Twentyeight.threefive's Grow Journal - 2nd grow

This will be my second ever grow and hope to improve on my yields since the first. I'm thinking of using this as an almost daily platform for me to keep track of what I did. If it bores you, I don't blame you, but if you are reading this feel free to comment at any point. I'm still a newbie and can always learn more.

I'm trying to emulate the style of grow done by Mr. Canucks Grow. I've read of failures and successes with this style so I want to give it another shot. I'm intrigued by and enjoy the simplistic method of the grow. So here we go.

Equipment:

Tent - 32"x32"x63" tent (from TopoGrow amazon kit)
Light - Spider Farmer SF-2000 LED Grow Light with Samsung Chips LM301B & Dimmable MeanWell Driver
Media - Mother Earth Coco Plus Perlite Mix
Fans - Honeywell HT-900 Super Turbo Table Fan, Holmes 8-inch Fan - Lil' Blizzard Oscillating Table Fan, Genesis 6-Inch Clip Convertible Table-Top & Clip Fan Two Quiet Speeds
Humidifiers - Honeywell HUL520W Mistmate Cool Mist Humidifier, Homech 6L Cool Mist Humidifiers Quiet Ultrasonic Humidifier
pH testers - Bluelab pH Pen for Soil, Coco, Rockwool, and Solution, Bluelab pH Pen Fully Waterproof Pocket Tester
Humidity Controller - Inkbird Humidity Controller IHC200 Humidistat
Heater Controller - BN-LINK Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller
Heater - AmazonBasics 500-Watt Ceramic Small Space Personal Mini Heater
Ducting - AC Infinity Flexible 4-Inch Aluminum Ducting, Heavy-Duty Four-Layer Protection (this stuff is great!)
Inline fan - AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T4, Quiet 4" Inline Duct Fan with Temperature Humidity Controller
Carbon filter - AC Infinity Air Carbon Filter 4" with Premium Australian Virgin Charcoal

Copied over from another name

Day 1 - 3/1/2020

Today was bean popping day. Hope they are all magical! Planted 2 of each strain.
With the size of my tent I can manage 3 plants, so the healthiest of each strain gets to stay in their nice home.

Strains are all Kera Classic: White Thunder, OG Kush, and Cherry Grapefruit.
Hoping for healthy lives and a bountiful harvest!

Mixed up 2 tbsp of Dr. Earth 4-4-4 and 1 tbsp of worm castings with the Mother Earth coco/perlite.
Dropped each seed into the coco/perlite mix and added a little bit of de-chlorinated un-pHed tap water. Not much to do other than keep them moist and wait to sprout!

Temperature: 78°F
RH: 60%
Lights: 24" from tops

Day 2 - 3/2/2020

Was actually running on the old cheap fan and filter until tonight. Finished installing the AC Infinity 4" inline fan and carbon filter.
This second grow is in a new location in the basement. Tonight was the wife's first look at the new setup since I set it up the other day and she was NOT happy lol. Looks like on Thursday everything is getting torn down and moved back to it's original home. Wish I had known this before I spent the time mounting the AC Infinity fan and the controller. Oh well. I actually like the other space better. Starting to wonder how or if I'll need to keep the seeds or seedlings (if they sprout by then) warm.

This is how my whole electrical setup turned out:




There's 2 loose cords but that was only because it was temporary. One was the new fan controller cord and the other is the heat sensor that I was always on during germination.

And the new fan that has to be take right back out:

Day 4 - 3/4/2020

Waiting for seeds to germinate and pop out of your medium is boring. While it's day 4 the seeds were started mid day on the 1st, so around 2pm or so they will have been in the coco for 3 full days. Nothing has popped up yet and it makes me anxious. Continuing to keep them moist, the tent warm and humid. Temperature is set to 78°F and RH is 60%. still.

Tomorrow the whole setup is getting broken down and moved, so it's going to be a full day of disassembly and installation. Last harvest of Blue Dream is going to keep me motivated and moving all day!

YAY! Came home and checked on the girls. 4/6 have started to sprout. Both OG Kush have refused to show their heads yet. I'll definitely give them a few more days and see what's going on. I had given a friend some seeds and his OG Kush didn't sprout either. Starting to wonder if they are all bad.

Day 5 - 3/5/2020

Phew... glad that is finally over. The tent and complete setup was torn down and reassembled like I had planned. It's exhausting, especially twice in a week.

Tent




Fan, heat, and humidity controls



AC Infinity exhaust fan was also re-mounted for better (straighter) airflow






And last but not least the seedlings are starting to come to life. OG Kush #2 broke ground but it's not looking too healthy. Waiting on OG Kush #1 to break ground. I'm not overly optimistic at either performing well at this point.

Day 6 - 3/6/2020

Morning - They are coming along. OG #1 didn't surface so i dug up a little coco to check it. The seed had barely cracked so no sign of a tap root. Pulled it out and started a Kera Northern Lights.

Night - Making sure the coco isn't drying out a few times a day, also gives me a chance to sneak peeks and check the water level of the humidifier in the tent.

CG #2 isn't looking so healthy, don't think it started to root properly, while OG #2 shed it's shell earlier and is starting to make progress. Pretty impressed with the White Thunder so far. They sprouted quickly and healthily.

Day 7 - 3/7/2020

So CG #2 didn't make it. It had sprouted a tap root but the bottom was stuck in part of the seed shell. The leaves just sat like that for the last few days and was starting to shrivel and darken off.






Sooo... threw my last CG seed in as a replacement. The unmarked spot is now new CG #2, sure it's almost 6 days behind the others, but I want to keep my options open!

But the rest look like they are off to a great start!

Day 8 - 3/8/2020

Today was Daylight Savings Time and I wasn't even thinking about my timer for the lights. I like my lights on at 5am so I can check on my girls before work. Just something I'll have to keep in the back of my head in the fall, unless I want my lights on at 4am then lol.

Got home from work and refilled the humidifiers which I do multiple times a day. I think I could get away with twice daily but I tend to worry that they'll run empty and the RH will drop.

Up to this point I've been lightly watering with non pHed de-chlorinated tap water through a tiny dropper that comes with the General Hydroponics pH up/down kit hahah! I decided it was time to get them some pHed water with a little CalMag. I added 2 ml of CalMag into about 3gal of water and pHed down to 6.1, and each got a complete watering almost to run-off. WT #2 actually got a little more water and a couple drops of run-off came out.

I think on my first grow I wasn't watering properly and the plants suffered as a result. I think the coco had completely dryed out about half way down the pot from lack of complete watering. This caused the lower layer to turn hydrophobic. I constantly had water run out the sides of my fabric pots so it makes sense now. All that coupled with starting the grow in their final containers and never up potting contributed to a low yield and stressed plants.

Here they are tonight:

Day 9 - 3/9/2020

Looking good so far, the White Thunder seems to be just thriving. The new NL #1 seed I noticed the tiniest bit stating to sprout and push it's way through the coco surface, although you can't see it in the photo yet. Hopefully the new CG #2 is right behind it. Coco is definitely still wet enough until at least I get home later tonight. I did shift the whole drip tray to the left, it's more centered under the light now.

Day 10 - 3/10/2020

Containers are still holding onto the water/moisture. Maybe ready for more tonight after they do some work today. Let's got NL #1, you got this, push, push, push! Lol.

WT #1



WT #2



CG #1



NL #1



OG #2

Let me start off by, holy shit I'm high. My Blue Dream was especially good in a super cleaned bowl, and a few Modelos. Most of the pots were ready for more water, so that's what they got tonight. Added to each plant at a pH of 6.2

My order of VIVOSUN 5-Pack 1 Gallon Heavy Duty Thickened Nonwoven Fabric Pots came in, after I finally decided to try fabric pots again. I think up-potting will make a tremendous difference. So when they are ready that's what they will be going into next.

I was thinking about the amount of photos I take earlier. Sometimes I'll take 3-4 pictures of the same thing. I do this because each one might have captured the moment a little different. Sometimes you can't notice the difference while flipping through your Gallery on your phone. It's not until you have the photos up on the computer where you can notice the subtle differences. Some might call it obsessive, but this allows me to share the best photo or photos in what I'm trying to express.

I also categorize and label all my photos. I realized at the end of my last grow that it's useful to me in the fact that, while not a time-lapse video, it shows the plants progress. If deficiencies start to show I can back track to when they were healthy and try to determine what changes they've experienced (ie: top dressing, waterings, teas). Anyways, I'm weird. Lol.

Anyways here's the gang tonight:

Day 11 - 3/11/2020

I love waking up to see my plants. Wish it was a little more humid down here in the basement, oh well more water in the humidifiers. Right now the RH in the basement is probably in the 20s, just making the humidifiers work that much harder. I think now that they have germinated and are true seedlings I'm going to start dropping the RH down very slowly for them to acclimate to something a little lower.

Current settings:
Temp = 77F
RH = 59%
Light = 24"

WT #2 and CG #2 in the back you could see were starting to dry out on the top soil. They were also lighter than the others so they got a little more to drink this morning.

Refilled the humidifier after work, super fun.

Looking close at the plants I've noticed some slight yellowing on the largest ones, WT#1, WT#2, and CG#1. First grow did the same thing early on, and starting to wonder what the issue is.

This is one of my Blue Dream from the first grow at 12 days in:




Also check out this weird ass growth on WT #1!




It's like one malformed leaf growing out of the top. We'll see where that goes...
You can see some of the yellowing starting on that one slightly.

Day 12 - 3/12/2020

Didn't get a change to update this morning, I was busy refilling humidifiers and getting a fresh 5 gal of water. Added about 4 ml of CalMag and let the air stones help de-chlorinate the water. It'll get pHed before added to any of the plants. Got some Great White Premium Mycorrhizae and was debating adding a little bit to these starter pots.

Also added yellow sticky traps to monitor for pests. I was sucessful in keeping them out last grow and hope it continues into this one.

Day 13 - 3/13/2020

I continued to let the coco dry out a little more until this morning. I decided to add the mycorrhizae, so a tiny bit was sprinkled on the coco. I mixed it into the topsoil and watered it in at a pH of 6.2. Some of the pots were a little more moist than the others due to mixed watering earlier, so I tried to even them all up with the watering. The Great White mycorrhizae directions say to mix into water, but think top dressing it will be fine as well. Hoping it'll help give them a boost.

Day 14 - 3/14/2020

Gah! One of the yellow sticky traps caught a bug! Fungus gnat? I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this situation. Air flow inside above the plants is fantastic, so nothing flying around. I also had a piece of 4" ducting running inside the bottom left hole in the tent as extra air intake. That got removed and closed up the hole.




Here's the gang:





Overall, looking pretty good other than the weird cone leaf on WT #1. Noticed a tiny brown spot on WT #2 on the top left side. The lights might be a little too close at 200W at full power. The dimmer is mounted on the bottom of the driver. I'm not removing it multiple times to adjust wattage., so it's staying at 200W. Lights got moved up to 30" and RH was dropped 1% to 58%.





Also noticed a tiny white spot on the top of OG #2's leaf:

Just tweaked some environment settings. T4 Cloudline series fan turned all the way up for more air exchange in and out of the tent.
With the fan maxed humidity is set to 50% RH but holding around 43% (humidifier inside the tent constantly on, but high exhaust keeping it lower then the setting). Temperatures are now variable between 74.4 and 77 max. Heat kicks on until 77 and then off, it's back on at 75 but drops down to the 74.4 before caching up. I feel like these are all in a great range now and best airflow possible.