Jon's Second Grow, First Grow Journal, Soil Grow Autos & Photoperiod

[Jon]

its going to take me about 37 hours to read your in depth journal but im trying!, I personally think your going to nail it they are looking really good at the moment+ there is some A+ advice in here for rookies like myself

Hey LizardMate, thanks for stopping by, and nice to "meet" you! Yeah, it was kind of targeted towards newbies like us. You get to live through all my dumb rookie mistakes. Lol. That's kind of why I go into so much detail even though most of it probably bores the crap out of experienced growers. I try to think "what would have helped me on my first grow that I know now that I didn't know then" and write it from that perspective. Glad you like it, thanks for the kind words! But keep in mind that any info I present is (mostly) regurgitated information from those who have been doing this way longer than us, and there's a ton of conflicting information out there on lots of things. There's lots of what I call 50/50 calls, where the decision of what to do comes down to a choice between two things that'll both work, like topping vs. LST only for example. So I lean HEAVY on the experienced growers advice here, and most of the time if I have something I put out there that more than one of them agrees is not the best course of action, I will readily switch gears. In other words, take what I say with the grain of salt that taking advice from someone with not too much experience should be taken with. If you know what I mean. I don't want to ever feel responsible for recommending something to someone that doesn't work for them and screws up their grow. If you know what I mean.

 

[Bud Love]

Lol! I was being sincere man, not ragging on you! And dude, F ME too. I almost killed two of my five plants with my earlier dumb rookie mistake. I don't know shit. I just know how to read and follow directions.

If you and I do that with these guys' help, we will both be growing primo weed before we

Hey LizardMate, thanks for stopping by, and nice to "meet" you! Yeah, it was kind of targeted towards newbies like us. You get to live through all my dumb rookie mistakes. Lol. That's kind of why I go into so much detail even though most of it probably bores the crap out of experienced growers. I try to think "what would have helped me on my first grow that I know now that I didn't know then" and write it from that perspective. Glad you like it, thanks for the kind words! But keep in mind that any info I present is (mostly) regurgitated information from those who have been doing this way longer than us, and there's a ton of conflicting information out there on lots of things. There's lots of what I call 50/50 calls, where the decision of what to do comes down to a choice between two things that'll both work, like topping vs. LST only for example. So I lean HEAVY on the experienced growers advice here, and most of the time if I have something I put out there that more than one of them agrees is not the best course of action, I will readily switch gears. In other words, take what I say with the grain of salt that taking advice from someone with not too much experience should be taken with. If you know what I mean. I don't want to ever feel responsible for recommending something to someone that doesn't work for them and screws up their grow. If you know what I mean.

So @Jon
My next question is.. should I top my autos?
Just messin..
I believe you play a bit of bass sir.. may I ask what you like to play? Perhaps a little Grateful Dead on the set list?

 

[Jon]

Autoflower Update
Day 37 (4), Day 29 (2), Day 25 (3)
First Four: 3 Cinderella Jack, 1 Gorilla Zkittlez
Next Two: 1 Pineapple Express, 1 Lemon
Last Three: 2 Pineapple Express, 1 Lemon

Please forgive the seemingly constant autoflower posts guys, but honestly, things move so damn quickly in Autotown that I want to document it both for the journal and for myself. For any newbies who try autos for the first time I would submit that it's perhaps a solid idea to watch your autos pretty damn closely once they start to develop a set of leaves or two, because what I'm finding, and I know I'm not special, is that at that point, they start moving FAST. Their water needs change pretty quickly. Their nute needs/desires change pretty quickly. It may be necessary to lift your lights up pretty often, depending on how you choose to let them grow. The LST/bush them concept has worked out well for me as that was my approach for this grow. But things really do visually change daily in some fashion that's significant. Not sure that would really be the case if I were growing 9 plants of the same strain that all broke ground at the same time (like a sane person would maybe...), but with what's going on here that is definitely the case at this point. It blows my mind.

So the cold snap here is pretty much over and it's likely the final one of the year, at least based on last year's weather. And without that damn snap, the weather here day and night, for the next month or so, is (I hate to say this cuz so many are struggling with the weather, but...) PERFECT. I'm lucky for a little while in that regard. (thank you Jah) By perfect what I mean is that for the next month or so it will be very easy with my infrastructure and growing situation to keep the ambient temperature in the garage that houses the tents at a sweet as hell 80 degrees. God, I dream of having a consistent ambient temperature around my tents of 80 degrees. With my setup, I have learned from the first grow and now this one, that's the sweet spot that allows me to do almost whatever I want in terms of controlling all aspects of the tent's environments. All that said, I have further dialed in the environments in both tents and thought it maybe had some value to list the numbers (this is an Autotown update but I'll list the Phototown numbers too for this). I watch these girls and check them like an OCD idiot and I take notes and shit, and I have learned over the 40+ days of the photo grow that their sweet spot is:Av
Photos
Average Daytime Temperature Range: 78 - 84 degrees
Average Nighttime Temperature Range: 70 - 76 degrees
Average Humidity Range: 45 - 55 percent
Light Intensity: Even footprint of roughly 850 par across the whole footprint
Autos
Average Daytime Temperature Range: 70 - 76 degrees
Average Nighttime Temperature Range: 66 - 72 degrees
Average Humidity Range: 45 - 55 percent (NOTE: I want this range to be lower and have a new dehumidifier I haven't tried yet to achieve exactly that. These temperature and humidity ranges are designed to service the budding plants, which is very close to being all of them. Ideally for me the budding humidity range should be more like 30 - 40 percent, especially considering I can see we're talking a bunch of short plants that have big buds on them, not long thin buds on tall plants. Controlling the humidity is going to become important in short order here)
Light Intensity: Uneven footprint (goddamn blurples, lol) of approximately 950 par down the center row of budding plants and approximately 700 par on the two outer rows.

I will attempt to maintain the above numbers for as long as possible.

Other Autotown developments include:
- On the four plants that are budding, the leaves grow like crazy. Actually they do on every plant. Every day there is new growth. Defoliation is (seemingly) not really a choice but a necessity. I'd do some of it anyway. But since I can see these plants, although they're stretching, are not going to double in size, I decided to defoliate the undersides of them. Sort of like the defoliation you would do under your scrog screen, but since my screen is really just for support, I felt out where I wanted to take off growth to and did a mini defol on those four undersides. All big fan leaves that were getting hardly any light anyway. Leaves the plant definitely doesn't need at this point. When I was done (and sorry, I can't get a good picture cuz the plants as so small) the bottom is "clear-ish" up to about four inches from the dirt. Maybe the first and third node leaves or so I suppose. But it opened up air flow, directed energy upwards to the buds, and it didn't faze the plants in the slightest. I DID NOT TAKE ANY BRANCHES, JUST FAN LEAVES. I also didn't go nuts as I made that mistake the first grow and learned that it's all too easy to over do it. I will likely repeat this process with the others at the appropriate time.
- The buds continue to stretch and grow on the four budding plants, and the Gorilla Zkittlez seems to be getting fatter almost exponentially. I can see it grow daily, literally. There's a closeup picture that shows what I mean. This is the same bud in yesterday's picture and you can see how the base of the showing bud is wider today than yesterday. I could see it without the camera as soon as I opened the tent this morning.
- Nutes at this point are two mixes, one for budding plants, one for the vegging plants.
Budding nutes - 100% Big Bloom, 50% Grow Big, 75% Tiger Bloom, Blackstrap unsulphured molasses, periodic CalMag plus Iron, monthly mycorrhizae top down soil treatment. This will begin to be angled more towards the Tiger Bloom by far after next week as the Big Bloom will come down.
Vegging nutes - 100% Big Bloom, 66.6% Grow Big, periodic CalMag plus Iron, monthly mycorrhizae top down soil treatment.
- The stretching of the Cinderella Jacks has picked up pace a bit. The Gorilla Zkittlez is also stretching, but SLOWLY and not too much. But it's through the screen now as are all the Cinderella Jacks. Yay.
- I am watering them as they need watered, on whatever their individual schedule of need is. At this point they are getting a half gallon per watering. 10 - 20 percent runoff each time. It takes longer than 24 hours before they are ready again so far.
- This is fun. So I decided to do one small experiment, and so I topped one of the good established branches of one of the Pineapple Express plants. They are not yet budding, and I did this two days ago. I wanted to see if it will indeed give me two colas in it's place. NO idea of whether it was too late, wouldn't work, or whatever. And so today it has now become apparent that I am indeed going to get two new branches out of it. I have a picture to show what I mean. But that was an exciting thing to learn. Not going to do any of that now anyway, cuz not the point of this attempt and it's being omitted on purpose. But I had to try one. Lol.

DIALED IN GUYS. FEELING STRONG. Hope I can bring it home from here.

Photographs:
- Autotown side view
- Pineapple Express plant that was used for experimental topping described above
- Closeup of new growth where Pineapple Express topping took place
- Closeup of Gorilla Zkittlez bud fattening up

Happy Growing Everyone! Go Phils!

 

[Bill284]

Autoflower Update
Day 37 (4), Day 29 (2), Day 25 (3)
First Four: 3 Cinderella Jack, 1 Gorilla Zkittlez
Next Two: 1 Pineapple Express, 1 Lemon
Last Three: 2 Pineapple Express, 1 Lemon

Please forgive the seemingly constant autoflower posts guys, but honestly, things move so damn quickly in Autotown that I want to document it both for the journal and for myself. For any newbies who try autos for the first time I would submit that it's perhaps a solid idea to watch your autos pretty damn closely once they start to develop a set of leaves or two, because what I'm finding, and I know I'm not special, is that at that point, they start moving FAST. Their water needs change pretty quickly. Their nute needs/desires change pretty quickly. It may be necessary to lift your lights up pretty often, depending on how you choose to let them grow. The LST/bush them concept has worked out well for me as that was my approach for this grow. But things really do visually change daily in some fashion that's significant. Not sure that would really be the case if I were growing 9 plants of the same strain that all broke ground at the same time (like a sane person would maybe...), but with what's going on here that is definitely the case at this point. It blows my mind.

So the cold snap here is pretty much over and it's likely the final one of the year, at least based on last year's weather. And without that damn snap, the weather here day and night, for the next month or so, is (I hate to say this cuz so many are struggling with the weather, but...) PERFECT. I'm lucky for a little while in that regard. (thank you Jah) By perfect what I mean is that for the next month or so it will be very easy with my infrastructure and growing situation to keep the ambient temperature in the garage that houses the tents at a sweet as hell 80 degrees. God, I dream of having a consistent ambient temperature around my tents of 80 degrees. With my setup, I have learned from the first grow and now this one, that's the sweet spot that allows me to do almost whatever I want in terms of controlling all aspects of the tent's environments. All that said, I have further dialed in the environments in both tents and thought it maybe had some value to list the numbers (this is an Autotown update but I'll list the Phototown numbers too for this). I watch these girls and check them like an OCD idiot and I take notes and shit, and I have learned over the 40+ days of the photo grow that their sweet spot is:Av
Photos
Average Daytime Temperature Range: 78 - 84 degrees
Average Nighttime Temperature Range: 70 - 76 degrees
Average Humidity Range: 45 - 55 percent
Light Intensity: Even footprint of roughly 850 par across the whole footprint
Autos
Average Daytime Temperature Range: 70 - 76 degrees
Average Nighttime Temperature Range: 66 - 72 degrees
Average Humidity Range: 45 - 55 percent (NOTE: I want this range to be lower and have a new dehumidifier I haven't tried yet to achieve exactly that. These temperature and humidity ranges are designed to service the budding plants, which is very close to being all of them. Ideally for me the budding humidity range should be more like 30 - 40 percent, especially considering I can see we're talking a bunch of short plants that have big buds on them, not long thin buds on tall plants. Controlling the humidity is going to become important in short order here)
Light Intensity: Uneven footprint (goddamn blurples, lol) of approximately 950 par down the center row of budding plants and approximately 700 par on the two outer rows.

I will attempt to maintain the above numbers for as long as possible.

Other Autotown developments include:
- On the four plants that are budding, the leaves grow like crazy. Actually they do on every plant. Every day there is new growth. Defoliation is (seemingly) not really a choice but a necessity. I'd do some of it anyway. But since I can see these plants, although they're stretching, are not going to double in size, I decided to defoliate the undersides of them. Sort of like the defoliation you would do under your scrog screen, but since my screen is really just for support, I felt out where I wanted to take off growth to and did a mini defol on those four undersides. All big fan leaves that were getting hardly any light anyway. Leaves the plant definitely doesn't need at this point. When I was done (and sorry, I can't get a good picture cuz the plants as so small) the bottom is "clear-ish" up to about four inches from the dirt. Maybe the first and third node leaves or so I suppose. But it opened up air flow, directed energy upwards to the buds, and it didn't faze the plants in the slightest. I DID NOT TAKE ANY BRANCHES, JUST FAN LEAVES. I also didn't go nuts as I made that mistake the first grow and learned that it's all too easy to over do it. I will likely repeat this process with the others at the appropriate time.
- The buds continue to stretch and grow on the four budding plants, and the Gorilla Zkittlez seems to be getting fatter almost exponentially. I can see it grow daily, literally. There's a closeup picture that shows what I mean. This is the same bud in yesterday's picture and you can see how the base of the showing bud is wider today than yesterday. I could see it without the camera as soon as I opened the tent this morning.
- Nutes at this point are two mixes, one for budding plants, one for the vegging plants.
Budding nutes - 100% Big Bloom, 50% Grow Big, 75% Tiger Bloom, Blackstrap unsulphured molasses, periodic CalMag plus Iron, monthly mycorrhizae top down soil treatment. This will begin to be angled more towards the Tiger Bloom by far after next week as the Big Bloom will come down.
Vegging nutes - 100% Big Bloom, 66.6% Grow Big, periodic CalMag plus Iron, monthly mycorrhizae top down soil treatment.
- The stretching of the Cinderella Jacks has picked up pace a bit. The Gorilla Zkittlez is also stretching, but SLOWLY and not too much. But it's through the screen now as are all the Cinderella Jacks. Yay.
- I am watering them as they need watered, on whatever their individual schedule of need is. At this point they are getting a half gallon per watering. 10 - 20 percent runoff each time. It takes longer than 24 hours before they are ready again so far.
- This is fun. So I decided to do one small experiment, and so I topped one of the good established branches of one of the Pineapple Express plants. They are not yet budding, and I did this two days ago. I wanted to see if it will indeed give me two colas in it's place. NO idea of whether it was too late, wouldn't work, or whatever. And so today it has now become apparent that I am indeed going to get two new branches out of it. I have a picture to show what I mean. But that was an exciting thing to learn. Not going to do any of that now anyway, cuz not the point of this attempt and it's being omitted on purpose. But I had to try one. Lol.

DIALED IN GUYS. FEELING STRONG. Hope I can bring it home from here.

Photographs:
- Autotown side view
- Pineapple Express plant that was used for experimental topping described above
- Closeup of new growth where Pineapple Express topping took place
- Closeup of Gorilla Zkittlez bud fattening up

Happy Growing Everyone! Go Phils!

Looking good my friend.

 

[RetiredRN]

its going to take me about 37 hours to read your in depth journal but im trying!, I personally think your going to nail it they are looking really good at the moment+ there is some A+ advice in here for rookies like myself

Lol. I’m sorry but I love the response from everyone!

 

[StoneOtter]

Looking wicked!

 

[Jon]

Photoperiod Udate: Day 50 Veg

SEE PHOTOGRAPH

Autoflower Update: Day 39 (4), Day 31 (2), Day 27 (3)

SEE PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs:

- Phototown Day 50
- Gorilla Zkittlez 11 days into budding (yes only 11 days of budding)
- Closeup of Cinderella Jack bud 10 days into budding (they started budding one day after the GZ did)


MAJOR changes coming to Autotown. Something good and unexpected happened to me. Will expound a little in the update post in a couple days. Can't institute the changes until Saturday. But MAN is this gonna be sweet. It'll be just in time to bring all nine of these girls home. WHOO FRICKING HOO, sometimes you get lucky as hell.

Enjoy your porn you bud junkie degenerates.

 

[Ossi Ossi]

Ok so the grow has officially begun. This is the second journal post. Since the last one I have been setting up the tents and tweaking them, along with tweaking my space and all that fun stuff. I actually do enjoy the setup part.

This journal is dedicated to all the experienced growers on here who have helped me to this point. In particular I wanna give a shout out to Emilya, who has helped me more than she knows! I would encourage anyone interested in growing to read her stuff.

NOTE: This particular post is kind of aimed at hopefully helping newbie growers like me. I have no illusion that any of my setup posting will change the lives of any experienced growers. Lol. But the small percentage of new growers on here may find it helpful.

One thing I have adopted from Emilya is this: GARDEN LIKE A BOSS. I take that to mean, either do it RIGHT, and do it ALL THE WAY, or don't do it at all. That's my approach anyway. For me, Garden Like A Boss begins with the setup. Here's the thing about the setup: in a tent grow, this is your plants WHOLE WORLD. For their entire life. You want, therefore, the environment to be as close to perfect as you can make it with the means at your disposal. That means taking TIME to set up right. Tweaking. Being patient. Making as sure as you can that you can affect temperature and humidity. Making sure your power outlets can support the amperage you're drawing. Testing to see how a hot day affects the ambient air temperature in the room your tents are in and what that does to the temperatures inside the tent. Etc, etc, etc...

The point is, I make sure to take the time before I think about a plant to make sure the infrastructure is solid. Cuz without that you have nothing.

As this is my second grow, I highly doubt I have any brilliant revelations for most of the people on here. However, I have found as a new grower that I can learn a ton just from checking out other people's stuff on every level. As such, I am going to go through my setup and tweaks, with pics, in this post. For any newbie growers, I have spent countless hours thinking about how to do this or that, researched a ton, asked a ton of questions, and now on my second grow these pics are what I have come up with. I hope including the setup part of a grow is appropriate for a grow journal. Haven't seen a whole lot of folks doing it, so if it's inappropriate I assume I will get an email from one of our lovely moderators, lol.

SO....

My basic setup situation and concept is this:

I have a standard sized, one car garage with no windows, just a garage door and a door on the inside into the house. Into that space I had to fit both my 5x5's, with AC units for each tent, along with something to hold all my nutes and tools and all that fun stuff, and a table to mix nutes on, trim on, etc. AND I had to have access to all doors of the tents from my wheelchair. (I'm a crip-grower....Crip Growers UNITE!) So dividing the space effectively was a bit of a challenge.

Here are a few things I permanently adopted following my first grow in terms of MUST DO's that I include in the tweaking too, ie;
- As little as possible on the floor of the tent. Maximize the space inside the tent where the plants grow.
- ALL cords tucked away for both efficiency, and so you don't ever have to deal with them later. NOT hanging all over the place looking like a dumpster fire. Is that OCD? Maybe a little. But neatness counts! Trust me you'll be happier later the neater you begin your grow.
-All controls you need to get to and cords/power strips you need to access should be accessible. Duh. Sounds dumb to even mention, right? Lol. You'll see, when you have to unplug and replug cords over and over cuz you didn't think it through enough at the beginning. My goal is to eliminate all variables except the plants.
- CLEAN your tent before each grow. There may well be some crap leftover you need to get rid of, ie mold, dirt, or anything that can negatively affect the next grow. I thought I cleaned mine before packing it up between first grow and now, and when I unpacked the tent I found I had not done an adequate job. Cleanliness counts more than neatness!!!!! Any number of molds and pests and crap can mess up your grow, so be clean. It's common sense.
- I like to try to bring some sense of style and visual fun to the setup. I figure during the grow I am going to spend more time in that room than any other room in the house, so I may as well be as comfortable as possible in that space.
- DO NOT SMOKE CIGARETTES ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR GROW ROOM. Pot plants hate cigarette smoke. I am a smoker. Don't mix tobacco and grow space.
- TEST TEST TEST. I just did five days of testing. Hot days. Rainy days. What happens to temperature and humidity on those days? How will the fans need to be adjusted given various conditions to maintain a consistent environment? The weather outside affects your tent grow inside the tent unless you have some crazy high end space and way more money than me. Most of us are subject to some extent on having to compensate for the outside weather. Be aware of that. Test.

Ok, pictures: So I will begin at the garage door with the table and go panoramically around to the right. If you scroll top to bottom the pics take you around the whole garage. That's my setup. The AC unit that enters the one tent from above instead of at the base like the other I did for a couple reasons: first, so it's not in the way of my wheelchair. Second, the blurples I use in that tent (till I upgrade them) get HOT. I used them on my first grow and they are manageable. But this time I thought "what if the cold air intake flowed down onto the lights? Wouldn't that help cool them and cool the tent more evenly at the same time than having it come in at one corner?" This setup is an attempt to answer that question. i didn't have the option with the other tent but it worked out nicely on this one.

Setup complete. I am short my exhaust fan in the one tent which goes in Tuesday when I grab it from the storage unit. All I have to do is connect it to the filter and duct which is already in place. Ten seconds. At that point I will begin the autoflower grow in that tent. The seeds for the photoperiod grow in the Gorilla tent are between wet paper towels right now.

The photoperiod grow strain selection got tweaked just a little. I'm doing:

2 Humboldt Pineapple Upside Down Cake
2 Humboldt Jelly Rancher
1 Humboldt Blueberry Muffin

All those five will be in five gallon pots. I guess my next post will be the seeds sprouted and I will outline my beginning methodology for seedlings and veg until transplant, as well as pics of the final setup with the missing fan added and a final decision on what autoflowers to grow in that tent.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my journal.

very nice indeed

 

[Ossi Ossi]

I can scarcely believe I am posting this at 4:14 am on Thursday morning on the east coast of the US. I just woke up and like the grower junkie that I am, I went to the Gorilla tent to check on the seedlings. I put them from wet paper towels to their Dixie cups yesterday at about 8 am, and it is 4 am, so after only 18 hours in soil I was really checking just to make sure the cups weren't completely dry and see if I needed to mist them a little. There was zero thought in my head that I would see anything peeking up from the dirt, cuz in just 18 hours, that would be impossible, right?

NOPE. I'm a father!

Somehow, FOUR OF FIVE of my seeds have already broken ground. In 18 hours. It's astounding. My jaw was on the floor. Granted, my only personal reference point is my first grow, but those seeds took more like 36 - 40 hours to break ground. That was six plants of the same strain. These five seeds are three different strains, and all three different ones are out. Only one Pineapple Upside Down Cake is not up yet.

So I notice a lot of newbie growers talking about the various stresses they go through during their first couple grows or so. Am I doing this right? Is this an issue? Etc. I also experience these. I fret a little about anything and everything. So honestly, my first thought when I saw these guys had broken ground was, "how the hell is this possible, what did I do wrong?" Lmao! So I reviewed the process I went through putting the seeds in the cups. Mine is the same as most: I simply moisten the soil a little in the cup, push a finger about 3/4" deep in the middle of the top, and place the seed in. That hole I make with my finger is shaped like a round crater - like your fingertip. Then I take a toothpick and create a smaller hole - a hole within a hole - that is for the tap root. When I place the seedling in, I use tweezers and I place the seedling gently in the hole, then VERY gently and patiently work the root into the hole within a hole so that I KNOW the tap root is straight down and I KNOW when I cover the hole with dirt that the head is straight up and I am not going to bend the emerging root when I cover the hole. I also know that the seed is not too close and not too far from the surface of the dirt - about 1/2" to 3/4". This is the exact process I went through yesterday morning. So after 18 hours, four of five are already up, and I know I did it right. These guys just want to grow and produce and meet their new sun so badly they are screaming!

It may be the case that it is perfectly normal for seedlings to break ground in 18 hours and I am all excited about something that is no big deal. What is anyone's experience with this? Do you guys normally have your seeds break ground that quickly? How long does it usually take for you?

Anyway, I buckled the tent back up and kept the light off and am going back to bed. Lol. In the morning I will check them again. This will be in conjunction with turning on the sun for the first time. If the fifth plant is not up by the morning she is simply going to have to surface into the light, as her four friends are ready to play.

I will post a picture in the morning of the state of affairs.

So tomorrow's post in the morning is DAY ONE of this grow. I count the days from the day the plants break ground and the light gets turned on.

In the voice of Barney from the Simpsons...."It begins!"

i really like your style bro
in Australia it is very hard to get genetics of high quality flower.
im growing bagseed man uno and i watch all you guys and get so f%%%%&&& jelous lol
Keep up the good work thus far and im sure you will reap the rewards jon.

 

[Emilya Green]

One thing I have adopted from Emilya is this: GARDEN LIKE A BOSS. I take that to mean, either do it RIGHT, and do it ALL THE WAY, or don't do it at all.

I missed this when you posted it, but thank you. Yes you get it. In other words, Garden Like You Mean It! Brother, you indeed mean it. Great setup! You should be able to grow tons in there!

 

[Jon]

very nice indeed

I just upgraded the blurples in the auto tent. The new full spectrum light gets here on Saturday. It's WORLDS better than these blurples. The plants are gonna respond as if they just hit the lottery. AND, I'm gonna keep the blurples in play too and put them on either side and run them with just the reds. The BLOOM setting. If I hadn't upgraded, I was gonna switch to those reds for the last two weeks of budding. Now I'll be able to hit them with a full spectrum REAL light (even though it's non-sponsored, sorry) AND the TONS of extra reds from the blurples. The stupid little UFO panels will come out. The plants are gonna get pounded with killer light and they're gonna blast off like crazy. SATURDAY! Two more days!

 

[StoneOtter]

I just upgraded the blurples in the auto tent. The new full spectrum light gets here on Saturday. It's WORLDS better than these blurples. The plants are gonna respond as if they just hit the lottery. AND, I'm gonna keep the blurples in play too and put them on either side and run them with just the reds. The BLOOM setting. If I hadn't upgraded, I was gonna switch to those reds for the last two weeks of budding. Now I'll be able to hit them with a full spectrum REAL light (even though it's non-sponsored, sorry) AND the TONS of extra reds from the blurples. The stupid little UFO panels will come out. The plants are gonna get pounded with killer light and they're gonna blast off like crazy. SATURDAY! Two more days!

Congratulations Jon! There's nothing like seeing the difference when you change up to a new light! As my stepdad would say "grow in good health"!

 

[Jon]

Congratulations Jon! There's nothing like seeing the difference when you change up to a new light! As my stepdad would say "grow in good health"!

I CANT WAIT! I'm as excited for this as I was when I first put the seeds in paper towels to sprout. I KNOW it will make a huge gigantic unbelievable immediately noticeable difference and I'm so fricking ready to see it. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jon]

SATURDAY PRE-UPDATE

Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words. Here's today. Will post an update later after all this is finished.

 

[Jon]

Photoperiod Update
Day 52 Veg

These guys just keep humming along. Have discovered that they much prefer a higher temperature. I've been keeping them at 82-85 degrees and they grow more quickly, use water more efficently, and stand more at attention. The par measurements are around 950 at the tops of the plants. They pray to it, with the leaves standing out exactly as you want them to. Sitting on top of the screen in the middle of the tent the par reading is 1350 and they are about six inches from hitting the screen as we speak. They are loving the light and spectrum and are shooting out nodes right on top of the previous node. STACKING HARD. The spectrum of this light is specifically and intentionally not as full of the greens as many full spectrum lights. The manufacturer's concept is that since 85% of the greens are reflected anyway and not used by the plants, why include them in high concentrations? So it's an interesting spectrum and trying it was one reason I got this light. The plants seem to like it so far. Real curious to see how it does in budding with the flower booster on, which pumps up the wattage draw from 550 to 680 and adds UV and IR. They continue to get only the Botanicare Veg nutrients and the occasional CalMag plus Iron hit. I continue to wait until the pots are bone dry before watering again, which right now takes like three or even four days, as expected, before the bottom of the pot is truly dry. I test with a long tined hydrometer that reaches the bottom of the pots. In the interim of that time I hit them once down the middle with one 18 oz. Dixie cup of water to keep the center root mass moist to about where the bottom of the pot they were in is or so. All is well and I'm just patiently waiting for them to hit the screen. I'm guessing that'll take about another 4-6 days based on their growth rate.

Photographs:

- Pineapple Upside Down Cake #1 and #2
- Jelly Rancher #1
- Closeup of Interior of Jelly Rancher #1
- Jelly Rancher #2
- Blueberry Muffin

Happy Growing everybody. Hope y'all have a productive weekend. Things are getting serious in Phototown, but also in Autotown. Will have a major update on Autotown this afternoon with multiple infrastructure changes. Today is Christmas in April for the autoflowers. By tonight they'll think I gave them each a wad of cash and dropped them at the crack house. Lmao!

Enjoy the veg porn.

 

[Bill284]

Photoperiod Update
Day 52 Veg

These guys just keep humming along. Have discovered that they much prefer a higher temperature. I've been keeping them at 82-85 degrees and they grow more quickly, use water more efficently, and stand more at attention. The par measurements are around 950 at the tops of the plants. They pray to it, with the leaves standing out exactly as you want them to. Sitting on top of the screen in the middle of the tent the par reading is 1350 and they are about six inches from hitting the screen as we speak. They are loving the light and spectrum and are shooting out nodes right on top of the previous node. STACKING HARD. The spectrum of this light is specifically and intentionally not as full of the greens as many full spectrum lights. The manufacturer's concept is that since 85% of the greens are reflected anyway and not used by the plants, why include them in high concentrations? So it's an interesting spectrum and trying it was one reason I got this light. The plants seem to like it so far. Real curious to see how it does in budding with the flower booster on, which pumps up the wattage draw from 550 to 680 and adds UV and IR. They continue to get only the Botanicare Veg nutrients and the occasional CalMag plus Iron hit. I continue to wait until the pots are bone dry before watering again, which right now takes like three or even four days, as expected, before the bottom of the pot is truly dry. I test with a long tined hydrometer that reaches the bottom of the pots. In the interim of that time I hit them once down the middle with one 18 oz. Dixie cup of water to keep the center root mass moist to about where the bottom of the pot they were in is or so. All is well and I'm just patiently waiting for them to hit the screen. I'm guessing that'll take about another 4-6 days based on their growth rate.

Photographs:

- Pineapple Upside Down Cake #1 and #2
- Jelly Rancher #1
- Closeup of Interior of Jelly Rancher #1
- Jelly Rancher #2
- Blueberry Muffin

Happy Growing everybody. Hope y'all have a productive weekend. Things are getting serious in Phototown, but also in Autotown. Will have a major update on Autotown this afternoon with multiple infrastructure changes. Today is Christmas in April for the autoflowers. By tonight they'll think I gave them each a wad of cash and dropped them at the crack house. Lmao!

Enjoy the veg porn.

Girls are looking great Jon. Nice and healthy.
Bill

 

[Jon]

Girls are looking great Jon. Nice and healthy.
Bill

Thanks Bill. I'm pretty psyched with the job I've done realizing the need to soften up the nutes, making the hard decision to NOT use the first two parts of the FF trio and use the Botanicare instead, and bringing them completely back from the early burn. I don't toot my own horn often, but these guys look awesome. If I saw them in someone else's journal I'd be telling them how good their buds are going to be. Lol. So yeah, thank you. It's work - a labor of love. My younger brother visited last weekend and saw my setup and plants for the first time and having no reference points whatsoever he says, "oh, if I knew it was that easy I'd be doing it myself." I laughed my ass off. Sure. It's easy. No effort whatsoever.

 

[Bud Love]

Thanks Bill. I'm pretty psyched with the job I've done realizing the need to soften up the nutes, making the hard decision to NOT use the first two parts of the FF trio and use the Botanicare instead, and bringing them completely back from the early burn. I don't toot my own horn often, but these guys look awesome. If I saw them in someone else's journal I'd be telling them how good their buds are going to be. Lol. So yeah, thank you. It's work - a labor of love. My younger brother visited last weekend and saw my setup and plants for the first time and having no reference points whatsoever he says, "oh, if I knew it was that easy I'd be doing it myself." I laughed my ass off. Sure. It's easy. No effort whatsoever.

Good Show that @Jon.
One thing I will say ..when the boost goes on keep a close eye on em.
The light I’ve been running, takes the temp up a good 5c ++ with the boost on.
temp around 24/25c in veg no prob.. boost on 29/31c
I keep the led light that I’ve been using( sold as 1400hps equiv)800 mm above the canopy and it still tacos the leaves.

 

[Jon]

Good Show that @Jon.
One thing I will say ..when the boost goes on keep a close eye on em.
The light I’ve been running, takes the temp up a good 5c ++ with the boost on.
temp around 24/25c in veg no prob.. boost on 29/31c
I keep the led light that I’ve been using( sold as 1400hps equiv)800 mm above the canopy and it still tacos the leaves.

Thanks! And good call on minding the girls when the booster goes on. It does increase the wattage a LOT - 130 watts, from 550 to 680. The light claims to be able to be as close as 6" in budding and as far as heat it can surely do that. Six inches below this light is less than 85 degrees (AWESOME), but at full power with the booster at 6" I measured it, and it's like 1500+ par! If they can take that I'll be shocked and impressed. I'll probably bud them at around 1200 unless they show me they can take more. Never worked with a light this powerful and with such a gigantic and even footprint. And if I fill the scrog sweetly and they all come up at the same level like they're supposed to, I just might pull a great yield.

My personal yield scale for the photo tent is this:
- 1.5 to 2.0 lbs. dry weight = disappointing
- 2.0 to 3.0 dry weight = expected
- 3.0 or more dry weight = I'm jumping up and down out of my chair

With the upgraded light I just installed in the auto tent (too tired to do pics/post tonight) I now run that quantum board in the middle flanked by the two 1200 watt blurples on REDS only. So the canopy is between 1100 and 1250 all the way across all nine plants! The two outer rows are now getting more reds than the middle which is right under the quantum board and all full spectrum other than the reds overlapping. So I put the Pineapple Express in the middle row cuz they're not quite budding yet. All the other six are, so they took the outer two rows and are getting tons of red AND full spectrum. It's gonna make the buds go NUTS.

This is the time when all the hardish work is done, and now I just gotta keep them watered and fed. I don't count filling the scrog screen as work at all. I'm gonna have a blast doing that. I can see the flip on the horizon! Starting to actually be FUN.

Wait til you see the upgraded auto tent tomorrow. Have a great night.

My personal scale for the auto tent is this:
- Less than 9 ounces dry weight = I quit (lol)
- 9 to 13.5 ounces dry weight = expected
- 13.5 to 18 ounces dry weight = way enough to make me happy
- 18 ounces or more = Nirvana

I also believe those numbers to be reasonable with nine extremely healthy autos under plenty of great light. All of them were LSTed, so they're all pretty bushy with TONS of side branching. I can already see from the Gorilla Zkittlez who is budding like a madman that she's gonna be significantly over an ounce. She's been budding for only 15 days and there's already a half ounce on the plant dried, easy. I'm shocked at how fast her buds are growing each day.
- Anything over 18 ounces dry weight = Nirvana

I know you're gonna tell me to not worry about the yield, and that it's free bud, and to not put pressure on myself, etc...but that's not how I roll. I gotta have a goal. I think for a 5x5 scrog with the plants I have going the above yield estimates are reasonable.

 

[Jon]

Good Show that @Jon.
One thing I will say ..when the boost goes on keep a close eye on em.
The light I’ve been running, takes the temp up a good 5c ++ with the boost on.
temp around 24/25c in veg no prob.. boost on 29/31c
I keep the led light that I’ve been using( sold as 1400hps equiv)800 mm above the canopy and it still tacos the leaves.

But here's a closeup of a Gorilla Zkittlez bud as a preview. Check her out frosting up and starting to generate colors in the buds. These buds are going to be very colorful and attractive. Can't wait. This plant sprouted it's first preflowers 15 days ago.