My first Medical Grow DWC Sour Cream, LA Conf, White Widow, AK47 COMMENTS WELCOME

[AlanF]

I've been wanting to start something to track my progress and get input from others so here goes. This is my first attempt at growing MMJ. I am a legal patient and caregiver in the state of Michigan. I am starting this journal in the midst of my first crop and will start with a rundown of equipment.

Genetics:

L.A. Confidential x 6
Sour Cream x 4
White Widow x 1
AK47 x 2 (same bucket experiment with LST)

All started from cuttings I obtained from a friend and stuck in rockwool cubes after using Clonex rooting compound.

Lighting:

Veg - 4' 8 Bulb T5
Flower - 2 600w HPS Light kits from HTG Supply (6" air-cooled hoods, electronic ballasts, 95,000 lumen bulbs) Just purchased the 2nd light kit today and will be installing this weekend.

Cooling/Ventilation:

I have a 410 cfm 6" inline fan cooling the HPS bulbs. I also just today purchased a identical 6" inline fan with a variable speed control to exhaust the flowering box and I will be using a passive intake. Box is currently cooled by a box fan and constant monitoring.

Nutrients:

General Hydroponics FloraNova Grow
General Hydroponics FloraNova Bloom
General Hydroponics Floralicious Berry
Cal-Mag
Fox Farm SledgeHammer

Other Equipment:

12 buckets w/ netpot lids
Hydroton
2 6 spot air pumps
1 2 spot air pump
12 4" circular airstones
2 6" airstones
Digital temp/humidity meter
Digital pH meter
General Hydroponics pH Up
General Hydroponics pH Down
Neem Oil concentrate
Mold/Algae control spray
Reflectix insulation lining the box

I am just going to post pics of where I am at and start from there.

Pics of Flowering Box: The 2 bigger plants in the back are on day 9 of 12/12. Left one is LA Conf, right is Sour Cream. The front 3 are on day 2 of 12/12. The left 2 are LA Conf, right one is Sour Cream. There are pics below of a brown discoloration that I have developed on the lower fan leaves of the biggest LA Conf. I just bought some CalMag today and that will be added next bucket change.





Pics of lower Leaf Problem on LA Conf 9 days flowering (any ideas?)




Pics of Veg Area:








Random Pics:




I know I am forgetting a ton of stuff but its hard to think of everything when I am already this far into it. If anyone has any comments please feel free to share, this is my first grow and I am trying to learn as much as I possibly can. I will be checking in with frequent updates and pics from now on I just wanted to get something down that I could start from.

Now if you will excuse me I think its about time to pack a bowl and relax lol.

 

[AlanF]

Anyone have any ideas of what my problem is with the fan leaves on the Day 9 LA Conf?

 

[talk2sampson]

Alan what is your watering cycle like? sometimes when flushing at the end of my flowering cycle my leafs start doing that. Try giving those la's a little less water. see if that helps.

 

[pilgram]

hell of a box there!plus rep

 

[AlanF]

Alan what is your watering cycle like? sometimes when flushing at the end of my flowering cycle my leafs start doing that. Try giving those la's a little less water. see if that helps.

Well I am running a deepwater culture setup with 3 gallon buckets. I change buckets once per week and check/adjust pH daily to 5.8-6.0. I also use 8 drops of Sledgehammer flush per bucket each week. But yes that does make sense as the leaf problem started right after I flushed for 24 hours in between veg and flower.

Today marks day 11 of flowering for the tallest LA and Sour Cream. Last night I got the 2nd exhaust fan installed with the speed controller. I didnt get the intake vent installed though before lights out so when I dropped the plastic over the front of the box and turned the new 6" inline all the way down it made a vacuum lol, so I had to do a bit of rigging to insure intake airflow throughout the night. That problem will be fixed today along with installing the 2nd 600w HPS and I will be moving the remaining 7 plants into the flowering box.

The inline exhaust did do wonders for my lights out humidity, which with just box fans crept up as high as 80% at times over the last week. I can now maintain RH at 50-55% with lights off so that solved one of my biggest current worries. I am hoping for even more control over the box environment when I get the intake vent with adjustable airflow installed today.

I will try to get some pics up of all the improvements this evening, thanks for the comments so far guys I appreciate it.

 

[curiousitykills]

Great set up AlanF . The buckets have had me thinking about the hydro for a while . I will stick around and see how this goes . Luck to you brother .

 

[AlanF]

Great set up AlanF . The buckets have had me thinking about the hydro for a while . I will stick around and see how this goes . Luck to you brother .

Thanks man I appreciate it. Just taking a break from the days work right now. I have the intake vent installed and the exhaust duct situated where I want it now so that is squared away. I also just finished hanging the 2nd 600w HPS. Im heading back down to mount the ballast on the outside of the box, then I will just have to connect the power on the new 15A GFI outlet that I installed today. I now have a 15A GFI on each side of the box so with what I am running I should be good by a longshot.

Also my 1st patient dropped off 12 clones he purchased today. They consist of 4 Blue Thunder and 8 S.A.G.E. N' Sour. I have actually been smoking the S&S the clone provider has had for sale for a few months now so it was a pleasant suprise to see that these clones came from the same person. I did not even know my patient knew this person.

Should have pics up later tonight.

 

[MICANNACARE]

Looking really good. The girls look really healthy. We can compare the progress and results of the Sour cream. I have that going now too. I am gonna get some of that LA con. I been hearing a lot of good things about that one. Well I be subscribing to see how things go. Happy growing

 

[MICANNACARE]

couple of quick questions.....

how tall are your plants when you flower them? how is the yield of those buckets? I just bought two of those systems not to long ago to convert over too for my next rotation. one for the grow room and one for the bloom. I actually just took some clones a few days ago of some OG kush for the buckets. I havent had good yield results in the past with hydro but I am thinking this new bucket system will change all that. thanks for sharing

 

[AlanF]

couple of quick questions.....

how tall are your plants when you flower them? how is the yield of those buckets? I just bought two of those systems not to long ago to convert over too for my next rotation. one for the grow room and one for the bloom. I actually just took some clones a few days ago of some OG kush for the buckets. I havent had good yield results in the past with hydro but I am thinking this new bucket system will change all that. thanks for sharing

Those 5 in the flowering box were all vegged until 18 inches with the exception of the tallest LA Conf in the back that went up to 20 inches. Not sure on the yield yet as this is my first attempt.

Equipment Upgrades (6" Inline from HTG for exhaust, dialed down with a variable speed controller, passive cold air intake behind the box fan, and 2nd HPS)




Flowering Room Lights On (Temp/Hum not bad if I dont say so myself!)




Flowering Room Lights Off (Pics taken within 1 min of light turning off)




Veg Area (These will all be going into the flowering box tomorrow except closest one to camera which will be kept as a mother for now)




New Clones (Blue Thunder and SAGE N' Sour)



Everything looks good to me let me know if you guys see anything I am missing. Hope everything is going well for you all as well

 

[AlanF]

Moved 5 more into flowering today. 1 White Widow, 1 AK47, 1 Sour Cream, and 2 LA Confidential. This brings the total in my flowering box up to 10 and it is packed full in there. I will be keeping 2 plants in veg as mothers, 1 Sour Cream and 1 LA Confidential. I also built a workbench for all my nutes and tools, also organized and cleaned up my entire grow area. I will have some new pictures of the ladies up tomorrow night which is Day 16 of flowering for my most mature Sour Cream and LA Confidential.

Also did some trimming that I have been debating on doing today on the most mature LA Confidential. There were alot of drooping fan leaves on the bottom of the plant that hung down lower than the top of the bucket. These were all discolored and starting to get crunchy in spots, the same leaves I posted that were in question last week. They were really restricting airflow from the box fan to the plants on the far side of the box so I took all of the discolored purple stemmed leaves that were drooping off the plant. Now keep in mind that I have not touched this plant at all up to this point, the cut leaves from cloning were still present on the bottom of the plant even. Maybe I should have cleared those leaves for the increased circulation earlier than this but I am happy with it overall I accomplished what I was trying to do.

 

[AlanF]

Here are some new pics from earlier today.

Workbench/Nutes



Mother Plants - Sour Cream on left, LA Conf on right



Flowering Room



White Widow - Day 1 12/12


AK-47 that I LST - Day 1 12/12



L.A. Confidential - Day 1 12/12

 

[AlanF]

I wanted to update that I had all of my electrical redone yesterday starting early in the morning. My lights come on at 11am, so the guy started at 6am and replaced the main service line all the way back, replaced the outside meter, and wired me up for 200 amp service. I was on a 60 amp service box before with only 4 circuits and the were the screw in ones. He also ran all new 12-2 wire in my grow area and my living and kitchen areas, this was replacing the 14-2 that was ran before some of which he said was from the 1960's. The guy even brought a 4000w generator that I used to hook up a power strip to keep my T5 going for my mothers on 24/0 and my exhaust fan and air pumps for the buckets. The whole thing is a dramatic improvement and I couldn't be happier that I no longer have a restriction with what I can do in terms of power usage

The new service box has 40 spots for breakers, I am all hooked back up now and currently running my entire house, grow included, on 9 breakers. I will be wiring each new light as I get it on its own circuit now for maximum safety and am also free to use 1000w if I so choose. This was all a necessary step if I intend on taking on any more patients than my current 1.

We also ran 4 extra outlets in various spots of the basement. I ran some cable and hooked up a box today so I will be making a wood hanger to mount a LCD TV to tomorrow. Let's see what else, I put a ceramic heater over by the mother plants to help keep them warm since they are close to the basement wall and with winter setting in the concrete is getting cold.

Here are some pics of the new 200A service box:

 

[AlanF]

Some pictures of the clones and mothers from earlier today

 

[talk2sampson]

just creepin thru, checkin back on your grow. Looking good, are you leafs back to normal on your la's? cant wait to see the funk xD

 

[AlanF]

just creepin thru, checkin back on your grow. Looking good, are you leafs back to normal on your la's? cant wait to see the funk xD

Thanks for stopping back in hope everything is going good for you. I ended up thinning the lower fan leaves on that plant and have not had any problems since so maybe it was an air flow issue I am still not quite sure. I am going to thin out the bottom 6" or so of fan leaves on the LA's at day 14 of 12/12 from now on, there is just so much growth in the canopy that barely any light gets down to them and the benefit of increased airflow throughout my box made up my mind to start doing this. I will post up some new pictures tomorrow of the flowering box. The oldest LA Conf that is going into day 23 is looking really good in my opinion with the day 23 Sour Cream looking good as well.

On another note I just finished helping my buddy cut and trim 2 LA Conf's. These are the mothers of my plants. We took roughly the top half of each plant and are letting the bottom go another week or so. This was day 56 and trichromes are 80% milky 20% clear. I think it looks like a very good pull from the tops of 2 plants. Here are a couple pics:

 

[talk2sampson]

looks like some stinky goodness to me, cant wait to see pics of your harvest.

 

[AlanF]

Today I changed the nutrient solutions out on 4 of the plants that were due for a change. The other 6 in the flowering box I just pH'd a 3 gallon bucket full of water to 5.8 and added it with a cup through the hydroton. I am going to have to give them their mid week water topoff this way from now on, it is getting to be a real pain in the ass trying to move them in and out of the box. I broke a top from a day 12 sour cream today but it was still attached pretty well so I made a splint and taped it then supported it to a thumbtack in the wall with plant tie.

We also harvested a AK47, Thai Skunk, and another LA Confidential today. These were not DWC like the ones harvested yesterday, they were all grown in fox farm ocean forest. The Thai Skunk has rock hard tops and the others are pretty solid as well. Got them all trimmed up and hung with yesterdays harvest.

 

[AlanF]

just wanted to update real quick, everything going great I will get some new pics up tomorrow. The LA Conf that is on day 29 flowering is looking really good with everything else right behind it. No major problems in the past week except for I had a high pH problem with 2 of my sour creams, ran them in a 24 hour sledgehammer flush and seemed to do the trick the pH is stable at 5.8-6.0 now, those 2 were shooting the solutions pH up to 7-7.5 within a few days of bucket changes I think it was a toxic salt buildup since the sledgehammer flush really turned them around and those 2 are back to drinking about 3/4 of a gallon per day.

Happy thanksgiving to those of you that are following, hope there is a couple of you out there still.

 

[DaGrapeApe]

Great thread with great strains. Looking forward to following this!
Anxious to see what your sour cream does with Floranova and those lights. My Sour Cream Freebie from Attitude got lost so I didn't get to grow it out.