RicinBeans
- 50
- 18
Hello! This is my first time growing almost ever, the exception being a clone I was given in Spring that I was growing outdoors until it tipped over and died (I think due to the plant becoming so large that it became too top-heavy for the pot, and blew over on a windy day). I figured it would be a good idea to create a thread for myself here to reference in other discussions on the forum, so as to have a list of all my equipment and a timeline available to quickly point to.
Some of the early information in this timeline was documented shortly after the fact, but the dates should all be correct, and any I'm uncertain about will be presented as an estimate. Equipment entries have links where available.
EQUIPMENT: I'll list all the current equipment here, and the journal portion will mention dates at which any of it that I didn't begin with was added.
Seeds: The seeds themselves are from this vendor, All Seedy, and they're called Cement Shoes. They were given to me by a friend, so I can't speak for the transaction process.
Soil: (as described by my friend who mixed it and provided it to me) "Ocean forest soil w/ some chitin/worm castings, bone & blood meals, perlite, and super manure."
Pots: The pots are large, plastic pots I obtained from a local $.99 store. They are about 1-foot tall and the openings are about 13" in diameter. Each have 8 holes drilled on the bottom.
Tent: The tent is a 4x2x5 grow tent by VIVOSUN.
Lights: I have (2) 600w LED grow lights by WAKYME, with separate "veg" and "bloom" switches.
Exhaust/intake: I have (2) VIVOSUN 6" 240 CFM exhaust fans. I'm not using any filter.
Fan Speed Adjuster: One VIVOSUN Variable vent fan speed adjuster to regulate the intake (details in the journal portion of this post).
Timers: I have (2) BN-LINK 7 Day outdoor digital programmable timers.
Interior fans: I have (2) COMLIFEF170 rechargeable clip-on fans to move air around the inside and provide a breeze for the plants.
Netting: A 2-pack of MEGALUXX dual-layer trellis netting for stress training.
Climate control: One Kloudic (218 sq ft) dehumidifier.
Plant caddy - (2) Skelang plant caddy (details in the journal portion).
JOURNAL: This isn't as specific as I would like in the early days, and I'll be sure to keep a tighter journal in future grows.
Mid-July, roughly between 7/14/21-7/22/21: This was my germination period. I started with three seeds, gave them about 24 hours in a closed jar, and then placed them on a wet napkin to sprout. One of them had a sprout within 1-2 days. A second one followed within a couple of days of that, and when both of those were about an inch in length, I planted them, on 7/22/21. The third one had just sprouted about that time, but was short and appeared to be curling around the seed. I planted it two days later, on the evening of 7/24/21, when the sprout seemed sufficiently long, but had completely curled around the seed. That seed would end up not taking at all once planted, and won't be mentioned from here on out.
7/22/21: The day that the two seeds that had germinated properly were planted. I started them on a 24/0 light cycle, with only the veg switch on as pictured above. The lights were roughly 12-18" away from the soil.
Seeing as how most guides I've seen involved starting in smaller containers and later transferring to larger ones, whereas I was starting with a larger one, I decided to commit to a daily watering schedule so as to accommodate all of the immediately superfluous soil that might soak up any water that the plants did not receive. I would estimate that at this time and up to today, I've been watering them with about 1 cup of water each time.
When I planted, I did see a couple of gnats flying around the soil that my friend provided me, and that had been sitting in the tent/pots for about a day. I decided to wait them out and see if they persisted.
At this time, I wasn't sure how to ventilate the tent. I didn't realize until too late that the timers I bought limited how many times I could have them automatically turn on in a day, so I decided to have them running 24/0. My intake was/is situated on the bottom, left-hand side of the tent, and my outtake situated in the top-opening of the tent. Since I was unsure of a better way of securing the outtake, I decided to just cinch the bottom of the vent opening so that it would act as a sort of floor for the outtake duct fan. That solution meant that a small part of the outer perimeter of the duct fan was obstructed though, which meant that if both fans were running at once, the intake was pushing more in than the outtake was pushing out. I experimented with leaving one or the other on at a time and letting the other one sit off, with the positive or negative pressure activating the fans of whichever was unplugged. Eventually, after some reading on the matter, and seeing as how neither configuration seemed to particularly effect the temperature of the tent interior, I decided to get a fan speed controller. Since then, I've been running both duct fans 24/0, with the controller lowering the intake so that it's just barely lower than what the outtake is pulling, so as to establish mild negative pressure inside the tent.
Interior fans are oscillating 24/0.
7/24/21: Late in the evening, around 11pm, I noticed the tiniest little hint of a sprout growing from plant #2, the right-hand-side plant (pictured below). I checked on them again at around 3am (7/25, now), and #1 was poking out as well.
8/27/21: I had been noticing more gnats appearing in the tent each day, and so had bought some yellow, sticky traps to insert into the soil in hopes of catching enough of them. They arrived on this day, and I inserted them.
8/28/21: My fan speed controller arrived. From this day on, vent fans are running 24/0, with the intake slightly lower-speed than the outtake, establishing slightly negative pressure inside the tent.
8/31/21: Photos below of #1 and #2. I was still trying to keep feeding the center plant at this point, in hopes that it was just taking longer to poke above the surface. It never did.
As the pictures show, the traps had caught some gnats but not a great deal of them. Meanwhile, I was seeing more of them flying and crawling around every day.
9/2/21: Becoming more concerned about the daily-increasing gnat population, I decided to give the plants a day off of watering, so as to hopefully dry the gnats out.
9/3/21: Watered.
9/4/21 - 9/5/21: No water, also in hopes of drying the gnats out. The daily amount still appeared to be increasing though, no matter what I did.
9/6/21: - Watered.
9/7/21 - 9/8/21: No water. Population still increasing, though there are what appear to be hundreds of them stuck on the traps at this point.
9/9/21: Watered/
9/10/21 - 9/11/21: No water.
9/12/21: Watered. At this point, I was concerned about the bottom leaves of #2 yellowing (and both plants getting droopy) in recent days, and decided not to mess with skipping water too much anymore. I bought a container of Diatomaceous Earth, which had arrived on this day. I applied it to the top of the soil after watering.
This day was also the first time I noticed evidence of some water having escaped the pot saucer for #2, and dried around it. I lifted the pot for the first time, and discovered that there was more space for water to gather there than I had realized there was - the saucer's compartment was full of water, and some gnats as well. I emptied it out, along with the saucer for the non-growing center plant, which had also gathered a pool of water. Oddly, #1's saucer was bone-dry. There was a small bit of dirt in it, but no evidence that water had ever pooled there. I decided to find a better solution going forward, and ordered my caddies.
9/13/21: Watered. Caddies arrived on this day, and I put both of the plants onto them. There are fewer gnats than the previous day.
9/14/21: Watered. #2's tray had a good deal of water collected in it, whereas #1's did not have any. I gave them both a little extra water on this day. The leaves are continuing to brown on the bottom of each plant. Late-night pictures below.
My friend came by and said that he thought they looked great. I was concerned at how short they were, being over three weeks since they were planted - when I see others' growers guides, they all seem to be much taller by that point, and into the vegetation stage, whereas mine seemed to still be in the seedling stage. He said that while they're not as tall as other, that they're more robust in terms of leaf count than most he's seen by now.
The DE appears to be continuing to decrease the gnat count.
9/15/21: No water today. I may try skipping one day periodically from here on out. Both trays had water in them today.
The DE seems to be continuing to decrease the gnat count inside the tent.
It's hard to say, but the edges of some leaves on #2 appear to be slightly yellow. Out of concern for that, I moved my lights higher today. They're now about 20-22" away from the tops of the plants.
The plants are each about 2" tall. It's now 24-days out from when I planted the germinated seeds.
***I plan to edit the main post regularly with journal entries, and make posts for any noteworthy developments separately in the thread. I just wanted to make sure to get this posted, as I've got some questions for the forum and wanted to make sure that I have a journal in-place to reference.***
Some of the early information in this timeline was documented shortly after the fact, but the dates should all be correct, and any I'm uncertain about will be presented as an estimate. Equipment entries have links where available.
EQUIPMENT: I'll list all the current equipment here, and the journal portion will mention dates at which any of it that I didn't begin with was added.
Seeds: The seeds themselves are from this vendor, All Seedy, and they're called Cement Shoes. They were given to me by a friend, so I can't speak for the transaction process.
Soil: (as described by my friend who mixed it and provided it to me) "Ocean forest soil w/ some chitin/worm castings, bone & blood meals, perlite, and super manure."
Pots: The pots are large, plastic pots I obtained from a local $.99 store. They are about 1-foot tall and the openings are about 13" in diameter. Each have 8 holes drilled on the bottom.
Tent: The tent is a 4x2x5 grow tent by VIVOSUN.
Lights: I have (2) 600w LED grow lights by WAKYME, with separate "veg" and "bloom" switches.
Exhaust/intake: I have (2) VIVOSUN 6" 240 CFM exhaust fans. I'm not using any filter.
Fan Speed Adjuster: One VIVOSUN Variable vent fan speed adjuster to regulate the intake (details in the journal portion of this post).
Timers: I have (2) BN-LINK 7 Day outdoor digital programmable timers.
Interior fans: I have (2) COMLIFEF170 rechargeable clip-on fans to move air around the inside and provide a breeze for the plants.
Netting: A 2-pack of MEGALUXX dual-layer trellis netting for stress training.
Climate control: One Kloudic (218 sq ft) dehumidifier.
Plant caddy - (2) Skelang plant caddy (details in the journal portion).
JOURNAL: This isn't as specific as I would like in the early days, and I'll be sure to keep a tighter journal in future grows.
Mid-July, roughly between 7/14/21-7/22/21: This was my germination period. I started with three seeds, gave them about 24 hours in a closed jar, and then placed them on a wet napkin to sprout. One of them had a sprout within 1-2 days. A second one followed within a couple of days of that, and when both of those were about an inch in length, I planted them, on 7/22/21. The third one had just sprouted about that time, but was short and appeared to be curling around the seed. I planted it two days later, on the evening of 7/24/21, when the sprout seemed sufficiently long, but had completely curled around the seed. That seed would end up not taking at all once planted, and won't be mentioned from here on out.
7/22/21: The day that the two seeds that had germinated properly were planted. I started them on a 24/0 light cycle, with only the veg switch on as pictured above. The lights were roughly 12-18" away from the soil.
Seeing as how most guides I've seen involved starting in smaller containers and later transferring to larger ones, whereas I was starting with a larger one, I decided to commit to a daily watering schedule so as to accommodate all of the immediately superfluous soil that might soak up any water that the plants did not receive. I would estimate that at this time and up to today, I've been watering them with about 1 cup of water each time.
When I planted, I did see a couple of gnats flying around the soil that my friend provided me, and that had been sitting in the tent/pots for about a day. I decided to wait them out and see if they persisted.
At this time, I wasn't sure how to ventilate the tent. I didn't realize until too late that the timers I bought limited how many times I could have them automatically turn on in a day, so I decided to have them running 24/0. My intake was/is situated on the bottom, left-hand side of the tent, and my outtake situated in the top-opening of the tent. Since I was unsure of a better way of securing the outtake, I decided to just cinch the bottom of the vent opening so that it would act as a sort of floor for the outtake duct fan. That solution meant that a small part of the outer perimeter of the duct fan was obstructed though, which meant that if both fans were running at once, the intake was pushing more in than the outtake was pushing out. I experimented with leaving one or the other on at a time and letting the other one sit off, with the positive or negative pressure activating the fans of whichever was unplugged. Eventually, after some reading on the matter, and seeing as how neither configuration seemed to particularly effect the temperature of the tent interior, I decided to get a fan speed controller. Since then, I've been running both duct fans 24/0, with the controller lowering the intake so that it's just barely lower than what the outtake is pulling, so as to establish mild negative pressure inside the tent.
Interior fans are oscillating 24/0.
7/24/21: Late in the evening, around 11pm, I noticed the tiniest little hint of a sprout growing from plant #2, the right-hand-side plant (pictured below). I checked on them again at around 3am (7/25, now), and #1 was poking out as well.
8/27/21: I had been noticing more gnats appearing in the tent each day, and so had bought some yellow, sticky traps to insert into the soil in hopes of catching enough of them. They arrived on this day, and I inserted them.
8/28/21: My fan speed controller arrived. From this day on, vent fans are running 24/0, with the intake slightly lower-speed than the outtake, establishing slightly negative pressure inside the tent.
8/31/21: Photos below of #1 and #2. I was still trying to keep feeding the center plant at this point, in hopes that it was just taking longer to poke above the surface. It never did.
As the pictures show, the traps had caught some gnats but not a great deal of them. Meanwhile, I was seeing more of them flying and crawling around every day.
9/2/21: Becoming more concerned about the daily-increasing gnat population, I decided to give the plants a day off of watering, so as to hopefully dry the gnats out.
9/3/21: Watered.
9/4/21 - 9/5/21: No water, also in hopes of drying the gnats out. The daily amount still appeared to be increasing though, no matter what I did.
9/6/21: - Watered.
9/7/21 - 9/8/21: No water. Population still increasing, though there are what appear to be hundreds of them stuck on the traps at this point.
9/9/21: Watered/
9/10/21 - 9/11/21: No water.
9/12/21: Watered. At this point, I was concerned about the bottom leaves of #2 yellowing (and both plants getting droopy) in recent days, and decided not to mess with skipping water too much anymore. I bought a container of Diatomaceous Earth, which had arrived on this day. I applied it to the top of the soil after watering.
This day was also the first time I noticed evidence of some water having escaped the pot saucer for #2, and dried around it. I lifted the pot for the first time, and discovered that there was more space for water to gather there than I had realized there was - the saucer's compartment was full of water, and some gnats as well. I emptied it out, along with the saucer for the non-growing center plant, which had also gathered a pool of water. Oddly, #1's saucer was bone-dry. There was a small bit of dirt in it, but no evidence that water had ever pooled there. I decided to find a better solution going forward, and ordered my caddies.
9/13/21: Watered. Caddies arrived on this day, and I put both of the plants onto them. There are fewer gnats than the previous day.
9/14/21: Watered. #2's tray had a good deal of water collected in it, whereas #1's did not have any. I gave them both a little extra water on this day. The leaves are continuing to brown on the bottom of each plant. Late-night pictures below.
My friend came by and said that he thought they looked great. I was concerned at how short they were, being over three weeks since they were planted - when I see others' growers guides, they all seem to be much taller by that point, and into the vegetation stage, whereas mine seemed to still be in the seedling stage. He said that while they're not as tall as other, that they're more robust in terms of leaf count than most he's seen by now.
The DE appears to be continuing to decrease the gnat count.
9/15/21: No water today. I may try skipping one day periodically from here on out. Both trays had water in them today.
The DE seems to be continuing to decrease the gnat count inside the tent.
It's hard to say, but the edges of some leaves on #2 appear to be slightly yellow. Out of concern for that, I moved my lights higher today. They're now about 20-22" away from the tops of the plants.
The plants are each about 2" tall. It's now 24-days out from when I planted the germinated seeds.
***I plan to edit the main post regularly with journal entries, and make posts for any noteworthy developments separately in the thread. I just wanted to make sure to get this posted, as I've got some questions for the forum and wanted to make sure that I have a journal in-place to reference.***
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