First Grow: Multiple Strains, 600W LED

So I decided to start documenting my first grow here, which I've had going for a little over a month now but figured it's not too late to get it going. Still in veg at the moment, ran into a bunch of problems after the first couple weeks but things are going a bit smoother now. All of the pictures I took until now were with my phone but decided to use my camera now to make them easier to see.

A little overview of the logistics of the grow. I added links to most of the products in case anyone was interested (will add later since I don't meet guidelines yet).

The Room Setup

• Urban Farmer 36x36x72 Grow Tent
• VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED
• Apollo Horticulture Adjustable Rope Hangers
• AcuRite Temperature and Humidity Monitor
• Urban Farmer Programmable Timer
• VenTech 4", 190CFM, Inline Fan with Variable Speed Controller
• Apollo Horticulture 4" Carbon Scrubber
• Secret Jardin Monkey Fans

The Plant Setup

• Container: Jiffy Pot to 6-in x 6-in to 2.5 gal
• Soil: Started with Miracle-Gro potting mix in Jiffy Pots, then made then switched to a mix (roughly 30/70) of Sta-Green vermiculite and EcoScraps organic soil for the two transplants
• Nutes: Fox Farm trio

The Strains

• 1 bag seed (decided it needed a name so called in Jammer)
• 1 Super Silver Haze
• 1 White Widow x Big Bud
• 1 Somango
• 2 Blueberry

Put the pots in there just to see how much room they took up. Not sure why this is auto-rotated horizontal.


I started my first seed about 10 days before I even got my grow tent or lights. This was the bag seed which I got from a friend (hoping it'll female) and got pretty anxious to start growing so unfortunately, started it way too soon. I germinated all my seeds using the same method: damp paper towel + open 1 quart plastic bag + dark drawer. Here is the first plant after germinating and 2 days after putting into soil. Had to leave this in my windowsill until my lights came in. Taken on April 8.


There's a 2 week gap in pictures here but the next one is after they were all germinated and potted. There are 7 in this picture because I did an extra just in case any of them had any issues, which was a good idea because I did 3 White Widow x Big Bud and two of them ended up dying a week after potting (bad luck/seeds or rookie mistake). The bottom two here are Blueberry, middle is Jammer, top left two WWxBB, top right WWxBB, and middle right SSH. Not much to see for most of them except you can see the noticeable jump start for the bag seed (Jammer). Taken on April 22.


Flash-forward a week to April 30 and as you can see, (wo?)man down.


And a week later on May 5, getting more foliage, but the top right WWxBB is slacking and pretty close to dying.




....and it's a bit late, so I'll follow up tomorrow with more pictures and more about my (in)experience so far. Feel free to comment on what you think. Any and all comments, constructive criticism, and/or hate about my pictures taken with a potato would be greatly appreciated!

May 15: Down one more. The WWxBB in the previous picture was done for and no chance of coming back so tossed it out. One of the two blueberry (left of the back two) started having some problems with the oldest leaves. Jammer on the middle left was getting too tall compared to the rest so I tried a little LST. It was also having some problems on the oldest leaves. The SSH on the middle right started taking off in size, and the only surviving WWxBB at the bottom was pretty healthy.


Closeup of problems with blueberry leaves


Closeup of problems with jammer leaves and some new growth after starting some LST.


I also decided to start a Somango this same week. Didn't get any pictures but it was just starting to sprout when these were taken. Kind of late but it was a free seed so figured it wouldn't be a loss if I decided to do away with it.

May 20: First picture of the Somango hanging out in the middle. It was catching up pretty quick but the rest of them were also starting to get bigger. Rotated some of the plants to get more even light time for different sides of the plants.


May 22: Topped the SSH because it started growing too fast compared to the rest and thought this would slow down the growth a little (I was wrong).


May 25: SSH getting bushier every day and the Somango started turning really yellow, but somewhat expected since I put it straight into the soil and never gave it anything but water, no nutes. The blueberry in the back right started slowing down growth to almost nothing so was a little concerned, but didn't see any problems with the leaves other than a slight yellowing of new lower growth. Not sure what happened with this one compared to the other blueberry in the back left.


May 26: Friday before memorial day and I was heading back home for the weekend, so gave them all a good watering in the tub. Also, topped the WWxBB and the good blueberry. Other blueberry still growing really slow and SSH going strong.

May 31: Caught up to when I decided to start this grow journal yesterday and started using my camera. Took some individual shots of each of the plants.

Grow area shot


Jammer: Tied back the lower growths cause they were getting blocked a little, growing under the upper leaves.


WWxBB: Lower leaves after the weekend started turning pretty yellow.


Blueberry 1: Lower growth starting to make its way up so have 3 noticeable colas. The oldest leaves had a little browning on the tips/edges.


Blueberry 2: Still growing really slow and some of the leaf tips pointing straight down, some tips a little brown.


SSH: Didn't realize how bushy this one would get but from what I've been reading it can get out of hand. Has 8 colas now, all getting roughly even in height.


And lastly, the extremely late Somango. Had some really bad problems with the leaves over the weekend so got some close shots of it, but seems to have stopped since I gave it a little Grow Big with some tap water (we have fairly hard water here).



I forgot to adjust the light height, so all the plants seemed to be shunning away since I got back. Measured and they were at 12" so moved them away to about 18" last night. In the morning, they all seemed really happy and leaves leveling out, slightly pointed up.

Since I've been having so many leaf problems during my grow, I decided to order a PH meter and some PH up/down which should be coming in the mail tomorrow. Hopefully this will help me better adjust and avoid more problems from here on out.

I feed very heavy with my organic grows.
Ive also never checked my ph in 10 years of soil grows.

I could very well be wrong but could the leaf discoloring be from the closeness of the LED light?