Boycie's Grow - Unknown Strain - LED & Hydro - First Grow Journal

[BoycieTen]

Hi everyone,

My name is Boycie and I'm a long-time lurker but first-time poster on this forum. I've already learned so much from this community, which I'm very grateful for.

I have a fair bit of experience in traditional gardening and had 2-3 successful attempts in soil. However this is my first attempt in a hydro system. I built a pretty good diy cupboard system and have all the specifics covered. FYI I live in sub-tropical climate so temperatures and humidity, which is 60-70% on a good day, will be my struggle.

Since I spent a fair bit of money and time on this already, I figured it would be good to keep a journal and have some expert assistance along the way. So here we go....


UNKNOWN STRAIN (would love to know)
VEG STAGE for about7 days
INDOOR SYSTEM (90x160x50cm cupboard)
HYDRO: 13 gal HYDRO (DWC + cont. TopFeed + bubbleponics with 2 airstones) 24/7
LIGHT: Mars Hydro II 400 LED / True 158W Full Spec.
AIR: continuous air circulation (in&out) 24h/day
ROOM TEMP: average of 26-28* C (78-82f)
NO PESTS
CONTINUOUS TOP FEED DRIP IRRIGATION
NUTRIENTS: Dutchfest Hydrogrow A+B & Dutchfest Hydrobloom A+B



- Someone gave me a bag of 35 seeds but only 4 of them sprouted. One of my soil plants was from the same strain and I loved it. Any way to find out the strain later on?

- Put all the seeds in rockwool cubes (moist with PH'd water) and kept them on the top of my fridge. Sprouted after ~7days. Some of them had the taproot already poking out of the bottom

- Put all 4 of them in net pots with clay balls and kept the drip feed away to not further saturate the cube. Drips on the edge of the pots which still seems to moisten the cube just enough.

- First week is just figuring out the plants. Seem to drink a fair bit of water and the grow seems to go well for two of them. Lowered the light to 40cm (15") which seems to make them look better. Good root and leaf growth on 2 of them. 2 others look fine but very slow growth.
The two bigger ones struggle to stand up. Without toothpicks they fall over instantly. Node spacing seems good but the stem is very thin and lanky.

- At 7 days, changed reservoir, ph'd water and added nutrients. The local HYDRO-shop insisted that you don't go less than full strength with this brand of nutes. Next day is this update:

Day 8:
Air Temp: 25* C
Reservoir Temp: 26* C
PH: 5.8
640 ppm 0.5
906 ppm 0.7
EC 1.3

Still educating myself on the ppm and EC values.

All feedback and comments welcomed. My first points would be:

1. Why the stem is not strengthening up? If I remove toothpicks it falls and the lights are pretty low so it shouldn't be stretch.

2. Roots and one cube is severely discoloured (brown roots + green cube) after 1 day of nutes. Root rot? Or just discolouration from nutes?

3. Anyone that could point me out where to educate myself on ppms? My meter gives me both 0.5 and 0.7. Struggled to calibrate the meter-pen. The calibration fluid says to calibrate at 1800ppm but the max on the pen is 1382.

Directions with Conductivity Standard

Directions with pen

I apologise if this is too much for my first post but I'm new to this blogging and tried to follow the advice of giving as much info and pics as relevantly necessary. Thanks in advance for your time!!!

B

 

[The Germinator]

Use a fan to gently blow the plants around it will strengthen them.
What is your water temp? If it's above 72 you could have the start of root rot. It could just be discoloration though.
The meter is pre calibrated. I'd prob not worry bout calibration for awhile. Good luck it's looking good.

 

[BoycieTen]

Use a fan to gently blow the plants around it will strengthen them.
What is your water temp? If it's above 72 you could have the start of root rot. It could just be discoloration though.
The meter is pre calibrated. I'd prob not worry bout calibration for awhile. Good luck it's looking good.

There's a fan (lower one when the plant would be bigger) gently blowing above the canopy making a gentle breeze.

My water temp is 78 ATM. Maybe I should try to add some ice-blocks in the reservoir.

Thanks for your help!
Cheers

 

[BoycieTen]

Boycie's Grow - Unknown Strain - LED & Hydro - First Grow Journal

Update:

Both room and reservoir temp is now at 24*C (75*F). Gently felt the roots and it's definitely brown but doesn't feel slimy to me.

Lowered the fan a little bit more to strengthen the stem.

Also I notice this green dust coming up massively on the biggest one's rockwool cube and slightly on the smallest one (which is in front of the bigger one), even though it's roots hasn't reached the water yet.

Any feedback/constructive criticism is highly welcomed.

Cheers
B

 

[BoycieTen]

Boycie's Grow - Unknown Strain - LED & Hydro - First Grow Journal

Update:

Brown discolouration still there. It still doesn't feel slimy.

I'll check pH and ppm's later.

Plants look like they grown a bit more since yesterday and they look fairly healthy. Except one of the smaller ones looks like has some deformed leaves.

Also I noticed that my main stem on the two bigger ones was quite purple right above the two seedling leaves (by lack of better term). You can slightly see it on my last pic but definitely more now.

I know that this usually points out some deficiency but is that sill the case right above those leaves?

All feedback and/or comments welcomed.

Cheers B

 

[BoycieTen]

Update:

pH: 6.0
Temp room: 22.5*C (72.5*F)
Temp water: 24.5*C (76.1*F)

Nutrients: 650 ppm (0.5)

Pro: Plants grown a fair bit and strong enough to stand up without toothpicks.

Roots still brown but no slime.

Cons: The biggest one (1st pic) has way more of that green (mouldy looking) stuff on rockwool cube. Also some white-looking dust stuff on there as well.

Anyone any ideas of what it could be and is it harmful?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
Cheers
B

 

[Rifleman]

That is algae on the rockwool. It's because the RW is damp and full of food, and the light is growing it. Cover the RW with some clay pellets to block the light.

With water tempsl that high you are asking for rot if you don't get some beneficial bacteria in there. Hydroguard, Sensizym, or Z7.
If you have a chance next time skip the RW and use a rapid rooter plug, or something similar. In my experience RW holds too much moisture and can be difficult to grow in when one is first starting out.

 

[BoycieTen]

Thanks for the help man. Truly appreciate it.

Water temp will always be an issue I guess since I live in sun-tropical area. Luckily out of summer but they forecast 30*c next couple of days. When I put 2 ice-bottles in the container, they're melted within minutes.

What would the perfect water temperature be? I thought anything between 22-25 would've been fine.

Looks like bacteria might be my only option.

Thanks again!
B

 

[Rifleman]

Thanks for the help man. Truly appreciate it.

Water temp will always be an issue I guess since I live in sun-tropical area. Luckily out of summer but they forecast 30*c next couple of days. When I put 2 ice-bottles in the container, they're melted within minutes.

What would the perfect water temperature be? I thought anything between 22-25 would've been fine.

Looks like bacteria might be my only option.

Thanks again!
B

My buckets run 22-25C but I treat every gallon that goes in with Hydroguard at least. When it is really warm I use all three I listed. Cheap insurance when I've got 4 plants in deep bloom carrying 6zips or more on each plant.

Edit: In my journal I have been keeping track of reservoir temps, pH, and ppm for over a month, logged daily. Not sure what help it could be other than to prove dwc can be run at higher temps *IF* one stays on the beneficial bacteria.

 

[BoycieTen]

Thanks man! I'll have a look into it and see if I can get my hands on them. Might be a bit tricky on my end of the world.

Definitely will check your journal. Still have to get my ppm meter and knowledge up to scratch.

 

[BoycieTen]

Update:

Sorry but I'm not able to check temps, pH and ppm ATM since I'm in the middle of a house move.

Plants look nice and healthy thanks to the help of you guys.

Stems thickened up and strong to stand by itself.
No more discolouration of the roots and the algae on the RW cubes has gone.

3 of the 4 of them have their roots in the water.

Im currently thinking about training the plants but might want some advice on it as which method would suit my setup the most.

I've looked (vigorously) into LST training and Stealthgrows topping&LST. I like the idea of having a flat canopy but I'm scared the dimensions of my cupboard might make it hard. The biggest plant is already touching the walls of my cupboard.

Here's what I'm thinking:

- do LST and keep the plant short and as wide as possible. Would probably be limited in terms of width.

OR

Do Stealthgrows way of topping and lst-ing the plant into 8 main colas and that can grow almost to 3foot (which is my height limitation).

Im a missing something here or saying something stupid? Any input would be helpful as I want to start the training ASAP.

Thanks in advance and thank you so much for all the knowledge I've acquired so far!

Cheers
B

 

[BoycieTen]

Hi,

Update will follow soon. Should be able to do one tonight.
Moving house went well and plants look happy and healthy. Changed res yesterday and added nutes.

I decided to give both training techniques a go. Biggest plant has been trained into the first stages of main-lining.

The second biggest one is bent down into normal LST. Tied up the stem at the base and bent the top of the plant 180* in front of that.

It will be interesting to see both techniques at work at the same time. I've used the clippings from the trimming to make some clones.

One of them might give me an idea of what the sexes are if I push it into 12/12 early.

All feedback and thoughts welcomed!
Cheers
B

 

[BoycieTen]

Long overdue update:

Day 19 of veg

pH: 5.5
Res Temp: 26* C (78.8* F)
Room Temp: 25* C (77* F)
Ppm: 680 (0.5)
Spear-white well established roots on all of them.

- 1 responds well to first step of mainlining (almost 4 nodes on main stems)

- 1 responds well to LST bending (in circle) and almost have the stem do a 90* angle. Making a tomato-ring for it. Had to defoliate that one because the leaves were bigger than my hand and creating shadows on itself and the other plants.

- 2 small ones are untouched and creating roots at rapid speeds.

If all of them turn out to be females (which I hope but I doubt it will be the case) I'll only have room for two in that small cupboard.

Thinking about taking the 2 smallest ones and let them outside in soil or soilless mix.

Any thought or feedback more than welcome.

Cheers

 

[BoycieTen]

Am I doing something wrong here to get no response whatsoever except for Riffleman and Germinator (which is much appreciated).

I see first time growers journals (just like mine) with close to 100 replies.

Just wondering....

 

[Rifleman]

Am I doing something wrong here to get no response whatsoever except for Riffleman and Germinator (which is much appreciated).

I see first time growers journals (just like mine) with close to 100 replies.

Just wondering....

They are looking great BoycieTen. If you'll put a link to your journal in your signature you'll have folks follow you back here. Oh and photos, they appeal to everyone.

 

[BoycieTen]

Thanks! So should I link my journal in signature in my journal posts?

Don't post much more anywhere else since I'm a newbie to the craft.

 

[Rifleman]

Thanks! So should I link my journal in signature in my journal posts?

Don't post much more anywhere else since I'm a newbie to the craft.

I can't find the tutorial right now, but yes. The link and the signature will be on every post you make. The more places you post, the more people see it, the more traffic you get.

And since I can't find the link that tells you how to do that, I'll just shamelessly pimp your journal in mine, The Roost.


Edit: Done. Bet you have a few visitors soon.

 

[Scottay]

Heya Boycie!! Im scottay.....looking good thus far. Rifle is a good guy to ask about growin in this medium. His plants end up monsters!!! Happy saturday and to I will follow this journal and see how it ends up!! Keep those girls green!!

 

[BoycieTen]

I can't find the tutorial right now, but yes. The link and the signature will be on every post you make. The more places you post, the more people see it, the more traffic you get.

And since I can't find the link that tells you how to do that, I'll just shamelessly pimp your journal in mine, The Roost.


Edit: Done. Bet you have a few visitors soon.

Cheers man. Truly appreciate the gesture.

 

[Scottay]

Reps for startin your first journal my friend!