SleepIsWrong
Well-Known Member
Greetings All!
I got bit by the bug late last winter and scored a few clones from a friend. Two Desert Diesel and one White Widow. I received the plants on March 15th. My friend was growing hydroponically; these plants were in coco coir when we received them. We transplanted the next day into regular soil mixed up by my spousal unit. The menu - 4 parts premium leaf gro, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part vermiculite, one part pearlite. I initially put the plants on a platform on my work bench in the basement, directly (around 4") below a 3-foot long LED shop light - 60w equivalent. I ran the light 24-0. I use the Fox Farms trio for nutrients and follow their grow chart - more or less. Mostly I give less nutrients than recommended - around 2/3 most of the time. My water is filtered municipal water that seems to be around 7.0-7.2. I do not have a pH pen, just the test kit that comes with the pH-up and pH-down kit. I watered/fed perhaps a little too frequently early on - about every 2 or 3 days.
Here's a picture from March 26th.
It only took me two weeks to decide but on March 30th I bought a grow tent kit from a local grow shop - got all the necessary accoutrements except some fans, which I was able to find at the local big-box hardware store - 1 short cylindrical oscillating fan that I keep underneath, and two 6-inch clamp fans (fixed) that I direct towards the canopy. Next picture is the ladies in their new grow tent.
On April 2nd we transplanted into their final pots - two 5-gallon and 1 7-gallon fabric pots. I was planning to trellis the plants to spread things out and so figured I needed to go to their final pot size since I was not going to be able to re-pot them. The soil mix was the same - 4 parts premium leaf grow, 2 parts peat moss, one part vermiculite, one part pearlite. We watered pretty heavily once they were in the new pots - with nutrients. I always balance my feed to around 6-6.5, and test the runoff, which always seems to be more acidic than what I'm top-feeding. It took a few days for the plants to recover as I think they were a bit over-watered. I let things dry out and did not feed for five days, at which time the plants were looking quite happy.
So other than feed/water every four or five days that brings us up to today. As mentioned, I use the Fox Farms trio of nutrients that everyone seems to start with. Each feed is given about 20 ml/gallon of Fox Farms Big Bloom, and about 10ml/gallon of Fox Farms Grow Big - which is 2/3 the strength recommended. Because the runoff from my previous feed (on April 14th) was quite acidic (seemed lower than 5) I decided that today's feed would be simply water (which I tested at slightly above pH=7). Generally I've been giving 2 gallons per feed. Here's a picture of the canopy this morning before I did some pruning (just removing leaves from below and larger ones from above that were shading lower colas). Since installing in the tent I've been running a 18-6 light cycle.
So, my plan right now is to let this feed dry out, and at next feed switch to 12-12 lighting schedule to initialize flowering. The nutrient mix is still TBD. Any and all advice is totally welcome! I've been on the site for only a week or so but have learned a ton. Thanks for looking!
I got bit by the bug late last winter and scored a few clones from a friend. Two Desert Diesel and one White Widow. I received the plants on March 15th. My friend was growing hydroponically; these plants were in coco coir when we received them. We transplanted the next day into regular soil mixed up by my spousal unit. The menu - 4 parts premium leaf gro, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part vermiculite, one part pearlite. I initially put the plants on a platform on my work bench in the basement, directly (around 4") below a 3-foot long LED shop light - 60w equivalent. I ran the light 24-0. I use the Fox Farms trio for nutrients and follow their grow chart - more or less. Mostly I give less nutrients than recommended - around 2/3 most of the time. My water is filtered municipal water that seems to be around 7.0-7.2. I do not have a pH pen, just the test kit that comes with the pH-up and pH-down kit. I watered/fed perhaps a little too frequently early on - about every 2 or 3 days.
Here's a picture from March 26th.
It only took me two weeks to decide but on March 30th I bought a grow tent kit from a local grow shop - got all the necessary accoutrements except some fans, which I was able to find at the local big-box hardware store - 1 short cylindrical oscillating fan that I keep underneath, and two 6-inch clamp fans (fixed) that I direct towards the canopy. Next picture is the ladies in their new grow tent.
On April 2nd we transplanted into their final pots - two 5-gallon and 1 7-gallon fabric pots. I was planning to trellis the plants to spread things out and so figured I needed to go to their final pot size since I was not going to be able to re-pot them. The soil mix was the same - 4 parts premium leaf grow, 2 parts peat moss, one part vermiculite, one part pearlite. We watered pretty heavily once they were in the new pots - with nutrients. I always balance my feed to around 6-6.5, and test the runoff, which always seems to be more acidic than what I'm top-feeding. It took a few days for the plants to recover as I think they were a bit over-watered. I let things dry out and did not feed for five days, at which time the plants were looking quite happy.
So other than feed/water every four or five days that brings us up to today. As mentioned, I use the Fox Farms trio of nutrients that everyone seems to start with. Each feed is given about 20 ml/gallon of Fox Farms Big Bloom, and about 10ml/gallon of Fox Farms Grow Big - which is 2/3 the strength recommended. Because the runoff from my previous feed (on April 14th) was quite acidic (seemed lower than 5) I decided that today's feed would be simply water (which I tested at slightly above pH=7). Generally I've been giving 2 gallons per feed. Here's a picture of the canopy this morning before I did some pruning (just removing leaves from below and larger ones from above that were shading lower colas). Since installing in the tent I've been running a 18-6 light cycle.
So, my plan right now is to let this feed dry out, and at next feed switch to 12-12 lighting schedule to initialize flowering. The nutrient mix is still TBD. Any and all advice is totally welcome! I've been on the site for only a week or so but have learned a ton. Thanks for looking!
