Doozy's 2300W LED - 5x5 - Dinafem Seeds - 1st Grow

[Doozy]

big bertha looking great,

how many lights are you using in this stage of life??

I'm only using 4 of the 5 lights at present, one of which is the 700w. The fact is that it really doesn't matter how high a wattage these LEDs are, the only difference between the 400, and the 700 is the footprint, so i'm more than happy with one of the ladies to be under the 700 whilst the others are under 400s, it really makes no difference at this stage while the plants are small. I'll re-arrange the res's over the next couple of days.

Each plant has a light above it, is the simple answer.

The roots are growing like crazy today, i can categorically say that they've grown by well over a foot in the last 24 hours.

I added a very small amount of Vitalink Max A and B last night, but i'm going to start really slowly with the nutes.

Hopefully...there be monsters coming!

 

[Doozy]

Hi all,

So just a brief update today. I've started with a proper schedule and amount of the nutes as of yesterday. So far each res has as follows - (this is based upon each 60ltr res holding about 45-50ltrs of water)

Vialink Max Grow A - 15ml
Vialink Max Grow B - 15ml
Canna Rhizotonic - 30ml
CalMag - 8ml

These amounts are all well below the recommended dosage but i want to start slow so as to avoid any more callous mistakes.

Ph of each res is holding at a steady 5.7-5.9

EC of each res is holding at a steady 0.8-0.9

Lights on temp - 26 - 29 (78 - 84)

Lights off temp - 18 - 22 (64 - 71)

Res temps - steady 22 - 23 (71 - 73) lights on, dropping a little at night so i've used some frozen water bottles. Two of these added twice a day keeps the temps down around the 19 - 21 area (66 - 69)

Here's a few pics of how they're looking today -

An finally big bertha from above

...and from the side. The inter-nodal spacing is really close on all plants, i'd say about 10mm (maybe half an inch)

Another little experiment i'm doing is to see if the root riots can be put directly in the bubblers. I'm not losing anything by doing this as i had already germinated another seed so i thought waht the hell, i'm never going to find out if it's possible unless i try, so here's bubbler No 5 with the root riot popped straight in. The dripper taps have been turned right down low, and the water in the res contains only Rhizotonic at 0.5ml per ltr, Ph is at 5.8.

And finally here's a picture of how the roots are doing underneath Bertha -

And a pic of all the ladies -

Cheers, any and all constructive comments or questions always appreciated

 

[skunnymonster]

Looking great & it looks like you've nailed this growing lark now

 

[Doozy]

Looking great & it looks like you've nailed this growing lark now

Haha, not quite mate, there's a long old way to go yet! Let's just hope for no more epic screw ups at least!!

 

[c526]

nice update Doozy

in about 3 weeks it will be a forest in there,all bases are covered

 

[skunnymonster]

You've done the hardest bit now buddy so I'm sure you'll cruise through the veg period now

I'm one vote behind again in the monthly comp, it's gonna be a nail biting fortnight for sure

 

[Doozy]

TOPPING

Hi all,

Does anyone know a really definitive guide to topping out there. My main problem is that some guides suggest pulling out the whole growth above a node, and some say to only pull the middle bit. Here are the examples -

First guide says to do it like this,which looks like everything gets removed - (note this is NOT my plant, this is from LBH's Famous 4-Way LST Tutorial)

but other guides suggest to only remove the really inner growth and leave two tiny 'tops' on either side, a bit more like this...(again NOT my plant, but an image from the Cannabis Directory)

I'm a little bit confused, but most guides seem to favour the latter way.

Also, are my plants, regardless of how many sets of leaves, a bit too short to start topping just yet? (they look a bit strange as they've just had a spray after lights off)

In particular, Skunny, do you think your soft topping method would be advisable yet?

Thanks in advance

 

[skunnymonster]

Soft topping like in my sig makes the 2 new new shoots either side become heads. I've never heard of removing the new shoots too, seems a bit odd that one. Fimming is unpredictable, you could get anything from 1 to 5 heads. I like to soft top then I know exactly what to expect.
When to top is more a personal choice & dependant on plant structure.
So lets see, how do you plan on growing them? What shape are you looking for & what training methods if any do you plan to use? Answer that & we can plan our strategy

 

[Doozy]

So lets see, how do you plan on growing them? What shape are you looking for & what training methods if any do you plan to use?

Ok, basically i want to LST them, and i have read that topping is a good idea when doing this. The main reason is vertical space, which as you know is a problem with these lights, so, although i have made certain modifications to allow the lights to be fixed directly to the platform at the top of the tent if necessary (by removing all the monopod hangers and the carbon filter, reversing the extractor fan and having the carbon filter outside the tent) i would rather this is left as a last resort if it can be avoided.

The idea therefore, is to make the plants as short and stocky as possible, but still big enough to fill the scrog screen and get maximum yeild. FYI, my scrog screen is one continuous screen, as opposed to 5 smaller ones (seen below)

Now that one of the plants has gone, i'll more than likely change the position of the res's so that they are all centralised, just like four squares inside a square, so that the screen works more efficiently.

Hope this gives you an idea of what i'm hoping for, if you need any more info or i haven't explained well enough just let me know.

Thanks loads mate

 

[skunnymonster]

That makes sense mate, I forgot to ask, so have a look for the characteristics of the strain from the seedbank & see if it's a tall, medium or short plant

 

[Doozy]

They're Blue Widow, so it's an Indica dominant strain, probably 70-80% indica, which i assume means it'll be short and stocky (it certainly looks that way so far!)

 

[skunnymonster]

Just looked them up & this is what dinafem say: 'It has great upward growth and can double in size as it starts flowering' So you need to flip at a 50% full screen & fill it with the stretch. What we need to see though is this great upward growth to fill your nets. I'd hold off topping for now as it'll keep them squat in stature & we need the height. I'd say raising your lights a bit & lets see how they grow before we can figure the best way to fill your net. How big is it, 4x4? & you've got 4 plants

 

[Dusty Kiefers]

Looking good Doozy.

 

[Doozy]

Just looked them up & this is what dinafem say: 'It has great upward growth and can double in size as it starts flowering' So you need to flip at a 50% full screen & fill it with the stretch. What we need to see though is this great upward growth to fill your nets. I'd hold off topping for now as it'll keep them squat in stature & we need the height. I'd say raising your lights a bit & lets see how they grow before we can figure the best way to fill your net. How big is it, 4x4? & you've got 4 plants

5x5, but actual screen to fill is about 4.5x4.5, so i imagine i'll be vegging for a while but i've got no problems with that.

I did wonder if i should leave them for a bit before i started to top. I was looking at these two guides and they seem to be pretty good (search for LBH's Famous 4-Way LST Tutorial (plus topping sub-tutorial)) , but obviously i have to take my own personal setup into account before i move ahead....i think i'll at least leave it for another set of leaves and a bit more upwards growth.

Lights are currently at 24 inches, shall i raise them to 28?

Cheers mate

 

[skunnymonster]

Yea try 28/30" & see if they stretch. You'll see my update tomorrow & how tall my purp is & I've not topped it yet. I think I'll leave it for another node or two. Yours look to be more like my Washing machine, that's very stocky with tight node spacing.

 

[WackyTobaki]

Thats a good amount of LED lighting What are the wire grids on top of each bucket for?

 

[Doozy]

Thats a good amount of LED lighting What are the wire grids on top of each bucket for?

Yeah they sure are bright!

The wire grids are for anchor points for Low Stress Training the plant, basically something to tie the plants down to later on with bits of string/pipe cleaners/wire whatever. That's the idea anyway

 

[WackyTobaki]

Yeah they sure are bright!

The wire grids are for anchor points for Low Stress Training the plant, basically something to tie the plants down to later on with bits of string/pipe cleaners/wire whatever. That's the idea anyway

I see, I am going to do that with my water farm.

 

[Doozy]

21 days from seed. Quick update.

I've decided that the air curtains aren't performing properly in the res's, so i've ordered some more air stones (or air circles in this case)....the bubbles are just too big and for the cost of a few more stones it seems sensible to swap them out before the res's get too full of roots.

I'll be doing a complete res change tonight or tomorrow, the water looks ok but it feels a bit clammy, and it's been about 10 days so i thought i might as well.

For my records here are the amount of nutes i'll be adding to each individual res -

25ml Vitalink Max Grow A
25ml Vitalink Max Grow B
20ml Rhizotonic
15ml Calmag
5ml Potasium Silicate (Potsil)

The seedling that i put in the 5th res hasn't taken to it at all, so for next time i need to make an interim bubbler for using in-between the heated propagator and the final large bubblers, but that's fine, it was just an experiment, and all i've lost is a seed i had already germinated.

Here's a pic of the little one that looks a bit sad!

And here are the pics of the four ladies today.

Everything looking ok so far, i did see a few very tiny brown spots on one leaf of one plant, which i thought might be Mag def (standard with LEDs apparently) so i just added a bit of CalMag to that res. Probably me just being paranoid though..

On that note, anyone know a good cheap alternative to Plant Magic CalMag?

Cheers

 

[skunnymonster]

All is looking rosy in your garden buddy As for cal mag, I'm using Grotek Cal Max, it cost me £40 for a gallon but you'll probs get it cheaper.