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

[Jon]

Good luck with the awesome new light Jon!

Thanks! I wouldn't exactly call it awesome. For a 3x3 or 4x4 it would be maybe, but it's a little light for a 5x5. But it's way more than adequate and a huge upgrade for the girls. The new growth that's already being generated is blowing my mind.

 

[Jon]

I realize don't worry, we are just trying to figure out what is best for you.
What I have found is light company reviews are more accurate if done by a third party. Doesn't mean that review is incorrect. Just take the review with a grain of salt. Theoreticaly its accurate if so it should be fine with both turned on.

Agreed. You gotta separate the claims from reality. Same thing with seed companies that claim high THC or really short flowering times. They are trying to sell product. I get it. I just wanted something that was decent and inexpensive, and this seemed to fit the bill.

 

[StoneOtter]

Thanks! I wouldn't exactly call it awesome. For a 3x3 or 4x4 it would be maybe, but it's a little light for a 5x5. But it's way more than adequate and a huge upgrade for the girls. The new growth that's already being generated is blowing my mind.

The PAR you mentioned was really good! It tapers off in the perimeter I see. Oh well, from my experience it should still be pretty darn nice, especially for the price.

 

[Jon]

The PAR you mentioned was really good! It tapers off in the perimeter I see. Oh well, from my experience it should still be pretty darn nice, especially for the price.

Yeah for the money I am really happy with it. The plants have responded as if I gave them pot steroids or something.

 

[Jon]

Hey @Jon Things are looking great in the garden. Love the new light.
Imo you should run both phases on your light.
The girls need the extra spectrum of the blues and especially white for max growth. Fantastic looking setup you have now.
You mentioned it was an economical purchase, do you mind if I ask how much?
Bill

Yo @Bill284 I figured it out!! A simple infrastructure change solves this problem! So you've seen my AC coming in from the top port and how it blows into the tent. But the length of hose from the AC unit to the tent is long. WAY long. It doesn't need to be. By simply pushing the shelving thing with the AC unit on it a lot closer to the tent, which I can do and still get to that door, I can eliminate almost two feet of extra length of the AC intake hose! I did that on my first grow...I had a long hose to make it easier to navigate but it didn't occur to me that the longer the hose, the less the air going in. So I shortened it dramatically and it made a HUGE difference. This is the exact same situation. It WILL work and it will allow me to run the blurples in full spectrum without overheating the tent!!! I'm pretty excited about this solution I have to admit. That way I can run everything full spectrum until the last two weeks of budding or so and then go to the reds as I had originally planned. It's perfect! Thanks for thinking this out with me! You should see how bright it is with all three of the lights on full spectrum. Incredible.

 

[Bill284]

Yo @Bill284 I figured it out!! A simple infrastructure change solves this problem! So you've seen my AC coming in from the top port and how it blows into the tent. But the length of hose from the AC unit to the tent is long. WAY long. It doesn't need to be. By simply pushing the shelving thing with the AC unit on it a lot closer to the tent, which I can do and still get to that door, I can eliminate almost two feet of extra length of the AC intake hose! I did that on my first grow...I had a long hose to make it easier to navigate but it didn't occur to me that the longer the hose, the less the air going in. So I shortened it dramatically and it made a HUGE difference. This is the exact same situation. It WILL work and it will allow me to run the blurples in full spectrum without overheating the tent!!! I'm pretty excited about this solution I have to admit. That way I can run everything full spectrum until the last two weeks of budding or so and then go to the reds as I had originally planned. It's perfect! Thanks for thinking this out with me! You should see how bright it is with all three of the lights on full spectrum. Incredible.

Awsome, hope its your best harvest yet.
Bill

 

[Jon]

Phototown Update
Day 55 Veg

These guys are exploding so much every day that every day I have to tie the outer colas back some more. My goal is to let the middle growth catch up vertically to the main colas, preferably before they hit the screen. They will hit the screen in maybe four or five days, and it's getting pretty close. The middle growth is coming up like mad. These girls also prefer the temperature a bit higher....they prefer 82 degrees to say 76. You can literally see the difference in their behavior in that narrow 6 degree range. It's such a different world than my first grow. By now, the first grow, I was a week into flower and the plants were way too tall and the tent was way a jungle. It was a mess. This is way better a situation. Who knew LST and what not could make a difference? Oh yeah. Everyone but me. Lol.

So here's the girls this morning:

 

[Michael Hunt]

Phototown Update
Day 55 Veg

These guys are exploding so much every day that every day I have to tie the outer colas back some more. My goal is to let the middle growth catch up vertically to the main colas, preferably before they hit the screen. They will hit the screen in maybe four or five days, and it's getting pretty close. The middle growth is coming up like mad. These girls also prefer the temperature a bit higher....they prefer 82 degrees to say 76. You can literally see the difference in their behavior in that narrow 6 degree range. It's such a different world than my first grow. By now, the first grow, I was a week into flower and the plants were way too tall and the tent was way a jungle. It was a mess. This is way better a situation. Who knew LST and what not could make a difference? Oh yeah. Everyone but me. Lol.

So here's the girls this morning:

You got it all figured out man. Cant wait to see those girls fill that tent up. I’ll bet they feel so slow compared to those autos you’ve got going lol

 

[Jon]

You got it all figured out man. Cant wait to see those girls fill that tent up. I’ll bet they feel so slow compared to those autos you’ve got going lol

Thanks Michael. I wouldn't exactly say I have it all figured out, lol. But they're doing pretty well, no complaints. And yes, they feel like they're taking forever. I mean, if I had just let them grow straight up to the screen without topping or training, I'd be well into budding by now. I never would have thought I could keep these guys in veg this long, and by the time I flip it is likely to be almost 80 days in veg. Should be positive in terms of root development. We'll know as soon as they start getting Tiger Bloom. Tiger Bloom, in my experience, doesn't lie. It'll let you know exactly where your plants stand.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Thanks Michael. I wouldn't exactly say I have it all figured out, lol. But they're doing pretty well, no complaints. And yes, they feel like they're taking forever. I mean, if I had just let them grow straight up to the screen without topping or training, I'd be well into budding by now. I never would have thought I could keep these guys in veg this long, and by the time I flip it is likely to be almost 80 days in veg. Should be positive in terms of root development. We'll know as soon as they start getting Tiger Bloom. Tiger Bloom, in my experience, doesn't lie. It'll let you know exactly where your plants stand.

They'll be nice and hearty by the time they flip


I'd say at this point you know what you're doing. You've managed to avoid any major disasters, you know where to get answers when you need em, and could probably see yourself to an incredible harvest even if this place were to disappear tomorrow. I'd say that's qualifying of a little confidence

 

[Jon]

They'll be nice and hearty by the time they flip


I'd say at this point you know what you're doing. You've managed to avoid any major disasters, you know where to get answers when you need em, and could probably see yourself to an incredible harvest even if this place were to disappear tomorrow. I'd say that's qualifying of a little confidence

Thanks Michael, I appreciate that. Always nice to get some positive reinforcement. To be a really honest human being, if you were sitting with me in my garage and we were smoking and talking, trust me I would be WAY cockier. In the forum I gotta be humble. I know my experience level compared to many on here. But if we're being honest, I'll put this grow so far in both tents up against anything I've seen on here. Lol. Don't mean I'm going to finish it that way, but yeah, I'm pretty confident in veg. Thanks for the kind words and the atta boy.

 

[Jon]

They'll be nice and hearty by the time they flip


I'd say at this point you know what you're doing. You've managed to avoid any major disasters, you know where to get answers when you need em, and could probably see yourself to an incredible harvest even if this place were to disappear tomorrow. I'd say that's qualifying of a little confidence

The other thing if I'm being honest is that if it weren't for you, @Bill284, @Emilya, @Backlipslide, @Ivumlov, and several others I'm forgetting right now (sorry guys who've helped me, there's so many of you), this grow would NOT be where it is. Straight up.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Thanks Michael, I appreciate that. Always nice to get some positive reinforcement. To be a really honest human being, if you were sitting with me in my garage and we were smoking and talking, trust me I would be WAY cockier. In the forum I gotta be humble. I know my experience level compared to many on here. But if we're being honest, I'll put this grow so far in both tents up against anything I've seen on here. Lol. Don't mean I'm going to finish it that way, but yeah, I'm pretty confident in veg. Thanks for the kind words and the atta boy.

Right on man anytime If it weren't for a little confidence, nobody would achieve anything.

 

[StoneOtter]

Looking great Jon! Temp is critical I'm finding this grow too. mine were all slow and mag def and wimpy until i heated the place up, then watch out! Rh is another thing to look into if you haven't. That's another real boost.

 

[Jon]

Looking great Jon! Temp is critical I'm finding this grow too. mine were all slow and mag def and wimpy until i heated the place up, then watch out! Rh is another thing to look into if you haven't. That's another real boost.

Thanks SO! Yep, temp and humidity are it. So today I got an 8000 BTU AC unit. I just hooked it up and placed it so that half of it's width where the air comes out goes into the bottom port of my auto tent, and the other half into the garage. It's not a perfect seal but it is pumping a TON of 64 degree air into the tent. I'm gonna check in a while and see how low it will go. This is the hottest part of the day. The goal was to be able to lower the tent temp enough so that I could run my blurples on full spectrum instead of reds only. I'll use them as supplemental reds when all the autos are in later budding, but for the next three weeks or so I want full spectrum. Couldn't keep the tent under 86 degrees with full spectrum on the blurples, the quantum board in the middle cranked all the way up, and during the hot hours of the day. But now I think I can and OMFG is it bright in there. I may have to dim the quantum board but I'm going to see if the plants can take it first. Lol. I'm going to measure par too when I check so I'll put it up. It'll be amusing.

 

[Jon]

Autotown Update
Infrastructure Special!
Day 44 (4), Day 36 (2), Day 31 (3)

I don't know about you guys, but I believe that there's a lot of luck in a successful grow. Yeah, we can plan our asses off and cover all our bases, do all watering and nutes optimally, manage our light and growing method perfectly, and STILL things can come out of nowhere and screw up your plants. Maybe it's something strain specific that objects to something you're doing. Maybe your tap water had a dam break or something in the system where you live and the ph in the water you're using goes wacky for two weeks. Or maybe you went outside in the woods doing whatever and came back and immediately worked your indoor plants - and you dragged something in you're unaware of, like bugs or mold or whatever. Any number of things can and often apparently DO go wrong and we spend a ton of time figuring these things out and correcting them. So you gotta' have a little bit of luck.

That said, lol, today we made a major infrastructure change to Autotown. Went ahead and got an 8000 btu AC unit. I have it so that half of where the air comes out is blowing directly into the bottom tent vent, and the other half where the air comes out clears the corner and goes into the garage. I started it at 66 degrees to test and lowered it to 64 degrees. It is not a perfect seal at the port, however, this is 8000 btu's. At 64 and high fan it blows hard, cold, dry air. The goal was to cool down Autotown during the six hours of the day when it's the hottest and the sun shines directly on my garage door. That heats the crap out of the door and Autotown is five feet away. And it's the lesser quality tent, certainly no Gorilla. It heats up quickly when the garage door heats up. I have managed it to today by keeping the garage door all the way closed and the house door all the way opened, but even with the intake AC at the top blowing on full force cold, the girls were still going up to 85 degrees for about six hours a day. And that was with just the REDS on the two blurples that flank the quantum board. With both BLUES and REDS, it was almost 90 degrees, so that lasted ten seconds and I switched to the reds. It was barely manageable and I got away with it when Autotown was mostly in veg. But as you see in the picture below, she's definitely in bud now. Six of the nine you can actually see buds on, and the three Pineapple Express in the middle row (sweet spot for the biggest plants) appear to me to be in preflower. Which is great cuz I can finally use only one nute mix. Lmao. Anyway, if this worked, it would keep the tent at an acceptable level during those six hours a day and after that I'd be able to do whatever I wanted with the temperature, while using the quantum board at 100% and both blurples at 100%. In short, I wanted to be able to HAMMER them with light while maintaining the right environment. This was a $360 dollar experiment between the AC unit and the necessary 50 foot extension cord to reach a GFI that was free, all the way in my bedroom. So I really wanted it to work.

I set it all up and wheelchair-proofed it and taped open the vent as wide as it would go and tested the AC at different speeds and temperatures and it was during the hottest part of the day. Also experimented with how open to keep the house door. It is necessary to keep the garage door open six inches to vent the new AC unit's heat that shoots hard out the back, and I blocked off the open space other than for the exhaust, to make a seal of sorts that's plenty good enough. In the end I figured it all out. Basically what happens is I can create two separate climate zones in the garage. The back where the Gorilla photo is gets cool air from the house. The AC unit supplies the necessary extra cool ari to the Auto tent along with cooling the area where my table is. Front and back zones.

Here's where the luck came in.

It works. Perfectly. I can now control both tents to a very very fine degree. Way more than I hoped for. And Autotown is running at full power. It is brighter in there than I can imagine. So I used the Korona app and tested my par numbers. Before, with just the REDS on, I was averaging about 1050-1100 par across the canopy of all nine plants, even in the corners. It was brilliant and would have and will work just fine. Better than fine, in fact. BUT....A LOT more light would be better. As much as they can take is the goal. I'll switch to the reds only on the blurples for the last two weeks of budding and let them serve then as supplemental reds, which will be great, but until then, for maybe three more weeks, they'll stay as you see in the picture, assuming they can take it. We just started and I am watching them like a hawk. Reason being two fold: one, I would watch carefully anyway, but two, like I said, I tested the par numbers. I am now hitting 1700 on the plant in the middle and 1500 on all the others. That's ridiculous. It's CO2 territory. I don't really think my two CO2 Exhale bags are going to cut it, lol, so I expect to have to dial down the quantum board whatever percentage is necessary. But that isn't going to happen unless the plants tell me it has to. Otherwise they're getting HAMMERED. But they've taken everything I've thrown at them so far and not one plant has blinked. They are up to 100% on the Tiger Bloom now and even that doesn't faze them. A tablespoon of molasses with every watering. No problem. CalMag mini flush every third or fourth watering. No problem. Tons of nutes since they were in the Dixie cups. No problem. So MAYBE, just maybe, they can take these light levels too. I tried to get a picture of the par numbers with another phone but it's WAY too bright in there. I did get the temp/humidity, and that is reading WORST CASE SCENARIO for six hours a day. And that is amazing.

So here's what it all looks like. I included some pictures with the blurples on REDS for comparison. It's dramatic.

Photographs:

- New AC unit and placement
- Wheelchair-proofing (lol)
- Blurples full spectrum (Veg and Bloom on) and Quantum board at 100%
- Blurples on REDS (Bloom) only and Quantum board at 100%

 

[Jon]

Addendum to previous post and a question:

I also wrapped a light, breathable blanket around the pot on the Lemon auto who is directly in front of the new AC coming in. And I put a cardboard barrier outside of the blanket where the air hits it directly. I don't want to stunt one plant cuz I let her roots get too cold. The sun is down now and it's around 74 outside. Inside Autotown it's 75 and sunny and 45% Rh. I'll take it. Now I'll be able to bring them as low as I want for as long as I want. Which begs a question: If I want to give them a "night's worth" of colder temperatures per day, and they're getting 22 hours of light a day, what is the right amount of colder temperature time? I'm going to go with six hours unless someone tells me different is better. That's roughly a night in a 22 hour day. So tonight I'm going to see how they like 63-64 for about 6 hours, and if they can take it colder, like 60-62, maybe try that after a few nights. My understanding is that by giving your budding plants colder temps overnight you bring out colors, and odors, and trichs and terps. Because in effect you are "stressing" the plant a little and they shoot that good stuff out as defense mechanisms, effectively. Like I said, that's my understanding, if someone wants to correct my understanding please do. But I'm going to try it and see what happens. The Pineapple Express' in particular are claimed by 420 Fast Buds to like colder temperatures to bring out the smell, so we'll see what happens. All of the plants now after three or four hours under the full light treatment and proper temperatures are standing at attention and it appears they are LOVING it. We'll see if I start to get some yellowing tips or curling from too much light but they way they look so far it's as if they got what they always wanted.

 

[Jon]

Hey @Bill284 - Yo man you were ABSOLUTELY 1000% CORRECT. I just went out and checked the temperature in the auto tent. I had to look twice. They've been under full blurples instead of the reds, so the whole tent is full spectrum now with GIGANTIC par numbers, for about six hours since I put in the new AC unit. EVERY SINGLE BUD looked to my eye at first like it was bleaching. I looked again. And then closer. They're not bleaching. (I don't know that you could bleach a whole bud in six hours much less ALL of them, no matter how close or far from the light they are, and I mean it, every single bud looks like this. THEY ARE ALL SHOOTING WHITE HAIRS OUT LIKE CRAZY TO BUILD. Oh my god man I couldn't believe it when I realized what was going on. I'll post a picture when I get up in the morning to show what I mean. I want to give them another eight to ten hours first to get them more pronounced. I've never seen a bud do that before - that's about as immediate a response as I could possibly imagine and I did NOT see that coming. WHOA.

So thanks so much for getting me started on that track, my man. I so greatly appreciate it I can't tell you. Now I can see what's about to happen in here. They're going to go NUTS. And that's honestly in large part to your conversation with me about that the other night that got me thinking cuz I KNEW you were right I just couldn't figure out how to make it happen. Yeah, it would have been fine if I had to leave the reds on. But this will have a dramatic impact on my yield in the right direction.

 

[Bill284]

Hey @Bill284 - Yo man you were ABSOLUTELY 1000% CORRECT. I just went out and checked the temperature in the auto tent. I had to look twice. They've been under full blurples instead of the reds, so the whole tent is full spectrum now with GIGANTIC par numbers, for about six hours since I put in the new AC unit. EVERY SINGLE BUD looked to my eye at first like it was bleaching. I looked again. And then closer. They're not bleaching. (I don't know that you could bleach a whole bud in six hours much less ALL of them, no matter how close or far from the light they are, and I mean it, every single bud looks like this. THEY ARE ALL SHOOTING WHITE HAIRS OUT LIKE CRAZY TO BUILD. Oh my god man I couldn't believe it when I realized what was going on. I'll post a picture when I get up in the morning to show what I mean. I want to give them another eight to ten hours first to get them more pronounced. I've never seen a bud do that before - that's about as immediate a response as I could possibly imagine and I did NOT see that coming. WHOA.

So thanks so much for getting me started on that track, my man. I so greatly appreciate it I can't tell you. Now I can see what's about to happen in here. They're going to go NUTS. And that's honestly in large part to your conversation with me about that the other night that got me thinking cuz I KNEW you were right I just couldn't figure out how to make it happen. Yeah, it would have been fine if I had to leave the reds on. But this will have a dramatic impact on my yield in the right direction.

Thats fantastic. I've seen it where the bud actually looks like its budding a second time. Hopefully its smooth sailing from here.
Bill

 

[Diatomacious]

Wow... you have been posting to your journal. I stopped getting emails for some reason and that's how I was keeping up. I'll figure it out eventually

Love those greens on the girls btw.