Teejrocks' Coco Organic CMHx630 Grow With Oasis Genetics Autos Round 1

[Teejrocks]

Backstory:
Round 0.5 was with photo bag seed and made it into week 4 of flower, when my oversight resulted in 4 hermaphroditic plants and very fertilized buds. I had upgraded the grow room to have it's own GFCI protected circuit, which included a new heavy duty extension cord with a very brightly glowing end, which I failed to notice. After 5 nights with the night light my severe hayfever led me to check the girls a little better... All four were covered in exploded pollen sacks.

As my seed bank order had arrived, it was an easy decision to chop and clean the room and equipment for the next attempt... minus nightlight...

After reading like crazy and viewing videos through various platforms, I decided to emulate a you tuber's style of using organic dry amendments with a coco based substrate. ("Mr Canucks Grow") Fittingly, the you tuber, and his chosen brand of fertilizers are Canadian and easily available to me. His method goes against the coco = drain to waste hydro rule, but by fostering and feeding the microbiology of the medium seems to consistently produce... post edit of course...

The primary source of nutrients will be Gaia Green organic dry amendment blends, mixed as per the label as a pre mix and top dress as required. Supporting media is coco: perlite @ 6:1 in my case. Waterings will be with 6.5-6.8 pH'd de-chlorinated tap water, with occasional tea/ molasses.

What strain is it?
2 strains were sprouted, both from Oasis Genetics from True North Seed Bank. 2 each of "Lemon Drop" & "Gypsy Widow"
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
Lemon Drop = Super Lemon Haze x Ruderalis
Gypsy Widow = White Widow x Low Ryder #2
Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Planted in medium Feb 13th
Indoor or outdoor?
Roughly 3.5x6x7' high grow room, in basement. Insulated flat white walls on all sides, and insulated floor with black/white poly.
Soil or Hydro?
Coco... being treated as inert base for organic soil amendments
If soil... what is in your mix?
Coco: perlite 6:1
If soil... What size pot?
3 gallon felt pots
Size of light?
18w Costco Blurple LED to start, CMH/LEC 2x315w in one fixture
Is it aircooled?
Not sealed/vented... the bulb is open to the room air. 6" in line exhaust fan rated (laughably) for 400 CFM drawing room air from the ceiling. 2 x 3x10" passive intake, one 4" diameter hole for possible active A/C intake in summer.
Temp of Room/cab?
Running low of 19C at night and high of 26C @ 2.5' above the floor.
RH of Room/cab?
Low... Forced air heating and -30C weather. US humidifier was keeping it 5% above ambient, but was too dusty with tap water. I keep the house as humid as possible in the winter, while trying to avoid ice buildup during cold snaps. (25-35% lately)
PH of media or res?
Input water/tea/molasses @ 6.5-6.8
Any Pests ?
None so far, exotic pets in house preclude most pesticide use...
Type and strength of ferts used?
Gaia Green organic dry amendments: 4-4-4 all purpose blend, 2-8-4 power bloom blend, glacial rock dust
May also supplement with worm casting/compost teas and molasses.

Lets start with prep and planting:
Feb 12th:
Reconstitute 5kg brick of coco with ~25L of Grotek "Cal-Max" (2-0-0 Cal Mag sol'n)
Mix in 10L perlite
In batches to fit the 3 gallon pots, mixed in dry amendments at label amount at 2:1 all purpose: power bloom
Also Myke brand flower mycology in each mix
(oddly the label for my all purpose didn't match the web site or the you tube measurement, I will be contacting the company for their insight)
Ventilation fan on... with filter... (warm moist bat guano... yummy)

Feb 13th:
2 each of Auto Lemon Drop and Auto Gypsy Widow were planted into amended 3 gallon pots.
Each was given between 50-75 mL of aquarium tank water at an unknown pH and put under random deli cups for humidity retention thru germination.
Temporary heater added and set to 24-25C for germination.

White:

Blurple:


Feb 15th:
Warmth, moisture, and organic ferts (again... bat guano) = mold/fungi. Just a small expected amount on the surface.
Removed domes for a few hours, added cultured springtails to each pot to assist in mold/nutrient conversion.

Feb 16th:
All four starting to dry out, each gets 50-75 aquarium water again, mold half gone.
Possibly see two stems about to push through

 

[StoneOtter]

Sweet start Teej. Those autos are going to Rock!

 

[Teejrocks]

Thanks stoneotter!

Feb 17th:
All four were up last night when I started the journal.

Obligatory sprout pic that looks the same as everyone else's post germination photo...


... Yep, it's alive...

Heater & humidity domes have been removed, and LED swithced from red to blue @~ 18" for now.

Feb 18th:
Circulation fan back in room, will start watering as needed

Will update again once we have some growth...
Also not sure if it's better keep under close LED blurple, or switch to CMH at a greater distance to the plants... The 18w vs 630w issue says LED for now, but input is welcome.

 

[Teejrocks]

Feb 24th (Day 7):

Out with the LED... In with the CMH...

Have it hanging about 110cm (42") above the plants... It's crazy bright in there with the flat white walls and panda film floor.
I definitely need to secure the poly to the floor with rug tape. I slip on the plastic while it slips on the floor... Kinda sketchy.



All four are showing their second set of leaves.








So far they've been getting a ring of aquarium water every day or two, will probably be daily now, with the added heat of the CMH.

Now to make sure there are no light leaks to disturb their night period!

 

[StoneOtter]

Looking good. Safety first on the floor.

 

[Teejrocks]

Feb 28th (Day 11):

Just dropped the light down to 36"

Temps are running hotter than I would like, settles around 28.5C or 82F... The fan is 6" and rated at 412 CFM, but at full blast, the room is running about 4C above the intake temps. Intake currently is 2x 3"x10" vents, a 4" diameter vent and a small amount of air bypassing the blackout curtains. With a 2/3 full screen when my first attempt crashed, it was stable around 26.5, so hopefully as they grow and respire more combined with the extra 4" vent will help.

They just got their second watering of de chlorinated tap water, pH'd to 6.5.

You can see tiny white specks on the leaves of the plants in person and barely on the photos, the springtails are chillin' My crappy chinese USB microscopy finally came in. If I drag my laptop in there, I'll take a few super macro images, unless I can find an OTG cable for dirt cheap... The microsope was only $15...

Some photos of the ladies...









Slowly progressing...

 

[StoneOtter]

Slow and steady looks good on them.

 

[Teejrocks]

Mar 2(D13):
Houston... We have a problem...

Lemon Drop #1 is even more lemon colored today, not looking great...

The stupid low RH and higher room temps can't be helping matters. Gave her a splash of aquarium water instead of the usual "doughnut" around the plant, and will check on her in the morning before the lights go out.


The other 3 still seem to be slowly moving forward, and surviving the sub 20% RH.

Fired up the humidifier, but with the air changeover from the 6" exhaust trying to keep the heat in check it only manages to bump it 5% over my house RH... Stupid weather... -34C (-30f) tonight... before wind chill... Today's headline was "February 2019 was the coldest on Alberta records in 40 years"

Also concerned about the humidifier dust from the US humidifier clogging my scrubber... Wish list includes a RO unit for the pets and the grow room...







After reading so many threads it seems that the general consensus with autos is that a poor start = poor yield. Unless it shows some drastic improvement, we may have to replant a Lemon Drop 1.1

 

[Teejrocks]

Mar 3(D14):
Here's a shot of Lemon Drop #1 just before lights out @ 2PM... She looks pretty sad, a tiny bit of growth, but so yellow and curling tips...


Going to start soaking a new seed shortly and replant this evening, although I am going to remix that pot's substrate to be extra sure it wasn't a hot spot of dry amendments that fried this seedling.

 

[Teejrocks]

Mar 3(D14):
The wife picked another seed of the 6 remaining Lemon Drop, decided to soak to kickstart the seed before planting. I was shocked that within 15 minutes of dropping into aquarium water the casing had split and you could already barely see the white from the tap root through the crack.
I re mixed the substrate in that pot, and planted the new seed w/ a dome till she breaks through. I'm interested to see if the bigger light reduces some of the first week stretch that the other 3 experienced under the LED.

Mar 5 (end of day 15 @ 2PM):
The original 3 are looking pretty good so far. They had their first whole pot watering a few hours after the lights came on. I just found Emilya's watering guide, which was similar to how I water and will try her technique. I was noticing on run 0.5 that the Gaia Green rock dust was quite mobile in the medium when watering and was trying to influence it's path, so finding that thread was pretty sweet.

Pics shortly after lights out... Shouldn't have tried disabling the smart plug with google home 60 seconds before lights out. Figured it out... about 2 minutes too late. One big plus is the photos look better with the room light and flash on my cell...







Checked the seed too, hasn't poked above the surface, but still looking damp, might need another little splash of tank water tonight.

 

[Teejrocks]

Mar 6:
IT'S ALIVE!!!

Checked on LD1.1 @ lights on (8 pm) and the cotyledons were still closed just at the surface, and by 1 am had opened two show two tiny true leaves.


Lemon Drop 1.1 @ Day 1:


Meanwhile here is day 16 for LD2 & GW 1+2:






Time for another drink pretty quick, pots are all feeling pretty light.

Spending far too much time logged in here reading others journals... Might have to start reading some of the medical forums for info on depression treatment options... It might be worth all the red tape to go medical, despite the lack of prescribers in my province... Tried some Aurora Temple from the legal weed store (0.4/10.3 THC/CBD) vaped lightly throughout the day was a noticeable improvement... But confirmation bias is a bitch...

In the meantime tending my 4 "recreational plants" and caring for our plethora of pets is an adequate distration.

Either way, the budget will be happier once I get this growing down and don't have to pay tax heavy or grey market prices... Although like most in Canada near a major city "your guy" has less supply issues than the local weed store...

 

[Teejrocks]

March 10:
Lemon Drop 1.1 D5:
Well the bigger light minimized the stretch all right... Node 2 is coming in and she's barely over an inch above the substrate.


Gypsy Widow 1 & 2, Lemon Drop 2 D20:
GW1 is the tallest of the 3 older sprouts and node 6 is starting to sprout in. Probably going to start some LST shortly...


GW2 is also slowly getting bigger. Not as tall as GW1 but growing.


LD2 is the shortest and smallest of the three, but also starting to push node 6 out.


They're sharing a 5L watering can of dechlor'd pH'd tap water every 3-4 days when they start to feel light. LD1.1 meanwhile, is getting tank water every second day. I'm really looking forward to the end of winter so I can bump the RH in the room, 23% is so low...

 

[ChefDGreen]

I like this grow, I too want to see mr canuks style tried out.

Im someone who has had plenty of .5 grows to start with too. isn’t it great to have everything more or less how you want it?
Of course there’s always room for improvement, but having genetics you’ve selected and equipment/nutrients you’ve researched is so nice. Subbed

 

[Teejrocks]

Thanks for the kind words Chef!

The ease of the dry amendment style really attracted me... Then the price of the 10kg bags @ $50 locally made it even more attractive. If I can get my girls from this grow through flower looking anywhere close to Mr. Canucks, I will be one happy camper!

A big part of me wanted to have one of the fancy nute systems, but my wallet wasn't too keen on the startup shock of buying into a system. I was seriously considering Grotek's products as the idea of mixing mineral and biological inputs seems like a "best of both worlds" option.

I have used Plant Prod crystals for years, both for flowers and produce and was psyched to see that their commercial cannabis specific system was going to be available at the retail level. As long as the price isn't too stupid, I'd love to try them in the future too. If anyone in the wild has tried this nute lineup I'd love to hear about it. (... maybe I should try the search function)
Here's a link to the manufacturer's info page in case anyone was interested (provided for informational references only, you can't buy from them so, I'll assume a hotlink is okay)
Plant Prod MJ blend

Not that I regret getting up-sold to the 2x315w fixture, but I can tell that I will be struggling to keep my temps down come summer time. Once I am reliably producing enough bud to be self sustainable, I'll be saving up for some cool tubes or maybe even a couple vented vertical bulb hoods. 2 of those vertical hoods would be kinda crazy in my almost 4x6' space... Maybe I can win the lotto and install a sink in my detached garage, and either buy a room sized tent or build a grow room out there to take advantage of the 10' ceilings. You know, in case I want a little cannabis tree or something.

Oddly with Canada's new laws you can only have 4 plants, but from what I can see no limits are placed on personal storage at home, only limits on how much wet or dried cannabis you can carry in public... My pipe tobacco collection however, is technically over the personal storage limit of 1000g of loose tobacco and legally requires a permit... Oddly, my lack of permit for the seldom visited drawer of tobacco jars is probably more of a problem than my grey market cannabis seeds. It will be interesting to see what changes come in the fall with the edibles/concentrate market going legal.

...Bleh... politics in a grow journal... nasty...

The girls are sleeping... but here is a shot of the biggest one from run 0.5... I tortured this poor plant, played with topping, LST super cropping, then mis calibrated my pH pen and fried her... That little bagseed recovered amazingly and I had at least 20 decent bud sites at the screen 3 weeks into flower. Then the nightlight ruined it all... LMAO
This was probably 2 weeks before they were sacrificed...

 

[Teejrocks]

March 11:
Lemon Drop 1.1 (D6...):
This one is looking miles better than 1.0, and still so short and compact... @ $0.06/kWh I'll be skipping the LED blurple lamp unless I'm forced to use it. I'll be checking with the hydro store to see if the ballast in my fixture is okay running only one lamp as well.


Lemon Drop 2 & Gypsy Widow 1+2(D23... counting is hard... the last couple posts had erroneous day counts)

All three are showing at least one set of hairs as of lights on today... Both of the gypsy girls were getting pretty tall and they both got a pretty good lean going on now. LD2 is still smaller than both GWs, so she got a much gentler bending.

GW1


GW2


LD2


Time for the 3 big girls to get a drink as they were feeling pretty dry while adding the main stem supports, and they are pretty darn light too.

 

[ChefDGreen]

Looking good there Teej. I’m glad LD1.1 is coming along better, must’ve been a hot spot of nutes as you suspected.
Are you going to top any of them? Or LST

 

[Teejrocks]

Just planning on LST to see how things go, I have another 6 GW and 5 LD seeds so I'll likely run the same 4 plants again and try topping one of each next time around

March 14:
Here's a shot of all four for size comparisons prior to a re-bending and watering.


Lemon Drop 1.1 (Day 9)
Appears to be coming along nicely, so compact having sprouted under the big lights!


Lemon Drop 2 & Gypsy Widow 1+2 (Day 26)
LD 2 is looking pretty nice...


GW2 is also doing pretty well...


GW1 is starting to show some side bud action, but is looking a little upset however...


Going to give them a healthy slow drink, and adjust the tie downs. Might ponytail a leaf or two just for funsies.

I'll try and get some better pics after the bending

 

[Teejrocks]

More pictures...

Well the 3 larger girls got watered until runoff, which was soaked back up within 15 minutes. LD 1.1 also got a bit heavier of a drink today too, mostly around the edges of the pots until it had soaked half way in toward the plant.

GW1's main tip...

GW1's base/ side buds... those poor sad leaves

Tip of biggest side branch on GW1...


A couple closer shots of GW2 after adjusting the tie down...




Close ups of LD2...




Both of the GW girls have a noticeable odor now, especially when brushed, and the baby colas on the main tips definitely smell if you get close enough. LD2 is showing more tiny buds forming, but not smelling much as yet.

Not thrilled about the off color jagged leaf issue on GW1. Have to compare it to one of the symptom checkers, although being partially colourblind doesn't help matters for me.

We're almost to the point of topdressing, the company states monthly and the YT'r I am emulating was top dressing week 4/5. Any opinions on GW1 would be appreciated, maybe she is just ready for a top-dress?

Thanks for reading/following!

Edit: Also need to learn to water the soil, not the plant...

 

[ChefDGreen]

If I had to guess, I would say that those nutes just a bit hot in general for an auto. Did you follow the directions exactly or did you scale down?
Have you seen Emilyas sticky on watering potted plants? Basically the idea is to water slowly so that the water pulls air down with it, and to water around the outside of the pot mostly so that the roots have to stretch out for water

 

[Teejrocks]

You bet, I have read her watering sticky... Been reading through her grow journal too.

Just realized that I had neglected to email Gaia Green regarding the differences in their old website, new website, and packaging dosing strengths to see if I did mix it all too hot. That email was just sent before checking on the grow room tonight, so I probably won't hear back over the weekend. I'm interested to see what they say.

Mar 15:
I may have to look up using an old cell phone as a time lapse camera, just for fun.

Lemon Drop 1.1 (Day 10):


Gypsy Widow 1+2 & Lemon Drop 2(Day 27):
GW1 put on some decent growth in 24 hours, but they discoloration seems slightly worse.



GW2 apparently wasn't worthy of a photo tonight... She stinks though, pony tailed a couple of leaves and for a few seconds had some delicious scents coming from the plant.

LD2 is doing alright as well.


My oscillating fan decided that it should stop oscillating last night while pointing at the wall, so the I'm thinking the worsened upturned serrations were from the lack of air flow between those toasty bulbs and the plants. I also bumped the light back up a few inches, closer to 36" from the tops again.

I'll try and remember to snap a few pics in the AM when the pipe cleaners come off...

I might also try and pull my charcoal filter tomorrow at lights out so I can wash the filter sock, that might help with the temperatures a bit too.