Sero901 - Dark Angel - Closet LED - Grow

[sero901]

Hey everyone,
New to the forum, decided this year i want to try and grow my own plant. Im only a light toker but looking for another hobby around the house, and always wanted to try and grow a plant

Strain:
Dark Angel
50/50 indica/sativa

Stage:
Just germinated my seed on May 16th, they were planted the 18th and have broke ground early morning of the 19th.

Grow Medium:
organic potting soil w/Organic Pete moss, vermiculite, perlite
Found when i planted and first watered the seedlings the soil was washing through and too loose. I replanted with more perlite and seems to be much better. I was worried about the seed being planted and then removed and re-plated but she seems to be doing quite well right now.


Lighting:
Mars Hydro 300

Temp:
70-75

RH:
39%-42%
I was worried about low humidity and have bought a humidifier today to bring it up to around 60-65% to start

PH:
Meter hasn't arrived yet

Any Pests:
None

How often are you watering?
Daily

Type and strength of ferts used?
None Yet

Room:
I have converted a small closet for my grow room. The walls are all white, the floor was just wood so i have covered it with a reflective emergency blanket for water protection and reflection purposes. The roof/door is a plastic cover for furniture which as been trimmed, stapled and sealed with tape. I added adjustable shower rods for better support. I have a small RH and Temp gauge in there. There is a carbon filter vented through a 90cuft fan, pulling air from the bottom and out the top. Lastly i have a small fan to keep air moving inside the tent. Total set up cost was aprox. $600 CAD

 

[sero901]

 

[Stinky Snid]

Since the grow fever seems to have already set in...im sure you know by know the joys of tending to a little seedling of your own. It's a very satisfying and rewarding hobby, your setup is very adequate for what your goal is. In fact I won't be surprised when the entire footprint of that closet is filled with green. It's only a matter of time, these forums are your best friend when it comes to finding out what you need to know. Glad you came to share your experience with us, it will be quite an adventure. Good luck and...

KiG cheers

 

[sero901]

Thanks for the reply,
Pretty excited to see it get that big.
Spent the May 24 out camping so have seen the plant in a few days. Seems to have done well over the past few days. Today I decided to do the first watering with 1/4 strength organic 20-20-20 fertilizer. Mixed it up to about 93 ppm.

 

[sero901]

Noticed some slight yellowing of the leaf tips. My PH meter has not shown up yet so i went to the pool store and bought some test strips. Took out a teaspoon of soil and mixed with a few drops of neutral water. Filtered the water/soil mix after an hour through a coffee filter and read The PH, which is around 5.5 i think. I am going to get some lime and mix into the top few inches to help neutralize the soil to a 6.5-6.9 range. Il add lime to my bigger pot so after i transplant il have a more stable grow medium. Temp has been stable at 75 and humidity around 55%. I watered today for the first time in a few days, being careful not to overwater them. Let me know if i'm on the right track guys! Thanks!

 

[sero901]

Did a watering today, tips still showing a slight yellow as you can see below. PH has raised to around 6 for 3 days now. any thoughts out there? Growth seems to have picked up a bit as it grows faster and faster every day.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Does your soil have nutrients in it previous to planting? That looks like nute burn to me...

KiG cheers

 

[sero901]

Does your soil have nutrients in it previous to planting? That looks like nute burn to me...

KiG cheers

I didn't think so, i chose an organic mix, never had any "enrichment". Perhaps its like Fox Farms and come fairly hot as it is. I flushed some PH'd water through it today when i watered hopefully that helps a bit. I feel as the plant matures it will probably go away but il be keeping a close eye on it. thanks for the help.

 

[sero901]

So, to my dismay I came home from 3days gone to work to find my plant practically dead. I have stated germinating a new seed which I will continue this journal with if my original plant doesn't make it. I have learnt a lot from my first failure however:
1) NO NUTES for at least 3 weeks
2) I need better drainage in my soil
3) I needed more lime in the mix

So what went wrong?
Well I knew from a while ago that I had a acic soil problem. I made a few attempts to correct this but it was difficult after the fact. My PH was hovering in the low 5's. Adding more lime from the start should help. I also started with a 1/4 strength mix too early. My plant was growing very well and I should have waited another week at least before thinking about NUTES.

In my new pot and set up I have added more lime, more perlite, compost, sphagnum peat moss, peat humus, work castings.

I never expected this to be the easiest thing and I won't give up on it. I will post some updates on if the plant survived and my new plant and soil mix as it progresses. I don't have a picture and to be honest I'm too embarrassed I failed my first one to post the picture. I hope I have my problems corrected now.

Cheers

 

[Stinky Snid]

I just about lost all my plants. Was bed ridden for nearly a week and the majority wilted. I lost one entirely and ruined the potential of several others... It's a a sad thing to see happen. Start it over that's all, and this time will be that much better than the last. Good luck and...

KiG cheers

 

[sero901]

So i have not updated in a while, waiting for my new plant to catch up so i can seamlessly continue the journal. AND.... Im finally there!!!
New plant has been in soil 1 week less than my old one before it died and is at least double, if not triple in size!! A little nute burn early on again, seems this strain is very susceptible to this. The soil is also fairly hot out of the bag. I had some roots at the bottom of my small pot so i already transplanted it to the bigger pot about a week ago. il update again in a week when she's a little bigger.

 

[sero901]

Hey everyone!

Growth has been vigorous the last week! Plant has at least quadrupled in size.
I purchased some Botanicare cal-mag, veg and bloom fertilizers and applied the first ferts (calmag and bloom) about a week ago. I also decided to FIM her at that time. Looking now there are MANY tops coming up.
Going to do 2 more waterings with plain PH'd water and then flush her out, il reade the TDS on the runoff then and drop it to less than 300 when i'm done.

Shes growing short and bushy, thinking it may be due to the light being too low so i raised it up about 18". Let me know what you think, all input is welcome!

 

[Stinky Snid]

I like short plants, but raising the light will give her some stretch between nodes. What's your light cycle? More darkness means more stretching too.

KiG cheers

 

[sero901]

I have her on a 20/4 light cycle right now. I'm planning on going to a 12/12 Friday (2 weeks after fiming) next time I may try a 18/6. Friday will be aprox 5 weeks in veg.

 

[sero901]

Hey everybody, just a little update:
Plant is doing great. small calcium def, but i flushed it 4 days ago and just did the first watering with nutes since so i'm not too worried. Last watering was the first one using Botanicare Bloom formula, along with some cal-mag. I also switched my light to 12/12 yesterday! Il update as i start to see some nice buds form. Plant is about 18'' tall right now.

 

[sero901]

Good day 420 forums!
Figured today would be a good time for an update!
Were one week into flower (12/12 on the lights). I built a little cloning box last week and took some clippings just before switching the light. I used root max gel as a rooting compound and so far the clones look great! no signs of growth but the leaves are still firm and green.
The momma is looking great too. Notices some redening of the stems and brown spots on the leaves a couple days ago. Looked like a calmag def to me. I was at my flush day anyway so i added calmag to my flush water and ran about 16L through the soil. Looks to have done her good as most of the brown spots have disappeared and the red has faded to be almost gone completely. I have started adding 7.5m/gal of calmag to my fertilizer now to prevent a future occurrence. Before i was at the max on the bottle of 5ml/gal.
Have not seen any solid signs of flowering yet, besides the vertical growth. The room is dark and i cant see any light leeks so hopefully everything is good.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Looking good in there Sero, no signs of continued deficiency I see... Just checking in on ya, how are they this week?

KiG cheers

 

[sero901]

Grow is going great! After I flushed them I had to leave town for a week and my spouse forgot to water for 4 days. They were looking a little thirsty but seemed to rebounded fine. Wasn't that bad really. I thinned out some of the lower fan leaves this week. The stretch is exciting to watch! The stronger NUTES seemed to be working well. I added 1/8 dose of some veg NUTES to boost the nitrogen a bit as the Lower leaves were showing some yellowing. All looks good again now! The humidity was starting to get high (75-80%)so I have bought a dehumidifier to drop it done to 45% ish. Only problem I have now is its putting out a lot of heat at the same time. Here are some updated pics.

 

[sero901]

Plant did good this week. Had to move the light up today. Were over 3 weeks into flower so hopefully it starts to slow down vertically and bulk out the buds a bit. I pruned the lower section of the plant and tried to eliminate several locations of budding to get some bigger top colas and less small popcorn buds. Hopefully i am doing it right! Lots of budding sites throughout the plant and she's looking pretty happy right now. I have been pumping the bloom nutes to her to see how she does and so far so good. I finished 3 feed cycles so next time will just be flush (with calmag) she's starting to want water every 3 days, especially with the dropping humidity. The clones have also started to show vigorous new growth. They will outgrow the clone box very soon at this rate, which is my next challenge. Where to veg them until my current grow is complete. By that time they will probably be ready for a 12/12 aswell.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Ahhh the good old cycle of bud. You can basically start vegging them anywhere. They don't need as much light as a flowering girl. A bank of t5 or t8s would be sufficient, installed in a closet or cabinet. Cfls would get them going at least. A head start of a few weeks is better than none, if all else use a window sill to keep them going till the tent frees up. Not a bad problem to have, good luck and..

KiG cheers