Growing In Lockdown 2020

[Jackopotomus]

My last grow I learned the importance of keeping notes, and I never applied that lesson lol so when I say my soil is a mix of ingredients I can give you ingredients but not ratios. I also cant say when this soil started but it's been a while. I a recently had my electrical panel replaced and as I am a Canadian and no longer really need to hide my hobby I had my electrician put in a couple dedicated lines for the garden. I plan on playing around with a few different set ups and styles till I find what works best for me.

Currently my 4 ft by 4 ft tent has a 600 watt HPS and a 315 watt CMH. I have two large rubbermaid totes that I DIYd into SIP (sub irrigated planters) to which I added some bokasi to several months back. They have been cooking for some time. Today I put a Lost Coast Skunk autoflower and a Bubba Cheese auto both from HSO into a small container of my base mix. Seeds were planted around 10am.

My last grow had a couple fumbles along the way, the most important lesson I learned is that I'm lazier than I give myself credit for so a big part of this grow is gonna be keeping things simple. That said I grew 2 plants to harvest under the 315 watt CMH and got some great tasting buds. This time around I have more than doubled my light and doubled the size of the plant containers. I'm really liking the way the tent looks with the two spectrums going in there. I also bought some new toys including a pH pen a TDS meter and a soil reader that measures soil moisture and pH. It needs a 9v battery so no measurement on that yet but my tap water left out overnight has a pH of ~7.4 and TDS of 96 ppm. Last grow I didnt bother adjusting pH at all and I may not bother this time or I may experiment haven't decided yet but hopefully I will be able to make a more informed decision either way. I have my lights to come on at 6am and go out at midnight. I have 6inch inline fan attached to a thermostat as my exhaust and so far just running passive intake with an oscillating tower fan running on high speed for circulation.

 

[Jackopotomus]

20200508_120647.jpg

• Jackopotomus
• May 8, 2020

May 8th 2020 First Day

 

[Jackopotomus]

Decided to attach my 4 inch inline fan to a carbon filter and use it as an intake for the tent. Temps were climbing a little. Was up to 81° with the door open for a few minutes I can get temps down to 76° with the intake going I think I can maintain 79° but its unseasonably cold here today we actually got snow for a bit. Humidity is super dry around 25% RH I've had a small humidifier running at about 3/4 of the way to max and only got humidity up to 27%.

 

[Jackopotomus]

So checked the tent this morning. Only the intake fan is running which I've had just running the whole time no timers or thermostat. The temperature at 7:45 am was 76% the thermometer recorded a high of 81° and low of 60°. As I said yesterday was cold here and as I haven't fashioned anything for exhaust to properly vent through the window the basement window was open. I've managed to get the humidity up to 32% which is the daily high for humidity and 21% was the low. Still no seedlings but it has been less than 24 hours since I put the beans in the dirt.

 

[GreenGod4You]

Looks nice bro!! Keep the show going!

 

[Jackopotomus]

Temperature seems to be holding steady at 76° just with the intake fan. I like the temp but I'm concerned about keeping the tent in a positive pressure. I'm sure I've read about that fucking with the plants transpiration.

OriginallybI was going to go with 2 tents and do a perpetual grow but decided to go with 1 afterall. So I have an extra tent. I also enjoy brewing beer, so I'm planning on using the second tent as a place to ferment my carboys. It's dark and cool. It's perfect. Then I will put my intake fan in that tent and pump the co2 enriched air into my tent. If I start doing a whole grain brewing process I'll also have an abundance malted barley.

Any one on here playing around with a brewery grow room? I'm assuming that malted barley that has already been used to make wort, wont give the microbes in the soil the kick that fresh malted barley would, or can spent grain still work?

 

[Jackopotomus]

Soil seemed really dry. The two small pots have been dry awhile, could have gone hydrophobic, anyway gave them each a little more water. Over the course of the day the temperature climbed up to 78° and the exhaust is on now I checked around 2 O'clock. Humidity is in the 20s. Refilled the humidifier this morning. Still no sprouts.

 

[Jackopotomus]

Temperature high was 81° humidity high was 57% low was 60° and 23%. Still no sprouts.

 

[Jackopotomus]

Environment seems pretty dialed in. I have to fill the humidifier everyday. I'm thinking of losing the 600 w hps for now just cause they dont need the extra light. Still no sprouts but only day 4. I've been sprinkling a few handfuls of water on the pots everyday. I forgot how impatient I got through this whole process lol.

 

[Jackopotomus]

Well the first seed has broken ground. The seed shell was still stuck on top. The colouring seems a little off but the sprout is still so small it's hard to tell. I still have both lights on.

 

[Jackopotomus]

Lost Coast Skunk first day above ground May 13th

• Jackopotomus
• May 13, 2020

 

[Jackopotomus]

The second bean still hasnt popped yet. I'm not quite ready to give up on it, but I'm preparing to. The seed that has popped hasnt shown much growth in the last few days but once I looked at the last pic I can see some subtle differences. Thinking about starting a third or even fourth bean.

 

[Jackopotomus]

I checked out the soil pH meter. Soil was wet and 6.9 pH in the SIP (I added water to the res yesterday). The container with the seedling was dry and 6.9. My worm farm has been outside and it's been raining I checked today and it was a good thing I did, water was built up. I poured it onto the containers with the seeds and after an hour the pH was 7-7.1. Tomorrow I think I'll start 2 more seeds that will be 10 days apart.

 

[Jackopotomus]

I started a Bluedream Auto and a UK Cheese Auto yesterday and watered with the worm farm rain water. Lost Coast Skunk is starting to develop its next set of leaves.

 

[Jackopotomus]

I have continued watering with the worm and rain water and wouldn't you know the bubba cheese has sprouted! Over a week behind the Lost Coast Skunk started on the same day. Yesterday I had to cut the power to the whole house for a bit. When I turned it back on I forgot to turn on the oscillating fan in the tent and temperature was up at 91°! I got the fan turned back on and I'm keeping the door open to help cool things down. The bubba cheese that sprouted also had its seed cap stuck to it. I've heard of this but never seen it before and now both the seeds that have popped this round have had this. I wonder if it's an auto thing, it's my first time growing autos. Maybe it has to do with how I planted them, maybe it's just a coincidence, I dont know. I'm glad I didnt give up on the bubba cheese I was ready to throw it away.

 

[Jackopotomus]

20200527_110056.jpg

• Jackopotomus
• May 27, 2020

Bubba cheese may 27

20200527_110052.jpg

• Jackopotomus
• May 27, 2020

Last coast skunk may 27

The worm water really seemed to make a difference. The last coast skunk and bubba cheese are coming along. I decided to start letting their pots dry up while I'm still watering the un popped seeds a little worm water everyday. Temperatures swung from snow two weeks ago to over 40° with the humidex but tent temps have stayed below 90 so I think we're gonna be ok. Humidity is staying up near 50% consistently considering these two auto strains are reported to finish in 9 weeks I feel like I should be further along two weeks in but that could be just my impatience again

 

[Jackopotomus]

lcs June 4th

• Jackopotomus
• Jun 4, 2020

Lcs June 4th

• Jackopotomus
• Jun 4, 2020

Bc June 4th

• Jackopotomus
• Jun 4, 2020

Something has gone wrong! My least coast skunk pictured in the first two pics has some strange deformity happening. It's hard to see in the pictures but the two newest sets of leaves haven't grown into full leaves there stubby. On not sure if it's a bug that's eaten off the tips or they just grew like that. There also seems to be a few white/yellow tips on the the older growth but not on the actual tips of the leave rather on the points of a few individual blades if that makes sense. Is it root bound in that small pot should I transfer it into the tote? Is it a pH issue? Light burn? Heat stress?

On a good note is I can start to see the forming of pistols on both little plants (autoflowers are weird) the Bubba cheese seems to be doing ok minus a small yellow spot on one of her initial seedling leaves.

I've been continuing to feed with the water runoff from my worm farm outside. There are little tiny white bugs living on the surface of the water that crawl into the soil when I pour it into the pots. Temperatures are still fluctuating from 60 to 90°. The two seeds I dropped two weeks ago haven't popped yet either.

 

[HunterHunt]

You will have better results with heat running a cool tube on your lights since you are in a enclosed tent. Are you running a HPS light while during vegging?

 

[Jackopotomus]

I have been running both the CMH and HPS the whole time. But temperatures have not gone over 90° is that still too high?

 

[HunterHunt]

MH for vegging and HPS for flowering. You want 70 degrees sleeping and not over 85 at the canopy while lights on. A good 10 - 15 degree change is good. The problem you are going to have is when they grow and you are flowering you want that light closer to your plants and you will not be able to achieve that without a cool tube. You may be able to get by with it you just dont see many people without a cool tube in a small tent like you have. I have a 4 X 4 tent with a 600 watt cool tube in mine.