Schwer's First Grow Evah! Planning, Prep and Grow

[Schwer]

That purpling looks like a strain trait to me. And if so how pretty are those figures going to be at harvest time!

You always say exactly what I want to hear. I don't know if its what I need to hear but its always nice none-the-less.

That would be nice though. I wish I could post a pic like this at harvest time...

Too many acronyms...what is GDP & BBK?

Granddaddy Purple and Blackberry Kush - the two strains I'm growing

 

[Mugwort]

@Mugwort

Thanks man. Damn, 4th grow in 14 months. Keeping the grows moving like that must be an great way to learn and progress. I'm only planning to do one grow per year unless my circumstances change, so I'll probably have to do a little relearning every time I come back to it like most of my other hobbies.

I appreciate the advice as well, thanks

“One grow per year”...yeah, right! We’ll see! I bet you’re already begging wife to let you start another! You should’ve made a few clones and guilted her into permission!

 

[AmokNewb]

Yeah your welcome. Just looks normal to me and both of those strains you got there have a tendency to have some nice colors. Just don’t go chasing unicorns and or waterfalls.

 

[Lilolme]

Sunburn will purple the leaf stems like that, coupled with the premature wasting of the top leaves, the amount of stretch, I would venture a guess that your lighting may be the biggest contributing factor although I would not rule out some nute deficiencies. I guess I do it without really thinkin now but I adjust my lights constantly throughout my grow and sometimes they like em close, when that phase ends they like em higher. I don’t think I could do that with an adjustable light without a few grows to get the hang of it. No matter what the light too much is not good

 

[Schwer]

Sunburn will purple the leaf stems like that, coupled with the premature wasting of the top leaves, the amount of stretch, I would venture a guess that your lighting may be the biggest contributing factor although I would not rule out some nute deficiencies. I guess I do it without really thinkin now but I adjust my lights constantly throughout my grow and sometimes they like em close, when that phase ends they like em higher. I don’t think I could do that with an adjustable light without a few grows to get the hang of it. No matter what the light too much is not good

This morning I did some PPFD spot checks and they were a little higher than expected so I dropped the intensity a whopping 1% point. That pretty much did the trick though and put me back in the ball park that I'd been aiming for, not that that's necessarily where I should be aiming.

I did some tape measuring too and that crispy-looking guy is 21-22" from the light. I was already thinking of moving the lights up a good 5 inches or more then and increasing light intensity accordingly to bring my PPFD back to where it is now, and then maybe slowly decrease intensity from there if I see any further progression. At the very least this seemed like something I can do that might help and probably won't hurt.

 

[Mothman]

Day 70

Oh boy! Fun day in the tent today. Time to diagnose some issues and concerns

Since I've had a few warning signs lately and some of the old ones aren't going away, I thought I'd take some pics in the tent and then hit the books (internet) in an attempt to diagnose and address some of my concerns.

This was the last thing I noticed today because I couldn't see it until I took off the UV glasses that were not given to me by a sexy company rep. It looks like I have a little purpling in some top leaves, mostly on one of my BBK's. I'm a couple days shy of entering the 5th week since flip so that seems early for fall colors. One possibility is that I let it get colder than usual in the tent last night because I forgot to readjust my A/C. I typically set it around 68F during lights-on and 72 at lights-off, but it ran at 68 all night last night. It could be a sign of deficiencies as well so I'll be looking into it.

Anyway, here's a pic...

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And here's a color-adjusted version that highlights the difference more clearly.

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The first thing I noticed in the tent was this little bastard. Same deal as before. They're usually the lowest and smallest inner leaves on the plant. I thought it was the mag deficiency, and maybe it is, but its interesting that it doesn't have the other signs that I've come to associate with mag deficiency. I'll look into it.

View attachment 1163258

Next up is what we've been thinking is a mag deficiency or other cal/mag complication that's probably associated with me watering with RO. As a reminder I water with RO because we have chloramine (ammonia-stabilized chlorine) in our tap water, and I've heard that since it won't evaporate like chlorine it could be detrimental to my living-soil grow. @Lilolme suggested I add some form of calcium to my waterings along with the 1tsp/gal of mag sulfate I already use. I haven't done that yet because I've been doing topdressings of fish bone meal which also provides a source of calcium, and I worried about overdoing it.

These signs are still mostly on the lowest leaves and seem to be more prevalent on my BBK's, but as you can see they're creeping up a little in some spots. Now just look at these lovely ladies wearing stripes today...
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Last but not least is the GDP right in the center of the tent. All of her leaves are a shade brighter than any of the other plants and they just look a little... crispier than the rest. Granted, all of the GDP's are a little lighter in color but not quite like her. Seeing the symptoms on this plant is part of why I suspected my light intensity was too high, and maybe it still is. Not sure.

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I thought I took a better picture of the full top of that Center-GDP but apparently I did not. So here are some shots of the tent showing general leaf health, behavior, etc.

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Good times! I'm going to go figure out what I can about some of these issues and I'll post about what I find.

These colas are making me thirsty!

 

[Lilolme]

This morning I did some PPFD spot checks and they were a little higher than expected so I dropped the intensity a whopping 1% point. That pretty much did the trick though and put me back in the ball park that I'd been aiming for, not that that's necessarily where I should be aiming.

I did some tape measuring too and that crispy-looking guy is 21-22" from the light. I was already thinking of moving the lights up a good 5 inches or more then and increasing light intensity accordingly to bring my PPFD back to where it is now, and then maybe slowly decrease intensity from there if I see any further progression. At the very least this seemed like something I can do that might help and probably won't hurt.

I use the back of my hand, leave it at the canopy for a minute if I feel the heat I raise the lights till it’s barely warm on my skin. Low tech redneck

 

[ajgrows]

Despite the challenges they are looking awesome man! Wishing Smellavision was a real thing rn.

‘Cause ya know, I’m on my 4th grow in 5 weeks and all

 

[Lilolme]

This morning I did some PPFD spot checks and they were a little higher than expected so I dropped the intensity a whopping 1% point. That pretty much did the trick though and put me back in the ball park that I'd been aiming for, not that that's necessarily where I should be aiming.

I did some tape measuring too and that crispy-looking guy is 21-22" from the light. I was already thinking of moving the lights up a good 5 inches or more then and increasing light intensity accordingly to bring my PPFD back to where it is now, and then maybe slowly decrease intensity from there if I see any further progression. At the very least this seemed like something I can do that might help and probably won't hurt.

If I was standin there I would set the height at 20 inches then cut the power back till it was comfortable on my hand then hide that meter from you

 

[Schwer]

I use the back of my hand, leave it at the canopy for a minute if I feel the heat I raise the lights till it’s barely warm on my skin. Low tech redneck

That's a great idea. I'm going to give that a try when I'm in the tent to water tomorrow.

Despite the challenges they are looking awesome man! Wishing Smellavision was a real thing rn.

‘Cause ya know, I’m on my 4th grow in 5 weeks and all

You know, if you don't take yield into account you have @Mugwort beat on the number of grows squeezed into a short amount of time.

Regarding the smell... well, my smeller isn't the best or maybe I smoke too much, but I have picked up hints of the GDP in particular on my hand or a tool and boy does it smell good. If my wife walks into the grow room when the tent is open her usual comment is "Jesus!" because of the smell, but I barely notice it. However, I was just working in the tent about a half hour ago and left the tent open while I walked downstairs for a few tools. Even with the grow room door closed when I walked back up the stairs I had my own "Jesus!" moment. Ha, that was a fun little milestone.

______________________________________

Speaking of being in the tent, I decided to screw around in there today instead of tomorrow by raising the lights about 5 or 6 inches and readjusting light intensity. I only had to raise it 2% on the master controller to get me near where I was, but I aimed for a slightly lower PPFD across the board while still hitting 500+ on the lowest flowers that aren't already doomed to be larf. Since the lights have been raised I dropped one of my top air circulation fans below the lights. You can see it hanging upside down on the upper-left-side side of this pic. Its not blocking a lot of light but I think I'm going to go ahead and cut off a big chunk of the plastic where its blocking LED's anyway, but that can be a project for tomorrow.

 

[Schwer]

If I was standin there I would set the height at 20 inches then cut the power back till it was comfortable on my hand then hide that meter from you

Sorry, but I have an appointment on Wednesday to have the Apogee meter grafted into my hand.

 

[Lilolme]

Sorry, but I have an appointment on Wednesday to have the Apogee meter grafted into my hand.

I read up on your light, I hope you didn’t pay Amazons price. Thats a lot of light with a lot of learnin to it. Intended for experianced growers, ya gotta learn to read the plants instead of chasin numbers there are too many variables that no chart could ever factor in. Old school rules

 

[Schwer]

I hope you didn’t pay Amazons price.

Oh hell no

And yeah, that's what happens when you're new. You just kinda stumble around into things for a bit, heh

 

[AmokNewb]

@Schwer i still think you should lower them to about 3-4inches at 70% and see what happens! I got ugly buds but seems to still work!

 

[Lilolme]

Oh hell no

And yeah, that's what happens when you're new. You just kinda stumble around into things for a bit, heh

Just turn it down you’ll be fine, the learning curve on that light was mentioned a lot, I am very serious when I suggest usin the tried and true method ya gotta make them girls happy thats the whole point of bein here you might not always like the answers but I really wanna see you collect some goodies for your time and work

 

[Mothman]

Just turn it down you’ll be fine, the learning curve on that light was mentioned a lot, I am very serious when I suggest usin the tried and true method ya gotta make them girls happy thats the whole point of bein here you might not always like the answers but I really wanna see you collect some goodies for your time and work

@Schwer i must have missed it along the way. What’s that big honkin light you have there?

 

[Mugwort]

That's a great idea. I'm going to give that a try when I'm in the tent to water tomorrow.



You know, if you don't take yield into account you have @Mugwort beat on the number of grows squeezed into a short amount of time.

Regarding the smell... well, my smeller isn't the best or maybe I smoke too much, but I have picked up hints of the GDP in particular on my hand or a tool and boy does it smell good. If my wife walks into the grow room when the tent is open her usual comment is "Jesus!" because of the smell, but I barely notice it. However, I was just working in the tent about a half hour ago and left the tent open while I walked downstairs for a few tools. Even with the grow room door closed when I walked back up the stairs I had my own "Jesus!" moment. Ha, that was a fun little milestone.

______________________________________

Speaking of being in the tent, I decided to screw around in there today instead of tomorrow by raising the lights about 5 or 6 inches and readjusting light intensity. I only had to raise it 2% on the master controller to get me near where I was, but I aimed for a slightly lower PPFD across the board while still hitting 500+ on the lowest flowers that aren't already doomed to be larf. Since the lights have been raised I dropped one of my top air circulation fans below the lights. You can see it hanging upside down on the upper-left-side side of this pic. Its not blocking a lot of light but I think I'm going to go ahead and cut off a big chunk of the plastic where its blocking LED's anyway, but that can be a project for tomorrow.

View attachment 1163379

First grow eh? Really?

 

[Schwer]

Just turn it down you’ll be fine, the learning curve on that light was mentioned a lot, I am very serious when I suggest usin the tried and true method ya gotta make them girls happy thats the whole point of bein here you might not always like the answers but I really wanna see you collect some goodies for your time and work

Ha, I don't even know enough to like or not like answers yet, but I'm totally fine with lowering the lights back to 20" and then dropping the intensity per your comfort test. I certainly trust your judgement over my own at this point. I'll do those adjustments when I'm up there watering this morning. Care to point me towards any of that info you found on my light? I'm always up for an education.

I'm going pass on @AmokNewb 's suggestion of using a distance of 3-4 inches for now, even though I've seen him grow successfully with zero inches between his plants and the light.

@Schwer i must have missed it along the way. What’s that big honkin light you have there?

That's the Grower's Choice ROI-E680. When I was stumbling around the Internet looking for lights I saw it come up pretty often in articles and on forums as a top 4x4 choice. Then I think right at that time I watched a Mr Canuuk's grow video and he was using one, and then I found a great deal and decided to get one.

First grow eh? Really?

Yes, and that's why I type so much. Its all the nervous energy exiting though my fingertips.

 

[Mugwort]

Ha, I don't even know enough to like or not like answers yet, but I'm totally fine with lowering the lights back to 20" and then dropping the intensity per your comfort test. I certainly trust your judgement over my own at this point. I'll do those adjustments when I'm up there watering this morning. Care to point me towards any of that info you found on my light? I'm always up for an education.

I'm going pass on @AmokNewb 's suggestion of using a distance of 3-4 inches for now, even though I've seen him grow successfully with zero inches between his plants and the light.



That's the Grower's Choice ROI-E680. When I was stumbling around the Internet looking for lights I saw it come up pretty often in articles and on forums as a top 4x4 choice. Then I think right at that time I watched a Mr Canuuk's grow video and he was using one, and then I found a great deal and decided to get one.

Yes, and that's why I type so much. Its all the nervous energy exiting though my fingertips.

Hats off to you! You’ve done an excellent job!

 

[Schwer]

Hats off to you! You’ve done an excellent job!

Thanks very much, but this is a team effort for certain