Hello all. This is my first forum. Here we go. 2 plants from seed- Autoflower Blueberry and regular Female White Widow. Fun experiment Hydrofarm agrobrite "cool" bulb CFL - used first month from seed to seedling until veg. 2' x 2' x 4' grow tent 3 gal RootTrapperII grow pots GalaxyHydro 300W dimmable LED- on 24hrs a day until Autoflower Blueberry shows signs of flowering thenflip light to 12/12 schedule to flower white widow. I decided to start this thread for a grow journal and because I didn't see much results on dimmable LEDs and how powerful to run them at each stage and what height so I may as well be the ginnypig... also I was excited to try "hot soil" with Kindsoil which is a premixed "hot" soil with lots of additives you put on the bottom 1/4 of your pot and fill the rest with a lightly fertilized medium which I chose CocoLoco because Kindsoil.com recommended it along with 3 gal RootTrapperII grow pots. Also recommends straight tap water 6.3-7.0 Ph and mine is just under 7.0 so we're good.. I used a 125w CFL "cool" bulb from seed until I saw 4-5 nodes on each plant then put in LED. Next time I'll try LED throughout whole process. I also intend on adding back the CFL ,"regular" bulb this time for red spectrum, during flower for the underside of the canopy. But we will get to that later. For now here are the current conditions. 1/10- installed dimmable GalaxyHydro 300w LED. 100% brightness 20 inches away Watered 3L each. Last water was 5 days ago as Cocoloco absorbs and holds water better then most mediums so you water less. I have a 3 in 1 soil tester which tests ph,wetness and light intensity. Get one if you don't have one. It's $10. 82 degrees and 53% humidity I'll also post pics from seed to seedlings. I used a basic grow medium with 6.0 ph tap water until I transferred into RootTrapperII pots on 1/5. I only ran into one problem on January 2nd which was gnats. I only saw 3 of them but they had to of laid larva so I replaced the top 2 inches of the soil of both plants and repeated 3 days later to insure I got them all. Also didn't water as much as overwatering was probably the issue. I have 2 years of growing experience which means 2 years of failing and succeeding... I've done a lot of things wrong but as I learn from the mistakes my final product gets better and better. Please If anyone has any questions or advice like distance from led to plant and different brightness levels or any other input please comment! Thanks
WHITE WIDOW Day 37 from germination. Close up of white widow on 1/12. Deciding when to top... any suggestions? Also I believe I left her in the 1/2 gal pot too long before transfer which caused root bound and color of plant was lighter green than the Blueberry so I assume lack of nutrients (nitrogen). She's bounced back nicely though so you can see good genetics from seeds may be a reason she's a strong plant. I used to use clones and they don't bounce back as easy
AUTOBLUEBERRY Day 30 from germination. Close up of AutoBlueberry on 1/12. This plant is a week behind the White Widow on purpose because I have no idea when it will Autoflower so I gave the white widow a head start to make sure she grew enough when I flip the lights to 12/12. Autoflowers should be on a 24/0 schedule normally throughout whole process but I have to flower the white widow so I'll suffer the yield... maybe... might just be a myth.
1/14. After adding 4 in. exhaust fan and carbon air filter my conditions went from 82 degrees with 50% humidity, down to 75 deg and 45% humidity. Perfect. I'll add a small dehumidifier the last few weeks of flower to bring humidity down under 20%..
Topped both plants. Closer one is white widow. Let's see how long it takes for the plants to bush outwards.
Put in variable speed controller. It does wonders with the noise of the fan. Depending on what time of day/year it is you can set the speed. It's winter now so it's on low cause it's 70 deg in my apartment. Keeps it at 75 deg/54% hum. I'll turn it up to lower humidity as they flower... Day 39 for AutoBlueberry and Day 46 for White Widow(closer of the two in the pic) Here they are as of 1/21. Bushing out over the edges of the pots nicely and haven't grow any taller which is ideal for me since I have a 4ft tall tent... I'll trellis soon and maybe trellis a second level if they grow too tall... also added a better fan that oscillates. And golf clubs to brace the tent side walls because the sucking of the exhaust fan sucked in the walls way to much. I'll use the golf clubs for trellis support also looool.
Seems like the tips of the leaves start to curl and turn light green/yellow when the plant stretches within 20 inches at 100% brightness. I moved the LED as far up as I could and will trellis at 30 inches away and then again at 20 inches. From there I will adjust the brightness level if they get closer. Maybe decrees brightness level by 10% for every inch they grow within the 20 inch mark so for example if by the end the plant ends up 10 inches away from the LED I'll be at 50% brightness.
Day 43 for AutoBlueberry and Day 53 for white widow. Trellis put in. Helps keep plants at around 30 inches away from led for now. I think the AutoBlueberry ( the plant in the back ) will start to flower in a week or so. Then I'll go 12/12 to flower white widow. For now we will lollipop and hope the plants bush outwards towards the walls. So far no bugs or deficiencies I can see. They drink about 3 liters of water every 5 days. They are in 3 gal pots so I wonder if that's the recipe. 1 liter of water per gallon of grow pot... I'll use this formula when I switch growing pot sizes and see if it works. I also saved the runoff water because it has lots of nutes and can be used later on if I see deficiencies.
Anyone know if this is this the start of an Autoflower starting to flower? There are pistoles starting to pop up around all of the tops of the plant. This is my first autoflower. I don't want to confuse it with preflower.. after looking at it more I believe it's flowering. I'll go to 12/12 starting tonight to flower the white widow. Also I usually go 24 hrs darkness to kick start a normal plant but is that ok for the Autoflower to be in darkness that long?
I accidentally left my autos in dark(forgot to set timer to on) for like 36 hours with no problems far as I can see. And yes it looks like it is flowering. I have an auto going right now thatvstarted flowering at 3 weeks .
Perfect thanks. I was just about to flip on the lights at the 12 hr mark but now I'll wait another 12 hrs to kickstart the white widow...
You didn’t buy that soil meter yet did you? They’re notoriously unreliable and will have you chasing your tail. If you did, try and return it. J
Well it depends. I wouldn’t recommend one st all for the soil itself, like yours is made to do. If you’re wanting to check the pH of a nutrient solution then you’d want a hand held digital pH meter and not a soil meter. J
Day 49 for Auto Blueberry and Day 56 for white widow. The Autos leaves look much better than the widows.. I blame the hard water of Vegas for the magnesium defiecency. We will try carbon filtered tap water next time... Update Feb 26th: it was watering to have about 1/2 litter of run off each water and Kindsoil.com says never water to runoff because your loosing the nutes in the runoff. I'm glad I saved the runoff and I poured it back into the plants a few weeks ago when I realized this and the plants are fine now.
Hi I thought it worth mentioning if it might save you time.. I have very hard water too, and using a carbon filter does not soften the water or reduce ppm/EC in my experience. My tap water comes out at 450 and remains the same after filtering through a berkey gravity filter. I believe RO water or distilled is the only way to reduce hardness, although some argue it does not benefit the plant to be at 0ppm. I was advised on this forum that because i have hard water, cal-mag is prob not needed, certainly not in high amounts as there is plenty in that hard water. I have picked up a micro flora from general hydroponics which states its specifically for hard water on the label. : ) Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Th Thanks let me know how the microflora for hard water works for you. After reading your post that it' prob not a defiecency do you think nute burn? Here is a pic of a leaf I just pulled off... only a few leaves have this. If it is nute burn then I'll stop the cal mag immediately