I bought the WWA beginner complete set in November 2016. After a delay, I began growing in late September 2017. I am a first time grower and wanted to document how things have gone so far. I have made some mistakes along the way, but the hardy plants have held it together.
My grow room is a 33"x46"x7’ tiled shower. The walls are mylar’ed and the room is sealed with a makeshift door (duct tape holds it together). To start, the 400W MH lamp (17 year old bulb is replaced a month later, reflective hood with available HPS hookup on other side, no glass partition, dual HPS/MH magnetic ballast) was used at 18/6 cycle. A 120CFM 4" fan exhaust is connected to the MH side of the lamp. A 120CFM 4" fan is on the intake feeding at the bottom of the room. Both exhaust and intake are ducted to the outside. A fan, heater w/ thermostat,and humidifier w/ stat are are also installed. I’ve been using the flower power fertilizer. I have three thermometers and one hygrometer in the setup. This photo is pre-mylar while I was in construction.
First mistake: I “forgot” these seeds were autoflower. I thought they were straight up fem and don’t realize this until a month later. I originally intended to go a 4-way LST with SCROG.
I have been using flower power fertilizers that came with the set. Instead of measuring grams as recommend in the user guide,I have added the nutes until the EC increased by the noted amount. So if the guide says the EC should be 2000 and I am using 400 EC tap water, I add nutes until the EC is 2400. I have no idea if this is right or wrong. If I use the grams recommended the EC is much lower than the user guide says it should be. I then used ph down to get the ph to 6.0 to 6.5.
Regarding temp control - I have struggled with this. I have had highs up to 108 and lows down to 52. The high temps were dependent on the outside temp, but greatly increased once i added the 400W SV lamp.
Humidity control - the humidifier has a control that has been effective. I kept the humidity around 70% early. As the season got colder and outside humidity dropped, the humidifier helps keep the room around 40%. Without the humidifier, the room drops below 20%
Pictures - some of the quality is bad, my iphone and ipad cameras struggle in the HID lighting.
The set comes with bug blaster, mold control, and root protector solutions. I have never had to use these. I think the hardiness of the WWA plants is the reasons I haven’t had too.
Journal based on my handwritten notes ans text exchanges back and forth with my friend.
9/23 - I put 8 seeds in water for an overnight soak
Mistake?: I used hard tap water for the soak. ph ~8, EC~380
9/24 - I planted the seeds in individual solocups,each sliced four ways down the side, partially down the bottom and taped around the top of the cup to hold it together. MiracleGrow Natures Choice was used for soil. Each seed was planted and water with tapwater
Mistake?: I used straight tap water; I am not sure if Natures Choice has slow release nutes or not
9/26 - I get my pH, TDS, and ph up/down solutions.
9/27-10/2 - five of eight seeds sprouted between this time frame. The remaining three seeds ended up being duds. I gave one plant to a friend, leaving me with 4 plants.
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Mistake? - I suspect using 8ph tap water had an impact on the germination rate. I say this because this November I germ’d 10 seeds successfully using ph6.5 tap water
9/28 - I water all plants with the “start” flower power nutes with a total of 1/2 liter. Tap water EC was 370. Final EC and Ph were 840 and 6.4.
Mistake? - most forums warned about feeding too soon. I didn’t seem to have any issues.
10/4 - watered again with start - tap EC 300, final EC and pH 1800 and 6.4.
10/5 - I raised the plants up to about 6inches from the lamp. They seemed to be stretching and were about 18" from the lamp.
10/6 - I start trying to use a DIY CO2 generator with a 2 liter bottle, 3 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of yeast.
Mistake? - I can’t confirm if this has provided any value, but I have kept using this, replacing the solution once a week. It’s probably sucked out of the exhaust ventilation before the total CO2 levels can increase, but perhaps every little bit helps?
10/7 to 10/15 - I alternate watering between 6.5ph water, no nutes; and start nutes, ~6.3ph, EC increase of 1200 from tap water. About a half liter total between all plants is used. During this time I am concerned about powdery milder(ended up being leftover minerals from water that evaporated on leaves) and nute burn ( a few yellow brown tipped leaves, never spread)
10/16 - 10/17 - as the fifth set of leaves emerged on each plant, and there was room to snip them without damaging the fourth set, the fifth set was snipped off. The room is getting too cold over night,under 60
10/17 to 10/18 - four 5 gallon fabric pots are filled with “root organics” soil. I slice the tape on the solo cup for easy removal and transplant all four plants. The new soil is initially watered with 1 liter of ph6.5 water,no nutes
Mistake? - After watering and transplanting, I became concerned the new soil was too cold and may damage the roots, but nothing detrimental happened.
10/19 - I water each plant with 1 liter of “grow” flower power nute solution. EC increase of 1600 and ph of 6.3. I get a little concerned about nute burn, but no bad affects are seen in the days tocome
10/19 to 11/3 - I water the plants with a “grow” solution (EC increase of 1600 and ph of 6.4) once a week and water with 6.3pH water if soil is dry
Mistake? - during this time I re-calibrate the ph meter and suspect it was reading higher than actual. I see no signs of low pH issues though.
10/27 - after a discussion with a friend whom I gave one plant to, I come to the realization that my plants are autoflower. There are clearly the beginnings of flowering on all four plants. I install the 400W HPS lamp on the same day. I also replace my 17 year old MH with a new lamp (plantmax). I drop the plants about 5 inches to avoid light burn.
Mistake: I did not increase the exhaust. The temps over the next few days skyrocket from high 80’s to above 100 with the HPS on. At a minimum I should’ve moved the exhaust over to the HPS side of the light, as it is much hotter than the MH.
10/21 to 10/22 - I start to see more inter-nodes growth. Plants are about 5" from the bulb
10/25 to 10/26- reconfigured makeshift set up and replaced cooler that was propping up plants with stack-able crates. I hope it will increase circulation and drops temps. I LST the plants by tying down the primary and secondary legs to the side of the fabric pots with string and pins.
10/29 - I relocated the fan and ended up causing some wind burn damage to nearby leaves. One secondary branch is toast.
Mistake: wind carelessness. I knew it was a risk and went with it.
11/1 - I realize the plants with the split tops and wind burn seem to be further along in flowering, perhaps due to stress. Two plants have smaller flowers and seem to be growing still
11/2 - while retraining the primary and secondary legs on each plant, I split two plant tops (I am angry at myself). I tape one together, i leave another split and un-taped as it was only a minor split.
11/2 to 11/3 - in a panic, due to the realization I have autoflowers that were 4-way LST’d, wind/heat burn on two plants,and the two plants with split top, i put 10 WWA, 1 Colorado cookie auto, one OG auto, one NL auto, and one pineapple express auto seed in cups of ph6.3 water for soaking (the four non-WWA seeds are from a friend). On 11/3 they are put in sliced solo cups with roots organic soil that is watered with 6.3pH water. Three had germ’ed in the water already. I don’t plan on topping any. I may do some light LST.
11/3 - to deal with the drop in outside temp, I relocate the heater near the plants. Overnight, it burns two plants and I lose a secondary leg on each of them. I put the heater back to the bottom of the grow room
Mistake: carelessness
11/4 - I begin watering with "bloom"power flower fertilizer. I raise the tap water EC by 2000 to 2400 and bring ph down to about 6.3. Each plant gets a liter. Things are picking up to pickup.
11/7 - of the new 14 plants, 13 have sprouted. The northern lights auto was a dud. I think the germ rate success was due to proper pH used during soaking and initial watering of soil. Old plants have buds.
11/9 - on one of the old plants, I start to see some discoloration and leave curling. Doesn’t appear to be affecting the buds. This is one of the plants with a split top that had experienced burn from the heater prior. It’s buds are the biggest of my plants so far. This is not happening to the other three plants
11/7 - I begin watering new plants with “start”
11/11 - overnight temp gets down to 52, some of the younger plants are mildly damaged
11/12 - There’s been significant growth and budding. Some pistils are starting to redden on one plant
11/15 There is tons of growth. The two plants that had split tops and burned are ahead of the other two.
11/16 - I overhauled my grow room. I got adjustable straps for the hood and have relocated the plants towards the floor and the hood is in the middle of the room now. The heater is up top near the intake and is only on at night. I added a 100 CFM exhaust fan to the HPS side of the hood and out to a vent hole in the door… During construction, I further split one plant top (I am angry at myself again) and I tape it up. I also transplanted all but one new plant into five gallon fabric pots with roots organic soil,each watered with 1 liter of 6.5 pH water. The OG, CC, PE and one WWA are in a pot by themselves. The remaining WWA’s are doubled up in a pot, four pots in total. I gave one WWA away. I also purchased a jewelry lens and can now see the nice clear mushroomed trichomes on the two plants that are further along. The other two don’t have the mushroom tip yet.
Mistake: carelessness during construction - I should’ve moved my plants out of the way. Fortunately,the leg doesn’t seem any worse for the wear.
11/18 - with some adjustment to the heater and putting it on nighttime only, the temps are stabilizing - high 80’s during the day, low 70’s at night. I feed the old plants with “boost” fertilizer, EC raised by 200 EC
11/19 - if you have read all this, thanks. I will continue to post updates.
radiant heat from the light itself only accounts for small amount of heat compared to open bulbs even with fans pulling some heat away constricted air moves faster and also cools more efficiently. 
