First Grow! - Aerogarden Ultra With Mars Reflector 48 Using CK Dwarf Low Flyer

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 27 update: 27 days from seed and 25 days above ground. THE PLANTS ARE FLOWERING!!!!!!!! Both of them. Wispy white hairs are coming out from the pre-flower sites at the nodes. Very exciting stuff for me, a first time grower. I'll be switching to Sensi Bloom A+B tomorrow along with a few of the other AN goodies, like rhino skin

Morning temp was 70F with 62% humidity. PH was at 6.0 so I dropped it to 5.6.
Temp tonight is 75F with humidity at 58%. PH was 5.8 and I left it as-is. PPM's are down to 240 so the plants pulled in 100ppm since last night.

I received a controller for the fan today, so I've got it on about 66% power and it has cleared the stink right out of the room. It's also giving some nice airflow to the plants. I have all vents/holes closed off but have a flap open near the bottom by my AC duct for the air intake into the tent. It's keeping the temps low from what I can see. I also added in one of the taotronics 36w bulb (16w real draw) and the aerogarden's stock 30w hood. I have the taotronics hitting plant #1 from the right side to get some light on those sad looking lower leaves. The stock aerogarden LED hood is behind the plants, hitting the undergrowth and bud sites nicely. This should help out with the growth on the bud sites that were shaded by the canopy of fan leaves.

I also got some Bud Factor X to add into my nute arsenal. I'll be switching over to the bloom A+B and rhino skin, B52, bud candy, voodoo juice, Bud Factor X and sensical mag xtra. Start with 1/3 dose of base nutes and then add 1/4 dose of the others. Should have the reservoir around 450ppm. With these being dwarfs I doubt I'll push above 600ppm in the later flower stages.


Plant #1 above ground and below

Plant #2 above ground and below

And for scale........

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 28 update: 28 days from seed and 26 days above ground. Morning temp was at 71F with humidity at 58%. Temp tonight is 73F with humidity at 56%. PH was at 5.8 this morning, which I thought was strange. But, I left it as-is. When I got home, PH was reading 5.4 so I recalibrated my pens and the actual reservoir PH came in at 4.8. I brought it back up to 5.8 and will leave it there until the morning. I'll recalibrate again and retest. PPM's are at 170 so they pulled in 70ppm today. I will drain the reservoir tomorrow and re-fill with flower nutes. The hairs are getting longer at the nodes and growth seems to be supercharged. Plant #1 is now equal in height. The orange spots have totally stopped spreading and are holding off. New growth is punching up towards the canopy and on plant #2 the first set of branches, at the bottom, have not caught up in height to the main stems highest point. Pretty cool stuff! Should be lots of bud sites on both plants.

The chiller is kicking ass and holding the reservoir at a stable 21.3C (71F). I'll bump it back down to 20C (69F) tomorrow during water change. The tent and fan are really awesome, no smell in the room anymore, at all. Plants seem to be loving the closed environment and extra reflection of light from the mylar surfaces and also the supplemental lighting. I have the supplemental lighting on an 11 hour per day schedule, compared to 18.5 hours per day on the main Mars Hydro Reflector 48.


Plant #1 above ground and below

Plant #2 above ground and below

And for scale.........

 

[420forsure]

Yeah. That's some damn bushes

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 29 update: 29 days from seed and 27 days above ground. Morning temp was 73F with humidity at 64%. PH was 5.7 and I left it unadjusted. Temp tonight is 75F with humidity at 52%. PH was 4.9 so I temporarily bumped it up to 5.8. The plants are taking in an enormous ammount of water and my replacement jug (aerovoir) was at 5.2. Since the plants have been gobbling nutes so quickly I set that aerovoir auto top off with the low 5.2 PH to balance out the natural PH climbing in the main reservoir while the nutrient levels were dropping. So, I've set the reservoir jug with 7.0 PH water to hopefully balance things out now. By the time I got to the water change for the main res - with flower nutes - the PH had dropped back to 5.5. The replacement water for the reservoir is dosed up to 575PPM. I used about a 40% dose of sensi bloom A+B, half dose of voodoo juice, half dose of rhino skin, half dose of B52, half dose of Bud Ignitor, 1/3 dose of sensical mag xtra, 1/2 dose of bud candy. The plants are just about a foot tall now. Root growth is amazing, I got pics while the reservoir was drained. I removed 1 root from the pump sponge. I'll be checking this more often since the roots are starting to overtake that area in the middle now, too.

The bud sites from the lowest part of the plants are at canopy level now and the smell is fantastic inside of the tent. Outside of the tent, I smell nothing. The noise from this fan is mainly on the exhaust side, I really can't hear anything except for the air coming out. Maybe I can find some way to baffle that?


Plant #1 above ground and below

Plant #2 above ground and below

And for scale...

 

[420forsure]

Any pistils yet?

 

[420forsure]

Not to he a Debby downer. But your harvest day Is a month away. I can't see you making it. You plant will be well into flower. But I can't for see it being that close to harvest. Not without potency loss bc of airy buds.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Pistils have been out for 3 or 4 days now. From the other journals I've found, 57-63 days seems to be the sweet spot - and that is in soil. I figure hydroponics and the proper setup/nutes will help me stay on the low side. The longest one i saw was 90 days grown indoors getting light only from a skylight.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I'm hoping that with 33 days left until 4/20 that I'm in good shape. 5 weeks of flower for an auto indica might be more than enough.

 

[arteekay]

I'll guess it's going to be close. What's your light schedule again?

 

[CMJJMC2000]

I'll guess it's going to be close. What's your light schedule again?

18.5 hours on for main light and about 15 hours for supplemental lights.

 

[arteekay]

18.5 hours on for main light and about 15 hours for supplemental lights.

Well that bodes well for your timeline, not going easy on 'em. Think it'll be tight though, crossing fingers for ya.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 28 update. 4 weeks since the girls have broken above ground. Morning temp was 74F and humidity was at 52%. I've dialed the humidity back further in order to allow for optimal flowering environment. PH was at 6.0 and I dropped it back down to 5.7. I also set the main lights so that the "grow" switch is on and the "bloom" switch is also on, lots of extra light now to feed those growing buds. Temp tonight is 76F with humidity at 41%. PH was at 6.1 and I dropped it back down to 5.6. The PPM is now at 370 - they took in 200ppm in 24 hours!

This week has been a lot less stressful than last week. The only pinching that look place this week was to give light to the lower bud sites. New growth is totally explosive right now. Plants gained an inch today and are now 13" tall. There is some "frosting" occuring on the topmost leaves of each plants main stem. Pistils blowing up everything and also, from what it looks like, some flowering in the earliest of stages. The supplemental lighting is really helping to get some lumens to the neglected areas of the plants. Roots are looks great. I dropped the temp of the chiller back down to 69F and it's hanging tight there. The aerovoir is getting depleted quickly, the ammount of nutes and water the plants are taking up is incredible.

First off, some pics of the exciting new stuff....

Plant #1 above ground and below

Plant #2 above ground and below

And for some scale....

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Bit of a mid-day update here. Received some fresh calibration fluid for the PH pen, going to be re-calibrating daily now since I check the PH about 4 times a day. Seem be getting about a .1 deviation daily and need to eliminate that. Also got some Bud Ignitor to add into the mix. The PPM's dropped down to 200, they're eating and drinking an insane amount of nutes/water at the moment (consumed 170ppm since last night). I went ahead and re-dosed back up to 670PPM, it's going to be an all day every day nute buffet for these girls.

I don't know how anyone can use the full strength on all of these products while growing autoflowers. I'd be waaaay over 1000ppm, by my guess about 1400. I didn't plan on them consuming the nutes so fast, so I'm dealing with that on the fly. Plant has also consumed about 1/4 of the reservoirs water in the last day and a half (.25 gallon), as my aerovoir is sitting a little below 3/4 full.

Plants have grown another inch since measuring last night and are now 14" tall. I'm thinking I may need to prune back some fan leaves, but not really sure where to start. Any suggestions?

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 29 update: 29 days above ground now. I already noted the changes I made around noon today, so I'll skip rehashing any of that. Morning temp was 73F with humidity at 41%, PH was at 6.0 so I dropped it back to 5.7. Temp tonight is 75F with humidity at 44% - with the humidifier off entirely. PH was back up to 6.0 so it's been dropped back down to 5.7 to allow some overnight drift up. Plants have grown a half inch since my noon update, total height is now 14.5 inches. I did pinch a set of fan leaves from the main stem (lowest set on each plant) in order to give more light to the bud sites that are fighting for vertical room. The smell is fantastic inside of the tent, nothing to smell outside of the tent. Flowering is taking place at practically every node on the plant except at the very bottom set.
I'm excited to see what the bud ignitor can do, the review of that product are stellar.

The PPM is currently at 570, and the aerovoir jug is down another 1/4. Plants pulled in a half gallon of water in 24 hours and 100PPM of nutes since I boosted it back up to 670 a few hours back.

I won't be taking any pictures of the individual plants above ground anymore, since it's really just a mass of green now.

Plants above ground and below.....

 

[Ferboldt]

wow you are really getting there

Hold tight they will reward you very good

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Day 30: 30 days above ground. Morning temp was 71F with humidity at 41% - PH was at 6.0 so I dropped it to 5.7. Temps tonight are 77F with humidity at 44%. PH was 5.9. PPM was down to 320! Pulled in 250ppm since last night. I didn't want to do another re-dose of the res so I did a full drain and refill at 725PPM and a PH of 5.7. I also refilled the aerovoir top off with 350ppm of only base nutes - sensi bloom A + B. It is PH'd to 5.5. Hopefully this will keep my PPM's rising while keeping my PH in check at the same time. Plants are now at 15.5" of height, so 1" taller than yesterday. Seems to have really hit that early flowering growth spurt. It's about 6" or less from the lights now and taking everything I can throw at them from a PAR and PPM standpoint. Flowering sites are opening up everywhere. The daily growth is so much more noticeable at this stage.

I'm very impressed with the level of nutes being absorbed on a daily basis and also the wide dosing range of nutes that this plant has tolerated. What a solid set of plants and excellent strain for a first timer like me. After getting the deficiency issue from a few weeks back resolved, these girls have taken off like a rocket. Excited to see what the next couple of weeks brings. I'm going to keep pushing the nute limits of this plant and see what I can do to boost the flowering as much as possible, so if I do have the chop early, then at least I'll have a better haul. Hopefully this is where the advanced nutrients can shine. On this batch of reservoir water, I did 50% dose A+B, 50% bud ignitor, 50% bud factor X, 50% bud candy.

 

[arteekay]

I love the flowering stretch, so much change day over day.

Great recovery for sure, they are both looking lush and happy.

 

[Renegade69]

I don't know how anyone can use the full strength on all of these products while growing autoflowers. I'd be waaaay over 1000ppm, by my guess about 1400. I didn't plan on them consuming the nutes so fast, so I'm dealing with that on the fly. Plant has also consumed about 1/4 of the reservoirs water in the last day and a half (.25 gallon), as my aerovoir is sitting a little below 3/4 full.

Plants have grown another inch since measuring last night and are now 14" tall. I'm thinking I may need to prune back some fan leaves, but not really sure where to start. Any suggestions?

You are correct regarding the PPM levels at full strength. Which is one reason why I only added nutrients at res change out. But your method is working so stay with it. My levels were around 1200 I think but stopped checking early on since my gurls were happy and drinking.

As for the growth, pinch or bend to allow light to the lower levels. Again, you are safe to clip the lower leaves and any that may be blocking lower growth but pinching or bending would be your best approach since it shouldn't stress the plant to much. Just twist the leaf out of the way and you'll be fine.

Those gurls look great and you've done a good job of staying on top of things....maybe too much...LOL. Just kidding... You tend to your gurls a bit more than I did. But who's gonna argue with your results.

They are still just weeds....they can put up with a lot once established.

 

[CMJJMC2000]

Renegade, RTK, Ferboldt - thanks for the support guys. With this being my first grow, I've tended to these plants to quite the degree. Between adding a chiller and doing 2 plants instead of 1, I've definitely gone beyond my original intentions lol. I hope that I'm pushing the limits of what a modded aerogarden is capable of. I can now see the lack of room in the reservoir being the biggest downside to the Aerogarden. If they made one with a 2 gallon reservoir it would be so perfect. By the end of the this grow, I bet the roots will take of half of the volume of the reservoir - which makes the Aerovoir such an important add on for maintaining water level, PH and PPM levels when the roots are gobbling up extreme ammounts of water each day.
Renegade, I took your advice and I went ahead and pinched off the lowest (currently the 4th set on each plant) of the fan leaves. Now I can see so many more flowers coming in!

Day 31 update: The girls have been above ground for 31 days now. New growth is unbelievable and I count 16 flowers between the 2 plants. Morning temp was 71F with humidity at 41%. PH was 6.0 so I dropped it to 5.8. Temp tonight is 73F with humidity at 44%. PH was at 6.0 so I dropped it to 5.7. PPM's are now at 435 - they gobbled in 290ppm of nutes since last night. They are now 17" tall - 1.5 inches of growth in 24 hours. They also pulled in 1/2 gallon of water+nutes through the aerovoir.

 

[Frenchy672]

this is friggin awesome definitely going to be fun to watch.