Forward Planning for perpetual grow

ross grew

Member
Is there anyone that can hang in there with me a while and help me get my grow going how it should. 3 months ago I was in a 1.5x2.5 ft cabinet with some cfl's in bad soil and miracle grow plant food. now i'm in a 4x4 tent and built 3x3 cabinet and have the 1x2 still for mother and clones....and a bunch of plants sitting in bad soil. got a 600 dimmable cool tube a 400 hps/mh, 22 plants of various strains/veg times/flowering times all in various funny soils. My list of grow room violations is long and so egregious that it doesn't matter any more. But getting equipment and supplies in staggered succession, moving to a new house, x mas , my basement flooding, violent temp swings, and my fimming and super cropping and lst and aggressive defoliation have all played a part in where I am now. That's the past though. now I have 25 clones about to root and my 4x4 is full. I took my mothers out of the 3x3 and brought my 400mh over to the 4x4 to join the rest of the girls and the 600. I would like some help salvaging the rest of this grow. but more importantly some help with planning ahead so I'm not hacking away in the sandtrap. I want back on the green so to speak. All this seams like piss poor planning but its not. I did this to myself intentionally. It was either do it now this way or wait 2 more months before even starting. I felt like a 4x4 full of underperforming plants would be better than an idea on a napkin. Nothing is more than the beginning of week 4 flower and I have them pretty well stabilized so there should be some time to get them in health and producing better. if I take good pics of my plants could someone help me get my not failing or dying but underperforming plants to produce a little better over the next month. Then some advice on how to make these 2 cabinets and 1 tent work for me a little more efficient? what I really want to do is use the small cab for mother and clones, build one more cabinet with cfl or fluros for veg and use the 3x3 and 4x4 for alternating grow rooms everymonth. I've got most of the hard work done. if anyone could help it would save me a year of bumbling around and going out of the pan and into the fire. This is my first grow but I've been reading for a couple of years now so I wont be asking basic redundant noob questions. I'll be asking advanced noob questions. So, can someone please help me PIMP my RIDE. i'll let ya laugh and call me names all ya want because I've been humbled and am now "teachable"
 

cocakola

Active Member
Sure I will help you Ross , you not alone in here we all was in your shoes one time or another.
The least we can do is give you our honest opinon on any questions you might have....
And no name calling either lol...
Good Luck...
 

ross grew

Member
Yeah that's great to know. I was just picturing someone ripping me a new one for the 50 things I did wrong. it would be to easy. but good thing Ive been reading since it looks to be march 2011. I'm up to my ears in stats and theories. I could probably regurgitate at length on all kinds of topics but that all flies out the window when the doing starts to happen. I never read how to survive a basement flood. Now that I think about it I should have taken a picture and told everyone I was doing one 600 sq ft flood and drain table. anyways I think my two most pressing problems are: how to make my last four weeks of flower count now that Ive got a more static environment and; even more importantly how to get a tight ship running... what to do with my batch of clones coming up. I took 25 clones and tossed my mothers into flower and i'm sitting with an empty 3x3x5 now and 22 in a 4x4 tent. five have been around since December but you cant tell cuz ive been smoking leaves off em and I stressed them so bad I thought theyd all be males. Nope 5 of 7 female. so those five on week four and about 2 and a half feet tall. another 7 that where clones from flowering plants, rooted vegged a week and then fimmed and lst'd also on week four. I think another 6 or 7 that cloned and vegged one week and are on week two and just sexed and males removed starting to show signs of growth after my noob moment of overwatering and waiting forever to dry out (lesson learned) and I just threw 3 mothers in to flower. have them all in 2 and a couple of three gallon pots sitting on double steps on both sides and the 2 1/2 footers down the middle. oh, and the big ones where tall and dense so I cut all the leaves off and so light can get down there. aggressive defoliation seems a little to aggressive and growth has slown a good bit for the last four days but they are on their way back and tons of little sites exposed. Using gh nutes. and cal mag and bloom buster subbing with molasses, epsom salts, and Peroxide to help kill the mushrooms growing out of my overwatered non perlite garden / top soil and to keep the roots from rotting in the pots where I had two or three plants and had to rip one out due to sexing. so theres that for now. is that enough for now? haha Next I need advice on how to make coco mulch work in a flood and drain. I got a good deal and bought 70 lbs of it. Lifetime supply. But it took my six hours to tear it all into little chunks. yeah, what a bargain. a 2 dollar bag of mulch cost me 6 hours of labor x what I make an hour x 8 bags of it. that's 48 hours of labor total. so it actually cost me about a thousand dollars after labor or like 140 per bag. woops!!! So, Mr. Kola, my new found friend? How can I help you help me? You're probably asking yourself what my question even is. I Don't know that I have one? it's more of a dilemma. I'll recon some pics tonight after 10 and just know I'm not freaking out at all. things are moving along at sub par but this is where I knew id be or worse. figured jump in and make it happen and sort it all out after the melee. THanks for your help. I'm sure I missed some crucial details. let me know, thanks Mr. KOla
 

cocakola

Active Member
Whew that's a read should of smoked after but didnt expect all this lol.. Ok ok 1 at a time , my short term memory is on the fritz...
You have a lot going on there and member Less is better at this stage of the game , you dont want to over whelm yourself so early...
But if your up for the task then strap yourself in and hold on tight..

You want to keep mothers if you wish to do a perpetual , for me its easier to keep a big mommy and take as many clones as i wish when i wish..
You can have 2 flowering rooms or one big enough so that you can fit a few in at different stages in flowering...

When you do have any diect questions feel free , till then Good Luck..
 

ross grew

Member
right after I sent that I thought maybe I should have done some editing. cracked out at 3 in the morning haha. Plus nothing to smoke to curb the bi polar mania that noobies get. I've never posted before but always see people posting vague questions and getting vague answers. Sometimes these forums seem like the land of Babel. I'm just trying to get a working game plan because i'm fighting now with what I did three months ago. Don't want to do that anymore. But, I'll keep it nailed down to the pertinent facts and ask specific questions instead of saying heres my mess clean it up. I know its a gotta be there and feel it for yourself kinda gig. Just need help filling in the blanks. and right now I'm just trying to remove as many variables as possible. I'm gonna hang both lights vert tonight in separate rooms and balance things out a bit. Do you think I should keep the mh on the 400? I'm interested in the blue spectrum in flower but 30 vs 50k lumen is a big difference. Will need help later with the coco mulch perlite mix. Having trouble finding people who have done this. But that's later. And, I think I just hit my 200 word limit. will repost new pics tonight cuz they say those are worth a thousand words. thank you Till then Big KOlA, signing off
 

ross grew

Member
oh, and the mothers can I do a thing where I grow three or four mothers big enough to take 5 to 10 clones off and then throw them into flower then keep three or four clones in veg to become mothers? then clone the bottom branch of each clone and take 5 to 10 clones off the mothers and throw into flower. and on and on. this seems like a good way to veg plants kinda big and cut the leaves back to expose the sites. and id still be able to get 30 - 50 clones every month or so. Thanks
 

cocakola

Active Member
Yes you can put the Mh in there for a more complete spectrum , but like u said u sacrifice a little yeild but possibly for a more flavorful , possibly more potent end product..
The choice is yours , if you decide to keep the strain you can always switch to hps the next grow and compare the two. Yeah pics help a lot..
Yup you can do the mother thing that way with no prob...
 
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