Thanks for the advice! Yeah I finally grabbed a cheap pH probe yesterday. I’m working with pretty high hardness water and the ph perfect stuff so my guess is I’ll be more basic (story of my life, always a basic b).
Also always interested in new and local products especially when they’re cost effective. Absolutely considering Jacks for the next grow. Can’t say I won’t throw some extra stuff in to try and boost terpene production and THC levels though. Even if it’s 99% snake oil I’m in search of that ooey gooey full budded flavor profile forever and always.
What do y’all do to boost terpene production, retention, and flavor prior to the curing process? I was recommended silver bullet yesterday which is a sulfur amendment I think that can also potentially replace my Microb Lift treatment.
Oh and for light I’ve got the spider farmer SF4000 with the Samsung Evo diodes set at 80% about 20 in from canopy. It’s a starter light for sure but has been performing really well for me and I need the extra heat in the tent so far and sit around 75 running the exhaust on a controller that toggles between 30 and 70 percent and it regularly runs on the lower end.
I also have a 6 inch inline feeding the tent at about 20 percent power. We had CO2 issues in our basement so the tent seconds as the CO2 exhaust. So I could probably go higher on light already but was trying to give the smaller one a little more time before hitting 90 percent light.
My water TDS with a gigantic oversized softener is over 600-700, that said it cal and mag heavy. I might add bloom to the mix but i am really mucking about with low feeds. It’s my first hydro run and they had a quick burn when I ran the mix at 50% of the recommended.
You may luck out where there is a ton of useable nutrient in the water that they grab when you hit the right PH.
Your gear should be good. Don’t cook them if you don’t need too. Mine hit a growth spurt a couple of weeks in and then start to visibly grow per day. When you flip hey jump like crazy. Mine are going an inch to two a day right now under a HLG scorpion diablo. Running 80% now. But I was running 70 in veg, light burning if they grow to much in a day, so gotta be careful not to let them burn them selves. 
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Good call. Yeah I’ve been leaving it a little higher than their recommended minimum to allow for that. The Blue Dream have started taking off a little (maybe a half inch give or take) but I think I may have gotten a little wind burn on the other Gelato and they’re both going a little slower. Raised the fan done and knocked the power down a couple notches. I was thinking it was over watered but I haven’t top watered in almost a week and I saw a small amount of clawing that looked more like the wind burn photos I think.
What stage/timeline roughly were you seeing the 2 inch growth? Trying to get a gauge for growth rate especially with the autos to be sure I’m getting decent yields but feels like I find a pretty broad spectrum of growth rates out there.
Also super jealous of the light. I’ve been looking at that light, the Blackbird maybe for the savings, or just going full AC Infinity to optimize their UIS functionality. Understood they’re typically considered a lower grade light but I’ve read pretty good stuff about the new Evo bar series and trying to get a bigger tent plus maybe the terraform heater/cooler/humidifier thing that AC Infinity just released to get the environment fully automated.
I opted for the AC 69 controller fan combo and with the refillable canister, picked up their oscillating fan as well to keep some of the moister build up outa the leaves. The plants sweat under some of the larger fan leaves, and I don’t want it pooling mold.
Their controllers work with a bunch of different lighting and cooling. Super helpful to run things at a glance. Couple of folks here helped me figure out how to set up my light on it.
Yeah I grabbed a second 6 inch inline fan from then with the controller after fighting temp and humidity shifts with the spider farmer fan. I’ve loved everything I got from them so far. If they dropped a 4x8 kit with the terraform and 2 lights I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Have you used their lights at all?
I’m running the light and online fan on mine too. Been playing around with humidity/temp balance for lowest shift in lights off. I do the fan at 75/65 for temp, 60/55 for RH and then I’ve just started running the lights on a 10:2 cycle with 30 minute rise/set cycle.
I have not but a lot of the main stream stuff will do the job. I have try to do a little research on each element I invest in to see what will help me out the most for my need. Just bought my set up, as I started up again recently and wanted it to be easier to manage. I don’t need the size I have, but I had the space and it makes it easier to move around.
For lighting I went with hlg as their light coverage maps seemed to rank higher for 5x5. Lots of sites had similar acknowledgment, even if they offered a competitive product. This one gives you a bunch of great comparisons.
I went with gorilla tents, mostly cause I am clumsy and wanted something a bit more rip proof. I am well under any weight concerns, just didn’t want a “need some duct tape” accident mid flower.
AC for the controller and hvac, plug and play is solid here. I went with the 69, 4 ports was enough and I didn’t need it accessible on outside the home.
I attempted to build my own hydro, but quickly realized the leak challenge. It’s easy enough to do, but you gotta have the tools and time to get it all sealed and proper. I spent a bit of extra cash on the Pre made from PA hydro. Higher rated, with a complete kit that’s pretty well regarded for design and consistency.
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My first foray taught me the store front has some good stuff, but they need to push their line up to survive. I can afford it, with out issue, it didn’t always help make the work easier or the grow better….
Some of the set up work or feeding lines for felt like a part time job. I wanted a casual hobby.
Thanks, I’ll give that a watch. Yeah I’ve read amazing things about HLG. It’s not a huge difference in cost either so if they don’t run a pre packaged kit with the terraform I’ll probably go that route. I do like the bar style light look a little better but not a huge fan of the look of the tomahawk they have. From what I’ve read you for sure picked the top 5x5 option and possibly just the best light option overall right now. I’m thinking 4x8 gorilla for my next tent so need 2 lights which is why considering some more cost effective options.
Yeah I got the 69 pro with the AC 6 in inline fan and filter upgrade I grabbed after my wife started giving me a hard time for how often I was running down to the basement to check temps and humid. Super glad I did because the vpd gauge really helped me tune things in and the controller does a great job once everything’s setup. Just need a dehumidifier for my lung room which was needed for the new basement anyways and thinking about grabbing one of their thermoforge heaters before flower so I can keep temps around 75 to help avoid some of the later stuff I’ve read about.
(Bottom left “Abby” top left “Bertha” bottom right “Cia” top right “Daisy”)
Just a little mid week update. This is 3 weeks from planted. Applied another Microb Lift and Voodoo treatment today. The Blue Dream in the bottom right (Cia) has really started to take off and is getting a pretty beefy stalk. Rotated the fan to try and shift the love, but the Gelatos are not as big of wind fans. Also just ordered the AC Thermoforge heater to hopefully combat temp differential and fix my lights off small humidity spikes. Adjusted the controller some too raising minimum temp to hopefully get slightly lower spikes if the exhaust doesn’t wipe my heat fighting the humidity spikes.
7/14 3 weeks from sprout this morning. Planning to attempt a little low stress training today for the first time. Everyone is pretty happy. Noticed some excess nitrogen signs and cutting the Cal Mag from the feeding for now to supplement as needed.
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Got them all tied down and refilled the auto watering bases. Went with the recommendations above and cut the nutrients down to the base stuff for this round. Still supplementing weekly with a top feed amended with the root juice.
Everybody seems to be taking the training well. I turned the lights down from 90 to 80 percent to hopefully help stimulate some vertical growth and have the light set at 24 inches from canopy which is the furthest recommended height above recommended at this stage by the manufacturer.
Well looks like I should have heeded the words of warning. With only one gallon of the nutrients a week for 2 weeks (3 plants drank about a gallon total over the 2 weeks the other had a gallon a week) my autoflowers got shocked into flower just before even starting week 4 which I expected to be the big jump in veg growth instead. Will definitely be looking at different soil mixes in the future. Honestly with how little of the nutrient mix I added wondering if the topsoil was already too hot to begin with.
Was hoping to blow things out of the water with a massive first grow, but guess I’ll take some lessons learned along the way instead. Moving to photos with a lighter topsoil next go.
Another week in and the ladies are looking good. Turns out only the two that were planted in rapid rooter plugs flowered early and the two on the right are still in veg. Misread light stress as too much nitrogen and pulled the three part for a feeding. Three of the plants took it well but nitrogen deficiency showed up in the one in the top left. Added some Cal Mag with another dose of the 3 part series.
Everyone’s officially in flower. Tuning down the training and doing some minimal pruning. The tent is starting to smell pretty nice.
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I build my own. I bought the first one about 5 years ago. The leaks can be a pain at first. Most of the time it is caused by the fittings you buy. The seams from the press needs sanded slightly. The holes you drill also needs to be sanded.
