MLDgrowers 4x4 Indoor/Outdoor Autos

[Constantino420]

Hello Everyone,

First time grower here. Before embarking on this project I clocked in a dew hundred hours of research. I've read several hundred pages of forums from experienced coco growers on a few different forum boards.

My setup:
- 4x4 Marshydro Tent
- Bestva 1500w LED
- 4"x12" carbon filter
- 390 CFM exhaust fan
- Passive air intake
- 4 x small fans
- Dehumidifier

My plants:
- Coco Perlite mix 60/40
- 5 Gallon Fabric pots

Indoor Grow:
- 4 x Auto flower Pinneaple Express
- 1 x Photoperiod Northern Lights

Outdoor Grow:
- 2 x Auto Flower Northern Lights

Nutrients and Additives: (Growth Technology Ionics)
- Coco Grow and Bloom
- Formulex
- Nitrozyme
- Cal Mag
- PK Booster

My budget is certainly maxed out for the first grow, but I do intend to upgrade my environment and nutrients after 1 to 2 harvests.

I started the 4 Pinneaple Express just over 2 weeks ago. They are now 14 days old and looking healthy. I germinated by soaking the seeds for 24hrs in water and Nitrozyme, then 24 to 48hrs on paper towels, and then placed them in 12oz transparent plastic cups. I realized this was not the best idea as the roots were eventually exposed to light and alge started growing below the surface. I transplanted these 4 into 5 gallon fabric pots on day 12. They seem to have taken off well after transplant. These 4 will stay indoors for the entire cycle.

The 2 auto flower Northern Lights are 2 days old and intended for outdoors. I placed one directly into a 5 gallon fabric pot, and once the seed sprouted it went straight outside. The other went into a 8oz styrofoam cup under the LED. It will be transplanted to a 5 gallon and placed outside once the seedling stage is over. I want to compare these two to see which method is better. I am pulling the outdoor plant under shelter when it rains and at night until it gets stronger. One storm could wipe my seedling away. Outdoor temps are 26 to 30 celcius, and humidity is 90%. It will get a bit dryer in a month, but temps and humidity are pretty constant here. I am in the tropics.

My plan with the photoperiod plant is to veg it in the tent while the autos grow. When I harvest them I will take clones from the photo to grow in the tent and outdoors. I have not researched cloning much yet.

So far I have two problems identified. The temps inside my tent don't get lower than 28c and get over 37c during the hottest time of the day. I've switched the light schedule to being off from 1pm to 5pm, which is helping to keep temps below 32c. The other problem is algae growing on the surface of my coco perlite. Today I am skipping the morning watering and waiting till 5pm when the lights come on. I want to let the surface dry out more. The plants are liking 2 x waterings per day now, but it is staying too wet. If this doesn't work I am considering covering the surface with old tshirts to block the light. The humidity is 60% to 70% with the dehumidifier on. I will get a stronger dehumidifier for the bloom phase.

 

[Backlipslide]

Your off to a great start!

 

[Constantino420]

Pictures will be up later today. I will wait till I turn the lights off for better photos. The LED doesn't give a realistic image... Altho it looks really cool!

 

[Constantino420]

The feed schedule I am using is attached. I do not have all of the products. What I do have are listed above.

I started with just Formulex and a dash of Nitrozyme at 400 EC for the seedlings and worked up to 1000 EC by day 12. After the first week I stopped the Formulex and switched to Ionic Coco Grow, Cal Mag, and Silicon. My water is 44 EC and I added Cal Mag till 300 EC before adding Ionic Grow to my desired EC. It is day 14 and I feeding 1100 EC. I am adding a small amount of Nitrozyme twice a week at 0.5ml per liter.

My new seedlings are being fed Formulex for the first week at 400 to 500 EC.

Anyone have experience with this brand of nutrients? It is the only brand available in my part of the world. I'd love to get the full range of their products, but budget doesn't allow. I think I should prioritise upgrading my lights and finding a way to cool the environment first.

One of my plants was showing some stress after week 1. I had lowered the light to 26", which is the closest for seedlings. I looked it up and I think it was heat stress. Moving the light up an inch seemed to do the trick. I now have the light at 23" and they seem to be doing fine.

You can see in the photos that algae is a problem. Today I did not water in the morning, and will water them when the lights come on at 5pm. I'm trying to let the surface dry out more. If by tomorrow morning I see it getting any worse, I will cover the surface to block it from light. Any other ideas?

Attached Thumbnails

 

[Constantino420]

 

[Backlipslide]

Their looking healthy!

 

[Constantino420]

I am on day 25 now and things are looking good.

4 x Auto Pineapple Express are growing very quickly now. I've had some minor issues, but I believe I've been quick to identify what's going on and fix it.

The tips of my leaves were getting burnt and I wasn't sure if it was too much light or too high of a nutrient EC. I've had both the veg and bloom turned on using my Bestva 1500w. I later began to have issues with clawing. It was never bad, but it was there. I played around with the light quite a bit and the issue just didn't seem to go away. I know my temps are a bit high, but I don't believe they are high enough to cause this problem. I eventually had it at the max recommended height for veg. Later I moved it even higher.

A few days later I noticed a few brown spots on the lower leaves, which led me to believe I have a cal mag issue. I know my cal mag was just under 300 EC before adding my Grow. So for the next batch of nutrients I upped it to 350 EC. I know that cal mag issues can cause the plants to be less resistant to heat and light, so I figured this may solve my problem. It solved the brown spot issue, and no new leaves are showing any signs of cal mag deficiency now. The clawing had not stopped though. Yesterday I decided to move my light up quite a bit. I do realize that Bestva does not recommend both veg and bloom lights being on, and their recommended height is with the veg light on only. Also, my plants are very short for how old they are. This morning I woke up and they had stretched a bit - Good! Also, the clawing is almost gone! Like I said, the clawing wasn't bad but it was there.

I've had issues with algae on the surface of the coco. It started to get pretty bad. I used cut up tshirts to cover the soil and block the light. After 5 days I took a look and found the roots growing upwards out of the coco on one of my plants. So I ditched the tshirts and covered the surface with a thin layer of coco I already had buffered and prepared.

I am currently feeding cal mag at 350ec and adding Ionics Coco Grow to 1200ec. There is a minimal amount of Nitrozyme and Silicon added to the mix. I am up to feeding 4 times per day with 400ml each feed per plant. This gives me mabye 10% runoff each feed. Plants seem to be happy for now. I am glad they are finally growing vertically a bit.

So lesson learned - Bestva 1500w must be higher up than recommended if both veg and bloom lights are on.

As for my outdoor plants - they have been moved indoors to veg. For one, they were growing incredibly slowly. And two, I have a broken leg - hauling the 5 gallon inside at night or when it rained was a huge pain in the ass. There is plenty of room to veg in the tent and move outside when they grow larger.

I have 1 x Northern Lights Auto in a 5 gallon that will eventually go outdoors, 1 x Northern Lights Auto in a 8oz styrofoam cup that will later be transplanted to a 1 gallon home-made-air-pot that will go outside (I will be home for a few more months recovering my broken leg), and 1 x Northern Lights Photo that I intend to veg indoors and clone from later.

 

[Backlipslide]

They look healthy. I don’t see any burn at all!

 

[Constantino420]

It was either slight light burn or nite burn. Whatever it was, I caught it very early and fixed it. You won't see it on the top.

 

[Backlipslide]

If it was light burn, then the tops of your plants would show signs of stress. If it were nute burn The tips of your plants would be burnt, but they all look good

Just keep doing what your doing!!