Exodus Cheese, Training Day & Kaas - Indoor Organic Soil Grow

[ajcapetown]

Hey Guys

 

After a disastrous indoor grow that I harvested in this week I have been dying to start fresh. 

 

I have had these clones on the go for 2 months now, they started well then things got a bit shaky (they went bright yellow and new growth died so I cut them back. I'm still not sure why it actually happened) Have a look at the first pic and you will see what I mean. Unbelievably only 1 died, the rest all made it. 

 

Now they are doing well and have bounced back completely. The GHS exodus cheese came from a mother which I grew from seed. The training day and kaas came off other plants I adopted from a friend.

 

They were first put into a 50/50 mix of coco/perlite and fed with a mild dose of Greenhouse powder but after my last failed grow I have decided to go back to organic. Organic just works better for me, plants seem less sensitive and I prefer the final product. They have been under LED but have now been moved under a 600 HPS. I'm battling a bit with temperature though, it's been hitting 34 degrees in there even with the 5 inch extractor on full. The plants don't seem bothered by the heat, think it's me that stresses more. I'm considering getting a bigger extractor but will see how it goes. Weather should start cooling down in the next couple weeks.

 

I have been using a living soil mix from Jamie's Grow Shop and wow it works well. As soon as I put them in they started looking healthier and growth improved literally overnight. I don't have to use much in the way of nutes now and ph isn't as important, although I do still keep it around 6.2. I have also given them a mild dose of Bio Grow, although I don't think it's necessary but it didn't do any harm. I highly recommend this product.

 

Today I potted up to 12 litre square pots which they will stay in for flowering. I again used the living soil mix from Jamie's Grow Shop. I sprinkled 5ml of mycorrhizal fungi (mycoroot) and a half handful of worm castings into the hole before putting them in. Then watered with plain water at ph6.2

 

I am going to flower 12 plants and will probably start in 5 days or so once they have settled into their new pots. I will have to start fairly soon though as space will be a problem. I'm not sure if I will use nutes while I flower, I may just watch them and see how it goes. With a living soil mix it won't really be necessary.

[ajcapetown]

Hi everyone.

 

Just a little update. I switched to flowering on Friday and everything is going well. 

 

I found a way to combat my heat issues, I switched my day & night around. During veg I had my lights off from 11am to 5pm as this is the hottest time of the day. On friday when switching to flowering I have set lights on to be from 8pm at night until 8am in the morning.

 

As I am pulling in fresh air from outside I figured night time air is a lot colder. It has dropped my temps by about 4 degrees which is perfect. Since friday the highest temp recorded in my grow room was 30.5'C and the low was 24'C.

 

Only down fall is that I have to wait until 8pm at night to go into the room so that I don't disturb the dark period. I gave them just a plain water feed on Friday at ph6.2. The living soil is working a treat!

 

Here's some pics I took on Friday as I started the flowering cycle. Will update with more pics this Friday when it's been a full week since 12/12.

[420SA]

Looking set for a much better grow this time Aj!

 

I'm running the exact same schedule as you. It takes patience waiting till 8PM but definitely worth it in terms of temps. It also manages to avoid any load shedding in my area too. 

 

 

[DeltaLabs]

Hey guys.

 I did some tests on temps in my  flower room, and figured that if i ran the light cycle at night, i would get virtually no difference in temperature from day to night. so i got scared.

 

 How much will that difference will affect the plant? what is your take on this?

Because it would save me some electricity on ac to run the light cycle during that period u guys using.

 

[Toby]

hey deltalabs,

 

Have a look at the following article. - Article

[DeltaLabs]

Tks mate

That link gave me a nice scope on temps at different stages of the plant,  and also gave me a clue to understand  some weird discoloration i had 2 weeks ago on my lady

[ajcapetown]

Hey Delta, sorry for the late response. In my opinion a difference between day and night temps are obviously better but I don't think it will make or break your grow if your variation between high and low isn't too much. You'll find as winter comes along it's easier to control as when your lights go off the temp variation changes a bit more. I actually put a heater in my grow room in winter to stop the temp from dropping too drastically.

 

Anyway here's an update on my grow. Since I flipped last week Friday my plants have just exploded. They are growing amazingly in this living soil. I have noticed some very slight burn on a few of the leaves, it's not serious but it's there. It affected the Greenhouse Exodus Cheese plants the most. I don't know f it's just this pheno I'm working with of the Exo Cheese but it is so fussy, anything upsets them. Definitely not as hardy as the rest. I'm not sure if I'll be growing too much more of the Greenhouse seed Co stuff. I'm currently growing some little seedlings from seeds I got from barney's farm and Humboldt Seed Organisation and they are going crazy. I think the yanks (americans) are going to start taking over from Europe in terms of genetic quality and seed quality. Their cannabis cups etc are already way superior now that it's legal in many states. I'll do a grow log on them once this grow is done in 7 weeks.

 

Back to my current girls, a friend feels it may be an overload of phosphorous as my soil has a lot bat guano in it. I am going to treat it with some actively aerated compost tea which should balance things out. I'm really not too concerned though because it's not causing any damage and won't effect the yield etc.

 

The following pics were taken exactly 7 days after my last pic update... to give you an idea of the explosion haha. I'm over the moon, think this may be set to be one of my best grows ever. I'll continue taking pics every Friday evening.

 

Still using plain water at ph6.2

 

Cheers for now!

[Toby]

Nice update there. They are growing fantastic. Living soil FTW!  

 

Very interested to see how your grow progresses.

[ajcapetown]

Hey All

 

Update time. I went ahead and treated my plants with actively aerated compost tea and the slight burn I was getting stopped immediately and I haven't had a problem since. I then removed the few affected leaves and things are looking really healthy.

 

I have unfortunately run into another problem though... what seems to be heat stress. My temps have been hitting 32 degrees in there and I think it is just slightly too hot. The good news is it only affected 2 of the plants, the remaining 10 are doing just fine. It was of course the exodus cheese that got hit first, I'll never grow this shit again.

 

To combat the problem I raised the lights quite a bit and yesterday I bought an 8 inch extractor which is probably way overkill for my grow room but I wasn't messing around, I want that hot air outta there. I'm starting to think it was heat that caused all the crap with my last grow, I just never realised it soon enough. I'm going to install the bigger extractor tonight and suck the shit out of that room haha!

 

I have also cleared out the bottom of the canopy over the space of a few days to try get some better airflow under there.

 

Apart from that not much else to report, got some awesome buds forming. I've put the 2 damaged plants outside which is sad but they were just taking up space and not performing. Here's a pic of all the healthy plants taken 1 week since my last update and then I included a few pics of the heat stressed plants which have now been abandoned.

 

Cheers!

AJ

[Green Leaf Organics]

Hey bud

The ladies are coming along nicely. What size space is that ? And are you running an open reflector? The biggest problem with heat stress is that you may not see a plant effected by it but you will get a decrease in yield. You want to keep those temps ideally below 30 , anything above that and you will start to loose yield. Sad about the 2 you had to scrap but they not worth the retail space they take up.

I am looking forward to the next update.

Cheers

Reaf

[ajcapetown]

Hey Reaf!

 

Good to see you on here. The space is 1.2 x 1.0

 

It is an open reflector yes, I've been thinking of going air cooled, do you have any experience on air cooled and does it help much? I installed the 8 inch extractor yesterday and it's pulling way more air through but temps didn't drop as much as I'd hoped. The room does feel cooler though just being in there and I can actually feel the airflow.

 

That is scary that the signs are not always visible.

[Green Leaf Organics]

Hi bud , yea I needed something a bit more active.

All my hid lights are in cooled hoods , I personally am not a fan of cool tubes as there light spread sux.

I love my cooled hoods and would never not use them. A lot of people say they are a waste but I see it that I can run a 1000w bulb 40cm above the canopy ... I would like to see any none cooled hood do that .by having the light closer to the plants I am upping my canopy lumen levels , more lumen equals  bigger denser buds.

In my opinion I think a 8" cooled hood would be hugely beneficial , especially come summer

Cheers

Reaf

[Dabtzar]

Yea I will never go back to non air cooled. The drop in temps is awesome and the fact that you can get the reflector really really close to the canopy just does it for me. Especially when you running 6+ lights..

[Guest Maxwell]

Agreed all round, but I've watched some interesting product punting by Gavita regarding loss of light over time and through glass as well as air cooling. If anything just an interesting perspective regarding indoor horticultural lighting.

[ajcapetown]

Thanks gents, I think I am sold then. I'm quite limited on space, I've noticed an 8 inch cooled hood is about 85cm long and with my width being 1.2 with ducting I may battle to squeeze one in and keep the hood centered over my grow space. Any of you have more compact 8 inch hoods,

 

In terms of air flow can I just suck air through the hood and out into the roof? Should create enough negative pressure to still pull fresh air in like it does now?

 

I don't use a scrubber as I vent into the ceiling and the house only gets a slight smell in the last couple weeks of flower which doesn't bother anyone.

[Green Leaf Organics]

Hi bud

Yea you can just extract through the hood , I just like to have the light fitting on the side it socks in through just in case something gets sacked in it won't slam directly into the bulb.

Gthydro have smaller 8 inch hoods but at a premium price . Grow guru have the best prices but out of stock on 8" but they have 6" at a really good price. I have run the 6" on 8" pipes just fine in the past. I will take a pic later of how I hook up a 8" pipe to 6" hood.

Cheers

Reaf

[ajcapetown]

Howdy Reaf

 

Those pics would be great to see. I'm going to have to do a conversion, 6 inch hood into an 8 inch fan so looking forward to seeing how you did it.

[ajcapetown]

Hey Guys

 

Weekly update, buds are forming nicely.. hopefully the high temps didn't mess with them too much but time will tell. I'm going to go air cooled on the reflector as soon as money allows it, probably next month. I'm not entirely happy with temps, it is still hitting 30 degrees in there.

 

I noticed some of my lower leaves are looking a little limp and yellowish, falling off with just a gentle tug so I fed them with a half strength solution of P-Force which I picked up from Jamie's Garden Shop. Never used it before but it's 100% organic.

 

I'm probably going to give them another dose of AACT in the next week or 2. Not much else to report

[Toby]

Looking great there Ajcapetown.

[Totemic]

Nice!

[Dabtzar]

Filling up nicely..

 

You are going to be happy mate. Keep the RH low and clean up below the canopy. Give them "Nice legs"..

 

 

[Guest Garethleauk]

WINNER OF POST OF THE MONTH RIGHT THERE PEOPLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME LOOKING PLANTS

[Green Leaf Organics]

Hi bud.

Sorry time has sped by and I still haven't managed to take that pic for you. I will try remember tonight when I am there.

The ladies are looking really happy . One thing that does worry me a little is all those electrics right there... I know many people would say I am petty for even mentioning it but you should really try get all those plugs and things a bit further away from your grow , do you keep your ballast in the same area?

The part that counts is looking really happy though , keep it up and you will be rewarded .

Cheers

Reaf

Ps....I am just super fussy over electrics lol , sorry

[Dabtzar]

Reaf im also anal like that bud. 

When I saw that the shower head is right above all those plugs i cringed, one slip and the water goes on and that is good bye to a whole lotta equip.

 

Try keep all electricals above any water level/ flood level and away from any water sources.

 

The more pedantic you are with your grow/ set up. the better results you will see in my eyes.

 

Peace

[ajcapetown]

HAHA hey guys, ya I must admit my electrics are a mess at the moment. I'm actually going to do a post soon with the crap I had with my ballast and the extra wiring I had to do to get it right.

 

Ended up doing all the re-wiring and extra wiring etc mid grow while the plants were in there and it's kinda just stayed like that. It irks me everyday though, grow should finish up around mid May at which point I'm going to get in there properly and fix it all up. As my light cycle is from 8pm - 8am it is also difficult cos I can't put the plants out in the sun if I want to do any work in there. 

 

Need to paint that wood white and I want to replace that mylar with white plastic as well to make it look cleaner.

 

The shower taps..  you guys are right if it got knocked there could be crap.. never had a problem before as I have tightened them quite tight and they haven't been used in years but I should actually remove the tap handles and put a blocker on the shower head to be safe! Will probably do that as soon as I have the room empty.