New Grower Orange Crack and 3 Bears OG - New COB Setup...

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Thought I would chuck up a journal of my 3rd grow...i like documenting the grows so i can see what i did right or wrong throughout each grow so having a journal forces me to do that!

First grow I grew 4 red poisons...had some issues through the grow which I now know was a nute lockout due to a build up in te soil throwing the PH...got around 3 ounces of very fluffy but nice tasting bud...
Second grow I did 4 dinafem blue kush's...which is how i discovered the same problem as the first grow...PH of this soil was around 3 after testing the run off....no wonder they were showing nutrient deficiencies...after slushing them they perked up and i finished up with some nice bud...

the main issue I had with both grows was heat from the HID light...I could use a maximum of a 250W due to summer months and was still hitting temps of 31 on od days...also the 250w light just didnt seem like enough light for the tent....

Anyway my setup now is as follows...

0.8m x 0.8m x 2.0m Tent
RVK Sileo 125 Extract & Rhino Pro Filter
DIY 200W COB Light (4x 3070 4000K & 4x 3590 3500K COBS with a Meanwell HLG-185-C700B Driver)
16L Rhizopots
2 x 6" Clipon fans (Need to replace with an oscillating fan)
Plant Magic Old Timer Nutrients, including Root stimulant ad Granules.
Biobizz All Mix soil

Just bought a small pack of 250ml Bittles of Advanced Nutrients beneficials such as Voodoo Juice, B-52, Big Bud and Overdrive. Im going to use these on 3 of 4 Orange Cracks and see if there's a difference between the normal fed plants and the one with the extras.

I have just bought an 80W heater and greenhouse controller as the new flat is a lot colder than the last place the tent was in...I want to run extract as I will need some fresh air/CO2 being brought into the tent but it will mean I need the heater...i have been toying with some form of CO2 system so the tent can just self sustain itself with no additional air to regulate the temperatures but I dont even know where to start...

Anyway I have germinated 5 Orange Cracks an 1 3 Bears OG by Mephisto...big shout outs for the Black Friday Deal...grabbed myself a load of different strains by them...

I germinated the seeds...3 bears OG had cracked and shown a root within 12 hours and the OC's took an extra day..placed them into small cups and gave them a few drops of water...they all had poked out by the next day but for some reason they dont look to healthy...all of my other seeds from previous grows came out looking a nice, healthy green...not sure if ive just done something wrong or if its just something else...also one OC lost one of its first leafs temps have been a nice stable 24/26 and dropped to 21 on lights off...humidity is around 66%....

This Orange Crack is what im using for the Solo Cup Comp...no idea how its gonna go but i think it will be fun...

 

[KonopCh]

In.

 

[Yeatster]

In.

 

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I basically had a major fuck up on my behalf...3 of the seedlings looked as if they were going to die at the start, they looked really pale and pasty and took for ever to sprout and open up the first set of leaves and when they did one fell off and they looked unhealthy....so i assumed the worst and germinated another 3 OC seeds...came back the next day and one had shriveled up and died whilst the other 2 perked back up to be nice healthy and green...so instead of having a sensible amount of plants its now gone to ridiculous mode in my tent...i dont know how big mephisto strains get but if it was the blue kush I had done before i wouldnt be worried about 7 plants in there as I know it will be busy but bearable....but its an unknown for me...if they start to get too big I will probably have to suck it up and pick the healthiest looking 4 out of 6 OC's and let the 3 Bears OG grow out as well...

I also had to buy an 80W tubular heater and i bought a thermostatically controlled controller off amazon for it...temps on lights off were hitting 15/16°C even though that period is during the day...and 'with lights on' with the new light it was around 23/24°C...now its sitting at a nice 26°C and around 65% humidity on lights on....

someone might be able to help, is there a need to have a drop in temperature on lights off or is it better to maintain temps if possible between lights on/off periods? It will take a bit of complexity for me to set the heater to have 2 different working temperatures at different times...but if a drop is required on lights off then i will do it...

Also the PH of the water in the new flat is fairly high at 7.9'ish and it was up at around 8.4 when root stimulant and silicon was mixed in...i did lower the PH to 6.50 to be extra safe, i know people say the soil buffers PH but after my previous grows and having really low PH levels i want to get it dialled in...maybe its overkill but i dont want to put it in too high that it takes a while for the soil to buffer it rendering the plants without anything needed for a few days....

anyway heres some pics, transferred the seedlings into the Rhizo pots...I have used 5 16L Rhizo pots for 4 OC's and the 3 Bears OG, then 2 OC's are in 8L Rhizo pots to fit them into the space left...then I have my 1 seedling in the fantastic Solo-Air-Cup...

 

[blue]

Hi - Nice setup!

I've had a bit of experience with high PH city water, biobizz soils, etc, etc - maybe i can try and help

someone might be able to help, is there a need to have a drop in temperature on lights off or is it better to maintain temps if possible between lights on/off periods? It will take a bit of complexity for me to set the heater to have 2 different working temperatures at different times...but if a drop is required on lights off then i will do it...

Ideally (iirc) there should be a 10f drop between lights on and off .... and some would say that 80-85f is ideal for autos for lights on.

It's not essential, as i've grown most lighting routines (18/6, 20/4 and 24 hours light) and always manage to get the required end results.
If you're running 20/4 light schedule, the lights going off may be enough to drop the temps (not sure how hot cobs run - or if they heat up at all).

Also the PH of the water in the new flat is fairly high at 7.9'ish and it was up at around 8.4 when root stimulant and silicon was mixed in...i did lower the PH to 6.50 to be extra safe, i know people say the soil buffers PH but after my previous grows and having really low PH levels i want to get it dialled in...maybe its overkill but i dont want to put it in too high that it takes a while for the soil to buffer it rendering the plants without anything needed for a few days....

City water is a pain ... especially in Biobizz (and i was told the same ting over and over about biobizz buffering - and no need to PH).w

So here's the deal as i see it - Biobizz wants a water/feed that's between 6.2-6.5 ph. But biobizz being organic doesn't wan't non-organic PH adjusters (lke nitric or phosphoric acid). Also even after PHing city water to 6.5 ... it will creep up again in PH (you can test this by leaving your PH'd water out for a day and retesting)

So here's the solution (albeit not great) as i see it. - Buy water from your local store Tesco's or simiar. Big 5 litre bottles that are around the right PH range - and then add your biobizz nutes as you would normal - but let the soil buffer the rest (don't PH it)

There's a good few members - Hazy is a noteable (wonder grower) one who has used (maybe uses) biobizz with great success.

It had me pulling my hair out - and i'd recommend if this grow gives you hassle, maybe try canna coco next, it turned out far more reliable for me.

Hope this helps a little

Blue ^_^

 

[Site]

Hi - Nice setup!

I've had a bit of experience with high PH city water, biobizz soils, etc, etc - maybe i can try and help


Ideally (iirc) there should be a 10f drop between lights on and off .... and some would say that 80-85f is ideal for autos for lights on.

It's not essential, as i've grown most lighting routines (18/6, 20/4 and 24 hours light) and always manage to get the required end results.
If you're running 20/4 light schedule, the lights going off may be enough to drop the temps (not sure how hot cobs run - or if they heat up at all).

maybe I will put the heater on the same timed circuit as the light so it gets that temperature drop...i wasnt sure if it was needed or was more of an ideal or if it was just something that happened due to traditional HID lighting and temps dropping when the lights were turned off...might experiment this grow and leave it to run and maintain the temp and next time put the heater on the same circuit to see if they grow better with the temperature drop...

City water is a pain ... especially in Biobizz (and i was told the same ting over and over about biobizz buffering - and no need to PH).w

So here's the deal as i see it - Biobizz wants a water/feed that's between 6.2-6.5 ph. But biobizz being organic doesn't wan't non-organic PH adjusters (lke nitric or phosphoric acid). Also even after PHing city water to 6.5 ... it will creep up again in PH (you can test this by leaving your PH'd water out for a day and retesting)

So here's the solution (albeit not great) as i see it. - Buy water from your local store Tesco's or simiar. Big 5 litre bottles that are around the right PH range - and then add your biobizz nutes as you would normal - but let the soil buffer the rest (don't PH it)

There's a good few members - Hazy is a noteable (wonder grower) one who has used (maybe uses) biobizz with great success.

It had me pulling my hair out - and i'd recommend if this grow gives you hassle, maybe try canna coco next, it turned out far more reliable for me.

Hope this helps a little

Blue ^_^

thanks for the reply as well...any info or advice is much appreciated...i PH'd the water again today and it was different so im kinda thinking my PH tester is naff or uncalibrated itself...it was only 10 pound so wasnt expecting much....but i might buy some bottled water and test that or some RO water and the calibration powders again...i think I will just water it with the water and nutes and not adjust it for the time being....when I can recallibrate my tester i will probably do a proper test on it as it seems to be way out at the moment....hopefully if its a tad high the soil will buffer it down...

i have heard good things about coco but it would need to change my nutes up and ive got 1L bottles of Plant Magic to go through first what is coco like? Do you have to water with the correct PH levels etc?

Also a few of the seedlings seems as if they were really leaning into the light so Ive lowered it to around 12 inches...hopefully they perk up and grow upwards!

 

[blue]

Coco is great - it's a soiless medium so you what you put in is what the plant gets. You will need a PH meter though, and PH down to 5.8 rather than 6.2-6.5.

If you're just looking at the easiest way possible to grow - check out Kind Soil .. one of the vendorrs here. That have made a soil that you just have to water ... no nutes ... and the plant grows for you

Your water PH is too high for it so you'll need to buy bottled water .... but that's cheap compared to nutes and PH down etc etc!

Worth a look i'd say!

 

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Maybe next time I will buy enough coco to do 2 plants in coco then 2 plants in normal soil and see how they compare...would be an interesting comparison for me to do anyway as i might get much better results and prefer it....im currently doing a test on one of the plants by just giving it plain water with veg and bloom nutes throughout the grow and I will then be giving the rest beneficials such as voodoo juice, silicon and root stimulant and will give them overdrive and some other beneficials at later stages....

i dont mind mixing up nutes etc, i partly think its half the fun in some odd way...bought some more buffer solution to re-callibrate my PH tester...then i will test the water at the flat again...for now i bought a few bottles of 2L evian as they are only taking 500ml between each of them ever day...

 

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Day 7 (since popping out the soil) for the OC's and 3 Bears OG in the larger pots...day 4/5 i think for the other 2...starting to put a little bit of size on and im hoping the new sets of leaves coming out now will be their first proper shaped leaves...

Looks as if this leave has been eaten i dont know why...i would like to think theres no bugs already about its only been setup a week with fresh new soil and a cleaned tent! Only seems to be this plant thats got this so maybe its just fucked or i can find what did it!

 

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Ive had to turn my heater up the thermostat controller says the tents at 26 degree's yet the temp/humidity reader i have says its at 22/23 degree's so one of them isnt calibrated correctly...so ive left another temp controller in there today to see which one is right or wrong...im hoping its not the heater controller i just bought as thats what the heat has been controlled to...not that its too much of an issue but i would prefer to be seeing temps of 25/26