Pak Chit Kush, Kandy Kush, GDP & Ghost Train Haze 3x3 With 1200W LED In Soil

[NavNurs]

Folks,

I'm on my 4th grow (at 5 wks Veg) with 4 strains and thought I'd add another journal to this amazing site! I've been watching/learning and hope to avoid some errors of the past (Said by no one else, ever). Grow #1 had a small light = airy buds, #2 overwatered/over fed and #3, I watered at night and found out once the lights went off the humidity went sky high and ended up with mold everywhere. I live in Denver so figured this wasn't even possible.

These strains are all clones from L'Eagle's dispensary.
Pakistani Chitral Kush ( Indica ) - One leftover clone clipped during grow #3, it was stalled for 2-3wks due to the transition from flower back to veg
Kandy Kush ( Indica dom Hybrid )
OG Ghost Train Haze ( Sativa dom Hybrid )
Grand daddy Purps ( Indica )

Medium
Generic Organic Soil from Home Depot - Was in a hurry so skipped the Fox Farm Ocean Forest I used for #2

Pots and size
5 gal Smart Pots

Light
Mars Hydro 1200W LED flower/veg switches

Temps / Humidity
HoekGrow, a real-time web enabled thermometer and hygrometer shows low 70s during the night and high 80s during the day. I had a couple of days of high temps after flipping on the flower switch with the door to my shop open. I've since opened it and things are good. The humidity seems to stay between high 30s and high 40s. We should be able to avoid the mold this time around!

PH of media
I haven't checked it yet though ph balance the water to ~6.5 with feedings and waterings.

Nutes
The left side of the tent has the Pak and the Kandy Kush with supersoil, the right has Grand Daddy Purps and OG Ghost Train Haze with General Organics' GO Box

This is in a 3x3 tent with a 4" filter and exhaust fan. I also have small fans above and below the canopy with a tower fan blowing on the plants. I may be a little paranoid about the mold though know you need plenty of air movement.

 

[Emilya Green]

Nice! This is going to be stellar! Good additions of all of those fans... good air is critical! I am going to sit back and enjoy watching this! Good Luck!

 

[NavNurs]

In the past I've found some fungus gnats so that is why there is sand on top of these pots. It is the same simple, cheap sand found at HD used for sand boxes or icy sidewalks and it seems to keep them away. Hopefully there aren't any chemicals that might be harmful to the plants? I used it on my 2nd grow, a killer Deathstar, which turned out pretty good so figured there shouldn't be any problems using it this go round.

 

[Emilya Green]

In the past I've found some fungus gnats so that is why there is sand on top of these pots. It is the same simple, cheap sand found at HD used for sand boxes or icy sidewalks and it seems to keep them away. Hopefully there aren't any chemicals that might be harmful to the plants? I used it on my 2nd grow, a killer Deathstar, which turned out pretty good so figured there shouldn't be any problems using it this go round.

Sand works fine, I just don't like the bulk of it mixing with my soil over time since I reuse the same soil over and over again. For me, bark mulch on the top serves the same purpose, and is easier to remove at the end.

 

[NavNurs]

So, the chaos known as the holiday season is finally over and I have time for an update. I'm at week 8 of Veg due to some setbacks and am dying to flip into 12/12. My concerns are essentially: 1- how long should I wait for GTH to recover prior to flower, and 2- can/should I use GreenCure Fungicide on the lower leaves while in flower? During my last grow I caught on too late so WPM took the entire crop of quite tasty looking/smelling buds with obvious mold on magnification.

#1) The Ghost Train Haze doesn't look particularly happy. She started turning yellow 12d ago so thought she needed some food. I'd figured she was having a nute deficiency so didn't worry about it too much as I was trying to be conservative using the General Organics GO-Box. We were out of town over Xmas so her feeding/watering schedule looked like this: 12/17 - food in 1/4 gal H2O, 12/19 - 1/2 gal H2O, auto-water while out of town 12/21-25 with a gallon H2O+ scraps of a T-shirt, 12/25 - H20 1/4 gal as she was droopy, 12/26 I fed her in 1/4 gal as she was still droopy and again on 12/29. On 12/30 she was still drooping so knew I'd overwatered. I assume in soil it takes her a week to reflect how she has been treated so figured I'd give her another week at the most prior to 12/12. Any recommendations on how long to wait before the flip?

I think she is also showing some effects of unavoidable temps in the low 90s? Lastly, I thought she may be feeling the fan to her L too much so placed a bottle in the way to tone it down a bit. It is already on the lowest setting.

#2) Even with these fans I still have the occasional powdery mildew spot. I'd bought some GreenCure fungicide to spray and let the temps climb to the 90s while allowing the girls to dry out for a couple days. Since then I've sprayed each week though really don't want to keep using it in flower. I've managed to keep the temps high enough to avoid high humidity so hope this plus the fungicide keeps WPM to a minimum.

I'm convinced there is no way to sanitize this room as it is in a basement with a brick foundation. There is plenty of efflorescence on the wall from previous drainage issues so figure it is everywhere. The drainage has been fixed though I don't think there is much beyond spraying the entire room with Kilz to get rid of most of it.




As far as what is going well. I'm quite happy with the supersoil since both the Pak Chitral Kush and Kandy Kush seem pretty happy!

Pak - a clone that survived the previous WPM infestation.

The Kandy is really coming along ahead of the others and I've no worries about a feeding schedule. Certainly I could have done a better job training her as she is a little underpowered in the middle though at this point I'll let it go.

Also, while I've fed the GDP as much as the GTH, she looks great. I really think I overwatered the GTH and hope she comes back well enough to produce something viable.

The entire tent.

 

[NavNurs]

I flipped into 12/12 as I couldn’t wait any longer. Hopefully GTH will come around despite being a bit unwell at the moment. My understanding is they are more fragile in flower so had hoped to see her deep green again before the transition? I also don’t need large quantities, just quality so didn’t want to spend so much time in veg.

Am I missing anything important? Any recommendations or thoughts on this status?

Thanks!

 

[Calvados]

In the past I've found some fungus gnats so that is why there is sand on top of these pots. It is the same simple, cheap sand found at HD used for sand boxes or icy sidewalks and it seems to keep them away. Hopefully there aren't any chemicals that might be harmful to the plants? I used it on my 2nd grow, a killer Deathstar, which turned out pretty good so figured there shouldn't be any problems using it this go round.

Hi. I'm on my 3rd grow. It's fun !! Your plants look great. How do you like your light? I've got the 900.

I had fungus gnats during my second grow. Never again. I'm convinced they were in the medium bag when I bought it. I treated my current grow medium with Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer before I put the plants in. No problem with pests this time.

When I had them last grow I did the 3 prong attack.

Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer is something you can treat your grow medium with to kill the gnats living in it. They are nematodes (microbial roundworms) that are a naturally occurring predator of fungus gnats. They eat the eggs, larva, and babies in your medium. They don't effect the roots at all. I live in the UK. I got it on Amazon. It's not expensive. You mix with water and pour.

I used diatomaceous earth earth instead of sand for the top. It kills anything that walks on the surface by shredding it. It dissipates when you water so you need to repeat it assuming you have pests.

Those yellow strips for the flyers.

I eventually got them under control, but it took a while. Never again.

I suppose sand is sort of like steps one and two. I was using those plastic pots with loads of air holes on the side on my last grow, so they were coming in and out from all over.

Grow looks good. Best of luck.

PS - that temp and humidity tracker is cool

 

[NavNurs]

Thanks! A friend of mine made it and so far I've found it quite useful. As I've mentioned, my last grow ended in failure after watering at night prior to the lights going off. Unfortunately one day last week after work I noticed they were so dry I had to water. With only a couple hours until darkness I was worried about a repeat. Thankfully using "HoekGrow" I was able track it the next day and noted the humidity didn't go over 45% with the lights off. While I don't plan on a repeat, it is reassuring to see the data and anticipate impact from my schedules. He is also working on a battery powered unit that I'm hoping will be done in time to help properly cure the eventual buds. That is as long as I can avoid killing these ladies in the net 10 weeks!

I do have some good news. My Ghost Train Haze (Back of tent) has started producing new growth that looks nice and green!

 

[Calvados]

Keep on plugging. You will get there in the end.

 

[NavNurs]

Hi. I'm on my 3rd grow. It's fun !! Your plants look great. How do you like your light? I've got the 900.

I had fungus gnats during my second grow. Never again. I'm convinced they were in the medium bag when I bought it. I treated my current grow medium with Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer before I put the plants in. No problem with pests this time.

When I had them last grow I did the 3 prong attack.

Nemasys Sciarid Fly Killer is something you can treat your grow medium with to kill the gnats living in it. They are nematodes (microbial roundworms) that are a naturally occurring predator of fungus gnats. They eat the eggs, larva, and babies in your medium. They don't effect the roots at all. I live in the UK. I got it on Amazon. It's not expensive. You mix with water and pour.

I used diatomaceous earth earth instead of sand for the top. It kills anything that walks on the surface by shredding it. It dissipates when you water so you need to repeat it assuming you have pests.

Those yellow strips for the flyers.

I eventually got them under control, but it took a while. Never again.

I suppose sand is sort of like steps one and two. I was using those plastic pots with loads of air holes on the side on my last grow, so they were coming in and out from all over.

Grow looks good. Best of luck.

PS - that temp and humidity tracker is cool

I do like the light, though think 1200 might be too much for a 3x3? My first grow was with a 400 and the buds were rather airy so went bigger. I think it can be tricky with height and believe MARS recs are something like 18" or something though I think that is too close.

This time I've kept it at max height from the beginning and will see if they grow taller. My previous grows never went taller than ?30? inches or so. I understand LEDs are supposed to penetrate well and while I've seen the specs for max par, or whatever units they use for light, measured at various locations/distances from the light and tried to maximize it on grow #2. I just think it was too much when close so either the IR is too strong or maybe the plants weren't inspired to grow very tall if they've got all the light they can handle, I don't really know. I watched an episode of the Grow Boss on youtube where he jokingly dismissed having LEDs that close and guessed the caller's plants prob weren't any taller than 36" or so. My immediate reaction was he had described MY grow and I should try and learn from it.

Lastly, I think the sand is a simple way to kill off the gnats. I've not had any problems since I started using it. I use felt bags though so don't know if airpots would need something else?

 

[NavNurs]

BLUF: the girls are doing well despite the continued WPM leaf here and there.

I sure hope the mildew doesn’t increase as the buds start coming in! I’ve been spraying with a natural fungicide each week though need to do some research to see if/when it would impact the quality of a final product. Not that smoking garlic would be tasty, but I might need something less impactful on the buds once they start filling out.

We have budlets!

Pak Chit Kush

Kandy Kush

Ghost Train Haze - slowly coming back from overwatering.

Grand Daddy Purps

Entire tent

Getting close to needing the second trellis level

 

[NavNurs]

I’m shocked how difficult it seems to be for me to get through a grow without loads of problems. I’d noticed it took more vinegar to get my tap water down to the 6.3-6.8 range (after it sat out for a couple days) though didn’t think too much about it. Well, about 5d ago I noticed they didn’t seem to like the last watering. I was a bit more aggressive in lowering the pH during the previous watering so started thinking about it more. I hadn’t calibrated my probe since I bought it +1 yr ago so figured maybe that was the cause. The GTH was even more yellowed than before and now the Pak Chit Kush was starting to yellow and she has the supersoil so didn’t think it was the nutes. I checked the water before the vinegar this time and it registered 8.4, when it has always been consistently 7.8 so am thinking it may be at least 0.6 off? I’ve got calibration solution coming so today I just used water as it comes from the tap. Hopefully I’ve not killed off the microbes!

The Kandy and GDP both have a couple leaves that look like this so am open to recs as how to go from here. The Kandy has supersoil so don’t think it is a feeding issue?

It prob doesn’t show, though the frost has started on the Kandy!

Pak Chit Kush isn’t too happy, and had 2 weeks less vegtime so is behind the others in size.

GDP seems to be chugging along.

Finally Ghost Train Haze hasn’t died! I’m not sure if she is turning more green, or if the yellow just makes the new growth look that way?

Lastly it seems like maybe the stretch is over, hope I haven’t stunted them too badly.

 

[NavNurs]

I installed a PlatinumLED P300 today in addition to the MARS II 1200, think that is enough for a 3x3 ?

 

[NavNurs]

Well, I guess it was too much? I just spent the last hour covered in resin pinching off all these little fkers. At least the smell has finally started! Hopefully we can hang on long enough to get those tasty buds (without seeds)!

Frost is everywhere.

Well that about does it for the 5th wk of flower update.
Probs so far:
Fungus gnats
Overwatering
pH pen out of calibration = really acidic waterings
Now too much light so removed the Mars 1200.
Next...

 

[NavNurs]

Or, maybe I overlooked the “little” light on top of my tower fan!?!

 

[MrBrownStone]

Dam hermi !!!! had one turn from a strong fan and to much light burn , room had 2 GSC and 2 White Widow\Big Bud seeded everything! gave me a bunch of fem seeds

 

[NavNurs]

That was what I was thinking! The seeds that may result will save me $ in the future. However, there is an added difficulty using seeds vs clones.

 

[MrBrownStone]

I thought of trying a couple of the seeds ( still using clones) to see what characteristics the new seed takes , more stout indica GSC or the Sativa from the WW

 

[NavNurs]

Well, one good thing to come from this, is with the Mars outa the tent I now have a light for vegging! I picked up a “Witches Weed” clone today that was purported to be a Sativa, then read a review saying it is a hybrid with unpredictable effects. Tomorrow I hope to swing by L’eagle and grab a couple more. By the time these plants are done w/flowering the others should be ready to flip to 12:12.

 

[NavNurs]

ChemDawg #4 and Durban P are now hanging out ready to go into some supersoil + FF Ocean Forest this weekend. If only I can find a Chiesel the next run will be GTG. I’ll try to post some pics this weekend of my girls, but I must warn you they are looking rather sad coming down the stretch.