Grow Mediums Trial of Firsts

[Screwauger]

So I've decided to give the grow journal a first go. In fact, it's my first grow in 23yrs, my first grow in a tent, my first grow with LED's, my first try at pseudo hydro, my first soil-less grow and, my first ever attempt at ScrOG. Oh yeah, and my first Autopot run. I had some seeds I purchased from Barney's but they are feminized photos. I am growing one each of Kiwi Skunk (outdoors and not part of this journal), 8 Ball Kush and Sweet Tooth. I should also add that I reside in a legalized state in the USA. As a recreational user/grower I am allowed 6 flowering plants for each person 21 and older in the household; with some conditions attached to the "legal" grows.

My Set up and Details:

Grow Area
39"x39"x60" No name grow tent
4" Inline Fan (192cfm) and 4" Carbon Filter vented out basement window.

Lighting
3 x 300w Hydro Galaxy 9 Band LED = 405 true watts
2 x 125w CFL (one 2700k one 6500k) - 250 true watts

Nutrients/Supplements
General Hydro Grow/Micro/Bloom Rezdog Recipe (No Grow only Micro and Bloom 6ml/9ml per gal OR at a 2:3 ratio always)
Calimagic+ 5ml/gal
Superthrive 5 drops /gal
Kool Bloom (specific prescribed feeding days in flower)
Flora Kleen (Last 3-5 days)
z7 Enzyme Cleanser (keep gravity fed reservoir gunk free)

Medium
Coco Coir (Botanicare) 5kg brick
Large Chunk Perlite
50/50 mix
1" Hydroton in bottom of pots

Pots
2 x 1Pot Autopot system with air domes

My beans germinated 5/17 and grow in rapid rooters for the first 7-10 days then I moved them to 16 oz solo cups. I transplanted them into the autopots one week ago. This morning I put six gallons of full strength nutrients in the rez, opened the tap and plugged in the air pump!!! Just a matter of monitoring the rez now to see how fast they drink it up.

My nutrient mix is as follows (Doing this more for my reference for future runs):
4 gallons of H2O aerated for 48 hours into the rez (ps my tap water is 44ppm pH 7.8)
1 gallon of aerated water for mixing nutes 30mlMicro/45ml Bloom/10ml CalMag/2ml Drip Clean
Basic formula is:

BASE NUTES
6ml/gallon of GH Micro, 9ml/gallon of GH Bloom, 2ml/Gallon Calimagic
Supplements
.4ml/gallon Drip Clean

Poured the gallon of nutrients into the rez, mixed well and added pH down until stable at 5.8 (coco coir)I also added a micro pump to the rez that will keep the nutrients moving (pump can run dry for 30 days without damage hat tip @Hansbricks ) but hopefully I will monitor to prevent any empty rez problems.

That's it for now and other than growth updates, alterations in nutrient schedules, scrog screen training and switching to 12/12 I am hoping it's an uneventful run.

 

[Penrey]

Nice setup. I haven't tried that formula yet with gh, but I did use 0-5-10 and 0-8-16 for years with great success. I am using the same tent but am waiting on the 4 pot setup to arrive. I am curious as to how much 2 fills that tent.
Good luck on your grow.

 

[Screwauger]

Thanks very much! It's basically Head's coco formula but he ended up omitting the cal/mag and/or epsom salt.

I started with a plan for four plants, then I decided on three and THEN I started reading grow journals on AFN. I asked a few experienced folks on here and ended up with two. It's all a test and I may add but I believe two will veg into my screen quite nicely. We'll see.

I initially ordered the east2grow set up. It got back ordered as they were out of 3.9g pots. I emailed Mr. Perez in shipping and changed my order to the 1pot systemx2. Those E2G are too close together but I was trying to stay in budget.

 

[Screwauger]

I topped the plant on the right (8 Ball Kush) this morning and will be topping the Sweet Tooth as soon as another node or two appear. It's been behind from day one but not much. I expect they might stall a bit after topping but it's been a number of years since I've been here.

 

[Penrey]

Yeah, same here on the not growing inside in forever. I did a run outside last year and did really well, but I prefer growing indoors. I ended up with enough meds for a while, so what I do now is for relaxation and fun. No stress involved.
How far are you going to train the screen before you flip them?

 

[Screwauger]

Yeah, same here on the not growing inside in forever. I did a run outside last year and did really well, but I prefer growing indoors. I ended up with enough meds for a while, so what I do now is for relaxation and fun. No stress involved.
How far are you going to train the screen before you flip them?

It's all a learning curve but I plan to flip when about 70% of the screen is filled. I plan to keep pulling back under the screen for at least 2 weeks into 12/12 and use the stretch to fill the remaining 30+%. Always wanted to scrog when I grew indoors in the 90's but never tried it. I'm doing it now and I think I can, I think I can have a nice field of colas for the final push.

 

[Sensi Jay]

Subbed, if you dial it in, prepare to do a lot of training brother.

 

[Screwauger]

Subbed, if you dial it in, prepare to do a lot of training brother.

I'm probably going to get an education in the process and now that I think about it, I will probably flip to 12/12 just about when they reach the screen or shortly thereafter and manage the stretch by training that into the screen. I'm sure I will need and get advice.

I am hoping to go the auto route next run and not train into a scrog necessarily. Height is a problem in this tent and my next will be 78".

 

[Screwauger]

Ok @pop22 @Hansbricks @HemiSync @Penrey @Sensi Jay

Seems I might be having a problem a mere 24 hours after starting the rez and air domes. My quick look diagnosis is possible Zink deficiency perhaps caused by pH spike in the pots.

My res was pH 5.8 when I turned the tap. I just checked it and the res itself was pH 6.3. I added pH down to bring it to 5.6 but not sure how I would check the pH at the roots.

One other thing, I took the circulation pump out of the res last night because it seemed to be heating up the mixture. It went from 70F to 76F and it's now back to 71F.

Any thoughts, ideas or analysis appreciated. Thanks in advance. By the way this is the 8 ball kush, the sweet tooth is not showing this bright light green to yellow discoloration. Correction, less severe but it is happening to the sweet tooth also).

I just removed the pots and checked pH in the trays and it was 6.4.

I placed the pots in 5 gallon pails and flushed with 1/2 gallon of 1/2 strength nutes and pH of 5.7.

More research proves it could also be sulfer.

I am going to buy epsom salts. gonna flush them again with straight water pH 5.7 and then I may dump the res and go back to basics just base nutes(no drip clean, no cal/mag, no superthrive).

 

[Sensi Jay]

Looks more like calmag to me, though I'm no expert. I'd say it's not much more than a bit of discoloration at this point, up calmag a tad and see how she responds.

If circulating pump runs warm this would heat the rez. Can you adjust it so only it sits out a bit?