Hey everyone, welcome to my first grow and thanks for all the help in advance I have 2xQB96 as the title says, in a 320w driver. I have a 4x4 tent. Promix Oranic Vegetable and Herb Mix Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust Gaia Green Power Bloom Gaia Green Kelp Meal Gaia Green Alfalfa Meal Couple questions to get started: Should I have my lights on 24hrs a day now that the seedlings were placed in soil? How far from my seedlings should I be hanging my two qb96s? I have them dimmed to lowest light setting around. Should I mix my soil that I intend to replant them into right now and let it sit for a couple weeks? My 'soil mix' is basically just gonna be the promix with a bit of kelp and alfalfa etc thrown in. Not too much since it already has some fertilizers in it. Open to suggestions on what I should be mixing in and in what amounts, if any. Day 1: I just germinated 3 seeds successfully, not sure if others will pop. Went ahead and planted these while I wait and see if any other seeds will pop. . Mixed them into a Promix Organic + additional perlite mix. Hopefully will be fine as a seedling starter soil.
Well since last time I've had 3 new seeds pop. All of them are different strains. Orange #5, Haze and Sundae Driver × Papaya. They are gonna be 2-3 days behind the other three which are actually just some random bag seeds. Trying to dial in the settings on the lights without actually having a lux meter right now. Downloaded a couple of apps for android, not sure how accurate they are. Had my QBs all the way down, said I was at 1700 lux. So I've cranked it up to 3k that day and now 5k the day after. I have the lights at 24inches above. Looking for some advice on light height etc. Take a look at these plants, are they stretching too much? Need more light? Pics show humidity and temp for your judgement haha. One seed , the Sundae driver, that hasn't popped outta the soil yet. And my possibly too long and stretching plants.
I haven't jumped in the organics yet but will be very soon. Going to tag along though and watch your grow.
your missing compost and humus. You should mix your soil and let it cook of using alfalfa as that gets quite hot. Biochar would be a great addition to just be sure to precharge it with a kelp, alfalfa, compost, and (if you make some) Lactobacillus. Coast of Maine lobster compost or Bu’s blend is common compost. If you can get some from a local landscape supply company, that’s even better. I used 90 lbs of EWC in my last mix since it was still winter here. Here is a guide to make some Lactobacillus. This can be used to jumpstart your soil into cooking, spray it to prevent pests, you can even drink it to help with your digestion. I highly suggest reading about KNF practices to add to your grow https://www.dudegrows.com/soup-lactobacillus-culture/
Day 5. Been trying to figure out light position and strength. Put a tower fan inside to wiggle them around a bit instead of just relying on the inline fan air. Ordered a light meter to help dial in things int he future. One plant looks very small compared to the others that stretched before the light adjust meant (I lowered them to 18in from 2ft and turned the strength up a bit).
Unfortunately I cant really pick up anything else atm because of lockdown and everything closed. Is it possible to use the things I have for now? Was going to make all the perlite into the organic mix, then add rock dust, kelp, bloom mix and alfalfa. Based off the organic mix probably only 1 cup (instead of 4) rock dust, and half cup bloom, half cup kelp, quarter cup alfalfa or something. I read a bit about other people only using the promix organic and the two problems they faced was drainage (so I got perlite to add) and nutrient deficiencies late into the grow so they had to top dress. So I'm hesitant to add the full recommended amount of ferts and make the soil way too hot, would rather top dress later. The organic mix comes with somethings in it, Canadian sphagnum peat moss (60-75%) Peat humus Compost Perlite Gypsum Limestone (for pH adjustment) Organic fertilizer Mycorrhizae - PTB297 Technology I appreciate you giving me the better more complete advice, I will try to follow it on my next grow when I have more money and am able to get a hold of all the materials. This grow was kinda just supposed to be a , get into the swing of things and learn first hand sort of experience and then covid made it even more ghetto than intended lol.
Day 8 One plant is really small, like the actual size the rest are supposed to be. Might bury the others long stems like others suggested, the problem is the only bigger pots I have are my 7g I was going to transplant them into. One of the leaves has a couple of lighter markings on the leaves, not sure if that's light burn or just natural from it growing. The one that is bent all funny is from the mistake, kinda of just experimenting with it at this point haha, might bury all that stem under the dirt , what do ya guys think?
Day 13 Have some leaves curling up. I think the one in #1 is from wind burn, probably combined with over watering which is the problem I suspect with #2. I transplanted them a few days ago to fix the stretching problem and watered the soil a lot in hopes to help after transplant but I think it was too much. Some extra photos of the other plants, one is still extremely tiny lol. When should I transplant them into 7G pots?
Day 16. Transplanted 3 of then a couple days ago. Don't have enough dirt left over to plant a forth. Will probably pick some up and plant it. Since I only have 2 lights I'm really expecting you just do one light per plant, so just 2 plants. But none of the seeds are femmed, so I need to raise extra to increase odds of getting a female. Lux meter arrived today. Checked it compared to just using app. Usually the app measures about 10-20% higher than the meter. So its nicer to be more accurate, but you could probably get by with just a phone app since it's still consistent (in being off by a bit lol) so you can use it to increase incrementally. I need to pick up some things inc ase I need to top dress, but not sure if I need more than the alfalfa, kelp and gaia green bloom. Was going to try and get by with just the bloom. Any suggestions? I also need to pick up neem oil and other anti bug measures but I'm still going down that rabbit hole and not sure what to get lol. I started looking up essential oils and other things as well. Anyways thank you for reading Edit: oh I forgot all plants are about 4-5" tall right now. Should I have the light higher than 17k lux? Was thinking of increasing it after transplant settles, start going up 1k~ everyday.
I would def raise those lights. I had my Qb96 like 22 " and it almost fried the seedlings. I would moce them closer to 30+''. These lights are strong!
@Soil2Coco told me to have em at 16"-18". He knows more than me. I had really bad stretching going on with them at 24", but also admittedly very dimmed at the same time. I've turned em up a bit and lowered them and the plants seem to be doing okay, although I'm not too familiar with light burn and clawing etc so maybe I'm missing it.
you either run them full and much higher or 16-18” above and dimmed. Just watch the seedling, she will let you know if it’s too much. 16-28” is perfect height at full power for even 850-900 ppfd across the canopy. That’s flowering intensity
Appears to be some problems with mystery plant #1 any idea what it is? My guess is lights, but unlikely and at least I could change it. Secondly nutrient burn from soil being too hot, even though I only added half a cup of gaia green and kelp per 7g container as it already had some natural ferts in it. Also added 1 cup glacial rock dust per 7g. Back when I originally mixed up the soil I mean, before transplant.
Day 23 , 10 days after transplant I'm not sure what this problem is, but it's getting worse on the one plant. The other two have some yellow of new bottom of the plant leaves but dont have all this outer edge leaf discoloration.
Day 30. Been a minute but I wanted to see how the flushing of the one plant would go. Seems to have gone well the plant exploded the next day probably getting 1.5x in size. Is it to late to top or do any kind of cropping to these? I was thinking of bending some over with ties on the clips, not break em just bend em over a bit l, tied to side of pot what do you think? I see a slight curl down on the leaves on the plant that was flushed, mightve been from over watering. Lux is at 2200ish, been debating turning it up a bit more again. Any opinions on these issues? @Soil2Coco