First time out

Yet another n00b getting his roots wet for the first time with a basic DWC setup and six alleged White Rhino clones. Got a friend in the biz who was able to sell me a 250 watt integrated-ballast HPS light for cheap, and I picked up a four bulb fluorescent for future clone/veg ops. Here's what's up so far...


New babies in their tub.


Eleven days later - veg'ing hard!


One week into flowering - still growing like...you know...


Six days after the last photo. I moved the entire operation from the blistering hot second floor closet to the basement. Even with moderate Spring temps it was just too damn hot in there for the girls. Now I have the opposite problem, top temp of sixty degrees & 85% humidity!


Clone & veg bench. After this first round goes to harvest I'll start working toward the Sea of Green. And this is where it will all begin.


What it's all about Baby, the pretty flowers.

Many more pix and updates to follow. If you care to comment please do!

So after a week of 60 degrees & 90 to 100% humidity we will be relocating the Girls yet again. Hopefully this will be the last time moving, and hopefully this will be the end of environmental extremes! Despite the rough days things seem to be progressing, albeit slowly:

We just can't make up our damn minds. Various factors have come to light that will require the Girls to stay in the basement for the time being. But thanks to a friend they will have a little more heat and twice the light - I was just given another 250 Watts of MH goodness!

Three weeks into flowering and I'm pretty happy with the results under a single lamp, so I can't imagine what twice the lumens will bring!

I just can't leave well enough alone. After adding the new light I still wasn't happy with the distribution of lumens on my girls. My answer was to move the two smallest plants out of the tub and into their own five gallon buckets with their own DWC setup. That got them out of the shade of Big Mamma. I also took a 125 watt florescent that I'm not currently using and slung it vertically to help fill in a shady area in the front of the grow area.



Despite all my messing around, a classic mistake of n00bs, the girls are all flowering their little hearts out:



I think in future grows I will veg in the tub but flower in buckets. Four more buckets and one more dual-outlet pump are all I need to run six DWC buckets. Better use of the grow area and definitely more control over lumen distribution. Next round I may try a ScrOG, but if I come into another light I will definitely running some girls in their own buckets. Updates as warranted!

Another weekend another trip to the hydro shop. Yellow leaf tips and other signs finally forced me to buy the cheapest PPM meter they had and damn am I glad I did. Not sure how I got my girls all the way up to 1610 PPM, but it was time for a nute refresh anyway. New nutes are at a nice 1250. And I wondered why growth had just exploded!

In the course of pumping out tubs I took one of my runts out to get some natural-light pix. This is one of the two plants that I moved to a stand-alone DWC bucket because it was completely overgrown by Big Mamma. Scrawny, but I should be able to get a buzz or two off of her:


Something that didn't make it into my last post was the half-assed creation of a veg/clone/generally light-tight area in my already tiny grow room. I'm still working out the details of light-proofing and the door, so if anyone cares to share wisdom it would be much appreciated!

In theory I have room to run two tubs of whatever needs 18/6, tho' more likely I'll be veging one tub and storing mothers in the other half of the cabinet. My source for clones damn near made me soil myself this morning when he shared the menu that will be mine to choose from in about three weeks. I was going to order seed from Attitude but why bother with this opportunity! Anybody have a favorite they would care to suggest?

Back to the current grow - ten weeks of 12/12 will be July 14th...just about one month from today. I figure one more round of nutes then start the flush on none other than the Fourth of July! So thirty days...it's getting kinda crowded down there


Stay FROSTY everybody!

Big Mamma has gotten so bodacious she needs a little light bondage to keep her in line

Next grow = ScrOG, no doubt. Still, for all the mistakes I've made over the past few months my girls have flowered their hearts out for me. The scent hits you, even over the fuel-oil reek, the minute you start to descend the stairs. Amber pistils and cloudy trichs...soon....soon. July-7 = nine weeks, July-14 = ten. When to start the fluch? Much to ponder.

Stay frosty

Added another gallon straight water to the tub and split another between the runts. After checking the trichs on a couple plants I caved and took a couple small buds for a preliminary taste. Dressed them down, nuked them for way too long, and packed the bong. Very light and almost flavorless smoke, so I figured I'd wasted the buds and huffed down several hits in hopes that I might catch some kind of buzz. All of the sudden I was SO FUCKING HIGH. Very cerebral, no couch-lock, with the initial rocket ride fading in about half an hour. Shared some with the wife and she was all "NOW! Cut them NOW!". I think I may start to flush one of the runt and hang her up to dry next week. Maybe take the other runt a week later. Leave Big Mamma and her tub-mates for last. Damn I love this hobby!

Another two gallons H2O into the tub. PPM was 1350 and I think they're burning. Definite yellowing of leaves, both large fan & even on buds, but sporadic in distribution across the plant. Going to start the flush on a runt tomorrow and cut her 7 to 10 days later.

Started the flush on the two bucket runts last Tuesday and cut 'em down today. Moved the two runts still in the tub to the newly-available buckets and started their flush. Will pump out the tub and start that flush tomorrow.

So there's been a lot of tasting and testing and sampling and it's been all good to date. Dressed down the the two girls I cut today and well...looks like air bud. All fluff, no puff. Gets ya where you wanna be tho. Guess I should be grateful I am harvesting anything. Meh, late and I'm not into editing pix, and honestly, it ain't all that great.

And so we come to the end of this grow. I was lucky enough to notice some bud rot on Little Mamma and took her down on 7-9, then found some on Big Mamma the following day. Impact was minimal but it killed me to toss that fist-sized bud on the compost pile.

Little Mamma hooked me up with not one but two colas!


But, of course, it was Big Mamma that we were waiting to harvest. And here's why:


That donkey dick should keep us in smoke for a couple weeks! Not only did she grow that massive cola, she also provided a nice set of secondary buds:


Evidence of the slaughter


That leaves the two little runts from the tub. They have some tiny colas and a few buds that will get us a smoke or two. Wish I could have flushed the Mammas for another week or so but that wasn't meant to be I guess. We've been rolling all the choice trim into joints and loving that action. It's going to be a long month waiting for the goods to dry & cure.

And I'm already planning all the ways to do it better next time.

After all the drying and trimming and curing....the numbers are in! Total finished product came to 87 grams, 37 of mid-plant mid-grade bud and fifty grams of colas and top-grade shite. That and a big bag of quality trim and popcorn budlets that makes great joints. With everything we've already smoked and given away I'd dare say the actual number was closer to four Z's. Here's what it looked like in the end:



From here on out the sky is truly the limit. Just got my package from the Attitude with some Nirvana White Rhino and a freebie Cole Train, a friend hooked me up with Butterscotch and AK-47 mothers, and I'm getting six more WR clones from the same source as the above girls. I'm already plotting where to set up another room so I can have a permanent veg/clone room.

It just keeps gettin' better!