First Grow Ever

Dear Me, I had a Growers Nightmare, An Equipment failure around 21th of Jan,24. My 3X3 Mars Hydro Kit is IMPORTED from United States. it comes with a pretty powerful grow light FC-E3000. But Unfortunately it broke only after 1 weeks of usage. The Rotating knob stopped responding to dimming function. The push button only turns lights OFF/ON. And without having the ability to control the Light intensity I was left with nothing but 100% light, 400+ PPFD and 25+ degree Temp in my Grow Tent. Hence I Disconnected the Two of the Centre Light bars and Increased the Height to maximum at about 1.3 Feet from plants. This at times was showing between 230-300 PPFD but it now it's back at showing 400 here and there. At the very least the tent temperature is 23-24. I Contacted Mars Hydro notified that I'm in different Country and that I'm helpless and I can't basically send you the Unit for a replacement since I'd killing my plants at that point so please either 1) sell me a new controller stand alone unit to my country. I'll pay upfront. or 2) send me new unit and I'll send back as soon as fresh unit arrives and I swap the malfunction unit. I'll bear shipping cost upfront for both ways. But it's been like 3-4 days no conclusion we're still figuring out and yet to get to any conclusion. Hence I ended up placing order for a AC infinity 6 inch exhaust fan which comes with AC infinity 69 Pro controller( a separate unit that can connect to Mars hydro Grow Lights using RJ45 Cable Type B Connecter). It's cool how just one thing can add a whole Semi-Automation to Grow Tent Environment. Not gonna lie I did thought at this point that I had in fact made my tent buying decision in a jiffy without looking at all the other options. I hope Mars Hydro Fixes it provided that I had invested my faith in them with my money at around 1200 usd( Tent cost about 600 USD + about 600 in Shipping and import fee). Prepared Cal-Mag Buffered Coco-Perlite Mix for Coming week. Plants are already on a Light Feed Schedule with a 3 Part series by General Hydroponics. 1st Week Nutrients Diet Per Gal Water 2ml CalMag 1 ml micro 1 ml Grow 0.5 ml Bloom Ph-6.1 TDS - 277 UPDATE : 4 February : - I learned First week starts "After" the Cotyledons when first true leaves show up. Which means I've been actually in my first week only. Putting an end to my anxiety over my current plant sizes. Also, Mars Hydro replied with a humble gesture and decided to replace the dimmer at no Additional cost, They told me I could keep the faulty unit which means I don't need to spend money on returning it. and they're directly shipping to my country without any extra fee (a cherry on top). I'm yet to get the tracking but it should arrive at the very least sometime before I hit the Flowering. My first week plants look somewhat healthy despite a little light stress in the early stage. Although the Plants heights not been upto the desirable min. so far which is mostly because light was throwing too much ppfd in the early stages. Stay Tuned as i complete the week 2 on 10th of feb for these Baby Auto's.

Just an OKAY Week. Nothing miraculous. Growth is as stunned as expected due to over exposure to high PPFD I presume since they all look healthy in every other way except the height and density for a 2 week old vegging plant. It's not that of a weed. Transplanted them all into 3 Gal Fabric Pots, Except Gelato which is looking pointeless to plant at this stage. Feeding every second day about 250 ml per plant. Feeding Schedule 2 ML/Gal CalMag 2.5 ML Micro 2.5 Grow 1 ml Bloom. PH Down at 5.8 to safeguard against the odd's I sowed another Gelato seed to the fam on 10th Feb. Will Create a separate diary for that grow.

Crazy Week. Despite Buffering COCO-Perl. Medium with Ph adjusted Calmag as well as always feeding ph adjusted nutrients. The Run off Came about 7.6 and the Ppm was at 1050. I wonder what might have caused the Coco to get alkaline. SO I FLUSHED all the 4 Plants several times until got the Run off to sit at 6.2 using only Ph adjusted water(5.5 - 5.6). Afterward ran one more final Run OFF with Nutrients Solution at 5.5.. Now letting them go dry completely. Not at all sure what cause the Ph Hike. But sure enough that has added up to the already stunted growth. Already purchased more PhotoPeriods. By the Time they arrive these auto's should be at least about to be harvested out of the tent. I'm ducked. 1# OG PLANT is mid 5th nodesDevelopment. 2# another OG plant is on early 5th Nodes development. Gelato Auto is on early 5th Nodes development. Gorilla Cookies is on mid 4th Node development. I thought of doing some plant training but no way on this run. I'd be surprised if even get a quarter of an ounce off one plant. Call me God of Faith but I have no other option but to keeping them and letting them do their thing and try to just learn it through everything and anything that come on the way on this stunted run.

Week 4 has finished. Here Comes 5th Week. 1 Out of 4 Vegging Plant has started to show white hair Pistils and you know what that means. Still feeding ML/Gal 2.5 ml - CalMag 2.5 ml- Flora Micro 2.5 ml - Flora Grow 1 ml - Flora Bloom Ph - 5.8 Nothing impressive. OG Kush plant #1 is the only one in the Hood that actually looks keeps going in veg as I would want it to. OG Kush plant #2 is the only plant in the tent that has got the Straight White Pistils. But I'm still going to keep it in vegging window cuz I don't know. Maybe this week they all will get into flowering eventually and I'd wanted to keep all these into one flowering post. or something like that. But will eventually update things faster if anything comes surprisingly faster. For now I'm just staying on the Veg side because 3/4 are still in veg. Fastbuds Gorilla Cookies has got little yellowing on the top. Gelato is still tiny looking hopeless plant. Peace.

Week 5 Updates : - Plants are in their stretching and 3 out of 4 grows are not in flower yet. I took this opportunity to do Some LST with minor defoliation by bending branches and about 1 day before writing this I used proper LST equipments rather than DIY. Almost all have got 9 Branches. And my attempt is to at least have them stretch wider and healthier if not bushiest. But has definitely gone benefiting and I can already see the difference since I left one of the OG plant completely Untrained and you can see the difference which one is which. Mars Hydro Dimmer after working for a while Broke again( third time it fixed and broke again) throwing 100% light again so I ended up restoring the Light height to almost Max 110cm from plants top to distribute about 350-400 PPFD here and there. Hoping my 2*2 to arrive soon so I can fit these new batch of 3 plants into that tent. PEACE.

Okay So still only 2 Plants are truly in veg. OG Kush Seedsman #1 Gelato Auto Fastbuds. The Run OFF came at 6.3-6.4 during week 6 So I'm still feeding at 5.5. Feeding every 2-3rd Day only with the Nutrients. Feeding Nutrients only with every feed because plants were stunted already. And I already flushed them in the midway because of crazy ph and TDS, And since using only Cal-mag ph water is like 4-5 days of wait for the nutrients feed and this is flowering time plants like as much feed as possible. Maybe I'm wrong. But I'll flush again if needed but I don't think I'll be needing that anymore. So.