First Time Doing Photos: 4 x Bruce Banner #3 Under Mars-Hydro FC-E6500!

[casuallyhobo]

Hello everyone.

I wanted to start a grow diary for my first photo grow as i figured i could greatly benefit from feedback and all of your experience here.

I got 4 Bruce Banner #3 set up in 5 gallon auto pot smart pots containing 50/50 coco and clay pebbles in a 5x5 tent running a Mars-Hydro FC-E6500.

Temp is steady at 24c / 75f, and humidity is pretty much dead stable at 52% and they will be running on a 20/4 light schedule.

Installed a net yesterday, and this morning all 4 had popped.

Will be hand watering them for about 2 weeks before i turn on the watering system. I am very excited to see how this one will turn out.

My previous grows have been in a 4.5x4.5 tent running 2x vipraspectra reflector 900, and i managed to get a little over 100g dry product from each plant on those runs, so aiming for improvement on this one!

Any advice on changes i should make or just general inputs is always welcome. As i mentioned this is my first time growing photos, so ill admit im a bit nervous.

 

[garybo]

Any advice on changes i should make or just general inputs is always welcome. As i mentioned this is my first time growing photos, so ill admit im a bit nervous.

Casuallyhobo, your setup look great. Now don't just be a tease, when the ladies are growing how about sharing their progress with us. It looks you have savvy to be shared.

 

[casuallyhobo]

I would be happy to!

3 days since the seeds went into the pots

Have been top watering with plain ph 5.8 water, but will start with a light bio bizz coco nutrient mix for the next two weeks before the auto pot system gets turned on.

I will keep posting updates every few days as we go along.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Gave them their first watering with nutrients. Using BioBizz root juice, Heaven, ActiVera, and just a tiny bit of CalMag.

 

[Tokin Roll]

Welcome to 420 Magazine @casuallyhobo.

It looks like your are off to a fine start.

What is your solution temperature, ppm's and ph?

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,

Tok..

 

[casuallyhobo]

Hello Tokin, thank you, i think i might like it here!

Right now im hand watering with minimal nutes just so they can establish roots and i can get the auto pot system going, so im not very concerned with the ppm, but the water temp is 20-21c, and the PH is right around 5.9-6.0.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Here we are a few days later. Everything seems to be going well so far.

Still hand watering them with the same nutes as last time. I did check the EC this time, it is at 0.4, and the PPM was showing as 200 using the BlueLab EC pen on the ppm500 setting.

I am wondering if anyone can help me understand the BlueLab EC pen. It can show both PPM 500 and PPM 700, but i honestly dont understand what im supposed to be using, or what the difference is between the two, which is why i have not done much in terms of PPM reading and just stuck to checking EC until now.

Edit: Ok, so from what i have been able to gather i should be looking at the ppm500 scale on my BlueLab pen as this is the TDS scale that is most commonly used by US sites.

Does anyone have a PPM chart they can attest to? I have been looking at the RoyalQueenSeeds one located here: Cannabis & Water Quality Part 2: PPM & EC - RQS Blog , but there is probably even better ones.

 

[Triple R]

I have 4 Bruce banner autos week 5 in flower hope yours turn out well also. And one outside in 3 gallon fabric which is turning purple, I'm guessing form outside light schedule and lower night temps

 

[casuallyhobo]

I have 4 Bruce banner autos week 5 in flower hope yours turn out well also. And one outside in 3 gallon fabric which is turning purple, I'm guessing form outside light schedule and lower night temps

They are looking nice! I am hoping for a decent yield from my run. Last one i did with the old lights was 4 x Auto Ultimate which yielded me a bit over 400g dry in total, so hoping for a bit more this time around.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Here we are one week after the they they initially peaked their heads up from the soil. Seems to be going a bit slower than my previous grows, but as one knows, patience is a virtue, so only time will tell how good this will go.

They were pretty dry this morning, so they got 2L of water each with BioBizz root juice, heaven, activera, and a hint of calmag. PH was 5.9, water temp was 22c, and PPM was 250, but that is due to them still being so small, so i dont want to overdo it on the amount of nutes.

Still one more week ish before i will turn on the auto pot system, and at that time they should be seeing some explosive growth!

 

[casuallyhobo]

10 days since they sprouted. Realized they were growing a little slower than usual, so i added some biobizz fishmix into the top feed and got the ppm up to 510. PH 6.1 and water temp at 22-23c.

Last watering before the auto pot system gets turned on on Tuesday.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Turned on the Auto Pot system and the air domes today. Excited to see how it will progress.

The reservoir got 20liters of water dumped into it. I will be using the entire range of nutes from Advanced hydroponics of Holland during this grow.

Water temp in tank is 24c, ppm is 390, and pH was set to 6.1, then i waited 2 hours before measuring again. At that time it had increased to 6.5, so i brought it back down to 6.0 and turned it on.

If anyone has any tips/advice/general recommendations, i would greatly appreciate it as I'm always looking for improvements!

 

[casuallyhobo]

Here we are 2 weeks into the grow. They seem to be happy with the auto pot system.

Reservoir is holding pH 6.0 currently, and as the water pump was fluctuating the pH more than i was comfortable with i removed it.

 

[casuallyhobo]

A few days later and there is progress.

Two of my little ones are looking quite good:

And the two in the back had some issues, but are recovering.

The nutrient tank had some massive fluctuations on the pH (went from 6.0 to 7.5 in a span of 6 hours) and I'm suspecting the nutes i was using had gone bad.

Emptied and thoroughly cleaned the tank and gave them filled it with clean pH 6.0 water which was all they got for 4 days. They seem to have recovered nicely after that. Tank is also now outside of the tent due to the amount of times i was moving and changing the content of it, it just makes it easier all around.

I will be switching to the Advanced nutrient series later today and i am hoping they will respond better to that, as well as having more stable pH all around.

 

[Triple R]

Looking good are they autos? Here's my banner autos about a week from harvest. One's turning purple. I'm in Coco also running advanced nutrients A&B

 

[casuallyhobo]

Those are some good looking ladies!

I'm running photo versions, my first attempt. I have done auto's for a couple of years now.

I will be running the full AN connoisseur advanced range. Figured I'd might as well go for the extras for these girls.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Took 10L of tap water and put in a two air stones which i left for 6 hours doing their thing to evaporate any chlorine in the water. Mixed in the AN grow a and b, as well as some b-52 and a little voodoo juice (figured it couldn't hurt) and added it to the newly emptied and completely scrubbed down reservoir.

Plants seem to be very happy with the switch. They were all stretching upwards and looked better then ever, so i think I made the right choice swapping over from Advanced hydroponics.

I have been reading a bit about mainlining and thinking that could be a fun thing to try. Anyone got any experience on doing that with BB#3, and would it be more beneficial compared to a regular scrog setup?

 

[casuallyhobo]

I wanted to see if the Advanced Nutrients would be affected by an immersion pump so i filled a bucket with 10L of water and let it sit with a couple of air stones in it for two days, then i mixed in the nutes and brought the pH down to 5.9.

I divided the content into two buckets. One just sitting there, and one with the submersible pump and left them for another 12 hours.

The result was no difference in pH meaning it is actually dead stable, and i have therefore put the pump back into the reservoir. Feeling even more confident i made the right choice switching to these nutes.

Plants are also looking lovely, and I'm still undecided whether or not i should mainline them, so any advice on this would still be appreciated.

 

[casuallyhobo]

Plants are looking better and better.

Not much to update on besides posting another picture.

I did get the heater for the tank set up though, so now the water temp is at a steady 20c.

 

[Dunnysparks]

Plants are looking better and better.

Not much to update on besides posting another picture.

I did get the heater for the tank set up though, so now the water temp is at a steady 20c.

Nice set-up, this is my 2nd grow with autopot and my plants explode with growth. These photos are going to take over your tent.