LowMaster Auto, Matanuska Mint Auto, Bubblicious Auto, Green-o-matic indoor

I added a couple more 25w cfls. I found some 6400k long bulbs (not the tubes) for about 4$ each. Eastern europe has all sorts of stuff for cheaper here, because people cant afford it if it was more. added one more computer 4" cooling fan with one more on the way for when I start up the HPS. A 7$ Computer fan with an old cell phone charger make for a cheap way to vent intake/outake. roughly 2600 rpm per fan.

Dutchbreed is sending me some more MINT beans. Either Im an idiot or those beans are hard to germinate. Out of the 12 I started, only 4 live now. and they are growing slllllllloooooooooooooowww in compared to the LowMaster or the Bubblicious. So we will see if this next batch is as much trouble. kinda disapointing but more for free isnt a bad thing.

4 MINT
3 LowMaster
3 Bubblicious
2 Green-o-Matic

I thinking of getting some
Barney's Farm Flower Power... and thoughts?

journal is quiet other than my posts lol.

I can tell you about Barneys LSD, if you really look at my grow you will see one seedling that was started with the rest. I can tell you it will be 2 more weeks before the catch up to the AK47's and another month to get to where the larger plants are which is weird because they were they best looking seeds of the order. I would imagine that Barneys Flower Power will be much the same way unless you pre crack the seeds.

http://s744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/a2612596/?action=view&current=c2bb5358.jpg

pictures

adjusting the ages to reflect when they broke soil.

Bubblicious fem...auto?
8-9 days old

LowMaster m/f auto
12 days old (all the same age but the runt on the end, WTF )

Mint:
sickly lookin 9 day old
5 days old
4 days old
nice growing 8 days old

those Mint seeds sucked ballz... 4 out of 12 and 3 look like runts. The breeder tells me they start super slow. So far they suck ass. But Im impatient so Ill hold my judgement for week 3.

Green-o-Matic
22 days old. They were started in the Window sill so they are a bit undersized. theyll be fine.

ordering Red Dwarf maybe.... Assassin..?, more mint beans on the way too.

maxtemp: 83.2 f
mintemp: 68.00 f
humidity: 40%-50%

switching to 20/4 lights... should I ease them into it? last night they got about 19/5... so tonight 20/4

Hey the GreenOMatic's are looking like they're ready to take off and start growing like hell. If they do anything like the AK47, they should double by next week.

the last time i grew the GOM they grew liike mad right out of the gate. One single cola on each of the 4 I had. zero branching. i remember the buds were airy, but some of that was lack of light. It had a sweet dank smell and tasted very smooth and sweet. I will say one thing for the strains being made in Holland, they know how to breed in the right traits for taste and smoke. seems in the states some times the breeder get caught up with just high potency. those 20 to 25% thc plants can taste harsh even with proper curing. the yield will be smallish.... maybe 10 grams per plant. but good early smpke while my other babies mature. last time these GOM were done in about 60 to 65 days. I may let it go to 70 if it needs it.

I'd say with it starting out short and round which is how those of mine started. It should have alot of branches, hell those of mine are nothing but branches. Infact you can not get your fingers between them. Let's hope yours does the same. My only concern on yours is that it has taken so long to get to this point. Like I said, my AK47's have been slow starters also but now are starting to branch and really take off and think yours will do the same. The Green-oMatic are looking good to me anyway.

yea those GOM were a bit stringy at the bottom because they started their lives out in a window sill, the first 14 days or so.

damn aero garden hood started smoking last nite ! it will soon have to be retired. I was just using it for sprouts and extra lighting. one hood holds 3 - 27w 6400 cfls. so not a big loss, I have one more hood to make with 4 to 6 more 26w cfls. then with the 150w hps once they kick to flower, or I kick them myself ill have to add a few for underneth in the last weeks of flowering.

I do not remember what you said your growing area was, but seems as if you said there was a hydro store over there close. Have you thought about going with a 400 or 600 watt HPS? I would think that would fix any lighting issues just from my limited experience .

Yea I have considered it. My grow area is 4 ft long by 30 inches wide by 4 ft tall. Ideally Id like to keep away from the higher wattage HPS. Im trying to avoid any heat issue, plus the power consumtion, plus I was hoping to do this grow 50% to 65% cfls.

this is my equation for lighting:

based on a minimum of 4500 lumens per square foot. Ive read a bunch of books and blogs and they all range from about 3800 lumens to 5000 lumens per sq ft. let me know if you have other information.

what I have:

26w 6400k cfl = 1700 lumens x 5 = 8500 lumens
27w 6400k cfl = 1800 lumens x 3 = 5400 lumens
25w 6400k cfl = 1600 lumens x 2 = 3200 lumens
150w HPS = 21000 lumens x 1 = 21000 lumens
----------------------------------------------

Total Lumens at hand: 38100 lumens

total area of grow tent floor = 8 sq feet

8 x 4500 lumens = 36000 lumens needed at minimum to light a 8 sq ft area


So by the math and rules set here, I should technically have more than enough light through the veggie stage. when I replace half the bulbs with the soft white ones, it will get alittle more interesting.

if anything Im trying to work with what I already have. I think the wife would kill me if she saw me bring home another huge light like a 400 or 600 hps. Im gonna check out some 250 hps as well. In the end ill do whatever it takes for happy happy plants

and as a foot note, the 150w HPS will cover a 2' x 2' area at the most (factory specs on this model from sunsystems). which is half the area of my tent floor. so at the time I bought it, it seemed like a good compromise. That and Im a bargin hunter, I got the 150 hps for under 60$ brand new.

I think you have plenty of light. I know I kept my 400 watt MH as close to my plants as possible up until yesterday. I think that plus the genetics is what made mine short and bushy, but what do I know this is my 1st indoor grow. I appreciate all the input you've given me, your help along with everyone elses has brought my plants back inline. So thanks to all! Like I said before, I think your plants will start doubling and more every week. They look like they're ready to take off. I have one more question. This has happened twice this week on my PH and it is normally the other way around. Twice I've had to use PH up this week when feeding and testing PH on top of that I'm going thru a gallon of water a day. I have a fogger running, but I've run that since they were seeds. What do you think?

firstly it doesnt sound serious and i think i would just keep my eye on it for now.

how many times a week are you feeding?

what are the nutes? they are probly not ph neutral which bumps the ph up and down. might want to try backing off a bit on the nutes. could be a sign of early lock up if the ph continues to rise.

what is the pH you are trying to get. for veggie plants its good to be about 6.5, for bloom 7.0 is always safe.

from what i know, during the dark periods is when most the water is taken thru the root systems. might want to adjust for more dark time. also have you tried foliar feeding instead of straight feeding? ive heard good things

this reminds me:
heres another school of thought on the matter. autoflowers by all means have little to no veggie cycle. it might be smart to give the bloom nutes as soon as 3 weeks into the grow. i dont know it varies on the strain.

If found some news that came out of this forum that states these are not auto flowering seeds which really pisses me off if true. I went to Google and entered pot+heavyweight shooting star, check it out. They were as tall as cab! As for nutes, they're ph neutral called Moon Dust by Sunlightsheds.com they're the ones who I got my system from. I've been foliar feeding for a couple of weeks. Remember the 1st burn? What gets me is normally the PH would be high when I feed every other day. Last week it has been around 5.1 where I like it is 5.8 to 6.2 I'm at a loss on the strain, even on package it's autoflowering??? Put HPS in yesterday and gave them 8hrs dark and see if that works if not 12/12 in another 3 days

yea as you know I got burned by nirvana with their bubblicious seeds.

its always a risk with these new or unknown strains. Im taking a risk with these Diavolo seeds. but I saw a few other journals and they look very nice.

im not the best with hydroponics, but are you to be feeding every other day, more than once a week sounds like alot.

you should try humboldt nutrients or biobizz. both are organic and very nice results.

honestly im not sure whats going on with your system, or if there even is a problem. give it a week.

journal notes:

added Humboldt Countys Own snow storm and Humboldt Countys Own gravity bud hardener to my line up.

even though more mint seeds are coming im not sure i want them. the sprouts I have are a 3rd the size of the lowmaster and bubblicious which are all the same age. All these mint sprouts are so slow when compared to the others growing. I cant think what the hell I did wrong. the breeder even said they start very slow but then blow up in week 3. they are 2 weeks old now and still look like they are 4 days old! wtf! things better change soon or theyre getting tossed and dutch breed is getting a bad review on the mint. this next batch will give me proof if this strain is crap or not.

I'm new to this Auto Flowering, never grew one before. I did not even know they were in the mix until two months ago. I decided to buy this Mini Cool Cab and try to grow some, I planted them on 09/10/2010 so they're 38 days from seed to today:



I could take the one on the front left and pitch it, then I could atleast keep my three autos. If you look close you'll see the bottom branches are almost as tall as the main stalk on all. I just have to sit back and figure out what I want I guess. Did do that search and see what I'm talking about?

you know it does look like you have room for 4, maybe even the 5th in the middle. but you say they havent started flowering yet? I didnt notice in the pics. if they havent, then they are going to over grow that cab for sure. youve got some decisions to make

run me thru the pics, which plants are what strains?

The four in the corners are HeavyWeight Shooting Star the next two, the one in middle and one up front next to right plant are AK47's. The little one next to the plant in left front corner is Barney's LSD or LowBoldt I'm not sure about it. So small it does not stand a chance anyway. I think I bought a lolipop factory.

I guess I'll give them until weekend, maybe a week from Thursday. Then I'll go 12/12 problem is that it will screw up my autoflowering plants if I was to toss the one would it not?

im not sure, but autoflowers will flower reguardless of light cycle. Id be curious to see if it effects the growth at all. they may autoflower early and youll have mini mini autos