First Grow - Hi Brix Soil - Top LED - Multi-Strain - 2015

[Capn Kush]

Hello and thanks for taking a look at my journal. This is my first official grow, though I had "inherited" some plants before I had the environment ready for them and it was a disappointment.

This will be a work in progress as I've not decided which plants I will move forward with, however I intended to do a monster SCROG as inspired by CO Finest, so I'll end up with just two plants in flower when I finally decide. Thank you again, my friend, for all the information you share.

I'm also only interested in growing the finest, cleanest product possible so I'm using Doc Bud's Hi-Brix Kit. Thank you Doc, for the information you share and the direct advice you've provided thus far. Also appreciate all of your regulars that contribute to your threads and share their own grows with your kit.

I also have to say thank you to BigIrishDoode for all his contributions and awesome attitude. Happy New Year buddy, you're sorely missed. RIP

I'm looking for the community to keep me on track and accountable. I appreciate any advice, however please understand that quality is far superior to quantity, I have a limited amount of time to dedicate to this endeavor and I'm a complete newb. With that said, on to the good stuff:

Environment:

• Sealed room (ultimately)
• 17' x 5' x 7'(so basically two 5' x 5' grow areas, vertically challenged)
• ~75 degrees during dark
• ~80 degrees during light cycle
• 67-70% RH
• Top LED Mars II 1600
• Growtronix automation/monitoring
• Whynter ARC-14S portable AC/Dehumidifier
• Oil-filled, electric "radiator" for heat
• DIY Humidifier (severely over-powered; tamed by the Growtronix)
• Max-Fan Pro fan and carbon filter
• Hydrologic StealthRO filter
• Titan Controls CO2 controller
• Tunes for the plants (mostly Volbeat)

I still need to get a few things; a refractometer, HEPA filter, UV light for killing airborne mold/mildew, wall-mount fans and a separate fan and scrubber for venting the room after the light cycle ends and one more LED light. Regarding the venting, I'm not enriching with CO2 at the moment, but plan to once these plants are sexed and well underway. I do have the automation burp a little into the room if levels drop below 200 since the room is fairly well sealed and only gets CO2 when the door opens or when I spend time in here.

Any suggestions for the pieces I still need are greatly appreciated! I need the scrubber for venting because I'm in a bit of bunker that has no way of venting to the outdoors. Thus, it can't be an ozone generator because it will be vented to unfinished space in the basement.

No nutes besides what's in Doc's kit.
No PH testing or management except for clone water.
Pests shouldn't be a problem with high brix plants, combined with the sealed room.
The room is cleaned with bleach once every two weeks minimum, shoes are never worn in the grow room unless absolutely necessary and then I have a new, dedicated pair for that purpose that stay in the room.
No unfiltered air will be pulled into the room once my sealed door is completed

I'm building another room outside the entrance that will be a positive pressure clean room where shoes come off and a Walter White-style chem suit is donned. It will have its own air scrubbing and be kept nearly as clean as the grow room. Obsessive? Yes. But it keeps me on an even keel and I share my meds with some people who really need it, so I want it to be as clean as possible. Plus I plan to do some breeding in an adjacent area and I'd hate for some pollen to find its way in here.

Plant info and pictures to follow.

TLR? Soil; Hi-brix; TopLED Mars 1600 and Doc Bud's kit grown in a sealed room

 

[Capn Kush]

Re: First grow - Hi Brix Soil with Doc Bud's Kit - Top LED - Multistrain from seed -

First strain is a Strawberry Cough from HBK Farms, which I believe is Strawberry Mindwarp x Cherry Cola. A friend gave me these and I got one to sprout finally when I switched to Doc's method.

To catch up:
12/13/2014 Put the bean in RO water and into moist cooked soil the next day. Slightly watered the area with plain water to keep the seed site moist and continued that until it popped.
12/18/2014 Two-inch sprout working on the first set of true leaves
12/23/2014 Watered with quarter-strength Transplant. Intended to do that sooner, but busy with the holiday.
12/29/2014 Plant was looking a little wilty, the pot was light and the soil was dry so gave a good watering with RO
12/30/2014 Still not looking 100% so light spray with DeStress while I was spraying some clones and added a heater to the room since the temps were getting down to 71 during the dark cycle.

12/25

1/2
Almost looks plastic under the LED

The camera does a fair job of capturing just how deep green these leaves are, but not the waxiness of the leaves. This plant smells outstanding already, so much that the wife wants some at pruning time to add to our salads. Unfortunately I think I may have spotted a thrip while I was inspecting some spots on the first set of leaves while writing this up. Must have came in while we were doing some open-door work in the room last week.

Let me know what the more experienced think so far?

 

[Capn Kush]

Re: First grow - Hi Brix Soil with Doc Bud's Kit - Top LED - Multistrain from seed -

Next strain. As much as I hate to admit it, this strain is bag seed. I believe it to be from a Grandaddy Purple strain, however I can't be sure what it's crossed with. I'll have to track down the source and find out what crossed.

Anyway, I'm only growing it because it was some outstanding medicine. I probably won't get great results because it could have been crossed with something else or maybe a hermie, but I'd like to give it a shot and I will probably try a flux on this one, just out of curiosity.

I germed this bean on 12/24 and it was up on 12/27. Watered with some transplant and it's been slow to develop, but I trust the roots are growing. Planted two other seeds from the same bag this week.

1/2/2015

1/3/2015 under normal lighting

1/6/2015

 

[MaxYields]

Very cool set up, plants, and soil choice... this will be an AWESOME journal! I can't wait to watch you grow some beautiful medicine my friend, all the best of luck too you!

You can consider me subbed!

 

[Capn Kush]

The Strawberry Cola is pushing the fifth set of leaves and was showing a hint of wilt. Having confirmed a thrip issue, I sprayed everything in the room with Captain Jack's Deadbug (spinosad), then gave it the first drench later in the day. I mixed up the following per what I understand from the kit's instructions. (Doc if you're reading, I'm not quite certain I yet have a firm grasp on dosing with a single plant so your guidance is requested)

1.5 pint water
5.0 mL Growth Energy
0.5 mL Transplant
1.5 mL Tea

The mix was allowed to sit for 20 minutes with some light aeration. Watered from the top only. Most of the volume was soaked up with a little runoff. These are being grown in one-gallon hydro pots that I've repurposed for seedlings. I noticed this particular plant was showing roots coming out of the bottom of the pot by the end of the first week after it came above ground, which is impressive since there is about 7" of soil.

Next up later this week will be the first foliar of Brix, possibly DeStress tomorrow to maybe help with the stress from the thrips. No sign of them since I sprayed, besides a few dead ones on the yellow sticky traps I deployed.

1/6/2015

 

[Capn Kush]

Very cool set up, plants, and soil choice... this will be an AWESOME journal! I can't wait to watch you grow some beautiful medicine my friend, all the best of luck too you!

You can consider me subbed!

Welcome aboard, Max! Appreciate the optimism!

 

[Capn Kush]

I swear this happened while I was in the room tonight. I watered the soil just a little to keep the top moist and 30 minutes later, I found this action. This and one other was put to soil on 1/4:

 

[high 420kwats]

I'm subbed. Looking good man!

 

[high 420kwats]

Hey, your transplant should be 1.5mls and tea .5mls

 

[Doc Bud]

Looking good!

Now let them dry out between waterings and take careful not of the weight of the pots. Let them get good and light before watering again.

5 mils is too much energy for a small plant like that. Go about half of that for a while and just use plain water between feedings. The color and the aggressive root development is EXACTLY what you want.

You're on your way!

When you foliar spray, target the underside of the leaves just to let the thripes know who's boss. They won't hurt your plants as long as they stay healthy like that!

 

[Capn Kush]

I'm subbed. Looking good man!

Thanks man, it's appreciated!

Hey, your transplant should be 1.5mls and tea .5mls

I knew I had something wrong. Let me explain how I got where I did and maybe it will help me figure out why I got it wrong.

In this post, Doc mentioned that he uses "1/4 ounce of Transplant with each watering" and I figure what's good for the master is good for the....guy trying to simply reproduce the master's results. I took that to mean a quarter ounce for the typical six-plant grow the kit was sized for and since I'm watering just one plant, I'd need to do the math. Math is my nemesis.

1 oz = 30 mL, so a quarter-ounce is 7.5 mL
7.5 mL distributed to six plants means 1.25 mL goes to each

So how did I come to 0.5? I think I got the Tea and Transplant numbers backwards, either in measuring the liquid or when I recorded it. It was a late night...

Now to close the loop, what's the math that brings us to your recommendation of 1.5 mL of Transplant? I'm eventually going to get this, so I really appreciate the help!

 

[Doc Bud]

Thanks man, it's appreciated!


I knew I had something wrong. Let me explain how I got where I did and maybe it will help me figure out why I got it wrong.

In this post, Doc mentioned that he uses "1/4 ounce of Transplant with each watering" and I figure what's good for the master is good for the....guy trying to simply reproduce the master's results. I took that to mean a quarter ounce for the typical six-plant grow the kit was sized for and since I'm watering just one plant, I'd need to do the math. Math is my nemesis.

1 oz = 30 mL, so a quarter-ounce is 7.5 mL
7.5 mL distributed to six plants means 1.25 mL goes to each

So how did I come to 0.5? I think I got the Tea and Transplant numbers backwards, either in measuring the liquid or when I recorded it. It was a late night...

Now to close the loop, what's the math that brings us to your recommendation of 1.5 mL of Transplant? I'm eventually going to get this, so I really appreciate the help!

On full sized plants, 5mil per plant is a good starting point. On little babies that's simply too much! It won't kill them, but brix won't be as high and plant health won't be as robust. Still good, but not great.

If you're feeding only one large plant I'd do it like this:

5 mil of whatever drench is called for
.5 mil Tea
1-2 mil Tranplant.

for young, small plants use about half that.

Please note, if you over do it a bit nothing will die. But ideally we want soil energy to be about 200 ergs, but plants will grow with triple that amount.

Once it grows up a bit and the roots fill a gallon container, use the ratio I listed above.

 

[Capn Kush]

Looking good!

Now let them dry out between waterings and take careful not of the weight of the pots. Let them get good and light before watering again.

5 mils is too much energy for a small plant like that. Go about half of that for a while and just use plain water between feedings. The color and the aggressive root development is EXACTLY what you want.

You're on your way!

When you foliar spray, target the underside of the leaves just to let the thripes know who's boss. They won't hurt your plants as long as they stay healthy like that!

Doc! Thanks for stopping by!

I have been taking note of the weight. Literally. I have been weighing the pots each day, taking note of the change and paying attention to the lighest weight when the plant starts to show a hint of wilt. I didn't trust my ability to weigh by hand, but now I have a frame of reference and it's fairly easy to tell without the scales.

Regarding the Energy drench, I should have known that. I've seen it mentioned before to use it half-strength, but most of what I'm reading has been journals of plants well into veg so it slipped my mind.

From seed, what's your opinion on when I should be able to transplant? Note that I'm planning to end up in 20 gallon smart pots since I'm going to do an extended veg in SCROG. Should I go from this one gallon, to seven gallon, then on to the 20 or will it be safe to let it get a good ball of roots in this one gallon and then go straight into the 20?

 

[Doc Bud]

Doc! Thanks for stopping by!

I have been taking note of the weight. Literally. I have been weighing the pots each day, taking note of the change and paying attention to the lighest weight when the plant starts to show a hint of wilt. I didn't trust my ability to weigh by hand, but now I have a frame of reference and it's fairly easy to tell without the scales.

Regarding the Energy drench, I should have known that. I've seen it mentioned before to use it half-strength, but most of what I'm reading has been journals of plants well into veg so it slipped my mind.

From seed, what's your opinion on when I should be able to transplant? Note that I'm planning to end up in 20 gallon smart pots since I'm going to do an extended veg in SCROG. Should I go from this one gallon, to seven gallon, then on to the 20 or will it be safe to let it get a good ball of roots in this one gallon and then go straight into the 20?

I'd just go straight into the 20...and let it dry out, etc. Those are going to be monsters.

 

[Capn Kush]

I'd just go straight into the 20...and let it dry out, etc. Those are going to be monsters.

I'd need a 55 gallon drum to do a bucket drench. Guess it will just get one a week before the transplant and that's it.

I got a feeling it's not going to stay in this 1 gallon for much longer. It's growing like mad.

 

[Doc Bud]

I'd need a 55 gallon drum to do a bucket drench. Guess it will just get one a week before the transplant and that's it.

I got a feeling it's not going to stay in this 1 gallon for much longer. It's growing like mad.

If you can get a saucer under it, that will help when it comes to watering.

 

[Capn Kush]

Strawberry Cola is looking nice, pushing the fourth set of five-bladed fans:

Mystery Seed 1 is finally growing:

Mystery Seed 2 decided to make an appearance:

Mystery Seed 3 is looking a little unhappy. I think it was getting too much airflow from the nearby fan:

 

[SmokeyMcFly]

Subbed looks great

 

[Capn Kush]

Subbed looks great

Smokey! Welcome and I'm honored to have you along for the ride.

 

[SmokeyMcFly]

Just curious whats the purpose of venting the room after the light cycle and is this necessary? I am working to upgrade to a sealed room with CO2 also but didn't have any plans to vent the room other when I open the door to go in and out. Also mine will probably not be quite as sealed as your kick ass clean room setup its just a 10x10 spare bedroom im gonna seal up best I can