i sold my 2005 mint cond zx10r to start all this up + pay sum bill so here goes nothin!!!
Printable View
i sold my 2005 mint cond zx10r to start all this up + pay sum bill so here goes nothin!!!
06-22-07 Day #3 of flowering.
Cab Temp: ?
RH: ?
Nutrient Temp: 75.4F
PPM: 1025, 1111, 1126
pH: 5.6 - 5.7
The plants are starting to increase in size. Now is the time that it is very important to make sure that we move the buckets around after each time we top off or check pH levels etc. This will ensure that maximum light distribution to all bud sites can be achieved. We are needing to get a new humidity / temperature gauge cause we don't think ours is giving accurate readings anymore. For example, yesterday at 12am the gauge read 80F in the grow tent which was not possible. The air was stirring quite well and there was very little heat to be felt at all with the hand, much less 80F temps. So, in the next few days we should get that taken care of.
The plants have also been drinking a lot of water causing the levels to get almost as half as full as they were the previous day, due in part mostly because of the heat that we have seen lately. We check twice daily but even this doesn't seem to be enough some days! Soon we should start noticing yellowish green colors showing up where the bud sites will be and then it starts to get really fun from this point on. Stay tuned!
right on dude yah.:D:D
thouse R lookin good.
I will fo sure stay tuned.
06-25-07 Day #6 of Flowering.
Cab Temp:
RH:
Nutrient Temp: 72.2F
PPM: 1102
pH: 5.7
It's been a few days without any update sorry about that. I have been pulling long 12 hour shifts at work over the weekend and have not even had time to look at the plants. My grow partner has been handling all the maintenance duties and performed a 2-2-2 nutrient change yesterday (6.24.07). The plants grew about another 3 inches in height since I even last saw them! We had to raise the light again another 4" or so so that the tops would clear and all the bud sites would get even light distribution. In the next few days I will try to start taking pictures of the bud sites when the light is off to give you an idea of how far they are coming along. Its a bit hard to tell until full fledged buds appear when you start to see some good progress.
some more pics
06-27-07 Day #8 of Flowering.
Cab Temp:
RH:
Nutrient Temp: 74.5F
PPM: 1125, 1150, 1159
pH: 5.0-5.3
Hey there, the plants are growing very bushy and tall. We have all the vertical height we will need but the plants are growing into each other a bit. It is not such a big deal since we topped all three plants, which makes the main colas and bud sites as close to the light as they could possibly be. However, we are able to move the plants to the precise area that gives them max light.
On the nutrient side we have been keeping the levels pretty consistent between 1100 and 1200. The pH has been kept around the 5.8 range but we started to see some blotches on the leaves that led us to believe that it was 1 of 3 things. It could either be wide fluctuations of pH levels (which has not been happening) or possibly 5.8 being too high for the time being. The last thing we were thinking that it could be is the possibility of our 2-2-2 nutrient strength being possibly a little too weak for the size of plants. In other words; perhaps the plants need more food for full blown flowering. The next nutrient change will definitely be a full flowering mix.
Based on the fact that our mix is a 2-2-2 strength we decided to raise and lower the pH levels every other day. We will drop all the way down to 5.2 in the morning and let it get as high as it can in the afternoon. This should allow the nutrient availability to have a wide range. If this helps we should have our problem narrowed down. If it doesn't we won't be too bent out of shape about it since the rest of the plants are really healthy and doing great.
6-28-07 Day #9 of Flowering.
Cab Temp: ~85F
RH: ~19%-30%
Nutrient Temp:
PPM: 980-1100
pH: 4.8
We are going on a short vacation for a few days and so, this morning we topped off all the plants with quite a bit of a higher water level. We are coming back in a day so we shouldn't see too many ill effects. Our worry is that it will be around 100F here and we don't exactly know how much will be evaporated and uptaken by the plants. The roots will always be immersed in the nutrient reservoir and natural aeroponics never hurt roots of course. The only other concern with these temps and humid moist air above the reservoir is the possibility of mold. Mould can ruin roots in no time causing them to turn a brownish color usually accompanied with slime. Mould cuts off the amount of nutrients the roots can uptake as the bacteria quickly spreads over the roots thus also limiting the oxygen exchange the roots need to maintain. As you might have noticed, we also dropped the pH to its lowest acceptable range ie: 5.0-5.5 again, because we won't be here to maintain it. It's always good to have a buddy that grows as everyone says, but at this point in time that's just something we don't have.
06-30-07 Day #11 of Flowering.
Cab Temp: 78F
RH:
Nutrient Temp: 73F
PPM: 1050-1100
pH: 5.5
The plants are coming along, with bud sites starting to develop into the first signs of buds. The lower leaves are dieing on pretty much all of the plants but this is to be expected during flowering. The rest of the plant looks nice and healthy and they are still growing close to a half inch in vertical height daily. I took some high resolution photos to show the bud development and I will continue to do so throughout the flowering process. We are due for another nutrient change tomorrow and at this time we will also need to raise the light again. The heat has subsided and there are no real negative effects on the plants up to this point so we might just hold off on our centrifugal fan idea for the time being. We were also having some different ideas regarding a new 600W light as well. Rather than buying an exhaust fan of high quality like we were, we are thinking that since most 600W and 1000W lights have detached ballasts, that we would put the ballast outside of the grow tent and have our current light exhausting fan just remove hot air from the top of the tent without being hooked up to anything. The fan is more than powerful enough to handle this task and we would also be benefiting the power of a 600W light. Maybe for the next grow but for now we are content.
7-1-07 Day #12 of Flowering.
Cab Temp: ~75 to 80F
RH: ~50%
Nutrient Temp: 72.3F
PPM: 1100
pH: 5.5
We performed another nutrient change today and switched to full bloom formula. The components are 1tsp grow 2tsp micro 3tsp bloom or 1-2-3. We put the pH at 5.5 this time so that we could start with a good baseline to see how the plants react during this stage of flowering. GH's web site states that for this phase in growth the PPM should be between 1100-1400 PPM.
The bud sites are plumping up and our topping jobs look to be paying off. We are glad we did not decide to do any more than 3 plants with the current light setup. Our light is decent enough, but more light could have maybe enabled us to do 4 plants with higher yields, but it's a bit early to start talking about yields. Next post I will try to get some good shots of the root systems that these babies got going.
more pics