WW Autos Super Hempy - LED - HPS - Miracle Grow Experiment

[Perfect Sun LED]

I forgot to say what I updated autos with.

Both got 500ppm

it works out to 2ml grow, 6ml micro, 10ml bloom, 10ml flora blend, 10ml sweet, and 4ml h202 29%, per 2 gallons of water.

ph 5.5

The ph worked itself out. I didn't need any down. I hope the PH doesn't rise to quickly for the dwc culture since I just did a res change. I will check it when I wake up.

 

[spring2012]

Man I would say you have it going on with the autos. Once your dialed in with your nutes you should be good to go. Good to see auto growers here. there are not many of us around this site. Sure most folks have tried one or two but few continue or grow exclusive. I was for my first two grows. All auto's. A fellow member ISmokes talked me into trying regs for grow 3 but I had to have a few autos.. Hope he comes back soon. He is a good friend.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Spring, yeah, autos are fun to grow. They change everyday by a lot. I'm not sure if I will grow them in hempy style again, though.


So, now auto 1, the air hempy, is getting 500 ppm of Miracle Grow, which works out to the big scoop it comes with per 4 gallons. I believe 1 table spoon.

Miracle grow has no calcium in it that I can see. I believe it counts on that being in your water, so if you use RO or something, be sure to add calmag plus or something. Anyway, the critical looks much greener, and you saw how green that Lady Black is. Both of those are only on Miracle Grow and PH tap water inbetween.

Problem is, I don't know if in hemp you are supposed to keep watering it with nuts to keep the res full, or if you are supposed to just add water until some old water pours out the res. It would make since either way. I think I will water with ph water a few times before I add MG again to the auto 1 hempy. The same thing with critical.

DWC auto 2 was topped off with 1 gallon of water, then added 4mL of 28% h202, and then Ph'd to 5.5--I didn't add any nutes, so the nutes to the top off.

600w tube cooled hps bulb is close enough to the autos. I would think the dwc auto could handle more ppms than 500, but it doesn't seem so. The very tips of some leaves got burned, and I mean almost not noticeable. She is still really green both for those few leaves that were yellowing a bit before that never healed because I don't think leaves recover, unless only slightly yellowed, less green.

 

[spring2012]

That 600 watt will do great! Same as I use. I have only tried the dwc set up once. That was a learning experience. Didn't last long as I am inexperienced with coco coir as a medium. Your set up is a bit bigger! Just add some good ol cal/mag? Even with BPN I use a teaspoon per gallon. Seems to be working. I have not seen any defencies all grow. Does not mean I'm in the clear...Ignorance is bliss but not an excuse. LOL! Using FFOF I have yet to test my runoff this grow. I actually have done it maybe a handful of times in three grows. I have only checked the PH of my water once. I will flush occasionally.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Day 60 for autos, about 20 to go


DWC is growing faster than the hempy one. Here are some pics of the dwc auto 2, white widow.

I just changed res, and now am using lucas formula, which is mico and bloom only, twice as much bloom as micro, is basically what it is, ph to 5.5 in dwc 6.0 in coco or so. He recommends 8mL micro, 16mL bloom per gallon. I used half that in my 5 gallon res, but only filled to 4 gallons.

In coco and dwc it is recommended to use 1g of epsom salt per gallon if you use 8mL and 16Ml, or 6-10, etc. Just be sure that you don't give more salt than necessary. If like me you use half strength, then only .5g of epsom salt.

Instead, I used Botanicare sweet, which has the same thing as the epsom, but it adds sweet. I used 10mL for 4 gallons, since I was using half strength. It brough the res to 600ppm.

I'm afraid to give them full strength.

 

[spring2012]

That bontanicare must be what shined those fan leaves up!

 

[miwa]

looking good LEDRF..i must be starving my girl..she is only getting 300 ppms..whatta u think...

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Spring, yeah, or the formula. I was using something very similar to the lucas formula without realising it. Now she is on the lucas formula, but half strength.

I was thinking about how in dwc and coco people add 1g of epsom salts to the mix to avoid defeciencies, and I was thinking, well, in Epsom salt at 1g, you are adding magnesium and sulfur, exactly what is in Botanicare Sweet, at pretty much the same ratio, but with sweet, you are also getting a bit of sugar or something, carbs, that help density. So, I thought, cool, I can continue to use it without having to use epsom salt or figure out how much more epsom salt to add if use Sweet.


Miwa I would bump her up slowly to at least 500 if she is flowering, and if she is outside or under a 400w or greater.

If she is under 400w, then going higher than 300 might burn her.

 

[miwa]

shes under a 400 for about 3 hours at night..kind of young..born 4/3/12..shes in a 3 gal bucket with an nutes..

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

under a 400 for 3 hours, then what else, the sun?

But yeah, she is pretty young, so 300ppm is good. I wouldn't try to bump them up until she either shows signs of needing more nutes, or gets to be 4 weeks old.

 

[miwa]

yep..the sun..using the 400 as supliment light ..for all my girls..the two in the ground got cfls..no revegging..summer too short as it is..

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Something I noticed about the Lukas Formula using GH flora three part series.

No grow used.

Micro is 5-0-1
Bloom is 0-5-4

This gives you a 5-5-5 between the two, but you use 8mL of micro and 16mL of bloom.

So this basically makes it a 5-10-10, not quiet, but close. More like a 5-10-9

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Auto 2, the dwc one is showing either signs of Ca lockout or defeciency. For those that might not know what it looks like, sort of like rust. It is very slight, and only on a couple of leaves right now, so not too worried.

I doubt it is lockout, because my tap water is only 40-50ppm, so I doubt many ppms of Ca are in it. I was feeding with only 400-500ppm at ratios 1.5-6-10 of grow, micro, bloom, so that doesn't equal much Ca per gallon, so I'm thinking it isn't getting enough from the nutrients.

So, I either need to start with the full strength Lukas formula, right now I am doing half strength, or add cal-mag to my res, and I realise now that I shouldn't even use the organic calmag.

Another reason I doubt it is lockout, is because no signs of P or K deficiencies, which usually follow a Ca lockout. No any other signs at all. She is still drinking half gallon a day, or a little more.

Ph starts at 5.5 and raises to 6.8 after about 30 hours. I will start checking the ph when I wake up.



Feeding Watering

Critical is looking great again. I think I am getting this 100% perlite hempy figured out. Now, I follow a similar lukas formula. I give 500ppm or so of Miracle Grow tomato food, with ph of 5.8-6.0, then I water every day until I see some run off with just Ph water 5.8 and some drip clean. I water at the top edge, until I see some run off, which takes a little over a half gallon a day. I only use drip clean the day after I fed, then for the next two-three days, I water with just ph water. After that, I water again with Miracle grow. First I tip over the bucket, empty the res as much as possible, then I pour lots of miracle grow water 500ppm through. About 2-3 gallons, until I know the res is replaced.

She will be massive once I flower her.

The trunk isn't too impressive yet, but then again, she was vegged under the t5 for 30 days, and now 30 days under a 400w bulb that needs to be changed.

Auto 2, dwc, I am think I will start with full strength lukas formula and follow the rules. Or maybe just a tad weaker.

6mL Micro--12mL bloom--3mL calmag+ per gal, and 8mL h202.

Fill res up freshly, then top up with just water and h202, then ph to 5.5. I've only had to top up ever day with half a gallon, so I will top up with that until I reach 4 gallons, so if it only drinks half a gallon a day, then it will take topping off with ph water for 8 days before I fill the res again with fresh nutes.

That is what the lukas formula says to do, to top up until you reach the amount of water in your res.

1. Top off the reservoir daily using a pH corrected water solution as required to maintain full reservoir level. After adding back an amount of water equal to the amount of your reservoir capacity you should change the reservoir and put in fresh solution.


But you can also top up and keep the nutes the same by adding in some. However, with how strong the nutes start out do to the 8mL 16mL about 1400ppm-1600ppm, I can see the reason he said to top off with just ph water. This way they slowly get weaker, but I am unsure about putting in as much water as the res holds before putting nuts in again.

I guess as long as the ppms don't dip below 300, that would be fine. I think I will top off with water until I get to 300ppm or replace the amount of water in the res before adding more nuts, which ever comes first.

But still, I am afraid to bump to 8mL micro 16mL bloom per gallon. I am afraid to even go with 6ml and 12ml because it is an auto.

 

[spring2012]

LEDERF,
Looking good as usual!! I know your the scientist my friend but seems to be so much work with all the PH and PPM''s and all the mixing and ........But hey man if that's your thing and I respect it.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Day 66

I think they still have at least 20 days. The hairs are still white, buds are filling in. However, this last day, they haven't seemed to grow as much as previous days. I fed them yesterday with 10 lbs of dry ice as well.

No doubt in my mind dwc produces bigger yeilds. My auto 2 is not even true DWC. It is in a huge pot that was hempy, but the bottom was removed so the roots could sit in a 5 gallon bucket, with air stones. It is more like a wick dwc or something. Not nearly as many roots in the bucket as a dwc would have, yet huge results, twice as big as auto 1, the hempy style.

I can only imagine how big she would be if a full dwc. I am going to plant two more autos here really soon, or at least one more, and yup, she will be DWC baby. I got the black bucket and everything.

the hempy does look more frosty right now, though.

To see the comparison of them, check the video--it is the best way to really see the buds.

White Widow Autos Update, and critical update - YouTube

In the vide, I also talk about why I am not doing the Miracle Grow anymore. It has way too much nitrogen, so you can't feed your plant very much. Also, it has no calcium. It relies on that being in your water, so you must use well water or tap or add calcium. It gave my plant nitrogen overload, dark, dark leaves, slightly droppy/curly under. I corrected that already, though. I was only feeding Miracle Grow every 7 days. So you might want to wait 10 or 14 between feeding if you use Miracle Grow.

I like the Lukas Formula so far with micro and bloom by GH. I might try a dwc flora nova.

If you want the biggest yeilds possible, I am convinced dwc is the way to go.

All the no trained autos I've seen grown, grow a big donky dick, with smaller, shorter branches around it, but mine grows like a traditional WW. I didn't do any training on her at all. I wonder why all the brances are pretty much the same height? Maybe the middle bud is still going to just shoot up taller than the rest? Maybe it has to do with that I grew her for 30 days under a t5? I have no idea. I have more seeds of the same strain, so these next seeds I will be sure to grow under the sun or big lights, and not under the t5 for long at all if at all. I want to see if that is what did it.

Anyway, now I do have little weights on the outer branches to weigh them down just a tad, to let the light beem inside the plant, hopefully making for fuller buds.

 

[miwa]

looking good..like the video..in correcting nute problems i found out folar feeding works faster than feeding through the soil...perlite..MG perlite has nutes in it and it will wick water..you're doing great..focusing more than i am..

 

[spring2012]

The pics look good. Buds are coming along sweet. I'm glad you are continuing to grow autos.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Thanks guys. The auto 2 is pretty fat. It is hard to see in the pics, but I can wrap my fingers around them, so they just touch, so about a good sized banana.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I wanted to give a fair comparison between auto 1 hempy style and auto 2 dwc. Hempy style is on Lukas Formula too now at half strength, so 4-8 per gal.

I just bumped dwc up to 700ppm. I went with 12mL Micro, 24mL Bloom, 15mL Kool Bloom, like 10mL cal mag general organics, 8mL peroxide 28%, and about 8mL Silica to bring ph up to 6.0 That was in 4 gal, so 12/4, 4mL micro per gal, etc

I was trying for 5.8, but went over and said forget it. I will check ph when I get up. If it moves above 6.2, I will ph it to 5.7 or so.

Silica is supposed to help with growth and fight against cold, heat, stress, etc.

Can you tell which is which?

Auto 2

Auto 1

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I think Silica raises ph too fast. I checked when I woke up, and it was up to 6.5 or something, so I dropped it down to 6.0, I think. Then today at 11pm, about 24 hours after filling up a new res with 700ppm, the ph was up to 7.2.

No good.

There is no algea growing, so I know that is not the issue. I doubt it is the kool bloom, so I am pretty sure it is the silica, as it has a high up buffer, and raises ph naturally. You can use it instead of up.

Amazing, she drakn 3/4 of a gallon and 700ppm went down to 530, which could also be why the ph rose so much. I didn't need to use any ph down because the nutes took care of that, so if she ate more nutes than water, then ph would naturally rise, since nutes is what kept them low in the first place.

Perhaps silica had nothing to do with it. I filled the res back up, added more silica, and kool bloom, then ph'd to 5.5

I added more silica because it helps with stress, and I guess the calcium issue is not corrected all the way yet, because the leaves looked way more calcium defecient. I think it is all the same leaves. They are just further along in calcium defeciency.

I am pretty sure I don't need to add any cal mag, as the nutes should supply enough calcium at 4/8. Maybe I should bump up to 6/9 per gallon. See what that gives ppm wise. Should be under 600.

My plan for now it to just keep topping off with water and micro/bloom at 6-9 ratio until cal problem fixes.