1st Grow, From The Other Side Of The Pond, Soil, Organic, 32”x32”, LED, 7x LSD

[Schnitzelmann]

My fellow growers, it's a great pleasure to be part of this awesome growing community! The American Society is ahead of us in so many matters. I'm a bit late for the party, but I'm creating this journal for anyone who's interested. My native language is not English so please keep that in mind if you’re stumbling across some major grammatical errors.

About me: Introduce Yourself

Setup:

• Tent: Homebox Ambient Q80+ (80x80x180cm - 32"x32"x71")
• Ventilation: Soler & Palau 125N (max. 390m³/h)
• Filter: Prima Klima carbon filter (max. 460m³/h, Optimum 360m³/h)
• Transformer: Sentera STR 1-35L22 (5-step)
• Light: Sanlight Q6W (215W - Full-spectrum - LED)
• Oscillating fans : 2x Garden HighPro clip fans
  • 6 inches / air flow 215m³/h / 5W
  • 8 inches / air flow 325m³/h / 7,5W
• Pot-sizes:
  • Vegetation: 9 x 3,5L (0.9 gal.) pots
  • Flower Stage: 6x 11L (3 gal.) pots, 1x 6L (1.5 gal.) pot

Location: Tent in a customized IKEA cabinet in my bedroom


Medium:

• Vegetation: BioBizz Allmix
• Flower Stage:
  • BioBizz Lightmix (70%)
  • BioBizz Coco-Mix (30%)
  • Super-soil from a manufacturer based in Germany (organic-mineral fertilizer with living microorganisms)
    • earthworm humus, leonardite, batguano, blood meal, fish meal, meat bone meal, oyster shell, vinasse, dolomitic lime, Ascophyllum nodosum, alfalfa meal, Epsom salt, bentonite, mycorrhiza, trichoderma, effective microorganisms and bacteria
  • 100g oat flakes

Strain: 7x LSD from Barney’s Farm (Clones), Hybrid, mostly Indica

Light cycle:

• Vegetation: 18/6
• Flower Stage: 12/12

Temperature and humidity:

• Daily average with sun: 26°C (79°F), 45-48%
• Daily average at night: 21°C (70°F), 40-45%

VEGETATION STAGE:
I started with nine clones which I bought on the 28th of March and repotted them into 0.9 gal. pots on the 31st. All of them were topped and I also did some LST (bending). I pruned the lower branches on the 13th of March and they remained in their 0.9 gal. pots until 19th April, which means 23 vegetation days in total.

Day 1

Day 7

Day 15

FLOWER STAGE:

Two of the nine plants moved out because they were not progressing as well as the others. Six were repotted into 11L (3 gal.) pots and one repotted into a 6L (1.5 gal.) pot. That one plant in the small 1.5 gal. pot (right in the middle) is an insurance I want to keep for at least a few weeks. If it grows well, I'll keep it!

Day 7

Within the next few days I'll add a SCROG-net to support some of the branches. They don't need it now, but I'm sure they'll need some kind of support later on! At least I hope for some fat colas...


Happy growing!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I've been wondering if we'd see any journals with those Homebox tents that have the white walls. How do you like the tent so far?

 

[Schnitzelmann]

So far I'm really happy with the tent, build quality is great!

I've no comparison to silver walls. The overall reflection is very good and the light is better scattered around the space, which means that my plants benefit a lot more from my full-spectrum LED.

I think it's a known fact that white walls have better reflection values.

​

Jorge Cervantes wrote in his "Indoor Marijuana Horticulture" bible:​

​

"Cover walls, ceiling, everything with a highly reflective material like flat white paint or whitewash. The more reflection, the more light energy that is available to plants. Good reflective light will allow effective coverage of a HID lamp to increase from 10 to 20 percent, just by putting a few extra dollars worth of pain on the walls."​

​

I don't know why so many growers are using silver walls in their tents. Perhaps due to availability?!

 

[TorturedSoul]

There was a relatively widespread issue a number of years ago. Cheaply made grow tents with white interior walls were offgassing substances that were toxic to cannabis plants (and probably most other plants, too). Since then, the vast majority of the grow tents sold in the United States have been of the other type. I suppose there is a perception that grow tents with white walls wouldn't sell well.

It is regrettable (IMHO). I would like to see more of them, for the obvious reason.

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Wow, that's tough! It's nearly impossible for manufacturers to sell products which contain toxic materials in the European Union! Equipment for cultivation (and every other product as well) and especially fertilizers underlie norms and strict laws.

Of course you can buy silver wall tents in my country too, but I know from several grow shops that white wall tents are everybodys best seller. Probably US resellers should import more grow equipment from the EU.

 

[falstaffo]

id wondered before about the white/silver tent topic, never thought to ask why it was, seems most if not alltents here are silver lined here although in the eu also, i have 2 manufactured tents with silver lining but made my own tent for flowering using white mylar. must say i prefer being in the white area lol does seem better than silver to me

 

[Schnitzelmann]

id wondered before about the white/silver tent topic, never thought to ask why it was, seems most if not alltents here are silver lined here although in the eu also, i have 2 manufactured tents with silver lining but made my own tent for flowering using white mylar. must say i prefer being in the white area lol does seem better than silver to me

The EU contains 27 individual countries and I don't know what's happening in the other 26 , but in Austria white ones are very popular. Silver tents are cheaper, so if you're on a budget you'll probably go with a silver one.

 

[falstaffo]

possible lol i know my finether tent i found in a special half price deal when i started to buy stuff, its no longer on deal, the smaller one was part of a cheap kit intended in the end for a mother/clone/dry box.
cant say i started with a budget but if i had done, i went over it. damn lights lol

 

[irie lion]

Hey @Schnitzelmann i'm glad you started a journal! i'll be along for the ride.
I've never done a scrog before but by the looks of it you'd definitely benefit from one that LED is impressive!

 

[Schnitzelmann]

cant say i started with a budget but if i had done, i went over it. damn lights lol

Haha, I'm just a beginner, but I definitely know what you're talking about! Originally my plan was to spend about 20-25% of my set budget for the light and I ended up paying 46% (690 Euros).

Hey @Schnitzelmann i'm glad you started a journal! i'll be along for the ride.
I've never done a scrog before but by the looks of it you'd definitely benefit from one that LED is impressive!

Thanks irie, I really appreciate it! The LED is one of the fanciest lights you can buy for money (in my country), let's hope it's worth it! Btw it will be no real SCROG.. just some kind support, that's it.

 

[falstaffo]

too easy to get carried away
haha i done about £800 on quantum boards. started with a cheapo chinese 600w (100w actual draw maybe if lucky) and a couple of vander 600w (again 1-120 at wall?) knowing i would need more once flower time neared, found a mars 240hydro on ebay 2nd hand to add in but in the end decided to send the vanders back and go for the quantums. still they should last a long time and if as good as is stated should produce some nice bud

 

[Schnitzelmann]

What a journey, amazing! So you're still using the quantum boards? Are you still satisfied with them? I read about some serious yields with quantum boards... 1,8g/W and even more!!

I tend to be on the conservative side of shopping for equipment, which basically means no ordering from the internet and cash only.

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Day 14

Nothing really happened in the last week. I found some dark winged fungus gnats on monday and added nematodes to the water the following day. Additionally I deployed Seramis to prevent the spread of the gnats. I also ordered BTIs (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) just in case everything else won't work.

Beyond that everything seems fine to me. My plants grew a few inches taller and white pistil hairs are all over the place.

Top view


Side view no. 5


What's next? I'll give my plants compost tea in the 3rd (next week), 4th and 5th flowering week.

Do you have any tips for me for the following weeks? Would you add some Epsom salt?

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Day 28

So what happened in the last two weeks?

• The nematodes (2x 5 million) I mentioned in my last posting were useless so I added BTIs to the water and it got a little bit better since then. Watering takes place every 5-6 days.
• Compost tea was added twice so far (last week and this week) and it really boosted bud growth. The plants look healthy to me, the leaves are still very green.
• Added a net for support.
• I also did some sort of "defoliation" last week (day 20), let's call it "cleaning up". Not too much, just cleaned the bottom third of each plant from big fan leaves, small buds and nodes (with buds) which were unable to get enough light.
• No Epsom salt was added!

I'm a bit sad, that there's nothing to do except watering my ladies.

Happy growing!

 

[irie lion]

Damn @Schnitzelmann they are looking gorgeous. LOADS of bud stacking between your last post
They are looking so happy - just keeping doing what you're doing and you are set for a great harvest

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Thanks a lot irie! As I said before, it's not all about yield and there are still a few weeks ahead, so we'll see how harvest will look like in the end. I'll be happy if there is something to smoke in the end, that's all I care about! Yield can still be improved within the next few runs. Let's see what happens next....

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Flowering Week 5 - Day 35

My ladies got compost tea for the last time on day 31. Except that I only water them once a week. Let's hope they'll fatten up any time soon!

 

[irie lion]

Looking stunning in there bro. Beautiful plants How they smelling?
They'll fatten up for you from hereon out! Good trichome production for day 35 - some dank bud coming your way soon!

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Looking stunning in there bro. Beautiful plants How they smelling?
They'll fatten up for you from hereon out! Good trichome production for day 35 - some dank bud coming your way soon!

Thanks irie! The smell is pretty hard to describe, but one think I know for sure.. it's really intense! It's kinda earthy and skunky, maybe also a little bit of citrus. Can't wait to smoke them.

 

[Schnitzelmann]

Flowering Week 7 - Day 47

The final phase of flowering has started. Fan leaves are slowly turning yellow. About 95% of the trichomes have a translucent color, so I guess there will be at least 2 more weeks until harvest. The smell of the plants is really delicious.