Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

[Seraphim]

Hello and welcome to my first grow journal here on 420Magazine!


After a long break from growing, I am finally in a place and stage which is stable enough to allow me the luxury of LEGALLY growing my own supply. As you could probably imagine, I am overjoyed to be getting things going again. Very few things in life bring me as much joy as growing. (Motorcycle riding in the Rockies is up there though!)

When it comes to growing, I am a planner. I plan every minute detail of my upcoming grow long before it actually starts. I am open to change along the way as I think things through but there is always a master blueprint in my mind of what I want to see happen. This time of course is no exception. I have a few successful soil grows under my belt using HID’s but this time I want to try something different.

Here are a few things I am doing different on this grow compared to previous grows I’ve done.

• Using LED lamps instead of the traditional HID
• Using Hempy buckets with Coco for the first time instead of soil (Some strains will still be grown in soil for best taste)
• Adding CO2
• Giving Canna nutes a shot

Here are some of the specifics of this grow:

Strains
Bubba-Cheese, Blue Widow (both started from clones) and Auto Dark Devil (free auto flowering seed from Seed bank order)

Container Type
I am using 3.5 gallon Hempy buckets for the two clones, the auto-flower will go on a smaller container but also hempy.

Medium
Canna coco mixed with perlite (roughly 35-40% coco, 60-65% perlite) for the medium itself and the base of the Hempy bucket will hold the 2 inch layer of perlite. I like to cover the top layer of the planter with Hydroton to avoid disturbing the roots as I water but they didn’t have anything less than the huge bag when I went to the hydro store, so I got these other stone type things which I feel will do the job just as well.

Nutes
Feeding during veg & flowering will be done with CANNA COCO Nutes.
I will also have on hand the following for use as necessary:
• Dolomite lime (for Cal/Mag)
• Canna Start (For cuttings/seedlings)
• Canna Rhizotonic (for root health)
&
• Unsulphured Blackstrap Molasses (for late flowering/flush)

Grow Area
I have a large walk in closet for the vegetative stage area where the ladies will be started and vegged 2 at a time. Flowering will take place in a small tent (2 x 4) that should be just right since I only plan on having 2 plants there blooming at any one time. Once those two are harvested, the two ladies in veg will be flipped into bloom and into the tent and two new ladies will be started in due time so that the cycle can be continuously repeated. This will yield just enough to get me from one harvest to the next and have at least 2 different types on hand at any time.

CO2
The blooming tent will be enriched with CO2 to 1500PPM during the daylight hours.

Light
2 x Mars II 400Watt Full Spectrum LED for veg are on their way in the mail and I still have not decided on the flowering lamp. I like Budmasters II GOD light, but it is waaaayyyy too expensive! The next best in my perception is the Diamond 10W CREE LED from Advanced.

Until the LEDs arrive, they will live under this fluorescent 4 footer shop lamp.

Temperature
75*

Humidity
40% or less. (Shooting for much less during flowering. I will likely get a dehumidifier for the flowering tent.)


Feel free to follow along and of course, lend advice generously! One can never stop learning.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the ride!

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

The ladies were transplanted from their tiny cups they came in to their new home in the Hempy Buckets. I sprayed and watered with a mild Rhizotonic, PH balanced, oxygenated* water solution. (10ml/Gal)

*By oxygenated I mean that I let the water sit out on a 5 gallon bucket constantly being bubbled by 4 large air stones powered by a 4 port air pump. This water is allowed to sit out bubbling constantly and is not used until it has at least 24 or more hours of bubbling.


OK enough talk.. here are some pictures!

Blue Widow

Bubba Cheese

That Bubba-Cheese was not the best looking clone available but I wanted that strain so I got it anyway. Hoping it gets better with time.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Rocks have been added to the top layer to help protect roots from being disturbed when watering. Also, the Auto Flowering free seed was planted directly into the coco/perlite mix in a smaller container and has a plastic film over it to hold onto moisture. I usually sprout beans before putting them in soil but I think I remember reading somewhere not to do this with auto flowering plants. This is my first Auto Flower experience by the way.

Bubba Cheese

Blue Widow

Its been a few hours since I transplanted them and they look and feel happy.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Good morning 420Mag! Later today I will water and take more pictures of the babies. I like to document every single day. My last grow I have pictures of my girls from the day they were born right on up to harvest.

However, I do realize this is the waiting stage and nothing much exciting is going on. So.. I decided to decorate my Grow Journal with a few pictures from my last grow. That last grow was a few years back and it was Cherry AK47 and G13-Haze. Both were Deeeee-licious!

Here are some pictures of that....


This was the Cherry AK main cola.. I am still proud of that nug!

Anyway.. that's just a few.. I will be posting more in time to keep things happy and at times to make reference of where I think things should be based on my past experience.

Cheers.-

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Things don't look much different this morning than they did yesterday. Both clones seem quite happy. The Bubba Cheese still shows signs of too much Nitrogen on one leaf. The Blue Widow is hinting very mildly of a slight deficiency. I will keep a close eye on these.

Again, no growth to speak of but they look perky and happy. I will water in a today as follows: Plain water for Bubba-Cheese and the yet to be born auto-flower seed and Canna Start water for Blue Widow.

As always, my concern every time I water is making sure the water I provide for them is #1 well aerated to maximize its oxygen saturation and #2 in the correct PH (5.5 to 6.5). This is regardless of feeding or not. If feeding, I simply add the nutes to the gallon of aerated water and then I balance the PH with the least possible use of PH-up and PH-down as needed to get to the correct range. If not feeding, simply balance the PH of the aerated water and then proceed to water normally. Since this is my first time with Coco/Perlite Hempy buckets which means I will have to find the sweet spots for feeding/not-feeding the ladies at watering time (which will change from one to the next). Also, that watering time interval as well as feed strength will have to get dialed in too.

Yesterday I worked out the estimated time frame for harvest. The automatic should be done somewhere in early October and the normal (photo period) girls should be done around the end of October. I'd say around the 20 — 24th of September I should start the next pair of ladies from seed. That way they will be at 3 to 5 weeks old and ready to enter the flower tent at the time these first two are harvested.

And I just got my UPS tracking number for my LEDs which according to this should be here tomorrow! Yeey!

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Went out and purchased a bottle of Cal-Mag+ from Botanicare.

I intend on using it as foliar spray per the instructions on the bottle. I will give this a try instead of the dolomite lime.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Another gorgeous morning here at the edge of the foot-hills.

The babies are doing / looking great. Only a very small bit of growth is noticeable when you compare pictures from a couple of days ago to now. I figure they are still growing roots right now to try to get a foothold into their new homes. Can't wait for that root to reach down to the reservoir!

I am seeing strong hints of pre-flowering on both clones. I bet these came of a mom who was ready to get into bloom, I am fairly certain they (the clones) are not automatics so I expect to be able to veg a week or two at least before flipping them. Time will tell me what nature decides.

As far as the actual autoflower, I saw a sprout stem somewhere in there working its way out! Ground breaking should be today sometime.

Also later today the LEDs should arrive. I am very excited about that. Can't wait to get them going.

The two clones were watered again this morning. Although I have 3.5 gal Hempy buckets, these little ones have not had their roots reach the reservoir at the bottom. So I water daily to maintain that moisture close to them. Although I expect that some of the evaporating water from the reservoir must reach up in to the container I just don't know how far. The Coco/perlite mix can dry faster than soil (which I consider good).

Today's water had some Cal-Mag+ from Botanicare in it and was PH balanced to the sweet spot. Nothing else was added. They were also given a little shower in the weak cal-mag water.

Here is Blue Widow today...

Here is Bubba Cheese today...

Here is a leaf on the Blue Widow which hints to me that a deficiency is approaching...

and that is why the Cal-Mag+ was added. Lets see how it works.

Cheers!

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Awesomeness has arrived at my door in the form of 2x 400Watt LED Full Spectrum lamps. I only need one right now and damm these are bright!!! it hurts your eyes when you first light them up. I love the magenta light. And the babies look like superstars under them!

Many many many thank you's to SmokeSara who helped me along the way and scored me a sweet deal on these lights. Delivery was super fast too!

The lamp is at 34 inches from the plant tops.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Today Auto Dark Devil was born. She broke ground this morning and is doing fine. Looking as lovely as a newborn looks.

This is one of the free seeds I received with my seedbank order. This was not part of the original plan but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have it along for the ride.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

The ladies fresh out of their morning shower. (Water with a mild cal-mag+ dose and nothing else. PH balanced.)

No water this morning. The reservoirs are still pretty full and the finger down the far side of the planter indicates the media is still moist. I want to let it dry a bit before I water again.

 

[lexblaze]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

interesting cross on the strains subbed!

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Thanks lexblaze! And welcome aboard. I hope to keep things interesting.

 

[Governmentchz]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

I'm in too. Looks interesting.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Thank you Governmentchz!!

Your 8-Ball Kush journal with the 700W Mars II was awesome. I am very inspired with your results there! I just found it today and it has some major similarities with what I am doing here. I am using coco instead of vermiculite in my 3.5 gal hempys and my percentage of perlite is lower than yours. Which is one thing I will adjust in my next hempy bucket build. I am also using 2 x 400W Mars-II instead of the 700.

I must admit I initially underestimated these TopLED 400Watt Mars-II lamps; until I took one out of the box and turned it on. I clearly only need one for veg. Although I like to light them both up a few hours during the day and I will definitely use both of them during flower. Each plant will have one 400W Mars-II to itself during flower. (Except the automatic, but the automatic does not need to be in the bloom tent when it goes up.) So, looks like I will be in the market for an veg lamp soon. Maybe I will try out that Mars-II 400 in Veg mode.. hmm.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by man! Excuse me while I go read your Pineapple journal now.. Later.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Ornamental visuals...

Here are some random pictures of my last harvest. Cherry AK / G-13 Haze Soil in 5 gal smart-pots 400W HPS A/N nutes in a 4x4 tent. The 3 plant yield was just a hair over 8-Zs.

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Last update for the evening.

1 day old baby Auto Dark Devil says "Hello World!" and check out the pre-flowers on both clones!

Question for those who know more than I....

Do clones normally show a lot of pre-flowes? Do those pre-flowers mean in any way that my veg time is limited? They are getting 24 hrs of light (I switch to the florescent lamp for the night to give the LEDs a break but the plants remain in "daytime" 24x7 right now)

 

[SemperHi]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Clones are usually old enough to be sexually mature. A lot of clones will have their preflowers the entire veg period. Nice lights!

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Thank you SemperHi. That is what I figured but wanted someone with more experience to confirm.

So a very quick update. Have been out of town for work since Monday and left the babies in the care of my trusty but non-growing partner. She's been keeping an eye on them until I get back home tomorrow. Can't wait to get back home. I don't like being away from my girls one bit but duty calls and that's that. Just glad I have someone I trust to care for them while I am out here.

Next update tomorrow, most likely with pictures.

 

[Governmentchz]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Being away is almost as tough as having in-laws arrive and happily announce they're staying for 2 weeks! yay. My in-laws are coming end of Sept. Which would be right in the middle of my next round...ffs. Decisions

 

[Seraphim]

re: Seraphim's Coco-Hempy Bubba-Cheese & Blue Widow LED Grow Journal 2014

Being away does suck. But coming home to my girls (both flora AND fauna!) is soooo good!

I had a very mild grin on my face the entire plane ride home and when I took the shuttle from the airport to the parking lot I was literally giddy. Guy next to me even commented on how happy I was. Clearly happy to have arrived home.

Sorry to hear about your dilemma Gov.. Bright side is you get some type of warning ahead of time. Best of luck with that brother.

OK Update time! I’m excited to come home and see all this progress!!! When I left BW was 6” and BChz was 6.5” tall. Today BW is ahead at 8.5" and BChz is clocking in at 8” while first measure of Auto Dark Devil is a hair shy of 2”. Growth is clear to the eye. Pictures confirm with certainty. Speaking of pictures…. this is what they look like today.

Auto Dark Devil (Notice the new node has one normal leaf and the opposite one is super small.. I have never seen this before. Most times these things should correct themselves so I will not stress about it now but I will keep an eye on it.)

Blue Widow

Bubba-Cheese

To this day only the little one was watered while I was away (8/6, noted). Tipping test of clones indicates Bubba-Cheese still has water in its reservoir while Blue Widows was tipped as far as it could and no water came out. Media on both large hempies is still moist per finger test. I expect that I will continue to see growth as the soil dries. (In my modest experience growing, it would seem that most of the noticeable growth takes place as the media reaches its driest point.) I do not expect to water tomorrow.

I am pretty certain now that my media's percentages need to change next mix to a way higher perlite content. These 3.5 gal hempies are going on a week without watering and it seems they can hold out quite a bit longer still. Not sure how I feel about that. Too much time till next watering is needed is not what I intended. But again, true test is when they are adults. When I first planted them in those hempies I thought I would need to water daily; I could not have been more wrong. I could see how some would over water these.