Orange Kritikal Punch

Snaak This week I hung up a grow light which immediately resulted in one of the two lights breaking when I connected it, unfortunately. On Saturday, I sent an email to Plantarium and they promptly sent a new light, so I could only start growing under 2 x 50w instead of 1 x 50w from Wednesday 27-01. Two of the four cuttings were drooping quite a bit, which I think is due to the fact that I gave them too much water the first time and a lack of light... Hanging the grow light one day late at half power didn’t do them any favors, I think. Anyway, it's my first grow and everything still needs to adjust and become natural, of course. I supported the two drooping cuttings with an empty pen casing, gently resting the cutting on the clip for the breast pocket and propping it up. I really need to read up and see what the nutrients entail, etc... Based on that, I decided to make a cautious cocktail for the roots. I added 1ml PR and 1ml AG to 1 liter of tap water and thoroughly moistened the base of the cuttings. On Thursday morning, I checked again and saw that the substrate had dried out a bit, so when I got home around 17:00, I sprayed the base again in the same way. I felt like they looked healthier! I repeated the same routine on Friday and turned all the plants a quarter turn to give them a bit of direction. To my surprise, I saw that the drooping cuttings were no longer resting on the pens and were standing up better, so I then removed the casings. This morning, on Saturday, I see that the cuttings look stronger than I feared they would after the first week. They all already have 4 nodes (or 8, on both sides?) and the leaves are nice and green and look resilient... Later, I'm going to take some time to read up on different growing techniques like topping and SOG. Feeling positive for the future, we'll keep going calmly. ;)

Snaak This week is challenging, let's put it that way. My dumb self hung wet towels in the tent to keep the humidity up (the ventilation keeps pulling it below 40% if I don't intervene)..... Apparently, I hung one towel in such a way that one end was just touching the pulley of the lamp....... Result? Moisture went directly into the lamp and it broke pretty quickly. SUPER dumb, I feel like an egg. But anyway, on Wednesday I had to throw the HPS lamp above out of pure necessity, and this guy is sucking the entire climate of my house to bits in combination with the extraction. I ordered a humidifier because I've been hauling around soaking wet or bone-dry towels all day. It feels very unprofessional and like a lot of hassle, I hope that when my humidifier arrives on Tuesday, I can stabilize things a bit easier. I also considered switching to LED lighting right away; the replacement for my HPS600 could be an ARGI450 LED........ I don't like the light spectrum of HPS for looking at or working in, plus I find the temperature a problem. The lamp gets way too hot in my tent if I don't intervene (well above 30 degrees). Currently, the biggest challenge is stabilizing the climate. The humidity is constantly fluctuating, and the temperature too, with opening windows and doors and whether we're home or not, having the heating on or not...... It all has a huge impact, and I didn't really anticipate this. (Just starting, don't judge me :p) I also learned too late that you apparently shouldn't repot autoflowers. Still, I have to do it since they're in 0.8L pots......... I think they're going into 18-liter pots today. All in all, it's not going fantastically yet, but hey, this is an educational and fun experience all in all........ Photos will come later, with before and after the repotting. UPDATE Saturday 19:00: I really hesitated about whether I should repot the seedlings. With all the extremes in humidity and temperature over the last week, they must have taken a good hit; they looked a bit limp, to be honest. What pushed me over the edge is that I have to do it sooner or later, so if there's a growth stop to recover from repotting, it might be better to do it early in the process than late, right? I prepared one large pot in advance with perlite and soil, leaving the shape of the seedling pot in it so that when the root ball came out completely, it would fit perfectly. So, the moment of truth.......... When I held the weakest cutting upside down and gently pressed against the bottom, to my surprise, a pretty nice root system came out, and the entire (dry!) root ball stayed intact, and I was able to repot all four little ones into the large pots for the entire grow without any trouble. I'm so happy; it seems like something is going right.............. After I put them in the large pots filled with dry soil, it was time to add moisture....... The very first time this went completely wrong with way too much water, so I paid close attention. First, I used 750 ml of water to wet the outer ring (along the wall around the pot). Secondly, I used 750 ml to moisten a bit further in. Thirdly, I enriched 750 ml of water with 1 ml of Alga Grow and 1 ml of Power Roots, not too much, I think. I carefully distributed this water on the soil bordering the soil where the seedling was originally in, so the roots would grow directly towards the outside of the pot. (Fingers crossed!) After reading a lot on forums and using my own knowledge of plants and humidity, I decided to turn off the extractor completely. In the meantime, I now have one small fan for the air intake blowing fresh air inside on setting 1, covering 50% of the hole. As a second, there's an extra fan with a tilting head, which ensures good and strong circulation inside the tent. (I already have my humidifier in, but it will first go to the bedroom :p) I expect that this way, there won't be any problems regarding CO2; I have two tilt windows open above that provide enough fresh air..... Whether this is enough, we'll have to wait and see and keep a close eye on it (unfortunately, I can only do this on weekends since I'm out of the house for 60+ hours during the week). What I tried to gain seems to be working so far....... The humidity shot up after I turned off the ventilation and peaked at 75% before I intervened. I vented the tent a bit and then calmly monitored what the humidity was doing.

Snaak This week ill try to switch over to an English diary because the translation is absolutely crap and i might learn a thing or two about the English terms in growing, also because the American and Canadian researchers extended the growing knowlegde in an absolute insane tempo and i would probably get most of my information from them. I don't have a spelling-check on this pc, therefore i apologize in advance ;). I uploaded some photo's with crappy lighting (Next grow ill switch day-night rythm and should give me better opportunities for photo's, but we'll get to that in the future) but also i short video of some notes which i will elaborate below: Last week on saturday i turned off the carbon vent because i could not get the humidity level right and i was still waiting for my humidifier. I placed a big fan inside the tent for air circulation and besides that i installed a small vent-filling fan in in front for clean-airflow. Last weekend i closely watched what the humidity and temperature did and started playing with the setup. All the changes i made in the tent last week are: 06-02: - Shut down carbon vent - Added rotation fan inside - Added small front-fan for clean airflow 07-02: - Added humidifier (setting 55%) - Dropped HPS 600W about 15 cm's to 110 cm height 08-02: - Humidifier setting 60% 09-02: - Dropped HPS 600W about 20 cm's to 90 cm's height 10-02: - Front fan on 2 instead of 1 11-02: - No changes because all is stable 12-02: - Placed humidifier at the back instead of the side of plants - Dropped HPS 600W 15 cm's again to 75 cm's height - Moved the inside fan more to the top-back of the tent (more facing downwards) - Opened up a vent-hole in the top of the tent for a little warmth release From the moment i turned off my carbon vent last week the sprouts started flourishing, especially when i added the humidifier. All the changes, noting, and looking at them how they pose, reading blogs and learning have brought me to the point that i think i stabelized it. Allthough i am going to turn on the carbon vent sooner or later (i might do this tomorrow) i need to pay attention again because i'm predicting it will drain the humidifier in a higher speed and that means i have to refill approx. 15 liters in 2 days? The tank is 5.5 liter and at the moment i refill it every evening, so thats already 11 liters in 2 days. I'm really expecting it to increase significantly i ill keep my notebook ready. :p I'm also a bit worries it will be so warm in my tent because the outside temperature is pretty cold, and that might also be the reason the temperature doesen't go above 28 degrees anymore. Okay enough about the tent setup changes. Lets talk plants. After the transplant last week to their end-pot these auto's started to grow immediately and i think they did really well this week. Since the humidifier got added to the tent, every morning the plants praise their "Hallelujah" pose which is really pleasing to watch... **Last weeks's first time watering in the big pots:** 06-02 around 09.00: - 750ml around the side - 750ml around the middle area - 750ml with nutrients spreaded around the pots All is equally divided through 4 plants. This week's watering and nutrients: 08-02 around 16.00: - 750 ml around the pot - 750 ml with nutrients 11-02 around 10.00: - 500ml around - 500ml around - 500ml with nutrients 12-02: - Sprayed Vita Race first time 4ml in 750 ml and sprayed about 15% of it on the leaves, no drups, mostly nebula. The vita race really made the leaves shine, also within 1,5 hours all moist was took in or evaporated, Today probably again around 1600 ill water them again but ill hold the next vita race for tomorrow or something. as long as the plants shine the same i don't know if it's neccasary? Okay, last but not least.... This week on wednesday i kinda mis-read some shit on internet and topped 3 of my 4 plants. I think it went okay, because they don't seem to stressed about it. They still flourish and hallelujah on! Still i'm pretty worried because i made the cut right next to the nodes which isen't the best thing (learning phase :p)...... The reason i topped 3 outta 4 because i wanted to see if i diden't stress the smallest one, he would out-grow the others, but that does absolutely not seem to be the case. Also i think it's a great way to learn by not stressing one plant to see the differences, i want this first grow not to be about end results but more about learning and developing my own personal experience and point of view. Oh PS, i also drilled all the holes to prepare for LST, but i think they were kinda to small on 10-02 when i drilled it. I'm going to watch the recovery from the topped plants closely coming week and maybe start with LST. Stay tuned while this noob messes around with Auto Critical Orange Punch of Dutch Passion.

Snaak Well well well, here we are again and another week has passed. Last week i was fucking around with my filter and my humidity, and i added the humidifier and trafo controller last week so here is an update on how things are going at the moment: - The humidifier is absolutely epic, it's 5,5 liters and i have to refill the tank everyday so i might want to think about getting a larger tank, so i can do it like every three or four days. It's kinda annoying because i think it can be fully automated in the future, but thats for a later phase. - I added the Plantariums Trafo-controller for extra control over the climate in the growing space, it's a 5 step electronic layering system which filters the low buzz from the vent even if it's power is set at only 10%. I setted the thermo settings on 26 degrees during daytime and it automaticly controls the climate for enhancing or decreasing the vent power. 15-02: - When opening the tent in the morning i noticed that my LEFT-BACK plant started to hang with the leaves, i could immediately see it had lack of water. This plat was a bit thistier than the other three, because they get the same amouth of water at the same time. I added a extra liter in the morning at this one, and 500ML without nutrients to the others. When i got home from work she was already flourishing just like the other three. Phfew. 16-02: At 11-02 i topped three of my four plants, just to see how the topping affected the plants and to see the difference when a plant is not topped. I didn't really notice any difference between the one who got topped and the one who diden't, the three who got topped started growing new double nodes at 13-02. They all seemed to be relaxed under the topping technique, therefore i decided to start with LST last tuesday. Pictures above. 17-02: I tightend up the LST ropes to stretch them just a little more, within a few hour all the plant aim their leaves to the lamp, it's amazing to see how strong the cannabis plant actually is. 18-02: The plants seem to do really really well with LST, i think and hope i understand the concept of it but i would love to hear some tips or tricks by experienced growers. Because the main stem grew really taller then the rest i decided to top them all once again. 19-02: The plants look trained, by myself. feel a bit proud about it because i think it's going well. I hope you do to! 20-02: Made new pictures and updated diary. Next stop is learning about PH's values and EC values and trying to make some sense of it all. Next week i'll give an update about what i learned and what i like about it.

Snaak Everything just goes as planned! I feed them daily with water and nutrients and everything is automaticated. Nothing special to add this week. Although they grow like crazy. Wonder when they start the bloom.......

Snaak This week was all about letting them do what they want to, grow like hell and they started blooming period aswell <3 Made some clear pics while i was checking them for problems... Think they turn out pretty nice. In the meanwhile i also got a hortinet over it but i diden't had any time to make pictures of it.... Also the nutrient tab isen't really accurate this week. No time for anything :p. Tomorrow i will defoilate them, but for now they grow well i suppose.

Snaak Already an update following yesterday's update. Today i defoilated them, diden't got good pictures of all of it because i wanted to return them to the tent asap. I hope people agree with me that there is hardly a noticable difference from above and that is exactly what is suppose to look like. Still i cutted as much leaves away i could fill a 3 liter plastic bin. I also kinda turned down the nutrients. I think it's better to watch for signs from nutrient deficiency than waiting for nutrient burn....