JJambo's 2nd Grow - Non Sponsored - This Time with Clones from a Friend

[JJambo]

After a break and updating my system and working out some bugs I am ready for another shot. My last grow hermied out on me from what I would guess was a bright blinking red light from my temp/RH sensor every 30 seconds. But for my first grow I can't really say.

Since then I have made some slight changes and updates to my system. I added two lightproof louvers, added a voltage regulator to protect my LED light (with this change I also moved my chiller onto a separate circuit), and placed a thick mill plastic bag over the lid of my reservoir. Light WAS making it's way into my reservoir through what I thought was a thicker lid.

I received six clones from a good friend that's been helping me out a bit. He doesn't do hydro and admits it's a whole different game for him. He still can't believe my plants hermied on my with my first grow. He was really "rooting" for me, whah whah. They're all different varieties of some diesel's and a lemon something. At this point, strain names don't matter for me anymore.

I'm running an experiment to see if watering once a day with rockwool really is better than treating it more like soil ( wet and dry cycles). Am I to believe that a wet/dry cycle is more suited for soil and a nutrient rich, oxygenated solution (with rooting stimulators like Superthrive) is better for hydro? I'm also leaning towards using my airpots because it gave the croutons more time to dry out a little between waterings. With the lack of circling roots (LOTS of little feeder hairs instead) I can keep bigger plants in smaller pots.

The light proof louvers I installed because the next process is going to install a small veg room for perpetual grows. Trying to really limit any possible errors on my part. This should be done hopefully before I take clones. I will take clones of all of them because I don't know any of they're flowering characteristics.

Here's some updated pics:

Light proof vents installed.

Thick mil trash bag blocking any light that could leak in. The light proof louvers are secured and now a part of the tent itself.

4 clones going through they're automated watering (300 ppm @ 5.7 ph) and 2 other clones and a seedling only watered when more dryer like a soil grow for comparison.

Added two more fans. Nice airflow in the tent.

A spreader for the humidifiers to keep them close to the louvers to mix with the dryer, fresher air coming in.

Well thanks for your time and to give anyone who didn't follow my first grow, here's a link showing my equipment I'll be using: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced LED

 

[Mono]

Great start Bud! Good luck!

Yes... Rockwool, coco etc are soiless mediums. Treat them like hydro and feed every day

 

[Luluthia]

I was lookin at those louver for my setup. Cost was high, but they look killer man. I just ended up sealing my window....maybe ill invest in atleast one. And very clean install on everything. Im a bit of a perfectionist detail type....your set up looks like your getting those details down f'n magnificently.

 

[Luluthia]

I dont run rockwool but i agree....treat it like hydro for hydro results. I allow a small period of dry out, im on a every other day sch for my 3 gals but that will be daily soon, i just got all my veg ladies in the 1 gals so thats gonna be every 2 days min, once my plants show they can suck up a watering, i up the frequency. I run lava rock as a drainage layer in my pots. 500Ml pots get daily always. Just gotta make sure your not sitting in a puddle. Tip your pots to the side for a few secs....get almost all the excess out. I also water to high run off like th 20 -25% (not the 10to 15 reccomended) range ....i run nutes every time. No salt build up to this day.

 

[Luluthia]

My fingers were going faster than my brain....flood tray....lol you got it made!

 

[JJambo]

Just a quick update with no pics. My problem was indeed over-watering my young plants. It's been resolved and my plants are loving there conditions now. Although, the damage is done and old leaves that were yellowing aren't recovering, there's still plenty of new growth happening. I thought it was the LED light (based on lack of experience). My next grow will be even better as I'm learning from my mistakes. I can't even imagine the speed of growth once I stop stressing and stunting my girls.

 

[JJambo]

Update:

For 7 days I was over-watering and slowly killing my small plants because a root system was not established and yet I flooded the rockwool every day. (The captain never really went over starting seedlings or clones before they were well rooted in his teks).

I allowed a dry cycle, not watering until the pots were noticeably drier by weight. New roots were growing from everywhere, much thicker than when I first got the clones.

Now I am back on track for a one a day irrigation for my plants based on the size of the plant, pot, and root mass size. That is until I transplant to a larger air pot. Again, I will only water when the pots are much lighter in weight to encourage the roots to take over. I have now learned my goal is to build up the root mass quickly to support strong, healthy plants.

After one week of overwatering, it took another 3-5 days to see any new growth. These are the four I chose to keep after recovering. For the first week of watering they were yellowing, curling down and about the same size when I got them.

Back on a one a day watering. Pots are drier prior to next watering which wasn't happening before. Also for my first grow, I was watering twice a day and blaming the curling and slow growth on my light. I have the light on full power at 30 inches and no curl or stunted growth.

I read that overwatering can falsely show deficiencies. I'm confident my nutrients were in order and the roots were the problem because they were always sopping wet. Hopefully I'll see some real progress a week from now.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Coloradokid19]

They're looking good man! Definitely will be along for this ride, and can't wait to see how they do!


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[JJambo]

Update: 4 days into flowering and it is just a guess on how much these plants will stretch and fill the canopy. The twine was not installed in a typical fashion and instead the frame work was just used as an anchor point for my tie downs. Additional ties will be used to support the weight of hopefully some fat-ass buds.

Now I am dealing with some deficiencies mostly because I'm dealing with 3 different strains and 1 reservoir. I am definitely seeing different needs with the Lemon Kush (?). Possible calcium and magnesium. The two strawberry diesels have a condition where the serrated edges of the leaves point upwards. The one Sour Diesel is only showing some brown spots on older leaves and is my best looking plant. My PPM's drop but I can't exactly up the nutes without burning or affecting other strains. From now on only one strain per run with my setup.

I did purchase a PH controller to monitor my levels and keeps it at 5.8 so when I'm gone for work/travel. I also have a float valve to add back RO water on a very slow trickle. When the watering pump kicks on, the level drops in the reservoir, opening up the valve. If it was open all the way, I would end up with two much in the res. A slow trickle brings it back up to the level (12 gallon mark) hours before next watering.

Here's some pics and feel free to comment or offer advice. Thanks for your time.

Canopy shot with the light at full spectrum.

With only the Cree's on.

A pretty good level canopy for how much time I had to work on these. Gonna let them go for a week and adjust if necessary.

Some brown spots.

More discolorations. Notice the slight raised serrated edges.

This plant is the worst of them all. Has the most leaves that are light green with heavy spotting.

Nice roots out of the bottom. Transferred from a .7 gallon airpot to a 2 gallon regular pot for flowering. Roots were white and healthy.

This is the nutrient schedule I use. I figure there's enough cal-mag in the mix so there might be an underlying issue causing the lockouts.


I wonder since the ph doesn't drift that much if that would affect the uptake of calcium and magnesium. This is only my second grow so I have no comparisons to go by.

 

[JJambo]

Update: 3.5 weeks into flower and things are looking pretty good if I must say so. A 4x4 spaced filled out with great air movement and ventilation. When the door is open, things smell grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! Things are good. Here's some pics.

 

[Blazinjones]

Great lookn setup very nice

 

[Blazinjones]

Ur plants look amazing very beautiful ladies keep up the gud work im interested in seeing how they end up do u no what the strain is

 

[JJambo]

Rotated the outside corners to the inside. Wonderfull views and odors. In two days they will be 4 weeks into flower.

 

[JJambo]

7 weeks into flowering today and buds are getting more dense by the day. Still sucks having three different strains for the same res. What's good for one strain is bad for another. But I did find a happy medium to slow down the problems until harvest. It seemed like the fourth to fifth week bud growth slowed down, but then new hairs grew in the sixth week and I've noticed the buds getting harder. Looking at the trichomes on all the plants, I'm gonna start my flush in about 4 days and do a 10 day flush with RO water. So about 9 weeks total.

There was a problem with a potassium deficiency that was solved but damage did not heal just stopped spreading. They're not the prettiest up close. I didn't up the feedings until problems showed up so I could learn to solve them. Cause and effect can be difficult to link together. I also found a very small nanner on one of the sour diesel's, but this late I'm not worried as it was so small and I'm so close to the end.

Next grow will be a strain I will stick with for at least 3 runs (unless very picky or more prone to herm).

Here's some pics.

Any comments or advice are always appreciated

 

[JJambo]

Any good/stable strains with a high CBD count? Thinking about doing those next.

 

[JJambo]

Harvest day tomorrow. Flushed with ro water for the last week with three of those days in the dark to finish. Cant wait to trim. Gonna be a long night though to do it all by myself.

 

[JJambo]

Okay. Final update then moving to closed journals...............................

Harvest was a blast as it took me and a friend ALL day to trim this harvest. The smells were unbelievably strong as every time you went outside to stretch and get some fresh air you walked back into a wall of skunk. I'm pretty sure we did a good job on manicuring for how long it took. The stems were cut and hung inside the tent with one fan blowing and after 5 days (smaller stems would make a sound when snapped) went into jars. Humidity started at 80% and over two weeks of burping humidity was dropped to 60-62%. For one month they will be burped once a week then left for one more month with no burping, then done. Each had a hygrometer for readings from the beginning. Once humidity hit 60%, a boveda packet(62) was placed inside.

I was worried at first because most of the smell was gone after 5 days of drying/hanging in the tent. After the first week in the jars the smell started coming back. Just starting the 3rd week in the jars now that the humidity stabilized at 60-62%, I can burp the jars and half of my house stinks. The Deathberry smells a dark fruit, diesel. The Strawberry Diesel does have a hint of strawberry coming through now. The Lemon Head is coming in with a lemon, citrus, pepper smell. I can't wait for two months of curing which I think will work out fine.

The Yield from about a square meter was 559 grams. With a light pull from the wall of 618w, that brings in .90gpw. Not bad for a second grow, first harvest. I also got 10oz of qwiso hash from all the sugar leaves and stems from which I will make edibles. The biggest yield was from the one Deathberry that was topped once at the beginning then topped at each node 2 weeks later giving more colas. That one plant at less than 2'x2', the size of the screens, was 6oz 4.4 grams. These were also in a 2 gallon regular pot after transplanting from a .75g Airpot. The roots were coming out the top and the cubes were covered in small root hars, some very dense in some spots. Next time might upgrade to the 3 gallon pots with an earlier transplant before flowering.

Next grow will be with just the Deathberry. I'm thinking of adding 4 100xte lights from Advanced, but I might just go with another 4x4 with another separate light. I think I'm better off with a second setup across another canopy instead of trying to go deeper into a canopy. Anyways here's some pics. I'll include final pics of the buds in my next journal when the cure is done.

Thanks everyone.

Start of the flush.

Week into flush.

After 3 days of darkness and 10 days of flushing. Nice yellowing and some purple.

Hanging and waiting for trimming.

First day of being jarred up. Hygrometers came in next day and were burped every day for 30 min for 2 weeks. First they were shook a little to loosen the nugs then then opened. No mold found on any nug.

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.