And It Begins

[gmo]

Day 23 Aero tent. I can confidently say that the portable AC unit has been figured out. The timer mode works how I need it to, except it requires resetting every 24 hours. This isn't an issue now, but may be next weekend while I'm out of town Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I've gotta think of a way to make it work while I'm gone.
Everything is looking very healthy and I'm seeing rapid onset of new growth over the past 48 hours. Some of that may be attributed to the cooling of the reservoir, which now sits at a very acceptable 64f. 1 bottle of ice every 12hrs for maintenance seems to be the trick.
pH 5.8, rH 45%, temp 68f, res temp 63.8f this morning. Lights at 95%

Day 11 soil tent. Cruising along. Not much to report. Temp 72f, rH 50%, lights at 100%. They got a plain watering last night. I will start feeding CalMag next watering.

 

[gmo]

Day 24 Aero Tent. 70f, RH 50%, pH 5.8, reservoir temp 63.8f. Net dropped this morning.

Day 12 Soil Tent. 72f, RH 60%.

 

[gmo]

Being that they're autoflower feminized seeds makes this a bit anticlimatic, but, 1 gelato and the 1 Zkittlez have shown their first female preflowers today, day 24.

 

[gmo]

This morning in my grow room got me thinking....

I started growing weed at age 22. 14 years ago I started reading everything I could related to growing cannabis. At the time, I was a broke, retail worker. I saved money to buy my first lights, soil, pots, seeds. It was never easy, but it became a priority for me. It was therapeutic in a time where my life was a spiraling mess of drinking and partying way too hard.

I was a gardner from a very young age. A hobby passed on to me from my grandfather. I was entering pumpkins, tomatoes, sunflowers, radishes, peppers, peaches, apricots, etc. In to the State Fair since I was 4 years old.

I stopped growing weed about 5 1/2 years ago when my wife and I got married and were living in an apartment. It just wasn't feasible at the time. My love for gardening didn't fade. I had an indoor hydroponic garden filled with veggies and greens that we thoroughly enjoyed.

In January we moved in to our first house and suddenly the itch to grow cannabis was back. I placed an order of seeds and eagerly set up all my equipment.

At that point in time I thought I was just setting up for "another illegal grow". Little did I know that my state was soon to legalize recreational cannabis and home cultivation.

As I write this out, I am still technically an Illegal grower. This will be the last illegal grow that I ever do. I'm proud to have taken the chance and broken the law back then and am proud to get this one last grow in before the laws change.

You see, growing cannabis has made my life better. It's the way I can relax after a long day, the way I can focus on one thing that I love doing, the thing I can celebrate as I accomplish. I credit illegal marijuana growing to turning my life in the right direction.

So, here I am, day 25 in to my current garden.

Cheers to all of you illegal farmers.

 

[gmo]

Day 26 Aero Tent. Looking good and seeing lots of growth. All 3 have sexed as females. Still feeding week 4 vegetative nutrients according to GH feeding chart at medium strength, 1000ppm. Topped off reservoir today with 3g of water, they're starting to drink morl which means rapid growth is about to kick off. Probably another week or so before I do a reservoir change and start feeding flowering schedule. Temp 70f, humidity 45%, reservoir temp 64.5f.

Day 14 Soil Tent. Started light LST on 1 of the plants this morning. The other one isn't quite there yet. Watered yesterday with pH 6.5 water with 3mL/g of CalMag. First heavier watering until minor runoff. Temp 72f, humidity 60%.

 

[gmo]

Day 27 Aero tent. They have officially taken off. The growth that the go through at this point is astounding. Looking mighty bushy and healthy. Temp 73f, rh 40%, res temp 64.5f, pH 5.7.

Day 15 Soil tent. Had a mishap with LST and lost the whole top on the bigger of the 2 plants. I'm not sure if I bumped it during evening maintenance, or of I just did too much LST, too quickly. I'm gonna let it go and see what happens, maybe I'll be surprised. Temp 74f, rH 50%.

 

[gmo]

Day 28 Aero tent. Bushy plants!

 

[gmo]

Day 30 Aero tent. I had to top off again with 3g of nutrient water today (General Hydroponics Flora line @ medium strength, 1000ppm, and 5ml/G of CalMag+). They're drinking close to a gallon a day now. I went out of town on Friday night and Saturday and got back in to town this PM. They've grown a bunch in those 48hrs. Still very bushy with not much stretch, but I'm anticipating that it'll come in the next week or so. I did move the lights up a few inches today, the first time they've been moved since germination. pH 5.5, RH 50%, reservoir temp 68f.

Day 18 Soil tent. New growth on the plant that I accidently main-lined looks ok and like I didn't set things too far back. I haven't started LST on the second plant yet because the nodes are just to close together right now. Watered with pH 6.5 water with 5mL/G of CalMag+. Definitely slower growth than with hydro, but I'm having fun, nonetheless.

 

[WeedHopper]

Very healthy looking girls my friend.

 

[gmo]

Day 31 Aero Tent. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but the girls are on a 20/4 light cycle in this tent. The main reason for this is to allow the air conditioner some rest/de-icing time. It runs pretty much nonstop during lights on, so a couple hours off is much needed for this tent.

These 3 girls are becoming bushes. I did push some nodes from each plant to new squares in the net. Environment is fairly consistent: lights on temp 70-75f, pH 5.8, reservoir temp 63-67f, lights off temp 60-68f.

They drank more than a gallon of water in the past 18hrs. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on reservoir level and adjust accordingly. I usually like to keep 8-9 gallons of solution in the reservoir. As long as they keep drinking like they are now I'll be trying off every 3 days. Showing plenty of preflowers, but still minimal stretch. I'm expecting vertical growth spurt any day now as they transition to flowering.

Day 19 Soil Tent. Looking good. May start LST in the next week or so. Temp 77f, RH 60%.

 

[gmo]

Day 32 aero tent. Temp 65f, pH 5.8, humidity 45%, reservoir temperature 61f. Res temp fell out of desired range, I'll discontinue ice bottles until it's back in range. It's the coldest day we've had in a while and the indoor temps dropped too. Everything should be back to normal ranges tomorrow. These girls consumed close to a gallon of water overnight and will require a topping off of the reservoir tomorrow. I think I'll continue veg nutrient regimen unless something drastic changes overnight. They don't seem quite ready to flip to flower nutrients just yet.

Day 20 soil tent. Temp 74f, rH 50%. I thought I'd wait a few more days to start LST, but they were ready during my check in late last night. Bent one of them over exposing the internodes and 'split' the other one in to a Y to continue mainline training.

 

[pute]

Nice well kept grow log. Glad that marijuana has made life better. Glad you are legal now.

 

[yooper420]

Are all of your plants Autos ?

 

[gmo]

@yooper420 Yes they are all autos. The aero tent is comprised of 2 ILGM Gelato autos, 1 ILGM Zkittlez auto. The soil tent has 2 ILGM Wedding Cake autos. All fem'ed seeds.

 

[yooper420]

In my experience Autos do not get very big. I hope your LST works out for ya. They are looking very good, best of luck.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

A few friends have grown some good size autos , depends lots on the breeders
Good Luck, Plants look healthy

 

[gmo]

@yooper420 this is my first ever run with both autos and fem seeds. So far I'm really satisfied with how they're running. They're by far the bushiest plants I've ever grown by a longshot. I'd say that the are pretty big for 33 days old.

A lot of that probably has to do with the new technology and growing in hydro as opposed to soil. Prior to this grow I was in soil, under HPS lights with photoperiod standard seeds. I'm really enjoying getting back in to the hobby!

 

[gmo]

Day 33 Aero tent. As predicted, the girls needed a reservoir top off this morning. 3 gallons consumed in 60 hours. They're definitely going in to their preflowering growth spurt. I'm really ready for them to grow up, instead of out! Levels after top off: pH 5.5, reservoir temp 64.0f, water added @ 800ppm of GH nutrients, tent temp 65f, humidity 60%.

Day 21 soil tent. Watering day. 6.5 pH in, 6.5pH out. Water with CalMag+ @ 4mL/G. Continuing LST on both plants.

In the past 24 hours the main-lined plant has started to show a bronzy sheen on the 4 lower leaves. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the accidental topping and stress that it may have created. I do not recognize this deficiency/excess and I have thoroughly inspected for pests. Any ideas are welcome.

 

[gmo]

Day 34 Aero tent. Welcome to the jungle...still waiting for them to grow up, instead of out. Temp 70f, reservoir temp 67f, pH 5.6, rH 45%.

Day 22 Soil tent. Pretty sure the issue with the main-lined plant is light burn. No other growth shows any signs of stress. No changes were made. I'll keep an eye on everything in here. Temp 77f, RH 60%

 

[gmo]

Day 35 Aero tent. Reservoir is getting close to needing a change/topping off. Still deciding if I should continue veg nutrients or switch to flower nutrients. I'll decide tomorrow when I do the top off or change. Temp 68f, pH 5.6, RH 50%, reservoir temp 66.5f.

Day 23 Soil tent. No signs of ***, yet. The untopped plant is looking very similar in size and shape to it's aero counterparts at this day. The trained and topped plant is looking smaller. It's amazing to me that just 9 days ago this one was just a stick in dirt. It's grown back very fast and has a nice structure. Interested to see what this one is gonna end up doing. Temp 75f, RH 55%.