Anna_J I'm finally back with a couple of new diaries to share!
It's been a little while since my last grow but I'm excited to start this next one and i'm looking forward to re-connecting with you all here again. π
I've only just picked out my seed strains and have gotten my tent all set back up, cleaned and everything tested.
For this current run, I'm growing two strains:
πΈTropicana Cookies FF
and
πΈOrange Sherbet FF (check out my other diary for this strain)
I will be germinating two seeds from each strain but i'll only end up keeping two or three of the plants in total, so as not to overcrowd my 2x4 tent.
π±Germination Day 1π±:
- I selected two out of the five seeds in the package.
- I soaked the seeds in a glass of distilled water for 8 hours. I would normally put the glass on a heat mat but i figured that the warm summer temperatures were good enough.
- After 8 hours i transferred the seeds to some damp paper towel, which was placed loosely inside a plastic sandwich bag (unsealed) and the bag placed within a small glass container without a lid, which was then set on a heat mat within the tent. The heat mat was set to 32C / 89.5F.
π±Germination Day 2π±:
- no changes
π±Germination Day 3π±:
- I was able to convince myself to not be checking on the seeds every hour. LOL
- Both seeds have 'popped'!
- I mixed up a pretty basic soil consisting of:
80% Pro-Mix Organic Vegetable and Herb potting soil
15% Perlite
5% Canna Coco Professional Plus coir
This was added to two plastic 6" containers. The seeds were planted roughly 1" deep and watered with a small amount of distilled water.
The pots were placed in my 2x4 grow tent, along with my two "Orange Sherbet" pots, where I have only my Sunblaster 48W LED strip light turned on.
- Sunblaster 48W LED mounting height: 48"
- I placed clear plastic cups on top of the soil, to act as humidity domes since the humidity in the tent was roughly only 54%.
- Temperature: 81F
- I set my AC Infinity Cloudline T6 exhaust fan to turn on to it's lowest setting when the temperature inside the tent reaches 84F.
π±Germination Day 4π±:
- No changes
π±Germination Day 5π±:
- It's official, I woke up this morning to both seedlings having finally broken through the soil! π
- One is slightly taller than the other but both are looking healthy.
I know some people count the germination date as the day when the small radicle root pops from the seed but for me, i've always counted it as the day when the seedling first pops through the soil.
Check back soon for more updates! π
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Used method
Paper Towel
Germination Method
1
Week 1. Vegetation
22d ago
1/8
5.08 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
28 Β°C
Day Air Temp
No Smell
Smell
80 %
Air Humidity
25 Β°C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
121.92 cm
Lamp Distance
Anna_J π±Week 1!π±
Day 1:
For week 1, I have both my Sunblaster 48W LED strip light and my HLG Elite 360 fixture, which contains two QB96 Elite V2 LED boards, mounted at 48". The HLG fixture is set to it's absolute lowest setting.
βοΈ - Light schedule: 18/6
βοΈ - Total LUX: 7,900
βοΈ - Total PPFD: 120
- I removed the humidity domes and turned on the humidifer, which will run on low setting whenever the lights are on.
- My circulation fan is mounted at about 40" and is set to 20% intensity and is always on. This provides just a very gentle breeze around the seedlings.
- My exhaust fan is set to turn on to 20% intensity whenever the temperature reaches 83F or the humidity reaches 84%.
- Air intake switches between fresh outside air and room air, depending on the temperatures of each.
- Temp: 78F (lights off); 83F (lights on)
- RH: 75% (lights off); 84% (lights on)
- VPD: 0.68 - 0.82kPa (aiming to be between 0.5 - 0.8)
Day 2:
- Temp: 77F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 60% (lights off); 80% (lights on)
Day 3:
- Temp: 76F (lights off); 79F (lights on)
- RH: 60% (lights off); 82% (lights on)
π§- Watered each plant with approximately 50ml of distilled water
- Increased circulation fan speed from 20% to 40%. The seedlings are now just barely moving in the breeze, which will hopefully encourage strong stem growth.
Day 4:
- Temp: 77F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 60% (lights off); 75% (lights on)
- Lowered my Sunblaster 48W 6400K LED strip light by 2-3" to increase light intensity
βοΈ- Total LUX: 8,600-8,800
βοΈ- Total PPFD: 131-133
Day 5:
- Temp: 76F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 61% (lights off); 80% (lights on)
π§- Bottom watered each plant with roughly 150ml of distilled water
Day 6:
- Increased the circulation fan speed from 40% to 60%, causing a bit more movement of the seedlings.
Day 7:
- Temp: 76F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 58% (lights off); 81% (lights on)
- Watered each plant with approximately 80-100ml of distilled water
More to come... π
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2
Week 2. Vegetation
14d ago
1/5
12.7 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
27 Β°C
Day Air Temp
No Smell
Smell
79 %
Air Humidity
23 Β°C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
91.44 cm
Lamp Distance
Anna_J π±Week 2!π±
This is going to be a bit of a shorter update this week.
I'm planning on increasing the light intensity throughout the week.
Day 8:
- Increased the light intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture slightly.
βοΈ- LUX: 9,700 - 9,800
βοΈ- PPFD: 146 - 148
- Temp: 74F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 60% (lights off); 81% (lights on)
Day 9:
- No changes
Day 10:
- Increased the light intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture again slightly.
βοΈ- LUX: 9,900 - 10,000
βοΈ- PPFD: 149 - 151
- Adjusted my exhaust fan settings to turn on whenever the temperature reaches 82F or the RH reaches 80%.
- Temp: 73F (lights off); 81% (lights on)
- RH: 62% (lights off); 79% (lights on)
Day 11:
- No changes
Day 12:
- Lowered both my my HLG Elite 360 fixture and Sunblaster 48W 6400K strip light to 36" above canopy, increasing the light intensity
βοΈ- LUX: 11,900
βοΈ- PPFD: 178
π§- Watered each plant with approximately 100ml of distilled water
- Temp: 74F (lights off); 80-82F (lights on)
- RH: 61% (lights off); 73-79% (lights on)
- Had to run my portable air conditioner during the hottest part of the day, for about 6 hours to help keep temperatures under 82F inside the tent.
Day 13:
- No changes
- Had to run the air conditioner again during the hottest part of the day, for about 7 hours.
Day 14:
- Adjusted my exhaust fan settings to turn on when humidity reaches 78%, instead of 80%.
- Air conditioner run for most of the day, about 10 hours
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3
Week 3. Vegetation
14d ago
1/18
20.32 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
27 Β°C
Day Air Temp
No Smell
Smell
75 %
Air Humidity
23 Β°C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
86.36 cm
Lamp Distance
Anna_J π±Week 3!π±
This week i'll be continuing to increase the light intensity and will be making some small adjustments to my humidity levels, aiming to lower the humidity slightly and aiming for a VPD range between 0.8 to 1.1 kPa.
Basically i'm aiming for mid-70's RH and temperatures of around 79-81F.
I'll also be starting to feed with a low dose of Remo Nutrients this week.
Day 15:
- Lowered both my HLG Elite 360 fixture and my Sunblaster 48W 6400K LED strip light a couple of inches, to approximately 34" above canopy. I also increased the intensity of the HLG fixture slightly, to approximately 20%.
βοΈ- LUX: 12,900 - 13,500
βοΈ- PPFD: 193 - 203
- Adjusted exhaust fan to turn on to 30% speed when the humidity reaches 77%.
- Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 64% (lights off); 70% (lights on)
Day 16:
- Another increase to the lighting intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture
βοΈ- LUX: 15,300
βοΈ- PPFD: 225
π§- Watered each plant with approximately 200-250ml of dechlorinated water with 0.5ml per gallon of Remo Nutrients' "Micro", "Grow", "MagNifiCal" and "Velokelp". This resulted in a nutrient solution of 136ppm which I pH adjusted to 6.36. Solution temperature was roughly 23.5C / 74.5F.
Day 17:
- The weather outside has been quite warm, so i've had to turn on my portable air conditioner in the afternoon. I just run the air conditioner in the room that the tent is in and passively intake the cooler room air whenever the exhaust fan turns on.
- Temp: 73F (lights off); 80F (lights on)
- RH: 66% (lights off); 73% (lights on)
Day 18:
- Today was another warm day so I ran the air conditioner for 6 hours in the afternoon.
- Increased intensity of my HLG Elite 360 fixture.
βοΈ- Total LUX: 19,100
βοΈ- Total PPFD: 284
- Temp: 74F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 64% (lights off); 70% (lights on)
Day 19:
- I'm noticing a slight magnesium deficiency, more so on the taller plant on the right. It's mild but i'm going to keep an eye on it.
- Cooler day today, so no need for the portable air conditioner
Day 20:
- No changes
Day 21:
- I decided to do a foliar feeding of the plant showing the magnesium deficiency. I used about 1 tsp of plain Epsom Salt to about 1 gallon of water, which resulted in a mixture measuring 604ppm, which is a bit stronger than i was aiming for but i went ahead and adjusted the pH to 6.15 and did a light misting on the plant. I removed the plant from the tent for this and put it in my bathtub. I would have normally applied the spray right before lights-off but that's going to conflict with my personal schedule so i just left the plant in the tub for a couple of hours, with the bathroom light left on.
- The plants could probably use a watering but i will wait one more day.
More to come! π
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4
Week 4. Vegetation
7d ago
1/23
20.32 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
27 Β°C
Day Air Temp
No Smell
Smell
75 %
Air Humidity
23 Β°C
Night Air Temp
3.79 liters
Pot Size
86.36 cm
Lamp Distance
Anna_J π±Week 4!π±
This week i'll be topping the plants and continuing to increase the light level.
Surprisingly, one of the plants naturally 'topped' itself at the 3rd node and is growing two stems. The other will be getting topped as well.
I was also gifted some "BudClips" and i'll start using those soon to see how they work.
The magnesium deficiency is looking a little bit better after last week's epsom salt foliar feed.
Day 22:
- Increased light intensity of HLG Elite 360 fixture
βοΈ- Total LUX: 18,400-19,500
βοΈ- Total PPFD: 283-285
π§- Watered with a 411ppm solution of dechlorinated water mixed with 2ml/gallon of Remo Nutrientsβ βMicroβ, βGrowβ and βVeloKelpβ and 1ml/gallon of βMagNifiCalβ and Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), pH adjusted to 6.19
π§- Runoff = 1830ppm, 6.97pH
π§I'm surprised and concerned with my runoff levels. 1830ppm is too high for my comfort and i'm concerned about potential nutrient lock-out issues. I considered flushing with plain water today but decided to wait until the next watering, mainly because i didn't have any more dechlorinated water prepared.
- Topped the tall plant and removed the side branches.
- Adjusted the settings of my AC Infinity Cloudline T6 exhaust fan, to turn on when the humidity level reaches 73%, instead of 75%. It also still turns on whenever the temperature reaches 82F.
- Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 60% (lights off); 66% (lights on)
Day 23:
- I'm trying to keep the humidity slightly lower than normal so that the pots can dry up a bit quicker. I need to do a good flush as soon as possible to hopefully get my runoff levels under control and prevent any further nutrient lockout issues.
- Temp: 71F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 62% (lights off); 65% (lights on)
Day 24:
- Added a 2nd budclip to the shorter of the two plants
- Temp: 72F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 62% (lights off); 66% (lights on)
Day 25:
- Today i flushed both plants each with about 1 gallon of dechlorinated tap water, pH adjusted to 6.3. The pots were still wetter than i would have preferred but i didn't want to wait any longer on the flush, as i could see Cal-mag issues starting to worsen in the leaves.
- To flush, i added water to each pot, about 200ml at a time, then waiting 5 minutes for saturation, then another 200ml... until i'd passed about a gallon of water through each pot.
- My runoff PPM's came down quite a bit, where the first 200ml of runoff was testing at the same 1800ppm but when i discarded all the runoff and then collected the last 200ml, it had dropped to approximately 850ppm.
- Unfortunately, my pH is still higher than i'd like, at about 6.8.
Day 26:
- No changes
- Temp: 70F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 64% (lights off); 73% (lights on)
Day 27:
- The plants look a little better better after the flush, although the signs of Calcium & Magnesium deficiency are still coming out in the lower leaves.
- Temp: 73F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 65% (lights off); 70% (lights on)
- I added 2 Budclips to the taller of the two plants.
Day 28:
- I did a slurry test of some of the leftover Promix Organic Herb & Vegetable mix that i had. I mixed some with a little bit of distilled water and the tested the pH, which was quite high, at about 7.3.
I was intending to repot the plants into 5 gallon fabric pots around week 6 but i think i'm going to do that next week instead. I'll probably switch back to Promix HP, since I think it has a slightly lower natural pH due to be treated with a bit less lime than the Organic Herb & Vegetable Mix.
- Today i did a little bit of leaf tucking to help keep the branching sites exposed.
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Used techniques
LST
Technique
5
Week 5. Vegetation
14h ago
1/10
25.4 cm
Height
18 hrs
Light Schedule
27 Β°C
Day Air Temp
No Smell
Smell
72 %
Air Humidity
21 Β°C
Night Air Temp
18.93 liters
Pot Size
86.36 cm
Lamp Distance
Anna_J π±Week 5π±
This week i'm hoping to continue the correction of the high pH and PPM levels of my runoff.
The flush i did last week has been helpful and hopefully this week's transplant will continue to help the plants improve.
Day 29:
- I transplanted both plants into 5 gallon fabric pots.
- For medium, i switched from "Promix Organic Herb and Vegetable" to Promix "HP". I'm hoping this medium will have a slightly lower natural pH, since it's apparently treated with less lime and buffering agents than the "Organic Herb and Vegetable" mix.
π§- I watered both plants with plain, dechlorinated tap water. pH was adjusted to 5.95. Each plant received approximately 0.5 gallons of water.
βοΈ- Increased light intensity of HLG Elite 360.
βοΈ- LUX: approx. 25,000
- Temp: 70F (lights off); 81F (lights on)
- RH: 68% (lights off); 72% (lights on)
- Light defoliation and some minor LST, adjusting bud clips.
So many beautiful houseplants! Unfortunately, I keep killing some of them because I tend to overdo it when watering them. π But Iβm not giving up! A few of them are actually doing pretty well. πΊ
@Kushycat, Thanks! My houseplants go through phases where they're happy and healthy and then phases when i think they're barely holding on to life... Usually if im away traveling for a few months and i have to rely on someone else to take care of them. Luckily, I'm usually always able to bring the plants back from the brink of destruction. π
@BLAZED, Thanks. I really didn't think I'd be away so long after my last diary, so it's nice to finally be back. I'm excited for these strains. It was hard to pick, as i have far too many seeds to choose from, waiting for their turn. π±ππ±
@Anna_J, Haha deciding what to grow next is difficult for me aswell. I just looked at my list and i'm shocked to see that i have 54 different strains laying in the fridge lmao πππ
@Zizidoem, It can be kinda nice to have an autoflower finish in 10-12 weeks... but i'm expecting this grow to last somewhere between 14-20 weeks, depending on how i end up deciding to train and veg them. Good luck with yours! π
@Anna_Jthe peoblem is after 4 weeks of veg i pulled her into flow, its 9 weeks in now. .. flowering... kinda alot . But yeah i hooe also it will go smouth. Has a bit off phos and pittasium problems flushed her and keep crossing my fingers