Photoperiod Coco+Pumice Autopot, MegaCrop 1-Part, 60 Watt LED, 2x2x4 tent.

[elcoloan]

Hello fellow AFN inhabitants! I begin this new thread to keep a journal of my next photoperiod runs in coco using the Autopot system and MegaCrop in my 2x2 tent under LED lighting.

So... I'll be starting a new run today using a rooted clone from an unknown mother which tastes delightfully.
I had taken this cut about two months ago and all this time I still had it in its DIY aerocloner and under an 8 Watt 6500K LED which barely kept it alive and in vegetative. It was very neglected until yesterday when i changed the nutes it had into a new nute solution at 360 ppms (260 MegaCrop, 100 tap) at 6.0 pH. After it rooted 2 months ago, I would only re-fill its reservoir with nutes left over from a previous coco run... nutes were at around 500 ppm and pH was always between 5.0 and 5.4! I wasn't expecting the clone to get this far, but it's still alive and i think I can get it to grow into a nice plant.
The idea is to do this run while my no-till mix is cooking, so I plan to give the clone 1 month of veg and then put to flower for an approximate total of around 3 months.

Anyhow... here are a few pics taken some minutes ago of the clone enjoying its first day in the tent under the BudgetLED lamp with a 20/4 sched, dimmed to 60 Watts (190 ppfd at top of the clone). Tomorrow she will be transplanted to a 2.2 gal Autopot pot with 1 inch of pumice at the bottom and the rest is coco coir mixed with some pumice.

Here is the detailed information pertaining the setup under which I will using:

TENT: 2x2x4 Finether tent
MAIN LIGHT: 1x BudgetLED QB (Fullspec, 5-120 Watts... usually run it at 60 Watts)
BACKUP LIGHTS: 1x Autocob 3500K (60 Watts), 1x Anthelion PCD 660m deep red supplement (9 Watts), 8 Watt 6500K LED bulb
MEDIUM: Coco-coir and pumice
METHOD: 2.2 gal Autopot
NUTRIENTS: Greenleaf nutrients (mega crop 1-part v1 and v2, bud explosion v1, calmag pro), Epsom salts. Plan to only use MC 1-part v1.
TEMPS: 20C-27C
RH: 45-70%
pH and EC meters: Apera ph60 and ec60
PAR meter: SQ520


As always, any input is much appreciated.

 

[elcoloan]

Transplanted today:

 

[elcoloan]

Here she is 12 days after...

Some notes:
A couple of days after transplanting her, which was quite a rough event on her long roots because of my clumsiness, I decided to lower a bit light power (dimmed to 44 watts) and wait for her growth to get back on track.
After about a week she started growing again so I began doing daily LST and leaftucking. She had been getting light and few quantities of nutes ever other day, and about 5 days ago I began giving about 250 ml of nutes every day at around 1.0 EC (400-450 ppms of MC, rest is tap), pH 6.0-6.3.
Today I dimmed the lights back up to 60 Watts.

 

[elcoloan]

7 days since the last update. I will be switching on the Autopot reservoir by the end of this week.

 

[elcoloan]

It's day 22 today since I put this clone in the tent. Did a little defoliating yesterday and today, and the plant gets daily LST.
Coco was drying up too fast this week and I can't be hand watering more than I do already and there are a couple of roots poking below the pot, so I decided to turn on the Autopot system today with nutes at 545 ppms (85 from tap), 5.83 pH. Also brought the light closer and the plant is now getting a DLI of 21-23.
In about 10 days I should be flipping the tent into 12/12.. let's see how much she stretches in that time!

Some pics from today

 

[elcoloan]

Day 26 for this clone in the tent... around 4 days since last update whem I turned on the Autopot system.
I think I’ll be ok to switch to 12/12 next Monday.
Been defoliation and LSTing every day.
Went to check the reservoir today after leaving it unattended all this weekend and the 5 lt of nutes I had put in were almost finished… I measured what was left (enough for 2 more tray refills) and it was at a ph of 6.44 and 555 ppm… I checked the tray, which was halfway empty, and it was at 6.38 pH and 564 ppm. I lowered the pH of what was left in the reservoir and let it at 5.98. After the next refit I waited for the tray to empty halfway and measured again and it was still at 564 ppm but pH was at 6.12. I don’t mind letting pH get to 6.4, but I’d rather it stayed in the 5.8-6.3 range so I’ll be more on top of it.
Might increase EC to 1.2 / 600 ppm on next reservoir refill this week.

Here are some pics from today…

 

[elcoloan]

Day 33 for this clone in the tent and her last day under veg photoperiod (20/4)… tomorrow she’ll start her 12/12 schedule!
Light is still -and will continue- dimmed to 60 Watts, and it is currently placed 34 cm / 13.4 inch from the tallest top. PAR reading are 290 ppfd at lowest top, and 425 pffd at tallest top, for a DLI of 20.8 - 30.6 .

Autopot reservoir tank sits now at 628 ppm / 1.24 EC (around 100 ppm from tap water, rest is MegaCrop and Hydroguard), 6.01 pH… halfway empty tray reads 635 ppm at 6.18 pH.

Plant was too bushy and rainy season has started, so to help with airflow I did some heavy defoliating today and removed several internal and bottom branches.

Here are some pics from today…

Before defoliating…

After defoliating…

 

[elcoloan]

Day 40 for this clone in this tent, 7th day under 12/12 photoperiod. Got light closer to the plant yesterday, for a reading of 580 ppfd at the tallest top. EC is still around 1.2 and pH is set in fresh nutes to 5.8 and I let it shift to max 6.3 before bringing it to around 6.1.

Some pics from today...

 

[elcoloan]

Day 47 for this clone in this tent, 14th day under 12/12 photoperiod. EC still at 1.2 (0.2 from tap water) and pH kept between 6.0-6.3. Haven't measured ppfd after the stretch the plant has had this last week, but how close it has gotten doesn't seem to be affecting it negatively yet .

Some pics from today...

 

[elcoloan]

Day 53 for this clone in this tent, 20th day under 12/12 photoperiod.
EC still at 1.2 (about 0.2 from tap water) and pH kept between 6.0-6.3. Plant is getting much closer to the light... getting 1160 ppfd at tallest top.
I noticed some brown stuff in the tray yesterday... did a little flush today and runoff reeked of root rot. Pretty sure it's the tap water that's coming with some nasty stuff... already doing research to buy a good filter.
Will be top watering for a few days until the root rot smell is gone.


Some pics from today: