1st grow - in need of feedback

[hukaraptor]

Hey y’all,

got this 38 day old Blue Dream photoperiod going in basically the “$300” set up. Just wondering if I should flip to 12/12 at this point or if I should let them roll a bit longer

[hukaraptor]

Actually, I should mention that this is technically my 2nd grow. 1st was an epic failure,

[Gingerbeard]

Howdy!
36 days is not nearly long enough to get the full potential from a photo seed. I do a minimum of 8 weeks to veg, including two toppings.
About your topping. You cut way too close to the node. It is good practice to cut about 1" above the set of leaves. You are looking at a split of your main stalk, in the future. Leaving that extra inch helps keep the stalk from splitting.
In your small tent, consider replacing your fan with muffin fans. The one you have is taking up valuable weed space. You can fill the tent with a single 5-gallon plant with enough training and space.
Check your light manufacturers' recommendations for light distances. Yours looks pretty far.
Everything else looks good.

[Gingerbeard]

One more...
Get your pot off the plate. You need circulation underneath. I use chopsticks to make a base for plants I need to raise.

[hukaraptor]

Howdy,

Thanks for tips! Finding this forum/site has been a godsend.

The fans you speak of, do they fit in the premade holes in my tent?

mahalo

[Bluey]

Bit more practice on training your plant, its odd shaped. As Gingerbeard says..your light looks too high. The rest seems to be going well.

[Gingerbeard]

Muffin fans are computer fans. Yes. They will work with your vents.

[90Gizmo]

She needs water, right? I think you have plenty of room in your tent to let her get bigger. You can use zip ties to mount that fan to one your poles to get more floor room. I'd point a big (relatively) fan like that angled at a wall and let the air swirl around. Good luck!

[No3odiesShad0w]

Good choice on strain. Blue dream is a fantastic strain to grow. Easy, good yields and great flower! Remember keep it simple and you'll do great!
You have plenty space in the tent to let her get bigger. Maybe a transplant to a bigger bucket before flipping and you'll get a bigger plant and better yields .... Especially for a photo period plant.
Keep us updated and Happy Growing!

[hukaraptor]

Y’all, thank you for the feedback. I went ahead and checked the specifications for my lamp. It suggests 12-18” from canopy. Instead of destroying my zip tie job, I improvised and built from the ground up. I was heavy handed on the H20+SuperthriveGrow [1/2tsp/gallon]. I also propped the pot up on a trivet for better circulation. New fan is on the way.

Working on the training. On my first epic failure, I did not train at all in the same tent :\ You don’t want to hear the details, but I basically did zero research. I grew big, female plants in my basement. That is about where the successes stop.

Question: when flipping to 12/12, do you do so gradually, or instantly?

mahalo

[Bluey]

I flip instantly and also increase the light intensity by about 50% to maintain the increasing Daily Light Integer (DLI).
I typically trim/defoliate the week prior to flip. I wait for a week before progressively changing to flower only nutes over a couple of weeks. When I'm on full flower nutes I normally give it its final defoliation and a good one.
I typically fuck up the nutes but I'm improving
Edit. PS. Try and get your humidity down. 74%RH is way too high flipping to flower. You should be around 60% and mid flower 50%

[hukaraptor]

Slight update - today is week six. I started watching some training videos and I think I finally understand plant shape and how to maintain it. Now when I look at my plant, I realize how bad of a job I did lol. Goes to show that all the college degrees in the world don’t mean you can skip out on homework! Anyhow, I redid my training lines, got a dehumidifier that is hummin, muffin fans still in the mail.

The videos I was watching were about mainlining - holy shit. What are the cons of this if any? I simply topped at node 5 and then tried to train and spread out. My plant does not look nearly as robust, but then again there may be other factors at play.

mahalo

[SoOrbudgal]

Watch out for heat issues and fan blowing heat on top of the plant. Let it rest a couple days don't overwater, less is more.

[Bluey]

The only negative is mainlining will slow the growth temporarily but the increased yields more than make up for it. Slight increase of infection/disease also as with any cut. It reduces height of canopy and increases its girth, which should be positive unless your grow space is shaped more like a vertical water pipe.

[hukaraptor]

My temps are consistently 75F. However, humidity is an issue. I’m concerned about when I flip to 12/12, the dehumidifier is filling up within 8 hours (which is just outside the tent). I achieved RH of 75 last night with the dehumidifier running for a while. It turned off overnight, and I was back up to 80ish inside the tent. Same thing while I was at work today. Yeesh, I live on the other end of the country from the Gulf of Mexico! Things will be different come harvest, but I’m not sure I’ll make it that far with these levels.

Right now I’m curious, should I be moving my tie downs every day to increase the diameter of my canopy? Or is that too often?

[Bluey]

Once or twice a week is heaps in veg fir training. After the flip during stretch every day or two but you can still get away with once a week.
Given your humidity bud rot is inevitable. You need to seal that room (if ambient humidity is high outside) as best you can, or ventilate with outside air that is low RH, and leave your dehumidifier on 24/7 so therefore it needs to drain to a waste pipe or pumped out of the room somehow.
Larger domestic dehumidifiers most often have drain pipe options. If you're in a basement you will need to dry out the room which could take a long time.

[hukaraptor]

Happy to report my humidity levels are in control at an average RH of 63. I installed a 6” ventilation fan and have a dehumidifier running. I did a bit of trimming to help with the humidity, but also light penetration. I’m getting to week 7 here. I’m curious about flipping now vs. a week from now…

As I’ve been reading, one thing I’ve noticed about nutes. I’m using DynaGro Grow (Bloom for later) and I’ve always been doing 0.5 tsp per gallon because the bottle instructions emphasize that for several applications. However, a lot of journals report 1.0 tsp per gallon. How detrimental is this difference? I’m in a 2 gal fabric pot with CocoLoco. I end up watering every other dayish based on picking the pot up.

mahalo
.

[Bluey]

Re flipping, I think the main consideration is will the canopy fill the tent after stretch and the development of flowers? Also management of the grow and if you need the crop sooner rather than later.
With high humidity I do not think it would be a good idea to go too long in veg.

[StickyNugsAZ]

I have used Superthrive for decades. Like most nutrients, I feel it's better at 1/2 strength rather than full strength or extra strength. You can always add more if you find deficiencies. I used it twice in the last grow during veg. However, I do not use Superthrive in the flowering phase anymore due to a concern the hormones may add to the possibility of hermaphrodites.

During flower stage, a humidity lower than 63% would be helpful

[hukaraptor]

Update - 2.5 weeks of 12/12

Ive been out of town for 10 days - had my neighbors water. Wild progress to see after not seeing the plants everyday. As I stated previously, this is my second grow technically after a huge failure. I’ve got a few questions for y’all:

Will these buds grow bigger or did I sprout a bunch of popcorn buds?

Do I need to defoliate a bit?

Do I need to train any further?

[MagicMike66]

They will at least double in height during the flowering stretch. Your plants look good and healthy so I wouldn’t mess with them too much during flower. Defoliation is a personal preference but most tend to do it 3 weeks into flower for the last time. Any training will be difficult now as the stems will begin to get more brittle now they’re flowering