First ever grow journal

BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Okay, here it goes, my first ever grow journal. Not even a private journal has been hand written about any grow I have done. I guess I was always about keeping the paper trail to a minimum and don't write shit down. Now with laws changing at the blink of an eye and this great hobby vastly taking an explosive world wide storm, the time has come for me to attempt to keep a journal for both myself and for others to either question my method or to learn something that you didn't know. I have read the sticky about not posting on others grow journals, I don't mind if anyone wants to chime in and respond/reply/comment so as long as it is not a flame/troll/stab/insult/or just sheer cuntiness to others or myself.

I'm learning this forum stuff at the same time so bare with me on bad pics or quotes that I may bring up now or in the near future.

To start off, I have been growing mostly indoor hydroponics and coco for about 10ish years and sort of just learned by reading normal gardening magazines and how-to's. I am in Australia, so some products that I mention may only be available here in Australia or you guys may recommend a product that I have no chance of getting, for example anything Foxfarm, not happening here in Australia.

So I had some clones from my previous grow set up, which I have torn down and rebuilding. I will have each stage built before the plant/plants enter that stage so I shouldn't have to work or build around the current stage that I am at.

I will be running 2 vegative/grow areas, sort of a post clone area and a training area as I will be scrogging my plants, I like to veg and train and then throw the net/screen on top of the girl when I send her to the flower area

Here in the photo is 3 x Critical Super Silver Haze clones that I have taken from the mother from my previous grow, they had made some small root developement, not as big as I like but I wanted to get these sorted and in their environment as soon as possible.

The media was a coco brick that I hydrated with CaliMagic mixed with water to a 300ppm reading....oh forgot to mention I don't use RO water as my water doesn't even measure on my BlueLabs Truncheon, if it measured 100ppm or more then I would use RO water and highly recommend anyone else with 100ppm or more to do the same.

I mixed the coco with perlite at a 2:1 ratio, its just what has worked for me in the past, and after setting in the new girls I gave them a feed of CaliMagic and SuperThrive (1 tsp CaliMagic and 1 drop of SuperThrive per gallon/4Litres) which gave a 300ppm reading again.

I will be mixing up a large bin/barrel of this CaliMagic and SuperThrive blend as I will be using it just for watering and for feedings in both Veg and Bloom stages.20141212_205846.jpg 20141212_205640.jpg
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Nothing new today, just checked them from their early transition and took the lids off of their humid domes and all looks good. I will give them a weak feeding tomorrow of Advanced Nutrient Sensi Grow (Left over from my previous grows, I will be using mostly General Hydroponics Flora 3part series)in Calmag water solution targetting 400ppm.

I have included some pics of how I crack seeds. I know there are other ways, but this is the way that best works for me. It allows me to monitor multiple strains cracking at the same time and I can see which seed is what and any progress. On the table there is 1x Heavy Weight Seeds: Strawberry Cheesecake feminized, 1x Strain Hunters: Flowerbomb Kush feminized, 2x DNA: Sleestack X Skunk regular

I use tap water (remember we have a very low ppm tap water where I live, so don't copy this method if your tap water is 100ppm+, I recommend RO), and 1-2 drops of Humic Acid....To be honest I'm not sure if the humic benefits, but it was preached to me way back when and I still use the method.

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DirtyNerd

DirtyNerd

Well-Known Member
Looking good bro looking forward to the show and I enjoy the in depth detail your providing keep up the good work
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Just some updated photos, I have only watered the 3 Crit Super Silver Haze with 200ppm calmag & Superthrive water once since last photo & remove the humidity domes. They are under 130 watt CFL globe that is a bit old and probably lost its full potential, and if it shows any forms of dissatisfaction to what I am looking for I will quickly run out and grab one. In the future I will be vegging under LED which I did in my last setup and know it works, but that LED is currently being used to flower my last plant from the last setup, so thought I would just use some old gear laying around and try not waste money where it wasn't really needed. BTW i am not going back to LED in the flower stage, I'm going back to 600watt HPS. Old faithful seemed to put out better product for me so will just use the LED panels to veg under
20141217_125240.jpg

Also thought I would add the germination of the seeds I listed, I will do another Journal for those, so this will be the last time they show up here LOL

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BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
My coco mix seems to be holding on to water more than what I wanted and I have some leaf tacoing happening on the Critical Super Silver Haze Plants, next time around I will up the perlite in the mix to help with a little more aeration. Now being this is a build as well as a grow, I am going to document the equipment built and used along the way. Simple as it may be I still want to include this all details and progress.

So the CSSH is in little pots in a coco/perlite mix being watered mostly CalMag solution at 300ppm, after the roots bind up in the pots (hoping 1 - 2 weeks from when they went in the pots), I am going to move them to 20 litre (5 gal) DWC buckets. Being in Australia we don't have the net pot lid combo looking things, I bought 2 x 20 litre black buckets from Bunnings for $5.90aud (no lids, as I want to make my own lids for being able to transfer to the flower area later on. Here is some photos of my bucket construction.

20141220_180349[1].jpg 20141220_180503[1].jpg 20141220_193347[1].jpg

The lid is just 9mm MDF cut to fit and then lined with Panda film to waterproof with an 200mm (8 inch) net pot fixed into the ring, still working on lid number 2. I have just put a 19mm rubber grommet in the bottom with a 19mm elbow fitted with 19mm clear tubing as a nutrient level site tube.
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Since I did a premature move from clone into grow because of deconstruction and reconstruction of grow areas things were successful but at same time things have moved along a bit slower than I had imagined. I knew I was taking a risk moving the little plants with such little root development, to the point I sort of expected 1 or 2 of them to perish.

On the bright side of things it has given me plenty of time to really sink into building the new grow/bloom area as well as deal with Christmas stuff at same time. I guess things all worked out with a purpose, anyways getting back into it and pictures will be flowing in as progress is made
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
I did the first fimming on the 5th set of nodes 2 days ago, then walk in this morning to check on things and find that I am having a little burn on the leaf tips and the green in the leaves as faded out to a lime green, no other leaf damage other than some of the tips.. I immediately made up a 5.8pH flushing water with General Hydroponics FloraKleen and flushed them with about a 60% run off.

By the way, I am only selecting 1 of the 3 plants to go into the next stage as I don't have the room to do three 5X5 scrogs plus an area for the other strains. The flower area will have two 5x5 scrog screens to grow different strains perpetually.

20150105_085909[1].jpg
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Plants are doing great still, just waiting on some 10" net pot lids that I ordered from the US. Should be here next week and will do a transplant into the first DWC bucket
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
They came in today, and as an impatient child does, I rushed to get the next stage happening. I donated 2 of the clones as I only wanted one (always keep a few extra just for that "oops" moment). The LED that I am going to use in the veg cupboard is still being used till next week'ish (used it to flower an old mother plant and its about harvest time). I also ran out for Hydroton, so will nic out tomorrow and grab another 50 litres, I honestly thought I had enough. Anyway, there are a few fine tuning things in the grow space that need to be made and there is a panda film curtain that drops down and Velcros to seal in the light from the flower area. I will get more grow/flower room shots later. The plant in the back ground is for the next veg DWC bucket which I will stagger so that I get a month to month harvest, its the Heavy Weight Seeds : Strawberry Cheescake

I forgot to add that in the DWC bucket I am using up the last of my AN Sensi Grow nutes, mixed with GH CaliMag and 3 drops of SUPERthrive, DWC volume is 12 litres (3Gallons). PPM @ 450, pH @ 5.9

I am running a single oscillating wall fan for air circulation, just a simple EZI inline fane for some air out, and a portable AC to cool our summer days down, targetting room temp to be 24-28 deg celcius
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Last edited:
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
BAMS said:
Okay, here it goes, my first ever grow journal. Not even a private journal has been hand written about any grow I have done. I guess I was always about keeping the paper trail to a minimum and don't write shit down. Now with laws changing at the blink of an eye and this great hobby vastly taking an explosive world wide storm, the time has come for me to attempt to keep a journal for both myself and for others to either question my method or to learn something that you didn't know. I have read the sticky about not posting on others grow journals, I don't mind if anyone wants to chime in and respond/reply/comment so as long as it is not a flame/troll/stab/insult/or just sheer cuntiness to others or myself.

I'm learning this forum stuff at the same time so bare with me on bad pics or quotes that I may bring up now or in the near future.

To start off, I have been growing mostly indoor hydroponics and coco for about 10ish years and sort of just learned by reading normal gardening magazines and how-to's. I am in Australia, so some products that I mention may only be available here in Australia or you guys may recommend a product that I have no chance of getting, for example anything Foxfarm, not happening here in Australia.

So I had some clones from my previous grow set up, which I have torn down and rebuilding. I will have each stage built before the plant/plants enter that stage so I shouldn't have to work or build around the current stage that I am at.

I will be running 2 vegative/grow areas, sort of a post clone area and a training area as I will be scrogging my plants, I like to veg and train and then throw the net/screen on top of the girl when I send her to the flower area

Here in the photo is 3 x Critical Super Silver Haze clones that I have taken from the mother from my previous grow, they had made some small root developement, not as big as I like but I wanted to get these sorted and in their environment as soon as possible.

The media was a coco brick that I hydrated with CaliMagic mixed with water to a 300ppm reading....oh forgot to mention I don't use RO water as my water doesn't even measure on my BlueLabs Truncheon, if it measured 100ppm or more then I would use RO water and highly recommend anyone else with 100ppm or more to do the same.

I mixed the coco with perlite at a 2:1 ratio, its just what has worked for me in the past, and after setting in the new girls I gave them a feed of CaliMagic and SuperThrive (1 tsp CaliMagic and 1 drop of SuperThrive per gallon/4Litres) which gave a 300ppm reading again.

I will be mixing up a large bin/barrel of this CaliMagic and SuperThrive blend as I will be using it just for watering and for feedings in both Veg and Bloom stages.View attachment 3312062 View attachment 3312063
Click to expand...

cool idea on the 2 litre humidadome thingy! were those fresh clones?..i just picked up a bottle of superthrive here in florida $11USD..and we complain!..but then again our wages are shit!
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
yeah they were fresh clones, and yeah the individual humid domes works a treat, I have a million and one uses for empty PET bottles....Yeah ST was (possibly still is) banned in Australia, cause Customs wants a full disclosure of the ingredients and ST will not give it to them being its his secret recipe
 
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
BAMS said:
your leaves seems to be a bit more indica looking than mine
Click to expand...
i noticed that. gonna look into the genie ratio of your strain v. mine...i paid heavily for them soooo...dinafem is usually right on the money never had issues with their gear.
 
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
BAMS said:
yeah they were fresh clones, and yeah the individual humid domes works a treat, I have a million and one uses for empty PET bottles....Yeah ST was (possibly still is) banned in Australia, cause Customs wants a full disclosure of the ingredients and ST will not give it to them being its his secret recipe
Click to expand...
if you ever feel like listing..please share!
 
S

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
i looked at a pic of dinafems and not the same for sure..damn! supposed to be 10% indica..i think i'm going to be contacting dinafem.
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Did my routine maintenance and some more fine tune details to this grow operation. I am starting to slowly LST the uppers at this stage, I hate how she looks during these stages as the plant just looks miserable and ugly

P1170006.JPG

Here is a snap of the flower area for what will soon be 1 of the 2 scrogs. the veg area to the right has a drop curtain of panda film that is sealed up by Velcro. I am thinking I might install a middle support brace on the veg section and divide the curtain into 2 pieces and add more Velcro. Anyway, I will keep incorperate the build updates in this grow being this grow is the first in this new set up

P1170009.JPG
 
BAMS

BAMS

Well-Known Member
Finally got my LED panel out from my old grow area and into this one, using it and the 130watt CFL on the end for the clones tray. The LED panel is one of those 450watt (3watt chipset) Mars Hydro green panels.

I bought them to experiment with and run side by side comparison to Blackdog 450watt (5 watt chipset). The Mars Hydro panel only runs roughly 300watt, where the Blackdog runs pretty true to 450watts so there was no argument which one yielded better. But I also found out that Mars Hydro makes a Mars II 750watt panel that looks identical to the Blackdog 450watt, just no Blackdog logo cut into the air vents, and the news I got was that the Mars II 750 is the Blackdog 450, they are the same light, and the Mars II 750 is half the price. Anyway, enough rambling with the trivial shit, I decided to go back to HID lighting and use the LED for veg only, it works great for vegging.

P1170010.JPG

Also got a pic of the flowering space I will have once I am finished veg....that blue storage bin next to the wall is just a pre-made CalMag water, it will be moved to another area that I am currently working on and just storing the water there at the moment

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