Super Skunk Auto & Auto Blueberry Grow 1.5 Behind The TV

[Rexer]

Hello and welcome to my grow journal! This journal has 2 super Skunk autoflowers that were popped around 2nd of April. There were 4, but it was my first grow and they were stunted pretty badly. Rather then possibly ruining 4 other seeds (to growing pains), I decided to pop two auto blueberries (around April 22), and kept two of the Super skunks alive.
Spring weather arrived and threw a wrench into my ventilation, so after much cursing i decided to toss my portable AC into the cabinet and just focus on my blueberries, I was able to keep one super Skunk in the 6 inch nettie cup, but the other went into a mason jar (kratky style as a fuck it let's see what happens). Things were finally starting to steady out temp and humidity wise when I went to lower my cheapo LED light when it died on me....serves me right getting a cheap one used. So with my stretched budget I went to Amazon, as with Covid lockdowns it was the quickest cheapest route. So I ordered a MH/HPS 400W with a vented hood, and put my plants on life support with two little T5s to keep 'em alive. So they stayed about a week under the T5s while I waited on my new light.

So after playing around with my new light, I found when the MH is dimmed down to 250W, temps are pretty easy to maintain, so yes, this will effect yield and I need my medication but at this point one less thing to worry about is worth it. Besides, when time is right I can turn it up...maybe lol.

Tonight I took out my lux meter and repositioned the light to get a min of 15k of lux minimal to each plant.

So here the details of where everything is at, and hopefully this will finally start going smoothly and successfully!


What Strain is it? Super Skunk & blueberry autoflowers
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? Indica dominant
How Many Plants? 4 total
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage? Veg
Indoor or Outdoor? Indoors
Soil or Hydro? Hydroponics
If Hydro, Reservoir size? 55L
If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature? 21C
If Hydro, what type of Medium? Rockwool and hydroton
If Hydro, what type of Setup? Ebb and flow
Size (Wattage) of Light? 400 MH bulb dimmed to 250W, will switch to HPS for flower
Is it Air Cooled? Passive intake, lung room aircooled
Temperature of Room/Cabinet? 26.5 at foliage, 20.07C in root zone.
RH of Room/Cabinet? Not sure
PH of Medium or Reservoir? 5.8n
Any Pests? None known
How Often are you Watering? Pump is on 1 hr then off 3 hrs cycle.
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used? Lucas method, current PPM of 347 in reservoir. Using H202, Rhino skin (silica), GH cal mag, GH micro, GH bloom and GH diamond nectar.
Size or Square Footage of Room? Cabinet measures 5 feet tall, 4 wide and 3 deep. Cabinet is also fully insulated.

above is an auto blueberry, spouted and growing using just hydroton (instead of rockwool).

(Above) 2nd blueberry, using rockwool hydrton combo

Super Skunk auto, along for the ride, she got badly stunted.

This super Skunk autoflower spent some time in a Mason jar kratky style...it almost died before being put back in, also just along for the ride. My nutes will all be focused the blueberries.

Threw this pic in for fun, this was the T5 life support with the AC sitting in the cabinet. You can see the one super Skunk in a mason jar.

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Rock on brother! Can’t wait to see some flowers!

 

[StoneOtter]

Way to go Rexer!

 

[Rexer]

You guys rock! Really have appreciated having your support!

So far today was just check the reservoir, a re Ph of the water, and added a bit of maxibloom with cal mag to top off nutes.

Then I decided to do some leaf tucking to open up new growth and see how that goes.

PPM sitting at 394 now, water temp of 24.3 C
Cabinet temperature avg of 28 C.
Average root zone temp of 22.65 C

Funny thing, when I checked on them last night I noticed a bit of drooping in the leaves. Since I hadn't changed the watering schedule I suspected temperature, even though I was keeping it at 25C. Soon as I adjusted the controller and bumped the temp up a few degrees, I saw the leaves on them via cam perk right up (phototropism achieved!!). Seems they're a bit happier on the warmer side, which is pretty easy to achieve.

 

[StoneOtter]

They look happy today!

 

[Rexer]

So, I decided this morning called for some light bondage, hope it's not too early to start.

Checked the reservoir, 453 PPM (seems to have gone up a bit) and ph 6.4.
Topped off with some water and PH'd to 5.9
Refilled the humidifier as I forgot to last night.
RH in cabinet at 45.6%
Average cabinet temp 27-28 C
Average root zone temp 23 C

 

[Rexer]

Well, apparently they rebelled against it lol. Sat back down, checked the cam was ligned up (messing around with a time lapse)...and lo and behold....

I'll fix it up later, unless anyone thinks I'm way too early to start it???

 

[Rexer]

So...I figured I'd fix it up. Turns out only one had come off, the one blueberry in the back was still tied with the ribbon. I took it off since I had some string out and tied it back up.

After the training I thought I'd take back out the Lux meter. The lowest reading was at 11k Lux. After looking over a chart at grow weed easy, 15k lux is minimum. The cabinet seems to be running good with the ballast dimmed down to 250W.....so, I said why not and turned it up to 400W. Without touching the Lux meter (I had left it on), it went from 11k to 27K. What a nice jump!! Now we're talking!!!
So...I'm going to leave it on at 400W and see how the temps go for today. If it stays acceptable then I'll leave it at 400W. If the heat gets too high...well back to 250W itll go.

I know the MH bulbs are better for veg, but if I do go back down to 250W I may consider swapping to the HPS to see if that helps get better lighting. Gotta try different things and configurations I guess....totally open to suggestions and advice!

 

[CagedApe]

Looks fun!

 

[StoneOtter]

Sure does look fun! I think you can never start thinking about how you want your plant to look in the future, too early. If you can get them to go along with you, then even better. The earlier I know, the earlier I start. If they allow it.

 

[Rexer]

Whew thanks guys, was worried I was starting it a bit early. But yes...I did enjoy it

Well, it's been two hours with it turned up to the 400W and the temp is holding steady at 29.7 C
Root zone temp is at 23.36 C.

And the girls look happy! So...it stays at 400W for now.

 

[bebecillo]

Looking good! This was the first thing I pictured with your post tittle

 

[Rexer]

Looking good! This was the first thing I pictured with your post tittle

Lol thank you! I shoulda called it "behind the tv grow series"
I had to get creative with what space I had, if I went with a tent, then the tv would have had to go....so....my setup was born to try and squeeze every inch of usable space. It is kind of fun playing Xbox on the door to my cabinet

 

[bebecillo]

Hahaha, cool. My growth space was an old dryer I saw dumped on the street after it catched fire I cleared the insides and ran my plants there for about 3 years? maybe a bit more

 

[Rexer]

Hahaha, cool. My growth space was an old dryer I saw dumped on the street after it catched fire I cleared the insides and ran my plants there for about 3 years? maybe a bit more

Now that is quite the good choice. I've seen a few do fridges before but never thought of a dryer.

 

[Rexer]

So, update time....yesterday was a hell of a day, glad it's over. Woke up to a sick dog, thought my pup was dying, after a stressful day we managed to get her into a vet and turned out she had a really bad ear infection that got into her ear bone(s). Shes on meds and is a bit better this morning.

So update on the grow from last night.
Did a reservoir change.
Nutes added (per gallon): 3ml cal mag, 3 micro and 6ml bloom
Supplemental nutes: Rhino Skin, H202, Diamond Nectar. All per manufacturer rec. Level

559 PPM with 22.7C reservoir temp.

Few minutes later when lying down I checked the cam, and they all looked wilted. What a beautiful day. Popped back in to the cabinet, PH was a bit off (5.4), I re-ph'd to 5.8 and noticed that I had forgotten to plug the humidity controller back in (used the plug for res change). Plugged it back in, reset watering schedule for a 1hr flood...and they perked back up.

Did some leaf tucking. This morning and topped back off the humidifier. I also reset the lighting schedule back to a 20/4 .

Average cab temp: 28C
Average root zone temp: 23.6C

 

[Ryn0nTX]

Those roots are looking good! Heck, all of it looks great! I would definitely start training now. lol...Take my word for it, they will get out of hand very fast! You don't want to end up with 5' tall trees like me!

I have about 12 more inches that I can raise the light, then I'm out of options. I could have avoided this if I trained them young. Once they get to a certain size, the branches seem to get very rigid and snap easy if you try to manipulate them past week 4. I can now say that I speak from experience.

Keep rocking brother!

 

[bebecillo]

Hope your pup gets well soon.

 

[Rexer]

Hope your pup gets well soon.

Shes feeling a bit better this morning, eyes aren't flickering back and forth and can walk a bit again, thank you.

 

[Rexer]

Those roots are looking good! Heck, all of it looks great! I would definitely start training now. lol...Take my word for it, they will get out of hand very fast! You don't want to end up with 5' tall trees like me!

I have about 12 more inches that I can raise the light, then I'm out of options. I could have avoided this if I trained them young. Once they get to a certain size, the branches seem to get very rigid and snap easy if you try to manipulate them past week 4. I can now say that I speak from experience.

Keep rocking brother!

Man oh man, I hope too big of plants is a problem! Those trees are coming along beautifully!!
Have you looked into skylining? Theres a member on here who uses the technique, I can send you a link..pretty neat training.