300w led + 1000w blue metal H=TD-CC-PB-AK47 Grow From Seed!

[Lemon Sour]

Hello my fellow forum members and random internet viewers. Today I begin a new thread displaying my grow of Tangerine Dream, Cotton Candy, Plush Berry and AK47 from seed. All the seedlings were started under a 250w 10,000K MH with supplement led lighting. Today I moved them under 300w led + 1000w of blue metal H in a 2m x 2m space with reflective mylar.

If they seem like they're getting more light than they can handle I will back the power off a bit. Led is a new concept for me and I hope to see some happy plants that treat me well. I know I give them the best of care, nourishment, love and I always sing and play music for my ladies when I am in the G Room.

Photos will be uploaded in T minus 10..9..8...7....6....5....4.....3.....2......1........as soon as I figure out how!
This is 2 photos stuck together, left and right side of the table in case anyone is wondering what's up with the blue line in the middle. On the left back is the CC, left front PB, right back TD, right front AK.

Day 12 from seed, Day 1 under 1300w led + metal h

Peace brothers and sisters, enjoy the show! I know I will!

 

[Lemon Sour]

Fixed a PH issue I discovered today. Medium is coming in a point below normal so I drenched with Ph 7.5 to balance it out and stuck the ladies under some T5 to minimize stress. Should be straight in a couple days.

Medium is a 50/50 mix of Shultz indoor/outdoor + coco/perlite. Ratio was 1 bag of soil to 1 bag perlite to 1 rehydrated cocogro brick. I didn't add any buffer which is why I'm having some issues. I guess Shultz doesn't buffer their soil. Should be all good soon enough. When I transplant I will be increasing the coco ratio to 1:1:2 and will add some CaCO3 or oyster shell to buffer the mix.

Does anyone have any good buffers that might work better? Does calcium carbonate add a lot of calcium to the soil? Would dolomitic lime work better? I've tried using straight coco before and although I like it, I like mixing in some soil a lot better. The plants seem happier. I still use the House and Garden coco A B even though there is a little dirt in the mix.

 

[FranJan]

^^^Lime will raise your PH so be careful. See lime induced chlorosis on any gardening site.

I spray my leaves in veg/early flower with Cal Carb. It will raise the PH of your leaves and prevent PM, boost calcium levels and gives the gift of CO2 too . Now why since it produces CO2 when wet or when it gets hot, do you want it near your roots? Plus it will raise your soil's PH. Why not just add bone meal to put calcium in your soil? The best bet is to get your soil PH right, then plant. Buffering in soil is not needed, since soil is the buffer. This is why soil has a larger PH range to run in than say coco or hydro. But if you keep adding coco you need to get that ph'd for soil IMHO.

Anyway, not trying to be a know-it-all, just trying to help. Subbed and good luck!

 

[Lemon Sour]

^^^Lime will raise your PH so be careful. See lime induced chlorosis on any gardening site.

I spray my leaves in veg/early flower with Cal Carb. It will raise the PH of your leaves and prevent PM, boost calcium levels and gives the gift of CO2 too . Now why since it produces CO2 when wet or when it gets hot, do you want it near your roots? Plus it will raise your soil's PH. Why not just add bone meal to put calcium in your soil? The best bet is to get your soil PH right, then plant. Buffering in soil is not needed, since soil is the buffer. This is why soil has a larger PH range to run in than say coco or hydro. But if you keep adding coco you need to get that ph'd for soil IMHO.

I was thinking the same thing about the coco being ph neutral, any additional soil added is going to change the ph so it's imporant to have absolutely any soil buffered to 6-6.5. I'm having a hard time with this because I really wanted to do a 33/33/33 coco/soil/perlite mix but I have no access to quality soil this time of year. The green houses and grow stores all carry ocean forest, happy frog, and a few others but they are infested with larvae of countless parasites 90% of the time. I could buy a bag and just pasturize it in the oven in a turkey pot or something I supposed, but I really don't want to. I think it's going to be my only option other than just going straight coco which is very tempting right about now.

The dirt they are in now just isn't going to cut it. Ph is around 5.3 and I don't want to play the guessing game at this point.

 

[mushead]

if you use the right amount of lime you be ok, Epson salt can work to i believe. i always just bought whatever organic cal/mag i could find at the time. not sure if you care about it being organic or not. if so there are cool ways to do it naturally, there just time consuming, at least a weeks time.

 

[Dendrophilly]

Subbed.

Can you tell me more about your led set up?

 

[Lemon Sour]

My ladies perked right up today after hitting them with the 7.5ph water last night. I was very impressed actually because 7.5 is fairly high. The rain water around here is usually around 8.0ph so it's really not that abnormal.

I went ahead and transplanted them out of the soil and into a coco mix of around 60% coco/30% perlite/10% soil/ using the same Shultz soil. I decided it's not that bad of dirt for generic type Menards brand, it's just very rich and very acidic coming in at a ph of 5.3 to 5.5. I like the texture of the soil, it's a lot like the Ocean Forest and has a coarse volcanic type of feel and look to it. I didn't add any lime or oyster shell to it this time around.

Typically I water coco with a ph of 6.0 but now that I have some mad Shultz acidity in there I'm going to try to keep it at 6.8-7 at first, well see.

I am using House and Garden Coco A and B along with Microblast, MagiCal, and finally Sugar Daddy when the time comes. I've used this blend for a few years and like it a lot. I go with 5mL of each per gallon until it's time to switch or earlier if they tell me they need it. If they look really deprived I give them some FloraNova at a rate of 7.5mL per gallon ph'd up to 6.0 and in this case 6.8-7.0. The Sugar Daddy I use later on at a rate of 15mL per gallon, but I'm going to try switching to Molasses(5mL gallon) after I use the bottle up.

The lights I am using for led are 4 of the Kessil reds at 32 watts each, 2 of the Kessil purple at 86 watts each for a total of 300w led. I know they will work because they are based on a new science called "FIBERPOTICS!" Can't beat a name like that.

Freshly transplanted and bathing in a gentle purple led light bath to reduce shock after transplant. The leds are about 3ft above the plants for now.

 

[Scotch089]

SUBBED

1.) Curious about Plushberry
2.) Love/hate....mostly hate relationship with TD
3.) Curious of kessils
4.) MH rocks

I am about to order some plushberry, so I may hold off to wait and see how this goes.... Good luck Grower!

 

[Lemon Sour]

The PB is looking the nicest out of them all so far for veg. Like the deep green leaf color and the wide Indica shaped leaves. Heard it's hit and miss for flavor so I grabbed a 10 pack to find a goodie. The Cotton Candy is already smelling amazing.

Grow update,
Decided to go back to the 250w instead of the 1000w right off the bat because it was way too intense for the newly sprouted bunch.

It seems like most metal halides have too much green color to them especially the Whoretilux which could be from using an electronic ballast with it, who knows. I just didn't see the point of running 1000w of mostly green and yellow light when I can get even more blue light out of a 250w. Talk about a waste of power!

I use a Hamilton Technology aquarium metal halide most of the time which pushes the blue spectrum a lot more than the Hortilux blue does. It's very blue even though it's a 6.4k. I thought 6.4k was supposed to be white. This lamp is definitely blue. Those silly lamp companies! Once again, maybe it has to do with the e-ballast.

If the 250w does well for veg I will use it a long as possible. Total watts=550w for veg right now with 300w of pure purple led power, seems ample enough!
Can't go wrong with a 1000w for budding.

I like a good veg. It effects yield dramatically.

 

[Lemon Sour]

Just a quick update. I realize now that with the added red/blue led lighting I can get away with a 400w hortilux blue as the main source of light. The 1000w was just too much. Plants are looking fine. Growth has doubled, and the Tangerine Dream that was having a little trouble getting started are doing fine. Pics in a few days. Thank you all for joining!

 

[Lemon Sour]

Spent 12 hours over the last 2 days hooking up the drip system. Using the Trompf Blu-Mat drippers. They are a pain in the ass to get hooked up and perfected, but once everything is rolling I've been able to go away for 2 weeks at a time. Will be out of the country for the next 2 weeks and relying on them. Still rolling with the 400w hort blue and 300w red/blue led. Had to move the bushes to the floor so there will be enough gravity feed height for the drip line. The light is much more blended color wise being further away. Light is at least 2 meters from tops. Wondering how it will effect stretch with the 400w so far away, but having 300w of red/blue led. Might even be ideal.

Second photo is the Plush Berry, they are in 5 liter containers with long drippers because I ran out of the shorties. The rest are in 2 liter containers with the short dripper.

 

[Snafu1236]

Subbed up. Save your 1000W for flowering.

-Snafu

 

[Lemon Sour]

Good evening ladies and gents, here is your official 12 day update. The growth is phenomenal. Obviously they would be over-vegged at this point, but I will be taking cuts, figuring out where the males are and storing pollen for future breeding.

 

[Lemon Sour]

Before,

12 days later with absolutely no maintenance. (out of country)

Now it's time to flip, but they will be getting well manicured first(cuts), and some rearranging must be done. I think they soon be ready for 1000w, I was actually considering stepping to 600w first. Any opinions on that? Kinda wish I had one of dem adjust da watt ballasts now.

 

[Snafu1236]

Go for the 1000W, theyll appreciate it.

_Snafu

 

[Lemon Sour]

omfg! I just dug my way into the bush where the plush berrys are and can't believe my eyes! The fan leaves on these babies are bigger than dinner plates and the main stalk is almost an inch thick in just 12 days! Looks like I'm going to have to thin out the room and make 2 more rooms to accommodate the ultra growth! This is absolutely nuts people! As soon as I can get back to them I will snap some pics for ya.

 

[Lemon Sour]

So I had to put each strain in separate rooms because they were just too big to keep together. Here are a couple photos of the Plush Berry strain by TGA.

400w HPS box for size.

They've been under 12/12 for about 4 days now. They are huge. I hope this means the buds will be huge also. I've never seen growth like this before except in straight hydro.

Coco/soil/perlite rocks! The 400w hortilux has been replaced with a 1000w Hortilux and the 86w deep purple kessils have been taken out. That leaves the 4 kessil 32w reds and the 1000w hortilux.

I've seen other growers use this lighting with some impressive results and so far I am a believer.

 

[Lemon Sour]

Oh yeah, nutrient levels have been increased. Current dosing schedule is,

Per 1 Gallon of RO water,

5mL Micro Blast

5mL MagiCal

10mL Sugar Daddy

10mL House and Garden Coco A

10mL House and Garden Coco B

pH to 6.2, ppm=1000

Also every 2 weeks I am inoculating the coco/perlite/soil substrate with 1/4 tsp Great White myco per gallon H2O. Not sure if this is helping, but it definitely is not hurting.

I pulled 3 males out of the Plush Berry group and left 1 male(biggest leaves, shortest stalk) to capture pollen from. That leaves 7 Plush Berry together which I will be hooking back up to the drip line in the near future.

 

[Lemon Sour]

Here's a leaf that was cut from one of the PB males I chopped. This is how big the fan leaves are after only 3 weeks of veg.

 

[Snafu1236]

You're doing well. Keep up the good work.

-Snafu