Well, here goes grow number 4. I actually debated whether I was going to actually do a journal for this grow. I was thinking it would be just more of the same form my last grow. But then I remembered two things....First, this will be an attempt at a SoG style grow - 6 plants kept short and flowered early. And second, the Cannabis Gods have a rather wicked sense of humor so there are bound to be a whole new batch of surprises and problems with this grow. So...here goes. Strain - The strain is called Le Fruit Defendu (Forbidden Fruit) from amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com. It's a blueberryxhaze cross that flowers fast. I grew this strain on my second grow with modest success. These plants come from a mother plant that I created during that grow. All six clones were taken at the same time, from the same mother. In theory, they should all be the same time, but for some reason there was a large variation in how long it took them to root. Grow Style - SoG, or maybe a modified SoG, depending on how well they veg out. On the last grow with this strain the plants were rather tall and spindly, but it's possible that under the HPS they'll be bushier. If they get to tall too quick, I'll top them once before I put them into flower. Grow Location - Hydro hut ...in the closet of course Lighting - 400w HPS for the whole grow. I'll start with it pretty high up and then lower it over the next few day. Grow Medium - A drip feed, 6 plant DWC system. I'll be using the Lucas Formula again. It's easy. It's stable. And it gives good results. And I think I've finally got it figured out so I won't have nute problems lol. Other thoughts - I'm in a bit of a race on this grow. I know from the last one that I will have heat issues once things warm up outside. My goal is to harvest no later than April 15, which gives me just a hair over 10 weeks. That's definitely doable with this strain, but I'm going to have to stay on my toes. I can't afford any delays. Pic - Here's the cloner and the clones. It's an 8-plant aerocloner. It works like a charm as long as you keep the water warm enough . The clones will go into the hydro system tonight.
Well, this grow may be dead in the water (pun intended ). My roommate seems to have developed a case of clinical depression and she's been home pretty much constantly. At least, she always seems to be home whenever I am. As a result, I haven't had the time to set up my hydro system for the next grow. In fact, I haven't finished cleaning up everything from my last grow. Dumping the reservoir and vacuuming up all the dried leaves and crumbs is a rather noisy process. I can't do it while she's in the house . The clones are still in the aerocloner and they're not doing well. Of the 8 cuttings I took, 6 have rooted. Four of them are growing vertically, and the other two are just putting out roots. The four tall ones are showing serious Mg deficiency, plus they're stretched to hell and back because they're still under just the one flouro. If I do manage to get them moved into the grow tank, I'm going to have to top them or something. *Sigh* The mother plant is ready for a trim again. Maybe I'll just take 8 more cuttings and start over.
maybe you should tell her to let you grow the medicine that would probably help get rid of her depression. Or grow in an area where you can do it without interuption.
lol...She suffers from fibromialgia, which means she's in pain 24/7. I've already jokingly pointed out that weed is one of the best treatments for her pain but she simply said, "I couldn't do that." As for the grow area, it doesn't get any more private than the closet in my room. It just that for some reason, sound carries in my condo. I don't want to try to explain why I'm pouring buckets of water down the toilet when I don't have so much as a fish bowl, much less an aquarium or some other logical reason to be moving all that water. Thing is, most the time I can count on her having to work late at least one night a week, so this hasn't been a problem. It's only the last few weeks that it's suddenly become an issue. *Sigh* And since my roommate is also my sister, I can't even kick her out lol.
good luck with this growing endevor i hope your sister stars to look up soon and everything can get back on track
Yeah, the clones are still in the cloner. I keep procrastinating. Maybe today....or tomorrow....or the next day At least the hydro system is cleaned out and ready for planting. I just need to get some water. I got a rather nice bonus from work on Friday. I'm planning on using part of it to get a R/O system for the bathroom. That'll make things a lot easier than lugging home jugs of water ever couple of days. Stay tuned. Good things will be happening here........someday .
Yeah, I finally got the clones planted last night, and even that didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd planned. Since I had so much trouble with my air pumps on the last two grow (think I went through four of them lol) I decided to buy an industrial strength one from the hydro shop instead of getting yet another plastic cheapo aquarium pump from the pet store. It's a nice pump and puts out a lot of air. Unfortunately when I went to set it up, it was missing a piece so I had to take it back this morning and get it replaced. Aside from the new pump, everything else is pretty much the same as last grow. Well, except for the fact that I have 6 confirmed female plants this time. It's going to be a good crop Right now I've got the HPS as high as it will go and I'll gradually lower it over the next couple of days as he clones get used to the light and heat. They've been under CFL's for the last 6 weeks and I don't want to shock them. Nutrients are at ~600ppm right now. I'll be gradually increasing them up to 1100ppm as I move the light down. I'm also giving them a very light foliar feed for the first day or two - the same nutes as they're sitting in, but cut down to 1/4 strength. The plants are all showing significant nutrient damage due to the excessive amount of time they spent in the cloner. They're also stretched more than I want them to be. Once I'm sure they've recovered from the transplant and are back to putting out healthy growth, I'll top the 4 tallest ones (or maybe even all 6). My plan is to switch them to 12/12 about a week after I top them. Pics - Sorry for the poor pic quality. I forgot I had the camera set to JPEG and had a really hard time trying to adjust the color to account for the yellow light that the HPS puts out. #1 - The whole setup. #2 & #3 - A couple of representative pics showing how messed up the plants currently are.
All 6 plants have started putting out new, healthy growth at the top, and they're showing some root growth in the reservoir too. Looks like they survived the abuse and transplanting I lowered the lights about 18 inches this morning and increased the TDS to ~700ppm. pH was at 6.0 when I checked, and the nutes will lower it just a touch. Temps are already a problem so I changed the lighting to 18/6 to give the hut a bit of a cooling off period. I'll have to hook up the water chiller this weekend, since it looks like I'll need it.
I have a similar situation, folks that live with me cannot know I grow EVER so I setup a BIG hydro system out in the open so there is always a reason for getting water, having nutes or meters out, etc... I figure I might someday forget to put something away and this way everything is always for the tomatoes and peppers garden (or whatever we happen to be growing at the time)
Here's a link to the site I bought it from http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=51855. It's got a pretty decent pic with it. You can see a pic where I've got some clones in it about half way down the page here http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-journals/181248-third-time-s-charm-femmed-white-widow-hydro-9.html.
Nothing, actually. The machine comes with little 2" neoprene collars that go around the stems and fit in the top of the basket. In fact, since I anticipated that the baskets would make it harder to remove the clones once they rooted, I cut the bottoms out of them before I put the cuttings in the cloners. I tried the use just the collars but they weren't quite big enough, so I need the top part of the basket to make it work.
yet another thing I can build! I LOVE the building stuff! I have not thought about clones in a lil while, killed all but one of my last ones... I should revisit the whole cloning thing when I put my current veg ones down to flower
Yeah, Mr.Goodstuff put a couple of these together and I was going to copy his plans, but then I found this little thing, which is perfect for my small grow op. And I almost couldn't build one for the price.
The clones are continuing to put on some nice healthy growth. And it looks like the roots on all six have grown down into the reservoir so I'm expecting an absolute explosion of greenery over the next few day. On Saturday I noticed there were some clear solid particles floating in the reservoir - probably pieces of damaged root that broke off. Just to be safe I added some Hydroguard to the nute solution. The particles were almost all gone when I checked this morning. Adding the Hydroguard has created a minor complication. It looks like it's upped my PPM by about 150, but I wasn't smart enough to note the TDS reading before I added it. So I don't know exactly how strong my nute solution really is right now. I'll just have to gradually increase the nutes until I start to see burn, and then back them off a bit. Reservoir temps are being problematic too. It's been unseasonably warm the last few days and my reservoir was up to 82F Sunday morning. Fortunately it snowed yesterday, and the res dropped to 77F during lights off. I was planning on firing up my ghetto res chiller yesterday, but I need to flush out all the hoses with some bleach water before I hook it up. Unfortunately, the roommate struck again - she decided not to go to church because of the snow. So I didn't get a chance to work on it. Hopefully this afternoon I'll get that done. Pics - better color this time . You can see the healthy new growth coming in although the tips of some of the "new" leaves are showing some damage still. I think it's because they had actually started growing while the plants were still nute starved. And yeah, there's a plant missing - not sure how that happened lol.
As expected the plants have started putting out a ton of new growth now that their roots have hit the water. They were getting taller than I wanted them to be at this point, so I topped 5 of them. The short little runt in back will be left alone. My plan is to veg for another 5-6 days and then switch to 12/12. Vitals: pH is at 5.8 TDS is at 950ppm - still can't decide if that's at 0.5 or 0.7 lol. Gotta go to the hydro store today so I'll ask them. Ambient temps are 82F at lights on, dropping to 74 with lights off Res temps are down to 75F - still too warm, but tolerable.
Yes. It's General Hydroponic's Eco-Grower. It's a drip-fed DWC system. I think I paid about $180 for it, which included everything you need to get started - hydrotron, netpots and GH's basic 3-part nutes. You can build your own for a lot less, but at the time I don't think I knew enough to really pull it off. If I ever decide to expand my grow - say maybe tomatoes or something - I'll build my own next time. For a really good example of a fairly simple DWC with waterfall, check out IMGreen's Current Grow. He's done a really nice job on his set up. And if you really want to get fancy, check out Mr.Goodstuff's grow log. That guy's homemade systems are something else.