Philly's High Hopes Perpetual Grow 

hello everybody!! this is my small, 5 plant grow of blueberry x white widow which is commonly referred to as Berry White. I am fairly new at growing as this is my 3rd go around. the 1st was 6 brainstorm (hempstar) plants that didn't turn out too bad for not using good nutes and i didn't really know what i was doing. the 2nd was 5 big bud of which only 3 survived and once again they weren't bad considering i was using some weak nutes and still didn't really do any research or baby them. i sort of dropped the seeds in and checked maybe once a week. i never paid too much attention to pH levels and i would add nutes free hand with no measurements at all. My first 2 grows i used moon dust nutes and it all worked out but not great. soo here goes another try after some extensive research and a shit ton of questions i am giving this a go. i hope you guys check back and let me know what you think and feel free to post your suggestions and or criticism.

 

ok so this is the deal. i am using the mini cool cab that I bought used off the web which i know alot of you are going to break my chops about but it is what it is. i am going to build one for my self that is taller in the near future. i am going to use the mini as a grow box and the taller one that i build as the flowering chamber but thats all for the future and a different thread.

so here goes... 36x18x42 cab with a cool tube 400w metal halide for grow and 400w high pressure sodium for when i switch to 12/12. i have a 28qt reservoir with 2 air stones and the drip set up along with a fogger floating around in my reservoir. i am using hydroton clay as grow medium and rapid rooter starter plugs in 3 inch net pots. i have invested in all general hydroponics nutrients as i was told over and over again that these are the best. i wanted to buy fox farm but i was talked out of it by everyone i had talked to about it. so general hydro it is. i am using flora nova grow and bloom along with floralicious and for the flowering cycle i also have koolbloom. this all cost a considerable amount of money so i am hoping it was worth it. i also have a co2 boost set up for when i switch to bloom that i am going to give a whirl. i have used it with my buddies crops and we had awesome results so i bought 1 for myself. i do not want a burner or a tank set as this is all supposed to be a stealthy as possible. i had started on march 7th and i had some sprouts on march 14th. here are some pics!!!

 

and a couple more pics from march 14th. at this time the nutes were adjusted to 330ppm of just flora nova grow. the light is on 18hrs a day. temps inside the cabinet are around 74 deg Fahrenheit. the drippers are dripping at a rate of about 1 drip every 3 seconds. the light is kept about 8 inches above the reservoir.

 

OK guys it has been 7 days since my last pics so i have a couple more for you. all is still the same but there has been a small increase in the nutes to 500ppm and also 2 mil of floralicious has been added to the reservoir. check em out. they are looking pretty healthy.

 

hello all!!! here are some pics from 10 days later. they are looking real good. the one in the right corner is actually about 4 days behind the rest because i had 1 seed that didnt germinate so i had to pop another as the other ones were already sprouts. oh well i am sure he will never catch up so i will prob end up with 1 dwarf since i will only be vegging for about 32 days or whenevr they reach 13 inches due to height restrictions. its all good though. i am very happy with the results so far. a water change was done today and the nutes are now at 700ppm with 4mil of floralicious added to the solution. i havent really mentioned my ph level at all but it has been very easily maintained at 6.0 with almost no adjustments needed. a couple drops of ph down every 6 or 7 days and it stays on point. let me know what you think!!!

 

OK folks. these pics are from 6 days after the last ones. i am getting about an inch a day now. i think these nutes are like plant steroids as now i have the nutes at 960ppm and some of these leaves are as big as my hand!! same amount of floralicious and everything else is still the same... pH is good and still on 12/12 for now. they are about 7 inches in these pics. i will post again in a couple days since the growth is so rapid now. so far these nutes have made a HUGE difference!!

 

oh i forgot to mention this. you will notice that they are wet. that is because i had just sprayed them with the floralicious which can also be used as a foliar spray as well as being used in the tub as an enhancer. i usually spry them down good every 5 days paying extra attention to the bottom of the leaves. they seem to love it!!! i can hear them purring like a kitten! or maybe i am just stoned? i dunno!! either way now you know why they look wet!

 

whats up everyone?? these are pics from april 11th. they are definetly growing at 1 inch a day so i will be switching the lights and the nutes very soon to induce blooming. probally as early as friday if they get to 13 inches which they should at this rate. i am at 1000ppm for the nutes with a ph level of just 6.0. i am extremely pleased with the way they are looking. they are such a nice deep green and very strong. the roots have taken off and are very bright white and almost a silver color. they are very full also. almost the whole tub is full of roots. i wonder if i should just stop the fogger and remove it to try and slow them down. well take a look and please comment with your insight and suggestions. ok people... i am outta here for now!!!see you in a few days!!

 

just checked on my girls and everything looks great!! i will be posting pics tomorrow. i did speak too soon about my ph luck. i checked today and it was around 7.5 so i added some adjuster to bring it back to 6.0. i am going to due a resivoir change tomorrow. i just picked up some flora blend enhancer so i will be adding it to the nutrient regiment with the water change to transistion nutes to get ready for bloom. pull up a chair as i will post as the changes occur. rock on!

 

well i got 2 inches to go and then its onto bloom!! they are looking real nice. very green. i cant find 1 brown or yellow leaf or spot. they are 11 inches tall and from the looks of things i am going to have some nice and healthy bud spots. i am posting some pics that i snapped overnight so i am thinking i am going to be switching over to my hps bulb and my 12/12 cycle on friday night. also i will be adding the co2 then and change my nutrient solution and flush out the tub so i can get started on bloom nutes and enhancers. i will be back in a couple days to keep you all informed! for now i am outta here

 

ok guys!!!! here we go!!!! we are in bloom!! it had to be done today because i am limited in space and they were growing sooo fast that they were already 14 and 15 inches and i didnt expect them to be more than 11 inches today. i was hoping to make it till saturday so i had time to plumb the co2 boost tubing for each individual plant but i couldnt wait any longer. transition nutes are in after a reservoir change that was done tonight. i will leave them in for 3 days because i added bushmaster to my reservoir which stops the upward growth but it cant be in there any longer than 3 days or it will start to hinder the bloom and ripen phase. then another reservoir change and a full bloom nute regiment. i started the co2 boost also. i am going to plumb some lines that go to the top of each plant but for right now it is just pumping out in front of one of my intake fans. i will snap some pics tomorrow if i have a couple minutes. hope everybody is doing good and all of your grows are going without a hitch. quick question ...if my grow box exhaust fan is on at all times when the light is on will it waste all the co2??? i am under the impression that co2 is much heavier than air so will it just sink and lay around the plants or will it get sucked up into the exhaust fan which is located at the very top of my cabinet?? if anyone can help with that i would appreciate it!!

 

ok here are the 1st pics of the 1st day of flower. they have only been under hps at 12/12 for 1 night so there isn't much change but they are definitely bigger than my last pics that i posted. they grew 4 inches in 2 days!!! transition nutes are at 1400ppm and pH is 6.1. transition nutes include general hydroponics floranova grow and bloom, floralicious plus, koolbloom and bushmaster to prevent any further upward growth and promote the bloom cycle.

 

just added the co2 boost to it. i just ran hoses to the top of each plant and adjusted the flow valves so thet the plants at the end are getting decent flow. without the vaves most of the air goes to the 1st 2 plants and there is almost nothing coming from the last hose. by restricting the flow to the 1st couple plants i was able to get some flow to the last hose. i would take any suggestions on this because i was originally just going to place the hose on the intake fan and let the co2 just blow directly into the cabinet but the exhasut fan is always running because i need to get the hot air out of there when the light is on. here are the most recent pics taken april 19th.

 

here are a couple pics of the size of the sun leaves with my finger next to it for reference. they are actually annoying because they keep sun from getting to the rest of the plant but they will be gone soon enough!!! i just cant believe how big they are! this is my 3rd grow and i have never had leaves this big!