3rd MMJ Grow

Due to personal limitations i built an outdoor shed without ac in socal last year. After grows under 2x BD 400 and a Kind 750 led i upgraded to Timber cob led's. My grows under BD/Kind, 8 weeks veg and about the same for flower, from seed using fox farms ocean forest, produced about a pound each. A number of newbie issues.

Shed inside is w 4.5' x l 11' x h 7'
intake and exhaust fans 6" 440cfm with HEPA filters
3x 400 w vero29 3500k, Timber Grow lights - framework
3x 3'x3' trays, fabric grow pouch at 3 gallons
Fox farms ocean forest
grown from seeds, most are bagseed, LSD and AG from seedsman

I welcome comments, suggestions, questions and call me an idiot if you like, i am old with thick skin.

My last two grows were under Black Dog 400 phytomax x 2 plus one Kind 750. So, yes i am an idiot who was taken in by some questionable websites promoting those lights. The lights did grow flowers, some nice trichromes and aromatic terpenes, Buds were airy for some strains and tight for other, slow to mature, and i probably harvested a little early. Crockett Confidential seeds always produced nice tight nugs, but probably should have been lager.

I have many problems, but the weather inland socal is pretty warm right now, so my shed without ac is always a struggle to control. Fans are cranking all night, I have dialed back the light intensity in order to lower the heat as they veg.


Second self inflicted issue is that there are 7 different strains growing at the same time. I like variety.

To help with the second issue plants will be vegged until about 12".

Here are some pictures (no special camera here, just phone) at 23 days from seed. Transplanted from cups into 3 gallon pouches.

One mistake apparently was that I used FFOF for the seedlings, apparently that is pretty hard on the seedlings, another was that I ran the cob lights too far above seedlings and too intense. Then I went on vacation for 8 days with help watering. Returned home and was told that all the seedlings had fallen over, and that i would probably need to start with new seeds. A little bit of luck and TLC and I was able to revive and recover somewhat from two mistakes.

Here is the tap water I am using: 585 ppm, 8.2 ph. Letting water sit for a day and getting ph down to 6.5-6.8.

4 weeks from unsprouted seed in soil, most are about 8-10 inches, plan to veg for one more week. Supposed to be hot next week. Got a wattage meter, I am running the 400's at 280 watts.

Should I use nutrients prior to 12/12 flip? Using GH Flora Nova, grow, bloom, bud enhancer.

newgrow16 said:

Here is the tap water I am using: 585 ppm, 8.2 ph. Letting water sit for a day and getting ph down to 6.5-6.8.
View attachment 4000124

Click to expand...

Lot of info above and nice pictures.
Don't worry about the water PH, it is the ppm's to be concerned with.
It is not good to use 500 ppm water.
Two choices.
Use 1 part tap to whatever amount of ro water that brings the ppm's to about 150 ppm's
Or use 100% ro and supplement with general organics cal mag +
If your seedlings survived ffof then carry on, it can be used for seedling but it can cause issues. I use ff light warrior for seedlings then transplant 5 to 7 days later.

Buba Blend said:

Lot of info above and nice pictures.
Don't worry about the water PH, it is the ppm's to be concerned with.
It is not good to use 500 ppm water.
Two choices.
Use 1 part tap to whatever amount of ro water that brings the ppm's to about 150 ppm's
Or use 100% ro and supplement with general organics cal mag +
If your seedlings survived ffof then carry on, it can be used for seedling but it can cause issues. I use ff light warrior for seedlings then transplant 5 to 7 days later.

Click to expand...

Well, crap, that is what i was wondering about. I was surprised that my tap was at 570. I have RO in house that tested at 037. Which is what i used on my last grow, RO plus cal mag.

Temperature is going to be a problem for the next week as SoCal inland is running around 105 f during day and not cooling off enough at night.

Started at 91 in shed, got it down to 82 early evening. Quite a lot of leaves clawing up, is that from heat?

Going to start flip tonight, 9pm - 9am. It will be cooler starting late.

Most girls are 12", a couple of Gorilla Glue are short and fat. Canopy very even at this point. 7 varieties.

Starting the flip, day 0.

Buba Blend said:

Lot of info above and nice pictures.
Don't worry about the water PH, it is the ppm's to be concerned with.
It is not good to use 500 ppm water.
Two choices.
Use 1 part tap to whatever amount of ro water that brings the ppm's to about 150 ppm's
Or use 100% ro and supplement with general organics cal mag +
If your seedlings survived ffof then carry on, it can be used for seedling but it can cause issues. I use ff light warrior for seedlings then transplant 5 to 7 days later.

Click to expand...

I am going to take your advice and that of Doc111 and purchase RO water from my grocery store at $3 per 10 gallons. I just tested the RO water and it is below 20 ppm, 9 on my meter. The ph tested at 6.6, pretty good to pour straight on my teens.

The focus of this grow will be on the Girl Scout Cookie X ?? bagseed that I have collected.

As I am going to use RO water from now on, GH cal-mag will be part of the nutrient routine.

newgrow16 said:

The focus of this grow will be on the Girl Scout Cookie X ?? bagseed that I have collected.

As I am going to use RO water from now on, GH cal-mag will be part of the nutrient routine.

Click to expand...

I believe General Hydroponics cal mag is better for hydroponics where General Organics cal / mag + may be a better choice for soil IDK.

Temps started at 91 ended in the morning at 88, humidity at 60 down to 50 by morning. GSC were pretty droopy by morning, lifted a pouch and it was definitely pretty dry. Watered the GSC's before lights out at 9 am.

Lazy mistake almost ruined crop, fan timer turned off all fans at 1am with lights still cranking. Don't know why I awoke at 3:00am but it saved the crop as I realized fans were off and lights on. 106 degrees Fahrenheit and 95% humidity. Got it down to 90 degrees and 60%.

If I would have slept the plants would have fried. I think I have a connection to the girls, hope it is a good connection.

Fixed timers. Plants had just gone through water cycle and did not dry out.

Maybe not all luck. Heat wave has been a real bitch.

newgrow16 said:

Started at 91 in shed, got it down to 82 early evening. Quite a lot of leaves clawing up, is that from heat?

Click to expand...

Freeze some large jugs of water and rotait them in and out.. Might help keep things cooler

newgrow16 said:

Started at 91 in shed, got it down to 82 early evening. Quite a lot of leaves clawing up, is that from heat?

Click to expand...

If I had to guess I would say that the humidity is causing the claw look.. Other factors can like over watering but I don't think that's the case here..your plants look healthy .. When the humidity is high the leaves cant transpire right and can get all funny looking. Humidity isn't a big deal during veg, but you'll want to get that in control before heavy flowering starts or you could have some mold problems.( Powdery mildew and bud rot)

About the seedlings. They had too little light from the start. A few 23W spiral CFLs strangely is enough light at about an inch or two, and won't hurt them unless it physically touches them for a while.
It will allow them to grow good roots rather than putting energy into stretching after the light.


About the hard water, some nutrient lines have both hard and soft water versions.