New Grower "GodAmJT's Perpetual Greenery"

[pop22]

Sadly, King's so called "double LEDs" have been debunked and are junk. Sorry to have to tell you this. doesn't mean its not usable, its just not what its claimed to be. Maybe you should start looking into DIY lights, done right, they kick ass on all commercial lights!

I got one ebay seller kicked off for selling lights with false claims. I got to keep the light AND got a refund!

So I just got back from a week of travel.. The days before I left, I rushed to get my tent together.. I got my new light and it's definitely bright, but not quite as bright as I expected it, or as advertised.. I've got a few ideas that I'm throwing around, but my recirculating systems seems to be working well!! I did some nice tidying of the lines, and tried to make it look sorta-organized. Cable management is my next concern, although it's not absolutely necessary.. I'm running into a few small snags..

1. The environment is a bit different than what I had grown in before.. Instead of a nice, climate-controlled bedroom, it's not in the basement of a house. Basement has some heat, but not a lot, and the humidity is super-low this time of year, even in the basement.. Because I was having trouble keeping the temps above the low 60's, I threw a couple CFLs in there for their heat, and extra lighting.. I was hoping the KingLED 800w was going to be a sort of, "knock my socks off" experience, it seems only mildly brighter than my MarsII 400w. I may take the UFO out, and put the MarsII back in to get a more intense, and even spread of light.. It's definitely clear the spectrums are a little different between the lights, but I think between that and the CFLs, I can generate a significant amount of lumens and coverage..

2. I'm not sure if I'm over-doing the nutes, if the pH is shifting or what.. My pH pen is not keeping it's calibration, primarily because I didn't store it right for that year.. I had put fluid in it, but I should have kept it in a building, instead of in storage.. I ordered a 24/7 meter and it should be here Monday.. I think between that, and the fact that I didn't keep any feeding schedules on the these the last time I grew them.. I do remember them being very finnicky with the nutes.. Currently, the reservoir is at ~90-ish ppms, which I admit might be kinda high, but these things are on week 3.. I suspect the cooler temps are retarding the growth a bit, so I think adding another CFL and the MarsII might generate a little more warmth.

As you can see by the pictures, there are some issues with some of the older growth, while the newer growth looks nice and green.. Until I can get a reliable pH reading, I'm sorta stuck.. I am going to try my best to get it to at least pH on Monday with the new meter, and do a healthy res. change on Friday, before I have to leave.. Thankfully, this will be the last travel for a while, so if I can zero in on the ppm, hopefully the pH shifts will subside..

If you guys think of anything, let me know!!

 

[GodAmJT]

Yeah, that kinda sucks but I guess for what I paid ($150, shipped), I can't really complain.. I got the UFO for $45 on CL, and the Mars II I have, I got for $200 a little while back.. I think my next step is to get a kill-a-watt, to see how much I'm actually pulling.. I want to try to become a little more efficient.. At the moment though, having to run a humidifier and extra CFLs, I'm not really where I want to be.. I'm also debating on switching up the nutes.. I like the 3-part GH stuff, but I may try using one of their "All-in-one" to simplify my grow even more.. I'll still use Cal/Mag supps, and also use some Heisenberg tea, but because of my spontaneous travel schedule, I'd like to get it to where my wife could do res. changes and not need to understand the science or measurement steps.. I can just say, "Add xxml of this to 5-6gals of water.. Get this little stick to read xxxppms, and make sure the pH meter says between 5.8-6.1.. I'm not saying she couldn't do all that, but I'm not trying to tax her, since I know how long it takes me to do res changes, I'd hate for her to waste a chunk of her day trying to be as precise as possible.. Plus, I'm not sure she could really judge deficiencies, especially since I'm no where near being able to do it, myself..


Thanks for the heads-up though!!! Mars II going back in!!!!

 

[GodAmJT]

I'm thinking I may have sorta ironed out some of my problems.. pH meter didn't show up yesterday, so UPS is now officially on my "shit list." I got the Mars II back in there with the KingLED.. Very bright in the tent now.. I trimmed off most of the bad foliage, and the plants are actually starting to take off a bit.. Lots of growth in towards the stalk.. I may be pony-tailing them later today, so they can get a little more full in the middle.. With both of those LED panels and 2 40w CFLs, air scrubber, bubblers and fans, I'm sitting right around 508w of total power used, so I'm sorta impressed!! I was thinking with the notional values, I'd be at 700+. That means, I could toss another CFL or so in there if I wanted to, and not really have a lot of an impact on electrical usage.. ppms are sitting around 110-120, which I'm hoping isn't too much.. Once I check this afternoon, I'll know..

Anyway, here are some pictures of the progress.. Environmental #'s are starting to finally settle..

 

[GodAmJT]

A few more pictures.. Reservoir temps are in the mid-50's, but since the pumps only run for 15min a day, I don't see this being a bad thing for the root zone..

 

[GodAmJT]

And in good form, I stagnate on my journal once again, but again, my travel for work sucks.. Finally, it's over for a bit, so I can focus on the girls.. Something really odd happened, and I figured I'd share it because maybe someone else had seen this happen, or has had something similar happen to them. I am growing 4 auto Jack Herers on my recirculating top feed system. All 4 seeds came from a feminized mother plant. All 4 have similar shape and sort of the same size however....

The back 2 plants in the tent seemed to have developed some nute lockout while I was gone, as I didn't have the wife do any pH adjustments. I'm teaching her, but she's a work in progress.. I added 2 CFLs at the beginning to add some additional heat in the tent, as I couldn't get the tens above the 60's, and I felt it was slowing the growth.. My wiring arrangement isn't ideal, so I'm going to fix that next. But if you notice 2 big differences between the front plants and the rear plants; the rears, which have no coverage of the CFLs, are showing deficiencies. All 4 are on the same reservoir, so they all got the same 6.7 pH water for a couple days before I got home, but only the plants without the CFLs developed some issues..

Hypothesis? Sure.. Perhaps the CFLs are providing an additional wavelength that the LEDs don't have, that is enhancing how the front plants are taking in nutrients, even while stressed. I added another one to the rear right corner to see if this works.. It's going to take a day or so to see any differences, but even though the nutes were a bit high at 260-290ppm on a 0.5 conversion, When I swapped res water, I upped the nutes but focused on the pH, and it drifted a little up, leaves curled a little down, but aren't wrecked yet.. I'm trying to get to the mid 200's, but I've lost my touch. It takes me a while to get zeroed in, and I end up wasting a bit of water..

On the back burner........


I'm taking a stab at organics. I found a decently easy and not so cheap recipe that I'll be using.. Once these plants hit their halfway point, the soil should be cooked enough for me to start a journal on that.. I'm kinda excited to try it because I may end up using an HPS for that, since my current tent and light configuration is still under 600w total power use..

Pictures.....

 

[Chester]

Good size ... one of the reasons I've always grown in soil is because I never know when I may not be available for a week or more ... pretty hard to turn a hydro grow over to anyone but another hydro grower ...

 

[GodAmJT]

That is an excellent point.. I will mention though, the dude who taught me a lot of the hydro knowledge I have had told me that if the EC is dead on or at least close, the pH shouldn't shift much in distilled water, so in theory, if I knew where to go with the nutes, I could set the ppms, and just have the wife top off the res. with plain distilled water at the end of the week, and maybe a little more pre-mixed nutes, it's possible, but not sustainable.. I want to do hydro because I enjoy the science and the challenge, and I'm barely even a grower!!! lol I want to try the soil method because I'm trying to see if I can figure out that as well, so when the wife and I move to a better location in a few years, I can begin growing outdoors, and save the hydro for the winter or Summer months when the weather just isn't right outside..


Had you ever put any thought into a small drip watering system for your setup that you have remotely?? I know some of them will literally drip about an ounce over a day or something ridiculous like that. But you could even set that on a timer so things didn't get outta hand..

 

[Chester]

Had you ever put any thought into a small drip watering system for your setup that you have remotely?? I know some of them will literally drip about an ounce over a day or something ridiculous like that. But you could even set that on a timer so things didn't get outta hand..

I've often wanted to automate my watering but then I reconsider because I think the wet/dry cycle my plants go thru helps them to grow more roots w/ better yields ... I'd love to learn hydro someday ... someday when I can know that I won't be called away for a month or two at a moments notice ... most of my grows are turn key after about 3 weeks ... I'd like to think I add a little but w/ Soil and Flower tabs and a little basic watering skills even my wife could finish a grow ... poor plants would probably be better outside than in her care but I do believe she could finish a grow if necessary ...

 

[GodAmJT]

These little bastards are runts, for sure.. It could be that I used a much smaller pot than with any of my other grows.. I've got plenty of light on them, roughly 450w of a mix of LED and CFL.. I run two airstones from one air pump; a little aquarium style. Well, I think I might get something a little more stout as another one just lost one of the ports.. I didn't want to go big-time, but for the sake of reliability, I might as well.. All 4 have shown their sex and are showing a bunch of budsites, albeit a bit small.. I want to try and tie down a couple of the branches, now that I think I have some of these plants figured out.. Turns out I was starving them.. What I mistook for a deficiency, I'm pretty sure was actually the lights being too close, as the rear 2 were the closest to the LED.. I've got the ppm's at roughly 280-ish, and the leaves have just a tough of burn to the tips.. The majority of the foliage is nice and green although some of the leaves are a little more pale yellow.. I attribute that to the starvation.. At least my pH has stabilized quite a bit..


A couple of pictures from earlier..

 

[GodAmJT]

Yesssssssssssssssssss... Been about a month since I updated this bitch.. Wouldn't it be awesome to see that the plants doubled in size and are just about ready for the cutting??

Yep, that would be awesome.. Instead, you get.... SHITTY CELL PHONE PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Not a lot to report, other than my new grow space that I built over the past week.. It's a small tool shed I picked up from Home Depot.. It's 2.5'x4.5'x6'.. It looks about twice the size of my tent.. Now, the tent is being converted into my pepper station, while I germinate my garden veggies for this Spring..

Up next for me though; ORGANICS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've just dropped a series of WoS NLxBBs.. I dropped 5 seeds, and 4 have popped.. 2 will be destined for the ole top-feed hydro while the other 2 will make their way into some tasty organic soil, combined with some even tastier super-soil.. I'll list the recipe after I take some pictures of those little turds..