Operation: Indoor #1

Decided to start a journal for this first attempt at an indoor grow. Really loving this community and all the helpful members.

I don’t have exact dates for everything up to this point, but have very close guesses and will do a better job of keeping records moving forward.

So, from the beginning, this journal starts with some clones I bought from a source that I had used last year for an outdoor grow. I was happy with the Gorilla Glue from the year before, but opted for 5 clones of 5 different strains: Black Tuna, Red Congo, Girl Scout Cookies, Hulk Smash, and Peyote Cookies. Can’t be certain that these are the strains that I received, but this is what I’m told they are (they all grew in very similar fashion).

April 24, 2020:

May 3, 2020:

May 15, 2020

These were just left in the south facing window until the outside Temps were safe to put them outside. Yes, this is an indoor grow journal, but the journey started here (I’m not very good at making long stories short).

May 30, 2020:

June 5, 2020:

June 26, 2020:

Then the fun began in late July when I decided that I needed to clone these girls before they enter flowering stage. I had absolutely no equipment for an indoor grow at this time, but figured, “what the hay.”

July 29, 2020:

August 1, 2020:

August 6, 2020:

It was sometime between late July and August 6th that I realized I was having some success with the cloning and things started to escalate quickly.

August 7, 2020:

August 11, 2020: clones transplanted into 1 gallon pots (next time I will likely go straight to 3 gallon pots):

August 15, 2020:

Thought I would get away with not having the ventilation system for a while, but I was wrong - heat and humidity were becoming a problem, so I grabbed the fan and filter earlier than anticipated. This whole thing has really been thrown together on the fly.

August 18, 2020 - noticed some problems on the leaves:

This is around the time I joined this forum and reached out for guidance. I was very quickly assisted by @Covertgrower and after a short conversation I dimmed my light significantly as it was running much higher than it needed to be.

Next thing you know, August 20, 2020, healthy again:

Here’s the progress from August 20, 2020 up until September 1, 2020:

That brings the journal up to date. I have FIM’d twice and transplanted into 3 gallon pots. I’ve also cut off a few lower branches from each of them.

I was originally going to try to complete this grow with the one mars hydro tsl2000 and just try to contain them to half the tent (2x4 - the flower area for the light.

However, after coming this far, I have decided to just get another light to fill the space. I figure if I’m going to do it, do it right.

With help again from @Covertgrower and @dbrn32 I will be ordering the HLG 320W XL RSPEC and will have it in time before initiating flowering.

With that said, I have just opened up another 2x4 of space which gives me more options for how to veg these 5 girls. Pretty sure I’m going to try a SCROG method using a combination of FIM’ing/Topping, and LST.

I also want to take another set of clones from these before switching to flower, so I’m going to want some extra side shoots so I can take clones and still fill the scrog net.

From here on there will be shorter posts as I will update as I go.

As always, all comments and advice/suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.
Cheers

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They are looking good. You got some good advice from @Covertgrower and @dbrn32 They have both helped me at one time or another HAPPY GROWING.

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I agree great job brother…and they both have giving me some solid advise as well

What do the original clones look like growing outdoors?

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unfortunately this happened last night:

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What happened? Wind storm? Animals?

Wind and heavy rain. They are not well protected. Minor set back, and now that one is my experiment plant. Probably a little later in to flower than you should start bending, but giving it a try

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I know what you mean about the weather. Last week mother nature was being a twat and I had 2 beams break off the main stalk. I was lucky to get to them in time, got out the honey, electrical tape, bamboo poles and twist ties. They made it!

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Sucks brother but give it time they will bounce back they can be pretty resilient

It was a heavy branch, made an attempt to tie it back together, but ultimately decided to cut it off and continue on.
On a brighter note, the offspring is doing great…

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Outta likes but they look great nice man

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Ok, hitting a critical point here and seeking some advice. Things are going very well, but I want to make sure it stays that way.
PH and ppm has felt like an overwhelming step, but I’ve finally started to pay attention to this (been lucky up until now).
So, on August 28th I transplanted into 3 gallon fabric pots. I am using a basic triple mix soil. I have fed them nutrients twice, but only started taking ph and ppm readings a couple days ago. Girls look fine, but I may have over-fed them considering that the soil would have had nutrients in it already.
My tap water ph is about 7.6 - 7.8. When mixed with the nutrients solution it drops to 6.6- 6.8. The runoff ph is in the 5.8-6.2 range. So I figure my ph is doing well.
Ppm of my nutrients solution when mixed with my tap water is around 1000 (tap water alone is about 184ppm). After feeding this to them, the runoff ppm was very high (around 2000). There are no signs of nute burn or anything visually going wrong, but my understanding is that if the runoff ppm is much higher than ppm going in, there is likely a salt build up around the roots. That was on September 3rd.
Today (September 6th), I watered them with just tap water, no nutrients. Water ppm is 184. Runoff ph was 6.6-6.7 and the ppm was 1000-1200. Does this all sound about right? The next time I water should be just water again? I’m struggling to fully grasp this part of it and don’t want to f@#$ it up.
Also, what do you think the max veg time should be in 3 gallon pots? May use 5 gallon with future grows, but sticking with the 3 gallon this time around. They are in the middle of week 4 since the clones went in the dirt. I’m waiting on my 2nd light to arrive (sometime this week, hopefully) before flipping to flower. Do these girls need another topping to help fill this scrog net? I will be taking clones off of each of the plants. I figure 2 per plant, so that will take away the lower branches. I’m thinking that they will need one more topping after that. I’m thinking about doing that tomorrow so they can recover before I get the light and flip to flower.
I know I’ve asked a lot of different questions in this one post. Just want to make sure I’m on the right track
Cheers
@Covertgrower @Drinkslinger @dbrn32

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The ppm go up when watering because it’s picking up solids from the soil, having a runoff ppm of over 2000 when using soil should be expected.

I’m a firm believer that by chasing numbers you are going to have problems. If you trust your soil, trust you nutrient manufacturer, and pH the input, the output will be just fine. It happens here at least once a week, a forum member ruining their grow because they are trying to adjust runoff numbers with lime and sulfur and flushing excessively.

For me, the only reason to ppm the runoff is if I’m having an issue with the plants and I am trying to diagnose the problem. If you want to learn about ppm keep track to see how it changes, but don’t screw with it. If you start experiencing issues, review your runoff and see if something changed drastically , then deal with that.

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CMich covered.

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Well thanks for the tip it’s sounds solid so I will also take ur advise to use brother :relaxed: I get a bit confused about some stuff but u explain very easy

Right on, thanks!
At this point should I be slowly turning up light intensity to prepare for the switch to flower? I feel like the obvious answer is yes, but it’s a fool who doesn’t take advice when it is available
@Covertgrower @dbrn32

And probably a week recovery time after taking clones and final topping? Well, likely FIMing

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I think the most intense light should be in the growth and early flowering stages like it would get if grown outdoors naturally.

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@Hellraiser, I’ve been getting some great advice on here, but always looking for other opinions. I’m looking for guidance on scrog. I was reading your gg journal and am curious about what you think about my 1st indoor grow?

I don’t remember what you have for light density, but most people would be increasing light intensity a little from when they started plants. Looks like you are on the right track with ph and ppm. One thing I noticed, looks like some leaves with holes in them. I would inspect good for pests.