Spider Farmer 2x4 2000w Complete kit w Extras!! 1st grow...epic fail!! gsc/blue-d/sour-d....

Wow where to began.... There's going to be some catching up to do because I've been thinking about doing a grow journal, but I was scary lol. I knew I didn't know what I was doing since this was my first time and I'm one of those scientific mofo's...as in I gotta read about everything obsessively before I began something, and constantly while I'm doing something. It works great at work as a software engineer..but when it comes to growing marijuana sometimes too much information is a bad thing. I feel like there's two kinds of newbie growers on these types of forums, one's that try and go as cheap as possible and one's that go overboard with equipment and supplies. You'll figure out which type I am real quickly here....
So Where to began? I smoke a lot of medical tree, period and it gets expensive, so I bought a 2x4 grow tent from spider farmer with the 2000w (202w actual draw) LED and complete kit just south of $600 bucks on Amazon. I also bought a premade closet 2 buckets with a reservoir from eBay for 200 bucks that was straight trash . I don't want to put the dude on blast (rootbox lol) but his products r garbage. I ended up just going with 4 home depot buckets . I also bought a extra 100 watt LED from a no name brand, a Medea portable Ac unit 8000 btu rated for 120 (sq ft) i use it for 8....4 6 in round expensive af air stones like 35 bucks each and 2 35 watt air pumps. The initial setup had 35 watts air pump for 2 5-gallon bucks and the water boiled looked great.
I ordered the clones and strain-bank. My initial plan was to buy 3 plants and pay 50 bucks to overnight them. I wanted to get one each of 3 of my favorite strains, yeah I know that was stupid now but hey we all gotta live once. I got once indica (gsc) one hybrid (blue-dream) and one sativa (sour-d). It all started so wonderful, like Day 1, then it all went to shit. Because I'm like a month and a half behind I will catch you guys up don't worry. We will begin here from Feb 1st...

One of the first things I realized is that the AC is way too overpowered for the small grow tent, with Temperature swings of 20 plus degrees. Going to have to figure out what to do but other than that I'm using General HydroPonics 3 parts Flora series nutrients with cal-mag and silicon. I lot of crazy action happened I changed the water out because I had the nutrient level too high and the plants began looking worse and worse
Feb 2nd

Feb 6rd I actually got 2 free clones ordered from strain bank because 2 of them looked kinda shitty when they arrived so now I have a extra blue dream and GSC coming in the mail...I didn't know what was wrong. But I put the sour D in dirt because I didn't have space and all the plants look droppy and terrible

I kinda wanna skip the drama since i'm a month into it so i'll tell you what happened....After a month of almost no growth in the hydro and decided to pull them up and behold root rot, I had done everything perfect...including follow the instructions that said keep the water level at the bottom of the new pot but i thought i had to keep the rockwool covered up so it didn't grow algae...TL;DR anyways I put them in dirt on March 1st and I will Re-direct you to March 4st. Note on the AC, I got the temperature swings down, there's a setting called follow me that actually tracks the temperature of the remote and if I turn the AC on AUTO leave the remote in there I can keep temps between 75-80 with tons of air.

March 5th..
Now That I'm in Dirt the story gets interesting-er. I couldn't quite give up on Hydro because you know I have all this equipment so I put the smallest one which you see sitting in a red pot back into a smaller 1-gallon old mop bucket because I wouldn't have had space for anything larger than that. I know what I did wrong so I'm going to keep the water level much lower. I'm worried at this point that the sour Diesel Is going to out grow the other plants, I'm vigorously filming and holding down new growth with heavy paper clips in an effort to give the other plants a chance to catch up.
Just to label them the Largest is the Sour D it's a month and 5 days old in the dirt the rest or the same age..but they basically restarted after having root rot. The long curved one is the blue dream like a L and the arch shaped one is the GSC the tiny pushy one by the temperature gauge is the other blue dream and the one back in Hydro is the GSC. My plants look crazy because when you keep fimming a sick plants the bush up like crazy!!!!!

March 6th...
Temperature is a steady 75-80, on 24-hour lights and humidity fluctuates between 40-65 percent. I apologize from grammar errors but I'm doing this in-between working and watching the kid so forgive me... The Sour D is just growing out of control, I'm certain I over fimm'ed it but i needed to keep it smaller over a month and at least I did that...I'm sure i'm cut like 20 clones off of it and loose 10 again it's my first time for everything. I added the 2nd light it looks good so I have 300 actual draw LED lights or so. I'm using 2/3rds of my tent because of the AC unit but my plan is to put the scrog net 3 inches above the AC unit and add another 100 watt LED for that corner, that way I'll have like 50 watts per square foot or something like that. I'm gonna try and manage the sour D since I know that has a 3 month flower time, try and keep the GSC in the front sine it's only 2 months and the Blue dream should be in between...I don't know but it's what I've read. Has anybody grown these strains? I feel like if I wait 3 more weeks for the other plants to catch up this sour D will be uncontrollable......

March 7th.....
The hydro-one is looking better I think It's been 3 days or so but I learned from my mistakes...also I'm actually in the future writing this about a date so I already know what's gonna happen...in the next 5 days lol. Shit is straight Bush central like if you like Fat bushes I think you are going to be in for a treat. You know I'm wondering since I have probably an over-abundance of air Flow with that AC-Unit in Tent. (Side Note: I keep the bottom flap open so the AC unit can suck in air and that thing collects dust and dog hair like a freaking Dryer!!! I'm always cleaning that thing off) I have one 35 watt pump and 6 inch small bubble air stone for a one gallon bucket!!! which is only just under half full so that water boils it's a cool 66.6 degrees in there but with the amount of air I got it could be 90 and I'd be ok...but I won't let it get there but I'm just saying.
I'm getting some light smell. I guess I should tell you..I've been giving the sour d about 450PPM mix of my Hydro Nutes...I used Plan Fox Farm OF for the first month. Anything more 550PPM and she doesn't like it and I see reactions I saw one leaf start to crow when I was at 650 so I flushed with plain water and say below 450 from now on. The other plants are at around 300PPM and I keep my PH precisely at 6.5 I'm using the H and M 35 dollar PH and TDS/EC meters which is a far cry and much better experience then I was having with those 10 dollar pens...fuck those it's a waste of money and time when your ph pen is jumping from 4.0 to 9.9 and it's not even in the water!!
You see the Bush Monster the Sour D is becoming!!! I'm going to do nothing but let it grow out and gradually release the clips as the other plants get larger. It's just such a great plant the stem is like make 2 inches high and then bent at a hard 90 degrees so the plant goes from the middle of the pot to the side. I'm going to need some ideas and help on how to shape this plant. And as I know I'll have enough light...I'd buy fucking floor lights if I needed it....money is no Object {} I spend so much on medication that this little expense is peanuts...
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For such a small tent you don't need an AC at all.

Get a 6" exhaust fan and temp Control it with a sonoff.

Those plants are stunted in growth, I'd consider starting some new plants in the meantime, I wouldn't be surprised if they caught up and surpassed these ones.

You are using LED so you want to let your tent get hot 80*F or 27*C for healthy growth.

I think the combination of cool temperatures and the root rot has stunted the plants growth. Once you get your temps up and bit I think you'll find more success.

March 9th....
@MidnightSun72 you are right...but I over-planned and because I initially was doing hydro with 4 buckets I needed to keep the entire tent cool since I couldn't afford 4 separate chillers....And now that I have it installed and purchased I may as well use it. The temperature is between 73-80 all day now now more swings then that and strangely that one hydro since it's behind all that dirt manages to stay about 10 degrees cooler then the tent on average...Without the AC unit it would 85+ in there... about 80 without the extra light and i'm still going to ADD one. I have a exaust fan that came with my tent going full plants also going out into my carbon filter...right now i'm exhausting the AC into the room but it's starting to get warm so I'm putting it out the window

The Hydro I forgot to mention is kept at a ph of 5.5 in the morning and because it's so small it shoots up to 6.6. by the next day. The PPM is 420 or so I had some Eden Gardens Myco for hydro that I added and some hydro guard. I saw my first root and it's only been 4 or 5 days which is a huge improvement over last time when I didn't see my first root for 3 weeks!!!! I mean I know why now but still. The water is low enough and the air pump so powerful that it creates almost an areoponic area the six inches below the net pot. I'm seeing the leaves perk up.

I wish I would have taken Pictures but the Larger Blue Dream was showing what looked like some cal-mag def...which was kinda weird but I folier sprayed with 500PPM solution of Cal-Mag and it green right up.

March 10th...

Doing b4 and afters sour D Feb 14, march 10th

March 10th
Blue-Dream Feb 26th
.then(=> March 4rd )
.then(=> March 10th)

This one is doing great. Wow what a difference healthy roots make....

March 10...
GSC Feb-23
.then(=>March 5th)
.then(=>March 10th)
So I wish I would have thought to take Pictures of the roots...this is the only one that was doing kinda alright. I mean not great but at least it was growing and I could see roots...It had maybe 7 5 inch roots coming from the side of the poot into the water but it was doing what it should have been doing after a month in Veg....so I pulled the plug and it's growing lovely now. I got it bent Like an Arch because I'm trying to bush it out in a very short period of time.

March 10...
b4 and after
2nd blue Dream lil bush-top
Blue Dream #2 feb-26th
.then(=>March 5th) 4 days in dirt
.then(=>March 10th) 10 days in dirt

Doesn't look as big as her sister but it was a longer clone, to begin with . But it's coming along I'm going to have to let it grow out so I can work with the branches......I really messed up i think with the topping/fimmig too/early but then they are bushy....

Running your tent hotter will help with the calm the calcium deficiency down. Try to work out what your VPD is and see if you are in a Good range, I doubt it.
And I understand you spent money on an AC blah blah. You are spending 1000+ watts for 12h a day on AC minimum when a 100W inline fan and has the added benefit of being fresh CO2 into the grow area constantly.

March 11....

Things are looking great. I water the Sour D about every other day and the other plants about every 2 days give or take. I don't water till run off or anything close to that Maybe a quart for the smaller plants and a quart and a half for the Sour-D. I water when the topsoil is dry and if i stick my finger down the hole is feels kinda dry....I wont over water that's for damn sure.... I'm at about 400PPM and the nutes self PH to about 6.5 but I still check and then plan water once a week with daily foliar sprays of 450PPM cal-mag oh yea I use some super thrive and myco randomly.
I don't check the ph for the cal-mag foliar spray I thought I read somewhere that it absorbs better closer to 7..is there any truth to that?

The Hydro is doing great IMO. I now see two separate roots coming out the bottom of the net pot about 2 inches each or so and I have a huge 8-inch net pot...it's only been a week so that's progress and I can clearly see daily growth and the leafs don't look drowned so there's that.

As you can see that Blue Dream in the back where the temperature Guage is looks like the Sour D did 12 days ago!!!

MidnightSun72 said:

Running your tent hotter will help with the calm the calcium deficiency down. Try to work out what your VPD is and see if you are in a Good range, I doubt it.
And I understand you spent money on an AC blah blah. You are spending 1000+ watts for 12h a day on AC minimum when a 100W inline fan and has the added benefit of being fresh CO2 into the grow area constantly.

Click to expand...

Can I use both? I still have one Hydro in there that I need to manage the temperature or should I just say screw it and let whatever happens happens? I also Want to be abe to drop the temp when I'm in flower and if I keep the AC in there I have the ability to use the Dehumid feature and have it 65 degrees and bone dry the last two weeks of flower
So my 2nd light is a GrowStar which uses the Samsung driver?? I can't remember but whatever it's cool

I've included my Fan and carbon Filter..... I use two mini ultra-sonic misters to manage humidity now and I'm sure once they are bigger they will produce their own humidity.....

March 12th....Now you guys are up to Date...I'd appreciate Suggestions, Improvements, Ideas, or just plan conversation.
I'm going to cut clones of the sour D maybe this week and I'll have to wait a week or so for the other ones...I might not be able to get any of the GSC. How many tops is too many???? I know there's a 1000 threads titled that and I know a lot has to do with each person's individual setup and the like, BUT assuming I'll have zero problems with Air Flow and..it's pretty obvious that the buds that don't get light need to go...But let's assume I could just add another light to the floor maybe 200w of strip LED or T-5 to supplement.... (4 45w strips). I just basically need the plants to get above the AC unit...which is about 16 inches above the pot, maybe I'll measure it but currently the lights are 16 inches away so yea about that distance...

The Sour-D is just wait I was expecting from Hydro last month.....It's certainly wide now I'm going to let it grow up. It's got some side branches almost a foot long. It's

For smell control it's much better to have the carbon filter in the tent with the fan exhausting out. The way you have it there is not very effective for smell control, and makes for a positive pressure in the tent. Negative pressure makes sure no smell escapes and a good fresh air supply gets sucked in through the zippers etc.

As far as the AC you are using it to cool the water? You can't really have it both ways. Unless you add a radiant heat source in there maybe. But this is counterproductive but you need to get to it leaf surface temp so the transpiration rates are correct. These transpiration rates are important because they kind of dictate how much water and thus nutrients the plant will pull up.

Think of plants like a water pump pushing the water from the roots up through the leaves

MidnightSun72 said:

Running your tent hotter will help with the calm the calcium deficiency down. Try to work out what your VPD is and see if you are in a Good range, I doubt it.
And I understand you spent money on an AC blah blah. You are spending 1000+ watts for 12h a day on AC minimum when a 100W inline fan and has the added benefit of being fresh CO2 into the grow area constantly.

Click to expand...

What is VDP?

hydroScript.js said:

What is VDP?

Click to expand...