A51 XGS 190 LED - Organic Grow Journal

Hello everyone, finally started my first grow. It's been a little over two weeks since the plants popped from seed and I could use some help. I'll get right to it:
Light: A51 XGS 190
Strains: 5 Dutch Passion Blueberry, 1 TH Seeds Burmese Kush
Soil Mix: 3 parts peat, 3 parts Earthworm Castings, 2 parts perlite, 2 parts coco.
Amendments: 1 part each (TBSP per gal) Down to Earth Kelp meal, Neem seed meal, fish meal, fish bone meal, oyster shell flour, and gypsum as well as two parts crab meal. Half cup of amendments per gallon of soil if that matters.
Room: semi sealed, small walk-in closet. One small ocilating fan. Temps fluctuate mostly between 75-85.
Humidity is around 40% but dips down to 30% when the cups dry out. I'll need to add some ventilation to keep it cool and deal with humidity when I transplant into 3 gallon GeoPots - (these should fit perfectly in my 2 x 3 space) Also still need an inline fan and carbon filter for the smell. Soon to come.

My goal is to maximize efficiency with the foot print of the light (recommended 24x36in) and plant enough blueberries to pick a winner and clone a mother with a relatively short veg time. My plan of attack is to use a modular scrog method(small individual screens attached to each pot), inspired by verdantgreen's led grows over on ICMAG. If you haven't seen them, go check it out!:]

I started the germinated seeds in 16oz solo cups, (I think should have done 12 oz).
I didn't really know what I should start the seedlings in so 2 of the blueberries were planted in just the base mix with no additional amendments (labeled these BB). And the other 4 plants are in a blend of my base mix and some fox farm ocean forest that i had laying around. (BBFF & BuKu)

Turns out the plants in the FFOF mix are doing much better. One Base Mix Only seed had a hard time sprouting and popping its seed coat off, in effort to get it going I carefully surgically removed it with a needle, it is 3 days behind the other plants. The other Base Mix Only plant has had some sort of ailment since it's first set of leaves grew. I was hoping it would grow out of it, but it hasn't quite done so.
Would love to hear if there is anything i can add to help it and all the other plants stay/get healthy.
here's some pictures spanning the grow so far.
Day 6 from sprouting: (stunted seedling is 3 days behind.)

Day 9:

Day 11:

Day 13: - Sick Blueberry in Base Mix I Top dressed with some EWC and watered them (second time since sprouting) the next day, with an Aerated compost tea I also sprinkled some Pondzyme w/ Barley (inoculant similar to Great White) around the edges of the condensed dry soil to try to reach the roots.

That was Wednesday.....boy did they love the tea. Fast forward 2 days:
Sick BB: Any idea's whats wrong with this guy.

Stunted BB:

2nd tallest BBFF:

Tallest BBFF - this one has been a stretcher since day 1. Easily the most vigorous grower:

3rd Tallest BBFF: - this one looks the healthiest and prettiest in my opinion. A bit slower but needless to say she's got my attention:

And finally the Burmese Kush: - it's starting to look like a Kush that's for sure. Leaves have been a bit droopy since they sprouted, but it looks pretty healthy to me. Thought's?


I still have a few things to figure out, but I'm glad to be on my way.
Any recommendations on a fan and filter? And what the hell is wrong with the sick BB!? I know it's a pretty long first entry, but now that everyone is caught up hopefully you guys can give me some advice and any fellow LEDers can find out how this light performs once and for all! Feel free to post any questions or comments, I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys.
PS: if I f'd up the attachments its my first time posting so bear with me.

Congrats on starting ur first grow... Your bb should be fine... It's a very picky plant, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the ailments come from planting the seedlings into hot soil ( hot meaning high nutrient levels ) generally it's best to plant seedlings into light warrior however I have planted them into ffof forest to when I didn't want to purchase another bag. It helps to cut with perlite. Also I would cut out the tea for now. Just use water ph'd to 6.5 and try to let them be for a bit and I'm sure they will bounce back. We are more likely to kill the plant making rash decisions and over watering than anything else. Just my two cents. I'm sure another grower will chime in soon good luck on your grow I'll be watching!! Happy growing

Hey Cali weed! Thanks for your response I think you misread though, probably my fault since it's so long. the sick seedling was planted into a light (too light maybe?) mix with only 30% EWC as a nutrient source. 4 of the other plants were planted into the same mix, with about half Fox Farms mixed in. Those are the ones doing best actually. I was assuming the plant has some kind of deficiency judging by the other plants' good progress. Any insight on that? also the tea is not nutrient based, it just adds beneficial microbes to the soil, and in my understanding cannot damage the plants aside from over application like overwatering or improper brewing technique ie. brewing anaerobic bacteria/pathogens. Not sure if you're an organic soil guy, but read up on ACT it really is amazing stuff. Thanks for stopping by!

Definitely misunderstood. Only other thing I can think that would cause problems like that would be ph problem or overwatering

Cali weed said:

Definitely misunderstood. Only other thing I can think that would cause problems like that would be ph problem or overwatering

Click to expand...

Ahh, that actually could be it! i am not ph-ing the water and the base mix has no ph buffer. I'll have to get a ph tester asap!

How r things growing ?

All of them are growing in well. They are working on the 5th node. I believe this Wednesday will be week 4. The stunted BB has now passed the 3rd tallest BBFF in height(the pretty one). The sick BB is still sick but hanging in there.

They needed to be watered but I was waiting for my pots to come as I wanted to transplant them, I think I waited a bit too long and the bottom 1st set of leaves started to curl and die on a few of the plants. Pots haven't come yet, so I watered them last night with another batch of compost tea, they seem to have responded well. I will try to post pictures tomorrow. They all definitely need to get out of these cups and into their new pots and the good soil mix. I'm hoping that it will stabilize the ph and give them a good kick to grow in. I also dropped the light to 20 inches today from 25. Still running low power as suggested per Area51 (18-24" on 100w mode for veg). I've heard of others burning their plants with this light. All in all just trying to be patient.

One question, would it be detrimental to pull off the mostly dead bottom leaves?(the first set of true leaves) pics will be up by noon. Hope everyone had a happy 4/20.

So here's a pic I just took, not sure why, but they got a little droopy over night. I last watered on saturday, maybe they're drinking it up a lot quicker now that they are bigger. Should i transplant before topping or can I get away with topping the healthier plants while in these cups? Hopefully my Geopots come today. I'll try to take better pics tonight!

Hi victoroni
I have read (somewhere on rui) the blueberry strain carries some mutations.
These mutants can give a better end product in smell, taste and yield than there non mutant sisters.
I will try and find the post and link it.
Happy growing
p.s subbed

Hey mulanjegold! I am definitely going to ride them all out to see! Sorry for the lack of updates school has been keeping me busy. Since I last posted I topped/fimmed the plants to the best of my ability while still in the cups. That was Thursday the 24th, and on Sunday (27th) I transplanted them into 3 gallon geopots. I was worried about stressing them out, but it seemed like they were doing poorly in the cups and growth had already slowed so I decided to top them while waiting for my pots to arrive. Growth is still slow, but these are pictures from today, 5 days later and I believe all of the plants are at least growing 2 new tops, some even have 4:]

The sick blueberry is coming back to life in the new soil mix, i noticed it gaining color back in the upper set of leaves within a day of transplant. It looks like its doing much better. My only problem at this point is temperature is a bit high at 80-84 when I open the closet. I still need an inline fan/ventilation however I am broke and will likely have to make do opening the closest and turning on the AC for a little and opening a window at night for another week. Its been hot down here in socal the last week 90+ so my temps are a few degrees warmer than before.

On to the pictures! BBFF 1, 2 and 3 in the same order as before from strongest to weakest. Although it looks like BBFF 2 is doing stronger now. BBFF3 is still the prettiest and healthiest but it is the slowest grower of the bunch. You can see how much better the sick BB is doing, and the stunted BB might just be the allest plant now. BuKu is still alive and kicking.

I can't seem to keep the bottom set of leaves from dying, please let me know what I can do to prevent this and if you notice any deficiencies or other issues with my plants, really any constructive criticism is welcome here. Currently brewing a batch of ACT and I have a feeling they are going to love it. Thanks!

BBFF1:

BBFF2:


BBFF3:

SickBB:


StuntedBB:

BuKu:


Canopy Shot

hi victoroni

your soil maybe a little hot for your girls.
my dj short blueberry was a light feeder, as i recall.

i find the plant problems thread on riu very friendly and helpful, you could try over there for a diagnosis.

Nice job on the fim/topping. Fim/topping shocks the plant for a few days, which will slow the growth down, this is normal, so don't worry.

you need to get some extraction/ventilation sorted for your closet,this will help alot. Unless your not overly concerned about the smell, i would get a carbon filter as well.

Looking at picture of buku, i think you may have magnesium problem. The edge of leaves look like they are starting to lighten and claw a little.

hopefully once theses little issues are addressed, your grow will be smooth and a plentiful harvest will be had.

looking forward to the next installment.
peace

Hey guys! I see what you're saying mulanje. I definitely believe it's a bit of nute burn. I know my soil mix was a little hot going in, any way to correct this? Seems like it would be a pain to dig them up and disturb the roots maybe i can just be careful taking them out and cut it with some coco or something? Or would it be better to ride out the grow? Thoughts? Wasn't really thinking i'd need to transplant again due to space and the light footprint but I think could go up to five gallon pots if needed.

Anyway, growth update, most of the plants new shoots are coming in well. I think i missed a little on my BuKu FIM(ironic I know, considering the name of the technique) as you can see stunted leaves coming back and what looks like only one terminal shoot to me.
In a surprising turn of events the sick and stunted BB's are now the fastest/tallest growers. Very interesting. They are growing quite tall. I was initially going to drop individual screens on each pot, however not sure when is a good time to begin this before flower? VerdantGreen lets them get a bit bushy before dropping a screen and going straight to flower, but mine seem to be shooting up more than I'd think is optimal. Maybe some LST is in order? Here are the latest growth pictures.
SickBB appears to be doing great now:


Stunted BB not far behind:
BBFF2: BBFF1:


BBFF3:
Buku:
Close up BuKu possible Mg issue?:
Close up of the Nute Burn: (of course now i notice its out of focus. Sigh)


And the Canopy view:

Howz it vic.

For the suspected nute burn plants, i would just use plain (ph'd) water and see how it goes. If you are still getting nute burn after a couple of waterings, then give the girl a flush.

With the BuKu, check the ph of the run off. It could be nute lock out, that is causing the mg deficiency.
Adjusting the ph at the root zone should sort it.

hope this helps.

happy growing