Growing Indoors in India - Hydro

[elchupacabra 670]

Here we go.

 

As some of you may know, for reasons unknown to me, no matter what i did, soil and soilless grows failed for me repeatedly in the humid, hot climate I am in. As an effort to find out if the problem was with something in the medium (harmful fungi, pathogens, etc.) that I can't see, I tried hydro. I sowed the seeds after soaking in water and after the seed split (2 x THC bomb, 1 x 8 miles high) and 3 days later, the water pump broke. One of the THC bombs didn't survive the stress of no water for 20 hours. The other two did. I replaced the pump, and 2 days later, I had to leave for a party (we do events) for ten days. I left the system running, and added sufficient (but extremely dilute) nutrients. The nutes I use are locally based from south India, and the dosage is 10ml/litre. I put 1ml/litre, ph'd the water to about 6.0 and left. Lights were running on 18/6.

 

To my ecstatic surprise, I came back to find these at Day 18:

 

8 miles high

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133990-8mh-day-18/

 

THC Bomb

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133991-thc-bomb-day-18/

 

I was pretty damn happy, to say the least. The 8MH was a bit twisted at the tips because of making contact with the CFL tubes, and the THC bomb had it's stem growing in a loop-de-loop like a roller coaster, but no further complaints whatsoever.

 

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133989-img-20140702-160556239/

 

They looked like they were facing a bit of an Mg def, but the amount of times I have seen people tell me to 'play it safe' and go err on the deficient side than excessive side was firm in my head and I decided I'll tackle it in a day or two.

 

On day 20, upon checking the pH, i found that it was a tad high, and ph'D to about 6.0 again.

The ppm was around 210 (my ppm meter has a margin of error of 10 ppm, and when it measures anything above 1000 ppm that margin of error goes to 50ppm, but it's better than having no ppm meter at all). I added enough nutes to make it about 400ppm. Here's how they're looking on day 23. On day 22 I changed the light cycle to 15/9. I have a friend who has done his master's in plant genetics - although this isn't his forte, he told me that plants grow much better when the change from veg to flowering is a bit more gradual, and even one step in the middle for a couple days makes a difference. So that's what I'm doing. Is it worthwhile? No idea, but can any harm come out of it? Probably not.

 

Supercropped 8MH on Day 22. I'm a big fan of supercropping over topping, simply because I have a better feel for getting it right. I have fucked up topping a few times, but never have I messed up supercropping.

 

8MH day 23

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133996-8mh-day-23/

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133995-8mh-day-23/

 

Unusual, but the 8MH was placed in the hydro system in a spongepot. Haven't read this before anywhere but haven't researched it. And I'm seeing some very vigorous root growth. I find it easier to germinate seeds in spongepots anyways, so this might be my way of the future.

 

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133992-8mh-day-23/

 

 

THC Bomb day 23

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133997-thc-bomb-day-23/

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133998-thc-bomb-day-23/

 

Remember the looping stem? I bent it down and covered it with hydroton and repositioned the dripper tube. It is now in the process of becoming a part of the root mass. I'm sure the humidity is helping.

 

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133994-thc-bomb-day-23/

https://www.opengrow.com/gallery/image/133993-thc-bomb-day-23/

 

Right now they are under 80w of CFL t5 tubes, but they're obviously not getting all the 80w.

 

When should I move them under the HPS (400)?

Also, as the humidity is only set to increase till about the end of august (till a max of 80-90) after which it will come down to 50 or so in sept, I'm wondering if it would be safer to sex these, then veg the females into monsters, then cut her up into clones and flower?

It's unlikely i'll do this if there is only one female, as I am far too impatient to wait that long. As soon as I get a bit more cash I will be building another two identical systems. One with more sites for cloning, and one that I can flower about 4-5 clones in. I have the seeds, just need the rest.

 

Also starting a very big outdoor grow this month. Just finished soil tests and the NPK content is on the low side, the organic content is on the low side, red soil, and there's a decent amount of water due to a tributary running through the middle of the field. the pH is also around 8.2 - on the high side. How would you advise me to go about treating 1 acre of such soil? I want to go 100% organic. Any advice would be more than welcome.

 

OpenGrow, here we go again. : )

 

Greetz from India

 

El Chupa

[Misterdirt 11,962]

You won't want fat colas during high humidity, so however you decide to do it, don't flower too soon. Young,small buds never seem to get fungus, so I don't think you need to wait until the humidity drops to flip to 12/12.

[robogro 2,460]

off to a good start elchupacabra

[mowgli 167]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Growin!

 

Maybe an AC could help?

 

 

 

 

p.s. If you copy the BBCode from your gallery into your posts you get your pics on full screen

[elchupacabra 670]

Happy Growin!

 

Maybe an AC could help?

 

 

 

 

p.s. If you copy the BBCode from your gallery into your posts you get your pics on full screen

 

an AC certainly would help. But for the number of plants i'm growing, I don't see it as being a wise investment.

I am not using the entire space available to me, and as soon as I take it out of the veg room, they will be exposed to a ceiling fan and a standing oscillating fan. Furthermore, (correct me if i'm wrong) i dont think the temperature will harm the plants in any way apart from slowing the rate of growth below optimum speed, right?

 

PS thank you for the tip, I was wondering how to do that...lol

[mowgli 167]

Nope, those temps shouldn't harm your plants, as long as you keep in mind they use a lot more water (vaporise), therefor they need less nutes and more air circulation, and that's why I was thinkin an AC would be ideal, cause it lowers the temp and humidity.

 

But ofcourse that's a decision only you can make

 

Been thinkin bout makin one myself, so it doesn't use that much energy (but my plan already got stuck on the old freezer I wanted to use bein broken lol)

 

 

[elchupacabra 670]

thanks robogro. hopefully i've got everything I need in order this time!

 

MisterDirt, I think I will take your advice, and pop another seed (fem'd) while I wait for the time to come when these can be flowered. I'll probably pop it in a spongepot and after a week, transfer it to the hydro setup. I dont' want it to get nutrient overloads. Not sure how much that will happen when the ppm is 350-400, but no chances taken. Hell I want at least one decent cola after so much time spent not growing!

 

I read somewhere that exposing your plant to the same power light it will receive during flowering for a few days during veg just before flowering greatly increases growth (ICMag). Basically, a week before flowering under 400 hps, i'll veg them under the 400 hps, and flip to flower after a week. Does this sound good or make sense to you guys?

 

thanks

[Misterdirt 11,962]

I don't know how much it matters about switching out an MH for an HPS of the same wattage. You can have problems when suddenly increasing wattage on plants whose roots developed under weaker and cooler lights. See for yourself whether it makes a difference.

[elchupacabra 670]

MisterDirt, I was indeed talking about a change in wattage - not just a change in spectrum. What you're saying makes sense, I guess the sudden exposure to more light requires the plant to draw nutrients up faster in order to keep up with an accelerated rate of photosynthesis. I will certainly give it a shot though, as there's really no other way for me to switch these from cfl to hps. while on the topic of roots, root growth does seem rigorous

[robogro 2,460]

get a solar type window screen between the light and plant to filter some of the intense light until the plants are ready

 

works for me

[mowgli 167]

Why not keep a bigger distance between bulb and canopy? For the first day or two..

 

As long as you keep humidity up it won't be a problem... (yes they will suffer, and love you for it..!)

 

 

[elchupacabra 670]

Why not keep a bigger distance between bulb and canopy? For the first day or two..

 

As long as you keep humidity up it won't be a problem... (yes they will suffer, and love you for it..!)

 

 

 

what do you mean they will suffer :-/

 

this is what i was thinking of doing, but depending on the type of suffering, i may have to reconsider

[mowgli 167]

For example:

 

If you were to stay inside the house on a very hot and sunny day, you keep all windows shut to keep the heat out, and in the middle of the day, you walk outside and sit in the sun.....

When you do this your body needs time to adjust, same as your plants.

This is why you keep the lights up for a while so they get used to the extra light and heat

 

If you have a dimmable evsa it's even easier to slowly increase light output

 

 

[elchupacabra 670]

well.

 

things did not go too well that time. the water pump failed, for starters. then i got a replacement, which also failed. 2 failures was more than they could take, and that was that.

 

i bought a good branded one, which seems to be working...for now. and we are beyond the stage where the water pump matters, so that's a relief.

 

long story short, i did not keep track of how long i vegged these or anything, but they spent a while under a terribly weak t5 setup, and then about 1.5 - 2 weeks under an HPS 400w. flipped them yesterday, on the 29th it's one 8 miles high female mama

 

 

and 3 clones of the same.

 

 

not sure if it's clear in the pictures (which are all apparently 1995 quality) but i've got a little parabolic scrog going on underneath the vertical 400w barebulb. i tried doing it with a reflector, but temperatures were around 40-42 deg. Celsius and the plants were starting to look a little disappointed, so that was that. now:

 

 

i'm not sure if it's too early to flower or not, but my patience grows weak, and i really really need to have some good quality bud while i set up a proper vertical scrog grow around a single vertical bulb. more on that when the time comes.

 

the mommy on the right is at 600 ppm and extremely happy, a notch above at 650 and she started showing me some nitrogen toxicity problems...

 

 

as you can see in the above photo, (newer growth to the top of the pic and older growth at the bottom) some of the leaves are dark green and curling inwards. no matter, it's solved now. back to about 580 ppm and 5.5-6.5 ph (using papers so not exact)

 

this one should make the nitrogen tox a bit clearer. the problem was actually there for both the clones and the mom, because i went out of town for 4 days on work and i wanted to be a little precocious - apparently upping the nutes was not the right way to do that.

 

first the moms nitro issues:

 

 

and the young uns:

 

 

i should note that the ppm for the young ones is at 280-300 and they don't seem to like anything more than that for now!

 

the mom:

 

 

the clones:

 

 

 

certainly not the best scrogging done but it should do for now. do you guys think i need to prune more leaves?

 

also, regarding hydroponics: when the shift to flowering is made, how should one go about changing the nutrient feeding? the transition from veg nutes to flowering nutes? should i empty the reservoir and refill with flowering nutes or just change it gradually or just switch to topping up with flowering nutrients instead of veg? advice would be great folks.

 

thanks in advance to the OG community! will keep you posted and updated

[elchupacabra 670]

no response : ( so i took the general advice from the internet which was to continue with veg nutes till pistils start visibly forming in numbers and then switch to bloom nutes. emptied one reservoir of the clones and kept the mother reservoir the same to see the difference between the two. the stretching is just about underway

[smilestyle 6,029]

I would veg some more time as the scrog isn´t ready for my eye.

For the hydro questions, some other member has to help.

 

smile

[elchupacabra 670]

Thanks for the advice smile. : )

 

I would veg longer too. But my patience grows weak and I plan to relocate by the beginning of November. Furthermore, I am starting a large scale grow outdoors for personal consumption by the end of this year. I don't think I'll face any problems apart from not reaching as large a yield as I can. I may be continuing an indoor grow as well at an alternate location, where I will do a much more intelligently designed hydro setup.

 

Best vibes,

 

El Chupa

[elchupacabra 670]

so it goes on and i must say, for 3 weeks of flowering, the buds are looking minuscule.

the leaves are still curved downwards on and off, around different parts of the plants.

i have only been feeding with 6.0 ph water for the past 3 weeks and still the curling continues.

i will drain the reservoir in a day, and i've ordered more air stones and another air pump in case

low oxygen levels is an issue.

hope things get better and i get some nice buds.

[madmaster420 5,706]

fwiw...rockwool is a bit more forgiving with regards to pump failures in a hydro setup.

 

Good luck with your outdoor activities

[elchupacabra 670]

haven't posted for a while. been quite busy. but i must say the buds are turning out to be quite decent. small, perhaps due to the nitrogen toxicity, which was actually (i think) due to the fact that the reservoir had less water than it should have. ironic, that when i grow hydroponically, i forget to top up the water. absolute heights of dumb shit that you can possibly do.

 

Anyways, apart from those leaves that are curled down, bearing the scar of a concentrated reservoir, the buds are developing nicely. i'm about a month into flowering, and this last one week or so, they've been starting to stack on a bit. i think this 8 miles high is one of those strains that really starts to put on weight in the last couple weeks. we will see. i think around 4-5 weeks of flowering now. sorry, i don't keep track of the days really. the pictures are not the best quality. don't expect a Moto G to ever be good at budshots. as i used to do, i'll borrow a dslr on the day before and the day after harvest for pics. here's some of what's going on now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[elchupacabra 670]

october 15th updates

 

the nutes here in this country are of poor quality really as far as hydroponic nutes go. not too much of an issue in soil, but hydro is a different ballgame innit... they don't seem to be evenly available across even a small pH range, and at the pH where one is available, another locks out. If I try and fix a K-def with a mild increase in ppm, the minute the K-def is gone, an N-def shows up. N-def goes away with a mild change in ppm/pH and then an Mg-def shows up. ridiculous. anyways I have my friend coming from UK with nutes for me Price is no bar, so I chose to go with Advanced Nutrients. Yes, maybe I'm swayed by marketing and more, but I'm somewhat partial towards them and their 2 Part Nutrients. I have purchased:

 

1) Sensi Grow and Bloom 2 Part pH Perfect - pH perfect. no major pH issues. the less I have to work with phosphoric acid the better. I do wear gloves sometimes, but sometimes i get lazy and man when that acid hits the finger it's an unusual feeling, a combination of heat and irritation. Its pretty bloody concentrated, and I was advised by my friend, a major in chemistry, that it was best to store it as concentrated as possible, as humidity and heat really mess with Phosphoric Acid. So that was that.

 

2) Carboload - Another advanced nutrients product. An additive which has a composition that will benefit brix levels greatly, but is very active without the bacteria/fungi in the substrate to break it down. Many carbohydrates as well.

 

3) Superthrive - I got this for the secret ingredient they don't tell you about - Triacontanol. A truly beautiful plant growth hormone that works best at 1-1.5 ppm, it can be purchased, but diluting it to that fine a degree is bound to be difficult. so superthrive it is. a foliar feed of superthrive does wonders.

 

on to the pictures. any idea when she'll be done folks?

 

if you ask me she has at least 3-4 weeks to go, possibly more? looking like the sativa leaning pheno...i believe it's been somewhere between 42-49 days of flowering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

horribly blurry pic without the HPS and no flash

 

 

 

on another note, this is a beautiful study which i'm sure many of you have read, many of you may not be influenced by at all, and some of you may find useful or at least interesting. I certainly did. Extremely detailed with intense attention given to detail, he follows the scientific method as much as possible with an illegal plant. At first when i saw the length I thought he was takin the piss, but it's really good stuff. enjoy

 

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/indoor-soil-cultivation/114640-top-nutrient-study-best-produces-most.html

[GovindaHARE 1]

Greetings all the way to India! I think it's great that you are putting forth such effort and are determined! Over here in the states we have so many local shops that sell all the latest equipment and nutrients and guess what, there's a lot of complaining about "If I just had this new thing my grow would have been better." It's refreshing to see someone who has a much harder path with the determination to succeed. It doesn't matter what the yield is man, you're succeeding in my book, by far! Thanks for the inspiration man, I needed that! Keep growing so I can keep updated on how it's going bro! Love and peace!

[elchupacabra 670]

Greetings all the way to India!

 

Thanks mate. Appreciate the appreciation!

[elchupacabra 670]

ok so i need immediate advice, ASAP. It's monday morning at the time of this post, and i am going out of town on the 22nd and will be back on the 25th morning. There are a couple of questions I have.

 

1) take a look at these pictures (i know they're bad quality, but i'm trying to work with what i have here since my friend with a DSLR is not in town till november...) and tell me if you think the pictured buds are ready for harvest or if i have time to flush them for a week or so. i think they could maybe be left for a week during which time i can flush them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

while i'm disappointed with bud quailty and picture quality, i know that this time was a pilot round (my first indoor grow, my first grow in this ridiculous climate, my first time working with chemicals and my first time working with hydroponics!) and i had to get a lot of variables in place and now i can really start to clock in all the variables this time around.

 

2) On the nutrient front, after asking several people for advise, including some experts on this site, I have decided to purchase the following nutrients instead of a random 'formula' made by me.

 

> General Hydroponics Grow Micro Bloom . (My tap water ranges from 20-100 ppm. so i should go with soft water option right?)

> Cannazym (I'd love to get hygrozyme but at 30% of the price, cannazym it was)

> canna pk 13/14

> superthrive

[Draigwen 396]

I think they could be left the week, "If they look ready leave them a week" is how i first learned.