My Disappointing, even PATHETIC Grow!

[Kampbe1l]

okay, closer inspection of the MK10, not as hungover anymore, me that is. i'm a little overfertilised, underwatered.

on the other side of the plant, towards the bottom, large yellow fan leaf. 2 larger lower leaves in forefront of photo is gonna end the same way.

one full leaf has turned totally yellow, took photos of the leaves surrounding it, which is going the same way.

should i start getting concerned?

pH of nutrients/water has always been around 6.5 level. have only fed MK10 twice, with diluted (half strength at strongest) nutrients, between watering. not over-watering.

recently, all plants have been getting thirsty earlier - hot summer conditions, lights in the grow tent and larger growing plant. my recent growing concerns revolves around tent's ventilation & circulation.

Checking the other plants...after a cuppa. maybe a lie down first, too.

oh, i noticed that i have a paddlepop with BBK10, to confuse me.

 

[Jimster]

okay, closer inspection of the MK10, not as hungover anymore, me that is. i'm a little overfertilised, underwatered.

on the other side of the plant, towards the bottom, large yellow fan leaf. 2 larger lower leaves in forefront of photo is gonna end the same way.

View attachment 936694

one full leaf has turned totally yellow, took photos of the leaves surrounding it, which is going the same way.

View attachment 936692

should i start getting concerned?

View attachment 936693

pH of nutrients/water has always been around 6.5 level. have only fed MK10 twice, with diluted (half strength at strongest) nutrients, between watering. not over-watering.

recently, all plants have been getting thirsty earlier - hot summer conditions, lights in the grow tent and larger growing plant. my recent growing concerns revolves around tent's ventilation & circulation.

Checking the other plants...after a cuppa. maybe a lie down first, too.

oh, i noticed that i have a paddlepop with BBK10, to confuse me.

I'd say that you need a little more nutrients, nitrogen mainly. Don't go too crazy, but you seem to be having restraint and will probably be OK. If you give a feeding and can see a difference the next day, then you are on the lower side of proper nutrition... not enough to cause many problems but if they are still small and need nutrition, they will need more as they grow. Your growing medium isn't pre-fertilized is it?

 

[Kampbe1l]

no pre-fertiliser bombs in soil mix.

i have been giving them nutrients at their strongest dosage, half the full recommended strength. feeding, then watering, alternate cycle, only fed twice.

okay, maybe a little stronger next nutrient mix.

generally speaking, it's all a matter of restraint!

 

[Kampbe1l]

Okay, decided to setup again, the noisy Blauberg Turbo inline exhaust fan 150 mm (6").

It's a BEAST!

rated 335 CFM, its overkill for my small grow tent! there's plenty of negative pressure within my small grow tent.

regardless, it is what i have - so, might as well put it to use. my growing concern, along with the grow tent, was regarding the ventilation and circulation within the grow tent. temperature & humidity within the tent is not something, which can't be greatly controlled by 2 small 15 cm clip-on fans.

I ran ducting from the top vent of the tent, along the roof, and down the tent's side to the exhaust fan placed on foam, on top of a plastic box. then connected the exhaust fan to another TP-LINK HS-110 smartplug to act as its timer.

now, the LED grow lights are running 18/6 on/off cycle, turning on at 8 pm, then turning off at 2 pm, which perfectly coincides with the peak electricity price charged between 2 to 8 pm, when the LED grow lights are turned off.

at its lowest speed, this fan supposedly generates 42 dBA, and its loud enough to be annoying. And how could 42 dBA be stealth?

i don't want to run this exhaust during the night, when the neighbours are asleep. i figured that the daytime normal traffic would mask much of this exhaust fan noise. so, i'm running the fan between 7 am to 11 pm, 5 minutes every hour. start with these settings, see how it goes.

i could get away with a 100 mm exhaust, but it's not a popular size it seems here. and fan controllers, silencers, etc becomes more $$$.....stick with what i have, first.

 

[Edinburgh]

Let me suggest u use fox farm ocean forest, i grow autos and have no trouble with mix, makes all the difference.

 

[Kampbe1l]

Let me suggest u use fox farm ocean forest, i grow autos and have no trouble with mix, makes all the difference.

no Fox Farm products available here in Australia, m8!

otherwise, I would actually use the 'popular' brands quoted here - just to get things 'standardise', to make closer comparisons to others with same setup.

also, happy to go with these feminised seeds, rather than autos, for this first 'proper' grow. after nailing these feminised first to get my growing conditions better/right, then consider getting auto. also, i have plans for motherplants.

i reckon if i had auto varieties, i would have burnt these seeds - feminised seeds allowed me to recover, and also allowed me to stuff around with its grow. if they were instead auto, this first grow would have been a greater disaster.

 

[Kampbe1l]

Typical routine broken, first upon awaking - all the leaves on all the plants were drooping, thirsty and catching me off guard. They are getting thirstier in shorter intervals between drinks/feed, as they get larger.

Quickly, got the pH buffers, pH pen, nutrients and prepared about 60% of full strength dosage of nutrients to fed the plants, before going to work. Lucky, my typical routine is to get to work half an hour earlier than my shift, which I did today.

The MK9 (photo above, thirsty, renamed MK9, i have jumbled a little in their naming, i can't keep up) - one of 'the twins' - is the 'black sheep' of the family, in that she seems to be struggling a little. MK9 is in a standard plastic pot, while the other 2 plants are in 3-gallon fabric pots. I have started to LST this MK9, using the paperclip on the top edge of the pot and plant tie.

BBK9 - the other twin - also struggled the last fortnight, recovering from being separated from her 'other half', obviously some root damage. I was letting BBK9 go, before manipulating her shape.

I didn't take any photos of these sick looking plants, after i separated 'em into their individual pots - must have been totally bummed to take photos.

anyway, this is the Jenny Craig before-shots.

part II of today's report in following post.

 

[Kampbe1l]

MK9 - upon returning home, for her quick checkup....perked up, after her feed.

i applied some LST, then FIM her a couple of days ago.

I should have repotted MK9 in a larger pot, but I didn't have one to spare at the time. MK9 seems to me, still struggling from her separation from her twin.

 

[Kampbe1l]

BBK9, the other twin - she got the 3-gallon fabric pot.

I haven't yet manipulate her shape, yet. BBK9 also struggled a little, after the transplant, so allowing her to settle first before doing anything to her.

i can still see the earlier trauma in its infancy in these shots.

i think this plant is more suited to being topped, rather than FIM. i do have a pair of scissors handy....

 

[Kampbe1l]

finally, i shouldn't have favourites.....MK10. She is the strongest plant out of the gang.

some lower 3-pronged leaves are yellowing, thus fed half-full-strength nutrients this morning.

she has been FIM'd, still wondering how its gonna turn out.

you can see above, where i even chopped half the outer leaf, where i just snipped her top....

i did say MK10 has been my favourite, but she has been the easiest to tend to. The sickly or strugglers are the ones I spend more time to take care of them.

i am starting to lose count of how many days since 22nd December 2019....

 

[Kampbe1l]

they took my money in a hurry, then cancelled my order for some 5-gallon fabric pots, the bastards!

thought of 5-gallon air-pots instead, but they're $20 AUD a pop, and for that 20 bucks I could get five 5-gallon fabric pots (if they were in stock, anywhere!)

and the fact that these 5-gallon fabric pots are not in stock anywhere handy.....well, i let you come to your own conclusions of what they are up to.

yes, i am thinking of eventually transplanting these plants into their final pots, 5-gallon size. i figure I can fit four 5-gallon pots in my small tent.

no, i am not in a hurry to do so - only just separated 'the twins' (BBK9 + MK9) into their separate pots 2 weeks ago.

then i'm thinking if i am doing this final repot into 5-gallon sizes, then i'm looking at staying vegetative phase for longer. not that i ever had a strict timetable.

as you can see, i didn't pack up these 3-gallon pots closer to its rims, when i transplanted....

 

[Kampbe1l]

oh, just discovered something new - at least, new to me. i should say, i made a mistake which was a blessing in disguise.

shit, embarrassed, how dumb was i? now, i have seen the light. remind myself not to go overboard, though. why didn't i figure this out before, dumb shit, me!?!

this is the cool bit - you all said so, it wasn't as if i didn't believe you, it's just that i had to figure it out myself. now, that i read about this 'new discovery' of mine, it all makes sense. if i had read about it first, it would have confused me.

okay, i am teasing. cough up, huh.

i went to bend the main stem, instead i frigging snapped it clean, yeah. this is why you shouldn't fiddle! this mistake, snapping her, was a rough topping, taking out several top nodes of growth. the next little mistake was not to use this snapped portion as a cutting. got the scissors out and cut the main stem to leave a clean stump.

after a couple of days, 2 top offshoots are heading towards the light.

and today, i bent these 2 top offshoots (no, not snapping 'em!) symmetrically, opposite of each other. aha, you call it manifolding or mainlining! this is where the blessing in disguise is, that mistake of lobbing off the top part of this plant, i am learning a new manipulation technique. essentially, manifolding is topping with LST.

once again, see how this plant respond, before the next topping of those 2 top offshoots, to continue with this manifolding technique. impressed!

i did say, i make it up as i go along.

 

[Kampbe1l]

conducting a little experiment!

Not paying $20 AUD for a clear plastic dome with its drip tray. It's like the Paragon Hotel, paying $28 for a packet of chips and 2 schooners of beers, never (again!), what's the markup? See if we can do something simple & cheap DIY. Might even brew me own, one day!

1. bought a 2-litre clear plastic bottle of soft-drink, $2,20, cut this empty bottle in half.
2. poked some holes on the bottom and around the bottom rim into a used disposable/styrofoam coffee cup, cut it down to size.
3. trimmed some tiny/small/pathetic (keep with the theme) lower offshoots, which are never going to produce any significant harvest. the plant gets a trim, i didn't throw away the offcuts - instead use these offcuts as guinea pig, to see if i can do it.
4. poked these tiny offcuts into cloning gel, then poked the cuttings into the corner of a small pre-soaked (in water @ 5.5 pH) rockwool cube.
5. placed the rockwool cube in the bottom 'cup', placed the top of the bottle into the bottom piece - my DIY humidity chamber.
6. squeezed my experiment in this DIY humidity chamber into the tent.

this is just all make-do - got T5 fluorescent but nowhere (yet) handy to setup a small cloning station, it's all work-in-progress, in due course, etc. i know these aren't original ideas, just testing to see if i can do it. already got another idea about making a DIY humidity chamber from the same 2 litre plastic softdrink bottle.

 

[Kampbe1l]

Cuttings....

Day 2 to Day 5 - do nothing, but watch. I am not even opening up its dome, to check how these cuttings are going.

I see the the top of this DIY humidity chamber is all misted up, a good sign that there is humidity building up inside.

i took a couple of offcuts from another plant, and made another DIY humidity chamber out of discarded softdrink bottle. So, I will check on them, this Thursday and Friday - see how dry/wet the rockwool cubes are.

 

[Kampbe1l]

update....day....whatever...lost count, and no longer counting the days. it's gonna take as long as it takes, no schedule in mind anymore, swing with the wind.

I probably could have done this earlier....cranked up the B/W/R on the Viparspectra PAR450 to 100/100/60 settings for the full vegetative phase.

And this higher settings has cranked the LED to draw 194 watts off the wall socket. LED are now generating more energy, heat & costs, and hopefully strong vegetative growth.

Plan A is to run this new Viparspectra settings for another 3/4 weeks, to allow the plants to respond to this new final vegetative settings on this LED. The immediate task is to cover the tent's 2' x 2' canopy by training the plants into shape, then to flip to 12/12 on/off light cycle to promote flowering.

I have learned to always have a Plan B.

take better pickies next watering...

oh, its day 52. but who is counting?

 

[Kampbe1l]

it's taking a friggin' l o n g time, this first grow.

now, for this first grow, it's become not so much about timetables, its more about getting some results. then second grow onwards, to improve growing skills by shorter grow period, stronger vegetative & flowering grows.

i am a friggin' l o n g way to master this art & science.

there are 5 plants inside the grow tent. Four plants in their 3-gallon fabric pots, and one 1-gallon pot propped up in their middle. remember, i'm growing in a small 2' (W)_x 2' (L) x 6' (H) grow tent.

i was pondering about their final pot size. now, decided instead to leave these plants in their 3-gallon fabric pots - and the odd plant will have to find a new home, kicked out of the family and the tent.

i pondered about re-potting into final 5-gallon pots. However, to do so, means that the plants would need additional time in vegetative state to make full use of this additional volume of soil mix, adding more time to this first grow. of course longer vegetative phase, larger pots would produce more harvest.

My attention now is focused upon growing these plants as large as they can in these 3-gallon pots, then to flip the light cycle to 12/12 on/off to promote their flowering. and that's where I have abandoned any schedule to a timetable.

This timetable can be scheduled in subsequent grows, when i have mastered a little more of this art/science. learned heaps, need to learn more.

Next time, gonna use 5-gallon pots, next time...not going to get ahead of myself, focus on this immediate task at hand.

It is testing my patience, this first grow.

 

[Edinburgh]

That mix probably has food in it so everytime you water you feed, your little plants cant take that.

 

[Kampbe1l]

That mix probably has food in it so everytime you water you feed, your little plants cant take that.

yeah. and as i added more soil mix. my suspicion - though the packaging didn't state so.

anyway, it's all about adaptation, adjusting, adopting - so, gonna just water these plants for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Kampbe1l]

let me introduce you, 'new' members to the family.

4 more plants were resurrected close from their deaths. these plants took longer to recover from their earlier traumas. they were placed along the sunny windows, absorbing the outdoor conditions, and separated from the first batch in the grow tent. there is no room in the grow tent for these plants, the grow tent is packed with four 3-gallon pots.

these 4 plants are designated to be the second batch, to replace the first current batch in the tent when they are harvested. there is still plenty of time to soak the outdoor conditions before onset of autumn and harsh winter. and the first batch is still a long way off, even before flipping its lights to 12/12 on/off light cycle.

I code name my plants - I have applied LST a couple of times, running the main stem along the rim of the pot, to G2 and G3. i accidentally topped G1 earlier, and now training its 2 main offshoots. BBK8D has always been rather deformed from its earlier trauma.

Given that amount of time left until harvest of the first batch in the small grow tent, there is plenty of time to train these plants into their desired shapes.

thoughts turning to setting up the idle fluorescent for additional light hours for these plants...

the photo above are what i labelled the 'gang of 3', nursed back towards recovery in this single pot - photo taken on 28 Dec 2019. G1 is the one on the right. now, i can reveal my earlier embarrassment, given this 'gang of 3' survived. this is a jenny-craig example, ugly ducklings into swans...well...

 

[Kampbe1l]

i mentioned in the post previous/above, my thoughts of setting up fluorescent to provide additional light to the second batch of plants...

you gotta get off your arse, hey!

i do have ideas about setting up a second area to accommodate smaller vegetative growth. this expansion was something inevitable, wasn't it? in the meantime, i created a crude setup using a small wooden frame, onto which I placed the fluorescent light fixture and placed the plants (second batch) underneath.

this wooden frame is for a small desk, another partly completed project of mine.

this temporary setup is to cover me, until i get this second grow area sorted out.

plan to run this fluorescent mainly overnight, then place the plants back along their favourite spots along the sunny windows to soak the natural sunlight during the day. the routine will be to turn off the fluorescent about 7 am, then me go off to work. Come home, and after dinner, place these plants back underneath this makeshift structure, turning its lights back on.

expansion does mean additional running costs, but hopefully in return for increased efficiency in production.