My first (ambitious) grow

Lessons learned from week 1 of my first grow so far: the best watering solution I found so far is a mix of distilled water from the store and filtered tap water. with a final ph of 6 and ppm of 20-40. a little ph buffer goes a bloody long way. Use with caution. performing tasks like mixing solution and potting a germinated seed are best performed without a phone (camera) in one hand. the seed germinated within 24 hours using paper towels. I planted after 36 hours. After 24 hours of potting, the stem was already shooting up, and I turned on the lights, set to an 18 hour schedule. I wasn't quite ready for this, so it took me some time to research and get the desired humidity and temperature. At this point I added more nutrient in even quantities of FloraGro, FloraMicro, and FloraBloom, according to instructions. Perhaps a little early though, although after just one 18 hour light cycle this plant is shooting up like a rocket and showing leaves. I bought a fan for the inside of the tent and propped it up on a box, and a humidifier to bring the humidity from 40-50% to around 70%. Since it's a winter grow, I have to periodically increase the temperature to keep it at 25 °C. The intake fan, humidifier, and inside fan are significantly lowering the temperature. I'm also experimenting with finding the right humidifier settings since the humidity seems to increase a lot when the lights go out, and the machine is still new.

Day 7-9: Had a good environment overall, although the light was probably much too high. I didn't realise until quite late that it should have been 60cm above the seedling, and I had it around 120cm at first, and then 80cm. As a result the stem is a bit stringy. Day 9: I lowered the light to 60cm above the plant, and it won't go any lower. the recommended for this light is 30cm above the canopy, according to this very useful article: https://www.growweedeasy.com/how-far-grow-lights, but it's still in seedling stage and I'm guessing the plant will grow up a bit more, and I can always lower a little bit more. Also it's pretty damn hot, so I don't want to overdo it on the lights. I've been keeping the water consistent and just topped up a little on recommended nutrients (more grow, a little micro, adding a little bloom as it comes closer to flowering). The reason for this is because I want to maintain the consistency of environment and monitor the plant for any signs of unwellness. Because Sativas are sensitive to nutrient burn, I'm being conservative in this respect. The temperature with the light lowered is a steady 26 C, and I'm maintaining the humidity at around 70%. This is pretty good for this strain, as a sativa it likes higher temps and humidity. The water pH is around 5.9, also desirable. I've also been wondering if the plant is getting enough CO2. Is it necessary to buy a measurement device and some CO2 bags? Overall the plant seems very happy and is looking healthy. Day 10: cleaned the inside, added more grow, added more clay pellets since she looks a bit thin and stalky and needs extra support, and there were not many pellets present. Light distance is currently around 60cm. Though it won't go any lower with the straps, I will look at lowering it more with some extra rope as the ideal height will eventually be 30cm for this 250W HPS light. Added more Ph buffer yesterday evening and we're currently sitting around 5.7 ph. I was aiming for 5.8 but this is still acceptable. Temperature is around 25 - 26 C, humidity is around 70%, though I will begin lowering this as she grows. I will probably replace the water sometime this week. Upon further investigation I realised that my water levels were too high, and were possibly suffocating the stem. I reduced water levels by a few cm since I had previously been topping up without realising possible damage. I feel like today is the day that this seedling is finally becoming a plant. She has grown some long roots already. Day 11: I further lowered the light to around 40cm using some extra string. It's not super ideal, but for now it's ok. The plant was falling over it's own weight so I added some extra pellets around it for support and it seems to work. I'm hoping she won't stretch as much now that the light is lowered. The inside fan is still on and on full power to build up extra stem strength and keep temperature down. I'm attempting to keep humidity around 60%, a little lower than before. The temperature is significantly higher with the light lowered, easily maintained by periodically opening the door and leaving in cool air from outside which runs just past the intake fan. I'm slightly concerned about the Monstera Deliciosa plant which is sitting just opposite and above the intake fan. Would this have any effects, positive or negative, on the grow? Google is coming back blank on this.

Day 14: Changed the water, kept conditions constant, balanced the nutrients and pH (which was tricky), and everything went well with this it seems. Day 18: The light failed. I lost 3 hours of light in the morning. Ran to the grow shop and realised that the light was ok and I had wired it incorrectly. It worked when I brought it home, and rewired it. But the 3 hour loss bothered me a bit. Day 19: Trimmed the growth tips on the first 2 nodes. Added more clay pellets to increase stability. Day 20: Realised that the cheap ass timer I had been sold at the supermarket was in fact a dud and was failing. This resulted in 24 hours of light, and after this the plant was visibly stressed with slightly off-color leaves. I replaced this timer.

Day 21: First topping. Happy to removed the light-stressed part of the plant from the equation if only for cosmetic reasons. I waited for 5 nodes before the topping. Day 22: Godammit, the light failed again. Turned it off and waited for it to cool down. Turned it back on and it worked. Lost 1 hour of light. Day 23: Because of previous light stress and canopy temperature, I felt that 35cm is a good distance for the light. Day 25: First LST on the new growth tips. Started the mainline. Day 26: Again the light is failing to come on. I rewired once again, cursing my very existence, and it worked again. Again lost an hour of light in the morning. Continued refining the LST, and seeing how far I can push it. Noticed a slight tear at the base of one of the mains. Since the plant energy is coming from below and there is no noticeable affect on growth I'm going to ignore it. Checked the roots - look healthy. Though the new growth tips are not completely symmetrical, those leaves look good enough to eat. Trimmed the excess fan leaves. Topped up with a small amount of nutrients. Day 27: light didn't come on again. I rewired again, but this time it was stone cold refusing to do anything. Again I cursed my existence and all of life. Returned to grow store, turns out bulb was defective after all. Again lost 4 hours of light. But at least now I know the problem is solved. Rene at the grow store is a champ though, very helpful guy. The new bulb is noticeably brighter also. Maybe this was affecting growth? Also once this issue was fixed, I noticed some small amount of nutrient burn on the leaves tips. Rebalanced nutrients. Was 1.9 mS/m lowered to 1.65 mS/m, then to 1.48 mS/m. Must be more careful in future when upping the dosage but the water conductivity is now less than before (1.55 mS/m) so this should be ok. Also lowered pH of water slightly since it was 6.0. It's currently showing 5.2 but experience has taught me that this measurement will comfortably go back up to 5.7. water pH is seemingly constantly rising as the plant grows, and adjusting pH is really more art than science. (Edit: It was 5.7 the next morning, so ya ... )