SOG Q's?

[Mr.M]

I've got a few things running through my mind right now..

First off I've seen quite a few SOG 2 liter Hempy grows. My space is very confined, just as my knowledge/experience of growing is. The majority of the 2 liter grows I've seen take the rooted clones, veg for maayyybeee a week at most if not straight to 12/12. With a final height of 24"-30". The box I have is 24"Lx18"Wx30"H. So VERY confined. With a 200W cfl and carbon filter strapped to the top of the box I only have 25ish" of usable height.

So my theory is........ using 1 liter bottles, which are 6" high with a diameter of 3" I could get a finished height of 18"-20" of growth. That is if the 1 liter bottles permit this and don't cause problems with the root system. I have seen plants grown (veg&flowered) in red dixie cups, and by all means they weren't the prettiest bunch but the guy got what he wanted from them. I can fit a total of 30 bottles(6x5) into my box, with a perpetual system of 6 plants every two weeks(or 1.8weeks) running on a 9-10 week cycle of defoliated plants.

Does anybody have any advice here? Does this seem like a usable system for short stocky colas? I would be more than happy with 1/4 off of each, giving 1.5Oz every two weeks. (highhopes)

Really this is an experiment to see if 1 liter bottles can be used efficiently.. if not I can always switch to 2 liter bottles with less plants. And I will be using soil for the first round or two due to having extra lying around.

Which brings me to another question, Hempy vs Soil? People say Hempy is the way to grow and by what I've seen would be the ideal system. But would you have very much of a difference from a soil grow with the bottom 2" or so spaced with hydroton balls for drainage? (Which is going to be my setup)

ANY AND ALL ADVICE ACCEPTED.
oh and also criticism highly appreciated

 

[CannaVince]

Hey mr.M ...welcome to .....you know I think this 30 set up of 1ltr sounds dope...I think you could totally do it....I'd be interested in watching you do a journal for it.....maybe you will confided doing it and could be sponsored by BPN ...one of our sponsors....goodluck my man....

 

[OG13]

You need to pick a strain that will stay short (minimal stretch) probably indica dominant. Soil will work, skip the hydroton, add extra perlite to the soil. Can you control the temps in the box w/o plants (test run first)?

 

[Mr.M]

Thanks Vince! I've been stalking a few people around these parts for awhile now. So I thought it was about time to speak up and get some other opinions.

My goal of all this is to start a journal, demonstrate the first few test runs until I can dial things down and maximize utilization of my box. By BPN I assume you're meaning Blue Planet Nutrients?? I had to go look at the sponsor page haha. I didn't know of there being such things from a sponsor.

OG13, I have worried about this plenty. Whether they'll stretch and get burnt. The mother I have is a re-vegged plant, it showed indica dominant traits. But I have no idea due to it being a bag seed. I never planned on keeping it after harvest but it turned out to be amazing bud with such a great aroma. Nice dense and firm. My friends hounded me so much for it, I had to stash the last of it and say I smoked it all hahah. fftopic: So I believe I can keep it short, but just incase I purchased some Bush Master which makes plant nodes grow closer together. I'm hoping this will aid in a nice nuggy tree.

I heard hydroton would give it excellent drainage, just like people put broken pottery in the bottom of plant pots. But I might skip it, I just have a bag of the stuff I wanted to use from a DWC I never got around to using.

The temps are in the high 80s with no fan going. With the charcoal filter fan drawing air out and another small fan that would be directly on the plants, they drop to the high 70s sometimes 80ish. I'm not sure what else I could do to this box to help with the heat.

 

[jbiz206]

I run a sog with 14" tall treepots ffof mix with perilite smash 10 into a 10x20 tray. I spent the last year making moms experimenting with defoliation with this sog and with 6 different strains i did a side by side same everything and every time the defoliated ones were smaller fluffier and weighed upward to 2 grams less.My thought is if im going for max 2 grams off of 10 is 20 grams thats not working for me so dont defoliate trust me i read other journals and thought it was good but its not or you can find out for yourself.... To offset defoliating i found if u get a sativa dominant strain with little side stretch it works great i average between 15 and 20 grams off my heavy duty fruity and critical haze and i water only last 21days.

 

[Mr.M]

Sounds like you've got quite the operation.
But as for defoliation I am only using 3" Diameter bottles, that's a spread of 1.5" before they start intercepting the other plant grow areas. Not very much room if you ask me, but we'll see how things work out. I might try a couple non-defoliated if my box permits.

Haha I don't even know if it would work out at all.. In the future this box is going to be a Mother and Clones setup. Hopefully with a Diamond series LED strapped on top. I wanted to pack as much as I could with a system that wont be too crowded. I figured a bunch of small plants will be less of a hassle than a couple really big bushy plants.

My mother which is re-vegged is one bushy ass plant. But I think it may be causing problems. Some of the bigger leaves are getting scattered brown spots .. Could this be from being root bound? Or maybe a Cal/Mag deficiency

 

[overgrowUSA]

ya definetley a short indica with dominant main cola structure. Off the top of my head I know hash plant is nearly all indica if not 100% and it grows in one main dominant cola formation with minimal lateral branching.

 

[overgrowUSA]

You could also tie them down unless that interferes with your lateral space and SOG requirements

 

[Mr.M]

I'll look into that strain. Thanks overgrown. And Welcome to 420!
Tying them is an option. That was what I first wanted to do but then I read a few forums about SOG with defoliated plants. The main one was 420fied's, I thought that was pretty amazing. But in the event that my ideas fail, I could tie them over and grow a couple colas off each plant.

I would have this project underway if my aero cloner parts would come, I'm currently re-potting my Mother and setting up a conventional cloning system. Poppin my cherry on cloning here soon.

 

[jbiz206]

Wasup Mr M im using all advanced led theyre wasup but i was trying to get across in my early post is the strain is what matters with max yeild sog and defoliating is not good i respect 420fied stuff alot i lurked for a year watching his setup but he also had the strain and he only flush for i think 5 days after 2 months of nutes probably really shity lung raping smoke just imo....... I can tell you with the same setup you have get heavy duty fruity,critical haze or killer skunk and i guarantee if you get the right pheno that stretches alot with no side branch you will destroy what your doing now.

 

[Mr.M]

How tall do yours get? I would be wanting to try different strains once I get this going. So you suggest a sativa dominant?

How are your LEDs holding up? I haven't seen any final flowered results yet.

 

[jbiz206]

Advanced lights are beastin ive got a 360 a 180 and 200 ds and no problems, ive been looking around but ive finished 3 grows with them now my bad i dont do pics..... As far as me i take my clones at 6-7 in then let them veg till about 8-10in bout a week after they root they stretch to about 25-30 i stake em and try not to have a domino effect happen and fuck me lol!

 

[jbiz206]

I also meant to say if u took 3in clones let them root for a week and stretched to 9in max you could get bout 20 in there with your 3in cups and have enough room so leds dont bleach your tops...... i dont know sounds kinda beasty.

 

[Mr.M]

That's something along the lines of what I was thinking. 9" would be a great final height for what I'm trying to do. If the CFL permits it maybe even a few more inches. The mother I have, I used the bush master on it as it was re-vegging(not a very good idea) and the most prominent growths have their nodes very close together. Some have three of four within an inch and a half of eachother. I believe this will aid my plan.

I have a few other seeds sprouting as of now. But man does that Heavy Duty Fruity look amazing! Very promising! I also looked into the Hash Plant.. I would love to get my hands on some of that. Although I prefer the fruitiness of buds such as Blueberry or Bubblegum. Another strain I've sought after for awhile now is the Blue Widow, Blueberry X White Widow. yummm

If only I had purchased a Diamond Series when I had the chance. I can fit the 100w, 200w, or 300w in my box. Although it'd be awesome to get an 800w, I'd purchase the 300w first for this box. Then when I can move my space on up purchase a 200w for my clones and mothers and move the 300w to a bigger area..

 

[NateRamrod]

Don't know if anyone told you yet, but using bushmaster is NOT what you want. Bushmaster stops the top growth and promotes branching. Not gonna work in a 3" cup.

Also the big difference between soil and soilless is the types and amount of nutes you add. While adding drainage to the soil will probably help, don't think this will enable you to feed them hydro style like soilless. The soilless mixes contain no nutes whatsoever, the soil just needs supplementing to replenish nutes as they are used.

As far as height is concerned, there are a couple things you can do to help. You might consider only doing one plant, vegging for longer, and do a screen of green. Train them to stay flat. My buckets are about twenty inches tall and my three plant extend less than a foot and a half above the buckets. I trained them flat. The actual height of the main stems approaches 3-4 feet, but that's cause I begged to fill up a 4x3 space.

Either way things like using veg nutes the first two weeks of flower help me a ton. Almost no stretch whatsoever, this is on a sativa too!

Hope this helps! If you do the 1 liter idea, I would be interested to see the results. Be sure to start that journal!

 

[Mr.M]

I've been mentioning Bush Master but no one has ever given me their two cents, thanks for that. Although I knew that it promotes branching I still think it may be an idea to check out in case they seem to be getting too tall. I am more worried about them being burnt rather than being root bound or anything. This will also make the nodes grow closer together which will aid the buds in forming nice colas.

As for my soil thoughts I have had problems with Nutrient lockout and not being able to flush correctly. This is what I'm concerned about, I figured if I can drain them well I won't have this problem. Hempy is definitely in my future of growing though,

I commented on your setup, I like how close the nets are to the buckets. For sure going to promote vigorous cola growth. I wanted to create a screen but I like the idea of being on a bi-weekly system with the plants. Even if I only manage to squeeze a couple buds out of each plant I'll still have more coming as the other ones are finishing. This will also allow me to change things with each individual plant. The first round will be the constant and I can change variables with the others as I go.

I'll also try out the veg nutes first off into fower, seems like a great idea. Thanks for your tips Lieutenant Ramrod. Haha just kidding.

 

[Mr.M]

Hey Nate. So is coco a substitute for a hydro grow? It won't hold onto nutrients? I thought it was like soil. But now I see I am wrong and am interested in it's details....... hmmm

 

[NateRamrod]

Hey Nate. So is coco a substitute for a hydro grow? It won't hold onto nutrients? I thought it was like soil. But now I see I am wrong and am interested in it's details....... hmmm

Coco has basically no nutes. I add 5ml/gal of CalMag to offset the cocoa tendency to absorb these nutrients. Most coco recommends it on the package. Switching to coco will take care of these nute problems you where having. Potting soils have nutrients in them so when you add it makes it difficult to tell what the plants are getting too much / not enough.

Look into hydroton, coco, vermiculite, perlite etc... Make your life easy! Lol

Feel free to ask questions on my journal etc, thanks for the compliment on the screen. Some branches are 3 feet some are 9 inches so I had to bring it low as possible. 75+ bud sites... Can't go wrong!

 

[Mr.M]

I have big ol bags of perlite and vermiculite, along with some hydroton from a DWC I trashed. I wanted to do the Hempys in the 1l bottles eventually, I really like the Hempy setup. Just Gonna use up my bag of dirt I've had for awhile. So you add the additional CalMag each feed with coco? I've seen so many grows with coco and just thought it was a different style or brand of dirt or something.

With ScrOGs I see people with a higher screen where the canopy is raised well over the plants buckets. Then they'll just shave the bottom parts of the plant. Your system is so much more efficient putting every last part of the plant into action. Doesn't waste any energy. Props

 

[NateRamrod]

I have big ol bags of perlite and vermiculite, along with some hydroton from a DWC I trashed. I wanted to do the Hempys in the 1l bottles eventually, I really like the Hempy setup. Just Gonna use up my bag of dirt I've had for awhile. So you add the additional CalMag each feed with coco? I've seen so many grows with coco and just thought it was a different style or brand of dirt or something.

With ScrOGs I see people with a higher screen where the canopy is raised well over the plants buckets. Then they'll just shave the bottom parts of the plant. Your system is so much more efficient putting every last part of the plant into action. Doesn't waste any energy. Props

After my last trim, I wish I had put it higher, had to have a girl get under to the back.... now way I could reach it! @_@ I think i would have been fine if i had thought to put a 3x3 in my 4x4.. instead of a 3x4. The buckets completely block the front!