Icemud's Mineralized soil tent grow with Intelligent Gro LED's.

[Icemud420]

What is a poor man's CO2 jug? (Even though my profile says I am a new member, I've been here for several years. I had to open a new profile with new address. Just an FYI.) But I've never heard of a poor man's CO2 jug.

Where did you find your containers? Those are the perfect shape and size for my grow space (next time around, that is). Do you have 7 plants? I have 8 indoor and 4 outdoor, including 2 males that I keep isolated and use for cooking. I'm doing some experimenting this time around with techniques. It's amazing how similar our set-ups are, right down to the size of the plants, except I don't have a ventilation system (Don't need one where I'm located). I'm eager for your harvest! It's nice to see that I'm not the only indoor soil grower left! LOL

Hey Gramaw!

The poor mans CO2 is just making CO2 by mixing water, yeast and sugar. Basically I use 2 liter bottles and 2 gallon milk jugs, poke about a pencil sized hole in the cap, fill about 3/4 with water (just tap works fine) add about 2 cups of sugar to the 2 gallon jugs, about 1 cup of sugar to the 2 liter bottle, and then add 1 small packet of yeast per container. These last about 1 week before you need to empty 2/3 of the water out, refill it, and add 1 cup of sugar, which will make it last another week.

Usually when I am closing up my tent I will give the jugs a shake, and instantly a jet of CO2 blasts out of the jugs...

The containers (pots) i think you are referring to, I picked up at the local hydro store, they are 5 gallon square pots. I have been having trouble with them though so I think next grow I may go back to smartpots or round pots. I seem to have better luck in them.

I have 7 plants in this tent flowering. I also have another tent, the same size with 6 plants in veg, in a v shaped scrog setup. and then I have a slightly smaller 3rd tent which has duplicate mothers of 4 other strains. I will be doing a feminized seed project soon so I can reduce the amount of strains I have to keep plants of as well as make room to try crossing them

Yeah, I will never go hydro...you just don't get the quality.. I mean hydro is great for people concerned with profit, but for me, I prefer the extra flavor, strength and smoothness of good old organic soil with a high brix focus..doesn't get better than that

 

[Gramaw49]

Thanks for the explanation. So, would the CO2 trick be beneficial outside of a tent? Or does the tent sort of "hold in" the oxygen? (I use a grow room.) I see that you have some white tips in a pic or two. I discovered a white-tipped fan leaf today on one of my plants and I'm getting ready to look it up to diagnose the issue, but if you know the solution to the problem already, feel free to pass along some advice. My 2 girls that are outside are looking rather sad and I think I need to re-pot them, but otherwise my grow is pretty much still right on track with yours! (Your ahead of me though)

 

[Icemud420]

Hey everyone, sorry for not keeping this journal updated. Been extrememly busy lately.



This grow is now finished. I ended up pulling about 8 oz total from the grow which was not too bad considering I used less than 300W total in my tent. The buds so far are far more tasty than any of my past grows, and after I figured out all my "stats" I came to find that these lights actually produced a better Gram/watt than any other methods I have done including HID, HID/LED combo, LED with different brands.



I am an organic soil grower, so yield is not usually extreme, however I take pride in growing very tasty, potent organic soil grown high brix buds, so I'm ok with not having huge Gram/Watt ratios...



So...

The total draw of both of these lights on full, WITHOUT the dimmer is 360w...however, since I used the dimming schedule, I actully on average used only 73.39w per module, so for my 2 lights this average 12/12 draw with the dimming schedule would be 293.55 W.

So my Grams Per watt would be 191.2g/293.55 = .65 G/W

Not as shabby of a yield when looking at it that way...



Well overall it was a fun test grow of these lights, and now that I have the brigher Generation 2 Intelligent Gro's with higher Umol readings, I think I will even beat these numbers next grow



Here are some photos of the buds after drying for 1 week, now they are curing

 

[Icemud420]

Here is a quick video showing my current grow. I am using the all new Generation 2 Intelligent Gro panels which offer higher Umol output, a slightly modified spectrum and using 3x lights instead of 2 in a scrog...Lets see how the Gen 2 perform

 

[Gramaw49]

Hey everyone, sorry for not keeping this journal updated. Been extrememly busy lately.

This grow is now finished. I ended up pulling about 8 oz total from the grow which was not too bad considering I used less than 300W total in my tent. The buds so far are far more tasty than any of my past grows, and after I figured out all my "stats" I came to find that these lights actually produced a better Gram/watt than any other methods I have done including HID, HID/LED combo, LED with different brands......
]

Nice harvest! Did you take any pics just before? I've been waiting to see them!! Please post them if you took any!
What day did you end up doing your harvest? I'm at about Day 52, and my girls have always been right on track with your grow. Also, did you strip your lower leaves at some point? (Some of the pics look like the bottom of the plants are bare -- not even any popcorn.)

My girls are starting to make me nervous -- 2 of them are starting to yellow so I fed them yesterday, and I'm backing off on how much I water, meaning less water, more frequently (which I think is what you did?) And my experiment with keeping 2 plants outside (to compare to my inside grow) is showing me that inside is better, at least in terms of growth and health and speed.

Btw, I've been drying my males to make butter which I'll probably do tomorrow or the next day. Ever tried it?

 

[Icemud420]

Here is an update video of my current gro.... I am testing the new Intelligent Gro 2 LED grow lights, they have a higher Umol output than my last grow, and a much fuller and more wide band spectoral output...So far my plants are looking the best they ever have and have extremely fast growth...

Enjoy the video..

 

[Icemud420]

 

[Icemud420]

Nice harvest! Did you take any pics just before? I've been waiting to see them!! Please post them if you took any!
What day did you end up doing your harvest? I'm at about Day 52, and my girls have always been right on track with your grow. Also, did you strip your lower leaves at some point? (Some of the pics look like the bottom of the plants are bare -- not even any popcorn.)

My girls are starting to make me nervous -- 2 of them are starting to yellow so I fed them yesterday, and I'm backing off on how much I water, meaning less water, more frequently (which I think is what you did?) And my experiment with keeping 2 plants outside (to compare to my inside grow) is showing me that inside is better, at least in terms of growth and health and speed.

Btw, I've been drying my males to make butter which I'll probably do tomorrow or the next day. Ever tried it?

Hey Gramaw!!!! Thank you much for your kind words... I did take some photos, but the leaves looked pretty ugly because of some lockout issues I had. hahaha The buds were amazing though and I am fully enjoying the fruits of my labor

Each strain had different finishing times and the difference between the earliest and last to harvest was about 2 weeks. I think that the earliest finished around day 62 of flowrering and the latest around day 75 of flowering ( I count from the flip).

I do strip the bottom leaves, but wait for the plant to kill them off before removing them. I do usually remove all the smaller branches which I call the "wannabe's" lol, which never seem to get enough light to produce. I remove them early in flowering after the stretch.

Yellowing leaves late in flowering is a pretty normal thing, as long as its the older fan leaves, usually this is due to feeding less nitrogen, and the plant starts canibalizing the nutrients in the leaves. Its typically normal unless it hits all the new leaves too, then it is more of an issue.

I used to water 1x per week, heavy volume and ended up always having crappy roots and only a small rootball, so someone recommended the less volume, daily feedings and so far I am amazed at how much better my plants are doing. As of now in early flowering, I feed them 2 cups of water, 1x per day. (5 gallon pots)

 

[Icemud420]

Hey, Happy Monday Everyone. I hope all of you had a great weekend!

Today makes Day 16 of flowering and I am so far really impressed with the Generation 2 Intelligent Gro's and how things are looking.

Just as a reminder I am running the lights on 100% full without the controller and currently I am flowering with a 12.25/11.75 flowering schedule. I really wanted to see what they were capable of producing and so far, I'm very impressed. It honestly at this point is looking similar to when I had my 1000w HID setup going as far as growth and the way the overall vscrog screen is looking.

I turned off a few channels of light today while I was doing some maintenance work in the garden today, and I thought It kind of looked like a cool photo so I took a few photos.. I mainly removed any dead or discolored leaves under the screen as well as any branches that were never going to make it to the light. It definitely made a good difference in airflow under the canopy.

I also did a very mild defoliation on top of the canopy. I wanted to just make a little better airflow as well as help allow light to some of the buds that were being hidden by fan leaves.

On the photos you will see some of the buds have some damage on them, like little brown spots and holes... I don't know why but I used a very light dose/foliar spray of bloomit and it seemed to have burned the leaves...mostly on the harlequin. Its not bad and it oddly didn't effect the pistils which usually are the things that I find show burning quickly but I don't think I will be using bloomit anymore. I will stick to amaze, pgr and my other ingredients.

So all last week I was feeding my plants just a mix of cal/mag and epsom salt and so this week I wanted to give the soil a mild dose of some organics. I really love my hydrolyzed fish so I have 5 gallons of r/o water bubbling... what I will do is each time I feed my plants daily, I usually give a total of 1 1/2 gallons, and each day I add this back, so all week I will be feeding them but the doses decrease. Then the following week back to the epsom and cal/mag. So far it seems to be working rather well.

So to the water I added 40ml of 2-4-0 hydrolyzed fish, potassium silicate 5ml, organic b 40ml 0-0-1, hydrolyzed squid 2-3-1, humboldt bloom 0-10-0 10% Ca, and 40ml of organic cal/mag 5:1,

Other than that I am really impressed so far with the scrog and I look forward to what it brings.

Here are the photos of the ladies after a little haircut today.. The spots on the leaves are from the foliar spray a few days ago.

 

[Icemud420]

Hey everyone!!

Quick update..

Today is day 19 of flowering and things are looking great. I have continued to feed the girls every day and it seems like right now they are sucking up at least 2 cups of water per day and are ready each day for feeding

Other than feeding the girls everyday, not much else to report on. The plants all have nice beautiful white pistils reaching for the lights, and all are starting to show trichome development as well

I have a feeling that this grow is going to exceed my expectations

 

[Icemud420]

Here is a quick update video for everyone to enjoy!

 

[Icemud420]

Hey everyone!

Day 24 Flowering..

So things are still looking really good in the tent and the girls continue to fill out their buds with nice white pistils. I have notices a few of the pistils starting to turn orange so it may be about that time in the cycle, or because I had given them a foliar spray the other day and they tend to turn the pistils orange if their slightly too strong.

So last week I have slowly been diluting their feedings to plain water and so today I started up a new bucket of nutrients bubbling that again will slowly be fed to the girls and daily diluted which really seems to be working great right now. I noticed just a slight yellowing of some of the lower leaves so it may be due to low N or possibly because its been getting very hot under the canopy. I changed the way my fan is blowing from above so it should help circulate better airflow under the canopy, so I will keep watch on the leaves and see if it gets better.

I added to the 5 gallon nutrient bucket: 30ml of EJ bloom, 30ml of EJ grow, 40ml of Cal/mag, epsom salt, Humboldt organic bloom and potassium silicate.

Here are today's photos of the girls.

 

[Icemud420]

Hey everyone....

Just a reminder!

I just wanted to let all of you know, that the Intelligent Gro LED discount of 15% will only be offered until August 22, 2014.

At this time the discount is going to be reduced to only 5%.

So, if you plan on getting Intelligent Gro panels at the best discount, you might want to consider getting them by August 22nd.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask and I will try my best to get the information you need. But just a heads up that the 15% discount will only be good for a few more days...

To receive the discount you must log into the Intelligent Gro website shopping cart and enter your code "ICE15%LED". The discount code will not work if you are not logged in. http://www.intelligentgro.com

 

[Icemud420]

Day 35 Flowering Update...

So everything has been going smoothly so far with this grow. I noticed a few of the lower fan leaves turning yellow on the Harlequin and the Black cherry cola, which at this time in flowering seems to be pretty normal from my past grows, but the girls continue to fatten up daily. The Harlequin for some reason, is not filling out as fast as it did last grow, and I am not really sure why since otherwise it looks healthy and no leaf discoloration. I am thinking it may have to do with my 12.25/11.75 flowering schedule so I reduced my daylight by 5 minutes this week and will remove 5 minutes each week until I am down to 12/12. I don't know if this is the case, but I can't seem to think of any other reason it is looking healthy, but just not filling in like last grow.

The other 2 strains look amazing and are filling in much fatter than last grow (at least it looks thaat way to me) Plenty of white pistils are still forming and it seems each day they are just getting fuller and fatter

. I'm seeking a lot of trichome development, but not as much as on other LED grows, so I am not sure as to why this is...my last grow seemed definitely more full of trichomes, but again that is just a visual observation and really can't be confirmed.

I so far am very happy with what I am seeing and I am surely hoping to hit that 1lb goal...not that I really care about yield weight, but just more as a personal accomplishment with LED...since I have hit 1LB with 1000w HID... if I can do it for about 1/2 the electric with LED, I will truely feel that LED meets my needs

Here are some photos for today...

 

[Icemud420]

A short update video

 

[Pass it Around]

Is there an actual reasoning behind having your lights go through a cycle every day?

 

[Icemud420]

Is there an actual reasoning behind having your lights go through a cycle every day?

I'm not quite sure I understand your question? Could you expand on it a little for me and I would be happy to answer. If I were to guess I think you may be asking about the use of the controller and dimming functions.... On the 1st run (which is finished now) I was testing the lights for the company... so I used the controller along with factory specs to see how they performed, and they actually gave me my highest Gram/watt over any of my other grows including other LED's, and HID lighting. With the current grow I am going for max yield to see the full potential of these lights (without the controller) so currently I have them on a 12.25/11.75 flowering schedule. The only reason I am giving them the extra 15 minutes of light is because I read studies where the extra light not only increased yield slightly, but also changed the Cannabinoid profiles in the buds.

In future applications and grows, I can see using the custom controller to assist in photmorphogenesis in growing your plants how you want to...need more stretch (cycle in more red) or need to reduce stretch (cycle in more blue)...

I think that is what you might have been asking...if not...let me know and I will try my best

 

[Icemud420]

Hey Everyone... I hope all of you had a good holiday weekend.

Here is the update for day 34 flowering...

Not much has gone on since last update, I have been giving the girls 2-3 cups of water daily and this week I have had a soil compost tea brewing, which is just some of my premixed soil, bubbled in a bucket. I noticed the girls have a slight bit of leaf curling so I have been trying to just give them water without nutrients to let them use what is in the soil.

So far everything is looking great and the buds seem to be getting to the next stage of development and slowly fattening up. Overall its just a waiting game at this point and still probably have at least a month to go

Here are today's photos. (I was holding a half dollar up for size reference)

 

[Icemud420]

Hey everyone!!

So today makes day 36 of flowering and the girls are really starting to get fatter by the day as well as the lower buds are growing larger and connecting to each other making some nice fat tops/cola's

I think this is going to be an excellent yield and still have at least 2-3 more weeks to go, maybe more

The harlequin finally looks like it is starting to fill out so I am thinking that maybe the longer light schedule might have delayed flowering but really not sure at this point, all I know is it seems to really be picking up speed the last week and filling out really nicely (front center plant)

I have to say the black cherry cola has to be one of the most fragarant strains I have ever grown and just brushing the sugar leaves lightly your hands will reak of sweet berries

I started my batch of earthjuice this week but only am using 1/2 the recommended amount since the plants still have some slight leaf curl too the tips.

I ran some R/O water through the harlequin and from 0ppm water in, the runoff was only at around 600ppm so it is sitting a little light, but right in that zone

Here are today's photos..

 

[Icemud420]

Hey Everyone...

Day 47 Flowering,

The girls continue to fatten up and look really good, and even the harlequin is growing some gigantic cola's despite the leaf discoloration. I decided today I would supercrop 2 of the large cola''s on the harlequin, to allow them to get under the lights more, as well as allow the lower buds that were being shaded to get more light.

I also repositioned many of the buds, as probably 1/2 of them have toppled over as of now due to weight, so I supported some with rubber bendy rope and the others I repositioned or slightly supercropped to help them get better overall coverage.

This allowed me to lower the lights slightly to bump up the intensity they are getting in hope to even max them out even more

So far I am very very impressed with the intelligent gro lights, they definitely have some huge buds growing in my tent right now, and they look very very healthy and smell quite impressive. Shouldn't be long now

I am thinking that probably 2-3 weeks max to harvest, but I will let the plants tell me when...

One thing I noticed with LED is that it seems that the flowering finishes up slightly faster than HID...maybe just the strains I currently am growing, but I seem to remember my HID setup running into the 80-100 day period quite a few more times that LED which seems to maybe take a week off... anyone else felt that at all with LED? Kind of awesome if you can up your gram/watt, flavor, resin and take a week off the cycle

Well Here are the photos for today...