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View Full Version : First Grow - 2600 + watt CFL!!!!



low_rdr
10-01-2012, 06:22 PM
Greetings Everyone, and especially myself.

I'm using this as a true grow log, a step by step to my successes and failures using a CFL Cabinet. Before I get too in depth, I'd like to point out that the main reason I decided to use CFL's was heat - It was not cost. Originally I thought CFL's would be 30-40 degrees cooler in a cabinet, and my heat issues would be null and void. Where I'm growing, I have no need for carbon filters, no matter how bad the stink is, I'm covered.

That being said, my germ/clone box is in top of the cabinet (of course, for the additional heat). I'm germinating 12 strains for personal use, the main ones are Chocolope, GrandDaddy Purple, Amnesia, AK 47, Super Haze, Lemon Express, Pineapple Express - If you consider the values of some of these strains, you can see that I'm ultimately creating my own strain using different variables of these. All my seeds are feminized, I do however have a male GrandDaddy Purple and a male AK that I will be using as my pollinators when I'm ready to start my first generations of my own strain. For now, lets get to the grow box.

Expense has been no object here. I was actually considering purchasing a coliseum grow-box, however current living space requirements put me in the range of a box or utility closet. I opted for the utility closet, and since my original intentions were to grow no more than 6 plants, I got a rather small and cheap closet, 27" wide, 15" deep, 68" tall. This would have actually been perfect for 6 plants, however, I've already outgrown it, and my first seeds haven't finished germinating yet! (Doesn't that figure?)

Future plans are already being made, this will be turned into my veg cabinet :) - So, for now, lets continue once again, I purchased a plastic cabinet that was on sale for about 50% off, there was a much nicer wood cabinet (white interior) for about $70 more, I didn't buy it originally because I didn't think I had the room. The plastic cabinet I'm using now ran me $49 at Home Depot. The wooden cabinet was $130, and I will be purchasing it on my next trip. (Don't worry, I'll show pics of that as well)

Originally for my germination/clone box I wanted to use daylight T5's, however, none of the hardware or lighting stores around here had anything over 5k for T5's, I also couldn't find a T8 frame I liked, so I went with the T12 frame, and put in GE 610 nm daylights in. The top part of this cabinet is adjustable, and the light currently sits 4" from my clone box (perfect for clones, a little high for seeds, but I will set the box on a harry potter book when I sow). I would adjust the shelf for the seedlings, however, it takes roughly 15 minutes, and since its setup for clones, I'd rather not mess with it.

My veg box is powered by 6 syvania 100 watt 6500's, these are micro CFL's and I'm not too happy with the current lighting arrangement, however for this first grow, we'll see how it goes. this cabinet is adjustable, and is current setup to let the plants get about 9" high, which is when most of them will be going into flower, I do have some strains that will need 12-14" before flower.

For the flower box, I have 12 150 Watt Syvania 2700's on top, as well as 1 150 watt Syvania 6500 for full spectrum while flowering, I originally wired in series (doesn't work, do not wire your CFL bulbs in series!!!) which took about an hour, and another 3 hours to fix! Reading through other grow logs, I've noticed that one of the biggest complaints is undergrowth lighting. Since my original plan was to only flower 6 ladies at a time, I fixed this problem with 2 100 watt 2700 flood lights wired into the base of the cabinet to shine up into the undergrowth. I know... killer idea, and yes, you should use it!

Problem - Since I'm germinating about 12 strains right now, my plan is to get the bigger grow box before flower and use this setup only for veg - I'm planning on using a new technique using a 5" deep storage tub, and letting all my roots inter-tangle. I recently read on another thread that using a small growing space, and this technique, helps get rid of the need for 5 gallon buckets, so I'm very interested in trying it out, and my results will be posted here.

As far as yields, honestly, I'm hoping for a lot. I'm looking forward to at least 8 ounces per plant, now this is my first grow, so I know the possibility of that is slim to none, but I will work on it.

Cooling/Ventilation:
The box with all the lights on gets to about 100 degrees, There is a window conditioner right next to the box, and if the door is cracked with the air and all the lights on, its right around 80 degrees - I haven't put fans in yet, I am planning on putting in 3 120mm quite fans, and 1 for exhaust - This hasn't happened yet because I was under the impression that the CFL's would be much easier on heat (I'm still looking into my fan options at the moment)

Germination:
As you can see from my pictures, I'm germinating most of my seeds in the bags they originally came in. I'm doing this because I don't want to clutter my shelves with tons of shot glasses filled with seeds. My GrandDaddyPurple strain is being germinated in the same fashion, only using sandwich baggies. These are put into a glass jar, and covered with a beer cup.

Rooting:
After germination (all my seeds have cracked at 18 hours, some showing a 1mm tail, I plan on rooting at 5mm) I will be placing them into a seedling box which is designed to hold 72 seedlings (this is for cloning, and has a humidity dome for the clones). Since the box currently holds decent temps for seedlings, I'm not using a heating pad.

The seedlings will be put into MG potting mix inside the trays until they are about 2" and showing good leaves

Veg:
As stated above, I am going to be placing my seedlings into veg at about 2" and will start to top them ASAP, I'm looking for 8 main branches on each lady before we go into flower. I will be giving tomato nutes when the soil is dryer on top until the plants go into veg, I'm using MG organic choice, diluted by 50% for the feeding. Most of my strains will be put into flower with 8 tops and around 9" tall.

Flower:
At the flower stage I'm currently not sure if I'm going to use a screen for scrog, depending on how the arrangement looks in veg, I might just do that - I'm hoping however that my under-lights will help keep everything well lit - I have considered doing 3 smaller boxes with 4 plants each arrange around the under lights instead of just 1 big tub, depending on my schedule the next few weeks, we'll see which route I take! I am using MG Bloom Booster for flower feeding.

I am aware that many growers shy away from MG - However in my experience, MG is a wonderful product as long as you use it correctly for your precious ladies. Never use it as directed, always water it down by at least 40%, and if your paying special attention to your girls, you should be able to make any corrections you need to.

I realize this is my first grow, but I also realize first and foremost that this is a weed. Too much attention, and you'll kill it, honestly, its best to sit back and do nothing than to over do it.

As for the pictures, sorry the cabinet is mostly empty at this time, but I will be updating this on an constant basis up until harvest time. I can tell you, I'm totally looking forward to this first trimjob I have coming up!

PS - some of these strains are clone to harvest in 45 days, seed to harvest in 60, so some will be going into flower much quicker than others. I also realize there maybe a few questions of lighting schedules. the veg stage will be 24/7 and flower will be 12/12. I know many people like 18/6 for veg stage, and I may switch if I need to, perhaps a veteran grower can give me some advice here, I would appreciate it.

Now for the Pictures!

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01801_zps3627736d.jpg
This is Super Haze, you can see the root at about 1mm right now

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/cabinet/IMG_01811_zps7ba3461d.jpg
This is Amnesia, you can see the root just coming out

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01771_zps8c9a0190.jpg
This is my germ station - Just two glasses with bags of seeds + distilled water

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01551_zps300f4c9c.jpg
Clone Tray without lid for seedlings

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01561_zps8b3cef43.jpg
Veg box - About 12" tall total. You'll notice I wired my flower box in a much better fashion,
I will be duplicating the process on my veg box when I upgrade soon (hopefully a month)

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01591_zpsdd8219a7.jpg
Flower box shot, notice the under lighting. 13 150w lights above, 2 100w floodlights below

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01541_zpse364af6e.jpg
As I said, this is a cheap cabinet

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01401_zps3e195dfd.jpg
Do NOT wire your CFL's in series

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01741_zps32a254c0.jpg
These are my flower lights - 150 watts, 2700k 2600 lumens, that means my flower stage
is 2150 watts, and 39k Lumens!!!!

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01721_zpse5ad558d.jpg
Flowering lights - 600 watts total, 8700 lumens total - I plan to up this to 2k watts and
29k lumens when I upgrade cabinets.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/IMG_01711_zpsfe9dd7da.jpg
This was the bottle we got to celebrate the box and seed order! (Not really, we got it for
my promotion, but it was about the same time!!!!)

low_rdr
10-02-2012, 04:55 AM
Wanted to give a few shots of what I came home to after dinner tonight.

29 hours germ I found all but 1 of my seeds are cracked and doing very well. Here are shots of the two I started you off with, I think we'll follow these two strains until the end, with other shots of the rest of the girls of course! Can anyone help me name these two girls? One strain is Amnesia, the other is Super Haze - So help me name them!!!


Here is Amnesia, honestly it looks like the root tip is coming out with a leaf on it... It doesn't just appear that way in the photo, it looks that way up close as well! As you can see though, she isn't just cracking that seed, she's ready to pop - If you could tell a yield by the way a seed popped, this would be a winner right here!
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/cabinet/IMG_01841_zps7c95545c.jpg

Here we have the Super Haze seedling - You can tell from the previous post that the root tip is quite a bit thicker and a touch longer, I'm sure that by hour 45 super haze will have met my standard for planting. Hopefully the rest will catch up over night! Both of these seeds have popped really well for me using this method, its easy, done with tap water, and I couldn't see anyone screwing it up.
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n532/low_rdr/cabinet/IMG_01831_zps7eb5140c.jpg

low_rdr
10-02-2012, 05:40 AM
After further investigation - Of my 12 strains I wanted to grow, only 5 are currently germinated.

I also tried another germination method which was soil - Unfortunately the soil germination has yielded no results, and the seeds may no longer be viable (I started this process 2 weeks ago). I have put these strains into distilled water, and I'm hoping for the best, but the cynic in me knows they are gone. I also have one freebie that has not germinated in the above method (yet). The Strain is Holy Grail 69, and the seed looks healthy, hearty, and has sank, however it hasn't cracked.

In an effort to help fill up some of these slots, I've started germinating two more strains, Liberty Haze, and Haze Special. Both of these strains are being germinated in a 12% diluted MG Organic stimulant. I'll post pictures in the morning if they actually crack and show a tail by then. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this simple solution will help catch the seedlings up by 30 hours, we'll see! (Again, the cynic in me knows it won't work, however, if the stress of the nutes doesn't kill the seedlings, it should show a healthier growth throughout the process, these are two more strains we might want to follow closely in this grow. In the end, it might make the difference, we'll see!

Some of the strains that didn't germinate properly are some of the key strains in my quest to develop one just for me, these strains are chocolope, white widow, and AK 47, I'm also missing pineapple express as well as lemon juice express. I've written the-attitude seed bank, however I'm not really expecting replacements, but I can promise if replacements are made, I won't be trying sensei on my next order :)

low_rdr
10-02-2012, 06:53 PM
Update Time!

Checking on Liberty Haze and Haze Special, while the rest of the seeds are on hour 45, Liberty and Special have both cracked, while they haven't caught up yet, I don't think I'll be planting just yet anyway, so they'll have about another 15 hours. the Holy Grail strain I mentioned earlier still has not cracked, looks like its a dud. I will keep my fingers crossed and we'll see what happens there.

I contacted the Attitude, and surprisingly I received a response, and was told my new order was processing - I can't give a total review until the package arrives, but what I can say is :thumbsup: Awesome customer support so far, and i'll let you know how that process turns out (last order took almost 2 weeks, so this one might take the same).

Update on the girls with photos!!!

Amnesia is looking great, this is actually a horrible photo
I couldn't get her to lay just right, but not only can you
see the root is nice and strong, there is foilage on the
plant, these are seedling leaves, however there seems
to be a jagged edge to them, not the normal smooth
seedling leaves - This is going to be a promising mother
I think (As long as I don't screw it up)
287048


Super Haze is looking very strong, just shy of the 5mm I figured we'd
see at hour 45, again, you can see the seeding leaves, and she's ready
to be put into soil. I'm going to give her a few more hours, and I'm hoping
that more strains will be ready, most are sitting at 3mm right now.

287049


I will take single photos of the seedlings as they're going down, as well as a group shot so we can progress the first few weeks together.

keep checking back

low_rdr
10-05-2012, 09:17 PM
Okay - It looks like I picked two excellent strains to follow! While all the seeds of this batch have germinated, these are the ONLY TWO strains that have come up through the soil, remember when I said amnesia was explosive? Well, she didn't just come up, she blew up! I checked on them this morning to see a touch of green. By lunch, she had shed her shell and was laying out for a nice photo op.

Super Haze is doing fantastic, she hasn't shed her shell yet, but she's broke the soil.

Pics of both of them below.

Royal Kush has crowned the soil - Liberty Haze, Holy Grail, and Haze Special haven't broke ground yet.

They are in MG potting soil which is 21-7-14

They aren't getting nutes yet, but will be receiving 15-0-0 for veg every other feeding.

287130
This is Amnesia (We need to name her still)




287131
This is Super Haze - Also needs a name!

billydakid6812
10-06-2012, 02:12 AM
All the strains ur growing sound like they are gonna be some super plants. Just the name of them makes me interested to watch and see how they grow. Your set up is awesome dude I like how you got the cfl flood lamps on the bottom for side lighting, very smart move, where did you get the Rubbermaid cupboard I was thinking of a set up like that for myself. Although electricity is not my specialty so maybe the lighting wouldn't be so extravagant, but its a nice stealthy grow box. Thanks for the feedback and I will def be watching ur journal. Get them pics up

low_rdr
10-06-2012, 02:35 AM
I got the cabinet for $79 at home depot. Do yourself a favor and get a wooden one about the same size, I was going to but figured this one would work, and it will, but it has light leak issues as well as being plastic doesn't really help with silencing fans - So if you try to put a proper exaust system on it, the entire thing will hum - Stick with a wooden cabinet, this is good for veg, but like I said, light leak issues for flowering :(

I picked my strains based on effect and flowering times. Most of my strains are seed to harvest in 60 days.

As far as electricity, if you want to do something like this, I can actually give you step by step pics as I'm about to repeat the process with a wooden box. If you want me to do a DIY wooden cabinet log, with complete setup and a seed to harvest log following that cabinet so we can see the end result, I'll gladly do it. Just say the word :)

Thanks for the compliments, means a lot as this is my first box!

Quent
10-06-2012, 07:41 PM
When you say you'll be doing 24/7 in the veg stage, do you mean 24 hours constant, or 24 hour days then 7 hour nights? Obviously I assume you mean 24 hours 7 days a week, but I've wondered if the veg stage could benefit by having longer than 24 hour cycles, because on the few days that I couldn't make it to turn my lights off for my 18/6, and it ran for 24 straight, then a 6 hour night, I would always notice a lot of growth in the night period.

Looks like you've got your shit together here, though. Looking forward to following your massive success. 8oz/plant is a lot to hope for, for such a compact grow, but I can see it happening. At least 2 pounds. :thumbsup:

billydakid6812
10-06-2012, 07:58 PM
I got the cabinet for $79 at home depot. Do yourself a favor and get a wooden one about the same size, I was going to but figured this one would work, and it will, but it has light leak issues as well as being plastic doesn't really help with silencing fans - So if you try to put a proper exaust system on it, the entire thing will hum - Stick with a wooden cabinet, this is good for veg, but like I said, light leak issues for flowering :(

I picked my strains based on effect and flowering times. Most of my strains are seed to harvest in 60 days.

As far as electricity, if you want to do something like this, I can actually give you step by step pics as I'm about to repeat the process with a wooden box. If you want me to do a DIY wooden cabinet log, with complete setup and a seed to harvest log following that cabinet so we can see the end result, I'll gladly do it. Just say the word :)

Thanks for the compliments, means a lot as this is my first box!




Yea I am debating on getting a box like yours, but Im wondering if it will be enough room for the present plants i have growing they are already in 5 gallon pots, and there is six of them. I know it would not fit, I see you have 6 smaller ones. Im very interested to see how your plants end up i will be watching from start to finish I have always been interested in the seed to harvest 60 days. I just worry about yield when I think harvest in 60 days it just doesn't seem to be enough time to me, this is my first grow well second actually, but this is my first official grow investing money into it. My problem is one of my plants is already extremely wide,about 6 inches each side of the stem, and every alternating node is proving to grow the same,idk why its growing so wide I can tell it's going to be a long lanky plant the rest are short and bushy,but still in the 5 gallon pots space is an issue,im going to keep my eyes open for a cabinet like yours. My girlfriend is bitching about having to share a closet now, but I am def interested in running electricity like you have, I presently have a max lume 200 watt cfl putting out just about 18000 lumens so I would only need lights and wiring for the flowering box. How much money for all the materials excluding the cabinet. As far as the diagram goes I would very much appreciate that, Im not ready to do it now, but very soon so it's up to you if you wanna make a diagram now or later, just keep me posted. Thank you

low_rdr
10-06-2012, 08:02 PM
by 24/7 I meant All the time :) Realizing the format, yeah, i shoulda put 24/0. I'm leaving them like that because what I'm planning on doing is having a constant cycle, and until I move and actually get my 'room' I get 2 cabinets, one for flower, and one for veg, each cabinet unfortunately has to be sectioned off, as I'm having my ruderalis strains flowering as soon as they veg 7" and the rest will grow out more, and I still haven't set my mothers yet, so from there I've gotta start my clones for my scrog for when I move.

So I've got alot going on as far as growing is concerned, but I'm sure you can tell by the work put into the cabinet, that I'm going to have a phatass growroom (and my veg cabinets/clone station will be in my boxes, unless I get a killer closet in the house)

I've actually got enough lighting that if I squeeze enough plants in there, I really can produce 2lbs - heat would be a major problem in that grow box though, so I've gotta get that taken care of first before I consider an overload of light.

subscribe to the thread, I should be putting up new pics of the two strains we're following tomorrow :)

Oh, btw, if your reading this, that means I want you to help pitch in and name my two girls!

billydakid6812
10-06-2012, 08:12 PM
by 24/7 I meant All the time :) Realizing the format, yeah, i shoulda put 24/0. I'm leaving them like that because what I'm planning on doing is having a constant cycle, and until I move and actually get my 'room' I get 2 cabinets, one for flower, and one for veg, each cabinet unfortunately has to be sectioned off, as I'm having my ruderalis strains flowering as soon as they veg 7" and the rest will grow out more, and I still haven't set my mothers yet, so from there I've gotta start my clones for my scrog for when I move.

So I've got alot going on as far as growing is concerned, but I'm sure you can tell by the work put into the cabinet, that I'm going to have a phatass growroom (and my veg cabinets/clone station will be in my boxes, unless I get a killer closet in the house)

I've actually got enough lighting that if I squeeze enough plants in there, I really can produce 2lbs - heat would be a major problem in that grow box though, so I've gotta get that taken care of first before I consider an overload of light.

subscribe to the thread, I should be putting up new pics of the two strains we're following tomorrow :)

Oh, btw, if your reading this, that means I want you to help pitch in and name my two girls!



You could name super haze HAZEL keep it simple so no one gets confused

low_rdr
10-06-2012, 08:31 PM
Yea I am debating on getting a box like yours, but Im wondering if it will be enough room for the present plants i have growing they are already in 5 gallon pots, and there is six of them. I know it would not fit, I see you have 6 smaller ones. Im very interested to see how your plants end up i will be watching from start to finish I have always been interested in the seed to harvest 60 days. I just worry about yield when I think harvest in 60 days it just doesn't seem to be enough time to me, this is my first grow well second actually, but this is my first official grow investing money into it. My problem is one of my plants is already extremely wide,about 6 inches each side of the stem, and every alternating node is proving to grow the same,idk why its growing so wide I can tell it's going to be a long lanky plant the rest are short and bushy,but still in the 5 gallon pots space is an issue,im going to keep my eyes open for a cabinet like yours. My girlfriend is bitching about having to share a closet now, but I am def interested in running electricity like you have, I presently have a max lume 200 watt cfl putting out just about 18000 lumens so I would only need lights and wiring for the flowering box. How much money for all the materials excluding the cabinet. As far as the diagram goes I would very much appreciate that, Im not ready to do it now, but very soon so it's up to you if you wanna make a diagram now or later, just keep me posted. Thank you


Okay, total cost on this was between 300 and 450 - the reason for the variable in price difference is the amount of bulbs I purchased. I purchased everything I could find in the spectrum(s) and style I was looking for, because its hard to find decent quality lights and be able to get them in large amounts, I actually wiped 3 hardware stores out of certain kinds of lights, as well as ceramic light sockets.

I was wrong on the price of the cabinet, I looked at the receipt, I got it on sale for $49 - but for $130 there is a wooden one with about 6x more space. If you re-read my thread, you'll notice that I said I saw another technique I was going to use for flower - the 3 6 smaller pots will not be there, I'm going to incorporate a solid mass grow box that is about 5.5-6" deep, that encompasses the underlighting, and allows me more space for rooting overall. Basically what this means, is that all the roots from all the plants will entangle - If you read the 3 pound per light grow log, you'll understand more clearly - thats one reason I'm not concerned about my small footprint, it might be a tiny cabinet, but with FIM, proper tiedowns, and my underlighting, I can actually have a very good yield per plant!

talk to your girlfriend - I'm sure after she realizes that you can potentially save 1k per plant (or more depending on prices in your area) she'll be more cool with it. My wife and I are both young, while she doesn't really like to hear me talk about my plants and ideas for them all the time, she fully supports me. Although this is one reason I'm using cabinets instead of a closet!

My flowering stage is just under 40k lumens. Now, if I switched to different style CFL bulbs, I can get about 50k lumens with the same setup, HOWEVER - I'm going for watts+lumen because i know on a decent grow you can yeild 1 gram per watt. I'd like to do about .35 grams per watt giving me a 752 gram harvest, or about 1.7 pounds. Relay that to your girlfriend - Street value where I live, that's almost 10k (and I buy by the ounce).

I do want to make a special notation... I do not share with my friends, I do not sell, I do not supply, and I have no intentions of doing anything of the sort (I'll gladly get my friends high as a kite if they come over, but I don't give my crap away) All this being said... protect yourself. If 10 people know your growing, consider yourself caught.

If its just you, and your girl - Keep it that way :) Always stay safe.

Anyway, back to my grow and your space issue - Check out the box method, its really good, 6" deep with a 18x24" footprint actually gives my plants TONS of room to grow, granted they will all be 4-5 inches apart, but thats where the strings and tiedowns come into place.

There are several educational videos to watch, if you've seen most of them, you'll have seen multiple levels of scrog for different lighting types, where each scrog produces a smaller amount of bud than the last (kinda like making hash, some is really high quality, but there isn't alot of it, then you've got alot of hash, that smokes great, but it's not super high quality) Same basic concept with the lighting (reason for the underlights) I'm going to have a bottom canopy and a top canopy - That's the only way I can yield so much out of a cabinet like this.

Just think, my popcorn nuggest will be about the size of my thumb (god... I can't wait)

So, cost breakdown for my cabinet:

Cabinet: $49
Paint: $7 (the inside of the cabinet was originally beige) I just used cheap flat white to coat the interior well enough to reflect better.
Cedar 2x4: $12 (cut into 24" sections, this holds my lighting) Why cedar? It is a natural bug repellant.
13 Ceramic Light Fixtures: $30 (they are about 2.29 each, I'm just estimating the total cost)
14 gauge wiring: $14 (black and white)
wiring terminals: $5 (don't use electric tape, do it right, get the orange or yellow terminals, if your using 14 gauge wire, get 10 gauge terminals (your wires are doubled up)
6 plastic light fixtures: $7 *(only for simple CFL lighting, and not alot of heat, so make sure these CFL's are at least 2" apart, use ceramic if they're closer)
2 Full Light Fixtures: $8 (for the underlighting)
24" T12 fixture: $14
24" T12 daylights: $8 (two GE's they're 610nm, not sure on wattage, low watt just for seedlings/clones)
6 Micro CFL 100 watt 6500's: $21 (Brand is up top) the non micros will give you more lumens, the micros are better for heat and still have a great lumen/watt efficiency
13 Full CFL 150 watt 2700's: $150 (they are right around 11 each, plus tax)
2 CFL Floodlamps 100 watt 2700's: $15? (I can't remember how much they were, I know they were a decent deal, I would have bought more, but they didn't have the 150's I wanted)

Germination Box: $8 (its a burke or whatever they're called)
then of course my nutes and perlite and soil ran me about $20 including some peatmoss and some cocoanut fiber.

I took all my plugs from old appliances and reused them, so saved cost right there, my flowering lights are grounded, but my veg are not.
Seed Order for this grow: $107 (includes shipping and nice tshirt)

Total: $475 including seeds - Not including seeds $368

Keep in mind, those 150 watt bulbs, I could not buy in bulk - I've got 40 of them
The 100 watts, i did buy in bulk, I have 4 boxes of 10 - It was roughly $50 per box but the individual price works out to about $7 each
The flood lights, I didn't wanna buy in bulk

Same with the T12's, I wanna put a T5 up top.

remember, this doesn't include any heat pads, or cooling whatsoever. (but, a passive cooling system might work with this....)

billydakid6812
10-06-2012, 08:53 PM
I did the same as you i cleared out wal-marts 2700 k cfls, i also bought 5 225 watt 75 watt equiv larger cfls so I am set for flowering as far as lighting goes. Maybe just pick up a few more for side lighting like you.I gotta get my flower room under control soon I have not figured that out as i want to have a constant veg and flowering cycle growing,as soon as i get that cabinet I will let you know, I will def need help with the wiring, thanks for the info dude. By the way only me and my girl know I'm growing she is just as interested in them as me, I did time in jail before. So i know better.

low_rdr
10-06-2012, 09:02 PM
Okay - then I have to give you my BEST advice on all of this.

Don't get the plastic cabinet, spend extra for the larger wood - i love my cabinet, but the fact that its plastic, really sucks ass. If i could have taken it back after I put it together (I had already painted, dammit) I would have. The reason I'm doing constant cycles, is because... well, we smoke a Z a week, easily, I'll quite often stick two blunts together and roll up 8 grams - So yea, we burn through it like its fuel.

I also like to have a nice variety depending on the mood we are in. I have always kept three constants on hand (AK, Grand Daddy Purple, and Haze), haze isn't my favorite strain (lemon drop, aka cat piss is) - but I do love a good haze. Basically what I'm doing, is just insuring we always have a flavor of the day, kinda like icecream, you can try 30 different flavors a month, but you'll always have that one constant you go back to :) Mine is mint chocolate chip :)

speaking of which, wait until my new chocolope kush gets here :D Oh, and look up royal kush, if your anything like me, you'll love the flavor profile.

As far as help on the wiring, when I do start my next one, I'll take pictures, but I'll also do a short private video for you and put it up on youtube.

billydakid6812
10-06-2012, 11:41 PM
k cool thanks

drew225
10-07-2012, 02:05 AM
Seems like everyone is using cfls these days. Is that just for smaller spaces?

low_rdr
10-07-2012, 03:10 AM
Is CFL only for smaller spaces? No, not at all, there are several ways to set your lighting up - Let me just give you an idea, if your familiar with a coliseum setup, using CFL's instead of MH or HPS enables you to control your temps better and penetrate your canopy better. Utilizing some of the ideas you'll see me create DIY guides and logs to, you'll see how we can use CFL to increase yield in almost any type of grow.

True believers of HPS or MH (or both) will always testify that its all they use, its what they're comfortable with - Well, I'm not a commercial grower. I'm out for the best product, and best yield possible. I firmly believe that I can produce better yields with CFL, more or less giving about 3x more light than we NEED without hurting the plants and keeping cooling under control. Will it work? Guess you'll have to stay tuned in :)

Think of it this way though, a 600 watt HPS can flower a 4x4 area, and even a little larger with proper setup, with a decent yield. This 600 watt bulb produces about 90,000 lumens (thats the measure of light, more or less, the amount of light the bulb gives off) - One of the biggest problems with HPS is the heat they put out, so your losing a good percentage of your lumens in distance alone, unless your wrapping all your HPS bulbs in glass with an AC duct system, but most of you aren't.

Now, utilizing 480 watts of power, I'm generating 2150 watts of light (thats 3.5x of your 600w, cheaper and with less heat), producing just under 40k lumens. So if we do some math, and i get my grows down to a science and start producing 1 gram per natural watt of light, I'll be producing 2150 grams (if not better because of the grow methods) while the guy with the 600 watt HPS is still only pulling down 600 grams. While the light penetration isn't as bright with a CFL compared to a HPS,the CFL can be SOOOO much closer, that the light penetration won't make a difference.

Imagine a coliseum backlit with CFL's, I'm not sure what my entire plan is yet until I get it on paper, but I'm already imagining a multi layer scrog (top, bottom, inside, outside). If I can successfully scrog all 4 sides and FIM trim instead of prune, I might be able to add a good percentage to the yield. It looks as though I'm going to have a 3.5 x 10 closet for veg, and a 14x9 room for flower - Thats alot of room when you put an engineer to work on ways to produce the most yield out of the least amount of space.

My biggest problem is construction noise, I want to make sure I keep it to a minimum when I first move.... We'll take a look at the circumstances when I get situated.

stillnawe
10-07-2012, 03:30 PM
I will be forever grateful for all yalls hard work in keeping the notes. My favorite place on the internet is right here

low_rdr
10-07-2012, 04:10 PM
Thanks for your comments stillnawe! I appreciate that!

Update: Pics are coming soon "Hazel" hasn't unfolded yet, so I'm kinda waiting until she unfolds to get a pic of her and amnesia, lets just call them Hazel and Amy :)

Amy is looking good, very strong root, as she was almost 1" above the soil line, and now she's even with it - This wasn't from watering, the root pulled her down - Pretty nice actually, I've got a feeling that for a sativa I'm going to have some luck with my LST on her to bush her out and FIM my clones before I put her over to flower.

I went shopping for my 2nd cabinet last night, and I didn't find one suitable, had a few ideas based on some designs I saw, but I'm actually planning a trip to walmart and back to home depot this afternoon to continue my search for a good flowering cabinet.


I'm looking forward to creating this new cabinet and the DIY guide for it. I have all the accessories including lights for the new cabinet - So hopefully within the next week or so I'll post pictures of the entire new setup in a new thread.

An additional update - While Amy and Hazel have broke ground, most of the others have not - I also germinated another pure AK strain, I'd like to get a good AK harvest in before christmas, as AK is a great way to bring in the new year :)

I'm going to try and find a cabinet with at least 96" in height, and I'd like to find a 1.5'x3' footprint, or possibly 2'x4' footprint - This will give me plenty of room for 6 bushy plants with good lighting. I'm going to be putting at least 1200 watts in the new flowering cabinet, and it will be full spectrum with mainly 2700's, but I'm throwing in a few 6500's just to ensure that my auto's get all the vegetative growth they need before they switch over. I was planning on a 24/0 grow with the new cabinet, and I'm going to do that, just for the autos, when I move my photoperiod plants over, I'll be switching the cabinet to 12/12.

Seed Order Update: When they processed my re-order they didn't include a new tracking number, just the original, my package has not arrived yet, and i have no way to track the new one - I will email them and ask for a new tracking # today.

I've also been looking into LED lighting, when I move i may just setup a cabinet dedicated to a 12/12 LED grow so we can compare yields - I am still unaware how the lighting conversion and powerconversion works, it took me awhile to figure out the math behind the cfl's so I will be further educating myself on the lighting properties of the LED's as well, and of course, when I create that cabinet, I'll also post my logs - If anyone knows how many LED's and the proper LED wattage to equal 2k watts, and can give an estimated lumen count, please let me know! I've seen some light panels with 290ish .06 watt LED's that claim to cover a 8x8 grow from 1-4' suspension. I'm skeptical that 17.4 watts put out by these 8x8 footprint LED's isn't actually equal to a 600w HPS... However, considering I'm putting out 2150 watts with a 480w power draw, I have to accept the fact that I need to educate myself more. If you have advice, please don't consider it thread jacking, as it's all relevant!

Also, if I'm using LED's and i use separate cabinets for vegging/flowering, would it benefit me to go with solid spectrums? Or should I stick with the mixed lighting? why do I ask? Well, I'm considering making my own light with the LED's, and i can get the 10 watt LEDs in either red or blue, I can get them in 1-3 watts as well, and since I like to get creative with my lighting, and LED's put off virtually ZERO heat, I might take the time to build a custom lighting structure (and the guide to do it as well, since I know virtually no one on this board knows how to create an LED lamp..... Fortunately, I do, just not sure of the wattage conversion yet)

drudown11
10-07-2012, 06:41 PM
"I am aware that many growers shy away from MG - However in my experience, MG is a wonderful product as long as you use it correctly for your precious ladies. Never use it as directed, always water it down by at least 40%, and if your paying special attention to your girls, you should be able to make any corrections you need to.

I realize this is my first grow, but I also realize first and foremost that this is a weed. Too much attention, and you'll kill it, honestly, its best to sit back and do nothing than to over do it."

If this is your first grow, how do you any experience using Miracle grow on marijuana? I think its cheap and lacks the proper nutrition for a cannabis plant. Over time the plants becomes deficient in micro nutrients that Miracle grow does not provide. It also contains too much Urea Nitrogen and makes plants foxtail during flowering, decreasing yield and quality. There are many products out there that will give you better results and will only cost about 30-40 bucks if you stay cheap.Botanicare, House and Garden, Advanced, Fox farms, the list goes on and on.

As for lighting schedules, I use 18-6 because i get better growth that way. Ive also used 24/0 and 18/6 for rooting cuttings with different results. Cuttings under the 24/0 lighting don't root as fast, and don't root as vigorously. 24 hours of sunlight is not natural for marijuana, under ANY circumstances. A good motto to follow for cannabis cultivation is this.................When in doubt, Imitate nature. Your trying to create the perfect environment for this plant to thrive. Temps, humidity, light schedule, CO2 levels all need to be controlled. This basically means that your trying to create a Southeast Asia or Humboldt County in your cabinet. Easier said than done lol

low_rdr
10-07-2012, 09:56 PM
"I am aware that many growers shy away from MG - However in my experience, MG is a wonderful product as long as you use it correctly for your precious ladies. Never use it as directed, always water it down by at least 40%, and if your paying special attention to your girls, you should be able to make any corrections you need to.

I realize this is my first grow, but I also realize first and foremost that this is a weed. Too much attention, and you'll kill it, honestly, its best to sit back and do nothing than to over do it."

If this is your first grow, how do you any experience using Miracle grow on marijuana? I think its cheap and lacks the proper nutrition for a cannabis plant. Over time the plants becomes deficient in micro nutrients that Miracle grow does not provide. It also contains too much Urea Nitrogen and makes plants foxtail during flowering, decreasing yield and quality. There are many products out there that will give you better results and will only cost about 30-40 bucks if you stay cheap.Botanicare, House and Garden, Advanced, Fox farms, the list goes on and on.

As for lighting schedules, I use 18-6 because i get better growth that way. Ive also used 24/0 and 18/6 for rooting cuttings with different results. Cuttings under the 24/0 lighting don't root as fast, and don't root as vigorously. 24 hours of sunlight is not natural for marijuana, under ANY circumstances. A good motto to follow for cannabis cultivation is this.................When in doubt, Imitate nature. Your trying to create the perfect environment for this plant to thrive. Temps, humidity, light schedule, CO2 levels all need to be controlled. This basically means that your trying to create a Southeast Asia or Humboldt County in your cabinet. Easier said than done lol


Drugdown,

Your advice is great, and I've been taking most of that into consideration - I put the grow log here for people to learn, as well as for myself to learn of my mistakes, to help safeguard future grows and increase overall yields.

Heating - I flatout said (scroll up) that the plastic cabinet is no good for ventilation - And it would not be used for anything besides veg (I have the temp at a steady 74 degrees now)

yield expectations - With proper LST and FIM I know what i'm capable of producing with the strains I've picked out, realizing that there is no need to invent the wheel, i plan on using techniques that you don't see outside of disney for trellis work. Can I produce that much? It would be nice, but we'll see - In the end, I will be pulling at least that much per plant, but for now, I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and keep experimenting and learning.

Nutes - I've never said I haven't grown MJ, I said this is my first actual grow. I've never grown more than bagseed, and that was just in MG potting soil with a few standard bulbs on it (only yielded about 30 grams dry, but considering all I did was water it, turned out pretty good) My experience with MG extends to a full veg garden that produces peppers, tomatos, herbs, corn as well as beans. That being said, if I'm noticing issues while growing that are nute related, or the yields aren't where they should be I'm more than open to something else.

Cabinet Space - Once again I had already addressed this, and i just returned from my shopping trip - is an 8 foot 2'x4' cabinet good enough for you? :P I've picked up my supplies as well as my ducting, and I'm just waiting for a free day to construct. I have also choosen my intake/exhaust fans, and I've picked up my meters :P

As far as a good yield with CFL's - That point I'll actually go toe to toe with you on. Why don't more people use halogens more for MJ? because most hologens are 5k clear, not because they aren't a good value, but there are 2700 and 6500 halogens out there that can be used (why, when it puts off almost as much heat as an HPS?) I'm sure there are people that are using halogens to produce, and getting good yields from it. Are they wrong? Nope... its their choice. As for myself, I'm using 75% power draw of a 600w HPS, and getting 2150 watts. Are my overall lumens lower? Yes indeed, but my lights are 90% closer than yours are. Every inch of my plants will be covered in light, and when I move, if its deemed I do indeed need to turn an entire room into a flowering room, I will - I'm more than dedicated to the process and have the funds to do what is best. However, there is more than 1 way to skin a cat -

So please, feel free to give extra advice, but please, respect my efforts if you haven't noticed I'm including lots of pictures and responding to questions as soon as I can, I'm here to help overall, not just take.

OH- Forgot to mention, I said earlier in the thread that I won't be using those small containers (I have no intentions of being rootbound) I have 3 containers 18"L 6"W 6"D that I'll be putting them in while they're still in this cabinet, the roots will intertangle, however they'll have more room to streatch, helping the overall end yeild. In the 2x4x8 cabinet I'm getting ready to build, I will be using the same technique with larger boxes - As far as Co2 - I will eventually be getting there, for now I want to work on everything else.

Thanks for the lighting advice on the schedule btw, I can actually see how the plant needs that darkness to work on the roots.

Thanks Again!

ghost83
10-08-2012, 01:55 AM
we planted around the same time. I would love to see u continue to post so I can see how my progress is going. You seem like you know what ur doing. If you dont mind.

9ski9
10-08-2012, 03:30 AM
Your enthusiasm is great low, and I wish you the best. Trial and error is a lot of the fun. MG, though, sacrifices your nutrient control from start to finish. MG is like feeding your newborn baby cream-filled doughnuts six meals a day. Your baby will live, but it's easy as hell to feed her the right thing. I would give girls their first sip of bat guano tea around two weeks after they're above ground because they don't need or want it until then. That tap root needs plenty of exercise. Also, hit a MH and/or HPS with a good fan and buds can be inches away. It's never better to flower with CFL, but with a confined plastic cabinet it's understandable. But you're looking at popcorn buds versus big sticky tomatoes.

I suggest 10-2-1 bat guano for veg, and cactus juice (mine is 2-7-7) for flower.

Good luck!

low_rdr
10-08-2012, 03:22 PM
Your enthusiasm is great low, and I wish you the best. Trial and error is a lot of the fun. MG, though, sacrifices your nutrient control from start to finish. MG is like feeding your newborn baby cream-filled doughnuts six meals a day. Your baby will live, but it's easy as hell to feed her the right thing. I would give girls their first sip of bat guano tea around two weeks after they're above ground because they don't need or want it until then. That tap root needs plenty of exercise. Also, hit a MH and/or HPS with a good fan and buds can be inches away. It's never better to flower with CFL, but with a confined plastic cabinet it's understandable. But you're looking at popcorn buds versus big sticky tomatoes.

I suggest 10-2-1 bat guano for veg, and cactus juice (mine is 2-7-7) for flower.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm going to flower this first crop on cfl, and then if its determined I can do better with HPS, I will switch. I just didn't really want to mess with it honestly. the idea of the cooling system and ventilation really didn't appeal to me. However, its something I'm struggling with CFL anyway, so I might as well, and if its determined that I would have yielded better from HPS from the beginning, well, then I'll have learned a very valuable lesson. At any case, the grow log will still be here for others to learn from :)

As far as vegging nutes, the soil is 21-7-14 and I have my organic stuff which is 7-0-0 I think. My bloom booster is alright, but I might actually go get some tiger bloom. I wouldn't mind buying proper nutes in all honesty, but I haven't found a place near here yet to buy anything. That was one of my major issues with lighting, I didn't really have someone I could talk to face to face. I would have saved myself quite a bit of $ on seeds as well. I should have actually started with bagseed.

At any rate, I'm hooked, and i'm trying to make this the best possible grow i actually can. Will most garden supply stores carry these nutes? If not, whom should I order from that will both ship discretely as well as to a PO box?

P.S. For Ghost - Yeah, I'm going to keep posting pictures. still waiting for Hazel to unfold some more.

Thanks!

billydakid6812
10-09-2012, 01:57 AM
Personally I can't stand when someone clicks on someone's grow journal reads it, and immediately starts hating. This is your shit and people come on here to try to get you caught up in your own words and make it look like you don't know what your talking about or lying. When if they opened their damn eyes and actually read like adults instead of looking at the pictures like a child they would see you addressed and made it known of your issues. Listen man your journal is very educating and you have always responded to my problems as quickly as possible unlike half of the people on this site will look at your thread and breeze by, although when they see an opportunity to try and make someone look stupid or wrong they hop on it. Unbelievable. Hey check out the journal tomorrow my phone broke so i can't post pics today so I will post pics tomorrow. The kids are moving right along and would like to know what you think. Awaiting patiently for some pics of the super plants, let's get those up a.s.a.p

andy8_5_85
10-10-2012, 04:20 AM
AWESOME AWESOME GROW LOG!!! Will be keeping up daily. I absolutely love your attention to all the details, it is incredibly insightful and a great layout i hope to copy my next grow. I hope everything goes well for you and the best of luck!

billydakid6812
10-11-2012, 12:55 AM
still no pics dude!!! come on ik those babies have punched through and opened up they should be very camera ready by now,let's see them.

low_rdr
10-11-2012, 02:48 AM
I'm sad to report that it looks like Hazel might just be leaving us. I'm not going to post a picture of her because its not pretty, it seems that the little part of the shell thats kinda gooey when they first pop was somewhat grown onto the new stem, so the leaves never popped, I removed the shell and I've got her mostly covered trying to bring her up, but I'm not going to give up hope.

Here is a picture of our sweet Amy - As you'll notice, unlike some other 'professional' grows I've seen on here (my thread, I can say it if I like) This amateur has successfully avoided any stretching issues. Look at the size of that stem! I called it like a pro when I said she was gonna be a good one to follow! Problem is that if we lost hazel, I'm going to have to get a 60 day bloomer to catch up to Amy (doable)

Here are two shots of Amy - I do have home made soil standing by (coffee grounds, cocoanut fiber, perm and verm) and I'll probably be hatching in that from now on as well, it's very light and fluffy! Enjoy the pics!

287285

287286



You guys will also be VERY happy to hear that I just got the greenlight when we move to take one of the spare bedrooms and fill it with CFL's, HPS's, OR and here is my favorite part LED's. I've got permission to fill at least a 10x12 room with whatever I want. If I can find LED systems that will do 6x6 areas for less than 3k a piece that are of great quality, they're mine! And you guys get to watch (and smoke if your close enough)

Anyway, if I can't find great LED's at that price, I also have full permission to go with a fully automated hydro Co2 system with the iphone app from SG (Thank god for high times mag and me having a wife that kicks ass!!!) So, with all this news, guess who can't wait to move now?

BTW - Been super busy at work, haven't been able to start on the new closet yet.

As far as Hazel dying, I'm sure I can confirm this in the next few days, for now, she's sickly, looks dehydrated, and tips are starting to yellow (kinda limp as well) No real point in posting a picture, but I am going to do some seedling research.

drudown11
10-11-2012, 11:03 PM
The big part of soil gardening is making sure you replant in bigger pots at certain times to reduce the chance of getting rootbound. The small 1 gallon pots you have there are only enough to support a half ounce to and ounce plant. If you really want to get 8 ounces per plant....... I can help you do that. Your cabinet isn't big enough to support 1 plant with 8 ounces on it. 8 ounces per plant would require You to scrap the cabinet, convert the whole god damn bed room, get some 10 gallons pots, and some 600 or 1000 watt HPS'. Probably 3 or 4 lights to support that much bud growth.
With LST and other types of training, its possible but still not easy. Try moving a plant that big too, LNI doesn't pay pot gardeners unfortunatly. Think about the total weight on those fuckers too when theyre fully flowered and the pots still wet! I have trouble moving plants of that size by myself lol Its hard for a plant to support the weight when it has grown up with the absence of wind and environmental stress. The stems are naturally weaker due to the environment of an indoor garden. Stakes, string,wire ties, zip ties, fishing line, whips, chains , and whistels ;) can all be used to help keep them upright and give them added strength.

I know this is your first time but it sounds like you wanna grow some pot.............. Those CFL's will keep you from yielding like the pros.

drudown11
10-11-2012, 11:15 PM
damn bro dropping some $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I like your style.

Lit Up
10-12-2012, 03:27 AM
If I may add.....

1st off, your watt output, in your flower room, is 646 watts; not 2150 watts. 2150 watts is totally irrelevant here. We're looking at the watts your bulbs are pulling. Your 150w "replacement bulbs" are using only 40 watts, 100w's are using 23w. SO, your using 646 watts to power you flower room. Not sure how you came with 480w? You lights are producing 36,700 lumens of light.(keep in mind lumens will diminish over bulb-life) Now, that's a very good lumen/sq. ft. ratio, pretty good overall. But, just know that 600w HPS HIGH OUTPUT bulb emits 95,000 lumens. So when you break it down a 600W HPS H.O. is bringing 158 lumens/watt to the table; your current set-up is only producing 57 lm/w.(rounded up) Ultimately, your producing 3x LESS the amount of lm/w with with 15 bulbs as opposed to 1 bulb while burning 46 more watts. Lumens are the amount of visible light emitted from a source. More lumens = more visible light = deeper penetration into your canopy.
A 600w, cooltube, HPS light will run ya about $200, with everything, digital ballast(uses actually less power), reflector, bulb, and cords and necessary fixtures, you 4-6 inch fan to cool it....$30 bucks. You would be able to have you plants closer with a cool-tube than CFL's and your temps would be a hell of lot cooler. FYI also, no one uses Halogens to grow, a 5 year old maybe.....maybe. HPS, MH, these are called H.I.D. lights (High Intensity Discharge) that's what they are made for, lighting up yards and buildings and shit. Closest thing to natural sunlight.

2ndly. Pretty much all the strains you list have an 8-12 week flower period. the Hazes will be on the longer side considering they are sativa dominant. Your looking at 2 weeks in the seedling stage alone.(A seedling does not shed it's cotyledons for about 2 weeks) So, there's 2 weeks in the seedling stage, then add another 2-4 weeks for vegetation, 2 weeks would be the bare minimum IMO. Plus your 8-12 weeks of flowering(every strain will finish at different times) I have heard of some heavy indicas that can finish in just over 6 weeks, i believe Blackberry is around 45-49 days, pure Blackberry. Your basically looking at 4 months from seed popping to trichs turning amber more or less.
Ruderalis is being used now crossed with some strains to shorten the flowering period. But basically its the stuff that grows wild in ditches and pastures. It's also the shit they were smoking in Reefer Madness back in the 30's. It's an auto-flowering strain, so it doesn't need a change in the light cycle to start flowering necessarily.

I'm just seeing too many discrepancies here. This may seem well thought out, but in reality its excessive overkill. Inefficient use of space and lighting and time. If you did plan to LST, it would actually make the process longer, FIM-ing too. Think of FIM-ing as....your basically cutting a person's foot off and telling them to run faster, as soon as you cut the top off of that plant it is going to go WTF happened??? It's going to slow down for a minute and try to figure out what to do now. It'll take back off in a week or 2, but the added stress will slow it down which you don't seem to have to time for. Patience is virtue.

MG is usable. In a case where it is the only thing available I can agree. But, it takes practice with MG to use it how it needs to be used for growing marijuana. I'm don't have time to get into it now.

Overall, good concept. Probably could have spent your money a little more wisely. I suggest reading up more before you jump into this. Know the tendencies of your strains. Focus on 2-3 strains first, pick your 2 favorites and try to make each cycle more productive than the last one. Pick one that clones easy, roots faster, flowers shorter and in less time. 5 AK-47 seeds are going to give you 5 different plants; the characteristics of each varying. 1 will ultimately best to pick of the litter, 1 will ultimately be the runt of the litter, the other 3 will suffice, but we don't want average here. We want the best of the best, the Top Dog.

I'd ditch your sandbox idea as well. Your plants will need to be about a foot apart to have adequate room for roots. I've read the 3lbs. per light growlog, a few times over the years, pretty awesome i know. On a big scale it'll work, small scale....no way. You may get to week 5 of flower and your plants may start to kill each other off with one plant basically winning this royal rumble. A good rule of thumb to remember is that these plants need about 1 gallon of pot space per foot of plant. So a 3 foot plant should be in a 3 gallon pot(before it reaches 3 feet). It should finish at 3 feet.

Im not trying to rag on ya or "hate" on you. You obviously have the drive to produce some top shelf buds. It seems to me you have been misinformed on some major details. Or you may just think that it might work. Stick to the basics and when you get that down you can start experimenting.

Can you fill me in on your germination methods btw? Just curious.

Peace.

low_rdr
10-12-2012, 04:22 AM
My germination methods sucked - Still new - I tried 3 different methods, first was water in a cup covered for 24 hours at room temp - This barely cracked any seeds, from the cup to the soil (wasted seeds). Then I did from cup to toil, same result more or less, seeds didn't crack, or barely cracked, planted in soil, wasted seeds. What finally worked for me was a little bit of distilled tapwater in the breeder bags, put in a cup and covered until they not only cracked, but totally popped, which was 2-4 days. Then plant, and they took (although my AK 47 isn't coming up yet, no worries, more seeds on the way)

I wanted to thank both of you for your advice. I've done more reading, and looked into it more, I'm going to turn this into a cloning/rooting cabinet (veg on bottom) and yes, I'm going to start using bigger pots. I also like the idea that fimming and training are more or less a waste of time - I do have to disagree on the strains though, although I do agree that most ruddies (ruderalis) are ditchweed, there are some acceptable, and even decent (I will never say kind or dank) quick flowering strains that are ruderalis. Yes, I'm also aware that ruderalis is more or less hemp, not mj :) There are some smokable strains though (60 day wonder and sweet mango rdr are two of them)

I realized today after I shocked amy that I need to learn more. I've read alot, but nothing is going to replace hands on experience. I will say that your right, I've got the strive, dedication, determination, and assets to ensure a huge yeild, I've just got to get overmyself. The biggest problem I'm finding is that there isn't a solid guide, I think that's why its so important for me to document all of this.

How did I fry Amy? My soil mixture (which she shouldn't have been moved to yet) was overloaded with N - Completely overloaded.... I've got her sitting now, and soaking, hoping that I can bring her back, hazel, on the other hand, is still alive, not really kicking, but still alive.

I honestly don't care how I grow, hydroponically, soil, superponics, reverse hydroponics, hell, seriously, I don't care. For the most part I have the time (just the next few weeks is tight for me, busy time of year) I have the resources, its only the knowledge I'm lacking. If I can get away with it, I'd prefer to steer away from soil, for the simple fact that I don't like the idea of shipping soil... Honestly, I don't have the proper type of vehicle you would use to pick up a large amount of medium, especially something dirty, without being noticed. This was my main concern behind using smaller pots originally, the importance of people not knowing overtakes the thrill of the grow.

I can do just about anything - I guess what I really need is a local mentor, that I can actually talk things over with. You guys can surely see though the amount of work I'm willing to put into decent cabinets, I'm willing to do much more to entire rooms, houses, or ultimately, my underground grow (years away guys... years...)

The funny part is, I really don't want to produce, I want it all for myself. Not sure if that makes me greedy, or just means I like to smoke alot, but I am a high function smoker (unless I'm on the couch watching family guy, then you know I'm done!)

So yes, your comments are appreciated, your advice is appreciated, and no, this thread is not jacked, because this is information I really need to make this grow a success :)

I've read alot proving that the distance of the HPS negates the lumens put out, proving that CFL could be closer and yield better results, if this isn't the case I'm assuming thats only because we're using a decent cooling technique - Also, if we're using the longer horizontal bulbs, aren't we losing half of the lumens, or a decent portion off of them because it's reflected light? There were several reasons I went with CFL, and like I said, I don't mind switching (I guess I need to bring some seeds into veg first, haha) but I want to make sure I'm getting the most bang for my buck.

I've got about a 8k budget for a grow right now, I really wish there was someone in PA I could actually get clones from, tired of dealing with seed companies :( Still waiting on my last order and it's been 13 days (sigh)

All the help you can give me is appreciated, and if you've actually got a log that explains this, please point it out to me!

Lit Up
10-12-2012, 05:08 AM
Try a damp paper towel in a Ziploc bag for germination. Keep them dark and warm, in the 80's, consistently. Should pop in less than 24 hrs.

Actually, you lose more light with your bulbs being vertical. Your setup is great, horizontal bulbs will give you more light. (It should say that on the CFL box cause that's where I read it, different brand tho) But, it said it right on the box. Distance does negate output, but when you output is 3x's more, I wouldn't be too concerned Honestly, your not going to lose 60,000 lumens with a reflector. You can buy a light meter to read light output if you desire. I agree CFL's are good, used em for a long time, but it's a head over heels difference with a HPS; plus more bang for your buck. Just depends on your situation.

And yeah, auto-flower strains will flower out in 60 days or so from seed, but you can't really clone them. Pretty much every strain you list is derived from Indica or Sativa. The purp, ak, the hazes, none of the those are auto-flowering strains. And over the years I've heard more bad than good things about auto flowers.

Search for the user Stinkyattic, read everything she's ever posted. I believe she was from Mass. but she retired from the site a few years ago. That women knew more about anything i could imagine. She's won awards for her strains, she knew her shit and laid it all out straight up. Plenty of great threads from her.

That's it. I'm off to bed. Peace.

Skihigh
10-13-2012, 05:57 PM
Amazon.com

Skihigh
10-13-2012, 06:10 PM
Lit Up....You are right about Stinky...I'm sure that there are alot of us that really miss her.:(

billydakid6812
10-13-2012, 10:03 PM
Try a damp paper towel in a Ziploc bag for germination. Keep them dark and warm, in the 80's, consistently. Should pop in less than 24 hrs.

Actually, you lose more light with your bulbs being vertical. Your setup is great, horizontal bulbs will give you more light. (It should say that on the CFL box cause that's where I read it, different brand tho) But, it said it right on the box. Distance does negate output, but when you output is 3x's more, I wouldn't be too concerned Honestly, your not going to lose 60,000 lumens with a reflector. You can buy a light meter to read light output if you desire. I agree CFL's are good, used em for a long time, but it's a head over heels difference with a HPS; plus more bang for your buck. Just depends on your situation.

And yeah, auto-flower strains will flower out in 60 days or so from seed, but you can't really clone them. Pretty much every strain you list is derived from Indica or Sativa. The purp, ak, the hazes, none of the those are auto-flowering strains. And over the years I've heard more bad than good things about auto flowers.

Search for the user Stinkyattic, read everything she's ever posted. I believe she was from Mass. but she retired from the site a few years ago. That women knew more about anything i could imagine. She's won awards for her strains, she knew her shit and laid it all out straight up. Plenty of great threads from her.

That's it. I'm off to bed. Peace.

Thanks for saying that,easiest method dude seriously. All that other stuff your doing is overkill. Everyone hates on it because you supposedly aren't supposed to touch the plants but marijuana is a very strong plant pulls through almost everything it will be fine. I personally use the damp paper towel for all my plants and all my seeds popped no problem. Easiest and most straight forward method also the quickest. That's just my personal experience not speaking for anyone else. Sorry to hear about the mishap with the girls low, you will bounce back, and your feedback is always appreciated in my log so keep an eye on me let me know if I'm doing anything stupid

low_rdr
10-17-2012, 09:04 PM
Just got the replacement seeds in. They're soaking now, will switch over to a papertowel in the morning and I'll keep everyone up to date, thank god this growlog isn't over yet!

bedrik
10-18-2012, 10:11 AM
Well any expert will help on it.

billydakid6812
10-24-2012, 12:29 AM
seems pretty over to me, whats going on give us a update

low_rdr
11-25-2012, 07:34 PM
Okay - It took awhile to get to this point. Basically the other girls died, poor soil and PH balance.

Those of you who started off on this thread though can basically tell I'm pretty dedicated to growing
and becoming very successful at it. So here is the update:

When the new seeds came in, I immediately started to germinate my Pineapple Express - Now I germinated
her totally wrong, again in a bag, and then transplanted to soil, but at least this time it was PH negative soil,
so no MG nutes or anything like that, just basic soil with some moss. I'm going to put in some pictures of this
phase, but I found a local guru, and we talked alot.

I've put together a great soil mix using coco fiber, perlite, and fox farms soil. I'm also using the fox farm soil
nutes.

I've got 6 strains going right now, Pineapple Express was the first, a few weeks later, bubblelicious autoflowering.
I also have bubblelicious, white widow, Cinderella 99, PowerBud, and Durban Poison.

I enjoy naming my ladies, my wife likes Fiona Apple, and since we couldn't come up with a good pinapple name, we
went with Fiona - Here are some progression pictures of her:

287953
This is a few days after Fiona came up. I was very happy my grow wasn't over.

287954
Here we are about a week later, put her in a new container with more moss and soil.

287955
This was the first shot of nutrients on Fiona, these were the fox farm nutes

287956
A very short 3 days later, here is Fiona, totally roided up on nutes, and rootbound in
a 2 gallon long tub - I was totally happy she flipped out, but it canclled my grow plans.

287957
So I switched her over to a 12x12 5 gallon bucket, yes its a hydro bucket, but I'm
switching soon - You'll see :D Anyway, I also germinated 2 bubblelicious auto's, which
still aren't named yet (you can help!)

low_rdr
11-25-2012, 07:42 PM
So on to the bubbles:

I met a guy locally who seemed to know a little too much about growing - We got to
talking, and guess what? Yup. So he gave me these bubble autos, I put them in root
riot cubes, on a heating pad, and 24 hours later, they popped and after 48 hours, they
were unfolding :) Here are the bubbles:

287958
287959

These are shots of both plants, and here
is 1 week later -

287960
287961
Now, I'm going to show you some more
pics of these lovelies, but since they are
bubblicious autos, chances are I'm going
to put them on opposite sides of a 5 gallon
and LST them together.

low_rdr
11-25-2012, 07:49 PM
Now of course in the process of all this time, I have had to trim as well as train the Pineapple Express. I plan on putting
the majority of the plant matter through a cold extraction process so most of the larger fan leaves that have been trimmed
are going straight to the freezer. However, some of the smaller trimmings are dried and added into party favors. Here is a party
favor offering a 50/50 blend of trim to kind - It did the job well, and was very smooth.

287962

Now, back to the kids:

287963
287964

I don't like to transplant alot, so these two
should be in a 5 gallon the next time you see them.

Next Post - More Pineapple Express, your going to love it!

low_rdr
11-25-2012, 08:08 PM
In my personal opinion, she is doing fantastic. I have taken some clones, and we'll get to pictures of those,
and I've trimmed, ALOT - I've also LST'd and twisted her, and the result so far is a J shaped main stem and
turning the plant itself into a nice bush. I believe I said I'd cover this in the OP to maximize yield on a CFL grow.
I would like to point out that she has NOT BEEN TOPPED - This is only LST, FIM has been done on the
nodes that clones were taken from, but the top has been left alone - I'm short on supply :D

I have just switched her over to 12/12, and I fully expect her to be in a Q shape around the container by the time
the first buds show. I will be tying down branches, I know that this utilizes more space than a scrog, however,
my new flower box will be here this week :) So I don't have to worry too much about space, cept for the fact
I have 9 plants to veg in the coming weeks and only 6 spots, haha! Don't worry, I'll make room :D

So here are the pictures - Enjoy!

287965
This first one is just showing how she looks
more like a bush than your typical plant. The
tie downs are loose on the stem, but taunt
on the line. The top of the plant is actually
pointing kinda towards the camera in this
picture.

287966
This picture you see the top of the plant pointing
towards the right, and yes, the top is under most
of the other nodes.

287967
Here is a closeup of the top.

287968
This is more of a picture showing the light meter/ph/moisture
meter as well as the thermometer wire, but also showing where
and how the tiedowns are placed. You can't really see the
main stem here, but it is in a J form.

287969
Here is a closer look of how I'm shaping the stem. Remember,
I started shaping two days after I transplanted, just gave her
time to get over the transplant, and slowly started. The first
part of the J is SOLID, it's a very good flat stem. The curve
part is still a little flimsy, but I've had to tighten down several
times in the past few days, so its working, and getting closer
to the soil line as well!

Next update will be clones and new seedlings.

low_rdr
11-25-2012, 08:22 PM
I Originally took 5 clones hoping 1 would survive, it's been a week.

287970
One of these will be my rootbound mom -
I'll put the other two straight into flower with
some teiramist to produce some female PX seeds

I used a fresh scalpel to make the cuts, and I used roottech for the gel.
I've heard its just like clonex without the stains - These clones are 7 days
old, and I'm too scared to pull the riotcubes apart to check for roots, I'd
rather just wait. So far, so good though, and the other two clones died.
All of these have been topped, and you can tell they've been trimmed

287971
These are the other strains, C99, White Widow
Power Bud, Durban Poison - As soon as the leaves
are showing on each pair, I'll put into 1 gal pots for
veg.

One will be a mom, one will be flowered (the better looking
plant will be the mom)

The C99 and Bubblicious are both normal I will be breeding
soon.

Enjoy the pics!

+rep to me if you like the thread, I'll keep it going through the first harvest

low_rdr
11-26-2012, 12:56 PM
Day 1 of Flower for Fiona.

Some immediate changes can be noticed, such as the fact that we have gone from a 4" vertical to about 6.5" vertical. I trimmed some fan leaves yesterday expecting a delay to see any changes for her, so I was much surprised when I woke up to this:

287979
As you can see, she bushed out alot
in just 1 day of flower. I did have to
tighten the tiedowns again, and I will
have to spend a few minutes each day
separating branches and allowing the most
light penetration into Fiona. She's looking
great!

Auto Flower Bubblicious:
These two amazed me as well yesterday. I noticed on Bridget (formerly bubble #1) that some of the roots had come through the riot cube in an upward direction. I realize that the rootball is healthy, so instead of doing anything to impede that growth, I covered the top in perlite. Britney (formerly bubble #2) did catch the wrong side of me not paying any attention, and got a crispy leaf or two while I was transplanting seedlings.

287980
Bridget

287981
Britney and her burn :(

Seedlings:
They have all done great, last two to come up I'm waiting on are WW and C99, but I've already got 1 of each up. Since most of them look similar, here is just a benchmark shot for day 2 of a seedlings life.

287982

Next Update - Clones

low_rdr
11-26-2012, 01:23 PM
Okay - here's the skinny.

I took 5 clones hoping for 1. This was my first time cloning. I made some noobish mistakes, which i planned on, and here's what I did:

I waited until Fiona (My Pineapple Express by G13 Labs) was about 10 nodes elongated, and the bottom nodes were 3-4" tall. On the 1st node up from the main stem I would FIM the budtips and stem, and immediately scrape the cuttling with the scalpel. I dipped the cuttling into a spoonfull (plastic spoon) of rootech rooting gel hormone, and dipped the cuttling into the riotcubes on the heating pad, under 2 20w Fluros - I did this 5 times, sprayed heavily, domed, and left it alone.

8 days later, 3 have survived, and all 3 are showing roots coming out of the cubes. They'll be transplanted in the next few days. Here is a pic:

287983
I noticed the root coming out first thing in the morning.

287984
Group shot


Things I would change:

When I first cut them, I would have also rolled them in a dry rooting hormone after they were geled
I would have taken more, knowing that I can create a duel chamber if need be.
I would have used a larger dome, I started with a 2" dome, which is what killed 1 of the clones that died.
I would NOT have trimmed the leaves before I got started. The plants are going to use the nutrients from those leaves, however, leaving them on would have given me a natural LST which I'm a huge fan of, so I would have trimmed as needed.

I used a fresh scalpel for these cuts, and my trimmers on the leaves.

I would like to mention that each of these tops has been FIM'd so each clone, including mom, will have 2 tops to start, and after we clone each of those tops, they'll have 4 each, all LST'd :D

Now, who's the noob?

Love ya.

billydakid6812
11-26-2012, 09:50 PM
glad your back bro been needing your help, and the girls look FANTASTIC. keep it up

billydakid6812
11-26-2012, 10:24 PM
Just posted pics of my girls...check em need advice

low_rdr
11-28-2012, 07:20 PM
Okay, so I've spent the last 3 days getting baked beyond memory, and building a cabinet and carbon filter that should have realistically taken me less than 2 hours. But.... It's been a few good daze.

Anyway, in my daze I forgot to transplant Britney and Bridgett, so they both got stunted a few days. Also in my process of building the new flowering cabinet and moving lights, I interrupted the cycle on fiona, so we're starting over at day 1 of flower. I moved her today, and tied her down, ALOT - It looks like we've currently got about 12 bud sites, I'm looking for 16-20 but these should show in the next few days from my previous clippings.

Here is her shot right after LST and about 8 hours in the new cabinet:

288058
I'm not trimming these fan leaves as this cabinet is a bit warmer than the last (even vented and exhausted) so I'm placing 2 6" fans in here today (or tomorrow). The temp right around the plants is just over 75, but just above the filter, the temps are in the mid 80's, so I need to fix this problem asap before fiona pops up too much more. I'm not planning on much more trimming on this plant until closer to harvest, but I am going to introduce some bubblicious x ruddy pollen to produce a few seeds to test the phenotype. What I'm looking for is a smoother less psychedelic pineapple that finishes a few weeks faster with a decent yield, If I can't get it to kick out at least 4 oz per plant in this cabinet with good nutes, and it's not amazing smoke, then I'll ditch it, otherwise, I'll work harder on the strain.

Okay, heres the bubbles:
288059

They were just transplanted today - They were severly rootbound, and that's my fault. I'm expecting it to slightly affect the yields, but not too much. I'm expecting just over 2oz per plant.

I was hoping for christmas smoke, but I won't get much cept for crappy undernuggets until fiona is ready, and the bubbles will finish about the same time, so lucky for me in a few weeks time, but for now... oh well.

I'll keep updating every few days.

low_rdr
11-29-2012, 03:59 PM
Okay, new cab is completely setup, and sealed - It's 18"Dx3'Wx3'H I used heat resistant mylar lined insulation, installed an 8" carbon filter, a 4" intake vent (pre filtered to get odors and help stop any pests) Currently there is 1 6" oscillating fan, but I plan on installing another today. Cab temps are a steady 76 degrees, going down to 70 during lights out.

Nutes are Fox Farms Tiger Bloom + Fox Farms Big Bloom

Each pot is sucking up almost 1/2 gallon of treated water, and then plain water every other day right now. Soil mix is 50% fox farm Happy Frog mixed with 30% cocoa fiber and 20% perlite. Each container has a 1" layer of perlite then a 2" layer of cocoa fiber on the bottom. As soon as the hairs start to come out, I'll be adding molasses in the plain water to thicken up the buds and show some more sugar leaf.

I counted tops again, we've got about 14 right now, so even 1 day makes a difference, like I said, I'm looking for 16-20, and I'm hoping that the pineapple and the bubbles finish at the same time, or close to it.

Pics:
Here is a shot of the cabinet, you can see I have the two bubblicious autos sharing a 5 gallon pot, this is because I want to LST these together, they won't be topped, and because I'm going to treat one so I can pollinate the other, as well as fiona, the pineapple express. The fan you see in the corner is a clipon, and it also comes with a mounting bracket - These fans are great!
288076

Here is my lovely lady fiona. I'd like to mention that my wife helped me construct this cabinet, and there is nothing like watching a beautiful woman in a thong taping up mylar to help the plants - I don't like the tedious work, but she did a phenomenal job!
288077

low_rdr
12-03-2012, 09:13 PM
Here we are at day 5 of flower. I made some slight changes to the box, I modified the filter to come exaust into a cannon instead of leaving the cannon into the box, I did this because of course this is a nice flower box, but the filter was a impeding a bit into the light. The temps are also a bit high - I might actually be adding a powered intake instead of passive, and might use a higher CFM exhaust fan, pre filter.

Pics:

288140

288141

288142

low_rdr
12-08-2012, 03:56 PM
Okay - So we're just coming into week 2 of flower, lots of growth. I had to redo some of the LST to spread her out a bit more, also as predicted - The main stem is now 1/2 way around the edge of the 5 gallon bucket. She's looking great, I did overfeed some tigerbloom this week so the PH is a little high, thankfully we're using soil and I'll flush today again with water, should normalize the PH, tomorrow will feed as normal and test PH before feeding, utilize some PH down if needed.

Bubble twins were both loosened on the LST, both are looking good - I did mist 1 branch of one of the bubbles so I can get some pure bubblegum fem seeds out of it. These bubbles are auto, so I can't clone them.

There are also shots of my seedlings at week 1 - About half of these will be placed in the bottom chamber to be moms, the other half will goto flower next week. I have Super Skunk germinating. You can also see a shot of one of the clones starting new growth (yay) - All of the clones have rooted well, but this is the first sign of new growth.

Pineapple Express (fiona) is starting to show signs of sex.

One of my powerbuds was too far from the light without rotation when it was still germinating, and shows enormous stretch - I will be flowering this one and saving the bush for my mother.

This will be turned into a perpetual grow, however I will be ending this log with the harvest of the bubble gum twins and the pineapple express.

On to the pictures!

Here is fiona after some LST changes
The tall branch in the back is not the
main branch, the main branch is tied
to the right side of the bucket in this
picture.
288286

Here you can see the bubble twins with
light LST - You'll notice that there is another
green twist with no apparent reason - This
is the branch that has been forced to hermie.

288287

Fuzzy picture of clone, but you can see the
new growth at the base of the fan leaf.
288288

Seedling - Power Bud
288289



Remember to +rep my posts if you like this thread!

billydakid6812
12-08-2012, 05:15 PM
Okay - So we're just coming into week 2 of flower, lots of growth. I had to redo some of the LST to spread her out a bit more, also as predicted - The main stem is now 1/2 way around the edge of the 5 gallon bucket. She's looking great, I did overfeed some tigerbloom this week so the PH is a little high, thankfully we're using soil and I'll flush today again with water, should normalize the PH, tomorrow will feed as normal and test PH before feeding, utilize some PH down if needed.

Bubble twins were both loosened on the LST, both are looking good - I did mist 1 branch of one of the bubbles so I can get some pure bubblegum fem seeds out of it. These bubbles are auto, so I can't clone them.

There are also shots of my seedlings at week 1 - About half of these will be placed in the bottom chamber to be moms, the other half will goto flower next week. I have Super Skunk germinating. You can also see a shot of one of the clones starting new growth (yay) - All of the clones have rooted well, but this is the first sign of new growth.

Pineapple Express (fiona) is starting to show signs of sex.

One of my powerbuds was too far from the light without rotation when it was still germinating, and shows enormous stretch - I will be flowering this one and saving the bush for my mother.

This will be turned into a perpetual grow, however I will be ending this log with the harvest of the bubble gum twins and the pineapple express.

On to the pictures!

Here is fiona after some LST changes
The tall branch in the back is not the
main branch, the main branch is tied
to the right side of the bucket in this
picture.
288286

Here you can see the bubble twins with
light LST - You'll notice that there is another
green twist with no apparent reason - This
is the branch that has been forced to hermie.

288287

Fuzzy picture of clone, but you can see the
new growth at the base of the fan leaf.
288288

Seedling - Power Bud
288289



Remember to +rep my posts if you like this thread!



looking good dude, my shit is taking forever to dry it's really dense, but fluffy at the same time. Can't wait to see what the buds will look like, keep us updated.

billydakid6812
12-08-2012, 05:17 PM
how do I plus rep, I always wondered that I feel like my shit shouldn't be low.

JonesMr54
12-09-2012, 04:29 PM
Great grow log... Glad to see that someone enjoys the engineering and nerd art that is involved in this just as much as me. (I do it more for that satisfaction than I do the bud)

Looks like you and I will be tracking about the same point for harvest unless someone has a stronger finish... Here are mine on 12/8, about 7 days into 12/12. I culled the males and have five beautiful girls. Transplanting into 5 gallon containers today. Cheers!

http://boards.cannabis.com/attachments/indoor-growing/288300d1354989885-flowers-have-emerged-what-fertilizer-should-i-moving-g2_12-8-2012.jpg

low_rdr
12-09-2012, 05:42 PM
Quite honestly I'll tell you right now that your going to yield more than I am, just based on the fact that you've vegged yours for at least twice as long - They're looking great in the 3 gallon pots though! I see your underlighting in the cabinet, I'm doing the same soon, are those 8's or 12's? Right now i've got a spare 24" T12 setup that I can toss in for full spectrum and underlighting, but I'm more focused on the actual bud production, as you can tell my 'bushes' get pretty good light penetration.

Our growth styles are different, but I can see your attention to detail much like mine is what will have you yielding above others in the same position. How long did you veg for? And are you still under 6500 lights? Looks like it. What strain?

We should contact eachother.

low_rdr
12-09-2012, 05:50 PM
Wanted to add, I don't see any issues with actually flowering out in a 3 gallon pot, will still bring a good harvest per plant, especially after vegging out for that long. Mine will all veg for about 2-3 weeks and then I'll place 3-4 in a 5 gallon pot, and do some light to moderate LST, with a topping a week before I move to 12/12, so each 5 gallon pot will produce 6-8 tops - Keep in mind that it's not really advised to put that many in the same container, but I don't follow the rules, I try to make my own.

So in each of my 5 gallon tubs I'll have 4 plants, with 8 tops, and I'll tie down each top to the opposing corner, and that will be about the extent of my LST - So when I do have 3 of the 5 gallon tubs in my bloom box, since it is a perpetual grow, it'll be very impressive, and won't be overcrowded by colas :) I've got 2 more weeks before I flip my current veggies over to flower, if you've kept up with me, ideally I'd like to start producing 6-8 ounces a month, we'll see what happens. Honestly, I'd be happy with 2 ounces per month, but I'd like to see what I can get out of this cabinet... No idea what I'm going to do with the overflow

billydakid6812
12-10-2012, 12:03 AM
it says in my settings ive gotten mad rep, but i still got no green bars like you? Or am i just not seeing something. Oh and I will have pics posted of the final product tuesday, so keep your eyes open, looks pretty good, tuesday I start curing, so even then it wont look it's best, but just so you got an idea of what my final harvest was, obviously your going to win our lil bet, but whatever u harvest this time we will compare to my next harvest

low_rdr
12-10-2012, 12:43 AM
Lets start vegging in January (you and I billy) 4 plants each, and we'll go for an april harvest, largest harvest wins, I'll even put $300 up :) (If thats not against board rules, if it is, delete the cash part!)

But I'd actually like to take mrjones on, my pineapple express vs his largest yielding plant (just not all of them combined) :D

low_rdr
12-30-2012, 03:06 AM
Here are some updates:

I went on a cruise with the wife over the holidays, my mentor was suppose to stop by and water the girls, unfortunately that didn't happen. One of the bubbles looked like it was on the way out, so I had to do some lollypopping and light trimming, fortunately I'll be able to smoke what I cut, but unfortunately it'll be about 1/4 of the weight it should have been. I had to take about 30% from one plant, and I'm hoping the other pulls out of the shock.

There is some good news though, on the plant I had to cut, I used tieramist (spelling) anyway, it's a spray that will hermie 1 branch of your plant, so you can self polinate for female seeds. I used it for about 2 weeks and noticed nothing, but when we got back from the cruise, I've got sacks on the branch I isolated, so this autoflowering plant will produce some female seeds for me.

I'm not looking for much bang from what I had to trim today, but I will give a weight report (I'm doing a water cure, so I think its only going to come out to about 4 grams) It's currently 48 hours into a 72 hour cure (no need to do much longer, plant was flushed pretty well and partially dry) Since this is an autoflowering plant, I think it did sense the shock, but it looks like 1 is regressing while the other is trying to bud faster (trichs on what I pulled were cloudy, but no weight)

The pineapple and the other strains look just fine, I did lose 30 clones in this process, will take a few weeks before I'm able to pull that again.

Not a big heartbreaker, just a little misfortune, but the pros still outweigh the cons!

Cruise was great!

low_rdr
01-15-2013, 06:26 PM
Um -

Been awhile :D (HA!) Bubble originally tasted like asparagus. Its been curing for awhile, and the taste is currently tolerable, but the effect is short lived (about 30 minutes) I'm contributing this to the fact that it was harvested about 2-3 weeks earlier than it should have, and the flavor to the horrible drying it received.

Now, on the positive side, I harvested fiona (pineapple express) and she yielded just over 8 ounces before the dry, just under 3oz after the dry, used a water cure. Flavor is mild to sweet, smells almost like fruity pebbles when ground, and the effect.... Well, we've gone from about an ounce a week to a quarter a week, and I haven't had time to post much lately.... So the effect is very, loving :D I don't know how else to describe it. And my wife who is preggo and always feels aggravated, nauseated or hungry, just feels calm and relaxed - So as you can imagine, this harvest came at the perfect time.

FYI - Water Cure Rocks.

Final bud weights: The top colas each came in at about 8 grams, there were 4 of them, about the size of a bottle of tylenol (the big one). Smaller bud sites, there were about 42 total, I had to harvest about 16 early to make more room for light - each small one came in at about 2-3 grams, and about the size of a small bic lighter. The undergrowth popcorn came in at about 1/4 oz total, and the largest ones were about the size of my thumb.

All in all, this harvest was what I expected, I did expect denser nuggets up top, however I feel that my initial stunting of fiona and the lack of knowledge played a huge part in the under developed parts. I do have to say, that I'm extremely happy with my overall harvest, I've continued the cycle, and I'm only a few weeks away from my next harvest. Just got the replacements in today - So we'll have a monthly perpetual harvest :D

Clones and veg stage is looking good, I've got 5 healthy clones vegging, 6 healthy clones rooting, and 1 healthy new sprout in the seedling stage

Tol
01-15-2013, 07:35 PM
Holy Smokes! That is an awesome set up! I had just figured out that you did attach some photos on my thread. lol sorry about that as I am still a newbee on this forum. Great work with all the details you've stated.

billydakid6812
01-18-2013, 08:56 PM
ill be back soon guy, with some berry ryder auto's, got a quarter pound from the last harvest ik i never posted pics of the final product but i will soon i was really impressed for my first grow, im gonna go with the diy approach for a grow tent this time, keep an eye on me, pc

qwisoking
01-30-2013, 11:01 PM
Hey I had the same issue with the green bars, go into settings from your profile and turn it on. It comes turned off. Aren't green dots awesome!
By the way saying you have 2600 watts is a bit misleading, that's the equivallant watts anyway sorry it didn't work out quite as planned next time try to have it setup to where you can raise and lower the lights it will make a huge difference in bud density

low_rdr
01-31-2013, 01:19 AM
Um. It worked out great... Read the thread before posting :) Bud density was also just fine, as far as raising or lowering the lights I'm in a 3 ft cab, so yeah, no reason to raise/lower when they start on a pedestal and have to be tied down when they're not on the pedistal, lol - I have a 4' powerbud in there right now :pimp:

600w powerdraw does put out 2600 watts worth of lumens and I do think I posted the picture from the bottom of my cab showing a 2k output from my lights (on the floor)


Remember, 2k is the max on the lightmeter (unless you get a pro light meter)


Soooo..... :P to your wattage theory


The only thing that didnt work was the bubblicious, and thats because nobody watered it while I was on my cruise

qwisoking
01-31-2013, 12:55 PM
Wasn't trying to hate on your thread bro! Sheesh
I was referring to the cruise bit and them dying when I said didn't work quite as planned. And I was merely trying to help as my setup is the equivelant of 2400 watts but that is the equivalant to how many watts an incandescent would need to produce the same lumens and it really doesn't matter what an incandescant can do because we are both using cfl.
Anyway I liked your grow good luck to ya

low_rdr
02-01-2013, 11:33 PM
:) I actually added another 600w flowering cabinet, so its 1200 actual watts, so its closer to a 4k equiv - Im changing styles though, switching to 20 gallon bags to flower in

qwisoking
02-01-2013, 11:42 PM
Still cfl right?
I was thinking of expanding also but it seems like it might be better to switch to a hps bulb for cost reasons. How are you liking that much power?
You think I should do like you? I've always loved my cfls seeing as how they don't burn me like some others.. Lol

low_rdr
02-02-2013, 03:34 PM
Well, I actually have to rewire and put in new breakers, very touchy at the moment, luckily the wires aren't getting warm.

The power is great - HPS is good if you have the room, can handle the heat and dont mind using the extra power for wasted light. IMO having your light 18"+ above your plant is just a waste of lumens.

Now, I'm expanding my grow area soon in another state - At which point I will be switching to DWC and HPS, however, for my current grow needs and space, Im a hard core CFL guy - In all honesty if I had the patience to setup the new grow room like I've done my current boxes, I would go CFL, however, setting up that many CFL's in a 20x30 area would take me a few weeks if I was smoking! Setting up the HPS is a higher overall cost considering cooling requirements and ventilation, however it wont take me as long to set those up vs wiring all the CFLs.

My current budget is 22k and that includes:
(3) 4x8 solar panels
(8) Battery storage
(1) 5.5k generator
(2) 12k BTU Air Conditioners
(8) 8" 80 CFM inline fans
(8) 12" oscillating fans
(4) 25' 8" ducting
(4) Watering Timers
(1) 175 gallon reservoir
(8) 600 w HPS lamps w/ digital ballasts
(8) Raptor hoods (not sure which yet)
(1) 8" 125 CFM turbo fan
(1) 6'x3' Carbon Scrubber 8" intake
(2) 300 gph pumps
(2) 60 watt air pumps
(32) 4" air discs
(32) 5 gallon buckets w/lids
(2) 400 sqf 2mm mylar
(2) 400 sqf 5mm lining (floors)

The Air units will all be ran off the power grid while all the lighting will be solar powered. 1 of the inline fans is for a fresh air intake, while 1 is for the AC units. The carbon scrubber will be placed under the grow room and will be recycled into the home heating ducts. I'm building the carbon scrubber much like a machined silencer for a firearm, so it will be a self contained unit rather than venting out the sides, it will vent out the end.

I'm starting with 4 plants per 600 watt light, I'll be focusing primarily on 2 strains until my strain is stable to breed. My current setup will be used for vegging only and placed inside this room, using less than a 10 sqft footprint. In the vegging area I'll be using a 20 watt pump and a 32 site dwc utilizing 2" netpots

The plan is to run the pumps from the 175 gallon res for 2 hours per day (lights on) and let the airstones do the work from there. Each 5 gallon pot should only have roughly 2 gallons of water in it, the measurement won't be exact because I'll be doing the holes myself, and I don't really care how accurate I am, within a quart or two.

Without the solar equipment, this can be built for about 6k buying in bulk - However I know the light bill would be roughly 800 per month, and it is much more sensible to spend extra money on the battery system/generator instead of having a huge bill month after month. The AC system will only be used to keep the temps at a steady 72 degrees, which shouldn't be an issue unless I have a fan out or the outside temps reach 75+ (Should only be about 30 days out of the year at over 75)

So yes, HPS is good if your lazy :D

billydakid6812
02-17-2013, 09:01 PM
Whats up Buddy I'm having some very small issues, spots again, really want to figure out what these spots are.Drop by my page if you could bro, thanks.

billydakid6812
02-21-2013, 11:50 PM
Yo dude, the carbon filter works awesome. Another great invention by low. Id plus rep but it says i need to spread the wealth lol.