Trying to get it together

[SargentPiff]

Hi everybody. Old planet skunker, messing around indoors again for the first time in a disheartening amount of years I’d rather not think about. Was going to wait til later to start this but you know how that goes. Oh the excitement.

Growing a single gelato Auto by fastbuds.
4x2 tent, 200w VIVOSUN aerowave LED.
Brand new tent, new to LED, trying to get it all dialed in. Tent will eventually be mom/clone/veg for photos.
Lights 18/6
Avg temp now(2/25) 75 lights on, rh 60. VIVOSUN WiFi controller has been really cool. Lights off around 65.
Exhaust w/ charcoal filter, passive intake ducted near boiler for heat source (+10F from ambient)
Broke ground February 1st
5 gal fabric pot, FFOF bottom 2/3, microhaiwhatever amendment on top of that, peat/light compost and perlite mix on top.
Liquid seaweed here and there, as well as roots organic grow & bloom. Keeping it simple. Not playing with PH she drinks what I drink and we’ll mutate together.

[TastyCrop]

I am following and welcome to this amazing hobbie.

IDK what your water source is but ph correction is kind of a basic one, if your water ph is out of range the nutrients won’t be assimilated and bad results and even deficiency signals may occour for that reason.

That being said, good luck.

[HappyGoLucky21]

Good luck on your new journey. Looks like you have a nice set up going on. I’d agree with @TastyCrop on the water PH. I recently had my tap water tested and it was running above 7.0 PH. I like to keep my PH around 5.8-6, using Coco. Looking forward to seeing your success.

[OGSince03]

Can’t wait to see you work! I think many are in prep for the new year operation, like myself. I’m glad you found your way back to the hobby, some things have evolved, some not so much. LEDs are the way to go nowadays. I do still miss my MH/HPS setups but I don’t miss the heat they generate. Hope all goes well in your journey, best of luck!

[SargentPiff]

Day 13-

[SargentPiff]

Day 19

[SargentPiff]

Day 25

[SargentPiff]

Hope this thing starts to stretch a bit soon now that she’s producing calyx’s. I need longer limbs to stretch this thing apart. Feel like this LST is more like weaving a basket. She’s stout.

[SargentPiff]

It’s close enough from my recollection, low 6 maybe. Same tap water I’ve been using on the vegetable garden for years. Always been a couple autos mixed in there and they haven’t complained yet, if I start throwing in some bottled nutes I’ll get the chemistry set out for sure.

[Rogue]

@SargentPiff

Not playing with PH she drinks what I drink and we’ll mutate together.

That’s how I do it too!

[Gadarien]

If you need more stretch turn your lights down some. I’ve been running between 35 and 40% on my led during early growth. If your light is too intense she won’t stretch.

Best of luck this grow. I hope you reach a bountiful harvest!

[SargentPiff]

I think I’m late on the early growth low light %. I ramped up to 60% pretty quick and am now full bore. I had backed it off from 100%/18” and ~800ppfd (Photone app and paper diffuser so teaspoon of salt I understand) to 80%/24”+ and ~450ppfd.

Thinking of just going lights out for a day or two like I used to do between veg and flowering for photos- is that still a common thing or no? I know that wasn’t the purpose (i also don’t keep all what the purpose was).
My caveman brain thinks no light, plant looks for light. Kind of like no water, roots search for water?

What’s the consensus on this plan? I’m not unhappy with the growth, I also haven’t grown indoors in a long time and never auto’s indoors or anything Gelato outdoors so not sure what I should be expecting. I just know I’d like it to be less stocky so I can use this horizontal real estate. I also tried throwing phosphorus (r.organic bloom 3-7-4) in earlier than normal no real sign of improvement.
Bloom fert was a week ago, playing with light heights for about 5 days.

[SargentPiff]

Day 30 pre/post defoliating. Have made no additional effort to entice more stretch outside of raising the light to about 24”, back to 100%. Going to just see what this gelato does on its own.

[Gadarien]

Ran out of likes. Plant looks good! I don’t know if it’ll stretch much or not, but you should get some nice colas!

[SargentPiff]

Thanks @Gadarien

Stretching a little bit but nothing like I would expect. All good, I’ve had stocky auto runts outdoors, less the botrytis and pm still decent enough yielders. Should be about a dozen colas I think.

Happy enough with anything I just wanted to get a tent dialed in in time to start the vegetable garden. Didn’t know I’d rekindle my love for indoor growing (that’s the story if the wife asks)

Got some fem photos germinating for the next run/clones for outdoors

G13 Labs Blueberry gum
Fastbuds purple lemonade “fast flowering”
Greenhouse labs Gran Jefa

[SargentPiff]

Week 5

Purple lemonade sprouted a few days ago. started germinating this by itself and days later thought two more won’t hurt. broke the tap root taking it out of my pepper seed starter. Moved the other two partly sprouted beans into solo cups before the taps grow. Go figure those plugs came out clean. Never started in a seed starting tray before but there were 3 empty cells. Lesson learned.

[SargentPiff]

Didn’t even notice the droopy fan leaves until I uploaded these pictures…. I don’t water to run off but I did go a little heavier than normal yesterday. Not concerned, just thought I’d make a note when I look back next week and say what the heck was going on here.

[SargentPiff]

Day 40, captains log.
Int/ext climate has dried out a bit, as well as the soil. Leaves seem to be perking up some. Oddly slim compared to how they started, uncertain of gelato’s background though.
She’s still stout. Stretching is no longer a dream worth shooting for. She’s standing at a firm 6 3/4” tall
I used to intentionally keep plants short as possible due to height limitations, and I never had anything this short. 99% sure I had the light too low/intense at an earlier stage and stunted it.

All good. Just trying to get it together.

As of late w/ the steam boiler near the tent not working so hard:
VPD 1.5-1.7 lights on, drops to .8-.9 at night
Lights On 73 f 45% rh
Lights off 63 f 62% rh
Ppfd ~850

Does this seem reasonable for this stage of flowering or should I be working something out?

[SargentPiff]

Oops:

[SargentPiff]

Corrected vpd, set humidifier to 55. Hanging around 1.3-1.4 lights on.

Played around with the VIVOSUN app, found the log files and went back in time to see where my light intensity was and apparently I touched too many buttons early on and started a cycle mode hitting 80% by week 2 and 100% by week 3. No wonder she stunted.

All part of getting it together I suppose. Digging the app log/controller getup.

Doing my best to get some air flow inside this stumpy little thing. Pulling/tying/defoliating some more today. Really would have liked to not stunt it so early. Hoping to end up with a little golf ball shrub anyway.

Day 44
Just shy of 6” tall after a little more LST