Grower23 Barney's Farm LSD - 1st Grow 2016

[Grower23]

This is my first grow ever so sorry for any missing information. It's been going pretty good but a few days ago I noticed some spots on my plants. From researching I think it's from nutrient deficiencies so yesterday I swapped out the water in my reservoir. I also noticed weak stems so added a fan about 2 days ago and the stems are looking much better in just 2 days.

The following is the general information:

What Strain is it? - Barney's farm LSD
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? Mostly Indica
How Many Plants? 6
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage? Vegetative
If in Vegetative Stage... How Long? - ~10 days
Indoor or Outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Hydro
If Hydro, Reservoir size? - 10 Gallons
If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature? - I've got a thermometer sitting on top and it stays around 80-88 but not sure inside. It feels much cooler but I know that's not scientific. I've got a thermometer on the way.
If Hydro, what type of Medium? - Seed planted in Rapid Rooter and surrounded by Leca Clay Pebbles
If Hydro, what type of Setup? - Deep Water Culture
Size (Wattage) of Light? How Many? 600 Watt LED
Is it Air Cooled? Built in fans
Temperature of Room/Cabinet? Ranges from 80-88 degrees
RH of Room/Cabinet? - 40-50
PH of Medium or Reservoir? - 5.8 - 6.3. Currently at 6.1 in one tub and 6.2 in other
Any Pests? No
How Often are you Watering? NA
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used? General Hydroponics Flora Series
Size or Square Footage of Room? Tent 4'x2'x5'

Extra Information-

Are you plants from seed or clone? Seed

How old are your plants total? ~ 10 days

How big are the plants? 3-5"

What type of medium are you using and what is its makeup? Hydro in both 10 gallon reservoirs. The first water was 5 gallons with 1.25 tsp of GH Flora Series in each tub. 5 days into grow I swapped out reservoir water and put in 5 gallons with 2.5 tsp of GH Flora Series in each tub. 10 days into the grow I swapped out water in each reservoir with 5 gallons and 5tsp of GH Flora Series in each tub.

Chemical or organic fertilizer? Chemical

Do you have ventilation? Have a Carbon Filter installed. I also now have an oscillating fan blowing on plants. It's only been in place for about 2 days because I had weak stems and read on here to add a fan. The stems are looking great now.

 

[Grower23]

Here's photo's of my set up.

 

[Grower23]

Plant 1

Plant 2

Plant 3

 

[Grower23]

Plant 4

Plant 5

Plant 6

 

[Grower23]

Here's some spots I was seeing on the leaves:

 

[Grower23]

This is the first grow I've ever done so also the first grow journal. Please let me know if additional information is required or pictures. I'll be posting some updated pics tomorrow so if there's anything I need to get in the pictures let me know. Thanks!

 

[Nismo12]

to and you are off to a great start. We have not tried hydro yet, but your res seems to be extremely warm if it is 80 degrees. If I am correct it needs to be in the lower 60s. The pH is good also. We had a plant that had what looked like to be rust spots on her leaves and we just continued on as normal and it went away. So possibly the best action is no action at this point. Maybe someone else could point you in the right direction on that. Good luck to ya and I'll follow along.

 

[Grower23]

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure how I can lower the temperature of the res. I've been keeping the tent open and opening the door to let more air in to bring down room temperature and recently (3 days ago) raised my lights about 3 inches (they are now about 27" above the res. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

 

[Grower23]

Day 12
Plant 1

Plant 2

Plant 3

 

[Grower23]

Day 12
Plant 4

Plant 5

Plant 6

 

[Grower23]

Most of the spotting on my plants is on Plant 2 and Plant 6. Those are also my two largest plants. The spotting appears to be starting at the leaves closer to the base and moving up. If anyone has suggestions please let me know. I really want these babies to make it so want to nip issues in the bud sooner than later (pun intended).

 

[OregonGrown79]

I will sub up to this one, looks like its starting great. I would like to try some DWC for my next run. As far as keeping you res a little cooler, try frozen 2 liter water or soda bottles. I would start with 1 and see where that gets you. Just an idea and probably a major PITA to change every morning but.....? Good Luck, I will be watching!
OG79

 

[Grower23]

Thanks for the advice! Do you think the shift in water temp from when I add the frozen bottle to the time it heats back up will be an issue?

Also I should add that this morning I put in Hydroguard to my tubs and plant to incorporate it into my nutes to help prevent root rot and to help with root health.

 

[OregonGrown79]

I wouldn't worry about temp change too much. Start slow with 1-2 liter and see where that gets you!! It may take several to get you to where you consistently want to be! Go check out the DWC forum on here and look up cooking res. There is a ton of info on there! Good Growing!

 

[Faint05]

Hey Buddy I'm in California It's hot and I don't have a AC in my grow room. I insulated the upper porter of my bucket with little holes and used a short tub of freezing water my bucket is in. My res water sits at 67-70 degrees. I was running high res temps as well. My plants grew but it slowed the growth rate and I got some brown roots. I'll be reading to see how that hydrogaurd works.I was looking to getting some, since I'm sure my frozen water bottles will melt quicker while I'm at work as the summer approaches. Looking good so far keep doing what your doing!

 

[Grower23]

It's been a couple days since I posted last so here's an update:

In order to combat my reservoir heat problems I've done two things:

1. I've changed my lighting schedule from 24hrs to 6/18. The 6hrs gives the plants a chance to rest and for the room and tubs to cool down some.

2. I've got a few 20oz bottles that I've frozen water in and I swap them out 2-3 times a day. They tend to bring down the temp by about 5 degrees and last 2-3 hrs. On top of that I froze a gallon with some water and I sit it between the two tubs and then push them up against it. This seems to have had a greater impact and the tubs are frequently dropping below 75 degrees when I do this. I just got a 2 liter bottle and froze water in it and was able to squeeze it into the tank so we'll see how that does. I just did that about 30 minutes ago so will provide update in my next post.

All in all I would say the efforts have helped some. My reservoir hasn't been above 80 degrees since I started doing this. It still frequently hits 78 or 79 but the efforts have kept the tub below 75 for the majority of the day and then it peaks out in between me swapping out the bottles. I think the 2 liter bottle will help in keeping it below the 75 but time will tell.

Since I've started doing this I have noticed that the yellow/brown on the leaves hasn't spread any further and improved on one of my plants. I also think my plants have grown quite a bit since doing it too so I think the warmer waters was causing some growth stunting. I've looked at the roots on a couple of my plants and can see most of the roots floating in the water and they look healthy.

I plan to swap out my water again this weekend. I'm going to swap out one of my tubs totally and clean it good to eliminate any potential bad bacteria that grew in it. If it doesn't cause any negative impact by stressing the plants then I'll swap out the other tub next weekend. I want to be careful though because the process will cause some stress on the plants and I want to make sure it's not too much for them. I'll get some pictures of the roots while I'm doing this to post up for folks to see and give me some feedback on.

So here's a day 15 picture of my babies:

 

[Grower23]

It's a little over a week since I posted and I've got several updates. I'll break them out into two separate posts.

First I swapped out the water in the tub on the left (one with plates covering holes) on May 27th. I decided to wait a week to do the second to make sure the first one was able to recover from the stress of the operation.

You'll notice I left the pump that was and the tubes that was distributing water into the netpots out. I thought it might help with lowering the heat in my tub. I also added a third air stone so that I had now had one stone below each plant. Since I removed the pump my reservoir hasn't gone above 75 degrees. Here's a pic of the old reservoir with the crap in it.

Here are a look at some roots that I got a couple pictures of when I swapped out my tub. I had to be quick and wanted to disturb them as little as possible so just got a couple quick pics. It's hard to see with the light but they are white.

Here's a picture of the plants on 5/30

and here's the babies on 6/1

I had gone a couple days without checking my water and realized that my PH was up to 6.5 and that my water levels were much lower. I ended up topping off my water later on 6/1

 

[Nismo12]

Looking great bud. I'm very interested to see how these do as LSD is on my to do list...as is hydro. Keep it up.

 

[Grower23]

After the success I had on swapping out the water on my first reservoir I decided to swap it out on my second and to remove the pump to help keep the temperature lower. I also decided to turn my tubs around to try and get some better light distribution on the couple of plants that were falling behind on growth. I completed the swap and turn on 6/3.

6/3 - DAY 23 - Right before I did the tub swap.

6/4 - DAY 24 - This is the morning after I did the tub swap.

On 6/5 I shut the lights off at 12pm and then I didn't turn them back on until today at 7pm so that gave the babies about 31hrs of darkness to start the flower process.

6/6 - Day 26 (1st Day of Flower)

This is my first grow and I'm kinda winging a lot of this. I do read a lot online and been trying to follow the forums here but any help would be welcomed. I'm guessing I've got about another 6-8 weeks for the flower stage and basically just monitoring my water every couple days and topping it off based on the recommendations on the container.

I had yellow spots on some leaves but I've been removing them if they are towards the bottom of the stems and also using them as a reference to check my water and top off with nutrients as necessary. I have been adding hydroguard in it for about two weeks now and that appears to be keeping my roots pretty healthy.

Let me know if you have any recommendations or if you see something I'm doing wrong.

 

[Nismo12]

Hold off on the defoliating until day 21-25. That is when the stretch is over. You don't want to stress them out when they do their fastest growing. The clock starts on the flowering time when the first bud shows up. Roughly a week after 12/12 has started. It was unclear to us at first when it started and we took two of ours too early since we didn't know. Looks like you have it under control though.