Purple Ghost Candy Grow Journal

[GrilledCheeze]

High All, I've been browsing the forums for a while now and absorbing so much information. Y'all are great. It's incredible to see such a broad community coming together to share tips and tricks and helping one another to be successful at growing. It's time I jump in and see where I might be able to help out and I thought sharing my grow would be a nice place to start.

I'm currently growing in a 4'x4' tent with photons being provided by a brand new Spider Farmer SE7000 (my first run with this new light!). I'm using Inkbird controllers to help maintain temperature and humidity. I also have the Inkbird CO2 controller as well but since I'm running a vented system right now it's mostly for observation.

Genetics are Seedsman Purple Ghost Candy that I actually won in one of their contests. Thanks Seedsman!

I germinated 3x beans on 08Dec2022 using the paper towel method and 3 days later the sprouts went into their first soilless mix containers that are roughly the size of a solo cup. I was wrapping up another grow when I started these so they had a couple of temporary, not ideal, environments until I had everything cleaned and ready in the big tent. I currently have the temperature set at 79F and humidity set at 72.5 %RH however the cold spell that's impacting much of the US right now is making conditions difficult to control in the tent. I have a heating mat under and dome over the plants that's keeping things rather stable and should work over the next few days until things warm up again outside. They seem happy for now.

Two days ago I watered using tap with Azos and Mykos from Xtreme Gardening along with a little splash of Cal/Mag all at a pH of around 6.0. I did not check my ppm for this watering (not a good start) but I will going forward as I'm committed to a successful grow and improving my skills. I'm soaking the mix thoroughly and removing the runoff. For nutrients going forward I'll be using Mega Crop 1 part, Botanicare cal/mag, House and Garden Roots Excelurator Gold, and I have a container of Jacks Bloom Booster that I may or may not use at flowering. The Bloom Booster is strong and I've done damage to plants using it in previous grows.

One question right off maybe someone might be able to help with: I currently bubble my water 24/7 using a Hydrofarm AAPA15L pump with 4x air stones in about 4 gal of water. I mix nutrient solution in a different container. I do this to increase oxygen saturation and to help reduce chlorine from the tap water. Is this process necessary/is there something I could be doing better?

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Seedlings look great.

I germinated 3x beans on 08Dec2022 using the paper towel method and 3 days later the sprouts went into their first soilless mix containers that are roughly the size of a solo cup.

I am a hydro guy so I probably can't be much help to you but you might want to give a bit more info about your soilless mix, is that coco, what are your watering practices, etc.? Lots of great growers using coco here and other hydro/soil less hybrid grow mediums but they will most likely need more info to help you.

One question right off maybe someone might be able to help with: I currently bubble my water 24/7 using a Hydrofarm AAPA15L pump with 4x air stones in about 4 gal of water. I mix nutrient solution in a different container. I do this to increase oxygen saturation and to help reduce chlorine from the tap water. Is this process necessary/is there something I could be doing better?

I know air stones in the hydro res increases O2 levels in the water but I am not sure if there is a benefit if you are using coco or something similar. I think if you are using chlorinated tap water the agitation will help the chlorine evaporate off quicker. A lot of guys use this method to brew various nutrient teas, I've done that too in soil grows, but again, without knowing your grow medium it's hard to say if there is any benefit other than chlorine removal. Not sure if soiless cultivation growers use the teas or not. From what I understand, coco is sort of like a hybrid between soil and hydro, leaning more toward the hydro side of things.

Best of luck on your grow and looking forward to watching you knock this one out of the park!

 

[GrilledCheeze]

Seedlings look great.


I am a hydro guy so I probably can't be much help to you but you might want to give a bit more info about your soilless mix, is that coco, what are your watering practices, etc.? Lots of great growers using coco here and other hydro/soil less hybrid grow mediums but they will most likely need more info to help you.


I know air stones in the hydro res increases O2 levels in the water but I am not sure if there is a benefit if you are using coco or something similar. I think if you are using chlorinated tap water the agitation will help the chlorine evaporate off quicker. A lot of guys use this method to brew various nutrient teas, I've done that too in soil grows, but again, without knowing your grow medium it's hard to say if there is any benefit other than chlorine removal. Not sure if soiless cultivation growers use the teas or not. From what I understand, coco is sort of like a hybrid between soil and hydro, leaning more toward the hydro side of things.

Best of luck on your grow and looking forward to watching you knock this one out of the park!

Thank you @SweetLeafGrow for the support and I'll probably have some hydro questions for you later on as I've been considering trying it for years but never have made the leap.

For this grow I am starting plants in some Mother Earth Terracraft which is a peat moss, perlite, and earthworm casting mix. We had that on hand but when potting up to my 5 gallon Rain Science grow bags I will be using Promix HP.

 

[SweetLeafGrow]

Thank you @SweetLeafGrow for the support and I'll probably have some hydro questions for you later on as I've been considering trying it for years but never have made the leap.

I'll never regret going to hydro.....found my stride in the H2O. I compare soil vs hydro to fishing on the shore of a lake vs fly fishing. Fly fishing is so much more fun and when you get good at it, you can land the big ones.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

I'll never regret going to hydro.....found my stride in the H2O. I compare soil vs hydro to fishing on the shore of a lake vs fly fishing. Fly fishing is so much more fun and when you get good at it, you can land the big ones.

I've seen some pretty large catfish pulled from the shore of a lake but I see what you mean. Right now I'm running tight on space but eventually I want to build a sealed environment where I can do fun things like run CO2 and fully utilize an RDWC type of system. Looking forward is part of the reasoning that led me to choose the SE7000 for my new light. It's a bit overkill for me now but I do plan on growing into it.

 

[Brad104]

I've seen some pretty large catfish pulled from the shore of a lake but I see what you mean. Right now I'm running tight on space but eventually I want to build a sealed environment where I can do fun things like run CO2 and fully utilize an RDWC type of system. Looking forward is part of the reasoning that led me to choose the SE7000 for my new light. It's a bit overkill for me now but I do plan on growing into it.

You're going to love the purple ghost candy,I know that I do.I received a cutting from a close friend, and they got the seed from seedsman as well.Get ready for some big strong buds.I will be keeping the ghost candy around permanently, enjoy your grow and best of luck to you.

 

[AnimalHouse]

Nice start!

 

[GrilledCheeze]

I hope everyone had a good holiday and is motivated and ready to take on whatever 2023 may bring. Let's all look forward to learning and growing together.

Back to the grow.

The cold seems to have broken and I no longer need to use the humidity dome and heat mat to maintain an acceptable temperature in my tent. Good news was that system worked perfectly and the plants look pretty happy and healthy. I checked the roots and they should be ready to transplant in another 3 days or so. Today was food and water. I made a spreadsheet to help log my perimeters which I will continue to share with you as I move along with the grow.

Here it is from the top:

Strain: Purple Ghost Candy
Germ Date: 08Dec22				H20 @ 24hrs on bubbler EC = 0.54 mS/cm, ppm = 269, pH = 7.0
Date	Veg/Flower Week	Light Distance (inches)	Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))	Tent Temp (°F)	Tent Humidity (%RH)	CO2 (ppm)	Water (gallons)	pH	EC (mS/cm)	ppm	Megacrop (g)	Cal/Mag (mL)	Other
26-Dec-22​	V2	36	190/?	79	72.5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
27-Dec-22​	V2	24	173/200	79	72.5	463	0.5	6	1.1	554	1.2	-	0.5 mL HG Roots Excelurator Gold

Let me know if there are any other metrics you think I should be recording.

One question for you to wrap this up, I only plan to grow out 2 of the 3 seedlings. I'm pretty set on keeping number 1 in the pictures and I have an idea on the second but I want to hear which you like best. Let me know what you think!

 

[SchwiftyGrower]

Love it, along for the ride!! Keep up the great work and looking forward to the future!

My vote is for #1 and 2, but some of the ones you’d think are wonky at the start end up being your best. It’s always hard for me to say good bye to one

 

[Brad104]

I agree with @SchwiftyGrower he nailed it!
I agree 1,2 look like the prize winner now,but as already stated, the worst plant (3) now could very well end up being the very best one,it's always a hard decision when picking between 2 or 3 for sure. Best of luck to you with whatever you decide.Best wishes on the rest of your grow!

 

[AnimalHouse]

I'm just impressed with the data feedback you have going on! If they were mine I wouldn't cull any until they've maxed out space or right before flipping to flower but hard charging youngsters often do choke out runts that can't keep up the pace

 

[NorthernOrganics]

I would raise the pots off the floor so air can circulate around the drainage holes.

 

[T_Dub]

Im growing the same Seedsman strain….now at week #8 for me (week 1 of flower). I’ve found this strain to be really pliable and easy to use plant clips on….it’s growing more like a vine than a the traditional plant for me. I’ve never grown in peat….only soil… so I won’t be much help there.

Mine is also proving to be the fastest grower in the bunch though. I look forward to following along with your grow and seeing how this strain grows for you.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

It's sounding like we are all on the same page with 1 and 2.

I like your idea @AnimalHouse with letting them at least put on a few more nodes before making the decision to cull one.

@NorthernOrganics I just purchased new plant elevators last week, why aren't I using them? No reason at all. lol I'll fix that. I do have some nice air circulation in the tent using a regular box fan hung horizontally from the top of the tent. With the SE7000 spanning the entire area of the tent I had some space for the fan due to the exhaust fan and filter requiring about 11" of headspace at the top of the tent. I'll post some pictures that'll probably make that a lot more clear.

@T_Dub I decided I'll be training these pretty hard using SCROG as they are a sativa dominant hybrid and I'm don't want them to get out of control. I'm expecting some stretch and also keeping it at just two plants in my 4x4 should help me maintain everything. It's also my first run with the new light so I really don't know what to expect!

Great feedback everyone. Thank you and I'll keep you posted!

 

[GrilledCheeze]

Things are looking to be right on track and the rate of growth is definitely picking up and I've increased my feeding slightly to help facilitate that. Here are the numbers:

Date	Veg/Flower Week	Light Distance (inches)	Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))	Tent Temp (°F)	Tent Humidity (%RH)	CO2 (ppm)	Water (gallons)	pH	EC (mS/cm)	ppm	Megacrop (g)	Cal/Mag (mL)	Other
26-Dec-22​	V2	36	190/?	79	72.5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
27-Dec-22​	V2	24	173/200	79	72.5	463	0.5	6	1.1	554	1.2	-	0.5 mL HG Roots Excelurator Gold
28-Dec-22​	V2	24	173/200	79	72.5	464	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
29-Dec-22​	V2	24	173/200	79	72.5	492	0.5	6	1.5	717	1	1	0.5 mL HG Roots Excelurator Gold

I'll probably go ahead and pot these up tomorrow to their 5 gallon containers. I would like to get started on training these plants for my SCROG. I'm still not sure which plants I will keep. 1 is still a beast but now plant 3 is starting to look more attractive than plant 2 which is showing a little bit of stress, possibly from too much light? I'm still interested in her compactness.

Let me know if you see room for improvement or have any questions and thanks again for riding along.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

I went ahead and potted up #1 and #3 tonight. I'm keeping #2 around for now but she isn't going into a bag right now. Really all of these could have waited another day before the big pot up based on the root structure I saw today. They are growing so fast now and I was eager to get a jump on LST. I'm going to SCROG the shit out of these plants.

I potted up into the 5 gallon Rain Science grow bags using ProMix HP that I saturated using the solution outlined in the chart below:

Date

Veg/Flower Week

Light Distance (inches)

Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))

Tent Temp (°F)

Tent Humidity (%RH)

CO2 (ppm)

Water (gallons)

pH

EC (mS/cm)

TDS (ppm)

Megacrop (g)

Cal/Mag (mL)

Other

Runoff pH

Runoff TDS (ppm)

Runoff EC (mS/cm)

30-Dec-22​

V2

24

173/200

79

76.9

521

4

5.9

1.46

739

12

-

4 mL Roots Excelurator Gold, 2T MykosWP

-

-

-

I wish the formatting from my spreadsheet carried over to the blog post. Sorry for it looking all crazy on here. I added a couple of columns for measuring the runoff. I'll start taking these measurements going forward as I water. I think that's about it for now. As always, let me know if you have any ideas or see room for improvements. Thanks and Happy New Year!

 

[GrilledCheeze]

Guess who's back, back again..... It's ya boy G-Cheeze back at ya with another round of the throw down. It's been a few days and as you can see we are starting to push out some new foliage.

Let's start again with the numbers:

Date	Veg/Flower Week	Light Distance (inches)	Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))	Tent Temp (°F)	Tent Humidity (%RH)	CO2 (ppm)	Water (gallons)	pH	EC (mS/cm)	TDS (ppm)	Megacrop (g)	Cal/Mag (mL)	Other	Runoff pH	Runoff TDS (ppm)	Runoff EC (mS/cm)
31-Dec-22​	V2	24	173/200	79	74.2	529	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1-Jan-23​	V2	24	173/200	79	74.2	590	1.0	6.0	1.12	538	1.0	3.0	1.0 mL HG Roots Excelurator Gold, added solution than added additional 1 gal pH 6.0 water.	6.2	1012	2.00
2-Jan-23​	V3	24	173/200	79	73.5	650	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	79	73.5	622	2.0	6.0	0.50	252	-	-	-	6.0	980	1.96

I know you're going to look at my numbers and you're going to be like dude, why are you watering so damn much? Well, after my last two grows I was really unimpressed with my plant root structure using these new bags and my thought is that I wasn't watering thoroughly enough. I just added 2 gallons tonight and took back about a gallon of runoff so I'll likely give an extra day before watering going forward. I got a little happy with the nutes given the ppm and EC numbers recorded in my runoff so I just went with straight pH'd water tonight.

I'm noticing a little bit of what looks to be overwatering stress on a couple of leaves (close up pic) but again, I'll be dialing back the water a bit going forward so we should be good.

I also turned the lights up to veg. I'll be monitoring for any adjustments that may be needed. In the pictures I show the driver mounted on the light but I just rearranged a few things and the driver is now located outside of the tent which is a pretty cool feature of this light. The driver doesn't put off a lot of heat at the current setting but it all adds up.

I'm keeping plant 2 around for now just in case I end up with some space to fill as we move along. I couldn't find it in my heart to chop her so we'll see where she ends up.

That about does it for this episode. Let me know if you see any room for improvement or if you're just digging what I'm throwing down. I appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks for dropping by!

 

[GrilledCheeze]

#SFgrow

 

[GrilledCheeze]

Things are still going strong in week 3. I added runoff amount collected and leaf surface temperature columns to my dataset. Let's jump right into it:

Date	Veg/Flower Week	Light Distance (inches)	Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))	Tent Temp (°F)	Tent Humidity (%RH)	CO2 (ppm)	Water (gallons)	pH	EC (mS/cm)	TDS (ppm)	Megacrop (g)	Cal/Mag (mL)	Other	Runoff Amount (Gallon)	Runoff pH	Runoff EC (mS/cm)	Runoff TDS (ppm)	Leaf Surface Temp (°F)
4-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	80	73.5	544	0.5	6.0	-	-	-	1.5	Potted up plant 2	-	-	-	-	73.5
5-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	80	73.5	525	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	73.6
6-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	80	70.0	425	2.0	6.0	1.00	443	3.5	-	2 mL HG Roots Excelurator Gold	0.5	6.0	2.05	1010	75.3

I probably could have cut the Megacrop in half for today's watering. The plants haven't had time to establish solid roots throughout the medium which I'm guessing would explain the high TDS in the runoff. I made a very clear reminder in my spreadsheet to not add additional nutrients the next time I water. The plants don't seem to be affected right now but it's something I'll keep an eye on.

Shoutout to @Moe.Red for posting a link to an infrared thermometer in one of the threads I was reading here at the farm. They happened to have a coupon code on amazon and I was able to scoop it up for only $10. I was pretty surprised to see my leaf surface temperature was several degrees lower than ambient. I had always assumed the two would be very similar. I adjusted my temperature settings up as a result to achieve a more desirable VPD target and as a bonus my exhaust fan will also run less. Very cool (pun intended).

A couple of days ago I looked into the tent and saw plant 2 looking thirsty as hell. She had developed a strong root system and was drying out quickly. I felt bad about it and decided she deserved a larger container so I potted her up into what I think is a 2 gallon container? I decided I'll keep her around in case I end up with some some space in the tent that isn't taken up by plants 1 and 3. She's still growing very compact and the few extra days in the smaller container looks to have held her back compared to the other two plants.

Plant 1 is an absolute beast. She may be one of the most vigorous plants I've ever grown. You can see pretty clearly from the pictures that she is about double the size of plant 3 and triple plant 2. She stood out from the very beginning and I'm looking forward to watching her grow out into an amazing plant.

Using LST at such an early stage has been interesting. I'm getting good results so far and I can already foresee the jungle that is to come. I'll be putting up the SCROG screen pretty soon. I plan to keep the nets around 6-7" above the pots. If you're not aware, the Northern Scrogger picked up a sponsorship with seedsman and he was able to put together a series on youtube called Scrog School. That series is the inspiration behind this grow.

Anyways, I'm loving all of this data collection. In all my years of growing I've never gone to this extent to track what I do in the garden. I guess I was just being lazy because I already have most of the equipment, and monitor it daily, and the rest of it was cheap. It's been super helpful already and I'm sure that if I keep doing it I'll have more control and likely better outcomes with my growing. If you made it through this whole thing, thank you and I hope you're able to take something away from it that can help you to improve as well.

 

[GrilledCheeze]

The great balance continues, here's what I've been up to over the last few days:

Date	Veg/Flower Week	Light Distance (inches)	Watts/Approx PPFD (µmol/(m2/s))	Tent Temp (°F)	Tent Humidity (%RH)	CO2 (ppm)	Water (gallons)	pH	EC (mS/cm)	TDS (ppm)	Megacrop (g)	Cal/Mag (mL)	Other	Runoff Amount (Gallon)	Runoff pH	Runoff EC (mS/cm)	Runoff TDS (ppm)	Leaf Surface Temp (°F)	Room Temp (°F)	Outside Temp (°F)
7-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	82	73.5	414	-	-	-	-	-	-	Topped plant 2	-	-	-	-	73.0	72.0	57.2
8-Jan-23​	V3	24	324/400	81	73.5	347	2.0	6.0	-	-	-	-	2 gallons of distilled water​	1	6.0	1.47	740	75.5	75.2	68.0
9-Jan-23​	V4	24	404/500	81	73.0	382	-	5.8	0.7	345.0	-	-	Foliar fed with jacks pro 20-20-20​	-	-	-	-	74.5	74.5	76.7

I added the temperature for the room my tent is in and also the temperature outside of my house as they are relevant to my grow.

I didn't notice much change on 07Jan but I did decide to top plant 2 since she hasn't been getting the LST treatment but was starting to grow above where I want the main canopy to be. The following day I could start to see my plants were stressed from the over feeding. I decided to buy a couple of gallons of distilled water and go ahead and water a day earlier than planned to try and flush/balance everything back to a healthily level. Today I went in and noticed a significant improvement in plants 1 and 3. Plant 2 looked a little thirsty for Nitrogen but I didn't want to water again so I decided to foliar feed using the blue crystals (sorry if you're a no till grower and this hurts your feelings). After spraying down plant 2 I decided to just give them all a blast.

I might just have to take a cutting of plant 1 to try and keep her around. I've grown a bunch of weed and I think this is going to be a special plant. I may have popped 3 way different phenos on this run.

I built a new SCROG screen today to go with the 3d printed snap on adaptors I found here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5154420. I might have it up by my next post. The screws I found for this are perfect. I paid $7 for 100x https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kreg-7-...et-Hole-Screw-100-Pack-SML-F125-100/100577210. I'm using 1/2" schedule 20 PVC.