Let's Grow A Mom Out! aka Journal of a Chinese LED Panel Junkie

Hey gang, welcome to my grow journal. I've finally decided to do one just to show people what I'm doing with LEDs and to have my grow style/environment critiqued by the LED forum crowd and anyone else tuning in. I'll be showcasing two of the strains I grow, Paradise seeds' Magic Bud and Barney's Farm's Blue Cheese:
MB 6 weeks.jpg BC 4.jpg
This first photo is a 6 week old MB from the SoG. Lots of growing left here actually. The second is a 4 week old cluster of BC. We'll get better views of them (I hope) later on in the journal.

They're both good strains for LEDs growers I believe and are damn easy for newb growers like myself, but will yield excellent results if grown right. The plants I'll be growing out are some moms from my SoG style grows so they've been heavily trimmed and pruned already. The idea with these is to produce a bouquet-like shrub of colas like this poor "little" Tangerine Dream I'm trying to bring in to port:
TD1.jpg
This plant is like a 100 years old in indica time. When I finally harvest it I'm gonna count the rings on it's trunk!

The reason I'm not keeping the SoG going is during the Easter holiday weekend there was a small problem, forever known as the Great Easter Weekend Holiday Clone Massacre, so I've got a gap to fill and I figure I'll replace those lost clones by flowering out their moms. And about now I guess it's time to finally see our two "lovely" ladies;

BC1.jpg Magic Bud.jpg
First Photo is the Blue Cheese, second the Magic Bud. You guy's know that "Ugly Duckling" story, right?

Ohh and you may have noticed the plants (clones originally), look a little odd with very tight nodes.This is a result of pruning and keeping your Mom's using the 12/1 gaslight veg schedule. Saves me a chunk of money but doesn't really produce well developed roots IMHO, but I'm working on that. Great for keeping Moms short with growth that is nominal but healthy, it's just so-so for vegging to me but with the right light source will produce super dense node spaces if you can't tell by the pictures. And for the record I also clone using this light schedule (12 on, 5 1/2 off, 1 on, and 5 1/2 hour off, for those who don't know 12/1), and it works fine for me.

If you've noticed I like to grow short plants. Two reasons really, one I think that LED grows, at least those without lenses, work better with smaller plants and even canopies. And two, for stealth/security reasons. I'd rather not lose my grow or have to hack some beautiful tree to shit if it's time to bug out. Small plants can be hidden and moved much easier. And they also have a tendency not to reek which I believe the LEDs have something to do with too. All this helps if I've got to break down my grow and I've had to do that already once this year, which is one time too many for me.

This will be an organic based grow and we'll be using the full BMO fertilizer lineup at half doses due to using Super Plant Tonic which really does make your roots so "efficient" you only need to use half doses of fertilizers at feedings. I've got the nuted to shit plants to prove it too . Plus I'll be adding some of Grandma's molasses (un-sulphered) and multi-B-vitamin drops occasionally to waterings. The plants themselves are growing in 3 gallon bags in a 50/50 mix of FFOF and Perlite amended with Lime, Dried Blood, Bone Meal and a dash of Soil Acidifier. The plants have also been fed/injected with Extreme Gardening's Mykos and Azos two weeks prior so I'm hoping that some nice colonies of beasties (MCA, so sad) are growing in the soil and around the roots. And I especially hope that the Azos has infected the plant's leaves for nitrogen fixing to happen. This helps them stay green till the end, but I never injected it into the root mass before so I'm curious to see if it will work this way. Also Epsom and wood ash will be on hand for any Cal/Mag problems, which I'm hoping to avoid this grow. There was some signs of a nitrogen deficiency last week with the Magic Bud, but adding some dried blood to it's last watering seems to have cured that, but I'll have to watch out for that during the grow.

Panel wise we'll have the plants in a 3'x4' grow area, primarily under a LED-Star 5x60 panel.

The LEDs on the 5x60 supposedly draw 4 watts each so we got 240 watts here.

And there are 2 Blackstar 240s added into that area so hopefully we've got enough light.
Cherry.jpg
Hope you guys like cherry or is this red dye number 3? I like this photo. It hides the dust on my panels .

I might add some T5 UVBs later for fun and I've been eyeing some 630nm wash lights so they might pop up too, but no promises there folks. Hell, I might just grow both plants under both Blackstars if I don't like where the 5x60 is taking them. But for now both plants will be growing under some T8 4x32 watt 4 footers that I usually use to start off my plants for my SoG.
Gemini.jpg
BC Left, MB Right.

The exact colors escape me now but I'll post them later. I'm doing this for a few reasons, primarily this is a technique I use to keep plants short by using the T8s light and the fact you can let the plants grow right into the bulbs, so the short version is you can screw with the plant and control your initial stretch a bit. Also I still need maybe two weeks to finish off a SoG of Magic Bud and I might have to harvest that TD bush a bit earlier to make room for my new ladies who may get a bit wide, which is OK with this sailor .

Environment wise the temperature will be between 78F and 82F degrees during lights on (12/12). Lights off temps can get as low as 69F degrees but never lower and the extreme high is 86F. Here's a little story, thanks to a short in my tent's thermostat I did record a monster 129 degrees F(!!!!) night this winter. Thank God/Buddha/Bob the space heater that the I use for emergency heating that the shorted thermostat was connected to had a cutoff temp and shut off finally, but I tell ya I was fucking gobsmacked standing there reading my temperature highs the next morning while smelling my crinkly plants. Humidity wise we'll be anywhere from a low of 40% to a high of 60%. I need to run an ultrasonic humidifier 24/7 otherwise humidity will dip into the 20% range which I just don't like. Mostly though we'll be between 45 and 55% humidity.

Oh and for those keeping score at home, the plants were introduced to the flowering area on 5/17 and were fed approx. 20 oz. of food made up of 1 ounce of Super Plant Tonic, 1/4 ounce (approx) of Grow It Green, and 10 CCs of Multi B mixed into one gallon of 6.5 ph'd water. On 5/18 the plants were lifted and found to be light, so they were fed approx 10 ounces of the same food mixed with a small amount of molasses. Next feeding will be straight water and no more Plant Tonic.

So stay tuned for the next ten or so weeks as we ask the age old question; "LEDs.... can they bring home the bacon?". I'll be posting once a week, and will only have a camera phone for photos, but I have been getting better with it. And for the record I'm shooting for some modest numbers with these plants. The Blue Cheese is not the greatest yielder, and I just took 16 clones off it 1 week ago so I'll be happy with a dried ounce, but I am shooting for an ounce and a half. The Magic Bud on the other hand should get an ounce and a half minimum, but I'll be shooting for the "big" two zips, which would be a record for me for growing in a 3 gal. bag actually. I was thinking of transplanting, but I need the space for my SLH SoG that I'm finally going to get going. Since I can't say I vegged these plants specifically for this grow, (this journal is kind of spontaneous and I wasn't even planning on flowering the Blue Cheese actually), and I think these numbers are a realistic goal. I'm a newbie grower using organic techniques with imperfect panels so I just don't see any big numbers for this grow. Plus these two girls are only part of a larger grow and aren't the main focus for my lights. I grow for myself so I'm not really interested in gpw, which is a ridiculous number to me if you're not including what it costs to run your air conditioner, fans, etc. in your equation, unless of course you can completely isolate your electrical usage for your lights. But I will do my best and post some numbers for you kiddies. And I do promise to finish this journal, regardless of the condition of the plants or yield and only death or incarceration, (God/Buddha/Bob forbid!) will stop me. And of course please chime in with any thoughts you may have. Take Care and Happy Growing everyone! I'm hoping we're gonna have some fun here.

PS Brought to you by Tangerine Dream. "The Lazy Man's Weed ™"

PPS Did I actually write "showcasing"?

Just a quick unscheduled update. Plants where put under the LEDs Sat. the 26th (relocated the TD's, plus some of the MB SoG has finished and is hanging, so I some found space) and so far so good.. Leds are roughly 24 inches above plant tops and will be lowered, (just the 5x60 actually), to around 18" later today.
They were fed on the 25th with a mix of approx. 1/3 ounce of "Grow It Green", 1/2 tsp of molasses, 1/2 tsp Epsom, and slightly less than 1 ounce "Flower Power" in 1 gallon of water. Each plant was fed 48oz(!) each and I'm happy and shocked to report the bags are getting lighter already (Hoo-Yah!).

So I'll see you later this week for a proper update and mo' betta' pics, hopefully.

Cherry - Copy.jpg
Cherry, Oh Cherry

FnB - Copy - Copy.jpg Closer - Copy.jpg
Blue Cheese foreground, Magic Bud background

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Magic Bud

Chaos - Copy.jpg
Blue Cheese

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Relocated and Marked for Death. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Now excuse me, I gotta go put on my suspenders and harvest that poor Tangerine Dream before she decides to hermi. Take Care and Happy Growing!