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Hey folks!
This is my first structured grow diary and I hope it helps whomever might be using the same or similar configuration that I'm using. My goal is to hit a balance between interaction with the grow and quality. Specifically, I'd like to interact with the grow as little as possible while producing high quality product in relatively large volumes.
This grow will consist of the following configuration:
- AutoPot Spring Pot 4 System (thee recently rebranded distancing from SmartPots)
- General Hydroponics Flora series
- 800g Coco Coir to 6 quarts perlite #4 grow medium
-- cheapest coir I could find triple-washed and double buffered with 7.5ml/gal Cal-Mag for 24 hours each
- Head's Formula the entire way through
- Low-Stress Training (LST)
I plan on maintaining with the following schedule:
1. Two (2) weeks in cloning dome
2. Two (2) weeks in vegetation tent
3. Six (6) weeks in flower tent
4. Two (2) weeks in dry tent
5. Six (6) weeks in curing jars
As for week 1, my four clones (for redundancy) were clipped today, dipped in Schultz TakeRoot rooting hormone, stuck into a RapidRooter cube, and put under a humidity dome with a functional yet very reasonably priced 45 watt LED light. My dome-tray sits on top of a layer of perlite to raise the cube-tray above the water level preventing the cubes from getting water-logged.
As long as one of the clones makes it, we should be fine. Any extras will stay in my veg tent and supplement other grows.
Second week of the girls in the vegetation tent and they seem to adjust with a little bit of a hit. I'm continuing to top water in the Autopots until the end of this week with the same strength (~75% of full grow strength).
I've finally turned on the Autopot system but, as it turns out, there was an issue with the third pot from the left: I walked out into my grow space and found my reservoir (that I had filled the day prior) completely empty. As it turns out, the entire contents of the reservoir had leaked out over the night through the previously mentioned pot.
Luckily enough, the contents had drained out through a pre-established drainage route. I've been tinkering with this pot to try to figure out exactly what's going on and have been able to slow the leak a bit but not stopped entirely.
I've kept the same ratio of nutrients but upped the concentration to a TDS of 840 PPM. I've also decided to track the amount of pH down used as well. It's worth noting that I'm using tap water directly from the hose with a PPM of 179 and a pH of 7.80.
I've finally fixed the leakage issue with pot three and the girls are on their last week of veg. I was planning on only running them for two weeks in veg but, due to some of the watering issues (and the poor light quality in my veg tent), I wasn't seeing the growth I wanted. I've run them for an additional two weeks in veg.
You might also notice I've put a layer of styrofoam underneath the pots. I had read a while back that growing on concrete floors can drastically coal the root system and slow growth; so, hoping the layer in between helps insulate the roots a bit from the cold floor. I'll upgrade to a full mat at some point.
Finally found the time to move the plants to the flower tent and they're responding well.
I did start minor defoliation of the center of the Remedy to provide a bit more air flow but nothing more than that.
Additionally, as of mid last week, I've started to apply the IPM recipe given here (https://aggressivegarden.com/supersoil-recipe/#1549775954445-2ff83a17-18ce) using everything but Neem Cake to address some issues with thrips. We'll see how well it works.
The holiday season got away from me a bit and prevented me from getting an update in on Monday but the plants are _really_ taking off. There are now visible bud sites and plenty of them.
*Full Disclosure*: I've significantly upgraded my light in my flower tent from a Spider Farmer SF-2000 to a Spider Farmer SF-4000 and, as such, I'll likely see my yield take off quite a bit this grow. It's certainly having an impact on the heat in the tent and, subsequently, the amount of time the in-line fan is running; that being said, the plants appear to be responding quite well!
The last two grows I've run have fallen off hard (complete and total yellowing/chlorosis and drying out regardless of consistent watering/light/nutes/pH) around week five of flower and, with that in mind, I'm trying to keep this grow as simple as possible. I'm purposely using no advanced grow techniques where I'd usually top, LST, and HST. The only "advanced" technique I'm using is a bit of defoliation but this is mainly just to avoid some of the dense bottom growth that tends to decrease air flow, increase humidity, and take away from more rewarding top-growth.
This week, along with replenishing nutrients, I've fully emptied out and cleaned my reservoir. While doing so, I noticed a fair amount of red-ish algae growth which I'll likely address with more consistent cleaning of the reservoir and some sort of additive (I'd welcome any suggestions and dosage if you've got any suggestions).
All in all, great progress.
Your best bet is to get beneficial organisms for roots. Someone mentioned hydroguard. I use this and have no algae issues. Having good organisms mean that bad organisms will be out-competed and won't be able to get a foothold.
Clean out your res very well again and start root bennies BEFORE algae sets in!
After checking the grow yesterday (2021-01-01), I noticed some of the yellowing I've seen in previous grows that served as early warning signs for an impending grow failure.
I checked my reservoir and found it was down to about two gallons left and the pH had shot up to 7.1. I then checked my AutoPot runoff in the tray and found it was at 7.2. I then took my Remedy CBD out and flushed it with 10 gallons of pH 5.8 tap water until the runoff measured about pH 5.8. The plant has been returned to the tray and the pictures you see this week are the following day and I'm continuing to measure at the tray more closely now as well.
I've continued to pull off some of the larger yellowing fan leaves but, other than that, I've kept this grow as simple as possible. The flowering stage is continuing as expected and the pictures show about how far along we've come.
Things are moving along as they should. I've been keeping a closer eye on the pH in the trays themselves (as opposed to in the reservoir only) due to some noticeably high pH (>7) in the trays. Doing so seems to have halted any further chlorosis (yellowing of leaves).
Additionally, I've started supplementing with Orca as well to help with controlling algae in the reservoir as well as giving the plants a bit of a boost to root health. We'll see how that goes.
Starting to see some of the burning I've seen in previous grows and, due to this, I've been paying special attention to the pH in the trays themselves. I've noticed pH in the trays has been about 6.5 and, when I've found this, I've been pulling nutes out of the trays and replacing with fresh nutrients (trying to keep the nutrient level the same when replacing as to not drown the plants).
Upward growth has slowed to a halt at this point and the flowers on this /very/ compact plant are starting to mature. The flower size is looking fairly unimpressive but should prove as a good place to improve from. The Sour Diesel next to it is another story! ha.
This week's been business as usual. During my reservoir refill, I did notice my pH pen reporting some odd readings. This may have been due to a low battery but needless to say, I changed the batteries and recalibrated.
Should be about... two more weeks? ha
Epwood
