Hey GC! This has been a bit of a slow burn for me getting to this stage, but bear with me. I think I'll get there eventually. Ultimately, I want to grow some CBD for my ageing folks. They're always complaining about being tired and sore, so a dose of CBD might be the fix for them. Down here in New Zealand, it's pretty hard to source some medicinal, so I thought I'd do a home grow for them. Like a lot of folks, I want to keep cost down to an absolute minimum, so I've been accumulating a few bits and pieces along the way, and my cabinet is still a work in progress. I've got a steel 600mm square (2×2) server cabinet that I've rescued from the recycler, so that's a good start, and I'm hoping to get a perpetual grow going on when I finally get my hands on some good genetics. I cant afford a decent light at the moment, but in the meantime, I want to learn a much as I can, and want to work on my clone game. I've started to build a bubble cloner, pretty much done there I think, but just need to work on cutting the noise from the pump down as much as possible. Stealth is key, as I don't really want my wife and kids busting my ass! I've got a 50W portable LED work light, 6000k, which I'm hoping will suffice for clone and veg for now, and I'm planning on taking some cuttings from someone's plot I found down by the river, hopefully before they start to flower, which will be very soon I guess, this side of the summer solstice. The race is on! Gotta get my cabinet sorted, damp down that air pump somehow, and swipe some cuttings, all under the radar. Wish me luck! Now let's see I'd the old dog can upload a pic...nope. I guess I'll have to search that up and get back to you.
So here's the cabinet. It's a heavy sucker, so I've put some casters under it so I can roll it out of its corner to work on it if I need to. I'm planning on shifting the shelf up to halfway, use the downstairs for clone and momma, flower upstairs. I'll have to light seal the levels for their different light cycles and shift air between the two as well. Is the space big enough for that, or am I dreaming?
Work in progress on my bubble cloner. I've progressed on a bit more now. Have to get a fresh pic later. I've cut down the thing and cut those ports down somewhat, made some foam bungs, siliconed the two halves together and put a small ring bubble stone in the bottom, which seems to epervess away so refreshingly. I think it'll be a winner once I kill that noise from the pump
Winning! I've all but finished my cloner, just got to level the base of it so it's a bit more stable, and managed to kill most of the noise from the air pump! Initially I thought there was no way I'd manage to pull the noise down, but then I did a bit of a Google of YouTube and found a couple of how to's. One dude stuffed his pump with like stuffing to pull the noise down, he must have been blazin', but another guy suspended his pump inside of a glass jar. I gave that one a go, except instead of suspending it, I kind of stuffed soft spongy foam around the pump to insulate it from the jar and a foam lid with a breathing tube for air to get in. Fuckin' aye! Awesome! So I did a test with a sound meter app on my phone. Ambient noise was about 35dB, and with the pump switched on, meter a foot away from the pump 55dB. With the pump in the jar, bubbles running in the cloner, 43dB! By the time that's inside my cabinet in the corner of my shed, you'll prolly never notice it. Feeling pretty pumped about that. See what I did there
Yeah, I should probably clarify that sound meter. Theres a few blips there where I'm plugging the cloner in and at the end taking a screenshot, bumps up to 60ish. So yeah, as far as costs go, all I've bought so far is the circle bubble stone for $6 and a plug in timer for my light, which was only like $10 as well. Everything else I've already had, found in the dumpster, or acquired at work. A fan will be my next mission. Got some recovered from old PCs and a power supply I ripped out of a disused route I found in the recycling bin at work
Today's update. I'm really happy with the bubble cloner. I had it running for a few hours the other day, and found the underside of the lid all nice and moist. Water level was about 2.5 inches below the lid, so it should do the business. I've finally got a floor for my cabinet, made out of a road sign I found in the metal scrap bin, and I found the base of a plastic barrel which fits perfectly at the bottom for any random spills. Well about a perfect as a round peg can fit a square hole anyhow. It was horribly convex at the base, so I heated it up and flattened it off as best I could, clamping it to a bench while it cooled. Stoked!
Yeah, so I did a bad thing. If you're at all squeamish about a dude bumping into another dude's plot in the bush, and then ripping off said plot...look away now. So about October I found some other dude's freshly planted seedlings, and I've kept a bit of an eye on them, but haven't laid eyes on them for a good month and a half. Earlier on, I noticed that one of the plants was getting hammered by snails, and wasn't getting much light where it was, so I shifted it to a better location with more sun, and waaay less likely to be stumbled upon. From now on, I'll refer to her as 'my girl', and all the others as 'his'. I went and checked them out yesterday, wanting to take a cutting or two to run through my cloner. My girl, and his are all starting to flower now, so I guess it wasn't ideal taking cuttings now, but I figured I've got nothing to lose, and something to learn so I took a few cuttings off his girls. Out of about 6 of his plants, 2 are boys, and all about 5-10 yards apart from each other. My girl is about a couple of hundred yards away so should be safe where she is? Although kinda downwind of where the boys are. On a side note, if I did want a few seeds off my girl, I'll just rub some of the boy bits on a couple of my girl's flowers? Pics to follow when I get a moment. Some here of my girl. Quite yellow! When I was there last, say 6 weeks ago, I gave her some nutes - some seaweed tea I made which I had in a bottle next to her with a pin prick to slow release the tea. That might have done that? Oh so much to learn Yeah, I know these are outdoor, but I'm bringin' them in!
So here's a couple of 'his plants'. I dunno man, I'm new to this growing thing, but wouldn't you at least rip out all the boys? Is there some deep hidden reason to leave them, or does the dude just not care? He's got a couple of nice looking girls coming along, but a few are in quite shaded spots and struggling a bit
I took a couple of cuttings even though I thought I was pushing shit uphill. Yesterday was a warm day, the plants were starting to flower and I had about an hour to travel to get back to my cloner. I cut the bottom off a plastic drink bottle, filled it with about an inch of water and had a couple of pre made holes through a foam bung for the cuttings to pierce and keep the cuts wet. It worked a treat, and I didn't spill a drop for the whole conceal home. I dropped the whole lot down a cardboard tube and cable tied the bottle butt so it wouldn't roll around and damage the cuttings. When I got home, I still had one looking reasonably fresh, but 2 out of the 3 were looking a bit sad. I had some work to do to get my light in order, as I still hadn't done that yet, and had to rush to get off to work. Need to work on those light leaks It was good to get them home! So it'll be interesting to see how that light goes. It's just a portable work light 50W LED cob 6000k
12 hours later, they're looking a bit sad. Its warm in the cabinet, need to get a thermometer in there to sus that out, but I opened to cloner up, and everything seems how it should be in there. Kinda resigned to the fact I might have to pop a few seeds open to keep going
But then this morning, a glimmer of hope! They're starting to perk up a bit! I dunno, maybe the whole shock was a bit much, or just having a rest from the light overnight, but things looking a little more hopeful. I'm not too invested in the whole thing, but it would be kinda cool to see how far these could go. Would live to see some little roots pop out. I have a power supply unit I pulled out from a router I found in the recycling bin so I'm using that now to power a little fan from a PC, just to get a bit of airflow in the cabinet and circulate the air a bit. One of the cuttings I've clipped down to see if that makes a big difference. I guess, less surface area, less transpiration? I'll get a pic of that power supply next time I'm in the cabinet. It's got a few outlets, +12v, +5v, -12v. Gotta figure out what I can do with that. Would be cool if I could diy an led light out of it. Got a pretty cool heatsink I could use for that. Maybe with the 5v I could drive an arduino? Shit to learn
Happy daze! Them clones looking nice and perky this morning. I tried to address some of those light leaks last night, but found I need to think a little harder to resolve that one. Also had to replace the plug on my light as it was dodgy af. It kept cutting out and leaving the clones in darkness, so I sorted that out. Now hopefully back into the 18/6 routine. Anyone shed some light on what those clones might do now, given they were starting to flower, and now they're under a veg light at 18/6? Couple of pics of my power supply I found. I've got the 12v driving my little PC fan, but just wonder if I could use the 5v to drive a veg LED. The light I've got in there now, I'd like to replace with a diy if I can, but buy a decent light to flower under
72 hours since I took the cuttings, and things are looking very positive. They're starting to stand up straighter, I guess responding to the light, which makes me feel better about the light, and obviously the bubble cloner is a winner! Quietly stoked So I fixed a few of the light leaks last night, but I think I might actually have to buy something to help me out there. Kinda reluctant tho. Keen to keep this thing as cheap af
Nice dude. Now you can say you got hour weed for free. Definitely clone those clones before you flower.
Thanks man, will do! What's the reason behind that? Does that kinda stabilise the hormones running through them or something like that? Thanks for the advise. That'll give me more time to save for a good light to flower under anyhow. Cheers
The idea is you clone in veg like you know already and by the time your flower area is done the clones will have 6 weeks to veg and grow so you can flower em when your flower spot is done. They call it perpetually growing.
Ahhhhhh, I gotca. Yeah, working on that! That's the ultimate goal. I've for to learn to walk before I can run, but I'm really enjoying the journey. Thanks for your input
No problem man Goodluck. Easiest way is to just setup a veg spot and flower spot separately. That way your not trying to plan tons of shit around a schedule. Once you get it going the biggest issue is the veg spot over growing the flower spot before they get in there.
Cheers man. So just reading between the lines there, there's no real advantage in having a momma you clone from? You just clone from the last clone, keep going a few generations and pop a fresh seed once in a while? I was trying to get my head around how the whole momma thing would work for me, but popping a new seed after 4 or 5 generations seems so much easier. I think I just answered my own question there
Yeah you did. I ran 3 clones from previous clones and then breed one cause I liked it so much. People will say genetic drift Roggle roggle roggle, I didnt see any. Will point out though for best result dont take from a flowering plant they take awhile to look pretty again. One way to make sure they don't flower is to keep em under 24 hrs of light. Id take a couple of each for safety measures. Id have to dedicate a room to just moms and veg otherwise. Hope those gifted clones root up.