My First Grow: Aeroponics, LED veg, Super HPS flower, CO2 sealed room

[Apollonia]

10/18/09 best of the Blueberry

10/18/09 best of the Blueberry

The Blueberry - after all the runts, I had resigned myself to either not getting a mom - there were only 3 passable plants - only 2 which were 'good' and one that turned out to be outstanding. The pictures absolutely do not do her justice. She has dark purple leaves and lovely red-purple stems. Her leaves are large and she exhibits the same tight inter-nodal spacing as the Sugar Blossom girl. There is some bleaching on her top leaves due to her growing so fast & into the T5's, but I'm not terribly concerned about that. I'm working on finding a way to photograph her & capture what's so special about her. Again - good job Joey!

Now, these plants, the Sugar Blossoms & the Blueberry, have not sexed under the 12/12 yet - they could conceivably be males - although they do have those large bubble swellings were the side branches connect to the main stem - I've heard that is an indicator of female sex, but I don't know if this is reliable. Also, the have very prominent side branching & are short and stocky compared to others whose side branches are nearly nonexistent & exhibit a lankier body. I like these 2 so much, I'm cloning them and putting them under the cloner with the 24 hour lights as soon as I get those first mother clones out of the cloner. I'm excited! On an irrelevant personal note, just looking at them makes me happy - I think they are beautiful and I've become quite fond of them already. What do you all think? Are they little ladies or gents?

 

[Apollonia]

My gamble on Mycorrhizae

My gamble on Mycorrhizae

10/18/09

My gamble on mycorrhizae

This scenario applies to all beneficial organisms I will add and have already added. The Floralicious Plus contains beneficial bacteria and has caused no problems yet, but it is nowhere near as concentrated as SubCulture M or SubCulture B. The SubCulture M & B may prove to be either a nightmare, a blessing or a nothing.

Nightmare scenario: the mycorrhizae fungi & the beneficial bacteria explode in numbers clogging my sprayers & possibly clogging my pumps. The Bio balls prove inadequate in containing them and they form a thick slime on the surface of the water in the reservoir. Removing them by cleaning the system proves to be extremely difficult as they are stubborn, microscopic & get into and on every little part of your apparatus. Alternate nightmare scenario: the mycorrhizae & beneficial bacteria don't survive or are too small in number & enemy pathogens collect on the root system harming & possibly killing my plants.

Blessing scenario: The mycorrhizae & beneficial bacteria establish themselves on my plants roots, protecting them from enemy pathogens, aid in nutrient uptake which lead to overall better plant health, less use of nutrients & bigger buds w/o over reproducing themselves & sliming my system. They contain themselves to the root system & the bio balls I've provided in the reservoirs.

Nothing scenario: The mycorrhizae & beneficial bacteria don't survive and no enemy pathogens take hold. Or the mycorrhizae & bacteria do survive, but are too insignificant in number to substantially effect the health of the plants. Or the beneficials establish themselves just fine, but due to various reasons, perhaps the type of nutrients I'm using or the systems I'm running (aeroponic/NFT & Hydroton in dutch buckets), they provide no observable benefit.

Why I chose to do what I did:

I decided to inoculate my plant's root system with a root drench of SubCulture M at quarter strength b/c of several reasons. One being I had added a carbohydrate supplement, FloraNectar: Pineapple Rush!, and felt insecure leaving it to chance that the bad bacteria & pathogens could use this as an ideal breeding ground with a plentiful food source. My thinking being that the mycorrhizae would at least protect the plants from harm by establishing themselves before the bad guys had a chance to establish themselves.

I chose to do it at quarter strength b/c that was recommended to me by more than one user of mycorrhizal fungi, but in particular a poster by the name of Rocky Mtn Squid, who has used mycorrhizae in his aeroponic system & was kind enough to give me the lowdown on his experience and what to expect. You can always add more, it's more difficult to reduce what's already been added.

In addition to all this I thought about my system - many people use highly oxygenated DWC systems which can "super-charge" beneficial organisms causing them to sometimes become more of a hinderance than a help. My thinking is I do not have aerated reservoirs, the oxygen the organisms have available to them comes from 2 primary places - for the beneficial bacteria it's primarily on the bio balls that float on the surface of the reservoir, for the mycorrhizal fungi, it's on the plant roots themselves & in the aerated sprays of water. I'm hoping this relatively limited amount of oxygen access will curb population size to a manageable levels.

Finally, if I have this dialed in right there are some pretty strong benefits to having these little guys around I refer you to this study which rather impressed me on the benefits of adding SubCulture to your grow: Subculture Study

So, if ll goes well - this could be a big benefit to my system. If not, I'll clear it out with some FloraShield.

 

[Apollonia]

Some words of thanks to my friend larryshomework

Some words of thanks to my friend larryshomework

Some of you may have wondered who does that hairy arm holding up my prized Sugar Blossom & Blueberry plants belong to, as it is clearly not of the feminine persuasion. The arm that doesn't match the little white hand you've seen once or twice in my previous pictures. No, it's not my arm (but that is my little hand)! That's my friend, larryshomework. So now I think is a great time to introduce him & say a few words about my friend larryshomework, whose assistance in times of need has been a key element to the success of this grow.

larryshomework's a man, a man with a van Seriously, that van has been a lifesaver (and a back-saver). larryshomework is a person I know in real life & who is a member on these forums. As some of you may know - I have some chronic health issues that every so often debilitate me for days and are very painful to boot - most times, things can wait: reservoirs can be changed later, walls can be erected next week, plants can be flowered somewhere further into the future to accommodate the inevitable "downtime." However as you all know sometimes a deadline comes up and mother nature waits for no man, during those times, larryshomework has helped me when to move when something needed to be done that very day. He's been there to save my grow when I 've been helpless, at a sensitive time in the life of the plants. He's made runs to Home Depot, the hydrostore & Lowe's when I've been too in pain to move or even tolerate weak daylight without feeling like I had a knife in my eye - these runs could have waited & been done on my own when I was well again, but he generously offered to do them so I could remain on schedule. He's also been there when I've been feeling good - helping out here and there while I worked on the construction & planning of the project. He took direction & assisted me, I couldn't ask for a better assistant. But just as important - he was good company - it's fun to work with a friend at your side, and he never ever gave me any grief and always did his best which was always excellent work.

He's also very computer savvy & has hooked me up great by walking me through the installation of this wonderful proxy server, JAP/JonDo, which I highly recommend to everyone for their anonymity & security over the internet - I've persuaded larryshomework to put up a tutorial on how to get it up and running & how to use it to access sensitive sites such as these - if you're interested I highly suggest you check it out.

The only folks who know about this grow are me, larryshomework & my little brother - the two people I've known for at least a decade & the only people in the world I know I can trust with my life or a secret as dangerous as this one. So on that note I'd like to pay special thanks & praise to my old friend: a helpful assistant, an occasional savior, a hard worker, a fascinating conversationalist, a generous soul, a brilliant mind & an all around decent human being - to larryshomework!

Oh and it goes without saying - larryshomework will be given any fruits of this labor that he wishes to have - absolutely gratis & given gladly with my gratitude.

 

[Apollonia]

10/19/09 Clones: Transplanting mother to Rockwool & taking new & back-up cuttings

10/19/09 Clones: Transplanting mother to Rockwool & taking new & back-up cuttings

10/19/09

Transplanting mothers to Rockwool:

2 cuttings were taken on 10/11/09 from the 4 plants I want to use as mother plants, making them 8 day old clones as of today. Today they showed enough yellowing of the leaves, white root bumps & one or two small root branches to convince me it was time to move them to the rockwool cubes.

10/19/09: Mother clones prior to transplant into rockwool:

Clones of Group 3 taken on the same day as the clones above - these are to determine sex:

Some of the cuttings had to be taken further up the plant - predictably the plants that had less available matter towards the bottom (C99 'grapefruit' & 'pineapple') showed less advanced development than the plants with cuttings taken closer to the base - C99 X BB being the standout.

For the guidance & confidence to embark on this latest phase: credit must be paid to Al B. Fuct and his Rockwool Cloning Guide for providing a reference for me to work from as an earlier test run on clones I had taken & put directly into rockwool didn't take b/c, I believe I left too much leaf surface. I've been trimming off & cutting large leaves in halved ever since.

The rockwool starter plugs were soaked in plain PH 5.5 water & shaken out to remove excess water. Then they were placed on a tray of wetted perlite underneath the fluorescents (T-12s) in the unit previously used to nurture the seedlings and kept under 24 hour lighting on a heat mat. Prior to placement in the cubes, they were dipped in Olivia's cloning gel for good measure.

The mother plants chosen were C99 'grapefruit', C99 'pineapple', C99 X A11 'alpha', C99 X BB 'bravo'

Additionally, I took 2 cuttings each from the most desirable Blueberry plant & Sugar Blossom as they have a clear stand out in each case, as for the Blue Apollo, Sugar Berry & Apollo 11, I'm still waiting for one to catch my eye above the others and waiting on the results of the cloning for sex. I also took two back-up cuttings from each of the plants I ad moved into rockwool cubes, plus one other C99 X BB I had not cloned before: 'echo' she was a runner up to 'bravo' & since I had the space I thought, what the hell, why not? Maybe her smoke/yield/whatever will be better than the one originally selected. These were placed in the aerocloner where the clones I just removed came from. I changed the water to 150 ml Clonex & adjusted the PH to approximately 5.8 (my PH meter finally became so unreliable I had to break out the old color drops - a new meter is on it's way) to see if the addition of a small amount of seedling fertilizer impeded the sprouting of roots at all.

Backup cuttings taken after transplant & Sugar Blossoms, Blueberry & C99 X BB 'echo':

I will be watching them like a hawk in the coming days. Fingers crossed here, people. The mamas have just entered flowering, even though C99 & C99 crosses tend to clone well, even from flowering plants, I'd prefer not having that extra, difficult complication.

Update 10/20/09: Rockwool clones look no worse for wear, but the cubes had become dry - I soaked them in PH adjusted water (5.8) - a little less than I normally do, but still wet. And the watch continues, albeit with less anxiety as there are backups in deck should it turns out I loused up this batch.

 

[Apollonia]

10/20/09 Magnesium deficiency?

10/20/09 Magnesium deficiency?

10/20/09 Magnesium deficiency?

The bottoms of my plants - the Cinderellas & Cinderella crosses in groups 1 & 2 specifically - haven't looked so great, I thought it was solely due to lack of light penetration, but 3 days after the 1000W HPS was turned on, the condition seemed to worsen - given C99's reputation as a magnesium hound, I think it's time for me to add my cal-mag + to the regimen.

After examining the dying growth, the inter veinal chlorosis - turning papery & white in the worst cases. The teeth of the leaves curling up - which I've had a problem with since early in the grow (you can see it in the pictures) - I attributed this toheat/nutrient stress and the stress reactions of the plants when the LEDs were too close to them and thought this would resolve itself once the specifics had been dialed in. However while those issues have been dealt with - this particular condition has been a stubborn constant, which furthers me to suspect a cause I had not previously considered. The "dryness" and crinkly quality of some of the leaves - I'm thinking it's a Mg deficiency. Since I changed the reservoirs yesterday and I hear that you should mix cal-mag + in BEFORE you mix your other nutrients I will foliar feed a 2% solution of cal-mag+ until I change the reservoir next week - if the condition improves it will confirm that this indeed was a magnesium deficiency.

The pictures included show various degrees of damage to the lower canopy of Group 1 - the most severely effected group. Note the shriveled, claw-like small clusters of leaves. One picture is a picture of a leaf with one blade turned that papery texture & white - but still retaining it's green veins even in this state, making me rule out Nitrogen. Most of all note the inter veinal yellowing & the smallness of the old growth. All thoughts are welcome - but the more I see, the more I think Mg deficiency. Just for your information, in the other pictures I've posted - especially the new ones of Groups 1 & 2 and even Group 3 (some of the teeth are pointing up on them), you can see the damage I'm talking about b/c the plants have been bent & trained, exposing their undersides much more than before - I mistakenly thought the symptoms were due to lack of light and the natural dying off of older tissue.

Update: 10/21/09 - plants are looking better after the spraying, so I guess it was Mg deficiency - I guess I just underestimated how much Mg this plant/strain needed or ho low the Mg content of the GH was. The loss of the lower canopy should stop now. From here on in I'll be adding Cal-Mag + 5ml/gal to all the reservoirs on their next change. For now I'll continue to foliar feed up to the next reservoir changes. It's probably a good idea to note here that my water has a PPM of around 90, which I believe is considered a bit low, plus the micronutrients already present in the tap water sometimes aren't in the most readily available form - my guess is that would vary region to region.

 

[the Rock]

wow is all I can say,I am glad I found this thread as I usually dont have patience or care about others grows but yours has me excited,Please keep posting as your attention to detail is amazing, i hope things go well and look forward to the progress,and this being your first go at it makes it all the more thrilling,plus it helps that you seem to be an accomplished writer who can let it all hang out.

 

[Mr.Bill]

I love the freaky freak plants. Dj's lines are full of em too. Now granted some are just too freaky to deal with, but them mild freaks, I just love em. Maybe it's because all the plants I seen in my day or maybe I'm just a freak trying to find my counterpart in the plant world, who knows. Although I'm no albino, I would like to find me an albino plant sometime in my lifetime. Anyway great start to your pot growing, not many have started as well. Keep on

~SB

 

[themanj]

I love your thread im using the same NFT system as you also and am running c99, PPP, Iced Grapefruit and Purple #1 cant wait to see how yours turns out and mine to as this is my first run with the system. Are you going for the one Pound every 21 days and is this your first time running this system? Also im using an led to veg too, THE ARE KILLER (even thogh everyone likes to talk them down, thell never know till they try) 1000w enhanced spectrum for flower!!!

 

[Apollonia]

I love your thread im using the same NFT system as you also and am running c99, PPP, Iced Grapefruit and Purple #1 cant wait to see how yours turns out and mine to as this is my first run with the system. Are you going for the one Pound every 21 days and is this your first time running this system? Also im using an led to veg too, THE ARE KILLER (even thogh everyone likes to talk them down, thell never know till they try) 1000w enhanced spectrum for flower!!!

Wow, sounds like we're running similar systems. Let me know how it goes with you. As you can see - I'm sort of in an intermediate stage now where I'm growing out the strains, taking cuttings for the mothers and flowering out the plants grown from seed. For now, I'm looking to run 4 NFT systems in a perpetual gro style like Stink has going so yeah, I'm looking for a pound every three weeks at least - I think using the Co2 will be crucial in getting me there. As for the plants I'm flowering now, I hadn't really thought about how much poundage & kind of see this as being extra, but I will definitely report all the details through harvest & curing - including grams per watt ratios. I know I have some strains that aren't the big -time yielders but are more known for their potency or difference in high - like the C99 & the Blueberry, so I'll have to see how that factors in to weight.

How're you liking that PPP? I wanted to grow that out, your post is making me think again about perhaps ordering more of those seeds. The description sounded real nice, soft smoke, happy high & large yields.

 

[Apollonia]

10/25/09 Update

10/25/09 Update

Update 10/25/09 - End of first week of flowering

Not too much to report here, just a few pictures. Since there is little to report - I thought I'd break from the format I'd decided on of one update per week and show some extra pictures & some side by side comparisons of the plants just with two days difference between them b/c the growth is quite pronounced - I didn't even realize how much until I looked over the pictures myself.

I hung the second 1000 Watt light & uvb supplemental lights & set up the ventilation.

Since I added the SubCulture M last week at quarter strength, this week I added the bacteria supplement SubCulture B at 1/4 the recommended strength.

I'm using the aggressive bloom expert recirculating formula from GH's calculator page - I changed both Group 1 & Group 2's reservoirs to this on 10/25/09 - the previous week, they were given the Transitional formula & I probably should have added the cal-mag+ then, but decided to foliar feed instead as I thought adding it after the fact would just cause lockout. I figure what with using 2 1000 Watt lights, the uvb and the supplemental Co2, if there ever was a time to push flowering, it is under conditions such as these.

In all units I'm adding 5ml/gal of Cal-Mag + with every reservoir change.

By the way - I got a new PH meter and it is working great.

I've been tying down branches as they get too close to the light. The largest C99 plant is now touching the glass of the reflector. I'm not too concerned, it's only warm to the touch, but I will likely be dealing with this either one of 2 ways: by tying down the up-stretched branches or by gently making little breaks in the meristem to bend the plant over. Perhaps this last technique can be accomplished by merely pulling at the top of the plant with a slipknot, for example, and gradually increasing the bending over time. There will need to be steps taken as it looks like the plants, in Group 1 especially, has jumped nearly a foot in length in one week!

Several plants in Group 3 have sexed, the males were discarded. Group 3 is on a full growth schedule (not the aggressive growth formula). A single plant in Group 2 showed it was male and was removed as thoroughly as could be in the flower unit. 'm adding Hygrozyme (10ml/gal) to deal with any potential ill-effects of removing plants from units whose roots get tangled with each other & may leave dead organic matter behind. I've checked and there is no negative interactions with anything I have already put in my reservoir, I was worried in particular about the beneficial fungi & bacteria, but it explicitly states that it is safe to use in conjunction with them.

I'm watching the Blue Apollos, Apollo 11s, and Sugar Berrys for one plant (or more) to assert itself. Curiously - the Sugar Berry - which is described a real couch-lock indica & is 1/2 Blueberry, shows a predominantly sativa-ish phenotype. Actually, the three strains mentioned all look rather the same. Only the Sugar Blossoms & Blueberrys have shown that typical squat indica look - and Sugar Blossoms is my half indica, half sativa girl.

As this is a set-up in progress, I've added some elements that will only be temporary & am waiting on others. One notable addition is a fan I've ducted to the window to pull in cold air to the general area outside the grow rooms, dissipating the heat the rooms expel. This will likely have an effect on the requirements & function of the environmental controls operating in the rooms. The fan is attached to a speed control set to 68 degrees - when the temperature sensor reaches 68 the fan slows down, when it goes up the fan resumes at a higher speed. At least the basement is now more comfortable for me.

In addition to the fan added to the general area - a Can 50 filer & fan has been added to the general basement area, just to catch any stray odors. Can't wait to see how it all performs in week 4 of flower.

Here are some pretty shots of the canopy where you can see the first baby flowers, the largest plants have been FIMed & topped, shots taken on 10/25/09:

 

[Apollonia]

Group 1 & Flower Room 10/25 & 10/27 comparison

Group 1 & Flower Room 10/25 & 10/27 comparison

10/25/09 Flower Room:

10/27/09 Flower room:

10/25/09 Group 1:

10/27/09 Group 1:

 

[Apollonia]

Group 2, 10/25 & 10/27 comparison

Group 2, 10/25 & 10/27 comparison

Group 2, 10/25/09:

Group 2, 10/27/09:

https://www.icmag.com/modules/Journal/editcomment.php?op=editcomment&journalnoteid=1874

 

[Apollonia]

Group 3, 10/25/09

Group 3, 10/25/09

10/25/09 - Group 3, full room, flower unit & second Veg Unit:

 

[Apollonia]

Group 3, 10/27/09

Group 3, 10/27/09

Group 3, 10/27/09: Full Room, Flower Unit, Veg Unit 1, Veg Unit 2

 

[Apollonia]

10/27/09 Mother Clones

10/27/09 Mother Clones

10/27/09 Mother Clones

All mother clones have been transplanted into rockwool. In some cases there were only root bumps - in these cases I was able to swirl that portion of the stem in Olivia's coning gel & place into cubes. In cases where the roots were more developed I gently "painted" the roots with the rooting hormone and placed them carefully inside a split RW cube which I then bound together with twist ties - this has been successful for me in the past when I've had to place large sprouted seeds into RW cubes. I added Clonex in the recommended dosage to the water I'm feeding the mother clones & they look much healthier & are retaining more of their green coloring & in some cases getting it back. I want the plants strong for obvious reasons.

Some of the clones were taken 10/19/09 and have roots popping out the bottoms of the cubes, but not as much as I'd like before I transfer them into the dutch buckets. I've added 2 more cuttings of each original cloned plant plus two cuttings of the favorite Sugar Blossoms and Blueberry plant. Pray for pistils. Luck be a Lady tonight, luck be a Lady tonight, stick with me baby, I'm the fella you came in with,
luck be a Lady tonight. I'm willing them into femaleness, with this song running through my head.

 

[Apollonia]

10/30/09 Update

10/30/09 Update

10/30/09 Update! - Sugar Blossom 'charlie' - the object of my affection has sprung a white hair or two - it's a girl! Blueberry 'bravo' is still playing hard to get.

Sexed a bunch of plants by pre-flowers today, I only pull plants that I wouldn't want even if it was a female or that have shown ball clusters in the sexing cloner. Pre-flowers are just too tricky, I'm only certain of them when they sprout hairs or show more than one pre-flower in a cluster like I mentioned before.

Since I'm pulling plants that have had large root masses intertwine with those of their neighbors I added 10 ml per gallon of Hygrozyme to each reservoir. I topped off all the reservoirs to 10 gallons, added the Hygrozyme (100ml/reservoir)) & adjusted the PHs to 5.8 - I know, boring standard stuff - but it's good to mention every now and then.

The addition of Hygrozyme alone may not be enough to ward off pathogens associated with the dead organic matter left behind since it is a lot. So, I'm contemplating moving the plants in the veg room into flower units. This way the debris from their root system will be left behind and all they will have is fresh new roots.

 

[the Rock]

looking good you have some real bushes,,keep up the hard work

 

[themanj]

Wow, sounds like we're running similar systems. Let me know how it goes with you. As you can see - I'm sort of in an intermediate stage now where I'm growing out the strains, taking cuttings for the mothers and flowering out the plants grown from seed. For now, I'm looking to run 4 NFT systems in a perpetual gro style like Stink has going so yeah, I'm looking for a pound every three weeks at least - I think using the Co2 will be crucial in getting me there. As for the plants I'm flowering now, I hadn't really thought about how much poundage & kind of see this as being extra, but I will definitely report all the details through harvest & curing - including grams per watt ratios. I know I have some strains that aren't the big -time yielders but are more known for their potency or difference in high - like the C99 & the Blueberry, so I'll have to see how that factors in to weight.

How're you liking that PPP? I wanted to grow that out, your post is making me think again about perhaps ordering more of those seeds. The description sounded real nice, soft smoke, happy high & large yields.

The PPP is great. I didn't think it would get so big but now it is getting humongous. Lots of budsites and the main cola is still getting bigger and bigger everyday, and im only at day 27. I read a couple of reviews about a grow done with PPP and they said after 5 days of veg the end yield per plant was about 42 grams and it seems the Dutch are growing it commercially because of the high and yield they get from it. I just received my purple #1 yesterday and am hoping to get that running soon and the PPP clones are almost a foot tall at 10 days veg but i think im going to finish the week off before I put it in flower. Im pretty happy though, received the last pack of iced grapefruit and cant wait to get that started.

 

[winstonO]

Hi Apollonia,
I am old grower, 1st time with LED's, it seems to me that you have alot more info on the LED's to go on than I do so I am very lucky to have found your grow journal. All the best to you!
WinstonO

 

[stonedu]

Great grow can't wait to see how everything turns out.