Gastanker's 600+w Organic UV Grow

Starting up again but keeping it small and classy. I'm going with just two feminized chocolope seeds from DNA Genetics. Never grown this strain before but have really enjoyed the end product.

I just recently grabbed two General Electric 8 pannel fluorescent X-ray lamps for free from my local Kaiser who has switched over to digital X-ray photos versus prints. Will be using these in conjunction with a 1000w hps. I'm thinking I might set it up so that the light "moves" during the day - something like the left lamp on , then the left and the HID, then the HID, then the HID and right lamp, and then end with just the right lamp. My thoughts are more energy savings based than plant health although I suspect the supplemental spectrum will be beneficial. In my opinion 12 hours of direct 1000w is a bit overkill in a 4x4 tent (should have purchased a 600w back in the day).

I'll be growing in Happy Frog soil with organic nutes - mostly bat guano, bone/blood meal, organic cal/mag supplements, and kelp emulsion. Tent is 4x4x6. My hood is way too tiny but is sealed and being vented by a 440cf/m fan. All air is initially pulled through a small carbon filter in the tent before leaving my window. I have a second exhaust for my portable AC unit which is not currently in the tent.

Started germination of seeds 7 days ago. They both popped on the second day and were put into soil on the third. They are currently under 2 23w CFLs receiving 18hrs a day.

All comments are welcome.

love that set up man

tomahawk2406 said:

love that set up man

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Why thank you. I've been turning on the lights and sitting in there itching for my tiny seelding to get bigger. I must have seasonal affect disorder because it makes me feel great! Praise the light!

Just placed an order for a 600w dimable to 400w lumatek digital ballast. This way I can start em under floros and gradually step it up with 400w and 600w of MH before transitioning to the 1kW HPS.

Started a couple more beans today. One more femmed Chocolope, two indica dom seeds an old hippie vet gave me, a kush x goo i've grown before, a white russian x white russian, and a mystery kush goo x ?.

The two vet seeds popped and are in soil now and here are updates on the first two chocolope I put into soil a week or so ago. Fed em both with bat guano tea today.

The tri-nodal returns!

Several years ago from the same set of seeds I ended up with a plant that was tri-nodal versus bi-nodal. At every node this plant grew three leaves and three bud sites. From the looks of it I ended up with another! A true tri even down to the cotyledons. Super excited as this grew out beautifully before. Might have to seed her up and see if I can develope a strain that carries this trait more often than not.



This is my last tri after being accidentally topped. You might be able to notice the 3 fan leaf groupings:




Here are my two current Chocolopes:



More seeds popped and started another 4 Spider Goo (kush x goo hybrid) and one unlabeled cross I made at somepoint.

A great thrill for me to see those little tap roots projecting form the beans. This is the biggest hurdle for as I have been trying to germinate unsuccessfully for some time n ow with older seeds that many won't pop. great start, man

rjl said:

A great thrill for me to see those little tap roots projecting form the beans. This is the biggest hurdle for as I have been trying to germinate unsuccessfully for some time n ow with older seeds that many won't pop. great start, man

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I have great sucess with this method:

Scrape the outside of the seed with a serrated knife or sand paper. Fold between a wet paper tower with all of the seeds pointing the same way. Fold that into aluminum foil and place in a warm area (i put in my veg box) on its side so that all of the seeds are pointed in the correct direction. This really helps maintain straight root tips.

Thanks for dropping by!

transplanted the older two plants into larger pots (1 gallon). Will purchase 3 or 5 gallon smart pots for final transplant.

Tiny veg box is pretty full now.

Love the lighting setup and your Chocolope's lookin dope! Tri-nodals are sick! Harvest should be off the hook.

So some drama with my ballast order. I checked my e-mail and had the following letter from the seller in my in box:

"Date Ordered: Sunday 13 February, 2011 The comments for your order are: Thank you for your order with www.urbansunshine.com. Unfortunately, there was an issue with our paypal account at the time of your order. We did not receive any payments from 2/12/11 to 2/13/11. Please check your account to see if there was a payment deducted from your account, and if so void/cancel it right away. You can also call paypal at 1-888-221-1161. The payment should have gone to [email protected] any other account would be incorrect. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

If you would like to continue with your order please place a new order on the website and use this coupon code ( e4606bb098 ) to receive an additional 10% off your order. We have tested the paypal payment process extensively and what ever issue caused the problem over the weekend is no longer in place. Paypal payments are currently coming through fine. Again we are very sorry for the trouble this issue has caused and hope you feel comfortable giving us a second chance.

Thank you,
Jason O’Brien
Urban Sunshine


Contacted paypal immediately to cancel the payment but they told me it had already gone through and that I should contact the seller.

Turns out the seller's paypay account was hacked and all payments directed to a third party. The people at urbansunshine were super nice about and it really apologetic. After taking down my number they called up paypal again on my behalf and called me back and walked me through filing an online claim. As of now I have still sent my money to a third party but even so urbansunshine said they would ship out my ballast immediately with upgraded shipping and then when I do receive my refund from paypal to just call them back and pay them then with a 10% off discount for the hassle.

Very professional of them in my opinion - for a second there I thought I would be out a couple hundred and a ballast for 10-30 days or however long paypal takes to do its thing.

Super bored and running low on bud so I decided to process alittle scrap bud from last grow. Piece of paper is 18"x24"



91% alcohol. How long do you think it will take to evaporate off?

BluBerry said:

Im subbed in. Love the tent setup +rep

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Woot my first sub of the thread. Honored to have you along.

Forgot to mention I grabbed my smart pots today. Grabbed two 5 gal and four 3 gal. Two Chocolopes get the 5 gallons and the rest fight over the 3 gallons. That other chocolope pictured earlier popped and was put into soil today along with one of the spider kush (was pretty sure the chocolope was a dud, thank the lord).

I didn't realize that smartpots are so short and squat. Think the 3gallons will be big enough?

Have had a few issues with Paypal, so I'm trying to get all my supplies locally. We're a Medical state here in the mitt, so lots of grow stores are popping up.

I also subbed, so you have two

uhhhh what are you making there with the scraps? hash?

just saw this too. subd +rep.. cant wait to see the chocolope bloom.. I have enjoyed that strain for some time. good luck!!!

suchnsuch said:

Have had a few issues with Paypal, so I'm trying to get all my supplies locally. We're a Medical state here in the mitt, so lots of grow stores are popping up.

I also subbed, so you have two

uhhhh what are you making there with the scraps? hash?

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Awesome! Glad to have you along. Went to my local hydro store yesterday for the smartpots and the guy there is an absolute idiot. Would love to support the locals and I'm legal here (not to mention everyones grows here in Northern California regardless) but I just can't deal with that guy or his prices. $70 more for the same ballast + tax. He then tried to tell me that my portable air conditioner didn't exist. Said that they all have a tented intake and exhaust (grow ACs do but not standard in room portable air conditioners). Also had no clue as to the difference between a ceramic metal halide and a standard metal halide.

That was my lazymans way of making hash and hash oil. I just mixed my alcohol and old bud around for 15 mins then filtered. After letting the stuff settle I syphon off the top for hash oil and leave the settled out trichs for hash. This is what I turned out with: (I don't press my hash)

jphebbie2 said:

just saw this too. subd +rep.. cant wait to see the chocolope bloom.. I have enjoyed that strain for some time. good luck!!!

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Woot! This will be a party in no time! Have you grown it before? I have no idea how it grows and some insight would be appreciated.

I want to experiment this grow. For my chocolope I was thinking that I would either compare fimming verus LST, or compare old school organic versus chemical ferts. Any opinions?

I Personally would like to see a organics vs chemical fertilizer grow, perhaps a bottle organic line vs chemical line, dunno how much you would try to spend on it, well very nice box i might say, Im in for the ride and not far along behind you, well probably 2 weeks. Take it easy. quick question,I think i have a similar vent set up like you. If i sealed my hood,a 600 from the bottom left vent to the top one like the one you use and just throw my carbon filter to circulate inside do you think my temps would stay down with a ambient room temperature of around 72-74?

mrorganics said:

I Personally would like to see a organics vs chemical fertilizer grow, perhaps a bottle organic line vs chemical line, dunno how much you would try to spend on it, well very nice box i might say, Im in for the ride and not far along behind you, well probably 2 weeks. Take it easy. quick question,I think i have a similar vent set up like you. If i sealed my hood,a 600 from the bottom left vent to the top one like the one you use and just throw my carbon filter to circulate inside do you think my temps would stay down with a ambient room temperature of around 72-74?

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I posted some diagrams regarding venting on your thread.

I don't believe in the super expensive hydroponic nutes line-ups that most growers on this site use. If farmers don't use them why should I? (most farmers only care about the end economics - yield vs price per pound/bushel...) Organically I grow oldschool like all the organic farmers I know - bat shit, bone/blood mean, kelp meal, fish emulsion... The chemical ferts I would go with would most likely be Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil (it is sterile) instead of my happy frog (non sterile and needed to mineralize my organic nutes), vigoro high nitrogen fert for veg (blue juice, basically the cheapest most effective stuff u can get and what most of the outdoor NorCal growers use). For flowering I would use a single bottle - either floranova or tigerbloom. 7 part line-ups just blow me away as most are just a transition between the veg and flower nutes (you can do this yourself).

haha I have the entire GO line because it came in a box for 30$ and im not comfortable using the actual organics since its my second grow ever. and man im so jealous you live in cali I wish I could move there, Im actually planning to in the future, a few harvests and I might quit my job pack all my sit into a Uhaul and go.