Jman49 400w Double Chunk Strawberry First Grow in DIY Cabinet

cannatari said:

Sweet! Glad that you're about to start flowering Jman. I'm glad you're happy with the H2O2 also.

Just so you know, I recently read a thread called "clone of a clone of a clone". It sounded pretty conclusive that you can continue to take clones indefinately as you are doing with no genetic loss.

Yes. A 1 1/2" RW in your hydroton containers is a sufficient anchor for a good sized plant. The roots will eventually fill all the gaps and hold the hydroton together as 1 mass.

Click to expand...

I have an acquaintance that was (before the PO-PO showed up) running a very large grow op producing the greatest Master Kush I have ever had. Shit made you forget how to add! Almost too strong, anyhow he kept it going for about 3 years, just by cloning!

I made a $150.00 donation for my 12 clones I started with, and it was bugging me that I was F-ing up that 150 investment (not to mention consumables), so the fact that I can stretch that 150 over a few learning harvests for both myself and my parents makes me feel better. Keeps me up less at night worrying about the over/under water problem.

I was worried that I would not be able to grow them big enough to take enough clones. Not a problem, out of 12 plants I had 2 runts that were not big enough to take any, and the 1 spider mite plant that I did not want to take from (even though I am naive thinking it is the only one with them). I got 13 strong clones and 1 I probably should have not taken (was the very first clone ever and was the stem from my pics with the balled up leaves, not sure why I started there, but hey I'm learning). This way hopefully my parents can weed out any runts they get and still have 10-12 really strong plants instead of my situation of 9 strong plants, 2 ok and 1 that is just a midget (is it possible for a plant to have dwarfism?)

I have found contradicting info on the 1 1/2 RW and hydroton (big surprise there). Seems like the guys that hate hydroton say it isn't enough and the guys that hate RW say to put clones straight from power cloner into Hydroton alone.

I will have my parents try the 1 1/2 in the hydroton. It's not fair that I have to work out all the kinks myself, and they sit back and enjoy the progress from my failures. Also we are only growing these plants to max 36", it's not like I am going for 10' plants.

As for my watering problem, I am going to stop by A+ hydro tonight and see if they have coco mat. I need something that raises the pots about 1/2" from the tray, and then I can flood for a whole 15 minutes without the water hitting the RW. I finally realized the Turbogarden's over flow is a multipiece design (4- 1" threaded sections and a screen) so I took one of the sections out and the water is just hitting the RW. (if I had just put a little more hydroton on the bottom PITA!!!!!)

I look forward to what new and wonderful problems I will encounter during flower! Thinking, smell, more bugs, powder mildew, etc.

BTW, how long into flower can you spray with neem?

I don't have much experience using neem oil. My guess is that you want to stop using it when you see pistils start to develop, about 1-2 weeks into flowering. I'm sure there must be some info in the 'MJ Plant Problems' thread. Spider Mites are a growers worst enemy. Prevention should definately be a high priority for you. As it gets warm and dry outside in coming months it's going to prove more difficult to keep them at bay. I keep my cab in a cool, dark, isolated, clean and sterile room far away from other plants, pets and people. My cab is also nearly air-tight with a HEPA filter on the intake and I open the door as little as possible. If I keep the mites away it's TOTALLY worth the trouble. So far, so good. I hope you win the battle Jman.

Well the girls are now officially young women. Last night was the first night on 12/12. I decided to go straight from 18/6 to 12/12 without a extended dark period in between. I will try a 24 hour dark on the next harvest for comparative purposes.

I also found some coco caps at A+ and instead of using them for the tops of the pots, I am using 3 below each to lift them so the floods do not hit the RW. I have the floods set for 4 times during the day cycle(15 minutes each) every 4 hours and one for 5 minutes halfway through the dark cycle just to keep the roots moist. When I went to check them this morning, it was the first time in a long time that they looked as good in the morning as they did the night before. Tonight I will change out the res with the GH advised 2-2-2 strength for the transition period.

The only thing I don't like is the limited times I can go work on them now. In veg I had a 5:30pm to 11:30 am light schedule so I could check pH in the morning before work, and then adjust pH, top of res, etc. when I got home from work. Now I am using a 8pm to 8 am, so everything must be done after 8 pm(wife is gonna love this!) as my mornings before 8 are packed.

Also I had a humidor temp/hydro that was small and perfect to put on the pots to track max/min temps and humidity below the canopy, but dumb shit managed to drop it in the flood tray right in the middle of (you know where this is going I am sure) a feeding. Now it will read 75 deg one second and 103.5 the next! I think it's fried.

Family in town, so i couldn't bring the camera to post pics. Another feather in my cap, my sister in law was in the garage not more than 3 feet from the box and didn't even ask what it was! Stealth test passed!

Here is a pic from this morning. Second day in a row that they have looked good. I tiny bit of droop in some of the leaves, but for the most part they have never looked better. Also grew over an inch in a day and a half.

Awsome! They look good Jman. Glad you passed the stealth test! Are they going to get spread out at some point? You can expect 2-3 times more growth by the time they're done.

cannatari said:

Awsome! They look good Jman. Glad you passed the stealth test! Are they going to get spread out at some point? You can expect 2-3 times more growth by the time they're done.

Click to expand...

Thanks Canna!

Yea, it's going to get crowded in there! As you can see the tray is pretty much maxed out. I will be able to get a couple of more inches on the left side for the top and bottom rows. I realized some time ago that the tops are going to be the only quality buds. Next time I think I will max out at 10 plants.

I spoke to my Mom and she is worried about the clones I gave her. She says that my Dad put up the 4 bulb flour fixture around 24" above the clones and the next day they looked slightly yellow and the leaves were curling a bit. I know the leaves will yellow when the rots are pushing, but what about the curling? Mine were already mostly rooted when I got then, so I'm not to sure how they should look 1 week after cutting. I told her to raise the light some more.

Jman49 said:

Thanks Canna!

Yea, it's going to get crowded in there! As you can see the tray is pretty much maxed out. I will be able to get a couple of more inches on the left side for the top and bottom rows. I realized some time ago that the tops are going to be the only quality buds. Next time I think I will max out at 10 plants.

I spoke to my Mom and she is worried about the clones I gave her. She says that my Dad put up the 4 bulb flour fixture around 24" above the clones and the next day they looked slightly yellow and the leaves were curling a bit. I know the leaves will yellow when the rots are pushing, but what about the curling? Mine were already mostly rooted when I got then, so I'm not to sure how they should look 1 week after cutting. I told her to raise the light some more.

Click to expand...

Yeah man, cloning takes a while to learn. They mostly need to stay warm and humid. For me the cutting stays in stasis until new growth takes over. Post some pics of the clone setup and maybe folks can give you some input. Cloning is something you really need to be good at to keep your garden perpetuating.

cannatari said:

Yeah man, cloning takes a while to learn. They mostly need to stay warm and humid. For me the cutting stays in stasis until new growth takes over. Post some pics of the clone setup and maybe folks can give you some input. Cloning is something you really need to be good at to keep your garden perpetuating.

Click to expand...

I spoke with my Mom and she says there is a little change with some new growth actually appearing. No roots yet, but she had one that I knew was going to die when I took it, and it has since died. I told her to rip the RW in half to see if the stem had any roots and it had some tiny ones. They are not using a heating pad or anything, so I think they will just take extra time.

How long do you leave them under the humidity dome? Until roots pop? I told her to put some hydroton in a tupperware and half fill with water like you did (had also see that technique somewhere else on here), so maybe that will help pull the roots out. They are getting anxious after seeing my plants take off finally.

As for my plants, today is week 2 of flower and they look fantastic. My watering problems are finally in the rear view mirror, as they have not had a droopy leaf in over a week. For the time being, I am getting the hang of it. pH is under control with slight increases every day and no significant jumps. The plants are drinking about a gallon a day and I alternate topping off with plain water one day and full strength nutes the next. The growth has slowed the last day and a half. Thinking maybe because the buds will start forming?

I hope so, I can't wait to take some great macro shots.

Some pics from last night.

Ahh, they're looking fantabulous Jman!

Sounds like your cloning needs some improvment yet. I'm trying to figure out what you're doing wrong. Are you using cloning gel? I pre-soak my RW in 5.5 ph water with a couple of drops of superthrive, cut, dip and stick. They stay in the dome until I transplant. With a simple veg area you can add several more harvests per year to your op with almost no added expenses. It's very much worth the time to get it right. If you have any survivors from your current batch, you still have time to take clones from them for your next round. The Superthrive is kinda spendy but any B-1 supplement will work. B-1 is a root hormone and is absolutely necessary for my cloning technique. Good luck with it!

I'm glad you like the space buds photos. I like using my video camera because it does good macros and takes 640x480 pics, good for posting online. My GF's camera takes crappy macros and I have to batch edit the sizes down, no white balance either. I have to do the best I can with what I got for a long while as a good SLR ain't cheap. Thanks again for the tips.

cannatari said:

Ahh, they're looking fantabulous Jman!

Sounds like your cloning needs some improvment yet. I'm trying to figure out what you're doing wrong. Are you using cloning gel? I pre-soak my RW in 5.5 ph water with a couple of drops of superthrive, cut, dip and stick. They stay in the dome until I transplant. With a simple veg area you can add several more harvests per year to your op with almost no added expenses. It's very much worth the time to get it right. If you have any survivors from your current batch, you still have time to take clones from them for your next round. The Superthrive is kinda spendy but any B-1 supplement will work. B-1 is a root hormone and is absolutely necessary for my cloning technique. Good luck with it!

I'm glad you like the space buds photos. I like using my video camera because it does good macros and takes 640x480 pics, good for posting online. My GF's camera takes crappy macros and I have to batch edit the sizes down, no white balance either. I have to do the best I can with what I got for a long while as a good SLR ain't cheap. Thanks again for the tips.

Click to expand...

Hey Canna,

I did everything you suggest with the exception of the super thrive.

My original plan was to make the box dual purpose, but I didn't want the vertical limitations. I will be making a veg box at my parents in the future (probably after this grow) to house all our clones and veg. Just need to decide on a design and a place at their house.

Just got a call from my Mom and roots have appeared on 3, so 8 days isn't too terrible. I'm sure the rest will pop any day now.

Yea, hear you on the camera situation. I don't currently use a SLR (my Mom is a professional photographer, so when I need a SLR I can borrow one of hers) and my sony dsc-p200 takes some great pics for a P&S and has a lot of manual settings to mess with. I use it for fly fishing trips quite a bit, so I need something small and inexpensive in case it takes a dip. I have actually been thinking about upgrading to a new P&S, but will have to wait.

Forgot to ask. Last night I did the final neem spray before the buds start and I noticed that the roots are filling up the holes on the bottom of the pots. They are even growing into the coco caps I put underneath them to lift the pots. I actually broke some of the roots taking them out to neem (is that a problem?). My fear is that in the next few weeks the holes will be completly blocked and will keep the floods from getting in the pots. Is this a valid concern? Should I push them back up in the holes? Will that stun the plants?

Jman49 said:

Forgot to ask. Last night I did the final neem spray before the buds start and I noticed that the roots are filling up the holes on the bottom of the pots. They are even growing into the coco caps I put underneath them to lift the pots. I actually broke some of the roots taking them out to neem (is that a problem?). My fear is that in the next few weeks the holes will be completly blocked and will keep the floods from getting in the pots. Is this a valid concern? Should I push them back up in the holes? Will that stun the plants?

Click to expand...

Upsetting the roots in any way should be avoided. I doubt they can block the flood water, your pots would have to be floating. I never resolved this problem with my E&B trays.

So are you thinking of setting up a veg area or just a cloning area?

cannatari said:

Upsetting the roots in any way should be avoided. I doubt they can block the flood water, your pots would have to be floating. I never resolved this problem with my E&B trays.

So are you thinking of setting up a veg area or just a cloning area?

Click to expand...

Going to do a veg over at parents house and clones at my place. Spread out the workload.

Had to post some pics on 4/20, although didn't have much time to take more and better pics. I didn't even change the setting on the camera.

They are doing well. 10th day of flower buds started. Just started 3rd week of flower. Tallest is 19.5", and the runt is quickly getting drown in a sea of green. I have been trimming some of the fan leaves to give the lower buds some light. Just mixed the 1:2:3 schedule from GH at full strength and they seem to like it. The roots are now going through the coco pads and into the tray itself. Hopefully they won't get root bound and will work itself out. I cannot wait for round 2 and do with the smaller cubes to start with.

Flowers! Awesome! Don't forget to post how many days you're at.

cannatari said:

Flowers! Awesome! Don't forget to post how many days you're at.

Click to expand...

Today is 49 days total growth, 15th day of flower.

So I made a big mistake last night. I went out to check them and do daily maintenance, and when I do I turn off the vest fan to give it a break. Well when I closed everything up I forgot to turn it back on. So it went the whole night with the light on and no ventilation. When I went to check them this morning the sides of the box were covered in water. Between the plants and the air stones in the res, the humidity shot through the roof. I wiped it down as much as I could, turned the vent fan to full (usually run it at 50%) and put a space heater in front of the box set to 72. Hopefully that will dry it up, but I hate that it has to stay that moist in the dark until the light turns on again.

So how quickly does powder mildew and mold take off? The humidity was around 85% max.

I don't know how long it takes for mold to develop but I'm pretty sure it needs sustained moisture to proliferate. Sorry you're having to learn how easy it is to ruin a garden. I plugged my exhaust fan into the wrong powerstrip a couple of weeks ago. At least it went off with the light. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Thx Canna,

I had forgotten to work on them, and when I went out I wasn't exactly thinking clearly if you know what i mean. Next time, leave them until the morning and don't F with it.

Now I gotta go get Go Gnat for the res water. Seeing quite a few grey little moth? like flying bugs. When you squish them they leave the powder like a moth. I have also found insect larva casing floating in the res, none to happy about that.