CalBear4Life's Grow Diary (Flood/Drain: OG Kush and ChemDawg D)

[MrBubbakush717]

They look like Sour-Diesel i just picked up a few cuts of the TRUE east coast pheno. They may also be a hybrid OG mixed with another cut, I always like to get my cuts from the co-ops or cut vendors that i know that way i get exactly what they say it is and i can grow the strain according to the flowering time and past experiences with other grows and memebers etc.

They look great but next time i would try and get a pheno that i know exactly what it is and you can adjust your nutes and flowering according to the strain I will help ya as much as possible what light are they under? I yeild over 1 gpw with a 400hps when i veg them out long so its all up to what your goals are , you wanna smoke now or have more later thats a hard decsicion sometimes lol

 

[CalBear4Life]

They look like Sour-Diesel i just picked up a few cuts of the TRUE east coast pheno. They may also be a hybrid OG mixed with another cut, I always like to get my cuts from the co-ops or cut vendors that i know that way i get exactly what they say it is and i can grow the strain according to the flowering time and past experiences with other grows and memebers etc.

They look great but next time i would try and get a pheno that i know exactly what it is and you can adjust your nutes and flowering according to the strain I will help ya as much as possible what light are they under? I yeild over 1 gpw with a 400hps when i veg them out long so its all up to what your goals are , you wanna smoke now or have more later thats a hard decsicion sometimes lol

I want heavy yields for sure! They are under a 1000w Lumatek ballast with Hortilux Blue MH bulb. I have heard good things about this guys so I am hoping he gave me reputable cuts, but only time will tell.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Okay so in looking under the microscope at the leaves there are still eggs on various plants with no signs of any adults. These bastards are vicious...there is no sign of adults but many eggs. Do you think I should wait and let them hatch at which time the NO PEST strip and another respray should eradicate? Or go purchase Floramite immediately and spray it to kill the eggs?

 

[CalBear4Life]

Bump...anyone?

 

[MrBubbakush717]

Bump...anyone?

Fox farms " Dont bug me" should do the trick check it out
http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/products_pest1.html

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Okay so in looking under the microscope at the leaves there are still eggs on various plants with no signs of any adults. These bastards are vicious...there is no sign of adults but many eggs. Do you think I should wait and let them hatch at which time the NO PEST strip and another respray should eradicate? Or go purchase Floramite immediately and spray it to kill the eggs?

Well, you're halfway there.

-If I were you I would continue application of your control method for at least 2 weeks (I do believe spider mite life span is 1 week). Your lucky the mites started early, your choices are limited in flower.

-Kinda looking at your thread, your plants looked kinda stressed from the start, prime conditions for spider mites IMHO.

-Determine source of infection, was it from the clones?. Did you get it locally?. Not to make you paranoid, but now is a good time to clean and dust the place. Even here in the summer spider mites run around in the wild, if you walk through the brush, those little things can get on you and I can see those things hiding in other places than your grow.

-I do believe you asked about nicotene methods, I've found them only marginally effective, I've tried the cigarette smoke under a tent to homemade foilar sprays, and I'm not impressed.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Well, you're halfway there.

-If I were you I would continue application of your control method for at least 2 weeks (I do believe spider mite life span is 1 week). Your lucky the mites started early, your choices are limited in flower.

-Kinda looking at your thread, your plants looked kinda stressed from the start, prime conditions for spider mites IMHO.

-Determine source of infection, was it from the clones?. Did you get it locally?. Not to make you paranoid, but now is a good time to clean and dust the place. Even here in the summer spider mites run around in the wild, if you walk through the brush, those little things can get on you and I can see those things hiding in other places than your grow.

-I do believe you asked about nicotene methods, I've found them only marginally effective, I've tried the cigarette smoke under a tent to homemade foilar sprays, and I'm not impressed.

Thanks GrowerGoneWild. I am going to continue with my treatments for the next 2 weeks to ensure they are dead and not reproducing. I am going to ditch the nicotine treatment and go buy something else from the hydro store today. It is really hard to guess where the source of infestation came from, but it is most likely from the clones or from my dogs. I washed my dogs yesterday and I am going to clean the shit out of my growroom today. I think you are right about the plants being stressed from day 1, but I think it was just me overwatering and the plants are looking much better now. Do you think they still look stressed?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

I think you are right about the plants being stressed from day 1, but I think it was just me overwatering and the plants are looking much better now. Do you think they still look stressed?

Naw they are looking a bit better.. Mite damaged, but better..

I'm of the opinion that you had 2 issues going on with the clones, early on.

1) The roots were not properly developed thats why they looked wilty. and should have been misted. I never saw the bottom of the cube, so I'm assuming that the roots were not there to begin with.

2) Since the clones didn't have good roots until now, the plant literally had to eat itself till roots formed, even if you foliar fed, and I've tried this with clones, they still end up with yellow leaves, etc..
Bigger cuttings dont look nearly as bad as smaller cuttings, more food stored, IMHO.

Well.. all thats left is to clean house, keep the dogs away from the grow and, in the future isolate clones, and/or treat all incomming clones as infected.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Naw they are looking a bit better.. Mite damaged, but better..

I'm of the opinion that you had 2 issues going on with the clones, early on.

1) The roots were not properly developed thats why they looked wilty. and should have been misted. I never saw the bottom of the cube, so I'm assuming that the roots were not there to begin with.

2) Since the clones didn't have good roots until now, the plant literally had to eat itself till roots formed, even if you foliar fed, and I've tried this with clones, they still end up with yellow leaves, etc..
Bigger cuttings dont look nearly as bad as smaller cuttings, more food stored, IMHO.

Well.. all thats left is to clean house, keep the dogs away from the grow and, in the future isolate clones, and/or treat all incomming clones as infected.

Thanks man! I am going to make sure that I am as sanitary as possible and I am going to continue spraying for the next week and a half. The ladies are looking really good, and inspecting the area around the cubes, there are a lot of root systems. Is there anything else I can do to help these ladies out more? Maybe foliar spray with nute solution? Another thing: How often should these ladies be watered? I have been watering once-a-day, but I just want to make sure that is not too much or too little. The hydroton and cubes seem pretty dry by the time I water them again, but I'd like to know what you guys think about it.

CHEERS!!!

 

[CalBear4Life]

Sprayed with neem/pyrethrin mix again before lights out. I lowered my light a little yesterday to get the stragglers some extra light and I am already seeing the difference. I think my light may have been a little too high, but I may have to keep it pretty high until I am done treating the spidermites. I will post pictures tomorrow morning of how things are going...until then feel free to comment on anything you guys think I should do to help these ladies out.

Cheers!

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Thanks man! I am going to make sure that I am as sanitary as possible and I am going to continue spraying for the next week and a half. The ladies are looking really good, and inspecting the area around the cubes, there are a lot of root systems. Is there anything else I can do to help these ladies out more? Maybe foliar spray with nute solution? Another thing: How often should these ladies be watered? I have been watering once-a-day, but I just want to make sure that is not too much or too little. The hydroton and cubes seem pretty dry by the time I water them again, but I'd like to know what you guys think about it.

CHEERS!!!

Foliar feeding at this point in time would not be helpful if you ask me.

Root system is developed.
Spider mite control methods are being used.

The problem with growdan sitting on rock is the differences in water holding between the two, I'm of the opinion that when using a mixed media you should increase flood times to adjust for the drier of the two.

We all know that hydrotron, dries out fast.. in comparison to growdan, and a pile of rock should start to get dry in a couple of hours so..

Just a suggestion here, I would go with a 10-20 min flood every 2-3 hours. This is just a starting point, not an explicit instruction. You'll have to "tweak" flood times. There is a sweet spot you'll have to find, due to the differences in setups.

Good Luck!

 

[CalBear4Life]

Foliar feeding at this point in time would not be helpful if you ask me.

Root system is developed.
Spider mite control methods are being used.

The problem with growdan sitting on rock is the differences in water holding between the two, I'm of the opinion that when using a mixed media you should increase flood times to adjust for the drier of the two.

We all know that hydrotron, dries out fast.. in comparison to growdan, and a pile of rock should start to get dry in a couple of hours so..

Just a suggestion here, I would go with a 10-20 min flood every 2-3 hours. This is just a starting point, not an explicit instruction. You'll have to "tweak" flood times. There is a sweet spot you'll have to find, due to the differences in setups.

Good Luck!

I see what you mean, the hydroton is completely dried out within a few hours. Do theses ladies look underwatered? Or do they just need to be flooded more often so they can get more nutes? I am going to start increasing my floods per day to 2 and then move toward flooding once every couple of hours. I am unsure about flooding for 10-20 min however as my pump fills the tray up in about 5 mins. Do you think it needs to be for 10-20 minutes or just long enough to fill up?

 

[CalBear4Life]

Day 25 Update
66.6 degrees 70% humidity
1350 ppm 5.8ph

As you can see from the new pics, mostly everything seems to be going well. My control methods have at least limited the spider mite progression, but the eggs are still a concern for me and I continue to struggle with the Borg...aggravating to say the least.

Through the good info that GrowerGoneWild has provided, I am starting to dial in my feed schedule. I have been feeding about an hour after lights on, flooding for ~5 mins. I am going to try 2 times per 18 hr light period starting today and see if that is too much and slowly pick it up. Plan on changing the rez again on day 27.

The growth has been great to watch, but the differences in strain from OG's to Chem D has made it hard to get even results. I am trying to get the laggers to catch up, any ideas? I don't care how long I have to veg these things as long as they are BIG and healthy when I'm done.

It has been tough dealing with these problems early, but it has also been a great learning experience.

Here are the stragglers!

Front Chem D look fine:

OG Kush No Problemo

CHEERS!!!

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

How much longer are you going to veg those?... Nearly a month in veg from clones. The stretch is nearly 2 to 3 times when you flip lights to 12/12.

 

[CalBear4Life]

I was going to wait until I get the spidermites and other issues in control and then flip them. I was told that you should wait until the problems go away before you start flowering. What do you think...go for it sooner?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

I was going to wait until I get the spidermites and other issues in control and then flip them. I was told that you should wait until the problems go away before you start flowering. What do you think...go for it sooner?

You're right in saying that, stretching your veg time out till problems clear up.

I was more or less wondering how many days of veg time were you looking at to begin with.

 

[CalBear4Life]

You're right in saying that, stretching your veg time out till problems clear up.

I was more or less wondering how many days of veg time were you looking at to begin with.

Ya but I was thinking a pretty long veg anyways, probably like 7-8 weeks to get some real beauties. Too long?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

Thoughts about veg time and when to flip. (48-72 dark then..12/12)

Keep in mind that plants will stretch at least 2 to 3 times their current size. Even more when CO2 is introduced from what I've found.

You need to figure out how high you can go, remember that you cant get too close to the lights.

So.. Estimate your canopy height, minus 18 inches. (about as close as you can get with 1KW) I guestimate that those plants will double in size. If you flipped now, will the plants reach that high? or grow taller than the light?

So here are my 2 deciding factors when to stop veg and flip lights.

1) Plant height.
2) Good root system.
And make sure your pest/grow problems solved. prior to flip.

I'm not going to say "flip now" or 6-8 week veg is enough.. I just dont have enough info.
But I'm guessing under a 1KW MH those ladies should be ready.

In my experience, 4-6 week under flo's is enough. You're doing it under 1KW MH.. So they should be ready soon, unless you plan to top to take some clones. I'm not sure if Chemdog does better topped or not.

 

[CalBear4Life]

Thoughts about veg time and when to flip. (48-72 dark then..12/12)

Keep in mind that plants will stretch at least 2 to 3 times their current size. Even more when CO2 is introduced from what I've found.

You need to figure out how high you can go, remember that you cant get too close to the lights.

So.. Estimate your canopy height, minus 18 inches. (about as close as you can get with 1KW) I guestimate that those plants will double in size. If you flipped now, will the plants reach that high? or grow taller than the light?

So here are my 2 deciding factors when to stop veg and flip lights.

1) Plant height.
2) Good root system.
And make sure your pest/grow problems solved. prior to flip.

I'm not going to say "flip now" or 6-8 week veg is enough.. I just dont have enough info.
But I'm guessing under a 1KW MH those ladies should be ready.

In my experience, 4-6 week under flo's is enough. You're doing it under 1KW MH.. So they should be ready soon, unless you plan to top to take some clones. I'm not sure if Chemdog does better topped or not.

GrowerGoneWild you are a true gentleman and a scholar (albeit a weed scholar).
So in looking at the plant height, they are currently in between 16-24" in height each. Multiply the biggest plants by two and the largest ones will be 48" tall. The tallest I can go for total plant height using your 18" deduction rule would be 42". I have a really large, air-cooled hood so I think I may be able to hang it closer, like down to 10" or so from the tops, which would still give me only 50". I am able to cut the legs on the tray stand up to another 12" which would give me a max height of around 62". Does this sound correct?

 

[GrowerGoneWild]

GrowerGoneWild you are a true gentleman and a scholar (albeit a weed scholar).
So in looking at the plant height, they are currently in between 16-24" in height each. Multiply the biggest plants by two and the largest ones will be 48" tall. The tallest I can go for total plant height using your 18" deduction rule would be 42". I have a really large, air-cooled hood so I think I may be able to hang it closer, like down to 10" or so from the tops, which would still give me only 50". I am able to cut the legs on the tray stand up to another 12" which would give me a max height of around 62". Does this sound correct?

Running a 1KW aircooled that close (10 inches) IMHO puts you at risk for light bleaching, and I think its wasteful, that style reflector penetrates, but does not spread evenly, (like a vertical bulb) so I wouldn't work it that close.

Side note: Notice over the years how aircooled hoods have been getting larger and larger over the years, I think they have realized that lights seem to penetrate more at the expense of spread. In fact one of my buddies is running a 600W aircooled horizontal light in his SOG, and he claims to have lost yield, in a tent and hydro setup similar to yours. He is going back to vertical lights. (I actually think he should go to vertizontal.

Light bleaching/heat stress is just a guess, you'll have to find out if that strain can tolerate that close distance and or the heat. Thats kinda the drawback of 1KW's seems like its more heat than light. But the canopy penetration is _excellent_ in the 1KW range.

Lowering the table might be helpful considering 1KW's can penetrate well so you can have a longer veg time, but you can only take it so far. Dont expect miracles from a couple extra weeks of veg. This is a 1st run from what it looks like and you'll have to dial it in.