1000W MH/HPS Soil-Mix strain

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by n3u120b0i, Oct 27, 2014.

  1. Indoor 1000W HPS and Soil Grow
     
    Hi All,
     
    I'm almost four weeks into flowering and have been taking picture since day one of flowering.  I've always wanted to do a proper write up and I'm leading my roommate through the process so hopefully this detailed journal helps many. We tried to do this on the cheap! I did have the lights and fans coming into this.
     
    This grow (as all of mine so far) had a few problems, but should provide a decent yield. I'd LOVE to get guesses on harvest size. I ran into a very odd hermaphrodite issues and have battle-headed fungus gnats from day one.
     
    Soil, nutrients, containers, and electricity cost me about $180 split two ways. Already had lights and other random gear.
     
    I'll start with my equipment and plan of attack then listing pictures of different time points and comments that I can remember. I plan on finishing out the grow journal so if I get any feedback I'll return the favor with progress!
     
    Happy Growing,
    B
     
    SETUP
     
    Strain:
    Mixed/Unknown
    Purple Urkle
    Northern Lights
     
    *Note*
    These seeds are from a grow a few years back that had multiple go hermaphrodite. I ignorantly didn't label the seeds and strains so there is a mix, I can identify a minimum of three types.
     
    Grow Room:
    4' x 5' x 8' Basement grow space
    Mylar emergency blankets on two walls, concrete on third
    uHaul Blanket entrance
    Small 3ft vertical fan and opening door daily for ventilation
     
    -Low humidity mild temperature region-
     
     
    Lighting and Schedule:
    Seed starts- mixed blue/red spectrum T8 fluorescent
    -24hr Light
    Vegetative stage- 1000W Metal Halide (MH) HID/ Switchable digital ballast
    - 18hr/6hr LD
    Flowering stage- 1000W High Pressure Sodium (HPS)  / Switchable digital ballast
    -12hr/12hr LD (First 2.5 weeks)
    -11hr/13hr LD (From 2.5 weeks until harvest)
    -48hr Dark before harvest for final stressing
     
     
    Containers, Soil, and Nutrients:
    Starts:
    - (12) seeds germinated in a damp paper towel
    - Organic potting Soil (ACE hardware)
    -(12) Solo cups (Dollar store)
    -(2) drying/cooling racks (Dollar store)
    -No Nutrients
     
    Vegetative/Flowering:
    (10) 5.5 Gallon deep waste baskets- eight (8) drill holes (Wal-Mart)
    (12) Black plastic oil pans (Dollar store)
    3 parts Potting soil (ACE Hardware)
    1 parts Compost manure (ACE Hardware)
    ~3-8% Perlite (ACE Hardware)
     
    *Note on Nutrients*
    I used very little nutrients during this grow. Roughly two (2) weeks into veg I started putting two (2) teaspoons of coffee grounds per (1) gallon of water. During flowering I used the same ratio of coffee grounds and added 3-1-10 Earth Juice plant based organic fertilizer.  Realizing this was the wrong NPK ratio. I'm changing this tomorrow. 
     
    I plan on flushing for last two (2) weeks before harvest.
     
    Water:
    -Brita filter/Zero water/tap water mix
    -(½) gallon every 4-5 days
    -(1) gallon flush at 3.5 weeks
    -(1) gallon flush for week ~7-8
    -No Water last week before harvest
     
    *Note*
    We have horribly hard water with a high ppm. The pH always tests high. After nutrients and filtering it gets it ~6.3-6.7.
     
    Miscellaneous:
    -pH meter
    -Pool/Spa test strips (Wal-Mart)
    -Fly paper (Dollar store)
    -ppm meter (Comes with Zero Water filter)

     
  2. This is a longer post leading up to the pictures and shorter posts as I go through them and face issues. I'll post each documented section in individual posts afterwards.
     
    I germinated the seeds for about 4-5 days. They were from a previous grow that had a ton of stressors, a few plants became hermaphrodite towards the end and I kept the seeds. I got seeds in roughly 4-5 of the plants during that grow and started this grow two years later. I thought they were going to be feminized seeds.
     
    We planted twelve seeds hoping ten would sprout and five would become male. The goal was for my roommate and I too each yield roughly 2-3 ounces before Christmas for holiday festivities and edibles for presents.
     
    All of our seeds germinated and we transplanted into 16 ounce solo cups. We put them on drying racks over an oil pan, both from the dollar store. They tipped easily and I probably wouldn't use these cups or this setup again. All of the Seeds sprouted.
     
    They grew quite well, watering them when dry. One seed stunted from the beginning and never got more than 1” tall. We through it out and ran with 11 plants.
     
    One plant stunted and we left it in the solo cup instead of throwing it away. You'll see pictures later, I'm guessing a 1 gram harvest or so, but hey it's an extra bowl or two!
     
    Fungus gnats have been an issue this whole time. We dusted a layer of pyrethrin dust, that's made for vegetables, on top of the soil after watering a few times during veg.
     
    I've attached some pictures of the setups and products I used.
     
    I didn't really take any pictures until the first day of flowering, not sure why- just didn't occur to me.
     
  3. #3 n3u120b0i, Oct 27, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 27, 2014
    Flowering Day 3:
     
    We decided to flower them about four weeks after starting veg. I count that as after the first two three-fan leaves are coming out.  They were about 1 foot tall at the time. We had a timeline to finish and I always forget how bit they can get during flowering. One plant was stunted just about the whole time (in addition to the solo cup guy).
     
    I switched from a MH bulb to HPS on this day. Light was 12/12. Took a few pics and these are the best two. Gives you a perspective of met setup as well. I know I don't have a fan on the HPS and temps did get pretty high. We've managed to keep The temperature between 70F and 87F. Usually it gets no higher than 80-82F, but when guests are over and we can't leave the door to the basement open it gets high. 
    Day_3-1.jpg
    Day_3-2.jpg
     
  4. Day 9 of Flower:
     
    At this point they were growing VERY quickly, 2-4 inches a day. We had used little fertilizer (organic coffee grounds). This is when we started using a our 3-1-10 , I totally got the numbers wrong on the nutrients. Live and learn.
     
    We noticed small flowers by this point, a few I thought were male and a few obvious females. We almost pulled two plants that I thought were male, but fortunately/unfortunately decided to wait.
     
    Day_9-1.jpg
    Day_9-2.jpg
    Day_9-3.jpg
    Day_9-4.jpg
     
  5. Day 14 of Flower:
     
    By this time everything is going well growth wise, but we notice that most of these plants are hermaphrodites. We flipped. Only two looked to be female. We had been breaking the small balls off of many of them. There were very few and very small male flowers. All the plants looked to have pistols up top and balls in the lower areas and just below the buds. Haven't seen any male dominant plants. 
     
    Day_14-1.jpg
    Day_14-3.jpg
    Day_14-2.jpg
     
  6. I've got up to day 26 right now. I'll add more alter tonight. I'll be adding close-ups, but up to this point there wasn't much to look at. Then next entry will have more detailed pictures. Hope you all enjoy! Any comments, tips, flaming is much welcome. 
     
  7. Day 18 of Flower:
     
    At this point we are still removing little balls as they appear.  Mostly around 2-5 per plant, with one plant at 20 balls removed. We realize that the grow is likely all fertilized, oh well. We decided to gamble and let them all flower instead of just two females out of 11. Anyways, we've got one plant stretching around 39" at this point. Most plants are over three feet. We topped all the plants with 2-3 branchings on all except two that are just one main cola. The little guy remains to be roughly 1.5 feet tall.
     
    This is the view as you enter the room:
     
    Day_18-2.jpg
     
    This is a close up of one cola. This plant has bushier leaves and three tops. It looks very healthy and likely an indica dominant strain imo:
     
    Day_18-3.jpg
     
    This is the tallest plant. Two tops, pushing up all above the rest. At this time it was around 39-40 inches from the soil:
     
    Day_18-4.jpg
     
    Another bud forming. I'm concerned that the growth is stunted and whether this is sufficient growth for the first 2.5 weeks since light switch. They took a long time to show a definite sex, maybe 5-8 days.
     
    Day_18-5.jpg
     
     
    This is a view through the middle of our little forest. It's quite crowded in there, probably more than needed, but I don't have the heart to kill a female plant.
     
    Day_18-7.jpg
     
     
     
     
  8. Day 23 of Flower:
     
    We are very frustrated with the balls, but the buds seem to be developing fine. Drainage is getting slightly worse, but we still get run off. Still some weight after 6 days of no watering. Around Day 19 of flowering we sprayed an ethephon mixture to try and reverse the males to females. Some people don't like these products and this is the first point where are garden goes non-organic. We were desperate to stop this behavior! Some of the plants drooped drastically, two of them. It scared us, but they've been fine. We are still getting "bananas" and have seen white spored fall after touching them. We spray the air where it fell with growth hormone, but we know we are probably fucked at this point.
     
     
    A close-up picture of the truly hermaphrodite flower, both pistol and pollen sack. 
     
    Day_23-1.jpg
     
     
    Buds are starting to sugar up and I've seen a few red hairs appear. Getting very excited, but still concerned about growth rate. 
     
    Day_23-2.jpg
     
    Top cola of previous top, 23 days post light change.
     
    Day_23-3.jpg
     
    These girls (trannies) are up to 41 inches from the soil now! Tallest by far, with many others clocking in at 34-37 inches.
     
    Day_18-4.jpg
     
    This is pretty much my favorite plant. Very hearty, bushier than others (definitely only genetics of its kind in the room), buds are progressing faster. I'm cheering her on!
     
    Day_23-6.jpg
     
    Typical ball sacks we see and pick off one by one.
     
    Day_23-7.jpg
     
    Another set of balls, haven't opened yet.
     
    Day_23-8.jpg
     
    Group photo! Let the bidding begin on the guess the quantity game. We'll take anything, but predictions are running from 15-20 ounces. It's 10 plants, one stunted, plus the solo cup. 34-41 inches, all topped to 2-3 tops.
     
    Day_23-10.jpg
     
    Getting harder to give perspective on height and space.
     
    Day_23-12.jpg
     
    Canopy gets bushier and bushier each and every photo shoot.
     
    Day_23-11.jpg
     
    Last bit of Personal Porn.
     
    Day_23-9.jpg
     
  9. [SIZE=10.5pt]Day 26[/SIZE]
    [SIZE=12pt]Welp, it's been awhile since the last update.  We've got a yellowing issue with one of the plants, I'm not sure if it's an actual deficiency or pH issue. I mentioned the low Phospohorus number on our nutrients so I went out and bought a cactus nutrient that was 5-7-1 to balance out my 1-3-10. It was high in calcium, but was the only food I could find last minute and we're trying not to pump to much more money into this operation. We decided to water with a whole gallon per plant today. We typically water every 4-7 days at 0.5-1 gallon per water. We let them dry out quite a bit then blast them. Seems to be working good so far with the exception of the yellowing.[/SIZE]
     
    [SIZE=12pt]After pictures and watering we took the pH of actual runoff and it's quite low. The stunted and yellowing plant are running at about 6.0 while the healthy plants are 6.3-6.5. We'll probably do a full flush in a few days.[/SIZE]
     
    Day_26-1.jpg
     
     
    Slight yellowing, not near as bad as the current yellowing plant.
     
    Day_26-2.jpg
     
    Day_26-3.jpg
     
    This is my favorite plant (well 1 of 2).
     
    Day_23-6.jpg
     
    Group photo!
     
    Day_26-4.jpg
     
    This little guy keeps on truckin'!
     
    Day_26-5.jpg
     
    Day_26-6.jpg
     
    Day_26-7.jpg
     
     
  10. Day 31
     
    We're 4.5 weeks into the cycle and they are finally budding up pretty nice. Today we did a full flush- close to 15 gallons per plant. They got the shower treatment, first foliar shower they've had. Drainage is pretty good except for the stunted plant. Yellowing is far worse on the one plant, expecting a low yield from that one.
     
    My yield is probably going to be less than my current estimate. I was thinking 16-22ounces for awhile, but if they are thinner buds I'm hoping 1-1.5ounces a plant. That would leave me with 10-15 ounces. Split two ways40/60 leaves me with 6-9 ounces of personal when it's all said and done.
     
    All we can do is leave them be and hope they swell some more. I'm concerned growth will stop the last 2-3 weeks for ripening and our buds wont get much bigger. Any thoughts?
     
    We'll need to label and name them all soon so we can keep track of seeds. Plan on organizing pictures, taste, etc. with names so we start our own catalog. I can see 2-3 plants that I'd like to keep around. I could buy seeds but they're expensive and mine seem to be feminized since they came from hermie (unless they're all hermie which seems to be the case). 
     
    Group Photo!
    Day_31-4.JPG
     
    Muh Sugar, oh My suga!
     
    Day_31-6.JPG
     
    This one is a bit more airy on the buds, low yeilder I'm assuming, but at least it's budding.
     
    Day_31-5.JPG
     
    Not the best photo, but a nice bud.
     
    Day_31-7.JPG
     
     
     
  11. Sorry the pics came out sideways and upside down. I can try to rotate them if anybody cares. I think it's a problem with my phone. 
     

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