Step's 3rd Journal - Ebb & Flow

....and just 30 hours later!! mm mmm...sweet sweet co2. was definitely my choking point. a few days of this, i'll have a jungle problem, and then theyll be rdy to be moved up top



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top is clean and ready for transplants! planting depth/arrangement from a pic a found on google. gonna keep running em a few more days on co2 downstairs because i think they will grow more with it than up top without it. actually...now that i think..since co2 sinks i may just have the co2 spraying into a fan over the plants and let them soak...hmm..ill have to think on it tonight...also, suprise bud pics of a small auto blueberry that just finished :thumb:


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*Update - 7/17* - Ran out of CO2 so I moved them up top. Took the covers off the cubes and planted them just above the drain. Got the AKs on the right; will keep them on week 3 until next friday. left side will be put on week 4 this friday. flood timer will be set to 3-5 times a day...havent decided yet. i think i might put the mars ii back on a yo-yo and lower it tonight too.

edit: lowered the mars ii and the cobs down to around 18" above the plants. alsoo lowered the scrog a few more inches. set the flood for every 3 hours for 15 mins.

 
7-17 started soaking 3 ak47 autos and 4 amnesia autos by canuk. planted them in gh starter plugs in my cloner 7/19. gonna keep them on phd r/o @ 5.6 until they sprout then swap them over to week 1 schedule. gonna go and refill my co2 tank in the morning. only have a 12.5 lb tank, so i may upgrade while im there depending on how much its gonna cost with a trade in and fill up. seems like i get like $75 for bringing the tank back but theres no telling how much the large tank is going to run me, or how much to fill it up. running short on funds for a few more weeks, so i can only get the essentials. just ordered a few more rockwool cubes, cause i was down to only 2. I kinda feel like using flood/drain on the veg plants is a little waste on nutes and the plants were just too close to the light without raising the table...so i'm going to setup another. im thinking just a low cut storage container with a thin hydroton bottom. place the cubes on top and use a drip system like i originally had setup, but instead of the res underneath the table, i'll use a 3-5gal bucked placed to the side. i'll have to tweak around with the solution timers to prevent flooding, but this should also make it easier for me to get the system out of the closet for cleaning and solution changes.
 
*Update - 7/23* - most everything is doing well. everybody is spreading out nicely. i did accidentally break two tops off of one of the aks during some defoliating...she'll bounce back...just will be down a few colas :( one of the blueberries is showing either heat/light stress. alot of the leaves only have one leaflet..very strange..and are curled at the tips. no yellowing tips. light is only at ~22k lux so maybe its just cause of the wavelengths being too direct....either way..jacking the 1200 up a few more inches to ease the pain




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*7/29 am* since the younger plants are so much smaller and same age, i put them in the same table, and the broken colas on one of the aks stunted one further..., i decided to move the mars 1200 to the left side to cover the larger/more progressed plants with the heavier wattage. i then put all 6 of the cob 31w bulbs, and 2 6500k bulbs to cover the left side on a chain for easy raising/lowering mounted on 2 pieces of 2x3" plywood. ill grab some pics tomorrow or the next day. this will be pretty much my light setup next month when i order a new light, just swapping the cob chain for a nice big boy led...im thinking the epistar720 or maybe just to a mars ii 1600. the epistar is about $100 more for around the same wattage but runs at bit lower temp and pulls a smidge less power. i have a small apt so power is an important concern for me because it an get way out of hand really fast during the summer. leds are a must for me because i grow in a small closet, trying to cram/put out as much as i can, and heat is just too big of a problem by exhausting, and then still trying to keep the room/entire apt cool with air conditioning triples the cost.

just put my sprout-lings on week 1 schedule, still in the cloner, turned co2 on today for them. co2 is no longer running upstairs. lights are off now so no pics for tonight. also put blueberries and the sweet tooth on week 5 day (left side), and the aks (right side) on week 4. been doing a lot of tucking and bending with the scrog. left side should be full by the end of the week. one of the blueberries is definitely dominating the others, and one of the other bb has some sort of overdose...not sure what the problem is. a lot of the leaves are showing only 1 leafleft per leaf...none of the leaves have more than 4 leaflets. it may be because its older and not getting the right nute ratios. debating on cutting it at the base and letting the others take over its canopy...advice would be welcome. it is the plant in the rear right, in the left flood tray. so, the third one from the left - upstairs. ill get a better pic tomorrow
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steppedinds said:
*7/29 am* since the younger plants are so much smaller and same age
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i meant the two aks on the right are the same age and seems like 2-3 weeks younger than others
 
*Update - 7/30* - Left side is filling out nicely. its mostly one of the blueberry planted in the front/center. right side/ak47s is moving along. i definitely hurt/slowed the left one when i pulled off two of its main heads. the rear blueberry is still funny looking and already flowering....its not going to put out alot and i think the other blueberry may just over-take it. really wish these girls were in pots so i could just remove it...

i've been pulling off the lower bud nodes that won't make it to the canopy along with any leaves not getting light. i try to go in once a day and look for small leaves at the nodes that would continue to grow into bud sights/branches that will receive no light...while doing everything else. been tucking almost every day. i tuck all leaves under the scrog, and once branches get an inch or two above the scrog, i bend them into the next cube. took some pics of one of the ak47s today before and after some tucking/bending. also took a pic of the lights position change. mars ii light is putting out about 25% more lux even though its 3x further away lol. gonna get either a 1600 or one of their epistars next month

Left side -




Right side -




Lights -
 
an under-the-skirt shot and a pic of a few babies that sprouted 7/28. napkin'd them for 2 days and put them in gh starter plugs in ph'd r/o water. once the first true leaves i put them on full str week 1. gonna swap them to week 2 on 8/4. one of them still has the embryonic skin still attached and thats why it hasnt opened yet...i hate messing with them when that happens cause i usually am too rough...doesnt look like it is going to open on its own so ill try to get it off later tonight. theyre definitely doing much better than my usual 3 day olds...i think keeping to the gh schedule is much better than trying to half dose the first week and ease in.

 
*Update - 8/5* - girls are drinking over 15g a week now. every 2-3 days i add more waater/solution to the res. 5g of phd water one day, then 5g with nutes 2-3 days later, and repeat. not really paying too much attn to ppm, but i do check the res ph and try to keep it steady.

the left side is pretty much full. not going to tuck anymore. going to let them reach and bud. right side is a few weeks behind and should look like the left here pretty soon. i'll prune lower leaves/buds tonight and do some tucking on the very right ak47. ill try to grab some baby pics tomorrow or so. i moved them into rw cubes last night.

 
*Update - 8/7* - ....and just 2 days later these girls are reaching high :cheertwo: 1200 is 15-19" above the canopy. will raise the light a few more inches as the canopy gets higher. don't want them over-stretching too early though, and out-growing my space. grabbed a pic of my babies too; a little over a week old.

 
about an hour or two before lights off they get kinda droopy. when they wake they look great. hoping they are just done for the day and know its night time. they are only watered once during night, so maybe roots are getting more o2..not sure.


 
I'm liking what I'm seeing Stepped, good looking garden man. The scrog is doing great stuff for you, looks very effective with that bigger plant. Keep up the good work and...

KiG :green_heart:cheers
 
*Update - 8/12 am* - good morning ladies :circle-of-love:. some of the buds are less than 10" from the light. gonna raise it in a few. added the 2nd scrog two nights ago and slowly worked it down through the foliage over the last 2 days; tucking the buds into the squares; trying to get 2 colas per square. some have 3, some only 1. was trimming a bud that wasnt reaching to the top of the canopy...accidentally cut off one of the tall colas...at least it was early on. once some of the shorter buds get taller i'll raise the top scrog. gonna keep them on week 6 again this week; changing res tonight. left side drank 12.5 gals this week. right side drank 10. ill grab some pics of right side and babies tonight, too. just topped them a few mins ago.

 
*Update - 8/13*

the poor little girl on the left has had a hard life. she's stunted so bad she probably wont have much on her by the time the others finish and i need to move the babies into her place. these lights arent near as powerful as the mars ii, but theyll put out enough not to waste space. if the left side finishes early i will move it to cover these as they finish and hopefully that will harden them off a bit before harvest.



these babies are ~16 days. front and back right are amnesia, and the other is an ak47. i have been flood feeding every other night. they have been on full strength dosage since sprout and are doing much better than my normally 1/2 str first week. still havent turned on co2 for them...dont want them getting too big before the top finishes and run out of room downstairs. they should be plenty big enough though by ends time to just have 1-2 plants per side and still fill up the space. temp downstairs is around 85-90 F daytime w/ 35-50% humidity. nighttime : 70-75 F w/ 50-60% humidity. upstairs is relatively the same humidity, but temps downstairs are usually at least 5 deg hotter because of all the cramped cfls.
 
*Update - 8/17* - top colas on left side are over 38" now. raised the top scrog another half foot or so and need to do it again. getting ready to put the 2nd scrog on the right side in the next few days. i did not repeat week 6 like i said i was going to...went straight to 7 w/ no rapid start or flora blend. didnt give them rapid start last week either...wish they would stop getting so damn tall and fatten up lol. my niños are doing great. i'm going to have to lower them soon and get them off the drink crate. i'll just lay down a thin layer of hydroton and pour away drainage solution more frequently. i'm gonna figure out something, too, so i can train them...not sure how yet...one of them is rather large and growing quite rapidly..

blueberry and sweet tooth. and no...no light reaches the clay lol


ak47


babies are around 20+ days old. just trimmed alot of the large fan leaves off of the larger 2 so that the lower branches could get light.
 
i'm at 41" now...damn things won't stop. if they get any taller i'm going to have to move the carbon filter so i can raise the light. they are ~6" from the glass now...and the filter may do better in the center of the room now that i plan on 1 light per side. gonna order another light either next week or week after. havent decided if another mars ii or something else...mars is best lumen per dollar but not best lumen per watt, imo...just depends on how much i want to spend i guess

 
*Update - 8/22* - started lst on the babies. added the second scrog to the right side. i have the day off tomorrow so i think ill move the carbon filter to the middle so i can raise the lights more.

blueberry and sweet tooth



ak47



babies





 
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