Soilless Grow - WW, BB, KK, PPP, PS, NL

[evilgunny]

Alright, figured I'd start a grow log. I'm about a month into veg, so first we'll do some catchup :] Some info on my system...

Strains - 5 Power Skunk, 5 PPP, 5 NL, 1 Fem. White Widow, 2 Fem. Big Bang, 1 Fem. Kandy Kush

Light - 600W Lumatek, HPS bulb, air cooled hood

Nutrients - AN/Botanicare, Hygrozyme, Plant Success (if I have two similar females from the same strain, I am considering running a side by side test of AN/Botanicare. Mostly for a comparison of yield/quality)

Soil - Light Warrior for seedlings

Alright, so now that we have the basics covered, here's my girls (hopefully) a few days from germination. 19/19 germinated!
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[evilgunny]

These are my plants in the second week from seed. Note the bamboo stakes in the corner, already expecting a big harvest :rolleyes: No no I kid, just leftovers from last grow. This week I started feeding, which to my dismay I found out was wayyyyyy too soon. Luckily was only a few drops per gallon.

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[headshake]

is that last pic an old one gunny? you did get rid of those bottom cups right?


-shake

[evilgunny]

Here's week 3. This is when I started running into problems. Either had a cal/mag deficiency, or my ozone was killing my plants. They were also rootbound pretty bad. I won't get too into detail, but here's the link to the SOS thread for those who are interested...

http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-problems/171140-uh-oh.html

Again, thanks to those who helped out. Plenty of pictures there, I'll add a few more for those too lazy to follow the link (of course excluding any pictures of the damage I did, I MAKE NO MISTAKES I TELL YOU) :D

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[headshake]

pack them in close to get the most out of your light. they don't need much space for now.


-shake

[evilgunny]

is that last pic an old one gunny? you did get rid of those bottom cups right?


-shake

Yessir, just doing a little recap on what's happened so far.

[headshake]

making sure gunny, you got too many nice babies there!


-shake

[evilgunny]

And week 4, the start of proper growth. The start of this week I transplanted them into one gallon grow bags. They were rootbound badly, the roots were circling the cup. Gave the roots a little trim so they would grow properly. Laid off the nutes, minus some SensiCal. For my soilless mix, I used Light Warrior on the bottom, the rest is Sunshine #1. Additives include some horticultural charcoal and Plant Success granular.

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[evilgunny]

making sure gunny, you got too many nice babies there!


-shake

And I do appreciate the help and worry my friend :)

Currently they just started week 5, growing like, well, weeds (too cheesy?)
Will get this week up and started as soon as lights come on.

[evilgunny]

Ahhh, actually I won't be able to take more pictures until later, but I did find some from the end of week 4 on my camera. This is the last day of week 4. What a difference a week makes, eh? (yes, those earlier pictures while still in the cups were late week 3, transplanted early week 4)



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[evilgunny]

Ehhhhh change of plans. Here's my girls at the start of week 5. I wish I had a MH conversion bulb so they wouldn't stretch so much. Next time...

Seems something has went awry since I last checked on them. A small bit of rust colored stuff on the leaves, and some of the leaves are curling up. Two plants in particular are so bad that one side of the leaves are touching the other :/

Notice the two little ones in the middle? Ironically, those and the PPP are the only ones I paid for. PPP are doing as well as the others, but the KK and BB are tiny!

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[headshake]

do you know what your pH is evil?


-shake

[evilgunny]

do you know what your pH is evil?


-shake


To be honest, I haven't a clue. I haven't went into town for quite awhile (I live wayyyyyy out) so I haven't picked any up. I have a test kit, but with the inability to change it, I've just been dreading looking at it at all :( Before next watering (2-3 days) I plan to go to my grow shop and get some PH up and down. They quit carrying the technaflora and the GH last I was there was like 18 dollars a bottle, the AN were like 25 (supposedly more concentrated, but I'm too broke to care). Bummer. Thanks man, you're always helping out.

[camoxnhx]

Evil I look forwards to the Kandy kush grow and the smoke report. I was going to get em but the Aurora Indica was calling my name. Dude your doing a fine job. But keep a eye on the PH when u have the kit. Keep growing on!

[evilgunny]

Evil I look forwards to the Kandy kush grow and the smoke report. I was going to get em but the Aurora Indica was calling my name. Dude your doing a fine job. But keep a eye on the PH when u have the kit. Keep growing on!



What a coincidence, that's the one I'm looking forward to most, also! :DOG Kush and Trainwreck, can't go wrong (unless I mess it up). I haven't found much info on it, though. I've always read good things about DNA though, so I'm hoping Reserva doesn't disappoint. This strain seems to be VERY delicate, it's the smallest of all my plants. I didn't think it was gonna make it, but now it's looking healthy though a bit puny. I'm hoping it pulls through til the end :thumbsup: Who's the Aurora from? I believe I was considering that, is that the one that finishes flower realllllllyyyyyy quickly?

As for the PH, indeed! I decided based on money issues to go with some aquarium PH up & down. Comes in a small dropper bottle too, so that should be handy. Thanks for the encouragement man!

[evilgunny]

Oh, and if anyone familiar with the FIM technique could check out this thread:

FIMing - Fail or Success? - Cannabis Forums Message Boards - Medical Marijuana, Cannabis Club, Dispensary, News (http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/171550-fiming-fail-success.html)

That'd be greatttt. Want to get these babies topped/fimmed and flip them into flower ASAP! :D

[camoxnhx]

I got my genetics from mj-seeds.nl and the flowering time is 65-70 days the plant has been short so far

[headshake]

Thanks man, you're always helping out.

no worries evil, that's what we are here for. some people just get confused and think that forums = spoon feeding. i'll pretty much help anyone as long as they try to figure it out for themselves first.

just make sure as you gain experience that you do the same. that's how it works.


-shake

[evilgunny]

ok, so I just got some aquarium ph up and down. I read that alot of people use this stuff without any problem, but does anyone know for sure if sulfuric acid is safe to use on plants? some more of the leaves are curling up a little like in the previous pictures, but not as bad many on a single plant as that. the leaves are still green and aren't dry or discolored. think I should flush with ph corrected water? they don't need to be watered yet, fed them like 2 days ago and they still probably have 2 days til they need watered. or can they wait?

[headshake]

i would go ahead and flush now as it won't hurt anything but if you let them go it could be worse in several days!

i have been using pH down made for an aquarium and have not had any problems (not that it is the best thing).


-shake

[evilgunny]

alright, took your advice shake and flushed with ph balanced water, with like 1/4 nutes. pots are a gallon, was gonna flush with a gallon of water, but didn't have enough ph down so I went with a half gallon each :( my water's ph from tap is 8.5+. that's the highest my ph test solution will read. I used a 2 oz bottle of the sulfuric acid based ph down from like aquarium pharmaceuticals or something, between 9 gallons of water. that brought it to like 6-6.8. runoff was a little over 6 when I tested it. agh I need a digital ph monitor :/. anyhow, I guess Im going back to distilled or getting more ph down. alot more. :wtf:

also gave a foliar feed with a little hygrozyme/liquid karma. other than the curling I dont see any possible signs of nutelock or deficiency from the wack ph. I think I may have gotten lucky this time :thumbsup:

the camera is dead from my hiking trip. will post updated pics tomorrow. beginning of week 6 (thursday) I'm giving them like 24 hours of darkness, watering with some bpb, a dose of bud blood, and then switching them to 12/12. they're still in 1 gallon bags, to save money I'm gonna sex them before transplanting into 3 gallon. I wanted to transplant first and let the roots grow out a little, but I don't have the time. I have likeeeee 10 weeks to finish flower, 2 to dry/cure, then probably going to move.gl

[headshake]

damn gunny, did you get a microscopic bottle of pH down? i mean i have a small bottle and i don't have to use that much. usually ~35 drops for 2 1/2 gallons.

i don't think you are supposed to feed after flushing. you should wait a couple of days. kinda defeats the purpose of the flush. i could be wrong.

also, don't use distilled water, go with spring water. distilled doesn't have the trace minerals that plants need.

another trick you can do is take a clone of each plant, and force it to flower and then you know which ones to kill ahead of time, not to mention you would get a little bit of meds from the female clones!

keep at it!


-shake

[evilgunny]

damn gunny, did you get a microscopic bottle of pH down? i mean i have a small bottle and i don't have to use that much. usually ~35 drops for 2 1/2 gallons.

i don't think you are supposed to feed after flushing. you should wait a couple of days. kinda defeats the purpose of the flush. i could be wrong.

also, don't use distilled water, go with spring water. distilled doesn't have the trace minerals that plants need.

another trick you can do is take a clone of each plant, and force it to flower and then you know which ones to kill ahead of time, not to mention you would get a little bit of meds from the female clones!

keep at it!


-shake


Heh, it was the small dropper bottle. Like 2 ounces or something I think. I'm trying white distilled vinegar with their water tonight. Is it unusual to have that high of a ph? I mean it stayed in the above 8.5 range until I used a little over a teaspoon. Then about another teaspoon to bring to 6-6.5. Per gallon :/

Ahhh, I wasn't flushing to leech nutrients out. For awhile I thought I might have a cal deficiency because of my ph. So I used a low dose of my grow nutes with ph'd water for the flush. Wish I still had Revive...that shit is amazing.

Would it be alright to use distilled since I give a cal/mag formula in addition to other nutes? SensiGrow has alot of chelated trace minerals. Last feed I also started with Liquid Karma and Sweet citrus. Probably will run those the rest of the way through. Aghhhh bad news, when I opened part B I think of my Connoisseur, I realized it had gone bad. Had some kind of pale white slime floating in it, and kind of smelled like sour dairy. This sucksssss. I guess the rest of the additives were good, though. I'm gonna run Pro Bloom with AN additives for bloom

Oh, they just got flipped to 12/12 today. Most aren't sexually mature yet, but I'm hoping they hurry it up! If I lose out because they keep vegging while only getting 12 hours of light, that's fine by me. They're about half the size of what I want them at the moment. I'm hoping I won't have to use Bushmaster, but...

Anyways, one of these pictures is from a few days ago, the others last night. Tall sativa dominant plants surrounding the indica doms. :) Plan is to let the indicas flower in the middle, and set milk crates or something similar on each corner for the sativas. The tray is only 3x3, and I'm using a 600 lumatek so I want to use some of the room outside of it. Anyone know if you can train by bending during flower? Was going to see if I could make the sativas side branches form kind of a wall around the tray. Hmmm...

Here ends the wall of text.

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[camoxnhx]

man all you need in there is smokey the bear to pervent a forest fire! lol damn man thats one thick ass garden. Picking out the Indicas are like finding WERES WALDO! but damn those look like they have boomed up in size. Keep them babies Buddin! *camo hides in the garden*

[greenatik]

definitely see some heat stress going on... whats your temps? ventilation?

can you explain your watering/feed schedule?

oh and they don't need to be sexually mature to flip to flower. that just helps you determine preflowers.

and in soiless/coco you should always nute after a flush, but don't nute with the flush. I would also stick with the distilled because a ton of PH down/up can build up and be problematic. Shoot for a PH of 5.8-6.2 and things should be golden

sorry not trying to nitpick your grow just calling things as I see em'! you have some interesting strains and can't wait to see them bud out for you!
:hippy:

[greenatik]

also don't go crazy with the additives. keep it simple. no foliar feeding from here on out and definitely no bushmaster. stick with the base nutes and the sweet. use the sweet all the way through harvest even w/ the flush. which sweet did you get? citrus or berry? citrus is a little overpowering imo but its what im using now, like my trainwreck needed to be more citrusy lol!

GL man!

[evilgunny]

definitely see some heat stress going on... whats your temps? ventilation?

can you explain your watering/feed schedule?

oh and they don't need to be sexually mature to flip to flower. that just helps you determine preflowers.

and in soiless/coco you should always nute after a flush, but don't nute with the flush. I would also stick with the distilled because a ton of PH down/up can build up and be problematic. Shoot for a PH of 5.8-6.2 and things should be golden

sorry not trying to nitpick your grow just calling things as I see em'! you have some interesting strains and can't wait to see them bud out for you!
:hippy:

Ahhh, good eye on the heat stress. Didn't pay attention to them for a day and they ended up a few inches from my glass. Those sativas shoot up pretty quickly... The temps with lights on are like 70-75. Humidity is 30-50. As for watering/feeding, I water with sweet/liquid karma, then feed them. So far been working out to about every 4 days. If it feels dry when I stick my finger about an inch down in the dirt, then I water them. When I made my first ph'd gallon of water I knew I wouldn't have enough down to flush then feed :( Thanks for the ph info, I was thinking it was like 6-6.5. And no worries man I need all the help I can get :D Alot of valid points and good info, thanks. Hehe yeah, I can't wait to try all of them out.

As for the additives, I have alottttt left over, and I like to really push my plants :stoned: Quality may suffer, but my needs are more based on having enough than having good enough. They won't be getting any foliar anymore, the bushmaster however...well, I don't plan on using it unless they get too tall. Did you have a bad experience with bushmaster? IDK, I used it last grow and it worked out really well for me. I let them veg for too long, they were like 2 1/2 feet tall and only had another foot to grow into before I even flipped them. I let them stretch another 1/2 of a foot, then hit them with bushmaster. Vertical growth stopped after another inch or two. I've heard it can cause a slight loss of potency,a decrease in resin, and make your buds really dense. I didn't notice a quality decrease compared to my buddies stash who gave me the clones, except the buds were a bit paler and wayyyyy more dense.

The additives I'm planning to use are Bud Blood for one feed, then Big Bud, then B-52 (b vitamin additive), then Overdrive. I have Sweet Leaf but I really want to try a run with the Sweet. Oh that's right, I have the citrus. Does it really impact flavor that much? The Sweet Leaf smells like tootsie rolls, but I didn't notice a huge flavor increase. Gah I wish I had some trainwreck, maybe next grow :D The idea of citrusy bud really appeals to me..

[evilgunny]

man all you need in there is smokey the bear to pervent a forest fire! lol damn man thats one thick ass garden. Picking out the Indicas are like finding WERES WALDO! but damn those look like they have boomed up in size. Keep them babies Buddin! *camo hides in the garden*


Do bears eat pot? Hmmm...I'm gonna have to say no until I have a definitive answer. Thanks hehe, 18 plants is alot to keep in a 3x3 grow tray. Hoping to thin them out really soon. The indicas are pretty much all the short ones in the middle. Had them mixed up but the sativas kept getting too close to the light, so they got put on the outskirts. While you're in there keep an eye out for mites and the like, will ya? And tell Smokey to keep out until the verdict comes back on bears being stoners :smokin:

[greenatik]

all i'm saying is that you should nail down the basics before you start hitting them with additives. the yield will be more dependent on strain than anything you give them. for some reason I thought bushmaster was a before flower product?

and your buds could of came out denser because it was soiless? my coco buds always come out hard as a rock and more crumbly compared to my buds soil grows.

its just been my experience that when I keep it simple my plants are happier and the yield comes. but bud blood/big bud is good stuff, i always use a flower finisher. im using ton o bud this run, not too shabby :stoned:

[evilgunny]

all i'm saying is that you should nail down the basics before you start hitting them with additives. the yield will be more dependent on strain than anything you give them. for some reason I thought bushmaster was a before flower product?

and your buds could of came out denser because it was soiless? my coco buds always come out hard as a rock and more crumbly compared to my buds soil grows.

its just been my experience that when I keep it simple my plants are happier and the yield comes. but bud blood/big bud is good stuff, i always use a flower finisher. im using ton o bud this run, not too shabby :stoned:

True. I have a bit down, been studying and reading up on growing for probably 10 years now. This is only my second grow though, and I tend to be a bit lazy and forgetful. :) Bushmaster as far as I know is for stopping vertical growth. Last time I did run it right before flower (foliar) but I've read it works after flowering begins, also. And I'm not sure. I grew in pure coco(which I treated just like soil) and fox farm. Buds came out the same, little more yield off the soil, but yeah.

I'm trying to keep it simple hehe. Last grow I fed every water, with A LOT of additives, using AN feeding schedule. Like uhhh, the high PPM schedule. Highest I used was 1600 PPM I think. And no PH up/down the whole grow. Still ended up with about 20 ounces off of a 600. Nute burn, light burn, foliar during lights on burn, went out of town while forgetting I only gave them half of a water because I was short on time. Came back and everything was completely limp. And yeah, I'm sure 1000+ other mistakes. That's why I'm sold on AN. :) Who makes ton o bud? Sounds like something I'd like ;)

[evilgunny]

Arghhh I messed up. Yesterday they had their first 12 hours of dark (10am-10pm). However...I had the overhead light on, and forgot to turn it off last night. When I woke up at 1 today, I had this feeling...so I went and checked, and it was on. Can anyone tell me what the best course of action in this situation is? I'd like them to stay dark for the same time period, but I'm open to suggestions.

[greenatik]

just continue as normal, don't sweat it.

[evilgunny]

right on, thanks man