First grow: 200W CFL, low height kitchen pantry, Lowryder #1

[King of LOL]

Hey all!

I thought I wasn't going to make a diary at first since the lowryder-closet-grows are not very interesting these days. But then I thought it could be good to keep track of everything and maybe I could get some advice if someone drops in and sees something interesting. Its my first time after all!


Grow room dimensions: 2ft x 2.5ft x 1.5ft (width x height x depth)
With lamp + reflector + 5" pots I get ~12-14 inches for the plants to grow on. Due to this I will give the Lowryders a shot for my first run.

I wish to try LST/scrog with a short-growing non-auto later in my growing career.

Lamps are 200W Envirolites, one 2700k and one 6400k. I use one at the time. I bought a starter pack of Hesi nutrients.

Here is my room (located 6.5 ft up, makes it impossible for short and curious guests to sneakpeak ):



So far I've done this.

Germination of seeds took 30 hours (I did 4 of them, 4/4 germinated). I used distilled water and a constant temp of 76 F:



The morning after I could see the little ones struggling to break through the surface of the soil, this is how it looked later that day:



Day 3:




Today its day 5 and I watered the plants for the second time, using nutes for the first time. I used Hesi Super Vit (full dose, 1 drop), TNT complex (1/5 of recommended dose), Root complex (1/5 of recommended dose). I'm starting to see the second pair of leaves popping up!

Since day 2 I've been on a 20/4 light schedule. I'm planning to switch to my 200W 2700k after two weeks.

I'll make a 1-week-report in 2 days. Can't wait!

 

[King of LOL]

Day 7

Day 7

OK!

Today it's been 7 days since I planted the germinated seeds, this is how the plants look now:



They are still in the 1.7 litres pots. I'm planning to transplant them into 5 litre pots, which will be the final ones, when the roots become visible in the holes at the bottom.

I'm going to water the plants tonight. It was 2 days ago but the soil is starting to feel at bit dry down the pot. Last time I watered the plants I waited 3 days instead of 2.

I also just realized that I didn't use 1/5 of the dose of nutrients last time - I used x2 the recommended dose (miscalculations)!

I haven't noticed anything bad with the plants, actually they have grown quite quick last few days. Still, this time I will water the plants without nutrients to stay on the safe side.

I also installed an air purifier (with an ionizer) in the room. It's a small model that is supposed to be used in cars or closets with bad smell (from the product description). I read some customer reviews saying that it totally removed the smell from the cat box on their WC. Also, I've read it could have a positive impact on the plants growth (though I don't know if there are any scientific evidence for this). All in all, it felt like a good investment. The price was around 30 bucks and I'm hoping the aggregate benefits will be worth it.

Here's a pic of it:



Until next time!

 

[WestCoast4Life]

Looking great so far, I love your setup. I am trying to start up some lowryder as well. If you don't mind me asking, where does one get lowryder beans, I can never find them from Joint Doctors. Thank you.

 

[anikas88]

keep us updated

 

[King of LOL]

Thanks for stopping by!

WestCoast4Life: I ordered mine from Dr Chronic. I know some European (I'm in Europe) seed shops don't ship to the US but after scrolling through Dr C's FAQ it seems he still does. Dr Chronic has a good reputation and I've read several people from the US (im assuming you're in the US) have successfully ordered seeds from him.

Another shop I found was Dope-seeds.com (also seem to ship to the US), but they seem really expensive, also I could only find feminized seeds on their site. I ordered ordinary ones cause I wanted to learn a little about sexing and maybe pollinating.

I'm pretty sure there are several ones out there. I've seen discussions of this before, not just on ICMag. Try google "Lowryder the US" or something similar. I'm sure you'll find some useful info that way.

 

[King of LOL]

Day 9

Day 9

Today its the 9th day since I put the germinated seeds in the pots, here is a picture I took just before watering them:





As you can see on the lower left plant, I accidentally broke one of the leaves a few days ago when I was using my oscillating fan on them at night (I should have used a program with less power). The leave has healed but since that day the tip has become slightly brown. I don't know if this is something to worry about, hopefully not. All the other leaves on the plant, and all the other plants, seem fine.

I watered the plants for the 3rd time today. Its been about 40 hours since last time. I skipped the Powerzyme and Root Complex nutrients since I overdosed those last time. This time I watered with the recommended dose of Supervit (1 drop/4,5 litre water) and 1/5 of the recommended dose of the TNT Complex from Hesi (it's a 3-2-3 formula I believe).

I don't have any PH-meter (yet) but I got a pH indicator solution that I have used.

The tap water seem to be very alkaline (around 8).
The distilled water that I germinated the seeds with had a pH ~6.5, I've been using the remains of that water to spray on my plants.

I try to water my plants with something close to pH 6 but my indicator solution and the colour scheme that came with it is probably not very accurate. Also I don't have any pH up- or down- solution but so far the nutrients that I have used changed the pH to ~6.

I also measured the pH of the first water drops that came out from the bottom of the pots when I watered today, and the result was pretty clear yellow with a slight touch of green, which according to my test kit means somewhere between 6.0-6.5.

If anyone's reading this I would like to throw out 3 questions that I've been thinking about:

1) Does it matter if I take out my plants (remove them from the light) to water them for ~5 minutes or could this stress them?

2) I've been looking for pH up and down solutions but almost every brand only seem to have these product for hydroponics. Can I use these for soil (I mean the water that I will water the plants with)?

3) I also wonder if its neccessary to pay extra for a pH-meter that is good for soil (these seem more expensive), or could I just use one for liquids and measure the water that comes out from the bottom holes of the pot when watering?

 

[70wDreams]

Looking good! I like the stealth factor.

I don't have the answers to all of your questions, but removing the plants from their lights for a few minutes shouldn't stress them enough to cause concern.

 

[King of LOL]

Uh-oh... I think I got a sick plant

Uh-oh... I think I got a sick plant

Today its day 11 and the plants have been growing really fast last 2 days! Unfortunately, it looks like one of my plants has become sick.

He/she has always been the weakest one out of the 4. This plant got a little more Leca clay balls in the soil mix (by accident, I messed it up when mixing the soil), and it also got a little less soil overall than the others. I noticed when I watered it in the beginning that it almost lay down flat to the ground when I poured water over it. I had to support it by gathering soil around the bottom of the stem.

When it started growing, it grew at the same pace as the others but it was still a bit unstable. After a while it got better. I don't know if any of that has anything to do with the sickness that the very same plant has caught.

This is how he/she looks:



As can be seen, its only the bottom pair of leaves that has it. Yellow spots have appeared. Overall the plant looks really healthy, and so does my other 3 plants. I have inspected all the leaves on the other plants and the other leaves on this same plant, and I cant see any tendencies of any other yellow spots.

I haven't measured the pH for a few days. But last time I checked, which was just a few days ago, it was around 6 which should be good. As I wrote in my previous post, I started using the 3-2-3 TNT Complex from Hesi last time I watered. I know I'm using a pretty much pre-fertilized soil, and I overdosed the Powerzyme and Root complex stimulators the first time I watered (see in my post from day 7). I would suspect nutrient burn rather than deficiency, but then again, all my other plants look really good!

I'm really puzzled about this one. I've checked the "ultimate guide to sick plants"-thread, and from that I can identify similarities to calcium deficiency, although mine does not look as brown as the one in their example:

None of the other examples look very similar really.

Edit: I read a little more about the soil I'm using and it appears that its not very pre-fertilized at all. It is mainly used for cactus plants that "does not need much nutrients" (that's what it says on the manufacturers homepage).

The brand that makes the soil has a good reputation where I come from, and I have another bag with another kind of soil that is supposed to be the real deal. The reason why I used this particular one is because it was recommended for "seeds and cuttings".

Maybe it could be calcium deficiency after all? My TNT Complex that I started using last time watering has some Calcium in it. I don't know if I should continue using that fertilizer immediately or if I should just wait and see. Either way, I'm going to check the pH once more when I water the plants later tonight.

Over and out!

 

[King of LOL]

Day 12

Day 12

I watered my plants yesterday night. I decided that I don't think the yellow dots are nutrient burn, since the symptoms are not similar to any of the pictures I've found. I added 2/5 of the recommended dose of Hesi TNT Complex to the water, but nothing else.

Something I was wondering about is why it says that TNT Complex is a 6-2-4 formula on the internet, but on my bottle it says 3-2-3.

I'm hoping that it could be Calcium deficiency. If its not, I found another possible cause when I was reading some forums last night.

I found this picture of "Ozon damage". It actually looks a bit similar to my dots, although mine are not as dark/brown:

My ionizer is pretty close to the plants and it says it produces <0,04 ppm Ozon. I don't know if that is harmful or not for a plants. I turned it off to be on the safe side.

If my plants would get worse now I will suspect nutrient burn and try to flush them asap.

I also measured the pH last night and it seem to be OK, here's a picture of the pH and a group photo of all the plants (day 11):

 

[King of LOL]

Day 14

Day 14

Today its day 14 and for the past couple of days I have been investigating what might have caused the brownish dots on my plants.

I don't think its a nutrient issue any longer, I think I've got a case of spider mites.

It was definitely not an Ozon-problem, since dots kept appearing even 2 days after turning off the ionizer. It also seem unlikely that it is Calcium deficiency. I added the TNT Complex which includes Ca but the dots have just increased and spread between the plants. pH seem fine, and the symptoms does not look very much like nute burn.

Yesterday morning I read a few threads about spider mites and I came across some pictures which showed almost exactly the same symptoms as my leaves. I looked more carefully on my plants and I could see a beginning to some shiny/silver-ish things on the top of the leaves. This is supposed to be a sign of a spider mite invasion.

So, I've read tons of threads about how to kill them and I have now started spraying with a mix of soap, water, alcohol and canola oil. I've heard this will suffocate them to death. I've also sprayed once with a half-mild poison that is supposed to be OK for stuff that are going to be eaten. Also since I'm not even into flowering yet I thought it would be extra safe.

Here's how they look, they have grown a bit since three days ago:

 

[King of LOL]

Day 19, 3 plants left, 1 died

Day 19, 3 plants left, 1 died

A few days ago I decided to experiment a little with the nutrients. I decided to try to give the 4 plants different amount of nutes to investigate if I was anywhere near over-fertilization. I gave one of the plants 1/5 of the recommended dose, another 2/5, another 3/5 and no nutrients at all for the last one. I guess I was already balancing on the edge since the "3/5-plant", 30 hours after watering, was completely destroyed. It got all sorts of colours and curled up like a raisin. The 2/5 was hurt pretty bad too, and the 1/5 showed significant signs of burning in the leaves edges. Especially the small leaves near the stem were damaged. The canopy seemed to be OK.

So for the last few days, I've been trying to flush my plants to help them recover. The growth has been noticeable stunted and the one who didn't get any extra nutes have continued growing while the other 2 has stopped a bit. Here's a pic of the 3 survivors:



You can see the most left plant with the nute burnt leaves.

I've tried to look for signs of sex, but the outgrowths are still too small (at least for me) to see. I will wait a few days and then give it a closer look.

I'm considering to swapping to my 2700k lamp soon.

 

[MrBomDiggitty]

hmm, you have no air exchange in there without the door open?

 

[King of LOL]

Ventilation mechanism

Ventilation mechanism

Hey there MrBomDiggitty!

This is how I ventilate (not the best solution, but only possible way for me without ruining the stealth): Fan blows out the air to the cabin next to my grow room. Air gets out through a glitch between the top frame and the doors. So I always have to keep the big cabin to the left open when I have the lights on. I always have it open when I dont have visitors. I have to plan visits during "night time" for the plants but that's not a problems since im never home anyway before afternoon and I never have any sleep over partys in the late nights

Some light gets out but its not visible from the outside, you have to stand perpendicularly to the cabins to see it.



Air gets in from passive holes in the bottom plate of the growing room, which also leads to a bigger cabin. None of the cabins are airtight.

 

[MrBomDiggitty]

wow

awesome

i love it...

as long as it works, right?

 

[King of LOL]

MrBomDiggitty, yep!

Hopefully it will work after switching to my 2700k too. I did that today and I noticed its slightly bigger than my 6400k. Hope it doesnt get too warm...