Well my name is Lebdog (often Lebster or some Leb Variant). I have gotten in to several different high level hobbies and would like to document my endeavors to grasp some mastery of hydroponics. I love riding motorcycles, mountain climbing and play bass in 2 great bands which play out frequently. After learning to fly remote control airplanes and seeing how valuable a blog system can be to someone seeking information, I hope to be able to offer my mistakes and hopefully triumphs as well for all to see. I appreciate all the knowledge I have gained from others as I combed this site for (literally) days total in search of the information which may assist me in my success.

My setup is a 8'x6' area build within a 12'x10' room. I used 2x4's for strength, so I can actually walk within the grow area if necessary (I have already done this several times).
I have two 4'x4' grow tanks with a 25 gallon reservoir for each grow tank.
The main light is an HPS1000 with an air cooled reflector.
I have a portable A/C in the room set at 71 degrees.
Under the grow tanks is my vegetation area with two T5's currently, but will get another 2 in a few weeks.
I have read about the usage of LED and since I am a stage designer also, implemented a basic LED (blue/red light) setup which I have used at night during the current veg. to provide ultraviolet spectrum light (similar to the moon is my theory).

I will add my pictures of the build now and then comment on what I did why as the beatings begin...

Attached Images

	ecog 4.jpg (43.0 KB, 55 views)
	ecog 5.jpg (43.8 KB, 49 views)
	ecog 10.jpg (41.9 KB, 55 views)
	ecog 14.jpg (64.8 KB, 52 views)
	ecog 15.jpg (58.3 KB, 60 views)
	ecog 3 (1).jpg (65.4 KB, 61 views)
	ecog5-24 2.jpg (84.6 KB, 64 views)
	ecog5-26 1.jpg (85.8 KB, 71 views)

__________________
.

You will notice one grow tray is 10" higher than the other. This was done out of necessity to accommodate two 4x4' tray in the 8'x6' room. I got the specs for the trays online and build the room first (pretty crummy mistake) the measurements were for the inside dimensions of the tray and so it wouldn't fit unless staggered. I plan to open the room if necessary as plants grow to accomidate this later (got hands full for now).

Currently since it's cool and the plants are in early veg, my HPS1000 is fed by cool (Goblin) filtered air which is shot outside my 2nd story window. I plan to close this light vent system and filter the grow rooms air outside separately during flowering.

I have 6 Headband 707, 6 Green Crack and 6 Dog Town OG clones about 1 week in to veg. for the Headband and GC and a few days for the Dog Town OG. I am considering upping the plant count from 9 per tray to 12 or even 16 since I can grow that high anyways.

I am using General Hydroponics FloraMicro and FloraGrow and have a TRI METER showing 6.2 pH (which I try to keep between 5.8 and 6.2), 600 for PPM and 71 degrees for the reservoir temperature.

__________________
.

I was thinking about the natural aspect of the veg. and flower cycles and logically arrived that there's not actually complete darkness outdoors. Providing a little blue light at night may simulate the moonlight an outdoor weed would see. As with music sometimes my logic may actually be worthless here, the last photo in my first post shows the stage lights I implemented in their blue mode.

I'd be interested to know what other's think of my first attempt at hydro logic... How do you feel about using these stage LED's in green for night work (just like green night led lights people use)?

It seemed that almost instantly upon waking for the first LED blue sleep the plants had more green in them. Could have been timing of roots taking...

Do you think Blue or Purple would work best (purple pictured here)?

Attached Images

ecog5-26 4.jpg (88.4 KB, 20 views)

__________________
.

Here are the plants in order as pictured:

-Headband 707 #1
Appear very healthy to me, topped them 3 days ago
-Headband 707 #2
Appear very healthy to me, topped 3 days ago also
-Green Crack
Appear very healthy to me, topped 3 days ago also
-Dog Town OG (the clones were very stressed at best, almost dead IMYO)
I kept the Dog Town under T5's for four days until the leafs came back to life.
The Dog Town has beautiful purple stems unlike the others. I don't like getting clones with leafs cut before I get them, just 'cause they probably don't cut healthy ones.
After reading, I am also suspect of how these Dog Town clones may have been taken from a near flower mother (3 leaf thing)? I don't know from experience though.

Attached Images

	ecog5-27 1.jpg (84.7 KB, 14 views)
	ecog5-27 2.jpg (95.9 KB, 13 views)
	ecog5-27 4.jpg (98.2 KB, 9 views)
	ecog5-27 5.jpg (84.0 KB, 15 views)

__________________
.

The plants are getting drip water 4x (9AM, 1PM, 5PM & Midnight) with lights on only at 15 minutes each on 18/24. The plants are in 4" Delta cubes in the hydroton. The tanks are setup to eb & flow also, but the roots aren't long enough yet IMYO and again I don't know squat.

I think that if I wanted to EB these tanks, I would have go with smaller pots and lower the Delta's. Is there anything someone could advice me here?

__________________
.

Hey Lebdog, nice journal.
Remember KISS - keep it simple stoner. We over complicate things sometimes.

I would flood them now. I use RW Hugo cubes, 6 inchers. Flood to just below where your roots are and you ought to be fine.

__________________
peace and blessings
Medical Grow Journal
Sun Shield reflector heat shield test

looks good man. i look forward to keeping up with this one and to see how the leds play out

I only put a Hugo in a potential mother. Next time I will lower the location of the rock wool or use the Hugo. I appreciate the advice, I know I kinda screwed up, but will this effect yield if I begin to flood during flower where the roots are guaranteed in the wet. I am afraid of screwing with the roots now if I lower the existing rock wool cubed in the pots?

__________________
.

Well in total disregard of the KISS moniker, I kept reading the various articles on training or not, topping or not, vertical grows and so on and of couse hit SOG, where I remember a High Times cover at least ten years ago with a SOG on the cover and didn't even know what it was other than beautiful and tasty looking.

After researching the best way to use my current light (and potential for additions), I decided to undertake an attempt at the ScrOG grow and training method. I went to the hardware store looking for the best training screen I could find and came across something that looks good for me. Chicken wire looked too small and to prone to cutting the plant. See attached image of before and after trimming to my size. I will have 4 screens total, 2 over each 4x4 tray and cut the screens to 22x46. Later I will surround them in 1x2" wood and hopefully making them a little small will leave a little room for me to work around them (yes I can get to the back of the grow room 6-8")...

Next, actually first I went to the SG Valley met this guy from Craigslist who sold me a pretty nice water filtration system for $100 brand new (again pictured). This should sweeten the buds a bit and I will feel good knowing I am using it.

Last night I tied over the older flowers and plan to being the ScrOG in a week or so... The plants will let me know when they are ready (and hopefully someone here at RIU).

Attached Images

	ecog5-29parts 1.jpg (55.7 KB, 16 views)
	ecog5-29parts 2.jpg (46.2 KB, 11 views)
	ecog5-29parts 3.jpg (86.2 KB, 13 views)
	ecog5-29parts 4.jpg (54.0 KB, 12 views)

__________________
.

your plants are to close for a scrog. Scrogs are better for smaller spaces where you have less height room to work with. usually you want each plant to have around 1cft of mesh for itself to fill up. I dont understand why you didnt go with a SOG? it would be much more effective for your set up i believe, and since you have two separate trays, you could stagger your harvest. It might not make a perpetual grow but i feel if you get the system down and do it right and are serious about this then a SOG would ultimately yield more for you and would be easier to maintain than a scrog.

thats just my 2cents though