CFLGrow's Soil, White Widow, CFL Stealth Growbox Journal - 2010

[cflgrow]

Also, my grow room is looking beautiful! I have three ebb and flow tables set up, each with their own 400w MH. It should make for a real rich veg cycle, once it's up and running. I've been looking into CO2 enrichment as well... I know I need a CO2 tank rental and a regulator. Does anyone here know anything about tanks and regulators, though? I found a used acetylene regulator cheap. Will that do the trick for what I want? Any good online tutorials for CO2?

Thanks!

 

[funnystyle]

Here is the recipe I use...

1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 TBSP Dried Yeast
1 1/2 cups water

Shake real well and let sit. It will be a very slow release of CO2 that should last approx 2 weeks with this recipe.

I've been getting pretty good pressure from the CO2 if I put my finger over the tube.

The vinegar and baking soda reaction creates plenty of CO2 however the release is almost instantaneous. With this method, the yeast consumes the sugar which in turn produces CO2 and alcohol very slowly. The same process is used for making beer. Hell if you had a brewery and a grow room in the same building its as green as it gets.

i just made one, it seems like its working.... of course you would need to increase the amount of mix..... worth a try? iono about supplying to 3 ebb and flow tables.... lol....

 

[cflgrow]

Well, two things... one, I'm not supplying for the ebb and flow tables just yet. Right now my girls are in the dresser grow, and I have 4 one-gallon bottles to brew in. Secondly, when it comes time for the ebb and flow tables, I'll hopefully have the CO2 tank/regulator functioning.

Speaking of which, anyone here use regulators and CO2 tanks? I still need to know whether a regulator designed for acetylene will work

 

[cflgrow]

Alright... I spoke to the hydroponics dealer in town about the acetylene regulator. He said yes and no. Yes, the regulator will do the job of releasing CO2 into the room. However, I won't be able to measure and control how much. There's no way of finding how much CO2 is in the air, meaning it could be way too high or low. I'll just be conservative and keep it low. The regulator was free, and a 20 lb CO2 tank costs me $40 here. $40 for added CO2 seems worth it

Secondly, I topped all the plants today! They might have been a bit young for it, but I'm thinking it'll be better in the long run if they have more time to recover. I'm impatiently waiting for them to be big enough for LST

More pics very soon!

 

[cflgrow]

Well, it's time for another visual update The plants are all coming along well... they didn't seem to mind their beheading a couple days ago. Four of them are currently being LST'd - the others are still too stout to need it.

One issue that did pop up, though... one plant is showing slight nute burn on the leaves, I think. A bunch of yellow splotches near the edge of a leaf. Assuming it's nute burn, what should I be doing? I don't think I need to flush at 3 weeks, do I? Maybe just drop the dosage slightly, and carry on as usual? None of the other 9 reacted, which is why I'm unsure what to do.

Also, I'm growing three strains - master kush, white widow, and an unknown variety. All three plants of the 'unknown variety' have canoeing leaves. Any idea as to why? The temperatures have been consistent at 79º-80º... RH is between 50% and 55%...

 

[Growheart]

Nice and clean looking set up there CFLgrow, and plants are looking good too. Make sure you check out the plant guides in the how to grow section here for leaf pics / symptoms. Hard to see the said yellow splotches in those pics but that would be nute burn if they are burnt tips. Flush for sure if that's the case, I would. Any time a nutrient burn in soil you should flush.

 

[cflgrow]

I'm getting annoyed with my plants. They're at three weeks, and looking small. I thought they had been doing pretty well, but growth has been slow. It bugs me. They have nutes going into them...

Based on the last pictures I posted, are they looking on schedule for day 21 of veg?

Maybe I'm just overanalyzing. I also added some peroxide today - 1/2 cup of water, 3 ml of 3% peroxide. I figured a little extra O2 wouldn't hurt. I'll be including it in my regular feedings from now on.

Anyway, more pictures will be up soon - but not much has changed

 

[cflgrow]

I think I'm at the point in the journal where my flowers are neither rooting, budding or dying, and I'm not doing anything new or different... so the viewers are tuning out Haha. Oh well. It's still time for an update.

The pictures will be up tomorrow once my battery charges.

My fears about the plants slacking in growth were just the result of being a first-time grower, it seems. I had been spending waaay too much time in the grow room, checking and fussing on them... a watched pot never boils, and a watched pot plant never grows, apparently

After I posted last, I've LST'd several more plants, added H2O2 into the regular feeding, and picked up a few new additives. Hygrozome will become a new part of the regular feeding. I'll be transplanting into 6 liter pots ASAP, using a root accelerator, and trying to get them transplanted into their final 15 liter homes so I can bloom them.

To anyone who has grown White Widow or Master Kush before, what kind of a veg:bloom height ratio did you have? ie, how much do they stretch? Also, how long did you veg and bloom for? Nailing down the ratios will help me know when to switch the lights

G'nite 420 world!

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

hi mate....i have a few obbservations for you......where you have LST your plants you have done it too soon....the idea is this......when the plant has perhaps 3/4 sets of branches it blocks out light from the bottom branches right ?.......this is the time to LST them you bend them over and this allows light to the bottom of the plant to allow the lower branches to grow.......i also dont think those pots are big enough i think its time to repot......i think then you will see more growth......im not sure what your feeding them ie nutes......but if you repot them into slightly bigger pots with the new soil they should not need feeding for 2 weeks ......just plain water....i repot from cups to pots then 3 bigger pots as i run the veg cycle this enables me not to feed at all in veg as each week they are repotted into bigger pots with freash soil.....if this was my grow i would just repot and plain water them.....just my obbservations mate and my thoughts.....let me know what you think?.........weedtastic

 

[cflgrow]

Hey Weedtastic! This is actually news for me... I've heard all kinds of thing about feeding.

They went from 16 oz. cups to 3l. pots. They're going into 6l. pots today or tomorrow, and finishing up in 15l pots. Quite a few people have told me to start fertilizing from week 2, and some even said start fertilizing from day 1 (but obviously in tiny amounts to start).

So far I've only seen two leaves on the whole crop showing 'possible nute damage' - and it definitely isn't severe. A few light yellow dots. Should I be cutting out their fertilizers if they're taking them well? My logic would be that if they're not being damaged by the nutes, why cut them out?

As for LST, you're probably right. I wanted to start LST'ing when they were young and flexible so A) I wouldn't break the stems while trying to train them, and B) to keep their height really low throughout the grow.

Can anyone chime in on LST'ing? If my goal is to keep them low, is it still too early to be tying them down?

Thanks for the constructive criticism, Weedtastic. I appreciate someone saying more than 'good job' Haha.

Cheers!

 

[TennTony]

Hi cflgrow, your girls look good to me. They are almost exactly the same age as mine and mine look about the same size as yours. I'm not a pro but I think your doin good. I think mine aren't growing sometimes, opening the closet like 15 times a day just to see them lookin just the way I left them 10 min ago, lol. Patience. Remember when you change to 12/12 they are gonna blow up. (that's what I keep telling myself)
Goodluck and I'll check back, our grows are very similar

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

Hey Weedtastic! This is actually news for me... I've heard all kinds of thing about feeding.

They went from 16 oz. cups to 3l. pots. They're going into 6l. pots today or tomorrow, and finishing up in 15l pots. Quite a few people have told me to start fertilizing from week 2, and some even said start fertilizing from day 1 (but obviously in tiny amounts to start).

So far I've only seen two leaves on the whole crop showing 'possible nute damage' - and it definitely isn't severe. A few light yellow dots. Should I be cutting out their fertilizers if they're taking them well? My logic would be that if they're not being damaged by the nutes, why cut them out?

As for LST, you're probably right. I wanted to start LST'ing when they were young and flexible so A) I wouldn't break the stems while trying to train them, and B) to keep their height really low throughout the grow.

Can anyone chime in on LST'ing? If my goal is to keep them low, is it still too early to be tying them down?

Thanks for the constructive criticism, Weedtastic. I appreciate someone saying more than 'good job' Haha.

Cheers!

hi mate...im glad you didn t take offence lol....ok 6L pots will have them growing faster....althou i used to flower in 15 L pots....now i flower in 11 litre pots....i find its better A because you get a faster watering schedule ie....they dry out in 3 days and B you will use less nutes....my 15 litre pots would dry out in 5/6 days....ok onto the nutes i guess it makes sense if your feeding them nutes and have no probs then i see no reason why you shouldn t carry on feeding them.......as long as the nutes are not bloom nutes...if you get me ?.......ok you have 2 ways to keep em low and bushy that i use......you can top the plants at any time before 1 week before flower......or LST them....if your not sure when to LST them don t worry keep putting your pics up and i can always shout up.......what height are they now ?....what height do you want them to finish at ?.....i never keep quiert when i can see there is room for improvement without to much expence if any....again im glad i didn t offend you.......take care mate...weedtastic

 

[cflgrow]

Don't even worry about stepping on my toes

I'm going to keep fertilizing them... as I said - no nute burn, so what do I have to lose? I was using a veg fertilizer and peroxide for the roots... but now I have hygrozyme, so I'm using that instead of the peroxide. I've also added a little bit of root excelurator. They suggested only using it during the first two weeks, but I didn't do it then, so I'll add a tiny bit now.

As for topping - I topped all ten plants. My biggest kush got topped twice. LST'ing is underway... but I realized that LST'ing before the final transplant sucks. Every time I re-pot, I have to undo all my LST.

And finally... they're going to end up in 15l. pots. I've heard that dropping them into pots that are way too big creates issues, like the slow watering cycle, too much nutes, etc.

One question for you, though - as I've topped them, I now have two main stems. What's your preference on how to LST that? Run the stems in opposite directions around the pot? Or keep them together?

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

hi mate post a pic and i will take a look EDIT And finally... they're going to end up in 15l. pots. I've heard that dropping them into pots that are way too big creates issues, like the slow watering cycle, too much nutes, etc............that statement don t quite make sense ?...or is it me heavily stonned lol

 

[cflgrow]

Hey - it's all good I meant dropping them into those big pots too early.

ie, going from seedlings into the final 'big' pot - that creates issues. So I have about four different sized pots... 16oz., 3l., 6l., 15l.

I'll go find my camera and snap some for ya

 

[Gordon d'Angelo]

Hey - it's all good I meant dropping them into those big pots too early.

ie, going from seedlings into the final 'big' pot - that creates issues. So I have about four different sized pots... 16oz., 3l., 6l., 15l.

I'll go find my camera and snap some for ya

yea mate you have the pots perfect......and your spot on with dropping them into pots that are too big to early.......you seem to have a great handle on what your doing already mate....you ll have buds in no time

 

[Barry Manilow]

Sounds like things are moving right along!

I let mine go for 3 weeks in their mini-hempies, at which point the cups were just packed with roots. Then I transplanted straight into 4 gal buckets. Probably takes the roots close to a week to hit the res, so I watered 2-3x a day until that happened. That's a little extra work but not as much as multiple transplants. Just something to keep in mind as an option. Keep up the great job!

 

[cflgrow]

Interesting... and because they were in hempies, you could water as much as you want, eh? I'm thinking of switching to E&G next time around. Get a little bit more efficiency happening. But hempies seem nice, too. Sort of a compromise between potted plants and E&G. Have you ever done/seen comparisons between hempies and ebb and grow?

 

[Barry Manilow]

Interesting... and because they were in hempies, you could water as much as you want, eh? I'm thinking of switching to E&G next time around. Get a little bit more efficiency happening. But hempies seem nice, too. Sort of a compromise between potted plants and E&G. Have you ever done/seen comparisons between hempies and ebb and grow?

I get confused following all these grows, forgot you're using soil!

You can't overwater hempies because they have the hole that acts as an overflow valve. Now once they're established you'll only water every few days when they seem to need it, but in the beginning it's good to water often as the roots are seeking the reservoir below the hole.

Ebb and flow is a pretty similar system, perhaps a bit more complicated. I've never done it.

In both cases you want the water to be wicked up from the bottom. DocBud has wisely advocated only watering the hempy buckets in one small area so the water rushes to the bottom of the pot. This causes air to be sucked down into the pot, and keeps most of the medium dry so it will then wick upward from the res.

 

[cflgrow]

Hey Blue! Thanks for the thoughts. I've been tossing the two ideas back and forth, and I think ebb and grow will be the best fit for what I have. I finally uploaded the pictures from my camera, and you'll see that the trays they're in will work perfectly as flood trays

Anyway, last night I did my first flush. A couple leaves were starting to get slight spotting - nothing serious at all, but I figure we're at the one-month mark, so I might as well.

I actually didn't do a 'true flush'... I ran pH'd water with a full serving of Hygrozyme through the plants. I only started Hygrozyme on the last feeding, so I figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Does anyone disagree with me? Would this still have the desired effect of flushing out the salts/nute buildup?

PS - these girls are all at day 29