Budlovski's First LED & Bubble Bucket Grow

[TassieDevil]

Hey mate,

Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful day


Nice journal too mate...good info and convo....all coming along

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Thanks Tassie!
Merry Christmas to you to my friend!
Hope you have a superb day mate you deserve it

And a merry Australian Christmas to everyone else who is behind our timezone following along this journal

Ps there won't be any updates today haha

 

[Jack Dabs]

Happy xmas sir Bud, hope you having a great one. All the best for your grow and exciting adventures in the new year.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

So thought I might get on with some info on my grow and day haha
Spent a majority of the day in and out of bed recovering from my fine form drinking and celebrating lastnight. Safe to say the next day is why I hardly drink anymore but considering I havnt been proper drunk and have hardly drank in about 2 years, I held my own yesterday and did well to keep going to 4:30AM. Must be the Nordic Viking blood in me I think haha

Anyways checked SC today to check how she handled her time without me and she's still going good, she may have got abit cold during the night since I left the exhaust going but she's good.
Her seed leaves have been trimmed away to avoid an issue with rot since they were sitting so low in the net cup but they were nearly dead anyways.
I also found out today that at such a small and young stage that this SC is already starting to get a yummy smell to her, quiet a berry weed smell to her
That's it for now folks, hope everyone's days have been great

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Well air pump has officially sh#t itself,I have added my smaller back up one to the system now.
so I've decided rather then spend my money on a new one,I might go to the coco setup a little earlier then I thought, ill get it all transplant SC to the coco mix, then I will start a couple of autos to go along for the ride aswell.

A question if anyone's willing, for the coco I'm unsure on pots should I just use normal pots or try get some airports?

This will work out better since Mrs hassles me about electricity being used so scratching the pump will ease things up on that front, peace of mind for myself will also be better not going in and out getting water for the setup.
I'm going to hold onto all the bubblebucket gear I've collected, I'd just much rather go back to something more like soil but also slightly similar to dwc.

I'm going to be buying canna coco and most likely the canna coco a+b nutes, I hoping ill still be able to use some of my AN nutes for coco but ill wait till I get there for that.

I'm quiet excited to have the extra space when I can take the bucket out for the pure fact I have lots of seeds I'm wanting to try and one at a time isn't me, I also have clones getting close to roots that are going to need some of the space haha

Anyways any advice on the coco side of things is truely and greatly appreciated :thumbs:

 

[DrewDrop]

Regular pots will be fine, just drill a good bit of holes in the bottom so water doesn't collect. Im sorry to hear about your air pump and I hate that dwc Didn't work out for you.

This is just a suggestion, ive never grown in coco but I have grown in my own rendition of what I think coco grows should be like. I dodnt use straight coco but rather just a super aerated soil. I mix a super soil and use tons of peat moss and sand. This way the pot drains just as quickly as with coco but the soil has nutrients so you don't have to bottle feed every time you water. I would give mine a little Fox farm every few days and she grew great. I felt like it was cheaper than coco because I didnt have to buy new nutrients or use very much nutrients and I already had good soil and peat moss and I used sand from my gravel driveway so my start up costs were basically none.

Just wanted to throw that out there. Best of luck buddy, whatever you do.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Thanks Drewdrop!

That's good to know cause I have alot of normal pots lying around haha and can save the airpot idea till the next round of growing.
Its dissapointed me aswell, I feel strongly about revisiting it in the future I'm just going to make sure I have quality equipment and more buckets!

Thanks for this info aswell, I will use the coco and the sand sounds good and I've seen a few people using, also most likely will use about 20% perlite or so, first go I might stick with standard coco and nutes and then the next time around do a good mixture of like your suggesting, since is really like to look into some of the self feeding soil type of grows haha

 

[DrewDrop]

Absolutely bro! Its all about trying new things and seeing what you like best. Ive done hydro and soil and now am experimenting with scrog ands led so it's a constant learning curve.

Keep us posted

 

[Sir Budlovski]

That's how it works with the growing I think mate
Think soil well, coco suits me best since its like soil but I can just use nutes to keep that side simple haha, yeah this would be my first time led not that I've had the chance to use them yet, same goes for scrog when it gets to that point. I go in room my everyday and see that damn scrog net and leds doing nothing right now but not long haha
Its amazing how many different little styles there is in indoor growing these days

Update:

Well I ordered my Canna coco and canna coco a+b, however since its a holiday season which I forgot, it seems it could take a few days for it to be sent.
Now I'm really hoping SC can deal with the wait, with the small airpump I may have to move her to a small temporary bucket!

Today I went and bought some perlite to add to the coco, some propagation sand which people reckon is good to use as a top layer to prevent gnats in coco and I also got some powder Fillmore lime as a back up but with the Canna range I don't think I should need it too much, will wait and see on that front though.

I feel as though I have everything I need, well once I get the canna stuff I will anyway, may look for some proper ph down at some stage but it can wait for now haha

 

[Jack Dabs]

I answered your question on my thread but posting here too in case you missed it, the airpots I am using are 6l and my mix is 75/25% coco perlite mix. I think you will love cococ, sorry to hear about the DWC problems but may be a blessing in disguise. Thats how I feel from my move from soil, still loving coco despite the calmag (i think) problems.

Mine have shot up but at the same time kept quite a short bushy/stocky shape without any training and I am wondering if the GLR has anything to do with that. Seriously man I recon next time i am going to do first two weeks of GLR then 2 weeks 18/6 then put them into flower.

Personally I think it sets up the root system beautifully and then gives them a chance to have loads of light in a normal veg schedule before flowering. Obviously things will be different if you do auto's but for photo girls I will definitely run that experiment in full in the future. Could even do 10 days of GLR and 18 days veg. Wish you all the best with everything mate, so far my experience just with canna coco, canna ab nutes and calmag have been great and really simple. Oh sorry and a tiny bit - about 1ml of ph down as I am in a hard water area.

 

[DrewDrop]

Canna coco.... thats just fun to say

The GLR is very interesting. I wonder who thought of that and how? Ive always been a firm believer that nature does it best, so I try to replicate nature the best can in my grow tent. GLR goes against all of that so my 2 cents would be that by doing GLR your just stressing your plants and not giving them all the light they need. Plants need light to make energy...(less light= less energy) But I havent researched it in length and ive never done it so I cant really say, im just stoned and rambling. Ill look more into the subject later

 

[Jack Dabs]

yeah Drew Drop, I did quite a bit of reading upon it too before my first grow and many swore by it. I tried it on my first grow and it worked well. My main reason was heat problems so it was purely logistical.

On this grow between the airpots and GLR I just got the most ridiculous root system in such a short period of time I had to attribute it to the combination of both. My last grow was 12/12 from seed and the roots were not nearly as big or plentiful and they were in the same size pots. in fact the root ball when i harvested was pretty puny and so was the grow. 2 ounces in total from 4 plants. I did 2 that were 88% sativa so I was expecting slightly better. I agree with trying to replicate nature as much as possible but really there is not much that is natural about growing in a tent in my bedroom so I figured play around and see how they respond. From what i have read GLR gives more dark time to focus on root development and damage repair. I honestly thought I was mad that I kept noticing more growth after lights off than lights on. Seems to defy logic but others have noticed the same thing.

I am happy to be the guinea pig on it and it is definitely something i want to try. Get the root system established with GLR for 10 days and then 18 days of 18 hour light (nice symmetry there). I definitely see the logic that it could be additional stress to the plant but they are hardy buggers and seen some seriously stressed plants do great on this forum. Then you see the hermie stories and think oh shite better not do that, then see others get amazing results doing the same thing. Suppose thats what makes it interesting and frustrating sometimes in equal measure. Haha who's rambling now?

I just figured I may have stumbled onto something (more arse than class) that looking at things may work quite well and I love experimenting so keen to see how it goes. truth be told I wold love to make things as natural as possible for the poor girls but until I can do that I am happy to just wing it and hope the best. So long as each run is an improvement on the last I am happy.

 

[Jack Dabs]

Canna coco.... thats just fun to say

The GLR is very interesting. I wonder who thought of that and how? Ive always been a firm believer that nature does it best, so I try to replicate nature the best can in my grow tent. GLR goes against all of that so my 2 cents would be that by doing GLR your just stressing your plants and not giving them all the light they need. Plants need light to make energy...(less light= less energy) But I havent researched it in length and ive never done it so I cant really say, im just stoned and rambling. Ill look more into the subject later

Please don't quote me on this and I could completely cock up the story but I heard somewhere (and vaguely remember) that it went back to old farming days, where some farmers were having problems, cant remember if it was animal pests or thieves or what? It resulted in the farmers going out in the middle of the night with gas lanterns to check on their crops and then ended up bewildered as to why their crops stayed in a constant state of veg, until they figured out that their lanterns were causing it.

Probably worth looking into it to see if thats true or a stoner myth to get some insight but it does seem to make sense.

 

[DrewDrop]

Thats an interesting theory.
Im interested to look through some journals and see what kind of results people have had. Im all about trying new things and experimenting so there's a good chance that ill try it myself one of these days. Im currently waiting on my LED to arrive and thats new to me so im taking it one experiment at a time

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Thanks for the input and convo on here fellas, good to read while my gardens at what is call abit of a stand still atm Haha
Heard back from the people I ordered coco and nutes and they said couriers won't be running till the 5th of jan, damn it..

Thanks for that jack dabs think I'm going to use roughly the same mixture of coco and perlite, from what I've read its a good mix for coco, i may even put a small layer of mixed hydroton and perlite at the bottoms of pots.
So have you used the canna coco dabs? Just wondering because I'm not sure if I should mix some dolomite into the mix before planting or if that will mess up the nutes which already have abit of extra cal/mag?

As for this GLR I'm finding the theories on it quiet interesting and its definately one topic I havnt done a whole lot of reading on at this point in time. Personally ive done alot of the LST, small grows, outdoor grows and cfl and auto growing that's where my experience is thus far but the next 2 of my grows will be plain 18/6-20/4 and plain old 12/12 for flowering just while I build my confidence with LEDs, coco and scrog and also finish off with all my auto seeds. If things are good after that I think ill do some good reading and maybe look what comparisons, yields and fem/hermie ratio results people are getting and I might even give it abit of a go.

Haha it is isn't it Drewdrop, since I saw the canna products they caught my eye but now canna coco, its hard to past that haha

Also all the rambles are welcome here gives everyone learning something extra to educate themselves on with the journal

I'm glad your willing to put your hand up as the guinea pig jack, ill be able to watch journal read a few others and at the time I am willing ill be able to decide if that's what I want, I believe airports and coco/perlite should send your roots berserk let alone adding the GLR so will be good anyways all this experimenting happening at this point in time haha I imagine most people would but fem seeds would definately be the way to go on that type of experiment haha
And that's one help of a crazy story there, I have heard of similar things happening with people who have plants under streetlamps or windows where it takes the plants a long time to flower, or sometimes just refuse to.

Gotta say though atm I'm with Drewdrop at keeping it one well in my case probably 1-3 experiments at a time, but each new grow comes with urges to try another new experiment or style haha

Hope your gardens ate a beautiful shade of green and your days/nights in your lands are going well my brother's in growing haha

 

[Khraevyn]

So sad you had to give up on the Hydro. Hopefully you can get this show turned around and still get some good buds. I'm loving the comments and suggestions people are throwing out there. Wish you the best of luck brother!!

~K~

 

[Jack Dabs]

Agreed guys definitely worth keeping the experiments down to a minimum per grow otherwise you end up not knowing what the hell is giving you the results - good or bad.

Hope you enjoy the LED's drew, can't wait to start getting one of them too.

Yeah I am using the canna range of coco and not that I have any experience with it but it looks clean and good quality to me. Airpots are such a pain with water spewing out the holes and making a complete mess of the tent. With coco there is none of that. Only a minor annoyance but to me I would rather water every day than having to clean up the mess every time I water.

I have read that re-using coco helps with the cal/mag problem although I don't remember why -sorry. Personally I would do some reading up on the dolomite and anything else that may help with the calmag problem from the start. If you can avoid deficiencies from the start it would make things so much easier and hopefully your plants will never get sick. Prevention better than treatment. The canna ab nutes seem to be doing their job and if you look at the chart cal/mag seems to have a narrow ph range for absorbsing it but in saying that my ph is 5.8 and run off is almost the same so not quite sure why? Perhaps the canna coco range still needs a bit of supplementing with additional calmag. I am keen to try and re-use it and see what a difference it makes. I am grateful that from what i have read cal/mg is not something that is easy to overdose the girls on so I figure I will just add a very small amount to every feeding from now on and see how that goes.

I just really need to figure out what the hell I am going to do in my grow, want to scrog but plants are already stretching and left it too late but fighting with 4 stocky plants is what got me into this mess. We will see if the cal mag issue comes right and you could definitely avoid any mistakes I have made. I also still haven't culled the runt and she is improving which makes it harder, also she is the only one that is topped and the side by side comparison is tempting me to keep her.

May have painted myself into a very green corner

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Thanks for your kind words khraevyn
Don't worry i'll be giving the bucket a go another time, maybe a smaller red so I have more space and can still have some coco plants in there aswell haha, I will get everything turned around however I would of liked to have budding plants a lot closer then where I am now but I guess sh#t happens sometimes ill rebound withh a nice colorful buds of auto red poison, auto bloody skunk and also my fem strawberry cough! So by the end of Jan I predict a very nice and happy garden growing haha

I hear you on that one Jack, cleaning up seated mess in a tent is pain so watering every day is nothing compared to wasted runoff everywhere!

I did abit of reading lastnight but like always there's conflicting info everywhere, some people reckon with canna they get no problems at all some say they get defs so I'm think from what I've read when I flush the coco before use ill put abit of dolomite in the water and see how I go.
That's my prob though dolomite can raise ph but canna a+b are buffered so it will still be a little playing around and researching but less forgiving then my dwc attempt haha I'm usually spot on with identifying an oncoming issue with my more soil plants nowadays to so I'm hoping the experience I have will get my coco grow tearing along
The hard overdosing factor info is much appreciated I didn't know that and that info will come in handy!

The reuse is another reason I looked towards coco, ii have seen people say that after 2 uses its not real good for weed but you can throw it on the outdoor flower/vege garden anyways
Think the key with coco from what I've read is preflushes new and on reuse and also every third watering or so feed straight water to help avoid salt/nutes build up.
It always hard when a runt does that but if they show good signs I usually let them go, even my papaya outside that's abit dodgy but on its way back won't be given up on haha, not sure what you can do bud maybe you can just do a LST TYPE thing if you have space of course, could be abit late for a proper scrog but you could always use the net just to seperate the ladies a little haha

 

[Jack Dabs]

Yeah I think you right the screen is just going to be there for support and separation rather than a proper scrog, I am having real trouble with the idea of culling her. I will take some pics tonight so you will see what I mean soon enough.

As for the coco, if you are doing well in soil you should rock coco mate. I recon a lot depends on the type of water used. A lot of peeps use RO water and things like that whereas I just use tap water which in my area is very high ph. In soil I just could not get it right and my ph was all over the place. Now with a tiny bit of ph down with every feeding the ph is near perfect consistently.

Sooooo that is very interesting that I was supposed to flush the coco before use - doh!! That could be the cause of my problems. In fact it probably is because I didn't flush the perlite either. Seems coco is still forgiving though and the problems are minor and hopefully on their way to being resolved. I recon yours will be spot on with the reading you have done and what seems like a real commitment to getting things right. Can't wait to see your plants in a happy healthy environment. I do also hope you try the DWC again in the future but for now you will find coco really easy in comparison.

Keen to follow your progress and we can compare notes along the way.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Yeah dabs everything I've read says no mattr what coco give it a flush I don't think what your using would be as bad as the ones that really need flushing, mainly salts that get in it I think.

Just thought I'd share this info we have weather over 40℃ atm which is say over 105℉ for everything else, so tents sitting at mid to high 80s atm.
This is the trouble trying to save energy but also keep an indoor cool in the summer time here haha
Outdoors dont get real effective but ill have to keep ontop of water those ladies, one of them had a fair bit of nute burn when I got around to checking her last week but a whole lot of water and she's looking a lot better.
SC is still looking alright but starting to show little signs of lack of 02 and heat but I'm quiet sure she should be good by the time coco gets here.
All my clones except maybe 2 have perished with the on and off again sway in climate aswell.

Hope all is well with everyone else grows