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Hi all, this is my first grow ever, so I am using this diary to keep track and maybe get some tips and tricks along the way from the more experienced growers.
Planted on 22nd September.
BioTabs Bactrex in the water used to inflate Jiffy, also spread a little bit of BioTabs Mycotrex in the planting hole.
Kept the humidity dome with open holes and slightly tilted so there was fresh air.
Humidity ranged from 65 to 80, but mostly it was kept in the 72-77 range.
Temperatures were around 21 to 24 C with complete darkness.
Extractor fan is kept working all the time at around 40% capacity, just to bring fresh air in.
On day 3 after planting they were getting a little bit dry, so I watered them with 7-8 ml of spring water each.
On day 5 - 2 of them showed up above the soil, but the first one still had the seed shell stuck to it, I applied a bit of water and it came off by itself. I suspect it's because I might have planted it too shallow. It looked a little bit stretched, but should be all right.
I've turned on the lights, it's a Mars Hydro TS1000, currently 70cm away from the plants at about 35% intensity, LUX meter is showing roughly 5k LUX. On the next day I will have them at the same height, but at 50% intensity at 9k LUX.
On the next morning the 3rd seedling showed though and looked fine.
I will keep them in the Jiffy pellets for maybe 1 or 2 days more, then I am planning on transplanting them to 8L pots using BioBizz LightMix and the BioTabs feeding schedule.
Still haven't decided if I should wait a week or so before adding the BioTab slow release and the Orgatrex. I was planning on just adding Startrex + Bactrex + Mycotrex, but waiting on the BioTab and Orgatrex for like a week so I don't give it too much nutrition - ideas are welcome here.
Still haven't decided if I should wait a week or so before adding the BioTab slow release and the Orgatrex. I was planning on just adding Startrex + Bactrex + Mycotrex, but waiting on the BioTab and Orgatrex for like a week so I don't give it too much nutrition -ideas are welcome
Decided to hold off on fertilizing, so I moved the Jiffy pellets to 7.5l fabric pots with BioBizz LightMix + Bio Tabs Startrex / Mycotrex / Bactrex with 1 liter of water per each pot.
Didn't water for 6 days after that. When the soil was dry I added the BioTabs tab (slow releasing) with 5ml Orgatrex per plant. What I did was mix 2 liters of water with 15ml of Ogratrex, placed 1 tab in each pot and just spread the water evenly, so about 650 ml per plant roughly.
Slowly increased light intensity, from 60cm at 50%, to about 55 cm at 75%. The LUX Meter is giving me around 17-20k lux per plant.
One of the seedlings seems a bit curled up, but I can't figure out what might be wrong.
They seem to be growing OK.
Watered each plant with 500 ml of tap water that stayed outside for a few days once the soil was dry about 3cm deep.
Light was moved closer at 45 cm and 75% intensity.
It's been raining non stop here and I am struggling with keeping humidity down, it's usually around 55-62 with lights on and about 65-74 with lights off.
I still haven't decided if I want to top them only once and then LST them, or go for a mainline (manifold).
Since it's my first grow ever, I've seen a lot of suggestions that main-lining is easier for first-timers, but I guess I will decide it once I have 5-8 nodes.
So, this week the first problems appeared, being my first time grow ever I panicked a bit, but with some reading and help from the community I think I managed to figure it out.
Oct 12 - Everything seemed fine
Oct 13 - At the start of the light cycle when I checked in on them, I noticed some brown spots on the leaves of all 3 plants. Only 1 leaf for each plant was affected, it looked like either overwatering or Cal deficiency. I ordered BioBizz CalMag + LeafCoat to try and battle it and had to wait 2 days for delivery.
Oct 14 - Plants also started wilting, i panicked even more 😅 Still couldn't quite figure out what the reason was for the problems was.
Oct 15 - While waiting for the Calmag and Leaf Coat, I thought about the root zone and lifted the pots to check the bottom and surprise - they were wet. It seemed that the water was going down, but there were drops of water on the bottom of the tray, so the soil was always wet there. I went to the hardware store and picked up coasters for hot pots and pans ( it's basically like a lifted grill 1cm above the ground ) with the idea that the air from the fan will dry out the bottom of the pot and won't cause this to happen again. I added 400ml of water to each plant with CalMag and sprayed them with Leaf Coat.
Oct 16 - The plants basically recovered overnight and were as healthy as ever. Not sure if it was the Calmag, the leafcoat or the coasters to try out the bottom of the pots, but my best guess is the coasters that lifted the pots, because the bottom wasn't dry anymore. Also got an TDS meter, and my tap water after aerating and leaving out for a few days was about 250-280 ppm, so cal shouldn't be an issue. I decided it's time to top and LST them, because they had like 6-7 nodes already. I removed the top node only and tied them down to the edge of the pot.
Oct 17 - Added 500ml of water to each plant with Calmag and a bit of leaf coat as well, they seemed to be recovering OK from the stress.
Overall it was quite the week for me, encountering problems for the first time with the plants, but I am glad that they are OK now, and looking forward to the coming weeks.
I decided to keep track of my grow from Mon-Sun, with the update for the previous week begin every Monday, it will help me set a schedule and keep it.
Oct 18 - Looking good after the topping and LST. Finally bought a dehumidifier for my room (it’s outside the tent) and humidity is under control now. I also have a small passive dehumidifier inside the tent, but it’s not doing much.
Oct 19 - Watered them with 1liter each with calmag, looking good. Will be changing oscillating fans, bought a SecretJardin MF20 and it’s a complete trash, worked for 1 day then it started making weird noises - just threw it out and got a tower fan.
Oct 20 - They look fine, new fan is awesome, really quiet and working good.
Oct 21 - Everything is fine
Oct 22 - Watered them with 1 liter each and 0.3ml/l calmag
Oct 23 - They grew a bit after the watering
Oct 24 - looking good, the soil is still a bit damp from the watering, will probably water tomorrow. Did very little defoliation of the bottom fan leaves that were shadowed and not getting any light.
Oct 25 - watered them and they look fine, thinking about flipping them to flowering
Oct 26 - decided to start 12/12, after the dark cycle they looked a lot bigger
Oct 27 - looking ok
Oct 28 - decided to do some final LST, but messed up and broke one of the branches at the node. Taped it up, hopefully it heals since it wasn’t completely broken. Added 20 ml Orgatrex and 1g Bactrex with 500 ml water for each plant, and 500ml just water.
Oct 29 - looking good, the branch that snapped a bit is actually rising up, didn’t expect it to be that fast
Oct 30 - seem ok
Oct 31 - They look a bit droopy and noticed some spots on the leaves
Hi there THraCian, so basically when you use biotabs, sometimes there is too much N if you have such a short Veg. You can see there is too much N, from the " very green " or "too green" aspect of the leafs. The second thing is there is usually not enough Calmag in them actually. You can see this from the rust spots on the leafs. What you can do for that is make a calmag spray, and spray once a week, just follow the instructions on the bottle , maybe even add less calmag to the water solution and just spray the plants just before lights on. If you do this , the problem will stop spreading immediately and the plant will recover within a few days. I hope this helps ! 🚀
Nov 1 - they are a bit underwatered, did 1 liter of tap water and leaf coat spray
Nov 2 - looking good after the watering
Nov 3 - looking ok, did some more LST to even out the canopy
Nov 4 - watered them and they seemed happy. I think I may be watering them too little, because they are a bit droopy sometimes, but look good after watering. Will monitor that
Nov 5 - looking good
Nov 6 - a bit droopy again, the soil wasn’t exactly dry, but I decided to water anyway - 1 liter per plant with 0.8 ml/l Calmag
Nov 7 - looking awesome, definitely need to water more often
Nov 8 - watered them with 1l each, they look ok, but one of the plants isn’t really developing pistils like the other 2
Nov 9 - they grew quite a lot during their day cycle, prepping compost tea today
Nov 10 - they were a bit droopy, guess they’ll need more water. Gave them 500 ml compost team and 1 liter of tap water each. After a few hours they were back up. Also defoliated some leaves
Nov 11 - looking good
Nov 12 - watered with 1.5 litres each and 0.8 ml/l Calmag. They are looking good so far
Nov 13 - looking good, the one plant that was shorter and didn’t grow so well the past 2 weeks shot up overnight. Humidity has been kinda high even though I have a dehumidifier in the room. The dehumidifier is showing about 45%, but the hygrometer inside the tent is at 60-70, so I will probably need to defoliate heavily next week and remove lower bud sites.
Nov 14 - looking good, watered them with 1.5l water each
All in all pretty happy with this week, saw some great growth, will think about lollipoping or at least heavily defoliating the bottom to manage humidity next week.
Nov 15 - looking good
Nov 16 - did some really heavy defoliation and a bit of lollipoping, removed the lower bud sites that were undeveloped and stripped a lot of the fan leaves, also did more LST to branch out, but I am running out of space in the tent, so I moved the fan to the floor to open more space above. Preparing compost tea for tomorrow
Nov 17 - looking good, but even after defoliation the humidity is high during dark period. Gave them 500 ml of compost tea each
Nov 18 - looking good, watered them with 1.5 liter water each and 0.8ml/l Calmag
Nov 19 - looking good
Nov 20 - gave them 1.5 l water each, noticed some brown spots on only one of the plants, posted a question about it
Nov 21 - looking good
Noticed some brown spots on only one plant on the top leaves, it looks like potassium issue, but not sure if excess or deficiency. I gave it PK booster tea, but it had some undissolved residue from it exactly on that plant, so I am wondering if that caused it. Day 26 of flowering
Hi there Thracian, so basically it's still a magensium issue, you can see that from the discoloration on the serrated edges of the plant. Like i said above, a spray is much better. Uptake efficiency through the leafs is 80% and uptake efficiency through the roots is 20% so, it's a quicker way to fix deficiencies. Just make sure the water dropplets are quite dry after a while otherwise they can collect on the leafs and even make a burn like what you're seeing now because of the lights. otherwise just up the calmag a bit in the feed. Lack of cal mag is a very common problem in biotabs . That's because there is not enough regular chelation or something like that with biotabs. Everything else is fine growmie, just fix this and the problem should stop spreading immediately. Hope this helps ! 🚀
Nov 22 - Sprayed the leaves with calmag solution 1.2 ml/l and added 1.5 liter of water with calmag as well. Started to prep the compost tea, will brew it longer now
Nov 23 - looking good, will keep an eye out for the leaves. Decided to prep the compost tea for 48 hours instead of 24 like last times. Will give them tomorrow
Nov 24 - looking good, gave them compost tea brewed for 48 hours, it was quite thick. Also gave them 1l additional water.
Nov 25 - looking ok, I think they might be suffering from a bit of light stress, so I moved the light up. It’s about 950 par in the middle and roughly 500 at the edges, but the majority of the canopy is getting 700-800.
Nov 26 - looking good, gave them 1.5 l water each with calmag
Nov 27 - looking good
Nov 28 - did some defoliating and watered with 1.5l each
Nov 29 - looking good, temps are a bit up, but had to heat because of the rising humidity even with dehumidifier
Nov 30 - gave them 1.5 l water with calmag. Going to prep last compost tea
Dec 1 - looking good
Dec 2 - gave them 500 ml compost tea each and 1 liter additional water. I think I need to water them with more, will try like 2 litres or 2.5 litres next time
Dec 3 - gave them more water just before lights out because I had to leave for the weekend.
Dec 4 - came back earlier, they are looking good even after the overwatering I did because I thought I was gonna be away
Dec 5 - gave them 2liters of water each, looking good
Dec 6 - looking good
Dec 7 - gave them 2liters of water each, but it seems that’s too much because I’m getting runoff and losing nutrients there. Will try 1.75 next time
Dec 8 - looking good, buds are fattening
Dec 9 - gave them 1.5l of pure tap water, no calmag anymore
Dec 10 - looking good
Dec 11 - gave them water, looking good. Humidity has been super high even with dehumidifier
Dec 12 - looking good, I think they might be ready next week, but will keep an eye out
Dec 13 - gave them 1.5l water each, trichomes look very close, this could be the last week. Added some lemon juice because the water PH was higher than average
Dec 14 - looking good, will remove most of the fan leaves when I take them out to water tomorrow
Dec 15 - gave them 1.5l water each and removed a lot of fan leaves
Dec 16 - looking good, but might be foxtailing
Dec 17 - was away, couldn’t check them
Dec 18 - gave them 1.5l water, they look fine, about 35-40% of trichomes are cloudy, so I’m guessing I’ll chop next week
Dec 19 - definitely foxtailing, might be light is too close, I moved it further up, but I’m thinking I’ll chop tomorrow
Well, what a journey that was, but I'm not out of the woods yet, still have to dry and cure.
Very glad for the community feedback and help that helped me pull through it.
The cycle wasn't without it's problems, but I managed to solve most of the issues. Decided to cut it down today, because it was starting to foxtail and the humidity was quite high, so I was worried about mould or mildew. Will try to dry them at 55-60% RH and about 20 degrees C. Will keep updated once I dry them
Scales showed 951 grams before trimming and 694 grams wet after the trim. I kept the trim in a tray and will dry it for edibles.
Hi, mate. Put your dehumidifier outside of the tent as it's fighting against extraction hence you have 45% humidity on display BUT 70% in tent. All your dry air goes through extraction.
THraCian
