Indoor / Outdoor Grow 2020 Phase 1

I'm in the midwest USA and the goal of this first grow is to start the plants vegging indoors (in a DIY PVC grow tent) and then transplant outside once the temps warm up outside of the danger zone. Gold Leaf and Blue Dream are both fem from ILGM. White Lightning is a regular seed from MSNL. All three seeds had a 24 hour soak in filtered water, then were planted in Jiffy Pellets. 3 days later they all sprouted and growth emerged above the peat surface. For all three, at least one long root protruded from the Jiffy mesh within one day of planting. I removed the mesh as carefully as possible but did damage the Blue Dream root in the process. All three were transplanted, without mesh, into Black Gold Organic soil. http://www.sungro.com/retail-product/black-gold-natural-organic-potting-mix/ I also added a 6" fan to the tent and have on a low setting. Temp inside the tent goes between 79-84 and the RH between 40-45% depending on when plants get watered. For now, the tent also contains a variety of other seedlings such as kale, arugula, herbs, and peppers. Those will be moved in due time.

All three of the plants are healthy and growing in their ~pint sized cups. They are still on a 18/6 light schedule. Throughout the day, I have been flipping on the bloom spectrum (in addition to veg) for an hour or two. The last three mornings have been fairly warm so I placed the plants in some morning sunshine for an hour or two to get them used to real UV. The forecast temps where I live in the midwestern US are looking well below average for the next 10 days so the plants will continue to remain indoors for the time being. They received their first dose of nutrients on day 12 - solution of 15ml/g of Fox Farms Big Bloom (1/2 recommended concentration). Placing some wet washcloths inside the grow tent has helped lift the humidity levels. Without them, RH hangs around 40%. I think I need to raise the light a few inches as the growth seems to be pretty compact and the plants are not stretching out yet. Fed Fox Farms Big Bloom and Grow Big on Day 14. Lessons learned from the first two weeks: 1) LED light was positioned too close to the plants. 2) I need to add a humidifier to the tent. 3) I stopped periodically flipping the bloom light on as it creates too much heat.

While all three are healthy, a few variables from Weeks 1-2 handicapped growth here. 1) RH was too low (35-45%). I added a humidifier which cycles on and off every 30 mins. RH is now betwen 60-70. 2) LED was hanging too low / too close to the plants. There is new growth, but the plants are extremely compact. Also, the leaves might have started to get a little crispy. I raised it up to 25" from plants with more elevation to go when needed later. 3) I wasn't ph testing my water. I was using filtered water (which I eventually tested @ ph ~7.0). Now using water ph downed to ~6.5. 4) Not sure the lined paper pint cup was the best container. I'll use solid plastic Solos moving forward. Day 18 and I can see some roots have made it to the bottom of the cups. I will transplant to 5gal fabrics this weekend. Hopefully the rooting hormone will arrive in time for transplant. Day 20 - transplanted to 5 gal fabric grow bags. Day 21 - fed 300ml Grow Big @ 10ml / Gallon concentration & 300ml Big Bloom @ 15ml / Gallon concentration.

Plants were all transplanted into 5gal fabric grow bags on day 20 and doing well 4 days later. Some very very slight nutrient burn appeared on the White Lightning leaf tips 2 days after feeding, but nothing too bad. On Day 23, they were extremely dry. I watered each of them until saturated and runoff occurred - this was about 3/4 gallon of water with pH @ 5.9-6.2. Day 24 and all are well, but the runt Blue Dream is doing a little leaf cupping. Could be transplant shock but we will ride it out. The next watering will likely contain some nutrients but I might dial it back a bit on the concentration of Grow Big. The other cups/containers in the pix are other vegetables I have in the tent for now. ~~~~~~~~~ Day 26 - All three rocking and rolling. The White Lighting is from a non-fem seed, so I am eager to see which way it goes. That one is nearly 6" tall and I felt confident starting some LST bending. If anyone can tell the sex from the LST photos, I'd be all ears! Day 28 - Started LST on the Gold Leaf

Didn't take any photos during Week 5 so adding some from Day 36 (day 1 of week 6). Each got another shot of nutrients: 300ml Grow Big 10ml concentration, 300ml Big Bloom 15ml concentration. On Day 32, Fungus Gnats appeared everywhere. I sprinkled some cinnamon around the top soil but I will need to get some Neem Oil soon. As the soil dried out, fewer of the bugs were visible. I continued to LST the White Lighting and Gold Leaf. The plants are beginning to smell a bit :) I was planning on setting the White Lightning outdoors on the rooftop (as a bit of an experiment for this early in the season) but nighttime temperatures are still too cold.

Day 38 - I decided to snap a few pix of the White Lightning while adjusting the LST situation. Looking for signs of sex of the plant. If anyone has opinions, I'd love to hear. The brown color on some of the branches is physical damage from the LST, I think. Day 39 - topped the Blue Dream. Day 41 - Adjusted LST and got a little bit of natural sunlight.

We're on to week 7 and everyone is doing well. I'm still waiting to discover the sex of the White Lightning. I'm super happy with the response to the LST. So many light green, fresh new growth areas. Tomorrow (5/13), all three will move outdoors to my rooftop where they will finish out their lives. They will likely go through some shock as the weather conditions will be variable and they'll go down to 14.5 hrs of daylight, but still increasing till summer solstice. I am feeding them about every 10 days, fwiw, and that seems to be working. I see a tiny tiny bit of nutrient burn on some leaves but nothing terrible at all. Day 45 - White Lightning and Gold Leaf have been moved up to the rooftop. I'm going to harden the Blue Dream a few more days before setting it up there for the rest of the season.

All three plants have moved to the rooftop outdoors. They are unhappy with the recent deluge of rain (8" from 5/14-5/17) but they'll dry out. Though the soil was wet, I gave them a small shot of liquid nutrients as I'm sure the soil had virtually nothing left after all the rain. Hopefully the nonsense of 8" of rain in 4 days won't repeat itself. I will flip this to an outdoor grow on the site.