Bignstrange's 4x4 800W COB LED Grow Tent - Promix - New Grower - Drop In!

[bignstrange]

Hey folks!

Welcome to my first grow journal, and thanks for having me here!

I am new to growing, but I would say I'm familiar enough with the basics of the plant that I would call this an intermediate grow journal, though I'm trying to lay it out nicely for beginners to follow as well. That being said, anyone is welcome to chime in, ask silly questions, be social, and otherwise have a good time, just keep the atmosphere peaceful like the ladies like it!

On to it;

What I'm hoping to do is get a bit of a perpetual harvest going here, but well start with just a couple strains;

-3X Blue Cindy-G13 Labs-Femenized
-Sativa Dominant Hybrid
-60 to 65 days
-A new seed from G13 that may require some learning

-2X White Widow-Canuk Seeds-Femenized
-Freebies-Last one I tried never germed so well see..
-Almost pure sativa
-55 days? Well see

As you can see I chose day time smoke with a short flowering period so I can maximize my productivity for the first round!

The grow;
-Indoors, 4x4 tent
-Promix HP, seedling-1g plastic pot, veg/flower-10g fabric pots (more like 7 gallons), adding 20% vermiculite, and putting an inch of perlite at the bottom of each pot
-Carbon filter/exhaust
-2X400 W COB LED light assemblies- more on these later (flower/late veg)
-1 maybe 2 200W CFL 6400K for seedlings/clones/mothers
-RH in room hovers around 50, ambient temps range between 65 and 71
-A couple fans to get the ladies dancing!

Nutrients;

-General Hydroponics 3 Part Flora Series-Micro, Grow, Bloom-Base nutrients
-Cannamax Potassium Silicate-Minerals, PH up
-Botanicare Cal Mag Plus-Minerals, nutrient uptake
-General Hydro Flora Nectar-Sweetner, carbs
-CX Horticulture Regen a Root-Should help keep the root zone habitable and problem resistant
-SIPCO Grozyme-Metabolyzes old roots and turns them into food for the plant :3
-OG Teas Root Webstar-Beneficial bacteria, microbes, bringing more life to the soil
-Green Planet Nutrients Massive Bloom Formulation-Flower booster
-Superthrive-I might not use it cause you can only use it in veg but ph down, seedlings, transplanting

This is my first time with all of the above products, so we shall see how she goes! Im using tap water, which here is spring water, left out for 24 hours and ph'd to 5.8-6.2. Will use plain water for a week or 2 then start feeding em!

I think thats all the info I need to get started. If I forget anything please let me know!

With all that said heres where were at. I just set the tent up today, will attach pics at the end of this post. I started germinating the seeds mentioned above 2 days ago and will make a post right after this about that. So really theres nothing left to do but say thanks for stopping by, stay tuned and don't be shy! It should be a fun ride and the more the merrier!

Im gunna make a post about germinating them beans right after this! Hope you enjoyed my first post, some new kit pictures and thanks for stopping by!

Take care,

Bignstrange

 

[AnimaSola]

Hey folks!

Welcome to my first grow journal, and thanks for having me here!

I am new to growing, but I would say I'm familiar enough with the basics of the plant that I would call this an intermediate grow journal, though I'm trying to lay it out nicely for beginners to follow as well. That being said, anyone is welcome to chime in, ask silly questions, be social, and otherwise have a good time, just keep the atmosphere peaceful like the ladies like it!

On to it;

What I'm hoping to do is get a bit of a perpetual harvest going here, but well start with just a couple strains;

-3X Blue Cindy-G13 Labs-Femenized
-Sativa Dominant Hybrid
-60 to 65 days
-A new seed from G13 that may require some learning

-2X White Widow-Canuk Seeds-Femenized
-Freebies-Last one I tried never germed so well see..
-Almost pure sativa
-55 days? Well see

As you can see I chose day time smoke with a short flowering period so I can maximize my productivity for the first round!

The grow;
-Indoors, 4x4 tent
-Promix HP, seedling-1g plastic pot, veg/flower-10g fabric pots (more like 7 gallons), adding 20% vermiculite, and putting an inch of perlite at the bottom of each pot
-Carbon filter/exhaust
-2X400 W COB LED light assemblies- more on these later (flower/late veg)
-1 maybe 2 200W CFL 6400K for seedlings/clones/mothers
-RH in room hovers around 50, ambient temps range between 65 and 71
-A couple fans to get the ladies dancing!

Nutrients;

-General Hydroponics 3 Part Flora Series-Micro, Grow, Bloom-Base nutrients
-Cannamax Potassium Silicate-Minerals, PH up
-Botanicare Cal Mag Plus-Minerals, nutrient uptake
-General Hydro Flora Nectar-Sweetner, carbs
-CX Horticulture Regen a Root-Should help keep the root zone habitable and problem resistant
-SIPCO Grozyme-Metabolyzes old roots and turns them into food for the plant :3
-OG Teas Root Webstar-Beneficial bacteria, microbes, bringing more life to the soil
-Green Planet Nutrients Massive Bloom Formulation-Flower booster
-Superthrive-I might not use it cause you can only use it in veg but ph down, seedlings, transplanting

This is my first time with all of the above products, so we shall see how she goes! Im using tap water, which here is spring water, left out for 24 hours and ph'd to 5.8-6.2. Will use plain water for a week or 2 then start feeding em!

I think thats all the info I need to get started. If I forget anything please let me know!

With all that said heres where were at. I just set the tent up today, will attach pics at the end of this post. I started germinating the seeds mentioned above 2 days ago and will make a post right after this about that. So really theres nothing left to do but say thanks for stopping by, stay tuned and don't be shy! It should be a fun ride and the more the merrier!

Im gunna make a post about germinating them beans right after this! Hope you enjoyed my first post, some new kit pictures and thanks for stopping by!

Take care,

Bignstrange

I wanna see more about the two 400watt cobs.

 

[bignstrange]

09/28/2017

So as mentioned above, I germinated these seeds a couple days ago because I wanted to make sure all of the equipment I was expecting arrived in good working order. Everything did and the set up went well, there are some pictures above if you haven't seen what were working with yet. Anyways the seeds were put into sandwich bags with a wet paper towel, using water that had been out for 24 hours and had a ph of 5.8. I also added a little bit of OG Teas Root Webstar directly to the seeds so that the tap roots can start life in a living environment. I had them on a tray on a heat mat as it gets a bit chilly here at night. All this was done 09/26/2017 at night.

I spent the day setting up the tent and doing the last little bit of organization and checked the seeds and boom! Little taproots everywhere, one white widow seed already has an inch long root but I'm waiting till tomorrow to plant them all for consistency reasons. They seem happy in their warm, humid, dark environment and really seem to like the bacteria feast I laid out for them! Ill make sure I get pictures of them when I plant them tomorrow morning!
So for now just a couple pictures of my germination station and method! And I won't apologize as much as forewarn, I like plants and equipment and everything about this so there will be a lot of pictures, open up your bandwidth folks!

Fold up that paper towel kinda loosely, toss it in the bag, keep it warm, humid and dark for 12-48 hours and they usually pop!

So thats it for today, tomorrow I will plant the Blue Cindys and White Widows in baby containers and getter under a humidity dome and cfl, they will probably only take one day to come up based on how excited they seem already! I will take pictures and make a post by the end of the night!

Thanks again for having me and take care folks!

Bignstrange

 

[bignstrange]

Hey Luweedgi!

Thanks for stopping by. These lights are pretty unique from what I can tell. I did a lot of research on what was available on the market and for my budget and location, these were the best buy. The lights I bought are their company branded commercial LED fixtures-no doubt straight from china, but the specs are what sold me.

Originally I ordered a light twice the size but they didn't have it on hand so I got the two smaller ones, 2 X400's instead of 1 X800. So it uses 20W full spectrum COB LED's with UV and IR range. Each light has 20 bulbs, actual power draw is only 200 W per light. They use Bridgelux chips and are EXTREMELY F'IN bright-glasses are in the mail! Each light produces 32000 lumens, and approx 160 lumens per watt which is what got me all excited. They get extremely good penetration, apparently, so well see how they perform. 1 light is supposed to cover a 4x4 and fully replace a 400W hps system so two should be more than enough.

These lights are beastly, full steel and aluminium construction, solid state-no fans! They weigh 25 lb each and are intertek approved and IP66 dust and water resistant! I really took a risk on them, but I'm hoping that they do what they say they can and I'm excited to start testing them and share the results with you all!

Stay tuned, and let me know if you want to know anything else!

Bignstrange

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Subbed in, looks like a nice setup you have there, I like the cob lights you have, I bet they will perform great. Good luck.

 

[bignstrange]

09/29/2017

Hey folks, welcome back!

And hey Ghost! Thanks for dropping by, seen you around before, but its cool to see you pop up in my first journal! Thanks for subbing and its great to have you!

This morning I planted those little seeds in my soiless mix. I mixed 1 bale of promix (107L) into 3 rubbermaid and split a 25L bag of vermiculite between the three of them. I think I read off of someones journal that vermiculite helps as a catalyst for nutrients, makes them more available to the roots, either way more drainage is better for me so I thought I'd give it a go. The plants went into 1 gallon plastic pots that should help keep humidity up while they're young and give them some space to stretch before I move em into their 10 gallon homes.

The white widow seed I mentioned earlier actually was growing its first set of leaves today :/ IN PAPERTOWEL, IN THE DARK! These plants are psychotic-the root seems healthy but the leaves are a bit yellow due to the fact it can't produce chlorophyll in the dark, I buried the leaves just under the surface so I'm hoping they reach for the light, the root grabs hold and we can give this phsyco white widow a good home! 3/5 have solid tap roots- one white widow i don't see anything but planted with faith that nature will do work, and the other blue cindy probably has a little one buried under the bacteria i put on her. Im a little nervous just cause I want to make sure I have 4 plants to flower, but if it comes to it I have some purple trainwreck seeds from HSO I would be keen on starting if I don't see babies up within 5 days.

Sprayed the top of my pots with a trigger spray bottle, gentle watering with tap water and popped solo cups on top to help keep heat and humidity. I also put the heat mat underneath the 1g pots to help warm up that root zone as temps hit a low of 65 last night. They're sitting under a 200W cfl which I will lower once they're out of the ground, so that will keep em warm too! Ambient temps 65-73 humidity about 70 which is beautiful right now, i got it down to 65 with my little fan on, but its just high cause were having a west coast rain storm today! I will go check on them in a couple hours to make sure my temps and humidity are dialled in.

So far, pretty excited, was hoping the seeds would germinate a bit more uniformly, but hey I wouldn't expect my girls to be any less stubborn than I am XD

Next update will probably come once I see little babes poking up and stretching for the sun!But for now a couple more pictures!

The first pic is that crazy white widow, a little hard to see but its got its first little leaves cotelydons i believe? are a little yellow, but the 1.5 inch tap root looks healthy so i have a feeling shell work some magic. If she makes it she's earned the name pshyco in my opinion XD

Anyways thanks for following, and stopping by, please don't be shy come say hi and share some tips!

Bignstrange

 

[Rider509]

A newbie that's not totally clueless. This'll be refreshing. I'm in for the ride.

 

[bignstrange]

Thanks for jumping in here Rider!

Id say I'm far from having a clue lol but definitely have done a bit of reading. Truthfully I did a bunch of research on this years ago and never really did anything with it unfortunately. This year I put a couple auto's out on the deck for a low light-no nutrient-seat of the pants grow and they turned out a little bit of smokeable pineapple express for me. You know how it is, the fungus gnats must've given me a bug cause I'm hooked again! Finally bit the bullet on some decent equipment and here we are!

Thanks for joining in, Im happy to have ya

 

[TheDarkTriad]

looking great so far.

 

[bignstrange]

09/30/2017

Hey y'all, welcome back!

So as I mentioned to Rider, I am read up, but far from having a clue. That brings me to my first big mistake of the grow! I TOTALLY DID NOT LABEL THE SEEDS I bet it was cause I wasn't medicated and was too excited and rushed those taproots into their new homes ASAP! So well have a game of guess the strain once they're all up!

On that note, my white widow, which has earned the name psycho, is up this morning! This is the seed that by the time the other ones were ready, had popped completely out of its shell and started growing cotedylons in the paper towel it was germinating in! I read somewhere that the seed husk actually contains a hormone that causes the plant to stretch and reach for the light/air so if they pop up with it on the leaf its advised to gently remove it to minimize stretching in the first week. I was thinking about that last night and thought jeeze what if that widow thinks it made it up and lives in a dark dirty world and doesn't try to stretch any more? I decided to be patient and give it time to settle into the promix and I said id check it in the morning. Well it didn't come up by itself so i lightly dug up the top MM of each pot until on the last one i saw a little baby leaf poking up
It looks like she's taking to her new home, she grew a bit sideways but looking good otherwise! Should see green by the end of the day, lights on 18/6 as of this morning!

Temps during the day are staying at a peachy 75-80 degrees, Im aiming for about 80 to help the babies incubate. Humidity is also floating consistently between 65 and 70 which is ideal for these little gals, I'm spraying the cups and air every time I check them to make sure we keep good humidity in the tent. Humidity did go down to 55 overnight between sprayings, but with the solo cups over the pre seedlings i doubt we skipped a beat!

Ooh and heres some super dense sativa from a local dispensary called Malana, kind of crazy smoke, unique and very very high quality! Bud pic

Anyways thats all for now folks, to everyone who has jumped in already and to those lurking in the shadows I just appreciate having others looking after these girls like I do! Please feel free to throw criticism and tips my way, this journal is here as a learning tool for myself and others so be hard on me, for all intensive purposes of course

Ill leave it there for now and Ill be back on once theres more news to share, cheers!

 

[bignstrange]

Thanks for joining DarkTriad,

Im looking forward to having something for you all to actually see! Slowly but surely,

Cheers!

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Just in time. I brought some edibles. Help yourself.

 

[bignstrange]

Just in time. I brought some edibles. Help yourself.

Hell ya don't mind if I do, gunna be here for a while anyways, right?

Thanks for joining in! Hey I see your profile pic is of a remo nutrients bottle, just saw these guys at my local hydro shop n bought a container of cloning gel!

Any feed back on their nutes? What are you using? Super curious to learn more about new things lol

Thanks again for joining Swag!

 

[Tunkers]

If you don't mind, I'll take a seat and watch this one. Love that you've done ya research and you appear to be putting it into practice quite well so far. Educated noob for the win! Now don't fuck up.. lol

 

[SwAggNiFiCeNt]

Hell ya don't mind if I do, gunna be here for a while anyways, right?

Thanks for joining in! Hey I see your profile pic is of a remo nutrients bottle, just saw these guys at my local hydro shop n bought a container of cloning gel!

Any feed back on their nutes? What are you using? Super curious to learn more about new things lol

Thanks again for joining Swag!

I'm using thier complete line up that came in the box. Minus the cloning gel. I'm a few weeks into my first grow and everything is going fantastic. Drop by if you like. I don't have anything to compare these nutes to but my plants like it. Started them off slow then just bumping it up to full strength and they haven't skipped a beat. I also use real growers recharge. Someone here recommended it when I was getting started so I just got some

 

[bignstrange]

If you don't mind, I'll take a seat and watch this one. Love that you've done ya research and you appear to be putting it into practice quite well so far. Educated noob for the win! Now don't fuck up.. lol

Lol I do well under pressure so I'll take that last line as encouragement ;P

Thanks for dropping by Tunkers! Should be an interesting run!

 

[bignstrange]

I'm using thier complete line up that came in the box. Minus the cloning gel. I'm a few weeks into my first grow and everything is going fantastic. Drop by if you like. I don't have anything to compare these nutes to but my plants like it. Started them off slow then just bumping it up to full strength and they haven't skipped a beat. I also use real growers recharge. Someone here recommended it when I was getting started so I just got some

Cool thanks for getting back to me! I'll definitely stop by and see how things are going for you! Always good to compare and contrast. Mind if I ask what the growers recharge is for? Forgive me if it's in your journal I'm just asking before I read it .

 

[Troy01]

Just pulled up a seat to watch the girls grow up. I have the same ThermPro as you but added 3 remotes. I keep one in the tent, one on my air intake into my garage and one outside the tent just outside the tent. I can sit in my easy chair and keep track of the temp and humidity.

Looks like a great setup and anxious to see the girls take off. Are you planning on doing any LST or Topping?

 

[bignstrange]

Just pulled up a seat to watch the girls grow up. I have the same ThermPro as you but added 3 remotes. I keep one in the tent, one on my air intake into my garage and one outside the tent just outside the tent. I can sit in my easy chair and keep track of the temp and humidity.

Looks like a great setup and anxious to see the girls take off. Are you planning on doing any LST or Topping?

Hey Troy!

Thanks for stopping by! Thermpro, gotta love Amazon eh XD I have a few as well, one monitoring ambient room temps, one currently on the floor with the pots to track the root zone temp since I'm using a heat mat right now, and one resting on the rims of the pots to monitor the temps and humidity at the top of the soil! Will definitely be moving them around as we go but as per your easy chair comment,I agree, sure makes it easy to baby these ... babies .

And yessir the plan is basically to push this set up and these plants as far as they will "casually" go. Meaning I'm gunna give them 101% not 110% if that makes any sense. Everything they need and just that little more to set them up to reach their potential. On that note I will be putting them through schooling in the form of fimming and some lst and I'm debating doing a spiral flux versus a cross/X but either way I'm gunna train the canopy low and wide kind of like Jay223's plants were,and then let them stretch and fill in during flower.

These LED's have pretty high ppfd numbers, but they are still LED's so I figure if I can train the plants for many bud sites and keep them low, by the time they stretch the LED should have no problem blasting the plant with light all the way down, maximising useable bud growth. Just a theory, but I'm hoping it'll work for me. That being said im trying to keep this veg short so I can get a perpetual harvest going so I'll have to decide how long I'm willing to wait!

That was pretty long winded but hopefully that gives an indication of my aspirations for these girls lol I want em big and cola-e .

Thanks again Troy, glad your here !

 

[Velk]

im in for the rideeeeeeeee