Messing up plants and calling it a grow journal (again).

Hi,

Comments from anyone are welcome, as is any advice or if you see any problems, major or not, please let me know.

Really wanted to log details on my current grow, before I forget everything that has already gone on with it and have to guess around to much again.

Media - is 50/50 (40 extra coarse/ 10 fine) virmuclite and (homedepot) peat, with added dolomite lime and gypsum at about a hand full and half hand full respectively, per 5 gallons of media.

Extra coarse virmuclite

Mixed with peat


I needed new media about the same time I saw the weed professor on YouTube and it sounded like a nice media, since I have a habit of overwatering, maybe it will help me. So far I think it has been forgiving and works well with a moisture meter.

Environment - indoors and out. Starting to get mid 50s at night, plants seem to mind me messing with them more than the cool nights so far and as long as that is the case the they will enjoy the moonlight. Daytime today was hot enough to knock over a 2 week and 1 month old plant and nearly one of my couple month old males as well. Sun coming up around 730, need to check again tomorrow.

For the indoor I just have a 3x2 ish old ass grow cabinet that I’ve hacked up a bit, but there are 3 hlg 100 v2’s in there (2 reds and a blue), and that’s what counts. I’m just running the blue one now will have them on sun rise/set when winter gets going, most likely on a 12/12 for my photoperiods,

Nutrients/watering - urban farm apples and oranges - I’ve never heard of them before, I was looking for a Organic 2-1-2 fert per the professor’s recommendation (He does not suggest organic or this company). Long story short I ended up with the following (not organic), nutes. I am liking the nutes so far and also so far, I am clearly the biggest thing getting in the way of happier plants. Currently at 5.5 ph or a little less and it’s coming out near 7ph, need to check again.

For the ec the bottle says 1.6 ec for seedlings and 2.2 for regular watering but I think that is to strong. I’m 1.2 ec minimum (for seedlings, not including tap ec), maybe 1.3 just always, like the professor says because 2.2 burned my plants in flower, that’s about 1.5 ec after tap contamination. I need to make sure to not let nute build up on seedlings, diluted ‘watering in’ and first several waterings after that, until watering with good run off.




Tap water - 250/350 ppm - 0.7 ec (?), need to double check. Don’t drink it. Pipes in this house almost blocked off with calcium (?), build up inside them/really old. using vitamin c and citric acid 50/50 to ph my nutrient solution and vitamin c only to ph my plain water for folier spray and dilution of nutrient solution for seedlings.


Picture from a day ago. Here is all these plants, still some possibilities for males, mostly autos, ranging from a few days to a month and a half or so. I can’t recall a month and a half ago but it doesn’t seem like it was easy on the plants. Slowly but surely I’m getting my act together here and some of them are starting to grow well.


Numbers are start dates (seed put in media, no soak or towels).

Left side is under dawg Kush, banana dance and my cross of cbd cure and double black, all photo periods and reg but banana is fem and all started 8-10 or so.

Right side is sweet seed’s red strawberry banana 8-30, my ez cheese x super hash 8-21 (haze?, need to double check), and a big tao 8-5 from top tao seeds, need to double check, I don’t think it’s that old.

In the middle is a purple lemonade from fast buds 9-18, recovering from being knocked down by the sun today and I thought I overwatered it a little today but it seems it may have wanted a little water.

I’m starting a new seed every 5 days about and here is the most recent - Super sonic cristal storm by samsara seeds. Watered in with half concentration nutes on 9-30 top 1.5 inch is fine virmuclite after that is standard mix. Kept at 78f they are popping and standing up in 3 days and less sometimes, no soaks or towels.



~notes to self - always check ph before watering.
- check runoff ph and ec (try and stay at 1.3), to ensure no nutrient build in soil, if not excessive runoff and correct outflow ph. Determine if 1.3 e.c. (Of nutes), is good, it if adjustments are needed.
- smaller plants in partial shade on clear, warm days. Not going to be much of an issue till next year.
- use less water when watering/check optimum soil moisture range according to moisture meter in relation to plant vigor and mark optimum range on moisture meter with pen for quick reference.

Wanted to get down the rest of them, didn’t finish last night and was correct about being incorrect on the big tao start dates, all big Taos were started ~9-1 - 9-5.



there is these after a day in the sun, no plants fell over today but I did move some to the shade when it looked like it was getting close. Cut off some older dead stuff, gonna give a light neem spray once the sun goes down because mites.



numbers are the day the seed was set in dirt to germinate

Top to bottom - Top tao’s auto blueberry 8-20 reg seed is female and starting to flower, Fast buds green crack auto 9-25 (spent day 2 knocked over, stem turned completely red, seems growing good now), Grape ox photo 8-10, Royal queen seeds stress killer cbd 9-15 (watered in with incorrect ph caused leafs to grow weirdly), Humboldt seeds bubba kush auto 9-21

some of my males

On the left is a reg photo lambo that got hot a couple days ago, wanted to see if it could fix itself.

Also got my ez cheese by super hash or haze, can’t recall but I’m gonna go back and look soon. I feel very lucky to get a male and female from my last two seeds of this. And also a big tao male to gather some pollen from.

~no watering anything today, yesterday or day before, though occasionally moisten the top soil with plain water so it doesn’t get so dry it flys away in the wind.
For the most part, so far, this medium seems to hydrate and dehydrate pretty evenly and that seems to be very helpful.

Wanted to update what’s been going on so I don’t forget.

nothing has been going on, watered grape ox with 50 ml of full 1.3 ec nutes at 5.5 ph. it was the driest pot, didn’t need water but I wanted to double check nute solution and make sure the plant responds well to it before watering everything with a bad mix. Been about a week for everything and no watering, lightly moisten top soil once a day

today




i am considering putting circle of plastic from old soil bags on top of medium to keep it from wanting to dry in the sun so quick.

edit: just noticed the lemonade has yellowing stater leaves. will get full strength nutes from now


Note: i believe after 0.65 ec nutes watering in, i will move straight to 1.3 ec waterings only. I belive that should be good and nice and easy to remeber since only adjustment is at first 150 ml watering in the seed. 5.5 ph still,

The circle of plastic will help retain moisture, it’s a good idea.
I never moisten the top of my medium. I let the pots get dry to the touch then I put nutes on until the point of saturation, then I put more nutes on until I get some nice runoff. Then I go away, no spraying or moistening until the pots get light again, then I put water on the same way; to saturation then get some runoff. Then go away…
They look healthy enough, but the 1.5 month ones should be bigger. Are you taking these inside and outside? Great way to bring bugs inside if you are. Are you using light inside? What’s up with these 4000 watt blurple ads in your posts? You a dealer?
That cardboard is another great way to lug bugs around.

Hi and thanks for taking the time and the ideas.

really the only reason I moisten the top is to help keep me from overwatering. I ~have a problem with overwatering and it gives me something to do that I believe the plants are not to offended by.

all of the ones that are very small for their age most the larger pots were transplanted bare roots from another medium that had a very fine virmiclite that I had overwatered and would not dry. Low on the nutes and bad ph as well, I don’t expect the autos that were a part of that to do much but around half of them are photos and starting to grow right again.

Im still working on getting basic stuff dialed in (watering amount/frequency probably most/ph/e.c.), new medium/nutes/etc, (and a 4x4 tent on the way). Kind of why I am starting a new seed every 5 days, I I can tweak stuff around from a fresh start and see what work best and so on.

I am very aware of bug likelihood. They are always outside but they stay away from really nice plants. If taking them back and fort doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work but I’m going to try my best to get it to work.

I know things look crappy now but just give me a minute.

not sure if the banner is still there, I tried to remove it in case it was huge. I could never see it. I only put it there because I though it was hilarious, it’s in the best deals thread on here for like 50 bucks , from Kmart or Walmart I’m pretty sure.

note: to self, stop leaving young plants in full sun.

OneMoreRip said:

I am very aware of bug likelihood. They are always outside but they stay away from really nice plants. If taking them back and fort doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work but I’m going to try my best to get it to work.

Click to expand...

That’s not the right way to think about bugs; they love plants, the nicer the better. I do not bring outside plants inside.
If these are your only plants then they can’t infect a clean inside crop and that’s the main reason not to bring them inside, but some insects can migrate off the plants and stay in your house, and then hop back on the plants.
At least ditch that cardboard, bugs live in the voids if they don’t want to stay at your plant hotel. Get a plastic tote for them.

Started 3 top tao golden canary seeds today 10-5. Hoping for at least 2 females, already have some pollen from this in the freezer and didn’t get a female from the first 2 seeds I grew. 2 in the standard mix and 1 in a Recipe 420, vermiculite 50/50 blend.

All were watered into dry medium (soli was 420 soil was moist), with 75 ml of full nutes and just now thinking maybe the soil one I should have just used water, plain water for its next watering or maybe 50/50. See how it looks compared to the others when the time comes.





Also started a few seeds of sunflower, Hopi sacred tobacco, kale, pepper and lemon balm.

no sign of the super sonic crystal storm yet so I put the top of the male royal purple next to it

got a different box and taped up the cracks on it. It’s not very photogenic

edit: my tent just left Tennessee

Get you some sips and say goodbye to watering issues. Search diy sips on here, tons of different styles, but they all basically work the same. Probably can repurpose things you already have

GrassBurner said:

Get you some sips and say goodbye to watering issues. Search diy sips on here, tons of different styles, but they all basically work the same. Probably can repurpose things you already have

Click to expand...

Will check that out for sure, thanks.

It feels like if I just never water, than they have enough water. I think if I water in a solo cup with 150ml when planting the seed, then keep the medium covered with plastic to retain moisture always, they won't want water for a month nearly (including germination time). That's what I have been doing but I want to try to not have the, medium so wet, so long.

This time, I will cover the medium, soon as they germ/get out of the humidity dome. Also only went with 75ml (1.3 ec), watering in seeds because I don't want them to be wet so long. 150ml, I don't cover the medium and they stay wet forever after an inch down. They plants seem fine with it but I think 75 will be closer to ideal. Should find out soon, interested to see.

Changing weather will play a role, pots will be drying even slower during outside winter and less time in the sun as well.

So I checked out the sips and I like that for sure, the only problem for me would be I don’t have materials to diy so many pots to use the sips method.

It did help remind me though that I wanted to look into wick feeding, using string. Apparently nutes that are water soluble travel through the string. Have lots of string and running some experiments now to see if it seems viable

string wraps around inside the pot a little bit. Already getting moisture in the pot, not even 20 minutes yet



Using ‘builders string’ nylon.

edit:

however ever long later, the pot is evenly saturated at what appears to be close to the maximum best ‘moisture’ level, according to my $5 moisture meter testing so far. Will check in the morning again to see if it over saturates the soil.

The smaller pot I changed around a bit, put the string in through the top and it is not getting a moisture reading yet. I thought I had a couple strings going it but as you can see in the photo, one of the strings is not in the water.

Also had just one string dangling by itself in the air to see the rate it would drip and it is really. Think it could be pretty awesome if it doesn’t over saturate.

Been messing around a bit today and mocked up a few different wick feeding setups.

Putting the tape on first kept the plastic from splitting where I punched the holes with a stick, pre primed the wicks for this set up but not all. This is my favorite set up (if it works), and this time I just wrapped the wicks around about 2” below the top soil.

Plastic tubes to keep the wick from having to deal with evaporation, 5 strings in here. I want to try 2 more like this, 1 with the wicks going down into the soil and another with the wicks coming in the bottom.

Also for the pictured version, next time consider just having pipes setting on top of pot, zip tie to hold in place, curve pipe ends down into soil 1”



firs pic bottom right, just dropped 2 wicks, from the res, into seedlings (green crack), pot. Would be cool if that works for me, couldn’t be more simple. Should try another with the wick coming in from the bottom instead and see the results of that as well.

Everything else is just different wick set ups, going into a res below. All just mock ups, seeing what workshop me and what doesn’t. If I find something I like, that works I will clean it up and make more of it.



(Moved the stilt under the starter leaves right after taking pic)



Also got my grow cabinet relocated for when the tent gets here, they will be sitting side by side and connected to each other.

was trying to get a dual or triple 24” t8 shop light to put some bulbs I have in but finding one and then at a reasonable price seems impossible. Gotta look around and make sure I don’t have any other lights. Kinda think I might still have a old (Alibaba retailer found amazon), led light I got off amazon nearly 10 years ago.

kale sprouted, nothing else yet.

sun is getting weaker and shorter, got the lights on ~12:12 now but not to flower any photos yet.

just looked in there (front left and right), I think the under dawg Kush looks fine to flower, could be a male and I got more and I don’t want big plants.

Looked again to take this pic, gonna put the grape ox in 12:12 as well, already looks like it wants to get tall, also potential male.



Strap on your seat belts, we’re growing dope now.

And kale front mid, little fabric plantable pot, just broke the surface. Your supposed to be able to plant the fabric pot but I will just trans plant

moving into new tent soon, cab will be for seedlings, germ, drying and storage maybe as well, also going to try and keep all electric connections possible in the cabinet as well.

Ordered some use specific watering cord 5mm, should be here in a few days and 1 strand of it will fit in the tubing I have with a little room to spare

In the mean time I did end up finding everything I would need for a lot of sips set up, here is my first prototype

next time I need to clean it up (better cuts mostly), slightly bigger res, but I do like it



I thought a fabric pot might work nice with this

edit: just finished a nearly final version, just need to cut a circle of plastic for the bottom so it’s more rigid.

pots used
Cut with hose inserted, will cut off excess and probably leave a half inch of the smaller pot sticking up to insure it stays in place. Everything stays together on its own now since tight cuts. Bottom half goes in plastic bag, to create the res



Will probably use top cut off from bigger pot to extend the fabric pot, using nylon string to stitch it in so it stays in place.


didn’t think I was gonna finish it up now but I did

There it is all done (minus top extension), wrapped in 2 layers white garbage bag, wicking pot and filler hose holds the res bag in place nicely (just hanging into the res a tad).

The white half circle on the left is and example of the bottom I cut to fit snugly, plastic.

Have clear plastic bags too and I hear they need cleanest plastic to make clear plastic. If that’s true and if that matters to me, I don’t know but I will be using clear from now on. Gonna wrap the hose filler hose in clear plastic from scraps I have, who know what will leach outta that thing.

Main concern is that the bottom holes in the wick pot are so low, usually I see them on the sides going up a little ways.

second is if the wick pot is to big, and it causes overly moist medium. Gonna set it up an let it sit for a while to see what it does before making more.

Golden canarys all popped yesterday and today and the crystal storm just today finally (10 days to break the surface), with a bad case of helmet head.

also mocking up a self watering (by wick/string), set up for seedlings. Probably move it over to a cardboard box because the plastic just goes bad with sunlight, but the seedling are in the shade, so they may stay in here. Mason jar for res in the middle for the time being.



Also my watering string got here and I set this up. Just drilled 3/8” holes close to the bottoms of the pots, on the side. Pushed the string through the hole, all the way across the bottom, trying to be nice to roots, if possible. really hope this works because it’s nice and simple.




Have some tubing coming that will keep the wicks from drying out on the way to the res, also keep algae from growing and a pice of black plastic to cover the res.

watered most plants today, pots were light and some looked unhappy

wonder if I can use one of my auto pot bases for a a res that fills automatically. That would be pretty awesome

Started a new seed today, one I made over the summer purple kush x bloody skunk, hopefully it’s a she because I don’t really care for a male of this right now.

Also my Hopi tobacco popped, just one of 3 or so planted. The seeds for these is about the size of a grain of sand. The seedling is not much bigger




Golden canarys, I believe they would have been happier with more water when sowing (used 75ml), the got some water today. Kale in the other pot doing nice.



Super sonic crystal storm really bad helmet head, been misting it 2 days almost now, gonna try and get it off myself now but I don’t have a great feeling about it.

Here is everything, looking pretty trashy at the moment but believe it or not, it’s looking much better than yesterday. Badly underwatered.



think I’m getting most of the problems under control now.

I just run the one light over the plants in flower, still waiting on my tent before resetting up exhaust and timers etc,

just a reminder to myself that I can grow this stuff. Picture from a journal of mine a couple/ few years ago.


can’t wait to see that again. Appears I wasn’t under watering back then

Living true to my journals name

Everything is hammered, lol.

dumbass...

Just flushed plain water yesterday, and they liked it for sure but need more time. Hopefully they should look okay in a week or so.

I think I’m actually starting to pull my head outta my ass a little bit. Going to 700 ppm (1.0 ec(?)), will double check but that’s where I was doing great ( by my standards), in the past with dynagro.

I believe lack of watering and bad watering practices (not enough runoff), have made my medium to nutrient dense. Lower ec and better runoff should fix that, I’m ~ gonna go with both but still want to try and get my automated bottom feeding via string hooked up and auto pot base + res.

sorry you guys had to see that, it’s been a while and I forget everything in the blink of an eye sometimes.


onto some better news, got some new stuff today



New (badass), 400 watt (405, when I tested mine), light ($100 in ‘best deals thread’, retail ~$350) for the new 4x4 tent (with more windows and doors than one imagine)!


Also new light in first pic bloomspect 100 watt dimmable, paid full price ($30), only pulling 80 watts when I checked it but not fully warm, don’t think she had 20watts more to go though lol I’m just planing on using mine for seedlings and young plants, maybe males to drop some pollen if it’s safe. originally looking for 40 or 50 watts



Still trying to figure out how I want to set everything up, when I connect the cabinet to the tent.

lastly, finally got a decent amount of pollen from my cheese x hash, been to windy so it’s always gone. Put this on just before the sun got on him and checked back an hour later. Success!



Pretty sure that’s all for now.

Supersonic crystal storm is a goner, can’t blame seed, pretty sure I mess it up

The other one disappeared, in the wind or damp off. Soon I will have my dome under the light too and these should be much easier. Outside the wind is drying out the topsoil pretty quickly. I put a ziplock over it but the wind pulled it off a few times now.

The roots of a piss poor, you couldn't make worse SIP, they're fantastically simple and reliable, close to zero maintenance with good results.

Got some of the tent set up, and other stuff moved around in the cabinet.
Used some random plastic shelving laying around and some lids from some containers that are missing. Thinking I had to put the res in the tent, I did, unwantingly(?).

few minutes later I realized I could put it in the bottom of the cabinet (storage area), and run a hose over. Should be great, when it is.


Here is the cabinet in the middle of setting stuff and cleaning and taking a puff and trying to recall what I was doing. Hoping to get most of the electrical stuff outta here other than the monitoring equipment. Will be germ/seedlings/~veg/auto males, so okay to open doors any time.

made a nicer version of this since it seemed to work very well on the one solo cup sized pot I tested before. The box is to small though. I may just make custom box outta my updayday hps4000 box.



Banking on the under dawg Kush to be a female and setting the timer on the dayday to 12/12 now (2nd time I’ve said that past week and a half), cuz I’m want to smok soon.

Must have been heavy on the occasions I hit them with the worst waterings and was fortunate enough to miss out on them.

currently the only plant on the autopot diet, see first pic, under dawg right over autopot, center of light.

foam on the floor to help legs stay in place and to elevate legs, to level the shelves.



Gotta do the ventilation but waiting for a fan, should be here Saturday. Need to make an ‘escape for the air panel’, for my window that looks clean from the outside and hopefully doesn’t let much cold in. The left side of the tent is against a window, actually perfect location I think.

not gonna say the light schedule in the cabinet, I’d get banned from rui

you may be glad to hear we’re only trying to feed one mouth here

So turns out... haha, my ph pen was not reading true and by a fair amount. I just got a new one and got my blue lab one working again, calibrated both yesterday before mixing up fresh nutes maybe 500 ppm until no more fucked up plants, then proceed from there. I think I was around 4 ph or so, give or take.



got the timer in the 4x4 on 12/12 and it will stay that way.

all the messed up plants seem to benefit from the 12/12, even over the first night of it. They all also nice flush with proper ph water for the first time and would guess that will also help them, not crumble away.

Pulling two worst leaves off each plant a day now, till we can be done looking at that.

the 2 golden cannarys in peat vermiculite are a little burned and the one in the 420 soil is looking good. Got the res with only water till the bad 2 get to same medium ec as the other.

bloody skunk x purple kush popped looks nice. Can’t see it really here, left side of box

Got all of the electrical out of the cabinet, probably make it nice and hook up fans tomorrow and the window exhaust panel.

and need to start a seed or 2.

just got 2 soil ec pens in the mail and they are actually pretty cool and help to tell the story behind my burnt seedlings, the ec in the bad ones is double that of the good one. I forgot the exact numbers so need to double check and check the ph as well now that I got my blue lab pen working.

unfortunately I flushed all the bigger plants yesterday so didn’t get a reading on what they were at ph and ec wise to cause the things that are going on with them. My flush appears to be really good in terms of cleaning the soil all pots were below .2 ec after or below iirc




good ec



Not good ec



Could be something else, but I believe the ec is causing the browning on the two, giving plain water till they match ec, with the one with no browning.

Flushed everything after checking ph and ec of everything. The only thing that stood out was the ph, ec seems kinda low but to be expected after the flush the other day.


today’s flush was with 700 ppm nutes, including the 300 ppm tap, so, just 400 ppm from the bottle. Ph was left way high or low in order to sway the ph in the pot to 5.5-6.5. Will check again tomorrow night to see how the ph held. Used about half a gallon to flush each pot.

just checked a few pots and ec from 0.5 to 1.0. Kind of interesting. I think that should be pretty okay though.

written down is the starting ph and ec, before ph adjustment flush. Also my assessment on how the plant looks compared to yesterday, better or worse

Made the exhaust window panel, I believe it should work well, need to wait for stuff to dry and put it in tomorrow. Upside down in pic. Need to get in in humidity in tent get a little up there, shouldn’t be anything to worry about though

Unfortunately it does not seem that my wicking setup is feed well, but I could be wrong, though I have a feeling the autopot bases need to be higher, I just hope it’s not so high I need to rethink the res placement to much. Also the tubing I got is a little snugger than I was hoping for, might be slowing the wicking action. I should do more testing. It works good for the thinner cord



Started some more non cannabis seeds and now to see what weed seeds I will start now

might work on the intake now

wettest seedling ever, still looks good 3-4 days old



Bottom feed so much the topsoil is wet, always. Gonna have to put that in my overwatering pipe and smoke on it for a minute




photo for comparison tomorrow night

Got a bit done today,

window panel, everything on the interior goes uphill, so I think that be okay on water tightness. Just want to put a piece of weather stripping on the right hand side where the window butts up to it. Should be fine for at least a couple winter grows.

Got the fans and filters set up



Intake is low in cab with furnace style filter and goes from there through the top of the cab into the top of the tent.



Goes along top right of the tent into carbon filter so nice and clean in flower room.

outtake is on the back wall then to the left wall exhausting out the window.

I put them up high for space reasons and because I will not be having any temp or humidity issues I am pretty sure.

still need to optimize a few spots (corners), for more free air movement in the ducting. But fine for now, just gonna leave them set on 2 or 3




been working on my auto feed setup as well, set the res on a autopot pot and same with the feeder trays. Shorter wick, less up hill, pretty sure feed is dialed in now.

hopefully good to go now, outta the weeds. Plants look a tad better and it looks like the dying plant material is slowing if not stopped.

Gonna let them go for a bit now.

Started these 2 today.

By sweet Sensi seeds I’m pretty sure. Both claim 7 weeks, they are their ‘fast version’ of autos.

just remembered I wanted to pollinate my blueberry at least, gonna do that now before I forget again.

just did that, she got some golden canary, cheese x super haze and royal purple. Probably 5 seeds about per pollination location. Not a whole lotta hairs there but it would have been perfect time just before she got messed up and I can’t wait any longer.

red strawberry banana will be ready for pollen in the next week as well.