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Darth Fader's 1st Grow - DR100L/400watt CMH/wick/coco

GrnMtnGrwr

Active member
Veteran
I asked about it at my local shop too and they had never heard of it. I sent them a link to the site that everyone has been getting them from... never heard anything back though. :dunno:

I'm doing my first run with a 400w CMH, looking forward to seeing how it does. I was going to switch to HPS in flower, but I'm considering using the CMH for the whole run now...
 

GrnMtnGrwr

Active member
Veteran
for me a full run of CMH is what i'm doing, but hey i bet you'll have a ton of fun, and some great greens either way! (i don't buy the hermie argument)

Yeah I didn't really take that too seriously, plenty of other people have done the same with no reports of hermies so I'm inclined to believe it was some other environmental condition. What made me change my mind was when a few people posted the buds they grew under the CMH, I hadn't seen many before and the ones I had seen were very leafy.
 

Darth Fader

Member
well either way, having looked at the spectrums i'm excited - cmh just got delivered, going to grab it now :>

btw - update!! moar pix!!!!


:tiphat:

I'll snap some new pics tomorrow. Kinda busy sorting a few things out. First, I picked up a couple inexpensive hygrometers, mostly for the impending curing - can't mess up a beautiful by overdrying or worse, mold. Also choosing what to put up for the next run. I already ordered 2 OG Kushes and MTF, but I'm thinking of calling it off to {gasp} ... just run the Casey, or at least 1 cut. OG is much harder to grow as I understand. Casey is easy, yields, and gives me a benchmark to compare an all-organic nute regimen. Might be a better choice.

Then there's the nute taper and the flush. The Master Kush comes down first; 60 days is what I've been told. The Casey & Chem4 are 70 or so. I'm guessing these could go over up to 3 days on avg. I'll pickup a cheapo loupe when it gets close to make the call base on trichome color. Don't want to go long on the MK, but don't mind more amber on the other 2. The Recipe call for a 10-day flush, but I don't mind a full 2 weeks. Considering a have a wick res w/ nute residue, it will get diluted, but nutes will be hanging out a bit longer due to this fact (it's not an immediate purge).

Here's what I put up on another thread:

Question for the crowd. Running 6/9 + 7.5ml CalMag + 5ml Hygrozyme + KoolBloom boosts.

I'm at day 32, cutting down/out the Micro now. Master Kush is supposed to go 60 so I need to start flush 10 days prior, day 60, according to the recipe. When should I cut the CalMag & Hygrozyme? Also, how should I flush? I use a wick/bucket & that will take 3-4 to dry up. I could just keep adding ro water to dilute out the res. Also, this is a coco-mix that came w/ all the guano & organics additives.

The big question is the CalMag, & when to taper/cut it altogether. 2nd is, do I let the res get consumed and then flush w/ little runoff, or really douse it & pump out the res a few times to make room for more runoff. Also, use a cleaning/leaching solution?

Pls give input & err on the side of caution. ThX!:bump:
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 32 Flower - 3 Mar
- 6/9 + 7.5ml CalMag + 5ml Hygrozyme pH @5.5 to Ch4 & CJ
- Cut the Micro to the MK, rest same

Day 33 Flower - 4 Mar
- 6/9 + 7.5ml CalMag + 5ml Hygrozyme pH @5.5 to Ch4 & CJ
- didn't feed MK; wanna let the res level reduce
- Hygrometer reading RH @ 47%
- noticed browning pistils on Ch4 & MK

Day 33 slideshow here

Field O' Casey
4408435096_2f1a2e9cbc_o.jpg


Chem4 - pistil ends going brown
4408434904_385678012e_o.jpg


frostin' casey
4407667341_5a6f21153a_o.jpg
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
holy shit! lookin' good! finally, we have an organized, thoughtful, common sense approach to a first grow. i think all first time growers should read this thread. great job!

darth, what kind of camera is that again. i have got to get something else. my piece of shit old first generation digital kodak ain't cuttin' it no mo.
 

Darth Fader

Member
holy shit! lookin' good! finally, we have an organized, thoughtful, common sense approach to a first grow. i think all first time growers should read this thread. great job!

darth, what kind of camera is that again. i have got to get something else. my piece of shit old first generation digital kodak ain't cuttin' it no mo.

Thanks Man! The camera is an older 6.1 megapixel DSLR, Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7d. KM doesn't exist anymore - bought by Sony. It was the first DSLR w/ anti-shake technology. My dad had one & I was so impressed with how easy it was to take nice pics that I bought one myself. It's the stock lens & I don't think it'll do macros, so maybe I'll eventually pick up another lens. The key was to reset the autofocus from area to spot in order to create that nice "depth of field" look. A mid level DSLR is more than enough technology for those of us who aren't serious photographers. I still have no idea what most of the buttons on that camera do LOL. The pics will get better if I can sort out lighting a little better as well.
 

Darth Fader

Member
bee you tea ful!

Glad you like it. I looked in last night & told my wife that I had thought they were slowing down, but wow, I can see that they're bigger than they were yesterday! I snapped some more pics but didn't have time to upload - I'll post them tonight. They're getting chunkier for sure.
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 35 Flower - Mar 6
- final KoolBloom blast for MK, 3rd of 4 for the 70-dayers
- last day of Micro & CalMag for the CJ & Ch4
- 9ml Bloom, 5 ml Hygrozyme + 1 tsp KoolBloom to MK (.33 gal)
- same for CJ, Ch4 + 5ml Micro + 6ml CalMag (.33 gal ea)

The good, the bad, & the ugly:
MK is @35 days & is expected to go 60. As you can see, it is showing some deficiency(s). The of in the corner & I hadn't noticed the rust spot you can see below. They don't look that bad, but what should I do if anything. I did pick-up some GH Kleen for the flush, so that's available if it plays in to the solution.

Rust spots on the MK
4419276130_e51c6ebc44_o.jpg


Other than that, having fun w/ the camera. I've met a 200 pic limit on flickr, so older pics will start to get hidden unless I upgrade. I'm all ears if someone wants to suggest another hosting site.

Day 35 slideshow here

Kickin'
4418510523_c6845ba324_o.jpg
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 37 Flower - Mar 8
- was supposed to feed them the same (no micro or ClaMag) but messed up
- Ch4 & Cj got (just) the extra CalMag
- The rest was 9ml Bloom + 5ml Hygrozyme, .33 gal each
- Humidity @ 43% when I got home in the evening

Playing w/ setting on the camera and I think I got a few beauties. I started a bit of reading at dpreview. Prolly a lot like learning to grow - it's not that hard to do something relatively good - you just read forums & articles like hell, listen, learn, go for it, experiment. LOL not a bad approach to anything really, IMO.

Kewl Day 37 slideshow Riii-cheeawh'

Chem4
4419596298_b1ebc9d98f_o.jpg


Casey Jones
4418829947_0678269626_o.jpg
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 38 Flower - Mar 9
- Seriously waffling on the CalMag.
- 9ml Bloom + 5ml CalMag + 5ml Hygrozyme
- 480 ppm, pH @5.8

Day 39 Flower - Mar 10
- MK flush: 1 gal of distilled H20 + 5 ml GH Kleen
- Chem4 & Casey fed as follows:
- 9ml Bloom + 5ml CalMag + 5ml Hygrozyme
- 480 ppm, pH @5.75
- F'n cfl light fell down & burned at least 3 buds. Picked off the burnt leaves.
- Did quite a bit of pruning underneath for better air flow.
- (1) small fan pointing up in the middle
- Finally installed the carbon-filter: Can 2600.
- It's been stinking and the ONA isn't cutting it anymore. Can smell it outside at the stairway.
 

GrnMtnGrwr

Active member
Veteran
A Can filter with ONA to cover anything that gets past the Can... doesn't get much better than that! Things are looking great, detailed updates are very informative, and will be a great resource to have to look back on! :respect:
 

Darth Fader

Member
A Can filter with ONA to cover anything that gets past the Can... doesn't get much better than that! Things are looking great, detailed updates are very informative, and will be a great resource to have to look back on! :respect:

:tiphat: Hopefully. Hard to say what's going on w/ that MK, and I really should have flushed it & emptied the res b/f now, but that's part of the learning curve I suppose. One big takeaway so far: grow the Casey. She's taken everything in stride, not picky w/ nutes at all. Very nice for beginners.

I'll pick up a cheap water pump today & clear out that res tonight. Who knows the ppm & pH of what's sitting in there. I want that bad boy well-flushed at harvest time.

Love the links in your sig man. I saw that one for the perfect cure last week & immediately ordered 2 of those Hygrometers. Great breakdown on how to cure. There's no way I want to spend this much time & energy growing only to ruin it w/ a crappy cure. I'm shooting for headstash standards here! LOL
 

Darth Fader

Member
P.S. - the success of the 6/9 H3AD/REZ recipe is well supported and is esp relevant since they both grow in coco. While it's easy for a newb to follow, neither one really addresses CalMag and/or tap water ppm's. This whole experiment (my grow) is scientifically invalid since I switched from high ppm tap water (372ppm) to distilled water (5ppm) & played w/ the CalMag. Shit, I was even adding CalMag to the tap water.
 
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