2nd grow, 1st Indoors, 4yr old seeds

Intro
Hello RIU! 2nd grow ever, First indoor grow. Seeds were from an old local grower who got them online, said "these were that strain's 4th gen", whatever that matters lol(educate me?) Been 4-5 yrs since that first outdoor I harvested early cause budrot. I stored the remaining seeds in cellophane, inside a Marb box, within a metal tin for whenever I could grow again. Hoping to see how bomb this strain can be with a proper full grow!

SETUP+ENVIRONMENT

3 plants in 3 gal fabric pots
32"x32"x62" tent
Medium ~11.3qts/pot : 55% Jiffy starter(peat moss, coir pith, Lyme, vermiculite), 37% Epsoma Organic Potting Mix, 8% Perlite
Temp: 72-80(74 most common)
Humidity: 48-62(54 most common)
Gecilioaran 100watt LED(301H diodes)
4" exhaust fan(130cfm@50%) + carbon filter

NUTES/FOOD

• Epsoma Organic Starter Plus(4-3-3) was mixed LIGHTLY in soil before potting. Called for 0.75 or 3/4th tbsp/qt soil - I did 1tsp/quart, little less than half. NOTE: It does contain 2.4 time release nitrogen, won't use next time.
• Alaska Fish Emulsion(5-1-1)
• Hormodin 1(root hormone)

Germination Jan 24th
I did the float in water germination method with 12 seeds. First 24hrs nothing, next morning I had one taproot peeking out. I'd read not to soak beyond 48hrs? So planted the one sprout by itself with high hopes, and said fuck it and planted the rest in pairs in probably the dumbest broke mans start cups . Used only Jiffy Organic Seed Starter. The one broke the soil surface in 2-3 days. I didn't have much faith the other seeds would, then 5 days later 2 MORE!


Seedlings
Transplanted all 3 to red cups after 2 days.

• To separate the planted pair: lights were dim, pulled out the cardboard divider, holding horizontal then bent the cardboard section open at the fold. They damn near separated themselves, just pulled one seedling gently by the stem base and had hardly any resistance. I used a Q-tip to dip into the hormodin and couple taps like your ashing a cigarette around the root and a little in the new grow medium's transplant hole.

Slow first 2 weeks: I over watered - leaves looked like they'd cry if you cut the surface, bought a foot tall oscillating fan which broke one cotlyedon 99% off. Thought for sure that seedling was done for, yet two days later SHE HAD REPAIRED HERSELF! Didn't know plants could do that. Grew right around its stem to where the end chunk was hanging by a thread.
3rd week was great! That "OHH FOCK YEAH" feeling when I'd check on them.
4th week they all had 3-4 nodes and the red cups medium was still just the jiffy starter, so I transplanted with hormodin to their final 3 gal fabric pots. THEN the next day I was told I'd be working out of town for the following 4 days. Soooo with that in mind, and that the plants being twice the size they were when I started adding Alaska Fish Emulsion at 25%, I figured I'd double the nutes. 4 days later(which I only had to stay out for 2) I got a few issues which I believe I've narrowed down with help here in another thread. Here are pics of the grow issue - PH of soil is 7 and I'm lowering it tonight when I water.

I believe the high pH is affecting nutrient uptake minorly, as well as a slight nitrogen burn from the extra Emulsion, and this morning magnesium deficiency starting I think.


I plan to use vinegar and Epsom salts(pure) this evening to lower pH and boost Magnesium. Hoping it works bc the one plant has even rusty tips on new growth

My take is, it’s nute burn probably caused by poorly developed roots from overwatering. Your soil ph is fine at 7. Ph you water/nutes going in to 6.2. It also looks like they are still overwatered. Let the pots get light before you water again. Don’t use the fish emulsion until they’re bigger and healthier. Don’t mess with the soil ph, chances are you’ll do more harm than good. For an almost 3x3 growing space 100 watts is about a third of what you need. So keep them tight under the light.

Phytoplankton said:

My take is, it’s nute burn probably caused by poorly developed roots from overwatering. Your soil ph is fine at 7. Ph you water/nutes going in to 6.2. It also looks like they are still overwatered. Let the pots get light before you water again. Don’t use the fish emulsion until they’re bigger and healthier. Don’t mess with the soil ph, chances are you’ll do more harm than good. For an almost 3x3 growing space 100 watts is about a third of what you need. So keep them tight under the light.

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Yeah patience is something I'm still learning when watering. The pic with all 3 is from this afternoon. The top inch or so is dry, maybe I should start plunging a whole finger in to test dryness lol. When people say dry..must mean almost bone dry. I plan to buy another identical grow light to have ~ 200 watts and healthy coverage for flowering. With their current state my 100watt is about 20" away and at 50%. Took some adjusting to find this spot, they were experiencing some bleaching back in week 2.

bignugs68 said:

Yeah patience is something I'm still learning when watering. The pic with all 3 is from this afternoon. The top inch or so is dry, maybe I should start plunging a whole finger in to test dryness lol. When people say dry..must mean almost bone dry. I plan to buy another identical grow light to have ~ 200 watts and healthy coverage for flowering. With their current state my 100watt is about 20" away and at 50%. Took some adjusting to find this spot, they were experiencing some bleaching back in week 2.

Click to expand...

Watering is probably the toughest thing to learn when growing. You want to them to really dry out, not bone dry. Ideally, watering the day before they would wilt would be perfect, (but my crystal ball is broken LOL). Best of luck, parting advice, when you think you should water, wait another day or two. 200 watts should really help!

Phytoplankton said:

Watering is probably the toughest thing to learn when growing. You want to them to really dry out, not bone dry. Ideally, watering the day before they would wilt would be perfect, (but my crystal ball is broken LOL). Best of luck, parting advice, when you think you should water, wait another day or two. 200 watts should really help!

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Thank ya good sir! I am learning that less at first is better with a lot when growing - light intensity, nutrients, water. And its wild that the one plant is struggling WAY more than the other 2 with the same conditions as far as I'm aware of haha. Gotta be one of the best hobby's though, the amount of hours I spent reading and learning, then over scratching the brain to figure setup and stuffs. World needs more people doing hands on shit lol.

5th Week
The nute burn has stopped. 2 days ago I fed them 8oz's of water with vinegar to lower pH, and 1/4th teaspoon/8oz of pure epsom salts for magnesium. PH is now reading 6-6.5(relitest color scale). It'd been 9 days from previous watering and normally I'd feed about 12oz's each. So with the medium so dry - pulled away from pot perimeter, I decided to water about 6oz's each with 1/4th teaspoon FF Big Bloom, around their outer perimeter yesterday. The first pour that went straight to the bottom, so I did dribble pours around each, didn't get run off. I have noticed some roots popping out around midways to 1/3 from bottom of fabric pots, which tells me the root systems are still growing from say 3 days ago. Eliminated concerns of root rot(I think ).

Today they're standing tall and looking better. However I do have one plant with the bottom first leaves accumulating these black/gray, decay looking spots. Rest of the plant is rebounding well, so hoping those spots are just from all the stress.

These babies reached the halfway mark in my tent. I'm calculating for a 2.5x potential stretch, so I did some basic LST. I'm hoping it will help grow the lower 1 or 2 nodes' shoots as currently only the top of the plant is wide. Light is 2' away and I increased the intensity from 50% to 60%. I imagine since the lower nodes shoots are 4-8 inches lower, this will be beneficial.

Tightened down the tops a little more, and I'm continuing with light daily watering to(I think) better manage the plants nute needs. Feel I'm at a pivotal moment as the roots have finally reached the bottoms of the pots, and she's finally showing new growth the last 2 days, but is still only a little bigger than when I transplanted from red cups. Surely a growth spurt is due?

Watered roughly 8oz of water each with less than 1/4 teaspoon Alaska Fish Emulsion, and 1/3 teaspoon Big Bloom. Tomorrow I'll check soil pH and feed straight water.

Well hells, even after bending, and then bending some more my tops are outpacing my lower nodes way to quick. So I decided to TOP. They had good growth so I def felt they were past the struggle they were in a week ago.



Gave another 8oz dribble watering with <1/4 teaspoon fish emulsion, and 1/4teaspoon of FF Big Bloom.

Second grow light will be here in 3 days!! If these babies handle the topping well, then a week from now I'm going to flip to 12/12!

WEEK 7 START
Came back from a weekend trip and neighbor told me "man good thing you dipped out for the weekend, power went out for about 8hrs" . He said it was right as he was going to workout which is usually of an evening(I was working out too haha); so i'm hoping it was only like from 4-9pm. Anyways this is what they looked like when I got home: droopy dryish leaves, flimsy branches that were more resistant.




Watered each about 26oz(1/5gal) water with: 1/2 teaspoon fish emulsion(5-1-1), 1/2 teaspoon FF Big Bloom, 1/3 teaspoon FF Tiger Bloom. Hoping they perk before their bedtime in 4 hrs.

EDITED: They were dry about 2" down, I had light watered Mon-Tues-Thurs, and the soils' were nice n dampish 1/2under surface. I'm surprised they drank this much with a healthy gap of no light/heat. Maybe they're finally getting thirsty as they should before flowering lol

3 days after that abysmal power outage, they're finally starting to perk back up!!!

Yesterday Night:


This morning

End of week 7
Friday and I hadn't watered since Monday and the branches/leaves were dryish/not quite crispy feeling and starting to droop again. This is the most I've ever fed them, 1/3 gal or roughly 40oz each. In the gallon I added 1.5 tsp fish emulsion, 2.5 tsp FF Big Bloom, 1.5 tsp FF Tiger Bloom. Got a small puddle of run off under each, wiped up the excess and atted bottom of pots with towels.

Also been reducing light time by 30min-1hr every couple days. Down to 14.5/9.5. I'm flipping gradually bc I read around, and some believe it's easier on the plants than the quick flip. And these babies need it easy! Lol

Removed lowest leaves growths. Debating if I'm going to remove the giant fan leaves covering lower shoots

Phytoplankton said:

Watering is probably the toughest thing to learn when growing. You want to them to really dry out, not bone dry. Ideally, watering the day before they would wilt would be perfect, (but my crystal ball is broken LOL). Best of luck, parting advice, when you think you should water, wait another day or two. 200 watts should really help!

Click to expand...

My new thing is to let m dryyyyyy… I used to be methodical abt my water schedule and all I ever got were sad looking slightly droopy ppl ants. Now I’m stingy and they are right and point up and look great

Øleg said:

My new thing is to let m dryyyyyy… I used to be methodical abt my water schedule and all I ever got were sad looking slightly droopy ppl ants. Now I’m stingy and they are right and point up and look great

Click to expand...

Yes!! Lol less is more. I've reduced how much I water, but still figuring out if I need to reduce more. So far seems to be going well. They're more stable than I've seen them since week three of veg

Watering was correct! They perked up!!

Babies are doing quite well!!! I'm going to put up my scrog net tonight before lights out. Def want to spread them to have a more even surface!

So they vegged for 7.5 weeks/53days. Today March 20th, is day 1 of Flower, 12/12. Course I've been gradually decreasing from 18 and was down to 13.5/9.5 before today.

I had done fair bit of tie downs and pulling lowest cola sites up towards the center of the canopy Monday. Then last night I put my scrog net in there. Was a little concerned about having worked them too much in the last 2 days, but they're happy!!

WEEK 8 END
Today marks the end of WEEK 8. Had a few hiccups but with research and key advice here I made it to flower. 3 days into flower so far. Found watering, then waiting 2-3 days to water again is working well.
Each plant still only getting 1/3 gallon water. I mixed 2 tsp's Tiger Bloom and 4 tsp Big Bloom in a single gallon jug. Removed the fish emulsion from bite mix. Going to be watching close as plants drink more the bigger they get. Really hope these babies stretch a good bit over the next 3 weeks

pic taken earlier today

I knew about molasses being good for microlife. Soo on top of my 1/3 gal, I later fed them about 5 additional oz of water with 3 tsp of this organic apple butter I have lol. They liked it! Can't really tell, but I also rotated/rearranged some of the flower tops for more even spread and lowered my scrog by tying down an intersection or two to my baskets, and lowering my corner holds.

• Lesson learned: top earlier in veg for this strain, as it doesn't bush out easily. To create an even canopy the main stem had to bend over some which I feel stresses more than the simple lean down of branches. ***Could also be due to stunted growth from my over watering and nitrogen burn in week 4-5.

Well had a male.
Went from
To


Did not realize how..thin the growth was on the back left corner plant. Makes me wonder if the bitch will make it.