1400w Psuedo-Hydro-Organic Coco mix: Nirvana Ice and my Element Zero

Shwagbag said:

Those look good man. I have also seen similar leaf damage in my flower box, what do you think would cause that? I haven't seen anything in there or any evidence of critters. I did find a weird looking spider in there but exterminated his ass.

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I have no clue what it could be to be honest.

I've been checking all the plants for new damage and checking under the leaves for critters but nothing yet. When I noticed the damage I tossed a hotshot pest strip up in the tent for a few days, so if there was something in there, likely it is dead now.

I have a 4 month old kitten and a 1 yr old "young adult" cat that I think are responsible for the damage. The kitten will eat anything. Vegetables, uncooked pasta, whatever. So, I think that during the transplant when I was out hitting the bong while moving all the plants the cats took advantage of my inattention and hopped up in the tent and nibbled on my new growth. Fortunately, the plants that did get nibbled aren't doing too bad.

I setup the 400w vertical Digilux MH bulb yesterday. I'm going to start flowering sometime next week. Will do a photo update sometime before then. Maybe tonight or tomorrow.

I don't have any damn cats so IDK wth could be messing with mine either. Time to put surveillance in my box! ahahah

A look at the lighting and ventilation:


I dunno if I'm feeling the tube around the vert MH bulb. I might pull it off for tomorrow and see if the heat is any worse. And yes, that circulation fan is upside down. Baller shit right?

The plants are still working on throwing out those 8th and 9th nodes but have stretched quite a bit since transplanting and being put in the 5x5 with the 1000w HPS. I have not watered/fed them for 5 days, and do not expect to need to until the 15th. The mixture stayed really moist after transplanting and I want those roots a little more mature before saturating them again.

Based on the color of the plants (irl) I'm going to be cutting back on the N ratio and I'm trying to balance out the nutrient profile with a little extra PK for the next feeding. Overall I plan to use a low strength solution, maybe 0.9ec or so, and then I'll use that same ratio at 1/2 strength for a follow up feeding a few days later.

As far as their health goes, I think they are cruising right along. The stems are nice and thick for their age and the internode branches are really starting to catch up with the rest of the plant. They looked a little wilty the last few days as the temperature has been in the high 70's and low 80's and they just got all jostled, transplanted, and some nibbled. Every day I notice a little less wilt and a little more vigor. I'd imagine they are done with any transplant stress and should be back on track by now. I should see good results out of them from here on out.

I was planning to start flowering in about 3 days but might be pushing it to 5 days depending on the height of the plants. They can add another 4-6 inches or so before I need to begin flowering.

Here's a look at the plants as they stand today at day ~25ish (+/- 2 days) from breaking ground.





Thanks to all the supporters and followers. Enjoy.

View attachment 1491989

Loving it man, great pics! Can't wait to see some frosty colas.

When you flip to 12 what decides? the plant age? or its height?

shagster said:

When you flip to 12 what decides? the plant age? or its height?

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depends on your space....for smaller plant you could flip it early...but it looks like hes going to do a 1 month veg then switch, correct?

It's going to work out to be about a month worth of veg, or about 4 weeks, before flowering starts. I find that in the 5th and 6th weeks plants get really big and I'm trying to control the size of the plants this time around. They can still double in height before I have to start flowering.

But yeah, plants don't care about my time tables. I go off of the height of the plants. Just happens to fit together with 1 month time.

...very nice, can I ask , what is the advantage of the vertical light mount?

Vertical = Efficiency

It eliminates the need for a reflector.
When a bulb is mounted horizontally only 1/2 the bulb is going to be facing the plants you are growing. The other half of the bulb has to reflect that energy off the reflector to get it directed towards the plants. When used vertically I can cover a larger number of cubic feet than when used horizontally. In addition, a vertically mounted bulb provides light to the lower parts of the canopy, resulting in heavier nugs further down the plant.

With a 400w horizontal system I would use a 3x3 area beneath it for 9 square feet of canopy directly lit. The light will penetrate about 2 feet, for a total cuft growing area of around 18 cuft.

When mounted vertically the bulb will light all areas around it, up to 24 inches from the bulb. To find the area of the circle we do the ol' Pi * Radius Squared and we get 12.5 feet. Since the bulb can also illuminate 24 inches down from the bulb, and 24 inches up from the bulb, that is a 48 inch vertical area. Think about it like the inside of a donut. So, in addition to the horizontal light coverage increase, the vertical lighting coverage allows the illumination footprint of the total growing area to be a whopping 50cuft.

That's right. Less equipment to buy, more coverage, less reliance on reflective materials. And a 300% larger area which will contain enough energy for photosynthesis.

Did I mention...

Vertical = Efficiency

I like the vert setup! And ur girls are looking great, as always. Excited to see some buds in the future!!

well thx Crash...something to consider a little later on in my grow....

I would love to setup a vertical grow as my area is limited... But.... I put enough time into setting this shit up lol. Maybe next winter

Snow your farm is looking so healthy man!!! +rep on your grow...remeber that troll who said it was a for sure fail? hahahah where is he at now? Love it man...you are the freaking man!

hudman said:

Snow your farm is looking so healthy man!!! +rep on your grow...remeber that troll who said it was a for sure fail? hahahah where is he at now? Love it man...you are the freaking man!

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Thanks dude. I don't even remember who that was... my ignore list is HUGE so I don't bother with that nonsense anymore.

Things got a little upset in there recently. I think I might have gone just a touch too long without watering. One of the plants freaked out in a matter of a night and many of the lower leaves experienced a serious phosphorus deficiency. Really, not that big of a deal since all the other plants are healthy and I've resolved the issue on that plant. Still, I'm concerned about it being a foretelling of the other plants and I'm tossing the first batch of foliar formula I made. Some of the other plants in the grow room have a spot on them here and there, and I chalk that up to the foliar as well. Probably just a little too hot with the BioWeed but I'll get it right next time around.

I just snapped some pics of the room.

Here's the sick plant with the "moldy" looking phosphorus deficiency which has (in 24 hours) completely chewed through 3-4 leaves.


And here are a few room snaps

Nice! I have four six hundred watt tubes! Been thinking bout mounting them vertically! Just don't want to do all the work!

This looks really good. We use a similar setup with another type of airpot and coco too, right on!

Since we last met...

Several plants have pre-sexed. All of the Nirvana Ice were distinguishable by day 30. The Element Zero needs a little more time before I can be certain on all of them. As it stands right now I think I went 5 for 8 with the Ice and 3 for 10 with the Element Zero. Luck of the draw... but the verdict isn't in on two of the EZ which is why so many of them are left in the tent. The circle around the vertical light are the female plants. The plants in the corners are my unknown EZ plants. There is one plant in a party cup, it started as a total mutant and I'm stunned it has grown at all. I love my mutants.

Between the transplanting and the first watering I let a little too much time go by and there were some issues that cropped up on the lower branches. Mostly just a calcium-nitrogen-phosphorus thing. The Foliar feeding I did probably didn't help.

Each plant looks pretty different in their own ways right now. Some are tall and thin. Some are bushed out. Some got mangled a little while ago in one manner or another. Ugh... Transplanting was a tough time for the little guys between the cats and the dry out.

Anyway. The new growth is doing exactly what the foliar was supposed to accomplish. It really slowed the stretch down and the nodes are stacking much closer together than they had been a week ago.

The first day of 12/12 lighting (technically 11:50/12:10) was the 18th which puts them 2 days into flowering or so. My technical "1st day of flowering" is really going to be more like the 23rd.

Current feeding schedule is:
4ml Canna Coco A
4ml Canna Coco B
3ml Cal-Mag Plus
5ml Liquid Karma
3ml DynaGro Pro-Tekt
2ml Hydroplex
4ml Bud Candy

The uS/cm is around 1250 at that point with the NPK ratios at a 7-7-6 with a 7 Calcium and 3 Magnesium. Then I add in a little tap water to bring the uS/cm down to <1150 without messing the ratios much. Run off has been around 1300 to 1500 uS/cm.

I run a pretty balanced NPK profile during the transitional phase. I find it is important to neglect no element at this stage, and I focus my attention on keeping the CEC of the coco balanced. Burning now is all bad.

Having some time to reflect on the week 3 of this grow, compared to week 3 of other grows, this time around was considerably slower.

Granted, this was the first 10 days after the transplanting... and yes, I might have not helped the situation with the prolonged dry period (just an experiment, do not try at home), but I don't think the plants added more than 3 nodes a piece during the last week.

The tallest plant in the room is the exact height I wanted to start them at, and it is only sitting at around 6 nodes to the top from where I'll be pruning to. The cause of this could be many things. I don't want to jump all over a nutrient when it was probably user error... but I don't think I need the BioWeed did me any favors when I compare where I am now to where I expected to be at about 30 days.

I planned on using the BioWeed to keep the internode lengths short during this period but since all of the plants are beneath the "too tall" point I'd actually like to encourage a doubling in height. So, after this next feeding in the AM I'll be cutting out the General Organics BioWeed for most of the grow. I will keep using it on my revegged clones from the previous grow to keep them from getting out of hand. When it comes to uses the stuff has a time and place.

This was also the first time I had used party cups for my plants. I more frequently start my plants in much smaller seedling trays and transplant to a 1 gallon planter earlier on. I think this gives them a better jump start in the early veg period. Transplanting deep into early veg (rather than the transition period from seedling to early veg) wound up slowing things down compared to other grows.

When working with my clones in the future - after my Sensi Star, Wappa, and Motavation mothers are filled out - I will probably be using Rapid Rooters to get them rooted and move them straight to the 3 gallon planters with 2 gallons of media once established. This will bypass a transplanting and allow the roots an uninterrupted growth period as they stretch out to establish their limits.

The extremely amended coco mixture of Botanicare, Canna Reclaimed, Roots Organic, and Grow Stones is growing some HUGE roots. When I was yanking out the first 5 males I was astounded at how much had been done beneath the surface over the first week from transplanting. I am really impressed with the root healthy right now despite my overall dismay regarding the current height and maturity of the plants.

Originally I had planned on starting flowering 4 days earlier but couldn't justify the change given the state of the plants. I wanted them to at least recover from the drought first.

Thank you guys for all the support. I am off to the races now. 60 days to harvest more or less.

Awesome, they're looking real good. We'll be harvesting around the same time. I'm still tuned in even though I haven't been posting much on my part. Busy times.. ahah