1st grow in coco -day28 Blue Dream - 5-7kw HPS - all tips, quips & gripes accepted

hello. thanks for stopping by. this is my first grow journal thread in this forum. This is also my first grow ever in coco. But, its not my first grow, as I come from a background of soil.

I have a 1500sq foot space. Typically I've ran up to 8-9Kw hps (cool tubes), when doing soil containers, but right now I have it scaled back to 5Kw. But with dark(er) spots in the setup from where the other bulbs aren't currently on, I thought this might be a spot where I could turn one or two on. Doing this then takes the wattage to 6-7Kw - if I use those (2) extra HPS. This is up for comment if this will actually benefit yield?

Medium details:

• Canna Coco
• Fox Farm Happy Frog (+ 20-25% perlite mixed) - inoculated with HydroOrganics Grow Mycorhiza
• washed coco a bit first w/ 2ml/gal Canna A & Canna B to just preserve buffer(?)
• coco and soil both given HumTea

Nutrient details

- Base nutrients for coco:

• Canna A
• Canna B
• Technaflora MagiCal

- Base nutrients for soil:

• Cutting Edge Solutions (Micro, Bloom)
• Botanicare Nitrex

- Coco supplements:

• Canna Rhizotonic
• Canna PK 13/14
• MOAB (possibly only on control group)
• Humbold Nutrients Big Up (control group only)
• FoxFarm Beastie Bloomz (control group only)
• Earthjuice Hi-Brix Molasses

- Soil Supplements:

• Earthjuice Hi-Brix

- Strain & container Details:

• 34 Blue Dream in mostly 3gal containers - coco
• 1 Blue Dream in a 7gal container - coco
• 5 or 6 Sour Diesel in 2gal & 3gal containers - coco + soil
• 2 Headband (supposedly) in 2/gal containers - soil

Tomorrow is 4th week of flowering in 12/12. Vegged a bit longer than I wanted due to other issues in life, so they got a bit taller than should have. Vegged 18/6 (mostly) all under (1) 1kw MH in 2qt?containers.

Transplanted, and then let them sit for 7 - 8 days before flipped to 12/12.

Lollipopped about 8 or 9 days after beginning 12/12.


Now onto the current phase (and mo pics!)

(disclaimer: This is a Prop 215 compliant space)

I have had some issues this cycle:

powdery mildew

• Been treating the PM w/a sulfur vaporizer, about 90 - 120 mins each time. Only done it twice - how often can I do this? once a week? Have also tried spraying the affected leaves with a milk:water mix; also used Serenade spray.

fungus gnats

• got sticky strips that I put up, those helped a lot
• I tried sand, but didnt like the way it held water up top - removed.
• got Azamax. Foliar sprayed and did a medium drench.
• I used Doktor Doom fogger, and although it was placed where I've placed other foggers, I got bad damage to the sides of the plants that were on the edge of the table
• going to get another thing of Azamax and treat foliar and medium again; may hang more strips

Cal/Mg issues

• Originally in veg wasnt giving any Cal/mg but in flowering started giving 10ml/gal to correct deficiency.
• Did 10ml/gal for too much and created a Calcium issue (thx Jberry on the tips). Have now dropped MagiCal dosage down to 2 - 3ml/gal

still think the Sour Diesel is super finicky. All the Sour Diesel leaves that are affected seem to be lower, middle and upper - all together and/or a combination of. The Blue Dream issues are only lower, lower leaves.

Finally, last but not least, when I kicked on those additional (2) 1kw HPS lights, they are on a separate break out box, and the control was not flipped back to Auto - but was instead on Manual. ! Point is - there were (2) 1kw HPS lights on during the dark cycle for 36 - 48 hrs.

i'm hoping they will be ok.

you can see where one of them has some slight light bleaching. Apparently Blue Dream pales easily from what a member here on RIU told me. Anyone have this experience?

closeups and canopy shots. Day 28 of flower. Sprayed some Serenade tonight on all the fan leaves, especially the ones that have PM. As I stated previously, I ran the sulfur vaporizer earlier today (when lights & fans were off) for about 120 mins. Anyone know when I can run this again? a few days? I really wanna get this PM under control.

The Sour Diesel pic, at the end, where you see me pulling back some foliage, illustrates the top to bottom yellow/discoloration I am getting on fan leaves. This plant particularly.

I am still seeing some shriveled up dead leaves on lower bottom areas on the Blue Dream.

RH is 60 - 70% - this is a problem. Mostly its either 60 or 65.
Temps - 82F right now with eight 1kw HPS on. At "night" it gets down to about 65 - 68F. I dont have a heater for that room.

I just mixed up their food - everything is aerating right now.

coco:
2.5ml/gal MagiCal
10ml/gal Canna A
10ml/gal Canna B
5/ml gal PK 13/14
added 240ml sample of Botanicare Sweet instead of the Earthjuice Hi-Brix.

soil
8ml/gal Cutting Edge Micro
10/ml gal Botanicare Nitrex
20ml/gal Cutting Edge Bloom
30ml/gal Earthjuice Hi-Brix

I have 1 control group that is receiving FoxFarm Beastie Bloomz (5 total). at 1/4 strength for now.
I will have 1 control group that will be receiving Humbold Nutrients Big Up (4 total). not till 6th~ week
I will have 1 control group that will be receiving MOAB (4 - 6 total). not till 6th~ week

RH was actually 55% when I got back into room. By the time I left it was back up at 60%. Does heat/temp of room affect RH? What causes RH swings?

PH on coco nute mix - 5.8 :: PPM 1250 - 1300
PH on soil nute mix - 6.3 :: PPM 1250 - 1300

Its actually 6 plants getting Beastie Bloomz right now. Been going with the lowest dosage on label, 1/4 tsp per gal. Will start increasing next feed.

(I forgot to use the EarthJuice actually. meh, I'm almost out. I will have to see how much Sweet costs. Buying regular blackstrap molasses around here is like $7 for 440ml. Not particularly cheap if you're using this every week, multiple times).

damn i wanna change the title of this thread.. in order to keep updating throughout cycle. otherwise it will be - day 60 , but my thread will say 'day28' .. DOH.

OK.. Bump! 60+ views no replies. sorry if this thread started weeks and weeks into the grow, just the way it is this time.

anyone? bueller? bueller?

Did another 4 hours with the sulfur vaporizer yesterday morning when lights were off. Gonna hit 'em again with some Serenade tonight.

80+ views and not one person has a thing to say?! dayum guys.

Looking good B, looking frosty as a mofo....

Thank goodness we have peps like jberry to assist us with our challenges huh!?

I am also going thru my first coco grow... Using similar nutes to you. Im on about day 40 of flower, Kushberry plants....

Sub'd and +'d

I'll be keeping an interested eye on this one...

OK. got issues now. was away since Tues morning, and got a few leaves mostly upper ones, on the Blue Dream that aren't looking good at ALL. This happened definitely in the last few days. Only thing different: I fed them 4qts each vs 2 qts each. The issue is only on a few, I need to go look closer though. I was hoping to get some feedback though. Please?!?



[EDIT] here are a few more pics of a few Blue Dream leaves



i have definitely not seen this type of spotting before that is seen on left hand pic. Really not even for the right side pic either. These are fairly new deficiency signs.

Here is one pic of SourDiesel that is not happy either. Another member thinks it is Calcium or Potassium lockout/deficiencies. Exploring that now.

Yes temp effects RH because warmer air can hold more water. So if you drop from 80 deg, to 70 say like at lights out, your humidity will spike then. For such a large setup you need to look into a serious dehumidifier, look comercial...like the one in this guys journal. you could always get a big fridgeair or something too, but no small unit can keep up with that many plants. https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/319760-4000w-medicial-purple-kush-256-a-2.html#post4045780

@someguy15 - yeh that Dri-Eaz looks good, but I dont have 1200$ right now to spend on a thing like that. Unfortunately I just have some fkd up stuff right now that I wont go into, but thanks for showing me this.

I'm still wondering if maybe I shouldn't be running 8 lights right now, and just go back to the 5. Main # of girls are in the middle 2 tables, under 3 lights - each side table has 3 lights over them too. but i was only running 1 middle light per side table. Ive since switched on more lights for each side table - thinking more light might be amp up the yield. Can anyone confirm this?

I went ahead and gave the girls a basic flush tonight, just used 1ml/gal of Canna A and B. Also used 1ml/gal of MagiCal. Trying to get this lockout issue that was noted under control.

Will post pics later this weekend. thanks yawl!

lol of course more light = more yield. It also means a higher electricity bill. If you are compliant with all laws and you have the $ to cover the electricity bill then by all means run as many lights as you can. 82 is a bit high on the temp scale so maby you should stick to five if you cannot keep it under 80(unless you have C02). Especially with your pm problem the higher day temp, as mentioned previously, will allow more moisture in the air so when lights go out the humidity will get higher. What kind of ac do you have going right now? You may be able to get by with a small heater or 2 during dark to eliminate the pm. Are you using ro water? IF so i would add cal mage every watering. IF you are noticing a cal mag def then for one feeding jack up the ph to about 6.4-6.5 pure coco and 6.7-6.8 coco soil mix and use only water with 10ml/gallon cal mag. Many times with coco the available mag gets locked up so you need a higher ph for uptake. You can also buy magnesium by itself but it has a kind of high npk so you have to adjust your feeding regimine. I hope this helps.

@iscrog.. yeh i know it sounds like a dumb question, I just prefer to voice all those questions in my head these days rather than pretend i know everything. I'm thinking of moving maybe one of my other bigger plants from the middle table over to one of the other ones to get more light and free up more room in the middle.

I dont use R/O, I run it through a Hydrologic SmallBoy. My area has pretty good water, but does use chloramines. I just cant afford an R/O machine right now - and who knows maybe that's 1 of the reasons Ive had some lower yields than i like.

I do use Cal/mg, and I was using a bit too much, which I've now corrected. I do run 100% coco. A few of my SourD girls are looking bad.. buds look fine, but using that old Nitrex really screwed them up I think. /sigh. am def pissed abt that. oh well, its only a few.

I dont have A/C in there, just intakes/exhaust; I use:
-Fantech 12XL
-12" elicent AXC 315A
-elicent AXC 315B
-6" vortex

plus 1 floor fan, and a oscillating. So I got decent air recirc, but not cool enough.

I do have a 750/1000w space/floor heater. So running during "dark" would minimize the diff factor, right? So keeping that,say, at 80 in the "dark" would decrease the RH and reduce risks of PM. I can cut one of the fans and it will jump to about 85-87 in there. I run CO/2 every 1 hour or so, for about 15mins, during "day" hours.

I have also ran the sulfur vaporizer at least once a week the past 2 wks, for about 4 - 5hrs each time. I just cant do this during the week due to time constraints.

I'm too tired to go take pics and post them. tomorrow.

whats up bro? thought i would check in on you. How are things going besides the PM?

I know you are low on funds but here's a suggestion and it is a method i use with success:

Buy a $150 70 pint dehumidifier from Sears, OSH, or wherever and a simple cheap timer to plug it into...
Set the dehumidifier to come on during the dark cycle only (during the last week or two before harvesting, you may consider running it 24/7 to prevent any potential bud rot that would typically form during this final stage).

Next you will need a timer capable of multible start/stop times for your ventalation fans...
Set the timer to keep your fans on during the entire light cycle as you normally would but have it turn off for the majority of the dark cycle. Now you will want to set the timer to kick the vent fans on a for around 10-15 minuts during the night, every couple of hours during the dark cycle...

Example: Your lights will be turning off for your 12 hour dark cycle and at that time your dehumidifier should be turning ON for the entire dark period. As long as your room is sealed decently, the smaller dehumidifier will have enough power to keep up when your ventalation system is turned OFF. Now your ventalation system should be set on a timer to come on aprox. every 2-4 hours for aprox. 5-15 minuts to replace the oxygen in the grow room (it is only during these short time periods that your ventalation will be battling your dehumidifier so you may still get some RH spikes that could call for some need for your dehumidifier settings to be adjusted).

The above method works well for keeping your RH in check without the need for a commercial dehumidifier and the cost of power to run the dehumidifier is counter balanced buy the power you save by not running the ventalation fans at night.
The ventalation fans don't need to be on during the dark cycle because they do not need or use any co2 at night time... The roots of the plant do however need oxygen during the dark cycle and that is the only reason I suggest having the fans kick on for a few minuts several times a night... this will exchange the stale air and ensure that the plants root system has the oxygen it needs.

Also... Milk (Organic milk is only a little more $) used as a foliar spray will kill Powdery Mildew.

"pH UP" used as a foliar will also kill PM.

Try neem oil for powdery mildew. Works like a charm.