Doc Oc's first grow log, 3 White Widows from Nirvana

[Ocotillo]

I wanted to make my first grow log with my 100th post instead of the same old small talk and BS. I have a few woes going on so this is just a start and I'll build on it as we go. I also found it very eerie how Raiz' is practically doing a "mirror" grow as I am!!! Weird or what?

Anyway, right now it's 2 WW's just starting week 3 of flower, 1 WW starting flower due to a mix up of labels in the pots, one free Nirvana seed, and one bag seed which has yet to show me her "money maker". That is a humorous antidote as this is strictly for personal use, no selling going on, personal consumption ONLY. Two other BS (bag seed) plants turned out male so far. All had at least 6 weeks from seed and FIM was done, sort of. :wtf:

For the nitty gritty I'll fill out the "trouble shooting form" upcoming. I can say it's a 5 sf closet area under an air cooled HPS 400W'er. Miracle grow AP and BB nutes (All Purpose and Bloom Booster), Amend Patio soil (kind of hot with guano's), rain water, PH pen, carbon filter, yada yada yada.....:detective1:

I'd like to thank CabCom for the wealth of information. I've been gardening all my life although never indoors and rarely weed. Every outdoor weed plant we ever tried was stolen! :cursing:

Ocotillo Reviewed by Ocotillo on 03-01-2010. Doc Oc's first grow log, 3 White Widows from Nirvana I wanted to make my first grow log with my 100th post instead of the same old small talk and BS. I have a few woes going on so this is just a start and I'll build on it as we go. I also found it very eerie how Raiz' is practically doing a "mirror" grow as I am!!! Weird or what? :eek: Anyway, right now it's 2 WW's just starting week 3 of flower, 1 WW starting flower due to a mix up of labels in the pots, one free Nirvana seed, and one bag seed which has yet to show me her "money maker". That Rating: 5

[Ocotillo]

Soil Grows - Peat Based

What is your experience level? (first timer, novice, experienced...)
First time indoor
Your Equipment:
.1) Type and wattage of lights. (MH, HPS, CFL's, tube fluorescents, LED's)
6 T-12, 40W each; 4 cool and 2 warm for seed and veg. 400W MH for mega grow if flower room is available, and 400W HPS to flower
.2) Distance from tops?
2", 12", 12" respectively
.3) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...) Aurora 6 air cooled hood
.4) Is there a consistent fresh air supply?
Yes, passive intake
.5) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan?
Yes and Yes
.6) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule?
Wattages and Kelvins see above. Veg 18/6, Flower 12/12

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. (vermiculite, perlite, worm castings...)
Started with Scotts, changed to Amend Patio potting soil
.8) Size of container.
From "frat party" solo cups up to 5 gal if necessary, right now at 1.5 gal round
.9) Did you use peat pucks (or similar) to root clones or germinate seedlings?
No, seeds just straight into soil, old school yo

Your nutrients and water:
10) Source of water? (tap, bottled or filtered) What's it's ph before adjusting?
Tap water 7.7 at first, then 7.0 rain water.
11) Method of checking water ph. (ph pen, test strips, aquarium test kit...)
Milwaukee pen and drops
12) Method of adjusting water ph. (phosphoric acid, white vinegar, hydrated lime, PH Up...)
GH kit
13) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule.
Miracle Grow All Purpose and Miracle grow Bloom Booster
14) How often are you watering between feedings, and how much per watering?
Now, every other like Rusty orders!!! was up to 2.0 tsp for veg with the AP, and now giving 1.0 tsp for early flowering with BB
15) Any additives or tea's? (Superthrive, CalMag, molasses, Mother's Earth...)
Vitamin B-1 and SuperThrive and now molasses weekly too
16) Are your ph levels stable, or do they fluctuate?
Stable now, used to fluctuate when I used tap water and never checked it- go figure
17) What is your ingoing water's ph? ...your runoff ph?
Trick question, I check it for each plant in flower and adjust to runoff balance of around 6.6ish
18) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you spray?
Not usually, only if they dry out or were locked out

Your growroom:
19) Indoors or outdoors?
Indoors
20) What size of closet, room or hut?
Flower- 2'x2.5'x8' tall, Veg- 2'x51"x8' tall
21) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off?
Flower- H: 26-43%, T: 67-82. Veg- H: 34-56%, T: 68-82.
22) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom?
Only a couple gnats.

Your strain:
23) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?)
White Widow
24) From seeds or clones?
seed
25) Is this an autoflower strain?
No

[raizla]

From the two pics you put up, your plants look great man! I have some questions for ya if you don't mind.

When did you start giving the molasses? Do you think it's helped?

Do you plan on moving up to 5 gallon pots? I planned to finish in 3 gallons.

How did you manage to block out all the light coming around the outside of your mirrored closet? I'd love to see pictures of your setup!

It looks like our grows are pretty similar. I'd love to see some pictures of your plants when they were smaller. Luckily you've got a 400w HPS to flower in. I've got to stick with my T5 all the way through.

[Ocotillo]

When did you start giving the molasses? Do you think it's helped?

I just started the Molasses a few days ago so it's too soon to "see" anything. From what I've been reading it can only help. Talk around town says buds can get 20% bigger while there seems to be no down side at all. It's Grandmothers unsulphered original.

Do you plan on moving up to 5 gallon pots? I planned to finish in 3 gallons.

The plants are doing the planning and they have yet to tell me if they will need the 5 gallon pots. You can tell when they seem to need more frequent watering and the PH keeps going acid. I went from cups, to .5 gal square pots, to 1.5 gal round pots, next will be 3 gal round pots, finally 5 gallon rectangular square cat litter buckets as Four 5 gallon round pots may not fit in my small flower room.

How did you manage to block out all the light coming around the outside of your mirrored closet? I'd love to see pictures of your setup!

I sectioned it off with plywood, crudely framed out and installed doors. The doors are so warped that right now it's serving as the intake! This is not YET my ideal set up, I need better doors, more exhaust fan for the flower room, exhaust for the veg room, and to make some actual intakes once the doors are better sealed.

There are actually 3 sections, the tall flower room, the wide veg room, and above the veg room is the "ballast room" with smoke/fire detector. I got a couple used 400W MH "bay lights", converted one to HPS with a ballast kit from 1000 bulbs dot com and have them hanging from the ceiling on bicycle hooks. I replaced the sockets with short heavy cords with plugs that I can switch to the hood socket kit for MH or HPS. Heck, some day I could even add a MH to the hood to make it a 400W HPS AND 400W MH flower light totaling 800W! That may be a bit much for 5 sf. Soon this room too will need a vent to the attic or else it will just heat the other two rooms which would defeat the purpose.

It looks like our grows are pretty similar. I'd love to see some pictures of your plants when they were smaller. Luckily you've got a 400w HPS to flower in. I've got to stick with my T5 all the way through.

Thanks very much. Like I said above, I've been throwing this thing together staying ahead of the plants needs so far. When hot weather gets here I'm sure I need more ventilation.

[Ocotillo]

Do you plan on moving up to 5 gallon pots? I planned to finish in 3 gallons.

@ 2 1/2 weeks into flower I just inspected and changed pots up to 3 gal. They were over due for sure. I'm equally sure they will be needing to go up to 5 gal about half way from now to the end, in about 4 weeks assuming we go 10 weeks total flower time. No use building it all to skimp on soil at the end.

[redtails]

In my experience and some reading, the roots slow way down in growth while flowering so another transplant might not be necessary but then again a little extra soil never hurt anything.

[raizla]

In most of the grow logs I've read, people are discouraging transplanting during flowering. Some have done it with no negative consequences, while others are very against it.

[Shovelhandle]

agreed. I would plan ahead on the transplantings, pruning, taking clones, etc. Once you are a week into flowering it's probably best to leave things be. You could always transplant right on top of another vessel (tier style) with minimal distubance to the plant and it's roots.

[Ocotillo]

In most of the grow logs I've read, people are discouraging transplanting during flowering. Some have done it with no negative consequences, while others are very against it.

Thank you Raizla and Shovelman, somehow I missed that little tidbit of info about not transplanting into flower period. Seems like these may then be the final pots. They did get a bit yellow the next day which I was hoping was "normal" for flower plus the extra water used for the transplant process.

I don't know what tier style transplant is, a quick google search showed some plants plopped half way up on top of another pot? I don't like the looks of that although the jury is still out. (meaning have not decided yet) :detective1:

I do the "Chinese box of boxes" style transplant, I'll name it the Box of Boxes method, or BoB for short. We also don't want to piss off the Chinese at this point here in the US. We may owe our soul to God, but we owe our ass and everything else to China.

Anyway, I found somewhere to transplant this way and I like it :thumbsup: :
Take your new pot and one of your old smaller pots,
Fill the new pot enough to place the old pot inside so both pot tops are even,
Now fill in all around the edges between the two pots to make a mold,
Pack it slightly, not too much, just to it won't fall apart then water
Let it drain well and remove the smaller inner pot
You will now have a old pot soil cavity inside the bigger new pot soil,
Now simply take your plant and place it into it's premade cavity,
Sprinkle a bit of soil around the top and water a bit more.
I don't know how that could be less stress free, or would that be more stress free? :wtf: Anyway, I wish I was as stress free.

I think that is a very low stress method so I'm hoping I dodged a bullet :rambo: messing around during flower. And if I may "speculate", The Fox Farm nute schedule shows to add some nitrogen (grow big) at week 3 and 4 of flower so I'll hoping to end up similar to that via the guanos and stuff in the fresh soil. Anyway, well see. (I should translate "Anyways" with an added S for our friends in CA) I'm not actually using Fox Farms yet so I'm NOT adding MG AP all purpose, just the BB bloom booster.

I don't anticipate messing with them much more now, just water, flush, nute and rotate. :weedpoke:

[raizla]

This thread needs more pictures! You know we love to drool over these sexy lil plants!