LivinLife's DWC Aurora Fem Grow Journal 2017

[LivinLife]

Very nice setup for a first time grow! Do you have a filter, or screen on your intake air to keep critters out? Try to not take it "too" serious and to enjoy the ride. Mistakes will be made along the way, but you will learn something on every grow. Remember it is called "weed" for a reason, most strains will grow and give you something inspite of how you screw it up. The learning part just helps you get the most out of each strain. The seedling stage is usually a very vulnerable stage, don't jack with them too much until they have a good foothold on life. That is a great strain to grow, I think you will be very happy in about 55 to 60 days from now. Happy growing!!

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Thanks! We have the window screen as the first filter. Then we put vent filters behind a 12x8 air register that's attached to the other side of the wood (facing window screen to outside and can't see from inside room). Opposite that is the 8" fan coming out of the wood from inside the room. Hope that made sense. We also sprayed the room and around window with Home Defense bug spray.

I could probably kill a weed if it's grown indoors (wife here). Probably why I'm paranoid! I didn't want to deal with soil for that reason. I'm sure I'll calm down after this first grow though. And yes, we are enjoying the ride so far.

We've tried not to touch them at all other than to take pics. Think we are done taking pics of roots until they get better established.

We needed something on the medicinal side and this seemed to be a good fit. Glad we did good with choosing!


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[LivinLife]

But I can tell your going to have nice node spacing. Tight brother. Which is ideal any thoughts on plant training yet. LST is my favorite

that's a 4.5 week old white widow

my new dwc Afghan Kush run and flowering mothers

We thought about it, but not sure when to actually start training. We bought the soft wire gardening ties. With only two plants, we have a lot of space. There's so much info with bending stems/branches, topping, fimming, etc so not sure if we do all, some, none or when to do any of that. So much info out there!


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[bignugz420]

Knowledge is power. If your gonna do something you do it the best possible. I love plant training. Lst is my favorite but i am also a fan of flux or mainlining. But just topping will also be great. Read as much as possible ask questions and you'll be rewarded

 

[LivinLife]

Oh man am I slackin!

So DAY 9 (Feb 15) we changed out the water since we needed to replace the clear air hoses with all black ones. We added Hydroguard (1TBS) and Z7 (4cc/ml). Haven't seen anymore slime or brown algae since we added the ice probe and the above bennies.

Had to return and get our PH Meter replaced with a new one. LOVE Amazon! For whatever reason I didn't write the PH down that day, but I do know it was between the standard 5.5-6.5. Our water temp was 83 before the water change. Our exhaust fan became unplugged and we didn't realize it. Air Temp got to 96. Thankfully we didn't kill our babies! They still looked healthy...surprised.

DAY 10- we noticed the 3rd node on plant #2 (hubby calls her Sandy...I have NO idea why, but if it makes her grow, I don't care!). Plant 1 it wasn't visible.

Air Temps: 75-78
Water Temps: 68.7-70
Humidity was lower today: 32-37
PH: 5.91 & 5.99

Still no nutes yet






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[LivinLife]

Day 11-Feb 17

"Sandy" grew a bunch of roots overnight (they all finally popped out of the net pot). She only had 1 lonely root out but was growing the fastest. "Stretch" aka plant 1, already had a bunch of roots, but it's still growing the slowest.

Air temps: 76 & 77
Water temps: 69.8 & 71.2
Humidity is still staying lower: 31%
PH: 6.09 & 6.12

No nutes yet






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[LivinLife]

Day 12-Feb 18

We noticed an issue with Stretch today. It wasn't there yesterday. She started turning very light green/almost yellowish. No burnt or dry leaves...just the color change. The cotyledons are dying and we know that's normal, but this was the nodes. We didn't have any nutes in there. Could it be the z7 &-or Hydroguard? We did some googling, searching in forums. We figured it might be nute deficiency so we added 1/8 GH Flora trio.

Air temps were a little higher than normal at 80 & 82
Water temps: 70.2 & 70.9
Humidity: 37
PH: 6.12 & 5.94
TDS: 48.2 ppm

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[LivinLife]

Day 13-Feb 19

Not sure if our plants are growing on time, too slow or fast, but they are growing!

After adding the nutes last night around midnight and checking about 12 hours later, Stretch looks perky and not as yellowish....except cotyledons. Both plants grew quite a bit so the 1/8th nutes helped instead of hurt. 3rd nodes on both grew a bit and roots are getting longer every day. Still pretty and white. No issues with the water either.

We finally got another cycle timer for our intake fan. Seems the temps have been hovering around 80-82 which we don't want. So it helped a LOT today. We set it to 15 on/30 off. Our exhaust fan is set to 5 on/2 off. The combo is keeping our temps stabilized.

We also changed our light schedule from 24/0 to 20/4.

Lastly, we added a 2nd humidifier in the tent. It has brought humidity back into the 40s for the short time it's been in there tonight.

Air temps: 80 & 81
Water temps: 69.7 & 68.9
Humidity: 41 & 46
PH: 5.94 & 5.93
TDS: 49.3 & 47.9
Conductivity: 76.2 us/cm (still trying to figure out the conversions and what's good #s)

We check the measurements twice a day, roughly 12 hours apart. But we typically check the temps/humidity just to make sure we have it stabilized with all the changes lately. As of midnight 19th/20th, no nute issues and seems to be responding well.

Will post pics in the morning!


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[LivinLife]

Stretch aka Plant 1

Sandy aka Plant 2

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[LivinLife]

Day 19-Feb 24

Plants are up to 1/2 nutes now with a ppm around 380. We added CalMag. Didn't realize it would turn the water brownish. Wondering if the roots will turn color as well because of that.

They are loving it. They are nice and green again. We are at 5th node popping out. We have decided to Fim one and top the other to see which we like better. Definitely looking at LST once they recover from the stress of damage. We have been keeping PH between 5.7-6.0. Humidity is staying between 47-61%.

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[LivinLife]

Day 20 Feb 26

I posted in the forums about possible issues. Not much response so a little disappointed in the lack of help. No big deal, we waited it out. Sandy just has very curved leaves and a few were stunted along with some blotchiness. We just chalked it up to "sometimes weed just grows strange" since it isn't negatively affecting her overall growth. They both seem to prefer the PH between 5.7-5.9. Water temps are staying below 70 so that's great! We are keeping the nutes around 380-400ppm. They seem to like it.

They also didn't seem all that stressed (at least none we could see) after fimming one and topping the other. We are chugging along!


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[LivinLife]

Days 21-23 (Feb 27-Mar1)

We added CalMag the other day and upped the nutes. The leaves are a much nicer green than before. They are a LOT healthier! BUT we noticed on Day 21 that there was foam and brown grit in the reservoir. I did some researching and some said it was fine (since we are not doing a sterile grow) and others said it was bad. Our water didn't smell, it was slightly off color, but the CalMag did that, and the brown grit just felt like dirt. There was no slime, no light leaks, etc. so we just rinsed the roots off & pressed on. We rinsed the roots twice daily.

So the foam and grit took care of itself as we don't have it anymore and we haven't done a reservoir change since day 19. Roots grew like crazy and so did the plants! We did add more z7 and hydroguard on day 21. Our ppms were slowly dropping from 380 down to 340. We added more nutes and brought it up to 400ppm.

DAY 22 Feb 28th

I (wife and journal writer) had ankle reconstructive surgery today so hubby has to take care of everything by himself w/o me. I'm bed-ridden and can't get upstairs. So I'm a bit drugged up from the meds so if something seems off, I apologize. They gave me a nerve block, but that's going to wear off very soon. Just bear with me a bit. Wish we had some 420 for the pain, but ran out a couple weeks ago. We are new to the area so have no contacts anymore...partly why we decided to grow our own.

Hubby has taken pics and I'll post. We are just using an iPad to take them. So I wanted to edit some and go through which are the best.

Day 23 Mar 1

Holy hell, the pain is ridiculous in my ankle! Off topic, but damn it hurts!

Hubby was so excited when he came down to talk about our babies. I guess the leaves are growing like crazy!!! Like a kid with a $1 in a penny candy store!

He LST'd some more. We may Top and Fim one more time and then just stick with LST for the rest of the grow. We didn't go crazy with the training. We didn't bend the main stem. We just are bending the nodes. I wish I could see them in person. The pictures just don't do them justice. I don't know if we fimmed properly but I guess that's why they call it fimming. Lol

He moved the light up a bit. Aurora Indica definitely likes to stay short...at least in this phase. Not complaining since it's a grow tent and space is a little limited.

Will add pics in the next post. Need to go through yesterday's photos.


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[LivinLife]

Pics from Day 23

SANDY

STRETCH

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[LivinLife]

Day 24-Mar 2

Word is the plants are growing super fast at this point. Since my surgery requires me to elevate my ankle and not walk, I can't really describe them for you. Lucky me, that hubby took pics. We are using the digital camera this time instead of the ipad. I don't know yet if we prefer the topped plant, stretch, or the fimmed plant, sandy. Fimming grows strange after it's cut and I can't even tell if we fimmed it correctly...despite looking at pics and videos. For simple sake, I might prefer topping best.

Hubby had to do a little more LST, but very basic LST...nothing fancy for our first grow. PH is at 5.91 this morning. RT: 75.6, WT: 66.6, H: 36% (don't know how long the tent door was open for it to drop this low. It's typically in the upper 40s-very low 60s. Didn't add any nutes or bennies today as the ppm was where it was yesterday. Will check again this evening before going to bed. Here's some pics taken today:

 

[LivinLife]

DAYS 25-27 Mar 3-5

These babies are GROWING!!! Last I wrote, we weren't sure how we felt about Fimming. Still don't know. I think we will just stick to topping and mostly LST. The leaves are gorgeously green, large and abundant. We've only hit 7 fan leaves at 4 weeks from popping through the rapid rooter. Roots are strong and white...well as white as CalMag will let them be. They are still eating at 400ppm. We were thinking of upping it to 450, but not sure what to look for to really tell us when to do it.

The PH was a little wonky last 2 days. Spiked into the 7s over 12 hours which hasn't been typical. We try to keep it around 5.8ish. It was time for a reservoir change anyway so hubby did just that. He didn't find anything unusual like slime or algae so not going to stress the ph spikes.

Water temps are staying between 65-68. One of our humidifiers is a quitter so humidity hasn't been above 45 again. We aren't dropping anymore $$$ into this grow so we are just going to make do. Can't afford to stress when I have an ankle that needs to heal and I can't even walk.

Hubby decided to top Sandy today (the one we think we fimmed cause I don't even know if we truly fimmed her correctly). He says we are having some crazy off shoots and nodes from side branches. I can't tell because this strain grows very densely. I imagine we will need to some pruning on these, but that'll be later on. These girls will be short and bushy.

Not sure how to tell how many colas these 2 will have. No matter how much I read about this, I still feel like I haven't learned much or I'm just not getting it. Can't be too stupid because they are growing. But then they are a weed so I don't know if that's saying much. Lol

Pics I'm attaching were taken today.

We'd love feedback. 1. Because it's great to hear from the "pros" and 2. Because I'm bed-ridden and bored out of my mind!!!! Help a girl out, please!!!! .

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[LivinLife]

Day 46-Mar 24th *UPDATE FOR PAST 20 DAYS*

It's been 20 days since we wrote in our journal. It's been a rough 20 days...tiny part our plants, huge part my surgery. So let's get caught up.

Massive growth in 20 days. We raised the light a little because it seems Aurora loves to grow very compact and extremely dense. We didn't want to defoliate or start cutting off leaves this grow since we are still learning. We LST'ed the best we could and topped twice.

It wasn't all problem free that's for sure. The leaves were curling under and the tips were curling down, BUT there was no nute burn signs, no spots, no discoloration, nothing. Just the curling under. In DWC, we knew it wasn't over/under watering and our PH, temps etc were great. We googled...a lot! But there were 20 different answers for the same problem. We changed the water, dropped the nutes lower, changed the light level, everything. The roots were clean, white, water was good, no slime/algae. It wasn't until a couple days ago we found a possible solution. We believe we have a nitrogen toxicity. Between the GH Trio and CalMag, it was too much! So lowering the nutes had no effect because it was the same amount of nitrogen. We are flushing it now for a day or 2 with just PH water, z7 and Hydroguard. They seem to be perking up after just 12 hours.

We have 9 leaves sprouting on new growth. Pre-flowers and alternating nodes. Since we are flushing and the plant is improving, we are going to flip it to flowering when we start to put nutes back in the water. We are going to go straight to 12/12 with an HPS bulb vs the MH we have in now.

Aurora definitely has a skunky smell. It's been smelling like that since around day 35 and just getting stronger. We purchased ONA gel on top of already having the carbon filter. Some days we have to open one of the screen vents in the tent since our weather here is cold one day then super warm the next. Snow, then warm, then rain, then snow again. It's crazy! Our intake vent brings in air from the outside and really messes with the room temp. So we got the ONA for when we need to have the vents open on the tent.

Our temps have fluctuated between 67-82 throughout the day and night over the past 20 days. Our water temp stays between 65-69. Humidity has been between 50-70. PH stays between 5.8-6.3. We don't mind the fluctuation.

Nutes we keep around 450ppm. We tried raising it and they didn't like it. They don't seem to be overly hungry eaters. We will see how they are in flowering. Thankfully the nitrogen level decreases for flowering nutes so hopefully we won't see a toxicity again.

So today is actually day 46. The pictures were from yesterday, Day 45, March 23rd.

Nitrogen Toxicity

Nitrogen Toxicity

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[LivinLife]

Day 82 total BUT Day 36 Flower

We switched to 12/12 back on Mar 25th...trying to go off memory cause the written journal is upstairs. She fully recovered from her nitrogen issue. So what have we done in all this time?

We defoliated and opened up some room in the middle so air could pass through and light to reach those areas better. We stopped adding the CalMag because it was just adding way too much nitrogen with the other GH nutes. We've raised the light a lot. We've had to change our intake and exhaust fan timing cycles and opened up a vent during the day when the light is on. We've increased nutes to 1050ppm with no side effects. Our girls are eating and drinking steadily. Our PH tends to drop to 5.6 and we keep it around 5.8 so nothing major.

Our girls grow so differently despite being the same exact strain. The one that stretched in the beginning has stayed more dense and short. Her buds are more dense as well. The other that started short and dense has stretched a bit so she's now taller. They've both exploded with buds everywhere. Trichomes look great, but we aren't even close to harvesting. They have a good 4 weeks to go still.

The HPS bulb doesn't put out as much heat as the MH one. So we were able to keep it closer to the taller plant so the shorter one can catch up if it ever does.

We took a lot of pics so I can't really say what days specifically they were taken (I can't remember and that's what I get for not updating this regularly), BUT they are BEAUTIFUL.

 

[LivinLife]

Some pics taken today-Day 36 of Flower

 

[LivinLife]

Day 103 Flower Day 58

She's looking so great. Had to take pics immediately after the light turns off. The HPS light gives off a bad color for good pictures. It also hides how orange the pistils are. Very deceiving! I also broke down and bought a phone camera lens set to take pics of trichomes instead of just looking at them through a loupe. I'm LOVING these lenses!!

It seems the trichomes are roughly 75% clear. But my eyes could be wrong. It's our first time and all. You tell me. I'm sure I'll post a "how long to harvest" thread to see if we are on track.

Enjoy the pictures!

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Hope all is well in your world.

How did this grow turn out?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.