DWC Cooler SCROG - 2 x (C99 x AK47) clones - 250W HPS @ 42 DAYS Veg (pics lay within)

DAY 42

G'day all,

I've been lurking on these forums for ages now soaking up knowledge from everyone kind enough to share their time and expertise with others on these forums and I’m currently one month after having completed my first DWC SCROG grow of C99 x AK47.
Due to a number of factors my harvest results were a bit underwhelming but I learned a lot along the way and have managed to establish some bonsai mothers to take clones from.

This is now my second DWC SCROG and happily, this grow I get to use clones taken from those mothers. They are currently at Day 42 from when cuttings were taken, are 8" tall and stocky as anything with tight internodal spacing.
They spent the first 28 days of their lives in my homemade cloner (Rumpleforeskin's excellent build) under 80W CFL before moving into the DWC veg/flower room under 250W HPS @ 18/6 where they have been vegging ever since for the past 2 weeks.

I FIMmed both plants 10 days ago and since then they have shot out so many branches it's ridiculous! This is my first grow from clones and I never saw this sort of growth from my last seed grow.

I will setup my SCROG screen at 10” so I will give them another few days of veg to reach the screen height before flipping to 12/12.

It might sound a bit early to switch to 12/12 when the plants only just reach the screen height but this strain stretched A LOT in my last (over)grow. They should manage to fill the screen by the time the stretching stops. I would rather under grow the screen than overgrow it anyway.

Hope you can join me from time to time and feel free to offer advice at any stage. I take constructive criticism well.

USING:
- 250w Cooltube HPS
- 15 Gallon (56 litre) reservoir (camping cooler)
- 2 x 4-outlet air-pumps connected to 8 x 12” airstones
- Following Lucas formula using General Hydroponics Micro/Bloom nutes

Does anyone think that looks like a magnesium deficiency in pics 2 & 3?

If so I don't have any cal/mag as I thought the Lucas formula using just micro/bloom had enough magnesium. Is there something else I can do or do I just need to buy some cal/mag?

Globule...I like your set up. It definitely has potential. Have you considered t5s for your veg? Also what ppms are you running and what is your ph fluctuation?

http://thegreen5cene.com

rslaven87 said:

Globule...I like your set up. It definitely has potential. Have you considered t5s for your veg? Also what ppms are you running and what is your ph fluctuation?

Click to expand...

Thanks rslaven. It isn't my dream setup but I think it makes pretty good use of what little space I have available to me for the whole cabinet.

I would ideally like to use a 250w MH to veg but I just need to get another grow out of the way before I buy any more stuff so the HPS will have to do me for now.

My ppms are running around 600(@0.5 conversion) and pH stays stable at 5.8.
My reservoir is a camping cooler and so it keeps the nute water nice and cool and that together with the large res volume means I hardly ever get pH fluctuations.
Is it a bad thing to never have pH fluctuations? Does that mean the plants miss out on the uptake of certain minerals?

I'm struggling to keep temps under 38C/100F inside the cabinet as we are in Summer now and the garage where my cabinet is located can get a bit warm, especially once I park the car back in there with a hot engine.
I'm keeping res temps around or just over 21C/70F so at least the roots are happy.

Thanks for stopping by bro.

I added the Scrog screen today as shown in the pics below.
I was tempted to set the screen at 8" and start flowering but I ended up setting it at 10" as any extra vegging they do now will mean more bud later on.

My screen frame is made of 20mm PVC pipe with metal eye hooks screwed around the top of the frame every 2.5". I thread nylon fishing line through the eye hooks to create the screen lattice.
I like nylon fishing line as it has a lot of give and stretch which means you are less likely to damage the plant during the training period when you are manipulating stems a bit. It doesn't cut into the plant at all.

The plant on the right has almost reached the screen while the plant on the left will need a few more days so I will continue vegging until both plants have reached the screen abd then switch to 12/12.

I worry about their growth being affected by the heat in the cabinet. Hopefully their cool roots will make up for it.

SWITCH TO 12/12 : DAY 0 FLOWER (Day 46 from cutting)

I like my tap water. It has a 70ppm and a ph of 7.0 with hardly any nasties in it and comes out of the tap at 70F/21C even during summer.

Today I drained the res of veg nutes, refilled it with 15 gallons/58 liters of tap water and added 120ml GH Micro & 240ml GH Bloom (100% Lucas formula Flower nutes).
Before adding anything else, the pH settled at 5.9 @ 900ppm (970ppm - 70ppm for water = 900ppm) so I didn't bother adding any pH down to try to get it to 5.8pH as it has been at 5.8pH for so long it might do some good to have a slightly higher pH for a wee while.

Thankfully some cool summer weather has rolled in so the cabinet is running at a relatively cool 85F/29C at present and the plants are looking happy.

On a lighter note, the Bubblebags I ordered last week just arrived in the post today and I have 14oz trim from my first grow taking up valuable space for lasagnes in my freezer so I can see tomorrow being taken up with beating frozen trichomes into hashy submission.

Some pics below of my ladies as they say bye-bye to Veg and hello to Flower:


My saviour:
The hose fitting thread that comes out of the bottom of the reservoir and connects to a standard hose fitting. This means filling and draining the res is super fast and doesn't require any lifting of heavy buckets/reservoirs to change out the nutes.


Inside the res:
Roots holding hands in the res as I drain it. Not blowing out the seams of the res yet but still looking healthy and white.


I need to give thanks and credit here to BoomerBloomer57 for the idea of using a camping cooler with threaded drain hole as the reservoir.
It makes filling and draining of the res an easy task and also means that res temps are kept as low as possible for as long as possible (all other things being equal).
Even though cabinet temps are around 95F/35C at present my res is at 70F/21C due to the judicial use of frozen water bottles here and there (1 or 2 per day).

Looking forward to what the next 60 days of 12/12 will hold for these two wee plants.
Still always open to suggestions and advice or just a friendly punch on the arm.

G.

Cheers VO!
I've enjoyed watching your grows along the way so I hope you enjoy mine.

I Guess the veg stage is not the most exciting so now that I'm in 12/12 there might be a bit more action to post in the coming weeks.

G.

It's all about the end man.. yours looks promising. I'll be watching.

Is it a bad thing to never have pH fluctuations? Does that mean the plants miss out on the uptake of certain minerals?

Click to expand...

Fluctuations are cool...if you look at the chart Mn doesn't pick up til about 5.5, 5.6, and Ca & Mg are on the edge of 5.8.


www.thegreen5cene.com

Thanks for that chart rslaven!

Looks like there is nothing wrong with always staying at the magic 5.8pH except for missing out on some Manganese.

What are people's thoughts on dropping the pH down to 5.6 for a few days to get some Manganese in the girls' diet?

Hey thanks SugarBear! How you going sir?

Thanks for that. My pH is back at 5.8 today so I think I will just leave it there for now.

DAY 3 of FLOWER:
Nice cool weather means cabinet temps at 77F/25C and res temps at 66F/19C without any frozen bottles at present.

Have included a few pics below but there is not really much going on at the moment other than a bit of growth:

DAY 6 of 12/12:

Nice unseasonably-cool summer weather is hanging around this week much to mine and my cabinet's joy, meaning my garage has an ambient temp of roughly 75F/24C.
The cabinet has min-max temps of 68-81F/20-30C.

2 days ago I added 15ml of GH Floralicious Plus to the res (1ml per gallon) and yesterday I added 75ml of GH Kool Bloom (liquid) to the res.
I was worried this might over nute my grow but today there were no signs of drooping or nute burn at the tips. The girls are taking what I throw at them in their stride it seems.

Res temps at 68F/20C. PH was initially at 6.0 and then after topping up res with 2 liters tap water the pH increased to 6.1 so dropped it down to 5.8 with some pH-Down. Current ppm at 980(0.5)/1370(0.7).

Globule said:

I can see tomorrow being taken up with beating frozen trichomes into hashy submission.

Click to expand...

Fucking hilarious!

Hey Sadie, those trichomes didn't submit the way I had hoped they would.
My first go at making bubble hash wasn't an outstanding success. In the YouTube videos everyone's hash comes out pressed nicely and it crumbles easily when they chop it up before drying it.
Mine just stayed clumped together and turned out more like little turds that crumbly powder.

Still it still gets the doctor good and lathered doesn't it yes it does thank-you very much so I shouldn't be such an ungrateful, whingey bastard should I.

Thanks for stopping by!

I did a bit of minor stem/screen training today as there were plant tops sticking a good couple of inches above the screen.
Being fairly new to Scrog I don't really have a clear strategy of how best to direct stems to so I'm just really moving outwards towards the screen edges like wheel spokes and then moving back towards the center of the screen if stretch continues.

Before Training:


After Training:


The girls @ Day 7 of 12/12:


Thanks for coming!

Should I upgrade to 400W HPS?

Does anyone think it would be a really bad idea to upgrade my light from a 250w HPS to a 400w HPS?

I would use the same cool tube as I am currently using for the 250w HPS and just change out the ballast/bulb for the 400w.

I just felt one of the aspects of my last harvest that I was dissapointed with was the density of the buds and I'm hoping a 400w HPS might improve that aspect.

Would heat rise much higher in the cabinet compared to the 250w HPS?

Edit: Cab is 5 square feet. 2.5' x 2' (x 5')