for 3 - 7 days until they are dry, a good rule of thumb is testing to see if the stems break. If they crack rather than bend then they are almost certainly dry enough.

At this stage the buds are OK to smoke but will taste and perform a lot better if cured for a couple of weeks.

To do this place the bud in mason jars with the lids closed for two weeks. During this two weeks remove the lid from the jar every day (twice a day preferably) to exchange the air, it is wise for the first week to actually remove the bud and repack it too to make sure there are no wet patches. If there is any sign of moisture remove the bud and re dry.

agent022911

i need advice with regards to my plant. it's about 8 weeks old and i just planted on regular gardening soil. but i noticed lately (week 7-8) that the leaves have small yellow dots. and i have a couple of leaves that have some brown patches. what do i do?

toastedkat

What beautiful stuff here! Thanks for doing all that work.

I've never been a plant person but started tossing seeds in the ground and one of them ended up being a MJ plant. I didn't even recognize what it was until I asked my sister and she said "Looks like MJ to me!" How could I be so OH-blivious??

I watered the plant every day and ended up planting it in the green house of a friend. We did nothing for this poor plant but still got dinky little buds, so I thought, why not try.

I keep seeing all these beautiful pictures and thinking mine will never look like that because I'm going so bare bones here. CFL bulbs and a couple of 24" Bulbs of America grow bulbs from Wallie World...

I've been studying for weeks now and am overwhelmed (one of the reasons I need to grow! LOL). But I plan to really establish a relationship with this plant I'll be growing and pay attention to giving it the best life I can. Maybe I'll be rewarded.

Thanks again for posting this! Great job

steve7680768

Thanks man for sharing this with us...
I can imagine that how much time you have spent to make this post.. And I really appreciate your effort...

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STEVE

farmergiles

Yeah thanks sureshot, wherever you are.

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