Icemud's dual tent garden under led and using recycled soil, multiple strains.

[Icemud420]

Hey Everyone! I'm back with another grow journal and in this journal I will be doing 2 grows at the same time. I will be starting one tent in flowering and the other tent I will be doing a full grow from early veg to harvest using new white cob led technology. I'm running some new strains which I have never flowered before (originally from clone), a few mother plants that I have kept for a few years, as well as some of the best tangie phenos from my last batch of seeds. Lets get into the grow details I welcome everyone to join in the fun as we do multiple strains in organic recycled soil under new LED technology. Here's the details:

What strains?
The flowering tent (Budmaster GOD tent) (Currently in flowering)
Ogiesel, Black Diamond OG, Fire OG, and 4 of my best tangie Phenotypes from my last run.

The Veg tent and will be a full grow to harvest (Budmaster COB tent) (Currently in Veg)
Tangie Phenotypes #3, #5, #6, Ogiesel, 2x Black Cherry Soda's, Fire OG, Black Diamond OG, Harlequin


Strain Lineage: (resourced from other sites on the web, not 100% sure of the accuracy)
Fire OG Lineage: San Fernando Valley OG F3 x OG Kush: (60% indica, 40% sativa)

Black Diamond OG lineage: Blackberry kush x Diamond OG (supposedly its a indica dominant offspring of OG Kush, 70% indica)

Tangie Lineage: California Orange (Cali O) x [Skunk #1 x Unknown] Sativa Dominiant

Harlequin Lineage: Columbian Gold 70s x Thailand x Swizerland x Nepal (High CBD strain, Sativa Dom)

Black Cherry Soda Lineage: (nobody really knows the exact lineage of this strain as far as I know, but I was hinted towards it being possibly Airborne G13 X Ortega x C99 x Blackberry x Cherry AK-47 – 20% Indica/80% Sativa")

Ogiesel Lineage: SFV OG Kush x Giesel (Chem Dawg d x Mass Super Skunk) (hybrid I would say is slightly indica dom)



Grow Area Description and equipment

Grow area enclosure:
I will be using 2 Hydrohut Silver 2x4x7 tents for this grow. Each tent actually measures about 2 1/2' x 5' x 7'.


Ventilation and temp control:
Each tent contains a carbon scrubber, a 6" hydrofarm extraction fan mounted at the top back of each tent in a similar fashion. The fans are connected with manual speed controllers and usually kept on medium low/medium high depending on my room temp.


Pot type and size:
Each grow will end up in 5 gallon plastic square pots however the veg tent will start out with the plants in 2 gallon round pots and transplanted when needed into the final 5 gallon plastics pots.


The Soil:
The soil I am using is a recycled (probably 2-3 year old) mix 100% organic soil which is dumped into a large 100+ gallon rubbermaid container in between grows and re-amended in between. Leaves trimmed off my growing plants are dumped into the bin and composted and the soil typically can cook from 3 to 6 months or more and is constantly cycled and replenished with my perpetual grow. Each time the old soil is mixed with the newly dumped soil and cooked with new amendments.

Original soil blend included these items listed below, now I just re-amend it every cycle with some of the below mentioned, but the base mix has not changed and is still the same as day 1.

The Base Soil Mix:
ProMix HP
Worm Castings
Volcanic Pumice
Alaskan Forest Humus


The Amendments:
Azomite (trace minerals and micronutrients)
Calcium Carbonate Powder 97%
Soft Rock Phosphate (Collidal Clay with high phosphorus and CEC value)
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
Crab Meal 2-3-0 23% calcium(also a P source and source of chitin a hormone/growth regulator)
Fish Bone meal. (3-18-0) 24% Calcium
Lava Sand (adds trace minerals and supposedly adds paramagnetic value to the soil)
Crab Shell Meal 2-3-0 23% Calcium
Kelp Meal (also has growth hormones and PGR's, plus trace minerals)
Alfalfa Meal. (2-0-3) (contains Trichontinol which aids in plant growth and health)
Humboldt Myco's Maximum (Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrizae Fungus)
Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate)
Greensand (0-0-3) (Trace Minerals)
Biovam
TandJ enterprises biominerals


The Lights:

I will be using 2 separate types of LED lights for this grow, both are made by Budmaster. This is the first time I will be using the GOD series (GOD-4)(purple panels) and also the all new white COB-X-4 led lights as well. I'm really excited to be trying these out as many have raved about them and they use some of the best LED chips on the market, Osram and CitiLED chips so they should make for impressive grows. The God lights are made up of multiple OSRAM SSL horticulture grade chips and the COB series uses CitiLED COB's who originated the white cob technology. The COB lights will be used in a full grow from early veg to harvest, and the GOD panels will be used to flower out some plants that were vegging under different lights.


Typical Temp and RH% of the growing area:
Generally my temperatures stay between 72-84F depending on if the lights are on or the lights are off.

My RH% for most of the year is a perfect 50% +/-5% but during the winter months it usually drops to about 5-20% outside, so my tent hovers from around 20%-40% during these times and depending on watering frequency.



Soil PH
I haven't checked this ever. I let the plants do what they need and since using only organics and compost teas the microbes take care of whats needed.



Any Pests ?
I typically don't get pests at all unless I somehow bring in new clones that are infected, however I have had an occasional thrip make its way into my garden in the past as well as some spidermites which is very rare and usually also along with new clones. Pests usually don't bother my garden.

I do keep on hand regiments of organic sprays including SNS products, spinosad and a few products by bonide.



How often are you watering?
Watering volume and frequency depend on the time of cycle. In early veg usually about 1x per week until the roots get larger.

As veg gets to mid later veg I usually will water about 1x every 3-5 days depending on the plants needs and the pot size

In flowering I generally water every day to every 3 days depending on what part of the flowering cycle, usually about 1-3 cups of water each feeding per plant.

Nutrients used:
I do feed my plants with bottled nutrients but everything is organic and/or natural. Even though my soil is rich and hardy, I do use bottled nutrients for issues in correcting deficiencies as well as a good soil drench every few feedings.



My bottled nutrients are:
Earthjuice Grow
Earthjuice Veg
Earthjuice Catalyst
Earthjuice Micro
Earthjuice MetaK

Humboldt Nutrients Equillibrium 12:2 Ca/Mg 1-1-2
Humboldt Nutrients Bloom Natural: 0-10-0 soft rock phosphate
Humboldt Nutrients duece duece: potassium sulfate flowering booster

I also do foliar feeding with certain products including:
cold pressed seaweed
organic b
yucca extract
hydrolyzed fish 2-4-0
potassium silicate

I also make compost tea's on occasion: generally using a combo of the above nutrients and amendments.

Well that's about all the details, Lets get started with the journal! I invite everyone to join in the fun and feel free to ask questions, as long as you keep it positive and productive! enjoy!

 

[Icemud420]

Here is a writing I did recently that explains a lot about plant lighting and how we measure it. I hope I will get some rep from the light guru's here for putting this all together. Now this is to the best of my understanding at this point and written in a way to help others learn and most of the information I have read through plant research papers and abstracts, however I may also be off so I can say I'm confident that its correct, but it may have some flaws as well. Please be kind but suggestions or edits on information are welcome.

The reason I wrote this is because I get asked a lot of questions about lighting and what I am talking about, so I wanted to help others understand plant lighting and answer a lot of questions. Why did I include it in my journal? I like to be informative, help others and share what I know along with sharing my grow



Understanding Light


Let's say we are looking at the sun, we can see visible light, but there is also a lot of other types of energy or rays we commonly call them released as well. We all feel the sun on our bare skin warming up and this is mainly due to visible light and Infrared light. Or we have all gone to the beach or a pool and put on sunscreen to block the UV rays that can harm our skin and cause cancers. We know that putting food in the microwave can also warm it up and we know that gamma waves from nuclear waste are very very harmful to anything living. We even go and get X-Rays to look inside our bodies in search of broken bones.

These Rays that we refer to are groupings of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) and are measured and ordered by their "wavelength", in the units of nanometers. EMR is released in Photons, which show characteristics of a wave and a particle at the same time. If we were to look at a photon,it would have properties like an ocean wave, with peaks and valleys. Wemeasure the "wavelength" of EMR by measuring the distance between the crests(peaks). For EMR, this is measured in the unit Nanometers most of the time when relating it to visible light, and the longer the wavelength, the less energy the photon has, where as the shorter the wavelength, the more energy it has.

Now these groupings "rays" we were referring to above are ordered by wavelength in this order:

In order from High energy to low energy
Gamma rays, X-rays, Ultra Violet, Visible Light, Infared, Microwaves, Radio Waves.

Now by knowing this, notice how all High energy, short wavelength light is harmful to things like humans and plants (UV, X-Rays, Gamma Rays). The reason for this is that they contain so much energy that it can damage living tissues. On the opposite end of this, notice how all long wavelengths like radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared and Visible light are virtually harmless to living things, this is because they contain low energy.

Now that you understand this, let's explore PAR:

 

[Icemud420]

What is PAR?

PAR or Photosynthetic Active Radiation is the range of wavelengths that drive and influence photosynthesis. Just like we have the groupings of X-Rays and Microwaves, PAR is a grouping of EMR that specifically drives plants photosynthesis. This grouping or range is measured between the 400nm wavelength (deep purple) and going to 700nm wavelength (Far-red) generally, but some scientists argue that it actually can extend from 380nm(UV-A) to 780nm (Infrared). Generally most light manufactures in the horticulture world and even most research I've read deals with 400nm-700nm range when referring to PAR.

Here are the general wavelengths and the visual names we represent them by.

UV Light
UV-C: 100–280nm, (Very harmful to skin, eyes, microbes and bacteria)
UV-B: 280–315nm,
UV-A: 315–400nm

Visible Light:
Violet: 380–450 nm
Blue: 450–495 nm
Green: 495–570 nm
Yellow: 570–590 nm
Orange: 590–620 nm
Red: 620–750 nm
Infrared: 700nm-1mm (1 millimeter)

So even though PAR light is pretty much the same as the light we see referred to as visible light, the abbreviation PAR is used because it specifically deals with the range of light that drives photosynthesis.


So why is PAR important to measure for plants?

By now you probably have heard the terms Lumens, Lux, PAR, footcandles, candlepower. Well what is up with all these measurements, why are some important, some not. You probably have also heard the term "Lumens are
for humans, PAR is for Plants" Well why is PAR so much more important than these other measurements when dealing with plant lights?

This is an easy question to ask, but much much harder to explain. I will do my best.

Since PAR is the range of light that drives photosynthesis, we know as wavelengths from 400nm-700nm (violet to red), when EMR or Light is emitted in this range in comes in little packets called photons. When these photons fall upon a plant leaf, some are reflected, and some are absorbed. Now when we look at photosynthesis in general, when approximately 8-12 photons are absorbed into a leaf, this will split up one molecule of CO2 (photosynthesis). Once absorbed, these photons releases electrons which then go through a complex process and eventually split this single CO2 molecule apart. So now that you know this, you can see how the amount of photons a plant absorbs, will directly effect the rate of photosynthesis.


Now like I mentioned, once a photon is absorbed, the wavelength/color doesn't matter much. Importantly noted though, before a photon is absorbed, when it first hits the leafs surface, it can be reflected. Now commonly you may have heard this is the reason that plants are green, because they don't absorb green light, they reflect it, but this is only partly true. Plants actually do absorb green light, just not as easily as other colors like red and blue. So those that say "plants don't absorb green light" typically believe they don't absorb any green light and this is false, and actually the graph below will show the wavelengths of light that plants reflect, and the amounts. You will see that all light in the PAR range is absorbed, and the difference between blue which is absorbed nearly at 100% vs Green absorbed around 80%, there is only a difference of about 20%. The common believe that plants don't absorb green light is why the LED market originated by offering lights with only 2 bands, red and blue, however as more research came into play it was realized that all wavelengths of light are absorbed which is why you see many full spectrum panels on the market now.

So now that you understand how Photons directly drive photosynthesis (ingeneral terms), you can understand why measuring PAR is important...Plants are pretty much photon counters, the more photons available, the more photosynthesis occurs.



What is a PAR measurement, and why is it useful?

A PAR measurement, known in the lighting world as PPFD or PPF

PPFD is Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density, and this measurement describes how many photons, fall on a square meter, every single second.PPFD is a useful measurement when determining how high to hang a light, how far will a light actually cover, and what size light you need for a certain type of plant and grow area. This is a directional measurement in which readings are generally taken on a surface that would represent the canopy of your plants.

PPF is Photosynthetic Photon Flux, and this measurement is used mainly to compare lights for their Photon efficiency. What I mean by this is PPF is a omnidirectional measurement and irregardless of direction, it measures all TOTAL photons emitted from a light. PPF is usually measured in an integrating sphere or Ulbricht Sphere which is a huge reflective sphere that measures light coming from a source at all angles and directions. This measurement is usually used more for HID bulbs than LED but can be used for both when comparing how efficiently a light source creates photons per watt, many times measured in the units Mols/Joule.

Other than comparing light sources for photon efficiency, this measurement of PAR light isn't used much. PPF is much more usefull for comparing HID bulbs, so you can see at a same wattage and same ballast, which bulb will product more photons in the PAR range vs another. Being that the bulb would go into a reflector and shape the output, PPF is used to compare the actual bulb's photon efficiency, but also could be used to compare one LED panel to another at a Same wattage. It wouldn't show you anything about coverage, or hanging height, just which panel at the same wattage produces more photosynthetic active photons.

When we are looking at picking the right grow light we are typically using PPFD. We want to know on a flat surface (our canopy) how many photons are falling here every second. As we described above, plants are photon counters, and so the more photons that are falling on a surface, the higher the rate of photosynthesis. This is why its very important for grow light manufactures to list PAR data, usually in the form of a 4'x4' grid, where at each 6" or 1' mark a PPFD reading is taken. This lets us know when a light is hung at "X" distance, then we can expect "Y" amount of PPFD to be available for the plants.

Now to measure PAR, you probably have seen in my video by now the Apogee Quantum Meter I am using. This device uses separate photodiodes to sense photons and basically counts them. As plants are photon counters, my quantum meter also counts photons, and this reading is displayed in the units Micromoles/Meter squared/every second, and usually written like this " 500umol/m2/s-1.

I do want to notate that the PAR meter I am using is fairly accurate, but there are much better ways to measure par. There is a Li-Cor brand PAR meter which is much more accurate than the Apogee one I have because it is more sensitive to blue/red light than the one I use, however for reference and general purpose testing this pricey $360 Apogee fit my needs and my budget. The Li-Cor is up over $1000. The most accurate way to test for PAR is using a Spectroradiometer, but those cost $3500 on
the low and and can go as high as $20,000 or more for lab grade ones. The reason that Spectroradimeters are more effective is that they break white light into tiny little bands just a few nanometers in range, and have individual sensors for each little band, where most quantum meters use photoelectric diodes and usually have 3 or 4, so their sensitivity is less than a spectroradiometer would be.

Apogee MQ200 error range... notice on the chart the boxed in area is the PAR range and an ideal PAR meter would be equal across this range insensitivity, therefore you will see in the deep red and deep blue it is less accurate.




OK, so you now showed me your photon counter is 500umol/m2/s-1, but what does this mean to me?

So we have these PAR measurements, now what do they mean when talking about plants. The best way to look at this is that a plant has a certain"requirement" of the amount of photons it needs during the daylight period of growth. Each plant species has its own light requirements and you may even remember mom talking about this gardening when you were little, planting tomatoes in a sunny area of the yard where other houseplants didn't need as much light and would do fine in a windowsill.
In botany related applications this "light requirement is known as Daily Light Integral or DLI.

 

[Icemud420]

What is DLI



DLI is the amount of photons a plant need per day to be in optimal light for growth and photosynthesis rates and as I mentioned above each plant species is different. DLI is typically measured in Mols per meter squared, per day (very similar to PPFD) but instead of each second, this measurement is totaling all photons per daylight period.

A low light plant such as a fern only needs 6-10 mols/m2/day of photons to grow which is why ferns are commonly seen in dense forests under the canopy.

A high light plant such as Cannabis needs a minimum of 22 mols/m2/day of photons to as high as 65 mols/m2/day which is the range of optimal growth. Yes if you don't have that much light, cannabis will still grow,but you will typically see lower yields, less dense buds, lower THC percentages because the plant isn't operating at its best.



Converting DLI to PPFD

Now how do we get from DLI Mol/m2/day to PPFD or micromoles/m2/second.

The formula to convert this would be:

You would use this formula...

PPFD x 0.0864 = DLI

OR

DLI / 0.0864 = PPFD

So lets look at cannabis, knowing that cannabis needs at least (Minimum for optimal growth) 22mol/m2/day DLI at minimum for optimal photosynthesis lets break it down.

22 / 0.0864 = 254.6 micromoles/m2/s-1 (PPFD)

This is the amount of photons you need every second, averaged over 1 square meter, for the whole 24 hours if usuing a 24/0 daylight schedule (no dark period).

So what happens if you are using a 18/6 veg period or a 12/12 flowering light schedule... simple...

If using a 12/12 flowering schedule, you are only using 12 hours of the 24 hours of the day, which means you would take the 254.6 Micromoles/m2/s-1 and multiply it by 2, since you are reducing the amount of daylight by 1/2 (12 hours), then each hour of the daylight period you need double the amount of photons... so in this example you
would need 509.25 micromoles/m2/second.

If using a 18/6 schedule, you are using 3/4 of the amount of daylight with 18 hours on, 6 hours off, therefore you would multiply the 24hr PPFD by 1.5 because you are using only 3/4 of the day, or 1 1/2 times the 12 hour requirement. In this example a DLI of 22, under a 18/6 schedule would amount to 381.5 micromoles/m2/second.


So for cannabis, bottom threshold for optimal growth and photosynthesis is a DLI of DLI of 22 would be:

****Going lower than these numbers will still grow cannabis, however yields, bud density, potency and THC percentage may suffer.

24/0 schedule: 254.6 micromoles/m2/s-1

18/6 schedule: 381.5 micromoles/m2/s-1

12/12 schedule: 509.25 micromoles/m2/s-1


For Cannabis, the Top threshold for optimal growth and photosynthesis is a DLI of 65 moles per day.

***extremely important notice, only go up to these amounts if you areusing supplemental CO2, do not go this high if you are not using supplemental CO2 as you will actually slow down photosynthesis and waste energy.



24/0 schedule: 752.31 micromoles/m2/s-1

18/6 schedule: 1128.465 micromoles/m2/s-1

12/12 schedule: 1504.6 micromoles/m2/s-1

The generally accepted guidelines for artificial light PPFD in flowering are this:

in a 12/12

PPFD of at least 510 micromoles/m2/s-1 for the low end of optimal intensity

PPFD of at least 800-1100 micromoles/m2/s-1 for perfect optimal lighting without additional CO2.

PPFD of at least 800-1500 micromoles/m2/s-1 for perfect optimal lighting WITH additional CO2.




So now that we know what all these numbers mean, how to we interpret these PAR charts or 4'x4' grids with PAR readings?

Typically if a Lighting company presents a PAR chart "4'x4' grid" with measurements, you will see a bunch of readings all over the place.

Even though PAR measurements are in micromoles/METER/second this is with a constant and even light source what the average would be... grow lights, especially LED's do not have an even footprint and intensity can change rapidly over just 6" or 1" away from the center of the light. This is why these 4'x4' PAR grids are important because the light source is not even, it shows us the Actual area that will produce the OPTIMAL amount of PHOTONS for driving photosynthesis at each point of the grid.

So now knowing for flowering you need to see a grid with a bunch of 510's all over it or higher for flowering, you can see exactly how far a light will spread to OPTIMALLY drive your plant. Also, usually when a company makes these grids, they do it at heights of 12", 18", 24" and 36". By comparing the charts, you can tell at what height a certain light will spread providing 510's or higher and at what height would be optimal to hang the light. The closer the light is to the canopy/or meter, the higher the amount of photons that will be hitting it, but the narrower the coverage area will be (less light is scattering). The further away you move the light, the more photons that scatter leaving less to hit the canopy resulting in a larger coverage area but less Photon Density (PPFD).

Now if you don't see 510's or higher across your chart for your light, does that mean it wont work...NO.. it will just produce less photosynthesis which typically results in more airy buds, less potency and THC, and lower yields.

You can also look at these charts to see how you would hang multiple lights, by combining 2 charts together... lets say 2' out from the center of your light, the chart is only reading 250 micromoles/m2/s-1, well you know if you added a 2nd light and combined their outputs, with them spaced apart 2 feet from each other, then that center point between them (the 250 micromole/m2/s-1 mark) would double, now making that area optimal for flowering in a 12/12 schedule.

This is why it is important that companies provide this information, so we can all make accurate decisions on plant lighting for our plant species, photoperiod usage, and making sure to have a even light footprint over our canopies.


So all and all the things you will want to remember from this are:

*Light plants use is in tiny packets called photons.

*Plants count photons, this count directly drives photosynthesis.

*Only photons with a wavelength of 400nm-700nm matter for photosynthesis (some say 380nm-780nm)

*All colors of Light/wavelengths in the PAR range will absorb, at 80% or higher rates

*PAR measurements are taken with a quantum meter or spectroradiometer and are measured in micromoles per meter squared per second
(umol/m2/s-1)

*When choosing a lights by PAR measurements we are looking for a PPFD of 510 umol/m2/s-1 or more across the entire canopy for optimal flowering results, less will still work but not at optimal levels for best results

*Having a 4'x4' grid with PAR measurements at different heights is the best way to judge a plants actual optimal footprint/coverage area based on plant type and photoperiod. Also aids with hanging height and
blending of multiple panels/lights.


I hope this gets you on PAR with PAR, I tried to explain this
complexity in the most simplified manner possible. If you have questions, ask, I will be happy to answer them.

 

[Icemud420]

So after reading all that, you probably are curious what I have going on in my garden currently....


The Flowering Tent: Day 24 (from flip) Blurple tent


So the flowering tent is looking really really good this run and I honestly can't believe how frosty the girls are getting already. They have all been slowly fattening up and gaining more and filling in slowly the space between the nodes and things right now are going great. Today I gave the girls a watering using 5 gallons of r/o water with : humboldt equillibrium, potassium silicate, earth juice grow, humboldt bloom and some biovam.

Other than that not much else to report on today. The humidity for the last 3-4 days has been under 10% so I'm sure that its slowing the girls development slightly, and will be adding some wet towels to the tent to help raise the RH inside.

 

[Icemud420]

The Veg tent: under white COB lights:

The Veg tent is moving along fine now as I gave all the girls a slight flushing with some plain r/o water and epsom salts added to help wash out any issues in the soil. Most of the plants were showing some kind of deficiency, looks sort of like K, Mg or Ca but not quite sure so have been upping the amounts of each and wasn't seeing much progress. I let them plants soil dry out fully and drenched them with water with epsom salts as my understanding of this is that the Mg helps knock loose other ions from the soil. (I think thats what I read). lol

So after giving them a nice flushing the other day, things are looking really good as most of the plants are showing nice healthy growth, with the exception of the black cherry soda's which are both still just in limbo at the time. I'm sure they will pick up and they always were one of my more finicky plants.

Other than that my pheno #6 finally rooted (purple tangie pheno) and so I place it in the tent along with my Ogiesel which also finally rooted. Gave them some plain water and a spray of some b-vitamins and they seem to be happy in their new soil

Here are some photos

 

[bassman999]

Ill follow along and catch up the reading tomorrow, bedtime for me

 

[Icemud420]

Ill follow along and catch up the reading tomorrow, bedtime for me

Welcome Bassman! Glad to have you!

 

[ReddEyez]

Great info. Looking forward to this Icemud! Thank you for sharin man. Hope all is good!

 

[Icemud420]

Great info. Looking forward to this Icemud! Thank you for sharin man. Hope all is good!

Thanks ReddEyez!!! Glad to have you aboard for the grow

 

[testiclees]

Hey Everyone! I'm back with another grow journal and in this journal I will be doing 2 grows at the same time. I will be starting one tent in flowering and the other tent I will be doing a full grow from early veg to harvest using new white cob led technology. I'm running some new strains which I have never flowered before (originally from clone), a few mother plants that I have kept for a few years, as well as some of the best tangie phenos from my last batch of seeds. Lets get into the grow details I welcome everyone to join in the fun as we do multiple strains in organic recycled soil under new LED technology. Here's the details:

What strains?
The flowering tent (Budmaster GOD tent) (Currently in flowering)
Ogiesel, Black Diamond OG, Fire OG, and 4 of my best tangie Phenotypes from my last run.

The Veg tent and will be a full grow to harvest (Budmaster COB tent) (Currently in Veg)
Tangie Phenotypes #3, #5, #6, Ogiesel, 2x Black Cherry Soda's, Fire OG, Black Diamond OG, Harlequin


Strain Lineage: (resourced from other sites on the web, not 100% sure of the accuracy)
Fire OG Lineage: San Fernando Valley OG F3 x OG Kush: (60% indica, 40% sativa)

Black Diamond OG lineage: Blackberry kush x Diamond OG (supposedly its a indica dominant offspring of OG Kush, 70% indica)

Tangie Lineage: California Orange (Cali O) x [Skunk #1 x Unknown] Sativa Dominiant

Harlequin Lineage: Columbian Gold 70s x Thailand x Swizerland x Nepal (High CBD strain, Sativa Dom)

Black Cherry Soda Lineage: (nobody really knows the exact lineage of this strain as far as I know, but I was hinted towards it being possibly Airborne G13 X Ortega x C99 x Blackberry x Cherry AK-47 – 20% Indica/80% Sativa")

Ogiesel Lineage: SFV OG Kush x Giesel (Chem Dawg d x Mass Super Skunk) (hybrid I would say is slightly indica dom)



Grow Area Description and equipment

Grow area enclosure:
I will be using 2 Hydrohut Silver 2x4x7 tents for this grow. Each tent actually measures about 2 1/2' x 5' x 7'.


Ventilation and temp control:
Each tent contains a carbon scrubber, a 6" hydrofarm extraction fan mounted at the top back of each tent in a similar fashion. The fans are connected with manual speed controllers and usually kept on medium low/medium high depending on my room temp.


Pot type and size:
Each grow will end up in 5 gallon plastic square pots however the veg tent will start out with the plants in 2 gallon round pots and transplanted when needed into the final 5 gallon plastics pots.


The Soil:
The soil I am using is a recycled (probably 2-3 year old) mix 100% organic soil which is dumped into a large 100+ gallon rubbermaid container in between grows and re-amended in between. Leaves trimmed off my growing plants are dumped into the bin and composted and the soil typically can cook from 3 to 6 months or more and is constantly cycled and replenished with my perpetual grow. Each time the old soil is mixed with the newly dumped soil and cooked with new amendments.

Original soil blend included these items listed below, now I just re-amend it every cycle with some of the below mentioned, but the base mix has not changed and is still the same as day 1.

The Base Soil Mix:
ProMix HP
Worm Castings
Volcanic Pumice
Alaskan Forest Humus


The Amendments:
Azomite (trace minerals and micronutrients)
Calcium Carbonate Powder 97%
Soft Rock Phosphate (Collidal Clay with high phosphorus and CEC value)
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)
Crab Meal 2-3-0 23% calcium(also a P source and source of chitin a hormone/growth regulator)
Fish Bone meal. (3-18-0) 24% Calcium
Lava Sand (adds trace minerals and supposedly adds paramagnetic value to the soil)
Crab Shell Meal 2-3-0 23% Calcium
Kelp Meal (also has growth hormones and PGR's, plus trace minerals)
Alfalfa Meal. (2-0-3) (contains Trichontinol which aids in plant growth and health)
Humboldt Myco's Maximum (Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrizae Fungus)
Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulfate)
Greensand (0-0-3) (Trace Minerals)
Biovam
TandJ enterprises biominerals


The Lights:

I will be using 2 separate types of LED lights for this grow, both are made by Budmaster. This is the first time I will be using the GOD series (GOD-4)(purple panels) and also the all new white COB-X-4 led lights as well. I'm really excited to be trying these out as many have raved about them and they use some of the best LED chips on the market, Osram and CitiLED chips so they should make for impressive grows. The God lights are made up of multiple OSRAM SSL horticulture grade chips and the COB series uses CitiLED COB's who originated the white cob technology. The COB lights will be used in a full grow from early veg to harvest, and the GOD panels will be used to flower out some plants that were vegging under different lights.


Typical Temp and RH% of the growing area:
Generally my temperatures stay between 72-84F depending on if the lights are on or the lights are off.

My RH% for most of the year is a perfect 50% +/-5% but during the winter months it usually drops to about 5-20% outside, so my tent hovers from around 20%-40% during these times and depending on watering frequency.



Soil PH
I haven't checked this ever. I let the plants do what they need and since using only organics and compost teas the microbes take care of whats needed.



Any Pests ?
I typically don't get pests at all unless I somehow bring in new clones that are infected, however I have had an occasional thrip make its way into my garden in the past as well as some spidermites which is very rare and usually also along with new clones. Pests usually don't bother my garden.

I do keep on hand regiments of organic sprays including SNS products, spinosad and a few products by bonide.



How often are you watering?
Watering volume and frequency depend on the time of cycle. In early veg usually about 1x per week until the roots get larger.

As veg gets to mid later veg I usually will water about 1x every 3-5 days depending on the plants needs and the pot size

In flowering I generally water every day to every 3 days depending on what part of the flowering cycle, usually about 1-3 cups of water each feeding per plant.

Nutrients used:
I do feed my plants with bottled nutrients but everything is organic and/or natural. Even though my soil is rich and hardy, I do use bottled nutrients for issues in correcting deficiencies as well as a good soil drench every few feedings.



My bottled nutrients are:
Earthjuice Grow
Earthjuice Veg
Earthjuice Catalyst
Earthjuice Micro
Earthjuice MetaK

Humboldt Nutrients Equillibrium 12:2 Ca/Mg 1-1-2
Humboldt Nutrients Bloom Natural: 0-10-0 soft rock phosphate
Humboldt Nutrients duece duece: potassium sulfate flowering booster

I also do foliar feeding with certain products including:
cold pressed seaweed
organic b
yucca extract
hydrolyzed fish 2-4-0
potassium silicate

I also make compost tea's on occasion: generally using a combo of the above nutrients and amendments.

Well that's about all the details, Lets get started with the journal! I invite everyone to join in the fun and feel free to ask questions, as long as you keep it positive and productive! enjoy!

Yo Ice whats up bro.

I was trying to convince ya to go DIY on 420 mag last year....best of luck, looking good

 

[Icemud420]

Yo Ice whats up bro.

I was trying to convince ya to go DIY on 420 mag last year....best of luck, looking good

Hey Testiclees...

Yea I would have gone DIY but really don't have anywhere to build them, as I am in a very small apartment and have no "work area" for wiring and soldering and such. I will be eventually doing DIY in the near future but still coming up with the design I want to build as I will be doing COB and added 5w emitters. I love the COB lighting, but I feel it could use a boost around 660, as well as some deep blue around 420 which is where the terp and anthocyanin production really comes into play. I also would like to add UV chips to the panels, on a separate circuit and switch so I can turn them on/off as needed, or if I get crafty, hooking them to a RGB controller and having them adjustable by android app.

I definitely will be doing one in the near future though I saw GrowMau's Mars hack on youtube and it inspired me to use some of my crappier panels for the case and heatsinks... but I'm also thinking about selling them and just buying what I need.

I also have been wanting to test out these Budmasters since I had a buddy who loved them, and I got the opportunity from Budmaster to run them, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Those Osram SSL's are some bad ass chips I do like the CitiLED COB's too CitiLED also has some "pink" COB's out that are heavy in the red but still full spectrum so I am awaiting the details on them. Unfortunately they are much less efficient than the white COBs so it may be better do do a 3500k with 5w red emmitters.

 

[testiclees]

Nice, good info. Yes I am real interested to see what you can do with those panels.

Ive been running 4x 3590-3500k and 4 x v29-4000k along w a uvb tube. Far as i know there really aren't any practical UVB diodes.
By coincidence just today I bumped into one of your old high brix posts. Are you currently following high brix practices?

 

[Icemud420]

Nice, good info. Yes I am real interested to see what you can do with those panels.

Ive been running 4x 3590-3500k and 4 x v29-4000k along w a uvb tube. Far as i know there really aren't any practical UVB diodes.
By coincidence just today I bumped into one of your old high brix posts. Are you currently following high brix practices?

If you have a current journal, drop me a link as I would love to see what other COB growers are doing I was doing high brix practices for a while and still somewhat follow suit, however for the past couple years I've been doing test grows for LED companies so with the constant switching of lights every grow, I haven't really been focusing on the high brix so much, and more on just growing with the lights and seeing how the produce. Its been fun as I have tested quite a few panels now on the market, which my main interest is lighting anyways, and tried some really good products and some duds as well. I still test my Brix levels time to time and generally get above 12 (usually 12-1 which is mostly due to my soil being geared towards the right ratios, but I don't foliar feed as frequently as I would like.

The only UV chips that I know of that are half way decent are phillips luxeon and Nichia but they are also really pricey. Nichia does have some really high output chips in UV and I like how they have each chip categorized into small 20-30nm regions.

 

[hockeybry2]

Looking good brotha

 

[testiclees]

If you have a current journal, drop me a link as I would love to see what other COB growers are doing I was doing high brix practices for a while and still somewhat follow suit, however for the past couple years I've been doing test grows for LED companies so with the constant switching of lights every grow, I haven't really been focusing on the high brix so much, and more on just growing with the lights and seeing how the produce. Its been fun as I have tested quite a few panels now on the market, which my main interest is lighting anyways, and tried some really good products and some duds as well. I still test my Brix levels time to time and generally get above 12 (usually 12-1 which is mostly due to my soil being geared towards the right ratios, but I don't foliar feed as frequently as I would like.

The only UV chips that I know of that are half way decent are phillips luxeon and Nichia but they are also really pricey. Nichia does have some really high output chips in UV and I like how they have each chip categorized into small 20-30nm regions.

Do you have a link for UVB chips? Ive got space on my driver for a few watts of 285-320nm?

I dont have a journal but ill share a pic if thats cool.

 

[Icemud420]

Do you have a link for UVB chips? Ive got space on my driver for a few watts of 285-320nm?

I dont have a journal but ill share a pic if thats cool.

If you can google "nichia UV" it should be the 1st link.

 

[testiclees]

If you can google "nichia UV" it should be the 1st link.

At nichia I see only UVA.

 

[Icemud420]

At nichia I see only UVA.

My mistake... I was referring to the 380nm chips at Nichia as that is what I would add to capture the low end bump of the chlorophyll A and Carotenoid absorption.

For UV-B I have only found once company which largest chips run around 30mA. I would just use reptile or florescent bulbs for the UV-B.

 

[Icemud420]

Day 26 Flowering:

Today makes day 26 flowering under the purple lights and I honestly cant get over how frosty the plants are getting! amazing! I don't know if italso has to do with the jasmine tea I have been spraying on the plants or just the lights or what but wow! impressed.

I have been using the jasmine tea because I was doing reading and research on things that affect trichome production and supposedly the methyl jasmonic acid that is released from the jasmine plant can effect neighboring plants causing a stress factor that increases the essential oil production, trichome production and other stress related responses. So I have been adding some decaffeinated jasmine tea to my foliar feedings and spraying the plants. Caffeine has shown to delay growth and
cell replication so I made sure to get decaffeinated.

Other than that I gave the girls a little water today of some nutrient tea I have had bubbling for 2 days, with earthjuice grow, humboldt bloom, humboldt equilibrium, and potassium silicate.

Here are today's photos: