3x Gelato OG, 1500x800 Tent, 315W LEC/CMH In Veg, 630W In Flower

[d42zero]

22/07

26/07

29/07

It's been a craaazy week at work so I haven't been able to update Things are going great, plant #1 is absolutely powering ahead with plant #2 not too far behind. Plant #1 is the one I shook the old coco off the roots when I transplanted it, as well as adding half a scoop of Great White to the hole before I put her in the new pot... plant #2 got the whole coco plug dropped in the hole, and Great White was watered in from the top. Not sure if that's related or if it's a phenotype thing or what, will think about how to test that further in the future.

Currently just repeating the "Week 3 - late growth" mix from the GH Feed chart while they're being topped, then will move to "Week 4 - transition" mix once I flip. I think I'm two weeks from flip, but really not sure at the moment as this is a very different method to the manifolding I've done in the past.

These plants have six 'mains' when they're supposed to have four, I'm going to trim the bottom ones off this afternoon so they're a little tidier. Once that's done I'm going to pull the remaining mains down so they can start growing sideways... then once I build my netting in a day or two it's SCROG time

Min-max not checked.

 

[d42zero]

31/07

Some discolouration on plant #2, here's a photo from yesterday:

Not sure it's an issue yet, will keep an eye on it.

Min-max 17.4-25.6, 44-69% RH

 

[d42zero]

01/08
Built and installed the screen this morning!

The curve at the front and back is not an illusion - the long edges bowed in when I pulled the string tight. I expected that, but I didn't expect the whole frame to want to twist (as in, the back left corner wants to go up and the front right wants to go down). Cable tied it to the tent uprights super tight so it's not going anywhere, but I'm disappointed I didn't think of that before I built it. If I was doing this again I would definitely use something square so it can't twist, but this will do for this round.

I used green string to mark the centre lines, and also managed to bugger that up.. the short centre line is one spot to the right lol. It was the very last string I put in, so there was no way I was re-doing the whole thing I put a mark on the front dowel to show the centre so that will do this time, and next time I lace a net up I'll do the centres first lol

Increased watering frequency to 3x daily, at 7 hour spacings. Still at 25 seconds per event, haven't measured the actual volume but am getting decent runoff so I think I'm good.

I think I'll go and get one or even two box fans, I had a tower fan but now I have no room for it, and the little 15cm clip fan you can see in the top right is rubbish.. barely moves the leaves.

I also think I might install the second light this weekend, I estimate I'm about a week away from flipping so I think it's time.

The discolouring on plant #2 is getting worse:

She's not drinking anywhere near as much as the other plant, but she's also a bit smaller. I think I'll mix a new 10 litre batch of nutes, pH several times, flush that through, then mix the fresh res for next week and just check my pH really carefully. Hopefully that might clear it up...

The girls are in 1gal smart pots and I'm debating whether to leave them in those, or transplant up to 3gal. Will decide today and transplant tomorrow if that's the move. I don't have a lot of space to transplant so I'm leaning towards leaving them in the little ones....

 

[d42zero]

Up to 08/08
Life's been a bit busy the past week, so I haven't been able to update. Quick catchup:

1. I installed the screen and second light on Sunday, have been running it with the 4200k bulbs:
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   • Fan on the right didn't stay up so I've gone a week with no air movement, fixed that today.
2. My SMSCom fan controller and min/max gauge aren't agreeing, the controller is set to ~25deg but the min/max reached 33deg the other day. I had the min/max gauge on top of the black containers and the SMSCom probe near the fan (you can see it on the right, just below the screen) so I think maybe they're just in different temp zones.
3. Leaf browning seems to have been solved; I flushed 10L of nutes through then re-mixed, and have done the same again today.

09/08
I set up the 60L res today, and upgraded the Bubblegen pump enough that bubbles appear on the surface when the res is full. The deeper the water gets, the bigger pump you need, and my first pump wouldn't create bubbles until the res was about 3/4 full.

Girls got a little trim of all the lower fan leaves (they were very much covering up the new stuff) and their first real training day:

Split the fucking trunk of the plant on the left, have cable tied it lol and it seems to be holding. I'll have to check it every couple of days to make sure the cable tie doesn't strangle her... I've had plenty of breaks when manifolding my last plants and they were fine, so I think it'll heal itself in time.

I have no idea when to flip these, maybe soon? I don't really know what to expect here

EDIT: we're at day 36 now.. just checked my last journal and I flipped at 42 days, those girls ended up about four foot tall... maybe I should flip this week? 42 days is next Saturday

 

[d42zero]

14/08 - Day 41
Girls are lovely and bushy!

Flipped today!! I think I'm flipping a week too late, I flipped at 42 days last time and those plants would have been waaaaaay too big for my screen!! We'll find out soon enough I suppose...

They got a haircut and a little gentle coaxing into position before I switched the 4200k globes out for the 3100k ones..

Electrical situation is a bit of a mess... planning on buying another fan to move air around so will sort the cables out while I'm getting that set up.

Got an indoor/outdoor min/max meter so will be recording canopy level and pot level from now on.

Min-max @ canopy level 17.1-29.9, 32-70% RH
Min-max @ pot level 18.2-27.4, 42-70% RH

 

[d42zero]

15/08 - Day 42
The girls have recovered well from the training yesterday, tips were starting to poke up again this morning. I hung a box fan from the roof to move some air around, and tidied up the electrical stuff:

It didn't occur to me that box fans need some open space behind them... I wanted to put it on the right side to blow air across the canopy, but with the back of it up against the tent it doesn't move any air. I may come up with a better position for it, but this is the best I could come up with today.

Min-max @ canopy level 17.1-30.5, 30-70% RH
Min-max @ pot level 18.2-29.2, 40-79% RH

 

[d42zero]

16/08
Mixed up 40 litres of "Week 4 - Transition" from the GH feed chart:

(per 40L)
M: 42ml
G: 42ml
B: 42ml
Calmag: 26ml

I've actually moved to a different set of nutes called GP3.. GH has become impossible to get here. GP3's break down is almost identical to GH so I'm just going to keep using the GH feed chart as its worked in the past.

Increased watering frequency to 5x daily.

Did a little more training today, moved a couple of branches out a square or so. The whole SCROG thing is starting to make sense to me, I think I've got my head around it

 

[d42zero]

17/08
Min-max @ canopy 17.8-31.0, 24-61% RH
Min-max @ pots 18.6-28.6, 35-64% RH

 

[d42zero]

18/08
Min-max @ canopy 17.5-30.1, 25-55% RH
Min-max @ pots 18.4-27.1, 38-44% RH

 

[d42zero]

22/08
The girls are spreading out nicely!

Did a little more training and another defoliation, took all of the biggest fan leaves and left everything else.

They're spreading out enough that I kind of have to plan where each one goes, which is kinda fun lol. I guess I have another week or so of stretch, will be interesting to see if they'll fill the screen or if I've flipped a little bit early..

Min-max @ canopy 17.1-30.1, 22-60% RH
Min-max @ pots 18.1-27.1, 35-64% RH

 

[d42zero]

23/08
Mixed up 40 litres of "Week 5 - early bloom" from the GH feed chart

Micro: 42ml
Gro: 10ml
Bloom: 53ml
Calmag: 26ml
Dripclean: 2.5ml

Flushed what was left of last week's nutes through before mixing. Increased watering time by 5sec per event, the girls are not giving a lot of runoff.

Min-max @ canopy 16.0-28.8, 20-52% RH
Min-max @ pots 16.8-26.1, 32-57% RH

 

[d42zero]

30/08 - Day 57
The girls got bushy again!

Gave them another heavy defoliation and some training to organise the net a bit:

This defoliation may be too much for some, but these girls seem to be strong so I think in a week they'll be huge again and may even need another trim! I spread things out as best I could, if they don't stretch much more I think they'll stay set up roughly like this. I could spread some of the middle stuff out a little better and will maybe have a crack at that over the next few days, but I think I'll leave most of this where it is to turn up towards the light for the rest of flower

Mixed up 40 litres of "Week 6 - early bloom" from the GH feed chart (same macros as week 5)

Micro: 42ml
Gro: 10ml
Bloom: 53ml
Calmag: 26ml
Dripclean: 2.5ml

Min-max @ canopy 14.8-28.5, 21-60% RH
Min-max @ pots 15.6-25.2, 36-64% RH

 

[d42zero]

31/08
The girls have turned up towards the light and are looking lovely

Min-max @ canopy 18.2-29.4, 28-62% RH
Min-max @ pots 19.1-27.7, 39-66% RH

 

[d42zero]

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[johnnystackz]

Looking good man keepn up the good work!

 

[HunterHunt]

Looking good. Ever think about using 5 gallon pots? Also curious on the spectrum bulb you picked. Why not the 2000k range for flowering instead of the 4000k+ you said you have? You will have better bud building with the lower spectrum.

 

[d42zero]

Looking good man keepn up the good work!

Thanks

Looking good. Ever think about using 5 gallon pots? Also curious on the spectrum bulb you picked. Why not the 2000k range for flowering instead of the 4000k+ you said you have? You will have better bud building with the lower spectrum.

Thanks! I used 3gal last grow and didn't really see a difference between that and the 5gal I used the grow before, so I decided to try little ones this time around to see if it made any difference.

There was no thought process behind the bulbs, I'm currently using the flowering bulb that Adjust-A-Wings make for their lights (3100k) and ran the 4200k in veg. I'm trying to learn one or two new things per grow rather than try to do it all at once, and I don't know enough about bulbs yet to be shopping around different brands so I just stuck with the ones from AW.

 

[d42zero]

05/09
Girls recovered well from last week's heavy defoliation:

Min-max @ canopy 17.1-31.9, 27-66% RH
Min-max @ pots 18.1-29.5, 33-68% RH

 

[HunterHunt]

Awesome! Yea with your system and wattage I think you would yield more with the 5 gallons. But you are killing it with the 3 gallons so keep it up. If you are in 3100k that is a good spectrum. I thought you were in 4000k+ in flower. You may want to look into the 2000k range for your next bulbs to give a try. Thats what my HPS bulbs are. I know when you start to get higher in the spectrum in flower you have more veg growth during flower and the bud never grows correctly. Its very leafy and airy and is more for veg growth and now bud building.

 

[d42zero]

But you are killing it with the 3 gallons

3gal was my last grow, these girls are only in 1 gallon pots I think I'll run my next grow identically to this one but in 5gal pots to see if it makes a difference, assuming everything goes well with the rest of this one. I really enjoy testing things side-by-side, it's kind of a hobby I picked up from motor racing when I was a kid.. we'd set the car up one way, do test laps, change something, more test laps, change something else, etc etc... I like doing the same thing here haha. This grow is about learning to SCROG and running the two lights (instead of one like my previous two grows), next grow might be about testing different pot sizes...

I had some issues in my first grow with airy buds that never really finished, but the light setup for my second grow was identical and they were much less airy so I think that was more to do with other mistakes I made. I'll eventually start playing with different lights and colour temperatures, probably not for a while yet though, I have about $700 worth of bulbs lol so I think I'll let them die before I start messing around with that part of it