Nice looking grow man! Those plants look fine to me, I'm relatively new myself, currently on my 3rd grow and this just so happens to be my first post here at RIU but I can tell you I learned most of the how to from reading hundreds of posts at this place. One thing I learned after a couple grows is this - its really not that hard - the damn things want to grow - oh, we will perfect our craft over the years and the plants will get better and better but in the end it grows like an annoying weed in your yard would. Having just read your journal I could remember dealing with the same things you're mentioning during my first grow. I thought for sure I'd killed my plants a dozen times that first grow, over water, under water, yellow lower leaves, too much nutes, to few nutes, leaves burnt up from a CFL resting on them for a few hours, I was a mess thinking it was a lost cause and the damn things just kept on growing.
I grew that time in 8" pots, and watered every 3-4 days, I had a slight run off with each water, the leaves were perky at times droopy at others, but still growing. Also, I use the complete line of Fox Farms and Tiger Bloom at 1/4th the recommended strength burnt the crap out of my girls, Maybe it was the strain but it loved everything I gave it except tiger bloom burnt the leaf tips real bad (but it still grew). Also the smell, now I admit my ventilation system and DIY carbon filter were hardly the best but man the whole damn house stunk bad, I mean real bad, it wasn't a huge problem where I am but just make sure you're ready for that possibility with a quick fix of some sort, I found a scented oil thing burning in ANOTHER room (had mine by the front door) masked it alright but close to the grow my god it stunk. I think you'll be much better off with your set up as far as odor goes. Also on LST, I was nervous also, but my first go I tried it all, topped one, filmed one, LSTed one, and the LST had the most bud, I used soft yarn and duct tape to the side of the pot, worked fine and the LSTed plant in the end had the best yield, maybe coincidence but for a level canopy and full round plant I LST them all now.
The main thing though, and trust me it's going to be very, very hard is to be patient, let the plant finish, when you think its done probably best to wait 2 more weeks, let them hairs recede into the bud and there is a sort of golden tint that glows on the bud, there are so many posts on when its done, is it done yet, or I got 50% cloudy can I chop, etc. all a result of being impatient. I absolutely without a doubt cut my first crop about 2-3 weeks early, the bud was good but not up to its potential. Then my second mistake was not curing it long enough, man I smoked that shit up, oh I hung it for 4 days, jarred it for 2 days then just a nug to taste and before I knew it, about the time my cure SHOULD have been done I was almost out of weed. Now my second grow was grown until finished, dried and cured properly and man, it was the best damn smoke ever, oh I've had better smoke I guess, but not that I grew myself so it was a very satisfying accomplishment. So, in summary, its gonna work out just fine, be careful with the tiger bloom, and be patient
again, nice grow looking forward to watching this one and good luck with being patient.
