First post, first grow.

Hi everyone.
 
I'm new to the city, but have been lurking for some time. I recently put together my first grow room.
 
It consists of:
 
- Seahawk 2.4m x 1.2m tent
- 150mm intake fan
- Phresh filter and Can fan combo
- Solis-Tek 1000w dimmable digital ballast
- Solis-Tek 600w HPS bulb
- Large Adjust-a-Wing reflector
- 2 height adjustable oscillating fans
 
My medium is coco in 50L pots. Watered by hand.
 
It's just coming to the end of summer here, and it's been a bit brutal on my first babies. At one point I remember seeing the temp in my room at 37C. The humidity has been a pretty constant 35-40%. I'm learning as I go, and I know I should have lower temps and higher humidity for my babies, but I don't have the disposable income to rectify that issue right now. I'm guessing the 2 oscillating fans in there have kept them going in through the heatwave. Those days it was 37C in the grow room, it was around 44-45C outside. Australian summers suck!
 
So for my first grow i've chosen to grow some Female Seeds White Widow x Big Bud. I read that it was a beginner strain, and pretty forgiving for the most part. It also has a reasonably high yield which is something I was after.
 
I germinated in paper towel which took 2 days. All 4 popped, and I dropped them into some little 3" pots with coco that i'd flushed with ph'd water. I think from memory it took 3 of them 2 days to break ground, and the last one pushed through the next day. That was the 18/1.
 
 
These are some pics I took of them on day 12 (30/1)
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Thanks Josh. Mine are a little older than yours I think.
 
Those pics were from the 30/1.
 
Here are some pics that I took last night 4/2, one day after transplanting them into their new 50 liter dwellings :-
 
Plant 1
 

 

 
Plant 2
 

 

 
Plant 3
 

 

 
 
And this one sprouted a twin which I clipped, and now it's growing all wonky and stuff. But i'm going to keep her around to see what she does.
 

 
 
The first 3 will be fimmed a couple of times and used in a scrog.
 
Stay tuned . . .

 

Hey guys. Just thought i'd check in with an update and a few pics.
 
So I had to go away for the weekend last weekend, and it was the weekend I was going to start my little ones on nutes. I was contemplating not giving them nutes until I got back on the Sunday night, but then I remembered what many City dwellers have said about not molly coddling your plants. They are a weed after all.
 
So before I went I mixed up 10L of food which consisted of 1/4 strength Coco Canna and 1/2 strength CMX. I then PH'd the mix to 5.9 and fed them ~3L each, and my little freak just enough to saturate.
 
I worried about them all weekend. Wondering if they were suffering from nute burn, or if I had fed them enough, or if we'd had a blackout. I just about ran out to check on them when we got home. Not only were the little ones ok, but they'd taken a liking to the food i'd given them to chow on while I was gone. I meant to take pics sooner, but i've been a bit busy this week.
 
So here are some pics I took this morning (13/2). I did attempt to fim them on Monday. The new growth is starting to come through, but I can't tell whether the fimming was successful or not yet.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
. . . and my freaky little thing
 

 

 
 
So I think i'll let them veg for at least another week or two before putting the screen over them. They have around 3-4" before they reach screen level, so I think i'll let them get to maybe 2-3" above screen level before putting it on and starting the jigsaw puzzle.
 
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

 

Thanks xander. I spent quite a bit of time making sure I got the scrog frame right, so I hope it works as well as I hope it to.
 
I pieced it together out of PVC piping, 30mm screws and bricklayers line.
 
PVC because it's modular and I can pack it away easily, and bricklayers line because it's nylon which is strong but softer than wire or fishing line. And because it's nylon i'll be able to cut it and pull it through my plants (when they're ready to be harvested) with a minimum of effort or damage to the plants. I also threaded my net like a tennis racquet (alternating under and over) so there would be more surface tension and less chance of unruly branches escaping upwards.
 
I have already laid down the base in my tent around my pots, and placed one of the legs in position as a reference to how tall the whole frame stands. If I aim to let them grow to 3-4" above the top of the leg, that should give me a good amount of growth to start spreading under the net.
 
More updates soon . . .

 

Thanks Josh. They're really starting to take off now. I'll get some pics up later tonight to show the results of the topping/fimming I did. Maybe get some feedback as to whether it worked properly or not.

A couple of the leaves have a little heat damage but with the cooler weather coming it should be minimal from here on in.

 

Pics as promised. Taken on 16/2 :-
 
Plant 1

 

 
Plant 2

 

 
Plant 3

 

 
. . . and my bushy little freak plant is doing well too.

 

 
This has happened to one or two leaves on plant 2. I've done some reading and i'm pretty sure it's heat stress. And I may have dripped some mixed nute solution on the leaves, but I didn't think it would damage the leaves this much. Some of the leaves have been canoeing slightly when i've checked on them during high heat. I have the 2 fans in there to combat the radiant heat from the HPS, which I currently have about 36" from the canopy, and dimmed to 400w, also to combat the heat.

 
This pretty common through most of my leaves. I know it's a little hard to see, but between the veins of the leaves, it's a little lighter and blotchy. I'm not sure if it's out of the ordinary. Just thought i'd point it out.

 

Hey Ruby. Thanks for stopping by and the positive input.

I was a little worried about starting my grow in the middle of summer, but with good ventilation and air movement they see to be doing pretty well. Only time will tell though I guess.

Fingers crossed for your little ones.

 

Hey guys.
 
Been a couple of weeks since I last posted.
 
The weather has cooled down allowing me to get my light down a lot closer to my forming canopy. It's around 12" or so at the moment and with the light on it sits between 27 and 30 celsius, and between 50 and 60% RH.
 
I have put the scrog net down and have been tucking for the past week or so, and am about to flip to flowering. I know my screen isn't full or anywhere near it, but the screen is quite low and I don't want to have to muck around too much under there. My frame legs for the next grow will be longer, as I expect to get my plants a bit taller next time. I'm pretty sure the heat cost me some growth at the start, and stunted my plants a little. They're less than a foot tall, but bushy as hell. Live and learn though I guess. I'm going to have to time it in the future so that i'm not germing in the middle of summer. Lol.
 
I've also been supercropping the new forming tops as they start to poke through. Tonight was the last time supercropping them before I flip tomorrow night. Then i'm going to give them a week before I trim underneath the canopy out for better ventilation.
 
Anyway, here are some pics I took today just after the lights went off. They're not the best as I just wanted to get in and out of there. I'm still iffy about taking photos and interrupting the dark cycle. That's why I did it just as the lights went off.
 
I have moved them around to accommodate my little freaky plant which went into a 14L pot which is 50/50 coco and perlite. I transplanted that one about a week ago, and she seems pretty happy for the most part. There's even a single freaky branch coming off one side.
 
Plant 1

 
Plant 2

 
Plant 3

 
. . . 'lil freaky . . .

 
Group shot

 

 

Thanks Leafy. I don't mind at all mate. The more hints and tips I can get from more experienced growers the better.
 
That was a bit of an oops on my part (stoned and tired I guess. Lol.) I forgot to resize them before I uploaded them. I fixed that up so it should be less painful now.
 
I spoke to my hydro guy and described what I was seeing. He said that the canoeing leaves were probably from the heat, and that may have affected the absorption of the nutes I was feeding them. So I upped to full strength nutes and raised my light a little and they've been good since.
 
My first day of flower today! I'm super excited! Can you tell?
 
I'll be feeding them their first lot of nutes with "Bud Juice" included that will be in their feeding regime for the first 4 weeks of flowering. On the 5th week i have Canna PK13/14 to give them that mid flowering boost that i've heard so much about.

 

Yeah me too. I know I could've veg'd for longer and got more coverage, but I realized I've made some mistakes along the way with this one I plan on rectifying with the next grow.

I'm going to try and keep my photo updates weekly. One thing I'm wondering about is taking photos once my lights have gone off. I know interrupting the dark cycle is bad, but if I'm doing it right as the lights go off I should be ok shouldn't I?

 

Yeah I've heard a few times that any undue stress increases the chance of hermies, and the temps that my young plants experienced would've been fairly stressful already so from here on in I'm trying to stress them as little as possible. So I think I'll just have to take my pics within the first minutes of lights off.