By continuing to use the website or clicking Accept you consent to our cookies and personal data policy and confirm that you are at least 18 year old. For details please see Privacy Policy and Terms
I placed the 2 seeds in a damp paper towel and placed it into a closed Tupperware. The tupperware was placed in my stereo cabinet (warmest place I could find) and less than a day taps roots were showing. I then placed them in my humidity dome and within 18hrs I had roots sprouting thru the bottom of the sponge. This has been the best start I have yet to have. I also built a new RDWC system with waterfalls to veg and flower these two in. I have photos and video above on the new tent setup. I have it running with just regular tap water until the seedlings are ready to go in. I have also installed a 90gpd RO system (APEC brand) under my kitchen sink. The water comes out 5.8ph and 7ppm. I will be using this RO water thru the entire grow with some Cal-mag of course. The system holds about 25 gallons total of water. The main res is 17 gallons and the two buckets are 5 gallons. I will no longer be using air stones. I have a recirculating pump in the main res, waterfalls in the buckets and of course the main pump running the whole system. Should be plenty of air for the roots. I used 2 in return pipes in the hopes of avoiding roots clogging the pipes. I scrogged last time but I'm not sure I will be going that route. I might just top and train. I will be doing a major defoliation on one and just simple trimming on the other. I am trying to find out if the risks of stressing the plant are worth the returns. Well wish me luck....and away we go.
Equipment used on this grow:
VIVOSUN 48"x48"x80" Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent
AC Infinity CLOUDLINE T6, Quiet 6" Inline Duct Fan
Grower's Choice Horticulture Lighting with Full Spectrum 315W Ceramic Metal Halide
Kingbrite diy 240W lm301h qb288 v3 led grow light
PHILIPS 901573 Master Color CDM Lamp 315 Watt Elite MW, 4200K (Blue)
PELONIS PFT30T2ABB-V Portable 3-Speed 12-Inch Oscillating Table Air Circulation Fan,
Bluelab Guardian Monitor for pH, Temperature, and Conductivity Measures
Power Strip Surge Protector, Anker 12 Outlets & 3 USB Ports
hygger 1060GPH Quiet Submersible and External 24V Water Pump, with Controller
Marineland Maxi-Jet 600
Midea SmartCool 8,000 BTU Wi-Fi Window Air Conditioner (will be running a 4 inch tube into tent from a/c)
All hardware and buckets were bought from Lowes.
1in & 3/4 in for supply lines
2 in for returns
I don't want to jinx myself, but man this grow is starting great. I haven't been growing long but this has been the best start I have had. This new system is working perfect. I am using 75% RO water & 25% tap. A total of 16 gallons to run this. The tap here is pretty good. It took about a day to stabilize the ph. I am handling the weekly maintenance on this system kind of like my 125g aquarium. Doing this I am able to keep the ph at the optimum level with no worries of any drifting. I was in such a hurry to put in my ac for the tent I didn't think about how dry it's been here. So for now I'm using some wet towels to get the humidity up to an acceptable level for these little plants. The new led lights have been amazing. Maybe another couple weeks and I can put the CMH light in. Please excuse the untidiness. Eventually I will get that all cleaned up. Been so busy with moving into the new house and getting this built and running right. Well let me know how you think everything is coming along. I have been looking into getting a light controller to use with the CMH. Just haven't found one that looks worthy of the price.
Update:
Well it's been 14 days from seed and 7 days since I put them in the hydroponic system. I'm not sure how well this stuff works for other people, but damn these are looking amazing. I think this weekend I will change out the res and up the nutrients, maybe 500 ppm. I am also going to put my CMH light in. I have been itching to use it since I bought it. I have the 4100k phillips for veg and 3100kr for flowering. Next week I will probably start LST. I don't think I am going to top these, just too worried about stressing them and hermies all over again. I posted some new pictures. Be sure to check them out and give me some thoughts and feedback. I appreciate it all....good or bad. Thanks.
We are now into the 2 week of veg. I just did a water change with fresh nutes, Ended up with 500ppm. Might have overdone the CalMag a bit. I use RO water and I usually end up with a calcium deficiency....trying to avoid that this time. I also started using my GC-315W CMH light. So bright. I have it at about 36 inches above the plants and I am using the leds at 60% about 24 inches above the plants. Trying to avoid a whole lot of stretch so hopefully those heights are good. I am seriously considering topping both of these now. I think it would be a lot easier to manage if topped. They are so short and bushy I can't really bend them to expose any growth underneath yet. It is at the fifth node now, so I might be doing it later into this week. Well the system itself continues to operate flawlessly. The water change was so simple. Swapping out the 16 gallons in this system was easier than it was in the single 5 gallon dwc I was running. I also "ducted" my window ac. I have two hoses, one to cool the solution and one for the tent. The temp sensor for the ac gets it's readings from the tent and kicks on and off accordingly. Still some bugs to work out with that, BUT it is working. I have it rigged with cardboard for right now and hopefully soon I will be able to come up with a more permanent solution. I am having a lot of fun with this grow. Anyone have any input? Suggestions? Something you would like to see? Let me know. Happy Growing all.
Update Day 18 from seed:
Well I dropped the power on the leds to about 25% and so far they seem happier with them now. They really perked up from yesterday. My EC remains at 0.7 and my ph is steady at 5.9. I am pretty sure it's due to such a large system of water for only 2 plants. I'm sure they will be drinking more as the grow. But for the now the system remains in balance. I added some more pictures. They are really starting to look good. I also added an elbow to the waterfall in the buckets. I noticed the water was landing directly on the roots in the middle of the bucket. Not sure if that is good so I added the elbows to deflect the water to the side. Seems to be even more water agitation in the buckets now.
It was an alright week. I am going through some sort of deficiency right now. It's about time for a water change so I think it will be ok for now. Did some LST this week. Broke a branch on each plant. Was only able to save the one on the left. Besides the so so week of growing, I am excited; got a new toy coming this week from Alibaba. Can't wait. Well, see you all next week.
We are now in the middle of week four. Fantastic results from the lst. I also learned an important lesson with Armor Si, I did not realize that when adding silica the ph cannot get above 6.5...otherwise nutrient lockout. This is why my water was always cloudy. Well needless to say I made up some water with 100% RO and the above listed nutrients and my water was perfect and has been for days now. I might have found my magic formula. I also have a picture of my new light controller posted. I picked that up from Alibaba.com for cheap and it is amazing. It allows me to digitally control my CMH light on one bank and my leds on the other. Has all the emergency shut down features and the sunrise/sunset if you want. Bad ass. Well I am going to continue to keep this growing and updated.
Update: 12/22
28 Days Well this wraps up week 4. Yesterday I moved the light down to 28 inches. So far the plants seem to love it. I did a little more training today, trying to just tuck the big leaves. At the end of next week I hope to start flowering these two. The last ones stretched ALOT and I wanted to concentrate a little more on quality over quantity this time around. I plan to do some slight defoliation through out next week to keep the air moving between the branches and again at 3 weeks into flower.....if needed. See you all next week.
We are now into the middle of week 5. This is the transition week. So the lights have been running 12/12 since Christmas day. I have been practicing my pruning techniques. I am just taking fan leaves that are not receiving light or blocking a bunch of bud sites. I noticed each time I defoliated some they would return in force and very lovely looking. I have well over 20 cola sites on each plant. They have not vegged for long so I won't be expecting overly huge colas, but I should still be able to get a good haul. The numbers having been good. My ph is steady, my tds, ec are steady. The system is working perfectly. Today I decided to have a look at the roots and to my surprise they have found their way into the return piping. They are about 2 feet long. Luckily the returns are 2 inches so no clogging yet. I will keep my eye on it. Might have to get some kind of screen to put in front of the return. I have also switched to the flowering bulb. So I am using the Growers Choice 315w 3kr bulb. They seem to be liking it so far. Well I'm gonna keep it growing and I will check back in a few days. Later.
Update
Finished up week 5 like a champ. Did more pruning to expose bud sites and increase air flow. It worked. They exploded new bud sites shot right up. Loving this cmh light.
Last week was great and the start of this week is even better. They look amazing. Increased ec to 1.4 tds is 710, and lots of patience. Will update some more later on this week. Happy new years everyone.
Well we are on to week 7, and what a start. I have nicknamed the first one Hulk. It will not stop growing. I defoliate at the end of every week now. I looks like a giant pile of fan leaves when I'm done, but the plants still look full and lush. I was hoping to see some actual flowers by now but nothing as of yet. Maybe by the end of this week they will start to poke out. I did not anticipate such a stretch. This is my first time using this system and it seems to be working rather while. I am trying to go without changing the water now. I want to keep them at this ec for a few weeks so I have been topping up with nutrient water and so far they seem to like it. As long as they stay green and the water stays clear I will continue like this. They are drinking about 2 gallons a day now and eating just as fast. Growing is a true art and I find myself really starting to enjoy the training. I want to make it bigger and better. Already making plans for the next grow. Well I posted up some cool videos and pictures, at least I thought they were, so let me know what you all think. Everyone is so quiet here. Well I will update later on. Keep it growing ya'll.
Looks like your potassium deficiency just a little, but leaves clawing is too much nitrogen. If they are droopy it may be poor aeration in soil or too much water. Also always good to check ph of run off first and foremost. Good luck and happy growing. 🌲🌲🌲👊
Week 7 did not go too well. I believe I ran into a heat stress issue due to the lights and I also tried some new supplements to add to the res and I ended up with some type of nute lockout.....I think. Anyway, today starts week 3 of flowering and after some more research into nutrient ratios I came up with what you see above. Now I added all of this into 16 gallons of RO water (in the correct sequence) and my EC ended up a little higher than I wanted...1.4. I was looking to stay more around 1.0, but below 1.2 regardless. So I ended up adding 3 more gallons of RO water to the mix and got my numbers looking pretty descent. I was under the assumption ww was on the smaller side of the cannabis world, but this one plant, nicknamed "HULK", seems to be the exception to the rule. Hulk is now 24 inches tall....WITH LST. There is probably another 1.5 feet of branch that is basically horizontal. Well it leaves me in a predicament. I only have 22 inches of light between the 315w CMH and Hulk. The light is as high as it can go in the tent. Well I am going to keep an eye on these girls and hopefully we will see some improvement in growth. Last week pretty much stalled. Well I will check back in and let you know how it's going. Until then just keep it growing.
Jan 16 update: wow, the Hulk just keeps going 😳. The runt is still giving me issues. It looks like heat stress but not from the lights. Thinking a vpd issue. Got a thermal temp gun so I am watching for that now. Also got me a wireless camera set up now. So I can check on the girls whenever and wherever I am. Love it.
JustKeepGrowing
