2 Plant Jack Herer Fem, SCROG, DWC, COB LED Lights

[sativuhhh]

Hi all, I started this without a journal but at about the halfway point it seems like a good idea for ideas and to keep track of things. This first post will be pretty pic heavy catching things up.

Doing a first grow ever in a cheap 2x4x6 tent, using two amazon 800w COB led lights. (Power draw is supposedly ~200w at the plug)
Actual Power Consumption: 210W 4PCS*200W high intensityCOB(64*3W chip on board)
view Angle: 90 degree Reflector 9 Bands for Indoor Plants Growth & Flower Spectrum of Light: 28pcs 660nm 16pcs 640nm;8pcs 440nm;4pcs 460nm;4pcs 470nm;2pcs 525nm;2pcs 730nm

Using the general hydroponics flora performance pack and adding calimag and hydroguard as well.

Got some 420 feminized Jack Herer seeds and went to work. It's a DCW with bubbleponics to start. Filled with ph'd RO water in the res and put the seeds directly into rapid rooters and set into the setup without lights on. The water pump inside the res saturated the coco and seeds with water. Started four and three took off. When it was super tender I accidentally broke the main seedling stem of one so it and the other non-taker got puled. At about a week I had some stems. This is on 11/28.

Not sure why that leaf was ugly. The stem on this one started pretty bent over, they had shot up straight out real quick.

Moved onto lighting 18/6 and I believe it was around here I mixed nutrients super weak at 1/4 strength of the box dosages. Things are looking good.

Weird little yellow leaf is happy now. These were 6 days later on 12/3. Things have re-arranged a little cleaner now but you can see the carbon filter and exhaust there.

Sticking with the nutes and light and trying to learn about PH. Progressing nicely.
12/7

12/9:

First topping!!

 

[Alienpus]

You are off to a good start, good luck with your grow

 

[sativuhhh]

Other plant first topping:

They recovered nicely, here is 5 days later on the 14th.

Things are really starting to get bushy now, decided it was time to try to figure out a SCROG net. Built this with pvc and some lightweight soft feeling paracord.

Installed, 12/15

Had some issues soon after on 12/19, that was super confusing. The exhaust fan makes some serious negative pressure in the tent and pulls the sides in nicely which is great. The problem was that power strip in the back, right were the pipe of the net is is also where the power button is. I came back to the tent after a full water change with stronger nutes and the next day had a really unhappy looking plants. The big fan leaves were looking really yellowed out and crispy. Temp was up too. The PH had shot up to like 7. Freaking out I got the ph back under control, added some ph'd water to dilute it down thinking it could be an issue. The power strip just had the fans and the air pump for the air stones on it. When I had the tent open or unzipped more than 8" or so there was enough air to let the sides of the tent hang normal. Every time I'd open it and work on them, all would be good, fans running, air pumping, etc. When I zipped it up and walked away I noticed that the air pump seemed quiet, but then I'd open the tent to check and all would be good and it'd pump again. Long story short, when sealed up the side of the tent was pushing in just enough on the power strip to trip the power button to off, but not enough to actually toggle it, so the second air came back in it would go lose and the power would be back on. ARG!!!!

Got it moved and the air pumps back on (thought the air pump was failing in the neg pressure and bought a second new one which had the same problem) and all was well again, however the plants were starved of air and had some gnarly PH. I kept having to fight it down till I figured out the air. Thankfully it recovered well.

Some trimming of bad and lower leaves and some LST and bending under the net have been the name of the game since.
2/21, 2 days after the ph/air debacle. Still looking a little rough on the bottoms but getting better.

What a difference a day makes, did a little trimming I think maybe.
12/22

A little underside action:

 

[sativuhhh]

It's really been growing like gangbusters. I've been having to do lots of trimming and folding and bending and trying to get things to lay how I hope I want. I moved nutrients this week to just under full strength week 3 guidelines on the guide. It seemed a little heavy and backed it down with some ph r/o water with calimag and hydroguard.
12/24

And a little shot the next day, pretty happy view for christmas here:

There have been a number of extra toppings and fan leaf trimming. It's been going really strong. I'll add another picture tonight but I think maybe another week or two of veg and it'll be ready to flip to flowertime!

 

[sativuhhh]

Couple new changes for today. FIrst I got a bigger better air pump. I was concerned the 3W 8L/min wasn't enough to power the two big airstones. Got a vivosun 21L/min unit and hooked it to the two big air stones in the res, and then took the old airpump and hooked it up to two small 1.6" disk airstones better sized for the flow. There is awesome bubbling now inside!


Also, I decided that it was time to up the PH pen game as I only had one of the 11 dollar yellow tiny screen, manually adjusting kinds. Got an Apera PH60 which is pretty fancy and seems great. Came with calibration fluid, calibrated it and then ran them both in the res. KInda scary though, the new one read 5.08 while the old yellow read 5.8. The old was too boxy to fit in the calibration fluid container so I need to re-check everything. Added ph-up and got the reading to be 5.8 on the new Apera so the old would still read high normal as well so ph should be ok. Need to pick up a big bottle of calibration fluid today to make sure all is good.

Things are still growin though. Had to do a topping on a branch and FIM'd one or two other. Also shifted the plants a little under the lights and re-centered the scrog net. That was a lot of re-tucking work!
12/27 with low ph and scrog in old location:

And for fun I got a few more underside stem pics. I think they look neat.


And 12/28 morning with the new airpump in and ph showing 5.78. Not sure how much longer I should let it veg, thinking about doing a full water change in 2 days and maybe flipping to flowering. Should I let it go another week?

 

[Yerba428]

I would wait a week! If you have the vertical space.

 

[sativuhhh]

It's the vertical space I'm most worried about, I'm not sure how the whole stretch part goes. I have a little more space it can run to in the next few days to fill in undernet, but it's getting pretty wide. I can keep tucking and spreading but then it's getting tough to expose all the nodes to light with all the leaves as well.

I'll keep pushing it, thanks!

 

[Yerba428]

Maybe do the ‘ol pinch and twist and slow down the tallest growth. Either way sick plants. nice work. Those Jack H buds are Always huge. Like coke cans

 

[sativuhhh]

They are looking super good. I got a lot of new root growth down in the right plant out of the basket, it had been one big 1" bundle but now is out the entire base really well and that plant is really catching up. Getting tough to find places to place everything to get light to all the growth nodes. Lookin so good though I think. I'm really glad I got the new ph pen and air pump.
12/29 an hour before lights off


This looks like happy growth, right?


All tucked in

 

[sativuhhh]

Things are moving along nicely! Here was this morning, looking pretty bushy!

Did a full water change-out and things are looking good. Also picked up a big bottle of ph calibration fluid so i could check the old cheap one to the new. The old had drifted way off...was reading 7.9!! in the 7.0 solution. New one read 7.01...super legit. Guess that re-calibration is important to do frequently. New water is at 5.98.
ROOTS!!


Los and lots of roots. I'm really happy the plant on the right had roots finally fill out from the whole cup better!

There were a few condensate drops on a few leaves and big leaves blocking growth nodes. Did another good training and a haircut. I think sometime later this week will probably need to be the change to flower, it's getting pretty full in there. Not sure how much things will stretch. I guess keep tucking for the first week of transition either way right?


After trimming and tucked away for a little dark rest. One of the tall branches in the upper left that is sticking up broke down 3/4ths of the way from detach 2 days ago. I taped it but it kept coming loose, but it's still looking fantastic. Taped it a little better today, hopefully it actually hold and forms back up. This might be what I have to wait for till going to flower so it hopefully heals up. Not sure how long that normally might take?


Oh yeah, also tested with the TDS for once on the new nute water going in and it's at 1050ppm. Also ordered a deep red 660nm led flood that I think when it's time to flower I'll hang in between the lights. More red in flower is always good right?

When everyone switches to flower, is it best to do a 24 hour dark first and then go into 12/12?

 

[sativuhhh]

The girls were very happy with the full water change. I'm pretty much at the limits of the scrog i think at this point. Did a big trimming and training for probably the last time till flower. A day or two to recover from this and it'll be as good a time as any I think.

Then trimmed and trained back under.
It looks so barren in pics but it leaps back so quick!

 

[sativuhhh]

Well it went from that above and then retucked more a little in the morning as well to this earlier this evening

Had to do a good bit more training and some trimming. So many dense growth sites with leaves crowding it out. I think this is it before changing the lighting over unless someone reads this and suggests otherwise. It's really getting full and if i keep tucking during a stretch for a week or two like I've read + it being jack I think I should flip it while I still have just a little room left to account for part of that.

Pretty sure this is going to 12/12 tomorrow. Probably off in the morning until it's convenient to figure out what time to do the lights at I guess. Thinking lights on at night to keep them from possibly getting too cold and power is cheaper. Maybe off at 10am tomorrow and back on again at 9am the next day for 12 hours. I will need to add a little water in the morning and can add in a little bloom nutes and the extra red led.

Anyhow, tucked and trimmed again for the night (and a few stem ties to strings as these get more and more firm).

Gotta love girls with nice stems

 

[Alienpus]

They look great, the stretch should fill up that screen nicely and then some.

 

[sativuhhh]

Man the main airpump line was laying on the bottom of the tent this morning. Got it hooked back up and more air in. They were still looking good though. I didn't get as much time this morning to work on it and hang the red light. If my light goes off of it's 18/6 at 10am this morning, and is set to go back on at 4pm, if i left that happen and turned it back off at 6pm and then set it to start the 12/12 at 9pm with the light going on would those 2 hours of light mess things up? Or should i let it veg another day and turn off at 9am tomorrow morning and leave off for 12 hrs coming on at 9pm tomorrow night?

 

[sativuhhh]

Ok, well I've changed the timer to 12-12 now. They are going dark at 9am for 12 hours. I added in a new deep red LED flood as well to help it transition and bloom even better. Did some defol (~15 leaves) last night when i was doing a last tuck and the leaves all over the middle were just too much. Took off a little bit to get light to all the growth areas. I should probably change nutes to the transition week even though I just changed the res a couple days ago. Probably tomorrow it'll get new nutes.
Last night of veg:


New deep red LED (26watt) in place. Does this seem good or I could get a clip mount and angle it in at an angle too I guess.

Looks kinda cool in place. It's really hitting like 2/3rds of the middle pretty well with less on the edges.



And this morning as official Flower Day #1:

 

[sativuhhh]

Lights have been off since 9am and set to come on at 9pm. I'm trying to decide though if doing 9am-9pm dark is the best idea. There are two exterior doors to the grow room and a bathroom door that gets light in the day. They all can stay closed for the 9a-9p without problem. There is a little light leakage in the door frames. I have the worst which is the bathroom door with a towel beneath it sealing that crack. The others are not that bad. The grow is further in the tent. I tried taping all the seams with gorilla tape but it has been crappy at sticking so there are really really really tiny bits of light i can see if the room is totally dark and the lights are on in the tent. Also the lower intakes are just some 4" expandable ducting with window screen over the opening outside. They are turned down as best I could to avoid light. They are bent then going into the tent and it's down on the bottom.

I'm unsure, is the possibility of light coming in a really dark room minus doorframes something that I should really figure out light sealing the doors? I kinda liked that there was some airflow able to pass with that to keep fresh air able to enter.

On another good note, learned today to add the Armor Si in to the water very first thing to pure water. Wondering if it created some lockout adding to the mostly completely mixed solution. Picked up some FloraNectar too as it's on the feeding schedule. Interesting to see it has sugar and molasses...I had thought molasses (at least in quantity discussed on here) was not good for hydro. Maybe it's just that it's so mixed in and small of an amount vs dropping in a glob of it directly.

 

[sativuhhh]

Plants are looking good. The stretch during the dark period is serious. They all popped a few inches! Drank like 2+ gallons of water easy too. Day 2 has started with a little LST and a full res water change to ~50% of the transition week strength mix. Also lowered the lights down last night to about 15" from the 18" it was at. The info sheet on the lights says 12-18" for flower so I figured only 12 hours of light vs 18 I might as well move a little closer. Not sure if I should leave the lights more at veg height or flower height during the transition?

Here the girls are this morning flower day 2, before any re-tucking or anything.

 

[sativuhhh]

Well lights were back on and they had popped back from being tucked nice and happy. The new res water with the transition nutes all in with flowering stuff being added and the armorsi going in correctly first has made for great looking leaves. PH was at 6.16. Mixed .5ml ph down into a cup or so of nute water and added to the res to bump it down just a tiny bit.

But it was blocking lower growth areas so a bunch of careful time later gives us this.

I'm pretty freakin impressed with this scrog'ing. There is a crazy amount of growth bud spots all at the same point for light. Sure looks like this 2 plant grow has potential to produce! It feels like a little victory every time you get a branch right to a perfect spot.

A few closer views:

Looking good to experienced eyes??

Did a bunch more extra darkening to the tent and to parts of the room too. Got some black 5 gallon buckets that the intake vent hose now hangs in with like fully blocked now. It's kinda wacky walking in and having it be fully dark with zero light leaks to really know the lights are on without zipping it open.

Checked back on the seed sight and it supposedly has a short 8 week flower indoors so that's nice. That first full month of 18/6 power bill is a little noticeable. At least going to 12 hours will cut that down a fair amount.

I can't wait to press this into some rosin!! Hopefully it's as good as the jack shatter I just had.

 

[sativuhhh]

3.5 hours into light on and I was looking at these pics and thinking maybe I should turn a few leaves. So I go back out and it was all fine all by itself. These plants sure do love light!

 

[sativuhhh]

Looking good after the light, too many leaves blocking light led to a trim this morning. Accidentally broke a small top stem today trying to get it to move. I think i'm pretty close to just letting it do it's own thing, or possibly raising the scrog up an inch or two perhaps to make it easier to continue.

Trimmed up and about to rest in the dark, flowering/transition day 3.