Arborholic’s Hot Mess Grow Log #1

[Arborholic]

Hidy-ho! My plants are stressed, and have been waiting a week for transplant supplies to show. So I’ll get right to to the biz of asking questions since I should really give them some help today. I just don’t know in which order to proceed.

Big question for today’s plan of action:
Should I stabilize pH where they live first, then transplant, then rest, then pH correct and feed? Transplant now, then rest, then… ?

    Basics: 

-8 bag seed, indica & indica/sativa strains

• plopped in soil to sprout Dec 1, 2021

-Hydroponics
*5 gal Bucket x1
* PH of hydro water 7.5 (too high)
* PPM 341 (-23 from yesterday)
* EC 683 (-38 from yesterday)

-Soil- just random old potting soil
*5 gal air pot
*5 gal grow bags
*pH and fertility -no data

• Indoor
• Light system- started with 2 octopus LED, then 3 grow bulbs GE BR 30 LED, 12-31-20 Vivosun 1000 LED at 23” from soil plant canopy, 17” from Hydro plant canopy
• Temps;
  Day 74-80F
  *Night 69-74F at plant canopy height.
• Humidity
  *Day 24-96% (yikes)
• Ventilation system not installed yet
• prop fan moving air around
• AC: Winter in Siberia = N/A
• Humidifier: small and needed in dry climate
• De-humidifier: No
• Co2: No

12-26-20

Transplanted 4 starts into hydro deep water

• 3 gals start water:
• Distilled water
• pH 8.35 down to 6.10
• 3/4 tsp Micro
• 3/4 tsp Grow
• 6ml Hydroguard

This past week I had no accurate pH, so I held off watering or feeding. The past 48 hours they started really showing signs of stress. I have Happy Frog soil, pots, GH nutes, pH/EC/PPM testers.

This is what I woke up to this morning- a soggy humidifier placement fail overnight. The leaves just crumped. Probably some nitrogen deficiency in the hydro water.

Right now:

This was 48 hrs ago:

I nerd out on the data tracking, so let me know if more info/pics needed. I’m also an arborist and have some terminology of nodes, plant biology, etc.

So back to my question for today: In what order should I transplant, correct pH, feed, rest, etc?
Thanks a heap!!
-Holi

[fano_man]

Have you ran 4 plants in a what is that 5 gal bucket? Have you done this before

[Arborholic]

@fano_man 1st time to grow hydro. First time to grow Canna. There are 4 plants in the little soil container and 4 in the hydro. I want to keep 1 in 5 gal hydro, 1 in 5 gal air pot, and rest in 5 gal fabric pots

[Arborholic]

@JB00 I plunked the grow log down. No time to check my pics, hope nothing inappropriate in them! I’m so excited to hear what the pros have to offer!!

[Arborholic]

I’m already in over my head with 8 unknown strains. They are putting on their 3rd - 5th nodes and almost every plant has a 5 leaf node. I’m wondering if I should save my energy and time by growing a known strain- I have the 2 auto packs from IGLM coming any day- and decide on a hydro system to get set up in the meantime.
Here are some choices. What are other ideas?

1. Transplant into soil grow bags for this grow and research hydro more for the next grows.

2. Decide on a hydro system and build it this weekend, then transplant.

3. Decide to focus my energy on starting the new auto plants and learn with a known strain. I’m not sure how much the unknown strain thing matters. So I’m asking you all.

@SmallTree- what do you think? You seem to have a grasp of genetics and if this scenario is too advanced for a first time grower.

@IP54

@Liljoe

@PhillyRock

@MrPeat - what advice can you give about growing auto strains vs the mixed bag I have going now?

@merlin44 Can you look into your crystal ball and give me advice?

@repins12 - I am pretty set on hydro all the way, but have too many unanswered questions before I can decide what system to follow. I started my seeds way before I was ready to take care of plants. I thought maybe 1 would sprout. Will the grow timelines be so uneven that setting up 8-12 pot system(s) like you’ve created that was all connected would be hard to give each plant what they need. What do you think? I just can’t visualize yet what I’m getting into.

@Coen3440- I’ve been tracking your grow and am inspired. Do you have any words of wisdom for my scenario as you’re building and getting going again? I’ve never grown indoors with lights only, never grown canna plants.

[Arborholic]

Hi @monkman if you have some time I could sure use some help this evening. I have time to do something for these babies, but not sure what direction to go. Do you think I should cull out some of these? Since I don’t know the strains, and they’re so young, can we tell what plants could live well together? I have multiple grow tents and spaces if needed. @SmallTree @Liljoe also anyone have some time to weigh in?

[monkman]

i just looked at your photo’s. if you let them go much longer you are going to get intertwined roots. because of that, and them being “unknown” bag seeds, i would call them a good practice start. if you do have lots of room, and can afford to waste some light and space on them then go ahead and go for it. my first grow i had 2 different strains and you can handle that. the best pot in my first two grows were bag seeds that i planted along with the ILGM seeds that i grew with them. you need to make a decision on which you are going to grow in, soil or water. water plants grow faster and respond faster to stimulus, both good and bad. soil plants are a little more forgiving and have better flavor.

[SmallTree]

You got this if you feel like you need to learn than these are the perfect seeds to do that on, don’t give up on any plant that hasn’t died yet.

I’m not the best to answer hydro but there are alot on here that can help there. I do know res temp and water temp play a huge factor.

Grow as many strains as you want. Im growing 12 solo cup autos in a 2x2 looking for a amber fan leaf pheno it also smells like piss but I wana bx it

What random potting soil are you using I like the random. I use coco perlite mix easy to control ph in and no drastic over nite plant issue like hydro can give you.

Forgot to say this, lol I have 3 seeds in a solo cup, so 12 x 3 , 36 seeds at once. Alot are going to get killed by my snips, if they don’t show the dark fan leaf traits im looking for than they die

[monkman]

if this is your first grow, i would only grow a couple plants, 4 to 6 at most, but 2 would work also. i would not try to grow both hydro and soil. as i said, plants react differently in those two mediums and with no experience you are going to get plowed under with knowledge and have a good chance of messing up both. having taught troubleshooting in a controls situation one of the most important things to do when learning is to try to keep it as simple as possible so you can gain the knowledge you need to take the next step in learning. THE most important thing in your grow is your lights. i don’t know if @dbrn32 is on right now but he is the “local” lighting guru and he will be able to tell you about your lights and if they will be capable of doing what you want out of them.

if you are completely new to growing anything, remember, you must learn to crawl before you learn to run. i would take it easy on this first grow and build from there. i planted 6 plants for my first grow and basically killed 5 of 6, the only one that survived well on the first grow was a bag seed, but got 5 decent working ounces out of it. got only 2 oz’s from the other 5 which were white widow ILGM. i burned the crap out of them by listening to someone who didn’t know what they were talking about.

[monkman]

oops, thanks for the tag, set to watching. nice to meet ya and being a teacher’s kid, i will tell you the only stupid question is the one that doesn’t get asked. lots of great people on here with a very wide range of experience so don’t be afraid to ask, even if you think it is a “stupid” question.

[merlin44]

It looks like @monkman has you covered. I agree that these are good practice seeds. I would get a couple of them into their own pots and grow them to learn the ropes. While they are growing your skills will grow and you can plan your next grow.

[Youngster]

Definitely tuned in… you got this… we learn together.

[Arborholic]

Heck ya @Youngster! Thanks for your . This is going to be a wild ride!

[PhillyRock]

You tagged me in this thread but @monkman said it better than I ever could.
Gopher it bro.<-- (go for it)
Read up on the Hydro set up, build your station, get absolutely everything you need and
use this time as practice. Grow them out to get a feel for what the plants need and what you
can expect later. If you have the room, I don’t see why you would cut them short.

Que annoying Disney frozen sound track " Let them Grow, let them Grow, can’t hold them
back any mooooore…"

You can thank me later.
It’s stuck in your head now isn’t it? HAHAHA

[Youngster]

@repins12 has an amazing rdwc setup that you should check out… it is affordable and he is producing some amazing results. If you go rdwc check him out first I blew alotta money I could have put into lighting if I checked him out first

[monkman]

good call youngster… and howdy

[Youngster]

Lol I sure sung it in my head lol

[Youngster]

Howdy sir its pleasure to meet you… just doing some late night studying. Reading post and soaking up the knowledge being shared.

[PhillyRock]

@Arborholic
If you’re absolutely dead set on starting the DWC hydro system, grab some 1 or 3 gallon pots.
Grow yourself some mini cannabis plants for fun. But I’d still go with what was so eloquently
said above. Why not just grow them out, the hard part is over, getting them started. Just
starting out you don’t want your time divided between two completely different animals.
Soil is a Lion whereas Hydro is a Tiger. Of the same family but worlds apart.

[Arborholic]

@monkman Wow. Awesome. Here we go! The 4 plants in soil already have intertwined roots. Not only am I psychic, but the roots are sitting in a little glass bowl which I just set into a bigger glass bowl and tossed more Random potting soil around the 2 Stretch Sisters as they stretched trying to find some light. Then I covered the glass with a grow bag to keep out the light. No holes in the bottoms of the bowls either. They need to be transplanted ASAP. I sooo appreciate you taking the time to help out tonight. The random potting soil is an old bag of soil from my veggie starts from this spring. It’s all I had at the hairbrained moment I decided to “toss some of these old seeds in and see if anything pops up”. Kinda like having sex without a condom just this once and boom- insta-parent.

I think I’m going to go with soil. I have 2cf of FF Happy Frog and 4cf of Ocean Forest. Which soil should I use?
Should I get to transplanting or should I do anything like wait till morning after they go to bed and get their 6 hours of beauty sleep?