Ajagunle's Green Poison Winter TLA Journal - NFT CFL GLR DLS UVb

[ajagunle]

What am I growing?

Sweet Seeds Green Poison, brought from Herbies Head Shop, a sponsor (think they’re missing an apostrophe). B.I.D. made a comment a while back that made me think I should smoke something that appeased my symptoms leading me to start researching Medical Marijuana.

I wasn't brought up to think of it as medicinal

Amazing how the inclusion of 1 word can totally change my perception of some other words, like Medicinal or Yet.



On reading the following I ordered the seeds.


‘Traits: 30% Sativa, 70% Indica, creeper, floral smell, Good For Insomnia, Good For Muscle Spasms, Good For Pain Relief, Head Buzz, increased appetite, Maryland Medical Marijuana, Night Time Use, skunky smell, Spicey Smell, sweet taste’

I started a seed using a damp paper towel, with 2 drops of GHE Bio Roots booster (Root Kryptonite), and a plastic takeaway food box, sealed with the lid and placed on my Vision box for warmth.

 

[ajagunle]

Whilst the garden is empty is an ideal time for 'enhancements'


Removed the E Zee rollers from the CF fan combo and attached directly to the underside of the garden 'roof', gaining me an extra 1.5" space to raise the lights. Also shortened the ducting and it is now permanently attached to an outside vent.

Light hood across the top, total of 19" between the reservoir and max light height. Screen is 4.5" above the top of the Grodan cubes.

Major skirmishes with temperature control and hotspots were lost, along with almost 50% of my 'canopy' on my last grow. I also had to replace 2 out of the 3 fans during the grow, I think they only have a 2-grow life, have to budget for 3 fans every year! I have moved the lights 3" to the right so I can fit 2 fans blowing across the bulbs.

The airflow should be;
- Active intake fan
- Blown over the top of CO2 bubblers, if and when installed, (if and when temps get above 90f)
- Across the front of 2 fans pointing at the bulbs and towards a small gap at the end of the light fixture
- Directly above the gap is the CF Fan combo


Ran the lights, fans and filter for 24hrs, max temp 77f. Marvellous!

It is a winter grow so I put a sheet of polystyrene under the tank and fitted a water heater in the tank, set at 70f.

As I have only seen one other grow using NFT I thought I would explain how the system works. Only just discovered it is also 'Not For Tourists'! In this case it is 'Nutrient Film Technique'.

From the Internet encyclopaedia (not always very accurate!);

'Nutrient Film Technique or NFT is a hydroponic technique wherein a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is re-circulated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight gully, also known as channels. In an ideal system, the depth of the recirculating stream should be very shallow, little more than a film of water, hence the name 'nutrient film'. This ensures that the thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel, has an upper surface, which, although moist, is in the air. Subsequent to this, an abundant supply of oxygen is provided to the roots of the plants.'

There is a sloping shelf above a 25l reservoir that has a heater and an Air bubbler, the nutrient solution is the pumped to the top of the shelf, covered with spreader matting and with the Grodan cubes sitting on it, and runs back into the reservoir.

It really is that simple or 'so they said'.

I had lowering ph everyday last time, discovered the reflective material on Mylar when dissolved is mildly acidic, so I have made some covers for the shelf that will prevent light from getting to the nutrient solution, it is on rigid supports so little danger of touching the nutrient solution and flexible enough for me to test for ph daily and remove the pump weekly, and weakly, for cleaning.

8 plug sockets in use so far!

Any suggestions or ideas for improvement would be great

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison Day1 veg.


Within 24hrs the tap root is showing. Curious how much darker the seed shell is when it germinates1

Soaked a Root riot in ph5.8 harvested rainwater with 2 drops of Bio Roots. Made a ½” deep hole in the root riot with my bamboo roaching tool, carefully placed the root in the hole and gently squeezed to ensure the medium is in contact with the root. Put the root riot in a small flower pot to keep upright and just off the bottom of a plastic container, covered in humidity dome and put under a 30w blue CFL on GLR, (on12 off5.5 on1 off5.5)

I might soak another bean, 2 plants should fill the small but beautifully proportioned screen almost twice as fast.!?

 

[Scop]

Nice!, I agree with the popping more beans, maybe wait if you aren't sure about the new technique.
It depends on how many seeds you have, I guess.
Good luck, looking forward to see how it turns out.

 

[Green Knight]

Wicked; I'm in ajagunle. I've not seen an NFT grow before so I'm really interested to see it in action mate

 

[ajagunle]

Nice!, I agree with the popping more beans, maybe wait if you aren't sure about the new technique.
It depends on how many seeds you have, I guess.
Good luck, looking forward to see how it turns out.

I have 3 GP beans, I am growing the same strain twice, back to back, first grow to establish how much stretch to expect, second for max buddage, I'm familiar with the technique, but not the strain, I have popped another bean, one for the next harvest in case clones fail! Thank you for popping in

Wicked; I'm in ajagunle. I've not seen an NFT grow before so I'm really interested to see it in action mate

Welcome GK, I think NFT is fairly simple but if I haven't explained or you have any questions or suggestions don't hold back

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison Day3 veg

I did put another Green Poison (GP) seed in a takeaway box to germinate,

GP1 is now outgrowing her cotyledons!

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison Day5 pre-veg


I should have referred to this stage as pre-veg, veg starting with going into the groom. I shall keep them under a 30w blue CFL until the smallest GP is slightly more developed, although max temp during testing has peaked at 79f, there is still likely to be some bright sunny days that may cause too high a temperature for one so small.

Watering every day with 10ml of rainwater lowered in ph to 5.9, and 1 drop of Bio Roots, my chosen root Kryptonite, works wonders but I have not compared it with any other.

During their 1hour anti-siesta they make quite an attractive moody uplighter.

The next time I grow from seed I will start at least 2 weeks before harvest. Once the stem is 2” high I will cut a ‘straw sleeve’, split up the side, and place around the stem, then put the Root Riot (RR) at a 45 degree angle so the stem grows upright but angled to the RR. When it goes in the Grodan cube the RR will be upright and the stem at 45degrees, exposing the whole stem to light and ready for the screen, or will the stem be too supple and revert to upright? Are there any comparable experiences in the Community to encourage this?

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison, Day18.

A view of the measuring equipment, 2 temperature points and the ph meter. Temos are max lights on 81f min lights off 64f, RH 40%<58%, ph adjusted to 5.9 and raises 6.6. Reservoir temp 69f

I shall put the screen in tomorrow so that I can start bending the growing tip and keep my eye on these little Beauties!

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison, Day 30

The Girls are progressing well, a bit surprised when writing this to discover they are 30 days old, so maybe I'll downgrade that to 'progressing'. Both have reached the screen and have had their stems bent under, (I'm now understanding the advantages of naming our charges) the nearest now has 4 secondary branches that have reached the screen, the Little Sister is only just showing secondary branches. No leaves are more than 14 days old, except the cotyledons which curiously are still visible.



I hadn't intended topping to increase the number of screen height growing tops, but I am now considering it. Impatience?
Lighting is the main overhead 300w Blue CFL and 3 supplementary 30w Blue CFL side lights.

Ph appears to change in a variable cycle. When the Res is first changed ph is stable for 48hrs or so and then starts to drop to 5.4 every 12 hours requiring about 10ml ph Up (diluted to 40:1) to reset to 6.1, after 48hrs of falling ph I am changing the Res and 48hrs of stability follows. Not sure what can be causing this, not dissolving Mylar for sure!
Minimum temperature when lights are off is now regularly dropping to 59f, signal to install thermostatically controlled heater before outside temps drop any more.



One great disappointment has been with the journal, currently my only method of posting pictures is via an ancient Mobile and a new(?) very unwieldy technology called Bluetooth.:surrender: When I take delivery of a CF card reader I'll get some more meaningful photos.

 

[ajagunle]

Whilst comfortably anesthetized following a bit of a Fluffy Dust session I took a direct hit from 'The Bleedin' Obvious' stick. The Nutes are slightly acidic, so if the Girls are drinking quicker than they are eating, the acidity will increase. I am assuming the more concentrated the Nutes, the faster ph will drop, I think. Oh Dear, it had all made such obvious logical sense, then.
I will endeavour to pay proper attention to the Nutes strength and what this info is telling me. Manufacturer recommends Total Dissolved Salts measurement of 1200ppm for veg (once the first fan leaf has developed) which is where I started, but TDS is now 1680ppm, up from 1600ppm 12 hours ago, so I have pumped out approx. half the res and replaced with aerated harvested rainwater at unadjusted ph of 7.4. I have left for the next 12 hrs with Res set at 1150ppm TDS, ph 5.8. As well as checking and adjusting ph every 12 hrs I will also check TDS, first. If lowering ph and rising TDS I will dilute with water.



Little Sister, or Lil, now has 7 secondary growing tips at screen height (marked with a lil blob) and I am exposing them to the light with defoliation of any fully formed leaves (main tip marked with an oversized blob). There are growing tips shaded by very immature leaves that I have left in place, atm, pending suggestions/encouragement.

Big Sis has also got several tips at screen height, 2 of which look roughly the same size as the main tip and I have been able to bend some secondary branches in the opposite direction to the main stem, a mini-milestone.

 

[Green Knight]

Looking very good mate. Yeah, as they use more water than nutes the pH drops. I found with the Auto Bomb for every 3-5 litres of water the plant uses the EC will go up about 0.1 and the pH will drop about 0.2-0.3. My res is quite small and I've marked a line for 20l which I fill to. When the pH drops and the EC goes up I just top up the res back to the 20l line with tap water. I don't bother adjusting the pH of the water i add any more- I find it brings it back up nicely to the original pH 5.8/5.9 I set it at and it gets the EC back to where it should be too.

If the res level drops and EC and pH stay stable then I don't bother topping up because the plant's using water and nutes at the same rate and the concentration is staying stable (though it may use up some nutrients more than others, but with one plant and a weekly res change I don't think it will cause too many issues). The Berry Bomb's doing this at the moment so is very low maintenance!

If the EC drops and the pH goes up she's using more nutes than water so I'll add some more nutes to get the EC back and I find the pH also generally comes back into line without needing to add any pH down.

 

[jon705]

lookin good Ajugunle,im subbed

 

[ajagunle]

Looking very good mate. Yeah, as they use more water than nutes the pH drops. I found with the Auto Bomb for every 3-5 litres of water the plant uses the EC will go up about 0.1 and the pH will drop about 0.2-0.3. My res is quite small and I've marked a line for 20l which I fill to. When the pH drops and the EC goes up I just top up the res back to the 20l line with tap water. I don't bother adjusting the pH of the water i add any more- I find it brings it back up nicely to the original pH 5.8/5.9 I set it at and it gets the EC back to where it should be too.

If the res level drops and EC and pH stay stable then I don't bother topping up because the plant's using water and nutes at the same rate and the concentration is staying stable (though it may use up some nutrients more than others, but with one plant and a weekly res change I don't think it will cause too many issues). The Berry Bomb's doing this at the moment so is very low maintenance!

If the EC drops and the pH goes up she's using more nutes than water so I'll add some more nutes to get the EC back and I find the pH also generally comes back into line without needing to add any pH down.

Thanks GK, I’m assuming this is all ‘dialling in’ and I’m getting there! Thanks to I am now beginning to realise where ‘there’ is, vaguely. Going to follow your tip of marking Res capacity and also ensure I have a good ‘strength’ of mixture in the first place!

 

[ajagunle]

lookin good Ajugunle,im subbed

and

Thanks Jon, I’m often lurking jealously in your grow room! (a bit like a kid in a sweet factory)

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison, Day 33

I had wanted to add another acronym to the journal title but couldn’t find one to deal with Defoliation, but I have had my first go at it.

I removed the screen and the fans to get reasonable access to the 2 Girls.

Also a much needed opportunity to manipulate and bend all the different shoots to face as many points of the compass as possible. As the branches grow in pairs and in alternate directions, every 4th secondary branch is growing from the main stem in perpetual shade, I have 2 of these that I shall have to remember to bend and cajole into the light when they are long enough.

I removed all leaves that had a stem longer than about an inch. There is no longer any evidence of the Cotyledons. The secondary branch nearest the tips was so scrunched up with the main tip that it was only when removing fan leaves did I realise and was able to unfurl the 2 tops separately and gently bend the secondary branches so they are almost perpendicular to the main stem.(2 tips marked)

Quite surprised how therapeutic Defoliation is, I was quite nervous to begin with but having first reread Bassman’s journal for the 4th time Increasing yield with defoliation indoors - What's it mean? How to do it? I went for it.

I will Defoliate every 7 days and remove any other obtrusive leaves as part of my daily inspection of the Estate.

I didn’t count the number of tips but I have 72 usable spaces in the screen, and I have 19” Max Headroom! Bum tish

 

[ajagunle]

Green Poison, Day 35

Followed your advice GreenKnight, pumped 10l of Res and replaced with 10l of ph7.4 rainwater, still required ph Up to bring to ph5.9 and 1105 TDS. 12 hrs later, ph5.2 and 1400TDS! Pumped another 6l Res and replaced, ph5.8 and 806 TDS. 36 hrs later ph5.8 836 TDS. I know there’s formula to convert EC and TDS, and I’m comfortable it’s in the zone(ish). I will now adjust the ph with diluted Nutes or plain water(7.4). Fingers crossed x



Girls are looking good after their defoliation, actually looking forward to the next session.

 

[Korloin]

The next time I grow from seed I will start at least 2 weeks before harvest. Once the stem is 2" high I will cut a 'straw sleeve', split up the side, and place around the stem, then put the Root Riot (RR) at a 45 degree angle so the stem grows upright but angled to the RR. When it goes in the Grodan cube the RR will be upright and the stem at 45degrees, exposing the whole stem to light and ready for the screen, or will the stem be too supple and revert to upright? Are there any comparable experiences in the Community to encourage this?

That's a great idea AJ!! May have to keep training it to get it to stay on 45 degrees for the next few inches to the screen. But seems sound to me!

Btw..

I'm with you on the defoliation there AJ! It was doing great for me with Driz, LK and The Keeper. Granted they turned male, but not from hermi. Runtlet didn't start getting it until she started showing pistils (should've started sooner with her), by then some of the secondary branches had some big stretch between the nodes. But all new shoots are growing off real tight nodal space. Some are only a cm or less! So I got that in the mental bag for later sativa grows!

Loving the NFT! Couldn't quite get my head around how it could work for a small grow, until now. Thanks! +reps!

I'm going hydro on my next one. Got some Blue Planet nutes on the way and all the necessary gadgets for a DWC in hand. Though I'm contemplating aeroponic as well. May just make a lil' aero cloner to satisfy that urge. My archetypal gemini behavior patterns have been in full swing lately. Gotta harvest soon or my wife is going to kill me. Lol!

Talk to you soon!!

K

 

[northener]

I love nft and find it can be the most space efficient especially if vertical space is limited. The gro is looking great and I'm in for the long haul! I currently have a top feed nft under construction and will be following yours closely. Not enough of us around so we should stick together!

 

[Green Knight]

I had wanted to add another acronym to the journal title but couldn’t find one to deal with Defoliation, but I have had my first go at it.

Ha ha; I just noticed all the TLAs in your title! Brilliant!