OzCroGrow's - Indoor - Soil - Durga Mata - Grow

[OzCroGrow]

Hi peeps.

I've been lurking around here for quite roughly a month now, and quietly gathering info for my first grow. To be honest, I never gave a second thought to growing cannabis before. But things changed last year, my wife was diagnosed with Lupus and suffers from terrible aches and pains, can't even get out of bed some days. I see the suffering and I can't sit idly by and do nothing as she consumes boxes and boxes of Oxycontin and Endone. Particularly the anti-inflamms like Plaquenil that do help her joint pain, but will eventually cause her to go blind. Also, her cancer markers are getting higher and higher with each blood test.

So, here I am. I have purchased the tent, heaters etc, all except the lights of which I will be buying 3 reflectors from SmokeSara asap. I wanted to get a leg up now as I am about to kick this whole thing off in the next week or so, so would like to catalogue right from the start even before I germinate.

So, I have:

1. GroCell 1.2x1.2x2.0 (4x4x7) tent
2. 240v 6 inch extraction system
3. 240v Fan speed controller
4. 240v Digital Timer
5. 4.5 gallon pots
6. 0.5 gallon pots
7. 2 tubular heaters
8. 240v Temp Controller
9. A small T5 light
10. Temp controlled heat mat for germination
11. Carbon filter
12. Seeds

Things to get:

1. LED grow lights
2. Mini-greenhouse for germination
3. Maybe some extra heaters. I will be setting up this weekend and monitoring temps before I attempt to grow.

The strain is Durga Mata, but I also have Cookies Kush as a freebie which is high in THC. I think that will be good for her pain.
It is an Indica/Sativa strain, 90/10 respectively.
This will be an indoor grow.
I will be doing a soil grow, I'll need some help here
They will be grown in 5 gallon pots.
Lights will be LEDs. 3 x 144x3 reflectors.
The room will be aircooled, but it's the middle of winter right now so I'll need to heat.
Type and strength of ferts used? Will be needing help with this too.

This setup I will keep for my veg, I have plans to get another tent and lights for flower. I was thinking about a 1.5x1.5 (5x5x7) tent for that, but I still have time to make those decisions.

I'm really looking forward to this, something that I can pour some creativity into, and help my wife at the same time.

Thanks for all your help in advance!

 

[OzCroGrow]

So, I have purchased

1. MarsHydro 1600w
2. Phresh 8 inch intake filter
3. Some smart pots
4. another 6 inch fan for intake
5. a second fan speed controller for the intake fan

I've also just realised that there are two Durga Mata strains, once is high THC and the other is the med strain and is high CBD. Luckily, I bought the high CBD strain.

I monitored temps and it looks like the tubular heaters aren't pushing enough heat out to keep my tent at +21 degrees C. I have a column heater which brings those temps up very quickly and maintains it quite easily, even though the temp of the room I have the tent in moves down to roughly 1 degree C.

I'm now looking at soil mixes, Will have to visit the hydro shop and see what there is available.
Photos to come.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Oz, couldn' wait to see the grow!

 

[OzCroGrow]

Hi Oz, couldn' wait to see the grow!

Thanks Sara.

 

[OzCroGrow]

So, I bought some jiffy peat pellets last weekend and planted 1 CBD dominant seed and a 1 THC dominant seed. I also bought a small plastic greenhouse for AUD$10 at bunnings which is a big hardware chain here in Oz. I'm happy to say both seeds sprouted and are currently under my T5 lamp in the grow tent.

I was a little worried I had killed them with kindness by watering too much, but the heat mat I sat the greenhouse on has made this whole process very trouble free.

Now that they're under the light, I'm wondering how long each day I should keep the light on. 24/0? 20/4? 18/6? I have read up on this but there seems to be conflicting views... confusion. Also, they have only just sprouted, how far away should the T5 be, I have the long cylindrical lights with reflective shroud i that helps.

 

[OzCroGrow]

Here is a basic photo. The THC Durga mata has stretched a bit more than the CBD variant. It also sprouted a day or two earlier than the CBD strain.

I have set the timer to an 18/6 schedule. The seedlings seem to be ok with it so I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes. Humidity is a challenge though, I'm seeing a RH of only 40% according to my meter. Would like to get that up to 50%-55%.

 

[OzCroGrow]

They're looking pretty healthy. Looking forward to transplanting and putting them under the 1600w for some real turbocharged vegging.

 

[Mars Hydro]

they are growing..

 

[OzCroGrow]

they are growing..

Thanks Sara. It's very much a learning experience at the moment, it's good to see that they're progressing, and not dying!

 

[OzCroGrow]

So, being the weekend and all, I decided to pull the jiffy pellets out of the tray and have a look at how they were going. I was absolutely stunned to see that a number of roots had penetrated the bottom of the pellet and were starting to curl back up. I'd say they were probably 5mm long or so each.

So I transplanted them into larger pots. I used some seedling mix I bought from the hardware store, seemed to look ok, but the bag also said that it contained controlled release nutes. So I cut in a few of litres of perlite, vermiculite, and a couple of handfuls of worm castings. Mixed it all very thoroughly and broke it up as much as possible. Here are the results:

I really need to make up a stand for my T5 light, and place an adjustable shelf underneath so I can adjust the distance the plants sit from the light. At the moment I have a number of containers that I have found around the house to space them, and they do the job ok it seems.

 

[OzCroGrow]

There has been some progress. The leaves drooped a bit after I transplanted but bounced back less than a day afterwards. I'm absolutely staggered at their progress... very happy.

Just amazing. I'm now wondering when they should be going under the 1600w grow light.

I also bought a humidifer and a humidity controller. I haven't been able to get the humidity up to 50%, it seems to hover at around 30%

 

[OzCroGrow]

Well, I received the humidifier and turned it up too much. The humidity hovered at around 55% but I think the plants hated it. They drooped and refused to cooperate. So I turned it off for a bit, then back on but at only 15% or so, this pushed the humidity to a bit under 40%. The plants seemed much happier with this arrangement and bounced back. I also gave them a good watering just as the lights activated in the morning and they sprang back with vigour.

I don't know, but they don't seem to be growing very fast. I thought they would be twice the size they are now at a minimum.

They did accelerate quite a bit when I switched on the 1600W, but I was taken by surprise by the amount of water they were consuming, and I think I let them run a bit too dry, so I'm not sure whether the humidity, or my noob stupidity made them droop.

 

[OzCroGrow]

I think I have overwatered them. I'm not quite sure, I have been letting them run dry and then watering. So why are they droopy?

I'm not sure whats going on here. The leaves are slight curling down, and there is a hint of some yellow spot on a couple of the leaves as well.

If anyome has any ideas, I'm all ears. I have thought about transplanting them into slight larger air pots because they were quite happy until a few days ago, am I overreacting? They don't look happy to me.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

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.