LED Grow Journal - Coco, Powder feeding

[WhiteRabbit 18]

Hello everyone!

 

This is my first grow journal. For various reasons I'm starting it a little late (2 weeks in flowering), but hey, it's better late than never.

 

This is my first grow using COCO as a substrate, so I was bound to make some mistakes. There were some PH fluctuations in the vegetative stage due to uncalibrated PH meter, but everything seems far gone now .

This is also the first time I am using Greenhouse Powder Feeding (I got the idea off a friend, whos plants were looking very healthy).

I had a plan in my mind for some reason that I would use the Mother Plants one in veg and then switch to Hybrids, as my strains are mostly hybrids.

 

The strange thing that I encountered is that , using the mother plants feed, the girls were kinda slowing down on growing at the end of the second month and just making their stems at the bottom more wide  ... or I was hallusinating maybe. However when I switched to the Hybrids feed and along with that switched the cycles - they exploded  and some grew like 20-25cm in 3 days.  Or maybe it was the pruning all alone...

Overall the VEGETATION lasted 2 months and a bit.

However for various reasons, the plants were in 1 liter pots for the first 3 weeks so that slowed down the growth.

I also had deficiency issues in some plants, of different sorts and I always give them more time to heal. The issues slowly went away when I started feeding them with nutes EVERY OTHER TIME.

 

I will be grateful for every and any advice on the project! : )

 

 

THE SETUP

 

Room:

2m x 2m x 2m Buddha box

 

Lighting:

8 x 300w LED panels (180w real usage), 3 watt Epiled diodes -  630nm -16pcs, 660nm -16pcs, 460nm -16pcs, 470nm -16pcs,  3500k -18pcs , 7500k -18pcs

In a few days I will put 3 or 4 panels more in the less lit areas, just for fun : )

 

Ventilation:

1 Vents TT 150 extractor 520m3/h

Carbon filter 600m3/h+

Moving fan 30W

 

Substrate:

50% Coco coir/ 50% Perlite,  presoaked in 1ml/l Calcium solution, RootIT sponges for the seeds, 11 liter PVC pots

 

Feeding:

Greenhouse Powder Feeding - Mother plants (veg), Hybrids (flower) -  roughly 3 literes per plant   -  0.5g/l first 2-3 weeks in the pots, then 1g/l every other feeding. PH according to the GH scheme for every week. 

Every week 10 liters flush with PH water, + 1ml/l Calcium the first feeding after

 

Strains:

7 x Liberty Haze, 1 x Skywalker OG Kush, 4 x Cinderella 99, 2 x Critical Kush, 2 x THC Bomb, all fem (may have some GH Cheese also, dunno)

All plants have been topped, rather late, and they have been "lollipopped" 80% right on the cycle change.

 

 

Here are some low-q pictures of the girls, these days will post some decent ones:

Stay healthy and be happy! 

[WhiteRabbit 18]

FLOWERING WEEK 3
 
The pest problem I was suspecting was confirmed - SPIDER MITES !!!      

 
They have spread moderately on the lower leaves, but it is not as bad as I thought.
The picture shows one of the very bad spots.
All plants were sprayed generously in and out with TRABE Oleatbio, an organic and non-toxic insecticide, which is very effective against red Spider, Thrips, Aphids, Whitefly and Scale insects.
The spraying will be repeated in 5 days, and then maybe some more.
 
Overall everything seems fine, the Potassium deficiency I spotted on some leaves has disappeared (for now).
I have started to feed them every watering, from 2 days ago.
Also, calibrated my PH meter and brought a EC meter to accurately increase the potency of the feed from currently EC 1.2 to 1.6.
They will be flushed  good every 5 days. Hope I don't see signs of overfeeding.  
 
New pictures, still not hi-res 

[Dust 6,284]

Thanks for sharing your journal man! 8 LEDS panel and 2 month of veg, can't wait to see what the yeild willbe like hehe

 

How tall are the plants more or less we dont see too much on the photos the size of one plant

Have a good grow and keep us updated

[WhiteRabbit 18]

FLOWERING WEEK -  4 1/2

 

Here is the update (a bit late) on the garden

Almost every plant seems fine and they are all fattening up nicely.

There are no signs of overfeeding or deficiencies. 

However, the spider mites and the thrips are here to stay.... At this point they can only be contained on a safe level, but cannot be exterminated 100% and they come back in 2-3 days.

 

Here are some new photos (from the latest watering) , hope you like them :

[Jose.gh 7,612]

Great culture room, very nice !! I love the culture led, it is a great alternative to sodium. The problem .... spiders are very resilient, very bad. In my experience, the best way to eliminate them is to stop for a week or two around when you make the harvest. Spraying with chemicals when there are no plants, wait 2 days and re-spray ... extermination. 

 

Wait 1 -2 weeks and then it's time to start growing again. It's a little tedious, but necessary if we want to completely eliminate the spider. Another tip ... spiders do not like the cold, with cold development is much lower. 

 

These buds are certainly equally tasty look great !! 

 

Thanks for sharing!

[slimjim 590]

lovely garden friend shame about the spiders

peace

[WhiteRabbit 18]

Thank you guys

Jose.gh I was thinking the same thing (about the cleaning), hope to contain them enough for 3 more weeks...

[WhiteRabbit 18]

FLOWERING WEEK 6

Everything is normal, all buds are fattening up The spider mites are being contained with spraying every 5 days.

 

Here is a picture of the left side of the garden and some WEED PORN ! Enjoy ! 

[turksteelman 122]

Really nice pictures. I love Liberty Haze, you will be pleased.

[slimjim 590]

looking very nice,

is it the led making the trichomes look amber in your pics?

execellent work

PEACE

[WhiteRabbit 18]

Thank you for the kind words!
Unfortunately the LEDs are the only bright light I got there and it makes it a little difficult to capture real colors. I shoot with DSLR in RAW and then through Picasa, cause I found it uses some pretty good algorithm to make out a decent white balance out of the different spectrums (when viewing RAW). The trichomes are not yet amber in those pics, Also the pestils are not SO orange