New Grower 2x Blue Amnesia XXL; 2x HLG 135W v2 Quantum Board LEDs

[tronN00dles]

Hey folks, tronN00dles here!

I'm back with my fourth ever grow. I'm still very much a pup in the world of cannabis growing, but I want to give a shoutout to the AFN community for being awesome. I've learned a lot from this community over the past 18 months or so, and I'm sure I'll learn lots during this grow!

You can check out my third grow here: https://www.autoflower.org/ubs/one-plant-122g-yield-135w-led-lessons-learned.806/

• That grow was a single Cheese XXL by Dinafem under a single 135W LED, which yielded 122g dried.

Now, for this grow, I'm attempting to double my production with a second LED in a bigger tent. I'm very stoked lol.

Before I get going, I'm starting this journal on June 22, 2021 - day 23 of my current grow. I'll start off by giving a recap of the previous 3 weeks, then going forward I'll be providing regular updates.

But first, let me introduce my current setup...

SETUP

Material

• Seeds: 2x Blue Amnesia XXL Autos by Dinafam (R.I.P)
• Pots: 2x 5 gallon fabric pots
• Medium: Pro-Mix HP
• Lights: 2x HLG 135W v2 Quantum Board LEGS (1x R-Spec + 1x 3000K)
• Tent: Mars Hydro 24" x 48" x 72"
• Exhaust: AC Infinity 6" Inline Fan + Carbon Filter
• Nutrients: GH Flora Series 10 Part Nutrient System; Root Farm pH DOWN
• Misc.: Honeywell Space Heater; Honeywell Cool Mist Humidifier; Honeywell Warm Mist Humidifier; 4x Clip-on Fans; 2x Watt meters
• Testing Equipment: Dr. Meter Lux Meter; Bluelab pH pen, Bluelab EC/TDS pen

A Word on Tent Placement and Ventilation

My tent is currently in the walk-in closet of me and my wife's bedroom. Fortunately, she's a bigger stoner than I am, so this project works lol.

For exhaust, I'm bringing 6" duct up into my attic (insulated), and then down into the ensuite bathroom through a 6" air diffuser. I'm not venting directly outside, nor into my attic. I figure since the ensuite has it's own bathroom exhaust fan, a HVAC return, and a window, I should be able to get the damp and pungent air outside. I also went ahead and added a portable dehumidifer to the bathroom.

For my previous grow, I vented directly into my bedroom. While the dehumidifer was able to keep humidity levels comfortable, it certainly did get stinky during flowering, even with a carbon filter! As such, I figured it would be better to contain that smell (or atleast attempt to) in the bathroom.

A Few More Comments on My Watering and Lighting Strategies

Transplanting, Watering and Training

I'm frightened of transplanting, so these beanz went straight into their final containers. Having said that, I'm pro-topping, so I'll be topping both and also subjecting both to regular LST'ing. As for watering/feedings, I'll aim for watering every 2-3 days, always at a pH of around 6 (i.e., 5.8-6.3). I plan on giving plain water in between each feeding, but this is subject to how I see the plants reacting -- so if they look hungry, I might feed them back-to-back.

I'll also be following the GH Flora Series 10 Part LIGHT feeding schedule, at around 75-100%, or alternatively, scaled to a maximum of 550 ppm or so. My starting water is relatively soft at 30-50 ppm, although a little on the alkaline side of 7.5-8, hence the pH down.

I have my fabric pots sitting on saucers filled with beach pebbles, and I use a turkey baster to siphon the run-off out of the saucers (lol).

Lighting

For my last grow, I followed these PPFD guidelines. Don't assume these are correct, and investigate for yourself!:

• Seedlings: 150-300
• Vegetative: 300-600
• Flower: 600-900

From these numbers, I looked up corresponding DLI values, assuming 18/6 veg and 12/12 flowering. Since I'm going to be running either 20/4 or 24/0, I use DLI to "scale" the PPFD requirements to a different light cycle. With my "scaled" PPFD values, I then utilize HLG's PPFD to LUX calculator on their website, specific to their lights. From here, I used these LUX values to guide my light intensity, as monitored through my cheap Lux meters, as well as through the wattmeters to see the corresponding power consumption. Again, this approach may seem a little complicated, but I think it's important to adjust light intensity depending on your light cycle. I think 24/0 is a good option if you otherwise struggle to maintain healthy temps / humidity -- you'd just need to scale back your light intensity somewhat to avoid issues (I believe so, anyhow. Like I said, I'm still learning! I could be very wrong on all this, so take it all with a grain of salt).

Having said that, this time around I "may" experiment with 18/6....

To Be Continued with a recap of Weeks 1-3.... stay tuned!

Happy growing!

-tronN00dles

 

[420Forever]

ppp

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@tronN00dles If you get stinky plants you will need a carbon filter. It looks like in the tent on your setup is the place to mount it.

Edit: Ooops it looks like you have one you should not have an odor problem.

Plants need a dark period of at least 4 hours to be healthy and produce a quality crop. I have grown 24/0, 20/4, and 18/6 The 24/0 was the biggest yield but the quality was dismal. 20/4 was a little less yield but better quality and the 18/6 was the smallest yield but the quality more than made up for the smaller yield. We are only talking a couple of ounces difference over 6 plants from 24/0 to 18/6.

 

[tronN00dles]

@tronN00dles If you get stinky plants you will need a carbon filter. It looks like in the tent on your setup is the place to mount it.

Edit: Ooops it looks like you have one you should not have an odor problem.

Plants need a dark period of at least 4 hours to be healthy and produce a quality crop. I have grown 24/0, 20/4, and 18/6 The 24/0 was the biggest yield but the quality was dismal. 20/4 was a little less yield but better quality and the 18/6 was the smallest yield but the quality more than made up for the smaller yield. We are only talking a couple of ounces difference over 6 plants from 24/0 to 18/6.

Good to know. Yeah my last grow, I had running 24/0 during veg then switched to 20/4 during flower. I still haven't decided if I'll do 20/4 or 18/6 this time around. Either way, they're currently going 24/0 in week 4, so the switch will be happening soon (I realize switching mid veg isn't going to negatively affect anything, but in for a penny, in for a pound lol). I'm leaning toward 18/6 this time however.

Did you play around with light intensity in your excursions? i.e., was your light intensity the same for your 18/6, 20/4 or 24/0 grows? Or did you dial your light down a bit during the heavier light cycles to keep DLI's more consistent?

As for the carbon filter situation, my previous grow had a 4" filter. There was no odour in the tent obviously, but there certainly was in the exhaust room! Albeit, the filter was going on a year of consistent use. The new setup has a brand new 6" filter inside the tent, just above my lights out of frame in the picture above.

Cheers,

tronN00les

 

[tronN00dles]

Hey again everybody,

Back with my first update -- a recap of Weeks 1-3. Before I get started though, one more comment I forgot to squeeze into my initial post:

First, I'm located in eastern Canada. We get very cold, dry winters here; and warm and very humid summers (although we are legally allowed to grow up to 4 plants .) Consequently, I'll be following VPD Charts as best I can, such as the one found at vpdchart.com. My plan is to use some combination of exhaust fan speed, warm/cool humidifiers, space heaters, and bedroom ambient temperature to dial into the specific RH and Temp that 'm after. I'll also be assuming a 2 degree C differential between the air temperature in the tent and the leaf surface temperature, although I'll probably test this with an IR gun at some point. I hope to someday automate this process, but for now, it's me constantly checking my AC Infinity Temp/RH probe, refilling humidifiers, and switching shit on and off lol. Oh well.

Second, regarding the GH Flora Nutrients. Please be aware that GH have recently revised their feedcharts. The outdated charts were called "recirculating" and "drain-to-waste"; they now provide LIGHT, MEDIUM and AGGRESSIVE feedcharts. I'll be following the LIGHT guidelines, scaled to 50-100% based on recommended ppm's of nutrient solutions.

Finally, I actually have two different QBs in this tent. They're both HLG 135W v2's, but one is the newer 'R-Spec', and the other is the older 3000k model. As I want my plants to be subject to the same conditions, I'm going to be rotating the two plants so they spend an equal amount of time under each light. I think on my next attempt at two different plants, I'll probably subject them to different conditions to see if some tricks work better than others, e.g., training techniques. But until then, I'm aiming for relative consistency with both of these ladies.

Enough of that, allons-y! :smoking:

UPDATE #1: Recap of Weeks 1-3

WEEK 1

Temp: 23 deg. C
RH: 72%
DLI: 20-25
Cycle: 24/0
Plain Water, pH'ed to 5.8-6.3; no nutes.

I used the paper-towel method to germinate. I know a lot of folk poo-poo it, but it works for me. I soaked two seeds in a shot glass of water for ~12 hours or so until they sank when poked, then poured them onto a paper towel on a small plate. I put this in an open ziplock bag so it wouldn't dry out, and kept it in the bottom of my tent with a small space heater pointed away from it. I had two tap roots after 24 hours or so.

These were plopped into my 5 gallon pots of Pro-Mix Hp....

...and I fucked up first thing and forgot to pre-soak my pots lol. To be honest, part of me knew better, but I kinda wanted to see what sort of difference it would make (yeah right!). Anyway, it did make a difference because I pre-soaked my pots last time and they grew much taller much quicker. Lesson learned. Hopefully I didn't kill my mycorrhizae!

Ah, no biggie. And no need to stress, the buggers are resilient! This is something I've been learning too. Fortunately Pro-Mix HP has a wetting agent so it can get a little dryer than raw peat (at least I think so).

Anyhow, after another day or two, we had liftoff:

I contacted Pro-Mix directly, and they told me to start feeding within 7-10 days. So I gave plain water (pH'ed to ~6) every two days or so, around 500mL each time, for the first two weeks. I also had my humidifiers on blast, keeping things at around 72% RH and 23 deg C. I'd also mist the surface of the Pro-Mix HP multiple times a day if it started looking too dry.

As for lighting, I did the 'DLI-to-ppfd-to-lux conversion' thing to land on a 20-25 DLI value, which turned out to be somewhere around 7,000-12,000 lux at 24/0 lighting from my QBs. On my last grow, I went closer to 7,000; this time around, I went closer to 12,000. The result: the plants are shorter this time around (Although that could be associated with the dryer pots too).

WEEK 2

Temp: 23 deg. C
RH: 68%
DLI: ~30
Cycle: 24/0

I gave my first feeding around day 8. I followed the GH Flora Series 10-part LIGHT schedule at 100% for week 221: fuck up # 2 lol. I probably should have been closer to 50% for this very first feed. On my previous grow, I was stingy with my feeds and fed 25-50% until flowering. It wasn't until I started measuring nutrient ppm that I realized I was underfeeding the plants. As I mentioned above, I think with GH Flora, it's best to start off at 50% for week 2, 75% week 3-4, then up to 100% come flowering - again, of the LIGHT regimen. Doing so will put you around 550ppm during late flowering.

In my defense, the plants were on the 'lighter' green side, but in retrospect, of course they were! They had used up the 'starter' nutrients in the peat-moss. Still looking decent though (here's the taller of the two

Again, I gave a little too heavy a feed once during this week as a consequence of the lighter green color. If the plants starts looking too dark afterward, I may give it an extra plain watering or two before I feed it again. Either way, the plant wasn't showing any symptoms of being overfed:

WEEK 3 - Topping & Training

During this week, I gave an extra plain waterings before giving them any more nutrients; I then fed again at 50% LIGHT strength nutrients; plain watered the following go; then fed at 75% LIGHT (~400ppm). I also topped both, started training, and cranked my light up into the ~40 DLI range, currently at around 28,000 lux or 450 PPFD at 24/0. My lights will stay like this until I go into flowering, at which point I'll be bumping up their intensity and probably switching to a 18/6 cycle. Stay tuned.

In any case, this is more light than I gave them my last grow, and the internodal spacing is indeed tighter. This is making LST'ing a little trickier than last time. Oh well!

In the pics above, you can really see the difference in the lightning temperatures of the different lights. Again, I've been rotating the plants such they have an equal time under each light. Interestingly, you can see a mutation on the plant on the right above -- an early 3 finger leaf didn't sectionalize properly and only has two fingers. Oh well! Mutant plants can make monster buds!

Here's a wide angle shot. Again, this is just after topping:

To Be Continued in Week 4 (by June 27, 2021) .... stay tuned!

-tronN00dles

 

[tronN00dles]

So we're finally back on track -- today is June 23, and I'm part way through week 4. Here's a couple of pictures I took today and yesterday. Note, they haven't gotten any nutrients this week yet, as they're fairly dark on the green side, as expected from the heavy initial feeding they received. Anyhow, they seem to have responded great to the topping and look healthy in general! My only issue now is the tight internodal spacing is making LST'ing somewhat difficult. There's also been fruit flies hanging around my other houseplants, and I noticed one in the tent -- hence the small jar of apple cider vinegar + dish soap in the tent lol.

WEEK 4 - Partial Update (More to come by June 27, 2021)

Yesterday:

Today:

They're getting bushy! You'll also see where I spilled some nutrient solution on a leaf above, on the left. Oh well!

To Be Continued again in Week 4 (by June 27, 2021) .... stay tuned!

-tronN00dles

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Good to know. Yeah my last grow, I had running 24/0 during veg then switched to 20/4 during flower. I still haven't decided if I'll do 20/4 or 18/6 this time around. Either way, they're currently going 24/0 in week 4, so the switch will be happening soon (I realize switching mid veg isn't going to negatively affect anything, but in for a penny, in for a pound lol). I'm leaning toward 18/6 this time however.

Did you play around with light intensity in your excursions? i.e., was your light intensity the same for your 18/6, 20/4 or 24/0 grows? Or did you dial your light down a bit during the heavier light cycles to keep DLI's more consistent?

As for the carbon filter situation, my previous grow had a 4" filter. There was no odour in the tent obviously, but there certainly was in the exhaust room! Albeit, the filter was going on a year of consistent use. The new setup has a brand new 6" filter inside the tent, just above my lights out of frame in the picture above.

Cheers,

tronN00les

If you think about it adjusting the DLIs to match would be counter productive to the test since we are not evaluating the light source but the Plant yield. The lights were run full speed. I am sure the DLI on the 24/0 was way over 60. The 18/6 would have been 48+.

 

[tronN00dles]

If you think about it adjusting the DLIs to match would be counter productive to the test since we are not evaluating the light source but the Plant yield. The lights were run full speed. I am sure the DLI on the 24/0 was way over 60. The 18/6 would have been 48+.

Right, but here’s what I’m driving at… could it have been the fact that the 48 DLI was the root cause of the better smoke? Rather than the light cycle duration?

Could the product resulting from running 24/0 on a less intense light, such that the DLI was 48, match the product you would have on a 18/6 with a stronger light that also worked out to a DLI of 48?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Right, but here’s what I’m driving at… could it have been the fact that the 48 DLI was the root cause of the better smoke? Rather than the light cycle duration?

Could the product resulting from running 24/0 on a less intense light, such that the DLI was 48, match the product you would have on a 18/6 with a stronger light that also worked out to a DLI of 48?

No, Plants have a biological state called respiration that happens in the dark. It has evolved over eons of day and night. Plants need this to thrive.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Wow it took forever to find this: