LED Autos On The Way To Perpetual SOG

[politoed]

Hey all, I just wanted to start my journal by saying thanks to everyone on this forum for bringing me up to speed. I have been "out of the game" for like 10 years. I am still kind of a NOOB, as I have done only 3 indoor grows. My last operation was SCROGGing under 2 1000wHPS's in a 4x8 tent in Los Angeles. I was growing clones, and got ravaged by powdery mildew, and then had to move in a pinch. Some of the plants ended up fantastic, and 60% of them ended up not so nice. I sold all my stuff off and walked away for a long time. But now I am back!

And now for the real fun!

I will be running two tents during this setup. A 2x4 mother/seedling tent with a 4', 4 bulb T5 lamp. The other tent is a 4x4 flowering tent, which will be equipped with two of the new @Budget LED series 3+ red spec 250w lamps! I am super excited to use these lights. My only other experience with LEDs was a shitty blurple thing I ran alongside a 150w HPS in a 2x2.5 cabinet once. Now we are in the big leagues!

I aim to establish a few mothers in my seedling tent and run a perpetual SOG with 0 veg clones. This has been a dream of mine for quite some time. I may gravitate to less plants as time moves on, but if I dont have an army of lollipops once in my life, I will have regrets.

In the mean time, while I grow out some mommies and get that set up, I will be 'test driving' my flowering tent with some autos from Fast Buds! I have 5 seeds each of OG Kush (my all time favorite strain), Grapefruit, and Cream Cookies. All three of these strains are super tantalizing to me. So I am having a hard time deciding which beans to pop. I may go a little crazy and do 6 plants, 2 of each, but that may get a little tight, so it might end up being 2 OG Kush, 1 CC, and 1 Grapefruit.

I would like to grow these in 3 gal hempy buckets with the GH Flora series.

Waiting on the LEDs as they are currently preordered, the rest of the stuff is on the way. I will update once the mother tent is assembled and I am ready to go.

In the meantime, I will be researching quadlining (was a huge LST fan back in the day). Anyone who wants to come along for the ride or give some advice is more than welcome. Let's do this!

 

[Elevated Lighting Company]

Count me in!

 

[politoed]

It has begun! Here is the setup:

2x4 Tent
4' HTG Supply T5 (4 Bulb) 6400K - says its rated for 100-216 watts
6" Inline Exhaust Fan
Clip-On Oscillating Fan

4x4 Tent
2x @Budget LED Series 3+ Red Spec 250w (still waiting on these to be delivered)
4" 130CFM In-Line Exhaust Fan
4" Pure Flow Tall Boy Carbon Filter
Clip-On Oscillating Fan

I will be growing the following strains from the following breeders:

2x4 (soil)
MK Ultra (OG Kush x G13) - T.H. Seeds
Chiclé (Bubblegum x Chemdawg) - T.H. Seeds
Citron Givré (Lemon Cake) - T.H. Seeds
Super Silver Haze - new420guy
Gorilla Glue #4 - new420guy
Grape Ape - new420guy
Grandaddy Purp - new420guy
Blue Dream - new420guy
(all photo feminized seeds)

4x4 (2gal hempy)
2x OG Kush Auto - 420 Fastbuds
2x Grapefruit Auto - 420 Fastbuds
2x Cream Cookies - 420 Fastbuds

I will be using the GH Flora series of nutrients for this grow.
The 2x4 tent will be used to grow bonsai moms out of the photos.
During this time, the autos will run in the 4x4.
By the time the autos are finished and come out of the 4x4,
I should be able to refill the half of the tent
with the first batch of clones from the photo bonsai mommas.
Then 4 weeks later, repeat, and run a perpetual SOG in the 4x4.

tagging those who were initially interested @Jackalope @Peterpangreen @Marzbadrock

 

[politoed]

Put some seeds in water tonight! I got my order from new420guy. When I placed the order, I got an email and he said that the Blue Dream beans didn't look to great, so he included some extra Super Silver Haze to make up for it. I did try to germinate them anyway. I ended up dropping these into the cups:

2x Blue Dream
2x SSH
2x GDP
2x Grape Ape
2x GG#4

I should be receiving my beans from T.H. Seeds on Monday or Tuesday. When they arrive, I will also drop into water

3x MK-Ultra
3x Citron Givré
3x Chiclé

Between the 19 beans, if I end up with 16 good looking little bonsais, I will be super happy.
Then I will flower some clones and see which phenos are worth keeping around and growing again!

The light is on only so I can take the photo.

 

[Peterpangreen]

Grabbing a seat, good luck

 

[THC Onlyfans]

 

[Jackalope]

I hate to be a stick in the mud right from the get go. I hate it but I am going to do it anyway.

Way to many seeds to be starting for what you have to grow them in. I would start any more seeds when they arrive yet. Wait till next grow and or to use as replacement seeds for ones that don't pop. I grow lots of small plants. So if it seems like a lot of plants to me it probably is. I have grown 9 plants in a 4 x 4 tent. That is about the max unless you are doing Sea of Green with clones. The 2 x 4 is going to be full up with 4 plants even when grown small.

The rest of your set up might need a little tuning but should work. You should use the 6" fan on the 4 x 4 and the 4" on the 2 x 4. Both tents are going to smell and should have filters. Flowering plants smell more but all plants smell fairly strong when grown indoors. Better to have the filters now before you really need them.

Last time I had more starts then I had room to grow I just bought more tents and lights to handle them. I had extra room to do it. You may not. You waste a lot of time and money growing plants below their potential. You need to trim off way to many branches to make it worth your time. For every branch you loose, you loose production on short plants. I hope this helps

 

[politoed]

I hate to be a stick in the mud right from the get go. I hate it but I am going to do it anyway.

Way to many seeds to be starting for what you have to grow them in. I would start any more seeds when they arrive yet. Wait till next grow and or to use as replacement seeds for ones that don't pop. I grow lots of small plants. So if it seems like a lot of plants to me it probably is. I have grown 9 plants in a 4 x 4 tent. That is about the max unless you are doing Sea of Green with clones. The 2 x 4 is going to be full up with 4 plants even when grown small.

The rest of your set up might need a little tuning but should work. You should use the 6" fan on the 4 x 4 and the 4" on the 2 x 4. Both tents are going to smell and should have filters. Flowering plants smell more but all plants smell fairly strong when grown indoors. Better to have the filters now before you really need them.

Last time I had more starts then I had room to grow I just bought more tents and lights to handle them. I had extra room to do it. You may not. You waste a lot of time and money growing plants below their potential. You need to trim off way to many branches to make it worth your time. For every branch you loose, you loose production on short plants. I hope this helps

definitely helps a ton. im going to add more information for context and maybe it should clear things up, or at least open new angles to improving this grow.

too many plants?
from what ive seen/read, bonsai moms need 8"x8" max.
this thread was one example i saw, 24 moms in a 2x4 that is very short in height
i plan to only keep 12-16 mommas max. this is because i will need about 32 successful clones every 4 weeks. so i figure 16 small bonsai moms, i can do 3 cuttings off each plant and with a 67% survival rate ill be okay.

the 4x4 is going to be for SOG. 0 veg clones, right into 12/12 after they root and show a tad of growth in the domes. i will lollipop these and only grow 1 main cola.

this guy is my inspiration for this
northwest skunk, the SOG master

so my logic is pop 18-20 beans, once they outgrow the solo cups, up-pot the strongest 16 plants into 5x5" square pots for momma time.

ventilation problems?
I was thinking to hook the filter and fan up so that its exhausting both tents at the same time.

my inline fan and filter system is rated for 130CFM. the sum of both of my tents is 144CF. Wouldnt this mean my fan is more than powerful enough for the "clear the whole area in 5 mins or less"? at this rate, it would clear both rooms in about a minute and ten seconds.

--

all of these questions are not to challenge you or disagree, just trying to learn more!

 

[Jackalope]

NEVER take info with out question! From me or anyone else. I only know how what I know and how I do things.

Looks like you did research on the bonsai thing. If you want to try it you should. I wouldn't do it with expensive seeds though. If you are going to spend more on seeds. You need to get the best out of each seed. Mothering one is one way to do it. Giving it the room and time it needs to reach its potential is a bigger one. You may look into Sea of Great for short plant production. Like the bonsai thing you can grow lots of clones short and fast.

 

[politoed]

well, that was quick.

10/10 seeds have germinated. all but one grape ape had at least 1/4" taproot going, so i put my little tadpoles in their first homes today.

the medium i used here is a mixture of 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite, 1.5 parts organic soil. this should create a nice fluffy mixture that will allow for nice easy root development, with some food for the seedling without too many nutrients. i gave them all a little drink of poland spring bottled water (so spoiled they are). i watered around the edges of the cups and sprayed a few times directly over the seedling so as not to disturb it too much.

they went back into the tent in the dark, but i will probably start the lights tomorrow!

 

[MrProper]

well, that was quick.

10/10 seeds have germinated. all but one grape ape had at least 1/4" taproot going, so i put my little tadpoles in their first homes today.

the medium i used here is a mixture of 1 part perlite, 1 part vermiculite, 1.5 parts organic soil. this should create a nice fluffy mixture that will allow for nice easy root development, with some food for the seedling without too many nutrients. i gave them all a little drink of poland spring bottled water (so spoiled they are). i watered around the edges of the cups and sprayed a few times directly over the seedling so as not to disturb it too much.

they went back into the tent in the dark, but i will probably start the lights tomorrow!

Looking good so far! Grape Ape should be fire!

 

[politoed]

It has been four days since i put the beans under the dirt.. here is the progress.

The Blue Dream seeds that new420guy warned didn't look so good both popped up quickly and have been killing it. The Gorilla Glue was the first to come out of the dirt, and Grape Ape is going hard right now. The GDPs are a bit stretchy. One SSH is like nuclear green, looks awesome. The other SSH seemed to be struggling behind a bit, and was kind of falling over. I noticed white fuzzies up the stem which seemed like this plant didnt know where to make roots or not. I kind of repotted it in its own pot again and buried it much deeper. It has opened up its leaves now, but considering how far behind it is compared to the others, I dont know if its worth keeping. Will give it another week or so and see.

Here are the ladies..

After just 24 hours in water, I got a bunch of new tadpoles!
2x each of these T.H. Seeds strains. I have such a hard time with french that I may just start calling the Citron Givré 'Lemon Cake'. These beans have me really excited.

My new @Budget LED Series 3 Red Spec 250Ws have arrived! Now I can set the 4x4 tent up this weekend

I am also going to start my autos. 2x each of fastbuds OG Kush, Cream Cookies, and Grapefruit. I am going to see how I will germinate them since I am going to grow the autos in hempy buckets. Not sure if I should do water, then transplant to solo cups, or just germ them in the solo hempy cup. Gonna be a fun weekend.

 

[politoed]

weekend update

seedlings on the left are now 1 week from being put in the dirt. the six on the right were put in the dirt 4 days ago. one gg#4 died randomly throughout the week. the blue dreams are having some weird light colored spots and a bit of curl on one of them. the rest seem to be happy, including that troublesome SSH.

i set up my 6 autos to germinate in hempy cups. rinsed the perlite, soaked it in 5.8 1/4 strength nutes, put the seeds in, misted the tops and covered with saran wrap. hopefully ill have some sprouts in a few days and can move them into their final 2gal homes in the 4x4.

i set up my @Budget LED lights in the 4x4 tonite just to make sure they work. need to go buy a little more ducting and tomorrow ill set up the ventilation, work out the hanging situation and the tent will be ready to rock.

happy seedlings

hempy cups

4x4 with me new lights

 

[Piña Delores]

Looking good, I'll tag along

 

[Elevated Lighting Company]

I am in

 

[politoed]

I am in

just sent you all an email about ordering some more stuff

 

[Elevated Lighting Company]

just sent you all an email about ordering some more stuff

Great. We are dealing with some flooding issues right now because of the local dam issues. So may have a delayed response.

 

[politoed]

Great. We are dealing with some flooding issues right now because of the local dam issues. So may have a delayed response.

wow that sucks! good luck over there, stay dry my friends

 

[Peterpangreen]

Lookin good!

 

[politoed]

Lookin good!

thank you good sir. cant wait til 4 months from now when this stuff is all cured up. this will be me but with flowers instead of wine