Candy Cane Auto Journal - First Grow

[Juny360]

That's how I've felt with mine, that I've been under watering them if anything, i mean in terms of real good waterings mine have only had 2 in 15 days since sprout now (counting full soak today), and realistically not given them any nutes yet, that said I think I have other problems, and my pots I think are retaining more water than they should be.

Yours seem to have really started to take off around day 15\16. I'd say keep doing what your doing.
On ph pens. I have one and the drops... I use both because I don't trust either alone, I may even get a 2nd digital pen.
It is important to calibrate it though, and to do so every couple weeks. It's hilarious that calibration stuff runs just as much as the pen.
I also have solution incoming this week. (I do have 4 more sets of calibration packs that I ordered with the pen originally, but I'd rather use liquid solution than 'dissolve these crystals in a cup of water' packs).

Yeah it's crazy. I've been using EBay alot and seem to get better deals. After my first grow if everything goes well, I'll invest in a more expensive ph equipment..but for now, I'll see how things go..

 

[Juny360]

Day 21. She got a feeding of fox farms big bloom and she is looking really good. I'm excited and feel as things are progressing as they should. The hardest part of this grow, honestly, has been being patient. Tommorow I plan to visit the local hydroponic store and pick up ph up and down and maybe some other things. I also have a 300w LED light on the way.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Looking good!

When you introduce the LED, just remember keep it a bit higher than usual for the first couple days then lower as she gets used to it a little, which one did you pick up?

 

[Calvados]

Looking good. Nice pics. Don't be afraid of topping and/or LST. They are pliable and adapt quickly. I'd recommend a pair of fine clippers for cutting. You are way more likely to harm them with neuts and/or over watering. Spraying is very good. Also using a syringe to carefully water until it just doesn't need that kind of care. Verify what your PH is meant to be for the soil that you are using (they aren't all the same). If you haven't already get a PH pen and Up/Down. Don't assume your water is OK. If your water isn't correctly PHd, your roots can't absorb the neuts which will screw things up in a hurry. Veg is all about establishing good roots and the right profile for your branches.

 

[Juny360]

Looking good!

When you introduce the LED, just remember keep it a bit higher than usual for the first couple days then lower as she gets used to it a little, which one did you pick up?

I ordered the mars hydro 300w. I figured that would ok for 1-2 plants.

 

[Juny360]

Looking good. Nice pics. Don't be afraid of topping and/or LST. They are pliable and adapt quickly. I'd recommend a pair of fine clippers for cutting. You are way more likely to harm them with neuts and/or over watering. Spraying is very good. Also using a syringe to carefully water until it just doesn't need that kind of care. Verify what your PH is meant to be for the soil that you are using (they aren't all the same). If you haven't already get a PH pen and Up/Down. Don't assume your water is OK. If your water isn't correctly PHd, your roots can't absorb the neuts which will screw things up in a hurry. Veg is all about establishing good roots and the right profile for your branches.

I plan to start the lst today when I get home from work today. The PH is where I killed my first couple plants in the seedling stage. I have a cheap PH pen and also PH strips but they never sent me the calibration solution. I'm picking some of that up either today or tommorow.

 

[Calvados]

I ordered the mars hydro 300w. I figured that would ok for 1-2 plants.

It will do just dandy.

 

[Calvados]

I live in the UK. My pen is a Semlos 0.01 Resolution Digital PH Meter. It cost £13. It works great. You shouldn't have to calibrate them for a while from new.

 

[Juny360]

I live in the UK. My pen is a Semlos 0.01 Resolution Digital PH Meter. It cost £13. It works great. You shouldn't have to calibrate them for a while from new.

Yeah I think my ph meter is good. I compared it to the strips so it should be fairly accurate. I'll start watching my PH from now on.

 

[Juny360]

So plants are looking beautiful and have been awake for about a hour now. They seem to be very happy today after the feeding. Soil still looks moist so they should be good for now.

I really only talk about one of my plants. I have another candy cane that I have growing beside her and she is about 2-3 days behind her. Well, today I felt confident to top her as an experiment. I talked about it before and everyone has an opinion and it's time for me to learn on my own, lol. So, I topper her and I will begin to include her in my journal. I will name her Testie haha. And the original that everyone has been following, I'll call her Candy.

Testie:

Closeup of Testie's top:

Candy:

I'll do the LST on Candy either tonight or tommorow. ✌

 

[Juny360]

I went ahead and started doing LST on testie. Not even sure if I'm doing it right, but oh well, I'll see where it goes. As far as Candy, I started to LST her but then decided to let her go wild and see where it goes. As I look back exactly 10 days ago she has definitely given me good growth and bushed out more. I can't help but say I am proud of her. I am happy with her results thus far.

Also today I went and got calibration solution and turns out my pen was perfect after all. I also got some PH down and wow...its amazing how just a little bit of that has a HUGE effect on the ph level. I should have gotten some PH up to go with it. I added about 1/4 tspn and it took me from 7.2 to 3.5 . I guess I will use the droplet that the guy at the store gave me. Makes perfect sense now but at least they aren't thirsty right now. ✌

 

[Calvados]

Yup. It takes very little to move the PH.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Yup. PH up take a little bit more.. like for every 4 tiny drops of ph-up it's about one tiny drop of ph down. lol
I use either the dropper that came the ph droplets kit, or today I used a bunch of syringes that arrived (mainly for doing my nutes but I got a few extra). I felt like a doctor today...hmm lets see 3cc's of this... 5 cc's of that... etc.

 

[Juny360]

Yup. PH up take a little bit more.. like for every 4 tiny drops of ph-up it's about one tiny drop of ph down. lol
I use either the dropper that came the ph droplets kit, or today I used a bunch of syringes that arrived (mainly for doing my nutes but I got a few extra). I felt like a doctor today...hmm lets see 3cc's of this... 5 cc's of that... etc.

Seriously! I felt like a scientist playing around with the water and ph. It had me thinking about getting a handheld microscope to really zoom in on the plants

 

[knighthawktfc]

Seriously! I felt like a scientist playing around with the water and ph. It had me thinking about getting a handheld microscope to really zoom in on the plants 

I got a 15$ 60-100x scope handheld the other day, it works pretty good, if you have a leaf off the plant or maybe if your plants are grown and you have a stead hand. Personally I regret not spending the extra 15$ for a 30$ one that has a usb interface, be a lot easier look at leaves still on the plant if I could watch on the screen on my tablet while using other hand or both to hold steady and focus etc.

This is the one I should have got - Plugable 250x Digital USB Microscope with Observation Stand | Plugable
This is the one I got, it works as advertised though: Carson MicroBrite Plus 60x-120x Power LED Lighted Pocket Microscope mm-300

 

[Juny360]

Hope everyone is doing well. Today marks 24 days and everything seems to be well. Testie looks like she is recovering from her topping but I can't really tell. Any and all feedback is appreciated. I decided to hold off a while om LST and continue reading about it. Im too worried about breaking a stem and what not. As for Candy she is still going strong. And growing.

I think I may need to get another tent. The light I ordered should be here tommorow and I planned on keeping it 24" above the canopy. This issue is, if the plant grows another 2 inches then I'm going to be losing gap real quick and won't be able to keep raising the light. I should have thought about that before ordering a 2x2x4 tent. However, this just might be more a reason to LST? ✌

Candy:

Testie (candy cane):

Does it look like she is recovering from the topping?

 

[knighthawktfc]

Seems to be doing well. I started bending my Cane tonight a little, no tie down yet though, so many leaves darn huge fans are blocking so much undergrowth, real pain trying to get them out of the way to let the fellas underneath get a little more light.

 

[Juny360]

Seems to be doing well. I started bending my Cane tonight a little, no tie down yet though, so many leaves darn huge fans are blocking so much undergrowth, real pain trying to get them out of the way to let the fellas underneath get a little more light.

Yeah I'm in the same. I've looked up a lot of previous candy cane auto from the completed journals folder. Looks like these CC are bushy. I've been thinking about putting the CFL on the sides and LED on the top just to help with side growth. I'm thinking it might help with yield.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Yeah I'm in the same. I've looked up a lot of previous candy cane auto from the completed journals folder. Looks like these CC are bushy. I've been thinking about putting the CFL on the sides and LED on the top just to help with side growth. I'm thinking it might help with yield.

Yup I may redirect my 'side' lights in next couple days from be angled from sides downward to like...literally being side lights... maybe not 90degrees but something close.

 

[Juny360]

Lights came in and I set them up once I came home from work. Wow that light is bright! I originally wanted to set the lights up approx 24" above canopy but I was lucky to get 21.5-22". I'm not sure how accurate the Manuel is to our plants. If they are accurate then as it gets further in its cycle then 15" distance would be reasonable. Feedback Please?

If that is the case then, with a little LST I may be able to get away with the tent I have and not have to worry about investing in to another tent.

One thing I like about this new light is it allowed me to get rid of 8 CFL lights leaving me with a lot more room to maneuver around the tent and cleaned up the cabling.

Testie is showing growth and I THINK I may have accomplished what I was shooting for by topping her, which was 2-4 colas. Too early to tell, however, that's what I want to believe .

Testie:

Candy:

The new set up