Let's Grow A Mom Out! aka Journal of a Chinese LED Panel Junkie

cannabuilding said:

Hi FranJan,

Read the whole journals, really nice looking plants you have there man, Subbing for the ride.

Peace to all and happy growing.

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You read that stuff? Poor bastard. I don't even read it, I just look at the pictures.

In all seriousness, thank you for your kind words and it's good to have you, (and Chronikool) along for the ride.

Hey folks, what's shaking? Back with a quick update today. Got some less than terrible but still shitty news today, so we'll be keeping it a bit on the more serious side today. Barbarians are assembling at the gate it seems and a decision must be made whether to pour hot oil on them, get them drunk and let them fuck the women, or run, run, run away? So I'm a little distracted today, and it's not just the Blue Cheese, but never-the-less, as David Gilmour once crooned, "Oooooh, waah. The show must go on."

So here we are at week whatever, day who knows, and:


the BC is finally starting to grow more and is looking better after all the water and lovin;


BC Feeding Schedule;
6/11- 24 oz water with 1 oz Plant Tonic and 2000mg Vitamin E (Blended!) into 1 gallon of water.
6/13- 40 oz water. (Yowza, Thirsty much?)
She's now just filling up with tops and mini colas. My "Total Chaos" style is not recommended for those with high humidity by the way. Or with mold problems. Or with intelligence .


The MB on the other hand is finally starting to act up a bit and is showing some kind of deficiency. Probably just plain hungry from all the budding, so I gave it some;
6/11- 24 oz water with 1 oz Plant Tonic and 2000mg Vitamin E (Blended!) into 1 gallon of water
6/16- More Cal/Mag (1 Tablespoon Epsom, 1 Teaspoon Bone Meal) and almost 1 oz Flower Power (1-8-7), mixed in 1 gallon of water, and it will hopefully show some signs of recovery in a day or two. Otherwise it's some dried blood with the next watering;


And we're finally bringing in some of the survivors from the Great Easter "Man Do I Hate My Fuckin Brother In Law For Making Me Stay Over His Place And Now The Bitch Owes Me Some Lobsters Next Time I See Him" Weekend Clone Massacre, and what we have here is a little SLH, burned by foliar feeding them for two weeks trying to get the little monsters to live. Luckily some came around and we've got a new batch of 12 rooting as we speak.


So I'm off to learn what my options are in my fight for my sovereignty and please folks don't forget to vote, cause as Roger Waters once squeaked:

^^^^^^Sorry folks. A little technical difficulty. We'll be fixin this in a moment. And yes that was the Blue Cheese's fault .



Edit: Missing pics back so no problems except:

More BC?


Or maybe some Magic Bud?


My real problems should be so much fun !

Another Triumph FranJan! I want to get my hands on some Magic Bud seeds....always sold out where i go! Elusive little fuckers! How have you found it to grow. Reads really good...but words can be deceiving....

Thank you Chronikool but I couldn't of done it without RIU.

I love to grow Magic Bud since it grows so fast, (it can be done in 7 weeks if everything is right), gets sooo frosty and has a great high. This pheno was picked out of 6 others for it's extra kick, though it is a tribute to Paradise Seeds that all the plants were so similar and all grew great. The one thing I would say to people about this weed is that it has to be cured before smoking to really appreciate it. If you smoke some of this right on harvest day you won't be impressed. But let it sit for 2 weeks and smoke some and you won't be able to sign into your RIU account, which happened to me for about an hour Monday night . Plus the longer it cures, the smoother it gets. It can be a very thick dense smoke so a good long cure really helps with smoothness too.

Take Care Chronikool and Happy Growing!

Well im convinced of the goodness now....Moby Dick for the next grow and then the Magic Bus.......ummmm i mean Bud... (maybe both)

to my little journal. Wait a minute. Didn't I just do an entry? Seriously, it's been a week already. What!? Do you really think anything has changed that much since the last update? Sigh. How I wish that statement was true. So without further delay, let's go!

So as you may be aware we had a little hot weather in parts of the U.S. this week and with temps ranging from a lights off low of 72 to a lights on high of 88, it seems I survived the frying pan only to have to deal with some fire. I mentioned previously that the Magic Bud plant was starting to look a little peaked. Well peaked turned into full blown "what the fuck? Why is my plant all yellow with thick green veins this morning"?


Damn, I know I was pushing it a bit and there was a nitrogen problem before I introduced her to the flowering room, but something like this now? So for once instead of just pouring some Cal/Mag on top of the plant I decided to dust off the old soil PH meter and give the plant a proper PH reading. Good thing I did because the reading was a big fat 8½! 8½ to me is a movie by Fellini, not what marijuana should be grown in. Fuck! Then I checked the Blue Cheese and while not an 8.5 was still reading an 8. Fucking fucker! I then went to my soil mix and it read an 8. FUUUUUUCK!!!! This explains so much why I've been struggling with my grows and plants lately. I haven't checked my soil PH in 7 or 8 months and man am I paying for it. So without delay I added some Espoma Soil Acidifier, 4 tablespoons in 1 gallon of water and slowly added 32 oz in the Magic Bud and 24 oz in the Blue Cheese on Wednesday.


The plants seemed to respond positively and while I've got the BC's PH down to 6.9 , the MB's PH is at 7.3 and I'll be lowering it a bit more this week but not with such a intense blend of Acidifier. My mix is running 7.5 right now and I'll give that another week before I test it again since I dumped a boatload of Acidifier in there and it's a lot more soil to adjust. The good news is the plants seems to be responding well and are drinking again. Growth has picked up after a few off days, especially the BC.


So as you can see I've been adding more SLH to the room. Looks like we'll have about 11 of these and they've yet to have their PH checked. Some are small and the timing is screwed up , but we'll get something out of them. Plus I've also introduced a dozen Blue Cheese plants to give those stray tigers some place to live, so things continue regardless of the bumps in the road.


Here's some views of the BC. It's really starting to take off and I just can't seem to get any good pictures to show off how wild it's coming out. It's just bud heaven. And that's not mold or mildew btw. Some sections are starting to get covered in crystals and a few of the lower buds are getting digested due to lack of light.


Here's the MB plant in all it's fading glory. It's just amazing how south it went in so little time. I'm calling it Lime Induced Chlorosis right now since I did add a little too much lime to my mix this time. What can I say, Cal/Mag paranoia got the best of me . It might be an excess of P. And the BMO Flower Power and Grow It Green do have quite a bit of K so there's a possibility of too much K. Hopefully getting the plant down to a proper PH will save it and once it gets under 7, I'll worry about any deficiencies. Right now it appears Calcium and Manganese are being locked out, and it may also need a little boost of Nitrogen. Man if I get this plant back to health and to harvest I'm going to be pretty proud of myself.


And a little LED news now. You may have noticed I'm trying to use a serving dish as a reflector/limiter and while ghetto it seems to be working. I just cut the bottom of one along the outline of the opening, and taped it to the interior of the case with foil tape. I was also able to seal off the gap between the case and the LED, which I always felt was wasting light. This is a simple mod that works on any generic Chinese panel, and is even easier to do with the glass removed from the panel beforehand. And for some bizarre reason I decided to cover most of my BS240s in foil tape. Made em look like wanna-be Pro Grows, huh ? Actually I always hated the black cases and decided now was the time for a little mod.


And it looks like I'm also a victim of the Blackstar degraded UV diode problem. I was dusting the diodes and heard a crack when I was cleaning the UV one, which had darkened by now. On further examination it seems it's the LED's protective cap that discolors, not the LED itself, which is fine under the discolored plastic. So I just knocked off the darkened plastic and they're running fine, though I don't know if they're UV or just blue now. The only problem I see is if those diodes go out, they'll take out a row or three of LEDs, because without that cap the current cannot pass through to the next LED. Or at least that is how Ryan at LED Star explained it to me.



And don't be so bold you little bastard, you're only two votes away from the blender!

Nice mods and + rep on checking your ph/ makes life way easier with a tiger...........you covered the panel in foil? who's the fucking purist now ha

Thanks for the laugh and the detailed background story.
And it doesn't look as if you run dry anytime soon by the looks of it.

Imagine if the ph had been 1 point higher, what a difference, totally another movie

PSUAGRO. said:

Nice mods and + rep on checking your ph/ makes life way easier with a tiger...........you covered the panel in foil? who's the fucking purist now ha

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Hey thanks for the bump in rep brother P! And I wouldn't say I'm a purist, just excessively single at the moment .

Rasser said:

Thanks for the laugh and the detailed background story.
And it doesn't look as if you run dry anytime soon by the looks of it.

Imagine if the ph had been 1 point higher, what a difference, totally another movie

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Hey Rasser, I'm glad you're are enjoying my journal. And another point higher and I would of had to spray the buggers down with vinegar. Would of looked like on of those Mentos + Diet Coke pranks . LOL



Anyone having trouble with their posts recently? I keep getting an error message every time I try to edit my last post? I noticed Al B Fuct was having the same problem with posting to his journal too. You know, this will probably be the only time I'll have anything in common with Mr Fuct so I'm gonna enjoy this . Actually it appears the editor chokes on posts that are on the large side. Looks like I may have to alter my schedule a bit to make posting easier.

ENTERTAINING JOURNAL FELLA! YEAH IF YOU CAN GET THAT PLANT BACK TO FULL LIFE I'D BE VERY PROUD TOO! IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR LADIES ARE BUDDING UP NICELY DESPITE? NICE ONE TAKE CARE

OK this time it's gotta be a quick one. Family problems and now thanks to our crazy healthcare laws, job problems,(I'm in healthcare and one of the doctors I work for is retiring instead of taking orders from a suit who's never so much as swept an emergency room, and the doctor is closing my section down.), so I got problems all around, including the fact I may have to quit smoking for a while to get a better day gig. Anyway just some photos and I gotta go. Sorry, no time for love Dr. Jones!


Something tells me this is as low as my MB soil mix goes, PH wise.


And the BC is really stinking and getting ready to explode (hopefully).


So it was a pretty good week in the tent, and I've been giving the ladies nothing but water, but the BC did get 24 oz of Flower Power today. The MB will get water tomorrow. Heat wise it's been up to 92 degrees and I've finally got my hands on a Dremel to hack out those fan guards on the panels and see if we can get my panels to run a little cooler.

Ah sucks about the smoking..........but you gotta pay the bills first.........And don't scare me about our healthcare system/i'm already nervous........
Just an FYI always polish the shit out of those soil probes(fine grit sandpaper) for good readings.......I have a similar unit that was .5 off from the bluelab soil ph tester($200) they are very underrated meters for the $$$............good luck on job/life/growing my friend.

Fuck yeah franjan, the ladies look awesome and the tiger is pissed!

FranJan things are looking good in your grow. Your gonna have some tasty treats here soon enough.

Take it from a real doctor, healthcare in the US is doomed.

Sucks about the problems FranJan, Try not to stress too much if possible.

The girls look great and give that tiger some peanut butter!

PS - Who needs healthcare? I haven't seen a doctor since I was born... Seriously. Lol.

PetFlora said:

Not even for an STD? Lucky You lol

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Lol! I've been lucky enough not to have contracted any STDs... And I don't intend to! (My wife will be thrilled to hear that!)

^^^Hey all, thanks for all the great vibes. I can use some, but it's not all bad doings for me either. Especially if that Magic Bud starts to fattens up !

squarefodder said:

FranJan things are looking good in your grow. Your gonna have some tasty treats here soon enough.

Take it from a real doctor, healthcare in the US is doomed.

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Thanks again Square. I was talking to an orthopedic today who was telling me his hospital's EMR takes so long to use, it's added an hour to his rounds in the morning. He's got to sign off on drugs he's never even heard of, review tests ordered by other doctors that have nothing to do with his work, and all kinds of other shit in order to close his files. He can't even fathom, with all the new rules and regulations coming, when he's actually going to have the time to see his patients. It's just crazy that our fucktarted government thinks they have answers for our healthcare problems. If this doesn't start the revolution, then we're all too pathetic to begin with and don't deserve what we do have.

And I've finally calmed down the tiger by offering him the last of my Blue Cheese which he found so touching he's decided to stop eating villagers and only dine on politicians and those dumbasses who think ground up tiger makes your dick hard. I pointed out to him that they're probably the same people.


And thanks for keeping the STDs to a minimum folks. We're trying to run a family grow around here .

Welcome back everyone. Hope all of you are doing OK with the heat and fires. It's been one hot week here in my little slice of the Obama-Nation, but the ladies have managed to survive, especially last Saturday which was a 102 degree day outside and a balmy 96 in my living room. Fortunately for the ladies, the flowering tent peaked at 88 that day. One of the things I did to help out with that is I finally started modding my panels to try to deal with the heat by removing the fan guards to get my panels to run cooler. I found these to use as replacements for the fan guards. They cost 5 bucks a piece, but the screens are removable so they can be washed or even replaced. Unfortunately I had to install them on the interior of the 5x60 due to the way the case is designed. There are threaded posts that the fans are mounted on and cutting into them was problematic, so I installed the covers on the inside. This means the fans are now closer to the heatsinks and while I don't have any hard data for you, the flowering tent's hottest reading was 88 degrees since the mod, so in my book it was worth the thirty bucks. I'll be doing the BS240s soon and will probably go with the screens again or maybe just wire frames to save some cash. But what I really want to do is to flip the center fan over so it's sucking out and add one of these and attach it to my exhaust. Maybe I won't have to run my AC so much. Now that would be cool .


So after a great day at the beach Saturday, (I just love standing waist deep in the ocean with a tap Blue Moon, shitty funk band in the background and that stoopid "I'm too stoned to be bothered look"), I've got to come home to this: Ohh babies what did I do to you? There's so many good LED grows on RIU right now, I've totally become jealous of anyone who has more green on their plants than I . And to really put this grow into perspective, Sunday when I went to snap some more photos and to see if the Magic Bud was getting light enough to water, one of the colas just snapped right off when I moved the MB plant. FUUUUCCCCKKKKKK! It's then that I also noticed that the plant is no longer sitting in it's bag as firmly as it was, nor does it seem to be drinking as much (just 24 oz of H20 this week), and to me that means the roots have gone to shit or even that this plant for all intent, is finished. I was very happy when I put this lady in the flowering tent and thought it had a chance as a good yielder because of the roots, but it was not meant to be it seems. So the final decision on this plant will be done on Wed. If the gaps between buds are getting smaller, I'll consider her growing and leave her be. But if it's not growing and it is just going to eat itself I might as well chop her. She's got some amber trichs on the fans so maybe I'll get something out of her. Still there's too many clear trichs for my liking. One thing to note is that the bud that fell off is shockingly heavy. I never had a MB bud this dense before, so it may not be a total wash. Here's some pics I snapped on Friday.



The BC is fairing better but it is still ug-a-lee in my book. It's growing slowly but is a big finisher so it will be interesting to see where we end up with this. And it is a drinkin and stinkin, which I love, but it's showing amber trichs prematurely like the MB, which I don't love. So the question I keep asking myself is; "Was it the PH or the 660nm+730nm combo that is creating amber trichs on my plants after less than 8 weeks actual flowering time"? Guess I'm just gonna have to fix my mix and do this whole thing again .


The SoG is starting to get going again after getting sidetracked with the Tangerine Dream and Clone Massacre, but we'll have to fix my mix before any more plants are cloned since all the plants that I've used my mix with are showing signs of stress. The newest BC plants have burnt leaf tips and I haven't fed them anything but water. So I'll have to grab some Happy Frog and Ocean Forest to use while I try to fix my approximately 10 square feet of soil. It's so beautiful and black and just smells wonderful. Shit, I leave it's container top open sometimes just to get the smell going in my apartment, that's how great it smells. It's hard to believe it's a slow killer of plants and a breaker of hearts ! So before I dump it and try something else (coco or bust?) I've decided to try to amend it with some fresh compost and some more Espoma Soil Acidifier to try to drop the PH down. It won't happen over night, but before I throw this lovely looking (and expensive) soil mix away I've got to try to save it. Plus dumping that much mix is time consuming, and where I live, could be a dangerous breach of security throwing it out. Too many bored prying eyes in this neighborhood .



*Except PSUAGRO. Sorry Hoss, but you got yours already .