New Grower First grow - FastBuds Stardawg

[Manbearpig]

Day 15 for Stardawg, day 11 for Banner.

I moved both plants out from the florescent seedling light and under the 400w ballast and reflector. Temp ranges are in the seventies and the Rh is in the lower twenties, a bit low.

I am using a MH bulb with the ballast dimmed to the 150w setting. It's a lot louder than I thought it would be and sort of annoying, but not more noticeable than a window unit air conditioner. My phone camera has a hard time taking pics under the new light even when the sun is out. The light seems mostly normal to the eye; it's blue and murky in pics.

It's hard to convey with a picture how much bigger Stardawg is. It's about 4" tall or a bit larger, with Banner at 2", and in terms of vegetative growth is easily four times Banner's size. 4" at two weeks still makes me feel like I'm screwing something up, but leaves seem healthy so I guess we'll see.

I'm about to make an infirmary post about poor Bruce.

Light setup and plants with interloper

 

[Manbearpig]

I'm overdue for an update. Pics are at day 20 and 21 from sprout for Stardawg, with Banner 3-4 days behind.

I worked hard to get the humidity up and stable over the weekend. It's one disadvantage of growing in an open space: controlling humidity is a lot tougher and required, at least for me, purchasing a cool mist room humidifier. It's not as effective as the classic heat humidifier, I think, but it doesn't raise my canopy temps.

The plants responded well and their leaves seem more supple. Banner is still smaller than a Bic lighter at almost three weeks but leaves and nodes are at least growing.

When I'm gone in the afternoon and the sun is out, I take them out from under the HID to place them in a sunbeam. Banner especially seems to love this.

Yesterday, at day 21, I made the decision to top Stardawg at the fourth node. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Pic of carnage enclosed.

The fancy, expensive soil I'm using was supposed to make these plants shoot up like rockets according to the guy at the hydro store (yeah, I know). Since I've got a lot of space under my light still, I'm soaking a Barney's Farm Glue Gelato promo seed and germinating it in some shitty old used potting soil with a bit of the fancy stuff mixed in as an experiment. (Thanks again, @George Seeds, for all the promos you do.) Might give me an indicator of whether the fortified soil is too hot for my little autos at 100 strength.

I'll start supplementing with half strength Calmag at next watering.

First three are the setup and plants at day 20, last are topping Stardawg at 21 and the tiny but progressing Banner canopy.

 

[Manbearpig]

Just realized I can actually tag the breeder here.

@Fast Buds your Stardawg is doing well in the face of some Rh difficulties in the first two and a half weeks and possibly too-hot soil. I'd recommend it for other totally new folks because this little plant is keeping my hopes up.

 

[The Vault]

Just realized I can actually tag the breeder here.

@Fast Buds your Stardawg is doing well in the face of some Rh difficulties in the first two and a half weeks and possibly too-hot soil. I'd recommend it for other totally new folks because this little plant is keeping my hopes up.

Had myself a wee taste of the Stardawg last nite.....very good!

 

[Manbearpig]

Stardawg keeps going and going, not stressed at all after being topped. This pic taken a couple of days later.

It's day 20 now for Banner and I have to conclude the soil was too strong for young Bruce. I can change my methods moving forward

but I think it's safe to stop expecting a Hulk Out.

 

[Manbearpig]

There's been quite a bit of drama since last week's post.

Last week, I switched out the MH bulb at the 150w ballast setting for an HPS at 250. The Banner shot up quickly, though it's still small. Stardawg reacted well, too, at first.

My humidity problems quickly came back. Moving the light the greater distance away, combined with the additional heat, was no match for the humidifier in the open room. I could barely keep it above thirty even assuming it directly at the light and plants. The whole place is full of wet towels and awkward dishes of water on radiators. Still nope, and the plants started to look a bit crunchy.

Stardawg also showed signs of what I thought had to be insect damage: parts of leaves found eaten away each morning. I dusted with more diatomaceous earth and no luck.

On top of all that, Stardawg is just beginning to flower so this was a bad time to start encountering problems and changing things up.

I moved the plants to a roughly 1 x 1 closet space. The humidifier is in with them and rh is above fifty again. And now I'm beginning to realize that you either have humidity issues or heat issues in an apartment like mine with HID. Low eighties is the best I can do in this new setup, with some frequent airings out, and I've been able to keep things below 85.

The plant damage culprit turned out to be my cat. I tied Stardawg's branches up today and noticed that it has finally begun to give off a lovely smell. Sadly, kitty thinks so, too. I've barricaded the closet. If I leave the door a crack, he'll squeeze his body in and wreak havoc. He's lucky I'm a pacifist.

You'll see some leaf damage in the photo due to poor feline conduct, as well as some suspicious white on some fan leaves. That's the de. Stems had just been tied. Humidity levels also likely had an impact, but at least I got that fixed before flower.

I will admit it was pretty damned demoralizing moving my nice open grow into a hot, unpleasant and tight closet at first. It took some joy out of the process and watering and monitoring the plants can be a real pain in the ass. I think I've recovered from the disappointment and I'm pressing on.

 

[Manbearpig]

Not going to lie, this past week has been pretty demoralizing. The problems have just kept on coming since I switched the dimmer up to 250w.

The closet either has temp issues, humidity issues, or both at all times. Venting the hot air enough drops the humidity too much. I have a small to medium room humidifier in a tiny 1x1 closet at full blast and it isn't doing much unless I close off the space completely. So I bought the bullet and ordered another large room humidifier for fifty that arrives today.

My soil was at the point where it was about done feeding, so some nitrogen and what looked like call mag deficiencies started to show. I figured the plants just needed nutes and responded by feeding but . . . papery leaves, tips pointed up, no amount of humidity improves plant texture. So, eventually the obvious occurred to me.

So, fuck, it's heat stress. Anyone reading probably already knew that. It's all over Stardawg.

Banner is still making new leaves and has time to recover. Stardawg really doesn't, so I guess it's just damage control from here and hope that it can still stretch enough for its lower bud sites not to be sitting on top of each other.

I took them out of the closet and have them back in the sunlit room without the HPS on yet. Locked the murderous cat in my bedroom. I'll have to figure out what to do about him.

 

[420Forever]

Not going to lie, this past week has been pretty demoralizing. The problems have just kept on coming since I switched the dimmer up to 250w.

The closet either has temp issues, humidity issues, or both at all times. Venting the hot air enough drops the humidity too much. I have a small to medium room humidifier in a tiny 1x1 closet at full blast and it isn't doing much unless I close off the space completely. So I bought the bullet and ordered another large room humidifier for fifty that arrives today.

My soil was at the point where it was about done feeding, so some nitrogen and what looked like call mag deficiencies started to show. I figured the plants just needed nutes and responded by feeding but . . . papery leaves, tips pointed up, no amount of humidity improves plant texture. So, eventually the obvious occurred to me.

So, fuck, it's heat stress. Anyone reading probably already knew that. It's all over Stardawg.

Banner is still making new leaves and has time to recover. Stardawg really doesn't, so I guess it's just damage control from here and hope that it can still stretch enough for its lower bud sites not to be sitting on top of each other.

I took them out of the closet and have them back in the sunlit room without the HPS on yet. Locked the murderous cat in my bedroom. I'll have to figure out what to do about him.

meow me thinkz one answer is obvious, and that'z to switch from the hid lighting to led, so as to better control ur environment ppp