Farmer Rick's Spring Crop

Decided to start a thread to keep all my progress updates pertaining to my current grow in one place. I know, I should be able to use the Journal feature but three times now its fooked up. This is my first significant grow, I've some experience but nothing worth a history lesson. So I'll be posting my thoughts and things I've learned/noticed as I go, thoughts out loud so to speak. I'd appreciate it if people chime in if I'm wrong about something, or if they spot something I didn't etc. This is a shared learning curve I guess, but also a place for me to show off my current crop for feedback (and we all like that).

So Farmer Rick's Spring Crop consists of several different strains in flowering. I have some clones/seedlings but not including them in this due to the fact its boring. Whereas right now a lot is going on worth talking about with the flowerers. They are:

- 2 x OG Kush
- 1 x Big Bang 2
- 1 x Super Iced Grapefruit
- 2 x Black Jack (Auto)
- 1 x Fast Bud #2 (Auto)

Heres my OG Kush, 25 days into 12/12:



Here is my OG Kush (today), 37 days into 12/12:



Note she is telling me she needs watering. It seems different plants do have niche personalities, its been interesting to see how different plants give slightly different symptoms to the same 'problem'. Big lesson in there for me, and one people should consider, "what are my plants telling me?". Gave her a good water (plain) and she perked up within an hour or two back to normal, as I learned she would.

The Big Bang 2 (25 days into 12/12):



Heres little miss Big Bang 2 (37 days into 12/12), although more developed than the OG Kush telling me a) strain variation in flowering times, and b) she was most vegetively mature prior to flowering:

nice plants

Took my OG Kush 7-8 weeks to flower with my 1000W set-up. One of the slowest indica-dominants, imo.
But worth the wait. Notice how many kush fans are out there nowadays?

Better send that auto to me for personal, er, inspection.

BigSteve.

............................ Ovaries versus Hairy Mansack aka Manbag aka Grizzly Bollocks aka Conquer Bag aka Scrote

Todays Snapshots:

Big Bang 2 - 39 days into 12/12 switch



Super Iced Grapefruit, 39 days into 12/12 switch:



Black Jack AUTO - 32 days from SEED



Fast Bud #2 (Auto), 32 days from SEED

Some of my CFL's, no reflectors, fuck all, I know, my bad, am moving house in the near future so waiting until then to build a proper contained setup. As far as these plants seem to care, they don't, they're doing well and happy it seems, whatever works. They've all been brought up in this setup, so looking forward to moving so I can build a more fixed little eco-heaven for them.



That wire hanging down is for the humidity/temp probe thats swinging there, away from the lights. Average humidity for my grow is between 20-35% (technically low, but works fine), and temp relatively stable at 25/26 C. Also rotate each pot 90 degrees each day, to help distribution of light reach all round the plant over time.

Black Jack Auto (from Sweet Seeds)

Around day 37 from breaking soil... (expect 2 - 3 weeks left)

Big Bang 2 (from Feminized Seeds company) ... 44 after switching to 12/12.

Gotta add an observation. The OG Kush(es) in my current grow are certainly moody and tempermental. Seem to have a potent water intake, and aren't afraid to let me know it.

The Big Bang 2 is similar, albight not quite as bitchy, has the ability to be a bit of a spaz. If my grow room had windows, I think the BB2 would be licking them and singing 'spirit in the sky'. She's happy enough though.

The Fast Bud #2 and Black Jack Autos, and the Super Iced Grapefruit for that matter, are all chilled easy oasy, rarely complain and seem more stable over time.

+1 to learning for future reference.

Whats up rolluprick, I stumbled upon a thread where you spoke of using solar cells in the grow room. Im interested in how you went about hooking that up (materials etc.). I look forward to seeing more updates of your grow, I'm logging mine as well.

How is big bang 2 in terms of potency? i'm looking for fast flowering genetics for future grows, as well as potency.

Not sure how she smokes yet, first time growing it but will log that too in due course.

The solar cell idea is only really useful if you are able to get a load of them either free, or cheap (maybe eBay?). For most people it's probably more effort than its worth.

The potential though is you can power many small powered devices for free (bars construction cost), plus you can add a timer module to trigger trickle water, or airstone pump, or CO2 distribution for that matter. Other downside is you need basic electronics knowledge the fancier you go, but a basic solar cell -> battery -> device setup is a piece of cake. I'll knock up some diagrams when I can. Another thing it can power is a fine heating mat for your humidifier etc.

Basically solar cells have a + and - connector, you build a circuit from them to a device (or better yet, an inline rechargable battery, to which the device is linked). You need multiple solar cells, and you wire them up in parallel to increase the voltage, or in serial to increase the ampage, or is it the other way around, I'm monged so forget at the moment, LOL. In theory you could also use this to power supplementary LED's, so the light from your HID or higher wattage CFL's in turn increases illumination by powering up the LED's. That kind of thing, not so much about profit, more about efficiency.

So I've been designing my next grow room (screen o' green), and I'll post pictures of that later. Its a semi-sealed grow, by which I mean the air is purged from time to time, rather than a constant stream of air in and air out. The purge system is timer based, and will go on and off regularly. Three issues with that, heat, smell and oxygen/CO2 levels. To tackle the heat I'm planning on using a mini air conditioner (often marketed as a personal air cooler), the smell I'll be tackling with a carbon filter (although the aircon system will help suppress it in general too), and for the oxygen/co2 levels I'll be using the quiet purge system, to cycle the air fully once every while (maybe every 10-30 minutes).

Meanwhile, I've a design to not only cool my 400w, but also help the humidity problem I've been having (as in low natural humidity). Lately even with my CFL setup the temps have been on the high side, despite a big-assed oscillating fan etc, its just the weather right now.

Today my mini air conditioner arrived, it uses evaporative cooling to remove heat from the air, but a side effect of that is it also gives off some humidity. The unit is about 1' x 1', pretty quiet and 3 litres of water will last 6-9 hours on full power, or 9-13 hours on low power. A fan drawns warm/hot air into the unit, where its passed through a wet membrane, then the air is pushed out the other side, up to 7 celcius cooler than it went in. It'll be situated about the same height as my MH lamp, and will direct cool air onto it, while drawing in excess heat from the surrounding air. The wet membrane also acts like a filter, grabbing any particles in the air and also helping suppress the smells. Another idea I may put into practice is to wire up a greenhouse thermostat switch, so that the cooler only cools when the temps start creeping up above the levels I'd like etc.

A carbon filter is connected to an inline fan near the top of the room (hottest air/strongest smell), after its went through the filter/fan, the air is directed down towards the back of the small aircon unit, where the heat/any remaining smells are processed, hopefully lowering the ambient temperature of the grow room to about the right temperature naturally and with stability.

The grow room will also have a full time oscillating fan, but will also run some smaller fans low down to help disperse the air. These fans don't really count, as they're powered by solar cells so are basically free and done on general principle.

I'm still waiting on my metal halide to arrive, maybe tomorrow or saturday.

Todays snapshot...

Big Bang #2, 50 days since 12/12 switch:




Fast Bud #2 (Auto), top, 43 days from seed:


Black Jack Auto, 43 days from seed:



OG Kush, 50 days since 12/12 switch...

Ooo oooo oooo <bouncing around like Donkey from Shrek> ... look what arrived today.

Bigger than I expected, certainly heavier than expected. 400w metal halide.



And this is one helluva bulb...

FUCKIN Perty

Todays snapshots ... just because they're slinking towards sexy sexy time.

OG Kush:


Big Bang #2: (looks like she's going to be a sticky mess, looverly)

looks good, congrats on the metal halide, that will help tremendously in the future. imo, your girls look great for being under cfl. i was about to post and ask what lights you're using and then i saw the picture. good stuff. i'd take that as a testament to your ability.

edit- forgot to sub

Thanks man, I've hooked the MH up to the grow to see how things fare, maybe it'll help for the last few weeks or so remaining. I haven't set it up perfectly, but its providing additional blanket-light, until this crop is done. I need to build a more dedicated grow room with supports for the light (heavy) etc.

The real difference success wise here is I'm using big-assed CFL's, as opposed to the small wattage ones for household use etc. They put out a remarkable amount of light, and the multiple sources provide good coverage. I'm not even using reflectors, so my efficiency-potential is lower than it should be too.

The real testimony here is my simple approach - no fancy nutes from a fancy brand, no fancy soil from a fancy brand, no magic wonder juice pumped in. Just the basics. I go by its better to have some of everything, than too much of anything. I make a nutrient tea from time to time with a mineral pill (basically made up of fresh slow release soil, used as the medium, soaked/shaken in water to transfer some of the fresh nutrient coverage to the water etc. I grow in MG "Expand N Go" soil, mixed with 30% vermiculite.

Hence why I'm always going on about avoiding making life difficult. Sometimes it seems that many people go out of their way to complicate their grow etc.

My next grow is highly likely to be the ScrOG, albight right now I'm curious to see what kind of yield this current crop can pump out with current setup etc.

Started closer analysis for the countdown... this is the Fast Bud #2... am thinking I've a few weeks yet to go. 50-60% amber is my goal, I like them heavy, sort of like one of my ex's but without the face sitting hazard.

Today is exactly 8 (loooooong) weeks since switching the photo plants into 12/12. The flowering time expected is 8, maybe 9 weeks. So close, and yet it took a week or so for the pistils to really show on them, so thats the time I'm counting. So I expect another week at least, but less than 2.5 weeks until harvest. I'm looking at each plant individually, so will give or take based on each etc.

To celebrate the milestone, a snapshot of the day...

OG Kush:



Big Bang 2: