Shaking Off the Cobwebs Grow Diary

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Last cannabis grow I did was probably 20 years ago. Gave it up due to risk and family, but because of recent health issues I decided to pick it back up.

Picked up a 2’x4’ grow tent, and a VIPARSPECTRA grow light, along with an AC Invinity 6” fan. Going to try growing two different Type III strains to start with. One CBD dominant, and one CBG dominant. Also have a Harlequin seed that I’m going to see if she’ll sprout (the seeds are probably 5-8 years old, so I’m not holding my hopes up). Right now I’ve got some hot peppers in the tent, but once the CBD/CBG plants start stretching their legs, the peppers will have to go outside.

80/20 Coco/Perlite mix, GH basic nutes. 18/6 photo period to start with.

Because it’s been a long time since I grew, anything you see I’m doing wrong feel free to point out.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day one.

Little ladies woke up late last night.

Not much to report on, other than the fact they're alive.

2 ml Micro/1 ml Grow/ 1 ml Bloom/ 1 ml CalMag / 1 ml Silica, ph to 6.4
18/6 light
77 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (66% at the moment)
1.05 VPD

 

[Grownsince95]

And off you go! Welcome back!!

Only because you asked I will say just be careful feeding them so soon.

What ppm are you starting at? And what's the ppm and pH of your water source before you touch it?

 

[FloridaMike]

Welcome back

What he said, plus I'll add:
Mixing order is important
1st-silica
2nd-calmag
3rd-base
4th-grow
5th-bloom
anything else

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

What ppm are you starting at? And what's the ppm and pH of your water source before you touch it?

0 ppm to start (RO water).

I don’t use RO for the rest of the grow, just the beginning. Tap water usually isn’t bad, starting off at about 300 ppm.

And a fair point about feeding them so soon.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Welcome back

What he said, plus I'll add:
Mixing order is important
1st-silica
2nd-calmag
3rd-base
4th-grow
5th-bloom
anything else

I appreciate it!

 

[Grownsince95]

0 ppm to start (RO water).

I don’t use RO for the rest of the grow, just the beginning. Tap water usually isn’t bad, starting off at about 300 ppm.

And a fair point about feeding them so soon.

Just promise me you'll drop the calmag when you switch to the tap water and you're good to go!

If it hurts too much to let it go stick with the RO. It's better for getting feeding right anyway.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Just promise me you'll drop the calmag when you switch to the tap water and you're good to go!

If it hurts too much to let it go stick with the RO. It's better for getting feeding right anyway.

Lol, deal . . . on one condition: I’ll drop the calmag, but I’ll need help identifying deficiencies if they show up, so I’m counting on you to say something.

 

[Grownsince95]

Lol, deal . . . on one condition: I’ll drop the calmag, but I’ll need help identifying deficiencies if they show up, so I’m counting on you to say something.

Of course!!! You've got hard water. Depending on the geology of where you live it's either a problem or it's not lol. It's all about the ratio of Ca to Mg. Worst case scenario it's missing Mg and you have to use Epsom salt. That's rare though.

 

[Grownsince95]

Your GH micro has 5% Ca. The calimagic has another 5%. With tap water you're not going to need double even in coco.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 4

It looks like the Harlequin seeds aren’t going to pop, so the “shake the cob-webs” grow is probably going to be left to the CBD and CBG seeds. I chalk it up to some old seeds. While I got them 5-8 years ago (maybe a little longer), it looks like the seeds I was sent may not have been fresh. So who knows how old they actually are. I’ll be keeping an eye on some 420 deals, and hopefully stock up on some good seeds from a good bank.

I knocked over the further plant when I went to water it, and had to repot it. Could be that, but probably hitting it with nutes that were too strong, it’s leaves are a little twisted. So I switched to plain water for now (fine . . . say I told you so . . ., lol).

18/6 light
78 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (67% at the moment)
1.08 VPD

 

[gwindajoannhare]

Day 4

It looks like the Harlequin seeds aren’t going to pop, so the “shake the cob-webs” grow is probably going to be left to the CBD and CBG seeds. I chalk it up to some old seeds. While I got them 5-8 years ago (maybe a little longer), it looks like the seeds I was sent may not have been fresh. So who knows how old they actually are. I’ll be keeping an eye on some 420 deals, and hopefully stock up on some good seeds from a good bank.

I knocked over the further plant when I went to water it, and had to repot it. Could be that, but probably hitting it with nutes that were too strong, it’s leaves are a little twisted. So I switched to plain water for now (fine . . . say I told you so . . ., lol).

18/6 light
78 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (67% at the moment)
1.08 VPD

 

[gwindajoannhare]

Would you like some from Illinois. As you know to make legal i believe they took out one strain of the thc carrier .but you are welcome to have them to play with .1 old coot to another.

 

[gwindajoannhare]

Isent you a message

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 10

The CBD dominant plant appears to be taking off now. The CBG dominant plant appears to be lagging behind a little bit. Might be fighting a little bit still with the over nute feeding.

Switched back to light feeding with them today. Will keep with the light nute feeding for another week, and will probably transplant into gallon pots soon.
18/6 light
72 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (72% at the moment)
0.72 VPD
2 ml Micro/1 ml Grow/ 1 ml Bloom/ 1 ml CalMag / 1 ml Silica, ph to 6.4 (in RO water)

VPD is a little low, as the exhaust fan is working on pushing the humidity down, which is causing temps to drop a little and the heater can’t keep up. It balances itself out soon. Might need to look into a dehumidifier for the lung room.

I ended up getting some extra seeds at a good rate. Erdpurt, Gelato, and a Jack Herer Auto. Was really tempted to pop the Erdpurt now, and maybe take clones off of the three plants. But I’m trying to convince myself to finish these three plants first before biting off more.

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Noticed one of the girls had roots coming out the pot, so repotted today. 65/35 Coco/perlite, 1 gallon pots.
Their homes will most likely be 3 gallon pots, once the hot peppers get the eviction notice.

18/6 light
72 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (71% at the moment)
0.77 VPD
4 ml Micro/5 ml Grow/ 1 ml Bloom / 1 ml Silica / 0 ml CalMag, ph to 6.0 (tap water), 600 ppm tds

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 25

One of the pepper plants got the eviction notice. Still keeping two others in the tent for now.

The CBD is the bigger plant, the CBG is the smaller one. Just seems she likes to grow a little slower.
Looks like I’m getting a little bit of algae growth on the drain tray, so going to need to do a clean out soon.

I was able to pick up some good deals on seeds on 420 sales, so looking forward to figuring out the next planned grow.

18/6 light, bumped up from 25% intensity to 50% intensity.
76 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (68% at the moment)
0.95 VPD
4 ml Micro/5 ml Grow/ 1 ml Bloom / 1 ml Silica / 0 ml CalMag, ph to 6.0 (tap water), 600 ppm tds

 

[WhatWouldBobDo]

Day 28

Cleaned out the tent, lines, and reservoir, got rid of all of the algae growth. Refilled the reservoir, then came back today to find a surprise.
Irrigation lines pump nute water onto the plants, which run off into a drain tray. The drain tray has a drain hole that goes to a condensate pump, and goes back into the rez. Because the condensate pump has to fit under the drain tray, I have a few inches of unused space down there. So I put a small space heater. To make sure water didn’t mix with the heater, I put it off the ground by as much space as I could, but lifting it up on a few blocks of wood.
Apparently when I cleaned out all the lines, I unplugged the condensate pump and forgot to plug it back in. So the nute water, instead of running into the condensate pump, just overflowed onto the floor of the tent. I opened the tent to see about 5 gallons of water pooling on the bottom. Not a huge deal . . . except it ended up touching the space heater. So when I touched the water, I got a good shock.

Space heater got unplugged, water got cleaned out, condensate pump got plugged back in.

I’ll be working on switching the breaker to a GCFI breaker when I get one in, so hopefully I have fewer issues like this. And I’m seriously contemplating switching to an AutoPot system.

But, in the meantime, it looked like the CBD plant was stretching a little, so upped the power from 50% to 75%, dropped it just a bit too.

CBG plant is alot smaller, and doesn’t seem to be catching up. So I may have to look into aggressively trimming the CBD plant to flower at the same time. Or just toss both to 12/12 whenever the CBD is ready, and watch what it does. Still a bit of time to think it over.

The CBD plant is looking a little light in color, lighter than I would have expected. So bumped up the nutes just slightly. Between that and the increase in light, hoping to get some good growth from her.

18/6 light, bumped up from 50% intensity to 75% intensity.
79 deg F temperature
Keeping humidity under 70% (66% at the moment)
1.11 VPD
5 ml Micro/5 ml Grow/ 2 ml Bloom / 1 ml Silica / 0 ml CalMag, ph to 6.0 (tap water), 650 ppm tds

As usual, comments/suggestions always welcome :)

 

[Glomus]

Of course!!! You've got hard water. Depending on the geology of where you live it's either a problem or it's not lol. It's all about the ratio of Ca to Mg. Worst case scenario it's missing Mg and you have to use Epsom salt. That's rare though.

Actually, Ive read that hard water that has cal mag in it isn't chelatable and not plant soluble. needs to be broken down by microbes. I used to grow off hard well water with lots of cal and mag (600 ppms), but i still used a chelated cal mag sup.

 

[Grownsince95]

Actually, Ive read that hard water that has cal mag in it isn't chelatable and not plant soluble. needs to be broken down by microbes. I used to grow off hard well water with lots of cal and mag (600 ppms), but i still used a chelated cal mag sup.

That's actually 100% false. A simple Google search is all you need.