Red's Mystic Blue - Hydro/Soil - First Grow

RedMendoza

Active Member
First, I'm a first time grower of cannabis. I have successfully grown pretty much every other plant, indoors and out soil and hydro. Cannabis has already thrown me a challenge or two. My plan with my plants is to grow a mother in soil, Fox Farms Ocean Forests, under CFL's in a homemade 3x3 grow tent. I will also be growing to harvest 2 plants in Deep Water Culture, under 1000 watt HPS lighting system, in a homemade 3x4x6 foot grow tent. My hydro system is simply 2-10 gallon tubs with bubblers to mist the roots...one plant to each tub. Everything is air cooled.

I used the paper towel method to germinate, and then transferred them to Parks Seeds growing sponges. They also spent about two weeks in a bio-dome with a 65 watt CFL for lighting, and an incandescent bulb to bring the temperature to 75 degrees F., and a RH of 45%.

The seedlings are currently 3 weeks old, and two of them are showing signs of stress. For a couple of days the RH in the bio dome was falling so I shut the incandescent off. Thinking the heat from the light was drying things up. After I did this is when the signs of stress to the plants developed. RH remained low at 35% and temp was 64.3 degrees in the dome. The 2 larger of the 3 plants are showing the stress; the 1 plant I started a couple of days behind the others looks quite fine.

My theory is that the two larger plants are showing signs of lack of nutrients. So tonight I transplanted my mother into her 3 gal. pot. So I will see if that changes her disposition. Here is a picture of her with the drying leaf circled. Her leaves also are curling a bit, as is my other larger plant that is still currently in its seed sponge.

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I do have a question about the Fox Farms soil. Because it is made from worm castings and bat guano, is it safe to assume that the seedling won't need much for fertilizer for a bit?

Thanks for viewing and hopefully subscribing. I plan on posting updates a couple times a week.
 
Today's pictures...

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Transplanted girl looks the same as yesterday. I'm figuring I waited a bit too long to transplant.

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This lady is looking better since removing the dome. She will be seeing her soil later on today.

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She will see DWC soon, end of the week I think.

I think I stressed the 2 older plants by waiting too long to transplant. Roots looked really white and happy, though. Expect them to make a full recovery.
 
Plants are all doing well after a few days to adapt to their new living quarters. Finished the grow tent, although there is issues with the inline fan causing too much positive pressure, and the sides really are being pulled in. Need to find some way to create stealthy venting for better air flow.

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The grow tent is 3x7x6, with two rooms; a 3x4 main room for growing, and a 3x3 germination/cloning area where mothers will also be housed. This is photo of the main growing area. The tent still needs better venting to relieve the positive pressure by the inline fan. Anyone with any ideas, or a link to another thread with info on venting would be greatly appreciated.

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Germination/cloning room. Will have a combination of CFLs, LED, and fluorescent lighting. The object hanging down is a DIY, 125-watt CFL hood made from a white protein powder bucket.

Here are some pictures of the plants. They are doing well, the Mother under the CFL is showing the best signs of health. The plant under the HPS light has a little browning on the tips of the fan leaves, but other than that it seems happy. Until I obtain some better venting and can close up the tent, the humidity is rather low at 35-38%. This may be the cause of the dry leaf tips. The DWC plant was just moved into its home yesterday, and is showing no signs of stress. I am using Flora Grow 2-1-6 nut. for the DWC grow. After I use this solution up, I am switching brands to Growth Technology. The potted plants have not received any nutrition as of yet. Going to wait another week.

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Mother plant under its CFL. In its 4th week of growth.

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Potted plant under 1000 watt HPS. No nutrition. In its 4th week of growth.

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DWC plant. In its 4th week of growth. Going to place some Panda Film over the bucket to reduce light to the solution.

Have a good day!
 
Subscribed. What is the name of the FoxFarm brand soil that you are using? For growing cannabis due to odors a negative pressure growing environment is preferred. You can see how I have my ventilation set up in my KingJohnC's 400 Watt LA Confidential Seed Cabinet Soil Indoor Grow Journal. You want 70°-90° Fahrenheit and 50%-70% humidity for vegetative growth and 30%-50% humidity for flower.
 
I am using fox forests ocean forest...the blue bag. I added some extra perlite to the mix, since I have used this before for growing veggies indoors and found it became a little solid after awhile. I checked out your set up, very clean, very nice! I checked out your baffle style venting system, I think that would work well for my set up, but I would have to construct it out of light weight MDF or card board. My panda film probably wouldn't support a heavy wood construction. I also came upon a louvred system constructed out of angles stacked one on top of the other with spacers in between each one. I started to put one together and will post some pics of the build, and how it works. If this system fails I will be figuring out a way to construct the baffle system that you have incorporated into your system.

I have perfect heating as of now, but if am having problems with the humidity...can only obtain 39-42% as of now. I'm hoping once I can get my tent vented, I can close the doors and I can regulate the humidity better...hopefully. I will be posting new pics of the plants today.

Greatly appreciate your reply and help. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be passed by with no comments. :) :thanks:
 
You may notice few replies but your Grow Journal currently has 142 views!

Here is a Titan Controls Saturn 5 - Digital Environmental Controller with CO2 Timer that is in use in several of my Grow Journal and Reviews

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https://sunlightsupply.com Titan Controls Saturn 5 - Digital Environmental Controller with CO2 Timer

The Titan Controls Saturn 5 - Digital Environmental Controller with CO2 Timer can control a fan, either a humidifier or dehumidifier and control CO2.

KingJohnC's Twilight Groups LED 432W Spider COB Seed Cabinet Grow Journal & Review

KingJohnC's Lush Lighting LED Lumenator 2x Black Widow Grow Journal & Review
 
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The mother under the CFLs is looking really good. The first and second set of nodes are beginning to really take off. Going to start feedings for sure at next watering.

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Girl in soil. What can I say...so far so good.

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Hydro girl looking a little blah, although her roots are looking super good so far. All the leaves are light green, and she's slow to grow so my thought is to bump the nutrient solution up a bit and see if she perks up.

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Hydro roots.
 
Here we go! New pics! And I am super happy! Put the charcoal scrubber in yesterday, things were getting a little smelly. Using an ipower scrubber, and so far super clean air coming out the duct. Got some vents in the lower part of the tent so now all the doors are zipped closed. Put a pan of water under the 1000 watt HPS, and the humidity is now 45-53%...way better than the 33% I was dealing with. I figure once the plants are bigger, transpiration will raise the humidity so not going to fuss about this too much at this time.

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Mama plant looking super sweet. Still haven't given any nutes. Think I'm going to hold off until next week.

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The girl in soil is doing just as well as the mother under CFLs now. No nutes for this one at this point either. No apparent stress at this point from lack of nutrition, just a little heat stress, but nothing to worry about I don't think. Tent is right around 83 degrees.

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Hydro grow is coming on. Changed out the solution and raised the nutes from a 1/2 tsp. Per gallon to 1 tsp per gallon. Within a day she turned a nice, even green color. No yellow. After things stabilized, I made an adjustment to the pH to 5.6.

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Just a quick peek at the roots. Very white, and getting nice little hairs on many of them.

Until next time...
 
Been a week or so since my last post. I have new pics, and a new problem with my DWC plant. She is showing signs, of what I am sure is FE deficiency. She's very yellow with green veins, but continues to grow and produce a very nice root system. Yesterday I added CalMag with iron to the solution and hopefully she will bounce back. As of this morning there is no change. The mother plant under the CFL is doing absolutely phenomenal. My soil grow under the 1000 watt HPS is also looking very good, and I am going to start some training tonight. Thinking about training my plant manifold style to produce 8 colas. Here's some new pics...

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Mother under CFL, also have a 50 watt, 2700 k LED on it now. Currently building a hood to host 2-125w CFLs, along with a 50w 2700k LED. I am really surprised at how well this plant is doing under this one, 100 w CFL.

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Soil Grow under 1000 w HPS. Started giving Nutes. Using Ionic Grow at recommended mix. She does get a little heat stressed, but nothing to worry about. Starting my choice of training tonight.

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Here's my problem child. DWC under 1000w HPS. Looks to me like iron deficiency. I check and adjust the pH daily as needed to around 5.8-6.1. I added some CalMag to the solution at a ratio of 1tsp/gallon. Put a 1/4 tsp in a quart spray bottle to foliage spray 2 times a day. Has been about 12 hours since doing this and so far no change. The plant is continuing to grow, and the roots are superb...just really bright yellow.

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Roots of the DWC...very nice root ball. Water is staying fairly cool since putting the plastic over the lid, and running a tube off the intake of the pump to outside the tent.

Surely welcome any input...thanks for looking.
 
I'm noticing all my pics and post are completely scrambled up. Hope this is going to fix its self. Was going to post today, but may wait and see if whatever is causing my journal to be messed up will some be overcome.

Fixed now...so here's an update of the DWC iron deficiency, and my topped plant...

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I was comparing this pic with yesterday's, and I think the plant is gaining some color back into her leaves since adding the CalMag to the solution. Took about 36 hours for things to kick in. See how it looks tomorrow.

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Here's two pics of my decided training technique. The plant had 7 sets of nodes, I topped her back to 3 and tied them down so they will turn up. I will remove the lower nodes in a couple of days once she bounces back a bit. And will top out these back when they are at three nodes. My plan is to go with 8 strong colas, and see how she yields out.
 
About 3.5-4'. The soil plant is under the same light. Looking at them today, the DWC plant is bouncing back. I'm wondering if I should change my solution more often or just add more CalMag. I don't know if the CalMag nute will, over time, become depleted by the plant intaking the extra nutes. I don't know if that is very clear, but I have never had to add iron or mag. to any of my veggie grows.
 
Made a hood out of hardboard, 2 power strips, 6 plug in light sockets, to house LED and CFLs. I made this to give a little more light intensity for my mother plants, and to make height adjustments easier. I'm not an expert on light, but it equates to 500 watts with the bulbs I used. Dont know if that is the true light output, but I assume it is because this thing is damn bright!

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This is the hardboard hood I made to house the lights. Anybody wishing to see the whole build with dimensions, I will gladly post a write up with pics. I just didn't want to waste anybodies time.

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I attached the power strips with zip ties through some holes I drilled.

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Used six plug-in sockets, and arranged them three to a strip. 4-100w 5000k CFLs, 2-50w 2700k LEDs.

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Powered up!

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More light equals a very happy mama, and a very happy grower because this is much easier to move around and adjust with ratchet hangers!
 
About 3.5-4'. The soil plant is under the same light. Looking at them today, the DWC plant is bouncing back. I'm wondering if I should change my solution more often or just add more CalMag. I don't know if the CalMag nute will, over time, become depleted by the plant intaking the extra nutes. I don't know if that is very clear, but I have never had to add iron or mag. to any of my veggie grows.

For Aeroponics/Hydroponics the nutrient solution should be changed every 7-10 days for best growth.
 
New photos from the last few days. Everything is rolling really well. DWC is coming on strong, and the soil plant is really close to receiving its next topping.

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This is the DWC plant 2 days ago.

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This is it as of yesterday...not too shabby. Did a little trimming to remove some of the really yellow and drying fan leaves. Still adding 2 tsp of ionic grow per gallon, and 1 tsp of CalMag per gallon. Probably will keep this ratio as long as the plant stays happy.

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Soil grow 2 days ago. Using flora grow for this plant and the mother at 2 tsp per gallon, I'm also putting 1 tsp of CalMag in my water just in case. My water for the soil is at 6.5 pH since the ff is a tad acidic still.

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Yesterday...just about ready to to top to create 4 sets of nodes.
 
Been awhile since my last post. Everything has been going smooth. Really close to going to a 12/12 lighting schedule. I have backed the soil nutes and the DWC nutes back a bit. The soil grows are receiving nutes every other watering, the mother plant was getting a little bit of leaf tip burn on the newer growth. I also cut the DWC grow back to half the nutes...2tsp. Of ionic grow per gallon, with 1tsp of CalMag per gallon. Another day or two and the light will be reduced back and start blooming:cheer:

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Main lined soil grow...have 8 main lines now. Wil give it a couple of days to regroup and will begin the new lighting schedule.

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DWC. This has five main nodes, with about 2 or three secondary nodes on each. More than likely this will be too much, but we'll see how it yields out. I think the hydro will handle it quite well.

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Roots of the DWC...absolutely luscious!

Until next time...happy growing!
 
Has been too long since my last post. On 1/15/2015 I changed my lighting schedule to 12 on 12 off and transplanted my mother plant into a 5 gallon container. I also changed the nute schedule for all plants, and I will post them under the pics. These pics are from the next day after starting the new light schedule. I have been having trouble obtaining new pics because I have been missing the times the light is either just going on or off. My phone will not take good pics with the HPS light on.

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Soil grow nute schedule...2tsp. Per gallon Ionic Bloom, 1tsp per gallon Ionic PK Boost, 1tsp per gallon CalMag Plus, and 1tsp per gallon of pH Down for a pH of 6.5.

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DWC nutes...4tsp per gallon Ionic Bloom, 2tsp per gallon of Ionic PK Boost, 1tsp per gallon CalMag Plus, 1tsp per gallon pH down for a pH of 6.3. Checking pH everyday to maintain 5.6-6.3 pH. Add a gallon of new Nutes to top off mid week, and doing a full change out every Monday.

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Mother plant is doing well. Transplanted into a 5 gallon container, still used same soil. Nutes are 2 tsp per gallon Flora Grow, 1tsp per gallon CalMag Plus, and pH down to 6.5 pH. Every other watering. Doing this relaxed the tip burn that was taking place.

Until next time, happy growing:yummy:
 
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