Blackberry Kush 400W MH/HPS 4x4 & Maybe More

[TheFertilizer]

Didn't have as much drop as I thought, but this seems like it might work. Air comes in through that passive intake for a bit, blows the partiton up, and then the carbon filter sucks it out. It actually kind of intermittenly expands and contracts like this. Total accident, but seems like it might be helpful, so long as the intake doesn't blow wind in and take the pollen out it should keep it all isolated.

 

[Twox]

Intetesting... hope it works for you... I want to flower a male soom but I'm still trying to figure out how I want to accomplish this feat.

 

[electro gypsy]

Intetesting... hope it works for you... I want to flower a male soom but I'm still trying to figure out how I want to accomplish this feat.

Right in the middle of a bunch of ladies He'll show most traits long before he spreads pollen so you can always back out. Otherwise I like the little 32"x32"x63" tents for breeding. Diana Prince sells them for about $70. They handle up to four smaller plants and are easy to move around and clean. Brush techniques are fine for pollinating but nothing works like natural air pollination in one of those.

 

[Twox]

Right in the middle of a bunch of ladies He'll show most traits long before he spreads pollen so you can always back out. Otherwise I like the little 32"x32"x63" tents for breeding. Diana Prince sells them for about $70. They handle up to four smaller plants and are easy to move around and clean. Brush techniques are fine for pollinating but nothing works like natural air pollination in one of those.

I bet the ladies will like him right in the middle too..Ive heard they can sense he's there and get real perky.

Any advice for lighting to flower a male.? I don't want to run a 600watt light for two males. Seems like overkill. I was looking at some 150 watt hps hoods and they were easy on the pocket. I was also looking at some cheap cob leds on amazon. I just need them to flower so I don't want to spend to much. I would rather spend funds on the flowering tent.

What about air flow and exhaust. I kinda feel bad spitting pollen all over the neighborhood from my exhaust and no filter..

 

[TheFertilizer]

I wonder if they sell any like, micro-sized tents you could put inside of a larger tent... I'm running out of floor space in my room, otherwise a tent would be pretty cool for pollinating.

I went and bought some more plastic sheeting, though it's going to be quite a pain to pin it up in there with the scrog net in the way. Was going to pickup some soil too, but the store didn't have any Happy Frog and I really don't feel like trying anything new right now. Though if at the end of the week they don't have any, my options are Sunshine Mix #4, EJ Amazon Bloom and Ocean Forrest. Frankly, I don't think I like Ocean Forrest that much. I've heard the Sunshine Mix is good, but it comes in a 3 cu foot bale for more than I wanted to spend, and the Amazon Bloom is just like, I don't know, haven't heard anything about it. Seems better than Ocean Forrest though.

Anyway, picked up a tote to make a drying box as well. Couldn't find any ducting at the store for a reasonable price, so I might have to order that online. Lucky I already have some cut-to-fit filters.

Twox,

In my opinion and total lack of experience, I'd just flower a male with CFLs. I've flowered with CFLs before and I mean, they made pretty good flower in my opinion. I can't imagine it would work any differently for the male flowers.

 

[electro gypsy]

I just keep the males with the females until they are about a week from popping. Then they go to one of the smaller tents with the selected females. That's when everything is going according to plan and we all know how that goes.
They're allowed to do their thing for a few days up to a week after seeing pollen, then the guys get culled and the gals get a rinse before returning to the main flower room.

As for lighting, those tents are to small for anything too hot. 300w Eq. LED does ok. 400w HID with a cool tube works also, but needs to be dialed down to 50%. I use a 110cfm dryer booster fan that puts negative pressure on two of those tents even with filtered intakes lol. It could run four with no problems. Pleated filter media will get the pollen if used correctly. I use it for intake and exhaust.

and yeah chucking of pollen is acceptable. Spitting is a big no no. It's one step away from spewing and that's a slippery slope my friend.

 

[Twox]

I wonder if they sell any like, micro-sized tents you could put inside of a larger tent... I'm running out of floor space in my room, otherwise a tent would be pretty cool for pollinating.

I went and bought some more plastic sheeting, though it's going to be quite a pain to pin it up in there with the scrog net in the way. Was going to pickup some soil too, but the store didn't have any Happy Frog and I really don't feel like trying anything new right now. Though if at the end of the week they don't have any, my options are Sunshine Mix #4, EJ Amazon Bloom and Ocean Forrest. Frankly, I don't think I like Ocean Forrest that much. I've heard the Sunshine Mix is good, but it comes in a 3 cu foot bale for more than I wanted to spend, and the Amazon Bloom is just like, I don't know, haven't heard anything about it. Seems better than Ocean Forrest though.

Anyway, picked up a tote to make a drying box as well. Couldn't find any ducting at the store for a reasonable price, so I might have to order that online. Lucky I already have some cut-to-fit filters.

Twox,

In my opinion and total lack of experience, I'd just flower a male with CFLs. I've flowered with CFLs before and I mean, they made pretty good flower in my opinion. I can't imagine it would work any differently for the male flowers.

They do make small tents. A short 2x2x4 would take a quarter of your grow space though. They may make them smaller.. Good idea

I'm not big on ocean forest either, I have a hard time judging when to start feeding with it... I use to mix it but i gave that up to.. They actually just released a new soil I want to try called Strawberry fields.. Has a little coco in it and isn't as strong as ocean forest..Happy frog is nice because everybody carries it so it's easy to find when I need it.

I thought about cfls but I'm lazy and don't want to hang a bunch of lights. A single unit would make things easy to put up and take down when needed. I may multi purpose my new space too so a decent quality light might help when my veg tent is packed..

 

[TheFertilizer]

Well by CFL I don't really mean the small ones. I mean the 12" by 4" ones that are like 100 watts. But I suppose for the price of those LEDs now that would work as well too.

I put my drying box together. I'm a little worried about the amount of airflow it pulls though, it doesn't really seem like that much. If I put my hands on the sides of the filters I can just barely feel air moving through the webs of my fingers, but I know it's pulling because I sat a lighter in front of it and it pretty much sucks the flame out. It doesn't seem as much air flow as through my tents, but then again maybe that's good since I need it to be a little less to increase drying time--my low humidity tent dries bud way too fast.

I have a real bone to pick with the people who designed this tent. They must have not put much thought into where people would be putting this, because they decided putting the flaps for the intakes OUTSIDE would be a good idea. Oh sure, because nobody would ever put their tent up against a wall, or in a corner, or another tent up against it... Luckily there are two "access windows" that I unzipped from the outside and closed the side passive-intake flaps, but the one in the back is still open. So I can close it if I rearrange everything and pull the tent out from the wall a little, but I think I should try it out as is before doing that.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I put them in 5 gallon pots last night. Holy crap I hope it's worth it, because I forgot how much heavier these things are. I really prefer working with 3 gallons. Well, hopefully they'll get bigger because of it.

I also sealed off the passive intake vent on my tent that was blowing up the partition for the reversal plant. I didn't want to risk it blowing in and spreading the pollen out, and it kind of looks like some of these sacs are almost ready to burst already, though I'm not really sure how to tell. They're just starting to get these yellow lines about the edges like they're about to pop open, but it's strange because there's only one or two of them so I would have figured that it more of them would have shown up before they were ready to open. I've seen some small clusters of others starting, so yeah, I don't know, getting pretty risky keeping it in the flowering tent. I would cut the branches off and put them in a glass of water, but they're on nodes that are so close to the main stem that I don't see how I could.

 

[electro gypsy]

Fives are a pain. I use mostly 3.5 gal hard pots and 3 gal soft pots, but then I'm not pushing for size either. Seeds are my thing. Really doesn't take much more than a 2 gal and it's so much easier to manage.

They are looking mighty happy in the five gal though

 

[Twox]

I love the drying tub.

Your plants in veg look green and huge, very nice... Are you planning on flowering soon?

 

[TheFertilizer]

Fives are a pain. I use mostly 3.5 gal hard pots and 3 gal soft pots, but then I'm not pushing for size either. Seeds are my thing. Really doesn't take much more than a 2 gal and it's so much easier to manage.

They are looking mighty happy in the five gal though

Yeah if I had a lot of seeds I think I would like to do more 12/12 from flower grows in a kind of "staggered" setup.

I love the drying tub.

Your plants in veg look green and huge, very nice... Are you planning on flowering soon?

Yeah just as soon as the scrog plant is done flowering, which I'm guessing will be another week or two. I'm not sure she really liked having her leaves plucked like that, it might have slown her down some. Should give them plenty of time to put some roots into those 5 gallons.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Well I was trying to get some good pictures of these pollen sacks, but my camera sucks. I think they were just looking more yellow under the HPS light, but man they look like they're cracking open already.

Also, had to try to figure out a way to raise this fan up a little in the veg tent. Got it tied up onto the supports with a bungee cord. I think I need to buy a couple extra tall tower fans.

OH here's some closeups too... Little dark though. I think I'm starting to see some purple hues.

 

[electro gypsy]

Yep they are getting close. I see at least one that is splitting. A few will probably open before the others and it's really tempting to jump at them and try to harvest pollen. The best are yet to come so if you intend to save pollen keep applying that patience these girls are teaching
Otherwise chuck away Fert. Chuck away. Jeeze, sometimes I think I have crop circles in my brain.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Yep they are getting close. I see at least one that is splitting. A few will probably open before the others and it's really tempting to jump at them and try to harvest pollen. The best are yet to come so if you intend to save pollen keep applying that patience these girls are teaching
Otherwise chuck away Fert. Chuck away. Jeeze, sometimes I think I have crop circles in my brain.

Just wondering how to work the timing with finishing this plant, and then moving the others into the flower tent with this one. I've got the little plastic sheet partition thing going on, but I mean, it doesn't really inspire confidence. I've honeslty probably dropped some pollen just jostling it in and out of its little cubby hole...

 

[electro gypsy]

I'm fortunate and have 4 tents to work with now. Before tents I was at the mercy of an open room. Sucked. But I did learn a few tricks through all that pain.
About the best advise I could give for you situation is a large spray bottle of ph balanced water. Go mist happy with it while working. Not soaking anything, just a few clouds all around every few minutes. It's not a cure all but it will help weigh down floating pollen. The spraying feels less stupid if you dance and sing while working too for some reason lol.

 

[TheFertilizer]

*rubs his eyes*

Wow, is it just me or did these things pack some growth on? I know it's been a few days but dang.

7 weeks into flower now and I'm not quite sure that 8 weeks is all it needs. Thinking it may need 9-10, I'm starting to see some purple hues come out, the pistills are barely turning red, and things just haven't quite swelled up as much as I've seen before. Thinking back, I may have done 9 weeks on this strain last time, and this seems to be a different pheno because it's much frostier...

This cat hair is killing me though!

Well, should give time for these cuts to clone. I kind of half-assed it with the solution this time and just gave them some distilled water with Azos mixed in. They were pretty dry today and started looking like they were having some deficiencies so I gave them some tap water mixed with superthrive pH'd to 6.

The real yellow ones are the ones that were in my fridge for weeks, and they don't really look like they're going to be too viable and in fact I think I'm just going to go ahead and throw them out lest they contaminate the others with some disease or something.

I'm trying to leave the CS plant be so that I don't stir up any pollen. Probably a little late for this scrog plant to seed over, but could still develop those little premie white ones that screw up the taste of a bowl real good, and are even harder to pull out. Don't want that.

 

[electro gypsy]

I used to crank my CO2 bottle wide open for a sec and that cat was gone He knows now. All I have to do is walk toward it.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Ha yeah, my cats share the same living space as the tents though, wish I had another spare room to put them in that was cat free. Though they at least know not to put claws into the tents or go near them. But their hair is just everywhere lol I need a HEPA filter... Or three.

So as healthy as my veg girls are, they STILL have these weird discoloring... Not sure what this is. I'm not real worried about it, but it would be good to have a solid idea of what it is to try to work the kinks out. Seems to be mostly on the newer growth, and doesn't really go away, so there's spots on the plant where it went away for a bit, and then later came back, and then went away... Maybe I'm not feeding frequently enough? I Feed-Water-Feed as the pot dries out, and sometimes that could take 5 days or more until the roots have really filled up the pots.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I was inspired by Twox's recent post in his thread to show off how I have my tents setup. I just recently got the second tent so it's kind of an evaluation in progress but it's working pretty well.

This is the center of operation for the ventilation. The fan is an SPL 400 CFM 6" inline fan connected to a Vivosun speed controller and a power bar. I have to run this one on a separate circuit than the light because for some reason if the fan is on, the ballast won't ignite the HPS. If I have the fan on a separate circuit, it's no problem though.

Each tent is connected by the Y pipe junction, and the ducting goes up and over the tent. It may seem like the veg tent has the longer run, but actually the flower tent does because of the air-cooled hood. Both have their own carbon filter.

I have an AC adapter thermostat with a temperature probe I place just outside the opening of an intake into the flower tent. The flower tent's temperature is more crucial so I make sure to use the temperature of the air being taken in. There's a pretty high difference between the air inside the tent and the air coming in, but this basically just helps me from having to remember to adjust my AC during the day and night and saves a little on the power bill. So these fans draw cool air from the room in through the passive intakes on the tent, as well through a drying tub I have attached to the veg chamber.

All the exhaust goes through this DIY transfer box I made. First I removed the furnace vent grating, and then just lucked out that the box I found fit into the fixture in the wall perfectly. I fully deactivated the furnace so I have no worries about gas leaks, and this all exhausts the air right into the adjacent room through the face of the old furnace.

My ballast sits under the table the fan is on, with that box fan pointed at it for good measure. The ballast and timer gets its own dedicated socket.