SOIL My first grow: The sativa experience.

[mlynch475]

Hello all and thanks for taking the time to visit my journal .

Names Mike and I'm a medical marijuana patient in the state of Maine, USA. Though not technically my first time growing pot, it's my first since I was a kid growing with my dad. And we just used miracle grow and dirt from our back yard lol. So without further preamble, on to the good stuff!

I have a 10'x10' tent set up as a lung room with 2 4'x4' gorilla shorty tents inside that for growing.

The lung room is controlled by a pair of inkbird controllers. One for temp and one for humidity. The temp is set at 75 with a 10° cooling differential and a 1° heating. Meaning it gets to a 85 and kicks on a 8000btu portable ac till 75. If it drops to 74 a 1500w heater is kicked on till 75 again. Reason I went with a 10° cooling differential is so it kicks on less frequently as everything it does it essentially exhausts all my co2. Humidity is set at 55% with a 5% differential (60% dehumidifier, 50% humidifier).

The first grow tent has a growers choice roi-e680 full spectrum led, inkbird temp & humidity controller,6litre humidifier,, 200w heater,, vortex base fan, 4 x 30w monkey fans on the canopy, co2 monitor/controler, a 6"clip fan at the top that I run the co2 hose to and a cloudline t6 exhaust fan with temp and humidity controls.

The second grow tent is exactly the same except it has a SF7000 full spectrum led from spider farmer.

Strains: strawberry cough and chocolope

Medium: Promix bx

nutrients: Foxfarm lineup w/ RO water.

temp: 75-88° 75 with lights off. 88 during lights. At 88 my exhausts kick on and bring it to about 84 before finishing revdown. At 74° the heater.

humidity: 55-65%. At 50% humidifier kicks on till 55. At 65% exhausts kick on.

co2: 1400ppm with a 200ppm deadband

light: 650-700ppf for 18hrs daily. Lights are over 3' from canopy.

Edit: Forgot to add that I also wired 2 new 20amp circuits for the tent on piggyback breakers (ran everything at 100% and no trips so yay me!), installed both a fresh water install and an ro system w/55gal tank and a sump pump so I don't have to lug stuff upstairs (grow is in my basement).

[mlynch475]

So the girls are 4wks old now. I've topped them a second time giving me a total of 8 branches to work with on each. Also transplanted into there final homes (10gal cloth pots).

Watered with ec1.6 ph 5.6. Got ph 6.2 on runoff. Also added mosquito bits to the top of the pots.

[oldjarhead100]

Looking fantastic Reading your set up was like reading the perfect set up list well done and it shows in your plants

[alltatup]

Looking very good, m!!!!!

[SoOrbudgal]

Beautiful well space thought out grow

[Tedtheclown]

Sativas are wild 😜. I got one in flower right now and she is 4ft tall. Mine easily doubled in size when i flipped it

[PLreef]

Nice set up. Looks like you did your homework. Controlling the environment is something many folks don't take into consideration until it's too late. I'll be tagging along.

PS. Im a former resident of Caribou and Presque Isle. Beautiful country up there.

[RetiredGuy]

Welcome and nice set-up. I too grew up in Maine and to be honest I still dream of returning someday. However, my wife hates cold winters so I now live in the South.

I will be back home this June for some fly fishing and to visit a few dispensaries. Gonna be wicked fun!

[mlynch475]

Thank you so much everybody. Thanks again SoOrbudgal. Nice to see you made the transition from my help post .

Good to see some fellow Mainers in here too! Nice Plreef, I'm from up in the county myself. Though not that far! Houlton area. And I literally researched and studied for a bit over 2 months on everything grow before making my purchases to get started. A good deal of it right here on gwe .

Now that was an Amazon prime day! Lol. The pic is the second half of my order. I forgot to take pics at first. Too busy tearing into my presents like it was Christmas lol.

[bboyfromwayback]

A tent inside a tent. Now that’s environmental control! You’ll like Chocolope. Easy grow, big yields and taste/smells like tootsie rolls.

[mlynch475]

So another week has gone by and we've had a few changes. Unfortunately not all good either lol

First off i realized a boo boo I made when transplanting.. I used just r.o. water with no nutes added. I moistened the soil before transplanting ofcourse and then after transplanted I watered each pot till it bled (2gal) like I did as a kid. Though as a kid I atleast used tap lol.. This led to a big nute deficiency ofcourse. And fearing overwatering I let them dry for along as I dared so it got ugly lol.. I finally fed them last night.. Full str veg nutes with an ec of 2.4 and a runoff ph of 6.1. I think they'll survive.

Second,, while trimming off some bottom fan leaves, I accidently clipped one of my first 4 main branches on a chocolope in the spider farmer tent. Costing me actually 2 branches as I had topped it. 25% of the plant.

Third I have attached my tent screens.

And lastly I purchased a 2' agromax pureuv bulb and t5 fixture to add uv light to one of the tents to try another comparison. Figure I'll probably jbweld the fixture to the center of my spider farmer as there is room and that light stays further away from the canopy than the roi. From what I have red most growers seem to recommend pulsing the uv instead of stdy on and starting around 5 mins per hr. I'm probably going to start with 2 minute pulses every other hour (as my timers only hold 8 programmed on/offs) and try increasing from there. Anybody have any feedback on that?

Here they are at 5wks old:

[mlynch475]

Sorry for the late update everybody. I spent ten days in the USVI for my anniversary and wasn't able to post beforehand. This will have to serve as a two week post .

Not a ton to post really, just a few things.

First, my ladies have been suffering from weak nutes for almost 2wks due to no stock at grow shop and waiting for availability/shipping on Amazon. Ran out of 3 thibgs while I was gone... Ordered triple of everything so that don't happen again. Suppose to be here Tuesday. You can especially see it in the top right plant of the sf tent(the one with the spider farmer light).

Second I have trimmed and trained, tied and topped,, etc.. See attached pics.

Third and I believe last, I have hung the uv light and started pulsing 2minutes, 8x a day. Figure if I don't see damage I'll up it a minute every few days.

Here's the eye candy:

[Sylvester]

What an impressive set up! If I could only be half as organised as you are!
Your plants are looking great, lush, green & healthy. For a first time grow , you have certainly hit the spot with everything.
☆ I'm just finishing my first grow in many years. A Sativa/mix strain called Purple Trainwreck from Humbolt is into 13th week of flower & 3.5ft tall.
Had to bend the top stem over as the bloom stretch was so wild! I caused a good build of nice buds down below, but messed with top bud.
Along with another photo, more Indica, called Sugar Breath. My first run with LED's too, I'm impressed with them.
I will be following your grow with interest. Happy growin.

[mlynch475]

Nice pics bud! That second one of the purple trainwreck looks lush! And thanks for the props . Owe alot of it to gwe

[Sylvester]

Cheers! I'm happy with sticky P. Trainwreck, biggest false seed pods I've seen > already harvested those very top buds ~ has a really strong scent that reminds me of grapefruits or cats! 🐱
It's already very strong, I'm sure flavour will improve with curing.
Yes , GWE is a great site for learning & the forum too.
🌙 New Moon wishes the now. 🙂 Best seed planting time, wish I was ready.

[mlynch475]

One day after adding uv and I dunno if they really likes it or if there just happy I'm home but perked right up!

I also got my nutes in so sad girl on the top right should be happy again soon

[SoOrbudgal]

They loves you and thank you for your care mlynch475

[mlynch475]

Hehe. That's what I think too budgal

[Rik]

That’s an impressive set up, you clearly have a firm handle on the technical aspects! Maybe I missed it, but did you mention which breeder you used?

[mlynch475]

I did not actually. I purchased from I love growing marijuana. No breeders packs though. Someone told me about strainly though and I'm looking forward to exploring it .

[mlynch475]

So a cpl days late posting again. My middle kids bday this past weekend .

Few big changes happening this week.

First is I've decided to change out my lights again. I decided I liked the bar style lights better for more even ppf distribution and the ability to get much closer to canopy. I did however love the removable driver of my sf7000 wich I couldn't find in a top end bar light at the time. Well that changed. Spider farmer has released there first bar light. The SE7000. With a removable driver, over 3300 top bin diodes, 680watts of power, and six detachable bars for custom light spreading. So I sold my lights and ordered 2. Still waiting for one so I got a 1000w de hps hanging till it gets here.

Second, I started flowerring on Saturday. There 8wk bday. Went straight to 12/12 as I didn't purchase controllers with gradual sunrise/sunset changes.

Here they are at:
8wks
also so sick off mixing a half dozen 5gal buckets lol.

[Sylvester]

That's a few changes going on , I'm sure for the better - if that's possible!
I always change down to 12/12 without steps, they be fine.
I like the idea of that SF light with the detachable driver & bars you can move to suit.
Plants look good , happy growin & 4/20 day to you mlynch475 🙂🌻🎵