Hi everyone. After a few years of reading and researching, I've finally decided to cowboy up and get my first grow started. I decided to start with Hydroponics because I feel the maintenance and time required are more suitable for my busy lifestyle. As a disclaimer, my journal will probably be more detailed than it really needs to be, but I'm a bit obsessive and these posts are going to be rough excerpts from my actual journal. I welcome all comments EXCEPT those that suggest different equipment or nutrients (unless I have problems or if I ask). I have done a lot of research up to this point, and have decided on these components for one reason or another. Nothing I'm using was picked at random. If you spot something wrong with my plant(s) or notice something potentially harmful, please feel especially free to say something! Looking forward to starting my first of many grows with this great community! My starting equipment: 240w Apollo LED, full spectrum. Aviditi 36" x 20" x 63" grow tent 2 ventech 100cfm inline fans (I'll add a carbon scrubber when necessary) 6" clip fan (will increase size or quantity as needed) 2 jw 200 aquarium pumps, with 2 ecoplus 4" air stones (black tubing, check valves, etc) cybertech ph meter hm digital tds meter accurite indoor temp and humidity monitor hydroton 3" net pots <--I bought a 20 pack, but this one is still up in the air. Will these support a Northern Lights plant? Nutes: General hydroponics ph control general hydroponics Flora Series (floragro, florabloom, and floramicro) liquid seaweed extract for root development Probably going to add H2O2 just to be safe My plan of action: starting with bagseed as a test run, then will move to my feminized Northern Lights. Shooting for 3 plants for my first run. using a 17qt container to start seedlings, then moving to a 10 gallon container when the plants start growing. Will evaluate container size as they progress further Planning on using SCROG and topping the plants (will probably be asking for input when the time comes) 18/6 lighting for veg, 12/12 for flowering Also will evaluate the lighting and see if another 240w fixture will be more beneficial. Will be using both pumps and stones in the same container. If one goes out while I'm not there to catch it, the other will keep the water oxygenated enough to keep the plants alive.
Germination: 5 very questionable bag seeds in a coffee mug with tap water, covered in a dark place. 3 days and nothing. Moved cup to sit on top of modem, 24 hours later 1 had popped. Took 5 days total to be plant ready. Not sure what that means for the future of the plant, but it is progressing. Day 1: Filled 17qt container with distilled water. pH @5.8, 02 ppm Added germinated seed to hydroton nest directly (no rock wool) and lightly cover with more hydroton. Starting her off in the closet until my tent arrives next week. Closet Temp is 73f, 53% humidity, no light. Day 2: Using a flashlight, and a lot of looking around the pot, I can see just a hint that the seedling is moving upward. Temps are still at 73f, 50% humidity, no light. Day 4: seedling has broken ground. Left for 2 days, so I do not know exactly what day this happened. temp inside was 73 with 45% humidity, no light Starting 18/6 schedule today. Within ten minutes temp rose to 79, humidty still around 50%. I have 2 fans in there and the AC is set way low to try and combat this. Day 5: temps are still at 79. I receive my tent on Wed and will be able to set up proper ventilation.
Good to see you have a plan of action. A 3" net pot should be sufficient unless you are growing massive plants. All they do is hold it and the roots will act as a counter weight/balance. I beleive northern lights is not too branchy of a strain, so it would all depend on how you train it if at all. My very first plant was a bagseed and I put it in soil. I was so proud of my plant as it grew big and healthy.....and turned out to be a male. It was great for experience but a little disheartening. I hope you have much success and fun on your adventure.
Thanks for the input! I am a bit fearful this one will turn out to be a male, but I'm just going to refer to it as a she to remain optimistic. And even if "she" does end up to be male, I'll already have my NL fem's going by the time I find out, so I imagine I'll get over it pretty quickly.
Sorry for being MIA, been a busy week for me. Seedling seems to be doing great. She (still being optimistic) is almost 2 inches tall with her first set of leaves, and I can see at least one long root coming out of the net pot. I'll post a full update tomorrow with some pictures of my new tent and mostly complete setup.
Ok so, there hasn't been much worth reporting until today. pH has been normal, so far everything has seemed to be in line. Day 10: I setup my new tent, installed the 2 4" inline fans, and the 6" clip fan. Changed the water and added about 1/8 strength of the micro, gro, and bloom. pH dropped from 5.8 to 5.3 after adding them, but 2 drops of pH up brought it right back to 5.8. Also, the tent definitely has some slight light leaks, which I expected. Not terribly worried right now, but I'll be picking up some gorilla tape to hopefully solve this. Currently, I've been using distilled water, but after the next water change I'll probably be moving up to the bigger container. I'd really like to avoid having to buy 7+ gallons of distilled water every week or so, but I don't have many other options at the moment. Definitely open to suggestions. I do not have the ability to catch rain water, or this would be my preferred route. Does anyone know if I can just distill the tap water at home by boiling it? I could probably boil 4 or so gallons at a time, so 2 runs would be plenty. Lastly, I will include my EC readings soon. I had to order some calibration solution because I feel my readings are too low or something. Distilled water shows 0 PPM, and my tap water only reads 30 PPM. Maybe this is accurate, but I'll know soon enough. Here are pictures of my setup and current progress. "She" looks good to me but maybe I'm missing something? Also, I forgot to snap a picture but the root coming out of the net pot is about 3" long now.
I feel you on the water struggle. I ended up buying a reverse osmosis filter, you can get one for pretty cheap that will take your water to <5ppm
I was just looking at Walmart but I didn't see any that said RO. Where did you get yours? Is it an Under the sink kind of setup?
Day 35. Seems to be growing strong, good color on the leaves, strong stems and roots. Not sure if I should be concerned about the leaves pointing down? First noticed it this morning. Changed the water, cleaned the tank, etc. Hoping that was the issue since I was a day late on doing so. Roots look good and strong, very clean and white, although the picture was taken in low light so that may not be obvious. I've decided to hold off on starting the Northern Lights due to my lack of free time right now. However, I'm thinking about getting a second tent earlier than I had planned so I can take a clone and force the clone into veg and sex it. I'd really prefer not to waste the little bit of time I have to tend to it if it's a male.
I feel your pain. On my first grow the best plant I had was a male. VERY disheartening to say the least. To me the leaves look fine. The stems are not pointing down. lol. If that happened I would say the plant was in trouble. I say start with your feminized seeds. When my plant turned male it really sucked. Especially when you think of the all time it takes to get a plant from germ to the flowring stage. I said never again and ordered FEMINIZED seeds. I'll never go back. This may come in handy if you dont already have it. http://www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/nutrient-deficiency.jpg
If your tap water is indeed 30ppm then that is extremely low and you certainly won't need to use distilled, deionised, reverse osmosis, or any other fancy water. Mine is 50ppm and that's the lowest I have ever known. Anything below 250 is totally fine. Distilling water requires some specialized equipment, and a lot of time and work, definitely not worth it. You have a pretty sound set up and plan though. I'm sure you will do well What is the litres per minute output of your air pumps? More air = More growth It's definitely worth cutting a clone right away. You could root the clone on 12/12 giving you the result in less than a week. Or you could keep the clone vegging and flower the donor plant now. This way when the donor plant has finished flowering the clone will be huge and well vegged.