Grow Journal - Second Indoor Grow: 600W HPS/MH, strain TBD...

[ellz]

Quick update...
I went ahead and topped my OG Kush plant since it was getting taller than the Peyote Cookies. I did let it grow out a bit more than the other plant first because of how far behind it was planted. It should be somewhat even now, at least until flower. The biggest reason was to ensure both plants got good light values. They are both getting abour 40k on my LUX meter so that's great. I'll try to upload some pictures later. My computer's bluetooth dongle broke. TeeHee. Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Pics

 

[ellz]

Actually OG Kush is on day 14 in this pic.

 

[ellz]

Actually OG Kush is on day 19

 

[ellz]

Been a while since I updated my grow journal so here's what's new:
I'm finishing week 3 of my nutrient schedule this week. The plants are way bigger now! They are also drinking up more water, since I'm now seeing my reservoir level drop over the week. Also, I noticed my Peyote Cookies plant has yellow between the veins which I believe means a magnesium deficiency. I checked my pH and it's 6.49 (which is a bit high but still in range. Nutrient change day is Friday so I will likely not take action until I change my nutes. Also, both plants are starting to smell like skunk. I hope that means two girls! I may force flower today or tomorrow. I don't think either are autos so I think I have to start them manually. Other than that, things are going pretty good. Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

***END OF VEGETATIVE STAGE***
Total veg time for Peyote Cookies: 44 days.
Total veg time for OG Kush: 32 Days.

Okay, so today I decided to begin the flowering phase since my youngest plant (OG Kush) was at least a month old. I swapped my MH bulb with my HPS bulb and changed my light timer to a 12-hour schedule. Now my light will be on from 8pm to 8am. I'm looking forward to finding out what sex the OG Kush plant is. The Peyote Cookies is supposed to be feminized. Also, yesterday began week 4 of my nutrient schedule. Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Just checked on my plants to see if the sex was showing and....WE HAVE TWO FEMALES!

On a sad note, while trying to tie down a branch on the OG Kush plant, it broke in half. Hopefully this won't stress the plant too bad. It seems to be very hearty as it was planted 12 days later than its sister and she's already bigger! If anything, it will most likely shed some light on the bottom of the plant.

As far as my reservoir, the plants are currently drinking up about 5 gallons a week but that will soon increase as they are really filling out. I will likely need to start top-offs in the next few weeks.

Until next time, happy growing!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Yeah for the female plant, sorry OG broke her arm

 

[ellz]

Thanks SoOrbudgal.

 

[ellz]

So, it's been a while since my last update because I started a new job and have been super busy but fortunately, DWC is almost automatic other than daily checks and top-offs. Both girls are doing great and have been steadily growing bigger by the day. I had to top-off the reservoir today with 5 gallons of pH'ed water with Hydroguard (no nutes). I dropped the pH to 5.8 because the water in the reservoir is likely much higher so this should balance it out. You can see videos and live footage of my grow using the links in my signature. Happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Quick update: I just did my nutrient change (now on nutrient week #7) and the girls are doing great. I decided to remove my carbon air filter because one, I really don't need to be discreet since people literally grow and consume weed everywhere around me in my neighborhood and two, I need to maximize my air flow because temperatures are supposed to get above 100ºF this week. The carbon filter is from my last grow and never came with a pre-fitler so it's pretty dirty and I have a feeling it's blocking airflow because of it. When I took it off, I noticed a substantial difference in suction at the doorway. Hoping that keeps me around 80ºF or below during the high-heat days. I also have my swamp cooler running outside the grow room in the garage. Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Yesterday (Tuesday), I had to add 5 gallons of plain, pHed water with Hydroguard. I set the pH to 6.07 because it typically runs high after the plants have absorbed half or more of the nutrients. This should help balance it out. I also removed any dead or dying leaves as well as all the small, scrawny colas that were basically just taking up light and space. The plant looks a lot better now and there is more light getting to more parts. Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

It's been about 10 days since my last update so here's what you missed:

- Saturday, July 11th: Drained reservoir and refilled with 10 gallons of week 8 formula pH'ed to 6.06
- Wednesday, July 15th: Topped off the reservoir with 5 gallons of water with Hydroguard pH'ed to 6.10
- Saturday, July 18th: Drained reservoir and refiled with 10 gallons of week 9 formula pH'ed to 5.95

I also trimmed off a bit of lower leaves, small colas and dead growth.

My light is almost at it's max height. Plants are in their final flowering phase.

I'm also thinking of repeating nutrient week 9 on my next drain/refill because I am estimating that the plants are presently in the "mid-bloom" phase and week 9 on my schedule is the last week of that phase. Next are week 10 (late bloom), week 11 (ripen) and week 12 (flush). Since there is no way I'm close to late bloom, I will repeat week 9 until I am at that point.

Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Here's what you've missed since the last update:

My plants currently appear to be suffering from heat stress because growth has slowed dramatically and the smaller leaves are clawing. To me, I think the daytime highs have really taken a toll. The best I can hope for during extremely hot days is keeping my room under 90ºF during peak temps with the light on. Once the Sun has set and outside temps finally drop, I am able to keep my room temps around 80ºF and if I'm lucky I can get as low as 75ºF if the outside temp is low. I really need a portable air conditioner in my garage but I can't spare the amps because of how the how was wired when it was built. Hopefully by next summer I can have that corrected. It won't be an issue from fall through spring. On Thursday I topped off reservoir with pHed (6.11pH) and HydroGuard water. Reservoir was nearly back to 10 gallons after top-off.

I plan on going back to nutrient week number 7 (I'm currently on week 9's formula) because the plant's growth has slowed dramatically and I feel the phase would just now be considered the beginning of "Mid bloom" which starts at week 7 on the GH calendar. Hopefully that will help the girls bulk up a bit.

Until next time, happy growing!

 

[ellz]

Another MAJOR update: I'm changing my light schedule based on the weather. The new light schedule will be: ON from 10pm to 10am, OFF from 10am to 10pm.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Great work @eliz i need to flip mine soon also and it's just gotten real warm here. I've not ever run my LEDs during the summer heat this will be a first with a photo tent and closing her up for lights out. I have to keep the bottom tent vents rolled open the room is closed off and no light will get to them.

 

[ellz]

A few things you've missed...

On July 26, 2020 I flushed the reservoir and refilled it with week 7's formula (pH was around 6.10) as I feel the girls are still in the early phase of "mid bloom" and I'm hoping it will help fill them out. The heat was so bad that I swapped my light's ON time to 10pm until 10am (approx.) to help keep the room temps down. I was getting upwards of 90ºF before the change and now I'm topping out under 85ºF now. I also made some adjustments to my garage that will allow the swamp cooler to run longer without increasing the humidity as high as before. Still seeing the clawing leaves on smaller growth but it is what it is so we're growing it to the end.

I've attached a pic from each plant below. You'll notice the OG Kush is frosting up fairly well even with the clawing. Then there is the odd "stalk" that morphed into a bud cluster sight on the Peyote Cookies plant. I really don't know how that happened but it did and it's cool so enjoy! Until next time, happy growing!

OG Kush:


Peyote Cookies:

 

[ellz]

Thanks SoOrbudgal!

 

[SoOrbudgal]

That is a very odd stalk ellz very interesting morph? They are looking really dark green? I'm still training one photo in the tent and getting her a tad bigger before 12/12 switch but yes i will be needing to run my lights nearly same times as you. Very warm evenings here don't look forward to closing up the tent at all and we may have to have heat/cooling pump run.

 

[ellz]

Bad news...
While editing together today's time lapse video, I noticed my light randomly kicked on for about a minute part of the way through my dark hours. I have absolutely no clue why it would do that since it's on a timer and set to be off. It's a mechanical timer so maybe a tab is not seated properly.

I checked the timer and one of the tabs wasn't all the way up (it was just barely protruding) so I pressed it in place.

The light came on for less than a minute about 2 hours after it went off so basically my girls got 10 hours of dark in a row, not 12.