1st Grow: The tale of 2 Stunted Hemlocks - 6 months in veg, now in flower

Discussion in 'Organic Grow Journals' started by RUSH Fanatic, Mar 18, 2015.

  1. #1 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 18, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2015
    This is a tale of my two Stunted Hemlock plants and their rescue and recovery.
     
    It's pretty much your typical newbie story, a couple seeds in a cup size germination globe things in a closet. Store bought soil and off the shelf GE Grow Light. The story has what is turning out to be a good ending however!
     
    The seeds broke dirt just about October 1st, 2014. Everything started off ok, no great expectations. After a couple weeks, transplanted them to a larger pot, same bad dirt and another off the shelf grow light... still under the newbie-fog that I was doing what I needed. It wasn't until a couple weeks into November I got a local friend that grows and gave me some of his own organic dirt. Right away the plants reacted well, but I still did not have the right light. By now it's Xmas 2014 and after a couple blown out GE bulbs, and many Amazon "points", I bought the Apollo 180w LED and boy did the Stunted Hemlocks love that!!!
     
    Jan 2015, the two Stunted Hemlocks go into full recovery, and I get the itch! But that's a different thread. (see my Album in my sig).
     
    Jump to today, Mar 17, 2015, and the Hemlocks have been in 12/12 flower for a full week and looking good! Both female!
     
    I'll surely take photos once a week and post to this thread. I'm figuring a good 65-75 days in 12/12, so a ways to go yet before the real excitements starts.
     
    Current 1 Week Flower PICS:
    View attachment 153323
    View attachment 153457
    View attachment 153459
    View attachment 153460
    View attachment 153461
    View attachment 153458
     

    Late Jan Pics:
    View attachment 151792
    View attachment 151795
     
     

     
  2. 1st of the 2 Mars I 300w LEDs arrived yesterday, the other comes today.
     
    Let the grow rack(s) reconfig begin. [​IMG] 
     
    Crank it up! 
     
    Like a flower in the desert
    That only blooms at night
    I will quietly resist
    #RUSH, Snakes & Arrows, Faithless (2007)
     
    [​IMG] 
     
  3. #3 Peflora, Mar 18, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2015
    Subbed!
     
    What's exciting for me is to see how fast you realized there has to be better leds
     
    A good grower with average leds will often produce better results than a bad grower with quality lights
     
    Anything I can do to help, just ask
     
  4. Thanks!
     
    I'm about to create a 2nd Grow thread for my Blue Dream starts that are in the Nursery. With the new Mars 300w leds, I was able to move the 180w UFO led into the Nursery to use in combo with the CFLs. [​IMG]
     
    50-something RUSH Fanatic on his first grow attempts, sounds crazy I know. Can you be an old newbie? [​IMG]  
     
  5. bang bang bang...
     
    2nd Grow: Did I have a Dream...
     
    I replaced the 180w URO LED that was on the Hemlocks with the newly arrived Mars I 300w today. Moving the UFO back to the nursery on the 2nd Grow Blue Dream sprouts. [​IMG] 
     
  6. suybbed up :D

    Chef.
     
  7. Thanks Chef.
     
    2nd Mars I 300w getting installed tonight. Trimmed just a couple of the dying fans, Old Girls are growing up nicely [​IMG]
     
  8. Mars II 300? That a new one, never heard of that one you see :)

    Or do you mean 400.


    Chef.
     
  9.  
     
    Nope, Mars I. 2 of them from smokesara for under $200 shipped, couldn't pass it up.
     
  10. ok, was way too tired to fuss with the 2nd 300w led last night. but I did make the effort to get some BAS Build A Flower Top Dress on the way [​IMG]   gonna try their hand packed Seedling Soil as well for shits and giggles. The wife has dibs on some of it for non-MJ use, I suppose she can have some! [​IMG]
     
     
    Time to install more LED!
     
  11. #11 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 21, 2015
    I added the 2nd Mars "I" 300w LED today.
     
    The veg/flower rack light configuration goes left to right:
    Mars 300w, Apollo 240w, Mars 300w. With the Mars lights angled from the sides.
     
    slanted leds thing, good idea, bad idea? comments welcome! [​IMG] 
     
    any thoughts on when I should be cutting back the fan leaves? The Old Girls are just finished with 2 weeks of 12/12, but keep in mind LED changes since they went 12/12 and the fact that the are indeed Old Girls, 6 months old! [​IMG] 
     
    PICS:
    View attachment 153707
    View attachment 153708
     
  12. I gave the Old Girls a trim this morning. All the big fan leaves are gone, nice bucket of leaves! 
     
    Last mod to my cabinet(s) today, need another vent for the exhaust fan to pull in more cool air now that I have 3 LEDs in there. 89 degrees when I opened it.
     
  13. Hey Rush, subb'd for the ride!
     
    I can't quite tell how you've set up your tents exhaust, but your intakes should be on the bottom and your exhaust on the top. This effectively exhausts the naturally rising warm air, intakes the naturally cool air from outside of the tent, as well as passes the cool, fresh air past the plants. I see a lot of growers on the forums putting their scrubber right on the floor or near the bottom and that can have a bigger impact than intake volume alone.
     
    I don't think your lamps being on an angle is bad inherently, but something to keep in mind is the general footprint of the light. Having all of them right next to each other will create a bit of a hot zone, but will condense the footprint and should increase the lumens reaching leaves overall. One way of addressing the heat issue could be channeling airflow past the lamps with a single highish cfm fan. As long as air is blowing on the lamps helping the heat dissipate, it should spread the heat around, bringing up the ambient temperature. I have a speed controller on my exhaust fan and a couple of vents on the bottom of my tent with micro air filters (for pollen/dust/dander/etc), and the speed controller works as a thermostat. It was about $30 shipped but very much worth it. Right now, it's running at about 15% of its capacity. It's for a very small tent, but I'm glad I've got head room come flower time when I've got more bulbs running!

     
     
  14. #14 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 21, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 21, 2015
     
    Thanks newhollander!
     
    I have a Lighthouse Exhaust Fan + 4"x14" Hydro Filter Combo. Amazon buy... I have two vents on the bottom of my grow racks, one about 4" round, and another maybe 4"x10". No filters on the intake vents. 
     
    The exhaust fan itself is on top of my grow rack, and the flexible alum vent tube runs down the left of the rack. The actual carbon filter is about 8 inches off the floor of the rack.
     
    Are you saying the filter should also be closer to the top of my grow rack? In this photo(old photo btw), you can see where I'm running the flex vent down the left side of the cabinet. If so, I can see how that would make sense... and can go right down and fix it  [​IMG]
     
    View attachment 152830
     
    I do need to add a 2nd circulation fan, now that I have 3 LEDs running.  Good idea on the speed controller and fans on the intake vents. [​IMG]
     
     
    Updated pics of the trimmed Old Girls in a bit.
     
  15. #15 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 21, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 21, 2015
  16. #16 newhollander, Mar 22, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 22, 2015
    Yep, you want to suspend that carbon filter as high as you can. I've got some pictures I can't seem to link from the phone app, but they're in my user gallery. I just took some paracord I had lying around and tied both ends to the top bar of my tent.

    As for the fans, I would get probably one big or two small ones today if you can. The lifespan of the LEDs should be longer the cooler you keep them theoretically, and with 3 lamps in a small space it sounds like they could use it.

    I'm still just doing my veg, so I'm just a few paces behind you!
     
  17. I gotcha, thanks!
     
    I moved it to the upper 1/3 of my rack today. updated PICs coming...
     
    Love the stealth cabinet! [​IMG]
     
  18. #18 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 23, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 23, 2015
     
     
    Here's an updated pic of the carbon filter location, moved it to the top 1/3 of the rack. 
     
    View attachment 153771
     
    My actual exhaust fan is hidden on top of the rack, semi-stealth. [​IMG] 
     
    View attachment 153772
     
    These are the two racks side-by-side. Veg/Flower on left, Nursery on the right.
     
    View attachment 153769
     
  19. #20 RUSH Fanatic, Mar 23, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 23, 2015

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