First Grow - Big Bang 2 - 600w - 4 x 4 Tent - Co2

Hey everyone!! Welcome to my learning experience! I'll start off by saying that this is my very first grow and I'm very excited!

This is what I have so far as far as equipment (excluding seedling equipment):

3'11'' x 3'11'' x 6'7'' GrowLab Tent
600 Watt Hortilux HPS Light in an air cooled hood (not currently being cooled as heat hasn't been a problem yet)
(16) 3 Gallon Pots
Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil
Small Bag of Dolomite Lime (to use during flowering)
Dual action oscillating fan
Automatic Humidifier
Titan Atlas 2 Co2 Monitor/Controller
20lb Co2 Tank w/ regulator and "Co2 Rain" tubing weaved throughout top of tent
Cheap Humidity/Temp monitor from Walmart
Manual Light Controler (the kind with the tabs w/ up for on time and down for off, in fifteen minute increments) for ballast/light
600w Magnetic Ballast


And here is what I've done thus far fellas:


Germinated 12 seeds - 10 being "Big Bang 2", one being "TNT Kush", and finally, one being "Jamaican Dream".
ALL 12 GERMINATED from paper towel method on plates w/ plastic wrap over.
After taproots emerged (July 22), I planted them all root-down in "Sunshine Mix #4" and put them in "Solo" Cups (like the kind you see at parties, but blue).
They were placed in the tent with no light on a heating mat and kept moist w/ distilled water.

July 24 - Day 1
All but two seeds broke surface.
Light was turned on but kept about 3 ft above plants on an 18-6 cycle. Heating pad remained.
Temp 77F
RH 35%

July 26 - Day 2
Booster fan placed in the room as I had not had my pedestal fan yet and stems desperately needed some "movement" for strength. Seems very important.
Plants look beautiful!!
The two that didn't sprout (both Big Bang#2) are still not sprouting.
Introduced humidifier (just bought it)
Temp 78F
RH 50%

Pics as of July 26:



July 29 - Day 5
Heating Pad removed.
Light lowered to about 2 ft above I think.
Support added to two plants and oscillating fan added.
Temp: 79F
RH: 50%




August 1 - Day 8
Plants are much, much bigger. Man do they grow fast. Regretfully I didn't take pics. I say regretfully because the leaves are seeming to curl down, although there is no discoloration...I am, so far, gonna attribute this to over-watering as I had some purple stems earlier...

Transplanted into 3 gallon buckets with drainage holes. Just moistened the soil in the cup, turned upside down, gently shook out, and plopped directly into a hole made in the Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil. Did this with all soil retaining shape of cup as I didn't know if that was better vs breaking up the root zone?....
Upon pulling dirt from cup, I was amazed at how much root mass there was all around the bottom of the cup (all in only one week from sprout)
Gave transplants a good watering in their new home.

Will keep this updated as it goes.
Any experience on leaves curling down? Not the edges but the whole leaves. The "Jamaican Dream" also has some rust colored spots on one of its leave but I don't know if this is because it is one of its first two serrated leaves or what. Keep helping and I'll keep the pictures comin'!

Anybody? I'm gonna try and post pics today sometime.

Looks good. Be patient gathering an audience. As I've suggested to others make this journal for your own documentation of what you did and how it turned out. Others input that will trickle in later treat as frosting on the cake.

I want a photo update. We here on RIU adore pictures.

I wouldn't worry about slightly drooping leaves this early on. Generally it's a watering issue - when their small it's very hard to always have the correct moisture covering such a small root mass but it should ease up as they get larger.

Looks good! Keep the pics comin'!

August 4 - Day 11

Everything pretty much remaining the same (except watering less @ every two days, from now on, as compared to everyday like I was).
Will start Co2 enrichment soon. Forgot to add, this is going to be a sealed grow with no ventilation because I have the Co2.
Light is left on 24 hrs now. Hope it does it good?....
Temp: 82F
RH: 50%

Some August 4 pics:



The last pic shows what I was talking about with leaves curling down.

I will try and get more pics today for you guys

@Gastanker

I hope you're right
Helps me sleep better at night haha.

I will try and get a video of how my tent is set up and post that here soon. Along with a pic of the yellowing plant and the rusty-leaved one.

August 8 - Day 14

Introduced Co2 on August 5 - Co2 remaining at 1500 ppm.
Completely closed up the tent now.
Big Bang 2 - 4" to 5"
TNT Kush - 7"
Jamaican Dream - 4.5"

Plants are growing fast. Thinking about lsting the TNT Kush so to keep it level with the rest..

Will post pics later today probably...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention -
Mid Light-cycle:
Temp: 94F RH: 50%

PICS!!

August 5 - Day 12


Big Bang 2
Small Big Bang 2
Jamaican Dream
TNT Kush

August 8 - Day 15
The second one in from the right on the top is the TNT Kush. The second one in from the right, second one down, is the Jamaican Dream. To the left of the Jamaican Dream is a Big Bang 2 (all the rest are actually) and is probably my favorite of the Big Bang 2 so far. These Big Bangs look like they are going to bush out quite a bit.



Am considering whether to just top the TNT rather than LST because those stems are pretty thick. I wonder if I should wait a bit longer to top it...or...


Also, I wonder if it would pay to start feeding the plants Pura Vida BLOOM organic nutrients now and trying to get a good idea of the best time to initiate flowering..

August 15 - Day 22

Yesturday I decided to check the PH levels by making a slurry. The PH was a low 5.6 on average.

So, I decided to add some lime to the top of the soil. About 1.5 table spoons each (found at http://www.homedepot.com/buy/outdoors/garden-center/espoma/garden-lime-5-lb-70715.html).
I also put a bit of baking soda in the gallon for watering.
The PH of the runoff of the first watering was extremely high at ~8!!
I figured this must be from the powder from the lime because it was the first watering with the lime on top.

I decided to just give it a day to "balance" out. My theory was (hopefully) that the 5.6 PH of the soil and the 8 PH of the runoff would equal out to the middle around 6.8.

Well....

Today I opened the tent to look at my babies and there were ORANGE and RED SPOTS on a lot of the plants!! The TNT Kush is unaffected and is quickly becoming my favorite plant. Very resilient. The Big Bang 2s, however, are not liking something.

I took two slurry tests. Both from spotted plants. The ph was about 7.5.
I put a very very small splash of vinegar in a gallon of water and used that today to water.

Any experience/reasons to this? Is it a known thing for high PH? Or does it look like a few things...or bugs..?

Someone please help because they were doing fairly well I think for a first grow!!


Pics of spots:



On a positive note, I raised all plants but the TNT Kush to make a more even canopy!

Other Pics:

Also, optimal time to start flowering? If I wait too much longer would they be too crowded?

More pics. On right is TNT Kush

I go big and do 6-8 Weeks vegg,but i have no limits.Are they all Female? IMO you can see it better but 6 plants would be the very max.Choice you gonna have make go big or do little plants and flower now.I like to flower at about 2.5ft -3 and just do 4plants and get 2zips per than mess with a zip a piece,my 2cents.

looking great!

August 18 - Day 25. Flowering Day 2


I switched to a 12-12 light schedule yesterday.

Humidity/Fungus

The humidity has been getting a bit out of control, and when I say "a bit" I mean that my RH was reading a high of 95%!! Wow.
This only makes me more confident that the death spots from hell is/are fungus.
I purchased a fungicide two days ago because I thought that is what the spots probably were and have been spraying them head to toe with it since.
It seems the fungus (if it is indeed fungus) is dying and taking the plant matter with it where it is on the plant. Not too worried then as long as it doesn't keep spreading.

Yesterday, to help prevent more fungus, I opened up the tent to let the humidity balance until I can get a dehumidifier in there (which is proving difficult due to current $$ situations).
Therefore I turned the Co2 monitor/tank off for now.
Good thing it's in a low level of the house, where Co2 naturally pools - being heavier than oxygen.
The super high humidity, I believe, is due to condensation from the following phenomenons:

1. The space outside the tent hovers between 60-68F
2. The Co2 enters the tent through a "rain" system intertwined throughout the top of the tent (tubing with tiny holes in it)

So... cold room, and pressurized Co2 is naturally cold...

3. The tent, internally, is kept around 93Fish to maximize utilization of Co2 by plants

When hot and cold meet on opposite ends of a material, the warmer side is where water forms (think cold beverages on a hot day).
This is what is going on in my tent because the ceiling and top couple of inches constantly is dotted with moisture droplets.
When I raise my light for watering, the ceiling decides it will start raining.
This wasn't seen as a huge problem at first because I thought, "it must have gotten the moisture internally so, if anything, it is just putting it back".
So it seems water may either be coming from the Co2 or it just pulls through almost any material into the heat where it condenses, or both, or some phenomenon unknown to me so far.

So that's that for now.

PH

I have been trying to figure out what to do about this for a few days now, but with no experience in this matter I am quite clueless on the safest way to go about correcting this.

Yesterday I did 3 slurry tests. 7.7, 7.1, and 7.5

I am now wondering what to do because four days ago I added about 1 1/2 Tbl spoons of Espoma dolomite lime to each pot.
Should I just continue watering (I use RO water) and wait for things to "balance out"?
Should I flush them and then start feeding with Pura Vida?


Recent pics

Left plant: Big Bang 2 Right plant: TNT Kush


Close ups of TNT Kush



Whole grow floor (sorry about the HPS)



Clones

Two days ago I set up a "Turbo Klone" machine
Above it there is a fixture that holds up to four 24" T5 HO bulbs
Right now there is only one bulb in use (and it is still pretty bright)


I took:

1 TNT Kush Clipping
1 Jamaican Dream Clipping
2 Big Bang #2 Clippings (whichever one of those produces better; their clipping while be kept for clone production)

My plan is to use the clones to produce a mother of each plant, from which to make multiple clones for my next project.

Here is a pic on the day I took them:


And here is a pic from yesterday:


The aeroponic solution is a ratio of 15ml:1gallon - Clonex/RO water
I wish I had a humidity dome for this unit but I think they will be fine? Just might take longer? I also have a seedling heat pad under the reservoir.


Thanks for following. Comments, opinions, and advice are welcome and appreciated!

IMO id stop the Co2 you just have 2 plants dont really think your gonna see alot of diff.Also should heed off your other problems,my 2 cents

SOMEBEECH said:

IMO id stop the Co2 you just have 2 plants dont really think your gonna see alot of diff.Also should heed off your other problems,my 2 cents

Click to expand...

Hey somebeech, glad to have ya on here!
Those pics with the two plants are actually just to show comparison between two strains.
I have ten plants and use the Co2 to eliminate external venting (in our out).

August 24 - Day 31. Flowering Day 8


Humidity/Fungus


All in check. Installed a dehumidifier..at first temps were too high so I constructed a box to go over the heat output of the dehumidifier with a hole cut in it for a 6 inch duct. WORKS GREAT!
Fungus is completely gone!!


PH

Despite my previous mistakes of using baking soda, etc, the ph is holding well at about 6.8


Clones

I took two more clones - one more big bang #2 and one more TNT Kush. The original clones had started rooting well and my Jamaican Dream I already have planted in soil.



CAN I use FFOF for clones or is it too hot nutrient speaking??


Despite all this seemingly great news, it seems there are still some problems present. Here are some pics:





Entire crop:




Jamaican Dream



---Weird phenomenon??


TNT Kush




The TNT Kush, the best Big Bang 2, and the Jamaican Dream (in that order)



Any ideas on what is causing the problems shown in pictures? The plants have twice been given an Epsom salt solution at 1 Tbl/gal RO h2o...divided between the ten. I did this because I felt there was a magnesium deficiency (some purple stems and such).

Does anyone think it is a few different probs?
A salt build up?

Do they just look hungry to anyone? The ten drink a gallon per day. On August 20 I gave them a 25% strength dose of Pura Vida Bloom 2-6-6. On August 23 I gave them a 50% dose. Tomorrow my plan is to gove them a 75% dose.

Should I flush today and give them a final gallon divided over them with 50-75% nutes? Or should I just continue as planned, giving them the nutes tomorrow?

Peace!