1800W HEMPY SCROGs (Vertical/Horizontal) Simultaneously in High Definition! (video)

Grow Journal REBOOT in High Definition!

I am deciding to reboot my Grow Journal and get it setup proper now that my room has evolved considerably since the start, we're currently on Day 22 veg but will be flipping to 12/12 very soon as I am already concerned about how much room I will have and think I'll have to add another section of screen to the cylinder scrog. Here's a brief run down on what I am working with here and I will include some photos from the previous thread.


Equipment/Room Specifics

I am currently working in roughly an 8'x8' area which is just over 6' high due to HVAC Ducting invading the ceiling everywhere. I also have a 3.5'x6' or so Veg area but it's not being used right now (I started in there, it's attached) but found that I wanted to get the SCROGs going and could not do so in my confined area originally designated for veg.

(3) 600W Electronic Ballasts w/ Open reflectors
(3) Metal Halide lamps (3) High Pressure Sodium lamps
(2) HydroFarm ActiveAir 6" Fans
(1) 6000BTU Frigidaire Air Conditioner with 'hot box' on the rear getting heat extracted by one of the 6" fans out the basement window
(1) CAP MLC-4XT light controller

Various fans, electrical, Ecoplus 264gph pump in my nutrient reservoir (18g, filled to 10g line I made) this is connected to a manifold for drip line feeding to my hempys but I need to get more drain pans so I still manually feed some of them. There's other stuff too but I am getting bored typing it out and so are you. Here's a High Definition video of how the plants are looking right now and my vertical light movement in action.

[video=youtube_share;qv-dstSLZwk]http://youtu.be/qv-dstSLZwk?hd=1[/video]


Will migrate more from old thread to this one over the course of the day too... I just broke my camera today, hence the video update... so I will have to use my Sports cam from now on til I replace it, and of course... my beast of an HD camera too but video updates may be time consuming.

I am concerned with my outter branching failing miserably with the vert light though since it's inside them and they are not surrounded by the other side with lighting, I'm not planning on rotating them (haven't yet) since they may get tangled soon anyway although I am not intentionally weaving I am just using the screen to keep them away from the light actually. I pull them back through and let them grow up against it. Not sure if I should be letting the tops pop through when bud sites start forming or not because of the light. I may stick with just a single hanging light but the tops will miss out. Might have to buy a 4th 600 and double up on A/C lol.

The reason for concern is due to early training in veg, I got them to spread way out and develop main shoots that are pointing in the wrong direction, I may tie them close to the screen by bending them toward it... maybe after a couple weeks they will be going that way on their own with some coercion.

Also, judging by my drain holes in the smaller 1.25g hempys I think I may need to transplant into 5g buckets for those as well... the drain holes show a massive network of roots that almost built a wall which resembles a ball of rolled up twine, not sure if this means I definitely need a bigger container or if I am just rocking a super healthy massive network of roots. I tried lifting the plant from the stalk and with a little effort it seemed to budge but I don't want to mess anything up yet. @ 22 days of Veg would it be realistic to flower out of these 1.25g containers or am I nuts and going to severely cripple the yield from these few plants in smaller containers? Two of them are bagseed and I am not even that worried since they'll probably hermie anyway and I'll have to eradicate them.

End of Day 22... more wall coverings put into place, moved the book shelf I was using and rotated it and added reflective material making a closer wall for less light inefficiency but it's harder to get around in there now not sure if the trade off is worth it. I could probably store my nutes and everything in here now though since behind it the shelves are now shaded, ballasts and so on are on top shelf now too to keep ambient heat further out of reach.

Awesome grow, Nice room definitely subbed for this one!!! Although that Swinging light scares the fuck out of me

Pretty cool man, this grow reminds of something out of a mad scientist movie "IT'S ALIVE!", as far as the small containers go i don't know much about hempy buckets but what i do know is that canopy mass is directly proportionate to root ball mass, so for this reason i would not flower in such small containers, if you want big plants you need big root balls.

psilocybindude said:

Pretty cool man, this grow reminds of something out of a mad scientist movie "IT'S ALIVE!", as far as the small containers go i don't know much about hempy buckets but what i do know is that canopy mass is directly proportionate to root ball mass, so for this reason i would not flower in such small containers, if you want big plants you need big root balls.

Click to expand...

I think I am going to transplant the small (1.25g) plants into 5g buckets (the horizontal and 3 of the vert plants are in 5g buckets already) then I think I should be ok for the size I am going for since I don't have tons of room but enough to hopefully pull several ounces per plant. I'm more just running once to see how it goes and fix whatever issues arise so who knows, it could be a bust or a great success and I can't wait to find out. I think if I light control the basement tomorrow I will flip to 12/12 I just cant figure out what time I want my lights to be off because I need to factor in so many things including accessing the basement and turning on lights if needed. I also like to work in my room as much as possible but that would have to coincide with my work schedule too if it were to be off @ night rather than the other way around.

Gonenowhere said:

Awesome grow, Nice room definitely subbed for this one!!! Although that Swinging light scares the fuck out of me

Click to expand...

Thanks, seems to be fine so far!

It really is a pain in the ass when you don't have simple power tools... I have had to make a 'window cover' with 6" vent on it for my air conditioner and it's made of reflectix because it's the only halfway thick material I could find which I could cut with what I had available (ugh) my hole saw now is jammed and I can't get a 2.5" thick piece of wood out of it and need to add more ventilation to the stairs where my hot air comes out (steps to outside of house) as it's building so much pressure in there that my 'window cover' is bubbling out and almost coming loose.

I have a perfect sized piece of wood that fits right in there I just need to cut a 6" hole out of it and I don't even have a Jig Saw... I do have a Dewalt Rotary tool (cut out tool for drywall and such) but no cutting bits... one way or the other I need to get one of these so I can get this issue resolved before I have critters crawling in my basement seeking that nice warm air. My outdoor cat is going to LOVE it in the winter with that warm air blowing out that vent in on our patio though... I am thinking of building a 'cat house' like a dog house and attaching it to the edge of the steps right there which is where I put food and water anyway then she'll have a heated little shelter, she's fine though she's been an outdoor cat for years without issue.

If I can get my cloning gel, buckets, and more drain trays for the new buckets I will flip 12/12 tonight I am still working on my schedule though I can't decide between day and night for accessing my garden. I have kids in school which makes a day time light schedule good since it's great time to work but I also work from home 9-5 hours and this garden has KILLED my productivity the past 2 weeks because I haven't been able to stay out of it. I am thinking maybe I should have them sleeping during my work day so I am not to be distracted but that brings up a whole new issue of light control and being able to 'do stuff' in the basement like laundry, getting clothes together, and general maintenance during normal hours... hmm... I am hoping if I block off the basement windows that it will be dark enough in there @ day time.

Transplant Done - Day 23 Veg

Finally got everyone in 5g buckets, even the two unknown (NY Diesel I'm sure) bagseed hermie hopefuls (lol) so now I am ready for the 12/12 flip but my roots in 4 of the plants are now a good 5-6 inches from the reservoir, once again. I am thinking I need to run these a few days to get the roots settled in to their new home ya think? I was also thinking, optimistically that I could flip to 12/12 anyway and maybe that would help keep stretch down somewhat since the roots aren't really 'set up' for hardcore growth until they hit the res again I would think... Seems this may be a big negative, 4 of my plants were already in 5g buckets from the start so they will be unaffected.

I also made a huge mess in there, wow... I may do a little video again showing the whole room (which you can see anyway since it's tiny) I'd love to flip tonight... but I don't know.

All photos are post-transplant, they look just fine to me I just watered them all for about 5 minutes too and had to suck up the run off with my shop vac twice (that's how I do it, then dump @ the basement drain) kind of a pain in the ass but I don't have anything elevated so I can't really do drain to waste lines too easily.

They are anywhere from 14-18" tall right now from the base of stem... I am worried about those 18" suckers after the stretch I am 100% sure I will have to add a whole new section of screen at the top or do some insane training during stretch.

I am tempted to clean and sanitize my shop vac and then maybe instead of dumping everything that I suck from the drainage I could dump it back into my nutrient res, I don't see how this would be much different than recirculating it other than the fact it's been sitting in a drain pan for a short while... any thoughts on that? I would pay close attention to PPM & PH of course as I always do. I backed off on the supplements too this feeding as I just mixed up my flowering batch and was at 1080ppm before I could even add Floralicious plus, Rapid Start (considered it for the transplants, never did though), and FloraNectar so I added some fresh water and did the Floralicious Plus but not the other two. I am sure I can probably maintain 1200+ ppm once they get going but I have been keeping between 900-1000 the whole grow... at least what my meter says is 900-1000.


Likely won't do it, could be a bad idea unless told otherwise but it would save me money on nutes that's for sure... I also do not have a Blooming Supplement, should I look into Kool Bloom? Alternatives? I don't know what additives I should be rockin' for the best bud production I can get out of my setup and abilities.

Officially Flipping to 12/12 Tomorrow! @ Day 24/25 (12am to 12pm will be lights out, although I am considering as late as 2am-2pm)

I just happened to find a 20 or so inch strip of Velcro and to be honest that made the decision, I wanted to get a light tight veg area set up so I can get these AK47 youngins' out of there and into veg for a couple more weeks at least, plus I got my clonex and some nice fiskars today (welding goggles too, haha and other stuff) so I want to get at least 1 cut off each strain plus each of the unknowns in the event im lucky and they are non hermie females and I can then confirm what strain they are at some point.

I am hoping Panda film inside my under-the-stairs area (attaching photos to show) which is connected to the 8x8 area will be light tight if I staple/tape panda all the way up behind the headers and behind the studs as well on the inside then velcro tight to the bottom. I can't afford any light leaks but it has to be easy accessible, no clue what I am going to do about air flow probably need to put up a wooden header and cut out a couple circles and run some passive ducting for air exchange minus the light leaks... if it's a few feet long it should be dark. My flower room fan should exchange the air in that enclosed area just fine if I have an intake and exhaust hole I would think.

Day 24 and the HPS has taken over!

Timer has not yet been set to 12/12, will probably have the first 12 hour dark period start tonight between 12-2am somewhere... I accidentally never turned the lights off last night though, well I had a 13W CFL going (ceiling light) all night as I did not notice it was on with the HIDs blazing and came down this morning to realize they never got any darkness whatsoever, just some extremely half ass 1600 lumens for the past 8 hours.

Got some more supplies today, (4) 48" T8 fixtures (2 lamp) for my veg/clones area... I find T5 unnecessary for my needs. A 12 pack of 6500K T8 lamps, more duct work and various things like duct tape and clear tubs for clone chambers, etc.etc. Also got Liquid KoolBloom, Dry KoolBloom, a couple gallons of Micro, Bloom, some more CaliMagic, etc. etc... I think I should be good to get my veg area setup before the lights go out... I can't access the Veg area when the lights are out which will be interesting. I'll basically have both gardens on the same working schedule as far as it pertains to myself since they're stacked on one another basically I can't open the poly even for a split second. I did buy a green CFL too, just out of curiosity more than anything it honestly seems risky to even bother going in there at night green light or not regardless but I figured if some emergency happened I'd have it.

Day 25... Lights out within an hour or so.

I managed to get the clones I needed to keep the genetics with me, rigged up a pretty weak veg area in a hurry since I don't have everything I needed to hang the lights and so on (I have 4 more tubes I could be using) but it will do the trick, I am just worried about light leaks. I am using Panda Film to seperate the areas but I feel like in order to get a 'perfect' seal I am gonna have to tape it daily or something. I have velcro but I don't trust it completely.

Day 26 - Flower Day 1

Yeah, no pics... I still have 6 hours before my lights come on and this is going to take some getting used to. I set this dark schedule so I would actually get some work done/accomplished throughout the day and not spend all my time in the room but in about 6 hours I can go in there. I doubt there will be any reason to take a photo yet but we shall see... I could NOT seal up the light leaks from my veg area good enough so hopefully only 1 day of that won't be much of an issue. I have no idea how to do this I think I might just give up the veg area since it's not worth the chance of hermie/light leaks... there's 'too much going on' to light control the entrance to under my stairs way too much stuff in the way and no matter what you get light out of the edges unless it's PERMANENTLY sealed with duct tape.

Just how much of a light leak is too much? It's impossible to get a 100% seal with poly unless you're taking into account the edges the entire way around... I dunno how everyone else does it, I assume it's more half ass than I imagine it is and marginal bits of light come out of the very smallest of crevices.

I ordered 15' roll of Velcro... 3/4" I was going to go with 2" crazy stuff but it's too wide to put over studs anyway... I realized that my plan was always to use 'small spots' of velcro for corners and every foot or so but now I am thinking if I just use a damn 6 foot strip of it so there are no breaks in it whatsoever it would probably be decently light tight -- I just never thought to use excessively rather than just on corners, etc. I'm guessing this will work I am thinking I will use Panda again and permanently seal the top 1/3rd then have the rest be velcro, I still don't have any good areas to mount it where it's a flat/level surface though and I think I'm going to have SOME kind of light leak even if not visible to the plants.

The Velcro is a great idea I'm sure you can get it pretty light tight using it alone, i was going to suggest it but you got to it before i could, to take care of the small leaks i would recommended weather stripping its pretty cheap for a decent sized roll and it works pretty well, weather stripping and caulk have been my main light leak fighters. Grats on the veg room and flipping the switch to flower i was going to be flipping the switch today as well but i just found out my timers internal battery is dead so I'm gonna have to wait a week or so to get one but in the mean time im gonna light up the HPS, and yeah its gonna be a pain in the ass trying to decide what schedule to put the plants on I'm going to have to lock my door to make sure i don't accidentally open it up in the middle of the dark cycle lol.

psilocybindude said:

The Velcro is a great idea I'm sure you can get it pretty light tight using it alone, i was going to suggest it but you got to it before i could, to take care of the small leaks i would recommended weather stripping its pretty cheap for a decent sized roll and it works pretty well, weather stripping and caulk have been my main light leak fighters. Grats on the veg room and flipping the switch to flower i was going to be flipping the switch today as well but i just found out my timers internal battery is dead so I'm gonna have to wait a week or so to get one but in the mean time im gonna light up the HPS, and yeah its gonna be a pain in the ass trying to decide what schedule to put the plants on I'm going to have to lock my door to make sure i don't accidentally open it up in the middle of the dark cycle lol.

Click to expand...

lol yep... I am worried about accidentally leaving the overhead light on (sometimes I just don't notice it since the HIDs are insane) so I ended up putting a green bulb in there just in case. I gotta say It's probably dark enough that the plants don't notice it as is (that whole shelving unit/wall I made is blocking where the leaks come from) I stapled and taped a ton of reflectix (and panda) over that area just in a rush because lights were about to go out lol so when it's light in there I'll go spend an hour or two doing something nicer but I won't have my Velcro until tomorrow anyway.