Sp4z, Spaz: GG #4 First Time Grower

[sp4z205]

Hi Everyone,

I posted my first hello a few weeks back.

I'm home from vaca and ready to dedicate the next few months to my beautiful new babies.

My Setup:

4x4 gorilla tent
Autopot x4: 12.4 Gallon Reservoir with 3.9 Gallon pots
AC Inline T4 - model# AICLT4
ROI-E420 LED lights
1x clip fan
Clay pebbles
70/30 coco/perlite

Gorilla Glue #4 (F) Photo

I put 4 seeds into paper towels and a ziplock bag 36 hrs ago. I used stable 6.0 ph water with zero added nutrients to soak the paper towels.
They are sitting in a cabinet next to my dishwasher and stay between 75-85 degrees.

I have soaked my clay pebbles in 6.0 ph water with zero nutrients and will be getting them dried out later today.

Once the clay pebbles are dry, I will be lining the bottom of my 3.9 gallon pots with 1" of clay pebbles and filling the rest with 70/30 coco/perlite


Once I see ~1-2" of initial root from the seeds I will be placing them in rapid rooter plugs and into solo cups with my coco/perlite mix. I will cut the bottom of the cup out and bury the cup bottom 1-2" into my pots.

I will water inside the cup using my 6.0 ph water with zero added nutrients for 7-10 days.

After 7-10 days I will turn on my reservoir tap with 6.0 ph water and I will not be adding nutrients to the reservoir until ~week 3. Nutrients will be used at 1/3 strength when plants appear established.

Please let me know if I have left out any information that could be helpful and I will update accordingly.

Thank you Everyone!!

 

[BirdieNumNum]

You used calmag to charge your coco perlite mix ?

I found this site very useful when I did my first coco grow, having started off DWC a few years ago.

cocoforcannabis

My plants seem to have done well without sweating the keep the coco wet all the time method and watering no more than once a day.

Weak nutes for emerging seedlings and/or root growth enhancer have never seemed to do my plants any harm and it hasnt been uncommon to see what look like deficiencies on seedling leaves which could well be strain related. But as we know less is more so you are right to be cautious on that front.

In any case I would NOT be afraid of weak nutes a bit earlier than you are suggesting but I am sure others will have an informed opinion on that too...

Also ...decent humidity levels are often important early on and many a grow of mine has suffered from low temps - but I am in the UK...

I have found a foliar spray very useful. Appears to help iron out any leaf/nutrient issues many get in DWC / Coco early on.

 

[sp4z205]

You used calmag to charge your coco perlite mix ?

I found this site very useful when I did my first coco grow, having started off DWC a few years ago.

cocoforcannabis

My plants seem to have done well without sweating the keep the coco wet all the time method and watering no more than once a day.

Weak nutes for emerging seedlings and/or root growth enhancer have never seemed to do my plants any harm and it hasnt been uncommon to see what look like deficiencies on seedling leaves which could well be strain related. But as we know less is more so you are right to be cautious on that front.

In any case I would NOT be afraid of weak nutes a bit earlier than you are suggesting but I am sure others will have an informed opinion on that too...

Also ...decent humidity levels are often important early on and many a grow of mine has suffered from low temps - but I am in the UK...

I have found a foliar spray very useful. Appears to help iron out any leaf/nutrient issues many get in DWC / Coco early on.

Hmmmm, I did not charge my coco/perlite mix - It's Mother Earth 70/30 mix.

I read through an article on that site you linked about buffering the coco/perlite mix. I'll take a look and may be able to do that overnight tonight, will have to run into my local hydro store when possible.

Once I get the plants in the solo cup I plan on placing the bottom ends of 2L (washed) bottles around the cup to act as a small humidor. I saw a few peoples journals who did this.

Are you suggesting I could, and may see potentially better results, if I do a weak nute solution/foliar spray at the start once they are planted?

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[BirdieNumNum]

I have seen nutrient issues on leaves as early as a week after they popped.

The only result I would set myself if I was you is to get a half decent harvest for a beginner. Most of us make the mistake of trying to dial everything in and use a whole host of techniques and additives which is understandable but ultimately makes it more complicated than it needs to be which in and of itself makes it les likely you will get to a decent harvest.

It is a bit like trying to learn to do handbrake turns in a car before you can drive properly...

Humidity levels are important for the whole of a grow and depending on which climate your tent is sat in, what your ventilation is like, size of your tent they are going to need to be controlled.

This usually means you need a good out take fan, something to measure humidity and the ability to increase humidity. Reducing it is generally easier for many people as it is often just a question of increasing air throughput and not requiring the use of a dehumidifier.

Having foliar spray on hand for Coco/DWC has for me meant I can quickly give the plants something of what they need whilst i work out or obtain advice or get the stuff I need to try and resolve them.

There are a lot of differences between strains and individual plants within the same strains. You often dont know what is causing slow growth or leaf issues and so you learn to ignore many and learn to react to others..it just comes with experience and that experience is easier on the mind to acquire once you have some home grown bud on hand because you have been successful.

Seeds are not cheap and its a bummer to lose a plant if you dont have backups because the whole grow cycle is several. months long.

Here is my current grow..

The low plants in the front are in coco and the ones in the back (right hand wall) are autos in DWC tanks. I have leaf nutrient issues on the tall auto you can see that is in a flower stretch - no real clue what it is but I am not worried as i have seen similar before and gotten to harvest - albeit a different strain. The other 2 autos are in the same nutrient mix with very healthy roots and leaves but not flowering - could be duds - so what I am trying to say is ...you get issues, the causes are not obvious and with experience you get better at responding to or ignoring them but you cant short cut that experience.

I used to use CANNA start for seedlings on my DWC grows and root additives seem to do a good job too. 1/4 nutes wont hurt a week old healthy seedling but reading the review and ingrdients on that mother Nature, you will want to wash it out well and buffer it with calmag before using it to reduce the chances you will get issues.

 

[sp4z205]

Checked at 48 hours and I have 1+ inch of taproot on each one.

So I moved them into their homes.

Root plug + coco/perlite mix in solo cup, 1.5" in planter. About a half a solo cup in each one of ph 6.0 water.

Their lights will be turning off in ~3 hrs, I have the timer set on 18-6 with lights at 25% intensity.

Temperature is 78 degrees F with humidity at 59%. Fan is at speed 2.

Thank you all and have a fantastic evening!

Will update with pictures tomorrow morning.

 

[sp4z205]

Hi Everyone,

I didn't have any pictures for the morning because there was no real "progress" visually.

I re-watered at 9:30am.

I checked them again this evening and lo and behold!

The one looked like it was a little tight in the plug so I pulled the top apart a little to let the lady stretch up overnight.

The one still has the seed shell and I'm not going to pull it off as I've read a few things saying that this sometimes happens and I'm hopeful the shell will fall off overnight.

I'm very happy with the progress so far and will be checking them again the morning!

Thank you for reading!

 

[sp4z205]

This was yesterday morning - watering once every 12 hours with 6.0 water. EC value reads at .2

The one was still being shy and decided not to drop her shell.

 

[sp4z205]

This was this morning, following the same routine.

Temp and RH have stayed between 70-75 degrees and 55-58%

I inspected the one that still had the shell very carefully and it looked like it was just barely on the edges, I gave it the smallest of wiggles and it fell right off so now she's in the race fully!

 

[sp4z205]

They were stretching some so I upped lights to 50% intensity and they don't seem like they stretched further in the past 72 hours.

I added cal-mag solution to feeding 3 days ago and have only been watering them once a day with ~1/3 solo cup full.

 

[sp4z205]

This morning, one decided to lay down - I fed again and I gave her some help standing up. Lights go off in 1.5 hrs so I'll check in 1 hr to see progress

are they still stretching?

Questions: Should I replant them but bury them further down the stem, or will this cause them to stretch again? If it would cause stretching can I mitigate by increasing my lights further? (currently lights are at 50% intensity).

Thank you for reading.

 

[sp4z205]

upped lights to 75% after their sleep period, decided against replanting them. This is after ~5 hours of higher intensity light - I have my night cycle from 11am-5pm.

My wife lovingly named them after the Golden Girls.

 

[sp4z205]

No risk, no reward.
Found the hang cables that came with the light and installed everything (very, very carefully) and lowered it by ~3ft, intensity to 75%
I'll be checking on them every few hours to observe for curling, etc but I'm hoping my light issues are resolved for now.

 

[sp4z205]

10 days old. (not sure when I'm supposed to start, would love feedback, but I'm counting from when they first went above the ground)

I'll be adjusting nutrient levels tonight to early veg from seedling. I'm still going to be watering top down for the next ~7days I think.

They are looking much happier after I dropped the lights!

 

[Tokin Roll]

You are doing a great job @sp4z205

If your worry about time line I would put them at the end of week one veg, the beginning of week two.

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

 

[sp4z205]

I removed them from the cups today (I think I could have done it a day or two earlier).
I'll continue watering the outside of the root balls for another ~7 days and then I'll turn the rez tap on.

I did clean the growing medium off them after I noticed it in the pictures.

 

[sp4z205]

While saying good morning and inspecting them I noticed that one of the girls was doing something interesting and one node was developing two shoots off one side.

I'll be keeping an eye on her and when I do my first top I'll possibly go down to there to see if I can get 3 cola coming off her. Unless it's to low of a node, it may be but I'll definitely be training them out.

 

[sp4z205]

The two in the back are 2"-3" taller than the two in front. I double checked my lights and they are level, so I swapped them from front to back to see what changes.

I topped them 2 days ago (Day 21), after doing a last top feed and turning on the rez. Also upped lights to 100% and my temperatures are staying between 74-80f during the day and dropping to 72f lowest during the night. RH has been staying between 47-57%

this was before swap - I didn't take an after but we'll see after a few days if there's a noticeable change.

Thanks for looking at my lovely girls!

 

[420snipez]

first thing you do wrong when you grow first time is doin to much
i say this it looks good but dont think about train on the plant in a first grow just grow it and learn the feed and such but it looks good

 

[sp4z205]

first thing you do wrong when you grow first time is doin to much
i say this it looks good but dont think about train on the plant in a first grow just grow it and learn the feed and such but it looks good

I completely understand, I find myself wanting to fuss with them all the time. I may be a relatively young guy but I've learned that patience can pay off. I'm doing a very minimal amount of things and only wanted to train those first few branches out further than normal.

I am going to try a scrog - I've read a lot on it through a few forums and books and the only way to learn is to experiment. It's set up about 16" above their canopy so they'll be ~2ft in height when I start training them through it.

I'm using a feeding regiment from Dr. coco for my line of nutes and am paying very close attention for discoloration and abnormalities in new/old growth.

Thank you for the feedback!!

 

[420snipez]

I completely understand, I find myself wanting to fuss with them all the time. I may be a relatively young guy but I've learned that patience can pay off. I'm doing a very minimal amount of things and only wanted to train those first few branches out further than normal.

I am going to try a scrog - I've read a lot on it through a few forums and books and the only way to learn is to experiment. It's set up about 16" above their canopy so they'll be ~2ft in height when I start training them through it.

I'm using a feeding regiment from Dr. coco for my line of nutes and am paying very close attention for discoloration and abnormalities in new/old growth.

Thank you for the feedback!!

looks good share me the finish and i share mine haha