8k_feet's trying to ride the lightning - Ace Malawi x Panama

[8k_feet]

Greetings, OG!

This as stated is my second hydro grow, so bear with my mishandling of almost everything. My biggest challenges are I’m at 8000 feet of elevation, and my humidity is generally 25% in winter! My humidifier will blow through a tank in 3 days or less usually keeping the tent at veg/flower ideals.

The Setup

Everything runs on a 3/2/1 Peter’s/Calcinit/Epsom mix through Coco with varying (hard learned lessons here) EC throughout the grow as usual.

On flower tent:

1. 3x Atreum QB288s run by an HLG-480H-C2100B - can push to 60k lux pretty easily with these guys.
2. “Automated” feeding and lights using a home brew box I spoke about here: Raspberry Pi powered gang box
3. Fed by a 35 gal res with a Floraflex feeding head (and tubing/pots/caps) on a pretty high output pump.

veg tent:

1. 2x Atreum QB144s run by an HLG-120H-36A
2. Same raspberry pi power on different outlets of the gang box I built out.
3. 5 gal HD res with pump and Floraflex setup same as flower tent.

I wanted to share my first grow using this setup. It ran some aficionados of colorado strains, namely Hellfire OG and Luke’s Ghost.

I took those plants out of veg Oct 25 around 2.5 weeks so they stayed really small - probably 24" max height at end of flower, plus being my first grow and doing self-mixed salts I had a lot of ups and downs in feeding which might have stunted them.

This was around 2 weeks into flower Nov 11th. (2x Luke’s ghost on left, 2x Hellfire OG on right [right most HF OG was male and was tossed])

I’ll just jump straight ahead to right before harvest, they were deep in plant death but I was just waiting for trichomes to go amber, which they never did - this was Jan 18; around 84 days of flower! They all turned out incredibly frosty, almost too much so for my taste.

Luke’s Ghost, biggest plant in the bunch. I super cropped a single branch for science.

Other Luke’s Ghost - same flower phenos as its big sister, but super unhealthy the entire grow - over 6" shorter.

Finally Hellfire OG.

I was pretty happy with the harvest. Around 3.5 oz dry from HFOG (red dots) and 5 from Luke’s Ghost. Luke’s was incredibly sticky, I rolled a dime sized hash ball off my hands when I ran out of gloves while trimming.

---

---

---

The Current Grow

I actually hadn’t run my new timer setup until this grow - I was using a cheap interval timer that could only go down to hour granularity, and I wanted to start feeding on a 10-15 sec on 1 hour off schedule.

Anyway this run has a lot of variety; I’m running 2x Pine Tar Kush from New 420 Guy, 2x OG18 from “Mark” on Strainly, and 2x HG4 from @lefthandseeds - (Heart of Gold x Jungle Spice) x (Aborigine x ???)

I was able to crack 2/3 PTK but they all couldn’t push their tap root into the plug, and died. They also had a lot of trouble getting their shells off, which I had to pry off manually, and they were generally just bad brown seedlings.

OG18 has stretched in 3 days under a really low wattage LED lamp in a dome, so I transplanted them into small coco pots and moved them down to the tent then set them up to receive 7k lux:

HG4 also popped readily, they were really fresh seeds, they’re trying to get up and out to shrug off their shells in the dome:

I only had 6 PTK seeds, and being down to 3 decided to throw all of them in water to see if they can survive the battle of the fittest that the others have failed so far.

That’s all I have to report for now. Just praying these PTK crack and HG4 are able to get out of their shells and up easily!

Off we go!

[lefthandseeds]

Subbed YO ASS.

Gonna steal all your weed too.

[8k_feet]

Day 6

Fairly boring young plant update.

Pine Tar Kush cracked 2/3 again, I’ve put these guys into rooters, I had root penetration issues with the last two so hopefully these can shove their taproot into the rooter!

HG4 (heart of gold x jungle spice) x (aborigine x ???) - looking stronk already, really happy with how these seeds popped.

OG18 - transplanted ~3 days ago. Coco was still wet from initial soak during transplant last night so I went LITFA on them. I’m worried about the one on the right, it had that curly stem out of seed and has a really nasty gangster lean right now, I’m hoping it pumps its stem up!

[Howard.Crane]

Ah! I see why you asked about my distributor now. I wanted the Flora Bubbler but the one I’ve got was available the same day I needed it, so I ended up with that instead.

Looks like our setups have some similarities. I’m subbed

[Howard.Crane]

By the way, how do you like those Flora pots? That’s next on my list, but it’s going to be a few weeks before I can get them.

[8k_feet]

They’re OK; a buddy who also used them moved to taller pots for more root room, same diameter so the 6" caps could still be used.

I’m curious how I can tune my watering because with a 2GPH head on the pump I get just a trickle to 4-6 plants which doesn’t really “fill” the cap to let it fully disperse, but when I pulled out my last harvest I had huge root coverage so I guess the plant didn’t care!

You’ll see in this video by them the cap really gets good coverage all the way around, but their hoses are flowing a lot more than mine. I honestly don’t know what style of watering is most appropriate for cannabis - this, or the “trickle” I currently have.

[Howard.Crane]

When I’m doing a recirculating system like PPK, I will typically go for the fastest flow I can get away with without displacing any media. That saturates the media and forces all stale air out of the media, drawing in new oxygen when the media drains. The plants need a pretty substantial root system to be able to handle fully saturated media that frequently, but once they’re at that point they seem to love it.

Here’s an example of what I mean. This was a Bubba Kush in a 1 gallon PPK pot:

This plant was watered to saturation three times a day, and loved it.

When they are younger or if I’m doing DTW, I usually just go with a slow drip because any overflow is wasted rather than recirculate into the rez and a slow drip allows me finer control. I know I’ve got it adjusted right for the plant’s ability when there’s only a very small amount of runoff after any given watering cycle, and I adjust my pump timer by a minute in either direction or change emitters until I get it right. If the plant’s drinking what you’re giving, then there will never be any point that there is a large amount of runoff.

It’s a bit fiddly, but it seems to work well.

[8k_feet]

Man I agree completely, and amazing root ball. I think I’ll attempt your 3x a day “flood” method after the seedlings get their roots going!

Thanks so much for all the info, killer stuff.

[Howard.Crane]

Just realized that I never mentioned an important detail… I also use small pots, 6-7" square, and have limited vertical space so my plants are usually about three to four feet tall max. It’s the combination of lots of roots and a small pot, basically being root bound, that allows the plants to drink everything up and not just drown. Try that with a foot tall plant without an extensive root system in a three gallon pot and you’re gonna have a bad time

I guess it didn’t occur to me to mention it because you are using similar-sized pots and also in coco.

[8k_feet]

Day 13

Light: 7k lux, 24 hours
Feeding schedule: hand fed once
Nutes: 0.8EC 6.2PH
Humidity: 40%
Temp: High 60s

Went out of town for a long weekend which worried me a little as I don’t have the seedlings on an auto watering schedule yet to let their roots stretch out.

Thankfully came back to two pots that were still good on water, and the other four in need of it, but they were still looking totally healthy.

The four that needed feeding were watered with Peter’s at 0.8 EC and 6.2 PH.

---

PTK

OG18 - still super wonky on one stem, just going to let nature take its course and see if it straightens out with growth.

HG4

[8k_feet]

Day 15

---

Light: 15k lux, 24 hour
Feeding schedule: none, n00b plants
Nutes: still sitting in 0.8EC 6.2ph
Humidity: 40%
Temp: high 60s

Everybody threw up some new healthy growth, which is all I ask. All the plants have shot roots to the bottom of the 2" pots I have them in; I’m really optimistic for their growth and probably soon transplant to a 6".

Based on that none of them need watering, they’re all still wet coco - I’m anxious for them to develop their root systems so that I can go automated and not have to monitor and hand water them through this delicate phase.

I was talked into not giving up on the wack-job OG18 with its malformed stem by a friend and rigged up a piece of coat-hanger, a twist tie, and some duct tape.

---

OG 18

I can’t till if the splinted one responded or it’s normal growth, only time will tell how its stem ends up! Other OG18 I’m happy with.

---

PTK

They seem healthy, nothing out of the ordinary, just good lookin’ babies. I’m happy based on how hard it was to pop them with their crazy shell thickness. These were truly the two strongest survivors of 6 seeds attempted!

---

HG4

The stars of the show so far, their stems are thicker than any of the plants, even those others that are a couple days more mature. I’m really anxious to see how they come out.

[8k_feet]

Day 16

---

Light: Lowered to 10k, 24hour to see if light is culprit on OG and HG4
Feeding schedule: single OG18 was low, hand fed 0.8
Nutes: still sitting in 0.8EC 6.2ph
Humidity: 40%
Temp: 82 (wow)

Not a major update, but found some weirdness on one of the HG4s, the yellowing displayed below.

Only adjustment I made was yesterday by bumping light to 15k lux from 7k. They didn’t need to be fed (can see top of coco is still wet), so I’m a little confused. Went down to 10k to see if it’s too much light. I think they might need more nutrients, so my next feeding will go to 1.1.

Strangely, the other HG4 is happy! edit: I just noticed some very tiny tips starting to do the same thing as the other HG4.

---

The biggest plant right now, OG18 had dry coco on top, and was obviously drooping, so I hit it with a dose of 0.8. Happy to see the other OG18 is responding well, still not sure if it’s the stake that’s helping or not.

[8k_feet]

Day 18

---

Light: 10k 24 hour
Feeding schedule: no feeding today, all still wet!
Nutes: still sitting in 0.8EC 6.2ph
Humidity: 70% - impressive when my RH is 20%
Temp: 80

The wonky OG18 and HG4 both recovered completely - it was too much light. Pretty shocking to me that just going from 7k to 15k caused it. Lowering to 10k lux was the trick.

---

HG4

---

PTK

---

OG18

[8k_feet]

Day 20

Light: 12k moved to 18/6
Feeding schedule: 5/6 fed once
Nutes: 1.1EC 6.2PH
Humidity: 40%
Temp: 80

Plants had major droop today. 5 needed feeding but not dire, they still had 25% water.

I turned the lights up, and put them at 18/6 lighting. I’m not sure what’s up - they didn’t respond to watering at all.

My humidifier was off for the day because it soaked itself and first flooded my tent with 90% humidity, and then turned itself off for a day. Humidity in the tent was still 35% after this, I think dropping the humidity was good for the small plants as is, to give their roots a chance to seek out moisture.

Oh well, hopefully a combo of feeding and some rest perks them up.

[8k_feet]

Day21

Light: 12k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: None today
Nutes: None today
Humidity: 62%
Temp: 64 lights off, 80 lights on

Praise the cannabis overlords everyone perked up.

Got my humidity back up into the 60s, so I’m not sure if it was the feeding, the light change, or the change in RH. I’m really trying to work on responding to symptoms succinctly and accurately, making as few changes as possible.

Yesterday I changed too much so it didn’t really give me good data on what went wrong, but based on advice I think it was the humidity.

Sweet sweet perkage

[8k_feet]

Day 27

Light: 14k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: single feeding
Nutes: 1.1EC/6.2ph
Humidity: 45%
Temp: 64 lights off, 80 lights on

Everyone has been stunted and in an over humidified droop constantly due to my humidifier shitting the bed in a crazy way. I got a new one that has a dial instead of a touch interface.

What jackasses put a touch interface on an object that gets wet?! Better yet, what jackass buys one?

The og18 elder plant was fed previously and when the humidity swung back into proper VPD range it perked up first.

Other plants just needed a feeding and I’m confident they’ll bounce back now that I have humidity on lock down.

Growing at this altitude with 22% average RH has been an exercise in humility and patience.

HG4 in back, PTK in front

OG18

[8k_feet]

Day 31

Light: 17k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: single feeding
Nutes: 1.1EC/6.2ph
Humidity: swung to 75% overnight, 45% during day
Temp: 64 lights off, 80 lights on

Holy ganja gods 31 days have passed quickly.

Riding the struggle bus all the way through on this one so far. Too many heavy RH swings.

I think I’m technically at the end of week 3 of veg, or approaching, and plants are still tiny. I don’t think their roots are super developed, they’re still on a 4 day ish feeding schedule.

Upped lights to 17k and fed everyone.

Gonna be a long veg!

HG4

Pine Tar Kush

OG18

[8k_feet]

Day 34

Light: 19k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: single feeding
Nutes: 1.3EC/6.2ph
Humidity: 45%
Temp: 64 lights off, 80 lights on

Everyone needed a feeding a day early, so I take that as a positive sign, but they still look terrible.

I’m at a loss as to what’s up at this point but am just going to continue to ride it out and hope they recover before I just flip them to flower and hope for the best.

HG4

PTK

OG18

[8k_feet]

Day 40 (Day ~35 Veg)

Light: 22k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: none today
Nutes: n/a
Humidity: 45%
Temp: 64 lights off, 80 lights on

I haven’t been keeping up well on the journal, I had two feedings in between and the plants finally perked up again. Once I had my RH sorted it seems they just got normally hungry.

Today was Transplant Day w00t! Was really anxious to check out their root systems.

Haven’t hooked up auto water yet because I need to run a couple lines, it was enough labor filling the 6" pots with soaked coco.

I’m going to let them dry for a few days to let their root system develop, but I’m pretty OK with how they’re doing at this point. I think they just need to spread their roots wide.

I’m going to go for a week longer in veg I think before I flip them to see if I can get any stretch out of them. I just want bigger plants!

Pre Transplant- used a 6" flora cap for size reference - you can see they are still tiny for 4 weeks of veg - the tallest plants are probably 8" from topsoil to tip. The PTKs are a paltry ~4".

HG4 in back, PTK in front.

OG18

---

OG18 - the oldest plant, really happy with its root system!

---

Bottom of the roots are showing a little brown tinting, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.

---

HG4 has pretty solid roots going also.

---

In their final homes!

[8k_feet]

Day 44 (Day ~39 Veg)

Light: 24k on 18/6
Feeding schedule: hand fed a cup to each
Nutes: 1.6 ec
Humidity: 58
Temp: 64 lights off, 90 lights on

As I’ve done before I’m happy to show off how much I’m mishandling this grow due to crazy RH swings!

Everyone is showing deficiencies so I upped feed to 1.6 and gave them just a cup each since they’re all still a little moist from the transplant soak.

Bumped light to 24k.

Got to fill up the res in prep for auto feeding:

PTK still super squatty!

HG4 stretched a bit.

OG18 just looking pretty bad.