Emmie's 6 Plant, True Living Organic, LED Grow Journal

Emilya said:
that is a common myth... actually about 6.8pH

that is for used coffee grounds... not sure unused grounds would be a good idea at all
Click to expand...
I guess I was 50% correct. Fresh, unused coffee grounds are highly acidic. Used coffee grounds are near neutral at around 6.5 or so... lol
 
The LED lights that I have been watching on Ebay just keep getting bigger and better. I haven't bought my flowering lights yet because I am still waiting on the Mars contest to resolve on here, but soon I will pull the trigger on this purchase if Mars doesn't want to sponsor me to test their new powerful light. Brand new this week, these crazy new name lights are offering a 3000W model, complete with a bloom switch which apparently turns on even more red lights and gets it to its full power output.
Now I know were are not talking a real 3000w of light, but that is what we are dealing with in this new competitive world of LED grow lights... marketing hype. Many of these new brands are now claiming that since they have 300 10w LEDs on the panel, that adds up to 3000 watts. Of course, to get long life and fewer heat related problems, they are only running these LEDs at 10%, but because of having over 300 LEDs, this light is pulling about 360W from the wall. Looking at the numbers, this thing puts out a massive amount of light, and with its new wider footprint, it will cover a good sized area. I would think that under that footprint it will perform a little better than a 600W HID, for a whole lot less electricity.

I am in negotiations with them now. I think I can get them under $100 if I buy two of them. Yep, I need two of them. 6000w of LED... talk about overkill.
---Dr. M, mad scientist
 
While I was in the tent this evening moving LST restraints around a bit, Wappa got my attention and wanted to show off her new look at the 33 day mark. I tried to mark all of her new kolas that will be rising up to the canopy, but I missed one. At the moment there are 9, and she is on track to being the largest producer in this round's flowering tent. Wappa is a big producer anyway, so this is going to be awesome.
So here is what we are going for with the 2-3 topping... 4 main kolas, and then as many more as we can train to pop up in the time we have to veg, all on a solid base that will stay relatively short.

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Today was watering day! The plants have all settled into roughly the same wet/dry cycle now... approximately 3.5 days. I know that above I said that the plants had already accelerated to a 2 day watering cycle, but that was too early, and I knew it was a false reading. It takes a while to settle into a new container and with my use of layers and zones, the roots can be a little timid working their way through the entire space. This last cycle, those roots grew quite a bit and I am sure now that they have populated the entire container, top to bottom. They are not yet robust enough to cut down the timing on the wet/dry cycle, but that will happen quickly over the next week or so, especially after this watering. I will not transplant to their final containers until they can each demonstrate an ability to use all of this water in 24 hours or less. My plants are thriving under all of this abuse, they seem happy, and they are growing like weeds on a mission.

Today I prepared an actively aerated compost tea, especially formulated for mid veg. This is a very strong nitrogen rich mix consisting of:
1 tbls molasses
1 tbls kelp/feather meal mix
1 tbls alfalfa meal
1 tbls oyster shell flour
1 tbls all purpose fertilizer 5-5-5
2 tsp liquid fish
1 tsp seaweed extract
2 tsp high N bat guano
This was bubbled for 24 hours and then 1 cup of earthworm castings were added and it was bubbled for second 24 hours.

This tea was then strained, diluted and used to water and foliar spray all of the plants.

Training is going very well and even the youngest plants are responding now with vigorous growth from the lower nodes. The plan now is to veg for about 2 more weeks, moving them into 3 gallon containers as soon as they are ready. I am trying to time this along with the arrival of the new flowering lights, which I will likely purchase early this week.

Here are the girls, already having absorbed the foliar and are considering the liquid they have just been given that is teaming with life and mineral goodness... those microbeasties are having a party today at the roots!

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Merry Christmas Everyone!
 
Hi Emilia, nice to find your journal. Thanks
 
Your plants look awesome and Im loving the detail'. One of these days I will give soil another go and these pages are going to be a huge help. One thing Im missing...Im old and at times quite blind...when you give your tea recipes, how much water do you use....also when you dilute for feeding and foliar?

Thanks :)
 
mouser said:
Your plants look awesome and Im loving the detail'. One of these days I will give soil another go and these pages are going to be a huge help. One thing Im missing...Im old and at times quite blind...when you give your tea recipes, how much water do you use....also when you dilute for feeding and foliar?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
Good question and thanks for the compliments! Each of my teas are designed to be brewed in a 2 gallon pitcher with one gallon of water in it. When the tea is done I strain it with a simple kitchen strainer, saving most of the small organic particles, and then I dilute it with another gallon of water before feeding it to the plants. When using as a foliar spray, I dilute it again by 100% as I add it to my spray bottle.
 
I promised an update with glamour shots this weekend, so prepare yourselves... here they come! Wappa got to go early, but just because it was a little past her 1 month birthday. She is still putting on amazing growth and is now starting to send her main branches vertical.
I will start today with the youngest and then move forward in age. Each of the plants in the show today were worked on a bit prior to the picture session. The LST hoops were moved toward the outer edge if appropriate. Leaves under the canopy, if they have crinkled funny in reaction to the LST or if they are attempting to turn right side up but not doing so well with the job, were trimmed. Leaves now near the top that were blocking nodes in the middle of the plant that I want to go vertical were also chopped. Some got more, some got less... it was simply a judgement call on each plant individually as to what was in the way and what wasn't, avoiding trimming any of the large fan leaves. This little trim will help get light and air to a few more of the growth tips and should allow just a few more to rise up to the canopy.
Without further ado, here is TrainWreck, sporting her new quartered look at 26 days old:
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I was curious what this newfangled LED 1000w array was actually pulling from the wall. I wired up a breakout box so I could stick my multimeter in the circuit and this is what I found:
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Some quick math: 1.43amps x 120volts = 171.6 watts actual draw from the wall.

Some more math: HID equivalency is roughly 2x the LED wattage, so approximately 343.2 watts. Not bad for a veg tent... I think I like this.
 
I have been asked to describe the hoops that I am using for LST training. I started with fancy gardener's wire, coated in plastic and designed not to rust, but this wire along with the plastic coating was so big that it would tear big holes in the soil, and it would try to pull up whole layers of my soil if there was a need to pull one up and move it to a new location as the branch grew toward the edge of the container.
In frustration one day I bought some uncovered steel wire at the hardware store that was a bit lighter gauge and I cut a bunch of hoops. The little bit of rust [iron oxide] that has been forming on these as I have used them over the years can not be harmful to these plants, and so far they have lasted quite a while. They are easily inserted into the soil and can be pulled up and relocated with ease.
I generally try to locate the hoop at the junction just below the growth tip. This is usually enough to pull down the entire branch, which of course earlier has been trained to harden in this new horizontal position. I have 3 standard lengths of these hoops, from very small for the low hanging branches to roughly the height of the planters. Sometimes a small one won't get enough bite in the soil to hold down a very resistant branch and there is a need to go for one that can bite in a bit deeper.
I like this system a lot and have used it to great effect for years. The impact on the roots is minimal. Rearranging is a snap. Transplanting can be done with the LST system in place. Once training is finished the hoops can be easily removed and stored away, ready for the next run.
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