First timer: GDP 2009

Well my first time grow; I've been smoking for about 4 years now and have been wanting to grow for about three. I just never had anywhere respectively to do so. I've been meaning to post this 3 weeks ago when I began but I just haven't gotten around to it until now.

Equipment:

HomeBOX XL Seconds
Sunleaves Pioneer Jr VII
Sunleaves BLOOM Bulbs
Sunleaves 6" inline fan
Sunleaves Air Pump w/ two air-stones
A vertical osillating fan from Wal-Mart
Hydrom/Therm Display
Timer

Nutes:
FoxFarm - Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom
General Hydroponics - Diamond Nector


I chose to go with the Pioneer lighting because I could save money with electricity and it would be less work/money to keep my grow tent ventilated well.

I took a trip to San Francisco and went by the dispensary called Sanctuary, I've always thought their clones looked very healthy. I picked up four GDP clones on 08/10/09.

August 11, 2009



August 12, 2009


Osilatting fan and my reservoir, and air-pump.





August 18, 2009

I was given two clones by someone and they didn't look so good, especially compared to mine. Being a newbie I figured maybe they just need time under the light.



August 19, 2009

You can see the difference in the given clone and my originals. The leaves just drooped and drooped.



The yellow leaf was there before this date, and before the new clones were introduced. My local hydro store advised me to flush all my clones with water which I did and it made a big difference.



A closer picture of that droopy clone.



August 25, 2009

The day after this I removed the two clones that I was given. One didn't grow at all and a leaf turned completely greyish brown. The other still drooped and had yellow dots on one leaf like spider-mites (lucky me).



I also began to notice curling on the leaves of my healthy clones. The local hydro store said it's most likely a deficiency, but he said he also read somewhere it can be a sign of spider-mites.







August 27, 2009

As I said at this point I removed those two mistakes so now just four originals remain (with curling issues).





This leaf I took into the store on August 28th. I took another curling leaf from a different plant and one healthy looking leaf from another. Well they checked it out in the scope and had tons of spider-mite eggs...shitty.









Overall it's going fairly well aside from bastard spider-mites. I purchased Doktor Doom and I fumigated on the 28th, and will continue to do so once a week for 5 weeks. I'm fairly sure this will solve my problem, as I think I caught this quickly. I just checked on the plants today and they look healthy aside from curling. Don't really see any leaves getting attacked (looking yellow or spotting).

Thanks to anyone who as checked out this entire post! I've been meaning to get this all up, and almost 4 weeks in now so thats why this so damn long.

Well almost at 5 weeks flower now so here's a major update.

October 4, 2009







October 7, 2009





October 9, 2009



October 14, 2009







October 16, 2009

I made a pretty large mistake with my plants. On this date I watered them. But watering them posed somewhat of a challenge do to location.









October 23, 2009

This is a combination of dead leaves from all four plants. Not sure if this amount of dead leaves is normal, maybe someone with experience can chime in and let me know.





I wanted to water on this day, however I needed more RO water and needed to change my nutrient mixture. I just decided to do that following day, but it turned into two days later.





October 25, 2009

So as I said above, I didn't get to water my plants until this day, which is 9 days without water. I learned a lesson, and will always be sure to water with plain water at the least if I am put in that situation again.



I had placed a plate of rice to try and help the humidity. I didn't have an exhaust fan at this point, so I feel it was hot, and lack of water made them feel like shit. Was typically 80-82 degrees in the tent, with about 50% humidity.







October 26, 2009

Well yesterday I did feed the plants. And they definitely look better as the leaves are not drooping as much. However I do have a good amount of yellow leaves now, but overall the plant seems like it can recover.







Also you may notice in my pictures I added a couple CFL's into my grow space, just to try and give the lower leaves a bit more light. I made sure to get 2700k for flower.

October 28, 2009

Finally got the exhaust fan. It is the exact same CFM (160) as my intake, so no negative pressure. I really should have gotten it sooner, but gotten learn from mistakes. It keeps my humidity and temperature at a perfect setting, typically around 40% humidity, and 73-75 degrees.





Plants seem to be recovering pretty well. Still some odd-ball leaves but overall looks fairly healthy.



I fed the plants on this day. I added Humbolt Honey, sweetener, and plan to use it the rest of flower. I also have gotten some addition things to help with flowering. I was given some Gravitity, and I purchased, House & Garden Shooting Powder, Snow Storm, and the sweetener.

I will make sure to give at least half fertilizer when I begin applying the Gravitity.