New MI personal use grow

I’m a MI pot smoker, & I grow legally for my own consumption. I grow in dirt, usually un-modified Ocean Forest. That’s what I’m running currently. My personal stash is looking like I’ll run out before I have a smoke-able harvest again. I enjoy the variety of retail, but I hate the prices. So I’m in a bit of a hurry, tho I won’t cut any corners. My Flower game is somewhat dialed in, but the past couple months came with some investment in my veg environment. More light. A LUX meter. New 4x4 tent a few months ago. My intent with the veg tent is to include clones, mothers & any seedlings. Anything with that light cycle. The T5x8 bulb is that far up because the clones in their solo cups were getting way too much light. I can’t turn down the T5’s beyond Full or Half power. So up it went. Lux at “canopy” level is 7300, on the top side of range for clones. My 1st time having a meter, tho I’ve been growing about 7 or 8 years (always dirt). I’ve not paid nearly enough attention to this in the past.


Anyway, obtained 5 clones 4/13/20: (3) Critical Orange Punch, (1) Blue Steel, (1) of a local strain called Blue Hulk. In solo cups, with coco. My process is simply to repot the clones, coco n all, into a larger, soil pot. Right now plastic pots, but likely to be fabric pots later. (plastic n fabric are in stock, up to 30 gallon for trees). I re-potted them today, 4/19/20 in square, 5”x5”x8” plastic pots. Ocean Forest, good dose of Great White bottom n sides of new soil cavity. Topped off, patted moderately, watered in with PH’d, oxygenated water only. Couple days ago they had a kelp drench. These are only cannabis plants in the house currently, so I’ve not paid much attention to inbound isolation process. They are isolated. I did turn leaves up n inspect. Within few days will do a neem oil dip, periodic re-inspections. Been burned on this before.

I will grow these 5 out enough to yield # of clones to select phenotypes. Then rocket the best clones back to veg. Had hoped to run some short, but big plants this cycle. I waited too long, smoked too much, or both. Will have to do 5 gallon pots in Flower. Ordinarily I run 5-6 plants of 5-gallon size under a 1000 ducted HPS. New, much more efficient Flower room late 2019, so will run about 8 five gallon plants under one 1k this cycle. There will be mids, but mids are better than no mids, all else being the same. ie: no reduction in the primo.

I run most of the GH line, everything but Florablend, calimagic, flora blend. As referenced above, Great White, at every real-pot. Kelp foliar & armor si foliar sometimes.

Photos below taken today, after 1st repot from cloner.

Nothing shocking thus far. The potted clones are doing ok, while the single Blue Steel plant has had a growth spurt. The Critical Orange Punch are holding their own - they weren’t (IMO) great-looking clones to begin with. Decent root growth (clear Solos) but not many leaves, leaves weren’t particularly vibrant. So I see this time with them being one of stabilizing, adapting to their new environment, etc. I’m chomping at the bit to increase light, but suspect I’m better off waiting a bit. Not certain, as until now, I’ve not had a light meter or done any research on light requirements. As mentioned earlier, the little “canopy” of the girls is about 7300 LUX.

The tray on the shelf is vegetable seeds sprouting. Three varieties of ‘maters, some zucchini & summer squash. Seeds were prolly 3 years old. Short garden season here in MI, & I hope to plump these up & plant outside in a month or so.

Everybody gets highly oxygenated, PH’d water, a little Superthrive, a little silica, light dose of GH Grow & GH lumpy purple shit.

Temps about 74, RH about 55. Seedlings are on a heat mat.

What’s up with this plant? Blue Steel, only one in the tent. PH has been on target, fresh quart, & then (after leaf formation) five gallon, blend of Ocean Forest & Roots Orig.

Possibly related, I got aggressive with the lighting a week or so ago. Back of my hand never felt even close to uncomfortable, but the T5HO 4’x8 tube did go lower - maybe 12-15” from the meager “canopy.” The top of this Blue Steel plant did seem to respond negatively, & I moved the light back up 6 or so inches.
Each plant has been topped a couple times, & couple days ago, I tied them down. Today I plucked a few leaves I didn’t like, mainly from the damaged Blue Steel plant.
I use about 3/4 of the GHliquid nutrients, & some others, like liquid kelp for foliar. I’d like to speed up growth in my veg tent, but don’t consider it suitable for co2.
All current plants intended to be mothers. I’ll give the blue steel some time to impress, but I’m already disappointed with the node spacing, & now the leaf spots.
Ive done photoperiod plants for several years, but just ordered some auto flowers from Oregon Elite - 5 Fast GSC. This will be my first effort @ autos, brought about by my fast dwindling stash, & the absence of vegged photo plants to go into flower. As I live in MI, I may place 1-2 of the autos on the patio in awhile. Grow out the other 3-4 in this tent.
Subsequent pics are after plucking offending leaves.

Ready to take some clones from Blue Steel, Critical Orange Punch & Blue Hulk (a local clone). Those are all photoperiod plants.

Took the shelves out & moved in (4) bags of roots organic original with (auto) GSC from Fast Buds. As the photoperiod plants are just ready to produce some clones, I’m gonna run out of smoke soon. These will reduce the period during which I have to buy my bud, until I have a photoperiod harvest.

The squash n tomato plants are all in the ground.

Good news! All 4 beans popped (Fat Buds GSC). I expected 100%, of course, but expected another day or 2.

The photoperiod plants left side of 4x4 tent are ready to give up clones, which was my original plan. Now I’m thinking that I may take a small # of clones, & put these 5 into flower. If I just love the strain, I’ll buy more seeds. Until recently, my only supply of genetics was buying clones locally. Can always re-veg, if any reason to do so.

I have a few mods to make in my Flower room before again putting it to use (empty, currently).Most notably, installing my LG 11k btu window mount a/c, & getting the old, C.A.P. co2 burner running. I’ve utilized the online btu calculators, & it appears the a/c will be adequate. Post-install testing will reveal whether I fucked that up. Hooking up the drain for the dehumidifier & getting it off the floor.

My new Inkbird ITC-608T temp & RH controller got programmed this morning, in veg tent. I have to do such things before, I get too stoned to process information. Not a huge expense - $70 Amazon Prime. (There’s a newer model out that includes WiFi). Again, scale doesn’t justify more expensive equipment. Even @ my scale, more expensive equipment may be justified in Flower, but for Veg /clones / mother, the Inkbird satisfies my budget, & gives me significantly more consistent environment, + makes my life easier. I’m excited to make the step up.

So, new plan is to up-pot the 5 photo plants & flip them in a couple weeks. The 4 autos will be split between outdoors & life in the veg tent. Or should I move those 2 into the Flower room? Much more light, but only for 12 hours. Not sure I know the answer to that. Guess I’ll start some on-line research in that area.

Oh! Finally cobbled up a 4” in-line fan set up to extract air @ 78F. I’d really like to get some dehumidification in there, on the controller, also. Mine is too big for the tent, & it looks like all the little Chinese ones might be junk. For the time being, the controller is running based on Temp only. If a few days of review suggests RH is a problem, I may extract based on RH instead of Temp.