Greendeer's Aero Indoor Mixed Variety Grow Journal - 2015

[greendeer]

I have been a guest lurking around this forum for some time and finally decided to create an account and give back. Although this is my first journal, I have been growing my medicine for around 4-5 years and farming local cash crops my whole life. All my previous grows were done outdoors in a greenhouse environment. I have prior experience with Organics, Soil, and various hydro methods. Due to a recent move away from the family farm, this will be my first go at growing indoors from start to finish. Okay, now for the good stuff.

DIY Aeroponic Build:
5 gallon bucket (BPA free)
3in net-pots
3in black foam seals
Conditioned Stonewool
Total Pond 500GPH Pump
3/4in tubing
Various connectors
Red Microsprayers

Strain:
Mixed variety of Indica strains, to keep a low profile.

Current Stage:
Seedling / Early Veg (1st week of nutrients)

Environment:
6x3x3 Apollo Horticulture Tent
Apollo Full Spectrum 400W LED Grow Panel (80 x 5W)
High Temp 77°F
Low Temp 66°F
RH 30-40%

Nutrients:
Spraying 15 seconds every 30 minutes with a modified 24 hour timer.
DYNA-GRO Liquid Grow 7-9-5 with Essential Trace Elements
0.3% H2O2
PH 5.8 (As measured by bluelab pH pen)
EC 0.6 / TDS 300 (As measured by bluelab truncheon nutrient meter)

Notes:
All 4 were started from seed, propagated directly in 3 inch net-pots using conditioned rockwool. They were placed in a domed flood tray with a heating pad underneath. They were moved as seedlings to their current home in the sterilized tent and then fed plain tap water for two weeks. It took some trial and error to get the distance right with this new light. The LED did cause a little deformation of the first leaves, but the new growth is coming out normal. Also, root growth was above average, so I am not worried. Today starts the first day of nutrients and a switch to 18/6. I plan to SCRoG a little later on. That will probably be my next full update. Until then...here are a few pictures.

 

[greendeer]

Okay, these little ones just kept wanting to grow out instead of up. I tried raising my light all the way up, but it seemed I was still getting more horizontal growth then verticle growth. I decided to trim the lower growth, so they can focus their energy on new (hopefully vertical) growth. Since the last post I have raised the nutes to 800PPM (TDS) 1.6 (EC). This has in turn been a helpful buffer for the pH. It fluctuates from 5.5 to 5.8, then I lower it back down making sure to not let it get above that sweet spot. I have been needing to adjust once every few days. I will also supplement H2O2 right before I adjust the pH, so that is being added every few days as well. All in all, I am loving this method and it is almost too easy. Very hands off, almost boring... I do find myself just sitting and watching them grow a bit too often, as if I will notice a difference in that amount of time...

As an expirement, the little one in the middle was germinated directly in the system and intentionally sowed a few days before my initial post. I wanted to see if early nutes would have any impact on germination or seedling growth, as I have read that nutes are not necessary during this phase. In fact, it seems that the rate and quality of growth on this seedling are both better than the other four. So in the future, if I start from seed again instead of clones, I will make sure to start them with a low nute solution 300-500PPM.

 

[greendeer]

Started some LST this week. Looks like I should be able to get by in the 5 gal bucket. Roots have all reached the water. I am wondering if I should throw in an air stone or is the spray cycle enough to oxiginate the water. The roots and leaves all look healthy and happy. New growth is starting to accelerate. I am going to veg for 2-3 more weeks and then flush and switch to flower.

 

[greendeer]

Here are some pics from today. Still trying to figure out the best way to get the pics to look right using photoshop. These seem better than the last round. I guess anything is better than the purple tint they start with from the LED.

 

[greendeer]

So my True North order that I placed in January finally got resolved and going to be delivered either today or Monday. I was waiting on a out-of-stock item I suppose... These are the strains I expect to be receiving, if they did not substitute anything of equal value as I requested. Kush-N-Cheese Fem, Golden Tiger Fem, Sweet Tooth Fem, Auto Bubba Kush Fem, and Auto Lemon Skunk Fem. Looking for any input on killing the straglers and replacing with one of each of the Autos. Personally, I am not impressed with how the current one all the way to the left and the lower middle plant are responding to this environment. There is a noticible difference in root and foliage production compared to the other three. My thought was that replacing these locations with the Feminized Autos, one Bubba Kush and one Lemon Skunk, could be the best solution. From the strain descriptions, it looks like the expected lifecycle would be about 10 weeks from seed to harvest for both, give or take, I know it isn't an exact science. They both seem to be fast strains, so I expect they could catch up and if needed I could veg and train the others a while longer until I had an even canopy to go into flowering. Or, I could just wait until the Autos start showing pre-flowers and then switch. I know some of the seeds I had were feminized. Although, being a disorganized goof, I have lost track of my current stock. So out of the current selection, there may end up being some males. I have never grown Autos, so maybe I am barking up the wrong tree in my assumption that they could catch up at this point and I am just having unrealistic expectations. Any input on the matter would be appreciated, and I would like some opinions on whether anyone is seeing what I am seeing with the (hopefully) girls on the left and bottom middle. As you can see I have already had some problems with these, hence why I have cut down the leaves, they were either not liking the LED, or just not as receptive to taking up nutrients via this aero system. I was getting some brown spotting on the tips. So I snipped them to see if it was spreading. Currently, it looks like they are bouncing back a little, but they are just lagging compared to the others. Hell, the one in the middle is catching up and was sowed almost two weeks after the other 4. Sorry, for this long winded post, but hopefully y'all can give some feedback. Thanks in advance.

 

[greendeer]

I had to call it quits for the small one in the bottom middle spot. It was probably an older seed and just not as lively as the others. She could keep up and wasn't tall enough to train her away from the other and just not receiving enough light anymore. I did get my new seeds and although I did receive some of my requested order, they did have to sub in some and gave me a bunch of freebies. They pretty much doubled my order. So now I have 5 kush-n-cheese fem autos, 5 Burmese kush fem, 5 Bubba Kush fem, 5 Sweet Tooth fem, and 1 White Widow fem. I decided to pop one of the KnC autos and it went in the bucket yesterday in the spot where the pump cord comes out. I also moved the youngest from the center down to the open spot made by pulling the straggler. The plan is to time the others around the KnC Auto. It popped in less than 24 hours via zip lock and moist paper towel. Nice to have some healthy seeds on hand again with labels. Saving the rest for the next go round. I want to be dialed in with the indoor setup before I start more of the new batch of strains. Somebody is a little obsessed with kush strains... haha. I am also very excited about the WW. I have never grown one and it has been on my bucket list for a while. I have had the pleasure of e noting it from time to time and is one of my favorites. All in all, I am very happy with what I received as subs.

 

[greendeer]

Picture update from today.

 

[greendeer]

Forgot to mention that I flipped to 12/12 a couple days ago. I decided to flip right after I FIM'd the little one. Now that I have some new strains, I just want to get these outa the way. I'm not too worried about the yield on this go around, this was meant to be a test run in the first place.

Environmentals (past 24 hrs):
Air Temp: Hi 79F Low 66F
Humidity: Hi 44% Low 34%

Nutrient Solution:
Spring water conditioned with H2O2 - TDS 200PPM
Temp: 72F
pH: 5.9
Nutrient: DYNA-GRO Advanced Gro Formula - TDS 700PPM
Total TDS: 900PPM (Hanna) 1.8 (EC)

 

[greendeer]

Day 5 Flower

 

[greendeer]

Day 6 Flower, upgraded to a larger container. The 5 gal bucket was going to require too much training. They are stretching quite a bit already. Plus it makes for better pictures. Now you can actually see nodes and height, etc.

 

[greendeer]

Day 10 Flower, my tall lanky guy showed Male preflowers and was culled. The rest have yet to show any preflowers, all are still stretching and branching out. It is likely that the other 3 are indeed going to be female. Out of the 5 seeds originally germinated, I am down to 3. With the extra spacing on the new 21-gal tote, they have plenty of room to do their thing. I am holding off on any type of training at this point. I am still considering throwing a screen up after the first defol, or I may just tie them off. I haven't decided yet. The remaining 3 are pretty even at this point. I did add DYNA-Grow Bloom and Pro-Tekt Silicate solution to the mix, sticking around 900 PPM of nutes right now. Still re-adding my hydro grade H2O2 every 3-4 days (0.5 TSP/Gal). The Kush N Cheese Auto is doing fine so far. I was expecting that I was going to burn her out with the higher PPM solution. I think the Pro-Tekt is doing its job though. She took a little longer to open up, but now that the real leaves are starting, she seems to be recovering from a slow start. She has been under 12/12 from seed, either way, that will be continued in a future journal I suppose.

Group Shot

Back Right (personal favorite)

Front Right AKA Ms. Stubs

Front Left (showing how I top)

 

[greendeer]

Down to one female. The other two small ones hermied on me. Here is Day 25. At day 21, I did some light defoliation. This is a few days after.

 

[greendeer]

Confirmed today that the little Kush-N-Cheese Auto is female.

Day 33 Flower. Nutrients now maxxed out at 1400 PPM. I know these Dynagro formulas are supposed to be all-in-one. I feel the bloom doesn't have enough Nitrogen to go the distance, so I am still throwing in the Grow formula. I have just been eyeing it, but if I had to guess, I would say I am using a 3:1 ratio.

 

[greendeer]

Kush-n-Cheese Auto Day 12 Flower

Unknown Strain (M1) Day 42 Flower

 

[greendeer]

Day 52 Flower

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.