Newbie Grow w/ Ebb and Flow

So this is my first grow journal. I'm a long time smoker but I am new to rollitup.org. I am looking forward to getting feedback and suggestions about what I am doing, and what I could be doing differently.

Right now I am 3 weeks into my grow, but I have been keeping a journal at home so will transfer the info onto here. So here we go...

Room Info:

Growing in 4x4x6.5 grow tent
600 w light w/ digital ballast (have an hps bulb and mh conversion bulb
6" 425 cfm exhaust fan that goes through a carbon filter then into the attic
3x3 foot ebb and flow tray w/ 30 gal reservoir
4-4inch air stones and pump to circulate water
using cutting edge systems nutes at 100%
using hydroton in 3 gal smart pots

Apr. 3rd-Present
Received six BlackJack (black domina x Jock horror) from a friend, most of them were in good shape, two were pretty rough. Transferred cuttings into hydroton and placed on tray under 600 mh light (this may have been a waste of electricity, they could have been left under less light until they were in better shape. Was wattering cuttings with ces's suggested nute mix for cuttings and ran for two weeks. Once the roots were established I switched to the veg mix.

I am currently feeding 3 times a day. The pump runs for a half hour three times a day. Fill time for trya is 6 minutes drain is 10 min, So they really get fedfor about 34 minutes 3 times a day.

This is where I need suggestions. Is this enough? to much? I am afraid of over or under wattering. Does anyone have some pics of these problems?

Ph has been stable at 6.0, temp inside tent is good, humidity is good.

I will add some pics as soon as i figure it out.

If anyone has suggestions on a feed schedule let me know. I'm not really sure on what to look for to determine how much to feed.

You seem to be doing everything just fine. They look great!! Those smart pots ok for u? Did those roots coming out burn off yet? Scribed. I want to see your roots when u harvest. Don't worry about over-watering. Hydroton is so airy its almost impossible. The duration seems maybe a tad long, I go 15 min x 3 in an ebb-gro system. I found WHEN is the key. I do 1 flood 1 hr after lights on, 1 at mid-day and 1 2 hrs before lights out.

Okay so here is some most recent pics. Since hitting the tops of all of the plants with the screen they have perked up. it's almost time to start training! had a problem with my ph, it was a little low so i adjusted up. way too far up in and the system fed before i checked it. as a result i have a bunch of deposits in my flood tray. You can see some in the pics. I wiped most of it out and adjusted the ph back down. changed feed schedule to four times a day 15 minute intervals. lights are still 24 hrs.

Here you can see he roots are beginning to discolor as they are air pruned. Most of these roots have been exposed for a couple days.Sorry the pic is a bit blurry. Feel free to comment on my page, I don't have a discussion thread.

What's nutes line up u using???

I am using Cutting Edge Systems nutes. They are out of Nor Cal. Pretty cool company, I e-mailed a question off to there web site and I had an answer from the GM only a day later. The nutes really take all of the guess work out of it making it easy to use for a newB. The plants are loving the nutes. Every time I go peak in the tent there is a lot of new growth.

Morning of Apr 24. Plants are all looking great, 4 out of 6 are up to the screen. Each plant is very bushy and has lots of life. I was thinking of taking a cutting off the plant in the back right to grow a mother with. Where should I take the cutting from? My friend said he usually takes clones from the bottom of the plant does it matter?

I have been thinking about my next cycle and what I'm going to do so that I can be harvesting again as soon as possible. I currently have an aeroponic cloning bucket. If I use this for making my clones how long could I leave them in it? I would like to have my plants the size they are now before I put them in the tent. Does any one have ideas for how I should be growing my starts? If a plant was one foot in diameter would it be hard to transplant into my system. How much lights do starts require? If a start doesn't have a lot of light will it stretch out and not be as bushy as my plants are now?

Looking good, I plan on following this one.

These little mammas are growing like crazy, amazing really. I didn't realize how much a metal halide light helps with the veg growth. I have seen the same strain grow under hps light for the veg state and the plants are not nearly as bushy, there isn't nearly the amount of foliage, and the plants are way stretched out between the nodes. Mine on the other hand.....


Give me some input back. I'm beginning to train the plants, if anyone has any tips, tricks, suggestions, or comments, leave 'em on this page.

You tease!! Post some more piks. I want to see the root action on the side of the smart pots.

Looking like a good future SCROG. I have a similar setup except 4'x3' under 600 w mh. No screen though. I'm also curious about the roots in those bags. Very interesting g.

I just checked 'em out and there really isn't anything to show as far as the roots. They are coming through the pots, but haven't began to air prune yet, the growth is still pretty new. The amount of foliage growing is crazy. I have began training the plants the way I want them to grow, but it's really delicate work because they have grown into a maze of nodes and shade leaves. I have just been trying to pull the shade leaves down to let the nodes get as much light as possible. I'm no expert, but these plants look like they are going to yield quite a bit with the amount of nodes that have grown so far. Does anyone have any ideas on what a reasonable amount to expect is (barring that nothing goes wrong)?

Everything is going good, still growing like crazy. Soon it will be time to switch the lights over, probably w/i the week. I can't believe how much these things feed, they went through 15 gallons in just a week! I have a question for other ebb and flow guys: can i just add more water and nutes or should the whole reservoir be changed? The res is 30 gal and the system will operate as long as there is 15 gal. left in it. I do not have a ppm meter so I dont know how i should go about this. It seems like a real waste of money to dump the left over 15 gal down the tub every week. Any advice is appreciated. I have been trimming off the larger fan leaves, but have only been making a few cuts on each plant per day. Anyway here's latest pics.

So lights are off. Which qallowed me to discover a new problem. My HPS bulb does not like to ignite. It seems I cannot trust it to light with the timer because it doesn't work every time. So now I have to go back there every night and make sure it turns on. If it doesn't it seems I have to put the MH conversion bulb in ignit that bulb, allow the ballst to warm up, and then put the HPS bulb back in . What a pain in the ass. I tried to take the ballast back where I got it and they told me there was nothing they could do. North West Hydro Repair and Resale in OR, I will never buy anything from this guy again. Go somewhere else.

Any way here is some pics.

I hate talking to myself. Then why do you do it? Not sure.

great setup things are really looking good. subscribed

So I e-mailed bettergrow hydro about the ballast issues and I recieved a quick reply from one of their store managers in pasadena. This is what he had to say:

I read through your email and unfortunately the problems you are experiencing are common to 600 watt digital ballasts. Here’s a brief explanation: 600 watt lights are a non standardized wattage. Lighting systems such as 1000 watt and 400 watt are used by more than just the indoor gardener. Warehouse lighting, street lighting, stadium lighting, parking garage lights…the list goes on and on…they are all 1000 or 400 watt HPS and MH lights. 600 watt lights are only used by the Horticultural industry, and pretty much specifically, the hobby indoor garden market. Because of this, 600 watt lights are being made by a bunch of different manufacturers with varying degrees of specifications. This is why I believe you are experiencing the difficulty firing your 600 watt bulb. What I recommend is to go with a different bulb. It has been my experience over the years that the Hortilux bulbs work in the most digital ballasts. They are excellent bulbs (in fact they are also my preferred bulbs) and are horticulturally specific. They are an enhanced spectrum bulb with higher lumens and a broader spectrum incorporating some of the blue/white light of Metal Halide resulting in bigger, better fruits and flowers. These are a higher priced bulb, but I personally haven’t run up against a single functioning digital ballast that wouldn’t fire a Hortilux bulb. It is also possible that another bulb would work flawlessly, but you may have to experiment with different companies until you find a solid bulb.

he then e-mailed me again to say:

One more suggestion that I thought of after I wrote you the last email is that Lumatek now makes their own High-Par bulbs that are guaranteed to work in digital ballasts and offer a high Par rating which is much more important than lumens. You might want to consider that bulb, too, as it’s a little cheaper than the Hortilux and it’s being manufactured by a digital ballast company.

I thought it was really cool how quick I received a reply.


I have been taking lots of pics and have put together a few slides shows. I am only a couple weeks into flower so there is not a whole lot left but you can see how fast they are growing this way. I began my grow from very small clones on Apr 3, these slide shows are current through today May 21. Each pic is 1-2 days apart. More soon to come, it will probably be pretty cool once it is complete. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Okay never mind, it will not allow me top upload a power point slide show. I will just upload the pics normaly and you can view them in sequence. There is pics for a high angle, side angle, and flower progress shows.