Abused DWC CFL grow

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Alright well I figued I may as well demonstrate how poorly you can treat your plants and still wind up wth healthy ladies.

These two plants have had a very hard life; they've been transplanted more times than I can count.

They were planted as seeds in an AG where they spent their first 4 weeks. They were grown with AG nutes for the first 4 weeks, and during that time did a 7hr return trip drive (dry) while I took holidays. This whole time tempertures ranged from just 0degC to 25degC, an they had plenty of interupted sleep. They were topped and LSTd at about week 3.

When I started flowering I bought some proper nutes and air stones. Then 2 weeks later they were transplanted into a 35L tub and put into 3" netpots. They were originally transplanted into perlite, however as the roots were developed they of course wouldntbind up in the perlite, so the plants had a lot of stability issues. Flushing the res was a real ordeal on them as the perlite collapsed and spilt and the fell down through the holes that had to be cut in the net pots.

They've been grown in an open room for a month now, hard to keep total darkness, hard to control temps and humidity. The lights are a bodgey job too and I came home to some very singed leaves a time or two.

I don't like them being in the open however, so I bought a cheap second hand wardrobe. Continuing down the ghetto route I stuck some alfoil up with double sided tape, and used a chair to secure my lights and raise air pump. The lights are desk lamps, running 3x48W 3000k CFLs in total. No high temp lights as theyre being used on clones right now.

So yeah, the two buggers flowered beautiful pistils and have been going strong (if slow) ever since. Not epecting more than an oz or two but its just to save some $$ while I'm sorting out my living arangements, getting a good light fitting made, an planning a proper perpetual closet grow. These two are bag seed which I hae clond in hope that its some good smoke. If not then I'll go shopping... I'm thinking of trying to squish sativas into a 2mx1.5mx1m space, with the shortest flower time possible.


Sitting out in the cold :P


Little stretched sadly


Not so stealthy lol


Stealth mode! (Excuse the aerogarden box and the pvc piping :P)






A little droppy from another stressful experience. Had to pull them out to get the tub in easily.




Trichs forming!!

It's fun to be growing again, and looking forward to a more planned and detailed op to get myself weedependant!
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Maybe 5 weeks? I think closer to 4, as the first week they were shuffled round a few peoples houses and really didnt get 12/12. It's a miracle they didnt hermie, and I'm still slightly nervous they could. Meh, if they do I'll just pick out the seeds :)
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Alright well it's been a few days so thought I'd give ya'll a quick update.

A mate and I rigged up a 6x48w cfl fixture over the weekend which has gone in the wardrobe. It was a spur of the moment stoner adventure, heading into a hardware store with no plans or measurements is not a good idea for future reference :P Anyway, it fits and works so I'm happy for now. Problem was, I cam back after a weekend away to a nice and charred cola; one of my lamps must have been loose and the arms bent leaving the globe sitting right on the bud for who knows how long. Up side is, it's nice and dry, so I'll have a little tester sample tonight lol :P

Pics will be up later, and a DIY thread for the CFL fixture... In Aus we don't have GPO-light socket adapters, or Y splitters, or any of the easy fixes that are available in the US and elsewhere; my fixture is made with baton holders, wiring, and a piece of wood :D
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Alright here are the pics;

The lights are made with bayonet baton holders, there are 6 in sequence all terminating to an earthed GPO. Wiring, wood, sockets, chains, reflector, screws etc etc all up cost around $40? Bought 2x of everything but the sockets as I'm making another one as soon as I can find some edison screw in sockets.










This is it hanging in the closet over 2 bagseeds in DWC 5 weeks into flowering..






I'm happy with it...

4x48w 3000k CFLs and 2x48w 5000k CFLs in the DIY fixture, and 2x48w 3000k CFLs as side lights = 384W CFL grow :)

PS Sorry for photo quality... iPhone camera :(
 

tmsculli

Well-Known Member
iPhone quality destroys "sorry, this is from my 1999 Sony Ericson .5mp cell phone camera" haha


But seriously, that reflector looks good brother. It's amazing how you just don't think about certain designs haha. Nothing even close to that design popped into my head the entire time I was working on it. haha.

Everything looks good though brother, keep it up.
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Haha the bud porn and trich pics on this site put my pics to shame!

I had so many designs swirling round in my head, and I'm not 100% happy with what I have but needed to make a choice lol. The main idea behind my fitting is that more light is emitted from the sides of the globes so it makes sense to get those as uniformly close to the plants as possible. The next main considerations were more the constraints of cost, size and weight as they're hung from dowl. The up side is that it is very easy to remove the wiring from the wood and split it into 2x3 socket fittings... Somewhere in the not too distant future
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Ok here is a quick update;

These pictures are from 4 days ago. The plants are 8 weeks into flowering now, and I flushed them and added pHd water for finishing when I took the pictures. The plant on the left has much dener buds, but I trimmed it slightly, whereas the plant on the left was not trimmed and has lots of popcorn. The plants were a whole bunch of mistakes and changing plans, in the end they gave up a few clones and will give me some buds to get by, and gave me a chance to try some different micro/cfl setups.























There was some spotting on the leaves but it had not been there long. It would have been a result of my not having flushed or topped up the res for 2 weeks; again the resilience of these plants! Now it has pHd water it doesnt matter if there are any deficiencies. The leaf tips are curling up today showing a lack of nutes which is to be expected I guess? Its random bagseed, so I'm wondering how long to go with flowering? I've read all the guides, but I don't have a magnifying glass or portable microscope, and every other time I have grown outdoors I have been able to see when they're ready, but these are different seeds and a different plant so hmm.. I'm thinking within a week, 2 at the most.
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
I'm looking for a source of seeds for old indica strains that have withstood the test of time. Those are the most resilient ones I think. The original point of the thread, that you can abuse plants and they will tough it out, is true for SOME. But many of the latest hybrid this and that, which is what seems to sell, will fall over and die if you say boo to them.

I try to make as few mistakes as possible, but I like to grow strains that will help cover up my mistakes when I do make them.
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Yeah the yield isn't the point with these gals.

I'm becoming more interested in strains and breeding, and I see so many people on here plant good seeds only to have some minor problems and for the grow to fall apart. This crummy bagseed however didn't hermie and still flowered and produced some bud, even after all it went through. I'd love to know why.
 

blueybong

Well-Known Member
Yeah the yield isn't the point with these gals.

I'm becoming more interested in strains and breeding, and I see so many people on here plant good seeds only to have some minor problems and for the grow to fall apart. This crummy bagseed however didn't hermie and still flowered and produced some bud, even after all it went through. I'd love to know why.


Considering what these girls have been through, the buds are developing nicely. Continue to flower for another week or two and you'll be surprised how fast they fill out just prior to being fully developed.

I built a similar CFL reflector/hanger. Nice job!!

bongsmilie
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Alright just a quick update;













I figured out that the spotting on the leaves is actually caused by ozone as I have an air purifier in the cab and within 1 ft of the plants. What are the effects of ozone on bud?
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
How do you know it is due to ozone. That machine should not be able to produce an ozone level higher than what is often found outdoors.
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
I figured it was ozone as 2 plants in 1 res and the spots are not uniform but are onlyon the parts of the plant close to the purifier. The marks also look the part. Other thoughts?
 

Knickers

Well-Known Member
Well I chopped the tops, lowered the lights to finish off the lower growth. Dried for 3 days with fan blowing 11 hours a day as temps were quite cool, just rolled one up then and it's quite nice, I'm starving but this couch-lock has had me here for over an hour. Fruity flavour, I'm tasting pineapple mixed with the sweeter elements of mint. 24g dried with what looks to be another 12 or so grams to come in the next week. They're going into jars for a two weeks minimum, and they're quite fluffy so they make it look twice as big :)
 

JME02100

Well-Known Member
Pic dried of harvest

Looks fantastic man, fuck the yield or whatever he said people don't seem to understand yield isn't really important unless that's what your trying to do is get as much as you can other than that even if you ended up with 14g dried i'm sure you'd be happy cause nothings better than the reward after all the hard work of growing
 
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