DaGambler's 4k HPS 99 Plant Hempy Grow

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
Goal: A modest 5 lbs. per crop, 4 crops per year. (EDIT: 6lbs. per crop, 5 crops per year.)
Sensi's G13xHP (Mr. Nice), Serious's White Russian, and some freebie Durban Poison, White Widow, and Power Skunk (all three G13 Labs)

The -Initial- Setup:

(4) 1000w HPS in 15' by 13' flowering room, using a 10' by 10' footprint (Two 5' by 10' areas)
(12) Flourescent T12 four foot two-bulb fixtures in the clone/veg room
(2) 6" inline fans for the Cooltubes, with an emphasis on climate control
(4) oscillating fans in the flower room, each corner
(1) UvonAir3000 Ozone Generator on ceiling
(1) DIY carbon filter with thermostat control for venting hot air in flower room
(1) 65 qt. Dehumidifier in flower room, Humidfier in clone/veg room
(1) space heater, portable a.c. if needed come summer-time (hopefully it won't be needed)
(1) Reverse Osmosis 100 gallon a day filtration system to combat ridiculous tap water
(1) 44 gallon rubbermaid trash can for reservoir with 330 gph submersible pump on hose with wand
(99) 3 gallon buckets filled with perlite and a 1" hole two inches from the bottom that is screened over
(12) 4 cu. ft. bags of perlite, each fills ten 3 gal. pots
(8 ) members of fauna (indoor animals including myself), for a combined total of approx. 1200 lbs. of biological CO2 supplementing organisms.

Assorted timers, extension cords, rolls of mylar, bags of Miracle Grow Seed Starting Mix, styrofoam and clear plastic cups for clones, Dip 'N Gro, General Hydroponics Bloom and Micro (Lucas Formula), M.G. for Tomatoes, Rooting Fertilizer, Neem Oil, Fruit Tree Spray (Pyrethrum), Safer Soap, Malathion, insect traps, micro beasties, H2O2, pH meter, buffer solution, pH Up, ppm meter, light meter, moisture meter, thermometer, humidity meter, couple rolls of romex wire, outlets, surge protectors, 100 amp two-pole breaker, insulated ducting, duct pieces, silver tarps, shelving, paint, caulking, rolls of foil tape, chains, balls of steel, low I.Q., wing and a prayer, etc.

Welcome To My Grow !!! I need some RIU Credibility / Rep ... so don't be stingy ye 'ol bastards !!! :D

Okay, so Picture 1 is just a shot of the seed/clone/veg setup in a 10' by 10'ish room. Primarily two shelves for plants with a total of (12) 4' two bulb flourescent fixtures. In pic you see a humidifier and a sample of how i clone: the blue cup with a clear cup on top for a humidity dome (though i actually use styrofoam on bottom and have to trim the top lip off the clear cup so that it nests inside the styrofoam one. I use M.G. Seed Starting Mix and Dip 'N Grow. Not pictured, but also in this room is, a 44 gal. reservoir up on a third shelf and a 100 gal. per day Reverse Osmosis system. A 330 h.p. submersible pump fills a water hose that goes into the next room.

Picture 2: (Flower Room) Be scared, be very scared. The scariest thing is that all 6 of these Romex strands (indoor romex) travel underground (w/o conduit) and up into the electric box where they are all connected to a dual pole 100 amp breaker (3 per pole). Aside from the power strip attached to each one, there is no smaller breaker between the 100 amp breaker and the equipment. This takes care of all my electric except for a cord that i ran in for the de-humidifier.

Picture 3: (The Money Shot) Four CoolTubes (two 6" and two 8") on 6" insulated ducting, 2 inline GrowBright fans (52 dB), a oscillating fan in 3 of 4 corners. The clones and mothers are on makeshift plywood still in 16 oz. cups over the awaiting Hempy Buckets (3 gal.) The ballasts are located under the house.

Picture 4: Close-up of watering wand on garden hose, takes about 10 minutes to water the 99 buckets.

Picture 5: DIY carbon filter (Top Down: 6" to 8" reducer, 8" inline fan with thermostat attached to side, a 90 degree 'elbow' that is straight and some aluminum screen which holds about a 2" layer of carbon.)

Picture 6: 65 qt. dehumidifier. May also have to get a portable a.c. unit come summertime.

Picture 7: Ozone Generator for primary odor control. Lamp timer allows for up to 20 on/off settings per day, by the minute. Currently running 10 minutes each hour 20 out of 24 hours.

Picture 8: Just a closer up picture of about 50 clones. There are just beginning to recover from a serious pH problem. I quickly accidified the soil trying to use straight 5.6 pH'd nutes (G.H.) in the 16 oz. cups (without raising the pH of the water to around 6.3). They are doing much better now that i have pulled my head out of my ass.

Thanks for looking !!! I'll try to get an update shortly after putting them each in their own bucket. Which they are due for right now. I let the clones go too long without topping, so right now they are all a bunch of sticks... and I like to grow bushes! :D
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DaGambler

Well-Known Member
thank ye, thank ye...

i just did transplant over the last few hours actually, but its past my bedtime so i'll have to update the picture tommorow night.

:leaf:
 

maryjane2029

Active Member
thank ye, thank ye...

i just did transplant over the last few hours actually, but its past my bedtime so i'll have to update the picture tommorow night.

:leaf:

Il pulling up a chair for this one. Very nicely put together man! I am liking it a lot. Wish I had the space you do. I would go nuts though!

Check out my grow getting started; Hempy, Automatic flowering, Lucas Formula, Perpetual Harvest

http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?p=1167057&posted=1#post1167057
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
Brought to you by demand :D

The clones (and mothers) are starting to get a bit of lush green vegatative growth since being transplanted four days ago (roughly coinciding with finally get the pH under control again - having overyly acidified the soil in the 16 oz. cups).

Some are spurting up a bit, others still hardly any growth since transplant, so i went thru today and crushed/and bent the tips on the taller plants as well as crushing the stem in several places from middling to top. I noticed that one of my plants had a very crushed stem that basically grew together 'flat' in a 'stem ribbon'... and that vertical growth had basically stopped on that plant. So i am trying to mimic this effect to a degree.

They are filling out a bit for the most part, I topped the clones late and now i have to wait for them to bush out a bit before going 12/12. I'd guess i will be another 1 and 1/2 weeks at least before i switch.

thanks for peeping. :leaf: I tried to color correct the photos a bit, hopefully the pics will be much better after switching to flower, as i am currently loathe to turn off the lights for pictures.

(3 gal. 'car wash' buckets in 2 areas of 5 by 10 pots, with one corner pot missing.)

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DaGambler

Well-Known Member
thankee.

add the following to the list of needed items (almost finished using these):

(4) 5 gal. buckets of exterior paint
400 dollars worth of exterior shutters
and lotsa 'pink stuff' insulation batting (sound control) and i still need more of this

don't want my house to be the ugliest one on the block

bongsmilie

(EDIT) the stem crushing deffinitely seems to be working... the vertical growth seems to slow a great deal, and the spacing between nodes is significantly lessened. its like what the branches and tips are still doing their growing, but any vertical growth energy is instead spent on repair work to the damaged main stem. (multiple crush points from 1/3 toward bottom on up).
 

raiderman

Well-Known Member
looks great. reminds me of my garage before i lined it,lol.lotta lite. gonna hava hell of a grow. yea, space is money , so is electricity, i see your using all your space. hell i stuffed 12 3.5 gal. buckets and 2 2.5 gal. cont. under 0ne 600. and the closet has 16 sqare perfect pots( 2 gal. cont.) ina 3x3ft area under 600 . should get near 3 pounds this time. i'm subscribed DG.
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
looks great. reminds me of my garage before i lined it,lol.lotta lite. gonna hava hell of a grow. yea, space is money , so is electricity, i see your using all your space. hell i stuffed 12 3.5 gal. buckets and 2 2.5 gal. cont. under 0ne 600. and the closet has 16 sqare perfect pots( 2 gal. cont.) ina 3x3ft area under 600 . should get near 3 pounds this time. i'm subscribed DG.
suh-weet, i was hoping you'd stop by :D Yah, the flower room space is pretty well maximized as far as the light footprint goes... bit over 1 foot gap around the outer walls and about 2 1/2 feet down the middle which is nice for walking and getting around, my last grow i was literally tip-toeing barefoot and fighting with each step to find floor to be stepping on. the veg room isn't even close to being maximized space wise, and it never will be as the room is just much bigger than i need.

ya, ther'd be no 'fall-off' in ur 3x3 ft area, deffinitely able to use all the floor space in there. If i remember right ur running two rooms... so the 3lbs total is 1.5 per room right? with (2) 600w HPS per flower room?
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BloodShot420

Well-Known Member
damn nice setup man... i'm envious of your floor space

i got 2Kw crammed into a 3 x 7 closet - apparently they cover a lot more area than that ;-) (i know that, but i want max yield for my space, regardless of light needed)...

99 plants too... right on the edge - i love it ;-)
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
damn nice setup man... i'm envious of your floor space

i got 2Kw crammed into a 3 x 7 closet - apparently they cover a lot more area than that ;-) (i know that, but i want max yield for my space, regardless of light needed)...

99 plants too... right on the edge - i love it ;-)
ha! ya you've deffinitely got enough light in there... i think a 5x10 with (2) 1k HPS is like 40w sq. ft. so your deffinitely above that.

man, with this economy, everybody is living on the edge. ;-)
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
whta are you aiming for yield??
i've gotten a bit over a 1lb per 1k in past grows... so that's all i'm shooting for here. if i can dial things in great. if hempy buckets act a bit more like hydro, great. but, i'm just shooting for 5lbs. every 3 months. clones have 2 months under the flouro's (while moms are flowering) then 30 days under the 18/6 HPS after the moms are cut and removed from the flower room. new clones are taken, then (hopefully) 60 days to flower finish. (so 90 days total in the flower room)
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
probably waste deep in high toxic weed ,lol.

more like chest deep :lol: the buckets are 10" and i like to have plants between 3 1/2 to 4 ft tall.

6 days after transplant -into- the hempy buckets (rather than just bogging them) they seem to finally have hit the rez. DEFfinitlely a faster growth rate once this happens. Though i'm anxious to flip the switch, it'll still be at least 1 or 2 weeks before i go 12/12.

last night i came home and saw all of this new growth, so i immediately went around the room and started 'laying the bitches down'. i used to do a lot of tying, but this time i am just bending and crushing the plants, training them to 90 degrees with like 15 small bends/crushes along the main stem (from the tip to close to the bottom 1/3) i want to keep a low profile as much as possible while trying to fill them in 'shoulder to shoulder'.

and i'm not using any MH in the flower room this time, so it seems like vertical growth is going to be something that i have to fight a bit.
 

DaGambler

Well-Known Member
here's a couple close up of 'laying them down'... (bending and crushing in multiple places to train the plant sideways, allowing others to catch up, and encouraging side growth) so long as the top tip is no longer the highest place on the plant.

you can see how much stress i put them through from the soil going acidic in the 16 oz. cups... but they are recovering nicely.

especially on the second pic (both white russians) you can see that there is deffinitely some 'flower action'... the only thing these plants have ever seen is 24 hours of daylight. so i'm thinking that about 1/3 of these w.r.'s have an auto-flower like trait, and another 1/3 of them show what i would call "very strong pre-flowering". The intense HPS light seems to be pulling them back into a strong vegatative mode, after coming away from the flouro's, so i think that all will be well.
 

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