First indoor grow - Swiss Cheese & Amnesia Haze

[gdogfunkly]

Day 18: the ladies are growing, albeit a little slowly. Swiss cheese is starting to have a scent when I put my nose right up to it. I gave each them a drink of cal-mag water today and sprayed them with a cal-mag foliar spray to wet the soil surface. Temp/rh is staying stable when the tent is closed. Woo hoo!

 

[Canuck147]

They are slow cuz they are spreading their roots, seeing how big their home is.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 19: growth continues and I sprayed them down with the foliar spray and put the cloth pots on a plant riser for better ventilation under the pots. Swiss cheese is starting to have a faint odor. I need to figure out a power backup system. I popped a breaker last night so the light cycle was interrupted for 2 minutes.

 

[Jibblerjoe]

They look great. Canuk147 is right, those plants are filling the pot with roots.

 

[gdogfunkly]

I just checked on the ladies and while they are moving along, SC was sort of leaning over against the side of the pot as if she's getting a bit top heavy (I have no problem with top-heavy ladies). However, I'm not sure if that she's just thirsty or if something else is amiss. The stem width seems to be the same as it has been and the leaf growth seems fine. But with the cloth pots and using LED, I'm unsure of how much to actually water when I do water, since I', using LED. I understand that I'm supposed to water less, but when I do water, should I just be giving a 1/2 cup drink or do I want to get most of the whole pot wet? When I stick my finger into the soil, it's a little moist at the tip of my finger, but everything else is dry. When I stick my moisture meter deep in the soil, it says moist in both pots, but since the top was mostly dry, I assumed she was thirsty and gave a 1/2 cup or so of my mixed URB/Cal-mag water. I shifted the dirt around to prop her up and she seemed to be fine. I'll check on them in a bit.

Any thoughts on whether I should be soaking the pot or just giving small drinks like this at this stage of the grow? I don't want to over water, but also don't want to under water either. I guess I'm slightly confused as to whether I should be trying to wet all of the soil in the pot or just the area near the base of the plant.

 

[Canuck147]

They are good looking plants. At this stage I would water, not around the stem, but around the edge of the pot. Water more than 1/2 cup. You want to have all your soil moistened. So I guess you are going to water more than around the edge.
I say this cuz you want your roots to fill up the whole pot. Encourage them with the water to fill that pot with roots. THEN, you have to wait till the dirt is totally dry before the next feeding.
Once their roots fill up their new home, they begin to fill out and grow.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 20: Swiss cheese seems to be a bit too heavy now and is leaning to the side of the pot. I watered with URB/cal-mag lightly thinking they were thirsty. Later in the day, she's still leaning. I'm hoping everything is ok, just getting big up top.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Should I water to the point of runoff or just enough to wet the soil?

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 21: I'm a bit disappointed in the growth over the last week. I don't know if I transplanted too early, over watered, of both. Compared to other grows using Platinum LEDs, my plants are FAR behind anything else I've seen. I've got my lights at 24" above the plants. Leaf development looks healthy and the nodes are tight together, but the stem on Swiss Cheese seems no wider than when it popped as a seedling and is falling against the edge of the pot. Maybe this is on track, but seems a bit slow to me. I'm comparing my grow to someone using two P300s in a similar sized tent, but they were using autos and maybe autos grow that much faster? Maybe my P4 light just lacks that much intensity versus having two P300s. I watered around the edges of the pots today, maybe that will help jump start some growth here.

Here's a diary with the two P300s. Should I be expecting this kind of growth by day 21? https://growdiaries.com/diaries/3886...ugh/week/18922 Check out his pics from week 3, Day 19. WAY farther along than I am.

 

[Aloner]

Looking pretty good but the Swiss Cheese does look a bit leggy. You could add some soil and bury some of that extra stem.

 

[gdogfunkly]

That's a great idea, thanks! I moistened some extra soil and filled both pots to bury the stems and they already appear much healthier. It looks like I'm approaching the 5th node soon on Swiss Cheese, should I top even if the stem is so thin? Does it matter if the stem is thin in order to top?

 

[Aloner]

I wouldn’t think it would make a difference but I don’t know for sure. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will weigh in.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 22: The ladies look much healthier to me now after a day of having additional soil supporting the stems. I also turned on the XML (boost) switch on the LED hoping for a bit more intensity. I checked back a little later and they seem very happy! I am thinking in a few days/week, I can think about topping to begin my first attempt at LST. We are on our way!

 

[gdogfunkly]

I learned that the grower I linked to started counting the day the seedling popped through the soil. I started my count the day I dropped the seed in water to get things started, so I'm a week behind that count and don't feel so bad now. lol

 

[Aloner]

Excellent!

 

[Jibblerjoe]

Looking great.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 23: the ladies are loving the added boost of light. I might experiment with lowering the light slightly and see how they respond. Mixed up my first batch of veg food and also mixed in the appropriate ration of cal-mag plus and URB. Fed each of them about a quart each. Had a little runoff on Swiss cheese, but none that I noticed on AH. Should I be watering until there is runoff at this stage? I upped my pH to around 6.4 after mixing the nutes and the TDS meter bounced around from 555-585, seemed to jump back to about 570, so I'm sticking to that number. I have a PDF I bought from Mr. Grow It and he has a PPM chart for growth stages and this was a touch higher than the recommended range, so I'll keep an eye on the next gallon I mix up. How do you reduce the ppm, just add more water to dilute it?

Also noticed a lovely perfume when I opened the tent today! Swiss Cheese has a nice odor now, but not quite as strong as Amnesia Haze.

 

[Canuck147]

Once you notice your leaves getting droopy, then you have watered too much.

 

[gdogfunkly]

After reading through the SCROG tutorial again, I decided I had enough growth to snip the 5th node. I'm not sure why some say to snip to the 3rd node? Shorter plants? My friend with an HPS setup commented how tight the nodes were. I'm pretty happy with everything so far and they are really responding well to the feeding.

 

[gdogfunkly]

Day 24: Wow! Amazing growth overnight after topping. Came home from work and the 4th set of leaves is reaching big time. Very pleased to see progress moving along now. Those first couple weeks are so frustratingly boring haha. Pots have plenty of moisture and I expect to need to water again by Saturday/Sunday.