2019 grow journal

[fellowsped]

Hello everyone so I am back at it after years not growing. I had already posted a couple questions and decided it would be best to start a grow journal. My setup is a 4ft.-8ft. grow tent (just bought it) as well as a 1 meter-1 meter grow tent that is not currently up. My plan is to use the 1-1 tent to root clones and veg some plants. Then move them into the 4-8 to flower.
Currently I have all my plants in my 4-8 tent. I have about 30 babies. About half are clones I got from a few different friends. The other half are from seed (feminized) and are a few different varieties from 1-49 seedbank. Sour D, Fire OG, Blue Dream, Bruce Banner, Cheese, Exodus Cheese, White Widow, Black Widow, and White Rhino. I am going to take a couple clones from each of the feminized plants shortly before I flip to flowering.
Next is lighting. I have a 1000w Mh/Hps light with an aircooled hood. I also have 2 400w Mh/Hps lights that are not air cooled. I also have a 600W HPS with a cooltube. I plan to buy 1 more 1000w light that will also be air cooled. The plan is to have 1 1000w light over each 4-4 area in the 4-8 tent. If I feel like they need a little "extra" light power I might put the 600w in the middle between the 2 1000w lights or the 2 400w lights one on each end with the 1000w lights pushed slightly more to the middle of the tent. The hope is that the 2 1000w lights give me what I want.
Lets talk a little soil. I'm using a combination of FFOF (fox farm ocean forest) and their Khokobop as a base. Then I'm adding some compost, perlite, Kelp meal, Blood and Bone meal, Triple Phosphate, Lime, and crushed crab shell and some other shell mix for Cal-Mag. I let that "cook" for a month. Currently my plants are mostly in 1 gal pots. The clones are going to be transplanted to 2 gal pots tomorrow. The seedlings are still filling the 1 gal pots. After a few more weeks when the seedlings have gotten to and filled out the 2 gal pots they are going to be moved into 5 gal grow bags. I will then give them probably a week of veg to let the roots start into the fresh soil then i'm going to switch to flower. I am working to the goal of having a soil that I can feed basically just water to through the whole grow. Currently I don't believe it's quite there (at least not for all of my plants) as I had a few that were yellowing a bit and needed to feed them some fish emulsions and Seabird Guano. It was a liquid that I purchased and I used it as a foliar feed. It has had some pretty amazing results. In just 48 hours they are already looking significantly more green and healthier. Only issue was IT STINKS!!! However I can't argue with the results so I will still keep using.
Sorry for the long post I just wanted to try to get everyone caught up to speed on what is happening in my tent. I will post up some pics just need to read the thing to figure out how to do it.

 

[fellowsped]

 

[fellowsped]

 

[fellowsped]

The one in the middle of the second picture that has obviously been topped is my cheese. It and the sour d next to it are a couple of the plants that were yellowing. They're not as green as the others but they're coming back. Could it be that these 2 are just heavy feeders? Anyone have any experience with those 2 strains?

 

[Mr.Do]

Nice garden. Wishing you the biggest, stankest buds. So much more ambitious than I could ever be. It'll be cool to see how it turns out.

 

[oldfogey8]

Nice garden. Wishing you the biggest, stankest buds. So much more ambitious than I could ever be. It'll be cool to see how it turns out.

stankest? yikes!

 

[Mr.Do]

Lol, won't adverb I guess. The intent is the same though.

 

[oldfogey8]

adjective and probably ‘dankest’ would be more what you are wishing fellowsped. check urban dictionary...

 

[Mr.Do]

I submit to your knowledge on the subject.

You'll have to excuse me, I'm getting pretty bent tonight.

 

[fellowsped]

yeah I have never been one to just dip the big toe in. I like to jump right in. I have a couple quick questions though. First is about nutrition. I was given some Fox Farm nutrients. I haven't been using them as I am organic. However their Big Bloom I keep hearing differing info on. Some people (and the bottle) say it's organic. Says it uses worm castings and some other stuff like guano I think. However I hear from other people that it is in fact not an organic nute. Now i'm not really trying to get hung up on words here is the REAL QUESTION. Will it play nice with the microbial life in my soil? Or will it kill all those organisms I have put soo much effort into cultivating? Thought about using it as a foliar feed possibly. Question 2 is about using compost teas. How often do you use them? Every other week, weekly, maybe once a month? I have been using them about every 2 weeks. I don't know if it's even possible to overdue them. However thought it best to ask. My "recipe" is couple handfuls of worm castings, tablespoon of molasses, tablespoon of kelp (ground kelp not liquid), and a tablespoon of Zeus Juice (Nectar of the god's). It seems to have a very nice effect on my plants. I don't see how I could overdue it with that but just wanted to ask what everyone else does with their teas. I'll try to post up some more pictures a little farther back so everyone can see my tent and the rest of my setup. Have a good one guys.

 

[Lesso]

Someone who grows organics will no doubt be along to help you. As for is big bloom organic and will it play nice with your microbes? I have used it in a soil grow, i didnt have a way to check the microbes, but i got acceptable results with it.

 

[fellowsped]

I have a little question for everyone. When I switch over to flower I have always had them do a good bit of stretching. I have what I think will be enough space but I had been mulling over an idea. Instead of going straight to the HPS bulb when I start flowering would it be possible to cut down on stretch by using a MH bulb for the first couple/few weeks of flowering? I know they're going to stretch some but just curious if it can be reduced somewhat with MH.

 

[oldfogey8]

I did something similar last grow. I kept the plants under my t5 fixture and added one of my LEDs(which I flower under) for a week or so at 12/12 lighting. I got very little stretch compared to switching straight to my LED.

 

[oldfogey8]

I cant comment on the organics question. I use GO box organic nutes so I have. O experience with teas and such...

 

[fellowsped]

 

[fellowsped]

hey only have a quick min on lunch i'll upload better pics later when I get home. Anyone got any ideas what's up with that though? I have 2 plants that are starting to do that. It's at the top of the plants not the bottom. I'm thinking I might need to use some cal-mag. I have soil that has coco coir in it and have heard that it can cause problems with cal-mag. Thanks for any advice and i'll be sure to load up more pics later.

 

[fellowsped]

 

[fellowsped]

So I have been doing some research and I think I know what is up. I'm having a Boron deficiency. I don't believe it has anything to do with not having enough of it. My Ph is a bit to high and it's causing a lockout of Boron. I just ordered a new ph pen should be here mon. I'm going to get some ph down as well. My water is a bit to high in ph and I think it's affecting the grow. I was hoping that I would be alright as I had heard that if you have good micro life in your soil they will buffer your ph being off slightly. Either way it's not working so i'm going to just get it under control. Also purchasing my second 1000w light for the other half of my tent. Going to transplant into final pots and give them a week or 2 more to veg then its flower time!!! I'll keep posting pics.

 

[Growdude]

Looks like light burn to me, how close are your lights?

 

[fellowsped]

They might have been a bit close. They were about a little under a ft. from a 400w light and about 2 ft. from a 1000w light. They sit kinda between both of them in the garden. I ended up raising them up slightly already to take that variable out. Thank you for the response though.