Either will work good, i use canna coco myself just not their nutrient line, but im also a little anti AN as they really just sell water in as many bottles as they can to con people of their cash, im not saying they can’t grow great plants as they can its just their lines are designed for ultimate profit on their part as they specifically take parts out of their mixes so you need to buy more of their specialty additive bottles to get what other lines have in them stock. They also make the diluted concentrations of those bottles not even with each other for what you need, so your always running out of a bottle of something mid grow when the other bottles still have plenty left in them, which makes it so you have to go to the store to pick some up, which potentially gets you to buy something else of theirs.
As for Sol Strips you will probably want at least 100watts worth i believe someone recommended a 4 strip setup using a 150w driver, that would be more than enough for your tent
Yes @Robin its a little computer fan that sucks the hot air out and is sufficient enough to run your strips at 70% with no aditional cooling. I will build mine this evening and I let you know asap
I am not sure how I will use mine yet if for preveg or automat plants or together with my other lamp in flower tent…
mount the fan on the top side if you do, as that setup creates a slight air pocket with the tray, where as if the front of the fan is flush with the tray it can scavenge the hot air that builds up easier. But honestly just a fan directed at the tray to mix up the air should be more than enough.
I really appreciate you digging these up. You have came along way, and offer a lot to the micro community. Glad to have your failures so we don’t learn from them.
Well it was overdriven 4 foot fluorescents in big cabinets before that. First ever “setup” was a basic cfl hanging light setup made out of thin plywood and aluminum foil with y splitter adapters plugged into two pigtail connectors fitted into the plywood shade.
Never would of got into growing if it wasn’t for a good friend asking me to look after some plants he had started in his window in solo cups, gave them to me too look after temporarily as he was in the midst of a move but was like “shit you’ve done more for them than i have, i just stuck them in some cups in a window and you go out and build a light for them” i just shrugged as i enjoy building stuff, so yeah definitely have come a long way.
Now mind you if legality wasn’t an issue, and i had more space, and i could easily build custom setups again with proper extracted ventilation i would be running as many plants as i could do comfortably for strain hunting and comparison testing purposes.
Have had a couple of early seeds fall on DD, looking closer have only a week to week and a half left before it will be chopped, the other plants will definitely need the space by then.
Bucket Day 41
Did a pretty heavy pruning after the last photo as it was needed. First the dd isn’t that far out from being done unless it has a second spurt, but maybe another week.
The tangerine dream has turned into a slight stretcher and longer flower’er which is manageable, i expect 3-3.5 weeks before it even thinks of finishing. The pineapple express on the other hand is just a complete disaster on its own doing lol. Its still stretching and is just creeping along into flower mode. It’s definitely not a sog style micro growing strain, I’m expecting it to go 70days plus, would make a pretty damn decent Scrog or outdoor strain by its growth characteristics but would have to finish out well before i can truly say that. In this setup though disaster lol.
The others are doing alright, should really be running 3 plant’s in here though.
The seeded DD is starting to change color, going from its normal purple to more a reddish brown which is all sign’s its finishing out seed’s wise. Removed the Jack 47 as it did have a tap root issue. Rest are doing well.
Bucket Day 44
Well im unsure if this Barney’s Farm - Pineapple Express Auto is even actually an auto, it has shown sex but still even at day 44 it’s still stretching and throwing out new growth but has not yet started to flower on a 18/6 schedule. Either its an uncharacteristically long auto strain “which is pointless as you can just go for photoperiods strains” or its bogus needless to say im not impressed.
So im on the fence as for what to do with it, pull it too free up space, leave it to see if it ever does flower, or just give it a week and decided then, What are your opinions ?
As for the other plants they are doing good, think i plucked a little too much 5days ago on the one plant in the top leftish position though.
Yeah the Barney’s Farm - Pineapple Express Auto is getting turfed.
Looking at other reviews and grows of others seems to be a somewhat common. Shitty breeding on their part so i say avoid at least this strain. But if the Tangerine Dream Auto im also running doesn’t turn out decent then i’ll definitely be avoiding their genetics.
Something to note at least on the pineapple express the watering has been working so well that its just one solid mass of roots, all the white lines on the surface of the coco are small roots. It’s so dense i have to let the pot dry out for a couple days to week before even tempting to remove the pot.
Just to show you what the root balls look like when the watering is adequate. The above photo only glimpses it, so being only a day later i had to crush the ball slightly and run a skewer around the edged between the pot and the root ball just to brake it free from it.
The seeded plant is dropping some more seeds should be a week left. The other plants are doing fine, they will enjoy the extra space shortly. Also started 4 of the early dropped seeds that were underdeveloped just because i’d never use them once the main seeds come in. Well i currently have three new sprouts i now need to figure out what i want to do with.
Bucket Day 45
Well that late plucking combined with pineapple express pull due to not being an auto is definitely gonna have an impact on the end harvest, just a piss off. Also forgot to fill the res yesterday when they needed it so they were a little dry this morning as they were trying to save water.
Bucket Day 47
Yeah late plucking with the later removal of the one non-auto flowering plant, and accidentally allowing the bucket to run dry for a day or so has not been good fro the bucket for anything. Shit happens, currently i’ll wait for them to recover and if they respond they will finish out over the next two+ weeks or so. Now if they don’t respond much which may happen to a couple of plants those will be pulled shortly, as they just hit the stop clocks early due to the issues.
So we will see, still have to plant those new f2 seeding that are way too long that are still in some paper towel, then figure out what im doing with them, we will see.
Said Screw it these got pulled tonight day 50ish which is early but they got hampered and decided to finish, bonus those seedling have found a home though.
Day 66/27/21 for Bogan.
The seeded plant still needs some time for later pollinated seeds im gonna give it another week or less than pull it, already have picked up or pulled off around 125 seeds so for so i expect at least 1-2 times that still left on the plant that will be viable.
The other plants are hunting for space, shortly though they will get some. Been doing great so far on this run with the Megacrop looks liek i need to bump up the concentration slightly, will probably be putting it in the 1.6ec/800ppm range or slightly more been running around 1.4ec/700ppm to 1.5ec/750ppm, should mention i have very low ppm tap water “20ppm” and i do add in some calcium hypochlorite for sterilization purposes.
Oh you may have noticed i pulled one plant “sativa leaning DD” and threw in the stub of the DD i had over in the bucket, never said anything about it but i pollinated a couple of the lower buds for some seed as well, just as i liked how that plant was growing.
Day 51/1 for the bucket, i might pull the seedlings in a week or so, just cause i left them too long before planting, then leaving them in a low light window as i had no place to put them, so i know they have super long tap roots and starting stems which can be a issue in a micro setup.
of theirs.
mechelle x
There is nothing on the market that is better choice 
if for preveg or automat plants or together with my other lamp in flower tent…
