2nd time around as a grower, this time with way more money, skills, and equipment...

I am fine with comments on this journal - questions, likes, notes, and/or constructive criticism are fine by me

I grew more than a decade ago, using a 2x4x6 armoire as the base with a 175 watt MH for vegetative and a 250 watt HPS for flowering, as well as a pair of 24" fluorescent bulbs for the clone chamber on top. The armoire was custom vented through my homemade bulb reflectors because those bulbs were so damned hot for such a small space. Once I had that system tuned and switched over to a homemade deep water culture system, it cranked out a solid 2-3 ounces of very good smoke per month. Here's what that looked like way back then, while I was still growing in soil:

Now... On to my current fun! I started this project in February, ahead of the current Coronavirus lockdown, because I knew I was gonna need a solid hobby when the shit hit the fan, as it has now...

In the years since I last grew, my kids finished (mostly) growing up, and my wife and I both got our degrees, I am a systems admin/engineer with a heavy background in software development, prototyping, QA testing, and test system development. I have applied a lot of this knowledge to my system as I built it up and tuned it

Here is the complete equipment list for my system:

- 1 x large grow tent for flowering - 48x48x80
- 1 x 252 CFM inline fan vented out of the house for large (flowering) tent
- 1 x Mars Hydro TS1000 LED light for large (flowering) tent
- 1 x small oscillating fan for inside large (flowering) tent
- 1 x medium grow tent for vegetative growth plants - 36x36x72
- 1 x 240 CFM inline vent fan vented out of house for medium (vegetative) tent
- 1 x Mars Hydro TS600 LED light for medium (vegetative) tent
- 1 x small oscillating fan for medium (vegetative) tent
- 2 x 8 foot sections (cut to fit) of 6" aluminum flex duct for inline fans to vent out
- 1 x 6" duct tee
- 2 x 6" duct backdraft dampers, one for each section of the duct tee
- 1 x 6" external mount house vent - cut to fit and mount out basement window, with expanding foam and sealant
- 1 x Raspberry Pi 4 (this is the brains for controlling light schedule, and controlling temp and humidity via exhaust and internal oscillating fans, as well as reporting temp and humidity via sensors deployed into each tent and connected to the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins.
- 12 x 5 gallon DWC buckets, complete with side water level indicator, modified so air stone tube is attached to the lid, so that plant, lid, airstone, and all can be moved to new pot as needed for reservoir changes, maintenance.
- 2 x DHT22 sensors for temp/humidity sensors for Raspberry Pi
- 2 x 10' lengths of CAT6 solid core cable for sensor hookup to Raspberry Pi
- Prototyping hat for Raspberry Pi connection to sensors.
- SSD drive and USB 3.0 enclosure for Raspberry Pi OS drive (I don;t trust SD cards for anything, and the SSD performance is spectacular on a Raspberry Pi 4)
- 1 x Web Power Switch by Digital Loggers Inc - this is an older, non-wifi model I purchaed on Ebay - they are awesome - completely controlled via REST API, and has 8 outlets that can be controlled. Plenty for my 2 tents, as each one requires an outlet for internal oscillating fan, external exhaust fan, and light.
- 2 x old heavy, clean blankets. This grow is in my basement, which is coll during half the year, and the floor and walls are concrete, so they radiate cold. The tents are neatly placed on the folded blankets to offer some insulation, and it has worked beautifully
- General Hydroponics Flora series, with Additonal CaLiMAGic, Armor Si, and Liquid KoolBloom, as well as PH control products
- Digital TDS meter (manual)
- Digital PH meter (manual)
- 3 x 4-port 240 GPH air pups for the DWC pots
- About 50' of silicon air tubing, cut to fit so the pots are easy to move/work with.
- 1 x Cyber Power 1500 UPS, just really to make sure momentary power failures don't affect anything. It is enough to keep everything, lights and all, running for about 20 minutes.
- 1 x 20-60x loupe to examine pretty trichomes when they appear
- 1 x Light meter
- 4 x 1-gallon buckets drilled and set up with rubbermaid dome lids and small air pumps for bubble cloners. They each can handle 2-3 clones comfortably

I will not be adding CO2 to my grow, I believe what I'm doing for steady ventilation and temp/humidity control, combined with great lighting and hydroponic nutrients should supply me with plenty of smoke, given the size of my 2 grow tents.

Here's what that looks like now that it is set up and running with my first '2nd time around' grow running, the smaller tent has plants in it now and the bigger tent does not because I have not started flowering anything yet:

The Raspberry Pi 4 computer running the show is executing a python script in a 10 second loop with the following rules:

• Take a temp and humidity reading from the DHT22 sensor in each tent, and use the values to execute the rest of these rules
• maintain an 18/6 lighting schedule in the smaller vegetative growth tent, 5am to 11pm
• maintain a 12/12 lighting schedule in the large flowering tent, 10am to 10pm
• run both internal oscillating fans full time when the lights are on to keep temp and humidity well distributed
• run the internal oscillating fan for 10 seconds once per hour when lights are off to keep temp an humidity well distributed
• run the externally vented exhaust fans as needed, whenever temp is over 75 degrees in either tent
• run the exhaust fan for the vegetative tent as needed when humidity is over 55%
• run the exhaust fan for the flowering tent when humidity is over 45%
• also run the exhaust fan for 10 seconds at least once an hour if it has not been run to control temp or humidity within the last hour
• On every execution, the script feeds the temp and humidity readings, as well as light and fan states into my home server running InfluxDB and Grafana so I can keep track of everything as it is going on - see the images below for what that looks like. This proved to be invaluable for tuning the environmental control system.

The actual loop takes approximately 2 - 2.5 seconds to run. When I started the system up, I was executing on a 1-minute interval, and that proved to be too slow and caused a lot of spikes in temp and humidity. The 10 second interval smoothed that right out.

I am also running a second Raspberry Pi 4 computer with a webcam in each tent to broadcast a full time 720p video stream I can view in browser using 'motion' which is an exceptionally easy piece of software to get running for this purpose. As an added bonus, it is capturing 24/7/365 time lapse video at 1-minute intervals. None of this is necessary, but it is very cool. The time lapse videos are MPEG format, and I guess I can't post video here, so you'll have to take my word for it...

Now, on to the actual journal part... I planted the 4 seeds directly in rockwool cubes on March 1st. The strains are RQS Critical (feminized) and Jack Here (Feminized), 2 of each strain. I read that Jack Herer is harder to grow because it wants to be huge, so I plan on a short veg period before flowering, so they don't get big. I also plan to get several clones from each plant before flowering - The Jack Herers I will ScroG to control height and the Critical seems like a better candidate for SoG technique. Should be interesting to see if i can manage both effectively in the big tent once they're ready.

Here's what I did:

ROCKWOOL PREP:
- Soak the rockwool plugs for 2 hours in PH adjusted 5.5 water.
- Take the rockwool cubes out and place somewhere that can drain for about an hour at room temp
PLANTING the seed:
- The rockwool is a small round plug with a slit up the side, I wrapped a twisty tie around it to hold the slit closed while the seeds germinate
- Plant the seed about 1/4" deep
- Place the rockwool cubes in the Rubbermaid humidity done - I used a fairly a big (2 gallon?) Rubbermaid container upside down with lots of room and air
- Place the dome about 6 inches below the florescent light on the shelf in my server closet, which averages 75 degrees
- Let the heating pad underneath take care of keeping the humidity high.
- Leave the humidity pad turned on and check the plants a couple times daily
- Add a little PH 5.8 water to the rockwool cubes as needed to keep them moist.

On March 3rd, 3 of the 4 seeds sprouted - 2 of the Jack Herer and 1 Critical. The remaining Critical looked like the seed shell had cracked open, so I remained hopeful it would sprout.

By March 6th, the two Jack Herer seeds that had sprouted were showing full cotyledons and looked like healthy starts. The Critical plant that sprouted looked a little sad, so I inspected it closer and noticed the shell was still partially clamped on the base of the sprout, so I gently removed it with tweezers. The remaining critical seed still had not shown.

March 8th - The Critical is finally showing cotyledons unfurling. The other Critical is still no go - will continue to watch. The 2 x Jack Herer showed root through the bottom of the rockwool, so I cleaned the DWC pots and hydroton and prepped with PH 5.8 water only, filtered but still showing about 75 ppm. The 600 watt light is 36" above the pot deck, about 33" above the baby Jack Herer plants. I'm gonna wait a day or so until the Critical shows root before moving it into the tent. It is falling behind the Jack Herer plants, but I really like it, it is the little plant that could!

March 9th - the single sprouted Critical appears healthy, about 1 day away from going into the small vegetative tent. The other still has not sprouted. The 2 x Jack Herer seem ok in the small vegetative tent so far. The last critical is dead. The outer seed was too hard and the little sprout couldn't shake it off. I started to try and remove the shell with tweezers but botched it quick and was sure there was no way the mangled little fella would revive. RIP CRIT2. The live critical that also had a minor shell issue still has a bit of a sideways lean from the issue. I hope it wasn't enough stress to make it weak. It appears to be taking off well now. We'll see.

March 10th - CRIT#1 is in the small tent, with a dome lid on to hold humidity for today. The 2 x Jack Herers look great, JH#1 is slightly bigger than JH#2 already although they sprouted within an hour of each other

March 11th - The dome lid was on the Critical for most of the day. I took it off for a couple hours after work, then put back on. The 2 Jack Herers began putting some size on the first true leaves today. I PH balanced the reservoirs today, they were back up to 7+, so keep watching, may need a more stable solution or better water filtration. After PH balancing the water, I added the first dose of nutrients, about 5ml each or Flora Micro, Grow, anf Bloom to each reservoir, the correct ration for seedlings. That amount, ~5ml brought the PPM up to between 385 and 400 for all three plants. The filtered water was already at ~75, so the net gain was about 300PPM, or 1/8th strength of the hydroponic nutrients. Will keep watching and check PH and TDS every other day from now on until I have a working schedule for check interval.

March 12th - both jack Herer and the one critical still doing great, the Jack's 1st leaves still growing, no roots showing underneath the net pots yet, the one Critical is getting healthier still. I've taken the dome lid off to let her breathe, she's ready. I adjusted the semi-hourly exhaust fans to run only once per hour 24/7 to clear the air. This allows temp and humidity to rise a little, which is the point. I need to build this program to be a full monitor, turning fans on for only 5 to 10 seconds to clear a temp or humidity condition but not drop humidity by 15 percent. Ugh. The 600 watt Mars Hydro light is exactly 33" off the deck of the hydro pots, and roughly 30" from the tops of the little plants. They like it so far. I started 2 days ago at closer to 40" off the deck of the pots. Gonna keep lowering every a day, just a little until I get the sweet spot. They have not stretched yet, but I think that is because they are building up some root infrastructure still. I'm leaving the 4th empty DWC pot in the tent to keep the humidity up, but I hate the 10" pot, so I'll replace it with a 6" pot when I get more, and fill it with hydroton to keep the light from the water.

March 13th - Friday the 13th! All are doing well, the critical is still smaller, but healthy and now on the same regimen as the others. Adjusted PH and PPM on all of them, PH keeps climbing, this time it was at Approximately 6.3-6.5 in each, adjusted down to ~5.6. PPM adjusted up to ~425. Light height adjusted down again, it is now exactly 30" off the deck of the hydro buckets, about 27" from the tops of the plants. The Jack Herer are showing second true leaves now, JH2 has a slightly purple stem, but is growing at the same rate as JH1, so my guess is it will right itself as roots develop. The first true leaves grew a lot on the one RQS Critical, it is definitely about 2 days behind the 2 JH, which is fine, it is healthy and nice healthy green.

March 14th - Replaced all reservoir's nutrients using 10ml of each GH Micro, Grow, and Bloom in each, normalizing TDS at ~525-540 PPM. PH balanced to ~5.6 and reservoir levels lowered to about 1/4 inch below net pots to encourage root growth and let the root ball form above the water line. The 2 x Jack Herer are still growing well, new growth is bright green, purple here and there on the stems, but they're outgrowing it I think. The Critical still looks healthy and about 2 days behind the others, but on the same nutrient regimen and holding it's own. The adjustment to fan frequency down to once per hour is paying off in higher temps and humidity. I still need to spend some time writing the monitor as a service so it can react with sub-minute timing and not over-do the removal of heat or humidity. It is now doing all the right things, just needs to be more precise and granular. Also, the lights are now 28" off the deck of the hydro pots.

March 16th - Did not maintain reservoirs today, gonna go to every other day now and stop obsessing. I did some rewrite on the environmental control script and it now runs every 10 seconds unless something causes a run to be slow, in which case it will pick up at the next second that is modulus 10 = 0 (divisble by 10). The script also saves off all tents info values as a json text file and loads it on start. If that file does not exist, the script uses base values for the first run and then begins saving them to file again for re-load. This will make updating intervals and tweaking the script easier. I think I'm going to write a parameters file also to hold some other script-wide values for even easier maintenance. Anyway... JH#1 is looking sweet, with a taproot poking down into the reservoir (see picture) - JH#2 will probably follow tomorrow I'd bet, and maybe 2 or 3 more days after that for CRIT#1. They look good, but bright green, so I'll maybe up the micro and grow formula tomorrow, we'll see what the PH and PPM looks like.

March 17th - I checked reservoir today, ppm still at ~600-620 for all three plants. I added 5ml of Micro to bring it up to 710-720ppm, PH was at 5.8 so I kept it there, no adjustment. Lights left at 26" off the deck. All 3 plants look great. Still a little spindly, but filling out and no vertical growth still. JH#1 showing significant roots today, none from the others yet. Maybe the additional Micro will give them a boost.

March 18th - non-maintenance day, only observations. Temp stable and no big swings since moving to run the environmental control script on 10-second interval. Big surprise today, JH#1 has several 6" roots that shot down into the reservoir, looks fantastic, the current PPM and PH is apparently amazing. JH#2 barely showing first root, CRIT#1 has a single little baby root showing also. It is still significantly small compared to the two Jack Herer plants.

March 19th and 20th - checked PH and PPM on the 19th and letting it ride, all still look great and standing up straight. The 2 Jack Herer plants are taking off! Light lowered to 24" off the deck of the pots

March 21st - Plants look great still, Jack #1 and #2 have 3 sets of true leaves, Critical has 2nd set of true leaves. Reservoir change -new formula for vegetative growth. The plants are 3 weeks from sprouting now and ready. Here's the formula, per General Hydroponics:
- 3 gallons, 1/2 quart of filtered water - PH ~7.75-7.9 - 85-90ppm
- 3ml Armor Si (light dose) - stir well and let sit for 15 minutes
- 3ml CaliMAGic (light dose) - stir well
- 15ml Flora Grow - stir well, wait 5 minutes and balance to ~400ppm
- 10ml Flora Micro - stir well, wait 5 minutes and balance to ~620ppm
- 5ml Flora Bloom - stir well, wait 5 minutes and balance to ~680ppm
- Natural PH at this point was 6.6-6.7 - should not need adjustment. THIS WAS AN ERROR - I THOUGHT I READ 5.6-5.7 - READ BELOW ENTRY. DAMMIT, SMOKE LESS WEED WHEN CARING FOR THE BABIES, DIPSHIT!

March 22nd - No maintenance, just pictures...