* 600 HPS Vert ScroG - Coco/Hydroton - 1 Gal - Gravity Drip DTW *

Hello again everyone!

Day 1 of 12/12: June 4th

So two days ago I flipped the switch and flowering began. I am damn near finished with my new build out. Things are not as clean as I would like them, but B/W poly is cheap, and this will do for this round.

Going Vert!

So this round I'm dropping the hood and going bare bulb. You'll see from the pics below that I've got the classic Honeywell faced right up at the bulb. My 6 in CanFan HO (440 CFM) is positioned directly above it, sucking the heat and venting out the window.



Pot size is 1Gal with 50/50 Coco/Hydroton, with some added EWC and Neem Seed Meal.

I did some math and based off last runs pot size, I should be able to pull 600-700 grams from these pots, maybe more. Although I measured the pots, and although they claim 1Gal, they are only about 3.2 liters or so.

5 True OG clones Vegged for 8 weeks under 200 watts of T5.

I decided to lower the plant number due to the amount of veg time these were given. Also, I am starting them flowering directly under 600 watts. My last run they were under 200 watts of T5 for the first 5 weeks. I expect much more growth, and immediately after I put them under the HPS they have already exploded. Growing 4+ inches in 3 days.



The new room is 4x8, but only 4x4 is being utilized.

I threw down a piece of 3/4 inch plywood and framed up a simple wall against the end of a room. I then laid down pond liner and stapled it up about 2 feet from the floor, making the flooring nice and taught. I then stapled black and white poly all around the walls and to the new wall frame I had built. Finally I used a curtain for the door. The room stays very dark, so I am not concerned about light leakage through this curtain (Although with the HPS on it certainly glows orange from the outside). I'm toying with the idea of making the other 4x4 area a lung room, as there is already a window AC going into that side of the room, but I think this will wait until the next round.



Finally, there are some clones I took on June 13th, from root aphid and spider mite infested mothers.

Only 5 have rooted so far, and another 5 or so are dead, with about 10 left still green, but without roots. I left for vacation for a week from the June 18-25, so spider mites took hold on the clones, and a bit on my teens. But I did have 1 more clone root this morning, so there is still some hope!



I'll be back soon with more updates! Take care everyone.

Sick. Tiny pot sizes intrigue me. Keep it up!

So for whatever reason it won't let me edit the first post.

DAY 1 of 12/12 is actually July 4th NOT June.

So things have not gone my way this grow. Clearly my absence and vacation time did not do them well.

Spider Mites Defeated!

After doing decent damage, and stunting growth for weeks, I finally went out and got some Azamax, and between that and Habanero/Soap they are down for the count. Now it's just about maintaining that for the next couple weeks until full flower, then everything should be great!



The downsides...

I left on vacation in mid June, which was the spider mite issue, then left on vacation July 15 for a few days, and it was the hottest weekend yet this summer. Triple digits and all. The plants didn't receive proper temps, and humidity was extremely low. They were also only getting fed tap water with a diluted 8/16 mix ph'd to 5.8-6.0. My tap contains chloramine and is extremely hard. They did not like this one bit. I came back to wispy leaves and deep ridged new growth.

Mistake #1: Using Tap Water

So to compensate for the high heat, I began running the AC more frequently, turning my extraction fan down, and tying the plants back further from the light. For some reason things did not improve. I believe this was partly to me continuing to use the tap water thinking my issue was heat stress, which may have very well played a role itself. So the plants went from high 80s to low 90s to about 72-76F. Also the with the AC on (Window AC) and the fan turned down, the humidity began to rise as well. The dry heat spell left, and then more humid weather began to hit my area. At this point they had slowed growth down to a halt, and had stopped drinking almost entirely. Lower leaves began turning light green/yellow/brown and falling off. Top leaves began curling under ("The Claw" as some put it.).

Mistake #2: Overcompensating and Drastic Atmosphere Change

Finally I got drastic. I tried flushing the pots to no avail. Tried turning the extraction fans up and turning the AC down in order to heat the room up to get them drinking again, still no improvement. Finally I decided to pot them up in size. I transplanted them at 2 weeks into flower from 1 Gal -> 5 Gal pots with 50/50 Coco/Hydroton. There didn't seem to be any problem with the root system, which was surprising. I expected to see rot, but most were white or light brown in color. I was afraid that me adding EWC and Neem Seed Meal may have been the culprit after all...
I had 6 clones that rooted that had gone into beer cups with the same amendments and ratios as the ones doing poorly, and they began to show the same deep ridges. So it made sense that be the common link... Well it doesn't seem the amendments were the culprit at all, more on this later...

Possible Mistake #3: Amending the Coco?
Finally I started reading more and more about people with similar problems with the deep ridges and curling leaves. I thought maybe too much Nitrogen from the EWC, but I've read of people using up to 30% EWC in some soil mixes as well. I used something like 5%? Some of the problems seemed to be linked to temperature and humidity. Vapor Pressure Deficit has to do with the plants transpiration, and if there is too much humidity at too low a temp, they can evaporate enough water for the nutrients to be pulled to the tops of the plants, thus showing deficiencies. I also noticed this type of growth at the beginning of my last flower cycle before I got the fans dialed in.

A Combination of Problems

I think using tap water and possibly causing nutrient buildup/lockout, drastic climate fluctuations, and possibly VPD combined with slight overwatering to be the culprit(s). They have been in their new pots for 5 days now, and things are looking better, but lower leaves are still yellowing and new growth isn't happening very quickly. They are past their stretch so maybe I'm expecting too much new foliage, and they are just starting to swell... Will have to wait and see. I have also allowed the temperature to get into the mid 80's and they seem to be drinking more. I have also reconfigured my ventilation system. Before the veg tent exhausted into the flower. Now they both exhaust out the window, and the veg tent has a active intake from the flower room. Seems to be working well, and keeping my new 400w MH cool enough.


New Ballast and Strains

I finally ordered a new Lumatek 1000w switchable Ballast. It has 400/600/1000/1100SL mode. I have it running a 400w 7500k MH in my 2x4 Veg Tent over 5 clones from my last run. Some of them are this random bag seed I sexed and cloned, and others are the fake TrueOG from my last run. I didn't label them, and in all the hustle/bustle, I don't know which are which. They both have very different growth patterns however, and are taking off under the new 400w. I should be able to tell them apart soon enough.

I also have taken 6 clones of each strain straight into Coco, for 18 total. Strains are Sweet Island Skunk, Tahoe OG, and Trainwreck. No idea how this will go, but after my lack luster results in rockwool last time, and the fact that I had none left and plenty of coco laying around I said fuck it. I'm at day 7 for the SIS and TW, and day 5 for the OG. 1 each of SIS and TW already kicked the curb. 1 I had cut too deeply when I cut off a lower node and everything above died, the other just wilted and fell over. I'm not using a dome, but I am using a heating pad on a timer. 30 mins on/2 hours off, with some insulation in between the heating pad and the pots (Thick padded envelope and the top of a rubbermaid).

These Picture were taken today: 7/28



Anyone got any comments/suggestions about the state of these things? I think they are on the path to recovery, but it's really hard to say.

Dang sir looks like you ran into some problems :/ Thankfully ive never met spider mites *knocks on wood. But idk i thought EWC would be fairly safe to mix up to 30%, and your roots look pretty healthy compared to some of my plants that had overwatering/salt problems

** from what ive seen everyone has drastically different conditions, ive read plenty of threads saying X works Y works Z works. And when i tried it i failed. Finally fine tuned my nutrients/watering schedule to my environment. Hopefully you get yours down as well

Wish i could give you awesome advice but im not a pro by any means. Iv found that lifting pots allows me to properly judge water and has helped me a lot (in addition to giving some runoff to veg) Maybe post some pics to the plant problems forums and see if you get some advice

So things are looking much better. Definitely going to hurt yield but they are growing and fattening up by the day. Still an overly deep green on the leaves that survived but I'll take it.

Currently running 6/9 with 2 ml calmag and 1.5 ml Silica Blast and occasionally some Floralicious+ and some super thrive. (Though i think super thrive encourages rooting which you would not really want in flower). And I'm also running about 1/5-1/3 tap water mixed with the rest RO. I think that combined with ensuring good runoff was the key. I have the pots free draining into pans now rather than sitting in them and i think that helps to.

I finally got the drip setup so things should be pretty automated. The veg tent is looking wonderful, and some clones have rooted. I've thrown them all under the halide with the rest of the veg, so we will see what we see. Also popped a few beans from a friend. Supposedly his own accidental cross of blueberry x dutch treat.

I'll try to get a real journal update up tomorrow.

Veg


8/4/13

8/8/13

8/19/13

Flower


8/13/13

8/19/13

8/20/13

Back on track!

Things are looking incredibly better! I finally got a 1kw HPS dropped in the flower room, and getting geared up to setup another 600 in a stadium setup.

Delayed flower?
So I'm thinking that my plants are delayed about 2 weeks of flower. After I came back from vacation on July 15, I had to do some more light tightening on the flower tent. I didn't think it was enough light to do anything at the time, but I said better safe than sorry, and now I'm glad I did. Based on the development from the last run of this strain, they look no where near the 7 weeks they should be at, much closer to 5. If that is the case, then I managed to save them just at the beginning flower, and my yield may not suffer to badly at all. They are certainly starting to bulk up!

Glad things are looking better! That 1k should push out some monster colas.

How do you like vertical? Im toying with the idea of taking the reflector off my HPS and hanging it vertically and circling it with a couple plants. Figured it get more usage of the light, less wasted heat, however you're also putting light on the bottom of the leaves when top is the most efficient.

But i guess im curious to hear your opinion on vertical vs horizontal

StickyTreez said:

How do you like vertical? Im toying with the idea of taking the reflector off my HPS and hanging it vertically and circling it with a couple plants. Figured it get more usage of the light, less wasted heat, however you're also putting light on the bottom of the leaves when top is the most efficient.

Click to expand...

Benefits I've experienced so far:

#1 Better light usage, and heat dissipation. Any surface the light hits is then reflected at a certain loss of energy, depending on the surface, and that extra energy is converted to heat. The light feels much cooler than in a hood and buds can get within 12-16 inches with no problem.

#2 No popcorn. The light is evenly distributed between the top and the bottom, so if you train the plants in a single layer you are almost guaranteed no fluffy bugs. I guess i haven't harvested yet, so the verdict is still out, but its looking good!

#3 Ability to use vertical space and small foot prints most effectively. Vert is definitely the way to maximize yield in a confined space.

Cons:

#1 Blinding. Definitely get some sun glasses!

#2 Dangerous and in the way.

#3 Needs the proper amount of plants/strain/veg time. Cam be tricky to predict the outcome before stretch much more so than with a horizontal scrog.

Been working hard in the room, and I now present my new...

1.6kW Stadium


With that, I put 6 more ladies into flower. 4 more BunkOG and 2 of my Indica Dom bagseed. They all got drip lines on a separate pump/timer/res. I also started them on a new nutrient profile. It's a mix of 10 ml Bloom, and variring amounts of Epsom Salts, Bloom Boosters, CalMag+ and Silica. Aiming for 3-1-4-2-1 N-P-K-Ca-Mg (Elemental PPM)

Let's see what we can make happen!

Looking Good M8.

Kudos on your efforts

Thanx a million for the bud porn

Peace and Great Grows

Asmallvoice

So things have been going smoothly. I switched back to 6/9 per gal, as I started to see some bad signs after switching nutes. After thinking about it more, I realize I had actually given them about 1.5x the concentration of 6/9. I don't yet have a TDS/EC meter, so I just plugged in the numbers to the spreadsheet trying to get the right ratios. Clearly it was too strong, and as soon as I switched back to 6/9 things improved. I will have to experiment more with this later. Onto the pictures!

8/25-9/03 Flower



8/30 Veg

UGGGHHHH!

So I got hit with mites right here at week 10! NOOOOOOOO! There's only about 1/2 of a plant showing any leaf problems, and those buds are so perfect and juicy too! The leaves are just absolutely covered however. The unaffected buds seem to have fairly clean leaves so I decided to just cut what what majorly effected.

I dropped a couple No Pest Strips in there and shut off the ventilation for a few hours today. I think that should take care anymore of the bastards hiding around.

My plan was to leave them for another week or two, as I really don't think they are fully mature yet... They are looking so good though! I'll try to get back with some pics tomorrow!

Have you tried the habanero spray? Just dice some up in a frying pan with water, near a window with a fan in it. If you only have two weeks to go it would be a good option and hero deter the mites.

Those buds are looking crazy tastey!

ThorGanjason said:

Have you tried the habanero spray? Just dice some up in a frying pan with water, near a window with a fan in it. If you only have two weeks to go it would be a good option and hero deter the mites.

Those buds are looking crazy tastey!

Click to expand...

Heya Thor,

First off, thanks for the compliments, they sure are looking juicy! I can't wait!

I have in fact used habanero in the past and it can certainly be used up until day of harvest, however I wasn't playing games. These things were ready to ravage my crop, no to mention moving them out of the room and spraying them head to toe would be a nightmare.

The No Pest Strips contain Dichlorvos, which is one of the few remaining organophosphates legal in the US. It is a simple organic molecule that breaks down quickly under light, water, air, heat, etc. It is not absorbed by plants nor do they seem to mind at all. These strips are much more dangerous to the gardener than the plants or end user. Read the direction and use with caution. Do not use near living spaces or in your home.

These things will kill anything, including you! Be careful and stay safe everyone.

So I typed up this huge thing and somehow it got deleted, so here's just a quick summary. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask, and I will fill in the blanks I HAD written in here.

Nutrients: 6/9/1-1.5 (Micro/Bloom/Silica Blast )

I pulled ~1.5 plants due to mites at about 9 weeks.




At least I got them turned into some bomb BHO.




Harvest!



Current estimated weight ~400 grams. 290.3 grams already trimmed and jarred. Everything else is dry, but I still have about 2, 1 gallon jars left to trim, which I'm guess based on volume it should bring me close to 400.

...and since I swapped out ballasts/bulbs midway through flower it need to account for the extra wattage to accurately determine GPW.

GPW = [(6weeks/12weeks)*600] + [(6weeks/12weeks)*1000]

= 800 watts

800/400 = .5 GPW

Overall I am grateful with the yield I ended up with. I was worried that things were going to turn out much worse than they did as I had lockout issues and heavy stunting during stretch. On top of that, the spider mite outbreak made things even worse.

The strain, as last time, has absolutely no smell after it is dried. I've tried every method, and I have managed to improve the quality by drying slower and using hygrometers to keep things precise. Still no significant smell though. Just kinda earthy. I'm thinking it must be the genetics.

Thanks for reading!

I'll be back with more updates soon!

2nd Round of Flower started 12/12 on 8/22.

Here they are during the first 10 days.



...And as of today, 10/4 @ 6 weeks.

These are the supposed "True OG"



These two plants are a bagseed which has yet to be given a name yet.


The bagseed clearly has a heavier indica influence and looks like it should be finishing here in the next week or two. Really plumping up quick at this point. Downside seems to be that without all the stretch, more veg time will be required.

Boring Veg Pictures!

Clones taken 7/26



Oh no! Little late to water!




​And here is my Italian heirloom pepper plant I've been growing hydroponically the same ChowMix.



This thing is in a 3.2 liter pot, and NEEDS to be watered like 6 times a day. I already had it fall over from underwatering and just being off balance. Of course it took the biggest branch with it in the fall.

Until next time friends! Thanks for reading!