CptTripps' first grow journal.

Just Be said:

A lot of folks train their plants to go in the direction that yours is going naturally. Why bother to stand her up straight?

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Fair point. It's just sad to see it sitting there in the dirt like that. I guess I'll leave it alone and get some experience with "sideways plants" then.

CptTripps said:

Fair point. It's just sad to see it sitting there in the dirt like that. I guess I'll leave it alone and get some experience with "sideways plants" then.

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If need be, you can always trim away any foliage that's sitting in the dirt.

Big girls are coming along nicely. Packing on weight and soaking up water at an alarming rate. I feel like I could water every day. I'm thinking about defoling a little bit, but I kind of want to only do it to one plant and see the difference so I have some experience.



I'm a little worried about this girl. She's not looking so hot, and not growing as quickly as her sister did 2 weeks ago. I've had her under a dome for the last 5 days since she sprouted. I took the dome off for a day, so I'll see if that improves things at all. Maybe it was TOO humid in there? Under the dome, the soil never dried out at all. Maybe it was too wet? Sprouted 5d ago, and this is all the bigger she's gotten.

I think leaving the dome off is going to help considerably. Typically, domes come off as soon as the seedling breaks the soil.

Just Be said:

I think leaving the dome off is going to help considerably. Typically, domes come off as soon as the seedling breaks the soil.

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Took your advice and removed the dome. BIG difference. You were 100% right. The day after I took the dome off, the plant doubled in size.

Keeping to my schedule, I planted two more yesterday. I'd started them in napkins 2 days earlier, and they both had long healthy tap-roots. So now I have 6 in the tent. Measuring things out, I should be able to easily have 10 plants in here, so I'm on schedule so far.

Also did some LST on the second Bruce Banner. If I let it go, It was going to just keep shooting sideways out of the pot, and I'm not sure how that would have fit, so I'm trying to prop her up a little bit.



Diesels are doing great at packing on bud weight. I lollipopped one of the plants, and left the other alone to see what the difference would be. I'm all about experimenting at this point, with three plants of each kind right now.



I also moved to a different nutrient schedule for the new girls. Seeing if Dr. Jimz' Chicken Soup for the Soil is any good. IF things go to plan, I shouldn't have to mess with nutrients at all, jut add a tablespoon of the mixture to each gallon of water. I'm trying to find a way where I don't have to mix up 4 different batches every day that I water, based on the stage of the plant.

CptTripps said:

I'm trying to find a way where I don't have to mix up 4 different batches every day that I water, based on the stage of the plant.

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There are some people that will water at full strength from clone to harvest. Seedlings will probably always require a lower PPM/EC. I'm no expert though.

I think you have a few options to get there. One would be to setup an automatic watering system allowing you to basically flush extra salts, 6 or so times a day(this is my plan eventually). Trying to do this starting your plant out in big containers probably wont work however.

I know some people water at full strength for so many days and then flush with plain water and never check the runoff. This is a little bit harder on the plant because it has to adjust to a different EC but probably not significant enough to worry about in a small garden.

And my noob opinion is you could probably just mix 2 batches everyday (or get two 5 gallon buckets like I did and mix less often). The larger plant and the two in flower look like they could take the same EC and then a separate batch for the seedlings. There is a pretty large range that the plant will be happy with. I can't find the graph but you don't really gain that much by being on the high side of EC.

Anyways looking great! I'm jealous of your larger space and I'm liking the idea of leaving the plants in solo cups. Seems like it would help protect from my irresponsible hand watering and pushing the plant around.

I'm headed out of town for a few days next week, and just ordered an auto-watering system. I'll set it up and try it this weekend to see how it works. If all goes well, I should be ok to leave them for a few days without worrying too much.

Teag said:

There are some people that will water at full strength from clone to harvest. Seedlings will probably always require a lower PPM/EC. I'm no expert though.

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I'm just experimenting at this point. So far, the girls seem to be liking the nutrient that I'm using for all of them. I see no ill effects thus far. It's all organic, almost like a tea concentrate, so I'll just have to see how this goes over the next 6-8 weeks. I'm thinking about only adding the nutes every other watering, to keep the mix on the lower side. I could also mix it up full strength, then after I water the flowering girls, add more water to dilute the mix, and then hit the veg/seedlings. It's all about finding a balance at this point.

Little LST action on BB #1. She's crushing right now. This stage pays off every morning when I peek in the tent. Trimmed a few gigantic leaves off, as they were hiding the rest of the plant, and fimmed her a few days ago.



The little girls are all sprouted and happy. Those aren't cups, but hospital bracelets with the strain and plant number. Easier for me than those little sticks, and I can keep them on the plant all the way through the drying tent. They also help to keep them straight-up while they're seedlings. Easier than wire.



The big girls are just doing their thing. Packing on bud weight. This is only day 19 of flower, so I have a way to go on them. I'm really happy thus far though.

You are crushing it mate, feel I keep saying it but it's looking good. Don't know how early plants begin to throw off their characteristic smells but I can almost smell that tangy diesel smell. Your Fiance is going to be well pleased. May have to grab some seeds for the next run after having a look at the strain information. Ticks all the boxes I need it for

What a difference 4 days makes. It's especially noticeable when you go out of town for a few.

Bruce Banners are exploding. I defoliated the big one on Sunday, and it looks so much bigger today. Like I didn't do anything at all, and then some.



The diesel girls have started a competition on who can pack on the most bud weight. This is only day 23 of flower, so I can't imaging what it'll look like at day 40.

More defoling and LST for the big Bruce Banner while the girls in flower do their thing. Boy, are they thirsty. Every day, I'm watering. The Chicken Soup for the Soil seems to be doing really well. No signs of nute burn at all, and they keep getting bigger. Same thing with the Bruce Banner plants. No signs of any deficiency.



The little girls are doing their thing. I'm a little concerned with the patterns showing up on the little Diesel. Almost like Vitiligo for plants. I've gotta look into that a little bit and see what I'm dealing with here. They're each only about 10d from sprouting, so I'm happy so far with them.



I bought a digital microscope, so I can start looking at trics on the plants in flower. It'll be here Wednesday. I'm thinking I'm still 3-4 weeks from harvest on them, but it'll be cool to start looking up close at how things are going.

Take it you got your answer on defoliating or did you just decide to continue regardless?

Poobzilla said:

Take it you got your answer on defoliating or did you just decide to continue regardless?

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I'd already done it, before I asked. I was looking for something unrelated and noticed a few comments from people saying to never defol autos. I think I'm going to try never defoling on the smaller BB and see what happens in the end.

That's the good part about the type of grow I'm doing. I can experiment with a bunch of different things and see what works and what doesn't. Since I'll be harvesting every 3 weeks, and don't really need all that much weed for what I'm doing, I'm not strapped to making sure I have "maximum yield" every single time. I'll try some different things, see what works, and adjust accordingly.

Aha, thought I would ask seeing as you weren't getting a response.
I have no plans to grow auto's but since your regularly adding plants it will be interesting to see the differences. Really interested to see your results with the chicken soup for the soil from beginning to end. Advanced are a bit pricey, and wouldn't mind another option but wont look into it until after my next grow as reckon I have enough for atleast 2 grows kicking about.

So far, so good. Haven't done one beginning to end yet though, so it'll be interesting to see how the plants from the same seedbank react, using only that nutrient.

Cracked two more seeds on schedule today. (White Widow and Blueberry) I'm going to leave them in the napkin another 24h though, but thought I'd get the medium in the pots and the pots adjusted to the tent before planting tomorrow. The tent is really starting to fill out. Room for 2-4 more and then I'll be off to the races!



Did some LST on BB #2 today. She's starting to get bigger and stretch up, so I needed to get her more opened up and sideways. Took off 4 HUGE fan leaves. They were the size of my hand, and the rest of the plant was so small. They were in the way when I stretched the branches out, and blocking the new growth so they had to go.



Overall, I'm really happy with the tent right now. Still having an issue with Diesel #3, but that'll sort in time. Could just be genetics. I'm giving her a few days to adjust to a different nutrient supplement. Hoping that helps with the splotchy leaves.

BB #1 is getting really big...and quickly. This is the "Fast Version" that HGCC sells, and holy crap they weren't kidding. This is only about 20d after cracking and it's already the size of my Diesels in flower.



I've been really happy with the Chicken Soup for the Soil nutrient, and Fox Farm Coco Loco medium so I think I'm going to stick with that for a while. The store that sells it by me is going out of business, so I'm going to go stock up on medium this week before I am stuck ordering online. The Chicken Soup is only available online, and I'm good for a while there. I feel like I'm really starting to get things dialed in.

Got a digital microscope last night, and checked things out this morning. I think I'm about there on the Diesel Autos. Can I get a second opinion? (Made a thread about it too....as this thread doesn't get a lot of action.)







It'll be 2 more days before I can chop. Wednesday is the day I have the house to myself. I'm going to want to spend an hour or two on wet trimming before they go into the drying tent.

Let me know what you guys think...

Guess I'm not as close to harvest as I thought. Started a thread in the Newbie section, and got some great advise.


Problem today is this...



I don't think it's light burn...my lights are at 18" so not even as close as the recommended 12".
I don't think it's magnesium...I am adding cal/mag at every feeding.
I don't think it's PH...I PH the water to 6.2-6.5 at every feeding.

According to the chart, I think it's a potassium deficiency. Looking into ways to fix that now. Looking at the pics I took yesterday, the plant looked fine. Whatever it is, it came on really quickly.

It looks like you might be having multiple issues at once. I would first want to check the PH of the medium which can be different than what you are watering with. What is the PH of the run off?

Teag said:

It looks like you might be having multiple issues at once. I would first want to check the PH of the medium which can be different than what you are watering with. What is the PH of the run off?

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I'll check it tomorrow. I've been going mad researching this all day. I can't figure it out, and the thread I made isn't getting any replies. I can't stick my head in the tent right now to see if it's getting worse. Tomorrow morning is the earliest I can check.

If the PH of the medium is too high, what do I do? PH the water even lower? I've been using 6.2-6.5 throughout the entire life of this plant. Go into the 5's?

I'm confused...that's for sure.