Getting my humidifier was a big step in getting my cannabis plants happy in the grow tent. The basement and heating system of the house really dries out the floor the tents are on, so running a humidifier 24/7 is needed while the lights are on all the time. For now I have a simple humidifier that can run for around 9 hours on a full tank. But I have a reptile fogger on the way that should do much better, along with a humidistat that should keep the relative humidity at the right levels.
I got the humidifer late last week and as soon as it was installed and I saw a quite improvement in my first sprouting. Without the humidifer it was starting to turn yellow on its bottom leaves and showing signs of stress such as purple leaves forming and curling of the leaves. But once I got the humidity to around 70% it shot off all new leaves and was quite happy... until the mold showed up. I tried spraying the side with some neem oil, but did not seem to respond. I could have tried some hydrogen peroxide but just opted to do a transplant to a new pot and dirt and skip trying to save the container.
Honestly it was my fault, I was over watering the pots and my fan that was in there at the time was blowing wet humid air directly on the sides of the containers. Along with all of that they were siting in dip pans, so I got rid of drainage dishes and moved the plant to a whole new pot with new dirt. I feel like the use of native dirt was not the best idea in hindsight. It may have helped mold grow, so good to know in the future. I may try to make some new batches of soil but for now I will just stick with some potting soil and seed starting media.
I peer through this little window way too often.. lol Since I do not have my humidistat I am constantly raising the relative humidity or lowering it.
A decision was made to move the tent over by one of the windows, it will be the easiest way to vent to the outside.
Having this grow tent in the basement have brought up some other issues such as soil temperature. I do not have any heating pads, and can only depend on my 1000w light to keep the tent around 75F-85F. But with the pots resting on the grow tent bottom, they are wicking away a lot of that heat captured by the light. So I decided to get the whole grow tent off the ground.
Building a platform for the tent to sit on, along with some carpet should insulate the floor and not allow the soil temperatures to drop that much now. This is crucial when the plants are young, as the roots want a warm environment to grow in. I used some 2x4s along with some floor board. And then with the cut offs I placed them inside between the slats for more stability.
I could have laid the grow tents right on the wood, but that may wick away a little heat. So I had extra carpet in the basement laying around, cut it along with some padding and now it should be 100%
Leaving the edge where the door opening bare by around half an inch so I do not track in carpet fibers into my tent.
Taking a break and a selfie on my platform before my tent goes there.
Could use a little clean up, but for now they are warm. Especially with the winter coming in, they need it.
I assembled two tents, as now I have staggered plant stages I may need to have two grow rooms to keep them all happy.
Currently this humidifier has me filling it up twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Once I get the new one with the controller it should use less, and once my sproutings are in vegetative I can lower the humidity by ten percent or so.
Venting of hood air from the MH light goes up above, away from the intake vents.
With the mold problems from the native dirt pot, I decided to transplant once again. I did not want to have to move them, but I worry I would be battling mold throughout the whole cycle. So moving it to a fresh pot and fresh dirt was the direction I went.
Very carefully I broke off clumps of clay until I had just the roots. Handling such a young plant was a big risk, and hopefully I did not shock it. Its hard to say, will just need to keep an eye on it and hope for the best.
With it in its new pot I gave it a small watering directly around the roots and just hope it makes it.
The two new sproutlings I have are much happier. I have kept them in their humidity domes under florescent tubes for the first week, and for the last few days they have been living in the grow tent and showing signs of growth with new leaves.
Even one of them had roots pop out the bottom of the cell trays. Time to move it to its own pot!
This sprouting was much easier to deal with, it came out with ease since I used seedling dirt.
The roots are running long through the dirt, hopefully the new pot will give it lots of room to grow.
So whats next?
I wait for the other sproutling to form roots out the bottom of their cell. Then I will pop it out and place it in its own pot as well. With three plants I hope they are all females but we shall see. If I get at least 1 or 2 females I will be happy.
And once I have my second tent completely set up with a platform, humidifier and all maybe by then I will know the sex of my three sproutlings (assuming my first one makes it). Then I can start new seeds killing off the males. As we only want the female plants for clones and producing buds.
Until then I will keep an eye on the humidity levels throughout the day and adjust until my controller arrives. I will start feeding them grow big, starting with a little bit every other watering. And raise the amounts as they grow, eventually when they flower I will switch them a different fertilizer.