Mages Kali Haze in a Waterfarm ~ 3rd time lucky

[mage]

Welcome!

I have information about my setup, nute schedule and environment that I would like to share with you before getting into my grow. I will be documenting my grow from day one onwards.

The seeds i am using are Kali-Haze x 10.

I am using a waterfarm setup I built myself.

First, a few questions that I seem get frequently asked.

Why the farm? I bought this system knowing little about it other than I liked the waterfarm concept. The first grow i completed was a steep learning curve. In hindsight it may have been a better idea to go with a more forgiving medium and set up such as pearlite and flood and drain, however I like the idea of a challenge as I feel that things that are difficult to do in life are often the most rewarding.

What cemented the fact that I wanted to grow farm was seeing a two pound plant grow in 90 days in a thread on an external website. I've noticed on the two grows I've done that as soon as the roots hit the water in the bottom pot the growth is explosive.
I am still a newbie to gardening and waterfarm however I am passionate about both.

Why not grow in soil? Well I seem to kill plants in soil, as I am a newbie my green thumb is not yet fully developed.

I hope in the future to grow weed in soil, however in the mean time I plan to set up a vegi garden to get some exposure and practice.

So yeah, please feel free to pull up a seat and come a long for the ride

 

[mage]

Grow Space

I am growing in my garage. I feel it is secure as it can not be accessed via the house. You also need a key to enter it, so i can lock it up. Locking it up during rental inspections is a definate bonus as it means i do not have to pull everything down every 6 months.

It is light tight with no sound or light leaks in or out. The first plant i grew in a farm went hermie due to light leaks, This is now 110% fixed.

Not cutting holes in the garage ceiling is a definite bonus. The ceiling manhole in the garage is easily replaceble.

My 'cab' is made out of a light timber frame wrapped with panda film. It is quite flimsy until you wrap the panda film around it and it becomes a stable unit. The light however is hung from a large hook that i have screwed into the roof truss, therefore i do not need the cab/tent to have good structural properties. I use one side of the tent flap as a door.

The cab is approx 20 sq feet.

I have both a 600w and 400w lights, if i successfully get a female i will use both during the course of the grow.

The lumens are as follows
400w = 50,000 lumens = 2,500/20 sq ft
600w = 90,000 lumens = 4,400/20 sq ft
1000w = 140,000 lumens = 7,000/20 sq ft

 

[mage]

Waterfarm Setup

Waterfarm Setup

Waterfarm Setup

I built this setup myself, it was originally store bought however i modified it and rebuilt it since the first grow. I have a much better understanding now of how it works.

Mods include...
* 2 air pumps
* 4 air stones
drip ring at top that sprays away from the rockwool cube.
* I drilled more holes in the bottom of the top pot.

I have a ppm meter and a pH meter so i can dial in to the grow. Unfortunately i am not gifted with a green thumb and i feel these meters help me.

The medium i plan to use is a small rockwool one inch cube for post germ and clay balls. I've found clay balls to be a headache in the past. They tend to rise the pH and no matter how much effort you put into getting the balls clean they tend to coat my tank and bottom pot with red dust. When i do my first res change i clean the dust/mud out and after that the res is usually crystal clear. My original clean of the balls usually gets 90% of the dust off.

To get better efficiency from my rhizo i created a smaller resiviour out of a spare bottom pot. During the first 4 weeks i only run 15Lt of solution. I change this weekly to allow me to incrementally up the nute strength. Running only 15Lt allows me to run full strength and not go through so much rhizo.

Prior to this i would change the tank fortnightly for first month using a 50Lt solution in the res. This uses 400mL of Rhizo for first 4 weeks.

Using a 15Lt Solution and changing weekly only uses a total of 240mL for the first 4 weeks.

 

[mage]

Feeding schedule

Feeding schedule

Feeding schedule

During the course of the grow I plan to run Canna Rhyzotonic and Canna Cannazyme primarily for insurance against root rot. I have found Rhizo is amazing for getting the roots to explode in growth and also helps out with stress. I managed to push my last plant to about an inch from its death and i am confident the only reason why the plant did not die was because i was running Rhyzo and Zyme.

The nutes i am using are Canna Flower/Vega A+B. To see the planned nute strength see the chart below. This chart is approximate only and will most likly change as the plants needs do.

Flowering additives i am using are Cyco: Swell and a small sample bottle of Canna Boost that my hydro guy gave to me for free to try.

I will aim to have the pH at approx 5.8 during veg and will lift it to approx 6.2 during flower.

I will aim to keep the ppm at between 150-200 during early veg, 600-800 late veg (small plant) and around 1200 when the plant is large. These figures are an approximate guideline for me and i will roll with it.

I will aim at keeping the water temp at approximately 21 degree celcius.

When i transplant my 1" rockwool cube into the farm i will hand water it twice for a couple of days with the drip ring off. When the small plant can take the drip ring ill set the watering interval for 15 mins on 45 mins off. I know some people run it 24/7 and that GH recomended doing this, however i would like to play it safe.

 

[mage]

Day -3 or so (i hope xD)

Day -3 or so (i hope xD)

Approx 24 hours ago, i set one of the seeds to germinate. In the past this method has worked fairly well for me.

Mats
- Sealable plastic sandwhich bag.
- Two serviets cut to size.
- Spring water

I wet the serviets with the spring water and press out as much water as i can with out doing any damage to the moist paper.

I then put a seed in it and fold it over. Then place the servite in the plastic bag and seal it.

I put the bag on top of the vegging unit with 1-2 lights on. The vegging unit is a 50 litre plastic tub. I screwed 3 x 15 watt flouro lights into the underside of the lid. As the ballasts are screwed underside of the lid, depending on the ambient temperiture of the room and how many lights i switch on i can get a perfect stable temperature for the seeds to sit in.

I place the bag in a towel and put it on the top of the vegging unit with two lights turned on. The vegging temp ranges from 25C.

 

[mage]

Seed still has not cracked open yet. I placed another smaller seed in moist serviete.

I keep telling myself to be patient, but it's hard! xD

The friend that brought them back from overseas didn't happen to keep the little document that contains the germination information that was packaged with the seeds when they were bought in Holland. I'm hoping you don't need to germ at a specific temp to crack the beans open.

If anyone has grown Kali Haze i'd love to know how you germ'd them!

Mage

 

[Eatatjoes]

give em a little more time, they can take a couple days sometimes.

 

[mage]

Still waiting for the seeds to germ

Still waiting for the seeds to germ

Seeds still havn't cracked open yet. They are been germinating now for 4 days.

I understand it can take up to 10 days to germinate, however according to sensi seeds this rare.

The only thing i can see that i am really doing different to their starting off advice is that my temp is set to 25C and they recomend 21C.

I have dusted off my old heat pad. I am currently working out how many layers of a folded over towel i can put on top to keep a surface temp of 21C, ie use the towel as a heat buffer. Unfortunatly the heat pad is a tiny bit hotter than 21C, i think around 15C.

Sensi say they test their seeds and their seeds have a 90% germ rate so i think i am the problem not their seeds.

Seeds need warmth, darkness and i think air to germ. I have done away with the zip lock bag that worked fine for me int he past and i am going back to the 2 plates method. If air is key then that will fix that, as far as warmth i will adjust the temp.

Kinda feeling a bit 'grow-tarded' right now.