It's a nice day to start again. I'll be attempting to grow a White Widow fem seed from i49 (for the second time). It was the first strain I ever tried to grow a few years back and I swiftly killed all my seedlings. I've learned a few things since then so I'm gonna give 'er another go, hope it goes better this time round.
I'll be growing in soil, 5 gal fabric pots, under LED lighting. This widow's final home will be in a 2x4 tent under a Mars sp250 but will spend the first part of her life in a smaller tent under weaker lights. I'll probably germinate under a 26w CFL and then under an 86w COB once established.
I look forward to seeing everybody's grow! Let it snow ❄️
She's wet! Already soaked for about 18 hours and now sitting in damp paper towel on top of my fridge.. I'll be setting up my little veg tent tonight and will probably get my heating mat going. Can't wait to (hopefully) not kill this plant!
Went into soil when the taproot was about a half inch, about 18 hours later the seeds have popped and the lights are on! They're on a heat mat under a single t5 right now.
My soil mix is a recycled peat, coco, perlite blend with composted sheep manure, worm compost, Gaia 4-4-4 all purpose, and dolomitic lime. Been mixed up and sitting for a few weeks. Pre watered with liquid kelp, EM1, and humic acid in RO water remineralized with a small amount of seacrop.
The dome will have to come off soon and a humidifier set up, but until then.. happy growing.
Coming along, White Widow in the back. Got the humidifier set up on the shelf below (I'm also trying to root some clones) and just been struggling a little to get the humidity right.. opening vents, adding fans etc. Now the dome is at 77F/66% RH and going up a little so I think I'm good now.
Another light has been added so they are now under two t5 lights. I've been using a light meter on my phone (I know it won't be as accurate as an Apogee, but it seems to work well enough on my samsung s10) and, according to that, a single t5 isn't quite enough so I've added the second one and used the app to dial in the distance.
For now, I'll just be keeping an eye on the humidity and temperature until they get a little bigger and the pots start to dry out, which probably won't be for a couple days if I can keep the humidity up. 🌱🌱
Trying to stabilize humidity has been tough, it's been as low as 35 and high as 80. Still trying new things, have the tent at about 78F/65RH right now with the lights on.
Gonna keep them on something like a 40/6 light schedule until I get the environment a bit more consistent. I'm afraid if I turn the lights off and the temperature drops that I'll hit the dew point when the RH goes up. Might move my inkbird humidity controller from my flower tent if I can't figure it out.
I watered yesterday with maybe an oz or two. Just enough to keep the soil moist with an agricultural sprayer. RO water with a few drops of seacrop. Light is at an appropriate height still, haven't moved them up at all yet. I think she's looking ok, the seedling stage always seems to take forever. Anyway, hope everyone's New Years Grow is coming along!! 🤙🤙
Today is the first day that I haven't had wild humidity fluctuations. After trying different combinations of open vents, fan speeds, and humidifier settings it seems to be at an appropriate level. Around 60-70RH at 75-80F. All good. I also have to keep the humidifier full or else it's much less effective.. stupid thing, won't work with a humidity controller either.
Anyway, turned the lights off for a few hours and lowered the humidifier setting. I'll probably start a 20/4 light schedule tomorrow. Still looking good, another ounce or two of water (RO water w/ seacrop) yesterday, slightly more than last watering.
Still contemplating what size container to finish in.. at least a 5 gallon fabric pot, maybe a 7, maybe a milk crate with a liner. Not sure. I think I'm gonna flower her in a 20"x36" tent with one other plant (my other journal - Beanstalk) so 7 gal is probably overkill for the veg time I'll need to fill that space.
I'll also have to be very careful to keep these plants low as there is very little headroom.. especially with the 235W COB LED I run, which is non dimmable. I would throw them in my 2x4, which is my preferred flower tent, but that's all full with some clones from the PTGC Cinderella 99 Fast plants I grew. I wasn't sure if I was gonna grow them out.. they were taken at the beginning of flower so they took a while to revert back to vegetative growth. Pretty much the entire time it took to flower the og plants. Alas, they figured it out and were flipped into flower on Jan 1 so I've gotta use my backup tent. Less ideal.. but adequate. Happy growing y'all!
I think it's about time for transplant.. probably gonna go into 1 gals while I prep the soil for my flowering pots/milk crates. Normally I'd go straight into the final container and carefully water in increments, but I'm gonna try something new. That and I don't wanna mix up more soil right now. Cheers ✌️
All done. Transplanted into 1.6 gal plastic pots. Watered in with humics, kelpgrow, and EM.
She's moved tents and is now under a single 23w CFL at a few inches. I would normally use a single LED/COB but the tent is a little cool, around 66°F, in that set up. The fluorescent bulbs at 3ish inches give off a bit more heat so she's currently sitting at about 70°F. Humidity in the 60-70% range. All good.. this set up should work until I have to crank up the light intensity. May all your gardens prosper 🖖🌿🍀
Watered and turned on the LEDs. Added a bit of some 5-2-2 liquid fish fertilizer which contains fish emulsion, humics, alfalfa meal and some other stuff. Watered about 1L each, tiny bit of run-off as the peat struggles to re-wet.
LED is an 86w COB (+some reds and blues) from parfactworks, hanging at about 18". The lux meter on my samsung s10 reads around 17, 000 at the tips, which converts to 436 umols/m2/s. Seems just about right.. temperature should be OK now too, 70-72°F. This humidifier sucks and it's a constant pain in my arse so I've ordered a new one and an inkbird controller.. one less thing to worry about.
Otherwise, slow growth as she adjusts to her new home but looks generally healthy. 👌
Cheers y'all
Just rocked a foliar spray with potassium silicate, kelp and humics. 💦🌱
Silica for disease resistance, kelp for nutrients, humic acid for uptake. Applied around lights on.
Humidifier and controller came today so that's set up and will hopefully level things out in the tent.
Just watered! Thinking about topping either today or tomorrow, just pinching off the top node. Gotta transplant to final pot soon too.. they grow up so fast.
W.W. on the right..
