First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

I'll sit in with this one. We can learn together lol. I've been keeping my humidity around 65-70ish. Do you have a humidifier in the tent?

First off Welcome and thanks for pulling up a chair!

I do have one in the tent, along with little container of water and paper towel hanging out to help out too (if humidifier goes dry when I'm not around). I was thinking beyond 60 probably wasn't good... I can get it there constantly if want but I have to run the humidifier on high, and she'll guzzle a gallon+ every 12 or 18hours (it doesn't have a RH sensor itself, at least I don't think it does it was cheap 35$ one.). I'm using distilled water with the humidifier to try and prevent any chlorine or other particles\spotting or calcium build up inside the machine (clean it less often).

So far when I keep it around low end of "medium" it stays in the 45-55 range (with highs\lows 40-62) and I can go 24hr (maybe a little more) with out having to fill the tank. I think i may bump it up to middle of medium though and see how things go.

Then again I'm looking to switch lights from 24/0 to 20/4 tomorrow so I have a feeling at present settings humidity will go up when the lights are out, at least for 4-5 hours. Decisions decisions.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 7 - Morning...

Nothing interesting to report really, neither grew at or much in height overnight (I kind of see that as good thing now with lights lower), but each added marginal more girth, hopefully it's energy is being spent on roots.

Overhead:


Mr. Cane:


Mr. Cane seemingly retarded 4th leaf has started to fill-out\catch up a bit. Good times.


Mrs. Widow:



Still not sure what that puffiness is all about.


Temps: 73-77 RH avg around 55%.

Activities: Turned the pots a little again. Lowered light from 28" to 24" inches. Think I will leave them there for now. Also changed up the little cardboard thingy holding my pot-base temp meter, now sits under it to provide support while another one (one with some black writing on it though...I'll find a all white later) over the face. I would not be surprise if between that and the light drop if from 73-75 I get more a 75-79 reading from now on.
Filled mr.humidity up, set him a hair higher then was set before... about medium of medium setting how.
Also fearing maybe Mr.Candy semi droopiness is early wind burn I tweaked my upper fan again, instead of having blow sort of over the light canopy I now have it blowing mostly diagonal behind and hitting center of back wall. I may no even need that upper fan right now.


Not in the pic is that there is 80-85degree air coming out all side of the yellow bar\light. The upper dark blue fan line used to go across\under the light toward other corner'sih prior to today.
*Shugs* I may just kill the upper fan for now if things look like they are getting worse, it's 'low' is pretty high. I have an actual standing 90degree oscillator fan that I was going to put in the left back corner eventually, maybe I just do that now and forget the 'upper' one.. least for now..idk.


TODO:
This afternoon around 1:30pm or so I will start using the timer and put them on 20/4. Finally they will get a short rest each day, it's a day or two earlier than I planned but seems I really should have started this around day 5.

Also I ordered some more toys... F_ck amazon is so addictive even though I hating spending money with bezos, I'll save what the toys were for when they actually arrive.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 7 - Evening.

I they seemed to enjoy their short rest. Sorry no pics, believe it or not I forgot and not too much to show, did a little 20degree turn on each.

I moved the upper fan around some more before the 20/4 switch rest period. Basically I moved it much higher, basically about even with the lights and direct marginally upward (enough so I don't blow into the light exhaust or intakes but the flow is a few inches above it headed slightly upward.


Temps with this setup and the light down at 24" definitely have avg temps down at the plant higher then before by 2-3 degrees when the lights are on, now 77-82, nor more nice 75-77. I bumped the 440cfm exhaust up to "middle", could make no observations in change of air movement, though watching the UPS I could see the change did add a few watts to the draw so it did notice I turned the dial lol, and I cracked the back vent a little and I could feel a little more mild suction than before. Really this just comes down to me keeping the intake air in the 72-73 range but from around noon to 7pm that's just not gonna happen consistently, but with 20/4 or maybe 19/5 come august should be less of a problem.

RH with lights off and not touching humidifier machine keep it pretty stable between 60-64% (I peeked in 15min and 1hr in during nap-time). Moved the 'remote\outside' part of my wall mounted temp sensor to center\back from where it was in the corner above\near the dehumidifier. It will read a little higher now it's not in the shade and getting blown on, knew that though. During all this it occurred to me it might have been a better idea to mount the inside\outside thing on the outside of the tent...and just use remote sensor so I could check without disturbing the plants sleep a little... DUH!! Thank god their autos, I'll probably rectify that stupidity on my part in the coming days.

With the lights off it was fun to watch the room drop in temps down from like 80 to 73-75, happened in like two minutes, almost too fast in my opinion.

Day after watering the top 3/4" is very dry but soil around where I watered below that feels somewhat moist - sensor agrees, that said the dry top soil used to feel cool with the light at 30" at 24" it's warm. Not hot, but warm like above room temperature, probably combo of less air movement and lower lights.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 8 - Morning (7am)

Temps: 74-78 overnight
RH: 45-55% overnight

Overview:
So last 24hr Mr.Cane and Mrs.Widow have show growth, both in 3/4th leaves and a little height.
Mr.Cane has show about .25inch height and Mr.Widow maybe .15-.20.. marginal but I noticed.
Both have...idk what you call it but "opened up a little", leave 3&4 are starting to grow and look less cramped?
Mrs. Widow looks like he's doing the best though, I think I can ever so slightly maybe see beginning of 5/6th leaves starting if I stick my fact in her, my eyes are not what they used to be.


Mr.Cane:



sorry about the jitter, taking steady picks though the lens of my led-glasses...ain't always easy.
I don't know what's up one of those leafs now sort of angled, wasn't like that yesterday.

Mrs.Widow:




That said they both now have this puffiness in the leaves, I still don't know what this is yet, in order my suspicions.
WW has it more clearly to me than CC but CC showing it more in last 24hr too.
Symptoms: puffiness boarding on blisters, darker green than I would expect or see on other cc\ww around day 7-10.
a) Wind burn everywhere now that I've been turning them so they 'all' now getting it?
b) under-watering earlier?
c) Mostly normal and I'm too paranoid? (I'm hoping it's mostly this!)
d) God I hope it's not this but sort of kind of from compare pics...early nitro tox?
e) Kind of doubt it's over-water since I've barely given them anything at all in 8 days.
I've temp ruled out broad mites cause they're not glossy or turned up at edges except for that 1 little edge on CC who's been like that since day 1.


Action plan:
Do nothing yet about it today. Make a decision tomorrow morning if worse or more defined on all leaves. Turn plants another 30-45d around 1pm if I remember before lights out an otherwise leave them the fk alone.

I tried to address 'a' yesterday if was successful don't know how long or if plants will self correct, it could be that what I did still didn't stop it though. As for 'b' well they got 50ml each 48hr ago and 1-1.5" is still slightly moist where I watered (stem out to 3-4"), I will say most of the rest of the pot ie edges out a few inches down to 6" are dry range, and below that (bottom) still reads 'moist' on meter (bottom started out 'very wet' on day 1). I was originally planning on maybe just doing 100ml tomorrow or wed.. doing 50ml inner 3" and then 50ml out around that toward edge, but now I'm maybe thinking different.

I'm thinking Tuesday\Wednesday just watering the whole darn pot slowly from outside inward (with 15m pauses) with just distilled ph6.5-6.7'ish water and some 1/4th maybe amount of cal-mag till I get at least a tiny bit of run off I can test... Also considering using tap water(+ maybe 1/5 dose of calmag - my understanding is while you shouldn't try too, kind of can't over-do cal-mag and plants under led need it earlier than under other lights).. I've had a couple gallons sitting out for days to burn off chlorine in case I go that route, I checked with local water company reports they add tiny amount of chlorine not chloromine or whatever the name of the other stuff is that doesn't 'gas off'.

As for 'c'...idk the candy cane doesn't look like other ones I've seen at this stage (mine seem darker, less flat), trying hard to not over-react on my try, but also know I have very short window to correct things with 'autos'. I don't even want to think about 'd' yet unless I get more direct signs of it. As for 'e'... I mean 50ml each since in the ground (plus a few drops from mist).... I can't see it, 2-3" down was pretty damn dry when gave them 50ml. If anything it's probably under watering, which might explain the a little lack of growth too during that time frame.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 9 - Morning (9am)


Some nice daily growth noticeable over last 24hr. They are definitely liking the 4hour break and the higher humidity during that time, I've added 30min today so that it's ~2pm to 6:30pm, will eventually make it 1:30-6:30pm for 19/5. Temps were all in the 75-81 range yesterday, and humidity in the 45-70 range (and 45 I think was probably me with tent open and 70 is definitely while they were sleeping). Growth was in leaves and not height over last 24hr.

Having looked over are ever more pics yesterday of day 6-10 calmed myself about the puffiness...for next day or two or 3 anyway.

Last night and evening 'check in', I found a fly in the tent, he was trying like hell to get out via the back vent. He was not a gnat, or a house fly he was like straight outside fly, like horse fly only maybe not quite a full adult yet, probably either some how got in via AC or via me having downstairs doors open as linger trying to get f'ing cat to follow me inside. Anyway my 1" top soil was dry, it's windy in the tent and I think he just got sucked in via the unfiltered intake and couldn't get back out. He'd dead. I'm not worried that I will see more yet, for fk of it I did another light dusting of D-earth on top soil... can't hurt.


Overview shot day 9 (cc left; ww right):

I'm changing it to Miss Cane... thinking it might be bad-juju to keep call it 'mister'.


Miss Cane:

As you can see I removed her white fuzzy 'cane'... didn't seem needed anymore as much.
That one curl on that one leaf...been there since day 1.



Mrs.Widow:





Activities taken:
Refilled the humidifier, she was nearly out, interesting since I swear I had it on the same setting as day before and yet there was def more left yesterday. Rotated pots a little as us becoming my practice for now..I may eventually stop that, or stop doing it so often but till a couple nodes exist I probably will keep rotating each check up...but not more often than say 6hr.

Watered...
I decided to water, and to do so much more than the simple 50ml each I gave them back on Saturday.

I had the existing distilled gallon I made the other day, I added ~100ml of fresh distilled to it to bring it back to gallon and further dilute some of the root66 and sugardaddy that was in there already at 1/10th doses...and those were 1/10th of 'technoflora scheduled sheet' dose, not what's actually on the bottles themselves which is typically higher, so to me it's like there is barely anything at this point.
I then added 1/4th 'scheduled' cal-mag\cal-magic dose. (I will go higher on the cal-mag in future waterings)
I then ph tested water with both digital and color drops.. digital told me 5.90-6.05; colors told me 6.2-6.5'ish grr.
ph up'd it a tiny amount... digital told me 6.35-6.4, color told me 6.5-6.7'ish.
Make of that what you will.. I called it 6.5 avg of the two and moved on, frankly I don't trust either, if anything the 'color' more because distilled water always tests the same around 7color and it always tests in calibrated meter at like 6.8 or 6.9 or even 6.7x. So way I look at it digital is probably off by -0.1 to -0.2.

What I wanted to do was give them enough that I got enough run off that I could test, at least in the liquid drop type tester.
So I watered first 100ml split between 50ml at the base of plant\stem and then 50ml ring outside of that. waited 15minutes.
Then I watered another 100ml around outer edge which has been dry as hell for many days. waited 10minutes.
Then I watered another 100ml around middle. waited 5minutes.
CC gave me about 1/4 teaspoon of drops... like 1.5ml
WW gave me nothing, not a single drop.
Then I watered another 200ml around outer edge working inward..probably ended up 100/100. Waited 15 min.
At this point CC eventually gave me like 3-4 more droplets.. that's it.
WW at this point still gave me nothing, not a drop.
I then gave WW another 100ml about 90% around the edge hoping to get a few drops of run off at least.. nothing.
But it did at least get both CC and WW's meters to read roughly the same of higher end of 'moist' about 5-6" down....and very low end of 'wet' below that at ~max depth. Personally I still don't trust these meters because you stick them in a glass of water and they'll still only tell you 'very moist' or very low end of 'wet'... so I see 'low end of wet' as pretty wet, and 'full wet' as 'drenched\mud'. lol
CC total: ~500ml
WW total: ~600ml

The runoff drops CC gave me was not even enough to test using droplet ph tests, about 20-30% the vial when you need at least 1/2.
Anyway tried it anyway using only 2 test droplets trying account for lack of solution to test.. looked like somewhere between 6.8-7.2'ish.
That said I forgot to clean the pan before all this so even those droplets I did get might be slightly tainted, lesson for future.

I could have kept going and going till r-off, maybe I should have, but my gut told me to stop for now, so I did, and both pots felt heavier.

During all this I some how let my accu-rite temp meter fall into the bucked of water in the test for extra humidity purposes... Don't ask, I don't know how that happened. Anyway I probably fried it, but I took the battery out and have it drying out, tomorrow I'll see if it still works lol. Anyway I moved the extra I had on the top of the tent down below. I knew having an extra one of those was going to come in handy!





To Do's
Today: Nothing much.. hopefully remember to turn the girls again another 30-45 or so just before bedtime.

Tomorrow - make sure to grab more distilled water (even if I switch to evap'd tap for plants, it's still sort of needed for humidifier...ok not needed but preferred... Have to remember to 'clean it' around day 15-20 too.)

Tomorrow - Some of my goodies should\might start arriving... Keep eye on leaves closely after today's activities and massive watering (well massive as compared to the tiny prior watering).

PS: Happy Independence Day!

 

[Juny360]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Looking good. Glad to see the CC standing on its own now.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 9 - 1pm'ish.

So it was nagging at me that I didn't have any run-off... I decided fk'it I'm gonna finish off this rest of this gallon at least ill I get run off.
I used the rest... about another 600 ml each.

Well turns out my original gut was right, both plants while not running off before with the ~600 they must have been right at that "edge".
Anyway I added about 500-600ml to more to each and waited 10min, went down stairs thinking damn I might need more, came back up and don't you know the runoff started, and ran for an additional 10-15min. lol I basically got 90% of it as run off, more than I wanted, but plenty to test.

I tested both the head-end and the tail end for PH. The head end of both was like 5.1-5.3'ish both on color+digits, the very tail end was 5.6'ish on the cc and 5.7ish on the ww. What I found funny is testing run off with digital meter, unlike with water going in, the digital didn't flux too much to settle on a number over the 30 seconds. Makes sense though since it's got tons of stuff in it unlike the distilled going in that doesn't have 'buffer' elements. I was expecting it a little higher than it was. BTW between 'tests' I was doing my best to wash the suction thingy and vial out with a little distilled water between each test, same with dipping the digital into fresh distilled and drying off. Idk if that makes that big a difference or is standard but seemed a good idea to try to get the most clean readings I could. PPMs were both basically 235 on the tail end.

I was pretty surprised ph was coming out so low, I expected if anything it would be on the higher end, I got scared at the 5.1-5.3 ish figures, felt a little better at the 5.6\5.7, as I've read .5 off of actual soil isn't that uncommon.
Not sure what to exactly I might need to do just yet, if anything. I'm guessing next time I should maybe aim for watering with more toward 6.7-6.8 water instead of 6.4-6.6 water.. but then again maybe not if I don't see my plant telling me anything. I'm assuming my meter is about .1 low in the reading, and from what I read generally I would +.2 on the exit water for about where the soil is... so that puts me at like 5.9-6.0, in range, but just barely for LED soil grow. The 15$ water\light\ph meters both read about 6.5, I don't trust them other than beyond 1ph error range though. But if nothing else I have some data for a baseline.
*shugs*... /reminds self - "when in doubt.. do nothing".

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Looking good. Glad to see the CC standing on its own now.

Well technically it was standing on it's own before, but she was pointed sort of diagonal (i think she got that originally from first couple days of high wind) so I was trying to coach her to be more upright or straight, she is probably still is a little off (just not as much) but that may not be entirely a bad thing long term in some ways.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 10 - Morning


Overview - We've got node we've got node. ha ha
So yesterday after their drenching I left the ladies alone, it being the 4th and all I actually forgot to check in on them late last night, turns out while adjusting timer today (cause I was in the tent yesterday delaying their nap time a little) I accidentally gave them about 5.75 hours instead of intended 5. Anyway between the water and sleep... WOW did they make use of both in the last 24hr.

Tent temps were on avg lower yesterday, even got down to 71 with lights off (which is about as cold as I ever really want to see it in there at least till late flower anyway), that's cause from about 3pm onward is was very rare only high-70's day here yesterday... probably will not see that again till harvest time as we're back to 90's today outside. I actually bumped up the room temp to 73 before heading out for festivities related to the 4th. RH was in the 45-70% range.

Top shot:


Miss Cane:
She's standing up and spreading her wings more than ever today, can start to see node 2 coming in, and she added about 1/5th of inch overnight in height. Still lagging her friend by about 2 days, but at least it's relatively consistent in that respect.




Miss Widow: This girl really took off in last 24. Added like 1/4 of inch in height and that 1/4" was all the second leaves popping up and out on their own node. Also the leaf stems\branches are noticeably more defined\thinker now. I guess pumping water will do that! I did sort of un-crinkle that leaf in pic 3 a little, the top one not the bottom. wind?




Still a little worried about that blister in WW pic 2. Newer growth coming in a little lighter and sort of red, but I'm reading that not too odd and should go away as it grows out, CC doesn't do it as much though, wonder if it's because WW is closer to the coldest air. hmm?


My drowned accurite reader:
Status: resurrected! After drying her and the battery for 24, popped both back in and seems to be working fine, sort of rare for electronics these day, then again it's a simple device so the short probably didn't damage anything. I'm using at top of tent only for now though.

Wind: I know this is still a problem cause today I could see a leaf on CC that had sort of bent in the wind, also cause I forgot to check in and rotate last night. So yesterday I went to try to rectify this problem finally by going to lowes to get some 8" flex ducting, and 8-to-2-4" spliter, or at least a 6" and 6-to-4 spliter" and some shitty screen netting and some clamps. The idea being to close up the tent more and have the ducting come more 'into' the tent and have the fan clipped basically at ground level and not up 6-8"trying to help suck the air in - OR lose that guy all together and put my 90degress 28" tall oscillating fan in there, though it's low setting is pretty breezy too - but at least it moves back and forth and not in one place constantly.

Anyway I could not f'ing believe it but lowes was out of stock of so much venting\ducting stuff in the 6" and 8" ranges, didn't even have 6" flex-foil..wtf? Tons of 4" but almost nothing 6" or 8", they didn't have 6" claps in stock. Seriously Lowes? I did get some screen while I was there and 5gallon food grade bucket for storing tap water, and little 3"white self like for a closet..that I'm thinking of sticking in the tent during 'watering hour'. If I prop up the ends It'll raise the pots about 2" and I can watch and more importantly collect run off with less hassle, plus it'll probably marginally aid the water coming out, the pans I have do have tiny tiny ridges to keep a bit of a gap but I'm it might go faster if it could fully drip out - also for now I might leave it in there and just raise the lights a little because in theory it will allow easier access to air and also raise them above the side-fan issue.
The screen is to cover the vents, not so much to filter 'air' as to keep reasonable flies and I'm almost certain over time some cat hair from getting in. I have some legit 6" screen covered that also have activited carbon in them... problem is they're just too damn thick, they're really meant to be used with in-line systems I think (more wasted money but maybe I can use them in future).
Anyway next time I go food shopping all goto home depot that's right next door any maybe try again.



Soil update:
TLDR: I'm taking no actions right now.

- After all that water yesterday and tent staying cool and moist she's still wet of course, though the 4"-5" down meters are already went from high side of 'moist' to middle\lower side, and low side of wet near bottom, that's fine though I know to basically add a little to what they say. I'm happy it moved down a bit though, tells me drainage seems to be mostly working. I forgot to mention yesterday I busted out the drill and on my pots where on the sides just about the legs where I had drilled 1/4" wholes I widened them to next size up bit I had, I think it was 3/8ths. They just seemed too tiny to me, and I figured if I was gonna do that better to do it NOW before roots were really down there, as I doubt they would appreciate all the vibration. Anyway I did that before I even watered yesterday. IDK why I forgot to mention that.

As for PH run off being so darn low... IDK more I read the more I think I'm gonna have a problem soon.. but then again I get lots of conflicting\confusing info not so much about what the soil should be but if the run-off is really all that reliable.

Here are my thoughts on this thus far and please someone tell me where I'm off or if my thinking is screwed up here.

The soil is around 70%-FFOF,15-FFHF and 15% MG-perlite (I wish I had used non-MG perlite cause this version has some plantfood additives..but live and learn and it's all I could get locally).

Now when I filled the pots originally and did their first soak hours before seedling insertion the run-off from that was roughly 6.5 -7.0 depending on sample. Which in theory is about what I expected and was told of FF-OF. Now there is some HappyFrog in there which I was told was moderately lower, and some perlite which I'm told is low 7's.. I figured those two sort of even themselves out. Anyway bottom line watering with ph-7 distilled produced 6.8. That seemed right. Yesterday I was getting 5.0'ish on the head end and 5.7'ish on the tail end.
Note however this not after any 'flushing' this was just putting a liter or two through a 5 gallon pot to fully water.

Now I know if the soil is below say 6.2 I'm gonna have problems, what I don't know is what the actual truth is and why the difference. As for head-end vs tail-end I was thinking two things, first, that more of actual ph solution is just running out of pot, second, maybe soaked soil has moderately higher ph than pretty dry soil.
Then I also wondered if it has something to do with it being my first real run off with the plant being in there, that didn't make too much sense to me, but then again soil elements have had more time to sort of interact with each other vs day-0 run-off, if anything though I would think that would active whatever FF puts in from the start to buffer stuff, or maybe it takes a few water cycles for whatever they put in to actually start interacting, like lime I know does it's work so slowly over time.

But though out all of this I keep seeing three things. That my soil should be 6.3-6.8, that my run off should roughly match what I'm putting in (give or take 0.2-0.5) if everything is ok, and that run off below 6 is bad, while the same time reading that soil run off isn't always a good judge of things. Also that if I'm not seeing problems..then to leave things alone. Well I rather address what will be problems later now especially if the solution taking time to have an effect. I've read many a temporary solution involves so much flushing and this or that... I mean are people really running 15 gallons of water through 5 gallons of soil so often...jesus what an endeavor lol I keep thinking I better stock on on having at least that much on-hand just in case.

What I should have done originally was add a tiny bit of dolomite to the mix apparently to generally help buffer ph, but that ship basically sailed on day-0, and I read doing it after while has some effect slowly over time is easy to overdue and get wrong or cause other problem later if not careful. Funny enough one of the goodies I had on order was dolomite, though I just found out I ordered a bag that was not pure power but coarse sand level particles..grrr. That said I think a fine-pepper-grinder might semi-resolve that - necessity is the mother of all invention.

IDK know what to think, I've come to the temporary conclusion not to panic, that my plants as far as I can tell aren't showing any signs of serious problems yet, and that over-reacting is going to be worse than under-reacting, for now anyway. Also that my data-set for run off is limited and that I probably should not even thinking about this again till after the next full watering...That said my next watering I will do tap water +ph if needed to the higher side of 6.5 to like 6.7-7.0 instead of aiming for the middle. See what I get then and re-evaluate if still mid 5's I will start getting more worried or get more advanced soil tester.

After all FF-OF (and HF and perlite for that mater) etc is pretty damn highly recommended soil, so things can't be quite a bad as I think they might be.... right. LOL We'll see.


Yeah I know... TMI!

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 11 - Morning

Overview: Temps\RH were all range yesterday\last night, bit lower RH 45-63, but that made sense yesterday it finally was dry day here and I removed the little booster bucket of water from the room, I'm ok with that though I kind of wanted to see what it was like with it in there and in theory I wanted the very top of the soil to have slightly better chance of drying out quicker (want that first 1/2 inch dry asap to help prevent creepy crawlers). Top soil is still very moist, not as wet as yesterday though.
Nothing particularly of note this morning with the plants, though after looking close I put Miss Cane's cane\crutch back on. Rotated pots about 45deg and unpacked and tried out some of my new toys which arrived last night.

Top shot:



Miss Cane:

Per measuring tape is just under 1.75" (so about +.10 in last 24hr).




Mrs.Widow:

Per measuring tape added is now border just over 2" for top most leaf (or about +.20 in last 24hr).
She is about even with the top of the pot, or will be by end of day.

I don't like that crinkle still, though it's a little less of a 'bubble' today, but I notice the very
very edge of the left tips sort of pointing up... I got a hard time believing wind is still a problem,
then again miss cane isn't showing the same signs. I think I might swap their locations tomorrow
morning for day just see if it's a wind or next to the humidifier thing... also to see if maybe
she gets more growth there like WW or not.



New Toys:
So got a bunch of stuff in yesterday, and one thing still on-order (another simple timer).

AotSon Direct
Upgraded Dual-lamp LED Grow Light Aotson 18W Dimmable 2 Levels Plant Grow Lamp Lights Bulbs with Adjustable Flexible 360 Degree Gooseneck for Indoor Plants Hydroponics Greenhouse Gardening


I got 2 of these desk clamping "18w" led bendable split wand things 12red (two types) 6 blue, the idea was later
in grow at some point I might want or need a little extra coverage at below canopy, ie a little side lighting.
Also wanted something that could probably be just say 6-8" inches from some leaves.
I was hoping they would be stiff enough to stay in place, I figured the clamps would suck. Well the
clamps are actually very tight\good, the bendable want parts however while fairly stiff will not
work entirely as I intended with out some light assistance as hanging from the side 90d they will not
quite maintain their given position, there are angles where they will though. Also power is usb,
that goes into a usb to wall-outlet adapter. This is some cheap chineese stuff and in 5minutes
it was quite warm to the touch... I wouldn't use the ones that come with it inside a grow room.
Also product sheet says don't use for more than 5hr at time without a hour off.... seriously?
Probably relates to the shitty converter they ship with it. reviewers say replacing it with better made
7$ one will not produce the heat the ones that come with it will.

Whatever they were cheap maybe some day I'll use them for clones or in addition for cheap veg room.
It pulled about 9-10 watts from the wall with both wants on high (it's cool you can control the 2 separately both the high and low setting), so about right for '18watt' light, they pulled 5 watts on low. Hand test says for such a small thing the put out
a decent amount of light heat at 12".
Even though I might not use them now, I actually think these things might come in handy some day.


TaoTronics LED Grow Light Bulb - 36 Watts - 3 Bands - 60d spread.


These are supposed to be pretty decent lights. 3-660 7-630, 2-440
The '36watts' is really about 19-20 from the wall. Got 2 of them, other than checking they
function have not really tried them out yet. Part of back-up\side lighting\flower plan.


VINTAGE GROW - 24W Bulb Dual Spectrum for Veg and Flower - 60d spread



So these pull about 13 each from the wall, so "24" rating is the typical '
They're supposed to be
I decided to add these to the tent today to see how much if anything much additional they
add to the heating situation, just gonna run them for couple hours till around sleep time and
then turn them off. Part of 'backup' or 'side\angled lighting\flower' plan.




So here we have my watering can lol (I didn't have one), some rocks for surface of plant eventually\maybe
Some garden training wire (thick), some small paint brushes (if I have to remove spec of something from leafs),
the shelfing piece to help when during watering (and wanting run off) to ease collection. Not pictured is the bag
of dolomite granules. Also my curious cat, he loves watching as I unpack stuff.





He likes the smell of anything like outdoors - the crushed up dolomite.
As you can see I included the pepper grinder I used to crush up some of the dolomite lime.


As you can see on the left side.. that's about 1/2 the size they come in, and pictured there is what
they look like after once through the pepper grinder, on the right side is twice though the grinder.
It's not quite 'powder' but it given the small amounts potentially needed and figuring I go 3 times
thought he grinder (not that more than twice makes much difference) I can get grams worth of
something close to powder, probably not water soluble but for top of soil treat meant it sure beats
pellets or the large sand gradual type that they were originally. Will it work as well a pure powder
I doubt it, but maybe it comes close enough.


Clamps for options for additional lights. Also sort of not highlighted I got some drape-down
socket hangers and splitters. These camps from Woods are strong, BUT NOT strong enough
for the posts of a grow small tent..not without some assistance. However all the ones I could find these
were the ones supposedly with the strongest clamps.
Amazon packing on these was absolutely horrible btw... the sides one 2 were all dented and
bent.. not a big deal for my purposes as they are sort of easy to bend back into place, but the
packing was such all they did was bounce around.




Two options... either use as watering tools... or what I really wanted them for...
Cleaning up run-off water... better than a turkey baster type thing I was using.




My cat checking all this stuff out and wondering if it's a threat or yet another distraction for
daddy's time instead of paying attention to him. Because it's always all about him.






I'm finding 1-1.5" or so sized hose clamps have all sorts of good uses around grow tents.
Sure a wire-tie would work just fine too.. but this mf will have to get moved around a lot.
This little hack solved the clamp drooping with just a few turns... at least for now we'll see
in a few hours.







Installed the two light clamps on opposing diagonal corners in theory shining on edge area
of pots, about 26-28 inches away.

Still on order:
2x 24w Kyson Led Grow Lights Bulb Plant Lamp,48pcs SMD Full Spectrum Plant Light - 120deg
These supposedly pull 16w from wall. 31red, 11blue, 1 UV,1 IR, 2 white, 2 warm-white.


The theory here with some of this crap (Beyond just throwing away money) was to add to my issuance plan.
If my k3-600 goes out, or a couple bulbs die etc.. it's going to take time to either send it off or even in best
case a new one arrive to swap out. I have the VS450, and while that might be just enough to save my grow
I don't think it would be optimal. I want about 125-150 per plant, the k-300 does about that 325 from wall,
minus some wattage used for all it's fans. The 450 pulls 190 so really that's far less than 100 per plant. So I went
about looking for some additional low wattage lights that would maybe help make up the difference, and in theory
could be used later in the veg and flower stages to maybe do some side lighting, or hand at slightly different heights.
I went a little overboard, but then again some people have some of these low wattage lights die in a month or two
so I wanted to sort of plan for that, what can go wrong - will go wrong.

Additionally I figured if I have end up with separate veg\flower rooms or want to start some seedlings off in
a corner somewhere while harvest is near and k-3 is all the way up I figure I now got all kinds of options.
You're probably thinking why not just use the k450 as 'side' lighting, and you'd be sort of right.
However due to how things are mounted and likely would need to be mounted in the tent I'm pretty sure I can't get the angles\positioning the way I would want it, not without a ton of wasted power and heat, not to mention clearance issues
if say I mounted it on it's side.


Activities: mounted lights, trying them out, refilled humidifier, rotated plants, updated monitoring spreadsheet.

Todo: monitor temps around noon, turn off extra lights around 1pm (don't ask why they're not on the timer yet). I might raise the light 1" tonight or tomorrow morning now that Mrs.Widow is at pot height.


Random thing I found yesterday that are expensive (with all the components of a system) but really cool - ice box heat exchanges for exhaust, even better lots of people's experiments with led water\liquid cooling solutions. I was wondering yesterday... why are there no, or not a lot of mass-market liquid cooled led grow lights, I mean we know water is far more efficient at transferring heat. Love the creativity of the DIY versions possible, especially if building your own light, but seems to me there would be some market for smaller scale versions particularly useful in very small and 'hidden' grows, I could picture cool tower computer grows that have the led lights using something like a cpu watercooler and heatsink. eh maybe market it is too small\out of price range for the 'home' market.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Unreal, I just realized I filled the humidifier with a gallon of the next nutes I had brewed up in advance.
At least I caught it after a couple hours, replaced with distilled, and turned up humidity little higher than before.
Great huh, probably just killed these fkers, at the very least I put 'sh1t'\residue all over the walls of my tent and gear and filter
no doubt.

Rest time hit just as I noticed this. sigh.

Anyway I also rigged up a light trap box for my back square vent, it doesn't get much light back there anyway but it gets some, better something then nothing, basically I used one of the boxed from amazon, some black spray paint I still had from painting my mailbox and duct tape and tried to create two 90 degree turns. Kind of works.
I'm gonna make another one now that I have a better idea and more time and adjust for entire size of vent. I know the autos are not as sensitive in this regard but I figured if I am letting them sleep instead of 24\0 than I should be doing what I can to makes sure it as dark as possible, and that vent I'm finding I really do need at least 1/2 opened. Plus I'm always asking myself... "what happens when you want to grow some photo's, best get this sh1t figured out now".

Temps in the tent hit 84-85 just before lights out. Those two extra lights definitely added 2 degrees, that or me slightly closing the big intake area so that everything is pulled in through two 4" ducts means less air flow - or combo of the two, plus I shifted the clip fan helping those in takes down yet another inch, about as low as I can get it cord wise it's almost just blowing across the floor at this point. Think any remaining wind\draft is simply caused by the exhaust fan, something hard to test with the tent open - lol. I want some negative pressure, but too much will cause some real draft and sucking towards the top left. hmm. Maybe time to put mr 4" hurricane back to work.

 

[KevinL]

Hey there nighthawk! Looking like a great start. And nice setup. That's funny though, your cat in the pictures.. my cat also won't let me open up my tent or do any work or pics without jumping in to see what it's about. Good luck!

 

[knighthawktfc]

Hey there nighthawk! Looking like a great start. And nice setup. That's funny though, your cat in the pictures.. my cat also won't let me open up my tent or do any work or pics without jumping in to see what it's about. Good luck!

Welcome KevinL!
Thanks for the kind words and some reassurance.

As for my cat, when I first got the tent, I set it up with nothing in it and left it unzipped, he was very very curious, and it's once of the reasons I set it up early - to get him acclimated to it cause it's in a spot he used to sometimes sit and chill around.

He was constantly coming into the room going right for the tent, hopping inside chilling for a few minutes and then leaving. Part of that I think was the new-tent scent, part of it was "oh look new hiding spot!". After about 4-5 days I cleaned the insides and zipped it up to see what his reaction would be, then he just wanted to come in once a day and walk around it, thankfully he didn't try and get inside...least not in any serious way, not that I noticed anyway. Then days later is when I started the grow. He's come in a couple time when I was in the room with tent open but kept his distance, correctly so I think he doesn't like the strong lights, probably fks him up a little just like humans. I do worry a little his reactions once they start to smell, cause he likes to eat anything green. That said he's been staying out of the room more than usual, cause it's colder and noisier with all the ventilation and the ac compressor constantly on.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 12 - Morning

First day I can say that seems pretty similar to the last, which I think probably a good thing.
Temps and RH stayed around 72-84 last and RH 40-65 in last24, I peeked in a lot during the last 2hr,
the avg was around 79f and 54rh. That 38% low, I don't know when that could have been, maybe while sleeping or when I had the tent open for long period. Got some good growth on Mrs.Widow overnight, some but not as much on Miss Cane. Also yesterday afternoon I spent dicking around around and constantly obsessing over intake air-flow, too..much...too little, too much negative pressure, too little, light, filtering etc, but more on that later. Also I did not use the 'extra' side lights after they woke up. I turned them on this morning though, but only plan for a couple hours till around noon and temps will become issue.

Top shot:

I didn't even bother checking soil moisture this morning with the meters, I could see the top
is still plenty moist, I was actually expecting,hoping it to be drier today, it is vs. yesterday
but only marginally. Big difference I guess in evaporation vs first week when I had a fan
sort of blowing across it and RH <50 avg and temps in the 78-86 range.


Miss Cane:

Side:


Close ups:


Any idea what that wid-vein thing is in close up #3?
She's now officially 2" off the ground so about +.10-.15 or so inch in last 24hr.


Mrs.Widow:

Side:

She grew about .15-.25 over night, she's about 2.5" now or 'even' with the pot as I expected
see this morning.


Close ups:


Close up pick#2 is a little concerning to me, if anyone has ideas what that's about I'm all ears,
I was thinking light wind burn either from earlier or from too much negative pressure but idk,
I meant just be chasing ghosts that never existed and it's really something else.

Close up pick #3 is very concerning. While the lighting makes it look a little worse than it is,
there is a sort of stripe of discoloring across that leaf. IDK what that is, it was not there yesterday
morning so I can only think maybe it has to do with the whole 'nutes' in the dehumidifier thing
yesterday and maybe that leaf was closest and was getting some crap falling on it and it burned
a little? Or some light burn..but on a lower leaf in a strip?? nah? right? Wondering if I should spray
that with some distilled mist water a few minutes before lights-out.


Activities: rotated pots 45d, turned on extra lights, refilled humidifier with DISTILLED water, photos, update environmental and activity spreadsheet, placed back into tent little container of water and paper towels for
tiny bit more humidity (without having to effect usage rate on machine).

I have a new rule, no 'nute' water ever to be stored in the room if not with-in 30min of a feeding, additionally all nutes to be label not just on the jug but on the cap as well.

New toys arrived last night: the 2 24w full spec lights, and my second timer. I may swap the 24's I have in there now with theses later today, as they have a little bit more blue and natural than the other ones, and the tiny amount of uv I was thinking could help with bug prevention.

Yesterday btw I ended up hooking up the hurricane 4" exhaust I was originally using and am trying to use it as the primary intake fan on low. That said unless I crank it up to an annoying sound level it's not enough that I can seal some other vents. ATM I have back vent fully open, main side vent open but sort of pulled semi-tight around 2 4" flex ducts... one is passive and ends as it enters tent, one is from the hurricane I sort of have blowing on the ground slighting in the middle of the tent. Also the two little 3" side vents (probably meant for cords) are open. There is suction\flow on all of them. I'm convinced some of these 'tips' on the leaves have to do with my air-flow which is still not right. If I go lower on the exhaust pull I have heat issues, if I go higher I add to wind problem, if I go higher on intakes for less pressure I get semi-wind issues and noise I can't take. Top that all off with the faster I pull air out the more maintaining humidity becomes an issue.

The playing around continues.. I hope my babies know I'm trying.


Todo: Remember to turn off extra lights, maybe set them up on second timer for 2am-8am (6hr a day), seems to be coolest period outside of rest period.

Tomorrow load up on distilled water, grab some more flat-black paint, visit THD and grab some more foil, maybe another timer too, see if have 4x4x4 venting wye ie a splitter, or 4-to-6 and 6-to-8 converters..got lots of ideas I'm still toying with if they have right stuff in stock; See if they have ac unit I been eyeing (I really don't trust AC units 'shipped' and returning a bum one is pita). Visit local (relatively) hydroponics shop I found online, check out what they generally keep in stock in the store - try not to buy anything other than maybe ph cal fluid cause outside of a few things everything is sure to be overpriced, that said if they keep lots of useful stuff in-stock, that's good to know in case I ever need something now-now.


My 2nd, slightly improved light trap, I ran out of flat black paint though.
the trash bags are because it's almost impossible to mesh it up with the tent to like foil-tape it on, and even then I couldn't easily remove it. I like the box on top of box idea cause I can easily remove the top one, and
just insert flex ducting (that makes a 90d turn itself later) too, leaves me option also for forcing\directing air more directly into that back vent too.

 

[KevinL]

Welcome KevinL!
Thanks for the kind words and some reassurance.

As for my cat, when I first got the tent, I set it up with nothing in it and left it unzipped, he was very very curious, and it's once of the reasons I set it up early - to get him acclimated to it cause it's in a spot he used to sometimes sit and chill around.

He was constantly coming into the room going right for the tent, hopping inside chilling for a few minutes and then leaving. Part of that I think was the new-tent scent, part of it was "oh look new hiding spot!". After about 4-5 days I cleaned the insides and zipped it up to see what his reaction would be, then he just wanted to come in once a day and walk around it, thankfully he didn't try and get inside...least not in any serious way, not that I noticed anyway. Then days later is when I started the grow. He's come in a couple time when I was in the room with tent open but kept his distance, correctly so I think he doesn't like the strong lights, probably fks him up a little just like humans. I do worry a little his reactions once they start to smell, cause he likes to eat anything green. That said he's been staying out of the room more than usual, cause it's colder and noisier with all the ventilation and the ac compressor constantly on.

Yeah man I know what you mean, did basically the same thing with all 3 of my cats.. Lol when I first set my tent up, they would not stop jumping on the top of it. Which was scary, Luckily they mostly jumped to the dresser next to it, then on top. But I still had to regulate. Can't be having them putting holes in my tents! Plus it'll put more weight/ strain on the tent frame. And that could end up disastrous! Lol there chill now, just sometimes interested in seeing what's inside when I'm working in there..

Seems like we got pretty similar grows going on, around the same time.. So I'll definitely be following along with your grow man. Later

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 13 - Morning

Overview:

Temps were good yesterday, and this morning (though it didn't break 90 yesterday), stayed in the 72-82 range around plant level with RH in the 45-65 level, helped that we got rain storms yesterday afternoon and night, and maybe the water bucket addition did help a little. There was some growth over the last 24, WW added a little height as did CC, and WW started to add some under-growth. The only downside is the WW new growth from yesterday now looks as wind-burnt as the rest...grr. I'm trying no lower fan today period, and I even cut back slightly a few watts on the exhaust fan starting last night around 9pm. I also raised the main light 1" to maintain about 24" from the WW (so it's now 25" from pot tops) - was also trying to encourage CC to stretch a tiny bit.

Last night I turned on the secondary lighting again and hooked up the second timer to strip that controls them, they will come on about 8:30pm and go off about 12:30pm, or put another way turn on about an hour after the main light and turn off a little more than an hour before... the idea with that is both heat management and in theory to represent some form of sun-down\sun-up. Maybe it's pointless or even harmful, idk. It's not a lot of additional light either way though (combined it's about 26w from the wall, eventually it'll be about 52-56 when I if I add two more).

Top Shot:

Miss Cane:

Side - she grew up a bit, but new I noticed some under growth starting to happen.

Closer ups: Overall she looks a more healthier and less wrinkled (though there is a little it seems) than WW.



Mrs. Widow:

Side: She grew taller a bit, and also has more defined undergrowth starting vs yesterday. Usual or is the side lighting and rotating actually helping this along?? You can see already there is shade on both from top leaves.

Closer ups: That 'stripe' on the right side close up is 90% a product of the light +glasses I'm taking photo though. Anyway you can see the fresh growth in the top from yesterday filled out more but also now more
wrinkled\puffy than yesterday. If this is wind... I'm about at my wits end in terms of preventing it. That said
maybe once it happens it doesn't go away? Is that true does 'wind burn' not fade over time? Also wondering if this is caused by being so close to humidifier, though 80% of it's output gets sucked upward, 20% does seem to pass by\over\on the WW.



Soil: Dryer top coat today, but not 'dry-dry', and bit moist at 1", was expecting to water her today per plan,
but will hold off till at LEAST tomorrow. The meters both say dry in both plants (bit more so in WW) at the 3" and 5" levels... both read solid moist down at the bottom. I don't trust these meters, they seem designed
at best for fairly compact soil and not 'lighter' mixes for mary-jane. I didn't pull them out to weigh them (too much constant movement is bad right?), but they do feel a bit lighter than a couple days ago.

Interesting that the WW is always drier though than CC, guess that's cause there has always been more air-movement around it.

Anyway we'll see what happens temp wise and wind-burn wise over next 24hr with the lower 'intake' helper\spreader off. I'm expecting slightly lower humidity (because it helped push air around the water source thing), slightly higher temps, and probably no change in the plant. But you never know, hence continued experimentation - cause I could see possible reasons that it might actually stay about the same temp if distribution changes such that cooler air is actually getting more over the three monitors.

It's hilarious though that the top of the tent has always been cooler than the middle or top the last 5-6 days, not by much, but for 4-5 days it's never been hotter than pot height, and often 2-4 degrees cooler or worst the same. What that tells me is the exhaust is fully doing it's job, maybe even too good, but that air-flow ain't part of any heat problems... it's all distribution\flow or temp of the incoming air in first place... but I already knew this.

Toys: I stopped by THD... god damn nobody stocks anything you really need anymore, I wasn't the only person who thinks that ran into someone that was actually complaining about that to an associate who was mentioning, "but we have it online". Yeah no sh1t but if I wanted to order it online I'd have done that, I wanted to physically see and touch it first. Anyway I picked up some 4" and 6" flex ducting to have around for some things I might
try. Also some 90d elbows.. of which of course they only had 4" no 6" in stock...da fk?

I went into the pvc area and got some ideas for what to do with those 3" side vent holes and light traps... lots of cool and cheap contraptions I can make... little too heavy though to sit on side of tent, without building some supports. Anyway not sure how to add 'filters' to those.. I guess some screen material and wire-ties could work. Bottom line, I introduced myself to the wonders of the pvc isle and I liked it... I really really liked it, it was like LEGOS.
Now if only I already had a real saw to cut that shit. Anyway that could all come in handy later, I have a trelis net already, 2 actually that came with the tent. I could build pvc thingy for it or wire tie it to the tent, still thinking. Also it gave me the idea of creating additional supports for the top of my tent so I could actually
hand stuff where I actually want it. Basically some 2'-1" 1" pvc with some notches cut out would probably do
the trick so long as I didn't try and put more than 50lbs on it.. I think the tent supports only do 75 each themselves so not really an issue.

Picked up 15 gallons of distilled water...
Forgot to pick up a cheapo air-pump and air stone while I was at w-mart...
Maybe next time, also next time I'm just going to get a Zero-Filter thing.. for 40bucks. It's actually not 'that' much cheaper in the short term when counting filter replacements every 35-45 or so gallons, but technically is long term, and it's a whole lot more convenient and unless 'flushing' I really don't need more than a gallon or two a day which the Zero-Water thing can provide without having to wait more than a few hours... and lord knows I have enough spare jugs now to stay ahead of the game. I mean if it takes my 45 water down to like 3-6... that's good enough, my existing Brita even with a brand new filter barely removes anything, I'm assuming it's output of 40-41 is it removing at least the 3ppm of chlorine I know is in the tap.


Another book of a post completed (sorry)

Curious, is this too much too often for a normal journal?
I'm sure I'll skip a day here and there in the future, or have non-verbose days, but I'm trying to keep things as detailed as possible, mainly for myself to look back on, but also in case things go wrong so I can maybe chase things down to where problems started or changes I forgot I made. I'm trying to keep the basics up top and then the boring notes to self or questions toward the bottom, feedback if that is good\bad is welcome.

 

[Dinsdale]

Curious, is this too much too often for a normal journal?
I'm sure I'll skip a day here and there in the future, or have non-verbose days, but I'm trying to keep things as detailed as possible, mainly for myself to look back on, but also in case things go wrong so I can maybe chase things down to where problems started or changes I forgot I made. I'm trying to keep the basics up top and then the boring notes to self or questions toward the bottom, feedback if that is good\bad is welcome.

Personnally, I like it. Keep it up!

 

[Juny360]

Day 13 - Morning

Overview:

Temps were good yesterday, and this morning (though it didn't break 90 yesterday), stayed in the 72-82 range around plant level with RH in the 45-65 level, helped that we got rain storms yesterday afternoon and night, and maybe the water bucket addition did help a little. There was some growth over the last 24, WW added a little height as did CC, and WW started to add some under-growth. The only downside is the WW new growth from yesterday now looks as wind-burnt as the rest...grr. I'm trying no lower fan today period, and I even cut back slightly a few watts on the exhaust fan starting last night around 9pm. I also raised the main light 1" to maintain about 24" from the WW (so it's now 25" from pot tops) - was also trying to encourage CC to stretch a tiny bit.

Last night I turned on the secondary lighting again and hooked up the second timer to strip that controls them, they will come on about 8:30pm and go off about 12:30pm, or put another way turn on about an hour after the main light and turn off a little more than an hour before... the idea with that is both heat management and in theory to represent some form of sun-down\sun-up. Maybe it's pointless or even harmful, idk. It's not a lot of additional light either way though (combined it's about 26w from the wall, eventually it'll be about 52-56 when I if I add two more).

Top Shot:

Miss Cane:

Side - she grew up a bit, but new I noticed some under growth starting to happen.

Closer ups: Overall she looks a more healthier and less wrinkled (though there is a little it seems) than WW.



Mrs. Widow:

Side: She grew taller a bit, and also has more defined undergrowth starting vs yesterday. Usual or is the side lighting and rotating actually helping this along?? You can see already there is shade on both from top leaves.

Closer ups: That 'stripe' on the right side close up is 90% a product of the light +glasses I'm taking photo though. Anyway you can see the fresh growth in the top from yesterday filled out more but also now more
wrinkled\puffy than yesterday. If this is wind... I'm about at my wits end in terms of preventing it. That said
maybe once it happens it doesn't go away? Is that true does 'wind burn' not fade over time? Also wondering if this is caused by being so close to humidifier, though 80% of it's output gets sucked upward, 20% does seem to pass by\over\on the WW.



Soil: Dryer top coat today, but not 'dry-dry', and bit moist at 1", was expecting to water her today per plan,
but will hold off till at LEAST tomorrow. The meters both say dry in both plants (bit more so in WW) at the 3" and 5" levels... both read solid moist down at the bottom. I don't trust these meters, they seem designed
at best for fairly compact soil and not 'lighter' mixes for mary-jane. I didn't pull them out to weigh them (too much constant movement is bad right?), but they do feel a bit lighter than a couple days ago.

Interesting that the WW is always drier though than CC, guess that's cause there has always been more air-movement around it.

Anyway we'll see what happens temp wise and wind-burn wise over next 24hr with the lower 'intake' helper\spreader off. I'm expecting slightly lower humidity (because it helped push air around the water source thing), slightly higher temps, and probably no change in the plant. But you never know, hence continued experimentation - cause I could see possible reasons that it might actually stay about the same temp if distribution changes such that cooler air is actually getting more over the three monitors.

It's hilarious though that the top of the tent has always been cooler than the middle or top the last 5-6 days, not by much, but for 4-5 days it's never been hotter than pot height, and often 2-4 degrees cooler or worst the same. What that tells me is the exhaust is fully doing it's job, maybe even too good, but that air-flow ain't part of any heat problems... it's all distribution\flow or temp of the incoming air in first place... but I already knew this.

Toys: I stopped by THD... god damn nobody stocks anything you really need anymore, I wasn't the only person who thinks that ran into someone that was actually complaining about that to an associate who was mentioning, "but we have it online". Yeah no sh1t but if I wanted to order it online I'd have done that, I wanted to physically see and touch it first. Anyway I picked up some 4" and 6" flex ducting to have around for some things I might
try. Also some 90d elbows.. of which of course they only had 4" no 6" in stock...da fk?

I went into the pvc area and got some ideas for what to do with those 3" side vent holes and light traps... lots of cool and cheap contraptions I can make... little too heavy though to sit on side of tent, without building some supports. Anyway not sure how to add 'filters' to those.. I guess some screen material and wire-ties could work. Bottom line, I introduced myself to the wonders of the pvc isle and I liked it... I really really liked it, it was like LEGOS.
Now if only I already had a real saw to cut that shit. Anyway that could all come in handy later, I have a trelis net already, 2 actually that came with the tent. I could build pvc thingy for it or wire tie it to the tent, still thinking. Also it gave me the idea of creating additional supports for the top of my tent so I could actually
hand stuff where I actually want it. Basically some 2'-1" 1" pvc with some notches cut out would probably do
the trick so long as I didn't try and put more than 50lbs on it.. I think the tent supports only do 75 each themselves so not really an issue.

Picked up 15 gallons of distilled water...
Forgot to pick up a cheapo air-pump and air stone while I was at w-mart...
Maybe next time, also next time I'm just going to get a Zero-Filter thing.. for 40bucks. It's actually not 'that' much cheaper in the short term when counting filter replacements every 35-45 or so gallons, but technically is long term, and it's a whole lot more convenient and unless 'flushing' I really don't need more than a gallon or two a day which the Zero-Water thing can provide without having to wait more than a few hours... and lord knows I have enough spare jugs now to stay ahead of the game. I mean if it takes my 45 water down to like 3-6... that's good enough, my existing Brita even with a brand new filter barely removes anything, I'm assuming it's output of 40-41 is it removing at least the 3ppm of chlorine I know is in the tap.


Another book of a post completed (sorry)

Curious, is this too much too often for a normal journal?
I'm sure I'll skip a day here and there in the future, or have non-verbose days, but I'm trying to keep things as detailed as possible, mainly for myself to look back on, but also in case things go wrong so I can maybe chase things down to where problems started or changes I forgot I made. I'm trying to keep the basics up top and then the boring notes to self or questions toward the bottom, feedback if that is good\bad is welcome.

ms Cane and ms. Widow are looking real good. Whatever your doing it's working. Your pretty much catching up to mine . Makes me wonder what am I doing wrong. Great work man

As far as a daily journal..the more notes the better. It allows for others to read on, see what you did, and learn a thing or two. We Can all learn a thing a two even if we change it a bit. I only wish I would have came across these forums years ago rather then wasting money on medicine and not knowing what quality I was getting or where it was coming from. Keep up the great work man! Stay medicated

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 14 - Morning (7am)

Overview: Environment was good last ~24hr, actually surprised, temps in 73-82 range (peeking in usually around 79-80| 52-55rh), and RH in 40-60. My little added water bucket actually evaporated by this morning, that was slightly unexpected, refilled it with just a little along with humidifier. Plants look better today I think, marginally on the WW but definitely CC looks better to me. Both grew overnight, CC is up to 2.5" and WW is about 3" now. As for the 'turn off lower fan' experiment. Well it maybe be a little early to say but WW is looking a little less burnt today. My research gave me conflicting information about 'recovery' from this, if that wrinkling is wind or cold wind burn best I can find is seems it may fade on older growth though probably never completely. Who knows maybe it's not even wind burn. We'll see tomorrow. May water today around 1pm but more on that later.

I moved the light up this morning to 26" from pot (about 25" from ww).
I added two more 24w led's in the opposing corners using the clamp\reflector socket things, tore my hands up a little fighting to keep them in place and screwing around with the hose clamps I use to keep them squeezed tight 99% in place.

If I reading my plants node count right it seem in the coming days I need to make the "top" \ "don't top" decision on the White Widow auto, and then start training her, seem a few days early right now.

Top Shot:



Miss Cane:


Sides: She's just barely nearing the top of the pot, but ~2.5" now, that's at least .25 overnight
Third node (or what will be) at the top grew quite a bit over night.



Closer ups: She looks a better shade of green today, still darker than I expected, but less
puffy than yesterday and leaves just look healthier\more normal to me today.


Mrs.Widow:


Sides: I can't tell is that technically 4 nodes now or 3, idk if I should really count those bottom
2 leaves. IDK seems to #4 is now starting to come in\develop. If so that's the one I would
remove soon right if topping? I thinking if that's the case I only have like 48hr to make that
call.???



Closer ups: Seems to look a little better to me today, particularly the lower leaves are a bit
less puffy\wrinkled and little of the darker red is gone from very top\coming in growth, though
that stem on the last pick (I just noticed it now) looks red\purple.... have to remember to look
at that again later.

Soil: Much drier today vs. yesterday, top soil is 'dry', not dust dry, but probably would be by tonight.
1" down ...does still sort of feel moist, the dirt-sick-to-finger happens but it's borderline. I feel like
they both want a drink, it's been 5 full days, I was planning to water yesterday but gut said no, today
it's mixed, I may just do it around noon (I may drag them out and weigh them), if not maybe tonight after they wake up. They do weigh less than yesterday for sure though, it's funny how you can actually feel it, in fact
it's weird but I feel the WW his slightly heavier, which both makes sense and does not, she did get a bit more water than CC, but at the same time she's been closer to the breeze most of the week. /shugs..

Random:
I may lose the 'sticky traps', they sort of get in the way of the side lighting. idk looking close
they have not captured anything, but that's not surprised considering how much air movement
was happening in there prior to yesterday. Still idk maybe lose them for now, or prop them up
in the far corners of the tent or something.

I may move the placement of the little water bucket thing, I'm not fond of having water sit right below a electrical device that at least sort of - in theory - could fall, that said they are on tight and I wrapped the cords around top frame such that even if they slip they shouldn't drop but an inch or two. Better safe than dead though. The humidifier blowing atomized mist up toward the lights already has me paranoid, not about the bulb, so much but the cheap sockets,etc.

I tried out the light socket things that just hang...but unless my 600w breaks or something, or I engineer more cross beams for the top of the tent they are just not going to work well in the present setup\layout. In theory what I maybe should have done was use both the 450 and the 600 each over one plant with the 450 getting some of boosters... but I don't want to screw with it right now since they're probably mostly used to the current setup. They did at least seem well made enough though to hold the heavier bulbs - as advertised\review said they would, the plastic base on them though idk I wouldn't put any more than say 40 real watts on that thing.

I'm actually screwing around with some things in my head about maybe trying to get that 450 in there too...
I think that's going to cause temp problems... the 4 24w.. (actual draw of 50 total) side lights ain't shit compared to 200. Also... there is a point of diminishing returns right, ~550 real watts might be a little
overkill no? At moment it's ~370w from the wall \ 695w in 'rated'. btw the 2 I added today were the
Vintage 24's. They have 1 more blue than the Tao 36's I actually would have preferred to use.
Theory is I will swap in the Tao's for flower - or just find a way to otherwise add them to the room.



The additional 2 side lighting from nw/sw corners (if you consider the center vent 'north').


Why did I move the light up again (note the side lights are still in the 20-24" range), well it's not cause I want stretch (although a little on the CC I actually would) but cause I'm not entirely convinced WW's issue are 100% wind, while I can't detect any light burn on either plant I wonder too intense light isn't causing it. That said it's also cause she's now marginally above the pot height. I may now let her grow into it for a couple days and see if 24-26" is right or with growth if a little less doesn't hurt her.

Tweaked timer on side lights... was actually turning off about 30min earlier than I wanted. 12:15 vs 12:45, made it 12:45 (one hour before main lights).

To Do:
12-1pm: yank each out of tent gently as possible and weigh them. if 12lbs or less water them; if 13-14 wait till tonight, if more wait till tomorrow morning or noon at which point right or wrong I will probably do it anyway. They were ~11lbs dry before seed, and ~17lbs after soaking the soil and letting them sit for an hour pre-seed.

Also I have to say...environment wise yesterday and last night went better than expected.
I actually wanted "lows" to not go below 72, and they didn't and highs even with the side-lighting,
bottom fan off and minor touching of exhaust fan controller yesterday to stay 84 or less.
So of course instead of being happy and just leaving things... I added more lights today! lol
That said as I write this an hour after zipping her up, seems all is still well in the tent. Some how
marginally less airflow seems to have actually helped, maybe it's the fact input air isn't immediately
being sucked right out as fast as it used to be so it's floating a little more by the plants\lights\sensors.
IDK...

/me crosses fingers for another relatively good day.

 

[knighthawktfc]

Day 14 - mid-day

Weighed both plants using same scale as before (floor is technically different than first reading but whatever). Both are about 14lbs (minus 1.. my scale is offset from the start at about +1), I can't recall if I auto accounted for that at the beginning figures.



I've decided not to water right now, maybe tonight, maybe not, seem a little droopy to me, but maybe they know bed time is coming in 30min. Gut says wait at least 8hrs more and so I will.

At next watering (tonight\tomorrow) I will use digital scale after any runoff stops and use that as new marker.
I really don't like taking these babies out of the tent, and at some point that will not be easily possible.

That said I got some pics in natural warm\bathroom light, stuck my nose in them too (every so slight smell of goodness - I hear they they tend to smell more when they want water), and busted out the 4x mag glass to eye ball a couple leaves for bugs under or over - none were noticed. The ww was a hair heavier than the cc... but that could just be be placement, did both in different positions\balancing didn't seem to change reading, not beyond a hair anyway. I have to say away from the led lighting they look
a healthier color than under the led's even with the 70$ compensating glasses...which I'm not knocking, they're great, just saying it's not
100% the same, more like 90%.