LED Round #2 - Apollo8, T5HO, Coco

[KineBoisin420]

This is the second, first start for me, using LED.

My first round using LED didn't work so well, but no fault to the lights themselves. It was also my first time using coco coir as a medium, and I guess there's a bit of a learning curve, compared to the simplicity of an organic soil/castings/guano regime I've been following for the last few years. I neglected to dial in my pH properly, not thinking with a hydro grower's mind, and experienced some serious nute lockout, which had an overall disastrous effect on the plants. I've also been fighting with some fungus gnats the first round, tho I am finally getting control over them. I still managed to get 65gms dry from the one plant that withstood my negligence, and made it through the cycle.

After much reading up, and more time thinking/planning, I think I've got things more dialed in this round, and hope to have better success with this new LED system. I've also added a couple of T5's, one on either side of the LED, based upon threads I read from other users positive experience with them.

So, here's what I've got going on:

• 4 - plants (2 phenos of Shanti's "Z7" strain, and 2 phenos of Dr. Atomic's "Atomic Love" strain), growing in coco coir, amended with bat guano
• using General Organics line (grow, bloom), CalMag, Molasses
• 4x4 tent (only using about 3x3 footprint)
• Rebranded Apollo 8 LED (Greenlampcanada) - 280W draw
• 2 - 3' T5HO, 2700K - 39W draw each

I'll update tonight with some pics after they wake up. I just wanted to get this going, since I flipped over to 12/12 a couple of days back, and wanted to chart things from here.

 

[JoObJoOb]

do you have pics of the first led grow? Im doing my first indoor led grow,few things id like to learn

This is the second, first start for me, using LED.

My first round using LED didn't work so well, but no fault to the lights themselves. It was also my first time using coco coir as a medium, and I guess there's a bit of a learning curve, compared to the simplicity of an organic soil/castings/guano regime I've been following for the last few years. I neglected to dial in my pH properly, not thinking with a hydro grower's mind, and experienced some serious nute lockout, which had an overall disastrous effect on the plants. I've also been fighting with some fungus gnats the first round, tho I am finally getting control over them. I still managed to get 65gms dry from the one plant that withstood my negligence, and made it through the cycle.

After much reading up, and more time thinking/planning, I think I've got things more dialed in this round, and hope to have better success with this new LED system. I've also added a couple of T5's, one on either side of the LED, based upon threads I read from other users positive experience with them.

So, here's what I've got going on:

• 4 - plants (2 phenos of Shanti's "Z7" strain, and 2 phenos of Dr. Atomic's "Atomic Love" strain), growing in coco coir, amended with bat guano
• using General Organics line (grow, bloom), CalMag, Molasses
• 4x4 tent (only using about 3x3 footprint)
• Rebranded Apollo 8 LED (Greenlampcanada) - 280W draw
• 2 - 3' T5HO, 2700K - 39W draw each

I'll update tonight with some pics after they wake up. I just wanted to get this going, since I flipped over to 12/12 a couple of days back, and wanted to chart things from here.

 

[KineBoisin420]

I have a few pics in another thread, but nothing exciting...basically showing the space, etc..., I didnt take any pics of the sick plants, tho.

 

[KineBoisin420]

Here are the photos of the fab four under the lights. This is taken at day 4.

 

[KineBoisin420]

I have been alternating between a light feeding and straight h20, and water/feed every two days.

Temps have been around 25c pretty consistently, now that I've added the two T5's to the mix. I think I was actually too cool with just the LED last round, as my avg. temps were in the 22-23c range.

How often are you coco coir folk using CalMag in your feedings? I rarely used it when I grew organic soil, and I've read that you need to use more of it when in coco.

 

[JMD]

Looks good, keep it going

 

[Positivity]

I use go in coco sometimes. I had excellent results with just tap and molasses, it does need some form of Mg.I use RO water now so GO CaMg every feeding at 2 tsp/g.

 

[KineBoisin420]

Yeah, I quite like carb loading with Molasses. I didn't use it last round, and I am determined to bring that back into the mix. When I was in soil, with guano, molasses was the only additive I would use, and the flowers had such fantastic taste and smell! Organics rocks!

 

[KineBoisin420]

I'll update with some pics later tonight when everybody wakes up...

I've been marvelling at how early the plants show their sex under LED..., especially the Atomic Love strain. It was showing hairs within a few days, and after 10 days, its quite hairy already, and some trichomes are starting to become noticeable.

And I am liking adding the T5HO's to either side of the LED panel. I believe that its a good combo, and my temps are consistently around 25c, which is ideal for my setup.

 

[KineBoisin420]

Here's a question for you that breed your plants...when do you find is the ideal time to "impregnate" a plant?

I'm going to attempt to cross my CBD dominant "Z7" with some pollen I collected from a male Atomic Love earlier, and I'm trying to determine the best time to do so. The Z7 is an 8 week plant btw. I was thinking of doing this around the 2nd week mark...so, in another 4 days.

Thoughts?

 

[KineBoisin420]

Here are some pics of the ladies at Day 10. The Atomic Love strain phenos are really hairy early, compared to the Z7. Although, I'm familiar with the Z7 characteristics, and it sure makes up for a slower start in flowering. Still marvelling at how little stretch happens under LED in early flowering.

 

[KineBoisin420]

Day 17: The Atomic Love really seem to like the setup, so far. They've shown good growth so far, compared to the Z7, although the one Z7 pheno is starting to pick up some steam.

 

[KineBoisin420]

One of my Z7 phenos is having problems though, and I'm not sure quite to do about it. This happened to the same pheno on the last round, and seems to be only happening to this pheno...everything else is growing fine, as is visible above. Its been a quick descent from a totally healthy plant to this...any ideas as to the deficiency?

ph water to ~ 5.8-6.0
using General Organics Bloom and CalMag
alternating between feeding and CalMag every 3 days

 

[May11th]

Thats why I stopped using general organics. Do you have earthworm castings? Ive run coco and I notice w organics castings and oystershell flour are needed in the soil to help buffer it, dont ph your organic nutes w chem ph balancers, itll kill off your bacteria. Do you do teas or just add to straight non aerated water? Looks like a phosphorus issue. When I ran general organics in flowering I would use 15ml per gal bio bloom and 15ml per gal bio bud, 10ml per gal cal mag and 5ml bio marine, bio-weed. Their nutes are too unstsble, one bottle could be different from the other in strength, I ran into this usse and I just make my own nutes now and love it. With coco its tougher to keep a organic plant happy. Id recommend using hygrozyme once every 2 weeks in coco . Jmo bro but nice plants. Ill have to keep a eye on this grow

 

[KineBoisin420]

I usually run earthworm castings (ran out this round). I do add some Guano into the coco when initially mixing, but thats about it.

With the general organics, I usually simply add to my water. I'm familiar with making teas with guano, but I havent tried doing that with the GO nutes.

After years of running organic soil, I thought it would be neat to try out coco...but I'm really feeling that I should go back to what I really know next round. I've never had any big deficiencies before, and this is only happening to one specific pheno of the Z7 strain I've got. The sister pheno is fine.

Who knows, could be an especially finicky pheno.

 

[May11th]

Possible. Im just doing super soil now on w teas when needed. Keeps stuff simple and its proven . I like to take out as much guess work. I hate stressing ovee stuff and thus just makes one less thing to worry about and you can save a ton of money getting away from bottled nutes and see better quality, plus you can make your own batch of nutes. I sell some to grow buddies lol

 

[KineBoisin420]

I probably will return to soil after this round, as I know it so much better, and it certainly does keep things simple and consistent.

I'll take a pic of the dying (now almost dead) plant to show you its fate in the end. Its the same weird sudden death syndrome that happened last round, to the same pheno, at the same time in the flowering cycle.

All other plants are doing fine, with no issues. The Atomic Love phenos are doing extremely well...much more developed main flowers, with lots of hairs, and such a wonderful old school kind of smell. Love it!

Reminder: Atomic Love is a limited edition cross of Atomic NL X Love Potion #1

 

[KineBoisin420]

Day 27.
The Atomic Love are starting to really take off, and the two phenos are exhibiting nice differences, with one leaning more toward the NL#5 side, and the other with a more sativa lean, which takes after the Love Potion #1 side...the smells are phenomenal! Such old school dankness. I'm quite excited about how well both phenos are responding to the lighting setup.

I never ended up taking a shot of the dying Z7 pheno, but its gone from the flowering tent, having been replaced by a lovely TGA Subcool Plushberry, and the other (healthy) Z7 pheno I've grown out many times. I've never grown any TGA genetics before, and I've heard this one is very tasty...looking forward to it. Note: the Plushberry started showing sex within 5 days of flipping over to flower. I notice that under LED, the plants seem to show their sex a little sooner than I'm used to, formerly using HPS.

Pictures: 1- Z7-4 flower, 2- everyone, 3&5- NL#5 leaning Atomic Love pheno, 4- Love Potion #1 leaning Atomic Love.

 

[Positivity]

Nice grow..always wanted to try plushberry. Always trying to find a nice berry plant darn it

I use go in coco and soil..sometimes a mix of two. The only difference I notice is my more heavily amended soil needs much less feeding early on. Whereas coco just feed them a lot from the start and add CaMg

i used to have problems running gos recommended rates. Tried all kinds of ratios. Once I started going 1 tsp grow 1 tsp bloom 2 tsp CaMg if in coco things really exploded. Adding bloombastic from the start at 2ml makes a big difference also...not sure what other bloomboosters would work.

gos is capable of some quality stuff I think..coco or soil

 

[KineBoisin420]

Thx, mate. Yea, looking forward to the PB, and seeing what she gives me. I have been looking for a grail berry strain to replace my original DJ Short BB. I had been gifted a cut of that BB a decade ago. Gave the mom to a buddy to watch, a few years back while I was working overseas, and she ended up dying in his care. I was very sad.

But that being said, the two phenos of this limited edition strain, Atomic Love, are exciting me like few strains have, in recent times.