240w LED + CFL BB:- n00b attempt #1

Hi guys,

Welcome to my first attempt at growing anything seriously, besides the number of beers i can drink before making a dick of myself.

As such I welcome all input and constructive advice you may have.

My setup consists of the following:-

Mylar grow tent 0.9m x 0.5m x 1.6m

Lights = 1 x 240w Lighthouse LED, x3 27w CFL 6700k x1 40w 6700k (can run up to 8, 4 either side), x1 15w Ionic CFL. (All CFL's will be swapped to 2500k or whatever they are in flower)

Ventilation: x1 125m Cent fan 80w with speed control (I think it does about 150CFM on high), x1 125mm Odor sock. Passive intake 125mm, x1 125mm inline fan 21w (this is currently raised just off the ground to aid circulation and try to keep temps down.)

Growing Media: x2 20L BB with clay balls.

Aeration: x1 dual outlet 4w pump with 2 large bubble discs attached in bucket 1. x1 2w single outlet pump with x2 bubble stones connected in tub 2. Both pumps are connected to a UPS built into power board.

Nutes: None yet but i have some Canna on standby, your typical Veg A & B, Flower A & B and some extra steroids for different stages of growth.

Extras: PH and EC wands, PH up and Down and normal calibration solutions. Motivation, this stuff is fun! I think I found a new hobby! Thermometers. Digital Timers (mechanical are shit!)

Seeds: x1 White Rhino (Bucket 1), x1 Random Skunk (Bucket 2), x1 Balcony Survivor (AKA The Trooper, queue Iron Maiden riff here)

Background:- I smoke and i have for many years, actually I now Vap and love it and have given up the cigs as well! I am just sick of having to do missions to get the shit and I thought WTF not, cleared and rearranged some stuff and made it happen. Bear in mind, i am in a 1bd apartment and have literally commandeered 3/4 of my bedroom cupboard for this setup, i live by myself so only me to worry about (you get used to the noise of the exhaust, about the same level as my air con).


And so the adventure begins.........

<I haven't figured out how to thumbnail, so any advice on how to do it would be great!>



Tent from outside closet (no rotation available, your stoned, just imagine its upright)


Tent Open


View from atop, White Rhino on the left, random skunk on the right and The Trooper at the bottom (Dnelelenahanahanahanahaaa, my attempt at a riff)

You will also notice the temps here if you are observant, it gets hot here, high temps are 36c lowish 24c in tent and humidity is pretty consistent at 38-50 range, mainly around 40%. Temps will lower as winter comes around.


Top of the tent, bit messy with cords, but best i could do with given patience, was actually contemplating trying to move it out of tent, but then i would have to make new light cords and thats annoying,if im lucky or stupid enough to let my plants get right to the top of the tent, then i might think about it.



And the The Trooper.

This chick has been through some shit, she started on the balcony in October 2010 as a seed in the pot you see her in, nothing special just some potty mix and water and lots of TLC, well most of the time anyway. She was struggling due to a pretty shit sunless summer and almost went to THC heaven when i went away for 2 weeks and left her to her own devices (Luckily i didnt leave the keys to the Bugatti behind) She has been under the new sun that she calls LED for 10 days now and with some nutes added very lightly, she has already grown 1/3 of her original size and is sprouting new zones daily, go trooper!

So that's where I am at, as i said any advice and so forth is fully welcome, i will especially need some when it comes time to top and do all this magic stuff to fully utilize the canopy and tent space.

Edited by Devils, 17 February 2011 - 12:21 PM.

Looks good, I love seeing these CFL/LED hybrid grows and the results they can pull.

I love it...looks like fun

Why the net pot in a net pot?

posted this on your other thread but it can go here as well.

Being my very first grow, im still learning. I am "trying" to do a bubble buckets, the net cup in net cup is something i saw on another thread, but probably doing it wrong like most things.

From germination, I put them in rockwool and had them sitting in the middle net with a small layer of balls, with the water just below the bottom of the big net cup and small layer of balls between the two nets. The larger net holds the balls on the outside to stop light getting in to the res and as the plant grows up i slowly raise the clay ball level with it in the small pot. I was just having trouble getting the plants to grow properly using single net pot.

Idea being to get the roots into the water ASAP.

Edited by Devils, 21 February 2011 - 11:34 AM.

Today we have some nice roots breaking the base and reaching for some sustenance.

Did weekly res change today and all looking good, did notice a slightly slimy feeling on the air hoses so could be minor algae, not sure how as res is lightproof, well im pretty sure it is.

White Rhino: at day 20 from seed

Random Skunk: At day 13 from seed.


White Rhino


White Rhino Roots


Random Skunk


Random Skunk Roots

Well 4 days has seen some rapid growth on the skunk roots while the rhino is slowly plodding along.


Rhino


Rhino Roots


Skunk


Rapid growth in just 4 days

Things are looking pretty good!

Anyone able to shed light on what may be causing the yellowing of the tips on the Rhino?

I have not added any nutes as yet and was planning on starting with a a very small amount tomorrow with res change.

I do a DWC top feed with hydroton. With both my past and present grow, i got some yellowing of the lower leaves as the root systems developed. Two weeks and they bounce back strong. Are you doing 1/4 or 1/2 strength nutes when you change the res?

I did 1/4 nutes yesterday.

6ml Canna Veg A, 6ml Veg B and 8ml Rhyzatonic in 15ltr of water, this was done for both buckets.

They seem great this morning and really sucking it up, have several new roots breaking from the base of both pots as well.

PPM was at about 220 and PH is at 5.9.

Looking good mate!

I will be keeping an eye on this one. Im about to start a grow with very similar setup as you.

But my lighting will be 2x 130W 6400K fluros and 1X 400W HPS. Will be using all light all through the grow

Got some Canna Veg and Bloom.

some nice growth today, things are starting to get interesting with the daily changes.

Rhino on the right, skunk left.

Well had to do another res change today for the Rhino as there appeared to be more algae on the air pipe.

Gave the tub and hoses a good scrub with some Isopropyl and replaced with fresh water.

Also gave a new dose of nutes and upped the dosage a little bit more than last time.

To 15ltr of water i put:
30ml combined Veg A and B
15ml Rhizo
20ml Cannazyme
EC came out at 0.8 (bout 600-700PPM)
PH down to 5.5

Roots have gone nuts as well!

Nice work!! Just subed will be following your grow

Well bugger me, damn we have seen some strong growth today, these chicks are just sucking this goodness up and swallowing it whole!! (and i dont think they look like gagging either!!)

Just wish i could get the skunk to stretch some more! Mental note to self, for next time.

that net pot in a net pot thing is weird... good to see its working out

the plants look great... get that light nice and close...

keep the updates coming

Well I haven't given any attention to the ladies for the past couple of days and again we have rapid growth occurring with the Rhino.

Also just got myself a 125mm Phat Filter, just don't have much confidence in the odor sok, read some horror stories about them and the last thing i need in my situation is an odor failure while I am at work, I do have an Ionic light globe in the room and also an wall mounted Ionizer for the main living area just for a bit of backup, but still...

PH has also been adjusted today down from 6.5 back to 5.8.

Also, I want your guys opinion on something, I am thinking of fimming and maybe super cropping later in the cycle, when should i fim? another couple of inches growth?

i wanna try hydro? i love my cfls!!!

For my setup, the light only lowers max 18" from the top of the pot. I let the plants grow until they're 10"-12" tall before i start topping so the "bushy" parts are in the more optimal lumen range of 4"-8" from the 400w HPS cooltube.

I ended up removing a lot of the lower branches early the first trial because they stopped getting enough light to produce and were cesspools for PM. This time i'm going to take them off earlier and use them for clones

Do you know the genetics of those two strains? (S/I)

The Rhino is a Indica/Sativa Hybrid, not sure what the other one is, is was given to me as seed from a friend.