Phoona First 300W LED soil Tent Grow

Gday all,

Well I thought I'd try to start a Journal to keep track of my grow. This way I can track what I'm doing and hopefully grow a bit of bud.

At the moment I have three plants that have been sitting in pots outside and the growth has been super slow. Since they have been near my tomatoes they have been affected by other nasties as well (such as thrips).

Guttered !!!!! So I've taken the natural approach and used an organic spray with garlic and chilli to slow down the nasties. It has made a difference though the growth of the seedling is very disappointing. Compared to what I know the growth should look like.

I'm at least 6 weeks in and I have three bonsai MJ plants on my hands.
Plants Height 5cm, 8cm and 10cm.

 

Since I can't really grow outside I've decided to grow inside and have ordered a tent.
Tent 1m x 1m x 2m, with a carbon filter 8" and exhaust fan 450CFM with a silencer.
Driving the lighting for the tent is a 300W draw LED grow light with apparently a MJ spectrum from mainland china (yeah I know it could be dodgy or it could rock).

The current Bonsai MJ plants are seeds from random bags so the smoke is alright but no idea on the strains. I also have gotten some online seeds from a SoS supplier which was a cheap bag mix of 10 x indoor seeds plus freebies 1 x Kandy Kush, WW x Cheese, Auto Jack, Auto AK, BD x Bubblegum.

I have on the 2nd November put 3 more seeds in from the indoor mix, 1 in rockwool to germinate and 2 more in soil in a paper egg carton. Hopefully they all germinate and will be ready for the LED when it arrives.

I will be leaving the know strains until I have this indoor grow dialled in, with the correct starting soil, heat, airflow and lighting hight.

 

I have done a 2 grows before, about 20 years ago outside in a hothouse with bush seeds. 10 plants, with heavy organic matter (chicken, sheep and horse poo) with compost and worm castings. It went very well, grew like tree's with massive trunks sucking up all that goodness. Basically I just watered them and they exploded, got a couple of pounds from it, crazy !! but nothing like the quality of genetics now days.

The second grow was about 15 years ago indoor under 4 x Fluro's with the same bush seeds. It was ok, got a few ounces but what can you expect from fluro's.

 

At the moment, the camera on my phone takes hazy pictures so I am unable to take any pictures at the moment. Will try to find a camera somewhere so I can show pictures and hopefully an experienced indoor grower can help diagnose and fine tune my grow. I've been reading pages and pages of post and journals to get some new idea's on how to best grow for my situation.
I appreciate any advice.
I am unsure how often I can post, but will try to keep this updated.

 

The 3 plants that look dwarfed and still only receiving outdoor light were repotted today. I bought 4 x 14 litre pots (3.6 gallon) for $2 and put some newspaper down the bottom and a sprinkling of wood shavings. Then I put in some potting mix, sheep manure and mushroom compost and gave that a good mix half way up the pot then filled the rest with potting mix once I dumped in the plant.

I notice that the design of the previous pot caused the bottom 2cm to stay water log as the drain hole was in the middle with a border around it. This might have caused a bit of fungus to grow on the bottom roots and would of kept it water logged even though I thought the pot was dry.
I removed the offending bottom roots that looked dodgy and now being in larger normal style draining pots this should not happen again. I hope within a week the plants will award me with some decent growth.

The seeds I planted 2 days ago have broken ground as well, I have them under a 20W CLF 6500k style light to help promote growth.
Now I'm just waiting on the LED and Tent to rock up so I can grow in private !!!.

 

Here are some pictures of the 6+ week old "dwarf" looking plants that have been hammer by thrips, a pot design that waterlogged the bottom of the pot, possible nutrient burn and changes in weather.

Also photo's of the 2 day old seedling breaking ground in a egg carton and 1 in a rockwool cube.

 

Well I received the LED light yesterday !!! and plugged it in straight away.
The light seems bright but I'm a but concerned about the light layout on the panel as the red's are mostly grouped on the sides. Will see how it grows.

Overnight the 3 established plants all grew 1/2cm from the new light source.
8 1/2cm to 9, 7 to 7 1/2, 5 to 5 1/2 (all in cm)

I replanted the 3 seedlings as well into small pots to give them some more room, it has been 4 days since I put the seeds in. I am concerned about the rockwool seedling as it dried out over night due to light/fan and seems to have stopped sprouting but I replanted it, gave it a good watering and hoping for a recovery.

The egg carton method for seedlings works well for me, as the cardboard stays moist and keeps the soil wet and it breaks apart easy for transplanting.

I have 1 FREAK seedling as well, 3 Cotyledons (hope I spelt it right) mutation, I read that it has a 60% chance of being male. It might kick butt in growth with the extra leaf and produce 33.3% more !

Anyone else have that mutation lately ?

 

The light ended up costing $320 delivered from china to Australia, the supplier used quality led's but obviously it is not a top quality tested Mary Jane model that some of these other boys have.
It can get 40c here in summer so I wanted something low on electricity cost and also low on heat. I also am waiting on a carbon filter and 450cfm fan that should help deal with summer temps and the smell if I get them to flower.

Things are a bit more expensive over here than in the US, we get ripped off all the time.

I'm hoping the my new soil mix will help the plants along, not going to use any nutrients on them until they double in size. Your plants on the other hand are going beautiful !!!.

We will see if I can salvage the first 3 plants and see if I can give the new seedlings a decent start in life.

 

One thing you notice about this LED which is heavy in RED spectrum with 168x3w
Ratio is:
IR 1PC,
UV 1PC,
660nm 100PCS,
630nm 34PCS,
460nm 17PCS,
610nm 10PCS,
white 5PCS.

When you go to look at the plants everything looks really red, It is like a UFO is in the room or you walked into a horror film. As you spend time looking at them things start to look white again and you forget everything is red. Then when you go out of the room, all the house lights look GREEN !!!. Then slowly everything will start looking normal again.
Very strange experience, happens every time.

Anyone else with LED lights experience the same thing

 

168x3w = 168 LED's x 3w diodes
Making up 504W but apparently running at 300w.
It is for flowering apparently but it should grow seedlings enough to be taken into flower.
Most of the threads I have read say that LED do a great job of veg but don't deliver in flower.
At the moment I'm running 24 hours until I get my exhaust fan and the grow room set up properly.

 

Update on the progress of the 6 plants. I have narrowed down the date when the first 3 were planted to 03/09/12 ( Day/Month/Year P.S for Americans). So that is 65 days !!! 9 weeks 2 days and smallest is 6 cm tall.

The seedlings were planted on 02/11/12, which is 5 days.

So off to a bad start for Generation A, Generation B which is better quality SoS random indoor seeds should have a better life.

I have now named the 6 plants to give them some personality and this could be what makes them grow. I'm tempted to install an ol' school radio for them to listen to music and help with growth.
Names are as follows;
Generation A planted 03/Sep
Bonsai, Due to the micro nature of the plant
Disco Inferno, Standing up like a disco ball with all the lower leaves looking like they are burning *turned yellow*
Soprano, Has had lots of leaves trimmed, like the Mafia, bad growth just disappears
Generation B 02/November
Munted, Dried out in the rockwool for a few hours, looks crippled but might recover.
Freak, Was born with 3 Cotyledons Mutation
Hope, Normal looking plant that I hope will deliver delicious bud.

 

Decided today to turn the Light from 24/0 to 18/6 to let the plants get some sleep. I have lights off during the middle of the day to help reduce heat.
The older 2 plants are averaging 1cm of growth a day and are responding to the artificial LED light well.
Bonsai is growing 1/4cm a day and will stay true to her name.
Freak is also sprouting slower than her sister Hope but it is only early days for the two remaining seedlings. 7 days since they were dropped into soil.

I'm afraid Munted isn't going to make it, Dam you rockwool for drying out at a critical time.

I have read that 18/6 will promote healthier and more growth than 24/0.
Apparently during the dark hours they grow and prepare themselves for when the light comes back on. Makes sense, everything needs a rest to promote growth.

Will keep measurements and see if I can get growth to exceed 1cm a day.

 

I'm also growing Tomatoes and 3 weeks ago I pruned the plants back and was left with a lot of clippings.
So I decided to see how easy it was to clone, put them in little pots with soil and 3 weeks later the clones look very healthy.
I used the L.I.T.F.A (Leave It The Feck Alone)method. Put them in a shady place and kept them wet.

Just In case I need to do the same with my Mary Jane plants

 

11th Novemeber

Plants are starting to grow better, the intense LED light is helping and the change to 18/6 seems to be making the plants thicken up and grow healthier. It does look like they grow while lights are off.

Bonsai 8cm from 5 1/2cm in 5 days 2 1/2cm growth
Soprano 11cm from 7 1/2cm in 5 days 3 1/2cm growth
Disco Inferno13cm from 9 cm in 5 days 4 cm growth

The seedlings
Hope and Freak both 3cm are growing nicely as well, They have survived the first 9 days since being planted and now they should start to take off.

 

Here are some close up photo's

Can anyone tell if they are going to be male or female yet. I know it is fairly early.