Legal 400W HPS Soil Grow 4 Plants

[Aero808]

Hey Jim. Glad to see you! I have some rockwool cubes too, but I don't like that they are so bad for the environment. Maybe I'll go with jiffy cubes from now on. My last seed didn't germ in soil, hoping the clones do better. Jiffy cubes seem like a happy medium between the two. I've used up all of my perlite, a trip to Early's is in order.

What kind of yield are you averaging per plant with the 200 watts?

 

[Aero808]

Growth has exploded! Not sure if it's the haircut or the nutes, but things have really picked up. I'm starting to train all 3 of my girls under the screen and at this rate I'll be starting flowering in a week or 2.

It's been 4 days since I watered using week 2 of advanced nutrients ph perfect soil schedule. The pots were light and the leaves were beginning to droop a little, so I watered using just plain old ph 6.5 water.

Is it pretty much customary to fertilize every second watering? At this rate I should need to water every 4 days. I plan on watering with week 3 of the soil nute sched next time.

Cheers!

 

[Emilya Green]

Is it pretty much customary to fertilize every second watering?

yes, the second watering with just pH adjusted water picks up any nutrients still left behind in the soil, giving them a second shot at getting into the plant.

 

[Aero808]

Thanks Saint Emmie

 

[JimSaskFarmer]

Hey Jim. Glad to see you! I have some rockwool cubes too, but I don't like that they are so bad for the environment. Maybe I'll go with jiffy cubes from now on. My last seed didn't germ in soil, hoping the clones do better. Jiffy cubes seem like a happy medium between the two. I've used up all of my perlite, a trip to Early's is in order.

What kind of yield are you averaging per plant with the 200 watts?

Well hopefully without sounding like i am making excuses, we have only had the 3x3 tent for a few months and just recently got some new genetics to better utilize the bigger tent. But the Sensi Star which the wife LOVES and is a super potent strain is very slow to veg. We generally get between 2and 3 oz dry per plant about 20" tall running two or three at a time. We just have to find the patients to let the sensi star go for a long veg now that we have a bigger tent. If you check out our perpetual journal you will see the Bangi Haze we have in there now looks like she could end up considerably heavier.

 

[Aero808]

Well hopefully without sounding like i am making excuses, we have only had the 3x3 tent for a few months and just recently got some new genetics to better utilize the bigger tent. But the Sensi Star which the wife LOVES and is a super potent strain is very slow to veg. We generally get between 2and 3 oz dry per plant about 20" tall running two or three at a time. We just have to find the patients to let the sensi star go for a long veg now that we have a bigger tent. If you check out our perpetual journal you will see the Bangi Haze we have in there now looks like she could end up considerably heavier.

I'd like to try my hand at growing some Sativa's next. 2-3 ounces per plant at 200w makes me excited for what I might accomplish with my setup... but I'm positive that your experience and 200w > my noob self with 550.

 

[Aero808]

Well... I'm thinking that tomorrow will be day 1 of flower. I have been working 12 hour night shifts for the past week and want to be home to monitor things when I flip. My screen is approx. 50% full and it should fill up nicely when the girls start to stretch. Growth has really taken off in the last week.

Here are some pics... the girls will be 50 days old from seed as of tomorrow. Exciting times! Cheers!

 

[JimSaskFarmer]

thanks Aero. Im sure you have an excellent harvest coming.
I've only done one scrog grow years and years ago but i think you may be jumping the gun on switching this soon. i'll leave that to more experienced scroggers to confirm or refute. Ether way it wont harm them and you will have many more grows to try things out so i say why not

 

[Aero808]

Thanks Jim! I'm looking forward to reaping the rewards. I took out the bottom 1/2 of the plants after being told that I'm growing the 'anti-scrog". Haha. I'm going to wait it out another week and let them recover from the haircut and go from there. This also means that I have a bunch of possible clones sitting in water.

I could give them away if you're interested. 4 Northern Lights and 2 Skywalker OG's. They will wind up in the trash otherwise.

 

[Aero808]

The screen has filled quite nicely. I did a little more trimming today and threw in a hps bulb. Let the flowering begin!

 

[Magicdvdfarm]

Looking great. Can’t wait to see the finished product. Cheers. Happy growing. Magic

 

[Aero808]

I've been using the advanced nutrients ph perfect line. Just the basic micro, grow, and bloom formulas. They are weird in that everything is given in a 11 ratio, just in higher amounts as the plants progress. The feeding schedule calls for more additives, which I'm definitely not buying.

With that being said, I have top dressed with Indonesian bat guano today at 1 tablespoon per gallon of soil and watered in with one gallon of water with one tablespoon of molasses. I might repeat the process in 4 weeks. What do you guys think? Will this provide the boost a flowering plant needs without resorting to 15 different bottles of overpriced nutes?

I'll continue adding the 3 part formula as called for in the nute sched. I'm also going to pick up a bottle of flawless finish to help flush the plant in the final week before harvest.

Here is what I've been working with:

 

[Emilya Green]

depends if you used high N or high P guano... each has its own use. Adding just one raw nutrient and expecting the water soluble part of it to feed your plants is not going to work very well because the needs in flower are very complex and involve a lot more than you are bringing in with this. The molasses brings in sugars to feed the microlife that may exist in your soil along with a little bit of magnesium and sulfur, but again it is far from a complete nutrient.
These as additives are fine and will add to the grow, but the expensive additives are going to be much more complete and give you better results. This is the game that you play when you buy into a nutrient line... the more money you give them, the better your grow will be. This right here, is why I went to living organic soil, so I could add in the needed minerals, prepare the soil so that they are available throughout the grow, and not have to buy all those products just to have a superior grow.

 

[Aero808]

Hi Emmie,

Thanks for the response. The guano I'm using is in the 3rd pic I posted. They can't call it guano in Canada due to import laws, so they call it mineralized phosphate. It has an N-P-K of 0-13-1.

I'm hoping the base formula (micro, grow, bloom) with the addition of cal/mag and molasses every 2nd watering and guano topdressing help to address what is lacking in the base formula come flowering. Can you see any harm in doing this?

I definitely can't afford to go out and buy all of the products advanced nutrients call for. Hoping for the best...

I'm going to go with Canna brand fertilizers for my next grow. They come in a 2 part veg and 2 part flower mix. At least with that I can feel like I'm addressing the different plant needs in veg and flower. Thanks again for the thoughtful response. Much appreciated!

 

[Emilya Green]

the only problem that I see is that with the high P guano sitting there, it is going to cause an interaction late flower with phosphorus... this is why the proportions change on the a and b during the grow. Even I don't let that stuff sit in my containers without cooking it for several months in the compost pile. In a small amount it wont hurt anything... but go very easy with topdressing with any strong raw nutrient... there are interactions as shown by Mulders chart. For the most part, your nutes are going to get you through flower... or why would they still be able to sell the stuff?

 

[JimSaskFarmer]

Thanks Jim! I'm looking forward to reaping the rewards. I took out the bottom 1/2 of the plants after being told that I'm growing the 'anti-scrog". Haha. I'm going to wait it out another week and let them recover from the haircut and go from there. This also means that I have a bunch of possible clones sitting in water.

I could give them away if you're interested. 4 Northern Lights and 2 Skywalker OG's. They will wind up in the trash otherwise.

Thanks for the offer but i think we are good here i still have a several seeds i am working my way through plus i have to grow out some of our Sensi Star S1 seeds we made to see how they turned out.

If you ever do decide to give up on the bottled ferts I have been very happy with the Gaia Green product line. Like @Emilya it didn't take me long to figure out LOS is just so much less work and $.

 

[Aero808]

Jim:

I would definitely consider going LOS. Can you share your process using the Gaia Green product line? How do you mix your soil, which products do you use, etc. I'm intruiged by less work and less money... haha.

I see them every time I'm at Early's. Cheers!

 

[Aero808]

Today marks week 1 of flower. The screen continues to fill nicely and I've been removing branches that won't make it to the canopy. No signs of problems yet, fingers crossed things continue this way.

One of my clones has rooted and it seems to be doing ok. A little yellowing, followed by a little clawing after I gave a low dose of nutes... but it is standing tall and proud in 14% humidity. I plan on keeping it under 2x2 t5 fixture with 4 bulbs. Hoping momma gives me an endless supply of clones for a year or so.

Looking forward to seeing my first signs of bud production. Cheers!

 

[MarceloD2]

Hey buddy fellow canadian here, also growing 4 plants with fox farm. But I only got one strain: Cali OG kush x haze from crop king seeds. I see you didn’t make the same mistakes I did with foz farm, should have gone easier on the ferts but oh well at least I will learn from my mistakes.

Are you planning on keep fox farm for the next runs? I don’t have many options on the grow shop here, it’s either that or pro mix hp (which I’m thinking about trying out on my next grow).
I wish we had a canadian Cannabis home growers community so we could exhange seeds and seedlings since all seeds packs come in 3,5 or 10 packs and I would love to grow 4 different strains but can’t afford all those seeds at once.
Anyway I’m pulling a chair to follow your journey, feel free to follow mine and help me if you can

 

[Aero808]

Hey Marcelo, happy to have you along for the ride. I don't think I'll do ocean forest any more after this grow. I'd like to try my hand at coco growing next round. Leaning towards doing the Canna coco line for ferts. I bought my bag of ffof on Amazon. I've found some pretty sweet deals online, up to 50% less expensive vs. local. That being said I also found some things cheaper at my local gardening store. Just bought a used Lumatek ballast on ebay that was only 1/3 of the price of new.

It would be pretty sweet to trade seeds and clones with people. I've been giving away clones to a couple of buddies... been promised a gorilla glue when I'm ready for it.

People would find it easier to keep tabs on your grow if you added a link to it in your signature. I'm in and will try to help you out if I can. Cheers!