First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced LED

[JJambo]

What strain is it?-----Easy Kush (non sponsor)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?------Hybrid (site claims 75% Indica 25% Sativa)
Is it in Veg or Flower stage?-----I think still in seedling stage. Not sure when veg officially begins.
If in Veg... For how long?------N/A
If in Flower stage... For how long?-----N/A
Indoor or outdoor?-----Indoor
Soil or Hydro?------Hydro
If soil... what is in your mix?-----N/A
If soil... What size pot?-----N/A
Size of light?-----At this young stage, 80w of 6500K florescent tubes T12 (lights I had from a previous hobby )
Is it aircooled?-----No
Temp of Room/cab?-----73f
RH of Room/cab?-----20%RH
PH of media or res?-----5.6
Any Pests ?-----N/A
How often are you watering?-----No watering schedule. I judge by weight. Wet/Dry cycle for roots!!!
Type and strength of ferts used?-----None at the moment.






Hi everyone. Thanks for taking time to read this journal. I hope to learn a lot from my first grow.

First if you look at my gallery, you will see the setup that I am using. I started with 4 seeds germinated in a wet paper towel. After 4 days, the taproot sprouted and I carefully inserted each seed in a soaked, PH adjusted rockwool starter plug. The seedlings finished sprouting on the 2nd of December (leaves uncurled, lost their husks, etc.). A Humidity dome was used for about 5 days. Each day vents opened more and more.

Below are picks of my seedlings at 17 days of growth. I did have a situation with my LED light from Advanced. It turned out when I tried to put the light up too close (18 inches @ 50% power for only the white Crees) the leaves curled down and growth was stunted. I'm pretty sure I lost about 6 days of growth experimenting with this light. I even tried to move it up to 4' and put the seedlings in the corners of the tent at 50% power with both spectrum's on. Curling and stunted growth soon followed just a day after. BTW, this wasn't an over watering issue. Now that the light is off and using CFL's, growth is nice. Thanks to SPITZ for the lighting help even though it didn't solve the situation.

Once new growth resumed soon I saw roots coming out the bottom of my rockwool plugs. These were transfered to 3" cubes. After 3 Days, roots are coming out the bottom (time to transplant?). I am also wondering when is a good time to start a feeding schedule? Remember this is a first grow, so I don't expect a right answer every time. I am going to listen to my plants and prefer to under feed than over feed. I expect plants that aren't perfect looking. I am here to learn this strain as I figure when I learn new strains lighting, feeding, and overall environmental factors will change.

I also plan to clone off the 2 healthiest looking ones. I've already picked the two for my mother plants. The other one isn't drinking the water as fast as the other two. How old does a plant have to be to take clones?

Any other questions or comments are welcome. Again, thanks for taking your time to read my journal.

 

[JJambo]

Here they are after being transplanted to the air pots with rockwool cubes. 2 fixtures of cfls were hung off the Adv. light and will slowly get introduced. So far they have only been getting recharge every other watering and before transplant got hormex B1 and hormone solution.

 

[TokinElf]

nice looking tent and setup,, subbing in for the ride

 

[JJambo]

Just a quick update. Gave nutrients this past Sunday. PPM was 300 and the ph was brought down to 5.6. I am using the CAP'n formula from another site (not sure if I can even post the link). New growth is good and everything is nice and green. I have been noticing the stems starting to get a woody texture/appearance to them. Might be the nutes, me pinching them slightly, or even just from moving them around but there's definitely a jump in growth. I figure the feed was good timing because the cotyledons were just starting to turn yellow. Thanks for looking and have a great Christmas and New Years.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

UPDATE:

PPM wast brought up to 420 with a ph to 5.8. After watering ph drifts to 6. After another watering drifts to 6.2. So every two days (1 watering a day) PH is brought back down to 5.6. Should give me a nice swing to work with for now. The advance light is only on for 6 hours out of the eighteen to gradually introduce the plants to the light.

The PH reader (probes are left in the reservoir). For a first grow I want real time readings and have a backup probe.

Showing PPM, Temp, and PH (temp is stable with 1/4 hp chiller for now just chilling 6 gallons)

A look at the self watering system (normally I would hand water, but I work so many hours and appreciate the automation)

4 days bouncing back from only having the light on for 6 hours out of the day.

My rez plumbing.

A quick connect to the feed pump that I can switich out for a drain line. Complete switch over from an old rez to new one is less than one hour. 3 hours later ph seems stable and is adjusted. In the morning before work I would adjust the ph once more. This gives me a reliable schedule. The two long arms branching out on each side give a gentle flooming/waterfall effect. Gentle where there is no bad splashing all over the place.

RO Setup with booster pump.

For plants that are almost a month old I still wonder what other things I could be doing wrong. I know they're probably at least two weeks behind because of the light issue. If I still have that 650 4' up and at 50% for both dials, leaves curl down and don't recover for about 4 days. CFL's right back up. So my only choice is to SLOWLY introduce it. Anyways, rambling on. Thanks for reading. Any tips or comments are welcome to this first time grower.

 

[Stage]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

High there JJambo. Welcome to
Like your lights. Like your spill tray too. Your setup is really interesting my friend.
Have you grown this way before? Or will this be on the job training?
Good luck and Ill eat a lil popcorn over here if you don't mind.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Thanks Stage.

Actually, this is my first grow. I've done some reading and finally settled on a tek and made a variation of my own style as far as the build goes. I like the ease of a mostly automated grow. My next purchase is a ph controller so that I can be gone for a week at a time. But I'll probably wait till after this grow to find out if I even really need one. Actually I'm about to read your 4x4 led og kush big bud grow. Maybe I could learn more.

 

[DRM Ranch]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

What strain is it?-----Easy Kush (non sponsor)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?------Hybrid (site claims 75% Indica 25% Sativa)
Is it in Veg or Flower stage?-----I think still in seedling stage. Not sure when veg officially begins.
If in Veg... For how long?------N/A
If in Flower stage... For how long?-----N/A
Indoor or outdoor?-----Indoor
Soil or Hydro?------Hydro
If soil... what is in your mix?-----N/A
If soil... What size pot?-----N/A
Size of light?-----At this young stage, 80w of 6500K florescent tubes T12 (lights I had from a previous hobby )
Is it aircooled?-----No
Temp of Room/cab?-----73f
RH of Room/cab?-----20%RH
PH of media or res?-----5.6
Any Pests ?-----N/A
How often are you watering?-----No watering schedule. I judge by weight. Wet/Dry cycle for roots!!!
Type and strength of ferts used?-----None at the moment.






Hi everyone. Thanks for taking time to read this journal. I hope to learn a lot from my first grow.

First if you look at my gallery, you will see the setup that I am using. I started with 4 seeds germinated in a wet paper towel. After 4 days, the taproot sprouted and I carefully inserted each seed in a soaked, PH adjusted rockwool starter plug. The seedlings finished sprouting on the 2nd of December (leaves uncurled, lost their husks, etc.). A Humidity dome was used for about 5 days. Each day vents opened more and more.

Below are picks of my seedlings at 17 days of growth. I did have a situation with my LED light from Advanced. It turned out when I tried to put the light up too close (18 inches @ 50% power for only the white Crees) the leaves curled down and growth was stunted. I'm pretty sure I lost about 6 days of growth experimenting with this light. I even tried to move it up to 4' and put the seedlings in the corners of the tent at 50% power with both spectrum's on. Curling and stunted growth soon followed just a day after. BTW, this wasn't an over watering issue. Now that the light is off and using CFL's, growth is nice. Thanks to SPITZ for the lighting help even though it didn't solve the situation.

Once new growth resumed soon I saw roots coming out the bottom of my rockwool plugs. These were transfered to 3" cubes. After 3 Days, roots are coming out the bottom (time to transplant?). I am also wondering when is a good time to start a feeding schedule? Remember this is a first grow, so I don't expect a right answer every time. I am going to listen to my plants and prefer to under feed than over feed. I expect plants that aren't perfect looking. I am here to learn this strain as I figure when I learn new strains lighting, feeding, and overall environmental factors will change.

I also plan to clone off the 2 healthiest looking ones. I've already picked the two for my mother plants. The other one isn't drinking the water as fast as the other two. How old does a plant have to be to take clones?

Any other questions or comments are welcome. Again, thanks for taking your time to read my journal.

If you are looking to follow the Cap'n Style method clones are taken prior to flower.

Otherwise, in my opinion you can fairly safely clone once your plants are at or past the development of their 5th internode.

You certainly want to take clones from the best performing plants you have available to you (best performing meaning that the plant meets or exceeds whatever qualities you feel are most important)

 

[arteekay]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

so far, I'm gonna sub in and try to steal some of Stage's

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Topped 3 days ago and looked closely to see new growth! My humidity runs anywhere from 10 to 15%. Because I can't run a seperate extracion for heat from the light, I figure any humidity I pump in will get immediately extracted out. Any ideas out there? Any real problems with humidity this low? I really don't see and deficiencies or burning on the leaves. Plants are 1 month old and two are 5" and 1 is 4". Don't get me wrong, I'll take slow growth over killing them any day. I hate having no point of reference to go by, ha ha. Thanks for your help.

 

[DRM Ranch]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Topped 3 days ago and looked closely to see new growth! My humidity runs anywhere from 10 to 15%. Because I can't run a seperate extracion for heat from the light, I figure any humidity I pump in will get immediately extracted out. Any ideas out there? Any real problems with humidity this low? I really don't see and deficiencies or burning on the leaves. Plants are 1 month old and two are 5" and 1 is 4". Don't get me wrong, I'll take slow growth over killing them any day. I hate having no point of reference to go by, ha ha. Thanks for your help.

I linked my extraction fan to canopy temperature, my humidity fell to near ambient (low 30% at best while lights were on) an aircare mini-console evaporative humidifier model ma0800 took care of low lights on humidity even with about one air exchange every 3 minutes.

My night time humidity needs a dehumidifier. Which is on my shopping list for next week.

I'm not experienced enough to tell you how low humidity can play with other environmental factors and plant growth/health. Alone your humidity is way low in my opinion.

My opinion is this, notice an out of range factor - find the solution and make it so. In this case, you need a high output humidifier with a humidistat, the device I use more than likely will do the job of upping your humidity and keeping it stable.

It does not seem as if you will need a dehumidifier, but pairing both a dehumidifier and a humidifier grants you absolute control over humidity assuming both are controlled by humidistats which most good ones will have built in.

In the grander scheme of things, durable equipment should last you 5 years or better, so while the initial cost is high the long term daily cost is small considering the improved end result.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Is it normal for plants at 5 inches in one month to show the sex of the plant already? These came from feminized seeds.

 

[DRM Ranch]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

You should be able to tell by week three or four. So yes.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

UPDATE:

I ended up buying two humidifiers for my tent to pump the humidity to 55-60% humididty(checked with a sling pshych). I don't check on these plants everyday, but I seem to notice a faster growth. I also read up on the stomata and how it relates to humidity levels and allowing nute and water uptake. Feels nice in the tent. Temps during the day hit 76 and at night hit 70.

Now I know I'm gonna get flamed for messing with things, but after more reading I found out I might have transplanted into pots that were too big. I opened up my airpots and carefully removed the blocks from the croutons. The roots looked nice and white with many hairs coming off of it. However, only one of them had the roots growing into the croutons. The others just seem to spiral and stay where the groove in the cube was. Don't the roots travel downwards? They were transfered to 1 liter airpots so they don't stay wet for so long.

I did see some nut burn earlier when my ppm was up to 450. But I was letting the rockwool get pretty dry before watering. Plants did not show any stress before watering. The tech says to water once a day, but also says the roots like a good wet/slighty dry schedule. Wouldn't a rich oxygen and nutrient solution also encourage root growth?

Now I have to learn between having too much nutes in the rez or letting my rockwool drying up and raising the EC in the root zone. The plants are showing a calcium def I think in the lower leaves. I forgot my top off this week in the rez. They are also starting to get a lighter color from the bottom up. Doesn't that show a nitrogen def? The new growth looks nice, though.

If I got this right, the older leaves show sign of nute burn and won't go away. New growth shows no nute burn and green growth. But now the plant is showing under feeding because of the yellowing working its way up. Correct?

Thanks people. Now to take a nap.

What I think is a calcium def? Also the bottom leaves are losing they're green color, slightly.

top views

 

[arteekay]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

If I got this right, the older leaves show sign of nute burn and won't go away. New growth shows no nute burn and green growth. But now the plant is showing under feeding because of the yellowing working its way up. Correct?

I'm not experienced to help diagnose the deficiences, but your statement above is correct to the best of my understanding.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Holy shat, arteekay. Nice plants in the gallery. Someday, I tell ya.

 

[DRM Ranch]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Check your pH, check it in the reservoir prior to watering, check it as soon it starts to drain out of the plant container, check how long you must water to get stable values in the reservoir and draining out of the container, also note the duration between waterings.

The initial pH value can typically be adjusted up or down to move the range of pH your plant sees between waterings.

The initial drain value is the average of your media pH and initial watering pH. (pH in + media pH)÷2= drain pH, chunk out a bit of math to solve for media pH. This media pH value is what your plant sees just prior to being watered with fresh nutrients.

Initial pH to calculated media pH is what your plants are seeing. A higher or lower initial pH will shift the value of the calculated media pH.

Adjusting the span between waterings will narrow or broaden the range of pH your plants see. Shorter span between watering makes the range smaller, longer spans make the range larger.

I'm watering once a day and see a daily spread that is equally both above and below 5.8 for about 5 days with no notable pH adjustment required.

How long you water is important in that you want to flush out unused nutrients and return them to the nutrient solution in the reservoir. When the draing pH and the reservoir pH match you have watered long enough. If a differential exists you should lengthen the watering duration.

Record your work in some manner that allows you to reference your findings easily. The more often you gather data now the less often you will have to mess with things later. This is part of dialing in your grow.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Hey ranch. I monitor my ph 24/7 with my blue lab tri meter. Ph climbs from 5.6 to maybe 6.1 for the week. With a top of during the mid week. I might not even need a top off seeing that i have six gal of nutes in the rez for these small plants. It does help keep the ph more stable. I never measured the ph from the return hoses, though. If I watered twice a day would there be any downsides? Theres good dranage in the rockwool (airpots) and theres good air movement in the tent.. I just didnt water twice a day because i thought wet/dry cycle encouraged root growth? That and i really should follow a tek. But in hydro doesnt oxygenated nutrient solution also stimulate root growth? Also, like i mentioned, i just corrected my humidity issue days ago and I notice faster growth just from that although im also noticing deficiencies much faster. Maybe because now the plants are taking in everthing better now (even though i might be underfeeding). At this point i have my environment very stable and very good for veg growth.

 

[DRM Ranch]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

How long is each watering interval? The Cap'n did 15 minutes if I recall correctly, however he also watered drain to waste for the smaller plants.

I think playing with ppm should be done with care, I didn't need additional calcium or magnesium at the PPM level you are using, but that doesn't mean your plants don't.

Is your meter calibration good? I thought mine was good to go and after seeing a deficiency very similar to what you have I checked and it was way out of whack. It pays to check those things regularly.

 

[JJambo]

Re: First Grow - 4x4 Tent - Cap'n Style - Easy Kush - Non Sponsored - 650XML Advanced

Im using RO water so I have to put the CaliMag in to replace the losses. I just recalibrated my PH probe two days ago as it was flashing telling me it was time to do it. It flashes once a month. The reading before and after were the same. Yes 15 min increments.