Diary Growing with Phlizon - Wakeford in Coco

[tobedetermined]

It was time. After 6 years of use and somewhere north of 8.5 lbs of weed grown, it was time for my ancient Mars-Hydro light to go. I remember all of the ‘research’ I did as a first time grower when I bought it. It was one of their premium lights at the time at the peak of the burple era. I added a custom 4 strip LED array after a couple of grows to fill out the tent and to double the ‘rays’ hitting the plant. It worked nicely but LED technology has blazed ahead from the good ole days and it was long past time to upgrade.

Enter ICmag’s new sponsor Phlizon whose banners you may have seen at the top of the site. With a bit of help from the friendly back office, the kind people at Phlizon thought that it would be a grand idea for someone to try a grow review here on ICMag to show what their offerings can do. So seven days later, a nondescript carton showed up at my door a few weeks later and voilà . . .

Like most LED lighting manufacturers, Phlizon are a relatively new company but then the whole industry is expanding logarithmically as consumers embrace the ease and advantages of LED lighting. They developed their own sophisticated lighting research and manufacturing facility in an industrial park in Shenzhen, China and staffed it with experienced lighting engineers. While my interest is their lighting for home growing, they also design commercial systems for large scale grow operations and they have products that cater to the aquarium and home aqua culture markets. With warehousing in the US, Canada, and other parts of the world they offer a 3 year warranty with a 30 day money back guarantee. And btw . . . their grow lights are remarkably affordable . . .

The Light:

FD6500 by Shenzhen Phlizon Technology Co., Ltd

The FD6500 is a 650w foldable grow light with 6 LED strips and a driver in a housing at the hinge point. The strips are each encased in a finned aluminum heatsink and held in with colorful green brackets. This light nicely fills a 4 x 4 grow tent with just a little space left over - but make sure that you have adequate airflow in the space to dissipate the heat that those 2592 LEDs can generate. It has the requisite on/off switch and a dimmer control - of course - and this can be used to dim this light and any fixtures that you daisy chain to downstream via the in/out control sockets. The fit and finish on the fixture is excellent.

 

[tobedetermined]

The Genetics:

Wakeford 1.0 (UBC Chemo x {G13 x Skunk #1})

I bought these beans in the controversial sale that reeferman (Charles Scott) had last March, which were shipped and then lost in an international mail black hole before finally being delivered 6 weeks after the postmark. Now anybody that has been to Jamaica knows that time moves very differently there but this delay was ridiculous. I should also point out that this grow was supposed to be his Pure Tuna S1, but none of those seeds survived except for one single weakling which died after 2 days. I was not happy. The Wakeford seeds fared better and 5/6 popped with one weakling whom I culled and now I have 4 under the light for the duration.

The Grow:

I have a Gorilla 4 x 4 tent with the 2’ extension which just barely fits under the ceiling – I scrape my knuckles on the stucco whenever I have to assemble/disassemble the grow setup. I am growing in 4 x 5 gallon cloth pots with the usual 80/20 coco/perlite blend. I am using Cana coco this time and I rinsed it well outside with tap water and then pH’d it when they got to the tent with 5.9 filtered tap water. I have a 3’ x 3’ drain table supported on a few pavers to give me enough room to keep a runoff bowl underneath the drain hole that I can empty. Yeah, there is no automation here. Both because I am a dinosaur and because I am retired. I hand-water them daily and I can easily reach the four pots – even in flower – as long as I keep the bottom scruff clean. The grow sits in a tent inside so it is at room temperature.

I popped the beans two weeks ago and started them in Rapid Rooters. These I put directly into the 5 gallon pots – skipping the Solo cup stage which is where I often tend to try to drown them. I seem to do much better by going directly into the big boy pots and watering them carefully. Of course, this necessitates putting up some yellow sticky traps to get the inevitable gnats until the plants get bigger but this is a small price to pay for healthy plants.

Within 24 hours of installing the new light, the plants had exploded. They were just hitting 2 weeks, so it was time for them to really come alive and they responded well. Two separate phenos seem to be emerging very early and I have two of each. One is a smaller Afghani-looking broad leaf droopy plant and the other is taller and bolder.

Now @ 3 weeks . . .

 

[exploziv]

I am gonna follow this one! Good luck with your grow!

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

I'll be keeping an eye on this grow too - looks interesting -

 

[tobedetermined]

Thanks guys . . .

So after writing that glowing review above, I smugly sat back. A good grow is not rocket science, it just requires that a number of different elements come together. Plant, light, water, food, environment. Since cannabis is remarkably resilient, the plant will tolerate a wide range of variance for each of those elements. Until you mess up and step outside the limits.

Yes, that shiny new light started a chain of events. It came in big and it came in hot and I ignored the basics. I put it too low and I dialed it up too high. I know better but I was excited to finally have a light that matched my vision of what I needed. And to complicate the shock of the blazing light, a rare October heat wave struck and room temps crept up since no one runs house AC in October up here in the tundra . . . . So, I now I had two things out of whack – too much light too fast and the tent temp was bouncing up to >29C. To add a third, I was also increasing the nutes to their final veg values (except for cal/mg which I was adding lightly . . . maybe too lightly.) I realized something was amiss when I was going to bed 2 nights ago. All looked well . . . except that one plant had a coppery sheen . . .

I left it for the night and yesterday I went on the attack. Only one plant seemed to be really affected and it was hurting. I started wondering if that yellow sticky might have reflected the light strangely so I moved it.

Two other plants had very minor leaf cupping in a fan or two.

I raised the light to 48” (120cm) above the canopy and dialled it back to 40%. Then I nuted with a proper amount of cal/mg supplement (ec 1.5 pH 5.9ish) and I redirected my input fan to increase the air getting into the tent. That plus the light changes brought the temps back to normal sub 27C with an RH of 60+ via a small humidifier in the tent.

Now it is wait and see . . .

 

[exploziv]

I have same problems right now and I was thinking it's lack of cal mag. Now you got me thinking, maybe my led is too close as well? I am keeping it at about 35 cm and 50% power. How close are you keeping yours? I was thinking mine is far enaugh and well dimed to not give them too much light, especially since my temps are good, but you got me thinking a bit. Anyway, it's normal to have some cal mag defs while dialing in a new light, laughs on me for having them after a few years of using leds.. but that's life, grow and learn! Hope you manage to dial your grow soon, buddy!

 

[tobedetermined]

Right now I have it at 120 cm @ 40%. Photone (I know it is not accurate without calibration) gives me a reading of 400ppfd. My old light system was 125 ppfd in veg for comparison.

I am going to run it high in the tent to calm things down.

 

[tobedetermined]

I had it at 50% and about 90 cm when I crisped that plant . . .

 

[buzzmobile]

It sounds like you gave those little girls everything all at once. I hand water too for the very same reasons you mentioned. The one gallon orange juice jugs are lined up in the veg room filled with RO water. I have boosted feeding under LEDs,especially in veg, with good results.

They'll bounce right back.

 

[tobedetermined]

It sounds like you gave those little girls everything all at once.

Yes, the kitchen sink cure. And it is looking much better. Still some residual leaf damage but it takes a while to grow out. The plant likes to remind you of your mistakes sometimes.

And I learned that the Phlizon light is a powerful light and it demands some respect. Mount it high!!!!!

 

[tobedetermined]

All is well in the grow now that I have the light pulled high. Photone tells me that I am 419 ppfd at the tallest plant. Even if it isn't accurate, the plants are growing and they seem to like it. ec is 1.3 pH around 5.75 - 5.95.

Mid week 4

P.S. I got rid of the crispy leaves. And what is left is big fat Indica leaves. No skinny shit here . . .

 

[tobedetermined]

Just getting to the end of week 4 and life appears good for the plants. They are sunbathing very nicely under the Plizon light – running at 40% about 48” above the tallest plant. I really like the dimmer control – it is much easier than playing with the voltage adjustment screw on a driver like I did in my previous lighting setup.

Here is the crispy one now at the end of week 4.

And here is the other plant that sustained damage. It has snapped back as well.

And the runt of the litter.

Last but not least, the star of the grow at this point. I fimmed it - if I did the cut right - so we will see what that produces. It is 8” from dirt so fairly squat, but still the tallest plant of the grow.

 

[exploziv]

What a change! They look much better now! Powerful leds indeed.

 

[tobedetermined]

Yes, I am impressed with the light. I am tempted to raise it to the max and then dial them up but the plants may stay fairly small with minimal stretch and this might be better . . .

And btw, I am staying at ec 1.3 pH ~ 5.9. A litre of water per plant per day at this stage with about 10% runoff.

 

[tobedetermined]

I thought it was time for an update . . .

At the beginning of the week, I noticed that 2 of the plants had a leaf that started clawing. I cut back on the A portion of the Canna A + B that day and I gave the plants a good flush the next with 7 liters of pH'd water. I skipped feeding that day and came in with a lower feed level the next - about ec 1.0 - 1.1. The plants responded very nicely in a day so I have decided to keep the lower feed level.

They are all getting pretty full so I will put the tent into 12/12 this weekend - so at the start of week 6.

 

[RudeDog]

Subbed...Plants looking good.

I had a bit of a game dialing in my veg tent when I switched that to LED. A 200w LED over a 0.6m x 0.6m tent at 100% was too much, now run it at 20% and 36" from the plant tops. Using Canna nutes in coco I bought a bottle of Canna calcium feed, add 1ml per litre of water then A & B and feed at EC1.5, ph 5.8.

Can't quite bring myself to switch my flower tent to LED, still running 600w HPS so I'm interested how you get on with this.

Good luck

 

[tobedetermined]

I bought a bottle of Canna calcium feed, add 1ml per litre of water

I use the GH version at the same dose. Once a week I add some potassium silicate just cause I have it . . . and some cannazym as well. When they start fruiting, I will hit them religiously with Boost through flower with a week of PK 13/14 in the mid/late stretch.

But I have a new light and a relatively unknown (little grown) strain so I am feeling my way along . . .

 

[tobedetermined]

I guess that I am long overdue on an update for this grow thread. My apologies . . . life got it the way.

Anyways, I finally solved my twisty leaf problem and the problem was me. I didn’t keep up with pH probe calibration and well, low pH 5s for several weeks will really piss your plants off. While I was distracted with those life problems, two of the plants really started doing the twisties while the other two just kept growing. Once I had a chance to calm down and examine all of the evidence, I finally clued in to the problem and calibrated my damn pen.

The Phlizon light has been performing flawlessly throughout my operator-error induced problems.

At 9 weeks - about 4 weeks from the 12/12 switch and about 2 weeks of real flower. pH around 6, ec around 1.1 and I am now adding Canna Boost to the new mix.

 

[tobedetermined]

100%!

Now that I am deeply in flower, and my mind has drifted back to the grow for a little while, I decided to crank the light. I was running a conservative 40% because I was having plant problems but since the problem was me rather than the light, over the last week I eased it up . . . 50% . . . 60% . . . 75% . . . and finally 100% . . . and the plants are loving it. I am hitting a Protone ppfd of just over 800 on the tallest plant with the light at maximum height . My fan-forced input and the circulating fan are keeping the tent temp below 28C so everything is just peachy keen. I still have a long way to go but things are looking good!

 

[tobedetermined]

And an overview shot. This grow's hero is at the back and I put a booster seat under the one on the left to raise it up a bit.