DNA Sharksbreath / Greenhouse Pure Kush - First Grow

Hi, this is my first grow.


Sharksbreath: http://dnagenetics.com/sharksbreath


Pure Kush: https://shop.greenhouseseeds.nl/pure-kush-feminised.html

Light: 1000w LED
Area: 3'x3'x6.6' Tent
Soil: Local Triple Mix + Perlite (purchased separetely) mixed in sparingly.
Soil Additives:

• Kelp Meal (great for peppers/tomatoes)
• Carbonitite (supplies a broad spectrum of essential minerals)
• Diatomaceous Earth - a soft, crumbly, porous sedimentary deposit formed from the fossil remains of diatoms (natural insecticide, sprinkle on soil)

Nutrients: General Hydroponics General Organics Go Box
Light Cycle: 18/6 (more like 16/8, 17/7 atm, working my way there...)
Room Temp: 78 average day, 67-69 night, never goes above 85 ever, try to always keep at 80 or below.
R/H: 40 average. Hard to bring it higher, cool mist humidifier/wet towels only do so much. I mist the area from time to time though.

Extra Details:

Tent/Light: I have used this tent/light setup already for growing produce/tropicals, it worked fine for growing tomatoes with hardly any attention to detail (compared to now) so I expect this grow to go smoothly, but we'll see.

Soil Choice: The soil I chose (a local Triple Mix) is pretty mediocre, it has some recycled stuff in it (rubber, plastic) otherwise the consistency seem ok at least. Despite this 'screw-up' the plants should do fine nutrient wise regardless. The additives are not necessary I would imagine, although I like the Diatomaceous earth for pest control prevention.

Germination Method: Straight to soil. Soaked 3 gal container full of soil in water and let sit overnight, planted seeds in morning roughly 1/2 inch deep. I'm not a fan of the wet towel method, because 'that's not how it's done in nature mannnn' (weak reasoning but I prefer straight to soil). Also Madala seeds claims in some cases it's not best: http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Germination-Guide which was enough for me. I planted them in 3 gal pots right away, I prefer this to them transplanting later from smaller pots.

Extra stuff:

• Fans: 2 fans, 3 if you include the cool mist humidifier, 7 if you also include the 120mm fans that cool the LED light. The exhaust fan for the tent only runs when the tent is closed.
• Control: Digital Timer & Fan Controller
• Water: Filtered Water
• Other: Spray bottles, droppers for nutrients, yellow sticky traps (fungas gnats inevitable..)

Side note, I'm pretty nervous/anxiously excited about this grow! Hope everything goes well

Wish me luck! Grow has started, will post photos shortly.

Pulls up in a recliner!!!

Glad to have you along Vato

Day 4

Sharksbreath is the first out the gate.

Day 5

Sharksbreath fully upright now! Pure Kush showed up overnight also and is growing alongside it.

Details (Days 0 - 5)

Room temperature: Good but not great. Was in the low 80s at times, at one point reaching 85+ when I was away. A bit of a trial an error process, thinking I could get away with using less ventilation. I've made adjustments since, won't happen again (fingers crossed)

Lighting: 16/8 day cycle. Not best, still reading up at the time/not wanting to commit to 18/6 (and 24/0, not happening). Light sitting 32" above containers (see photo). I am comfortable with this height because in the past I have grown tomatoes from seed with the light 47" above the containers. Any closer seems unnecessary & potentially harmful.

Soil: Misting the area (a lot) to keep moist, haven't watered since initial soak before planting.

Also included a shot of the tent setup

Days 7-9 : Pure Kush seedling growth progress

So far so good, watered the plants on Day 8 with filtered water, no nutrients in water yet

Any white residue on plants is the diatomaceous earth, I think it's harmless for plants, at least in small amounts. Regardless, I try to mist the stuff off with water if some gets on the plant.

I thought I posted on your thread before but I guess not! Those baby's look great! I'm interested in LED lighting to. So you I'll be around to watch these results!

Nice, just caught wind of your log the other day. Very nice work, glad you ended up with at least 1 female in the end also.

I really like my LED and growing with it, but I question the pricing of some of the name brand LEDs. Many seem to fetch around 800$+ (low end), and most aren't near 1000W like mine. This is a bit of a side tangent, but just some forethought. The updated version of my light has a veg/bloom switch and sells for 500$: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mars-II-1200-LED-Grow-Light-Mars-Hydro-Indoor-Hydroponic-Full-Spectrum-Panel-/390737983674, I think that it would fair better than many of these UFO LED lights that are commonly sold for 100s more.

Day 7 -9 : Sharksbreath seedling growth progress

Details same as above post.

Day 11 - 13

Watering w. Nutes: Started using GH kit and I used a little under the recommended doses. (for example, if 5ml of solution was recommended would use about 4ml).

1st Water (Day 7?): 500ml each with nutes

2nd Water (Day 9): 1000ml each with nutes

3rd Water (Day 13): 1000ml each with nutes

(don't worry, the 4th Water on Day 17 had no nutes)

Looking good! Ive always read that its good to start off with diluted nutes instead of full strength to! And slowly go up from there,for your dropper issue just pour a bit of your nutrient solution in a soda pop cap and suck it up that way, pour your extra back into the bottle. Or find a way to form a straw or peice of vacuum hose for cars. over the end of the dropper so it's able to reach your solution. Just some ideas that came to mind! Or find one online that is longer if you are not a poor sap like me.

Yea! Diluted nutes seem safest, it's difficult measure out the right amounts. The instructions outline how much nutrients, in ml, you should add to 1 gallon of water. I found that to be kind of odd, using both the metric and imperial system in the instructions. Also 1 gallon = 3.7 liters, and I only need half of that. So instead of 3.7/2 = 1.85 liters I just rounded up to 2 liters. Then all the instructions say 'add 5ml', but rather than cutting that amount in half I just added 2ml instead of 2.5ml.

Good suggestion for the droppers, I wonder how much solution I will go through with this grow, I don't think the supply will get that low but I like thinking ahead. I may also pick up some glass droppers that are 2x as long and compare that.

You can always add more, but can't reverse over feeding as easily. Less is best. Till you get comfy with what you see and how your plants react. I'm a cheap bastard So i try to find a cheap solution to problems like you have with your dropper haha. Anyways, once you get on a nice feeding regimen you should be able to calculate how long your solution will last fairly easy!

Cheap solutions are the best, I'm in pretty deep in $ with grow supplies etc. so at this point droppers are pretty easy for me to rationalize spending on but I totally don't need to do it. This whole grow has become an awesome, albeit expensive, experiment, it's not cost effective but I'm just stoked be growing my own plant and strains that seem bomb.

I think I'll have a good amount of solution left over at this feeding rate but we'll see!

Day 16 - 17

Watered both plants on Day 17 with 1000ml of filtered water (each), no nutes. Lots of misting on Days 12-17, leaves need to do most of the drinking until roots build up.

Temps have been good lately, staying in the 67-80 range consistently. R/H goes up to 50 sometimes too which is nice.

Light has been on 17/7 (close to 17.5/6.5) for the past week. 18/6 is too much for me to commit to for more than a week. LED light still sitting 32" above pots.

With this most recent update the log has now caught up with the current day progress

I use the 1ml and 5ml syringes that have been left over from the kids calpol and easy enough to clean with a pipe brush. Obviously do not re use for kids lol Just to let it be known.

The 5ml one would be good. I just realized I have the 1ml glass version, messed up in the photo saying 5ml.

Still would like one with more depth though..

First signs of trouble. On Day 18 I noticed that on two leaves the edges were yellowing, one on each on the plants (See Photos). Can only guess it's too much nutes, I watered the day before thankfully using no nutes at all. 4 days later the leaves don't seem to be getting any worse which is good.

Day 21

Watered both plants with nutes, using even less than before. I added 1mg of each solution (suggested amount 2.5mg +) into 2 Liters of water, feeding each plant 1 Liter (1000ml).

Will go back to regular strength next feed.

Day 22

It's snowing!!! With diatomaceous earth. I don't have any pest problems (yet?) because I'm always on the lookout for problems, however after adding a couple plants to the room I spotted a fungus gnat this morning. I hadn't given the soil a good dusting in a while so I coated it with a nice layer. I really hate fungus gnats so I go out of my way to kill them now, the resentment for them started years ago with my tropical plants, stressing me the hell out.

Otherwise looks good so far, the Pure Kush seems more Sativa-like than the Sharksbreath, growing a bit taller and having narrower leaves.

Noteworthy: Was checking the bottom of the 3 gallon container and was surprised to see that the roots of one of the plants had already made it to bottom. That's a good 8-9inch depth growth. This may make no difference, but, I believe that it's best to start growing in a larger container if you can from seed so that the plant can optimize the space right away and take root sooner/stronger than if it was transferred from a starter pot. When the roots are bunched up or constrained even slightly due to a smaller container during early growth I figure that can't be good, or best, for the plant. Just my opinion, I seem to be in the minority of growers who grow from seed and don't start germination using starter pots

To pull off growing from seed in a large container it's best, if not necessary, to have good drainage. I pour 1000ml of water into the soil and it drains out the bottom into a tray that I can then empty. This drenches the soil of the entire container while not overwatering it (which would happen if water sat at the bottom instead of draining out). Without good drainage you'd have to pour just the right amount of water each time and water more frequently to keep it dry.

Day 23

Did I mention I hate fungus gnats?

This morning there was just as many so I went to war. Removed 2in+ of topsoil from the plants, applied a new top layer of Diatomaceous Earth. My containers have drainage holes and I think they were a nice target for the gnats to breed, so I threw some DE in those holes also. Removed any runoff water, added in some Bounce dryer sheets because apparently they deter gnats? Also personally killed a dozen or so myself by hand

My fault for letting the gnat problem get to where it is now. I got a bit too confident with my liberal watering of the plants and also keeping stagnant water from runoff, not to mention growing from seed in 3 gal pots where there is not root growth early on to sap up water.

Day 25 - 27

Watered each with 1000ml using nutes. (Day 25)

Room temps getting a little higher, floating between 76-83. R/H at 35-50.

More pest control I picked up some Nematode packets (see photo, product: Nemaglobe) and they should slowly be released into the soil and will feed on the gnat larvae. Hopefully it will kill the rest of the em, if not I'll just re-pot the plants.

The plants don't seem to mind the pests as much as I do, both seem to be growing healthy. The Pure Kush smells skunky up close, the Sharksbreath not so much. The Sharksbreath is stockier than the Pure Kush, you can see the difference in the side by side comparison photo.

Day 27 - 31

Ok so I ended up re-potting the plant last update (Day 27).

The plants re-potted fairly well, I did not water the plants because the new soil was very moist. The SharksBreath drooped right away from shock (I didn't do best job maintaining root structure during transfer) hours later though it was fine. The Pure Kush experienced no shock but started drooping after 2 days. (note on Day 29 gave both plants 900mls of water with 1/2 strength nutes) I thought the issue may have been a lack of water, which was possible, but because the soil was raised up and the leaves I don't think need to be as rigid as before to get sunlight?

Anyway feedback at this point in the game is welcomed if any!

Wow those ladys Look great so far, gotta get some pictures with the LED off.

Ask and you shall receive! Was curious myself actually to see the true colors, kind of rare for me too.

Pure Kush Day 33

Sharksbreath Day 33

Pure Kush (left) Sharksbreath (right) Day 33