My First Grow Journal...EVER! 600W MH/HPS Bubbleponics Cabinet Grow

[ellz]

No Title

07/21/2017:

09:00PM: Had to add about 2 gallons of pH'ed water to each reservoir because the babies are drinking it up! It appears that one full dropper of pH down mixed with my water and some Hydroguard is the right combination to get my pH down to the low 6's from the 8's so perhaps one full dropper is good to reduce a 5 gallon container down 2 pH points. I will still test each time but if this turns out to be the case that is worth noting. All of the plants have now split their selves from the topping and have picked up where they left off. I am waiting until they get a little bigger before starting LST. Right now, everything is getting fairly equal light so no big deal. I have attached photos of each group below. Thanks for reading!

 

[Jibblerjoe]

Very nice set up. Plants look great.

 

[ellz]

Thank you!

 

[ellz]

No Title

Going to start condensing my updates when things are normal so below are from the past 2 days...

07/22/2017:
06:30PM: Checked on the plants after the light came back on and they are looking good. I am trying to get in the habit of only opening the doors to check on the plants when the light is on and usually only during the hottest part of the day to help vent some of the heat. The larger of the two Rug Burn OG plants (back left) needed a bit of LST on it's taller branches so I tied them both down with some gardening ties. The larger of the two White Poison plants (back right) had a couple of tiny yellow spots here and their on some of the older fan leaves and a couple of the fan leaves have "burned edges" but I think it's because they are rubbing against the reservoir because the new growth looks very good. I checked the roots and noticed one of the root groups had started wrapping around the drip tubing so I gently removed it from that and let it sit freely in the water below. Really need to clean things up in my reservoirs after this grow so that tubing is not in the way of the roots. Photos are below.

07/23/2017:
06:30PM: Like yesterday I have been trying to get in the habit of only opening the cabinet while the light is on and the outside temps are the highest. The plants are still doing good. They seem to be getting noticeably larger by the day so that is great in my book. I adjusted the gardening ties on the Rug Burn OG back left plant to pull the branches down just a bit more. The White Poison plant in the back right is much more bush and the branches are not long enough to tie them down yet so I will wait on that. I hope to be able to determine the sex of the plants soon but being that I am only entering week 4 on Monday I must remember to be patient. If they are males, they should show something first. Females tend to take longer to show their sex. The best I can do now is just keep my temps as cool as possible and hope for the best! Photos of yesterday and today below. I posted them to show the 2-day growth in each plant so it's Rug Burn OG day 19 and 20 then White Poison day 19 and 20. Thanks for reading.

 

[ellz]

No Title

07/24/2017:

05:20PM: Completely drained both reservoirs and changed out the nutrient water using the 3rd week of my feed schedule (I am starting week 4 of my grow from seed but the first week was only water). The larger White Widow plant at the back right is showing some yellowing and burnt tips on a couple of older leaves. My best guess is a possible Potassium deficiency. I checked the pH of my reservoir water before draining it and it was at 5.93 so that shouldn't be an issue and I am using the nutrient amounts on the feed schedule so that should be okay. My only guess is that I was using more than 5 gallons of water when filling my jug since it wasn't labeled. So I decided to mark it at every gallon interval and sure enough, I was over filling it by about a quart. Not sure if this was causing my deficiency but we'll see. I also marked the reservoirs themselves (at their 5 gallon points) so I could know where my water line should be and add to it if need be. The other possible suspect for that plant is the roots are starting to wrap around the drip tubing down below and could be getting choked up. I did my best to untangle them and they seem to be floating freely in the water. I don't notice root rot but there is a thick cluster of roots in the middle that are slightly twisted together. I massaged them gently while changing the reservoir, and tried to fan them out a bit more. I will monitor the plant but if it doesn't spread I won't worry about it. Older leaves are not as important as new ones. I have attached photos below of the plants at the beginning of their fourth week from seed, as well as closeups of each plant.

Side note: The water changes are taking forever so I plan on buying a second 5 gallon water jug and hopefully that will speed up the process since I can pre-mix BOTH reservoirs at the same time instead of doing it one at a time. I can also drain both at the same time because both would have fresh nutrient water standing by versus only one. Today's change took about an hour and a half but I also had to fix the cooling fan on top of the reservoir because it came loose at the lid. Even if I can get the time down to under an hour I would be very happy! The less time I have to have the roots exposed to no water and no air pump, the better! Plus, the faster I can do it, the less light the roots will be exposed to during the changes. Anything should help.

07:15PM: I topped all four plants again. I cut them back quite a bit to encourage more branching. I have attached more picture to the post of how they look after topping them.

 

[Graff420]

These are looking pretty as hell great job ellz

 

[Sheesh]

Hey Ellz, they're looking great. Are you adding Cal-Mag as part of your schedule?

 

[ellz]

Thanks.

 

[ellz]

Thanks. No, I am not adding Cal-Mag. My feeding consist of: First I add HydroGuard and mix, then FloraMicro, FloraGro, FloraBloom, Rapid Start, Floralicious Plus, Liquid Koolbloom (although I am not using the Koolbloom yet...that comes later).

 

[ellz]

No Title

07/25/2017:

06:30PM: Finally installed the reservoir reflective bubble insulation. I used the 16in x 25ft Reflectix double air bubble reflective insulation. I folded up about 3 inches on the bottom, taped it up and it fit perfectly under the lip of each reservoir. I then pulled it as tight as I could get it and taped it down with standard duct tape. I am hoping this will reflect the heat from the light and allow the reservoirs to cool down more with the fans blowing in them. There is still air space for the air to vent out of the reservoirs so it won't build up pressure or anything. The plants themselves are looking good after getting topped yesterday. I may top them one more time, still not sure. Been doing LST on the larger plants where needed but only moving the plants small amounts each day. Hoping to know the sex within the next week but I can't force that. Below are photos of the plants as they sit today and two pics of the insulation on the reservoir. Thanks for reading!

Side Note: Got my Medical MJ card renewed today and the doctor upped me to grow 24 plants at a time. Nice!

12:30AM: Starting at 11:00PM, I lowered the reservoir temperatures with 2 frozen 20oz ice bottles. Starting temp on the right reservoir was 75.6ºF and I cooled it to 67.1ºF in 30 minutes. I then took the bottles out of the right and placed them in the left, which had a starting temp of 72.3ºF. The bottles still had about 50% ice in them so I left them in for an hour. Checked on everything at 12:30AM and the right temp was only at 68.7ºF and the left was at 68.1ºF so apparently the reflective insulation is helping a lot!

 

[oldjarhead100]

looking good ellz great idea on that insulation that what I used to separate my veg and bloom in my tent worked great

 

[ellz]

Thanks. That's a good idea using it as a divider.

 

[ellz]

No Title

07/26/2017:

06:15PM: The plants are doing well. I topped the White Poison plants a bit more today and did LST to all of the plants. Should be able to know the sex real soon but I am pretty sure I have a couple of females! Below are photos of them on day 23. Thanks for reading!

 

[IanHale]

We started our grows on the same day. Mine was at 8am while yours is PM. Cool

 

[ellz]

Nice! I technically placed the seeds in the Rapid Rooters at 11:00PM on July 3, 2017. I wanted to start them on July 4th so it would be easy to remember but I got too excited. LOL.

 

[IanHale]

Mine popped their shells on the 4h and came up out of the rooters on the 5th.

Unplanned i was mad I didn't not get started on the 1st

 

[ellz]

No Title

07/27/2017:
11:00PM: Added 2 gallons of pHed, HydroGuard water to each reservoir. One of each gallon was cooled for a few hours prior to adding them to the reservoirs to cool the overall water temps. Tightened up an loose plant ties.

07/28/2017:
06:15PM: The plants are looking good. When I opened the cabinet I noticed the distinct smell of cannabis so that is a good sign, right?! Unfortunately, I also noticed some tiny little bugs flying out of the cabinet. They are like miniature moths that only come in at night when the light is on and the door is open so I am going to leave the door closed during nighttime hours to keep them from getting back in since it looks like they all left when I opened the door. I don't think they will harm the plants but I don't want dead bugs littering my cabinet. That might attract ants or something else!

Below are photos from the past couple of days. Thanks for reading!

 

[Graff420]

They are looking yummy iv notcie some tiny white moth looking thing in my tent been trying to kill it its litterally only one but its eating at my small growth iv finally noticed it when one on my babe colas grew out with 2 fingers because it ate the 3rd finger while it was really small been noticeing it more and more now so be sure too look out for really small new growth

 

[ellz]

Yeah, I noticed one leaf on the White Poison plant that may have been nibbled on a small bit. I will just have to keep watching it and if it gets too bad I will look up what natural ways I can make them leave. Maybe some mint smell sprayed inside the cabinet or something would work. Who knows. Not too big a deal right now but something I am looking in to just in case.

 

[ellz]

I will probably get some Neem oil too. That is a good standard go-to for bug issues.