First Grow Second Attempt :)

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hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
Ok, it is time to start again. My first grow ever never made it out of the rockwool cubes before they all drowned. So with a big assist to @rkymtnman I put my first girls into the rdwc system today. This time I built a cloner and did it aeroponically. However, I cut my holes in the lid the same size as they are in my rdwc so I could just pick them up and move them with no chance of hurting the roots. I was convinced to change to rapid rooters this time and love them. I put a layer of rockwool down in a netpot, the rapid rooter and filled around it with hydroton and just sprouted right in that. I did buy the hydrofarm 8 bulb light and kept it 2" at all times which I didn't do the first time. Having no real clue what I was doing, I turned the sprayers on 24 hours a day for 2 days and then changed them to on 30 minutes, off 30 minutes. 2 of them were started in a similar device and took a long time to come up. I moved them over to the one I built.

Here are the girls on their first day of veg. The first one is Chocolate Skunk. The other two are Ghost Train Haze #1. The first GTH came up about 4 days after the Choc Skunk. The second GTH came up about 10 days later..didn't think it was going to do it. One of them has water on their leaves as I had just misted it.
Choc Skunk.jpg GTH 1st.jpg GTH 2nd.jpg

Here is the "cloner" that I built with a pvc manifold and a pic of the roots of the Chocolate Skunk.
DIY Cloner.jpg CS Roots.jpg

But today they moved to their final home into the rdwc.
rdwc.jpg

Timber Redwood VS (questions below), Gorilla Lite 4x4, scrog.

I am using GH Flora Trio for nutes. Today I started them on 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of all three. My ppm is running only at 320 and ph is 6.5. Is that high enough? All of them have several roots in the water by 4 inches and hairs all over them.

And my other question is the light.....for today I put it at 22" but it is turned down as low as it can go. I can't really find anything other than "put your hand under it...if hot, move the light up. Should I have this thing turned up higher? Am I ballpark in the right height? I'm confused on this one.

Thanks for any tips on the nutes question and the light question.
 
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hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
First 3 days of Veg have gone ok I guess. All 3 of the girls seems to be growing ok. The res is staying at 71 F, 6.4 ph and 335 ppm. I have a fan blowing across the plants inside the tent.

I turned the light up just a touch this morning, it is now maybe on 30% -35% at 22". Still no real clue as to when to turn it up or lower...

Roots are stained a bit but I believe that is the nutes.

Choc Skunk
Day 3 Veg Choc Skunk.jpg Day 3 Veg Choc Skunk Root.jpg

GTH pair and roots
Day 3 Veg GHT 1.jpg Day 3 Veg GTH 1 Root.jpg Day 3 Veg GTH 2.jpg Day 3 Veg GTH 2 Root.jpg

I am going to scrog this so I will probably put my net up this week sometime and just start training from the get go....
 
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hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
I put some hydroguard in it Sunday at 2 ml / gallon. Everything looks pretty good up top anyway to my untrained eyes. I have turned the chiller down to 66 but doubt if it will get there, low 70s seems to be about as low as it will take it.
 
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hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
Ok, it has been a long week at work and I had to take some time off today to get the temperature thing under control. We have had a total heat wave for the past 3 days and no relief in sight. I had read for years about "growing in a closet, growing in an enclosed space" etc....sounded sooo easy lol. Well, I built myself a "grow room" that was 6.5' x 12', sealed it up good, no windows. Put a 4x4 tent in one side of it and off we went, good exhaust fan.... Wow, was that a terrible plan, at least for this particular building. Temps were near 100 most of yesterday. I got a window ac unit and rigged it up to see if it would help. Overnight it did but the way I had it set up was not sustainable. So this afternoon, I added walls, moved a wall. My "grow room" is not 12'x14' with it's own ac that is rated for a room 4 times that size. Life should be good tomorrow.

We had discussed root rot Monday I believe. I treated the water with hydroguard and have been fighting the room temps since. As hot as the room was getting, there was no way that chiller could keep up. I think the plants are doing really well all things considered. Thoughts? Tomorrow I will do the first res change and bump up the ppms.

Here is a pic of all 3 girls after 7 days, with 4 of them having fought incredible temps.
Day 7 Veg.jpg
Chocolate Skunk is first, and the pair of Ghost Train Haze #1 are the next two pics. They got a later start but hopefully will catch up.
Day 7 Veg Choc Skunk.jpg Day 7 Veg GTH 1.jpg Day 7 Veg GTH 2.jpg

The Chocolate Skunk is the one that had the root rot discussion Monday. They were not slimy and did not smell, someone asked that above and I forgot to post that later. I think they look a lot better and I know that the res will be under 70 by tomorrow. I'll continue to use the hydroguard on this one though. Think it looks ok?
Day 7 Veg Choc Skunk roots.jpg Day 7 Veg Chock Skunk root.jpg
 
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hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
And if the temperature thing is all good tomorrow I may change the res and then Sunday put the scrog net up and start training....
 
H

hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
All of the changes and improvements to the room already appear to be paying off. With the AC in the room now and the room more insulated, the chiller is having no problem keeping the water below 70. When I changed the res this morning I did go ahead and add the Hydroguard again just to be safe. I have not lowered the light but have turned it up a bit each day, tomorrow it will be on full power unless someone sees a reason to not.

35 gallon system water temp is 69 F, ppm is at 528 this week and ph is 5.8
Room temp77, inside tent temp 81

Here are all three plants. The front one is the Chocolate Skunk (CS) and the back 2 are both Ghost Train Haze #1 (GTH). The back 2 did not pop for a full week compared to the CS, but they are starting to catch up a bit.
Day 9 Veg All 3.jpg

Closer pics of the CS.
Day 9 Veg CS 2.jpg Day 9 Veg CS 3 and roots.jpg Day 9 Veg CS 4 roots.jpg

And closer pics of the GTH.
Day 9 Veg GTH North 1.jpg Day 9 Veg GTH North 2.jpg Day 9 Veg GTH North 3 roots.jpg Day 9 Veg GTH South 1.jpg Day 9 Veg GTH South 2.jpg Day 9 Veg GTH South roots.jpg
 
H

hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
Ok time for an update, I haven't done one for the past 10 days. Probably will try a different forum to see if I can get some more involvement, seems like this place has not had much traffic lately.

Day 20 of veg today. I still am not sure about a lot of things but it looks to me like they are doing ok.

The 3 have been drinking about a gallon to 2 gallons each day. I have been raising the ppms a bit each week. They are currently about 625. Water temp has been steady at 68-69. I have had my light at the same height since the beginning. It was at 22" originally, I have not moved it up or down but the plants have grown so the light is currently sitting about 14". In the beginning I had it turned all the way down and slowly turned it up. It has been on full power for the past 10 days probably. I guess I will just leave it where it is and on high.

Here is a couple of pics of all 3. The Useful Seeds Chocolate Skunk is in the front by itself and the pair of Rare Dankness Ghost Train Haze #1 are in the back.
Day 20 Veg All 3 2.jpg Day 20 Veg All 3.jpg

The Chocolate Skunk took off fast and is more like a bush than what I expected, remember this is my first grow. I am trying to get her to drift over to the empty space some. Not much information that I can find on how much she will stretch. Some of the fan leaves are huge, I have thought about pulling them off so more light can get underneath but find conflicting reports. I will when I flip them I guess and get a fan underneath.
Day 20 Veg CS side.jpg Day 20 Veg CS top.jpg

The GTH#1 are finally coming along better. These 2 will stretch a lot from everything that I have read.
Day 20 Veg GTH 1.jpg Day 20 Veg GTH 2.jpg Day 20 Veg all from back.jpg

Not sure when to flip to 12/12, I just keep tucking each day a little bit. Should I pull some of these fan leaves? Not sure what to do with the light, it is a Redwood VS from Timber, leave it turned all the way up? Lower it? Raise it? I will keep raising the nutes ppm according to the chart and keep the ph about 6.0ish with a water temp of 68. Anything else that I should be watching out for?
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
looks good.
i'd keep light 100%, raise as necessary. let pH swing b/t 5.5 and 6.1 water temp is great. you "shouldn't" need to go much higher than your current ppms IMO
 
H

hilltopbud

Well-Known Member
Thanks, since I have gotten the temperature dialed in it seems to have gone pretty smoothly.

My current plan is to let them go through the weekend and then probably do a res change, and flip them to 12/12 about Tuesday or Wednesday next week. At that time I will pull all the leaves off that are below the scrog net. The back two (Ghost Train Haze) are not very filled in just yet but they stretch like heck from everything that I have read.

Then I will keep tucking for 3 weeks or so and then do one final leaf pull and let it ride.

Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
hilltopbud said:
Thanks, since I have gotten the temperature dialed in it seems to have gone pretty smoothly.

My current plan is to let them go through the weekend and then probably do a res change, and flip them to 12/12 about Tuesday or Wednesday next week. At that time I will pull all the leaves off that are below the scrog net. The back two (Ghost Train Haze) are not very filled in just yet but they stretch like heck from everything that I have read.

Then I will keep tucking for 3 weeks or so and then do one final leaf pull and let it ride.

Keeping my fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
just remember it's a marathon, not a sprint. slow and steady and keep pH in check and you'll be good 2 go.

and yes, haze strains do tend to stretch more. and they generally take a long time to finish too.
 
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