Vegging clones under LED

[Bos]

Aweh Gromies

As some may know I'm a organic outdoor grower, but got presented with a situation that required out the box thinking real fast. We got gifted 12 Blue Cheese(Exodus cheese x Blueberry)clones very late in the outdoor growing season. Hence the post under the indoor LED section. They need to be vegged to decent size before flowering them outside. They were small...no sorry, miniature when we recieved them(2-5cm tall), thats smaller than any clone I ever cut myself.

They were barely rooted in their small coco plugs, they went into my diy clone box under 48w smd leds (warm and cool) running at 18/6 for 1x week before being transferred to 250ml solo cups with my organic soil, all had roots poking out then. There they recieved 200ųmol/m2sec, which seemed adaquate for rooting clones as per online ref. They responded very well, showing positive new leaf growth. Gave me enough time to throw together a makeshift outdoor enclosure, this makeshift 2m x 2m x 1.5m high outdoor/indoor setup with a ACDC 100w led flood and 2x50w growlights and a 40w positive intake fan for airflow and ventilation. (1x Fl-100-CW + 2x 50w blurples)

They are now recieving 300ųmol/m2sec with the light fixture at 50cm above the tops just to adapt for a few days, then I'm lowering the lights. Plan is to veg the girls to a stage where they can be flowered outside. 

The light fixture measures 650ųmol/m2sec at 30cm from the canopy. Plan is to veg them to approx 30-40cm tall with maybe 1x topping before placing the outside to flower. They will be repotted to 9lt bags and eventually transplanted to 25lt growbags(2 or 3 best may get 75lt tubs) The 'guerilla' light fixture measured between 600-700ųmol/m2sec in the centre and approx 400-500 around the  perimeter of 1m2. Midday temps were at 32deg C and 50-60% RH.

My question....?

Am I on the right track, am I missing something and will this be enough to get them to the point where they can be flowered outside or will we need more light? 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Bos

[Totemic]

For decent veg you need to provide 300-600ppfd to a plant so it sounds like you are on track here.

[TheUltimateNoob]

Sounds good.

I just have a couple of things I'd like to add, not sure how useful they could be to you though.

Transplanting out of a fabric pot can be a pain sometimes because the tips of the roots grow into some of the fibers of the bag.
I found that if you have a long blade or such, you can carefully run it between the fabric and the soil to kind of cut the root tips first, it'll make things easier when removing the bag and cause less soil to fall off the root ball initially.

It just got a big tedious for me, its for that reason I went back to vegging in plastic - I also found that vegging in plastic develops a nice dense root ball for transplant and barely any soil is lost with no root damage.

You could also drill small holes in the rim of the plastic pot for training purposes - it's much more rigid and works way better if you using HST.

So yeah, I thinks that's it. Cheers bro, all the best.

Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

[CreX]

Hey @Bos!!

You are on the right track... But what about hanging an outdoor light? 

Just because the sun goes down doesn't mean your ladies must sleep! 

I strung up a light into my garden... Looked like a random ball floating in the sky Hahahaha. 

But.... It helped me get the outdoor flip right.... Kept the plants in veg until March the 1st and managed to completely skip the slow change of daylight hours from messing with my outdoor flowers! 

The result is denser flowers and way way waaaaay reduced leaf to bud ratio. Almost indoor quality flower from your outdoor garden. 

For that to work, you could probably use your 100w flood light and hang it a meter and a half above your outdoor canopy... Leave it on all night or just a few hours to give the plants an idea that it's still awake time. 

Otherwise your indoor veg station will work, but as I can already see... It's gonna raise your elec bill unnecessarily 

[Bos]

Evening gentlemen.

I'll put the cards on the table, here's the background... the clones originated from an indoor mother, the grower is also the owner of one of the local 420 headshops with whom we have a very good relationship as they stock some of the best outdoor and indoor gear locally available.

Yes we got the clones late and yes the clones were very small, but I do enjoy a good challenge. How else to test your knowledge and skill as a grower?

As an outdoor, organic grower I want to try and produce bud, comparable to their indoor version wrt to smoothness, potency and flavour. 

@CreX@TheUltimateNoob  Clones will veg in the tent, repot from the 250ml solo cups to 9lt plastic nursery bags and veg further under the lights to try and get them to 'decent..ishh' flowering size, transplant to final 25lt bags, then move them outside to flower. If we run out of space we will veg outside by extending daylight hours. There will be some costs involved with the lights and the plan might change depending on how the plants progress.

It's a challenge and of course I'm going to try and smack it out the park.