Greetings Earthlings!! Kak's second grow!

Hello All!

This is all going down in now cloudy Nor Cal, in a magical city where pigs drive trains. That should sort it out for the locals. This is only my 2nd grow, my first turned out like crap because I was trying to do too much without enough electricity to back it all up.

These ladies had probably 3-4 weeks of growth before I bought them as clones, and were then vegged under T5's for another 4 weeks.

Photo 5 is a Super Silver Haze I FIM'd and 6 is a Black Dalia I trained horizontally, then turning it 1/2 way around after 3 days so now the poorly lit nodes are the principals and the old principals bent around to meet them forming a sizable bush with buds primarily on one face.

You can also see my extended collection of nutes, I'm rocking Advanced Nutrients and Great White for this grow in 3 gal plastic bag pots with 80% coco 20% perilite mix and a new moisture stabilizing system I'll talk about later. I keep the PPM's below 1000 and hit the C02 every hour. I've also been using Einstein Oil to combat spider mites and downy mildew and its done a great job on both fronts. Oh, and 3 outdated Hydrofarm 600 HPS's with digital ballasts and 10 22W CFL's to come later.

I'm 2/3rd's of the way through this grow so I'll post more until I'm caught up. Enjoy the pics and post lots!

That looks really good. I'm definitely gonna see how that SSH does.

Thank you Mula, New Topic!

So, I've been interested in wicking since I learned of its existence but I already had ladies rooted and going, what was I to do?

Well, I tore a sheet up into strips about 1.5 in wide and 16 or so inches long, made a V-shape with them and shoved the bottom of the V to the bottom of the pots with the excess poking through the top of the soil. I wasn't sure how it would turn out because everything I had read on bottom fed wick systems put the rise at 4 inches max, but the results were better than expected.

I introduced this to my plants in their 2nd week of flowering and they have loved it, completely filling in the space under my outdated lights. Works as such--I water with 10-20% overflow they drink it up and reabsorb the overflow in 2-3 days and then stay uniformly moist through the bag for another 3-4 days. A week! Once a week watering with the benefits and taste of a soil grow.

The way it works is in the wicks ability to keep the inside uniformly moist, allowing the plants roots to grow in all directions instead of having to avoid dry patches. I encourage everyone to give this a shot with at least one plant; the soft, light, loamy soil on the tops of the bags that is damp to the touch 4 days after watering is incredible!!

I also did a more traditional "violet watering" wicking method with some 1in grodan blocks. I drilled drain holes in some 12 oz plastic cups ($2.30 for 75) and threaded in some natural fiber rope, they say it rots but I like nature, and left a few inches hanging out the bottom. I extended the walls on some normal 24 in trays with duct tape so the cups wouldn't fall over and got 18 to a tray. On the bottom I put that grid like light reflector material they sell in hardware stores to go under florescent lights, made up of little boxes that elevate the cups out of the standing water but allow the wicks to lay in it. In preparing the cups I put an inch of large perilite on the bottom for drainage and 50/20 coco/perilite mix around the blocks. The roots loved it, most had roots on the bottom of the cup within a few days but it worked too well. A smaller diameter wick should be used in the future though because it was too easy to over water and I had to let the cups dry out a couple of times.

I've since transplanted them into 32 oz cups, screaming deal at less than $6, Six bucks for 50 sizable pots? Never!!

CAW stands for Container Aeration and Watering, once you feel the loam that forms as the pots dry you'll understand the aeration part. Enjoy!!

I just don't like the word Bubba so I had it out for these ladies from the beginning but they have turned around and been just wonderful.

Besides being nice, compact little indica powerhouses shooting out snowballs everywhere they top wonderfully. Below are assorted pictures of one that is towering into 6 main colas, pics are on flowering day 11, 11, 23, 26 and 29. Their scent is still mild overall but a very pleasant dank, limey smell.

I don't feel like dragging out the suspense, I'd rather write in real time so I'm going to post a bunch of pictures in quick succession. Useful for calendar comparison.

Last one didn't work.

On the previous the one trained back and then with my finger is a Bigfoot.

I decided to get another 200 Watts in there to try and juice up the buds just a bit more.

I trained some of the top colas to make little holes to sink the lights in. I'm not using reflectors so want there to be plant on all sides of the to receive the light. I put together the wiring and am using 23W replacements, cost me about $40 in materials.

I also added a lot more reflective plastic but ended up taking it down as it was too hard to work around. Or rather it kept falling down and I was tired of messing with it.

It was fun to watch the days progress and the ladies form perfect little cups around the bulbs. Heat training.

Overall I've found it very effective, small areas can be ripened in a day or two by using CFL's, great for below the main canopy.

So I changed my setup from air cooled to batwing reflectors and the vortex just venting the room. Much better!

I got a CAP temp regulator and my exhaust fan is on maybe 10% of the time it was before and I get to run the room at 80, which I like.

There is strain info in the pics if you click on them. The size isn't there yet but the tricromes sure are!

They have about 2 weeks left, am I where I should be?

hey man howd this grow turn out for ya. how many plants did you have goin and how much light were you using. im interested brother

The wicking system is wicked. Beautiful bud's.