Greetings Community I am a new poster on these pages. I have ventured into this horticultural hobby and I’d like to benefit from, and eventually share my own, communal wisdom because although I feel my girls are off to a good start, I’m about to switch to flowering and there is still a long way to go and a lot I don’t know to anticipate.
My first question is the safety of this type of grow log. I am not worried about the authorities but complacency can be part of the problem. I’m in a flex state that is decriminalized but not quite legal yet, and once we are legal there will be a limitation on the number of plants and I do plan to try a SOG grow and exceed that limit at some point. Morally I have no problem with this because I am not convinced, within my system, that a SOG grow will yield more than a well trained single plant, and the end products are just for me, no commerce, so they shouldn’t care anyway. But I am requesting safety tips from the community, especially in being sure my exact location isn’t imbedded in what I post here. Thank you.
My system is an AeroGarden Farm XL24 that is in a 39" x 26" closet. The closet could go higher but the AeroGarden allows…on paper…for 3’ of grow space, but effectively, due to the hanging of the lights, I only have about 2’ 8", or 32 inches. AeroGarden does suggest that the lights can be as close to the plants as they can take, and in my experience, which doesn’t include flowering marijuana, a four inch gap is okay. Thus I plan to flip to flowering once they tallest girls are about 15", but more on this later, as there are four plants of differing heights.
AeroGarden (AG) is obviously a hydro grow. The medium is AG’s little cone planters, and I do see these as one of the issues with my choice of grow systems. The Farm XL24 AG has two separate water basins and I have supplemented the AG’s top feeding water pump with two Petco two-outlet air pumps, each pump has one outlet going into each of the two basins. If one of the pumps fails the other should keep things alive until I notice the issue. One thing I have learned already: when I first installed the pumps I was using PetCo’s clear tubing, which was not reliable, the tubing would separate from the pump often. I switched to black tubing and roughed up the connections with sandpaper and the result has been 100% reliable, and the black tubing also discourages algae.
Interesting side note, at one point one of my plant’s roots had grown around a piece of tubing and folded it over, thwarting the air flow and essentially choking itself out. So I might have a plant with an auto-asphyxiation fetish.
My seeds are form the Great White North, oh Canada, Viva La France, as the company is Quebec Cannabis Seeds (QCS) and they were a pleasure to order from, in all due respect to our current host. Two seeds of two different strains in two basins. On the left I have Northern Lights x Skunk, and on the right is QCS’s proprietary Blue strain.
As I mentioned before I hope to try a SOG grow in this set up, but I am concerned with the root space in the basin. My basins are 2 gallon capacity and I already wish I had just one plant per basin, not because the roots are struggling for space but the plants are starting too. We shall see. In terms of water I have a product called the AeroVoir, which is a kind of expensive gravity feed system that allows for another gallon of water to be fed to the basins which does allow me to be away longer, and it also allows more room for the roots. I have one I bought hooked up to my right basin, and while I want to make one for the left basin I might just buy it because I’m not that handy.
My nutrient system is General Hydroponic’s three part Flora series. I supplement with CalMag but for some reason I bought Blue Planet CalMag which was just an oversight, I didn’t mean to mix vendors. I use Botanicare Hydroguard generously. I’m also using General Hydroponic’s PH drops and Up/Down solutions. I have decided not to use a digital pH pen in favor of the drops because I don’t want to be questioning the calibration of the pen. I know myself and that would drive me nuts even though the drops are time consuming and I’m partially color blind. I check pH every day, or more, and most often it needs to be adjusted down, it seems my tap water is pretty alkaline. This is a part of the grow where I am winging it and learning as I go. I do know to hit the 5.5-6.5 range with 5.5-5.8 being even better. My pH often seems to be right around 6.0 and I debate whether trying to edge it down two or three tenths is worth it.
I do have a TDS meter ($50 Hanna) and I am monitoring EC/TDS in terms of ppm. I’m winging it here too, and a lot of what I"m reading about TDS isn’t crystal clear, there’s a lot of people that don’t know what they’re talking about in my opinion, partially for all the different mediums and conversion factors in this area. So I’m taking notes and eventually things will become more clear. One learning event: my left basin, the Northern LIghts Skunk girls, wasn’t growing well. I was getting clawing which said too much Nitrogen but the whole plant was very light green which said too little Nitrogen. Cleaner water didn’t help so eventually I doubled the feed (double was half the GH recommended dose) and the plants perked up. I don’t know why that worked, but I do have TDS numbers to use to figure it out.
My closet is lined with mylar emergency blankets for greater reflectivity. I think I’d rather have painted the walls matte white and not have to deal with the Mylar which gets more attention from my ventilation system than my plants do. My ventilation system leaves a lot to be desired. As it is my grow closet does not have a vent out. I did buy an exhaust fan, the Layond 4", which I think works great, it is a simple, sturdy and solid unit, and very versatile. But right now the best I can do is vent the air in the closet out of the closet into the room the closet is in. I keep good notes on room temperature, humidity and water temperature and everything is acceptable. I think I can manage any temperature and humidity issues but I don’t have complete control of the space and I don’t have control of the smell, which isn’t a problem yet.
What else to add? I’ve already over-shared for a first post, so I’ll leave a couple pics and see what’s up. These pics were taken last night, before and after a defoliation. I’m a big believer in taking leaves off plants and letting them regrow, and I am considering a full Schwazz for my flowering. My training strategy has been what I would call Newbie Mainlining; I have attempted to set up a manifold but very cautiously as I can be heavy handed. This is another issue with the AG, the base of the plant isn’t a solid point, it will wiggle and tying plants down is awkward. I had a practice plant and I broke it a lot so I tried to be careful here. I did break half of one of my plants off and then snipped another cola off (True FIM) so even though it has been topped three times it only has three main colas. My Northern Lights plants were topped improperly, resulting in congested growth. That was a good learning experience.
Here’s my girls. Thanks for your interest and I welcome any input. I know already the AG was not the strongest investment for this endeavor, but I have to look at it this way: it got me started. I doubt I would have pulled the trigger if I had to buy all those parts separately. So let’s prove this can work!