LED - CFL blending with Blueberry and Chocolope {1st grow-growjournal}

The Mission
I started my first grow roughly two month ago and decided to start a journal to show how proud I am of my babies and to get valuable feedback from an experienced and mature community. I didn't wanted to bother you with slow root grow that's why I figured I may start later
This may be interesting for some ppl, since I am blending LED and CFL lights of a “high quality” and have some imo sweet strains to experiment on.
My goal is to have at least two mother plants and establish a perpetual monthly harvest with clones from those mom's.

The Events:
A small recap of the things happened so far:
01-22: Seed germination (Water 24h + paper cloth 2 days)
01-26: transplanting healthy seeds into Jiffy’s
02-01: Thinning out of seedlings; started Rhizotonic from CANNA (4ml on 1l)
NOTE: I started off with a 24h lightcycle but successively regulated it down 1h each night to arrive at a 20/4 cycle (the middle of 24 and 18/6 ^^)
02-14: Transplantation into DIY soil
02-21: started Canna Bio Vega
03-01: started Neem-oil treatment

The Setup:
Vegetationbox:
1m x 1m x 1,8m
[Small outtake fan inside duct] [big 250 W squirrel cage until now]
1x 125W CFL ~6500K [20h on / 4h off] in Adjust-a-wing reflective hood
Temp.: ~ 23-26 °C
Humidty: ~40-50

Flowerbox:
1,4m x 1,4m x 2m
250 W Squirrel cage outtake fan
1x 155 W LED Spectra Unit Special
1x 125 W CFL ~2700K in Adjust-a-wing reflective hood
Temp.: ?
Humidity: ?

The Genetics:
ALL regular non feminized; Nirvana Seeds have been ordered online and DNA and DP bought in Netherlands.

[Old seeds ~1 year old]
NIRVANA: White Rhino, Nirvana Special
Germination rate: [WR] 2 of 3, [NS] 2 of 3
Seedling Succes: [WR] 1 of 2, [NS] 2 of 2

[New Seeds ~3 months old]
DNA: Chocolope
Dutch Passion: Blueberry
Germination rate: [CL] 4 of 6, [BB] 4 of 10
Seedling Succes: [CL] 3 of 4, [BB] 3 of 4

The Medium:
I am using a self-made organic soil mix, hoping to provide a sound nutrition and buffer base for my little angels.

2.5 units of coco fiber
2.5 units of nutrition low seedling soil
0.5 units of Perlite
0.5 units of hydroclay
1 unit of worm castings
1 cup of fine dolomite lime

They are kept in 0.7l pots and I will transplant them in about a week

I mixed it thoroughly and the babies seem to like it until now, any advice on known issues with similar mixes?


Since pictures tell more than a million words here are some shots of my babies with their respective age at that time (took them over the course of last weeks).
Date: 02-25 (1 month, 3 days from day 0)
View attachment 1483549View attachment 1483551View attachment 1483552View attachment 1483554View attachment 1483555

Date: 02-26 (1 m, 4d from day 0)View attachment 1483560View attachment 1483561View attachment 1483562


Date: 02-28 (1 m, 6d from day 0)
View attachment 1483565View attachment 1483566View attachment 1483567View attachment 1483568

Date: 02-28 (1 m, 6d from day 0) They are getting bigger
Question: Should I be worried about the purple coloring of the stem at the internodes?...
View attachment 1483576View attachment 1483577View attachment 1483578View attachment 1483579View attachment 1483580View attachment 1483581View attachment 1483582View attachment 1483583

Here is a group shot from yesterday 03-09 and an overview of the vegetation box:
View attachment 1483584View attachment 1483585

The Next Steps
1) I am waiting for the second set of five finger leafs to appear and then I want to take cuttings and put them under the LED with a 12/12 cycle to determine their sex.
2) All girls will be transplanted into bigger pots (3,5 l) this weekend or next week.

Any advice, feedback on the setup, lighting or genetics or a combination of these factors would be very much appreciated!

I will try to keep you updated at least twice a week!

PACE

For some reason the pics above were not showing correctly:

Date: 02-25 (1 month, 3 days from day 0)



Date: 02-28 (1 m, 6d from day 0)


Date: 03-08 (1 m, 15d from day 0)
They are getting bigger

Question: Should I be worried about the purple coloring of the stem at the internodes?..


And at last a group pc and a quick look at the small setup:



Enjoy, more are to follow today!

Cheers

Dudes,

my babies just keep on growing... suave.sam reminded me to place the light a little closer to stop the strong elongation of one Blueberry sweetheart. I measured the pH of the soil, because i was worried about the purple coloring; but the pH test came in at ~7, so it's all good in the ground. Apparently my dgital pH tester is broken and I need to get a new one, but the water pH should be fine since I have been watering them out of a fertilized reservoir the last week and just measured the pH

Here are some pictures from 2 days ago:
Date: 11-03 (1m, 18d)

And here is a pic of the LED Light for the flowerbox:


Hope you enjoy; comments and feedback is very much appreciated!

pace

Hi there!



The light is appr. 40cm away from the canopy:


And here is a pic of the little "musicbox" hanging from the top and entertaining my little ones with Beethoven, Bach, Chopin and a little Chet Baker


I have one quick question for you guys: do I need to worry about or check PPM/EC when using RO-water?

pace!

hi there!

the last couple of days i've been seeing some strange coloring of some of the leaves.
The green on the outer part of the leaf is less intense (a little yellow-ish) than the innerside at the main vein...As one may be able to see from the crappy pictures I took:

Does anybody knows what might be the cause of that symptom?

Otherwise they are looking great:
Date: 03-19 (1m, 24d from day0; 30 days in veg.)


Hope to finally get some comments and feedback from you guys^^

pace!

Ya drop the light closer. Too much stretch on those plants imo. And the leaves look ok to me. Don't sweat the small stuff ya kno. Plants are really good at what they do, which is grow big and produce flowers . But good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing some great results

smhsmichael said:

Ya drop the light closer.

Click to expand...

Its appr. 10 inch away from the canopy is that ok?

smhsmichael said:

But good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing some great results

Click to expand...

And thanks for stopping by!

Thanks to smhsmichael I have been tempted to try some low stress training today on my elongated Blueberry:

The other babies are comming along just fine, considering the light was 15-20 inches away from the canopy


I need to buy a microscope or a magnifier to check out the sex, because they are showing first signs I think. I just wish I had a better cam to ask you guys for advice with sex determination...

hey i'll be following, i'm setting up a led grow with cfl sidelights in a cabinet, and i've got some dp blueberry i'm excited to grow not sure it will be in first batch thou cuz i'm convinced i'll kill my first girls. but i've be doing lots of research here and books just finished the "grow bible". my only thought is those pots might be a little small, are you planning to swap them again? if your planning cloning wide plants trained to branch are good for that but you need bigger pots. mj likes to make lots of roots and wider pots support wider plant growth and gives the roots room to grow

PrezDickie said:

hey i'll be following, i'm setting up a led grow with cfl sidelights in a cabinet, and i've got some dp blueberry i'm excited to grow not sure it will be in first batch thou cuz i'm convinced i'll kill my first girls. but i've be doing lots of research here and books just finished the "grow bible". my only thought is those pots might be a little small, are you planning to swap them again? if your planning cloning wide plants trained to branch are good for that but you need bigger pots. mj likes to make lots of roots and wider pots support wider plant growth and gives the roots room to grow

Click to expand...

hi dickie, thanks for following! and have a little faith in your grow, if your unfaithful your babies might feel it ^^ its also my first grow so it just cant get worse
Sure i will transplant them, probably in a couple of days, im still waiting for a little more root growth and then they will get a new 3,5l home and the motherplants will get a big 12l pot each (hope to select 2 moms).

pace.

This is all looking great. I'm going to stick around for this. Subbed. +1

Hi again!

SceneMachine said:

This is all looking great. I'm going to stick around for this. Subbed. +1

Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch for following!
I have some picture updates ready---

The Blueberry is handling the lst pretty well and after only one day the canopy is already growing (almost) straigt up:




Also I think i nute-burned some rascals, what do you guys think about the 2 plants on the right?:


This Chocolope is looking really good, I think I also can make out some female pistols, would show you a pic but my cam is just 5 MP and 10years old...:



Here are some pics of the canopies from Blueberry:


White Rhino:


Chocolope:


Feedback and comments always welcome!

pace.

those plants are looking great. I don't see any signs of serious nute burn, so I think ur ok there. And good call on the lst. Its crazy how they prop back up in a day or so

Forgot to add a couple things. First, I love the idea of a music box in the grow tent. Awsome! I want to incorporate that into my tent too.
Regarding the purple stems, I have seen that on my plants and many other growers plants. So dont worry about it.
I like to judge the health of the plant from the leaves. Imo, that's the easiest way to monitor plant health

smhsmichael said:

Forgot to add a couple things. First, I love the idea of a music box in the grow tent. Awsome!

Click to expand...

thanks but its really not my idea... saw it in a j.cervantes documentary and just had to have it ^^

smhsmichael said:

Regarding the purple stems, I have seen that on my plants and many other growers plants. So dont worry about it.

Click to expand...

thanks mate, now ill be able to sleep again

smhsmichael said:

I like to judge the health of the plant from the leaves. Imo, that's the easiest way to monitor plant health

Click to expand...

Ill keep that in mind, thx!

pace.

Hi there!

here comes a small sunday update:
all plants | age: 1m 27d (30 days of vegging)

the trained Blueberry is commng along very nice:


While watering the rascals today I took a look at some of the roots and was astonished how fast theyve grown, I think its a little root/pot bound! Im transplanting them this evening so they can continue to grow:


However I think they all look fresh and healthy, what do you guys think?


Thanks at all for following!
pace.

nice grow/setup! looking great so far man ! dont you just love the plant structure of the Chocolope strain? i dont know why, i just find them to be very beautiful and symetrical and perfect. yeah, def get them transplanted asap! other then that, leaves all look really healthy and ready to go! ( always watch the leaves. ) they will explode here soon im sure.

till then, heres a couple porn pics of MY Chocolopes! Happy growing!

DaLeftHandMan said:

nice grow/setup! looking great so far man ! dont you just love the plant structure of the Chocolope strain? i dont know why, i just find them to be very beautiful and symetrical and perfect. yeah, def get them transplanted asap! other then that, leaves all look really healthy and ready to go! ( always watch the leaves. ) they will explode here soon im sure.

till then, heres a couple porn pics of MY Chocolopes! Happy growing!

Click to expand...

Awesome pics dude and thanks for checking out my grow! the Chocolope is fuckin beautiful, the leaves are already covered in a very light and thin crystal layer I think one of them is def. a female, I cant wait to see them flowering!

pace.

4 of my little ones found a new, bigger 3,5l home; they now have a yard to play in =D
sadly i have to make new soil tomorrow so the other ones have to wait, i checked all roots though and they still have a two days to go in the old pots.

The trained Blueberry is growing around the plant next to her ^^

How do you dudes think I should go about sex determination? Take cuttings and put them under 12/12 or wait and try to see with a magnifier?

pace.

Leaf coloration is looking text book my dude. And the plant aren't showing signs yet of sex?