Shuffledemon's Organic Soil Multistrain Indoor LED Grow Journal — 2014

[shuffledemon]

Thanks MP!

Clones are are doing well - even the late bloomer.

I picked up some ceramic drip style cones that draw water from a line and allow the soil to pull it out of the ceramic (ie. porous) tip planted in the soil. They were very inexpensive so I figured no harm no foul, but I have read some folks who really like them.

You can buy them on Amazon.

I don't have them pushed quite far enough into the soil yet since I want to see if I can feel the water in the reservoir at the top of each cone and on the cone itself a little. I don't trust these to my plants quite yet, so we are in "monitor carefully" mode.

Setup:

Reservoir:

Cone placement:

Yeah, that plant needs a bit of a haircut on the bottom. Old burnt leaves.

I'll keep you posted on how they work!

 

[shuffledemon]

Potted my cuttings today in their 3 gal pots. Two are a lighter shade of green that I don't love. So, I hit them with a bit of gentle organic fert as I transplanted them (brand is earlier in the thread). We'll see how they fair. Will snap some shots and measure up the adults next - they are growing very quickly. They will see their light schedule change to flowering in two weeks as I am already measuring them in feet, not inches. I'm used to CFL growing so I don't have a good feel how tall the girls will grow in their 8 or 9 weeks of 12/12. Hopefully a bunch - my plan is to re-veg these plants as long as I can.

 

[shuffledemon]

Today is the day my girls are all grown up.

I actually flipped them to their flower light schedule two days ago. 12/12 and 'bloom' setting on the Top LED Grow Light.

The one on the left - the pain in the butt - is a Medical 'No Name' strain. It's heritage is cheese x sensi star. Should produce high CBD.

The much more forgiving plant on the right is a Super Lemon Haze - the Cannabis Cub 2008 winner. It's placed well ever since as well as a 22%+ strain. Yahoo. High is nice, but these couch-lock strains are fantastic for pain relief.

As we flower I will be mixing the following cocktail for them for each feeding. If they get a little nute strain I will back off but this stuff is really mild:

In a litre or a couple of pints of water I mix in:

- Four teaspoons of Better World organic fertilizer
- A half teaspoon organic blackstrap molasses
- A half ounce of eco-kelp

My plants love this mixture and it is gentle enough to feed it to them full time. I tend to throw in a nuteless feeding every 3 or 4 of the above cocktail/tea method. Perhaps I will break down the lay-person analysis of each of these in a future post when I have some more time. It's how I understand it, at least.

Looks gnarly but my ladies enjoy it.

That is all for now! Thanks for your continued attention!

 

[shuffledemon]

Is anyone actually reading this thing? Should I continue?

 

[MaPilot]

I read when something new is posted! Continue on my friend!

 

[shuffledemon]

Alright - after a little poutfest that nobody was reading my thread I am back.

Lots of updates. First:

1) Repotted my two 3+ foot plants into five gallon pails. I drilled holes in the bottom of those buckets first for drainage purposes. Very important.

2) My Medical no-name strain looked to be having what appeared to be an over-nitrogen problem. To be honest, my super lemon haze has a touch of it as well but not nearly as bad as my sensitive sativa. I flushed 20l of water through it. When doing so, just use distilled, RO, or rain water and flush. Really you are supposed to do several times your pot/pail capacity but I didn't have that sort of time. It's an all day exercise when using big pots/pails. You should do it until your water runs clear(er). If you are using organic soil with nutrients in it it may never go totally clear. The high nitrogen organic mix is the culprit I am sure. Flushing to be safe.

3) Clones are doing well under very modest light - two plants per 42 watt CFL. They are growing gently and loving it:

4) We have buds! 12/12 happened on Aug 5 so we are officially 15 days into flower:

More to come!

 

[MaPilot]

Great update! Congrats on the flowers!

 

[k0ncept]

Yes!!! This is just like the setup I plan on putting together, my concern is say in a 3x5 tent would one of those lights be enough? That's the only thing hanging me up right now, I don't have the money to purchase the wrong equipment, I want to ensure I have enough light to get decent yields for myself, I also would love to keep finding strains that work on my epilepsy and grow them myself to cut down on costs, and possibly help other patients as well... Thank You for this thread!

 

[Cruizer]

Found this today, thanks for continuing on the journal.

 

[cannateer]

Good job. People are particular when they click on grows. Dont sweat it. Just keep succeeding.

 

[shuffledemon]

Thanks for the love, all!

Continued progress. The flushing seems to have worked. I still have some slight curl of tips in new growth, but it is much better.

I'm used to CFL grows so this in-flowering growth is awesome but I am afraid I will easily max out my tent height here. Mrs. Sativa is almost 4 feet high as it stands. Light is supposed to be about 20 inches from the plants, It's going to have to be a little closer than that. I will raise it today but as it stands it is about 12-15 inches away and doing fine, so hopefully we are okay. Still have a fair bit of flower time left, though (~ 6 weeks).

I was thinking about an additional light for the tent. I have the Top LED Reflector 192x3 watt LED and it is awesome, but I knew going in it wouldn't be enough light for the whole tent. I am wondering now if I should not get 3 x a smaller light (even smaller Reflector series lights - I like them enough that I would buy more if SmokeSara will cut me a deal when I am ready. ) and mount them vertically. If LED light penetration really does need some distance between them and the plants then that idea won't work.

What do you think? Perhaps just a second 192x3 above and we're set. Obviously looking for the biggest bang for my buck.

Thanks!

 

[k0ncept]

man those are looking good!!! I cant wait to get my lights and get stared! I am starting with a couple of Mars II 700's for flowering and a 144x3 for veg / backup as if I need more light, I can take the 144x3 to help with the 700's and use some T5's or something for my clones and veg if needed.. But im hoping the 2x 700's will be enough. Like you I cant see more light hurting hehe that's for sure.

 

[MaPilot]

Do you have a light meter? You can pick on up pretty cheap with a ph and moisture meter combo. The light meter will at least tell you if you need another light or not.

 

[shuffledemon]

Do you have a light meter? You can pick on up pretty cheap with a ph and moisture meter combo. The light meter will at least tell you if you need another light or not.

You know the light meter was never on my radar. Do you have one? Do they work? I worry that they aren't measuring the right spectrum, etc., etc. If they do work they sound like a useful tool to have in the 'ol toolbox, especially if they are not expensive.

How about something like this? I am not endorsing this at all - simply asking if something relatively inexpensive like this will provide useful data or if you have to invest more money into the tool?

Thanks!

 

[shuffledemon]

man those are looking good!!! I cant wait to get my lights and get stared! I am starting with a couple of Mars II 700's for flowering and a 144x3 for veg / backup as if I need more light, I can take the 144x3 to help with the 700's and use some T5's or something for my clones and veg if needed.. But im hoping the 2x 700's will be enough. Like you I cant see more light hurting hehe that's for sure.

Definitely. There is, obviously, a point where more investment in light is pointless, and a point beyond that were it would be harmful, but I think I am a long ways away from that.

Yeah you will like your setup. I do similar things - my reflector series is always doing whatever the tent is doing (veg/flower) and I have some CFL's for vegging clones while others might be flowering. I think that is a pretty common setup. I'd like my secondary light to be LED as well - one day.

I'm excited for you to start!

 

[MaPilot]

You know the light meter was never on my radar. Do you have one? Do they work? I worry that they aren't measuring the right spectrum, etc., etc. If they do work they sound like a useful tool to have in the 'ol toolbox, especially if they are not expensive.

I bought a 3 in 1 meter, PH, Light and Moisture From the big A for under 15usd. The light meter works fine, When I place the meter under my light the needle is pegged to full, I can move it to the right or left and watch the needle go down, This is using LED also. So yea, it does work. Maybe not scientific, But it will give you an idea weather or not light is reaching where you want it.

 

[shuffledemon]

Update:

The girls are doing very well.

To recap:

We're 136 days into this grow:

106 days in veg (this is longer than average - but as you can see below, I have larger than average plants. Since I couldn't do a scrog with these my current plan is to harvest and reveg these mothers over and over.)

30 days (thus far) in flowering.

Doing well!

Our fat indica :

Our slender Sativa-ish girl :

And, of course, some bud porn. I got my better(ish) camera and super-macro mode out. The results were encouraging:

Next time I will bring a nice white light source into the tent behind me for better pics.

 

[shuffledemon]

Almost forgot to update on the clone progress. Doing very well.

These clones simply share a 42 watt CFL lightbulb with their partner each. So - 21 watts a piece to get this far. Pretty impressive.

Once my blooming plants are done these will go into the tent along with them. Once they are done re-vegging and ready to flip again to 12/12 these will be a perfect size.

w00t!

 

[Gfcollective]

looking good, you have a lot of ducting in that tent, if you get spare time i would recommend cutting off what you dont need to help pull air out of the tent. everything looks great! looking forward to see you bounce from flower to veg and back to flower!

I&i

 

[GeminiKid]

Subbed an all is looking good!