1st grow, how does it look?

[sheldonblack]

The humidity was getting high (80% +) and temp low (15c) at lights off, my oscillating fans X 2 run 24/7 but my airflow is temp controlled so once the temp dropped the fans slowed down. I have put a heater in there now and plugged it into a thermostat so it shouldn't drop below 22c and hopefully keep humidity down at the same time until i can find a small enough dehu to fit in the room and also work well.

With that Temp and humidity, I'd imagin you have powdery mildew before bud rot?!?!

 

[reddiamond]

With that Temp and humidity, I'd imagin you have powdery mildew before bud rot?!?!

I didn't have any pm, however i don't know how long the humidity stayed at that level as i only have a max min temp/humidity meter so it may have been only for a short time at night. I'm guessing because the buds are quite tight on this plant that it was enough to hold the moisture inside and allowed the mould to grow.

 

[reddiamond]

Got into this thread late. Sorry to hear about your situation, bud rot is the worst, been there, done that.

I'd like to start off by saying that you have a beautiful plant. That being said you obviously have a green thumb. At the same time I think there are some concerns that I'd like to point out.

I'm too tired to read all the posts and I'm sure some people will agree and some will disagree but here's what I think anyway based on my experiences.

1. Fabric pots are not good IMO. I've used them before and they stay wet, too wet. Anything that stays wet in your grow area is bad.

2. I saw you're using up to 50% perlite in your medium. That's too much. You want about 10% to 15% when you mix with a medium. This is where some people may disagree but I know for a fact, based on experience, that too much perlite mixed with a medium keeps the medium wet for too long because perlite is porous and it helps the medium retain water. If you have 100% perlite then it will drain, but once again, if you mix your perlite with a medium and you have too much perlite, it keeps the medium wet for too long.

3. I only see one small fan in the pics. I think you need a lot more air flow. For example, I have a 3x3 tent and have three fans on all the time during flowering. One is a big oscillating fan and then I have two smaller fans that constantly breeze the canopy. Airflow is your friend and it's good to have lots of friends.

4. Is there and intake of fresh air in your grow area? I see some ducting above in the pics but it doesn't look like you have any fresh air coming in. If you don't you need some.

5. RH goes up with cooler temps, but sometimes an air conditioner conditions the air to an extent that it will lower the humidity and sometimes it doesn't. When my humidity is going up I start with running the a/c. If it doesn't help I'll switch gears and try the other side of the coin and use a heater in the room. Sometimes the dry heat helps. Controlling humidity can be an art and a science. What works sometimes doesn't work at other times since there are so many factors. It can be warm and rainy outside, cold and rainy outside, hot and humid outside, etc. This is where you have to experiment with what works best at that time and place.

Good luck.

Thanks for stopping by and for your tips, i am a new grower so tips and tricks are always welcome, although i have been in friends grow rooms before, they do not know that i have started a grow and i want to keep it that way so i can't ask them for advice.

1. I got the fabric pot on a recommendation from the guy in the hydro shop i use, he said they were good for first timers. I haven't noticed it becoming saturated since the plant got bigger and filled it with roots although i will keep a closer eye out for that.

2. I didn't know that perlite helped to retain moisture, i thought it was good for aeration of the medium but it seemed to work quite well for me as i only water by hand once every 2-3 days in veg and every day in later flowering.

3. I did only have 1 small fan blowing over the canopy and i think that may well have contributed to me getting the grey mould, i have now added a second fan and she is moving quite a lot in the wind now

4. The ducting is purely for the cool tube, i like to get the light close so i need it cooled.
I have a 4" intake fan and a 5" exhaust (through an external carbon scrubber), they are controlled by a SMSCOM twin fan controller although with the cooler night time temps it was running too slow and prob not venting the room effectively, this has now been tweaked for better ventilation.

5. I live in the UK so aircon is not something we have lying around. Having said that i do have a portable aircon unit but if i put that in my cupboard there wouldn't be any room for my plant This is a stealth grow in a 37" x 28" x 72" cupboard and space is at a premium.
Since adding the small heater the humidity has dropped so i am hopeful that i can keep the mould down to a minimum until i can harvest.

 

[Edgar9]

@reddiamond, you water everyday in late flowering???

You don't want to do that. Watering with too much frequency will contribute to higher humidity levels and make the plant oversaturated with water.

Basically cannabis likes a wet to dry cycle throughout the grow. You want to soak the medium completely so that water drips out the bottom of the pot and at that point the pot will be heavy, very heavy. You don't want to water again until the first couple of inches of the soil is dry. Put your finger in the soil and it should be dry up to your second knuckle. Also, at that point the pot should be very light. At this point it's time to water again.

When I'm flowering, after I water, I take some dry soil and spread a thin layer out on the top of the medium so that the top of the medium has a thin layer of dry soil. I feel it that also helps keep humidity levels down.

 

[raiderman]

I agree,and wen i'm fanning the plants I make sure the air blows well at the base and keeps it dry for any drained water that might become contaminated with bacterias or pathogens that develop on watered plants and exchanging fresh co2 constantly fro the grow area..peace.

 

[reddiamond]

Thanks both and i would definately do it that way if i was in soil, but i'm growing in coco/perlite and she gets fed every 24hrs about 1/2 hour after light on because once i couldn't get there and at 30 hours she was droopy.

 

[hbbum]

It sounds like you isolated what caused the spike in the RH to that thermo on your fan, now that you have that dialed in you should be groovy

 

[reddiamond]

I hope so mate.
I think it was a combination of things, i only had one circulation fan, the temp drop we've had here in the uk means i'm drawing in colder air so the fans slowed down causing less air exchange and the accompanying higher humidity in cold air.
I will also be keeping a closer eye on the next run when i get to around week 7

 

[reddiamond]

Checked this morning and humidity just before lights on was 48%, max reading from last night was 60% so i imagine that was the spike and average was around 50 - 55% for the night, not ideal but a lot better than it was

 

[legallyflying]

Are you indeed running a Dehu unit?

I only have one room that is climate controlled by outside air. When the lights are on the fans almost run constantly (4 12" max can fans). This is the case most of the year, except in the dead of winter. Then the thermostat has them clicking on and off quite a bit.

When the lights shut off, the Dehu turns on. It has dual benefits of heating the room to avoid large temp swings (stretch ) and keep mildew and boytrirus at bay. The trick is to get the room cool enough when the light shut off so that the temperature controller doesn't turn on and blow all your dry air out.

Plants don't need "fresh air" at night. Hell the less fresh air the better really. Fresh air in my other room is provided by a big bottle of CO2. Aircon and co2. These are the ways of the Jedi night.

Good luck

 

[reddiamond]

Are you indeed running a Dehu unit?

No i don't have a dehumidifier, i am growing a single plant in a cupboard 37" x 28" x 72" that is my usable space, i can't fit one in and i can't have one outside the cupboard for stealth reasons. I did find a small one but you said it would be no good so i didn't buy it.

 

[reddiamond]

I've had to take off another few buds over the last week but only small ones so i think she will make it through to normal harvest time, today is end of week 8 from flip to 12/12









Top of the same cola, you can clearly see where i cut the top off this one.

 

[raiderman]

yure on top of yure game in there bro,stay with it.

 

[reddiamond]

Thanks mate, it's looking a lot more hopeful now i've got that humidity down

 

[raiderman]

Weve been having a lot of rain lately and humidity been up ,a lot of air runnin in there to keep from mold as well.peace.

 

[reddiamond]

Yeah, i increased my minimum fan speed so its getting good exchange even when the temp drops and added another fan for circulation and a heater for nights. I'm managaing to get it around 50 - 55% lights off and its around 45% lights on

I'm thinking i've got 1 week left which will be just ph'd water and then give her 2 days of darkness and cut her down but i'm not sure, i'm just starting to see cloudy, any idea how long it takes from here to get to mostly cloudy - some amber?

 

[rikcherron99]

Depending on what kind of bud you want (it mostly depends on the strain) But you can get slight differences depending on when you harvest (im sure you already know) heres a little graph i use to go by: View attachment 2831420

Its a little small tell you click it xD

 

[lospsi]

amazing journal that is a beast ya know? +rep man

 

[reddiamond]

Thanks, i'm really pleased with how she turned out
Its my 1st ever grow and a new room so there's bound to be mistakes made but thats how we learn, apart from the rot i think she came out pretty good.
All I have do now is to cut her at the right time, dry & cure it, haha, sounds so simple, hope i don't screw it up here.
hopefully by the end i'll have some good smoke

 

[legallyflying]

Just don't try it too fast and you will be fine.