First grow! Looking for feedback!

Hey guys,

I joined back in June and have been researching and picking up some great info on these forums. Want to thank everyone for all the help I have received so far. This intro is more or less just a general breakdown of my thoughts/expectations, as well as a list of all the gear and things I am starting out with. I've been around cannabis for the better part of 20 years. I've always wanted to grow, but I have always been a procrastinator, and I've always had access to quality flower, etc. so it was easy to be lazy...

So, the electrician finally installed the sub-panel for my grow on Wednesday 7.22.2020 after rescheduling several times. Getting started a little late, but as excited as ever. I have a few tents. 5x5x7 for flower, 2x2x4 for veg, 3x4 split into two sections 3x3 for mother, 1x3 for clones. I am running 3x Spider Farmer 2000 in the 5x5, an SF 1000 in the 2x2, an SF 1000 in the 3x3 area, and I will be picking up additional lighting for the clone section, although those will be set up last (more than likely). I'm starting with a soil mix of 50% Promix Myco, 30% coco, 20% perlite. I will also being using the FOOP nutrient line, which is supposed to be an all-in-one system, I've heard great things about it and it just seemed like a safer bet than mixing up nutes on my own. I'm running a 6" CloudLine T6 for active intake and an 8" CloudLine T8 for exhaust, both with carbon filters. Intake is sucking in cool air by my portable AC and the exhaust runs straight out the window, both filters are aligned as intakes. I've also got 4 6" clip fans that I will be placing throughout the flowering tent to keep the air moving. Water is RO, ph'd to 5.8.

My fiancees old roomates tried to grow here maybe 6-7 years ago, and they left a bunch of stuff behind. I scored a Botanicare 4.5x4.5 flood table, a 40 gallon Botanicare res with cover, a Hanna Combo Grochek, a 550gph ActiveAqua pump, a 1000w HPS bulb. Probably somewhere around $600-$800 worth of free shit! They also left enough PVC to build out an entire room lol.

I am waiting for some blumat gear to arrive for automatic watering, I ordered the 12 carrot kit, 20 ft of 8mm tubing, 40 dripper attachments, 40 stakes. I am planning to build a 5ft stand for the 40 gal res and attaching the system to this. I am going to use the pump that was left to move the water around in there, so it isn't sitting stagnant.

Another project I plan to build with the PVC is a bracing/stand/hanger for the inside of the tent to help prevent the walls from sucking in from too much negative pressure. I figure if I build it 4x5x5 I can use it to attach trellis, as well as hang some additional fans and things from, while also keeping the sides of the tent from coming in too much.

Complete list of initial gear:

VIVOSUN 5x5x7 (FLOWER)
VIVOSUN 4x3x6 (MOTHER/CLONES)
VIVOSUN 2x2x4 (VEG)
SpiderFarmer 2000 x 3
SpiderFarmer 1000 x 2
AC Infinity Cloudline T6 & 6" Carbon Filter
AC Infinity Cloudline T8 & 8" Carbon Filter
4x Hurricane 6" Oscillating Clip Fans
SereneLife 12,000 BTU AC/Heater/Dehumidifer 3-in-1
4.5 x 4.5 Botanicare Flood Table
40 Gal Botanicare Reservoir with Lid
550GPH ActiveAqua Pump
Hanna Combo GroChek
12 Piece Blumat Automatic Watering Kit with Drippers
VIVOSUN Program Timer x 2
Clone King 36 Site Cloning Machine
Clonex Cloning Gel
Clonex Cloning Solution
VIVOSUN 5x15 Trellis x 2
VIVOSUN Tent Supports (Extras)
Rubbermaid Dishpan for Drainage
5x 27Gal Totes for Storing Growing Medium, etc.
AC Infinity Adjustable Rope Hangers x 12
VIVOSUN Digital Indoor Thermometer and Hygrometer x 2
VIVOSUN 3 Gallon Cloth Pots
VIVOSUN 5 Gallon Cloth Pots
VIVOSUN 7 Gallon Cloth Pots
VIVOSUN 10" x 20" Heated Seedling Mat
hOmeLabs 1,500 Sq. Ft Dehu
Fish Shit Organic Soil Conditioner
FOOP Biosciences Starter Kit
General Hydroponics pH Up & Down
Botanicare Cal Mag 1 Gallon
VIVOSUN pH & TDS Meter Pens
3ml Pipettes
Measuring Shot Glass
Pro Mix MP Mycorrhizae Organic
Roots Organic Coco
Xtreme Gardening Mykos
Mother Earth Coarse Perlite
Method 7 Glasses

Sorry to be so comprehensive, just want to keep a in-depth journal and also give other new growers with similar aspirations an idea of what it took to get this going.

Anyway, with all that said... here is where my first entry really starts.

7.26.2020

Received my clones today from my close friend Stitch, who has been a real help thus far in getting things going and picking out the right gear. He brought over 6 clones for me, they're Orangeblow #7, Punchbowl #3 and Blue Pops #4, all by Envy Genetics. He has been growing these out for a while now and they're all very nice. I'm starting with clones this run instead of seedlings, as it seems easier to get started, and if I fuck up I can just get some new clones. Don't want to pop any nice beans until I have this all dialed in. Anyway, he mentioned that he fucked up and ended up cutting these clones from a plant that had just gone into flower, so he had to reveg them. Not sure what that entails other than the obvious, but they look healthy enough.

I received the clones in solo cups and plan to transplant them into 3 gal cloth pots tomorrow. I just have to mix the soil, which I will do in the morning. My plan is to transplant them again into 5 or 7 gal cloth pots a week or two before flower, I haven't decided yet... I am thinking because I only have 6 plants that the 7 gal pots would be good for this run, next time I plan to try 9 and will run 5 gal pots.

I spent the better part of this week getting the rest of my gear setup and trying to dial in temps. It looks like my humidity is a little low, but I will have to experiment to get it up. It ranges everywhere from 65% - 45%, depending on the time of day and whether or not I have the lights running. I decided to put some distilled water into a 5 gal Home Depot bucket to and stick that in there to bring the humidity up a bit this first night. Ambient room temps are good, I had some trouble keeping them down initially, but I installed a second AC in the room next to this one. I was sucking in lots of hot air because of negative pressure. I also work in this room, my home office is doubling as a grow room as I don't have a lot of space. I might gut the shed this winter and move out there, but it just seems like more problems. I am currently renting, hoping to buy a place in the next year or two and am going to make sure there is space for a nice sized grow room.

I currently only have 2 SF2000 in the tent, as I am waiting for extra support rods to arrive this week, at which time I will hang a third light in the 5 x 5. My other tents aren't setup yet.

Here are some pics of Day 1


Gift from Stitch. Put some water in the orange bucket to increase humidity, was told that would help. The 4.5x4.5 flood table was left by roomates. Stoked!


2x SF 2000, only lowered one for the clones. When I install the third I will spread the plants out in 3 gal pots


Exhaust filter


Intake


T8 Exhaust from tent


Exhaust with a custom little window piece I made. I bought an 8" duct cap, cut the cap and attached a screen to the end to prevent bugs from coming in. I then cut a hole in some foam board and put the cap into it, snug fit.


Carbon filter on intake next to my AC


T6 intake


There used to be an old AC unit in the wall up there, I removed it and sealed it shut. Whattaya think of my bugs?


Tent temp/humidity


Score!


Hanna GroChek, stoked that this was left by old roomates


the pump that was left here


Got 4 of these oscillating clip fans for additional airflow


Unboxed SF1000 and SF2000


FOOP!


Timers


The res that was left here by old roomates.


Ambient room temp & humidity


Picture of the mess of PVC I pulled down from the attic because why not.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to cover everything in my first! Looking forward to keeping track of this first grow. It'll be cool to look back on. I appreciate any feedback and I hope that this will help someone as much as some of these other journals have helped me.

Cyas tomorrow after I transplant.

Damn! Those little guys grew by at least an inch overnight, I swear! I just went lights out. I am going to run lights from 8PM to 12PM for veg. My buddies schedule was slightly different so I started and ended one hour later on first day. Temps with lights out right now are 77F and humidity is sitting around 65%. When I kick the lights on at 8 I am going to transplant into 3 gal pots with the 50% promix, 30% coco, 20% perlite mix and give them their first FOOP feeding. I am thinking they might need a topping as well. Will post pics later today.

Day 2

Got the clones transplanted today into 3g pots. Went smooth. Hand mixed my soil in a 40g tote. I used a tape measure to do it, I measure 10 inches, did 5 inches of promix, 3 inches of coco and 2 inches of perlite. Hoping that is a reliable way to measure it out, was going for 50/30/20. Put 1-2 tbsp of myco in first, then put the clones in. Gave them their first feed. I didn't go for a full feed, and honestly I'm not 100% where they lie on the foop chart, 2nd week seedling, or 1st week veg? Anyway, it was 287 ppm and 5.9 pH, so they basically got a seedling week 2 feed. My buddy who gave me the clones thought that was the right move, so I went with it. Added 4 small fans to the tent as well, I didn't put too much thought into positioning them, I have to get another power strip to rig up in the tent so that I can really place them where I want them, had to position them based on outlet availability. Hoping I am doing this right lol. Do I just water them with ph'd RO water for the rest of the week now? Also, how long is nutrient mixed water good for? I had about 2 gallons left over, I mixed 5. I watered them until I noticed drainage from the bottom of the pot. I may have given the first one (back right) a little too much, as you can see she drained quite a bit. Also started my desired light cycle today, on at 8PM off at 12PM. Temps are looking better, 82-84F and 54% humidity with lights on, 70-74 with lights off and about the same humidity.

Pics


Transplanted!


Are these guys almost ready to top? I was leaning towards yes, but homie told me to wait a week.




Fan placement




I really gotta figure out a way to do this without hurting my back lol. Getting down in there is a real bitch!

Tomorrow I plan on picking up another power strip or two. I picked up some bed risers today to place under the flood table, and got a 10 gallon tote that is small enough to slide under to catch drainage. Hoping that is going to work out. It's on wheels so should be simple enough to slide out from underneath and empty when necessary. My blumat stuff also arrived today. Going to look into setting that up in the coming days. I've been swamped with work trying to meet a couple deadlines, so this has all been done on the fly. It's 5:33 AM here lol.

Thanks in advance for any input & feedback!

Just a quick update. I have been playing with temps and rh, finally at a good spot.

84F / 62% with lights on. I had to hang two wet towels in the tent for now. I've seen rh go as high as 67%. With lights off I am sitting around 75F / 57%. I turned the fans down to power level 4, which is around 460 cfm. It seems to keep temps and rh at a better place, although I feel like I should be running them around 5 or 6. If humidity is at a good level does it matter if the cfm is a little low? I should probably have somewhere closer to 600 cfm based on the math. Adjusted light height and power, they're now 24" above canopy and at 42-50k lux.

I also gave the girls a light feed, they were still a little moist but I had a little extra food mixed up from the other day and I didn't want to waste it

I've noticed some new growth which has me excited. They've definitely got a little more stocky and less droopy. Still plenty of funky vegetation since they were cut from flower.

I am a little confused about how to top and train these, there is like no symmetrical growth... maybe an inch between branches, nodes seem pretty spread apart. Going to do some research tonight.

Ordered some more seeds, want to pop some and play with them in the other tent. Going to try Grean Bicycles on them.

Anyway, I will post pics on my next update!

Took some pics. Been reading about training and topping clones and it says to choose the most symmetrical nodes, these things are way off... some of the new top nodes are closer together but that would mean I'd have to top way up there. Needless to say, I was wrong thinking starting with clones would be easier on my first grow lol. I am sure that must be a common misconception. Any advice would be much appreciated...



Can't wait for some seeds to show up so I can play around with these. I think that will be easier for experimenting with topping and training. Gonna pop some 9lb Hammer, got them pretty cheap so I'm not worried about fucking those up god forbid. Once I get that dialed in I can worry about cutting my own clones and learning that way. I think I just got kinda screwed since he cut this right after his plant went into flower too... oh well haha still appreciate the favor.

Update: Just learning about monster cropping now. Haven't read much but I see that you use clones cut from a flowering plant, so that must be what homie does. Gonna check this out, hopefully will help guide me in the right direction. Anyone else do this?

Thanks in advance for any input/advice.

I personally would give these ladies a week or 2 to adjust to their new home before you start topping or any other real sort of training. They look like that are still recovering from the transplant.

smokeybeard said:

I personally would give these ladies a week or 2 to adjust to their new home before you start topping or any other real sort of training. They look like that are still recovering from the transplant.

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Thanks dude. Was gonna wait til next Thursday or so, but I'll see how they look before I do anything. They're def still hurting a bit haha. I'll post some updates before I do anything.

Hey new here but i have been growing outdoor for quite a while; like you just starting to try indoor. Your plants look a little droopy. I would recommend just water, no nutrients, you don't really need nutrients until they are well established, if anything just 1/4 strength root booster nutrient high in P. And let them establish there new home for about 1 to 2 weeks. By that time you will notice they want nutrients and will explode with growth. You don't need to top/train until that point of explosive growth or you will injure the plant and stunts its performance.

Mabye get a moisture meter for each pot, they are cheap. I cant really tell but they look like they need water. Mabye your soil mix is very well draining and need more consistent watering its all trial and error in the beginning....the fun part

also water around the plant not directly on it, you want the roots to search for water.

McNea. said:

Hey new here but i have been growing outdoor for quite a while; like you just starting to try indoor. Your plants look a little droopy. I would recommend just water, no nutrients, you don't really need nutrients until they are well established, if anything just 1/4 strength root booster nutrient high in P. And let them establish there new home for about 1 to 2 weeks. By that time you will notice they want nutrients and will explode with growth. You don't need to top/train until that point of explosive growth or you will injure the plant and stunts its performance.

Mabye get a moisture meter for each pot, they are cheap. I cant really tell but they look like they need water. Mabye your soil mix is very well draining and need more consistent watering its all trial and error in the beginning....the fun part

also water around the plant not directly on it, you want the roots to search for water.

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Thanks for the tips brotha. I have a moisture meter showing up today. Maybe I will get one for each pot. I'll update later when I turn the lights back on!

Growing can be super exciting and fun but like I tell everyone - don't rush anything with plants. Always fertilize and top 1/4 what the bottle or people say - then go further if the plant responds well. It takes a lot of time to grow pot and to make a mistake during the grow cycle can have detrimental effects on yield and quality. Start simple stupid and advance. Throwing money at pot plants wont solve knowing the basics of cultivation. Buy a good marijuana growing book on amazon and read it on the toilet you will learn a lot. Its how my dad originally learned in 1958.

Newbie with a few outdoor grows and one indoor grow under my belt here but wanted to chime in on your setup. You look like you have all that you need to succeed at growing but it looks like you might be jumping the gun a bit. Looks like you transplanted your plants pretty early. Better to wait for them to be well established before transplanting. Also those SF 2000'd are pretty strong lights so I hope you are only running one light and I'd hope that you are dimming it and also running it higher up than you showed you were. Somebody mentioned earlier that you don't want to start feeding full strength right off the bat and I have to 2nd that. Go easy, its a long ways to the finish line. Finally I'm stoked you got some stuff for free, I'm a fan of free and or used stuff cause growing isn't cheap, that said I'd make sure you clean all of the used stuff really really well. Last thing is in the pictures you posted of the ventilation there are many bends in all of the ducting, straight runs allow for things to run more effectively so I'd see if you can do anything about that. Oh don't know if the state you are in is legal for weed or not but if it is I'd loose the carbon filters till flower. Good luck!

farmingfisherman said:

Newbie with a few outdoor grows and one indoor grow under my belt here but wanted to chime in on your setup. You look like you have all that you need to succeed at growing but it looks like you might be jumping the gun a bit. Looks like you transplanted your plants pretty early. Better to wait for them to be well established before transplanting. Also those SF 2000'd are pretty strong lights so I hope you are only running one light and I'd hope that you are dimming it and also running it higher up than you showed you were. Somebody mentioned earlier that you don't want to start feeding full strength right off the bat and I have to 2nd that. Go easy, its a long ways to the finish line. Finally I'm stoked you got some stuff for free, I'm a fan of free and or used stuff cause growing isn't cheap, that said I'd make sure you clean all of the used stuff really really well. Last thing is in the pictures you posted of the ventilation there are many bends in all of the ducting, straight runs allow for things to run more effectively so I'd see if you can do anything about that. Oh don't know if the state you are in is legal for weed or not but if it is I'd loose the carbon filters till flower. Good luck!

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Thanks bro. Yea I did adjust the lights last night. They're now 24" above the canopy and dimmed. LUX meter reads between 40-50k, never going over 50k, so I think that's good now? The average coverage is around 43k. Maybe they did get transplanted a little early, but I was just working off the advice of the friend who gave me the clones. They did fill the solo cups with roots so I thought they were good to go. I will pull back on nutes, they're only getting the recommended feeding for seedling week 2 based on the feeding schedule though, hoping I didn't hit them too hard. They have shown signs of new growth in the past 24 hours, hopefully that's a good sign. I'll consider taking the exhaust filter off as well. Haven't run into any ventilation issues, but it might be nice to extend the life of the filter. With the ducting, I don't have too many options at the moment. I use this room for other purposes as well, but I am going to actually move my office stuff out and dedicate the entire room to growing, once I do that I might be able to reposition some stuff. I am working on a floor plan now, I will share it when it's complete.

Thanks again!

Definitely could have waited a bit longer before transplant. It also appears that you may be overwatering them. Are you letting them dry between waterings? The pots should feel light when you pick them up. It's important to not overwater as the roots get more oxygen as the soil dries and it is easy to get nutrient lockout when the soil is oversaturated.

NukaKola said:

Definitely could have waited a bit longer before transplant. It also appears that you may be overwatering them. Are you letting them dry between waterings? The pots should feel light when you pick them up. It's important to not overwater as the roots get more oxygen as the soil dries and it is easy to get nutrient lockout when the soil is oversaturated.

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I watered them when I transplanted them on Monday night, about .5 gallons each. The only other time I watered was on Thursday morning, but it was very light, maybe 2 gallons or a little less between the 6 plants. I'm just going to keep working on familiarizing myself with the weight. I bought a soil moisture/ph meter that showed up today. Its analog, so kinda hard to read, but pH was between 6.5 & 7 and the moisture was at moist, right before the dry line. I am using a Sonkir 3-in-1. I only want to use the meter temporarily. I am going to check the weight of the pots, then do a reading to see if I am on point or not. lol.

Anyway, they may have been transplanted early. I was just going with what homie who gifted them to me said. He told me they looked fucked up cause they were cut from a plant that was 1 week into flower, and they had been in solo cups for 6 weeks before I transplanted. The cups were def filled with roots.

Next watering (probably tomorrow since it was pretty dry) I am just going to add a bit of fish shit in unless you recommend doing just RO water?

Looking forward to starting from seed on the next run, I think it'll be a little easier for me to work with the plants from inception. I'm just working off what my buddy told me when he delivered them.

I would start out with 1-2 solo cups (16-32oz). Personally I don't think those moisture meters are all that accurate, going by weight is my preferred method.

Now that you mention the clones were from a flowering plant I can see the defined pistils. That can stress them out quite a bit along with transplanting so small. The plants reverting back to Veg can take quite some time as well.

Yea I've been reading that. I think they're good cause there is def some new growth since going in. Hoping another week or two and they'll be straight. I saw that it's called monstercropping. I'm not sure if he regularly cuts them in flower or if it was a mistake, or maybe he just did it to cut them for me? Either way, I'm glad that they've rooted and are actually growing lol. Time will tell how this turns out! Appreciate your input bro.

Going to wait until tomorrow to water. Soil still seems a little moist when I get my finger down in there. All but one of them seems to be doing well, they've all seen a lot of new growth and have grown maybe 3 inches since I transplanted them, except for one.

I got the third SF2000 up in the tent. Dimmed to about 78%. Light coverage doesn't seem right though, in the center I am getting around 48-50k LUX, under the left light around 42-45k, but under the light on the right it seems to have dropped as low as 38k. They are all linked together so the dimmer on the main light controls the other two. Just don't understand why the readings are lower on the right side of the tent now, before I added the third light (the light on the left) I was getting a pretty nice reading with the center being the highest, as it is now, but there was even coverage around the edges of the canopy. I will have to fool around tomorrow I guess.

Oh and I also put a cheap Crane 1 gallon humidifier in there. Helping with RH with the lights on big time, from 45-47% to 58%. I just put it on the timer with my lights, since humidity is fine when they go off.

Nice setup man ... go big or go home haha... getting started with all the toys!

Which promix are you using? The fully inert one or the one with some fertilizers in it?

Plants definitely look like they could use some time to settle in before you start messing with any training... don't want to stunt them with too much stress.

Only other thing I'd mention is 3 SF2000 is a little under powered for a 5x5. You'll be fine but you won't be maximizing your productivity. I run almost that much light in my 4x4.

Gentlemencorpse said:

Nice setup man ... go big or go home haha... getting started with all the toys!

Which promix are you using? The fully inert one or the one with some fertilizers in it?

Plants definitely look like they could use some time to settle in before you start messing with any training... don't want to stunt them with too much stress.

Only other thing I'd mention is 3 SF2000 is a little under powered for a 5x5. You'll be fine but you won't be maximizing your productivity. I run almost that much light in my 4x4.

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I have 3 more SF2000, I could stick one more in there if need be. I figured 660w of LED would be enough for a 5x5 though. I originally thought I'd be able to put 2 in there lol. I'll consider sticking a 4th in when I get closer to flower, could just order another if I had to. I am going to hold off on any training until next week. Also, I am using ProMix MP, it's organic, no ferts in there. I watered them today, the pots were def almost fully dry. They didn't seem to bad last night when I went to bed, but then again my lights ran for another 6-7 hours. I checked tonight maybe 2 hours after the lights came on and they were def dry down to about 3 inches, I had to stick my finger almost all the way in before I noticed moist soil. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

vitalsine said:

I have 3 more SF2000, I could stick one more in there if need be. I figured 660w of LED would be enough for a 5x5 though. I originally thought I'd be able to put 2 in there lol. I'll consider sticking a 4th in when I get closer to flower, could just order another if I had to. I am going to hold off on any training until next week. Also, I am using ProMix MP, it's organic, no ferts in there. I watered them today, the pots were def almost fully dry. They didn't seem to bad last night when I went to bed, but then again my lights ran for another 6-7 hours. I checked tonight maybe 2 hours after the lights came on and they were def dry down to about 3 inches, I had to stick my finger almost all the way in before I noticed moist soil. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

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I'd try to shoot for 30-40w/sq ft.

You want the bottom of the pot to be dry. Since the plants are small and the roots are shallow combined with evaporation the top half of the soil will dry quicker than the bottom.