Greetings all.
Decided to take the plunge and try growing my own bud. I'm working with...
- 5x feminized AK-48 seeds from Nirvana
- 4'x4' tent
- 600W MH/HPS + air-cooled hood
- DWC (I bought this one off Amazon because the price was right)
All set up in my mid-Michigan basement where temps (this time of year) are a pretty solid 50*F and humidity is non-existent.
I've been keeping my own notes for a bit, figured I'd finally post them here. So without further adieu, lettuce begin.
Dec, 2014
Started researching (again — nearly started growing a few years ago in college), sourced stuff, ordered seeds from Nirvana the 27th.
Jan 13-15th, 2015
Seeds arrived super stealthily. Should have taken a picture; then again stealth shipping is much less effective the more people talk about it... Probably for the better. Anyway, 4 beans went into rapid rooter plugs and got set on my kitchen counter w/ a humidity dome and heat mat.
First bout of paranoia set in very shortly after. It has begun. Thermometer is reading around 60*F even w/ the heat mat and none of the seeds had done anything, so I pulled them and put them all in a shot glass. Decided to drop in the last AK-48 seed as a failsafe just in case one of the girls has a failure to launch. Meanwhile, I brought a space heater upstairs and set it next to the germination station to help keep the temps up in my frosty abode.
About 8 hours later they were all peeping their little heads (or toes, rather) out. They all got dropped back into rooters at this point.
Jan 17th-18th, 2015
The morning of the 17th all the girls were showing their heads. I spent the day in Detroit for the auto show and got back about 2AM the next morning and 2 were getting extremely leggy, with 2 more not far behind, and 1 appearing to be that failure to launch. In my inexperience I didn't see this as a cry for lights, and they stayed here for another 5 days. I was under the false impression they should have a full set of leaves before they were ready for HID lighting.
Also, peeking down in the rooters I could see one of the girls (one of the faster growing girls, actually), had her roots growing all sorts of funky ways. Her taproot went up, then curled out, and went straight out the side. Weird.
Jan 23, 2015
Finally, finally put the girls under lights. Should have probably done so a few days earlier. Had a real scare very shortly after planting them. Sure enough, I had a) too much light, and b) too much wind. Luckily, I caught them starting to wilt no more than 20 minutes after transplanting them to their DWC buckets. Brought the light up to about 20" and turned the fans all the way down low and pointed them indirectly. 30 minutes and they were all standing right back up soaking in the light.
Oh, and runty went away today. She was no more than 2 inches long and struggling to hold on. Girl with the weird root continues to have weird root.
Jan 25, 2015
Pretty sure I've committed the cardinal sin of overwatering. I squirted some water down into each plant to rehydrate the rooter. Leaves are all super droopy. I've been steadily lowering the light though and they show no signs of heat damage or stress, so I decide to just wait it out. I've probably already stunted growth, but I'd rather stay as hands off at this point as possible. I feel like every little move will kill them.
Decided to take the plunge and try growing my own bud. I'm working with...
- 5x feminized AK-48 seeds from Nirvana
- 4'x4' tent
- 600W MH/HPS + air-cooled hood
- DWC (I bought this one off Amazon because the price was right)
All set up in my mid-Michigan basement where temps (this time of year) are a pretty solid 50*F and humidity is non-existent.
I've been keeping my own notes for a bit, figured I'd finally post them here. So without further adieu, lettuce begin.
Dec, 2014
Started researching (again — nearly started growing a few years ago in college), sourced stuff, ordered seeds from Nirvana the 27th.
Jan 13-15th, 2015
Seeds arrived super stealthily. Should have taken a picture; then again stealth shipping is much less effective the more people talk about it... Probably for the better. Anyway, 4 beans went into rapid rooter plugs and got set on my kitchen counter w/ a humidity dome and heat mat.
First bout of paranoia set in very shortly after. It has begun. Thermometer is reading around 60*F even w/ the heat mat and none of the seeds had done anything, so I pulled them and put them all in a shot glass. Decided to drop in the last AK-48 seed as a failsafe just in case one of the girls has a failure to launch. Meanwhile, I brought a space heater upstairs and set it next to the germination station to help keep the temps up in my frosty abode.
About 8 hours later they were all peeping their little heads (or toes, rather) out. They all got dropped back into rooters at this point.
Jan 17th-18th, 2015
The morning of the 17th all the girls were showing their heads. I spent the day in Detroit for the auto show and got back about 2AM the next morning and 2 were getting extremely leggy, with 2 more not far behind, and 1 appearing to be that failure to launch. In my inexperience I didn't see this as a cry for lights, and they stayed here for another 5 days. I was under the false impression they should have a full set of leaves before they were ready for HID lighting.
Also, peeking down in the rooters I could see one of the girls (one of the faster growing girls, actually), had her roots growing all sorts of funky ways. Her taproot went up, then curled out, and went straight out the side. Weird.
Jan 23, 2015
Finally, finally put the girls under lights. Should have probably done so a few days earlier. Had a real scare very shortly after planting them. Sure enough, I had a) too much light, and b) too much wind. Luckily, I caught them starting to wilt no more than 20 minutes after transplanting them to their DWC buckets. Brought the light up to about 20" and turned the fans all the way down low and pointed them indirectly. 30 minutes and they were all standing right back up soaking in the light.
Oh, and runty went away today. She was no more than 2 inches long and struggling to hold on. Girl with the weird root continues to have weird root.
Jan 25, 2015
Pretty sure I've committed the cardinal sin of overwatering. I squirted some water down into each plant to rehydrate the rooter. Leaves are all super droopy. I've been steadily lowering the light though and they show no signs of heat damage or stress, so I decide to just wait it out. I've probably already stunted growth, but I'd rather stay as hands off at this point as possible. I feel like every little move will kill them.
