Hello all and welcome to my first grow journal. I am a medical MJ patient and I grow for myself and 2 other patients. I am currently getting things rolling so I can harvest every 4 to 5 weeks. The strains I am using are high THC content and two are mystery girls that are either White Widow or Big Bud, Permafrost or Alaskan Thunder Fuck. I obtained these two clones from a dispensary and the owner forgot to mark what was what. So we will all get to solve the mystery together. Though I will only follow the progress of this batch of ladies in this journal, I will be doing a head to head comparison of Advanced Nutrients and my old GH formula in another thread that will involve this crop. I am thinking I may just compare the "Lucas Formula" since it seems to be quite popular, and I can't find my notes from my previous grows. However, for the purposes of this grow I will be following the Advanced Nutrients Grand Master Grower Level which is reported to be a 37% increase in yield over any competitor..hmm.. we will see.
A fair warning in advance, I can get long winded and ramble without realizing it but to make up for it, I will be posting lots of photos. So lets get this goin, eh?
System and Plant statistics:
Aeroponic cloner (home made one used for these clones)
Ebb and flow table (purchased from Garden store)
Ebb and Gro system (buckets home made)
Plant strains: Afghan-Gooey (known), White Widow vs Big Bud, Permafrost vs ATF
Veg room specs: 8'x10'x8', T-5 lights for cloning and first transplant station, 400w full spectrum MH in vented hood for veg weeks 2-3, 2'x4' ebb and flo tray with 25 gal. res., ebb and gro transition table with 25 gal. res. Room temp 78 degrees, RH 60%, 4" inline exhaust with can filter 120, passive intake.
Bloom room specs: 10'x10'x8' (not inc. closet), 2 1000w HPS lamps in vented hoods on 5.0 light rail (will be total of 4 by the time these get to bloom), 8" exhaust fan and filter combo, 6" inline fan with booster fans cooling lights, two 16" circulating wall mount fans, 6" booster inlet fan, Dehumidifier with out of room drainage, 2 Ebb and Gro systems with 2 55 gal. res.
Time for some pics at this point, don't ya think?
My cloning and early deveolpment station
Close up of Moms under T-5s
Close up of Adolescents getting thier walking papers
Neighborhood construction, future home of my graduates
High rise apartments springing up everywhere
Inside look at the plumbing facilities
After soaking used hydroton in Flora Clean and Hygrozyme overnight, a good rinse meant the girls could start packin thier bags. With a 10 bucket 2.5 gal. system I use approx. 20 gal. of hydroton. When filling the inside bucket, I stop 2" from the top because this will never see water. When the buckets are at full flood, the water level is about 2" from the top of the lower outside bucket giving me a 2" depth of constantly dry hydroton. This really cuts down on pests, especially those nasty nutrient flies.
When I first purchased a CAP controler and was able to get my buckets off the "height stealing" table for the first time, I ran into root rot because of the standing water the system leaves behind in the bottom bucket after draining. Not everyone seems to have this problem but enough did for the company to come up with a fix while they improve thier design. It entailed putting 2" pieces of 2" diameter pvc piping under the inside bucket to elevate the roots. Works until the roots get to the water again! My fix was a bit more expensive but has benefits that improve yield. I drilled a hole in the bottom of my inside buckets for an airline to protrude into the standing water and hooked em up to an air pump. The results have been very satisfying to say the least. A couple pics of this for those that are as visual as I am.
These roots are begging for a new home
"See ya Mom, gotta groove in my new digs"
These clones were in my home made aeroponic cloner (no pics yet, cleaning it) for 2 weeks with the exception of 3 of them that were in it 4 weeks (no homes avail. when they were ready). I used a combo of Greenfuse Clonex and root enhancer with a touch of Superthrive B-1 for clone solution. I purchased a Botanicare cloner that came with Powerclone and Aqua-shield. Using this mix and the cloner has not been a very positive experience for me. I used to have a 99% success rate cloning and so far I have lost 10 starts of 30 in this system. I will be going back to my own home made system and nutrient program and selling the botanicare cloner to anyone interested and at a marked discount.:surrender:
Due to this I will be taking clones today or tomorrow and use my old system in case these tadpoles don't make it. Take a look for yourself:
These were transplanted into 6" net pots one week ago for the move to the ebb and flo table to start vegging under my FS T-5 light. I usually take the best 13 to 15 clones for this stage then the best 10 from them for final transplanting. I have 7 known Afghan-Gooey girls, 1 possible White Widow or Big Bud and 2 possible Permafrost or ATF that are now under a 400w FS MH. I have the light 3 feet above the plants at this time and will lower it by 4-6 inches a day until the glass of the hood is 5-6 inches above the canopy. I love air-cooled lighting!
I veg with the lights on 24 hours a day mainly because of location being shared with my maturing and new clones. I have vegged with the 18/6 cycle also and haven't seen any ill effects from the 24 hour regimine for the past 3 crops I have been doing this.
This batch has been getting nutes in the 900-1100 ppm range while in the ebb and flo tray under the T-5 lights so my mix for the transplant res was started at 1500 ppm. I use RO water (reverse osmosis) that has a ph of 7.1 and ppm of 6 after filtering (295 ppm prior to filtering). I store it in two 35 gal. plastic trash cans and one 55 gal plastic barrel connected to each other. This gives me approx. 110 gals. of clean H2O to work with and I need it all come fluid change day (I can have as many as 4 resevoirs running, 2 55gal and 2 25gal). I change fluids weekly and always on the same day so I don't forget how old the nutes are. I also found through experience that it should be a day you have plenty of time and the local Hydro store is actually open!
Res. Mix week 2 of veg: 24 gal. RO H20, 160mls each of Sensigrow A & B, 100mls B-52, 100mls Voodoo jc., 200mls Sensi Cal-Mag Grow, 200mls MEST-Grow (Mother Earth Super Tea Grow). PPM 1500-1510, PH 6.1 (did not require ph adjustment).
Feeding Schedule: every 4 hours, 8, 12, 4 etc.
(first week of veg same nutes, lower amounts to get ppm 900)
You may have noticed that the amounts of each nute varies from the Advanced Nutrients "Bigger Yield Flowering System" recommendations. As many have found that use AN, if mixed at the levels they recommend, ppm is over 2000. I have not found a strain that can handle more than 1800ppm in my experience with hydro so as a result I rarely mix over 1500 ppm to allow for concentration of the nutes during plant transpiration. By altering my mix this way, I am able to go for 48 hours without the need to top off due to high ppm. I tend my ladies daily but this gives me a safety net for those surprises in life.
Ok, thanks for hanging in there with me so far, just about to wrap up this intro. How about some more pics? Well... if you insist, here ya go.
Welcome to the neighborhood ladies!
Lady Afghan-Gooey herself
Which will it be, White Widow or Big Bud, stay tuned!
Another mystery date, Permafrost or ATF, bachelor number one wants to know, "Are you of two minds?"
Well, thats the cast of characters in my play. I hope you have enjoyed act one and please come back for the next act. No need to hold applause until then. Obviously, any and all comments or suggestions will be completely ignored so go ahead and waste your time if ya want. (thats sarcasm by the way, and I am full of it, litterally. )
A fair warning in advance, I can get long winded and ramble without realizing it but to make up for it, I will be posting lots of photos. So lets get this goin, eh?
System and Plant statistics:
Aeroponic cloner (home made one used for these clones)
Ebb and flow table (purchased from Garden store)
Ebb and Gro system (buckets home made)
Plant strains: Afghan-Gooey (known), White Widow vs Big Bud, Permafrost vs ATF
Veg room specs: 8'x10'x8', T-5 lights for cloning and first transplant station, 400w full spectrum MH in vented hood for veg weeks 2-3, 2'x4' ebb and flo tray with 25 gal. res., ebb and gro transition table with 25 gal. res. Room temp 78 degrees, RH 60%, 4" inline exhaust with can filter 120, passive intake.
Bloom room specs: 10'x10'x8' (not inc. closet), 2 1000w HPS lamps in vented hoods on 5.0 light rail (will be total of 4 by the time these get to bloom), 8" exhaust fan and filter combo, 6" inline fan with booster fans cooling lights, two 16" circulating wall mount fans, 6" booster inlet fan, Dehumidifier with out of room drainage, 2 Ebb and Gro systems with 2 55 gal. res.
Time for some pics at this point, don't ya think?
My cloning and early deveolpment station
Close up of Moms under T-5s
Close up of Adolescents getting thier walking papers
Neighborhood construction, future home of my graduates
High rise apartments springing up everywhere
Inside look at the plumbing facilities
After soaking used hydroton in Flora Clean and Hygrozyme overnight, a good rinse meant the girls could start packin thier bags. With a 10 bucket 2.5 gal. system I use approx. 20 gal. of hydroton. When filling the inside bucket, I stop 2" from the top because this will never see water. When the buckets are at full flood, the water level is about 2" from the top of the lower outside bucket giving me a 2" depth of constantly dry hydroton. This really cuts down on pests, especially those nasty nutrient flies.
When I first purchased a CAP controler and was able to get my buckets off the "height stealing" table for the first time, I ran into root rot because of the standing water the system leaves behind in the bottom bucket after draining. Not everyone seems to have this problem but enough did for the company to come up with a fix while they improve thier design. It entailed putting 2" pieces of 2" diameter pvc piping under the inside bucket to elevate the roots. Works until the roots get to the water again! My fix was a bit more expensive but has benefits that improve yield. I drilled a hole in the bottom of my inside buckets for an airline to protrude into the standing water and hooked em up to an air pump. The results have been very satisfying to say the least. A couple pics of this for those that are as visual as I am.
These roots are begging for a new home
"See ya Mom, gotta groove in my new digs"
These clones were in my home made aeroponic cloner (no pics yet, cleaning it) for 2 weeks with the exception of 3 of them that were in it 4 weeks (no homes avail. when they were ready). I used a combo of Greenfuse Clonex and root enhancer with a touch of Superthrive B-1 for clone solution. I purchased a Botanicare cloner that came with Powerclone and Aqua-shield. Using this mix and the cloner has not been a very positive experience for me. I used to have a 99% success rate cloning and so far I have lost 10 starts of 30 in this system. I will be going back to my own home made system and nutrient program and selling the botanicare cloner to anyone interested and at a marked discount.:surrender:
Due to this I will be taking clones today or tomorrow and use my old system in case these tadpoles don't make it. Take a look for yourself:
These were transplanted into 6" net pots one week ago for the move to the ebb and flo table to start vegging under my FS T-5 light. I usually take the best 13 to 15 clones for this stage then the best 10 from them for final transplanting. I have 7 known Afghan-Gooey girls, 1 possible White Widow or Big Bud and 2 possible Permafrost or ATF that are now under a 400w FS MH. I have the light 3 feet above the plants at this time and will lower it by 4-6 inches a day until the glass of the hood is 5-6 inches above the canopy. I love air-cooled lighting!
I veg with the lights on 24 hours a day mainly because of location being shared with my maturing and new clones. I have vegged with the 18/6 cycle also and haven't seen any ill effects from the 24 hour regimine for the past 3 crops I have been doing this.
This batch has been getting nutes in the 900-1100 ppm range while in the ebb and flo tray under the T-5 lights so my mix for the transplant res was started at 1500 ppm. I use RO water (reverse osmosis) that has a ph of 7.1 and ppm of 6 after filtering (295 ppm prior to filtering). I store it in two 35 gal. plastic trash cans and one 55 gal plastic barrel connected to each other. This gives me approx. 110 gals. of clean H2O to work with and I need it all come fluid change day (I can have as many as 4 resevoirs running, 2 55gal and 2 25gal). I change fluids weekly and always on the same day so I don't forget how old the nutes are. I also found through experience that it should be a day you have plenty of time and the local Hydro store is actually open!
Res. Mix week 2 of veg: 24 gal. RO H20, 160mls each of Sensigrow A & B, 100mls B-52, 100mls Voodoo jc., 200mls Sensi Cal-Mag Grow, 200mls MEST-Grow (Mother Earth Super Tea Grow). PPM 1500-1510, PH 6.1 (did not require ph adjustment).
Feeding Schedule: every 4 hours, 8, 12, 4 etc.
(first week of veg same nutes, lower amounts to get ppm 900)
You may have noticed that the amounts of each nute varies from the Advanced Nutrients "Bigger Yield Flowering System" recommendations. As many have found that use AN, if mixed at the levels they recommend, ppm is over 2000. I have not found a strain that can handle more than 1800ppm in my experience with hydro so as a result I rarely mix over 1500 ppm to allow for concentration of the nutes during plant transpiration. By altering my mix this way, I am able to go for 48 hours without the need to top off due to high ppm. I tend my ladies daily but this gives me a safety net for those surprises in life.
Ok, thanks for hanging in there with me so far, just about to wrap up this intro. How about some more pics? Well... if you insist, here ya go.
Welcome to the neighborhood ladies!
Lady Afghan-Gooey herself
Which will it be, White Widow or Big Bud, stay tuned!
Another mystery date, Permafrost or ATF, bachelor number one wants to know, "Are you of two minds?"
Well, thats the cast of characters in my play. I hope you have enjoyed act one and please come back for the next act. No need to hold applause until then. Obviously, any and all comments or suggestions will be completely ignored so go ahead and waste your time if ya want. (thats sarcasm by the way, and I am full of it, litterally. )