Potato Pipe
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Hello, my name is Potato Pipe and I'm a first time grower.
I know my little grow op is nothing compared to most of the others on here, but I wanted to do a grow diary to allow those with more experience (which is pretty much everyone) to comment, critique, and suggest throughout the process.
I actually started germinating the first seed back on February 1st but had a bad case of influenza-B sweep through the household so I haven't had much time to write with kids needing to be kept hydrated and fevers needing attending to (and parents needing rest). So I'm starting the diary a little late, unfortunately.
Plants:
Since this would be my first time growing I thought starting with a single plant would be a good idea. I decided to go with the Dinafem White Widow that came as a freebie with my actual order from the seed bank. After doing some reading I decided to try and germinate the seed in a glass of water placed in a dark cabinet. After four days of soaking and no germination I pulled a Paradise Seeds Delahaze that also came as a freebie. This time I used the paper tower method and threw the White Widow seed in the bag as well figuring it was a bad seed but not wanting to throw it in the garbage. Well, a little over 24 hours later and they both had sprouted! As a side note, the White Widow was very deformed looking till it sprouted its third set of leaves and it still looks like a strawberry plant as of 03/17/15.
Soil:
For the seedlings I used a mix of 80% Happy Frog and 20% earthworm castings. I have to say that I do not like Happy Frog at all. My entire bag was chalked full of large chunks of wood and round flat pebbles anywhere from the size of a dime up to the size of a quarter. When I re-potted the seedlings to one gallon felt pots I knocked all of the soil loose and put the roots into a mixture of 70% coco coir, 10% worm castings, and 20% Happy Frog that I sifted with some contraption my wife had in the kitchen (might be for noodles). When I re-potted from the one gallon containers to the five gallon containers I took the soil knocked free from the plants and added it to a two gallon mixture of roughly 90% coco coir and 10% worm castings. Next time I am just going to do 100% coco coir from the start.
Feeding:
Seedlings were fed tap water that had been aerated for 24 hours. After the third set of leaves showed up I began feeding them with the water from my freshwater fish tank. I figured the fish were happy because they get to eat like pigs and have their water changed regularly and my plants were happy because they were getting nutrient rich, well-oxygenated water. The leaves started to show signs of thinning and slight yellowing between the veins of each leaf at around three and a half weeks and I began using Dyna-Gro fertilizers on 03/12/2015 and currently alternating between 'Foliage Pro' (9-3-6) at half strength and 'Grow' (7-9-5) at full strength for each feeding.
02/11/2015:
I had replanted the Delahaze (on left) into a one gallon pot just before the photo was taken. The White Widow is very small and seems to have malformed leaves but is otherwise green and happy.
03/15/15:
My wife gave me a real grow tent, carbon filter, and vent fan for my birthday so I switched over from my DIY setup. Also built a scrog net out of square dowel rods and cotton kite string I had sitting in a closet.
Also managed to break off a stem and fan leaf while trying to tuck them under the net. I didn't like the lighting setup of two 2700k and two 6000k so I switched them all out to the 6000k variety.
03/17/15:
Top view of the Delahaze.
I started to have roots coming straight up out of the soil so I added more coco coir that was amended with rock dust and mixed it into the upper layers of exiting soil.
Top view of White Widow.
Side view of the Paradise Seeds White Widow. I was able to find out that this strain from this seed company has a reputation for being runty and malformed but produces great buds if you can make it work.
03/18/2015:
Began work on converting an old computer case to a clone/seedling starter. The usable area for growing is only 10 inches x 6 inches x 20 inches so it may end up only being usable for seedlings? I'm not sure. I'd like to set up a little aeroponics system in there but I'm not 100% sure how to go about it yet. I may end up just building a veg box of a better size since I intend to have four plants going at any given time with two in flower in the main tent.
EDIT: Currently trying to figure out why some photos aren't posting
I know my little grow op is nothing compared to most of the others on here, but I wanted to do a grow diary to allow those with more experience (which is pretty much everyone) to comment, critique, and suggest throughout the process.
I actually started germinating the first seed back on February 1st but had a bad case of influenza-B sweep through the household so I haven't had much time to write with kids needing to be kept hydrated and fevers needing attending to (and parents needing rest). So I'm starting the diary a little late, unfortunately.
Plants:
Since this would be my first time growing I thought starting with a single plant would be a good idea. I decided to go with the Dinafem White Widow that came as a freebie with my actual order from the seed bank. After doing some reading I decided to try and germinate the seed in a glass of water placed in a dark cabinet. After four days of soaking and no germination I pulled a Paradise Seeds Delahaze that also came as a freebie. This time I used the paper tower method and threw the White Widow seed in the bag as well figuring it was a bad seed but not wanting to throw it in the garbage. Well, a little over 24 hours later and they both had sprouted! As a side note, the White Widow was very deformed looking till it sprouted its third set of leaves and it still looks like a strawberry plant as of 03/17/15.
Soil:
For the seedlings I used a mix of 80% Happy Frog and 20% earthworm castings. I have to say that I do not like Happy Frog at all. My entire bag was chalked full of large chunks of wood and round flat pebbles anywhere from the size of a dime up to the size of a quarter. When I re-potted the seedlings to one gallon felt pots I knocked all of the soil loose and put the roots into a mixture of 70% coco coir, 10% worm castings, and 20% Happy Frog that I sifted with some contraption my wife had in the kitchen (might be for noodles). When I re-potted from the one gallon containers to the five gallon containers I took the soil knocked free from the plants and added it to a two gallon mixture of roughly 90% coco coir and 10% worm castings. Next time I am just going to do 100% coco coir from the start.
Feeding:
Seedlings were fed tap water that had been aerated for 24 hours. After the third set of leaves showed up I began feeding them with the water from my freshwater fish tank. I figured the fish were happy because they get to eat like pigs and have their water changed regularly and my plants were happy because they were getting nutrient rich, well-oxygenated water. The leaves started to show signs of thinning and slight yellowing between the veins of each leaf at around three and a half weeks and I began using Dyna-Gro fertilizers on 03/12/2015 and currently alternating between 'Foliage Pro' (9-3-6) at half strength and 'Grow' (7-9-5) at full strength for each feeding.
02/11/2015:
I had replanted the Delahaze (on left) into a one gallon pot just before the photo was taken. The White Widow is very small and seems to have malformed leaves but is otherwise green and happy.
03/15/15:
My wife gave me a real grow tent, carbon filter, and vent fan for my birthday so I switched over from my DIY setup. Also built a scrog net out of square dowel rods and cotton kite string I had sitting in a closet.
Also managed to break off a stem and fan leaf while trying to tuck them under the net. I didn't like the lighting setup of two 2700k and two 6000k so I switched them all out to the 6000k variety.
03/17/15:
Top view of the Delahaze.
I started to have roots coming straight up out of the soil so I added more coco coir that was amended with rock dust and mixed it into the upper layers of exiting soil.
Top view of White Widow.
Side view of the Paradise Seeds White Widow. I was able to find out that this strain from this seed company has a reputation for being runty and malformed but produces great buds if you can make it work.
03/18/2015:
Began work on converting an old computer case to a clone/seedling starter. The usable area for growing is only 10 inches x 6 inches x 20 inches so it may end up only being usable for seedlings? I'm not sure. I'd like to set up a little aeroponics system in there but I'm not 100% sure how to go about it yet. I may end up just building a veg box of a better size since I intend to have four plants going at any given time with two in flower in the main tent.
EDIT: Currently trying to figure out why some photos aren't posting
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