TurboKITTYs Newbie - 4x2x4 DIY - CFL & LED - 2 x Sour Diesel In Coco & Perlite

[turboKITTY]

What strain is it? - Sour Diesel (crop king seeds)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? - sativa hybrid
What percentages? - 18.50%
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? - Veg
If in Veg... For how long? - germ Sunday Sept 12, sprouted Sept 16
If in Flower stage... For how long? - N/A
Indoor or outdoor? - Indoor
Soil or Hydro? - 70% coco coir and 30% perlite
What size pot? - solo cup > 6 inch > 12 inch > 5 gal
Size of light? - Homemade CFL ballast (x22 23W 6500k CFL bulbs + 1 unknown wattage/lumen rating LED bulb (custom made for a forgetful friend by a hydroponics store a year ago)
Is it aircooled? - Yes, 3 CPU fans as exhaust and 2 circulating fans as well as 6 passive intakes along the bottom.
Temp of Room/cab? - 71-75°F
RH of Room/cab? - 38%
PH of media or res? - 5.8
Any Pests ? None yet


Hey thanks for stopping in.

This is technically our second grow because our first batch of seeds were really mediocre (free low CBD, no THC seeds) and we decided to scrap the grow and start some sour diesel. We are growing to cut costs on meds.

Hope to learn and share with the community and maybe someone else can learn from this as well. Any help is appreciated and any criticism is welcome.

The box we are using for veg is a 4Hx2Wx4L homemade from scraps found in a garage. For flowering we will be ordering a tent.

We have a home made ballast with about 20ish 23W CFL's and an LED light gifted by a friend who quit growing and we have no specifications for it, but it's bright. They are all plugged into power bars with hardware from Home Depot.


For cooling we have 3 120mm fans set to exhaust along the top sides of the box (Pictures below) as well as numerous passive intakes along the bottom of the box. There are two 6inch clip on fans on either end of the light ballat, blowing on the bulbs to try and cool them and reduce temps.

For our medium we are going to use Canna Coco and Perlite 70/30 mix and we have a nice set of wide spectrum nutrients from our local hydro store along with a bottle of CalMag.

We are planning on starting with solo cups going up to 10inch pots or maybe 6 then 10 and finishing in 5 gallon pots.

We just started germinating the seeds Sept 12, once they pop we will get them in solo cups with our medium mixture which has been watered and runoff tested with 5.7-5.8ish pH water in preparation for the seedlings. We won't start nutrients until the first set of true leaves come in we don't think.

Right now the temps inside the box are about 81-83°F according to the mercury thermometer however a digital thermometer/humidity meter will be here soon along with a more accurate pH reading method.

We would like to lower the temps inside the box before we use it and we've been messing around inside with the clip on fans for a hour now and we can't seem to get the temps to lower

Thanks in advance for any help and nice to meet you all.
Temps outside dropped a bit so we're sitting around 75F inside the box which is okay for us. We removed a bunch of bulbs in preparation for the seedlings. They have been placed a 1/4 inch down into the medium using solo cups after soaking for 32 hours in a shot glass of water. There are currently 8 23w 5000k bulbs and the unknown specification LED bulb. It doesn't feel too hot over top of the solo cups at all so we think they are good on heat. The coco is still very moist at the top, will keep an eye on it over the next few hours to make sure it doesn't need a spray or small soak. We don't want the precious seedlings to dry out


We ended up using 4 CFLs and the LED until they broke free and then went full force. It started getting really hot inside the box again (90° and more) so it was moved to a lower location inside the house to obtain a more optimal temperature. The temps now are around 71-75 which we think is a lot better.

We have been checking the soil daily to make sure it stays relatively moist and have been feeding them 1/4 nutrients at a pH of 5.8. Tomorrow when it's time to feed, we were thinking of just using straight water, no nutrients to give it a bit of a flush and then back onto 1/4 strength for a week or so.

pH meter and digital humidity meter came in on Friday so we are no longer using strips.

How important is it to measure the EC/ppm? We don't have a meter for that at the moment.

Here are some photos so far.

SEEDS

BOX w/ LIGHTS

Sept 16

Sept 17+18

Sept 19

Again, anyone ever seen that LED light before?
I'll try and keep updated as often as possible.

 

[420bears]

re: TurboKITTYs Newbie - 4x2x4 DIY - CFL & LED - 2 x Sour Diesel In Coco & Perlite

Looks great

Sent from my X9009 using 420

 

[turboKITTY]

It looks like this afternoon that the seedlings are not doing to good. They have begun developing some kind of yellowing on the tips of their leaves and there is a small brown spot on the edge of one of them as well. They seem like they are a bit lighter green than usual. I have been feeding small amounts of 1/4 strength nutrients for the past 3-4 feedings. I will be taking out some lights and just using the led and a few CFLs and I might stop feeding nutrients for a week or so and do a small flush.. any ideas?

 

[turboKITTY]

Hey readers, so we ended up doing the flush and the seedlings continued to deteriorate. They started clawing down and had really purple stems and the under sides of the leaves were purple so in a last ditch effort to save them, about 24 hours ago we mixed in 0.3ml/L of nutrients and 0.3ml/L of CalMax, pH'd down to 5.5-5.8 and each seedling was given half a litre, testing the runoff at about 340 ppm, our tap water comes out at around 250ish ppm if that helps anyone.

Here are the plants from the past couple days leading up to right now. they have seemed to totally turn around and are starting to grow new sets of leaves. I definitely stunted the growth though, however I'm not sure exactly but i probabaly should of waited to hit them with nutrients lol.


Before last round of nutrients, after regular pH'd water

After 24 hours with last round.

We haven't set up a proper feeding schedule as the nutrients we are using aren't available anywhere else in the world other than the local hydro store.

Those are the specifications on the nutrients.. if anyone could help some newbies set up a half ass feeding schedule it would be greatly appreciated

.

 

[Myxomatosis]

Hey there! Nice setup, Im also growing crop king, never seen those nutrients bu seem to be a 3 part complement, just like General Hydroponics 3 part nutes, if i was you I'd probably go for lucas formula with these instead.

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[turboKITTY]

Hey there! Nice setup, Im also growing crop king, never seen those nutrients bu seem to be a 3 part complement, just like General Hydroponics 3 part nutes, if i was you I'd probably go for lucas formula with these instead.

Sent from my SM-J700M using 420 Magazine Mobile App

Thanks! I'm really digging your moving light thing you crafted. I'll go take a look at the ingredients/percentages of the GH 3 part you mentioned and see if there are any similarities.. didn't even think of that.

 

[turboKITTY]

It looks like we have some unwanted visitors early this morning. Taking a close look, I have noticed these little bastards buzzing around.

Only seen 3-4 of them but the bottom of the grow area has about a dozen or so dead..

I am thinking they are fungus gnats but have also learned about root aphids and how they can look similar to gnats.. is anyone able to identify these buggers between the two with the photos I provided?

 

[Stinky Snid]

Hi turbokitty, can't help you with that bug but the led par light you have is effective enough to validate it's use. That's one hell of a cluster of cfls... I'm impressed! The yellowing tips are nute burn, these seedling sprouts don't need any nutes until their cotyledon start to lose their green hue. Usually at about two weeks you can't start them on 1/4 strength nutes, before then I add a couple drops of g/m/B with my roots expander solutions only, for at least the first week. Also presoaking your pots with a mild nute solution before plants go in is another possible way to introduce nutes early on. Don't fret about too much they're super young and will recover soon, just watch your feedings and maybe think about feed water feed schedule or something along those lines. Other than that you're looking great kitty, keep up the good updates... I'm enjoying it already.

KiG cheers

 

[turboKITTY]

Hi turbokitty, can't help you with that bug but the led par light you have is effective enough to validate it's use. That's one hell of a cluster of cfls... I'm impressed! The yellowing tips are nute burn, these seedling sprouts don't need any nutes until their cotyledon start to lose their green hue. Usually at about two weeks you can't start them on 1/4 strength nutes, before then I add a couple drops of g/m/B with my roots expander solutions only, for at least the first week. Also presoaking your pots with a mild nute solution before plants go in is another possible way to introduce nutes early on. Don't fret about too much they're super young and will recover soon, just watch your feedings and maybe think about feed water feed schedule or something along those lines. Other than that you're looking great kitty, keep up the good updates... I'm enjoying it already.

KiG cheers

Thank you so much for popping in to check things out and spread knowledge to the newbies yeah, a lot of CFLs I know haha. It's hard to keep the temps below 80F with them all on.. had to bring the box down to the basement. The last feeding I gave it during the purple stems and clawing down leaves was the 0.3ml/l of nutrients and calmax and they seemed to love it and I have to go water them today and I may just water with ph and no nutes. thank you for the input about the led light. I have a similar one he gave me as well that emits a black light and I think he said it is UVA/UVB but I'm scared to use it.

OUR FIRST AND CURRENT GROW

 

[turboKITTY]

Hey all, here's a quick update.

These photos were taken today

They seem to be growing steadily now.. no problems other than a bit of calcium deficiency on one leaf. Just upped the CalMax and nutrients to 0.5ml/l and feeding each plant with a half litre drain to waste.

OUR FIRST AND CURRENT GROW

 

[Stinky Snid]

Small tip... You should stir up the surface soil to prevent that green algae from forming. It's a combination of moisture and light creating that. Just gently rake it with your fingers daily, there's no roots to bother so don't worry about that. Plus it helps to allow water to evenly soak in when you are watering them. Just stopping in to see how your doing, keep up the good work and...

KiG cheers

 

[turboKITTY]

Thank you. Once I transplant into the final pot I think I will use some sand to top the plants to help with any gnats.

Here are the two ladies today.. I have noticed that the leaves are starting to taco up and are starting to look gnarled and deformed.

I have been feeding about 0.8ml/l of nutrients and the same for calmax.. the plants don't seem to be to close to the lights.

Temps are below 81F and RH is around 40%

I might do a flush and lower the nutrient strength.. any ideas..?

Here's some photos.

 

[Stinky Snid]

84 is a little warm, they probably don't have the tacoing symptom all day. Higher temp coupled with low Humidity will make them taco slightly. It doesn't look that bad though, the tips aren't completely rigid facing up. Keep the fans blowing and they'll work they're way past this. They'll become more resilient and able to cope better. No need to flush is what I'm trying to say

KiG cheers

 

[turboKITTY]

Thanks for the input, I have raised the RH from 30%ish to 45-56% with bowls and cups of water.. want to try and raise it more so I might ditch one of the 3 exhaust fans. Temps usually sit around 75-79F, I accidentally had one of the fans off during that photo.

I did some defoliation and low stress training to maximize the yield. I learned to do this from a post on these forums, I forget who posted it but I can get that info later.

Got a bit worried with the deformed looking growth and cut back nutrients to 0.35 ml / L and 0.7 ml / L cal max.. I'm going to be feeding short feedings once or twice a day, a half a litre each plant and up the intake of nutrients each week until I see burn on the tips and then lower nutrients again.

Snidra, I have attached a photo of my calmax solutions contents. It says to use 5ml per 4 L of water.. do you think 0.8 ml / L is too much?

Hope everyone has an awesome Canadian Thanksgiving!

Cheers.

OUR FIRST AND CURRENT GROW

 

[415friendly]

To raise humidity, I bought some cheap plastic waste buckets from the dollar store and filled a third full with water, then used clothes pegs to dangle some absorbent towels/rags into the buckets. The increases the surface area for moisture evaporation vertically and the rags don't fall into the bucket.

I don't know if I would reduce your nutrients; I don't see any signs of nute burn and your plants don't really look deformed to me.

 

[turboKITTY]

I'll try and get some towels or paper towels in with the bowls and cups of water similar to what you mentioned. Thank you very much

Such a newb when it comes to feeding schedules, I will put them back up to 8ml/l in a few hours..

OUR FIRST AND CURRENT GROW

 

[415friendly]

Sorry, I didn't mean paper towels when I said absorbent...I meant some kind of fabric that really soaks water well; my dishcloths, for example, really seem to wick water well.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Hi again Turbokitty, I'd go 1/2 ml per litre to start. By my estimate you'll need at least 3 litres total to water both plants to achieve sufficient runoff. (I'm not a coco guy though) to make it easier to measure just make 2ml into 4 litres.. And any extra can be diluted and used as foliar feed. If your asking me...
Did you find a link for the training information? I'd like to gleen some ideas for my tutorials.

KiG cheers

 

[turboKITTY]

Quick update and some help needed if anyone has any knowledge on ballasts.

Had to move the girls upstairs because they were sitting next to the furnace downstairs sucking in heat. New setup is temporary, were in the process of getting a tent.

Ive transplanted them into their final 5 gal pots this morning and did a bit more defoliating and training.. I will post some close up photos tomorrow.

I have been keeping them on a 1/2 ml / L feeding schedule and after transplanting into 5gal pots, I watered with 2 litres of water each plant and I received zero run off. I think I'll feed them 2L each again tomorrow to see if I can achieve runoff.. maybe the new coco in the pot sucked it all up.

I was gifted a ballast and hood from a friend. It is supposed to be a 600w HPS ballast but I'm not exactly sure what the deal is. I am ordering a 600w HPS bulb tomorrow to test it all out but here are some pictures and a short video of some information I found inside the ballast.

I think the ballast looks really old or maybe homemade, not exactly sure. Would this ballast be safe to use? Can I use 600w MH with it?

turboKITTY - 420 Magazine(15010340) on Vimeo

 

[Stinky Snid]

The ballast itself is inside that box, you should be able to open it up to get a better look. It looks legit to me for 600w hps from what I read in the video, but as for the safety of it I could not venture there. It needs to be tested by someone who know what they're doing, I am not one of those when it comes to ballasts. Hope you can get an answer soon... Have you posted in the topic specific forum, Grow lighting threadsor the FAQs. Good luck, a 600w hps would be great for flowering time, but you'll need some good ventilation both in and out.

KiG cheers