Aurora Indica Feminized - LED - Soil - 4x4 - Grow I

[Asesino85]

This is the one that is largest (#1) but I don't think it's the "best" looking. That one leaf is bent and I'm not sure if thats normalish or if it's trying to tell me something. It still looks really healthy. Maybe just paranoia...

 

[Asesino85]

Day 9 - I've almost reached the 10 day mark! From what I hear if the gals look healthy by day 10 then you are out of what is a very sensitive and crucial first week and a half. As the plants grow I am realizing that the bending in a few leaves is no big deal. This is the one that had a really bent leaf and now it just looks sort of bent.

This morning I dumped a little water over the towel in the tent to keep the humidity up while I was at work. My official results after 24 hrs was that I was able to keep the temperature at 79 and humidity of 56-61%. Pretty much exactly what I want, don't think I could ask for too much better. There was some water in bin below the towel so I just soaked up the rest with towel and will change again before sleep. I will likely do this schedule everyday, unless the plants start putting off more moisture as they get larger. I watered yesterday so I was thinking of putting these into their final 5 gallon pots tomorrow. Today was the first day I could see root at the bottom of the solo cup. It isn't out of the cup yet so I think 1 more day will be good.

Plant #2 is the same size as #1 now. #3 and #4 and #5 are all almost the same size with #3 just a tiny step behind now. They all look super healthy. I'm stoked!

 

[Mars Hydro]

I'm glad to hear that she is good

 

[Asesino85]

Day 10 - I'm kinda confused on when I should transplant. I thought I noted that I should transplant to final pot when once I watered the soil it's pretty dry in just two days. Mine is kind of dry but I do see roots starting to make their way for the holes on the bottom of the cup. Also I remember reading someone saying once the leaves extend past the rim of the cup then they are big enough. My plan was to transplant tonight. Here is what one looks like....

 

[Asesino85]

I decided to trust my instinct and just plant them in the larger pots. They are 5 gallon pots and I watered the soil first with 6.5 ph water, this time from the tap and let it sit a while in gallon jugs. The roots looked really good in all of them and #5 was the only one that kind of fell apart on me when I turned it over (#5). Incidentally this is my pick for the one to turn out the best so that was slightly disappointing that it received probably the most stress. It's only my pick due to something that I read about that middle part getting the most light with the way I have it set up. I maybe should have let them go one more day but I don't think it's a big deal and it's nice to get transplanting out of that way. I then watered them once they were in the ground again.

I also had to move the lights up to adjust for the fact that the pots sit up higher than the cups. It's 30" higher than the plants and the plants seem to like this height. They really seem compact so I'm going to leave it and let the plants grow into about 27". Humidity last 24 hours was between 59-63% and temperature was a steady 79 again. Only broke these numbers when i emptied the tent to transplant. I saw a big spike in humidity (Up to 77%) with all the water in the pots so I removed the DIY humidifier for now. I will watch it all night but likely wont put it back in unless humidity drops below 50% before sleeping.

The roots

All of them - They look so small in their new homes!

 

[Mars Hydro]

they will stretch out in their "big home"

 

[Asesino85]

Day 11 - Humidity is staying around 68% since transplanting yesterday. The temperature also dropped to 77 and stayed stable there. I've cleared out the air a few times with my inline fan so the humidity stays below 70%. Last night the humidity got up to 72%. I'd really like that to be more like 60%. If it doesn't drop to at least mid 60s before I go to sleep tonight I'll turn the inline fan on super low for the night.

Plants #1,#2 and #5 all started growing again right away. #3 and #4 have only slightly grown and are barely smaller than the other 3. #5 was the one that kind of fell apart on me when transplanting so glad that showed noticeable growth today.

When do people start using the nutrients? Am I safe to start adding a little tiny bit at a time to the water or should I just let the plants grow in the soil few weeks and absorb only the soil's nutrients? I do know to only use like 1/4 of what the bottle says. My plan was to start using nutrients on day 15.

Nutrients are kind of the one area that my research has fallen short on. There seems to be a lot of variance on when people start using them. If it helps any I am using the General Hydroponics flora series. Any advice here is welcomed!

 

[Stinky Snid]

Looking great for the next step Asesino, good job on the up canning. Those roots looked very healthy and vibrant white, they'll love to stretch their toes in that big Ole tub of dirt. Keep up the good work and...

KiG cheers

 

[Asesino85]

Looking great for the next step Asesino, good job on the up canning. Those roots looked very healthy and vibrant white, they'll love to stretch their toes in that big Ole tub of dirt. Keep up the good work and...

KiG cheers

Thanks for the positive vibes! Glad to know at least a few people are watching in case I make an error they can help. Also the letting me know I'm on the right track is reassuring!

 

[Asesino85]

Day 13 - Basically since transplanting i've just fiddled with trying to just make the environment as steady as possible. I was able to maintain a humidity range of 60% and 63% and a temperature of 79 for 48 hours (I expect this to continue on today as well). The nice thing about those tents is you can fiddle with either opening the air screens at the bottom or one of the extra intake fan spots at the top to get everything just right. Those numbers sound just about perfect from what I gather for vegetative stage.

Also kind of funny is that I went from having to add humidity to having to take it away due to the up-canning. It makes perfect sense, it just wasn't something I had thought about. Something I have learned is when you do something major like up-canning, make sure you do it early enough in the day that you can monitor the environment for a while before you go to bed or leave for a long period of time. If I would have done this right before bed that night would have been at lest 80+% and just causing unnecessary stress for about a day.

I was curious also to see if they would pause in growth due to the stress or if they would just keep growing on like normal. The results!

Day 11 - Exactly two days ago

Day 13 - Currently

Inner growth!

Family Photo

 

[Oldbear]

This is a great thread. The summaries at the beginning will save others (and me) a lot of reading when considering becoming a gardener.

A question about fan size: How many air changes per hour are needed for optimum environment?

 

[dirt mcgert]

Looking good so far

 

[Asesino85]

This is a great thread. The summaries at the beginning will save others (and me) a lot of reading when considering becoming a gardener.

A question about fan size: How many air changes per hour are needed for optimum environment?

Thanks man. I wasn't going to do one since it was my first grow and I didn't want to screw up but I know there is a ton of good people here with experience and solutions and if my grow started to go south I wanted to be able to fix it instead of lose it. There is so much information on here I just tried to put together a summary of it all. I'm glad to hear it helped someone else!

 

[dirt mcgert]

This is a great thread. The summaries at the beginning will save others (and me) a lot of reading when considering becoming a gardener.

A question about fan size: How many air changes per hour are needed for optimum environment?

I'm no expert but I've seen all kinds of suggestions from once an hour up to 60x an hour. But I feel it all depends on your set up. How much space you have, heat, using CO2, all kinds of variables.

 

[Asesino85]

Looking good so far

Appreciate the thumbs up!

 

[Asesino85]

I'm no expert but I've seen all kinds of suggestions from once an hour up to 60x an hour. But I feel it all depends on your set up. How much space you have, heat, using CO2, all kinds of variables.

I just bought an inline fan that would clear out my grow tent easily on high. I didn't get that in depth to how many air changes per hour or anything like that. I just know its adjustable and with my other fans I will always have good air circulation. If you have problems with humidity its probably harder to keep it up if you clear out the air often. Just have to account for all the variables and make the best guess like you said. Nice thing about LEDs is they don't heat up the tent too bad so you don't have to run the inline fan all that often if you dont want to.

 

[Mars Hydro]

they grow fastlooking good

 

[TheBlaze]

Subbed

 

[Jae416ixside]

everythings looking good im subbed in

 

[Asesino85]

Day 14 - Two weeks into this thing I'd have to say the first two weeks have seemingly gone off without a hitch. With that being said I decided to be risky and top all my plants last night. I've seen a couple grows do it this early and it worked out really well. They were experts and I am a rookie. Lol! Anyways, the only other thing I am 100% sure on is that every grow is different and you have to "know" your plants. Based on what has been crazy growth and very healthy looking plants, I felt at ease topping these things.

The decision was made based on an educated guess really. I know that in a day or two I will have to water these things again and I didn't want to top on a day I was watering (and introducing nutrients for the first time). That seems like a lot for the plant to handle all at once. It seemed like this node was the perfect time then as the roots can really grab whats left of the water and I want these things to stay short. There was growth already out all the corners on the inside branches of the plant as well which I read was a good time. This was the 4th node but probably would have liked the plant to be just a bit larger. It was a gut decision. We will see if I messed up.

Overall the topping was easy and it was kind of like spinning a stem off of an apple. It kind of just pops off like that when you get it right. Had to spread the branches out to get to the tops of the #3 and #4 because they are smaller but still was able to pop them off with my thumb and finger. Most people won't be topping this early so I'm excited to see if this hurt or helped or does nothing. Now because I did this early I can feed my plant in a couple days with nutrients and it will just eat it up. Also I plan to introduce some Low Stress Training once I see the plants start perking up from the nutes.

I checked the girls when I got home (about 20 hours later) and they are doing well. Any branches that were spread out have tightened up and I expected these things to really slow down in growth today, and they haven't. No matter what I do they just keep going. The soil is dry about an inch down. Watering probably tomorrow. Humidity started dropping to 57% so I know the water is getting dry. I closed the one flap I had open on my tent as well to see if that bumps it back up a little. The plants are all the same height at 3.5 inches tall. All of them are 7" long except #3 which is 6".

Topping

Almost a day after topping - The inner leaves are hard to see but look healthy