Jetfuela's Indoor Coco Coir Snowdawg and Church CFL Grow 2014

[jetfuela]

Hello everyone. This is my first attempt at growing cannabis. I wanted to try and make it as affordable as possible, yet still be able to enjoy the process. Yield and strength of the flowers have been a secondary goal throughout. I know that sounds crazy but I wanted to understand the plant first, then possibly attempt a high THC content plant or plants. As an avid gardener, I had the vast majority of supplies I needed short of some specialty items. I purchased the remaining items and silently stalked the forums for answers (many thanks to everyone that posted pictures, guides, questions and answers!). I started from clones instead of seed because I couldn't find a way of obtaining seeds legally, however, clones are available legally in my state for recreational users.

What strain is it? 1 Church plant, 1 Snowdawg plant
Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? According to the internet - Church - 70/30 indica/sativa and Snowdawg - sativa
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Flower
If in Veg... For how long? Vegged for 31 days
If in Flower stage... For how long? They've been flowering for 28 days
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Coco Coir
If soil... what is in your mix? EcoEarth brand Coir at 75%, perlite 25%
If soil... What size pot? 3 Gallon pots
Size of light? All CFL- (8) 100w equivalent bulbs- 13,120 lumens- daylight during veg, soft white during flowering
Is it aircooled? Cooled by fans only
Temp of Room/cab? Temperature hovers around 75 to 80 F with lights on. 65 to 70 with lights off
RH of Room/cab? Humidity was around 50% during veg, stays around 30% during flowering
PH of media or res? pH of coir is around 6.3 for both plants
Any Pests ? White powdery mildew has shown itself several times in small quantities during this grow
How often are you watering? Daily
Type and strength of ferts used? Coco Canna 2 part fert for veg (10 mL per 2 gallons), Fox Farm Tiger Bloom during flowering (7 tsp per 2 gallons), Hydro Organics Cal & Mag (1/4 tsp per 2 gallons)

I apologize for the different sized photos. The small are from a phone and the larger from my good camera.

I purchased 2 clones from a local dispensary on 2/2/14. They were $20 each and I really didn't know what I was getting at the time. They were purchased solely on their appearances (the healthiest 2 that I could find). These are what the clones looked like when I purchased them:

I immediately transfered them over to 3 gallon pots (just cheap plastic pots from my local hardware store):

I dugout an old seed starter greenhouse I had laying around and started lightly modifying it (sorry it's sideways):

 

[jetfuela]

So at this point, I'm in for a total of about $45 (2 clones at $20 each and 2 three gallon plastic pots). I let the plants go as is for a few days while I formulated a plan. I already owned a couple 6 inch clip on fans and several hooded lamps. I ordered 2 more fans online and I also bought 4 lamp Y sockets so that I could plug 2 CFL bulbs into each socket. I also ordered the Canna fertilizer and the Cal&Mag supplement.

Here some photos of the plants during the first week:

 

[jetfuela]

I started working on some LST with the plants about week 2 of vegging. I used solid core copper wire that I had on my workbench in order to tie them down. The wire held firm and was very pliable. Using my pocket knife, I was able to poke small holes in the container lip to push the wire through:

 

[jetfuela]

During week 2, I also added an outside layer of Mylar to the greenhouse to keep as much light in as possible (it was really bright in the house without it at night). The tent/greenhouse ended up looking pretty comical but it seems to be functioning exactly as needed. I used black duct tape on the outside just for appearances:

You can see the intake fan at the bottom and the exhaust fan up top (routed through dryer venting to keep light out). The white paper attached to the front is my watering/feeding log.

 

[jetfuela]

Around the second to third week, I noticed 2 small spots on the top side of some fan leaves. The spots looked exactly like little drops of flour. After some quick research, I was almost positive the spots were white powdery mildew (the pictures of it did not turn out good enough to post). From the research I also learned that getting clones from a dispensary almost guarantees that you'll have WPM, mites or maybe both. It was too late to turn back, so I decided to order some Neem oil, but use hydrogen peroxide until it arrived. I mixed a bit of hydrogen peroxide into tap water in a misting sprayer and applied to the leaves directly after wiping the mildew off with a paper towel. I also shut the lights off for a few hours because I thought the leaves might burn when wet. The WPM didn't appear again for another week and the plants continued to grow quickly:

 

[jetfuela]

By week 4, the plants had really started growing. I was concerned that I would run out of room if I didn't put them into flowering soon. Also by this time, I had received the Neem oil I ordered. It was mixed with a tiny amount of dish soap and water into the sprayer. I used it regularly every three days. I always turned the lights off for a few hours just be sure they wouldn't burn. This schedule was more than anyone recommended on the forums I was reading, but I decided that I'd rather possible kill the plants now than have WPM on the flowers later. It didn't seem to phase them at all. I also didn't see the WPM after this point.

 

[jetfuela]

After week 4, I changed the CFL bulbs from daylight to soft white. I also added a timer to the lights so that they would go on for 12 hours and off for 12 hours. I had read all sorts of things about slowly transitioning the times or leaving the plants in the dark for 24 hours, but I didn't do any of that. I just switched the lights to 12/12 but left the fans on constantly. They didn't seem to care.

At this point, I'm still spraying the leafs every three days to keep WPM at bay. It seems to be working. I water my plants daily and I always take a few minutes to really look through the leafs for mites, mildew or anything else out of the norm. I don't find any other surprises.

 

[jetfuela]

I didn't get any pictures during week 6 or most of 7. Personal life got a bit crazy and I just didn't get any time other than to water them and continue to move the light up. I can't believe how fast they started growing! By the end of week 7 (week 3 of flowering), I had to start taking them out of the tent and putting them in the kitchen sink in order to water them. I used to be able to fit a plastic container under the bottom shelf to catch the water. Now the plants are on the bottom shelf and the lights are almost as high as they can get.

I'm also at about $175 dollars spent so far (2 fans at $12 each, $8 on Y socket splitters, $15 on Mylar sheeting, $13 on a cheap digital pH meter, about $75 on fertilizers and Neem oil and the original $40 for the clones). The only thing left that I would like is a cheap hand-held magnifying glass to look at trichomes. I found one online for $11 and it works great. That brings me to my total for this entire project at about $185. Most of the items can and will be used again on grow #2.

 

[jetfuela]

Week 8 has really fattened up the buds. The house smells lovely and the trichomes are really showing now. The plants really don't seem to need much outside help. I water them daily with the nutrients, check the leaves and buds and put them back in their tent.

Snowdawg is on the left, Church on the right

 

[jetfuela]

 

[David Bowman]

How did this grow turn out?

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