AndyBotwin
Weed Whisperer
Hi fellow AFNers,
Time for another grow journal here at AFN, just over two years since my previous one. I had some major disruptions in my life that caused me to stop growing for a while, so other than working with a friend of mine on his crop, I have been shut down for far too long. Those of you who were around in the old days will see that I've rebuilt things very similar to how I had it before:
4'x2' LED Wholesalers tent (see review here: https://www.autoflower.org/f25/quick-photo-review-$82-led-wholesalers-tent-2748.html)
Hydrofarm 4', 6 bulb T5 fixture with 324w
190 cfm inline fan and carbon filter w/passive intake
I have had good success with T5s in the past and hope to get 1-3oz per plant with this setup. Due to lack of space, I keep the lights down tight on the plants (within a couple of inches) and use smaller pots so I don't outgrow the tent. Speaking of pots, this time I am using EZ Root pots on the recommendation of my buddy briman: http://growershouse.com/hydroponics-brands/ez-roots. These are perfect for me because I don't like the mess of airpots, and smartpots or other cloth bags aren't ideal because I need to remove my plants from the tent to properly tend to them. These give me the stability of hard sided pots with the root growth of cloth bags. They're working out great so far.
As for my medium, I am using Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 for the first time. This is a peat mix with coco and plenty of perlite, so I have added nothing to it. I plan on running it with soil pH unless the plants tell me otherwise. It's got myco added and I also used some Great White when planting my seedlings. I will again be using General Organics nutrients, but this time I have the entire box set. There are no amendments to the #4 so I'll be starting light feeding early in week two. GO states that pH does not need to be adjusted with organic grows, but I have been burned too many times to not keep up with it. So I'll be using Earth Juice organic pH up and down as needed. Fortunately the pH of the medium is showing low to mid 6s right from the start, so it should be fairly easy to keep it there.
On the the most important thing - the plants! Here is the lineup for this grow:
Buddha Seeds Magnum
DP Think Different
DP White Widow
Flash Cobra
WOS Sweet Mango Ryder
All of these are in 2 gallon pots except the Magnum, which is in a 3 gallon pot. Some of these strains can get pretty large, so worst case scenario I can pull one out and put it in my garden if things get too overgrown. Hopefully the smaller pots will keep that from happening. I grow for myself only & share a bit with family and friends, so I'm not looking for maximum yields here. I simply want to add a nice variety of sativa and indica strains to my stash, and these strains should fit the bill.
As a little extra treat, I also have two Magic Dragons and one Duurty Dragon sprouted and those are bound for the garden if they end up female. I'll include them here for now and start another thread in Outdoor when the time comes. These are old school dragons sent to me by Mossy years ago, and they germed and sprouted just fine. One of the Magic Dragons is actually the biggest plant in the tent despite being a couple of days behind the others.
The final thing to discuss is my grow space. I'm in a new house now but will be growing in a similar unfinished basement space. I have no climate control there, so sometimes I have to get creative to keep temps and humidity in range. We're suffering through the winter that won't end here, so I have had my warm mist humidifier in the tent cranking along full blast along with 24/7 lights, and that has barely kept conditions where I need them. Temps have been in the 60s and 70s, with humidity around 50%. The cold temps have caused some slow growth with the seedlings, but otherwise they are healthy. You'll see in the pic below that everything is crammed into the left side of the tent. I had things more spread out before and found that the WW and Cobra just weren't growing much at all. Turns out that I had a cold spot on the right where the intake was, and it was impeding growth. So I rearranged things and got the plants away from the colder air coming in, and things are going better now. Looks like more snow and cold temps are on tap for next week, so I hope to hell that it's the last of the winter weather.
I guess that's enough background for now, on to the pics. Nothing too exciting, but I like to take photos at least once a week for my records. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to say all these plants are day 5.
Tent setup:
Magnum:
TD:
WW:
Cobra:
SMR:
DD:
MD1:
MD2:
Thanks to everyone for following along. It's good to be back!!! "AFN smoke out"
Time for another grow journal here at AFN, just over two years since my previous one. I had some major disruptions in my life that caused me to stop growing for a while, so other than working with a friend of mine on his crop, I have been shut down for far too long. Those of you who were around in the old days will see that I've rebuilt things very similar to how I had it before:
4'x2' LED Wholesalers tent (see review here: https://www.autoflower.org/f25/quick-photo-review-$82-led-wholesalers-tent-2748.html)
Hydrofarm 4', 6 bulb T5 fixture with 324w
190 cfm inline fan and carbon filter w/passive intake
I have had good success with T5s in the past and hope to get 1-3oz per plant with this setup. Due to lack of space, I keep the lights down tight on the plants (within a couple of inches) and use smaller pots so I don't outgrow the tent. Speaking of pots, this time I am using EZ Root pots on the recommendation of my buddy briman: http://growershouse.com/hydroponics-brands/ez-roots. These are perfect for me because I don't like the mess of airpots, and smartpots or other cloth bags aren't ideal because I need to remove my plants from the tent to properly tend to them. These give me the stability of hard sided pots with the root growth of cloth bags. They're working out great so far.
As for my medium, I am using Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 for the first time. This is a peat mix with coco and plenty of perlite, so I have added nothing to it. I plan on running it with soil pH unless the plants tell me otherwise. It's got myco added and I also used some Great White when planting my seedlings. I will again be using General Organics nutrients, but this time I have the entire box set. There are no amendments to the #4 so I'll be starting light feeding early in week two. GO states that pH does not need to be adjusted with organic grows, but I have been burned too many times to not keep up with it. So I'll be using Earth Juice organic pH up and down as needed. Fortunately the pH of the medium is showing low to mid 6s right from the start, so it should be fairly easy to keep it there.
On the the most important thing - the plants! Here is the lineup for this grow:
Buddha Seeds Magnum
DP Think Different
DP White Widow
Flash Cobra
WOS Sweet Mango Ryder
All of these are in 2 gallon pots except the Magnum, which is in a 3 gallon pot. Some of these strains can get pretty large, so worst case scenario I can pull one out and put it in my garden if things get too overgrown. Hopefully the smaller pots will keep that from happening. I grow for myself only & share a bit with family and friends, so I'm not looking for maximum yields here. I simply want to add a nice variety of sativa and indica strains to my stash, and these strains should fit the bill.
As a little extra treat, I also have two Magic Dragons and one Duurty Dragon sprouted and those are bound for the garden if they end up female. I'll include them here for now and start another thread in Outdoor when the time comes. These are old school dragons sent to me by Mossy years ago, and they germed and sprouted just fine. One of the Magic Dragons is actually the biggest plant in the tent despite being a couple of days behind the others.
The final thing to discuss is my grow space. I'm in a new house now but will be growing in a similar unfinished basement space. I have no climate control there, so sometimes I have to get creative to keep temps and humidity in range. We're suffering through the winter that won't end here, so I have had my warm mist humidifier in the tent cranking along full blast along with 24/7 lights, and that has barely kept conditions where I need them. Temps have been in the 60s and 70s, with humidity around 50%. The cold temps have caused some slow growth with the seedlings, but otherwise they are healthy. You'll see in the pic below that everything is crammed into the left side of the tent. I had things more spread out before and found that the WW and Cobra just weren't growing much at all. Turns out that I had a cold spot on the right where the intake was, and it was impeding growth. So I rearranged things and got the plants away from the colder air coming in, and things are going better now. Looks like more snow and cold temps are on tap for next week, so I hope to hell that it's the last of the winter weather.
I guess that's enough background for now, on to the pics. Nothing too exciting, but I like to take photos at least once a week for my records. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to say all these plants are day 5.
Tent setup:
Magnum:
TD:
WW:
Cobra:
SMR:
DD:
MD1:
MD2:
Thanks to everyone for following along. It's good to be back!!! "AFN smoke out"
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:Sharing One:"Munch..munch..munch
