Dave's Dual Area 51 Grow

daveroller said:

That was a "Pulp Fiction" reference.

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Give me a LITTLE credit, dude. "For five years, I wore that uncomfortable hunk of metal...up my ass..."

Glad you didn't have a casualty! They are getting tall!

greatbranch said:

Give me a LITTLE credit, dude. "For five years, I wore that uncomfortable hunk of metal...up my ass..."

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I was too hasty to explain it. I shoulda known that YOU'D know the movie. You come up with a lot of obscure movie references.

daveroller said:

That damn Tahoe was touching the light the other day, so I raised it about 8 inches. Now she’s already almost touching it again.

The upper leaves are reaching for the sky, but as you go down the plant they get more curled and dried towards the bottom.

I got another gadget that I’m really liking a lot. It’s a tri-meter that you can keep hanging in the res water.


This way I can keep an eye on the pH as it goes down. It’s been really dropping like a stone every day. So now I raise it up over 6.1 or higher once every 24 hours. Otherwise, it’s been going down to 5.3 pH or thereabouts.

I bought this model for under $100. It’s Chinese, but I can’t afford anything more. Here’s a link to where I bought it. The reviews mostly say that if you get a lemon, they replace it without any hassle. And generally, once it’s calibrated the thing works for most people.

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Hey D - that thing is pretty cool. The link goes to a 4 in1 soil tester, though. I already have one of those.

Hope that Tahoe stops reaching for the sky on you!

Time to train the tahoe down or supercrop her Dave................crispy leaves on the bottom is a sign of light deprivation (self defoliation) and the panel is out of range for the lower canopy.

Probably should have flipped earlier for this particular strain==== no biggie, just learning experiences with new lighting

be safe and happy growing

PSUAGRO. said:

Time to train the tahoe down or supercrop her Dave................crispy leaves on the bottom is a sign of light deprivation (self defoliation) and the panel is out of range for the lower canopy.

Probably should have flipped earlier for this particular strain==== no biggie, just learning experiences with new lighting

be safe and happy growing

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I never saw a plant stretch anywhere near this much before, not with LED or anything else. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk. Remember, this plant was shorter than the LSD up until I flipped. Then the canopies were about even. So I think there's something else going on here. Maybe it's her response to the stress of falling over last week. "Go toward the light, go toward the light..."

Anyway, the curled leaves are on the LSD plant. Thanks for the explanation, P. That plant's doing real good. I'm getting lots of bud sites on her & she's not getting any taller. Do you think I should trim off the lower leaves some more or something? One problem might be that her branches are pressed against the door & back wall, because the closet's only 2 feet deep.

greatbranch said:

Hey D - that thing is pretty cool. The link goes to a 4 in1 soil tester, though. I already have one of those.

Hope that Tahoe stops reaching for the sky on you!

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Thanks for the heads up about the link! It was good last night. I even tested it after posting. Amazon fucked up the posting somehow. Here's their new link.

It's also identical to this "generic" model that's a little more expensive.

I think that one reason that the Tahoe is growing so tall is that she must be more Sativa than the other plants. I get that idea because of the long spacing between nodes. And the Liberty Haze in the same bucket isn't stretching as high as the Tahoe is.

They look great! If I were you I'd tie down or super crop the tall branches on that Tahoe so you can even her out a little and bring that light back down. Do you plan on defoliating them at all? I feel like it could be beneficial to clean out a big portion of the bottom so the energy stays up high where the light is nice and strong.

werm11 said:

They look great! If I were you I'd tie down or super crop the tall branches on that Tahoe so you can even her out a little and bring that light back down. Do you plan on defoliating them at all? I feel like it could be beneficial to clean out a big portion of the bottom so the energy stays up high where the light is nice and strong.

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I could defoliate the bottom, but don't you think it's a little late to start tying down that tall branch? Maybe not... I just never tried starting it this late. Anyway, I was thinking of just letting it go to see exactly what happens when you don't train a plant at all. And these 2 plants were mostly an experiment that I didn't expect to necessarily get much bud from. (But I might tie a few branches down now.)

The LSD plant is my main plant that I hope to get lots of bud from. One thing that I've learned so far is that my closet is a better size for growing 2 plants than 3. It's a little too crowded with 3 plants.

daveroller said:

I could defoliate the bottom, but don't you think it's a little late to start tying down that tall branch? Maybe not... I just never tried starting it this late. Anyway, I was thinking of just letting it go to see exactly what happens when you don't train a plant at all. And these 2 plants were mostly an experiment that I didn't expect to necessarily get much bud from. (But I might tie a few branches down now.)

The LSD plant is my main plant that I hope to get lots of bud from. One thing that I've learned so far is that my closet is a better size for growing 2 plants than 3. It's a little too crowded with 3 plants.

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I don't think it's too late to train them as long as the branches aren't super woody to the point where they'll snap right off. Personally I would slowly start tying them down as much as you can without breaking them as opposed to super cropping. Clearly you know what you're doing but I'd say some heavy defoliation could be beneficial. It would open up the middle and allow more light penetration and it would also focus more energy to the stronger areas of the plant. Either way they're some beauts!

Those are some big girls!!!

Love your set up, looks like its equipment will be used when we colonize other planets like mars. (Assuming till we amend mars soil

Two thoughts

1st have you ever though of investing in light movers? Seems like you got the space and know how. Currently i have my a51 on a light rail and i can say its covering about 1-2ft extra.
2nd dont be scared, trim some of them lower branch out, wont do harm if kept minimal, will help not only with light, but air flow, reduces pest and mildew nesting grounds.

Much love!

Trouble!

Sadly, I had to clip the highest tops off of the Tahoe OG Kush plant in the corner.

I hate to do it when they’re already flowering:

I did try to bend the tallest branch, but the stem just kinked. Anyway, now they aren’t blocking the light for the lower branches to use (and the tops aren’t burning). Here are some other buds that are growing on this plant:

Another problem is that my pride and joy this time around, Lusinda, didn’t eat any nutes since I fed her yesterday (changed the water). I noticed that her roots were really brown, so I think the problem is root rot. She didn’t drink much water either. So I put 30% hydrogen peroxide in the res @1 ml/liter. I think that should fix her up.

You can see in the first photo that I also trimmed a lot of the lower leaves off of Lusinda (plant on the left). I also cut out some of the skinny branches that would only produce popcorn if I let them grow. The 2 foot width of my closet doesn’t allow Lusinda to spread out very far.

Here are some bud closeups on Lusinda:

daveroller said:

Trouble!

Sadly, I had to clip the highest tops off of the Tahoe OG Kush plant in the corner.

Another problem is that my pride and joy this time around, Lusinda, didn’t eat any nutes since I fed her yesterday (changed the water). I noticed that her roots were really brown, so I think the problem is root rot. She didn’t drink much water either. So I put 30% hydrogen peroxide in the res @1 ml/liter. I think that should fix her up.

You can see in the first photo that I also trimmed a lot of the lower leaves off of Lusinda (plant on the left). I also cut out some of the skinny branches that would only produce popcorn if I let them grow. The 2 foot width of my closet doesn’t allow Lusinda to spread out very far.

Here are some bud closeups on Lusinda:

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They are still looking pretty good, Dave! They are resilient! I HATE making decisions like that, though. I had a moment of silence for you this morning. In the hydro area, what do you do to keep from getting root rot in the first place? I know it's a dumb question, but I'm sure I'd get a thousand different answers from people I'd rather not hear from in another area...lol.

dont sweat it she will be ok!

greatbranch said:

They are still looking pretty good, Dave! They are resilient! I HATE making decisions like that, though. I had a moment of silence for you this morning. In the hydro area, what do you do to keep from getting root rot in the first place? I know it's a dumb question, but I'm sure I'd get a thousand different answers from people I'd rather not hear from in another area...lol.

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Beats me...

All I do is try not to let light into the res very much. Algae can't live without light.

I think that some people add a little h2o2 to their res all the time to prevent it. I think it would kill beneficial microbes, but that's not important if you aren't using any anyway. (h2o2 also has the benefit of adding oxygen.)

I bet that Mr Dawg would have a good idea. But I haven't heard from him for a long time.

foreverflyhi said:

Those are some big girls!!!

Love your set up, looks like its equipment will be used when we colonize other planets like mars. (Assuming till we amend mars soil

Two thoughts

1st have you ever though of investing in light movers? Seems like you got the space and know how. Currently i have my a51 on a light rail and i can say its covering about 1-2ft extra.
2nd dont be scared, trim some of them lower branch out, wont do harm if kept minimal, will help not only with light, but air flow, reduces pest and mildew nesting grounds.

Much love!

Click to expand...

I have a question about your light mover... Do you grow more than one plant under it? I'm wondering if I could grow 2 decent plants in my closet with just one light panel if I use a light mover in there. Then maybe I could use the 2nd panel in a tent. Just pondering my options for future projects...

Good grief, that root slime problem was worse than I thought! Lusinda still didn't drink anything today after adding the hydrogen peroxide to the res water, so I had to take drastic measures:

1. Emptied the res and used a spray bottle to squirt a diluted h2o2 solution directly into the bare roots on both sides to really penetrate the root ball very thoroughly.
2. Filled the res with plain water & left the h2o2 that I squirted on the roots in there. That was about 29 ml in 19 liters of water.
3. Ran the pump for 30 minutes.
4. Rinsed the roots with more plain water.
5. Washed the pump & hose.
6. Added water & nutes about half strength.

This time the h2o2 really whitened up the roots like bleach. And they felt "squeaky clean" not slimy.

Poor Lusinda didn't drink anything much since Sunday. I kind of wish that I hadn't pruned the lower leaves, which she could have cannibalized to tide her over. But hopefully now she'll be all right.