KSum - 6 Strains - 2015

[KSum]

Hi, this is a journal for my first grow since...well, a long time ago..

I'm a MMJ patient growing for myself and my mom. I have a 16 x 27 foot workshop that I'm using about 16 x 20 of, divided into 3 parts. 10 x 16 flower room, 10 x 8 nursery/veg, and 10 x 8 clone mother space.

Current strains : (unknown) claimed to be Charlotte's Web, Oregon Purple Danish, Blue Dog (or Dawg), Cheese Quake, CBD God, and White Widow.
Pots : 10 Ace Hardware half gallon paint buckets, 8 x 1 gallon regular pots. Once the first 10 are transplanted I'll get rid of the paint buckets.
Medium : 4 of the half gallon buckets are Miracle Grow Potting Mix mixed with some medium grind vermiculite. All the rest have Fox Farms Ocean Forest. (nothing added)
Expected Yield : Claims of 400-600g per plant, but I doubt it. I'd be happy with a pound per.

Veg space, 1 x 600W MH about 18 inches above. Temp controlled room stays between 70-78 under the light. Humidity right now stays between 42-50. Light cycle is 18/6.
Clone Mother space is essentially the same as veg.
Flower space is 2 x 600W HPS with reflective material on the walls and 54W 4ft floros about 4ft high on the walls. Inline exhaust fan (440 CFM) with 18" carbon filter vented out an old wood stove pipe.

I started with the smaller buckets and Miracle Grow due to excitement and impatience. Then calmed down and bought the other pots and Fox Farms soil. I also started with 2 T5 4ft floros over them, but growth was slow. I opted for a 600W MH and they suddenly stood up and took off. Then they slowed again, so I got some Jack's Classic 20-20-20 and mixed 1/8 teaspoon per gallon and the growth over the last few days has been very impressive. All but 2 of the smaller buckets have had their first clip and the next clip will be FIM since I'd like to maximize yield, but allow them to get around 5ft tall if they are so inclined. 3-4ft is ok too though.

Here are some pictures I just took a few minutes ago.

I hope you enjoy following along with me on this journey. My ultimate goal is a perpetual harvest while staying well within our legal limits.

 

[Light Addict]

In for this if ya dont mind
Best of bud laden luck my friend!

 

[KSum]

Absolutely. Welcome aboard. It should be a fun ride.

 

[KSum]

The growth of these things is amazing to me. It can be measured in inches per day at this point. I never
had anything grow this quickly before.

I'm hoping in a week or so they'll be ready to move into the bud room where they'll be transferred to 5 gal
Home Depot buckets and put under 2 600W HPS lights.

Right now I have my card, and my mom is waiting for hers, so until she gets hers I'm limited to 18 seedlings
(less than 12 inches around "or" 12 inches tall) and 6 mature plants (budding or not), so I'll probably take
clones off of the good looking females and bud out the 6 best ones, then use the clones as mothers later.
Once my mom gets her card it will be much easier to do a perpetual schedule and stay within the legal limits.
I obviously wont need so many seedlings, but 2 clone mothers and 10 mature plants should be enough to
keep a perpetual grow going.

Here are some pictures from today. Compared to the ones in the first post they are doing quite well.

 

[Light Addict]

Ok firstly please do the re potting well before you put into flower! Simply put the longer the veg the better the yield (as a rough rule)
I'd personally wait a couple weeks minimum yet. you would benefit no end
The reason you don't re pot and hit flower is your roots do most of their work at spreading out etc during veg. In flower not so much root development!

 

[KSum]

Got it. I wouldn't be able to go to the 5 gallon buckets yet without an additional light. The veg table would be to crowded. Maybe another light and put the middle extension into the table, which would make it about 10-11 feet long..

Given that I'd be waiting another week or two, is it unrealistic to think I'd be ready for harvest in mid March? (providing I don't run into any bumps in the road between now and then.)

 

[Light Addict]

Hmm?? Ok if you have a deadline then its kind of fixed as most strains take between 60 -70+ days in flower.
So your call its just you won't have the biggest girls for flower and therefore your yield will suffer.
Definitely pot up as soon as you can though!

 

[KSum]

Ok. Tomorrow is watering day so I'll do that in the morning and wait until the afternoon to move some of them to bigger pots. I think I'll wait until I do one more trim and let that grow a few nodes before I move them to flower. If I FIM those and bump the nutes to 1/4 tsp per gallon I would think they'll bulk up a bit before going in. The plan is perpetual, so a smaller harvest to start is ok. At least 8oz per plant and I'll be happy.

In the 5 gal buckets, how much should I fill them? 2/3, 3/4? Either would give the roots plenty of space to stretch out, and I guess you can't over do it. I'll be using the low stress method of putting a pot the same size in the bucket and filling in around it, then pull the plant and plop it in place.

 

[c526]

8 oz plants are 6-8 weeks of just veg in soil,plus flowering,if ya want a pound per,you will need 3 month veg

lights 50watt per square foot is the minimum for hid lighting,otherwise you get airy buds,they still smoke,but worth nothing in todays greenery

do not stress them 7-10 days before flower,no transplants,topping/fimming anything



good luck man,Ill sit and watch----oh listen to light addict,there is a reason for all the awards under his name

 

[KSum]

Ok. with curing that puts me about a month behind where I was hoping to be.
Is what it is I guess. The bigger yields would make up for it though if I can keep
the quality good enough. I read somewhere that these strains can grow and
produce faster so I'll just have to watch and play it by ear.

Wish I could PM you guys. System requires 50 posts before I can.

 

[c526]

quality will come from your skills,not the veg time

I like to do pounders,so mine get a 8-10 week veg then a 60 day flower.

in my journal,im trying to bust 20 zips,per plant,it could be more,but not much less.

dont forget 5-10 days drying and 30 day minimum(for me) cure,takes all the green taste away and makes the herb better over time,just like aged whiskey/wine.

 

[Light Addict]

Lol just hit any of my threads or quick guides up, listed below and post a hello

 

[KSum]

Just took a look and realized just how much potting soil will be needed to fill the 5 gallon buckets. YIKES!! Maybe I should reconsider going to 3 gallon pots, at least for this first round.

As I mentioned I've already done the first snip on 8 plants. I'll wait until each of those has their 2nd or 3rd node and FIM that. I'll have to select the 6 out of those that I'm going to flower, so that will be a tough decision. Have to take into account Strain, Growth, Plant Health, etc.. Not sure what I'll do with the extras. We are only allowed 6 plants over 12 inches in either height or diameter. Hopefully the males that I put in flower will show themselves quick so the decision will be easier. Pull those and put the extras in it's place.

They're doing good today. Some of the leaves are getting rather large, and there's one that the node spacing is so close the leaves are bunching up in the middle. You can smell that sweet aroma as soon as you walk into the room.

I just gave them their watering with 1/4 tsp nutes per gallon. We'll see in the next 24 hours what that does.

I'm also looking at switching the veg space to a large 6 tube fluorescent fixture. Money is tight and I'm going to need the 600W fixture in the flower room along with another 600 or 1000 watter that I still need to purchase. Startup is expensive... I'm hoping the electric bill isn't going to give me a heart attack.

 

[KSum]

Every time I wait until the soil dries and then give them water with the nutes the growth seems to explode overnight. You can almost measure it in inches per day. Love it!

 

[KSum]

FIMing and transplanting the 6 largest plants to 3 gallon pots today. I've done 2 so far and found that the roots are all over the place in the bottom of the half gallon pots. They're spread across the bottom and climbing back up the sides, so I think a transplant was a bit overdue. Since I still have little ones in 1 gallon pots I'm moving the 6 transplants into the bud room, but keeping the light on 18/6 until it's time. It may be early, but I'm also switching the bulb from MH to HPS for these 6. Hopefully with the extra room and the different light they'll take off and get at least 18 inches tall before I switch to 12/12. I'm ok with them being 3-4 (maybe 5) feet tall. I've got the ceiling space for it.

This will be a good early test to see if I got everything right in the bud room. Temp and humidity will be tightly controlled with programmable humidifier and programmable dehumidifier. A heated oil radiator will manage heat during the lights off period from the veg room, which the exhaust fan in the bud room will draw that warm air from.

All of the "seedlings" are still less than 12 inches tall and the room is really starting to smell like bud already. Pretty soon I'll have to leave the exhaust fan on all the time, at least on a low speed until budding begins. I've got a big 12" W x 18" L carbon filter on it, so there shouldn't be any odor outside that might upset the neighbors, or attract them depending on how they feel about it.

 

[KSum]

While I was transplanting I noticed a green residue on the sides of the pot near the bottom. I suspect because these were makeshift pots without proper drainage that this is algae. Now that I've transplanted to better pots, should this go away, or will it become a problem?

 

[c526]

should go away,pictures would help

check out marzbadrock he grows wicked plants in 2 gallon containers.

 

[KSum]

Does this look like a female preflower to anyone?

 

[KSum]

Tonight is the night. The babies are big enough now that they'll go into the 12/12 light cycle tonight. I really didn't want to rush things, but I'm under a bit of a time crunch so I had to move things along. After the last trimming and transplant to bigger pots they've shown nice steady growth, so I'm fairly confident they're ready.

 

[KSum]

In the bud room right now:

2 x Purple Danish
1 x Cheese Quake
1 x Charlotte's Web
1 x Blue Dog
1 x CBD God

If any of those turn out to be male I'll replace it with a White Widow (feminized) that's in veg and ready to go.

In the future I think I'll stick with feminized seeds so I don't have to worry so much about it. For now, if they turn out to be good strains, I have a fair number of seeds for the first 4 listed. Only a few more CBD God, and only one more White Widow.