BCNL Producer meets SCROG meets Grape Krush by DJ Short

July 23

"Allow myself to introduce.........myself"


I'm licensed by Health Canada to use and produce medical cannabis. My license permits me to grow 10 plants and store 450 grams of dried bud. I do not plan on over stepping either of those boundaries. I've had experience with indoor soil grows and hydroponic set-ups (ebb and flow tables specifically). I have no experience with outdoor growing but my license is strictly indoor anyway. My dreams of 8 foot trees will have to remain dreams.




The Hardware:


BC Northern Lights "The Producer"


I'm expecting a delivery today! 355 pounds of Producer Royale. The Royale version of the Producer includes, amongst other things, the Dryer. I'll write a review of that in 3 months.


Why The Producer?


I know the DIY crowd gets their hackles up when somebody (over) pays for one of these boxes. I did a grow myself years ago and here is what I remember; endless trips to Home Depot and equipment purchased and then not used. I've got kids and a career now and I highly value my limited free time. I am aware I can build it for cheaper but i am not that handy and simply put, I don't want to. I know that the guys at BCNL put a nice chunk of that money in their pocket but I'm a capitalist so I don't begrudge them wetting their beaks.


The Strain:





Vendor's Description:
Delicious Seeds Fruity Chronic Juice is another indica cannabis strain from the Delicious Seed bank. seeds of this variety are a result of breeding experiments with an original strain of White Widow. This new strain has a fresh and floral taste so popular in Dutch coffee shops. 90% indica, this cannabis is said to have a great medical value and is used as a relaxant, effective for anxiety, pain, nausea, appetite stimulation, sleep, muscle spasms and tremors. Like any other indica dominant variety, Fruity Chronic Juice possesses a strong resistance to mould and mushroom and shows an ability cope well with a mild stress. She produces short dense plants with broad leaves of a dark green shade suitable for indoor and outdoor cultivation. A compact structure makes this plant ideal for gardens where space might be an issue. Mature plants are very pretty with large flowers turning into chunky nuggets in just 50-55 days. When growing indoors, seeds of this marijuana variety respond well to all growing methods and produce a yield of 450 gr per m2 after typically indica's 7-8 weeks. Outside harvest starts in the middle of September and is as good as 500 gr of great marijuana per plant. By the end of flowering, a nice floral aroma starts to appear and remains in the cured product. Fruity Chronic Juice is agreed by expects to be in the list of the strongest indica marijuana varieties in the world, her THC content is 17+% with a nice sweet taste. Marijuana of this indica has a relaxing social high, which allows you to sense and feel the environment, but does not lead to thinking or analyzing the experience.


I had planned on buying clones from my compassion club but they ran out the day before my Producer arrives. I ordered the afore mentioned strain as my Plan B from everybody's favourite website - Attitude. From the description I like the short plants, the short flowering and "fresh and floral" sounds delightful.


Several elements of this grow will be new to me. Ive never grown a SCROG before. I've experimented and used many other training techniques but this will be a first. I've also never used the Producer. Reviews all say it works but it's expensive. I'm fine with the latter as long as it delivers the former. I'm looking forward to getting used to it. I've also never used CO2 before and I'm really excited about that. I'm going to try all three new things in this grow.


I'll post photos tomorrow of the big arrival as well as my attempts at building a screen inside the thing.


Thanks in advance for any and all advice, tips, encouragement, laughter and knowledge!

July 24

It arrived! I had to unpack it on the front driveway. It comes with an incredible amount of stuff.

July 24

I partially put it together tonight. I'm expecting the seeds before the end of the week. I hope to soon have photos and updates more interesting than a grow box on a pallet in my front yard.

July 26

August 1

Seeds have arrived but the plot thickens. I've been offered clones of DJ Short's Grape Krush. The problem is that they are a 3 hour drive away and may take a week or two. I'm giving myself 24 hours to decide.

August 2

Fruity Chronic Juice
In seed form. Will take longer in veg. Already paid for and at my house. Never smoked it before but heard good things.

DJ Short Grape Krush
In clone form. 3 hour drive away. Very, very cheap. I adore smoking it.

Compasssion Club: various
All in clone form. $20 each (expensive). Available close to my work.
Hazy O.G.
Hindu Kush
Pink Kush
White S1
Of those four I like Pink Kush the best although I don't think I want to be retarded from marijuana all the time. Kush turns me into a drooling, speechless idiot although a fairly happy one.


Help me pick!

August 3

I've made my decision. I'm doing the 3 hour drive for the best genetics. Grape Krush clones. It has a little more sativa then I'm used to but that's not a bad thing.

August 7

I just got home from 7 hours of driving to pick up three 10" clones of Grape Krush. It's 12:45 am and I've got to get up for work in less than 6 hours. I'll post some photos tomorrow.

August 9

Here they are. Great genetics in mediocre condition. They came from a garden that was grossly under lit. Im going to nurse them back to health. They got a bug spray the day that they travelled. The tallest one is 13' tall. Taller than I'd like for my purposes.


I'm going to give them a few days out of the Producer to rid themselves of bugs. I have no reason to believe they have them but I'm being safe. I gave them another Neem bath tonight in the sink.



They have been getting a few hours in the sun each day to ease them into a well lit life. In the morning they are going in the box under just the CFL light. Two days after that im turning on one of the MH bulbs. Next week the other. I'm leaving them in the soil for another day or two and the transferring them to hydroten. I'm going to cut the tips off all 3 to make clones in a Secret Jardin tent I bought today. That should also shorten them up a bit which will make more sense for a SCROG.

They will be undergoing a variety of stresses in the next week but I'm going to do my best to minimize and manage that.

August 9

This morning I put them under the CFL in the box.

August 10

I've turned on one of the 400 w MH to get them used to more light. Tonight I'm going to cut the top off each one to shorten them up and to start some mother plants. My mother plant is going in a 1'x1'x2' grow tent. I've made a thread in the micro grow forum asking for advice.






I've built a screen. I've also posted a thread in the training forum asking for advice.

These go on the outside of my box as a back for the magnet. They are held in place solely with magnetic force.



These are the magnets on the inside of the box. They seem to attach with considerable force when they connect. I've glued hooks to each of them.






Here is the net in place.

August 12

The advice in the training forum has been to scrap my magnetic scrog idea. I'm going to start work on a PVC Set-up similar to this one.

August 12

A new plan. I don't want to try and transplant the soil plants into the nice clean drip system of the cabinet. I've cut 8 clones now and the soil plants are going into my tent to be mothers. The 8 newbs will be my crop.

This grow keeps changing direction.

August 15

I went to Home Depot and got everything I needed for my screen. I just brought my iPadand showed the guy the thread with the photos (I did not show him the photos of giant buds growing through the screen).

August 22

I forgot how annoyingly long it takes clones to show roots. I'll post a photo of them later today anyway.

This Saturday I'm building that frame

August 24

The squeaky wheel gets the grease! Last night I found my first roots. I also checked my notes, they sprouted roots in 12 days which is perfectly normal.






I also bought some CO2. I'd always heard that hydroponic stores were pricey for CO2 but this one was the exact same price as a gas seller in an industrial area near home. I'd way rather support the hydro store some bought it there.




One of my mother plants is showing some signs of stress. she has a few monts to recover before I cut more clones so I'm sure she'll be ok.

August 25

So I finally got the Producer up and running in all it's glory.

I used hydroton instead of rockwool. A good, intelligent friend of mine sat me down and gave a very impassioned and detailed talk as to why I should throw all my rockwool in the garbage. So I did.

Here is the hydroton soaking in PH balanced water. I keep reading that ph'ing water to soak hydroton isn't necessary but then I also hear you have to. I thought I might as well invest the 20 cents in PH down because it can't hurt.



I put my first load of nutes in and it took forever to get the PH down to 5.7. I posted a thread about it here but if you have advice please post it below.

I just realized I only have one, bad photo of a plant in the system. I actually took the photo because this lead looks weird and I'm trying to figure out what's causing it.




I also set-up the tiny tent for my three battered mother plants.

You can tell I'm not a pro by the duct tape. That is the 3" fan I picked up a few days ago.



I've got it set up to blow in the tent. I'd prefer if it was blowing out but that is the only way I can attach the fan. I may or may not keep my eyes out for a new ventilation solution. at least it is blowing in, right on the bulb. It actually moves a surprising amount of air in there. The leafs on their plants visibly move constantly from it.



Here are the three battered and bruised mother plants in the tiny tent. In the last three weeks they had the following chronological events;

1. Taken from a grow room where they had been living under poor lighting.
2. Stuffed in a box in a garbage bag
3. Driven across the province
4. Pulled over on the side of the highway by the police
5. Got cycled up to withstand 800 watts of MH
6. Sprayed with neem oil
7. Got topped
8. Got cloned
9. Got cloned again two days later
10. Cycled back to a low light level as they were not going to be under the 800 watts but in the tiny tent.


They have lost a fair number of fan leaves but the new side growth is cranking along. I've been spraying them with vitamin B and gave them some diluted nutes.

August 25

Where the hell did the DIY scrod thread go? I've got all the parts and I'm ready to go but no instructions

August 25

I'm proceeding without instructions.