Swole’s First Grow

[SwoleGrow]

Hello everyone. It’s been a grueling 9 months since I decided to embark on this journey and countless hours I’ve researched numerous forums, watched videos and sought out information from our fellow members here (thank you all again) to get me where I am today.
‘I started from the concrete slab in my garage and and initially planned on purchasing a 5x5 gorilla, but after researching found that a sealed room would be better for me, so video by video I learned how to be a carpenter, electrician, plumber and painter. It all came together and I designed an 8x8 sealed room insulated on all 4 sides including underneath and on the top.
Inside I have a 5x7 grow side and a 2x7 side sectioned with orca for the res and other equipment.
‘I run a 4 site RDWC and 3-5gal smart pots with pro mix bx
GH nutes(until I learn to spoon feed)
Teas for soil
2 sun system 315w lec boss fixtures with Phillips 4200k & 3100k bulbs for veg and flower
12,000 window ac
Dehumidifier
Eco plus mag drive 350
1/10hp chiller
11gal top off res2
8” ac infinity fan
Phresh filter
20lb C02 tank with controller.
Bluelab guardian & controller connect

The strain I chose is White Fire OG and they are not fem. Last year I really enjoyed the smoke and it came with more than enough seeds, so I kept them all.
1-21-2020: picked 7 seeds and let soak in tap water for 20hrs
1-22-2020: placed in paper towel & ziplock and 7hrs later the roots were showing
I tried to time it correctly but the seeds ended up being ready before I was. The tap root on them were long and some twisted. The rooter I had to cut to fit the root inside. There was no chance in inserting it from the top hole, but the show must go on so...
1-25-2020: transferred 4 seeds to rooters and into system in 8” net pots
Tap water
68*F(chiller)
130ppm
5.8ph auto controlled
Also placed the remaining 3 seeds into smart pots
3hrs later those in the RDWC are already starting to wake up
It’s been fun so far, learning something new and I’ve only scratched the surface. Now that the construction and design phase is over I can focus all my attention to learning this strain and what’s best for it(the fun part). Im a bodybuilder/personal trainer, hence the name ‘SwoleGrow” and training/nutrition is my passion. Hopefully this will be useful in the training and nutrition of these ladies (fingers crossed)

So today is day 2 and everything is going well so far.
Swole

 

[chemistry]

Your off to a good start.

 

[Cattapilla]

Welcome to the farm!

 

[SwoleGrow]

Thank you! Glad to be here

 

[SwoleGrow]

Your off to a good start.

Hopefully it continues

 

[SwoleGrow]

Day 5 and things are rolling along. Had 2 in soil that didn’t sprout and when I extracted them the root had decayed on both. So, I germed 3 more and planted 2 back in soil late last night and I’ll plant the other later today. On day 4 I did a partial flush to being the ppm down from 170 to 140.
ph 5.8 (constant)
Room temp 73-77
Humidity 40-50
Water Temp 68
Lighting @ 8ft

 

[SwoleGrow]

Day 8 Fire OG. (RDWC) Second set of leaves growing out and cotyledon yellowing, giving up the last of its energy.our 1st feed should be coming up soon.
On 01/31/2020 I swapped the lights from the 3100k to the 4200k. Started out at 8ft & 50% power and each day up the power until we are at 100%.
Lighting @ 8ft 70% power
Leaf temps 72-74F
ph 5.8 (constant)
Ppm 150
Room temp 70-77F
Humidity 55-65%
Water Temp 68F

Now for the soil....
Day 8 Fire OG
The one lone seed that survived out of the initial 3 has come along nicely. It had me worried in the beginning, I had to assist in getting rid of the helmet. I added a layer or two of soil because it had stretched out a bit and the breeze was tossing it around pretty good. I haven’t watered since the initial watering and the bottom 1/4 is still damp. In the next couple of days I’ll be brewing tea in preparation for its1st feed.

Ok, so when when two of the three initial seeds that were put in soil died, I decided to germ three and add one more soil pot to the three that were initially planted.
01/28/2020 3 seeds soaking
01/29/2020 3 seeds in paper towel/ziplock
01/30/2020 3 seeds planted in 3-5gal smart pots/Promix BX
1gal H20 for A&B each
2gal H20 for C because it was a new pot/soil mix and I also “thought” that I should’ve watered the a little more since it was the 1st use. But, seeing how seed G (the one that lived out of the first three) is doing, the initial one gallon watering was more than enough. I’ll keep check on A,B & C and be sure to let the pots dry out thoroughly before watering again.
Day 2 seeds A,B & C
Seeds B & C are opening up ready to experience life. B still has its helmet on though. I’ll assist it if need be.

Seed A is behind B&C in growth. This morning I moved a little soil and found the seed was lying horizontally, so I adjusted it and got the root going vertical by moving soil around it for support. It looks to be improving since the a.m. but only time will tell.

All and all things are going well. A little slow, but that gives me time to be more prepared for the next stages of growth. Try to stay “at least” one step ahead.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Yesterday morning I came in to find my ph had dropped from 5.8 to 5.7. I figured it was just a fluctuation and it would rise back up, so I went to work, stopped in a time or two through the day to find that it was still at 5.7.Even after work, throughout the night last night and this morning before leaving for work, still 5.7.
I stop in on lunch for a routine check to find the ph has dropped again to 5.6, now I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on.I finish my workday, change a step in to see that the ph has dropped again to 5.5. “We must find out what’s causing this ph drop.” So I googled ph dropping and within 10min I had my answer. After process of elimination (it was easy because I’m still in seedling stage) found that my ph probe had a buildup on it which was causing it to read a lower ph than it actually was. I cleaned the probe placed it back into the system and it immediately read 5.8.
Swole- 1
Growing Pains-0

Now about that buildup. I didn’t get a pic while it was on the probe because I was too anxious the get it off, but I did get a pic of it a minute or two later.

The soggy buildup was the light color while on the probe, when it dried it changed to the darker color shown. I’m not feeding any nutes only using tap from 55gal drum that’s constantly recirculating and my dehumidifier drains into that. Only additive to water is ph down & hydroguard at 2ml/gal.
let’s see if we can solve the mystery of the mysterious buildup...

 

[SwoleGrow]

Roots have made the journey through the rooters and the hydroton and are now at or below water level.

 

[fatconeskills]

A fellow lifter ! Welcome, these ladies help a ton with recovery,. I train for strength mostly, mostly powerlifting competitions. Best of you luck on your grow, you're in the right place !

 

[SwoleGrow]

I’ve been experimenting with my temps the past couple of days, trying to get leaf temps up around 75F but not swinging so low (68F) when the A/C is bringing the temp back within range (80-83F) Yesterday it got up to 90F and I noticed the edges curling upwards a bit and leaves turning brighter green. Heat or Hungry or both?

Last night I decided to pull the humidifier out the box and put it to use. Humidity would drop low 40% at times. The humidity is now at a constant 50%.

 

[SwoleGrow]

A fellow lifter ! Welcome, these ladies help a ton with recovery,. I train for strength mostly, mostly powerlifting competitions. Best of you luck on your grow, you're in the right place !

Ahhhh so I’m not alone after all lol! 31yrs this year and in those years this grow room build and getting everything running stable is the only thing outside of my kids/family needing me that had me saying screw training lol. i needed the time to recover anyway, been training year long for the past 3 yrs where in the past id rest from nov-feb. Im buliking currently and will resume training in the next few weeks. my numbers last year... Bench 525lbs Squat 575lbs Dead 650lbs @ 6' 235lbs. pretty good for a 43yr old lol. Thanks for the welcome though and boy am i glad i found this forum. information is limitless here, hoping i can put it all together.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Was 4am & I had a breakthrough moment setting the systems ppm & the topoff res ppm. I think I’ve also been borderline starving my plants. So upped ppm’s to 300, backed the lights back up to max height to better control leaf temps.
Growing & learning

 

[SwoleGrow]

What a difference feeding makes.
So, since the last post I’ve gotten more of a grasp on my ppm. I’m comfortable now mixing nutes to correct ppm in the rdwc & the soil pots. Mixing the pots have been a b**ch though. I’m using GH Maxibloom (Lucas) & didn’t realize it was as concentrated as it was until I saw 2000+ ppm in a 1 gal bucket. Can you say DI-LUTE Got that took care of and finally fed those in soil. G- was one of the original 7 that were germ’d and the only one that survived in soil. I watered it for the 1st time after planting on 2-4-20 which was 10 days, it’s 1st feed was 12 days later on 2-16-20 @ 450ppm.

As for seeds A,B & C that were planted 5 days after seed G.
Seed A, B & C are doing well. Fed them @ 350ppm & everyone was happy... except B. It was too much too early and it showed. It’s documented that B took longer to take its helmet off, I forgot to take this into consideration when I fed, it’ll live though.

 

[chemistry]

They're moving along.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Silly of me to think it was going to be that easy and that nute burn would just go away quietly. Each day afterwards my plants got worse and worse at the rate that I thought they’d wither up and die within a couple of days. It got pretty bad. Leaves tacoing and yellow from the bottom of the plant upwards, some even tacoed turned brown and fell off, but I still saw hope.

Through it all the new growth was still sprouting out and coming out green! After seeking advice on the forum I couldn’t get anyone to tell me to flush the soil and the best advice I got was to do nothing. “Sounds like a winner to me” I slid em off to the outskirts of the grow space and let the roots sort it out. After a few days and healthy new growth still sprouting, things had turned for the better and we were on the road to recovery. I let the pots dry and lightly watered only (and tested runoff for 1st time) Today they were dry and needed water so I watered throughly, removing all buildup of salts & runoff on all pots are at 0.2 EC. I’ll properly feed them in the coming days.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Hydro is amazing as far as growth rate!
Shit is crazy! This is the 3rd week veg and things have been running smooth, kind of like I know what I’m doing lol.
2-18-20 - Topped the 4 in rdwc for 4 main colas
Before topping:

After topping:

2-25-20 - one week growth from topping

It was all fun and games until...

2-26-20 ...
I’m bending the branches slightly outward to allow more light through. and as I’m bending I feel an ever so slight “pop” and it lays on the top of the net pot. Nothing that alarmed me, So I move on to the next plant. Spreading it out and it does the same dam thing. Ok hold the f@!k up... this ones laying over even more. Then I look back at the other plant and looks like it’s on the verge of death. Shit, what have I done. I look a little deeper into the canopy and see that I’ve snapped the branch from the stem on each plant and they’re hanging (and I mean barely hanging) onto the stem. I quickly google broken branch cannabis plant and saw that there was still hope, so I used what I had available (zip ties) One on each branch to snug it back to the main stem and let nature handle the rest.

A few of the leaves died on both broken branches. The leaves on those branches were the only ones affected.

3-1-20
Defoliated

3-1-20
Sexing (still too early)

3-4-20
One week later you’d never know anything happened unless you look at the main stem and see the zip tie still there.

Still dealing with the issue from a couple of weeks ago where after say 24hrs, my EC starts to fall along with the ph. I’ve been combating the problem by flushing about 1/3 of the system and then refilling with the topoff res that starts at the same EC as the system but as the system EC falls there’s a 0.2-0.4 EC difference by the time I stop it and flush. After refilling the system, I then increase the topoff res EC by 0.2. I’m currently at 1.4 EC after res change this AM and plants are looking great. Still trying to get to the root of these fluctuations...

 

[SwoleGrow]

Stumbled upon this beauty tonight. 600W Air cooled & dimmable with one MH & one Super HPS for $65. This will allow me to remove the Orca film I have making my 8x8 room a 6x8, will give me more plant space and allow me to move around freely. I was getting tired of the partition being in the way.

 

[SwoleGrow]

Feels like I was freed from captivity. It was tight trying to move around

Before

After

 

[SwoleGrow]

It’s a young leaf game