JGibs420 First Grow - LST 4ft CFL Melamine Cabinet

[JGibs420]

Strain - Unknown Bagseed
Vegged for 5 weeks
FIMed above 5th node
LST


Flowering started 12/12 on 1 May 2017
No signs of gender yet

Cabinet specs
4ft²
2 x 18watt cool white CFL (might need more? Seems okay though?)
Negative ion generator

This is my first grow and I was silly enough to plant 2 plants in 1 pot..
They don't seem root bound though.. so I guess it's okay

Pics to follow

 

[JGibs420]

 

[JGibs420]

PLEASE DISREGARD THE FIRST 2 POSTS AS INFORMATION WAS WRONGLY SUPPLIED FROM MY SIDE

Strain - Unknown Bagseed
Vegged for +-5 weeks
FIMed above 5th node
LST has been done
Temperature ranges from 50F - 80F depending on lights on/off
Haven't been feeding any Nutes except for some fertilizer

Flowering started early June 2017
No signs of gender yet

Cabinet specs
4ft²
Around 8000 lumens right now
Will be switching all my small 12w CFLs with 20-23w CFLs soon

This is my first grow and I was silly enough to plant 2 plants in 1 pot in the beginning..
They got Root rot as far as I can see but they're recovering slowly


Okay so I decided to get my Journal back on track and here's what's been happening since I first planted up until today.

1st of May I turned my old broken air cooler into a sort of stealthy vegetation box.
Had 7 germinated seeds, but in the end only 4 of them survived (negligent handling from my part... dropped a few, stepped on one... I wasn't paying attention where I put them)
Grew with only cheap Chinese LED strips for probably the first 2-3 weeks and had 1 extraction PC fan.

On the 6th of May I transplanted the 4 sprouts to 2x rectangular tupperware containers I put a few drainage holes in.
I figured putting 2 plants in a small pot would be fine... (it really isn't)
And also, I learned now that putting them into clear containers were actually damaging the roots as they don't like light all that much.
But even with all this they somehow grew healthy-ish with just LED strip lights.

Around the 20th I added 2x 12watt CFL bulbs dangling in the middle, seemed necesarry (and it was).
They started growing a bit better and faster and on the 26th I FIMed all 4 of them above the 5th node as I recall.

I moved them to a new home, the air cooler was getting a bit small, so I moved all the electronics out and put it in the new melamine cabinet.
At this stage it was only 2x 12w CFL bulbs in the cab... not enough light at all!
Also did some amateur LST, nearly snapped my stems!

***For my next grow I'll be using the bottom part of the cabinet for Vegging, and the Top part for Flowering (once I get the funds to fully set up a nice grow system)

Noticed my plants were getting a bit discolored (started my flowering beginning of June, which was too early) and decided to add a bit more light.
So I installed an Energy saver CFL floodlight with 2x 23w CFL bulbs 1500 lumens each along with the 2x 12w CFLs.
Adjusted my LST on the plants a bit, they seemed happier afterwards.

These are just some changes I've made to the melamine cab over the past days to better suit my needs for lighting and air flow (extraction fan is behind the CFL floodlight)
Temperatures are ranging from 50-80F depending on lights on/off.

Plants continued discoloring on the new growth
Grew much slower than usual
One of the plants started wilting over night
At this stage I was about almost 2 weeks into flowering (still way to early I now realize)
I thought it could be possible wind burn because I had the 2x pc fans blowing directly on my plants.. turns out it wasn't.

ROOT ROT?!
Found the culprit a day later on my clear tupperware containers
Mold formation because of bad drainage and I'm guessing the transparrant pots
As well as 2 plants being in 1 pot probably made some issues as well..

Transplanted all of them into any other pot/container I could find on hand ASAP in effort to save them from the possible root rot.
They experienced some heavy transplant shock, especially after having to pull the roots apart when seperating them from eachother.

Found a few damaged leaves, with all the moving around and rushing I'm not sure if these are insects, nutrient deficiency or just damage from the transplants.
Color seems to be returning to normal slightly a few hours later and they haven't died so I was very happy.



And here we are today 15/06/2017

LST shot, it seems to be getting healthy on the lower growth
Although growth is still slow right now.

Wilting has stopped as far as I can tell and one of the plants seem to have recovered quite well.
Plant on the left still struggling to recover, but doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

And then just a top view of all 4 of them

 

[Weezze]

Great that you find your problem!!

 

[JGibs420]

They still seem droopy, but they don't look like they're dieing at least.

On the plus side, I believe these are pistils? Correct me if I'm wrong?
Unfortunately they are on the most wilted plant...

 

[JGibs420]

Slightly disappointed in myself; I forgot to turn off the lights yesterday.. was in a hurry and timer not set up.. so basically 2 weeks into flowering 12/12 schedule the lights were on for 9 hours during dark time.

Probably won't be able to see the effect on them yet, hopefully they don't hermie.. keeping it in 27h darkness for now in order to continue the original light cycle.

They are less droopy after the long light exposure, which is kind of a good thing in that..

I'm pretty sure all 4 of them are female, pistils have been showing up..

Rethinking the whole 4 plant situation though, don't think (actually I'm pretty sure) my space and wattage are enough to sustain all of them.
So if any of them turn out to be hermie, I'll most probably remove them.

Will post pics and updates soon.

 

[JGibs420]

UPDATED LIGHTS

CFL Bulb specifications:
4000K cool white
6x 23 watt (@1400 lumens each)
2x 12w (@600 lumens each)

Total wattage: 162
Total Lumens: 9600
Per ft² : 40w and 2400lm

Below just the updated lights, couldn't find the spirals in 23w so got the linear ones, just as well they fit over the plants pretty decently. As far as I could gather from forums they put out more lumens per watt, are cheaper and only real downfall is physical size which isn't a big issue in the box right now.

Found male sacks on one of my babies, they were still small and appeared practically over night. Swiftly removed from the cabinet and dealt with quietly. Won't be hearing from him any time soon.

The rest of them have gained pistils on nearly all colas so far which makes me really happy, hopefully they fill up nice and fat.

Most of the droopy wilty leaves have recovered, all in all they looking much healthier than a few days ago after the root rot. Mixed some hydrogen peroxide with my water when I discovered the rot and it seems to have helped quite a bit.
Also adjusted the LST on them as necessary. Haven't installed the negative ion generator yet after the whole timer/control panel broke other day, so better get that sorted before smell becomes an issue.
Also installed a mount for my old cellphone which I'll be using to record time lapse footage of the growth during lights on.
You'll also notice my method of adjustable lights on each side,make use of what you have!

 

[JGibs420]

Approximately 25 days into flowering light schedule and about 11 days since first spotting pistels, so almost 2 weeks of flowering I guess.

My droopy plant started wilting again.. checked for root rot, didn't see any sign of mold growing, drainage is good.. figured I might be underwatering so I gave it water till I had decent runoff amount. Few hours later it's less droopy but not completely healthy yet.. it's struggling.
This is what it looked like before watering.

When I got home though I noticed some really nice growths on my sickly baby though.

And a close up shot of the best one so far. Hoping this looks good.. not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be expecting, but I guess something is happening..!

 

[Canresearcher]

The picture with the green "mould" is actually a form of green algae which indicates a lack of drainage or stagnation is occurring in the medium/ along the sides of the container.
You might need to find a more porous container to prevent this.

None the less you have found the result of the issue which is the algae. Air circulation is key to preventing this. This is one of the reasons I use porous bags to grow in instead of plastic pots.

 

[JGibs420]

The picture with the green "mould" is actually a form of green algae which indicates a lack of drainage or stagnation is occurring in the medium/ along the sides of the container.
You might need to find a more porous container to prevent this.

None the less you have found the result of the issue which is the algae. Air circulation is key to preventing this. This is one of the reasons I use porous bags to grow in instead of plastic pots.

Yeah I figured that much, thanks for the reply. I have in the meantime gotten rid of my plastic see through pots and haven't had an issue with the algae again, on my next grow I'll try a porous bag as you suggested, might be worth a look into.



The droopy Mrs MaryJane is looking much more perky today, but why is she drinking so much more water than the other two ladies? She dries up nearly twice as fast.

 

[JGibs420]

Four weeks of 12/12 completed, flowering is coming along nicely, hoping to see them fatten up over tbe next few weeks. Still not really getting buds yet, just a lot of pistils, some of which are almost 2 inches long and a few started browning already

I should be ready to harvest in just over a month or so? Early to mid August?

They're all pretty healthy looking, except for the one mrs that always seems to be slightly droopy except an hour or two after she's watered. She's growing the most pistils at the moment though which is a bit strange to me. You'll see on the images below some of the leaves are really curled in especially around the budsites. But this is only happening on the perma-droop plant.

 

[JGibs420]

So it appears I have wind burn.. posts over the interwebs all point to wind burn, but it's only affecting one plant... Badly.

I've only got 4 PC fans in my cabinet,1 for fresh air in in bottom right corner (behind white pot), 1 for extracting top middle and then 2x for circulation which are mounted to the CFL floodlight casing.
I've now moved that one plant from its original position back left to the front where the fans don't blow directly. Will be keeping an eye on other 2 plants to make sure they don't suffer the same symptoms.

So far I think it's going pretty well for my first grow, considering I'm using no pH testing, not using any nutrients..
There's been a lot of mistakes, a lot of learning, but that's why I'm doing bagseed.. next grow should be much better

 

[JGibs420]

Other plants started showing the same symptoms after adjusting the fans so definitely not wind burn as suggested from one of the members here.

I've now flushed my plants with 3x pot size amount of water, hopefully if it nitrogen toxicity it'll help.

Guess I should get myself a soil ph testing kit, I don't use nutes though so no idea how that happened. Used some fertilizer early on in veg but haven't added in a month since I started flowering.

Will see how this affects them.

 

[JGibs420]

It's been more than a day since I flushed the plants... Unfortunately I only bought a pH and moisture tester yesterday so I have no idea what the pH was before the flush..

But I've tested last night and it was on 5.5, moisture was limited at 10 (wet at roots 10/10 highest it could go)
This morning before lights off I checked again and pH was just below 6, moisture was on 8 (still being wet, below 4 would be drying out)

Also.. I did something stupid (maybe)..defoliation, on sick plants.. again! Hope I'm not killing them or reducing yields...

Will post results when lights come on later

 

[JGibs420]

They actually seem to be doing a lot better now, they're slightly less curled but I don't think those leaves will ever fully recover.
So after flushing I bought the pH and moisture tester, here's what it's at now.

After defoliation this is what they look like

pH result shows 6.5 (was below 5.5 right after flush)

Moisture levels were at 10 after flush (obviously I guess) now it's moist, meaning drainage is probably okay

Then just some bud photos.. I feel like they're not getting bigger/fatter... Maybe I just need patience bit pistils are starting to turn brown..

 

[JGibs420]

Flushed again last night, it will be the last time untill the pH drops below 6 again. Moisture level showed 2 before the flush so they're using the water quickly.

Right now pH is about 6,7 and soil is wet, got the fans on to help dry out the top soil quicker.

 

[JGibs420]

Ms. Droopy is drooping a bit again, but I honestly think she might be a tad over watered (aside from the already curling leaves from the toxicity).

I also changed out the bulbs last night. Instead of 4000K I replaced a few of those bulbs with 2700K, so it's more warm white than others to promote bud growth? I don't know we'll see if it actually works.

 

[JGibs420]

Just got back to check on my babies, they're all looking pretty healthy today.
Even Ms. droopy seems perkier than usual. I'm tempted to flush again but I'm pretty sure that'll do more harm than good.

The defoliation seems to have opened up my plants a lot, the buds are receiving much more light and I see some frosty bits forming on the leaves.

The plant that was a bit behind the other two actually looks like it might have the best buds in the end.. and Ms. droopy who used to be in the lead seems to not be fattening up that much...

I'm really not expecting much from this grow, this is mainly for me to learn from mistakes, but I'm actually surprised at the outcome so far seeing as I used seeds from really really really.... Really... terrible weed. Cheapest stuff on the market.

 

[MrJojo]

It's my first grow too and I'm also using cheap bagseeds figured it was a good way to learn before I spend money on good seeds.
I see you changed out some 4000k bulbs I read in another journal that in flowering (especially with cfls) you need all the light you can get no matter the colour temp to increase bud production, maybe have a look into that.

 

[JGibs420]

Yes agree on the "all the light you can get" I did however change the 4000K for 2700K lights but the lumens remain the same, same wattage lights. But I think I might need more light.

I am currently renovating my grow cab to have a veg and flowering partition, at the same time I'm adding more light to my flowering cab.