First Grow. Diy Led, No Till Organic Garden. Come Say Hello!

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Eschaton

Eschaton

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Hey THC Farmer. I'm a first time grower, although I'm no stranger to plants. I've been an avid user of cannabis for over 15 years and I'm continually amazed even today by it's remarkable healing properties. That being said I know I'm preaching to the choir here so I won't make this a rant about the wonders of Cannabis. The point is, after 15 years I finally decided to cultivate my own medicine and being that I'm a medical marijuana patient in a state that allows my to grow my own, it dawned on me that I would be a fool not to.

There's a lot of Cannabis here in California and you only have to drive a few blocks just about anywhere to stumble upon a dispensary. This however doesn't mean that there's a lot of good cannabis here, and it's quite difficult sometimes to find reasonably priced, soil grown organic weed that doesn't suck or that isn't hundreds of miles away. I was also ready for a new hobby and this seemed like one that I could really get my teeth stuck into. I certainly wasn't wrong about that.

I wanted some diversity in my harvest so I went with 3 strains. Dr. Who ( A subcool strain), hence why I've named my tent 'The Tardis'. Gorilla Glue #4, a cut I obtained from Midnight Farms in C.A and Sour Tangie by Crockett Family Farms which was also a cut from Midnight Farms. The soil for this run was a base of Bu's Malibu Compost Potting Soil. I added some bio char and a little bit more areation to the mix, top dressing with EWC and Build a Soil's top dress kit. My next run (which I am preparing for now will be a mix made from scratch but more on that later. I have to say I was pretty happy with Bu's potting soil. Anyway, enough talking. Here's my setup and some pictures of my progress so far.

First things first, the tent:
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello

Okay, I've got a home, now some light:
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 2

I decided to go with COB Led's as I wanted to keep heat and running costs to a minimum. I also like to build stuff, so any excuse really. I laid out some tape to mark my grow area so that I could figure out the best light distribution.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 3

Initial wiring complete.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 4

Lenses on and 'Let there be light'!
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 5

GG#4 in her first container
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 6

The happy family.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 7

A couple weeks later
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 8

And 2 weeks later. (Had an accident with the Sour Tangie on the left. That snapping sound still ringing in my ears. Ahh well, it's a weed after all, moving on!
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 9

I got bored so I built a scog screen. These things can be bought on Amazon for $100 or they can be made in less than 30 minutes for just over $10. No brainer there.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 10

Scrog is in.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 11

I got bored again (maybe I need a love life) so I built a compost tea brewer. This is an airlift vortex brewer and it's working really well.
Clones

I took some clones right before the flip. Rooted with pure Aloe and coconut water.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 13

They rooted well in about 10 days.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 14

Ohh ohhhh. I found a male. One of the Dr. Who's to be precise. He's been banished from the tent and will be shipped off to a friends place for pollen collection. Yes I'm going to try pollination on my first time, yes I realize this is risky, but who doesn't want to cross Dr. Who with Gorilla Glue and create Dr. Zaius.. Yes that's right, you heard it here first folks. ;)
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 15

I get bored easily. I'm upgrading the light. Doubling it's power and making it look way slicker.
First grow diy led no till organic garden come say hello 16

So now it's 8 CXB 3590's @3500K, each pushing 50W of juice.
Cobpanel1

All wired up and looking pretty slick. I've hooked the drivers up to a junction box outside the tent to eliminate heat. Those meanwells can get pretty hot.
Cobpanel3

I know... I'm being indulgent but I'm proud of my baby.
Day 10 flowerjpg

Day 10 of flower. The girls are loving their 4 new Cobs and the extra space created by the removal of the male has given me space to stretch out GG#4 in the back right corner. So far so good. Feeding with compost tea once a week with occasional feedings of Captain Neptune's Fish Fertilizer, Insect Frass, Sea Bird Guano (all very small amounts). They also got a top dress before flip, and the top dress mix is from Build a Soil. It has stuff like, Neem, Comfrey, Bio Char, EWC, etc, it looks and smells great.
Day 12 gorila gluejpg

Gorilla Glue Day 12
 
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Eschaton

Eschaton

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Day 19 gg

Day 19
GG

Day 26. Growth exploded after I gave them some Sprouted Tea
Morningglory

My Morning Glory (just for fun). ;) She greets me every morning with a beautiful flower.
Gg week 4

Week 4.
Gorillaglueweek5

Week 5. Things are starting to get pretty frosty
Drwhobudporn

Dr Who at week 5. I forgot to adjust the white balance so the colors are off, but you get the idea.
View attachment 597339
Week 7

Gorilla Glue is fading pretty hard. I was worried I may have some N lockout going on but with harvest only a week or two around the corner I expect this is pretty normal. Anyone growing GG#4 want to chime in here?

This is where I'm at right now. About to mix up a new batch of soil, this time I'm doing it properly, and only a couple weeks away from my first ever harvest of cannabis. I'm really excited! :)
 
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Eschaton

Eschaton

6
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Thanks for warm welcome and kind words everyone! I'm having a blast Seamaiden :) It's hard to tame your ambitions in this hobby though. I haven't even chopped my first plants down yet and already I'm trying to figure out a way to upgrade the tent to a 4x4... What have I gotten myself into?
 
str8smokn

str8smokn

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313
What's in the wash mix? And why the wash? Did you spray or something?
Sorry for the ?
Great first run ! And loving the lights too.
STR8
 
Eschaton

Eschaton

6
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Thanks!

The washing procedure is Doc Bud's over at 420mag. First bucket was distilled water with half a cup of baking soda (aluminum free) and half a cup of lemon juice (from an organic lemon), the other two buckets are for rinsing after the first and they just contained distilled water.

I didn't spray anything on the plants except the occasional compost tea and everything was completely organic. I chose to wash because I personally think it's a good idea and I want to have the cleanest medication that I can. I wash my fruit and veg that I buy at the store even if it's organic. From what I've read it doesn't reduce flavor or potency and it goes a long way towards improving the end product. I have a few colas that I didn't wash in order to compare smoothness and drying time etc. I will definitely make a post about the comparison when everything is dried and cured.
 
str8smokn

str8smokn

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313
Sounds interesting.. I wash my fruit/ veg's also ,but that's cause I do not know what's been used on it.
I would be interested in your test results... Keep killing it,cause they look great.
STR8
 
Evil Monkey

Evil Monkey

Premium Member
Supporter
420
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Very nice. Question on the cobs. I see u used lenses and others use reflectors some use nothing. Why? I also want to start my first grow and am a novice so pardon the dumb question.
 
RockymtnErik

RockymtnErik

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Very nice. Question on the cobs. I see u used lenses and others use reflectors some use nothing. Why? I also want to start my first grow and am a novice so pardon the dumb question.
The thread is kinda old but maybe they will answer.
I'm a new grower using LED but the answer to your question is being debated in other threads... there are different chip sizes layouts drivers and ways to even the light out. If you are going to build a DIY you have allot of research to go.
If you wanting to start growing with little setup i would research products and ask questions about specific products for a space that you have planned out.
 
Hpo777

Hpo777

74
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Hey I know this is an old post but thought I'd toss a helpful hint! When growing fully and truly organic there's no need to wash at all, I'm fact you'd be doing yourself a misfortune! Proper soil with all those good microbes is a great thing to ingest! Remember just as bacteria is good for your soil it's good for your gut too! Think kombucha! If not fully organic or you buy veggies from the store...yes wash it! Haha but the AMA States we should consume about 3lbs of soil per year! Yea the American medical association even says So! Best of luck and I'm LOVING the lights!
 
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