First Time Grow & Journal

[novawolf034]

Hello everyone,


Kind of a mixed bag grow journal, and my first. First started with finding some seeds. So, from some random seeds sprouting I decided to expand and see what happened. I then purchased some seeds online. This is my first grow and am kinda flying by the seat of my pants for the seeds I found, but I am trying to fill in the cracks as I go, so that the purchased strains can do well.

The majority of this journal will focus on white widow and Gelato feminized seeds, but the original random seeds will be just entering into flowering. I am still purchasing and waiting on various items like a ph meter and nutrients. this will not be perfect by any means and will probably make tons of mistakes along the way (including purchasing a pH meter and nutrients literally last).

Strains:

White widow fem.
Gelato fem.

Equipment:

2 - Comfort Zone CZ6C 6-inch 2-Speed Fan
1- 18 inch box fan
2 - GE 7-day programmable power strip.
2 - king plus 1000W LED light (actual 185w)
1 - king plus 1200W LED light (actual 235w)
1 - king plus 3000W LED light (actual 615w)
2 - light time tunnel 1200W LED light (actual 209w)
1 - Vivosun 4'x4'x80" grow tent
1 - Vivosun 4'x8'x80" grow tent
1 - iPower 4 Inch Inline Fan with 4" Carbon Filter
1 - Hydrofarm APCEM2 CO2 Monitor
1 - GE 5000btu ac unit
1 - 20# CO2 tank
1 - VIVOSUN Hydroponics CO2 Regulator Emitter System
1 - NEARPOW programmable cycle timer for CO2 infusion.
1 - nassau all weather HVAC aluminum tape.

Room:

I built and sealed off a room in the basement. Total dimensions are 9'10" X 14'6" which holds both grow tents and all equipment. Currently I am getting the last pieces of equipment from Amazon and home depot.

Soil:

Organic miracle grow with moisture control.


A timeline to be up to date from when this actually started:

March 28th
Friend and I get a few ounces and find some seeds.

March 29th
Found old seeds and obtained a germination chamber from home depot. Planted all of them (19 total).

April 2nd
Seeds begin to sprout. Order lights and a tent to keep things going.

April 5th
First lights and tent arrive. Set everything up quickly to get them light as they were getting very leggy.

April 15th
Purchased more equipment, fiance doesn't like the smell, so I said I would build a sealed locked off room to put everything.

April 20th
Created a basement floor plan and began construction.

April 27nd
Due to the effort put in I figured I should order some good strain seeds. Ordered white widow and gelato.

April 29th
Received order of seeds.

April 30th
Popped 3 of each gelato and white widow seeds.

May 3rd
Ordered seeds began to sprout.

May 7th
Completed wall, locking door, and drywall. I just need to mud, trim, and paint it, but am waiting to complete the other parts of the basement I planned on first.

May 9th
Got hot (90F) in the flowering tent and 83F in the room so needed to put in a small ac unit. Knocked out the sealed basement window, framed and boxed an ac unit and sealed it in the old window location.

Future plans May 13th
Getting a 20# CO2 tank to finish off the space.

So now with a brief timeline it will be easier to start from its current point. With getting some used products everything is at ~$1800 total.


Thanks for any insight or helpful tips.

Will update with photos of the setup and such after I'm home from work.

 

[needmorelight]

Did you mention soil? Have you got it on a auto timer?
I will be following you mate

 

[novawolf034]

Did you mention soil? Have you got it on a auto timer?
I will be following you mate

I mentioned it briefly, but it is probably one of the bigger sticking points, using miracle grow moisture control stuff.

There is still a lot more work to go, but its limping along. I hopefully will be able to finish most of it when I'm off work.

Here are the grow tents side by side.

Here are the random seeds that just went into flowering after defoliating on May 9th. The gallon ones will be transplanted to the larger pots as well here soon.

The temperature and RH in the tent.

Seedlings that were germinated April 30th.

The White widows seem to be doing just fine.

The Gelato on the other hand might be more sensitive to the soil.

Leaf burn from the tent over heating before I put in an ac unit. Dang those 13 hour shifts ☹

The others seem to be doing okay at least.

 

[Mono]

Best of luck my friend, looks like you are off to a good start

following along to see how things progress

 

[novawolf034]

Best of luck my friend, looks like you are off to a good start

following along to see how things progress

Thanks, its a work in progress, but wanted to get it started before it was complete because I knew it would take a while.

Should get some better natural lighting for pictures soon. Hoping the CO2 infussion will help with growth, when it arrives Wednesday, now that I have the temperature in check.

 

[6thsense]

Nice set up ! Im in .

 

[Greenthumbs42019]

I don’t grow in soil but I seemed to recall that using miracle grow was bad, has too much N. Could be wrong tho. Nice setup you have, I’ll pull up a chair.

 

[novawolf034]

I don’t grow in soil but I seemed to recall that using miracle grow was bad, has too much N. Could be wrong tho. Nice setup you have, I’ll pull up a chair.

Yeah, that's one of the sticking points with my setup. Was some of the only stuff available due to pandemic stuff when I got it early April. Plan on doing at least a better soil for the purchased seeds as they get transplanted.

 

[novawolf034]

So an update, got some new lighting so that pictures of the main flower tent won't be as hard on the eyes.

Day 3 of flowering the random seeds. Plan on putting the 10" pots into the 14" pots later. Watered using tap water.

The 3 that got extensive heat damage are bouncing back fast, about 24 hours and 1-2 new nodes on almost every stem.

Seedlings 9 days since sprouting. Watered with RO water.

Gelato(left) still taking the soil a little more rough. White widow(right) still rolling.

I plan on putting the seedlings into larger pots in a few days, but am going to get better soil to plant them in. Suggestions if you have them, The simpler the better for now. Maybe do that soil for the transplanting flowering ones as well.
So in the end I'll switch the flowering and veging tents and have the 4x4 be for veg and the 4x8 for flower. Right now I'm just flowering these for fun and to see what happens since they were just random seeds.

I guess more to come

 

[novawolf034]

I guess my houses co2 runs kinda high already, but it's bound to change as its get warm enough to open the windows.

 

[novawolf034]

Finally off work for 4 days.

What I'm gonna work on today is:

• transplanting the rest in flower.
• Obtaining a 20#co2 tank.
• Sealing off the room completely.
• Getting a humidifier
• Setting up and calibrating the co2 dosing on an interval timer to run during flowering hours up to ~1300.

 

[novawolf034]

Okay, super tired. CO2 setup on an internal timer to run 10 seconds per 3 minutes into the flowering tent at 2scfh putting it just below what I calculated I would need. This will run from 1 hour after lights turn on and turn off when lights go out. Going to monitor. I'll take pictures in the morning, and document what I completed. Super tired for right now.

 

[novawolf034]

Here are some pictures.

Day 5 in flower.

Got the 3 going into flower transplanted.

Day 11 for the seedlings.

Transplanted the seedlings into the larger pots. Made it a slightly heavy base of perlite and coco coir to reduce the nutrient load on them. The gelatos are like night and day in just 10 hours from transplant. White widow is still thriving like it was meant to be.

Setup timers and CO2 infussion and currently adjusting it. Right now im around 1100-1200ppm on a hour by hour basis. Increased CO2 rate to 8scfh from 4scfh still on my 10 seconds on 2 min 50 seconds off interval timer. I have time and can monitor it more closely now that I have slept and will adjust it down if needed.

They were sold out of humidifiers at Home Depot . With my ac in though the humidity raised up slightly.

 

[novawolf034]

Oops, seedlings and showing new growth on the Gelato in ~10 hours post transplant.

Some backup soil I had in the garage and my 20#CO2 tank, being pumped into the flowering tent.

]

 

[novawolf034]

Minor update. Not much to note.

Day 7 of flower. Found a male and took him out. All others look to be female (lucky).

Day 13 for the seedlings. Also have containers in with them that are for my tortoises food. Decided to put in shelves to raise up everything.

 

[novawolf034]

another update as things are rolling along.

day 12 into flowering. All looking healthy, the two remaining recovering plants are nearly back to normal. (The third was male and removed)

Day 18 seedlings

White widow (on the left) are all looking good.

the gelato (on the right) are doing better, but the front plant is still slow growing.

still getting nutrient burn on the both strains, but will continue to water with RO water and hopefully they grow into the nutrient load in the soil.

Still keeping CO2 at around 1300-1500 across hourly averages during lights on. Co2 rises up past 1500 when I'm in the room with the plants.

Took out the net since I needed to be able to move them around and rotate them for better coverage. All the side branches are growing up pretty straight and even with just bending the branches down a few times a day.

Also got some pretty decently rated plug and play nutrient mix. I didn't want to have to juggle a bunch of nutrient solutions and such.

 

[The Phantom]

Sounds like you had a favorable female to male ratio with your bag seeds, nicely done. Your grow is looking great.

 

[Greenthumbs42019]

Looking good, just a tip but your pics would look better if you loaded them into the gallery and then put them in the journal. They will show up much larger and easier to view.

Photo Gallery Guide: How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

MOBILE GALLERY UPLOADS Step 1: Click "Upload Photos" from the Gallery or Hamburger Navigation Menu. Step 2: Select Photos and SAVE when you're done. Max Size for Gallery Uploads: 20MB per photo and 40 photos per post. Embedding Photo Gallery Images Into A Post Step 1: Open a thread you wish...

www.420magazine.com

 

[novawolf034]

A bad turn of events. I looked into my plants just to make sure everything was good. The main center stage big mama is packing heat. Was trying to trim them off, but after finding balls forming on many of the major nodes, it's off with her head.

At least I kinda over stuffed the tent initially planning for a herm. I will hope that is the only one.

 

[novawolf034]

Looking good, just a tip but your pics would look better if you loaded them into the gallery and then put them in the journal. They will show up much larger and easier to view.

Photo Gallery Guide: How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

MOBILE GALLERY UPLOADS Step 1: Click "Upload Photos" from the Gallery or Hamburger Navigation Menu. Step 2: Select Photos and SAVE when you're done. Max Size for Gallery Uploads: 20MB per photo and 40 photos per post. Embedding Photo Gallery Images Into A Post Step 1: Open a thread you wish...

www.420magazine.com

Thanks, I will and I have a Canon and some okay lenses for much better photos when I get more situated. For the time being I'm just tossing updates up to share and for my own reference. Just really busy right now with work.