FoNz
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
First off I'm very excited to contribute here but also to learn from growers with experience in growing these intriguing plants!
What brought me here was to have an outlet for sharing my grow setup and progress. This journal will follow my first Cannabis grow from it's current progress (a little over 1 week since the sprouted seeds hit soil in solo cups, 2/10/19) through to flower and finally harvest.
So let's dig in, shall we?
First some info on my grow, I am growing in 5 gallon air pots in a 25 square foot (~167 cubic foot) grow tent with a frame recently rebuilt out of PVC tubing. I grow using 2 LED veg/bloom panels that were tested for wavelength accuracy using a borrowed spectrometer (I have borrowed numerous tools I do not normally have access to to do some early testing for the tent setup). Inside the tent is a small humidifier, a thermostat/hygrometer, an open passive intake, several fans for a consistent breeze and air flow, a carbon filter hooked to two 100-CFM inline booster fans mounted high and exiting the tent. The tent was tested for negative pressure and passed. The outflow was measured at around 80 CFM with a digital anemometer, putting air cycles at just over 2 minutes for a complete exchange. I am using a mycelial CO2 bag for supplemental air enrichment and general hydroponics Flora series nutrients for media enrichment as needed.
Now that the boring technical stuff is over with, let's talk about the fun stuff.
This little gal is a sprout from some feminized Northern Lights auto-flower seeds sourced from a reputable breeder and friend. The picture was taken on the 13th about 6-days ago, pre-transplant and about 80 hours from when the germinated seed was planted. As you can see the sprout was already putting on it's second set of true leaves at this point, which when compared to previous plant species I have grown is pretty impressive!
The seeds were germinated using distilled water and the soak-to-paper-towel method. Though there was 100% germination out of 7 seeds, two showed early signs of stress and were planted J-rooted. To this day the two weakest seeds have not died but have not fully developed their first pair of leaves, they will likely die but if not I will decide what to do with them later. The plan was 5 adult plants and that's where I am heading right now, so I remain unphased.
Shortly after that picture was taken (after the soil had some more time to dry, cut the bottoms of the cups off carefully), I transplanted from the solo cups into the final medium and pot size. They are now in 5-gallon air pots filled with Detroit Nutrient Company's all-in-one water only soil.
Here the girls are today, showing minimal-to-no sign of transplant shock (though I felt like I was less than careful enough while transplanting) with one possible exception. Nearby are neighbor basil plants that are borrowing some space until they have their own happy little window-sill.
All except one of them are growing in near identical form and speed, can you spot the poster child from the first photo?
So far they have only received water and that will continue to be the plan until probably the second week where I will be introducing a half-strength nutrient solution based on General Hydroponics' simple drain-to-waste. The soil is incredibly rich so any amendments via solution will be minimal and as needed based on observations of the plants.
Happy plants with healthy coloration and vigorous growth is more than what I had expected considering this is my first grow!
The temperature is 73°F -76°F with a RH of 50-60%. I have been using a 24-hour light cycle and plan to continue to do so for the entirety of vegetation, depending on how true to auto-flower (photo-period independence) the strain grows I may continue that cycle through to flower as well. If the strain shows any photo-period dependence in early flower, then the lighting schedule will be changed to 16/8.
This gal is the exception mentioned earlier, I find it very curious. The lighting makes it a bit difficult to tell but it appears the second set of true leaves grew fused on this sprout.
While I find this neat, it also appears that in the process of whatever happened to cause the two leaves to fuse (in this case sharing leaflets) has caused the plant to not have an apical meristem. This could be detrimental to it's long term growth or it could be that the meristem is for some reason still invisible to the naked eye (though I also viewed it at 60x magnification and it seemed to not have one).
I will give it a few more days, given that it is so early in growth still. If the meristem does not come back I will low-stress train the top of the plant to the side so that it's lateral branches can grow out.
I searched for hours trying to find a young plant exhibiting the same phenomena but was unable to find a match, maybe some of the experienced growers here might know?
Anyways, that is all for my first entry into this grow journal and hopefully enough detail is provided here to get everyone caught up to my progress up to today. Happy growing everyone!
First off I'm very excited to contribute here but also to learn from growers with experience in growing these intriguing plants!
What brought me here was to have an outlet for sharing my grow setup and progress. This journal will follow my first Cannabis grow from it's current progress (a little over 1 week since the sprouted seeds hit soil in solo cups, 2/10/19) through to flower and finally harvest.
So let's dig in, shall we?
First some info on my grow, I am growing in 5 gallon air pots in a 25 square foot (~167 cubic foot) grow tent with a frame recently rebuilt out of PVC tubing. I grow using 2 LED veg/bloom panels that were tested for wavelength accuracy using a borrowed spectrometer (I have borrowed numerous tools I do not normally have access to to do some early testing for the tent setup). Inside the tent is a small humidifier, a thermostat/hygrometer, an open passive intake, several fans for a consistent breeze and air flow, a carbon filter hooked to two 100-CFM inline booster fans mounted high and exiting the tent. The tent was tested for negative pressure and passed. The outflow was measured at around 80 CFM with a digital anemometer, putting air cycles at just over 2 minutes for a complete exchange. I am using a mycelial CO2 bag for supplemental air enrichment and general hydroponics Flora series nutrients for media enrichment as needed.
Now that the boring technical stuff is over with, let's talk about the fun stuff.
This little gal is a sprout from some feminized Northern Lights auto-flower seeds sourced from a reputable breeder and friend. The picture was taken on the 13th about 6-days ago, pre-transplant and about 80 hours from when the germinated seed was planted. As you can see the sprout was already putting on it's second set of true leaves at this point, which when compared to previous plant species I have grown is pretty impressive!
The seeds were germinated using distilled water and the soak-to-paper-towel method. Though there was 100% germination out of 7 seeds, two showed early signs of stress and were planted J-rooted. To this day the two weakest seeds have not died but have not fully developed their first pair of leaves, they will likely die but if not I will decide what to do with them later. The plan was 5 adult plants and that's where I am heading right now, so I remain unphased.
Shortly after that picture was taken (after the soil had some more time to dry, cut the bottoms of the cups off carefully), I transplanted from the solo cups into the final medium and pot size. They are now in 5-gallon air pots filled with Detroit Nutrient Company's all-in-one water only soil.
Here the girls are today, showing minimal-to-no sign of transplant shock (though I felt like I was less than careful enough while transplanting) with one possible exception. Nearby are neighbor basil plants that are borrowing some space until they have their own happy little window-sill.
All except one of them are growing in near identical form and speed, can you spot the poster child from the first photo?
So far they have only received water and that will continue to be the plan until probably the second week where I will be introducing a half-strength nutrient solution based on General Hydroponics' simple drain-to-waste. The soil is incredibly rich so any amendments via solution will be minimal and as needed based on observations of the plants.
Happy plants with healthy coloration and vigorous growth is more than what I had expected considering this is my first grow!
The temperature is 73°F -76°F with a RH of 50-60%. I have been using a 24-hour light cycle and plan to continue to do so for the entirety of vegetation, depending on how true to auto-flower (photo-period independence) the strain grows I may continue that cycle through to flower as well. If the strain shows any photo-period dependence in early flower, then the lighting schedule will be changed to 16/8.
This gal is the exception mentioned earlier, I find it very curious. The lighting makes it a bit difficult to tell but it appears the second set of true leaves grew fused on this sprout.
While I find this neat, it also appears that in the process of whatever happened to cause the two leaves to fuse (in this case sharing leaflets) has caused the plant to not have an apical meristem. This could be detrimental to it's long term growth or it could be that the meristem is for some reason still invisible to the naked eye (though I also viewed it at 60x magnification and it seemed to not have one).
I will give it a few more days, given that it is so early in growth still. If the meristem does not come back I will low-stress train the top of the plant to the side so that it's lateral branches can grow out.
I searched for hours trying to find a young plant exhibiting the same phenomena but was unable to find a match, maybe some of the experienced growers here might know?
Anyways, that is all for my first entry into this grow journal and hopefully enough detail is provided here to get everyone caught up to my progress up to today. Happy growing everyone!
