I started my first Hydro grow a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to start this thread a little sooner, but my camera broke. Luckily, I got a new camera for Christmas so I can show where I'm at and hopefully get some pointers along the way. That being said, here is my setup. Mandala Hashberry seeds 3 - 40 Watt Cool White Fluorescent Tubes approx. 2" from the tops of the plants Advanced Nutrients Micro, Grow, Bloom I put the seeds in a paper towel to germinate on December 5th. I then put them into 1" rockwool to sprout under 18/6 lighting. Once they outgrew the 1" cubes, I put them in 3" cubes. I was shocked at how fast the roots outgrew the 3" cubes, so I moved them into 2 gallon grow bags with rockwool 1/2" cubes. They are now (On day 23) getting fed approx. 700 PPM of nutes 3 times a day, 6 hours apart. I was feeding them 4 times a day, but the leaves started to sag so I dropped the feeding during the dark hours. The only problem I have noticed is getting the nutrients correct. I started at 200 PPM, then 400, and now I have raised them to the full 800 that is reccomended in the 1st vegetative week. The problem is that when I use AN's nute calculator, and add the reccomended dosages of nutes, I never get the PPM's that they reccomend. I am guessing that this is because I am not adding the various supplements listed on the calculator, but the plants seem to be healthy, so I didn't want to mess with them until I got some advice. I know I am probably missing a bunch of details, but hopefully everyone can look at these pics and tell me how I am doing...
Looks great!!I think youl love HB its a great strain and easy to grow.Im on my second HB grow right now my self,also ebb and flow and this is what you have to look forword to in the not so distant futer. if I may.I would sugest using GH flora series nutes.For fluorescents youl need 5ml per gallon micro and 10 ml per gallon Bloom youl also need a tad cal/mag.its called the lucas formula.(his recommendations for florecents) If your going to flower under the Fluorescents I would sugest going to flower right away as they are not intense enough to cover very tall plants.also HB grows incredibly thick leaves wich will easily block much of the light to the lower part of the plant.best of luck!! PS I noticed your using the mini rockwool cubes for your medium watch out for salt build up!!!
Thanks. I will actually be flowering under a 400W HPS. Do you think that the fluorescents will be enough when they get a little bigger in the vegetative state, if I add a few CFLs on the side? I also had one other question... One leaf on one of my plants is starting to become discolored in the last day. It is also curling around the edges (See pic). What do you think is causing this? I figure that it is better to check into it while it is happening to one leaf, rather than all of them. As far as the salt buildup goes, should I be flushing them periodically? If so, how often? Sorry the pic is a little blurry, but I think you will see what I'm referring to.
You want advice on flushing etc, check out a few of these videos: http://www.greenhouseseeds.nl/shop/index.php?target=pages&page_id=ghgrowdvd ..they cover temps, ph, flushing etc etc GL man!
that looks like the beginning of nute burn.lighten your mix abit.also Id take a look at this thread https://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892 I learned alot in that thread.you should be able to veg under the fluorescents fine.test your run off water after a flood and see what the ppms of your run off water is.I suspect the mini rock wool cubes are holding nutes.next time go with strait hydroton youl be happier.when I do fush I use a tec called low ec flush.instead of flushing with plain water I use a low ec nutrient solution 500PPM @.7 conversion flush the pots untill the run off tests the same as your flushing solution.
Here are the newest pics of my crop. 4 days after the previous pics were taken. The problem I was having with a couple of leaves has continued, but just on those two leaves on that one plant. Does anyone know why just two leaves would show these symptoms? Should I trim those offending leaves off? In addition, I am still wondering if 3 40Watt tubes is going to be sufficient for the rest of the veg stage. Should I consider adding more lights. With the space I have, I may be able to squeeze in 2 more tubes or a few CFL's on the side.
is your flower space already Full?if not then I would move them over and finish veg under your flowering lamps.things will begin to grow faster and youl want to switch to flower in a couple weeks or less.trust me they will be plenty large enough for your 400,they grow quick.as for the burnt plant it just be abit more sensitive than the rest a good flush wont hurt it.you cant trim the burnt leaves if you want,to but id leave them on for now as they are still working.Looking good!!
My flower space is empty. I grew these first plants from seed and I am waiting for them to get enough nodes to clone for sex. I am going to eliminate the males and keep 1 or 2 females for clones. The goal is to get some sort of perpetual harvest going. Will moving them to the HPS light to finish the veg phase and moving the mothers back to the fluoro's when the time comes cause a problem?
Here are the newest pics of my crop. I am planning on starting to LST them today. I also want to take clones of these plants in the future, but thus far none of them have grown any new nodes on their branches. Is this something that should have started by now, or will it just happen as the plants grow some more. When should I expect the branches to start growing new nodes? It has been one month since I started to germinate the seeds.
Had a slight disaster today. I mentioned before that I was going to LST my plants. I began that a few days ago. Unfortunately, I was staking down the new growth from the past several days when I heard a SNAP! I figured that a stem broke somewhere, but I was not prepared for what I found. The main stem of one of my plants completely snapped. There was only about 10% of the stem intact. Since the break was down near the bottom of the plant (2nd Node), I decided it was a loss and pulled it. On the bright side, it was the slowest growing out of the six I started, and removing it leaves some more room in my planter to get extra light to the lower leaves of the survivors. Looking back, I am guessing that I should have started bending them earlier in life to avoid a problem like this. Is it normal for a stem to break so completely in a case like this. Could this be indicative of some other problem? I didn't try to bend the stem any more than my other plants and didn't have this type of problem with any of the others. Pics of the five survivors coming tomorrow...
Here are the pics of the five surviving plants. The new growth is staggered, which shows that they are mature. I don't however see any pre-flower growth to indicate their sex (unless I am not understanding what to look for). Are there any tips anyone would like to share? I have already tried looking around the 4th or 5th node, but there isn't any growth that convinces me that they are ready to show their sex. Should I be seeing signs curing the 5th week from germination?
Hiya Fire, Nice grow so far. Some strains have to be force flowered and won't show their sex until after you've switched to 12/12 lighting. I'm not sure if hashberry is one of those strains, but it's something to think about. Keep in mind that most plants will double or triple in size once you change the lighting, so most growers actually make the decission on when to switch based on how tall their babies are. If you're plants are 5 weeks old, you might want to go ahead and start flowering so they don't grow through the ceiling . As for the broken stem, it's not all that abnormal. Some plant stems are just woodier than others. I know that the white widows that I'm currently working on have very rigid stems that break rather than bend. I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm getting ready to order the supplies that I need to start cloning. I was planning on getting Clone-It (Figured I would stick with Advanced Nutrients) gel, a humidity dome and tray. How important is it to have a heating mat? Would it raise the percentage of clones that will root? Make the clones root faster? Both? Neither? My other question is about cloning solution like Jumpstart from AN. Is it really neccesary in additon to the cloning gel?
It's actually not necessary to have a humidity tray or heating mat. But both will increase the chances of the clones to survive, so anything that increases the chances is a plus. A little superthrive never hurts. http://www.ganjaguerrilla.net/ Go to streaming videos and cloning 101.
It's been over a month since I've posted for various reasons, but a lot has happened in that month. I ended up moving 5 plants to 12/12, of which three were girls!!! Of those three, I had a problem with my pump during week 3 of 12/12, which caused the roots of one of my girls to dry out. That leaves me with two healthy girls, as well as the clones that I took of off them that are vegging. Here are the pics. Let me know if I am still on track...
Starting week 5 of flowering, and here is what I have. The trichs are plentiful with a nice milky white color. I don't see any turning amber yer, but I guess that shouldn't surprise me at all. Any comments/criticism would be great.
criticism? i have not one bad comment for ur plants...they look GREAT man beautiful plants that last one looks like it was dipped in sugar yumm....keep up the good work
They are looking great so far. Sorry to hear about the one that died of dry roots. Lets see some more pics! Good luck man.
Mandala's website says 60-65 days for flowering. These are just starting week 6 of 12/12. I checked them with my pocket microscope and about 90-95% of the trichs are cloudy white. Since I like a head high rather than couchlock, I am giving them one more week without nutes to flush them before I harvest. I have read about letting the trichs start to turn amber before harvesting, but I'd rather be a little early than late (Could be my growing impatience...) Anyway. Here are the newest pics. I'll have more next week when I cut them down.