Hello grasscity I have been lurking here for years since I grew my first bagseed with about 50 watts of CFLs from desk side lamps. I have come a long way from desk side lamps and miraclegro potting soil. I would like to share part of my journey with you guys, because I want to be able to say I played a real role in the legalization movement, I protested for what was right. Anyway moving on from the philosophy in things, here are the stats for the grow conditions to date, a lot of stuff has been added, changed ETC since I started by clipping clones in mid April. The clones had the last 2 weeks of April, and all of may to take root as I honed my system in, then Veg started for a little over a month more. Today is currently day 1 of week 3 of flower, and when all the fun starts, so lets get to it! PS, the light was on its lowest setting for cloning, 750 for most of veg and early flower, and will hopefully be on full for the last 4 weeks of flower Strains: 1x OG 1x platinum cookie 1x skywalker 2x blue dream *one solo, one with other 3. System: 4x4 enclosed space 4 plants in one 15 gallon sterilite 1 plant in one 5 gallon bucket 5 aquarium grade air pumps operating at a total of ~40 watts cool tube, ~250 cfm fan, 12x13 6 inch carbon filter HID bulbs, digital dimmable ballast 2x 26w UV supplement CFLs 2x gallon jugs for yeast-made Co2 one big fan 3x gallon jugs on ice rotation for the big one, and 4 medium lunch bag icepacks for the 5 gal. sharp AC unit, 10,000 BTU (needs to be moved onto its own circuit so i can use it at full power along with the light... i've been kinda battling heat and humidity highs, but this thing can cool and dehumidify at the same time.) Yes I know you can buy water chillers and co2 machines, this grow is kind of budgeted, and just for personal use, so nothing fancy. Medium: 5 PPM RO water with some minerals retained GH lucas formula for feed Roots Excelurator for cloning and bi weekly root health GH floralicious (got a tester bottle for free, just using a few drops) and I know its late, but I have my beneficial bacteria shipping in the mail currently. so hopefully they will be colonized for weeks 4-9 of flower... Levels: air temps - 75-80 water temps - below 70 (ice ftw) current EC - big bucket ~1k ppm single bucket ~700 ppm (the dreams like less nutes) water alkalinity - 5.8 maintained with some Z7 trial I got, this stuff really knows how to keep the Ph level and the roots clean. Below are 3 pictures attached, the first was taken on the first day of the sixth month of the year (when VEG started, they had cloned for a long time but the system wasn't entirely up to operating standards yet), the second was taken the seventh day of the seventh month (just over a month of veg), and the final was taken yesterday, just a couple days before the eighth month, the third week of flower.. So, its a 3 month timelapse more or less. I have a goal in mind of a pound, I have heard that .5-1 GPW ratio is expected, so that would be more on the .5 side if i'm using my 1000w light for flowering. I don't know what to expect so i'm setting my goals low. please let me know how I am doing, peace! ps the geodes, crystals, gems, minerals around in the rocks are for energy if you don't believe in it then don't hate, but they are clean and doing no harm otherwise.
bud shots because I know GC loves them 1. blue dream (top view) 2. skywalker (side view on the tall side) these pics were taken today
attached picture is a break down of my set up. I usually have both of the windows and the door zipped open halfway for air flow. hope you enjoyed my posts! will be providing a few updates over the next few weeks and hopefully a nice harvest update so stay tuned thanks for coming by hope you like my ghetto rig grow PS the light is HIGH above the canopy because of air heat issues and evaporation leading to higher humidity
good morning GC, the attached pic is of my skywalker plant. her pistils appear reddish/brown in tint but don't seem damaged to the naked eye. What could be the cause? None of the other girls are showing this tint, and she is the only one directly under the UV supplement, could it be too much UV too close? I've kinda ruled out air temps (unless she is just touchy to them) as they seldom stay above 80 in here. the only other suggestion i've seen was grey mold, but there doesnt appear to be anything in there, I had a slight mildew scare recently and used some all natural spray on it and it cleared up immediately soo i'm kind of ruling that out too
Is it just that part of the plant or is the entire plant doing that? Its directly underneath some kinda light or close to it. Pistils brown up and shrivel at the ends from heat stress. Eventually the entire plant will do that as the flower cycle comes to an end. 1000 watt Scrog Journal
seems like its worse on that specific part of the plant. I initially assumed heat stress as well, but none of the other plants are really showing the same signs. maybe one or two brown... but not noticeable like this. However I haven't grown this strain before so it could just be its normal color scheme or something. just being overly worried about them like usual i suppose thanks for stopping by, I am hoping we can compare our yields as I am ramping my light up to full power (1000w ftw!, how do you handle all the heat 1000 watters produce!?!) starting on week 4 of flower and am netting my girls then as well are you flowering yet?
Well I noticed that I over calculated a couple days on my calendar, so i'm officially in week 4 of flower now! I upped my light to full power, and my AC is running like a mad man to keep up. EDIT- my previous calculations were correct, i am on day 25 of flower, mid week 3, as previously stated... however, the light is on full power... i must be hitting that vape a little too much. My beneficials and other goodies should be here in the mail within the next couple days, I plan to colonize the bacteria in low PPM water by dipping roots in on each individual plant for a set amount of time, and cycling the next one in, and her back into the DWC. I'm hoping to culture the myco on the roots ASAP and really get the girls drinking for the last 4-5 weeks. Haven't seen many replies yet I guess GC is still scared of me a wee bit - nonetheless, I decided I will update at the week 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and harvest marks. so stay tuned if you wish take it easy GC. attached is a pic from day 25 of flower, how are my girls lookin?
Looking good man, you will smash your pound goal I'm sure. Your reservoir's ppm sounds very high, is that the concentration what the plants are taking up?
the PPMs are actually really low, I use the Lucas Formula for the General Hydroponics set, and I put it in weak in the big one, and MUCH weaker in the 5 gal because the person who I got that DNA from says she likes lower PPMs. I don't see any nutrient burn or nutrient deficiency and they typically drop in PPMs every time I top off with empty water, So i'm assuming they like it well enough. I want to move on from chemical nutrient crap anyway this will be my only grow with this stuff. ps. those PPMs also include the roots excel, floralicious, and epsom salt for calmag, and whatever particles may be left from Ph solution and Z7 water conditioner.. the clay pebble residue also seems to make it appear higher than it really is. EDIT - oh yeah I also moved my ENTIRE set up and ALL my furniture in an effort to control heat and air flow better, preliminary testing is working out wonderfully. It is also now the week 4 mark of flowering. I will have photo updates for you fine blades this evening or tomorrow, have a wonderful day!
photos as promised #1 - blue dream single (sorry for fingers on lense!) #2 canopy and #3 is a pic of the new setup I have going The AC now pumps directly through the tent across the light (which is much lower to the canopy on full power as you can see) - at night I pull the AC out into the open to regulate/dehumidify/purify oh and both the Co2 jugs are #1 in the corner under/attached to fan and #2 under the AC line of fire by the vent port also did a lot of ghetto-rig work making sure all the ducting was making nice tight connections etc and the attic heat wasn't leaking back into the room additional fan is blowing air coming out of the tent/filter into the open room good day!
Hey blades I know I said I'd update at the week marks, but the buds have been getting frosty these past few days here is a nice pic I would also like to take this time to review a Hydro shop I recently did business with. This hydro shop has a site named progressive-growth.com and they own 3 shops in british columbia. So I was thinking, this seems like a pretty reputable place. After spending a little over 100 dollars, I had trouble for a week contacting anybody and getting a tracking number. finally when I got the tracking number, they sent it USPS standard INSTEAD of the UPS they advertise. The owner told me the package was 'just sent out yesterday' as it 'didnt make it on time last week'. he was lying. the post office said they didnt get it until an hour ago TODAY. not yesterday. so another week and a half into the future I finally get my package over a week late, and guess what? Not only did they send me something incorrect (bacteria instead of mycellium, big difference.) but the bag it came it was ripped and ALL OVER THE PLACE. I have YET to establish contact with the owner again and would never recommend anyone go to this site. IN OTHER NEWS - while i try to get my refund from them, I did a lot of research into mycellium and bacteria sources and found THIS AMAZING SITE. they have a one ounce bag of mycellium AND beneficial bacteria and MORE (everything that AN voodoo, piranha, and tarantula has) for only SIX DOLLARS A BAG! this stuff has everything you would get from the AN 3 part series that would cost you 90 dollars for the smallest size containers! and this site ONLY deals with fungi, mushroom, mycellium etc. NOTHING else. they sell mushroom chocolate, mushroom soap, gardening mycellium and bacteria, EVERYTHING fungus, and the owner REALLY knows his stuff when it comes to this, they have tons of free information and very very expensive sold out 6 month in advance seminars that the owner teaches. the one ounce bag including mycellium, bacteria, and other beneficials including kelp, and the better shipping method with tracking only cost me a total of 13 dollars! thats HALF the price of one of the smallest sized bags of ONE of the parts of the advanced nutrients set. they also sell by the pound I will update you all with a report of this new product I ordered. here is a link to the website, and to the product itself so you can view which bacteria and myco it has in it. http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mycogrow-soluble-1-oz.html (again i stress this, notice that this 6 dollar bag has everything the advanced nutrients 3 part system offers, same kinds of bacteria and mycellium and more) ps this link is for SOLUBLE SOLUTION FOR HYDRO. they have soil mixes on the shop page. http://www.fungi.com/ PSS - if youre wondering why im doing mycellium and bacteria so late into flower its simply because I couldn't afford it before, and these plants will go into reveg so its better to colonize it now, than after harvest. OH and to those of you who know about my 'hermie scare' I did get the dutchmaster saturator and REVERSE to get rid of the seemingly sparse male growth (the platinum cookie looks like it has a few now after i plucked all the others!) I DRENCHED the canopy in REVERSE+SATURATOR last night and will post results I also think I found out what was causing my light to shut off randomly sometimes, even after I split my major equipment onto different circuits.. one of my power strips just randomly turns off sometimes (surge protected) I wonder why? It doesn't have nearly the power its rated for going through it. just the light and a fan. PSS sorry i use a lot of keywords when I type I like to think someone will search this info up sometime and find it useful heh good day all
thanks for showing support Okay this is a followup to my review on fungi.com - package came today a day early, came with a catalog and actually had a receipt, and yes! the order was right! I poured ~3/4 gallon solution into big one, 1/4 gal into the solo, and I put a bit into a spray bottle and just sprayed them down. I used about 1/12th of the package per 1 gal which was the recommended dosage for the other uses. (1 ounce per 12 gallons of water = 1/12th ounce per gallon). I took a few pictures of roots and will show them again in 2 weeks when it is hopefully well cultured. I'm very excited to see this get to work i've been reading about it for weeks the buildup of nutes and other unmentionables on the roots has been turning grey already, not sure whats going on down there, the water also seemed really really bubbly post application. PS my EC is very low right now. I've switched out 5-8 gallons of water since top off I heard that it colonizes really slowly in high phosphorus content medium so i've held off on topping off nutes since before I ordered hope this helps
I didnt realize when I posted frost shots yesterday that today was a benchmark day, week 5 day 1. Here are a couple canopy shots. Haven't seen much mycellium forming on the roots yet, at day 40 I am going to top off nutes wether it has colonized well or not. thats 5 days from now. buds are starting to pack on and frost up, i'm in paranoia mode (tweakers just moved in down the street, things already gone missing from car) good thing I have 3 big dogs and they would never step foot in my yard / house
thats a good idea maybe i will put the really neurotic muscular one in there. tomorrow is day 40, and in 2 days the 6 week mark. buds be getting fatttttyyy pics will be delivered on da week mark take it ez blades
nug shots week 6 start i'm concerned about one of the plants mid sections a lot of the tops are still really small compared to the more dominant ones I got a small string net to help hold down the tall points and promote some midsection growth got about 20 days give or take pic 1 blue dream, pic 2, skywalker had a fan break and other mishaps so the light has been running on low and the water temps havent been kept prime. everything running on full again today.
Defoliated the underside of the canopy and did a QWISO run with the clippings. got a few grams of decent oil and a little oil soaked hash looking consistency stuff. There was a lot more in there than I thought, I pulled around 200 wet grams of malnourished/badly formed bud/leaf/stem from underneath the main canopy. The canopy looks so much cleaner and they have a nice aerated underside now and i'm not feeding anything thats not going to produce quality buds any longer some of the plants may be ready in just over 2, maybe 3 weeks, the more sativa heavy may take upwards of 4-5. seeing some hairs slighting red and TONS of (still 100% clear) frost and the indica plants are packing on fat colas. It's great blue dreams (pic 1) are starting to fill their stalks with buds and connect..the platinum cookie (pic2) is starting to show some purple colors but i want a VERY purple strain. its buds are puny (as expected, it was always the runt) but the skywalker will pull enough to carry her through i think pic 3 is under the canopy nice and clean now, pic 4 is blue dream frost update. pic 5 is blue dream bud growth. pic 6 is the shared plant canopy. hope your gardens are doing well friends, take it easy.