10/18/09 Update:

Begin flowering of Groups 1 & 2:

The flower room has been set-up in it's final form with three exceptions - I'm using a portable air-conditioner as a dehumidifier, as my little dehumidifier has not arrived yet. Two: the icebox cooler is now attached to the can filter instead of to the vented hood system where it will ultimately go - as the lights are being cooled by drawing cool air from outside the house, I thought this was a better use of the icebox. Three: The second lighting set up hasn't been hung yet as it is not needed at the moment.

The 1/3 HP chiller is running, cooling the 50 gallon reservoir which contain 2 pumps: one 1800 GPH MagDrive Pump directing water to the Co2 generator & the icebox (soon to be iceboxes) and a 1200 GPH MagDrive Pump directing water to the chiller. The Co2 maintains a constant concentration of 1500 parts per million per cubic square foot of Co2 during the day time & shuts off at night. There is also a kill switch attached to the UVB light circuit located outside the grow room so I need not expose myself to excessive UVB. There are circulating fans about to circulate the Co2 - the Can fan also pulls air up from the floor (Co2 is heavy & tends to sink) & jets it up into the air.



The light for this area of space is one 1000 Watt Super HPS Solarmax confined in a Magnum xxxl 6" vented hood, flanked on one side by a Procyon and on both sides by a 3 foot UVB bulb which are about 25" - 30" away from the canopy - the UVB only goes on for 5 hours each day. I will be monitoring the effects of the UVB on the foliage to avert possible damages.



Both reservoirs for Groups 1 & 2 were changed & a full strength Transitional Expert Recirculating formula of 10 gallons each was added to the reservoir - PH adjusted to be around 5.5 - 5.8 (my PH pen which was supposed to be a replacement for my first defective PH pen has proved to be, well unreliable to say the least & I'm back to the color dropper method). I added a root drench of 1/4 strength SubCulture M to all the plants by pouring the mixture directly onto their roots & into their pots as was suggested by the makers of the product. I'm giving the mycorrhizal fungi a week's head start to establish themselves as the bacteria in SubCulture B can out compete them if added to the system at the same time as the fungi. The SubCulture B will be added next week. Bio balls, 45 in each reservoir have been added to provide access to oxygen & surface area for the beneficial micro-organisms to live on - this will also prevent the beneficial bacteria & fungi from forming a thick, clear slime on the surface of the water which has the potential to clog the sprayers and the pumps. Signs of clogging or over-population will be monitored closely.

The plants in Groups 1 & 2, with the mothers being selected, cloned & the clones showing signs of viability, plus the plants getting rather large were put into 12/12 on 10/18/09. Group 1 was 4 months, 3 weeks old (16 weeks & 1 day) at the time of flowering. Group 2 was 2 months, 3 weeks, 5 days old (12 weeks 5 days).



Group 1:
To deal with height issues, I've applied several techniques: the Group 1 mothers are large and quite thick stemmed - too thick to bend. For now, I'm training the Procyon on them in the hopes the added blue wavelength will retard stretching. As they begin to grow & stretch, I plan on first bending down the side branches and if possible, slowly & incrementally bend/ or very lightly break the main stem to get the plant to grow in a more horizontal fashion. As a last resort - I may have to top them. I'm considering doing it now, but would rather take my chances & hopefully not have to do it. As it stands now, they are about 1 foot away from the glass of the vented hood. The other 2 plants in Group 1 were flexible enough that I was able to bend them nearly to container level. I had not anticipated using LST or other training/ bending methods - so this should be interesting - I'm excited to see what comes of it.

Group 2:
The plants in Group 2, being younger than the plants in Group 1 were more flexible and bent far easier - with some bending right down to the "ground." The larger, less flexible plants have been tilted horizontally and had their branches tied down. One plant I decided to try a more severe training method on - I bent the meristem until it broke - it did not separate from the plant, it just became pliable, I trained this in the direction I wanted to it go & waited to see if it would survive - low and behold it did! The plant remained in the position I put it in and the top, the area above the break continued to grow and turn up towards the light in 2 days. As the flowering of the plants grown from seed is a secondary grow to the establishment of the perpetual grow system, I'm taking this opportunity to try some things that are challenging.

Example of the LST/bending I've been doing on Groups 1 & 2:



There are still some plants in Group 2 whose sex is undetermined - they will be watched closely & males will obviously be removed quickly.

Note - I was told you cannot remove plants from the flower units as their remaining dead roots will cause the remaining plants to die - so far this had not happened. I've removed as much of the roots as possible, but the washing action of the water flow may be removing the remaining dead roots where they are eventually fished out & removed from the reservoir which would explain the lack of problems from the removal of plants.

I should also mention here that I've had issues with roots hanging out of the end of the flower chamber - I just hack these off with scissors - the plants don't seem to mind at all. I've done the same thing with roots in the veg units & cloners that have grown too long or wrapped themselves around the sprayer apparatus - as they are long thick taproots & plentiful, the plants do not seem to mind.

All in all, this week or phase has a few unknowns and things that could go either way - this should be the beginning of an interesting part of the grow. It doesn't show in my notes - but I am seriously running around excited & happy!