Supernaut's Virgin Grow

[Supernaut]

So I'm finally getting around to making a journal for my first go-round. I'll lay out the usual info and then fill you in on what's been going on so far.

Started from Seed.
What strain is it? ----- 4 Strains — G13 (3 Seeds) — OG Kush (13 Seeds) — Sour Diesel (14 Seeds) — Random bag seed from some good smoke (3 Seeds).
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Both
If in Veg... For how long? 5 weeks since seed germination.
If in Flower stage... For how long? 4 Days
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Fox Farm Ocean Forest
If soil... What size pot? Various
Size of light? ----- ~300 Watts of CFL/Flouro Tubes in Veg. 1x600w and 1x400w HPS lights in Bloom-Room
Is it aircooled? No
Temp of Room/cab?------ Veg - ~73 f night and day — Flower — 72f lights off, 76-79 lights on
RH of Room/cab? -------Veg = 60% Flower = 45-50%
PH of media or res? Water is 6.8 with a runoff of ~6.1
Any Pests ?
How often are you watering? Every 2-3 days
Type and strength of ferts used? Fox Farm 3-Pack of Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom @ 1/3-3/4 strength

I went through the process of getting my card so I would be all legit. I visited a few growrooms to take a look at some peoples setups to get a rough idea of what I was getting into. Then I got all the seeds other than the bagseed I had from a friend/fellow cardholder. I set the budget for my rooms @ a total of $500 which I could have managed but I have a habit of being a perfectionist with a bad case of OCD so I've gone way over my projected costs. I have been building as I go since day 1. I started with an old shop light out of my garage that is only 2xT12 flouro tubes. Oh yeah, read/read/read/learn/learn/read/learn/learn/read/read all the time.

Germination
Before I germinated my seeds I spent a good deal of time reading about different methods and the process the seed goes through during germination ect. I decided I would try a few different methods and see what worked best.

I took about 30% of my seeds and just dropped them in separate coffee cups ½ full of water and covered them.
Another 30% I wrapped in paper towels and misted with a spray bottle and then covered.
I figured since the two methods listed above were the most common I read about that I would combine them. I wrapped seeds in paper towels and submerged them in about ¼" of water and then covered them.
I took the remaining 10% of my seeds (OG Kush and Sour D since I had more of them than anything else) and sowed them directly into some Miracle Grow which was all I had when I started everything.

The next 3 days threw a wrench in on my organization of the whole thing but nothing I can't figure out later.
I'll explain:

Day 1 I was up and gone for work at 8:00 AM, I worked 16 hours that day and got home around 12:30 AM and dead tired. I checked on the seeds and had a few with taproots so I put them in soil and labeled them, no issues.

Day 2 I had to work at 8:00 AM again. It was a crazy long day and I got home about 3:00 AM and all I wanted was a shower and sleep. I had to check on my seedlings though. Taproots had exploded all over the place! Everything I checked had seeds that needed to be put in soil. I did what I had to do but didn't label anything. I have a good memory so I knew I could remember what was what. I still had about 40% of my seeds that weren't ready to sow.

Day 3 there was no way I was going in at 8:00 AM and the boss knew it! I got in there about 10:30 which wasn't a problem because I had prepped everything for that days job the day before because this was going to be the roughest day of the stretch. I got home around 4:45 AM and what do you know, I just wanted to go to bed! I had to check on my seeds though. All the rest of them had taproots ready for soil and I had a couple of the seeds from previous days shooting through the soil I had planted them in. I sowed the rest of the seeds and skipped labeling, again.

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Now I have plants that I can't identify. This shouldn't be a huge issue though because I can probably research as they flower to ID them and if I'm having trouble, I know the awesome people at can help!

The only difference was 100% success when floated in cups but a little slower where I only had about 90% success in the damp paper towels but were a bit faster to show taproots. The wrapped/submerged ones behaved the same as just floating them. When it came down to it, they all had about the same results.

 

[Supernaut]

Vegetation
Over the week following germination in a temporary space, I built my real veg room. Basically, I hung Panda-Poly in a large closet (3x7) and got all my lights/fans set up and ran a couple days with no plants so I could monitor the environment. Panda-poly can be a real pain in the ass to do on your own but I learned along the way. I’m pretty damn pro at hanging it now that I’ve finished both rooms though.

I found another 48” fixture in the garage and then made my own fixture for CFLs so now I had 4x40w flouro tubes and 2x42w Cool White CFLs. Later I came across a 125w CFL and reflector for really cheap so I added that to the Op and removed 1 flouro fixture. So now I have 2x40w flouros, 2x42w CFLs and a 125w CFL which is a setup I am very happy with for my veg room.

Once my veg room was ready, I moved the seedlings into that room and transplanted to bigger pots. I started with the smaller ones because I didn’t want to kill my more vigorous seedlings with my inexperience in potting. I got the hang of it and soon had them all into bigger pots and in their new environment. They didn’t do much for a day or two and then they exploded with growth. By this time I had run out of Miracle Grow (which was definitely not a bad thing) and invested in Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.

Over the next month or so I did a ton of reading, watching them, experimenting on them with different training methods and basically just trying to become attuned to them. I began topping/fiming/LSTing experiments on different plants pretty early but I let my more vigorous plants do their thing and didn’t interfere with them.

When they were about 18 days into veg, I started a low dose regimen of nutes in every other watering. I immediately noticed that the plants that were in strictly MG soil were having what seemed to me to be PH issues. I did what I could to correct it and decided I would never use MG again. My next transplanting was into the Fox Farm soil but I still have some Ph issues and slight nute burn here and there with those ones because of the MG root ball. The ones that went straight from 2 cubic inches of MG to a pot full of Fox Farm have had no issues.

All the time since I moved my seedlings into my permanent veg room, I had been building my bloom room and designing/experimenting with my exhaust system. I got the design down after consulting with a friend that designs HVAC systems and a little trial and error. I planned on using 2 6” duct fans that I got at Lowes for ~$28 each. They worked fine actually, I could have used them throughout the grow but I wanted to get a carbon filter eventually so I just recently got a 440cfm inline fan and that bad boy moves some air. At first I mounted it on the ceiling but when I plugged it in, it was terribly loud. I could hear it from every room in my house because of all the vibration. Luckily, my ducting had to go down to ground level anyway so I made a little platform for it and mounted in on the floor. The difference as far as noise is like night and day.

All the while, for watering, I have been filling a 5 gal bucket and running a fish tank bubbler to clear out the chlorine. I have 2 orange juice containers that are just over 1 gal each. One I use to water with nutes, the other for just water. This can be a pain in the ass as it causes channeling in the soil when I water if I’m not careful and pour it slowly.

Flowering
I finally finished my flowering room about a week ago. Room is 6.5x9.5x7. Actual growing area is ~5x8, the rest is floorspace for fans ect. I have 1x400w HPS and 1x600w HPS in there. I set my lights and everything on my timers and ran it dry for two days to monitor temp/humidity changes in the room before I put my plants in there. Over those 2 days I transplanted some of the plants into bigger pots if they needed it and then the day I actually put the plants into the flowering room, I cut clones from the most vigorous ones.

*** I did not put them all into flower. I kept a few in veg because I have been LSTing them and I want to wait about a month to flower them while I finish the LST. These ones, I cut clones from and will put them into 12/12 as soon as they root so I can check their sex and add to my perpetual harvest. ***

I was sure I did not want to put my plants on 12/12 to sex them, cut clones and revert them back to veg. I was also sure I didn’t want to clone and then flower the clones to sex them. That would mean the originals would be taking up all my veg room space and if they were male, that’s a waste of space. Plus that would delay my harvest about a month. Once I can tell what sex the originals turn out to be (Should be in the next few days I would guess) I can discard any male plants and clones from male plants. I took 2 cuttings from each just in case one didn’t make it. I plan on using these clones as my mother plants. If both clones from a plant are successful, I will use the stronger one as a mother and the other will go into flower in about 3-4 weeks. This will add to my perpetual harvest.

I have had plants in 12/12 now for 4 days and this brings us up to date on where I sit today. I will get pics up very soon, probably tonight.

 

[ggrant]

Sounds like a killer combination of seeds. Supernaut.

If you post some pictures, I'm sure you'll get a lot more interest in your posts.

Good luck!

 

[Supernaut]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the pics. I guess I'm kind of hesitant to post pics online even though I'm legally growing for 2 people. I'll get them up today though.

 

[Supernaut]

Almost a week into 12/12 and have a couple showing sex.

My first calyx. Correct me if I'm wrong.

First male as well.

A shot of the bloom room.

I'm having a bit of trouble getting the color right on my photos in the flowering room. Seems to be from the HPS lights. I'd appreciate some photography tips if anyone has any. I have a decent camera (Sony DSC -H10), I just can't seem to get my settings right.

 

[Supernaut]

Pretty much all the plants are showing sex now. I got rid of the one male but the rest are showing female other than 3 or 4 that aren't showing anything yet. The friend I got the seeds from said he didn't have any males at all from them. I don't know the history of them, but they seem to be feminized. I know the one male was from the random bagseed. I remembered it from the start since it had some huge, fat, indica type leaves and always had a few issues.

High noon and all is well. Take it easy

I'm off to watch the Lions game

 

[Supernaut]

So I've been able to identify the sex of all my plants except for one. It's odd because it's one of my larger ones that all showed within 5-6 days. I had one male that was easy to spot. This one looks like it could be male but it's not as apparent as the other one was. I figure I'll give it another day or so and see what happens.

Here's a few shots of it:

Looks like it's a male to me, what do you guys think?

 

[Supernaut]

Anyone?

 

[420GodsTrichome]

How did this grow turn out?

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