Renaissance Man's First Official Grow: Blueberry OG, Gorilla Zkittles & Cream Caramel In Soil

Renaissance Man

Well-Known Member
Welp, here it goes... Here is my first grow journal. My experience of growing only began this year in 2021 due to this pandemic and me working from home. I got a tent, a light, a fan some soil in a pot and a freebie seed and it is producing some very under-impressive herb.
I have since bought some fertilizers and new lights and am excited about my official second grow. Here are the specs:

Tent 2x4x5 kept in my garage, next to my office workspace. I have no intake fan or a/c but I do have a small humidifier if needed. It has been a crazy hot summer here in southern California and I would venture to guess the garage reaches highs of about 85°f.

Pots: Two 5gal bag pots.

Medium: 75% Fox Farm Ocean Forest
20% Happy Frog
5% Perlite

Lights: Viparspectra P600 dimmable, P1000 dimmable and optional no-name blurple 600w (actual 67w)

Nutrients: Recipe420 veg and bloom/DIY calmag and
Megacrop

Seeds: Fast buds Six-Shooter auto (70 days flowering) and Barney's Farm Wedding Cake auto (70-75 days flowering)

Water: Tap water (unknown pH. Paper strips say 6.8)

Small stationary fan

I will be starting with the paper towel method and then planting into 1gal and then into the final 5gal container.

The experiment will be between two Nutrients with two strains. (I know, humor me, I'm just having fun)

I'll do the Six-Shooter with Recipe420 and the Wedding Cake using MegaCrop, totally arbitrary.

The seeds were placed in paper towels and ziplock bags and have begun the process.

I have been reading and learning a lot on here but that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing. Please feel free to offer your experience if you see me going down the wrong path.

I'm looking forward to this journey.

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Ok just got word that I cannot use the names of non-sponsored Nutrients and that's fine. I haven't figured out how to edit my original post, so moving forward, I will only refer to them as "Brand X" and "Brand Y"
I hope that's ok
 
So here we go. Both seeds have been planted in 1gal pots. I feel confident about transplanting these into 5gal, I just have to be disciplined with my watering.
And for the experiment's sake, I will also NOT use the inexpensive blurple light and will stick to only the @ViparSpectra P600 and P1000.
The lights are about 25" above and at 40% per manufacture instructions.
Lighting is set for 18/6.

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I have to revise this journal as my seeds didn't germinate.
Truth be told, I was slightly impatient about putting them in the soil before the tap root was long enough. Both had a tail of about a millimeter before I dropped them in soil. After about 3 days, there was still no sprout on either. I kept trying to mist the soil and put a plastic cup over the top, but nothing. I have now taken them out of the soil and dropped them in a cup of water to see what happens.

In the meantime, I have two Sweet Tooth auto bagseed that are now in paper towels. This journal title may change. I don't expect anything to happen with the original seeds but if they miraculously sprout, I may have a four plant grow. I hope not because that's lot in my 2'x4' tent.

I'm just really excited to grow something under these lights...stay tuned..
 
If there is anyone following this journal, please offer your thoughts on something. I've been reading that Ocean Forest may be to hot for seedlings. I have mixed all my soil with Ocean Forest, Happy Frog and Perlite. Is it possible that this is too hot?

I removed my seeds and put them in little plastic containers with some previous soil from Lowe's. I don't expect anything but thought I'd try anyways.
 
Those soils should be ok but some here fill the containers and then in very center dig out a cupful and replace with a light mix of seed starter soil which has zero nutes.

personally I waterboard beans for 24 hours then put them right into the soil or rapid rooters and skip the paper towel step. There are tons of methods but I figured rather than grow tails in paper towels let them develop tails right in the rapid rooters or the soil

if needed you can report your own thread (see report button down below signature line) and ask moderators to change the journal name but it’s totally cool if the name and the plants don’t match up…. Life happens so it’s all good
 
If there is anyone following this journal, please offer your thoughts on something. I've been reading that Ocean Forest may be to hot for seedlings. I have mixed all my soil with Ocean Forest, Happy Frog and Perlite. Is it possible that this is too hot?

I removed my seeds and put them in little plastic containers with some previous soil from Lowe's. I don't expect anything but thought I'd try anyways.
I've been using Coast of Maine Stonington Blend that's hotter than OF and I haven't had any issues. I use plastic sandwich bags with a slit cut to vent over my red cups to create a humidity dome the first few days and the plants love it.

I germinate in paper towels and again I use sandwich bags that I cut open and place the paper towels between. I place these between two paper plates facing each other. This keeps the moisture in and has worked great for me.
 
In theory you could probably use sorghum peat moss with perlite and a touch of coco coir as a seed starter.
The downside is the lack of nutrients.

I use FF Light Warrior seed starter as an initial medium (95% success, not counting duds), which is pretty pricey.

Once the plant is an established seedling I give them 1/10th strength natural growth nutrients.

Here are my steps when popping a seed:

1. Soak beans.
2. Paper towel.
3. Transplant (generally when they have an established tail---always use tweezers!!!)

My transplant container is a 20 oz. beer pong cup (autos generally do not up pot).
My dome is a 16 oz. clear cup that I use an old pair of trimmers to clip three or four small holes around the top of the cup (technically bottom). I find that a heat pad is helpful as well.

While space limitations are a factor the cups are a moderately effect tool for hillbilly cloning.

There are a lot of folks in the community that know a heck of a lot more about germination and seedling development that I do.

If you haven't done so already you might check out @TriangleCheese Perpetual Nursery, which I need to get caught up on myself.

 
Well there has been some major setbacks so let's get up to speed.

I clearly am either struggling with germination or need to try a different seedbank. None of the autoflowers germinated so the seedbank sent me a replacement and also attempted some freebie seeds.

I decided to not grow autos and went with feminized photoperiods. Of the three new ones, Durban Poison, Critical Cush CBD and Gorilla Zkittles, only the Gorilla decided to sprout.

So I have only one plant going because I did not want to keep trying to germinate more and have different schedules. I still have a Blueberry OG and a Cream Carmel that I'll wait for the next grow.

The experiment is off however, still using the P600 and P1000 in my 2x4 tent.

I'm calling Oct 1 as day 1 for the grow toake things easy. Haven't decided which nutrients to use yet.
 
Well there has been some major setbacks so let's get up to speed.

I clearly am either struggling with germination or need to try a different seedbank. None of the autoflowers germinated so the seedbank sent me a replacement and also attempted some freebie seeds.

I decided to not grow autos and went with feminized photoperiods. Of the three new ones, Durban Poison, Critical Cush CBD and Gorilla Zkittles, only the Gorilla decided to sprout.

So I have only one plant going because I did not want to keep trying to germinate more and have different schedules. I still have a Blueberry OG and a Cream Carmel that I'll wait for the next grow.

The experiment is off however, still using the P600 and P1000 in my 2x4 tent.

I'm calling Oct 1 as day 1 for the grow toake things easy. Haven't decided which nutrients to use yet.
Which nutrients are you considering? I used bottled nutrients my first grow and at the beginning of my second grow, but I switched to GeoFlora organic nutrients early on and my third grow was with GeoFlora from beginning to end. From my own experience if you're in soil organic is the way to go. No mixing different nutrients, no pH'ing the mix, just sprinkle the granules on top every two weeks and you're done. Such a time saver and you end up with organic hooch. I will NEVER use bottled nutrients again. I do supplement with Cal/Mag but that's a simple add to the water and no pH'ing needed.

It's easier with watering too. With bottled nutrients you water until there's ~20% runoff to ensure full coverage, which means you're dealing with runoff water and you have to dump that or use something to remove it from the trays under your plants. With organic growing you water just until runoff, and if you're using fabric pots (you should) you just let the plant suck any runoff back up. Not having to pick the plants up (think heavy) to dump the runoff was worth the switch all by itself.

When you grow organically you're feeding the soil and the plants take what they want when they want it. With bottled nutes you're basically force feeding the plant and you have to pH the water to allow the nutrients to break free from the chemical bond so that it becomes available. I ended up with really good stuff with the bottled nutrients, but it's more work and in my opinion easier for things to go wrong. I journaled my last grow that was organic end-to-end and I'm journaling my current grow if you want to take a peek.
 
Which nutrients are you considering? I used bottled nutrients my first grow and at the beginning of my second grow, but I switched to GeoFlora organic nutrients early on and my third grow was GeoFlora from beginning to end. From my own experience if you're in soil organic is the way to go. No mixing different nutrients, no pH'ing the mix, just sprinkle the granules on top every two weeks and you're done. Such a time saver and you end up with organic hooch. I will NEVER use bottled nutrients again. I do supplement with Cal/Mag but that's a simple add to the water and no pH'ing needed.

It's easier with watering too. With bottled nutrients you water until there's ~20% runoff to ensure full coverage, which means you're dealing with runoff water and you have to dump that or use something to remove it from the trays under your plants. With organic growing you water just until runoff, and if you're using fabric pots (you should) you just let the plant suck any runoff back up. Not having to pick the plants up (think heavy) to dump the runoff was worth the switch all by itself.

When you grow organically you're feeding the soil and the plants take what they want when they want it. With bottled nutes you're basically force feeding the plant and you have to pH the water to allow the nutrients to break free from the chemical bond so that it becomes available. I ended up with really good stuff with the bottled nutrients, but it's more work and in my opinion easier for things to go wrong. I journaled my last grow that was organic end-to-end and I'm journaling my current grow if you want to take a peek.
Thanks for the feedback.. I have two options now, both are not bottled. Mega crop which will be mixed with water and applied every watering or Recipe420 which is a top dressing that lasts 8 weeks at a time,one for veg and one for bloom
 
Thanks for the feedback.. I have two options now, both are not bottled. Mega crop which will be mixed with water and applied every watering or Recipe420 which is a top dressing that lasts 8 weeks at a time,one for veg and one for bloom
Top dress would be my choice, just a heck of a lot easier. The hard part is resisting the urge to "help" by adding other stuff.
 
Update:

So this journal is going sideways but I'm determined to keep it going to see if it settles into some sort of normalcy down the road.

With all the germination issues I have been experiencing, I have ended up with a Gorilla Zkittles that is now 12 days old, and a Blueberry OG and a Caramel Cream (freebie seed) that are a week behind it.

However, in my 1g Gorilla plant, I see a new seed sprouting. I believe it may be my original Six-Shooter, but it may also be a Durban Poison. I have NO IDEA. Oh well..

Question: at what point shall I remove it from the shared 1g pot? Should I do it sooner before the tap root gets too long or should I wait for it to establish some roots. I'm afraid that if I wait, the roots will get entangled with each other and I'll have a bigger problem later.

Please help this noobie..

It appears that this may turn into a 4 plant grow, which will be bigger than I think I am capable of handling in this size tent.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated!!
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Also, my Gorilla looks like a light green and seems like it is not growing to quickly. It has been about 6 days since water but still feels like water toward the bottom. Should I give it another water?
 
If it were me and I was going to try saving it, I would do it soon.
Sounds like a plan. I'll wait until the helmet pops off.

Do you have fans blowing over your plants?
Helps with evaporation.

Hate to ask this question; but did you put holes in the bottom of those plastic pots?
I have fan in the tent but I turned it off as the little humidifier is on. Think I should have them both on?

and yep, holes in the bottom of the pots.
 
The Zkittles looks like it needs watered, is the soil dry?
That's what I was thinking too, but it feels like the bottom is still weighed down. I'm going to water today and just see how it goes.. 6 days is a good length of time.. It doesn't feel bone dry, but maybe my baseline was off.
 
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