300w x2 LED DWC Pure Indica - First Grow

Hello,

First time poster to this forums as well as a first time grower. Ive been toying around with the idea of a grow for some time now and finally took the plunge. I have spent the last month lurking around forums and reading posts and how-to's to get an idea of what and how I could accomplish this. Here is my journal of progress along the way. I do invite anyone to feel free to chime in and let me know what you think I am doing right or wrong.

Equipment:
300w x2 Galaxyhydro Led
4x2x5 Grow Tent
180cfm Exhaust fan
180cfm Intake fan
4inch carbon filter
4inch hepa filter
10 Gallon tote - DWC top drip
2x air stone
ph meter
ppm meter
Flora series nutrients + hydroguard
Cal/Mag if I need it

I am growing 3 seeds of pure indica from ilgm, the plan is to keep the best two and do a SCROG. I am currently following LBH Famous Scrog Tutorial as my guideline.


I am currently on day 3 so I will catch up the journal here:

Day 0
6-13-2017 6:30pm
5.5 gallons
2.25ml each nute
10ml hydroguard
ph 5.6
Air Temp: 75f
Water Temp: 73f
ppm 280


Day 1
6-14-2017 6:30pm
5.25 gallons
no new nutes
ph 5.7
ppm 300
Air Temp: 82f
Water Temp: 77
notes:
- ph was 6.5 when got home, added 4ml of ph down, waiting to retest later. Ph might be fluctuating due to improper rinsing of hydroton rocks. I just washed them under tap water and didnt use ph balanced water. Same with air stones.
- removed hepa filter from intake to test if effects temperature

Day 3
6-15-2017 : 5:02pm
5 gallons
no new nutes
ph 5.7
ppm 310
Air Temp: 79f
Water Temp: 77f
notes:
- ph was 6.5 when got home, added 4ml of ph down, waiting to retest later. Ph might be fluctuating due to improper rinsing of hydroton rocks. I just washed them under tap water and didnt use ph balanced water. Same with air stones.
- noticed white chalky substance on some of the hydroton. Did some searching and it might be either salt or calcium build up from the tap water. Was able to wipe it off easily. Might need to invest in RO system
- temp was 79f could be due to cooler weather outside or the hepa removal lowered it
- plant 3 and 6 are sprouting, 6 is the biggest so far, plant 3 looks like it could possibly be upside down or the root is growing up. Plant 4 has not sprouted at all that I can tell. It looks like there is white color on the seed so it might be sprouting now.

Adding pictures

Here is what I am seeing and hoping is just calcium/salt build up. I cleaned my hydrotons with tap water and our water here is not super fantastic. I plan on getting a RO eventually just ran out of my budget so far. Let me know what you think of this? Do I need to do anything special to take care of it or is it a non issue so far?

Ive done some intake and exhaust work to help keep my grow tent temps down. I am hoping starting tomorrow to see a 3 to 4 degree drop. I also purchased a portable ac unit. Its currently not hooked up but I am expecting to need it once the lights go on. I live in a pretty humid and hot area so its inevitable.

its just salts from the nutes, dont worry about it. below is what i use for RO because I only need about 10 gallons/week

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Reverse-Osmosis-Filtration-POQ-4B-100/dp/B00DBOXLQC

Day 4
6-16-2017 : 6:40pm
4.9 gallons
no new nutes
ph 5.92
air temp: 75f
water temp: 75f
notes:
- installed portable ac unit. Set it at 75f in grow tent
- water is 75f but will probably lower after the portable ac has been working for a few hours. Decided to buy a iceprobe chiller so I can keep the water lower than the grow tent temp
- plant 3 and 6 have broken the soil, plant 4 has germinated and is growing but looks like its progress is about a day behind the other two plants


Question: I am a little unsure when the lights should go on. Do I need to wait until I get the first leaves or should I turn them on now?

Looks goid mate. I would put your lights on now. I normally put them on straight away

Okay thanks, just turned on one light for now, starting it at 24" away from plant and will gradually lower it as plants acclimate.

Sounds good mate just watch out for the stretch . If they start stretching then lower the lights

Will update my journal later tonight but just wanted to make a few notes on my current project.

Problem 1:
I have been trying to control the temp's in my grow room and have had mixed results so far. I installed a portable ac unit yesterday and that is keeping my room down however its not working exactly how I intended. I had purchased a model that would use ifeel technology which sense temperature in the remote and tells the unit to turn off/on based on that value. It doesn't work exactly how I had envisioned. You have to aim the remote at the unit and push the button in order to tell it to read the temp. My thought was to just leave the remote in the grow tent and have the unit cycle from that. My goal here is to keep the temperature a more constant range of degree's. I was thinking having the unit cycle on at 70f and turn off at 75f. That way the temp is within a more constant range. I can also adjust this range based off the different stages of plant development.

Solution:
My next plan is to order some wireless temperature sensors and a wemo plug. I will then use IFTT to create a routine of cycling the portable ac unit based on that.

Problem 2:
When the portable ac unit is running the air pressure in my tent changes from negative to positive. I am concerned that as the plants get bigger and the smell becomes more abundant that this new positive air pressure (while ac unit is running) will negate my carbon filters and cause smell leak from the tent as it tries to escape. I haven't come up with a definitive solution for this yet but I am thinking maybe I need a higher rated exhaust fan too keep up with the ac unit. Currently I am running a 180cfm to 4inch ducting and 4inch carbon filter.

Day 5
6-17-2017 : 5:20pm
4.8 gallons
no new nutes
ph 5.95
air temp: 75f
water temp: 72f
ppm 330
notes:
- looks like ph fluctuation is under control
- plant 3 is now the biggest, its dropped its seed and now has its first 2 leafs
- plant 6 looks like its about to have its leaves, one is sticking out the other looks like is in the seed shell still
- plant 4 is still the runt, its above soil but looks like its quite the slow grower. No evidence of leaves and looks like the majority of the seed is still attached to it
- lights are now on a 18/6 shedule, I started a single light at 24" yesterday, I am going to move it down to 22" today


How I am numbering the plants is based off their location in the tote for now. After I dispose of the weakest link I'll just call them 1 and 2
Plant order: (facing the tote)
1 2 3
4 5 6

Day 5 (I realized I somehow skipped day 2, so this is the actual day 5. I guess I'm not allowed to edit posts after a certain period?)

6-18-2017: 11:00am
4.7 gallons
Added 3ml of each nutrient
Air Temp: 72F
Water Temp: 70f
ph: 5.75
ppm 441

Notes:
- Realized when I added the original nutrients the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. I just added 1/4 teaspoon for the original 6 gallons. I went ahead and added in 3ml of each nutrient today. This raised the ppm up to 441
- I am not going to change the res this first week and am going to wait until this coming Saturday. That will make it 10 days since seed planted on same res. I am going to probably need to top off 1 gallon before that point.
- I am having a lot of fluctuation of temperature since I am unable to accurately cycle the ac on/off based on tent temperature. Right now its going between 65f and 84f. This should be fixed when I get my temp sensors but for now I am having to manually keep an eye on things.
- Plant 3 and 4 are have shed their seed completely, plant 6 is still clinging on. I have been misting the seed in order to help it shed.

Here are some pictures:

Day 5(update)
6-18-2017 : 5:42pm
5.7 gallons
Air Temp: 75f
Water Temp: 71f
ppm 571
PH 5.86

Notes:
- Added 3ml each nutrients to the res
- Added 1 gallon water - top off. ph'd to 5.6, ppm 820 (210 + 610) (was a little high but to make up for the lack of nutrients in the res)
- My tap water is sitting at about 210ppm from the tap
- PPM is currently at the low end of the target range. My schedule is calling for 300-500 ppm at week 1, so at I am sitting at around 360 once I take out my base ppm from the tap water

Question:
I just want to make sure when my nutrient schedule is calling for 300-500 total ppm its not counting the water base ppm right?

I have included the schedule I am using for my nutrients.

Day 6
6-19-2017 : 4:30pm
5.6 Gallons
Air Temp: 75f
Water Temp: 73f
ppm 565
Ph: 5.92

Notes:
-Looks like I have had a bit of stretch issue. I have moved the LED down to 14" from 20". Hoping this fixes further issue
-Also looks like I had an over watering issue. Had a bit of a droop in the stem. I turned off the top drip and am going to handle watering manually until roots hit the res. I am seeing a big improvement since this morning after turning the water off so that should have at least fixed the one issue.

Questions:
The stems are about 1.5" above the rapid rooter. Am I going to be ok if I have stopped further stretch or do I need to help them out? I have heard of people burying their stretched plants deeper to fix the issue but all Ive seen is from soil. Not sure if I can accomplish in a rapid rooter or not without hurting the plant.

Day 7
6-20-2017 : 5:00pm
6.8 gallons
air temp: 75f
water temp: 71f
ppm 60
ph: 6.08

Notes:
- Have not seen any more stretching since lowering to 14", all plants look like they are handling the distance well. The initial leaves are growing and plants look like in healthy shape.
- Still no roots hanging from basket
- Raised water level up to 7 gallons last night, which puts the water level right at about 1 cm into the bottom of the basket.

Day 8
6-21-2017: 5:00pm
6.7 gallons
air temp: 73f
water temp: 71f
ppm 591
ph: 6.11

Notes:
- I must have stunted my seedling growth by overwatering them for the first 5 days. They don't look anything like I see other week old plants. However they are recovering as I do see growth. Hoping a few more days of correct water schedule will get them back on track.

Day 9
6-22-2017: 5:00pm
6.6 Gallons
air temp: 75f
water temp: 69f
ppm: 585
ph: 6.08

Notes:
- Next set of leaves are growing in.
- Added temperature sensors in the tent, should have better control of temperature from now on. I have set it to keep the tent between 73f and 76f at all times.

Questions:
Since I can now control the temperature accurately should I just leave it at the same range during day/night, or should I change my range based on lights on/off?

They seem to be growing slow for some reason. Hydro is way faster than soil.

This one is 10 days old today. Just gave her the first feeding.

She's a little light colored bc I went way light on the FFOF soil in my mix. It's a really hot soil. I usually do 50/25/25 of FFOF/EARTHGRO SOIL/PERLITE. But I don't think I got close to 50 on my mix lol. So hopefully the feed darkens her up a bit.

whytewidow said:

They seem to be growing slow for some reason. Hydro is way faster than soil.

This one is 10 days old today. Just gave her the first feeding.

She's a little light colored bc I went way light on the FFOF soil in my mix. It's a really hot soil. I usually do 50/25/25 of FFOF/EARTHGRO SOIL/PERLITE. But I don't think I got close to 50 on my mix lol. So hopefully the feed darkens her up a bit.

Click to expand...

Yeah I determined I was overwatering on day 1 to 5, which stunted growth. They have recovered now I believe

Day 10
6-23-2017 : 5:00pm
6.5 gallons
air temp: 75f
water temp: 69f
ph: 6.07
ppm: 602

Notes:
- Plants have 2nd set of leaves growing in, looking like a bounce back recovery.
- Noticed all pots have nice white roots hanging into the water now