My first Root is Down

Glad to have you along on my first grow! Comments and suggestions welcomed. I've been doing lots of reading here and other places for the past few months but can use all the help I can get.



strain: Caramel Kush, 00 seeds, Indica, projected height 27-31" flower about 60 days
medium: Fox Farm Ocean Forest, 30% perlite
nutes: Fox Farm trio
water: tap, 138ppm pH'd to 6.5
environment: Gorilla tent 2 X 2.5 X 7ft in a stealth closet, ducted through the roof with a 6" fan, It's been getting pretty warm in there, up to 84d, about 70 at night, 55% RH
lighting: Mars Hydro Pro Epistar 600 (265watts actual) I'm keeping both switches on, currently 18/6, 18" from canopy

I germinated this seed Dec 31st in a rapid rooter. She sprouted Jan 5th and I consider the vegetative stage started Jan 21st. I had some problems along the way- she stretched a bit in the first few days because the light was too high. I ended up burying it a little deeper during the seedling phase (day. A few days after that the leaves began drooping pretty bad. I was told I was over watering but that turned out not to be the case at all. The roots were drying out causing the droop. I transplanted to a 1gal fabric pot a few days ago- the roots had reached the bottom of the SOLO cup and were getting dry even though I was watering every three days when the cup was light. I had too much perlite in the medium, and maybe too many drainage holes as well. I'm paranoid about over watering, but under watering is almost as bad.

Attached is a picture from today, day 2 of veg. Sorry for the potato quality, I'll up the resolution on my camera for future pictures.

Your plant should do better in it's new home.

I don't worry about roots in the bottom and each time I repot I use a bread knife to saw the bottom off the rootball to get rid of the long roots. That makes the roots further up branch out with lots of new feeder roots and it happens fast.

I grow in plastic pots so don't get the passive root pruning that fabric pots provide.

Day 3, she's continuing to perk up.
Last night I investigated why my exhaust just didn't seem as strong, found the prefilter was clogged with drywall dust. I don't see how that happened, as after I finished the installation of the exhaust port and electrical outlets the closet was vacuumed. Unfortunately when it was removed it rained drywall dust everywhere.
Running without a prefilter for now, will reinstall at some point to extend the longevity of the carbon filter.

I have a soil moisture meter, I don't trust it completely but will give it a shot.

High 75d F, about 40% humidity with the exhaust running.

I upped the quality on my camera, but the pictures were still not great. Guess I'll just use my phone.

Set your phone for mid-level pics. I rarely will open a pic larger than 1 meg.

My LG phone has a 13mp camera but I use my 20mp digi cam for pot pics as it as no GPS or other location data in the pics I take with it. Then I load the 6Mb pics to my computer and resize them so they come out around 400Kb and still look sharp.

best of luck Rootdown, ill be following along

diggs99 said:

best of luck Rootdown, ill be following along

Click to expand...

Good to have you here, hope mine turns out as nice as yours!

Day 4.
Still a bit droopy. The pot was very light, only a faint hint of any moisture two knuckles down, moisture probe at 2.
Watered a little around the canopy (not at the base), did not soak the whole pot. Gave a slight misting to the leaves. Moisture meter now at 6, dead center of "moist". pH 6.5

low 70d high 75d
RH 38-46%, refilling the humidifier at least twice a day. Extraction fan on low 24X7

Back to the camera, upped the quality again and resized it. I bought this camera to keep these pictures off my phone- but haven't been very happy with the quality mostly due to having to use the flash with the lights out. Wish I'd gone with the quantum boards for this and other reasons!

You should be soaking the whole pot and then don't water again until the pot starts feeling light. It'll have roots to the bottom in a week and there will likely still be moisture down there tho in a fabric pot it'll probably dry out faster.. I've seen a lot of buggered up plants when guys water a little at a time.

i water around base of stem and approx 2 " out from stem for first watering after i up pot....second watering i extend outwards another 2 inches, i followed a few successful growers who used this method , it worked on my first grow, seems to have worked with the space cookies too.

3rd watering and every water there after i soak the pot and wait for it to dry before watering again.

Thank you both. I'm so paranoid about overwatering because of the comments in my other thread about the leaves being droopy.

Day 6 Flower- WOW she really perked up today! Must be loving the room afforded by the bigger pot.

72-77d 36-41RH
Still struggling to keep the humidity at the desired 55%, but I don't think it's important as temperature and fresh air. I do my best to keep it up with the humidifier and keeping some water in the saucer. Of course I'm always sure she's not sitting in the water.
Soil moisture reads just below two- and two knuckles down the tip of my finger is cool, but not moist. Tomorrow morning I'll give her a bit more water- focusing on a slightly larger ring around the canopy. Subsequent waterings will be soaking the pot each time until the next transplant.

A little about me. I'm doing this of course for the end result of a quality product I can enjoy at the privacy of my home. I also love all the tech involved with the hobby. I enjoyed planning and setting up, controlling an environment, watching the growth every day, and of course reading and learning as much as I can here and other sources. I may not post much here but I read a whole bunch.

My goal is to grow different strains on a very small scale. I'm planning on one plant at a time, two at the max. This is why I chose a small tent. I want to have a shelf of different strains to be able to choose my experience rather than having the option of "whatever's available" without knowing what I'm getting. Also as a respectable citizen I don't want to support the cartel in any way.

I'm attaching some pictures of my setup. This is a stealth grow, inside a closet in my house. The last thing I want to do is walk into my house and smell the grow, and I've taken steps to minimize the noise and light pollution as well.

This hobby is great for the economy. Today I assembled the shelf in the pictures, and somehow I convinced my wife to let me get a Quantum Board 260W v2 3000k kit- so look forward to some big changes soon. I'm going to sell the Mars Hydro Pro II Epistar "600W" (265W). Now I won't have to turn off the lights to take pictures yay!

Been a few days, here's the latest developments.
Day 7 watered a larger ring around the canopy

Day8- so here's where I messed up. Day8 she was looking great, and I wanted to top. The picture of her on the shelf in front of the nutrients is before I topped. Unfortunately I was in a rush (before work) and I ended up taking an extra node off, so the second node down.
As a result of this I changed her cycle opposite mine, so she's waking when I'm getting off work. I've been spending too much time in the mornings with her, wanting to take care of things at the start of her day. Now her day starts at a better time for mine.

Today is Day11 VEG (day31 since sprout) and she's looking pretty good. There is a wonderful aroma in the tent and she's been fairly perky. I watered on Day9, a full soaking this time- and there's still moisture detected so I don't think I'll need to water for another two or three days. I'm starting to see some undergrowth. I sat it on top of a five gallon bucket to get it off the ground, of course raised the lights to match- still at 18" from canopy. Temps have been lower, 66-74.

Is it too early to start LST? Should I wait until the two new main stems are better established?

Good job bud.

I would prob hold off on the LST for another week or so, let the plant relax and start growing again.

For example, i topped all of my plants around day 17-19 mark, then around day 22-24 ill start the LST and wont stop lol

Nice job so far.

.RootDown said:

Is it too early to start LST? Should I wait until the two new main stems are better established?

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You're going to have to let the two tops grow out a couple inches then start training them as they grow.

Looking good so far!

Thanks for the advice diggs99 and OldMedUser.

She's looking great today, praying towards the light with the two new stems shooting up. The nodes underneath have some new growth as well.

Temps back to 66-81, maintained about 77 during the entire time I was with her. RH struggling but about 46%. Moisture meter at 2. I stuck the meter all the way to the bottom of the pot, I think I had the ends of the probes too high. I didn't feel with my finger today, but will tomorrow- the pot doesn't feel light enough.

I hope the picture sizes, quality, and resolution level are ok. These have all been 1024x768, but I can go 800x600.

Day 13 VEG

Looking great! Temps have been much better. I put the plant on the bucket, and the bucket in the saucer a few days ago. Since then I'd struggled with low temps and humidity. The water in the saucer wasn't evaporating and my humidifier was running dry all the time. I put the saucer back under the plant, on top of the bucket and it's made all the difference in temperature and humidity. I enjoy the working height, and the heater/humidifier output (if needed) mixes below the grow zone and is pulled by the fan around the plant and out through the air extractor.


Edit to add
Pics taken immediately following a watering pH 6.5 full soak until runoff.

This morning (just before lights out day13) her leaves were very droopy. I have noticed the droopiness at the end of her day on several occasions, and that it seems worse after waterings.

Should I be concerned with this? Are the lights too much? I'm running Mars Hydro Pro Epistar 600 (265watts actual) at 18" with both switches on for an 18/6 cycle. I'm not making any lighting changes until the unit is replaced with a Quantum Board next week.

I really don't think this is over watering. The pots are light and I can barely detect any moisture two knuckles down. The moisture meter agrees, with the probes at the very bottom of the pot. I wonder if I'm allowing the medium to dry out too much.

A few hours after lights on she will perk back up a little, and more so in the following days- is this normal or a sign of stress?

The pots are light and I can barely detect any moisture two knuckles down. The moisture meter agrees, with the probes at the very bottom of the pot. I wonder if I'm allowing the medium to dry out too much.

Plant looks fine man. Ya know plants can droop when they need to be watered too right?

Yes I know that, I just worry about stressing by watering too little or giving too much light. The drooping seemed excessive at the end of the day, when they were watered that morning.

.RootDown said:

This morning (just before lights out day13) her leaves were very droopy. I have noticed the droopiness at the end of her day on several occasions, and that it seems worse after waterings.

Should I be concerned with this? Are the lights too much? I'm running Mars Hydro Pro Epistar 600 (265watts actual) at 18" with both switches on for an 18/6 cycle. I'm not making any lighting changes until the unit is replaced with a Quantum Board next week.

I really don't think this is over watering. The pots are light and I can barely detect any moisture two knuckles down. The moisture meter agrees, with the probes at the very bottom of the pot. I wonder if I'm allowing the medium to dry out too much.

A few hours after lights on she will perk back up a little, and more so in the following days- is this normal or a sign of stress?

Click to expand...

265w is alot for that tent. I have the same one and had problems in veg at over 175w, didnt happen right away either. Too much light, move it away farther till your new light comes.