Grow Tube - Part Deux

Weed is not addictive, but weed grow logs are. Just completed my 1st dismal attempt at inside growing. A humbling experience for someone who did have good outside grows in years gone by. Well, the mourning is over, on to a new grow/log with hopefully better results. Here is the ugly history if interested.

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/179797-newbs-grow-tube.html

I believed soil choices are what doomed me last time, so here's what I did before.
Miracle-Gro Moisture Control - 1 good week followed 2 miserable ones. Looked liked a magnesium deficiency. Even help from the plant hospital wasn't enough.
Conclusion - Not a beginner's soil, I know many use it with success

Garden Loam - This was a panic step, went back to what I knew from outside. Doesn't translate so well inside. Blundered from nitrogen deficiency to moisture issues and god knows what.

This time the soil is Miracle-Gro Organic, perlite, 2 tablespoons of dolomite, 2 tablespoons of 6-9-0 Miracle-Gro bone meal. 2 gallons worth with perlite being about 10%. I bear no ill will towards Miracle-Gro the company, not yet anyways.

A quick reprisal of equipment, done on the cheap, total cost around $50.

1. Grow chamber is a 38 by 15 inch tube, constructed from aluminum flashing. It's pre-painted white inside. Cut strips which were used to build circular sections. Sections stacked for any height wished.
2. Fixture was a stainless steel pizza pan. Drilled and fitted with 3 porcelain light sockets. Fitted with 3 nvision 26w 5500 CRI cfl's.

I was pleased with this simple setup, lighting characteristics excellent. Passive ventilation was adequate, though a pc fan was fitted for summer heat.

It's not a grow log without a picture. There is a germinated nl#5 under that mud. We'll see if this one fares better than her/his predecessor.

growone

Small but proud. If nothing else, I am having luck in sprouting seedlings. 2 for 2 so far.

Going with the 18/6 cycle this time for veg. Wasn't too happy with the 24/0 cycle last time, but didn't have much choice, needed a heat source.

Thought I'd try a larger picture, though picture quality is still a work in progress. Cheap camera, but should be able to squeeze out some better pics. If plant gets better, I'll get a better camera.

Keeping in mind my last grow attempt, no complaints so far. No deficiencies obvious, I've become pretty paranoid on watching for nute lock.

8 days and top of soil is still moist. That's probably not ideal. More perlite next time would probably be better. I've also installed the pc fan that I had fitted earlier. Definitely an improvement on temperature and humidity. Hoping the humidity reduction will increase water evaporation.

Seeing what looks like a touch of green moss at the soil top. Really hoping that will not become a problem. Last picture size was looking at little too large, at least for the cheap camera I'm using. This picture has been dialed down a notch.

grow one--nice to see you back in business. im rootin for u with this grow. looks good so far. what kinda training techniques u gonna use in that tube?

hydro,
To fim, or not to fim, that is the question. Either way, my 'plan' is to start flower at 8-10 inches.
I'm still mulling over if simply flowering at 10 inches, then getting a height from 20 to 24 inches is the way to go. This could give me a plant that fits well under my 'light cone'. Tube diameter is a bit over 15 inches. Still a little vague what height/width ratio of plant will be.
Any past experience with fim/top yields versus 'straight plant' yields would be welcome. Love the avatar, by the way. Makes me feel like I'm getting a doctor's consultation.

growone

it seems like you'd have enough room for a couple tops if you can get them to grow close enough. do you have any way to tie up the branches if the tops end up fallin against the side of the tube? if not id might be leanin towards lollipop, but i can't tell u anything about yeild from experience. i would think a nice double cola plant would get you more though.

hydro,

i do have screws poking inside the tube, they might let me tie strings to the colas

mostly, i'm waiting to get the flower point, then making the big decision

plant size at that time might give me a clue on space to work with

growone

This is the point in time where my last grow began to have problems. No problems visible yet, so at this point organic growing has been better/easier than the pre-fertilized soil, i.e. MGMC.

The MG organic seems to grab onto water rather tightly. Currently, the dirt resembles a large black sponge, firm texture and tightly bound together. 10 days since the 1st watering, and still plenty moist. At this rate, it will likely be over 2 weeks before 2nd watering!

This said, the plant has no complaints, and picture quality better since cheap camera seems to be able to focus better with a little more distance from target. Plant 'volume' seems to have nearly doubled in 2 days! Root ball has filled out, and upper plant growth takes over?

Plant is about the size of my last plant when it started to go south. Last grow attempt was 24/0 and was at 10 days. Not too precise calculation gives 18/6 a grow rate of 83% compared to 24/0. Electricity percentage is around 75%. Seems to jibe with other grower results, 24/0 is a bit faster, but a bit more expensive in electric. Soils are different, not to mention temps aren't exactly the same, but one more data point in the big encyclopedia of growing.

Plant is looking healthy, and vegging fast. Keep looking for issues, but can't see any. Still haven't watered after 12 days, and still a bit moist. I'll stick with waiting until I see a little sign of drying in the plant.

Plant growing well, but was mulling over my time line after my 1st failed grow. Was really hoping for some product by beginning of summer. That is just not going to happen with current situation. Which would suck big time, I'm suffering from 'weed drought'.

So here's my plan, looks like its time to clone and flower in another grow tube, just smaller. Think I'll top my current plant, and setup a 24 by 7 inch tube, with left overs from my 1st tube.

Of course this may be a male, but have no control over that. Going to try a 5 day veg or so to get a 6 inch plant, than flower for 3 weeks. Not ideal, but might be able to get a gram of oil from a half flowered 12 inch.

Anyone who has been in such desperate times, feel free to comment. Is it worth trying?

growone

I feel like it couldn't hurt, especially if you are keeping your first plant around. the only trouble is, you don't know a sex yet, so it could all be for naught. You here people saying how important veg time is, but i feel like they are not giving the plant enough credit. I only vegged for two weeks and ended up with a plant about 3ft tall and 2 ft wide. if you start flowering early, the plant will still grow (within the constraints you give it) a lot. Also, my plants finished a couple weeks before i thought they would. So if you get a good clone, get it rooted and its female, id say you could definitely be smokin with 2-2.5 months. btw, i'm not an expert. this is just what i have gathered from this site and personal exp

hyrdo,

Thanks dude! Encouragement is what I was looking for. Rethinking, I may clone, then flower the topped plant. Might get a bit more that way, or not. +rep for good vibes.

growone

jees, system is picky on multiple rep's in same thread. Just consider it banked a while, i'm good for it

3 days has made quite a difference, really seeing some growth now. 4 inches tall by 7 wide. Deeper green color looks nice. Not canna porn yet, but getting there(I hope). Tossed in some rounded pebbles instead of hydrotons.

Was nearly 2 weeks between waterings, 13 days actually. Still thinking of building a smaller clone chamber version of the tube. Probably would need a 7 inch plant before popping off a 3 inch top for cloning?

Plant is exploding, at least to my naive eye. I don't remember outside growing being this dramatic for speed. Then again, those old grows were sativa's, not indica's. Going back to larger pictures, plant seems to be worth showing at this point

OK, now I have a beast on my hands. Plant is 5 inches tall, and about 11 inches wide. That's plenty wide for my setup. That, and my belief I was going to start to start flower at 10 inches.

That plainly not possible, flowering needs to start now! Seems I made a major mistake in reading about micro flowering times. Most of the micro grows were based on clones, not seedlings from seeds. Shit. Looking like I can look forward to a 4-5 fold increase in height in a seedling at this point.

All is not lost though, LST is always an option, Didn't really want to go that route, but things could be worse. I think I will keep the current cfls, CRI 5500, in use for the preflower, the next 2 weeks. Hoping the high blue component may keep the stretch a little less

I'm going to end up with a tube of weed, which was my hope. Don't want it so tightly packed that it becomes 1 large joint though. 3 foot joint would be kind of cool.

Comments and suggestions welcome, as always.

Lst sounds great, im using it on half my crop and they showed sex almost a week and a half before the ones naturally did and the buds are 3 times bigger on the LST plants. since u have just light on the top id go with LST since CFLs have shit light penitration

Day 2 of flowering, ... flowering, the word tastes sweet. Wasn't sure when I'd be able to say that after my 1st disaster.

God this is becoming a monster, at least in width. Not used to indicas, just so different from sativas. From what I've read, the widening should slow considerably in flower, we'll see.

Now for height, 2 days ago ws about 5 inches tall, now it's about 6 inches tall. At that rate, things look good. About 3 weeks of upward growth, then grow out? That would be about 18 inches. I'm prepared for 20 or 24, hard to believe an untopped plant, even an indica, would stop at 18 from seed. 28 inches could be accommodated without LST.

Cheap camera doesn't do it justice, but hey, better than no pictures. Color and shape look awfully good to me.

Day 4 of 12/12, calling it flowering was getting ahead of plant sex. We'll see if male or female, then call it flower(or not).

The beast continues to widen faster than I would like. Not entirely sure what I'll do if width becomes problem. Maybe just flipping up the butting leaves up against the wall? Kind of a green wallpaper. I don't think width will be fatal, just a nuisance.

Height is now around 7 inches, so tracking at about 1/2 inch a day in growth upwards. That should track to around 20 inches or so, which would be fine.

After little more reading, I'm mulling whether the 42w 2700k lights are a good idea. Might go with 26w 2700k. Big reason is heat, I've seen the temp hit 82 with the 26w, that's about a high as I want to go. Lower heat might out weigh more watts, as in less stretch. That and indica may do OK with the lower light level.

Day 23 and I've watered once. Pot still felt pretty heavy, that's my current gauge on moisture.