Hi all! After an exhausting couple of months of eat, sleep, work, repeat (putting rich people's yachts to sleep for the winter.....I hate antifouling!) I'm finally able to do more than lurk and get another log going.
I've got myself a nice new Lighthouse tent, 1.8m x 1m x 0.5m, so taller and wider but 25cm shallower than my last one.
It's also in our bedroom atm, very chav of me I know but needs must and all that. I'll be building a wardrobe unit around it after Christmas to make it match the bedroom furniture (Ikea make a wardrobe the same size as the tent, bless them!) and quiten it down a bit more.
It's pretty silent as it is now since I finally got a proper fan controller, no more hum from the single 4" fan that I'm running at half speed through a Rhino filter. Passive intake is from either a 4" duct direct to the outside air (double mesh filters) or from vents open in the room depending on tent temps.
I'm using a GT205 NFT system with just the one COTC Cash Crop Auto while I get the environment dialed in in the new grow conditions.
She has just turned 6 weeks from seed and up until last week she was under a Vipar V300 as her main source of light but she's now under the Vipar 400w COB for the flowering stage. She's done the same as the last Cash Crop I did and remained stubbornly bush-like until a few days ago and now she's begun the stretch with a vengeance, about an inch a day for the side shoots now
As you can see, I've got a variety of sidelighting in there now and it's all not just about keeping the temps up around the 22/23c area (not ideal but I can live with it) but I really do think surrounding plants with light now we can use LED's easily helps greatly. Not just because plants naturally get light all over with the sun moving across the sky but specifically with autos we can't really gradually harvest them as they ripen top to bottom as you can more easily with photo plants.
The lighting schedule you might call an Arctic Summer, all the sidelights are on 24/7 but the COB is off for 4 hours a day.
Just my way of giving her a bit of a rest without needing to put a heater in the tent. As some of you already know, I'm too cheap to waste electric on a heater, I grow autos for that reason
On the left is a 200w CFL red/blue which will be changed to a 300w red later on in flowering.
Next at the back on the right is a 27w LED red/blue/white spot,
and just hanging there beside the spot is a Jungle Dawn LED 13w 6500k reptile lamp. It puts out quite a bit of heat, for me a good thing but be aware if you are thinking of using one in a smaller space.
It's blue light so helps with vegging and once I've put the pure red CFL in as well as the COB I'd prefer to keep a little bit of blue light in during the later stages of flowering considering I've taken the vast majority of it out.
Plus it also has the added bonus of being certified 0% AVA/AVB so I can use it to work in the tent with sunglasses on
Nutrients - I've wrapped my tit's in trying to get the right amount of Vitalink A & B nutes in to keep her happy. Same every time, I add any and the tips go instant yellow, so I'm shit at gauging the amounts and this is made worse because the amounts advised on the packs are blatantly not for autos, 2.0 EC my arse
Anyway, I've just been using Vitalink Easy Bloom single pack. It says on the pack 6-8ml per litre so I added 1ml per litre when I changed the water at the end of week 3 and have upped it to 3ml per litre gradually since then. She's visibly improved with much weaker nutes so I'll keep going with fingers crossed.
Normal ph routine, low to high range over a 2 day period. She's had 1ml per litre magnecal+ since seed and since week 3 has had the full dose of 2ml per litre, so no probs with all the led's shredding her!
I think that about covers everything, here's a pic of her looking a bit droopy with the lights off while I'm changing the water. As you can see I've avoided defoliation again, only had to take off a couple of early leaves that died to let the airflow get over the bottom.
As always, questions, tips and advice welcome although links to scientific peer reviews will be required before I believe anything too bizarre
I've got myself a nice new Lighthouse tent, 1.8m x 1m x 0.5m, so taller and wider but 25cm shallower than my last one.
It's also in our bedroom atm, very chav of me I know but needs must and all that. I'll be building a wardrobe unit around it after Christmas to make it match the bedroom furniture (Ikea make a wardrobe the same size as the tent, bless them!) and quiten it down a bit more.
It's pretty silent as it is now since I finally got a proper fan controller, no more hum from the single 4" fan that I'm running at half speed through a Rhino filter. Passive intake is from either a 4" duct direct to the outside air (double mesh filters) or from vents open in the room depending on tent temps.
I'm using a GT205 NFT system with just the one COTC Cash Crop Auto while I get the environment dialed in in the new grow conditions.
She has just turned 6 weeks from seed and up until last week she was under a Vipar V300 as her main source of light but she's now under the Vipar 400w COB for the flowering stage. She's done the same as the last Cash Crop I did and remained stubbornly bush-like until a few days ago and now she's begun the stretch with a vengeance, about an inch a day for the side shoots now
As you can see, I've got a variety of sidelighting in there now and it's all not just about keeping the temps up around the 22/23c area (not ideal but I can live with it) but I really do think surrounding plants with light now we can use LED's easily helps greatly. Not just because plants naturally get light all over with the sun moving across the sky but specifically with autos we can't really gradually harvest them as they ripen top to bottom as you can more easily with photo plants.
The lighting schedule you might call an Arctic Summer, all the sidelights are on 24/7 but the COB is off for 4 hours a day.
Just my way of giving her a bit of a rest without needing to put a heater in the tent. As some of you already know, I'm too cheap to waste electric on a heater, I grow autos for that reason
On the left is a 200w CFL red/blue which will be changed to a 300w red later on in flowering.
Next at the back on the right is a 27w LED red/blue/white spot,
and just hanging there beside the spot is a Jungle Dawn LED 13w 6500k reptile lamp. It puts out quite a bit of heat, for me a good thing but be aware if you are thinking of using one in a smaller space.
It's blue light so helps with vegging and once I've put the pure red CFL in as well as the COB I'd prefer to keep a little bit of blue light in during the later stages of flowering considering I've taken the vast majority of it out.
Plus it also has the added bonus of being certified 0% AVA/AVB so I can use it to work in the tent with sunglasses on
Nutrients - I've wrapped my tit's in trying to get the right amount of Vitalink A & B nutes in to keep her happy. Same every time, I add any and the tips go instant yellow, so I'm shit at gauging the amounts and this is made worse because the amounts advised on the packs are blatantly not for autos, 2.0 EC my arse
Anyway, I've just been using Vitalink Easy Bloom single pack. It says on the pack 6-8ml per litre so I added 1ml per litre when I changed the water at the end of week 3 and have upped it to 3ml per litre gradually since then. She's visibly improved with much weaker nutes so I'll keep going with fingers crossed.
Normal ph routine, low to high range over a 2 day period. She's had 1ml per litre magnecal+ since seed and since week 3 has had the full dose of 2ml per litre, so no probs with all the led's shredding her!
I think that about covers everything, here's a pic of her looking a bit droopy with the lights off while I'm changing the water. As you can see I've avoided defoliation again, only had to take off a couple of early leaves that died to let the airflow get over the bottom.
As always, questions, tips and advice welcome although links to scientific peer reviews will be required before I believe anything too bizarre
Last edited:
