My first grow, my first post, Hi everyone, critique?

What's up guys, new here. And new to growing. Learned A LOT so far, figuring I've got a lot more to learn. Critique my set up!

I am on day 10 of 12/12 which happens to be today's date as well. Seeds sprouted around Oct. 15, give or take a day or two. So about 45ish days of veg from sprout to flower. In a 48x48x80 tent, under 600 watt MH during veg, switched to HPS last week of veg. 4 inch intake fan in a bottom hole, 6 inch in the tent blowing over the light and out the top. Two 12 inch oscillating fans inside as well.
Medium is canna coco, 4 parts coco, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite. I did not rinse the coco at all, hadn't heard of doing so when I started.
Water comes from the tap and through a hydrologic grogreen garden hose filter. I let it sit at least overnight before use. PPM is at about 90-95.
I currently have the HPS as high as it can be in the tent, which seems to have caused some stretching, but as they get closer they tend to taco. After a heavy trim today and tomorrow, they're getting netted down. I've tried bending and tying down the long stem, but come back to a snapped stem. I try to keep the tent around 73/75 degrees and the humidity over 40, which is tough this time of year, I had a humidifier in there keeping it around 55, but that broke a couple weeks ago, just haven't gotten another yet. Temp is easy to control, the room stays hot, I can just open a window and/or adjust the exhaust fan speed. The intake fan has a duct up to near the window.

For the majority of the grow I've been using the Lucas formula and over the last few weeks adding to it. Keep in mind they're in coco. Here's my current line up;

In a five gallon bucket filled about halfway;
where i say "per" will be X3 gallons:
1 tsp epsom salt
2 mL GH CaliMagic per
6 mL Micro per
9 mL Bloom per
1 mL KoolBloom per
1/8 tsp NPK Raw Kelp per
1/8 tsp raw yucca
1/8 tsp raw full-up per
1/4 tsp raw OminA per

That is the order everything goes in. After each ingredient it is mixed thoroughly by dumping into another bucket and adding just a splash of more water. Being only week 2 of flower I want to get it around 900 ppm. The 5 gallon bucket is nearly full by the time it gets to that goal.

All water that has ever gone into the coco has always been 5.8 - 6.0 checked right before feeding, watering or flushing. I've read everything about how to feed coco with people on forums saying everything from feed/water once every 5 days to do it 3 times a day. So far I can tell you more often is better. Once I started going with at least once a day (depending on my schedule, I try to get 3 times a day), growth exploded. I feed almost every time, with a ton of runoff, maybe 50% or more. That may be a waste of nutrients but I feel like it's a good flush with each feed. I have also flushed every few weeks with an organic additive SLF 100, using 5 gallons per plant. They are in their final pot of 3 gallon. Started in solo cups, then to a 6 inch.

Started with 15 seeds, 10 freebies from (idk if we can say seed bank names?), and 5 seeds I bought. I totally messed up trying to germinate the 5 paid for seeds. 1 of the freebies crumbled into dust. 4 didn't sprout. So down to 5. And discovered yesterday 2 are males. So I've got 3 unknown strain females. I'll find out after my next seed purchase if I've got germinating down.

Next grow I'd like to start with 400 watt t5 and veg only under that, then flowering under the 600 watt hps. Then have a veg out of the tent going while flowering in the tent.

I think that's about it with my introduction. Please, critique away. I'm more so interested in knowing if the nutrient mix should be in any other order. I know the calmag, micro and bloom are ordered correctly.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to riu. Sounds like you did some research before starting which is good. My setup is alot like yours not far apart on grow times either. Mine started pretty much same time as yours but you vegged a little longer than i did. Im almost 5 weeks in flower. Seems like you had trouble germinating seeds. How did you try to germ them?

did the freebies not come labelled? I would take two clones off each plant to start your next round. label plants and clones as well as keep track when harvesting and curing so you know what is coming up in the veg. if there is a smoke you dont like, kill off those two clones.

sharptater, thanks for the reply

Soaked them in tap water for at least overnight, maybe a lot longer, I'm not sure. Then a paper towel between plates on a germination mat. Kept it soaked, but after working a double came home to it dried out. They had half inch taproots. Put them in jiffy pods, which I kept wet and under their dome and on the heat mat. One of or a combination of issues; Too long in the soak, I've learned 18 hours should be the max, 12 is sufficient. Too wet in the paper towel. Taproots damaged from dried out towel. Too wet in the jiffy pods. Rotted out completely. After two weeks I dug through them, no seeds, no roots.

How I will germinate from now on;

Prep coco in solo cup with water, kelp, and superthrive.
Seed soak in filtered tap water with kelp for 12-18 hours.
Plant seed.
Water medium till just a drop of runoff.
Cover with saran wrap and rubber band.
Keep on germination mat and in the dark, using laser thermometer making sure the solo cup doesn't get over 88.
Check every 12 hours or once a day for sprout.

Much simpler, and worked a hell of a lot better. I did this minus the kelp and super thrive (bc I didn't have it yet) with the other 9 seeds. The paper towel method is super popular, but I believe it's quite flawed. Number one issue is the tiny fine hairs on the taproot being damaged by the towel and handling. Putting the seed right into the medium barely cracked with minimal handling seems to be much more logical. One seed per shot glass, pour it into the hole, no touching, no stress. I've seen tutorials with people being anal as to directing the taproot downward. Completely unnecessary, nature will work that root down.

Growdict

No they freebies they send are not labeled.

I am doing a thorough trim before the netting tommorow and I will take a couple cuttings from each. However, I'm not expecting much as I don't have a proper cloning setup and honestly haven't done any research into cloning. Really just kind of playing with the cuttings. I will be getting more seeds from a different source and starting those. I'm not ready to have a massive jungle. Either I vegged too long, or 5 plants was about too much for the 4x4 tent. The 3 remaining fit much better.

I just finished pruning one. Made a smoothie (lots of leaves, vanilla protein powder, frozen berry mix, a banana) and boiling up some tea.

only thing i would change to your germ is using sandwich baggie with no elastic instead of saran wrap. This allows some air and is taller in case they sprout fast.

practice on your cloning is good, you can always throw them out.

I forgot to mention I'll be adding Hydroguard Botanicare Bacillus root inoculant Thursday after their last flush before the net. It will be used per the directions on the container added lastly to the nutrient mixture.

The two on the table are the males. I'll strip them for smoothies and tea over the next week or so. One of them I attempted to play with LST. One of females in the tent was also an LST attempt and was pruned yesterday. The one I pulled out of the tent for a picture just got pruned today. The third in the back of the tent will be pruned tomorrow. I don't like how close they're getting to the lights, hopefully I can bend them down and use the trellis netting to not break the stems...again. And of course to get more tops more light.

CraxCorn said:

sharptater, thanks for the reply

Soaked them in tap water for at least overnight, maybe a lot longer, I'm not sure. Then a paper towel between plates on a germination mat. Kept it soaked, but after working a double came home to it dried out. They had half inch taproots. Put them in jiffy pods, which I kept wet and under their dome and on the heat mat. One of or a combination of issues; Too long in the soak, I've learned 18 hours should be the max, 12 is sufficient. Too wet in the paper towel. Taproots damaged from dried out towel. Too wet in the jiffy pods. Rotted out completely. After two weeks I dug through them, no seeds, no roots.

How I will germinate from now on;

Prep coco in solo cup with water, kelp, and superthrive.
Seed soak in filtered tap water with kelp for 12-18 hours.
Plant seed.
Water medium till just a drop of runoff.
Cover with saran wrap and rubber band.
Keep on germination mat and in the dark, using laser thermometer making sure the solo cup doesn't get over 88.
Check every 12 hours or once a day for sprout.

Much simpler, and worked a hell of a lot better. I did this minus the kelp and super thrive (bc I didn't have it yet) with the other 9 seeds. The paper towel method is super popular, but I believe it's quite flawed. Number one issue is the tiny fine hairs on the taproot being damaged by the towel and handling. Putting the seed right into the medium barely cracked with minimal handling seems to be much more logical. One seed per shot glass, pour it into the hole, no touching, no stress. I've seen tutorials with people being anal as to directing the taproot downward. Completely unnecessary, nature will work that root down.

Click to expand...

Probably best advice i can give you is try to keep it simple. Ive used the papertowel method before. It works ok, but any more i just water my medium and plant seeds about 1/2" usually make hole to my first knuckle. Plant and put somewhere they will stay warm and leave alone for atleast 3 days. I have 8 in 1 gallon of coco right now. Should start sprouting in a few days. Have two autos a few days old in 3 gallon of ffof. Two in 4x4 flower under 600w hps i have a grow journal if you want to check it out. If you get three big females you can fill that tent pretty good. My two almost take up my whole tent and they are untrained.

sharptater said:

Probably best advice i can give you is try to keep it simple. Ive used the papertowel method before. It works ok, but any more i just water my medium and plant seeds about 1/2" usually make hole to my first knuckle. Plant and put somewhere they will stay warm and leave alone for atleast 3 days. I have 8 in 1 gallon of coco right now. Should start sprouting in a few days. Have two autos a few days old in 3 gallon of ffof. Two in 4x4 flower under 600w hps i have a grow journal if you want to check it out. If you get three big females you can fill that tent pretty good. My two almost take up my whole tent and they are untrained.

Click to expand...

Trying to keep it simple...while also kinda playing around with different methods. Not really keeping any records, just getting the basics down. Soak them and drop them, pretty simple. I've read some science about how soaking is beneficial and using kelp in the soak helps as well. I see ZERO benefit to anything other than soak and plant.

Some let them go all natural, some train. I'm convinced that pruning is absolutely beneficial. Whether or not I'm doing correctly is another story.... I don't think I'll do LST again. Unnecessary pain in the ass.

" ffof " ?

fox farm ocean forest

CraxCorn said:

Trying to keep it simple...while also kinda playing around with different methods. Not really keeping any records, just getting the basics down. Soak them and drop them, pretty simple. I've read some science about how soaking is beneficial and using kelp in the soak helps as well. I see ZERO benefit to anything other than soak and plant.

Some let them go all natural, some train. I'm convinced that pruning is absolutely beneficial. Whether or not I'm doing correctly is another story.... I don't think I'll do LST again. Unnecessary pain in the ass.

" ffof " ?

Click to expand...

Seems like you have a good start on the basics. Imo reading can only get you so far. its good to experiment and figure out what works for you. I let the two in flower grow natural this time. Next ones, the seeds in coco im planning on training somehow not sure yet. Autos im gonna lst and keep in veg tent. Ffof is fox farm ocean forest soil.

Definitely heard of Fox Farm. New to forums, never seen it abbreviated.

I've kinda thought growers were either hydro, soil, or soiless. Any reason you use coco and soil? For side by side comparison?

I did a little super cropping on a couple of the plants. Bounced back real quick. No idea if it helped anything, nothing to compare them to. I'll be ordering seeds soon and sticking to two strains. There will be a lot of note taking and comparisons of techniques. Cannatonic mainly for my own use and critical kush, for public donation, now legal here. Of course, there's a delivery fee. Still legal.

There will be NO super cropping on the cannatonic, which is bred for a higher cbd level. Super cropping, of course, is said to increase thc production.

CraxCorn said:

Definitely heard of Fox Farm. New to forums, never seen it abbreviated.

I've kinda thought growers were either hydro, soil, or soiless. Any reason you use coco and soil? For side by side comparison?

I did a little super cropping on a couple of the plants. Bounced back real quick. No idea if it helped anything, nothing to compare them to. I'll be ordering seeds soon and sticking to two strains. There will be a lot of note taking and comparisons of techniques. Cannatonic mainly for my own use and critical kush, for public donation, now legal here. Of course, there's a delivery fee. Still legal.

There will be NO super cropping on the cannatonic, which is bred for a higher cbd level. Super cropping, of course, is said to increase thc production.

Click to expand...

Had some soil left over from a grow i didnt finish. Figured id use it for the autos and not have to worry about feeding them for a while. I really like coco tho so probably wont buy anymore ff soil. Its good soil, i just like the growth rate and control of nutes better with coco. I havent tried suppercropping yet. Seems like it works if done properly, might try it eventually.