First Grow

A great start had it not been for high temperatures on the 28th and 29th. All 3 NL seedlings got a bit too much heat, as you can see on their first true leaves. 12/17 5 NL Auto seeds planted 4 pots each primed with 1/2 TSP CaliMagic + water 12/24 RH 41 41/41 Temp 77 77/77 Fan on low Remaining pots primed with 1/2 TSP CaliMagic + Water Week 0 nutrient schedule begins now 12/27 RH 62 57/76 Temp 79 79/84 Fan on medium Moved climate monitor out of seedling tray Swapped to 4L humidifier Beginning 18/6 day/night at 4:00pm off 12:00am on Bluish mold-like substance found on seedling growth media, replaced for runt seed Inner leaf showing light green hues No water or nutes added, still wet 12/28 RH 49 41/82 Temp 84 63/88 Fan on medium Humidifier on high All white widows show leaves pointing upwards 15° One Northern lights auto cotyledon broken by seed shell, one cotyledon intact 12/29 RH 55 49/79 Temp 88 66/91 Fan on medium high Humidifier off, turned back to medium No signs of stress, but growth tray was exceedingly warm 12/30 RH 62 61/62 Temp 81 81/81 Extractor fan maxed, intake boost on med-high for rest of grow Humidifier medium, 65 RH set Week 1 Nutrients given to 3 NL, 3 WW seedlings

1/1 RH 73 45/83 Temp 72 64/86 Humidistat on humidifier reading about 10% low consistently, causing elevated RH in tent. Fixed extractor fan leak 1/2 RH 59 54/72 Temp 75 70/81 Growth seems to be accelerating Shifted night cycle from 12am-4pm to 5pm-11am to keep temps <85F 1/5 RH 56 47/65 Temp 73 66/84 Soil almost dry to the knuckle but still moist, has been almost a week since last watering. WW#3 leaves drooping slightly, all 3 WW plants showing yellow leaves on base pair 1/6 RH 45 45/66 Temp 82 68/84 Added Week 2 nutrients today with pH of ~6.2 to all 6 plants, runoff also had a pH of about 6.2. White widow leaves still yellowed, I suspect a nitrogen deficiency. Unless it's from too little water? NL plants look fine, last week's nutrient solution had a pH that may have been too high, which could be causing a nutrient lockout. The leaves on the WW plants immediately showed signs of rebounding from the drooping after watering, hopeful things will continue well.

1/8 RH 46 41/69 Temp 82 64/86 Stress galore! Knowing that nutrient burn and pH problems are common for new growers, I was trying to be exceptionally vigilant about locking down the correct nutrient solution. Frustratingly, it appears that hasn't gone as well as I've hoped. Two days after feeding on 1/6 with a 2.12 tsp/gal solution, the plants are showing indications of either pH fluctuations or nutrient burn. Corrective action included a mild flush with 1/2gal pH'd water and misting the leaves with an anti-fungal solution in case of mildew (A damp towel may have also been throwing spores from another room). After looking at last week's feed, I realize the nutrient solution had much too high a TDS PPM. I'll be double checking the PPM count from now on, and have invested in a pH pen and PPM meter. Once the PPM meter arrives I'll be flushing to <400 PPM to make sure excess salts are removed from the coco. To add to the disaster, the extractor fan was running but the exhaust had no air coming out of it. Moving the sock over the carbon filter was successful in restoring air flow, but I suspect the conditions were prime for mildew growth as well (RH>40% with less air movement). 1/9 pH and PPM pens arrived, and I found my TDS was sky high. I feel like an idiot for allowing myself to nutrient burn these plants in week 2, but this was always intended to be a learning experience. All the data logging I've done was in anticipation of problems around this stage. As much as it pains me to post my PPM levels, here they are before and after flushing. NL#1 PPM: >900 to 390 NL#2 PPM: 530 to 262 NL#3 PPM: 674 to 302 WW#1: 506 to <300 WW#2: 574 to 265 WW#3: 500 to 280

This past week has been all about recovery from the nutrient burn introduced on 1/6. Many of the lower leaves died and some fell off, but the new growth looks healthy and is responding well to the changes I made to the feeding schedule. 1/15 RH 73 48/73 Temp 63 63/84 Moved tent to living room to decrease the external environment's temperature rise during day cycles in grow tent. Temps seem to top out at 77 degrees, which is about a 3-4 degree drop from when it was in my bedroom. 1/16 RH 49 47/81 Temp 77 63/81 All plants are holding around 300 PPM now, and seem to be healthy. Dialing back the nutrients has done a lot to help these guys recover.

Plants are starting to take off! With the introduction of a better extraction fan and daily watering with proper nutrient levels, all plants are looking way healthier and starting to grow much faster. Pistils started sprouting on all 3 Nothern Lights Auto plants, and White Widows are getting there. This week marked the start of the type of growth I had been hoping to see. I'll be switching to EC for nutrient levels from now on, and will have a more detailed nutrient dosage next week. This week's nutrient levels are estimated, as I didn't record all my levels. I added a moderate 400ppm solution with equal parts of the flora trio + calmag.

This week continues to look good, I'll be ramping up the nutrient dosage to keep up with the accelerating growth. EC of 1200 and pH of 5.8 (lowering pH of 6.3 in runoff) was added yesterday to all plants, they're soaking up nutrients quite fast. All plants are being trained with LST now, and there is some lateral growth as a result. This last nutrient dosage was the first with my new RO system! The RO system produces water with a ppm <25 and a pH of 10 with alkaline remineralization.

Humidity and temperatures still holding steady, all plants continue to be responding well. pH and EC levels are also remaining constant. NL Plants are slowing in vegetative growth but are starting to flower heavily. Conversely, the WW plants are taking off! They seem to be growing at a very rapid rate, and it's taking some work to ensure all plants are getting proper light and nutrient levels given the size differential. This is part of the challenge in growing different strains simultaneously, and with the help of a light meter I've been able to position the plants properly to maximize growth potential across both strains. As it stands right now, it looks like the NL plants will be ready to harvest before the WW plants. Slowly running out of space in the 4'x4'!

—

—

—