New location, New strains, New adventures, and New Problems

[Chronic Chrissy]

It will take me a while to catch you guys up.

This isn't my first time growing.
http://boards.cannabis.com/closet-cabinet-growing/97106-first-dedicated-dryer-grow-6-norhterns-3-afghanis.html

That show had to be shut down with the sale of our house. The plan was to move in, set up and get going again. But plans never seem to work out that way.

First my clone connection fell through. Then I spent a few bucks on seeds but had germination problems due to a water softner. This whole process took me about 3 months to work through.

Them one day right before christmas I recieved a gift from the guy who orders seeds for me. He told me they were 100% gaurenteed feminized seeds. I got a white rhino, and an afghani. A little before that time I was fortunate enought to find some sees in a bag of Acopulco Gold a friend brought me. So now I had three little sprouts.

While I was busy killing plants for a few monthe I was also busy building the first stage of my grow show.

In the back of our garage was a craft room the width of the garage and about 9' deep. In it is a full countertop and cupboards on one side near the door(my work area), the other side had a closet that opened to a space about 5'5"X8'. I set to work on the closet. I cut a new door since I would have to cover over the current one for the flower room and I didn't want to walk through the flower room to get to the veg with them on different cycles. I then covered and sealed all the surface area but the door with black and white poly. The closet was narrow and reached far back from the door so I put in a shelf at the top for ballasts, and a shelf going the lenghth about 5' high. At this same height there was a cross stud above the door to which I mounted a 100cfm exhaust fan.

Above the shelf I hung a mount of 5 18w 2' flouro tubes and a stronger super cfl. This is my cloning area. I set up my 400w MH ballast on the high deep shelf and hung the fixture and batwing reflector from the shelf bracket. I was fortunate enough to have fiber glass pig grates that snapped togather and four fit perfectly in the closet while leaving room for a stool to get to the clone area(I'm a short chick), these were perfect.

So I am very very patient growing my 3 sprouts with care because they are to be my mothers. When they are big enough and strong enough I top them to branch them out, and clone the tops. As time went on they grew beatifully and rapidly with little nutes. I continued to clone while I waited for preflowers.

One day I think my AG is a male but I wait it out to be sure. It was started at my friends house under her bathroom light(long story). The I was sure it was a male when I saw pretty yellow flowers one day. But I thought it was pretty so I put it under the skylight in the bathroom and neglected it as a house plant, and threw out the clones.

This made me paranoid about the rest of my plants even though they were supposed to be gaurenteed females. I called and asked the guy I got them from a few times just so he could reassure me, which he did. I waited and watched. The next one to show signs was the Aghani, it kinda looked like the AG though before the flowers came right out, so I called him again and he promised me. Then the day came when my little Afghani move on to a new stage. It spread it's leaves and anounced to the world "I Am A..."

Tune in next time to for the reveal of the sexual outcome....

[DrSpoof]

was reading about your problems on your water thread... glad to hear you got them all sorted out. will be following the log :thumbsup:

DrSpiggity

[Chronic Chrissy]

was reading about your problems on your water thread... glad to hear you got them all sorted out. will be following the log :thumbsup:

DrSpiggity

Gosh Thanks:jointsmile: I remember having a following in my last log and miss all those guys.

Anyways Just so you know I grow in coco and perlite 9/1, but at this time I was also mixeing in 1or 2 parts sheep manure. My watersource at this time is well water which has not go through the water softener(learnt that the hard way). The pH was high at about 8(Thank you americans for polluting our lake with your sewage, sorry I can't resist). From time to time they would get a feeding of the three part advanced nutrients line.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Oh yeah! I guess you want to know the sex. It was a male! I was so fuming mad, not a single female flower so there is no way this was even a stressed hermi! I had 22 clones growing strong and 3 in forced flower. Needless to say I loaded them up in my car and threatened to leave them on the guys shop step after I was throughly disrespected when I approached him to refund my gaurentee. I didn't do it though, wanted to but didn't.

Luckily though the white rhino turned out to be mostly female, we have Hermi issues but more on that later.

At this point I also relized that my garden had a Mg overdose so I completely removed the Cal/Mg suppliment.

At the same time I had aquired a 100w MH set up that I installed about two weeks ago, to replace the 400w. And I had sealed off the flower room at about 8x5.5. I installed my only 400w hps set up, which was a step down from the 1000w they were getting in veg(I know, am I bad!). I got a 120cfm fan hooked in a low corner that pulled air from the garage(Don't worry I'll show you rough blueprints sometime). And I cut a hole on the same wall but the high opposite corner for exhaust.

(please note my set up has been upgraded since then.)

The veg rooms cycle was set for 6:30pm-10:30am, the flower room at 9:30-9:30. We had alot of cold problems especially at night and it took alot of fucking around with heaters and temperatures, by them it was consistantly warmer out.

I took advantage of the cold and melted ice blocks from outside to water my flowing plants at that time just cause I still didn't trust that my husband was right when he said the one tap didn't go through the water softner. The Ice water will come into play later with my current water problem as a major clue to my issue.

So at this point I can understand how all these stresses could have turned my fem WR seed hermi and took full responsibility. However at a later date I was informed that his seeds were improperly stored, and over 8 years old. I was clearly ripped off. And to add salt to the wound he was charging 40$ for 12 for everyone else, and my price was 20$ a seed! We had many words and I must say he quickly relized that I was not one who would be fuck about like the rest of the hicks out here.

As the season warmed I switched back to the "safe" tap water, and began Using more nutes including Big Bud but followed the directions instead of taking the time to calculate everything out for myself. I noticed as the plants matured they yellowed, I flushed often, and attributed the water color to the manure because the pH appeared stable. Soon they started yellowing sooner and sooner.

My flower cycle started as I moved mature plants over. Once I had about 10 in the space I measured everything out and determined I should have enough space and lights by then to put 2 plants in every three days, on a 65 day cycle that is about 45 plants all in pairs 2 days apart. This was really fun because while everything else was going down hill I was able treat each differently and observe results.

At this point there is no more manure in my mix, and the vegging plants are trasplanted into 1 gl grow bags(I LOVE my grow bags!) before they go into flower.

Even with out the manure I was still having yellowing though, So I assumed I was over fertilizing, I flushed, reduced my concentrations and waited for them to perk back up.

Then came my first harvest.....

[Chronic Chrissy]

The weight on the first 4 or so plants wasn't that bad at almost an oz each, however since it was a hermi we had seeds lots of seeds. The whole bottom quarter of the plant was fully seeded, and the rest was hit of miss. The further up you went the less seeds but there were always a few.

I will admit to spending hours picking male flowers and giving up after a few weeks.

I thought no problem though because I know what went wrong and now that the stress is relieved I should slowly notice an improvement.

As time went on the yellowing moved to younger and younger plants. Since my nute solution was so low and the manure was still in the mix for a chunk of the plants from before I thought that I was over watering them and drowning them out. I picked up another moisure meter(I've broken like 6 already) and instead of watering from the top I would plunk the plants in an ice cream pail and keep topping it up till there was 2" of water on the bottom of the pail. The coco absorbed the water up into the pot over the period of about 2 minutes I would then put the pot back out on the grates and let the water run out the bottom pulling O2 back into the soil. But no improvement.

Then it occured to me that with such a heavy seed load the plants were probably being striped of their nutrients. Since the bottom quarter of the plants were the ones the pollinated themselves I cut them all out in the first few weeks of flowering. But my harvests kept gettin smaller and now early flowing plants were becoming stunted and small with few branches. I thought that this was still them recovering from all the overdoses.

Lets take a break from the flower room so I can fill you in on some lost and new strains....

[Chronic Chrissy]

Once I found out that my afghani and WR were male/hermi I knew one of the best things to do was replace the strain. I called up a buddy and he got me 9 of the saddest looking, mouldy stemed, small over watered clones you had ever seen, in about 3 weeks. The new strain was Juicy Fruit. Of those 9, 7 were useless to me and ended up not even worth my time within a few days of trying to nurse them. The 2 that survived grew ok but had mould damage to the base of the stem. As soon as they were big enough I topped them and rooted the clone to be mothers and through the original 2 clones in the flower room march 30. Once the new set of clone grew I topped them again, rooted the clones and they are now moving through the line as I wait for each new clone I can take off the JF.

But what has happened to the Alcopulco Gold? When I moved it into the house it looked just like a little bushy tree with a 1/4" stump. Up under the skylight she stretched right out and 5 main stalks took over. I took it down and watered it in the sink with my regular houseplants and must admit forgot about it sometimes to the point where it was wilted and never transplanted it. But it seemed to like the early winter sun from the skylight well enough in the steamy bathroom to stay pretty and got lots of kind compliments from unknowing admirers. Then one day I took it down to water it and there were long white pistals everywhere past the bottom quarter and not a single male flower above that. I thought ok lets play with a little simple breeding. I pruned it down to the main 5 branchs(well 4 and little tall number 5) and thinned it right out. I then picked the lower male flowers and dusted and set them right on top of the new buds. Then i ran and grabbed some WR pollen and put it on the top of a separate bud, and left the othe 2(3) alone. I put it back up in the bathroom and let it be. Needless to say it got pretty much the same sad level of care.

As time went on the days got longer and the buds fluffed and grew but I didn't want them to regress. Since there were no more male flowers on it I put it in the flower room with the rest of the plants and watched it puff out amazingly. I wasn't planning on harvesting it just for smoke, I wanted to wait till seeds rattled in the calyxs. But as time went on the calyxs were'nt swelling or busting open.

While AG was in the veg room the yellowing started to set in and move up the plant with the increased light to process soon I had 18" sticks, no fan leaves, with just loonie sized fluffy buds at the top with their bud leaves. But the damned thing kept growing and prevaling with larger buds than I ever expected for such a tortured plant.

A few weeks ago upon close inspection I noticed a hollow bract/calyx with two hairs coming out. and when I pulled on the hairs a tiny shrived seed was attached. they were everywhere. I figured that withholding water caused the seeds to regress after a point in production. With no reason to wait any more and no idea how long the plant had been flowering I took the tighter top buds and left two branches with small lower buds on it and moved it back into veg where it sits now with little buds.

Since I was doubtful about seeds I was hoping to reveg it and take a nice healthy clone to make a mother.

The bud dried of course and we have found 5 well formed seeds all at the nodes close to the mainstem that survived. The bud itself smells lemony, with a touch of spice. It smokes well and has a lovely energetic high, I love it so much that my small stash of what is left is rationed.

While my flower room was in production earlier I was able to get alot of construction done to the room, including lights, fans, and placement of plants into three stages but that will be discussed next time and hopefully I can make up some pics to go with it to creat a more complete picture....

ps there is so much more to come and lots that all happens silmutanitously including an outdoor grow and issues with that, just give me time and bear with me, and you will learn alot of what not to do and just how much abuse a plant can take.

[stinkyattic]

Just outta curiosity... the original source of the White Rhino... those weren't Nirvana Standard seeds by any chance, were they? I only got ONE non-hermi female!

[Chronic Chrissy]

Just outta curiosity... the original source of the White Rhino... those weren't Nirvana Standard seeds by any chance, were they? I only got ONE non-hermi female!

They were claimed to be K and C seeds out of BC. I wouldn't be suprised if the Asshole just got self pollinated seeds from an associates white rhino. With what I have learnt about this guy since, and the confrontation we had in town I could start a whole thread showing Noobs what happens when you allow your trusting human nature to overpower your paranoid known facts. The worst thing about it is that I knew better and I knew things weren't adding up. But I went ahead with it anyways because it was my only option at the time and only available resource. I don't know why but when you are up and running everyone is giving you seeds and clones, but when you have nothing everyone seems to be dry, go figure.

[justanotherbozo]

They were claimed to be K and C seeds out of BC. I wouldn't be suprised if the Asshole just got self pollinated seeds from an associates white rhino. With what I have learnt about this guy since, and the confrontation we had in town I could start a whole thread showing Noobs what happens when you allow your trusting human nature to overpower your paranoid known facts. The worst thing about it is that I knew better and I knew things weren't adding up. But I went ahead with it anyways because it was my only option at the time and only available resource. I don't know why but when you are up and running everyone is giving you seeds and clones, but when you have nothing everyone seems to be dry, go figure.


lol, i would love to have been there to witness the confrontation

anyway, good luck with this grow, i've skimmed your other threads and it looks like i have some catching up to do, i like your spirit of invention.

[Chronic Chrissy]

lol, i would love to have been there to witness the confrontation

anyway, good luck with this grow, i've skimmed your other threads and it looks like i have some catching up to do, i like your spirit of invention.

The Dryer! You know I couldn't get it up the stairs when we moved and I had leave it behind? I can only imagine what the new owners must have guessed iot was for all frankinsteined and all. I didn't have room for it here any ways.

"Lordy, Lordy, it be pouring!
I be dancing to the song of the rain!"

We have buckets falling from the sky in quick 15 minute bursts. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about so much rain. It was so nice the last few days I put my rain catchers away, so when it started I was zooming so fast to get it all set up again and emptying bucket after bucket cause it was coming down so fast. I forgot I was wearing my white top and gauze peasent skirt! Needless the say the neighbors must think I am mad, H sure got a kick out of it though. I love it when my husband thinks I'm sexy. and I love the rain!

To those of you who this doesn't make sense to don't worry you'll get it once my log is current.

[justanotherbozo]

once again you describe a situation i'd have loved to witness, lol, just don't tell your husband.

lol, and if anyone asks, just say the dryer was there when you bought the house and you just left it when you moved, lol


The Dryer! You know I couldn't get it up the stairs when we moved and I had leave it behind? I can only imagine what the new owners must have guessed iot was for all frankinsteined and all. I didn't have room for it here any ways.

"Lordy, Lordy, it be pouring!
I be dancing to the song of the rain!"

We have buckets falling from the sky in quick 15 minute bursts. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about so much rain. It was so nice the last few days I put my rain catchers away, so when it started I was zooming so fast to get it all set up again and emptying bucket after bucket cause it was coming down so fast. I forgot I was wearing my white top and gauze peasent skirt! Needless the say the neighbors must think I am mad, H sure got a kick out of it though. I love it when my husband thinks I'm sexy. and I love the rain!

To those of you who this doesn't make sense to don't worry you'll get it once my log is current.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Here's a rough pic of my room layout for now.
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll143/MommaBearMT/Roomlayout.jpg

[Shovelhandle]

Your a good writer, Chrissy.
I hope your future grows are much less adventurous and more productive. I'm sure they will be.

Irie,
Shov

[Chronic Chrissy]

Your a good writer, Chrissy.
I hope your future grows are much less adventurous and more productive. I'm sure they will be.

Irie,
Shov

I haven't heard that in years! Thanks alot. You know things would be going alot better if I would have just listened to myself instead of everyone elses ideas about manure, and hard water being safe, and alot of people pushed me to fertilize and feed differently. It's not that any one of these things really caused a problem(except of course the water) but when you have so many variables in a new setup with new strains it's hard to isolate where exactly you went wrong without guessing, trying, and checking. That takes time to run through the list.

On a good note through I'm really starting to see a difference again especially with the plants in early flower, we are back to the point of rapid growth and the yellowing has not progressed. I'm suprised how quick I saw an improvement.

[Rusty Trichome]

I don't know why but when you are up and running everyone is giving you seeds and clones, but when you have nothing everyone seems to be dry, go figure.
There's an old saying from decades ago..."weed will get you thru times of no money, better than money will get you thru times of no weed."

Still holds true today. :jointsmile:

[killerm8r]

I know what you mean about only being able to find stuff when you don't need it. I've got friends that owe me money and it seems that whenever I really could use the cash they're nowhere to be found, but when I've got plenty of money they get in touch.

It's like the dating thing: people seem a lot more interested in you when you're already dating someone. When you're single it seems like no one else is, and when you're spoken for there's available people coming out of the woodwork.


Looks like this will be one of the fantastic grows to watch, I'm looking forward to it.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Hey Guys I have not forgotten about you or been lazy, just very busy so I'll try to fill you in.

The water issues are undercontrol for the time being. We are still using Rain water and I feed about once a week. My plants kept getting progressively smaller though and I couldn't figure out why.

Then it made sense. My mothers were suffering just as much as everyone else, but I kept pushing them and taking clones to early then rushing them to harden off to keep up with my cycle. Needless to say they gave up on giving me new clones. They have been recuperating for the past 3 weeks and being let to grow out after being transplanted up and tied down.

Before my plants were ending up to tall so I thought small clones were the way to go but kept puttingthem in smaller before I saw the results of the ones already in there.

In the meantime I needed more clones.

I never got around to telling you about my out door grow. Back in Feb I planted 2 sative unknown one per pot, and 12 indica unknown 2 per pot. We had a very late spring thaw in June. And by then the poor plants were root bound, and all sorts of sad shapes and colors, about 24" high.

I figured I wanted to use them as an experiment to see what they would do so I planted them in the garden right in front of the house. I ran a rope from one end of the garden to the other ans stked it down, then twisted the plants around the rope sideways keeping them very low. It took them a while to settle in and even turned a little purple from the cold nights but after a while they just took off. They turned into a huge bushy hedge about 3 feet tall all the way across and a foot and a half wide.

I took tons of clones and filled up my trays which are now blowing roots every where.

At the same time I stopped my cycle and didn't put any other plants into flower to give them all a chance to catch up and because we were having huge heat issues in our room.

Because of the heat I eventually had to shut all the lights down...
(I'm going to post this before I get side tracked and pick up right where I left off. please feel free to post comments and questions but I'm going to wait till I catch you right up to respond to them all. Don't worry it just gets even more interesting.)

[SnSstealth]

There's an old saying from decades ago..."weed will get you thru times of no money, better than money will get you thru times of no weed."

Still holds true today. :jointsmile:

A-Fucking men!!

In the nature of experiement, I didnt grow that much last grow. My point is, now between harvests, my broke ass is barely staying high each day...20 plants going, nothing to smoke...lol
Anyway, your posts are very entertaining Charlie Charlie, consider me subscribed!:greenthumb:
WhiskeyTango

[Chronic Chrissy]

So heat issues I figured the outdoor plants were doing so well that I started to move eveything except for the clones outside. I hade 1'x2' grates that fit about 6 pots each and started my daily practise of moving them in and out every day. OK I lied I didn't figure the grate thing out right away and carried two plants at a time in and out.

After a while I just left the vegging plants outside because it just made sense with the length of day and not only doi I have to carry buckets of water everydat but plants themselves(my arms and shoulders are gorgeouse now!). And the flowering plants went back into their room just before dark cycle every night.

Then the phone call came! My Neighbor,(who knows and doesn't care so long as it stays on my side of the fence and she doesn't know about it.)called me up and said her whole house reeked! That day it had rained alot and I wanted the soil to dry out on the late flowering ones so I opened the garage door for light and put them inside. However theis means it was closer to her house, and it was a humid day with no wind. So I put everything back in the room and left a light on during the day(instead of the 3 that I needed). I then decided that the flowering ones all had to stay inside under the light except the early flower ones under 4 weeks.

The plants in the front were alread concerning us before because of their size and the size they would finish at and they hadn't even started to flower. We were planning on making a curtain about 30'x10' to induce them but after this scare I thought the smell would be so strong.

So what did I do? I dug them up, lol, and cried while doing it. They got planted into the largest pots I had and spent a few days outside well watered to adjust to their new pots since there were definately roots cut. FYI one of the sativa had and still has an ant colony living in the roots so they are a new addtion to the grow room as well, yippee(yeah right).

(Oh! I forgot to tell you about the outdoor sativas! WHen they were inside before june in the veg room with 18/6 they started to flower on their own! So when I planted them out there I figured they were auto flowering and would continue, but they didn't the reverted back to veg. So even though they are covered in bud it is all thin and stretched out. Now they are under 12/12 though)

My lovely plants were so sad and were starting to spring back vertically so all the tips were faceing the wrong way and crowding without the support of the rope. I ended up tieing a branch them running the rope under the pot to the other side to tie the other branch. with a little adjusting I got them pretty spread out.

So here is where I am.

All the outdoor plants are in the flower room under one 400w HPS. It was very hard to arrange them all in there. And I had to leave enough room so my other short "indoor"plants could get in there for the dark period. I have about 12 of those left to finish flowering and most should be done in the next few weeks.

The clones have been catching up and we take all the time we need to get them strong and move them outside with the other vegging plants.

The vegging plants are doing great and growing strong, about a foot high, with no discoloration or signs of abuse except a few locust munches out of a few leaves and one stripped clone the new puppy thought he would try and gobble before he learnt not to touch them.

The mothers are bushing out and and much happier.

On Aug 7th we are going out of town for 2 weeks. My MIL will be here every 3 days to water. The veg and mothers will stay outside and keep growing untill we get back, and hopefully by then all the clones will be out there too. If there are clones left over they will be trashed. I took them all at the same time and haven't taken any since so that should work. The flower room will have to outdoor plants and MAYBE a few of the "indoor" ones to re-evaluate when we get back. Then when we get back I will have about 20-30 1 1/2' plants to throw into the flower room at night intil the sun gets to the right day length to leave them outside, if it doesn't then once the outdoor plants are done hopefully it will be cool enough to move them in there permanently and turn a second light on and eventually a third. Then when the cold weather comes I might be able to upgrade a light or two to the 1000w hsps I have.

Anyways that's about all I can think of. Feel free to poke and probe and ask for more details about certain things. I hope my camera drys out soon so I can put up some pics.

[Chronic Chrissy]

A-Fucking men!!

In the nature of experiement, I didnt grow that much last grow. My point is, now between harvests, my broke ass is barely staying high each day...20 plants going, nothing to smoke...lol
Anyway, your posts are very entertaining Charlie Charlie, consider me subscribed!:greenthumb:
WhiskeyTango

LOL we are harvesting two plants every 3 days and still have to buy weed, lol. I'm only bringing in a few grams per plants and we are lucky if they aren't full of seeds because remember most of my "indoor" plants are white rhino right now. The new out door ones are just being transplanted out of clones, and there are only a few juicy fruit that are still in veg. I can't wait to be able to do away with my white rhino strain.

Oh(as I jump up and down in excitement) I set up a deal between two buddys over a few Kush clones, and once they grow into females my fee is to get my own supply of clones. It will take a few months but I'm excited!

[Chronic Chrissy]

Where are my followers it's time to wake up and read my undate....

[killerm8r]

I'm here! Sorry I'm late.

You've definitely been dealing with some obstacles. But from the sound of it you're on track to work them all out and get yourself a heck of a nice system going.

That's always the toughest part imo, getting things running smoothly. Trying to scale up or down always throws off the balance and you have to struggle a bit to find the sweet spot again.

Sounds good though!

[Chronic Chrissy]

(did my post work this time? Yes? Good!)
My keyboard works again!

Forgive me I'm trying to write this very fast.

Vacation was great left for two weeks. MIL watered the plants but tha is all she knew how to do so when the temp dropped she had no clue it was even a concern nevermind knew how to fix it. But all is well things are always behind anyways.

Here we go The outside monsters were in the flower room under 1 400w hps. They were a little stunted from the cold but are developing nicely. There were the 2 sativas in that bunch that auto flowered back and forth a few times. When we came back we harvested the very tops but they were so dense with leaves in a tight knot the buds were rather small. After that the rest of the remaining 2 stalks and all their branches filled out rather nicely and another section of them was ready for harvest. The other plants are doing well and look to be in about week 4. Some are doing better than others, and there are some pots(remmber a few have 2 plants per pot) where you can really see the competition for resourses. I fed them right before I left, and again just the other day. They aren't doing as well as they would have since I couldn't take all the roots when I dug them up but right now they are a blessing.

There were also the flowering plants in 1gl grow bags I was moving in/outdoors. I put them in the flower room when I left along the monsters. They barely grew while we were gone and we were lucky to get 1-2 grams off each. (just wait yes I have discovered another weak link and am dealing with it but I will get to that soon). The plants were left under their own 400hps.

We harvested them once we got back and I spread the monsters right out and trimmed out some undergrowth. We have so deficiency issues but we will make it to harvest. I also discovered a small case of mites which isn't spreading at all yet, I removed the most damaged brances and what little of the mites were left haven't made any advances yet, I'm watching closely.

The Mite thankfully eliminated a few choices to make. It doesn't make since to infect the whole cycle once I start it up again so I'm not putting any of my vegging plants in flower until, the monsters are harvested and the room is completely dissinfected. At the same time Buddy is coming in and installing thermostates and heaters and rearranging my existing ventilation system to get ready for winter. After that the vegging plants can move up.

I'll give you a chance to read while I type....

(pause)

Anyways the vegging plants. Remember they were living outside full time on flats. Just to be safe when we left we moved them up allong out back tree line(also the back of out neighbors behind it) It's thick with undergrowth and once we moved some tufts of grass around the flats and pots I couldn't find them all at first when I got home. But like I said it was a little chilly here and they weren't in the direct sunlight they were used to all day so they weren't to much bigger when we got back. They've only ever recieved one does of ferts and for the last 3-4 weeks have had nothing but strait water(remember this for later). The little clones in the 4" pots did well or at least stayed alive which is fine by me, they have never had ferts.

Of course the mothers grew a little but really not much at all. However my acocpolco gold mother is now back in veg, the shoots are small right now but as soon as they are ready they are going to be taken as clones, that poor plant has had it and should just be mericifully killed after I get this one last thing from it. She's treated me so well. The mothers are back inside the veg room under the 400wmh. In front of them are 18 vegging plants in growbags. Before I left I Attempted to fim them all when I left, didn't work again, I'll get it some day. Some of them kept growing some bushed out. But since I've been back I've been bending them all. All the topps get bent over in different directions just enough so that they stay curved over for a while, the longer the better so long as I don't dammage or kink the stalk. They are picking up a little now that they are warm and bushing out slowly, but not as fast as you would think being this long in veg they are between 10-14" and the biggest I've had in veg in a long time(H always rushed me to harvest, harvest, harvest, so yes I am guilty of cutting corners). Some are showing a few deficiencies specifically K which is often linked to an excess of salts, but they've only had water the last 3 weeks, and only been fed a 3/4 dose before(I rarely use full, with all my probles).

Anyways The mothers and vegging plants take up all 4 flats under the light and there is no room for clones. I had way to many to fit them all under my clone lights so I threw about 12 of the sadest ones out. But I still didn't have enough room, and couldn't stand to needlessly kill good plants. So I wen't searching the junk pile behind the garage and the dumpsters over at the trailer park.(No I do not live in a trailer park! We own a 4 Season house in cottage country 2 minutes from the lake.) I found 3 18" long sections of rain gutters and the pots fit perfect so I put them up on the walls above the vegging plants around the grow room under the mh bulb. They all fit now. I'm bending them as I can and have a few at about 8" don't worrky they aren't rrotbound, I know.

Now that you are caught up

[Shovelhandle]

great to see your back posting. congrats on your new everythings.

Shov

[Chronic Chrissy]

Ok now that you are caught up the most recent things that have happened.

Now remember how long the vegging plants have been getting strait water, and how little they have been fed. The other day I went out to water and decided to take a pH test of the run off. The water went in 5.8 without having to be phed. and came out at 8. On top of in one of the main causes for the K def I noticed is an excess of salts in the growing medium. So that brought me to the conclusion that my weak link is the coco! I thought it would be so great and had heard such great things about coco and it's stable pH and the fact that it doesn't absorb the nutrients(not that there were nutrients to absorb), and now I hate it I hate it I hate it.

Luckily I had some sunshine#4 from the last house and decided I'm not waiting to start all my new clones and plants in it. So I took my whole nap time(When K sleeps not me) and changed all the 4" clones over.

To do this I filled a 5gl bucket with water. I have another 5gl bucket with holes in the drilled bottom and put it inside. Next I took the clones out of their pots and one by one put the root balls under the surface of the water and gently turned them while applying slight pressure and worked the coco away quickly without damaging the roots. As I needed to I scopped the perlite off the top, and pulled the hole bucket up to empty in the compost pile.

I then took the pot and plants and replaced it with sunshine mix and let it sitt in a bath of 1/4 clone fert water while I did the next plants and moved them back in.

Amazingly today think I actually see a difference. I had no signs of stress on any of them and even the ones that were paling deepened color back to green.

I got more sunshine mix today and I'm going to take a few risks and start with the younger vegging plants and do the same thing, that way as I move through them and the root systems become more complex I can decide whether it is worth it or not. Also if one or all of them suffer stress they will have some time to get over it and I'll know just how many I can get done with out doing/compensate for stress.

Ironically while I was in there changing the clones over my 2 ocsilating fans stopped working, so that caused a heat spike at the tops which climbed to 95,while the bottom stayed at 78 today while we were in the city buying a new fan. But the fan is in and does a better job than the last one and all is well.

Stay tuned I have a feeling I'll have lots more to talk about soon....

[painretreat]

CC thank you for so much information. I thought I had subscribed and was watching your grow and just found, I read it and did not subscribe, so I am now! This is very interesting. Particularly the coco! I am wondering if it is a problem in certain conditions or not. I've been reading Puffster's White Widow grow in coco and it came out fine and a first grow person! Guess, it takes beginners luck! Cause you didn't have it!

Will be happy to see if your camera gets dried off! Very interesting read! I am certainly marking this for future reference. I doubt I'll ever have that many plants going on purpose! But, the bug will get to me, as usual! Thanks for all the info and will keep reading! :thumbsup: PR

[Chronic Chrissy]

Ok I dove right in and replaced all the coco in the vegging plants and mothers. It was a little daunting and alot of messy work but I am so glad I did it. Amazingly I started to see results the next day and today everyone is a much brighter healthier green and seems to be perking up just a little more.

I must admit the root systems weren't all what I expected them to be and were on the small side but not all of them. But I did learn alot about the root system and the paths it takes to spread out, and that the top veggitation is not nessessarily an accurate representation of the root system.

Strang thing happened with my AG Mother that revegged. I was looking at the new vegitation and noticed sprout coming from a calyx! I peeled it back just a little and there is a tiny white tap root growing in towards the stem. It is very short and small, I'am assumming the mother plant is somehow feeding it through the stem ans that is keeping the root from growing out and seeking nutrients.

Oh and I figured out part of my yellowing problem. The heat spike when the fans broke seems to have been the catalyst but not the cause of the yellowing. The pattern I noticed was that all the plants that were yellowing had dishes under the pots. I know, I know but when I left for vacation it was hot and the soil dries out so fast I put dishes under all the pots that would fit. So I figure that the plants without dishes have and oppertunity to get a little flush when the water runs through, where as the ones with dishes reabsorbed the water and what ever nutrients were in it as well as stayed a little too wet too long. All fixed now though. I doubt I will see an improvement being so far into flower but I haven't seen much progression.

Oh and I have a little gaurd in my veg room. He's a green tree frog. He showed up after we got back and I expected him to leave but since I had a bunch of flying insects in there I just left him alone. I loose track of him from time to time but then there he is bright green hanging onto a branch in the WR mother, or other times he's climbed up the white walls and has changed grey to blend in. I put a dish of water in with him and slowly the bugs dissappeared. Now I have a bit of a problem. It's too cold outside for him to be able to find a good place to hibernate before he just slows down and eventually freezes in his journey, but he needs food. So should I take the chance and find a log to put him under or put him on the compost heap and let him crawl in and find a warm spot for the winter, or should I just run to the petstore and grab some crickets or mealworms to throw in a dish for him from time to time? Any ideas? I kinda like him and he really likes my lights. Oh I know there are ants in the flower room will he eat those, should I put him in there? Oh and year round I have spiders all over that garage. I think I just like him because he didn't run away like all the leopard frogs I put in there did.

[painretreat]

Just love it! I don't know what to do with the frog. But, I'd like to see ya keep the little one and give it a name! It sounds so cute! A bud pal!!!:thumbsup::hippy: pr

[Chronic Chrissy]

Just love it! I don't know what to do with the frog. But, I'd like to see ya keep the little one and give it a name! It sounds so cute! A bud pal!!!:thumbsup::hippy: pr

Any one have name suggestions. I'd let my 2 year old name it but the last time that happened we came home with a girl mini Dasuhund named Wally.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Hey guys picture are coming once photobucket starts working again. I have to say that everyone is looking much happier now that they are out of the coco. even the stunted clones are growing well again, I kinda hope they slow down because I need to wait for the monsters to finish flowering so I can make room under the mh bulb to move more clones up. Some of the clones at the back are about 8-10" if they were strait, they are are bent though.

The vegging plants got fed today at 1/2 strength.

The monsters are doing well there are two pots you'll see that have a few issuse we are trying to balance out. A few leaves showed some signs of burn on the very tips(even the healthy ones) the last time I fed them but I couldn't wait any longer and gave them a 3/4 strength dose. It's tricky because it is garden dirt and I don't know what the fuck is in there. I also think that the fact that I had to trim the roots to fit them in the pots is effecting their nutrient take up but I could be wrong. They definately have mites and on the healthy ones it is the same tiny ammount, on te unhealthy ones they are spreading but not rampid yet. So it's a good thing I'm waiting till they are finished to put my next plants in at least for now I have them isolated with and end in sight instead of having to fight them while keeping the cycle going. You'll see my sativas, what's left of them. But I'll tell you more as I post the pics. Oh the frog is in there too, any name ideas yet?

[Chronic Chrissy]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02034.jpg

These is the nice outside plants see how it was pulled apart and both plants grew out horizontally along the string outside. After I put them in the pot they tried to just grow strait up again.

These pics are going to take a while I have 20 of them in photobucket but just don't have time to put them up right now. I promise I'll get them all up theis weekend. I have pics of the frog and the veg room and clones and the flowering plants and the sativas and a slightly blurry pic of the seed that sprouted from the calyx. I promis I'll get them up.

[Chronic Chrissy]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02035.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02036.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02037.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02038.jpg




Ok these are just shots of inside the flower room with all the outdoor plants. I thinned them out a few weeks ago but we have had a little bit of fan leaf loss, some more than others.

[Chronic Chrissy]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02052.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02054.jpg


These are what's left of the sativas. I took the first on all down today, It's suffered I woun't lie, but it's in the box now drying. I took most of the second one down and only left a few branches on the bottom to see what they'll do. Both of these plants have already had about 4-5 harvests come off of them gradually.


http://http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02040.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02043.jpg
http://http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02041.jpg
http://http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02042.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02039.jpg

Here's the veg room mothers are in the very back, clones were bent today but I didn't do my vegging plants to show you how I actually know what I'm doing. oh and the frog.


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02044.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02049.jpg

Here's the revegged alcopoco gold mother, and the second pic is of the seed that sprouted from the calyx.

Goodnight.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Hey Everybody Thanks for stopping in to visit.

Anyways I've been so busy around here but my garden is going great! The clones from before are growing into nice little plants, many could be transplanted right now but I have nowhere to put them all then so they have to stay in the small pots just a little longer.
I've been able to take new Juicy fruit clones and have about 20 now and thaey are rooting very quickly in peat pellets. I couldn't find rockwool cubes lately and I figured my plants needed to be topped and trained anyhow so I might as well check them out. I must say I'm impressed.
The veg plants are doing awsome! Not an inch of floor space is empty. I'll have to take pictures today. Between my bending, topping, and pruning I've kept a good profile, kept the plants under control for stretching and competing, and produced about 5-7 strong tops for each plant, while keeping the plants unstressed and vigorously growing. My plants really do love me again after I changed the soil. I'm itching to get them into the flower room right now because They are so nice and it's been so long since I've grown a beautiful plant that I can't wait. Not to mention they are seriously running out of room and I need to start transplanting out of those little pots.
The flowering plants still have mites and they are still contained in the flower room only. By my calculations they should have about a week left. A few are doing really well and are still as healthy as they can be under the circumstances. A few others have just kept yellowing and with all the fan leaves go I figured I might as well pull the two sadest ones in the same pot down. Filled my drying box ri9ght up and is still drying.
Quick dried some yesterday,DH put his shoulder out again and really needed some. Did it in the microwave with steam. It was a little harsh but it fucked us right up! That sativa we've been smoking is so far in the dust behind the quality of these indicas. I can't wait for the box to dry to try it out. We figure now since I started the harvest as it dries and the box is free again I'll just take down the next sadest plant and fill it back up, and just keep doing that till everything is harvested. It keeps me from being impatient and pulling them all down when all I have to wait is a week, and besides it wouldn't all fit in the drying box anyways.
So once that is done the flower room will be sterilized for mites. Fans will be moved around, heaters and termostates installed, and my pretty 1000hps is being used this winter along with 2 of my 400hps in the flower room. With all that light my babies should be lovely, I can't wait.
Oh the mothers are doing well too. The alcopolco gold gave me one strong clone already and should give me about 4-5 more before I put her out of her misery. The seed growing from the calyx died a while ago. The Juicy fruit mothers are taking their time to make sure they grow big and strong and are putting out great healthy clones. The white rhyno mother is growing into quite the bush! I'll take a picture of just her. I'm very tempted to put her in flower too since I was having hermi problems with her and want to replace the grow with juicy fruit and AG, but I'm wondering if the coco was causing the hermi problems and the problem might be gone now. But I'm not sure I want a strain that is that finicky around when I change over to aero, so manybe I should just flower the last of the White Rhino and be done with it, I can always buy some seeds later once the kinks are worked out. I have 2 great strains to replace it with anyways. Oh and all the clones I took off the outdoor plants when they were still in veg. So this next harvest cycle should put out some interesting variations.
Oh the frog is still around He digs into the soil of my plants occasionally but that's ok he's just being a frog.
I'll get some pics up very soon, maybe this weekend.
TTFN

[r00tdoctor]

Its nice to see you up an at it again crissy. Wow you ran into such a variety of problems on the way to this grow im glad to see you are getting everything sorted out. I'll probally be starting up a new grow thread soon as ive got some lil ones of my own going at the moment. Hope to chat with you some more in the future.

[Chronic Chrissy]

I chopped all the flowering outdoor plants today. I'll tell you about it when I put the pics up.:jointsmile:

[Chronic Chrissy]

Complete update to follow...

Here's what's going on now...
OK I grow in Sunshine mix 4 I've been watering my plants by the weight of the pot. The soil surface is still moist but by no means soggy or wet. The plants were healthy and over a foot tall with multiple top, but still in veg. I haven't had any deficiency issues yet till now. Just yeasterday I gave them a dose of flower ferts because I'm switching them over to flower today. Over night signs of a Phousphorus def showed up. Three possible causes of the def could be pH(fine as far as I know from yesterday), Soggy soild, or an excess or iron or zinc. According to the ferts the flower fert has double the iron but less zinc, so that could be a possibility, or it could be the soggy soil. I want to give them a good flush now anyways and give them some time to bounce back before putting them into flower. But DO I FLUSH THEM NOW WHILE THE SOIL IS STILL WET, OR DO I WAIT TILL THE SURFACE DRIES?

[Shovelhandle]

I've been in that situation myself, with the wet soil but wanting to flush. If the plants are not wilting, leaves hanging down like the do when they have wet feet, I would go ahead and flush them real good.

I like your grow log, very well done. And that frog cracks me up! :rasta:

[Chronic Chrissy]

I've been in that situation myself, with the wet soil but wanting to flush. If the plants are not wilting, leaves hanging down like the do when they have wet feet, I would go ahead and flush them real good.

I like your grow log, very well done. And that frog cracks me up! :rasta:

Thank you for being my most loyal follower. I'm writing an update with pics come naptime so hang in there.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Ok guys big changes are happening and we are about to get back on track!

Well the plants in the veg room started to get too big and really needed some room to fill out. So I thought it would be a good idea to chop the flowering ones down. I really was getting too impatient and really wanted to finally get this show on the road. So I did it!

But wait, let's slow down and I'll tell you about the flowering one I chopped on sept 25th(see post above). Well here it is right after I chopped it...
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02093.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02092.jpg


And guess what! The Fuckers gave me over two onces! That's the largest harvest I'd had off of 1 or even 2 plants since I moved in.


So then that brings you to the latest slashing. Unfortunately all I can give you are pics of the plants right before we chopped them. And they are still in the drying box because I'm too lazy/busy to weigh it. And we've been smoking alot of it So I doubt I'll be able to get you an acurate weight.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02096.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02098.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02099.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02100.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02097.jpg

So that ment my flower room was empty again. I riped everything out. Lights, ballasts, timers, fans, grates...
And we scrubbed and scrubbed that room, each time with new water and fresh cloths. I misted bleach in all my fans and every crack or crevice we couldn't get into, and everything that went back into the room was bleached too(DIE MITES! DIE!). We put in a better intake fan and replaced my 110cfm fan that was bringing the fresh air in. After the bleach did it's work for a few days we hung the ballasts and the lights. I put the 1000w MH bulb in there because my idiot brother put a socket end in where the light socket should be, then plugged the other end in which was attached to the socket. Of course when it came time for me to pick it up He didn't know where the "extension cord" was. And I just don't have enough wire to do anything with it till payday.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02111.jpg
Plus it gave me a good excuse to move the vegging plants over so they could spread out a bit in veg before I switched them over. Not to mention I don't have to worry about stressing them out as much with us fucking with fans and lights and season changes around here.
Needless to say they have been very happy till today and you can refer to my most recent post prior to this.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02109.jpg
It's hard to believe these are them, and hard to believe those were in this small of a space!
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02040.jpg

So with all that space in the veg room I was able to pull all the clones down off the shelf and the flouros and give them some good light. Keep in mind I switched all the rooms only three days ago.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02107.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02108.jpg
And to think that those were these
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o124/chronicchrissy/Buddiesnewplants/DSC02042.jpg
You know what I noticed? It really doesn't look like I changed the grow room at all, lol. But hey I did.


So everyone is doing well except for my feakin' clones I've been taking. My brother once again told me "don't buy rockwool I have lots here for you, I'll give it to you when I'm done your aerocloner in a few days." But he can never find the rockwool and is never finished the cloner and we waste all that gas to go pick it up for nothing.
Anyways the clones are surviving and rooting slowly. I've lost a few to mould, and a few dried up at the tip of the stem. The Alcopolco(fuck I can never spell that word!)Gold clone is doing well And I'll be able to take two more healthy ones in a week or so before I kill her.
Oh and the frog I haven't seen him in a while, which isn't unusual, but this time it seems a little long. But I haven't exactly been looking hard. I'm crossing my fingers.
I have quite enjoyed putting this post togather for you!:jointsmile:

Well till next time
Peace Out

[painretreat]

Thanks CChrissy,
My apology for not being a loyal writer and just a loyal subscriber and reader! I so enjoy your thread, just so many to read. However, I just love the picture of your set-up's writing, etc! And you brother, send him over. At least he is of some use, mine were all dud's and didn't do anything to help! At least he knows electricity, give him the weed when he is finished, next time!

Thanks so much for all your time and the entire thread. It seems pretty doable for me! As I am trying to get myself together for a early Spring grow! That is one heck of a nice yield!

I doubt what u use will make that much difference in wt. though. By the way, do you have any left in flower on the plant? I don't think I've seen very many real good pictures of the fowers. They are pretty too! Everything is pretty right now!:stoned: have a good day! PR

'buddy' the frog must return to eat the mite and spiders! You didn't bleach him out did u? Pr :jointsmile:

[Chronic Chrissy]

Hey PRT Thanks for following along. I didn't get any bud shots really, I'll keep it in mind next harvest when I get some dildo size buds. I don't think the frog got bleached, I didn't bleach the veg room and turned the fans between them off for a while. Oh and with how much we have been smoking I'm sure we've made a dent. GTG busy day!

[painretreat]

Size doesn't matter with bud, take some bragging pictures. I bought some books tonight and I can now see, any bud that grows well and harvests well is well worth the picture! Saw a room full of waste from bugs! U did real good gal! Keep it up!! I'LL keep my eyes open for 'buddy' to return! Pr :thumbsup:

[Chronic Chrissy]

Pain I got 3.5 ounces with no stems off that last harvest, and one really nice pic for you, I just have to get it up now.

[r00tdoctor]

I'm still around crissy, hows she smoke? I see you have a small army of plants in waiting so soon you wll be overflowing with herb. You should just make a cheapo bubble cloner yourself get a small plastic container a aquarium air pump and a couple air stones and clone to your hearts content lol i made mine for next to nothing and it works like a charm.

[frostedwonder]

I think I am a fan but one question to anyone who has read this... Using that much space and having as many plants as you mentioned wouldnt your yield be much higher? I have seen people pull tons out of 10-20 plants... nice detailed thread tho just more of a question on results/risk it is of course your hobby as well as mine,,so keep growing and writing..

[Chronic Chrissy]

I think I am a fan but one question to anyone who has read this... Using that much space and having as many plants as you mentioned wouldnt your yield be much higher? I have seen people pull tons out of 10-20 plants... nice detailed thread tho just more of a question on results/risk it is of course your hobby as well as mine,,so keep growing and writing..

You're right my harvest were sad and pitiful but I've learnt alot. Not to mention I haven't been updating this thread in forever. I've learnt alot about the weaknesses in my set up and am still working through them. Since I've posted last I've got a pretty good cycle going of 10 plants in and out every 3-4 weeks. Which means there are always two cycles going half a flowering period apart. I'll fill you all in in a few hours about the changes and thing I've learnt that have made big differences. Just because you have the space and lights doesn't mean you have your most important resources addressed and covered, just remember that.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Wow looking over this I can see just how far back this thread goes. You guys have missed alot! But that's all my fault.

Anyways Frosted you are right that was a very low harvest when the outdoor plants came in. It was also a low harvest after that and then again.

My first problem I had to deal with was the temp issue. We have feirce winters here with temp dropping easily into the -30f. It so cold here that 2 out of 3 of my doors are frozen right shut for the winter and the third usually has to be defrosted to open, so even getting outsdie to the garage is hard. Lights give out alot of heat but not enough around here, even with the 2 1000ws in the grow room. The additional problem with the energy and money put into heating is that the intake air is as freezing as the outdoor -30 air and your heat goes out with the exhaust. The great thing about my grow being vented into the garage however is that I have no humidity problems. All the vapor condenses and freezes on the large garage door which is now incased in about 4 inches of ice in one huge sheet.

The flower room has it's own heater and thermostate but it also incorperates the cloning/early veg room into it where temp consistancy is much more important ans sometimes harder to control as the flower room temp fluctuates. The clones on the shelf are fine and rather stable under the flouros 24/7. But below under the 400mh there was such a temp differnce from the pot/root level to the 3-4inches of plant growth that the roots were always too cold and the tops were a little warm. Even up off the floor on grates the concrete pulled so much cold out of the ground into my area.
The third room(I'm not sure you even know about this one yet!)
I needed a buffer room one that could be used when needed for what ever. At the time I wanted to switch my veg plants to 8/16 to ease them into flowering faster and allow for the roots to develope strong and healthy. I took 10'x10' of panda plastic and built a 6'x2' room up on one of my counters allowing for about 4-5' of verticle space. After flowering the plants that grew all summer I lwearnt how inefficient tall plants were and how much you really waste on them. The new goal was to have plants no taller than 2' from the souil after flowering was done. I built the room with a plastic bottom so the drainage could all be diverted easily into a pail on the floor and used the same grates on the bottom as my other rooms(I love my pig grates they work great for everything!). I put in a spare 400whps horizontally and on the small wall shared with the garage I installed one of my bathroom exhaust fans(120cfm) half way up the wall and directing the air up towards the ceiling. At the other end of the room I cut and exhaust hole about 6 inches close to the ground which opens up into the work area of my back room which contains all my grow rooms. This allowed the air to be shot up over the plants flowing along the light then down and out.

My plants ended up loving their time in this room especially and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why 'till a few weeks ago. Once the plants were switched to this room the roots were kept rather consistantly warm because of the path of the cooling air, but when the fan kicked in it provided enough cool to keep the tops at the right temp just long enough to not affect to root temp. A simple timer adjusted as the temp changes maintains my temp in there. It works so well I've shut down my other veg room below the clone shelf and move all my new clones and vegging plants to the buffer room. This is just temporary though. I've had a hitch lately and fell behind with my cloning so I have lots of room. Once I get back on track and ready for spring planting I expect all the rooms to be full to capacity once I build my stock back up.

Another reason why I never brought in good harvest were bad genetics. I had the white rhinos which were of scetchy origin, and hermaphrodites. As much as I thought they should still produce well I really didn't understand how bad my strain really was until I started concentrating on growing my juicyfruit strain well. Side by side I really was able to see the big difference good seeds make, and that having a good mother stock was essential for harvest outcome. I decided to concentrate on cloning only my juicy fruit and phasing the white rhino out as I had healthy JF to replace them. Needless to say I always seem to accidently take at least one clone from an unknown WR and just can't seem to get them out of rotation, lol. There is always at least on white rhino per cycle somehow. But one hermi doesn't even seem to seed itself, not like before when I had crops full of seeds.

Oh yeah mothers! I was having to much trouble with my mothers and keeping them happy and balanced. After spending the summer outside with the other plants I picked up thrips and mites which I fought so hard to get rid of through out ever room. I quickly learnt that the only way to get rid of them was to concentrate my efforts in getting a step ahead of them. I gave up on trying to rid the mature plants of pests and instead concentrated on keeping the new clones as pest free from the start and preventing back contamination. I put my mothers to flower and used my trimmings and toppings as my new clone stock and learnt alot more about training and shaping plants as wellas clone selection. As time went on the new shoots grew faster than the pests could move up the plant. The clones became pest free and I noticed less and less pests in the early veg room then in the buffer room, and now I don't see any evidence of them at all anywhere. They may be hiding though, but so long as I use rapid growth to stay ahead of them I think I'll be fine.

The alcopolco gold is long gone and was such a bad hermi that I killed all my flowering plants half way through flower.
There is a down side to not having mothers though. Life got busy I forgot to clone my vegging plants and got lazy with the clones I had going. I soon found myself with the vegging plants in flower and no stock to take fresh clones from. That ment patiently nursing slower clones so they could be healthy enough to get the cycle going again as slow as it was I'm finally(just the other day) back up to a safe stock and finally able to start on my spring preparation. In the mean time it seems my next cycle will be a little late going in since they need a little more time to fill out and there is no sense in rushing things because then everything falls apart.

That brings us to the water issue. you would figure with 3 feet of snow on the ground water would be easy to come by. well it's not! My current and the most efficient system I have it filling a rubbermaid contaier with snow and setting it up on buckets(other wise it will neve thaw with the cold coming through the floor) and waiting 3 days for it to thaw and hoping there is enough for everyone. the other big thig besides the time it takes is that I have a 2 year old and am about 6 months pregnant. Finding time to "harvest water" (since it is too cold to take the kid with me to even play in the garage while I work) is becoming increasingly difficult, not to mention to loose joints that come with pregnancy that open me to more injuries and sore muscles. It's just a really pain in the ass! Next to money, water is my most restricted resource and you can only grow as well as your weakest link. Due to water rationing flushes weren't happening as often as they should have, so I adjusted my nute concentrations to avoid build up. as our harvests came in and we got a few more bills caught up I was able to buy RO water for flushes which I do once a month as the new plants go into the flower room. Of course before I was flushing I thought that build up was the problem. Now that I crossed that off the list it looked like deficiencies were the problem. The plants grow better and better each cycle as I improve things, but I still couldn't get around my yellowing problem close to the end of flowering. Alot of people say yellowing at the end is normal but I felt it was happening too early and wasn't right. I finally talked H into letting me buy more sunshine mix(yes I dispose of it after every harvest, I just mean more than normal) and I pulled out the 2gl and 3gl pots again and transplanted the plants I had at about 3weeks into flowering. This alos ment more water(especially during flushing), and nutrients. All costs which add up when you budget tightly. The difference is huge though! Seeing the 1, 2, and 3 gl side by side sows just how root bound my plants were even if they looked fine after being cut and examining the roots.

So once again my problems lead back to my water situation(and still do because I am still experiencing restrictions that wouldn't bee there if I had a good unlimited supply of water available to me). My water supply affected everything to the point where I was spending money and time treating things that didn't need attention to try and make up fo r the things I couldn't provide.

I just finally chopped that "Pot size experiment" cycle down and am half way through and at 5.5oz off of 10 plants. That's my best since living here. My current cycle 4 weeks into flower has 5 3gl, 2 2gl, and 3 1gl that were transplanted at the begining of flower instead of half way through. I still can't afford to upgrade everything but am hoping to slowly put myself ahead enough so that by the time this next baby comes a) our bills will be caught up, b)I will be able to at least maintain a consistant crop even if it isn't maximized, and c) make it as self sufficient as possible and as easy as possible for me to handle for the first year after the baby is born. Above that I'd love to continues to increase my crop amounts and productivity, and make the whole set up more efficient and self sufficient since being a full time stay at home mom, owning and starting 2 businesses, and the grow room(which is a job in itself), on top of choosing to try to live an off the grid life(cutting our own wood for heat, growing our own food...) I must say my plate is quite full. I can't wait until my garden can run in the background and be fully enjoyed instead of being tainted as a chore. I am really looking forward to my realistic goal of 1oz per plant consistantly but know that until we can work up to affording some additional improvements it may not happen just yet.

Luckily we live in a rural area and I am also looking forward to investing(yes $200 is alot of money to us and takes a long time to save up for things that aren't already on the "bill" list) for a gps system and am hoping to getting about 200 or more plants scattered out there this summer. If half of those give me at the very least an oz each after a full undisterbed canadian growing season I should be able to get us far enough ahead to be able to reinvest at least a part of that into my setup and go high tech(in the same space and with the same numbers just growing much more efficently), which would include a full solar panel system and eliminate our hydro bill at least for the garage. After that we should break even in about another year, and hopefully then I can retire my grow op as a money maker and give my surplus away in exchange for for goods and services just like our garden veggies to help make us completely self sufficient and release us from the grasp of money.

I hope I've covered everything, if not please ask or let me know. It is just as cold here in my office as it is outside(-26f today) so frozen fingers and brains tend to forget things after being numb for as long as I've been typing this post.

Thanks for reading and following and I look forward to being more invovled with my own thread once we thaw out here and my hibernation is over.

Oh yeah! I still think that it is the strangest thing in the world that my very first grow attempt as primitive as it was was my best bringing in almost 2oz each on all 7 plants. I hope to some day grow as well as I did when I was a hard core noob! LOL

[Shovelhandle]

Great to see your back posting here. Very cool reveg and frog pics (and pot plants, of course). I'm just harvesting a 'half a grow', which is some plants I had abused while waitign for the grow lights to be available. Probably a skimpy harvest as well, but the buds are very well grown. :hippy:

Early Spring, now's an ideal time to think about the 'hidden gardens'. Planting in some out of the way places, hoping to harvest a bumper crop later.

Shovelhandle

[painretreat]

Hey PRT Thanks for following along. I didn't get any bud shots really, I'll keep it in mind next harvest when I get some dildo size buds. I don't think the frog got bleached, I didn't bleach the veg room and turned the fans between them off for a while. Oh and with how much we have been smoking I'm sure we've made a dent. GTG busy day!

Hi CC, nice to see you back!! Missed ya! Still have that pic. I gonna need it real soon! Thank you! PRt. :clap:

[Rusty Trichome]

After flowering the plants that grew all summer I lwearnt how inefficient tall plants were and how much you really waste on them. The new goal was to have plants no taller than 2' from the souil after flowering was done.
The genetics are the same whether it's kept short, or allowed to develop.
If you pull the lights closer, transplant into final pot a week before switching to 12/12, use a MH bulb when first switching to 12/12, and restrict nitrogen just prior to switching...your internode spacing should tighten-up, making it a tad stockier. The further the secondary buds are from the light, the more they'll stretch, the loser the bud, and the trichomes won't be as mature as the ones closest to the light.


That brings us to the water issue. you would figure with 3 feet of snow on the ground water would be easy to come by. well it's not! My current and the most efficient system I have it filling a rubbermaid contaier with snow and setting it up on buckets(other wise it will neve thaw with the cold coming through the floor) and waiting 3 days for it to thaw and hoping there is enough for everyone.
So once again my problems lead back to my water situation(and still do because I am still experiencing restrictions that wouldn't bee there if I had a good unlimited supply of water available to me). My water supply affected everything to the point where I was spending money and time treating things that didn't need attention to try and make up fo r the things I couldn't provide.

Do you by chance know the ph of the snow? Or the general hardness? Or the contaminates in the snow? I'm guessing that with all those plants, a Britta filter is out of the question...but a R/O hooked-up to the bottom of a 40 gallon trash can, (using an aquarium bulkhead) or something similar might help. I'm pretty sure there would be enough water pressure at the bottom, to drive the R/O filters.

And, have you tried an aquariom heater (100w - $20.00 or so) to melt the snow?