Dadio's Current Happenings

dadio161 said:

lol , certains strains smoked properly gets me motivated. I start thinking of how I want to improve my grow and I start to get excited.

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ain't that the truth. good to see your still kickin ass bro, thanks for all the info in your threads, your flood and drain should be a sticky.

dude said:

Lovin' your grow dadio. I'm setting up a system right now that should be pretty similar..2 x 6 under a 600, rockwool only. I'm working with seeds so I'll probably use 4 x 4 blocks until I sex and then put the ladies on slabs. How often are you watering?

Its crazy how a little bit bigger block has so much more root volume... 4x4x4 = 64, vs 6x6x6 = 216! Are you going to stick with the 6's with your perpetual grow? Keep those harvest shots comin and thanks for sharing

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I started my new crop on August 1st. I ended up putting my 4" cubes on top of 6" blocks. I will lose 4" of height from normal but will gain a lot more room for roots. The blocks are 6" high but when I was at the hydro store this morning , they have a 6"x6"x4" block that I will go with next round. That will give me back some room. If all goes well , this will become my regular set up.

Okay , time for an update on the grow op. On the day I started my last harvest , I thought I blew out my ballast because it wouldn't fire up on the last day. I was bummed. I was trying to figure out how to budget $250 for a new one. On a gut feeling , I put in my MH bulb and it fired up right away. Yipeeee ! I don't need a new ballast at $250 ...... I just need a new $67 HPS bulb ( $84 before discount ). Got one today by SolarMax. I plan to start flowering by Wednesday at the latest. With a fresh bulb , this should be a decent harvest. Hopefully it will help my two runts snap back into shape.

Looks like your closet set up will work great, your work is clean and sturdy. Well thought out, you must be in construction or remodeling. LOL Don't know about your plants, as far as them being male or hemorphing due to small size growth area for the roots or something.... Hope it goes okay for you. I'm in the middle of my first grow and am learning a lot from everyones posts here. Thanks for posting what you're working at and what's working for you along with all the not quite what I wanted stuff too. All the best & Good growing!

i dig i dig it! nice grow..you ever use the slabs? i got a 2x2' table..get the long 4" thick x 6"x 36" slabs..put my blocks into those..i carefully cut the slabs to ize then tape the ends up..saves on light blockers etc..really lets those roots run wild..
cheers nice setup..

Just finished my 5th crop as for my experience. I have always used the 6" rockwool blocks and have not had a hermi in the last 3 crops. Also have had zero spider mites in the last 3 crops. I am really liking the rockwool.

Coldframeraider said:

Looks like your closet set up will work great, your work is clean and sturdy. Well thought out, you must be in construction or remodeling. LOL Don't know about your plants, as far as them being male or hemorphing due to small size growth area for the roots or something.... Hope it goes okay for you. I'm in the middle of my first grow and am learning a lot from everyones posts here. Thanks for posting what you're working at and what's working for you along with all the not quite what I wanted stuff too. All the best & Good growing!

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How much did you say you paid for clones?

Clones are $20 each at Medicinal Gardens. I am making my own clones now that originated from there. Blueberry and Flo .

Nice grow, I sent you a PM let me know what you think

I wanted to post some current pics today but I am having problems today with getting pics to upload.
Anyways ...... I just wanted to say that this is 4 1/2 weeks into 12/12 .
I feed my girls twice a day for 30 minutes each. I am going easy on the nutes as in previous grows and I am keeping the 600W HPS about 8" abouve the plants. I don't know whats wrong . They just keep getting fatter every day. I am going to have to tie up a few of the colas today as the plants are wanting to fall over from the weight gain. 3 1/2 weeks till harvest. This crop has me a little gitty as this is my first batch of clones that I made. They looked a little frail and just hanging in there , But I am growing bud and didn't pay for clones.

I can only repeat what many others have already said throughout the two grows in your sig, You ROCK! Nice job dadio very inspiring

hey Dadio. i was wondering how high you flood your 4"blocks during veg thru flower? also, how high when stacking 6"rockwool blocks? im thinking this is what i might try to do... i would like to let the top block absorb the bottom like yours. i am having a slight issue with the grow media. I would like to use rockwool but im afraid of over-watering since this will be my first time with hydro.

Hey there Gangachick , I always just use the lowest setting on my overflow valve. I think it's about 2" high. When I stacked the 4" blocks on top of the 6" blocks , I stayed with the same flood height and I use a cup to water the top at the morning feeding as this is the same time as I come home from work. I only need to do this for a couple weeks because as the roots get bigger , they will wick up the nutes better on their own. Like I have sgtated before , I only use rockwool blocks. No hydroton or anything else. I do however use block covers to keep algea off the blocks. Start with watering once a day for 15 minutes . Don't increase watering until the blocks start to feel a bit light just before lights out. Then water a second time about 2 hours before lights out. Don't water during the dark cycle. Keep the PH at about 5.8 to 6.0 .

iv read all your post dadio and im really intrested in what your current nute recipe is. i know ur using GH, but in what dosage? Nice work with the F&D, i just switched from soil over to hydro and seeing your results has really got me ready to do work in my grow area. im currently using a tent outside of my grow area but now im thinking about building a cab under my tables to keep my clones and moms in. im using the exact same t5 u have and wondering what if any heat issues your having in your cab? how are u exhausting and bringing in fresh air?

Keep up the good fight Dadio!

Make that 2 of US hxvoc, I hope you're still out there dadio because we need more!!!

Good Morning Planet earth !!

Time for a much needed update on my current happenings and let you know where I am with my closet.
This has been a busy summer for me dealing with my job , family, and just getting older.
My grandson was playing on my computer for a while and now I am unable to upload pics from my camera phone. Just a tempory problem until I am able to figure out what he changed. Sooo , this will have to just be a verbal blog for a bit.

Okay , to catch everybody up.

I had 7 clones started for this grow , but 4 of them died when I had to leave town for an unexpected few hot days.
so..... I currently have three Blueberry girls growing for this crop. They were very stressed but pulled thru. This will give me the unplaned opertunity to see the difference between my normal grow and how well three ladies grow in the same space but with more elbow room.
I vegged these girls with my normal dose of 5 ml per gallon of my GH Nutes. Grow , Micro , Bloom
I don't know how long I vegged them. I grew them to a height of about 18 inches , cut off a 3 inch clone from each one as I topped it , and then flipped the lights over to HPS.
After one week of 12/12 , I took 6 more clones. Two from each plant. ( we will discuss clones in a moment ).

Today , the girls are a very healthy 36" to 38" and strong thick green stems. I must add before I forget.
For flower on this crop, I am using a different set of nutes because I got some free samples from Botanicare. I received some CNS17 from Botanicare so I figured why not try a crop. I will be growing this crop using Botanicare CNS 17 , Silicablast, and Liquid Kool Bloom from GH. I am currious about the CNS 17 because it is supposed to have all your base nutes in one bottle.
Well , tomorrow will be three weeks into 12/12 and so far..... I am very pleased with how things are turning out. My stems are thick and a healthy looking green. No burnt tips on the leaves at all. I am having high hopes for this grow.

Okay..... lets talk a bit about clones.
I have been try to grow clones using a homemade aerocloner that I made from a three gallon tub. I have had limited succes and it has been a lot of work changing the water every day to try to control the water temp. Water wasw getting warm and clones were wilting over and just not looking like the sucess I was hoping for.
For this next round of clones , I wanted to try something different.

I bought some 1 1/2 inch Rockwool blocks as my medium as I grow in Rockwool blocks anyway. They will conviently fit into the premade holes the blocks with.
I also will be using " Schultz Take Root" rooting powder that I got from Walmart. I can always use it later for making cuttings from regular house plants.

Okay , so now I have a total of 9 clones that I just took from my current crop of Blueberry ladies. All clones are approx. 3 inches in height and about the 5th node. I cut the bottom of the stem at about a 45 degree angle and scraped the bottom inch on the stem. I dipped in water for a few seconds and them dipped into the rooting powder. Shook of excess and then placed into rockwool cubes soaked with tap water. Placed cubes in a growing tray with a clear dome lid. watered once a day with cool tap water.

BAMM !! 100 % sucess. All 9 have roots. Three clones I took as tops from the ladies took about 12 days to root and the 6 clones i took from the middle of the plant took about 6 days to root.
I placed the strongest 4 clones into 4" cubes that I had laying around. I will vegg these untill my flower group is at week four and then add them to the group. That way I will have two harvests four weeks apart. I will be getting some 6" blocks this weekend and go back to growing only in the 6" blocks. Cost wise , this just will work best for my grow op. The remaining 5 plants will vegg for the following crop and future clones so that i will not always have to have mother plants around.
I also have a " Flo " clone growing out that will soon be giving some donations to the clone group. These are my two favorite strains to grow. The high is amazing . plants grow thick and bushy and produce fat eyepleasing buds that make the eyes happy. 8 weeks strains are a quick turnaround for crops. Now that I am finally getting this clone thing down , I get get to work on this perpetual thing with bigger vegged plants at turnaound. Faster larger crops.

Okay , time for a new update.

Out of the 9 clones that I just made ..... I took the 4 strongest looking and placed them into a 4" cube to begin vegging. roots spread thru the block and is doing great. I placed teh 4" blocks on top of 6" blocks today and placed them into the flood tray. Should be ready for harvest 5 weeks behind current crop. Since things are crowded with a total of 7 girls in the tray , I will let the newest 4 girls grow naturally without topping them. Just a large cola. The remaining 5 clones were put into 4 " blocks today and will vegg under my T-5 lights . I will take a couple of clones off each plant just before going into flower. I need to keep practicing making clones so that running out will never be a problem again. I would rather throw a few away that are not needed rather than not have enough again.

Well well . My beautiful wife was able to figure out what was going on with my camera and pics to follow.

As I stated before ..... I have tried a couple of different ways to make clones but none that made me feel comfortable.

I went with a new method using rooting powder and roocwool cubes with great success. 9 for 9

That made me feel good about what was doing and am going to do this again .

I have a FLO plant that I have been growing out to use as a mother plant to get myself going. I will take 9 clones off this MOM and we will document my progress to see if this was just dumb luck last time or if I am really learning what I am doing. I know that there are different ways to clone , but everyone needs to find what works best for them.