5x5 - LED - Hydro - First Grow

[cipher05]

Strain?
2 x Kosher Kush (Reserva Privada)
2 x 707 Truthband (Humboldt Seed Organization)

Veg or Flower stage? Early veg I think. 18/6. The seeds popped on April 3rd and 4th, it’s April 14th.

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor, 5x5 tent.

Soil or Hydro? Using 4 x 5 Gallon Root Spa buckets.

Size of light? 2 x 600W LED’s, in veg mode.

Temperature of room/cab? The room itself is 70-73. Inside the tent with lights on it’s typically 75-83, 79 is what I usually see as I check pretty often. Low 70’s when lights are off. There are 6”x24” Phresh Filter and Hydrofarm controlled fans for both intake and outtake. I’ve got plastic wrap around half of each filter, 24”s seems a bit much for the space. Intake sits outside of the tent, Outtake hanging inside. Fans are pulling air through the filters, intake on the lowest setting, out-take a bit above for negative pressure. I imagine as I go into bloom may have to turn things up as temps rise. I've also got a stand-alone AC in case it comes down to it, so far it seems fine.

RH was 30-35% for the first week, but just to be safe added a small humidifier a couple of days ago, its between 50-70% now. Sometimes I have to cut the humidifier off when it goes into the 70s.

PH of media or res? PH in the buckets are around 6.0 each. I let them be when they test 5.8-6.3.

Nutrients? Using GH Hydroponic Flora Series. Following what it says on the bottles, approximately. I did a water change today, new ph water and nutes. I have a PPM meter, my tap water is around 150PPM. I’m guessing so far with PPMs, I found the Hanna Chart - PPM’s are about 550 on the Truthbands and 600 on the Koshers. Does this sound right considering my tap water is 150PPM?

Have these Green Pad Co2 Sheet’s hanging as well.

Check out the pics... first two are the Koshers, second two pics are the Truthbands. The last Truthband is definitely leaning a good bit.

I had the lights at 36" above the plants. I've moved them down to 24" today... thinking that may have been the cause of the one in pic 4 leaning.

 

[cipher05]

Update: Day 36 from seed.

Down to 3 Plants. Kosher in the front, Truthbands in the back. I got carried away defoliating one of the Koshers and it was just too far behind the others, it seemed. I'm sure I could've let it continue but decided to pull it and focus on these 3 that were more full or bushy. Did quite a bit of fimming and topping. Some defoliation but I kind of get the feeling to hang back on that for now. Guessing I should let them veg another month or so then flower.

Haven't hooked the AC up but the temps seem perfect in veg between 72-77, 35-50RH. Planning to hook it up before flower though since I see the temps immediately go to the low 80's with the bloom switch on.

The roots were perfectly white, then I did a water change and uped the nutes to 900PPM almost a week ago(probably way too high and they were immediately stained super dark brown I was freaked out for a min. Got some Orca Liquid Mycorrhizae, squirted a little of that in the buckets a couple of days later and the roots have lightened up and grew significantly. Plants have grown quickly since.

I'm considering some type of scrog... if so when should I start that, now? closer to flower? I'd like to get a pound or more from this if possible, though I know that could be a long shot, thinking scrogging is most likely to get me close with 3 plants...

 

[cipher05]

 

[cipher05]

 

[OlderGrower]

Update: Day 36 from seed.

Down to 3 Plants. Kosher in the front, Truthbands in the back. I got carried away defoliating one of the Koshers and it was just too far behind the others, it seemed. I'm sure I could've let it continue but decided to pull it and focus on these 3 that were more full or bushy. Did quite a bit of fimming and topping. Some defoliation but I kind of get the feeling to hang back on that for now. Guessing I should let them veg another month or so then flower.

Haven't hooked the AC up but the temps seem perfect in veg between 72-77, 35-50RH. Planning to hook it up before flower though since I see the temps immediately go to the low 80's with the bloom switch on.

The roots were perfectly white, then I did a water change and uped the nutes to 900PPM almost a week ago(probably way too high and they were immediately stained super dark brown I was freaked out for a min. Got some Orca Liquid Mycorrhizae, squirted a little of that in the buckets a couple of days later and the roots have lightened up and grew significantly. Plants have grown quickly since.

I'm considering some type of scrog... if so when should I start that, now? closer to flower? I'd like to get a pound or more from this if possible, though I know that could be a long shot, thinking scrogging is most likely to get me close with 3 plants...

Hey nice garden,
I see where you are growing with 2 600 watt LEDs is that 600 watts at the wall

If you plan on getting a pound out of 3 plants you may want to get that scrog set up now so you can start filling it out and get those ladies use to laying flat.My 1st grow I used a SCROG and had 3 plants, though it was a soil grow, if ended up with 13 Oz dried and I had no where near 1200 watts of LED I was running 490 watts of LEDs andI vegged them until 2 of the plants mostly filled out my 4' x 3 1/2' SCROG.the 3rd plant I let grow el natural, only topping and LSTing her. I would love to put a DWC under a SCROG but when I change out my buckets, I always scrub them out with bleach each week before I refill them and put them back into service. Just not sure how I could do that if the plant is in a SCROG.

As weather or not you will need to use a SCROG to obtain that kind of yield really depends on the plant and the strain. I know with my Malawi Gold a SCROG would be perfect since it is so stretched out but my Huckleberry would not benefit at all from a SCROG, it already has a nice and level canopy... see

The huckleberry is just over 2 months old from popping as a seed, the others are from clones I took off my soil grow, and the plants I took them from are going outside for my outdoor grow

it took me about a month to fill out my SCROG before I flipped them, if you put them under a SCROG when you flip them you really do not have a SCROG what you have is a very fancy branch support and thats about it.

with a SCROG the object is to flip them so that the whole canopy is perfectly level and nothing gets blocked out of the light. I did not do a great job with mine but it was not terrible either.

I will be following though since you may be able to show me how to SCROG a DWC and that is something I would love to learn how to do. Keep your garden green you appear to have a pretty good grasp on growing

 

[cipher05]

We'll see if this works. I found these scrog units on rollers, put metal baskets between the bucket and the rollers. Seems I can just hold the netpot/tops of the buckets steady, have new buckets ready and have someone pull the basket out and the bucket out, switch the new one in one at a time?? I'd need another person, but it's the only thing that I could think of. I've changed buckets and nutes once since seed, and will test it out later this week, or sooner, fingers crossed.

Thing is I've lost about a foot of height, seems ok though. I've got my lights hooked up oddly I dont know why I had such a hard time figuring out how to use the ratchet/rope things. The way I have them now I can't pull the lights up higher.. which I'm guessing is needed because the far left and far right side of the Truthbands in the back don't have the same light coverage the rest of the plants have (i.e. seems a little shaded on the sides). Is that as important as it seems? Or would the plants mostly likely grow well without pulling the lights up much higher for veg?

Doing lots of reading on scrogging I'm not sure I'm doing it right, but I'm figuring it out!

 

[cipher05]

Truthband #1

Truthband #2

Kosher Kush #1

 

[jayne]

okes head in, looks around: Oooh, its very nice in here.

 

[cipher05]

So yeah, changing the buckets can be a pain. I did it last Thursday and really struggled. Then discovered it's really a matter of lifting the lid and the scrog screen together VERY carefully moving them as little as possible - then setting on a new bucket. Not so so bad when i take the legs on the scrog off and just take care to be very still with the lid and screen as i move em. I did it again a few days later and it was much easier... BUT overall it's a pain, I imagine will be more so as the plants stretch now... and I may look at coco for my next grow... maybe. Ended up getting rid of the baskets they were pointless as I started practicing the bucket switch.

I went into flower today... hooked the AC up... not sure why i can't really get the temps below 77-79 degrees with the bloom switches and ac on though. It's better than the 82-88+ I was seeing during bloom switch tests before the ac though. I vented the exhaust into a nearby wall.. there's insulation in part of the vent area when i stick my hand up there.... so maybe that resistance won't let the ac get as cold as I'd like? I'm going to switch the exhaust into the attic this weekend and see if that lets temps drop a bit. I'm guessing 77-79 for flower is ok.. but ideally would be a bit lower, right?

Oh I also broke a huge branch off my Kosher :-( like the biggest best branch, I tried to mend it but didn't work so... there's that. I'm really learning to be extremely careful when I"m in there trimming and training etc.

Truthband in the front, Truthband in the back left, Kosher back right.

 

[cipher05]

 

[cipher05]

yup so ac vent into attic temps went right down.. low 70's quickly.

 

[cipher05]

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[cipher05]

Giving them another week or two to hit 10 weeks. Just began to flush. Harvested a few branches from buds that have some amber trichomes.. waiting to see some amber's on the rest. I'm thinking 10-16oz hopefully!

 

[cipher05]

Here's a pic of one of the TB's 9 days ago when I was switching buckets.

 

[cipher05]

Kosher.. I read to pinch it, but too late it was already tall. Thinking to see if I can grow it better and increase the yield next grow, so probably do another Kosher, with Key Lime Pie.

 

[cipher05]

So the Kosher is still drying, takes 5-7 days vs 3-4 for the TB. I've dried much of the TB and I'm at 7.5oz, looks like another 2-4 zips are still drying between the kosher and the rest of the tb. Looks like I'll hit at least the 10 oz mark between 3 plants, having lost one, which worked out though because it's way easier to get in the tent and tend to the plants with 3 vs 4. The kosher though i fumbled as far as training so I'm starting another one in the next week or two to see if I can do it better.

I'm a big fan of lots of defoliating so far. tested one portion of a tb and lost an ounce or so not defoliating that part of the plant! I wanted a quick solution to scrogging and the p-scrogs are excellent, 600w LED's are great as well - but i didn't realize my temps would still get too high in bloom without ac. pulled that ac in and wham got the control over the space i needed. I'm thinking to add even more light for next flower cycle. Also keeping temperatures low was big.. like once i got going i'd keep the room at 71-75 during flower and a lil lower with lights off. smell went nuts a few times i could smell it way too strong from the street - which was only around week 7-8 and just a few times not always. i figure it's due to the ac i have venting hot ass air into the attic.. for some reason it seems hot air through the carbon filter isn't a good idea? maybe it is. maybe if i put two together.

I'm really happy with the quality of the bud. The TB is some of the best daytime smoke I've had I'm so damn picky with my bud and this stuff I literally can smoke non stop all day happily no stress. The kosher is really top notch shit, clearly has higher than usual levels of thc, and is def nighttime smoke for me or right before bed. really impressive looking and powerful tasty smoke, just not for me when i have shit to do or wake n bake etc. Still.. as much as I like the tb for my days and early evenings... I have to say the kosher is just truly impressive i see why the awards etc its bud you can show off. For wtv reason I seem to like the kosher with a lil leaf left during trim.. it already takes longer to dry, the little bit of leaf may make it take even longer but i kind of like it like that for some reason. the tb i have trimmed a bit closer and its dry in 3-4 days. check out pics. first 3 koshers, next 3 truthbands, last pic my attempt at hash

 

[cipher05]

Final Dry Weight = 12.5 oz. The kosher just 2.5 oz due to my not training it correctly I assume. If i did the TB's again I'm sure I could pull 6 oz each from em if not more in this set up.

Making hash I think I may have a half oz or a lil more possibly, I'm getting nice amounts from my trim and that area of the tb i didn't defoliate i threw in with the trim.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

I’m moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here: Journals in Progress

You can use the Report Post feature found at the bottom left of every post and we'll move it for you right away.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.