First Grow - Gorilla Glue #4

Planted 2 ungerminated seeds in fortified organic soil, stuck my finger in to first knuckle then dropped seeds in then covered with soil. Planted on Wednesday May 22, noticed sprouts on May 26th. Kept under 4 x 45w CFL bulbs on 24 hrs/day for approx 4 days after sprout, then turned to MH light with ballast set to 250w, light approx 24" above plants. Spraying plants with spray bottle of water every few hours, watering plants with tap water every one or two days when soil at 1st knuckle depth is no longer damp. Covered top of soil with perlite to reduce evaporation. Will re-arrange grow tent to attach fan/filter to the rear of tent where my workstation power bar currently is.

Lots of growth this week. I slowly lowered the light to around 20 inches, and on Thursday I increased the power on the ballast to 400w from 250w. During the lights on period I would spray the leaves with some water, but only watered twice - Wednesday and Friday. I was having some humidity issues so I bought a humidifier. The RH during the day isn't as high as it needs to be but it is helping. On Saturday I transplanted the seedlings into 3 gal fabric pots and did a reorganization of the grow room. The roots were just getting to the edges of the small pots I had them in before so I think I timed it just about right. Once the plants have a chance to settle in over the next few days I will increase the light intensity again to 600w and start topping and LST sometime mid next week. I started adding High Output Garden brand nutrients to the water and will ramp them up slowly to full strength over the next few weeks.

After transplanting the plants to their 3 gal pots last week I topped them early this week. I actually topped one plant, and FIM'd the second one. Both plants slowed their growth as predicted for a few days afterwards, but they are both now growing quickly. I'm using cut up coat hangers to do some basic LST and it seems to be working. This week I watered on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first two waterings I didn't get any runoff, so on Friday I watered them much more thoroughly. I adjusted my larger fan to now run all day instead of just during the day in order to further dry out the bottom of the pots, as they were still wet the day after. I'm using PH test strips to test the water and the runoff, and both seem to be around 6. I'll be upping the dose of nutrients slowly over the next few weeks to 1ml/l each, for now they are at half strength. Next week I'll be installing the screen and perhaps another top closer to the weekend if the plants are ready.

Noticing a lot of growth every day, and the plants are getting thirstier. I increased the light power to 600w and installed my screen. I did some minor defoliation on both plants, and am going to top both again this coming week. I'm watering about 2l of water every second day.