Smokeshow's 2nd grow attempt/grow journal

[Smokeshow]

Howdy farmers!

I spent a good part of the day yesterday completely re-rigging my grow room.

As part of my first grow, I ran a vent duct up into the attic and tied into an existing roof vent. It did a great job of getting the stale (or stinky) air out and keeping the fresh air to the plant(s). As the weather turned drastically colder, the build up of condensation in the vent line was a problem!

I ended up re-doing it all. I ran new insulated duct work and installed a "dryer vent hood" up near the 2nd story peak of the roof line to exhaust everything completely out of the house. The hardest part was drilling/cutting the whole through the stucco, that shit is way tougher than I expected. I bought a carbide hole saw, and got through it fine, but it took some work. When I ran the vent line, I wanted it to go up high and then have a slight turn down all the way to the exterior vent, I figured that would help evacuate any possible condensation to the exterior. So far so good!

I also took EVERYTHING out of both of my tents and started over, learning what worked on my first grow and what I though may make things easier.

I currently have two tents, one is a 32x32x63" tent that I am using as my "Veg" tent. I decided to pull all of the ventilation equipment and move it outside of the tent to free up as much headspace as possible. I also bought a new Spiderfarmer SE5000 to put in my flower tent and then I am moving my Mars Hydro FC3000 over to the veg tent. Here is how the Veg tent looks now and is ready for some action!

My "big" tent is a 39x39x72" tent, which I also moved all of the exhaust fan/filter to the outside of the tent. I now have 65.5" of space from the light to the tent floor, and the SE5000 is filling that tent out very nicely!

For this grow journal, I currently have 5 plants that I am hoping to flower all together. I have two clones that I cut from my first grow attempt and that strain is Deathstar. I have one big one and a little one that is still in a 1gal bag - that will get re-potted this evening to a 5 or 7 gal bag. I also have three "Fortune CookiexDosi Do" plants that I grew from a freebie pack that Humboldt sent with my first order. Those were the first seeds that I successfully planted, but due to some "life stuff" they were woefully ignored for a little too long. But, things are starting to look on track!

All of the plants are (or will be) in 5 or 7 gallon bags and filled with a mix of FFHF and FFOF with added perlite and mykos. I was planning on switching this run to organics with Gaia Green, but I am going to finish these all off with the FF trio + CalMag that I already had from my 1st grow. (Will need to get another couple of bottles of BigBloom)

Here is a shot of the "revised" veg tent with the Mars FC3000!

And here is a shot of the "flower" tent along with her new SE5000 light!

And here is one of the flower tent waiting for all of the girls to get ready to start the light change! (I am hoping that I can flip in about two weeks)

I am documenting this grow because doing so on my first was one of the best learning tools. Being able to track what I did, when I did it and what the impacts to the plants were have been extremely helpful!

Smoke

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

Nice work -- and such dedication! I've thought about separate veg and flower tents, but haven't been able to do it. I could because I have three tents. It has just worked out better for me to grow them start to finish in the same tent. So, thanks for the thread and happy growing.

 

[Smokeshow]

Sunday evening update time!

This past week went by pretty well and the plants seem to be taking shape. I did cull one of the "Fortune Cookie x Dosi Do" plants.... my dumb ass dropped my spray bottle and it landed right in the freaking middle of the plant.... That poor thing, this is my first time using silica, ans man does that firm up the branches, but it seems to make them more prone to snapping rather than just bending...

Anyway, I now have two Deathstar and two Fortune Cookie x Dosi do waiting to flip to flower.

I am happy with how the canopy is staying pretty level and the plants seem to be LOVING the new SE5000 light. It is currently 36 inches from the top of the tallest plant and the light is humming along at 20%. I bumped it up to 30% yesterday and they were a little droopy before lights out last night, so I dropped it back down to 20%. I have it plugged into the ACI pro controller, so I may need to just go back to manual to be able to increase in smaller increments that 10% jumps at a time.

I am going to watch the right front plant with the lime green shoots popping up. Giving her some time to see if she darkens up, of if she is asking for some more N.

 

[Smokeshow]

Light change is happening in the morning!

Leaves were praying at the end of the day for the past couple of days, so I bumped the light up to 30%. I figured it would be a safe time to bump the lights, given they are going to start getting less hours of it tomorrow. The light is currently 36" from the tallest canopy.

Anyway, they all got fed this week and upped the nitrogen a little and everyone seems happy. Going to stay on the "grow" nutes for the the stretch and then switch fully to the bloom and keep my fingers crossed that I don't eff it up.

The right front plant has me a little worried about how much its going to stretch. The two Deathstar in the back of the tent I'm not worried about, since my first grow only stretched like 6-8". This one fortune cookie/dosido pheno is growing FAST and I hope I don't run out of vertical space. I could only get the light 2 or maybe 3" at the most if I had to.

 

[Smokeshow]

Today was day 5 since light change and so far I think the girls are all looking good and pretty healthy. Thus far the sailing has been much smoother through the 2nd half of veg... but I am acutely aware of my ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I am paying attention to what they are telling me, and doing my best to understand. I am doing my best to just leave them alone and they seem to be appreciating my efforts.

The stretchy pheno of the fortune cookie x dosido is really stretching. I have the SE5000 running at 30% and all 4 of the girls had their leaves praying pretty good before lights out this evening, but I am going to wait to turn it given their current growth. The top of the canopy is now 30" from the light, so they grew 6" in the past 5 days. If they stretch too much, then I will turn it up a notch.

They all got watered with RO and 3ml/gal of cal-mag on Monday, and other than plucking a couple of fans here and there it's been a pretty quiet week so far.

I am watching another thread right now to learn a little more about using promix and Gaia. I have both that I want to try for the next grow. Right now I think the next grow is just going to be one plant...or maybe a couple of clones of the same plant. Want to eliminate variables, I can eff stuff up just fine on my own, thank ya very much.

Happy growing,
Smoke

 

[Smokeshow]

This morning is the start of day 8 since the flip to 12/12 lighting.

All four of the girls got fed yesterday morning. 1tsp of FF Grow Big, 1/3tsp of Tiger Bloom, 1tsp Cal-Mag and 3tsp Big Bloom per gallon. I did also mix in a spoonful of molasses. Not sure if it helps or not, but I get to lick the spoon! It took three gallons to get all four plants to run off. I am trying to do a better job of watering them more slowly, over the course of an hour or two. I have noticed a LOT less leaf drooping when watering slowly.

The SE5000 is still chugging along at 30% power (drawing right at 150W per my meter). The tallest plant (the stretchy Fortune Cookie X Dosi DO) is in the back left of the tent now and is 39" tall from the bottom of the tent, so that is leaving 26" from the tallest canopy to the light bars. The leaves are praying pretty hard, so I may bump it up to 40% later this afternoon and see how they do.

I am doing my best to stay on point and hopefully get through a run without these girls going all zombie cannibal on me like my first grow did at the end...

If any of you see anything that need addressed that I am missing, please let me know.

Thanks!
Smoke

 

[Smokeshow]

Just a quick update, today is day 9 since light change. I measured the tallest plant this morning and she grew 2" in 24 hours! So the tallest plant is now 41" from the tent floor to her tallest top. As of now I have 24" from canopy to light.

Quick question, are these still pre-flowers or actual flowers? Just want to accurately document when "flower" officially starts.

Thanks for taking a look!

 

[Markjobs2020]

Howdy farmers!

I spent a good part of the day yesterday completely re-rigging my grow room.

As part of my first grow, I ran a vent duct up into the attic and tied into an existing roof vent. It did a great job of getting the stale (or stinky) air out and keeping the fresh air to the plant(s). As the weather turned drastically colder, the build up of condensation in the vent line was a problem!

I ended up re-doing it all. I ran new insulated duct work and installed a "dryer vent hood" up near the 2nd story peak of the roof line to exhaust everything completely out of the house. The hardest part was drilling/cutting the whole through the stucco, that shit is way tougher than I expected. I bought a carbide hole saw, and got through it fine, but it took some work. When I ran the vent line, I wanted it to go up high and then have a slight turn down all the way to the exterior vent, I figured that would help evacuate any possible condensation to the exterior. So far so good!

I also took EVERYTHING out of both of my tents and started over, learning what worked on my first grow and what I though may make things easier.

I currently have two tents, one is a 32x32x63" tent that I am using as my "Veg" tent. I decided to pull all of the ventilation equipment and move it outside of the tent to free up as much headspace as possible. I also bought a new Spiderfarmer SE5000 to put in my flower tent and then I am moving my Mars Hydro FC3000 over to the veg tent. Here is how the Veg tent looks now and is ready for some action!

My "big" tent is a 39x39x72" tent, which I also moved all of the exhaust fan/filter to the outside of the tent. I now have 65.5" of space from the light to the tent floor, and the SE5000 is filling that tent out very nicely!

For this grow journal, I currently have 5 plants that I am hoping to flower all together. I have two clones that I cut from my first grow attempt and that strain is Deathstar. I have one big one and a little one that is still in a 1gal bag - that will get re-potted this evening to a 5 or 7 gal bag. I also have three "Fortune CookiexDosi Do" plants that I grew from a freebie pack that Humboldt sent with my first order. Those were the first seeds that I successfully planted, but due to some "life stuff" they were woefully ignored for a little too long. But, things are starting to look on track!

All of the plants are (or will be) in 5 or 7 gallon bags and filled with a mix of FFHF and FFOF with added perlite and mykos. I was planning on switching this run to organics with Gaia Green, but I am going to finish these all off with the FF trio + CalMag that I already had from my 1st grow. (Will need to get another couple of bottles of BigBloom)

Here is a shot of the "revised" veg tent with the Mars FC3000!
View attachment 2361460

And here is a shot of the "flower" tent along with her new SE5000 light!
View attachment 2361461

And here is one of the flower tent waiting for all of the girls to get ready to start the light change! (I am hoping that I can flip in about two weeks)
View attachment 2361463

I am documenting this grow because doing so on my first was one of the best learning tools. Being able to track what I did, when I did it and what the impacts to the plants were have been extremely helpful!

Smoke

This is exactly what I want but double the tent size looks good

 

[Smokeshow]

Today was day 12 since the light change. It is really interesting to see the differences in the two strains. Aside from the two different phenos of the fortune cookie x dosi do, I can even see some differences between the two Deathstar that are clones of the "same" plant. The deathstar is progressing/flowering MUCH slower then the Humboldt freebies... I guess that is why I hear it's a 10+ week strain... It's pretty cool and I am learning every day, I've even stopped myself from doing dumb shit multiple times!

So far I think everything is going pretty smoothly. The SE5000 is now rocking along at 40% and pulling 202.2W per my meter. The tallest plant is now 46" from the tent floor and we are down to 19" from the light for her. The girls all seem happy, so I am letting this ride for a bit, at least a week before I think about turning it up. If I am missing the boat on that, please let me know!

The node spacing on the FCxDosido plants is REALLY spread out because they stretched like crazy. Hopefully I still get some decent buds off of them, but I planted these to learn... and I am trying!

They will need fed again, probably Friday and will stick with 1/2 of what FF recommends for the trio and then cal-mag.

Here are a couple of pics of the progress so far this week.

 

[Mikedin]

Howdy farmers!

I spent a good part of the day yesterday completely re-rigging my grow room.

As part of my first grow, I ran a vent duct up into the attic and tied into an existing roof vent. It did a great job of getting the stale (or stinky) air out and keeping the fresh air to the plant(s). As the weather turned drastically colder, the build up of condensation in the vent line was a problem!

I ended up re-doing it all. I ran new insulated duct work and installed a "dryer vent hood" up near the 2nd story peak of the roof line to exhaust everything completely out of the house. The hardest part was drilling/cutting the whole through the stucco, that shit is way tougher than I expected. I bought a carbide hole saw, and got through it fine, but it took some work. When I ran the vent line, I wanted it to go up high and then have a slight turn down all the way to the exterior vent, I figured that would help evacuate any possible condensation to the exterior. So far so good!

I also took EVERYTHING out of both of my tents and started over, learning what worked on my first grow and what I though may make things easier.

I currently have two tents, one is a 32x32x63" tent that I am using as my "Veg" tent. I decided to pull all of the ventilation equipment and move it outside of the tent to free up as much headspace as possible. I also bought a new Spiderfarmer SE5000 to put in my flower tent and then I am moving my Mars Hydro FC3000 over to the veg tent. Here is how the Veg tent looks now and is ready for some action!

My "big" tent is a 39x39x72" tent, which I also moved all of the exhaust fan/filter to the outside of the tent. I now have 65.5" of space from the light to the tent floor, and the SE5000 is filling that tent out very nicely!

For this grow journal, I currently have 5 plants that I am hoping to flower all together. I have two clones that I cut from my first grow attempt and that strain is Deathstar. I have one big one and a little one that is still in a 1gal bag - that will get re-potted this evening to a 5 or 7 gal bag. I also have three "Fortune CookiexDosi Do" plants that I grew from a freebie pack that Humboldt sent with my first order. Those were the first seeds that I successfully planted, but due to some "life stuff" they were woefully ignored for a little too long. But, things are starting to look on track!

All of the plants are (or will be) in 5 or 7 gallon bags and filled with a mix of FFHF and FFOF with added perlite and mykos. I was planning on switching this run to organics with Gaia Green, but I am going to finish these all off with the FF trio + CalMag that I already had from my 1st grow. (Will need to get another couple of bottles of BigBloom)

Here is a shot of the "revised" veg tent with the Mars FC3000!
View attachment 2361460

And here is a shot of the "flower" tent along with her new SE5000 light!
View attachment 2361461

And here is one of the flower tent waiting for all of the girls to get ready to start the light change! (I am hoping that I can flip in about two weeks)
View attachment 2361463

I am documenting this grow because doing so on my first was one of the best learning tools. Being able to track what I did, when I did it and what the impacts to the plants were have been extremely helpful!

Smoke

Nice setup nice and clean, here to follow along!

 

[Smokeshow]

Sunday update time. Today is day 17 of the12/12 light schedule and so far so good.

My "difficult" plant continues to be the biggest/thickest (bushy) girl in the tent, which is a cut from my first plant, a Deathstar clone. The story for anyone following along - I got my first plant/clone last August and had no clue what I was doing and it went into flower because I left her outside. A week later, I got my tent set-up and ended up re-vegging her which resulted in a "Monster Crop" which has continued over to this plant. Interestingly enough, the other deathstar in the tent right now is a clone from the big girl and she is growing more normally.

Anyway, the biggest deathstar is having branches make branches, then more branches.... It was so thick that the leaves were all crammed together and when I would reach through them, my hand would come out wet....not good!

(I ran into the same issue with the plant with my first grow, but when I thinned her out, I did not really know the difference between the branches and budsites.....so let's just say it was a massacre.)

Anyway, I decided to just do some selective branch trimming and remembered seeing a post by @Captspaulding (I think) where it was suggested to trim out the branches growing back toward the center of the plant. I took that into account, and made damned sure that I only took the secondary off-shoots and left all of the bud sites and fans on each of the main branches alone - and this sucker is stacking up bigly!!!

Here is a shot of what I am talking about - each branch was like this and the off-shooting branches just made more branches - I wanted to focus on the mains to hopefully let this girl get ALL the way to the end this time. Plus, if I over did it - I still have the other DS plant in the tent too.

Before: super branchy branch....

Side profile of her after the clean up of each of the main branches

And a top view after the trim.

And here is a shot of the full tent. All four got watered/fed yesterday. They got 1/2 dose of the FF trio and also cal-mag. The light is still at 40% but I have been giving and hour here and there at 50% and no ill effects. Will keep doing that for a few days and may try to push to 50% now that the initial stretch appears to be done for them all. (I think) I will say that they seem to be enjoying the SE5000 light! Doing a decent job with the environment and keeping VPD in the 1.1 - 1.2 range, with some occasions spikes up and down.

 

[Smokeshow]

Sunday was day 23 since the light change.

I am noticing that the bigger Deathstar is hungry, assuming she is trying to feed all of those budsites. I held them all until this afternoon before water/feeding, one thirsty plant had to wait an extra day - but I have a busy beginning of the week, so they all got to chow today. Still following FF Trio schedule for soil at 1/2 recommended. The big DS (back right) got bumped up another 1/4 for both the Grow Big and Tiger Bloom. I expect to have to bump it up with each feed, but I am learning to watch them to see what they might need, so doing my best on that front.

Both of the Deathstar are really stacking sites nicely and the big girl is LOADED. I just hope I can keep her healthy and get her to the finish line.

I have the light back down to 40%. The leaves on the two Humboldt freebie plants are praying hard - does not seem to matter if I turn it down or up. I had it at 30% from lights on this morning, and at the 3 hour mark - they were praying hard...so I turned it back to 40%. Will try to slowly bump in up over the next week. Oh, I did "super crop" the tallest branch on the back left plant. It was starting to show some stress, so I bent her on over....first time doing that, so we will see if I screwed it up or not.

The ventilation system is working great so far. I leave the flower tent exhaust fan always on level 1 and if a trigger gets tripped, it bumps up to level 8. Zero smell at all inside of the house, or even the tent room....until you open the tent. LOL

I am keeping watch on the light "issues" (praying leaves) and the nutrient deficiencies and I will report back on how the reacted to this last feeding with the bump up to the "week 4" schedule, which does a 50/50 for the grow and the bloom.

Here are a few pics until next week. Thanks for taking a look!

Smoke

 

[Smokeshow]

Well, PHUC.... I just got home from being away for a couple of days. I went into my grow room, all excited to see the girls. Unfortunately, when I opened the tent up, I saw "powder" on the leaves of the right front plant, on of the Humboldt freebie plants.

I immediately thought "powdery mildew".... but then I realized that plant grew balls while I was away, so I am guessing my whole flower tent will be a seed factory now..

So much for my second grow going well....LOL

I got rid of the harmed plant, but is it worth it continuing with the other three plants? Really disappointed, but i have more seeds and can plant, but I don't really know what to do.

I am assuming that even though the deathstar is a clone only strain, it will still make seeds, right?

Let me know what you would do.... Shit can them all or deal with picking seeds out?