Diy CXB2530 grow

[Budsturbation]

Wow those are the worst pics ive ever uploaded. Ill try and get some better ones later when the lights come back on

Redemption

The 4 clones in the back are the early vixen and the 3 in the front are the white voodoo. The pictures in the order i uploaded them are the white castle, the other white castle, one of the canadian cheese and finally the strawberry sour diesel. The other canadian cheese, i neglected to photograph.

This grow has been very interesting so far. Not my most successful start but im looking forward to my second grow with this setup once ive gotten all the bugs worked out with this run through.

Im definitely not going to top these plants, though i plan to start lst soon. Ill be flipping the lights within a few days and praying for a mild november since i dont foresee them being ready before then. Should be fine. I can just change my ventilation to draw from inside the shed and exhaust into the shed so it'll be warmer both in the shed and the box. Its usually a few degrees warmer in there anyways.

I think i might be able to squeeze a gpw out of this grow. I have enough room for 8-10 of the pots that im currently using, theyre either half gal or 3/4, i did the math but i cant remember. I also have 8 1.5 gal pots that i could squeeze in there. Ill have to see as things progress.

 

[Budsturbation]

Flipped the lights yesterday, took these pics after theur first 12 hour dark cycle. Im seeing improvement in growth speed since moving them to bigger pots. I believe now that the final piece to the slow growth puzzle was the bark content of the soil.

I was surprised this year at the amount of bark and twigs in the soil. Its the same base soil ive used in my mixes in my most successful grows, unfortunately i figured it wouldnt make much difference. Oh well, live and learn, next grow doesnt start till i can test soil ph and make sure im not gonna bonsai my girls. Im also interested in seeing whether my light is too intense to start seeds under at a greater distance from the plants and with a better growing medium.

Anyways im shelving my gpw dreams for this grow. Ill be happy with whatever i get. The outdoor harvest will more than make up for a lackluster indoor grow.

The white castle is definitely the star of the show as far as the seeds i bought. My strawberry sour diesel is just getting sunlight in a window along with the other clones i culled. Its grown more from stretching and lack of light in a few days than it did in the 40 days under my light. 12 bucks a seed, worth every penny lol.

 

[Budsturbation]

Here's a better shot of the white castle. Ive grown this strain once before and it stuck out among the rest. So far its outperformed seeds that cost twice as much so im developing a bit of a fondness for it.

First grow next year might see me start a whole bunch of em.

As much as im bitching about slow growth, my node spacing looks great, nice and tight plants. They perk right up and turn their heads to the light within 12 hours of being trained down.

I have encountered one insect that might have been a fungus gnat but i squished it beyond recognition. I check religiously for signs of mites and for larva in the soil, or little insects buzzing aroundbafter i water. So far nothing.
Either the peppermint soap, rosemary and neem concoction is working or im living in a fools paradise while thrips and root borers ravage my girls on a subterranean level.

Ive read you can safely spray the plants well into flowering with this mix. Im going to err on the side of caution and transition to spraying less on the plant and more on the soil as buds develop. I also wipe down the walls of my room with the same mix every so often and have taken to cleaning my shed with it. Its a pretty decent cleaner, smells great and keeps the bugs down. Im tempted to try it out as a bugspray. Nobody likes coming back from the woods and sitting down to try and pack a bowl with hands covered in deep woods off.

 

[DesertGrow89]

Yeah start with a low light intensity, around 600-1000 foot candles for starting seedlings is great, two weeks later I like to increase it to 1500-2000, and progress to 5-6000 fc gradually. Good luck

 

[Budsturbation]

Yeah start with a low light intensity, around 600-1000 foot candles for starting seedlings is great, two weeks later I like to increase it to 1500-2000, and progress to 5-6000 fc gradually. Good luck

Hahaha yeah wow looking at those numbers and considering how i just dropped around 17000 lumens into a 3 sqft box. The difference in intensity between a cob array and an smd array unfortunately didnt click in until i was two weeks in and wondering why my growth was so slow.
I was thinking id be putting my cobs as close to the plants as possible like with smaller smds.
Seems like im either gonna wanna go fluoro from the start or get myself a pot and dim the light.

Whats even better is that i was originally going to drive my cobs at 700ma instead of 500. We might not even be discussing this right now if i had of done that.

 

[Budsturbation]

They finally look like plants! Either theyre finally big enough to handle the amount of light im giving them, or the reduced light period from the switch to 12/12 is letting them grow more, or both. Either way theyre a week into flowering so theyre entering into that little bush out sthage theyll go through before they really start throwing out some flowers.

The first two pics are the white castle followed by the canadian cheese and then the clones. I had 7 clones, but scrapped 3 along with the strawberry sour diesel. I kept them growing in a window for the time being thinking a friend of mine might take them. He didnt and since two of the clones were looking pretty decent i decided they could share a pot with their sisters in the grow room.

So now ive got 10 plants, 6 in their own pot and 4 that are paired off. Gives me 2 white castle, 2 canadian cheese, 3 white voodoo and 3 early vixen. These are the best clones ive ever taken. I cant believe all 7 cuttings survived and have thrown out some pretty healthy looking new growth with minimal yellowing on the original growth.

Ive had great success cloning with willow tea before but this time was the absolute best.

Im feeding with botanicare nutes,
Pure blend pro bloom at about 1/2-3/4 strength
Liquid karma at 1/2 strength
Humega at full strength
Calmag at half strength alternating on every other watering

Im feeding pretty much every watering and this is about the highest strength doseage im going to give them. Theyre responding pretty well to it i think. Watering every 3-4 days as temps have dropped a bit outside and were sitting closer to 25 in the growbox as opposed to 30 at lights on.

Saw some fungus gnats about 5 days back i think. Treated with diatomaceous earth immediately and literally watched the adults land, get coated in the de, fail to fly away and then just die. This shit is a godsend for my shed grow. Alongside the neem oil, rosemary and peppermint soap im having none of the issues with pests that my previous grows were plagued with.

Low stress training is going very well, lots of nice little side branches starting to grow up towards the light. Gonna be alot of tiny little colas ahahaha. Dense crystally little colas i hope.

Im gonna gush about the white castle a little bit more. Its starting to look even more mouthwatering and its not even throwing out any flowers yet. I cant wait till its done. I actually wasnt really smoking that much the first time i grew it out and ended up parting with the majority of my harvest which i regretted quite a bit when i went on to smoke alot more of my other strains that i hadnt sold.
I actually lost the pics which almost breaks my heart lol but the cola was the first plant i ever grew that was truly like magazine quality. It sparkled like something you might see flipping through high times. Definitely not making the same mistake again this time, keeping all the goodies for myself

 

[Budsturbation]

Short upload. Just loving the growth now that its finally caught up. Theyre ripping the wires out of the soil, had to cut new ones that are twice as long to keep em down.

Every time i open the door to check on them theyre noticeably bigger.

This has been a really interesting grow for me. Not just as a grower but as a person. Its weird how much we come to rely on the work of others, to the point where its almost nerve wracking to do things differently.

You go and buy a premade light and you know its tried and true. You have issues? You can look at other grows and find hundreds of examples of people running a similar setup.

With this all i have to go on are my own calculations and knowledge from previous grows. Im glad i have the basics for growing down, i dont think i would have been able to handle the learning curve for growing and growing with a diy fixture at the same time.

 

[Budsturbation]

All of my training was meant to prepare me for this day, but no amount of simulations could ever fully ready me for the true horrors i was about to face. Welcome, to mite city.

Lol so ive got some mites running around. Not a huge deal really, theyre only on half my plants. Both white castle, one of the canadian cheese and my pair of wvs are unaffected, everyone else has varying degrees of the bastards.

I havent found very many eggs and they seem to be having a hard time taking hold with my dr bronners soap mix, however ive noticed they seem the most concentrated in the areas that are hardest to spray. Which makes perfect sense.

I noticed them three days ago and immediately pulled all my girls out, sprayed them down thoroughly and then sprayed and wiped down my box twice for good measure.

I increased my concentration of neem and rosemary oil a bit and have also been using some store bought insectisidal soap. I dont like having to do this especially now that all my girls have thrown out flowers but i figure ill hit them hard while its early and hopefully take care of this problem.

Im honestly surprised i made it this long without any infestation, save for a few gnats. Id like to think my preventative measures are the cause but i cant know for sure.

New growth is tight and scrunched on all the non clones, could be a bit of a boron issue developing. I thought i saw slight nute burn after my last feeding so at my next i only gave them humega and liquid karma with no bloom nutes, im hardly using the cal mag either.

Ive also been feeding with honey at a concentration of about 20 ml per gallon. I just happened to have honey on hand and had heard of people using it with similar or even greater success than molasses. Never used molasses for a carb source, never fed carbs for that matter either lol so maybe next grow ill find myself some molasses and compare results.

All things considered im excited for this grow. Should be wrapping things up within the next two months hopefully. The weather has been holding up and making it real easy to maintain a reasonable temperature. Now i just sit back and watch the grams grow. Will i hit 40, 50 even 60gs? Hell if i know lol theyre a lot smaller than i hoped they'd be by now back when i was first building my fixture and visions of breaking a gpw were dancing in my head.

Anyways ive probably rambled enough for one post, have some pics

The back two are the white castle, the two in the front are the canadian cheese. As for the clones you may be able to see the popsicles sticks that say EV or WV on them

 

[Budsturbation]

Ive managed to slow the infestation but i need to change my strategy. Im going to begin attacking the mites from every angle that i can. The store bought insecticidal soap i used may be harsher than i thought. I seemed to have burned the plants a bit although that could also be due to the mites.

I cant find a trace of the mites on some of the plants although they all seem to be effected in some manner. Perhaps they all have mites, or maybe some dont but were damaged by the soap. Ive never had to deal with mites like this before so its all a learning experience for me.

I have to stop spraying and begin applying my homemade miticide with a sponge or brush of some sort. I am going to treat the soil with diatomaceous earth, im also looking into various methods of soaking the soil or possibly watering with some essential oils.

Im also considering treating the leaves with isopropyl alcohol. From what ive looked at these seem to be russet mites. I collected some and viewed them under 30x magnification and they dont have any spots, theyre kind of a translucent beige colour.

 

[Budsturbation]

these mites seem to hang out mainly on the soil. Im actually experiencing a dual species infestation. one of my white voodoo had a spider mite hanging out on the underside of one of its leaves. under magnification it was a two spotted one whereas my other mites are like a pinky white flesh tone kind of colour.

Isopropyl alcohol is ridiculously effective. I took to wiping down all the leaves of the plants, taking care to stay away from the buds. Im certain the alcohol isn't something that you want on your developing trichomes. During this time I noticed that there were hardly any mites on the plants themselves but the soil seemed to be where they preferred to be. The rubbing alcohol kills them within seconds of contact. the mite, once coated in alcohol will seem unaffected for a second and will continue walking at a normal pace, then the mite begins to slow and almost seems erratic in its movements. finally all motion ceases and the mite is dead.

I decided to try something i hadn't heard of or read about anywhere but im certain im not the first to attempt. I filled a small spray bottle with 70% isopropyl and then, using my hand to push the plants back and shield them from the spray, I misted the entire surface of the soil. I kept the nozzle about an inch from the soil and sprayed lightly in as controlled of a manner as I could manage. I watched as many a living mite turned into a corpse, but there were many left in the crags and crevices of the soil that werent effected.

I made sure to only mist the soil and not drench it. if I notice any adverse effects on the plants I will report on them in this thread. It is my belief that since isopropyl alcohol is very quick to evaporate, and since my mites are mainly on the soil surface, this course of action may prove very effective at both eliminating my mites and keeping the harm to my plants down to a minimum.


about 5 hours later I revisited my girls and they did not seem to have been harmed by the iso but time will tell. I sprayed the soil down with the dr bronners, rosemary and neem mixture. this time i had another idea. I noticed that after spraying with the soap mixture the mites kind of carry on as normal, whether this means its ineffective or it's just something that takes more time to kill the mites, i don't know, I haven't tested it the way i tested the isopropyl alcohol but I probably will. This initial spray seemed to bring the mites up out of the soil where I killed them directly with an iso misting. It seems to be a very effective way to kill them, much better than using either iso or the soap mix on their own.

overall i think im seeing less mites everytime I check on them. I think i won a battle tonight but the war isn't over. Tomorrow I hit the soil surface with diatomaceous earth.

 

[Budsturbation]

I think i might be winning the war against these mites.

Ive been continuing to hit the soil with the dr bronners mix and then i spray it down with iso. Just enough to cover the surface and i shield the plants the whole time. If i had to guess, at its worse there had to have been around 3 mites per square inch of soil surface. At least as far as i could assess with the naked eye. Now it seems much much lower, almost to the point where i have a hard time finding three mites on the entire surface of one pot.

My girls have definitely been hit hard by the mites, but so far i feel its safe to say the iso treatments have had minimal to no negative effects on the plants.

Ive gotten a bottle with a narrow nozzle for puffing diatomaceous eart over the soil. I read that its more effective if its sifted and not clumped together, some people reported insects walking over the clumps but thats all anecdotal evidence. The de i use claims death occurs within 24-48 hours of contact or ingestion. Im certain most people posting on forums havent spent that long observing the insects that walked over the clumps.

The mites have definitely stunted my growth. And im adjusting my yield expectations once again. At this point im certain ill get a half ounce minimum. Theres still a ways to go before theyll be ready for harvest. Theyre only about a month into flowering now so maybe if i can keep the mites at bay i can get closer to an ounce. Who knows at this point

Pics in order are the two white castle
Then the canadian cheese
My internet connection is really bad right now, ill have to upload more later

My condition is worsening and im having a harder time taking care of my girls which is especially troubling with this mite infestation.

My head hurts constantly and its very hard to focus. Im pretty medicated right now but the more i type the more i can feel the gears grinding in my brain. Im nauseous all the time to the point where its very hard to eat sometimes. Thankfully i dont throw up at all. On top of all this im getting hit with a lot of sleep issues. I feel tired all the time but i can barely stay asleep for more than 3 or 4 hours without the aid of cannabis or valerian root or any of the other sleep aids im taking.

Im doing my best to stay positive, i know this wont be forever and its given me the gift of time. When i do feel well enough i can read and go for walks and ive started drawing a lot more

 

[majins]

Reading over your thread you should really do away with the soil next time.
I can see 3 issues coming from the soil you have used.

1: Over watering
2: Over feeding
3: Bugs.

When I went from CFL to LED I had the same issues.
Over watering since the LED dont dry the soil out as fast a CFL did, (Would take 2 weeks to dry out with 100W of CXB3070. Compared to the 4-5 days with 105W of CFL)
The above issue also caused over feeding since it would look like nute deficiency so I would keep feeding.
Going to 100% perlite fix those issues for me.


Here is what I was getting with CFL. 10-15g dry per plant which I would have 4 of them going at a time.

Then compare that to my 2nd attempt with LED, Soil vs 100% perlite.
Made same mistake as you first time and got bad bugs and ended up being about the same as a CFL harvest.

Perlite plants were 10-20% larger, And had 0 issues with over watering or bugs. Where the soil plant needed 1 dosing to get rid of gnats in the soil.

The key I found with using 100% perlite was to use ice-cream container, water it evenly until you have 1/4 run off filling the icecream container.
Then dont water again until its all gone. It will wick up water as it needs it.

Every 3rd feed id give it a complete flush out running water though them until it ran out clear.
Lastly the final improvement I found was to put the lids back on the ice cream containers and cut hole in them tight around the pots so no light was getting into the water in them.
That was a long time ago now tho since Iv been running DWC for awhile now which is another 30% better with the same lighting and only needed 1 plant to fill the grow space in the same time frame.

Its funny looking back on these old photos since I run 300W and 3 DWC plants now

 

[Budsturbation]

Reading over your thread you should really do away with the soil next time.
I can see 3 issues coming from the soil you have used.

1: Over watering
2: Over feeding
3: Bugs.

When I went from CFL to LED I had the same issues.
Over watering since the LED dont dry the soil out as fast a CFL did, (Would take 2 weeks to dry out with 100W of CXB3070. Compared to the 4-5 days with 105W of CFL)
The above issue also caused over feeding since it would look like nute deficiency so I would keep feeding.
Going to 100% perlite fix those issues for me.


Here is what I was getting with CFL. 10-15g dry per plant which I would have 4 of them going at a time.

Then compare that to my 2nd attempt with LED, Soil vs 100% perlite.
Made same mistake as you first time and got bad bugs and ended up being about the same as a CFL harvest.

Perlite plants were 10-20% larger, And had 0 issues with over watering or bugs. Where the soil plant needed 1 dosing to get rid of gnats in the soil.

The key I found with using 100% perlite was to use ice-cream container, water it evenly until you have 1/4 run off filling the icecream container.
Then dont water again until its all gone. It will wick up water as it needs it.

Every 3rd feed id give it a complete flush out running water though them until it ran out clear.
Lastly the final improvement I found was to put the lids back on the ice cream containers and cut hole in them tight around the pots so no light was getting into the water in them.
That was a long time ago now tho since Iv been running DWC for awhile now which is another 30% better with the same lighting and only needed 1 plant to fill the grow space in the same time frame.

Its funny looking back on these old photos since I run 300W and 3 DWC plants now

Thanks for the advice. I think you are right. When i started i was watering much closer to how i would be if i was growing with an hps light and ive been gradually watering them less and less. Now that its getting colder out im noticing the soil is taking much longer to dry out.

Ive also been feeding in line with what was working for me when i was using an hps and ive been having to adjust a lot more.

I may just try going without soil next time around. The bugs are always going to be a little bit more of an issue simply because i cant grow in my house but youre right that the soil is just providing them a more suitable home in my shed. Thanks again man, your girls look great. I hope to have my grows look like that one day.

 

[Budsturbation]

I do have one question for you, how do you find the taste differs from soil to perlite to dwc? Is there a noticeable difference? Ive never really branched out from soil much because the general idea i got from reading forum posts was that most people thought soil tasted better. Im getting to a point now where i want to start experimenting more and try to find out for myself which style of growing is best for me.

 

[majins]

For me the best taste is no taste. If I want flavor I use flavored papers, But 90% of the time I use a glass pipe, DWC does this perfectly when I only use PH adjusted water for the last week.
Perlite, Using the same fertilizer as with soil it was the same taste (Use to flush out only on last watering back then with 30L or water then leave it to completely dry in room with dehumidifier on full time then 24 hour darkness before harvest once pot felt dry)
I gradually adjusted for longer and longer flush times which was 2 weeks of just plain water until there was no taste using organic fox farm feed.
Never got to that point with soil since had completely left it behind on my 3rd LED grow.

Of all the mediums Iv used, perlite would be my fav for how forgiving it is.
If something starts to go wrong you just need to give it a flush out and leave it to completely dry before restarting feeding at a low dosage.
Coco was bad as as seemed to be like soil just a bit better draining. But I could achive the same effect mixing perlite 50/50 with soil for a lot cheaper.
DWC is very un-forgiving when just 1 thing goes wrong. But when it all goes right its amazing.

 

[Budsturbation]

I dont understand at all what you mean by "the best taste is no taste"

Im talking about the flavour of the smoke, not whether or not you can taste residual nutrients or anything like that.

Are you suggesting that what you grow doesnt have any flavour at all? That sounds awful to me. I cant stand flavoured papers either.

The flavour is a huge part of the experience, almost as much as the high, for me. I wont compromise taste for anything.

 

[majins]

No taste as in, You have a puff and its nice and smooth leaving no after taste at all.
There will always be the terpinoids flavor, No matter what you grow in that will always be the same and how well that tastes is based on how well you cure it and the strain. If you want to get rid of that then you water cure it. Which I have done a few times and makes a very stealth smoke since it didnt have the weed smell when its burnt and smells more like burning wood lol.

 

[Budsturbation]

Ahhh ok i think i get exactly what you mean now. This concussion is rough, it takes me at least 3x as long to understand things as it used to.

The white castle i grew out when i was running a 150w hps was some of the tastiest smoke ive ever had. I lost all my pictures from that grow when one of my hardrrives failed but i think some of them are up on a forum somewhere. No harvest pics though sadly.

Anyways i spent weeks reading up on growing before i ever did. Ive tried all different methods of curing from jars to paper bags to water curing and now long term curing using boveda packs. I know how to flush and ive read all the arguments both for and against it. Havent tried a no flush ever, its definitely all in how you go about it.

I cant attest to the taste being the same from one medium to the next although it stands to reason that different growth mediums have an impact on the way the plant grows which can impact the production of those terpenes and everything else that goes into the flavour.

Strain matters alot too. There are flavours i really enjoy in the white castle and if theres any means of maximizing those flavours outside of a proper dry and cure than that is something i want to find out how to do. If it means going soilless and potentially preventing some of the problems im having now than that may be the answer.

It also seems that when people refer to perlite as pest free they mean it more so because the medium comes free of any larva or eggs that soil often has. It doesnt necessarily mean you arent susceptible to infestation while you are growing.

That said i can see how soil would provide a much more suitable home for a lot of unwanted insects moreso than a bunch of perlite. I think im sold on trying a soilless grow

 

[majins]

Best cures iv got have been in cupboard hanging with dehumidifier set to 60RH.
PC fan running slow on 5V to move air around,
Little nugs can be jar'ed after 4 days. Medium sized a week. Large week and a half.

Then just open jar once a week for 4 weeks.
By that time its ready to smoke the little nugs.
And stop opening the other jars until I run out of the little nug jar.
Stuff im smoking at the moment is 3 months cured.

I dont expose them to any light the whole time other then the normal house light. So basically last light they got was 24 hours before harvest.
Here one that will be smoked by the time you read this.

 

[Budsturbation]

Thats essentially how i do my curing only i do jars and boveda packs since i dont grow enough to fill a cupboard. I usually set up a cardboard box and a small pc fan to move some air through it in the shed. That works real well to dry them when its colder outside. We rarely get humid days in november and december here so i get a nice slow hang dry. I try to keeo as much light off them as possible. Itll be nice when i have a place where i can actually grow inside and set everything up properly.

Ive gotten good results with paper bag cures as well. Start em off in the brown ones so they can breathe a litte bit and then transfer them to the white bags. I cant remember exactly how long i used to do it for. I havent done bag cures since i was 15. I know it was at least a month, i think 10 days in the brown and 20 in the white bags. A lot more hands on than the way i cure now