faderharley

Faderharley’s Purpose:
I have been sick from Lyme Disease since the fall of 1989. I get severe head-aches, joint pains, severe muscle spasms, cramping of muscles/joints, nausea, weakness all over my body and depression, plus a constant feeling of doom. The headaches are the worst part of it. I have 3 different headaches that go on all day, everyday. I wasted time, money, personal health taking prescribed narcotics for pain control for over 20 years. My body just stopped responding to them for the most part. I would be taking over 20 oxycodone a day. I am sure I would have ended up dead due to an overdose. The narcotics had done a lot of damage to my body as well.
By the summer of 2009 I had already read-up about the usage of marijuana for many diseases, chronic pain and depression. I smoked a lot of it back in the day, back then an oz cost between $15-$20 bucks. When I was stationed in Germany, at that time one could get a chunk of hash for $20 bucks, did and done all that as well.

Back to the summer 2009. I was very lucky to get an ounce of closet grown, not sure how it was grown, none the less, it was homegrown. The ounce was huge, looked like 2 oz. It cost $500. I could either taste the fertilizer or the potting soil, but it surely took care of my back of the head headache, the pain behind my eyes, but still have the frontal headaches. Spasms stopped, aching joint pain is nearly gone and my dark world is gone; this happens whenever I smoke a bowl or a joint. The pain is gone for several hours. So here is what I thought, research how to grow your own, so I did and here is my journal.

Grow Area: Lower level closet. Size is 3 feet by 4-1/2 feet by 9 feet. Louver door, painted walls flat white

Grow System: Aeroponic-Hydroponic grow system., By using the 3 deep tote boxes, 1 as a solution box, 2 as grow boxes, air pump, water pump, (2) 12" air stones, aquarium heater, 24 hour timer for solution pump, programmable timer for CFLs, (2) 8 inch fans providing fresh air, (2) thermal gauges. Solution pump ran 1 min. on, 5 min. off, 24/day, change to 1.5 min. on, 10 min. off. Worked perfectly at that run time

Grow Nutrients:
General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Flora Bloom and Flora Micro, Water is Distilled Water only, drained and replenished every 7 days

Grow Lights:
(six) CFL Sunlite Daylight, 85watt/350watt, 6500k, 4200 lumen,
(eight) CFL Sunlite Warm White, 105 watt/400watt, 2700k, 5000 lumen,
10 clamp on light fixtures

Strains:
White Widow, 60% sativa, 40% indica
Carnival, 80% sativa, 20% indica
Big Bud, 80% indica, 20% sativa
Kandahar, 90% indica, 10% sativa
purchased from Cannabis Ministry

Germination:
March 6th, 2010 I germinated 2 strains each using a pan w/ clear cover, rockwool, which I soaked for 24 hours in PH 6.0 distilled water. Once the seed was placed into the rockwool, the rockwool was placed into the covered pan. I placed the pan onto a heating pad, set for low, and covered the top of the pan with a black towel. Had seedlings within 24 hours, others showed up in 48 hours.

Seedlings:
Was fully unsure what to do at this point, so I kept the rockwool moist and kept the clear cover over them so it was like a mini grow dome w/ CFLs only an inch from the tops of the seedlings. A few days later the root showed up on the bottom side of the rockwool. Once rooted, I placed them in the grow box, started to feed them the nutes. In the first germination I had lost 3 of them, so I re-germinated 1 strain each to replace them. All in all, I ended up with 6 strong plants, however I had lost track what strain was what.

Vegetation Stage:
During this stage I burned my CFLs 24/7. All 6 of my vegetation lights were being utilized w/clamp-on fixtures. Problems I had was some yellow to brown spots on my leaves. At one point my PH levels would drift a lot, but got that under control, but I was still getting the spots. It was suggested to me to get CalMag to apply w/ my nutes. I did that, and in a few days the spotting had stopped. From seed to the end of vegetation stage was 9 weeks, saw no need to veg any more. At this point I decided to get the flowering stage started. I need to note that I dump my nutes solution every 7 days. At that point I would replenish with new distilled water and rinse my roots for 24 hours prior of adding the next nutrient feed. PH average was 5.3-5.8

Flowering Stage:
Used 10 CFLs, 8 were 105watt/400watt, 2700k, 5000 lumen, plus (2) 85watt/350watt, 6500k, 4200 lumen. My lights were on 12 hours, off 12 hours. I did this for 2 weeks, than switched to 14 hours off, 10 hours on. Continued to drain, replenish and the 24 hour rinse every 7 days.
At 17 weeks out, which was seed to veg. 9 weeks,+ 8 weeks flowering, my pistils were turning red, trichomes started to cloudy up, especially in growbox 2, only 2 plants, and by the end of week 17 they both had a couple nice colas, so I cut those. The undergrow or under bud is still ripening along w/ other 4 plants at this point. PH average was 5.4

1st Harvest, called Harvest A
Harvested 5 colas in growbox 2 on 6-22-10, dried 13 days, currently curing in air tight mason jar....to be continued BTW it's great for my pain

Harvest B
At the end of week 19, my plants all show +/-80% cloudy,+/- 20% clear trichomes and at least 80% amber now. Harvested the rest of my Bud on 7-11-10. I just cut at the base of each plant, hang dry, also some of the under developed bud, I placed in large paper bag to dry. Unknown what strain is what until dried and sampled . One plant produced some fat cola, perhaps big bud, or the kandahar. Yield unkown as of this entry date of 7-11-10, but will update/edit my journal when I get my ladies dried, trimmed and weighed, then cure in air-tight jars

Update: 7-18-10
Photo of bud on tray and jars is one of the same plant, nearly 5 pints worth from 1 plant, it's indica all the way.
WOW. Guess I need to get a holster for my bubbler or a gas mask to consume all of this bud
Update:
After harvesting 6 plants, my yield was 16 pint jars of high grade Bud. I will weigh it after a few weeks of curing.
Smoke Report: Smells very spicy, strong spicy, the taste is smooth, not harsh at all. The buzz is very mellow, yet not to stoney, more of total relaxation, at peace. Later PMs good for nodding out. Couchlock 6.5/10 Buzz Hit 5-10 seconds after 1st draw, but not a stoner high but a constant high that last for many hours. Stength: 8+/10


Tips/Suggestions for Aeroponic-Hydroponic, CFL Closet Growers

1. Use Distilled Water from local stores, if you can, my plants were healthy and for this grow I maintain my PH at 5.8 as an overall average

2. IMO the large CFLs work great, w/clamp fixtures, plenty of lumens and can locate lights anywhere on or around my plant. Next grow I plan to get T-5's to mount on the wall so I can cover the back of the plants closer to the wall. Also adjust your lights daily so all of the plant gets the energy all over. Also make sure you can get the light around each plant 360 degrees, it will produce a much greater yield, so no more than 4 planters per tote box

3. I dump my solution every 7 days, rinse roots for 24 hours, then add my nutes. Run time for sprayer pump is 1.5 minute on, 10 minutes off, 24 hours per day. Always top-off with just distilled water, do not add additional fertilizer and nutrients. Doing this I believed kept my plants super healthy and they really thrived

4. When making up my nutes, I mix a little less as recommended during vegetation stage, but stick w/recommended mix on flowering stage.

5. Keep a daily ongoing log on ur grow, or a journal when checking ur plants, i.e. PH, room temp, top off, prune, ect....log your weeks, it took me exactly to the end of 19 weeks from seed to harvest for my 1st grow. My second grow, I plan to veg for only 7 weeks instead of 9, also leave my light 12/12, pehaps I will get thicker colas

6. I plan to use the longer 2 lid, roughly 40"Long x 22"Wide x 12" Deep type totes as my grow boxes, also a pump w/greater gpm output. The tote boxes I used as grow boxes were deep, as deep as a 5 gallon bucket. I do believe the large roots my plants created reflected the health and yield of my plants.

7. If at all possible, I plan to have 2 grows going at the same time, one will vegging, ready for flowering, the other grow will be ripening to be harvested, otherwise when one grow is in vegetation stage, the other will be flowering stage. Then when I harvest, I'll germinate the next grow while the vegging grow goes into flowering

8. Trichomes will tell ya when to harvest. I harvested 5 colas from 2 plants that thier trichomes were 80% cloudy and slightly amber. The rest did not get amber color, plenty of cloudy trichomes, just no amber for 2 more weeks. The golden rule, peak quality is 50% cloudy, 50% amber. I tried my best to achieve that, the key is patients

9. Keep takin those photos, stay in touch with sites like this one, research new methods, read other journals , research via youtube, study grow guides and web blog sites. Also when asking a question about your plants, set-up, lights, ect.. give details, i.e. type of grow system, what stage, what strain.....

Last but not least; I am homebound most times due to my lymes, but the busy work involved growing Medical marijuana in a small downstairs closet with an Aero-Hydro grow system, CFLs and maintaining it, wow, I truly loved doing it. Not to mention, I can't see growing Bud any other way. Can't wait to start my second grow.
Thank you all that provided valued information and outstanding support