Indoor LED DWC MI5 Grow!! (that's right, TWO exclamation points)

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

So here we go! I've grown MI5 before in soil using a MH/HPS setup with great success. My old setup let me vent the heat into another area easily, however now I only have room in a closet, so I needed to get some more efficient lighting, and went with a Hydrogro 126X-PRO. And since it's in a closet, I figured I should get a tent as well, and the one that fit best was a 2x2x5.25 GrowLab GL60. And I have done DWC once before, so I have my old generic 10 gallon tubs (two of them) with all the usual accoutrements that go with a hydro setup.

So anyway, I can't remember the exact date I started to germinate these seeds, it was sometime around April 4th or 9th or something like that... These are actually MI5 F1 seeds I made from my first time growing this strain. Out of I think 21 seeds, I think 15 germinated (seeds are 2 years old now), and 10 I put into red solo cups and soil for an outdoor crop up on a friend's farm. The 6 I put into netpots sat in a really shitty excuse for a makeshift hydro setup for a few weeks where there was algae buildup, poorly controlled pH, and no nutrients. But I was finally able to get the red solo cup plants out of the tent and set up the hydroponics properly. They've been in that for a few days now, and I finally got this fancy pants Bluelab combo meter, which is about 10,000x better than using the fish tank color chart nonsense... But anyway, the water pH is at about 5.6 in each tank with 800ppm at 78 degrees F.

They started showing sex a few days ago, and of the 6, 5 are female. I'm letting the male one grow for the time being to make some F2 seeds. He's the smallest one, he suffered the most in the "makeshift" setup, which is fine with me since he's gonna die anyway!

So without further delay, I present to you some shitty phone pics (since I don't feel like looking for my proper camera)!

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

Boy oh boy do I love how quickly cannabis grows! Look what a difference only three days makes! They're also moderately smelly now - enough that when I got home I realized I needed to hook up my filter (and just finished with that, actually).

Temps have been hovering in the high 70s, max I've seen lately is 81, reservoir temps keep pretty steady around 70 with the pH slowly rising it seems now around 5.7 and about 820 ppm (using the ppm 500 scale). The humidity has been painfully low lately, around 16% in the tent. Actually, about those ppm scales, I think I'm going to switch over to EC since there's no room for confusion regarding which ppm scale, especially since ppm scale can be derived from the EC.

Anyway, I'm already starting to think about my next grow. I have been wanting to grow Super Lemon Haze since forever, and especially so after I got to try it on vacation in Holland. I can't decide if I should try and find an autoflowering variety or stick with the 16 week marathon of a plant photoperiod variety. Has anyone tried both the auto and photo varieties? I'm mostly after the type/quality of high, not so much the taste (though it was quite divine), so does anyone know if the auto is comparable to the photoperiod? It became my favorite strain after I walked into the coffee shop dragging my feet after a long day of exploring the city, shared a gram with 3 other people, and we promptly got up, revitalized, and continued around the city for several more hours with a new spring in our step.

Anyway, pics! Just a couple because there's nothing too exciting going on yet. I'm mostly impressed with the density of the growth with the LED lighting. It seems to be promoting more side growth and shorter nodes (at this point) than even the 400w metal halide bulb I had used in the past.

 

[bam-bam]

looking nice bro
:smokebuds:

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

Alright, so temps have been hovering in the low 70's these past few days, humidity rose a good bit to around 50% these past few days. I replenished their reservoirs today, about 2.5 gallons into each of the two 10 gallon tubs. Before that, I got ppm readings dropped to around 640, which means these plants have been eating more than drinking the past few days. I made the nutrient solution I added a bit concentrated (in a ratio of 1-1-1 of GH trio) since I wanted to raise the ppm, so when all was said and done, the ppm reading on the res was up to about 1050, pH'd at 5.4. I also added a bit of CalMag because I noticed some of the older leaves had developed some rust spots over the last week. I also added some GH Subculture-M at about 2/3 their recommended amount, since a) they probably want you to overdo it, b) i was afraid of nutrient burn resulting from increased nutrient uptake ability. I'm still a bit nervous about the transition from 700's, down to 600's, up to 1000 ppm, so I'm planning to keep a close eye on my ladies in the coming hours.

As far as growth, I don't remember having ever had such robust stems on any plant, and the leaves feel lovely and substantial. As far as smell, they've been pumping out that lovely MI5 woody funk . They haven't really started flowering proper yet (just preflowers), but from further changes in growth patterns, it looks like it's going to be making the transition this upcoming week.

And of course some more boring, non-flowering pics.

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

okay! so the humidity has been up there these past few days, 60%'s and up, temps between 68 and 72. At about 1000ppm (again, ppm 500 scale), the plants have been showing some minor symptoms of nitrogen toxicity (leaf tips hooking a little), but I figured they can wait it out until I add some plain pH'd water today or tomorrow (or maybe I'll do a full exchange , I haven't decided yet).

However, I do have one major problem - the male I was planning to kill has its roots inextricably tangled with the other plants in the tub, so I can't kill him or risk his root system rotting in the reservoir... So i need to keep him alive, but not producing pollen. I cut back a LOT of growth (and ate it, because hey, it's dark, leafy, green veggie, there's gotta be some nutrition in it!) on him, and pinched all his bananas off, since I'm not ready to start pollinating. They had a funny grainy texture to them lol. Anyone have any suggestions about how to prevent him from growing? I was planning to just cut back new growth when I see it, but that's almost certainly going to get old quickly. I was also thinking about maybe using a clear plastic bag or jar or something to restrict air flow, in essence choking him, but again, no idea how to stop growth without killing...

Anyway, I'll figure something out, in the mean time, look at my bitches grow!



I'm very pleased with the level of side branching and the THICKNESS of the stems! I've never seen such dense vegetative growth with my old 400 watt MH/HPS combo.

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

alright, i've been going on a 3 day update schedule it seems, might as well keep that up! So temps have been in the low 70's, and so has the humidity... my leaves are actually sweating, like drops of water form on the leaves, have any of you ever witnessed this before?

res is around 900 ppm, 5.6 pH, 70ish degrees.

flowering has definitely begun now, can't wait to see the final results hehe

with the lights dimmed

with the lights on

the white balance! it hurts!

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

well three days later, and i need to add water to my res, but it's wing night/monday so i need to watch game of thrones...

anyway, ppm is still around the 900's, water temp in the mid to upper 60's, air temp in the low 70's, upper 60's, humidity has dropped into the 40's.

flowering is under way, one female hasn't REALLY started flowering. i added a new air pump to the setup along with some more legit air stones, lots more air to the roots, hopefully the ladies like it. i really should be replacing the res water, but i've been drinking and need to watch GoT before tomorrow... or else! anyway, pics!

also, these pics are directed to those of you with confined space, i'm working with a 2x2 closet grow as you can see, and I still can grow enough to give multiple quarters away to good friends and still have enough to play around with. basically, my point is that even with tiny spaces, with proper lighting, feeding, and airflow, you can grow obscene amounts for personal use. PICS!

 

[sofa]

nice grow man ! your girls are sexy!

 

[briman]

sweet grow mate, looking to take a stab at dwc. Doing a ton of homework first. Keep up the great ladies man!!!

 

[YouDon'tKnowMe]

Thanks for stopping by and the kind words!

Hopefully i can keep them as happy as they've been!