What I Am Growing - 6 x 720w LED room

[Alatrist]

Hello everyone!

I'm starting this thread to show what I am growin as I have been in the forum for some years lurking in the dark but now I would like to step up the game, get better at it and grow the most and best weed possible. Any tips are always welcome.

Right now I have 4 sunsystem led 720w in the room.

AC is always on to assure correct temperature. I veg at 23-24C/ 73-75F and I flower at 28C/ 82F, lowering temps progressively the last two weeks of flowering while I distance the lights from the plants. While veg I keep lights 24 on to keep temps and humidity as stable as possible.

5gal textil pots, 50% soil 50% coco. Ferts are Cannabiogen Delta 8, Delta 9 and Delta 10 (organic algae and corn origin). Bactohemp as michorrizae, biobizz cal mag and aptus silicon.

 

[Alatrist]

This is my last grow.

Genetics are a cut of Ice Cream Cake that came recently from the UK.

2 days of 12/12

 

[Alatrist]

8 days of 12/12

 

[woolybear]

Wow, very nice setup!

 

[Alatrist]

Finished them off with 10 weeks of 12/12

And the finished product:

Grow was far from perfect and I learned a lot from my mistakes this grow... :
- Watering
- Ventilation and air flow
- Humidity
- Nutrients
- Light intensity and distance
- Pest and mold fighting and prevention


I will get into details next post.

Have a nice day!

 

[Alatrist]

At the beginning I started with only 3 ventilators per side, that made the plants on the furthest part of the grow very slow to dry the soil up... So as I was waiting for them, the plants in the middle got a bit too dry.
That way I learned to always keep the soil a bit moist (never leave it to dry completely) because I could see they were in better health. Halfway flowering I got 2 more ventilators, so 4 per side.

Homogeneous ventilation is a must, as with LED there is much less transpiration compared with HPS for example. All plants should have a similar and sufficient air flow.
Plants on the wet side were thriving, I guess it all came together. Visibly bigger leaves.

I went very light with the feeding as I was scared to overfeed because I had a very bad experience a few grows before where I fed too much N and plants did not recover and I got a very bad result... So this ongoing grow I will be feeding lightly but steady and continously, specifically more often. Every watering soft nutes and once a week a nice feeding.

I kept the lights close during stretch to keep them compact and control them and as I saw them happy during that time I left the lights close, but it was too close and I could see buds out of light range growing bigger than the ones under the light. I backed lights up but outer buds had a nice advantage through out the grow. I light stressed them for a few weeks.

I had a few mites in some places, nothing too big so I didnt hurry to get predators. Holidays came around and shops where closed when I was about to get them predators and spiders got out of control very quick. I had webs everywhere but more on the center part of the grow where plants were in not so good health and soil and everything was a touch dryer. A friend recommended a vacuum to take the webs out so I was almost every day busy trying to save the plants hoping for the predators to do something. Finally they won the fight, but not before quiet some time where I was thinking any moment I would loose my grow and daily vacuuming those damn webs full of literal mountains of those little monsters.
But, in all end, I was very happy I won the war!! Just have to take into account that it takes them some time to reproduce and build an army. They work.

And, as a final gift, I got some powdery mildew as a dessert. Only on the lower part thank god, I sprayed some propoleum and kept it in check.

So as for mites and mildew, the best fight is to start before they do.

As for the plants, I should have done much more cleaning of the lower sites, as many of those buds were of inferior quality...

So it was a nice grow full of lessons! It made me realize I can do much better!

Cheers.

 

[Alatrist]

This is my actual grow: Half of the same Ice Cream Cake, 1 single GMO with them and the other half is UK Cheese.

Vegging nicely I proceeded to clean lower parts and do the last topping on the Ice Cream Cake and the GMO, as they are stretchier. For the Cheese I didn't top this time and only cleaned lower parts.

Cake group on the front, Cheese on the back.

After cleaning them:

Roots:

The predators, Neioseiulus Californicus. These are the ones I used last grow and worked for me.

This time I also got these ones, faster action they told me at the shop and they were cheap so I said lets go. These you pour over the tops. Phytoseiulus Persimilis.

Here they are clean and with their new friends.

There were some mites in some places, so lets see how good they do with some advanced action against them.

Cheers!

 

[Ca++]

Resistance is futile

Nice looking grow. It's a blessing to find them in veg, when you can soap them still. Hell to deal with for a couple of months though. I would be drowning them in neem soap, the moment the predators die off.
If you have had them a couple of times, you will know chucking the crop away right now, wouldn't be seen as excessive by some lol

 

[Alatrist]

@Ca++ Neem does nothing and neither do strong chemicals these are evolving to fight back constantly! I am confindent I will get them off, and to be secure I will be dropping more predators as bloom starts...

It's hard but I will resist!

Here they are a few days before 12/12, tomorrow I will do the last lower branches trim and some bending.

Mites are not off, but they are not advancing and that for me is a good sign!

Cheers!

 

[Ca++]

They look nice.

I have drown the borg a few times. Just wetting agent, so insecticidal soap should be next level. You can't drown eggs though, obviously. So you have to warm the room, to get the lifecycle moving, and kill them between hatching and sexual maturity (I hope I'm not confusing this with other bugs) I'm important factor, is killing every single one, which means total coverage. 100% cover is only really achieved with a fogger of some sort. I have used electric spray guns that make a mist fans carry around the room. A pump gun and wand might be useful to you. Or fill the bath, and get tipping them in. You might have to stop the media falling from the pots, which may mean splitting a bucket like a 2 part mould to go around them. Just so you can invert them fully.

They will assimilate everything given chance, and veg is really the only time you can soak them to the core. Which might work in just two sessions, with the timing dependent on temperature. It's just a few days from laid to hatched in a warm room.

 

[Alatrist]

Day 1 of 12/12

Little upgrade to the room, switch from 4 to 6 lights!
AC and passive air intraction went to one side of the room and extraction on the other side so we get an even air flow.

The lights are distributed in zig-zag and in every empty space we have an oscilating ventilator that gets the lights on the sides and the light in front of it.

I let them grow big, topped them many times and bent them to get an even canopy...

Close up, Ice Cream Cake on the left:

Cheese on the right:

And here the single GMO:

I got very lucky. Last grow I attacked the pests with californicus, specific predator for the red mite. But I also used swirskii, which is a general predator. I thought it was the fist one that solved my problem, but I found this bag the other day while cleaning my warehouse/room. Its the rests, leaves and bags from last grow.

I remembered them from last grow. They reproduced and buit a giant settlement!

I looked them up and found out they are swirskii and not californicus as I thought. That happened a week ago and from then on I left the bag in the grow room.

My mite problem is now gone!


Cheers!!!

 

[Alatrist]

Day 8 of 12/12, second week of flowering. Stretch is controlled, there is around 30cm / 12 inches of canopy.

Ice Cream Cake side:

Cheese side:

First week of flowering was with delta 8 (N), a touch of delta 9 (algae, 2-5-5), a teaspoon of guano (P) per plant, atami flavour (K) which has molasses for the microbiome and aptus regulate (Silicium).

This second week I changed the delta 8 with guanokalong liquid bloom (N-K).

Cheers!

 

[Alatrist]

Day 10 of 12/12. Heavy lower and side trim, especially with the cheese as she branches everywhere, lets hope I can get a nice stretch upwards out of her.

Ice Cream Cake:

Cheese:

Cheers!

 

[Alatrist]

Day 15 of 12/12.

The cheese didn't stretch much, they have a special structure, something to learn for future grows. Very very branchy. I might have them a bit short. But they have many bud sites, lets see how they turn out.
They are very heavy feeders, but at this stage I didn't want to feed them much N as I will be focusing more on the P-K-Cal-Mag side. Afraid too much N will get them leafy as they are not the meatiest of buds (calyx to leaf ratio I mean).

So now I am stopping the growth fertilizer and the silicium and I am adding the Delta 10, thats a 2-12-14 organic algae fertilizer. I feed every watering except once in the week (only water then), but always soft feedings. I forgot, I always add BIO calmag from biobizz to the solution.

I was keeping the lights close for the ICC to avoid as much stretch as possible and for the cheese I did the reverse to make them stretch but now I am leaving the lights at around 60cm/24 inches from the tops (some ICC tops are a bit closer, but there is no more height left).

They are drinking around 700L/185 gallons of water a week. I will slowly increase watering every week.

ICC side:

First signs of resin glands. Also noticed some mildew, its already being treated with propoleum.

Nice and fat 8 finger leaves (sad I didn't get 9 finger leaves...)

And the single GMO. First heavy cookie plant I am growing. I can see her structure is not the best. Lanky and long, not branchy. No glands yet, but she flowers a bit longer anyway. She is very beautiful though.

Cheese side:

Cheers!

 

[revegeta666]

Very nice room and great work! Good to meet a fellow predator fan. They're pricey but nothing comes close.

In my experience Californicus work best as a preventive. You can help them establish a stable population by feeding them flower pollen sprinkling it on the leaves. That way they last longer and they're active if spidermites start to appear. Persimilis I have used as an intervention when there has been already an infestation. They're like the cleanup crew. Very effective but die off quickly after they've done the work. Spidermites are a constant issue where I live. Nothing else really works other than the most toxic pesticides.

Just last week I released some lacewing larvae (I'm growing outdoors) to take care of the first signs of aphid infestation. I can control them well enough by hand but I wanted to see these in action. After 3 days I can't find a single aphid.

 

[Alatrist]

@revegeta666 yes I agree, nothing like predators. You have to know a bit how they do their job and they are golden.


So this is 21 days of 12/12. Just did a nice defoliation, basically stripping all those big leaves that grow from the main stems from middle height to the bottom to assure nice ventilation and light penetration to the lower parts.

This grow I have been playing with high humidity (75%) during stretch and it has worked very nice, fat leaves and stems and very healthy plants. Much more water than last grow too. Though some plants stayed too wet some days and that brought me some mosquitoes and pm, which I just sprayed with imidacloprid (mosquitoes gone at once) and the mildew is receding too. I will keep spraying the propoleum to avoid any mold issues. And I will be careful to not leave the pots too wet.

This week I will be lowering the Delta 9 and rising the Delta 10 in the nutrient solution.

ICC side:

GMO. Stretches a lot. I could see her yielding a lot growing 16 plants per tray instead of 9. Would be very interesting.

Cheese side:

Cheers!

 

[Alatrist]

Day 30 of 12/12

Was a busy weekend so I couldn't take pics until yet.
Buds are getting fat and big for the Ice Cream Cake, much bigger smellier and overall better than last round. Getting dialed in. She is starting to fall over.
The GMO is starting to frost up I can see she will be amazing. She smells stinky, a bit foul almost.
The Cheese is such a heavy feeder. I should have fed her extra during veg and stretch, but it is my first time with her so I did not want to overdo her. Smell is amazing and strong. Really holding its own with modern strain in the frost department. Starting to yellow a bit soon, specially the overwatered ones. But we are at week 5 of flowering so N will be fed very lightly, focusing on P-K-Cal-Mag and the molasses.

Sorry for the blurry pics, I was a bit in a hurry.

Ice Cream Cake:

GMO close up:

Cheese:

I mixed up, I shouldn't have been using propoleum but tetraconazol, luckily I was thinking why am I not getting the mildew away? Now I am starting with it hard hopefully I have no buds affected...

Cheers!

 

[Alatrist]

A bit behind but I did not forget to take pics so I will be making a few posts these days to stay on track.

Day 37 of 12/12

ICC side:

GMO:

Cheese side:

This week I built a little support with pvc tubes and wire so plants wouldn't spit over and as to stay under the lights.

Cheers!

 

[Alatrist]

Day 44 of 12/12 (7th week fo flowering)

This is the last week were I would be feeding them. 3 weeks before chop, more or less. Buds are very nice.
The Ice Cream Cakes are frosty smelly and fat, very happy with her this round.
The GMO is a beast in resin and smell, very hard buds.
The Cheese I can see they eat so so much... I underfed them. Will do better next round! Still going on happy and smelly but I know I can get her much better though.
Bad news. Got new strains for next grow. I will be doing one strain per light.
At the same time I just discovered that my predators in the big bag died off. No food? Right before the new strains which, as always, came with some mites.
Luckily I am well into flowering. The ICC this round are being faster, guess that is because of the good conditions for her. Might chop her at 9 weeks. The cheese I will leave for the 10 weeks. The GMO same or even 11, if mites don't go to heavy with her (they like her a lot).

ICC side:

GMO:

Cheese side:

 

[Alatrist]

52 days of 12/12

Didn't take many pics this time around. Everything going forward as planned. Ice Cream Cake is going amazing, big and hard buds from top to bottom that are exploding everywhere. Very happy with her.

ICC:

Cheese:

Cheers!