First Journal: Soil, Gelato #41, Ayahuasca Purple & Red Diesel

[GreenAlfa]

Hello all

Very nice to meet you, thanks for checking out my first grow journal. I've been lurking for quite some time, but now I'm doing my first journal - hurray! It's not quite my first grow, I did one with a friend a few years back in a room but I've now got my tent set up.

So, here's my current set-up:

• 1.4 x 1.4 x 2.0m Tent
• 600w HPS & Dimmable Digital Balast
• 6" Extractor & Carbon Filter
• De-humidifier & Usual ancillaries - PH Meter, Hygrometer etc.

For seeds I've got 5 x Ayahuasca Purple, 3 x Blue Gelato #41 1 x Blueberry and 1 x Red Diesel - all from Barney's Farm and all photoperiod & feminised. The last 2 were freebies, I looked up the estimates heights and flowering times and thought I might get away with doing all of them together. I like a challenge!

I should also probably say that I started these 3 months ago and I'm uploading pictures and the notes I took in retrospectively. But they still have a few weeks to go! Next time, I'll do it as I go along. So without further or do, thanks for looking and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
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Day #1 - Sewing the seeds into seed tray with seedling soil and leaving in propagator. Left for 4 days at around 24°C @ 90% humidity.

Day #4 - Had 8 of the 10 pop up and looking normal

Day #5 - The other 2 sprouted - Hurray - 100% germination rate. Very pleased with that, although I was expecting 9 rather than all 10 to germinate (thanks Barney!). It that has left a strange layout ahead when the plants get bigger but let's see how it goes!

Day #6 - Put the out in the tent. The tent is in a brick out-building and the outside temperature is cold! About freezing - 0°C! I think the 24hr light cycle is more efficient for time so I'll use that and also it helps keep the temperature up Inside the tent. It's 25°C so happy with that. I've got the light set to 250W. Not feeding any nutrients yet - I won't be until at least 2 weeks after they go into their final 25litre pots as I'm using Canna soils.

Day #7 - Finally started taking some pictures after I decided to do the journal 7 days in! Plants are looking healthy, although the humidity is a little low at 48% so I put out some shallow dishes with water in to try and raise the RH.

 

[Old Salt]

to the forum...

You have a great start.
May you have a bountiful harvest.

 

[GreenAlfa]

Day #8, 9, 10 were fine - I repotted them into different pots and started using CannaTerra soil.

I began to see a darkening of the edges of the leaves. I didn't think this was nitrogen burn as I hadn't fed any nutes and it was seedling soil... PH was fine at 6.5. I was looking for ages to try and find out the cause!

The blueberry was the worst affected and looked like it was almost going to die, but it just topped itself instead!...Here they are at day 18.

After lots of research I think I found my problem...Overwatering! What a newbie error! Hopefully, the other9 won't be stunted - they seem to be growing very well no I've put more perlite in the soil and slowed down the watering.

Thanks for watching!

 

[GreenAlfa]

Now at Day 21 from seed. Looking slight overwatered still! Also moved them into bigger pots again with more perlite.

 

[GreenAlfa]

to the forum...

You have a great start.
May you have a bountiful harvest.

Thanks for your kind words Old Salt. Its great to be here finally!

 

[GreenAlfa]

So here they are 25 days into vegging, just before repotting into their final 25L pots - looking much more happy now I have added plenty of perlite and watered less. The Blueberry is making a recovery and quickly catching up!

Lights are on 400w at the moment and we have had some really cold weather - it's below freezing outside so I'm super glad I went for the 24/0 schedule!

 

[GreenAlfa]

Day 27 from planting the seeds and I repotted to their final 25L pots. I have been using CannaTerra potting mix, so shouldn't need to feed until a couple of weeks.

I'm using the Buddha Tree Organicus as it's been highly recommended - it says to use it throughout the veg and bloom phases, although the NPK is 4-3-2, which I find quite unusual, has anyone else continued to feed nitrogen throughout the bloom phase? How did it go?

Here they are looking much happier! I'll let them settle for a while and then feed and try some low stress training (LST). I am also planning on FIM'ing them too, although the blueberry has topped itself already! (Must be the terrible singing I inflict on my poor plants at every visit to the tent!)

Was toying with the idea of getting a mister/humidifier, but I can't really afford it right now, so going for open dishes of water!

Thanks for looking fellow tokers!

 

[Old Salt]

Ultrasonic humidifiers can often be found on Kijiji for a song and dance.

 

[GreenAlfa]

Day 30 - lots of growth from all the ladies in the last 3 days!

I have also tried to tie them down to spread the out for LST, but the nodes are so close together, I'm not sure I'll be able to get the main stem horizontal without breaking the stem. Do you think I've left it too late? What do you guys do for yourLST? Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[GreenAlfa]

Ultrasonic humidifiers can often be found on Kijiji for a song and dance.

Thanks, I'll go and have a look at that now. Is Kijiji like eBay/Gumtree? I'm in the UK, so i'll do some Googling. Cheers, Old Salt.

 

[GreenAlfa]

They are all growing well now, must start thinking about 12/12 soon! Meant to say that the lights are on 600w now and have been since day 27. Started feeding to at half strength - 2ml per litre (Buddha's Tree - Organicus).

Having trouble with condensation in the tent, as the temperature in the out house where the tent is is 2°C! I keep going in twice a day to wipe it off I don't want that getting in the carbon filter! Got a de-humidifer going at the end of the week, so hoping keep that around 50%.

Did the FIM'ing as day 30! Not sure how it will go - it's the first time i've done it!

Here's a picture summary for week 4-5!

Day 31:

Day 32:

Day 34:

Day 35:

Day 36:

Day 37:

Next pictures will be from starting the 12/12. The Gelatos are getting taller now that the rest - hopefully not too much stretch in the first 4 weeks of 12/12!

 

[irie lion]

Hey @GreenAlfa!

Awesome setup and some really healthy plants there man! Nice selection of strains.
Do you plan on growing all these plants out in this setup or feeding some out as things get cramped?

I'll be following along!

 

[irie lion]

Forgot to mention - i personally would not flip to 12/12 yet. Another 2-3 weeks veg and your yield will double.

 

[Old Salt]

Having trouble with condensation in the tent, as the temperature in the out house where the tent is is 2°C!

I had the same problem with the tent against the outside wall of my house. A piece of Styrofoam insulation between the tent and wall got rid of the condensation. A heater in the tent kept the humidity down. You may have to insulate the bottom as well as the sides. A dehumidifier won't correct the problem, as the walls of the tent will drop about 20°C when the lights go off. That means if you have 50% humidity during the day, at night the area nearest the walls will shoot up to 100% humidity, and won't be able to hold more water. There will be a fair amount that will condense. You need to keep the temperature up, and air moving in the tent, and keep the walls warm.

The filter may not be required until you reach the flowering stage. If you don't notice an odor when you open the tent, take it out. Why use up the carbon unnecessarily?

 

[GreenAlfa]

Hey @GreenAlfa!

Awesome setup and some really healthy plants there man! Nice selection of strains.
Do you plan on growing all these plants out in this setup or feeding some out as things get cramped?

I'll be following along!

Thanks! @irie lion! Most kind. I thought I'd try a few different strains for different purposes/time of the day.

I am going to try and do them all! Big challenge, I did start them off on 12/12 a week later as I was worried that they would be too big! I am just catching up on the journal, so I'll have the next 7 weeks up over the next couple of days, a bit like a journal time lapse!

Thanks for watching and commenting man!

 

[GreenAlfa]

I had the same problem with the tent against the outside wall of my house. A piece of Styrofoam insulation between the tent and wall got rid of the condensation. A heater in the tent kept the humidity down. You may have to insulate the bottom as well as the sides. A dehumidifier won't correct the problem, as the walls of the tent will drop about 20°C when the lights go off. That means if you have 50% humidity during the day, at night the area nearest the walls will shoot up to 100% humidity, and won't be able to hold more water. There will be a fair amount that will condense. You need to keep the temperature up, and air moving in the tent, and keep the walls warm.

The filter may not be required until you reach the flowering stage. If you don't notice an odor when you open the tent, take it out. Why use up the carbon unnecessarily?

Great advice! Thank you very much. I will do that next time round. I've been experimenting with heaters - as first I used an 800w oil-filled radiator, but even with a fan didn't spread the heat out very well and it's cramped in there, so I made some supports for the pots and raised them about 10" off the ground and have put 3x 80w pipe heaters underneath., which really helped and is less on the electric bill.

I didn't have the Carbon Filter on until they started smelling, as you say, I don't want to waste the carbon!

Thanks!

 

[GreenAlfa]

Welcome back! Now into week 1 of flowering. I turned them 42 days from planting the seeds - they took 4/5 days to sprout, so 12/12 at about 37/38 days.

You can see the FIM much better now - what do you think? Should it look like this? I took off 80% like i've read about, but feel that I could have gone further, as it's still developing 1 main cola?

Day 3 of Bloom

Day 4 of Bloom

Yay!

 

[GreenAlfa]

So, week 2 of bloom now underway - They are still on 4ml per litre of Buddha's Tree Organicus and will start adding more P-K soon to hopefully fatten the buds up a bit. Pictures from each day...

Weird FIM'ing!

Then I seem not to have taken any pictures for almost 2 weeks!....

 

[GreenAlfa]

Here they are 3 weeks into flower... Looking happy I think. The 1st pic is before a bit of defoliation to let some light through the canopy as it seems the FIM'ing didn't quite go to plan! Will do more defoliation again in a couple of weeks.

I was expecting the 3 Gelato to be the tallest by now but the back left and right, where you can see the tallest plants - they are both Ayahuasca Purple and the one on the left is purple already with a huge mass of white pistils! WIl try and take a clone of that one

After defoliation...

 

[GreenAlfa]

Onto week 4 of bloom...

Gelato gaining some mass...

The AP from the back left is looking wonderful! The yellow hue of the lights wreck the colours, but I have worked out that if I go in when the light has been on less than a minute or 2 I can get some decent shots before the sodium warms up in the bulb! Will post some.

Defoliation needed again soon!