My Super CFL Lowryder 2 AeroGrow

I just checked out that page too. Good research man! The math is a little complex, but nothin too hard. Just some good ol' algebra. Anyway, thanks for the read, learned something new.

DAY 13

They'll be two weeks old tomorrow and will get a reservoir change and new nutes. I took out the 10in airstone I was using and put three small ones in instead. The 10in was just too big for the rez... had to be pushed all the way up toward the front to fit properly and as soon as the water level drops its no longer even submerged. The new ones are way down at the bottom of the rez and seem to be providing a lot more even spread of oxygen to the roots.

As promised here are the pictures. I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. My camera was the shit when I first bought it, but that was like 4 years ago

You can see that one plant is obviously way, way smaller than the other two. I was thinking about just pulling it but decided not to since its not really causing any harm (other than irritating me).

You should also be able to see the difference between the two larger plants. The one is nice and healthy except for the spot of nute burn while the other one's leaves are all twisted and weird. Despite the strange leaves it is still very green and is growing steadily.

You can see in the root pictures that the plant with the weird leaves has the largest root system. All three plants' roots are nice n' white and strong even though they vary drastically in size.

I have to say that the pics dont really do the plants justice (except for the tiny one, which does indeed look little and shitty). They look much better in person. The leaves look a little droopy in the pics, but they've been coming in that way from day 1 so I think that must just be how the lowryders look. As you can see they are not stretching at all, one node stacked right on top of another.

I swear to god I'm growing three different strains here. I don't get why they would all be looking so different when grown under identical conditions.

If anyones got any comments/suggestions/whatever please post. Thanks

Oh yeah, forgot I threw those 2 pics of the Salvia in there at the end. If it lives and clones well I may start a grow journal for it in the Hallucinatory Substances forum. We'll see.

Heck yeah, so far so good.

You may want to shy away from the Salvia though. It's not a "fun" experience. Different, but not recreational.

lookin great man, keep it up, cant wait t see them here in the next couple weeks

They'll be two weeks old tomorrow and will get a reservoir change and new nutes. I took out the 10in airstone I was using and put three small ones in instead. The 10in was just too big for the rez... had to be pushed all the way up toward the front to fit properly and as soon as the water level drops its no longer even submerged. The new ones are way down at the bottom of the rez and seem to be providing a lot more even spread of oxygen to the roots.

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Heh, I did the same thing and came to the same exact realization/decision

Memo to new growers - Use multiple tiny Airstones!

You may want to shy away from the Salvia though. It's not a "fun" experience. Different, but not recreational.

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Having tried Salvia, I honestly say go for it. If you dont like it, dont continue. But its definitely enjoyable, assuming you don't have a bad trip, which can happen with drug


As for the plant problems, maybe look into something else...PH off the safe range? Maybe the leaves are stretching down to get to the "light" coming from the mylar? I've never seen another grow with mylar on the bottom like that...

i would not recommend using nutes until the 2nd week of veg or use 1/6 to 1/4 strength after the seedling have sprouted their first set of true leaves. (still recommend none) and as for the water you can pre-mix nutes in a gallon of water and add fresh water or better yet change it every week. When nutrients are mixed and then used by the plant after a few days, it can still leave some nutrients that weren't used in the res and if you add more it can cause lockout and cause the person to think it may be something else... change it weekly or bi-weekly. I add fresh water pre-mix with nutes every day just add a bit if needed, but change it weekly. 1640 lumens would be ok for only a couple plants. 80 degrees max for water or your going to start having issues with ph shifting.

leova said:

As for the plant problems, maybe look into something else...PH off the safe range? Maybe the leaves are stretching down to get to the "light" coming from the mylar? I've never seen another grow with mylar on the bottom like that...

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During the first week the PH was constantantly sliding upward throughout the day. I checked it twice a day and adjusted as needed. It seems much more stable now. I still check it twice a day but I havent been needing to make any adjustments. I think it may have something to do with the reservoir temperature. I put the mylar on the base like you see in the pictures after they were a week old in an effort to lower the rez temp and it seems to have worked. Lower temp helping to maintain a more constant PH.

On a positive note, the plant with the funky leaves has new leaves coming in that actually look normal. I'm pretty sure its going to pull through and mature into a more regular-looking plant.

shiftythunderf*ck said:

i would not recommend using nutes until the 2nd week of veg or use 1/6 to 1/4 strength after the seedling have sprouted their first set of true leaves. (still recommend none) and as for the water you can pre-mix nutes in a gallon of water and add fresh water or better yet change it every week. When nutrients are mixed and then used by the plant after a few days, it can still leave some nutrients that weren't used in the res and if you add more it can cause lockout and cause the person to think it may be something else... change it weekly or bi-weekly. I add fresh water pre-mix with nutes every day just add a bit if needed, but change it weekly. 1640 lumens would be ok for only a couple plants. 80 degrees max for water or your going to start having issues with ph shifting.

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Yeah I was unsure about how to start off with the nutes. Seems like most people say no nutes for 2 weeks, but the FoxFarm feeding schedule I have says to provide nutes to the seedlings right off the bat. Purpdaddy substantiates this, so I took his advice. My grow is basically just an experiment at this point so I guess whatever happens happens.

I've been just topping off the rez with fresh PH'd water, no nutes. Is that bad? And the plants are only 2 weeks old today, but I did completely change out the reservoir water at the end of each week.

lookin amazing i will just pull up a seat

I've been just topping off the rez with fresh PH'd water, no nutes. Is that bad? And the plants are only 2 weeks old today, but I did completely change out the reservoir water at the end of each week.

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with young plants, that's probably a good thing.
as they get older, however, you'd be better off topping with Nute-water. that way, the amount of nutes in the res doesn't get diluted too low, else the plants will just be sipping "nutrient water cocktail", as Ocean Spray likes to name their 0.00004% juice mixes!

Definitely wanna change out the res every week, or you will start developing nasty stuff in the bottom of the res. Also, follow the FF feeding schedule, each phase has been designed and tested for that particular age. If you use the AG nutes, I would start off with 1/4 tab. Anyway, keep up the good work.

leova said:

with young plants, that's probably a good thing.
as they get older, however, you'd be better off topping with Nute-water. that way, the amount of nutes in the res doesn't get diluted too low, else the plants will just be sipping "nutrient water cocktail", as Ocean Spray likes to name their 0.00004% juice mixes!

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Yep, that is exactly what I had in mind. PH'd top-off water now, nute'd later in their life.

Goddamned Ocean Spray...

FoxCompany426 said:

Definitely wanna change out the res every week, or you will start developing nasty stuff in the bottom of the res. Also, follow the FF feeding schedule, each phase has been designed and tested for that particular age. If you use the AG nutes, I would start off with 1/4 tab. Anyway, keep up the good work.

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Once again, my thoughts exactly. My FF Big Bloom nutes leave some pretty gnarly looking crap floating in my rez. Just flushed that all out when I changed the rez.

Glad we're all on the same page

Well I finally decided to pull the midget plant. It wasn't showing any signs of new leaves, very minor root growth, and upon close inspection had little specks of nute burn basically all over it. I figure because it wasn't nearly as mature as the other two (although the same age technically) that the nutes were too much for it. Anyway, shes gone, and I moved the other two up front. Because of the design and small dimensions of my grow space all of my supplemental CFL's are mounted behind the AG and with the plants in the back row they were damn near touching the bulbs.

The girls are now further away from those lights, so hopefully the growth is not slowed down. There was a pretty substantial increase in the amount of nutrients for week three, so either its gonna be too much for 'em and they're gonna burn or we'll see some big veg growth here very soon. Lets all hope for the latter.

The AG hood lights are still at their lowest setting and the plants are fuckin' stacked! Way more compact than I ever would have thought, node on top of node. The stems are getting pretty beastly, very thick and sturdy, especially the one with the curly leaves. Trying not to get my hopes up too high, but they're looking like they might become pretty heavy bud producers.

So my only question at this time is in regards to topping the plants. Should I go for it or should I just let them run their course with one big cola? I have some research to do on topping before I seriously consider doing it or not, but the time is fast approaching.

A few pics of the new arrangement with the plants up front. Any input on the topping issue is appreciated! PEACE all

NEW AVATAR!!! haha

its up to you when you wanna topp, they look great, I topped my first grow, and my current i let them do there thang, but now for my next grow im going to topp again, i think its a better method for indoor

[quote="SICC";2568033]its up to you when you wanna topp, they look great, I topped my first grow, and my current i let them do there thang, but now for my next grow im going to topp again, i think its a better method for indoor[/quote]

Yeah I was a little tentative about it at first, afraid I might fuck up my totally healthy plants I guess. I'm just gonna go for it though. Want to get as much bud out of my two remaining plants as possible, so why not.

i would have to agree.u will get far more bud,4 meduim colars plus all that extra branching adds up

OK, sorry for updating like every day, but I just wanted to make a quick post. I am deciding not to top the plants after all. I just got done reading Uncle Ben's Topping Technique and then inspecting my girls to see where I should top. If I had a better camera and didn't have to pull all the leaves away just to get a picture of the stem I would show y'all the situation, but as things are I'll just have to describe...

Basically, individual major nodes are almost indistinguishable. The stems sort of just look like one big insane cluster-fuck of a super-node, large leaves and branches popping out everywhere. If I was to top I wouldn't really even be sure that I was cutting at the right node and even if I did the next node is so close that there wouldn't even be a little nub of a stem left above the cut anyway. The leaves from very first nodes are literally fanned out flat on the grow-surface of the AG, and every node above that is practically growing out of the node before it. Long story short, these babies are way to compact to safely top.

I'm a little bummed out that I wont be getting 2 or 4 main colas, but at the same time I'm pretty sure that if they keep growing this compactly I'll end up with one pretty ridiculous cola per plant. First grow, oh well. At least they're healthy. Growing like mad and drinking alot. Made a bucket of pre-mixed Ph'd water and nutes to top of with until next rez change. And oh, I almost forgot, I turned off the AG pump based on some shit I was reading in Mr. Alex's grow journal, so hopefully it was the right thing to do. The airpump and airstones are still on, 24/7.

I'll try not to update again for a little while PEACE

don't feel bummed with lowryder strains in an AG, you're doing the best you can just by growing that strain in the AG. as low and compact as they grow, it wouldn't be surprising for the whole plant to turn cola like you may or may not be expecting.... sorry for that last bit sounding all kung-fu'ish and mysterious. haha.

Shackleford.R said:

don't feel bummed with lowryder strains in an AG, you're doing the best you can just by growing that strain in the AG. as low and compact as they grow, it wouldn't be surprising for the whole plant to turn cola like you may or may not be expecting.... sorry for that last bit sounding all kung-fu'ish and mysterious. haha.

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this strain seems to love one huge big fat colar.they suggest u grow 12/12 the whole way through the grow,40-60days u have a fully mature plant.