H1gherD1mensionz 2nd Microgrow: Gelato Auto

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 9!

Not much going on apart from these white marks appearing on the leaves. It almost looks like thrip damage but I highly doubt I've got those. Could be those springtails... I'm also wondering if a calcium powder build up from the humidifier could cause this, as you can see how its frosting up the side of my pot. I'm sure it'll be fine though.

 

[Mdlroad]

Day 9!

Not much going on apart from these white marks appearing on the leaves. It almost looks like thrip damage but I highly doubt I've got those. Could be those springtails... I'm also wondering if a calcium powder build up from the humidifier could cause this, as you can see how its frosting up the side of my pot. I'm sure it'll be fine though.

Calcium from the humidifier a good possibility. I'm constantly fighting that problem. It even plugs up the cloth filter on the charcoal filter. It's a pain

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 10

Her leaves were slightly pointing down so I decided to give another feed with the same values as last time and it perked her back up:
100ml water, 0.2ml biobizz root juice, 0.1ml biobizz acti-vera, 0.3ml apple cidar vinegar to pH 6.3, ppm 270, 20C.

Day 11

She grew a good amount after that little bit of water and stimulant. I increased the intensity of the light by a few % to bring the PPFD to 365. Her height is 4.3cm right now, a bit short?

I'm quite tempted to add a layer of straw as I see a lot of organic growers do. There's just something sad about dry plain soil. This seems to be an easy way to boost the health of the soil and provide a better environment for the roots and microbes.

Close up of the white marks:

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Calcium from the humidifier a good possibility. I'm constantly fighting that problem. It even plugs up the cloth filter on the charcoal filter. It's a pain

Yes sir that really is a pain. I'm certainly not buying distilled water to use up every day as this humidifier is empty after 10-14 hours. Maybe the trick is to cut the distilled water with tap water lol... Perhaps running the water through some charcoal a few times?

 

[Mdlroad]

Yes sir that really is a pain. I'm certainly not buying distilled water to use up every day as this humidifier is empty after 10-14 hours. Maybe the trick is to cut the distilled water with tap water lol... Perhaps running the water through some charcoal a few times?

Tap water is the source of calcium. Distilled water should not produce white powder

 

[Mdlroad]

Day 10

Her leaves were slightly pointing down so I decided to give another feed with the same values as last time and it perked her back up:
100ml water, 0.2ml biobizz root juice, 0.1ml biobizz acti-vera, 0.3ml apple cidar vinegar to pH 6.3, ppm 270, 20C.

Day 11

She grew a good amount after that little bit of water and stimulant. I increased the intensity of the light by a few % to bring the PPFD to 365. Her height is 4.3cm right now, a bit short?

I'm quite tempted to add a layer of straw as I see a lot of organic growers do. There's just something sad about dry plain soil. This seems to be an easy way to boost the health of the soil and provide a better environment for the roots and microbes.

Close up of the white marks:

That doesn't look like humidifier dust. The humidifier powder is more like flour

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

That doesn't look like humidifier dust.

What I meant is that the calcium powder might deposit on the leaves and act like a folier and give the plant more cal than it needs.

Distilled water should not produce white powder

I was saying to use half distilled and half tap to lessen the amount of calcium without wasting too much money on buying crap loads of distilled water.

 

[Mdlroad]

What I meant is that the calcium powder might deposit on the leaves and act like a folier and give the plant more cal than it needs.

I was saying to use half distilled and half tap to lessen the amount of calcium without wasting too much money on buying crap loads of distilled water.

Ok I misunderstood. Same here not gonna spend time and $ on distilled water. I just keep the filter changed.

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 12

After much observation and research I've figured that these marks are definitely not being caused by thrips, mites or springtails. What I'm seeing now is this is most likely variegation which makes sense since we're dealing with a mutated/deformed seedling to begin with. Looking carefully at the leaf under the top, there is a yellow pattern occurring on half the of the leaf. It is more more visible irl. I'm hoping its just minor spots and not too heavy as it will lower my yield due to the loss of photosynthesis.

Edit with adjusted levels:

Day 13

She grew a fair bit and is due for a feed. I'm sure the soil microbes are very hungry for some Grow, especially since the soil has been active without feed for a while. I'm also going to be using only a 1/4 amount of Grow and take it very lightly.

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 13 feeding:

250ml water, 0.3ml root juice, 0.3ml acti-vera, 0.3ml grow, 0.4ml acv to pH 6.3, 600 ppm

How are my values looking guys is this okay?

Day 14

She has responded well to the feeding and packed on some size.

Day 15

The tent environment has been nice and stable with temps at 23c and humidity at 50%. I made some errors by leaving the humidifier on high or leaving it off forgetting a couple times but the plant didn't seem to mind. I also pulled down the part of the pot touching the leaf with garden wire.

The newest leaves are looking perfect with no markings. She is 5.1cm tall and we are getting new sites on the nodes. I've also ordered some barley straw for a mulch layer. If anyone has any suggestions on how to clean it properly I'd love to hear it.

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 16

My pH pen suddenly decided to malfunction. Probably have to get a new one as it's not reading pH and showing weird temperature readings... instructions don't even mention a temperature function?? Before it went, the pH of the bottled water was reading 9! It has been in that bottle for a long time and usually reads around 8.5, so maybe it increases over time. It took double the amount of apple cidar to reduce pH.

Feed: 300ml water, 0.2ml root juice, 0.2ml acti-vera, 0.2ml grow 0.9ml acv to pH 6.5, 510 ppm.

Day 18

Had some minor issues this week. We have a leaf tip curling and folding with a waxiness to it. I also noticed some weird high temperature fluctuations and traced the issue to the exhaust. I took apart my filter and the calcium dust has clogged it up!

Waxy curled tip and some browning, side view of new growth:

I gave the filter a good beating and a massive amount of powder came out. After the cleaning the exhaust power has definitely returned.

 

[Mdlroad]

Day 16

My pH pen suddenly decided to malfunction. Probably have to get a new one as it's not reading pH and showing weird temperature readings... instructions don't even mention a temperature function?? Before it went, the pH of the bottled water was reading 9! It has been in that bottle for a long time and usually reads around 8.5, so maybe it increases over time. It took double the amount of apple cidar to reduce pH.

Feed: 300ml water, 0.2ml root juice, 0.2ml acti-vera, 0.2ml grow 0.9ml acv to pH 6.5, 510 ppm.

Day 18

Had some minor issues this week. We have a leaf tip curling and folding with a waxiness to it. I also noticed some weird high temperature fluctuations and traced the issue to the exhaust. I took apart my filter and the calcium dust has clogged it up!

Waxy curled tip and some browning, side view of new growth:

I gave the filter a good beating and a massive amount of powder came out. After the cleaning the exhaust power has definitely returned.

I've had to deal with exhaust cloth filter plugging up. It's a pain. I bought an extra cloth filter so I could always have a clean one. Also had to scrub charcoal filter with wire brush. I was changing mine out every 48 to 72 hours

 

[Mdlroad]

I've had to deal with exhaust cloth filter plugging up. It's a pain. I bought an extra cloth filter so I could always have a clean one. Also had to scrub charcoal filter with wire brush. I was changing mine out every 48 to 72 hours

Do you have cloth filter to fit over charcoal filter

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

I used to wrap some tights over the tent's exhaust port but now I'm using the top its awkward to get to. As for cloth over the filter, I'm exhausting into the filter, not pulling through it since there's no space to set it like that.

 

[Mdlroad]

I used to wrap some tights over the tent's exhaust port but now I'm using the top its awkward to get to. As for cloth over the filter, I'm exhausting into the filter, not pulling through it since there's no space to set it like that.

The only way to stop it is a different source of water for humidifier

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 19

Growth rate has been good. She is now 9cm tall. We also have the variegation showing up strong in one new leaf. I've been watering her every 3 days but it seems she isn't that thirsty yet as pot could be a bit lighter.

The humidity has started hitting 65% from 50% when I leave humidifier inside the tent on the lowest setting so I've placed it outside the tent near the passive vent. I guess the weather is warming up and a bigger plant is perspiring more.

Decided to open up the pH pen and behold:

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 20

Since the pH pen is out of action for now I'm playing it safe with the feed.

300ml water, 0.15ml acti-vera, 0.15ml grow, 0.6ml apple cidar vinegar to pH, 1000 EC.

Day 21

We have now reached week 3 relatively smoothly and the plant looks healthy and is already starting to smell! She is 10cm tall. Here is where the fun begins. I'll be starting the LST with a simple bend and moving fan leaves out the way. Let us hope she doesn't get upset and flower too soon.

I also increased the light from 23% to 37% giving us 600 PPFD at that 10cm point. The light is 11" from canopy before LST.

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 22

She turned back up quickly after the bend.

Day 23

Barley straw arrived and I steralized it with boiling water, letting it dry before adding it the pot. I wish I applied LST at 1 higher node because it is quite hard to water it now with such a low canopy.

Feed: 400ml water, 0.4ml acti-vera, 0.4ml grow, 20ml coconut water, 1ml apple cidar vinegar to pH (unknown), 550 ppm.

Day 25

Decided to add my old fan to give more airflow over the canopy, the leaves were barely moving with just the one fan on medium power. I also added a little DIY CO2 generator using yeast and sugar in a bottle which I placed in front of the passive vent. I may make it bigger and add a tube to put directly over the plant. However the negative pressure is good and the air coming into the tent gets sucked into the fan on the right which blows it down over the plant. I wouldn't be able to hang the CO2 bottle before the fans and extraction at the top would suck it up.

My room smells like beer now lol

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Day 28

We've hit week 4 and it looks like she's in no rush to flower, giving me more time for LST. Training the plant has been going well without any delays in growth. This morning I've hit her with a feed and headlocked the main cola with wire to bring it in line with the other forming tops to give a nice flat canopy.

Feed: 500ml water, 0.8 acti-vera, 0.6ml grow, 0.2ml topmax, 40ml coconut water, 1ml apple cidar vinegar to pH (unknown, est 6.5).

She showed no signs of thirst even after watering 2 days late, perhaps the straw is doing its job at stopping water evapourating from the topsoil. The nutrient schedule also said to use bloom nutes from week 3 but I've been skipping that and will most likely start using at week 5 when flowering starts.

Side view

Top down view

 

[H1gherD1mensionz]

Guys I'm seeing some ugly growth happening. Overnight the new leaves of the middle stem coming up have decided to turn grey/brown/yellow with deformity. Is this a Phosphorous deficiency considering I've skipped bloom nutes so far?