Critique wanted - Schedule/Design

[SmokeWon]

My plan is for a 4 ft x 4 ft x 6.5 ft grow tent.
1 tent for start to finish from seed.
1 600 watt MH and 1 400 watt cmh for veg.
1 600 watt HPS and 1 400 watt cmh for flower.
4 inch can fan/filter
1 each 6 inch air cooled hood and cool tube
16 inch oscillating fan
5 gal landscaping pots
Pro-Mix MX
Osmocote Plus
SSU during the last 6 weeks of flower

Seeds:
Acapulco Gold seeds. The seeds are from a hippy grower near Acapulco Mexico who has had the strain in cut form since the mid-sixties which puts it in the correct time frame for an original cut. I met this guy while backpacking the area and smoked a bit with him. It's by far the best smoke I've had the pleasure of sampling in more than 15 years of smoking. Therefore I am pretty sure I am getting close to the original genetics. He used colloidal silver to produce some seeds and I managed to attain several samples. AG is a sativa dominant hybrid and therefore will take quite a while to flower indoor. From my talks with the Breeder, it can take as long as 24 weeks indoors after the 12/12 flip using a traditional veg/bloom schedule of 18/06 or more veg and 12/12 bloom. That's close to 30 weeks for a indoor grow. OUCH!

Here is the part where advice would be most appreciated, although the critique of the grow room will help with design flaws.

I may have of a way of shortening that time to around 16 weeks total.
This is important because of my location. It's incredibly hot here and the winter is the only time I can grow due to heat issues.

The plan: Stage Light schedule
Week 0: Germination 12/12
Week 1: Seedling 12/12
Week 2: Mild growth 12.5/11.5
Week 3: Growth 13/11
Week 4: Growth 13/11
Week 5: Growth 13.5/10.5
Week 6: Growth 13.5/10.5

At the end of week 6 I would switch bulbs to the 600 watt HPS and leave the CMH bulb as is.
Week 07: Stretch 13/11
Week 08: Stretch 12.5/11.5
Week 09: Bloom 12/12
Week 10: Bloom 12/12
Week 11: Bloom 12/12

Week 12-week 16 would be on a schedule decreasing in 30 minute increments down to a 10/14 schedule.

My theory is that I can fool the plant into thinking the seasons are passing faster by just following the schedule of the sun at the parent location in a faster version. What would take 3 weeks will be shortened 1 week in my "equator simulator". I will mimic the humidity, ranging it from 70% during early lights on to 99% during the "early afternoon" period back down to 50% just before lights off to duplicate environment. Temperature and light will be treated in a similar fashion and schedule using a light wheel and a thermostat inside the tent to control AC unit in order to best simulate what is available at the parent location. CO2 will be kept at 900 ppm. (This is the only alteration to the plants natural environment where CO2 levels max out at about 450 ppm.)

Other environmental factors include location:
I am growing in a semi-insulated garage that currently reaches 100 degrees in the day without the AC unit running. I can keep the tent interior with lights on at temperatures ranging from a max of 94 and a low of 72 during lights off with humidity ranging from 99% down to 45%. I know this sounds like a high range but for my needs it is fine. I will assume that the plant has some natural resistance to mold since I am merely mimicking the natural environment of the plant?


How would I set up the ventilation on the lights and still keep them on the light wheel? No matter how I imagine it, I would either have to forget ventilation, which would drive my need for the AC beyond what the AC is capable of or I would have to forget the light wheel. A rail is not possible due to the 4 x 4 footprint combined with the use of 1 air-cooled and 1 cool-tube for the hoods. As you can see, even with the use of my AC, temps are barely kept identical to their natural environment, so the AC is go/no go issue since without it I am looking at temps hitting as much as 120 degrees.

Will I sacrifice quality by trying to shorten the grow time almost in half? Has anyone tried following the light schedule of the sun for a strain with a known origin? If so how did it turn out? I have spent a lot of time chasing this strain and only have a limited number of seeds. 20 to be exact. I had to agree not to clone the strain as to secure its rarity before I could even get these. I really don't want to ruin a plant I will only get one shot at, but it is not possible to grow it for a full 30 weeks here. The temps would be out of my control with my lights on in the summer.

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated


I can add pictures when i get around to taking them but I hope I have explained my idea enough to at least give a sense of what I am attempting.
Also, would this schedule apply to other strains if origin of strain is known? Can mimicking the sun at the parent location provide the best buds for all strains? I know this seems a leap, but as light schedules go, there are few locations in the world that get 18+ hours of light a day so what is the idea behind a 18/6 light schedule? Maybe I missed something fundamental in biology, but doesn't it seem the best environment for a plant to thrive is the environment the strain originated in?

First time attempting a start to finish indoors and want to make sure I don't ruin what possibly has the genetics of what may arguably be the best smoke in North America since the 80's..

Thanks for looking and reading a wall of text.




Note: this was originally posted in the faq forum, but I think I am asking for more critique than what a basic grower would be searching for. I can't express how unique these seeds are and I want to provide the best for them.

 

[SmokeWon]

no one?

 

[SmokeWon]

I see there are still no posts. I purchased a 600 watt eye hort. hps. I currently have a 400 cmh bulb. Should I use the cmh with a 600w HPS or MH in veg? I know you want a mix of both spectrums at different ratios for both stages but with the CMH, how much more red do I need for veg? I've also been looking at the 600 watt dual arc on HTG's site. Maybe that with the CMH for veg?

 

[kiwibloke]

Where to start . . I can't answer all of your queries or questions or suppositions but I'll give you my 2cents worth on what I can.

Acapulco Gold - I'd be treating the story of the history of the plants/ seeds with a healthy scepticism . . . He was doing cuttings back in the mid to late 60's ??? !! ?? . . . . now that is a man that was way ahead of his time. Maybe he had/has a biology degree and knew about the art of cloning, but I'm fairly certain that back then seed was the only method of passing on genetics and even breeding for a particular trait (with all the back crossing, etc to get a stable gene pool and hence seeds) was virtually unknown to the vast majority of smokers/growers/smugglers . . but if he's giving / selling you seeds that produce the best smoke you've had in yonks then sweet as. . .who cares what he's calling it. The assumptions you are making as to length of flowering, etc (24 weeks ??!!??!!) should be put in the "fuck what's he smoking" basket . . .until you've flowered one out - and hey maybe he's right.

Heat - We work in celcius where i'm from - I think you guys are one of the few places that still uses farenheit and feet and inches for that matter . . .but 100degrees or even 92 is too high - easiest way around this is too think outside the square a tad . . . have your lights going at night when it'll be cooler and off when it's hotter during the day. it works for the summer in New Zealand and even works during the winter. . .gets cold at night so running lights then as well helps combat the low temps.

Light cycle. after the seeds sprout you seem to want to put them in a 12 / 12 cycle . . . . FAIL . . . . thats a flowereing cycle. Either run 24 light / no dark or 18 light / 6 dark. all the way through germination and early growth, all the way to about week 4-6 / 6-8 - whenever it is that you decide to start flowering. Once you put it on to 12 / 12 that will initiate the flowering cycle - you DO NOT want to use that cycle until the plant has reached a reasonable size, both height and branching wise. Once you are into week 5 or 6 of flowering then you can start extending the night time and shortening the light starting with 12 & half dark, 11 & half light for a week then 13 dark and 11 light; then 13 & half dark, 10 & half light, etc. There is a way to shorten the entire flowering time by reducing the amount of light but the dark MUST stay constant at at least 12 hours. The "day" time can be as little as 6 hours (and who knows, maybe 5) with 12 dark, giving a "plant day" of 18 hours instead of the usual 24. . .doing this means that 6 ordinary days is equivalent to 8 manipulated days . . . 21 days (3 weeks real time) gives you 28 days . . . 6 weeks of actual time gives 8 weeks of "plant days". WARNING . . this is a BITCH to get right. I believe there is a timer available that allows you to set this sort of cycle up (obviously costs a shit load) but otherwise you have to programme an ordinary timer on a day-to-day basis once a week and you gotta make sure you don't do it while you are trollied or you will fuck it up !! (been a long time since we did it last and it wasn't fun !! Also, by using 6 hours of light only there will be a corresponding decrease in finished weight . . . well it stands to reason don't it.

Will try and get back in the next day or so Smokewon

 

[SmokeWon]

Thanks for the reply Kiwi.

As for the genetics, you are absolutely right. I don't know about the evolution of plant cloning, but it seems to me that since people have been cutting stems and sticking them in dirt for better than 4000 years (see Sumerian civilization) then the idea that someone was cloning in the 60's doesn't seem so far-fetched after all. Also, as for breeding for traits, look up Mendelian Inheritance (scientist that did a study on pea plants) and you will find that breeding for traits and better producing plants has been around for 150 years now at least. Armed with this knowledge and some personal experience when it comes to plant breeding and genetics, I am comfortable saying that what I have is fairly close to some original AG genetics. I may be wrong, but as you said, I will not find out till I flower them out.

As for the heat, I am sad to say that what I was referring to was a night time schedule. That’s my temperature during astronomical night. I have found a way to combat this though. I can't advertise the hood I will be using to combat the problem of heat build-up as the admins of this site can get bitchy when you post links from non-sponsors. Just do a search for "Growlite Hoods" on google and you will be amazed at what they have come up with. I encourage you to view the side by side challenge video they have on their website. Amazing stuff.

As for the light schedule, I am not convinced that 18 hours are required. It completely fails to explain why GLR works so well. I am convinced that plants are genetically predisposed to blooming when they are ready and I plan to test this theory with my grow. I will be starting it a week when my hoods come in.
I plan to follow the exact schedule of the sun in an accelerated format. Reasoning behind this is the fact that the only place you will find 18+ hours of light a day on this planet is places where pot does NOT natively grow. I don't understand why 18+ of light is the standard when even the Sun doesn't do that. I think I have decided to test this with a strain other than my prized seeds. I have some seeds from a past breeding run that should work just fine for my experiment. Sativa dominant, so it should provide about the same amount of time needed to grow out AG.

Just going to have to try it out and see what happens. Watch for the journal next week if you are interested in seeing if I sink or swim.

 

[HiTimes4Me]

To run a 600w light and 400w light is going to need more than a 4" fan brother. If your going with 6" inch hoods why not just get a 6" fan?
Also, I wouldn't start with 12/12 just start with the GLR cycle because it's not about how much light a plant needs to veg its about how many hours of darkness they need to flower which is why GLR works so well, because when the plant gets that extra light in the middle of a regular night cycle it ruins the hormones they have built up to use for flowering (which they only build when it's night time). Which in turn keeps it in veg mode. Sorry it's not too detailed but I forgot the specific name of the hormone they build up during lights out. It's been a while since I explained it. But GLR does work and no you do not need 18 hours of light for veg. I personally believe it's only the standard because some people like to believe more is better. But lengthening the lights on cycle does not increase plant growth....although increased PAR will.... Meaning 1200w is better than 1000w but 24 hours of lights on do not produce more than 18hours actually theres an article somewhere on this site where someone did an experiment and found out the most growth occurs in the first 12 hours or so I belive IIRC and extended light periods didnt produce significant results to outweigh the power usage of extra hours. Sorry for the ramble... Hope it makes sense.

 

[HiTimes4Me]

Also forgot something else.... You don't need to grow it for a whole 30 weeks man.... With the schedule you have laid out you will have to do some MASSIVE training/topping so they don't get too tall... Those things are gonna stretch MAJORLY and you don't have enough room for it. You won't need to veg for six weeks unless they get stunted man because of the stretch they will go through. And i've never seen a 24 week flowering time... Even in mexico bud doesn't flower that long I've been to mexico my sister moved there with her husband because that's where he's from and it grows wild by the river where they are and it doesn't take that long and those were HEAVY sativa strains. Not saying it's impossible but I've never seen it even in mexico. But hope it works for ya bro! Get us updated im scribed