Hello all! Been out of the city for a while, and things have changed a lot since my earlier grows. This new setup has been a learning experience this first round, mostly just trying to get everything dialed in. I've had some promising results, and felt I should share them with the community, so I'm back! I am currently running the following: 3'10" x 3'10" tent 357 Magnum LED lighting 6 rpm Light Rail Custom 8 Site Ebb & Aero Panasonic Whisperline 340 for exhaust I am running a total of ten plants, the genes of which came from seed I created during the last round of my former perpetual grow. I had used a couple dozen bagseed plants, from which I culled the males and the hermies during the first couple rounds of flowering. I continued thinning out the mothers basing my choices on how quickly clones rooted, how voraciously clones grew during veg, and the stone of the finished product. When I knew I had to shut down the op, I force hermied my last round of ladies by leaving them in flower a couple weeks past the chop date. A couple of the ladies grew balls, and gave me some seeds. My theory was that if all the genetics came from female plants, the offspring should be female. For this new grow, I planted 12 of these seeds. All of them pushed out strong female preflowers during veg, complete with little pistols. Maybe I got lucky, but it worked. Slowly the weak plants were eliminated from the grow, and I ended up with the final ten I've got now. The first pic is a diagram showing which plant is where. Plants in blue squares are in hydro, plants in tan squares are in dirt. Plants with a P before the number started from seed, plants with a C started as clones. The number designates the plant number, so I can keep my phenotypes in check. As you can see, number 2 is clearly the strongest. All seeds were started at the same time, and the clones from this plant passed all those started from seed (aside from their mother). She's earned her place as my mother for my next round, and needs a name... The second pic shows part of the canopy at a little past 2 weeks of flowering, the third pic shows an average bud at 2 weeks. The fourth and fifth pic show my setup, and a sideshot of the canopy under the red LEDs. I'll try to keep future posts a little more to the point now that you're all caught up, lol. Any comments or questions are welcome, more pics to come, as these are from last Sunday.
Thanks man, and welcome. Here's the three and a half week update, lots of pictures! Any pics where the plants look normal green are taken with the lights off, only way to see the real color. Any of the pics with the funky colors are taken while the lights are still on. The first four pics are budshots from a few different plants, both with the lights on, and the lights off. You can see they're already starting to get pretty frosty. If you've got time, check out the first two full size, they turned out pretty well. The fifth and sixth pics show the canopy, lights off. You can see there is some burning there... I didn't have fresh R/O water and they were drinking a TON. Nutes got strong, caused some leaves to claw, and a few others to burn. Some leaves also suffered damage due to a pump problem I had mid-week. Being that these are aeroponic, they need a consistent watering schedule. Fourth pic is predominantly Plant #2, these are my best plants and weathered the issues last week very well. The fifth pic shows almost all the canopy. In the foreground you can see the foliage is much weaker. These are the other two plants in the ebb and aero which started as seed. They have been weaker the entire grow, and did not fair as well with the issues I've had. The last pic is a side view of the canopy, lights on. Plant #2 is mostly on the left side, the weaker plants are on the right. You can see they haven't gotten nearly as tall, or as thick. Stems and buds on these are much smaller in relation. Hopefully they improve as flowering continues. I may do without the scrog next time and just let them go, or maybe put screws in the pvc fittings they rest in for lst. That way I can still remove them and inspect roots, just in case watering needs to be adjusted as root mass increases. Currently I run 30 min off, 15 min on during lights on, 75 min off, 15 min on during lights off. Took a while to dial in on the setting, but plants showed most vigorous growth through all of veg with this timing.
Try turning the panels to veg spectrum and place a good pair of polarized sunglasses over the lens of the camera, it helps take better pictures without needing to turn off the lights.
I did try with the veg lights, but not with polarized lenses. I can get a filter for my camera though, so maybe next pay check I'll invest in that. Thanks for the advice.
Starting to get impatient with my Critical Sensi Star clone... Had her in dirt, which I'm no good with to begin with. Add to that the negligence of my grow partner, and I had a very sick plant. Decided to clone her, basically cut her off a couple inches from the soil, to make her a mother for my next round. As a backup, I took a cut from P2 a week into 12/12. The clones are kept in the same tent as the mother critical sensi was, so suffered the same negligence. The pumps kept clogging on the aero cloner, and my partner failed to check up on them, AT ALL. Very frustrating. Anyhow, my new c2 mom is throwing roots like crazy, despite the abuse. She's still in the cloner, on nothing but water, for three weeks now. Despite that, she's growing quite well. I've been waiting on roots from the CSS, and it's just not happening. Showing all the signs for the last week, but no results yet. I need her to throw so I can transfer them both to their veg setup! dammit... Maybe I'll get some pics up tomorrow night. They're two sad looking ladies, and the CSS is running out of time. Really don't want to go back to seed with her, but I may not have a choice. Really need to get the c2 mother on nutes soon.
All right, almost four weeks in flower, and just a quick update. Pics of clones later... gotta get a better one of janedoe. This is p2's name until we get our first taste of her, and we know her true identity. A couple of pics. They are of the flower tent, it appears that the four corner plants are all quite weak. They aren't getting enough light because the fixture currently doesn't come all the way to the edge of the tent. I have to get the other rail set up, and set the stops further out. I decided to lower the light again, by just a couple inches, to try to get them stronger light. Tied two of the taller tops down, they would have likely bleached otherwise. Once the other rail is set up, I may raise the lights again to keep the footprint a little larger so the other edges don't get deprived. The buds at the screen in the center have been looking good even 14" below the light.
Ok, I said I'd post them, so here they are... Be forwarned, these are not pretty! One of the clones is Critical Sensi Star, fem'd. She was supposed to be the matriarch of my next round, after debugging with the seeds I'd saved. As a solution, I opted to cut her off at the ankles, and get her into hydro. Figured once I had her cloned and in a system, she'd be easier to take care of. As a backup I cut a c2 clone a week into flower, in case the CSS didn't make it. The pump clogged several times over the first two weeks after these were cut. Sometimes going more than 48 hrs without water. Personally, I'm suprised they survived at all. As you can see, they lost most their leaves. They dried to a crisp over and over during their mini droughts, then fell apart. First pic shows CSS on the left, and Mary Jane Doe on the right. MJD will be what she's called until the smoke report, and we know her true identity. Second couple of pics are of CSS. I was beginning to LST while she was still in the flower tent (before the flip to 12/12), which is why she's bent over and all the branches go one direction. If you look close, you can see her one tiny little root starting to form after a nice dose of Clonex last night. Used a little syringe to put about a mL of gel around the base of the stem to let it run down and be absorbed. Last two pics are MJD. Her first shot is blury, my camera didn't focus on the bright green. I got impatient, I'll manual focus next time, lol. She's pushed out four sets of leaves in the last 7 or 8 days, and grown the roots you see in the last shot. Very glad I saved this plant.
Great job with that...I would have just trashed her Good root system going on too, that clonex gel does work wonders. I usually keep a satchet of it nearby...I need to start buying the bottles
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hydrofarm2011, you've been reported. Just because I grow with LED does not mean I want your advertising. Peddle your wares elsewhere.
Crazy thing is MJD didn't get any gel at all... all the roots, and the foliage, are just the water. The CSS is the one giving me problems, so she got the extra nutes. That being said, Clonex is by far the most effective cloning solution I've used. Tried a few different brands, but this one produces the most consistent results.
CSS finally showing roots. The little white nub in her last photos grew to a quarter inch, and she's got a few more ready to sprout. Going to try to get MJD into my mini setup this weekend, let the CSS get a little better root structure. At least when she's ready I can just drop her in. This is very good news for my next round of flowering.
MJD's roots were getting a little wild in the cloner, and her neon green leaves are just screaming for nitrogen. She's finally been moved into my small 8 site prototype, which will be used to veg rooted clones before transplanting to the flower tent. Until I have my setup made for my mothers though, this will have to do. CSS's root grew only the tiniest amount, after I got so excited for it too. The other little white bumps are swelling though, and it looks like a couple could be roots themselves within the next few days. I hope she's got enough leaf matter left to gain the strength she'll need for her transplant, the sooner the better.
Me too! Glad to have you along. Checked in on the clones this morning, MJD is doing well in her new home on half strength nutes. She's had some great root growth, and I'm expecting the foliage to catch up a bit soon. Once she strengthens up, she'll be topped, then LST'd. CSS is still slacking... Day thirty of 12/12, about six weeks to go, based on the mothers of the seeds (peaked around 10.5 weeks). Got some new pics today. First three are budshots, last two are of the canopy. The buds are really starting to get frosty, really hope to see them pack on some weight soon. All the shots are with the lights on.
Thanks man! Good news and bad. Good news: CSS popped a second root today, and has a small bunch ready to sprout at any time. Once they come out, I'll give you all a picture update. Bad news: pump went out on the setup I just put MJD into. Luckily I caught it right away. Roots were withered, but after soaking for a minute, they perked right back up, no discoloration or anything. Going to check again in an hour to see if the leaves have regained their strength as well.
A couple minutes doesn't hurt... hours would though Good thing you caught it! Thats one of the reasons I don't use hydroponics..
Most likely it was a couple hours. My pump for that setup runs fifteen on, fifteen off, at least until the root mass is large enough to hold more moisture. Believe it or not, pumps rarely go out. The most problems I've had was this last round of cloning, but that was just the sprayer getting clogged. My actual veg and flower setups don't have any misters or sprayers, they operate like an ebb and flow. The big difference is that I don't use any media, except the hydroton in the netpots. This pretty much ensures that nothing can inhibit the flow of water to and from the plants. Hydro, to me, is a lot easier to maintain. I like being able to check my nutrient levels and pH at will, and fine tune as I please. When things do go wrong, they can get bad quickly, but are usually pretty easy to turn around.