LED Grow Light Forum

Hello,

I am a new participant in CLW's SS400 feedback program. I will attempt to post my notes (full of confusing tenses) from the past week below. I hope I am not breaking a taboo with this super long post, I have attempted to detail anything that seemed important.

Experience: Absolutely none, I have never grown any living thing (intentionally anyway) in my entire life. I have, however, done (and continue to do) a considerable amount of research. I will not go into the boring details of every choice, but I did have to make some cost cutting sacrifices that I will remedy in the near future (my entire grow cabinet). My gear for this grow;
Primary lighting – SolarStorm 400
Germination lighting (housed separate from SS400) – 24watt, H.O. T5 Hydrogrow system
Cabinet – 4’ x 2’ x 6’ shoddily built by myself
Ventilation – 2 x 6” circulating fans and 1 x 8” fan blowing down and across SS400
Grow/clone media – Rockwool cubes
Nutrients – Organic fertilizers, complete with ACT brewer (using MicrobeMan’s recipe’s)
Soil – I used LC’s mix #2:
6 parts Fox Farm Ocean Forest
2 parts perlite
2 parts earthworm castings
Powdered dolomite lime @ 1 cup per cubic foot.
With,
Bongaloid’s Guano Mix:
1/3C hi N Guano Mexican Bat Guano or Peruvian Seabird Guano (PSG)
1/2C hi P Guano (Jamaican or Indonesian Bat Guano)
1TBS Kelp Meal
1TBS Jersey Greensand


Seeds – 10 Nirvana AK-48 (chosen because it was recommended for noob growers and is reportedly unkillable), 1 x feminized White Rhino, 1 x THC Bomb, (both chosen completely at random from an assortment of strains TSSC reported as having similar growing patterns), 1 x Blimburn Critical Automatic (free seed), 1 x Blimburn Tijuana (free seed). I also have some tarragon, purple and green basil, mixed lettuces, and something that came in a mixed bag of herb seeds - dill/savory/marjoram. I figured since I would be vegetating the seedlings for so long, that I might as well gain some experience (and pesto) by growing something that will be done by the time the plants are ready to be flipped to 12/12.

My growing “day” is 12:01am to 6:00pm

So far…..

I received my SS400 the same day I received my seeds from TSSC. A 36-count tray of the herb seeds was already germinating under the T5 from a week earlier. I soaked the MJ seeds (minus one crushed AK-48) in lukewarm water as described by nearly everyone. After 24 hours the only seed that had really cracked open was the THC Bomb. I bypassed the wet paper towel in favor of going directly into Rockwool cubes (pre-treated in tap water that sat open for 3 days). The seeds were placed - gently and with sterile tweezers - pointy side up per the majority recommendation.
I was now running a tray of previously sprouted herbs side by side with the tray of MJ seeds. I was worried about the light being too much for the seeds, so I topped with a thin layer of perlite because I couldn’t find a consensus about exposing the seeds to light that early in their growth. Within 2 days, I had read enough about Rockwool cubes killing seeds because of over saturation with water (cemented into their tombs by perlite no less), that I finally went to discover the tragedy of what I assumed would be a baker’s dozen corpses that were my seeds. This was not the case; in fact, the THC Bomb had popped out of the perlite by about ¼ of an inch. This would not be the first or last time that week that I would be confident I had slaughtered my plants in their infancy.
Day 4 - It became clear that two of the AK-48 seeds were not even going to germinate. I split the Rockwool cubes to see that the seeds never sprouted. Another of the AK-48s looks weak, but the remaining six are looking healthy. The THC Bomb continues to be the most impressive specimen in the box. The other seeds look fine, but in comparison to the THC Bomb they look smallish.
Day 5 - All of the seeds except for the weak AK-48 are showing first true leaves. I am once again stumped by conflicting advice in regards to transplanting at this point. Some say transplant at first true leaves, others 2 weeks into germination, and another group says once the medium is shot through with roots. Ultimately, I decided to transplant my four strongest AK-48s and the THC Bomb along with an assortment of edible herbs into 18oz Solo cups packed with the soil mix and watered heavily (not pre-watered 2 days in advance per recommendations though). I did this transplanting about 30 minutes after lights out. The transplants were simultaneously moved out of the germination dome and into the cabinet with the SS400, which I hung 21 inches (almost completely arbitrary choice) above the top of the seedlings. Still under the germination dome are 3 AK-48s, 1 White Rhino, 1 Critical Automatic, 1 Tijuana and some mixed lettuces. As much as I loathed gambling on the lives of my strongest plants, they clearly had the best chances of surviving if it was even possible.
Day 6 - The SS400 finally gets to see action. I stayed up for a couple of hours adjusting temperature and humidity until I managed to get to 25 ˚C and 25% humidity. I have the most ghetto set-up that I am almost embarrassed to post pictures (though I will after I devise some way of uploading pictures from somewhere away from my home). After the first 18-hour shift under the SS400, nothing really looks different. With the exception of the dill (which has all of a sudden decided to get lively), none of the plants look any better or worse. I watered the seedlings under the dome with the first of the finished ACT (just EWC and Blackstrap). By the end of the day, the weak AK-48 has surged in height, though it is much ganglier than its siblings are. It has also sprouted its first true leaves, though they look folded-up and not spread out. The lettuces also show some significant growth, but the other MJ seedlings look unchanged.
Day 7 – I dropped the height of the SS400 to 17 inches above the plants. The tiny savory is starting to show first sets of leaves, while many of the MJ seeds are looking to be developing a secondary set of leaves. The basils are looking strong, but the tips of the wispy dill leaves are turning brown. The pH pen I ordered from China 3 weeks ago finally arrived, turns out my tap water (after 2+ days of decanting, ACT brewer brings it down to 7.8) is pH 8.5 and the soil pH meter shows that my soil is over pH 9. I am not going to freak out because many of my plants look healthy which would seem to back up the claim that growing organically allows a grower to ignore pH levels. I cannot help but to think that I might not be getting the maximum potential out of the plants though. I am not particularly pleased with the plants under the dome, even though they are the weakest of the seedlings. One of the AKs cotyledon leaves are turning brown while the first true leaves remain a vibrant green. I cannot find any reference to this situation. The lettuces look to be fading and the one tomato seed looks modestly healthy. I will most likely transplant and move them tomorrow. On a side note, now that I know that I germinated (or failed to germinate) many of these seeds in Rockwool soaked in pH 8.5; I will definitely buy RO water to presoak the Rockwool next time. This could also explain why the herb seeds started in the Jiffy peat pellets had a nearly 100% germination rate vs the Rockwool, which had ~0% germination rate with my eggplant and tomato seeds. Live and learn I suppose.
Day 8 – The first plants that went under the LED are looking noticeably stronger today; many of them have well developed second true leaves rising. The THCB is still the clear growth champion, though there are a couple of AKs that are not ready to give up the race. About half of my basils are looking very good and the tarragon is starting to show some growth for the first time in days. The savory is hanging in there; not looking obviously ill, but showing no real growth progress. Honestly, I know next to nothing about the personalized care required by any of the individual strains. I assume I will be able to "dial-it-in" with experience. I made the decision to move all of the plants in the dome under the LED. The weakest of them may be lost, but the strength of the pioneer group gives me confidence.

Welcome to the forums!

That seems like a lot of plants for a light that will only cover about a 3'x2' area, in flower, well...

The target pH for cannabis is 6.5 so you should freak out a little.

Don't forget pictures...


SME

Even as I typed the line about not freaking out about the pH, I was in fact, freaking out about the pH. My Chinese pH pen is already broken and my Rapitest soil pH meter was also a waste of money. My EC meter works well though, if only I had a use for it. Off to the gardening store I went to search for solutions to these problems. I came away with pH paper and a bottle of Age Old Organics pH adjust down. I would also like to state for the record that although I would much prefer to keep the whole thing organic, if my choices are limited to using a chemical or throwing away my plants, I will quickly overcome my reluctance to use non-organic solutions. With that being said though, I am more than willing to sacrifice yield and time in favor of quality.
I had a bucket of water aerating already so I added 1 mL at a time until I reached 5 pH. Briefly off topic, I have read everywhere that aerating water raises the pH, yet according to both my broken pH pen and the litmus paper, aeration is lowering the pH of my tap water (I will check this several more times). I drenched all of the plants with the 5 pH water, and the run-off was still reading 8-ish. Double checking the organic forums on another site, I once again read that balancing pH in an organic grow is a mistake, but I did it anyway. What is the best method of bringing the pH down? I am guessing watering with low pH water until transplanting to a larger container is my only choice. Is 5 pH too low? Should I be attempting this in stages? How often should I be watering them with the 5 pH water? Does something need to be added or subtracted from my soil mix? Could the whole issue become moot by just using pH down, peat/kelp tea or distilled water? How could any of these plants survive germinating in Rockwool cubes soaked in 8.5 pH water and not look too terrible really?
Many of the plants in my cabinet, which are currently in Solo cups, are not looking so hot right now. The lettuces, which had a near 100% germination rate with the very high pH rockwool cubes, have dropped off after being under the LED. The basil is the only other plant that looks to be toughing it out, they all started out in Jiffy peat pellets though. I placed all of the MJ seedlings on a plastic rack for better drainage if they have to be drenched often. This also brought the plants 1 inch closer to the LED, for a distance of 16 inches away. I was waiting for the plants to become slightly more stout before winding down to 12 inches away. Am I being overly cautious?

I will get some pictures up soon.

Seedlings have all the nutrients they need for at least a few days but 8.5 is very high:



"Organic" is WAY overhyped, imho. Whoever told you not to adjust pH in organic grows is wrong, there are organic ways to adjust it:
How can I raise or lower the pH of my soil mix?

CLW suggest keeping their lights 18-24 inches above the canopy.


Hope that helps...

I have taken a few pictures with my phone that are not very good, but might give you some idea about the state of the plants. I will have to find a better camera. The weakest plant is the one I mentioned as having the cotyledon leaves that turned brown, which I plucked off assuming that the whole plant was going to die anyway. It is obviously not dead, and what you can't see is that it is growing a secondary set of true leaves. I took these seeds out of the mailbox Thursday the 23rd. I will add peat moss to the soil mix per the link in your reply, in the meantime will multiple waterings with pH 5 going to make a difference? How often can I drench the plants with the lower pH water before they start becoming annoyed?

BobDobolina wrote: I will add peat moss to the soil mix per the link in your reply, in the meantime will multiple waterings with pH 5 going to make a difference? How often can I drench the plants with the lower pH water before they start becoming annoyed?

Eventually watering with acidic water will lower the pH of the soil mix but if you water too much you risk starving the roots of the needed oxygen too. How often depends on the soil drainage so you'll have to be the judge there. You could transplant with a properly pH'd mix and then you won't have to worry about watering with pH 5 water, they are fragile still so be gentle. If they die, you can plant more seeds, they're not that old.

What is the ideal humidity that I should be striving for, I feel mine is low at ~25%. Also, any recommendations on solid, expandable, well designed grow tents?

Thanks,

On the tent just make sure it is made in the good ol' USA, have heard some horror stories about those coming from China.

I would shoot for 40 to 60% humidity and temps in the 68 to 80 degrees, they can be higher but you are asking for disease problems at higher temps.

Gool luck on your grow,

GR

60% in veg and early flower is where I'd shoot for, dropping down as flowers start to form and down to 40% or less for the last 2-3 weeks.

The only expandable tents (that I know of) are gorilla tents and they're only expandable vertically. I haven't done much tent research lately though...

Since the last post I have added a humidifier to the cabinet. The RH is now ~55%, up from ~20% the plants had up to yesterday. I transplanted the weakest of the seedlings into lower pH soil, which looks to be the final straw for a few of them. Oddly enough, 3 of the plants I did not transplant remained in the 9+ pH soil, and look relatively well. I have backed off watering as much, since some of the plants look similar to pictures of over-watered plants. My latest issue looks similar to nitrogen deficiency (I just ordered a soil test kit, when will the small expenses cease?) on the "Plant Abuse Chart." I would love to hear suggestions, I have attached decent looking pictures this time. It isn't limited to the MJ seedlings either, the basil and tarragon are also showing similar signs.

I have also attached a picture (the top one) of what looks to be to be a healthy plant from my amateur perspective. If I am missing something obvious, I would really appreciate it being pointed out.

Thanks!