New Grower Dr. Frog's Think Different LED organic grow journal

[Dr. Frog]

Thanks!

My soil didn't sink down much, which is cool because I never really packed it down in the first place. I topped up the soil for two reasons: One, because I had read that plants will sometimes build new roots above the old soil line and increase their structure/stability. And two, the top portion of my soil had a lot of perlite in order to be gentle on the young plant, and now that it's larger, I wanted to have a nice top layer of rich soil and minerals so that future waterings would pull some of that goodness downwards. The Worm Gold Plus has a guaranteed high level of chitinase too, which wards off insects and triggers the plant into making it's own chemical markers that make it unattractive to pests. Too early to see if it has any benefit, but I figure it certainly couldn't hurt it. There's plenty of room still between my first leaves and soil.

 

[Dr. Frog]

Woo hoo! My LED arrived today!

It's a Mars II 700, regular spectrum. This light uses a few different reds and blues, along with cool and warm whites, plus a few infrared diodes. I plugged it in, and it immediately filled the room with a bright pink/magenta colored light. For comparison, my CFL was still plugged in, but you couldnt tell unless you looked directly at the bulb. I even tried using it on the plant to help bring out the green color when taking pictures of it. It didn't help.



Just opening the viewing windows on the Gorilla tent is enough to make the room glow!

 

[Gonzo]

Thanks!

One, because I had read that plants will sometimes build new roots above the old soil line and increase their structure/stability.

I check roots every time I cut plants and that is true. At the end they use all available soil and if you put some more on top, they will use it, but later, in flowering. Similar if you use that clay little balls on top, they will keep moisture under them and more soil will be wet enough for roots, because if you dry surface too often and too deep, roots dry out.

But comparing these new roots under the surface to the whole root system at the end, they are only a little fraction of it.

Good Luck with LED, has arrived just on time.:Sharing One:

 

[Ronin]

Your girl is looking great Doc.
I have two of the Gorilla 2x2.5's.
Great tents.
I have found that an inline booster fan works great for ventilation, and doesn't pull the sides in.
Subbed for the ride.
Looking forward to seeing how the Mars performs for ya.
:Sharing One:

 

[Dr. Frog]

Day 16

My LED arrived earlier today before work. Now that I have more time to look at it and appreciate it, I'm happy I went with the Mars II. It's very bright, so I'm also happy I have some good sunglasses handy. The light came with some wires and clips and a large carabiner clip. It's nice that it came with some hardware to hang it out-of-the-box, but with it being ~20 lbs I'll feel better once I devise a sturdier solution with some sort of secondary safety device. At first, it was about 42" away from the top of my plant. Now I've placed a box underneath the pot to raise it to about 34".



There's the current configuration. I have my two 4" intake ducts letting the fresh air in right up to either side of the Airpot. I've also peeled up a corner of the intake vent in the back to relieve some of the negative pressure. The temperature has been very consistent, floating between 77-81 degrees at the canopy level. Humidity however, has declined a bit, hitting 45% at it's lowest. I'm not sure why that is. My humidifier placed next to the tent has been on it's lowest setting since the start and even then I had to shut it off sometimes when it got above 70%.

Other than changing up my setup, I gave a foliar feeding of a very minimal dose of Epsom salts and Sea-90. I've read that LED lights tend to give plants a calcium/magnesium deficiency. Also, coco coir apparently locks up some calcium and magnesium when it isn't washed properly, due to salts present in some manufacturing conditions. I'm not too worried about the Coco Loco however, as the package claims it's triple washed and has oyster shell powder to buffer calcium levels. No signs of deficiencies at all, but I figure very light dosings may help prevent their occurence.



The plant seems pleased with the light. She's started to give off a veggie/green smell with the slightest hint of typical cannabis. Exciting stuff!

 

[Dr. Frog]

Day 16

The Mars II is doing a great job so far. I've got plenty of new growth going on. My node spacing is really tight, and I'm wondering if this could be problematic? I've read that 1" spacing is a good target, but I'm sure mine is less than an inch. Can I expect the spaces between the nodes that are already present to increase in size, or do they stay relatively set in length once they are formed?

If I need to move my light up, I will, but I like the idea of hitting it with as much intense light as I can (safely, of course).

 

[Gonzo]

Looks just fine.:clap:

Your plant will grow, but it is too early yet.

Are you going to let it grow free, or will you do any LSTing?

 

[Albert Eimstoned]

Don't worry about the height, she'll stretch.

 

[Dr. Frog]

Thanks. I'm not sure what I want to do as far as manipulating the plant is concerned. What would you recommend?

 

[Gonzo]

It is just right time for LST. I have just started with it, I have some more plants and did not want additional work before, but I am really fed up with handling all these different phenos which grow each differently, some of them too high.

With LST, if done properly, you erase apical dominance, what means that main bud will not be main anymore and will not have privileged status within plant and will not grow higher than other branches. In this very moment the farest bud from light in my garden is 110 cm from my LED. Can not be closer, because plant is too long. Plant is nice, but I will definitely not get max yield. Have not used LST unfortunatelly.

My first LST, small picture from the first day, but hope you will see what the idea is. Main bud has been down for 5 days now, is not growing fast any more but branches have started to grow faster. Tomorrow I will lightly tye some branches down in right direction to have more even growth. I will pull them to the right side, where you can see no growth. But gently, no force.

Briain has inspired me to start immediatelly, take a look at his beautifull TD. When I saw that, I just stared for some time, went through his thread again and decicion was made next hours. I am now full of expectations, because after 5 days I see no problem at all, I have 4 of them, all grow without beiing disturbed and I start to see exactly how I will manage these branches in next days.

Before with photos I used topping instead and later, when I switched to autos, I heard no topping so I have been growing plants naturally.

All depends on your expectations, mine are always high and I see now that only LST or SCRog can help me go up so I have just started with LST.

Good Luck!