Skywalker OG, Hempy Bucket Grow, Area-51 LED's

Setup:
Reserva Pravada Skywalker OG mother from seed, then cloned
2G Hempy Buckets; Grodan rockwool mini-grow-cubes in the res, Canna Coco Coir up to the top
Canna Nutrients; Rhizotonic, Cannazyme, Coco A&B, PK13/14 & Boost
T5 Lighting - Veg
SGS-160 Area-51 LED's - 2 panels
2.5' x 4.5' x 7' Hydrohut Silver Addition Tent

I grow on a small scale in a tent for my wife and mine’s personal medication and we live in a medically legal state where we have cultivation rights. I have learned over the years that less plants in my grow space means “bigger plants” with better yields so I tend to run just 2-plants at a time and usually hit >4oz per plant with the hempy method and a good medium. The hempy method is a very simple and effective “drain to waste” hydroponic method that is perfect for the amount of attention I can afford to give with my workaholic lifestyle. I learned the from Dali Hempy himself on another forum years ago and it's about the only affordable hydroponic method I can use in the hot climate I live in. I might add that I'm a die-hard Canna nutes fan, locked in by many successful grows.

Ok, I'm going to have to play catchup a bit as the grow is already in progress. At this point in time,I have 2 clones transplanted into 2g hempy buckets under T5 HO's and they are ≈1week since moving from solo cups. These will stay in a little 2x2 Secret Jardin until flower where they go under some brand spanking new SGS-160's (just arrived) in the bigger flower tent.
Here are some shots of the quality RP breeders pack and the nice little mother I grew to about 30days old. Nice internodal spacing on her too. BTW, they were FEM'ed seeds.

That little mother gave me 12 cuttings that I put in hempy Solo cups with perlite in the res and coco up top. I simply put the cuttings in a glass of Arrow Head drinking water (automatically 6.0pH) , dip into Hormex rooting powder then into the wet coco. BTW I water the coco with a dose of Cal/Mag to buffer it some. Works every time! The clear bins cost $3.95 at Walmart and the transparent lid keeps in moisture while letting some light through. I hang a 23w CFL (100w equiv...Reveal Spectrum) over each bin. These bulbs have worked great on seedlings in the past so don't rule them out.

I picked the two clones with the most even in height and branching structure and transplanted into 2g hempy buckets. I've grown fond of Grodan's mini-rockwool cubes and have been playing with them as additions to the coco. Where they seem to be working best is in the hempy reservoir. There is a strange phenomenon I and others have noticed with growing in coco. If there is a layer of perlite in the bottom of the hempy bucket, the roots stop at the bottom of the coco and will not pervade the 2" perlite zone. That's funny since the original hempy bucket was all perlite and roots went right down into the reservoir. It must be a transition thing where roots prefer one medium over another or simply because there is air-pruning in the transition of one dense medium to another loose medium. Any how, when I put rockwool mini-cubes in the bucket bottoms, the roots go all the way down and look very white at grow's end.

Day of transplant (6/29/13) and the left over clones that some lucky guy gladly took off my hands.

Here's a pic of the Grodan mini-cubes so you get a feel for their size...imagine the air you between cubes but the moisture holding capability of rockwool. They work wonders in a hempy bucket, any way you want to use them...this grow, as my last two, will use the cubes in the bottom 2" reservoir of the bucket. Plain Canna coco up top....it rocks on it own and is very hard to improve on based on my experimentation.

Alright catchup is complete with these pics from today...here they are 6 days after transplant. I usually FIM once on my plants at this size and that does the trick for the bushiness I need to fill the 2.5' x 4.5' flower tent. I've still have 2 weeks before my current flowering girls are finished. I'll be sweating out the timing to keep these things contained to a low stature...they are already 10" tall after a 4" height in solo cups 6 days ago. The new SGS-160's from Area-51 will need 17"-20" clearance above the canopy so tent dwellers like me have to think ahead (even though mine is 78" high). There is some sativa in Skywalker and I don't know how these are gonna stretch with the new LED's. I might FIM again or even top if the current FIM's don't make 4 tops. Anyway, I'm going to grow some monsters...just you watch.

Crap, looking above I see all my pictures are now text attachments.....gonna hang off till tomorrow to see if I have to re-upload....dang this site does this a lot....
In the mean time you probably wonder why I did a mother and all the clones just to grow two of them....well...after the past year and so many weird pheno deviations from famous breeders like "Barney's Farm", I started thinking about getting to know a mother plant's characteristics first then cloning it if I like it. I swear, you can buy a 5 pack of fem seeds these days and one won't germ, 2 will be normal and 2 will have strange idiosyncrasies in their reaction to light, temperature or nutrients. This past year has been the worst for me with femm'ed seeds. After all I have two months of flower going on in the main tent. That allows me 30 days veg'ing a mother, and 30 days to make clones to decent veg heights. This girl lunched itself out of the coco, accepted nutes right away and looked bushy...nice first date. Too, the other clones go to proliferating the variety in your area....makes you sleep at night knowing you had the Crisco and "you helped!".

Hey Jela,

New grower here, I have some skywalker OG Kush from Sensi seed coming in, though mine will be under T-5 HO for the most part. I want to see how they do so consider me subbed and sending good karma your way!

Namaste

Jeff

Right on Jeff and welcome aboard, its wonderful thing when we can watch a strain grow and learn from others..I've been watching Clink78 grow some under CFL's and he's doing a great job...https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/642589-skywalker-og-kush-90-days.html.
My little 2' x 4 T-5 HO has been my pride and joy for vegging...wouldn't live without it.

So how about those Area-51's I mentioned? Here's pic's of one of them...sweet workmanship...the packing was a marvel in itself. Shipping was fast and painless. The fans are whisper quite too. I live in a hot climate and I grow with a 400W Digilux HPS in the winter and spring. I switch to LED's in the summer to keep the heat down in the tent. For the past 3 years I've run 2- ProSource 180W Jumbo UFO's that are actually kick-ass. They do have the older 1w LED's though with 90° lenses (low penetration) and I do see a small yield loss vs. my HPS. 3.5-3.75oz per plant vs. 4.5-4.75 per plant. I'm hoping the new 5W technology with better lenses can get me back into the 4's. Maybe I won't have to run the HPS ever is my real hope.

Well dang-it, looking at my tent and the main exhaust line existing the top, I will have to mount both panels in different ways. One will need to hang from the center pole running the length of the tent and the other will have to hang from crossbars. I'll need to find an extra crossbar and I'll have to rig hangars on the panels to allow hanging with two adjustable pulley/hangars. I picked up some 1/2" EMT conduit at Home Depot and made a new crossbar by cutting it to length and pounding the ends with a hammer. Then I bent the ends down in a vice to get something almost exactly like what came with the tent.

As for the hangars on the panels, there are 4 brass eyes to hang from...nice quality...gives you some options. I preferred to have just 2 adjustable pulleys on each panel (each end) so I bought some 1/16" wire rope (good for 96lbs) and some ferrules to clamp the ends with and to make a loop. The 1/8" quick links will be the interface to the hangars. BTW the Area-51's come with 2 nice hangar pulleys.

Day 7 since transplant from clone. Wow, these fan leaves are getting freaking huge....robust growth under the T5's...drinking the full Canna Coco nutrient schedule. I'd love to put in the new LED's over these girls right now but I better contain their height....got another 1.5 weeks before the big girls are finished in the flower tent.

Wow looking good Jela, Hand size is good ....I'm looking forward to watching this from start to finish...I brought a bit of smoke, so I'll just sit down and watch

Hi Who-kie....hope the smoke you brought is from your last harvest....Kudos on the nice buds there.

Good read, subbed. Very interested in ordering the skywalker og. Good luck.

Here's some buds in the flower tent right now with 1.5 weeks to go....(crazy miss hyde and mango). Sorry for the fuzzy shots, I was shooting one-handed and holding a light with the other...(had to turn the LED's off).

Oh yeah! Can't wait to see how yours turn out!

Cool, welcome Clink! Now we can share experiences ..Day 8 now, Had them out of the tent today for a little bit of maintenance before company comes this afternoon. The girls have a definite smell at this age. The FIM took on both, one will have 4 main tops and the other will have 3. The lower branches are catching up fast to the uppers. Looks like I'll have some bushes in no time. I removed two of the 30k tubes out of my T5's and replaced with 65k's. So all 4 are blue now, have to slow these babies down till the flower tent is ready. I'd be chuckin'em in there soon otherwise.

Day 10...Pulled the girls out tonight to change the lights from my T5's to one the SGS-160 LED's set to veg mode. What a substantial increase in brightness!...Doing everything I can to stall any more stretching as they hit the 14" mark today. I may have to flip 12/12 in a day or two right there in the tiny 2x2 veg tent. There's 8 days left on the big girls for an 8 week finish if necessary ....trich's are all milky there and red hairs are abundant on the "Crazy Miss Hyde"...