G'day to all.Today is test day of the branch that was harvested 4 days ago and air dried in a collander above the a/v area. Trimmed and dry it weighed out a 9.4grms. Very dense and lots of sparkling tricombs.Nice fruity smell. I like to smoke joints and thats how i test. Lights easily.burns well and ash is gray.half joint is plenty. The real harvest is tomorrow afternoon so the flwring chmbr is dark till then. I had to turn a small space heater on that i never run when the chmbr is running.
G'day to all. Harvested both plants and it looks good. Lots of bud.The big plant filled two collanders and the little one half a collander. They'll start the drying process above the a/v ctr.Clean up starts maybe tomorrow and i'll hhave pics of the roots and stuff that i think you'll find very interesting
G'day to all . I been goofing off a bit nothing to say except Cookie likes his cookin'...a lot! Today is CLEAN UP.i hate it and i usually sit on my ass a couple of days before i get started. When i started this thread y'all came in in the middle of the cycle so you really couldn't see the bending frame and what its all about. I got the idea for this bending frame from the book Secrets of the West Coast Masters.Everybody is scrogging but theres a couple of drawbacks to your standard scrog set up. Acess is one.It doesn't follow the plnts tendencies at all. Its not flexible so it can't take advantage of traits a plnt might display during growth. In the book they use the frame but wire with a lot of knots. I don't do knots and i thought why not dowels? And instead of 1 plnt /1000wt= 1 lb downsize to 2plnts/400wt 180wt led=8oz every 80-90days. The pics are the root systems of the two plnts . Susan and big plnt. I drill the net basket to accomadate the root systm before putting into dwc Drip ring causes extreme lateral growth in the geolite Orientation of dowels thru plnt/without Plnts in dev chmbr being bent to same angle as harvested plnt chmbr with frame and without
G'day to all.I got my yeild all figured out and after all is said and done compared to last harvest i can only give myself a C Susan the runt = 24grms Big Gurl= 107grms total 131 grms= 4 3/4oz last harvest; Cherry OG(hydro) 117grms=4.5oz Big Band(dirt) 92grms=3.8oz total 209grms=7.12 oz ? sorry about the math Previous harvest; Big Band (dirt) 52grms= aprox 2oz BCN Diesel (dirt) 31 grms= aprox 1oz If you follow the stats i'm doing ok but i've done better on the yeild however the quality this time is really excellent and i rate an A on that. This harvest i used my digital microscope to determine maturity and that really worked well as i have a tendency to go early. I was really able to fine tune the type of high i like...couchlock. I did the darkness for the last 36hrs and the plant potency seemed to be punchier than previous harvests...of course it could have been i judged when it was ready better..hard to say..but i will do it from now on even though i don't understand the principle I tuned my nutes down 3 weeks before harvest and was on water for two weeks with just the slightest touch of gravity.After hearing from Tihspeed that gravity is bad for human consumption i experimented. I harvested a branch 4 days previous to final 4 day flush. I smoked it while i went about the final days of the flush and then harvest.Definitely there was a slight taste to it kinda like brakish water. Other than that it burned well and got you f'd up. The harvest was given that additional flush for 4 days and the darkness thing.This smoke is smoooth burns well tastes good and is way punchier than the preharvest sample. I'm caregiver to one so a oz for them 3 3/4 for me in glass jars Next time shopping?
G'day to all. LoveMyBudz good to see ya. I send lots of newbies to check your thread out on cab building. Allright whats the next step to keep this perpetual grow going? I have 4 chmbrs i'm working with. 3 are empty. 1 has two plnts in it...a GEN 4 Big Band and a from seed Purple People Eater that i'm sure is a male. It's the nicest male i've ever grown.Perfect size and extreme amount of branching takes to hydro like a duck to water...but its male. I'm going to experiment with it . I'm going to upgrade the dirt/dev chmbr to hydro and put the PPE in there under the led and see if i can make my mesh net held by friction in bucket fed by drip ring idea work. That will make the humidity go up so i'll now need to add a fan to vent the chmbr. I already have a Dayton fan and the hole is there as well. I just need to hook it up...same for the bubbler and electrical..holes already there currently covered so no light leaks to adjoining chmbr. I have a continuous tri-meter that i haven't been using and i'm going to use that in the flwring chmbr. I had the unit checked out because i haven't used it in years..still works but needs a new ph probe. I stopped using it because the probes are expensive.$50-70 depending on where you shop and they only have a 3mo guarantee.They last 1 harvest for sure 2 if you're lucky...very lucky. If you have one its mandatory you cross check with a pen on a regular basis or risk the consequences the biggest being reverse osmosis. You kill a crop quick that way ..i've done it because the meter made me lazy. I'm going to use it in my dwc so i can keep an eye on my ph drift better....ok it looks good as well and matches the blue of the rest of the system and is backlit in green.I look at this all day its gotta look good. The other item i'm going to add is the sentinel ec-1 controller.This will control the fans so they don't have to run all the time but only as needed. Try sleeping above two 4'' duct fans that run basically 24/7. I turn them off for an hr when i first get up to cool them a bit and then fire them up again and turn on the lites. The probe is $50 the controller $150 and thats all i'm comfortable spending. I want the ec-2 but its an additional $80 and from the review i read from new guy with a tent problly not worth the additional $$....i hope. I've been trying to get clones but not being very successful. I used to get them at my local med shop but they are ALL closed. I checked CL not good. They ask for verification in the ad you send it ..you hear nothing back...email again now the site is permanently closed. I won't do that again cause i'm afraid of id theft. pic are of the two plant and empty chmbrs
G'day to all.Seeds came in so i'm getting started by cleaning my seed/clone/isolation chmbr....my aquarium. Its got everything in it you need to start. lites ,pump, fan. I had the tray laying around and i use small storage containers to stack the tray as close to the lites as i want. Later i add a pump and its a mini ebb&flow. I put a gal or so of ionized wtr in with a bubbler and that provides humidity controllable with the fan that is independenly controlled from the lites. I'll be germinating in a container for tomatoes and starting the free seeds first...i'm soaking them and tonite they go into paper towel....SamSara seeds? sounds dubious. The pics are of what i've been writing about
G'day to all. Much going on in terms of what direction to take with the garden for the immediate future. My upgrade budget got downgraded by the arrival of the car insurance and you gotta have that....and cable,phone,internet pkg....again i put the controller on the back burner. I will get a new probe for my tri meter instead. $50vs $220. I made a good connect for clones and picked up 3 Rez's Strawberry diesel clones for $30.Not bad price and they're really nice looking. They are currently in Krankenhaus along with the germinating pod while i get their chmbr ready. The male PurplePeopleEater and the GEN 4 Big Band were given to a newbie grower i know who wants to breed them together...good luck with that sister. But you never know the male is outstanding and Big Band is high yeilder. I would love seeds of the union but i don't have that kind of space or time....she does. The plan is to put SD's in the hydr dev chmbr till the 1st week of april and then into dwc chmbr 2wks 250wtmh and then 4-5wks 400wt hps harvest in may. The free seeds i will grow concurrently and according to their vigor they hopefully will be ready to go in the hydr dev chmbr at the end of the month when the clones go into dwc chmbr. If all works out on sched i'll be back on track and recovered from 8 out of 8 males debacle. One day i'll convert the dirt/veg dev chmbr to hydro but i just don't have the money right now for the controller to run it properly...nexxt harvest. I been saying that for the better part of 20 yrs .I end up getting what i need not what i want but the stuff works. pics are the new clones and the germinating pod in the Krankenhaus chillin..incidently the Krankenhaus was always a aquarium tank never a reptile tank. I saw it in a jappantown shop and the price was right and on the box it said plug&play. Of course this is back in the days when i had a....job! or when i could still work a job....anyway it cost $80 complete.
G'day to all.Today lets go SHOPPING. I had to get my co2 tank filled so i made it a full run.For those who came in late i don't use a 20lb content tank because i can't lift it..i use a nifty 7lb content tank. If i got my co2 at the hydro store i would pay $20 exchange tank for 20lb content.Because my tank has to filled at Airgas i pay $25 for 5lbs of content even though the tank holds 7lbs...it is metered out in 5lb increments. I lose money initally but i more than make it up at the end. I only early veg clones with it but it makes a difference. I don't get manic with the amount of co2 in the cab or pedantic. You can spend a whole lot of money in this area and end up confused. Buying testing tubes and more much more for questionable info. I keep it simple 1 lpm everytime the irrigation pump runs which is 5min every 50min.Sometimes i kick it up to 1.5 lpm.The fan and the irrigation/co2 are on seperate C.A.P cyclestats that are synched so when one is off the other is on. This is the poormans controller until one day i get my dream controller. The set up works well but a controller...that's raw sex! Backlit green dials with digital readout seperate independently controlled plugs / nite device....ahhhh we all have our little wet dreams. After filling the tank i went to my favorite Japantown store. Let me explain a unknown fact to you. When it comes to living in a small space but being modern no one does it better than the Japanese...nobody. These guys have it down on what you need and have downsized gear to fit in very small spaces. Containerization is big very big. I come in and check the stock every harvest when i have $$$. In a place like this i can spend $20 and really get good stuff for the grow rig. Todays deals. 2 curtain rods for bending plnts $1.98 each, scub brush for cleaning tnks $1.98,..A folding metal camp stool $7.98 for working in the cab..which i didn't buy cause i already have a wood one. I then went to Bed,Bath& Beyond and bought a new Lasko ocillating stick fan to replace the old one that was on its last legs...it had gotten so loud and wd-40 wasn't helping.If your ocillating fan is louder than your squirrel cage fan its time to go. I bought 3 of them on sale 5yrs ago for $12 ea. That was a deal! The new updated fan cost $25...hate to pay it but the bitch works too well and you know how i feel about green backlit dials. I snuck a quik look at the seeds in the germ pod one is popping the other is not. I'm soaking 2 rkwool plugs in anticpation of one or more being ready tomorrow. Clones are stretching out under the cfl they're getting straight water and they look good but they need to be in their home tomorow getting attentin lavished upon them. I was reading the forums and this kid still living at home asked why when he moved out on his own why would he want to have a grow rig as it sounded expensive to him and he didn't see the sense of spending the money. It's a good question and i've been thinking how to answer that. I've never made the money others have because it wasn't my focus.Music was and i wanted to make my fortune there. Music gave me the best of times and a lot of the worst but it never ever paid for my car, the repairs, dental work, the rent,the phone bill, a carribean vacation, food,or got me laid regularly....ok it got me laid but not regularly if you know what i mean. All these things my grow paid for over the years and long, long ago paid for itself. I've never made more than $10hr in my life but my rig made the difference.20 yrs i've had a rig and now i've got most of the toys and don't spend too much anymore. I try new stuff if its not too expensive. I always dreamed that one day i would be a pot farmer/musician when i got old and retired. The reality was i got disabled laid off got on disability and can't play music anymore and now i do nothing but farm. Funny how the big man upstairs worked it all out...thanx dude.
G'day to all thanx for visiting.Did a bunch of stuff to get the hydr dev chmbr read. i switched out the glow panel for 250wt led.Added another bubler in the res tank and grw tray. I couldn't help but notice that using led increases algae growth in my tray so i painted the top cover black to keep light out. Previously i didn't have a problem with algae using cfl in this chmbr .I had some but not like with led. I mixed the nutes lite very lite at 5.7 with ionized wtr put the girls in cups with hydon rk and put them in the system. Hooked up the co2 to the irrigation timer and closed the door and let it run. Temps shot up to 88F vent on down to 84. not good. Led's DO put out heat as you go up in watts. I stupidly hadn't planned on that.Run with doors open its about 77-80. Guess i won't be using co2 just yet.2 of the plnts are showing a bit of yellow on a leaf but now that they're getting nutes i'm not going to worry about it for a couple of days..give them a chance to acclimate themselves. Of the two seeds only one germed the shot adrenaline auto so i put it in a rkwool plug in the germ pod and put it in the k-haus. For now everything has been done and i just need to let them do their thing at their rate..whether you're new at this or an old grizzled vet this is the hardest part. Will they take to the conditions and grow?? pics are what i've been talking about.
G'day to all.I'm working with the ambient temps in my apt dialing in the temps in the hydro/dev chmbr. It's tricky and lots of cab people don't get how it works and how to apply it. Last post it was a nice warm socal day. Door open temps were 77- 80 door closed 84-88.Today its stormy and cold 66 in the apt however in the cab intaking 66 air its 78-80 and the resv is 70 with the door closed so i'm doing co2 . The plnts are taking to the chmbr nicely growing up as well as out i was worried about the nutes being high but i think they like it but i think i'll add wtr and dilute it further...less is more. The Shot Adenaline in the germ pod in k-haus doen't seem to be happening. it can't break out of its seed shell a bad sign this late i'll give it a few more days but i think i'll start germing some seeds thurs....its a full moon. Todays pics are of my light and air leaks in my cab and the gurls after two days in the tank.They'll be no more pics of them till next sun so you can see the chng i'm always surprised what this sytm can do in a week when it runs right
G'day to all. Lot to talk about today good and bad.The gurls have been in the tank for 10 days and are just basking and luxuriating in there. And i was worried they wouldn't adapt....by the time i'm done these are going to be some big plnts they keep growing like this. I need to start the bending this week. When they go in the flwr chmbr i want the orientation to be like the face of a clock. One plnt for 12 to 3 quadrant, one for 3 to 6,and the biggest 6 to 12. That means you bend them now to grow away from each other and develop the lower branches which ultimately will fill in the rest of the clock with colas in stadium seating canopy. I've got another two weeks to get the flwring chmbr dialed in. This flwring cycle i want to work with my humidity more. I've always kept humidity at around 38-50 and get panicky if it get higher because i always am on the lookout for powdery mildew which has been the bane of my grow for years. Now that i have a good regimen to battle PM its time to see if i can dial it in using a humidifier , dehumidifer and a controller. I got all the gear except the controller and i'm torn between the Air-4 and the Sentinel Evc-2...not like i have the money right now. If i want to step my game up to the big boys level i'm going to have to have it. Speaking of the big boys..so i come across the Green House Seeds growing sessions video and watch them all. Arjan and Franco these guys are the real thing so i've been studying their stuff.I had to figure out celsius to farenhite and ec to ppm but the info is priceless. I want the yeilds they get and i'm close..i just need to tweak my stuff a little. They flush during flwring at week 2 and 6. I do that. But then what they do is dry the plnt out for 5 days....and then add nutrient. They say this causes the plnt to explode bud. I will try this. They do say the containers they use are 60 liters...15 gals.I try less days maybe two. At any rate i want to run at their numbers and i need a controller to do it properly I dumped the seed from SamSara seeds. It had Botyris. I have not seen this in 18 yrs from a seed company. To me its a extremely bad sign and i would never buy or reccomend this co. to anyone. Heres the deal ...the seeds were free but i had one dud and a diseased seed. That Botrysis came from WITHIN the seed and that makes it the seed co fault. It looks like mold on bread emanating from within the seed..sometimes it looks like gooey snot. I had this happen aprox. 18yrs ago when i bought seeds from Dr. Greenthumbs. Back in the day he advertised in HT and you could call him to make your order....and you still can. At any rate after a couple of orders i got these bunko seeds that when germed had the gooey snot style botryris and when i called and complained he sent me seeds at more than half off. I haven't bought from him since but i would reccomend him because he took care of biz. You won't find him at mega seed sites and he retains control of his product. He's still in HT 20yrs later because he's reputable....I doubt if these SamSara people will be around in a year. I germed the rest of my seeds and hopefully they'll pop and be ready to go in rkwool cubes and get the party started..started them thurs the new moon so we'll see
G'day to all.Everything is running smooth.The Strawberry Diesels are just popping in the tank really good root development as well as branching.The temps are so perfect i quit using co2 and am running with the door open at 78 taking advantage of the low ambient temp for now. The seeds in the k-haus all popped and were placed in rk wool plugs. The afgahn kushxwhite widow is showing a lot of vigor already out of its shell. I'm pouring a cup of water in the tray for evaporation to keep the humidity up . The rk plugs are in cups and ddon't get the wtr i add for humidity. I pulled my humidifier out of storage and checked it out. Still works fine even though you can't get this model anymore.I have all the elements except the controller and i'm on info overload. I've got it down to two models the Air-4 by C.A.P for $147 on amazon or the evc-1 by sentinel for $169 also at amazon. They both do basically the same thing but there's not that many reviews. I did read on GC of a guy who had just got the evc-2 or 4 but he was still out on it....testing. I'm leaning hard towards the C.A.P. unit because of the price but i'm also remembering that either Bonesaw or Tihspeed had a horrific time with a C.A.P ballast i believe and wrote extensively about the poor customer service. I haven't heard anything specific bad about sentinel but that extra $20 it costs bothers me...i don't want to be pennywise and pound foolish. I've got another two weeks to figure it out but in the meantime i've got to figure where to place the humidifier and continuous ph/ppm/temp meter. Usually i go led to 250w mh to 400w hps/2 90wtUFO. This time i'm going led straight to 400w hps/ufo combo. That will give them total 580w for the entire flwring period no 2 week adj period with 250w mh. I'm going to try to match Green Houses numbers close as i can. They do 600w hps in their video grow sessions and are pretty successful well thats all for today. Any controller comments or reccomendations would be greatly appreciated. sorry no pics this time
Love your updates Mengle. Wheres the love people? Hey Mengle, I was wondering if you ever in your growing experience tested running hps fully through and then actually using MH then onto HPS for the switch. I read so many mixed reviews with people saying different things. Im wondering if you had any personal insight into this? Btw your whole setup is looking great. Cant wait for a huge run this time Be sure to take pics when you start training with your custom contraption.. I wanna see it in action
I read, even when not posting... if im subbed, im in for the long haul unless my presence is no longer requested... so... if you were looking for love.... much love Dr Mengle ... maybe the name shy's people away... but mengele did lots more than just kill people... but most only know about the killing so maybe since the spelling is so close it forces them to skip over... who know's.. but seriously who needs more people... this thread is awesome... a handicapped person growing his own meds with super weight restrictions and pulling dank..... even if the grow was a flop i'd stay tuned just to read the writing on how things were accomplished and the challenges of day to day simple tasks involved... I have a rough time and I'm not handicapped(unless you count mentally) and to answer your question it was bonesaw that had the problem with cap... I actually prefer the sentinel evc-1 more anyway... its cheaper and it only has dials, in case you want to put this in your grow space... Im just not a fan of lights in my grow space, besides those lights will burn out eventually, so get something with just dials.. and save cash keep up the journal... ill say it again... im reading, even if not posting
Awesome thread Mengle, A+. I feel smarter after reading your thread. The knowledge and experience you bring to the table are what makes GC rock dude, +rep.. I dig on your setup and cant wait for upgrades. What you do is inspiration for us all. Now, as far as C.A.P. is concerned, plain and simply, don't do it. There stuff is the worst stuff that comes outta China, Cheap. and very poorly put together. Like you read in my thread their customer service is a joke, not so much personnel but policy. Sentinel is a far superior brand to go with so don't sweat the extra $20, you will be happier in the end. Anyhow, sweet thread subbed!
G'day to all. Thanx for the comments and advice. I'm used to working in obsurity and i don't need the "love'' as much as i need a different perspective sometimes and that's what i love about GC. Back in the day 20yrs ago you couldn't get info freely like now. I can remember going to a site on hydroponic/aeroponic do it yourself and they wanted you to PAY!! the info was "propriatory". Now its all out there ...too much in fact. Hard to seperate good info from weak info and good advice and good intentions. T-speed and B-saw i will go with the sentinel evc-1 unit. If you B-saw touch a hot stove and burn yourself I don't need to touch the stove as well to KNOW its hot..I thank you guys for the advice. I was asked by LoveMyBudz my experience with hps vs mh is there a difference in my experience ? When i started i used hps at 400wts.The ballast weighed a ton ,got pretty hot,and made a lot of noise. I had a greenhse window and did my starts in the window and then into closet using son-argo 430wt hps for flowering. Worked well. Moved to SoCal built cab and used 430w hps. Got too hot and so dropped down to 250w mh in the new digital ballast. They claimed that the blue in mh made the bulb cooler. right...I do better with hps start to finish however heat is a big problem for me.Too much heat and you got males or herms so i started doing 250w letting the plant adapt and then kick it up to 400w. I had the gear so i was following that regeime but temps are cool right now so i think i can dispense with the 250w step because the led is working so well. I will keep the 250w gear as spare/backup or for use when heat becomes opressive in summer I changed nutes today and i'm running 5.6-5.7ph and 1070ppm 66 res temp 73 air temp at 48% humidity. Its a little cold and rainy outside and i've got the cab door open. perfect. The plnts are looking very taut and bending starts tomorrow...i'm expecting a growth spurt tonite during the nite cycle. I did make two small changes in my technique.At nite i open the drain valve in the tray resv and let the solution drain into the tank and turn off the air pump and res pump.In the morn turn the air pump on let the nute mix and airate for 5min and then turn pump on start irrigation cyclestat. At nite roots dry out take in more oxygen...theroreticaly that is plus its hard to sleep with that damm air pump on all nite. The other thing i did was add an extra airstone using a y splitter instead of two air stones with two air lines ...more pressure less clutter. The plnts like two stones more than just one and they back each other up in casr one fails.I have had a lot of airstones quit working so i hope this will help. Seems to be working. Only one pic today of the gurls after a morning feed. Gotta start the bending tomorrow
Switch your stones next run to micro pore.....their super expensive, but you get more bubbles and they last forever, those crappy blue ones only last a run or two and their junk Start saving now though....mega expensive, but worth every penny