Heavyweight Massive Midget - LED - 1st Indoor Grow

[BarnacleBill]

Okay Here we go:

Seed: Heavyweight Massive Midget (herbiesheadshop.com)
Container: 3 Gal
Lights: (3) LG-G04B96LED 96x3w (topledgrowlight.com)
Tent: 48" x 24" x 60" Virtual Sun VS4800-24 (virtualsunhydroponics.com)
Medium: 70% natural compost, 30% perlite
Ferts: Week #2- Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic 4-4-4
Week #4- Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic 4-4-4
Week #6- Rain Grow Bloom-A-Long 0-12-0
Temps will be maintained between 75-80 degrees (Venting and cooling as I go. This is my first shot at an indoor grow.
PH will be maintained at approx 5.7ph
Cal/Mag and micros as needed.

I will be posting a photo of the Grow tent once I have it wired and a test run on temp. The seeds are soaking as you read this. Weekly updates.
Enjoy and subscribe today!

 

[BarnacleBill]

In case I forgot to mention and you didn't notice, this is an auto strain. My first shot at auto as well!

 

[Sephiroth420]

Same lights and tent size here like to see how ya do. Good luck.

 

[Kalimaki420]

Hi B Bill

Grow some HW photos / Dream Machine and I like them so far.

I would not feed them first week and for soil PH should be 6,0 - 6,8 best 6,5.
What is micros ?

wildjim was growing a HW Fast and Vast auto that got total out of control was going over 100 days and would hardly fit in your tent.

 

[greenlungs420]

Subbed

 

[EsotericGrows]

Subbed...I was thinking of getting these next grow to see how they compare to the Royal Dwarfs.

 

[BarnacleBill]

Greetings and thanks for subscribing EsotericGrows and greenlungs420.

Sephiroth420 , same tent and lights? Very cool. I would like to see what you come up with. I think I'm going to have a heat issue. Especially as the summer progresses. What are you doing for ventilation in your tent? The LEDS still put off noticeable residual heat. I'm open for recommendations.

Greetings Darkgrow. Thanks for the advice on the PH. I am perfectly aware of what the proper PH should be. I'm utilizing well water and not in the mood for being a chemist incognito...lol. And you are absolutely right. You should never fertilize during the first week. On my outdoors grows I do not fertilize to week three. It goes against everything I normally do to fertilize at week two. But they are autos so I guess I'm gonna try it.

Well here we are, two days and I have seed opening. Three seeds were placed on the cloth and all three split. They are going to stay where they are all nice and cozy for a little longer untill the tap root extends just a little and they decide which way is going to be up.

The tent is up and test running. Like I said earlier, I think heat is going to be an issue and I am open to suggestions. Should I go with 6" or 4" in line fans? Im thinking 6" may be a little overkill for the size of the tent. Let me hear what works for you...

 

[BarnacleBill]

Oh Darkgrow , I forgot to answer your question on micro nutrients. Primarily they would be calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulfur (S). Some would also include boron, cobalt, copper, iron and zinc.

 

[Sephiroth420]

I have a 6" inline fan in there. Temps are great for now but I will need something for summer heat for sure. No doubt the 6" is overkill 4" will work fine for a small tent like this.

 

[Sephiroth420]

I'm running in doc buds high brix blend, if you haven't been to his journals I suggest a peek

 

[BarnacleBill]

Hello and greetings once again:

Sephiroth420, so how is "doc buds high brix blend" working for you. I glanced at his thread but really didn't have time to delve deeply into it as of yet. Really the question would be what do you think of it? Have you done a comparison grow? I decided to try an inline 4" fan for cooling the tent. It is on order and should be here shortly. I will post some pics once its installed.

So here we are. Day #4 and the seeds are in the soil and rooted with the primary leafs just showing. All three seeds have performed well at this point but in such cases of dealing groups of three, there always seems to be that one that just isn't measuring up to the performance of the other two. Its always the case!

Please excuse the quality of the pics.

 

[PhilAndering]

Subbed

Hi BarnacleBill (or should that be Mr Sailor?)

Following your grow with interest, as I started my first grow 2 weeks ago, possibly with a Heavyweight Massive Midget (I got the seeds mixed up so I'm unsure).

Hope it all goes well for you.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[BarnacleBill]

Greetings PhilAndering , welcome and thank you for subscribing. So you might be growing the same strain? Cool, I would like to see some pics for comparison.

So Here we are at day number seven and once again I find myself perplexed. Three seeds germinated exactly the same. same soil mix, same amount of water and the same amount of light (I even rotate and turn under the light). 'm a believer that LED's send concentrated colors down to the soil due to the positioning of the LEDs. Its a very easy test, you can see for yourself. Place a white piece of paper on the floor and shine your light directly down at it from about ten inches away. You will see the polk-a-dot pattern of the different colored LED lights. So you need to either move the lights on a rail or shift the position of the plants. Seeing as I don't have room to move the lights, it's a daily task to move the plants. It's just my opinion. But I digress...

So I have three seedlings greatly varying in their performance but so far all appear healthy, rooted and growing. The cotyledons are still present and green. In fact the secondary leaflets are present on all three plants as well. So i'm really confused. Do I have one normal, and two excellent seedlings. One average, one excellent and one sub-standard. Or do I have one average and two sub-standard seedlings...lol. I'm leaning towards the belief of option number two. Let's take a look at the culprits;

Villain number one: Okay I did have an issue in its rooting but it bounced back and dug in. During the germination I didn't like the color of the cotyledons. They were in my opinion rather brown. Almost as if starting to rot. But after I secured it in the soil she grabbed hold , rooted and turned green. The only thing she didn't do was grow! At one point I thought I lost her completely but suddenly there she was. Even though she's the runt she shows no sign of stress or deformity. Nice, green and appears to be happy. ... but so dang small. She is only 3/4 the width of a quarter. If there is a runt in the bunch she id definitely it.

Now for culprit number two: If I was to base my opinion on this little girl I would say she is closest to average. But on the other hand I wouldn't be qualified to make that statement. My growing experience has always been outdoors in natural sunlight with non-auto strains. But I would put her right there in my top choices for a plant that is only seven days after germination. Same quarter and shes about 1.25 the width of it. I'm good with her, she makes the Villain look like an under achiever...

Now for the heroine of our little story: I think this little girl took off like a ball of fire! She dwarfs the other two in comparison and makes them both look like under achievers. Color and stem gauge is fantastic. I just wish all three looked like this little beauty. She is dwarfing the quarter and is about 2.5 the width of it. Secondary leaflets are clearly visible. By my experience she's jumping the gun and setting the bar high for the other two.

So here we are at day seven. I would appreciate any input from those of you who have grown this strain or have experience with autos. I would like to know where I stand. I realize that it's still crazy early in the game. I've seen more than my share of runts blow up like a rocket after the stretch and even make the top of the rank in producer. The one thing I am certain in is that all three are well rooted and appear to be healthy and happily growing! Please toss in your two cents worth, I would like to hear what you all think.

Until next time Captains, keep her in the channel!

 

[BarnacleBill]

Ouch! sorry, I just realized that I screwed the font up! I'm visually impaired and I type with large text. I will fix it next time before I post! One the bright side, I can actually read it

 

[Kalimaki420]

I say all is normal with your girls.

Autos take of after 2. week.
I see this with any seed some are just better and some are crap.

But with Autos it hurts more and I got to inconsistent results.

 

[BarnacleBill]

Well, here we are again! Now we are at day 14.

We have been maintaining a steady 78 degrees (the weather has been cooperating and I still haven't received my 4" inline fan! I will address that issue if it has not arrived by next post!). I have been monitoring the water consumption and only watered when needed. As normal, I've figured out some of my own questions and taken actions to correct the issues. Plant growth has been impressive on two of the seedlings. The runt (or V as I prefer to call her is still dragging along behind her two sisters). But enough chit chat, lets take a quick look at the little girls!

V: Well as if being the runt of the bunch wasn't enough she started acting out very shortly after my last post. Lights went off after the 18 hours I'm running them under and all appeared fine and dandy. Four hours later the lights came on and she was showing a heavy list at starboard. I was pretty sure she may have received damage to the tap root during the transplant from the seed cloth to the soil. Some how she upended and capsized with the tap root facing up instead of down. Even under the little domes that I put on in order to facilitate rooting, the very tip shriveled slightly before I realized the mishap. I pretty much chalked her up to the trash can when I decided to take a long shot and try some Pennington Ultragreen Plant Starter with B1. Well my hunch payed off after two waterings running it at 50% ( .5 tbsp per gallon) she right-sided and started growing again. Disaster adverted for now but she is still way behind. I also want to say that I am concerned about the amount of iron (Fe) in the fert. Hopefully it won't adversely effect the soil ph.
Was it the Pennington or just luck, who knows but V is still on course.

C (formerly know as the Culprit): As I have said before. This is my first auto grow so I have no basis to judge. I compare my progress to what I find online for comparison but that's difficult in itself. Honestly I can find very few people who have photoed this strain. I totally understand this! I mean who wants to dedicate a grow to a strain called Massive Midget? I mean honestly, does anyone want to dedicate space to a midget! I will say, I would be happy with a field of plants performing like she is. I believe she is within striking distance of the magical projected indoor yield of 450gr/m2 that Herbies qoutes Heavyweight Seeds at. I'm happy with her performance so far.

H (Formerly known as The Heroine): What can I say, other than Wow! This is an amazing seedling! I truly believe I can almost watch her grow! I am very impressed and can't wait to see the end result here!

Well we are going to have a big week coming up here. They will receive their first feeding this week and hopefully we will see a massive grow spurt in the next week. I'm looking forward to seeing what is in store for these little beauties!

Until next time Captains, keep her in the channel.

 

[madscientist9]

so tiny and so developed at the same time

 

[Kalimaki420]

Will be interesting to see how they perform.

For the next time I am done with Autos I only see the the good ones in journals
You will see that only the good one will perform well everything what is behind will be behind till the end.

 

[BarnacleBill]

Hi there madscientest9, yeah like I said. This is my first auto grow. For being as small as they are, they are really neat to look at. I'm enjoying this grow so far.

Darkgrow, hopefully this will be one of those grow journals! The one thing I'm hearing over and over is that there seems to be an inconsistency of the performance of the auto strain seeds. It seems like it's hit or miss. Hopefully I hit!

 

[PhilAndering]

Looking good Barnacle Bill.

Mine looked exactly like your best grower at 7 days and 14 days. Unfortunately, I made the nutrient solution too strong during week 3, and the plant suffered from nitrogen toxicity. I had to dump the reservoir, flush with plain water for 12 hours, then re-fill at only 800ppm.

Here's a pic of what I think is a massive midget at 21 days after germination. I think it's recovering, but only time will tell

Love your work.

Cheers,
Phil