GoogleGenie's First Grow - LED Hydro - Northern Light Blue & Fruity Chronic Juice

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research and Germination

Correct me if I'm wrong but is the fan blowing fresh air in from the top?

No thats actually sucking air out of the tent. Fresh air is pulled in through the vents at the bottom (negative pressure)

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro/LED Up to Day 34

Once again, apologies for not keeping this grow journal up to date, and for the sparse documentation and gaps in the journal.

To date (day 34 - Today), the Fruity Chronic Juice (FCJ) and the Northern Light Blue (NLB) are looking healthy.

They are both sat in 20L (5 Gallon) buckets, in a 1/8 strength nute solution:

2.5ml Flora Micro
2ml Floar Gro
1 drop (0.1 ml of Floar Bloom)
15ml Hygrozyme
4 drops of Superthrive

Maintaining PH between 5.5 and 6.2
Temp between 20 -23 degrees

This has been the least painful part of the process, for a few days now, the FCJ and NLB have been sat in this solution, i have topped up once, and adjusted PH on a daily basis, other than that, i just spray foilage in the morning when the stomata are open with a very VERY weak nute solution, and I dip the Jack Herer seedlings half way in to PH 5.5 (until they develop their own roots). I think that the NLB and FCJ are ready for a strong Nute solution now because some of the leaves are a bit floppy and are once again showing signs of nute deficiency, so i will probably double the above dosage when i replace the resevoir water this week.

I forgot to mention that i FIMMED both the FCJ and NLB on Friday (2 days ago), there is some very minor growth but too small to capture on my iphone camera (watch this space)

Here are some pictures of the state of play right NOW.

I hope this is somewhat helpful and I havent missed out too much

The really bushy one if the Fruity Chronic, the other is the NLB. The seedlingd are obviously the Jack Herer. I named these Jack and Jill The bigger of the 2 seedlings is Jack

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research and Germination

haha they look Good! From my understanding you just don't feed nutrients until the serrated leaves are out. Lights come on whenever you see first signs of a sprout!!! haha Your well on your way dude! I've seen my NL stretch in soil within the first tree days up to 4 inches!! Don't worry they appear to be happy!!! Just curious, what sort of nutrients are you planning on using?

Hey noydb07, Hows it going? Apologies for waiting so long to post back, i've been silly busy! I'm using General Hydroponcs Flora Series, I also have some Hygrozyme and Superthrive

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research and Germination

If you look at the Fruity Chronic Juice from the pics above, you will see that the bigger leaves don't look all that healthy. Does anyone know what this is? Is it normal? I suspect I need to feed more nutes, but there is no way i'm giving them an more than double the current dosage (which will be 1/4 of recommended)

Also, is it good that it is that bushy? I was debating running a Scrog, will it work with a short busy plant?

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Turns out short and bushy is exactly what i want so thats good. I have been making an effort to move the branches so that they grow flexible instead of tough and barky branches, i imagine this will be beneficial when bending the plant in my scrog.

I have all of the materials for my scrog screen now:

4m of 32mm white PVC pipe (Outer diameter) - I only need 2m, another 2m just incase
4 x 90 degree fitting
Bag of 100 small metal hooks
1/8 inch drill piece
Roll of white nylon string

I'm just waiting on a delivery of 4 Tee fittings to arrive (for the legs of the scrog)

The dimensions of my tent are 120cm(W)x120cm(D)x200cm(H)
The dimensions of the scrog will be 110cm(W) x 90cm(D)
With a hook approx every 7.5cm this produces 11 squares x 13 squares (143 squares)

I'll cut 4 legs to 50cm but i suspect they will need to be shortened.
I plan on having the scrog sit approx 5inches above the lid of the bucket which is flush with the lid of the net pot.

I'll post pictures of the scrog screen when it's assembled

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

subscribed. try to keep the water droplets off of your leaves, water droplets can magnify the light and burn your leaves. your leaf damage in your photographs appears to be a phosphorous deficiency. I would increase the Flora Bloom youy are feeding. you might want to set your scrog screen height to 10-12 inches above your lid so you are able to get your hand in under the screen and defoliate. you want pH 5.8 for hydroponic and soiless (peat moss and coco coir) and pH 6.5 for soil.


here is a nutrient availability chart

here is a cannabis lead deficiency chart

here is the Cannabis Plant and Pest Problem Solver and the Plant Abuse Chart

Cannabis Plant and Pest Problem Solver - Pictorial

Plant Abuse Chart

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - My SCrog screen

Hey KingJohnC

Thanks for the tips and info its much appreciated. I'll definitely be printing that leave chart off and sticking it on the wall along with a few other handy bits and pieces i've collected along the way. I had something similar for the nute availability but yours is much easier to follow so thanks again!

The PH has been surprisingly stable the last few weeks, sitting between 5.6 and 6. As soon as it hits 6, i just top up and it stabalises, which is nice. I have heard horror stories about PH going mental!

Here are a couple of pictures of my Scrog, built, and in place

I had to order these tee fitting form the internet, and as luck has it, they were a tad too small, so me and my hack saw had to improvise

But i got there in the end

I took your advise and put the screen about 10inches from the bucket lid, which is peefect for the NLB, the FCJ still has a little way to come, but not too far.

All in all, the SCrog seems to be working out. I zip tied the corners to the tent frame, which is good because it allows me to lift it up at an angle to allow me to comfortably change the reservoir.

I went a bit pipe happy and made myself a frame to hold some additional CFL lighting which also turned out pretty damn good Here are some pics of that, as well as everything else, with some fancy angles too

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

I've since extended the lighing frame so that i can place CFL's around the outside of the plants, and also between the. PVC and a hack saw, what an awesome combination!

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - My SCrog screen

your leaf damage in your photographs appears to be a phosphorous deficiency. I would increase the Flora Bloom youy are feeding

I'll be changing the res. tomorrow so i'll be sure to increase the Flora Bloom You even saved me having to look at the leaf chart I'll start it off at ph5.8 too so that P is immediately available to the little ladies!

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Here are some pics of the inner growth, its really really bushy in there, i'm hoping the branches start to stretch out to allow a bit more light into the middle for the growth further down.

While i'm here are there is photographic evidence above! HYGROZYME WILL SCREW YOUR ROOTS UP!! DO NOT USE IT!!

I was using it for a while and i started to developer a slime around my roots that started to go brown. It didnt seem to be damaging the plants, but it really messed with my PH big time! I didn't know what was causing it so i went back to standard ph 5.5 water with a couple of drops of super thrive. As i added nutes back in nothing was happening. As soon as i added a bit of hygrozyme, the slime was back, and so was the tempermental PH!

I now use a Mycorrhizae supplement to encourage healthy roots, superthrive and nutes! I'm waiting for some pondzyme to arrive, after that. I don't see any reason to be using anything else, can anyone else? And i dont even use the Mycorrhizae and Superthrive all of the time. So most of the time it will be just my 3 part GH Flora nutes and water!

 

[noydb07]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Looking great man. Nice Bushy healthy looking plants there yo! Last I commented I was a soil grower, but I've recently built a dwc myself! So Ill be popping in to check how Yours are doing, as well to compare all the same good work and Ill be back! haha

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Thanks noydb! I hope they start to grow out a bit soon, so that more light can get into the inside of the bush lol!

I hope you enjoy the DWC experience as much as i have Are you going to start from seed or transplant a plant from soil?

I took a random clone of my FCJ on Saturday afternoon (today is day 4), i had my doubts but it's looking like it's picking up, so i hope that means it has rooted(?), time will tell.....i'm checking the bottom of that damn rockwool every 5 minutes. Next time i'm going to do it using aeroponics, so i can actually see what is going on with the roots because this shit is starting to take over my life! haha

Here is a DWC tip for you or any future readers, don't drill a hole in the lid of the bucket for the air pipe, it seems like a good idea at the time (or atleast it did to me haha), but it's a pain in the ass when you want to change the Res. Either make a nik in the top of the lid, or drill a hold in the side of the bucket (at the top obviously )

 

[noydb07]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

I went ahead and made clones of a plant about to go into flower AND I rinsed off the dirt of an existing 2 plants. The transplant went well. way better than expected. Ill make a journal soon Just finishing the ones i have still. check em out!

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

I went ahead and made clones of a plant about to go into flower AND I rinsed off the dirt of an existing 2 plants. The transplant went well. way better than expected. Ill make a journal soon Just finishing the ones i have still. check em out!

That's great, a smooth transition!! I'm hoping for the same! I just took a look at your Journal, it's looking good Looking forward to seeing them grow

I took a few more clones, i'm not really sure if any have rooted or not yet, but they are all still alive, some are twisted, and some are yellow, and some are both, but they're all still alive, so i'll be anxious to see what happens and which root. I'll post an update with pics in a sec

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Clones!

As I said in an earlier post, I took a random clone from the FCJ and it now appears to be growing, so i assume that it has rooted?

Anyway, I took a few more. So now i have 4 in total from each plant (8 overall).

Firstly i soacked the rockwool cubs in ph adjusted water (5.5) and i added some my mycorrhizae to that water. I left them to soak over night. I also gave the rockwool a little squeeze, just enough to drain a bit of water from it, i repeated this process a few times for each cube.

The following morning I took 3 clones from the FCJ and 4 from the NLB, with my firist FCJ cutting that gives me 4 of each.

Here are the plants, pre-cuttings

When selecting the clones from the mother plants, I cut off growth from the stems that grew off of the ain stem, and counted 4 nodes down from the top, and cut that internode of the 4th node with scissors. I immediately put the clones in ph adjusted water to sit. I cut and rooted one at a time.

I removed the bottom set of leaves from each cutting with a sharp blade, cut the bottom of the clone at 45degrees with that blade (which was sterilised with cleaning alcohol), and immediately smothered the bottom inch(inch and a half) of the cutting with rooting gel (Root!T).

At which point, I placed the cutting in the rockwool, about 1.5cm down, and put them in my heated propagation dome, under a single 4200K cool white 23w CFL.

The first cutting is on Day 6, the others are coming to the end of Day 2. I spray the dome with water 3-4 times a day to keep it permanently humid. I keep all of the vents on the dome closed. I'll post photo's of the survivors later in the week

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

I noticed that over time i have a small collection of print outs, and oter bits and pieces that a first time grower may not think to have but may come in handy, anyway here is most of it (whatever i could think of at the time)

PH Availability chart on side (Thanks KJC), feeding guide the other.

Then i have a plant problem solver I found and tarted up a little bit in Excel

I made myself a water butt that has ph 5.8 water in it at the moment.

And from left to right....

PH buffering solution (4 and 7)
Flora 3 part. (Bloom, Micro and Gro)
Superthrive (little bottle in front)
PH Up and Down
Root !T Gell
Pondzyme powder
Mycorrhizae powder
A large stirring spoon - very handy
PH and PPM meter (I'm going to fork out for a Trunheon soon)
Glass beaker, syringe and dropper.

 

[mobudds]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Looking good I'm in

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Looking good I'm in

Welcome to the party mobudds

 

[Bong6900]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Got the same ec meter as u only cost me 11$ but works as good as my 130$ meter it reads the same every time

im using Gh 3-part as well so ill keep an eye on this

 

[GoogleGenie]

Re: First Time Grow - Hydro - LED - Day 0-5 - Research & Germination

Got the same ec meter as u only cost me 11$ but works as good as my 130$ meter it reads the same every time

Hey Bong6900, thanks for the heads up mate. I was actually going to fork out on an expensive Truncheon, now however I'm thinking that money can be better spent elsewhere!