Full Tent - Indica Hybrid - First Grow

TheMachinist Hello All, Welcome to my first grow journal. This is my first time seriously growing and this site is the only place I've posted any grow too, so here we go! ***Disclaimer - I am posting this grow retroactively Week 1-4 will be posted simultaneously*** I started this round on 11/30/17, germinated 9 bag seeds in between two paper towels in a zip lock bag and sitting on a heat mat. All seeds popped within 1.5 days and were planted tap root down in ffof (Fox Farm Ocean Forest) in a seedling tray with humidity dome, watered in with RO water ph'ed to 6.6. After another day or two 6/9 seedlings broke through the soil and humidity dome was removed a few days after that. This grow was started using a 25w actual blurple LED panel but quickly decided to swap that out for my MH. I dimmed the ballast to 600W and hung at its highest setting for the tent (approx. 60"). I know it's a waste of light, but the room needs heated anyway and this way I can dial in the tent, this being my first grow and all. I'm doing veg and flower in the same tent this first run, but I'll be using a veg tent for future grows and t5-HO fixtures for light. My current grow started and will finish in a tent 4'x4'x80" standard uni-zipper mylar grow tent. Due to this grow coinciding with winter I opted for a 4" 200cfm exhaust fan for the sealed MH fixture and am using a desk fan on top of the tent to pull out enough air for ventilation. With low humidity in my area the tent utilizes a cold mist humidifier to keep the humididty up, for the lights a small heater. I've made plenty of mistakes in the first week, including... transplanting too early, having the MH light too close, and overwatering at least once. Having said all that I've managed to keep all 6 seedlings alive the first week and have continual growth, either above or below the soil.

TheMachinist Seedlings really taking off after recovering from premature transplant. Only watering ph'ed 6.8 RO water, room temp. Noticed healthier looking leaves after raising the humidity to 55%, plus my lone ladybug likes the extra moisture too. All the pictures will be different plants, I've taken lots of pictures but uploading them all for every plant would take forever. During the second week I was running my 1000W ballast dimmed to 600W ( 100% is actually overdriving the lamp). With winter weather outside it's pretty easy to keep temps down.

TheMachinist I think its safe to say this week the young plants have recovered from their transplant shock and are putting on some good growth. Increased the ballast dimmer switch to 750W setting, now sure how accurate these numbers are, but it's significantly brighter than the 600W setting. Humidity isn't a problem at this point since adding the cool mist humidifier, but now the whole room and not just the tent are at 55-60% RH humidity and it's causing some condensation on windows. Hopefully next week I'll get around to ducting the sealed fixture so it's a sealed system, and can pull in air from the window to cool the light, without pulling air from the tent. Should be able to turn down the humidifier with less air exchange. but the exhaust fan is enough to exchange the air. Continue to week 3 to see some pics of the tent setup.

TheMachinist Big things (big to me being my first grow and all), transplanted young plants into 5 gallon cloth pots using ffof and watered in with ph'ed RO water. Took a couple days but all 6 recovered and continued vegetative growth. On day 28 decided to top each plant, I did this by carefully peeling apart the second to newest growth and plucking off the very newest node growth. The following day all tops had healed over and had extensive growth below the top fan leaves/canopy. I switched the ballast to 100% power, 1000W and sealed off the light venting, i'm drawing in super cool outside air which is really cooling off the light. With the light on and light exhaust on full I can place my hand on the glass of the reflector. Not sure when i'll flip to 12/12, but seeing as I have a large tent for only 6 plants I can let them get pretty big.

TheMachinist I have finally caught this diary up to my current progress. Week 1-4 was a backlog of data, everything I post now will be current as posted. I welcome any comments or suggestions. I'll keep posting lots of pictures until someone tells me to knock it off, prob 2-3 individual plant pictures and a couple group shots of each day. I also plan now to add notes of the changes I make to the grow. 1-1-2018: I have been configuring the intake/exhaust for my sealed hood. Pulling air from the room with the ballast at 600W and 750W worked great as the outside temps are in the teens and single F degrees. When I switched to the 1000W setting I overloaded the capacity of the room to cool the light and was getting low 80's. I decided to pull in air directly from outside (5F @ low RH) to cool the lamp and fixture. Other than some condensation and frost on the ducting it's worked great so far, the fixture is cool to the touch and the glass is cool enough to place a hand on it. All 6 plants seem to want higher temps and lower humidity, when I keep the temps around 80 and humidity below 50% they are significantly perkier and show more vigorous growth. 1-2-2018: Watered the garden yesterday evening, each plant got watered to runoff. I'll post daily group shot photo's, unless something exciting happens I wont post daily individual plant photos. Plants recovered from the watering around 4-5 hr after watering, lights on. I'm seeing that after topping each plant, by way of plucking off the very top/last node as it formed, that all the growth is being distributed from the bottom up. What I mean by that is the lower nodal growth is stretching up and meeting the uppers, so that it's naturally forming an even canopy. 1-3-2018: Decided to vent my exhaust outside the building my grow tent is in. As the weather warms up venting the exhaust inside wont work at all, only option is to remove the variable of changing weather as a factor. Space heaters are running more now, but temperatures are more stable without all the excessive tweaking to fan speeds and such. Most of the plants are getting close to having the lower growth match the upper growth in height and hope to see some growth in overall height. 1-5-2018: Picture Update 1-6-2018: Just another Picture update. Getting pretty bushy, limited vertical growth but very aggressive growth of lower branches. going to veg another week or two, will modify light schedule to 16/8 next week, followed by either 14/10 or 24-48 hr dark period followed by 12/12. The leaf damage seen in the pictures from Day 35 is from my aggressive, block handed topping job, only wanted to pluck off the very top node , and that involved prying apart the second to top nodes pushing out.

TheMachinist 1-6-2018: Just another Picture update. Getting pretty bushy, limited vertical growth but very aggressive growth of lower branches. going to veg another week or two, will modify light schedule to 16/8 next week, followed by either 14/10 or 24-48 hr dark period followed by 12/12. The leaf damage seen in the pictures from Day 35 is from my aggressive, block handed topping job, only wanted to pluck off the very top node , and that involved prying apart the second to top nodes pushing out. 1-7-2018: Watered after lights on yesterday, around 1 gallon per 5 gallon fabric pot. Just ph'd water with 2ml cal/mag. Runoff ppm was around 1000 so soil is either hot or has a slight nutrient buildup. Plants perked up quick, not the usual watering droop, I'm hoping this means i waited till they needed it. Just noticed roots showing on the bottom of the pots, so it seems my previous waterings were spaced far enough apart to let the roots breathe. I've decided that this will be the last week of vegging, due to being regular, I'm guessing I'll lose a few during sexing, providing needed space for the remaining females. 1-8-2018, 1-9-2018: Nothing new, just vegging out. group shot day 38. Down mind the drooping took the photo mid lights out, me 1-10-2018: Been fighting to keep temps in optimal range. Temperatures here at the Front Range are wild, 32F high one day and 71F next, needless to say it's keeping me busy. The tent got down to 73 last night, plants seemed to be fine, praying as usual in the morning. It really surprises me how terrible these plants look during lights off, as seen in Day 38 group shot. 1-11-18: adjusted my light schedule to 16/8 in preparation for flower, not really a reason to do it, just seems more natural to step it down to 12/12. so much new growth all over the garden, hard to see the growth until measured, growing out several inches a day and up less than an inch in the same time frame. 1-12-18: Light schedule down to 14/10 in preparation for the first 12 hour dark cycle today. So starting the switch to flowering light schedule and then just waiting for the pistils to show (hopefully).

TheMachinist 1-14-2018: Made the switch to 12/12, now just wait to identify the males and pull em. Did a nutrient feed the previous watering, but did a low dose nutrient solution watering due to it being the stretch before flowering. Growing an inch or two a day last few days, not sure how long that level of growth will last. 1-15-2018, 1-16-2018: Really filling up this tent now! Hoping in the next few days a couple will show male and let me open up the tent a bit, otherwise things will just be tight. Might see some pre-flowers showing on a couple plants female. Had my ballast go out at lights on, which is 8pm. Luckily for me there was a grow shop that was open till 9 and close enough, got there with 8 minutes to spare! Super plus is they sell tested used ballasts with a 30-day warranty. 1-17-2018: Making an early prediction, I've seen pistils showing on 5/6 plants, but since this is bagseed, probably indoor, there is a good chance that the seeds were products of hermaphroditic self-pollination and those plants can have hermaphroditic tendencies. Also heard from Vivosun (manufacturer of my ballast) and am being sent a new one, meh, we'll see. 1-19-2018: Looks like I'll be flowering out 6/6 ladies. Showing pistils on all plants. I think i made these girls angry since they are pulling an "incredible hulk" on me, growing out faster than they are growing up. Fed 4 gallons to 6-5g cloth pot ( don't' think they are truly 5 gallon). Humidity is out of control with how much these girls are transpiring, i have an oscillating 12" fan and 2 stationary 6" fans helps keep the humidity pockets down, uniform humidity at 60-65%. Will be upgrading air recirculating fan on monday.

TheMachinist Disclaimer: All photos have been edited, originally taken with HPS lighting. In person greens appear darker and lusher, while newest growth and tops are actually lighter green than shown. 1-21-18: Starting the first full week of flower. Going to be calling Day 50 of grow as Day 1 of flower. Started removing some overlapping fan leaves, focusing on large leaves with complete leaf coverage underneath and any large fan leaves blocking lower bud sites that are pushing up. Still fighting humidity, but with improved air circulation I'm hoping it wont cause issues while i wait for new fans to vent the tent. :UPDATE: remeasured height, 28-29" canopy with one adventurous shoot reaching to 33"! 1-22-18, 1-23-18: Watered on 1/22 .66 gallon of ph'd @6.5, with 2tsp of molasses. Turning into a real jungle in the tent, lots of lower nodes reaching up to get some good light, canopy is a 29-30 inches now. With my hood being so cold, I'm not worried about the tops getting too close to the light, plus I can raise the fixture another 6 inches. Learned an important lesson about RH, it's a pretty good indicator of soil moisture level. Before i watered last time RH in the tent started to drop gradually, soil was pretty dry and needed watering, top leaves were just starting to cup a bit. 1-24-18, 1-25-18: Watered with 4 gal for 6 plants. Each gallon has 1ml Cal-Mag, 10ml Tiger Bloom, 6ml Big Bloom, 2-3tsp molasses, ph'd to 6.3-6.5 (4-1 gal jugs). Raised my light in anticipation of more upward growth. contemplating removing the lower flowering nodes and growth, I'd like to leave all the older fan leaves and just remove the new growth that's using valuable resources. **Upgrade** using my more powerful fan to vent the tent with a filter. Added 2 new lower cfm 6" fans to vent the hood, so far working very well, being that there is no impedance to the hood vent ducting a less powerful fan is required. Was able to lower my RH during lights off. 1-26-18, 1-27-18: Having to re-position the circulation fans daily now due to growth. I can move my light another 3 inches, and the middle of the canopy is approx. 18 inches away from the glass. Starting to get some nice develpment, trichomes are starting to show

TheMachinist ***I post photos and updated every couple days, please check out previous weeks to see lots of high quality pics!*** Feb 2, 2018: Ladybugs are everywhere, just like my small jungle these ladybugs are out of control. At least this way i'm pretty sure there aren't any soft bodied pests left, and as much as their mating should clean up anything in the soil as well. Fed 4.5gal into 6 pots. 10ml/gal Tiger Bloom, 6ml/gal Big Bloom, 2ml/gal Cal-Mag, 2tsp molasses. ph'd to 6.3-6.4 Feb 1, 2018: Introduced some ladybugs into the tent as a early flowering precaution against possible pest infestations. Didn't know, but the ladybugs will lay eggs and if i recycle some old soil into new soil, will have my own ladybugs next grow, and the lartvae and pupa eat soil borne pest larvae Jan 31, 2018: Just Pictures, too many? oh well. also reversing my comments latest first. Jan 30, 2018: Just picture update. Will be feeding tonight after lights on. Will be watering with closer to a gallon per plant. This seems crazy to me, with my limited defoliation the lights don't dry out the soil at all, some water loss due to he fabric bags, but I think the plants are sucking up most of it. Jan 29, 2018: Fed at lights on last night. runoff was at 400ppm and was noticing some loss in vibrant green. Upped this feeding to 10ml/gal Tiger Bloom, 10ml/gal Big Bloom, 2ml/gal Cal-Mag, 2tsp. molasses, ph'd to 6.2-6.4. No more defoliation until i notice blocked major nodes. Ive noticed that since i haven't been able to move the plants around, the plant seems to know how to grow the lower nodes to find the light patches. Jan 28, 2018: Ordered some ladybugs to do some pest prevention, decided to give myself the best chance to have a pest free remainder of this flower cycle. This threat is increased in my situation as my tent is really full and I performed minimal defoliation. So far the below canopy circulation fan is keeping things aired out, soil top is mold/mildew free. I think the stretch is on the downward slide, less than 1" per day now. I'm more worried about light intensity than heat with the tops getting close to the light.

TheMachinist 2-10-2018: Assessing how bad the pollinating is, i think one plant is decently seeding out, but most everything else is looking better, the flowers are still developing strong without any indication of swelling in the calyx's. This also just might be due to the different strains being grown. 2-9-2018: More growing and more watering. filling out nicely. 2-7-2018, 2-8-2018: More watering and growing. lower branches have all mostly shed their leaves. Smell is getting stronger, a slightly sour/sweet hint, with a heavy citric overtone, all hidden beneath the familiar cannabis scent. 2-6-2018: Flowers filling out more, shooting out pistils like crazy, and smaller buds are starting to grow out. 2-5-2018: Removed all the pollen sacks i could spot, hopefully got them all last night. This morning didn't spot any new ones . Upper bud sites are starting to connect to each other. Can't quite place the aroma of the tent, other than it's subtle but pungent. removed some lower budding branches that weren't getting light, maybe that will help speed things up. 2-4-2018: Bad news folks, found a lady shooting pollen sacs in the tent, zimzer-hen was showering pollen on some of the lower branches. Pulled that plant and re-arranged the remaining 5. Just discovered some more balls on another plant, but was only a few so just rubbed em all off and will continue to de-ball. Top buds are starting to connect together and shooting out pistils. Fed with ph'd RO water with some cal-mag and molasses. Started this grow with the understanding that this was a decent possibility but still sucks nonetheless. Hopefully the pollination is limited.

TheMachinist Feb 14, 2018: Seems my fears were unfounded, I'm not seeing any spots of mildew and I think in 4 days I would see something if it was there. Water with plain water, just ph'd nothing else added. staked up a couple of the buds, all the other palnts are managing to hold each other up, the fan leaves seem to grow into each other so the canopy is a solid moving mass. When the oscillating fan hits the colas the whole canopy sways slightly. For future grow I plan to have more space between plants, and will need a screen/net to hold everything up. Feb 12,13 2018: Watered with 10ml/Gal Tiger Bloom, 10ml/Gal Big Bloom, 2tsp blackstrap molasses, 1ml Cal-Mag per gallon. Ph'd to 6.5 ish. Lost my SD card so didn't get any photos 2/12, but took some with my phone on day 73, and then found my SD card. High quality photos are back tomorrow mourning. Feb 11, 2018: Had a bit of a freak out, thought i had spotted a couple PM spots forming, think it was just the leaves resinous sticky. After the scare decided to do some major cleanup of old leaves and ALL dead leaves, i know it wont help fight PM, but added a small 6" fan circulating air below canopy. Humidity has been constant due to running a dehumidifier so it stays between 45-50 lights on and off.

TheMachinist ***Attention*** Please note that if you only read my entries at the beginning of each week, I try to post pictures daily, with note updates as well. ******************************************************************************************************* Feb 24, 2018: I've decided to have a positive outlook on this grow, despite all the errors I made, and problems unstable genetics provided me. Though my crop is heavily seeded, the trichome production seems on point, I should end up with some decent smoke. It's a humbling lesson to learn, don't relax your attention at all, these wonderful plants are capable of extraordinary things when improperly motivated. I’m excited to pop some Nirvana seeds in a couple months but until then I’ll try to get the most from this crop. ... Feb 23, 2018: Just another day, might just do straight water feeding the next few in a row since I'm finally seeing some tip burn. Considering I've been going pretty hard with the solution ppm i'm surprised I've not seen burn before, I started in FFOF so soil was hot from the start. ... Feb 22, 2018: Super depressing news folks, it seems my crop seeding is more extensive than previously thought. I am just disappointed in myself for not catching the plant throwing sacks earlier. Even after countless hours researching, it seems that once again I am doomed to learn through experience. hopefully these seeds mature and then finish the buds so I can harvest. I knew the risks of growing bag seed and am not paying for it. Can't wait to start the next round. My next round will be seeds from Nirvana, their AK-48 and Aurora Indica. ... Feb 21, 2018: Did a bit more staking, with that thick canopy of branches was hard to see a few branches drooping. Managed to bend/break a branch with a golf ball sized bud, not sure if the stalk will heal itself this far into flower, but I clothes pinned it straight and will monitor. still seeing lots of clear and no amber, still a ways to go. Tested a lower bud on the plant that got heavily seeded and found the high quick, and just a hair racy but much better than the first tester a couple weeks ago. Only have taken 2 buds for testing 2 weeks apart, being this is my first grow I wanted to experiment and see how the high changes as the flowers mature. ... Feb 20. 2018: Watered with 6.5PH RO water with 2mL/gal Cal-Mag. Nothing much else to comment on, just watching the buds grow. One plant is going to be finishing much earlier than the others, not sure what to do about that since i was plannig on using my grow tent as my drying area. More colas are starting to lean, as of now they are propped up by the canopy, but will probably have to stake a few eventually. Getting a few orange hairs, which i've read can indicate less than 3wks to go, which makes sense as that would be almost 8 weeks flowering. Im not making any decision based on time, as the plant will let me know when it's ready, but knowing when to start my water only feeds is helpful. ... Feb 19, 2018: Alrighty guys, girls, and zimzers we are staring week 12 from seed and we are 32 days since first sign of pistils. I am now feeding full flowering nutrients (Fox Farm Tiger Bloom) and the girls seem to really like it, I've seen no evidence of leaf tip burn, to avoid burn in an all soil grow I'm increasing the nutrient concentration gradually, waiting at least 3-waterings before increasing from last watering. I've only had to stake up 2-3 top cola's, as the plant they are on is in front and doesn't' have as much support from surrounding plants. Although these plants were grown from seeds form the same bud, the different phenotypes are generating vastly different smells. I try to bump and move the plants as little as possible, every time I move anything the air is filled with a musky greasy and sometimes fruity pungent odor! **As a side note, I would like to point out that I have done almost no defoliation, the under canopy you see has developed naturally due to the plants dropping fan leaves as necessary. I have done some pruning of lower flowering branches, but these branches contained no fan leaves, only resource draining under canopy bud sites and branches.**

TheMachinist *****New time lapse Day 25-88***** Mar 4, 2018: Did lots of staking and tying, after my removal of overcrowding fan leaves had many colas falling over. ... Mar 2, 2018: Gonna have to spend some time staking the smaller stalks, the larger colas are doing ok as their stalks are thicker. Underestimated how the stretch effected stability, have near 2' of just stalk below the canopy, could be genetics could be I had the light too high. ... Feb 29, Mar 1, 2018: Nothing new, more watering more swelling. Main cola's are approaching the size of soda can and some as large as a pint glass! ... Feb 26,27,28; 2018: Been a few days, Been out of town and am finally uploading the start of week 13. Feb 28 marks the end of week 6 of flowering. Due to my seeding issue the garden will probably go long on flowering, I'm guessing at least 3 weeks left, I'm still seeing all clear trichomes and the first batch of seeds are ripening so hopefully the pistils that the buds are now starting to produce will be the start end of flowering. Might try reducing the light from 12/12 to 11-11.5 light/12.5-13 dark to help signal the end of the season. Upon inspection of sample buds it seems seeding might be less than initially thought. .... If anyone has experience harvesting seeded bud please sound off in the comments, from what I've read the timeframe for seeded buds tends to run long, I'm not all that interested in harvesting the seeds, but I want the buds to develop to their full potential

TheMachinist *********HARVESTING MARCH 14, 2018*************** (my first harvest!) Mar. 11, 2018 FINALLY!!!! 4/5 plants are showing me nearly mature (for our purposes anyway) buds. Most of the top colas are turning a light golden and the sugar leaves are crisping up nicely, starting to see amber on the calyx's.Have watered with plain R/O water ph 7.0 with nothing added for the last 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure I will do a complete harvest and not try to stagger it, I'd like for the bottom buds to get a chance to fully mature but for this round I want to just do a single harvest and keep the immature buds separate. It's been pretty dry here but I think a 5 day dry will be possible, after all the point is to bring the moisture content down enough to seal em up and cure properly. ... Mar. 9, 2018: Nothing new to report. Lost a couple very small buds due to falling over and breaking their stems. No way i'm going to tie up the dozens of golf ball sized buds in danger of falling, i'll just continue to tuck them back in and hope for the best. The frostiest plant seems like it will need at least a week or two longer than the rest, only just showing signs of amber on the fan leaves, and sugar leaves aren't crunching yet. One girl is very near ready, as soon as I see 10-15% amber on the calyx's and the buds have a golden hue with discolored and crispy sugar leaves then it's chop chop. Measured my runoff at 450ppm still Mar. 6-7, 2018: We are at the end of week 7 of flower. Going to be feeding water only for the duration of the grow. I'm hoping to see the buds start to enter the last stage and give me that golden hue I'm looking for. Getting more amber trichomes on the fan leaves and should see the golden hue migrate to the calyx's. ... Mar. 5, 2018: Starting day 92 from seed and 46 days since first pistils. None of the buds are shooting out new pistils so hopefully over the next 2 weeks the calyx's will swell and the trichomes will mature and the bud will take on that finished look. I'm already starting to see a few ambers, but with the crop being seeded it wont' be easy to track the calyx development as some are filled with seeds and already appear swelled.

TheMachinist Mar. 12, 2018: Firstly I would like to say Wow! what an adventure this first grow has been. I've learned so much from my many mistakes, and realized that most of them could have been avoided if I would have only followed all the wisdom available to me. My next run will be much different, but not for a while. I'm hoping my harvest will be more than I had hoped for and last me a while, as I expect a hot summer ahead and will be unwilling to grow in the high heat. ... I plan on harvesting Thur. Mar 15, 2018 which will be 8 weeks and 1 day of flowering. The golden glow continues to intensify on 4/5 plants and the 5th will hopefully follow suit soon, but she's mostly cloudy now so all is good to harvest the whole tent. ... My boveda packs and trimmers are ordered and I'm excited and nervous to get the harvest started. I've worked pretty hard to get to this point, but I'm painfully aware the next steps can still ruin it all. I've read so many differing opinions of how to harvest, trim, and cure my bud that I think will combine multiple sources to give me the best chance at the best end product. ... The Plan: 1. clear all the plants out of the tent 2. clean and sanitize the tent and remove the light 3. setup fans and hanging lines in tent 4. remove all fan leaves from plants before chopping and discard any trash leaves 5. remove main branches and side branches separately. 6. Wet trim most exposed sugar leaves and save for hash 7. take pictures and wight of trimmed buds before hanging 8. hang wet trimmed buds on branches in tent to dry 9. run exhaust fan and dehumidifier 10. place fans in bottom of tent for air circulation, not directly on buds but just below 11. wait and monitor till outsides of buds are dry and crispy but stalks bend and break without snapping 12. trim colas down to jar sized buds and place in quart or half gallon mason jars with 62% boveda packs to finish drying and to continue/finish the cure 13. smoke and enjoy!!!!

TheMachinist ***added dry weight with scale pics*** *******WET WEIGHT UPDATE********** weighed after 2 days of drying does not include 370g of sugar leaf/popcorn bud This leg of my growing adventure is coming to a close, all plants have been harvested. Trimming took approxiatley 16 hours, for the haul not too bad. only used a pair of 2" curved shears, only pair I've used and first trim I've done but my hand never got tired. The smell on the other hand was overwhelming, after a while had to open a window due to getting a bit light headed. While a little awkward at first really got the hang of it around hour 10, only to get sloppier leading up to hour 16, where more added to the trim and popcorn bud racks. 1 rack is 2'x4' and the other is 3'x5', lots of trim but so many popcorn buds. Didn’t do any wet weighing of the bud, due to the amount and limited time allowed to cut and trim weighing would have taken much too long. I’ll give a dry weight once the bud is ready to separate and jar up for the cure.8042000000