[Moved from General Indoor Growing] Hey guys, this is my first grow log, and I'm a first time GC poster. Hoping for some experienced eyes during my first cycle. I've been lurking for a little bit, and this seems like a badass community. Any comments, critique or advice is greatly appreciated. Here's the details: Preliminary: + FoxFarms Ocean Forest soil (moisturized before entering the pot) + All water is filtered, measuring a 6.5 pH automagically + Lumatek shroud with 600w bulb - 6" ducts w/ inline fan venting out of the grow room + 3 gallon pots with tray + 6 healthy looking Bubba Kush clones from Berkeley (nice white roots showing) + Basement space, roughly 12 ft x 25 ft - Has been sterilized, scrubbed and dried after a hell of a lot of thorough work + Reflective sheeting surrounding 75% of the grow area from Day 2 onward - With vent holes reducing temp by a degree or two + Two buckets of water to increase grow room humidity from day 2 onward + Two stationary fans circulating air - With one fan trained on the plants at low intensity from 5-6 feet away - Heard this helps with stalk size & overall health... + HEPA filter w/ exhaust cooling the ballast 9/11/09 DAY 1: Water: Soil was pre moistened and got one moderated watering Lighting: 18 hours solitary, uninterrupted lighting Nutrients: None Temperature: ~ 78-80 evening temp Humidity: ~ 65% Notes: + Plants 1-6 looking healthy, showing slight improvement, & little to no stress from transfer + Several spiders spotted in the room for the first time in days - I know they can be good for plants, but I can't live with 'em + About 5.5-6 inches tall for plants 1-6 9/12/09 DAY 2: Water: Watered each plant until a slight run off (recycled run off for watering) Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: None Temperature: 74 min 84 max, ~ 77.4 f / 62% h when undisturbed Humidity: 52% min 67% max Notes: + Noticeable growth in height, plants now measure ~ 6.5 avg + Reflective sheeting installed today + First humidity bucket installed + Irrigated the edges & middle of soil carefully + Plants seem slightly droopy toward the end of dark cycle + Standing tall in the light artificial wind (aside from slight droop) + Brighter green patches at the tops of plants + Small, slightly darker, purple-y patches on stalks + Cleaned, organized, swept and made the room 100% efficient & functional + Added some conversation co2 for about an hour 9/13/09 DAY 3: Water: Soil was still very moist, only intermittent misting Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: None Temperature: 75 min 81 max Humidity: 65 min 71 max Notes: + Little to no visible growth today + Plants look slightly droopy toward the end dark cycle + Plants do noticeably perk during light hours - Do look slightly better than yesterday, more "upright" + Second bucket increased the humidity noticeably Some questions I have: + Had a friend suggest Potassium Silicate (IIRC) to help roots with temp variance.... thoughts? + Same friend says Botanica big/grow/bloom set is much better than the GH Flora set because of a difference in Sodium (IIRC)... thoughts? - Silica blast? + When precisely to give first Nutes? (I've heard vague figures) + Does regular or intermittent breeze help strengthen plants, or am I asking for windburn? EDIT: Initial pics from Day 2: http://img24.imageshack.us/i/img0069uc.jpg/ http://img89.imageshack.us/i/img0070qa.jpg/ http://img201.imageshack.us/i/img0071gc.jpg/ http://img529.imageshack.us/i/img0072a.jpg/ http://img89.imageshack.us/i/img0073uq.jpg/ http://img9.imageshack.us/i/img0074vp.jpg/
PIC UPDATE! 9/14/09 DAY 4: Water: Have not watered yet, light misting Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: None Temperature: 75 min 85 max during light hours (and hottest time of day) Humidity: 55 min 72 max during light hours Notes: + Relatively Same height + Lower leaves starting to come out nicely, seem to look healthy + Any sign of yellow/light green in the tops are gone + Still purple-y parts of stalk Sorry if pics are too big, I don't know how to make cuts or spoiler tags on this board: I http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9430/img0120t.jpg II http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2641/img0121s.jpg III http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8080/img0122g.jpg IV http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3092/img0123k.jpg V http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5725/img0124er.jpg VI http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2024/img0125vj.jpg A purple patch of stalk that apparently makes the plant look blurry: http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2796/img0126wp.jpg Is that coloration normal for Bubba Kush, or is the plant trying to tell me something?
Roommate is supposed to have pics of the Day 1/2/3 stuff and the grow room setup, I'll try to get those up soon. The only thing I'm a little worried about is the air temperature levels; they're varying a bit more than I'd like. I'm thinking I can insulate one of the doors to the grow room (leads to outside, has decent sized cracks that air gets through) to bring the max temp down and the min temp up to a tighter overall range. Thoughts? Advice anyone? What can I be doing better?
End of day 4 pictures: Tops: I Imageshack - img0127c II Imageshack - img0128zm III Imageshack - img0129rf IV Imageshack - img0130c V Imageshack - img0131l VI Imageshack - img0132j Yellowing at the tips? Imageshack - img0133s Profile shot, end of Day 4 dark cycle: Imageshack - img0134l Notes: + Undisturbed dark temperature stabilizes around 74 f + Undisturbed light temperature stabilizes around 78.5 f + Humidity is staying consistently between 65% - 72% depending on fan circulation Off to look up what the yellow coloration is all about...
9/15/09 DAY 5: Water: Light misting only Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: None Temperature: 82.4 f Humidity: 62% Notes: + Same height, looking more full + Noticeable new growth coming from underneath + Plant 3 has a leaf that is continuing to yellow out and look unhealthy. Most advice we are getting suggests that we may prune it if it gets worse, as the plant doesn't need to devote energy to a lost cause.
9/16/09 DAY 6: Light cycle - 1:50pm Height measures as follows: I - 7.5 inches tall II - 7.5 inches tall III - 8 inches tall IV - 7 inches tall V - 7.5 inches tall VI - 6 inches tall Water: 8oz to the base of each plant, + light misting Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: misted with Liquid Karma trace elements Temperature: 71.5 f - 85.9 f; 83.9 f with three humans in the room (we usually add 1.5 - 2 degrees) Humidity: 58-72%, 61% during inspection Notes: + Sprayed a Liquid Karma solution on the underside of all leaves. Less than one ml of liquid karma was mixed into our spray bottle (half a liter or so) and we sprayed the underside of the plants. Liquid Karma is a seaweed/kelp extract that contains many trace elements, and has been highly, highly recommended to us. The plants perked up within a few minutes of application, and we're hoping they will react well to the solution. + II & III look very full and healthy + I & V look like they are about to become much more full in foliage + IV is looking healthy and promising, though I'd like to see more branches underneath + VI is visually looking great- healthy green, great looking leaves, very full... but significantly smaller than the others. Plant VI has been rotated to the most reflective corner of the tray. Looks full and ready to go, lets hope the extra light is what it wants, as I think it's mostly stayed in the front rotation where it gets a bit less. + Plants were lightly misted with h2o + Artificial wind will be turned off during dark cycle
9/17/09 DAY 7: Light cycle - 11:00am Water: 12oz to the base of each plant Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: Misted underside of leaves with Liquid Karma Temperature: 71.5 f - 86.8 f ; current temp is 84.8 f Humidity: 55 - 73% ; 65% during inspection Notes: + Massive growth overnight! Almost unbelievable. Pics below + Leaves look noticeably thicker and healthier. I could not be more happy with how perky they are, every single leaf is just bursting to life, stretching as far as they can. We are seeing the classic, thick ropey chronic leaves on the tops of our plants. BAD ASS. + Today we bit the bullet and pruned the dying leaf from plant III. It looked damaged/burned/dying and had looked that way since we got it as a clone. Plant III looks healthy in all other respects and we are hoping for the best from here. + Refilled our humidifier (5 gallon bucket filled with water and air circulating over it) Pictures: angled Imageshack - img0172mi Imageshack - img0170po Imageshack - img0172mi tops Imageshack - img0176ff Imageshack - img0177zh Imageshack - img0183o gallery http://img24.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=img0164it.jpg
9/18/09 DAY 8: Light cycle 11:00am Water: 4oz of water to the base of each plant Lighting: 18 hours Nutrients: Agave extract mixed into water & misted under leaves Temperature: 71.5 f - 86.8 f ; 84.6 f during inspection Humidity: 55 - 73% ; 62% during inspection Height: I - 9 inches tall II - 9.5 inches tall III - 9.5 inches tall IV - 8.5 inches tall V - 9 inches tall VI - 8 inches tall Notes: + MONSTERS. The height increases within the last few days has been phenomenal + Plants look incredible. I almost couldn't be happier. I am a novice grower but I can definitely tell that these plants are healthy and happy. + On a semi-related note, I find myself rapidly developing a deep emotional attachment to my babies. I mean, the plants. Ahem. + IV looks extra full + VI is coming along much more strongly now, looking bigger and taller but still lagging slightly behind the height of the others. VI has been rotated to a central spot where it will continue to get plenty of light. + We added 4oz of water with a small amount (less than a teaspoon mixed into a quart of h2o I'd estimate... it was rather unscientific) to the base of the plant. This was to get the agave into the roots, otherwise we would have not watered until dark cycle, as the soil was still damp. My main concern at this point is just to not over-water, over-nute, and just generally not drop the ball. The plants look great, and this has to be priority at this point. I would have abstained from more water, but the same friend that convinced us to try the liquid karma swears by the agave, and with the results that we saw, I feel we can't afford not to try a bit. It's supposed to be a basic, organic, sugary carbohydrate for the plants to munch on. We will see how they react to it by tomorrow. Pics: http://img508.imageshack.us/i/img0185do.jpg/ http://img508.imageshack.us/i/img0186h.jpg/ http://img199.imageshack.us/i/img0187jh.jpg/ Day 8 gallery http://img508.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=img0185do.jpg
Looking pretty good man. Got some nice details. It's good to keep that shit down so you can go back to it to figure out where something went wrong if it goes wrong.
Will have internet only intermittently for the next few months, won't be able to read any replies, don't bother GC. Thanks.