Today’s the day. I’m actually doing it. I’m finally getting around to starting a grow diary. It may unorganized. It may be half-assed. I may not get back to responses right away. Nevertheless I’m happy you are here and I can’t wait to build a journal I can look back on to learn and laugh for years to come.
This first grow log entry is “hitting the ground running” as I currently have 2 photoperiods at day 72 since I dropped the seeds in water, and day 24 since I flipped them to flower. I know it’s not standard to start a journal over half-way through a grow but I figured what the heck. I’ve been trying to find the motivation to get one of these started for months so we’re just going to roll with it. I’ll drop the info for my current setup below as well as a small photo dump so you guys can see how things have progressed over the last 10 weeks.
Lets do this.
Seed #1
Breeder: Twenty20 Mendocino
Strain: Early Frost (SnowG F2 Photoperiod x Honey Badger F4 Autoflower)
After the plants were flipped to flower on 7/15/24 I transferred them to the 27"x27"x63" Mars Hydro tent. I forgot to mention in my initial post that I am running a perpetual grow with two tents so I will typically veg in my 24"x24"x55" Spider Farmer tent and then move the plants over for flower. Here is the last photo dump that brings us to current day.
Day 56 since seed dropped in water, day 8 since flip (7/23/24)
Very nice looking grow. Your mainline technique is spot on. I aspire to fill my 32x32 with a mainlined plant some day. I’m gonna pull up a chair for your journalling.
Appreciate the comments @Gadarien & @OhNo555! I will do my best to provide some entertainment for ya and pass along things that I have learned along the way.
Here’s a couple more pics from Wednesday (8/7/24).
I remembered that I still had some BOG Blue Moon Rocks and Sweet & Sour Cindy pollen left from @DougDawson so I decided to try and pollinate one branch on each plant. Last grow I was able to isolate and pollinate a couple branches on @Crafty_Flame’s Peanut Butter Dream with the Sweet & Sour Cindy pollen, leaving me with 25 beautiful seeds which is more than enough for me. Stay tuned for future giveaways. I also tried to pollinate a Black Phoenix from Dirty Bird Genetics with the Blue Moon Rocks but unfortunately that attempt was unsuccessful. This go-around Blue Moon Rocks pollen was applied to Early Frost (back left) and Sweet & Sour Cindy was applied to HoneyFace (front right). We’ll see what happens!
We’re chugging along here in the Zen Den. The girls both got a hefty top dressing of Gaia Green today at a dosage of 2 tbsp/gal, 75/25 2-8-4/4-4-4. I also mixed in some earth worm castings and Happy Frog soil to help aid in the top dressing process. This is my second grow with soil (7th grow in total) so I am still getting a feel for using these dry amendments. My previous grow and first grow with Gaia was kind of “all over the place” in regards to figuring out a feeding regimen. I’ll spare ya the details but overall I’m feeling like I’ve got a better handle on things this time around.
My first 5 grows I had been using a 70/30 coco/perlite mix along with the General Hydroponics Flora Series, Cal-Mag and Armor Si. The reason I switched was I was getting tired of mixing nutrients so often and also was just ready to try something new. I will say though, the rate of growth with coco coir and daily watering with a drain-to-waste system was absolutely incredible to watch. I’m sure I will revisit that growing style again at some point, but for now we’re going the simple & organic route in this 2x2.
Couple of pics from last night. These girls are officially done stretching. Overall I’m pretty happy with this canopy. I was able to keep things level for the most part and have a good amount of tops that I think will produce some nice chunky nugs come harvest time.
Had a busy last few days but here’s a couple shots from Tuesday (Day 77, day 29 since flip). Hit em both with some Recharge (1/2 tsp/gal). Starting to get frosty in here!
Doing a bit of experimenting tonight and adding some General Hydroponics Armor Si silica.
Up to this point I’ve kept things pretty simple using only the Gaia Green 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 dry amendments and worm castings. I had some extra GH Armor Si leftover from previous coco grows and don’t feel like spending more money additional nutrients if I can get away with using up what I already have sitting on the shelf. The reason I haven’t used any until now is because I was unsure about using liquid nutrients such of the GH Flora Series alongside dry amendments like Gaia Green. I’ve probably been overthinking things, but that’s me with everything lol.
Anyway, what’s the fun in growing if we’re not having fun and trying new things, right? Fingers crossed these girls don’t throw a hissy fit. Hopefully they drink up that silica and put it to good use. We’ll see what happens!
Here’s a couple more shots of my favorite part of the house. As soon as I walk in any negative thoughts in my mind simply fade away and I am at total peace.
Appreciate it! I mean, I’ve been happy with it. I was able to snag one for a decent price a little while back. I do kind of regret not going with a bar light being that I have 2 Spider Farmer SF1000’s along with this Aerolight. I would love to trade/sell them and grab a decent bar light just for the sake of even light distribution across the canopy and the cooler temps. Overall though with these smaller tents I have been more than happy with what I have been able to pull weight-wise for lights under 150w. And I typically never have the Aerolight set higher than 90%. The fan in the middle of the Aerolight is a nice touch but it really doesn’t move a crazy amount of air in my opinion.
I wouldn’t trust it to replace one of my other fans. I have it running just to keep airflow moving through the light but yeah it’s not near as strong as my clip fans.
Welp. We have officially arrived at the point in the grow where things start to get a bit interesting. I let these girls get a bit thirsty the other day, and the mild yellowing of fan leaves that had started within the last few weeks has now become more widespread, especially on the lower half of the plant. I noticed the same issues during my last grow during the final weeks of flower, again right after I allowed a bit too long of a dry back. I have been fighting fungus gnats (yipee), and so in order to combat them I have been trying to allow slightly longer periods between each watering and give that top soil a chance to dry out.
I am wondering if this combo of 3 gallon pots with Gaia Green is just not cutting it size-wise. Maybe I need to stick to larger 5+ gallon pots in order to keep the soil/plants well-fed? I have even increased my top dressing frequency along with the amount that I have been using to try and remedy the problems that I ran into last grow. My last grow (1st with Gaia Green) I know that I underfed them. So between trying to correct that mistake and do a bit of experimenting with “going heavy” on the nutrients, I really upped things this grow. I figured why not, especially when growing in a smaller 3 gallon pot. I expected one of the issues would be keeping the soil fed throughout the duration of the grow.
I last top-dressed these plants on 8/23/24 at a dose of 1 tbsp/gal (100/0 2-8-4/4-4-4). Here is a screenshot of each time I have top dressed and at what strength throughout this grow.
I have been hitting them both with Recharge approximately every 10-14 days, and recently incorporated General Hydroponics Armor Si for added silica. I have only used the Armor Si 2-3 times so far, and I try to use it when I am not giving them recharge or on a day that I top dress. Maybe the addition of the silica threw things off? Idk. For the majority of the grow the pH of my water going in has been around 6.7 - 7.1. I did drop the pH down to around 6.5-6.6 when I watered them with the added Armor Si. Tonight I gave them another dose of recharge at a pH of 6.8.
With about 4-6 weeks left in this grow I’m just hoping to slow down whatever is going on and get to the finish line with a couple respectable plants. I try not to get too crazy or carried away with how I fix problems with my plants but I will always welcome your guys’ thoughts and suggestions on how to improve my grow.
, and bye the way anytime is a good time to start a grow journal 
. Keep
