4X4 Tent (First Time Grow)

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BagseedBallerz

BagseedBallerz

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First time grower here! any and all advice is welcomed.

4X4 Tent
Vivosun VS4000 LED
Coco/Perlite (80/20)
Athena Blended line
RO water
RH around 55%
Temp 73F-77F
3x Grandi Guava
3x Apple Fritter
Seedlings are the same strain

This whole project started with some bagseeds that inspired me to finally try to grow. Out of the 6 seeds 3 sprouted and 2 survived but looked as though they were not growing anymore before the second set of true leaves fully formed. I believe I got over zealous with the watering. Due to time constraints I decided to get clones to speed things along and just started feeding the seedlings to see what would happen. They started to grow again and I'm going to keep them going to see what happens but they are obviously not the focus. They sprouted on the 1st of March and the clones were put in the tent on the 20th.

I transplanted clones into 3 gal pots, I know this is a bit large to start but it's what I've got. They have been in the coco for 3 days.

Feeding is at half strength currently. I'm trying to get down proper fertigation technique at the moment. So far I have been trying to nail down how much to feed and getting far more than 20% runoff. I'm feeding 500ml per plant so far and accumulating around 300ml runoff twice a day. The coco doesn't seem to fully saturate so I'm focusing on the area where the rockwool is. The EC is .8 going in and the same at runoff so far. The PH is 5.8. Does this seem ok to start?

The light is about 45 inches from the top of the plants on 50% power on an 18/6 schedule.

Transplant day 1

Immediately after transplanting

Day 3 full tent
4x4 tent first time grow 3

These were taken today just before morning feeding
 
BagseedBallerz

BagseedBallerz

7
3
So everything was looking good this morning when I fed the girls. I got home and checked on them tonight and to my surprise the top leaves were all praying quite drastically. I'm confused as I haven't changed anything other than my clip fan location to try and let the humidity settle a bit more near the plants instead of being blown back towards the rear of the tent where the exhaust fan is. My fan speed controller for the intake was randomly shutting off so I can only have it running full speed right now. Could the light be too far? (45 inches on 50%) Temps around 73-75F and RH is between 50-60. I will feed them and see how they look after the dark cycle in the morning.
Praying leaves 1
Praying leaves 2
Praying leaves 3
Praying leaves 4
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

543
93
You need a PAR meter. I know they are expensive, you still need one. If anything, it seems perhaps the light is a bit weak, but you can't really tell from an image. Assuming you light things correctly, prepare for a lot of growth, if you feed enough.

So, what I see, in comparison to the 4x4 grow I'm doing now, is that you are going to have some issues. First, watering by hand. Coco wants a lot of waterings, and I assume rockwool does too. If you grow in coco, you probably want to automate the watering too.

Second, space issues. 6 plants will easily fill that tent edge to edge if you let them. (Meaning you may need to flip them to flower in 3 weeks from now.) Once they get big, it will be increasingly difficult to get to the back ones to water unless you have access to 3 sides of your tent. (It may not be too late to move your tent a bit if necessary to open those side panels for daily access.

I'm having very good luck following the guides at cocoforcannabis.com, supplemented with knowledge I'm getting here. I'm feeding 5x daily, started at 4x. You want to keep an eye on the runoff EC, especially around flowering. For me, runoff EC was much lower than input, indicating the plants were really sucking down nutrients. It might be an indication you can raise the concentration of the nutes/input EC. But at flowering, my runoff EC has reversed and is coming out worryingly high. I've tried massive amounts of water, along with a lot of nutes, and that only helped a bit. Now I'm lowering input EC to deal with it. Not sure it's a problem, but it's been a concern.

Another problem I had was explosive growth. I wasn't prepared for the speed, and I didn't aggressively manifold the branches, in addition to topping them. And I didn't think 4 weeks was long enough, so I waited a 5th week before flipping the lights. And then they stretched. And stretched more, and faster.

I ratcheted my light as high as it would go, then removed the ratchets and clipped the leads directly together. And still they stretched.

When I was down to 12 inches of space to the light and knew I had at least another week of stretch, I swapped out the grow tent for a taller one. Got 27 inches of clearance. 8 days later the stretch ended, and I was down to 12-14 inches of clearance. Moral of this story is - when growing in coco, don't wait too long to flip to flower or they'll be too tall. They are currently at my eye level, and I'm over 6 foot tall.
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

543
93
I don't know anything about this one, but it appears to be the cheapest real quantum PAR meter I've seen for sale so far. I find it for sale under $150, though with another $13 shipping:
growace.com

Photobio Advanced Quantum PAR Meter

Photobio Advanced Quantum PAR Meter. Best quality + price guarantee on all orders. Fast and secure delivery. Click now to learn more.
growace.com growace.com
 
BagseedBallerz

BagseedBallerz

7
3
Thank you, mine don't seem to be growing fast at all. I was worried about watering amount so started small. I plan to automate the watering I just thought I'd get the amount dialed in a bit first.

The tent in in the corner of the room and I am not sure I'm going to be able to ever fully reach the back. Once they started to grow faster I would start to top them a bit. I am aware of stretch but not sure I'd have been prepared for that much so it's good to know.

I figured that I could get away with not having a PAR meter right now and I watched this and tried the photone app that MIGRO suggested and at the top of the plants was getting a reading around 350 but it can't hurt having the knowledge and $150 if a lot better than $300 to $500 so I'll probably spring for a real quantum meter after a bit more research.

As for EC it's .9 going in and coming out every time so far as I'm still only feeding half strength but need to mix more feed solution now.

I'll try to up the feeding frequency to 3x today and see how it goes.
 
BagseedBallerz

BagseedBallerz

7
3
I'd say its high time for an update.
It took me some time to get this set up how I wanted it but here's what the outside looks like.
Tent setup


I wanted to top them just to see for myself how the plants would respond to it. this is them directly after, hopefully what I took off the plant was sufficient.

Topped Plant 2
Topped plant1



On the 26th I adjusted the height and turned it up and they seem to be liking it better now. I've still been feeding twice daily but am going to be feeding three times a day starting today. The PR meter and automated feeding is probably going to have to wait until next run. I'd love to have it all now but you gotta work with what you got.

Here's an update of all the girls, how are they looking?
March 4 room
March 4 room
March 4 room
March 4 room top
March 4 room
March 4 room top
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

543
93
BagseedBallerz said:
I'd say its high time for an update.
It took me some time to get this set up how I wanted it but here's what the outside looks like.
Click to expand...
On the tent - it's always nice if you can get to three sides of it once the plants get bushy. They can really fill a 4x4 and make it hard to prune the back corners.

BagseedBallerz said:
Here's an update of all the girls, how are they looking?
Click to expand...
I thought they looked a bit leggy. What sort of light intensity have you been giving them? Perhaps they could use more.
 
BagseedBallerz

BagseedBallerz

7
3
phxazcraig said:
On the tent - it's always nice if you can get to three sides of it once the plants get bushy. They can really fill a 4x4 and make it hard to prune the back corners.


I thought they looked a bit leggy. What sort of light intensity have you been giving them? Perhaps they could use more.
Click to expand...
Ya I hear you, I checked out your grow and between stretch and number of plants it's got me concerned a bit. Still no solid solution I can get into two sides comfortably but I see that won't be sufficient. I may move a couple out doors if need be and run 4 if no better option arises.

The light is a 400 watt vivosun set to 75% at around 20 inches now, I kinda lowered it a bit every couple days due to not having a great PAR meter. (Don't worry I'll get one next time)
 
phxazcraig

phxazcraig

543
93
BagseedBallerz said:
No those trays get hit with a wet shop vac. Was dumping by hand but needed to figure out a better solution.
Click to expand...
It's pretty easy and cheap to set up automatic watering. You need a cheap pump, a cheap timer and some hose and fittings. Listed at cocoforcannabis.com.

It's more expensive to do the automatic drain system. Mostly because the sump pump is about $100. I think that is more than the rest put together.

If you can drag your tent 2 feet from the wall or window, you'll thank me for it later. Especially if hand draining the back plants.

If you could just get draining saucers, you could raise the pots a few inches and drain to a common container, and use your wet vacuum from there.
 
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