RQS Royal Jack Automatic first grow

stoner_doom Day 1 (07/03/2024): Plastic container put under the left plant in order to bring it to the same height as the right one. Skillet with water placed into growbox to add humidity. Automatic exhausting fan set in the mode to activate when the RH is at 70%. At the end of the day, light raised from 45 to 60 cm (25 inch) and light power turned up from 40% to 50%. I made a mistake initially and counted the light distance from the soil, not the top of the plant. Whitish spots on the tips of the leaves on the right plant is almost gone. Day 2 (08/03/2024): All fine, fan moved a couple cm lower to direct air more directly on plants (they slightly wiggle when it turns, not too much). White spots from the tips of the leaves of the right plant are gone. Now I suppose it was light burn from the propagator light. Day 3 (09/03/2024): All fine, light lowered to 55 cm to prevent stretching. Day 4 (10/03/2024): All fine, given each plant 300 ml of tap water (after letting it stand in an open container for 48 hours to evaporate chlorine) pH'd down to 6.5. Was watering in a circle around 3 cm from stem using syringe. Right plant has slightly raised leaves up, which I guess is a sign of happiness. However, after carefully examining other diaries growing same strain from the same seedbank, I have noticed that the right plant has unusually thin and long stem, despite it and the right one being germinated and grown side by side in 100% identical conditions. On growdiaries few plants of Royal Jack Auto exhibited the same feature, while most (including my left plant) have normal stem. I suggest, that might be a genetics issue. I have the oscillating fan on to make the top of the plants slightly move and considering using silica as early as week 3. Day 5 (11/03/2024): Plants look happy overall, The right plant grew 0.5 cm in a day while forming new set of leaves. The light power was raised to 55% as the plants are actively growing new leaves and I would like to prefer stretching as much as possible, since the right plant still has very weak stem. In case they react well to the light intensity increase, I am planning to raise the light power to 60% tomorrow morning. Day 6 (12/03/2024): Light power increased to 60%. Also a little bit of fresh BioBizz Light Mix soil was added to the pots to slightly cover the stems of the plants in order to give them additional support and promote a healthy stem development. Day 7 (13/03/2024): All fine, the plants are thriving.

stoner_doom Day 8 (14/03/2024): Plant are growing new leaves very fast and look like they will be shifting into vegetation stage soon. Given each plant 400 ml of tap water (after letting it stand in an open container for 48 hours to evaporate chlorine) pH'd down to 6.5. Was watering in a circle around 4-5 cm from stem using syringe. Light power increased to 65%. I guess now it is time to start gradually dropping humidity 1-2% RH a day to reach around 50% RH in a week or so since the plants are expected to be entering vegetative stage in this timeframe. I have removed a water filled pan and set the exhaust fan to activate on 69% RH. Day 9 (15/03/2024): After the light power increase, the temperature raised to 24°C. This means that the humidity now has to be increased as well in order to match VPD. Therefore, I had to bring back the water filled pan and set the exhaust fan to activate on 80% RH. Currently, the humidity is at the level of around 75% RH. I have also tried to point the oscillating fan at the light and to constantly run the exhaust fan in order to lower temperature, but neither worked. That means, I will likely have to to keep humidity very high until much later in veg stage (supposedly around two weeks from now), gradually decreasing it after that, Day 10 (16/03/2024): I have noticed that the night temperature is 22°C when the light are off. According to VPD chart, n these conditions the humidity over 75% RH would be a little too much, so I decided to set the exhaust fan to activate on 76% RH to keep constant RH on 75%, which would be a great balance of VPD between day and night temperatures. Day 11 (17/03/2024): The left plant's soil had a little bit of fluffy grey mold on the two spots on the surface. I have carefully removed it. This might be a consequence of high relative humidity in the growing tent. Watered the plants. For this purpose I have added 1 ml of Silica to 1 L of unfiltered tap water. Silica acted as pH lowerer, so the final pH of the solution was 6.5 pH (I have tried using filtered water first, but the pH turned out to be too low after adding Silica). The left plant was given 400 ml of the solution, while the right plant was given 500 ml in a circle using syringe. This difference of the water amount came from the fact that when I tried sticking my finger in soil, the soil of the right plant's soil seemed significantly drier. This is quite logical, since the left plant grows in a smaller pot. The light power was increased to 70%, since the plants are actively growing a lot of new leaves. I have also slightly raised the power of the oscillating fan to make the canopies of the plants move on the air a little. Also, the exhaust fan was set to turn on on 75% RH to keep the RH around 74%. I will try to start lowering the tent's air humidity for 1% every three days or so, to gradually lower it down a little bit to avoid issues such as soil mold. Day 12 (18/03/2024): Plants seem happy, growing fast. The right plant started stretching a little (the left one did not), so the light power was increased further to 75% to combat excessive vertical growth. Day 13 (19/03/2024): Plants are growing very fast, started growing additional sets of leaves at the base of each node. They are definitely in the vegetative stage now. The left plant grows shorter, but with much bigger leaves compared to the right one. The light power was increased to 80%. A little bit of more whitish-greyish mold patches appeared on the soil around the left plant, which I have carefully removed. However, later in a day I did a little research, and it seems that a little bit of mold on the top of the organic soil is fine and is not actually damaging the plant. People on the internet are suggesting to sprinkle the top layer of the soil lightly with powdered cinnamon if I get annoyed by it, which I might do in the future. After that, when I have noticed a tiny amount of mold on the right plant's soil later, I have ignored it. Day 14 (20/03/2024): The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 74% RH to keep the RH around 73%. Also, after increasing the light power to 80%, the grow tent temperature started to occasionally reach 25°C, which I would like to try to avoid, so the exhaust fan was set to also activate when the temperature reaches 25°C. Apart from that, it was noted that the leaves of the left plant became somewhat a little droopy, particularly around the edges. I guess, in my case this might be a sign of overwatering, since the last time this plant was given a full dose of water when the soil was still not completely dry.

stoner_doom Day 15 (21/03/2024): The growth of the plants slowed down, and I have assumed this might be related to them needing more light. I have raised the light to 50 cm from the canopy of the right plant to accommodate new growth and increased it's power to 85%. After that the temperature started to raise to 25°C really often, while trying to cool down the tent using exhaust fan would lead to it being active too often, thus keeping humidity between 40% RH and 60% RH most of the time, which is far too low for this grow stage with this temperature according to VPD chart. After that I have concluded that such a drop in RH is much more undesirable than 1°C increase in temperature. Therefore, the exhaust fan was set activate when the temperature reaches 26°C, keeping the constant day temperature at 25°C. The humidity regime is kept the same, gradually lowering it by 1% RH every 3 days in order to reach about 50% in late flowering stage. Watered the plants adding 1/4 tablet of RQS Easy Grow (for the first time) and 2 ml silica to 2 l of water. After that, about 500 ml of fresh tap water (left in the open container for 48 hours to evaporate chlorine) was added to the mix to bring pH up to 6.5 pH (it was about 5.0 after adding nutrition). Gave 400 ml to the left plant (since some parts of the soil were still a little bit wet) and 600 ml to the right plant using syringe. Also, both plants have reached the edges of their pots and seem ready for LTS, which I am planning to perform tomorrow, because I have read that it's better to do the next day after watering. Day 16 (22/03/2024): Performed light LST on both plants using metal clips and garden ties. Day 17 (23/03/2024): The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 73% RH to keep the RH around 72%. The plants quickly adjusted themselves after the LST yesterday. The left plants started showing symptoms of some deficiency on the top pair of leaves, which I cannot identify yet. Day 18 (24/03/2024): Adjusted LST to get the stem higher than the top and also clipped down side branches. Regarding the suspected deficiency - I have asked the question online and got replies that it's a normal harmless pigmentation mutation and also that the plant got a little too much nitrogen. Day 19 (25/03/2024): The plant are recovering well after quite heavy LST. However, yesterday I have accidently snapped a fan leaf branch while adjusting the clips. After that I have decided to remove it completely. In the morning the scar already looked healed. Watered the plants with the leftover solution from the previous watering, giving 400 ml to the left plant and 600 ml to the right plant, and trying not to water under the leaves which are touching the soil. Day 20 (26/03/2024): The plants recovered really well after LST. The left one got a very nice even bush now with 3-4 branches growing upwards. On the right one, however, despite having 4-5 branches growing upwards, the main stem has already grew significantly taller than the others again, so I have had to adjust the LST to tie it down again, accidently snapping a fan leaf pointing to the ground in the process. I hope, this will will be a final round of LST and they will have a chance to just grow upwards. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 72% RH to keep the RH around 71%. Day 21 (27/03/2024): Watered the plants with the mixture of dechlorinated tap water and silica 1 ml/l, given 200 ml to the left plant and 600 ml to the right plant. They are starting to consume more water, the right plant's soil looked dry and the left plant's soil was almost dry, so they require more water now and I'll be away for few days, so the next watering will only happen on Friday 29th or Saturday 30th (asked my friend to come and water them once). Also, I have removed the water filled pan from the tent, as additional humidity is no longer required.

stoner_doom Day 27 (02/04/2024): Came back home today. While I was away, the plants were watered on my friend on Saturday (Day 24) with water and silica (1 ml / l), giving 500 ml to the left plant and 700 ml to the right plant. The left plant (the one in the smaller pot) already started flowering, while the right one is not showing any pistils yet. Raised the light power to 90%. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 70% RH to keep the RH around 69%. Removed the box under the left plant's pot to bring it a little bit down, as it has started stretching a bit. Did very light defoliation, removing dead yellow leaves which were on the ground as the result of LTS. Prepared watering solution with 3 L of fresh tap water and 1/4 tablet of RQS Easy Grow. Then added silica 1 ml / l and a little bit of fresh water to balance the pH to 6.5 pH. Watered the plants with this solution, giving 660 ml to the left plant and 925 ml to the right plant. Day 28 (03/04/2024): Raised the light power to 95% to prevent excessive stretching of the left plant which is already flowering. Removed the LST clips from the left plant and cut off the yellow leaf which was lying on the ground since the start of LST. Did the final adjustments to the LST of the right plant.

stoner_doom Day 29 (04/04/2024): Raised the light power to 100% to further control the left plant's flower stretching and give the right plant more light over evenly spread canopy. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 69% RH to keep the RH around 68%. Rotated the right plant 90 degrees to expose the additional colas to more light. Day 30 (05/04/2024): After raising the light power, the air temperature started to occasionally raise to 26°C. Watered the plants with the leftover solution (1/4 tablet of RQS Easy Grow for 3L and 1 ml Silica for 1L). Given 550 ml to the left plant and 950 ml to the right plant. In about an hour after the watering, the left plant showed some mild symptoms of overwatering. Also the right plant is already entering the pre-flower stage, as some white pistils started to appear. Day 31 (06/04/2024): The left plant continued to stretch the main cola. Removed one small yellowing leaf touching the ground as the result of previous LTS and dead cotyledon leaf from the left plant, one the same kind of ground-touching yellow leaf from the right plant. Day 33 (08/04/2024): The left plant stopped stretching. The right plant is clearly in pre-flower state. Also, because of the warmer weather, the temperature inside the grow box raised to 27 °C, which is very undesirable. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 68% RH to keep the RH around 67%. Prepared watering solution with 4.5 L of fresh tap water and 1/2 tablet of RQS Easy Grow. Then added silica 1 ml / l and a little bit of fresh water to balance the pH to 6.5 pH. Water the plants, giving 525 ml to the left plant and 1050 ml to the right plant. Removed a dead leaf from the bottom of the left plant. Day 34 (09/04/2024): The right plant is very slowly starting to flower. Yesterday after the watering the left plant once again showed symptoms of overwatering (the third time in a row now), and today I have found yet another yellowing leaf with brown spots at the bottom of the plant. Though at first it seemed to me as a Nitrogen deficiency, later after research I can conclude that it looks like a symptom of overwatering, since the plant was definitely being overwatered for the past two weeks at least and the yellow leaves usually appear specifically after watering the plant. This means further I will try to greatly cut its water intake, starting with giving just 300-350 ml of water the next time, and then slowly raising the amount if plant won't be showing any signs of overwatering. Day 35 (10/04/2024): The grow tent temperatures now stay at 27 °C almost constantly. I have tried pointing usb fan at the light driver, but it didn't work. The right plant is starting to flower. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 67% RH to keep the RH around 66%.

stoner_doom Day 36 (11/04/2024): The right plant finally entered the flower stage (therefore there's delay in flowering of around 10 days between the plants). Removed the yellow leaf which was touching the soil as the result of LTS from the right plant. Watered the plants using pre-made mixture (4.5 L of fresh tap water, 1/2 tablet of RQS Easy Grow), adding around 1 ml / l of Silica and bringing pH to about 6.5 pH. Gave 300 ml to the left plant and 1225 ml to the right plant. Even after this the left plant still showed some mild symptoms of overwatering. I guess partly it has something to do with poor drainage and aeration due to plastic pot material. However, just as an experiment, I will try to extend the time between watering it. The right plant has also shown some mild overwatering symptoms later. Day 37 (12/04/2024): Plants look fine. Removed dead rotten leaf from the bottom of the left plant. Day 38 (13/04/2024): The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 66% RH to keep the RH around 65%. The right plant started doing a flower stretch, so I had to slightly raise the light so it would be 30 cm from it's top. I am also planning a light defoliation of the bottom leaves tomorrow or on Monday. Late evening the left plant started showing extremely strong underwatering symptoms, with droopy and yellowing leaves with dry texture. The soil was also extremely sandy and dry. I decided to immediately give the plant 50 ml of water pH'd to 6.5 pH. Day 39 (14/04/2024): The right plant also started to show some symptoms of some deficiency, with some leaves on the bottom turning yellow. Did some light defoliation, removing dead and dying leaves from the bottom of both plants. Also removed two very small bottom branches with underdeveloped bud sites in the shadow from the left plant. Removed LST clips and ties from the right plant. Watered the plants using pre-made mixture (4.5 L of fresh tap water, 1/2 tablet of RQS Easy Grow), adding around 1 ml / l of Silica and bringing pH to about 6.5 pH. Gave 350 ml to the left plant and 1050 ml to the right plant. After that the plans did non show any visible symptoms of overwatering, for the first time in a while. Day 40 (15/04/2024): Had to raise the light slightly so it would be 30 cm from the tip of the right plant, which has reached 50 cm by now. The right plant is looking healthy, while the left plant now actively showing some sort of deficiency with yellowing leaves on the bottom of the plant. Day 41 (16/04/2024): Had to raise the light slightly so it would be 30 cm from the tip of the right plant, which has reached 55 cm by now. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 65% RH to keep the RH around 64%. The oscillating fan was turned up to the setting previous to the max to create more air movement, as it was not felt on the level of the bottom leaves. Day 42 (17/04/2024): Had to raise the light slightly so it would be 30 cm from the tip of the right plant, which has reached 60 cm by now. Preparing the new watering mixture using 3.2 L of dechlorinated tap water and 1/2 tablets of Easy Bloom. No silica, as the mixture pH was already 6.5 pH. Watered the plants, giving 350 ml to the left plant and 1050 ml to the right plant. They didn't show any signs of overwatering. Removed two dead leaves from the bottom of the left plant and one from the bottom of the right plant. Removed one very small and undeveloped shadowed bud side from the very bottom of the left plant.

stoner_doom Day 43 (18/04/2024): Plants look fine. Day 44 (19/04/2024): Had to raise the light slightly so it would be 26 cm from the tip of the right plant, which has reached 63 cm by now (The height measurement from the other day proofed to be wrong). I am almost out of vertical space and hope that the flower stretch will finish soon. The left plant stopped showing more leaves yellowing, but started showing some sort of new deficiency or excess - burnt leaves tips on the top of the plant. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 64% RH to keep the RH around 63%. Day 45 (20/04/2024): 420! The deficiency on the left plant is looking worse, with a lot of burnt tips on the top leaves. Watered the plants using leftover mixture (3.2 L of dechlorinated tap water and 1/2 tablets of Easy Bloom), giving 350 ml to the left plant and 1050 ml to the right plant. Day 46 (21/04/2024): The yet unidentified deficiency on the left plant is progressing upwards, with more and more leaves turning yellow. The right plant looks more healthy, still stretching a little bit. Day 47 (22/04/2024): Cut two of the smallest micro bud sites completely covered in the shadow without the possibility of normal development on the right plant. The right plant has reached 71 cm and I had to put the light in the highest possible position, meaning I have ran out of vertical space. The distance from the tip of the right plant to the lamp is now 20 cm. If it continues to stretch, I will have to remove the metal grill the right plant is currently standing at. The deficiency on the right plant was successfully identified as potassium deficiency, with the help of the community. Since I am giving RQS Easy Bloom, which is quite rich in potassium itself, but the left plant is drinking very little, I will try to increase the dosage during the next watering, which is tomorrow. The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 63% RH to keep the RH around 62%. Day 48 (23/04/2024): The right plant seemingly stopped stretching. Removed a couple of completely dead leaves from the bottom of the left plant, and one from the bottom of the right plant. Prepared the watering mixture, using 1.5 L of dechlorinated tap water and 1/2 tablet of RQS Easy Bloom. Watered the plants, giving 400 ml to the left plant and 1050 ml to the right plant. They didn't show any signs of overwatering afterwards. Day 49 (24/04/2024): It is yet unclear if the increased feeding has helped with the left plant deficiency. I will assess the plant tomorrow, and if the deficiency is progressing, I will perform flushing, since I have been going quite hard on nitrogen at the start of the grow and the pot has very poor drainage, so it might as well be the nutrient lockout caused by the salts buildup. Also later in the day, one of the large ill-looking leaves on the left plant snapped and fell off when I was trying to tuck it.

stoner_doom Day 50 (25/04/2024): The exhaust fan was set to turn on on 62% RH to keep the RH around 61%. Removed one dead leaf from the bottom of the left plant and one right leaf from the bottom of the right plant, and also cut one tiny lower shadowed bud site from the right plant. Regarding the left plant - the increased feeding only just slightly slowed down the process of leaves dying. So now it's clear that the problem is with the salt build-up and nutrient lockout. Tomorrow morning I will flush it with the 6.5 pH water and then feed along with the right plant. Otherwise it might not survive until harvest.