First Journal: DIY T5/LED Light & Grow Box

[greengostarr]

I cheated with your nic, Piña. I just copied and pasted from your name in your posts as I too am using an English keyboard again, but I like to pay attention to detail

As to where I'm from, let's just say I'm English born like yourself and spent many, many years living in different parts of the world

Looking forward to watching your grow, but I don't think there's any great hurry to get a fan just yet.

 

[Piña Delores]

Hey I'm thinking I've got time to squeeze in one more update to my journal before 2016 comes to a close.

First I'd like to wish everyone a happy, prosperous and green new year. Lets make it a good one.

Greengostarr I am embarrassed to say it never occured to me to copy and paste from there. LOL To be honest I'm just glad I don't need to use a ñ to log in. Then I'd be royally screwed.

I'm not in a huge hurry for a fan, but think the girls will like one, and think this new box of mine will have room for one

so the girls are liking 18/6 lighting, first up Juanita....

and then Philomena

Both nice and green, although I'm still not happy with the lower set of leaves.

I felt I couldn't let them enter the new year without a clue as to what was ahead of them. So I removed the dodgy looking lower leaves and started with some light training. Philomena

Juanita

alas Juanita seems a bit out of focus, could that be due to the coconut water I allowed them to aid their recovery

so thats where my journal ends 2016.

Again hope everyone has a great new year, and as always comments, questions and suggestions more than welcome.

 

[greengostarr]

Looking nice and green, Piña, and some good lateral growth happening.

And may the new year bring you weeded bliss.

 

[Pat999]

Piña it is looking great man, that training will do wonders. When will you be adding a fan? Loving the BioBizz range!! The cutting of the leaves ain't bad at all should not slow down growth too much.

Pat

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Found it....subbed. that's a nice box. Smart how you placed the drivers and ballast outside

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Happy New Year. Please stay safe everyone

 

[VexGrows]

Sub'd!!

~Gotta grow it to know it~

 

[Piña Delores]

Hey , so here's my first journal entry for 2017

Hope you all had a good one. I still can't believe it's here to be honest, 2017!!! Where does the time go?

Hi cannoisseuras glad you found us, wiring the drivers outside the box was the worst part of the build. Lots of fiddley wires, and at the time I just wanted to get a grow started. I'm on a bit of a schedule. It'll start getting warm here before too long and the grow needs to finished by then.

I figure I'm a month later than last time, and the lights were the last part to be done. Sort of ruined the fun of the project a bit, but I'm glad I did it.

Cheers for the sub VexGrows, welcome

Time for the update, here are my girls as I found them in the box tonight

Looking fine, no issues, but as I was taking this photo it occured to me I'm trying to do something a little bit silly. Taking on a fight with mother nature (well as nature as she gets, in a box, in the middle of winter lol)

As you know I've just started training the girls. Now it may not be obvious in the photo, but I trained the plant on the left, to the left, and the one on the right, to the right. Away from the centre of the box, and the most light.

Poor little buggers, they seem to have taken well, and at this stage it was easy to swap them round.

Now while moving the girls in their SWICKS I noticed this on Philo (Kritikal Bilbo, now on the right )

ROOTS!!! I have to admit I was suprised to find them this fast. I'm not complaining, I Had roots like this last year, with no obviious ill effects. I know white healthy roots are a good thing, but it leaves me wondering.

I thought exposure to light and air was bad for roots. So whats going on?

After they were moved they were both top fed some neuts. Same amounts as before, and the SWICKS were topped up. Glad they were low for the move

So here they are, after a light trim, and some more training.

Philomena

and Juanita

Starting to get more interesting. I for one, really don't like the seedling stage so much.

Thanks for stopping by, as always

Comments, questions and suggestions more than welcome

 

[Pat999]

That looks great Piña!! Roots exposed like that doubt would make a difference too much. How long are you gonna veg them?

 

[Piña Delores]

Hey Pat

Not sure on the veg time yet, we'll see how it goes. Like I said I need it to be all over before it gets too warm.

So say mid April, at the latest. Earlier if poss.

I'd say end of Jan would be the latest to flip, depending how they fill out. Want to try and get a screen and fan in there the end of next week.

Wed will be 4 weeks since they first touched water (I know this for sure, for the the first time, thanks to having a journal )

So that would be 5/6 weeks of veg.

There you go I've thought it through and come up with an answer, cheers Pat

Comments, questions and suggestions more than welcome

 

[Pat999]

5-6 weeks veg will make decent size plants man, havea great day further, blessings

 

[Piña Delores]

Happy humpday , the first of the year

Just a short, quick update tonight. It's 4 weeks today since I put my girls in some wet paper towels, so I'm thinking they've had 3 weeks of veg.

This week they've had to suffer some training, every night. I'm sure they're not the only ones, it being new year I'm just glad it's them and not me lol.

I've removed a few leaves (max 2 a day) that were causing shading issues and things seem to be going well.

I've got a few pics to share, although I must say the photos make them look more than a little sorry for themselves.

First I tried to get a close up of Juanitas topping

Don't think my 10 year old camera's done a bad job . She's coping with it OK.

Next up's Philomena, she has needed far more bondage than her sister. Here she is after her last session.

If I remember I'll take another photo tomorrow to show her recovery.

Lastly the pair of them, Juanita in the background

Right, going to try and get round a few other journals now. I'm not the fastest at doing this.

As always comments, questions and suggestions more than welcome.

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Looking good so far....

 

[Ditchweed242]

Great job Piña Delores. Your set up and plants look awesome.
I will tag along if you don't mind.

Cheers.

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Keep up the good work

 

[Piña Delores]

Happy Sunday

Welcome Ditchweed, I've been lurking in your journal for a while, great title by the way.

So as I remembered to take a photo of Philomena on Thurs night, here it is

As you can see she managed to get all her bits facing the light in 24hrs, the way these plants grow is amazing.

Here's how she greeted me today

and her playmate Juanita

Now today's feed day, and I think they are HUNGRY. Their growth seems to have slowed a little, and the new growth isn't as green as I'd like. More yellowish. There's no way they've been over watered, or over fed, they've been on a very strict diet.

Trying to push my cameras limits again, but hope you can see what I mean

So today they've shared a litre of water, with 1ml of Bio Grow, 1ml Root Juice, and 1ml Acti Vera, just lke the previous feedings, I'll see how they do, and maybe repeat on Wednesday.

What do you all think?

I'm following a schedule I found somewhere on this forum, I'll see if I can find it.

Also I'm trying to be very careful with how much I water from the top. I don't want any run off going into the SWICK, and I'd much rather have them hungry than over fed. Flushing with this setup whilst not impossible, would be a PITA

Right I'm off to see whats happening elsewhere.

As always comments, questions and suggestions more than welcome.

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Kind of looks like a nitrogen or potassium deficiency but with lights on it makes it hard to tell. But you see how the veins look darker

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Can anyone else give any help on what those leafs look like

 

[Piña Delores]

Cheers cannoisseuras

A deficiency I can deal with, I've dug up the schedule I'm trying to follow. First posted by atrain....

https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/downloadfile41.jpeg

As you can see it should have been 2ml this week anyway.

I'll see how the girls do overnight, and give them another 1ml feed Mon, Tue, or Wed depending.

Thinking about it the schedules for one plant. I'm feeding two. I'm being tighter than I thought lol

Like I said it's better for me to have hungry plants, than all the problems involved with over feeding.

 

[Cannoisseuras]

Do you have your ph under control if your using a specific schedule its wierd to be deficient in the major nutes but like you said your using the schedule for one plant on two