Today we present a full cycle marijuana growth under Dominator 2xXL LED. In this post we will follow a Beta Seeds' Leslie Kush strain through its complete growing cycle. This article it's been done with regular seeds from this sativa strain, to show every single step any grower could find growing marijuana indoors. For our experiment we decided to use a 1 sqm growtent, and start with 15 regular seeds that, once males are discarded, will be enough to cover the whole growing space, just with a single topping.
Material used for this growing cycle:
-Seeds: Leslie Kush Beta Seeds
-Growtent: Homebox 1m x 1mx x 2m
-LED panel: Dominator 2x XL 650w
-Extractor: RVK 125 A1
-Pots: 15x 1,3l pots + 15x 3l pots + 8x 5,5l pots
-Tray: Growing tray 1sqm
-Substrate: Lightmix Biobiz and Canna Professional Plus
-Carbon Filter: Can Lite 125mm 400 m3/h
Timers: 2x Legrand timer
-Osmosis Filter: Power Grow Growmax Water
-Ph-meter: Bluelab Pen Ph
-EC-meter: Bluelab Pen EC
Nutrients and boosters:
-Growing fertilizer: MR1 Grow
-Bloom fertilizer: MR2 Bloom
-Root stimulator: Root+
-Bloom stimulator: Amino Xtreme
Other:
-Regulator and Mycor Mix by Aptus
Growing process:
Germination:
In this first step it is not necessary to use a grow-light. To germinate marijuana seeds we follow our recommended germination process (with wet papers between two plates).
After 48 hours, seeds will start opening, so if we wait for 24h-48h more, we'll have our seedlings ready to place them in the substrate.
Growing stage under Leds (18 hours of light / 6 hours of darkness)
1st week growing
Once 15 seeds are germinated, we fill 1,2l pots with Lightmix (a soft substrate, ideal for young plants and seedlings), and we water it with a nutrient solution containing a low dose of Root Stimulator to help future root system. Once the substrate is watered, we'll make a hole with our finger with a depth of the seedling, we place the seedlings, and pack a bit the substrate.
We place the 1sqm tray with a 3 rows x 5 columns distribution on it.
Thanks to Dominator 2x XL's power, we placed the lamp 1m over the plants, avoiding any suffer for plants by excess or lack of light.
The enviroment conditions were ideal, with a temperature range of 24ºC and a relative humidity between 60-70%.
These climate conditions helped the plants to push during the first week, without needing to feed them again.
During this first week we will see how plants develope their cotyledons, and start develope their first real pair of leaves.
2nd week growing
Young plants have adapted to their 1,2 liter pots, and have a quick developement. We keep the Dominator 2x XL at the same height, while Leslie Kush plants keep growing and aproaching to the led panel.
During this week, thanks to plants' sweating, the RH kept between 70% and 80%, while temperature was stable with a lowest of 20ºC and a highest of 26ºC.
During this second week, we fed plants twice, each one with a nutrient solution blend of: Regulator, Mycor Mix, Calgreen, MR1 Grow and Root+.
Due to their fast developement, at the end of this second week we transplanted to 3 liter pots.
3rd week growing
Our young plants are experimenting an exponential growth, every day they grow more and quicker. Plant's roots will colonize the new substrate, so by the end of this week we will transplant them again, this time to 5,5 liter pots (its final size), using a pre-fertilized substrate (Canna Professional Plus).
When transplanting we use the same step to proceed with a topping of each main, so we got an equal height plant to plant.
During this week we go along with a mix of nutrients and boosters in each watering: regulator, Mycor Mix, MR1 Grow and Root+.
4th week growing
Leslie Kush re-started to develope its mains after topping and transplanting. During this 4th week plants arrived to maturity, and females showed its pistils, so we proceed to get rid of males.
We kept feeding plants with a blend of: Regulator, Mycor Mix, Calgreen, MR1 Grow and Root+.
At the end of this fourth week, with a 30-35 cm heigh we proceeded to change photoperiod.
Flowering stage with Dominator 2xXL (12 hours of light / 12 hours of darkness)
1st week flowering
After discarting male plants (a total of 7), we kept 8 beautiful females of Leslie Kush, that were distributed in two columns of 3 plants, and a third column with 2 plants (we take advantage of this situation and we placed the biggest and more bushy plants there so we covered the space better).
During this first week plants are adapting to its new photoperiod of light (12 hours of light / 12 hours of darkness), showing out an stretch between internodal space, with a little wide growing.
Due to actual plant's size it was needed to feed them three times along the week, each time with a blend of: regulator, Calgreen and MR1 Grow.
As this cycle was made during winter time, when outdoor temperatures are lower, we used a heater, specially during the darkness hours, to warm the minimum temperatures above 20ºC. Highest temp was under 26ºC.
2nd week flowering
Along this second week to 12/12, plants stretched, almost doubled their size before flipping to flowering stage (the topping we made also helps to keep this stretch to be even bigger, because plant has to divide its energy between different mains).
At these point we detected one of the main advantages of the full spectrum light generated by Dominator 2x XL LED grow-light: The females start to close its tops and develope its first pistils, showing out they've started to flower.
Due to plant's densisty, and a their higher hydric demand, we start to use a flood irrigation method to water plants, making it easier to feed them.
During this week we used a blend of Regulator, Calgreen and MR1 Grow for the nutrient solution.
3rd week flowering
Our Leslie Kush are in a clear flowering stage process. It left backwards their vegetative stage, and adaptation to the new photoperiod of light, to start forming flowers.
The resin starts to appear over the leaves surrounding the buds.
In the middle of this week we made a pruning from the low parts of the plants (lollypop), what helps plants directing energy to the tops (wich will recieve more light).
Due to plant's canopy height, we rise up the LED panel up to 1,90m (50 cm over the tops), position in wich we will keep it until de end of the flowering cycle.
This week we made 1 flood irrigation with 25 liters of nutrient solution with: Regulator, Calgreen, MR! Grow, MR2 Bloom and Amino Xtreme.
4rd week flowering
Buds are developing, showing a clear evolution in height and width. the resin is coating great amount of leaves, and plants start to release a nice aroma.
As a way to prevent against pests, we applied Oleatbio CCK, an organic product against mites and insects, spraying the plants with a dose of 8ml per liter.
At the end of this week, we also staked plants, to help them keep the verticallity and also help them hold weight of the future flowers.
We also applied the Supercropping technique to some of the mains to help keeping a balanced canopy height.
During this week we fed plants twice (flood irrigation) with a distance of 5 days from first to second, and a mix of: Regulator, Calgreen, MR1 Grow, MR2 Bloom and Amino Xtreme.
5th week flowering
Until this moment Leslie Kush have developed perfectly, going forward without any problem. Plant's evolution is fast. Even being a sativa dominant strain, nutrient levels are relatively high compared with other strains.
Leaves keep pointing the light, a clear example of how healthy plants are. During this week we made two waterings with the following mix of nutrients and stimulators: Regulator, calgreen, MR2 Bloom and Amino Xtreme. In the nutrient schedule below you'll see the dose used every week, expressed in ml per 10L.
6th week flowering
This sixth week brings a slight change in some of the pistil's colors, that turn to a light brown, showing the maturity is arriving. Leslie Kush's buds are getting fat and thick, and the smell inside the growtent is so powerful. As we started from seeds, some phenotypes are slightly forward others (as it is a stabilized strain, this difference is not big enough to feed them different).
We made two flood irrigations along this week, with temperatures of 25ºC and 40% RH.
7th week flowering
With 49 days of 12/12 on its back, plants have almost shapped its flowers. We are into the final stage of flowering phase, so we're using the highest dose of nutrients in the solution. During this cycle with Leslie Kush we've tried not to use EC over 1,6 in any moment, to avoid salt accumulations in substrate, nor overdose plants.
Arrived to this point we want to highlight another great feature of growing under these type of grow-lights, because the developement is faster than usually is under HPS, what makes a slight difference in when to harvest (few days before).
Along this week we made 2 irrigations with fertilizers and boosters, described in the schedule below (correcting the pH to 6,2, and diluting the nutrient solution with RO if needed to don't surpass the EC said).
8th week flowering
Bud show they are arriving to the end of the cycle, with more than 50% of its pistils of a light brown color. Being a cycle started form seeds (where each seed evolutes with slight differences), we decided to keep on feeding plants with nutrients for a week more, so most of the different phenotypes will reach its optimal maturity.
At this week flowers are at their maximum point, so we must pay atention to the RH, and try to keep it below 50% (no matter if if lights are ON or OFF). Depending on the growing space, if the humidity is too high, it will be useful to use a dehumidifier to have a drier space. During this week we made 3 waterings with nutrients dose as described below.
9th week flowering
today we start the flushing period, before harvest. This process occurs in as necessary watering as needed to get rid of nutrients and boosters used throughout the cycle, to improve the taste and flavours of the plant.
To push this flushing period in as many days as possible, we'll use Canna Flush mixed with the osmosis water. This product helps get rid of salts faster.
10th week flowering
We have arrived to the final week of the cycle before harvesting. Along this week we will proceed to do 2 waterings with reverse osmosis water only (nothing added), so we'll only need to correct the ph of the water if needed.
It is not rare if during this week we notice that fan leaves show lack of nutrients. That's a good sigh already because it means the flushing is happening properly, and plant is conuming the last nutrients stored.
At the end of this week, our Leslie Kush will be on its optimal maturity to be harvested, with almost 80% of its pistils with a browny color, and buds perfectly defined.
Once buds have been dried and cured, we got a final result of 710 grams (an average of 88 grams/plant, with the best yielder of 95 grams, and the lowest 80 grams). Knowing that we got this result just with 8 females, we could easily improve these results just using 9-12 females.
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