My 1st Grow- Blue Dream / Purple Punch / Sour DLK

What's up forum! Figured I'd start a post on my first grow to see if anyone has tips/tricks for me along the way.

Some details on the grow:

Clones
I picked up 3 different clones on 5/24 and was told they were only a day or 2 old under 24 hr. lighting. The 3 strains are Blue Dream, Purple Punch, and Sour Diesel x Lemon Kush (SDLK), all from Dark Heart Nursery.


Transitioning to Outdoor
I live in Northern CA so outdoor temps are optimal and I get plenty of sunlight in my backyard. My main concern is transitioning them from being indoor to outdoor the right way at the right time.

To be honest, I had no idea they needed to be kept inside and slowly transitioned to outside. I was just planning on throwing them straight into the dirt! Luckily I was able to throw together a little rack with a 2 bulb LED lamp I had in the garage which I hope will do the trick.

I currently have it on a 18/6 timer, and have been putting the plants outside in partial shade for a bit longer each day. Today they were out there for about an hour. I'm fine letting them grow mostly indoors while transitioning them to completely outside. I've heard early June is an ideal time to get them out there?

I'm planning on transplanting the clones to 1 gallon pots in the next week or so once they've grown a bit. After that, I have 3 gallon pots which I was planning on keeping them in until harvest. I wanted to go 5 gallon but the wife was scared they would get too big haha. I picked up few bags of Black Magic potting soil to use.

Anyway, pics of the clones and grow rack are below...let me know what you think!

From the left- Sour Diesel x Lemon Kush | Purple Punch | Blue Dream
Thrown together grow rack:
Partial shade today

Future Grow Site:

Quick update- I had the clones outside in direct sunlight at the future grow site for about 4.5 hours yesterday and they did great!

On the downside, one of my cats got to the Purple Punch clone and went to town . Do you guys think it will survive???

I'm planning on transplanting the clones to 1 gallon buckets probably tomorrow and will be leaving them outside for longer and longer until they are out there permanently.

I also switched my indoor light cycle to 17/7 to get them used to the 14ish hours of outdoor sunlight they'll be getting this summer.

Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated!

SD X LK looking good!


Purple Punch after the cat attack....


Blue Dream stretching out!

5/30 Update:

I transplanted the babies into 1 gallon buckets today and filled them with Black Magic potting soil. After transplanting I gave them a fresh watering and dug holes to keep the pots cool below ground level.

I noticed some purple on the stems yesterday, which after doing research sounds like a magnesium deficiency. The Black Magic soil has some magnesium in it so hopefully that will do the trick.

I do have 2 questions and I'd love to hear what you guys have to say!

#1- I think the clones have hardened off enough to be outside full time moving forward. My only concern is about the temps overnight which are hovering in the low 50's right now. During the day it's low 70's-80's. Do you think the plants will be ok?

#2- I am planning on buying nutrients soon, and I saw that they have the 3 pack of foxfarm nutes on Amazon which is super convenient. Any other brands you guys might recommend looking into?

Grow Site


Sour Diesel x Lemon Kush


Blue Dream


Purple Punch (recovering from post cat-attack but appears to be ok)

50's are fine
I have mine out and they caught a couple nights of 39 f, clones are really adult plants and quite stout
Me personally I like liquid so I have been using Dyna-gro for years

Herb & Suds said:

50's are fine
I have mine out and they caught a couple nights of 39 f, clones are really adult plants and quite stout
Me personally I like liquid so I have been using Dyna-gro for years

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Thanks man, I'll check out Dyna-gro.

For your outdoor plants, have ever had to deal with temps being too high in the peak of summer? I know we can get up to mid 90's and was looking into buying one of those shade fabric things to hang over the plants when it's super hot to keep them from getting cooked.

Nice I can see that your Blue dream is the Santa Cruz BD not the so called Blue dream that leans more indica

AmericanGrower508 said:

Nice I can see that your Blue dream is the Santa Cruz BD not the so called Blue dream that leans more indica

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That's correct! The leaves are beautiful, much skinnier/longer than the other 2 clones.

I had the SC bd for 2 years but never flowered her, Me and my boys aren't big sativa guys. She is a vegging machine tho

AmericanGrower508 said:

I had the SC bd for 2 years but never flowered her, Me and my boys aren't big sativa guys. She is a vegging machine tho

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Yeah from the clone website it looks like they can become absolute monsters! Check this out- https://darkheartnursery.com/strains/blue-dream/

I hear you on the sativa, I definitely need a fully day of activities planned otherwise I can get anxious. I wanted to grow a sativa dominant, an indica, and a hybrid for my first time to see the different plant types which is why I bought these 3 strains.

roaf said:

Thanks man, I'll check out Dyna-gro.

For your outdoor plants, have ever had to deal with temps being too high in the peak of summer? I know we can get up to mid 90's and was looking into buying one of those shade fabric things to hang over the plants when it's super hot to keep them from getting cooked.

Click to expand...

Nah
I never worry about heat only mold and pest

5/31 update-


The clones had their first full day and night outdoors yesterday and seem to be doing just fine today. By my calculation, they are going to be getting somewhere between 8-9 hours of direct sunlight out of the 14-15 hours of daylight we have here in Northern CA.


I threw some extra dirt to cover up the rim of each pot because the black plastic seemed to be getting pretty hot in the sun. Hopefully the extra dirt can keep the pots a bit cooler.


I know people say that plants with leaves standing up towards the sun are happy, but hopefully they aren't getting too hot! The new sets of leaves are taco-ing a bit, not super bad though. Maybe they're just adjusting to the outdoor light?


Updated pics below, they are definitely growing!

6/4 update-

The clones have taken to the outdoors nicely and seem to be thriving! Even the Purple Punch looks awesome after being attacked by my cat last week.

Now that they're comfortably vegging, I am looking into topping the plants to encourage the plants to be more bushy. I understand the concept, but I've never done this before.

Are the clones too small to top right now? They are 2 weeks old and have about 3-4 sets of nodes each.

Any insight or alternative methods to topping would be much appreciated.



Thanks!

6/9 update-

We’ve got quite a few days of hot weather in the forecast! It’s 90 today and mid 90’s the next 2 days.

Thankfully the clones seem to be holding up nicely in the heat. I watered them this morning and only the SD x LK leaves are tacoing just a bit. The blue dream and purple punch seem to be doing fine.

I thought it would be a good idea to put an umbrella over them for the last few hours of direct sunlight to keep them from getting too hot. This won’t mess the plants up will it?

Also, if the clones are in black magic soil which has nutrients, when should I start feeding them? I’ve read you can wait a month or so in the soil before needing to feed. I ordered the 3 pack of fox farm nutes as well.

Thanks guys!






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I would love the communities insight....comments welcomed!!

Questions:
-If the clones are in black magic soil which has nutrients, when should I start feeding them? I’ve read you can wait a month or so in the soil before needing to feed. I ordered the 3 pack of fox farm nutes which I now have.

-Would it be a good idea to start topping them? I'd rather them be more bushy as opposed to Christmas trees, and it looks like they are past their 5th node and have quite a few flowering sites branching off the main stem.




Cheers!

6/17 Update-

They call them Weeds for a reason....what a difference a week makes!

The clones are vegging out nicely so I transplanted them from 1 gallon buckets to 3 gallon buckets on Saturday. I can't believe how many roots they had already developed...they were damn near root bound!

I also topped the Blue Dream and SD x LK clones last Wednesday and they seem to have recovered quite nicely as they already have lots of side branches coming up. I only topped the very tops of the plants though, not the other bud sites. The Purple Punch was fimmed by my cat at a very early stage so I decided not to top it again.


Questions:
-I'm not seeing any signs of nutrient deficiency and I'm guessing it's because the Black Magic soil I'm using has a decent amount in it. I have Fox Farm nutes....would it hurt to start using them even if the plants look fine?

-Should I top all of the future bud sites as opposed to just the very tops?

Thanks all!

Very nice!!! Diggin this outdoor grow.

Sir Patrick said:

Very nice!!! Diggin this outdoor grow.

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Thanks dude! I think I’m gonna prune some of the lower leaves and branches this afternoon to free up some space/let more sunlight in on the plants. They seem a bit crowded right now.

Looks like they are getting ready to take off. I wouldn't prune or trim yet. Those leaves are all gathering energy to fill out and grow.

6/24 update-

All 3 clones seem to be vegging along quite nicely! Now that they are a month old, I fed each of them with 3.75 ml's of Fox Farm Big Bloom & 3.75 ml's of Grow Big for the first time on Saturday with a half gallon of water which is about half the recommended dose.

The Blue Dream & SD x LK clones seemed to have taken the nutes just fine, but the Purple Punch had a bad reaction which I think was due to a nitrogen toxicity. I'll be cutting back on the amount of Grow Big I use on the Purple Punch clone next time since she's a sensitive one.

I topped the Blue Dream & SD x LK clones last week and they both have 2 nice main stems now. The Purple Punch is already so bushy, and I just FIM'd the top again Wonder what she'll look like come harvest time.

Moving forward, I'm planning on feeding them every other watering, which would be around once every 6 days.

Questions
-Should I defoliate some more of the fan leaves?
-Should I continue topping every bud site?
-Should I prune some of the lower bud site branches?

Pics below - thanks guys!

Left to right (Blue Dream /Sour Diesel x Lemon Kush / Purple Punch


Blue Dream


Sour Diesel x Lemon Kush



Purple Punch