So... after receiving the 4 clones I was waiting for I decided to finally put the finishing touches on my cabinet. Currently I have 6 23w cfls, 4 6500k and 2 2700ks in my DIY reflector. I used a 70cfm bathroom fan at first but now I am realizing that this doesn't get rid of the heat very well so I just got a 6" inline duct fan I have yet to install. I gotta go to work now, I'll be back in like 9 hours with pics!
Just bought some Azamax because of the damn spider mites these things came with... fortunately they are all healthy besides that. So anyway, this ballast is an 8 inch duct with 2 wooden ends from the extra cabinet wood to mount places for lights, ultimately there is room for 16 lights under there but I'm not sure if I will use that many... even if they were all only 23w that would be 368w of cfls at 25600 lumens! Right now I am just working on controlling the heat of six of them, I have to leave the door open with a fan pointed at it So anyway, lights just went out so I sprayed them all down at the recommended 1/4 ounce per 32 ounces water of the azamax stuff.. Wish me luck
I just looked at the stem on the bigger plant, and DAMN!! never seen a plant that small with a thick knotty looking stem like that . And the little one is the only one i haven't tied down at all, and it has so many nodes I don't even think I'm going to. I'm trying to let it catch up a little. To deal with the heat issue I will be making a cool tube out of this setup, because I have to be able to leave the door closed or there was no point in making a cabinet... So that's what I'm doing tomorrow. In a week I'm going to cut away all the damaged leaf material to make sure that the mites are gone after the second spray
It's been 12 days since I received them, and last night I nearly completed my CFL cool tube with AWESOME success My cab stays at 75, and inside the hood it is like 77 with 2 42w 2700ks and 4 23w 6500ks. I'm going to the store in a bit to get 4 more 6500ks for a nice veg setup of 268 watts @ 18600 lumens - 8% from the plexiglass = 17112 lumens That's adequate for vegging right? Edit: Oh yeah I took pics of the process to make that fixture, and the grand total including lights & everything connected to it is about $150 bucks for the 268w.. Obviously flowering will add on another 50 bucks or so but will have 33,000 lumens -8%(plexiglass) in my 3 square foot area. So for 200 bucks, this will be a kickass scrog setup (haven't made the screen yet though).
18 days since the adoption... The spider mites have died back significantly so hopefully this last spray of azamax keeps them gone. They are growing very bushy, so I'm raising my lights up to get a little vertical growth.(that's my theory anyway) I want to attempt to make some clones before I scrog and flower these at least two weeks before i flower for that space... Any opinions? Should I wait longer? I don't know how much they really will stretch before flowering starts. Anyway I will feed them some miracle organic nitrogen stuff with a teaspoon of epsom salts to counter all the excess calcium in my runoff. Edit: Fuck the miracle grow shit, I bought some BioThrive (4-3-3) and it actually balanced out my ph for me to 6.5, and my runoff is like 6.2. Maybe a little on the low end. And when i added epsom salts to my water it raised the calcium levels to 800ppm, which i cant explain; I was trying to fix the fact that my runoff has 1000ppm calcium... I hope they will be ok. And the other picture is the other four lights for when flowering begins. Just gotta drill some holes and make all the wiring look cleaner once this hood is complete.
Day 23 since received. Spider mites are gone... Still gonna do another safety spray soon to make sure there are no stragglers. I have made my screen with 1/2" pvc and just some screws to hold it flimsily together. Next I wrapper screws with twine into a 3" box grid that is 24"x18" hanging from my light fixture. I can actually drop the screen right on top of them to get the light closer untill they grow in a little better. The time is near for 12/12. And also I took a stab at cloning. I took five cuttings from the under growth that wasn't getting much light but still looked sturdy and used rooting gel with rapid rooters as per the directions. My ten sprouts and 5 cuttings are just chillin under some t12s for my next budget operation, something like sea of green except just along the 3 ballasts(6 tubes); A string of green. I know people are probably laughing, but I've done this before and haven't been disappointed, with less plants. The way it will be set up the grow area will be receiving about 9000 lumen per square foot even with those cheapo tubes. The maui is my control for this experiment, and one clone will stay a mother The 10 others are bag seeds, which i hope to get at least 5 girlies. I will be flowering them in a couple weeks or less maybe, we'll see how they go.
Your plants are looking great. I'm a completely organic grower and was wondering if you knew that the widow tree also helps root growth for clones. Just a thought if you happen to have a willow tree near you house in which you can boil down it's branches. But I have to say nice job. Also what types of nutrients are you putting in for you older plants, or have you not gotten there yet? You can feed your plants extras of what you don't eat from fruits and vegetables and fish also helps alot too. If you have peelings from fruits and vegetables you put in it will really help it during vegetative state. Just a though. Good luck.
I'm sceptical of putting fruit remnants in my soil as that causes fruit flies and maybe mold.. I pretty much just use general organics bio growth every other watering. There is also some organic granule jobes plant and tomato food which has like 3 different guano, worm castings fish emulsions and like everything.. plus those beneficial bacterial things. I have only used a small amount of that because it has way too much calcium in it.. that's the only downfall I've seen. So I'm probably not what a true organic grower would consider organic because I don't make my own soil. I'm not quite ready for that yet
Well your plants look good anyways even if not completely organically grown, I do it because of taste and smoothness of the smoke. It sounds like you have a very good plan going for plant feedings which will give you bigger bud, great taste, and keep your plants from getting sick. There is a way to make a organic spray to spray in your grow room and keep bugs from gathering I will see if I can find it for you. Did you know that after the vegetative state of you crop, into the flowering period, you should stop feeding 2 weeks before planned harvest day.
Yes, kind of like flushing. In flower I was going to use the granule slow absorbed organic stuff. 2-7-4 so I wouldn't add nutrients at all during flowering. I will just transplant mixed with soil/jobes a week before I switch to 12/12.. the last thing I want to do is burn or stunt growth during flower. That's my theory anyway
Yes. Exactly what I was thinking. Here is the organic spray I was talking about:   12 drops peppermint oil(I recommend now essential oil for this since it's non-toxic to humans, I know this because I put on my cigarettes for taste.) Also if you try that don't light the cigarette near your face.)   1/4 cup lemon Juice   1/2 cup water with one drop of soft hand detergent shaked in    Shake-well Put all on a cotton swab then sprinkle with a pinch of cloves scatter around corners of grow room. You can also put pure peppermint on the cotton swabs but never put under your lights since it is flammable. Also if you have a humidifier instead of these two methods I recommend adding this into the humidifier minis the hand soap. For use on the plants you can take out the peppermint oil and add in onions and garlic blended together in a blender.
Thanks for the tip, I'm gonna have to try that! So it's been a while but I ended up creating a pH issue with that fertilizer and soil combo... I flushed them all with my tap water (ph of 8ish) and my runoff is still below 6, so I will probably flush again next watering as the new growth is healthy but the older leaves are torched lol... Glad i cought it soon. So kids, watch your pH like a hawk especially if you use any type of nutes. I think I'm going to put them in there final containers with some type of alkalai to neutralize the soil. I've heard wood ash, but I'm going to look into it right now because these things have filled my screen so I can flower any time now, probably in the next couple days. The only thing I have to build is some way to drain the setup if I need to flush again. I have a boot tray from lowes I'm going to paint white and drill a hole or something... I'm not sure. Maybe I'll just take the screen out because they pretty much retain the shape of my light fixture without it. I really need to switch the lights soon before they get even more unmanageable...
Looking pretty good man. Aside from the little bit of nute burn they are looking strong and new growth seems to be popping up still and looking nice and healthy. I'd say trim any super burnt up leaves and leave the rest to recover. Good luck on the flowering, they should yield pretty well with that Scrog you have
Day 34 since adoption: The final transplant, I will start flowering on Friday, when I can afford six more 42w cfls.. Damn things aren't cheap. All I have really done is trim off excess lower branches(not leaves) that weren't really getting light anyway. I am nervous to use any bottled nutrients after that last incident... Oh yeah, the back two have jobes organic bloom booster in them already, the front two are just organic choice miracle grow potting soil. And I checked my clones today and 4 out of 5 rooted nicely, however I only had enough soil to plant 3, now they are in with the rest of the assorted flavors: The front 3 are the clones, minus the one with the thermometer on it. They are all pretty much the same size, as they mature I have topped each one once to take a clone before I flower them in maybe two weeks or so...
Switched to 12/12 tonight. Now I have a grand total of 2700x8 + 1600x6 = 31,200 lumen -8% = 28,704 lumens... Yeah I know lumens isn't the greatest measure, but I feel comfortable with that amount of light for flower. Lol, take a look! It's a little cramped eh? The final setup... Still messy I know, but fuck it. It's a beautiful ghetto budget operation if I ever saw one.
Oh yeah the heat.. 75-76 at canopy and 86 inside the cool hood.. 474 watts of cfl. Overkill? Stay tuned to find out...
Wow a lot cooler than I thought that plexi sure does help. Might integrate something like that into my next grow