First Grow - 250W Cab - Hydro drip system - F13 from seed

[greenpenguin]

mrred: Yeah those two smaller ones totally look mutant, I'm thinking of keeping them around just to get a higher likely hood of females and also, who knows maybe they'll produce some crazy flowers. I agree I should have probably dropped them in hydroton way earlier, those mutants should be in there too but I didn't wash enough hydroton to put everything in netpots.

As for cloning, can I really clone so soon? In my grow schedule I had planned to start cloning after two months. Maybe that's too long. I'm not even sure how to pick a branch to cut for cloning, I'll need to read up. I always thought I'd want a branch with multiple leaves or something.

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

real nice setup bro, especially for a first time grower

 

[greenpenguin]

real nice setup bro, especially for a first time grower

Thanks Cozy Amnesia, I just looked at your grow, sounds like you're about to harvest very soon, congrats!

 

[RealSupreme]

nice healthy roots man good luck for ya first time.. will be a pleasure to watch ya clean job. well done bro, keep it up!


-RS-

.

 

[mrred]

yea they might be like that because they didnt have any nutes , im no expert

you could just cut the tops off and clone those but leave the big leafs above the node you cut

I got a feeding chart for GH flora nutes and it says 1.5 - 2.5 ml of each gro micro and bloom for seedlings per gallon, and for midgrowth it says 2.5-5ml per gallon , says its just a starting point for your own feeding program

 

[greenpenguin]

yea they might be like that because they didnt have any nutes , im no expert

you could just cut the tops off and clone those but leave the big leafs above the node you cut

I got a feeding chart for GH flora nutes and it says 1.5 - 2.5 ml of each gro micro and bloom for seedlings per gallon, and for midgrowth it says 2.5-5ml per gallon , says its just a starting point for your own feeding program

I started on some light nutes so lets see if those mutants start growing normally. I'll have to think about cutting the top off for a clone, Ideally I'd like to get 4 clones per plant. 1 for sexing, and the other 3 for flowering if it ends up being the only female. Taking the top off would allow me to sex sooner but I'm not sure if I want to yet... I will definitely consider it.

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

Thanks Cozy Amnesia, I just looked at your grow, sounds like you're about to harvest very soon, congrats!

just did lol

 

[greenpenguin]

Cozy, Congrats on your first grow being a success!! Hurry up and update your thread already. You need to use the macro setting on your camera though, that shot is a bit blurry.

 

[greenpenguin]

Update with pictures!!! And a question....


I started LST on #1. #1 is really doing well, and the other plants are starting to grow a bit faster but I'm concerned about my EC/ppms. I'm using a pretty low nutrient concentration but the EC/ppms are increasing. I started about 3 days ago with the nutes at 630ppm (0.5), now it's at 710ppm (0.5). Isn't the ppms going up supposed to mean feeding too much? I was getting these similar increases prior to feeding nutes too. This doesn't sound right to me, unless there's some kind of nutrient lockout the ppms/EC should be dropping not rising, and words of wisdom for me?

Anyhow, now onto the promised pictures...

Yesterday was my first day of LST








The next day the tip popped back up




So I tied that down too




This LST is looking good to me, I can already see it's benefts with the small branching that's growing out, this will give me plenty of clone sites to choose from, and I can definitely see now how more budsites will grow out. I really have to thank Quazi any of my understanding of LST, his guides were crucial to my understanding.

 

[the_shadow]

greenpenguin - nice setup. A couple of suggestions:
1) From the appearance of your leaves, I suspect over watering. What's your watering schedule? Are they draining well?
2) "Isn't the ppms going up supposed to mean feeding too much? I was getting these similar increases prior to feeding nutes too. This doesn't sound right to me, unless there's some kind of nutrient lockout the ppms/EC should be dropping not rising, and words of wisdom for me?" Anytime the ppms are going up, and ph remains stable or goes down, that means your plants are drinking water faster than they are takin in nutes. Add back plain RO water until the correct ppms are reached. Anytime the ppms go down, and ph goes up that means the plants are taking nutes in and need more nutes. Add back water/nutes until you reach your target ppms and ph remains stable.


Just my suggestions, I could be wrong. All in all, the plants look good and you have a killer setup. Once it's dialed in, I see some good harvests

 

[greenpenguin]

the_shadow:
1) That is possible, are you saying this because the tips of some of them droop down? Or are you referring to my mutants? My feeding schedule is 3 times a day during light hours about 6 hour apart for each feeding and I feed for 15 minutes cause that's as granular as my timer gets. As for draining, it is draining well, I put in these little rectangular dish things upside down to keep everything above any water level an using hydroton and baskets to let all the water drain out. The rockwool however might be holding too much I dunno.

2) Ok that definitely make sense. The thing that gets me is that at this stage with the plants, I would have thought they'd be wanting more nutes. I feel that my nute solution is very light (starting ppm is only 560 @ 0.5), I'm doing the lucas formula of 0-8-16 (GH flora series)... only I'm doing 1/4th strength so more like 0-2-4. Maybe I'm just trying to go faster than I need to. I had a grow plan written out and I was supposed to hit full strength nutes a few weeks in and here I am over a month in and just starting 1/4 strength nutes.



Now for an update:
It's Day 40 for #1 and day 29 for #'s 2, 3 and 4. I moved the two mutants #3 and #4 into netpots and here they are... one big happy family.





Here's an update of how the LST is going for #1. You can see where the new growth is coming, LST is for reals... I've never been soo sold on a technique, I'm hoping that in a week I'll have enough growth to take clones from all these sites growing out and find out if my #1 is a boy or a girl.





And here's #1 with roots already outgrowing the netpot. I'm not sure what to do, I don't think I have much room to put it in a bigger pot. is it safe to just let the roots grow out like that?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Spreading out the roots and releasing them out the sides is what net pots do. Normally, the net pot is placed on top of a tub of nutes so roots have someplace to go. Left exposed, roots will air prune. The plant will live and produce but, not like it would if you let roots grow inside a bucket.



Nice cab, by the way.

 

[one Q]

Nice, clean, seemingly efficient take on NGBs work. Love it.

Freeze your everywhere! What a guy, helping everyone with what he has, Heart.

 

[greenpenguin]

Freezerboy: It's an honor to have you grace my grow diary! I have read soo many of your informative posts and seen your impressive root balls many a time... ok that sounds kinda perverted. Anyhow, I need to figure out what to do with these roots. Luckily these current plants are just gonna be mothers, but when I take clones and move them to the flower room, my initial idea was just to put them in 9" netpots. Of course this was before I saw how fast roots grow an I certainly don't want to be root bound.

So what to do when I go to flower? Perhaps I can fill up my tray with hydroton and do an ebb and flow there instead of the drip? That way the roots can fill up the entire grow tray and hydroton will help the roots from drying out.

I guess I could also attempt DWC but I worry that I'll screw that up big time. That plus my flower room setup isn't really setup to support DWC yet, I'd have to rebuild my table in there. Why am I scared of DWC? I think it's cause I worry that I'll mess up the nutes or pH and just kill the shit out of my plants with their roots just chilling in there. I think I'll feel more comfortable after I have more experience stabilizing my solution when I'm going full strength. Right now I have time in between feedings to fix things when I'm adjusting my res.



One Q:
Thanks! I actually got the cabinet inspiration from Yukon's cab but went with a premade cab because when I priced out the wood to build my cabinet it was cheaper and easier to just buy one.

 

[mrred]

DWC is the easiest hydro method there is, just keep the water cool , no light leaks, and check and adjust the ph everyday. You dont need dwc for your mothers tho, a dripper is perfect for keeping them alive, I'd put them in a tiny bucket, like a coffee bucket something just big enough to keep the net pot off the bottom, and you can cut a hole in the bottom to drain the water. and trime the roots ever so often

 

[FreezerBoy]

Anyhow, I need to figure out what to do with these roots.

You don't need to do anything. I grew in 3 and 4 inch rootbound Rockwool cubes for years. Yeah, rootbinding lowers overall yield but, it won't kill your grow.

Cubes can be placed in larger cubes, stacked on cubes of similar size or placed on top of slabs. They can be placed in Hydroton as you have or soil. Or, they can be left alone.

My concern is my difficulty in reading this pic



It appears the bottom inch of the pots are sitting in a very shallow res. You've seen what roots can do in a dark wet space. They could easily fill that space and choke your pump and then you've got trouble right here in River City. If you're going to use a res of limited space, it's best not to use pots that promote explosive root growth.

As much as I love DWC, play with it on the side first. I killed my first try. My second try was blah. My third was the first "official" grow and that one was the charm. I'd recommend sticking with General Hydroponics FloraMicro and FloraBloom with nothing else until you get it down. I believe most "root rot" problems stem from too many additives. Especially organics.

 

[error420]

Hey greenpenguin was just checking out your thread nice grow you got man. I seen them cabinets before at my job there pretty heffy. I will have to move from closet to a cabinet my next grow and was thinking along your lines thanks for sharing the pics and good luck with your grow, that LST one is looking good keep it up

 

[greenpenguin]

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Freezerboy:
Yeah I think you're misreading the picture, those pots are sitting on top of little plastic plate things since I'm using a black spay painted plastic storage tub as a grow tray, it doesn't have the grooves for water to sink to and I don't want the pots to sit in a puddle of water. I have an ebb and flow style drain that drains to a reservoir that sits below the grow tray.

Speaking of grow trays... I've been trying to find a place that builds a proper grow tray in the 1.5'x1.5' size.



error420:
Hey, if you do get a cab like mine, make sure to make any cuts you plan on making before you put it together. I got sawdust all over my house when I had to use my circular saw on it indoors because I had already put it together.


Anyhow, I'll probably start to LST the rest of the kids tomorrow so look forward to updates!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Freezerboy:
Yeah I think you're misreading the picture, those pots are sitting on top of little plastic plate things

If that's the case, that should prevent roots growing out the bottom and air pruning should keep it from growing out the sides. While limiting root growth will reduce total yield, the plants will still produce.

 

[greenpenguin]

So I've LST'ed the rest of the family and I'm preparing my secondary reservoir to replace the one currently in service. I think I should have LST'ed those girls earlier because it was difficult to bend the stems the way I wanted to. Some parts were very stiff and didn't want to arch. I had to try a few different tie down methods to get it to work.

Anyhow, here's #4 - day 33 getting it's LST
It's still very mutanty







#2 - day 33, LST
This one was hard to bend over, I should have done it a week ago.







#1 - day 44. My pride and joy right now, this one i growing soo well. Look at all that growth from the lower branches. As you can see I also pulled the tip back down and around, I'm going for spiral growth if I can.







Here's the family photo.
As you can see all four plants are now being trained. Didn't get individual pics of #3 because I forgot, but that one is very mutant, leaves are still growing new but messed up.





Also in preparing my new reservoir, I was about to add hydroguard but it looks scary. It's like greenish and cellulose looking. Is that what it's supposed to look like?


Also I think I'm just about ready to take clones. I'm still learning how to select branches for clones but the plants will be ready to cut from in a few days