Mikedin’s grow diary let’s go!

[Mikedin]

Yes it fell during installation but still seems a bit low atm I’m at 48% lights shut off at 10pm so about and 45 minutes ago (lights off 10pm to 4am) they’ll climb to around 80%-85% overnight, but lights on highs have been about 35-40% the past few days, I try to keep a bowl of water in there to evaporate doesn't help as much as when I water the plants though. Mabye I’ll try to hang a towel with the tip hanging into the bowl of water to draw up moisture and evaporate, I have a feeling that the actual reading is low due to the 2 fans running and blowing past the meter (I shut one off tonight to see if it makes a difference, if it does I’ll move that fan to power on with the lights on the timer.

 

[Mikedin]

Allright changed up a bit, got my 2nd light installed, changed my air intake a bit, it’s a MacGyver intake 100% used a 6” fan, some 4” drier vent, and a cookie dough container some gorilla tape and boom new intake haha. Pulling air from lower to the ground on the concrete floor that’s cooler to help control the heat with the 2nd light, staying steady at 79f at 60% fan speed on the carbon filter about 36-45% RH with lights on, added 2 bug bowls of water between the plants for evaporation. lower intake will shut off with lights on the timer only allowing upper fan to pull some air with lights off, sticky traps will arrive tomorrow just to stay ahead of the game

Feels nice to let them spread out a bit and feel fine about light coverage, not sure about training on the autos, would like to scrog but looking for input, area is about 60”x38” I don’t want to top them as I’ve seen good and bad for tipping autos I’d rather train, what week would be good to start training them, the gorilla glue is a week behind but I think that’s close enough and I can deal with a running a bit later in a single plant if just move it to the back center before installing the net

Any other input please let me know!
Also looking for input on best location for fan controller probe currently zip tied to handle of top center planter so it’s near plant level but not sure if that’s the best location, I assumed it was because that’s what the plants actual growing environment is

Running RO water now, PH 6.2 no ferts or neuts yet as I’m running 100% FF happy frog I figure I have another week minimum before I start introducing ferts (going to fox farm lineup of ferts /neuts as they are available locally)

Lights as stated before, now 2x 1500w KingLED lights went full bite and am running both veg and bloom switches on, leaves are reaching up for the lights and looking happy. Used some zip ties to pick them up higher than the hangers allowed currently about 28” from tallest plant

 

[Mikedin]

In that last picture I posted of the Afghan kush plant I saw some slight leaf edge curl, looked this morning and it seems more pronounced, checked my controller readout and my interior humidity and temp and noticed now with the new exhaust running my humidity dropped to 29% with lights on, dipped into the crawl space and found one of my small humidifiers and got it in there just now.

Any other opinions?, 2nd light is installed and I raised them up slightly. Getting approx 240-250PPFD to the plant tops and across the full 60x30 grow area in general nice even light distribution temps are controlled at 78f max now and about 68f at night with humidity rising to about 65-70RH at night so I put the humidifier on the timer with the lights

 

[Mikedin]

Been doing some research and decided to order a tent, had some input and decided to go with the AC infinity cloudlab 894 Advance grow tent, 96x48x80 bigger than what I need for 6 plants for sure but i have the spare room for it (could even go twice as big if I wanted but way overkill) but I’ll be nice to be able to walk into the grow tent to tend to the plants and spread them out if it’s needed, I’ll be here Monday then it’s setup time lol

Plus I’ll have the room to set up a radiator space heater for night time and dual humidifiers, I have the one in my small grow box now but even on low i have to refill it twice a day, comes on with the lights and shuts off with them, but with the bigger tent I’ll be able to set up 2 of them on timers so one will shut off halfway through the day and the other will turn on so I’ll just refill them both once a day in the morning before work, trying to minimize having the wife go into the tent to do anything with them, just to minimize foot traffic in there, we have 4 dogs and 4 cats and I’d like to minimize any contamination of the tent

 

[Mikedin]

Little update, looks like the humidifier fixed the leaf edge curl issue, can’t wait till these girls really take off, new tent should arrive Monday, hopefully by Tuesday afternoon I’m all set up and have them moved into the new tent


That last pic is the plant that had the minor leaf curl most pronounced, they laid back out now if only all the rest of the plants would catch up to that one size wise lol, ofc the next smaller one is the same strain, other 3 are the candy kush and are all roughly the same size, seedling is the gorilla glue

Planning on doing LST on the plants, but considering I’m growing 6 plants in a 4x8 tent would setting up off to one side be a better idea or should I set up center of the tent so I can access them from both doors? Anyone with experience in that situation know which is easier to control temp/humidity?
Possibly set up in middle and scrog, or set up off to one side of the tent so I have one side open for a space heater/humidifier/and oscillating fan, decisions decisions haha,

Included a pic of the tent I’m getting on Monday

 

[Maxwax]

Id put the plants in the middle and have access from both sides (Until you go full steamroller...lol). I hate to say this but you know your light just got half as powerful with that monster tent. :)

Whats with the blue weed pics. Is that just your light spectrum?

 

[Mikedin]

Id put the plants in the middle and have access from both sides (Until you go full steamroller...lol). I hate to say this but you know your light just got half as powerful with that monster tent. :)

Whats with the blue weed pics. Is that just your light spectrum?

Yeah, I mean I won’t be spreading them out much more than they are each light shows 4x4 veg coverage and 3.5x3.5 flower coverage (2x1500w lights) I figure I’ll occupy 6x3.5 max inside the tent 2x rows of 3x plants, I figure if I go scrog I can make a 5.5 x 3.5 frame and try to fill it

Atm I have a 4” spider farmer exhaust I figure I’ll give it a go with that for now and see how temps control, also planning to install a 2nd humidifier as well as a heater for now (it’s in the basement) but once it starts to warm up outside I doubt I’ll need it should stay 65-70 in the basement, also another reason I opted for the bigger tent I’m hoping with more space for the lights to displace heat it shouldn’t be as hard to keep the temps down as it is in a box less than half that size with the same lights, I’d imagine humidity will be the bigger issue once I progress into the flowering stage so I can pick up a de-humidifier if needed

I’m staging the grow box in what I believe is the ideal position I’ll have a exhaust run into my crawl space turn 90 deg. And out a wall/drier vent, (about 6 feet of ductwork from tent to exhaust vent then if I need to cool I have a 40x60 crawl space (all dry and all concrete floor) which the doors are closed to in the adjoining wall so I’ll pull cooler air from there back into the tent if I need the cool if the basement gets too warm , it has a walkout that goes up 5 steps into the backyard that I’ll expect the kids to be running in and out of all summer lol I’ll post a pic with a little description of the walls etc when I get time

And yes veg switch only on atm bloom switch is off still

Actual layout of those pots in the pics right now is 38”x30” so really I have double coverage on those 6 planters sight now lol

 

[Mikedin]

It’s official the plants new home has arrived, was about a 6 hour process by myself to set it up between a few trips to the store and a complete new exhaust run to the outside but she’s done! Took some pics along the way

 

[Mikedin]

Added in a 16” fan (pointing at the wall) and a small radiator heater as well, I set it to low and 1/4 power as it dosent have a digital temp set point I’ll have to try and find the sweet spot

Picked up some microbe brew today , just gotta figure out when to start feeding so far just RO water and that’s it

 

[steamroller]

Nothing says commitment like a 4 inch hole in the wall !
Nice set up and good going bigger then you think you need .

 

[Mikedin]

Nothing says commitment like a 4 inch hole in the wall !
Nice set up and good going bigger then you think you need .

Shoulda saw the wife’s face haha, but she knows I’ve done construction for 18 years I can repair it down the road if needed lol, new vent hood going out the wall on the other side too, 2x 90’s then into the vent about 6 feet of vent pipe total so not far to push, will wait till dark then go out and check for any light leaks

Starting to get a nice little smell off the tops of the plants now, my wife notices it right when she puts her head into the box, but nothing outside and checked the air coming out of the vent and it’s completely odorless, no intake just one of the bottom mesh vents about 1/4 open, before I opened it I could see the negative pressure pulling in on the walls so I know the carbon filter is pulling good even though it’s only a 4”, and I only have it set to 60% when it comes on

Measured that vent hole in the wall before drilling so it’s dead on tent is right up against the wall so you can’t even see anything besides the tent

But yes I went overkill for 6 plants I figured environment would be easier to control so far it seems so I’ll keep an eye on it

 

[Mikedin]

anybody have an opinion on best placement for the probe? I have the 2x humidifiers between the plants and fan blowing twords them, should I move the humidifiers on the other side of the tent and let the fans blow the humidity around? I have the probe hanging down between the lights at about plant height, I know humidity is much higher up above the lights (around 80% I have a separate humidity /temp meter) but it’s reading about 53% on the fan controller

 

[steamroller]

I like to keep my meter near plant height, usually a little above .
Some use coffee filters to shade them if the light effects true reading .

 

[Mikedin]

I like to keep my meter near plant height, usually a little above .
Some use coffee filters to shade them if the light effects true reading .

Never thought of the coffee filter lol awesome idea , now I have to go buy some tomorrow morning (been drinkin a bit lol ) my coffee pots all use those non-disposable filters that you just wash out, thanks !

 

[Mikedin]

Well folks today is 2 weeks from sprout, had to raise up the lights a bit I was just beginning to see a bit of tip burn on a few of the leaves and realized my lights were at about 19” , picked them up to 24, and as today was watering day I decided to give the girls a very light first feeding went with 1/4 TSP of FF microbe brew and 1/4 TSP of FF Grow Big per gallon of water, I use 2 gallons of water total to water all 5x 5 gallon pots total, little seeding is only a week old so she’ll have to wait until at least next week for her first neuts. Probably a week early to feed them as they are in 100% FF happy frog soil but I decided to try to ween them onto their new neuts, next week I’ll go with Grow Big only and use Microbe Brew on the following week

I believe I saw a few white hairs beginning to poke out on the biggest plant they are all autoflower Fems but I still will be checking

 

[Mikedin]

Think I found a little mutation / deformation in one of the plants while I was in there talking to them lol, dosent seem to be affecting her at all just something I noticed, I’ll say it builds character almost every single main leaf / middle leaf has a deformation at its tip including new growth (pics included) I have 2 other plants of the same strain not showing this deformity besides that she seems happy I’m actually looking forward to what the full plant looks like when it’s done

It’s minor but I noticed it and thought I’d include / document it in the diary lol, I did notice that one leaf has a bit of cleaning in the middle of that leaf, no other leaves showing that, checked around the plant, only bug the sticky strips have caught were a single ant, my veggies growing in the other room has stickies hanging all over and I’ve caught about 30 small fruit flies but I haven’t found a single one in the tent

I’m kind of OCD with the tent I don’t have drain pans, when I water I eat about an hour, move all the plants and wipe the floor down to clean up the runoff , I’ll need to find some pans eventually before they get too big to move but for now I’m getting by, there up on the stands to keep them off the concrete floor underneath the tent

Noticed at 2 weeks old

Also I never thought a tiny amount of neuts would swing PH so far lol glad I took the advice and picked up that PH up before the first feeding lol

 

[Mikedin]

Well it’s update day! Started LST on the 3 taller plants one around 9” other 2 around 6” tall, smaller plants in the back are picking up growth speed so there probably a few days away from taking the bend as well, LST start was done yesterday and all 3 took a nice liking to it, already saw some good growth from lower node sites pushing up for the lights, had to pull the tops down more after 24 hours they had already recovered upright and were trying to cover up the lower growth

Plants were also given their first neuts (FF grow and bloom, as well as microbe brew all at about 1/4 strength 3 days ago at approx 16 days old) they seemed to enjoy it next week will be about 1/2 recommended feeding, following week will be full strength unless recommended otherwise by some of you wise folks!

Before and after LST top views included

 

[Budzyz]

Easy water fix.... fill a trash can outside with tap water. In 24 hours all the toxic chlorine gas with gas off and you'll have good water. I have grown this way for years and water has never caused a problem.

 

[Mikedin]

Easy water fix.... fill a trash can outside with tap water. In 24 hours all the toxic chlorine gas with gas off and you'll have good water. I have grown this way for years and water has never caused a problem.

I was considering this and my still do it grow tent is in the basement and I have a walkout to the backyard and a hose spicket right there, gunna do some tests and see how it goes I have the pool test kit for chlorine, might get an air stone and put it in the van until then at least I know I have the primo water

 

[Mikedin]

Quick update, decided to pick up a 6” spider farmer exhaust/ filter to go with my 4” once I hook up the 6” I’ll monitor for a day to see how it controls temps, if needed I’ll hook up the 4” for an intake, it hit 82f. Outside today, at 70% power the 4” kept it around 79-80 in the tent, had a few s spikes to 82-83, gave the girls a good watering today with plain RO until I had around mabye 5% runoff since they got fed about 3.5 days ago hard to judge the runoff in fabric pots it takes awhile to finally drain out haha. They are growing nicely and look happy, opposed to the spider farmer humidity temp monitor I have a seperate monitor inside and it’s currently reading 79f - 67%RH it’s against the wall just to the side of the biggest plant so I’d say I’m probably averaging 80f and 60-63%RH inside the tent.

I gotta say that GG that’s in the middle that is a week behind is catching up to my smaller plants in the back very quickly haha

I’ll take them out of the tent next when I’m off work in a few days to get some pics of their actual color.

So far for my first grow and figuring out equipment etc I’m having a great time, no actual defoliate on them took a few leaves that were dragging in the mud after LST (probably 4 leaves between all 6 plants so really nothing) just been leaf tucking before and after work and spreading out the plants with garden wire when stems get long enough

5 biggest plants are about 23 days from sprout