Jimski grow journal #2 Back to my roots

[Jimski]

Howdy everyone!
Part 2 starts with a pivot back to how I have grown outside for the last 33 years. I am still going to do hydro but it will be a larger tent with a 4 tote rdwc. In the mean time I gotta grow some weed.

Tent 31x31x67
2 vivosun 150 watt selectable spectrum on vivosun app. Sweeping clip on fan and fans in lights set to random pattern. All ventilation on roof of tent including carbon filter. Heat and humidity control with all ac infinity heat box and 17L humidifier and both on 69 pro control.
No bubblers no pumps and no jugs of water all over the table.

Media is back to my roots, soil.
In the barn is a 1/2 bale of promix. Still sealed but not trustworthy for inhouse. Found some seedling miracle grow and thats a keeper. Have used this starting everything from flowers to veggies. Main media will be 5 gallon fabric pots on wicking bases with the wicks not used. Bases used just for drainage. Mix will be 50% happy frog and 50% ocean forest. Top dressing ingredients include Ewc Vermiculite and compost. Have no intention of using ferts but I have jacks available.
White widow from seed with 3 pots filled. Best 2 get bachalor quarters and the last 2 get to share a pot. Best 3 get advanced to mid veg and best 2 go to finals a few weeks into flower.
Seeds wet and will be checked 2 times daily for planting directly i

 

[Jimski]

Photos

Much cleaner and easier to work on. 5 sensors on the center drop. Air is through the infinity heater or drawn through insect screen at floor level.

 

[Jimski]

3 seeds popped today and all installed in MG starter soil. Temp 77 rh 74 water from top and keep seedling area damp but not wet. Light at 25% all pots within 60 of 5200 lux. I do not move my light I just change power or elevate plants if needed. Tent smells like clean dirt. No visible or touchable moisture on walls. Catch basin for ACI humidifier 4oz today with 3 quarts ro used in humidifier.

 

[Jimski]

All 5 seeds have popped and have been installed in MG seed starter. 4 have emerged into the light and have gone about the business of converting photons into mass. Over the last 2 grows this makes 9 for 9 pops from Ilgm. After purchasing another $16 in RO water I will finish the install of the RO filter from geekpure.

Plan is to cull first plant 3 weeks into veg.

After getting my water test back from Jacks I am going to use cold tap as it has disolved calcium at pretty good levels.
Set RH at 75% and this has condensate up to 8 oz a day. Rh in basement hammered down to 40% due to weather. Dumping so much water the heater box struggles keeping 78 degrees and runs constant on 10.
Tent smells like clean dirt.
Love this hobby.

 

[Jimski]

Update
Finished install on geekpure RO filter. The ACI unit drinks $3 a day so enough of that. Takes ppm from high 300's to 12.
4 seedlings are progressing well with all 4 starting to wilt round leaves and have sprouted 3rd set. Lights are set higher than I thought was appropriate I am at 15000lux which for my last grow at the same time frame was under 10k but no signs of stress and verticle growth slowed.

77 degrees 76 RH
I open the tent once a day for draining condensate bowl and watering if needed.

 

[Jimski]

Update
Have had connection problems since purchasing the Vivosun controller and have figgured it out. System really hates voltage fluctuations. Installed computer grade ups from previous hobby and stabilized Vivosun controller. The ACI controller was and is much more durable and never bailed but is also on UPS.
Growth horizontally has taken off with 1/2inch in 24 hours.

 

[Jimski]

update
Disaster.
While watering last night my water jug failed me. Well I failed to tighten properly my water jug after filling.


1/2 gallon cartoon top fell off and glugged like 4 times after knocking solo cup off seedling and flatning my baby girl.
Bucked up with some seedling starter and cleaned dirt off. Turned RH down to 70 and directed air to this pot.
This morning I have an overwatered seedling fighting the good fight. Next 24 hours will be key. Dry baby Dry.

 

[Jimski]

Update.

Little seedling dried out just fine. lime color fading and sprouting new growth.

Lets be careful out there.

 

[Jimski]

update
Wow busy day. Got sick of wires at 2 outlets and ran a dedicated 30 amp box w 4 gfi outlets. Used an old hot tub breaker and already had the wire.
Decided to get a little heat on the girls and am using a ceramic forced air heater to boost the aci heater box. FYI heater box good for about 10 degrees which with basement temps at floor at 65 degrees is asking a lot. Now heat box runs about 50% of the time on high and when on low of setting 2 it draws in heated air to flatten the peaks and valleys when the duct fan runs.
81 degrees which is plus 4 over a 4 hour period. 77 RH.
Abused plant still damp after 36 hours about 4 inches down. Other pots dry but will let them ride a little I do not want a split water schedule in my tent.

 

[Jimski]

Update
Watered dry plants showing no stress at all. One plant has a funky first presented leaf but was not carried to second leaf set.
Another thing I did was put the water jug in the tent. Came across a post where grower stated after watering plants they always seemed stunned somehow and he eliminated everything except pouring 66 degree water into a 82 degree pot of dirt. Mine has not shown any problems but seems like a good idea.
I know I should not be doing this but the little fighter plant really is my favorite. Kicked into the dirt and drowned she has risen up and is fourishing. She has been named Dunky.

 

[Jimski]

update

Seeing good growth with 3 new sets of leaves on all ppants and some verticle separation. Upped lights to 45% and temps at 82 and RH at 78%.
Have gone through first 16 gallons of RO in humidifier. Time to make more.
Leveled out all pots with seedling mix and HF. Let everyone dry out well and rotated pots in tent.

Spent some time in tent moving and adjusting Humidity hose and fan action. put stoner built cover on wire drop to slow huge swings from air movement.
Emptied condensate bowl. Going to have to develop a drain system as once plants fill in I would have to remove at least one to reach bowl.
White Widow 10 days above ground.

Dunky has the sensor and cup

 

[Jimski]

update
All plants doing well and all have 4 new leaves. The mixed expressions of this pheno have landed on 3 different types. All have been given same base soil and all have been watered the same.Lux map par map whatever is very level same light every plant.
Plant one is stretching and reaching. It is 2 inches taller than the 2 middle expressions that look like well developed seedlings entering early veg. The 3rd expression is the tight bushy plant part of the pheno traits. It has the slowest growth but the most level color and looks like so many of the pictures on the site.

Cull options are closing. With a 63 inch tall tent stretchy expressions will outgrow the tent. The 2 middle regular ho hum plants will get the job done and so far at the sme rate. The smaller more bushy will be kept as a backup and I still might do something fun as a learning experiance. The other good thing about culling the stretchy one is that it has another plant in the same pot.

Thanks to the Doctor of Cultivation I am not stuck with just 2 plants. He culls for performance and I believe this saved me from having 1 stretchy and one bushy making my very new grow self more stressed on balancing lights and stuff.
lights at 65% 16k lux 240 mol all tops measure 82 degrees. Throttling back RH to 72% vpd 1.o will slowly trend these up over the next week.
With change in lights will check every 4 hours for issues and with drop in RH will check for increased water needs.

 

[Jimski]

Update

With a brief respite from cold and dry we have 52 and raining. Going up to 84 degrees in the tent and balancing RH to stay at " 1.o vdp". Plants are loving the heat and light. Did a IPM walk about and found nothing.
One plant contunues to lag and remain squat but is filling out. All plants very much like dry roots as the grow accelerates 20 hours or so after watering and slows after watering. I have not held back water to droop but after 3 weeks I will try this on one plant to gauge effectiveness of my plan. Ph'd another 3 gallons of tap to 6.3 and all are at 360 ppm of free nutes. I do have one pot with 2 plants but the watering is the same schedule.
84° 75% RH lights at 67%
Bottom airflow at 95° on duct 3 setting. Heater temp outflow 110° on setting 8 with low at setting 4. Humidity setting 4 on and setting 2 off.
The ACI app and the vivosun app all say the same thing with the difference being the Vivosun is a slow and steady wave and the ACI is a skitter bug of movement but the averages are exactly the same.

White widow 16 days above ground.

 

[Jimski]

Update
Culled stretchy plant today leaving 2 at 5 nodes and the dwarf at 4. Went ahead and fimmed the 2 taller plants and will wait on smaller one. Starting to wonder if this dwarf is a different strain as the leaves are thinner and much more squat.
When I culled I inspected the roots and I was not impressed. Almost 3 weeks in and the roots are barely past the seedling mix and into the FF mix. Soil is much slower but honestly this matches my pace right now.

Temp 82 RH 70% lights 65% duct 1 on 1 off setting 3. Water every day now.

 

[Jimski]

Update
Problem setting up a stable RH based on humidity. Damn ACi unit was plus or minus .7 degrees on heat but on the humidity its a 6% range. Spots of PM on walls but due to airflow none on plants. Wiping down tent with ACV as I fixed the condition.

I was against setting up the humidity on VDP as I had a couple of situations arise with the system. First I bumped the controls and turned the heat on 10. of course its trying to set vdp and it dumped steam in so thick the walls dripped. This happens during flower I would be screwed.

As it turns out you can lock the screen to prevent this. Who knew? Prolly everyone who read the f'n manual.

So anyways 80 degree temp 1.0 vdp giving a rolling 2.4% rh swing around 69% Again the date from the Vivosun and ACi units agree just ACI skitters and Vivosun marches.
Upped water yesturday to 1/2 gallon split between 3 pots. Still 6.3 adjusted. Flipped to veg setting at 65% and with the increase in spectrum range the hedgehog plant was canoing a bit. Only plant that did this. Checked lux and found still at 17k but I changed the spectrum from the list and its at 340 ppfd. Dropped to 60% for last 4 hours last night and leaf curl stopped.

Now I have a question for anyone following. Look at the presented leafs and color on the dwarf plant. All soil and lights and watering have been the same but the plant is more squat with thinner leaves. The other 2 plants looks identicle down to stem count and secondary stems. Is this just another presentation of the genetic lottery for White widow or did I get a random seed in my order?

WW 22 days above ground.

 

[Fatjoe]

Your rolling along here all alone..lol.

Gonna jump in here. I love a good WW grow.

 

[FmSwayze]

Update
Problem setting up a stable RH based on humidity. Damn ACi unit was plus or minus .7 degrees on heat but on the humidity its a 6% range. Spots of PM on walls but due to airflow none on plants. Wiping down tent with ACV as I fixed the condition.

I was against setting up the humidity on VDP as I had a couple of situations arise with the system. First I bumped the controls and turned the heat on 10. of course its trying to set vdp and it dumped steam in so thick the walls dripped. This happens during flower I would be screwed.

As it turns out you can lock the screen to prevent this. Who knew? Prolly everyone who read the f'n manual.

So anyways 80 degree temp 1.0 vdp giving a rolling 2.4% rh swing around 69% Again the date from the Vivosun and ACi units agree just ACI skitters and Vivosun marches.
Upped water yesturday to 1/2 gallon split between 3 pots. Still 6.3 adjusted. Flipped to veg setting at 65% and with the increase in spectrum range the hedgehog plant was canoing a bit. Only plant that did this. Checked lux and found still at 17k but I changed the spectrum from the list and its at 340 ppfd. Dropped to 60% for last 4 hours last night and leaf curl stopped.

Now I have a question for anyone following. Look at the presented leafs and color on the dwarf plant. All soil and lights and watering have been the same but the plant is more squat with thinner leaves. The other 2 plants looks identicle down to stem count and secondary stems. Is this just another presentation of the genetic lottery for White widow or did I get a random seed in my order?

WW 22 days above ground.
View attachment 5446574

Very interesting question, could be a genetic expression. Also could be root/growth issue. My last grow, one of the smallest plants became the Goliath, I wouldn't discount it yet.

 

[Fatjoe]

For 20+ days above ground they look right on time. Yeah, ya get a slow poke now n then but it'll bounce out of it.

With WW ya got the tropical side and the Afghan side. Even though it's a classic stable plant variants happen.

This PM you mention on walls is concerning. Gotta get that environment dialed in. Unusual to see mildew or mold on tent walls. I'm sure you'll figure it out. It's a must if you want to succeed.

 

[Jimski]

For 20+ days above ground they look right on time. Yeah, ya get a slow poke now n then but it'll bounce out of it.

With WW ya got the tropical side and the Afghan side. Even though it's a classic stable plant variants happen.

This PM you mention on walls is concerning. Gotta get that environment dialed in. Unusual to see mildew or mold on tent walls. I'm sure you'll figure it out. It's a must if you want to succeed.

Little tiny white dots less than a dozen. With a 6 % RH swing I was on the lookout. Down to 1 up 1 down now. Several changes I make with P M. Fix conditions. STOP scheduled off on duct and go to full time air moving. 2 fans in lights and one fan on pole sweeping makes a very chaotic airflow. With the duct on 3 I get a nice steady flow from duct located at pot level in the middle. When it steams to catch up you can see the cloud get shoved down then hits the sweep fan and flings outward toward front door only to be caught by the heater pointing above canopy. If I get a return of PM I will reduce temp and RH further as I would rather have a slower grow than be fighting mildew.

Basement grows...........