New Year - New Hydro Grow - 2016

[sciguy]

So here we are already a few weeks into the new year. Sorry for not posting any grows in a couple months but things have been hectic as hell. I finished up my white widow grow back in the first week of December and wow did that bud turn out beautifully. Now I am at it again but this time with a vengeance.

This Time around I am changing it up, I'm going to attempt to grow out 3 new strains that I personally have never grown out before.

Ultimate Purple from BC BUD DEPOT

Green Crack from Humboldt Seeds

Blue Lemon Thai from CH9 Seeds


I spent a few grows specifically growing white widow to learn the strain and what it needs to grow, what it likes and dislikes and basically just what all I could do with that plant. These strains have been sitting in my seed collection for almost a year and now its time to grow them out. If anyone has ever grown these strains before please lend me some advice on what these ladies like and don't like.

As for the grow setup this is what I have and will be ordering:

1 - 4ftx4ftx6.5ft grow tent
1- carbon filter
1- inline fan 276CFM
3- 3.5 gallon bubble buckets
1- air pump and all air lines
3- AIT air injectors for the bubble buckets
Grodan grow cubes
Hydroton
PH pen
PPM pen
FLORAMICRO, FLORAGRO, FLORABLOOM, CALMAG, Sweet, H2O2
2- 300watt LED light panels, 150 actual watts each
1- 180watt UFO LED panel, 100 actual watts
2- 600 watt LED light panels, 360 actual watts each, these are about to be ordered and should arrive right after I start the seeds.

So to sum it up, I will be growing via DWC, using full spectrum LED lights. The last grows light wattage was, 780watts stated, 400 actual. This time around it will be 1980watts stated, and 1120 actual watts. Cant wait to see the difference. That should produce around 2x the yield as last grow.

I plan on just using LST and some topping and or fimming depending on how the plants look. If anyone has grown these strains before and can tell me what to watch out for it would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for tips for example, like the white widow, it is a calmag hog, I figured out that if you keep her happy with calmag while shes growing especially during veg, she tends to not have a majority of deficiency issues. I found that a lot of deficiencies showing up in the white widow were actually directly related to its calcium and magnesium uptake and availability. So any info on these strains like that would be greatly appreciated. Also some yields that you guys have had growing these strains. That way I can get a better idea of what I have going on.

Secondly I have a little side project. I have around 15 or 16 regular seeds that is of a strain made in Canada. The breeder sent me the seeds in the mail. I would love to grow this strain out but since they are regular seeds and all my others are feminized I don't want to mix them. I do have another grow box, but that would mean taking out a light from the other seeds grow tent, and putting it in the smaller grow box until I can see what sex they plants are and then take a cutting from a female plant. Is there an easier way or am I about right on what I need to do to get a female from those regular seeds that I have?

I am still waiting on a apartment inspection before I set the tent back up, but once I do set it up I will be posting pics daily.

 

[Islandgrow]

Hi will be following with keen interest loved your last thread

 

[sciguy]

Thanks for following I'm glad you liked the last grow adventure, this one should be interesting.

So heres an update as to what has been going on with the grow. Over the weekend I have been waiting for my apartment complex to come do a safety inspection, which is suppose to include them changing out the batteries on my smoke detectors. Hopefully today they will come and do what they need to do. After this inspection is done I wont have any prying eyes into my apartment so that I can setup my grow tent and lights and CO2 system without worrying about being evicted. My state allows me to grow my own medicine, but my apartment complex will evict if your caught growing marijuana. But for some reason tomatoes and other plants are ok to grow, even indoors.

I have ordered 1 of the 600 watt panels and it will arrive Friday. I also ordered some more ratcheting hangars so I can hang the light with them. The other panel will get ordered either after payday or after tax return whichever comes sooner. I also picked up an XL Exhale bag to use as my CO2 system. If 1 large bag did a good job in a 4ftx4ft grow tent, then hopefully an XL bag will do even better.

As for the seeds, I have already germinated them, and planted them into rockwool cubes, the cubes were put into my cloner box with a Mars Hydro 180watt UFO LED light. They were placed into the cloner box on 2/7/2016 at 12pm. Today the seeds still have not sprouted out of the rockwool cubes, they look like they want to. I may have to do some seed surgery to remove some helmets, I don't think I planted the seeds far enough down into the rockwool this time.

In all fairness Ive been growing perpetually with my own monster cropped clones and haven't had to grow from seed in awhile so Ive been a little out of practice lol. I have also mixed up which seed is which, so i wont be able to find out which strain is what until later on in flower when I can smell the ladies, each one of them has a different smell and flavor than the others and I plan on using the smells to determine which plant is what strain.

If by tomorrow the seeds have not sprouted and I don't see cotyledons I will be going after some helmets with tweezers.

After the inspection is done I will be setting up the tent and taking pics of the tent with the lights I currently have and the cloner box. I will then start updating with pics hopefully daily.

Thanks everyone for hanging on and sticking around. Things will get going here real soon!

 

[sciguy]

Ok so its been a few days and quite a few things have happened. First and foremost, I ordered both of the 600 watt full spectrum led light panels. Their actual power draw is 365 each from the wall. I also ordered a new TDS pen and some more ratcheting hangars for my lights.

After ordering my lights I started to germinate my seeds. I germinated 3 strains, Ultimate Purple, Blue Lemon Thai, and Green Crack. After 24 hours all 3 beans popped open and had little taproots. I then placed the seeds into 1.5in rockwool cubes and placed them inside my cloner box.

After 2 days in the cloner box I had to pull the helmet off of the Blue Lemon Thai and it eventually died. That left me with just the Ultimate Purple and the Green Crack. So I decided I needed to do a couple of things. First I ordered more seeds online through Bonza seeds, I fully took advantage of their February promotion. And secondly I had some regular seeds that were sent to me by another member from here on 420magazine.com. His name is Ottawa Green and he called them Thunder Paws, I'm not sure of half of the genetics but I do know that one of its parents is jacks smack I just cant remember what it was crossed with. So I took 4 of the regular seeds that he sent me and germinated them as well. I picked the darkest seeds I had in the bag that were full of striped lines. 48 hours later they popped and had long taproots and were placed into the cloner. As of this morning before turning the lights off for 6 hours I checked on the seeds and they are already pushing through the rockwool the seeds are split open and the cotyledons are all trying to come out to the surface. Hopefully after the night period they will be through.

The plan with the 4 regular seeds is to keep them growing in the cloner box until I can determine sex then transplant or take a clone from the female and trash the rest, or keep a male for breeding if I get any. For all I know I could wind up with 4 females.

I received the lights yesterday in the mail, I hung up the 2 600watt panels and 1 of the 300 watt panels in the tent. I then took the ultimate purple seedling out of the cloner box and put it into a 4in rockwool block. I cut the edges off of the 1.5in cube to turn it into a circular plug that fits right into the block. I do this before I even put seeds in it. I then put the grow block into a grow bucket, added 2 gallons of RO water, 2ml of FLORAMICRO, 1ml of FLORAGRO, 1ml of FLORABLOOM, 3ml of CALMAG+, and .5ml of rapid start. I then put the grow bucket and set it up in the tent under the lights.

Here is what the lights look like in the tent

Heres the ultimate purple seedling under the led lights

Now last night after turning everything on, I ran into a few issues that maybe some people on 420 can help me out with. A few things are easy to fix but others I'm at a complete loss. Well first off I ran out of ratcheting hangars so I couldn't hang my other 300 watt panel in the tent or hang my CO2 bag. ( before I have people telling me that they don't work, yes they do, I have been using them for over a year and have seen and measured the increase in yield, vigor, structure, and potency) now this is an easy fix, tomorrow I'm buying more hangars from the hydro store and for now I am keeping the CO2 bag elevated on a chair to keep the bag above plant level. The next 2 challenges go hand in hand. Temperature. So with 3 lights running I was running at really high temperatures between 90F and 93F. I know that with CO2 i can run at higher temps, but the problem was that my bubble bucket water was also getting heated up, to the point where it was warm. In the mean time, I added ice packs to the bucket water as I turned the lights off so the water can chill in darkness. I added H2O2 to the bucket water to kill any bacteria or anything that can cause root rot. But there has to be a way to keep the temps down in the bucket without either A. Having to continually change out ice packs, or B. Have to buy an expensive ass water chiller that wont even work for my setup. So I'm not even really including that as an option. Anyone have any ideas?

In a week or so I should receive my seed order from Bonza, it includes, all feminized

2 x Green House Seeds Big Bang 2 x Grand Daddy Purp Original GDP
1 x DNA Grow Your Own White Alien 18
2 x Moxie Viper Cookies
1 x Free: Blue Amnesia Auto
1 x Free: 8 Ball Kush
1 x Free: Auto White Widow
1 x Free: SuperCheese
1 x Free: Skunk #1
2 x BC Bud Depot Ultimate Purple


Once they arrive I will also be popping a viper cookies in the tent. Just incase I don't get any females from the regular seeds.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I just wanted to keep everyone up to date and caught up on whats going on with the grow, tomorrow I will be getting more hangars to hang the other light and the bag up, I will also be transplanting the green crack into the grow tent as well. I will update with pics tonight and tomorrow.

 

[skunkpilot]

To keep the hydro temps down, you could pickup from craigslist or something similar a small dorm fridge, drill two holes in the side, add some copper tubing inside and you have a small chiller. Love all that LED purple.

 

[sciguy]

How will that work when I don't have a res to pump cold water to. Or do I need a fridge per bucket. I don't use a fill and drain system. The only thing that goes in my bucket is the airline that is connected to the airstone.

 

[VladimirPutin]

What's Up , I'm down for the show.

This is the part before the stage is set for huge buds. So I will go get some beer and refreshments in the mean time



Vlad

 

[skunkpilot]

ummmm, ya. Missed the 3-3 1/2 gal bucket thing. Even an anti-griddle would not be cost effective.

 

[OttawaGreen]

To answer your question: Thunderpaws is a cross between jacks smack and critical kush. Good luck with it.

 

[OttawaGreen]

Oh and for sexing, you are right. Grow them out small, label, take clones, then bloom. Keep the best female and you are all set.

 

[sciguy]

I'm still having issues with temp, I have tried a few different things to lower the temps but nothing so far has been working. I have raised the lights to where they vent right outside the vent holes in the top of the tent. That didn't change anything. I have no room to hang my fan and filter, so I had it on the floor pumping air straight out the tent, this tends to bring the temps down to around 84F. I may have to just go get a ac unit for that room

 

[sciguy]

I'm thinking that 4 light panels inside a 4ft space is too much for the tent to handle. I haven't even hooked up the 4th light yet nor have I turned on the 3rd panel that's hung up. So with just the 2 600w at panels at this point are making my temps go through the roof. I may end up just using the 2 600 watt panels

 

[OttawaGreen]

You need to take the air out of the top of the tent. Figure out how to mount the fan and do it. Has to be top, not floor as hot air rises

 

[sciguy]

Well 3 out of 4 light panels are hung back up, the fan and filter is set up at the top of the tent, the exhale bag is hung up, I just couldn't hang the other light yet until I get more hangars. The fan speed controller is set to 70%. I'll let it run for am hour with all 3 lights on and see where the temp is at. If it's still to high I may need to come up with a different plan for the lights

 

[sciguy]

Ok just checked the temps and they were at 90F. I raised the fan speed to 100% I will check back in a little bit and see if it made a difference

 

[skunkpilot]

Just sitt'n here watch'n and hope'n for a solution for your heat problems.

 

[sciguy]

And the solution is in! So last night after the fan and filter were hung up, 3 light panels including the 600 watt panels and 1 300 watt panel were hung up and the fan speed set to 100%, the temps were 90F with all 3 lights on. I didn't like that temp so I did some tweaking.

After some thinking and planning I came up with 2 solutions to choose from to decrease my temps. Option number 1 is to get another tent and fan and filter, and setup the 2 300watt panels in that tent and use it as a veg tent, and keep the 2 600watt panels in the other tent and use it as a flower tent. Both fans would keep plenty of air moving in the grow room along with my central ac to keep the temps well within range in both tents, this would also allow me to have a perpetual grow. It would however also decrease the amount of light I have in the tent for veg and flower.

Or Option B, I keep the 3 lights hanging up just how they are and instead of buying another tent, I buy a 10k BTU Portable A/C unit and set it right up next to the tent and angle the vent on the ac to blow into the bottom vent of the tent. This would severely decrease the temp in the tent and allow me to keep the temps down, and allow me to be able to use all of my lights, instead of just 3, which would allow me for a much bigger harvest. I would also be able to drop the temps down low enough to really bring out the purple colors in the ultimate purple. and other blue and purple strains that I have.

After talking it over with Mrs. Moneybags ( the wife ), we decided to get an A/C unit. This way we can grow some plants that we can really be proud of, and the money we make from that will more than pay for the A/C and another tent. This way we would also have the A/C unit to keep the overall temp in the grow room down while both tents are running. So this weekend we will be heading to an appliance outlet store to go pickup up a LG 10k BTU portable A/C unit.

This however is going to be a problem, but I think I have figured out a solution to it as well. So with the A/C it comes with an exhaust vent that vents out hot air, due to where I live I cant vent that out the window, and I damn sure cant vent that hot air into the room, so I figured if I get a 5 gallon bucket, put the vent hose into the bucket and fill the bucket with water, the heat will go into the water and just heat the water and water will evaporate. This will of course raise the humidity in the room but I have a dehumidifier for that where I can actually set the humidity level that I want in the room. Its not entirely accurate but gets very close. But that should work to dissipate the heat from the A/C unit without raising the heat in the room as well.

This is the plan, if anyone has any other ideas about how to vent the A/C unit they would be greatly appreciated. As for the lady, and the others, they are growing at a fast rate, the Ultimate Purple is growing out its second set of leaves after the cotyledons. The Thunderpaws seeds have sprouted and are about 2in tall, they are growing out their first set of true leaves. Kind of stretchy, but its due to the 180watt Mars Hydro UFO LED light that's hanging a little too high above them, but they will grow into it.

These pics were taken yesterday when I turned the light on

Heres the Ultimate Purple

Here are the Thunderpaws seedlings,

The Thunderpaws have stopped the stretch and have also sprouted roots through the bottom of the rockwool cubes last night. The Green Crack had to get tossed away, So right now its just the Ultimate Purple feminized in the grow tent, and the Thunderpaws regular in the cloner box until I can sex them. and find a female and take a clone.

Right now I am also planning out how I am going to grow out the ultimate purple to manipulate to stay small until I can get either other seeds that I have orderd and get them in the grow tent, or get clones off the Thunderpaws. All of which have come up with a serious amount of topping. The wife was looking at a technique called mainlining. I have no issues fimming or topping plants, never have and it looks easy enough. I am thinking that's the route I am going to go to try and keep the ultimate purple a decent size until I can add more seeds or clones into the grow tent. Especially since right now I only have 1 tent to do both veg and flower in. So if I can get it right with mainlining, I should be able to keep it a manageable size with all the topping by the time seeds have vegged or clones have vegged and are ready to flower along with it.

That's basically the idea, if anyone has a better one I am all ears. That's about it for now, I will post again later tonight after the lights turn back on and post some more pics.

 

[VladimirPutin]

Cool

Vlad

 

[sciguy]

I'll be getting the A/C u it Saturday and on the 1st order a new tent, fan and filter. The seeds from Bonus seed bank are taking awhile to ship. The order was placed on the 10th and they still have not shipped yet. Once I get the tent and the seeds in the veg tent with the 300 watt panel and 180w art MARSHYDRO LED UFO as veg lights. I'll move the UFO after I take a clone from the Thunderpaws.

If things go well I will also have a clone or 2 of the ultimate purple. I'm getting real excited about this grow now

 

[sciguy]

Just wonder now how long to flower the Thunderpaws?