So this is my first grow. I definitely have a LOT to learn, but would like to consider myself fairly "Researched" in place of most people here's title of "Experienced" lol This being said, im very open to all types of advice, altho please do not be offended if I dont agree or follow your advice. Even if it happens to be blatantly correct, sometimes people just learn better from their mistakes. As youll come to see, I LOVE to take pictures, and it really helps me to go over things without constantly opening and closing my tent. If absolutely necessary, I can go into the tent to double check things, but other than that, I try to limit the amount of ins and outs. Im using GreenHouse Seed Company for my beans, germinating 2 of 5 Feminized AutoFlower White Widow Seeds. My Materials: -2 X 5 Gallon Smart Pot -3X6 Grow Tent -300W* Hollandstar LED Light (Upgrading very soon) -2 X 6" duct fans for Intake/Exhaust With a 4" Carbon Filter for the exhaust with External Speed Controller accessories for both -TaoTronics auto-adjusting Humidifier -1 Digital Hygrometer with temp and RH -1 Analog Temp guage -Regular Potting soil from the garden store as my soil mix -1 EC/PPM Pen -1 pH Pen -Local Grow shop line of Nutes as they offered me free bottles in return for my thoughts/review on using them -1 Dual Outlet Indoor Analog Timer -1 6" plastic fan -1 Surge Protector Power Strip for the Light Timer, the exhaust fan, the plastic fan, and the humidifier (The other fan and speed controller are plugged into another outlet to help spread out the pile up of current on one strip) -Distilled Water is what I use for my H20 and Nutes *That is the advertised wattage. Dont have a wall counter to check actual draw at the moment I should mention that as of writing this journal, I'm currently on week 4 since the seed broke out of the soil, so I call it week 4, tho some people consider the first week to not count towards the veg count. Call it what you wish, at least we both understand what I mean Will update this OP with important/forgotten info as it comes to mind.
Jan 8 - 5PM Placed both seeds in a cup of distilled water and left overnight, waiting for them to sink Jan 9 - 10:45AM Neither seed had sunk, to I gave them both a light tap, and they sunk very quickly. Jan 9 - 12PM Took both seeds out of the cup, and placed them in between wet paper towels. Used the water from the cup, and poured until the plate was full of water, and then tipped it to let all the excess water run off and I was left with a wet but not sopping paper towel. Jan 9 - 4PM Seed A had cracked a bit, and Seed B had not.
Jan 9 - 9PM The tent is set up with the lights and the fans in place, and the soil has been mixed and put into their containers.
Jan 9 - 9pm Continued... Jan 10 - 9:30AM Checked the temp in the basement as there was almost no change in the seeds after having moved them there from my cold room upstairs, and to my surprise, even down there was only 16C so I moved them into the tent with a plate over top of the first one, and the LED light on. This made the temp rise to 18C almost immediately. Jan 10 - 4PM Being closer to the floor, the plate was still cold so I sat it on top of a box so it was closer to the light andthat made the temp jump up again to the 26C range. Jan 10 - 6PM After having moved plate up higher and getting the temp up for a little while, that really put seed B into high gear, and it cracked the shell, and sprouted a tiny tap root!
Jan 11 - 5:15AM Seed A looked like it had about 1/4" tap root showing, so i made a hole about to my first knuckle deep in the soil, and used clean tweezers to put the seed root down in the hole, and covered it with loose soil on top. Now, we wait. Seed B hadnt grown enough of a tap root yet to be planted. Jan 11 - 8PM Planted seed B as the tap root was finally long enough. David Bowie died last night, so I've named seed A "Bowie" and seed B will be "Tigger" for the tiger-esque stripes it had on the seed. Wanted to cover the pots to help keep in the humidity for the seedlings, but being cloth pots, this turned out to be a little more difficult than I had imagined. Both seeds are doing their plant things now. Added a regular bulb to help with low temperatures, and the LED main light is currently on a 24/0 cycle to start with until seedlings start and then it will change to 20/4. Jan 13 - 9PM As I was checking the soil, looking for any signs of my plants, I had been staring at a certain patch of dirt that I knew was covering Bowie's seed. As I had been staring for so long, I had a very good idea of what should be where burned into my retinas, as far as "This twig, and this dirt clump etc". To my extreme surprise, I got to literally WITNESS my plant sprouting. It poked its tiny head thru the top of the soil line and pushed aside a bit of the soil as it did, which alerted me to what I had just seen! Still no change to Tigger as far as sprouting yet. Jan 14 - 5AM (Day 6/1 Bowie/0 Tigger) Bowie is reaching for the sky and very green, but still nothing from Tigger. Jan 14 - 4PM (Day 6/1 Bowie/0 Tigger) Getting home from work to check on them, Bowie is even taller now, but still nothing from Tigger Jan 14 - 9PM (Day 6/1 Bowie/0 Tigger) Raised the lights and put the girls up on a couple boxes to try and help raise the humidity around the plants. Set the humidifier to 80% and will check again in the morning. Started the lights on 20/4 now, and removed the other bulb I was using for the bit of extra heat, as it wont be on the timer with the main LED. Jan 15 - 5AM (Day 7/2 Bowie/0 Tigger) Humidity is sitting at around 79% and temp is about 22. Jan 16 - 730AM (Day 8/3 Bowie /1 Tigger) Woke up to see the temp was still the same from the day before as well as the humidity and that Tigger had finally broken thru the soil overnight. Bowies first set of true leaves are now bigger than the first set of floppy ones as well. Jan 16 - 4PM (Day 8/3 Bowie/1 Tigger) Just before the lights go out, I built a table for the girls to sit on, so that theyre higher up in the tent and catching more of the humidity, light etc. Forgot to measure the door frame leading into the room with my tent, in respect to the size of the table I built, and had to take off a couple legs to get it thru. Pro Tip #1: ALWAYS MEASURE EVERYTHING TWICE Jan 17 - 5AM (Day 9/4 Bowie/2 Tigger) Tiggers first set of true leaves are now bigger than the floppy ones, and I can already kinda see another node of leaves coming out of Bowies first set of true leaves. Cant be positive tho, hard to tell. The humidity was also down to 65% Jan 18 - 5AM (Day 10/5 Bowie/3 Tigger) Bowie definitely has the second set of leaves coming out already, and Tigger looks like Bowie did early yesterday. Almost time for some straight up distilled water. Bowie^ Tigger^ Bowie^ Bowie^ Tigger^ Tigger^ Jan 19 - 5AM (Day 11/6 Bowie/4 Tigger) Both Plants are looking very healthy, checking more after work (Which it turns out I didnt, I was ill later that night and fell asleep before saying goodnight to them or taking pictures! ) Jan 19 - 3:30PM (Day 11/6 Bowie/4 Tigger) Bowie was looking droopy so I gave her some water and plan(ned) on giving Tigger some later tonight before bed Jan 20 - 9:30PM (Day 12/7 Bowie/5 Tigger) Bowies leaves were curling a tiny bit, Im not an expert yet, but im hoping its only because I wasnt able to make it to the grocery store for some distilled water yesterday and that she didnt like the chlorine in the tap water. Thats my guess for now. By This point Ive been able to make it to the store to get some water for the plants, and watered Tigger about the same as I did for Bowie which was around 3 inches from and up to the stem of the plant. Being in its final growing container already, I didnt want to over water and drench the whole container yet, as theres no need. (Also, from here on out, the amount of pictures increases dramatically, so ill be doing a single day per post.) All Bowie^ All Tigger^ All Bowie^
Jan 21 - 5AM (Day13/8 Bowie/6 Tigger) Bowie is exploding upwards with her second set of leaves, and Tigger is lagging behind with hers. Noticed a slight curl on one of Tiggers first set of true leaves Jan 22 - 5AM (Day 14/9 Bowie/7 Tigger) Bowie is growing another set of leaves above the first set and underneath the second set. Tigger is starting to catch up to Bowie. Also rolled down the sides of the cloth pot that were just stopping light and air circulation from hitting the bottom parts of the plants. All Bowie^ All Tigger^ All Bowie^ Tigger^ ^Bowie Tigger^
Its looking good so far man. I can't wait to see what you have up to date. If I were you I would take out one of the fans, it's sort of over kill. I have one fan and I get 81F max with 4 lights. That is super sweet that you have a humidifier, it's really handy in veg. I'll stick around. Also, if you're going soil, go soil. If you want to use nutrients, switch to a soil-less media. The chemical nutrients could harm the beneficials in the soil.
to be honest, I dont think I had either fan running until some time last week. I had holes with drawstrings and flaps that were open at the top and bottom allowing exchange of air, but I figured at some point, the plants outgrew that amount of passive air exhchange. Had issues when I turned on both fans last week.. Ill get to that soon in the journal lol The humidifier does wonders, but im starting to have issues with it and ive just gone into flower couple nights ago, so well see how she goes from here! fair point with the nutes as well, being auto's I figured Id barely touch the bottles over this run anyways. The one time ive used them, they were on 1/4 strength and that was last sunday I think. need to feed them today tho, and might need to add some CaMg+ Really need to get this journal up to date for starters to show you what im working with now haha
Jan 23 - 8AM (Day 15/10 Bowie/8 Tigger) Both plants are looking fairly droopy, but I dont yet have the pH pen I ordered and cant easily get test strips so im staying on the end of underwatering for the time being in hopes that the pen comes in soon and I can get things dialed in. Other than droopyness, plants are looking good! Talking to a breeder friend of mine out in Boston, he mentioned that DJ Short was one of the first of a bunch of breeders noting, that "Crinkle Leaf" (as he called it lol) on the lower sets of leaves, is a good early indication of a fruity smelling plant. Im trying to keep this in mind and not worry about the crinkle unless it gets worse/spreads, but it IS a little ugly to stare at :/ Jan 24 - 8AM (Day 16/11 Bowie/9 Tigger) pH pen still hasnt arrived and the Hydro store is closed EVEN IF I wanted to buy their overpriced pen, so looks like Im stuck still waiting a bit on that stuff
Jan 25 - 3PM (Day 17/12 Bowie/10 Tigger) Still no word from the pH pen, starting to lean towards just getting a testing kit... Both plants holding up well tho!
Jan 26 - 4PM (Day 18/13 Bowie/11 Tigger) Bowie is getting droopy leaves to the point I cant wait any longer for the pH pen, which means I cant add nutes this time around, so Ill go ahead with a full watering with distilled H20, instead of the 1/3 water she got last time. (I use a combination of weight, top soil dryness and overall look of the plant to tell me when to water. I found that worked better than trying to set up a scheduled watering time lol) Tigger looks like she can wait another little bit before her next watering tho, so im hoping Ill have everything I need by then!
Jan 27 - 3PM (Day 19/14 Bowie/12 Tigger) I had paid an extra 20 bucks almost to have the pH pen and EC pen I ordered, express shipped, and still no word on it. Emailed and found out it got sent to the wrong carrier station for delivery, and they refunded my express shipping. Great, but that still doesnt help the fact I cant actually feed the plants yet Raised the lights a little bit as the girls were starting to get less than 4" - 5" away from the LEDs. All Bowie^ All Tigger^ Bowie^
Jan 28 - 3PM (Day 20/15 Bowie/13 Tigger) Watered Tigger as she looked a little down, and the pH meter hasnt arrived since I got home from work. The woman I talked to in the email last night assured me it would be here today, so we shall see! All Bowie^ All Tigger^
Jan 29 - 5AM (Day 21/16 Bowie /14 Tigger) Both plants looking very green and healthy. As I was getting my boots ready for work this morning I noticed a package left inside the mudroom and it was the pH and EC Pens! Just need to calibrate etc tonight! Also, I need to figure out how to warm up the water that I plan on giving to the plants, cuz as I looked at the water this morning and temped it, it was reading 19C which is a little on the cold side. All Tigger^ All Bowie^
Jan 30 - 8AM (Day 22/17 Bowie/15 Tigger) Watered Bowie today as she was looking thirsty, and the damn instructions that came with this pH pen are extremely poorly translated from whatever original language they came in holding off on the nutes a little longer until I can figure this thing out lol While trying to remove a stray hair that had probably come off of me when I entered the grow space, I accidentally pulled off a tip from one of bowies new main growths. Hopefully this doesnt have any dire consequences! I grabbed the hair and didnt even notice that I had a grip on the tip of the plant. I was devastated to see what i had done! Also rotated the pots 90 degrees. (Was ill that day and unable to take pictures, sorry!) Jan 31 - 8AM (Day 23/18 Bowie/16 Tigger) Bowie is still looking good even tho I pulled that tip off. Doesnt look like its really slowed down the growth at all, which is a really good sign for me hahaha. She has a very nice thick green stem, and so does Tigger. Rotated both pots 90 degrees again, and it seems to be helping a bit on the sides that werent getting as much light. Looking at starting the ventilation fans today if I feel like I can get a handle on the temperature once they start running! All Bowie^ All Tigger^ Jan 31 - 4:45PM (Day 23/18 Bowie/16 Tigger) As the lights came on, I noticed both plants looking pretty sad and droopy, but only Bowie really felt dry and light enough in the pot to justify a watering. Gave her some water and then rotated her pot 180 as there was some leaves etc on the opposite side that looked like they could use a days worth of sun lol Bowie^ Tigger^
Feb 1 - 5AM (Day 24/19 Bowie/17 Tigger) Bowie sprung back after the watering yesterday and Tigger is looking fairly thirsty herself, so ill feed her when I get home from work tonight. Tigger grew a second set of 5 fingered leaves where Bowie grew one set of 5 and then a set with 6 and 7. Just noticed that today while going back thru the pictures lol Had the humidity set to 60 at the bottom of the tent and the Hygrometer at the top with the plants was reading 70 so Ill have to pay more attention to that in the future All Bowie^ All Tigger^
I read a decent article on watering cannabis plants.. you really want to ensure they are getting their dry period or they wont seek out water - less root growth. If you keep babying the plants every few days with water then they have no incentive to go anywhere, just my opinion. Also, I would recommend getting some dolomite lime for fix the ph... when watering soil ph should be adjusting itself and you shouldn't have to pay any mind to that. Dolomite lime is maybe 5 bucks at your local hardware/garden outlet. those autos are looking beautiful man growing up so fast.. in flower might want to cut off the humidifier or have it on a lower setting. keep it coming!!
im basically just typing out the journal I have sitting here beside me, so although I talk about watering them in every second post, I end up watering them maybe once a week. The first couple weeks I was giving them 1/4 amount of water to stay on the side of underwatering, which made them dry out quicker and need water a little more often. I feel like ive read an article similar to the one you mentioned, which is why I try to stay towards the dryer side of things and hold off whenever I feel the girls can wait. As I said in an earlier post, I use a combination of weight, look and top soil dryness to determine if im going to water them. But Ive definitely given a lot of consideration to the fan set up Ive got going here for the moment, as you said, 2 is probably overkill, and could definitely survive with just the one. Itll also probly help with the humidity problem Im having at the moment. Just cant seem to keep it steady enough all the time lol. Any word on your beans yet? Definitely interested to see how your grow goes! Ill be watching for sure!
Feb 2 - 5AM (Day 25/20 Bowie/18 Tigger) Bowies new growth leaves look like they're burnt/yellow at the tips. Not sure why, havent used any nutes yet, but will keep an eye on it for sure. Moved the fan so that both plants are getting a nice gentle breeze across the canopy. Also noticed a single yellow "Slash" across one of Tiggers newest growth. Odd lol All Bowie^ All Tigger^
Feb 3 - 5AM (Day 26/21 Bowie/19 Tigger) The tips on Bowie are starting to look a little more pale green, which is a bit better than yesterday, but still looks unhealthy. Nothing too notable about Tigger. That slash is a weird mark to see, but as its an isolated mark, and I see no evidence of mites etc, im just gonna treat it as a birthmark hahaha All Bowie^ All Tigger^