Jay's First Time: 3x Lemon Skunk In Coco, With 315W LEC In A 1200x1200 Tent

[d42zero]

Hi!

I'm a total novice on my first grow, I started on the 19th of May with some seeds I was given then when they ALL unexpectedly germinated I had to scramble to put a system together - I've only ever had bag seeds and I've never actually been able to crack one, so wasn't expecting them to go! I'm told these seeds are "Lemon Skunk" but I have no real way to know for sure, other than the word of the guy I got them from who was given them by a guy that he trusts. While I've grown herbs and veggies before I'm 100% new to growing any sort of hydroponic setup and am learning as I go, so I'm going to be wrong a lot

I was in a rush without much time to research so I walked into a shop and bought a kit that came with:

• 1200x1200x1800 tent
• 315w Adjustawings kit (small or medium reflector?)
• 125mm (5") Can-fan (not speed adjustable)
• 100mm (4") fan (intended for intake)
• 5" carbon filter
• Some tubing
• 3x 5gal smart pots
• 50L coco/perlite 70/30 mix
• Assorted rope ratchets and other little hardware bits and pieces

Got it all set up and settled on the 125mm fan pulling through the filter and exhausting to the room. I decided not to use the 100mm fan as an intake... I just opened enough of the small ports that air flowed freely and it's just sucked in a bit. The room is fully dark during the day, but gets opened plenty while lights are on so fresh air can circulate. I decided not to vent out the window as I couldn't come up with a good way to do it without attracting attention, and I thought the temp/humidity would be harder to control if I was forcing air out the window and drawing new air in.

I also bought a very cheap pH pen and EC pen from eBay, the pH pen worked well but the EC pen was rubbish so I ended up replacing it with a HM COM-80 which is working well now.

Anyways that's about all the background, from here I'll post up my notes with pictures to bring the thread up to date and I should be able to make daily entries all the way through

Cheers

 

[d42zero]

[post reserved for future use]

 

[d42zero]

LONG POST AHEAD! Here are ALL of my notes from the start of germination on the 19th of May...

19/5
seeds in paper towel, one sheet top and bottom in bowl with glad wrap. Left on kitchen bench.

21/5
1 sprout AM, 2 sprouts PM

22/5 AM
3rd sprout starting. First moved to Jiffy puck, root approx 10mm long. 2nd and 3rd left in paper towel.
PM - #2 and #3 moved to jiffy pucks.

23/5

24/5
Transferred all jiffy pucks to peat pots with coco/perlite mix

26/5
#1 (top) approx 1" tall, #2 (left) 10mm, #3 (right) 10mm but husk still on.

27/5
#1 now 1.5" tall
#2 almost 1"
#3 not much change.
Gave the seed husk on #3 a little wiggle to try and loosen it.

28/5
Placed under light in tent on @9pm off @1pm (18/6). 31deg at light @ 12" away.
Note: realised later that 9pm-1pm is 16/8 not 18/6

29/5
adjusted light to approx 2ft away, temp got over 30deg.
#1 2" tall
#2 1" tall
#3 still struggling around 10-15mm.
Watered with nutes

30/5
added 4" fan from tent into room, neg pressure achieved. Temp under light 29.6deg. Down to 17 or so degrees while lights off. #3 shell husk manually pulled off, didn't take much force.

1/6 AM
#1 watered unmeasured
#2 and #3 watered with 60ml
Checked runoff after 5min, only a tiny bit. 60ml probably ideal for now
#1&2 growing by the day (both showing 2nd set of leaves), #3 still struggling.

1/6 PM
#1 & #2 showing growth by the day. #3 does not appear to have grown at all.
Added little fan heater. After a bit of fiddling it seems to be dialled in for about 20deg lows. Still getting 30deg high under lights

2/6

3/6
#1&2 powering ahead
#3 maybe grown a bit? Leaves seem to be spreading slightly, it's trying!
Watered with pure water 60ml AM
Temps 19-31 under lights

5/6
Settled into a routine now.
#1&2 today shot 4th set of leaves.
#3 finally seems to be coming good, growing noticeably.

6/6
#1&2 sprouted fourth nodes.
#3 sprouted second nodes.
5" fan installed with carbon filter.

7/6
#3 off to the races
Watered 90ml nutes AM

PM leaves curled downwards, slightly wilted. Matches photos of overwatering. #1 got a bit more water this morning and looks worst. Leave 3 days before watering again, maybe longer.
Max temp 34!

8/6
Leaves curled back up, soil drying. Leave another couple of days til fully dry before watering again.

10/6
Watered fresh water approx 60ml each.

11/6
Lower leaves yellowing? Small brown spots too
Watered with nutes 20ml each.

12/6
Brown spots got much larger, one leaf almost fully brown! Leaves yellowing more.
Transferred to 5gal pots. Coco bag + 8L perlite, charged with 15L water and approx 20ml Calimagic (approx 1tsp/gal). Took another 5L or so plain water before run off began.
Roots were stuck to small peat pots, difficult to remove. Use plastic next time, or transplant much earlier.
Nutes dumped in case of bad mix, remixed.

13/6 PM
Brown spots and yellowing seem to have stopped growing
Watered with a small amount of week 2 nutrient solution, just enough to wet the root area.
Soil drying out quickly, pots fairly light
Made 10L nutes, pH 6.3
Humidity around 60%, temps 18-30

PM late
Watered with approximately 1L per plant week2 mix until a couple of hundred ml of runoff.
Runoff pH 6.5.

14/6
Realised I was running light at 16/8 (9p.m. to 1p.m.), changed to 18/6 (7p.m. to 1p.m.).
Raised pots on to trivets. A little soggy at the bottom. When lifted they felt like they still had water in them.

8pm min-max 18.7-30.6 degrees, 35% to 86% RH.
#1 110mm, #2 130mm, #3 75mm (from soil)
Watered three times with 500ml split between plants, once at 730pm then again at 930pm and midnight.
#1&2 up to their 5th nodes, #3 at 3rd.

 

[d42zero]

Continuted due to 10-image limit

15/6
1130am Coco looked moist but not wet. Watered with 650ml split between the 3.
Browning and yellowing seem to have stopped, although not retreating.
Watered 630pm with 1.5L wk2 GWE solution split between plants. No runoff after 5min, bottoms of pots are pretty wet though.

16/6
Watered with 1.5l split between all three.
10pm min-max 18.1-24.0 deg, 50-74% RH
#1 130mm, #2 160mm, #3 85mm (from soil)

17/6
Watered with 500ml each @730pm, no runoff.
8pm min-max 20.4-24.2deg, 55-70% RH
All three looking very healthy. #2 ready for trimming? Or maybe leave a few extra days so roots get a proper foothold?
Watered with another 500ml each at 1130pm. Very small amount of runoff present next morning, maybe 50ml.

18/6
Watered with 500ml each @730pm.
#1 150mm, #2 200mm, #3 110mm @730pm.
Min-max 21.6-25.4deg, 59-76% RH
Watered again 500ml each @11pm.

TDS/EC meter arrived. Tap water 141ppm, current nutrient solution 690ppm.
Possibly no need for cal-mag with ppm readings that high?
Forgot to re-pH new water before using, it's running 6.8 at the moment. I think that will be ok as there's only enough left for one or two waterings, finish it off tonight and set the next batch into the 5's.

Manifolded #2 930pm. Will wait a few days for #1&3, wait until #3 is big enough and do both at the same time. Cutting in Jiffy plug. Totally drooped at 11pm

19/6
Watered with 500ml each @730pm.
Min-max 19.9-25.8deg, 52-70% RH
Cutting not great, not awful.

20/6
Watered with 500ml each @730pm.
Min-max 19.4-25.8deg, 52-77% RH

Manifolded #1&3 8pm. #2 cutting doing better, stood back up. Leaves are curling upwards a bit though, heat stress? Or just stress in general maybe.

21/6
Watered with 500ml each @730pm.
Min-max 18.6-23.7deg, 54-69% RH

22/6
Brown spots!! Possibly from reduced calmag (from 18/6). Leaves curled up a bit.
Added 7ml calmag to 7-8l of nute.
Charged coco in seedling pots with current nute mix for about half a day, cuttings planted at 8pm and returned to tent.
Watered with 500ml each @700pm.
Min-max 19.7-23.8deg, 48-65% RH
Watered with an additional 1l each to flush @11pm.

23/6 AM
Brown spots seem to have stopped spreading. Leaves have flattened back out and look more normal.
Discarded runoff. Go back to watering 2x per day with some runoff.
Cuttings looking droopy but seem to be drinking. One looking a little more tired than the others.

PM
Watered with 500ml each @700pm.
Min-max 19.4-24.6deg, 54-65% RH
Split about 600ml between the three at 1100pm.

Broke a stem while training #3

24/6
Watered with 500ml each @ 700pm.
Min-max 19.3-24.3deg, 58-85% RH

#1 still has brown spots and seems to be growing slowly.
#2 doing the best, absolutely killing it
#3 going well despite the broken stem. May need supporting later though, seems to just be scabbing over rather than closing up.

Watered with 500ml each @ 10pm, extra 500ml for #1. Runoff tested 5.8 but then tested again at 6.8. Unusual fluctuation?
Added extra 500ml for #2&3 11pm.
Mixed 20L at 1/4 bottle strength (6.5ml each nutes and calmag in the 20L). Allow to sit then pH tomorrow before use.

Mixed 1tsp/L of mycorrizhal fungus, gave approx 200-250ml to each plant and a little dribble on the cuttings @ midnight.

 

[d42zero]

25/6
All plants looking healthier.
#2&3 have grown at least half an inch, and each main is starting their 4th node.
#1 still struggling but seems to have grown. Leaves slightly darker than the other two. Each main starting 3rd node.
Cuttings are still struggling, not much change.

Will top plants again when they have 4th node established. I haven't decided whether to repeat the first manifolding step and leave only the 2nd node to create 4 mains (then repeating the step again in a week or two to create 8) or whether to leave the 1st and 3rd nodes and let it go from there... both options seem to have pros and cons so that's my main dilemma at the moment!

Watered 500ml @7pm, realised I had forgotten to pH my new batch of nutes (mixed last night, was going to pH tonight) and it went in at 7 O_O Watered another 500ml 30min later @ pH5.9, almost all ran out so should've displaced most of the high pH stuff.

The broken stem on #3 seems to be a problem, it seems to be getting worse as each time I adjust the tie I seem to do a little more damage. I'm not sure whether to tape it, super glue it, or just leave it... or maybe cut it right off?

If I cut it right off I can still create 8 colas like this:

BUT that would put this plant about a week or two behind the others (as my next cut on the others creates four colas but on this one it would only create two). Maybe I should leave it as-is and hope for the best, if it does fail then I can just cut it off clean and keep the four colas from the other side..... I just can't decide if it's worse to put this plant behind by a little while, or to risk losing half its colas later on in life

 

[d42zero]

26/6
Emptied runoff, approx 300ml per plant... watered with 1L each yesterday so that's 30%.
Watered 500ml each @730pm.
Min-max deg, % RH.

#1 is looking a little tired compared to the others.. Seems to be growing but very slowly:

#2 is looking strong, has grown easily 10mm since yesterday:

#3 also growing well but the broken stem is still looking weak. I braced it last night as the break was being pushed open by the tip of the branch pushing up on the training tie. Hasn't gotten worse since yesterday so hopefully that's working.

Clones aren't looking fantastic....

I'm not really sure what to do about these... they're just getting a little feed each day with the same 1/4 strength nutes but they're not really doing anything.. they're not getting worse but they also don't seem to be growing. Should they have bounced back properly by now? They were cut and put in the jiffy pucks about a week ago.

 

[d42zero]

27/6
Watered with 300ml each (total 1.3l since lights on) at 830am
Collected 600ml runoff from #1, or about 60% of input. Might drop input back to 1l which seems to produce about 30% runoff.
Runoff tested 6.7pH/1050ppm/2.2EC (see below)
Watered 500ml each @ 730pm.
Min-max 19.9-25.6deg, 64-81% RH.
Watered 300ml 1130pm

Mixed 6.5ml m/g/b/calmag into 20l
151ppm from tap
311ppm after nutes
412ppm after calmag


Hoooly hell got some growth today! All plants REALLY picked up, #2 has literally shot at least 1.5" (~40mm) each way, the others visibly bigger as well. This morning I adjusted the reflector on my Adjustawings to be a little wider, and I dropped the light about 6" as I raised it a few days ago... I don't know if that's what caused it or something else, but I literally went "holy shit" when I opened the tent this evening

The huge leaf on the left of plant #2 below was still inside the pot in yesterday's photo!!

I don't know if this is due to the plants recovering from their topping, the light, the mycorrhizal fungus I added, or getting my nutes dialled... or (more likely) a combo of all?

I got some weird results when I tested my runoff though.. ppm of nute solution is 400 but ppm of runoff is 1000, and pH going in is 5.95 this batch but pH of runoff is 7. I had some problems recently and have flushed a ton of water through at correct ppm/pH so why would my runoff be testing so high?

 

[d42zero]

28/6
Today was an exciting day! Plants have grown visibly again, looking super healthy and green. Time to do the 2nd manifolding step! I decided to try two different styles to see what the difference is.

All plants had been topped and split in two like this:

And they'd grown out enough that they were up to sprouting their 5th node on each stem.. here's #3 (the only one I remembered to get a 'before' photo of! oops) :

Topping time!
For plant #1 I topped her to the 3rd node and removed 2nd node growth, leaving the 1st and 3rd. I also took the 1st's fan leaves but left the ones attached to the 3rd as I was worried about accidentally nipping the little growth tips, I can take them off in a few days when they grow out.

This left 8 growth tips:

Originally I wanted to do it by topping all the way down to the 1st node to split in two, because I wanted to keep the 'manifold' part of the plant as low and small as possible. I didn't think #1 was strong enough for this but the other two were looking tough so I cut them right back.

The new stems will be trained outwards and split in two again in the same way to make 8 tips that will hopefully all be level and evenly spread around a training ring that's about the same size as the pot.

#2 and #3 are going to need one more topping.. presently there's 4 main stems so topping those down to the 1st node will give me 8 all up. #1 already has 8 mains so the question now is whether to allow it to go with 8 and maybe have to deal with it being taller than the others, or to top it again and split it into 16.

It's not all roses though, my clones are pretty much dead:

It occurred to me that my plants boosted a few days ago when I dropped the light a bit closer, so I put the clones more under the light rather than right in the corner but I'm not sure that's going to help. If not I can always try again with the cuttings from the next topping.

Watered with 400ml (reduced from 500 as I was getting about 60% runoff) at 8pm.
Watered with 400ml at 1130pm.
Min-max 21.7-25.5deg, 58-81% RH.

 

[Barney86]

Heya buddy that was a bit of a rocky start but looks like your back on track now. Right strength and ph so just stick at that for now. Anything goes yellow at the bottom then up it 50%.
Use your calmag at 50-100ppm, shouldn't need more than that for a good while if ever.
Also don't be scared to drown them mate. Fabric pots and 30% perilite means it's literally impossible to drown them.
You can't use too much solution in coco.
If you don't water enough though then the ppm and ph will rise and I've just this second realised your probably the guy that messaged me earlier aren't you lol.

I'm not very experienced with clones. I've had mixed success to be honest and never grown one to maturity. Just been taking some here and there to experiment and the one thing I've learned that seems to be the most important is that they don't like a lot of light. clones that were left on the sidelines always done better than clones under the light.
Also they really don't want much nutes at all. At most give them half of what you're feeding the bigger ones.

 

[d42zero]

Thanks for stopping by @Barney86!

Yep all went a bit pear shaped at the start, I changed the nute schedule I was using and I think it upped the strength suddenly and gave them a bit of a jolt. Things do seem to be diallied in better now and they're growing strong, which it why I decided to hack at them last night lol

If you don't water enough though then the ppm and ph will rise and I've just this second realised your probably the guy that messaged me earlier aren't you lol.

Didn't message but we did talk about this in another thread a few days back so you might be remembering that I don't water to *tooooo* much runoff mainly because it's a pain in the arse to drain, but I bought the parts yesterday to build a small drain system using the existing trays so once I have that in I'll be able to water as much as I want. If the runoff is testing good too I'll be able to reuse it a little (maybe just use runoff for one watering per day) so I'm not wasting too much.

I'm not very experienced with clones. I've had mixed success to be honest and never grown one to maturity. Just been taking some here and there to experiment and the one thing I've learned that seems to be the most important is that they don't like a lot of light. clones that were left on the sidelines always done better than clones under the light.
Also they really don't want much nutes at all. At most give them half of what you're feeding the bigger ones.

Yeah I think my clones have kicked it. The one that was looking *reasonably* healthy has now got yellow tips like the others after spending a night under the light... I've moved them out of the tent and I'm going to try just giving them outdoor sunlight after a big flush with super weak nutes but I'm not sure I'll get them back. That's ok though, in a week or so I'll have to go around and top everything again so I'll get a whole bunch of new clones and I can try again!

EDIT: I've just flushed 3 litres of 1/8th strength nute solution through my clones (1 litre each or about 2x their pot size), let's see if that helps...

 

[d42zero]

29/6
A few days ago I mixed a 20l solution and left it to stand, today it tested pH7.1.
0.5ml pH down -> pH6.6.
0.8ml pH down -> pH4.5! How??
0.5ml pH up -> pH5.0
0.5ml pH up -> pH4.5 ???
0.8ml pH up -> pH5.0
0.5ml pH up -> pH5.8

I can't get my head around how pH works, and why it isn't exact.. if I add 0.5ml and it drops by 0.5 then I would think that if I added 0.8ml it would drop another 0.8 but it dropped 2.1 I can fiddle with it and get it right but I'm going to have to do some reading about how that works cause it's a pain in the butt

All plants are looking amazing and are recovering FAST from yesterday's chop session, with lots of visible new growth all around and a lovely colour:

Watered 400ml @ 10am
Watered 400ml @ 830pm
Watered 400ml @ midnight
Min-max 21.5-25.8deg, 60-77% RH.

 

[Lowrider72]

Juat popped past to see your CMH grow, starting to turn around.
Best of luck, training looks cool.

 

[d42zero]

Juat popped past to see your CMH grow, starting to turn around.
Best of luck, training looks cool.

Thanks for stopping by! Was doing a lot of learning at the start and got a bit confused about nutes and stuff, but I've been studying and I think I've got things on the right track now. They've really recovered well from yesterday's topping, much much better than last time, so hopefully that's a sign it's all under control.

Also I read your CMH thread half a dozen times in the few days I had to research equipment and I'm sure it was one of the ones that convinced me to go with it, so thanks for that

 

[d42zero]

30/6
Watered 400ml @ 11am
Watered 400ml @ 830pm
Watered 400ml @ midnight
Min-max 21.6-25.8deg, 64-72% RH.

 

[d42zero]

1/6
Brown spots popped up on #2 again

I think I haven't been watering enough.. I decided to flush these with 3l each and the first litre didn't produce ANY runoff! Second litre a fair bit came out, then the third litre went straight through it. I was watering to runoff but they must've started drinking lots more over the past few days and I haven't noticed.

ppm of stagnant runoff was 1100, first flush through came out at 800, last was about 500 and mix was going in at 450ish. I'm going to give them another litre in a few hours, then from tomorrow morning change my feeding from 3x 400ml to 3x 800ml.

Good growth from all plants since yesterday though despite the spots:

Bought some parts for an automated reservoir/pump system, going to build one for one plant and see how it goes, if it works I'll build one for the others too

Watered 400ml @ 9am.
Flushed 3l @ 8pm.
Watered 1l @ 11pm.
Min-max 20.5-25.1, 53-76% RH.

 

[d42zero]

2/7
Watered 1l @ 9am.
Watered 1l @ 730pm.
Watered 1l @ midnight.
Min-max 20.5-25.1, 53-77% RH.

Brown spots stopped spreading and plants grew visibly. One of the new stems that was being trained down snapped so I had to cut it off

It snapped itself while I was out.. reached too hard for the light! I slacked off on the other ties to take pressure of all the others.

So now I have a plant that'll have 6 colas, one that'll have 8, and one that'll either have a) 16 or b) 8 that veg about a week longer than the others. Looking forward to seeing which one fares best!

 

[d42zero]

3/7
Watered 1l @ 9am.
Watered 1l @ 730pm.
Watered 1l @ midnight.
Min-max 20.8-24.4, 62-79% RH.

 

[Lowrider72]

Mate back off the watering, is why the brown spot and stuff, too moist....
You leave yourself open to moulds, root problems, and rot.
Those pots can go 2-3 days without a water easy, will save you heaps in nutes and just aim for that 10-15% every water to flush salts. Done.
Growth rates dont suffer.
Looking good though, grow area nice and tidy, dont make it too hard for yourself.

 

[d42zero]

Mate back off the watering, is why the brown spot and stuff, too moist....
You leave yourself open to moulds, root problems, and rot.
Those pots can go 2-3 days without a water easy, will save you heaps in nutes and just aim for that 10-15% every water to flush salts. Done.
Growth rates dont suffer.
Looking good though, grow area nice and tidy, dont make it too hard for yourself.

The most recent round of brown spots came while I was watering with only 500ml once a day, when I flushed a few days ago with 3 litres the coco was super dry and I only got about 1 litre (maybe 1.5) runoff out of it.. since I upped the water I'm only getting about 20% runoff from each watering but they've exploded with growth and it's all lovely and green Here's the three girls:

I'll definitely keep an eye out for problems from too much water but for the moment they're kicking ass so I'm a bit reluctant to change anything lol

The clones were pretty much dead a week ago (in Jiffy pucks and coco) and I had bought some mycorrhizal fungus but it hadn't arrived when I cut them... so I decided to carefully remove the Jiffy puck soil from around the cuttings and transplant them into solo cups straight into coco (with a sprinkle of fungus) in a last ditch effort to save them. Then, instead of putting them back in the tent, I kept them in the kitchen and put them outside each day in about four hours of direct sun.. six days later (today) they went in the tent with about 6hrs left in their day. This is them now, the new growth is still little and spindly but they've grown visibly and are looking better than they did in the last photo:

There may be a reason not to use clear solo cups but I wanted to be able to see the roots grow, I might even do a timelapse of it growing if I get the time

I think the humidity is a bit high though so I'm going to get a dehumidifier over the weekend and pull that down a bit, seems 40-60% is the goal through veg? I've been getting min/max readings of about 55-75% each day, got 69-83% today (it's very wet weather at the moment).

Otherwise life is good at the moment, I've settled into a good routine with them and they've recovered incredibly well from the last round of topping so I'm looking forward to their final round which is going to happen tomorrow night! Once that's done the plan is to veg til they're about 18 inches high and off they go

 

[d42zero]

3/7
Watered 1l @ 9am.
Watered 600ml @ 730pm.
Watered 800l @ midnight.
Min-max 21.6-25.6, 69-83% RH.

Runoff trays are fairly full, slightly reduced water so they don't overflow before I can drain them tomorrow.

Might reduce to 3x800ml for the next week just to keep the runoff down a bit, but things have been good so I'm a little reluctant to change anything.

Also, clones have roots!! Six days ago they had no roots after being in Jiffy pucks for a week, after less than a week in straight coco they've pushed roots almost to the bottom of the cups!

I don't have room for these so I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with them... I'll probably let them grow to 3 or 4 nodes then top them and re-start the clone process. I don't have room for them to grow but don't want to lose the strain so it's probably worth keeping a few clones going until this grow is finished.