Kandy Kush, Lemon Cake, Headband Patient Journal.

[Darkmatter]

I have always wanted to cultivate cannabis indoors. Now my doctor and the state says I can! WOOOOO!

Buckle-up it might be a bumpy ride!

 

After much study I have decided on DWC. I am using 5 gallon buckets fitted with 5" net pots filled with hydroton.

I am using a 70LPM air pump to power 6 sites with 4" disc air stones.

I found a cheap bat-wing 1000w HPS

Air intake is brought in with a cheapo 4" blower fan, air exhaust is evacuated using a 6" 400cfm inline fan.

The room is cooled and de-humidified using a 5000btu AC unit.

Walls are lined with 2-faced brand poly.

Using general hydroponics nutes. (I followed the chart on my 1st filling, and have had climbing PH since. I will not do that again, when I change my water i will use the lucas method)

 

Now I have moved in clones Lemon Cake, Headband, and Kandy Kush. They were stunted at first but they are looking much better now. I will get newer pictures up soon.

 

*I appreciate any tips but I do have an experienced medical grower teaching me.I spend a few hours a week learning with them. I will listen to this persons advice 1st and foremost.

 

Thanks for stopping in. I had to work really hard to get all the gear lined up, and had to make some sacrifices. Finally time to go to work!

 

 

Kandy Kush:

Lemon Cake: stunted

Headband:

[LongHairBri]

I hope he knows what he's doing! maybe he can show you how to add pic's too! lol

[Darkmatter]

Bah stupid busted links, they worked when I posted em' this morning. Anyways, here they are again. Lets see if they stay.

 

 

Kandy Kush:

 

Lemon Cake: Stunted (it's doing a lot better now)

 

Headband:

[tooldini]

Pretty sweet man. Thats something about the size I wanna do.

[Afi]

I look forward to watching you learn and helping you learn along the way but I have a feeling you won`t need it. I was really happy with my Kandy Kush and everyone knows you can`t lose with Lemon Cake. I have never tried Headband but I have heard it is some tasty stuff. :thumbsu:

Peace, Afi

[drtarzanmd]

There We Go " Darkmatter "

 

Looking Good Now ...

 

I won't be too much help ,

But I enjoy other peoples hard work

and Progress ...

 

Really Nice Set-up ...

 

What Size Room ?

 

Is this your Veg Room or Bloom Room ?

 

Anyways looking foward to watching you

become a Master Grower ...

 

Have to let Us know when Samples are Ready ...

 

Thanks for Sharing ....

[Mike Sativa]

Nice

 

Good luck with it !

 

Grow Grow Grow !!!

[Darkmatter]

Today we are looking much healthier. PH has somewhat stablized at 5.8-6.0. I have noticed that I seem to have gnats. I used some old hydroton and i am guessing I did not wash it well enough. I will handle them this weekend as I seem to have caught it early. I now have roots poking through the net pots that are white and healthy looking. I have the tops pruned to bush them out. New growth looks ok.

What Size Room ?

 

Is this your Veg Room or Bloom Room ?

The room is 16'X 16'X 7'

It is both for now. That is why I have them huddled in the corner like that. Next harvest I will build a partition and add some T5s or a MH for a veg/clone area. But for now this is all i could muster financially. I am going for a perpetual harvest in the end-game. This is to get me going before the world passes me by. The area you see will be my bloom room. Right now they are in veg (18/6 Photoperiod)

 

 

Lemon Cake is doing better:

 

Kandy Kush:

 

Headband:

[Darkmatter]

Well I went to the store and got some Azamax to fight the fungus gnats per teaches instructions. I drenched the hydroton and sprayed the outside of the pots. I will be repeating this every 2 days for a week or so.

 

[1337Gr33n]

Great looking grow dude. i'll be watching this one fo sho! i smelled some Kandy Kush at the rally from a certain someone. and it was lu-huh-vlee!

[Darkmatter]

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. 1st off I had to cover my lids with tin-foil because i noticed a small amount of brown algae growing on the air tubes inside of my buckets. I changed my water washed everything down and with the buckets now covered, there is 0 presence of it returning.

 

Things are growing well despite 2 problems I am having but will have to wait until pay-day to fix.

 

1st off. I am only using the lucas method now. I will be changing to dyna-grow nutes on friday. I did not like where my PH and PPM went with General hydroponics. I mixed 8micro/16flora and came up funky. 5.2 ph and 700 ppm. Also my teacher uses dyna-grow lucas style and has great results.

 

Woot for roots Lemon Cake!

 

 

Garden Profile:

 

After todays topping and spraying:

 

2 Girls on the right are Headband, 0 pests here:

 

Kandy Kush has some problems (That are my fault): I added azamax to my water and forgot to spray the roots on just this one. It is heavily infected with gnats now. But it is the only one as I am spraying all plants every other day still.

Thats KK in the front in this pic.

[Darkmatter]

My 2nd problem is what I think is a slight Cal/Mag diff. Gotta wait till friday to fix it.

 

[LongHairBri]

call me. I would't wait till Friday. cal/mag IS showing and those plants are too strong w/nitrogen. too green, leaf curling, pillowy

[Darkmatter]

Well things have been going better lately. I have changed to Dyna-Gro Nutrients using the Lucas method, and have been fighting the root gnats back fairly well. My girls have been on their new feeding plan for 2 weeks now. No more goofy PH/TDS levels. I have flushed them with 600ppm solution to get the old nutes out, and they are now sitting in RO water at 5.5ph / 900ppm. It's now time to flower these gals.

 

Roots look good enough to eat! (Lemon Cake A)

Lemon Cake A: I love the way this plant grows, Nodes are close together, and leaves are looking ok.

Headband is looking sweet:

 

 

 

 

 

My Kandy Kush plants still have a few gnats hanging on the roots,and are very lanky. I worry about them, I still give them azamax all over ( In the buckets on water change, and drenching the hydroton, spraying the roots, pots, and leaves every 2-3 days.One is stretching like crazy. The other looks ok.

One of the lower leaves, new growth is not doing this yet.

 

Learning a lot. I am not 100% pleased with the results so far, but I don't think I will be until the next grow. I will be dumping the bubbling buckets and going for a modified flood and drain bucket system that I have seen do EXTREMELY well. I will also be getting a R/O system. With my pain level increasing I can not keep hauling water forever.

[Hempcheff]

Lookin good

 

Get yur pump and ballast off the ground!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Darkmatter]

Oh and I moved everything to better use the space I have. I originally wanted to make the whole room a perpetual system so I have it huddled in the corner. This whole grow is moving after this harvest So i don;t need to do that anymore. I noticed I had the buckets laid out wrong when my mentor told me that the light footprint here is 3'X4' So I re-thought that as well.

 

Moved the light and buckets:

[Estimated Prophet]

Looking good!

Cant wait to see these girls grow flowers!

[LongHairBri]

Hempchef is right, keep electricity "waist high and you won't die"! your air pump and ballast need to be 3 feet off the ground. ask BrownThumbDave what happens when there's a water leak that reaches an air pump and you touch your light hood while standing in that puddle.

 

good times!

[LongHairBri]

also, I'd concider changing those clear air lines out for opaque (black) ones. 1/4" flex is cheap by the roll at Home D or Lowe's and they have all the fittings. over time alge will grow in the clear tubes, break loose and begin to clog your air stones. w/o air those plants will die in a few short hours

[Wild Bill]

Dyna-Grow and Lemon Cake, you can't go wrong with that combination!

 

People have told me Dyna-Grow is old school and I should switch to the newer ferts but I've been using Dyna-Grow for years and have always had great results.

 

FYI

Lemon Cake benefits more from a long slow cure than any strain I have ever run across. If you can wait for it you will be greatly rewarded. (Although it's darn good without a long cure too)

[Darkmatter]

also, I'd concider changing those clear air lines out for opaque (black) ones. 1/4" flex is cheap by the roll at Home D or Lowe's and they have all the fittings. over time alge will grow in the clear tubes, break loose and begin to clog your air stones. w/o air those plants will die in a few short hours

 

I have already bought the line. It will be installed monday!

[Darkmatter]

Kind of bummed. Headband hermied on me today i think.

 

Edit: Picture removed. Security issue.

[LongHairBri]

yep, he/she did

[Darkmatter]

Kind of bummed. Headband hermied on me today i think.

 

Yep yep, both of my Headbands hermied. My temp/humidity is fine even today: 81 deg 67% humidity max. There are no lighting problems. 0 pests (the gnats in my garden where on Kandy Kush, but they are gone now as far as i know. They have some nutrient build up and need a flush, so maybe that is what caused it?

 

Here is the same picture edited.

 

 

I am really bummed out right now it's been a rotten day from the second I got up. Now 2 out of 6 of my plants are getting the axe. 1/3rd of my harvest. It is less than 2 weeks into flower I am hoping lemon cake and kandy kush fill in the canopy to compensate. I am going to get in there tomorrow and do some bending. Hoping that will fill some gaps.

 

...What a week.I also found out that it will take over 25% of my income to get health insurance and I will have to wait 1 year to get my neck treated (pre-existing condition). :growl:

 

/endrant thanks for listening.

[Darkmatter]

Here is what Headband looked like 1 week ago. I will post new pics tomorrow if I have time. Lemon Cake is looking awesome and Kandy Kush is coming back too!

 

 

Lemon Cake 1 week ago:

 

 

I have also got the pump and ballast raised up off the ground now (thanks Hemp-Chef and LongHairBri).