Swayze's - 2x4x5 - First Grow - START to FINISH

[Swayze]

Hello Overgrow! This is my first attempt and i waited a bit to get into creating a Grow Diary, so here it goes!

Seeds - Chem Cookies & Carnage (bag seed)
Medium - Organic soil
Lighting - LED (i can already see the head shakes with my Chinese lights but i wanted to get some good experience before i decided to spend real money on a light or making my own so please bear with me )

SET UP / GEAR :
-2x4x5 Vivosun Grow Tent

-MEIZHI 300W & MEIZHI 600W

-Vivosun 4" Inline Fan & Vivosun 4" Carbon Filter

-Vivosun 3G Smart Pots

• Bluesky Organics Super Soil
  
  
• Gaia Green Organic Nutrients - All Purpose 4-4-4 & Power Bloom 2-8-4 (3parts all purpose 1part Bloom for veg stage and 3parts bloom and 1 part all purpose for Flowering stage)
  
  
• Clip Fan & Usb Desk Fan
  
• Honeywell Humidifier
  
• Radiant Oil Heater
  
• Inkbird Temperature Controller
  

MY ROOM

• Before
  
  
• After
  Outlet installed and ready to move into!!
  
  
  
  (getting a head start before tent arrived)
  
  
  
  Tent Arrived
  
  
  
  One piece at a time & its all coming together
  
  
  
  Over night temps get pretty cold. The temp controller was a life saver!
  
  
  
  Inline fan, wire mess & my security camera ipad viewing station when im attending the garden
  
  
  
  
  

The Beginning

Transplanted

Meizhi 600W Arrived and i ended up killing off the 2 plants turning yellow
Sorry in advance for all the Blurple photos

Transplanted ( i did a experiement with 2 plants in the 5G smart pot and i wont be doing that again lol)

Topped each plant

couple days later

Transplanted into 3G Smart pots & did some LST

Responded beautifully to our training sesh

Filling my space before i go into 12/12

Got a quick shot before lights came on

Took some cuts before i put them into flower and created a quick makeshift "Cloning Chamber" i still need to install some airflow but for now it will do so i can get on with flowering!

and now Fast Forward to present day
Day 15 of 12/12

just heading into week 3 very excited to see what this first attempt can produce!
i kinda went quick putting the last month into this diary… i left a bunch of info out but if you have any questions feel free to ask!! upcoming posts should have more detail.
LOTS MORE TO COME!

Questions for you guys:

• anyone else using the Gaia Nutrients?
• how did your first grow go?

- SWAYZE

[Eddie.saw]

Looking great. nice and clean and proper!

I’ll be following along

[ReikoX]

Nice clean setup and even canopy. Good luck

[KingGhidora]

Looks like its coming along nicely, can’t wait to see some more. It looks like you’ve done your research - you are in good hands here.

[Viva_Mexico]

how is the ipad hooked to a camera? via wifi?

[Swayze]

@Viva_Mexico yup through wifi… im still kind of curious if wifi signals are no good for plant growth … seen a little video on it but haven’t done much research into it . Anyone here know of any studies along those lines?

[Swayze]

@Eddie.saw @ReikoX @KingGhidora
thanks guys! this site has helped me lots and continues to do so!

[miyagi]

I haven’t ever used Gaia fertilizer. It sounds like it may be a first grow with those seeds. If it is a new fertilizer as well, I recommend feeding on the light side of what is recommended and go from there. If you at any time notice any signs of deficiencies you can come on here or just add a bit more. I know that is general, but hope it helps.

[miyagi]

Then again you have made it thus far, and the plants are looking very healthy!

[dank-a-saurus]

Your plants look very happy. Doing good for your first time. Keep it up.

[Swayze]

Going to be topdressing with a 3/1 Bloom/Veg nutrients per gallon of soil to get em ready for weeks 4-7… so each plant will be getting around 8tbsp of Bloom 2-8-4 and 2 of Veg 4-4-4.

Any one use Worm Casting Tea ?

• how often can you apply the tea?
• every second watering like some nutrient scheduals?
• or once in a while?

SWAYZE

[99PerCent]

@Swayze

Worm Casting Tea

Not as a separate item per se, but as part of a tea with kelp meal. Careful not to introduce too much nitrogen in bloom.

[ReikoX]

I just top dress with the castings. Done and done

[Swayze]

i guess my question is how often can you add compost teas?

[99PerCent]

I think Mr @ReikoX has the correct approach.

If you are inclined to use a tea, I would use it somewhat infrequently as a well prepared soil tends to have what it needs. Yours looks good so far.

Maybe once every 3 or 4 waterings (or when plants are showing signs of hunger), but this is probably best paired with @ReikoX’s other magic ingredient,

99

[Swayze]

@99PerCent Haha good advice! Good ol LITFA

[ReikoX]

I’m a lazy gardener. I might do a compost tea once with a new batch of soil, just to innoculate with microbes. Or I might use a product for that like Recharge. Usually I just top dress with the (vermi)compost plus my soil is 1/3 (vermi)compost.

I like botanical teas, however. I’ll do a neem/kelp tea about once a month. I also make a malted barley tea about once every other week. Or a coconut water and aloe tea on opposite weeks. Alternated with plain RO water and liberal doses of LITFA.

Last night I gave them a tea with the left over water from making bubble hash (I let it warm up first!). The worms got the wet trim.

[Swayze]

Day 18 into Flower

• Today i top dressed all plants with the Gaia Nutrients . (lasts about 30 days which should leave me with a perfect week or 2 available for flushing at the end of my cycle)
• for top dressing it calls for 4tsb of nutrients per Gallon of soil.
• so i mixed the Veg and Bloom and did 3tsb Bloom & 1tsb Veg per gallon of soil, with a additional cup or so of fresh soil to fill in cratering caused by watering.

Before

After

and a fresh watering PH at 6.5-6.7 (been going from 6.3-6.8 through out the whole grow)

and a up to date shot of the garden

QUESTION:

• What are some ways of preventing cratering in your soil from watering? ( in my one plant it started exposing roots so i that is why i added some fresh soil to the top dressing)

-SWAYZE

[legalcanada]

are you a fan of mr canuck? meizhi aren’t cheap i thought. for cratering you could try watering slowly, using a watering can with a head like this or something. i kinda DIYd my own at first by just making a bunch of holes in the lid of a milk jug before i got a watering can. sometimes i use a pump sprayer for hard to reach ones in the back.

[ReikoX]

@Swayze

QUESTION:

• What are some ways of preventing cratering in your soil from watering? ( in my one plant it started exposing roots so i that is why i added some fresh soil to the top dressing)

This is where a mulch layer of some sort comes into play. Straw, rice hulls, wood chips, garden stones, clay pellets, perlite, etc.