Grape OG x Chocolate Diesel, 1st Seed Grow - Mars Hydro Cup

I thought I'd give grow journal-ing a shot. This is my third grow, my first time popping seeds. I'm growing four Grape OG x Chocolate Diesel by Useful Seeds. I plan on trying cloning once these are big enough.

I'm germinating and going through the solo cup phase in a small area next to my tent. My plan is to clone and veg here while other plants flower in the tent. The light here is a Mars II 400 by Mars Hydro (150 actual watts).



The four seeds were planted in Fox Farms Happy Frog soil, no other amendments. I used a dome and a heating mat. I removed the mat once all seeds had sprouted. Three of the seeds had sprouted in two days, the other appeared on the third. I'm keeping them domed for now.

Now that they are all started today is Day 1.



Wish me luck! All comments are welcome.

Day 2. So far so good

Looking good as far as I can tell on day 4.

I shuffled their arrangement a bit. Seemed like a good idea. I was afraid #1 was looking a bit stretchy, so I lowered the light to 20". I've also been leaving the dome off and letting a fan blow on them for around 20 minutes at a time. Today I started using Recharge for the first time. Each plant got 2 ounces of a Recharge solution.

Day 7.

Roots have started showing at the bottom of 2 of the cups. One of them looks fuzzy. I think it's hairs, but I've never dealt with roots or seeds before.

No food yet, just misting a couple of times a day with 6.5 ph water.

Day 11.

Chugging along. #4 is the runt, keeps wanting to droop. Watered today with dechlorinated tap water @ 6.5 ph. Also gave them another dose of Recharge.

Day 15

Transplant day. I hate transplanting, makes me nervous. First time transplanting something this small. #3 went first. Things started collapsing as I removed it from the solo cup. I think I got it in the new hole ok, but it gave an ugly, loose flop over after transplanting. It has been stabilized with more soil. Each of the remaining three went progressively easier.

The plants are now in a 4x4 tent under a Mars Hydro TS3000. Moving to a 18/6 light schedule in the morning. The soil is a mix of FFHF, FFOF, perlite, and worm castings. I dusted the roots and the transplant hole with Recharge. I put them in 1.7 gal plastic post. I thought I'd make them smart pots by drilling lots of holes. I stopped after doing the first one. Too much work for probably not enough reward. These are not the final pots. The runt #4 went into the "smart" pot. They were given plain water @ 6.3 ph.

I'm pretty sure the spots on the leaves are from my sloppy misting bottle work



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 17

The plants are loving the big light + Recharge combo. All four are looking great. Even #4 is looking much better.

I lowered the light to around 26". Things are getting warm with the light on, 88F. I'm going to try cooling my basement down.




#1 #2 #3 #4

Yesterday was day 20.

Lots of growth. I think it'll be time to top soon. Gave them pH'd water and Recharge.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 23

#3 is growing faster than the rest, 5 good nodes, 6th showing. I topped her just above the 4th node. The other 3 aren't quite there yet.

Going to follow along!

I have a few of Useful’s strains in the seed stash that I haven’t had a chance to run yet. Excited to see how the Grape OG x Choc. Diesel turns out.

Day 26

Things have started looking a little rough. There are a few dry patches on some leaves, some others are showing a bit of burn on the tips. The humidity in the tent has been really low, drops below 40% when the lights are on. I had been trying to help it along with a small humidifier, but I wasn't running it high enough, I guess. After a little searching I now know what a Vapor Pressure Deficit chart is. According to the chart , with my temp at 77, I should be at 65% minimum. I am now running two small humidifiers on high while the lights are on. This gets me to 60%. I hope that takes care of the issues I'm seeing.

The pots finally felt light enough to water today. Plain water @ 6.5ph plus some recharge. I haven't topped the other two plants yet, waiting for a solid 6th node.



#1 is showing the most low rh issues

#2 #3 #4

Day 26 part 2

A friend with loads of experience came by today. We decided to remove most of the large leaves. It really opened up the lower nodes. Plants 2 and 3 were topped a few days ago. We went ahead and FIMd plants 1 and 4. It will interesting to see the differences.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 34

The ladies finally felt light enough to water yesterday. I gave them a bit of CalMag this time. I also hit them with Recharge again. I pulled off several fan leaves and started tying branches down. Since the last update I have also done more topping. #4 is the only one that still has not been topped. These were taken yesterday:



#1 #2 #3 #4


I was surprised when I opened the tent this evening. It's amazing how fast they fill back in. I'll have to transplant soon.

Day 36

Transplanted last night into FFOF soil. Added some perlite, no other amendments. Getting the dirt into a 5 gallon fabric pot with a 1.7 gallon plastic pot inside was a pain in the ass. Narrow gap between the two pots. Everything got good and wet. I gave them CalMag again. I also had some Tarantula and Piranha from Advanced Nutrients on hand. I gave the plants a dose of both. I also dusted the hole and the root ball with Recharge. Should be loads of good bennies in the soil now.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 48

I've been slacking on keeping the journal updated. My bad.

I'm seeing how growing seeds is different than growing clones. My first two runs were all clones, all the plants got the same treatment, watered and fed on the same schedule. These four are all reacting differently. You could see in my last post that #1 and #4 were showing signs of yellowing. That has gotten worse. I know my ph is good, so I'm looking for other answers. Typically my problem is overwatering. That is probably the case here. They were transplanted on day 35. They got soaked then. I watered again on day 41. Each pot got 1 gallon of water. I think that was too much, it's taking forever to dry out. In the last couple of days #2 has gotten pretty dry, with #3 very close behind. Those two are doing the best so far. I gave them each .5 gal with CalMag, Fox Farms Grow Big, Liquid Karma, and Recharge on day 47. #1 and #4 were really looking yellow this morning. Really close to dry enough. I gave them the same .5 gallon mix as the others, with some FF Big Bloom added to boost the N. I also decided to try Liquid Karma as a foliar spray. Maybe I'm overcorrecting. It wouldn't be the first time. We'll see.

I have also stopped topping the ladies. All four should have plenty of tops now. I am using some LST to spread the branches out.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 61

It still amazes me how different these four seeds from the same strain are so different. Things are chugging along. I had been trying to rely on the soil for nutes, but that clearly wasn't working. Things have improved since I started feeding them. Plants 1 and 4 are still much slower than 2 and 3, but there is new growth and it looks much better. I need to lower the trellis net and start bending the big branches around, but I'm waiting until I take clones. This will be another new process for me, so I'm dragging my feet a bit. I don't think I'll take clones from 1 and 4, the other two are doing so much better.

No changes to the food given, same as in my previous post.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Day 79

R.I.P. plants 1 and 4.

Somewhere along the way I did something wrong with those two and they never recovered. Barely any growth, took forever to dry out, yellowing and curling. They have been removed from the tent. I'm an absolute novice, I'm sure I mistreated them. The other two plants have been doing great. Well enough that they are just about filling the tent now that I have them properly trellised. Now that they are spread out I'm going to let the fill in a bit before I finally take clones and flip.

So long 1 & 4



2 & 3 stretched out

Why did you get rid of 2 plants ?

Trickyticky said:

Why did you get rid of 2 plants ?

Click to expand...

79 days from seed and they were barely growing, leaves were dying, it was taking 6 days for them to use a half a gallon of water. The other two were thriving. It made more sense to sacrifice the two that I had messed up and to spread out the other two. Also, I only have one tent and the two big ones need to flip soon. I don't have a spot to try rehabbing the bum ones. I have no reason to doubt the genetics, I'm sure I did something, I just don't know what it was.

Ah right .
Do you think it might of been as simple as them other 2 might of just been more hungry er than the other 2 ya kept . Just because they the same strain Dosnt mean they eat all the same portions of food . Some more than others .