Strawberry Cough in bubbleponic SCROG

An uneventful first couple of weeks in the dripper. I am still learning how to use the Wilma/Origin drip system and hydro for the first time but seem to be getting by. Very slight overfeed in my trial and error - eventually settled at around 1.5 EC - but the plants seemed to handle it with only a very minor burn on one lower leaf tip. 8/2 - Topped all four plants between the 4th and 5th node towards the end of their second week in the drip system. The following day, I also removed the two highest fan leaves on each plant to create more light for the lower branches.

12/2 - Noticed some nutrient burn and possible minor calcium deficiency within the lowest fan leaves of 3 plants following the latest nutrient and water tank top up. Reduced the EC from 1.6 down to 1.4 and added a slight top up of CalMag in the water. Seems to have stopped the spread and the plants continue to grow astonishingly quickly compared to my previous experience working with soil. That said - apart from the recent minor hiccup - the nutrient solution has been seemingly perfect for me throughout the past 3 week. The plants are drinking, but the PH is only gradually increasing by about 0.1 over the course of a week, and the EC levels have remained basically static. I plan to fully replace the nutrient solution in the next 7 days for a fresh tank, and will do so every 2-3 weeks thereafter (or sooner if I'm topping up more than expected!). Performed some LST today to open up the canopy on the most advanced of the four plants. I expect to follow up in the next 48 hours on the remaining three, and to put in place a SCROG net within the next 7-10 days - I am waiting for the canopy height to increase enough that I can easily access underneath the back two plants (if needed for pruning etc.) from the side doors of the tent once the SCROG net is in place. Edit: In retrospect I believe it was light burn rather than nutrient burn or a calcium deficiency - I only noticed that my lights were 6 inches lower than I thought when I installed the SCROG screen in week four. I have already made a couple of slight amendments to my Wilma/Origin system by drilling additional drainage holes under the pot to prevent them from being clogged by roots at a later date. I am continuing to make minor adjustments to my new setup as I go, including; replacing the original MJ500 pump with an MJ1000 for higher water pressure; replacing the black pipes with white insulated ones for lower water temperatures; adding an additional shut-off valve to prevent minor unwanted watering during nutrient mixing; and potentially adding an additional four drippers for greater coverage in each pot. Additionally, I have purchased all the items needed to make my own SCROG frame for the tent using 25mm PVC pipes and 2mm paracord, as I do not have faith in the elasticated net that I already have to either stay in the correct place nor support the plant when it's in full bloom. I've bought spare Secret Jardin space booster parts to hopefully create a very clever attachment system to my tent frame, so stay tuned for this next week. I've also ordered a mycelium CO2 bag and CO2 meter, simply for the scientist in me to see if they actually work! However, I don't expect either to arrive/be in working condition before I flip to 12/12 in a few weeks.

18/02 - I've completed my homemade SCROG frame. Really easy to make, just 25mm PVC pipe and 2mm paracord with screws and epoxy for fixings. The only specialist item I ordered was four spare corner brackets from a Secret Jardin space booster - bars which some people put across the middle of their grow tent to stop the sides from being sucked in by their extractor fans - and these only cost me 2 Euros each... unfortunately it was about 20 Euros all in with shipping! Nonetheless, really happy with the final product. I applied "Plasti Dip" (liquid rubber) to the pole clamps to provide additional grip, but this thing is solid as a rock even without it. No chance of it moving anywhere for the duration of the grow (unless I want it to). The net itself covers 95cm x 112cm and gives me room to access under the back two plants from the side windows. The individual squares are 8.5cm x 8.5cm (3.3" x 3.3"). I haven't seen anyone else make anything like this during my research - everyone was either making legs for their frame, hanging it from roof of the tent (??), or tying it on with cable ties and the like, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself for creating this strong floating specimen which feels like it was made for the tent. Upon installing the SCROG net I've realised that my lights were 6 inches closer to the canopy than I had previously believed. I now think any "nutrient burn" I saw last week may have been light burn. Hopefully now I can push ahead and increase the EC again! I've also done some minor defoliation this week - just removing any leaves that were too close to the substrate to improve air flow around the stems and also prevent bits of leaves falling into the pebbles. I'm not someone who likes to perform major and regular defoliations as I believe in tucking and not stressing the plant wherever possible for the biggest and quickest yields. The Exhale CO2 bag arrived. Obviously it's still in it's infancy, so it wouldn't be fair to test it as yet... However, the CO2 meter I ordered from China has also arrived unexpectedly early. I've calibrated this outside today and it seems legit - very nice little meter and I believe it's quite accurate. I've added photos above of the outdoor reading (~400) and the one in the tent sitting directly under the CO2 bag - and the reading is showing as >700 (and it later topped 850)! I tested it in an empty room next door and this was showing at ~430, so it's definitely helping to up the CO2 in my grow room (which is tiny and mostly filled by the tent itself). I do exhaust this tent, but only into the room itself and there is a small window open to encourage a bit of air flow/let condensation out, so it is not a sealed room by any means. The extraction fan is currently set to a low speed due to both low temperatures outside and me wanting to keep the humidity higher during veg, so I don't know how this will effect it in future once I flip to bloom. I don't think it's fair to judge this either way yet, but the CO2 bag is only two days old and there's only some small patches to mycelium visible - whisper it quietly, but this might actually work and get the grow room up above 800 regularly once it's padded out! I honestly thought this might be snake oil. Will keep you updated on this moving forwards. 21/02 - Full reservoir exchange completed. Easiest way to do this in a Wilma/Origin drip system is to pump the water out the reservoir, although this will leave some small dregs at the bottom (<5%) which the pump can't reach. I therefore filled the reservoir again completely, then promptly pumped it all back out again to ensure that any "dregs" that remained were heavily diluted. The plants are currently drinking approximately 10L every two days at this point, so I expect I will fully replace the 70L reservoir again within two weeks. This is perfect, as I am planning to flip to 12/12 in about a week's time. I will then continue to tuck the branches under the SCROG net for another 7-10 days - at that point we should be looking at the flowers starting to show, so I will then do another full exchange of the reservoir and add in my bloom nutrients and PK etc.

22/2 - These girls are growing quickly! I installed a new set of white "Ice Line" pipes to replace the original black ones. This should help to keep temperatures down in the coming warmer months. I also added a second pipe and tap in an effort to completely eliminate any unwanted watering during the mixing of the nutrient solution. I now have two manifolds feeding eight drippers, with two drippers going to each pot for double the original coverage. Not sure how much difference it will make, but hopefully it's all marginal gains! This is the last of my planned customisations to the grow setup. 25/2 - The plants are drinking down the nutrients nicely - decided to bump the EC up slightly as a result and push them to max out for the last week or so of veg. I'm considering flipping these sooner rather than later as I know that Strawberry Cough has a tendency to to stretch quite a bit, being Sativa dominant. I've also decided to buy a second air stone for this reservoir so I can place it on the other side of the tank as the roots of all four plants are now fully submerged. I guess this is now technically an RDWC run! :) 27/2 - Added a larger air pump and second air stone. The roots have completely taken over at the bottom of the reservoir now, so I'm glad I've done this ASAP. Performed light defoliation on each plant to increase light spread to potential bud sites. During today's defoliation I noticed that my fingers were getting sticky, and that there was a noticeable smell from the plant already - pre-flower! I then flipped the light timer to 12/12, so yesterday they got 18 hours of light, today they will get 16 hours, then tomorrow it will be 12 hours. I'll be continuing to tuck under the SCROG net for, at most, the next 7-10 days - aiming for a carpet of colas at an even height across the canopy once they're all in bloom. As I now have a spare air pump, I decided to also pick up an Oxypot module at my local hydro store with a view to growing some autoflowers out in the greenhouse this summer. I'll run a few in Biobizz soil with organic nutrients and one in DWC to compare. If I start these in April, I should have enough time to get two runs in before the end of summer. Watch this space - I will make a separate grow diary for these as well.

4/3 - Everything is getting tucked and defoliated to make room for more and more bud sites. This is the first week of 12/12 so I'm still spreading the plant to the edges and centre of the net. All plants eating and drinking healthily and I'm replacing 10L every two days. They're taking 35ml/10L of both Canna Vega A and B at this point (plus additives). Lots of leaves removed past two days, but I think all but about three squares on the net are now filled with at least one an unshaded bud site. I'll continue to tuck for another 2-3 days, then I'll let the stretch take over. A week after that I'll remove all the larf under the net. We're entering the fun stage now and it's all starting to take shape! 6/3 - They've bounced straight back from the defoliation and I think I may just be able to let them do their thing now. The screen is looking nice and full and the canopy even, so we'll see how they go. It'll be a week tomorrow since they started getting 12 hours of darkness a night. Pistils are starting to appear now, so I'll give them one or two more top ups of Vega before emptying the tank later this week and starting them on the Bloom nutrients. *I was given a free sample of 'Rezin' by Green Planet Nutrients which looks to be enough to complete the entire grow cycle. You're supposed to use it from 2 weeks before flowering begins to the end of the grow. I've basically used it from the day I flipped to 12/12, so not far off. I've never used their products before, but thought I may as well give it a go as it doesn't seem to be similar to anything I'm using in the Canna range, and the plants are taking everything I give them in the stride so far.

Final defoliations are taking place throughout this week. It's a constant battle to keep all the bud sites open to the light and air, but I think it's paying off nicely with this full canopy. 12/3 - Full reservoir exchange performed almost exactly two weeks after flipping to 12/12, using same method as before (just more roots in the way now!). Canna Vega nutrients have now been replaced with Canna Flores, and Rhizotonic replaced with Canna Boost Accelerator. I purposely went a bit higher on the EC to see if they can handle it - seems to be going great so far. I'm having to replace around 15L of water in the reservoir every two days by now, but the EC (slowly dropping ~0.1 every other day) and PH (moving from 5.9-6.1 and back again every day) always seem very stable, so I think they can take a little more at juice at this critical time. 13/3 - Last major defoliation completed a few hours before lights off. I'll only be removing the odd leaf here and there as required moving forwards and no more tucking or LST of any kind. I am concerned about the humidity of this grow room during flowering, as it's a fairly well enclosed space and it's too cold to have direct ventilation to the outside right now. Solution: I've purchased a 12L RAM dehumidifier to hopefully bring the humidity down from 60-70-80% to 45% for the remainder of the grow. Should be here later this week.

16/3 - Added a 12L RAM dehumidifier to the room. It's pulling about 5L of water out the air each day which I'm then using to top up the reservoir. It reads at 0.0 EC which is allowing me to jack the nutrients up even further! I still need to find another solution to decrease humidity further in the coming weeks... 18/3 - Added Spider Farmer UV30 light bars either side of my main light. I'll be running these for 2 hours a day in the middle of lights on. UV supplemental lighting is new to me, so I'm interested to see the effects in action. 19/3 - Humidity problem solved? I've put up insulated "blackout" material across the entire window, cut a hole just large enough for the 4-inch exhaust pipe from my tent to fit through, and aimed this at the top portion of the window, which is partially open to allow venting. I then have the blinds set so that you can't see in from the street (although the only thing to see behind the blinds now is a black out curtain anyway). This is the first time the tent has been vented to the outside - previously it just went out the roof of the tent and into the same semi-sealed room - and the insulated blackout material seems to be forming a fairly effective vapour barrier to stop anything coming back into the main part of the room. This has instantly dropped the humidity and allowed the dehumidifier to get the room down to 45% RH - at least outside of the tent. 22/3 - Increased the UVA lights to 2.5 hours a day. They'll be increasing by about 30 minutes every 1-2 days until they're on for 12 hours in late flower. I've taken off quite a lot of the upper leaves in the past week in an effort to open up the canopy and ensure lower buds are receiving light. I'm still concerned about the humidity in late flower. The air coming into the tent is around 45-50% RH, but inside the tent is closer to 70% when it's closed. I believe it's the area below the canopy that needs more air movement, so I've ordered another fan to place on the floor.

A quiet week in the garden. The new fan I've ordered hasn't arrived yet and neither has my new, larger bottle of Rezin, so I'm putting off doing another reservoir exchange in the hope it comes very soon. Annoying! 27/3 - largest defoliation in a few days. I'm keen to keep light going to the lower branches but I'm wary of stressing them or slowing them down - they seem to be chugging along nicely as is. The smell coming from them is starting to creep up. Smells a bit like fresh limes! Sweet and citrusy.

It's been a very busy week, but the girls are still coming along nicely in the background. New floor fan added and dehumidifier placed in the tent entrance to reduce humidity inside the tent. I've probably defoliated for the last time now until close to harvest. One more reseroivoir change due at the end of next week, but other than that it's all on the plants now.