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**ellz** · 07-17-2017, 08:04 PM

07/17/2017:

03:00PM: Emptied both reservoirs and filled them back up with some fresh nutrients. I used the week 2 feeding schedule off of the General Hydroponics feed chart I posted. The pH tester says my nutrient solution is right at 6.00 which is perfect! The water out of the tap has a pH of about 7.1 but when the nutrients are added, the pH drops down to where it needs to be without the need of the pH Up or pH Down. I checked both reservoirs and this was the case so that is great news! I will still check the pH each time I refresh my reservoirs just to make sure. I also wanted to test to see if there was any light entering the cabinet while the light was off during the day so I set my phone camera's timer, turned off the flash and placed the camera on top of the light facing upwards (where all but one hole is) in the cabinet and closed the doors. 10 seconds later, I opened the doors and then moved the phone down to the reservoirs still facing up and repeated the process. The top photo came back with one very tiny light spot but the photo taken from down by the reservoir was completely black so there is no light getting past the light itself and reaching the plants. That will be crucial during the flowering phase! I plan on checking this again each time I move the light up just to make sure this stays the case, and adjust whatever I need to if it changes.

06:00PM: Once the light came back on I took a couple of pics of the babies as they sit after two weeks from seed and I posted them below. It looks like there are 3 nodes on each plant and the faster of each plant is starting on their 4th nodes now. I should be able to start topping them and LST soon so that's cool. Been checking the roots and they look good. Once this grow is done, I plan on redoing my drip tubes to get rid of any excess slack and give the roots more free space in the reservoir. I will note that the roots are a bit brown, but only because that is the color of the nutrient solution. I got a bit nervous at first but after reading about root rot versus root stain, this is just root stain.

**Sheesh** · 07-17-2017, 08:23 PM

They look great Ellz! Nice way to test for light too.

**ellz** · 07-18-2017, 01:40 AM

2nd week photo shoot pics...tops and bottoms exposed! Giggity!

**oldjarhead100** · 07-18-2017, 05:47 AM

nice picture ellz how did you get pictures of the roots inside the res?

**ellz** · 07-18-2017, 10:02 PM

07/18/2017:

08:30PM: Everything is still running smoothly. I spent most of the day kayaking but I checked on the babies when I got home this evening and they are looking good! My new fans have come in so I will install those tomorrow and see if they reduce the reservoir temps at all. They have been pretty much in the mid 70s with the low speed fans so hopefully that will go down more with fans that are 2x more powerful. Below are pictures of each group of plants on day 15 from seed. Thanks for reading!

**sootandsweep** · 07-19-2017, 12:13 PM

can someone please tell me how to get oil from my plants

**ellz** · 07-19-2017, 08:04 PM

07/19/2017:

04:00PM: Wanted to test the ice bottle cooling ability again so I put two frozen 20oz bottles in each reservoir. The starting temps were 76.3ºF in each reservoir. Will check the temps in one hour.

05:00PM: Went to check on the ice bottles and both were about 95% thawed in each reservoir. However, the reservoir temps had dropped down to 64.6ºF in each one after the ice bottles had been in there an hour.

06:15PM: When the light came back on, I checked the reservoir temperatures again about 15 minutes after they had a chance to warm up. The reservoir temps were back up to about 71ºF so basically I would have to swap the ice every hour or every other hour to maintain lower reservoir temperatures. Honestly, this is not a viable option so it's scratched. I may look into other options but at this point, the grow is too far in to do any modifications on the reservoirs to install a cooler so I guess I will just have to hope for the best.

06:30PM: Topped all four plants. Each one had 4 nodes so I cut them back to having only 2 nodes each. They are all showing signs of stress from the topping (leaves are all curled a bit) but I will check on them later to see if they have recovered. I have posted photos of before and after the topping today below. Thanks for reading!

**ellz** · 07-20-2017, 10:25 PM

07/20/2017:

07:00PM: Wanted to check on things after topping all the babies yesterday and I am happy to say they are recovering nicely. My reservoir temperatures are down to around 74ºF with the cooling fans blowing on them so I am pleased with that for this grow. I will make changes before my next grow but low 70s is okay for my first one. I also plan on insulating the reservoirs this weekend with some bubble wrap insulation so that may help a lot too. The roots are going crazy down below. I will need to redo my tubing in the reservoirs after this grow to keep them out of the way of the roots but I think things will be okay for now. I have posted a photo of each group on day 17 from seed. Thanks for reading!

**ellz** · 07-21-2017, 10:12 PM

07/21/2017:

09:00PM: Had to add about 2 gallons of pH'ed water to each reservoir because the babies are drinking it up! It appears that one full dropper of pH down mixed with my water and some Hydroguard is the right combination to get my pH down to the low 6's from the 8's so perhaps one full dropper is good to reduce a 5 gallon container down 2 pH points. I will still test each time but if this turns out to be the case that is worth noting. All of the plants have now split their selves from the topping and have picked up where they left off. I am waiting until they get a little bigger before starting LST. Right now, everything is getting fairly equal light so no big deal. I have attached photos of each group below. Thanks for reading!

**ellz** · 07-23-2017, 07:57 PM

Going to start condensing my updates when things are normal so below are from the past 2 days...

07/22/2017:
06:30PM: Checked on the plants after the light came back on and they are looking good. I am trying to get in the habit of only opening the doors to check on the plants when the light is on and usually only during the hottest part of the day to help vent some of the heat. The larger of the two Rug Burn OG plants (back left) needed a bit of LST on it's taller branches so I tied them both down with some gardening ties. The larger of the two White Poison plants (back right) had a couple of tiny yellow spots here and their on some of the older fan leaves and a couple of the fan leaves have "burned edges" but I think it's because they are rubbing against the reservoir because the new growth looks very good. I checked the roots and noticed one of the root groups had started wrapping around the drip tubing so I gently removed it from that and let it sit freely in the water below. Really need to clean things up in my reservoirs after this grow so that tubing is not in the way of the roots. Photos are below.

07/23/2017:
06:30PM: Like yesterday I have been trying to get in the habit of only opening the cabinet while the light is on and the outside temps are the highest. The plants are still doing good. They seem to be getting noticeably larger by the day so that is great in my book. I adjusted the gardening ties on the Rug Burn OG back left plant to pull the branches down just a bit more. The White Poison plant in the back right is much more bush and the branches are not long enough to tie them down yet so I will wait on that. I hope to be able to determine the sex of the plants soon but being that I am only entering week 4 on Monday I must remember to be patient. If they are males, they should show something first. Females tend to take longer to show their sex. The best I can do now is just keep my temps as cool as possible and hope for the best! Photos of yesterday and today below. I posted them to show the 2-day growth in each plant so it's Rug Burn OG day 19 and 20 then White Poison day 19 and 20. Thanks for reading.

**ellz** · 07-24-2017, 07:48 PM

07/24/2017:

05:20PM: Completely drained both reservoirs and changed out the nutrient water using the 3rd week of my feed schedule (I am starting week 4 of my grow from seed but the first week was only water). The larger White Widow plant at the back right is showing some yellowing and burnt tips on a couple of older leaves. My best guess is a possible Potassium deficiency. I checked the pH of my reservoir water before draining it and it was at 5.93 so that shouldn't be an issue and I am using the nutrient amounts on the feed schedule so that should be okay. My only guess is that I was using more than 5 gallons of water when filling my jug since it wasn't labeled. So I decided to mark it at every gallon interval and sure enough, I was over filling it by about a quart. Not sure if this was causing my deficiency but we'll see. I also marked the reservoirs themselves (at their 5 gallon points) so I could know where my water line should be and add to it if need be. The other possible suspect for that plant is the roots are starting to wrap around the drip tubing down below and could be getting choked up. I did my best to untangle them and they seem to be floating freely in the water. I don't notice root rot but there is a thick cluster of roots in the middle that are slightly twisted together. I massaged them gently while changing the reservoir, and tried to fan them out a bit more. I will monitor the plant but if it doesn't spread I won't worry about it. Older leaves are not as important as new ones. I have attached photos below of the plants at the beginning of their fourth week from seed, as well as closeups of each plant.

Side note: The water changes are taking forever so I plan on buying a second 5 gallon water jug and hopefully that will speed up the process since I can pre-mix BOTH reservoirs at the same time instead of doing it one at a time. I can also drain both at the same time because both would have fresh nutrient water standing by versus only one. Today's change took about an hour and a half but I also had to fix the cooling fan on top of the reservoir because it came loose at the lid. Even if I can get the time down to under an hour I would be very happy! The less time I have to have the roots exposed to no water and no air pump, the better! Plus, the faster I can do it, the less light the roots will be exposed to during the changes. Anything should help.

07:15PM: I topped all four plants again. I cut them back quite a bit to encourage more branching. I have attached more picture to the post of how they look after topping them.

**Graff420** · 07-25-2017, 02:58 AM

These are looking pretty as hell great job ellz

**Sheesh** · 07-25-2017, 05:53 AM

Hey Ellz, they're looking great. Are you adding Cal-Mag as part of your schedule?

**ellz** · 07-25-2017, 08:18 PM

07/25/2017:

06:30PM: Finally installed the reservoir reflective bubble insulation. I used the 16in x 25ft Reflectix double air bubble reflective insulation. I folded up about 3 inches on the bottom, taped it up and it fit perfectly under the lip of each reservoir. I then pulled it as tight as I could get it and taped it down with standard duct tape. I am hoping this will reflect the heat from the light and allow the reservoirs to cool down more with the fans blowing in them. There is still air space for the air to vent out of the reservoirs so it won't build up pressure or anything. The plants themselves are looking good after getting topped yesterday. I may top them one more time, still not sure. Been doing LST on the larger plants where needed but only moving the plants small amounts each day. Hoping to know the sex within the next week but I can't force that. Below are photos of the plants as they sit today and two pics of the insulation on the reservoir. Thanks for reading!

Side Note: Got my Medical MJ card renewed today and the doctor upped me to grow 24 plants at a time. Nice!

12:30AM: Starting at 11:00PM, I lowered the reservoir temperatures with 2 frozen 20oz ice bottles. Starting temp on the right reservoir was 75.6ºF and I cooled it to 67.1ºF in 30 minutes. I then took the bottles out of the right and placed them in the left, which had a starting temp of 72.3ºF. The bottles still had about 50% ice in them so I left them in for an hour. Checked on everything at 12:30AM and the right temp was only at 68.7ºF and the left was at 68.1ºF so apparently the reflective insulation is helping a lot!