Nancy’s Own // Double Gruntz
Running a Double Gruntz from Nancy’s Own
Check them out here:
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First things first - Calibrations and cleaning. Have to have your tools in order.
Environment calibration:
This is my temperature and RH monitor. It’s one of those indoor outdoor units with a remote sensor. I don’t know if any are better or worse than others. I put it in a mason jar with a Boveda calibration pack. They sell them with sealed plastic bags/pouches on amazon/direct from BV. I lost the bag so now I just use a jar.
Top number - sensor
Bottom - countertop unit
After 5 minutes it’s reading 68% in the jar with a 75% packet. It will take some time to stabilize so I let it sit for at least 24 hours. It does not matter if the unit says 75% - if the sensor is off I will know and adjust. Now at a quick look without having to walk to the tent I can check temp and RH. No bluetooth or wifi connection. Manual visual checks only.
Based on this sensor I adjust my heater and humidifier controls. I don’t care what those numbers will say. I go by my calibrated sensor. It takes a couple days to dial it all in. After that small adjustments up and down if needed.
EC/ppm calibration: EC pen. I like ppm on the 0.5 scale.
Unit is a HM Digital Com-80. A gift from an old friend I haven’t seen in a long time.
~$30 on amazon currently
I broke the tabs off the bottom to be able to clean the prongs better. I wipe them off with an alcohol prep pad and then rinse in clean water. They get crusty testing nutes so cleaning regularly is a good idea. If you track them, you will notice your ppm numbers start to drop when the probes need cleaning.
RO water to rinse. Using Aperas Calibration fluid. 1413 μS/cm - Hold the mode button to change from EC to PPM to μS/cm
Reading a little high, adjust it by pressing the CAL button and then use “temp/cal” for up and “hold/mode” to scroll down. Press “enter” when it reads correctly. It should flash C / A / L and then display the number. Use the mode button to change back to EC or PPM scale.
Calibration is important. No storage fluid needed.
pH calibration: Probably more important is proper pH calibration. It can make or break a grow if your pH is off.
I am currently using an Apera pH-20. It comes with a case and calibration fluid. You will need to buy storage fluid. 3 molar KCl.
Clean the probe with distilled or RO water. Yeah tap is fine. Shake it off and dry it. The probe allows for 2 point calibration and it comes with a small jar of 7.0 and 4.0 fluids. They are good for about 10 calibrations before they need to be changed out.
7.0 first:
Oh it’s reading off? Wait until the reading stabilizes, there is a smiley face that appears, small circle on the left of the lower “7”, then press the CAL button. It will calibrate to 7.0 on it’s own.
That’s it. Less than 5 minutes and you are 2 point calibrated. Fill the cap with storage solution. If your meter is new you should calibrate once a week until it breaks in a little bit. Mine did not drift but it is a good idea to check and recheck at the start. This pen holds its calibration very well. It is easy to use and I believe it to be accurate. I do not store mine in the case. There is a key ring on the back and I hang it so the storage fluid stays around the glass bulb where it needs to be.
Ran out or spilled your calibration fluids? I like these from BioPharm. They are NIST certified and traceable. If you want to compare them to the stock fluids you can and be really really sure everything is perfect.
There ya go! Starting a new run? Clean and calibrate your tools. It will make it easier in the long run.
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Day 1: 03/20
We have liftoff!
Aight first things first. Finishing the calibration.
Waited 24hrs and the RH stabilized right at 75% , this means the calibration packet works and that the sensor is accurate.
48hr soak in some RO water with a few drops of humic acid. Probably not needed but eh, I gotta muck around with it. Small tail popped so time for the germination pellets.
I’ve been using coco coins after bering recommended them from @WildBill on the old XF site. I read from ManO that peat goes acidic and the coco is the final grow medium anyway.
I mix up a very weak ~200ppm nutrient solution with kelp powder to soak the pellet. pH to 6.0 and then into a plastic box and sit by the router to stay warm.
Apologies for the blurry pic. I didn’t notice until now. I like to presoak and flush my coco pots before planting. I know it is pre-buffered but I have seen the initial runoff be in the 700-800ppm range. I mix a low strength ~400ppm nute solution and pH to 6.0, then I flush that through the pot, I catch the runoff in a basin, and test the runoff until the outflow is in the 4-500 range. I suspect a lot is coco dust but this way no buffering salts are left in high concentrations.
The water gets a lot clearer once it nears my target.
24 hours in the coco coin and we have a seedling. The shell came off but I could not tell wtf was going on at the tip. I took a bunch of closeups until I could see it is the seed membrane!
Pulled the membrane off. This is at 7AM on 03/20
This is 12 hours later after being potted up and having some time in the light. I do peel the netting off the pellet. It’s tricky. Lightly watered in and I put a layer of DynoMyco under the pellet.
I expect it will be standing up straight by tomorrow morning.
Environment is currently 76F at 76% RH which puts us at an air VPD of 0.74 which is close to the limit for seedling range. I have the temp set higher so as that increases closer to 80F the vpd will come down a little more. Seedling is 0.4-0.8
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Day 5: Bored so I went to look at my seedling and take a pic.
This was Day 1 after 12 hours. Greened up nice but red stem. Little bit of sunburn.
Day 5 - Standing up straight now. I presoaked my pot and now after 5 days the top inch or so is dry. I gave it’s first fertigation by hand. 450ppm @ 6.0pH, around 1L used. I slowly poured in with some breaks until I was getting noticeable runoff. I did not take a measurement.
Light increased slightly higher intensity and raised 6 ratchet clicks. You know the ones everyone has their light hanging from. It’s leaning towards the light so the height should help with spread and I repositioned the pot.
Environment running high 70’s for temp and RH crackin 80. Been steady at 78/78 most of the time when I look. Staying between 0.6-0.7 kPa which is good for seedling stage.
Where does 78/78 end up?
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Hi @Entombed
Good luck with your grow , I wish you fat buds and a big yield.
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@ArnisNweed . New grow. Nothing exciting happening yet.
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Day 13: Off schedule posting but works been all over the place so update when I can.
Starting to get some leaves and some growth. A couple slightly twisted looking and spotty. Not worried. The plant is getting settled in and throwing down roots more than leaves. I’m sure the next sets will be looking perfect.
Couple quick pics:
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It is the start of week 4, Day 22.
It has been a week an one day since last update. The growth has been very quick and vigorous. A solid dense bush.
The large fans were leaving wet spots on the inner and lower leaves. I took two fans off and topped.
There are a lot of inner branches. Some long ones that look good for training and a lot of smaller spindly ones. I am undecided on trimming a few off or not. Going to re-eval tomorrow evening when I go look at it.
Crazy density under those fans
Going to be some thinking on how to manage all those.
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She looks great!
This is being on the critical side…. You think those fans couldve came off a little sooner and that growth under there would be a little more developed than it is?
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Looking like an awesome vigorous little lady! Good luck with the grow homie. I really wanna see some Nancy’s Own strains!! This is what I would’ve picked to grow! The fun is about to begin! Whenever I have fan leaves covering growth tips from branches I either tuck or remove them. I usually leave the lower branches til 3-4 weeks to see what makes it and what is still lagging before I remove anything and lollipop the lower 20-30%. Loving how branchy she is getting! If it’s getting crowded you can always train them out. It’s about to take off and get fun!
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You want to take those big fans off….those inners will reach up and become tops….anything that doesn’t (stays inside) I’ll take off at some point. Don’t be afraid to defoliate, aggressively even. Rarely a downside.
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Yes. I should have done it a couple days ago.
Thanks, Frank! I was hoping someone experienced would take a look. I’m going to pull the larger ones out with some wires and do exactly that on any of the spindly ones that don’t reach up. Appreciate the confirmation.
Yeah buddy! Training on deck for this evening. Initial growth was slow but we have certainly hit the gas pedal now.
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Day 28 - end of week 4. Week 5 starts tomorrow.
No sign of sex yet. Looks like a nice long veg state, massive inner branching as well. Strain is probably a good candidate for the 420autoflower method wanting to throw so many branches.
Took a few leaves off and put some training wires on.
And a little handful of leaves
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Shes going crazy!
The more the merrier. lol.
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Not really an update, an adjustment. Made a new batch of nute water.
5.8 pH
757 ppm (500 scale)
Adjusted the feed timing. I was going 20 seconds every 12 hours. Changed to 10 seconds every 6 hours.
Dark time is from 10am-4pm
Feed times are 7:45am, 1:45pm, 7:45pm, 1:45am
@Man-O-Green - What was that fertigation timing you had mentioned in the past? Something about 2 hours prior to lights on/off?
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Yes, two hours after lights on. You do not want to start fertigation until the plant has taken up any nutrients it has the biome producing. That means after transpiration has started. Plants exude substances that signal the microbes in the biome on which nutrients to make available for it. They will work overnight to make them and the plant will take them up as they wake up. If you fertigate too soon you will wash out those nutrients. Then stop fertigating 2 hours prior to lights out. This helps prevent the RH from spiking after lights out.
When I was a young boy on the farm, the old farmer used to say plants do not like to go to bed with wet feet 
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Solid advice here.
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Thanks friend! I knew you had the deep knowledge. So, I never considered this, should you not fertigate at all during lights out?
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That is correct, do not fertigate at night. Leaves will actually drip water. The process is called guttation. I call it the fast track to BUD ROT.
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When I’m doing defoliation I work in three steps, first I remove every leaf that is growing towards the center of the plant first, off every branch to allow better light penetration, second, I look for any growth tips that are shaded and remove the shade leaf covering those tips, third and final, I look for any leaves that aren’t getting direct light or are shaded by another leaf from above, and remove those to allow better air circulation and keep any leaves from sweating against each other. Those rules make it easy and repeatable every time, and it erases any thinking or second guessing. I love this plant! That girl you have has such an awesome structure for production!
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