SSA’s First Indoor Grow using Unidentified Bag Seed

The following grow journal has been backdated as per my personal grow diary until the present date.

I took the advice to learn as much as I can before I use high quality seeds. So this project is all about increasing my learning curve and if I’m lucky enough I might get to smoke my very first own indoor.

I’ve not solved the problem with the extreme cold or very hot conditions in the wendy house yet but I had to get started nonetheless. I will be watching the conditions daily so that I can make the necessary adjustments.

Lights on/off: Seeds to Seedling 24/7, 18/6 for Vegetative growth and 12/12 for Flowering.

Grow light: One Blue 6500K CFL 150W.

Growing medium : Jiffys for seeds and seedlings and eventually Coco 90% / Perlite 10%

Water Soluble Nutrients: Nutrient A, Nutrient B & Nutrient MKP (Powder type)

Cooling  & Air Movement: I’m using an old 35cm Eurolux style ceiling extractor fan for extraction of heat and a water air cooler to keep the grow area humid and cool. The fan is only 40w and super quiet and moves air at 360 cubic meters / hour.

Carbon Scrubber: DIY Hand Made – You can find the pictures on the link: http://www.420sa.co.za/index.php/topic,542.msg5039.html#new

12 May 2015

I received a bag of unknown seeds from a friend. I found a picture online which shows how you can determine sex of the seed using a magnifying glass.

I chose all the seeds that had nearly perfectly round “craters” as shown in the picture below.

I soaked twelve seeds in normal tap water for 8 hours. They eventually all sunk to the bottom of the glass and I planted it on 13 May 2015 under a 150w CFL for 24/7.

17 May 2015  3.53pm - First signs of growth

Not the best pictures due to my incredible BB8520

VEGETATIVE GROWTH STARTS

1 June 2015– 11 of the 12 seed sprouted into healthy seedlings.  The white roots has now gone thru the jiffys and is ready for slightly bigger pots. I transplanted them into 250ml styrofoam cups with Promix Coco 90% / Perlite 10%. Two seedlings were showing signs of purple stems which I am a bit worried about.

4 June 2015 – Plants were showing lack of nutrients and more seedlings now have purple stems so I fed them with Hydroponic nutrients A & B Ph’d to 6.0 – 6.3

6 June 2015 Watered with Nutrients A & B

9 June 2015 Watered with Nutrients A & B

11 June 2015 23:30 Watered with Nutrients A & B and lowered the PH to 5.5 5.8

14 June 2015 22:30 Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids

New leaf growth looks slightly improved.

17 June 2015 00:00 – Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. Ph 5.5 – 5.8

19 June 2015 21:00 – Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. Ph 5.5 – 5.8

21 June 2015 22:00 – Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. Ph 5.5 – 5.8

24 June 2015 19:00 – Watered with (5.8 - 6.0 PH’d) water to flush. No nutrients added.

26 June 2015 22:30 – Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. Ph 5.5 – 5.8. I re-potted 1 plant into a larger 350ml Styrofoam cup

30 June 2015 23:00 – Watered with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. Ph 5.5 – 5.8

There are no signs of bugs but some of the leaves looks like it was chewed. Upon further investigation I found out that wind burn also looks similar.

Note to myself: Don't blow air directly on plants.

PRE-FLOWERING

3 July 2015 11:00 – Watered with (5.5 - 5.8 PH’d) Nutrients A, B & Amino Acids

Re-potted 2 more plants into 350ml Styrofoam cups

8 July 2015 22:00 – Watered with (5.5 - 5.8 PH’d) Nutrients A, B & Amino Acids

I found an extra sprouted “Orphan” seedling in one jiffy which I thought was a dud seed. I just threw the jiffy in my big bag of coco / perlite and it germinated eventually. So I potted it up and watered it with the rest of the plants. Growers always claim that seeds that take too long to germinate are usually weak seeds. This is the 12th plant that of the 12 seeds that I planted initially. I will be keeping my eye on this plant to see its progress.

I bent some of the plants that seemed like it was stretching. 10 of the plants looks more Sativa and 2 looks more like Indica's.

11 July 2015 11:00 – Watered with (5.5 - 5.8 PH’d) Nutrients A, B & Amino Acids

Re-potted 2 more plants into 350ml Styrofoam cups. I started bending some more of the plants because they were stretching. They are definitely Sativa strains with the exception of two that might be Indica.

17 July 2015 22:00 – Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids

23 July 2015 20:00  - Strangely the Styrofoam cups still feel a bit heavy but no signs that the medium has dried out. So I never bothered watering them.

27 July 2015 22:30 – Strangely it’s been 10 days since the last watering. I decided to feed the plants nonetheless with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. 5.5 – 5.8 PH. 1 of the plants turned Hermi during vegetative pre-flowering. I removed it immediately. None of the pollen sacks opened yet.

29 July 2015 PRE-FLOWERING continues with 150w HPS light added to the grow. I found another Hermi which I dumped. 10 of 12 plants remaining.

4 August 2015 - 21:00 - Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. I re-potted the remaining pots to 350ml. The “orphan” is progressing well.

10 August 2015 - 23:00 - Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids

16 August 2015 - 22:00 - Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids

Prepared fresh Leca by rinsing it until the run-off water was clear. Considering that the PH of the original run-off that I tested was about 7.0, I prepared a 5.0 PH’d mix of water in a bucket and then I let it soak for 24 hrs and repeated the process again.

I thought the Leca would sink eventually but all my Leca was still floating after being soaked the third time for 3 days. I let it dry out so that I can eventually use it in the Autopots when I transfer some of the plants.

19 August 2015 - 22:00 - Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids. I soaked the balance of the Coco/Perlite Pro-mix in 5.5ph’d water (Something I did not do when I started).

Note to myself: Make your own Coco/Perlite mix instead of using premixes.

20 August 2015 - 22:30 – Flushed with 5.5ph without nutrients because all plants were showing symptoms of nutrient burn and just generally looking unhealthy.

23 August 2015 - 22:00 – Watered 5.5ph with Nutrients A & B, Hydro Fungicide & Amino Acids.

I again rinsed my pro-mix in 5.5ph’d water and eventually set up my Autopot by placing the Black Matrix Disk in the pot and Root Control Disk in the tray gold face up.

I placed my Airdome on top of the BMD.

I then fill the bottom of the pot with Leca until it just about covers the Airdome (about 5cm).

Now I add the Coco/Perlite Promix until 2/3 of the pot is filled.

I transplanted 5 of the plants into the Autopot and connected a 4kw air pump to the Airdome as there is already a root system in place.

I added the rest of the Promix in between the 5 plants that I transferred.

I switched the air pump on and I’m hoping that the amount of air pushing through is enough.

I did not connect the Aquavalve yet as I will still be hand-watering for the first week.

Hand watering will be done by making a nutrient mix in a reservoir and the Autopot will be submerged into the nutrients so that the salt build-up stays on top of the plants.

26 August 2015 - 15:00 – Watered the remaining plants that are still in the 350ml Styrofoam cups with 5.5ph Amino Acids, Nutrients A & B. As a test, I connected 2kw air pump to the bottom of the “Orphan plant” as I want to see how much I can increase the rate of its growth. I have not yet watered the 5 plants in the Autopot since transferring them on 23 August.

Hey SSA!

 

Great write up bru!

 

I saw your post the other day, about your nutes.

 

Buddy, I'm telling you- GHS Powderfeed is the shit! Get a small digital scale (0,01g resolution), a cheap EC pen, and here's the important thing- quality calibration fluids (aka buffers).

 

Mix the 1 part Powderfeed @ 1g/ltr with declorinated tap water. Adjust the EC (strength) according to your stage of growth, and pH according to the chart. Easy as cake! Check my plants bru.

 

More on calibration fluids:

 

I struggled in the beginning with burning plants, until I bought a new pH/EC combo pen from Hanna instruments. I also bought their 4.01 & 7.01 pH fluids, and 12.88 EC fluid ( these fluids come with certificates of accuracy). I calibrated my new pen with the Hanna fluids, and then measured the calibration fluids from one of our local hydro shops. pH was close, but their EC fluid was waaaaay of.

 

Point is, I thought my cheap pH/EC meter was kak, but it turned out that the fluids I was calibrating with were kak.

 

You can buy a cheaper meter, but make sure to get quality calibration fluids.

 

Thanks Skollie!

So you are suggesting that I don't premix it in 5l containers as suggested but rather mix the nutrients when needed at a rate of 1g/ltr of dechlorinated water? That sounds like a lot of effort but I will give it a try.

I have decided that in future I will definitely be buying Biobizz nutrients and a cheap PH / EC Meter for my next grow and I will take your advice on buying quality calibration fluid. :thumbups

pH calibration fluids are simply strong acids and their conjugate (Matching) base. (Remember pH is all about H) You can make your own calibration fluids with simple house hold goods. EC calibration is even more fool proof. Have you heard of molar mass? Get some R/O water and table salt, a quick wiki tour and you can save all your certified fluids.

I was just thinking Skollie. What did the scale cost you? I might as well just buy the Biobizz nutrients and eliminate the extra labour.

pH calibration fluids are simply strong acids and their conjugate (Matching) base. (Remember pH is all about H) You can make your own calibration fluids with simple house hold goods. EC calibration is even more fool proof. Have you heard of molar mass? Get some R/O water and table salt, a quick wiki tour and you can save all your certified fluids.

I will investigate if further on Wiki. Thanks :thumbups

Nice Experimental grow you got going here Sir Smokealot! I shall keep a keen eye!

What medium you growing in SSA? Biobizz is an organic nutrient for soil. I have heard about people using organic nutrients in hydro but I'm not sure what the results are like though. Think of Biobizz as a supplement to soil so it might not provide all the nutritional needs you require when growing in  coco

What medium you growing in SSA? Biobizz is an organic nutrient for soil. I have heard about people using organic nutrients in hydro but I'm not sure what the results are like though. Think of Biobizz as a supplement to soil so it might not provide all the nutritional needs you require when growing in coco

I'm currently using Coco / Perlite (90/10) at the moment! According to their website you can use it in Coco. I copied the extract from the website. http://www.biobizz.com/products/organic-substrates/coco-mix

Coco·Mix™

What is Coco•Mix™?

Biobizz® Coco•Mix™ is probably the best coco coir, 100% organic product on the market. Coco•Mix™ contains Coco coir, a waste product of the coconut industry, has proven to be an ideal medium in which to grow plants. To allow coco fibre to become useable, the organic matter must first decompose over a period of time so that the strong fibres are softened. The material is then washed and shredded to become the familiar substrate we all know.

Coconut fibre contains plenty of air and little water; the pH may decrease to 5 or 6

The Coco•Mix™ of Biobizz® has been washed with clear water after the coconut fibres have been broken up in a natural way.

How to use Coco·Mix™

Coco·Mix™can be used in all hydroponic crops to replace rock wool.

Growing in pots on a coco-based substrate is a popular cultivation method. Growers who wish to become more organic can use Coco·Mix™ in combination with their usual A+B range. Want to use Coco·Mix™ in combination with the Biobizz® products? We advise to combine Coco·Mix™ with Root·Juice™, Bio•Bloom™, Top•Max™ and Bio•Heaven™. When using these products the quality of the plant will be improved, which will result in a higher yield.

Hey SSA

 

The nutes you're using are not GHS Powderfeed. That's what I'm suggesting you get.

 

GHS Poderfeed is a single pack, check it out at HydroHerb.

Thank you! That clears up my confusion!

On point Skolley, your instruments NEED to be accurate, but all these variable you talk of are largely irrelevant. If you think your EC pen is that sensitive/accurate then you're mislead. You don't need certified equipment from a lab cos i doubt you're rocking a meter that could be affected. Iodized salt is no an issue. Citric Acid is perfectly safe. The point of conjugate reactions is that they are generally not violent - hence why we use them for buffers. Not even Hanna use pure H2O, R/O is as good as it gets.

ORGANIC FTW 

GLO are you not interested in the CEC of your soil? Your micro and macro ratios? Dominance of species? Totality of species? I find it faaaaaaaaar more complex....

I'm definitely not here to defend a certain hydro store, I have always maintained that Hanna instruments are the best option. I use them myself and will only ever. I don't see how the tone conveyed defamation, but such is the burden of forums. All I am asserting is that ALL calibration solutions are simply a recipe of fairly banal components that need no special treatment as far as the chemistry is concerned. Distilled water vs R/O, well there I have my doubts regarding the efficacy of using distilled water for calibration solutions, but like you say, let's wait for the chemistry set to arrive. Combustion sucks anyway. Puff away, if that's how you enjoy the plant, you'll never really understand where I'm coming from...