Hydro to peat substrate convert coz of old codger downstairs complaining

Hello to anyone interested.

Well, I started off my new grow with Hydro using an IWS system but I have huge problems with my water and the PH is almost up to the 8.0 mark which is terrible. Also, on top of that, the guy that lives below me started complaining about the noise of the pumps running, water flowing, etc, so I decided to just scrap the Hydro and go back to regular pots filled with peat substrate Gold Label Special Mix.

I changed the light cycle to 12/12 on 8th March. First pistils came out last week so I guess you could say they're in their 2nd week of flowering (day 10).

The plants are in 5g, 3g and 2g pots. I'm continuing to use the Hydro Hy-pro A+B formular and at the moment, I got them on EC 1.4 with PH 6.3.

The nutrient mix always has ain air pump running in it for plenty of oxygen. Oh yeah, I also add 1ml CalGel per litre.

I am using 3x600 HPS lamps (One is a dimlux master that boosts to 690. These lamps are great and sometime in the future, I will be having all lamps as these and connecting to an environmenatl control panel)

2 Carbon Filters to filter the smell and a home made cooler to deal with excess heat.

Some of the plants have been growing since 1st January but their growth was stunted somewhat and didn't really start taking off until I put them in the peat substrate. I also only ever feed them when they look thirsty so they don't have any kind of feeding schedule. Things are working out for me this way.

The carbon filters on the outtake


My home made cooler. It's just a bin insulated with styrofoam and hosed up to my air intake. Then just fill with ice. Cools the air by a couple of degrees and works for about 7 hours.



This one is my White Label Rhino. Never been topped, just grow out like this. 5G pot.


All the rest are Early Skunk and there is another Rhino in there, just can't work out which one it is yet, lol






This is an Early Skunk. It's really big and I have topped it twice because it was getting too tall. It's
in a 5G pot


The rest are in 2G pots, 4 weeks old but growing rapidly.



And here are my new plants on the way. Purple Bud and White Gold under 2x35W CFL's


On Sunday, I will flush all the plants, let the medium dry out around 3 or 4 days and then up the EC to 1.8 to give the flowering a big boost. I'll also mix up a Guano Tea and give them a little every 10 days until the final flush week.

It's going to be an interesting ride.

Quick update. Not gunna upload lots of pics. There has been good progress in the last few days. Just wanna show you how the plants are budding up.

Had a few problems with high temps but I just ordered a cooler which will arrive hopefully by the middle of next week so hopefully the girls are going to deal with it until then. The home made cooler isn't working how I had imagined so I'll be taking that out.

RH 40%
Temps 23 - 32 Degrees Celsius
EC 1.4

Will be flushing them all on Sunday, leaving them to dry for a few days and then bumping up the EC to 1.8 for a good blooming kick.



Will update after the EC is upped.

Hey guys.

Ok so on Sunday I flushed all plants thoroughly and they are starting to get a little lighter so tomorrow I'll be upping their nutes to EC 1.7. Using Hydro Hy-Pro A/B solution. 20 ml CalGel per 5gl and Guano Tea a couple of days later.

I did want to spray the girls with Bio Nova vitaliser but I didn't put any plastic on the floor this time around. There are some electrics that are on the floor and I don't want the spray going everywhere so next time the plastic goes down and the electrics get rigged to the ceiling or head hight or whatever.

Couple of pics of how they're doing. Oh yeah, and the night I flushed them, about 4 hours later all the leaves were just totally pushed up to the sky like they were preying or singing hallelulha or somethin lol.

Back right is the Rhino. All others in the room are Early Skunk or so I have been made to believe. I ain't sure


Other side of the room


The little gals



Comments are appreciated. Not been doing this longer than a few grows.

Still waiting on my cooler to arrive. They say it's gunna be here on April 11th so until then I got my door wide open. They're starting to smell a little bit but I doubt it's really that noticeable right now.

The girls are doing good with the upped nutez and the Guana which I also gave them. Starting to see some frosting on a few of them.

I switched on 8th March and I think it was the after 5 or 6 days that I noticed the pistils so that would make them right about the end of the 3rd week of flowering.

Heres what one looks like, the rest are pretty much the same.


Sorry about the light intensity. The whole room is decked out with Mylar.

Update:

Day 24 of flower

Still looking ok I think, the heat is still worrying me and the cooler still hasn't arrived. Temps outside are in their 20's and inside with the lights on are touching about 31 - 32 degrees. It had better come soon! I prefer my temps to be around 26 - 27 degree mark.

Here how they look just before the lights are on.

This is the White Label Rhino. This is my first Rhino grow.


The rest of the Early Skunk





I'm going to flush again in another12 days and then up their EC to 2.0 after a few days of drying out.

BTW does anyone have any exp with rhino? To me, the buds look a little fluffy. I'm hoping the calyxes will swell and fill out though but it is something that concerns me a little. It looks like it's going to be a pretty good sized plant.

Will update in another 5 days or so and also, would really like some feedback.

Nice and congrats to you

gotta keep the neighbors 'sweet'

see them as part of your local security force

often they come in handy ....very handy indeed

good luck

Hey Vostok, thanks for stopping by. Yeah the neighbour/owner is a little old, I don't think he can get up the stairs to be honest but I don't wanna take any chances.

So here's how they are looking yesterday evening. Amazing how they can change within 36 hours.

Here's the big girl. She has about 15 sites on here. I think she's amazing. Smells nice already and is showing some snow on it's upper and lower flower leaves.










And here is my NEW Purple Bud. It's 12 days old from seed. Using a mixture of regular window flower pot soil and Gold Label peat substrate. I think If I was just using the substrate, it would have been too strong for it because it already has plenty of nutrients in there. The bag say's that you shouldn't have to feed until after the 6th week. Starting from yesterday, I'm giving it 5% strength nutrient A/B solution from Hydro Hy-Pro and will up it by 5% every week.


It's got a lovely green going on. That's just one of 6 (another 1 is a week older and I have already topped it) and I also got 7 clones yesterday of Amnesia, B-52 and Skunk#1

I think it's going pretty good for only my 3rd grow and I am extremely proud of my early skills thus far.

Does anyone know how to slow down vegetation growth? The flowering room won't be empty until middle of May and I have a little angst that these new girls will outgrow their spots.

Comments welcome.

So here is how my veg room is looking. It's basically 2 trays stacked. Bottom tray is filled with 7x35W CFL's. The shelf on the right is where I do the seedlings. I just put them in clear plastic cups and then put these plastic cups into party paper cups. This way I can see the rooting going on by just sliding the plastic cups out of the paper cups. As soon as I notice that the roots are starting to grow around inside and not just down, this is when I put them into their larger 3l pots. The 2nd tray above is for when I run out of room underneath (which I am sure will happen)

I'm not too sure yet if I will upgrade the pot size when I add them to the flowering room but having another 5 weeks left of vegging or maybe even 6, chances are that I will be doing just that. We will see.

Those clones I got given yesterday will be added to the room tomorrow.

Back left is Purple Bud which I topped. Back middle White Gold and back right is Rhino clone. They are all 3.5 weeks from seed/clone cut. The rest are Purple Bud.


Now I know that you are supposed to put CFL's as close as possible to the plants but I am trying to slow growth a little bit and the plants don't seem to be stretching so I'll be keeping it that way for now.

to my blog on cfl arrays by riu members ..https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/a-collection-of-diy-ghetto-blasters.30154/

just be very cautious of adding to much nute to a peat based soil ...it will hold that nute

I'd be adding 25% perlite to the soil next potup ...imo

good luck

@vostok yep, that's one of the reasons im flushing every couple of weeks with the ones in flower. Plus I enjoy the growth/swelling spurts they get after the flush when I give it it's nutes again. The younger ones in veg should be good. They have a lovely green foliage (except for one which is wierd yellow but i'll grow it out anyway and see what happens) and i just topped the rest of them a few days ago. Still not stretching and growing nice and slowly. Perfect!

The others in the grow room, well, I gave them some bat Guano yesterday and they are starting to fill out nicely. Some of the early skunk's calyx's are already starting to swell and I can already see some evidence of foxtailing.

This is flowering day 30 btw.

Some of the pistils are already browning, I see nothing to indicate pollenating or hermying so I guess they are just maturing a little earlier than most.

I'll flush again in 5 days, dry 'em out a few days and then add nutes again. My last grow (just clones and seeds from 12/12 from start to finish) I used exactly the same nutes + the Guano and was extremely happy with the results. Had some great smoke off those gals and I am expecting the same thing this time around.

Oh yeah......my cooler came the other day!!! woop woop!! I am able to regulate my temperature back down to 27 Degrees. It also seems to have triggered a more frosting production

PH 6.3
RH 45 - 50% (day and night)
Temps 22 - 27 Degrees

My water is still shit, can't wait until we move in October. No photos today. Will update at the end of the week with pics.

The lights just came on so obviously I went in for a look. Just had a look at the trich production. I'm pretty happy with it. Nice and long and plenty more to come with some luck.

Update flower day 32.


Still another 5-6 weeks to go. Happy so far.