Indoor Midnight Express & Carpathian Mazar

[StraightKRACK]

Hello AFN family. After a few months of stalking grow journals on here and youtube, I've finally decided to begin my first grow. I have a freedom seeds midnight express auto and a carpathian seeds carpathian mazar auto. Very excited to finally be starting this journey and i'm glad you all have come enjoy it with me. First, lets start with the set-up.

TENT
Apollo Horticulture 36x20x64

Lighting
Mars Hydro 600w LED light
2 x 42w CFLs 5000k
2 x 23w CFLs 6500k

Exhaust
4" Ventech Exhaust Fan & Carbon Filter Combo w/ variable fan speed controller
4" Insulated ducting from HD (for sound reduction)

Fan
6" Clip on fan

Medium
Dr. Earth Organic Potting Soil (Black Bag)
Coco peat
Perlite

Nutes
Dr. Earth Root Starter fert
Dr. Earth Liquid Solution fert
Dr. Earth Seaweed Concentrate
Humboldts Secret Golden Tree
GH CalMag
PH Up & Down

My medium isn't exact but here are the estimates per pot. (red Solo cup was used to measure. One regular planting pot and one rootbuilder pot.

6 parts Dr. E soil
2 parts coco
2 parts perlite

Dr. E potting soil has a lot of perlite already but a little more shouldn't hurt. A few days before I planted my seeds, I watered the soil (with fert) to get a runoff to read the ph. Continued this process to get a better number being that seedlings don't need a lot of ferts. Germed my beans in a shot glass inside of the cabinet. The following day when I checked, one seed had shown it's tap root and the other had not. I went ahead and planted both beans into prepared soil. I know some folks germinate until they see the tap root but I garden and grow vegetables and seeing a tap root is unnecessary with those so I assumed it would be unnecessary for this experiment. The next day, nothing sprouted. The following day, both babies have sprouted and the real journey has began.

The bean that showed it's tap root is coming out of the ground slanted and the other has grown out the soil straight up. I don't believe this is an issue since it's so early. At this point, I have just been misting the ladies with distilled water that I have ph'd to 6.8

Questions/Concerns
1. Without my LED light on, my grow tent temp is in the 70s F with just the cfls on and reaches 110F with the led light on.
Now I may have answered my question about regulating the heat but ...
Will turning my fan up higher and opening up the bottom vents suffice for regulating the temps?

2. My humidity is at 22
What can be done to raise the humidity? I don't believe the misting will be enough.

Conclusion
Being that this is my first grow, please do not think twice about dropping any knowledge, tips, helpful advice, or props. I know I will need all the help that I can get. Did not identify which bean was which when i dropped them both into the same shot glass so I apologize. The midnight express is suppose to be almost black when it begins to flower, so it will show itself. So we will have A-1 and A-2 until we know which is which.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Please bare with me while my phone is importing all the photos onto my cpu.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 2
Setup along with both babies sprouted
I am currently waiting on some yo yo hangers and some ph buffer to make sure my ph meter stays in check.
if anyone has any advice on insect/pest prevention, please let me know. If there is something I can do about pest before I see any would be much appreciated.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Forgot to mention, the bottom 15% of both pots are coco. I have it like this in the case I can't water or have to leave my plants alone for a couple days, the plants will have a source of water for the roots to find since coco holds moisture well.

Day 3

Today I just gave them a good misting with distilled water phd to 6.8
Both babies are looking a heck of a lot better. Both standing up straight. The serated leaves on both of them look great.
I've ordered some dutchmaster silica. After some research, I found out that the silica not only helps the plants deal with temperature stress, it also helps to aid in combating insects/pests. Something about the plant being chewy and when insects bite into it, it's not desirable. Also, the dutchmaster silica unlike most silica products doesn't have the n-p-k or the potassium number so I won't have to worry about it throwing my ph off.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 5

Not really too much to report on. Did some research which wasn't too extensive but plants in regards to humidity don't necessarily require a higher humidity but it helps the process of growing further along. While in this small seedling stage being that most of the water/vapor I guess that the plant is actually receiving is from what the leaves take in being that the roots aren't as developed. I really can't wait to my silica gets here now. Since I have a what I'd like to call a "desert atmosphere" with lower humidity's, I just have to mist more often and water more often. Still not going over board because it's so early but I'm confident that things will work out. Just wish me luck. I've been able to manage my temp and humidity a little better as well. The tent is inside of a closet so I have the door cracked with the exhaust facing through the crack. I have both side vents open as well when the lights are on. I see that my temps are in between 25c to 29c which is better than what it was and the humidity is no longer in the 20s and stays in the mid 40s now. With my for CFL's , it seems that my temps jump up so I don't run them with my led for the entire 18hr cycle. I just play it by ear and have them on for the first 8 hours or the last. I've rotated using both the last couple days to see if I see any noticeable difference but have not, other than temp. I also moved the plants around because it seems as if the left side of my tent does better than the right. The plant I had on the left first, started to show it 2nd set of true leaves i believe even though it was smaller while the other didn't. Made the change over last night, and the other baby is showing them now but the one I moved seems to have made no changes. The first set of serated leaves do look bigger and greener, just no new development as far as the 2nd set of leaves. I will take some photos before my light cycle ends. Thank you for stopping by!

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 8

I have decided to take the LED out temporarily and just let the babies sit under 4x 23w(100w equivalent) 6500k bulbs. My assumption was that maybe they were getting too much light just being seedlings and that the cfls could invoke a good stretch. Once the babies acclimate to the cfls, when Ire-introduce the led's I'm hoping they take off. Both babies had the set of true leaves and are bigger but still both plants are runt sized. Both plants are now showing the second set of true leaves. I will be mentioning this is the infirmary because both plants seems to small to be at day 8 heading into day 9.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 9
Whats goin on. Went ahead and purchased a humidifier and raised the cfls to try and induce vertical growth. Also did a light feed on Calimag, humboldts secret golden nutrients, dr. earth starter fert and superthrive. Babies look a lot better now. I believe the humidifier is working wonders.

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 12
Hello, Thinks are still heading in the right direction since getting the humidifier in there. Let me know what you think...

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day12 cont....
Hey yall, turning the led on has raised the temps a little and lowered the humidity a hair but the girls are still looking good for the most part. I have an ideal of which is which based on leaf structure and size but i'll wait longer before I decide. Just overnight, they have so much new growth

 

[StraightKRACK]

Day 15
Quick update yall. A few changes have been made in the tent.

• Led was removed due to excessive heat. Will try again in the flowering stage.
• Carbon Filter has been moved from the floor to the ceiling using the light hangers I used for the led light
• Added more cfls so 8 x 23w(100w equivalent) 6500k bulbs in total

I guess with the fear of overwatering, I may have been underwatering because I fed them today and the leaves stood up perky like a first erection almost immediately after the water touched the soil. This grow I've battled with heat stress, underwatering, and low humidity. I believe I have everything where it needs to be right now so I'm not going to change anything until flowering, when I try to bring back the led. Even with all of the slip ups, they still look healthy and I don't wanna give up yet on these babies. I upped the fish emulsion since it's high in nitrogen in hopes that it helps to increase plant size. Helps with my tomatoes at least. With a gallon jug I put in 3ml of fish emulsion, a drop of superthrive, 3 ml of cal mag and 2ml of humboldts secret golden tree. Other than the stress I've dealt to them, I'm also gonna say that it could just be genetics. I checked out carpathian seeds facebook page and they have not been active for a couple years and midnight express just released this year and I see no grows of it yet. At the same time, me being a new grower I could just not be doing them justice. Well on to the pics from the last couple days in no particular order.....