TLDR: indica plants overcame stressors in soil and are left with varying but adequate amounts of vigor. Plants are getting bushy and ready for a final phase of LST training or pruning, bloom stage nutes, and more red LED light. I have 1000W of good lights here and I would love to get at least a half pound off this but I have no idea what it will yield. I'll take what I've learned and grow the clones I made even better hopefully.
Clones I successfully started:
_______________________________________________________________________
This is my first grow. I am learning from my mistakes. The plants have spent a lot of time not-thriving, but they're doing better now and I need help bringing it home on this grow, harnessing my extra light, reconfiguring the tent/room and flowering. I tried very hard to provide as much detail as I could, but the info is kind of scattered throughout the sections and I have no actual journal.
SEE PHOTOS: Gozumel23 Gallery - 420 Magazine Photo Gallery
Strain: Blackwater (indica or indica dominant) grow from 6 feminized seeds
Soil: rapid rooters to Happy Frog soil mix in 1 gal plastic to Batch 64 Moonshine soil in 3 gal then 7 gal smartpots after transplanting twice. Roots had just started to go around in circles when I transplanted out of the small plastic pot. When I transplanted out of the 3 gal smartpots, I could see the roots branched out towards the edges on a few plants, and the roots hadn't reached the outsides on the other ones. Roots looked healthy upon both transplanting. Moonshine soil ingredient list:coconut coir, perlite, pumice, rice hulls, expanded shale, humus, worm castings, green waste biochar, blood meal, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour (as PH adjuster), rock dust, flax seed meal, cotton seed meal, dried molasses, kelp meal, volcanic ash, and yucca extract. The soil is around pH 6.4.
Vegetative Stage: for unknown period approximately 3 months. I've kept them in vegetative to increase the plant's size, take clones, learn about cannabis care, and stall while I research growing more. I did some LST with twine holding the lower branches down, tried supercropping a few lower branches which really did increase those branche's size, and then topped the plant (will top much much earlier next time) to keep it from outgrowing the tent. Some of the lower side branches on these plants now reach almost up to the top of the plant because I grew them outward then released them from LST and the tops are growing straight up. My strategy has been to get multiple large side branches and pull them down with twine for a pseudo-scrog effect, not sure how well that works. Four healthy clones have rooted from bottom branches of the two best plants and are now growing quite well in their little soil pots in the same tent. I'm going to take more clones before I switch to flowering. I can see the female preflower two little white mini-stalk things near the nodes (feminized seeds).
Indoor & Ventilation & Controller: Indoor out of necessity in my circumstances. I have the master controller but I'm only using it for the probe right now, nothing hooked up to the humidity, temp, or c02 outlets. I have a c02 pump but I can't use it yet because my tent is an open system. The plants are in a 40" grow tent 7-8 ft tall. I really hate using this tent. I should have made a larger one myself. It has been hard to hang the lights and filters and even harder to keep the air regulated so I just leave the tent half unzipped now so it's an open environment with the air conditioned room. I have a 6" inline duct fan with carbon filter and ducting. It didn't suck out enough heat to close the tent I didn't even use it until this week when I decided to filter all the air in the room because of potential allergens. It still doesn't feel like it sucks that much air but I know it does because it blow out a lot on the other end of the duct... It's in a room approximately 12x15 which has an air conditioner and electric heat each on a thermostat. I need to get an oscillating fan. For a while the plants were getting cold at night I think when the light was off. They got some red/purple tops of the branches but that might have been genetic or due to other stressors. The humidity was very low in the beginning of the plants life but now it's around 40-45% in the tent.
Light: 315W Light-emitting Ceramic (LEC) Metal Halide lamp, 180W blue LED, 440W Solar Systems LED with blue and red that are programmable (this light is not utilized). I read that more light was key for higher yields so I bought the 440W LED but it made so much heat that I was unable to cool the tent fast enough so I took it out. I started out with 18 hours of light of the LEC and 180w blue LED and then I switched it to 21 hours of light because I didn't want the plants to get cold from the AC, which is set to 70-73 degrees for the room the tent (which is unzipped) is in. The temperature in the upper canopy of the plants is 76-80F, although it had risen to as much as 90F before I put in the AC and when I had the light closer. The leaves started folding up from the heat and simultaneously drooping which I thought was maybe a potassium deficiency but Idk. The plants grew up to 12" from the light and got a little light burned on the tips before I corrected it. Now the lights are about 25" from the plants because I wanted to make sure it was light burn I had been observing, and to get these bushy indicas to branch out more. I NEED HELP harnessing all 3 of my lights. I can make half of the room into a grow tent to do this but I need advice on how to arrange these 3 different lights over my plants. Currently the lux meter says it's only about 15,000 at the tops of the plants. If I move the tops of the plants to about 12-14" from the lights the lux goes to 40,000+ but the tops of the plants get too hot. Being new, I am mildly concerned about hermaphroditism because they aren't in pitch black at night but it looks fine so far.
Water: Has not been a strong point for me. I was using fresh spring water from the earth which is fortunately around 6.4 pH. I didn't use my ppm meter on that water yet but I have to check it. More recently I started mixing different spring water (hard, 7.8 pH and 450ppm) mixed with 3 or 4 parts distilled water (for a combined ppm of 100-150 before nutrients). I was watering too little and too often for most of the time. I had a hard time telling if the plants were under or over watered at times but I'm learning. I have a soil moisture meter that I sometimes use but it had been hit or miss with its readings because of the low amount of water and pattern or drying within the smart pots. I also wondered if it didn't hurt the roots sticking the meter in there every day but I tried to aim for the outside of the pot.
Fertilizers & Leaf Symptoms: These plants from seed started out kind of slow but healthy. I have the General Hydroponics "synthetic" nutrients line usually used for hydro setups, and the feeding schedule that comes with it. At first I didn't understand you have to water til some drained through, so I got some nutrient buildup and nitrogen excess I believe (dark green leaves, kind of crispy and glossy and curving down especially at the ends) then switched to just using spring water while the plants overcame the extra fertilizers in the soil and started eating the nutrients in the Moonshine soil. The symptoms I believed were nitrogen excess went away but the leaves lost their perkiness and kind of got limp. The tops of branch stems got red. Then after I transplanted to 7 gallon pots the plants grew more and developed nitrogen deficiency so I switched back to using the fertilizers still with the veg stage amount and the plants stopped yellowing and perked up. I think it's OK now but I'm still worried about giving the right amount of nutrients. ppm when I feed now is around 800 ppm. I pH the water to 6.4 if it's not already when watering or feeding. I wish I just used super soil and I will try that next time.
THANK YOU FOR ANY ADVICE. I believe there is still hope for a decent yield by adding the 440W LED on red mode but I need help. If not with this grow then with the clones
Clones I successfully started:
_______________________________________________________________________
This is my first grow. I am learning from my mistakes. The plants have spent a lot of time not-thriving, but they're doing better now and I need help bringing it home on this grow, harnessing my extra light, reconfiguring the tent/room and flowering. I tried very hard to provide as much detail as I could, but the info is kind of scattered throughout the sections and I have no actual journal.
SEE PHOTOS: Gozumel23 Gallery - 420 Magazine Photo Gallery
Strain: Blackwater (indica or indica dominant) grow from 6 feminized seeds
Soil: rapid rooters to Happy Frog soil mix in 1 gal plastic to Batch 64 Moonshine soil in 3 gal then 7 gal smartpots after transplanting twice. Roots had just started to go around in circles when I transplanted out of the small plastic pot. When I transplanted out of the 3 gal smartpots, I could see the roots branched out towards the edges on a few plants, and the roots hadn't reached the outsides on the other ones. Roots looked healthy upon both transplanting. Moonshine soil ingredient list:coconut coir, perlite, pumice, rice hulls, expanded shale, humus, worm castings, green waste biochar, blood meal, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour (as PH adjuster), rock dust, flax seed meal, cotton seed meal, dried molasses, kelp meal, volcanic ash, and yucca extract. The soil is around pH 6.4.
Vegetative Stage: for unknown period approximately 3 months. I've kept them in vegetative to increase the plant's size, take clones, learn about cannabis care, and stall while I research growing more. I did some LST with twine holding the lower branches down, tried supercropping a few lower branches which really did increase those branche's size, and then topped the plant (will top much much earlier next time) to keep it from outgrowing the tent. Some of the lower side branches on these plants now reach almost up to the top of the plant because I grew them outward then released them from LST and the tops are growing straight up. My strategy has been to get multiple large side branches and pull them down with twine for a pseudo-scrog effect, not sure how well that works. Four healthy clones have rooted from bottom branches of the two best plants and are now growing quite well in their little soil pots in the same tent. I'm going to take more clones before I switch to flowering. I can see the female preflower two little white mini-stalk things near the nodes (feminized seeds).
Indoor & Ventilation & Controller: Indoor out of necessity in my circumstances. I have the master controller but I'm only using it for the probe right now, nothing hooked up to the humidity, temp, or c02 outlets. I have a c02 pump but I can't use it yet because my tent is an open system. The plants are in a 40" grow tent 7-8 ft tall. I really hate using this tent. I should have made a larger one myself. It has been hard to hang the lights and filters and even harder to keep the air regulated so I just leave the tent half unzipped now so it's an open environment with the air conditioned room. I have a 6" inline duct fan with carbon filter and ducting. It didn't suck out enough heat to close the tent I didn't even use it until this week when I decided to filter all the air in the room because of potential allergens. It still doesn't feel like it sucks that much air but I know it does because it blow out a lot on the other end of the duct... It's in a room approximately 12x15 which has an air conditioner and electric heat each on a thermostat. I need to get an oscillating fan. For a while the plants were getting cold at night I think when the light was off. They got some red/purple tops of the branches but that might have been genetic or due to other stressors. The humidity was very low in the beginning of the plants life but now it's around 40-45% in the tent.
Light: 315W Light-emitting Ceramic (LEC) Metal Halide lamp, 180W blue LED, 440W Solar Systems LED with blue and red that are programmable (this light is not utilized). I read that more light was key for higher yields so I bought the 440W LED but it made so much heat that I was unable to cool the tent fast enough so I took it out. I started out with 18 hours of light of the LEC and 180w blue LED and then I switched it to 21 hours of light because I didn't want the plants to get cold from the AC, which is set to 70-73 degrees for the room the tent (which is unzipped) is in. The temperature in the upper canopy of the plants is 76-80F, although it had risen to as much as 90F before I put in the AC and when I had the light closer. The leaves started folding up from the heat and simultaneously drooping which I thought was maybe a potassium deficiency but Idk. The plants grew up to 12" from the light and got a little light burned on the tips before I corrected it. Now the lights are about 25" from the plants because I wanted to make sure it was light burn I had been observing, and to get these bushy indicas to branch out more. I NEED HELP harnessing all 3 of my lights. I can make half of the room into a grow tent to do this but I need advice on how to arrange these 3 different lights over my plants. Currently the lux meter says it's only about 15,000 at the tops of the plants. If I move the tops of the plants to about 12-14" from the lights the lux goes to 40,000+ but the tops of the plants get too hot. Being new, I am mildly concerned about hermaphroditism because they aren't in pitch black at night but it looks fine so far.
Water: Has not been a strong point for me. I was using fresh spring water from the earth which is fortunately around 6.4 pH. I didn't use my ppm meter on that water yet but I have to check it. More recently I started mixing different spring water (hard, 7.8 pH and 450ppm) mixed with 3 or 4 parts distilled water (for a combined ppm of 100-150 before nutrients). I was watering too little and too often for most of the time. I had a hard time telling if the plants were under or over watered at times but I'm learning. I have a soil moisture meter that I sometimes use but it had been hit or miss with its readings because of the low amount of water and pattern or drying within the smart pots. I also wondered if it didn't hurt the roots sticking the meter in there every day but I tried to aim for the outside of the pot.
Fertilizers & Leaf Symptoms: These plants from seed started out kind of slow but healthy. I have the General Hydroponics "synthetic" nutrients line usually used for hydro setups, and the feeding schedule that comes with it. At first I didn't understand you have to water til some drained through, so I got some nutrient buildup and nitrogen excess I believe (dark green leaves, kind of crispy and glossy and curving down especially at the ends) then switched to just using spring water while the plants overcame the extra fertilizers in the soil and started eating the nutrients in the Moonshine soil. The symptoms I believed were nitrogen excess went away but the leaves lost their perkiness and kind of got limp. The tops of branch stems got red. Then after I transplanted to 7 gallon pots the plants grew more and developed nitrogen deficiency so I switched back to using the fertilizers still with the veg stage amount and the plants stopped yellowing and perked up. I think it's OK now but I'm still worried about giving the right amount of nutrients. ppm when I feed now is around 800 ppm. I pH the water to 6.4 if it's not already when watering or feeding. I wish I just used super soil and I will try that next time.
THANK YOU FOR ANY ADVICE. I believe there is still hope for a decent yield by adding the 440W LED on red mode but I need help. If not with this grow then with the clones
