Bagseed Grow - TD Hydro under LED's

[Tead]

This is my first hydro grow. I'm trying a top drip hydro system with LED's.



Strain? Unknown strain of something vaguely dieselish.
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? ummmmmm..... yeah. We covered that bagseed concept in the title... yes?
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Currently in flowing stage
Indoor or outdoor? soft grow cabinet in semi-open shed
Soil or Hydro? Hydro
Size of light? 2x50W led. 2x13W led. 1x100W CF
Is it aircooled? Nope
Temp of Room/cab? variable
RH of Room/cab? variable
PH of media or res? around 6.5
Any Pests ? No
Type and strength of ferts used? Advavnced Grow and Ionic Bloom. 950 is the target on the TDS meter (200 base)



Current Status:
Flowering stage - Day17
TDS - 968 (200 base +750 optimal neut level)
PH - ~6.5
Started from clones
About 30 days in Veg (sorry... didn't keep track)
Cabinet is a big wire rack with reflective fabric (metalized plastic ripstop tarp) over the outside.



The plan thus far:
Run this batch to completion.
Plant Ice seed in outside grow.
Start germing Diesel seeds 14 days prior to harvest.
Take cuttings from Ice 7 days prior to harvest.
Regen 2 of the harvested plants and get the Ice and Diesel going.



Issues:
No PH meter. Using strips. Meter coming.
I have an air pump and an air stone coming. I'm going to pump air into the reservoir.


Setup




Overall Shot



Cheers!

[Tead]

DAY: 30veg 3flow

[Tead]

DAY: 30Flow 7Veg

[Tead]

Day: 30Veg 14Flow

[Tead]

Day: 30Veg 17Flow

Overview Shots






Mother





Clones





Cheers!

[Minus]

I'm really curious as to how this is going to turn out with LED's.
Looking good so far Tead!

[Tead]

I'm quite curious how the LED's will do as well.
I've read that they're good for Veg but not so much Flow.
I did fill in a bit with some CF... we'll see how it goes.

Cheers!

[Tead]

Day: 30Veg 22Grow

Moved the mother plant out of the grow cabinet. Things were getting mighty crowded.

New PH pen arrived. It shows about 1.5 higher than what the paper indicates, so I don't trust it yet. It didn't come with calibration fluid, so I'll have to wait until that gets here before I trust the PH pen at all.

TDS is still hovering around the target range of 950. PH is still a bit high. I've been trying to drop it a bit with lemon juice, but it doesn't seem too effective. I wonder if will impart some lemon flavor into the herb...
I have some PHDown on the way.

Put the Nirvana Ice seedling into the dirt after I stretched the crap out of it (bad light). I'm really quite impressed that such a small seed has the ability to create a 6 inch stretched seedling. It really seems like allot of plant mass coming from that tiny seed... and SO fast. I'm going to grow this baby outside and take cuttings for the next hydro grow.

The weather has turned warm, and I'm going to need to find a way to cool the res pretty soon. The water res functionally holds about 8 gallons max. My thought here is to get a 6 pack cooler, or some other small cooler, that has a sealed or solid inner liner. I plan to fill the cooler with water, run a coil of plastic tubing thru the water, and pump the res water thru the cooled coil.
My main concern here is that the cooling unit will not have enough power, but with an 8 gallon res, it might do. I'm also going to run a layer of insulation (Styrofoam) around the outside and bottom of the res.



Photos....

Overview







Mother




Clones




Ice - Day1

Cheers!

[KingJim23]

nice grow tead, you are using similar LEDs to me, I have two of the 12 inch panels and had one of the round mixed LEDs - scrapped that cus half the LEDs stopped working. Its interesting to see the advantages of a proper grow space and hydroponics. Have you got a CFL in there too? I think that is what I need to help the LEDs along - specialy in flowering I hear.

[Tead]

Thanks KingJim23

I got the lights from HTG. The're the newer LED panels with the larger LED's. 112 of the larger LED's instead of 225 smaller ones. None of my LED's have died yet. They've been running for about 3 months.

"We recommend using just ONE of these High Output 50 watt panels instead of FOUR low-power panels."
Personal commment.... "Oh really HTG?!?! So, what you're saying is that the one's you've been selling are crap?!?! So, why would I trust you when you tell me these ones are good?????" Sigh....

I'm also using 2 of the 13 watt LED spotlights. Mostly aimed at the lower/outer areas.
I have one 27 Watt CF installed with the simple thought that it might fill in the spectrum a bit. It's an off the rack "daylight" bulb purchased from the local grocery store.
I'm deep into flowering, and everything looks ok so far. I am concerned that I may need more light, but I'm going to run with this setup and see what kind of output I get.

Cheers!

[Tead]

Did a water change this morning. Took a shot of the roots.




Cheers!

[Tead]

ACK!!! My drip tubes clogged!!!
I have no idea how long they've been clogged... but I'm pretty sure at least 3 of them were blocked for a week or more.

There was a beige build up inside the tubes. When I was able to get it out, it looked like little beige worms.

I, and every other grower probably, was thinking that things were progressing rather slowly... perhaps I've found the issue.





Any idea what this is and what caused it?

I have scheduled a bi-weekly check of the drip tubes.


Cheers!

[Tead]

Grow Update ~30 days Veg, 28 days Flowering

Overview





Clones









Mother



I've moved the mother plant outside. The little Ice plant is just to the left in the photo. We've had allot of rain, and the mother's been growing in the cabinet, so it's roots probably are not as strong as they should be. The mother fell over a bit, but seems just fine none the less.

Cheers!

[Ms.Fox]

Looking great! Good job fixing the dripper issue! I love LED grows!

[flyfishinrock]

you may want to try pinching your way from one end of the tubes to the other, to break up the salt deposits before they get that solid. Other than that, a very interesting grow. :)