A58dguy's - Deep Water Culture - Skunk Haze - Grow Journal - 2014

[a58dguy]

Mid week update. I'm glad to say at this time I now have 3 plants up and running!.....just not how I expected...I'll get to it. Anyways things are going good. The plants are are growing like weeds....lol and seem to be enjoying the 1st week of nutes. The PH has been holding steady at 5.8. Another advantage of the "fill port" I use it as a marking stake for plant rotation. I rotate once a day so the plants have a chance of even lights. Both big plants have well established roots so expect some root porn shots on Sat when I clean the tanks.

Current conditions from this morning. When the pics were taken the lights had been on for just over 1 hour. The P300 is hanging at 20' and the Tao is at 18'

She is so close to popping up, and she is the reason the P300 is at 20' until she is up and established.

This is the "Tao" she is right at 5' and seems to be doing just fine.

And here is the P300. Again she is 1 day younger than the other, but I don't think you will be able to tell much longer. She is right at 3' but has as many nodes as her taller sister.
So at the beginning of the thread I spoke of 3 plants being up...did you see it?

I found her this morning....and I hate to say I'm going to have to cut her out, but unless anyone knows a decent "plant surgeon" I don't think I can keep it that close to the other established plant....The seeds were placed directly into the rockwool on the 2nd of Nov and she just now sprung....it does give me hope for my slow going critical still attempting to break out completely. Anyways I hope you enjoy, and expect more on Sat. Take it easy guys/gals.

 

[PlatinumLED]

Looking good!! Nice to see some beautiful (and hopefully..) girls with their legs underneath them


One observation in the Tao va Platinum plants.. while that Tao sprout popped earlier and was off and running a day ahead with a stretch.. the Platinum's thickness of the main stem, tightness of internodal growth, level of advancement at the budding sites/nodes and overall health seem to be already on a different level.. at least from the pics.

 

[Khraevyn]

Looks like everything is happy and healthy. Whatever you're doing, keep it up!!

 

[a58dguy]

Another Saturday morning means 1 more week of growth. Even better news, my "Princess" finally decided to join the party yesterday which puts her exactly 2 weeks younger than the other 2. Hopefully she takes off quickly. Anyways here are a few quick shots from earlier. I will be adding more throughout the day. The biggest change is the water level. I only added 4 gallons to the P300 and I want to monitor how she does with the reduced levels....last grow when I attempted to keep the water below the basket the plants never responded well to it, which led me to keeping the water level high the entire grow... which I do believe is part of the "root rot" battle that I would like to avoid this time. Thanks again for following along so far, and I'm throwing some "throw back" pics in just to serve as a comparison...

Good morning "Ladies"

Here is the fem'd Critical from Royal Seeds

And these are my 1st attempt at growing/hydro/anything. This is their 2 week photo, so I'd like to think I'm going in the right direction as a grower. Take it easy and more pics will be up soon.

 

[a58dguy]

So here are a few more pics of the 2 bigger plants. They both had their water changed and buckets cleaned. They both were given 4 gallons with 50% strength week 2 nutes per GH recommended dosage. I'm having to deal with the lower humidity from the cold weather...may be getting a humidifier if needed. Other than that the conditions are those as seen in the previous pics. The PH has been locked at 5.8. I'm very happy with the growth in both so far. I need to read more into topping, I feel I will be approaching that time soon.

Here is the TAO, getting big, roots look good, seems to enjoy the full spectrum at this point. No complaints

Here is the P300. She is now equal to if not larger than the older plant, her stalk quite thick and looks very strong. Her undergrowth is looking great as well. I know its early but at this point it is obvious the P300 is off to an early lead.

So thats it for now, I'll update if I feel the need to add more water, but other than that expect the mid-week "Turkey Special" update on Wed. Take it easy everyone.

 

[nofene]

Nice work, subbed!

 

[Khraevyn]

looking good> Wish I could get some growth like that going

 

[a58dguy]

Alright week 2.5/.5 update is here. The plants are looking good, getting bigger, and starting to smell...a lot. Here are pics from a few minutes ago during a smoke session with the plants(my secret growing technique).

Here is the current arrangement. The Tao is now at 12' above her and I will be maintaining that until I post otherwise. The P300 was raised to 16' above the older plant 21' the new one. The light was at 13' and she started to show signs of light stress on her leaves. I will maintaining 16' until posted otherwise.

Tent conditions, the RH has come up, the 88 was a very momentary peak in temp. The PH of all three has been constant 5.7-6.0

Here is "Princess" she is now 1/2 week old and growing fast. No exposed roots yet.

Here is "RHSC" or Red Headed Step Child...due to the extra red full spectrum she's in under the Taotronic...lol I said I just had a session....Back on track she's doing really well at 2.5 weeks she is 7' tall good white roots. No complaints

And last but not least here is "Doobie" Just like her sis she is 2.5 weeks old 6' tall with multiple nodes, lots of strong roots and a very healthy stout stalk. She has had a rough couple of days, when I changed the water on Sat and lowered the levels to 4gal I couldn't stop myself from giving her more water not wanting her to suffer from not have enough...she did not like that at all. I checked on her at 10 that night and all leaves were sagging low...her PH had spiked to almost 7. I lowered her water back to the 4gal mark and brought the ph back to 5.6 and hoped she would make it through the night. The next morning she was doing better, I did change and clean her reservoir that morning and put her back on the same nutes and PH of 5.8 she has continued to improve to what you see now, and as mentioned earlier based on the slight leaf curl I raised the P300 from approx 13.5' to 16 and will be watching. So thanks for keeping up, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and this has been an "interesting" week on this site... I believe it was Col Finest who said it best "if I pissed you off...smoke a joint and chill out" take it easy.

 

[b.real]

they're growing well. good job.

 

[PlatinumLED]

[..] and as mentioned earlier based on the slight leaf curl I raised the P300 from approx 13.5' to 16 and will be watching.

Interesting.. although.. too much intensity of the light (from what we've seen and been reported to) will not cause leaf curling.. it will usually cause leaf sag and general droopiness. I would be looking for other culprits besides the panel distance..

Beautiful job though!! It's hard to believe that those are the same little baby sprouts that we in the photos from just a bit ago! Amazing.

Happy Turkey Day, friend.. and thank you for the support..

 

[b.real]

downward leaf curling is usually due to nitrogen toxicity and upward leaf curling is usually due to heat stress. if a plant is weakened it will be more vulnerable to heat and other stressors. droopiness with soft leaves and stems is its own condition.

 

[a58dguy]

Just a quick update, I decided to top both of the big girls. I just pushed the tips til they snapped off, it seemed easy enough. We will see how it goes. Happy Thanksgiving

 

[PlatinumLED]

downward leaf curling is usually due to nitrogen toxicity and upward leaf curling is usually due to heat stress. if a plant is weakened it will be more vulnerable to heat and other stressors. droopiness with soft leaves and stems is its own condition.

Just curious.. have you worked with LEDs before?

 

[PirateBob]

Hey mate, looking good. Thanks for not taking all the pictures with the purple light on.

I am thinking about adding some LED for my next grow and watching this with interest.

 

[b.real]

Just curious.. have you worked with LEDs before?

not yet. I'm just reciting plant biology.

 

[PlatinumLED]

not yet. I'm just reciting plant biology.

All good

One thing when working with LEDs is the fact that they're EXTREMELY intense.. and much more intense that you realize. It's kind of like how you can get a sunburn on a cloudy day.. and even though it doesn't look sunny, you're still getting some massive amount of rays unknowingly. LED grow lights (Ours, at least..) deliver a serious amount of very tuned in light. So much so, that you can overpower the plant if you're not careful. This is why we recommend for any age of plant, when you introduce our lights to plants that have been under a different lighting source to acclimate them first by using the veg only switch at a distance of 24" for the first day. Then.. once they're happy with the increased intensity.. drop them down.. go for full blast..

The main thing we tell of our users is to watch the plants and in particular, the leaves when you first introduce the lights to them. They should be all facing directly towards the light and reaching for it. If they shy away.. or get a general droop/unhappiness to them, this can be a sign that they're not happy with the increased intensity.

Being as that the surface temps of the diodes are far less than that of an HPS bulb, you normally don't see the upward curling from heat stress like you do with HID lights. A more common sign of light stress is the above.. with the droop/leaves facing away..

 

[b.real]

gotcha. I'll keep that in mind when I hang my led fixture. thank you

 

[a58dguy]

Week 3 down! The plants are all doing well, biggest change is that I did top both larger plants on Thursday, other than that things are about the same. I just changed the water on 2 older plants and will be doing the little one tomorrow. Basic info is as follows, the Tao is maintaining 12' above the plant while the P300 is at 16'/22' for the other 2. The conditions are as shown and not much else new to report.

They are all loving the light, other than rotating the lids, a few smoke/music sessions with the plants and keeping the PH between 5.7-6.0 no other secrets. I have been running Aquashield in the tanks as well.

Here is the nute schedule that I am following(per gallon), the big girls are always a week behind. They are now 3 weeks old and I just started them on the week 3 dosage, whereas the little one is on track with the schedule, she will start her week 2 dosage tomorrow.

Speak of the devil. Here she is at 1 week old. Stout and healthy, no root porn yet...

Here is "RHSC" she is now 9' and growing strong.

That leaves us with Doobie, she is 8' and has lots of undergrowth. She had another hard week fighting with nute/light levels so we will see how this week goes, she really calmed down and is looking quite strong.
Thanks again for keeping up.

 

[a58dguy]

I can never make up my mind... But I think this is the best overall plan until I know the sex of the bigger 2. It's obvious the Tao works enough, so I think the critical will do just fine. It's supposed to be a short strain(1m) so best case the 2 older are both female and will share the benefit of the p300 at an even canopy. And the critical can have the Tao solely especially if the other 2 continue their vertical growth.

 

[PlatinumLED]

(Let's not forget that you have the Tao sitting right next to the Platinum. That other plant is getting plenty bathed in the PLED light.. especially with the height you have it at.. )