First Grow Ever! Please Give All The Advice! Aurora Indica, Coco Coir, Indoor, 2018

[BlackThumbofDeath]

First time growing literally anything. Not a single plant of any variety haha. I've read a bunch of forums and guides. Which equates to a knowledge base slightly above zero haha. Really doing this as a hobby because my friends and gf smoke, and I needed a hobby. Sounded fun to do all of the measurements and record the data. Slightly nerdy. I rarely smoke myself.

So I'm creating this late because I originally wasn't going to create a journal. Although in the first 3.5 weeks, I've been absolutely lost on multiple occasions. During my search for what to do, I continuously came across forums like these where insanely intelligent and experienced growers were giving insanely awesome and personalized advice for newbies. So i decided I needed to cash in on this untapped resource.

Ok so now that we go through that. I'm starting this late. Although I do have tons of pictures because I'm a newbie and I like staring at them. So I don't have exact amounts, dates, values for things I've been doing prior. I have a pretty good estimate, but not exact. So here's what we got. Of note is that I started with only one seed germinating. Then I thought I messed it up and started two more just to have the first sprout up. So I'll be addressing the plants as #1, #2, or #3. With #2 &#3 being germinated at the same time. Going to make follow posts with pictures of the progress of them all.

INDOOR TENT GROW
Germinated- #1 Nov 13, 2018 ------#2 & #3 Nov 18,2018
Tent- 5'x5'x6.5', Air cooled with 350 cfm intake coming from a poorly insulated place in house that provides cool air cause tent was heating up like a sauna. Need a second fan for outtake when it gets smelly.
Temp- 78F Day 68F Night (Temps fluctuate slightly but the cooling and heating are both on automatic temp controllers.
Humidity- unmanaged until a week ago which was around 30% at night but day went to about 18%. Now I have an auto humidifier that's set to 50%.
Circulation- 2 honeywell table top type fans, 2 clip on fans 6inch, bottom rectangle flap left open for passive outtake (idk if that's even a term haha)
Strain- Aurora Indica from Nirvana shop
Medium-Coco Coir and Perlite mixed (purchased from local hydro store)
If soil... what is in your mix? No additives- Didn't read long enough ahead about priming coco. So the day of transfer I flushed the pot with tap water that was 600ppm (tap water is 150ppm plain) after adding cali-magic and then pH'd to 5.8-6.0(used a few buckets tried to keep it at 6 though) . So I flushed the coco until it was saturated and the drainage was reading the same 600ppm because at first it was like 1000ppm. which confused me because the bag says it's pure coco and perlite. Anyway the drainage pH was like 5.8. Then I immediately transferred the plants to the new pots.
Light- 1000w ipower MH Wing with 1000w ipower adjustable digital ballast (crap I know, didn't realize this until late. Trying to make it work for now but having heat stress issues and tent temperature issues.) Ran at the 50% setting (has three settings 50%, 75%, & 100%) 36 inches above plants currently.
Day/Night Time- 18/6
Pots- germinated in GH pods then placed in solo cups then transferred to 5 gallon cloth pots which are kept inside 7 gallon plastic pots at the moment. Idk why exactly haha. I couldn't decide which to use so i'm doing this weird hybrid thing.
Water- Started with distilled water but the crap pH meter wasn't giving reliable and repeatable results. So I had to buy a new pH meter and sprung for a Apeara PH60. The meter's instructions said it wasn't accurate in distilled water so I started with tap. My tap water has a pH of around 9 and 150ppm before I do anything to it.
Nutrients-GH 3 nutrient set Florgrow, bloom,µ GH Cali-Magic; GH pH up &down. I'll cover my estimated usages in the next posts after I get this initial post completed.

Picture of Grow tent took today (Dec 3, 2018)

38BA0F16-106B-443E-AD61-004349226566.jpeg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

Grow tent December 2, 2018. Aurora Indica started Nov 12

Ok that's the begining of my grow journal! I'll actually make my first posts with pictures later. I didn't realize how long I would spend on this first post and I have like an insane amount of homework and studying to do for finals. (I'm medically retired veteran, not 18 years old in parents house or dorm room haha. Nothing against that! Just that stealth isn't too much of a worry for me. Also maybe some people feel younger people shouldn't be growing? Who knows? Just felt the need to clariffy for some reason. I guess gives you some idea about me too. Makes it more personal haha. Ok fam! I do have some pics already on my profile but I wont post them on this thread until I have the time to talk about each and all that jazz.

Bye!!!


Please feel free to send any comments about additional info you'd like about the environment or anything. I'll add it to the list of data I collect in the future.

 

[Icemann420]

Nice setup. Those are going to be some nice plants.

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

ok so got some work done and went to go to bed but checked on the girls first.

They're showing signs of heat or light stress. Only 1 or 2 leaves on each plant have the very edges curled up slightly. Also I keep getting purple stems. I'll address in more detail later but ever since the first true leaves they turned dark and shiny and curled all crazy. Those leaves never recovered but the new leaves haven't shown the same signs since. Now i have a few new leaves showing the same signs on a few leaves....very minor but I keep trying to fix it before it's a huge issue.

So here's my problem. I keep reading tons of websites to try and diagnose. I think I'll find the deficiency or excess and try and fix it. With either watering with nutes or flushing (only flushed once).

Here's what they looked like today at 3pm and they looked like they were possibly deficeint in either Iron or Phosporous. So I watered just now with the following.

Mixed in 1 Gallon Jug
pH 5.87
ppm 490
cali-magic - 3ml
Flora Micro- 0.25 mL
Flora Bloom - 1mL
chelated liquid iron by Southern Ag- 1mL (calls for 1 quart per 100 gallons. Math equaled out roughly to .9 mL/gal)

Gave each plant about 12 ounces.
So this is them at 3pm with me trying to move the leaves to document the stems since i've been having purple stem issues. Notice the soil was still wet from the last watering on November 28th.
Plant #1

1-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

1-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

So you can see the stems

Plant #2

2-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

2-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

Plant #3

3-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

3-dec3-3pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

This is them right after I watered them today December 3rd 11pm

Plant #1

1-dec3-11pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

1-dec3-11pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

Plant #2

2-dec3-11pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

2-dec3-11pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

Plant #3

3-dec3-10pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

3-dec3-10pm.jpg

• BlackThumbofDeath
• Dec 3, 2018

The leaf curl is killing me. I've gone from 75% at 28inces to 50% at 37" and still not going away.

Also I may just be a classic case of newbie grower doing too much with the plants.

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

Lord these pictures are huge.....need to fix that for sure

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

Hey black thumb. New growth looks good. Those lower leaves wont go back to normal, doesn't matter though. New growth is good thats all that matters. You knew what the problem was and solved it. The gnarled little leaf isn't a biggie either. Looks like either nute splash or it got frazled when it was small when it first got exposed to air. You're all good homie

 

[SgtKiLLx]

Lord these pictures are huge.....need to fix that for sure

mH lamps.. damn. That's alotta heat. mH and HpS are lights of the past.. people still use em, sure, but LED is the way to go. Nice lookin phenotype there,

 

[Archiweedies]

mH lamps.. damn. That's alotta heat. mH and HpS are lights of the past.. people still use em, sure, but LED is the way to go. Nice lookin phenotype there,

I agree with you but keep in mind that some spaces can benefit from the heat given off, especially in colder months. Not to mention a LED light that truly competes with a 1000W HPS/MH costs easily three to four times one of these lights.

Im intrigued by your grow BToD! Think Ill pull up a fluffy chair and watch. I might need help getting up though when its time to go home

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

I agree with you but keep in mind that some spaces can benefit from the heat given off, especially in colder months. Not to mention a LED light that truly competes with a 1000W HPS/MH costs easily three to four times one of these lights.

Im intrigued by your grow BToD! Think Ill pull up a fluffy chair and watch. I might need help getting up though when its time to go home

Hey thanks for stopping by everyone!!

Yes Archie it was a price problem. It’s definitely something I’ve been looking into seriously. But for now it’s in a poorly heated part of my basement that’s pretty cold this winter. So when it’s ok night I actually have to run a space heater so I don’t have more than a 10 degree swing.

@Bilbobudkin420 wow that was the first true lead and I’ve been stressing about it since trying to get it to go back to normal hahaha man what a relief. Any idea about the leaves showing heat stress? I have my 1000w Mh lamp 38” away with the ballast at 50% humidity at 50%. Will curled leaves from heat stress not go back to normal??

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

Sorry to clarify my lamp was 24” at 75% and have moved it a few times trying to stop the curling

 

[Bilbobudkin420]

mH lamps.. damn. That's alotta heat. mH and HpS are lights of the past.. people still use em, sure, but LED is the way to go. Nice lookin phenotype there,

Im pretty happy with my HPS, especially for flower.

Hey thanks for stopping by everyone!!

Yes Archie it was a price problem. It’s definitely something I’ve been looking into seriously. But for now it’s in a poorly heated part of my basement that’s pretty cold this winter. So when it’s ok night I actually have to run a space heater so I don’t have more than a 10 degree swing.

@Bilbobudkin420 wow that was the first true lead and I’ve been stressing about it since trying to get it to go back to normal hahaha man what a relief. Any idea about the leaves showing heat stress? I have my 1000w Mh lamp 38” away with the ballast at 50% humidity at 50%. Will curled leaves from heat stress not go back to normal??

Na it probably wont uncurl fully but you will see some improvement. As i said new growth looks good thats all that matters. Personally if it was my plant id take em off anyway but they aint hurting anything. Maybe take off that first true leaf cos theres no need for it anymore anyway.

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

@Bilbobudkin420 hey sorry for the delayed response! Just wrapped up another semester and was busy. So I had removed the damaged old leaves. I’m continuing to have my leaves tacoing. I’ve made adjustments to humidity, temp and light distance. So I’m feeling like it’s something else possibly. I might be over watering and over feeding but not sure.

I’ve read in some forums that tacoing can be from overwatering. Which I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix my purple stem situation and have done a few different waterings to try and fix them. I read it could be a mg or K deficit so I watered with a little nutes and pH’d the water a little higher to 6.25. This actually made the new green stems start to purple and the old slightly purple ones to become dark purple. Also the tacoing increased dramatically.

Honestly the grow is doing ok except I keep trying to cure the purple stems which then cause other problems. I’ve noticed that if a problem arises and I simply leave it alone instead of watering with various (nutes/pH/ppm’s/ or even plain watering) that the plant actually rebounds and looks better. I’m getting the feeling that my plants want almost no nutrients and need very little water at this point. Even though I keep reading that coco coir plants need nutrients & calmag(still a nute I know) frequently.

Is there a way to get more people to see and help with ideas on the purple stem problem? I’m interested to see if any veteran growers have seen this before.

I’m not at home or I’d be on my laptop and post fresh pictures and add some exact feeding/watering details. I will post a few comparison pics right after this for the purple issue.

So besides the tacoing (which I believe is overwatering? Not sure if that’s true.) and purple stems. The girls are growing fast and looking green and healthy.

Thanks for the tips and follow! Now that I have more free time I hopefully will get this journal squared away like I want it haha.

 

[BlackThumbofDeath]

December 3rd after not watering almost 8 days. New leaf stems are green.

December 9th previously green stems now slightly purple closer to leaf. New leaf stems green though?!

Also hard to tell from the top down view but tacoing increased also.

 

[Remystemple]

I agree with you but keep in mind that some spaces can benefit from the heat given off, especially in colder months. Not to mention a LED light that truly competes with a 1000W HPS/MH costs easily three to four times one of these lights.

Im intrigued by your grow BToD! Think Ill pull up a fluffy chair and watch. I might need help getting up though when its time to go home

I'd use the old school lights if electricity wasn't so expensive here. I'd have to grow a ton and sell it to make the grow worth it. Looking forward to future tech in LED's they're still pretty new and i'm sure they're not far from putting out LED's far superior to the lights of yesterday. it's called Technology and advancement. I have to say the LED hater warriors piss me off a bit. I always feel like there's a personal reason they bash LED's LMAO.

 

[farside05]

I'm not sure where all the "purple stem" stuff comes from. I've read it places too but damn near every plant I've grown has a purpleish stem, or in some cases striped. I do not worry about stem colors, read the leafs, they will give you a far better indication of what's going on. I prefer to pH to 6.2-6.5 for soil-less mediums like peat and Coco. Tacoing can be heat related but your temps seem fine from the info you've provided. I'm not really seeing tacoing in the pics, perhaps a different angle? From what I'm seeing, things look to be progressing nicely.

 

[Remystemple]

I'm not sure where all the "purple stem" stuff comes from. I've read it places too but damn near every plant I've grown has a purpleish stem, or in some cases striped. I do not worry about stem colors, read the leafs, they will give you a far better indication of what's going on. I prefer to pH to 6.2-6.5 for soil-less mediums like peat and Coco. Tacoing can be heat related but your temps seem fine from the info you've provided. I'm not really seeing tacoing in the pics, perhaps a different angle? From what I'm seeing, things look to be progressing nicely.

I just looked at your plants. their amazing. I'm curious about the pH you prefer. do you ever get any cal mag uptake issues or any deficiencies? In no way would i ever question such beautiful grows, but i am curious since it really goes against everything i've read lol.

 

[farside05]

My current grow is the first I've ever even used a Cal Mag supplement. I use a 1 part fertilizer (Dyna Gro Foliage Pro) that already has Calcium and Magnesium in it. I haven't needed to supplement any more when growing in Pro Mix, but Coco seems to need an extra boost more than my standard fertilizer has included. Calcium and Magnesium actually are absorbed easier by the plant at higher pH levels.

 

[Remystemple]

wow so what have i been looking at? lmao

My current grow is the first I've ever even used a Cal Mag supplement. I use a 1 part fertilizer (Dyna Gro Foliage Pro) that already has Calcium and Magnesium in it. I haven't needed to supplement any more when growing in Pro Mix, but Coco seems to need an extra boost more than my standard fertilizer has included. Calcium and Magnesium actually are absorbed easier by the plant at higher pH levels.

 

[farside05]

There's about 50 different versions of those charts. You will find plenty of debate on if you should treat Coco as hydro or soil. Myself, I treat it as soil. In which case, look at your right hand chart and you'll see more availability at higher pH.

 

[SamSmith]

I agree with you but keep in mind that some spaces can benefit from the heat given off, especially in colder months. Not to mention a LED light that truly competes with a 1000W HPS/MH costs easily three to four times one of these lights.

Im intrigued by your grow BToD! Think Ill pull up a fluffy chair and watch. I might need help getting up though when its time to go home

I agree about the bang for your buck with CMH. People shun the technology yet most commercial growers still rely on HID lighting. If you can handle the heat then the cost for the setup is pretty affordable for what you get in terms of output. I think the energy savings with LED is overblown and the cost to acquire is much higher for good ones.

 

[farside05]

I agree about the bang for your buck with CMH. People shun the technology yet most commercial growers still rely on HID lighting. If you can handle the heat then the cost for the setup is pretty affordable for what you get in terms of output. I think the energy savings with LED is overblown and the cost to acquire is much higher for good ones.

I started with blurple LEDs. 4 lights pulling 560 watts. Not a big advantage over having a 600 watt MH. Had about $260 in them. They grew ok but penetration wasn't that great. The only benefit was they were most likely cooler than MH and there's no way I could deal with the extra heat in my space. Fast forward to July. Built a new LED strip fixture. About $400 in it. Draws around 300 watts. 3 times more light than my old blurple LEDs even at the reduced wattage. Very little heat. Better penetration. Better yield. I calculated the monthly savings over my old lights at $18 per month. So in time it pays for itself, but it does take more capital up front. To get your feet wet, I don't see anything wrong with old bulb setups if you can deal with the heat.