My First Grow: Aeroponics, LED veg, Super HPS flower, CO2 sealed room

[Apollonia]

11/8/09 Update - Veg Room


Before transplant & relocation

In the Vegetation Room: The second major event was the transplanting of mother clones into the dutch bucket system just put into the veg room. There are some other left over mother clone cuttings standing by should anything go wrong with these clones. The Mother Dutch Bucket System was fed with Hygrozyme, Cal-Mag+ and regular Vegetative growth formula - I hope it isn't too strong, but I'm treating the clones as if they are the age of the plants they were taken from, as they are not seedlings. The strongest specimens of each strain/sub-strain were taken and put into the dutch buckets from the seedling trays where they sat in rockwool on perlite. The dutch bucket mothers are: C99 'grapefruit', C99 'pineapple', C99 X BB 'bravo', Sugar Blossoms, Blueberry, and C99 X A11.


The permanent mother system

The flower unit still in the veg room holds all plants that were cloned as possible mothers for Apollo 11, Blue Apollo & Sugar Berry. They were either very alike, equal in quality & I'm waiting to see how they flower before choosing a mother or I haven't decided which qualities I would find more desirable in that strain for a mother ie. a shorter, thinner bushier plant or a taller, stronger one for example. This unit was also changed and given the Hygrozyme, Cal-Mag+ and General Hydroponics Vegetative Growth formula.


Last flower Unit left in the veg room

The only plant not added to the Dutch Bucket Mother System was C99 x BB 'echo' because the cutting had not rooted yet. I recut the cutting, split it down the middle & put it back into the aerocloner. Hopefully I can stimulate it to root again - it does have white root bumps. If it doesn't work out, I'm very happy having only C99 X BB 'bravo' which looks like a true cross between C99 and Blueberry vs 'echo' which is a big, strong plant with lots of bud sites, but looks as if it inherited more C99 than Blueberry as it looks very similar to the C99 X A11 mother. I'll try my best to preserve C99 X BB 'echo's genetics as much as I can, I'd even go so far as to try to re-veg the plant if it came down to it as my focus now is genetics - not this particular harvest. This harvest is a nice bonus & informational. Main goal is the perpetual system.


Veg Room after changes as it is now

[Apollonia]

11/8/09 Update - Unit 2 Pics: C99 X BB 'bravo', C99 x BB 'echo', C99 x A11

As a first time grower, I'm in awe of the beauty and the thrill of the plants coming into bloom so I'm sure these pictures are quite redundant in some ways - but not totally useless at all. Here you can really get a sense of the different phenotypes & characters of the strains I got going here.

Just a note about what you're looking at with the Group 2 pictures: I took a lot of shots of them as they are the most accessible but if you want a layout - those spinachy stalks in the left hand back are C99 X BB 'bravo' - directly in front of that and leaning over towards Group 1 is C99 X BB 'echo' who looks very much like the plant that really dominates the whole of Group 2 which is my C99 x A11 'alpha' - when you look from left and even across the center into the Blueberry crosses territory - that canopy, those branches are all being flung out largely by that one plant. This is observable in all pictures taken head on of Unit 2, so you can go back to those pictures to see what I mean and where certain plants are.

C99 x BB 'bravo'
This particular plant from this strain, to me, shows the more indica, blueberry, genes of the two (bravo & echo) Notice her dark greenery & the leafy abundance around her buds (hash, ahoy!) ow, he's beautiful (I know this plant's a 'he' despite being technically female - & he's definitely the more macho of the two. 'Bravo's unique looking.

Here is 'bravo':

Bud cluster


Three stalks of 'bravo'


Leaves & Buds


Stalk & flower cluster, notice the abundance of dark leaves

C99 X BB 'echo'
This specimen of the Cinderella Blueberry cross is so similar looking to my C99 Apollo 11 cross, I'd have thought I accidentally mislabeled the strain (I know I didn't, I was very careful) He's big & branchy, though not as large as his brother 'bravo' I don't think. He also has many bud sites, more than his brother I think. He responded well to training via breaking & redirecting growth, so he's strong. He tends towards the more C99/sativa side of the family it seems. He's a fine plant & I am working hard to preserve a clone of him, initially taken on somewhat of a lark, it may prove too similar to C99 X A11or not enough of a yielder compared to 'bravo' to be worth keeping if I can revive it at all, we shall see.


Some echo branches


Looking down a long stalk of echo


Echo bud close-up


Echo view from the top down

C99 X A11 'alpha'
What can I say about this plant that the pictures don't? She's a veritable monster, she takes up 75% of the unit space & has multiple bud sites. Cannot wait to see what happens with this one, she's all arms, it's true what Joey Weed said, she looks like she'd be great for SCROG. I love the prettiness of it all, I have a ton of picture of her.


C99 X A11 Canopy tied


She's a huge plant


Close-up of bud frond


Bud & greenery jungle

[deleafer2220]

Great Work :thumbsup:

[Apollonia]

11/15/09 Update

Beginning of fifth week of flower for Groups 1 & 2
Beginning of second week of flower for Flower Unit 3
Beginning of the first Week of Flower for Flower Unit 4


Before Unit 4 was added


Flower Room After Unit Four Added

Major changes this week:


Flower Unit 4

The last flower unit has been transferred into the flower room. This is the unit that contains the last three strains to be cut & chosen - Blue Apollo, Apollo 11 & Sugar Berry. Extra cuttings for back up mothers were taken (2 from each plant) before hand.

Another major change - I've decided to add FloraShield as a mainstay in all reservoir - those yellow leaves got me worried. It's like H2O2. In Groups 1 & 2 I drained the reservoir and ran FloraShield & water at the recommended dilution (changed & cleaned all the part of the 2 systems) for the recommended time (1-2 hours, I did a little over 2) Just incase I am dealing with a case of root rot. The plants in the dutch buckets are quite root bound which has caused drainage problems & overflow & I've mentioned the unwashed Hydroton before, I just don't see why I'd take the chance especially as I observed yellowing leaves starting on my second unit - that's what did it for me. I can't have this spread around the whole room. The only thing I sacrifice is the beneficial bacteria/organisms & I guess if they had established themselves, I wouldn't be having this problem, so my choice was clear.


Unit 2

As there isn't much to tell now, I'm mostly looking toward the future. My worries are so far: when to add the Dry KoolBloom (Ripen)? Shall I do it for 3 weeks prior to harvest? 2 or only 1? I hear that stressing w/products like that can cause hermaphrodites, but vastly increase bud size so I'll do a little experimenting. As I'm using the aggressive bloom strength formula, might as well go the whole 9.


Units 1 & 3

Another worry is circulation, budrot. I'm thinking of adding several fans & really blow those plants around - humidity has been good, 47% last I checked. But, The vegetation is dense & the plant are stacked on top of each other. I've ordered more fans to mount on the walls just to rattle each leaf & stalk. I've also cut the lower third
side stems & leaves off of the plants in units 3 & 4.


Units 2 & 4

I've taken readings with my Lux meter above the canopies of all my flower units - they range at the darkest points 50,000 Lux - to the brightest being 600,000 Lux. I plan on addressing the issue of the plants getting the lesser amount of light by adding perhaps an LED over them as it worked for my Flower Unit 3. It doesn't jump the Lux reading - LEDs give lower readings, but due to their more specific spectrum, give more useable light with the added benefit of using blue light to keep the stretch down.

One observation - the plants in Groups 1 & 2 are low odor strains, but are finally starting to show odor now if you go up to them - they smell sweet. Some smell like candy, I put that up to the Pineapple!Rush FloraNectar sweetener I'm using, just my guess.

[Apollonia]

End of fourth week, beginning of fifth week of flower Unit 2 pics, canopy, colas, buds:

Bud Canopy (Unit 2):


Cola (Unit 2):


Canopy & Colas Unit 2 (C99 X BB 'bravo' featured prominently center)


C99 X BB 'bravo' Colas close-up


C99 X A11 Canopy


Cola C99 X A11


C99 X A11 Canopy:


Bud close-up:


Bud Chain (C99 X A11):


Bud 'arm' (C99 X A11):

[Apollonia]

Trichomes



Got some close up pics of trichomes to show everyone just for laughs - took them with the Eyeclops. Most are at 200X magnification and a few are 400X. I took a little bud off C99 X A11 for observation (which was dutifully chopped, dried and smoked by those who shall remain nameless - they got all happy, giggly & chatty, proclaiming it "definitely good shit" - happily when questioned they confirmed hat the seedmakers said it would do - a head/psychedelic high with euphoria but also a decent light body high, it's more than I expected given the small quantity, early harvest & knowledge of their smoking habits, so hooray!)



All comments and observation are welcome & wanted as I'm totally new to reading trichomes. As it is 5 weeks, I'm reading them as all clear. Perhaps someone with more experience can let me know if I'm right. I'm using UVB and I know that often accelerates trich maturation & degradation, so perhaps the trichs really are part cloudy.



When taking pictures of the trichs, you can often only get a few into focus as they are often on a curved surface. I am considering only the ones in clear focus for accuracy.


Even though in the pictures there appears to be cloudy heads, I think that is b/c they are out of focus or in front of other objects that make them appear coudy - with this picture at the bottom it even looks like there are 2 broken amber heads, but I doubt that. I don't know, first grow and all, but I think early week 5 is too early to see anything but clear heads. Correct me if I'm wrong. And if any of you old timers have any tricks to share regarding how to tell when plants are indeed cloudy, don't be afraid to shout.

[Apollonia]

Clones of the last remaining strains taken


Second set of clones (new clones) taken in front - older clones in back tray

Regarding this last crop of mother plant cuttings I kept 4 Apollo 11's, 2 Blue Apollos and 2 Sugar Berrys. At first glance, the Sugar Berrys are twins, however, I have noticed Sugar Berry 'hotel' is taller & sparser than Sugar Berry 'india' which is a little less tall, but much bushier. I think 'india' will win out in the end and become a permanent mother.

With Blue Apollo we have 2 plants very much alike, again one taller than the other, but still bushy which is 'bravo'. The other is slightly smaller & less thick branched but is very bushy all around, 'echo'. What might throw this to 'bravo' though is while it is not as bushy as 'echo' - it has a very large, circular, bushy canopy that I can imagine would produce many large buds.

I kept 4 potential mothers for Apollo 11 b/c I think she's going to be a real standout. As of now, 'golf' is the clear front runner - she's by far the bushiest & decently tall. 'delta' is the tallest, fairly bushy itself and like most of the taller ones is sturdy. Then comes 'echo' and 'bravo' - they are both smaller but very bushy, 'echo' being a little more so. I have faith in the strain so I'm willing to devote the time & the space to find out which is best. In the other cases - the choices were very clear and luckily are bearing themselves out in the flower room now.


New Veg Room Set-up, permanent set-up still in progress

Another thing: I've got my mothers up and running in the dutch bucket mother system in the veg room. The final mothers, I took one of each clone - one I put in rockwool and one I put directly into the Hydroton, bare roots. It looks like they're doing fine. Plus I have The other clone in rockwool & 2 more cuttings in the cloner unit for backup should it not work. The clones I had taken earlier & rooted first in rockwool & placed in Hydroton are doing great & growing. Regarding the clones I took bare rooted & placed directly into hydroton, first off I was very gently, secondly they had a lot of roots. I just held the plant up where I wanted it & rolled the hydroton balls under & through the roots and gently around them, trying to leave not much space to collapse. Then I took the emitter and watered the area where the roots were. I then just left them with the others, it's been 3 days & they haven't died so I'm optimistic.


Permanent mother plant system in veg room

I'm concentrating on establishing my mothers. I've topped the established plants just above the third node on each in the hopes of getting a bushy, short plant that will quickly provide cuttings for the perpetual harvest system.

Anyway another piece of good news - my little C99 X BB 'echo' cutting has rooted! I'm going to be very careful with him and let him sprout a few more before I o putting him into rockwool as I only have the one. Even thought I was successful with the other mothers, transplanting them with bare roots, I only have the one and it is such a different pheno than it's brother 'bravo'

[Apollonia]

One last try on the yellowing leaves situation: Normal N loss during flower, disease or both?

*All pictures are of the C99 'grapefruit' plant on two particular bud sections:
C99 'grapefruit' bud, interveinal chlorosis, chlorotic leaves - this is typical of all the branches on this plant.

I had mentioned before that some leaves were yellowing - nearly all of C99 'grapefruit's and quite a few of C99 'pineapple' - with the two smaller plants in group 1 showing absolutely no signs of this disorder whatsoever despite them being farther from the lights. I cannot say for sure - but it is useful to note that C99 'grapefruit' and C99 'pineapple' are much larger than their two sisters, causing problems due to being heavily root bound - also these two plants reside in the uncleaned Hydroton where as the other two are in cleaned Hydtoton. This leads me to conclude that the dying from the inside of the branch to the outside is a sign of some form of root rot or damage, hence the FloraShield cleansing and it's addition to the system as a regular staple.


Same bud shot and leaves but shown in perspective with the rest of 'grapefruit'

What has me most worried now is the progression of yellow fan leaves amongst the larger plants in Unit 2. It started with C99 X BB 'bravo' & appears to be showing up in C99 X A11 'alpha.' Now, these plants could have caught whatever it is making the sick plants in unit 1 ill, but then why haven't the others in the same units gotten ill as well? This is only occurring amongst the largest plants in each unit. Perhaps it's due to an inadequate amount of root space. I really do not know. It's also worth mentioning that it is later in flower (middle of week 5) so perhaps this is a normal loss of N as I am using an Aggressive Bloom formula. I've heard it can happen. I wonder though. And it must be said - the plants are putting out nice buds.


A different grapefruit bud close up with more pronounced chlorosis - the tips are curled and burnt on some sections.

Here are the symptoms one last time. It begins on the larger fan leaves - they turn bright yellow and can stay that way for a while. When they are fully yellow their veins and stems take on a purple color although there is purpleness present in the healthy plants too. In the final phases, the leaves dry, turning brown along the edges and curling upwards at the tips and along the edges. The leaves to go last are the ones closest to the ends/buds. I realize that I may have to harvest early if this situation progresses and the plant starts to die - especially the 'grapefruit' plant.


Here is a picture of a leaf on grapefruit in mid-chlorosis

As I read more, maybe I'm having a little hysteria (in the case of unit 2 at least) over what naturally happens - nitrogen loss during flower. Perhaps that is also the case with Unit 1 to a degree, but I have to think it got too bare too soon, at least 'grapefruit' did. I know C99 loves Mg, but I am supplementing, it couldn't be lacking Mg save for lockout, which worries me. I don't know. I'm showing this to show what the problem looks like on the plant - this is the best illustration of the problem thus far, it's all there in a nutshell.


Same 'grapefruit' leaf as the first plant pictures above but in close-up. Notice the complete yellowness, the curled up brown edges.

Unit 2, I'm thinking might be experiencing a natural yellowing during flower. The yellowing is primarily large fan leaves, most of the growth remains dark and lush. Not like the bare branches of the C99 'grapefruit' plant. Any ideas are welcome as I'm stumped. I am fairly certain that the two large plants in Unit 1 have problems due to complications that I'm not entirely sure what they are, but that have left them with diminished functioning root mass. There will be a 'root autopsy' which I will post after harvest if this isn't figured out to a near certainty.

Here are some details on what most of these yellow leaves look like.

Here's a picture of a progression from mottled green to yellow to yellow with brown fringed tips:


Close up of typical yellow leaf:

This leaf has gone beyond any green remaining in it's veins & is totally yellow. Notice the brown tips and the purple stem.

[Farmer Rich]

Hey Apollina,

Looking good!

I tend to start losing water leaves during flower that look similar to your pics. Don\'t sweat it too much, just keep an eye on the sugar leaves on the buds.. I\'ve also found this is strain dependent too.. I have one that loses leaves quickly, but always produces.. This one, generally around week 4 it starts yellowing and less the buds, they\'re all about gone by harvest.

You say this is your first grow? You did a lot of homework and bought/built a lot of equipment.

Some thoughts your mothers.. What I do is keep mine in soil-less mix in #2 containers and regenerate them when necessary. This allows me to use rooted clones from my clone bucket in either system (aeroponic or mix) without having to screw with rockwool. The other advantage is I can totally tear down and clean the veg system between cycles without impacting any mother plants.

That\'s quite the jungle you have in flower!!! I noticed in some earlier pics you were skipping plant sites in the flower system. Was this by plan? You must have a fairly large light footprint with 4 systems. I designed mine based on a HPS lighting foot print of 4\' x 10\', which gave me enough room for a 6 x 3 plant grid on 15\" centers, hence the 3 individual 2 x 3 systems.

Peace,

Farmer Rich

[Apollonia]

Hey Apollina,

Looking good!

I tend to start losing water leaves during flower that look similar to your pics. Don\'t sweat it too much, just keep an eye on the sugar leaves on the buds.. I\'ve also found this is strain dependent too.. I have one that loses leaves quickly, but always produces.. This one, generally around week 4 it starts yellowing and less the buds, they\'re all about gone by harvest.

You say this is your first grow? You did a lot of homework and bought/built a lot of equipment.

Some thoughts your mothers.. What I do is keep mine in soil-less mix in #2 containers and regenerate them when necessary. This allows me to use rooted clones from my clone bucket in either system (aeroponic or mix) without having to screw with rockwool. The other advantage is I can totally tear down and clean the veg system between cycles without impacting any mother plants.

That\'s quite the jungle you have in flower!!! I noticed in some earlier pics you were skipping plant sites in the flower system. Was this by plan? You must have a fairly large light footprint with 4 systems. I designed mine based on a HPS lighting foot print of 4\' x 10\', which gave me enough room for a 6 x 3 plant grid on 15\" centers, hence the 3 individual 2 x 3 systems.

Peace,

Farmer Rich

Hi there Farmer! Thanks for the info about the leaves - big exhale over here.

Yes I did do my homework! I researched for about 6 months and I built all the systems you see w/specs provided by StinkBud and a hydro book for the dutch bucket system. That part wasn't that hard & was fun, building the PVC structures & all. The every other thing, I moved the plants in group 1 to optimize light as it's moveable. The others in the aero-units was at first less by design - Unit 2 had the males pulled and units 3 & 4 were placed that way prior to addition to the moving into the flower room.

I think I see what you're saying about the mother plants - crazily enough those plants I rooted by hand - just took from the aerocloner & put them into the Hydroton carefully are alive! Every last one! Now I have successfully regenerated a cutting of C99 X BB 'echo' that had not taken before so I only have the one. Now I'm scared, despite the success I've had with the others & think I may put it into rockwool first even though I'd rather just put it right into the system.

I got the Magnum xxxl reflector which should give me a 5' X 5' foot print. My plant systems in the final set up will be 4 units 4' X 8' and a little over, I'm guessing.

You're right about the jungle part - I'll be checking out your journals when I get a chance to crawl out sometime!