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My first grow, i.e. a crazy crash course on cannabis cultivation

K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Question to anyone lurking...

When people say "I feed at X ppm," is X the total ppm? Is X the ppm of the base nutes, not including tap/CaMg ppm?

I ask this because I've seen in a lot of diaries of sensitive sativas feeding at 0.4, which in my case would be ZERO nutrients, only Ca and Mg to approx 150-175ppm.

I'm guessing the latter is the answer, just wondering. :)
 
Dready_jake

Dready_jake

Member
So my tap comes out between 60 and 70ppms I add either a little base or if its later in flower it will be less base and a little calmag plus the bloom. So in my tent when I topped out around 500 PPM's it was about 430ppms of ADDED nutes. But I won't say all that ill just say 500ppms because its easier and although they're counted in my mind as a salt, I don't really count the nutrients in the tap as usable. Very rarely is the minerals in the tap usible because of type or particle size.
Hope this helped a little. When peoples tap hits like 150-200 I believe they typically RO it for the grow
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Dready_jake said:
So my tap comes out between 60 and 70ppms I add either a little base or if its later in flower it will be less base and a little calmag plus the bloom. So in my tent when I topped out around 500 PPM's it was about 430ppms of ADDED nutes. But I won't say all that ill just say 500ppms because its easier and although they're counted in my mind as a salt, I don't really count the nutrients in the tap as usable. Very rarely is the minerals in the tap usible because of type or particle size.
Hope this helped a little. When peoples tap hits like 150-200 I believe they typically RO it for the grow
Click to expand...

I've been adding calmag to about 0.3 ec, my tap starts at 30-40 ppm (0.1 ec), but since it has gotten hotter, I've increased to 0.4 ec, and the girls are less yellow for it. I'm about to buy the a/c I need, then I'll build another box for it, duct the dehum. box into the a/c box, then back to the tents. :) Magic. This should hold me over til I size up. Hopefully soon. :) I'm getting all my ducks lined up, and I feel getting temps locked in lower, and thus lower %rh (also helping with disease) for proper VPD, should help the plants do what they need. I am seeing some major stretch in my clone tent. Skinny lil stems, I've seen people with much thicker stems, greener, not so purple, healthier, locked in around 77-78º max day temp, maaaayyybe up to 83-84º with CO2 @12-13oo ppm... Hard to tell, I'll ask for advice once I get some pics up, but honestly my plants be lookin' sickly... I might be too embarassed... ;) My temps lately have been hitting 97º when the dehum. is running to dry the other night tent... I'm seeing the error in my ways as far as alternating day/night on a single climate control... Once my second tent hits flowering, I'll sync the day/night cycle... and get creative with circuit loading... Should be fine, I have a 20 amp line connecting all the bathroom outlets, so I'll just tape them up and inform the room mates to shave/straighten hair via extension cords to other outlets. Use this circuit for environment control. :) Also a 50ft extension from the 15 amp garage circuit for one set of lights, should put us at about 7 amps per circuit @ 720 watts... plus fans. Dehum., a/c, and 6 BD240-U's (not to mention fans!) all on at once will be one helluva buzzzzzzzzzz.

Can't wait to own... just rip open a wall and have an electrician install exactly what I need, exactly where I need it... None of this leave no trace rental bullshit. :)

Happy Mercury Retrograde!
-Kweku
 
Dready_jake

Dready_jake

Member
Can't wait to own... just rip open a wall and have an electrician install exactly what I need, exactly where I need it... None of this leave no trace rental bullshit.


Agreed
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Yeah... hit 100º! Needless to say, I'm driving with the top down on these hotter evenings...

Keeps the temps closer to 87º... Better :) But I have to clockwise my tank in that case... The dual hose a/c should be just what I'm looking for. So much investment in this game... fuuuuuhhhhhhhh... Pretty soon the dividends will show!

-Kweku
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
panick503 said:
Good looking grow man. U said it about investing, it never stops...
Click to expand...

Thanks! :) Basically I'm trying to get to the first point of profitability, which is a stable system, then learning my strains, then sizing up. Shouldn't be too much longer. Really, my hot days are the only thing killing me (besides my noobish naïveté). On rainy days everything is right. But summer is just starting, I can only assume the a/c will be NEEDED! And hey! its like only, like, 5 zips to make up for the cost of the unit and a controller to integrate a/c and %rh on one sensor... So should pay off nicely after a grow or two. I can tell you right now, high temp is once again a problem for me! :p My nodes got longer than expected, and my buds could probably be more solid... We shall see. Future grows are bound to be more productive than this first one!

-Kweku
 
N

NoSocSlic

In my opinion, worth a little is that you are doing too many things right to let heat kill your grow. I told my buddy the same thing the other day.

He's got a tiny little grow he's doing. Its simple and his goals aren't set very high. He uses soil and CFLs with a small fan, he waters them on a proper schedule, but on hot days his cab gets up to 104 degrees. His buds taste good but they are incredibly stretched and wispy stringy buds. Then I do the same exact thing, my buds are hard up top, the lowers are fluffy bud but still have a little meat. The only difference is my temps are 79 on normal days and 84 on a hot day, and his ranges from 88 to 104 on a bad day.

You are doing way more things right than me, so it doesn't make sense to let one factor like heat mess up the rest of the work. You get some AC and I bet you make us all shit our pants
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
NoSocSlic said:
In my opinion, worth a little is that you are doing too many things right to let heat kill your grow. I told my buddy the same thing the other day.

He's got a tiny little grow he's doing. Its simple and his goals aren't set very high. He uses soil and CFLs with a small fan, he waters them on a proper schedule, but on hot days his cab gets up to 104 degrees. His buds taste good but they are incredibly stretched and wispy stringy buds. Then I do the same exact thing, my buds are hard up top, the lowers are fluffy bud but still have a little meat. The only difference is my temps are 79 on normal days and 84 on a hot day, and his ranges from 88 to 104 on a bad day.

You are doing way more things right than me, so it doesn't make sense to let one factor like heat mess up the rest of the work. You get some AC and I bet you make us all shit our pants
Click to expand...

I agree... I've just been hitting hurdle after hurdle with the environment. The final being ITS TOO HOT! LOL! Thanks for the encouragement tho! Its just a matter of I don't have the cash today, need the cooler yesterday and wont have it til tomorrow kind of situation... :) The next grow will be much better I know already. :)

Thanks again!
-Kweku
 
Dready_jake

Dready_jake

Member
Kweku Ananse said:
I agree... I've just been hitting hurdle after hurdle with the environment. The final being ITS TOO HOT! LOL! Thanks for the encouragement tho! Its just a matter of I don't have the cash today, need the cooler yesterday and wont have it til tomorrow kind of situation... :) The next grow will be much better I know already. :)

Thanks again!
-Kweku
Click to expand...

I know the situation all to well..... Her name.......

LIFE


Lol she's a bitch sometimes ain't she? Lol good luck and keep it green as per usuals

Dready Jake
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Day 40 update!


Mendo Purps showing some color.


Chemdawg '91


Another Chemdawg '91 with some Cookies Kush in the background.


Cookies Kush with a Chemdawg '91 sneaking in the right side of the frame.


Cookies Kush
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member

Chemdawg '91 right, Dr. Grinspoon left.


Grandaddy OG


Ak-47 left, Dr. Grinspoon right.


Ak-47

Like I said, heat is a problem, and my plants show plenty of signs telling me so. Workin' on it! :) Peace!
-Kweku
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Also THIS!


Germinated a Space Candy bagseed from the dispensary. ITS ALIVE!!!


Roots are already punching out of the cube to drink from the clone plug catch tray. About one week from when I found and started wetting this seed. :) EXCITED!


Got the heated blanket to aid in some root growth, and the equivalent of a 400w MH lighting it, hopefully for ZERO stretchy seedling syndrome. I've also learned to keep my peat cubes dry, and let the dangling roots find water below. Wet peat killed my girls the first few times I took cuttings, so I didn't want to botch my first seed!

So much fun! Can't wait to get my a/c in place!!!
Hope you're all enjoying the updates - rare as they may be... :)
-Kweku
 
Dready_jake

Dready_jake

Member
Lol bust out a quality microspoce and check out all the crystals on the big fan leafs. They don't have stalks and are not visible to the naked eye AFAIK, but EVERY (healthy) fan leaf should have crystals. Here in Co I've known MIPS to use fan leafs as they contain THC and cbd. But in MUCH smaller amounts so it takes a lot more fan leafs to match up to quality trim but the science is there.

I'm about to turn a mother I culled with no flowers at all into a tincture. A just leaf tincture. Lol

Still probably a good sign though!
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
Dready_jake said:
Lol bust out a quality microspoce and check out all the crystals on the big fan leafs. They don't have stalks and are not visible to the naked eye AFAIK, but EVERY (healthy) fan leaf should have crystals. Here in Co I've known MIPS to use fan leafs as they contain THC and cbd. But in MUCH smaller amounts so it takes a lot more fan leafs to match up to quality trim but the science is there.

I'm about to turn a mother I culled with no flowers at all into a tincture. A just leaf tincture. Lol

Still probably a good sign though!
Click to expand...

I think its just how early I'm seeing them thats got me jazzed. This seedling is barely born, already packing a punch!

P.s. Dready, not all my strains have trichomes on all the leaves, even under 60x magnification. The "better" ones do, and the ones I have no intention of flowering again don't.

Maybe its a sign of potent phenos? Maybe like you say, just [healthy] leaves...?

Still looking to forward to flowering and/or breeding this lil bugger!
-Kweku
 
K

Kweku Ananse

Member
End of day 45

End of day 45

Some more pix:


Dr. Grinspoon


Dr. Grinspoon with Chemdawg '91 behind and Grandaddy OG in front.


Grandaddy OG


^Again^


One last G. OG
 
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