I left off News Joint Grow Journal 6 with me believing I might have let my genetics sponsors (Mass Medical Strains) and partners (Aroma Grow Store and Homegrown Cannabis Co.) down because the leaves on my seedlings were yellowing.

ILNJ photo

I posted the above photo of my five plants (Steve DeAngelo’s Dream Queen, Amnesia Lemon, Blood Diamond OG, Prayer Pupil, and Swabi Pakistani 3) to end Grow Journal 6 with a weak teaser about me worrying whether my plants would bounce back or if I would spectacularly fail people who’d trusted me.

April 21, I balanced the pH in the water to 6.2 with my Milwaukee pen and pH solution and transplanted each plant into a five-gallon fabric pot inside my Gorilla tent (all sponsored by Aroma Grow Store). I transplanted my plants nearly a week earlier than planned, because I wanted a new start with fresh soil and properly pH balanced water.

I transplanted April 21. During the transplant, the Dream Queen crumbled apart before I could get her in the hole in the soil. The rest of the plants slipped right into place. For some reason, though, I didn’t put enough soil in the pots, which I address later in the grow.

As with nearly every aspect about growing at home, the advice for finding the correct pH balance for soil was numerous and varied. Some recourses suggested anywhere from 5.5-7.0. Some resources suggested 6-7. Some suggested in 6.3-6.8. Some suggested 5.8-6.2. Most resources ultimately showcased a cannabis pH chart or graph that displayed plant nutrient uptake and its optimal pH levels.

My water had been around 7.8, so the first time I watered them, I dropped the pH to the lower part of the scale at 5.8 to counter the previous higher pH level and hopefully reach the nutrients I hadn’t been.

I am running five different strains, and each one responded differently to different pH balance. So for the next week (and throughout my grow), I fluctuated the ranges from 5.8-6.2 and tried to respond to what my plants told me.

This is a photo of them one week later, April 27, and luckily for me, cannabis plants are more resilient and capable of bouncing back than I am flawed as a first-time grower.

ILNJ photo

Check back for News Joint Grow Journal 8 for the start of the vegetation stages.

ILNJ photo (May 5)

Click here for earlier entries of News Joint Grow Journal. A Prairie State of Mind.

ILNJ photo (May5)