Schnookie's First Grow In 30 Years: Mixed Strains, Mixed Schedule, Mixed Nutrients

[Schnookie]

What strain is it? White Widow, Skunk#1, and Girl Scout Cookies - feminized
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Hybrid - skunk#1 70/30 S/I?, WW 60/40??, GSC 40/60%?? idk
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Flower
If in Veg... For how long? 60 days from sprout to flip - some outdoor sun + 18/6 indoors
If in Flower stage... For how long? 23 days from light flip (60 hours darkness) > 12/12
Indoor or outdoor? indoor
If indoor...Dimensions (L x W x D) of grow space? 32inx32inx60ish-in
Soil or Hydro? Soil mix
If soil... what is in your mix? ~50%coco, 30% "Premium" All purpose potting soil, 20% perlite
If soil... What size pot? 7 gal fabric ~5 gal filled
Size of light? multi - variable ballasts (250-400w hps 250w(2300k) bulb, 150-250w 175w mH (15kk), multi-cfl 2x45, 2x135)
Is it aircooled? not enough
Temp of Room/cab? 69-96 but got hotter a few times (lights on ~80, out ~71)
RH of Room/cab? 26-39
PH of media or res? never measured
Any Pests? mites, gnats
How often are you watering? v ariable
Type and strength of ferts used? MegaCrop finish - varied previously (will explain shortly - mostly organic)


Details coming soon!! Subscribe now, this is going to be interesting!

 

[Schnookie]

I have to say, I've been both intimidated by trying to show my grow here and comparing to some of the outstanding members, but also somewhat proud that I've learned some amazing information in the last few months while dabbling and experimenting. I've also been scared and paranoid so I'm being stealthy and deceptive and trying to be as careful as possible. I'll start posting more details and photos soon, the first month-ish was almost complete stealth with no pics, but I started being a little less freaked out after and have some great shots.

Stay tuned, sleepytime fo' me.

 

[HugePeckerhead]

Welcome to the community. Tons of smart and very helpful growers here. You came to the right place. I just harvested white widow myself. Also got a girl scout cookies just starting off. Looking to follow along and watch yours grow.

 

[Dwight Monk]

......................and comparing to some of the outstanding members

Like other things in life compare current grow to your last grow and not to other folks grows/results, as it will make you crazy (short trip for me ) . And there is 80k variables just like other things in life that make comparing a not level playing field so stick with doing better than you did last time and not to what Joe Schmoo is getting for results. But that just my point of view and not for everyone I suppose.

 

[HugePeckerhead]

Like other things in life compare current grow to your last grow and not to other folks grows/results, as it will make you crazy (short trip for me ) . And there is 80k variables just like other things in life that make comparing a not level playing field so stick with doing better than you did last time and not to what Joe Schmoo is getting for results. But that just my point of view and not for everyone I suppose.

When I first arrived to this forum I couldn't even sex a plant properly. after weeks and weeks of reading different grows and techniques I am finding my yields getting bigger and bigger. Training is becoming easier and easier as well as maintaining them much more comfortably. While I can see why sometimes when you see people pulling a pound off one plant it can be overwhelming to a grower. I'm only on my 4th grow ending in a couple weeks with my 5th just popping above ground. But your statement is 100% something I learned fast. Learn from old mistakes and improve with each grow. Now I feel confident helping new growers. something I'd never do months ago.

 

[Schnookie]

So here's what happened. I bought some seeds online from overseas and they arrived in less than a week...
The 3 I'm growing now, plus a blueberry which I didn't sprout, ad they sent some free unknowns.

So in my mind I'm going to label the paper towel and put the seeds in their respective places and ten minutes later promptly lost my mind and just put them in randomly. Whatever the 4th seed was that didn't make it I still have waiting for another day.

2 jumped out of the gate quick and went in pint-qt size used pots with some mix I had made up for my tomatoes and peppers (and flowers, etc) for my porch garden. The 3rd took awhile to pop. It went in soil about 3 days after the others and it took another extra 3 days to sprout above the soil, so it's at least 5-6 days behind at this point. I even had to dig it up and move it higher below the soil line (it was barely more than 1/2 inch before).

Anyway, that one took FOREVER to start even growing...pretty sure they were all over watered for the first few weeks which slowed them down. I don't have a bunch of photos from the beginning as I was not planning on documenting this to be safer but here's a few. These are from about 2 weeks post sprout

The slow, small one (I think it's GSC)

Had sprayed with safer soap and she said, "Ouch!" I think she's the skunk

I think she's my white widow. At least that's the way I've labeled them since then.

 

[Schnookie]

The girls got sun on the porch for several weeks and were brought inside for additional light to bring up to 18 a day. They were put in full sun after around 3 weeks and left all day (most days was around 5 hours direct), so they got some light for sure.

I began noticing a helicopter flying somewhat close by so I got really paranoid, brought everything inside and called it day after getting the rest of the indoor equipment. Paranoia dropped some, but I did notice a popo parked outside my apt once for a few hours which freaked me out...always on the lookout.

I'm in a tent in a walk in closet but have to keep the doors open with the heat. I've got an odd lighting setup for sure, but it seems to work. I bought a couple of MH fixtures w/ ballasts and bulbs a few years ago with this idea but they stayed in the closet literally and were not used. I had a whole plan for a fill and drain system which is what we did 30 years ago, but decided to KISS this time. Just soil-mix in fabric pots.

Once the tent arrived and I stopped moving them back and forth in the sun, they started getting thick and I was LSTing the whole time until the scrog. My seed pop date and above soil date are somewhat a guess, but based on photos and original documentation, I decided to use 8/24 as first day of sprout.

 

[Schnookie]

The pics are from 5 weeks post sprout ~9/26. You can see the LST style - I bought the softwire wraps and made them custom lengths and twisted each to a safety pin and able to adjust around the edge of the fabric pots. Seemed to do a good job and I kept at it until putting them under the screen. By the end of LST I think there were about a dozen per each plant.

 

[Schnookie]

So...back to my lights...

I started with 2 CFL for early veg combined with sunlight during the day. They are 42W 6500k sunlight bulbs (150W incandescent equiv, 2800 lumen). I used the 1 MH @175W for most of veg, but switched the second one out which was really too hot most of the time (both enclosed and glass cover) with a 250w HPS I bought on amazon. Not sure why I thought 250W HPS would be cooler than 250W MH, but it is! (Up until now and looking at the bulb package, I thought the MH were actually 150 or 175W, so...)

Most of the grow has been over 80F and between 40-55RH, but given they were hot from day one (humid summer in the south), I figure they were ok with it...outside in the sun was over 95 some days. After they went in the tent and I needed to control temps better (I had AC running anyway @72-74), I bought a stand fan to blow into the tent, added to the original small fixed vortex fan and 6" exhaust with can (fan and filter are outside tent, but really don't seem to do much imho, although i don't turn it off so as not to tempt fate here... )

For some reason, I was thinking this still isn't enough light, even though the girls seem fine and I don't think I ever saw any light or heat related problems. Bear in mind this tent is only 7 sq ft total. Assuming the old MH bulbs are way inefficient now (they have to be at least 5 years old, and I have no idea how much they were used previously), they could possibly putting out less than 1/2 expected output. So, the package for the MH bulbs says HEXARC BLUE 14,000K 250W. They are in an enclosed reflector on a variable ballast that can go from 175-250 (4 settings 150W, 175W, 250W, HQI - anyone know what that means?) The other bulb was on my other ballast and it seemed to just be too much. The other ballast is marked 250SL, 250W, 400W, 400SL (ideas?) which is what the HPS is using - I hardly ever use the 400W settings...that's like overclocking, right?

What do you think about a 14000K light??? The plants seem to like it quite a bit imo, must be deep par.

Ok, rambling a little bit, lol...

LSS - I added more CFLs and some LEDs later...

 

[Schnookie]

As the title mentions, I grew while in college (doesn't everybody? ) 30+ years ago and we were pretty successful with a fill-to-drain system (really can't remember the exact name of it) using "hydro" fertilizers, rockwool, ph'ing, temp, etc...but didn't want to go that route this time as I didn't think I've have the patience (well, now I know wouldn't, LOL!)

So, having built up my patio/deck garden in the spring, I had leftover coco and potting soil, plus 7 gallon fabric pots. Grabbed a bag of perlite and mixed a mostly calculated percentage of each into 3 bags (50/30/20). The soil was fairly inert to begin with, with some "timed release" fertilizer which I really didn't notice.

When the little plants were showing lots of roots coming out of the bottom of their first pots, they were up-potted into the bags with myco surrounding the rootball. At this point the girls really started taking shape and I knew I wouldn't be able to stay outside forever (see above about the helicopter!! )

I'll post a weeks worth of growth here to try and catch this journal up to real-time...

GSC (see the couple of tops I made - these are the only apical tips I clipped in all 3 plants, everything else is just LST) - 9/29

GSC 10/2/19 note pre-flowers already visible

Skunk and GSC getting a soaking prior to SCROG. Screen is just single piece of folded fence. I made it 21" tall (14" from top of soil) and folded the bottoms 90 degrees inward by one square and placed the edges under the wire shelving my pots sit on in the tent. Shelving for bottom air and drainage so they don't sit in water and the fold-under is so the plants don't carry the screen up as they stretch. 10/6/19 - now just over 6 weeks from above soil

Skunk#1

GSC

White Widow (note the recently bottled leftovers of my homebrew IPA in the bucket waiting to be cleaned...lol )

Sk#1 in back left, WW in front left, GSC on the right 10/8/19

Bear in mind again, the names/strains are NOT necessarily what they are - I screwed that up the first day!

I'll describe my fertilizer and water schedule in the next update. Peace!

 

[Schnookie]

10/11/19 BUG!

Zoom in right in the middle of the top growth and check out the little guy trying to eat my girl! Wasn't a mite according to google...some kind of pillbug? Only found one and flushed it. However, it took me a little too long to recognize the spider mites I had later on...

 

[Schnookie]

Ok, so more updates from the past...

When I first started this grow I wasn't thinking about nutes. I had some leftover dynagro GROW and Protekt for silica that I was planning to use with the previous attempt which never materialized, but really didn't think about it much. Found a small container of orchid fertilizer that was really old but still viable apparently which I was using on my tomatoes and peppers on the porch.

Here's a small batch of chili (thai and regular) and purple peppers

Soooo, after doing some reading here (thanks @Emilya for the organic perspective! ), and since I already had made my soil, I went to Lowe's and bought some additives (alaskan fish emulsion, epson salts and Jobe's Palm Fertilizer). The palm fertilizer looked interesting as it had a lot of calcium and also an extensive set of beneficial microbes that I thought would be helpful. Since the combo of all of this gave me a mostly N fertilizer, I also bought some FF Beastie Blooms on a whim to try out in late blooming...

I made a gallon batch of "tea" using a tablespoon each of palm fert and epson salts and 2 tbls molasses and it's been sitting for weeks fermenting ... I've used about half of it so far

I also made some potassium booster by boiling a bunch of banana peels and letting them cool, and accidentally it ALSO starting fermenting after sitting out for a day so it's been in the fridge...there's probably a pint of that left, maybe 2-3 uses.

 

[Schnookie]

After seeing that bug I also went out and bought some diatomaceous earth (to take care of anything else in the soil) which I discovered also is mostly silica! So, as of TODAY, I've used about 4 tbls per plant in total over 3 applications. I plan to do another application tomorrow. This stuff is gonna last me forever... I started noticing the gnats disappearing now (and covered the yellow stickies too), but then discovered I have mites too.

The tent on 10/16, last time they are coming out for watering in the tub...now under the screen

Oh yeah, remember I was talking about getting more light in there? I bought a new fixture for 6 bulbs and added 2 new CFLs - 5500k 105W (4500 lumen each ~500w incandescent equiv). They're pretty bright. I wonder if I'm stunting the girls with all this light? I'm not sure what to even look for... I also got 15pak of 9W (60W equiv) LED 2700k soft white bulbs for FREE!!! from my power company. Will add them later also...I just can't stop!

Then just about a week later here's the growth...they get the lights off in two days for 60 hours for the flip...

Under the screen...ready for a cleanup before they go into darkness..
WW back left, GSC front left, SK#1 front right

Skunk#1

White Widow got all twisted up!

 

[Schnookie]

So the shots here are 10/23 after doing some defol underneath the screen. I haven't yet gotten on board with the whole strip all the fan leaves defoliation...been reading a lot about that but I'm still on the fence. As you can see compared to before, I didn't really take a whole lot off...just a couple dozen leaves to open it up for better air flow.

Skunk#1

White Widow in the back left

GSC thickening up now the most. She was the runt that was stuck in the soil a few extra days and took forever to get bigger than an inch tall. As soon as she went into the big pot she's caught up to and surpassed the other two.

Going to flip tomorrow (10/14) and leave in darkness the weekend for the next 60 hours. I might've waited too long to flip/scrog...I ended up filling the screen easily when I first put it in (it's only been a week here), this is 3 plants in a 32inx32in tent - they are definitely overlapping.

 

[Schnookie]

Ok, we'll be jumping a few weeks today and then soon up to date I think!

10/27 The lights are back on now after being dark for 60 hours...flowers are just peeking out now...

 

[Schnookie]

Then 4 days later for halloween...my skunk has mites...

But the thick bud formation is starting early!

So she got a neem and safer spray 'n soak

I got the free samples of SNS and will be soaking the leaves next time with their Spider Mite control SNS-217c.

Get you some!!

 

[Schnookie]

11/7 - 15 days since turning the lights off for 60 hours (do we count that as day one flowering?)

Starting to stack already!! Nice slow stretch

 

[Emilya Green]

(do we count that as day one flowering?)

I don't start counting the flower period until the plants actually start flowering... 7-10 days from the flip.

 

[Schnookie]

Vertical day (Or Single's Day in China)- 11/11 - getting some trichs (sorry about the lighting)...zoom in!

18 days from lights off - so 15 days in flower now

A little nute burn with yellow/brown tips or from the miticide?

 

[Schnookie]

I don't start counting the flower period until the plants actually start flowering... 7-10 days from the flip.

If you look above, I actually started getting pistils when the light came back on (off for 60 hours)...so I guess day one would be 10/27...