Lighting The Bucket Strikes Back! (3 autos with LEDs)

[sielm]

Hi all friends! This is my 3rd harvest using this "hempy" bucket

The result of my last attempt is now drying, and awaiting to please my senses in a week or two from now you can take a look at the thread here if you want

This time I'm growing 3 different strains: 1 Green Poison Auto from Sweet Seeds, 1 unknown strain from the Assorted Auto pack by Buddha Seeds (hope it's a Deimos :twist and 1 Fast Bud #1 from Sweet Seeds. The first and second seeds were put to germinate 14 days ago, and the third seed 2 days later. All of them were put into a glass with water; 24 hours later they all had sunk and were put into wet paper towels. And 24 hours later all of them had germinated without problems, so they were put into soil :thumbs:. For the first days they all were under a single 45W blue CFL, awaiting the harvest of the Pandora that was in the bucket at that time. They have been under the 90W UFO since then.

The soil mix is composed of 60% Compo Sana Universal soil mix, 20% additional perlite and 20% worm castings. The seedlings look healthy, but the oldest one, the Green Poison Auto, has curled its first pair of true leaves downwards, and this is a bit worrying at this stage. The unknown one from the Assorted Auto also has some strange colored tips in its first pair of true leaves. Finally, the youngest one, the Fast Bud #1, is now looking like the healthiest of the trio. We'll see how they all develop...

The pots are hand made, and were built using 5 liter plastic bottles, which were cut to around 3.5liter capacity and covered with tape to protect roots from light. They all have a 2cm layer of volcanic stones in the bottom to help with drainage. The only water they got until now had a bit of lentil home-made hormones to assist with the root ball development. I will not add any more as I'm afraid it could damage the seedlings.

The green poison auto some days ago:


The unknown Buddha one from the Assorted Auto pack:


The Fast Bud #1:


General shot from days ago:


General shot taken today:


Closeup of the Green Poison Auto taken today:


Unknown Assorted Auto today:


Fast Bud #1 today:


To be honest, the Green Poison Auto is the one which got most of the UFO led light for the first hours in the bucket. I wish this UFO is not too strong for plants this size, considering they are separated by 25 or 30 cms at most from the light. We'll see if LST is needed this time, I think it will!

As it can be seen in the last pics, I added today a layer of 1 or 2 cms of additional soil mix to help fill the pots and keep the stems upwards.

This is all for now, best regards, and thanks for reading!

 

[GCase]

I found your new thread sielm. Tell us about the lentil recipe.

 

[The Squid]

Hey man. We got another one going, very nice. I'll follow along. What's your ph that GP is clawed up bad.

And yeah what's this lentil recipe you speak of?

 

[sielm]

Hi all! I'm afraid the lentil mix I used could have caused some of the trouble there... not sure though...

The recipe is something like this: put a handful of lentils into a bottle or jar, cover with water and leave for 24 hours. Then put the lentils between wet toilet papers or paper towels (like when we germinate seeds) and wait for the white tails to appear. That part of the lentil is supposed to have root creating hormones, so you can use it by removing it and adding it to a home made root-enhancing tea. I did this, but didn't check the resulting tea pH. Every seedling had some of the tea so I can't really blame the lentil tea for the aspect of the Green Poison. Today they got some plain water (pH 6.5) and we'll see what happens next.

I have read of more people using lentils as a source of home-made hormone teas, but could not find a truly reliable source about their effectiveness. I guess I won't be using it again at least for this harvest.

BTW I still have to get my pH meter, I wish it arrives this week. For now I'm still using pH papers to measure. THe runoffs are around 6-6.5 so I guess it should be OK.

Thank you all for your answers! Time to sleep, peace!

 

[GCase]

Interesting thanks for info. Others will find it to be of interest.

 

[sielm]

Hi all! Today I found the Green Poison Auto with its leaves even more curled

I'm afraid this might be because of the lights. The other 2 plants also seem to be starting to curl their leaves

Temps and humidity are OK. The bucket is well ventilated, and the soil mix is decent. The pH values are in range. I'm starting to believe the strength of lights could be the cause of this... Let's see if they get through these first weeks alright.

The unknown seed from Buddha is a bit curled and with a little bit of yellow in the leaf tips.

The Fast Bud looks alright, but has also began curling the leaves...

I rotated the tray under the pots so the plants get more even lighting.

Today I'll post a pic of the led lights I'm using, along with some closeups and a general view:

 

[sielm]

Hi folks! Today I watered them with 1 liter of mixture per plant (I used pH 7 bottled water with drops of vinegar until the pH value reached 6). That is a lot of water per plant, I did this because I won't be able to water them during the next 3 or 4 days. The UFO does not run very hot near the lights, but I noticed that the soil was quite dry after 2 days of watering normally (with approximately 300ml per plant).

I took some closeups today...

The Green Poison Auto still has its leaves heavily curled downwards, although there are some new leaf sets appearing which look normal (for now!):


The unknown seed from the Assorted Auto Mix looks good. Still with those yellow tips, but developing normally thus far:


Finally, the Fast Bud stands to its name hehehe and is now the biggest of the trio, even when it was the last seed to germinate. Its single point leaves are a bit curled too, I hope this won't happen with newer leaf sets.


Well that's it for now. I'm out!

 

[namvet]

Is there A reason the girls aren't in the center of the pots.

 

[sielm]

Hi namvet! Yeah, I decided to place them in a corner so I could tie them down applying LST if it is necessary. Last time it worked OK with the Pandora and filled the pot surface.

Also, I found this way is easier to place each plant exactly where I want it. The UFO covers an area of about 2 and a half pots, so there is a small space not directly covered with light. Having the plants this way I can make the seedling to rest directly under the light or slightly away. Not sure of its effectiveness, but I tried to place the Green Poison in the darker area, and see if its leaves recover...

Anyway, being a round bucket and lined with white tape makes light bounce quite a bit on the inside.

Thanks for passing by!

 

[sielm]

Hi all! These three are doing fine for now :booya:

The Green Poison Auto had a slight recover, and new growth looks healthy:


The unknown Assorted Auto is also doing fine. It is actually smaller than the GPA but looks larger because of its more straight leaves:


The Fast Bud looks big and nice too


The soil surface is still wet, which is a good thing considering I won't be able to take care of them for the next 2 days. Temps are nice (around 25ºC) and humidity too (55%) so no worries

Thanks all for reading! See you