First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

[knighthawktfc]

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First Timer - Soil - 600wLED - WhiteWidow & Candy Cane Autos -2x4x7 tent

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

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[knighthawktfc]

Hi, So I'm not exactly sure how best to organize this first post, been years since I've been lurking in these forums. Finally I've decided to do my own grow, please wish me luck, I'm going to need it. I'm going to use this first post to lay out.

I - What I'm Growing
II - What I have (equipment\stats\etc), the setup, and goals.
III - The Plan - At least as far as I'm thinking at the moment.
IV - What I've done thus far.


I - What I'm Growing

From the following seeds available:
White Widow Max Auto Fem
White LSD Auto Fem
AK47 Auto fem
Big Bud Auto Fem
White Widow Auto Fem
Candy Cane Auto Fem
Lemon Skunk Fem
BlueBerry Widow fem
PineApple Kush fem
Aurora Indica (regular non-fem)
Caramelicious Fem

I have chosen:

Stain Name	Candy Cane	White Widow
Type	Auto Fem	Auto Fem
Difficulty	Easy - Moderate	Easy
%Ind\Sat	60% Ind/ 30% Sat/ 10% Rud	60% Ind/ 30% Sat/ 10% Rud
Flowing Time	7 Weeks	8 Weeks
Genetics	AK47 X Mango X White Widow	Original White Widow
Supposed THC	17.8% thc - long lasting body buzz	21.1% thc - knock you down
Supposed yield	200gm 2^m inside	250gm 2^m inside

White Widow Auto Fem, and Candy Cane Auto Fem - The reason is two fold, first they were technically the first to arrive (beat the other order by a couple days), but mostly because they are both supposedly relatively short (100cm top range), and both are advertised to finish in about 8 weeks. I ain't smoked in years and daddy is what's his smoke! Most of all though is it's my first grow and light and setup wise the auto's make me not have to be super paranoid about light\light leak issues, and I hopefully get 2 different type of smoke, ideally finishing close together.


II - A) The Setup

The core gear is as follows:
2'x4'x6'10" GG tent
2 x #5 5-gallon pots
600w (320 from wall) LED
Hurricane 171cfm 4" inline fan.
Phresh 4"x12" 200cfm active carbon filter
4" 25ft ducting
3x temp\humidity monitors
2 UPS systems (1500w\800w and 1350w\750w)
Method-7 led glasses
2x clip on fans (20 or so watts each)
GFCI plug thingy
Ideal - Fan speed controller
tds meter
PH meter (on order)
PH testing kit - crappy shake and compare to chart kind.
PH Up\Down.


Nutes available:
Technoflora Starter Kit: bc-grow,bc-boost,bc-bloom,sugardaddy,root66,thrive-alive,thrive-alive-green, awesome-blossoms,magi-cal,root-gel.

Pest control on hand:
15 or so yellow sticky traps
D-earth + applicator
Insecticidal soap spray
Neem extract
SM-90

Other:
Solo Pressure Sprayer bottle.
Random - squeeze sprayer.
4x 5 gallon #5 pots
small rocks for top of pots (less then dime in size)
larger rocks for bottom of pots (quarter or larger in size)
bag of pipe cleaner fussy things (not actual pipe cleaners these are little softer and little less stiff)
2 shitty green-stick-pol moisture + ph probes. (10-15$ type)

Water Available:
Tap water (45 tds)
Brita'd water (near zero tds)
Distilled water: 1gallon jugs from wallyworld
RO water: 1gallon jugs from wallyworld
Do not have real interest in installing RO system for home.
1 gallon - de-ionized lab water for 'calibrating digital ph meter'

Other\Backup:
VS VDR-450 (~190w wall) w/ dimmers.

Soils available:
Fox Farms - Ocean Forest (2 big bags)
Fox Farms - Happy Fog Potting Soil (1 big bag)
Miracle Grow - Perlite (medium bag)

The Mix:
Roughly 80% FF-OF, 10% FF-HF, 10% - extra perlite.

The Environment:
A bedroom used as my computer room. The tent will ideally sit in here. The room has a window AC unit that augments this room in addition to house HVAC due mainly because of extra heat from computers. I keep this room in the 74-76 range from May though October. The door from this room to the rest of the house is and will remain open about 90% of the time, helps regulate my upstairs house temps as well a bit, long story short I have one house hvac and it's controls are down stairs so 74 down stairs is always 75-76 upstairs. Humidity in general in the outside room is around 35-45% depending on time of day and weather, rarely does it hit 50% or below 30%.


Gear pics:


II - B) The Goal, My Skills, Knowledge, Etc.

The goal is quite simple, grow me some smoke, 100% personal use.

It's always something I wanted to do, not one of those have-to-do's but it's been a buck-list thing for awhile. My late buddy and I always talked about me doing this, so it's about time I did. Plus I've not smoked since shortly after he died about 3 years ago, he was my remote toking buddy and it just never been the same since. Eh enough about all that, nobody cares, lets get down to business.

Goal:
Produce 4oz (or more) of dry smoke from these 2 plants. I will consider 3.5 or higher a win however, and anything over 4.5 dry a great success. I'm thinking these are ballpark realistic goals, given first grown and the strains involved, but if not feel free to please let me know.

Skills:
I'm a total f'ing noob. That said years ago I lurked in these forms for years, and accumulated much info up in the old noggin, however most of it's faded with time. I'm just gonna have to do my best with what I got and hopefully a couple nice folks here will throw me a life-line if I get into trouble.

Etc:
I would have loved to have tried 3 plants, or 4 and a bigger tent, but I'm the logistics of my town-home are such that pretty much prevent it, and nearly prevent it in any room beyond my computer room, plus reading around tells me that while technically I could probably do 3, given it's my first grow I should stick to 2 . To keep it short logistics are dictating that I have only about 10amps to spare for the grow (not counting the ac). This should be fine give the LED lighting.

I have a cat, while he doesn't hang out in the computer room too much, he will occasionally be in there, I know I'm supposed to keep him out completely but that's just not going to happen. He's 90% indoor, the 10% outdoor is in the spring\summer\fall for an hour around dinner and is generally supervised, and bug\brush most days (though not every) upon coming in.

Also, I smoke cigs in the same room as this tent, I have ionic breeze to capture some of it...but how bad is that? It's not going to not happen, I'm just asking, I could lessen it a little but only a little due to logistics. I'm gussing I'm just going to wear out my carbon filter in one or two grow cycles instead of 6-8.<br>
I can't really control the humidity in the tent.

III - The Plan

The Tent:
Set it up in this corner I have for it, put the filter and van connected to one another inside and directly venting via a few feet of 4" ducting out the top left. Draw air in from bottom right side via natural pressure, there are two vents there one large 8", one 3". Hang the led lights via the hanger things I have and maybe offcenter it slightly to the right (since only 2 plants), left a little room the left for idk..something I might have to stick or store there. I'm not going to setup the trelis nets I have for this tent during week one, I don't want to start zip tying crap till I've dialed in other things. I know this may cause me bigger pain later but that's ok.

I hope this fan isn't as loud as I think it will be. I will have the fan, and maybe one of the smaller circulating fans attached to one UPS, and the lighting and another circulating fan connected to a second UPS. I get power outages from time to time, but rarely do they last more then a few minutes.

Lighting:
Will use the 600w, pulls about 320 from the wall which should be fine. If something breaks in the middle of the grow with the light, I have the VDR-450 as a back-up light, frankly the k3-600 strikes me as the far better product but given I have only have the 2 plants this time I think if something really goes wrong the 450 can finish the job. I'm considering actually maybe using it in-addition to the primary if 1/2 way through the grow I don't have temp problems, and I have the wattage to spare. However I think the 600 is actually slightly overkill as it is, but maybe not toward mid-cycle or the end.

I'm planning on doing 24hr till seed breaks soil and losses it's hood, then maybe 3-4 days after going to 20-4 and staying on that for weeks, I may eventually dip to 18-6, but if I do that will probably be power-bill or burn or heat related decision. They are auto's as far as I've read... they'll take the 24x7 if I give it to them, but I do feel like giving them a little bit of break is the way to go, it also gives me a window to screw with the tent, or do whatever I may need to do without having to have the lights on during that period. I'll aim for that period to be around the hottest part of the days here, so saves me a little on the AC. Bottom line I'll play it by ear but outside of the first week I'm thinking 20-4 as happy place.

Germination:
12-18hr in distilled water x2 glasses, 1 seed in each, followed by "moist paper towel" in dark location method.
Plan to use the top of my water heater a place for the plate with the paper towels. It's mostly dark, but has vents, and probably is about 80-85F on the top of the heater. The plan to take the resulting tap roots and plant them directly into 5gallon pots when tap gets about 1/2" to 3/4" inches.

I plan to have the lights about 50" away for the first 24-72 hr in the tent after potting, once the bad boys both pop up I will lower to 40" for day or two, and then 36 for another 2-3 days, working my way down toward 24", I don't ever plan on having them closer than 20" if I can help it. MFG says 14 is min,18-26 recommended, 36 initial. I'd rather play it safe in the first 10 days, then burn my babies. I'm I wrong?

Potting:
Will be putting into 5 gallon pots filled with 75% FFOF, 15%FF-HFPS, and 10% extra perlite. Someone is bound to ask why the mix. So I read that HFPS is a little less 'hot' then FFOF, so while back when I ordered soil I included some HFPS too, I probably should KISS it on my first grow but what's done is done. The extra perlite is because I really want to make sure I have good drainage, frankly I don't like the pots I have, the way they drain, so I'm trying to compensate a little. Additionally I thinking of lining the bottom of the pots with some sanitized thumb sized rocks to also help with drainage, nothing crazy just a dozen or two to cover the bottom 1/2 inch or so.

Temperature Management:
I'd like to keep the temps inside the tent between 75F-85F when the lights are on up to about the 6' height, if it's a bit warmer at very top I should be ok right? I'm thinking this will not too much problem but we're about to find out. As for humidity, I don't think I can keep it higher than about 40-50% to start, I might try the towel in water routine to add a little to try and keep it 45-55% for first couple weeks. Have to play that one by ear.

Watering:
Initially (pre-tap-root) I will water the 5 gallons buckets with about a gallon of water and let them drain for a couple hours before moving to tent. After I plant the tap roots, I'll probably spray a little water just on that couple inch area, and just leave it till she sprouts. After sprout I'm thinking little plastic dome with a couple small holes, will spray a little distilled water in there to keep it more humid for first couple spouted days... after remove the dome and just wing it? This it the number one thing I'm paranoid about in week1 and week 2... watering.

I know, I know, if there is one thing I do remember it's don't over water your plants!<br>
So I'm going to do my best to tell myself "when in doubt - don't water", and I think I'll listen to myself...except in the first week-10 days where I'm going to be paranoid as hell.

Dry weight - roughly 10-11lbs
Soaked but drained - roughly 17-18lbs

Nutes:
Honestly I have no idea. In theory with 8-10 weeks total, do I really need to worry about nutes?

Don't get me wrong I'm all for it, but I'm also paranoid as all hell about using them, especially early and with the plant that isn't clearly going to be in a particular well known state being auto and all. My tenative plan here is ZERO nutes (unless a serious problem comes up) for 3-4 weeks, or perhaps till flower begins. Then 1 feeding of 25% strength (followed by none for next 2 watering, followed by another dose at maybe 25% strength,none,none.. then 50%,none,none,..rinse and repeat)

The mixture based on what I have on hand will be a combo of BC Boost,BCGrow,Thrive-Alive-b1-Red,magical and sugar daddy (flower or veg amounts differ obviously). As for final pre-flush feeding magical and sugar daddy.

Topping:
I do not plan to top these Auto's. I know technically you can, I know people say you shouldn't top auto's and other say you can do it without problems if certain stains. It's my first grow, I'm not going to push my luck.

LST'ing: Yes I will be attempting this. I have no idea really when to start it but, I'm not even thinking about it till week 3... when I'll return research about it, or till I can post pics of my babies here and people are like "yo brah those babies are ready to be pipe cleaned!".

Pests:
Hopefully I don't get any. But I'm almost planning for some sort of problem in this area though I pray it doesn't happen. First line of defense is I'm gonna set up those dinky yellow traps from day one...or at least day 3-4. Day 1 though, I'm dusting the top of my pots just before putting taproot in with diatomaceous earth, in theory this should cut the skins of most new critters that try to get in or out for that matter of my soil. If anything beyond some annoying flys or some such show up, like the dreded bug that shall not be named. I've neem oil, insecticidal soap, and shit gets bad I have some sm-90 available. I hope none of that stuff is ever needed and it was all just "wasted" money, but better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it handy. Even amazon doesn't ship fast enough when it come to stopping infestations.

Power:
Have two UPS's (outside tent) throwing power to the rest of everything else that is inside. The idea is have the 320watt (wall pull) LED, small fan, and little utility light on a 1500\825usable one, and the hurrican fan, small fan, and maybe some other minor thing on the other, which is s 1325\750usable one. The idea here is that during any outage lasting more than say 5-6 minutes... the LED ups will run out, and 2-3(or more) minutes later the exhaust fan will die. The idea being this should give a least some chance to dissipate the resident heat at the top. It's probably still going to be a bit of an issue if I have a prolonged outage, but hopefully the more typical 5-15minute outages will be covered. What if long outage... well, open the tent if I'm home for air and just deal with it and the smell, thankfully this grow is auto's, and while I'll bet it still fucks with them a little... in theory I shouldn't lose but a day for them to get into the groove again. Or will I??

[This more a note to self then info anyone needs]
Amps: I have a save 10 I can use on this 15amp circuit. I will spare you the long version, the short version is entire grow is powered off of an 12awg extension from another room. That room\circuit other than I room and a nearby hall light that is almost never on is not used by anything. Said 50ft ext. was already running into this room because of computer gear, technically I didn't have too but existing room is 1 15amp, and the AC + computer gear + overhead light was making it run right on the border (14amps), I didn't like that so I did the extension to take 1amp off that load bringing it down to 12-13 range, a safer place for consistent load.

So anyway given the extension length itself(and some out of the ups too) + 1amp overhead for the 1 existing ups for minor electronics, and the room light on the circuit, some safety margin and little room for some other random temp electronic added (batter charger), that leaves me with about 10amps for the grow ups, or roughly 1000watts (technically it's little more but call that extra margin burned up by UPS itself).

Fat Extension (in theory total: 750w\7amps):
---&gt; 14awg ext - original 1500 ups. (apc - old school) : 90-200 watts
---&gt; 14awg ext -new 1500ups. (cyber power - with watt display) in theory: ~375
---&gt; direct - new 1350ups. (apc - with watt display) in theory: ~175

In practice atm: ~500watts and 4.2amp avg (keep in mind built in margins above)
Looks like if I wanted to add the second light (~200) and maybe second fan (~125) I could.

Record Keeping:
I hate this part but it's a must I think, especially on my first grow.
So I'm planning to keep a spreadsheet that will basically contain:

When I water, what type of water was it, what was the ph-in, what was the amount watered, was there notable run off, if so what was ph, what nutes were used if any.

Daily (or upon every check) -Temp and Humidty at time of check, + 24hr min\max temps. Approximate height of top of each plant from pot rim. Notes about any observations, dis-coloring, leaf curling etc. Notes about any changes made that day to the room, the lights, airflow,etc.

Direct changes made to the plant if anything, such as LSTing activities.

IV - What I've done thus far

Tent and related
All assembled in place, power strip run into it that is backed to a separate gfci connector before ups. need another extention for the strip I was going to put on the other side, god damn belkin power cord is like a foot shorter then needed, why do companies not to 8ft vs. 6ft. grrr.

-Man in this 2x4x7 cramped for space.. I really should have used the extra 1' extention with the tent, I knew that but to do that means top would literally would be touching\rubbing my ceiling and I don't think that's a good thing. Again logistics dictate I use this room, else have possible temp control issues. Anyway that extra foot would make all the different in trying to keep exhaust fan and filter at least out of the way more and inside the tent... I'm gonna be fine for lst'd 'autos' but I think some of the Kush seeds I have are going to require a total re-think, but that's for another time.

-Basically I mounted the filter even with the top of tent on the left side basically as close as I could to having it meet up with the 8" exhaust tent exit. It's a 4" so obviously I have the extra material's pull stringy things pulled tight. I must say GG tents are pretty well thought out even if I have some pet-peeves already.

-I ended up NOT MOUNTING the exhaust fan to the filter itself and inside the tent. I may go back and change that, but for now it's sitting outside in a nearby closet that helps mask a little bit of the noise. The flexible ducting fit the fan perfectly, it did not fit the filter however as the filter housing is decent bit bigger. I'm going to assume it's built in a way that the most common way people do this is filter-&gt;fan&gt;ducting, and that they designed for the biggest use case and that's why it was off by a 1/8th or 1/4 inch. Anyway some snipping of the flex vent itself, and some aluminum ducking tape for plugging the 'gap\tear' and it came together. I have 25' of this flexible vent stuff... I did not cut it down to size yet, though I'm keeping it shrunk as possible for the 10 or so feet I actually need atm. Why do that? Well because my seeds were past the point of read and I need to get going...and work about adjustments later, plus I figured better not to cut yet, may need more length later if I re-design. Anyway filter-&gt;vent&gt;~10ft&gt;hurricane, yeah there are a couple 45 and 70-80 degree turns... can't do too much about that atm.

-Fan... This mother fker is loud, i don't care what people say, and 'low speed' on the fan controller is really like maybe 1db max 2db less loud. Two reasons I didn't mount it inside the tent. First is space, I mean I could sort of do it, but damn it would be a tight fit, and it would also then require a full 90 turn when exiting tent due to nature of where it is. Second is noise, I figured if I had it 'outside' I might be able to Jerry-rig more of a solution for lowering the noise either asap or eventually. I think I have a bit of problem though in making this decision.

The fan I have in 171cfm..that's enough for the 2x4x6 tent... but only just. Add in the carbon filter dust cover and in theory it's only able to pull in about 140, which is seemingly ok atm (barely) - but to get this I need max-speed setting (more noise). I also think due to 'vent' setup the fan might loose a little less "pull" when directly attached to the filter.

To Do: Refactor Fan situation in next 10 days. Don't want to be mounting hardware in the tent after my babies are more than and inch or two.

Circulation fans
... So I mounted one on the front left tent pole, chest high pointed diagonal toward middle\back and one on the right side down low at the fresh air air-intake portal. I quickly found that "Active-Air" clip fans, are made much better then the POS second one ("mainstay") I bought at walmart. Basically the clips on the second don't have good grips for a slick\glossy pole, I tried some interim hot fixes but none really worked, so atm fker is staying mostly in place via some shenanigans I did with the power cord, this is not permanent thing. Anyway it is helping to 'suck' air in. Which is good because without the natural airflow is not enough to keep temps reasonable, in fact I got pretty scared for bit till I first noticed the fan had fallen out of place.

Power
... Good news is everything going smoothly thus far, in fact a little better than expected, we're really only drawing about 4\4.1amps for our setup. (I have a watt\amp meter on the master extension cord to the other room). What this tells me is if I some how want to throw some more light in there, or additional hurricane (how could I take the noise of 2?), or both..with-in reason I have 3 amps at a minimum to burn without even thinking twice - beyond the power bill of course.

Temps
Before putting the pots in.. I ran everything for about 3hrs with fan on low-med (first 2 hours at low, then 1 hour at med), that was to test sound and temp different. I have 3 thermometers in there, one clipped on the ceiling, one velco'd to right wall, just above the 'pouch' at about 5ft'ish, and one on the floor.

Hour1-2 [led light + low fan + circulars going]
The top of the light runs about 92-95F
Chest high a little below the light over on the wall was reading 86-87 degrees.
after this I re-opened a small 3" vent on the right side I had originally closed hoping the large 8" (but about 4-5" usable) vent would pull all the air needed, after opening that little guy temps dropped about 1/2 a degree staying in the high 85 to 86 range, no more 87. This to me for 4-5ft high was way too high, I had been hoping for like 79-80 up there and &lt; 78 below, and no more than say 85'ish way up top.

Hour3-4 [led + med fan + circulars going + adjusted right fan toward 'intake' vent]
The top of the light ran about 91-94F
Chest high came down slightly to 84.5 and didn't flux much.
Floor was about 80.
Better but not much, and definitely not where I want things.

Hour4-6[led + high fan + circulars..etc + POTS in room]
top: 86
middle: 82.8-84.1
floor: 79
This is still not where I want things, but it's workable and has me less concerned, I'm hoping it's the fan and the minor intake tweaks that are the cause of the drop and not the soaked pots that are in there. Humidity has been fairly stable the whole time between 50-58%.

Germination:
So I started this on the 23rd few days ago around 2am..dropped the two seeds into distilled water in clean bar glasses, labeled with piece of tape cause you darn well know I'd forget which one is which with out that. One guy dropped to bottom after 5 minutes and one light touch, the next guy floated after some dunking for 12 more hours before I dunked him again and he went to the bottom. At the 18hr mark of about 8-9pm on the 23rd, I move them each to their own plate and own dual paper towel setup. I used different types of plates to keep track of who was who... candy cane got he plate with the stripe. I did the moist and fold thing and put them on top of my water heater. Now my heater is in a little cupboard but it has vents, and it also since it's gas has a vent in there up to the roof, so I knew there was at least some air flow. Additionally to make even darker in there, particularly for when day light arrived, I taped a black trash bag over the door vents for the upper 1/3rd, and then to compensate there is a near by floor fan I have that I adjust to send just a little over toward the edge of the vents. I didn't want a breeze (it would dry out the towels too fast), just enough to ensure some air movement.


I checked on them around 2am, they probably didn't need it but I misted them again pretty good anyway cause I was going to sleep. I checked them around 8am, they were not dry, but if I had waited 2 hours more I think they would have been. I opened each up, misted up a storm with the SOLO, closed'em and then misted the outsides good (borderline probably too much). I checked again around noon, they needed misting, like last time I decided to open them up and check. BOOM -Tap nub on the candy cane! Nothing on the Widow yet. I checked around 4pm before going out to do shopping...ekk nearly dry... another 30 minutes and it would be bad. Never the less as I opened the White Widow BOOM - tap nub, and CCane had 1/4inch. I misted up a storm and went to the store... among other things I needed more distilled water, cause I thought I'd have another day before planting these beans but it was clearly not to be. Came home around 7pm. moist but needed misting. When I checked WW had caught up and was at 1/4in maybe more and CCane was definitely at 1/2". Wow... I need to my pots ready!




The soil mix
I'd already premixed stuff earlier in the day in plastic tub I'd first cleaned with diluted bleach. Basically for every 8-10 cups of FFOceanForest, I threw in 2cups of FF-HappyFog potting soil, and 11/2 cups MG-perlite. I'd rather have great drainage and more airflow then shitty drainage or root rot.

The pots...

I don't know why but I had left this to last minute thinking I had another day...maybe even more.

So first I drilled extra drainage holes in these bad boys, the 8 they had were big (nickle size) but the layout was such that it left pocks between stub legs where water would get trapped, as well is in the middle. So I added some extra holes in said spots, very small, 1/2 a pencil width. Additionally just about the bottom rim I added some of the same. Also drilled same size holes for pipe-cleaner-lst materials in the top inch or so of the pots.

Then I added these larger rocks to the very bottom of the pots, 1 thin layer each around the edges, with some smaller ones (separate type of stones) in the middle area. Note these stones were all bleached and then watched prior to placement. Then I added a very thin layer of perlite over the top of the stones, did not entirely 'cover' then, more to help fill in the spaces a tad. In retrospect this whole thins is probably something I should not have done, or bothered doing since I had already added extra to the soil.

Anyway I filled the pot purposely to top with the soil, or about where holes for lst were.... and then I watered each with about a gallon of water. I could have used less but I didn't wait long enough before each small pour for run off, else I probably could have only used 1/2 gallon each, but truth was I wanted decent amount of run-off to easily test. Anyway this was all with distilled water, no ph'ing. The exit run off as best I could tell was in the 6.5-6.9 range based on color chart (digital meter is shipping but has not arrived yet). After some of the expected compacting I topped of each pot with about another inch of just straight FFOF, gave the tops another little bit of drink and waited about 30 minutes for all the run off. There was some, and actually when I tilted the pot quite a bit more was still in there on each, enough to thinly coat the whole saucer. Drainage problem already I thought?? Then I calmed myself saying...dude you flooded'em this first time what did you expect?

Oh I weighed one dry before watering, and then once again about 30min after drainage.
~10lbs vs 17lbs wet.



Planting
It was then about 9-10pm... The tent has been burning-in for about 3hours at this point. I checked on the seeds again, they were about ready for another moist, so I actually gave them a tiny spray each before picking them up with tweezers. Mr.Cane was way-way ready, definitely 3/4", if you counted the head and stretched out the curl it was probably 1". Mr. Widow was ready, 3/4, tiny bit smaller than the Cane" This it the point I remembered to take pictures.... whoa almost forgot. I poked a hole about an inch deep, and then filled it in just slightly so I had about 3/4", and placed each sucker in root down, seed head up, covered with ever so slight amount of soil. I would say it was borderline 1/4" inch, was just enough so I couldn't see it anymore and light was likely blocked.


I moved the pots into the tent. Tweaked the intake-lets a hair as well as right in-take cir-fan to point more toward flood and less 'across the pot tops'... for now, last think I want is my little guys blown over before they even have a stem to strengthen. If and when these two pop-up, my plan it to immediately mist 2 thin plastic domes I picked up at THD garden area...they're like the tops to a cake tray or something... use them as humidity domes for first couple days is my thought and also will block wind. Do i need to? I was thinking also to poke 4-5 tiny fork like holes in them, so there was some air flow, just not much. Is this stupid?



Anyway as I write this there was just a noise from inside the tent... what do you know the velco for the main\middle temp isn't sticking to the tent wall as good as it should. I reattached but it feel again 15min later.

Fk'it.. I busted out some gorilla glue...seemed fitting given the tent brand and reattached. I'll wait about an hour or so and put the meter back on the wall, for now it's in the little built in pouch about a foot lower than before.

Readings: (4ft):84F 49% humidity. (1ft): 79F 50% (6'10):87F
Light height from top of pots: ~52"
Observations: I can see areas around the plantings that I didn't mist down just before planting seed look way drier than outer rings. Makes sense, and with humidity down from mid-fifties temps are climbing a little, grr.

I may try a bowl of water in there with paper towel hanging out to maybe see if I can't get 55%, which is probably about the best I'm going to be able to get.

Best 70$ I spent for this setup that I almost didn't think was worth it but turns out was a MUST HAVE: Magic-7 LED Eyewear


Thoughts, questions, anwser to my ramblings, I'm all ears.
...now to figure out how to put some pics in here (give me a few minutes), hit post, and take a nap.

Sorry about the top post getting all screwed up, something happened with the editor and could not re-edit in wysi

 

[knighthawktfc]

6/26 - am


So yesterday I added a bowl and towel to try and get humidity to stay in the 40's..
It's been in that range 40-45% at the bottom and middle areas of tent for last 12hr.
Also temps came down a little, didn't want to but opened a back vent 1/2 way (I may cover it back up today as test). In addition I bumped the temp in the room down a degree to 74. Frankly while I probably go one more down, I don't want too if don't have to, makes room too cold for me...and as previously noted some will get lost to the rest of the house. Running 89 exiting the led(fans), 82-83 up top of tent, 80-81 at bottom\pot height, and about the same a few feet up.

Anyway after doing those tweaks I did the finger test on the soil along the edge of each pot..bone dry for 2 inches down but then gets a little moist around 3, and using hydrometer stick below that is still very most\wet. The latter of that I fully expected, I'd actually be concerned if the whole pot was suddenly dry.. bla bla..

Ok so being slightly paranoid I did mist the top soil around the seed area, not heavy, just a dusting, and it was less about the soil than the plastic dome I was going to place over, wanted there to be some top moisture. Anyway I lightly misted the domes too and placed them on top of where the seedling should be popping out.

A few hours later before bed I also lowered the light from 52" to 48" from pot height, and refilled bowl, it was already mostly gone.





About 12 hours later this morning
I went to check on my babies..
First I need to refill the water, it was mostly gone. Before even checking the plants I also added a second bowl.
Anyway there was decent condensation on Mr.Candy Cane's dome (left side), there was a little on Mrs.Widow (right), but that didn't surprise me cause that pot gets a little more wind and had little more gap at the soil base than Mr. Cane.

Anyway... Surprise! We've got Bush!... on both.

I actually could see that on Mr. Widow while adding the second bowl, but tried to contain myself. Both Mr.Cane and Mr. Bush have popped up their heads, both have lost their seed caps and ever so tiny leaves. Mr.Can frankly looks a little more healthy than Mrs.Widow, I only say that this early cause Mrs.Window doesn't seem as straight\upright yet as Mr. Cane.

My camera is sort of shit at focusing up close (I will try to do better in future - not too much to see this time), but I hope you can make them out... also shot via placing magic-7 lens in front of camera lens... which worked bit better than I expected.

Mr.Candy Cane


Mrs. White Widow


It's early so I'm not got fret about either, Cane's got the 2 main leaves + 2 really tiny other ones starting, Mr.Widow only the two main ones for now and they look sort of bad....but again they just came up, I'm not even gonna try and 'assess' them for at least another 24hr.

I misted the domes again, put the covers back on and on Mrs.Widow sort made sure there was no finger width sized gap this time at the soil level.


Before closing up the tent, I lowered the light again from 48" from pot top to 44", that was the plan so I did it. My plan is either late tonight or early tomorrow to drop to 40", and then when from there to 36" maybe a day or so after that - and hold there till I think I have healthy guys and probably at that point will also remove dome. Keeping lights at 24\0 for now, maybe 20/4 next week - or should I start giving them rest in next day or two?

Now I just hope I they both get a decent start in life and don't kill em in the next few critical days some how.

Am I wise to do this dome thing + misting the domes? Opinions?
My thoughts are 3 fold, a) I see people do it.. b) since humidity is so low in tent I think I really do need it at least for first 5-7 days, and c) There is a lot of wind in the tent at the moment, and given the temp issues I can't really change that too much and I figure for first 5-7 days having a wind break is probably smart so that they don't get pushed over or bent.

I'm pretty happy at the moment I wasn't expecting them to pop up till maybe very late tonight or even tomorrow at earliest.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

So morning of day 2

Both my babies are now an inch high.

From the side pics:
candy 1st, ww second:



Now for the top view (cc\ww):





Still using plastic domes over them. Figure I will stop that around friday or this weekend.
Every couple hours when I can I pop in the tent, remove the dome for 2-3 minutes and put them back.

Temps are still not ideal, and low humidity is still a problem... the wet bowls\towels thing is apparently not helping very much, I'm lucky if it's 40 above the pots. 85 light exhaust and 82-84 (mostly 84 avg) at plant height give or take an inch.

Last night around 7pm I lowered the light from 40" to 36", I'm thinking of leaving there for 2-3 days till weekend and then going to 30". Should my plants already be 1" high... not worried yet but if they are 2" tomorrow then I'm definitely dropping the light quicker than planned.

I did not mist the domes.
To try to keep temps a little lower I screwed around with some things yesterday, added some ducting from near my room ac unit with a fan in front of it routed into the intake vent (in addition to the fan positioned there inside sucking air. It helped just a little (at least while the ac is blowing cold), and by little I mean pot level is 82 vs 84.

This morning I decided to try moving the hurricane 171 fan from the nearby closet into the grow room, and reconfigured things...man what a pain, also cut 1/3rd the ducting of the 25' off that I 80% sure I was never going to need. Anyway it's now 200cfm carbon filter ->fan->15' of ducting. My reason for trying this was 3 fold.
1) The noise was getting to me an I wanted to see if inside the tent made any difference.

2) I'm 80% sure my fan is not pulling anywhere near 171 through the filter and ducting as it was. I mean I read that a 171 should be enough for up to 1000 watt grow give or take, certainly it should do for my 600? I think it's losing more than the supposed 15-20% from the filter(and prefilter).

3) The ducting was way longer than needed and bends aside I know that 'squishing the unused part does make the passage way a little smaller and I though maybe was adding some resistance. Given I need every bit of suction possible I figured shorten it by 10 or so feet and expand it to full size for the most part. Use the new extra piece of ducting to double up on the previous outside deskfan into ducting setup so that 2 are feeding the intake vent with at least a little bit of force.

The results:
Noise:
To my surprise the noise is small amount less mounted inside the tent when tent is all sealed up, not much, but 5-7%, maybe 2 db less, or maybe it's just my head playing games but I sense it's ever so slightly quieter. I think that small amount is less the fan, and more that the airflow is now via ducting at exit and not straight out the blower. If it were 2-3 addition less I'd stop bitching about it as it would be at the level of my window ac... but it's not.. boo hoo. But still a semi successful experiment.

Mounting) It was a fking pain and frankly it really doesn't fit in the tent in any good way unless I mount it and the filter lengthwise in the center... but I don't want it there because it would take up 14" above the light... 14" I may very well need later. The way I have it now about 10-15% of the filter surface area really can't get good airflow, if any at all because of a small angle I have to have it at if 'directly' attached (vs small amount of ducting in between filter and fan...I rejected that option for now). I really wish GG gave you 2 extra cross bars and 1 extra length wise bars... then I'd have more options. That or I'm not getting creative enough!!
Also sort of just wire-tie'ing the fuck out of it I found hanging it to be awkward as fuck.. I ended up just putting the wall mounting bars on it and using the lip on those to hang it from 2 straps I got with the tent that I'd not used yet.




As for temp\airflow improvements... we'll see. Everything combined about an hour after I let things settle tells me this was mostly all a wasted effort. Temps at pot height are still 82, temps a little higher 1' above and off to side (remote sensor) are actually lower than before by a degree or two, but have to wait till afternoon to really find out, the tent was open for hours and got down to 78 before I closed her up. Also the outer room and house is a degree cooler then usual\will be later.

So my understanding is ... assuming everything stayed <85f I would be in very high range of ok. Yeah I know, I've seen grows turn out ok with temps at 85-90... but I was really expecting never to see 85", and I'm thinking that might be true... if I didn't have the carbon filter+prefilter screen. I took off the pre-filter for like 20seconds as test, it definitely sucked a bit harder but not 'that' much harder.

Bottom line I'm about an hour away from dumping another $200 and ordering a 6" 440cfm fan, 6"-400filter, ducting and etc items.. just remove all this jerry-rigging. Figure I run the 440 on "low or medium" and probably be good to go, with room to spare, though I almost definitely will have to put the fan back outside tent again as the filter will be like 16". Then if needed I could even use the 171 to push\filter incoming air... or just set it aside as a 'backup'... which come to think of it wouldn't really be a bad idea, and something I never thought of till just now "what if my fan breaks late in bloom" eeek.

Yeah screw it I'm off to order 6" gear and once and for-all this bitch.


Oh and I sort of solved for now that issue with the one circulating (intake) fan's clip not holding the pole and slipping. 1$ fix was a 1-1/2" ducting type clamp, screwed that baby on and fan housing will slip and hit it and slip no more. That said... it's 'click' positioning isn't strong when on it's side and so doesn't like the exact position I want it in. ...sigh if it's not one tiny thing it's another, but I ain't gonna worry about it for now.

Fun times.

 

[gidoux]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Babies are looking good so far. I have grown candy cane auto on my last grow. Mine if I sit along .?

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Babies are looking good so far. I have grown candy cane auto on my last grow. Mine if I sit along .?

My first customer!

Please do, will need all the help I can get I'm sure!

 

[gidoux]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Thank you for the welcome. You mind if I show you a pic of my candy cane I grew. ?

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Thank you for the welcome. You mind if I show you a pic of my candy cane I grew. ?

Please do!
I've been actually looking for it for the last 15 minutes, did you do a journal of the grow, or just have pics?
I was catching up on on your Favorite place to be thread, working backwards,...but it's a long thread. *giggle*.
Your blueberrygum outside grow sounds like it's going to be so tasty too!

 

[gidoux]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Her she is.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Frosty, i imagine it was quite a nice smoke.
Just curious what did your experienced hand end up getting out of it weight wise when all said and done, also was that an auto or regular? I take these mfg amounts with huge gains of salt... like 50% off the top, and then I deduct some more as a noob tax... or at least that's what I'm keeping my expectations to.

 

[gidoux]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Frosty, i imagine it was quite a nice smoke.
Just curious what did your experienced hand end up getting out of it weight wise when all said and done, also was that an auto or regular? I take these mfg amounts with huge gains of salt... like 50% off the top, and then I deduct some more as a noob tax... or at least that's what I'm keeping my expectations to.

I wasn't able to smoke any, it all went to a patient. Got little over 42g dry. I only used fish water, no nutrients. The strain is Candy Cane Auto. If you want check out my current grow.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 2 (yesterday) recap
Major problem in the afternoon, I was actually in the room all afternoon and my window ac apparently could not keep up.
Which is odd given 4 servers used to run in the room years ago with no issue and they put out an equal amount if not bit more heat.
Couldn't keep the room itself below 75degrees, seemed to be I think cause the AC units built in feature of not kicking on the compressor too often.
Anyway temps down at the plant level got as high as 88 for about 30min, but were at 86 for 2-3 hours, then 84 till around 7-8pm when they dropped to 81 as the ac was then able to keep up and get the room down from 7pm onward.
Humidity went as low as 34%.

Around 10pm I added a atomizing humidifier to the room, has little over a gallon tank that I filled with about 3/4ths gallon of distilled water, expected it to be empty in 12hr it was not (was on medium setting).

I find it odd that in the first day or two all my bowls of water evaporated pretty quick about 12hr, yet in the last two days I've only had to top them up.

I ordered a bunch of stuff that will arrive later by friday:
6" 440cfm fan - vivosun
16" carbon filter (400cfm) for new fan - though not as fancy Phresh as the last one, cheaper vivosun.
6" ducting and netting\bug grills for said duct.
and another pair of hangers.

Hilariously I ordered that stuff before the afternoon heat issues, that said I still think I need it, as well needing a back-up plan if existing rig dies.

Now as for the AC, not sure what do, there are several options.

a) Make due [not an option it was only 88degrees yesterday it'll be 90+ avg in july\aug for sure], try and get the room cooler in 12am-9am period (72 vs 74) so maybe easier to maintain later in day, in afternoon go from door cracked to rest of house (74) to wide open with fan. This is short term plan for 6/28 -6/29

b) cut a 4" hole in the top of the closet that is in this room up to the attic, split the output of 6" to 2 4"'s and run one four to vent up there. Lose relatively 1/2 my air that isn't even that hot (it'll probably cool the attic a bit lol). This will generate some negative pressure in the room sucking in air from rest of house I think though, and by extension I presume pull in hot southern summer air into my house that's just going to have to be cooled itself. Doable.. but not something I really want to do.

c) Replace the now 7-10 year old 6000btu unit in the window with an 8000btu unit. The units not bad, it cools the room fine normally, and like I said at least years ago with 4 servers that were in here that I think were putting out the same'ish if not more more heat than this light. But maybe she's getting old and not working as well. Down side is I don't really have the amps to spare on that circuit 8k unit will only pull about 1\1.5more, but that'll push things toward 13-14 on the 15circuit - doable but for a near constant load not ideal.

d) Drop the light in use from the 600watt (325w real draw) down to the VS 450 (190w real draw with max dimmable settings turned up). As bad as I don't want to do this, the 450 for only the 2 plants should work ok I think though probably not as nice. The 325 watts put out roughly 1100 btu's, the 190 would be putting out roughly 650.

e) There are 3-4 other options but logistically they don't work, or can't be done 'now' since the grow started.





Day 3 (above ground) - This morning.

8:30am
Temps
At plant: 81 and 44%RH
Few feet above: 78 and 50%RH
Top - 79 and 45% RH

Noticed growth in last 24hr: none really.

Mr. Cane:
He's not looking as healthy has yesterday morning seems he's more yellowish today, definitely so compared to the WW. I'm not freaking out over it, I'm assuming maybe he really didn't like yesterday's time at >85d, combined with little bit of natural lighter green on new leaves.


SHOULD I BE CONCERNED?


Mrs. Widow:
Looking ok. Mrs widow is closer to the cool air intake.






A few droplets of misted plastic covers rolled down near each plant today when I took them off. I'm not counting that has giving them any water, I hope such a little amount will not screw with anything. Then again
the top 2-3" of soil outside the covers are bone-dry, about 4-7" down is 'moist' and 8-10" or so down on both still read on the lower end of "wet". I don't know if should give them a little 100ml? of water around the edge a few inches out from stalk or not, it's been so dry in there. I told myself when it doubt...don't water...so that's what I'm doing - or not better stated not-doing.

That said I was thinking around the weekend (day 6) of giving them each about 100ml? I know the idea is sort of not too so that they seek out the moisture below..down and out, but they are so young not sure if they can get that deep yet and was planning to stop using covers day after that.

I'm wondering when exactly if I should lose the humidity dome plastic things?? I was thinking day 7?
I've been uncovering them for 10m or so during my "check-ups", I actually wonder if a droplet didn't fall on Mr.Candy cane and along with strong lights (still 36" away) and heat maybe burned him a little, or they're magnifying the light or something.


I got my digital PH meter today. It seems like garbage, I calibrated it took like 5 times to get it to read 7.0 water straight from the distilled jug as anywhere close to 7.0. Still doesn't read 7.0ph distilled water as 7.0 but 6.8. IDK wtf that's about but I'll screw with it again later in the week.

Check out these instructions ... "suck it with filter paper" - LOL lost in translation I guess.


Plan for today... when I get a chance start price\feature\amp pulling comparing 8000k window ac units. Then decide if I'm going to do that, or switch lights. I don't want to make that decision till I've had a chance to get the 6" fan setup and running for a day to see the effects, the goal there is to get plant level generally <80. I have to remember that in another week I'll introduce the plants to sleep time from 2pm-6pm. So the four hottest hours of the day they'll actually get a heat break.

Tomorrow night my new fan should arrive.. not looking forward to that process..again, but hopefully will be worth it.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day4:

So yesterday went ok.. temps maxed out at 84 instead of 88, rest of tent itself never got above 84, low was 78-79 over night, overall 82 was average temp at the plant. Around 3pm yesterday I removed the humidity domes, the addition of the humidifier is keeping things in the 40's around plant height and up to 50% few feet above, and that's on medium setting which goes though about gallon of distilled a day. I figure they're not clones and they're a couple days popped they really shouldn't need it, and now that RH is in the 40's, might as well lose the covers. I will put them back on for a few hours late tonight when I go to do the 6" fan installs, more as a safety thing about some cord dropping and hitting them or something, and then remove them when I'm done.

This morning I checked on them, seem ok. The areas that were covered by the humidity covers is starting to dry up, actually they are less dried up this morning than I expected. The tilt in the candy cane however is very noticeable now, where as the WW is a straight up as can be, I don't know exactly what that's about or how to correct it, or if I should even try just yet. I thought it might be wind, but I really can't feel much from the opposite direction of the tilt, that said I moved the bug tape thingy to that area opposite it just to maybe try and counter act wind. Odd though if anything it's the WW that had some wind in it's first couple days. 3rd pic shows it off.

Pics.
overview:


.
Candy Cane from side and close ups.


.
White Widow from side and close ups.


Can't say I really noticed any progress again in last 24" both are still 1" and 1.25" respectively, though best I can tell the both have started to show ever so tiny starting of second leaves. We'll see what the day brings, I sort of think the ww leaves are ever so slightly pointing down vs ever so slighting pointing up as I recall around midnight when I popped my head in for a second, but could just be my mind.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 5 morning update:

So all my new 6" gear came in on time last night, and overnight from about 2am to 4am I swapped out the 4" Phresh filter and Hurricane 171 fan for VS 440cfm and VS 16" (400cfm) filter.

First off it was an even bigger pain in the ass then I thought it would be to keep everything in the tent, and frankly I'm not happy with my end state - but for now, and I think for 'this' grow only (if my lights don't have to be higher then 60") it'll work out, other future strains though I think I may need to remove at least the fan, if not the filter - and go push instead of pull - which may hurt efficiency but thankfully now I have some to spare.
The issue is the filter\fan the way they have to be mounted no matter how I slice it atm, they butt up just just against the light hangers, or will impact my ability to have lights higher then 14-15" from top of tent. If I didn't have fan inside I could maybe just prevent that, but still close call I think if having any plant grow beyond 100 cm. no?




Good news: The Vivosun 440 6" fan on the 'high end' of the low setting

a) Is definitely pulling more air than the 171 on max and

b) Is definitely more quiet mounted in the tent than the 4" (not a ton quieter but noticeable), when on the middle area of "medium" setting I would say it's about equal to the 4", 'max' of "high" setting is definitely louder than max of 4" but...surprising less than I expected, and most of that is airflow noise.

For now I'm using the high-end of "low", it's using about 105 watts, about 10 less than 4" was using on high. My guess is it's running at about 200cfm and about 170 effective with the filter, IE what I had expected out of the 4" from the start.

The VS filter does seem somewhat less quality then Phresh, I mean this 16" weights about the same as the 12" from Phresh, I could fill a little carbon on my hands here and there when mounting (hopefully that was just on thing from packing - vs ships it with the pre-filter on, Phresh does not) the pre-filter mesh is roughly the same but I would say 10% more porous and elastic band for holding on are fine, but less quality than Phresh. That said the price difference was like -50%, and frankly I'm kind of glad it might be a little more porus, for my situation even if only take 95% of the smell out vs 100% it's worth it, cause I'd rather have the flow. That said there are cases where I can see why people will pay more for that extra 5 or 10%.

Now on to the results.
I should say that yesterday even with the 4" I had no real temperature issues, but it was only mid-80's out and was overcast and raining in the afternoon, like the prior day it probably would have been no different 78-84 down at pot height. That said my AC been working it's ass off keeping the room around 72f..give or take a degree and this involved 'door' to rest of house management. All in all I think I could have made do with my 4" and all my other jerry-rigged stuff, because something I forgot about during all this is my pot-height accu-rite under the light temp meter is black coated and is absorbing some of the light so when it tells me 82F it's probably only 80 on the plants... which I'm ok with, and if that bumps to 82F later on tops as they get taller, not the end of the world...I just didn't want to see a constant 85. This also explains a bit why the out-of-the-direct-light about foot or two higher off to the side is always reading like 3-4 degrees less then the one baking under the light.

What I have done: I'm covering the accu-rite face that's under the light now with small piece of cardboard that is painted white in color on the up side. I'm finding so far after about an hour it does make a degree or two difference. I have no real idea if this is 'fair' or not, but reading up some more I see most people judge by "in the shade (to the extent there is any) at plant top height".




So after installing the 6"... I'm running about 1-2 degrees cooler, and that's with also setting my AC 1 degree higher to 72... that way it actually take a break here and there. The pot height (post cover) is now reading anywhere from 75-78 (this morning - I expect 80 maybe tomorrow when rain storms end), and about 74-78.5 around 2ft up off to the side, and 76-79 at the roof. Some of that ranging is it dropping about 2 degrees when the cold air of the ac kicks on - because I've kept existing jerry-rigging of intake setup.



Overall - If things stay around where they are now, I'm very happy, in fact I may try out medium on the exhaust fan combined with either some less jerry-rigged intakes OR keep that and up the room temp to 73.
Bottom line, I'm going to let the present setup 'bake' for 1-2 days before changing anything too much, I'm no longer worried or going to obsess too much over this and I think there is no need, at least for now, for me to bump up from old 6k ac to some new 'unknown' 8k, my existing beotch is old and loud but she blows cold, and with new ac's you just never know what your going to get, even 2 of the same model from the same pallet could give you two different experiences.



Other changes:
I moved the humidity machine over to the right side... theory I might get better distribution if mist falls on fan for pushing around instead of left side pointed toward middle...but which was probably getting slightly more 'on' the white widow... was thinking maybe not good to have it spray 'on\over' plant to the extent I could help it anyway.. so cramped for space. It's been staying in 40-52 range on medium setting. Today I removed 2 of the 3 "helper" bowls. I left one in there, reason being if I'm ever asleep for hours while the the mister runs out - I find it auto-shuts off when it still has like 10-15% left in the tank..and collection point underneath storage tank% So 1.4 gallons is really about only effectively around a gallon. Anyway I'm trying low-end of 'medium' today... see if I can keep it in 40-50 range (I don't really want much higher than 50), and in theory this should ensure..give or take an hour that 1gallon lasts a full 24hr, was about 22 before on high side of 'medium'.

I know I'm obsession over that when frankly the 30-40% range really shouldn't be too much a problem, and after next week or so I'm not really going to be concerned about it unless is constantly in the very low 30's or less, and <30 is not likely, I'm shooting for 35-45 range in first 4-5 weeks, then 30-40 after that once they starts to turn and I'm watering and feeding on the regular.

I inserted the water monitors into the pots, my theory here is I'm gonna more or less leave them in there from here on out, they are pushed 'in' about 1/3rd the way or 3" 3"1/2 inches. They both reading the very very low side of 'moist'. That said 'finger\knuckle' test feel some moister at 2". I am thinking of a little water for each tomorrow, maybe 100-200ml, but will try and wait to Sunday or Monday (day 6\7) unless leaves start drooping clearly downward.


NOW ON TO THE PLANTS:

Mr.Cane:
Didn't get any length over the last 24hr, but she is looking a better shade of green then past two days, not quite as dark as Mr.Widow, but a shade I wouldn't have wondered about problems like yesterday.
Why that is idk.. maybe just normal grow out of it.. or maybe that 1/2 day under 88 degrees has worn off with the cooler temps. His second set of leave growth is a little more noticeable in starting today... though the left side seems retarded\stunted compared to the rightside... I wonder if that has something to do with the tilt it's on??




Mr.Cane Plans: Tonight, or tomorrow morning I will attempt to maybe help straighten him with a little plastic tie or fussy tie to ever ever so gentle try to coach his stem to straighten out. Also idk but those leaves sort of look like they're pointing more to the 'down side' than 'up side'. Little water tomorrow - eh probably not but maybe?


Mrs. Widow:
She grew a little in last 24-30hr from 1.25" to 1.5", also her second set of leaves are tiny,but clearly starting to come in, more clearly than Mr. Candy Cane's anyway. Not sure why she is growing better than CC, it's definitely not a light difference, could be maybe CC got slightly heat strained for 1 day while WW did not cause closer to incoming cold air? I'm actually going to try moving that intake exit to a 6" and toward middle, but I want thinks to stabilize for day or two before I start making more changes. IDK maybe seed just overall got a better start or is more resilient. Only other thing I can think of is CC tap root when planted was little longer than WW...but I would have thought that would have been better for the CC not worse.







Water status:




That's my report for this morning. Should I be worried about anything?
I don't think so yet.
Should really try and straighten out the candy cane stem or just let it be?

 

[Dinsdale]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Wow, you're very thorough! I like that!

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Thanks Dinsdale, Sometimes I think I talk way too much but I figure more information \thought process is better than less, especially months from now when I want to look back and see where I went wrong. (crosses fingers)

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 6 - Morning.

Yesterday around 3pm, with temps all good 74-78d and humidity around 45-55% (rain outside probably helping get 5% extra) I decided it was time to lower the lights a little from ~36 to ~34 with the idea of going to 30" this morning. Reason is I'm seeing lots of photos of 5-6 day old babies that have much more growth than mine, even of similar\same strains. I had them at 30" at one point earlier but I pulled them back up because of my concern of heat. Anyway doing the 'hand test'... I probably should have them at like 22-24, but my plan didn't call for that till 7-10days in. So whatever, with temps good and more confidence about being able to keep things fairly stable I moved the lights down to 34" (give or take a 1/2 inch).

Checked in around 9pm last night and things were looking better, I didn't snap photos but already the white widow leafs looked wider and the second set that were coming in were now formed up. The Mr.Candy Cane on the other hand (who I a little concerned is a bit stunted or retarded) while not nearly as noticeable as Mrs.Widow was looking better. Frankly both seemed to me like they might want a little drink.
But I resisted and said check in the morning, if still feel like it then do it then.


3am - I moved the lights down to about 30". I did nothing else, other then twist each pot about 45degress.



7am - So this morning I checked on them, 75-78 in the tent generally 75-77 down at the plants,45RH plants 52% tent generally.

Mr. Candy Cane:



He's still looking retarded to me like he's missing his 4th leaf.. my eyes are crap, but looking real hard it seems it's there...but just not growing, part of the reason I'm twisting my pots 45degrees now every 12 or so hours.
Either way he is looking a little better than 24hr ago. He's also 1.20-1.25" now, vs 1" yesterday.


Mrs. White Widow:



She grew 1/2" in the last 24hr in height and her first fan leaves are much wider than 24hr ago.
Additionally her second set of leaves are now defined and grew a little.

Oddly both the left side (atm aka last 5 days) of second leaves on both see less growth than all others.
Again this is why I'm now spinning the pots 45 or so degrees every so often, I was thinking maybe a
particular diode\light was just not somehow hitting those spots? idk.. fk'it it can't hurt turning the pots a little right, worst case it doesn't help at all.


Watering:
So yesterday I was thinking leaves might be starting to turn downward and ask for bit of water but I said no.
Yesterday night I thought about it...cause it looked the same, but I said NO...
This morning they were way more pointed down then yesterday (nothing crazy as you can see), and I saw those puffy marks on the leaves... first I figured that maybe rapid widening and it was normal, but combined with light but noticeable drooping I was thinking maybe I should listen to my gut and water... and maybe Mr.Cane is little stunted because he needs water, as the meter in his pot shows he's always been a tad drier than Mrs.Widow. It's been 7 days since those pots had water run through them, it's bone dry first inch, nearly the same second inch, 3" was stick to the finger..though meters say dry or very very low end of moist, other then literally a few droplets from humidity domes, and a very light misting (we're talking one\two pulls of the trigger) twice on the hot days, the soil has seen no water in a week.

So... and I'm 1/2 thinking I'm fucking up here, but I decided to give each 50ml of water, about 1/3rd near the stem and the rest outward toward the edge of pot.. though with only 100ml I only get out a few inches. So that's done. I used distilled water with 1/10th-1/12th (1ml per gallon) a dose of root66 and 1/10th-1/12th dose of sugar daddy, supposedly to help root growth. I ph'd the water to 6.4-6.5 (after nutes), I testing both with the color drop stuff and with my meter. Actually I mixed this last night and shook it up and it was like at 6.6-6.8 and let it sit overnight... today it was at ~6.5. Will not be using nutes again for 2 weeks, I just wanted to maybe give both every so slight a boost, as I was supposed to have added a little to the base soil pre-seed but didn't.
Whatever, if I fked up so be it, but I think I'll be ok with such tiny dose.

As for plan in theory I'm watering about a day earlier than I planned, but then again I had a day or two of higher temps then I had planned for too, and it's 1/2 to 1/4th the amount I was planning on watering. As for next watering... gonna play it by ear, maybe another 150ml at the end of next week around the whole pot? I gotta think by then it'll need it, or a more full watering\soaking 500ml?. I would rather water less often and soak it than more often in little amounts... I've seen advice both ways, like with most things. lol.





The puffiness I'm concerned about .


Also this morning I tweaked my fans a little, trying to actually get less air hitting the pots, so that they're not directly hitting any of the pots, not that they really were but there is a lot of airflow in the tent, I also actually lowered the fan setting from hi to med on my outside-the-tent push-air intake air funnels. I just want to see if it has any real effect on temps... I may reverse that in a few hours if I see things go up more than a degree, but I've seen no change yet in the hour since I did it but RH is up 2% but not beyond avg range.
I sort think I might have too-much air-flow at times, and now with the 6" exhaust I may not need to be worrying so much about pushing\pulling air in.


Also I'm trying to straighten up Mr. Candy Cane a little... probably will not work but worth a shot.
I used 2 toothpicks and a "fuzzy-stick" (got 2 packs of 100 at walmart for like 3$)..basically really soft pipe cleaners.





Plan for today... sort of do nothing... check around 3pm if they look better from the drink, but otherwise try a leave them alone...seems every 12hr when I actually forget about them for a bit...they have growth spurts.

 

[knighthawktfc]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Day 6 - evening.

Checked in on my beautiful babies tonight after leaving them alone since morning (other then window check temps at 1pm).

OH MY GOD...
They loved the water. Mrs. Cane put on some mass in the last 12hr, and Mrs. Widow did also vs this morning, she's taller and her 3&4 leaves gained some length. IDK what it was, the lower light or the water... or both.

Mr.Cane:



His 4th leaf (north side of photo) is still retarded but seems to be growing again, in fact it's tripled in size in last 12hr.

Mrs.Widow:



Both in general I don't know to explain it but look better than they did this morning, hopefully stays that way and isn't false positive.



9pm - I rotated the pots a little clockwise ..maybe 30-45 degrees, I was gonna leave it but I could see the WW was starting to get a slight bend in her now taller stem toward the top, I'm thinking this is from wind bouncing around, figure if I keep rotating on each check up it should counter most of it. ALSO - I lowered the light again from 30 to 28"... my plan is to get down to 24'ish (based on my hand could probably do 18-22), but for now... slow and steady down to 24, in my view in 2" movements, 18-24 is the general guidance for veg from KIND, though they say you can in theory go lower so long as it's not lower than 14".
My hand\heat test tells me that's about true...but also that < 18 would probably be a bad idea especially this early.

The puffiness in Mr. Widow is bit less than this morning, so maybe whatever that is\was is being grown out of or was just normal. I'm hoping it fades a little more by morning.

If they show some real gains in the morning I will take it to mean both the lower light and the 50ml minor watering were good decisions, and maybe I should not be over-paranoid about watering, just properly paranoid - lol.

RH the last 12hr was also on avg. higher staying around 52-55 at plants with top of 61 (probably just after I watered).. I can't tell if that was cause today was another very rainy day here so the house RH is 40-42 vs 30-35ish normally... or it's the fact I watered the plants. I'm thinking that was not* the main factor in last 12hr of growth though. I could be wrong.

 

[Juny360]

re: First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

I'll sit in with this one. We can learn together lol. I've been keeping my humidity around 65-70ish. Do you have a humidifier in the tent?