SteveHman's Advanced LED Diamond Series - Lucy & Sage - Grow 6.0 - NFT

[SteveHman]

Strapping in for the ride! At what PPM do you have going for each week running NFT?

I pretty much follow the feeding schedule recommended by CES (I will be using up the rest of my CES on this grow and just BPN in my tent grow). It starts out at ~900ppm for the veg, then ~1,000 for transition and I try to keep the PPM in the 1,000-1,100 for bloom and then the last two weeks back it down to ~600 to finish. I will be posting all of the numbers each week on my Monday updates, and any time I notice a change that merits reporting (wild pH fluctuations and how they're corrected for example).

 

[Propa Gator]

Encore

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

Thanks Maer and Steve for feedback, kinda what i figured. I have a 8 light T5 was thinking i could hang vertically with maybe only two lights running and just be on it with rotating my crops around in the tent. I know a light mover would help but wouldnʻt know how to mount one in the tent plus i can access it almost daily and do rotations. Yah $$$ was the issue the 180w was pretty expensive as is would it have been enough with the 360w or pretty much same issue needing more light to distribute evenly. Since this is my only option how many plants could i grow in my tent???? if i only grew like 1-3 plants would this light do it then since the coverage might cover them all with rotation???? Since kinda new to the tent situation should i just use the t5 lights until ready to flower??? Do i still need the exhaust fan running if just using led with passive air flow from opening screen flaps in tent??? Geez its so much easier to do it out doors dam government why dont they just legalize this stuff rather than have people od on pain pills, ridiculous. anyways, thank you both for positive feedback, kinda wondering if should just run one plant since coverage is so low but would hate to go that far to have a male thats why i start at least 5, lessen my odds, plus use fem seeds although i find the reg seeds to be way stronger and healthier just dont know what you gonna get. thanks again.

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

Steve at what height do you switch to 12/12 with the led?? since i got max height issues, also what height do you start juicing your ppms to 900???? thanks, looking forward to watching this grow report. aloha

 

[Maer]

I pretty much follow the feeding schedule recommended by CES (I will be using up the rest of my CES on this grow and just BPN in my tent grow). It starts out at ~900ppm for the veg, then ~1,000 for transition and I try to keep the PPM in the 1,000-1,100 for bloom and then the last two weeks back it down to ~600 to finish. I will be posting all of the numbers each week on my Monday updates, and any time I notice a change that merits reporting (wild pH fluctuations and how they're corrected for example).

I have been in the 1800s for a couple weeks, on the new leaves I see a little burn on the tips, but some plants have nothing at all. Next grow will be a better indication but do you think cranking your ppms higher would increase your yield or growth rate? Or is it just a waste of nutes?

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

I have been in the 1800s for a couple weeks, on the new leaves I see a little burn on the tips, but some plants have nothing at all. Next grow will be a better indication but do you think cranking your ppms higher would increase your yield or growth rate? Or is it just a waste of nutes?

I donʻt know if i did it a little too early or the strains i had werenʻt strong enough but when i was doing DWC on my deck i was running them around 1200 anymore than that i noticed burn. How big are the plants you are running them at 1800???? Iʻm curious too about yield and growth rate???? Hey Maer if i was able to get another 180w in my 4x4 do you think i could pull off a good yield??? 3 is a bit much on $$$$$ even 2 is $$$$$ might be able to swing it later this month or next month. I still gotta exhaust vent yah? $$ issue no dispensaries here, the bill got shot down last session, pretty sad i was looking forward to trying at it, sad when our state was the first to legalize it for med use then they let the police run it, kinda ironic.

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

I'll be going for an all-out yield on the grow starting next week in the tent with air-pots and 1,000 watts of Diamond Series intensity. This grow is a test of sorts, but also going for yield. I haven't dialed in the proper height for the DS lights, the last test was with the Extreme Flower lights. The DS have more penetration and a more intense light. So I'm thinking they will need to be a few inches higher than the Extreme Flower units. I will get the heights worked out and posted once the stretch is done. I'll flip them to 12/12 next week, so about three weeks later they should be done stretching.

Steve, with that much watts what is the tent temp??? i am curious because i was running 85 with the T5s but that was in summer the only time i tried the tent, plus i had my exhaust plumbing in a kinds of angles. My garden shop guy told me run it straight to keep heat down, but havenʻt set up since. Now that its becoming winter time our temps here get around 78-82 during day and upper 60s for nite, gonna just be doing an exhaust straight out window and open flaps on bottom to bring in air. Are you using an ac??? my friends had an ac running on their plants and they looked great but the electricity and heat issues were my main concern.

ps. went on a trip during that time and friend didnʻt water until 3 days after i left, he didnʻt have the heart to tell me they all died and shriveled up, had 7 healthy babies that didnʻt seem to mind the 85 degrees

 

[Mr Smith]

I am definately subbed. Steve, I have about 3 to 4 years experience with the aeroflo so if you ever have a question, I would do my best to answer. I own a 36 and a 60 unit and have grown them small and grown them big. For 1 year I even combined the 2 systems but the room was hard to work with at the time. The coco cups will develope some white residue but that is harmless. I found that its best to keep the water a lil higher over the bottom of the cup to get a good root penetration then lower to where your comfortable at. The cocoa cups are thick and takes a lil longer for the roots to penetrate.
Good luck, I am pretty hyped to see you do a aeroflo grow. I am already into a week in flower with the darkstar sog in the 36.

 

[Mr. Krip]

I'm back for another, Bro! Looks like you're off to a great start!

 

[420GodsTrichome]

subbed in, will be in lurking as my schedule permits buddy.
great job cloning, this is the only method i use, and see no need to deviate, the results are always 99-100% if done right.
GT

 

[SteveHman]

Steve at what height do you switch to 12/12 with the led?? since i got max height issues, also what height do you start juicing your ppms to 900???? thanks, looking forward to watching this grow report. aloha

Kola, I have a target height of 24 inches max, so I factor in the 2~3x stretch and then flip the lights to 12/12. I typically start off with clones that have been in my ezcloner for 2~3 weeks total time and are already at the 6 inch height and have been topped/FIM'd already, so they go straight into 12/12 from the cloner--no veg time in the bloom box. With these clones I will let them veg for about a week until they're at 6 inches tall and have a some roots penetrating the coco cups.

I have been in the 1800s for a couple weeks, on the new leaves I see a little burn on the tips, but some plants have nothing at all. Next grow will be a better indication but do you think cranking your ppms higher would increase your yield or growth rate? Or is it just a waste of nutes?

Is that 1800 with RO or tap water? If I was using my tap water (which is 450+) I would be close to that. I use RO and try to stay below 1100. I think anything over that is wasting nutes. I also only do a partial res change every two weeks. I will check PPMs every few days in between and top up the nutes as needed. I keep a constant level of nutes with a top-off res that has a float valve in the main res (I know you already know all this, but am repeating for new member).

The reason I do partial nute changes are that the plants don't use up every thing in the res, there is still a lot of usable nutes in there. Also, I want a gradual shift from a veg-transition-bloom-max bloom mix. By removing half of the nutes every stage, and then replacing them with the next level in the cycle I get that slow transition which IMO reduces stress on the plant. And lastly, the CES nutes are so clean there is no salt build-up in the res, nothing precipitates out of solution. I will be trying BPN on the next NFT grow once I'm out of CES, I hope to have similar results with BPN.

Steve, with that much watts what is the tent temp??? i am curious because i was running 85 with the T5s but that was in summer the only time i tried the tent, plus i had my exhaust plumbing in a kinds of angles. My garden shop guy told me run it straight to keep heat down, but havenʻt set up since. Now that its becoming winter time our temps here get around 78-82 during day and upper 60s for nite, gonna just be doing an exhaust straight out window and open flaps on bottom to bring in air. Are you using an ac??? my friends had an ac running on their plants and they looked great but the electricity and heat issues were my main concern.

ps. went on a trip during that time and friend didnʻt water until 3 days after i left, he didnʻt have the heart to tell me they all died and shriveled up, had 7 healthy babies that didnʻt seem to mind the 85 degrees

I put up a graphic back in Grow 5.1, I can't remember which post it was, but it illustrated the temps in the tent taken at several locations with a laser thermometer. My ambient room temps were in the low 80s (I hate paying for AC, so I have ceiling fans in every room, only ran the AC three days this summer). My grow tent never was more than 3~4 degrees above the house temp. I also have very little air movement in the tent because I was using CO2. I will have even less air movement next grow, high temps have not been an issue and if they ever spiked up a little I would just increase my exhaust fan a little--problem solved.

I am definately subbed. Steve, I have about 3 to 4 years experience with the aeroflo so if you ever have a question, I would do my best to answer. I own a 36 and a 60 unit and have grown them small and grown them big. For 1 year I even combined the 2 systems but the room was hard to work with at the time. The coco cups will develope some white residue but that is harmless. I found that its best to keep the water a lil higher over the bottom of the cup to get a good root penetration then lower to where your comfortable at. The cocoa cups are thick and takes a lil longer for the roots to penetrate.
Good luck, I am pretty hyped to see you do a aeroflo grow. I am already into a week in flower with the darkstar sog in the 36.

I have the coco-cups about 1/4-1/2 inch in the nutes to keep them moist, they should wick up enough water to keep the roots happy. I already have the white residue showing on the cups, I figure it is cal that has settled out of solution on the substrate.

This is my third grow in this system, it is doing great so far. I am considering doing a small modification to it. What do you think of adding a full-flow feed line to the rear of each chamber (1 inch PVC), to increase flow for the mid-to-late stages? I would place a valve to control the flow rate. I think having a higher flow rate along with the laser lines adding the aeration to the surface of the nutes would be a win-win. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.

I'm back for another, Bro! Looks like you're off to a great start!

subbed in, will be in lurking as my schedule permits buddy.
great job cloning, this is the only method i use, and see no need to deviate, the results are always 99-100% if done right.
GT

No complaints on the cloning process. The only advantage I see with the ez cloner is they tend to be bigger, faster. Also they can go directly into the netcups and into the NFT.

I think I will use both methods for future cloning, there are circumstances where each has its benefits.

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

I am definately subbed. Steve, I have about 3 to 4 years experience with the aeroflo so if you ever have a question, I would do my best to answer. I own a 36 and a 60 unit and have grown them small and grown them big. For 1 year I even combined the 2 systems but the room was hard to work with at the time. The coco cups will develope some white residue but that is harmless. I found that its best to keep the water a lil higher over the bottom of the cup to get a good root penetration then lower to where your comfortable at. The cocoa cups are thick and takes a lil longer for the roots to penetrate.
Good luck, I am pretty hyped to see you do a aeroflo grow. I am already into a week in flower with the darkstar sog in the 36.

Mr. Smith,

Please tell me the smoke experience with the darkstar. That was my last grow and was the best i had outdoors. Had it growing at partners house since sun was better there, was about to harvest, then thieves stole it, chopped it right down to the dirt. Really bummed, wonder what toke was like.

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

Kola, I have a target height of 24 inches max, so I factor in the 2~3x stretch and then flip the lights to 12/12. I typically start off with clones that have been in my ezcloner for 2~3 weeks total time and are already at the 6 inch height and have been topped/FIM'd already, so they go straight into 12/12 from the cloner--no veg time in the bloom box. With these clones I will let them veg for about a week until they're at 6 inches tall and have a some roots penetrating the coco cups.



Is that 1800 with RO or tap water? If I was using my tap water (which is 450+) I would be close to that. I use RO and try to stay below 1100. I think anything over that is wasting nutes. I also only do a partial res change every two weeks. I will check PPMs every few days in between and top up the nutes as needed. I keep a constant level of nutes with a top-off res that has a float valve in the main res (I know you already know all this, but am repeating for new member).

The reason I do partial nute changes are that the plants don't use up every thing in the res, there is still a lot of usable nutes in there. Also, I want a gradual shift from a veg-transition-bloom-max bloom mix. By removing half of the nutes every stage, and then replacing them with the next level in the cycle I get that slow transition which IMO reduces stress on the plant. And lastly, the CES nutes are so clean there is no salt build-up in the res, nothing precipitates out of solution. I will be trying BPN on the next NFT grow once I'm out of CES, I hope to have similar results with BPN.


I put up a graphic back in Grow 5.1, I can't remember which post it was, but it illustrated the temps in the tent taken at several locations with a laser thermometer. My ambient room temps were in the low 80s (I hate paying for AC, so I have ceiling fans in every room, only ran the AC three days this summer). My grow tent never was more than 3~4 degrees above the house temp. I also have very little air movement in the tent because I was using CO2. I will have even less air movement next grow, high temps have not been an issue and if they ever spiked up a little I would just increase my exhaust fan a little--problem solved.



I have the coco-cups about 1/4-1/2 inch in the nutes to keep them moist, they should wick up enough water to keep the roots happy. I already have the white residue showing on the cups, I figure it is cal that has settled out of solution on the substrate.

This is my third grow in this system, it is doing great so far. I am considering doing a small modification to it. What do you think of adding a full-flow feed line to the rear of each chamber (1 inch PVC), to increase flow for the mid-to-late stages? I would place a valve to control the flow rate. I think having a higher flow rate along with the laser lines adding the aeration to the surface of the nutes would be a win-win. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.



No complaints on the cloning process. The only advantage I see with the ez cloner is they tend to be bigger, faster. Also they can go directly into the netcups and into the NFT.

I think I will use both methods for future cloning, there are circumstances where each has its benefits.

Steve,

Thank you very much. Looking forward to your pics

 

[Maer]

I have CES in my MMJ grow and BPN in my garden grow. The CES micro is much darker red, which leave the res water a blood red color, the BPN despite higher ppms is lighter in color. I don't know exactly what it is that makes micro red, but maybe its just more dye?

I use evaporative cooling with the HEPA blowing over the res so with the air stones some salts are deposited on the sides of the res, both res's have this. Neither res has any below water level deposits.

I will dial back the ppms and see what happens. I need to put a checkerboard behind my plants like you did last grow, and level out the time lapse cam so it is a legit measure of growth. This would let me get some more quantitative data from the cam.

 

[Mr Smith]

I won't know for 10 weeks Kola Bear but Steve will soon enough.

Steve,
If you do the the mod, let me know how it works out. I won't modify mine because I one day plan to sell them in the future and these machines were expensive. You would need a second pump but it would work, not sure if it would make a big difference, only a test grow would be able to tell. Becareful with the sage, she's a super stretcher, even when I put clones straight to flower they grew 3 foot but that was with lil to no pruning.

 

[paw-paw]

i'm in!

 

[SteveHman]

I won't know for 10 weeks Kola Bear but Steve will soon enough.

Steve,
If you do the the mod, let me know how it works out. I won't modify mine because I one day plan to sell them in the future and these machines were expensive. You would need a second pump but it would work, not sure if it would make a big difference, only a test grow would be able to tell. Becareful with the sage, she's a super stretcher, even when I put clones straight to flower they grew 3 foot but that was with lil to no pruning.

I picked mine up on craigslist cheap, and found that I can actually build the chambers to my own specs using GH's laserlines ($10) and grommets ($4 per chamber), the chamber itself is standard square vinyl fence-post and end-caps that can be picked up at HD for $28 for an eight foot section. I don't mind making a few mods to them, they've already paid for themselves.

I won't need an additional pump since I am using that external pump that puts out 1100 gph, I already have a three-way manifold on it and the third output is unused at present, just need to add a length of PVC pipe and then run it to the back of the chambers, easy fix.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Sage, I may flip them early if they are massive stretchers, I was just waiting for the roots to shoot out the bottom of the cups.

 

[Berry Bongtrip]

Again yet another question. I canʻt really set up my tent until after the holidays since we will have people at the house for parties. I have two in the dome starting out. I actually put them under the 180w led in the bathroom to see what happens, just straight on the floor. You think they will do ok??? planning on just growing them to about 12+ inches then putting them in a big 7 gal pot outside and seeing what happens, then after holidays try the tent and get serious. i have one right now that is about 8 inches tall, a seed i knew nothing about but i think its a male.

Steve if i were to grab another 180w do you think i could pull it off with the tent i have. Also would you recommend BPN for soil.

 

[mises890]

Well, it looks like I cannot reply to a pm you sent me. So, I'll post my questions on here if that is O.K. Feel free to respond however you would like. And, I apologize ahead of time if you have already discussed the answers to these questions somewhere in your journals; I've done my best to research this. Here they are:
My questions that I have are about hiding/masking marijuana smell. I know that some solutions to the problem of smell are onagel, ozone generation/manipulation, and getting a charcoal/carbon filter (things you suggest in other journals/threads). I plan to have an inline fan and filter, but I was wondering how effective it is in masking/hiding the smell. To be more specific, I have listed my questions below:

1. How effective is a charcoal/carbon filter? That is, if I were to breathe/smell the filtered air blown/vented from the filter from an inline fan, would I be able to smell marijuana (disregarding strain smell differences)?

2. You mention in a post that you vent through your roof, and I've read in another post that you need to vent 3-4 stories above the sidewalk for passersby not to smell the marijuana in the filtered air. I was wondering how far above the sidewalk a roof/chimney vent venting filtered air would need to be for there to be no chance that anyone walking in my neighborhood/within 100 yards of my house of would smell marijuana in the filtered air?

 

[fncg]

Subscribed. Good to see the low-dollar cloning approach, now that I've spent all the money to build myself a DIY aero-cloner.

Edit: and now three pages in, I haven't even started my first grow and I'm already mentally planning 2.0 and beyond.