1st grow Mandarin Sunset

I wanted to start a thread to document my first grow and to allow (please help) any feedback or suggestions for improvement. I didn’t take a picture of the clone when I bought it but I took some at a week old after transplant and will be photographing weekly. I’m not sure how old the clone I got was or if that matters or not so I’ve been documenting off transplant date.

My setup includes
Tent: 32x32x63”
Pot: 5 gallon smartpot
Light: Mars Hydro 300w
Cycle: 18/6
Temp/humidity (stays within 2 degrees roughly)
Lights on: 77.4/42-50%
Lights off: 72/45-55%

Exhaust: 189cfm 4” inline with a carbon filter ducted to outside
Intake: 169 cfm 4” inline fan on a variable speed controller turned down so there’s still a slight vacuum in the tent
Exhaust system runs constant during daylight, starting 15 minutes before lights on and running 15 minutes after lights off. During lights off it runs 30ish minutes off 5 minutes on to exchange air
Fans: clip and stationary oscillating fan run 24/7

Hygro/thermometer: set up on a pole at roughly the same height as the top of the plant

Strain: Mandarin Sunset
Soil: Happy Frog
Water: Distilled
Nutrients: Nectar of the gods sample pack

The little plants in the back are tomatoes I have starting on 2 small light bars


Weeks (after transplant) and feeding regimine
Transplant 6/6 didn’t take measurements or pics
Week 1: 6.5-7” (seedling/clone nutes)
Week 2: 8” tall, lots of new growth (early veg nutes)

Picture with the lights on was taken day 5 on 6/11 and the second two pictures with natural light were taken on 6/13, a week after transplant

Week 2 update

She’s 8” tall and sprouting new growth everywhere. I topped her Thursday morning and she seems to be handling it well! I switched to the “early veg” feeding schedule at the beginning of the week including the bloom khaos foliar. I was starting to get a bit of nutrient burn on the tips so I have been more cautious of mixing my feed (bought a digital ph meter, brown water is near impossible to test) and not mixing the nutrients too heavy. Ilaid off the foliar for a few days. I haven’t seen any new yellowed tips yet so I think I’m good there, I resumed the foliar feeding Thursday and I lowered the light from 20” to 18” because she seems to be absorbing light well. She’s drinking about a gallon every 48 hours or so. I plan to add a scrog screen roughly 10” above the plant to aid in training the plant.

Week 3 update (last Thursday)

She’s just short of 10” tall with 9 solid branches growing off of the main shoot right now. I installed my scrog net 10” above the soil line (considering moving it to 12” but I’m not sure. Curious as to how she’s going to stretch once I flip her. I have roughly 42” of space between the soil and the bottom of the grow light when it’s fully raised ) and she’s touching it with some fan leaves with more growthapproaching the net. I haven’t noticed any more nutrient burn forming anywhere so I think I may have just been feeding too heavy. I’ve been feeding roughly 3/4-7/8 of a gallon every 48 hours and topping off 24 after with the remainder but I’m going to move towards a 60 hour cycle because I feel like the soil has always still been a bit wet and I’ve been watering too soon.

Ps. My girlfriend has named her Peggy

Also my light is actually a Mars Hyrdo reflector 96 not the 300 watt hydro, can’t figure out how to edit my original post anymore

Week 4 update

I left the net at 10” above the soil and she’s starting to fill it in nicely. While training I accidentally snapped one of the top fan leaves so I cut it and decided to trim up some of the lower growth that was hidden away in the shade. I’ve been able to get a few branches to start filling more outward squares on the screen. She’s looking good for the most part, some leaves showing some slight yellowing/discoloration but I don’t think it’s to a concerning level. (I added an extra tsp of liquid calcium on the last feeding by mistake)

Hoping to let her sit and veg for another at least two weeks, maybe up to an additional 4-6 weeks before I flip to flower.

After doing some reading I decided to turn on the bloom switch on my light in addition to the growth switch I’ve been using. Hoping the extra light is helpful

Temp has also increased to 79-83 with lights on and 72-75 with the lights off since the summers gotten hotter

Week 5 update

I’ve switched to late veg nutrients and a feed feed tea feed feed (tea or flush depending on how my runoff is testing) and I’ve turned on the light to full strength per some advice from members of this forum. She seems to be drinking more now and it’s closer to 48 hour feedings of a gallon still. The net is 11” above and she’s starting to fill the net nicely. I burned some leaves by foliar feeding with the lights on but that’s all done now. I also ordered a hose filter to remove chlorine so I can stop buying gallons of distilled water and wasting so much plastic. I also bought a little air pump and air stone to brew my tea with, along with some molasses to help the microbial growth. I’m using Buffaloam for my teas this go around. Going to let her veg for 2-4 more weeks before I flip her over, super excited to see how this one goes. It’s been hotter 85-87 and less humid 35-40% but she seems to be thriving. Any advice is very welcome and very appreciated

Week 6 update: (last Thursday)

I’ve got the net at 12 inches above the top of the soil and she’s continuing to grow at a great rate. I broke one of my main branches last week and had to splint it together, it seems to still be growing well so I guess that means it’s grafting and healing well. It’s been 100+ outside over the last week and temps have been around 88 with lights in and only down around 83 with lights off in the tent. I wasn’t feeding enough and the humidity was a bit low but I’ve upped my feeding to runoff again (a a gallon was producing a small amount so I was using that but since turning on both lights it takes between a gallon and a gallon and a half) and my rh is back up closer to 45-50 % again. She’s doing well (I think)! If there’s anything that’s raising flags or that I could be doing better please don’t hesitate to offer advice! I’m probably going to let her veg until 8 weeks before I flip to 12/12

Week 7 update:

She’s absolutely thriving, drinking a gallon and a half every 48 hours to runoff. Over the last week I’ve built a pvc frame for my screen and set it at 14” above the soil line (by mistake but it works) and she’s filling it nicely still. I’m planning on flipping to 12/12 next Wednesday. I’ve read to keep feeding veg nutrients until flowers begin to form and the stretch is ending so that’s probably how I’ll run them. I have another “300 watt” (would love to know what it actually is, came with the tent package) led light that I’m going to add once I flip to make sure there’s adequate lighting for all these bud sites. This will give me the mars reflector 96 480 watt (actual 205) and then this extra 300 watt for 7.5 square feet of canopy pending it keeps filling completely. I also put her into a bin and build a little pvc stand so she sits above the runoff after feeding. I’m really excited to watch this transformation to flower for the first time! Suggestions welcome !

Week 8 update.

I flipped her to 12/12 on Tuesday and added another fan to make sure the airflow was sufficient during flowering. I also set up an extra light, not really sure if I placed them the best but I slid my mars hydro back in the tent a little bit and then hung the new one at an angle so that it covers as much as possible (way smaller footprint). I also noticed some small spots on a few leaves that look to have holes? Not really sure what they are but included in last pic. This extra light I added runs pretty hot and my temps are about 7-8 degrees above ambient in the room when lights are on

Week 9 update

It’s been a super eventful week, I left to go camping, forgot to water her, and then I didn’t take my extra towels off the tent that cover the zippers while it was lights on (extra precaution for light leaks) and she ROASTED at 93 degrees for 12 hours I guess the extra heat that escapes through the zippers is enough to make a difference when lights are on with that new led. Won’t be using it in a tent again, adds an extra 4ish degrees more than the mars. Luckily when I came home I fed her and she got right back up. She started showing signs of bud formation Tuesday (7days after flip) and she’s exploding with bud sites already so I’m officially on week 1 of flowering! I added slf100 to my feedings and started slowly moving towards the early flower nutes which is just a little bit extra of a few things (Athena’s amenas, Demeter destiny, and Zeus juice).

That white led I added adds a fuck ton of heat to the tent so I’ll likely not be using it again accept possible for clones/seedlings

Week 10 update:

Everything seems to be going well, I removed some of the bigger fan leaves that I couldn’t tuck to expose some lower bud sights. The flowers are growing bigger and she’s started to cannabalize some of the lower fan leaves that aren’t getting as much light anymore. I’ve continued foliar feeding BK and am on the full early flowering feeding schedule after the last flush. I removed some of the lower branches last Sunday that weren’t going to make it up to the top and put them in an easy cloner with some extra little lights I had laying around so let’s see if any of them root

Week 11 Thursday 8/22

She got a new light hung up for flower, a lush dominator 2xxl. She’s starting to drink incredibly slowly which leaves me to believe she might be rootbound but I’m not gonna mess with transplanting this far into flower. I’ve cut the BK foliar feed and plan to start he root drench feedings after the next tea. I took some cuttings and they’re Starting to root in the easy cloner so those will go into soil sometime this upcoming week. I’m going to get another tent so I can get the clones all setup and ready to veg after I move this big girl to her new home. I did some defoliation of the larger fan leaves to get light down to some lower bud spots as well.

Week 13: she’s flowering right along and has started to develop some weird spots on the leaves. Not sure whTs going on but I’ll be doing a flush this evening when I get home because I realized the soil hasn’t been flushed in a bit and I’m having some sorts of issues. While I was out of town this weekend she got underfed due to a miscommunication and hopefully after tonight she’ll be back on track.

Interesting grow man, I'll be comparing it to my MTK when she get's alil more mature (just getting out of seedling stage)