Gorilla Grow

Hi everyone, and welcome to my log. This will be my first grow, and consequentially my first grow log. Set up is rather basic, but I am only growing for myself, and as long as I end up with a decent medicine that is at least as good as the bag weed I medicate with now, and gain some experience, then I will be satisfied. I have studied hard and prepared as well as I can, and��� buckle up��.here we go���.. Excited yet? ���I am!!!!

Any criticism, advice, or guidance along the way would be extremely helpful. Thanks.
This Log is for my own benefit, and will be kept for reference material; my additional commentary or questions segment will be added to the version posted here. Likewise, any useful guidance I receive on here as the grow progresses will be saved to my log at home.

This will be an all soil, indoor grow in FF happy frog, using the FF nutrient trio on their recommended dosage schedule with only a slow tapered start as opposed to their recommended doses at start. Additionally, during flower I will also add FF soluble trio at recommended schedule. I have three 4ft T5 racks, 4 lamp each, for vegging in a 3.25 ft. x 4.25 ft. x 4ft tall veg room. A single 1k watt HPS w/ 4x4 hexagonal reflector will be used in a 6x6x6.75 tall flower room. May need to learn low height techniques, not sure if this is enough clearance? Also concerned I may run out of space prematurely to sexing in my Veg room. So Iâ??m prepared to kill a few weaklings. Veg room is vented into flower room with a light sealed duct through a 4inch turbine can fan. Flower is vented out through 8inch turbine can charcoal filter combo. Both fans are adjustable speed. I have dehumidifier, humidifier, heater, and AC. 16 inch oscillating fan for air movement in flower, 8inch oscillator in veg. Walls are Mylar lined. PH testing is done with a combination of strips and droplet test, Iâ??m trying both methods. Not satisfied, and probably going to buy a ph. pen. Hydro-something or other brand ph. down is used to adjust water. All water is tap water allowed to set for at least one day before use.
Based on my desired yield, and knowing that several would die, and wanting ability to weed out a few, and planning for 50% female ratioâ?¦..I started 25 fat â??tiger stripedâ?� seeds using paper towel method. Two never popped tails while the rest were ready to go, so 23 germinated seeds were planted in Rockwool moistened with ph. adjusted water, under one rack of 4 ft. T5 on a 18/6 schedule, and on a heated seedling mat under a humidity dome, kept at 80 degrees F. 18 popped up within a few hours, four of them never had the seed leaves come apart and stayed curled up and I let them die. All remaining seedlings spent next 5 days in rockwool under above conditions. Log Starts after that.
I have 14 seedlings from bag weed of unknown genetics, been saving all the ripe ones from the times I get a bag that seems stronger than normal â?¦â?¦..side note, Im not talking about Mexican brick weed. Where I live almost all bag weed is field grown locally in mountain valleys with clear stream water, local legend among the few growers I have met is that the origins of most Canadian field weed grown today was originally seeded with a few potent hybrids that came out of WA state, and BC in the late 80â??s. They say itâ??s some kind of High altitude SW Asian indica x South American sativa, IDK? But I do know that itâ??s much better medicine than the Mexican that makes it up here every once in a while when the local crop is shortâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦. Already one of them looks much more indica than the others, it is definitely just as developed, but proportionately the leaves just look more compact and fat.. IDK??
I know it may be too early to tell on any of them, and really it doesnâ??t matter, there all bag seed, Iâ??m just learning.



4/7/2011 Seedling day 1:

Color is healthy looking green on all plants. Humidity 50% and temp of 77 degree F. Transplanted all seedlings into ½ gallon pots. Labeled my plants A-N. Placed in two rows of seven, each row under one 4 ft. 4 lamp T5 Rack, Lights are 18/6 and about 3 inches above tops of plants Watered. Runoff on all plant saucers is slightly above 6.5 I turned on my humidifier and set to 60%.

Question of the day:

I have placed three Agromax grow bulbs, and one Agromax bloom bulb in each rack. I know they need more blue green lights right now, but I think they are getting enough, and I did this to provide some spectrum balance based on reading I have done, if I am off base with this, then please give your advice.

Plants A and B are noticeably stunted in growth, and if they donâ??t do a quick turnaround I am afraid the matrix will find out and they will be processed for termination. But seriously, all other seedlings are between 1 ½ and 2 inches tall and starting second set of true leaves. Strangeâ?¦ plants A & B are about half size of the rest in every aspect, leaf size, stem thickness and length, yet they are starting second set of leaves as well. It is almost as if they are just as developed as the rest, but half size?

4/8/2011 Seedling day 2:

All plants color is visually healthy. Soil feels slightly damp on surface. Today Iâ??m reading humidity 60%, Temp 90.5 degree F. No runoff to test. Ventilation duct got partially blocked by a carelessly placed water pot yesterday. Not sure how long plants were exposed to that temperature. I moved the pot and temp stabilized at 77.4 within 5-10 minutes. Some plants have leaf tips looking crisp and pointed towards the lights, some have leaf tips looking a little less crisp and ever so slightly curled downward, and a few others are prominently curled down?

Question of the day:

I have not started any nutrients yet even though FF feeding schedule says that their Big Bloom (0 .01-0.3-0.7), is safe for seedlings at all stages? Is this true or should I continue to wait another 8-10 days as planned? Has anyone used this product on early stage seedlings? If so, At what dose? How did they tolerate it? Was there any noticeable growth improvement as opposed to waiting until two weeks

NOTE: I HAVE ADJUSTED THE DAY COUNT TO REFLECT DAYS SINCE SPROUTING IN THE ROCKWOOL


4/9/2011 Seedling day 7:


All plants except for plant A are a healthy green color. Plant A has slight yellowing on the tips of its first set of leaves above the seed leaves. Temp. 78 Deg. F. Humidity 62%. Soil feels dry approximately 1 inch down, and slightly damp below that. Watered all plants with 1 cup of water+superthrive mixed at a ratio of 2 drops per gallon, and testing slightly above ph6.5. I waited about 10 minutes, then came back and still no runoff, so gave each plant between ¼ to 1/3 cup more, poured slowly until just a few drops of runoff appeared. Tested Runoff gave me a reading of ph 6.


Question of the day:


I am concerned about the validity of my runoff test. What is the best way to test runoff in a soil grow, using paper strips or drop test? What is an acceptable range for ph of runoff?

4/10/2011 Seedling day 8:

Temp. 76 Deg. F. Humidity 63% All plants are still a healthy green color. All pots are Damp on the surface. Plants appear to be all 2 inches or less in height, but large amount of noticeable growth in leaf size, and some are starting third set of leaves. The growth rate appears to be picking up speed. I removed the Mylar because it makes my nausea much worse when I look at it. Exposed flat white paint underneath. I hve begun giving all plants a very light misting 2-3 times daily, because i was concerned about the humidity being to low.


Questions of the day:


I know that people say mylar doesnâ??t cause hot spots, but when I removed the mylar in my veg room, the temp dropped by 2 deg f. rather quickly. Has anyone else experienced this?

. I am puzzled by the height of my plants, most I have seen pictures of at this stage seem to be much taller by the time they get leaves this size? Some look to be almost three times as tall proportionately.

SO i just learned that Gorilla Grow was a euphamism used to describe a grow on someone elses property. Wish I would have known that before I titled this thread.

Well, I just returned from my Dr. visit. We got back our lab results, and I have to go back in the hospital as an inpatient for a while, so my seedlings have been killed. No way to take care of them if Im in the hospital for 4-5 weeks again. Very Dissapointed, but maybe some day if my health is more stable I will try again to grow my own medicine.

Best of luck to you. :hippy:

Bummer, man. I hope you get feeling all better quick.