Return of the Herbage - Strawberry Cough/600Watt HPS/Scr0g/etc.

I'm back.

So, I've been at this little hobby for a year now and haven't had much success.

To recap, my first grow (2 ICE and 2 Aurora Borealis) ended up with 1 Aurora B being male, 1 ICE dying because of lack of space...or something, and 1 huuuuge ICE dying because of root rot brought on by light in the reservoir and high water temps. I only ended up getting about a half ounce off the one remaining Aurora B and it had to get harvested early due to root rot, but it ended up still being the bomb. I also got some QWISO hash oil out of the deal.

Lessons learned: Make sure your reservoir is lightproof and keep your water temperatures down. Also, make sure to have an adequate amount of water per plant in the reservoir (3-5 gallons).

My 2nd grow and my buddy's 1st grow that I was helping with and getting half the yield just ended about a month or so ago (?). It ended up being a bunch of pretty worthless ditch weed with no visible trichs whatsoever. All of the seeds used were ICE seeds I got off the plant from the first grow that died because of root rot. It went hermie before it died.

Lessons learned: Do not use premature seeds from a stress-induced hermaphrodite in the middle of its death throes.


So, on to bigger and better things.

This grow I'm going to have separate spots for vegging and for flowering, and plan on running 2 in each chamber.

I'm helping my buddy with his 2nd grow and will get half the yield. Instead of having two separate threads I'm just going to combine them in this one.

I've already bought all the shit for my flowering cab, but I still need to put it together. The details of all that shit I'll put in my Building a Flowering Cab thread (in sig).

I have a lot of new gear for this go. The veg chamber will remain the same:

Homebox Clonebox, DIY DWC/Bubbleponics, Hydroton/Rockwool, netpots, RO water, air pump, airstones, UV Sterilizer, 234watt 18000 lumen 4 ft 4 bulb T5, 4 inch exhaust fan/carbon filter combo, etc etc

For the flowering cab:

600watt lumatek digital ballast
EasyCool air cooled reflector
Sunmaster bulb
6 inch high output Can fan w/Canfilter 33
another air pump, water pump, all the regular shiznot

The veg chamber is about 4 ft x 2 ft x 4 ft. The flowering chamber is about 4ft x 1 1/2 ft x 6 ft.

I'll be scr0ggin again...

ramblin, ramblin, ramblin (I blame my vaporizer...)


STRAINS:

My buddy will be growing 3 non-femmed Aurora Borealis (Flying Dutchmen) and 1 femmed Himalayan Gold (Greenhouse).

I will be growing 2 femmed Strawberry Cough (Dutch Passion).

Umm...Lucas formula...

I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Some pics:

I want to get this off on the right foot with good vibes and shit, so here's what the Aurora Borealis I was actually successful with looked like when growing:





Here's a harvest pic of it:



Here's my buddy's area (think I'll go back to calling 'em my Apprentice):







Current situation w/the Apprentice:

I germed and sprouted 3 Aurora Borealis, and they are already in the system. There's a little bit of browning to the leaves, because they had to stay in a humidity dome a little longer than anticipated. We transplanted them into the system today so they should recover just fine. Also, he will be using tap water and Hard Water Micro as his tap water isn't that bad. Forget to say he's doing 1 400watt MH/HPS, same type of hydro set up.

Here's my spot ready to go. I already germed the 2 Strawberry Cough and the 1 Himalayan Gold. They're just in the humidity dome until they sprout. The SC's went into the dome last night and the HG went in today.







So, my plan is to run 2 at a time in each chamber. I'll be cloning off each plant, then selecting the 2 I want to run with in the veg chamber. I have to plan the timing right so I don't end up with plants overvegging waiting for the flowering cab to be empty.

...

Shit, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of shit but this is a fuckin tome already so GAME ON, and this time I'm not fuckin around.

 

What up, Joker. Thanks for stoppin in. Tell Doobz to get his ass back online, would ya?

Thanks man. Good to see ya roamin around these parts again. I'll be checkin out your thread in a bit to see what you're up to with your 45-fuckin-gallon reservoir lol. That's just crazy.

Don't be a stranger bro.

Thanks, Jim. I'm looking forward to it too. I bought myself an extreme vaporizer and haven't had anything decent to put in it. Smokin this swaggy bullshit I've been getting is pissing me off lol.

Where ya been, screw?!?!

Good track. "these Dark Soul Assassins". Gotta love KRS as well.

Strawberry Cough is 75% sativa but still finishes around 9 weeks. I was wanting a sativa to try out that didn't take a real long time to flower and I think this fits the bill. It's also "anti-anxiety" supposedly and I've been wanting to try it for awhile.

All my plugs and power strip are raised off the ground and sitting on a small shelf about 8-10 inches off the ground. That's the way I've had it every grow and haven't had any issues. Or if you're talking about the current Apprentice grow I'll make sure he's got 'em off the ground because I can't remember offhand.

Yeah, the power usage + the old wiring in my crib are the reasons I went with the 600 over the 1000. I'm going to put the separate chambers on different breakers to minimize any risks.

Thanks for stoppin in mang.

 

S'allright. First up is an update of the current Apprentice grow. If you recall it's 3 reg. Aurora Borealis (Flying Dutchmen) and 1 Himalayan Gold fem. (Greenhouse).

For posterity (or some shit), here's the seed info:

The Flying Dutchmen Aurora B

Aurora B. is a cross between a carefully selected Northern Lights with our sweet Skunk father, a vigorous plant with heavy resinous buds. This strain has the best attributes from both its parents. Aurora B. grows into a medium size plant similar to Skunk#1, and has a sweet and fruity taste with a hashy afterbite. Very high yields of quality product and a fast maturation time make this cross an ideal cashcropper both indoors and out.

Just sit back and enjoy the lights.

• Developed: Holland, F-1 hybrid
• Sativa/Indica: 50% / 50%
• Appearance: Very resinous, heavy buds
• Smell/Taste: Sweet & pungent with skunk undertones
• High/Strength: Strong physical/ clear cerebral
• Yield per m2: Very high
• Sowing time: May / June
• Outdoor harvest: Mid October
• Flowering: 8-9 weeks

and


Green House Seeds Himalayan Gold Feminized

Himalayan Gold has won many harvest festivals and private awards, proving its popular and high quality reputation. It's a strong and diverse plant, with a high that encourages creativity and effects that can be medicinal and pleasant.

Pedigree:
Nepalese and North Indian.
Strength:
A very creative high! Good for inspiration, meditation, pain relief and for arts & craft.
THC:
15.0%
CBD:
1.4%
CBN:
0.5%
Flowering Time:
Indoors: 8 to 9 weeks / Outdoors: Expect it to be finished by the end of Sepember in the Northern hemisphere and by May in Southern hemisphere. Massive yield and good quality.
Yield (Indoors):
450 to 600 gr/sqm
Pack of 5 and 10 Feminized Cannabis Seeds available


Anyhow, one of the three Aurora B's is no more. When I planted the germed seed into the cube, it somehow got flipped upside down. The taproot was real long and it got all twisted up and shiznot. I performed surgery on it and flipped it back right side up but I guess it never fully recovered.

He's just going with the remaining 2 Aurora Bs and the HG.

One of the Aurora Bs already has a root in the water. That's crazy fast.

And we already put the 400watt Agromax MH bulb in. Vegging should go a lot better for him.

...

On to my grow:

I've had to delay putting my girls in the hydro system a little longer than I had planned on. I've been extremely busy plus I wanted to get my RO system installed. Anyhow, the result is that my 2 plants have a little browning on the leaves.

I'm transplanting them tonight so I'm not too worried about it. I'm just waitin on the RO system to make some more water...

One thing I'm curious about is that while the RO system succeeds in giving me zero PPM water, the PH of it is about 7.5. That would seem to mean that I will be having to use a lot of PH down... Not sure how big of a deal this will be.

I'm going to try out a different irrigation manifold. It's got 8 water emitters (as opposed to 6) and gives you the ability to control the flow of water going to each hose. However, it's not made for this type of hydroponic application so I'm not sure if it will even work.

The air hose connection on my UV sterilizer is being a bit of a bitch. Even during my last grow I had trouble keeping the hose tight. The result was the loss of some air and a slower stream going through it. So I'm going to skip the sterilizer for the time being, figure out how to correctly get the hose attached tightly, and just use it in my 2nd stage grow (using clones from this one when my current girls go to the flowering chamber).

So this hydro reservoir will have the water pump, 6 hoses, 3 going to each cup and plant, a different air pump (the GH one), and 4 oxystones for oxygen in the water.

Blah blah blah. I'm going to try to start workin on my flowering cabinet this weekend but I'm a busy muthafacko.

Thanks for lookin and all dat.

I'll probably update with some pics later.

 

Thanks, Vader. Man, I'm lookin forward to some crystally goodness this round.

The description and what not of Strawberry Cough sounds awesome to me. I can't wait to sit back and vaporize some.

Thanks for stoppin in.


I forgot to give the Strawberry Cough description:

Dutch Passion Strawberry Cough Feminized

Variety: Mostly sativa (75%)
Harvest Date: October
Flowering Period: 9 weeks
THC Content: Unknown
No. of Seeds Per Packet: 5
Characteristics: Average Yield, purple buds
A very productive plant of high value as a medicinal herb. Bred for its euphoric, anti-anxiety high, this mostly sativa (approx. 75% Sativa 25% Indica) produces a comfortable and enjoyable, yet powerful, experience. The plants have long branches, making this beauty a great plant for "sea of green" gardens. It's a very consistent Purple variety. The quality is in the experience, not so much in the yield, which is average.


So, I've already fucked up a little. Surprised? lol

Here's the PH of the RO water:



I only got about half the amount of water I needed from the RO system. As you can see, the PH is fuckin 7.5. So, I added some PH down...too much PH down. The PH is now 3.6...

So, I could either use tap water to fill the res up the rest of the way and try to offset the low PH or wait until tomorrow to do the same thing but with RO water. I'm going to wait. I don't think a super low PH for 12 hours will kill them...

The other thing is that I guess I need to do a little more light-proofing to the reservoir. Around the lip of the res and around where the air hoses come out I have to throw some layers of duct tape and aluminum tape. No big deal.

Anyhow, I set the water pump up with 6 hoses. Each of the two netpots get two hoses underneath the cubes and directly on the roots. Then, I put one hose on the top of each cube and set it to barely drip. I'm hoping it will keep the tops of the cubes moist, keeping me from having to hand water them. In the past, the tops always got dry with only hoses going to the bottom of the cubes. So I'm kind of combining elements of drip systems, bubbleponics, and DWC. Let's hope it works.

Whenever I find my mechanical timer I'm going to try setting the water pump to 15 minutes on out of every 2 hours. I don't want to overwater the cubes.

Pics:

 

Must be gettin tired. I forgot the vitals.

Water temp: 67.5F
Ambient temp: 80F (under the light)
Water PH: 3.75 Yay
Water PPM: 300 (I guess putting the airstones, water pump, hydroton, etc raised it)
Relative humidity: 25

Hooked up one of my new thermometer/hygrometers with remote probe. I placed the probe on the res lid in between the net pots to get the most accurate reading of the plants' vitals.

Some music:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3qU821mlqM"]YouTube - La Coka Nostra ft. B-Real - "I'm An American" Official Video[/ame]

 

Thanks for stoppin in man. I'm lookin forward to some Strawberry Cough.

I'm also bumping because I think there may be something wrong with my PH meter again. I had to replace the electrode just a couple months ago because the PH reading would fluctuate. I'd put the meter in the sample and wait a bit. The meter would stop on a number. However, if I moved the meter around a bit all of a sudden the reading would start dropping fast (or sometimes climbing fast) and eventually stop on a different number...sometimes a whole point off.

And...it seems like it wants to start doing that again. I'm calling Hanna tomorrow because both the meter and the electrode are still under warranty, and I shouldn't be having this much trouble with a 150 dollar meter ffs.

ANYHOW.

Nothing's really changed. I just wanted to bump this to see where it lands in the forum mix up lol.

 

Waddup Hype. Man, been busy as hell. I'll try to keep the city up to date next time lol.

Not sure about the meter right now. Earlier it read just fine...

I might try re-activating it, cleaning it, recalibrating it, and see how it goes.

I'm not talking about turning the air pump off. I was talking about the water pump. I've got three hoses running to each rockwool cube. Two underneath the cubes right on the roots and one barely dripping on the top. I still can't find the mechanical timer so the pump's been on pretty much nonstop anyway.

Thanks for stoppin in.

Well, the Apprentice's plants are doing well. He said one of the Aurora Bs and the HG have got roots in the water already. That's some crazy growth.

Since his are taking off and I couldn't even see any roots coming out of the net pots I did a little surgery. I removed the hoses and extracted the cubes from the pots. The one in the back left has one looooong root and one small one, so I rearranged it to where the root is coming out of the pot and is in the water already (OH YEAH). The other plant has about 5-7 half inch roots coming out of the bottom. I just moved it down a little in the pot. I replaced the hoses and hydroton and kicked the water pump back on.

I also finished lightproofing the res as best I could. There is still a little bit of light getting through the net pots/hydroton themselves, as the cups are so shallow that the hydroton isn't completely blocking it out.

I'm not sure if this will be a big deal or not...or what I can do about it. The only thing I could think of is blocking the top half of the net pots off with electric tape or something...

Not sure.

The PH was 4.8 (I think lol) so I added about a fourth of a milliliter of PH up to it. I'm hoping that straightens it out...

RH: 25
Water temp: 67F
PPM: 150 or 200 or something...I already forgot hahahaha
Ambient Temp: 72F

...

Hopefully the cube rearrangement and PH'in helps my girls take off.

Busy weekend ahead, but I'm hoping to start on my flowering cab next week some time.

Later folks.

 

Shit, Jim. If you're using RO water then how do you PH it? Ya lost me there.

Last time I checked the PH in the system it was between 5 and 5.5 according to my meter. I just 're-activated' and cleaned my meter. Now I'm going to calibrate it again and see if it works any better. If it doesn't I'm gettin Hanna instruments on the horn.

The plants are already in there, btw.

One more thing: Talked to my friend today and he said his three are seriously blowing up. He said the difference between vegging with an MH and an HPS was like night and day. Makes me wonder about my boy Zab and how the hell he gets such good results vegging with an HPS...

Anyhow, I will update once this meter thing gets sorted out or something changes.

 

So, in the very beginning, before nutes, how do you PH it? I don't add nutes at this early of a stage.

The PPM in my res is around 100 just from...hell I don't know. Are you saying I shouldn't be trying to PH it?

I don't shake it or anything. I hadn't read that using a PH meter in RO water was a bad thing. Maybe that's what's going on with my meter...

 

Shit, if anyone has any knowledge of this PH meter/RO water thing feel free to chime in.

I'm stumped over here...