# cardgenius’ 2 in 1 LED Grow Tent



## cardgenius (Oct 27, 2019)

Hey everyone! Fairly new member here and am in the process of setting up my first indoor grow. I have a little bit of experience from growing a couple plants on my back deck for the last few summers but they never turn out to be the fire I hope for as they just don’t get enough direct sunlight back there. So, I’ve been wanting to get into doing a perennial grow for some time now as I smoke a lot and would love to start saving some real money by growing my own. I’m also a bit of a nerd and love to get into hobbies like this! I live in Colorado so it’s a 100% legal grow. 

I wanted to start off small and expand as I get better so I went with a 4.5 x 3 x 2 tent and a 600w LED light. Figure I’ll flower 1 or 2 plants in the main chamber while I use the others for cloning and vegetive growth. I’m not sure if this will be enough growing space to keep me going year round without having to go to the dispensary in between harvests but we shall see!

Equipment List:
Vivosun 2 in 1 Grow Tent, 4.5 x 3 x 2
Vivosun 600w LED, Full Spectrum
Feit Electric 30w LED, Full Spectrum
Vivosun 6” Clip on Fan
Visosun 1/8” Adjustable Rope Hanger
“El Cheapo” Made in China Thermometer and Hygrometer
3 Gallon Felt Grow Bags

*Will Purchase if Needed*
AC Infinity Cloudline T4 Inline Fan
Vivosun Inline Carbon Air Filter

Soil, Nutrients and Water:
Fox Farm Ocean Forrest Soil
Fox Farm Tiger Bloom, Grow Big and Big Bloom
Extreme Gardening Mycorrhizal
R.O. Water
Dirty fish tank water


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## Lesso (Oct 27, 2019)

Clean setup. Do you have yiur strains figured out?


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## cardgenius (Oct 27, 2019)

Lesso said:


> Clean setup. Do you have yiur strains figured out?



Thanks. I’ve got 20-30 seeds that I’ve collected over the years. Not sure of the strains but they’ve all come from quality buds purchased at the dispensary’s around town so I’ll roll with these for now and hope I can find one I really like.

Will probably buy some high end seeds from a seed bank once these run out.


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## Lesso (Oct 27, 2019)

Beware of bagseed. You may have an easier time starting with a known strain. Bagseeds especially from dispensaries are usually made by hermies. Hermie seeds = hermie plants


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 27, 2019)

You will need an inline fan. Plants need fresh air. And LEDs still generate heat. If you are worried about smell you are going to need the carbon filter too.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 27, 2019)

it will smell...


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## cardgenius (Oct 27, 2019)

Lesso said:


> Beware of bagseed. You may have an easier time starting with a known strain. Bagseeds especially from dispensaries are usually made by hermies. Hermie seeds = hermie plants



Haven’t had any troubles yet other than some not sprouting in the past. What are hermie plants?


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## cardgenius (Oct 27, 2019)

oldfogey8 said:


> You will need an inline fan. Plants need fresh air. And LEDs still generate heat. If you are worried about smell you are going to need the carbon filter too.



Yeah, I’ve been thinking I’ll need one eventually(inline fan) but guess I’ll buy it once it gets closer to the flower stage. 

I do have a small clip-on fan ordered that should be here in a day or so to keep the air circulated. It’s only 6” so I’m sure I’ll need to buy another one once the plants start getting larger.


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## Lesso (Oct 28, 2019)

Hermaphrodites. Females that sprout male pollen sacs that can really ruin a good crop.


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## hollowpoint (Oct 28, 2019)

Welcome to MP...Looks like your off to a good start!


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 28, 2019)

The in-line fan isn’t just for odor control. Plants need fresh air. The in-line fan should draw in fresh air (where the co2 the plants need is). It will also exhaust some of the heat and humidity.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

Lesso said:


> Hermaphrodites. Females that sprout male pollen sacs that can really ruin a good crop.



Oh wow, have never heard of that. Guess I have some reading to do and a decision to make!

Would be a much easier decision if I could just drive over to my dispensary and pick up a pack of seeds but no one seems to sell them locally.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

hollowpoint said:


> Welcome to MP...Looks like your off to a good start!


 Thanks, I’m quite excited!


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## 2RedEyes (Oct 28, 2019)

Looks like a decent if small(mine is too) setup...get some decent genetics and an in-line fan for fresh air/exhaust and you’ll be trimmin buds in a few months...


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

oldfogey8 said:


> The in-line fan isn’t just for odor control. Plants need fresh air. The in-line fan should draw in fresh air (where the co2 the plants need is). It will also exhaust some of the heat and humidity.



So you think I need that in addition to the small circular fan right now? I know I’ll need the inline fan for when the plants start getting bigger but thought I could get by with just the small guy for now. 

With just the small light running and a couple vents open, the temps stays around 75° with 30% humidity.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

2RedEyes said:


> Looks like a decent if small(mine is too) setup...get some decent genetics and an in-line fan for fresh air/exhaust and you’ll be trimmin buds in a few months...



Thanks! Yeah I’ll be looking to order the inline fan sometime this week.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 28, 2019)

cardgenius said:


> So you think I need that in addition to the small circular fan right now? I know I’ll need the inline fan for when the plants start getting bigger but thought I could get by with just the small guy for now.
> 
> With just the small light running and a couple vents open, the temps stays around 75° with 30% humidity.


If the small circular fan isn’t pulling or pushing in fresh air, it isn’t doing the job an in-line fan would be doing. Again, plants need fresh air.


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## Lesso (Oct 28, 2019)

AC Infinity CLOUDLINE S4, Quiet 4" Inline Duct Fan with Speed Controller - Ventilation Exhaust Fan for Heating Cooling Booster, Grow Tents, Hydroponics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JB292JC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zbYTDbEP5X3NJ
This one is great. 4 inch duct super quiet


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## stinkyattic (Oct 28, 2019)

Looks like you've got most of your supplies all set (yup get an exhaust fan!). 
I'll add that you should skip the dirty fish tank water at least for know. It's a big unknown, and for a first run, you are best to stick with predictable fertilizers.
If you have to use RO water, you need CalMagPlus to bring your base EC to around 100 before adding ferts. This is to return "good" minerals to the water, especially calcium, that the plants really need.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

Lesso said:


> AC Infinity CLOUDLINE S4, Quiet 4"
> This one is great. 4 inch duct super quiet



Good to hear as that’s the one I’ve been considering!


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## Lesso (Oct 28, 2019)

I have its bigger brother in my 5x5.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

stinkyattic said:


> Looks like you've got most of your supplies all set (yup get an exhaust fan!).
> I'll add that you should skip the dirty fish tank water at least for know. It's a big unknown, and for a first run, you are best to stick with predictable fertilizers.
> If you have to use RO water, you need CalMagPlus to bring your base EC to around 100 before adding ferts. This is to return "good" minerals to the water, especially calcium, that the plants really need.



Hey thanks!

My plan for the fish water is to use it regularly here in a few weeks once the plants get bigger and use the bottled nutrients sparingly. I’ve done this with my outdoor plants and veggies I grow in the summer time and have had good success with it. Ive been using the RO water to mix in the bottled nutrients when I use them but for no special reason other than I have the filter and use it for my fish tank. Maybe I’ll start using tap water instead.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 28, 2019)

You're going to  have to decide if you want to do organic or not--you cannot do both.  Chemical fertilizers like Fox Farm Grow Big and Tiger bloom are not organic and will kill any good microbes in your soil.  

I would recommend getting your water tested before you decide to use it.  While water can have good things in it, it can also have a lot of nasties or too much of one thing, which can cause problems with nutrient uptake of other elements.

I don't believe that the fish water will supply the right nutrients in the right amounts to be the sole nutrient for your plants, especially during flowering--cannabis does not do well in an aquaponics system.  And if you want an organic grow, you are not going to be able to use the Fox Farm products.  You might want to investigate making organic nutrient teas for your plants.


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## stinkyattic (Oct 28, 2019)

I assume you have a way to check for chloramine since you have fishies... the only real reasons to go RO would be excessive chlorination residuals, or really hard or brackish tap water. Tap water is safe for plants more often than not, so just check it n see how crazy you have to get


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## stinkyattic (Oct 28, 2019)

As someone who worked at an aquaponic basil+tilapia facility back in the day, I second HG's sentiment re: fish water.
Incidentally... it's out of business now. It was a nice thought,  but fish and plants don't enjoy the same water in an artificial environment.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

stinkyattic said:


> I assume you have a way to check for chloramine since you have fishies... the only real reasons to go RO would be excessive chlorination residuals, or really hard or brackish tap water. Tap water is safe for plants more often than not, so just check it n see how crazy you have to get



I don’t actually. I don’t use tap water in my aquariums because I don’t like adding water conditions to deal with the chlorine and it’s a planted tank with live plants. Because of the live plants I have to add fertilizers each week and when you use tap water with the added ferts it can be a recipe for some kind of nasty algae to start growing. 

I always have a bucket of RO water on hand for a water change so that’s really the only reason I use it but I see what your saying. No need to use the RO water if I’m having to add back some of the basic elements I’m stripping out when tap water would be just fine.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

The Hemp Goddess said:


> You're going to  have to decide if you want to do organic or not--you cannot do both.  Chemical fertilizers like Fox Farm Grow Big and Tiger bloom are not organic and will kill any good microbes in your soil.
> 
> I would recommend getting your water tested before you decide to use it.  While water can have good things in it, it can also have a lot of nasties or too much of one thing, which can cause problems with nutrient uptake of other elements.
> 
> I don't believe that the fish water will supply the right nutrients in the right amounts to be the sole nutrient for your plants, especially during flowering--cannabis does not do well in an aquaponics system.  And if you want an organic grow, you are not going to be able to use the Fox Farm products.  You might want to investigate making organic nutrient teas for your plants.



Hey thanks for the post, I had never thought about mixing organic with non-organic! In fact I thought I was buying all organic ferts with the Fox Farm stuff but I now see that only the Big Bloom is organic. I would definitely like to go organic if I can. Have a link that could point me in the right direction for making the tea?

I’ve done a little research on aquaponics for growing veggies and whatnot and have seen the benefits but I didn’t find any real info on it when used with Cannabis. Thought I’d give it a go and see how it turned out. Maybe I’ll water  one plant with fish water and one plant with tap water + ferts and see which does better.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

Decided I’m gonna roll the dice and go with my random bag seeds for now. I haven’t had any troubles with the 7 plants I’ve grown so far with these seeds so I’d rather build up my skills a bit before ordering some expensive seeds online. I’m also too impatient to keep the waiting going! haha

Ive germinated the seeds for the last 2 grows I did on my back deck as I’ve had problems with them sprouting in the past, so I picked out 3 seeds from the bag O mystery and have them soaking.


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## stinkyattic (Oct 28, 2019)

Try soaking them between 2 damp paper towels so they get both air and water. I fear drowning them in straight water if theyre in there long enough to sink.


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## cardgenius (Oct 28, 2019)

stinkyattic said:


> Try soaking them between 2 damp paper towels so they get both air and water. I fear drowning them in straight water if theyre in there long enough to sink.



Think it’ll get them to sprout faster? I’ve done this before(soak them for a day), then move them to a wet paper towel in the bag until I see some of the tap root but they always seem to take at least a few days to sprout.


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## stinkyattic (Oct 28, 2019)

Oh ok no it's not so much about sprouting speed as oxygen getting to them and reducing chance of rot. As soon as you go to paper towels put them somewhere warmish. If you look at my grow log you'll see my stupid setup which is balancing them on a lamp with a small cfl in it for just a bit of heat. It's dumb but it works- a seedling heat mat is the official way to do it but ... There's more than one way to skin this cat.


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## cardgenius (Nov 2, 2019)

*Week 1 Update:*

After floating the seeds for a bit I added them to the damp paper towel and stuck them under a vent for some heat(thanks stinkyattic). Woke up the next morning and 2 of the 3 had sprouted! So I stuck them in the dirt and they’ve been doing great. The other seed never sprouted so I tossed it. 

I’m doing an 18/6 light cycle with the light about 4” above the plants. The tent is in my basement and with it acting like full on winter here in Colorado, the temps are struggling to stay above 70°. And that’s with the lights on. When off, it drops to 65°. So I’m looking for a small heater to add as it’s only gonna get colder as Winter gets closer. 

Humidity is at 30% so I added a couple bowls of water with hopes that it would raise it up but it’s not doing anything as it’s still sitting at 30%.

Is 30% acceptable or should I be adding a humidifier to raise it up?


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## oldfogey8 (Nov 2, 2019)

Leaving the light on 24 hours a day would probably be cheaper than running a heater. I veg with the lights on all the time...


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## cardgenius (Nov 2, 2019)

oldfogey8 said:


> Leaving the light on 24 hours a day would probably be cheaper than running a heater. I veg with the lights on all the time...



Hmmm,  that would definitely keep the temps up for the time being but I think I’ll run into the same problem come flower time. Guess I’ll look for something small and low power as I can’t think of any alternatives to adding heat once that time comes. 

I will change the lights to 24 hours though. I like the idea of not having to buy anything else right now and not increasing the electricity bill. Thanks for the suggestion!


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## Lesso (Nov 2, 2019)

Looking great. I think youre going to do well


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## cardgenius (Nov 2, 2019)

Lesso said:


> Looking great. I think youre going to do well



Thank you, I appreciate it!


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## cardgenius (Nov 10, 2019)

*Week 2 Update:*

Plants are doing great so far with lots of growth the past week. Temps are staying stable at 74° after switching the light to 24 hours. I added a small humidifier and now the Rh is up around 40. 

The roots are starting to poke through the bottom drain holes, is this a good time to transplant them or should I give them more time in the starter pots?


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## stinkyattic (Nov 10, 2019)

Perfect time to transplant, if the roots get too bunched up it is a bear getting them out without trauma. Looking good.
When you do decide to add heat, look at an oil filled portable electric radiator. They are cheap, safe, don't create hot/dry spots in the room like the quartz +fan types,  and cycle slowly due to the heat capacity of the oil.  It's not " desert wind vs nothing " lol.


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## cardgenius (Nov 10, 2019)

stinkyattic said:


> Perfect time to transplant, if the roots get too bunched up it is a bear getting them out without trauma. Looking good.
> When you do decide to add heat, look at an oil filled portable electric radiator. They are cheap, safe, don't create hot/dry spots in the room like the quartz +fan types,  and cycle slowly due to the heat capacity of the oil.  It's not " desert wind vs nothing " lol.



Great, I’ll get them transplanted tonight! I’ll definitely look into the oil radiator, don’t think I’m familiar with one but it sounds perfect.


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## cardgenius (Nov 12, 2019)

Switched the plants over today and was pleasantly surprised by how well the roots look. The few other grows I’ve done never looked this good. I added a little less than 2tbs of the Mycos to each pot. 

I unfortunately made the mistake of ordering 1 gallon bags instead of 3 and didn’t notice until I was in the middle of switching them over. Maybe it’ll work out for the best since I’m starting to realize how small my glowing chamber is.


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## Lesso (Nov 12, 2019)

I think 1 gallon pots are fine for your space if you dont plan to veg for a super long time.


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## cardgenius (Nov 12, 2019)

Right on. Was thinking another 3 weeks. Plan is to start LST/topping next week and then veg until they hit 12”. Then I’ll prune them up, get some clones, let them veg for another few days and put them in flower.


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## Lesso (Nov 12, 2019)

Should be fine then. There are a few growers here that do 1 gallon pots and get great results.


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## cardgenius (Nov 20, 2019)

*Week 3.5 Update:*

Got a little busy since the last update so this ones late!

I thought after the transplant that I’d have another week or two before needing to start feeding them but 2 deficiencies showed up a day or two after the transplant! Could it be that they exhausted the nutrients from the soil in the starter cups or that they’re just growing really fast and the added soil from the transplant wasnt enough? Not really sure but I tried to do some reading up on the issues. 

One plant had yellowing start on the 2 lowest leaves, which Im familiar with it being a sign that the plant is hungry. 






The other one not so much. I think I narrowed it down to being either heat stress or lack of Magnesium. It’s not at all hot in my tent with temps barely hitting 74°. The light is close though, at only 5” above the plant. But the heat it puts out is very minimal. So I’m leaning towards Magnesium. I had started the seedling off with RO water and then switched to tap after a few days. So I’m guessing my tap isn’t very high in Mag so I probably should have been adding some since the beginning. I am still confused as to why each has shown different problems instead of them both having the same, seeing that they are in the same tent getting the same light and water.

I have started feeding them the bottled nutes and cal/mag and for now, the yellowing has stopped. Haven’t noticed any more leafs doing the curling thing but I’ll be keeping a close watch. 

Otherwise they are doing great and are now growing they’re 5th node!





After dealing with those 2 issues over the weekend, I let them grow for a few days and decided I’d LST and top them. Both plants are 6” tall so I figured it was a good time.


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## Ganja_Greg (Nov 22, 2019)

I wouldnt worry about hermies from bagseed lol plants can pump out a seed without being hermies sometimes a grain of pollen can make a few seeds in one of the colas alittle stress can lens to this.  Ive trimmed entire cannabis cup quality crops for work and you find a seed here and there in top shelf dispensary product. Ive actually found as little as one seed on a whole 5ft flowered plant.  Keep up the good work! Lookin good


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## cardgenius (Nov 24, 2019)

Ganja_Greg said:


> I wouldnt worry about hermies from bagseed lol plants can pump out a seed without being hermies sometimes a grain of pollen can make a few seeds in one of the colas alittle stress can lens to this.  Ive trimmed entire cannabis cup quality crops for work and you find a seed here and there in top shelf dispensary product. Ive actually found as little as one seed on a whole 5ft flowered plant.  Keep up the good work! Lookin good



Hey, thanks for the kind words! Yeah, I’m not too worried. I’ve saved up some quality bagseed so it’s worth it to get some experience with the freebies I’ve got. That said, I have been looking at some seed banks and plan to make an order soon. I’m intrigued by the auto flowers as they seem to be quick, easy and would fit in my tent quite well. So many strains to choose from though. I’d love to have 2 tents set up so I could mess with both photoperiod and autos at the same time.


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## cardgenius (Nov 24, 2019)

*Week 4 Update:*

So I decided that I’m not going to clone these plants as I plan to buy some quality seeds from a seed bank. So with that, I took down the partition and shelf to make the tent as big as possible as I won’t need them until I do a reset. I then hung the big boy LED and fired it up. Damn is it bright compared to this little one I’ve been using! The old light was 30w and this one is around 230w from the wall so it’s a big improvement. The light is about 34” from the plants but I plan on lowering it a little each day or two until it’s about 24” above. 

After turning it on, the temps shot up to 80° right away but after messing with fan placement and vent openings, I’ve got it to a steady 77°. My little humidifier is no longer cutting it though. Rh is 35ish and the reservoir needs to be refilled multiple times a day. 

Plants are going strong after the LST and Topping. Lots of lower growth has formed with new top sites. I tied 1 branch down today and will have a few more to do in a couple days.

Now I just need to feed and do some more LST/Topping as the plant grows and at this rate I’ll be flipping them into flower in 2-3 weeks.


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## Ganja_Greg (Nov 24, 2019)

cardgenius said:


> *Week 4 Update:*
> 
> So I decided that I’m not going to clone these plants as I plan to buy some quality seeds from a seed bank. So with that, I took down the partition and shelf to make the tent as big as possible as I won’t need them until I do a reset. I then hung the big boy LED and fired it up. **** is it bright compared to this little one I’ve been using! The old light was 30w and this one is around 230w from the wall so it’s a big improvement. The light is about 34” from the plants but I plan on lowering it a little each day or two until it’s about 24” above.
> 
> ...


Lookin good! Cant go wrong with dutchpassion.com for seeds but theres a bunch of good ones!


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## oldfogey8 (Nov 24, 2019)

you should look into getting that inline fan(and some drier vent hoses). if there is any light that gets into your grow area, it will find its way into the tent thru the vent openings and delay flowering or worse yet, hermie your plants.


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## cardgenius (Nov 24, 2019)

oldfogey8 said:


> you should look into getting that inline fan(and some drier vent hoses). if there is any light that gets into your grow area, it will find its way into the tent thru the vent openings and delay flowering or worse yet, hermie your plants.


For sure! I’ve just been lazy and haven’t got around to ordering it. Should probably get on that since it’ll take a week or more to get here as I’m cheap and always go with the free shipping option on Amazon!


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## cardgenius (Dec 4, 2019)

*Week 5.5 Update:*

Well, that escalated quickly.

Last week I decided to show my hand at how inexperienced I am at this growing cannabis thing! A few days after topping and LSTing both plants everything seemed to be going good until I decided to feed them some nutrients. Even though the plants didn’t show any real signs of needing food, I thought I’d be timing it right if I did, since they used up the food in the soil from the starter pots so quickly but I was wrong. About a day after feeding them I noticed right away that the tips were turning yellow and burning on both of the plants. One was very noticeable while the other not so much.

I did a plain watering a couple days later and then noticed quite a few of the bottom leaves turning yellow. I took this as a sign that they were still hungry and I just needed to dial back the nutes, so I used the same solution I had made days prior and just watered it down, about half, thinking that would be ok. The very next day things looked bad. The leaves that had turned yellow were crispy brown about half way down. Most of the plant had curled heavily and the larger leaves had a very dark green color. The new growth was very thin and twisted so I new something was going wrong and quickly.

After spending many hours reading and watching videos I think I know what I did wrong. I over fed the plants so much that it caused nutrient burn and eventually lockout. Rookie mistake I know but it still hurts the ego a bit. Was hoping for a clean grow with no issues but for a first timer that wishful thinking.

To fix the problem, everything said to do a flush. It said to run ph’d RO water at 3x your pot size. Collect the fist bit of runoff to test with a TDS meter to see if the PPMs are high for that particular size plant. If so do the flush until you get a PPM reading that’s inline with your plant size. So, I filtered 6 gallons of RO water, pH’d it to 6.5 and ran 3 gallons through each pot. I forgot to collect the initial run off to test but did get some after the first gallon. The TDS meter read 810ppm which I figured was high from the info I’d dug up and was most likely even higher at the beginning of the flush. The run off at the end of the flush was around 550ppm which I think is about right for plants that are 5 weeks old.

I did the flush yesterday and things are looking ok for now.









After flush


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## cardgenius (Dec 4, 2019)

From here, I plan to just us ph’d tap water for a week and then do a super low ppm solution of nutrients to start feeding next week. Does that sound ok or should I start the low feeding sooner?

On a good note, each plant has sprouted a few more side branches from the LST and two new tops. One plant sprouted 3 tops from the topping and has got very bushy down low. Will do a light pruning once things are back on track and growing properly and maybe show some pre flowers!


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## Lesso (Dec 4, 2019)

At least you had this problem in veg and not during flower. Youve done the right thing i think. Do the low ppm feeding sooner since youve flushed the soil. Watch for any deficiency. They look good other than the lock out. Twisty leaves can be a sign of too high concentrations of nutes or ph problems.


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## cardgenius (Dec 4, 2019)

Lesso said:


> At least you had this problem in veg and not during flower. Youve done the right thing i think. Do the low ppm feeding sooner since youve flushed the soil. Watch for any deficiency. They look good other than the lock out. Twisty leaves can be a sign of too high concentrations of nutes or ph problems.


For sure. Watched a few YouTube videos of them doing exactly that and they ended up with some small yields from what they usually pull. I’ll mix up a low solution around 300ppm for the next watering and keep a close eye on them. Thanks for the input!


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## cardgenius (Dec 6, 2019)

Watered the plants last night with the low solution and made sure to dump the run off. Looking nice and perky this morning. Also checked for pre flowers and have one confirmed female!




The other plant has some nubs sticking out but no pistols. Will check it each day until I can confirm what it is.


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## Lesso (Dec 6, 2019)

Congrats on the female. Looks like its pulling through


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## cardgenius (Dec 18, 2019)

*Week 7.5 Update:*

Plants have been coming along, both are confirmed females. They still haven’t returned to that nice lush green they once were but they are growing. One plant has shot out a lot of tops in the last couple weeks but just doesn’t look very nice. The other plant is starting took better and get back to the nice green color. 

Sorry for the blurple pics




I’ve got my feeding to just once a week then tap water the rest. Water is always pH’d to 6.5.  Ive been scared to over feed so I’ve been gradually ramping up the ppm’s in the solution. Started with 300ppm after the flush, then bumped it up to 450ppm and will go to 600ppm for the next feeding. I’m not sure if this is under feeding them and that’s why they haven’t got back to the green color or if they’re still recovering from the lockout. 

I did finally get my inline fan and filter! Got it all hooked up over the weekend and love it. Temp is set to 77°. Installation was quick and easy!




The plants have been growing in a kind of lopsided way. You can see in the first pic how there’s a lot of open space in the front of the pot so I did another round of LST to get that spot filled in and to even out the canopy as that one side was getting a bit tall. Added the 24” LED to a corner to try and help out some of those lower branches. I’m hoping they start looking better soon as I don’t have much room left before I have to flip them to flower.


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## cardgenius (Jan 20, 2020)

Been a while since the last update! This grow has been a challenge so far. Plants went through another battle with lockout shortly after the last update. I was only feeding once every 7 days and with a very low ppm solution yet they still would look like crap each week, dropping tons of leaves. I wasn’t sure if I had fried the roots, if the pH was off or what so I upgraded them to 3g pots with new soil and bought some calibration solution for the pH pen. I now double check the pen with the drop test that came with the pH up and down.

I haven’t fed them since before the transplant and am only giving them pH’d tap water until they show real signs of needing food. I’ve done a lot of reading on the Fox Farm Ocean Forrest soil and realize the big mistake I made early on. Ocean Forrest comes with enough nutrients to last most of if not all the way through the vegetive growth(4-6w). It’s my first time using this soil and I made the mistake of feeding them way too early on(second week) in the grow and then thinking nutrient lockout was nutrient deficiency and fed them some more. It’s been 2 weeks since the transplant and 10 days since I flipped them to flower. They’re just starting to show pistols and flower growth. 












 I’ve also realized that this tent is just too small to run a perpetual grow with decent sized plants and a filter inside the tent so I’m going to buy another light and a tent that’s around 3x3x6 to use just for flowering. I’ll then use this smaller tent to germinate seeds and veg the plants before they go into the flower tent. This way I can grow good sized plants with hopes good yields. So, for the time being I cleared a spot on a shelf in my closet that I’ll use to germinate and grow new seeds while these other plants flower. Will get that going in a few weeks after I buy some seeds online.


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## cardgenius (Feb 11, 2020)

*Day 30 of Flower*

Plants seem to be doing good for all they’ve been through. Buds are growing and trichome production has really come on in the last few days. Not much funk coming from them yet but each has a unique smell if you rub your fingers on the stems. The plant on the left has a light and sweet smell while the other has a heavier, kinda piney smell. The plant on the left is definitely the bigger of the two with almost twice as many top sites.















With the other 2 plants being 30 days into flower I figured it was time to get the perpetual side of this thing going. I bought another 24” 30 watt full spectrum LED by Feit and some of the small usb powered fans by AC Infinity and set up it up in a small cubby in my closet. I’ll be using this to veg until I get a properly sized tent, around 3x3x7, and a new light. Once I do that I’ll use my current tent as a multi chamber vegging tent. I scored a couple Blue Dream seeds from a friend so I planted those along with 2 more seeds from the random bag o’ seeds.

I’m switching it up with these new ones and doing an organic grow with dry amendments from Dr. Earth and earthworm castings from VermisTerra. My medium is Tupur from Royal Gold. It’s a soil less mix of Coco Coir, perlite and “aged forrest materials” as they put it. I started the seedlings with just some earthworm casting mixed in. Once they are big enough to transplant I’ll amend the medium with the Dr. Earth and earthworm castings. I’ll re-amend the medium every 3-4 weeks and just water with pH’d tap water.


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## Lesso (Feb 11, 2020)

Looks well thought out. Good looking plants.


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## cardgenius (Feb 11, 2020)

Thanks!


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## cardgenius (Feb 22, 2020)

*Day 43 of Flower:* 
Things are looking good. Buds are stacking and starting to put on weight. Had the first branch fall over from the added weight so that’s good, luckily it didn’t break off. Trichomes are starting to get cloudy, maybe 10-20%. 

Since I’m going with an organic grow with these next plants I figured what the hell and fed them a mixture of the Bloom amendments and earthworm casting for what should be the last feeding. The timing was right and I’m tired of playing Russian Roulette with the bottled nutes. 


















Had to cull out one of the bagseed seedlings. It had weird growth and was lagging behind the others quite a bit. The other seedlings going strong and just got transplanted to 1g pots.


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## QBCrocket (Feb 22, 2020)

nice work


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## cardgenius (Mar 4, 2020)

*Day 53 of Flower:*

Everything is still going strong. Plant on the right has about 80-90% cloudy trichs, no amber yet and hasn’t started to fade while the other is only at 40-50% and is starting to fade. It needs more time so I’m thinking about putting in a few Tbs. of earthworm castings to keep it good for another couple weeks while it gets closer to being ready. I purchased the new light, tent and have had the plants flowering in it for a few days now.

 The tent is another Vivosun that’s 3x3x6. It seems they’ve lowered there quality cause thing is flimsy, has quite a few micro holes in it and the vent covers were cut to the wrong size. I’d return the damn thing but I don’t have an alternative to use so I’m just gonna deal with it. I patched up all the holes and taped up the vents so no light is leaking into it. The clip on fans oscillating feature just shit the bed and also happens to be made by Vivosun so that’ll be the last thing I buy from them. Had that thing for only 3 months!

Light is the Spider Farmer SF-2000. Everything about this light has been great. More light(par), less electricity and no noise! Its a little rough around the edges but I liking it so much I’m getting rid of this Vivosun 600w soon so I can get the SF-1000 for the vegging tent.


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## cardgenius (Mar 25, 2020)

Plants got the chop and have been drying in the tent for 5 days now. It’s dry around here so I’ve had problems in the past with them drying out too fast and never getting rid of that hay smell. So this time I left all the leafs on to help lengthen the drying time and it seems to be working as that terrible smell is fading. 




The “Blue Dream” and random bagseed plants are doing good but could be better. Been having some cal/mag issues due to this new medium, Tupur. No matter how much cal/mag I throw at it I can’t get it to fix itself. So I’m just gonna do a side plant here and there with the Tupur till I can get it figured out.


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## cardgenius (Mar 25, 2020)

I got to pick up a pack of seeds from one of the large dispensary’s close by. It’s a cross of Jah Kush, Cindy White and Graper Ape. Haven’t smoked any of these strains before so it’ll be interesting to see how they turn out. Guy at the dispensary didn’t have a clue so no help there. 

Dropped 5 seeds into some Happy Frog and EWC to get them going and they just popped up a couple days ago.


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## cardgenius (Mar 29, 2020)

Trimmed up the buds after drying for 6.5 days. I’d like to get that number closer to 8 days so I’ll probably put the fan on a timer next time so it’s not running 24/7. 

Got a total of 4.3oz from the 2 plants. The shorter plant produced some nice dense colas with very few popcorn nugs. The other one was the exact opposite. It produced just as much popcorn nugs as it did “large” ones so I don’t think I did as good of a job lollipoping this plant as I did the other.


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## cardgenius (Mar 29, 2020)

Upgraded the light in the veg tent to the HLG100 v2 by Horticulture Lighting Group. It’s another QB LED like the Spider Farmer but made here in the USA which is always a plus.

I was originally going to go with the Spider Farmer SF-1000 but they have raised the price up to $180 this last week so I started looking into other lights. It’s probably the better of the two lights with it’s 3500k spectrum instead of either 3K or 4K with the HLG and it has infrared diodes while the HLG does not but the Spider Farmers are made in China and I was not impressed with the build quality(aluminum back plate is bowed out jus a bit) of my SF-2000 to justify the price hike. Paid $150 for the HLG100 and it’s great. It’s dead silent and only pulls 100w from the wall while putting out 450 PAR at 18”. Either way it’s a better option for my 2x2 veg chamber than this out dated VIVOSUN 600w LED I’ve been using which pulls 260w while barely putting out 500 PAR and is extremely loud.

I was going to eventually add another SF-2000 to my 3x3 but they raised the price on that also by $40 so I’m now looking into the 260w QB v2 Rspec kit from Horticulture Lighting Group.


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## Lesso (Mar 29, 2020)

Moving right along. Congrats on the harvest!
Keeping it nice and clean up there.


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## cardgenius (Apr 19, 2020)

Blue Dream and the Bagseed finally showed their sex and lucky for me they are females. Made a couple mistakes in the last few weeks. First, I grabbed the wrong measuring spoon so I only top dressed half of what I was supposed to which led to the plants getting a little starved. Then, I put the new HLG too close to the plants and they really didn’t like it. Lost a lot of color and shut down growth for a week before I realized the problem. I am happy with the size and even canopy though. They’ve been moved into the flower tent with the Spider Farmer and will give them a week before I put up a SCROG and flip to 12/12.







The Jah Kush x Cindy White x Graper Ape cross are all doing good. Just transferred them to the Veg chamber under the HLG and into 1 gallon pots. I’m hoping that at least 3 of the 5 are females as I’d like to flower 2 and keep the other for a mother. I like growing from seed but Id like to try my hand at cloning. I also think it will keep the veg to flower cycle on point a bit more.


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## WeedHopper (Apr 19, 2020)

Nice job on your previous grow my friend.


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## Kyfarmerb (Apr 20, 2020)

Looking good bro.stay at it and you'll have green hands instead of green thumbs.check my grow out bro.hit me up if u have any questions.and happy 420 bro


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## cardgenius (Apr 26, 2020)

Did some pruning and lollipoping a few days ago and then flipped the ladies to 12/12. Plants are not as big as I had hoped for but they've been in veg for over 2 months now so their time has come. 





Top soil is looking good after a recent top dress. 








The Veg chamber is coming along nicely. All were topped earlier in the week. Will do some low stress training on them once they are bigger. 





This one has some weird growth going on. 





Popped some veggie seeds in the germination station a few days ago. Big Boy tomatoes, Lettuce, Sweet Peas, Jalapeño, Serrano and Bell Peppers. I usually buy starter plants from the nursery but wanted to do it from seed since I’ve got the equipment to do so. I’ll let them grow in here for a couple weeks before putting them outside for the summer. I dream of having a garden or even a high tunnel greenhouse one day but for now my back porch will have to do.


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## cardgenius (Apr 29, 2020)

Watered the plants in the veg tent last night and was bummed to see that 2 of the 5 are males. Pretty sure there’s a 3rd in there but I’ll give it a few days to let those ball drop some more before I give him the boot.


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## Sin inc (Apr 29, 2020)

Wow nice grow you have their fam. Just got that same tent.


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## cardgenius (Apr 30, 2020)

Sin inc said:


> Wow nice grow you have their fam. Just got that same tent.


I saw that. You’ve got very cool grow going on!


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## cardgenius (May 5, 2020)

*Day 12 of Flower:* 
Plant on the right has just exploded since the flip with bud sites and pistols popping out all over the place while the other hasn’t done much and is just now starting to show pistols. Wonder if it’s the difference in strain or if it’s just a healthier plant than the other? It did start showing a ton of pre flowers 3 or 4 days before the flip whereas the other only had a few showing...

Overall both are doing good and have filled in a lot after the lollipoping I did.









Not a lot of stretch going on but this one should have a nice fat cola towering above the rest.





And finally, got confirmation that the 3rd one is a boy so he’s been put in isolation. Not sure if I’m going to let it go and collect some pollen from it or just strip it’s leaves for the dirt bin and trash the rest.


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## cardgenius (May 12, 2020)

While I’m liking the Spider Farmer so far, I wish I had known then what I know now and purchased a light with more red in its spectrum. This is a good all in one grow light but there’s definitely better out there to use for flowering. The 300w or 260w R-Spec’s from Horticulture Lighting Group is what I would have gone with. Unfortunately the return window for the Spider Farmer is closed so I’ll have to live with my mistake  and move on. 

Luckily there are good options out there for adding supplemental light. I purchased a 60w red supplement bar from Horticulture Lighting Group last month but have yet to receive it due to it being back ordered, damn covid. 

So last week I did some browsing on RapidLED website and found these little LED pucks they which come in “Royal Blue” for Veg, “Photo Red” for Flowering and a Violet UVA for a boost in trichome production. They are about 3.5” in diameter so they can be placed pretty much anywhere and only use 4w. 

I ended up ordering a Photo Red and UVA puck, got a 10% discount for being my first order. Shipping was cheap and only took 2 days to get here. The red has been plugged in since Saturday. They say to use the UVA in the last couple weeks to boost the trichome production. I don’t know much about the use of UVA so I’ll be doing some reading on it. Plants seem to be liking the extra red so far, especially the Blue Dream.


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## cardgenius (May 30, 2020)

*Day 40 of Flower*
Buds are fattening up and starting to look good. Not much smell coming off them yet. Drinking around a quarter gallon every day. 














Ive been interested in picking up some kind of monitor for the tents and had my eye on the Pulse One Monitor and wanted one for each tent but with the price $200 each, I just couldn’t do it. So I looked into the monitors from Push Sensor and ended up buying 2 of them. They dont have all the features that the Pulse One has but at only $50 each, I’m ok with that.

It uses Bluetooth to connect and transfer the data to your phone or tablet app so it’s only accessible when your at home and in range. They do sell a wireless gateway that can connect to the internet so you can monitor from anywhere with internet access. I’ll probably pick that up at a later time.

The functions are pretty simple. Set your Max/Min temperature and rH. Then an alarm if you want to be notified if the temp/rH go above or below the range you set. It puts the data into a time graph for you too see day, week, month and year. Any spikes above the set limits are shown in red.

Just made my first online seed purchase! Went through Neptune Seed Bank and picked up a pack of feminized ‘PuTang’ by Mass Medical Strains. I’ve been a big fan of his for a while now so I’m really excited about getting them and growing them out. Should be here tuesday!


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## cardgenius (Jun 9, 2020)

*Day 50 of Flower:*











The random Bagseed(below) has really been putting on the trichomes recently. I’ll get a better pic onve the lights come on tonight. The Blue Dream(above) doesn’t have much trichome production yet. I really have to get in there with my loop to find some when I check for trichome colors. The plant looks beautiful though with it’s pink and purple leaves right now so hopefully it starts producing here soon. I have been running the UVA light for 90 minutes a day but am going to turn it up to 3 hours a day until I chop them. Both plants have really slowed down their drinking this past week and I over watered because of it. Leaves got really droopy on the Bagseed plant. They're now drinking a quarter gallon each every 2 days instead of every other day. 





Got my order from Neptune Seed Bank, shipping was quick and they threw in an extra freebie. Can’t wait to get these beans into some dirt!


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## cardgenius (Jul 28, 2020)

Wow, looks like MP has been risen from the grave in the last few weeks. Good to see there’s some action here once again.

Been a busy start to the summer so far with keeping the garden going while getting outside and enjoying nature. Hope everyone out there is staying safe and growing some dank!

Defoliated, lollipopped and took clones of the Jah Kush crosses last week and flipped it to flower last night. First time taking clones and they seem to be doing good so far. I used Rootech and Azos to help with the rooting.









Popped some more beans. 2 PuTangs and some more dispensary seeds called ”The Solution”. It’s sativa dominate hybrid. Also have an order from Dragons Flame Genetics and Katsu Seeds on the way!





I added another SF2000 to the tent and I’m really excited to see how these plants flower with it and the HLG60 supplement I finally received.





You can fine me in the garden or in the mountains.


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## WeedHopper (Jul 28, 2020)

Nice grow and beautiful mountains.


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## Oldbay (Jul 28, 2020)

Super curious as to how the putang grows and smokes for you - I assume Mass Medical? It’s on my wish list


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## cardgenius (Jul 29, 2020)

Oldbay said:


> Super curious as to how the putang grows and smokes for you - I assume Mass Medical? It’s on my wish list


Yeah it’s MMS but this is my first time growing it or any of his stuff so I don’t know exactly what to expect.

Im a fan of his and follow him on IG and from what I’ve seen, it doesnt produce huge yields but it does produce some fire. I cant wait to see cause I’ve heard nothing but good things. I’m setting up a Mother Tent soon and its got a spot in there if it lives up to the hype.


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## Oldbay (Jul 29, 2020)

Yeah, he seems to chase effect instead of bag appeal, works for me as I grow for my little pack

I hate that he scrambles his voice for his podcast, but the content is good


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## cardgenius (Jul 29, 2020)

Oldbay said:


> I hate that he scrambles his voice for his podcast, but the content is good



Right!?! I love the info but man, it’s extremely hard to listen to. I don’t care what he says, no matter how much I listen I just can’t get used to it.

Its a shame too cause now that he’s having some quality guests on the show, it could really take off and be some thing special.


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## cardgenius (Sep 19, 2020)

Flowering is coming along nicely. Currently at day 54 but the pics are from a week ago. Lookin like theyve got at least a couple more weeks to go.


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## giggy (Sep 21, 2020)

fine looking porn


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## cardgenius (Oct 3, 2020)

*Day 67 of Flower:* 
Buds are getting close but need more time as there’s still some clear Trichomes. One plant is looking like it’ll finish before the other so that could cause a problem as I need to dry them in the 3x3 flower tent. Probably end up chopping them at the same time so I can get these next plants into the flower tent.


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## WeedHopper (Oct 4, 2020)

Very nice.


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## cardgenius (Oct 4, 2020)

The clones I took of the Jah Kush crosses are starting to take off. Was a rocky start for them as I moved them from the ‘germination station‘ under the 30w Feit LED and into the veg chamber under the 100w HLG100 a bit early and they did not like it. Leaves started to curl and loose their color within just a couple days so I moved them back and let them stay in there for a few more weeks. Took a week for them to recover and show new growth. They're back in the veg chamber now and looking good. 




Popped some beans last week. All freebies from my recent seedbank purchases. 3 Crystal Castle (regs) and 2 Silver Sky (fems). I plan to veg and flower these in the new 2x4 I just set up. Hoping to get a keeper pheno or two from these to use as mother plants.

I mixed up 4 different recipes of some Dr. Earth amendments and chicken compost. Used one for each clone when I transplanted them into the 1g pots they’re in now and so far the 2 in the lower corners are loving their mix.


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## cardgenius (Oct 25, 2020)

I ended up letting the plants flower for almost 2 more weeks as they really slowed down on finishing. I only saw about 10-15% Amber when I cut them cause the plants in my veg tent are getting too big. They’ve been drying for 9 days and still have a couple more to go before I trim and jar them up for the cure.




I sent back the 2x4 and bought another 3x3. It fits perfectly next to the other 3x3 in my closet and I can use the HLG 100 to veg with and not have to worry about too much light. Plants are already loving the 4K lighting instead of the 3.5K from the Spider Farmer. Next run will have the 2 PuTangs, another Jah Kush cross and a random bagseed. So far, I’m not a fan of these PuTang plants. Smell great but are very finicky. They don’t like to be watered all that often but if you go too long you end up with burnt tips as the roots move through the dry soil. It’s been tough trying to get them dialed in. I’ll be taking clones of both so I can run them again with better results(hopefully).




The seedlings and clones in the 2in1 are doing good. A couple are battling Magnesium deficiency from the recent cold temps here. I moved this tent to the upstairs office and it doesn’t get much heat so I have a small heater coming from Amazon to help out. Just found a male from the Crystal Castle so it got pulled but the other two look like they’re gonna be females. Topped all the plants last week. 



About a month ago I decided to toss one of the Jah Kush males I had outside and flower it. I wanted to collect some pollen from it to try and make more seeds when I flower the female here soon. Everything worked out great, got a decent amount of pollen from it before the freeze set in.


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## cardgenius (Nov 5, 2020)

Buds are curing in jars and the reset on the flower tent is complete. I lollipopped the plants best I could and took some clones off the bigger, faster growing Putang. 




Putangs are bottom left and right. Jah Kush cross top left, Lemon Haze Bagseed top right. Photo is day 7 of flower.

Clones still look good after 7 days. Thinking theyll need another week or two under the humidity dome to get rooted before I can start to open up some vents.





I’m kicking myself for sending back the 2x4 tent as I would have liked to use it as a dedicated tent for drying. I can knock out 10 days of down time by going straight into flower with the next batch of plants, so I’m going to look for a 2x2 or 2x3 tent that I can put up and take down easily when needed for drying. Thanks for looking! ☮


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## cardgenius (Nov 22, 2020)

Day 24 in the flower tent. The stretch is over and bud development has kicked into gear. Top dressed the plants a few days ago with Dr. Earth Flower Girl and some Earth Worm Castings. Other than some EWC tea and a shot of Big Bloom here and there, the tent will be on cruise control with just tap water from here on out. 

Jah Kush top left. Lemon Haze bagseed top right. Putang bottom left and right.




The Putang on the lower right almost tripled in size through the stretch. It’s stacking quite well so far so I have a feeling it’s going to pull a good yield. Not showing any purple yet so this might be the “green pheno” if I remember right. 




The other Putang is looking great. Purple has been coming through since the first pistols popped and has been getting better ever since. This plant did not stretch very much and is on a box raising it up 6+”. Not much stacking so I don’t think it will be a big producer.


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## WeedHopper (Nov 23, 2020)

Very nice color.


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## cardgenius (Nov 23, 2020)

WeedHopper said:


> Very nice color.


Thanks,


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## cardgenius (Dec 20, 2020)

Day 50 of flower and things are doing good. It get cold here at night(20’s) and with the tents being in my basement, the temps have been dropping into the low 60s or even high 50s when the lights would go off at night. So rather than run a heater at night I changed the veg tent to run throughout the night and just vent it back into the room the tents are in to keep some warmth and it’s worked great, temps stay in the low 70’s or high 60’s at night now. Flipped the UVA on and will let it run until the end.
Jah Kush cross







Bagseed looking pretty good.








Putang. Looking like theyll need more time than the other plants. Still shooting out lots of white pistols and all trichomes are still clear.


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