Sensi Star and White Russian

Preface : This is my first attempt at documentation of my experiments with plants. I've been growing personally for over a year now on different scales, and had another garden for about year a few years back. A moderate amount of experience, I've probably completed or participated in at least 10 different grows indoors.

Background : I was given a single clone of a good Sensi Star about a year ago. Figuring I could make another attempt at a product after several years, I created two grow boxes to clone and flower. I then performed several grow cycles until I had 12-15 clones. I used the following system :

Box 1 :
2'x2'x2' enclosed
4 x 23 w CFL
Humidity dome
Passive ventilation, inside controlled environment ( bedroom )

Box 2 :
4'x3'x4' enclosed
4 x 45 w CFL ( blue )
4 x 95 w CFL ( red )
6500 BTU AC unit @ 45 w idle / ~500 w compressor
Exhaust fan 160 CFM
Located in a garage, environment variable.

Accessories :
2 x Digital Thermometer w/ remote probe
Kill-a-watt meter
digital pH meter
5 gal mixing bucket
10 x gallon jugs

Nutrients : Technaflora "BC" boost, grow, etc. Botanicare "Sweet". Acid/Base for pH Adjustment, Mineral rich water ( water softener bypass )

Medium : Grodan rockwool plugs and blocks 3" + 5"

I proceeded to clone 12 more plants, and four weeks ago, at the same time, purchased a third grow setup. This setup included :
2 x 600 w HPS , Quantum digital dimmable balasts, Sunmaster bulbs. A wing reflector and a 6" cool tube with reflector.
Oscilating desk fan. 160 CFM exhaust fan, 4" tube 12' long with 6" adapter.
This is currently used to grow my large plants and 4 week old clones in veg. All plants shown here are Sensi Star.

Two weeks ago, I made a purchase from Attitude seeds, 11 Regular seeds of "White Russian" from Serious seeds. Attitude gave me two free seeds, feminized "sour cream" and "LA woman". All thirteen were placed in wet rockwool on the 6th of October and set in the smallest box with only 1 x 23 w CFL for illumination. As of today, there is growth on 9/13, I'm hoping to see the rest come up soon, or there is little chance they will. Worst case I hope to have 2 female WR to clone.

So, after all the changes in the last year, I now have three grow areas, 1) Small Box 2'x2' footprint. 2) Large box 4'x3' footprint. 3) Grow room approx 15'x15'
Seeds : I've placed the seeds in the humidity dome in the small box with 1 x 23w CFL. Sprouting in Grodan plugs, the sprouted shoots are almost 2" tall after a week. Nutes keep the bottom of the dome enclosure ( tray ) constantly wet. None of the seeds appear to be dead, but some are progressing very slow compared to the others.
Clones : My four week clones are in the grow room now with the larger plants using the powerful 600w HPS x 2 for light. Since both the large plants and clones are currently in veg, they will share the same room.
Mature plants : This weekend I gave the plants 36 hours of 600w x 2 light. To save on power, I plan to light the room only 16 hours each day as i have been the past few weeks. The plants happily stay in veg under this schedule.

Some thoughts on HPS lighting.
I did some research before I made my purchases, and made some decisions about efficiency and cost. I've been convinced that the benefits of 2 x 600 w HPS is the right choice. The most efficient bulbs. Cooler to run each than 1000w, allowing the plants closer to the light. Cover a much larger footprint with two reflectors instead of one, light from multiple angles. The amount of usable intense light is also greater using this system as opposed to a single 1000w based on proximity ( heat ) and larger footprint. Disadvantage : cost. As most 1000w conventional ballasts and bulbs cost almost the same as the 600w, potentially you could buy more light for the same price with 2 x 1000w. However, in my case, power cost was a factor, and I went with the lower of the two. Second, the price difference in digital ballasts between 600 and 1000 w IS significant. I can make a sales pitch for digital my ballast, but here is the bottom line for me : more light and dimmable. One of the best features of the Quantum digital ballast is the ability to run at 50%, 75% or 100% power. According to my power meter, this is entirely accurate. When power or heat is an issue, i set both ballasts to 50% power and still have a great deal of light. I do not have a light meter, so I cannot determine the actual light output, but to my eyes, the digital ballast at 50% power puts out more light than you would think for half the power.
I have some question as to whether the "grow" HPS bulbs are truly worth the extra $ in terms of light output, but I feel much safer to go with them. Without some blue light, the nodes elongate and waste your space, so perhaps the "grow" bulbs truly are worth the $.
I have two different reflectors, one a simple wing, the other a cool tube with reflector. The cool tube is attached to the exhaust fan in the room. The wing is simply an inexpensive option that is passively cooled. The biggest disadvantage i can see here is if the bulb were to explode, there is no shield to the plants or flammable material in the room. The cool tube is relatively enclosed and doesn't have that problem, but the bulb area gets much hotter without active airflow. I will get a replacement for the wing at some point, but this will do for now.

After buying seed, I realized that I had saved some seeds for a while. Many years, in fact. Some of these seeds must be 10 years old. But, they were kept dark in an airtight jar and felt viable between the fingers. So now they are between two folded paper towels, soaked with nutrient solution. I can only guess they are some outdoor sativa strain. If I get one good female out of it, it will be interesting to add to my collection.

For about a year now, I have focused my efforts around CFL bulbs. Now I have some observations to share.
First, I want to simply confirm what everyone has told you about mercury vapor bulbs, or standard fluorescents. I've experimented with many sizes of CFLs ( 14w-95w ) and several tube fluorescents ( 32-40w standard tubes, T8 ). I have not tried the T5 HO tubes, but I would expect similar results. Their efficiency is acceptable, but not great. Of course they produce the same amount of heat per watt, this is a misconception that I've heard before; that they put off less heat. This is true in a way, since the wattage is typically lower than HPS and the heat is spread over a larger area, but when figuring on cooling costs, always go by wattage above all else. The total amount of heat in my CFL grow box is quite large at 500 watts. Since the efficiency is lower, you get about half the light as an HPS for the same amount of heat. Small, enclosed spaces are not easy to use HPS logistically, due to the space between the source and plant, and the risk of fire. The light from CFLs is also more diffuse, light comes in at many angles, not a point source. Almost no bending of the stem towards the light. Canopy penetration of this light is not very good without more space. Lower leaves will tend to die as the plant ages in flowering, much faster than you would otherwise see. Veg of all stages works well under CFLs, but is slower growing than HPS, of course. CFLs produce a wide spectrum and even "red" bulbs have a bit of blue in them. HPS is very monochromatic due to the sodium d-line(s), and closely matches the "red" light that plants need. Of course "plant" HPS bulbs have better phosphors. They still do not put out the "white" light that CFLs do. I would like to note here that the spectrum that the plants absorb is not "white" and much of the visible spectrum is wasted. This is one reason why LED lighting is so efficient at growing plants, another topic.
Flowering with fluorescents is another matter. My experience is that even with a large number of these bulbs together, the spectrum or the intensity is not sufficient for ideal flowering. The buds are very loose and light by comparison, and the nodes are too far apart. The quality of the product does not seem to suffer, but the quantity for your invested time is much smaller.
To sum up my opinion on this : Use CFLs for seedlings and clones up all through veg if needed. CFLs for flowering works, but the quantity is lower than you would expect.

Shortly after I received my first plant, I realized that I would need a controlled place to raise clones or seeds. I built a box out of existing plywood, 2x4s and screws, and trip to the store. The most inexpensive light fixtures I could find, and a four-pack of 23w CFLs and beer. I realized soon enough that in a cold environment - near 0 C, you should run all four lights, but at room temperature, you could only run one. The box was sealed with caulk. Pipes attached at the bottom for inflow air. These were made with a few pvc parts, in an angled way, to allow airflow, but not light. The top was designed with two sheets of plywood, spaced 1" apart. Holes on the front, inside, and a hole on the rear, outside, makes a light-tight airflow chamber. Additionally, I used black spraypaint for the inner surfaces of the airways.
The seedlings are now out of sight and somewhat out of mind, but I decided to document them at this stage, 7 days after soaking. Note the humidity dome and tray for standing water ( nutes ). Grodan plugs. Many WR and the lone fem Sour Cream have sprouted and are looking good.

hey man those look like their stretching quite a bit I'd definitely lower those lights as close as possible without burning the plants or you'll run into issues down the line when they start to pack on weight the main stem might not be able to handle it

herBxLife said:

hey man those look like their stretching quite a bit I'd definitely lower those lights as close as possible without burning the plants or you'll run into issues down the line when they start to pack on weight the main stem might not be able to handle it

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I completely agree, this used to happen to me with seeds, the same problem, back when I was using fl tubes. Never kept them close enough to the top of the plants. I may have to transfer these to the second box sooner rather than later. It has much more intense and even light distribution, but still CFLs. I would be in good shape if I could light all four bulbs in the small box, but it's just too much heat, even with a fan attached, at room temperature.. the garage is another possibility depending on the outside temperature, but i may have to just expend the power to fire up the big box with it's ac unit. This is my first attempt at growing seeds in this box, it's always been clones, so I'm unsure of the results. I hate to use that much electricity with the big box, I will give it some thought.

Thinking about the bagseed that I've started to germinate. I will probably need to get a couple into medium today. Roots were already showing this morning. These plants won't get the best care I can provide, meaning I won't purchase anything extra for them until I have an idea of what I'm growing. My best guess on their origin is some outdoor sativa strain. ( likely southern us or mexico ) I expect to be able to re-use some rockwool from a previous grow to get these plants going. As with my other seeds, my primary objective is to create good mother plants to clone with, so flowering these plants will be secondary.
Only the sole feminized seed that sprouted ( sour cream ) will be grown to flower.
I think I will reuse 4x4 rockwool blocks and place a seedling in each top corner. This will limit the root space even when the males are removed. As long as it has enough substrate I should be able to grow these to a good cloning size.
Out of 20 or more seeds of different sizes and unknown origins, I have four ready to move now. My inexperience at growing seeds probably leads me to believe in a high humidity for seedlings (like clones) , although I can see no obvious reason for this to be the case. Assuming that I will get more seeds to grow ( to experiment with ), I think I will try to grow these four seeds in the room environment, without anything special. Viva Sativa.

So, I took 8 of the sprouting (bag)seeds and put them in rockwool. Placed one seed in each corner of the rockwool, and closed the top on four, and plugged with wet paper towel on the second four. These are sitting in about 1" of water ~ pH 6.
In the other case, I removed the seedlings from the humidity dome and placed them in 3"x3" rockwool. In a place where there is some airflow, hopefully to strengthen them. I will just have to watch the moisture carefully. The other, larger plants are some of my Sensi Star clones.

I need to make a decision soon about flowering. I think I'm ready to start tomorrow, but I'm unsure about the size and bulk of the plants and if it will be an efficient harvest. Any opinion is welcome. Should I go or wait ? Will the plants be too big or too small to flower well under 2 x 600 w HPS ?

In preparation for flowering, i've moved my small plants to the large box. Attached are some internal pictures showing the reflective walls, the cfl bulbs ( only the blue are lit ). The hole in the roof for the ac unit, and the sensi star clones on the right, and seedlings on the left. The ac unit keeps a constant internal temperature of 80 degrees, but heats up the room. It's a sort of home made refrigerator I'm running about 180 watts of light in there atm, and in addition, the ac fan is constantly moving the plants.

One more note on the bagseed : I have what looks to be 5 sprouts :

Starting my first 12 hour dark period today. I will set up the timers tonight as soon as I can open the door.

just skimmed through. Ill be back to read the rest nice set up!

lonleysmoka said:

just skimmed through. Ill be back to read the rest nice set up!

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Thanks. Oh I probably should have mentioned earlier that I'm cool with posts in my journal, so feel free to comment.

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Just checking on the large plants, and thought I would document a little of veg/pre-flower.

You can see the "true" color of the leaves in the first pic near the bottom where the flash lit up the leaves. Nice dark green.
Also playing around with photoshop on the second pic. It was also photographed in sodium light too, but some auto corrects in PS and it looks much better.
A few lower and older leaves are showing the signs of nute burn, and the upper leaves are a little too pale. I've been flushing with water for three days and it's showing. Back to nutes today.

I currently have the WR, Sativa, and SS in the large grow box. The pictures are as follows :
1) White Russian, 7 survived my mistreatment. And the one in front is the Sour Cream ( my only feminized )
2) Same as above, top view
3) Large blocks with bagseed (sativa), 6 have come up so far.
4) Sensi Star clones (12)
5) Close up of the lighting system .. 4x45 W Blue + 4x90w Red, only the blue are lit now.
6) View from the door.

Temperature is constant 80 degrees and low humidity with combination of lighting and AC. Giving full nutes daily to keep moisture and N high.

The first two pictures are of bugs that seem to love my plants. I haven't treated for them, since they seem to do no harm. I've had them around the whole grow cycle a few times, but I don't know what they are.
The last two were just for fun playing with the microscope, looking at leaves, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. 20x, 400x