Hi Everyone - I am starting my own grow log/journal now that I have all the components to begin. I bought the: LED + Hydro +Gro Pro fabric soil grow bags" stealth PC box (http://www.mrgrowpro.net) I got my distilled water (I was so lucky that the distilled water ph comes out of the bottle at 5.5 - 6.0) and I put my 1.5" rockwool cubes in the box to soak overnight. This morning, I'm going to germ some bag seeds before I try out my seeds from Attitude (so I don't waste my good beans on my first run), and I'm going to put the cubes with seeds in a Level 1 Plant Propagation Cloning Kit: Humidity Dome, Tray and Inserts! (http://amzn.to/148xRJi) I've read different germ methods, and some say that the germing needs to be done in darkness, others say it should be done in light. I decided I'm going to just put it on flat surface in my basement, where there's not a lot of visible light. What is the popular opinion with rockwool cubes? Do you need light or dark?
I have a couple questions, if anyone can help out. The LED lights that came with the case don't say what their range is, so I'm not sure how to go from growth stage to flowering stage. Are the lights the full spectrum? What's a good light schedule for a hydro setup with LED lights? Do you still do 18/6 for growth and 12/12 for flowering?
So my girls are coming up. Two of the 3 have white roots about 2 inches long, that sprouted from the bottom of the cube. I think they are doing pretty well considering I just dropped the seeds into the cubes one week ago today. I keep them in the humidity dome, only lightly moist on the tops of the cubes, no nutes, and I put the whole dome I'm the grow box with the LED light rails right on top of the clear dome. How long before I move them into the hydroton baskets and 1/4 strength nutes?
Day 8 (from germ) Transferred my cubes to the nets with hydroton rocks. Added 1 gallon of distilled water and 1/4 of the nutes Fox Farms Trio recommended (1/4tsp of Grow Big and 1/2tsp Big Bloom). Adjusted my pH to 5.8 and connected up the air stone. I have heard mixed opinions about the lights and how close they need to be. One person says LEDs need to be 18 inches away and another person says they can be as close as 3 inches from top leaves. Right now, the seedlings are on a 24/0 light schedule and I'm going to stay with it until flowing, and then switch to 12/12. Any suggestions?
Man there is a ton of stretch going on..!! I don't know anything about hydro or led but I know that they shouldn't be stretching that much Sent from my Nexus 4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
That's just the stretch from the germing. People told me to put the lights on them once they sprouted. That was after they were just a few days up from seed. Now that they are in their nets, I was thinking I should probably move them much closer to the lights, but other people said LESs should be 18 inches away. Anyone have any experience with LEDs?
Day 9 pH: 7.0 adjusted to 5.8 Nutes: was 160ppm; now 149 ppm Humidity: 53% Temp min: 70f Temp max: 75f I noticed that the top leaves are now sprouting leaves underneath them. I can also tell the the 1/4 strength Fox Farms Trio was a good choice since it seems that the plants are sucking them up without getting water. On Sunday, day 14, I will switch from 1/4 to half strength, or should I switch sooner?
Day 11 Topped off water and balanced pH. Water was a little high, 6.8pH so I dropped it back to 5.8. I also noticed that there has only been a slight drop in ppm, which, from what I've read, means that the girls aren't eating, just drinking. Two days ago, I was at ~150ppm, but today was 139ppm, so on Sunday, when I add more nutes, I'm going to up the mix to 1/2 strength Fox Farms Trio. I'm really concerned about nute burn so I'm starting out slowly. When should I top the plants?
Day 12 The stretching seems to have slowed down a bit now that the lights, humidity, pH, temps and nutes have all stabilized and now I'm starting to see new nodes growing under the tops. I'm still trying to figure out a few things so if you know or have opinions please free to comment. 1. How and when do I top them? 2. When are the plants officially ready to start the flowering stage? 3. Since these are the only seeds I got of these varieties, is cloning the only way to keep the plants after harvest? 4. How far should the plants be from the LED bars? Thanks again for any pointers or suggestions.
leds can be real close as they dont get hot so few inches should be good how many watts are they place your hand just above your plants lower the lights if your hand gets hot and uncomfortable raise light untill its fine for your hand agsin spectrum should be full should have more red than blue
Thanks man. I thought the same thing about the distance, and since the rails stay cool, I can prop the girls up to just a few inches away. The rails are 45w (3 rails total with a 2:1 ratio of red to blue). I was waiting to see if there was any curling of the leaves to see if light was a problem, but so far, roots are nice and white, stems are dark brown, almost black, nutes are being used properly and all levels are being maintained to ideals.
Day 15 Water levels look good, the increase in nutes hasn't caused any yellowing so the girls seem happy. I see some leaf curling but don't know if that's because of how they just grow or if that means the lights need adjusting. The light rails are about 18 inches above. The roots are now happily sprouting out the bottoms of the rockwool cubes, through the hydroton rocks and out the bottoms of the nets.
Looking good Im on my first led grow as well check it out i have some 180watt panels and im in my second week of flowering. http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/1225542-led-grow.html#entry18229540
Day 17 So today I decided that I was going to do a little upkeep because the water had dust in it. I did a dump and refill with 1 gallon of distilled water, 1 teaspoon of Fox Farms Grow Big Hydroponics and 2 teaspoons of Fox Farms Big Bloom Hydroponics. This brought my ppm to 400, which is still 1/3 less than Fox Farms recommendation, but I really am trying to avoid nute burn. I just watered the leaves, even though the baskets are 3/4 submerged in the reservoir mix. There are also several long white roots coming from each basket. Please feel free to give your opinion since this is my very first grow, not just my first LED / Hydro / SCROG grow. Anyone know when I top my girls? When do I lower my bath level so that the roots are just reaching it? When do I lower the SCROG fence and to how close do I put it from the tips?
Can anyone tell me why the edges of my leaves are starting to curl down? I've read a dozen different posts but none are really conclusive. Here's what my specs are right now: pH is between 5.7 and 5.8 ppm is around 405 Humidity: ~55% Temp Min: 68f Temp Max: 75f Water temp: ~68f Current mixture: 1 gallon of distilled water mixed with 1 teaspoon of Fox Farms Grow Big Hydroponics and 2 teaspoons of Fox Farms Big Bloom. This is what FF recommends for seedlings and germ'ing, so I thought that would be a good range, but from what I've read, some people think that the curling is from nute burn, others think that its nute lockout, and even some people think its too much light (running 24/0 right now). I don't have a CO2 system, and I'm running with my baskets still halfway in the water. I haven't figure out when I should take the baskets out of the water and just let the roots touch, but since my reservoir is only a galllon, I would have to drop it down to about 1/2 gallon so that my baskets don't touch and have an inch of air between the basket bottoms and the surface of the bath. Is it necessary to take the roots partially out of the water if the water has a bubbler?
Day 22 from seed I dropped the bath to half so that the roots would dangle in it rather than have the baskets sit directly in it. The girls seem to be doing good so far but ever since I ramped up the Fox Farms Trio to 400ppm, the girls started showing signs of nute burn. So, I trimmed the leaves with spots and backed off the solution to approximately 280ppm. I also lowered the reservoir to about 18 inches away from the LED rails and haven't noticed any leaf curling, so they should be fine at this distance. When am I supposed to put the SCROG fence over the girls, and how far is it supposed to go from the base and tops? What is the best method of trimming the burned leaves?
You can have your screen a few inches above the ladies if you like. I personally don't top, just train the hell out of it under the screen. Check out my minifridge grow......GC app was down for a bit, so if you'd like any pics of training, let me know. Breezy Sent from my XT907 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I'd love to see what you're doing for training. If I were to do it all over again, I wouldn't do the stealth pc grow because it's just too small, and would probably go the mini fridge route myself, but one question I have is how do you bring in fresh air to the mini fridge? I'm having the hardest time keeping the smell down now. Even tho my box has the carbon fiber over the vent fans and there's an Ono in the case, the smell is really strong, so I'm on the hunt for a better filter system.