My 1st Grow Journal - 3rd crop, coco grow.

[MadMike]

After posting questions and pics in other growers journals I decided I should have my own.

Setup:

3' x 4'x 4' room

Lights -
2x 300w Viparspectra LED
1x 600w Viparspectra LED
2x 70 HPS

Using General Hydroponics Nutrient System

Started plants on 10/31/17

Tried out manifold technique for first time and it really slowed things down for a while there. Followed tutorial pretty closely so maybe to be expected.
Growing as a SCROG so manifold benefits aren't that strong, but it gave me a better sense of how to prune/shape them for the next grow so I think the experiment was well worth it.

Switched to 12/12 on 1/5/18 so Day 19 for flower.
(Actually running 11/13 hours and have been glad to have the 1 hour extra when my work in the room runs late - + 2:00 am.)

Plants:

2x Skunk #1
Jack Herer
Lithium OG Kush
AK 47
White Widow auto

The white widow started to foxtail a while ago and I think it was from keeping it on the early and middle bloom feed schedule too long. Running a lean late bloom schedule for it now and actually pinched off the tops of a few of the buds and they seem to be filling out more now. I could say a lot about that little plant... But it's not really my focus.

Right now the runoff is reading around 5-5.3 for everyone except the Herer, which is at 6.0.

Temps have been great lately at 76-78 degrees day and night. I have a heater in the room so it keeps the temps even. Though last few days it has been dipping into the upper 60's at night which I was stoked about. Checked today though and day time had sprung up to 86 degrees. Why the shift, who knows? My lung room is adjacent and since it's a basement grow that room (big closet really) tends to stay cold but it might be varying enough with the weather to cause the fluctuations. Dialed down the thermostat just a hair and will see how it looks tomorrow.
The heater has a cardboard trough it blows through to keep the air off the pots until it mixes with a fan stream at the back of the room. Works well.

Humidity as been between 39-45% or so. Happy with conditions overall!

Defoliated on 1/24 but was a touch conservative on it as I think I have over done it in the past. I've seen some amazing grows here that seem to have a dense canopy. Plus, the low height of the room means I'm keeping the plants real low so it's more of a carpet canopy.

Started noticing some Mg deficiency in the Herer two days ago. Checking the pH chart I see that above 5.5 starts to cause a drop in Mg uptake. **slaps his forehead** I've been trying to raise the pH... So, tomorrow I start trying to lower it I guess.

Symptoms are in center of room which has a crazy light exposure. Reading around 900-100 micromoles. I know that's high but, 1. I can't raise the light, and 2. I need that intensity for the rest of the room. I'm going to make a shade cloth canopy for the center of the room to tone that down a bit. I suspect the Mg problem is showing more since the plants are a little stressed from the light in that area.

I'd point out which plant is which in the photos but it's hard for me to tell since I have trained some stems far from the pots and they interweave. When I want to check, it takes me a couple of minutes to trace a bud back to it's source. Easiest one is AK 47 front left.

AK 47 is paler than the rest of the room and I thought it just needed more feeding. But it's showing a touch of tip burn (like the rest of the room) so maybe it's more phenotypic. Not sure, but it seems to be doing well in any case.

 

[MadMike]

First pic is a new symptom I'm seeing on a couple of the Lithium buds - hairs browning out. New within the last two days. Reads about 1000 micromoles near it, but other buds getting similar light don't look similar. Still, it's a little intense for light.
Last two are the Mg symptoms from the Herer. Again, in center of room so highest light levels. I clip problem leaves so I can track if the symptoms are spreading.

 

[UrbZ]

Thats lithium og kush correct?


Nevermind that I saw it in the OP and had a case of cerebral flatulence.

I think you are fine on the coloring. I was researching that strain as I was interested to buy some seeds.

Several of the pics I saw had some similar patterns on buds. Early on and throughout flower.

 

[UrbZ]

You can see similar coloring all through this bud with extremely dark orange hairs, almost red. They probably take a while to get that dark so I could see it showing up early.

 

[MadMike]

And this is my new shade cloth for the center of the room. Light levels there are now around 750 micromoles. Much more reasonable.

 

[MadMike]

Interesting. That's a little reassuring. I'll be keeping an eye on it and let you know how it progresses.

 

[DingusKhan]

Attaboy, MadMike. Nice work.

 

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning MadMike, I thought you already had a journal going, I guess not, but I know I used to see your posts, an we communicated a few times, lol.
Man your plants are looking great, to me. Those brown pistils possibly coming from the intense light, but that shield is a great idea, you get your PH out right an smooth sailing, at least i hope, you know what your doing, good luck.

 

[Campesino]

Looking good MadMike !
I like the shade cloth! seems like the perfect material

 

[Canuck147]

Looks real good. But won't that shade material thingie trap moisture underneath it? If it does, it will only encourage mold.

 

[MadMike]

Yah, you've seen me around D.A.A.S.69. I figured I should stop posting my pics in someone else's posts.
@ Campesino - The cloth is a support material for making molds with resin. (I have had a history with moldmaking.) It's perfect since it has a light weave. But I have used cheese cloth before and it works quite well in a single layer.

 

[MadMike]

The shade cloth is has a pretty open structure and the air flow in the room will keep the humidity even so it won't be a problem. I've used shades on other plants many time in the past - non-cannabis mostly - and it doesn't create a problem. Good question!

 

[MadMike]

Thanks.

 

[MadMike]

I'm going to take a chance and experiment with adding some humic acid to the water tonight - no nutes.

The humic acid is TeraVita SP-90 purchased on Amazon. 90% humic acid - 100% soluable. Instructions on the bag are to mix 8oz to 1 gallon to make a concentrate. Then it says for soil drench, 1 oz/gal water. That sounded pretty strong to me.

Did some math on their mix suggestion and it comes out at .0625 oz of humic in the water for the soil drench. So, not that much after all. Comes out a touch higher than 1/4 tsp./gallon. But I'm always annoyed with these kinds of instructions since I'm not sure if they mean 8 oz by weight OR volume -- why, why don't we use metric?... For some materials they often come out close, but an 8 oz cup of lead isn't going to weigh 8 oz if you get my drift.

Because I'm worried about some crazy reaction - like rapid nute burn or similar, I'll try 1/4 tsp of powder in 3 gallons with a 1/4 tsp. of Yucca Extract and see...
I have used the Yucca occasionally and I'm not convinced of its benefits. Seems like you need to add a lot more to get a real surfactant boost from it. I've used a tablespoon in 3 gallons before. But I'm going to be more conservative on this one.

Let you know how it comes out.

 

[Campesino]

I don't think you have much to worry about with it. If it does amazing things I'll follow your lead.

 

[Obi-Wan]

When measuring dry/solid ingredients think 8 oz. by weight, when measuring liquid ingredients think 8 oz. by volume.

 

[MadMike]

That makes sense and I guess I kind of knew that, but not everyone has a scale to measure dry weight. But... I do have a scale that could handle that so I suppose I could have gone that route, and should have. Doing the revised math now.

 

[MadMike]

After good prompting, I broke out my scale and did some conversions. Accuracy of of my measured weights are probably +/- 10% or lower.
The breakdown:
(oz is by weight, not volume)

Terravita SP-90 recommendation application rate:

8 oz / gal concentrate
1 oz concentrate / gal for soil drench

That makes the application rate 8oz / 128 oz = .0625 oz / gallon by weight.

Measuring the mass of the powder I get:

1 tbls = 8.5 g = .3 oz (by weight)
1 tsp = 2.8 g = .09 oz
1/4 tsp = .7 g = .025 oz

So their recommended application by volume: (.0625 oz. / gal) / (.09 oz / tsp) = .7 tsp. (dry weight) / gal
We can round that to .75 tsp / gal

I applied .25 tsp / 3 gal for an application rate of .08 tsp / gallon.
A very conservative application indeed!

I'm going to continue this application rate for the next 2 waterings/fertilizing and that will give me a total application of .25 tsp (about 1/3 the recommended dose).
That gives me some time to observe and then I'll wait for the next 3 waterings/ferts and observe some more. If things look o.k., I'll repeat the cycle and see.

One thing this is totally unknown is if their recommendation is for applying the humic acid at every watering or just once for the entire grow. That is kind of important so taking it slow is even more important to me.

I will say that the humic acid is incredibly potent at tinting the water. Since I am measuring pH using the GH liquid pH indicator, the tint makes it a little more difficult to determine what the pH is. I don't think I could add more 1/4 tsp. humic to a single 3 gallon bucket and tell what the pH is with any confidence. But man, when you drop in the powder, it looks really trippy as it starts to dissolve. Pretty cool.

 

[Campesino]

Is this just an abundance of caution or are you concerned about a specific adverse reaction? I am not aware of any way you could OD on Humic acid. The main benefit will probably be its role in Cation exchange - It will allow plants access to nutrients at sub-optimal Ph. So, I suppose that may compensate for the fact that you can't easily see Ph anymore!

 

[MadMike]

Oh boy. I'm not known for my brevity. When I get going, I get going... You may want to get a cup of coffee for this one.

Well, I haven't seen any solid info humic acid other than anecdotes from people using commercial humic mixes. I'm not a fan of anecdotes, and I'm actually not happy about me not having 1 or more control plants. But the biggest hazard I have seen is that it increases the uptake of nutrients and so I'm cautious about burning the plants. I have a touch of tip browning from excess nutes already so I don't want to ramp that up. (Interestingly, the Skunk #1's show almost no tip burn. Resilient little gals.)

I'm also concerned about how it might affect soil pH. I haven't read much on that but it seems like one possible effect. I've read it acts as a pH buffer, but also that it reduces the pH in the soil.. It could do both, one or the other, or neither... That's just speculation. Probably over cautious. I do like the idea of the plants absorbing nutrients outside of normal ph ranges so hopefully it will help out my Herer. That would be great.

The only semi-reputable info on humic acid is from Harely Smith of NPK industries. He appears very informative but he is the only information on using a variety of RAW products and he is often cited on other places on the web. The peer reviewed research on humic acid mainly comes from commercial crop production -- turf and farms.

So, I feel like I don't know enough about it to just jump in. Extra cautious so late into flowering.

Here is a slight tangent on studying adjuncts to cannabis growing, which explains a little of my caution. This isn't boasting or ranting so think of this more as a stream of thought while we are sitting at a bar having a beer and chatting. Actually, I would love to have beer with you. *grin*

I have a science background so controlled studies and peer reviewed research are the only benchmarks I really trust. There isn't much of that in the cannabis community, but that makes sense. Commercial growing is new in the U.S., and commercial growers are likely to keep their knowledge close to their chests as company secrets. University research has been hamstrung by the Feds and still is highly restricted. So, much of the learning is being shouldered by the community.

Most of us are growing just a few plants at a time, and we often have wide variations in growing conditions in our tents -- mainly light levels but also pH variations between plants like my Herer, which seems to be changing its pH more compared to the other plants. I know I've been restricted to 6 plants with very little duplication -- with choosing two of the same variety in the room at once being my norm, if I can have a norm with only 3 crops experience. *chuckle* It's fun to grow different varieties after all. So doing a controlled study is tricky even for me.

Add to that the fact that we are growing from f1 hybrid seeds and we often see phenotypic variations from the same varieties. I noticed a big difference between my current Lithium OG Kush and the one I grew last round. F1 hybrids are first generation crosses so variation is to be expected. I didn't even know seeds were F1's until just recently. Very informative! (If you don't know what an F1 hybrid is, let me know. I am happy to explain. It's cool if your a science geek.)

The result of this is a wide variety of opinions, applications, types of products, phenotypic variation, etc. that makes it a bit of a trick to know what works best and why. Hmm...

Thinking about it more, the best way to learn is from cloning one plant and then growing a sea of green. I could probably do 12-15 or more plants in my room and just flip them to flower after a few weeks of veg. That number of plants would compensate for room variations and would allow for a better sample size for different applications. A small sample statistically speaking, but still informative. Plus it would produce a much shorter growing time allowing less dedicated time to experiments. Hmm... If I did 20, I could do two experimental sets allowing for 10 plants -- say 5 with and without humic acid -- and 10 plants for rooting hormone supplements during veg or molasses during flowering or another specialty product like 'Advanced Nutrients Bud Candy Fertilizer'. Distributing the test and control plants evenly though the room would help knock out room variations. Plus, a sea of green would work pretty well for a grower with only 4' head space.

The only problem is that without testing buds for THC and CBD levels means determining the effect of variables is restricted to observations during growth and smoker surveys for things like strength, taste, odor, etc. Of course, it's always easy to find survey respondents.

Actually, I like this idea a lot. I think I'm going to pursue this. During my next grow I'll take several cuttings from a plant and propagate them for a test round. If I flip the next grow quickly I can do the testing not too far down the road. Thinking on this further, flipping the room quicker on the next grow means I can get a feel for a sea of green grow in prep for the experimental round. It would certainly mean less training... That's been taking a lot of time, especially during the stretching during the cycle flip.

I guess I should add a few more seeds to my order to fill up the room. I just bought some bitcoin (a first for me!) so I'm putting in the order today. Oh, this will be good fun! Hopefully I can add something useful to the cannabis community's knowledge base.

Oh! If you know of anyone here who is doing something similar to this let me know. I would love to see what they are doing!