Kink
Active Member
Hey there and welcome to my second ever grow journal here on 420mag!
This is a followup of my first grow, which can be found here. I intend on doing everything this grow that I wanted to do with the last and simply didn't, due to not wanting to waste money and extra effort on bagseeds.
The first grow was also my stepping stone into this hobby, testing if I even have a green thumb... I knew almost nothing about caring for, nurturing, training or maintaining a cannabis plant and am in the end very satisfied with the months of hands on experience that I gained and the ton other knowledge that was gained that I couldn't acquire by just reading grow resources.
Anyways, let's get down to the nitty gritty of my intentions with this grow and the details around it :
How I intend on improving the quality of this grow, in comparison to my last:
General Grow Details:
360° Closet Walls/Makeshift Door wrapped with 92-95% reflective mylar.
Thanks for stopping by the journal, my next update will be once the seeds land from Herbie's .
This is a followup of my first grow, which can be found here. I intend on doing everything this grow that I wanted to do with the last and simply didn't, due to not wanting to waste money and extra effort on bagseeds.
The first grow was also my stepping stone into this hobby, testing if I even have a green thumb... I knew almost nothing about caring for, nurturing, training or maintaining a cannabis plant and am in the end very satisfied with the months of hands on experience that I gained and the ton other knowledge that was gained that I couldn't acquire by just reading grow resources.
Anyways, let's get down to the nitty gritty of my intentions with this grow and the details around it :
How I intend on improving the quality of this grow, in comparison to my last:
- (1.) Bigger end pot sizes (10-15gal), applying better acquired training knowledge such as pruning/trimming, creating actual monster trees.
-- After having bought the new grow light for the last grow, I set higher ambitions for the bagseeds than I would ever actually see to fruition, I.e. wanting to eventually move them to 7 or 10 gallon pots and them only ending up in 5 gallon pots, barely a move at all from their former 3 gallon ones.
I fully intend on growing out some monsters this time around, applying the hands on experience with LST I got from my last grow and the information I've learned about pruning, trimming and other high stress training techniques that I never used before.
Main Game Plan: Long veg time(~3+ Months, probably 3-4 additional weeks after their final transplant), creating as many massive, stalky colas that I can through FIM/Pruning - this time training colas slightly horizontally only to increase light penetration deeper into the canopy instead of training them to grow horizontally like I did last with my last grow resulting in beefy top colas but very airy, popcorn ridden bottom ones.
Currently unsure in which approach I intend on taking on transplant order to reach the final pot sizes, most likely something like:
Solo Cup from seed until root bound --> Transplant to 3 gallon smart pot until root bound --> Transplant to 7 gallon smart pot until root bound --> Transplant to 15 gallon, wait 3-4 weeks to allow root expansion, switch to flower.
As I'm unable to currently do a perpetual harvest, my main goal is to have as big of a single harvest as I can twice a year, I think a long veg time and big end pot sizes are the route I should take for what I'm seeking but I'm unsure if 15 gallon would be too much for my closet space, especially running 3 of them. Would love to hear opinions on if it would be better to do 3, 10 gallon plants or 2, 15 gallons ones.
- (2.) PH Testing and accurate temperature/RH reading w/ a digital hygrometer.
-- I did not test or adjust the last grow's water PH once in the entire grow, while this didn't cause issues at all during veg (Using Distilled water), it became a big issue in the switch to flower when one of my girls became majorly stunted from what most opinions thought were due to Phosphorus lockout on top of me pulling a newb mistake and not cutting out heavy Nitrogen from my indica girls sooner.
-- A simple mercury thermometer was used last time to check temperatures at canopy level, while it worked for that purpose, I was lacking a ton of vital information like RH and my lows and high temps - I could very well have missed a ton of temperature spikes causing undue stress.
- (3.) Quality genetics and strains I'm truly excited about.
-- Starting from quality genetics this time and them being sativa dominant like I prefer, I'm without a doubt entering this grow with an all around more positive outlook on what I can expect to see and experience this go around.
I don't doubt I will still run into problems but I hope because I feel more invested this time that I won't feel the need to gimp out or slack in areas I did with the last.
General Grow Details:
- [11/3/2016] | Journal created...waiting for seeds to arrive!
360° Closet Walls/Makeshift Door wrapped with 92-95% reflective mylar.
- Light Setup: 1x 400w MH Bulb for veg, 1x 400w HPS bulb for flower.
- Grow Medium: Fox Farm Ocean Forest, I intend on mixing 2% per volume of soil some Neptune's Harvest Crab Shell (2-3-0) into the soil, most likely once the plants are mature enough to be transplanted into 3+ gallons. Would also like to get some Neptune's Harvest Kelp Meal (1-0-2) to place at root level to help with transplant shock.
- Pots: Smart pots, Starting from solo cups and slowly working my way up to 10-15gal pots.
- Nutrients: I'm going to be sticking with Neptune's Harvest throughout veg, which will be the Neptune's Harvest Fish/Seaweed Blend (2-3-1) and plain seaweed (0-0-1) on off days. Around week 2 of flower I will be switching to Dr. Earth's Flower Girl (1-9-2), slowly phasing out the NH seaweed with increasing amounts of Dr. Earth.
Something extra I'll be doing this time around will be the addition of Xtreme gardening Mykos into the medium between transplants to help bolster root health. - Strains: Paradise Seeds | Nebula, Delahaze and Jacky White
- Training: Primarily going to be doing LST, FIMing at the 5th nodes back down to the 4th and most likely FIMing once or twice more after that a few weeks between each time respectively.
The main mission of LST this go around is not so much to battle vertical growth but to compliment the natural lankiness of the sativas and provide better light penetration deeper into the plant and onto each and every cola. I have more vertical room to work with than horizontal so I feel I can yield much more by still LSTing a lot, just not as intensely in my bends almost causing super-cropping effects like I did with my indicas from last grow.
- Cooling: I'm currently using 2x 200mm 110cfm each fans (Exhaust) and 2x 120mm 62cfm fans (Intake) aimed at the HID hood, pulling air through the light and out the two exhaust fans. On ground level there's one oscillating 18" fan blowing indirectly throughout the canopy and up towards the light and out the exhaust.
An A/C is 100% needed with this setup during the summer but as the weather has been getting colder I've found it's easily possible to maintain temps of around 75-78F when running the light at night time, I can definitely see having to hook up a space heater at some point in winter .
Thanks for stopping by the journal, my next update will be once the seeds land from Herbie's .