Sp4z, Spaz: GG #4 First Time Grower

[sp4z205]

Little photo dump and update.

So I made a mistake, sort of.

I made a mistake according to my goal but not a mistake according to the plant, I even learned something in the process.

I learned I must do things at their timeline and not mine, here's how.

My goal was to do the same thing to each plant at the same time (my timeline). I topped each of the girls at the same time 5 days ago and 2 of them were topped properly and 2 were FIM. I couldn't understand how/why since I did them all the same time and cut at the same level. Well... the 2 FIM were slightly less mature and by cutting them earlier (their timeline) I didn't catch as much growth and didn't break the apex. If I had waited 6-10 hours to cut the other two, it would have been a proper top.

They are obviously fine and it truly wasn't a bad mistake but it was a great chance for me to learn an incredibly important aspect of this hobby.

ON TO THE PICS!!

I then put in some work on them and it was scary but I feel it'll be rewarding in the end.

Thank you for reading!

 

[sp4z205]

Bonus update.

after doing the pruning I thought it was a good opportunity to update the LST and spread them out a little bit.

 

[sp4z205]

Lost power last night 3 hours after they woke up...... power was out from 8pm-2am
After calling around and finding out no one I knew had a generator I ran to lowes (couldn't afford a generator) and bought 2 LEDs to hang above them that had 500 lumens each. Got the lights hanging above them at 10pm.

I was trying to trick them into not going completely into sleep cycle.

Power came back on after 4 hours at 2am and I got everything back up and running.

Question now: Should I leave them on 24h of light for a day because they are due to go back to sleep in abouit 3 hours for the normal 18-6

Sorry just w3oke up and havent had coffee y et, I'll be replying and posting mroe info asap.

 

[sp4z205]

They look fine - temps stayed ~75 during that time, humidity skyrocketed to 89% due to no ventilation but as soon as power came back on humidity stabilized back down to 50-60.

I think I'll keep them on 24hrs of light for today and put them back to 18-6 tomorrow at 11am.

 

[sp4z205]

 

[sp4z205]

I have a weird timeline and need to chop between Oct 24th and Nov 4th - Going with 9 weeks of bloom that means I'll be flipping them sometime next week (maybe August 22/23 at the latest). If my timeline averages are correct.... I've been reading through a lot of journals and other folks experience with GG.

 

[sp4z205]

They are looking very healthy and happy, I updated the LST a little bit to spread them out. Trying to keep them nice and flat as they grow.

I wasn't planning to do another prune until they hit the net and then I'll take off some of the extra fan leaves that are blocking. When they hit the net is when I'll be flipping to 12/12 and I'll continue to train them through the net until pistils start to show, maybe even a little longer after that depending on how things look.

I have a feeling they'll be filling this 4x4 up quick.

I'm already planning on what to do with a 4x8 next. This hobby is fun!

Feedback and advice always welcome and thanks for taking a look!

 

[sp4z205]

Noticed there were a few leaves on the back left girl that had what appeared to be nutrient burn

I'm also seeing some slight color variation between leaf sets on the plants.

I have not changed the rez since they've been on this feed strength - only topping it off w/ 5 gallons when needed and adding 5g equivalent nute levels. then testing my pH and EC. pH ranges from 5.9-6.2 and EC is at 1.6-1.7

Environment stays between 75-82 RH between 50-60

Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated!

 

[sp4z205]

I also noticed that it looked like a couple of leaves were trying to turn upside down, I recalled this is light stress induced and I checked the height of my LED and realized I hadn't adjusted since they were like 6" shorter. I raised the Light by ~ 8-10" and I'll take a look at them later tonight, lights will be going off for them in about 45mins so they won't have much time to adjust to the new light height.

 

[sp4z205]

Discoloration is basically gone and they are much happier.

I didn't realize I hadn't raised my lights since they were 6" shorter and they were just getting absolutely slammed with light (found out our nice handy smart phones have lux meters built into them which are very accurate)

Now they are sitting under ~800micro mole and ~52DLI

Also realized my humidity was dropping to low..... 50s almost 45, during their day between 5pm-11am, (I forgot to check my max/min)

Bought a little humidifier and have that runnign during their day to keep humidity @ 60% when lights are on.

sooooooooo many things to learn..... holy shit I'm in love with this hobby.

 

[sp4z205]

Happy 5 week birthday to them lol


Learned another thing about the autopot system - yeah the reservoir pH may be one thing but the pH in each pot will be a little different because it slowly feeds into them.

Reservoir was 6.0-6.2 but each pot was reading 6.4-6.6

I dropped reservoir to 5.7 and did a little drain from the bottom of each pot and bled the line to get fresh water from the reservoir everywhere.

can't wait to do a RDWC for my next build..... get that water cycling 24/7 so there's never an imbalance like that again....

Thanks for taking a look!

 

[sp4z205]

Photo dump and update

I made a thing - I didn't like how the scrog was only supported in the corners so I went to my local hardware store and built a PVC support for ~$25.

Each pot is @ ~5.9 pH --- Rez is at 5.4 (autopot is super easy to use but the different pH is a balancing game)
DLI @ ~35
PPFD @ ~550
RH @ ~55%-60%
VPD staying @ ~.9-1.1


Friday 8/20 (evening)

Saturday 8/21 (evening) - built the thing

Sunday 8/22 (evening)

Monday 8/23 (morning) - I was trying to tell sex and these look like the start of female preflowers! I think I'll be flipping in the next day or two

Flipping soon!!

Thank you for reading!

 

[sp4z205]

Changed time schedule today and they went to sleep at 8am not to wake up again until 8pm.

Changed rez and adjusted nutes.
EC - 1.5
pH - 6.8
Upped light intensity too 100% so DLI should remain the same (I'll be measuring that tonight when they wake up)

The lady on the bottom right in the pictures looks a little unhappy but I believe it was because I had my hum in tent and it was wayyyy to close to her.

Hum has since been moved outside next to a vent to allow almost all of it to flow into the tent.

I'll be paying close attention in the following days and weaving through the trellis for probably a week based on my readings.

These are very exciting times, thank you for reading!

 

[sp4z205]

Didn't realize I had a typo on my last post. Rez pH was 5.8 not 6.8 (that would have been wayyy to high)

I saw something that prompted a rez and nutrient change (last 2 pics)

We are on day one of flower!

EC is at 1.4 - added the koolbloom to the mix!!

pH is 5.7

I changed things up and the girl who was angry isn't anymore

I'll be clearing away lower growth in the next 2 days or so I think.

(8/30)

(9/1)

(9/3)

(9/5)

 

[GrowTek]

I'm enjoying watching the progress! I'm curious, you mention cocoforcannabis several times. That site advocates for runoff after every fertigation when growing in coco. Autopots can't obviously produce runoff. Do you use the Autopots just for convenience, or have you experimented and found that runoff really isn't that important?

 

[sp4z205]

I'm enjoying watching the progress! I'm curious, you mention cocoforcannabis several times. That site advocates for runoff after every fertigation when growing in coco. Autopots can't obviously produce runoff. Do you use the Autopots just for convenience, or have you experimented and found that runoff really isn't that important?

Good question!

I do not have enough personal experience to speak to that. It makes sense that you would want to go to runoff after every fertigation. I have been doing a full rez change when I have been changing nute levels and I've been bleeding the lines so the next time the autopot fills it's flooding the base with the new nutes.

I haven't done anything from the top since a week after the transplant out of the cups, I've been careful about checking and maintaining pH and EC.

I'm not sure but I believe cocofocannabis is all about making your own coco/perlite from scratch, I was lazy and bought mother earth mix which is prewashed and buffered.

 

[GrowTek]

Good question!

I do not have enough personal experience to speak to that. It makes sense that you would want to go to runoff after every fertigation. I have been doing a full rez change when I have been changing nute levels and I've been bleeding the lines so the next time the autopot fills it's flooding the base with the new nutes.

I haven't done anything from the top since a week after the transplant out of the cups, I've been careful about checking and maintaining pH and EC.

I'm not sure but I believe cocofocannabis is all about making your own coco/perlite from scratch, I was lazy and bought mother earth mix which is prewashed and buffered.

I don't blame you for buying prewashed and buffered coco. I've rehydrated brick coco and rinsed and soaked it like they prescribe on cocoforcannabis. It is quite a bit of extra work!

 

[sp4z205]

Things are progressing smoothly - they look gorgeous and I want to fiddle and play with things but I need be a gentleman and keep my hands off!!

 

[bluter]

I'm enjoying watching the progress! I'm curious, you mention cocoforcannabis several times. That site advocates for runoff after every fertigation when growing in coco. Autopots can't obviously produce runoff. Do you use the Autopots just for convenience, or have you experimented and found that runoff really isn't that important?

auto pots run similar to a hempy, with the main difference being the res automatically fills. there is no run off as the res remains at a near constant level at each bucket site.

 

[sp4z205]

Reduced humidity in the environment today to 55-50 from 60-55 (night to day)
Temps are 73-81 (night to day)
DLI is right around 43
VPD is between .9-1.3
EC is at 1.6
pH is at 6.0 in the pots and 5.7 in the rez

I have lots of airflow so I haven't done any trimming really and unless I see some heavy guttation later, I don't think I will.

The bottom right one was the girl that was angry for a few weeks because of a bonehead mistake on my part.

She has made a huge bounce back and is almost the tallest and best looking one now (maybe some stress is good??), we'll see what happens at yield.