New Grow Log!

[bud luv]

Hey All! I'm pretty new here, but I've gotten a ton of good info off these boards -- here's my own little contribution. I'd love to get as much criticism/suggestions as possible!

A friend of mine is starting a legal grow for medicinal purposes. Good times.

Specifics:
-12 GH Bubble Buckets, interconnected with 1/2 inch tubing. Powered by one GH double diaphragm blue stone air pump.
-30 Gallon Reservoir.
-1000w Sun Systems HPS hood with Eye Hortilux bulb.
-400w MH for enhanced spectrum and extra lumens. MH will be removed from flowering room and used to veg new clones 2 weeks before harvest.
-GH 3-Part nute system. Liquid Karma and Kool Bloom.
-Homemade Carbon Scrubber made from directions from someone on this forum. Still need to get some pantyhose to finish it up, but the skeleton is done.
-Hydroton growing medium.
-Strain = Blackberry. We have very little knowledge of these genetics.

The veggers will be transplanted to the bubble buckets and the flowering room today or tomorrow. The plan is to go straight to the buckets, 12/12, and 1-2-3 nute mix all at the same time.

Here are some pics (terrible, I know - will use a better camera for updates)

Cheers.

[gunge9]

Man this is gonna be wicked, good work bro i`m staying tuned for what looks like will be one amazing smoke !

[bud luv]

2 Issues - Circulation and Temperature

1) Attatched you can see a diagram of the hydro setup. We put it together last night. It works great except for the fact that if you add the water before the nutes, the nutes don't really diffuse throughout the system well.
Possible solutions to this are adding the the nutes before the water so that when the water fills up in the tank and starts to flow throughout it will take the nutes with it. A more invasive idea I have is to connect the three buckets at the end to get a more "circular" flow throughout and install a water pump somewhere to keep things moving. Suggestions, anyone? The budget is definitely a consideration.

2) It get's pretty frigid in the grow space. The air is cold, and the nute water is cold. What is an acceptable minimum temperature for this type of setup? I guess this is something I'll have to fix before the plants go in!

[bud luv]

forgot to attatch the diagram...

...damn potheads...

:jointsmile:

[bud luv]

optimum PPM for a GH mix?

may your joints be fat and your munchies delicious.

[kindprincess]

2 sugestions:

1) get three small pumps for 20$ at lowe's, conect these at your pipes, use it as a flow inducer.

2) don't use a hood for your lights, and supplement with co2, this will up your ambient room temps, therefore increasing the water temps.

check out my college courses in the basic growing forum...

love, kp:p

[bud luv]

Do I need to add more tubing to make the flow of water circular? you can see my diagram a few posts up.

[VOYAGER]

Looks like its gonna be a pretty cool grow once everythings up and running

[bejay]

you can get a heater for your resoiver if needed 65 to 70 degrees is ideal reservoir temperature.
would think you would mix the nutrients in a smaller container first then add to reservoir im sure someone that has a similiar system will reply.

[kindprincess]

Do I need to add more tubing to make the flow of water circular? you can see my diagram a few posts up.

yes

[bud luv]

word.

[bud luv]

Check out the lovely ladies in their new homes.

A fuse blew right after transplanting (fuck). They were in the dark for about half an hour. hopefully they won't be too stressed.

[BuddyLove]

lookin gud bud luv

[hazzey35]

i'll be following this shit ,good job dude

[xcrispi]

hey bud luv ,
off to a good start man . how long do you plan on veggin for ?
i'm doing just 4 right now w/ same basic sys. but recurculate it . i vegged for 5 weeks topping all 4 at the 4th. week . just the 4 of mine would fill that room in your picture . be careful not to let them choke each other out . they blow up huge , crazy huge . my 11 x 12 room is like AFRICA n shit .

have you done em this way before in the past / what kind of yields ?
peace
crispi

[bud luv]

hey bud luv ,
off to a good start man . how long do you plan on veggin for ?
i'm doing just 4 right now w/ same basic sys. but recurculate it . i vegged for 5 weeks topping all 4 at the 4th. week . just the 4 of mine would fill that room in your picture . be careful not to let them choke each other out . they blow up huge , crazy huge . my 11 x 12 room is like AFRICA n shit .

have you done em this way before in the past / what kind of yields ?
peace
crispi

hey crispi.

not too much longer in the veg stage, gonna switch 'em over soon to minimize fighting with each other when they get huge. I didn't do any topping this time around... keeping things really simple.

I'm switching over to recirculating today or tomorrow. I got a submersible pump that will sit in a 13th bucket connected to the three rows, with a pump line going back to the main res. I hope that works.

I had a 2.5 year break from growing, but last time around I used GH kits in 5 gal buckets too. I think I had 4 buckets last time around. I only had a 400w lamp that last time, in a closet. I also had meddling roommates that probably messed things up a little. But I was still able to pull a couple zips off each plant, I'm hoping for considerably more than that off each one this time. I really don't know what to expect though.

Wow, so you have 4 plants taking up an 11x12 space? they must be some monsters! you have 2x1000w right? what kind of yields?

bud luv

[bud luv]

It might be hard to see from my pictures, but the internodal spacing on these ladies is extremely tight. This is the first time I've used MH for veg, and there seems to be a difference. The nodes are all 3 inches from each other at the most. :pimp:

[bud luv]

I also had to put a small oscillating space heater in the grow room, as nightime temps were getting south of 55 degrees F. (The plants weren't in there yet).

I think an aquairium heater pad will be necessary too. Crispi - what's your res temp?

[xcrispi]

hey B/L ,
i have about 18in. all the way around the room to walk n work . so the 4 actually only take up about 8'x9' .

i added a few pics. to the waterfarm/dwc club post of bluebears this a.m. of what you plan on doing w/ the 13 gal. bucket w/ pump . i even went as far as dying the plain water in the cells w/ food coloring to make sure it indeed was recirculating n not just drawing nutes from the resovior down the lines to the pump bucket . i was having probs. w/ all cells being dif. p/h n ppm . w/o recirculating the nutes .

last grow my room was 7 x 9 w/ 4 girlz in 5 gal. individual DWC/drip combos under 2-1000w. hps. i topped em all , vegged for 6 weeks n got 6oz. on my uggliest girl , n 17 oz. on my prettiest . i had both ballasts in the room then and the 6 oz. girl got the piss burned out of it by em . live n learn i guess . lol .

when we redid the new room we added a heat duct to help w/ temps . but i still have my resovoir n all cells up on pieces of 1in. thk. siding insulation and put a submersible fishtank heater in the resovior / i'm in a cold basement in the north. my cold temps w/ lights out is 63 deg., and nutes in cells are about 60 deg.

good luck man , keep us posted .
your cuz
crispi :greenthumb:

[bud luv]

6-17 is niiiice. :D

I set up the recirculation yesterday, it seems to work great. All the ppms leveled out identically, +/- 10ppms. $20 for a submersible pump is a great investment.


the res is about 61 degrees without the aquarium heater, knowing that it's close to yours puts me at ease a bit.


I can tell the plants were shocked a little bit by the transpant/power outtage. 12/12 soon.

[BlueBear]

Hey Bud, good so far, and welcom to the boards. OK a few things, on a bucket I just flushed and filled last night the water temps were about 59F and didn't have a problem, under 57ish is pushing it, but as someone said a aquarium heater is something that can help raise temps and there are fairly cheap. It seems like allot of buckets for that light, but I think that you will do good, and have a good experience.
Oops, have to get off, will fenish later.
Adieu

[bud luv]

Hey Bud, good so far, and welcom to the boards. OK a few things, on a bucket I just flushed and filled last night the water temps were about 59F and didn't have a problem, under 57ish is pushing it, but as someone said a aquarium heater is something that can help raise temps and there are fairly cheap. It seems like allot of buckets for that light, but I think that you will do good, and have a good experience.
Oops, have to get off, will fenish later.
Adieu

I agree that another 1000w HPS would be ideal, but 1000 + 400 in 360 degrees of mylar will have to do for now. (does santa's workshop make grow lights?) Thanks for the temp comment.

right now the footprint of the buckets is about 3.5 x 5.5, with the mylar space being about 4.5 x 6.5.

I wonder what the rewards of some CFL side lights would be?

[bud luv]

oops:cool:

[BlueBear]

Sorry, I had to cut and run real quick earlier. Rather than another 1K and have to deal with possible heat issues in summer or even now, and getting light, ballast and hood, I would think about a light mover and put those buckets in 2 rows of 6 if veged for less than 3 or 4 weeks, give or take the bushiness of the strain or if extra bushy and veged longer, then do 3 rows of four and that light could hit them all and be real close since it isn't constantly heating up the same part of the canopy. That's just my side line two cents. Of coarse I would change a few things in my room, but it's like a hot rod, one thing after another in search for the perfect room.
Well doing a med grow, do you have any goals in mine, a yield range to make it worth the work and to supply meds for a particular length of time? Just keep up the good work, and if your using the GH 3 part I would check this out http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=93676 it is a thread by LateWood explaining a nice GH formula that he uses for pretty good results that I am going to try my next nute run.
Adieu

[bud luv]

Hey Bear.

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't anticipate heat being a big concern down the line, based on climate and construction. I wonder how much the dropoff in yield there is between a 1000 on a light mover and 2 1000s? I will have to smoke and consider :rasta:

With Re: to yields, I know it's a growing process and I'm confident that it will eventually be a success. I'd hate to throw a number out there, but I think everything will be solid the first go around. I'm sure I'll learn and impove. wouldn't take a great g/w/m ratio to make this thing worth it, given the price of medication. :pimp: It's a great hobby.

...

Yeah, The plan is to use LW's GH formula next time around. I saw that thread too, it def sounds worth a try.

Anyways, I'm baked as a pie now and I need to lie down. seeya.

[bud luv]

recirculating diagram. this is good shit here:

[bud luv]

Oh, and all credit goes to crispi for the idea for the controller bucket.

I might not even put in the valves like he has for testing, because it already works so well as is.

[xcrispi]

hey B/L no crispi credit due here , ;)
i pirated the idea from someone else on here . don't remember who now ? many many dubes ago . lol . :jointsmile:

i tried the intela drive track n just 1-1000w. light -n- it just took way too long to flower . thingz went way way faster n budz were far denser w/ the 2 -1000w. hps. being stationary .

the valves are your friend B/L . not just for checking p/h -n- ppm , but for my ease of draining the sys. , and when we mix nutes . we can leave valves closed and fill res. w/ water -n- mix nutes right in the resovior -n- just open valves to refill the sys.

peace
your cuz
crispi :greenthumb:

[BlueBear]

Well there is an answer to the light mover question.
Good morning Xcrispi.
Adieu

[xcrispi]

hey bear ,
yep , wishing i woulda went -n- just bought the extra light/ballast instead of trying to take the cheap way out . the track was almost what the ballast cost me anyways . it took an extra 1 1/2 mos. to flower too using the mover .
peace guys
fcrispi

[bud luv]

we're having a problem with fuses constantly blowing out any time anything new gets plugged in. Anybody know a relatively cheap solution to this? Do we have to upgrade the fuse box? I don't know anything about being an electrician :mad:

[Stylus]

run an extenstion cord from another room in ur house. make sure its not on the same circuit as ur grow room tho. u can get an electrician to install another breaker and run a new circuit line to ur grow room. can cost anywhere from 75-125$. the price ranges accordingto the electrician.

[xcrispi]

what amp fuse is popin ? prob. a 15 amp. huh ?
you need to see what all is on that given circut . if at all possible maybe you can have someone upgrade your panel n hopefuly get it on a 20 amp. fuse/breaker .

when i added the extra 1000w. i had a friend run a small subpanel and a 240 line just for my room and bought a greenair controller/timer that turns the 1- 240v line into 4-110 v. outlets each capable of running 1000w. each .
now both my 1000's and both my blowers/via. a fan controller are all run off the same timer w/ an outlet to spare incase w/ wanna expand in the future .

there's prob. no cheap / safe way around your prob. i'm blessed w/ lotsa friends in the hvac / elect. industries + i have an awsome support group . will it atleast support just your 1000w.? might havta live w/o the 400 mh. for this grow ?
heres a pic. of my controller , fan control etc...
peace n be safe
your cuz crispi :)

[bud luv]

We can run both lights at once, but not both lights and the heater. :(

Nighttime temps could be a problem.

Crispi - I wish I knew some elec people!

Stylus - I believe the house is only two circuits (there are two fuses, i think). It's next to impossible to run an extension cord from an outlet on the other circuit to the growroom as currently configured, as the ladies are in a shed. The fuse box is in the basement. Where would the electrician install the breaker? In the basement? Would he have to put in another outlet, or does he run it "inline"? I'm such a noob to electrical stuff... What specifically would I ask him to do?

Peace everyone.

[bud luv]

Pic 1 - Dual Spectrum

Pic 2 - Controller Bucket

:rasta: :rasta: :rasta: :rasta: :rasta: :rasta:

[bud luv]

The bitches really seemed to perk up after the MH was added. I mean there was a noticable difference in leaf angle within an hour or two. I think it was noticeable, at least.

:stoned:

[xcrispi]

hey B/L ,
it's not even in your house , outside in a shed ?
the heater draws monster amounts of juice man . how are you powering it up now ? an extension cord run outside ? spendin lotsa coin for an electrician sux , you said you don't own the place . in our area to be code you gotta dig a trench and run wires thru wall to the outside n put em like 18in. deep in the ground all the way to the shed . give us more info ?
crispi

[bud luv]

hey B/L ,
it's not even in your house , outside in a shed ?
the heater draws monster amounts of juice man . how are you powering it up now ? an extension cord run outside ? spendin lotsa coin for an electrician sux , you said you don't own the place . in our area to be code you gotta dig a trench and run wires thru wall to the outside n put em like 18in. deep in the ground all the way to the shed . give us more info ?
crispi

yeah, extension cords are the method of choice for the entire room so far. I know the heater is about 1500 watts, so yeah, it's drawing a lot of juice here's a diagram of the place...

[bud luv]

I'm sig-eligible!

[bud luv]

here's yesterday:

[xcrispi]

hopefuly you can get someone to add a larger fuse/breaker in the basement for whatever circut the garage is on . tell em you plan on getting like a 5 hp. aircompressor in the garage and need atleast a 20 amp breaker/fuse for it .
good luck
crispi

[BlueBear]

What I do when I use the heater is put it on a timer so it turns on about a half hour after lights go out and turns off a half hour before they come back on.
Adieu

[bud luv]

These (like the rest of the pics) are taken with a mobile phone camera, pending an issue with the real digital. That should change soon.

The HID light spectrum causes the pic to be a little "wavy." Hope I don't give anyone a headache...

The close-ups are of nute burn of some sort. The pH in some of the buckets got higher than the rest of the system, so I think some valves - as per Crispi are in order.

Please let me know what you think :o

[bud luv]

here:

[bud luv]

I've been waiting for them to recover from transplant shock before switching to 12/12, but these babies gotta go soon. They're gonna be BBWs, if you know what I mean.

Anybody have any tips for the switch? I hear a lot of people advocating Superthrive at this stage...

[bud luv]

here

Sorry about the terrible quality... That will change :rastasmoke: :rasta: :pimp: :smokin:

[bud luv]

These are diagrams of the grow. They show growth relative to light placement. In the first one, you can see that the HPS isn't perfectly centered and the plants on the left are growing taller and wider. The second diagram shows the relative heights of plants after the MH hood was added. Note the lateral placement of the lights, I tried to depict the scale as accurately as possible. Adding the 400w MH turned the "runts" into dominant-in-comparison plants within 2-3 days.

Obviously the lights aren't ideally placed, but I just wanted to point out how the plants reacted in this particular situation.

As soon as I can move the lights to a better positioning (a few inches to the left, I think) I'll make a new scaled diagram.

FWIW, the light spectrum emitted by a a MH and an HPS working together looks awesome.

[bud luv]

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding topping or LSTing, at this point? If I'm planning on 12/12ing soon, is it too late for this? Does it look like these plants would see a benefit in any such procedure, given the setup/time/phenotype/etc?

I've always been a "Christmas Tree" man in the past, but it seems like a lot of people are big on the pruning these days...

[xcrispi]

hey b/l ,
i wouldn't top em first time around , if they blow up like mine do from it i don't think your lights will cover all 12 .

as far as your p/h flux. try adding 2 more holes n grommets in your 13th. bucket . 3 lines total , 1 for each row of plants . it'll be more apt. to draw nutes evenly from all rows of buckets then -n- recirculate more efficently.
peace
merry x-mas
the crispis

[Volker]

FWIW, the light spectrum emitted by a a MH and an HPS working together looks awesome.Woo hoo! And there ya go. Shows once more how effective 5200K-7000K spectra are during veg. (I'm assuming your MH is a "daylight" bulb) Makes the plants do the YMCA dance.

I do the same thing with flouros. I sprout 'em under 2700K, mix up to mostly 5500K/6500K for veg, mix down to mostly 2700K for bud.

[xcrispi]

hey B/L ,
these 4 were vegged for 5 weeks , they were topped at the 4th week so they had 1 week to recover . they're now in their 5th. week of flowering . i've never done blueberry before , kinda bum'd a lil - i'm used to forearm sized colas -n- this stuff is like tons of smaller but denser nugz . the smell of this stuff is just intense = juicyfruit gum x blueberries . theres tricomes 2in. out on the guard leaves in the budz . gonna be way potent .
u can benefit greatly by topping or lst or a lil of both , but you gotta have the light and the room . we gotta spin these every cpl. days so they get light all the way around and it's kind of a pain in the ass .
peace
crispi :greenthumb:

[bud luv]

Thanks for the input Crispi, my man!

So you're not getting big colas off the BB? The girls in this thread are a "berry" strain too... Are you expecting way less yield with your BB? Which strain were you getting the forearm nugs with?

much luv,
bud luv.

[xcrispi]

so far the best yielding strain for me has been from hempdepot . from canadian seeds nycd/cottoncandy x sage . they were cheap at the time . i got 50 beans for 150.00 delivered and they're feminised . no hermies or males yet either . it's not the most potent strain out there but very forgiving as far as mistakes n stress . 50indica 50 sativa .
i bet maybe a i/2 lb. ea outa the 4 blueberry girlz . but it looks twice as potent as the mutt cross .
peace
crispi

[bud luv]

lush

They were looking slightly yellow this morning; an extra dose of FloraGro into the res and the symptom was gone in 3 hours.

12/12 tomorrow, for sure...

[Stuper Star]

Those are lookin great:)

Consider having another run at that mylar...you'd be surprised how much of a difference it'll make if you could get it flatter.

[xcrispi]

looking sweet bud ,
next grow at crispis crib . i'm using round 5gal. pails like yourself man. picking up these 40.lb. square containers to spin em is a p.i.t.a . very wise move bud . what kinda berry strain is this ? don't remember if u told us yet ?
:bonghit: < too many of these tonight .
keep us posted .
your cuz
crispi :greenthumb:

[bud luv]

hey crispi.

The strain is named "blackberry," somewhat of an unknown -- clones from a club.

In http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=96478 there's some blueberry like you got.

the blackberry forrest is very dense now, in 12/12 for about a week. The stems are thick!~ :)

[Abattoir Dream]

lol blackberry...:)

when they bud they go a dark red/purple, or from what ive seen so far anyway...;) your very lucky in my opinion... and if you done some crossbreeding with those blueberries... you mite get somethin tasty...:)

good luck...

[kindprincess]

just in case you didn't catch me elsewhere, it looks like you'd be fine topping after the fifth node; it might get a little tight, but you should have a great and even canopy.

love, kp:p

[bud luv]

so it's been a while since I've updated, so let's see what we got:

approx 18-20 days in flower.
budsites well defined with lots of white hairs.
stalks thicker than your finger.
fat rootporno.
even canopy.
what looks like the beginning of (buff) forearm sized colas.

They started growing so fast that I didn't top them. One was "naturally" topped, and it is the least hearty of the bunch, so I feel fine with the non-topping in this case.

Sorry, still cell phone pics :( . Once the trichs start multiplying I'll bring my good camera in there.

[bud luv]

absence makes the heart grow fonder.

When I update you guys are gonna shit yourselves.:D

[mafia819]

hey those are great tasty lookin' buds there :)

Happy Growing! :cool:

[bud luv]

BUD LUV did not come to disappoint.

[bud luv]

Since it's 4:30 am and nobody's around to do it, I'm gonna have to toot my own horn. ;)

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[bud luv]

Obviously these are still a few weeks from harvest, so more trichs and density are to come.

[bud luv]

my flood table is pissing me off.

[xcrispi]

Startin to look real yummy man .
How many weeks of flower already Bud ?
Peace
Crispi :jointsmile:

[bud luv]

they're at about 6 six weeks, Crispi, but I couldn't give you the exact date. :bong:

[foxysox]

Obviously these are still a few weeks from harvest, so more trichs and density are to come.
Damn budluv, that cracks me up... a few weeks out and your buds look better than a lot of folks' harvest-time shots.
If I were ever to become a dwc believer it would be because of your and crispi!

[bud luv]

sox - technically speaking, me and crispi don't dwc -- but our setup is just as easy as dwc if not easier.

thanks for the words, though.

BUDLUV

[xcrispi]

sox - technically speaking, me and crispi don't dwc -- but our setup is just as easy as dwc if not easier.

thanks for the words, though.

BUDLUV

Hey bud ,
Next grow Crsipi is usin New Hybrid Buckets that incorporate DWC too.
check out pics. of prototype bucket in Bluebears DWCclub thread .
I think we've got Doco divin in w/ us on the buckets too . lol .
w/ mods the damn things are fool proof man . Any body can do this and obtain 3/4 lb. per bucket consistantly . I got 3lbs. of meds in exactly 4 mos. flat w/ only 4 buckets .

I'll be playin in my c-13 250w cabinet and a newly built flouro / clonin cabinet for a while now lookin for potency and variety for the next Super Bkt. Grow .
Peace man
Crispi :S5:

[bud luv]

Yeah I saw the pics of your new round of buckets, crispi. lookin' good. I'm almost definitely going to incorporate DWC next go-around too.

The blackberry seems nearly perfect, but I don't think I'll grow blueberry again any time soon just for the fact that it's soo high maintenance. I'd rather just get an even canopy and let it do its thing -- which is impossible with this blueberry. It's too damn tall. FWIW, the blackberry is super-high-grade (clearly better than my blueberry) and it doesn't stink things up much. Zero odor control, and you'd never guess what was going on in that shed... highly recommended to everyone, but probably tough to find.

I assume all your curing is close to done right now, so it must be pretty hazy in the crispi crib today. I'm jealous ;)

[blank_21]

More pics Please!!!! :jointsmile:
Your grow is awesome, cant wait to go hydroponic!!!!!!

[bud luv]

chop suey.

:thumbsup:

[bud luv]

clone-to-cut in 9.5 wks.

[hydrohut25]

bud luv ... i just got the waterfarm system. i was so excited after i set it up and a few days later i already had roots coming into the 2 gal res.
however, my problem like yours was the ppm in each module. i saw your diagram and i looking to do something just like it. i am confused on your sketch ... do u have the sub. pump in another module? would an inline water pump from the last module to the back of the 8 ga. res where the check valve is be better? i am stressing over this i have been taking time off of work to try and fiugure out how to keep everything constant. i thought this system was the answer, but it seems tweaking is definately going to be necessary. any help would be great.