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Using an auto flower from Mephisto Genetics with a 75 day estimated time frame to harvest. Soaked the rockwool in filtered water with neutral pH for a few hours. Pushed the toothpick in about a 1/4 inch to help the tap root. Placed the seed in just below the inner level using a toothpick to move the pointed end of the seed down. After germination, placed rockwool cube with seed in hydroton hydroponic drip system. Very dilute nutrients provided using a plastic pipette. Seedling kept outside tent 20 inches under a 15W LED 24/0. After moving into the 2 x 2.5 ft tent I kept the 400W metal halide at 50% power and about 35 inches above leaves.
Lithium Halide light at 100% power. Raised screen to 5 inches above hydro tank. Lowered light to 20 inches above screen. Fan at lowest setting. The 2 extra vents up top closed with bottom 3 open. Four 15-minute light breaks otherwise 24/7. First two 5-point leaves fully formed multiple others sprouting at the joints. Thermometer is cheap and measuring temperature of the plastic and not the air. Device was only useful as a humidity gauge early on.
Early signs of root rot. Added Hydrogaurd. Started LST on the screen. Opening the tent and modifying the plant positioning once per day. Changed water and cleaned reservoir tank at Day 21. Will recheck roots after 1 week of Hydrogaurd next week at Day 28.
Day 29: 1 week after starting Hydrogaurd there is no additional root rot and the original small site of root rot has cleared up about 50%. Will continue Hydrogaurd for the rest of the grow increasing as necessary after checking roots weekly. Hurt a good branch moving her around too much so will see if nature can correct my folly! Drained reservoir after 24 hours of diluted down nutrients and switched to a transition nutrient regimen in preparation for bloom. Multiple very early bud sites showing up at all the main branches- some with the 2 pistils showing.
Day 31: She’s really filling in and I brought all leaves to the same level. 95% recovered from routine screen training. Maintaining transition nutes and staying on 23 hr metal halide just a bit longer.
Day 33: Everything nice and stable. Switched from metal halide to hps and dropped the bulb from 20 inches to 16 inches above plant. Branch tips growing about 1/2 inch/day and drinking almost a gallon/day.
Day 34: Turned off the lamp for the first time over 15 minutes. Much needed rest from that intense veg period. Moving to 20 light and 4 off during the daytime hot hours.
Day 36: Water change. Added Silicon Solution to the bloom nutes. Installed a second oscillating clip on fan to blow across the top of the screen. 4 hours of darkness in the tent during the hottest afternoon hours.
Day 55: Fell a little off track last week and she stalled a little bit. I was 90% finished with placement training and she filled in the gaps pretty well. Dried out at least once. Had to add a lot of darkness to deal with the amount of intake due to time constraints. Drinking 1-2 gallons a day again and noticeable daily changes in bud sizes. The biggest issue I have is the rate of intake vs the size of my reservoir size, and my ability to attend to it once or twice a day, every day. This is a 4 gallon bucket, but only holds 2 gallons of liquid below the rockwool which is a few inches deep. Roots fill the rockwool and get a ton of oxygen and water, but the refill rate is approaching 100% reservoir turnover everyday. I've incorporated straight water additions as well as the planned nutrient schedule. Sticking to straight nutes was throwing the ppm way high and the waste was extremely dark. Trying to avoid nutrient burn but don't want too dilute too much. The current plan is for every 1 gallon of nutes I add, the next addition is add 1 gallon of water. Will watch ppm and flush if necessary, but will be flushing weekly anyway. Intake is slower, but that's better for me. Changed light angle to hit back right. Go easy on the medicine Dogg!
Day 61: Gut the FloraGrow from the mix and doubled the Mammoth P. The ppm is staying in the low to mid 1ks with mixing in pH balanced water only additions. Still only 90% white hairs and 10% orange. Will check trichomes again in a few days.
Day 63: Sea of crystals. Gonna start the pure water flush tomorrow evening. Currently half clear, a quarter cloudy, and a quarter amber. Going for a quarter clear, the rest a mix of cloudy and Amber. Then amputate!
FYI, I started Day 1 when the seed first popped out of the rockwool which was 7 days after first placing in rockwool. So Day 63 could be considered Day 70. Going off the trichomes and coloration of the flowers.
Yield was much higher than expected for my first plant. It tolerated extreme screen weaving very well. Scent was not strong throughout and even after curing. I might have waited a little longer for slightly fuller flowers.
This was my first grow and wanted to ensure a rugged, high yield strain. For those reasons, this was an excellent strain. The biggest problem I had with the seed was getting it started. I only rinsed my rockwool for a few minutes before planting and then adjusted the pH a few days later which may have lead to the 1 week germination, otherwise the growth timing seemed to be very consistent with other growers using this strain. This was grown in my higher end setup with 400W metal halide 24/0 during vegetation and 20/4 during flowing with a 400W hps. Great ventilation with humidity and temperature controls and the drip system worked really well. Too well. I grew this one plant so big I had to refill the hydroponic system every day during flowing because it was going through so much water (1-2 gallons a day). With everything else working so well, I'll have to use a larger reservoir system on the next grow. I would also top on the next grow and did not top this time because I did not want to hamper grow, which was not a problem. I also did not prune any leaves until harvest week. I would prune some of the older darker fan leaves next time to make room for newer growth. The ScrOG setup worked just fine and was a key element to the high yield and even growth. All my grows will incorporate a ScrOG technique. The only part of the nutrients I'll be revising in the future is changing out the Flora series with Kind series. I have no issues with the Flora series, but will be alternating brands to see which one works best with this type of combination. Any suggestions would be appreciated and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I never see info on water temp. My very similar setup dwc, I had high water temp for week 4 and the roots were brown. I rinsed off and gave it a 45 min hydrogen Peroxide bath 1/2 tp to half gallon of water. Cleaned container also and started using my frozen qt.water bottle 3 x a day. Got to keep water 60 to 72 degrees. I use SOS and Voodoo juice. Looks great after 2 days. I'm growing think different week 5.
@Wildotter, Started pre-mixing my nutes and placing them in the refrigerator for this drip/reservoir system. Outside conditions are nearly perfect. Can't check water temp at this point due to the setup design, but with almost 100% reservoir turnover per day, that's a constant supply of cool liquid.
@Wildotter, Thanks. The plastic bottle idea will work well in my other DWV bucket style setup, but won't work in the current drip system with the entire reservoir full of roots. I was looking at misters, but will see how your electric chiller works out.
@DuctirKanabys, get a plastic soda bottle 12 oz to 32 oz and fill it up 75% with water and freeze. Pop it in the tank when the temp hit 71 or so and this will bring the temp down. You might have to do this 3-4 times a day, it all depends how hot it is in your area. That is the most important thing you can do. I also got Hydroguard but once u get root rot it never goes away. Unfortunately it came back and I'm still fighting it! I did order this electric chiller which is in the mail also. $70. How it works , not going to pay $250 for a big chiller. I'll let you know. Once winter comes my basement grow tent will cool down. Soil is starting to look good.
Looks like shit, root rot, res too small for that plant, gl with ph swings and water temp issues, that's why you got root rot, Build a better system or get a bigger reservoir, maybe flush your bud next time, way too green to go into my pipe, gonna be a harsh smoke, crackly throat burning black ash bud right there, need 2 week minimum flush even in hydro, buds look airy and premature, maybe drop your light lower, or get a better one, Jarred wet weed with bovedas, thats a big no no, 79% in the jar with a 62% boveda, take that stuff out and dry it more, gonna mold in that jar, or PM, you choose, also gonna turn to a musty dank basement smell jarring that soon, if you jarred early that means you weighed wet, cut that weight in half IMO cause your yeild isn't what you say, its still wet, Good Luck, you're gonna need it.....alot of it
@Bountykiller420, thanks for the Karma. Root rot never took hold after adding Hydrogaurd. Did 1 week flush. Drained the system many times until ppms down to 300 or so. Agree reservoir too small for such a Large plant. Lights were as close as possible without burning which one center bud started to do. Dried for 1 week until stems snapped. Definitely wasn’t wet and agree very green. As mentioned, I would wait longer next time for a more mature plant. Thanks for the Constructive Critizism.
Day 55 watering issue: Grew so fast I lost track of her and she stalled a little bit. I was 90% finished with placement training and she filled in the gaps pretty well. Dried out at least once. Had to add a lot of darkness to deal with the amount of water intake due to my own time constraints. Drinking 1-2 gallons a day again and noticeable daily changes in bud sizes. The biggest issue I have is the rate of intake vs the size of my reservoir size, and my ability to attend to it once or twice a day, every day. This is a 4 gallon bucket, but only holds 2 gallons of liquid below the rockwool which is a few inches deep. Roots fill the rockwool and get a ton of oxygen and water, but the refill rate is approaching 100% reservoir turnover everyday. I've incorporated straight water additions as well as the planned nutrient schedule. Sticking to straight nutes was throwing the ppm way high and the waste was extremely dark. Trying to avoid nutrient burn but don't want too dilute too much. The current plan is for every 1 gallon of nutes I add, the next addition is add 1 gallon of water. Will watch ppm and flush if necessary, but will be flushing weekly anyway. Intake is slower, but that's better for me. Any watering suggestions to get through this flowing phase? Go easy on the medicine!
Also, does anyone else notice a huge humidity spike after lights out? I'm staying in the low 60's with lights on but am noticing up to the 90's when off. I had the dual timer set to turn both off at the same time, but don't want to get too wet in there. Will leave the fan running 100% from now on.
DuctirKanabys
