I learned a lot during my first grow and received great advice from everyone here! Last grow was 5 plants and they averaged 1.5 ounces of bud each and 1.2 ounces total of larf - time to check out @CalamityJane 's edibles thread!
Here is my grow ticket:
Plants: 2 Train Wrecks (Union and Silverton), 2 Tangy Dosidos (Clementine and Trefoil) and Gary 2.0 – a weird looking clone I made of a Skywalker. It is stunted and then went into flower/reveg for some reason. Those singles leaves are gnarly. I also have and a mint and a marigold plant in there since they are supposed to repel insects. Two came with some light burn and another with what looks like a mag deficiency.
Tent: 4 x 2 x 5 Cloudline set up in the basement. I used zipper wax on the threads and open very slowly since I read about zipper sticking problems with nearly every brand of tent. I also wiped it down with 10% bleach before using.
Ventilation: Cloudline system with a carbon filter for exhaust.
Lights: Three cheap blurples (do not hate please).
Containers: 3-gallon fabric pots
Soil: I reused the soil from my first grow and sterilized it in the oven because I experienced fungus gnats and spider mites last round. I amended the soil with coffee grounds, perlite and ground up eggshells - my family was certainly happy that I make quiche every weekend! One Train Wreck and one Tangy Dosido also received a special amendment from a crazy inventor friend of mine. I have some compost tea brewing to feed them tomorrow and hopefully get the beneficial microorganisms growing again.
Temps run about 70-75. I have not been able to find a humidifier that doesn’t have some kind of light, so I hang two wet towels and run 45-55%.
Nutrients: Again, do not hate. Using up the miracle grow regular and bloom food from last grow augmented with mosquito bits, cal-mag and pH’d to 6.3.
I know I have a limit on tags so please do not be offended if I missed you.
Good morning everyone! Thank you for your previous help and I already have a what the “heck is going on?” question.
Three of the plants were transplanted last weekend (the other two yesterday) and were only given pH’d water after transplant. Yesterday I gave the three 3-knuckles dry a drink of compost tea and 1/2 dose of MG nutrients, cal-mag and mosquito bit water.
I opened the tent today and it reeked of AMMONIA! I looked around and the intake vent is near the cat boxes (I do have a cat named Gary - but I digress). I emptied and scrubbed them. The smell persists. I thought maybe a cat wondered in when the tent was open and used a pot as a litter box but nothing is disturbed.
Anyone every encounter an ammonia smell during a grow?
Do all the plants appear to look the same?
Smell the soil of each plant. Maybe Gary snuck in sometime a thought he was doing you a favor.
Super stale air maybe? Make sure the vent is sucking air out and not pushing litter box air ‘in’.
These are all only guesses. I really don’t know…
Hahahahahaha! That’s funny. I don’t use external fans in my tents because of that. With my kids two male dogs snd a cat I try to stay away from those. However I do run fans inside with vents open. I have a small grow area right now though. Now I know I had that smell in my water. Smell whatever jugs you keep your ph water and nutes in. See if they have a similar smell?
I made the tea the way we do for our vegetable garden. I filled a gallon container halfway with compost (it is about 2 years old), added water and let it sit overnight. Then I strained it and applied about 1/2 cup to each of the girls to “liven-up” the sterilized soil.
It just smelled organic to me - no hit of ammonia or sulfides.
I smelled the soil of each plant and none have the smell. The soil just smells like wet earth. The plants look the same as when I transplanted them. The smell just seems to be generalized and not localized.
A couple of things:
We had a big rain last weekend and half our basement flooded along with the crawl space - we do have funky odor issues right now - I sloped the lawn with soil and covered the foundation with a tarp since we are in the middle of another three-day rain. We are getting the roof and gutters replaced this summer since the gutters are corroding and dripping on the soil next to the foundation - patching held them together for a few years.
Maybe the tent is just off-gassing? Kind of like the “new car” smell?
Maybe my ventilation is set up wrong? I followed the directions but maybe I did it incorrectly? I pull in room air with the fan (inside tent) then it goes to the carbon filter (inside tent). I am not venting back out to the room from the tent so the tent does bulge not collapse in.
Also I did find some info on another site about an ammonia smell in soils and it could be due to anaerobic microorganisms (I’m a chemist not a biologist so I know little about microbes and such) . It was suggested to aim the fans at the base of the fabric pots to hasten drying out the soil. Last resort is using hydrogen peroxide and killing everything
Right now I’ll continue to keep an eye (or nose) on the situation.
Thanks for your questions which really helped my research into the topic.
@anon33684698 That’s an idea - we also have Mokie and Ripley - all males (I am way outnumbered in this household!). Ripley’s mom is gone for a few days and he may be “pissed” at her- LOL. I’ll sanitize the inside and outside again tonight.
Never tried Tangy Dosido…? 
xx
