Round 2: Northern Lights x2, 1200x1200 Tent, 315W CMH

[d42zero]

Mine was definitely an underwatering issue they're doing better now. Yes I was told to get runoff Everytime which I wasn't. Water slow, get run off.

During the seedling stage I was told I was drenching them. Now not enough. I think I got it now. And I'm harvesting pretty big plants too, who woulda thought haha.

I have 2 grows going. Incase this post seems confusing lol.

haha in my first journal one guy tells me to increase the water to get rid of rusty spots on the leaves (which I think was a good call), a few days later another guy tells me to stop watering so much There's so much info out there it's hard to know what's good and what's not.. this time around I decided to just make a plan and stick to it all the way through, and if it doesn't work then I learned something for next time!

For this grow I'm working on the idea that in coco overwatering is better than underwatering, may or may not be true but it seems to be working so far. There's still plenty of time for something to go wrong tho

 

[d42zero]

8/3 - 42 days from seed
The girls have grown quite a bit the past few days...

In my first grow, my best plant was the height that #1 is right now... it produced about 8oz and it was still a manageable size, so I'm flipping today! If I can get 10oz total from both plants that'll keep me going for about a year lol

Defoliated in preparation for flip:

There's no particular reason I left a bit more on #1 (right) than #2, that's just how they came out. #2 is still a little short for her frame but I'll attach her as she stretches over the next couple of days... I probably could've given them a few more days but Sunday is the day I have heaps of time to work with them, and if I gave them a whole extra week in veg I think they'd end up monsters!

New nute schedule.. "Transtion week" (week four*) from the GH feed chart I'm using, all in 20 litres of water.
Silica 26ml
Calimagic 13ml
Dripclean 2.1ml
FloraMicro 21ml
FloraGro 21ml
FloraBloom 21ml

*Note it's currently week six in the actual grow, but the chart is designed for autos and manifolding slows things down for a couple of weeks. During this time I just repeated the third week's nute schedule (what they call "Late Growth" week).

Min-max 23.6-27.5C, 46-79% RH.

 

[d42zero]

9/3
Had to raise the light nearly 100mm today, which is a good problem to have

But, I noticed the leaves are curled slightly inwards...

I haven't noticed that before... you can see from the photos they weren't like that yesterday. It could be caused by low pH water.... I filled the res last night and I'm still getting used to pH-ing a res rather than a drum, can't seem to get it right. Played around with pH until it was about 5.9, tested this morning and it was 6.4.... put a bit of pH-down in and let it mix, it tests around 5.8... come home and it tests 5.0. I've upped it again back to about 6.2 but who knows what it'll be tomorrow At the moment I mix in the res (i.e add water to res then add nutes directly to res) but I think I might go back to mixing in drums, then empty the mixed solution into the res when I'm ready. I have a stirring/aeration pump running full time but maybe it's not working as hard as it should, as it seems like it's just taking 12 hours or so to mix things up properly.

Anyways if the curling goes away once I stabilise the res it's likely it was causaed by the pH, if not it might be something to keep an eye on.

Min-max 23.4-26.6C, 50-63% RH.

 

[d42zero]

10/3

Not much to report apart from a bit of growth since yesterday. Interestingly #1 seems to be stretching more than #2...

When I defoliated, I left all the growth tips and bud sites intact rather than taking the very bottom ones off. I'm considering adding 100watts or so of CFLs down below (maybe a 25w in each corner) to give those lower sites a bit more light...

Min-max 23.4-26.4C, 49-58% RH.

 

[Havocsm1]

I don't like chopping the lower sites either. I literally got over an ounce of nice popcorn bud I can make edibles or grind and roll right up. I'm not that picky. I remember when I had to pay for bud. Looking good can't wait to see them bud up!

 

[d42zero]

14/3

#1 has stretched a bit past #2... I've got a little platform thing I can use to raise the smaller one about six or eight inches, so I'll set that up and reset the light height tomorrow when I flush and empty the runoff containers.

When I flipped last Sunday I made a little mistake... I set the time for 15.5hrs lights on instead of 12! I caught it on Thursday so probably not a big deal, they just had a few days of transitioning from 18/6 to 12/12

Good news is #1 is about the same size as my best plant from the last grow was at this point, and I pulled 8oz from her

Min-max 21.9-26.0C, 45-69% RH.

@The Dirty

 

[bluter]

nice set up. looks good. keep at it ....

dunno if you have access, but you might like an auto pot set up.

 

[d42zero]

nice set up. looks good. keep at it ....

dunno if you have access, but you might like an auto pot set up.

Thanks! I learned a few lessons in my first grow and I think I identified most of the bits I stuffed up... this grow's going pretty well so far

Haven't really looked into autopots yet... I did my first grow in fabric so just stuck with that for this one, but I'm interesting in learning about other methods so I'll have a bit more of a look at them sometime soon. I'm looking into a larger-scale legit hydro business (salad and herbs) so will definitely be shopping around for different setups fairly soon!

 

[d42zero]

15/3 - 49 days from seed
I got bored and needed a weekend project so I decided to add some side lighting today, two 18w LED battens in the corners. Doesn't sound like much, but adding 36w to a 315w setup is 11.5% which is not insignificant... it's even more significant when you take into account that LEC are approximately 27.5% efficient* (so the unit outputs approximately 27.5% of the drawn wattage as light) and LED are closer to 50%*...

At 27.5% efficiency my 315w LEC setup is producing approximately 87w of light (315*0.275), and at 50% efficiency my 36w LEDs are producing approximately 18w of light (36*0.5), 18/87 = 0.20 or 20%.... so theoretically my 36w LEDs are adding around 20% more light to my setup, while only adding around 11.5% more current draw.

*EDIT: removed sources as the LEC one was incorrect (different type of LEC). Looking for CMH figures now but I can't seem to find any, only marketing shit that claims they are "20% more efficient than MH" which doesn't help as I can't find figures for MH either! Without these figures the best I can go on is the 11.5% increase in light based on current draw, which assumes both lights are operating at the same efficiency.

Before side lighting:

After side lighting:

Considering the battens were about ten bucks each, I think I'll add two more in the other corners for a theoretical 23% increase in light (two lights =11.5%, four lights =23%). Fifty bucks all up for four battens, extension cables, and a power strip... not really a big deal if my numbers are wrong

New mix for Week 6 from the GH Feed Chart (what they call "early bloom") - 20 litres of water gets:

Silica 26ml
CaliMagic 13ml
DripClean 2.1ml
FloraMicro 21ml
FloraGro 5.5ml
FloraBloom 26ml

I'm almost out of FloraBloom but I still have loads of Gro and Micro.... I went into the hydro shop yesterday to talk about new nutes and the guy suggested I just take the bloom portion of another 3-part mix and use that with my GH stuff. I didn't think of doing that, but comparing the makeup of the two products side by side their ratios are identical, the new product just contains a little more sulphur:

I still have about a week's worth of FloraBloom left so I'll do a little more research to make sure I don't stuff anything up, but going off that I don't see why I couldn't just sub GP3's bloom in for the FloraBloom and use up the other two parts of my GH stuff!

Min-max 20.4-24.2C, 59-69% RH.

 

[d42zero]

18/3
The girls are tall enough that I can't photograph them horizontally anymore

Little white hairs are out, but that's about it.. ten days into flowering I thought they might be a little more advanced, although they did have three days of 15hrs light after the flip due to a fuckup on my part, so technically they're probably still only 7 days into flowering..

Auto-watering is just cruising along nicely, the girls are drinking 20L per week each so I can top up the res with 20L on Wednesday night and Sunday morning. Coco is staying nice and moist, so 4x 500ml waterings each day seem to be their limit for now. I'm not measuring runoff but it looks about right and the girls look healthy so that's good enough for me

Min-max 20.3-23.8C, 56-73% RH.

 

[d42zero]

20/3
Found a couple of leaves that don't look ideal...

Seems to only be these two, and one other with a tiny little mark on it... they're at the front of the tent near the zipper (all very close to each other), so it's possible that this is just from the fan causing the leaves to rub against the tent, but I'd better keep an eye on it...

 

[Havocsm1]

20/3
Found a couple of leaves that don't look ideal...

Seems to only be these two, and one other with a tiny little mark on it... they're at the front of the tent near the zipper (all very close to each other), so it's possible that this is just from the fan causing the leaves to rub against the tent, but I'd better keep an eye on it...

I think you're right I've had leaves look like that but only the few rubbing against the tent.

 

[d42zero]

I think you're right I've had leaves look like that but only the few rubbing against the tent.

I found a couple more, not many though.. maybe just two or three. These ones were closer to the centre of the plant (one is a very new leaf) and don't seem to have anything nearby to rub against...

I'll whack a post up in one of the forums tonight, will keep an eye on it. Could just be some genetic dickery or something, doesn't seem to be affecting the plants.

Flowers have just started to form so we're on the way Photos will come tonight

 

[Havocsm1]

I found a couple more, not many though.. maybe just two or three. These ones were closer to the centre of the plant (one is a very new leaf) and don't seem to have anything nearby to rub against...

I'll whack a post up in one of the forums tonight, will keep an eye on it. Could just be some genetic dickery or something, doesn't seem to be affecting the plants.

Flowers have just started to form so we're on the way Photos will come tonight

Ok let me know what they say I can tag some Coco pros in here if you need it. Maybe @Backlipslide can help.

 

[d42zero]

22/3
All looking good.. these girls stretched pretty tall, but they seem to have slowed down so I think we're good for space..

White hairs are popping right out and some of the sites are starting to look a little busy

I thought I had bugs for a minute!!

But they seem to be little balls of dried sap...

I don't think I've ever seen this before. I posted in the coco forum to see if anyone knows what they are.

Up to the second week of "Early Bloom" or week 6 from the GH feed chart I'm using. Last week I said I was up to week 6 on the chart, but it should have been week 5.. all good though as weeks 5 and 6 are the same mix

Silica 26ml
CaliMagic 13ml
DripClean 2.1ml
FloraMicro 21ml
FloraGro 5.5ml
FloraBloom 26ml

Min-max 20.8-25.8C, 50-71% RH.

 

[Havocsm1]

Ok let me know what they say I can tag some Coco pros in here if you need it.

22/3
All looking good.. these girls stretched pretty tall, but they seem to have slowed down so I think we're good for space..

White hairs are popping right out and some of the sites are starting to look a little busy

I thought I had bugs for a minute!!

But they seem to be little balls of dried sap...

I don't think I've ever seen this before. I posted in the coco forum to see if anyone knows what they are.

Up to the second week of "Early Bloom" or week 6 from the GH feed chart I'm using. Last week I said I was up to week 6 on the chart, but it should have been week 5.. all good though as weeks 5 and 6 are the same mix

Silica 26ml
CaliMagic 13ml
DripClean 2.1ml
FloraMicro 21ml
FloraGro 5.5ml
FloraBloom 26ml

Min-max 20.8-25.8C, 50-71% RH.

Have you ever tried to train your plants? Short and wide? That's how I prefer. Get more use out of lights. I guess we have our own preference. Glad you got your problem figured out.

 

[d42zero]

Have you ever tried to train your plants? Short and wide? That's how I prefer. Get more use out of lights. I guess we have our own preference. Glad you got your problem figured out.

I train them out to the width of the pot, but once they get there it's a bit hard to keep them going any wider (at least with the training stuff I've got) so that's where I let them go upwards. These ones did end up quite tall and thin, so next time around I'll be looking for a way to keep them a bit lower and wider..

Turns out the scabby things seem natural: Sappy scabs??

Was a bit worried for a sec there!

 

[d42zero]

23/3
Nothing much to report, just kicking along smoothly. #1 is getting a little tall so I did a bit of dodgy supercropping:

I need something a little lighter than the plastic peg to hold it in place.. will see if I can find something around the house tonight. Seems to be working ok, see how it looks in the morning though. I did two colas that were getting a little close to the light, it spread the canopy out a bit but I'm hoping I wasn't too aggressive.

Looks like my country is beginning COVID-19 shutdowns.. just means I've got more time to spend with my girls!

Min-max 22.6-26.2C, 52-84% RH.

 

[d42zero]

25/3
Flowers are starting to appear

There's a little discolouration on the edges of these leaves but I don't think it's a big issue, doesn't seem widespread. Will keep an eye on it and see how it goes.

They seem to be flowering much more slowly than my last grow, but that could be just genetic. However the way my grow room is set up, some light can get in through the window in the morning from about 5:30 or 6am and lights don't come on until 7am. The light that does get into the room isn't much (it's still very hard to see in there) and the tent is pretty well sealed so the plants aren't going to be getting much of that light at all, but the evening sun (from about 6pm-7:30pm) hits the opposite side of the building sop is much less bright. I adjusted my daylight hours to 6am-6pm so that if they're getting any extra light, it's the very limited evening light rather than the brighter morning light. Next grow I will seal the room up completely so zero light gets in, but by that time it'll be winter again and the days will be much shorter anyway.

Getting a bit humid in there so I started up the dehumidifier again, set to 55%.... the tent is usually about 10% higher than the room so that should be about right.

Min-max 22.2-24.6C, 58-84% RH.

 

[d42zero]

29/3
Flowering is well and truly underway!

The girls seem to have finished their stretch now.. they almost got a bit too big for the tent!

I had to do a little supercropping on some of the tall colas, they handled it really well! The big tall one at the front is one that I supercropped and it stood back up, I had to pull it down a bit further after taking this photo.

Leaves and everything look super healthy, no sign of tip burn like I got last time and no sign of any other issues. The little marks I saw a week or so ago are still there but not widespread so I don't think it's anything to worry about.

I'm off to get two more side lights for the opposite corners... don't really NEED that but I just can't help but play with the setup haha

Min-max 22.3-24.8C, 53-70% RH.