My First Grow...nft With Leds

[Renseller]

Greetings farmers!

After getting my hands dirty helping and learning from other friends with their gardens, I finally have my own set up thanks to my lovely SO (we'll call him G on here). :p

We decided to start taking clones from our White Berry (White Widow x Blueberry) moms for the first run.

We placed them in rock wool blocks soaked in pH adjusted water (around 6.0), and sprayed them daily with water that contained 400 ppm (.8 EC) of Dyna-Grow Bloom and small amounts of Aptus Fasilitor and Aptus Start Boost (1mL per gallon of each).

They were then put under two T5 CFL 6400k lights with a single seedling heat mat (shared and rotated by both trays) for about 2 weeks.

Both Trays

Left side

Right side

Week 1:

After they established their roots, we placed them into G's homemade NFT system to begin flowering!

We put them on a 20 seconds on and 20 minutes off feeding schedule, using Jacks and Cal Nit at 800 ppm (.96/.64 EC, or 1.6 EC total).

Two 480 watt LED light fixtures, small heater, and fan.

They grew out of their cloner trays a bit, so their tops got burned being too close to the light unfortunately. Luckily they did recover.

Week 2:

Getting bigger! We've been spritzing them with fulvic acid 2-3 times a day and it has definitely made them perk up.

We also changed out the tote and replaced the pump since we noticed wetting was a bit inconsistent on each plant. Now that the pump is a bit stronger everything is being fed evenly, yay!

That's it so far!

Although I do live with a grower, I would love to receive feedback from the THCFarmer community since there is so much to learn! I am open to any advice, tips or tricks you may like to share. :D

I look forward to the coming weeks and to harvesting my ladies! I'll be back to update soon.


Thanks for reading and happy growing! :)
Renseller

 

[Harp]

Greetings farmers!

After getting my hands dirty helping and learning from other friends with their gardens, I finally have my own set up thanks to my lovely SO (we'll call him G on here). :p

We decided to start taking clones from our White Berry (White Widow x Blueberry) moms for the first run.

We placed them in rock wool blocks soaked in pH adjusted water (around 6.0), and sprayed them daily with water that contained 400 ppm (.8 EC) of Dyna-Grow Bloom and small amounts of Aptus Fasilitor and Aptus Start Boost (1mL per gallon of each).

They were then put under two T5 CFL 6400k lights with a single seedling heat mat (shared and rotated by both trays) for about 2 weeks.

Both Trays
View attachment 475719

Left side
View attachment 475720

Right side
View attachment 475721

Week 1:

After they established their roots, we placed them into G's homemade NFT system to begin flowering!

We put them on a 20 seconds on and 20 minutes off feeding schedule, using Jacks and Cal Nit at 800 ppm (.96/.64 EC, or 1.6 EC total).

Two 480 watt LED light fixtures, small heater, and fan.
View attachment 475747

They grew out of their cloner trays a bit, so their tops got burned being too close to the light unfortunately. Luckily they did recover.
View attachment 475750

Week 2:

Getting bigger! We've been spritzing them with fulvic acid 2-3 times a day and it has definitely made them perk up.

We also changed out the tote and replaced the pump since we noticed wetting was a bit inconsistent on each plant. Now that the pump is a bit stronger everything is being fed evenly, yay!
View attachment 475752
View attachment 475768

View attachment 475776
View attachment 475777 View attachment 475773

View attachment 475775

That's it so far!

Although I do live with a grower, I would love to receive feedback from the THCFarmer community since there is so much to learn! I am open to any advice, tips or tricks you may like to share. :D

I look forward to the coming weeks and to harvesting my ladies! I'll be back to update soon.


Thanks for reading and happy growing! :)
Renseller

Wow! Props to "G" . You're off to a great start. I'm pulling up a chair on this one! Welcome to the farm @Renseller.
Positive vibes & karma.

 

[Renseller]

Wow! Props to "G" . You're off to a great start. I'm pulling up a chair on this one! Welcome to the farm @Renseller.
Positive vibes & karma.

Much appreciated Harp! I feel very welcomed.
I am quite excited to see how things turn out myself. Only time will tell!

 

[Renseller]

Hello again cannabis community!

Here's what my garden is looking like at week 3:

Still spraying fulvic acid 2 times a day to keep them perky.

G thinks I should keep them shorter and bushier (like below) next run, but perhaps they should be a little taller? What do you guys think?

This little guy showed up just a few days before. I'll consider him a good luck charm :)

Now that I've come this far, I have a decision to make that maybe some experienced growers could help me with.

I have products available to me that I could start adding, such as Terpinator, to improve the quality of my flowers.
Although I do want to harvest these ladies at their fullest and absolute dankest potential, this is my first personal garden, so I think I should get a feel for how the plants behave to the simple nutrient profile I have been providing them before mixing and toying with other products.
Does anyone agree with this philosophy? Or are there hardcore fans of Terpinator that think it's worth the uncertainty? Are there any other products or simple add-ins that you guys suggest? I would love to hear your input!

Cheers,
Ren

 

[Renseller]

A wee bit late on this update, but it is now the end of week 4! Gonna spray a few of them with different products to do a small density/trich development experiment. Has anyone out there used Purple Maxx, Crystal Burst, or Snow Storm Ultra? I know you guys have. I've done some research, but if anyone has opinions about these supplements my ears are open : )

Here comes the sugar! :p

They are staying a nice green, although I did notice some "clawing" action happening on the smaller inner leaves where the buds are (the third pic definitely gives it away). I know this to be an excess of nitrogen, but it could be something else. I'll be cutting back to see if that's the case.

Keep on growing on, friends! Until next time.
Ren

 

[north knect]

A wee bit late on this update, but it is now the end of week 4! Gonna spray a few of them with different products to do a small density/trich development experiment. Has anyone out there used Purple Maxx, Crystal Burst, or Snow Storm Ultra? I know you guys have. I've done some research, but if anyone has opinions about these supplements my ears are open : )

View attachment 481987
Here comes the sugar! :p
View attachment 481988
View attachment 481989
View attachment 481990

They are staying a nice green, although I did notice some "clawing" action happening on the smaller inner leaves where the buds are (the third pic definitely gives it away). I know this to be an excess of nitrogen, but it could be something else. I'll be cutting back to see if that's the case.

Keep on growing on, friends! Until next time.
Ren

Very nice set up girl!! Lucky u to have a mentor like ur G lol..well things are lookin good from my seat that's without question..keep on keepin on! :D

 

[rubthe nub]

looks good so far
only thing that jumped out at me was your res
it looks like you have only 5 gallon res
fwiw I'm thinking that's probably a bit small

 

[Azhden]

Sorry if I missed it, but who's "White Berry" did you get? Been wanting to get a Widow x Blueberry in my genetic stable for years now :), it seems no one ever grew it when I was big on the 'forums lost but not forgotten' :p.

 

[Renseller]

Very nice set up girl!! Lucky u to have a mentor like ur G lol..well things are lookin good from my seat that's without question..keep on keepin on! :D

Oh I am extremely fortunate to say the least ;)
Thanks for the kind words mate!

 

[Renseller]

looks good so far
only thing that jumped out at me was your res
it looks like you have only 5 gallon res
fwiw I'm thinking that's probably a bit small

I had a large tote before but G helped me switch it out for the bucket. I thought it was a bit small too but it fits nicer under the beams. I just top it off every day and it works well. If I had to leave for a period of time I'd need the bigger tote to keep the ladies happy and fed, fer sure.

 

[Renseller]

Sorry if I missed it, but who's "White Berry" did you get? Been wanting to get a Widow x Blueberry in my genetic stable for years now :), it seems no one ever grew it when I was big on the 'forums lost but not forgotten' :p.

No worries! G got the beans from Paradise Seeds, these are the clones from the two moms that came of them.
It is such a lovely strain...really pleasant taste and the smell is incredible! You definitely have to try a run of it at least once, it's a great yielder too : )

 

[rubthe nub]

I had a large tote before but G helped me switch it out for the bucket. I thought it was a bit small too but it fits nicer under the beams. I just top it off every day and it works well. If I had to leave for a period of time I'd need the bigger tote to keep the ladies happy and fed, fer sure.

The top off wasn't what I was referring to, although I'm sure it does indeed need topping daily.
The bigger problem might be maintaining water temps, pH and nutrients at good levels.
They should really be starting to eat up the nutrients about now. The more stable the levels the better. IMO.

Your grow looks good so far. Nice kinda hi-tech deal, led's and nft together.
I'd just hate to see you run into res problems.
Good luck

 

[motherlode]

welcome farmer - impressive first grow - awesome looking plants - good attention to detail

as far as the pgr (purp maxx/snowstorm etc) supplements they will increase yield and but decrease quality and may be harmful to your health - terpinator is a product designed to put some shine and flavor back into commercially grown schwag that you lose from using those types of boosters and phos load products

being as this is your first run you should keep it simple - you are already using quality stuff like fulvic and aptus fassilitor

fwiw the aptus boosters kick ass (massboost/bloomboost/finaleboost)

are you still using the fassilitor?

 

[Orcaman]

I like your setup, LED lighting is a smart way to go with Hydro to maintain a proper temp. They look great!

 

[Canappa]

Welcome to the Farm! Great to another NFT Grow out there, Nice set up you have I am also be doing NFT gutters since the 90's This is my latest set up I built.

 

[Renseller]

The top off wasn't what I was referring to, although I'm sure it does indeed need topping daily.
The bigger problem might be maintaining water temps, pH and nutrients at good levels.
They should really be starting to eat up the nutrients about now. The more stable the levels the better. IMO.

So far I've been checking at least once a day to maintain the nutes, pH, temp, etc. So far it has been very stable, no real problems beside some mild slime build up which I've treated with hydrogen peroxide on a weekly basis. Perhaps down the line it may be problematic. But as of right now, I'd say so far so good.
Thanks for the tip though! I hope to reflect on you and others' advice thoughtfully while I continue on this journey.

Kind regards rub

as far as the pgr (purp maxx/snowstorm etc) supplements they will increase yield and but decrease quality and may be harmful to your health - terpinator is a product designed to put some shine and flavor back into commercially grown schwag that you lose from using those types of boosters and phos load products

being as this is your first run you should keep it simple - you are already using quality stuff like fulvic and aptus fassilitor

I agree, I didn't really want to start experimenting with boosters until I understood the basic needs of the plant. I did end up deciding to do a small experiment with light doses of Crystal Burst, Purple Maxx and Snow Storm Ultra on only about 6 plants, some only receiving one product while others were paired. I just figured why not...maybe it would help the smaller ladies mature further, or it wouldn't make a difference at all.

I've read and heard that Aptus products are great. Although I only used the fasilitor while they were clones, I would be interested in testing some of their other boosters as well.
Thanks for the pointers!

I like your setup, LED lighting is a smart way to go with Hydro to maintain a proper temp. They look great!

Much appreciated!

 

[Renseller]

Welcome to the Farm! Great to another NFT Grow out there, Nice set up you have I am also be doing NFT gutters since the 90's This is my latest set up I built.
View attachment 482435

I have seen your photos here on the forums. I admire your setups as well! Real nice work. Super retro : )

 

[Renseller]

Back again for another update!

It appears I made an error on the last post. Those photos were during week 5, not week 4. Oops! Sorry all.

Meanwhile, this is week 6. After some discussion with G, I decided to change the ratio of the nutrients to allow more potassium and phosphorous to be taken up and much less nitrogen.
I was running around 900 ppm (1.8 EC) of Jack's Professional, but am now trying to keep it between 750 ppm and 850 ppm at most. They probably don't need much more than that.

A couple of the ladies have some leafy-ness happening right at their tops. Anyone know what this is caused by...?

Also still curious about their leaves curling. They don't appear to have nitrogen toxicity, so could this be because of the temperature? It is on the colder side at night in there...around 59 F.

See y'all next week!
Much Peace and Love

 

[Renseller]

Here we are at week 7, friends!

The ladies haven't bulked up as much as expected yet (I'm assuming it's from the lower temperatures, averaging at about 60 F low, 69 F high) but their trichomes are definitely accumulating more and more each day. From the images below it might appear I'll have better trim than bud...they are super leafy!

I also noticed some burning happening on the bigger girls...seems like they didn't appreciate the ratio change. :oops:
I have dialed it back to the original 60/40 ratio, as opposed to the 75/25 that I switched to two weeks ago. I am now keeping the ppm at a steady 800 (or 1.6 EC).

For experimental purposes I am also doing a side by side comparison of a few Humboldt County products (Purple Maxx, Crystal Burst, Snow Storm Ultra) that I've been foliar feeding on seven select plants. At this time there does not seem to be a difference in trichome or flower development, smell, color, etc. but if there are significant results from these products by harvest time I will make sure to post.
If anyone has experience with these supplements or have tips for better application please don't hesitate to jump in!

Happy growing to you all! See you next time. :)

 

[Directed.Light]

Awesome! Thanks for the journal