With my tents empty after the harvest of my most recent cannabis crop Sour Diesel, its time to start some new seeds. I picked a strain called “Zebra Stripe” it interested me as they state it has a fruity flavor similar to the old school fruit flavored gums. They are a cross between Alien OG, Blackwater and Blueberry Muffin. Really looking forward to seeing what it smells and tastes like, but that is a long time from now. We must get them big and strong, so they can produce those tasty terpenes.
I saved these seeds for the winter time, as the pictures show the strain can turn black. Though this will not happen until I flower, so that is a few months away. In the mean time I should have some very happy green vegging plants I hope. Being a Indica Dominant Hybrid (80/20) they should have short stubby leaves and hopefully some very big buds. I plan on using the netting again to help support such big colas.
These seedlings are only a few days old, yesterday they got their first feeding of nutrients. I am back to using the Foxfarm Grow Big and Big Bloom tea.
They look so tiny now, but in just a few days they will have all new leaves and have grown a few more inches.
Its key giving them just enough water but not too much where mold can take over. At this stage the plants are mostly getting their water from the moisture in the air.
I have been using buckets of yeast and sugar producing carbon dioxide for the last few grows. It seems like the plants like it and all of the cannabis I have grown turns out well so I will keep doing this.
One of the fans blowing fresh air into the tent will help stir up the carbon dioxide gases.
The only way out for the hot air is up, and CO2 tends to stay lower than air so I hope it stays inside mostly. Its not all staying in there, as I can smell it outside the tent. Hopefully some stays in.
With the added C02 the plants heat tolerance is raised. I can bring the tent temps up to 95F but its been quite cold so getting them up to 85 is about as good as I can do right now. I plan on buying an interval switch so I can have the fan blowing air in to stop and start every so often raising the temp temps. But not too much where the plants get cooked.
The humidifiers are running full speed and do not seem to turn off. I am guessing some of the humidity is escaping the tent up through the top.
I supplement the humidifiers by spraying the walls of the tent. This will help raise the humidity.
The foggers have tubes that run into the tent. And with the fan inside the grow area it pulls down the moisture.
Using the fan to blow the moist air across the plants seems to help. We can see the fog going across the fan as it turns.
My sensor hangs up away from the foggers not to get false readings.
Its possible once I get the interval switch for this fan the humidity will rise better. But the constant air coming into the tent is making the air more dry.
I have been enjoying this digital timer for my lights and fans, its much better than dealing with the older dial types.
Upping the wattage during this grow I switched out the bulbs from a 600w to a 1000w. So hopefully I will get some big leaves.
So what's next?
I wait for the seedlings to grow more, and feed them every four days with nutrients to help them get bigger faster. As their root system forms, they will not depend on so much humidity in the tent. I will then lower the RH percentage by around 5% every week until I reach 50%
Even though they look small now, they will start to grow very quickly. Every day I see new growth and looking forward to a few weeks and months from now when they get really big.