| Dutch Master and Qleaner || 600W HPS | General Hydroponics || (kinda) scrog | DWC

RonSwanson

Active Member


Greetings and salutations friends!

Since this grow is getting closer to over I should probably start posting some pics. I picked these clones up in Denver at the end of July when we were over there for a concert at Red Rocks (global dance fest anyone?) at a really cool nondescript little shop called Karmaceuticals. We called to ask if they had clones and they answered the phone "How can I make your day better?" I knew these people were the ones I wanted to buy some clones from.

Some pics from my last grow, Blueberry with different nutrients, general hydroponics and dutch master. I loved the way the dutch master vegged but the general hydroponics by far had better flowering results. This was my first time growing, and I think it went really, really well. I harvested those plants on 4/20 and, as you can see, they have lasted me a while. Those plants were a total experiment, as I had never grown before, and was totally winging it, with some help from friends etc.. and you guys. It was SO much fun though. The reactive nature and the adaptability of these plants is phenomenal.











I also had a ton of fun with the construction aspect of building a growroom. I like doing thigns with my hands and it was fun to have a project that served a more dynamic purpose than, say, building a bookcase or something. To that end, for my last grow, I built a super sweet cabinet that I gotta say, I'm really proud of:



For this new grow though I of course did the classic grower thing: BIGGER! I had purchased a tent that ended up being way to big to put anywhere in the house. so I put it out in the garage, which has turned out to be a study in temperature variance seeing as its almost kinda sort winter here in CO. More on that later. Anyway, I found a guy on CL selling a Hydrofarm Waterfarm 8 system, and granted I can only grow 3 plants legally with my card, I wanted to get the system in case in the future I can expand, so I picked that system up, and it came with a 600 w phantom ballast and air cooled hood. My last grow I used LEDS and they worked awesome, but I wanted to try and HPS setup now that I can control the temperatures a bit more. To that and, I bought 2 of the 6" Hydrofarms exhaust fans which I put on voltage regulators to control the sound. One of them is pulling air from outside the tent, over the bulb and up into the attic. The other is exhausting the ambient tent air through a carbon filter and into the attic. My next project is going to be going into the attic to do something better there... find a vent I can pipe the air to. This is a 100 year old house and the attic is not airtight from the rest of the house... and it's starting to smell REALLY good in here when I get home from work.

Because I started these clones before I had the waterfarm system, I am not using the buckets that came with it, just the same 5 gallon buckets from my last grow. I am using the reservoir from the Waterfarm though, and have a big trashcan filled with clean water out there. Still haven't invested in a RO system for the water, but it seems to be okay right out of the tap. I think the PPM is around 250 so not perfect by any means but low enough to put it farther down the list ;) I put the reservoir on top of its lower half so its higher up than my buckets, and attached a hose with a on/off valve so I can just mix nutes in the res and disperse to the two buckets with the garden hose. I pull the spent nuts out with an aquarium style hand pump. Pretty lame, but because the buckets are on the ground to allow for maximum vertical height I cannot use their drain tubes. Next time around I will have the waterfam buckets in there hooked up to the recirculating pump so it will be much more efficient... I want to raise those buckets up so I can gravity drain everything... just going to have to get a serious scrog in place and find a good hybrid strain that isn't super stretchy.

So here are some pics of the new stuff.. Durban Poison and Qleaner. They are both doing awesome. Temps have been out of control out there so they are growing slowly... its been really cold so I got a little heater to put in there which is helping, but getting it adjusted has taken some time. I think my min/mx thermometer said it was getting down to the 40s in there at one point so it totally amazes me that the plants are fine, just growing slowly in that environment. If I can get it to within a 20 degree swing from day to night I'll be stoked. 60-80 would be awesome. actually 70-090 would be better, as I do have one of those CO2 bags hanging in there.



























The Durban is on the left with the yellower leaves and the Qleaner is on the right with the big dark menacing leaves.

I have a dentist appointment so I gotta run, but I really enjoyed everybody commenting and sharing opinions and ideas last time so Please Feel Free to Comment!!!!! HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!
 

RonSwanson

Active Member
Welcome aboard team! I wanted to mention that I said (sorta) scrog in the thread title because, if you can see it there, there is a screen in there. I put it in after the Qleaner had blown up, though so I didnt get to scrog it to much. I actually had a Sour Diesel plant in there that scrogged great, but she is no longer with us. so anyway, now that it's in place, I am really looking forward to getting into it next time. I want to fill up the screen man!

Also since the two plants are so disparate in height, it doesn't really work. The durban poison actually tipped over in its cube, so it grew out from the top of the bucket at like a 45 degree angle and is kind of like a bonsai tree so that makes it even shorter. It is up on top of a bucket to try and make those plants closer in height... the Qleaner is still a foot taller though. Tough lesson learned about scrogging... sometimes plants just break if you bend them to much. Oh well, I put that top in my clonebox and she is going nuts! Was counting the leaves on her last night though and its interesting... totally regressing to vegging. Leaf count goes from bottom to top 7, 5, 3 so the new growth is putting out 3 leaf leaves right now. Fascinating!
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Do you know about supercropping. That's something that would have helped with the height discrepancy. Nice all the new equipment. Looks like you have put some of it to good use already. Can't your lady get a card, then you could grow 6? I'm assuming you have a lady, I think you said 'we' a couple times.
 

RonSwanson

Active Member
Yea Jig she can. She's kind of been tentative about it since she wants to get a new job and some of the jobs she's applied for are with the city so she doesn't want those two things to interfere with each other... No idea if they check something like that but a valid concern I guess. I have to get my card reupped in the new year so I keep bugging her about it and hopefully she'll go with me when I get mine. I wouldn't even know what to do with that much bud anyways!!
 

RonSwanson

Active Member
Is super cropping where you crush the stem a certain way to get it to bulk up? Also... topping... I didn't do that this time around and I probably should. Jig can you point me at a good scrog for dummies guide?
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
It's sorta like that. Depending on how big the stem is you roll it with your fingers to weaken it then break it to a 90 degree angle. It's like doing a scrog with no screen (or something). The new branch will need to be supported eventually. It will hold itself up untill the buds get big. it's wild too, because the knuckle where you broke it becomes all gnarled and tough by the end of the grow.

Probably best for the lady to stay safe.

And I don't know of a scrog for dummies guide type thing. I know it's not the same but you can always ask questions of anything you aren't sure of. One thing about screens is to have them in place early and time the flip by how full it is getting. Helps to have an idea how much the strain you are growing is going to stretch, but I know you don't always have that luxury.
 

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member
Hey Ron I'm LST'ing mine for canopy control... check it out... this one's gonna be a monster... right now it's only a little above 1' above soil with over 30 growth shoots within an inch or two height of each other. I'll thin it out a bit by taking cuts before flower :) i'm also gonna up pot her from the 3.4 gallon she's in now to a 5 or 7 gallon. I gotta order more pots tomorrow I need to repot 4 plants in flower... i've got a 4' tall sativa going in a 1.5 gallon pot in there right now

I need to tie one or two branches down on her tonight that are getting a little high... i just did a bunch of tieing down on the next 4 to go into flower after her.

veg-bigredtop.jpgveg-bigred2.jpgveg-bigred.jpg
 

RonSwanson

Active Member
Wow Sens, that's totally where I want to be at next time. So you just tie all the branches down so they grow horizontal instead of vertical? Do you crush the stems like jig was talking about? I totally like the flat bush effect... I'm gonna post some pics later and you will see I have hardly any canopy control. One thing that was interesting that's hard to get a picture of is my durban poison how it tipped over kinda in its rockwool cube so its growing horizontally like a bonsai plant, its really cool. I kinda want to do that on purpose from now on because it definitely made that plant much shorter.

Anyway I gotta go to work but more pics tonight. Your plants are looking awesome and I will totally check out your journal later!

Heres a teaser pic: ;)



that qleaner sure isn't bulking up like the durban, but it is sooooo crystally!!!! And it smells scary. In a good way. Have a great day yall!!
 

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member
Yeah my querkle dominant cheesequakes have fairly small buds in size I'm hoping they are just really dense when they're done. That one's got the classic JC rails on the leaves :)
 

RonSwanson

Active Member
Sens - JC rails you mean Jack's Cleaner? one of the crosses with the Qleaner? Are you talking about the way those leaves roll up on the sides? If so that's interesting, I didn't know what was causing that. I thought it was because they got pretty close to the light.

Yea it's interesting that they are not beasting up. I gave my buddy a clone of it so when he runs that it'll be interesting to see the difference.

Anyway, heres some new pics:

Here's the reservoir setup.. a little mundane but I keep filtered water in the trashcan, then use a bucket to pour 5-6 gallons into the waterfarm res. I then mix my nutes in the res, and water the plants with the PVS hose I made. I am so excited for next time around when all my buckets will be connected with recirculating nutrients and a massive air pump and temperature control in the res. Depending on how this whole Amendment 64 thing pans out I may actually be able to use all 8 buckets soon; and wouldn't that be nuts?



The 600W Phantom HPS:



The gravity fed watering hose, Co2 bag and Hydrofarm fan.. that's the one pulling air over the bulb.





Aquarium thermometer stuck in the drain tube of one of my buckets. I have no idea what temperature my nutes are supposed to be at, honestly. I remember reading it once and thinking it was pretty cold so 66 seems alright to me. Experts feel free to chime in ;)



Here you can see the thermometer, the dual diaphragm air pump and my DWC buckets. It still absolutely amazes me that a plant can grown and thrive in a 5 gallon plastic bucket as long as you give it food water and air.



An overall view of what's growing. Qleaner on the right and Durban on the left. They both smell incredibly good and totally different. The Durban is bulking up quickly and evenly, I like! Still waiting to see if the Qleaner will nug up at all. Right now its got a ton of totally crystallized half dollar sized nugs but I'm waiting to see if they grow together. Either way I can't lose, stuff looks aaamazing and I'm not really looking to sell a ton anyway.



Qleaner



Durban Poison



Durban close up



Aaand again the Qleaner close up. I swear to the FSM it smells like Skittles. And I love Skittles.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Looking good. I think the rule for rez water is to keep it below 74. I look to keep mine below 70. I think too cold though isn't good, like 55, but i don't think you have to worry about that. Actually somewhere I read something about purposefully cooling the rez water really cold to do something or other, lol.

sorry if you already talked about it... but are you doing anything with your led's this time round?

EDIT: So cool that 64 passed. Not sure how that will all look, but it's a first step.
 

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member
Yeah Qleaner is Querkle x Jack's Cleaner. Known for those little curls on the leaves covered in trichs that make it look like little 'rails' -- i've got a couple of querkle crosses going
 

RonSwanson

Active Member


Yummy Durban is starting to change colors:



The Qleaner almost looks done? I need a mic to check the trichs. The hairs have always been orange on this girl from the get go so it's really hard to tell:



Sure is amazingly crystalized though!






Delicious Durban:



All the the Durban are belong to me:



Crazy pic of the Qleaner.. she's a monster!

 

Senseimilla

Well-Known Member
Looking good ron! Looks like i may be growing some durban too... a friend got some beans he's gonna sprout'em and give me a clone or i'm gonna sprout'em for him, can't remember which he said :) Looking good though looks like you only have a few short weeks left :) That durban's definitely got a ways to go, can't really tell on the qleaner
 
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