First grow f××k-ups

[Mr. Crisco]

Hey there rollitup community. I've been using this site as my grow guide for the past 7 weeks, since I decided to buy a tent and try my hand at growing cannabis. 5'x5'x80" tent, 1000w hortilux mh/hps, 6 inch xxxl hood, 6inch hurricane inline fan, filter, two oscillating 7 inch fans, high velocity tower fan, and an ac on the outside of tent. Plants are 7 weeks old in 5 gal smart pots with FFOF soil, topped and supercopped. Nutes are AN sensi grow a&b, b-52, great white, and mycochum veg. For flower will be b-52, bud ignitor, big bud, bud candy, and overdrive. Being my first grow, I've made some mistakes for sure. Snapped quite a few branches from supercropping, which I'm surprised havent caused more issues. Had my temps hit 90°F, humidity at 24%, and am finding branches I didnt know had snapped until recently. I was hoping some fellow growers could give me some comments on my grow and share some stories of problems they've had in the past or are dealing with.
Thanks to any replies in advance

TLDR what are some issues you've dealt with while growing and what do you think of my grow?

 

[swazifarmer]

Your 1st grow looks brilliant, well done.

My 1st grow was with fluorescent tubes (compact fluorescents didn’t exist then) between the shit lighting and over feeding it was a disaster but my issues and problems taught me valuable lessons.

10 years later and I still sometimes snap a branch off while supercropping lol.

 

[Redeye 420]

Looks great. Don't worry about snapping branches they bounce back. Get your temps down between 75 and 80F and humidity about 50% and your good to go.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Your 1st grow looks brilliant, well done.

My 1st grow was with fluorescent tubes (compact fluorescents didn’t exist then) between the shit lighting and over feeding it was a disaster but my issues and problems taught me valuable lessons.

10 years later and I still sometimes snap a branch off while supercropping lol.

Appreciate it swazi. I remember my dad trying to grow some with fluorescent shop lights essentially. Nodes were miles apart Haha. Good to know even the pros mess up with training every once in awhile.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Looks great. Don't worry about snapping branches they bounce back. Get your temps down between 75 and 80F and humidity about 50% and your good to go.

Appreciate the feed back! I got the temps to 76° after the ac was put in. It was at 71° when I first got the ac but it seems now that the plants are bigger, temps are rising. Is that a thing? Either that or the filter I installed isn't allowing as much intake to happen. As for humidity, I have a humidifer on full blast during the day and some bowls of water with rags in them, and can barely keep it the 40%'s. What do you do?

 

[Redeye 420]

Appreciate the feed back! I got the temps to 76° after the ac was put in. It was at 71° when I first got the ac but it seems now that the plants are bigger, temps are rising. Is that a thing? Either that or the filter I installed isn't allowing as much intake to happen. As for humidity, I have a humidifer on full blast during the day and some bowls of water with rags in them, and can barely keep it the 40%'s. What do you do?

If your temps outside the tent fluctuate a little the temps inside will also. Not sure if plant size effects it but could be possible. 40% humidity is just fine, mine goes between 40% and 60% depending on when I watered. I can almost tell when I need to water by my humidity.

You really do have some beautiful happy looking plants.

 

[Axion42]

Appreciate the feed back! I got the temps to 76° after the ac was put in. It was at 71° when I first got the ac but it seems now that the plants are bigger, temps are rising. Is that a thing? Either that or the filter I installed isn't allowing as much intake to happen. As for humidity, I have a humidifer on full blast during the day and some bowls of water with rags in them, and can barely keep it the 40%'s. What do you do?

If you have a speed controller on exhaust fan turn it down, it'll suck out the humidity slower and leave more in the tent. Looking pretty good for first grow though.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

If your temps outside the tent fluctuate a little the temps inside will also. Not sure if plant size effects it but could be possible. 40% humidity is just fine, mine goes between 40% and 60% depending on when I watered. I can almost tell when I need to water by my humidity.

You really do have some beautiful happy looking plants.

The room they're in has the ac at a constant 70°. And the tent reflected that for the longest. I'm starting to think maybe I have too much extra ducting and when I installed the filter that the exrta suction force is making the ducting close itself off a little? And thank you, I'm trying my hardest with these gals. Just cant fuck up flower now Haha.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

If you have a speed controller on exhaust fan turn it down, it'll suck out the humidity slower and leave more in the tent. Looking pretty good for first grow though.

Ok I'll have to get one from the local grow store. It wont raise temps since its less pulling force for the intakes? Thank you.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Also have any of you tried the Exhale Co2 bags? I've been think about buying some

 

[Axion42]

If you're using a charcoal filter you're going to want your exhaust slightly bigger, or exhausting faster than your intake otherwise you'll get smell escaping thru tent walls.

 

[Redeye 420]

It's your first grow and eventually you will get everything dialed in. Axion42 is pointing you in the right direction.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Right on thanks guys. I'll get a speed controller and I guess like a 4 inch booster fan for intake? The guy at the shop where I bought everything at, told me that I wouldn't need an intake fan since I got a powerful exhaust which would pull in the air I needed through the vents on the tent. I'm assuming I close those vents and just put the intake fan where my ac is blowing? The tent has strong negative pressure if that affects any of this.

 

[hawse]

Looks good! You're already way past some of my early mistakes - not enough light, not training in veg, using too many salt based nutes and not flushing them were my main mistakes...

Oh and the big one - chopping too early...

Oh just saw your last post - negative pressure in the tent is a good thing i think, means your airflow is proper and you won't have smell if your filters etc.. are good. Just open it up during the day if you can is what I do and close later on in the evening when smell matters...

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Looks good! You're already way past some of my early mistakes - not enough light, not training in veg, using too many salt based nutes and not flushing them were my main mistakes...

Oh and the big one - chopping too early...

Oh just saw your last post - negative pressure in the tent is a good thing i think, means your airflow is proper and you won't have smell if your filters etc.. are good. Just open it up during the day if you can is what I do and close later on in the evening when smell matters...

Thanks for the reply. I actually dont know if the advanced nutrient line is salt based. I been adding the nutes every watering so far. Sounding like that's not the way to go? I was going to flush for maybe a couple waterings before flipping to 12/12 and flower nutes. And will definitely try opening the tent during the day. Even put the ac right at the entrance

 

[OldMedUser]

4 inch booster fan for intake?

Just make sure you have enough open intake so the tent walls are slightly sucked in with the exhaust fan running. If you want to have an unneeded intake fan then you need one that has as much input as the exhaust outputs allowing for the restriction caused by a carbon filter.

Thanks for the reply. I actually dont know if the advanced nutrient line is salt based. I been adding the nutes every watering so far. Sounding like that's not the way to go? I was going to flush for maybe a couple waterings before flipping to 12/12 and flower nutes. And will definitely try opening the tent during the day. Even put the ac right at the entrance

No need to flush when switching to flower. Start feeding the Sensi Bloom and a half dose of Big Bud a week before flipping but don't go nuts. There's going to be lots of nutes left in the soil so you don't want to go overboard tho the plants feed more during the stretch than at any other time. Feeding drops off rapidly as stretch ends.

Yes AN nutes are salt based as are all nutes made for hydro. I've used AN mainly for almost 20 years and and tried the Sensi and Connoisseur a while back but switched back to the 3-part so I have better control over what I feed them.

I just use the base nutes, Big Bud and Rhino Skin from AN, Any CalMag will do and some Epsom Salts are cheap. Overdrive doesn't do anything and the only B vitamin plants need is B1 so I bought some tabs to grind up and add to the mix along with Zinc, Iron and a couple other things. I would be very careful using too many supplements. I've had forum buddies totally destroy big grows tossing the whole line in. A little unsulfured blackstrap molasses will feed the bio-herd and help the plants grow but does nothing to 'sweeten' the bud.

Also have any of you tried the Exhale Co2 bags? I've been think about buying some

If you have exhaust going all the time then adding CO2 is useless. When I flip to flower I'll start using an alcohol lamp to add lots of CO2 to the grow but then I'm letting the heat get up to 90F with the exhaust fan temp/humidity controller set to allow that temp and much higher humidity before it kicks in. Really does make a difference then but my goal is a sealed room so I can tweak the environment to be perfect all the time. Very low RH here and impossible to keep up with an exhaust fan going all the time. I grow in an underground concrete bunker so if my walls suck in I'm in trouble.

Sounds like you have low RH too so getting a temp/RH controller would be a good idea. Plug the speed controller into that then to your fan. Much better control over conditions that way. If your tent is sitting in a spare room or something you could run a humidifier in that room to raise the RH of the air so that it's at the right RH when it's sucked into the tent. Any moisture added by a humidifier sitting in the tent goes away every time the exhaust is running so your RH goes up and down like a yo-yo. Same with an AC unit.

Decent job for your first grow so it can only get better!

 

[ANC]

My biggest problem with my first grow, was that I only planted one seed and it turned out to be a male...
My friend and I smoked it anyway, was enough to make you a little miff if you smoked enough.

 

[Mr. Crisco]

Just make sure you have enough open intake so the tent walls are slightly sucked in with the exhaust fan running. If you want to have an unneeded intake fan then you need one that has as much input as the exhaust outputs allowing for the restriction caused by a carbon filter.



No need to flush when switching to flower. Start feeding the Sensi Bloom and a half dose of Big Bud a week before flipping but don't go nuts. There's going to be lots of nutes left in the soil so you don't want to go overboard tho the plants feed more during the stretch than at any other time. Feeding drops off rapidly as stretch ends.

Yes AN nutes are salt based as are all nutes made for hydro. I've used AN mainly for almost 20 years and and tried the Sensi and Connoisseur a while back but switched back to the 3-part so I have better control over what I feed them.

I just use the base nutes, Big Bud and Rhino Skin from AN, Any CalMag will do and some Epsom Salts are cheap. Overdrive doesn't do anything and the only B vitamin plants need is B1 so I bought some tabs to grind up and add to the mix along with Zinc, Iron and a couple other things. I would be very careful using too many supplements. I've had forum buddies totally destroy big grows tossing the whole line in. A little unsulfured blackstrap molasses will feed the bio-herd and help the plants grow but does nothing to 'sweeten' the bud.



If you have exhaust going all the time then adding CO2 is useless. When I flip to flower I'll start using an alcohol lamp to add lots of CO2 to the grow but then I'm letting the heat get up to 90F with the exhaust fan temp/humidity controller set to allow that temp and much higher humidity before it kicks in. Really does make a difference then but my goal is a sealed room so I can tweak the environment to be perfect all the time. Very low RH here and impossible to keep up with an exhaust fan going all the time. I grow in an underground concrete bunker so if my walls suck in I'm in trouble.

Sounds like you have low RH too so getting a temp/RH controller would be a good idea. Plug the speed controller into that then to your fan. Much better control over conditions that way. If your tent is sitting in a spare room or something you could run a humidifier in that room to raise the RH of the air so that it's at the right RH when it's sucked into the tent. Any moisture added by a humidifier sitting in the tent goes away every time the exhaust is running so your RH goes up and down like a yo-yo. Same with an AC unit.

Decent job for your first grow so it can only get better!

Awesome man, loving the information. So glad I decided to post on here. I'll definitely keep over fertilizing in mind and watch what I'm putting in. What do the Epsom salts do? I'm putting the humidifier outside the tent and going to pick up that temp/humidity controller. I'm assuming with that, I wont need a fan controller? Just have it on full blast and vent only when the temps get above say 78°? Sounds like you have an awesome setup already lol. I've never heard of a bunker grow

 

[Mr. Crisco]

My biggest problem with my first grow, was that I only planted one seed and it turned out to be a male...
My friend and I smoked it anyway, was enough to make you a little miff if you smoked enough.

Ah that's shame. Putting in so much effort to grow and it ends up flashin some balls at you Haha. I managed to pick up the last 3 clones a dispensary had in my town. Although they're some random strains I've never heard of. 2 are Ackbar OG and the third is Axilla ‍

 

[OldMedUser]

Awesome man, loving the information. So glad I decided to post on here. I'll definitely keep over fertilizing in mind and watch what I'm putting in. What do the Epsom salts do? I'm putting the humidifier outside the tent and going to pick up that temp/humidity controller. I'm assuming with that, I wont need a fan controller? Just have it on full blast and vent only when the temps get above say 78°? Sounds like you have an awesome setup already lol. I've never heard of a bunker grow

Epsom Salts are magnesium sulphate so you get both Mg and S from them and the stuff they sell at the drug store is fine and cheap. Sulfur is the 'secret ingredient' bloom boosters have and Big Bud has 10%. I have a 500g can of the powdered BB.

I have an analog temp/RH controller that uses a heat/cool thermostat wired for cool in series with a bathroom fan humidity controller in the silver box. My DIY speed controller is made from a ceiling fan controller, (not a dimmer!), you can see above the silver box and it's set about half speed all the time. The black cord runs to the 6" inline exhaust fan. The thermostat for the heater is sitting on the shelf to the right and I need heat during the dark period summer or winter. Even with just a single 400W the heater is needed a bit during the day period in the winter.





I call it a bunker and my grow room would be the safest place to be if a tornado showed up but they haven't got this far north in Alberta yet but could with global warming. The grow room was actually a cold storage room the original owner built downstairs. It's about 7x9x6.5'h in a concrete room that's 10x25x7'h and under the house/shop. We get our water from a dugout on the property and the plumbing for that is down there. If I ever have a big leak the water from the dugout will fill that bunker and I'll get a free indoor swimming pool. Had a flood down there a few years back in the spring and got 8" of water down there. All the air going into the grow room comes from the larger basement area where the warmest it gets is around 64F and down to about 45F in the winter so got lots of free cool air and no need for AC. Power is almost 25¢/kwh here so if I can save a bit it helps.



75F seems to be around the sweet spot for growing and what I aim for. With soil grows the bacteria and fungi in the soil are most active around that temp but if the room is 75 the pots can be 10 degrees cooler mostly due to evaporation. I mainly grow in soilless ProMix HP or do DWC. Neither of which need bacteria or fungi.

I recently decided to try organic growing and managed to burn the plants pretty good so yesterday I up-potted from 2L pots to 8L using almost all soilless with 1ml/L of all 3 base nutes for watering them in. I'm not much of a dirt farmer. lol

In case you need some reading material you can get lots with this link.

I found a great spot to download FREE POT BOOKS . I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as many are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.