Green Crack Journal Grow

EricCartman

New Member
Hey guys,

First time poster, long time lurker. I've been trying to grow for about 3 years with moderate success. My plants always seem to start to die around week 5 of flower, so it's been a race to save bud. Trying to learn from my mistakes to one day become a competent grower. Any suggestions you may have as I post, please let me know. I'm openly telling you guys I don't know anything, so please don't imply anything I say or do is right.

So about this grow:
3 Fem GC from CKS. Let the seeds sit in a shot glass of water over night before putting them into a damp paper towel. They each cracked and had a strong tap root in about 36 hours, so into a pot of soil they each went.

I'm using Roots organic soil. I've used FFHF and FFOF in the past, but the FFOF always burnt my seedlings and the FFHF resulted in dying plants towards the end. I'm in no way blaming these brands and use their entire nutrient line. I blame me, but the one time I took I had a great grow from seed to flower was with Roots, so I'm gonna try it again.

The first couple weeks I'm going to use a 270W Full Spectrum LED I bought from HTG. Using a 3x3x5 grow tent with a carbon scrubber (I tried to use Ona when I first was starting but nothing compares to the scrubber) with a 6 inch inline fan. I bought a 250W ballast from HTG that can use both MH and HPS 400w bulbs. Temps stay around 70 with lights off and peak around 81.

Here they are at the end of week one from sprouting:
7-21_-_Copy.JPG


And here they are at about 2.5 weeks:
7-30B_-_Copy.JPG


Prior to week 3 I did normal waterings from distilled water with some CalMag added in every other feeding. No nutrients use yet. The week 6 deaths I've talked about looked like a Calcium deficiency based on photos, so I thought I could help this grow by using.

Around this time I started to realize the soil must have been contaminated with fungus gnats, so after topping them, I put in some yellow fly traps. Some of the plants looked as if a pest had eaten small holes in the leaves.

Start of week 3 under the MH light:
7-31A_-_Copy.JPG


A little after Week 4 :

8-8A_-_Copy.JPG

8-8B_-_Copy.JPG


I started using neem around week 4. I still think the culprit is fungus gnats. I've inspected every leap for aphids, but couldn't find any underneath or anything else. So I mixed 2 TBS of neem into a gallon of water and sprayed it all over the tops and bottoms.

I've used FF Grow Big and Big Bloom at 1/2 strength, alternating between nutrients and straight up distilled water the past 2 weeks. No signs of nutrient burn, but lower leaves occasionally get spots. I've done a lot of trimming at the end of each week to top them and clear undergrowth, and this has gotten most of it. But I'm terrified there's something I'm missing that will result in death during flower.

End of week 5 (First week since going to 12/12) as of 8/20:

8-20A_-_Copy.JPG
8-20B_-_Copy.JPG


Neem'd again cause occasionally a leaf will have a hole in it, plus some discoloration on lower leaves. PHd the water and soil as a lot of reading on these forums has lead me to believe this is a culprit. The soil in all 3 plants read around 6.5 (my meter only goes in .5 increments for soil. Hangs at 7.0 and then drops to 6.5). I check the run off in their trays as soon as I water. I watered last night using distilled water PHd at 7.0, and two plants are at 6.2 or 6.3 (they jump) but one is at 5.9. I know that the 6.3 is at the low range for growing girls, but 5.9 seems too low. I'm going to PH up my next feeding to 6.8 to see if it helps. Any advice on this topic would be much appreciated.

Here's one of the lower leafs I'm talking about:
IMG_2531_-_Copy.JPG


Any advice would be very much appreciated.
 
That bottom leaf kind of looks like splash, maybe got wet while watering.

I'm not familiar with the term, but I assume it means spilling nutrient rich water on a leaf while watering. If that's what the term means, then you are probably right. That happens from time to time. I'll be more careful in the future.
 
Week 6 2nd week since 12/12

PHd the nutrients to 6.8 using the fox farm schedule at 1/2 str minus the nitrogen heavy stuff. Trimmed some lower growth and LST'd some branches to spread them out to minimize stretch and maximize light to bud sites. Accidentally split her about 1/2 an inch doing this on one and taped her together. We'll see what happens, but the leaves on the torn branch are starting to curl, so I may end up losing that branch. Live and learn.

Apologies for the HPS lighting.

image38152.JPG
image210081.JPG
image110104.JPG
 
Week 7 3rd week after going 12/12

Trimmed some ugly leaves and some bud sites that were too low and would have just sucked nutrients. All in all looks pretty good. Watered once with tap water and FF Microbe Brew, then watered with the FF Feeding schedule at 1/2 strength with a tsp of CalMag.

IMG_258033.JPG
IMG_257824.JPG
IMG_257525.JPG
 
Next weekend I think I'll flush her, then resume the FF feeding schedule at 1/2 str. I have all 3 solubles, but I'm scared to death of those nutrients in particular fucking them up, so I'm going to avoid them.
 
Week 8 4th full week after going 12/12. Almost half way through flowering.

May have a gnat problem again, so new fly paper and sprayed everything with neem

IMG_259120.JPG
IMG_258821.JPG
IMG_258725.JPG
 
Hope all is well in your world.

How did this grow turn out?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
Back
Top Bottom