How not to grow. A beginners journal.

Mister Black · Dec 11, 2011

Hi all would have started posting here form the get go but had problems uploading pics a few days ago. Anyhow I find this site to be extremely helpful and active so will try a journal here. Had one at IC too but have not really had much help there with my myriad of questions and problems.
I'm currently on day 6 of my grow.
The highlights so far...

2-3 seeds popped. Got them from attitude seed bank. All feminised. Some of them autos since I thought they'd be easier for a beginner.
NL auto popped in soil after a few days spent messing around with paper towels and shot glasses.
TD (non auto) fem popped right away (overnight) in a paper towel. Planted in some local soil mix and grew to 2 inches then stopped after 3 days.

On day 5 after both plants (both in party cups) re potted to 1 gallon pots with different type of soil. Turns out I had mixed the soil wrong in the party cups. This time went with some local potting soil. More of a brownish colour.

Now on day 6 no visible growth from the last 2 days now but with the stress of re potting I'm not expecting much growth for a few days. Really messed up the NL auto too.

Now have the plants outside during the day. Temp 32 degrees celcius today but usually cooler. 28 degrees average. When the sun goes down I let them have 6 hours of outside darkness at cooler temps. 21-25 degrees thenput them under lights until the morning again. I plan to repeat this until I have identifiable plants at which time they go and stay indoors on an 18/6 schelule.

Inside I have temp and RH issues to battle. Using water cooled A/C unit backed into my grow area the idea is it will suck the heated air out of the grow area and spit cooled air into the room which then circulates in and out of a sm

all window which is kept open 24/7. I CAN black the window out pretty effectively when 12/12 comes around too and there is mesh to stop bugs.

Closing the window is just not an option as RH and temp both climb exponentially when it is closed. The light does not leak too bad out of the 'cab' so stealth is not as issue. I have a small fan blowing air across the grow area at ground level towards the intake for the water cooled A/C system.

Using this system the temp at night under the lights is managed at 29-30 degrees celsius and the RH is 65-70%. I'm currently using disposable de humidifiers in

the grow space to manage the RH locally as the water cooled A/C system of course adds to the RH a little.

This is where I'm at today - day 6

View attachment 1928566

TangerineDr · Dec 11, 2011

Hey man,

Thanks for stopping by my journal. Sounds like they were of to a rough start but it seems like you are getting the hang of it.
Small fans are a great way to ventilate and cool your grow space. TD seems like a strain that is slow to start for most people, but once they have a few nodes on them they start to shoot up. Hang in there I'm sure they will turn up, but you should try to talk to growers in a similar climate setting so you have a good frame of reference.
I will be checking in, Good Luck =)

Mister Black · Dec 12, 2011

So today has been frought. I discovered my soil PH was way too high and I have watered - liberally with water mixed with PH down. Trying to get my run off to 7.0 or below. Watering itself is a nervous process because as a newbie everyone says DONT WATER TOO MUCH!!! As a result I may not have been watering enough. Right now I'm in a reasonable sized pot - probably 1 liter or maybe more so will water every other day until the plant drips down through the pot into the catch tray. Today I'm doing that 2x with PH reduced water before putting it under lights for the night with the TD and 1x with the NL which still needs TLC.
Today found a real difference between the 'dry' weight and after watering. Have logged that weight difference. All good experience. Feel good that I have learned something new today and hope that my remedy works. Have put both plants under CFL's until morning at which time they will both go back outside for the day assuming they live through the night.
Todays pics - before they were watered ----
View attachment 1930820 View attachment 1930821

Mister Black · Dec 13, 2011

Today my plants grew! Yes!!! I don't think I over watered them either! Am monitoring the pots weight and soil moisture over the next few days. Once we have dryness a good 2 inches down I'll water them again with PH lowered water. My goal is a PH about about 6.5. My mind is starting to think about nutrients. I know I'm probably 2 weeks away from needing them but it does not hurt to plan ahead...

Pics....

View attachment 1932990 View attachment 1932992

Mister Black · Dec 14, 2011

Wow this is excellent. More growth and a second set of leaves for both plants. Really like the schedule they are on but will have to change it soon as being outside will no longer be an option once they are much bigger. They are both looking dry but am resisting the urge to water them until the pots feel a bit lighter. Maybe tomorrow evening.
Todays pics -

TD followed by NL auto. AKR is still under the soil but have it under lights ready for the explosion of growth!

Mister Black · Dec 25, 2011

Time for an update. Quite a few things happened and I learnt a lot sometimes the hard way. My AKR never did emerge so I eventually dug it up and found it about 2 inches under compacted dirt style soil. It had germed nicely but could not fight its way to the surface so had died. Lesson was if they don't show after 3 or 4 days then dig em up and re position if needed. Of course this has to be done carefully. I planted a critical auto and blue widow and did the same with both of them which worked a treat.
I have now repotted all the plants into a much better soil mix. It took a bit of trial and error but I finally got it right. My NL auto almost died due to bad soil with high PH but now it has been reptted it is recovering. TD doing nicely but bleaching a bit so I'm beginning to feed it with 1/4 strength organic liquid nutes bought locally. NL auto also got the same nute mix as it was also bleaching a bit.
My grow cubby now has 4 plants in a space and lighting capacity designed for only 3.
Not sure how to add more lights but will give it a try as the plants grow. Hoping that 240w will do for now.
Heat and RH are being managed - barely. I forsee this will be a problem during flower so may have to use a de humidifier/scrubber which might just kill 2 birds with 1 stone! Smell and humidity!
For now I'm keeping them all on a timer 18/6 schedule and watering/feeding on pot weight when necessary. Have started a compost bin which might pay dividends in a month or so when I look to repot to something larger.
Latest pics of grow area and 4 plants....

Mister Black · Jan 2, 2012

Weekly update time using pics!
The big plant is the TD the big leafy one is Critical + auto and the 2 weedy looking ones are NL auto and Blue Widow. Blue Widow is young and NL auto has been repotted about 5 times so very stressed and almost dead before so alive is a big plus!

As you can hopefully see I topped the TD today. Hope I got it right! It was my first top. Chopped up the pieces and put them in some cooking stuff. Probably no effecvt but an early taste can't hurt right!
Just made a DIY CO2 dispenser so will see how that works.
The blue widow is worrying me a bit. Had an issue with nute burn but hopefully calming down now.
All comments are welcome here or on my discussion page

Mister Black · Jan 8, 2012

Weekly update time! Quite a lot has happened this week. Repotted the TD. Topped and repotted the critical. Repotted the NL auto and almost killed the Blue Widow with an overdose of N nutes!
The NL auto and Blue Widow are a real mess TBH and still are not much bigger than seedlings. However they are both still alive which is something.

Rejigged my grow cubby to allow more lights. Now have 5 x 23w and 3 x 65w in the space. Just did a little trimming. Mostly removing leaves from the bottom of the plant that were yellowing or dying. I did snip off the ends of some burnt leaves where the CFL's have been too close.
Have a look at he TD after pruning....

Now I did think about watering them all today but I'm going to wait just another day or possibly two. I really need to make sure they are totally dry so they can be watered without nutes in their new pots once before moving onto nutes. I'm going to be super cautious about nutes from now on after I did this...

This pic is after I have removed the worst hit leaves from the bottom of the plant. Believe it or not this is an improvement on the worst of the damage 2-3 days ago!
No nutes on this for a long time!

Topped the critical auto this week as well as a much needed repot. It has stopped growing quite as quickly as a result and most worryingly stopped smelling! The leaves on this one are so broad it is a real problem getting the light to all parts of the plant!

This NL auto is another plant I almost killed on several occasions. Still doing ok but looks terrible with miniature leaves. It is TINY! Don't really know what to do with it from here besides leave it alone under the lights and water when needed.

So my plan for this week is to water all the plants without nutes then wait 4-5 days and use 1/2 strength nutes on the bigger plants. Will continue with water only with the smaller ones probably.

Mister Black · Jan 16, 2012

In general things went well this week. I improved my grow area by adding reflective 'mylar' onto some of the cabby surfaces. I have continued experiementing with CO2 bottles. Because my temps are generally very high (30 degrees C) I think CO2 will be very useful throughout my grow. Next week is about preparing for flower as I don't want my TD to get too big for it's cab!

This week the BW really took off after being topped and repotted. It stressed for a few days not doing much then took off. Now have a new structure and look to the plant.

The Tangerine Dream has carried on slowly growing. Now it has 4 tops it may need more nutes. I've been strict about feeding it every watering so far. One feed, one water and so on. Next one is a feed which may be the last one before I put it into flower.

The NL auto is growing very quickly now so I topped it this week. It was developing a 'weedy xmas tree' look. Once it has recovered will need repotting into something larger.

Day by day my Critical auto is improving after nearly being killed by nute overdoes. The main thing is it is still alive. The 2nd thing is there is now noticeable growth! I'm still only feeding it water. This pic is a couple of days old and quite different to todays pic which is a good improvement.

Mister Black · Jan 22, 2012

So have spent some time and money finalising my lights/set up for flowering.
Got a couple of new lights. Am at 26k lumens in a 3.7 foot cab with minor light leak and reflective casing all round.
18k will be 2700 and 9k will be 6500.
The idea here is to slowly make the switch over to reduce possible stress.
Probably wil go 12/12 the middle of this week.

Am tempted to only run at night to help with heat problems but am concerned about daytime light leaks turning my plants hermie. At least at night I can know I'll get full pitch black.

My new nute all in one strategy is to use Maxi Bloom every other watering.

Now for pics!

axionjaxson · Jan 22, 2012

Mister Black said:
View attachment 1928542 View attachment 1928541Hi all would have started posting here form the get go but had problems uploading pics a few days ago. Anyhow I find this site to be extremely helpful and active so will try a journal here. Had one at IC too but have not really had much help there with my myriad of questions and problems.
I'm currently on day 6 of my grow.
The highlights so far...

View attachment 1928538

2-3 seeds popped. Got them from attitude seed bank. All feminised. Some of them autos since I thought they'd be easier for a beginner.
NL auto popped in soil after a few days spent messing around with paper towels and shot glasses.
TD (non auto) fem popped right away (overnight) in a paper towel. Planted in some local soil mix and grew to 2 inches then stopped after 3 days.

On day 5 after both plants (both in party cups) re potted to 1 gallon pots with different type of soil. Turns out I had mixed the soil wrong in the party cups. This time went with some local potting soil. More of a brownish colour.

Now on day 6 no visible growth from the last 2 days now but with the stress of re potting I'm not expecting much growth for a few days. Really messed up the NL auto too.

Now have the plants outside during the day. Temp 32 degrees celcius today but usually cooler. 28 degrees average. When the sun goes down I let them have 6 hours of outside darkness at cooler temps. 21-25 degrees thenput them under lights until the morning again. I plan to repeat this until I have identifiable plants at which time they go and stay indoors on an 18/6 schelule.

Inside I have temp and RH issues to battle. Using water cooled A/C unit backed into my grow area the idea is it will suck the heated air out of the grow area and spit cooled air into the room which then circulates in and out of a smView attachment 1928557all window which is kept open 24/7. I CAN black the window out pretty effectively when 12/12 comes around too and there is mesh to stop bugs.

View attachment 1928556

Closing the window is just not an option as RH and temp both climb exponentially when it is closed. The light does not leak too bad out of the 'cab' so stealth is not as issue. I have a small fan blowing air across the grow area at ground level towards the intake for the water cooled A/C system.

Using this system the temp at night under the lights is managed at 29-30 degrees celsius and the RH is 65-70%. I'm currently using disposable de humidifiers in View attachment 1928569the grow space to manage the RH locally as the water cooled A/C system of course adds to the RH a little.

This is where I'm at today - day 6

View attachment 1928566

wish i had thought of that title for my current grow.

Mister Black · Jan 26, 2012

So it is time to go into flower. I have had a long vegging process. It has been prolonged by the catalogue of mistakes I myself have made. It has not been easy learning all this stuff from scratch especially with the unique challenges presented to me by my location.

Now I'm there and hoping for no more major mistakes.

have about 27,000 lumens on 4 plants. Warm white 2/3 bright daylight 1/3

went 12/12 today for first time

set timers

what else?

Worries
I'm only 95% sure my flowering space is lightproof.

It is too small for me to get in it and look!

What if my feminized seeds turn hermie/male on me because of all the stress I've put them through.

Will my autos do ok with the new light cycle?

Should I be using any bright light bulbs at all in my veg box. Read somewhere that 2/1 bright white in veg cycle was a good mix so assumed it might work the other way around.

Plans

Buy more yeast to make CO2 and find a less smelly way to generate it.

Grow cab pics. Plants are fine.

ssc0530 · Jan 26, 2012

try misting the leaves under them and such too) with bubbly/sparkling h20 3 times a day. nothing overly changing your pH balance in your growing medium. The CO2 in the moisture from the carbonated water might be cheaper and easier to manage.

Mister Black · Jan 28, 2012

ssc0530 said:
try misting the leaves under them and such too) with bubbly/sparkling h20 3 times a day. nothing overly changing your pH balance in your growing medium. The CO2 in the moisture from the carbonated water might be cheaper and easier to manage.[/QUOTE
Good idea! I might just try that!

So now the plants are 100% into flowering I have less access to them and to the room. I've beefed up the cab abd it's reflection and more light and more protection from ambient light during lights off time.

Plants are going nicely but now I have a new problem. ANTS! Yes the little blighters have come inside in some soil and some of them are now living in my Tangerine Dream pot. I could see them scurrying up and down the plants stem then going under the surface. It does not seem to be doing the plant any harm at all but I'm worried if there get to be too many of them I could have a problem. Might have to post on the bug section for that answer.

NL auto top.
BW, TD and Critical auto (L to R)

Thedillestpickle · Jan 29, 2012

Hey look into it, ants could possibly be a good thing to have? They might eat pests. That would be really crazy if you actually had a queen ant in your pot lol
I didnt understand why you were taking the plants outside, thats a good way to bring in pests, and needlessly stressing the poor baby plants
looks pretty good though

zibra · Jan 29, 2012

You're a pretty talented grower my brotha. Very nice!

My TD is in week 1 with buds all over. She is very impressive, so far. LOL...happy grow

Mister Black · Feb 3, 2012

zibra said:
You're a pretty talented grower my brotha. Very nice!

My TD is in week 1 with buds all over. She is very impressive, so far. LOL...happy grow

Thanks for the encouragment Zib. TBH I need all I can get this being my first grow. Today I repotted my TD into something larger. Hopefully it will be the last pot it ever needs. When I plucked it out it was a total root ball. Roots everywhere! No need to shake off. It was straight into the pot. Water then back under the lights.
These babies are needing more and more water too. I put 1.2 liters into the TD new pot and still none came out the bottom! I was afraid to put anymore in as she already looked like she had had enough.
The NL auto needs a water today and is doing nicely after all its adventures. The Critical auto is going into flower nicely now although it is very small and stunted. I'd would NOT recomend topping for critical. I'll be lucky to get 5g out of the critical but we will see. The blue widow I'm not sure about. It is the largest of the plants but is having some issues at the top of the plant. Someone said it could be over nuting or over watering or both so I'm going to let it get nice and dry then give it water only next feed then let it get really dry again before feeding.
I've had to re design (expand) the grow cab due to space constraints. I'm quite happy with the results although I need more light in there having effectively doubled the grow area allbeit 1/2ing the number of plants in each space.

Pics Left to right - Critical auto, Northern Lights auto, NL auto close up, Blue Widow, BW close up, New grow space set up, bottom, Tangerine Dream newly repotted.

Mister Black · Feb 7, 2012

Have begun to LST the BW and TD. Doing this to contain the plants in the space I want them to be.
Mainly a pictorial update today..

Mister Black · Feb 12, 2012

Just a non pictorial update today. Will get to that in the middle of the week sometime. Plants really surprised me with how they have responded to LST. Really opened my eyes about the process of growing and what the idea of growing is exactly.
Looks like I LST'ed the right 2 plants as they have increased bud production 2-3 fold. Just needed to expose more of the plant to constant light.

The yield on my critical will be very small but yummy as it will be my 1st harvest. Quite a ways to go on it though as the buds continue to develop through the 3rd week of flower. Not sure when to start flushing but probably in 1-2 weeks.

The others are developing nicely and getting buds forming. Should I be worried if buds do not form on every internode?

Mister Black · Feb 15, 2012

So just a quick update to close out week 3 of flowering. I was in the cab today watering and feeding my plants as they needed. A few observations.

Lots of yellowing leaves lower down the plats. Not getting too worried about this, just cutting them off and adding to my trim stash.

Buds are coming along nicely especially on the critical. On the NL auto there are buds forming (slowly) and the 2 others are photoperiod so moving a bit more sedately.

There appear to be more ants in the cab running about now. Might have to do something about them if they carry on multiplying. Either take my plants out of the grow room for a few hours and fumigate in some way or use a less invasive method and leave the plants where they are for the time being. Of course doing nothing is always an option in the meantime.....

The NL auto is slurping up the water very quickly. I kinda like this and attribute it to the soil mix being coco dominated in this pot. The soil consistancy is kinda light as well like it is easy for roots to make headway in there.

The TD and BW have both been LST'ed over the past week or 2. I had another go tying down the TD today. Would like to tie the BW down a bit more but have no room except up left in the cab.

Would have to say LST'ing kicks ass! A SCROG might be the way to go next grow. A lot easier when everything is on the same level.

Have lots of questions about making hash as well as manicuring/harvesting/curing. However with at least 1 month left in flower there is no hurry. Lucky for me as finding iso alchohol has not been easy. The best I've found so far is ethel alchohol 70% which is a poor substitute.

I'm beginning to realise the difficulty level in growing 4 different strains at the same time. I have 2 auto's so it is not quite as bad but it does look like I'll be harvesting my plants at 4 different times. Luckily this forum has been a huge help.

Some of the problems I've faced I've overcome and others I've yet to find a solution. For example the temps especially under the lights is too hot. The RH is too high and my Co2 system is crappy and ant attracting. There are heat spots in my canopy. Sometimes they prove costly by zapping my buds. Other times there is no problem. The ants you know about already. These are a few problems I've not been able to solve as yet.

I've learnt that growing sometimes is doing the best you can with what you have. In that spirit I've let a few things slide these past two weeks. Now I just open the cab up every 2 days to quickly check there are no isolated male bits on my feminized plants. I keep thinking my pots are too small as well but don't want all the hassle of repotting and making a new soil mix. The plants are taking much more water now anyway (2 liters per feed). If I made a bigger pot it could mean a gallon per plant which would be time consuming to water.

So now my attention is fixed on making sure plants are watered/fed the correct amount type of water/nutrient/molasses. Now I have found molasses I'm using it mixed with plain water on the plants 'water only' feed. I've been trimming/pruning as well as LSTing.
The future is exciting but can't see a lot happening these next few weeks.

The issue of what to grow is next although I'd be the first to admit I'm getting ahead of myself I want to get planning for the future.

I'll probably post an update this weekend with pics although I might wait till the middle of next week. Getting a bit lazy and the plants are harder to pic now they are getting LST.

How not to grow. A beginners journal.

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