After having a great success on my first grow, I decided to keep a grow journal here for my 2nd grow but unfortunately, I didn't get much out of it and that is down to the rooting and not changing the reservoir often enough. This is my new set up in a 40x40cm square tent that is 60cm high. I am using DWC pots and using root riots in the beginning with rockwell cubes later before transferring to the pots. I have put the seeds in the rootriots and put them in a heated propagator until I see some roots. I am keeping the light at the top for now, that should be ok at 26 inches above the rootriots and as they get moved to the pots will get closer to the lights and even more when they grow. Hopefully that should be good with just 1 light until they're established. I will keep a sprayer to keep them moist with tap water at 7.5Ph & 0045 PPM At first, I didn't spray any water on the rootriots because it looked as though they were moist but this morning, they were bone dry so I damped them up! The idea is to have a grow go through that doesn't need complex nute calculations and other fancy pants stuff and keep it as a low maintenance effort. So far putting the tent up (and taking down the old one) has been lots of effort! I'll be able to check on this just to see if there's any problems and the size of the pots means that changing the water every 10 days wont be as much trouble as emptying out a 72L reservoir! (thanks @Spanish@rcher for the advice!)
part 1 - Germintation & Seedling stage Day 1 put seeds in to root riots in a warming seedling propagator Day 2 realised root riots weren't damp so made sure to use a water spray bottle to damp them up evening - turned warming propagator off. No need at these tent temperatures I think. Still using the spray bottle regularly Day 3 - nothing happening Day 4 - 10am - and out of nowhere, a wild seedling threatens to appear! Day 5 Seedling has popped right out now. It doesn't appear to be stretching but it's early and I will keep an eye on it today Day 6 A new seedling appears so I put on the other light. it's another 300w LED at 26" above the seedlings (that's as high as it goes) and I can see a root on seed 1. I have seen from @Spanish@rcher that I should let them get more roots before I move to a cube so I will let them be a little damp while that happens. Meanwhile I'll clean my cubes Day 7 Woo, the first seed (known as seed 1 from now on) has got multiple roots showing out the side of the rootriot. I'm so pleased it turned out just like @Spanish@rcher said it would It's time to clean the rockwool. I'm following arrow boys advice on his thread on how to do that so I've taken one of the buckets and put two cubes in there and measured the Ph at 7.3 and change the water regularly until it stabilises. And then introduce some light nutes and calmag to the water and soak them in that before transpalnting the rootriots Ooh I'm excited to see how well these go now that I can see evidence of multi roots! Day 8 more roots are appearing and seed 2 has got one root at the moment, it'll be a couple more days I think to show more roots. Hard to resist keeping the root riots watered, if they're a bit damp then I don't spray them. According to forum posts, that's what makes them send out more roots to search for water. Day 9 Hurray, seed 2 is showing more roots and seed 1 is growing fine. A couple more days and it'll be time for the rockwell cubes which I've been soaking for a few days and changing the water regularly. I'm not sure whether to put some mild nutes in the water that the cubes are in. I'll check in on @Spanish@rcher 's post I've ordered a USB powered submersible pump and another fermentation bucket (for wine making) so I can transport 30L of water upstairs at a time. Sweet! Day 10 Oops, the root riots dried right up because I turned the heat back on and took the cover off to use the fan over the seedlings. The roots seemed to have disappeared this morning so I put the cover back on and the heat off, after a few sprays of water they seemed ok. I'm not panicking too much, seedlings must have gone through a dry spell in the history of things growing. I think I will transfer seed 1 to a rockwell cube today. Seed 2 will be in a couple of days. Day 11 it looks like the seedlings recovered from a dry rootriot once I'd sprayed them. Seed 2 has shown more roots out of the rootriot. I'm going to transplant seed 1 root riot to a rockwell cube today. I'm going to use this time to utilise the tip I got from @Diatt to work out the ppm/per ml/per litre of water for each nute so I know roughly what I need to add to get to the ppm explained by @Spanish@rcher in the cubes ooh so close to stage 2! Just put one of the rootriots in a soaked cube at 5.6pm 248ppm. I meaured ppm before and after nutes A+B and CalMag Dwc pot 14L Ppm 28 Calmag 5ml = +42ppm Nute A 5ml = +90 Nute B 5ml = +53 Total = 213ppm Ph 7.6 (added Ph down/up + 35ppm) Day 12 oh no! seed 2 nearly dried up! it was all droopy this morning when I opened the tent. I realise that I forgot to put the cover on the propagator so it wasn't as humid in the grow area. It's weird because I remember a dream about something growing and surviving last night. (maybe it was sending me plant psychic messages?) Luckily it seems to have recovered some way towards getting back on track. I switched the 2nd LED off for now like @Diatt said to do. They're both 300W lights but don't draw the full 300w from the wall, they're LED'S so it's called 300W because they're equivalent to 300W bulbs in terms of output. I'll keep checking on it today. The other seed is doing great! it reminds me of my first grow on how it looks. I'll get seed 2 strong again and put it in a bigger cube like it's sister tomorrow Added to the cube this afternoon instead so it has a back up of moisture to draw on. I hope I have got away with the little emergency. It seems to have bounced back a bit One week in these should be enough to see some roots out of the cube. I hope so! Day 13 yey! seed 2 (on the right hand side) looks like it has fully recovered and is fine again. I'm using the spray bottle to make sure the rootriot and cube remain damp but no soaking and of course, I'm remembering to keep the propagator cover on! I haven't checked for roots coming yet, that will happen in the week. Once that's there, it's time for the DWC buckets! I'm going to cover the cube with foil or similar so it doesn't get mouldy like the last one. Day 14 It's been two weeks since I put the seeds into the rootriots and they're looking good! Both are now happily in the Rockwell cubes. I put some off cuts off the corner of the Rockwell cube to wedge the rootriots in so they do not move about and they seem to be fine with the initial soaking in lightly nuted water I measured the ppm etc again and its still between 225 and 250 ppm with a stable 5.6ph There is a tiny bit of discolouration on seed 2 for the very first leaves. Perhaps because it received the nuted water 2 days earlier than seed 1. It does seem to be the smaller of the two but still recovering from the dried out cube. Day 15 yey, seed 1 has got roots poking out of the Rockwell cube! Seed 2 is not as strong and has a bit of colour on the first leaves but it seems to be doing ok. I expect a root out of the cube in a couple of days. Day 16 oops, nearly let seed 1 dry out. I am opening the tent door and taking the lid off the propagator during the day so the fan can caress the plants so they get strong and thick stalks. (so I'm told) But all was good once I wetted it again and now I've got roots coming out of both seedling cubes! Day 17 Both plants are looking really good! I can see roots coming out of the cube and really looking forward to watching them explode in the pots once they start getting some access to continuous water. Day 18 Ooh big root action out of seed 2! Seed 1 is looking compact and ready to explode when it gets access to a reservoir I'm really pleased with how these are working out. I have to be careful of mould getting on the cubes, I'm moving to pots tomorrow and will use some foil over the cube to hopefully stop that from taking hold. Ooh I wonder how these will go! Seed 2 is 2 days younger, both were put in rootriots at the same time but seed 2 took a bit longer to sprout. Perhaps it will catch up? Day 19 Today is the day to move seed 1 to the hydro pot. I was considering putting both seeds in pots today but I think there is room for one in a pot and seed 2 to stay in the cube for a couple days more seeing as it was late to the sprouting party. The roots are looking good on seed 2. Oh they are going to bloom!
part 2 - Veg day 20 I put seed 1 in a hyrdro pot yesterday, made sure that all the nutes and ph were on track and wetted the cube and used some foil over the cube so it doesn't grow anything that I don't want on the cube Checked this morning and seed 1's cube was fairly dry. Understandable considering the heat and it hasn't reached the water yet with the roots so I used a beaker to pour some of the bucket water over the cube Day 21 I was a little worried about the seedling, it looked a bit droopy so I used the water pump to put some water over the cube from the reservoir. Still no roots have made it to the water yet. I'll move seed 2 to a pot today and move the light a smidge higher. It must be a foot closer with the introduction of the pot so perhaps a few inches higher might be better? Day 22 Seed 1 looked a bit droopy but after putting seed 2 in the pot I noticed that the clay balls were completely over the rockwell cube which appeared to keep it more moist inside and wasn't as droopy so I put more clay balls over seed 1's pot so it covers the cube and that appears to have helped a little. next time I will put them in the net pots of the pot lid until some roots show out and then put them in to a reservoir pot. Both are holding stable at PH6.3 and around 250 - 280 ppm I'm using some upturned plastic boxes to maybe keep their humidity up while the roots work their way down to the water in the pot which I have slightly over filled to give the roots a chance to get to some water to suck up Day 23 I took the plastic box covers off both plants last night, it does look as though they are not thirsty. I want them to start exploring downwards for more water. Once those roots hit the reservoir, I'm sure they'll go wild! I just can't see any yet. I think that next time I can use my old net pots on their own and only put them in the buckets once I can see roots coming out Day 24 hooray, the roots have reached the reservoir which is maintaining below 6.5ph for now which is good. I should start to see some real growth over the next few days as the existing roots find their way to the water. I must say that these look much healthier this time and I have high hopes for getting high from them. It's kind of hard being dry while they grow because I know it'll be another 2 months at least before I can taste them! I think that I will get some quick growing skunk when these purple buds have ran out Day 25 Really pleased that everything is looking good, the roots are going great into the water. I do have a couple of discoloured bottom leaves on seed 1 but they don't appear to be showing any further issues. I do have to adjust the ph a little I think, i will try to keep it around 6 or even better 5.7. i'll do that with adding some lower PH water to the mix. It's nice to have a visual indication of how much water they're using too. I like that. Day 26 WOW! I'm so pleased with how these are turning out. The root thing made a huge difference to get them established before going to the hydro pots. Seed 1 is reaching and spreading now after a couple of weeks getting it's feet. I should bring a tape measure to the tent so I can be certain of how much they're growing. I wonder if this would warrant a scrog or if I can just use some ties? Day 27 Going great! Ph is at 6.6 now so I will add some water to the reservoir later today and prepare a bucket for changing the water on seed 1 I managed to get a ruler but the measurement is not clear when I take a photo so I'll make a clear one out of cardboard today Day 28 Managed to change the reservoir for seed 1 today. all looking good Day 29 wow! seed 2 has exploded with growth and roots! I'll have to check back and see what was different for that one. I'm ready to change the reservoir on seed 2 today. I'm at 250ppm and 5.7ph in my water . perhaps it needs stronger nutes? Oh this is going to be so much joy to consume! Day 30 + 31 Seed 2 res change and the Mrs said it looked a bit sick. I realised that I had overfilled the res so the roots could reach but saw recently about the roots needing the oxygen they get from the gaps in the pebbles so I evened out the water and it appears to have worked! Day 32 I think seed 2 has recovered from the near drowning it experienced. Both pots are showing water being used. I think I will let them get lower before topping up and changing. I installed another air pump so now each pot has two air stones at maximum bubbles. I was paranoid about the buzzing last time but now I'm located somewhere else, it's ok. I keep the tent flap open during the day too and the hydrometers have smiley faces when I do that so it must be much cooler that way (obviously) Day 33 I damaged seed 1 when I lifted it yesterday and it had an almost broken leaf. I used a small tie to lift it up. perhaps it can recover? Seed 2 looks like it's back on form. Tent starting to smell too. I'm ok with it, I have an extracter and filter which I guess is working when I close the flap at night because no smell. I'm still leaving the door open during the day when it's near the window. That's perfect , keeps it cool and steals a few photons from the sun Day 34 Topped up the water today. Made sure I didn't put too much so they are have plenty of oxygen in the pot part of the root structure. Seed 1 is expanding and starting to move into seed 2's territory. I raised the lights the length of a small clip because the leaves on seed 1 were curling up a the ends and it was literally an inch away from the top. I broke a flower off! oops, it happened when I was checking the roots on seed 1, I had lifted the pot top to have a look and because the lights were so close, it bent the plant previously. I'm more careful now with them. Day 35 I added some grow led bars to the poles in the tent. I ordered them from wish.com and they literally burn your fingers if you grip the aluminium surrounding. I thought that I'd wired them up wrongly but a search shows that is found with other peoples experiences too. Seed 1 is growing slower that seed 2, I can see from the water levels that it is not drinking as much as seed 2 which is doing really well! Day 36 Took the light bars off. I wasn't comfortable leaving them in the tent. Way too hot! Seed 2 is drinking way more than seed 1. I think seed 2 had a better root system before I put it in
part 3 - Flowering Day 37 Both plants are growing great! they've really spurted over the past couple of days and I can see lots of places where flowers are going to turn in to beautiful buds! they're getting big, soon they'll fill the whole tent. I'm not considering a scrog this time around, it's too fiddly moving things around in the tent. I'll see how it goes naturally changing the water today on seed 1 Day 38,39 Still going strong, changed the reservoir on seed 1. Made the light a teensy bit higher because the top of the leaves were almost touching the light case. And I bloody dropped my ph meter in the reservoir! lesson learned, get water out and test that is much easier. I think I might have damaged seed 1 when I was installing the light bars which I ended up taking out because they were too hot. Lot's of flowers on seed 1 and 2, all looking good for a reasonable harvest! some mild coloured spots on seed 1 on a few leaves. not massive like my first grow but still there. perhaps that was a ph thing? Day 40 Seed 2 is drinking a lot and has got a whole load of flowers on it that are threatening to be really tasty! seed 1 isn't drinking as fast, it's still got plenty of flowers though day 41 Both plants needed a drink by the same amount, looks as though seed 1 is on the same intake as seed 2 now. I'm still waiting for the Ph meter to arrive and then I can get up another refill bucket and get that to 400-500 ppm,the refill I'm doing is currently at 400ppm Day 42 + 43 I changed the water on seed 2 . Set at 5.7Ph and 430ppm. Both plants are drinking the same now so I topped them up this morning (day 43) Measured ppm and ph after topping up / replacing Day 44 Both plants needed the same amount of water top up last night and this morning it looks like they're still thirsty! I'm pleased with how this grow is proceeding. I can see the buds merging together like on some other grows which is really pleasing I need to get a regular light up near the tent so I can take some good colour pictures instead of the purple colour Day 45 Official half way point. I feel that the flowers have come on sooner this time around. I'm not sure that it will need another 45 days. I routed some ducting from the top of the exhaust fan to an open window because when the tent is closed, it gets really hot in there and previously it was just blowing out the top of the tent and it was making the room baking hot! Day 46,47 I needed to change the reservoir in both pots because the leaves were looking a little discoloured and when I checked the PPM of the reservoirs, they had both creeped up to 1400! no wonder the leaves were screaming! I guess that as I was topping them up, the plants did their thing of leaving some nutrients in the water which made them get concentrated. I've replaced the water, it's still creeped up to 700-800 . I'll keep topping up with non-nuted water for a few days and it should get down to 500 or so Day 48 Using standard tap water at 6.7Ph and 38PPM and it seems to be doing ok with the reservoirs now, just trying to get the ppm down by adding top ups with non-nuted water so it's around 5.7 and 800ppm now . It's a little high but will surely go down as I add plain tap water The buds on seed 2 are going great! can't wait to harvest this. It can't be long now Day 49 Both plants are growing their flowers and drinking the water. I'm still using plain tap water to top up until I change the res next week. I think they're nearly ready for harvesting, I don't know how much longer to give them. I think while they're still using the water, I should let them grow. The reservoir is dropping in Ph a little. I'm sure the last successful grow saw the same thing at nearly harvest time Happy 4th July! Day 50 Oh I'm so tempted to break a branch so I can have a bit! top cola on seed 2 is looking great! The leaves are a bit discoloured, probably due to the high PPM previously
part 4 - harvesting I couldn't resist any longer, its only 50 days in since germination but I chopped off the top bit from seed 2 and hung it up to dry. I definitely could have waited a few more weeks but I want to have enough time to grow and harvest another 2 before I go on holiday so I have some nice cured stuff to come back to! I've seen a few videos on harvesting and at this point all I'm doing is removing most of the fan leaves. I'll take my time to make them pretty when I come back from holidays and when I have enough to keep me while I grow. I harvested another top and hung that up both plants seem to be still growing and using water. That's good, I'll see if they can get bigger for the next 2 weeks until it's time to start the last 2 plants before holidays I decided to harvest the rest of plant 1 so I can make room for the warming tray for the next seeds. That way there should be plenty of time to grow and harvest before my hols. It was fun! definitely work on the roots next time and keep the plant hydrated but no too much before transferring to the pot and keep an eye on the ppm to make sure it doesn't shoot up like it did before. Just one more plant to go which I'll leave be for a couple weeks or at least until both seeds have been moved to cubes and show roots on them I've moved plant 2 to the middle of the tent and put both lights on, the flowers seem to like it! some discolouration on the leaves but I figure it'll be better next time when I keep track of ppm of the reservoir instead of just what I'm putting in it. I'll leave this one until mid July and then start on the next 2. And it's harvested! I got a lot more out of plant 2 mainly because I left it longer before harvesting. Even so, it could have had another few weeks but i have a holiday coming and want another 2 plants harvested before I go. I took only the obvious sun leaves but there was quite a lot in the discard box, I wish there was something 'high' you could do with them! right final weigh in for 2 plants that were harvested at least 6 weeks early 1 oz! that's it, only 28 grams from 2 plants but considering that I harvested them so early, no so bad for 2 months of growing and harvesting. that would cost me 240 quids in the real world so actually it was pretty good value for a tenner worth of seeds. 21 here from the final harvest after I had already had 7 grams or so from cutting the top of both plants really early on. I'm starting another 2 which I plant to harvest after only 70-80 days so probably a bit more than 28 grams next time. OMG the very first grow I did had a yield of 3 ounces from one plant. I guess that got me overconfident for the next grow which had a very disappointing yield, mostly down to me not changing the reservoir regularly. I have got a holiday coming up and will allow the knowledge to soak in to my head and be ready for my return where I'll have most of this next grows harvest to come back to and give me some buffer space to let the plants go full term next time. overall, it was great fun. I really enjoyed the process and help from everyone here, Especially @Spanish@rcher who really helped with ppm and advice
Subbed up dude. Lets hope this round goes more smoothly Sent from my SM-J330FN using Grasscity Forum mobile app
oh mate, I'm so much more happy with this grow! thanks for your own journal which I'm using as a reference. The root riots are brill! and the new 60x60x100 tent is much better. I can keep it behind the door and it doesn't require me squeezing past the bed any more! I'm looking forward to the next stage where I put them in cubes for a bit more root development and then on to the DWC pot gonna get a lot more out of this grow I'm sure!
Yaay bit of rekindled enthusiasm mate, thats what i like to see Just mind start off really weak. 200-300ppm nutes max for the first couple weeks. Dont up it till the res ppm starts dropping steadily for a few days and youll be golden Sent from my SM-J330FN using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Great advice thanks mate! I will monitor the ppm much better this time. It's not bad tap water, only 32ppm coming out the tap. Apparently that is good What would you suggest for the rockwell cubes? I'm nearly ready to put the root riots in the soaked cubes in a couple of days. When should I introduce some CalMag into the feed?
If you have both your light on, I recommend turning one off, just tossing light at the floor. No way a seedling can absorb that much light at once. Also are they really 300w from the wall? An easy way to do your feed is to think more in terms of PPM. Since you are doing hydro it’s important to get a grasp on it. You get get a PPM meter for 15-20$ and will be one of the more useful tools in your garden. PPM measures how much salt is in your water. Every nutrient is salt. The higher your PPM, the higher amount of salt you have in the water. Much like us plants hate too much salt and naturally do what we do when there’s too much. We drink more water, but if all you are is drinking sea water.. you can’t wash the taste out hehe. I suggest getting a meter. Measure your tap waters PPM levels, write it down, this is your base PPM number. Then add 1 ML from our first nutrient, check the PPM. Subtract your base PPM from your new reading and write it down. Dump your water and start again till you have done this for every one of your nutrients. You can now see how much each of your nutrients increase the PPM in your water per 1 ML. You can now think in terms of PPM. If your seedling needs 50-150 PPM of nutes, you know how much you can add from each one. If your older plants lower need 600-1000PPM you can plan your feed around that that. Might be a bit information overload at first, but is important to learn NPK and their PPM values.
wow mate that's useful! I will find out the ppm per ml of water for each nute and use that. great idea!
definitely get the rooting sorted and ppm levels right and change the reservoir regularly. I messed up big time last time and only got a few grams from 2 plants but this time I had help and I feel its going much better! good luck!