Welcome to my journal! Style: Incognito, from seed - 2-3 flowering plants a time, SCROG Lighting: 400w HID Genetics: Random Ventilation: 400 CFM inline duct fan, with speed controller Space: Custom Box - 4' x 2' x 6' Container: 10 gallon smart pots Medium: Composted Soil Nutrients: Aurora Innovations (Roots Organics, Master Pack) ------------------------ December 29th 2015 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! My environment has been running optimally for the past 3 weeks (75-78 F / 45-55% humidity). I added some nutrition (Buddha Grow) last week and the plants seem happy. I'm very pleased with the progress. The internodal spacing is incredibly tight. I wanted to do some LST but the stalks are just too chunky! These plants will be topped in a few days. Today's Lesson: Pick up the pots to test soil moisture levels. Don't overwater. Let the medium dry (80-90%) before watering. ------------------------ January 2nd 2016 Learning experience: what you get when you don't get what you want. I had planned to flower in 10 gal smart pots but I recently learned that root growth happens mostly in veg so I decided to get some new pots. I had to go with 3 gal to fit them all in. I messed up the transplant on the first one (far left). I didn't expect the massive amount of roots that had already begun to circle up in the bottom of the pot (the root mass was three times the size of the plants) so I didn't do the typical transplant technique (upside down, slide the whole thing out). We'll see if it survives but it's missing half of it's roots. I don't expect it to. It was the runt of the bunch so not a big deal. I just hope I still have at least two ladies to flower. They've all been topped. I expect to flip in 3 weeks. If I get some good pre-flowers I may end up transplanting up to 10 gal like I wanted. It all depends on the timing. Today's Lesson: Root mass can be way bigger than the plants size. Always transplant by turning your pot upside down and letting everything slide out. ------------------------ January 4th, 2016 I know you guys are loving these security cam shots so I took some better ones today. The one that I botched the transplant on is actually holding up just fine. All of the plants are showing signs of excessive nutrients, especially the botched one. I gave them a good dose of straight water today. Do you think it's worth a light flush to prevent any more stress? Something has been nibbling away at one of my plants. I noticed what looked like a spider mite one day, and I've seen a few pill bugs. I use a neem spray that I'm hoping is enough to control everything. ------------------------ January 8th, 2016 I'm four weeks in (from seed) and two weeks away from the scheduled flip. It's looking like another week of veg might be needed for optimum yield. The plants are nice and settled from topping and transplanting, the lower branches are reaching high now. I gave them a good watering, significantly more than usual so that I could test runoff PH. Watering until you get runoff is suggested but I just haven't been doing it until now. My PH supplies arrived. My filtered tap water sits around 7.1 PH. I dropped it to 6.6 for the watering and the runoff tested at 7.0 so I'll be making sure to use 6.0 from now on. My soil was taken from my vegetable garden, after a single year of crops. It's a mix of commercial potting soil, vegetable soil, and compost. I've been studying Jorge Cervantes nutrition poster. I'm betting that the signs I'm seeing have to do with too much Phosphorus and Potassium and possibly a little Magnesium deficiency. It would explain the super tight internodes, insane root growth, and random spots and burn marks. The leaves are losing some of the deep green color so I'm eager to get to the next feeding. Hopefully some of that excess got washed out with the runoff. I'm seeing some preflowers, but it's still a little tricky to tell what's going on exactly. I added a little extra time to the night cycle. I'm going to keep gradually increasing the dark time, which I think will encourage more preflowering. I think I'm going to let these take off for another 10 days, get rid of the males, transplant up to 10 gal, install my screen, give them another 10 days, then flip. ------------------------ January 12th, 2016 Solid progress in the mini-closet. I'm battling with a bad temp/humidity meter. My temps have been reading around 65-70, with humidity from 35-50, but I'm really unsure about those readings. I'm ordering a new meter asap. I fed the other night with a medium strength nutrient solution, until I got 10% runoff. The solution tested at PH 5.1, which I thought was a bit low. I was shocked to find that the runoff still tested at 7.0. Is there a threshold for dropping PH? Is 5.1 dangerous to the plants, even if it's having little affect on the runoff? The plants are looking very stimulated. No visible burn yet. I added a vase and a fish tank heater to raise the humidity. The plants are now under a 15/9 light cycle, which I'm hoping will encourage pre-flowing so that I can transplant up sooner. My 10 gallon smart pots arrived, and they are HUGE. I'm only going to be able to fit two of them in here. I've heard that fewer plants in larger pots give better yields than more plants in smaller pots. Anyone care to confirm/deny that? If I have more than two females, I'll just keep a mother, and take some clones for my next round.
Looking good! Seems like you have some winners in there. I think they can all survive the long run if you hold off on the excessive nutes. Definitely looks like a bit of nute burn to me, but they should be OK. I try to be extremely careful with nutes and use a water droplet tool thingy that came with my PH kit lol. It lets you measure liquids in .25, .5, and 1 millileter increments. I find it works well for only a few plants and you can be quite precise with measurements. Less is often more with nutes, especially in the infant stages of plant life. I'm sure you know that though. I wouldn't flush yet. Maybe wait a day or 2 and observe. If burn signs are still showing or increasing, then I might resort to a flush. It just seems a little early to flush them IMO and would worry me about overwatering them and causing more stress problems. I suppose it depends on how much nutrient solution you actually used. Go with your gut on that, but I'd personally wait and look for signs of healthy new growth and take action from that observation. I noticed the plant with supposed bite marks has some dirt on its leaves. I'd try getting a can of compressed air or a portable fan and lightly blowing the dirt off of your plants, careful not to spray too hard or too close because it will knock some of the soil up. Blow the undersides and top sides, and perhaps give them a light misting of PH'd water every 1-2 days if you haven't been, depending on the dryness of your plants and your last water of course. I think mites like to hang out on undersides of leaves, so make sure you spray your insect stuff there as well. Pests don't like wind blowing on them or frequently misted leaves, so you could also try to implement a small oscillating fan inside your area if you have room. I dangled a USB thermaltake PC fan from my tent ceiling and it runs constantly along with a powerful table fan that sits on the floor, and my 4" hurricane fan blows through my light tube. Seems to keep temps right around 70-75°, which is not very ideal for pests. That's all my noob 2 cents lol. Keep up the good work! PS - What kind of perlite are you using? I like the fat chunks in your soil and my espoma perlite chunks are quite small.
Thanks for the tips! I'm going to hold off on the flush, I think you're spot on, it's pretty minor and they're looking healthy now. I haven't been checking PH, I'm sure that will help a lot. I ordered a meter and up/down solution so i'll get on that asap. The leaves got all dirty from the transplant. Any way to prevent that? I've been using a soft paint brush to clean them off but yeah I bet compressed air would be perfect. I have a small fan I can place in there too. My airflow is pretty good, but if it helps with the bugs I'm all about it. I'm using this Hoffman brand perlite. I was happy about the larger chunks too. As I get closer to the bottom of the bag they're getting smaller though.
Awesome. I did see the hoffman perlite, but skipped over it and got espoma instead. I might give it a whirl next time! My leaves also got dirty during transplant and some dirt wouldn't come off the lower leaves and I think it shocked them a bit. I have not come across a way to prevent getting dirty leaves during transplant yet. Maybe just be extra careful and tedious about the process, or could pin the leaves upwards temporarly with velcro plant ties or something. I might try that after I order these velcro ties for my round 2. Just a heads up on the new fan addition for your area: you don't want the fan blowing directly on a singled out area of your babies for too long as it can cause wind burn stress from what I've read.
Looking good bro! Those babies shot up quick! I usually add nutrients to my filtered water and then PH up/down it to about 6-6.5 and haven't had many issues. Luckily my water comes to about 6 on the scale after I run it through my brita filter I tested my runoff water last week and it was pretty acidic, like a 5ish, but leaves looked good. I ordered a digital ph meter so I can verify consistency along with my color strips. I've read some forums where people say runoff water PH is NOT extremely important as long as you are showing signs of healthy leaves on top. Runoff water will often differ by 1-2 points from the water going in, from my understanding. I'm still a noob, so I'd do your own research before taking my word lol. Just make sure the water going into soil is PH'd after you add your nutrient solution to the water and you should be fine.
It's just a good idea to check your ph and ppm runoff - off maybe 2-4 tenths of a point, good digital meters are a must for any serious grower,. Checking your nutrient water ph after you add nutes is a must, I see a lot of ppl that add nutes to ph'd water, that comes out of the tap for me from 6.8 - 9.2 ph and changes constantly.. For me .. At 900 ppm of fftb the ph drops to 4.5 from filtered tap water that say was 6.8 to start after ph up is added I'm ending around 1000ppm.. Keeping a consistent ph 6.4-6.7 is critical. Run off from 5.8 - on the low side to 6.2 - 6.6 a very happy plant in dirt -- ppm's from 1200 - 1500 on a plain ph'd water runoff.. But then I'm still. Learning and quite possibly way off the mark..
Still seeing solid progress on day 37 of veg. [/IMG] The plants are starting to mature. I've seen a few instances of alternating branching, but pre-flowers aren't showing yet. I'm tempted to stay in the 3 gallon containers for a quicker finish. I think the extra time for 10 gallons will be worth the extra yield.
I found some lady parts! It"s day 41, and one of my plants is showing sex. I was getting stressed trying to stick to the schedule I defined at the beginning but I eventually realized that stress was unnecessary. I just adjusted my schedule. [/IMG] I"m now looking at holding out until day 45 for one more female. I"ll transplant into 10 gallon pots, set the SCROG and give them some time to settle in before setting the flower cycle: 5 days at a minimum. I"m thinking 10 days to settle would result in an extra ounce but I"ll just make that call then. Bugs, temps, humidity, PH, nutrients, and airflow are all dialed in. I"ve been using Buddha Grow so far but I"m upgrading to the full Roots Organics line.
And then there was two: [/IMG] I found another lady and didn't hesitate to get the training going. They're now in the 10 gallon pots. They'll get another 9 days to fill the screen before I flip. My goal here is 2 oz minimum per plant and I'm hoping to get up to 3oz per plant. It's a longer cycle than I had anticipated (50 days of veg) but it should produce well.
And they're off! There was significant growth overnight, so I think the transplant went very smooth. The pots I used (from Ruth's Tree Farm) were wonderful to work with. They peeled right off. I was able to drop a solid root ball into the 10 gallon pots. Now that they're under a screen and ginormous, I'm concerned about timing my watering and feeding correctly. I won't be able to lift them up to tell the moisture levels. I should be getting my Aurora Innovations MasterPack today. I have a feeling that using these large pots with a full nutrient line is going to work wonders for the final output. [/IMG] The net is only about 40% full. I plan to fill it 90% before flipping to 12/12, which will hopefully happen within the next 6-8 days.
You have a gorgeous looking family, man! Try doing the 1-2 knuckle deep test for dry soil. That's how I always do it. I usually don't water until soil is crusty dry about 1-2 knuckles deep and have no problems. Just clean your hands first before you penetrate the ladies lolol.... You should be fine, or you can go the advanced route and spend some money on a moisture meter for soil. Keep up the good work! We are kind of close on our projects, so I'm really excited to see your outcome.
Day 47: With the arrival of my Roots Organics nutrients, I decided to skip the watering and give another feeding. They looked a little hungry and I figured they needed some extra juice with the stress of the transplant. That turned out to be a very good decision. I followed their 5ml program (minus Surge) with the addition of their cal/mag and a dose of Superthrive. I also whipped up a foliar spray for my clones and gave them a spray. Great results so far. [/IMG] [/IMG] The one plant is outpacing the other one. I'll likely flip with one side fuller than the other. Not a big deal. I found out that one of the other plants I vegged, the one with very impressive vegetative growth, is also a female. I wish I would have put her in the flower box. No turning back now though. I'll keep her around until my next cycle, probably solo. With 4 months of veg time, she'll be a monster. I plan on flipping by the end of the week.
Day 50 It's starting to look like a real SCROG now. I'm flipping out. I mean I'm flipping. Tonight. I know the screen isn't the fullest, but it's day 50, I want to get this show on the road and I don't want to run out of space. I'm hoping next round to take better care of the plants and be at this stage closer to day 40. Anyone think I should wait it out a little longer? The plants are looking incredible after the feeding with Roots Organics master pack. They quickly dropped shade to a very healthy and even deep green color. I can't wait to use this stuff throughout the whole cycle.
Day 5 of flower (total time: 55 days) Things are chugging along. I replaced the MH light with HPS this morning. My screen isn't very full. I'm not sure what to do with my center stalks because they don't have anywhere to go, and being that they're in the middle and getting the most light, they're liable to cause a problem. I'm giving preference to airflow over an even canopy ... I hope that's the right decision.