A Grouchier Grow - LED 3Wx100 - Hempy - 9 Plants - 3 Strains - Lucas - Mainline

[Grouchy]

Happy flip day for the other day Grouch. Looking good in here as always. Hope your well mate!

Thanks Wrecked!
You as well, sir. Things are working in your favor for sure too

UPDATE:

I just went up and looked and I have 3 confirmed Females. 2 Nirvana Mystery and 1 Northern Lights Femenized. The Hindu Kush and another Mystery seed (the one with 3 arms instead of 4) are unknown at the moment but I suspect they are males. I see some small odd growth that might be balls on both plants but too early to call it. 3 plants would not be bad but I wouldn't get my target yield. Next time will be 100% Femenized. No need to mess with the possibility of males.

I got my Killawatt meter in the other day and tested all the power draw I had. The below pictures are the wattage draw of all my grow items.

400 CFM Fan

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[Unsponsored 3w x 300]
Veg Light only

Veg and Bloom Light

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MarsHydro Reflector 3x300
Veg Light only

Veg and Bloom Light

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Total Power Draw

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I've had fungus gnats for a while now but they've not affected the grow so I let them be for the most part. I read they like the color yellow so I got a couple gnat sticky pads. They are working great now but I don't think they're long term solutions so ill probably throw some mosquito dunks in each pot to get rid of them. I honestly don't even know if I'll even make that much of an effort to get rid of them. They seem to be harmless for me thus far and for my past grow so we'll see.

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AND HERE THEY ARE! The stretch is going to be intense... I'm going to be limited on vertical space but I'm not worried at all. It always seems to work out in the end. No need to stress about things that aren't worth it. Life is too short.

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Thank you all for all your support and help! I truly appreciate it!

 

[Camo420Grow]

Hey grouchy sorry been gone and had no access to internet ! Just caught up on the grow and boy do the girls look good! And glad to hear about 3 girls but hoping for the other 2 aswell! Looks like you got things under control as always it seems lol. Anxious to see how the zero filter and flushing will work for you, I had considered the same filter myself. Cant wait to see how the girls flower either !

 

[Grouchy]

Hey grouchy sorry been gone and had no access to internet ! Just caught up on the grow and boy do the girls look good! And glad to hear about 3 girls but hoping for the other 2 as well! Looks like you got things under control as always it seems lol. Anxious to see how the zero filter and flushing will work for you, I had considered the same filter myself. Cant wait to see how the girls flower either !

What's up man! Well, glad you're back to civilization. Maybe not civilization but you have access to the world again lol. Enjoy those crappy 25 hour flights! They suck man lol.

I just edited that post so feel free to take another look. I forgot to add the pics.

The zero filter worked great though. The only problem is that it might get expensive to replace. One filter will treat about 30 gallons of water before seeing a reading of 006 on their TDS meter. So that means if I feed every 2 days (that's worse case scenario), that's 15 waterings a month. Every watering is about 5 gallons (max, total) so that would be 75 gallons a month I would need. I would need about 3 filters a month to keep the PPM down below 006. That would be a total cost of $40.00 USD a month in filters. In 4 months, I could have an RO filter so is it really worth it? Ill probably use each filter 'til it reads 050 PPM and see how that does on my pockets. Also, me and my family have been using the pitcher for drinking so it may go a little quicker. I think it will be worth it to keep the plant happy. Ask again in a couple months.

 

[Camo420Grow]

Haha once again glad to have you has my own little guinea pig while I follow along and learn before I even get started ! But yes for sure glad to be back to some damn internet and whew hate those damn flights!!! As far as the filter goes I'll just wait to see how you like it and what you think of it. Went back to check your update aswell, was very shocked in how close the amounts of actual watts were being pulled between your 2 leds. Thought 1 of them would be greatly lower than the other but only around 15w at full power!

 

[Grouchy]

Haha once again glad to have you has my own little guinea pig while I follow along and learn before I even get started ! But yes for sure glad to be back to some damn internet and whew hate those damn flights!!! As far as the filter goes I'll just wait to see how you like it and what you think of it. Went back to check your update aswell, was very shocked in how close the amounts of actual watts were being pulled between your 2 leds. Thought 1 of them would be greatly lower than the other but only around 15w at full power!

Haha that's why we make journals man! To be the Guinea pig for the next fella growing!

I thought the same of the lights too, man. I was happy with my total power draw though. A 400w HPS light alone would run barely less than that.

 

[cogreen]

Wow Grouch, your plants are looking amazing!! +rep
Seriously; I feel like I missed something; when the hell did they get so big!
And thanks for those draw numbers; interesting... "Unsponsored 3w x 300" LOL, that made me laugh.
40$ a month for water filters!? I'd have a hard time justifying that myself, unless there was a real need... If I get time I'll try to test my in-line shower filter to see how much that brings my PPM down. I really only bought it to remove chlorine, but it should filter out more than that and at 20$ for a filter which lasts about 6mo, it's very cheap.

Again very impressive mainlining + plants.. I can't wait to see what they do in flower!

 

[Grouchy]

Wow Grouch, your plants are looking amazing!! +rep
Seriously; I feel like I missed something; when the hell did they get so big!
And thanks for those draw numbers; interesting... "Unsponsored 3w x 300" LOL, that made me laugh.
40$ a month for water filters!? I'd have a hard time justifying that myself, unless there was a real need... If I get time I'll try to test my in-line shower filter to see how much that brings my PPM down. I really only bought it to remove chlorine, but it should filter out more than that and at 20$ for a filter which lasts about 6mo, it's very cheap.

Again very impressive mainlining + plants.. I can't wait to see what they do in flower!

Thanks Co!

Yeah they exploded man. I actually was thinking that yesterday after starring at them.

Did you like that "unsponsored"? I didn't dare put the name of which we don't speak of!

Yeah that could get expensive. You're right, it would be hard to justify that when you sit back and actually think about it but I guess I'll have to actually test to see how long they last for me though. They may last 6 months, who knows. HAHA! Maybe not 6 months...

Thanks! I'm curious too about the shower filter.

Thanks man! Have a good one! Time to go clock in at work...

 

[Camo420Grow]

Ha yeah grouch I guess that's what journals are for, just lucked up and found yours cause everything you do is pretty much what I'm gonna do ! Don't let em work you to hard today brother

 

[Grouchy]

Ha yeah grouch I guess that's what journals are for, just lucked up and found yours cause everything you do is pretty much what I'm gonna do ! Don't let em work you to hard today brother

The way you're doing it is right man. [Some] people dive into growing unprepared and it costs them time and money. It's great if some want to grow in a sterilite with barely any equipment or the wrong equipment but it will cost you more than if you gathered everything and learned the info that's essential. I was not even close to being ready when I started my first grow. The result... A measly 20g with tons of work put into it. If I had everything I needed, the work I put into it would of paid off.

 

[Camo420Grow]

I am glad for the kind words grouch, but hey you learned a lot on those first few grows too. There's nothing like experience either. But I sure do plan to have a great first grow ! Especially with the likes of you there to help me along!

 

[Grouchy]

I am glad for the kind words grouch, but hey you learned a lot on those first few grows too. There's nothing like experience either. But I sure do plan to have a great first grow ! Especially with the likes of you there to help me along!

thanks man I appreciate it

 

[cogreen]

So I did a quick (ad-hoc) test of my in-line shower water filter... It removes about 50% of the PPM from my tap water (e.g. 80PPM down to 40PPM). Good enough for me given how cheap / fast it is. I also let my water sit for at least 48hrs uncapped before using, but I don't think this is necessary in my case.

BTW -- totally agree with your comment to Camo on prepping for your first grow. I suspect my initial start-up costs could have been reduced by 1/3 had I known WTF I was doing and invested in the real-deal rather than trying DIY hack something myself.... IMO some things are fine for DIY, other's just aren't worth it.

Have a good one bro!

 

[Camo420Grow]

Thanks cogreen, exactly what I'm trying to do. Get good products that work. Exsct,y why I thought bout the zero water instead of a expensive RO unit. But think Mr smart grouchy here blew my mind with how fast the filters would go out, so now I'm like hmm expensive RO unit or blow money on filters for the zero water filtration. Gonna see how like these zero water filters last our ole friend grouchy

 

[Grouchy]

So I did a quick (ad-hoc) test of my in-line shower water filter... It removes about 50% of the PPM from my tap water (e.g. 80PPM down to 40PPM). Good enough for me given how cheap / fast it is. I also let my water sit for at least 48hrs uncapped before using, but I don't think this is necessary in my case.

BTW -- totally agree with your comment to Camo on prepping for your first grow. I suspect my initial start-up costs could have been reduced by 1/3 had I known WTF I was doing and invested in the real-deal rather than trying DIY hack something myself.... IMO some things are fine for DIY, other's just aren't worth it.

Have a good one bro!

hey BUDdy!

sorry ive been MIA. That's pretty good though. I'd say that's low enough PPMs to use for watering for sure. I don't think the PPM need to be at zero before adding nutes. As long as they're low id say. I'm still using the zero water filter though. I've ran well past the 15 gallons it's rated for and the PPM has only risen to 003.

That's exactly what I was talking about though! 1/3 of your initial costs is a big chunk in my opinion. I don't even want to know how much I've wasted on my first grow's (20g or less).

I appreciate the help CoGreen!

Thanks cogreen, exactly what I'm trying to do. Get good products that work. Exsct,y why I thought bout the zero water instead of a expensive RO unit. But think Mr smart grouchy here blew my mind with how fast the filters would go out, so now I'm like hmm expensive RO unit or blow money on filters for the zero water filtration. Gonna see how like these zero water filters last our ole friend grouchy

How goes it camo?!

When I find a new home, I'm going to bite the bullet and get an RO filter. It might be expensive up front but it's one of those investments that will prevent a lot of problems in the future which I'm ALWAYS down for. But like you said, let's see how long the zero filters last me. Also, quick side note. The zero filters have the tiniest hole to filter out of so to fill a 1/2 gallon jug, it takes about 15 minutes. The zero filter is more hassle than helpful. It's working, but it requires too much patience/money to be efficient.

 

[Grouchy]

UPDATE: DAY 4 of Flower

Hey everyone!

Well sorry I've been missing in action for a while. I had a busy weekend and to top it off, yesterday I hurt my back. I went to put on deodorant and when I lifted my arm, my back locked up so now I'm having fun laying still not moving for about 24 hours now. Deep breathing hurts so taking bong rips is not fun. I have a little bit of cannabutter in my refrigerator so maybe I'll eat some of that. Taste like Hell but it does the job.

On to the plant!!

Plants
.....Synopsis: I have a total of 3 females now and the 2 males were exiled. I removed almost all green ties from the training as the plant has stiffened up and is holding its position now. I gave all 3 plants a haircut from top to bottom. Anything that was blocking a node site, I clipped off unless I could tuck it under. The plant is technically still in it's stretch period but I have my desired height now so no worries there. I currently have no plant problems to report which means my flush worked from my last update. No more leaves have been damaged from that leaf problem I had. The spread was contained.

.....Nirvana Mystery #1
..........Growth: so, because I trained the main branches down, all the secondary lateral branches are shooting up and it now looks like it has about 30 tops. I thought it would be a fun experiment to see what it would produce opposed to the untrained Mystery #2.

..........Problems/Concerns: I definitely have a Nitrogen toxicity as you can see from "the claw." This seems to be a problem for me on every grow but it hasn't exactly affected my yield in a negative way that I can remember. BUT, from what I've read, this can cause a reduced yield. That's a no go. I'll be researching how to correct the problem since I'm using a 1 part feeding solution. Any help on this matter would be appreciated.

.....Northern Lights Fem.
..........Growth: I've had to raise this plant on a stand because the short height in its genetics compared to the 2 sativa dominant ones. It is very bushy and is going to need a good haircut as soon as I have time.

..........Problems/Concerns: Light penetration is going to be my biggest problem here. I'll have to keep the Northern Lights nice and trimmed so all the buds get light. My last grow showed me that any node covered, will stay light green and barely smokable. I don't intend to lose any weight on my harvest if I can avoid it.

.....Nirvana Mystery #2
..........Growth: #2 has been a perfect specimen besides the small leaf problem from my last update. Since then, there has been no spreading of the "ugly leaf" as I call it since I never identified the problem what it exactly was. All the colas will be fairly uniform in size as they are supposed to be.

..........Problems/Concerns: N/A

Water
.....Nutrients: I've been feeding at 75% strength which is equal to 6 ml/gal. I feel that 100% has been harsh and caused a few problems for me. If I had to guess though, that was because I wasn't testing my runoff which was out of whack in both pH and TDS.

.....pH: I haven't been testing runoff like I should. If I would have, I would have noticed my pH was low which could of caused some nutrient lockout leading to some of the problems I've had which have been minimal. I flushed about 5 gallons (of pHed water) through each plant and that seemed to have cleared it up. The runoff is at a 6.0 when I water now. After the flush, I gave them a feeding of the 25% strength.

.....TDS: My runoff was also very hot. The TDS was sitting at 1500 ppm. From now on, I'll be feeding twice, then flushing once, then repeating. For some reason, I'm getting a build up of leftover nutrients. This may be due to the soil drying out fast and the nutrients not being sucked up by the plant in time.

Environment
.....Humidity: It has rained a few times in the past weeks so the humidity has been a little higher than normal but nothing crazy. Right now, I think I'm sitting at about 45 to 50% average.

.....Temperature: because it has been raining the past few days, I've not Randy AC. I also live in a two-story house so the upstairs gets hotter than the downstairs often. Without running the AC, the temperatures have been getting up to about 85F in my grow space. This only went on for about two days before I noticed and close the vents and redirected the air upstairs. I'm back below 80F now.

.....Bugs, Pests, & Mold: My fungus gnat problem does not seem to be going away. I have yet to order the mosquito dunks or other plant safe pesticides but I think I'll do that now after this post.

.....Lights: On the Mystery #1 (plant on the left), I have the lights about 12 inches away. On the Mystery #2 (plant on the right), I did no training to shorten them like I did on the left side so it is about 6 inches away from the lights. I'm curious to see if I get any burnt tips. The middle plant is the Northern lights and its sitting at about 12 inches from the lights as well.
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[Camo420Grow]

Dang grouch that S is lookin wicked man! You really do have some skills with training. Glad to have you back & hope your back heals up brother. Don't need you out of commission, love your grow to much. I'm also curious to see what you find out about your N toxicity because I'm following exactly how you feed with flora nova bloom and calmag in my grow when I start it. Also dang you really did trim the girls down !!! Did you cut everything except the tops?

 

[Grouchy]

In the doctors office now. I couldn't resist getting on 420mag

Thanks camo!

I'll post later about the N problem again.

Those 2 pictures with nothing on them that are completely bare are the 2 males.

 

[Camo420Grow]

heck yeah man, I love this place. I'm on here daily since I joined and just constantly reading. I got a couple more months before I'm done with active and back home so just waiting waiting and reading reading lol. I already got a good amount of grow stuff waiting at home, haha wife may be mad but that's the first thing i think I'm gonna do when I get home

Ohh so you just trimmed the males up to throw out ? And sounds great about the knowledge, always love hearing from you and your thoughts on things

 

[Katatonia]

plants look amazing Grouchy ! , it is a bit difficult to keep the light penetration good with northern lights , they r too bushy , mine seem like always in need for trimming and i fear overdoing it , i cut some leaves every week but that seems to slow the bud's growth a bit.
Anyways i was thinking that in my next grow i'm definitely gonna grow some sativa dominant hybrids , with a northern lights plant also , now i imagine the problem will be keeping an equal canopy for all the plants , and that will need alot of training for the sativas , i'll definitely be learning alot from ur journal here , and i hope u get some great yields afterall , ur doing a great job man , totally artistic

 

[glimmergrass]

I LOVE the s curve on that one plant, WS! Really piques my interest in the topiary cannabis arts All your girls seem bursting with exuberant flowering energy, gnats notwithstanding