Renaissance Man's Second Grow

[Renaissance Man]

oh and one more observation: 6" squares is really too big. I should have found a net with 3" or 4" squares.

 

[InTheShed]

They're looking good!

It's pretty hot in the tent with temps reaching mid to upper 90'sF and humidity also very high. I'm hoping that my inline fan will be able to control that a little better when I reach flower otherwise i'm going to be having some issues.

Whoa! That's hot and damp, which makes it hard for the plant to transpire. What's the temp and RH in the room?

It has been about 5 days since last update.

Sounds like the start of confession. At least that's how they show it in the movies.

I am starting to notice some gnats flying around. I will be adding some mosquito dunks the next watering tomorrow.

The best advice I've read on mosquito dunks for gnats comes from Carcass, and he writes this:

I just throw 1/4 of a dunk in the 5 gallon bucket every 3 weeks or so to keep the gnats away...
If I have an active gnat infestation, I'll use half a dunk in the bucket for a little more killing power, then
I go back to 1/4 of a dunk to keep the growspace gnat-free...
A quarter of a dunk is equal to 1 tbsp. of the bits, if you decide to do it this way.

The reason I do it this way is that it takes 24 hours for the bacteria from the dunks to populate the water, and I don't want to have to fill a gallon jug 24 hours in advance of when I water the plant, so I just treat 5 gallons at a time, and the water is always ready to use..

He just uses some of the 5 gallons when he mixes his nutes and refills the bucket.

oh and one more observation: 6" squares is really too big. I should have found a net with 3" or 4" squares.

You can add some string to make the square smaller. Make them 3" because that's the easiest math!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Whoa! That's hot and damp, which makes it hard for the plant to transpire. What's the temp and RH in the room?

Yeah, I just referred back to my vpd chart and I have a very small margin when temps get that hot. The tent is in my garage that stays at about 78-85f and only about 30% humidity but inside I have high 90's and 80-90's% rh. I turned on the in-line fan which brought temps and rh down which has helped.

You can add some string to make the square smaller. Make them 3" because that's the easiest math!

I thought about doing that but it seems like more work than I really want to do. I think I can manage with a little bit of supercropping however, already snapped a few tops.. Some recovered, some haven't.
I just don't think I can wait until the whole net is full before flipping.

I popped a couple beans for my brother in law, Mexican Airlines and a CBD strain. I'm going to put those in the tent soon and let them get a little bigger before I hand them off back to him. Right now they're in my window sill.

 

[Renaissance Man]

Hey Gang! My updates are so bad.. you know... life.

Anyways, I flipped to flower about a week ago and calling 5/15/2022 day 1 of flower. The whole net is not filled, however, a lot of it is. Gorilla Zkittles is stretching a little more than Critical Cure but both look good. I have been consistently defoliating the middle of both plants but now I'm trying to let them absorb a little more light. I have lollipop'd both plants and they have a nice even canopy.

As far as nutrients go, I have added my bloom nutes of 2-8-8 and per manufacturer, should be good for 8 weeks. I have more bloom nutes on standby for about a month from now.

Lights are at 16" from canopy on 100%.

Watering every 3-4 days. The only issue is I have no way of pulling water out of trays and therefore is getting sucked back up. I'm trying to avoid having root rot. Everything looks good for now though.

 

[HashGirl]

They look good, RM. Nice job.

 

[Renaissance Man]

They look good, RM. Nice job.

Thanks @HashGirl! Slow and steady wins the race.. now I just have to find a way to control the heat!

 

[InTheShed]

Looking good! Flip the trays over and let it run off into the tent tray. Same amount of water but the pot's not sitting in it.

Lots of folks use a bucket head vacuum to suck up runoff. They're not too expensive and can be used for all sorts of other things as well!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Looking good! Flip the trays over and let it run off into the tent tray. Same amount of water but the pot's not sitting in it.

Lots of folks use a bucket head vacuum to suck up runoff. They're not too expensive and can be used for all sorts of other things as well!

Thanks Shed! I like the vacuum idea. I think I might go that route. I don't really want to let all that water sit in the bottom, will probably struggle with humidity. Good lookin out on that link!

 

[InTheShed]

Definitely a good idea to get rid of it, but I was thinking it's the same amount of water no matter where it sits!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Definitely a good idea to get rid of it, but I was thinking it's the same amount of water no matter where it sits!

haha.. this is true

 

[Renaissance Man]

Here we are on day 12 of Flower and all looks good. I'm a little concerned about the watering situation. It seems about every 3 days the plants start to droop, however, the soil still seems wet at least half way down. I gave a good soak today as I'll be out of town until Monday night. When I return, I may start to do more frequent top watering only to see if I can somehow let the bottom dry out a little more. Not sure if that's a thing but we'll see how it goes.

 

[Krissi Carbone]

Here we are on day 12 of Flower and all looks good. I'm a little concerned about the watering situation. It seems about every 3 days the plants start to droop, however, the soil still seems wet at least half way down. I gave a good soak today as I'll be out of town until Monday night. When I return, I may start to do more frequent top watering only to see if I can somehow let the bottom dry out a little more. Not sure if that's a thing but we'll see how it goes.

Hi RM

Life hit me too. I get it.

So how are the gnats? They are gonna get worse as it warms up, grab some of this from our sponsors, i found after a certain point, mosquito dunks were ineffective for me but this was a game changer.

Did you leave already for the weekend? Can you lift them up at all from the catch tray and give that fabric some time to dry out?

Otherwise looking good, sorry I've been taking forever to get caught up myself here, on everyone's journals, messages and my home life and gardening...it's been busy and eventful. Happy to see another grow doing well for you friend.

 

[Renaissance Man]

Hi RM

Life hit me too. I get it.

So how are the gnats? They are gonna get worse as it warms up, grab some of this from our sponsors, i found after a certain point, mosquito dunks were ineffective for me but this was a game changer.

Did you leave already for the weekend? Can you lift them up at all from the catch tray and give that fabric some time to dry out?

Otherwise looking good, sorry I've been taking forever to get caught up myself here, on everyone's journals, messages and my home life and gardening...it's been busy and eventful. Happy to see another grow doing well for you friend.

Thanks @Krissi1982! The water in the tray pulls back into the pot pretty quickly so no more. We'll see if that's creating more problems for me in a couple of weeks.

As far as the gnats go, the mosquito dunks work magic. They've been gone! Good lookin out though for the alternatives!

I need to catch up on your journals too.. how are all your plants doing? Give me the clift notes.. how many flowering? vegging? curing? What's up next?

 

[Krissi Carbone]

Thanks @Krissi1982! The water in the tray pulls back into the pot pretty quickly so no more. We'll see if that's creating more problems for me in a couple of weeks.

Great!!!

As far as the gnats go, the mosquito dunks work magic. They've been gone! Good lookin out though for the alternatives!

Lucky! They worked for me the first couple times then nada...happy they're gone cause i loathe them myself!

I need to catch up on your journals too.. how are all your plants doing? Give me the clift notes.. how many flowering? vegging? curing? What's up next?

You're funny. I have a Banana Blaze sealed up for one week now and a Banana Blaze foxtail plant that went into jars over the last few days.

I've got 6 in veg, 3 photos (Gelato-K, Big Bull and Cookies Haze) 3 autos (Gelato, Skunk and Big Jack Widow) BJW is only 4 days old and the rest are between 12 and 14. They're spread out among 4 new different journals. Running BJW solo under the MG3000 and the rest are under the FC4800.

Just closed the Banana Blaze journal today that I had going prior to my leave of absence.

All of the girls are doing really well. Happy to see you pop up today!

 

[BakedARea]

RM! All caught up! Man...set the watch button on page one and then haven't been around since. Sorry about that but as you said...life can get in the way. I've been inconsistent at best around here for quite some time. Hard to find that balance sometimes. I watch so many journals and simply cannot keep up with them all. Sucky feeling falling so far behind.

Your tent is looking lovely btw! I need to give scrog a go sometime in the near future. I do something similar but with individual wires on branches to put them where I want them. More work than is probably needed. But it allows me to practice some bonsai wiring. Haaa haaa.

As for your environmental hurdles. That is such a tricky thing. I personally try to stick to a vpd chart and keep things where I want them. Only to minimize the stress on the plants. Not myself. I have more favorable ambient conditions than you though. So I can totally understand the frustration of having to work with what you got.

I would say get another fan to push more air around. Sounds like your exhaust fan needs to be working overtime though! Get that hot and humid air out. Your ambient temps and RH seem perfect for flowering in the garage as is without the tent!

 

[Renaissance Man]

RM! All caught up! Man...set the watch button on page one and then haven't been around since. Sorry about that but as you said...life can get in the way. I've been inconsistent at best around here for quite some time. Hard to find that balance sometimes. I watch so many journals and simply cannot keep up with them all. Sucky feeling falling so far behind.

Hey @BakedARea! I love this site, I just don't have the time to be on it as much as I'd like. There's a wealth of information here and it sucks having to pick and choose what to read on this site when there is so many good journals going on.

Your tent is looking lovely btw! I need to give scrog a go sometime in the near future. I do something similar but with individual wires on branches to put them where I want them. More work than is probably needed. But it allows me to practice some bonsai wiring. Haaa haaa.

It's funny you say that. Now that I've done both, I think I'd rather go back to the wires holding down the plant - bonsai style. The watering is annoying for me because I don't have access to the back. The plants are less manicured in the back and is difficult to defoliate and make way for air/light going through. The net needs to have much smaller squares. I suppose if I had that, it would make it slightly better. Watering is kind of a pain for me too without having to go and buy a new watering spray can gun or whatever you call those things.

As for your environmental hurdles. That is such a tricky thing. I personally try to stick to a vpd chart and keep things where I want them. Only to minimize the stress on the plants. Not myself. I have more favorable ambient conditions than you though. So I can totally understand the frustration of having to work with what you got.

Yeah, I've been following the VPD chart and because it gets so hot, I actually had to increase the humidity. So I had to turn my fan off from low and that seemed to help. Dealing with heat is not easy, but I suppose dealing with cold would be the same problem more or less.

 

[BakedARea]

I think I'd rather go back to the wires holding down the plant - bonsai style. The watering is annoying for me because I don't have access to the back. The plants are less manicured in the back and is difficult to defoliate and make way for air/light going through.

One of the reasons I haven't don't the scrog thing is it minimizes the ability to get in there to turn containers or move them around easily. I like that flexibility.

I ended up getting myself a battery powered sprayer. So much better for me! It has slowed me down and given the plants a more even/balanced drench. Next step is to get an automated drip system setup.

 

[InTheShed]

They're looking good but I'm with Krissi about getting them off the trays onto baking racks or something. Air underneath is much better, and it's never a good idea to let your plants suck up any runoff, especially with synthetic nutes.

Have a good trip!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Day 18 of flower:

It is an astounding 106 degrees inside the tent but the humidity is right and it fits the VPD chart. The Critical Cure pistils have started turning from white but Gorilla is still pretty white.

I have propped up the pots on little wood blocks to lift off the tray so it is not soaking in water. All else is looking good.

Critical Cure CBD

Gorilla Zkittlez Monstercrop

 

[Renaissance Man]

I did forget to mention that I was away last weekend and came home to almost a disaster. I should have taken a picture but I was way too panicked on giving water. I gave it a very big soak on Friday afternoon just hoping it would make it to Monday night. It barely did. One more day and they would have been toast. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure I shocked it enough to turn into a hermie. I can only hope not...

Tuesday morning, they looked good and by the evening, all was well. Managing this heat is something else, though. Constantly looking in the tent. Not much else I can do. I'm not about to go buy an A/C unit. We'll see how it goes. Got about 40 more days.