Learning as I grow

[ocgreen]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a new thread so I can log my garden adventures and share various lessons learned in a single place.

Hopefully some experienced growers choose to follow along. Everyone is welcome!

Here's a breakdown of my equipment/setup to start:

Mother's den
CD-1, Cookies Kush and (TBD) mother plants growing DWC style in 5 gal buckets (3 total). This space will also be used to grow clones.

• 3.5 x 3.5 space
• 315W CMH
• 4" exhaust fan
• Heating pad
• Propagation tray and dome
• 5 gallon buckets w/ 6" net pot lids
• 950 GPH 32W air pump w/ 6 outlets

However, part of me wonders if I should just monster crop in lieu of maintaining a mother den. What do you think?

Early veg and drying area
After clones grow a bit they will be transplanted to final pot or bucket and squished into this tent. DWC 5 gal buckets when the plants are destined for CMH flowering area; air or fabric pots and coco if they're going to LED flowering area.

• 2 x 4 x 6 space
• 260W quantum board
• 7" circular fan
• 4" exhaust fan
• 5 gal buckets or air pots
• 950 GPH 32W air pump w/ 6 outlets

CMH flowering area
Plants will enter this area a few weeks old (up to 2 weeks in Mother's Den and a few weeks in early veg area).

• 4 x 4 x 7 space
• 315W CMH
• 40" tower fan
• 7" circular fan
• 6" exhaust fan and carbon filter
• 5 gal buckets w/ 6" net pot lids
• 950 GPH 32W air pump w/ 6 outlets

LED flowering area
Same as above. Plants will enter this area almost ready to flower (~2 weeks in Mother's Den and a few weeks in early veg area)

• 4 x 8 x 7
• 3x 260W LM301B QBs
• 2x 40" tower fan
• 7 gal air pots and/or fabric pots
• 6" exhaust fan and carbon filter

Nutrients
I started using GH Flora Trio + Calimagic before I learned about Greenleaf Nutrients. Now i use a powdered one-part fertilizer (Mega Crop) and some additional products during flower.

• DWC: Mega Crop & Sweet Candy from day 1; PK booster begins early flower
• COCO: Mega Crop from day 1; Sweet Candy & PK booster begins early flower

Key lessons learned re: equipment and setup so far
While some of this is no doubt common sense, I felt like these are good tips to keep in mind of you're just starting out:

• The process of growing can be just as therapeutic as the end product
• With the right equipment, this website and attention to detail you can go from knowing absolutely nothing about growing to growing that sticky-icky
• You can get high quality 260W LED quantum boards for almost the same amount as a 315W CMH if you're willing to build it yourself
• You probably don't need everything you're going to buy/consider so try and be conservative
• Beware of clever marketing -- you definitely don't need all the products companies say you need
• It is really difficult to maintain DWC reservoir temps outside of winter unless you buy a chiller ($$$)
• An oscillating tower fan takes up less space and pushes more air than a traditional oscillating fan
• You can save a lot of money by going with powdered nutrients
• You can pick up a lot of items that you need at a hardware store or places like Walmart in lieu of over-priced grow shops

Ran out of time for now but will post some photos at some point tonight.

Have a great day all!

[MeestaFeesha]

Looks like you're in for a fun time! I'm not familiar with 'Mega-Crop', what do you mean by 'Day 1'?

The only thing I would mention (is something I'm not entirely sure of), which is that a CMH light is on the 'white' side of the light spectrum (Veg). Where as an HPS gets more red (Flower). I would wait to hear from an individual who is an indoor enthusiast 🤘😋. Got my chair pulled up with this post.

[ocgreen]

Day 1 (to me) means from the time they're seedlings/seed has sprouted above top of rapid rooter. At that point I water using low ppm mega crop solution and gradually increase

[ocgreen]

For the CMH, there are ~2700k and ~4200k spectrum bulbs which can be used for flower and veg respectively. I may be off on exact spectrum numbers.

My first grow was nothing but the CMH from seed to harvest. I wouldn't win any efficiency awards but the smoke was so good I'm growing it again (Cookies Kush).

Realistically I kind of regret purchasing them because they're not air cooled and put out a ton of heat but trying to work with what i have for now.

[alltatup]

Hey oc, I'm subbed, and I'm also growing a Cookies Kush right now: she's about 10 days old now!!!!

[ocgreen]

Woo hoo! I can't wait to see what your Cookies Kush will look like! 😍

I have 4 going that were plunked mid July. Taking 2 clones from each soon and then picking my CK mama once I see how they flower.

For my first grow, I ended up with 3 distinct CK phenos and looking back i really regret not monster cropping 1 particularly sweet tasting pheno. My hope is that I get one just like her as part of this run. Fingers crossed!

[alltatup]

And I can't wait to see all your phenos!!!

[SoOrbudgal]

Good luck ocgreen sounds like a good mellow strain. Good luck cloning that cookie i'm having stem rot issues with my burnt cookie clones but i'm gonna keep trying. Learning from mistakes makes us better growers.

[ocgreen]

Thanks - will be my first time cloning. Been really busy last few days so will finally get around to it tomorrow.

[ocgreen]

Here's a photo of my Blue Dream'matic by FastBuds:



They're about 3 weeks into flower and much smaller than i have seen others grow. I am planning to heavily defoliate the top left plant (and give others a final hair cut) when I have more time.

If i could do it all over again, I would:

• Grow in coco instead of DWC due to challenges maintaining reservoir temps in summer
• Perform less low stress training
• Wait longer to top (5th or 6th node)

Mistakes and regrets aside, I'm still looking forward to watching them grow. They may be short but there are lots of bud sites and they're getting fatter every day.

[ocgreen]

Here's a photo of my next wave:



The two plants in air pots are the most important seeds I have grown to date: CD-1 by Medical Marijuana Genetics. This is a high CBD (11-19%) and low THC (<1%) strain in FFOF which will be used to make free tinctures for family and friends. Time will tell which one becomes the long-term mother plant.

The remaining 5 are Grapefruit by FastBuds. My limited experience with autos has been a bit of a letdown, except for 2 Grapefruit and a couple Blackberry I'm harvesting this week. This is my first time growing in coco -- so far so good!

Hope everyone is having a great day and enjoying summer. Will post some more photos later!

[ocgreen]

Cookies Kush canopy filling out and I think I'm just about ready to flip:



What do you think?

I'm also wondering if I should bend the two new main colas since topping. Or do I wait until they're a bit more established?




Overall I feel like this is going much better in comparison to my first ever grow of same strain. 🙏

[alltatup]

Looking awesome! Mine's growing strong but still quite small. If you want to train the top colas in another direction, do it! They look quite long, or am I just seeing leaves?