MMRC Grower
New Member
So here I am. I've been reading these grow journals for about a week now and decided to throw mine up here and see what kind of feedback I can get.
I'll get straight to the point here. I am exactly 4 weeks into my first grow. Technically its my second, but the first one had to be harvest way too early and it was only one plant. Plus is was almost 10 years ago.
I'm currently on week 4, but I'll rewind to the beginning.
11/22/09
The seeds that I have are The Green House Seed company and I have began to germinate. I have The Church, Arjan's Strawberry Haze, Lemon Skunk, Great White Shark and Hawaiian Snow. I have 5 Free PPP seeds, that I found out were from Nirvana Seed bank.
I put each strain in its own cup and labeled the cups. I filled the cups with tap water with a PH around 5.5 and let them soak for about 24 hours.
11/23/09
Some seeds had already began to crack. I then transferred them with tweezers to a wet paper towel, that was soaked with around 5.5 PH tap water. I put them in a rooting dome that I bought from Lowes for about $5. I then placed them in my closet above a portable heater. Humidity was between 80-100%. Temperature was around 85 degrees.
11/24/09
Most of the seeds had cracked open and others had a tap root coming out of them. Seeds were then transferred with tweeters over to 1 inch rock-wool cubes. The rock-wool cubes were soaked with around 5.5 PH tap water that included an 8th of the recommended seedling nutes added.
Nutes use are General Hydroponics Flora Series. FloraGrow, FloraMicro and FloraBloom.
I put the rock-wool cubes back into the rooting dome and placed them back into the closet. RH @ 80-100%, Temps 85-90 degrees.
11/26/09
Some of the seeds had sprouted. The ones that did were moved into Dixie cups that I had cut the bottoms from.
After that I placed them under 10 32 watt CFL lights that I put together myself.
11/27/09
The taproot on a few of the seedlings began to come out of the bottom of the rock-wool cubes, so I began transplanting them into 4" rock-wool cubes.
11/28/09
Today I went to a local collective to check it out and ended up picking up a clone of OG Kush. I've hear this strain can be hard to get your hands on and that there are almost no seeds available because of lacking male plants to pollinate with. So I didnt pass the opportunity up. I got a nicely rooted clone with 2 tops on it.
All seedlings had now been placed into 4" cubes.
Here's a shot of the OG Kush clone that I picked up. Obviously a female. You can see the hairs.
Here's a group picture of them all transferred into the 4" cubes.
.... and here they are soaking up some lumens...
12/3/09
About 5 Days later (give or take a couple days) and everyone is looking good. I'm seeing new growth on the clone and the seedlings are begin to grow another set of leaves. I've been letting the cube dry out almost complete before watering them again. I've been keeping the PH of the tap water around 5.5. I'm using the liquid PH tester, so I'm not right on, but around there. I am also adding half strength, seedling stage General Hydroponic nutes. All 3 of the Flora series.
12/5/09
2 Days later and everything still looking good. Yesterday one of my Church's decided to sprout. I was pretty excited about that. She's sitting in the 1 inch cube on the side, so I can get her closer to the light.
12/7/09
2 Days Later. Plants are growing great. No signs of deficiencies and the roots from the OG Kush clone have already worked there way through the 4 inch cube. Along with a couple of the other plants. So its about time to get these girls (hopefully) on a feeding system.
12/8/09
2 More Days Later. Okay, here's when my inexperience comes into play and the beginning of my plants heath gets a little wobbly.
Here's the setup:
Drip Feeder Hydroponics
30 Gallon Tote, filled up with 10 gallons of filtered tap water that my refrigerator filtered.
General Hydroponics Flora Series Nutes. Amount: Mild Growth. So we're talking 1 tsp of each of the 3, per gallon.
1 Flat Under-Bed Tote to put the plants in
1 strong submergable water pump
1 Dual fram air pump
2 air stones. One 12 inch long and the other is a 5 inch cylinder.
1 8 port dripper
8 drip nossles
some hoses and fittings and thats about it.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, General Hydroponics Flora Series
Temp: 72-78 Degrees
RH: 25-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.5-5.8
PPM: Unknown due to tap water. GH's website say PPM for this nute level is 378 ppm, plus water the water is.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Picture time.....
RH 48%. Temp 72 Degrees. I think thats pretty darn good.
Here's the reservoir, filled to 10 gallons.
The whole setup
The drain fitting
12/9/09
One day later and here's where the problems begin.
If anyone can tell me what this is, please let me know. The only thing thats changed is the nutes, so its something there. I mixed exactly according to the General Hydroponics instructions on the bottle for the Mild growth strength. The only thing I can think of, is the plants dont like my filtered refrigerator water.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, General Hydroponics Flora Series
Temp: 72-78 Degrees
RH: 25-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.5-5.8
PPM: Unknown due to tap water. GH's website say PPM for this nute level is 378 ppm, plus whatever the water is.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
This is one of my PPP's. I looked around the internet and all I can find is things saying this is a Magnesium (Mg) deficiency. Im not sure how that can be if I mixed the nutes correctly, unless maybe my refrigerator water is nastier then hell and locked it out some how.
Here's the same thing on my Lemon Skunk plant
.... and here's a couple more shots of it and then the entire grow together. If anyone can tell me what this is and how to prevent it in the future, that would be great. I got epsom salt for the Mg. More on that later though.
I added my hand here to give an idea to the exact size.
12/10/09
Okay... I dont know what I read, but somehow I came up with the idea that if I added more GH FloraGrow to my nutes, it would fix the problem. I dont remember how I came to that solution, but I did and ended up adding 9 tsp's of FloraGrow to my res. Thats turns out to be a little less than one tsp per gallon. Later that day, nothing got worse, and it looked to have maybe corrected the issue.
Here's the specs, then pictures.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, GH Flora Series + an extra tsp per gallon.
Temp: 70-78 Degrees
RH: 20-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.7
PPM: 498 plus whatever my filtered refrigerator water is. Could be high. Doesnt taste very great.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
I seriously need some help with this plant. Its one of my PPP's. Its so wrinkly and dry feeling. Like an old persons skin. I have no idea why its like this. Any help, suggestions, anything.. would be really appreciated.
The roots are looking decent...
12/11/09
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, GH Flora Series + an extra tsp per gallon.
Temp: 79 Degrees
RH: 32%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.7
PPM: 498 plus whatever my filtered refrigerator water is. Could be high. Doesnt taste very great.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Tip Burn on OG Kush with downward curling tips. Downward curling tips on PPP. Trying to raise humididty, which is thought to maybe be the cause of Potassium deficiency.
12/12/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 71 Degrees
RH: 52%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.6
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Possible deficiency cause, nutes too low/weak. Drained res. Added pure, reverse osmosis water. Flushed for a few hours with pure water. Filled res with Reg strength nutes 3-2-1 tsp per gallon. Church showing deformities. No further signs of deficiencies after res change. PH down was added to bring PH to 5.6.
12/13/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 77 Degrees
RH: 41%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.9
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: PH down added to bring PH to 5.5
12/14/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 72 Degrees
RH: 49%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.8
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Added Hydrotron GrowRocks to give expanding roots a place to stay wet. PPP showing discoloration. Maybe from PH being off. I just got calibration fluid and found out that my meter has been off by .4 - .5 points. Meter was calibrated. Folar fed plants with FloraBlend. 3 new seedlings sprouted. Unknown Mexican strain.
12/15/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 73 Degrees
RH: 35%
Light: 1,000 Watt Metal Halide Light. 1.5 ft from plant tops. Air cooled hood.
PH: 5.7
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Plants showing small signs of sclerosis (I believe thats what its called. Small yellowish brown spots). Found that PH meter was still of by .1. No big deal. Yellowish green throughout garden, except for Great White Shark. Just introduced humidifier.
12/16/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 89 Degrees
RH: 25%
Light: 1,000 Watt Metal Halide Light. 1.5 ft from plant tops. Air cooled hood.
PH: 5.8
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Plants all looking unhealthy. Yellow spots, discoloration on leaves. Heat went up to 93 degrees. Light was moved up to 2 ft from plant tops to reduce heat. Turned up fan speed. Heat dropped to 81 degrees. Plants are showing no signs of improvement. Res was drained and fresh tap water from the sink was added to flush system. Flushed over night running non-stop. Church started showing signs of new, healthy growth. Possible diagnosis was determined to be over fertilization.
I'll get straight to the point here. I am exactly 4 weeks into my first grow. Technically its my second, but the first one had to be harvest way too early and it was only one plant. Plus is was almost 10 years ago.
I'm currently on week 4, but I'll rewind to the beginning.
11/22/09
The seeds that I have are The Green House Seed company and I have began to germinate. I have The Church, Arjan's Strawberry Haze, Lemon Skunk, Great White Shark and Hawaiian Snow. I have 5 Free PPP seeds, that I found out were from Nirvana Seed bank.
I put each strain in its own cup and labeled the cups. I filled the cups with tap water with a PH around 5.5 and let them soak for about 24 hours.
11/23/09
Some seeds had already began to crack. I then transferred them with tweezers to a wet paper towel, that was soaked with around 5.5 PH tap water. I put them in a rooting dome that I bought from Lowes for about $5. I then placed them in my closet above a portable heater. Humidity was between 80-100%. Temperature was around 85 degrees.
11/24/09
Most of the seeds had cracked open and others had a tap root coming out of them. Seeds were then transferred with tweeters over to 1 inch rock-wool cubes. The rock-wool cubes were soaked with around 5.5 PH tap water that included an 8th of the recommended seedling nutes added.
Nutes use are General Hydroponics Flora Series. FloraGrow, FloraMicro and FloraBloom.
I put the rock-wool cubes back into the rooting dome and placed them back into the closet. RH @ 80-100%, Temps 85-90 degrees.
11/26/09
Some of the seeds had sprouted. The ones that did were moved into Dixie cups that I had cut the bottoms from.
After that I placed them under 10 32 watt CFL lights that I put together myself.
11/27/09
The taproot on a few of the seedlings began to come out of the bottom of the rock-wool cubes, so I began transplanting them into 4" rock-wool cubes.
11/28/09
Today I went to a local collective to check it out and ended up picking up a clone of OG Kush. I've hear this strain can be hard to get your hands on and that there are almost no seeds available because of lacking male plants to pollinate with. So I didnt pass the opportunity up. I got a nicely rooted clone with 2 tops on it.
All seedlings had now been placed into 4" cubes.
Here's a shot of the OG Kush clone that I picked up. Obviously a female. You can see the hairs.
Here's a group picture of them all transferred into the 4" cubes.
.... and here they are soaking up some lumens...
12/3/09
About 5 Days later (give or take a couple days) and everyone is looking good. I'm seeing new growth on the clone and the seedlings are begin to grow another set of leaves. I've been letting the cube dry out almost complete before watering them again. I've been keeping the PH of the tap water around 5.5. I'm using the liquid PH tester, so I'm not right on, but around there. I am also adding half strength, seedling stage General Hydroponic nutes. All 3 of the Flora series.
12/5/09
2 Days later and everything still looking good. Yesterday one of my Church's decided to sprout. I was pretty excited about that. She's sitting in the 1 inch cube on the side, so I can get her closer to the light.
12/7/09
2 Days Later. Plants are growing great. No signs of deficiencies and the roots from the OG Kush clone have already worked there way through the 4 inch cube. Along with a couple of the other plants. So its about time to get these girls (hopefully) on a feeding system.
12/8/09
2 More Days Later. Okay, here's when my inexperience comes into play and the beginning of my plants heath gets a little wobbly.
Here's the setup:
Drip Feeder Hydroponics
30 Gallon Tote, filled up with 10 gallons of filtered tap water that my refrigerator filtered.
General Hydroponics Flora Series Nutes. Amount: Mild Growth. So we're talking 1 tsp of each of the 3, per gallon.
1 Flat Under-Bed Tote to put the plants in
1 strong submergable water pump
1 Dual fram air pump
2 air stones. One 12 inch long and the other is a 5 inch cylinder.
1 8 port dripper
8 drip nossles
some hoses and fittings and thats about it.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, General Hydroponics Flora Series
Temp: 72-78 Degrees
RH: 25-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.5-5.8
PPM: Unknown due to tap water. GH's website say PPM for this nute level is 378 ppm, plus water the water is.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Picture time.....
RH 48%. Temp 72 Degrees. I think thats pretty darn good.
Here's the reservoir, filled to 10 gallons.
The whole setup
The drain fitting
12/9/09
One day later and here's where the problems begin.
If anyone can tell me what this is, please let me know. The only thing thats changed is the nutes, so its something there. I mixed exactly according to the General Hydroponics instructions on the bottle for the Mild growth strength. The only thing I can think of, is the plants dont like my filtered refrigerator water.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, General Hydroponics Flora Series
Temp: 72-78 Degrees
RH: 25-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.5-5.8
PPM: Unknown due to tap water. GH's website say PPM for this nute level is 378 ppm, plus whatever the water is.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
This is one of my PPP's. I looked around the internet and all I can find is things saying this is a Magnesium (Mg) deficiency. Im not sure how that can be if I mixed the nutes correctly, unless maybe my refrigerator water is nastier then hell and locked it out some how.
Here's the same thing on my Lemon Skunk plant
.... and here's a couple more shots of it and then the entire grow together. If anyone can tell me what this is and how to prevent it in the future, that would be great. I got epsom salt for the Mg. More on that later though.
I added my hand here to give an idea to the exact size.
12/10/09
Okay... I dont know what I read, but somehow I came up with the idea that if I added more GH FloraGrow to my nutes, it would fix the problem. I dont remember how I came to that solution, but I did and ended up adding 9 tsp's of FloraGrow to my res. Thats turns out to be a little less than one tsp per gallon. Later that day, nothing got worse, and it looked to have maybe corrected the issue.
Here's the specs, then pictures.
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, GH Flora Series + an extra tsp per gallon.
Temp: 70-78 Degrees
RH: 20-50%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.7
PPM: 498 plus whatever my filtered refrigerator water is. Could be high. Doesnt taste very great.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
I seriously need some help with this plant. Its one of my PPP's. Its so wrinkly and dry feeling. Like an old persons skin. I have no idea why its like this. Any help, suggestions, anything.. would be really appreciated.
The roots are looking decent...
12/11/09
Nute Strength: Mild Growth, GH Flora Series + an extra tsp per gallon.
Temp: 79 Degrees
RH: 32%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.7
PPM: 498 plus whatever my filtered refrigerator water is. Could be high. Doesnt taste very great.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Tip Burn on OG Kush with downward curling tips. Downward curling tips on PPP. Trying to raise humididty, which is thought to maybe be the cause of Potassium deficiency.
12/12/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 71 Degrees
RH: 52%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.6
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Possible deficiency cause, nutes too low/weak. Drained res. Added pure, reverse osmosis water. Flushed for a few hours with pure water. Filled res with Reg strength nutes 3-2-1 tsp per gallon. Church showing deformities. No further signs of deficiencies after res change. PH down was added to bring PH to 5.6.
12/13/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 77 Degrees
RH: 41%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.9
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: PH down added to bring PH to 5.5
12/14/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 72 Degrees
RH: 49%
Light: 1-4 inches away from 10 32 watt CFL lights that are cool to the touch
PH: 5.8
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Added Hydrotron GrowRocks to give expanding roots a place to stay wet. PPP showing discoloration. Maybe from PH being off. I just got calibration fluid and found out that my meter has been off by .4 - .5 points. Meter was calibrated. Folar fed plants with FloraBlend. 3 new seedlings sprouted. Unknown Mexican strain.
12/15/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 73 Degrees
RH: 35%
Light: 1,000 Watt Metal Halide Light. 1.5 ft from plant tops. Air cooled hood.
PH: 5.7
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Plants showing small signs of sclerosis (I believe thats what its called. Small yellowish brown spots). Found that PH meter was still of by .1. No big deal. Yellowish green throughout garden, except for Great White Shark. Just introduced humidifier.
12/16/09
Nute Strength: Vegative Growth, GH Flora Series
Temp: 89 Degrees
RH: 25%
Light: 1,000 Watt Metal Halide Light. 1.5 ft from plant tops. Air cooled hood.
PH: 5.8
PPM: About 764. Now using filtered Reverse Osmosis water.
Light Cycle: 24 hours/constant
Notes: Plants all looking unhealthy. Yellow spots, discoloration on leaves. Heat went up to 93 degrees. Light was moved up to 2 ft from plant tops to reduce heat. Turned up fan speed. Heat dropped to 81 degrees. Plants are showing no signs of improvement. Res was drained and fresh tap water from the sink was added to flush system. Flushed over night running non-stop. Church started showing signs of new, healthy growth. Possible diagnosis was determined to be over fertilization.
I'm like Tiger, I know about soil and not much about any kind of Hydro, but we do know how to grow. When we can help, believe me we will speak up.
