The Capn's 4 Plant Perpetual Grow Journal TGA Ace of Spades

[TheCapn]

Hello All. I have been cruising these forums for some time, but this is the first time I've posted. I typically only grow 4 plants at one time, perpetually. I start and harvest a new plant every month.

I started a couple years ago with DWC (deep water culture) in 5 gallon buckets. Then tried fence post rails with sprayers in them (subject to power failures and not enough space for roots). I've also done StinkBud's Single units (spray aero, which I really like). I've done soil less mixes, like sunshine #4 (slow growth), top feed buckets (water channels), and bio buckets (leaks, loud, and complicated). Yes I have wasted a lot of money on equipment! Last fall I had a DWC bucket lose it's air supply, and I got a bad case of pythium. After that, ANYTHING i grew (medium-less) got pythium. I bleached my entire grow room and all equipment. I bought a chiller, I tried hygrozyme, SM90, DM zone, bleach, physan20, and H2O2. Nothing worked. I tried Heisenberg's tea, which worked the best, but I still found I was brewing tea 3 times a week just to stay ahead of the game. It was a nightmare. Then I switched to rock wool, and found I could grow in rockwool with no pythium issues. Over the last 4 months I have been experimenting with rockwool (top auto feed, hand water, etc), and have found ebb and flow rock wool works the best for me (more on this below).

I want to share my grow with everyone out there and I hope to get some good advice from the pros here. Constructive criticism and advice welcome!

First, here is a little bit about my current environment:

Strain: TGA Ace of spades and Agent Orange
Veg time: ~two months
Flower time: ~two months
Ventilation: 6" inline fan pulls air into carbon filter, then through all lights, air is vented outside. 16" fan for air movement

Nutrients During flower: Dutch Master A, B, Add 27, calmag, florablend
Nutrients During veg: General hydroponics (grow, micro, bloom), calmag, florablend, liquid seaweed
Beneficial bacteria: Heisenberg Tea once a week, plus aquashield with top offs and nutrient changes
Humidity: 50-70%
Temp: 65-75F
Grow room: 4' x 15' closet in basement (4 x 3 veg, 4 x 12 flower)
Lighting Flower: 3 * 600W Hortilux in hoods on light mover, covers 4' x 10' space

Lighting veg: 400W Plantmax 4' x 3' space
Grow Method: 3 gallon plastic nursery pot full of grodan gro cubes (croutons) is placed in a 5 gallon bucket, then the bucket is flood and drained twice a day. I am currently experimenting with larger 5 and 7 gallon containers as well.

Plant shaping: For bigger yield I shape plants during the vegetative growth stage. I top for more bud sites, and bend branches outward to keep height low(more on this later).

Instead of boring you with a 4 month journal and pictures of a seedling or a clone, which you have seen a hundred times already, I'll jump in with my next post at mid grow. I should be able to take you through most everything in a month.

Thanks in advance for any helpful comments or suggestions.

Rob

 

[TheCapn]

Currently, I have two plants in flower and 3 in veg. First I'll show you the veg plants and get to flower in the next post. In Veg, I have one ACE that will go into flower in 3 weeks when the current one is harvested (at that time I will take a clone from it).

The other two in veg are TGA Agent Orange. I am hopeful at least one is a female. These are almost ready to top. Durning vegetative growth, I hand water to waste (meaning I throw away run off) once a day. I find rockwool to be so easy, as I can drench them daily and not worry about over watering, but they can't go more than two days without water. The gro cubes provide even more oxygen than rock wool blocks. I like growing in these net pots, as I can see when the roots start poking out the sides, then I know it's time for a bigger pot. Also, the roots will air prune a bit and encourage new roots instead of circling.

Once the plant gets bigger, I start to shape it again using "LST" (low stress training). Sometimes I'll lightly bend branches down (without breaking them) and I'll tie them down if needed. You need to be careful you don't split the stem were you topped it and it branched into two.
Here you can see the plant about a week ago, before bending any branches

Here I am bending, being careful not to break.

And here is what it looks like just after bending.

Then I tied down the two side branches and supported the middle with a velcro wrap. After a week you can see the side branches have now grown to the same level. In Flower, the area for each plant is about 3' x 5'. I know it would be easier to just do 4 x 4 but then I wouldn't be able to get to the plants

Again, the veg area is 4'x3' with one 400W MH plantmax light in a cool tube (18/6). They get beneficial tea once a week, foliar spray twice a week (dutch master liquid light and saturator), and every day they get a liberal amount of nutrient solution hand fed.

In a 5 gal bucket of RO water I add:
20ml botanicare calmag
20ml GH Florablend
20ml GH grow
15ml GH micro
5ml GH bloom
15ml liquid maxicrop liquid seaweed
15ml aquashield
Adjust PH to 5.8 if needed
ppm is usually around 550

 

[TheCapn]

Flower pictures!
Here is how I am running the rock wool. I fill a 3 gallon nursery pot with rock wool gro cubes (not chunks), and that fits perfectly into a 5 gallon bucket. Then I have an INPUT in the bottom and OVERFLOW in the top of the bucket. A 185gph pump comes on twice a day for 15 mins at a time. (this picture was taken a couple months ago when I was running 3 plants in flower) Why flood and drain? I've tried to top feed, but flood and drain saturates every single bit of rock wool medium. I don't have to worry about any channeling of water. A couple times a week when I top off, I use a pitcher to pour water on top, and this flushes out any salts that accumulate where the water level stops with flood and drain. I change the water in the reservoirs once a week.

Here is the ACE of spaces, after 3 weeks of flower. Notice on this one, I have it in a 7 gallon nursery pot, and I have that in a 10 gallon trash can. I have more than doubled the space for roots to grow, so I will see if this makes a difference in yield. So far, it hasn't made a difference in size. Both plants are nice size. I put a layer of hydroton on the top to keep algae off the rockwool.

And a close up of buds stacking up.

This one has some Chinensis going on (I think that's what it's called). Have you ever seen that before? Very cool, subcool! It's mother had it too. BTW, TGA ACE is one of the fastest and nicest plants I have ever grown. So frosty it is crazy, and the color is beautiful. He may not be the most professional looking guy but wow he sure knows how to get some good genetics!

And here is the other plant that has been in flower for 6 weeks. I have not seen any Chinensis on this one.

and a close up

And both plants together under the 3*600HPS:

For flower, I am running Dutch Master flower formula, A+B+ Add 27, and GH florablend. I run this around 1200-1400PPM in flower. The highest I have gone is 1600ppm and I started to yellow some tips, so I backed off to 1200ish. I have noticed the B part of dm flower really lowers your PH and I've had to use PH up to adjust. I emailed Dutch Master about this and they said that should NOT happen, and they are hooking me up with some new nutrients from my local gardening store. BTW, it is not possible to "PH" water; However, you can "adjust" the PH. I'm not sure why we keep using "PH" as a verb

If you've read this far, thanks for checking out my grow. Again, constructive criticism is welcome. The only "problem" I am having right now is high humidity (65 to 70%). But the plants seem to love it! I just worry about mold, but luckily I have not had it yet! 4 plants total, harvest one plant a month. Stick around and we will see what we get.

 

[s1ingblade]

Welcome Capn,
Looks great in there
I like those trash cans, I have been eyeballing the 20 gallon ones and really like the lids. They look like they would do well either way, hydro or soil/soiless.
With your High RH all I can say is make sure your running your fans.
Once again welcome to 420mag and I really like how sanitary it looks in your room, I also want to try my hand at a few of subcools strains. Please check out my journal if you get the time.
L8TR

 

[TheCapn]

Welcome Capn,
Looks great in there
I like those trash cans, I have been eyeballing the 20 gallon ones and really like the lids. They look like they would do well either way, hydro or soil/soiless.
With your High RH all I can say is make sure your running your fans.
Once again welcome to 420mag and I really like how sanitary it looks in your room, I also want to try my hand at a few of subcools strains. Please check out my journal if you get the time.
L8TR

Welcome Capn,
Looks great in there
I like those trash cans, I have been eyeballing the 20 gallon ones and really like the lids. They look like they would do well either way, hydro or soil/soiless.
With your High RH all I can say is make sure your running your fans.
Once again welcome to 420mag and I really like how sanitary it looks in your room, I also want to try my hand at a few of subcools strains. Please check out my journal if you get the time.
L8TR

Thanks for the compliments, slingblade. I checked out your journal. Way cool. If I had that set up I would never leave the house. But I try to do the best I can with the area I've got. I hope there are some people who can relate to my set up, as it's something many can do when they don't have the space you do.

I am running a 16" fan. As soon as my air con starts running it will bring the humidity down a bit. I love the ACE from subcool and looking forward to the agent orange. Although, I don't see much talk about the ACE. Anyway, we will see how this ACE turns out in about 4 more weeks. Check out this other pic of the Chinensis from the ACE.

 

[KingJohnC]

subscribed

 

[TheCapn]

It's been 9 days since my last post and everything is Looking good. I took a few pictures last night.

1. I transplanted the 2 Agent Orange (these two were started from seed) into bigger pots a few days ago and roots are already coming out the bottom again. I also topped them and took two cuttings off of each plant. I'll let these cuttings stay on 18/6 for a few days and then move them to 12/12 and hope I have at least one female.

2. The Ace in veg has grown considerably since my last update. It was nearly root bound in the 3 gallon pot so I moved it to a 5 gallon bucket. This picture was taken right after I bent some arms over. Notice I don't kink the stems, I just bend them. They bounce back a bit but usually stay in place. I prefer this over super cropping. When I move this plant to flower, I'm going to put it in something bigger but not sure what yet.

3. All three plants in veg get hand watered (to waste) daily. My nutrient recipe is below, which works out to be around 600ppm (on .5 conversion). I pretty much run this ppm throughout veg. With seedlings and fresh clones, I'll dilute it a bit. I have not found a need to go over that ppm in veg.
Clean 5 gallon bucket with hot water and then fill with 5 gal RO water
Then add:
GH Micro: 15ml
GH Grow: 20ml
GH Bloom: 5ml
GH Florablend: 20ml
Botanicare Calmag: 20ml
Aquashield: 20ml
Maxicrop liquid seaweed: 10ml

I'll put flower pictures in next post.

 

[TheCapn]

In the flower room...

If you're just joining us, I'm running two plants under 3, 600W hortilux on a light mover. Each plant has about 40" x 50" to grow in 5 gallons of grodan gro-cubes (aka croutons). I am flooding and draining twice a day with dutch master nutrients.

This one has 2 weeks to go before the 9 week mark. I'm not sure it will be ready in 2 weeks.

This one has 5 weeks to go.

For flower, I'm only running DM A, B, and Add27. Does anyone have any comments on their Silica additive or potash+? The plants are nice but I think the colas could be bigger. I used foliar spray on these in the first two weeks of flower and that really made them stretch, which in turn makes the colas not look as fat (just longer). Is it size or girth women prefer? ha ha ha. Personally, I'm ok with longer instead of fatter; less chance for mold inside colas.

 

[TheCapn]

Here is a close up pic of Ace of spades, after 4 weeks of Flower.

 

[TheCapn]

Minor change of plans!

I have always wanted to try superoots air-pots, and after reading s1ingblades journal, I got inspired to try them. I ordered a few Monday and they already came today and I transplanted my big 3' x 2' ACE in veg, into it.

I have not seen anyone else use grodan gro-cubes in these superoots air-pots, so I am looking forward to see how it works.

Have you ever seen someone use these with gro-cubes?

Do you think 5.6 gallon pots are big enough for ~12oz plants?

You can see in the picture, how it sprung back from the LST from the other night.

 

[s1ingblade]

Thanks for the compliments, slingblade. I checked out your journal. Way cool. If I had that set up I would never leave the house. But I try to do the best I can with the area I've got. I hope there are some people who can relate to my set up, as it's something many can do when they don't have the space you do.

I am running a 16" fan. As soon as my air con starts running it will bring the humidity down a bit. I love the ACE from subcool and looking forward to the agent orange. Although, I don't see much talk about the ACE. Anyway, we will see how this ACE turns out in about 4 more weeks. Check out this other pic of the Chinensis from the ACE.

Hey if any one has a nice clean setup its you my friend I have always wondered what the term would be for the fans that have flowers on them Chinensis is my new word for the day lol. Thanks. A+ setup and super clean bro, I really like it and how you edit the pics +Reps if it will let me

 

[TheCapn]

Hey if any one has a nice clean setup its you my friend I have always wondered what the term would be for the fans that have flowers on them Chinensis is my new word for the day lol. Thanks. A+ setup and super clean bro, I really like it and how you edit the pics +Reps if it will let me

Thanks s1ingblade. That means a lot to me coming from an experienced grower like you.

I'll do another update later this week, but in the meantime, I wanted to post a picture for you all. If you've read my journal this far, you know that I do flood and drain in rockwool gro cubes. I change out my reservoir (7 gallons) once a week, and top off with pure RO water in between. I have seen some people say that this is a waste of nutrients and I should be able to go 2 weeks with no problem. Well, I tried it. Here is what happened:

Note: These are few of the worst leaves from the plant that has been in flower for 5 weeks (and the ppm reading is 1200ppm at .5 conversion factor). Right now this is not a major issue and I'm sure this will bounce back. But the point is, at least for this strain (Ace of spades), I have to change out the nutrient solution every week. I know this is not a PH problem because I monitor my PH daily. I also know this is not a nutrient uptake problem (root rot), because when that happens, leaves start turning yellow from the bottom up. These leaves are here and there, not on the bottom. To me, this looks like a nitrogen / cal mag deficiency.

Keep in mind, if you are running a bigger reservoir, this may increase the time you need to go between nutrient changes, and this may be the people telling me I can go two weeks between changes. But think about this... if there was a deficiency that pulled the green out of these leaves, not only are the plant's demands not being met, but I imagine bud production suffered over the last week. I won't go more than 7 days again.

 

[TheCapn]

It is amazing how fast these TGA strains grow:

Agent Orange 8 days ago:

Agent Orange today:

I predicted both were female, and at least one confirmed. Woo hoo.

 

[TheCapn]

This ace is two days short of 9 weeks, but it is not ready. Trics are milky, but very few amber. I feel like I would be making a mistake to cut it now. I have taken ACE at 9 weeks before and it was ready. I may have stunted flowering by topping 5 branches a week into flower. Has anyone else noticed a delay in flowering by topping right before or during flower? I have read that topping can diffuse flowering hormones, setting them back in maturity a bit. I think I proved that theory.

To stay on schedule, I started flowering the ACE that was in VEG. I won't be able to put it under a screen until the above plant is done. It shouldn't be a big deal to wait another week.

I am really excited about the agent orange. The growth rates are equal or better than the ACE, and I have read so many good things about the AO. It looks like both my AO's are females. How lucky is that? I bought 5 seeds, planted two and they are both females.

Has anyone had a plant where the leaves cup up like this? My Ace of Spades does this all the time. The leaves get a little dry as if my lights are too close, but I have actually grown one ACE in ambient light (4 feet away from 600w HPS) and it does the same thing. Also I have grown other strains with the same exact nutrients, and their leaves don't curl up as bad as this.

 

[KingJohnC]

looks like a magnesium deficiency that is causing the leaf curling. you can give them 1 teaspoon per gallon of Epsom salts either as a foliar feed or as a watering.

 

[TheCapn]

looks like a magnesium deficiency that is causing the leaf curling. you can give them 1 teaspoon per gallon of Epsom salts either as a foliar feed or as a watering.

Thanks so much for the Tip, John. I figured it was a cal or mag deficiency, so I bumped up the calmag to 6ml/gal a few days ago, but it hasn't helped. After reading your post, I did find that curled up leaves can also be a symptom of mag deficiency. Damn, you're good! I've never seen this until I started growing this strain. I'll read up a bit more and try the Epsom salt today, and post results in a week or so.

 

[TheCapn]

I went ahead and chopped her last night. I checked out a few more buds and I saw more amber pop up in the last few days. Not quite as much as usual for 9 weeks but I am fine with it as is.

Here are a few pre-chop pics. I tried to give you an idea of the size of this banshee:

Party on, dude:

It wasn't easy wrestling this thing out the grow room door. Pup wishes to remain anonymous ;-)

Root picture out of the ebb and flow bucket:

After taking off the pot, definitely root bound, but very healthy roots:

Drying in my old veg tent. I can't tell you how much this is going to be, but I'm thinking 10-11oz. It took 2 people 3 hours to trim.

Talk about bag appeal:

I will have only one more update to this journal in about 7-10 days, when I get a final weight. I'm not going to continue this journal for the other ACE, because it will be the same as this one.

Thanks to everyone for checking out the grow and for your helpful comments.

I will be starting a new journal for the next ACE going into flower today. But I'm going to be doing TOP FEED in a 5.8 gallon superoots air-pot full of grow-cubes. I am hoping to prevent the roots from getting so bound up in the bottom of the bucket, and trying to break 12oz/plant. I am really excited about it, because it is even more simple than my ebb and flow buckets. I'll post a link here to it later. Please come check it out.

 

[s1ingblade]

This ace is two days short of 9 weeks, but it is not ready. Trics are milky, but very few amber. I feel like I would be making a mistake to cut it now. I have taken ACE at 9 weeks before and it was ready. I may have stunted flowering by topping 5 branches a week into flower. Has anyone else noticed a delay in flowering by topping right before or during flower? I have read that topping can diffuse flowering hormones, setting them back in maturity a bit. I think I proved that theory.

To stay on schedule, I started flowering the ACE that was in VEG. I won't be able to put it under a screen until the above plant is done. It shouldn't be a big deal to wait another week.

I am really excited about the agent orange. The growth rates are equal or better than the ACE, and I have read so many good things about the AO. It looks like both my AO's are females. How lucky is that? I bought 5 seeds, planted two and they are both females.

Has anyone had a plant where the leaves cup up like this? My Ace of Spades does this all the time. The leaves get a little dry as if my lights are too close, but I have actually grown one ACE in ambient light (4 feet away from 600w HPS) and it does the same thing. Also I have grown other strains with the same exact nutrients, and their leaves don't curl up as bad as this.

Yeah I agree with KingJohnC, I have read an article from The Grow Bo$$ and he refers to it as taco'ing of the leaves and I am not sure but I think he mentions a magnesium deficiency. I will find the magazine type book he put out. It's at the cabin and I will grab it tonight and do my best to get the info to ya before the weekend is over. Yo Cap'n I am sorry I haven't put the time in on your journal the way I would like to. Been swamped, do to doing it all solo but I will make the time. This journal is too important to not be involved
I also want to apologize when you asked about pulling off 12 zips per. I didn't realize you are giving them such awesome lumens. I think the way you grow that not only is it very possible I think in a run or two you'll do even more than a dozen. +Reps brother for the great journal, awesome pics and super sano grow room
I tried to pm you before I realized your still under 50 posts. Keep up the great work bro and please make sure you get a link up to your new flowering journal.
Dang bro looking back at the last page and seeing how much healthy roots getting bound up, I think once you get that problem solved you will do even better and the air pots and gro cubes might just be the answer. I will start bringing the 3G iPad with so as I am waiting for the lights to turn on and such I can catch up on all the great journals here.
Keep up the A+ work cap'n

 

[4twenty4all]

Awesome grow bro! + Reps

 

[KingJohnC]

waiting on dry weights. great close up!