First 400W Grow Journal + Pics

Aw man, good thing you caught it though! I like how you found a way to dump that extra air! what a find!

Here's a couple pics of the improved ventilation and the room sealed up.


Having a little problem with necrotic spots on my plants. Seems to be happening to all of them. I was running EC @ 1.0 so maybe it was a little low, esp with 3-1-5 nutes. I've now done a rez change and switched to 50% grow, 50% bloom nutes and added about 20% strength boost. Raised my EC up to 1.25, seeing if I see improvement.

Pineapple is showing a little burn on the tips. It's runoff EC is only 1.0 so I doubt it's burn. Is this the same def. my early girl is suffering from?



Started 3 more seeds germing. 2 good bag seed and one more pineapple express. They will be vegged under my two 85w fluros. The original pineapple express will be flowered with the rest of the plants in a couple days. Excited to see the changes that occur with the light, just hope I can fix these nutrient problems first! FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, Thanks.

Flushed my plants with Clearex & then fresh phd water. Hoping this helps remove the toxic salt buildups. Going to skip watering tomarrow and resume watering the following day. I'll switch out the bulb and start the bloom after I see how they respond to this flushing.



LU400S/HTL/EN
Initial Lumen Output: 55,000
Mean Life Hours: 24,000
Color Temperature: 2100 degrees Kelvin
CRI (Color Rendering Index): 23

Right on, new light, tell your ladies to smile!

Tried my luck at fimming on the pineapple express the other night, seems to be responding well. I'm going to throw in the HPS bulb tonight to make sure it works. I'll probably be changing the cycle in the next day or so.

I think my girls have been sick due to ph problems in the rockwool. I'm not sure why, but whenever I pull samples and PH them they are always at least 7. It seems like flooding from the bottom doesn't seem to keep it down. Pouring a cup of water of the top does seem to help it drop, at the risk of over watering.

I learned something my first grow, with rockwool less is more. I'll be using the 4" cubes or maybe even the 3" cubes from now on. I'll just go into the hydroton early. There's just no need for the huge 6" all it does is cause me headaches. I conditioned it properly with special sauce and I'm still unable to keep the ph under control. I've also been considering doing drip while I veg.

What are your guys media opinions. What works well for you?

Someguy15 said:

What are your guys media opinions. What works well for you?

Click to expand...

Soil is like so last millennium. Rockwool, well, I don't have to tell you.

As objective as I can be, I think aeroponics works really well, and not just because I'm using it. I've researched for over a year before I germinated my first seed simply because I couldn't grow where I was located. From where to purchase seeds, lighting, RO units, drying methods and so on, I've read books, trolled through RIU and GC, and watched videos repeatedly. I've still got a lot to learn even up to now. Simply put, Aero allows for the most oxygen to the roots, some of the fastest growth, and at the end of the day, there's absolutely no growing medium whatsoever

JimmyT said:

Soil is like so last millennium. Rockwool, well, I don't have to tell you.

As objective as I can be, I think aeroponics works really well, and not just because I'm using it. I've researched for over a year before I germinated my first seed simply because I couldn't grow where I was located. From where to purchase seeds, lighting, RO units, drying methods and so on, I've read books, trolled through RIU and GC, and watched videos repeatedly. I've still got a lot to learn even up to now. Simply put, Aero allows for the most oxygen to the roots, some of the fastest growth, and at the end of the day, there's absolutely no growing medium whatsoever

Click to expand...

Yea, I'll look into making a DIY aero system, but I'm worried about power outages. Won't a 6-8 hour outage ruin a crop?

Bloom has begun! Last night I switched over to the HPS bulb. Really orange! The girls got their first 12 hours of dark last night and I'm seeing a little stretch already. Some of my plants are now nearing 20". I've also removed the humidifier, I'm allowing the humidity to drop slowly over the next week or two. 30% is ideal for budding correct?

On a side note, my plants are drinking about a gallon a day total. My ph tends to rise from 5.5 to 6.5 over about a day or two. This would indicate I need to feed more, correct? But, my ppms usually rise day to day, meaning I am over-feeding right? This is where I get a little confused.

All and all for my first grow I'm satisfied with where I am at going into bloom.





Just a chart I wanted for my own reference.
View attachment 638751

Someguy15 said:

Won't a 6-8 hour outage ruin a crop?

Click to expand...

One of my worst fears

For me, a 6-8 hour outage would probably be fine in the flowering room because I'm using 6" PVC tubes (Aero/NFT) thus holding more water. My clone and veg plants would be doomed, hence, bye bye strains.

I noticed you've just gone in to flowering. Congrats! Did you take some cuttings?

JimmyT said:

One of my worst fears

For me, a 6-8 hour outage would probably be fine in the flowering room because I'm using 6" PVC tubes (Aero/NFT) thus holding more water. My clone and veg plants would be doomed, hence, bye bye strains.

I noticed you've just gone in to flowering. Congrats! Did you take some cuttings?

Click to expand...

Nah, most of what I'm working with here is just bag seed. No huge interest in saving it. I did start 3 new seeds off under my cfls. 1 more pineapple express & 2 good chronic bag seed I had saved. Hopefully one or two of these will become my new mothers for round two. 8-10 weeks of bloom should be plenty of time to get them ready for cloning. People can gripe about the PE name all they want...these genetics out-sprout & out-grow my other strains by far, at least in my conditions.

I don't think I want to risk it with Aero/Bubble/NFT ;(. I think I'm going to refine my flood & drain with less rockwool and hope it works out better. My power is somewhat unreliable and I can't afford to lose it all at this point. A generator is also out of the question due to where I live. I can manually do a flood or two if needed, I don't think aero/bubble/nft have that luxury.

Just picked up a couple of toys.

and

Digital temp meter so I have a better idea of my max/min now that I have the room sealed 12 hours a day. And this 30x scope should help me harvest at the right time.

Mounted my digital themometer outside the room and put the probe in, hanging at the canopy level. It doesn't allow me to get a humidity, but I'd rather be able to read the display outside the room.


Also shot a pic of my 85w cfls in my other closet. Nothing major here, just a small space to clone & keep a mother plant or two.


And an overview shot. PE is getting so bushy, looks like the FIM was a complete success, 4 growing tips. I'll shoot a close-up in a day or two when it's more developed.

They look great man, and congrats on the purchases. The magnifier will definitely come in handy.

I'm getting crispy tips and I doubt it's burn. I think they're hungry bc most of the tips point upward. I was at 1.25 ec so I bumped it up to 1.4. My base water is about .35 so that leaves me right around 1 EC of nutes. Maybe I should be a touch higher than that even?


The roots are growing well on my large plants. I'm curious to see if they grow out more as the canopy fills in and blocks the light more effectively. Maybe I should fill the empty space with hydroton, but that would make my plants immobile.

View attachment 642482
Pineapple's fimming went well, here's the results. This is going to be one bushy girl when she starts blooming!


And a single shot of my topped plant. Loving the results, probably will use this technique more on my next grow.


And dare I say...my first...bud...shots? heh so I know it's early, but they're starting to look very female!

pinaples gonna be a bushy she devil! and definitely looking like buds coming soon! looking good!

Someguy15 said:

I learned something my first grow, with rockwool less is more. I'll be using the 4" cubes or maybe even the 3" cubes from now on. I'll just go into the hydroton early. There's just no need for the huge 6" all it does is cause me headaches. I conditioned it properly with special sauce and I'm still unable to keep the ph under control. I've also been considering doing drip while I veg.

What are your guys media opinions. What works well for you?

Click to expand...

I use small pots that are slightly smaller than your grow bags. Instead of using a big rockwool cube, I use a 50/50 mixture of rockwool flock (mini cubes can be used just as easily) and hydroton. You can germinate a seed in 1" rockwool cube, and once roots are slappin out of the cubey, then just put it in the bag with the mixed media.

With this I water Once a day for Veg, and twice a day for flower. No overwatering issues ever. Also, just as in a power outtage, you are MUCH safer with flood/drain than with aero/nft. though... aero does work well, it's not worth the risk to me, which is why I do flood/drain.

I read through your entire journal last night, good read! You are doing a good job taking care of the plants for sure.

I suggest you not put hydroton between the bags, if the roots start to grow out, no biggie, they will air prune themselves, and those bags are plenty big enough to hold a good root mass, so no worries there. Keeping them mobile is smart.

I was tired when I read this journal, so I apologize if I missed this info, but how big is your res? and what is the temperature in your res?

good job man subscribed!

YaK said:

I was tired when I read this journal, so I apologize if I missed this info, but how big is your res? and what is the temperature in your res?

Click to expand...

It's a 18 gal tub I fill up to a 15gal line. The rez temp usually varies from 68-72 depending on time of day. I don't heat or cool it, it's just stored under the table out of the light.

Definitely looking into trying new media next time. What size floc do you use or does it only come in one size? Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

Germinating pineapple was doing great the two days, now that the seed casing finally comes off I find this. Just a bad seed? I've never had this happen to any of my sprouts before, have you?

The starter leaves are moist, but brown and not opening. It looks as if the starter leaves were rotten inside the seed? But then how would the tap root have emerged so successfully.

Moving on...

I took a cutting of two of my plants now (only 3 days into 12/12 so I think they'll be fine). One of my unknown chronic bag seed (my topped plant) and one of the PE due to the new seedling dying. I'm also germing a free DNA fem LA Woman bean I got. Out of these 5 plants I'll chose 3 mothers probably. These are being started to compensate for the males that will likely show in the next few days.

I also discovered a bunch of white slime in my rez & pump. Surprised as I've never seen anything like it and just started a H202 regiment. Did a rez change and used a completely new container. Cleaned everything with h2o2 and rubbing alcohol (tubes and such). Hopefully that's the last I see of that gunk.

I'ma sad panda, 2 more males. My Mary Jane Alpha (first plant) and another of my original 4 (c in spreadsheet). Tough break, but I saved the leaves and took some shots. Cheek out these roots!



Anyone know what I can do with the male leaves? Can I freeze them and collect some trichomes? Hopefully turn a bad situation into something, thanks guys!