400w MH/HPS multi-strain ScROG First grow!

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Ok, so after reading hours and hours of material over the past months I finally decided to start my grow (I'm using RIU as most of my search results through google and informative answers came from this site)
The original idea was to go with a gutted fridge and CFL/LEDs but after further research I decided to jump this setup and go straight for a 400w system for maximum yield and time frame.
I did have the fridge 90% setup and will use it as a veg/clone chamber, possibly adding mothers in the future.

The fridge setup:
It's about 1.5 x 2 x 5 ft.
1 x 147w chinese LED (I can post specs if required) I havent used this so far at all and won't unless I decide to flower out in here.
2 x fittings for CFLs that I can put a y adapter on or as I have it now a single 105W CFL in each socket (6400k spec)
15cm desk fan for air movement
2 x 150mm PC fans at the top of the fridge for exhaust on adjustable voltage transformers
1 x 100m PC fan at the bottom for intake (this is not in yet so I just leave the door open a crack for temp control and fresh air).

The tent setup:
It's 1m x 1m x 2m or just over 3ft x 3ft x 6ft for those at home (I'm a kiwi and work equally well with imperial and metric I just use whichever comes to mind)
The Screen is set about 8" from the top of the pots and 10" from the medium and is made from electrical conduit pipes and chicken wire, the screen is a true 3ft x 3ft as I measuered it wrong, I'm hoping the gap on either side won't be much of an issue or affect my yield or budsites too much.
Lighting comes from a 400W switchable/dimmable digital ballast with 110% super lumens for HPS.
For air movement I have a clip on fan.
The intake I will leave as passive for now and the exhaust setup I have is through a 6" centrifugal fan rated at 465cfm plugged into a fan speed controller.

The exhaust runs as follows:
Carbon filter > ducting > hood > ducting > fan in a custom made MDF box silencer > little bit of ducting for direction. About 4 or so metres of ducting to pull through as I have the box located in the roof.

Medium, nutes, etc:
Coco-perlite mix, unsure of ratio as it was premixed. I have attached a picture of the bag.
Currently I'm in ~1 litre pots but tomorrow I'm transplating into 300mm width pots ( about 13.5 gallons/12 litres from what I can tell) and they're going under the MH.
Using the entire canna range, A&B, rhizo, cannazym, cannaboost, pk 13/14.
Hand watered with tap water with an EC of 0.5, left to sit for a couple of days before I mix nutes. I have no set schedule, just water as I have time or feel the pots are a bit light but anywhere from 250 to 500ml per plant each watering at the moment, every day or two (runoff included). The thing I love about coco is it can go 4+ days before it gets dry and dusty (not that I let it get this far)
ph: anywhere from ~5.75 - 5.9 Generally two drops of ph down in my solution does this.. I'll let it drift a bit higher for the pk 13/14 usage.
I started at 1/4 strength for a week, half strength for one, then the lower recommended full strength for one week and I'm now at the upper end of full strength (Just following instructions on the back of the coco A bottle)

The babies:
Started from seed 5 weeks ago today, I purchased the seeds from here http://www.marijuana-seeds.nl/ I have recieved 3 orders through these guys already and the stealth is awesome, as is the postage time, definitely recommended.
I could not decide what to grow so I went with a feminized random packet, before I switch to flower I will take 4 clones off each and grow one strain next time based on yield/potency/flower time, the other 12 will go outdoors, to friends or wherever.
They are a little small for 5 weeks because I almost killed all four within a week, I think it was a combination of full strength rhizotonic foliar spray and watering as well as having them way to close to the CFLs but I persevered and a week later all 4 had recovered with fresh green growth. The smallest of the bunch was basically 95% brown and dead but she recovered nicely.

Lightning is 18/6 on a timer and will switch to 12/12 when the screen is about 70% full as they appear to be indica dominant to my untrained eye.

I will post as often as I can but with limited computer access picture updates will be days to a week or more apart unless I can work out how or if it's even possible to post pics from mobile?
I also plan on finishing this journal completely as I got sick and tired of searching for information from grow journals only to have the original poster dissapear half way through the grow!
I think that's it, any questions ask away... on to..
PICS!
 

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Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Minor set back getting the tent going, came back from work to find the weight of the carbon filter finally caused the top support bar hooks to give way (I've had the tent just sitting set up while I sorted the ducting through the roof) turns out they were both weak to begin with, swapped it with the other one and it's fine. It fell on top of the screen so I had to fix the legs.
BUT.
Transplanted this morning and they're loving the MH, awesome negative pressure, temperature is stable at 25 degrees with RH at 40%.
Temperature drops to about 10-15 degrees at night here so I set dark period from 10am to 4pm. I'll post dark temperatures tomorrow.
Pics next time I'm on a pc.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
"Night Time" temps drop from 25 to 18-20ish degrees and humidity rises to around 60+%
Had a timing issue with the exhaust and temps rose to 30 but not for more than a couple of hours.
I notice the plants are a bit droopy after lights on and a few hours before lights off, hoping it's just part of the cycle.
Had about an inch growth since they went in, screen will be going over in the next couple of days.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Moved the hood down a little today, it's about 5" from the tops but it's in a sealed hood and the bulb is a few inches above the glass.
The front right hand one is a good 2" shorter than the others, I'm putting this down to the fact it was basically dead after 3 days. I'll give it another week to catch up but if the others start overtaking it in the screen I'll remove it completely.
The kitten seemed to enjoy playing with the screen before I put it in too. =)
Pics:





And has any body actually read this?? No replies yet.
 

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Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Should also add the 69% (69... nahahaha) RH was just after watering, it was sitting at 40% a few minutes before.
Took about 2 litres each to get some run off after 3 days without a water, that's a litre a day drinking/evaporation as when transplated they took 5litres to soak the coco and runoff.
I might start watering every 2 just to keep the nutrients fresh and during flowering possibly every one day but we shall see.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Just spotted female preflowers on all 4 plants. Pretty happy with that, one has just hit the screen and will need training tomorrow.
Pics over the weekend.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Just had my first training session after a nice feed, another week or so for the 4th plant to touch the screen and a bit of filling out in the centre and I'll flip to 12/12.
What are peoples thoughts on leaving the MH in there on 12/12 for the first couple of days to control the stretch as I am working with unknown strains??
 

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Fenian Brotherhood

Well-Known Member
Subbed.

The MH in flower is fine. Some people do it for a couple of weeks intill flowers show an then switch to HPS.

Regular seeds could be male. Are you aware that scrogging regulars could turn out to be a bitch?


Good luck man. And nice grow :cool:
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Cheers Fenian. :)
I am aware of the dangers of scrog and males however these were grown from a feminised seed pack and all four have shown female preflowers.
I have read feminised seeds have a higher chance of going hermie especially under stress such as scrog so I will be keeping a very close eye on them.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Cheers man.
Just found an inch long well fed green caterpillar! I've seen sone more droppings buy can't find any more. . Hopefullu just a stray from a freshly cut tree in my yard. God. Knows how it got in there.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
Shall do.
Forgive the bad spelling, I can only really post from mobile and it's annoying as the way my phone corrects and re corrects things.
 

Fenian Brotherhood

Well-Known Member
Tell me about it... I have a crack on my screen for getting so mad at it and throwing it... The. I learned that I can go to settings at turn off the spell check... Lol :smoke:
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
:D
I'm thinking I might flip this weekend after trimming a few fan leaves that are shading a bit much. 4th plant has just hit the screen and was trained yesterday. The other three are getting well bushy and filling out the screen.
Reallt unsure as to how much to trim and let it fill out but hey, it's a learning experience.
Also burnt through 250ml of cannazym so I have a litre coming in the next day or so.
I spotted what I think are spidermite bites on some leaves but no spiders yet, going to keep an eye on this.
Pics over the weekend.
 

Fenian Brotherhood

Well-Known Member
For sure.

When you're ready to flip is when the screen will fill the rest of the way. THEN proceed to trim the bottom of the screen. Might have to do that twice. It won't matter.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
I trimmed a little underneath today.
If I flipped now and my plants doubled the screen will be full no worries but not every hole has growth through it or near it.

A lot of bigger fan leaves taking up room but plenty of growth underneath to get clones from.
/unsure. Will post a pic tomorrow if possible.
 

Stormy111

Well-Known Member
In hindsight I should have either topped or lstd earlier as I can see the main cola overgrowing all the others.
 
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