High Priest's, Soil, Shiva Shanti II, Grow Journal

[High Priest V]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post on my first grow journal. So exciting. I hope there's enough information below to kick things off. Just so everyone know, I don't think I'll be doing such an extensive setup (e.g.. tent, led system, etc.) because of the seeds that I bought (thanks Sensi Seeds) is suitable for the temperate/Continental climate here. Hence I'm thinking of placing it outdoors as much as the weather allows. But who knows I might need to in the future depending on the grow.

Strain: Shiva Shanti II (75% Indica)
Stage: Seedling x 4 pots
First date in Soil: 11th October
Soil mix: General plant soil (vege soil + manure) with ph 6.8
Pot Size: Medium size about 1 Gallon I think
Light: Outdoor when weather permits, indoor with 40 watts LED
Temp of Room: estimated 20 C / 68 F (have a internal house heater that is set to 22 C/71 F)
Last watered: 17th October (yesterday) with just a couple of droplets.
Fertiliser: None

Below: This was taken on the 5th day after planting the seedlings in soil

Below: These was taken this morning (8th day after planting)

Analysis: Although the rate of growth is surprisingly faster than I thought, I realised that the stems are thin. After reading through the posts here (thank you!), I think I might have missed a couple of things:

1. I did not put a fan before when they are indoors. (started using yesterday). Read that it promotes stem strength.
2. Not consistent with the light requirements. Been placing it by the window for the sun in the day and at night no light setup. (started with what we have here which is a spotlight by the stairs)
3. Been watering the grows everyday for the past 6 days but planning to stop that from today onwards.

Progress: This morning 3 of the 4 grows have dried soil (one still a bit damp). I think the fan and light might have something to do with it. I noticed also the grows are bending towards the light which I conclude that they might need more light than before (not sure about this).

At this moment I'm just waiting for the temperature outside to be at 20 Celsius / 68 Fahrenheit (forecast for the next 3 days is Sunny) before placing them in my garden. Am I doing okay so far? I appreciate any advice, feedback or criticism on this.

 

[AngryBird]

HI
and welcome to the 420mag.
You made a good journal and it will be my pleasure to follow you.

I am not an expert, but since I have made my share of mistakes in the beginning, I can help you to NOT do the same (if you want to)

Lights: Is it a LED light bulb or CFL ?
It is better if it is placed above the plants and much closer.
Plants stretch for the light and can break.
Is it possible for you to place the pots closer together and the light hanging over or standing over.. about 15 cm away from the plants?

Soil: Will you be re potting them to bigger pots later?
If no, you might want to remember that the roots need air..and soil tend to be compact and not "airy" enough.
Mixing soil with perlite is a good and inexpensive way to do so.

I have my journal in my signature ,come by if you need help fast. Just post a link to your journal and write..please help I have some super friends that can help you too.

 

[High Priest V]

HI
and welcome to the 420mag.

I am not an expert, but since I have made my share of mistakes in the beginning, I can help you to NOT do the same (if you want to)

Is it a LED light bulb or CFL ?
It is better if it is placed above the plants and much closer.
Plants stretch for the light and can break.
Is it possible for you to place the pots closer together and the light hanging over or standing over.. about 15 cm away from the plants?

Hi AngryBird...

It's an LED light bulb... Ahhh thanks for the warning. I'll drop by the hardware store in a while to see if there's something suitable. Since I'm heading there, should I look for CFL light as well?

Soil: Yes I'm thinking of repotting to a bigger pot but was kinda reluctant before. Probably because according to the site, it's a middle size plant. Although I don't know how big is middle size. Hehehe.
I'm going to look for perlites too. Thanks for the tip and help... Greatly appreciated.
I wasn't expecting that many mistakes but thankfully there's still hope.

 

[AngryBird]

Personally I prefer LED light bulbs..why :

1 bulb that will shine as a 150W bulb would...will use less Watt to do so. A CFL uses more Watt from the wall to shine the same = more electricity bill.
If you are on the way..and you CAN find them in France..buy a bulb socket that has one on top and 4 sockets in the bottom
or 2 adapters with 2 in the bottom

google this to see what I mean : bulb socket 4 adapter

It is all you need for now. Soon you need more lights but not just yet.

 

[High Priest V]

buy a bulb socket that has one on top and 4 sockets in the bottom
or 2 adapters with 2 in the bottom

So I should get 2 of these 4 adapter bulb sockets? Because I'm not sure what you mean by one on top and 4 sockets in the bottom. Does this mean my setup will consist of 1 main bulb on top and the 4 sockets on the bottom of the grows? Sorry for the detailed questions coz I'm pretty green on this and just want to understand it correctly.

 

[AngryBird]

it is ok.. I tried to explain how they look like..and thought a picture is better
that is why I showed you the adapter with picture (google)
What ever you can find in your hardware store.
1 adapter for 4 light bulbs or 2 adapters for 2 bulbs each.
There is no need to say sorry, we are all here to help.

 

[High Priest V]

Thanks AngryBird... Understood.

Just got back from the hardware store and unfortunately couldn't find any adapters (both 2 and 4) and the highest bulb I could find at the moment is 100watt LED (the 150W ones will arrived next week).
So went and bought 4 of those LED along with 4 clip-on holders and a height adjustable stand for them. In addition, 3 light reflectors that might come in handy..
Will update a picture of the setup later...

P.S: Couldn't find any perlite around the store. Most probably I've to purchase another type of soil with Perlite instead. Just hope the soil I'm using right now won't damage my grows.. here's hoping

 

[Pennywise]

Hi Priest, welcome to 420. Im new here as well but experience tells me to use as much light as i can. I started with a 300w LED but moved up to a 1000w LED. I have a 600w HPS but i like the LEDs far better. Flowers seem to be denser with more trichome production with the LED. Ill follow your grow as well. Cheers!


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[High Priest V]

Thank you Pennywise...
Wow! That's a lot of light.... I guess I might need to get more in the future.
What about Halogen / LED Floodlights? Are they better? Bulbs here are quite darn expensive to be honest.
At this point I'm only growing only 4 and most probably will do a second batch January of next year.

 

[AngryBird]

HI
you are fine with those light for now When it is time for flowering you need to add more.
I can't find those adapters here either.

 

[Pennywise]

Ive learned that light is THE biggest factor that we can control indoors. Just dont buy on impulse, do a little research and pick the best light in your price range. There are many threads here on equipment and the knowledge they provide is invaluable.


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[High Priest V]

Ive learned that light is THE biggest factor that we can control indoors. Just dont buy on impulse, do a little research and pick the best light in your price range. There are many threads here on equipment and the knowledge they provide is invaluable.

Thanks Pennywise... You're right. Holding my horses right now and just focus on the purchases I just bought and see how the babies progress from there. Still a lot of reading to go..

HI
you are fine with those light for now When it is time for flowering you need to add more.
I can't find those adapters here either.

Alrighty! Will keep a look out for more light options. Yeah those adapters are kinda "RARE" here.. oh well.. Maybe I can find some when I'm overseas soon.

Thank you for the valuable advice so far... You guys have been really helpful.

 

[High Priest V]

Update
Strain: Shiva Shanti II (75% Indica)
Stage: Seedling x 4 pots
First date in Soil: 11th October
Soil mix: General plant soil (vege soil + manure) with ph 6.8
Pot Size: Medium size about 1 Gallon I think
Light: Outdoor when weather permits, indoor with 4 x 100 watts LED
Temp of Room: estimated 20 C / 68 F (have a internal house heater that is set to 22 C/71 F)
Last watered: 18th October (for only 2 pots with added soil)
Fertiliser: None

So the sun was up earlier and brought the babies out in the garden. Here is a before picture:

And here is a picture taken later in the afternoon:

Analysis: Obviously they are growing straight up again which is an indication that lack of light was the issue. Couldn't find any perlite in the store to add to the soil however on reading the soil mix that we have, it states it contains tree barks which promotes aeration. I hope that might help.
Because the stems is thin due to lack of light and breezes before, my husband decided to add more soil to 2 of the pots in top part of the picture (of course add water as well). For the other 2, I just scraped the sides towards the stem to give it more support (no water added of course). Forgot to mention before that we have a layer of small pebbles on every pot (a gardening tip we found) to facilitate drainage. Not sure if this helps but it's a habit we have from gardening.

Progress: So after receiving tips from Angrybird and Pennywise we did this indoor setup for our babies in our spare room. We've added 4 x 100W LED clipped on a stand to shine above the grows. In addition we saw a sale on light reflectors and bought 3 of those. Might get another one soon to place on the floor. (Kudos to tips from Angrybird's Journal". I have placed a fan nearby instead of directly so they will get some breeze.

Let's see how they do in the morning with their new indoor home. Hope they turn out great. I know it's only a couple of hours but hey, these babies amazed me with their rate of growth, so here's hoping. I need to start naming each of our babies soon. Just to keep track on each progress..
Thank you all for following my journal and all the feedback... Blessings of love for everyone

 

[AngryBird]

Good set up well done
All though.. lights need to be closer down, 15-20 cm away from the plant

 

[High Priest V]

Good set up well done
All though.. lights need to be closer down, 15-20 cm away from the plant

Thanks for the feedback... Going to see if I can find something to raise our pots higher (coz the stand is at the lowest..hehe)

 

[High Priest V]

This is not really a big update but just wanna share what happened to our babies after the revamped indoor setup.

So this morning brought the babies out in the sun and noticed that their serrated leaves are bigger than before.
That's good news right?

We managed to revamped (again) the indoor setup for the lights to be closer to the plants as advised. Hope they like it.

We did notice one of the grow's leaf is a bit yellowish. I'm not sure if this is a warning for something. Maybe it's just natural. Gotta read more about this. And oh yeah, saw a spider webbing this afternoon (which of course I removed it). Reading into this too...

Thanks guys for following my journal. Appreciate all the love and guidance given...

 

[Pennywise]

They look healthy too me and the growth is for sure a good thing.


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[AngryBird]

It looks good
If you see yellowing going worse..post a picture

And if you see stem grow more..do what you did before..just support with soil around it.

 

[High Priest V]

Update
Strain: Shiva Shanti II (75% Indica)
Stage: Seedling x 4 pots
First date in Soil: 11th October
Soil mix: General plant soil (vege soil + manure) with ph 6.8
Pot Size: Medium size about 1 Gallon I think
Light: Outdoor when weather permits, indoor with 4 x 100 watts LED
Temp of Room: estimated 20 C / 68 F (have a internal house heater that is set to 22 C/71 F)
Last watered: 18th October for 2 pots & 20th October for the other 2
Fertiliser: None

Good news and bad news just happened. Well to start things off well, the babies have been showing good progress with their indoor system. Their serrated leaves are bigger than before and obviously we're happy with it. Like Pennywise mentioned, growth is a good thing.
Watered my 2 pots yesterday around the sides first. Didn't use a lot as I want to prevent over-watering. hehe.

Here they are before being watered:

After watering them at about 5ish in the afternoon, we moved them into their indoor nest. (The 2 front pots are the one just watered):

Analysis: In the morning we noticed new shoots have started to grow. Yeah! I believe this should be the second set of leaves? Maybe I'm wrong but whatever it is growth is a good thing

Progress: To support the stretching stems, we decided to add more dry soil to the pot to give more support. As usual of course we left it our terrace to bask in the sunlight. Here comes the bad news. While it was quite breezy this afternoon, one of our grows (hubby's pot) couldn't handle the strong wind and this happened.

The stem collapsed but not detached (fortunately). While in a moment of , we added more soil (dry) to make it upright. Hopefully this might salvage it. Being cautious me, I decided to do the same to my pots as well. Just in case. So now we're just hoping it'll be okay and let nature heal itself along with some of our positive encouragement to the babies. Hubby is still considering if he should germinate another seed tomorrow depending on the outcome. /cross fingers . What do you guys think?

Moving forward, I'm wondering when should I start my vegetative light cycle of 18/6? Read a couple of posts and some began when they have 4 set of leaves others longer.
Also are our grows still under the seedling stage or is this already in the vegetative phase?

Thank you guys for all the guidance (I make it a point to thank everytime because I can't thank you guys enough.. ) and for following my journal.

Blessings of love to all and have a great weekend everyone! Nothing to smoke here so smoke one for me yah!

 

[Pennywise]

I start 18/6 as soon as they pop through the soil, their tough plants so hopefully your fallen baby will make a comeback. Id start 18/6 asap if it were mine.


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