GiGaBaNE's 3rd & Final Journal - At Least Until I Change Country

[GigaGrew]

yes it has, i found an article somewhere prettymuch saying the same thing, which makes me feel confident im on the right track.

i have good feelings for my next grow. some decent organic earth will take care of feeding the plant then as we know it drops water roots into a res below whatever medium your growing, well it turns out that the soil roots are designed for nutrients and the bottom ones are for drinking, so lets just give it what it wants.

its great being able to use pure water, just keep it oxygenated and were golden, no real algae or fungus type issues.
if i do get this 400w hps light and this hydro set up, i think im truly set for a personal best crop by far.

 

[kimmy]

Hi Giga,
I know what you mean by the fine perlite. I have always used the same kind and earlier this month I had to get a different brand. It was in a nicer plastic bag instead of paper and had a fancy label, but it is too fine for my liking. Although I was worried, the clones don't seem to mind. They are still rooting like clockwork. I know what you mean about it setting up like cement and I would also be concerned about seeds trying to break through. Please don't give up on the clones. Having free guaranteed female plants that are all the same is worth a lot, especially if you are going perpetual. I do not sterilize my scissors either, but I keep them clean with soap and water. When you decide to get the hormone, I strongly recommend the powder. If you wet the stem before dipping it, it will make a thick paste that sticks to it very well. The last thing I would do differently is to use the small 3oz cups no matter what size the cutting. I have tried others, but for some reason it seems like less is better. I have made a slight change in the way I do things I will share with you. I started making 4 holes in the cups instead of one. That way I don't have to make sure the hole is facing down-hill. You mentioned temps so I thought I would comment on that as well. The room is always in the 70's and I don't use a heat mat and they never fail for me. I will hit them with the laser thermometer and get back to you on the perlite temps. Take it easy buddy._Kimmy

 

[kimmy]

im not paying enough attention to them, ive mised a watering here and there and starved them till they were yellow and necrotic(was trying to starve for root growth and time just passed, lol)

I forgot to touch on this.^^

I am so scatterbrained that I taped a piece of note book paper to the wall and when I take cuttings, I write the date for that batch. After I do any spraying/ watering, I write it down under the date in a column. I always have two batches going and it helps me remember when to give what batch a drink. After I take up a batch, I cross out the column and get ready for the next batch. The ones I have going now look like this:

10-15
12hours/spray
24hours 10-16 w
2 days 10-18 w
3 days 10-21 w
4 days 10-25 w


10-22
12hours/spray
24hours 10-23 w
2 days 10-25 w

As you can see the watering days do not usually line up. If I did not write everything down, perpetual would never work for me. I can not emphasize this enough !

Now I hope the columns stay lined up when I hit the submit button, lol.

Edit: Crap. They did not line up so I put one over the other.....

 

[GigaGrew]

Its all good, i wont give up entirely. its just that ive now been a part of this community for 18 months now and have only had one 'barely' successful grow. this isnt all a bad thing as the time has been spent almost entirely on education, ive learned about most growing and propagation methods and had hands on abusing my plants (topping,LST,Defoliation,cloning,seeding,repotting, converting medium mid grow) and now i think i know enough to stop all experimenting and get my self a damn good couple of grows beneath me before i carry on pushing the limits of my understanding.

truth be told, it's time my little life started paying for itself and i now know enough to set up my first perminant method of growing and actually start making some buds.

from seed to bud is much faster than cutting to bud for myself, others may have better success with clones, but for now its the way im going for production speed.

hydro offers the fastest veg growth method i have currently tested myself, hydro meaning to me; unlimited supply of h20 rather than a nutrient soup.

organic soil offers the best method of feeding the plants without risking over-underfeeding and is just healthier. later i will be trying to add mychoriza and minerals and innoculants to perfect the soil aspect.

once i start pumping out buds like this i will have more resources availible to start experimenting again, i will even dedicate a grow room to my 'lab' work

 

[GigaGrew]

yes i need to start writing things down.

ive just gotten my feed schedule down but in my head and i need to test it again to make sure i get it right as ive forgotten parts of it already.

 

[kimmy]

I agree with you on the hydro being faster. I will be making the switch to hydro soon myself. I had to start with the 2liters and perlite because I did not have the finances to start with hydro. The HPS lights, movers, fans, filters, seeds, fluoro fixtures and tubes were about all I could handle to start with. I even started with miracle grow because I was so broke.

I really wanted an EZ cloner, but had to settle for 3oz cups of perlite instead. Even though I have mastered this style, I still want to go hydro. I just ordered 100 micro spray heads yesterday so I can build my own aerocloner. If that works out OK I plan to make a home-made aeroflow similar to the Stinkbud system. Not long ago I was at the build center and they had some vinyl fence posts that had been returned on clearance. They were a little scratched up and could not be sold as new so I bought them for my planned upgrade. After I have the cloner mastered, I will make one section of the Stinkbud per week for 8 weeks as I phase out the 2 liters. The pumps are the most expensive part. I am a little bit apprehensive in making the switch though because not much can go wrong in the 2L, but all kinds of crap can go awry in the hydro. Once I get it figured out I won't have to babysit them like I do now and hopefully get better yields. Like you I have been reading on here(and everywhere else) a long time and should be able to figure it all out.

 

[Fluffy Haze]

Fluffy came by to see ya...

This cute pic made me think of you and all your experimentation

 

[GigaGrew]

just a mini update. finally got some of my over due money today.
just ordered my 20 new seeds and a new 600w ballast with reflector and bulb =D
ill be busy making pots over the next 48 hours, lol.
thats the downside to converting a 2l bottle into an air pot about half hour per bottle poking holes with a red hot skewer oO

 

[GigaGrew]

another mini update.
just realised my auto's are 52 days old.
herbies says 35 days from seed indoors and 51 days outdoors.

i have not even tried to check the trichs yet, ill dig out my magnifying glass asap.

thing is, they are still fattening up, i see crowns of new pistils on almost every bud. and most are still white, very few amber pistils on ratio. even without looking at the trichs can i assume that they are not ready till at least half the hairs are amber?

 

[donpaul.p]

yep, id be with you on this mate, i go on the pistils and the trichs, when i harvest its around 10% amber., this then means that most the pistils are orange and shrunk back onto the bud, so id check the trichs and see what its saying mate.

im not to sure on how they work out the growth period, im not sure if they include the seedling stage or not, i have ordered different autos and some of the breeders give you how many days from seed, other breeders tell you how many days from when its starts flowering, it seems their is no set way of doing this, it all depends what method the breeder used

 

[GigaGrew]

yeah herbies says 5 weeks from seed to harvest.

those numbers are like a time trial in an F1 race car...we just aint getting that with a fiesta, lol.

that does make me wonder what truly affects potency. i mean i wonder what the result would be if;

Lights A = 250 w
Lights B = 1000w
Nutes A = 50% strength
Nutes B = 100% strength

4 identical clones
1 grown with A lights and A nutes, 1 with A lights and B nutes, 1 with B lights and A nutes and 1 grown with B lights and B nutes.

would B/B reign supreme?
would A/B or B/A come close?
how bad is A/A compared to B/B and would the cost savings allow a greater yeild per £ if using the same budget.

i would love to answer these.

 

[donpaul.p]

its just to many variables, obviously the results would differ and the potency would differ as well, im also wondering about the best lighting schedule, as autos flower due to age are we stunting them by giving them 24-0 or 20-4, would we get more if we went 12-12 from day 1 till harvest, i know it defies its been an auto but indoors it dont really matter as long as we get good yields, i know autos are perfect for outdoors in most countries as they dont need the 12-12 to flower,
but im pretty sure a plant grown under 12-12 would differ from a plant grown under 24-0, as they flower due to age then by giving them 20 hours a day are we giving them to much light and making them flower early, would a 12-12 schedule slow down the flower process and keep it in veg longer, the plant is getting less light so would this change the way it ages.

their really is that much testing to be done, it would need a good stable auto strain and running some side by side tests, im giving the auto purple a try with 12-12 from seed to harvest, i know last time i grew this i got 20g dry roughly, so if i get less than that then i know 12-12 is not good for autos, but if i smash that 20gdry then clearly their is testing to be done with the different light schedules.#

also regular plants respond well to glr schedule, so would an auto, i say it all depends on the strain and what its crossed with, some might lean heavy towards the ruderalis and some might lean more towards and indica, so if it was indica heavy then it might just benefit from glr

 

[GigaGrew]

think we on the same page. looks like we got a lot of testing to do over the next year, im looking forward to it =D

 

[Grand Daddy Purp]

Looks like Giggy is going to get jiggy!

 

[donpaul.p]

yep i couldnt agree more, im all ready on it mate with my auto breeding experiments, crossing low yielding autos with huge yielding regular plants, then only 1/4 of the seeds will turn out auto, so i pick the strongest male and female thats auto then cross them and this should give me 100% auto seeds, just got to keep playing around till i get the mix right and get a nice stable auto that i can produce some fem seeds from, hopefully all been well ill be able to get it done,

 

[WizHigh]

You guys are on to something but I think regardless of A&B on the lights it will depend on the type of bulb you get. One with the PAR rating and also the frequency as to lumens etc. And if you plan on having a more blue/red or full spectrum. The intensity is what will get you your growth and yield. A bad ass bulb would be needed if you go with 250w and that would depend on budget wise like Donpaul said. I like the ideas guys. Breeding also. I must say learning isnt done for. I would like to do what you guys are thinking of now.

 

[spring2012]

DP,
Great experiments to be done. Gig is the man! MY auto#1 was harvested tonight. She was ready @ 61 days from sprout. Trichs good at 10% amber. Bank said 65 days.

 

[GigaGrew]

fantastic news. and ready before the bank date...im jealous, lol.

im hoping mine will speed up and finish now. i have gone from 180w t8's to 600w sodium for my flowering light so im expecting gains soon, lol.

i still need to find my magnifying glass so i can examine the trichs, but most of my pistils are still white with more growing every day. as well as the light intensity being low previously i think all the defoliation is slowing it down thats the one thing you can be sure of with defol, a pushed back deadline.

the jury is still out for me on defoliation. it is certainly beneficial, but i believe that the benefit is circumstantial.
i cant be sure of the numbers untill i grow normal and defol side by side.

it sucks having a weak education (yes i still study to catch up). my education doesnt have a clue, but my wisdom tells me that there is a formula to be had. some wierdness like.

yield efficiency=yeild/(timexeffort). i think the best candidate for defoliation would be someone that has a limited amount of plants for legal or whatever reasons.

with decent light and an unlimited amount of plants i think the most efficient method of growing (how much bud for how much work) would still come from just throwing loads of beans in the ground and letting them do their own thing.

defoliation comes into the catagory of improving yeild per plant but simply has too much overhead in time and effort for any serious number of plants.

 

[GigaGrew]

will try to do an update today. still cant get a camera in order atm, but i do have a shitty little laptop with a built in web cam, ill try to use that to take some snaps.

 

[kimmy]

defoliation comes into the catagory of improving yeild per plant but simply has too much overhead in time and effort for any serious number of plants.

I don't know about that, lol.......