Suspended Planter 600w Cool Tube + DS300 LED

Hello, chaps. This is my second grow using the same mystery strain and flood & drain system. My previous grow ended with some exceptionally frosty plants with an intense "heady" high, but the buds were extremely weak and airy. I was swimming in popcorn bud, folks. I attribute this mainly to the LED, but I also grew too many plants and vegged for too long, I didn't SCROG or trim my plants properly, and my res temps were too high. So, this time I'm raising four plants instead of five, vegging for ~2 weeks instead of a month, I placed the air pump closer to my cold air intake, and I've decided to purchase a 600w HPS Cool Tube for flower.

Plants: Clones from mystery mother
Nutes: Blue Planet Nutrients 3-Part Elite + Bloombastic
Lights: 600 Watt HPS Cool Tube (flower) + Advanced LED 300w Diamond Series (veg)
System: Flood & drain "suspended planter" method
Medium: Hydroton in 5" netpots (cloned in rockwool)
Tray: 2'x2'x6" Botanicare
Res: 27 Gallon w/ air stones
Closet: 2'x4'x7'

Temps: 68 to 75 degrees
RH: 40 to 60%
pH: 5.8

I was really letdown after my first grow - all that hard work and beautiful pot just dried up into nothing. Hopefully, I can learn from previous mistakes and make this round worth it! This journal is intended to document the process for my record. Any advice and/or support would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


Previous Grow and Present Day (Day 1 of Veg):

Wow looks like it snowed in that room! Best you can do is learn from you mistakes and improve. Im sure you'll do much better this round, even though last run doesn't look too shabby lol.
I'll sub up.

Excellent first post by the way

Much obliged, Whodat! My first ever sub.

I feel more at ease with my second grow. I know my system and how it behaves, I'm not constantly behind schedule or trying to work around my plants at 3am, because I forgot to do something important. I'm also excited to use 600w HPS. I'm not sure whether to use the LED and HID together for flower, or just the HPS. They're kind of an odd pair in a 2x4x7 space. I'm also not sure if I want to SCROG this grow. Max plant height is 3 feet.

The 600w ReVolt ballast, Cool Tube and HPS bulb kit from Gotham Hydro should be here Thursday. Does anyone have experience with ReVolt ballasts? They're obviously on the cheap side, but I'm hopeful it will hold up better than iPower or Apollo.

If anyone wants 5% off at Gotham, my coupon code is: gothamfriend

Jezus my friend frosty is an understatement! Sub'd in for sure.

Oh... And +rep from liking my dogs

The led should do great for veg, Id probably use the hps for flower over the led. Actually Id find a way to run em both for flower lol. A scrog would help you with height issues for sure.... though 3 feed is decent space just for plant height.

Veg Day 8

pH: 5.7 to 5.9
PPM: 760
Temp: 68 to 77
RH: 30
Flood: Every 3 hours for 20 minutes
Light: 18/6

It's the first day of the 2nd week in veg. I ended up with a runt and two different strains, but the plants seem happy and are starting to grow rapidly. I'm feeding 10, 7.5, 7.5ml/gal of Blue Planet Nutrients 3-part. I slowly lowered the DS300 LED from 33" to 23" throughout the first week of veg. I did see some leaf curling, so I backed it off a couple inches. I've also noticed a bit of drooping about 30 minutes before floods (not horrible but noticeable). I'm considering shortening the flood schedule to every 2 hours for 15 minutes. Other than that, I will top the plants in a couple days and change the res on day 10.

I still can't decide whether I should SCROG or not.

Veg - Day 14

The plants are green and growing right before my eyes. I did notice a few leaves folding over from too much light (?), so I raised the LED to about 23 inches. I finally installed the 1/2 inch PVC SCROG frame to my flood tray lid. The screen will be 8 inches from the growing medium. Other than the runt plant, everything seems to be mirroring my first grow. I would like to continue that trend until flower, when I incorporate the 600w HPS and hopefully grow bigger buds!

Lights: 18/6
Nutes: 10, 10, 10ml/gal BPN 3-Part @ 850 PPM
pH: 5.7 to 5.9
Temp: 65 to 77
RH: 30
Flood: Every 3 hours for 15 minutes.

Everything looks and sounds spot on keep it going!

By the way if your looking for a good place to hang, show off your ladies, and or get friendly advice/input on any questions you may have, the 600 is the place to be.
Heres a link if your interested~~~~~~ https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/285620-club-600-a.html

Subbed. Thanks, who!

Veg Day - 15

Defoliation day. The plants were healthy and about 8-10 inches tall, so I topped/FIMMED and then trimmed off nearly all of the large fan leaves. I expect this will set me back about 10 days of veg, but the new growth will come in twice as thick and I'll have stronger bud sites for the SCROG (in theory, right?). I will only defoliate once in veg, and then again on Day 20 and Day 50 of flower. It's a pretty scary procedure, but I'm happy to see strong stems and plenty of light on the lower nodes. I hope I did it right!

It's the day after defoliation and I'm getting a very strong, bursting at the seams vibe from my plants. That makes me happy.

That mother appears to provide quality clones! They may have been thin, but those buds look pretty tasty. I suspect you will do much better this time with the addition of that HPS.

subbed to watch the show

How does that system work? You flood the upper chamber until those netpots are under the water, then drain? So is it sort of a DWC/E&F hybrid? I've only used trays and buckets, and always in rock. I knew lots of guys doing stuff like this, but I always thought it looked a little tougher to keep everything in balance. I'm definitely curious how that works though.

I'm flattered, hiker.

I've heard people call suspended planter a cross between ebb and flow and N.F.T. Instead of filling the entire flood table with hydroton, or using regular pots, netpots rest on the lid and hover 2 inches over the tray floor. That creates a nice environment for the roots and more space. Nutrient solution is pumped up from the res into the tray, and then it spills back via waterfall. My pH and TDS levels are extremely predictable and I've had no problems at all (other than failing to grow buds lol).

that 600 is gonna set them bitches off, very nice set up, I am quite sure your efforts will be rewarded!

Nice grow mate, looking forward to see how it will go. Very nice setup and ideas rep

Roomie said:

I'm flattered, hiker.

I've heard people call suspended planter a cross between ebb and flow and N.F.T. Instead of filling the entire flood table with hydroton, or using regular pots, netpots rest on the lid and hover 2 inches over the tray floor. That creates a nice environment for the roots and more space. Nutrient solution is pumped up from the res into the tray, and then it spills back via waterfall. My pH and TDS levels are extremely predictable and I've had no problems at all (other than failing to grow buds lol).

Click to expand...

So it's always sending water to the tray? or does it flood and drain? Sounds like it's like the tray systems I used to use, but instead of a whole tray full of rock, you put a lid on it and use little netpots. Interesting.

Hiker said:

So it's always sending water to the tray? or does it flood and drain? Sounds like it's like the tray systems I used to use, but instead of a whole tray full of rock, you put a lid on it and use little netpots. Interesting.

Click to expand...

For now, it's a simple flood & drain (every 3 hours for 15 minutes). I started out recirculating the nutrient solution 24/7 for the first two weeks of this grow, but my tray is small and I'm a no0b so I decided to wait.