|FCG|Frank's 1st Grow: Kali Mist | LED, CO2 & all the love they need

Hey guys. I’m Frank from Canada. This is my second attempt at my first grow. This might be a long post. In fact, it’s 3975 words long. Hopefully you’re baked.


Backstory
(skip if you only care about the technical details of the grow. This is just to contextualize my journey as a medical grower).


I have ulcerative colitis, an illness classified as autoimmune. It belongs to the family of inflammatory bowel diseases. Chron’s is another “popular” IBD. Flares can last for months. They usually induce very painful cramps, a high amount of daily stools (often bloody) and altogether makes life logistically challenging. This repeats every day as long as the flare is in effect. Colitis is incurable, so you can only treat the symptoms. Patients receive specialized biological immunosuppressors during flares until the colitis is put in remission. Once in remission, symptoms can be mild to non-existent. Remissions can last years, months or weeks. So far, modern medicine and pharmacology have not found any way to maintain the disease in constant remission, nor do they understand why flares happen in the first place.


My situation was made a little more dire when I had an allergic reaction to 5-ASAs, the only modern anti-inflammatory medicine has to offer in my situation. The only other anti-inflammatory treatment available is cortisone. Those familiar with cortisone will know it comes with an exhaustive panel of nasty side effects. So I declined.


It was during my research for other treatment options that I found out cannabis had been used with great efficiency to treat IBD. There is a plethora of papers emerging every few weeks on the matter. You may read a very recent one here. Basically, IBD can be greatly helped by cannabis because of cannabidiol (CBD), which binds with the millions of CB1 and CB2 receptors lined in our intestine.


Once my perception of cannabis shifted from “a cool drug that makes you high” to “an amazing drug that treats my incurable disease” and I adopted a daily vaporizing regime, things improved dramatically. It halved my amount of visits to the bathroom per day. It keeps me pain free except for what I call my bumpy hour when I get up in the morning. I’m now very tolerant of the psychoactive effects and I can function at full efficiency at work.


The most amazing thing is that it has reduced inflammation as confirmed by a colonoscopy. The medicinal properties of CBD makes cannabis an ideal treatment option for all IBD. In that respect, I hope to grow CBD Skunk Haze for my next grow to get a strain with higher CBD content. For this grow, I will be growing Serious Seed Kali Mist, a high quality Sativa that supposedly provides an energizing high, which is what I need as I medicate regularly throughout the day.


I was already a recreational user so was not entirely ignorant or disconnected from what cannabis is, but I had not a single clue on how to grow it. I started my research at the very, very bottom of the ladder.


This journal is the result of almost two months of research. Since I have ventured into this extraordinary hobby, there has not been a day when I haven’t read at least a few pages of something on cannabis. I have found forums to be an amazing source of information. Growers has the lowest concentration of trolls per capita I have encountered in any denomination of internet underground populations. They’re friendly folks who are always willing to land a hand. Shop owners often aren’t in my personal experience, so beware. Do your research and educate yourself properly. It’s the only way not to be taken advantage of.


I will be writing this journal for the person I was two months ago. The person who is suddenly interested in growing cannabis, has the resources and right environment to do so, but requires technical help.


If you are an experienced grower, please don’t feel patronized if I sometimes exhaustively explain things. I’m only trying to save new growers some time. The faster they can get going, the faster they can get their medicine. I was fortunate enough to have a supplier that can get me the weed I need until my first harvest. Not everyone’s so lucky. Without cannabis, I’d be spending my days on the toilet, in constant pain. If I knew everything I know now, I’d be 3 weeks into flowering.


If you are a brand new to the world of cannabis growing and are reading this, please know I assume you know the basics of growing already. The best resource to learn the basics is currently Ed Rosenthal’s latest book, in my opinion. I highly recommend it. The book only has two pages dedicated to DWC, so this journal will expand on that topic. But if you don’t know the vocabulary, this journal won’t be as helpful. I applied to the program a little over a month ago and as of last week I am a legal medical grower as part of the Canadian MMAR federal program.


Thanks for reading and for embarking on this journey with me!

The technical stuff


This is a 100% organic, 100% stealth, hydro Deep Water Culture (DWC) grow lit by LED. I will grow two plants. Each will be scrog’d to a 2x2 area, for a total surface area of 8 square feet. I will use LST and HST as needed to fill the screen appropriately. I will veg as long as it takes for the screen to be filled at 60% capacity then switch to 12/12 and begin blooming. Kali Mist is a sativa dominant strain and will easily double in size during flowering. You’ll find a list of the hardware at the bottom of the post.


The grow area is a 2x4x8 tent hidden in a 2x10x8 closet. The tent is completely sealed. This means there is no exchange of air between the inside and outside of the tent. This implies a lot of things: the tent must be supplemented with CO2, it will have to be cooled somehow, and humidity will have to be maintained within optimal values at all times.


I designed the grow to be “dialed in” with fully automated controls of the environment. I simply took all the variables that needed to be controlled and got the equipment that would maintain those variables automatically.



In a hydro grow, you have to monitor all of these parameters if you want to avoid problems:
1. Light (800-1200 umoles of PAR is optimal but they will grow with less)
2. pH: 5.6-6.3. 5663. Easy to remember. Don’t play the pH game by adjusting it daily. Plants absorb different micronutrients at different pH levels within that scale. As long as pH is maintained in that 5663 range, do not touch it. If you need to alter it, never increase or decrease pH by more than 0.5 per 12 hour period. If you do, you may shock the plants.
3. Humidity (55-70%. Any lower and you stunt growth. Any higher and the somata close.)
4. CO2: 380-1500PPM. The more the better up to 1500. A controller is truly the best way to monitor CO2 levels and supplement the grow area. Ambient levels are usually around 380PPM. You cannot grow in a sealed area without CO2 supplementation or you will stop photosynthesis altogether.
5. Temperature (Air: 70-85°F Water: 65-70°F). If the water in the reservoir is too hot your plants will develop root rot. If it’s too cold (rarely a problem) the roots can’t absorb nutrients as efficiently. If your day temperatures are too high it will affect your yield negatively. If your night temps fall by more than 10°F, it will affect your yield negatively. If your night temps are too cold altogether, you will shock your plants and stunt or stop growth completely.
6. Nutrients: start at ¼ dose in seedling stage, then ½ and monitor PPM levels while working your way up to full dose. Nute burning is a frequent problem in grow journals.


If you can’t monitor and/or control those parameters due to lack of resources, you can still grow efficiently with daily check-ups and reacting to problems as they present themselves. This setup is more expensive at first but it’s meant to prevent problems from happening, thus making the grow a more enjoyable experience without the stress of worrying the shit could hit the fan at some point and you might lose your entire harvest. If you’re a medical grower, you have higher incentives to protect you investment and put the odds of a successful harvest on your side.




1. Light
I opted for LED. LED is the future. They allow for complete control on the spectrums therefore offer a much better usable PAR/watt ratio, consume less power and emit half the heat. It used to be that 1w and 3w diodes couldn’t provide enough umoles of PAR to match a 1000w HID, but things have changed. No bulb replacement, no need to switch lights in-between phases, just flip a switch and be on your way. A LED system will cost more in initial capital but pay for itself over time. These are the reasons that made me choose that option. You may agree or disagree, but in the end, the point is to provide as much usable umoles of PAR as possible to your plants. So whatever you have to do to deliver those 800-1200 uMoles of PAR (and in the right spectrums, don’t forget), do it. HPS, MH, HID, Induction, LED, CFL, T5HO, T8… take your pick.


I researched lights quite extensively and ending up getting two California Lightworks SolarStorm 400W. It’s one of the few companies that offered detailed specs and data on their lights. The ONLY company I could find that publicly disclosed PAR readings, taken with a spectroradiometer no less. And its CEO, George, is prompt in replying to his e-mails if you have questions. They’re very transparent and this is what convinced me. We’ll see if it was the right choice at harvest.


2. pH
5663. I am using a nutrient monitor to keep an eye on the pH, PPM levels and temperature of my DWC reservoir. I paid 140$ for it, and in my opinion, for the peace of mind it provides, it’s worth every penny. Make sure you calibrate your unit if you do get one. And if you calibrate don’t forget that temperature of solvents affect conductivity. If you’re using a 1500 PPM calibration solution that is rated for that number at 77°F, it won’t read 1500PPM at 70°F. I didn’t know that at first, and it made me rage a little when I was trying to calibrate two different monitors to match. If you can’t afford a monitor, check pH daily during your routine check-up of the day with a cheap kit. A pH issue means there is an imbalance and it can ruin an entire grow if the issue goes unchecked.

3. Humidity
I live in the northern Canadian climate so have to deal with four seasons. I basically get free AC six months a year, and for the other half, I use a window AC unit, rated at 10,000BTU, which will cool the room in which the tent is hidden. It also happens this room is where I work, and I like my rooms at 64F in summer (68F-70F in winter). What can I say, I’m a polar bear. Plus, electricity is cheap here, and water is free. A grower’s dream environment!


In winter, ambient relative humidity (rH) is usually in the 20-35% range. In summer, 60-100%. Since my grow is sealed it doesn’t really matter what the ambient rH is, but it’s useful information. I had no idea what they usually were before I started growing cannabis.


I’ll be using a humidifier to maintain rH in the tent at 65% until the plants are big enough that they actually add humidity to the air. At this point, I will switch to a dehumidifier. In the last two weeks of flowering, I will reduce rH to the 30-35% range to induce extra resin production. It’ll also make curing a faster and smoother process.


The particular model of dehumidifier I got has a pump embedded in the unit that allows the machine to empty its reservoir automatically. In my setup, it will empty in a 33 gallon reservoir I am using as part of a watercooled AC loop (see the cooling section). This will completely remove the maintenance factor . Just plug it in and forget about it until harvest. Great invention!
I have read many grow journals and humidity is very often a disregarded parameter that often causes issues down the line. If you can be preemptive, act.




4. CO2
When I decided to supplement my grow area with CO2 it was because I had read about it in a book. Jorge Cervantes’ book I think. The book spoke of its incredible properties, mainly a faster grow, up to 30% faster according to the book, as well as increased yield. So I researched the most efficient way of delivering CO2, which is through a CO2 tank, and ordered a fancy Sentinel CHHC-4 controller, a tank regulator and a compressed CO2 bottle. I didn’t think it through at all. I thought LED wouldn’t generate enough BTU of heat to warrant an active cooling solution (I was wrong) so my choice of enriching my grow with CO2 ended up delaying the whole grow by a full month and incurred the purchase of a lot of expensive equipment afterwards. I cannot recommend CO2 supplementation if you’re a new grower. I can’t say I’m regretting it, but it added a lot of unneeded stress and headaches. Results at harvest will tell whether the efforts were justified. If you use a controller, keep the probe at canopy level, and introduce CO2 from the top, as CO2 is a heavier gas than air.




5. Temperature
Both the water of the bubbleponics (DWC) reservoir AND the air in the tent will have to be cooled to account for the BTU of heat being generated by the two SS400W, the air pump and the humidity devices. We want 70-85°F for air and 65-70°F for water.

5A. Air
This has been, by far, the biggest motherfucking headache in the entire planning of the grow. Major, hemorrhoids inducing PITA. You might have noticed I began my post with “this is my second attempt at my first grow”. That’s because three days in my first attempt, temperatures rose to 92°F from 82°F during a 3 hour period in which I was absent for a family dinner. I came back to overcooked, dried up seedlings. I had killed 1 out of 3 seeds and severely damaged another just because I had overlooked to open the window by an inch to let cool air in.


My options at that point were to either use an active ventilation solution and thus waste CO2, or figure out a way to cool the air in the sealed tent. And how do you cool air? The only way I know how is AC. And how do I fit AC in a 2x4 tent? I can’t. It’s winter outside. I could have installed window twin fans, then used some kind of DIY duct that brought cool winter air from the outside to the inside of the grow tent. But my closet is 12 feet away from the window. How do I hide 12 feet of shiny metallic ducting? So much for stealth.


I finally found the solution through a forum, so thank the Lords of Kobol there are forums. It’s a solution I would never have thought of since I didn’t even know it existed.


In short, I’m using a DIY watercooled AC system. The standard air conditioner we all know uses an air-to-air heat exchange system to cool the air. The system I use uses a water-to-air exchange system instead. This provides many advantages and easily compensates for the high initial capital investment.


Because water is twenty times more efficient at absorbing and retaining energy than air, it makes the system a lot more energy efficient. It’s near silent. It consumes less power. Last but not least, it’s completely modular and portable. That is immensely important for the home grower. The commercial grower can install a semi-permanent AC installation such as a window unit, or better yet a split system, without second thought. The home grower wishing to grow 2 to 4 plants efficiently who doesn’t have the cover or resources (mostly surface area) of a commercial grower has more limited options.


This is made possible by a device called the Icebox, which was designed by the folks at Hydro Innovations. My experience with their customer service hasn’t been positive, but their products work, so I can live with it.


The icebox (in my case the 6” model) is basically a giant CPU heatsink. The underlying principle is simple: you cool the icebox by passing cool water through it, then push the hot air of the grow area through the fins of the icebox to cool it.


The most costly piece of hardware required for this system to work is the water chiller. It’ll cost a few hundred dollars at the very least. I personally opted for a quality aquarium chiller. I made my research on those as well. JBJ Chillers are as quiet as the ads claim and they work very well. I actually opened mine up to have a look inside. The soldering on par, it uses a Samsung compressor, works on 1.25 Amps, and is really, really, quiet. The bubbling sound made by the airstones are louder than the chiller even when its compressor is running. The icebox manual says you need at least 1/4hp per 1000W of light (presumably HID). My 1/10hp is handling the load just fine, but I am using a big reservoir, and I don’t have 1000W of lights. I’ll see how the chiller does when my two SS400W are running at full power and the dehumidifier is running 24/7. I may have to upgrade to 1/4hp. Time will tell.


You also need a reservoir. The Icebox manual says large reservoirs aren’t necessary, but they help A LOT. This should be stressed more, but I think the folks at Hydro Innovations want you to spend 3000$ on their overpriced 1/3 HP Chillking chiller. Bigger reservoirs store more cooling energy, plain and simple. If you insulate it (which I did after taking the pictures) it’s so much more efficient then getting a 1HP chiller and 1/2HP pump. Even the commercial Chillking models only sport a measly 16 gallon reservoir. I went with 33 gallon, because it was the smallest size of covert tank made by General Hydroponics, which fits EXACTLY in my space.


You also need a submersible pump. You put it in the reservoir, and it pushes the water through your loop. Since my pump is at floor level and the tubing must enter my tent from the top, my pump has to raise the water by eight feet. Cold air is heavier than hot air, so you want your cold air to come from the top. I did not account for this at first and bought a 500 gph pump thinking it’d be enough. I ended up getting a 1385gph marineland pump. It’s rated at about 600 gph at 8 feet, which is what I wanted.


Finally, you need, a fan. I went with the Can fan Can-Max 6” speed adjustable fan. It has three speed settings. At setting 1, it runs at 201CFM and is very quiet. If you account for the resistance induced by the Icebox, my entire atmosphere is cooled approximately every 20 seconds. It’s plenty. Do note you are pushing air through the icebox, so the outlet of your fan will be flanged/taped to the inlet of the icebox. Not the other way around, or you’ll halve the efficiency of the device. You can easily add a carbon filter to the mix if you want your fan to double as both an AC device and a scrubber. This will add more resistance so adjust fan speed accordingly if applicable.


You may have noticed in the pictures I have insulated the tubing that enters and exits at the top of the tent. This is to prevent condensation and dripping. I don’t want water dripping inside my LED. I’ve also added a dripping tray under the Icebox which is not present in the pictures, for the same reasons. Condensation is a byproduct of the system but it’s easily taken care of with a bit of imagination. Minor inconvenience.


My fan is controlled by a Sentinel CHHC-4 controller. It turns it on and off as needed to maintain the temperatures I programmed. For about 100$, Hydro Innovations also makes thermostats that will automatically control the fan. It has both night and day settings.


That’s it. It works well, but was a pain to setup.



5B. Water
There is a stainless coil integrated in the waterloop that sits in the DWC reservoir. It costs about 100$. The temperature of the water inside the loop is 65°F and maintains the temperature of the water inside the DWC reservoir in the 63-67°F range. Remember that they are two completely different loops and the water in the DWC will never touch the water in the waterloop used for AC cooling.

6. Nutrients
I’ll be using the full line of Advanced Nutrients. Start at ¼ in seedling, work my way to ½ then slowly to full dose. I’ll keep a close eye on PPM and watch for signs of over-nutrition. I bought beakers and graduated cylinders to precisely measure my feeding doses. I will drain & feed the DWC reservoir once a week. Top off daily with RO pH adjusted water and basic nutes as needed. If PPM levels decrease, your plants are eating more than they drink which means they’re hungry. If they’re dehydrated because your lights are too close they’ll drink more than they eat and PPM levels will increase. If the water level decreases but PPM levels are constant, then you are feeding your plants what they want.


Routine
I have established a daily routine. Every day, at the same time, I will register all important values in a spreadsheet and take notes of any action I had to perform. I will also compile growth data. This will make it easier to compare notes and experiment in the future.


Daily checkups may include checking for kinks in air tubing, checking pH, temperature, PPM, CO2 levels, rH, LST, HST, feeding and physical examination of plants to watch for signs of illness, deficiencies or other problem.


Other thoughts
I will calibrate my nutrient monitor and other monitoring tools once a month.


I may get a spectroradiometer down the line.


If anybody is familiar with gas chromatography, please PM me.


Conclusion


I’m excited about this project and I’m excited to share this with the community. Hopefully I can give back as much as I received. I'm sure I'll make plenty of mistakes along the way, so I look forward the new learning curve


Happy growing!




Hardware list
Strain: Serious Seed Kali Mist (Fem)
Tent: Gorilla 2x4x8’
Light: Two Solarstorm 400W
Air Pump: General Hydroponics 320GPH, 20l/min
Medium: DWC Hydro Bubbleponics 6 gal.
Nutrients: Advanced Nutrients, complete line (Sensi Grow AB for veg, Connoisseur AB for bloom)
Humidifier: Air-o-Swiss AOS-7135
Dehumidifier: Delonghi DICODD50P-285243
CO2 Controller: Sentinel CHHC-4
Tank regulator: Sentinel CO2 Regulator
Airflow: Two Vornado 12” vortex fans at speed 1
Chiller: JBJ Arctica 1/10 HP set at 65°F
Reservoir: General Hydroponics Covert Tank 33 gal.
DWC Chilling: Hydro Innovations stainless steel 12” CoolCoil
Tubing: ½” ID Nylon braided tubing
AC: Icebox 6”
Fan: Can-Fan Can-Max 6” HO Speed Adjustable

Day 1

Grow area was environment tested for 48h prior to planting.

I planted two seeds directly in rapid rooter plugs.

I followed this guide: http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Germination-Guide (except for the rooter plug part)

I lowered humidity to 55% until they're proper seedlings.

Since these are feminized, what are actual chances I will only get females? 90%?

|FCG|Frank said:

Day 1

Grow area was environment tested for 48h prior to planting.

I planted two seeds directly in rapid rooter plugs.

I followed this guide: http://www.mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Germination-Guide (except for the rooter plug part)

I lowered humidity to 55% until they're proper seedlings.

Since these are feminized, what are actual chances I will only get females? 90%?

Click to expand...

Out of.... a lot of fem seeds I've sprouted I've never had a hermie or a male. lol

Guess it's just good luck

There are a couple threads that talk about ways to "induce" females from seeds,

but i think this is more or less just limiting stress, warmer temps, easy nute uptake, etc.

That is a sexy setup.... and I just looked at the pics. lol

Awesome

Let's do this thing

Great start, looks like a damn spaceship up in the tent. Quick question about the lights though: you stated you'll be using 2 solarstorm 400w panels, but the pic looks like an a51 panel which you were using in the previous thread...just a mixup on the names or will you be switching over to california lightworks?

Great setup. My favorite part of this grow is how personal it all seems, you do a very nice job at articulating your plans. Good show.

As someone who is fortunate enough to enjoy our favorite flower only for recreational purposes it's awesome to see people taking initiative to supply their own medication. Respect.

I'm in for this one, and will spread any knowledge I claim to know.

Awesome

Let's do this thing

A few nit pics like here you state In a hydro grow, you have to monitor all of these parameters if you want to avoid problems:

While this is 100% factual, it could be off-putting to those who did not pay attention in high school chemistry... I count myself among them, but it's second hand to me now, keep on mind You're Not That Person Anymore.

If you need to learn something to make your grow life easier, by god you'll make the time. Am I right?

And I'm tellin ya, hyrdo is not difficult for a personal use grower, AND, it WILL make your life so much easier, though it may take a couple grows to get a good feel for it.

Hydro only requires a few simple checks and balances. Namely' pH, ambient temps, and relative humidity (RH) which are critical to monitor, BUT, easy to adjust, AND, has reasonable +/- tolerances for 5+ days. These all factor in on; how much light you have available, to which, you match nute strength (much less needed for lower light output).

I learned this stuff. So can you!

puffenuff said:

Great start, looks like a damn spaceship up in the tent. Quick question about the lights though: you stated you'll be using 2 solarstorm 400w panels, but the pic looks like an a51 panel which you were using in the previous thread...just a mixup on the names or will you be switching over to california lightworks?

Click to expand...

The A51 was sort of an impulse purchase. I got it within the first three weeks of researching my stuff and didn't know how to properly calculate light requirements,

My SS400W are getting here at the end of this week or early next week, then this light will retire to the mother tent.

PetFlora said:

Awesome

Let's do this thing

Click to expand...

Glad to have you onboard

YES ! ..love the setup..looking foward to seeing how this grow turns out

Sorry, you're going to run x2 400W Solar Storms in a 2x4 area?

You fucking mad man!

Beefbisquit said:

Sorry, you're going to run x2 400W Solar Storms in a 2x4 area?

You fucking mad man!

Click to expand...

Perhaps I am!

One would do nicely in that area... lol

One is actually overkill, by quite a bit now that I think about it.

8ft/sq with that kind of juice is nuts... lol

I'm running just more wattage than one of those panels, for double the area.

theres no way to distribute an even 800 uMoles over a 2x4 canopy with a single light