Icemuds Advanced LED XTE grow: BIG POTS, Harlequin, Ogiesel, Black Chery cola.

Hello everyone!!!

I am back with my ???? maybe 11th grow and I have something new to try for this grow. If you have followed me or seen any of my past grows, you always see me growing 6 plants in 5 gallon plastic pots. I've always had good success this way and usually average around 1lb per grow in my 2.5'x5'x7' hydrohut tent.

I was thinking back to that old saying... the larger the roots, the bigger the fruits... or something like that... and I've also been recommended by Docbud to increase my pot size for larger yields and better success with my High Brix focused soil.... so finally I decided its time to do this. So I went out and purchased 10 gallon smart pots.

I've used smaller smart pots in the past, and really liked them as my plants seemed really happy and I yielded very nicely with them, however, the only drawback I didn't like was cleaning them after the grow... Oh well the advantages outweigh the disadvantages so I decided F-it. I'm going big or going home??? lol I'm going big at home! haha

So my goal is to see what my plants yield with larger pots this grow and I am hoping to see a big increase in my Gram per watt and individual plant weight. Since I have grown each of these strains numerous times, I have some good data to compare to so we will see what happens...

Anyhow, I hope you all join along for the fun....

Here's the details:


What strain is it?

Harlequin:

Ogiesel:

Black Cherry Cola:


Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
These strains are all hybrids....



Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
The girls have been vegging for months under my Advanced LED EX-VEG 200's. I will be vegging them for about 3 weeks under the 3x XTE 300's with only the white/blue channel on, and then the last week before flowering I will turn on the red channel of all 3 lights. Total veg time for these plants is anywhere from 3 months to about 1 year. They are my mothers. I will be cloning all of them and making sure they root before I flip these plants to flowering.



If in Veg... For how long?

They are my mothers so probably vegged from anywhere from 3 months to over 1 year.

If in Flower stage... For how long?

Not in flowering yet, but very soon.


Indoor or outdoor?
Indoors.


Grow Area Description and equipment
Each grow tent is a Hydrohut silver edition 2x4' tent. Actual measurements are larger and each tent measures approx 2.5'x5'x7'. Each tent is equipped with a large carbon filter, 6" fan on a manual variable speed controller. Intake air is sucked into the tent by the negative pressure and let in the lower portion of the tent on each side. Also the flowering tent is equipped with 2 circulation fans...one on an intake hose at ground level, and the other on the roof of the tent blowing downwards. Lights are daisy chained together and power is run through a digital timer. Lighting is done by 3x Advanced LED XTE 300 LED grow lights.

 
Size of light?
I will be using 3x Advanced LED XTE 300 LED grow lights. Each light has an actual draw of around 250W (+/- 5W) so the grows total draw is around 750W. Each light is rated for a total coverage of 3.5'x4' and optimal lighting in the size of 3'x3'.
 

 
 
 
For more information on these lights you can either visit Advanced LED at
XTE Series LED Grow Light - USA Made 5w LEDs - Advanced LED Grow Lights
 
 
 
Is it aircooled?
The lights are cooled by individual fans to keep case temps down...the fans also have a dust screen to help keep the insides of the lights clean.
The tent is cooled by a 6" hydrofarm fan hooked to a large carbon scrubber mounted at the top of my grow tent.


Soil or Hydro?
Soil.... recycled and reused soil.


If soil... what is in your mix?
This is about a 5th generation soil, probably about 2 years old now. I recycle it each grow into a big bin with other cooking soil, add some amendments and let it cook. Since I don't have ratios anymore that I can mention, I will just say what is in the mix.

The Base Soil Mix:

ProMix HP
Worm Castings
Volcanic Pumice
Alaskan Forest Humus

The Amendments:
Azomite (trace minerals and micronutrients)
Calcium Carbonate Powder 97%
Soft Rock Phosphate (Collidal Clay with high phosphorus and CEC value)
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
Crab Meal 2-3-0 23% calcium(also a P source and source of chitin a hormone/growth regulator)
Fish Bone meal. (3-18-0) 24% Calcium
Lava Sand (adds trace minerals and supposedly adds paramagnetic value to the soil)
Crab Shell Meal 2-3-0 23% Calcium
Kelp Meal (also has growth hormones and PGR's, plus trace minerals)
Alfalfa Meal. (2-0-3) (contains Trichontinol which aids in plant growth and health)
Powdered Humic Acid (Adds Carbons to the soil as well as trace minerals and aids in chelation of minerals)
Humboldt Myco's Maximum (Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrizae Fungus)
Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate)
Greensand (0-0-3) (Trace Minerals)
Dry Molasses (1-0-3) (Energy for the Microbes)


 
 
If soil... What size pot?
It is soil, and the pots are #10 smartpots (10 gallon) and I think there actually larger than 10 gallons..





Temp of Room/cab?
usually my ambient temps stay between 75F-85F



RH of Room/cab?
my RH typically stays right around 50% but sometimes (rarely) the winds come off the desert and dry the RH down to 10% or less.


PH of media or res?
I don't check PH..


Any Pests ?
Nope...none
I do use a few preventative measures to make sure it stays this way..
I grow high brix, so typically pests don't go for high brix plants.
I spray in veg with spinosad which pretty much prevents any pests from wanting to breed
I use yucca extract in soil and foliar sprays which also seems to be a great pest deterrent.


How often are you watering?
I water every day to every other day, only 1 cup of water for small vegging plants and 2 to 2 1/2 cups of water for larger vegging and flowering plants.

Type and strength of ferts used?

Using foliar products including Bloomit, Amaze and PGR.
I also will be using Tand J enterprises tea and bio-minerals
about 1x per month I will be giving a soil drench of earthjuice

Other nutrients on hand include and may be used:
occasional additive include advanced nutrients: carboload, organic b, fulvic acid
occasional additives include general organics: bioweed, cal/mag, hydrolyzed squid, florablend tea, bioroot
bonide liquid fish 2-4-0...love this stuff!
SNS pest products for prevention
Spinosad by bonide

 

So today is the start of my new grow.

I cleaned my tent, washed the inside tray and sprayed it with lysol, let it dry and got to work. I first hung the Advanced LED XTE's in the tent and moved them all the way to the top. I also cleaned off the dust that was on them from the last grow. I have to figure out how to remove the dust covers because the could use a little cleaning

I then purchased some #10 smartpots and took my 3 plants that were in veg, harlequin, OGiesel and black cherry cola and removed them from their 5 gallon square plastic pots and put them into the new 10 gallon smartpots. I think these smartpots hold more than 10 gallons because after putting the plant in, it too almost 2 more 5 gallon pots full of soil to fill the smartpots, so I would almost estimate they are closer to 15 gallon pots.

The plants health was not the greatest as it is extremely difficult to see deficiencies in the all blue LED light from the EX VEG panels they were under, so I am going to let them regain health as well as let the roots sprall for a few weeks before I put them into flower. This will also give me time to take clones and make sure they root before the flip.

As far as feeding, I will have to adjust slightly to the larger pots so I still plan on starting at around 1-2 cups per day and seeing how that works for a while. I may have to slightly up the volume of feedings because of the smartpots porous structure which may allow water to evaporate quicker. But only time will tell.

So here are the girls today! in their new pots and new home!!!
 

 

New grow video for the new grow!
 
https://youtu.be/qDguWiDuwoI

 

Thanks Gingerb!
 
Yea I have the XTE's as high as they will go in my tent. They are so bright that getting proper intensity is not an issue, I'm just going to let the plants grow up to them

 

Yeah I definitely do i wear some UV blocking safety glasses even though there is very little/no UV, it helps dim the light

 

Hey everyone....
 
I am leaving for another business trip so I will update when I get back....Not much has changed since the first set of photos. The plants are still in shock from transplanting, cutting the roots, switching from all blue spectrum to full spectrum and new soil so they are still in their period of shock and haven't grown much. I do notice that the leaves are starting to get good posture again, so thats a good sign, but I know when I get back in a week, there will be a much more noticable difference. Really happy to have 10 gallon smart pots for trips...less worry about water
 
Chicago here I come!

 

 
 
Did you mean calcium carbonate? I typically use 3 things together in my soil...... a ratio of 6-5-3 of calcium carbonate:soft rock phosphate: gypsum
 
to this I also add azomite
 
I also use low amounts of milk in my foliar sprays sometimes in veg, which I believe contains calcium triphosphate.
 
Calcium is good for the cell growth as it should be considered a macronutrient to an extent.

 

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the long delay...

Just got back from Chicago and got a chance to update the journal. By the way check out my last journal for some cured nug shots, link is below.

So I had a great trip in Chicago, which is my hometown so it was good to see some familiar things, eat local food and also see my folks

Now that I am back my ladies are looking better. During my trip I didn't flood the soil but I did make sure there was a plentyful amount of water in the soil to cover the 5 days I was gone. Man I don't miss my HPS days worrying about fires every day lol I turned off the red channel on the lights to keep them cooler and also so they didn't dry up while I was gone and everything went well.

When I got home I brewed up some earthjuice tea along with some synthetic dogget simpson grow and fed the girls. I also gave them a foliar feeding with some pgr and amaze along with a 1/4 dose of the tea as well.

Well things are looking good as the new growth is forming however my harlequin and black cherry cola are still recovering from their deficiencies but all the new growth looks really healthy. I am trying to keep the waterings to a low until the roots really stretch out and fill the pots so I will only be giving them 2 cups a day until I know they are well rooted in their soil.

From here on out, I will be using the blue channel on full and the red channel on 1/2 until the plants get larger in which I will then turn up the red channel.

Well not much else to report on as of now...Here are some pics...
 

 

Thanks for joining the party!! I'm sure this grow will make for a fun ride

 

Yup! thats the stuff pair it with some gypsum and calcium carbonate and you will see some good changes also azomite over on the other forum im on, they commonly refer to it at as the ratio the 6-5-2.

What up! glad to have ya here