2 Gallon Hydro: Super Skunk In A Cabinet

[motaman311]

Hey everyone, this is my first post in this forum, so HI! I am a new grower living in the northeast US that has tons to learn still and I am looking forward to meeting most of you!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Expectations
This is my 3rd grow, so I am using this to experiment a little more and to prep for a larger grow I am going to start in the next couple weeks in a 4 x 4 tent. My other grows I messed up a ton, but learned a lot. I am hoping to yield ~50 grams of decent bud while practicing new training techniques (Topping, Defoliation and LST).

Grow Info
Super Skunk Fem from 420 40% Indica/60% Sativa I bought 10 ~2 years ago and they all popped, so kudos to Robert Bergman and co.
Week 4 Veg as of 29 Jan 2019
Room Temps: 78-80F during the day and at night 70-72F
Humidity: 40% - I try to get it higher with cups of water and wet towels, but 40% is the average humidity
Water Temp: Target 68F
PH: Target 5.8 but I like to let it drift a bit, so 5.6-6.2. I don't like to let it sit above 6 for more than a day either.

Equipment
36" Tall x 20" Wide x 16.5" Deep cabinet
Mars Hydro Reflector 48 (~100 true watts with Veg and Bloom on)
Danners AP-4 Air pump 3.5 Watts
2" Net Pot
Rapid Rooter Start Plugs
4"x 2" Air stone and 4" air stone bar
Spring Water (Normally ~80 PPM)
2-2.25 Gallon Res when full

Nutrients
I am using the Botanicare Line
Pure Blend Pro Grow
Cal-Mag Plus
Liquid Karma
Hydroguard
Pure Blend Pro Bloom

 

[motaman311]

Seedling/Germination Phase:

Day 1 - 3pm placed 2 seeds in Paper towel for germination
Day 2 - 8AM (~30 hours) both seeds popped Tap roots. Placed them in rapid rooters. PH'd the water, no added nutrients yet
Day 3 - Added nutrients to 225 PPM. Hydroguard 2.5ml was added. PH 5.7
Day 5 - Removed 1 plant/starter plug. It wasn't popping. The taproot got larger, but was still extremely slow. Possibly because I started nutrients too early, but most likely over-watering. I only planned to run 1 plant anyways, so no worries!

 

[motaman311]

Veg Week 1
Day 1 - First sign of true leaves. Added 3.5ml (1.75 per gallon) of Liquid Karma. Nutrients started
at 225 up to 285. Plan to slowly go up to ~400 in the next few days, depending on
how she looks.

Day 2 - Plant looks good. Slight yellowing on 1 Cotyledon, but should go away with more light.
Good root growth and true leaves getting larger. Added grow nutrients to ~325 PPM.
Plan to add Calmag and more grow nutrients to push to 400 tomorrow.

Day 3 - PH 6.2 Water Temp 72. PPM 325. More root growth. Added 1.5ml of CalMag (.75ml per
gallon) and 2ml of Veg nutrients. At 400 PPM PH dropped to around 5.8.
Water Temp 73. Will add cold water tomorrow and that should lower the temp on the
res to the desired 65-70 temp range.

Day 4 - PH 5.9 Water Temp 71. PPM 380. Raised the plant ~3 inches closer to the light. Added
2.5ml (1.25 per gallon) and 16 oz water. Liquid Karma 2.75 ML per gallon. PPM 400

Day 5 - PH 5.9 Water Temp 69. PPM 380. Added nutrients to 420 PPM. Added 16oz of cold
water. Noticed leaf twisting. Research leads me to believe it is caused by fast growth,
low humidity or nute problem. It occurred after I added the liquid karma
Lifted start plug up and placed plant on top of Hydroton to give it more space in
between water line and starter plug and more stability.

Day 6 - PH 5.8 Water Temp 71. PPM 420. Plant looks really good, very green. Holding same PPM
for another couple days until I start seeing more more fan leaves.

Day 7 - PH 5.9 Water Temp 68. PPM 420. Added 32 OZ cold PH'd water to bring res temp down.
Added 2.5ml Liquid Karma (1.25ml per gallon), 2ml Hydroguard (1ml per gallon).

 

[motaman311]

Lessons Learned through Germination and Week 1 Veg:
- Don't over-water with starter plugs
Maintain a gap in between the water line and plug

- Wait another day or two for nutrients
I believe over-watering and possibly the nutrients too early prevented the other seed from
breaking through the starter plug

- WASH HYDROTON
Didn't cause too much of an issue, but some dust clogged my air stones and had some
unwanted crud in my res

- Maintain better accountability of nutrient amounts for supplements (LK, Cal-Mag, Hydroguard)
During Week 2 I change ~40% of the res and improve on this

 

[motaman311]

Week 2 Summary/Goals
- Prep for topping in week 3
- Continue to increase nutrients as needed
- Maintain healthy res temp and accountability of Supplements
- Turned on Bloom lights to provide more lighting. More lighting = more growth! Red Spectrum typically encourages stretching, but with this light it is minimal during Veg.


Day 1 - PH 6.1 Water Temp 69. PPM 435. Turned on Bloom lights. Add ~35 watts to total 100 in cabinet.

Day2 - PH 6.2 Water Temp 74. PPM 430. Bloom lights create a lot more heat to the container and without the canopy to cover the res, water temp got really high. Seemed to really like the extra light. Growth looks faster and she is very green. Changed 100 oz of water with cold water. Added 5ml Liquid Karma, 2ml Cal Mag and 2.5ml Veg Nutes and 2ml Hydroguard. PH 5.7 Water Temp 65. PPM 490

Current Nutrient Levels - Liquid Karma 5.5ml per gallon, Cal Mag 1.25ml per gallon, Hydroguard 1.5ml per gallon, ~7.5ml per gallon Veg nutes (until target PPM).

Day3 - PH 6 Water Temp 73. PPM 485 Adding frozen water bottle and PH Down to get PH
back down to 5.7. Plant looks great, roots are growing fast and it looks healthy. PH 5.6 Water Temp 68. Added 2 frozen water bottles throughout the day and kept res 68-71.

Day4 - PH 5.75 Water Temp 75; lowered to 73 after adding frozen bottle of water. PPM 490. Nothing new to report except good growth and trying to maintain healthy root zone temp.
Replaced frozen water bottle with another. Water Temp 69. Added cup of water to try and rise humidity.
Later in the day PPM was at 505. Added 16oz of spring water to get PPM down a bit since it was rising. Lowered to 480. PH 5.8 Water Temp 72.

Day5 - PH 5.8 Water Temp 72. PPM 485. Added frozen water bottle to res, temp was already at 71 will prob drop to ~67ish. Nothing new to report other than great growth. PH 5.8 Water Temp 75, then 72 with water bottle and going down. PPM steady at 485 throughout the day.

Day6 - PH 5.8 Water Temp75/72. with water bottle PPM 485.

Day7 - PH 5.8 Water Temp75/72. PPM 500. Added frozen water bottle. 3 Nodes already established, working on 4th. A lot of growth in 1 day. Added 64 Oz of Cold Water (55F). Water Temp 63. PPM 505 PH 5.9. Added 4ml Liquid Karma, 2ml Cal, 1.5ml Hydroguard and 2.5ml Veg Nutes

Current Nutrient Levels - Liquid Karma 6.25ml per gallon, Cal Mag 2ml per gallon, Hydroguard 2ml per gallon, Veg Nutes 8ml per gallon (until desired PPM) = 500 PPM with Spring Water

 

[motaman311]

Summary/Goals for Week 3
Unfortunately it looks like I am running out of space and will have to flip in the next few days. I want a max height of 20-24" to leave 6-8" of space in between light and plant. On Day 7, she is 8" tall and 13" wide. 13" from light. 26 Days old from seed at the end of week 3 (Jan 27).

- Top for the first time ever! - Day 2
- Changed out air stones- Day 2
- Res Change - Day 2 and Day 6. Day 6 I upped the PPM to 600. A little nervous about pushing her that high, but she seems healthy so we will see what happens!
- Defoliated - Day 6
- LST - I tucked Fan leaves, but didn't tie anything down. Plan to right before flowering switch

Day 1 - PH 5.8 Water Temp 68. PPM 510. Added frozen water bottle to maintain the res temp in the 60's. Getting ready to top in the next few days. Growing faster now and want it to get a little older before I top to reduce recovery time. Plan to do a full res change in the next couple days as well.

Day2 - PH 5.8 Water Temp 69. PPM 495. Planning to top today and res change. Topping at 5th node.
I think I messed up topping (node 5) and accidentally cut one of the side branches as well, so topped down to next node (4). Conducted a res change. Switched out air stones for a new 1" x 2" and 12" bar. Looks like it is producing more bubbles than the older ones. The Air pump is a little weak for the 12" bar, but it is still achieving the goal of more bubbles spread out across the res and the smaller air stone is pumping right under the roots (they love it!). I placed nute water in gallon jug and placed roots in jug while res was cleaned, this got some of the dirt that was on the roots. PH 5.8 Water Temp 62. PPM 500

Current Nutrient Levels - Hydroguard .9ml per gallon (2.5ml total) , Liquid Karma 5.4ML per gallon (15ml total), Cal Mag 1.6ml per gallon (4.5 cal), Veg Nutrients 11ml per gallon (25 total) = 500 PPPM

Day 3 - PH 5.7 Water Temp 75. PPM 510. Added frozen water bottle, Temp dropped to 71 immediately. Looks great after being topped. Did some leaf tucking to expose the lower branches to light.

Day 4 - PH 5.7 Water Temp 72. PPM 485. Tucked some of the fan leaves to expose lower sites

Day 5 - PH 5.7 Water Temp 72. PPM 465. A lot of new growth, continued to tuck fan leaves to expose lower sites.

Day 6 - PH 5.6 Water Temp 71. PPM 465. Removed 32 ounces of water and added 1 Gallon of nute water. 2mlpg Hydroguard, 6 mlpg Liquid Karma, 2 mlpg Cal Mag, 10mlpg Veg Nutes. Res is now at PH 5.85 600 PPM. Water Temp 68. Removed some of the larger fan leaves to expose some of the lower sites.

Day7 - PH 6.5 Water Temp 69. PPM 615. Lowered PH to 5.9 and added 16 Oz cold PH'd spring water to bring PPM 585. 8" tall and 13" wide. 13" from light. I will probably have to flip to flowering in the next few days. Not sure why the PH rose so much overnight, will continue to monitor.

 

[motaman311]

Week 4 Summary/Goals
- LST - Day 1 I plan to tie down the branches to try and encourage a wider growth to utilize my space better
- Probably flip to flowering towards the end of the week. I can only have a max height of ~20-22". Planning for a 100% stretch

Day 1 - PH 6.0 Water Temp 69. PPM 585. Tucked some fan leaves in the morning, Tied down branches to encourage a wider growth.

 

[motaman311]

Germination - 1 Jan - 6 Jan - 6 Days
Veg Stage - 7 Jan - 30 Jan - 24 Days
Switching to flower tonight (Day 3). She looks healthy and it's better to be safe then sorry with my height restriction.

Day 3 - PH 5.9 Water Temp 71. PPM 585. Will change to flowering nutes in a couple days and do a res change. Upping Calcium with this feeding.
Added 64 Ounce of water - 4mlpg cal mag, LK 6mlpg, 12mlpg veg nutes.
PH 5.8 Water Temp 68. PPM 640

Current Nutrient Levels for end of Veg - 5.8ml/gal Liquid Karma, 1ml/gal Hydroguard, 2.3ml/gal Cal Mag Plus, and 11ml/gal Pure Blend Pro Grow

 

[motaman311]

Flowering!

Kept Veg nutes until Day 3. Noticed a possible deficiency on Day 3 (2 Feb), so I calibrated my PH meter, conducted a full res change, and switched/increased to flower nutrients.
Trying to continue to bend down tall branches and try and deal with my height limitations. Plan to do a defoliation around Week 3 Flower if needed, which it looks like it will.

Current Nutrient Levels: 15ml/gal Pure Blend Pro Bloom, 6ml/gal Liquid Karma, 2ml/gal Cal-Mag Plus, 1ml/gal Hydroguard

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.