Northern Lights LED 4x4 Grow Tent

Day 14 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Today I transplanted into HydroFarm 6.4 gallon 12" square pots. I was noticing a little droopage, suspected the plants to be becoming rootbound and took a look... the roots look solid!

I watered with 1 gallon/plant of plain water adjusted to a PH of 6.5. It took about 5 minutes, but on average there was about 1.5-2 cups of drainage. After letting each plant sit in the tub draining, but before putting the plants back in the tent, I would tilt them to get any extra water sitting at the bottom out. Should I give them a bit less next time? 1 gallon is only about 15 percent of the pot and I got significant drainage. I usually like to water so that only a tiny bit drains out of the bottom.

ricky1lung, you will be happy to know that I purchased my first DynaGro product today - neem oil. I plan on spraying my plants as a preventative measure once a week.

Quick update - plants have perked up a lot! Seem to be handling the transplant nicely.

Day 15 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Today I sprayed the plants down with Dyna Gro Neem Oil right before lights out, in order to give the plants time to dry off before being hit with light - 1.5 teaspons/quart of water and added 0.5 teaspons of liquid soap. I made sure to get the bottom and top of all of the leaves. The Neem Oil is only a preventative measure right now. I plan on spraying maybe once a week through the end of flowering, unless any problems with bugs develop. I also have Organocide handy, but do not really like the fishy smell it gives off... besides, Neem Oil is great!

When I transplanted to bigger containers yesterday, I was unable to transplant two of the plants because I was missing two pots. It is sad because the transplanted plants have really taken off compared to the ones still in solo cups - and in only a day! I have some pots that are somewhat close to the size of the ones I am using. I had to special order two more, which should not be here until Friday or Saturday. I think I will transplant them into the bigger pots tonight, and then again on Saturday or so. I think they should handle it fine since the already transplanted plants are looking awesome and they would have 4-5 days to settle into their temporary pots.

Day 16 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Today I received and set up my water pump - it is a "Hydrofarm AAPA15L 6-Watt 15-LPM Active Aqua Air Pump with 4 Outlets." It pumps 240 gallons per hour. In my 16 gallon container, it is looking beautiful. I went a little cheap on the airstones, so I had to create a weight to hold them down. I washed and then sterilized rocks I took from my front yard landscape and filled a large mason jar - works great. The pump should help to speed up the evaporation of chlorine in the water and other unwanted impurities, as well as helping to mix my nutrient solution very nicely - and extra oxygen in the water won't be too bad for the plants either! I included a link to the pump below in case anyone is interested.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JPEVMC/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Took a couple quick pictures of the Northern Lights just for an update. They have perked up even more - they were just dying to get into the bigger pots - hopefully this will not add too many extra days to my veg time.

Day 17 - Vegetative Growth Stage

I think the plants should be ready for their next watering tomorrow - a nutrient solution of:

6tbsp/gallon of Fox Farm Big Bloom
3 tsp/gallon of Fox Farm Grow Big
2 tsp/gallon of Botanicare Sweet Raw

I have not yet purchased the Botanicare Sweet Raw, but thought I would pick up a gallon (which should last through this entire grow) to give it a try. A gallon is about $40-$50 - I have heard mixed things about Sweet, but figure it is worth trying at least once. I plan on using it every watering, 2 tsp/gallon during the rest of the plants' vegetative stage and then bumping it up to 1 tbsp/gallon every watering during flowering (up to about the last week). I have only been using the Big Bloom every other watering, but have seen a lot of people (including Fox Farm) say that it is perfectly safe to use every watering. What do you guys think..? Come flowering, I plan on using a nutrient solution of:

6 tbsp/gallon of Fox Farm Big Bloom
2-3 tsp/gallon of Fox Farm Tiger Bloom
1 tbsp/gallon of Botanicare Sweet (possibly substituting this for Organic Unsulphured Molasses - 1 tbsp/gallon every other watering - would it be safe to use the Sweet every watering and the molasses in addition to it every other watering? This would most likely be only once a week)

They are looking good Giant, looks like they are enjoying more space.
I dont use FF stuff so I can't comment on the feedings though.

Thanks, Ricky! Yeah, they are loving the bigger pots - room to stretch their legs.. err.. roots haha. The temperatures have been great, too. Most of the time the light is on, the temperature is between 70-76 degrees. Right now it is 73.2. It gets up to 80 for a tiny bit during the day, but not all that much. While the light is off, the temperature hovers at about 75. All this during the summer with NO air conditioning! Gotta love LEDs!

Day 18 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Gave the plants a watering with a nutrient solution of:

6 tbsp /gallon of Fox Farm Big Bloom
3 tsp/gallon of Fox Farm Grow Big
2 tsp/gallon of Botanicare Sweet Raw

I gave them each 14 cups - a decrease from my last watering of 16 cups (1 gallon). I still got very substantial run off - which to me, is a waste when using nutrients. A little bit is fine - but not this much. I plan on lowering the watering amount at least another 2 cups for next time. I am sure once the roots start to really fill in these bigger pots, they will need the full gallon - but for now I do not see much sense in watering to this degree of run off.

I am curious to see how they will like the Sweet - only time will tell.

Officially a SCROG grow! Built my screen from 1/2" PVC and fittings - and stretched Botanicare Hortitrellis across it. I used packing tape to wrap around and tie the screen down. I cut the PVC to 46" lengths, accounting for the inch that the fittings would add to each side. I made it tall enough so that the screen is about 9" above the plants.

Here is a link to the Botanicare Hortitrellis, in case anyone is interested. This website is pretty damn pricey though. I got mine from a local store for only $6, not $10.25 like this website.
http://watercooledgardens.com/Botanicare-Horti-Trellis-4ft-x-16ft.html?source=googleps&gclid=CICngqet5LgCFeU5Qgod-ScAsg

I did not want to use any kind of material with loose fibers that could become fused with the plants (string, twine, etc.) - or stick to the plants.

Day 24 - Vegetative Growth Stage

I have noticed growth increase since starting Botanicare Sweet - and then an even larger increase when I started using Fox Farm Big Bloom for every watering and not just every other watering. The plants are loving it!

Looking good man. You really filled that tent up good lol. Should be a nice jungle soon.

Good luck.

Thanks, Djm619. It is looking like I will need to veg them at least another week after this week before I can start flowering (making a total of 5 weeks veg).

I am going to start using Fox Farm soluble nutrients in today's feeding, starting with Open Sesame. I have heard many great things about their soluble nutrients - don't get me wrong, I have heard bad things too (but they are all hilariously from people that have not even used them...). You can get the one pound triple pack of the solubles on Amazon for $70 (free shipping, free two day shipping if you have Amazon Prime). They are ridiculously concentrated - and will go a long way. For my 16 plant (6.4 gallon pots), 4-5 week veg/8 week flower grow - I could use the solubles for easily 10 of these grows. You only need a tiny amount (0.25-0.5 tsp/gallon for soil) and are only supposed to use them every other watering. I will be sure to update with my results. Fingers crossed!


Today's Feeding:

6 tbsp/gallon Fox Farm Big Bloom
3 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Grow Big
2 tsp/gallon Botanicare Sweet Raw
0.25 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Open Sesame

I ended up modifying my feeding for today. I was fearing nutrient burn with adding the Open Sesame, so I toned down the Big Bloom a ton - from 6 tbsp/gallon to 6 tsp/gallon. This is actually what the Fox Farm feeding schedule recommends, but the plants were just loving the Big Bloom so they were taking 6 tbsp like nothing. If they respond with no signs of stress after this feeding, I will start bumping up the Big Bloom back up towards 6 tbsp/gallon again for the feedings with Open Sesame. I ended up adding Fox Farm Boomerang to my nutrients. So, today's feeding looked like this:

6 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Big Bloom
3 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Grow Big
1 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Boomerang
0.25 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Open Sesame
2 tsp/gallon Botanicare Sweet Raw

I gave each plant 0.5 gallons (16 plants, 8 gallons total) and still got a large amount of runoff.


Next watering I will be flushing with Sledgehammer - each plant will get 1 gallon.

Day 26 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Yesterday I started training the plants a bit with nylon in order to help bring all the lower budding sites toward the screen. I did some LST early on, so it's looking nice!



Next watering will be a flush of:

6 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Big Bloom
1 tbsp/gallon Wholesome Organic Molasses
2 tsp/gallon Fox Farm/Bushdoctor Sledgehammer

Day 27 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Those plants look really compact. How close is the light? They do look healthy though.

The light is 18" from the plants. They are very compact - I did LST on them early on and they filled in very nicely. They are looking very healthy - I will have to get some pictures up with normal light. They are the most beautiful, healthy shade of green.

Day 28 - Vegetative Growth Stage

Today I sprayed the plants down with Neem Oil right before lights out and flushed them a few hours after the lights had been back on. Flushed with a solution of:

6 tsp/gallon Fox Farm Big Bloom
1 tbsp/gallon Wholesome Organic Molasses
2 tsp/gallon Fox Farm/Bushdoctor Sledgehammer