Diaries of an Urban Druid

[pdx]

Hello everyone!

As some of you may know, I just joined the forums and am starting my very first cannabis grow in addition growing indoors for the first time.
I'll be documenting my progress as I can!

This season we have the following strains being grown:

• Gelato
  
• Cuvee Purple
  
• Persian Delight (some mysterious Landrace from Pakistan)
  
• Purple Pleiades (1:1 CBD indica strain)
  

The clones were started in rockwool which was then transferred to a soil medium. Once they entered my hands I then proceeded to transplant them into 5 gallon Smart Pots (fabric pots) into straight pre-buffered coco coir.
Before transplanting, I sprinkled mycorrhizae (Great White) into both the holes they would be going into, and on to the root balls themselves.

I'm using synthetic nutrients + a cal/mag supplement watering at a PH of 6.2
The fan being used is a vivosun 4'' exhaust and I'm using a 315w Sun Systems Ceramic Metal Halide lamp.

Unfortunately, I'm temporarily adjusting the PH levels with Apple Cider Vinegar (not too worried about that) and Baking Soda (that sodium is really worrying me but it'll wash out once I get a proper alkaline to adjust the water with)

As for the light cycle, I'm running:

• 10 hours on from 21:00 to 09:00
• 5.5 hours off from 9:00 to 14:30
• 1 hour on from 14:30 to 15:30
• 5.5 hours off from 15:30 to 21:00

 

[pdx]

Unfortunately, the Purple Pleiades is not a happy camper right now.

 

[PlumberSoCal]

Hello everyone!

As some of you may know, I just joined the forums and am starting my very first cannabis grow in addition growing indoors for the first time.
I'll be documenting my progress as I can!

This season we have the following strains being grown:

• Gelato
  
• Cuvee Purple
  
• Persian Delight (some mysterious Landrace from Pakistan)
  
• Purple Pleiades (1:1 CBD indica strain)
  

The clones were started in rockwool which was then transferred to a soil medium. Once they entered my hands I then proceeded to transplant them into 5 gallon Smart Pots (fabric pots) into straight pre-buffered coco coir.
Before transplanting, I sprinkled mycorrhizae (Great White) into both the holes they would be going into, and on to the root balls themselves.

I'm using synthetic nutrients + a cal/mag supplement watering at a PH of 6.2
The fan being used is a vivosun 4'' exhaust and I'm using a 315w Sun Systems Ceramic Metal Halide lamp.

Unfortunately, I'm temporarily adjusting the PH levels with Apple Cider Vinegar (not too worried about that) and Baking Soda (that sodium is really worrying me but it'll wash out once I get a proper alkaline to adjust the water with)

As for the light cycle, I'm running:

• 10 hours on from 21:00 to 09:00
• 5.5 hours off from 9:00 to 14:30
• 1 hour on from 14:30 to 15:30
• 5.5 hours off from 15:30 to 21:00

I'm confused. Why break up the light cycle? I'm an outdoor grower, grew indoors about 4 decades ago and always thought one would want to produce as close as possible to natural conditions. It's amazing the changes in grow lights over that time in an attempt to mimic natural light.

 

[pdx]

I'm confused. Why break up the light cycle? I'm an outdoor grower, grew indoors about 4 decades ago and always thought one would want to produce as close as possible to natural conditions. It's amazing the changes in grow lights over that time in an attempt to mimic natural light.

The reason I've decided to use this odd-ball light cycle instead of the typical 18/6 or 24/0 cycles are the following:

• Saving significant amount of energy by running the light for only 13 hours rather than 18+ hours.
• Extending the lifetime of the bulb by not running it as often.
• Being able to better control temperature levels by having the plants mostly sleeping during the day and having the primary 12 hour light stage occur at night when ambient temps are much lower.
• Lastly, I'm trying to limit the vegetative growth somewhat as the tent isn't as tall as I'd like and the lamp runs fairly hot. I want these girls to not feel cramped; I'm not aiming for maximum yields just optimal airflow and happy plants :)

I came across this odd light cycle sequence on one site while researching light cycle types. I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else but I have seen 13 hour sleep cycles with 11 hour lights during flowering. The person who wrote the post claims that all the medical growers he knows also use this staggered sequence.

 

[PlumberSoCal]

It'll be interesting. Looking forward to the grow!

 

[pdx]

The Purple Pleiades appears to be a lot more sensitive to what appears to be overfeeding with nitrogen. Trying to determine if I should flush the pot or not.
I've swapped the light cycle to 18/6 for the time being. My guess is the extra light will exasperate the issue if it really is N toxicity as the plants will be more active and drawing up even more nutrients.
I'll be checking in periodically every 2 hours or so today to see how she's feeling and go from there.

 

[PlumberSoCal]

The Purple Pleiades appears to be a lot more sensitive to what appears to be overfeeding with nitrogen. Trying to determine if I should flush the pot or not.
I've swapped the light cycle to 18/6 for the time being. My guess is the extra light will exasperate the issue if it really is N toxicity as the plants will be more active and drawing up even more nutrients.
I'll be checking in periodically every 2 hours or so today to see how she's feeling and go from there.

The two biggest mistakes new growers make is over watering and/or over feeding. What I refer to as over mothering. We want to go from popping seeds to rolling one up. I know I do. But then reality rears its ugly head. Go easy on the additives.

 

[pdx]

The two biggest mistakes new growers make is over watering and/or over feeding. What I refer to as over mothering. We want to go from popping seeds to rolling one up. I know I do. But then reality rears its ugly head. Go easy on the additives.

Yeah I actually meant to feed them at half dose but totally spaced it and realized I went full dose after I had finished watering and moved them into the tent. Whoops!
The other three seem pretty cozy and happy though.

 

[pdx]

I've swapped the Apple Cider Vinegar for lemon juice.
I guessed that if I left the ACV adjusted water out overnight the acetic acid would break down and the water would go back to alkaline. That's exactly what happened according to the pH readings.
I believe the citric acid should be more stable.

Luckily the majority of my pH adjustment is to go down from 7.0-7.2 down to 6.0-6.3 so I don't have to pinch some sodium bicarbonate too often.

I poured half a gallon of water through the Purple Pleiades while I have it sitting out on the deck in the sun and draining. Going to see if she perks up in a bit.

 

[pdx]

The little lady looks like her "stomach" is no longer upset Ran a bunch of water through the coco to try to flush out the nutrients and left her in the sun all day on the deck.

Before:

After:

Not sure about the bending of the leaf edges upwards.I know some strains like to cup like that but I don't see it happening on any other fan on the plant so I'm a little perplexed. I wager it's residual stress from the nitrogen toxicity.

The surprising and interesting thing to me is that I fed all of the little ones with from the same water mix so the nutrient level was the same across the board and the other three are happy as a clam.

 

[pdx]

There are some white strands showing up and I'm not sure if this is normal. I'm not turning anything up online right now... any ideas?

 

[Beachwalker]

Looks like female pistils

 

[pdx]

Do pistils usually show up during veg? Or did this one start to try flowering way too early?

Really had to dig deep for information but it seems I'm getting spooked over nothing. Apparently some strains pre-flower but won't continue to put energy towards flowering unless you shift to a 12+ night cycle. All is well :)

 

[pdx]

It turns out citric acid breaks down over the course of the day as well so I've swapped back to Apple Cider Vinegar since it's unfiltered and contains 'mother'; while I knew it was good stuff for people, I've been reading that plants dig it too.

I'm seeing some signs of nutrient burn on the tippity tips of one of the other plants but it's so minor at the moment that I'm going to let it ride until I wake up tomorrow and see how it goes from there. Although, as you'll see in this picture, this burnt plant has one of the blades of its fan jack-knifing 90 degrees upwards and I'm not finding any reliable information on what the reason is; I'm thinking it's a heat issue (it was around 88 F in the tent today)

I've rotated a couple plants in the tent since the upset one is directly beneath the bulb while the others are off to the sides. Giving the girls a glass of water (2 cups phd to 6.1/6.2) each and tucked them back in to their tent :)

The plant in question is the one furthest from the fan diagonally (bottom right if the picture would post normally for once)

 

[pdx]

I'm a dumdum and have had my thermo hygrometer outside of the tent with the probe inside hanging an inch above the canopy. This means that the RH readings I've been getting have been for outside of the tent (I thought the probe measured it as well). After realizing the RH hasn't really fluctuated much at all I breathed on the main device and watched it shoot up.

 

[pdx]

Good news. RH in the tent is between 50 and 65 depending on whether the plants are snoozin or not.
The Gelato still looks unhappy so I took her and her sisters out on the deck for a flush and letting them soak in a little natural light and get batted lightly by my cats

Moving the primary chunk of light cycle to during the day since it drops to around 65-68 F in the tent during night when the lights are usually on which is the opposite of what I want.
I’m making a little diy ac unit with a styrofoam chest and some frozen bottles of water to help keep the temps from being above 85 during the day - we’re due for 90+ degree weather really soon.

 

[pdx]

Gelato, Purple Pleiades, Persian Delight, and Cuvée Purple in order. I’m interested at how the Cuvée is growing smaller than the others but is a lot more dense; a lot of energy seems to be spent growing leaves close to the nodes of the plant.

 

[pdx]

Temporarily fixed heat and humidity problems (hot and humid while asleep, cold and dry when awake) by moving their sleep cycles to the middle of the night and their waking cycle now starting from 10:00 to 22:00. To combat the heat and raise the humidity during the day I've been putting a few frozen bottles of water in the tent on little saucers to catch runaway condensation. The humidity still isn't quite all the way up there but the temps have been down by about 6 degrees F. I'm going to put a wet rag on the oscillating fan tomorrow.

I've given the girls a misting after the lights went off as well tonight to help humidity and heat stress.

 

[Kingjoshh]

Temporarily fixed heat and humidity problems (hot and humid while asleep, cold and dry when awake) by moving their sleep cycles to the middle of the night and their waking cycle now starting from 10:00 to 22:00. To combat the heat and raise the humidity during the day I've been putting a few frozen bottles of water in the tent on little saucers to catch runaway condensation. The humidity still isn't quite all the way up there but the temps have been down by about 6 degrees F. I'm going to put a wet rag on the oscillating fan tomorrow.

I've given the girls a misting after the lights went off as well tonight to help humidity and heat stress.

Looking good dude how do you like the cloth pots I’m thinking about buying some

 

[pdx]

Looking good dude how do you like the cloth pots I’m thinking about buying some

Thanks.
This is my first time using cloth pots so I'm not sure how I like them quite yet. The handles are convenient and they drain really well though which is great for fixing fuckups like overfeeding.