Ghost Train Haze #1 (First Grow)

Overall very happy with progress. First grow ever! Seeds taken from germination and grown in rockwool under LED using 5ml/l Formulex for first 2-3 weeks in homemade propagation box. Transplant into larger system has taken place, and i'm starting my records now to track how they behave under HID in my brand new Flood & Drain system from Esoteric Hydroponics. Current setup includes: VEG/FLOWER TENT - Black Orchid 60x60x160 tent - Black Orchid air-cooled reflector with adjustable straps - 250W HID bulbs - Maxibright DigiLight 250W digital ballast, wall mounted alongside ALL electrical sockets on a large wall-mounted powerboard. Safety first! - Systemair axial extraction with Rhino carbon filters attached to both intake and exhaust - Lightproof ducting x 5M - 22L Flood & drain system using expanded clay pebbles and Newa Maxi pump that floods every 3hrs, with no overnight watering to allow roots to dry. - Small Hailea air compressor with two airstones that sit in the reservoir - Inkbird ITC-308 Temperature controller with attached active intake, powered by Black Orchid Inline Axial flow 100 fan. Dust filter attached to intake duct - AirComfort bluetooth temperature and humidity sensor - Small dehumidifier set to 45% - Pifco Digital timers x 2 - Lumii Analog timers x 2 PROPOGATION BOX - Homemade box lined with mylar 400x700x470mm - 6ltr reservoir with overflow and drain tap - Small Mist Maker to water new cuttings - 20cm airstone to water mature cuttings - 200W LED - Small desk fan mounted inside the box - Pifco Digital timers x 2 - Lumii Analog timers x 1 OTHER EQUIPMENT - Pancellant PPM/EC reader, and a Pancellant pH reader - Separate pipettes for all chemicals. All chems stored in a strong plastic container that is leakproof. - The Cannabis Grow bible 3rd Edition. NOTES FOR THE WEEK After a lot of adjustment I finally got my Prop Box completed, but can see some leaf burn has occurred from where my LED was too close to my young plants. Transplanted into Tent with a full dose of SensiGrow, but no Voodoo Juice or B-52 to allow plants to adjust and hopefully avoid any chemical burns. Light adjustment is still taking place, they're too far away at the moment so i'm bringing them closer slowly over the next few days. Concerned about growing sativas in such a small space. My plan is to tie down and train the young plants into a spiral, followed by topping, followed by FIM, followed by topping, and finishing with lollipopping. ScROG used throughout.

Another good week all round. Plants are looking healthy after getting burnt in the Prop Box, but have started showing signs of burn under the 250W MH. Distance from plants increased from 35 to 50cm. Increased to full feeding now they've acclimatised to the Flood & Drain system. 1st top taken. New shoots showing after 3 days. Reduced pump from a 3 min fill to a 2 min fill. 3 mins fills the 5L bucket, 2 mins half fills it. 1 min quarter fills it. Roots are developing VERY quickly so i want to reduce the amount I fill my 5L bucket by so the top of the rootball is always breathing. Planning on reducing to 1 min next week. Mysterious puddle in the drip tray at the right front corner of the reservoir...praying it's not the crack I repaired a few weeks ago and it's just me overfilling.

Great week overall, environment working very well and maintaining temp even on hot summer days - 33C outside! Humidity is too high at night when the extractor switches off. Plug timer need to run from 10pm to 4am. Reduced pump to 1 min fill as planned Took reservoir from 22L to 17L to save chems and avoid spillage as roots grow. As they fill their pot I was finding progressively larger puddles every morning Video of rootball and Flood and Drain in action Scrog net finally arrived after being delayed in the mail by a month :D Had a go at FIMing, waiting on results Raised lamps by 5cm Green leaves showing no signs of burn Roots looking healthy and well developed I keep getting too enthusiastic with the pH+ and always have to top-up with water to raise the level back. No more than 0.5ml needed at each test.

A few problems this week. I've been assuming my feeding schedule would stay the same throughout the veg phase, but it turn out I've been underfeeding with SensiGrow, overfeeding with B-52, and using Voodoo Juice well into week 3 when it's only needed for weeks 1 and 2! I'm not 100% on what effect this will have on the plants. Voodoo Juice promotes a strong and robust roots system whilst the B vitamins in B-52 are also helpful for promoting root growth...so that can't be bad (I hope!) And in terms of my standard A+B, I'd rather underfeed than overfeed. I have some pretty gnarly bottom leaves that I've been clipping away slowly after they started to yellow. Apart from that no damage done. Dehumidifier has been scrapped. Looking at my overnight humidity readings I saw it might not be working, and it looks like there's a problem with the power supply that's causing it to cut out. To compensate I've bought a new circulation fan that is hung from the roof of the tent to save space. It's plugged into my Inkbird Temp Control as the heater, so i'm experimenting with the upper and lower temp controls so the plug switches periodically between the circulation fan and the active air intake. Watch this space.

AMAZING WEEK! The environment is reading for flowering. Lighting, feeding, watering, air temp and CO2 are all stable and should give my plants a stress free life. Humidity is still high, so I'll need to come up with a plan for dealing with that ASAP. I've introduced CO2 into the grow with my brand new AirBomz unit. It uses a light sensor that releases CO2 when the lights turn on, and then uses a timer to release every 2hrs until the light switch off. I doubt I'll reach the 1200PPM stated by the manufacturer, mainly because I'm running an extraction, but I figure some is better than none. Cool controller also included. After doing some reading I can see there's two things that I need to look out for: A) Switching off the extraction so it doesn't suck away the precious CO2 before the plants have had a chance to absorb it B) Making sure the room doesn't get too hot whilst the extraction is off, causing heat stress My solution is: A) Switch off extraction for 15mins at the AirBomz 2hr interval B) Use the Temp Controller the switch off the circulation fan when temp exceeds 27C C) Controller then switches on the active intake when temp exceeds 28C D) Temp is held at 29C whilst the extraction is off D) Extraction turns back on after 15 mins, temp drops below 27C E) Temp controller switches off active intake... F) ...And switches on the circulation fan G) Repeats every 2hrs NEXT WEEK: Work out how much the girls are drinking! I'll know when I change the reservoir.

Tricky week. I've over complicated things by trying to incorporate CO2 into the grow. The main problem is the Airbomz unit is crap! 😂The timer seems to release CO2 at random intervals...I kept an eye on it and it sprayed anywhere between 1hr20 and 1hr50 with no kind of pattern...definitely not the regular 2hr interval I had selected. I'm switching to a mushroom bag, which will sit by my intake vent and flood the tent with CO2 night and day :) A much cheaper and simpler option! Advantage of this is that I can keep things simple with my ventilation. I've been switching on and off to allow CO2 to absorb, and the result is huge spikes in temp and humidity. I'm now extracting 24hrs a day and switching the intake fan on and off with the lights, and my temp and humidity has stabilised. However I'm still up at 70% all day and night....which seems a bit high! I'll have to keep an eye on it.

DOH! I've missed my window of opportunity for major defoliating and lollipopping. https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-defoliation-a-high-risk-way-to-increase-yield-n562 I don't wanna risk a hermie by stressing the plant with heavy removal of lower branches after I've gone into flowering. I'll have to wait until next grow to do a heavy defoliation and lollipop BEFORE I flip my lights...ideally 2-3 days before. I'll still be removing necrotic leaves as and when.

A bit worried this week....I'm reading 3500PPM in my reservoir. I've been following package instructions, so will reduce next week when I change the reservoir, unless the results are somehow magnificent! Stopped training and just let the buds go up towards the lights. Defoliated a little bit. I'm wary of stressing them out, so I've only gone for the lower most leaves and 3 lower branches....next time i need to do liberal thinning out of the lower leaves and branches 2-3 days before I flip my lights. Filter has been moved below the light to move the lights up and allow a bit more room for the buds to rise up. Dehumidifier installed right next to the intake vent...good results so far, bringing the RH as low as 50% Experimented with watering. I was getting paranoid I was over watering so cut to a 3 minute fill every 12hrs. Within 2 days there were wilting, so I've increased to 3mins every 6hrs.

Good week. PPM issues last week were due to messing around with the watering schedule. I changed to a 3min fill and the extra water disturbed the clay pebbles, releasing sediment into the reservoir. I'm back to 1min fills. Buds are looking excellent. They're growing very close to the lamp but I don't have room to raise it anymore, I'm thinking I'll need to string them using the corners of the tent as anchors if they start burning. The dehumidifier was also set too high, so it's been a bit steamy in there for the last day. Reset it from 45% back down to 20% so it's running at full power day and night. When it's set at 45% the real RH raises to 80%, when it's set at 20% the RH sits at around 45%.

All good this week. Extraction cut out yesterday for some unknown reason. I heard my temp alarm going off so luckily that helped me catch it early. I'll need to keep an eye on it. The leaves are looking yellow at the tips but I've had a look at a deficiencies guide and I can't find anything that resembles my problem. They may have burned when the extraction cut out but both very healthy apart from that, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

It's all happening. Buds are thickening out really nicely. The only downside is that I haven't anticipated how tall haze grows. I've had to do a bit of LST on my largest top bud to keep it away from the light....it has grown about 5cm from the lamp, so i've trained it back down to 10cm under the lamp. Next time I need 2 ScROG nets - The first needs to sit about 15cm from the base of the pot, with constant training in the weeks 1-3 to get the plant growing right to the edge of the tent. The second will be added in week 5-6 about 40cm from the base of the pot - when the plants meet the second net I'll then train the top buds inwards towards the centre of the net. I am also DEFINITELY defoliating properly next time - all the lower branches have died off and I'd like all that energy to be directed towards the flowers. Has to be the last job before I flip my lights.

Nearly there! The left plant was seeded first so has matured before the right plant. There was a 2 week gap between seeding because one of my first attempts died on me. Defoliating the right plant has created some huge top colas, but it needs another 7-14 days to mature. I'm trying to think of ways to isolate the left plant from the reservoir so I can flush it separately and allow feeding on the right plant to continue. Signs of nutrient problems. Leaves are yellowing at the tips and showing signs of an imbalance somewhere. Research needed.