600w HPS / Turbogarden E&F / Feminized Mix

[ridinslab]

Welcome to my new grow rollitup! I have one soil grow under my belt, but I ended up disappointed due to the janky genetics and soil compaction. This time around, some kinks have been smoothed out and I am gonna try hydroponics. I got the Turbogarden ebb and flow kit, all the neccessary nutrients and meters, and a MH conversion for my 600w sodium ballast. I got the seeds from marijuana-seeds.nl, discreet shipping, quick, and less than 50 bucks for the female mix. The leaves were broad indica/afghan mostly, a couple sativas, and one mutant. One lost its tap root and died in transplant, but the other 9 are a couple weeks old. I was going to buy a bag of hydroton at the store, but the guy told me it was included in the garden. It's not, it's the readygro shit from botanicare, and it made my tray and res real dirty. I ran plain water for a while, and the high ph affected their cotyledons and first set, but they didn't seem stunted. After a little I flushed and cleaned the garden. On the first res fill, I ended up making it a little too hot, even though I only added small amounts of Tri-flex, rhizotonic, and liquid karma (in seedling doses). It was around 800 ppm, then I watered it down with 5 gallons of 0 ppm water to get it down to 600. I really don't want to flush it now to get it down to 400 or so, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure they are healthy. What do you guys think? pH is kept around 5.5-6.0 and temp is 77*F. I've been bouncing the watering schedule around from 3-5 times a day to see what works best, right now it's 3 times a day for 15 mins each with the included mech timer. Thoughts on this? Any past experience with a Turbogarden here would help me out tremendously. Stick around, I love to post pictures and I will be here till harvest!

 

[ridinslab]

A few more pictures of the pre-veg. 600 MH should be up and running tomorrow.

 

[ridinslab]

Anybody have any advice/tips for me? It's my first hydro grow and I need everything I can get.

You can see how much growth in a few hours just with the few 26w CFLs I have over them. Can't wait to fire up the big guns again. BTW I really like the bubblefoil sheeting from Lowes. It's really versatile stuff. I have began to think about topping/fimming. Thoughts on this? I will be doing a screen or two over these to encourage even growth and SOG buds. When should I do this? Is is best to do it early like now or should I wait till they are older or after the 600 has been over them a while?

I got a shot of the nutrients I'm using. Anything else I should scoop up?

I'm definately going to get a new camera to shoot pictures in the future, I don't like the fuzzy shots either.

 

[ridinslab]

Bump to the top with some pictures. Nobody jumping on for the grow? They look okay to me

 

[ridinslab]

Alright. Snapped some actual pictures. Last one is some of the last bud I grew. Hopefully a little better

 

[ridinslab]

Here's a better shot of it. First grow, bagseed in soil.

 

[ridinslab]

Last night. Growing fast!

 

[ridinslab]

And the space with the soil plants. I can't wait to see the hydroponic difference!

 

[ridinslab]

And now the fun begins. My landlord finally came through and replaced the two pieces of sheet rock that fell from the ceiling the other day. I was waiting to get everything rolling after he came and did what he had to do.

I hit up two 4 inch hydrofarm blowers on my hood and put my 6 inch fan on the carbon filter to exhaust. After I flipped the switch everything ran smoothly Any questions about the setup?

600 ppm, 5.5-5.8 pH. 74 degrees F.

I realize that my grow is less appealing because the thread title isn't Super Power Skunk so and so, but all these genetics are marijuana-seeds.nl females. White Widow, NYC Diesel, etc. Peep their list:
http://marijuana-seeds.nl/feminized-marijuana-seeds.html

I'm not sure if they just throw the shitty ones into the mixes, but I had a 100% fast germ and most are heavy indica. I really wanted the mix so that I would have a better selection for the mother I'm going to cop out of these

Now, is anyone reading this or am I just pissing into the wind? Gimmie some feedback!

 

[Skibaba]

Clean looking setup, very nice, especially for only a second grow.
Keep us posted with the pics.
Afuera'

 

[ridinslab]

Thanks! I didn't have time to run the wires but its gonna look pro in there. I'm real confident at this point.

Will definitely keep the pictures coming.

 

[DeQuincey]

I'll be watching...

I'm curious about your exhaust set up, given that you're in a rental. What the story?

 

[ridinslab]

Well basically I said fuck it and drilled 2 4 inch holes in the wall down low (one intake, one hood intake) and 2 in the roof (one exhaust and one hood exhaust). I saved the pieces I drilled out and I'm just gonna do the best I can to put them back in and cover it up.

When I first moved in he came over to get rid of the rats and when he got in the attic, he noticed the ducts coming out. I had everything turned off, and he was just like "Huh, why are these here?" I thought I was busted for sure, but I managed to change the topic and he left thinking that an ex-tenant used to have a dryer in his room.

Kinda risky I guess, that's why I moved all of my fans into the closet, cause I had to chop my last batch of plants and get everything out of the attic when the fucking sheet rock just collapsed one night

I guess I'll worry about it later though, my temps are spot on and very easy to control

 

[ridinslab]

4/1/09 Update

Watering once a day for 15 minutes, light on 18/6. What do yall think?

 

[ridinslab]

Update 4/2/09


Almost all of the plants are showing female pistils. Tried to take a picture but they are still really small, but you can see the little hairs popping out Props to marijuana-seeds.nl.

They are growing very fast. I took a picture of the cab the mother plant is going to live in. Gonna pick up a waterfarm for it this weekend. I plan on being able to to have 14 rooted cuttings to go straight into the turbogarden on 12/12 every 6 weeks or so. I'm very pleased thus far.

 

[ridinslab]

Today is day one flowering. The HPS bulb is in, 2-3 inches of hydroton in tray, res changed, mother plant is in the GH Waterfarm. pH is staying between 5.5 and 6.5. I'll take some pictures later.

 

[ridinslab]

Alright guys, I really would like some input with this update!!

Week 2 flowering, mother plant is thriving. I would love some questions!

I'm gonna test a big picture and post the rest in a second.

 

[ridinslab]

The rest:

 

[ridinslab]

How would you attach chicken wire in here? I want to have it bowl shaped or at least bent downward in the middle to take full advantage of the light.

 

[ridinslab]

Alright update. I topped the mother and screened the closet. Got some new fans in there as well. Anything, anything at all, you guys would do different? Anybody reading?