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Grow box 24" deep 28" wide 60" high
Diamond foil on 4 walls/ Flat white floor and ceiling
140 actual watts G8 veg / bloom LED
245 actual watts G8 bloom LED
2.2 gallon air pots
Soil- Roots Organic Original
Epsoma seed starting mix
Exhale Co2 bag
Auto pilot Temp/Humidity/Co2 monitor.
HM ph meter
HM tds meter (0.5 ppm scale)
6" 2-speed circulation fan
(2) Variable speed muffin intake fans w/nuisance dust filter
4" 190 cfm variable speed exhaust fan with carbon filter.
Started by dropping 4 seeds in a shot glass of water 6.8 ph. They split open in 24 hours, at 48 hours showed a small tail, they were transferred to a moist tissue placed in dark covered container and had a nice tail on the end of the 4th day.
Trying Roots Organic Original mix for the first time. A slurry test showed a ph of 6.6 ph. I expect this to drop when the microbes come to life and start adding nutes.
Last grow I used Happy Frog but had to deal with low ph issues early in the grow (Fox Farm get your mix right) I'm not going to obsess with the ph too much on this grow or so I say.
I lightly moistened the mix before putting it in the pot and knocked the pot to settle it in a bit. Using a solo cup I created a pocket to hold about 1.5 - 2 cups of Epsoma seed starting mix which was moistened with water/KLN mix using just enough moisture so when compressed in my hand it still held together in a ball without breaking up when I opened my hand. I loosely added this to the pocket not compressing it, put the seeds in about 3/8 to 1/2 " deep with tail side down,then lightly sprinkled a bit of the mix on top. Lastly used 6-8 drops of water/KLN mix on top. They broke through the surface over the next 3-4 days textbook style seedlings. All looked normal except 1 appeared to be a pale green compared to the others.
I'm aware it might be a green phenotype but I will keep a close eye on her any ways.
I use clear solo cups with a 3/4" hole in the tops and 2 holes on the side to increase humidity for the first couple of weeks.
On day 7 lowered light to 30"
Let the fun begin 😊
Week 2 crawling along. Had my first unwanted visitors. Saw a couple of fungus gnats on the surface of the pots. I covered the seedlings with plastic cups, sprayed the soil/ pot surface with insecticidal soap mix and sprinkled a bit of diatomaceous earth on the surface of the soil to see if that takes care of them. Day 10 watered with some Voodoo juice beneficial bacteria w/ Carboload to help the bacteria feed a bit and do their thing by breaking down the organic soil amendments to a form more usable to the roots and a touch of B-52 into the same mix. I suspect the one seedling that's lighter green might be looking for a bit of nitrogen I'll see if she/they react well to it. Used a turkey baster to lightly water an 6-8 inch circle around the seed starter mix letting capillary action pull the moisture in toward the seedlings. Continued dropping light gradually up to PAR reading of 250- 350 umoles at the end of week 2.
Week 3 A bit more progress with growth. Still using minimal watering only once every 3 days. The one is still a bit on the light green side so I started doing a foliage feeding twice a week at lights off of 1/4 tsp Dyna-Grow 7-9-5 mixed with 1 gallon water ph corrected used a few drops of baby shampoo as a sticker they all seem to like it. I will start with feeding beginning of week 4. I lowered the lights a bit PAR reading of 350-450 umoles.
I had to go to extremes with these fungus gnats. Trying to avoid using chemicals. First I removed the top inch of soil with a vacuum cleaner then sprinkled mosquito bits ( Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis) over the surface and soaked a 1/4 cup of them in a gallon of water overnight then watered the top few inches of the pots with it. I then covered the surface with about an inch of clean fine sand. Next issue was I'm using air pots so the they are also entering the sides so I tightly wrapped the pots with plastic wrap to stop them. I will remove the plastic in a week or so hopefully. Lastly they are entering from the bottom of the pots and laying eggs. So I mixed a small tub of 1 part hydrogen peroxide 4 parts water and 2 table spoons neem oil then dunked the bottom 3 inches of the pots for about 5 seconds then let them drain. I'm trying to avoid flooding the whole pot with too much water since the root system is still small to soak up that much water. Lastly I place yellow sticky traps in each pot. Take that you bugs!😣
About those fungus gnats, I definately won't be buying bags soil from the same distributor next time. Since this pest is something most growers wind up with on occasion so do you try to add preventatives to your soil mix every time or take some other steps?
What I will do is any time is see one first thing I will do is either make a cinnamon tea or even put a little cinnamon powder on the top soil they hate the smell and won't go in an lay larvae. It doesn't kill the adult so sticky traps are great. and to make the cinnamon tea you just take any where from 2-4 tbs of cinnamon powder and add it to hot/boiled water the water needs to be pretty hot. Add powder to hot water in a jug you can shake it up in then after shaking let sit and cool for 12-24 hrs then strain and you are left with a cinnamon smelling "Tea" you can spay it on the Tent, plants, outside tent pretty much anywhere you want and it smell likes cinnamon an deters them from going near there.👍 If they are really bad and already in the soil then Diotamacious Earth works great to kill anything trying to come up or into the soil it cuts them up as they try. Also another good easy preventative is to have some companion plants that have insecticide like properties like basil a lot of pest hate the smell of it so they stay away there is a bunch that can help look into it it pretty neat😊 Happy growing!!
Week 4 - Added a cool mist humidifier I was struggling to keep the humidity above 40%. It wound up about 45% on average and 50% with the cabinet door closed. Did some LST work and my last foliage feeding. Plants were starting to bloom by the end of the week and beginning their stretch. Gave them a light feeding since this is the first time using this soil mix. Added a bit of Cal-Mag (4-0-0) early it adds a bit of extra nitrogen to the bloom nutes. This time I'm not going to wait until they start showing deficiencies about week 6. They were watered to the point of about 10% run off for the first time. I swung the main stems to the outside perimeter to try to keep the light intensity within a decent range. Plan to fire up the bloom light a few days into week 5. Fungus gnat update. I seem to have them under control. But not eliminated. The yellow sticky traps worked well the number stuck to them has dropped. The layer of sand helps because it dry out the surface quickly with the fan blowing. The bacteria must be doing their thing. I removed the plastic wrap from the pots. I have been adding a small amount of insecticidal soap and water solution to my drain pans and clean them out every other day seems to nail any trying to crawl in under the pots. The solution drys up pretty quickly. Also I added a small bowl of apple cider vinegar with a drop of soap it seems to help attract them to their demise. Hopefully I have minimized the amount of damage to the roots.
Week 5 - Changed out my lights started the bloom light at 16" Par reading of 500-575 umoles. Seems like they did a bit of stretching. Buds forming and throwing out a great deal of pistils. So far it looks like at least two phenotype definately 2 with purple buds starting the other 2 are green but am hoping to see a bit of color come through over the next few weeks. I removed any lower leaves that were touching the sand and also pinched off any lower popcorn bud sites that I didn't feel would not get enough light hopefully directing energy to upper bud sights. Did a bit of leaf tucking here and there tied back a few pairs of fan leaves by their stems pulling them to the rear sides on the main cola. Keeping the colas to the outer sides of the box seems to keep the light intensity within a reasonable range without burning any leaves so far.
Note : I am now mixing up my nutes by the gallon now not by the liter. I'm gradually increasing the ppm of my feed solution about weekly depending how they look. I'm still a bit on the cautious side about nute burn. I'm feeding every watering to a point of slight runoff about every other day. Last feeding of the week I water to the point of 20% runoff and check the runoff ppm to make sure it isn't crazy high. I'm using an electronic moisture meter and feeling the weight of the pot to determine my next watering. It seems like the plant that was showing lighter green leaves is drinking a bit slower than the rest so she's been getting a bit less than the rest at every watering hopefully she"ll catch up with her sisters.
Week 6 - Signs of real bud building progress. Decided to add some PK 13/14 seems like AN nutrients early bloom feeding make shift/schedule have a pretty low phosphorus ratio. Even though I know they still need nitrogen during bloom AN nutrients seems to be high in this nutrient especially when using their cal/mag product. The proportions are not ideal for bloom. I prefer buds to be more dense with calyxes than excess leafy growth. I am feeding about every other day but not watering to the point of runoff. Ended the week with just plain water with 25% runoff. Runoff PH/PPM look good so far. Lowered the light to 14" above the canopy which is as low as I would like to go. PAR meter reading 575 to 650 umoles I'm going to keep checking for signs of discoloration in the upper leaves to avoid any light burn situations. Using my summer light schedule lights off at 11:00 am on at 3:00 pm (Lights off during hottest parts of the day) struggling to keep daytime temp at 79F or less in my grow box even with the air conditioning on in the house.
Does anyone out there feeling the same way I do about too much nitrogen in nutes during bloom causing buds to be too leafy and with a 8-9 week auto flower would week 6 or week 7 be better to give them a bit of extra P/K yet leave enough time for a 10-14 day flush?
I would add it on week 6 and stop it on the end of week 8 to have 2 weeks of pk boost for the plant. I agreed that too much nitrogen can lead to leafy plants but I also observed that phenomenon when I was using a 6-6-6 Npk nutrient , the plants ended up more leafy and green than usual , the taste was affected by too much chlorophyll
Week 7 - Finally catching a little whiff off them. The 2 Green phenotype faintly smells like sweet honeydew melon. The 2 purple phenotype smell similar but have a light spicy berry scent. Buds are starting to fill out nicely giving them another pop of pk 13/14 for this week hoping to see the calyxes keep bulking up in week 8. Three plants seem to have very dense buds, one seems to be a bit leafy. They are drinking a lot more this week so I'm watering to point of 10% runoff or more. Giving them nutes every other watering with a slight runoff. Still hoping to see some more color on the green buds a few of the calyxes are showing a faint pinkish/lavender color time will tell. A few pistil tips are beginning to brown nothing major.
Week 8 - Buds are getting thicker, filling in more. Awesome colors on the two bloody skunks. Green phenotype buds are showing a rose/lavender color. Smell is increasing and very alluring. Seeing more pistils browning and curling in. Using 40x led lighted jewelers loupe the trichomes are starting to show quite a few half cloudy but many still clear. It is difficult to judge the cloudiness of the trichomes on the darker purple buds. A couple plants seem a bit further along than others. Was able to get one last feeding at the beginning of the week followed by regular water. Day 60 started my flush put 4-5 gallons through each pot lowering my runoff ppm to about 75 ppm. Let them dry out a bit more than usual by the next watering. Raised my light a couple of inches do to some fox tails starting to show up but nothing major. Shooting for about day 70 for harvest. Can't wait! 😀
Week 9 - I think they're giving me all that they have in terms of bulking up at this point. Sugar coated goodness. Smell is amazing. Backed the light off a bit more. Still continuing to flush with ph correct R.O. water. Seems like this Roots Organic Original soil likes to hold on to the nutes may be the x-tra coco coir they add has something to do with it. I took the larger fan leaves off at the end of the week hopefully to force them to start cannibalizing the nutrients left in the leaves higher up. Trichomes deeper inside the buds are mixed. A lot of cloudy/milky with a few ambers scattered around hoping to see more ambers before the big chop. Trying not to get faked out by the trichomes on the newer growth on the fox tails which are mostly clear. Plenty of half cloudy trichomes throughout. 70 days still looks like the day they're coming down.
I have to apologize for not listing a wet weight. I don't feel listing a wet weight of large wet branches with buds still attached gives a good comparison to the dry bud weight. Seemed like a pretty typical auto to start. The one lighter green seedling seemed to have wet feet so giving her a couple of foliage feedings helped her out while I let her catch up and dry out a bit. I had a few unwanted visitors in the first few weeks which I feel affected them growing to their full potential during veg and may have effected my harvest amount. Using a 2-3 gallon pot was ideal anything larger would be excessive in my opinion. Starting to give some light nutes a bit earlier would have helped a bit and I was struggling to keep the humidity up high enough, finally broke down and added a humidifier. Educated myself on VPD (Vapor pressure deficit) definitely a good read for any grower. They handled nutes very well I don't think you would need to take them up any higher than 800 ppm on a 0.5 scale TDS meter. Even though I didn't push them to the max during mid/late bloom I saw no signs of nute burn. My plan of starting Cal/Mag supplements at week 4 worked out well I only saw one of the oldest lower fan leaves showing a faint deficiency. The addition of PK 13/14 was something new I wanted to try. Using this lead to great calyx development and density in the buds. I personally feel AN nutrients have too much nitrogen during bloom and lack phosphorus at a key time during bud formation leading to excessively leafy buds. Buds were easy to handle and trim very few leaves to remove and just tipped any tiny leaves not covered in trichomes. Dried them over a 6-7 day period. Got them down to about 66% humidity then jarred them up burping them a few times a day taking them down to 62-63% over the next few days. Added Boveda 62% packs during the second week for the start of a nice cure. Going to squirrel away the best buds for an 8-12 week cure for my head stash.😀 000
Philindicus
