Let's see what we can learn from our mistakes

[luckyskindaguy]

This is my second thread that I have started on here. I started growing about a year ago to keep my girlfriend supplied with weed without breaking the bank. I have 4 grows under my belt and each one has taught me new things. I am sure this will continue, but I hope to have a grow that is "perfect". Perfect to me at this point is me just not screwing certain things up like watering or too many nutes (see previous thread in signature)

I have had many trials and tribulations, but I seems to be turning a corner and wanted to do so by starting a new thread having armed myself with the knowledge of my mistakes and the lessons they imparted.

For those new to my grow op (or don't want to read through the other one) I will give you the basics.

This grow was started on 8-14-2010

I am growing bagseed from two different sources. I started with 6 originally and am now down to 2 strains: Peachez and Cameo
I have a cab built out of the top half of a china cabinet. I am running a 90w LED UFO style light in the center (the original light for my grow) as well as 4 CFL 2700k spotlight bulbs that are 23w actual usage. Grand total of 182w in a cab that measures 38"wide x 22"deep x 39"tall. This limits the size of plants I can put in here so my ideal plant will start at about 15-18"

I am running a hydro ebb and flow setup using these nutes:

GH Flora Grow
GH Flora Micro
GH Flora Bloom
GH Koolbloom Liquid
GH Koolbloom Dry
GH Flora Nectar (sweetner)
GH Flora Kleen (flushing agent)

I use 3" rockwool cubes set in hydroton as the grow medium. Pump fills 3 times a day and empties after 15 minutes. I will document levels of nutes that I use as I go, but the base feeding schedule can be viewed on www.generalhydroponics.com
I am using the Expert Recirculating chart with small mods.

Starting Nute solution for flowering is as follows:
0tsp GH Grow/16tsp GH Micro/32tsp GH Bloom/16tsp GH Kool Liq/16tsp GH Nec/16tsp Hydrogen Peroxide all mixed into 8 gallons of water. My Ph range that my plants like is 5.2-5.8

Here are a couple shots of the plants:
,,This shows the basic design. The CFL's are mounted to a board the has a chain on either side. This height can be adjusted on one or both sides at any time. The LED in in mounted to a chain that hangs through the CFL fixture and be adjusted, but only as high as the CFL light will allow. Hopefully these plants will stay showrter due to lowering the light from previous design.


I have 4 plants in here: 3 of the Cameo strain, 1 of the Peachez strain

Here is an illustration of their positions in the cab as well as height


I will be continuing to make adjustments to height as well as design as I go along. Feel free to post ideas and I will weigh them out and perhaps adopt some. One I dea I had today was building a false wall on the sides to help reflect light essentially making the cab "smaller" in area.

I look forward to hearing from those that stop by, don't be shy!

 

[tendran]

Subbed.

 

[blueberryblitz]

I also will subscribe and see where this scone thread leads goodluck and any thoughts on a small scrog in there?

 

[TweedleD]

Im Subbed to this one!
I will be startiung a new grow soon with a similar set up, but smaller space!
90w TriBand UFO DH, 5x 23w 2700k bulbs all can be switched on individually.
My space is 28" tall - 24" wide - 20" deep
I am going to be growing Dinafem seeds - Blue Fruit - Blue Widow - Roadrunner #2 - Moby Dick #2
Reckon these will be fine in my limited space?

Peace!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Im Subbed to this one!
I will be startiung a new grow soon with a similar set up, but smaller space!
90w TriBand UFO DH, 5x 23w 2700k bulbs all can be switched on individually.
My space is 28" tall - 24" wide - 20" deep
I am going to be growing Dinafem seeds - Blue Fruit - Blue Widow - Roadrunner #2 - Moby Dick #2
Reckon these will be fine in my limited space?

Peace!

As long as you can adjust the light height so the plants don't get too tall for your space, should be just fine!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

As I mentioned, I am continuing to think of and apply new ideas for making the space better. I wanted to maximize the light that I do have without major changes. All I did was tape some mylar to the light and let it fall. This basicly moved my walls in 3 inches on each side. That, coupled with the lights being 5 inches lower, greatly reduces the area that my lights fill which gives greater concentration in the area the plants are in. So far, the plants seem to love it as they are moving toward the mylar I just hung since the light bounces off well.

Hairs are already popping out of the tops so flowering is officially underway!
These aren't just the preflowers, cuz those were already there before going into flowering.

Stay tuned and happy growing!

 

[TweedleD]

Props man!
My grow is a tiny bit smaller than yours.
I'm deffinatelly gunna LST in mine!

What are you doing to cope with the smell?

Peace!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Props man!
My grow is a tiny bit smaller than yours.
I'm deffinatelly gunna LST in mine!

What are you doing to cope with the smell?

Peace!

With only 4 smaller plants I haven't had to do much more than air fresheners and Ona Liquid mixed with water in a difuser setup out of an old Koolbloom bottle. These strains aren't skunky. One is sweet and the other is piney.

You are actually running more watts than I am. I'd like to know how your yield turns out!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Day 11 of flowering:

The plants are LOVING the LED light right now! The inner shoots are crowding under the LED in the middle. There are more hairs on the bud sites under the LED than the ones that are mostly under CFL light.

LED CFL

This makes me wish I had another LED light. I have been watching ebay to see if any go for real cheap. No rush though I won't change the lighting this grow anyway, so I have at least 7 weeks to find one

 

[tendran]

I just tried the HydroponicsHut 250w. I saw immediately noticeable differences in the growth, but even for an LED it is overwhelming my cab's ventilation when I run it at full power, brought it up to 95 degrees fahrenheit. It did drop my humidity levels down to 44-48% (even at 83 degrees with only cool whites/blues on) though which is much better than the 55-60% I had before for resin production. The stink is noticeably sweeter when I touch a leaf now and the main stems have fattened up nice and strong under the lights. Anyhow, it's a very efficient light in terms of output and I'm satisfied. Looks like they have a lower wattage panel now too. The company doesn't do deals on Ebay unfortunately, but if you ever find one used or you save up, give it a try.

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Thanks for the tip!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Just to share a method that has worked really well for me I am including how I take clones. I takes the cotton off of a few Q-tips and the loosen the cotton. I dip that cotton into Clone-X and then turn the cotton into itself until it is completely covered in gel using tweezers. Cut the desired shoot at a 45 degree angle and immediately put the cotton covered gel over the tip of the cutting. Mold the cotton around the stem and then place it into some presoaked rockwool making sure to not push the cutting through the bottom of the cotton. Press the rockwool against the stem if needed to make sure the cutting is supported. Once set in the rockwool, cut the tips of the fan leaves off. This cuts down the chance of mold as well as causes the plant to focus on root development. Now that we have the cutting ready, I then place it on a tray that is sitting on a heating pad that is set to low that kicks on for 15 mins every hour. Mist the clones and the dome with water and cover with lighting. I give these 2 weeks for the time I take cuttings to call them "ready". They show roots usually at about 7-10 days, but I try not to rush them.

Here are a few pics to show the process:
,,,,,,

I mist the dome usually 1-2 a day until I see roots. I have used this method the last 4 times and have not lost a single cutting! Give it a shot if you are having trouble making clones and it should work well for you!

Thanks for following, should have some new pics in a bit!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Bushy!

,,

Tons of budsites on these plants. Looking forward to this grow. Feeling good about the mods I have made to the cab and how that will help get the yield a little higher.

Stay tuned!

 

[TweedleD]

Very nice! Looking really good!
I think this is proofin itself, that good quality LED's do produce the corrrect light for growth and flower, as is evident in the pictures of the bud sites under the led.

Peace!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

So I wanted to post something for others to take advantage of. Any time I trimmed my veg plants last grow I kept the fan leaves and dried them out. After trimming the fan leaves and sweet leaf away from the buds of my last harvest I dried those as well. I had more trimmings from my veg plants than I did from harvesting! I took all these leaves and put them in the oven to dry them out the rest of the way. About 15 minutes in the oven on a tinfoil covered cookie sheet with the oven set to about 250. Blend that in a food processor and made 4 cups of "cannabis flour". I used that to make butter. My gf wanted to make it strong so she only mixed it with 3/4 cup of butter since she had a recipe for brownies that called for that. She made the brownies in cupcake pan, so they are the size of the bottom half of a cupcake. I ate 2 of those and I was GONE! My gf did the same today and she was ripped out of her mind.

Hold on to all your fan leaves! They can be used to cook!

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Trichs starting to show up big, puffs building.....



I hope these plants don't get any taller! I am on the next to last adjustment on the current setup. I may need to tweak it some here soon. The plants look like they have transitioned fully into bud growth so it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[chainseeker]

Way to go Lucky the girls look excellent.
It's nice when you get things dialed in.
I've been using C02 from yeast and sugar water to help combat heat.
I noticed a difference in growth rate after just two days.
Even with an exhaust the C02 bottles continuously spit out C02 and your plants just love it.

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Good number of bud sites and puffs are really developing now. Adjustable lighting seems to have helped, hopefully they are as tall as they are gonna get.

Here are some pics:
,,

Here is one from CFL light:


Cameo has the trichs going heavy already. Peachez never really had much for trich production, but she is budding nicely and soaking in the LED light.

 

[luckyskindaguy]

Just had a happy discovery! My gf got some weed in trade (someone liked ours and wanted to swap for some of theirs)
After looking closely at it, I found nearly a dozen seeds! The cool part about it is that I made the comment prior to looking through it that I hoped there were going to be seeds in it. Why, you might ask? The reason is because this stuff had purple leaves! I have been wanting to order some purple strain seeds to grow. Now I got them for free!

I realize there is the chance that they are crap seeds, but all of the plants I have in my cab are from bagseed. I just thought it was cool. Oh, and my gf says this shit is super potent too!

It's hard to see the color because of the flash, but you can at least see it somewhat:
,,

I will be planting a couple of these and adding them to my threads as progress is made. If they germinate, I should have them ready for my grow after Christmas! I know that seems way off, but I just wanted to share my excitement with the rest of you

 

[luckyskindaguy]

, Couple shots that show the purple better

I plan to change the nutes tomorrow. In the past I have generally changed nutes every two weeks. I wanted to see if they fill out more than before. I don't want to over fertilize them but at the same time I don't want to use nutes super fast either.

How often do you hydro users change out your nutes? What kind of nutes do you run?