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First time in a tent

New member, first tent grow. Figured I would share and hopefully gain some pointers as this is my first tent grow. Done some outdoor and indoor runs generally on a larger scale back in the gorilla growing days where all my sourced information was about...
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First time in a tent

by homiefromtheshowme · Started
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homiefromtheshowme

homiefromtheshowme

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New member, first tent grow. Figured I would share and hopefully gain some pointers as this is my first tent grow. Done some outdoor and indoor runs generally on a larger scale back in the gorilla growing days where all my sourced information was about "tomatoes" and you couldn't tell if the guy knew what you meant. Lol. Anyways, I've always kept a ear in the grow world and now that I have some space, time, and most of the funds desires I'm trying to do it right. So here's where im starting.
Started as a budget 32x32 kit from Amazon, came with a Chinese brand light that I can find no data for light output just the controller. Off name 4" fan 200ish claimed cfm, charcoal filter, 2 speed 6 inch circulation fan that blows 90mph on low, the smallest water pump I've ever seen, enough tubing and parts for a 4 drip system(I've measured the time to get 100ml at single emitter at 7 minutes 1 second) and probably the best part was the humidifier to counter my dry climate, and a basic timer. Planning a few upgrades along the way, to be continued..
For substrate, I'm running grodan hugo blocks which I realize in hindsight is far to big for my plant count and spacing desired. Draining into a 10 gallon low profile reservoir with slits for drainage. Also, oversized, but I had a reservoir overflow from heavy drain back where the space below is occupied, I now like to run double capacity reservoirs. Running general hydroponics flora nova base with koolbloom, flora nectar, cal mag, and forgot to get ripen to finish out the 6 part mix and Si because I've only had good luck using it at lower than recommended doses. Balanced base nutrients seems to suffice without all the extras, but I want a little extra this push because this is all just for me with no intent to go big again.
Currently in the tent are 3 sour diesel and 2 jet fuel clones that I got at about 6-10"s in height with massive roots...transfer into blocks seems to have went well as veg growth has doubled and 3 days after topping still look healthy. Seemed early to top but for my training strategy I needed my lowers to start gaining now. Sour diesel has much more desirable branch structure IMO. I worry about the height difference the stains show as the jet fuel is very tall with minimal branching and diesel is nice and squat. From my readings on here I would suppose most recommend I flower only two after a few weeks of veg and training but my desire is to do at least 4 and hand water the 5th to compare at least until I can rule one out.
For electronics I'm running the spider farmer 5 outlet wifi controller timer. Love being able to check and change conditions from anywhere. Been having issues with the sensor getting accurate readings, which I didn't find out until a few days ago until I timed my grippers and weighed my cubes. I've spent the past 2 days, weighing blocks and moving the sensor and replacing at different angles on the plant I think I may get rid of. I don't desire to create channeling before my roots can fully establish the block. I think I have narrowed in on placing probe approx. 3" up the block inserted at about a 30° downward angle.
I will add more later. Here's some pictures. Let me know what you think. 1st picture is day one in setup, 2nd and 3rd are adter topping.
First time in a tent
First time in a tent 2
First time in a tent 3
 
Added a water line in my room so I didn't have to tote water back and forth. Yes I'm in my utility closet. Most climate consistent room in the house. Running it as a lung room with supplemental heat, humidifier is in tent. Also a screenshot of my spider farmer app with current stats. Vpd reads high but leaf temp offset of 4-5° brings vpd closer to 1.0
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Welcome to The Farm, and welcome back to growing! Love your username! If you're born and raised in that state, there's only one "I" in the name when you pronounce it. 😁 Sort of ends in "uh." 👍🏻
 
Welcome to The Farm, and welcome back to growing! Love your username! If you're born and raised in that state, there's only one "I" in the name when you pronounce it. 😁 Sort of ends in "uh." 👍🏻
Show me state born and raised. Currently off radar, medical state but no home cultivation allowed here.
 
Thanks for the welcomes. I can't find alot of information or run stats for the spider farmer GGS ac5 I'm running, so I plan to upload as much information from the app as possible. All blocks are being checked daily for weight and visual check for runoff rate as I recollect runoff in feed reservoir.
 
New addition to the tent today, got the spider farmer sf2000pro. The light coverage in this space is awesome. I set it 3/4 the way up the tent and set brightness to 60% to finish the day. I tried probably too hard to make sure we didn't go dark during the transition and roughly match the intensity. No stats off old light to compare too but I had worked it up to 100% last 2 days before the switch.

Bigger news, day 10 at home and we have roots coming out the bottom of every block. They look extremely healthy, even though I tested my ppm at 1250 today when my tester arrived. Mixed low feed nutrients suspecting my tap water had high ppm. My feed rate should have been in the 650-800 ppm according to my chart and I tried to measure on the short side.It do have a online filter to try and help, can't justify a R/O system on first push out of the space when they seem to be thriving. I think these girls are ready for more.
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Found another cool fact on the GGS system from spider farmer. Once you connect a digital device it no longer has to be on a timed outlet. So once I got the new light I switched it to a always on outlet and freed up a programmable slot.
 
Managed to get the water down to somewhat of a schedule. Dry back is a little slow but it's still early
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1 week into flip. Did some defoliation, but can't bring myself to remove all growth below the canopy area. I've read all the lower budsites just waste energy from tops, but how do you remove a bud site without damaging the node? Sites are very tight to the plant at this point and I feel like I'm past the point of heavy trimming? Let me know what you think
 
From the first pic of today the lollipoping looks fine. I for now would not remove anymore until it's at least wk 3 of full flower mode. Wait until it's done stretching and you see budlets then re evaluate if it needs more.
 
Picture was from a few days ago but buds were starting in these photos. Very visible on morning check today just didn't get fresh pictures. Stretch in the first week has been a solid 4 inches across canopy with some lower branches easily pushing 6. Time frame is closer to 12 days into flower at this point
 
You know exactly what you are doing. No need for advice.

The plants look great!

As far as your drip placement, couldn't you have just added another line to get full block saturation?

Are you doing multiple daily feeds like in fertigation?
 
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