New Grower Vegasbear's Noob Growing Adventures

First Grow - Day 1 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
  • Vegasbear87

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    After asking a bunch of questions in the New Growers Q&A Forum, I figured I should start a thread and chronicle my first grow journey. At least it should provide for some tragic humor when I kill everything on accident!

    So, my better half and I are about to start growing for the first time, and want to start with (and probably stick with) autoflowering strains.

    We bought the following to begin our growing journey:

    Gorilla 4x4 Grow Tent
    AC Infinity Cloudline S6 Fan
    TerraBloom 6"x16" carbon filter
    Spider Farmer SF-2000 LED lights (2)
    Timer
    5gal cloth pots
    Mother Earth Coco with Perlite mix
    Fox Farm 3-pack (Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom) - a friend had a spare pack and gave it to us.
    Cal-Mag
    PH U&D - already had this on hand
    PH Meter - already had this on hand
    TDS/EC Meter - already had this on hand
    Several Thermo/hygrometers
    Couple mini fans that clip to the tent poles
    18" pedestal oscillating fan
    Net that stretches across the inside of the tent
    Rolls of landscaping twist-ties for training (where I will probably screw up)
    Carbon water filter because our city water is pretty meh

    So, I got my tent up on Monday (second light was not in yet but got in yesterday and got installed). The Gorilla Grow tents are super nice, and I was impressed at the level of detail paid to even the packaging - each of the metal poles was separated with plastic brackets to protect them and the tent was incredibly easy to pop up. The Spider Farmer SF2000 panel gives off a surprisingly low amount of heat and it is BRIGHT. Picture was taken before I tidied up, so please excuse the mess! :eek1::eek1:

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    My seeds came the same morning, and I decided to start my first grow with four of Homegrown's White Widow x California Snow Autos. Soaked them for about 12 hrs in a jar of water, then put them in Roto Rooters and directly into final pots (5gal pots with Mother Earth Coco/Perlite mix). I had presoaked the soil while the seeds soaked (though I worried that I hadn't moistened it enough) and let it drain well - it felt moist to the first knuckle when the RRs were put in. Left the lights off and misted the RRs every 12 hours with a spray bottle, covered with humidity domes that I made from water bottles with the lids off.

    Today they have popped up and the lights were turned on. I am excited! I have the lights set at 18/6 and due to the high heat out here, scheduled to be on in the evening/night hours to avoid excessive heat during the hottest parts of the day.

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    I am not sure if I need to go ahead and remove the domes, or if I should wait a couple more days - any advice there? I have one straggler in the back right corner, but the other three are scooting right along.

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    I have read that I should give just fresh water for the first fifteen days, and I am pretty nervous about screwing up with the FF Trio as I am still trying to figure out how to adapt their nutrient schedule from the 12-weeks they list, and I feel like I need a hand-held walkthrough of how I should use them from start to finish, because all of the different opinions and information are making me feel Neanderthal-dumb.
     
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    First Grow - Day 2 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
  • Seedling looking good today, all opened up! Plant #2 is the one that hasn't broken ground yet, but the little bit of material plugging the top of the Rapid Rooter has pushed up enough that it's just laying on top, hopefully that lil guy survives and pops soil soon.

    Purchased an APEC-90 under-sink RO system today. Rated for 90 GPD, should be good for pulling water for my plants, considering our tap water is 7.9 and very hard with a PPM reading right around 385 (this is after running it through the RV filter). I am currently giving 50% tap and 50% bottled water mix, about 1ml from a syringe onto the Rapid Rooter every 8 hrs or so and misting the rest of the soil after the domes are replaced to ensure it stays and feels moist.

    Lights are on 18/6 and scheduled to turn off at noon and back on at 6pm. This should help avoid the hottest parts of the day, and I am planning to tint the one window in that room and then cover it with styrofoam to keep the radiant heat out. I plan to build a spacer for the sliding window so that I can vent outside, but have to figure out how to make it airtight enough that it won't let the brutal outside heat in.

    04.30.2020 Seedling.jpg
     
    First Grow - Day 3 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
  • All four are up, and they've got new leaves already!!

    Even the straggler seems to be racing and has caught up with the other three.

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    Are these two baby serrated leaves the first "node"?

    My tent is holding steady at 82F and dropped to 45% humidity, so i installed an ultrasonic humidifier today set to automatically maintain 70%RH.

    Coco was dried out and the RR plugs were turning light so I watered 40ml around each seedling and then misted the soil at the edges of the pot to dampen it. I was away from town in Utah today and the better half didn't know if he should touch them so he didn't water. Oops! I hung a checklist on a white erase board so he can just look (I frequently burn 16hr shifts back to back) and showed him how to water them 32ml 2-3x daily for now.

    I have two small fans in there and I'll be putting a small oscillating tower fan in there tomorrow as soon as it arrives. I read that I shouldn't blow directly onto the plants at this stage, is that right? So i should angle it into a corner or something?
     
    First Grow - Day 4 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
  • Watered 40ml each twice today. Misted soil in pots around the edges as it's feeling kind of dry. I am afraid to soak the soil and have it kill my plants at this point so I did about 1/8 gal sprayed onto top soil around the edges of each pot just to keep it damp. With humidifier running 24/7, tent is maintaining RH of 47-55.

    I was told that I should gently backfill coco just to below the bottoms of the leaves, but that is advice that I haven't really read anywhere else, plus it was second-hand through one of my colleagues from his wife.

    Anything to that? I am of a mind to just leave it alone but if backfilling up under the leaves is helpful, I would love to hear about it!

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    First Grow - Day 11 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
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    Last night all pots got 1/4 gal each spread out up to ~2" from the plant. They're all much happier today. Soil is still slightly moist but will probably get watered tomorrow.
     
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    First Grow - Day 13 - HG WW x California Snow Auto
  • Day 13.

    Holy cow!

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    Right now I'm giving 1/2 gal every other day. Soil feels slightly damp about second knuckle deep.

    What should I be looking at, watering wise, at this point? I figured out that when they get sad looking, they want water, so that solved that mystery. Lol.
     
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