CareGiver420's first medicinal grow! Now 100% wind powered!

[caregiver420]

I am (allegedly, but everything here is to be taken with a grain of salt) the authorized caregiver for a sufferer of Crohn's Disease (who is prescribed marijuana to be able to feed himself), and I am helping to oversee the construction of his grow as well as teaching him the skills he needs to properly cultivate his medicine. This medicinal patient has opted to pay a little more on his electric bill each month to have his service come entirely from the local wind farm! I am also playing around a little bit with symbiotic fungi (mycorrhiza) on this grow, and it is looking to be my first time going all organic, so I'm still getting used to the smell.

I wasn't really sure when to start a log for this grow, but it's finally moving out of the closet and into its own controllable environment so I guess I'll start by documenting the new space and equipment, as well as some of my wacky experiments. Later, when I have more time, I'll better document the plants themselves and their environments. Then we can all watch natures bounty come into fruition together. Sorry, but I only have a cell phone camera right now (3.2 Megapixel).

All we have now are some potential mothers and a few bonsai buds that were left over from picking the genetic candidates from a collection of randomly acquired seeds. The closet that this space is replacing was poorly ventilated and was comprised of a space with a 400watt HPS stacked on top of a space with two CFL bulbs and a 45 watt LED panel. This was sufficient to sex and choose what genetics were to be used, but not enough to grow sufficient medicine for the patient who's home it is in. The first run in this space will comprise mostly of â??Rhino Jackâ?� clones we will take ourselves and a few random samplings from the local medicinal co-op's clone exchange.

The real magic will go down in a polyvinyl tent which I just finished building. It is to be divided into a compact low intensity light environment in one side and a larger high intensity environment in the other side. The dimensions of the outside of the tent are approximately ten feet long by three feet wide by six feet high (10x3x6). I'm sharing some photos of the frame going up and the fabric shell going on, as well as the last of the lights being hung. There is still work to be done, however! As you can see in the photos, the shell is super cheap and is comprised of lashed wood and PVC.... sorry, too poor to shell out for a commercially available 'grow tent'!

The low light environment contains two 45 watt LED panels supplemented with two 15 watt CFL bulbs. This space will be where the mothers and the clones spend much of their time living on the bare minimum of necessary light. Here our custom 38-site aeroponic cloning machine will turn the occasional bushy mother into a sea of green.

The larger side will be the high intensity environment and it has a 400watt HPS fixture (off in photos below) and a 600Watt fixture running off a digital ballast so we can use HPS or MH bulbs (running MH bulb in these first photos). Here a sizable lineup of uniform clones will accompany a smaller eclectic collection of experiments and variety. The goal is to have regular bulk harvests as well as some fun one-offs and test-plants in the same space.

Right now there is a 160CFM fan installed, but I ran out of ducting before the cool-tube reflectors could be connected up. Also the two spaces are not yet divided and there is only a temporary floor installed. The ducting will need to pass through the divider and there will need to be another input vent through the divider so air can pass along the entire length of the tent but light can be contained between the environments between them. These are all projects for next week. I am planning on purchasing a variable fan speed controller in the next week as well (probably the GrowZone Temp 2V) to exhaust the heat from the lights as needed. Right now there aren't enough plants to need even half of the lights turned on, but soon things will speed up quite a bit.

Despite moving back to 24 hours of light as soon as the first pistols appeared, many of the genetic candidates are still showing quite a bit of shock. I had forgotten how hard it is on a plant to start to bud and be pulled back into vegetative mode. I couldn't resist taking some cuttings for the cloner when it arrived, but right now they are just happy to be under the MH bulb and are finally showing new growth after a long recovery. The cloning machine will get filled up and any clones we can't fit in our space might be given away to patients with cronic ailments through the local co-op.

We are not planning on using CO2 enrichment right now, but perhaps in the future we'll get a tank and regulator and the whole caboodle. As for fertilizer we have been using Aurora's Buddha Grow and Buddha Bloom because they are organic (essential for mychorhizal colonization) and available locally for relatively cheap. I am growing in cheap topsoil with soil-moist crystals. There is an obvious room for improvement here.

I am selectively using a super powerful mycorrhizal inoculate; RTI's arbuscular mycorrhizae dry mix which they market to cash crop farmers and competition vegetable growers. I hope to determine whether a short life plant like a pot clone lives long enough for the symbiotic fungi to colonize their roots and increase nutrient uptake efficiency. I believe ours was labeled Pumpkin Pro, but all their arbuscular products seem to be the same regardless of the label and they are pretty renowned for being the most potent available. If anyone has any experience on using mycorrhiza I would love your input.

I'll post some more soon when the tent is completely done and we have all the environmental controls installed, and when that 38-site aero cloner starts working its magic. I like to try and be scientific and thrifty with my grows, and I love learning new techniques and sharing the knowledge I have gathered. I have a little more than three years of dirt growing under my belt and I'm really interested in eventually converting this space to a soil-less setup. Thanks for taking a look, and any and all comments and/or questions are appreciated.

RECAP:

600 watt Digital ballast (switchable HPS & MH)
400 watt HPS ballast
Two 45 watt LED panels
Two 14 watt CFL bulbs
Aurora products basic fertilizers
Pumpkin Pro mychorhizal inoculate
cheapo topsoil with soil-moist crystals

THE PHOTOS


The frame as it was being built, with some low intensity lights hung over the empty cloner.


Empty aeroponic cloning machine.


The window side of the frame of the tent.


Three of the walls cut, measured, and hung.


The rest of the walls hung and the air box installed in the window.


I have some light sealing to work on.


Lights hung, the first plants moved in, still needs some finishing touches but you can finally start to see what the finished space will be like.

Will post more as things progress! Thanks again for checking out the newly conceived space, and don't be afraid to point out room for improvement or ask for clarification on my technique. I love feedback but don't show my growing plants off to many folks in 'real life' because I've been burned. (You shouldn't show off your plants to anyone either, on matter how covered you think you are by the local laws.)

Peace!! :hippy:

caregiver420 Reviewed by caregiver420 on 01-22-2010. CareGiver420's first medicinal grow! Now 100% wind powered! I am (allegedly, but everything here is to be taken with a grain of salt) the authorized caregiver for a sufferer of Crohn's Disease (who is prescribed marijuana to be able to feed himself), and I am helping to oversee the construction of his grow as well as teaching him the skills he needs to properly cultivate his medicine. This medicinal patient has opted to pay a little more on his electric bill each month to have his service come entirely from the local wind farm! I am also playing around Rating: 5

[caregiver420]

Enough about the setup, here are the plants!!


First up are the clones. These are Lemon Skunk and AK-47.


Closeup of Lemon Skunk.


These were called Jackie Blue, are all from seeds, and have not been sexed yet. After the shock to the RJ's (below) I'll be taking clones soon to determine gender. Note the one runt and the one which is in a spurt.


Also all from seeds there are these Rhino Jack mothers, all confirmed female but they didn't like the process. Until recently they all looked like the little one in the 1gal pot, but they've finally started growing again so I'll be starting to take cuttings for clones in the next few days.

Thanks for taking look!

[Faddenator]

I like the setup. Lots of space = Lots of :stoned:

Looks like you might need to feed a little more, it looks like some of your foliage is showing some nute deficiency.

Could be wrong but it looks like it.

[caregiver420]

Hey Faddenator, thanks for taking a look. I really appreciate the feedback!

I've pored a couple gallons of freshly mixed poo-juice into them and I'll postpone their water regiment tomorrow and do it again. I'll post come pics in a few so we can see if they green-up. I only have the "Buddha Grow" right now to give them so hopefully they don't need some micro-nutrient it's lacking.

And yea, I had sketched out a tent that was going to be 4.5x8x3 (feet) but materials were so cheap I went with 6 foot legs and a 9'11' center piece to make the final internal dimensions approx 6x9.5x3 feet. According to the math, at full speed the exhaust fan we have blows through the entire grow space worth of air in approx 60 seconds. I'm liking it.

Peace! imp:

[superskunk1]

Love the setup, and admire the fact that you are doing this for a patient.

Im also liking the tent setup...

Good luck and will be stopping by again

[caregiver420]

Thanks for stopping by, superskunk1. :stoned:

I figured I'd post some photos of the aeroponic cloning machine as it's slowly being filled up with cuttings. This is built out of a 10 gallon bin and has nine spray nozzles powered by a 250 gal/hr submerged water pump. It also has a reservoir heater and an external air pump running a 7 inch long air-stone for additional oxygen. It's has 38 neoprene plugs to hold 38 cuttings in place, plus another on the side to seal up where the cords come in. Right now it has a 45 watt LED panel over it and a few cheapo CFLs (that I hope to replace with straight tube lamps in the future).


Some of these cuttings were taken yesterday, and some were taken a few days prior.


A view of the stems coming out of the bottom - no activity yet of course.


Some cuttings off of one of the Rhino Jack mothers.


A cutting off of another of the Rhino Jack mothers.

I'll post some more pics of the cuttings when we start seeing roots. :smokin:

[MonkeyBone]

This is some sweet botanics! I wish I can know that much on that!

:thumbsup:

[caregiver420]

I appreciate the props, MonkeyBone.

Also, can you see the first root coming off one of the cuttings in this pic? Sorry, it's blurry and dark because I just raised the lid a bit and jammed my camera in the reservoir for a quick snapshot. I'm sure to have some sexier shots soon with roots all over the place! :rastasmoke:

[caregiver420]

A bunch more roots on the one that I spotted yesterday, and some of the others are starting to take root as well.

[caregiver420]

As Faddenator noticed: Some of my babies have been yellowing. They also aren't growing very fast any more.

After a little experimentation I have concluded that this is a pH issue, and I've most likely have never experienced this before since I've previously never worked with organic fertilizer. I grabbed some pH+ & pH- solutions, but the store was out of proper testing equipment so I haven't used any of them yet. I grabbed a cheapo non-digital 'soil meter' which is obviously not very accurate but seems to think things are too acidic.

I've rinsed the unhappy plants' soil thoroughly with water and would like to start properly adjusting the incoming liquids from here on out. I'm wondering how specific of a range/resolution I need in a testing paper, or whether I should forgo them altogether and shell out for a proper pH meter and all the gear that goes along with maintaining and calibrating it. Testing liquid/strips/paper with a resolution better than 1 point (those which read down to x.5 or x.1) are more expensive and come tighter ranges (2.5 to 8.5 or 6.0 to 8.0 for example), while quality pH meters are even more expensive and require proper up-keeping. Any thoughts, anyone?

Oh, and I'll have more photos when things really start showing progress.