I am on my first grow. I just finished eleven days. The grow is definitely suboptimal so far, but the reasons I think are relatively simple.
In this and the next two posts I would like to lay out everything and hopefully get some good advice on how to turn the ship around.
I have a 4x4 tent, an Apache Tech AT600 LED light (680W), two AC Infinity T6 inline fans for intake and exhaust, a carbon filter, two oscillating fans, two humidifiers, and a controller.
I live in a tropical region. The weather is sunny, not too humid, not too dry. Temperatures are in the 22-35 C range this time of year.
My soil is equal parts perlite, coconut coir, my own homemade compost that was sitting out to dry for a couple months, and a very small tad of azomite and seaweed powder (is this called kelp meal?). I measured the pH of the soil and it was 6.4-6.5.
I germinated four seeds in paper towel. They all germinated perfectly. I probably let them get too long (one was an inch), and then I planted them too deep. Only one of the seedlings came up perfectly from the soil. The other three opened their leaves under the soil, and I had to rescue them manually. One did not survive.
Therefore, I have three plants. The seeds were
- Barney's Moby Dick
- Paradise Seeds LA Amnesia
- Paradise Seeds Atomic Haze
- Ceres Seeds Fruity Thai
But I got the pots mixed up so I am not sure anymore which pot is which.
So many rookie mistakes, eh?
I am running the lights on an 18/6 schedule. I turn on the lights at 6pm to noon, so that I take advantage of the cooler temperatures at night. I've been able to keep temperature between 27 and 30 C and the humidity at between 60 and 70 at pretty much all times.
Let me cut to the chase.
- I think my main problem is that my light is way too powerful for seedlings, even though the seedlings are about 60 inches from the light and not directly beneath them.
- In fact, I feel quite ridiculous having three seedlings under these lights. It is overkill (almost in a literal sense) and wastes so much electricity. For next time, I intend on buying other lighting solutions for the seedling stage.
- The solution I found on the eleventh day (perhaps 16 hours before the latest photos you will see below) was to hang some very fine mesh between the lights and the plants.
- Finally, I am on the 12th day now and I have watered three times. On the 2nd or 3rd day I watered generously. Thereafter, I watered two more times like on day 6 and maybe 9, but very small amounts with a syringe at the base of the plants. I'm talking like 30ml of water with no runoff. Today, at the start of the 12th day I watered more generously, perhaps 150-200ml. This was enough to just see some runoff.
Before showing the photos, here are my questions if anyone would be so kind as to help me out.
- Is my main issue the lighting?
- Have I been underwatering?
- Do you have any other recommendations?
I will show you photos of the space and then of the plants. The following two photos are taken from the same position.
Here is the top of the grow tent.
Here is the floor of the grow tent. As you can see, the plants are in the corner where they are the furthest from the lights, beneath the carbon filter. Note that I only put the black mesh you see there in the middle of the 11th day (as I write this I am just starting the 12th day).
Here are day-by-day photos of one of the plants.
Day 3
On day 3, I got a yellow tip and the leaves bending downwards. I had read about overwatering, and since I had watered the day before I thought this was the problem. I didn't even think of excessive light since the plant was so far from the light.
Day 4
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
- Since the plant seemed to be growing despite the yellowing leaves, and since I did not suspect excessive light at this point, I moved it (and the other two) slightly closer to the light. No longer in the corner, but rather off to the side of the light.
- I looked at the PAR charts from Apache tech (which has charts for 36'' height from light to plant) and made a very, very rough guess of what the PAR would be at the position the plants were in (60'' height difference and about 2.8ft away from the light center when in the corner).
Day 9
- When I opened the tent from the dark period, I noticed a clear fully retracted taco tip on one of the other plants. I immediately starting googling and finally concluded that I had an excessive light problem.
- Notice how the second pair of leaves on the plant below is also starting to get yellow at the tips.
- I regretted having moved the plants closer to the light, and so moved them back to the corner of the tent.
- Note that the temperature has been between 27 and 30 C, with humidity of between 60 and 70% pretty much constantly throughout the entire time.
Day 10
- Still getting small yellowing at the serrated tips of new leaves.
At this point, I put in place the mesh that can be seen in the second picture all the way at the beginning of this post.
(Continued)
In this and the next two posts I would like to lay out everything and hopefully get some good advice on how to turn the ship around.
I have a 4x4 tent, an Apache Tech AT600 LED light (680W), two AC Infinity T6 inline fans for intake and exhaust, a carbon filter, two oscillating fans, two humidifiers, and a controller.
I live in a tropical region. The weather is sunny, not too humid, not too dry. Temperatures are in the 22-35 C range this time of year.
My soil is equal parts perlite, coconut coir, my own homemade compost that was sitting out to dry for a couple months, and a very small tad of azomite and seaweed powder (is this called kelp meal?). I measured the pH of the soil and it was 6.4-6.5.
I germinated four seeds in paper towel. They all germinated perfectly. I probably let them get too long (one was an inch), and then I planted them too deep. Only one of the seedlings came up perfectly from the soil. The other three opened their leaves under the soil, and I had to rescue them manually. One did not survive.
Therefore, I have three plants. The seeds were
- Barney's Moby Dick
- Paradise Seeds LA Amnesia
- Paradise Seeds Atomic Haze
- Ceres Seeds Fruity Thai
But I got the pots mixed up so I am not sure anymore which pot is which.
So many rookie mistakes, eh?
I am running the lights on an 18/6 schedule. I turn on the lights at 6pm to noon, so that I take advantage of the cooler temperatures at night. I've been able to keep temperature between 27 and 30 C and the humidity at between 60 and 70 at pretty much all times.
Let me cut to the chase.
- I think my main problem is that my light is way too powerful for seedlings, even though the seedlings are about 60 inches from the light and not directly beneath them.
- In fact, I feel quite ridiculous having three seedlings under these lights. It is overkill (almost in a literal sense) and wastes so much electricity. For next time, I intend on buying other lighting solutions for the seedling stage.
- The solution I found on the eleventh day (perhaps 16 hours before the latest photos you will see below) was to hang some very fine mesh between the lights and the plants.
- Finally, I am on the 12th day now and I have watered three times. On the 2nd or 3rd day I watered generously. Thereafter, I watered two more times like on day 6 and maybe 9, but very small amounts with a syringe at the base of the plants. I'm talking like 30ml of water with no runoff. Today, at the start of the 12th day I watered more generously, perhaps 150-200ml. This was enough to just see some runoff.
Before showing the photos, here are my questions if anyone would be so kind as to help me out.
- Is my main issue the lighting?
- Have I been underwatering?
- Do you have any other recommendations?
I will show you photos of the space and then of the plants. The following two photos are taken from the same position.
Here is the top of the grow tent.
Here is the floor of the grow tent. As you can see, the plants are in the corner where they are the furthest from the lights, beneath the carbon filter. Note that I only put the black mesh you see there in the middle of the 11th day (as I write this I am just starting the 12th day).
Here are day-by-day photos of one of the plants.
Day 3
On day 3, I got a yellow tip and the leaves bending downwards. I had read about overwatering, and since I had watered the day before I thought this was the problem. I didn't even think of excessive light since the plant was so far from the light.
Day 4
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
- Since the plant seemed to be growing despite the yellowing leaves, and since I did not suspect excessive light at this point, I moved it (and the other two) slightly closer to the light. No longer in the corner, but rather off to the side of the light.
- I looked at the PAR charts from Apache tech (which has charts for 36'' height from light to plant) and made a very, very rough guess of what the PAR would be at the position the plants were in (60'' height difference and about 2.8ft away from the light center when in the corner).
Day 9
- When I opened the tent from the dark period, I noticed a clear fully retracted taco tip on one of the other plants. I immediately starting googling and finally concluded that I had an excessive light problem.
- Notice how the second pair of leaves on the plant below is also starting to get yellow at the tips.
- I regretted having moved the plants closer to the light, and so moved them back to the corner of the tent.
- Note that the temperature has been between 27 and 30 C, with humidity of between 60 and 70% pretty much constantly throughout the entire time.
Day 10
- Still getting small yellowing at the serrated tips of new leaves.
At this point, I put in place the mesh that can be seen in the second picture all the way at the beginning of this post.
(Continued)
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