Utopian Submarine - 2000W, Indoor, Perpetual

[Aberration]

Its hard to keep up with, very popular thread with good reason of course! Every time I visit I swear I read 3 pages!!!!

I have to second this sentiment. I have a terrible time keeping up. You have a lot going on and it's very successful. Natch that draws a lot of people. Reps, except I probably can't yet. Keep it up.

Also, I am still looking forward to what you do with that CO2 sensor. No pressure, you have to prioritize. I will be thrilled to see it work though, because the commercial sensor/controllers are expensive and troublesome.

 

[KiwiKing]

That's too bad about your controller, I was really looking forward to seeing a finished product...hopefully you wont be too long with it. Is the AK good smoke? I don't think I've ever had it, at least not any from seed...

 

[Green Utopia]

Hectic Thread - Thanks all.

Every time I come by this thread it is a real treat!!! Its hard to keep up with, very popular thread with good reason of course! Every time I visit I swear I read 3 pages!!!!

Sorry about your troubles with the controller, Hopefully all turns out well with it!

It looks alot bigger, especially with all those plants in it
Pity about the problem it seemed like an intresting strain from their description. I'm sure you'll find something out or atleast one of the experts here will!

I have to second this sentiment. I have a terrible time keeping up. You have a lot going on and it's very successful. Natch that draws a lot of people. Reps, except I probably can't yet. Keep it up.

Also, I am still looking forward to what you do with that CO2 sensor. No pressure, you have to prioritize. I will be thrilled to see it work though, because the commercial sensor/controllers are expensive and troublesome.

That's too bad about your controller, I was really looking forward to seeing a finished product...hopefully you wont be too long with it. Is the AK good smoke? I don't think I've ever had it, at least not any from seed...

Thanks all for the kind words. And thanks for taking the time to read back. I know its a pain for me when I do it on other threads. Also, I have a nasty tendency to use this thread to think out loud. I don't know why its so helpful, but often I find if I write it here then I can think it better in my head.

So I will try to do better about summarizing when there is a big post and posting the pics with the post. Usually I do pics of all the areas from youngest to oldest when I post pics, and they always seem to be after the updates. Also, I rarely take pics from the same place twice, or it seems like the plants have moved in between so its tough to do before and after. That is settling down greatly now. The scrog will live there for the next five weeks so that should make it easier. Also, I will put marks on the floor for a tripod and get more consistent photography in general.

The Basic Setup:

The perpetual nature of the harvest means there is theoretically always a group of plants in Veg, Early Flower and Late Flower. As well as the Moms. And clones when they are taken. Those are the 5 zones. It gets a little confusing because I use the "Veg" area for clones, moms and veg. And the Flower area has both early and late in it. But one area is 12/12 and the other is 18/6 and one is HPS and the other is CFL.

Also, all the groups so far have been varied strains because I wanted moms. Hopefully, from here on out it should be primarily one strain per 6-8 plant group. The next group will still be a little mixed to clean up stragglers, and to make sure I have enough medicine of each type to last til the next harvest, but after that it should be 1 strain per group - and all clones.

The Controller:

The unfinished controller is bugging me as well, so I am gonna get at least something working on the damn thing next week while I wait for the new gear.

The AK:

The AK is great smoke, and the plant couldn't be easier to grow. There are two very distinct phenos. Its hard to believe they can both be called AK. If I didn't know better I'd say they were different strains. But I have seeds from one mom that gave both phenos, and all the short ones look identical and all the tall ones look identical. I read that they had all but eliminated one of the phenos from the breed now, and I have gotten 7/9 the tall ones. My plants are in their 5th generation since they were ordered 3 years ago, so I still have some of the short in there. But I like them both. I keep meaning to get a pic of the second one, but I forget until the lights are out. I will remember tomorrow. Rather than try to describe the smoke from memory (as I am out right now) I will wait and give you the flavor description in a few weeks live.


Let me know if anyone has any ideas for how to organize the thread any better.

And now I'm off to Clearex the troublemaker. Lets see if we cant flush our troubles away. This is the first unscheduled flush in 9 weeks so I guess I was due.

 

[Green Utopia]

Post Clearex Update

OK, so I flushed the smaller veg reservoir last night with Clearex. I also checked all the levels and my notes before doing so. And I have rechecked everything here since. And I believe I misdiagnosed the problem last week. This is gonna get confusing because I believe all the plants are showing symptoms of the same problem, but in very different ways.

Last week my pH spiked in 3 days from its normal range of 5.7-6.2 to a spike of 6.9. The plants drank 40% more water in that time. The timing coincided with my turning a fan on 24/7. I saw significant growth in the plants nearest the fan, and then they became the first to show the browning and crispyness of the leaves. I thought it was because the plants had drank so much water they were the first to show pH burn.

I fixed the pH, switched the fan to 15 on 15 off all day and have kept an eye on the water levels. The larger plants responded well to this. But I am still seeing some yellowing in some of the Diesel. Although this is usually a sign of nitrogen deficiency, I should have learned from 2 months ago that the fix in my room is simply to raise nutrient levels a little.

Now down to the smaller plants in veg. I turned off the fan I thought was the culprit, and have monitored their pH. Then when they got worse, I attributed the further problems to nutrient lockout. Most likely causing a Magnesium deficiency.

Last night I flushed and refilled with a well balanced and low/medium strength nute mix. pH at 5.8. This morning I saw further browning on the plant that has been showing it all along, and now the other one is showing very early signs of the same problem.

Conclusion:

After putting all the pieces together, I believe I was wrong right from the start. The problem was not a pH spike, but just an over-all deficiency. And upon further reflection I realized that I had indeed let the nute levels fall to lower than I usually do for all the plants, and that I was not "pushing" the plants til the point of minor tip burn like I usually do. So the diesel was deficient in Nitrogen and the AK was deficient in Magnesium. Since Cal/Mag+ has a 2-0-0 I have increased the amount of Cal/Mag+ to address both these problems and raised overall nutrient levels. I will continue to raise them slowly til I see tip burn.

 

[Stakkur]

Live and learn. Let us hope that is the end of your problems

 

[Green Utopia]

Live and learn. Let us hope that is the end of your problems

I hope so. If anyone has any other thoughts I'm certainly all ears. We shall see in the morning if we have better results.

 

[Green Utopia]

Catch Up Update

Got some better pics of the room as a whole to help explain which plants are at what phase.

The top area is the "Flower" area. The scrog is top left. The ones in full bloom are top right. The scrog is one month behind the ones standing up.

The bottom area is the "Veg" area. On the left of the veg is where there would be clones and a dome if necessary. Right now I am hand watering those cubes, trying to keep those alive till I get more lights. If they die I won't cry. In the middle of the veg area are the Barneys Farm - 3 x Utopia Haze on the right. The budding clones are in between the Barneys. On the right side of the Veg area are the Moms. 3 larger ones are 2 x Dog Hair and 1 AK. Then there is a smaller AK in there. And the Montana clone is at the front of the Mom's area.

Here's the troublemaker:

Here's the scrog:

I did some trimming underneath today. It was a bitch. I lowered the scrog this time - which is good - its at the perfect height for the plants, but its pretty damn tricky getting my arm to the back.

The casualties. Shame they can't be smoked.

And before I forget. Here's two pics of the short AK. She's squished between the scrog and the other plants so she's less than a prime example, but still easy to tell how different she is from the other pheno. One thick short stalk and minimal branching right up the center. She is alot like the Kali I have, but many fewer fan leaves. Topped she would be perfect for a SCROG. Small, she would be perfect for a SOG.

And now a little bud porn. I think they're gonna finish in about the order we thought. AK then Kali then DogHair. I think the AK should be done in about 10 days with the others following closely.

Here's the AK:

Here's the Kali Mist:

She's started to grow what I call budlets. Those little buds on top of buds that we all like to see when the plant is fattening up. Its a little hard to tell in the next pic, but both those tops are the same bud.

And finally, the Dog Hair. Looking great. I really hope she keeps up this pace for the next 3-4 weeks. I don't want her to finish til she is fat and juicy. She already has more weight than either of the other two I think.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you. We'll get some wider pics of the upright ones soon. But I don't wanna show them till I have good juicy colas. None are quite beer can quality yet, but pretty close.

 

[OldMedMan]

Wow! Papa What a sub full of beautiful girls. I think your review of what you've done to correct the problem was text book. I could and have Learned much from your analysis of the problem. I will remember to look at things logically and think things trough instead of snap judgments.
Your a good one you are.

 

[slimm]

Looking great Papa. I may be mistaken and I hope I am but do I see a little bit of white powder in some of those last photos? I may be hyper vigilant as my last grow was plagued with PM.

 

[Green Utopia]

Wow! Papa What a sub full of beautiful girls. I think your review of what you've done to correct the problem was text book. I could and have Learned much from your analysis of the problem. I will remember to look at things logically and think things trough instead of snap judgments.
Your a good one you are.

Hehehe. I try. Sometimes not easy. Still don't know if the second diagnosis was correct. I'm still entirely capable of killing that one. I should have known when they say ,"with a little care" on the strain description that what they really mean is "unless you baby her she will die."

Looking great Papa. I may be mistaken and I hope I am but do I see a little bit of white powder in some of those last photos? I may be hyper vigilant as my last grow was plagued with PM.

Thanks for keeping an eye out. That's why I like those closeups. I just went and checked, and I'm 99% sure what you're seeing are either glints on her very shiny leaves or clumps of tris that are out of the depth of field. The Min/Max humidity has been 44% to 65% at night with the rain for the last 3 days. Min/Max Temp has been 79.6 daytime 66.5 night. And there are two circ fans that kick on 15 minutes every 15 minutes 24/7. So I 'm prolly a little cold and damp at night to be 100% safe, and I'm gonna turn the dehumidifier to be safe. PM is my nightmare. Luckily, I've never had it.

Thanks for kicking me in the ass to do it.

Also, by coincidence I just ordered one of these today:
Sentinel CHHC-1 Total Environmental Controller

That'll take care of any questions in the future.

 

[Aberration]

Looks great Papa. Especially the close-ups. What camera/lens are you using? I'm an amateur photographer (really amateur). Those are the kind of shots I want, but I don't have a macro lens yet. Especially DogHairTop_day41.jpg (the 7th bud shot, super-close)! Wow!

Please don't think I was complaining about your organization. I was just whining about how quickly this thread grows. It's a good thing.

 

[Green Utopia]

Looks great Papa. Especially the close-ups. What camera/lens are you using? I'm an amateur photographer (really amateur). Those are the kind of shots I want, but I don't have a macro lens yet. Especially DogHairTop_day41.jpg (the 7th bud shot, super-close)! Wow!

Please don't think I was complaining about your organization. I was just whining about how quickly this thread grows. It's a good thing.

I use a 7mp digital. It the Powershot A620. About 5 years old. The trick for me is to put it in manual focus. Then you have to zoom as wide as the camera can go, then it lets you lower the focus to 0" if you want and you just put the camera right up to the bud. If you're not 100% wide then the closest it will focus is about 10".

Also, I shoot them at the highest res. About 3x what can be uploaded here. So then I crop them, and save that as full sized for here. No loss of resolution but the image is much bigger. That's how I got the one you are referring to. If you look closely you'll see its actually cropped from one of the other pics. I was gonna post just the top but then I liked the tris along the leaves.

On the other thing I certainly didn't take offense. In fact when I was writing the next post I was worried I might offend you guys. The thread is hectic. It has mellowed a lot in the last few weeks though. Now you can pretty much go from photos to photos for updates.

BTW - I can't remember for sure, but don't you use a Sentinel controller? I just ordered one today and I'm really excited. I also realized that I may have been closer than I thought on the DIY CO2. I may not have been letting the sensor warm up long enough. I figured 20-40 minutes would be enough, but some controllers prefer an hour.

 

[Aberration]

Good info on the camera. I have a Nikon D90 w/ AF Nikkor 35-80mm. Most of it is wasted on me still. I hope to grow into it.

I have a CAP PPM-3 CO2 controller. I was going to wire up a serial cable for it and use it only as a sensor, but lately it's been bugging out periodically. It goes to reading 9999ppm and shuts off the gas cause it's "already too high", or it freezes below the setpoint leaving the gas on constantly. It hasn't caused too much trouble because it rarely happens and usually it shuts off the gas, but I'll need to replace it. I would rather put a sensor together and add it into the automation than spend $500 for another controller. In fact, I'd like to put together 3 or more CO2 sensors and look for agreement to control on/off.

 

[Green Utopia]

I just ordered this today:

Sentinel - CHHC-1
Cooling - Heating - Humidity - CO2
Controller

Amps / Volts requirements 15 amps @ 120 volts
Min / Max operating temperature 32 to 120° F
Min / Max operating Humidity 0-99% RH
Temperature Measurement range 32 to 122° F
Temperature Accuracy +/- 1.8° F
Humidity Measurement range 10 to 95% rH
Humidity Accuracy +/- 3% rH
Light Sensor sensitivity Adjustable
CO2 Measurement range 0-2500 PPM
CO2 Accuracy +/- 75 PPM
CO2 sensor warm-up time Less than 10 minutes
Computer Interface *Optional RS 232 / 9-pin D-sub
Weight / Dimensions 5lbs / 8” x 6.5” x 3.1”
Life Expectancy > 10 years Remote sensor cable length 16ft (can be up to 100’)

It was $519+20 shipping. That seemed a really good price for all those things using fuzzy logic, and includes the co2 sensor. The vendor is not a site sponsor so if you want the info pm me.

 

[Leave Weaver]

Everything looks glorious... .the veg are looks nice and clean and happy, but the flower girls are outrageous.... everything in the appears to be shining with crystal clear trics... "drooling profusely"+reps if i can

 

[lv420man]

Some great looking pictures!

 

[The Butcher]

nice work there papa!

 

[OldMedUser]

Looking great Papa!

If I had that problem I'd cut off all the bad leaves or at least the bad parts of the leaves. You can always leave the healthy bits to help the plant grow.

Really nice bud porn too!

Keep the green side up!

C'ya L8r.

 

[OldMedMan]

I agree with everyone else Papa. Nice work

 

[kailpot]

The submarine is looking awesome papagreen! One well-oiled machine you got there +reps if I can