Mono's 600 Watt HPS Soil Grow 2013

[Mono]

Hello guys, to my second indoor grow.

I will be starting off from seed using the strain Double Berry. They are a mainly indica strain (Northern Lights x Sweet tooth) with a relatively average flowering time of around 8 weeks. The plants are currently in the 4th week of vegetative growth.

They are being grown indoors under 200 actual watts of CFL and will be flowered under a 600 watt hps. Both flowering and Vegetative areas are grow tents (more on that later) I will be using canna terra professional plus soil - White peat, coir and composted bark to which I have added approx 10% perlite. The NPK of soil is 12/14/24. I will be using canna terra nutrients - Vega for vegetative growth NPK 30/10/40 and Flores for flowering NPK 20/20/40.

 

[Mono]

I germinated the 5 seeds using the paper towel method on 01/02/2013. After 18 hours in the paper towel four of the five seeds had a small root showing so I decided to plant them into their peat blocks and place them under the humidity dome to break ground.

 

[420fied]

Good luck with your grow Mono. Any NL cross is good so you should be satisfied with the 'fruit' of your labor.

May all your buds be dense.

 

[Mono]

Thanks for your input buddy. I'm really excited about this one, already smelling very fruity

 

[420fied]

I couldn't help but notice your location.

"Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace!"

My favorite movie of all time.

 

[Mono]

By 05/02/13 they were ready to be planted into their first pots, (note the slow growth on the plant at the back) I had lack of space on this one as I was waiting on my veg tent arriving so the only option was a tiny little cupboard with a 65watt cfl in there. Far from ideal conditions and too small to plant them into their final pots. I feel this did stunt their growth a little during the first week or so but nothing too drastic.

They were transplanted twice over the next five days into increasingly larger pots, more of a chore than anything else and not too sure if the stress of transplanting will have outweighed the benefits of allowing the roots to continue growing. Once the tent finally arrived on the 10th they were able to be planted into their final pots. (10 liter / 2.1 gallon pots).

In the new tent after being transplanted into 10 liter pots -

Setting up the vegetative tent was a lot of fun and games and an all round massive experiment. I was looking for a relatively simple set up to start with so i experimented using a 16 inch oscillating fan blowing in through one of the lower vents for the intake and used a vent at the top of the tent as a passive exhaust. Since it's a relatively small tent and I'm only using compact florescent's in there it seems to work rather well, temps are a constant 24.5 degrees Celsius and relative humidity hovers between 50 and 65 percent. I added in a 6 inch clip on oscillating fan to stir the air inside the tent 24 hours a day. Everything seems to be working very well. There is just enough space in the tent for 4 plants at a time since my partner has a shelving unit in there which she uses to start off our vegetables for the greenhouse.

 

[Mono]

Has anyone got any experience in using canna terra pro plus soil for rooting clones?

 

[Mono]

So, lets take a quick look at what we will be using as the flowering room. It's a grow tent 120cm x 120cm x 200cm. A floor space of 16 square feet and a total area of 104 cubic feet. Inside there is a 600 watt hps with reflector. A carbon filter hung from the roof followed by around 1 ft of ducting, connected to that is a extractor fan with a 200 cfm rating followed by around 4 feet of ducting into a home made silencer. All of the ducting and the fan is wrapped in 12 inches of loft insulation to lower the noise. Intake is two 16 inch oscillating fans blowing in through one of the bottom vents, they are inside a home made light box. Venting is into the same room as the tent is in however I ran it for the last two weeks of my last grow and with a window open the temps are very controllable. I may, however, need to invest in a larger fan and a fan controller.

Scrubber -

Scrubber and hood -

Base of tent -

Whole tent at a slant for some reason lol -

 

[Mono]

Hopefully a few more people may jump in and show some interest in this journal, could really use some tips or input from some more experienced growers...

On the 11/02/2013 the plants were fertilized for the first time at 1/10 manufacturers recommended strength. 0.5 milliliters of Canna terra vega per liter of water. Approximately two liters per plant. They responded very well to this which was to be expected, have had some very good results with canna products.

I began low stress training on the 14/02/13. The smallest of the 4 plants was still to small to do anything with, I had been toying for a while about just pulling the plug on her, however since I have the space at the moment she is safe.

I noticed today that the pesky fungus gnats from my last grow have returned, fairly sure they have come in on the miracle grow soil my wife is using for the vegetables, unless they were hiding in the carpet or something. If anyone has any information on how to control fungus gnats would be fantastic, or a way to get rid of them all together would be even better.

As always, any comments and input are very much appreciated. Thanks, Mono

 

[TaylorMade420]

looking good mate

 

[Mono]

looking good mate

Cheers mate. Nice to see another grower on here from my neck of the woods. Had a look at your journal there, You going to be running 1200 watt hps or...?

 

[TaylorMade420]

thats an old grow mate, just started a new one

 

[Mono]

This morning my clones showed roots through the peat blocks, will update with some more pics later on if my internet will let me.

 

[BIGBADBAZ]

hey atb with your grow lad everything is lookin a,ok lol! as alwayz nuff respect.....

 

[Mono]

Since I have a separate veg and flowering room this grow I decided to experiment with taking some clones of the most vigorous plant to save me having to buy more seeds. The seeds they are grown from are feminized so in theory they should all grow up to be female. I will be using a gel rooting hormone from b and q that my wife uses for cloning tomatoes, a humidity dome and some peat blocks.

Well, here is my very first attempt at making clones, The first pic is of the hormone and the plant i will be taking the cuttings from

Peat Blocks

Cuttings stood in PH balanced water, two in their expandable blocks

The rest in their Blocks

In the humidity dome

And Finally, a week later, the two survivors, looking rather sorry for themselves, rooted and transplanted under a 45 watt CFL. I think I left them a day or so too long before getting them out of the dome and into the soil, hopefully it will not have done too much damage too them.

A fairly poor success rate, however I'm fairly chuffed to have two survivors for a first attempt

If any one has any tips etc on what I could do to improve my survival rate next time would be much appreciated.

 

[Mono]

Here is a pic of the donor plant after a further tie down and a bit of a prune

 

[Mono]

Been having problems with slow internet over the past couple of days and it's taking around an hour per picture to be uploaded. One of the many joys of living in the country. Here are a few more pics.

 

[Mono]

 

[Mono]

Update. The plants are now in their 5th week of growth from seed, they have all been displaying female pre-flowers for the past week or so. Everything is going really well, growth is fast and consistent (or so my very inexperienced eyes think)

Well, Here are the pictures.

Has anyone got any input on flowering the plants at the size they are or should I wait another couple of weeks?

Has anyone got any information on whether or not I should flush the plants before inducing flowering?

As always any comments or input is greatly appreciated. Hopefully some other growers will jump in with some tips or comments. Thank you for looking, cheers, Mono

 

[Mono]