Chappy's Coco White Widow & CBD Therapy Grow Journal - 2017

[chappy]

You guys will get to know me as Chappy. This will be my first ever grow and I wanted to capture this experience in a grow journal. This way I can share this experience with you guys, learn about how to grow, and hopefully provide a good detailed journal that will be useful to others who are also getting started. I have been researching for awhile and finally took the leap and bought some equipment:

4x4x8 Fusion Hut (1680D)
MARS Reflector 192x5
4" Vortex Fan (200CFM)
4" Fresh Air Filter
7 Gallon Eco Grow Sacks
PVC Scrog Frame

Decided to go with the MARS 192 because of the good reviews and I wanted a more economical lighting system. From what I have seen on youtube and on various forums, this light really works well and is suited for a 4x4 grow tent. My main interest here is to be able to pull off some modest harvests using the SCROG method and I am confident that this light can get me there.

One of the main goals I want to get out of my grows is to be able to create a variety of products that can be used for both recreation and medical purposes. I want some quality smoke, extracts, and edibles. I would also like a fair bit of control over the amounts of THC and CBD. So for my first grow I decided to go to both ends of the spectrum to see how things play out. Both of these strains have similar flowering times as welll as heights so they should work out really well in a SCROG:

White Widow (Crop King)
24% THC, 0.7% CBD
8-9 weeks flowering

CBD Therapy (CBD Crew)
0.5% THC, 10% CBD
8-9 weeks flowering

The White Widow will be for smoking, and I will use it for high THC extracts and edibles. The CBD Therapy can be used for some smoke but mainly for extracts and edibles. The extracts can be used as is or blended to create varying ratios of THC:CBD. Same deal with any trim used for making edibles. This should allow me to better capitalize on the medicinal properties.

Feel free to jump in with any tips and advice as I go. I will make sure that I keep a stream of updates, videos, and pictures going throughout the grow as well. I will be officially kicking off this grow on April 20th (I even legitimately took the day off of work just for the occaision)

 

[chappy]

The day has arrived!! I spent the day getting the grow tent ready. Everything is setup except for the drip system. In the end I have decided to go with coco instead of soil. I also downsized my fabric pots from 7 gallon to 5 gallon. Started germinating the seeds and I am hoping for 2 White Widow and 2 CBD Therapy. I found that trying to get everthing plugged in was a pain so I ended up getting a 12' length of extension cord and wired up a series of receptacles inside of the tent. In each of 3 corners I have zap strapped in a piece of 2x2 with a receptacle box on each end. Then I just ran some 14/3 and now I have plenty of places to plug things in (see pictures).

 

[chappy]

I started germination on Thursday night of 2 x White Widow and 2 x CBD Therapy. All 4 germinated successfully and I just put them into solo cups (with drain holes) full of coco coir. Conditions in the grow tent seem to be just right for now.

Lights on (18 hours):
45% Humidity
79F

Lights off (6 hours):
52% Humidity
72F

Things should kick off quite nicely. I will look at trying to raise the humidity to about 58F/50F when lights are on/off respectively.

 

[Mars Hydro]

I took a seat

 

[chappy]

Alright, I have been pretty busy since getting things started so I have been slacking on the updates. At the moment I think my seedlings may have suffered from a bit of overwatering. I kind of regret a few things at the moment:

1. Starting out in solo cups as I think this is actually too big of a container for starting seeds in coco. Coco holds onto moisture like crazy. I can water and come back 4 days later and it is still damp. This makes it super easy to overwater in comparison to soil. I feel like 30-40% perlite and a mini-solo would be much better for getting things started.

2. Not using an inert media to provide better drainage and more oxygen to the coco. Again, adding some perlite or growstone would have been a really good idea to help provide some extra oxygen to the roots and dry things out a bit quicker.

3. Not taking a closer read through some of the existing grow journals to get a better understanding of starting germinated seeds in coco. For inexperienced growers, overwatering seems to really be a common problem.

I have been experienceing some pretty slow seedling growth in comparison to what I am seing others be able to achieve with coco and I am pretty sure that it is related to overwatering. I definitely was giving too much water during the first 5-6 days after the seedlings sprouted. When I realized the mistake I poked a bunch of holes in the sides of the cups to help speed up the drying out process. I should also mention that until this point I have only been watering with distilled water @ 5.8 PH. Temps in the tent have been steady at about 77F with lights on and 71 with lights off. In addition, humidity seems to fluctuate between 48 (lights on) and 60 (lights off). Anyways, I think I have a handle on the watering now but the plants are a bit stunted as a result of being overwatered. Here is the progress so far. I appologize for the shite quality of the photos. My phone at it a few weeks ago and I haven't found a replacement yet.

This lass felt light this morning. I would say about 75% of the weigth of a watered cup. Also, her leaves were dropping to about half way down as to what you see in this photo. It has been about 4 days since I had watered. So I checked the PH of my water and gave her a drink. No run off on this one just enough to get down to the roots. I didn't want to end up with a water logged plant again. Off I went to work and came home to find here drooped to whre you see her now. Not sure why yet. I am pretty confident that I let her dry out to just the right point. But she has that droop to her like she has been overwatered. Maybe someone else can throw out some ideas in case that isn't the problem?

Here are a few shots of her from the top so you can get a better look at color, health, etc:

I am just going to leave her be for now and let things dry up again. I will probably start feeding with about 150ppm cal-mag and 1/4 strength cocos AB on her next watering. Overall I am a bit disappointed that things didn't start out a bettter but I am a firm believer that you can learn a lot from your mistakes. If anyone has any tips on how to get things off to a good start when growing from seed in coco I would love some feedback. Also, it seems to be a split jury on whther or not to pre-charge coco when starting from seed. I was always of the opinion that seeds had enough nutrient to get them through the first few weeks but maybe with coco that isn't entirely the case. Seems to be a fair number of guys hydrating/charging their coco with 150-200ppm cal-mag and showing healthy results. Anyways, the tent itself is full of other plants (in soil) destined for the garden at the end of the month. Everything seems to be really loving the Mars Reflector 192x5 including myself! Really happy with how it is working out so far.

 

[chappy]

It has been a few weeks since my last post as things have been super busy however I have some great results to share here on day 26. Poking some holes in the sides of the solo cups worked wonders. I also adjusted the fan such that it was blowing air past the bottoms of the solo cups. Once the watering issue was corrected, I also started mixing and feeding nutrients according to the H&G Cocos A/B feeding schedule. Needless to say, things have progressed quite nicely

Lights On
78 F
45-55% RH

Lights Off
72 F
55-65% RH

Watering
H&G Cocos A/B Weeks 1-3 with 5.8-5.9 PH
20-25% run off with 6.3-6.7 PH
- I have a 5lb oxygen tank with a litre/minute regulator and a 2 micron diffusion stone. I use it to saturate the nutrient mix before every feeding @ 1L/min.

I started these little ladies (2 x white widow) on May 4th just in case things didn't work out with the original 4 seedlings. For the record, I started these in small white, styrofoam coffee cups and they were much easier to water than the red solo cups. I also crushed up a bit of the coarse growstone and mixed that about 80% coco coir to 20% crushed growstone. The growstone was crushed to about the size of pea gravel and then rinsed with RO water to get rid of any fine powder. It was very useful to correct my first attempt at sprouting seeds in coco and see how the first result could have been. Regardless, I will now need to find a way to even things out when it comes to the scrog. I will likely put them in raised 3 gallon pots and try to get them even with the rest of the canopy come scrog time.

These CBD Therapy are really looking healthy. One of them is a mutant with 3 cotyledon leaves (a triploid!). The other is the largest plant and continue to dominate in the growth department. I think I am going to pick up some of the

I also discovered that one of the White Widow started to show signs of a calcium deficiency. One of the lower leaves developed rust colored blotches. I flushed with some 5.8 PH water with 0.5 ml of Drip Clean (4x the volume of coco to be exact). The PH of the run-off dropped to 6.0 and teh TDS meter was reading 105ppm. I then resumed regular strength feeding and the problem is fixed. The next 2 nodes of growth are symptom free and the rusty colored patches did not spread on the existing leaves.

 

[chappy]

Here on day 28 of veg things are looking super bushy. I just started to see signs of the plants becoming root bound so I transplanted from solo cups into 2 gallon eco pots. I should have transplanted a bit sooner but I was waiting for the White Widow lockout issue to resolve itself after the flush. The lower/middle leaves on the largest plant just started to curl up at the edges which seemed to be a very early indication of going root bound. So needless to say, a transplant was in order. I mixed up a batch of 60% coco coir and 40% grow stone. I went a bit higher on the grow stone ratio because I wanted to make sure that I can automate watering/feeding up to 3 times a day, once I setup my drip rings, pump, and timer. Nothing has changed environmentally here since day 26 aside from a good spike in growth. Here are the ladies post transplant:

Probably going to do my first topping in a few days. I want at least 2 toppings (hopefully 3) before scrogging and switching to flower. I figure if things keep on keeping on, I should be switching to flower in 3 weeks. Chappy out.

 

[chappy]

Day 30 of veg. I have to say, I am really happy with how things are going. The Mars Reflector 192 (5 watt) is doing a fantastic job. Super easy to manage heat in my grow tent. I am in zone 5 and my basement holds at a pretty steady 65 F all year. This led light gives off enough heat for my tent to reach 82-85 if necessary, however, I have my fan controller set to come on at 78F lights on and 70F lights off which draws in 65-67F air from the basement. I have no problems holding my temperatures with only the exhaust fan as my cooling mechanism drawing cool air into the tent. Humidity naturally just fluctuates 45-55 RH lights on and 55-65 lights off. I run a dehumidifier in my basement 24/7 to hold things at 45 RH. Needless to say, not having to worry about excess heat has really kept things simple in this setup. In addition to making heat management simpler, the MR 192 has also been very easy on the hydro bill. Running only in veg lighting mode I am saving a fair bit of money here. Especially with the extended veg period due to the over watering issues I experienced at the beginning of the grow. Really looking forward to getting the ladies into a scrog and pushing the MR 192 to see what kind of yield they will produce. I am hoping for 6-8 ounces per plant which is ambitious for a first grow but I am fairly confident that I can pull it off with the scrog.

Watering using the H&G schedule has been working out very well. I will post the schedule below for reference. All of the plants are currently getting week 4 schedule (948 ppm). Here are the products that I am using from the schedule. I meant to post this sooner in the journal (i.e. right at the beginning) but completely forgot as I was MIA for a few weeks. Something to improve upon for the next journal.

Cocos A&B
Drip Clean
Roots Excelurator
Amino Treatment
Algen Extract
Magic Green*

*Foliar feeding is something that I am interested in doing but I could use some advice from anyone who has experience here. I did a controlled test about a week ago where I applied a light foliar feed to one of the plants. The Magic Green foliar feed is like a really dark syrup and stinks of seaweed and fish. I mixed as directed into a 1L spray bottle and the mixed solution was very dark in color. I sprayed one of the White Widow plants (on a non-watering day) to see what the result would be. I found that it left dark stains on the leaves where the spray dried. Not sure if that is normal or not? Regardless, I gently sprayed with 5.9 PH RO water to dilute the residue and I no longer see it on the leaves. I don't see any ill side effects that have resulted from spraying but at the same time, I am not sure if having this stuff dried all over your plants is a good thing. Maybe somebody with some experience in foliar feeding can comment here.

The two younger White Widow seedlings (day 18 of veg) got a good drink this morning. They are getting the Week 4 mix of the H&G nutrients (see above) just like the big girls and seem to be doing quite well with it. These two seedlings started way better than the original 4. Again, all thanks to learning from my over watering experience and using a smaller container. If you are reading this and are preparing for your first grow, try to learn from my mistake here. Solo cups are in my opinion not a good container size to start out in coco. Perhaps with lots of practice you can find a sweet spot but I found it too easy to end up over watering. At this point my watering of the seedlings specs out with 4/5 of a solo cup of mixed nutrients where runoff is: 25-30%, 6.56 PH, 1130 PPM. Note that the PPM here is higher than the PPM of the nutrient solution. I suspect that one of 2 things is happening:


1. The containers are drying out too quickly leaving a deposit of unutilized nutrients behind. This could lead to a lockout and toxicity problem.
2. This may be earlier signs of a nutrient lockout where uptake of some nutrients is blocked leaving some excess in the soil. This could also lead to a lockout and toxicity problem.


Knowing this, I will do a flush on the next watering to be proactive about addressing these issues before they become a problem. I will flush with 3x the volume of 5.8 PH RO water and then a regular watering with slightly diluted nutrient solution. Here are the seedlings:

Since transplanting the 4 larger plants I haven't noticed any slowing of growth. I was very gentle with the transplant and only gave a light feeding immediately following the transplant with no runoff and just around the transplant site (approx 1 1/2 solo cups each). I wanted the outer 2" edge of the eco pots to stay mostly dry. Then I let things dry out for a day and went ahead and gave them a full volume feeding with about 20% runoff (5 solo cups). Pretty sure that solo cups are 500ml (as they can fit a tall boy) and I would be about 100ml below that. So that is approx 2.0 litres of nutrient solution per plant. Looking at them today, I think that they have responded very well. I see a lot of new growth and they didn't seem to even notice that they had been transplanted. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

CBD Therapy 1

CBD Therapy 2

White Widow 1

White Widow 2

Any questions or comments please feel free to post. Especially if you see things that are good/bad in my process/reasoning/technique. It would be great to reinforce good habits and curb bad ones! So any feedback would be greatly appreciated. As for the next posting, I am going to FIM the 4 bigger girls to get things underway for the scrog. I will also double check sexing at this point. Hopefully later this afternoon or evening.

Chappy out

 

[chappy]

I went ahead and FIM'd the ladies this afternoon. Everything went without a hitch except for the triploid. I accidentally lopped off one of the upper leaves when I made my cut. Oh well, I am sure it isn't going to impact things. The new branches should grow as expected.

Any recommendations for how often and how many times to FIM to fill out my 4x4 tent with the 4 larger plants and the two shorties? I was think 3 toppings ideally when I was set on just topping them but FIM'ing is different as you get more colas and a bushier plant overall.

 

[chappy]

Day 31 of veg. Gave all of the ladies a nice big drink as per the H&G schedule week 4 (925 ppm, 5.85 PH). The 4 bigger girls got 2 litres each with about 30% runoff (1123 ppm, 6.65 PH). Still looking a bit hot on the runoff but they appear to be in perfect health. I will likely flush these on their next watering. The smaller seedlings received their flush as promised and then were watered with a slightly diluted week 4 H&G schedule. I am impressed that these younger seedlings have been doing so well being fed the same as the big girls. I think it will be time next watering to move the bigger girls on to a week 5 schedule.

I also learned a bit about the H&G foliar spray mix Magic Green. Appears that I got one of the bottles that has a typo in the mixing instructions. It calls for 5-10ml per litre of water. I measured this with my TDS meter and it reads 995 ppm. Holy shit batman! It is a damn good thing that I didn't start a foliar feeding regimen at that strength. The mixing instructions should read 1-2ml per litre (100-200ppm). That would explain the brown staining on the one plant that I tested it out on as discussed in one of my previous posts. I am going to bring this up with the local hydroponic supply and maybe they can amend the labelling or at least inform customers about this. If I had went and sprayed this all over my plants a few times it probably would have scorched them. Glad I was a bit guarded with using that product to begin with. I might still try some foliar feeding at the proper strength as this product does seem to get good reviews.

I am really impressed with the growth that I have been getting lately. Take a look at the difference between day 28 to now (day 31). I think that this Mars Reflector 192x5 is performing very well! Can't wait to do a few more FIMs, setup the scrog, and get this light switched over to flower mode. I think the key is going to be getting a nice even scrog without too much stretch, so that I can drop this light down to 16-18". This should give me some nice thick solid nugs. Here are the ladies after their watering today:

 

[Old TimingMan]

I found you from another grow I posted on, I also have a couple in coco, not by choice but by necessity, I planned to go a 4 bucket RDWC and soaked 6 beans figuring a couple would not make it through the sprout/seedling...I was wrong, all 6 wanted to grow so I went to coco for the other two because my nute line was for both RDWC + soilless.

I am impressed with the coco, while it is a water daily medium which I was trying to get away from, it is very forgiving, pest free, and the two that I put in coco (the other 4 were in a bubble tub for the first 3 weeks) are doing better than the hydro so far.

I just put my hydro plants into their individual 5 gal buckets so that might change, but if I had to do it again, it would be Coco verses soil indoors.

My nute line also recommended a foliar spray for the 1st 3 weeks of veg and after that a tea with the vital boost added to the regular water, I did not see any ill effects from it, I just raised my light a foot for a couple hours until the leaves on top were dry and they loved it.

Mine went from rapid rooters in a dome to 1 gal pots as soon as roots popped out of the rooters, the hydro gals went into a bubble tub for clones, last Monday they went into 5 gal fabric pots and the hydro gals into their buckets.

I have watered to run-off once a day and watered slightly in the morning and evening with no run-off, they seem to like a couple small drinks a day better than a large one in my opinion.

I will tag along and watch how you do if you have a extra seat!

 

[chappy]

Hi Old TimingMan. Great to have you join in! Do you have any pictures of the plants that you have in coco? I think I am going to give the foliar spray another shot.

 

[Old TimingMan]

Hi Old TimingMan. Great to have you join in! Do you have any pictures of the plants that you have in coco? I think I am going to give the foliar spray another shot.

Purple Kush

White Widow

Both with their sisters

The spray mix I am using is from Skunk Labs and is a concentrate called Vital Boost, it is 0.1% nitrogen, 0.2% Phosphate and 0.4% Soluble Potash. The mixture rate is 1ml/liter in RO water. When added to regular watering after the tea (Root Assist) is started (4th veg week) the dose increases to 4ml per gal.

I sprayed all 6 of these once daily in the morning for the first 3 weeks and am now adding to the feed for the hydro, it was in the feed for the coco since sprout at a rate of 2ml per gal so the coco grow got it from the leaves and roots. I have read in many post on many forms not to spray your plants except in the dome, but these seemed to love it...I just raise my light for a couple hours when applied.

OTM

 

[Asesino85]

All caught up. Sounds like you are starting to catch your stride now. Gong to be fun to see how they end up!

 

[coopexquisite]

Any recommendations for how often and how many times to FIM to fill out my 4x4 tent with the 4 larger plants and the two shorties? I was think 3 toppings ideally when I was set on just topping them but FIM'ing is different as you get more colas and a bushier plant overall.

I would top/fim when the stem hits at least the 3rd node, but nothing within a week of flower.

 

[chappy]

Day 37 of veg. Things are progressing nicely! Yesterday and today I transplanted the bigger plants into 5 gallon eco pots. They are looking super healthy. The smaller 2 plants (both white widow) are being donated to a friend who is big into making extracts/tinctures. She has a deformity that affects her hips and feet that requires pain treatment. I think the white widow will be just the thing to help her out.

As for the four larger plants, I am starting to think a lot more about LST and SCROG. However, I think I should have started the LST and FIM a bit earlier. Regardless, I think I can still make it work effectively. A question for you guys though. One of the plants (a cbd therapy) is a full node taller than the rest of the plants. I was considering taking the upper node off to correct the height for when I put the scrog in place. Is it worth doing this or should I just leave things be and just weave this one a bit more under the SCROG. I am thinking the latter is probably the right way to go but wanted to get some insights. Also, does anyone have any pointers on the best way to start LST on these ladies in preparation for SCROG? Do I just tie the tops over to the side for a day or two and then to the other side for a day or two for encouraging the lower branches to grow more? Also, should I be defoliating anything at this point? Seems the upper fan leaves are getting quite large and are blocking light to the lower branches containing potential flowering sites. Seems to be a lot of conflicting info on pruning fan leaves, when to prune them, etc.

Here is the largest plant (CBD Therapy) that I was asking about taking the top node off of:

Here is one of the White Widows showing a bunch of new lower growth after FIM:

 

[Old TimingMan]

Day 37 of veg. Things are progressing nicely! Yesterday and today I transplanted the bigger plants into 5 gallon eco pots. They are looking super healthy. The smaller 2 plants (both white widow) are being donated to a friend who is big into making extracts/tinctures. She has a deformity that affects her hips and feet that requires pain treatment. I think the white widow will be just the thing to help her out.

As for the four larger plants, I am starting to think a lot more about LST and SCROG. However, I think I should have started the LST and FIM a bit earlier. Regardless, I think I can still make it work effectively. A question for you guys though. One of the plants (a cbd therapy) is a full node taller than the rest of the plants. I was considering taking the upper node off to correct the height for when I put the scrog in place. Is it worth doing this or should I just leave things be and just weave this one a bit more under the SCROG. I am thinking the latter is probably the right way to go but wanted to get some insights. Also, does anyone have any pointers on the best way to start LST on these ladies in preparation for SCROG? Do I just tie the tops over to the side for a day or two and then to the other side for a day or two for encouraging the lower branches to grow more? Also, should I be defoliating anything at this point? Seems the upper fan leaves are getting quite large and are blocking light to the lower branches containing potential flowering sites. Seems to be a lot of conflicting info on pruning fan leaves, when to prune them, etc.

Here is the largest plant (CBD Therapy) that I was asking about taking the top node off of:

Here is one of the White Widows showing a bunch of new lower growth after FIM:

I would top it and start to slowly bend the top down with plant wire, you can turn the pots as needed, pull the top down to about a 45 degree angle for a couple days, and after that keep tightening the wire until its at a 90 a little at a time. hook your wire just below the top fan leaves...the stock should be still quite bendable and will train itself with some gentle guidance. This will open up all of the bud sites under the top growth...you will see the undergrowth start looking like top growth and the topping will respond the same as your White Widows did.

I will try to get a couple photos of what mine are looking like after 10 days of topping/bending for you to see what I am trying to describe.

 

[chappy]

Thanks OTM. When you bend one way it exposes the bud sites on one side of the plant. What about the other side? Will those pop up around the plant as well or do you just leave those and they just get trimmed with the rest of the undergrowth under the scrog?

 

[Asesino85]

Thanks OTM. When you bend one way it exposes the bud sites on one side of the plant. What about the other side? Will those pop up around the plant as well or do you just leave those and they just get trimmed with the rest of the undergrowth under the scrog?

They will come around, don't trim them. Some might not if they don't get any light at all for a while but I'd leave them all and most will find their way to the canopy.

 

[Old TimingMan]

Thanks OTM. When you bend one way it exposes the bud sites on one side of the plant. What about the other side? Will those pop up around the plant as well or do you just leave those and they just get trimmed with the rest of the undergrowth under the scrog?

The bud sites on the underside all took a turn up to the lights, I have been tucking the larger fan leaves under, and this weekend I plan on removing 2 or 3 of the largest on all plants that are covering up the smaller sites and doing the final topping for the scrog screen that will be installed in 2 weeks.

This one is bent at a 90 degree angle, there is a ton of bud sites and I did some topping to a few more on this plant...the first picture is how it looks naturally and the second I moved everything out of the way to show the stem. The 3rd pict is the tiny new growth that has been popping up everywhere.

This plant I topped and as the topping split, I started to bend both 90 degrees apart, as you can see, where I originally topped it, it sent up another bud site off of the cut area so I think I will top it again and pull them 90 degrees the same way when it splits.

My photos are kind of dark and the flash makes the new growth look lighter green than it really is, I need to get a portable light set up so the picts turn out better! Hope this gives you an idea of what I am shooting for, lots of bud sites developed before I install my scrog screen which will be about 10" above the pots/buckets.

I am using this grow to play around with many of the different methods available, I have given all the plants a hard time and they all have responded well so far!