Domination Of Indica Pt1, NFT, Mars Hydro TS1000 & TS2000

[OceanicBud]

Welcome to a new journal and with better luck application of skills, time, care and patience there will be a better outcome than the previous first grow of the mother plants these babies were taken from (See this journal):

Multi Strain, Sensi, Mars TSW 2000, NFT Grow

First Grow Journal so here goes it... Seeds from Sensi = 2x Sensi Skunk (Fem) + 1x Big Bud (Fem) + 1x White Widow (Fem) Germination = 18hrs in glass of tap water then moved into wet paper-towel method between 2x plates on a heat-mat, all 4x sprouts out 15mm within 24 hours & moved into 2"...

www.420magazine.com

I'm not going to deny there will be heat issues with this grow as we approach a 3 month summer in a fortnight here in AUS where it's not uncommon to hit 40-44c days (That's 111f for you imperial folk)

What we have here is the second stage of my first perpetual grow from Sensi seed parents 3x Big Bud and 1x White Widow into ph 5.5 soaked rockwool aided with Clonex gel , these were taken a week into flower, not sooner as I needed to buy time so these babies didn't veg up too big while the mama's finish up over the next 2-3 weeks.

Set up
Greenfingers 1.2m x 1.2m x 2m tent for Veg and 2.4 x 1.2 x 2m for flower
Mars Hydro TS1000 for Veg
Mars Hdro TS2000 x 2 for flower
NFT Turbo tanks x 2
Custom made 4mm dripper lines
Airstone bubbler to each NFT tank / res
Nutes:
Dutchmaster Gold series Grow A/B with Cyco Bloom A/B as primary
Canna Rizho + GT Silica + Monsta Bud + Cyco Supa Sticky + Cal/mag as required

Clones took a while to root due to reverting hormones from week 1 flower back to Veg state all had roots around 14 - 16 days but this worked well as I hadn't prepped veg tent properly.


Clones the 4x were selected from

 

[OceanicBud]

After Week one of Veg in the tent it's evident, the same as last grow that the plants at the water flow source of NFT tray benefit greatest by uptake of the good nutrients before the flow continues to the others.

Nutes around 300 PPM of the dutchmaster gold to ease them in, the Mars Hydro TS1000 is dimmed to 50% likewise to ease the transplant into new system.

Air bubbler / stones ordered for these 2x independent NFT systems (Unlike sheared reservoir in the flower tent)

Some of the original fan leaves from the propagation tent yellowed but these will come off in coming weeks anyhow.

Used a humidifier for this first week to keep RH around 60%, again to ease the transition, I won't need this for long as the small veg tent has 50%+ RH anyhow until the 6" ducting arrive for proper ventilation.

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 2 of Veg - Check - Interesting week, had to diagnose issues unique to 2x plants in 1 NFT system, there were brown / yellow rust spots appearing on these young ones, even though the PH / PPM was spot on I quickly could tell it was root zone related as the NFT medium was starting to go broan color.

This issue identified was the NFT system was pooling up about 10-15mm of water, the fix for this was simple, tilt the NFT systems at a slightly greater angle and also slow the pump flow to limit how much water sits on top of that NFT system trays.
To further recover these vulnerable babies I included some H202 (Hydrogen Peroxide) to the systems, added the air bubblers that arrived and within 24Hr the medium is almost back to a clean white color and healthy new, non-spotted growth is appearing. It was essentially a nutrient deficiency due to poor root health that were getting no oxygen to assist uptake of nutes (Good recovererable lesson learned)

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 3 of Veg (Actually 3 ½ as i missed last week) and pleased to see the water pooling and root zone issue is rectified and nothing but lush green now with spots and poor heath a thing of the past.

All 4 girls have been topped now and low stress training on 2x of them, see picture below of the 90deg angles trained for the 5th node branches.

Changing water every 7 - 10 days and still adding the Canna Rhizo + CalMag + Silica + H202 to the base A/B Dutch master nutes dialing in at a conservative 350 - 380 PPM with a PH aimed at 6.0

 

[OceanicBud]

A new year and after a month on hiatus, happy 2K20.

So a few days after previous post the mothers finished up and after the NFT system and flower tent was cleaned out and sterilized these girls were ready for the upgrade to to the premium size accommodation with complimentary twice a day room service. Fast forward a few more weeks and these girls are at 6 weeks in Veg and ready to flip (@ 27.12.19)

Challenges: The weeks leading up to the switch to flower tent seen these babies get some really hot days with limited air flow, I had my first experience with Nitrogen deficiency showing with yellowing existing fan leaves as you'll see pictured below, Nitro-K was added to fix the deficiency during weeks 4 - 6 of Veg.

However, Alas...

Progress: Surprisingly the re-housing to flower tens went exceptionally well, the whole 2x NFT trays were transferred as to not disturb the root system, straight into the clean tanks and fresh reservoir, they were up and chirpy reaching for the light within the hour (Bigger LEDs @ 50% for first few days.

Biggest change from last grow was the installation of the 2.7Kw Air con in this flower tent, no more 40deg C air, no more 29+ deg water

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 7 of Veg complete and the flip to 12/12 done with full res change and fresh nute regime underway... I know , I know - Why wait so long when 4-5 weeks should suffice, Well... Couldn't help the short post xmas vacation and was reluctant to flip earlier as the mother Sensi Big Bud & White widows were both short and stocky, so cheers to a risky gamble based on genetic ancestry

Challenges: While away for the week the girls started drinking much faster and the house sitter had to start feeding plain tap water (Like PH 7.3) and could not expect the sitter to PH correct or add nutes so they were a little stressed upon return, for all of a few hours

Progress: The new A/C worked wonders and nothing but new healthy growth while away, filling out thick and bushy. Did a light trim of big fan leaves but didn't want to disturb too much for the flip to flower. Maintaining 24 - 28 Deg temps (No 30's or 40's as per last months brutal summer conditions with no A/C , water temp around 20-22.

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 1 of Flower accomplished and these ladies have handled the transition to shorter days with ease.

Progress: Light defoliation of undergrowth and introduction of the Monsta Bud (By Ozi Magic) into the feeding regime.

Challenges: Glad to report - Nil

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 2 of Flower in the rear view mirror and a good week all in all. The introduction of A/C is working wonders for this round and can't speak highly enough how this has stabilized the environment to allow for thriving conditions.

Progress: Healthy green growth as stretch continues, a concentrated effort this past week to get the canopy nice and level, tucking where possible the elevated growth further through scrog net and tucking fan leaves that shade upcoming bud sites.

Challenges: Nil, perhaps would have started lollipoping a week prior to flip given how bushy these are, however, not an issue as I can maintain RH at 50% currently.

 

[OceanicBud]

@SmokeSara, Missed the Dec comp entry for Mars pics, however, here is some current snaps, not possible without the Mars LED tech raining sweet light on the ladies.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Thank you very much for your sharing and look forward to seeing you harvest that day

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 3 of flower finished and much progress has been had,

Progress: With stretch looking complete and after much debate (With myself) I have gone in and done a good amount of defoliation, stripping away all the big fan leaves and opening up that canopy to let the good light penetrate through to the lower bud sites and only optimum airflow. Starting to get early stages of Trichome development on the sugar-leaves.

I know it's a contentious subject, however, the Big Bud plants are extremely compact close node spacing, very bushy to the point they smother close by or under growth so this for me is controlled experimenting which I believe everyone should be doing in some way in their garden, it was not without a lot of research and Youtubing cases for and against.

The clones (Pictured below) taken at week 2 of flower are tracking ok and yet to sprout roots, which is as desired so I can buy time for the perpetual cycle (All Big Bud, no White Widow next round)

Challenges: Nothing major, a few items to monitor:

1) A few rust spots appearing on the fan leaves of White Widow, looks like Calcium deficiency, although very early stages and not an issue for the 3x Big Bud.

2) Noticed the past day that RH has can drop to 39% since new defoliation, which is a bit low for my liking, still very much happy plants and will monitor and add the humidifier if deemed required otherwise new growth will keep this in high 40's low 50's

 

[Green thumb lou]

Look fantastic

 

[Green thumb lou]

I am so scared to defoliate mine. I have a crown royal journal going if you wanna see why I probably should lol. But I have to say your plants look so healthy. Great work

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 4 of Flower in the bag:

Progress: Regrowth from the week 3 defoliation was thick and fast, the girls only slightly drooped for a couple of hours max. Trichome production is in full swing and stacking beginning as the oh so sweet buds develop.

Day #1 of next cycle with clones into veg tent (New journal to follow)

Challenges: Fan leaf tip & edge burn and spotting / browning, originally suspected Calcium deficiency or Potassium considering the edge and ends, however increased levels are not appearing to better the cause. Having said that it's isolated to fan leaves and no developing sugar leaves are effected.

 

[Mars Hydro]

It looks very good, you can add a little more calcium to try, LED growing needs more calcium and magnesium

 

[OceanicBud]

It looks very good, you can add a little more calcium to try, LED growing needs more calcium and magnesium

Thanks SmokeSara,
I had read somewhere that increased Cal/Mag can be required for LED grows, however, I thought it was more for the Blurple COB type as opposed to these white / red spectrum Mars.

This rust spot, tip / edge burn was in the last cycle also, although with no A/C and plant uptake was drinking more h2o than feeding thus a higher runoff EC, so I put it down to nute burn and heat stress.

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 5 Flower complete:

Progress: Frost! Flowers are working hard on Trichome production, the resin these girls are making is very fruity thanks to the addition of CYCO Supa Sticky additive. Some pistils are beginning to go amber as we edge towards the final phase of bloom.

Infrastructure progress also achieved as I fed the A/C hot vent tube into the roof space and joined ventilation tubing from veg tent to flower tent, this leaves both tents neutrally pressurized and the room itself slightly negative pressure so it draws air in from the house and does not expel smells inside (See exterior challenge below)

Challenges: Smell !!! With above work done on ventilation, the A/C exhaust to roof space takes the pungent terpene ridden air with it, as the flower tent carbon filter now only removes half the air. Another carbon filter and speed controlled inline fan is on order to combat this odor issue.

Root Zone - Last week you've seen my issue with browning fan leaf edges with rust spots, although looking like Calcium or Potassium deficiency I'm now leaning to it being a root issue, these NFT trays develop a dense root mat, so much so they max out growth to available space mid-flower (2x plants per NFT system currently) As a result there is slightly browning roots (Not sure if stained by nutrients) they don't look as healthy as could be.

Adding small amount of H202 (Hydrogen peroxide) to the res every 3 - 4 days should keep slime and potential for pathogens at a minimum and see the grow out with good results.

 

[McRib]

Dude! How'd it turn out? Was a good read. Like how you structure your journal with progress and challenges. New journal coming?

Rib

 

[OceanicBud]

Dude! How'd it turn out? Was a good read. Like how you structure your journal with progress and challenges. New journal coming?

Rib

My Bad, I should have at least finished the last couple of weeks as this was a good thread I enjoyed. I missed Wk6 although will post week 7 (Final) in a moment. Thanks for the kind words, I find it simple to structure journal this way and for anyone else tuning in to follow along where needed

I found although I was very much enjoying this weekly update it was consuming a bit too much time that I don't really have spare between work n study, not to mention the Green room already consuming enough time away from the Mrs (According to her, Lol)
OB

 

[OceanicBud]

Week 7 Flower complete (Missed Week 6) Ready for Harvest!

Progress / Conclusion: Overall a great grow, the best things being environmental control once the 2.2Kw A/C was incorporated. Many learnings including a flooded reservoir, root care requirements, Trichome analysis, 3 series of defoliation.

Challenges: Fresh water flush occurred too early, Started this mid-way through week 5 and ended up pushing flower until almost 8th week before I was happy with Trichomes, I could have put back on nutes, however never opted to, this potentially decreased overall yield although this was not the end of the world, rather just a learning.

Chop: I went for my first wet trim for harvest instead of hang dry > trim. Although this requires more front end effort in a tighter time window I found the buds were a much closer trim and visually pleasing once done in like 4-6 days ready for curing,

End Result: 621gm of sweet dried bud from these 4, cured for no less than a month (I can say this as this post is 3 months late)

Here is the last shots of this journal (unfortunately none from the harvest or end product sorry).

Thanks for those who stopped by and or commented, this has been fun and many made the journey helpful and rewarding.

Peace out,
OB