First Grow - ILGM White Widow Auto

7/24 - All 4 plants have now broken the surface of the dirt. So I’ll call this Day 1 from here on out. I placed a humidifier in the tent today on the absolute lowest setting. We will have to monitor it. I also setup some old wifi enabled outlets that I intend to use to automate some settings. I placed my bluetooth hygrometer/thermometer in the tent today as well. Temp: 79 Fahrenheit average Humidity: 65% average 7/25 - Woke up this morning and checked on my tent and found that one of the 6” fans had fallen and the humidity in the tent had hit 99%. I found out later that these things were unrelated. It was a humid day here and I just couldn’t run the humidifier even on it’s lowest setting. I need to find a way to automate the humidifier and I’m working on that with some wireless tags and with either IFTTT or Home Assistant - more to come on this. Temperature has stayed the same and humidity has been around 65% even with the humidifier off today. 7/26 - Normal growth on day 3, keep truckin’! Used a sprayer to keep the soil moist 3 times yesterday. 7/27 - Today I switched the lights from 24/0 to an 18/6 schedule. I also increased the intensity of the VS1000 led lights from 50% - 75%. I’ll need to monitor this closely for light burn. The change was made halfway through the day though, so it may have a little time to get used to the increased intensity before lights out. With the additional light, I had to open the bottom vent to the tent. I’m going to have to figure out a light trap for that vent during flowering. Light schedule: 18/6 On - 5 AM, Off - 11 PM Light Intensity: 75% Light Height: 24” Temp: Avg 79.1 Humidity: Avg 59.2 7/28 - Well last night was the first night the lights went off. The temp dropped to 71 for about 4 hours and the humidity spiked up to 84 during that time. I’m going to take the humidifier out of the tent when I leave the workshop for the day or try to get it on a timer. Well I’m a newbie and I’m experimenting. I disconnected the fan from the outside vent. I just felt I was blowing money out the window. I’m directly venting my tent into the room now. It’s a decent size room and there’s a window unit for A/C. We’re experiencing really hot outdoor temps (98 today) so the A/C is bringing fresh air in. I put the humidifier back in the tent and put it on the lowest setting. I also lowered the temp for the fan down to 74. This more or less keeps the fan on. Humidity and temp look good today. Temp: 77.2 Avg Humidity: 65% Avg 7/29 - Last night I put the humidifier on a timer. It is scheduled to turn on at 7:30 AM and turn off at 10:00 PM. I’m changing this to more closely follow the light schedule are looking at the data this morning. Today I changed this to turn on at 3:15 AM and turn off at 10:40 PM. Temp: Avg 77 Humidity: Avg 63.6 7/30 - Day 7 - One week above dirt!!!! So my experiment is working so far. Yesterday was a good day and I was able to setup Home Assistant system on my old RPI3. I’ve integrated my electrical outlets into it and today I hope to get the Wireless Sensor Tags integrated. After that I’ll setup automations to fully control my humidifier. I’ve been close to where I should be, but I can do better. Next week is supposed to be cooler and I’ll start hardening the two plants in the larger (5 gallon) grow bags. It will be interesting to see if the outdoor plants out-perform the plants in the grow tent. Temp: Avg 76.7 Humidity: Avg 68 Height: 2” Water pH: 6.2-6.3 Watering method: Sprayer Light intensity: 75% Light height: 24”

7/31 - Alright, I was pretty hands off today. It was a Saturday and I spent the day away. I noticed after spraying today I had a little droop and was worried I over-watered but it didn’t turn out to be the case. I checked an hour later and they were fine. I read so many differing opinions online that I don’t know what to believe. They look healthy so I’m going to leave it at that. One is noticeably different from the other 3. I don’t know if this is a different phenotype, we will just keep an eye on it. It’s storming tonight and bringing in some cooler weather. I am thinking of bringing the 2 plants in larger bags outside tomorrow for a few hours to start the hardening. Hopefully that goes well with no issues. Temp: Avg - 77 Humidity: Avg - 64.4 8/1 - Well today was a cooler day, overcast most of the day, so I put the two larger bags out in the garden. I was only planning on them staying out for a few hours but it will be cooler the next few days so I’ll see how things work out. Temps and humidity will be for the tent from now on. Temp: Avg 77.1 Humidity: Avg 69.1 8/2 - Automations and a lot more I powered through getting my wireless sensor tag working in Home Assistant today. Once that was accomplished, I figured out how to set triggers to turn my humidifier outlet on AND off. I set an upper limit of 60% and a lower limit of 52% RH. This is much lower than I’ve been running it but we’re on day 10. My averages will be a little higher today since I didn’t figure this out until mid-day. I also have my 2 outdoor plants going strong. It was a super nice day today and so far so good on keeping them out. The plant I mentioned yesterday that may be another phenotype (it still may) might be better described as having round leaves. I did some research today and found that this may be caused by stress to have this occur in the seedling stage. I’m keeping a close eye on this plant at this point - I’m not sure how this one will turn out. First grow I keep telling myself. One of the indoor plants didn’t seem to be firmly rooted into the soil yesterday. When spraying yesterday it seemed to move in the soil. I didn’t spray the stem or with much pressure. Today I staked a couple of bamboo stakes and used a twist tie to stabilize this. Further, I used a cup to water today in a hope to compact the soil a little more. Aeration is great and all, but if the soil is so loose that it can’t hole the plant, there’s a problem. It seemed much better this afternoon. Temp: Avg - 77.2 Humidity: Avg - 65.8 8/3 - Well I took advantage of another mild August day (81 outside) and left my 2 five-gallon bags outside. I checked their soil at the end of the day and think they’ll need water tomorrow. It was still good today. I think they’re outside to stay. My 2 inside plants are continuing to grow. Today I lowered the humidity and they look to be progressing nicely. My two indoor plants seem to be a couple days ahead of the outdoor plants. I think the outdoor plants are just going to take longer. I was also surprised this morning to get a blast of cannabis scent when I opened the tent this morning. It was mild but I wasn’t expecting it - you learn something new every day in your first grow. Temp: Avg 77.4 Humidity: Avg 59.2 Humidity automation control worked really, really well today. 8/4 - I watered this morning and that’s pretty much what I have to say about today. Everything went pretty much normal. The outdoor plants (another great August day) look good and the indoor plants just keep growing. Automation is working nicely on the tent and there was nothing new really. Nothing to tweak is a good thing. Not saying I have it all figured out, but I certainly don’t want to overthink it. Temp: Avg - 77.5 Humidity: Avg - 59 8/5 - More of the same today. The outdoor plants seem to be reaching for the sky and the indoor plants are just as happy as can be. Tomorrow we’ll have some measurements and more detailed info. Maybe I’ll attach the week’s temp/humidity charts. Temp: Avg 77.9 Humidity: Avg 59.3 8/6 - Today is day 14 and that means we’re moving into week 3. I decided to start some LST today on the indoor plants. They’re really bushy for this amount of nodes and around 4” tall. I watered these and the outdoor plants this morning and they all seem to be doing well. We’re having a nice day outside, it got milder instead of warmer like they said it would. This bodes well for the outdoor plants surviving and acclimating to the outdoor environment. I will say this - the outdoor plants are taller (5") but not as developed. On to week 3!

Day 17 - It’s been a couple days since my last entry. Things have been moving along well. I added some soil to the outside plants as I didn’t think there was enough soil in the bags and it’s getting hot (90+) every day. We needed a little more depth to protect the roots. As far as the indoor plants go, I lowered the humidity automation to keep it around 55 instead of 60 RH. I did this midway through the day so I don’t think it will show up in my stats for the day. Training has taken hold on the plants and I’ve exposed some bud sites to more light. Temp: Avg 75.5 Humidity: Avg 63.5 Day 18 - This morning the humidity was high and I realized that yesterday it stayed high even after I changed the automation. I took another look and all the settings looked fine but I noticed the “save” prompt in the bottom corner of the screen. Apparently I changed it yesterday and it didn’t lose the setting, but it didn’t apply it either. Oh well, things didn’t go too crazy yesterday. It’s fixed now. Temp: Avg 76.7 Humidity: Avg 61.7 Day 19 - Well the outside plants are tall and starting to put on more nodes. They have slipped more than a couple of days behind the indoor plants to more like 1 to 1.5 weeks behind. But it’s been hot as hell outside and they’re healthy. I think that’s all I can ask for at this point. With that being said, the indoor plants are doing well. To be honest, I thought they’d be bigger than they are but they are growing and they look healthy. LST has taken hold and I’m tucking leaves every day. Humidity is a little higher than I want it but it was 95 outside today and for the last couple days it’s about the same. So humidity is high when the AC is running. Day 20 - Well first things first, I watered the outside plants this morning and they are looking really good - a bit thin - but good. I added a little Mykos to the soil to stimulate a little more root growth but they’re happy outside, even on the 95 degree days we’ve been having. That speaks to healthy roots as it is. I cranked the lights up to 100% on the indoor plants. We’ll see how they do with that. I was tucking leaves on one of the indoor plants and I heard the slightest little snap. I hope it doesn’t affect it badly, but I do know these things happen. If I see anything bad I’ll just snip it off so the plant can put it’s energy into the rest of the plant. It was very minor and I only mention it because it’s my first grow. I also clipped the uppermost fan leaf on each plant that was blocking light to the bud sites. Day 21 - Another week in the books. These plants had a lot of growth this week. Watered the indoor plants this morning and added a small amount of Mykos for root growth. They look good so far under the increased lighting. I have turned off the humidifier altogether for the indoor plants. I also don’t see any indication of the issue I reported yesterday. Outdoor plants got rain last night and today - they look great, really healthy. Not as squat as the indoor plants but there’s no LST being used on the outdoor plants. I'm looking forward to the next week. Temp: Avg 78.6 Humidity: Avg 53

Day 23 - Individuals Every one of the four plants is different. It’s pretty neat to watch and learn as I go. I learn new things every single day. Oh well, it rained today so the outdoor plants don’t need watering. I watered the indoor plants this morning and they’re doing great. Actually all of them are doing great, they’re just different. Day 26 - Been a few days Wow, it’s been a few days since my last update. It’s been busy between work and other projects. Everything is going well both indoors and outdoors. I’ve been leaving the plants alone except for tucking leaves and LST each day as necessary to get the indoor plants maximum light. Aside from that I’m leaving them alone to do what they were bred for. It has rained almost every day so the outdoor plants have been self sustaining. The indoor plants have been getting water every other day. Day 27 - More LST Today I pulled both of the indoor plants out of the tent and worked on them some more to get maximum light to the plants and to flatten them out some more. One of the plants was still growing up out of the main branch and I’m trying to get everything to the same height. I had used some metal stakes early on to hold the plants down and removed all of them. I could tell that they had discolored a few of the leaves with rust spots. It was time to stop that from occurring so I can tell in the future if there is an actual issue with the plant and to not be confused by the rust spots caused by the metal. Day 28 - Four Weeks Old!!!! Well we’re four weeks in and everything still seems to be going well. I noticed a couple holes in the leaves of one of the outdoor plants so will be getting some Neem oil to try to cure that but it looks minor at this point. I noticed today when trying to move that plant roots are trying to go through the bag in the bottom. For the indoor plants it’s constant repositioning of branches to open light to bud sites. Humidity sits around 54 RH and temp around 78 around 20 hours a day.

Day 30 - Remediation Woke up this morning and sprayed the outdoor plants with Neem oil. I’ve narrowed the damage to the one plant down to crickets or inchworms, if it’s inchworms I’ll have to apply a different product. I’m watching it closely to see how it does. I checked on the indoor plants today and noticed one of the two plants is starting to develop a calcium deficiency so I added some Cal-Mag Plus to the water today for both of the indoor plants. I made a rookie mistake and didn’t read the directions on the pH meter. I stored it dry instead of wet. Live and learn, that’s what this grow is all about. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - both indoor and outdoor plants are starting to show white hairs. Week 5 appears to be my first week of flower. Day 34 -Findings So three days ago I found out the Neem oil had done the trick on the outside plant with the pest problem. I found an inchworm dead on one of the top leaves. It was still attached to the top leaf, apparently dead from the Neem oil. In the past few days I’ve been looking for more pests but haven’t found any. That plant continues to do fine. Since I rectified the issue with the pH meter I have calibrated the meter and have been storing it properly. It appears to have resolved the issues I was seeing with the Calcium deficiency. I’m going to continue monitoring it. Towards the end of the week I’ve gotten the humidity level close to 50. With all the 90+ days we’re having I think this may be the best I can do with as much as the AC unit is running. I have 2 mini fans blowing above and below the branches on the indoor plants so I’m hoping this will be fine. I’ve been letting the plants grow towards the lights and haven’t noticed any light burn yet, these plants have grown a lot this week. Day 35 - 5 Weeks So the indoor plants have shot up overnight and I noticed some curling of the leaves on one of the plants, the one that had the most noticeable calcium issues. I raised the lights to take it a little easier on the plants while they recover from the calcium deficiency. Otherwise everything looks well, outside plants are not showing any signs of pests and I've been inspecting them daily. I learned a ton this week.

Day 38 - Road to recovery The outdoor plants are doing really well. I check them daily for pests and haven’t found any more. There’s no need to water them as we are getting plenty of rain here as of late. The indoor plants are recovering although I’m still removing some bad leaves from the previous calcium deficiency. The calcium problems should be resolved, but the effects are long lasting. I’m using water that is pH about 6.7 right now and added some calMag+ today, however it was only a 1/4 dosage. Day 40 The indoor plants were continuing to yellow from the problem they had previously. As mentioned before, the visual recovery is slow. I am still adding CalMag+ every other watering and the plants are starting to become greener after the leaves had started to yellow. I also added another cup of soil this week to the top of the soil and have added the smallest bit of Mykos. The outdoor plants went through the Tropical Depression where it rained on them for 2 days. I don’t see any pests but noticed some white spots on a couple of the lowest leafs. I’ll investigate further tomorrow but overall they look very healthy. Day 42 - 6 weeks Well I inspected the outdoor plants and I don’t see anything obviously wrong with them - they’re green, look healthy, and they’re flowering. They’re longer and leaner than my indoor plants, and greener too. They rely more on rainwater and weren’t tainted by my uncalibrated pH meter and rookie mistakes. With that being said, the indoor plants are doing well. There’s some leaves that are damaged from the calcium deficiency I had earlier, but I caught it more or less before flowering and it’s corrected now. Things are looking good and moving along. I look forward to week 7.

Day 45 - Pics Well I don’t have much of an entry but I do have some pics. I watered the plants today, pH of 6.5 and things are moving along. Day 48 - Ants! I went to water the indoor plants today and removed a couple lower leaves that were done. I was going to top off the soil which I’ve been doing each week and found ants in the soil bag. I added a little ground cinnamon and put it outside. Hopefully that will rid the soil of the ants so I can use it again. Day 49 Ants are gone and everything looks good. Tops are a little less green than I'd like but the answer there lies in the issues I had earlier in the grow. All growth since this is a nice dark green and buds are fattening up nicely.

Day 51 - Feed and Water Well everything seems to be going well. I watered the indoor plants this morning and will water the outdoor plants tonight. I’m including some FoxFarms BigBloom in the watering today at half strength. It’s time for everything to fill in. Day 54 Well we’re still moving right along. Outdoor plants look great! Indoor still have the yellow from the bad pH early on in the older leaves but they’re building buds. I also noticed a little note burn after their feeding so I’m keeping an eye out. It rained a lot yesterday and I captured some rainwater. I try to use this as often as I can. Day 56 - 8 weeks old Well we’re 8 weeks old and we’re still packing on weight. Hopefully everything comes out right, fingers crossed. I found a couple yellow leaves at the bottom of the outdoor plants, nothing to worry over. Nothing else to report other than steadily growing.

Day 59 It has been raining for a few days straight but the good news is I was able to collect a LOT of rainwater. I noticed that pH up and down are much stronger with rainwater. My thought is that rainwater is much purer without the other chemicals to interfere. I will try to collect as much as I can moving forward. Day 61 Plants needed to be fed, I was losing some color. I had been timid about feeding since I had the issue before with pH (bad meter) and the corresponding calcium deficiency. This may not make sense on the surface but I wasn't sure what was affecting the plants. However one of my indoor plants had lost more leaves than I would like to see and was starting to yellow. FoxFarm TigerBloom was what I fed with today. Outdoor plants look great, no issues there. Day 63 - 9 weeks old Indoor plants are much greener today. I fed them nutes again as the runoff was very low TDS 2 days ago. I measured runoff again and it was much better today. The plants look a lot better, outdoor plants still kicking ass even with the weather change here (50s night, 70s daytime).

Not much happened this week with the exception of me being extremely busy at work. I didn’t get to put in my normal amount of entries. I’ll work on that next week. I also had some workers at the house so the outdoor plants had to come in some. All in all, it was a good week with feedings every other watering. The indoor plants took in a little more water than in weeks prior.

Day 72 - Moving along The indoor plants are much, much greener now. A regular feeding schedule has really helped them. The buds look good as well. We might just make it to the end with these (fingers crossed!). Additionally they are drinking more water as well right now. Day 74 - Care & Feeding I was able to get a feeding in before the rain on the outdoor plants. The indoor plants were fed as well and are doing good. It’s amazing how different the structures are between the two sets of plants. With the indoor plants, they seem to be much happier now. Day 77 - Moving towards the finish line Not much to report today but we made it through another week. A couple of weeks ago I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it through the full cycle before harvest. I can’t rule anything out but things look much, much better on that front. The inside plants are greener than they have been in weeks and the outdoor plants are just chugging along. The outdoors are starting to lose some fan leaves as the weather changes but they still look healthy.

This turned out to be a great experience for me. After making a couple of mistakes I harvested 130 grams of dry, trimmed bud once it had dried for 8 days. I also harvested 39 grams of leaves for other uses. I now need to cure it so I can't report on the smoke but it looks incredible.The outdoor plants produced 19 and 22 grams each while the indoor plants produced 49 and 50 grams each. I'll probably only be growing indoors moving forward but who knows? I can't wait until cure so it can be smoked.