New Grower First grow: the good, the bad & the ugly.

[4mac]

Hi all. This is my first grow.

Time for the good, the bad and the ugly.

DIY 3'x2'x5' tent.
1.5" PVC frame w/ Panda Film. Liberal amounts of duct tape.

- Mars Hydro 48
- HLG 100

- Variable speed 4" inline fan/carbon filter located outside of tent.
- Cool mist humidifier - 50% to 60% RH
- Small space heater - temps average high 70's low 80's F during light cycle and low 70's lights out.
- 2" foam board insulation on floor of tent. Unheated garage grow with current nighttime temps well below freezing.
- 6" fan.

- Purified (RO) water.
- three nutrient lineup.
- GH Rapid start.
- pH 6.3-6.8 plain water and feed.
*Cheese auto: concentration of nutrients, 1/4 strength.
*CBD Crack: pH RO water with Rapid Start and CalMag.

- Growers Choice auto Cheese.
- Fastbuds CBD Crack.

- Soil: essentially equal parts OF, HF and coco (I washed it). Tossed in what was left of a bag of large perlite. Made a central "core" of 1/3 Happy Frog, 1/3 coco and 1/3 perlite to sew germinated seeds - with the mantra "Fox Farm Ocean Forest is too hot" ringing in my ears.
- Three gallon fabric pots.

First up: The Stunted Cheese auto (Growers Choice). 1) A victim of both under and over watering. 2) Discovered what I believed to be a calcium and/or magnesium deficiency early on (fixed). 3) Too close to the light (leaf serrations pulling up towards light). 4) First weeks on 24 hr light schedule. Now at 20/4. 5) Defoliation of larger fan leaves that were blocking light. I would prefer to simply tuck the offending fan leaves but didn't have much of a choice in some cases. 6) I was screwing around with the plants too much. 7) My thought to do some "mild" LST turned fairly aggressive. I'm sure the list would be longer if I were smart enough to identify what I did or didn't do. That will come in time. So she's been stressed out from multiple angles. Noob mistakes.

Second up: CBD Crack. The beneficiary of my time spent down on Struggle Street whilst I was trying to smoke check The Cheese. Saw some of the same leaf serration lifting and moved the Mars light to 24" from 20". Much better now. Overall, definitely growing better than its tent mate at the same stage.

Thanks for the venue to get this all down. Hoping to provide a good news update soon.



Cheese day 30


Cheese Day 17


Cheese day 34

CBD Crack day 15

 

[Time]

Subbed up for the CBD Crack. I want to grow that next.

 

[Deleted Grower A]

Nice setup! Also interested in the cbd crack.

For the watering wait till there nice and dry top of the soil dry and lighter colored and dry about an inch or so down then pick up the pots and notice how much they weigh dry then you will know just by lifting when they need more.

Also half to watch how much water you use while watering, for the 3 gallons I use them too and at the stage yours are at would use probably no more than a half gallon probably less but when they get bigger can use almost a gallon depends on humidty temp and such too. You only want a little coming out of the bottom whilr watering.

 

[4mac]

Nice setup! Also interested in the cbd crack.

For the watering wait till there nice and dry top of the soil dry and lighter colored and dry about an inch or so down then pick up the pots and notice how much they weigh dry then you will know just by lifting when they need more.

Also half to watch how much water you use while watering, for the 3 gallons I use them too and at the stage yours are at would use probably no more than a half gallon probably less but when they get bigger can use almost a gallon depends on humidty temp and such too. You only want a little coming out of the bottom whilr watering.

Agreed! Once I stopped waterboarding The Cheese, I've waited up to 4-5 days before watering again. Purely based on weight alone. The soil has been plenty dry 1-2" down but waited because it still had weight. At 1500 ml I've got just a little moisture in the tray - I'll up it to 1/2 gallon next time. I grow tobacco in 5 gallon fabric pots as well and weight is the primary factor I use to decide when to water. Admittedly, there is a hint of excitement in the air and I "loved" The Cheese too much. Took a while to dial in temp, fan speed, humidifier output, etc but it's starting to make sense. Thank you very much for the input!

 

[Deleted Grower A]

@4mac I'm glad you got it sorted! Watering has always been a problem for me till recently finally got it down but I did overwater my Strawberry Nuggets a little it wasn't too frequently that was the issue I had not took into consideration how much roots my bigger plants have and tryed starting it out with way too much water like what I give my bigger plants. When there smaller I use just a cup with ph'd water and work my way up from a cup to 2 cups then water more as roots develop and veg kicks in.

That is cool that you grow tabacco! I almost made a grow tent like yours from a youtube vid very cool and bigger than the one in the vid.

One thing you might also want to consider is putting the fan and carbon filter in the tent maybe cut the pvc and put another bar going across for it reason I mention it is the cfm rating on the fan and filter is going to he lower than that space but would scrub adequately in the tent I attached a pic of how I mounted mine I had my carbon filter in my smaller tent before I upgraded and fan outside pulling the air and that didn't work very well either so mounted both inside. You have probably about the same size tent as me and same fan and filter size. You won't need the filter till you start flowering but better to be prepared if these are smelly strains.

 

[Deleted Grower A]

Forgot the pic of the filter/fan setup.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

looking good beginner wobbles,you getting the hang of things
good luck n keep er lit

 

[4mac]

looking good beginner wobbles,you getting the hang of things
good luck n keep er lit

Thank you

Wobbling like a mofo and if it weren't for this forum and the literal tons of information available I'd be really screwed.

My hope is that I'll suck less for the next update.

 

[4mac]

@4mac I'm glad you got it sorted! Watering has always been a problem for me till recently finally got it down but I did overwater my Strawberry Nuggets a little it wasn't too frequently that was the issue I had not took into consideration how much roots my bigger plants have and tryed starting it out with way too much water like what I give my bigger plants. When there smaller I use just a cup with ph'd water and work my way up from a cup to 2 cups then water more as roots develop and veg kicks in.

That is cool that you grow tabacco! I almost made a grow tent like yours from a youtube vid very cool and bigger than the one in the vid.

One thing you might also want to consider is putting the fan and carbon filter in the tent maybe cut the pvc and put another bar going across for it reason I mention it is the cfm rating on the fan and filter is going to he lower than that space but would scrub adequately in the tent I attached a pic of how I mounted mine I had my carbon filter in my smaller tent before I upgraded and fan outside pulling the air and that didn't work very well either so mounted both inside. You have probably about the same size tent as me and same fan and filter size. You won't need the filter till you start flowering but better to be prepared if these are smelly strains.

I too would have preferred the fan/filter inside the tent. Odor: I texted a couple photo period growing pals in MI and CO to ask if it was normal for a 3" plant to skunk up the area outside the grow tent. Answer: "no". Although I am a legal mmj card holder in a legal state this is still a stealth grow. Maybe my nose is sensitive but the carbon filter stopped the odor. Once it flowers? My gosh man I hope the little 4" filter does the job. The CBD Crack does not smell compared to the Cheese at the same age.

I'll look at a re-model and get that fan/filter combo inside. Thanks again.

No sense in having a pre-filter when air movement is reversed

 

[Deleted Grower A]

It's too early for any oder right now, you might smell a tiny scent if you put your nose up to the plants but nothing like flower and even then like a week or more in. Even Autos in flower can reak up an entire block if not filtered with enough cfm problem is that garages cubic feet is huge when the filter and fan are rated at probably 195 cubic ft per min which that tent is perfect inside.

No I had it setup the same way just with duct in between and the fan outside but the fan wasn't powerful enough I read it on a few forums that you can do it that way but didn't work for me.

I hope my posts don't come off as criticizing you just trying to help don't wanna see you stink up your garage and open the door and have that smell travel with a gust of wind (It happens) I got stuff in each room for when I open the tent to cover the smell I have a really intense strain though for smell.

Autoflowers also don't like extreme temp from what Mephisto has said maybe might add a heater like a tiny one in tent have seen it done. I know also some strains do better with low temp I think Northern Lights is one. Wish you all the best I'm new too am close to harvest though.