Get a harvest every 2 weeks

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by haggis123

Hi Al, just thought would give you a little up-date on my situation.

Thanks to your recomendation I went ahead and got me one of those Uvonairs.
I got the little Uvonair 100, which I think will be more than plenty for my micro-cab's needs.
It arrived yesterday, I plugged it in just to check what the volume level of the fan was like and just as you said...it is fairly quiet...which is what I was looking for....

cool.

I notice in your pic that you have a high-tech light trap (lol) over the end where the bulb is housed....I presume that this is necesary....for the dark period ??

yep, I removed the perforated light-trapping end plugs from my Uvonair units to increase airflow and UV output. This allowed too much light out for the flowering area, but as you see, it didn't take much to create a light trap which allowed a lot more airflow than the perforated covers. There's a couple of cardboard baffles hotglued inside my light trap, which permits air to flow rather freely while allowing only a very faint glow to escape, which is directed away from the plants.

I will post up some pics of my set-up when all done and dusted, this weekend hopefully.
Thanks for the recomendation.

Sure, start a thread in the appropriate place and fire at will.

[topuser]

Originally Posted by Al B. Fuct

Sure- each batch of 21-23 plants yields 13-16oz, sometimes more.

This room is sorta new though I've been running an op like this for about 10 years. I've just done a total rebuild a few months ago in a new location, which has required tweaking in some conditions. I've just made some improvements (new exhaust blower, bigger intake ducting) which should keep temps more stable, increasing the avg yield. I expect the next harvest to be closer to 20-23oz.

They can be flowered as soon as there's a good spray of roots as shown:


(day 12 after cutting)

As long as a clone has several taproots showing (not just 1-2), it is ready to flower.

I don't veg the clones at all (outside of the time they spend on the mother plant and in the clonebox under fluoros), so they will not be any bigger when ready to flower than when they were cut from the mums about 12 days before.

The proof is in your final product which I greatly admire but I do have one question: You say you get 13-16oz off of 20-23 plants- that seems a little sparse...are you low balling bc it is a new setup in a new place or do you attribute it to no veg time?

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by topuser

The proof is in your final product which I greatly admire but I do have one question: You say you get 13-16oz off of 20-23 plants- that seems a little sparse...are you low balling bc it is a new setup in a new place or do you attribute it to no veg time?

SoG trimmed plants, which are flowered immediately after setting root, naturally will be smaller and will yield less per individual plant than those grown by other methods which involve veg time. That's why we grow more individuals in SoG. SoG style plants will yield more per square foot than other means which involve vegging, though- and that's the point of it all!

However, when I wrote the bit you quoted, there were a few problems that were reducing yield. I was misusing the Canna PK1314 and I had not replaced some dead air pumps, thinking their absence wasn't really that big a deal. It really was a that big a deal. Putting them back in improved yield significantly.

Since then, those things have been fixed, raising the output to about 23 oz per batch. Cooltubes have been recently added as well; I expect the per batch figure to bump up significantly as a result, perhaps to 30+oz per 23 plant batch. We shall see, some time to go before I know what the cooltubes will really do, but I can tell you right now that the plants are flowering much more vigorously now than they ever have before.

[Merfolk]

Hey AL, What size are your rockwool cubes for cloning? and where do you get them at for a good price?

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by Merfolk

Hey AL, What size are your rockwool cubes for cloning? and where do you get them at for a good price?

I use 40mm cubes. I don't like paying the nutty per-cube prices at the local hydro shop, so I buy a 2250-count carton of them every couple of years, about $400 or so from TFH/Wardley (aquarium and general pet supply wholesalers) in Brookvale, NSW. They will only sell to you if you are a 'reseller', that is, if you have an ABN. Too easy to get an ABN, just apply online. You don't have to file BASs unless you're really trading in a working business under that ABN. Obviously, if you're not in Australia, you'll probably want to buy elsewhere.

[God-less]

Thanks so much for this thread, it is one of the best on this topic. I've been following it as a lurker for some time now. I am making progress on a garage conversion to finished space. Most of it will be office space, but I will be building out a "magic closet" area. I'll be doing a scaled down version of your op - using 2 600s, each over a 3x3 tray. I am figuring on filling a tray every 6 weeks since I will be doing primarily SoGable sativa strains. One concern that I have is staying under 99 total plants (on norml, my state laws don't talk about # of plants, so the only thing I think I need to worry about is staying under the federal # - hopefully, I am not missing something).

I am hoping that I can get by with far fewer mothers as I will have 6 weeks to veg them up for clone taking. With that in mind, I am trying to figure out how many clones I'll need to make to fill a tray and what the space and lighting requirements will be for the mom(s). Do you think it is possible with only one mom? I'd like to keep a "library" of strains. As far as lighting goes, like you, I have a spare 400hps, but I'd like to keep the wattage and heat down, so I am wondering if a few 40w CFLs would do the trick?

Also, another question on using pots in a flood&drain - do you use regular pots with extra holes drilled in the bottom (or on the lower sides) so that the water can get in there?

Anyway, much thanks for being such a helpful resource!

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by God-less

Thanks so much for this thread, it is one of the best on this topic. I've been following it as a lurker for some time now.

You're most welcome, thanks for the praise.

hopefully, I am not missing something

You are! Don't get busted and none of the plant count shit matters! You have 1 job that goes before anything else- stealth. Do that well and we will one day see you here telling us about what you've learned in the last 10 or so years of running your op.

I am hoping that I can get by with far fewer mothers as I will have 6 weeks to veg them up for clone taking. With that in mind, I am trying to figure out how many clones I'll need to make to fill a tray and what the space and lighting requirements will be for the mom(s). Do you think it is possible with only one mom? I'd like to keep a "library" of strains. As far as lighting goes, like you, I have a spare 400hps, but I'd like to keep the wattage and heat down, so I am wondering if a few 40w CFLs would do the trick?

If you only need a batch of cuttings every 6 weeks or so, CFLs or plain old fluoro tubes will do, as opposed to my setup, which as you know pounds my mums with 24/7 400HPS. I do that because I gotta have 30 best-quality cuttings every 2 weeks. You're wise to keep more than one copy of each of your strains as an insurance against loss of the strains. Replace them with one of their progeny as soon as they don't appear to be thriving as they did earlier on in the piece. I replace my mums every 6-8 weeks, sometimes they hang around longer if they continue to thrive. Your mums will require less frequent replacement but you will need to take measures against bugs colonising your mums' rootballs. Drop the mum's entire pot into a knee-hi stocking and twist-tie it around the stem. Makes a pretty good flyscreen but still allows water and air to pass though quite readily.

Under fluoros, you will get smaller, less vigorous mums which will yield generally thinner stems for cuttings, but growing the mums more slowly will allow you to 'idle' them for fairly long periods. Even so, you will need to prune back the mums perhaps 1-2 times in the weeks between batches of cuttings. You might even run your mums under fluoros most of the time but turn on the 400HPS about a week-10 days before you need a batch of cuttings. Up to you- try it both ways and see what works best for you.

Don't be afraid of rather aggressively pruning back mums. My big bushy mums may get cut down to a dozen leaves after a pass of cuttings, but they jump right up and replace everything I've cut off, in only 14 days. The mums will have developed a rootmass capable of sustaining a bunch of foliage. Even when most of that foliage is cut off, the mother plant still has that big rootmass, which is then supplying a much smaller veg mass. This (now excess) rootmass capacity will make the veg mass regrow very rapidly. Vegging cannabis plants absolutely love being pruned back. They will regrow with a vigor that will astound you- not unusual to see a mum which has been pruned back a couple of times reward you by regrowing at 1-2 inches per day.

Also, another question on using pots in a flood&drain - do you use regular pots with extra holes drilled in the bottom (or on the lower sides) so that the water can get in there?

I use plain old regular 175mm black plastic pots which would normally be intended for soil. K-mart specials, as I recall. These already have drain holes, which while small, are more than sufficient in size to allow water to enter when the trays are flooded.

Anyway, much thanks for being such a helpful resource!

And thank you for being such an attentive lurker.

[VeoDigital]

Al, is the uvonair really that great of an odor eliminator? Do you use both the 5000 and 3000 in your flowering area? Currently I employ the 5gal bucket with honey well fan on top, ONA and soil moist inside the bucket, sometimes I can still faintly smell the funk. If the uvonair does really get rid of the odor for you then Im gettin one. Would the 5000 alone be enough for a 4'l x 2'w x 4'h? I understand the 5000 stands for 5000 cu. ft, but companies always fudge numbers.

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by VeoDigital

Al, is the uvonair really that great of an odor eliminator? Do you use both the 5000 and 3000 in your flowering area? Currently I employ the 5gal bucket with honey well fan on top, ONA and soil moist inside the bucket, sometimes I can still faintly smell the funk. If the uvonair does really get rid of the odor for you then Im gettin one. Would the 5000 alone be enough for a 4'l x 2'w x 4'h? I understand the 5000 stands for 5000 cu. ft, but companies always fudge numbers.

I use the 5000 inside the op and a 3000 in the area outside it to deal with scent from the bud dryer, which can be considerable in the first 24h after loading it with a freshly manicured harvest. I can have a load of buds going in the dryer and have almost no noticeable scent in the room it is in. I've borrowed independent noses for the purpose of checking- I don't trust mine much as I am around the plants so often.

Ozone is an extremely effective scent killer. It'll de-scent buds while still on the plant in extreme overuse situations. Ozone both neutralises the charge of scent particles, causing them to fall out of suspension in air as well as breaks up some scent causing molecules. O3 also kills many airborne mould and fungus spores. Correctly set up, you smell neither buds nor ozone. If you smell ozone, you can use a timer to wink the ozonator on and off, perhaps in alternating 15 minute periods.

Scent masks often are giveaways all by themselves and as you note, don't really get at the root of the problem.

[VeoDigital]

Thanks again m8. My setups last few years have been "ghetto" at best, time to do it right.

[Al B. Fuct]

You might find that while UV O3 gens are not cheap to purchase, they will cost the same or less as scent masks per year- and do a better job.

The UV tubes themselves are not cheap but last about 3 or more years, depending upon how often they are switched on and off. Minuscule amounts of mercury are consumed in the lamp tubes on startup. When it's gone, the tube will flicker or may not start, even with a new starter. You get best life out of these tubes by running them continuously.

The fans in my Uvonair units have been running more or less continuously for about 5-6 years, no worries there. They must be ball bearing units. The ballasts have worked flawlessly. The starters were in working condition until I replaced them with new units (on general principles) when I relamped at about 3.5 years. The tube in the 5000 failed first, but I bought replacements for both units at the same time.

One critique of the Uvonair units is that the starters are hardwired in, not socketed. You have to cut the old starter out, solder in a new one and insulate the connections. Gotta be quick with the soldering iron or the starter can be damaged. Might be smarter to steal a starter socket from an old fluoro light and install the new starter that way.

[VeoDigital]

Are the starters known for failing? 3.5 years is a long time for operation I cant really see it as a downside. Hardwired starters? wtf? I used to work with vending machines and their fluoroescent tubes for panel displays always had a socketed starter for easy replacement. Im not to fancy with a soldering iron

[Al B. Fuct]

Fluoro starters last a long, long time- I just replaced these on the notion that a starter lasts about as long as a tube. You'll have some years to consider how to replace your starters.

[VeoDigital]

hey man, just to gush a bit. Thanks for all the help, information, threads started and patience you have had with myself and others. +rep

[Al B. Fuct]

no worries, happy to help. The more I teach, the more I learn.

Win!