TheDillestPickle's First Grow Journal

ottawaliquid

Active Member
Already on it, I added 50ppm of epsom salts to the last two waterings
I just used some masking tape and skewers to space out the 4 tops of the plants. Now all of the lower branches are getting lots of light and should develope a little better, they have been growing very thin stems and obviously not getting any light, I need at least a few to develope further so I can use them for taking clones. I will leave the skewers on for the next couple weeks to train the tops to grow apart from each other, maybe even leave them on for the rest of the grow. unfortunately I had to space out the plants quite a bit more and raise the lights a few inches so the light intensity is a little diminished. I'll give them all a few days to grow out in their new shape and post some pics so you guys can see what I'm talking about.
glad you caught it early! hope the epsom salts sort everything out.. Unfortunately because I thought mine was heat stress it went a lot farther than yours and they are pretty damaged.
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
nice room going tdp, you don't think 1500ppm is going to be a bit high? do you have a co2 meter? i use to, till i broke it, ha.. back when it worked though my homes co2 read 700ppm,.. which is high since I'm at a low elevation,.. and read our ladies can't use much more anyways,.. also thought i read 2000 was toxic to people.. just seems overly high, but i guess its easier then my bucket vacuum idea, ha.. good luck, i grew kali-mist once, but yielder, im more of a kush lover myself though :)
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
nice room going tdp, you don't think 1500ppm is going to be a bit high? do you have a co2 meter? i use to, till i broke it, ha.. back when it worked though my homes co2 read 700ppm,.. which is high since I'm at a low elevation,.. and read our ladies can't use much more anyways,.. also thought i read 2000 was toxic to people.. just seems overly high, but i guess its easier then my bucket vacuum idea, ha.. good luck, i grew kali-mist once, but yielder, im more of a kush lover myself though :)
How was the yield from Kali Mist?
1500ppm is considered the "optimum" for fastes plant growth
 

ottawaliquid

Active Member
How was the yield from Kali Mist?
1500ppm is considered the "optimum" for fastes plant growth
Humans don't notice the effects of elevated CO2 until much higher levels until about 10,000 ppm and only with prolonged exposure....

2000ppm would even be okay for the plants too I've heard because you are exhausting some CO2 with you inline fan so they don't have enough time to take full benefit of the additional CO2 levels.
 

ottawaliquid

Active Member
Humans don't notice the effects of elevated CO2 until much higher levels until about 10,000 ppm and only with prolonged exposure....

2000ppm would even be okay for the plants too I've heard because you are exhausting some CO2 with you inline fan so they don't have enough time to take full benefit of the additional CO2 levels.
*EDIT* : But I have also heard the 1500 number as being the optimum level in static or minimal air exchange conditions.
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
*EDIT* : But I have also heard the 1500 number as being the optimum level in static or minimal air exchange conditions.
My room setup is not complete.. there are many upgrades planned in the next month... I really hope I can get it all done before flowering is initiated but will have to see how my funds work out.
When the room is complete the CO2 levels will remain at 1500ppm at all times, I will also bring the temperature up to 80 degrees daytime and 78 degrees night-time, as a goal, I'll see how close to those numbers I can get.

Nothing to update in this thread really but check out my other grow journal... I'm running a little experiment of a female Kali Mist grafted onto a male Kali Mist plant. The male was 50 days old when I chopped it, so it has quite a large rootmass
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/505496-female-spliced-male-experimental.html
 

SFguy

Well-Known Member
wrap the pipe in ducctape, or some kind of insulation, that will help the condensation, im on page three right now just skimming

the clones will droop THEY ARE TRYIN TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO, they WONT ROOT VERY EASILY/ AT ALL W/OUT A DOME =),
they have no roots to uptake water for survival, the dome increased humidity to a point where the LEAVES absorb the rh% in the air under the dome.. THEY NEED A DOME,
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
wrap the pipe in ducctape, or some kind of insulation, that will help the condensation, im on page three right now just skimming

the clones will droop THEY ARE TRYIN TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO, they WONT ROOT VERY EASILY/ AT ALL W/OUT A DOME =),
they have no roots to uptake water for survival, the dome increased humidity to a point where the LEAVES absorb the rh% in the air under the dome.. THEY NEED A DOME,
They had dome, but according to my cheap crappy(well actually I paid 17$ for it!) RH guage, it was only getting up to 65% and thats with spraying the dome on the inside and all that jazz

The first round of clones have all clung to life, but they are pretty useless to me because I forgot to label which monther each clone came from

I cooked my second batch due to under-estimating the warmth of a heating pad and the greenhouse effect.

In another week I should have about 50 viable cuttings to choose from on my 7 female plants

Wrapping the pipe in insulation would work for the 4 feet length of pipe that is not covered by drywall/ceiling, but its the other 20 feet that go above the ceiling that I'm worried about. I'm worried it will drip water onto onto the ceiling and eventually cause mold, I'm going to try and create a seal so that the warm air will not be able to get their as easily.

A little bit of an Update:

I just purchased a 1000watt magnetic ballast and a 1000watt phillips MH bulb. Going to get that running later today(ohhh gunna have to figure out if my power setup can handle that load!) ahh shit and I don't know if I have a timer that can do 1000W. I dont even know where I can buy a timer that can handle that load

My hydro store gave me 2 Blocks of Botanicare coco, normally I pay 25$ for those, I got them for free because they were out of the packaging, I have one sitting in water right now. I'll be transplanting into 25 liter pots in the next couple hours, 50/50 coco/perlite.
I havent decided if that will be my final pot size or not, I may up to a 60 liter smart pot if I can get them before 12/12 startsP1000818.jpg
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
Just thought I'd bring up some more photo's of the room.
The plants are getting pretty big now, it wont be long before they are ready for 12/12
I just finished transplanting all 7 females into 6gallon pots, with 50/50 coco/perlite. I decided not to use the 3 gallon airpots. I will use those for the Big Bomb and Kish plants that have just sprouted
I was shocked to see how rootbound they were getting in the 2 gallon pots, I didnt think they had been in them long enough to do that, but now they have lots and lots of room to spread those roots around.
I am feeding currently at 1000ppm, all signs of burn are gone other than the old burns that wont heal. No deficiencies, absolutely everything looks perfect

I got my new 1000watt MH bulb burning in there, temps are still good, even with no active air exchange, just the hole at the bottom of one wall, and 2 larger holes at the time. I took the 600 out and am still using the 400 so now at 1400watts, but bringing that up again in the next little while.

I also removed all of the other non MJ plants from the room and its looking alot more clean in there now, it was getting too crowded before.

ppm out last watering was 2000ppm, and pH 4.5 but that was after transplanting into new coco, so maybe thats causing the odd pH. Ill ignore this runoff but next watering I hope to see something more like 1400ppm and pH 5.8

My CO2 controller has been delayed because the one in stock in the US was broken, so they had to order in a new one to be shipped, I just got an email confirming it has finally been sent so I expect that to arrive in about a week form today.

Today is day 53 of Veg, Been a long veg, but with the drastic topping technique I used I think I slowed them down a bit, also the high ppm's may have been causing slower growth.

Ive sprouted 10 Big Bombs and now 4 Kish, I will be giving them small pots and not topping them, hopefuly they will get tall enough to reach some of the light, but they may be a little shaded by the larger Kali Mist plants, especially in flower when I think the Kali's are going to just about fill the room.
I will weed out the males and weaker plants from the Big Bomb and Kish and only keep 4 females from those seedlings. They will probably go into 3 gallon airpots for flowering.

Heres the view from the doorP1000823.jpg
Root bound a litte, I dont expect its going to be a problem thoughP1000821.jpg
4 Kish seedlings just sprouted in the closetP1000855.jpg

I wanted to show just how even the canopy is! its remarkable, you would think these were clones, I just
hope it stays like this during flower

P1000850.jpg
A kish seedlings
P1000852.jpg
My internodes are stretching a bit more than I would like, But I cant seem to do anything about thatP1000851.jpg
A big Bomb seedling, the big bomb were started just under a week before the kishP1000843.jpg
This is my primitve ventilation setup! Obviously this won't work through flower, but its doing the trick for nowP1000835.jpg
I drilled a shitload of little holes in my 6 gallon pots for some extra oxygen/airpruning. I know its not enough. Next grow I will use 10 gallon smart pots


P1000833.jpg
Check out how im spacing the branches apart with with wooden skewers and masking tape, this is working really well for me. it really opened up the canopy, I will be removed alot of the lower branches for cloning in
the next couple days

P1000832.jpg
Heres one of my first clones, doing alot better now. Anyone live in southern ontario want a baby Kali Mist? I got

extras!
P1000830.jpg
Miscellaneous mariuana plants. All the non MJ plants are gone nowP1000828.jpg
Thats one plant, They are looking really niceP1000827.jpg
This stupid Big Bomb seedling's coytledons died or were already dead when it sprouted... But it seems determined to live! its probably already doomed to be culled, but Ill see what happendsP1000842.jpg
 

ievolution

Well-Known Member
Your room looks solid. Surprised to see your lights so close to the canopy considering how many watts you have there. How did the epsom salts work? I know if I ever use it I spray my plants with it instead of adding it into the nutrient mix. A lot more efficient. Got to love H&G your plants look very healthy very nice for your first grow. Tight to see you have some Kish popped. I had some shiskaberry at one point and it was bomb. I wish you were using those Air pots I really am curious how they work out. Thought about picking some up until I saw the price lol. I'm sure you know for Co2 everything has to be perfect like light(your obviously set there) Nutrients etc. I am hoping you get Dark Energy so I get some insight on how it is because I may get once my bottle of Algen Extract runs out. Which H&G Nutrients do you still need to get? Also I wouldn't worry about Drip Clean not breaking down the Nitrogen you used because they recommend using Drip Clean no matter what nutrient line you use so you will be good. Hope you are learning growing isn't as hard or scary as some people want it to seem. Looks to me like you have learned it. It only gets easier also but it looks like you are getting 'lucky' like I did my first grow and growing like a vet. The only thing I might do is get the complete line(minus Amino Treatment and magic green) and get another fan for the canopy. I read you are going to get ventilation for your hood. A 6'' inline fan will kick ass I will never get something different besides those. They are silent and really do work. I can get my lights right next to the canopy with that running through my hoods. I am sure you have read before how much light diminishes every foot you raise it. It is in Jorges book I believe. Those are very beautiful bushes. oh I wanted to mention H&G recommends not doing a 50/50 mix of coco perlite. They say 70/30 for some reason I am not sure of but I try to follow it. 1 thing I do with coco before using it is flushing it more then the company already has because I find it keeps deficiencies from happening. Man seeing what Roots Exc did to your plants reminds me why I love it soo much. BTW my gf posted some new picks on my grow check it out man.
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
!!! now thats the kindof responses I want to be getting in my journal! Thanks ievolution

I knew the lights being so close would surprize some, I think most peope read a number in a book and are afraid to go any closer, either that or there is some sort of magical aura protecting my plants. I have the 1000W MH bulb burning 16 inches from the canopy

Your right I need a bigger better fan in there, just aint got the money yet, I'm diverting almost all of my income to equipement for this grow. At the end I hope to have an incredible amount of weed and some good quality gear that will serve me for years to come.

All I'm using right now is multizen, chilean nitrate(at 100ppm, Cocos AB, drip clean, Roots excel, 2 drops of biothrive(per 5 gallons), Fulvic and Humic(at 1/4 dose), and Pro-Silicate(at 1/2 strength).

I may decide to use the Dark energy but I'm not sure my results will be of value to you unless I do a side by side. i know doing a side by side is a good way to learn what works, but I cant see myself wanting to mix a separate res for the purpose to be honest.

I'd like to mention that I think at some point I may decide to change nutrient lines, Not during this grow, but probably in the future. From the beginning its always been my interest to be able to tweak the nutrients as I see fit and I am unable to do this with the HG nutes as they are designed to be used in equal portions throughout veg and flower. I may not use coco again either for this reason, I'm considering a 50/50 perlite/promix. as I will have more nutrient lines available to me by not using coco.

I'm going with my instincts on this one with the 50/50 perlite/coco mix, I honestly cant see why having the extra perlite would cause any harm. I think the only downside is I will have to water more frequently. My understanding of geometry tells me that with perlite there is a threshold ratio for any effect to be obtained. For example if you were to mix in 3% perlite, you would gain 0% extra porosity in your medium, this is because perlite must come into contact with other peices of perlite in order to create the matrix that allows for additional drainage. I also believe by going heavier on the perlite I will have results that more closely resemble what you would see with water medium hydroponics because I am allowing that much more oxygen to reach the roots, and the medium at no point in time is fully saturated with solution. I know alot of people swear by 100% coco, but until I see it in a side by side, I will trust my own reasoning.

I opted not to go with the 3 gallon airpots because I believe the 6 gallon regular pots will have much better results, but as I said I will probably be putting the Kish and Big Bombs into the airpots.

Thanks for the feedback, welcome to my grow

Oh yes and all signs of Mag def have vanished but in retrospect I know my ppm's were way out of hand at the time I was getting the Mag def. it is quite likely that the deficiency was cause from the excessively high ppm's, especially because I am using tap water so I shouldnt be having mag def anyways. I have stopped using epsom salts for some time now and haven't had a problem now that my ppm's are lower.
PPM is 1000(.7 scale)

I may have to crack some more Kish seeds, I think I burnt them accidentally fed them nute water. I still have 6 seeds left over. But they are still looking alright so far, but I expect they will show some issues in the next couple days

I know about the inverse square law, You'll hear some of the older vet growers who have done things the same way for a long time say they think that it works better to have no glass between the bulbs and run them naked. But I think with a properly cooled, cool tube the extra inches gained goes a long way, not to mention you can run more lights if you want to max out the yield from a small room(which is what I'm trying to do)
 

ma jigga

Well-Known Member
Sweet freakin' grow man. That's a load of space.. I'm jealous! Looking forward to your harvest. I'm gonna need some advice with cloning as soon as I get near that time. Did you top your mother to get cuttings? What cloning hormones are you using..(powder, gel)?
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
Sweet freakin' grow man. That's a load of space.. I'm jealous! Looking forward to your harvest. I'm gonna need some advice with cloning as soon as I get near that time. Did you top your mother to get cuttings? What cloning hormones are you using..(powder, gel)?
I'm really not good at cloning but I have learned alot already, I will give you a more detailed explanation later, just PM me if I forget to. I got the cutting from topping the seedlings. they are probably the easiest cutting to clone with because they are very vigourous and hardy, they also have a thicker stem than most cuttings have which helps them suck up water. I'm going to be doing a big cloning operation here in a few days, with probably 50 cuttings, so hopefully it works out. I use a gel called RootTech.

Just remember to label your mothers and clones as you go. I didnt do that, now I have 10 clones that I have no use for(I'm going to sacrafice them for some experimenting I have planned).

My first two times cloning I used jiffy pellets but I will be using rockwool cubes this time around. I am going to take three different batches, each will be given different environments, I will have one in a closet under 2 23 watt CFL's and 2 batches under a 400MH. One will have a dome and the other wont. Hopefully Ill get a clone of each of my 7 female plants. I want to keep the perfect pheno for future grows. Just PM me when you need more info I can explain in detail
 

ievolution

Well-Known Member

I know about the inverse square law, You'll hear some of the older vet growers who have done things the same way for a long time say they think that it works better to have no glass between the bulbs and run them naked. But I think with a properly cooled, cool tube the extra inches gained goes a long way, not to mention you can run more lights if you want to max out the yield from a small room(which is what I'm trying to do)

_____________

I completely agree with this comment. The closer the bulb the better as long as your complete canopy is receiving enough light. I keep my 600 anywhere from 8-16 inches above the canopy depending on which plant because I am not lucky like you an running a lot of strains so my canopy is very uneven.

I understand what you mean with Perlite because I did about a 50/50 mix before I read H&G claiming you should only do a 70/30 mix and didn't notice any adverse results. I have tried Promix/Soil/peat/clay balls(forget name)/Rockwool and I ended up deciding I on my preference which was Coco/perlite. For you to figure out what you like best the only way to learn is to try shit out. I have also used some organic nutrient lines, A huge diversity of Advanced Nutrients and House and Garden. My best results quality wise was House and Garden and was unmatched by anything else. When I used Advanced it was where I worked and the Collective I worked for ended up switching to H&G after seeing my results. We did a side by side run with Advanced and House and Garden which was really cool to see. The yields were very similar but THC Content was higher and the bag appeal was much better with House and Garden. I too am getting a little bit bored with House and Garden after years of running it that is why you have heard me mention different additives so many times. So I completely understand you wanting to switch and learn for yourself instead of listening to others. That is the only way to go IMO and I wish you the best of luck when you decide to roll with it. The thing is you could always use Coco A&B from H&G but use different additives if in the end you decide you liked Coco more. I wouldn't see any problems with that really. Anyway you have to be one of the more knowledgeable beginners I have ever talked to which is nice to see people are doing there research before getting into it instead of posting HELP MY PLANTS ARE DYING threads. I had to read Jorges books about 5 times while I was buying all the equipment to get started and probably read different sections through my first grow or two another 10 times each. Anyway I will stop blowing your thread up with huge run on sentences. Peace.
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
haha yea thanks man. I MAY in the end decide to go with coco after I experiment a bit, but I'm thinking promix is the way to go. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, and there is some downfall to promix? I imagine it is basically the same as coco, a naturally derived plant fiber that holds moisture well is relatively inert, contains no nutrients and alllows a plants roots a medium in which to absorb salt based hydroponic nutrients... Except that with coco you have to compensate with More K because coco like to hold on to K making it harder for your plants to take it in. And also apparently coco locks up Mag and Calcium a bit more too.

So thats reason number 1 right there. If coco is fighting with my plants for K, that means that to have a nutrient base that will properly feed my plants I need to comensate with more K, by using a coco specific hydroponic nutrient, Which limits me down to 2 options as far as I know.. I can either use Canna Coco. Or I can use H&G. And maybe there are some other but i havent heard of them yet.

What this means though is that if your compensating on the K your sacraficing potential ppm's to do that. If your upping your K from 150ppm to 250ppm, then thats 100ppm that could have otherwise been used for N and P had you not been growing in coco!

I still need to research promix and see if it does not have some disadvantage quite similar to what I just described. If it truly is an innert soilless medium(I would not consider coco to be "inert") then I will be using that instread on my next round. If I find that it also has drawback I will just go 100% water medium, though I dont like the idea of losing my crop in the event that the power goes out for 24 hours.

Soil is another option I like, If i'm going to play god I want 100% control, otherwise I will let nature take control which is where soil comes in

Update: I think my kish will forgive me for the nute wate I gave them earlier, they have grown a bit in the last couple hours
Everynight I'm switching my on time back one hour and my off time back one hour to change their schedule slowly so that they are waking up when I go to bed. Over the last month Ive moved back the sunrise from 7am to 11pm. and just now set the timer for 10pm. Hopefully that wont cause any hermies later on. It should actually save me alot of money as well during flower because the new prices the power company is laying out where daytime use is almost 2 times more expensive as night time use.
 

Elliesdaddy

Active Member
Awesome buddy, didn't realise you had a complete farm i'm deeply impressed i'm going to try and get ahold of that horticulture medical growers bible that should keep me busy untill harvest
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
Awesome buddy, didn't realise you had a complete farm i'm deeply impressed i'm going to try and get ahold of that horticulture medical growers bible that should keep me busy untill harvest
Yea read it cover to cover, but keep an eye out for inconsistencies, I found there were a few things that didnt add up right or conflicted with other parts of the book. It's definately a good documentation of almost everything youll need to know
 

Thedillestpickle

Well-Known Member
I just watered my plants after waiting three days from last watering.

They collectively drank 15 gallons! so that works out to roughly 2 gallons per plant(7 plants) in just 3 days. Thats .66 gallons a day per plant

Just did the math and thats 2.7 liters a day per plant.

I am desperately in need of an easier way to water my plants, it was unbelievably difficult watering those pots and then collecting the runoff, I wasnt able to achieve the amount of runoff I would like either, because I would have overflowed the trays and I can't be bothered to spend any more time in there. I'm puzzling over trying to think up a way to make this easier. Theres no way I can continue watering like this.

my ppm's going in were 1000ppm(.7 scale). I will give ppm details in the .7 scale from now on.

My ppm's going out were 1400, and pH out was 5.7
My pH going in was 5.8 and will always be 5.8 unless otherwise noted.
I'm not happy with 1400ppm for runoff but I will live with it
I'm going to start watering every day, giving each pot about 1.2 liters. waiting 3 days makes watering huge task so I will divide the work out over the days and also prevent ppm climb due to the medium drying out.

I'm also thinking of culling out one of my 7 plants, only for the simple fact that I don't think I can accomodate all 7 with my space, and 6 would fit much better in that space. I'm not sure how I shoudl go about deciding which female gets the boot, they are all doing so well. I think I will keep a clone of the culled female and flower her in another run just incase she happends to be special.

I definately plan to get myself an RO filter sometime before the end of this grow, only for the sake of not having to let buckets of water sit around for days to evaporate off the chlorine. Right now I have 5 buckets filled with solution and water and also a big garbage bin filled with mixed solution, and a tote filled with water. thats about 50 gallons of water and nutrient solution sitting around and at the rate I'm going itll be gone in just over a week! this is turning out to be alot of work lol
 
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