ColoradoGriz
New Member
Colorado Griz's - Ebb and Flow - Coco - LEC 630 Grow Journal -2016
Thanks for stopping by, I've been away a long while but I'm back to check things out. I've only been growing for a few years now so this is all still a learning process for me. I'll spare you boring personal background stuff and get to the meat and potatoes. I'm not really good at writing journals but in my own research I haven't found anyone running the exact setup I am, so, let's experiment.
SETUP:
INDOOR GROW: 4x4 Apollo Horticulture Tent
MEDIUM: Royal Gold Tupur Coco Coir and Growstones
WATERING METHOD: Hydro Farm Ebb and Flow w/55 Gallon Rez and 7 Gallon Controller
NUTRIENTS: Advanced Nutrients Sensi Coco Grow (Hobbyist level Nute Schedule); Great White; Advanced Nutrients PH-Down.
WATER: Tap at 7.2 PH, PPM 53 (Rocky Mountain Snow Melt) Not using rain water this run.
POTS: 2 Gallon Pots (bottom inch Growstones, filled 3" from top w/ Coco Coir) decided against smart pots this run.
LIGHTING: Sun System 630w LEC; T5's for seedlings
AIR FLOW: 6" 440 cfm Exhaust fan on low, 6" booster fan intake, 1 3 foot tower oscillating fan, 2 6" clip fans, Phat Filter.
CONTROLS: Blue Lab Guardian for EC, PH and Res Temps. Titan Controller for Heat, Humidity and Lights. Not using CO2 this run. Humidity is really low in Colorado. Wifi Camera to check my crops 24/7.
I am growing the following feminized strains:
Blue Cheese x 2: an indica cross created by crossing a Blueberry male with an original U.K. Cheese (a Skunk #1 phenotype) female.
Humboldt Blue Dream x3: A sativa dominant cross of Blueberry and Haze
Pakistani Valley Kush x 2: 100% Indica
White Widow X Big Buds x 3: Hybrid, name speaks for itself
Delicious Candy x2: Indica dominant Caramelo x Cheese
Blue Cheese x 2: an indica cross created by crossing a Blueberry male with an original U.K. Cheese (a Skunk #1 phenotype) female.
Humboldt Blue Dream x3: A sativa dominant cross of Blueberry and Haze
Pakistani Valley Kush x 2: 100% Indica
White Widow X Big Buds x 3: Hybrid, name speaks for itself
Delicious Candy x2: Indica dominant Caramelo x Cheese
Many of you are already familiar with several strains so I will spare all the details of each. If you have any questions about a particular one, I'd be happy to answer to the best of my abilities. I hope my comments throughout this journal will fill in the blanks about their performance in my grow.
Now I had already germinated these seeds prior to starting this journal. It wasn't until I finalized my setup that I decided to start a journal.
I germinated 14 seeds in Rooter Plugs in which 14 hatched and 13 broke the surface. I've seen all kinds of methods of germination and personally I just stick with a simple method that has worked for me about a good 99% of the time. I use rooter plugs soaked in regular tap water until I feel they are nice and soaked but not dripping. I place the plugs in tray with a heat pad underneath. My heating pad has a thermostat and I try to keep the pad in the high 70's, below 80. I put the seeds into the holes of the plugs and push them down about a knuckle deep, 1". I then rip off a piece of the plug and use it to plug the hole.
I use a single bulb T5 running for 24 hours until they sprout.
I usually get results in 2-3 days. These seeds sprouted within 48 hours and had first set of true leaves on day 3.
After 4 days I transferred them to red solo cups filled with Royal Gold Tupur Coco and put them under the four bulb T5s until they started their 5th set of leaves. I topped the 5th set gave them about 4 days and transplanted them to the 2 gallon pots.
Day 5
Day 7: Decided why water, when I can dunk. Same process as Ebb and Flow, I felt it helped get any air pockets out of the medium and fully saturated the medium. Looking back, it was easier than watering and didn't have any negative effects. Bottom line, time saver, thorough but not necessary. I'll be doing it from now on though. This is just RO water and Great White.
Watered and Healthy. Through this stage watering every 3-4 days was fine. More often wouldn't have hurt but I wouldn't have gone less.
Snapshot from my wifi camera giving me live video feeds.
These were my all-stars at Day 15. I had topped their 5th set of leaves. Showing signs of water not being enough anymore.
These were the runts of the bunch.
Don't worry, that's just the tap PH
Dinner time, ¼ serving.
Ph is better, brought that water temp down to 74. Ph was auto adjusted by the Nutes.
Pakistani Valley stretched a bit into the T5s. Giving them a little more time to adjust from the topping before I transplant to the 2 gallon pots.
Now I have grown in Fox Farms soil until a friend turned me onto coco. I had been using Botanicare but once I found out they had ties with Monsanto, I dropped their product line along with G & H. This is my first time using Royal Gold so it's too soon to tell.
I've heard varying reports about coco coir in an ebb and flow system. I'm hoping to find out for myself if this is a good medium or not. I want to use coco because I can throw it my yard instead of a landfill. This is also why I decided against smart pots. So no ebb and flow using clay pellets and smart pots on this grow. I used to grow a few plants in large pots but I wanted to downscale the pot size as moving those big pots around after a long day of work was getting old.
This is also the first time I have used an LEC lighting system, lots of firsts. Nothing against LEDs, I just think they are not there yet and I got tired of pink photos and special glasses. Well, let's add some photos.
Here you can see a little light burn. These girls want more light and they are going to have it.
This is a good testament. The plant in the red solo cup was one of the all stars that didn't make the cut of the 12 going into the Flower tent. We transplanted the plants just one day before this was taken. You can see the growth that basically happened overnight.
Here we are now Day 5 of Week 1, Veg Cycle.
Being new to this set up, vegging for 3-4 weeks will be dependent on growth. I've been able to keep them short and bushy up to this point. I started the rez with 90 liters of water and nutes on Friday. About Tuesday the EC went up a little so I just topped off with 15 liters of water bringing the EC down. Since this brought the PH up a little by Wednesday, I added some PH down. I also should mention I have two airstones in the rez to keep things from getting stagnant and put oxygen in the water. They are on an 18/6 light schedule with 3 waterings a day during the light cycle. Once when they wake up, one mid cycle and once more 2 hours before lights out. I may or may not drop this down to two feedings but it's working good so far.
I have good feelings about the LEC lamp. Temps get to 80-88 and I know that is kind of high, but Colorado has very low humidity so 85 with a Humidity of 50 in my grow tent is a trade off and the plants are showing no signs of heat stress. In about a month temps will drop and heat will become more manageable. I could run cool air from outside or hook my portable AC but currently I'm not too concerned about a high of 88. Just a tip, sometimes turning up your exhaust fan is counterproductive. If you suck air out too fast, it doesn't give the incoming air time to cool things down.
