4x4 grow tent weekly diary

[11Ron11]

Yellow sticky cards are good for gnats, also good for capturing the few gnats floating around looking for a mate, lets you know the gnats are around as you can see them stuck to the card.

I think I took care of the gnats but I did order a pack of 12 kitty cat shaped yellow sticky cards that come with a stick you put in the soil...lol
Hopefully I don't need them but got them just incase.

 

[11Ron11]

Make a mixture of sand, perlite and D.E. to spread on the surface of your containers. Give the suckers no place to live.

I like this idea I just might try that.
Thanks

 

[11Ron11]

There growing so quick I didn't think I would notice differences in 24hr periods..
Leaves are looking a little dry because I have the lights dimmed so high.
Next winter I'm definitely going to run a small heater so I don't need the lights for heat.

 

[11Ron11]

Day 13

 

[11Ron11]

Day 14
Gnats are back.
I don't really see any but I just changed the vinegar and there's a bunch in there.

 

[Dothraki]

That's what I'm wondering what's more important.
100% light 26c
75% light 24c
50% light 21c

What's more important light % or temp.
I could run a extra heater in my basement but that would raise electricity bill so I would rather not.

There growing so quick I didn't think I would notice differences in 24hr periods..
Leaves are looking a little dry because I have the lights dimmed so high.
Next winter I'm definitely going to run a small heater so I don't need the lights for heat.

I was in the same predicament, I’m on my first grow right now (getting ready to harvest any day). I ended up buying a little radiator heater and a humidifier. Once my plants were big enough to turn the power on the light up it definitely helped temps a bit. But, I noticed the temps at the pots were reading about 8-10*F cooler than temps up at the canopy. I found that the lower temp by the pots is probably more important since the lights were obviously warmer, but not necessarily heating the tent, only the leaves within a foot underneath them.

If temps are higher it’ll get drier too, and I think dryness would affect them in a negative way more than cooler temps. Don’t get me wrong, bringing up temps and humidity gave me quicker growth...but when RH was lower it would show on the plants. Once I was in flower and thought “oh great, I can let it get dry now” BUT... here’s what I found happen...

Theres apparently a certain point in flowering, maybe around week 6 for me (7-8 week photoperiods) where the plants weren’t taking up as much water. They sorta slowed down and I wasn’t watering quite as often because pots were still moist. This is a natural part of their life cycle and has to do with the plant using up nutrients from the leaves I guess, Anyway, what happened was I let the humidity get low enough where the the transpiration wasn’t working effectively because the plant was losing too much water through the leaves and it started sucking it up from the medium again, causing excess nutes being delivered to the plant. So I raised humidity back up to around 50-60% and it stopped the nute burn. Lowest it got was around 35% which was too low, BUT, now in the last week or 2 of flower im letting the humidity go down again (which is harder with big fat buds holding all that moisture lol) but it helped me understand the importance of humidity, which I would say is more important than temp especially in veg but they do go hand in hand together. For instance you can have lower temps if your humidity is lower and higher temps if your humidity is higher.

I have a 2 part grow journal, one for veg and the other for flower from 12/12 flip. I didn’t mention this in there but may be the biggest thing I learned that I didn’t expect to be that important. Started getting worried during flower and thought I’d lose the plants (used a shotty 1-part nute that helped almost kill them I’m convinced too) but I think I made it to harvest and within a few days or a week I’ll be grabbing my axe and calling Babe.

My advise for your first grow is this... think fast, act slow. Don’t try to fix every little issue or you might cause another bigger problem. Take the time to see if the problem really is what it appears to be and see if it gets worse or better, and at what rate.

 

[chemistry]

Day 14
Gnats are back.
I don't really see any but I just changed the vinegar and there's a bunch in there.

@11Ron11: Yellow Sticky Cards, lay them flat on the medium, sticky side up, leave the paper on the side your placing on your medium as they're double sided. Put your pots on runners to lift them above your collection plates, or you'll just suck up old feed/salt back into your pots.

 

[11Ron11]

@11Ron11: Yellow Sticky Cards, lay them flat on the medium, sticky side up, leave the paper on the side your placing on your medium as they're double sided. Put your pots on runners to lift them above your collection plates, or you'll just suck up old feed/salt back into your pots.

I ordered some sticky cards but Amazon is stupid and lost my shipment.
I have more ordered because I'm stupide and continue to order from Amazon.. lol
My pots are air pots they built to be 1 inch off the tray but putting them on runners would give even more air flow under my plants I will definitely consider that..
Thanks

 

[11Ron11]

Day 15

 

[11Ron11]

Day 16
Cut the lowest leaves off.

 

[Kanashiihawk63]

I put my light to 50% but being in my basement and living in canada my temp dropped to 21c.
I raised the light to 75% and heat went to 24c.
100% temp was 26c
I think 21c is low do you think I should keep my light at 75%.

If temps really are a thing for you, I cannot recommend enough a "seedling mat" or heck even a very LOW set heating pad that is covered and waterproofed. You want the ROOT part of the plant at least about 67F (or at least 20 C). Even though my underground grow space is finished and heated, it still has a cement floor and that seedling mat has made a HUGE difference. After 15 crops, it wasn't a fluke we started getting quicker and healthier seedlings/sprouts when we used the seedling/germination mat. Once the plants are about 4" tall or they look to me like they have "taken hold" then the mat goes away, fans go on etc. Lighting is always kept high up in my grow tents, I use domes and other such knick knacks for keeping moisture in. You can ask 10 different people and all 10 of us will have a wee bit different way to do the same thing that works for us. LOL
Warmly,
Jackie

 

[Kanashiihawk63]

Also, I am going to say this right now. If you are using GOOD soil, if your soil is HEALTHY and LIVING and good for your plants, chances are really high you WILL get fungus gnats. Fungus gnats have been the bane of many indoor cannabis gardeners. What others have mentioned helps a lot. First though remember a few things about them.
1) Fungus Gnats like "living hot <heavy with organic compounds like guano, worm casings, kelp, fish meal, etc> the MORE "organic" the better they like it! (You won't find many fungus gnats in Miracle Grow! There is a reason for that.).
2) Adult Fungus gnats have NO mouth bits. They do NOT eat, their larvae do. Fungus Gnats are like cicadas... The adults just breed (2000 eggs per 1 female) the larvae tunnel down into the plants root system and live among the root hairs until they are old enough to breed and mate.
3) There are ALWAYS fungus Gnats present everywhere. Period. If you do nothing, at all...You can be overwhelmed within a week and have thousands of the bastards. They are most deadly to seedlings and newly vegetating plants.
4) Best methods to fight them. Mosquito dunks or chips > https://www.amazon.com/SUMMIT-CHEMI...001LE1VC/ref=pd_lpo_3?pd_rd_i=B0001AUF8G&th=1 this is what I use. I add them to my teas and water 2 x a week with this.
5) I use one of these in each grow tent...Katchy UV Mosquito/Gnat catcher
Ever since I have used these, along with the chip and the yellow sticky traps, I have not have a problem since. The bastards are THERE, they just cause no more problems. The first week I set up the gnat trappers they sucked up thousands of the adult buggers never allowing them to breed, I LOVE it! and my crops have been fine ever since.

Best of luck! :D
Warmly,
Jackie

 

[11Ron11]

Day 17
I'm hoping I didn't kill my plants but I wanted to know what would happen if I topped a autoflower 17 days in at the 2nd node.
I also removed all the leaves except the top 2 and and baby ones.
Hoping that I'll get a bunch of side branches turn into new main colas.
Otherwise I'm starting over...lol
I got some sticky cards hopefully they work good..

 

[11Ron11]

Day 18
Still alive.
I see a little yellow on 1 of the leaves.
Turned down light to 70% at 30 inches above the pot.
Sticky pads seem to be working pretty good I added a couple more.

 

[11Ron11]

Day 20
Didn't post yesterday as there wasn't much growth from topping.
Looks like it's back on track.

 

[PerfecTrader]

Lookin happy and healthy bud. Great work

 

[MyGrowYo]

Fungus Gnats are bastards, BTI is good stuff lol i just got some last week for the first time and it really cut the numbers in my lettuce and broccoli down

 

[PerfecTrader]

I'm glad I have been following your grow. You blew the whole "have to wait for 4-6 nodes" right outta the water. When you 1st topped and I saw pic my jaw dropped and I'm like "oOO shit I think those are done for" but that is just cause I didn't know better. Wow holy hella resilient huh? Are you going to just keep topping or do LST or both?

 

[11Ron11]

I'm glad I have been following your grow. You blew the whole "have to wait for 4-6 nodes" right outta the water. When you 1st topped and I saw pic my jaw dropped and I'm like "oOO shit I think those are done for" but that is just cause I didn't know better. Wow holy hella resilient huh? Are you going to just keep topping or do LST or both?

I'm going to definitely keep topping on my next crop.
This crop is a autoflower so I don't have the time it will probably start flowering in week 5 which is the reason I topped at the second node to allow for time to heel.
My diary is not educational it's more of an experiment lol
I have done alot of research and think I have developed a strategy I like.
I will perfect as I go along.
I'm growing weed for the hobby aspect my brother's been growing for along time so I got alot of free weed already.
My brother's style is very conservative my growing style is more of a I told you there's more then 1 way to grow..lol

 

[11Ron11]

Day 21