Black Cream Grow Diary (CFL/LED)

[Andraax]

Having learned much from this site and others, I like to share my humble experiences with others. After a quite successfull introduction to the world of cannabis growing with Cream Caramel (although still much to improve), I decided to take a shot at a autoflowering variety, and chose Black Caramel, the new 2013 "Red" version of the Auto Cream Caramel from Sweet Seeds, as shown also here.

No more further ado, let's start with the setup:
Start: 05/11/13
Strain: Black Cream (autoflowering, feminized)
Tent: Hortilab 80 (80x80x160cm³)
Light: 4x23W 6500k CFLs, 4x23W 2700K CFLs, Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar 180w, and no-name 180w cluster LED (all used according to grow stage, will be posting changes appropriately)
Medium: Seedling soil, Plagron Allmix and Royalmix
Nutrients: Biobizz Bio-grow and Biocanna Bio Flores
Fan: Hortiline clip fan
Climate control: Ventilution MinMax thermo- and hygrometer,Lightscout DLI100 (photon density)
Water control: Checker by Hanna (pH), Hanna HI 96304 (EC)
Exhaust: Ventilution mixed inline 187m³/h, carbon filter



The CFLs can be freely moved around on the flexible swan neck fixtures, which are mounted to the corner poles. One LED will be removed for veg. The various bars allow for flexible mounting of the fan and other tools.

Stay tuned for more..

 

[Andraax]

Germination

Germination

Seeds were watered in tap water for 12 hours on 05/11/13, and from there in wet mull for another 12 hours, when the shells cracked and root taps began to show.
The cracked seeds were put into soil on 05/12/13 in some kind of mini greenhouse, and under 2x23W 6500k CFLs for temp reasons (see pics).

 

[Andraax]

Day 1

Day 1

As the shoots popped through the soil I call this Day1. This is after roughly 12 hours in tap water, another 12 hours in wet mull, and 12 hours in soil (early morning of day 1).

However, I screwed up big time, when I tried to remove the rubber band fixing the foil (see above) to take photos: I spilled the box and it's entire contents (including the seedlings) on the floor. I carefully placed the seedlings back into soil, and took these pictures a few hours later:





I'm not sure if my fumble will harm the plants - of course I hope not, but we will see in a few days. Don't be surprised if I need to restart this grow because of my failure...

 

[GP73LPC]

front row

 

[Andraax]

Day 3

Day 3

Seems I'm lucky, my accident didn't harm the seedlings too much. Temps are good and they drink quite a lot distilled water (more than I anticipated).
I'm not sure when to start with the fan - the breeze is not too intense (just slight movement) and ambient temps don't drop too much, but I'm afraid that the leaves might be cooler than measured temps due to evaporation. When would you start?
I'm also not sure about the light cycle - until today I had 24/0, but I just started 18/6, with the dark period being from 13 to 19 o'clock to avoid the heat from noon to evening combined with that from the lights. Should I do a longer 24/0 phase?







I helped the little one to get of the last bit of the shell, and the first set of leaves is just shaping up from being constrained a bit too long in the shell.

 

[Andraax]

Typo - last post was on day 2!

 

[nuskool89]

Exactly what I wanted to see! excited to watch!

 

[Andraax]

Day 3

Day 3

So this is the real day 3 update - I wish you could edit posts here...

Anyway, the plants are cruising along nicely. Currently 2x23W CFLs (1350 lumen each), still not sure about the light cycle and when to start with the fan. Water (distilled) not pH adjusted up to now, will start soon by adding a little carbonated water. Probably will go to bigger pots on the weekend.

Big one is already starting a second set of true leaves, and has a very reddish stem:


Small one is catching up, and the first set of true leaves is recovering from being trapped in the shell. Stem is more yellow/greenish:


I'm glad this diary is interesting at least for some of you.

 

[INDODRO]

Damn that name is amazing, if you said, "I have a bag of black cream" I'd be right over, lol. Nice clean set up you have, I'm ready to see the magic happen.

 

[Andraax]

Day 4

Day 4

Thanks to all ^^

It is day 4 and I already had to transplant the plants to the first real pots (3.5 l), as the root taps began to show at the bottom of the small turf pots they were planted into:



I only had seedling soil and RoyalMix - being afraid that RoyalMix would be very harsh on baby plants, I mixed the two: each 50%, added 20% perlite and a bit of a funky volcano-stone-polymere thing I found in the local gardener's shop. I hope this mix is not to strong on nutrients for the small plants. However, I'm feeding only distilled water.
Still experimenting much, as I'm still a newbie to growing. However, they seem to thrive so far:

The small one has cought up.


The earlier one has almost a smaller set of first real leaves, but is already producing the second set of real leaves.

 

[Andraax]

Day 5

Day 5

Day 5 after the sprouts reached through the soil, and exactly one week after I put the seeds into water.
Started with the fan, ambient temp went down 1° to 24°C, think it should be okay. Lights are still 24/0, I plan to switch to 18/6 when starting with the LED - what do you think?
Development is very satisfactory - this are vigorous little baby plants!

The one with the greenish stem really caught up, and is also starting the second pair of true leaves:



The one with the reddish stem is still a little ahead with the second pair:

 

[Andraax]

Day 6

Day 6

Today I did a few minor adjustments in the tent, and placed the plants at the open window in the sunlight (1000+ µmol on my small PAR-meter) for ~1h:

Judging from their upwards pointing leaves, I think they really enjoyed their sunbath^^
I tinkered a bit with the idea to start with the LED, to give them what they want. Although I'm sure the plants would like it (provided the LED is far enough away), I decided that I don't like to bombard some tiny leaves and much bare soil with 120W worth of photons to improve a little bit on the two 23W CFLs, which are focussed on the plants. Therefore I will only start with the LED when there is some green worth mentioning.
Anyway, the two plants are doing good. The "Green" seems to almost have a bigger set of first leaves now, but the "Red" still leads with the second set, and started already the third:

Do you like the big pics better?

 

[nuskool89]

yes these last three pics are what we need

 

[Andraax]

Day 7

Day 7

Not much for today, the plants are doing fine.

Current setup:

Second set of the "Red" is already three-pronged:

The "Green" likes to start her leaves thin and long:

 

[smoke1sun]

Having learned much from this site and others, I like to share my humble experiences with others. After a quite successfull introduction to the world of cannabis growing with Cream Caramel (although still much to improve), I decided to take a shot at a autoflowering variety, and chose Black Caramel, the new 2013 "Red" version of the Auto Cream Caramel from Sweet Seeds, as shown also here.

No more further ado, let's start with the setup:
Start: 05/11/13
Strain: Black Cream (autoflowering, feminized)
Tent: Hortilab 80 (80x80x160cm³)
Light: 4x23W 6500k CFLs, 4x23W 2700K CFLs, Lighthouse Hydro BlackStar 180w, and no-name 180w cluster LED (all used according to grow stage, will be posting changes appropriately)
Medium: Seedling soil, Plagron Allmix and Royalmix
Nutrients: Biobizz Bio-grow and Biocanna Bio Flores
Fan: Hortiline clip fan
Climate control: Ventilution MinMax thermo- and hygrometer,Lightscout DLI100 (photon density)
Water control: Checker by Hanna (pH), Hanna HI 96304 (EC)
Exhaust: Ventilution mixed inline 187m³/h, carbon filter

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=45653&pictureid=1070380&thumb=1]View Image[/URL]

The CFLs can be freely moved around on the flexible swan neck fixtures, which are mounted to the corner poles. One LED will be removed for veg. The various bars allow for flexible mounting of the fan and other tools.

Stay tuned for more..

Love the swan neck idea!!!!!!!!! Can those be found just about anywhere?

 

[Andraax]

I bought the swan necks in a local DIY lamp shop. Should be available in all similar shops around the world.

However, I got to my pic album's size quota here on ICMag, and don't know how to proceed with my diary. I could delete pics from my previous thread here, or I could upload to some image hosting site and link to there, but I'm concerned about legal authorities...any ideas?

 

[Andraax]

Day 8

Day 8

This is a late Day 8 update, as I had to find a way to deal with the album size restrictions. Day 9 will also be posted later.

I figured it might be interesting to see what the crappy China LEDs which I bought for cheap can do. So I added them to the current CFL setup just for fun. I don't expect too much, hopefully they are just a bit better than the reflecting foam plates I had there before:

The plants are doing well in the meantime. Maybe the two are different phenos - Sweet Seeds Tommy stated that roughly 80% of the strain exhibit the black/red trait. So maybe my "Green" is one of the 20% while the "Red" is one of the 80%:

 

[Andraax]

Day 9

Day 9

Things are going along well. The Chinese "crap" LEDs seem to do better than anticipated with internodes not stretching at all for the last day - maybe these are actually good for small seedlings, I will definitely use these even earlier during my next grow.
There is a little yellowish splotch near the tip of one leaf of the "Red", which might be to over watering a little. But the splotch didn't increase notably and I'm reducing watering, as they should now be able to stand a little dryness. So I'm not worried.
The "Green" has more than caught up. Somehow her location seems to be better - I had the "Red" there for a short period and it seemed she was also doing better there. The only difference I can make out is that this place is nearer to the fan, but the other is also well within the airflow - so I do really not know what's behind that difference.

"Red" one:

"Green" one:

 

[GP73LPC]

even the chinese "crap" can grow...

LEDs have come a long way !!!

 

[Andraax]

Day 10

Day 10

Now I am worried, as the yellow splotch on the tip of the "Red" has increased over the last 24 hours and I think the tip of the other first true leaf is also developing such a yellowing:

Possible explanations, I can think of are:

- Over watering, I already reduced watering substantially
- Nute deficiency or burn due to the rich soil, no idea what do do (flush?)
- Forced development due to 24h light cycle and maybe too much light, light cycle will soon be set to 18/6

Can anybody help me out what to do?

Otherwise the plants are looking healthy:

Probably I will start with the real LED this weekend, and the 18/6 light cycle with it.