Guesstimator's 2014 Grow Journal - 1st Indoor Attempt!

[Guesstimator]

Thanks again to all the great folks here! I am happy to have learned from some great folks here and it has made this fun hobby even more fun!

In my signature is a link to my custom grow room. Here are the highlights:

30"d X 60"w X 72"h
Insulated with 2 mil plastic and 3 - 16' rolls of Insul-Quilt
Vented hood - 600w MH / HPS iPower setup
1 small fan to cool the ballast and one in the upper corner cooling / moving plants
440cfm inline fan pulling air thru a 6" carbon filter

As for the plants, it's a little tricky since I screwed up in the beginning and got plants mixed up. I know what they all are, but not which one is which. I know what 2 of the 4 are, but I have yet to ID which one is which with the other 2 more accurately. The two on the outer edges are Herbie's free seeds (Kerala X Skunk), I know this for certain. Still waiting to sex them however. Again, I know what I ordered but not which is which with the other two. One of the "mystery plants" is White Widow X Big Bud and the other is Northern Lights X Skunk. Now, which one is which guys...? lol. They are the two center plants shown below (annotated for ease of describing).

The plants are all in 5 gallon buckets filled with 33% perlite and 66% Fox Farms Ocean Floor. I use General Hydroponics 3 part series (Micro Bloom, Micro Whatever...lol) for nutes at 1/2 strength thus far.

I started this all in a closet under a HO T5. I SOOO royally pulled a doofus move and I forgot to peel the blue protective plastic off the reflectors and didn't realize until 1 month had passed it was on there. The plastic is NEVER coming free from the reflectors so it was my excuse to step up a bit and get the 600w and spend $1,200 and 2 weekends of my life building what we have before us now. lol. The age of the plants is a little iffy as well due to lack of record keeping on my part (first time indoor grow guys...I'm getting it...slowly). I wanna say they had been vegging since seed for 1 month under the T5 and then 2-3 weeks under the new light.

Saturday I swapped over to 12/12 from 18/6 and swapped the bulbs as well. Last night I introduced nutes @ the highest concentration to date (which means I only went 3/4 strength this time) per the directions / chart they have on the bottle. I guess this means I am now on day 4 of 12/12 and waiting to determine the sex of the 2 freebies.

The room remains pretty stable for temps. I hover anywhere from 76-88 degrees. Seems fine to me. Humidity has been all over the darn place here lately, was real dry but has moistened up a bit as of late. I have 40-60% at the plants base and a pretty constant 50% overall in the tent.

PH is spot on around 5.5-6.5. I use drops because this darn build has drained me financially! (I'd laugh, but it's not funny QUITE yet...).

I water when the soil measures "less than damp" measured at the roots (based on a cheapie "all-in-one" meter). This works out to about 1 gallon per pot per week or so, +/-, kinda. Again, not enough record keeping. Hey, I am a Guesstimator after all...lol

No pests seen yet and with all the wrapping and filtering I've done I will go ballistic on them if I do see even 1 of the little bastards!!!! lol

Thanks for any and all input folks!

 

[COorganics]

Great start man!
Sweet I'm first in..

 

[COorganics]

The plants look really good, green, tight internodal spacing.
Awesome start. Get what ya put into it, they say.

 

[Guesstimator]

The plants look really good, green, tight internodal spacing.
Awesome start. Get what ya put into it, they say.

Thank you very much! It's been a real process as you all know and not having anyone local to talk to or share with / bounce idea off of or seek guidance from, I have to rely on the internet and common sense. And IDK about you guys, but some of this stuff just isn't "common" sense at first sight!

I topped these all and LST'd them for a while during veg to round them out a bit and make them more full. In hindsight I should have left them tied down for another week (or 4...lol). I untied them a week ago and they shot way the heck up there, negating a bit of the whole idea being LST but it worked for the most part I suppose.

I may lean on you fine folks in the next few days to figure out the sex of the 2 plants I know (Kerala X Skunk). I get the idea, if it has balls it's a male (unlike some human males I know...sorry, I crack me up sometimes...). I've seen the pictures online, I have read up, I did the homework but you know how it is; it's always so nice to get the second opinions from those with more experience and frankly, that'd be 99.9% of you at this point. As much as I think I know, it turns out I know very little. (OMG guys, someone admitted to their ignorance on a forum, alert the media!)

Thanks to each and every single comment posted so far and that I hope to see posted soon. Flame me even, I don't care, I will do everything possible to take all comments as constructive and use it for a positive. I just really could use the assistance here guys if I am doing something blatantly wrong or foolish, you know, besides investing heavily in something I could legally buy cheaper and easier...lol / jk. I DO ACTUALLY LOVE THIS PROCESS! Nearly as calming as the meds themselves, I swear.

Thanks again!

 

[Light Addict]

Hey subbed! Best of buds for ya big frickin bushes! Will catch up tomoz. Just tagged ya twice lol.

 

[ecdriver]

mornin' Gess, i like your setup and your plant also it seems...

they look healthy as hell and just need to be flip not too late with your small high space, sure i'd LSTed them from now and along the 10/15 first dayz of flower.

but maybe that you have yet another way to keep them short in flower stage, anyway it is a nice little garden, i wish my babies looks like yours in a few week.
i sub it if ya don't mind, need to see what you'll pull from them and how you drives your EC...

 

[Guesstimator]

1-31-14 Update:

I went looking to determine the sex of the two freebie seeds tonight. I found one to be absolutely (to even my new eyes) male and he was voted off the island. lol. Decided to LST further while I was at it, being only 6 days into veg. This all worked out well since space was always known to be an issue unless at least one plant left. Below are some of the plants in various stages of progress.

A little too crowded (there are 4 here), and we found a male. He went bye-bye.

LST'd:

Again:

Wire Tie:

This is where I did better documenting, sorry, long day.... Before shot, Top 3/4 view:

Before Shot, Side view:

1/2 LST'd:

Top view 1/2 LST'd:

Much better spacing now and looking good to me, but I am new so what do I know? lol

Still open to any and all input, thanks again for taking a look folks.

 

[ecdriver]

love them!!!

 

[COorganics]

They look great but u better flip the lights ASAP. Overcrowded tents suck. Stretchy MJ plants will amaze you.

 

[Guesstimator]

Thanks ecd. I appreciate the kind words!

CO, I went to a 12/12 6 days ago and swapped the bulb at the same time. Did I skip yet another step somehow? There's only, what, like 50 thousand steps it seems like. lol. And the space constraints are a bummer, but for my needs this is great and I honestly couldn't be happier for a first indoor attempt. I'd love a huge field but we make do with what we have I suppose.

 

[COorganics]

No u are golden, my friend, none of those look like big stretchy sativas anyway. U are gonna crush this grow, u seem to be on top of it.

Good stuff, must have missed that u had flipped 6 days ago.

 

[COorganics]

Rather a few great indoor plants for your head stash than a field of so so buds.

 

[Guesstimator]

I need some help. As I mentioned before, I screwed up and mixed up 2 of the 3 plants. I know what seeds I have, and I know which one 1 of the 3 plants is but I can't figure out which is which with the other two.

Please see photos below. I kept the plants in the same position all the time so right is right and left is left.

Thanks so much, my bad and two swats to my nose with a newspaper for bad labeling!!!

 

[COorganics]

Who cares right now? Grow them out and it becomes apparent when u have fat stinky nugs.

 

[Guesstimator]

Who cares right now? Grow them out and it becomes apparent when u have fat stinky nugs.

OMG, just when I thought you were cool you ask such a question... Duh my friend, the answer is simple: Pure, unadulterated, stupid, dumb curious, male logic but of course!!! That's the only reason purely and, while arguably useless, we all have it. lol!

I kid sir. Of course you're right and patience is yet again the key. Thanks for keeping me calm my friend...

 

[COorganics]

Just curious, are u planning on doing any defol sometime soon?
A lot of folks will do a bit of defoliation around the time they are done stretching. Around 3 weeks, strain dependent I think.

I might be the only American awake here on 420mag. Lol. Nite owl.

 

[Guesstimator]

Just curious, are u planning on doing any defol sometime soon?
A lot of folks will do a bit of defoliation around the time they are done stretching. Around 3 weeks, strain dependent I think.

I might be the only American awake here on 420mag. Lol. Nite owl.

Now that's funny. After these pics were taken I went in and removed the fan leaves that were reducing light to the other inner workings. I wasn't too heavy handed with the removal, but a lot wound up coming out when all was said and done. I was wondering all night if this was the right thing to do or not and I woke up to this! lol.

Thank yet again CO, for making me feel like I am on the right track! I really haven't done this inside begore, and the one outdoor was a mess and didn't end well. I am real new and these reaffirming words help!

I am still planning on watering once then feeding once and repeating. Correct?

Thanks again!!!

 

[COorganics]

Well my friend I don't wanna give advice on stuff I don't have personal experience with. I have ZERO experience with GH nutes. I will say keep doing what your doing and don't over think it. Your plants look outstanding thus far. I do an organic living soil indoor grow. Could tell ya all about that, lol. Compost teas, minerals, layers, spikes, zones. Lol.

 

[COorganics]

I forgot to say, my 2cents is: great time to do a little defol, good job. Obv plants need leaves for photosynthesis. So u left the vast majority. Good job. We are trying to cultivate buds not leaves in the end though so strategically removing leaves at times works well for me and others.

 

[COorganics]

And don't worry it takes a while to get folks Visiting your journal.