Indoor 600w Nirvana White Widow.

[Docta Haze]

Hey whatsup,

In case I wasn't already spending enough time reading everyone else's content, I thought it'd be nice to start my own journal. I've been greatly impressed with the quality of postings available throughout the online cannabis cultivation community. THCfarmer in particular offers some of the most relevant, helpful, and descriptive information that I could find while I was researching for my current grow. It is for this reason I wanted to dedicate any experience gained from my first grow to the forums among this site. I hope the postings resulting from this thread can offer future guidance for not only myself, but for other growers like me.

Let us being.

Hardware:

• 3'x3' mylar lined grow tent
• 450cfm inline fan w/ speed control
• 600w digital yield lab ballast and bulbs
• humidifier, two thermometers/hygrometers
• two timers
• flexible duct and clamps
  
• 5 pots (1gal), 4 pots (5gal)

Grow materials

• 5 femininzed Nirvana White Widow seeds
• Fox farm Happy frog soil (for seedlings)
• Fox farm Ocean forest soil (transplant for veg + flower)
• Perlite
• Nutrients: TBD

Of course no journal is worthwhile without a multitude of detailed photos, so I will do my best to provide them.

 

[Docta Haze]

To speed things right along I will post the first two weeks.

Firstly, I germinated all 5 Nirvana seeds with a damp paper towel in a ziplock bag with a some air. 48 hours later all seeds had broken and were ready to be planted.

Each seed was planted individually into a 1 gallon pot of Fox Farm Happy Frog (70% to 30%perlite) and placed about 30" under a metal halide bulb with the ballast dimmed to 450w.

(Day 1):
Three days after being planted and receiving an 18/6 light schedule all 5 seeds sprouted. Temps kept at 78 degrees with relative humidity at 40%.

(Day 2):
Freak accident. Unfortunately I managed to set the timer incorrectly after a power outage the day before. Temps rose between 90-100 degree for two hours. The two day old seedlings showed signs of stress but continued to grow albeit with disfigured first leaves.

(Day 4):
Shown below are the 5 seedlings placed beside a bag seed practice grow. This is what grew as I was waiting for the nirvana seeds to arrive.
.

(Day 6):
Their second set of leaves began developing more rapidly. I watered each pot with just over half a liter of grocery store distilled water. Litmus test read 6-7 PH.

(Day 11):

(Day 13):
I continued to lower the light down to 19" inches and today I moved it down to 12" from the tops of the seedlings to the center of the bulb. Temps kept around 75 degrees with 30% humidity. Pictured below are some leaf issues I ran into today.

Eventually all plants showed stress similar to these pictures, but were only affected on one leaf from the same node. I assumed it to be related to root binding and low humidity. My only hunch is they were particularly sensitive to this because of their previous hot flash.

(Day 14):
Added humidifier.

Now that vegetation growth is starting to pick up. My next post will include many more photos.

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 16): veg continued

(Day 17): Transplant day
I moved the 4 best looking plants into 5gal pots today. The pots were filled with about 60% Ocean Forest, 30% perlite, and 10% Happy Frog. I noticed some significant root bound during the transplant, but all roots looked white and healthy (to my untrained eye). As mentioned before, the burnt decaying leaf condition I saw developing on all 5 plants was attributed to premature heat stress, low humidity/intense light, and possible root bound. This is nothing more than a guess however. Here are some more pics:

Light raised to 18" @600w MH.

(Day 20):
Applied some low stress training to two of the more vigorous growing plants (i.e. plants #2 and #3).

(Day 21):
Veg pic update. Yesterday's LST can be seen. The plants had been growing bushy before I even began training, but I wanted to do my best to develop a flat even canopy with multiple bud sites. Also, I didn't have it in me to kill the 5th plant, so I moved her into a 2 gallon pot with 100% new happy frog soil. I think I will remove her nonetheless as the tent becomes more crowded.

So far everything seems to be going well aside from the previous leaf issues experienced earlier. I found out too around this day that my litmus test was not testing my water accurately. Water that I thought was between 6 and 7 was actually about 5.0. I bought PH drops and PH up to fix this. It seems the same distilled water I am buying at my local supermarket varies per gallon jug in acidity/alkalinity. The rain water, however, when caught after the gutter has been washed out for 30min to an hour has been testing around 7.0PH. Interestingly, when I do not wait for the gutter to washout the PH tests around 6.3PH.

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 22-24): Veg update
Fast growth now! Applied more LST to open up bud sites. Enjoy the pics

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

more pics below

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 25): Final day of 18/6
It's a shame I can't afford more time to veg these beauties. They have really taken off this past week and I know my yield would only improve with more veg time. However time constraints force me to start 12/12 now.

Here's how they look before starting flower:

More pics attached below. I hope this enough vegetative growth to give me a decent yield. If you've made it through my posts up to now cheers to you, and I hope all your grows are doing well! Next up, flowering!

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 26): Day 1 of 12/12
Bulb was changed from MH to HPS @600w
I have been watering these girls about every 5 days so far so that there is a small runoff (10-15%). Temps have been kept at a steady 75 degrees with lights on and 60-65 lights off.

Picss:

They have been in these new pots with ocean forest soil for only 9 days. I'm sure there is plenty of nitrogen left, but I'd like to start applying some phosphorus soon. I've been reading a lot about guanos and compost teas. I think I will go with a Jaimican guano tea. In fact, I might even top dress first, so it has the whole flower period to breakdown. Then I'll water with tea every other watering after that.

I'm worried I'll end up missing some important trace minerals however, because I've been relying on rainwater and distilled water.

Any recommendations on what to add to guano tea or which trace minerals to consider adding would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Topofthecrop]

Nice thread! Very informative. Keep up the good work. Mind if I give my two cents?
I hope not. :)

I'd raise that light much higher. Like at least a foot. Or my first instinct was two feet. You'd be surprised how they will react in one weeks time.

 

[Docta Haze]

Nice thread! Very informative. Keep up the good work. Mind if I give my two cents?
I hope not. :)

I'd raise that light much higher. Like at least a foot. Or my first instinct was two feet. You'd be surprised how they will react in one weeks time.

Hey Topofthecrop thanks for your advice! I have a question though. Many postings about the height of an HPS air cooled setup have stressed the importance of finding the optimum distance from the top of a canopy. This optimum distance involves a few considerations however, and I've read to consider light intensity, heat exposure, and light dispersal.

My light is currently placed about 10" from the top of my canopy. It is a 90,000 lumen output (not sure of its par rating) attached to a parabolic-like air cooled hood. I have no troubles with heat right now, and I'm pretty sure the plant leaves aren't showing signs of heat stress. This is, however, the closest I can set the light without it giving any discomfort to my hand placed above the canopy below.

Are you advising that I raise the light 2 inches more so that it is a full foot above the canopy? Or do you advise that I move it a whole foot or even two feet more than the current 10 inches so that it is a full 22" - 34" inches above? Thanks!

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 27-28): Flower Day 3

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you all are getting your munchies satisfied tonight. So far everything is rolling pretty nice in the tent. To my surprise I realized earlier today that I haven't water them in over a week. The pots felt like they had water left and the soil was moist 2 inches below.

I've been troubled by fungus gnats since my bagseed grow, and I wanted to make sure the top soil dried out thoroughly. Perhaps I let them dry out too much, and it was all for nothing as I discovered one more gnat running along the rim of a pot today. Although I have yet to spot more than two gnats these last 2.5 weeks, seeing just one makes me plenty nervous.

Here is day 27 growth:

And here is day 28:

The green team:

#1 aka Tyrion

#2 Napoleon

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 28) Green team continued:

#3 aka Darwin

#4 aka Cheech

 

[Topofthecrop]

I understand what you are saying completely. I wanna say your light is fine. Lol I think you should still raise the light at least two feet from the tops of your plants. After a while you can just read what the plant needs and just from the look of it the plant is tightening up and getting chunky and has a wrinkle to them. A couple have the taco effect also. Also fill a pot with soil no plant. Lift the pot by hand. That's when you should water your plants. When they feel that light. Sounds basic but cuts back over watering. I also notice them getting the claw. You could look that up. It's not bad! Just notice a little bit. But seriously your plants are looking great. Just a little dialing that's all. When you flip them over to flower a lot of that will work it self out.
On another note your going to need to get some yellow bug sticky pads up if you continue to use organics like fox farm soil. Many of there bags from the shop come with gnats for free! Lol I would look into Azamax, Neem and possibly systemic soil bug treatment if you wanna cut back on the gnat issue. Azamax is a systemic. It gets bad, fast. Keep it up man your on a roll!

 

[Docta Haze]

I understand what you are saying completely. I wanna say your light is fine. Lol I think you should still raise the light at least two feet from the tops of your plants. After a while you can just read what the plant needs and just from the look of it the plant is tightening up and getting chunky and has a wrinkle to them. A couple have the taco effect also. Also fill a pot with soil no plant. Lift the pot by hand. That's when you should water your plants. When they feel that light. Sounds basic but cuts back over watering. I also notice them getting the claw. You could look that up. It's not bad! Just notice a little bit. But seriously your plants are looking great. Just a little dialing that's all. When you flip them over to flower a lot of that will work it self out.
On another note your going to need to get some yellow bug sticky pads up if you continue to use organics like fox farm soil. Many of there bags from the shop come with gnats for free! Lol I would look into Azamax, Neem and possibly systemic soil bug treatment if you wanna cut back on the gnat issue. Azamax is a systemic. It gets bad, fast. Keep it up man your on a roll!

Thanks again for the advice and your encouragement! It's tough jumping into this without much help, so I appreciate all the input I can get.

I moved my light up during the cycle yesterday, and I think I will continue to raise it a couple more inches until it reaches 18" later today. The wrinkled leaves and tacoing effect became more noticeable yesterday too, and I appreciate you pointing that out. The clawing has been around for the last 4 or 5 days and I'm guessing its nitrogen toxicity. I'm going to let these pots dry out since I just watered last night, and then I'll give them a good flush in a few days to try to set things straight.

Also I noticed some yellowing between the veins developing on one of my most vigorous growers (#3 Darwin) on leaves from both nodes 3 and 4. I'm hoping it doesn't get too bad.

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 29): Flower day 4

Running into some troubling signs on the top leaves of a couple plants. The tips are turning light green/yellow and the clawing of one plant is worsening. I'm not really sure what can be causing this right now. I guess lets hope it's a mild nutrient deficiency that can be corrected with a higher PH water and compost tea sometime this next week. I'm worried my water has been too acidic keeping it down between 5.8-6.5

Pictured below are both the yellowing tips of the top leaves and a leaf with some interveinal yellowing on a lower node.

Another angle of the yellowing tips is shown below.

And here is an image of the upper leaves clawing.

 

[Docta Haze]

(Day 30-32): Flower day 5, 6, 7
The tent is getting crowded. I've concluded the leaf problems I'm seeing is most likely due to a nutrient burn. The clawing also suggests a nitrogen toxicity. Therefore, rather than administer any sort of compost tea, I will run a gallon of PH 6.5-7.0 water tomorrow or the next day.

Here are some pictures showing their growth:

Day 29

Day 30

Day 31 below

Day 32 below

I'm worried things are getting too dense/crowded. I've been cautiously removing leaves from all 4 plants to expose budsites and/or increase airflow. I hope to dress top soil with phosphorus heavy bat guano soon too.

 

[Docta Haze]

Quick update:

Things are going well so far through the first weeks of flowering. I've been struggling a bit with nute burn with all 4 plants. Perhaps a longer veg would have protected them from this. All 4 were transplanted 18 days ago into foxfarm ocean forest, so it's weird to see nute burn problems at day 35 in their life cycle.

Nevertheless they are really starting to fill up the tent, and I'm excited to see what kind of bud development I can get from these babies.

Day (34-35):

 

[Docta Haze]

Day 36 - 37: Flower Day 12

 

[Docta Haze]

Hola senoras y senores,

I've reached day 37 with these four plants without providing any nutrients thus far. All four of them were transplanted into 5gallon pots of Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil 20 days ago. Right now I have a 5gal bucket, a bag of earthworm castings (EWC), and an air-pump on standby for brewing some EWC tea. These guys will need watered in a couple of days, and I still need to run out to the store for some molasses soon to start brewing. In addition to EWC tea I have some Jamaican guano 0-10-0 NPK that I will top dress next feeding 1/4strength.

I am hesitant to provide any nutrients so soon though. The signs of nitrogen toxicity (i.e. clawing fan leaves) have been lingering for a few days now and some leaves show signs of nutrient burn. Although the burn is very minor and I am not sure if the affected tips are just left over from last week, it is enough to make me think twice before feeding them with some EWC which has 1-0-0 NPK ratios. Nevertheless, I've come to understand EWC tea is more for microbial soil growth than nutrient feeding (or perhaps they're one of the same thing haha).

On the other side, I am eager to start dressing these plants soon with some guano as its been almost 3 weeks since transplant and they must be wanting some nutes soon. Furthermore guano takes weeks to establish its microbial affect in the soil, so I figure the earlier I can dress without burning the better.

That's all for now farmers.

 

[Docta Haze]

How's everyone doing? I'm here again for another update. The bud sites are really starting to get hairy, but I'm running into a huge problem. I think one of my four plants is beginning to go hermie on me. I checked her all over and found 3 or 4 calyx sites without hairs, and one or two sites with a straight ball and stem. I removed all suspected pollen sacks and I'll be sure to keep checking her to be sure she's a hermie.

It's a real bummer I might have to chop her down as she is by far the most hairy and progressed into flowering. As you can see below the tent is getting really dense so maybe some space will be a good thing anyways.

Two days ago (Day 39, Flower 14) I fed 1gal of RO water with 1/4 gal of EWC tea and 1 tablespoon of bat guano dressed on top. They seem to have enjoyed the feeding so I'll be repeating it next week too with less water. All the major colas have started to stretch finally and are getting more light as they grow to separate from the rest of the canopy.

Anyways here are some pics. Let's hope the next posting still includes all four plants. Day 39-41, Flower 14 - 16

 

[BlackBeard]

Those plants have filled the tent out very nicely, hope that's the end of the hermie issue it's best to keep a really close eye on it just in case though.

 

[Docta Haze]

Those plants have filled the tent out very nicely, hope that's the end of the hermie issue it's best to keep a really close eye on it just in case though.

Thanks man, I'm diggin all the tops coming up now. I hope it doesnt get too dense though. Unfortunately, the potential hermie is a real buzz kill. This plant is front and center away from the fan, and my eyes are gonna be all over it this weekend.