First grow - small setup - in need of help from experienced growers. - Medicinal

[LukesMeds]

Hello.
I'm very new to forums and asking for help from an established community but I hope there will be a few helpful people to oversee my grow.

A little about myself and current situation...
I'm a 21 year old Australian male who suffers from a mental condition known as PTSD. After many years of being on different medications and seeing different "professionals" I've come to realise that cannabis is the best source of medication and help for my problems.
Enough about my personal life and more about why I'm here.

I currently have a large amount of old bag seed and have germinated and sprouted four plants so far, they are around 1 week old after being under a 400W HPS light. Being from Australia and seeing as though it's almost summer, my closet is becoming very hot (around 30-38C) and my plants are starting to show signs of heat stress. After doing research online I've come to the conclusion that perhaps LED lights would be better suited for my needs.With this being said, I have purchased a MARS 96x3W light which is around 180 true Watts.
I have seen positive reviews and outcomes from this brand of light and should receive it in the mail within the next few days.
It's to my understanding that the plants react differently to LED grows such as them needing more potassium? However I'm not totally sure on this.

Words wouldn't even begin to describe how thankful I would be to have a few people who could follow this post (as I will be updating regularly) and help me along the way.
I will be uploading pictures shortly and will be checking this thread very often.

Thank you in advanced to anyone out there willing to help someone in need. It really would mean A LOT.

Luke~~

 

[ActionHanks]

You wont need drastically higher amounts of potassium. Maybe 1 extra does in your regiment somewhere.

Made the switch to LED a year or so ago, but i always pull my hps out in the winter. I"ll be following this m8, good luck

 

[Rentaldog]

Im still pretty new to things myself, but my first grow was done start to finish with a 100W Advanced LED panel. I followed the usual feeding schedule advised by Fox Farms and things went great! Got about 60ish grams dried if I remember, so nothing great but not bad for one small light!

Just be sure to have a way to adjust the distance your light is from your girls. I have small lengths of chain from the hardware shop with the last length cut so I can hang my light from it. Just an example, im sure there are better ways

Its pretty important to be as close as you can with these lights since they dont penetrate as well as others. My LED produces no real heat, after being on for a month or so you can touch the glass cover and its cool. That being said, I have heard other peoples LED's have bleached their plants when they got too close. This isnt an issue with mine so far, but its something to keep an eye on!

Good luck with your grow bud, hopefully LED will get your heat issues under control! Barring that, have you thought about running your lights on schedule at night instead of during the day? I dont know how drastic the night and day temperature changes are on your side of the world, but it might be an idea to consider if it helps you keep that 400W running.

 

[LukesMeds]

You wont need drastically higher amounts of potassium. Maybe 1 extra does in your regiment somewhere.

Made the switch to LED a year or so ago, but i always pull my hps out in the winter. I"ll be following this m8, good luck

Thank you, Hanks. I plan on doing the same thing in winter unless this LED is phenomenal or unless temperatures are too cold.
One thing I find a little confusing however is the process of adding just potassium and exactly how much to use, but I will cross this bridge as/if it comes.

These are the vegetative nutes I'm currently using. I'll take some photos of my plants when people aren't home so they can be under natural light etc.

 

[LukesMeds]

Just be sure to have a way to adjust the distance your light is from your girls. I have small lengths of chain from the hardware shop with the last length cut so I can hang my light from it. Just an example, im sure there are better ways

Its pretty important to be as close as you can with these lights since they dont penetrate as well as others. My LED produces no real heat, after being on for a month or so you can touch the glass cover and its cool. That being said, I have heard other peoples LED's have bleached their plants when they got too close. This isnt an issue with mine so far, but its something to keep an eye on!

Good luck with your grow bud, hopefully LED will get your heat issues under control! Barring that, have you thought about running your lights on schedule at night instead of during the day? I dont know how drastic the night and day temperature changes are on your side of the world, but it might be an idea to consider if it helps you keep that 400W running.

Hi Rental, thanks for your post.
I currently have the same system for lowering the light and it works fine so I will stick with it.
I plan on using the recommended light distance advised by the manufacturer for my plants. I've seen a few problems online from the discoloration by the lights but I'm hoping it will be fine if i stick to the advised distance.

My lights are on the standard 18/6 and they are off from 12pm - 6pm which keeps it at around 28C. The weather is kind of weird where I'm from, often we get 4 seasons in one day but summer can get up to 40-45C. So that's a little worrying.

I'm not even sure on the strain or anything but I'm hoping to get at least a few ounces from two medium-small plants just so I can start growing a few autos and not run out in the mean time.

 

[Noobie1]

Great to see a few more Aussie's on here, I will follow along as well LukesMeds

 

[Noobie1]

Hi again Luke , I see you say you get 4 seasons in one day, You sound like you live on the south coast as like my self, That's what us locals say, Just reminded me of the locals here

Yeah i have mine turn off at 10am & turn back on at 4pm , That's because the bedroom it is in is facing north & it gets hot at that time of day, & if you ever need to buy good feminized seeds, seedsman.com is a great site, Each of mine have always shown up with out fail.
Talk soon

 

[LukesMeds]

Hi again Luke , I see you say you get 4 seasons in one day, You sound like you live on the south coast as like my self, That's what us locals say, Just reminded me of the locals here

Yeah i have mine turn off at 10am & turn back on at 4pm , That's because the bedroom it is in is facing north & it gets hot at that time of day, & if you ever need to buy good feminized seeds, seedsman.com is a great site, Each of mine have always shown up with out fail.
Talk soon

Thank you Noobie1, it's very comforting to know that this kind of help is available and it's very appreciated
You guess correctly and it's a very southern thing to say.
The site that caught my eye was bonza seeds but hearing about your success with seedsman I will most definitely give them a try.

How have you been finding the Mars so far?

 

[Noobie1]

Thank you Noobie1, it's very comforting to know that this kind of help is available and it's very appreciated
You guess correctly and it's a very southern thing to say.
The site that caught my eye was bonza seeds but hearing about your success with seedsman I will most definitely give them a try.

How have you been finding the Mars so far?

Haha, I knew you might be a local to the south, We had 4 seasons here just yesterday LOL. Any how, as for the Marshyrdro, I bought the 600watt with the Growth & Bloom switches, I found that with 1 switch on it only draws 180watt, If both are turned on, Draws about 350watt .
I just have a small 1.2m squared tent, So not that big, I only just got an exhaust fan & now my temps are going good & sitting on 25c, Where as before I got that, My temps where hitting above 30c even with a fan just blowing inside , So heat is still a little issue with the LED.
I am having the same sort of issue with some of the leaves turning yellow, But it really could be a number of things which a few have tried putting their finger on, I know down here we have very hard water & testing the PH it was off the scale, way to high,
So that's another thing I am looking into, I am a beginner indoor as well, But have had great success outdoors.
I,ve had friends that use HPS & they just use nutrients from Bunnings, I didn't think they would be good enough, So I am mixing things up, Good hydro nutes with a couple, & cheap Bunnings fertilizer with a few others, Just to see what happens.

Im sure we will keep chatting through this first grow,

Talk soon

 

[LukesMeds]

Yeah it was a shocker haha.
Hmm, that's a little concerning to me as ideally I don't want to be running the exhaust until things start to get a little stanky. I've just got an oscillating desk fan and when I have the wardrobe open it stays in between 26-30, however I haven't seen how hot it'll get when the weather is searing with the wardrobe open. I'll just have to see temps when I get it.
I'm not going to speculate on what might be the cause of the yellow leaves obviously but I hope you can get it sorted!
The person I see at the hydroponic shop recommends that I leave a bucket of water out for 24 hours to lower the PH but haven't tested the water straight from the tap so I'll have to do that soon.
That's odd, I wouldn't of thought it would be enough too but hey, if it works it works!

Yes I look forward to see where our MARS projects go and if they can emulate something like oilmakers or wazzas haha

 

[LukesMeds]

These are my poor heat stressed babies, if you look closely you can see some whitefly marks. I'll be going to the Hydro store tomorrow just to see what the person I regularly see recommends.
I feel as though I might be having a slight nutrient problem too based on the new leaves that are forming.

 

[Noobie1]

Hey @LukesMeds , How did you go, Did your lights turn up.
Also I was just thinking, I see you say you keep the cupboard door open, If you can, I would suggest you keep it closed especially on the 6 hour dark, You don't want any light at all hitting them in the dark phase, & if its not all ready, They say if you paint the cupboard inside with a matt white paint, It will reflect much more light, Or there is also other methods you could look into .
Cheers

 

[LukesMeds]

Hi @Noobie1, yes my lights rocked up pretty quickly and all seems to be going well. I've seen some really fast growth so far and my heat problem seems to be all good however we haven't had a really hot day yet. Yeah, my thought process behind it was kind of drastic times = drastic measures but I'm able to keep my doors shut with the temp being at a usual 28C.

How have your problems been working out?

I will post pics in the coming days but some leaves on my plants have been coming out a little... "special" like the much smaller leaves don't have jagged edges, this isn't every leaf, just a few on each plant.

 

[LukesMeds]

Just a small update, everything is seemingly going fine. Still seeing some awesome growth! However one plant is showing slight nute burn, only very minor on two leafs.
I will upload a pic in the coming week of them outside again but in the meantime here are my lady's (hopefully)

 

[LukesMeds]

I also believe I've spotted male pre flowers on one plant but the others are yet to show sex. I feel as though with my luck they will all turn out male . I ordered 5 seeds from Flash seeds a while ago and received an email on the 19th saying that they have been dispatched and will take an estimate of 5-25 days, so I'll be anxiously waiting for that.

In the meantime I'm just going to transplant the plants to larger pots and start the flowering cycle and hope for at least one female.