Josh 4.75

[josh223]

Here we go again.

Not too much has changed from the past. Same nutes as before. Going to switch to Botanicare Kind lineup real quick.

Still flowering in a 4'x4'x6' tent using a Apollo 600 watt digital ballast with the same old SunMaster Super HPS. Since my house isn't insulated and we're in a cold snap I'm also running something like 60 true watts of CFL's in addition to four aquarium/growlight fluorescent wired vertically in the corners.

I was going to update to LED's but with the cold and whatnot I'm going to hold off until spring. Temps are on the cool side for sure. Exhaust fan is turned down as low as the speed controler will allow and it's only on with the lights. Right now it's 51 F inside the tent with the lights off. Too cold. with the lights on it gets up to 76-78F. Wish I could maintain that temperature.

Almost forgot, all the plants going at the moment are Holy Grail Kush (Kosher Kush x OG #18). So far this is my favorite strain. Wishing I would have grown more the last time around because it didn't last.

On to the pictures:

There's 30 total clones. Two were veged for about a month and the rest were straight from cloner to 12/12. You can see the stress in the leaves from the cold. Hope it turns out. This is what I want minus the seeds.

Speaking of seeds, I discovered a power strip with an indicator light inside the tent. Hopefully that was the cause of my hermie nightmares.



Added: If someone could give me the link to editing ones signature I'd be most appreciative. Been looking but can't find it. Been trying to wing it with no success.

 

[Richard Richardson]

Looking good Josh. Hopefully it was the red indicator light

 

[KingJohnC]

subscribed. thank you for the invitation.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Subscribed!

 

[cherryhaze]

Hello - looking good and those nugs look ridiculously good!

 

[Rx-420dank]

Yah Josh, looking good bud. And as for the Red indicator light in your tent. Good Point, I never thought of the little Red light on the Space heater I use at night in my Grow room. Due to the Cold Temps where I am. Since u Pointed that out, Right after this post im taping up that little unforseen prob.
And just want to commit on your four aquarium/growlight fluorescent wired vertically in the corners. I been Thinking of doing the same thing.

 

[CA215]

Subn up josh, although I don't know where the link thread is located I can explain quickly, when replying to threads there is the "Link" button (looks like earth with a pair of binoculars beneath). Click that and place your url in, press ok and you get something like this;

[ (You will delete this, I need this here so it doesn't hyperlink) URL="Josh 4.75"]This is where you will type what you want to be seen in your sig[/URL]

Thanks for the invite brotha, greenest vibes your way for fems all the way

 

[mrbubbles87]

Sub'd!

Really looking forward to your SOG. I'm building up to a 1gal SOG myself so this will a great help.

Have you looked into the radiator space heaters at Walmart? I think they're around $30 and they have a thermostat.

 

[josh223]

Thank you CA215. It took forever but I finally got the signature straightened out.

Thank you mrbubbles87 for the heater suggestion. I picked up a small 750/1500 watt ceramic heater. The basement is roughly 10' x 10' so it should be enough. My biggest fear is having the breaker trip. P.O.S. old house. It was built in the '30's with no insulation. The receptacle in the basement is on the same circuit as our living room. The breaker tripped the other night. With adding the heater I'll have to kill all the lights except the HPS.

I have the knowledge and room in the panel box to add a dedicated circuit. Only thing holding me back is the panel box is located on the exterior of the house. I'll have to cut the sheetrock from the backside to gain access. I built custom homes, remodels, additions, and did a fair amount of commercial work. I've never seen anything quite like this house. As an example, picture our shower: old cast iron tub, single pane wood-shashed window...the landlord glued vinyl flooring to the walls as a back splash. You can imagine the beauty.

I forgot to mention that I'm growing in the Hempy Seo of Green style. This has worked well for me and am going to continue using it. Everyone wants to grow efficiently. I don't go off of the old grams/watt to judge my personal performance. Instead I look at how many grams I can pull per square foot. I don't have the height nor footage to grow trees. I guess that's why this style appeals to me so much. Four 2 liter bottles take up an 8.5" x 8.5" area. 15 grams dry/plant and things add up pretty fast.

Another reason that I like this style is the direct clone to flower aspect. In first indoor grow those heavy sativas took 89 days. No root bound issues. With faster flowering strains, the 2 liter seems the perfect size. The last time around I used some 3.g gallon trash cans as containers. I believe I veged for two weeks. I couldn't let them go any longer because height restrictions. Post harvest examination showed that the roots did not fill the containers. I know I could have done training, but that defeats the purpose of SOG. Instead of height limits I would have run out of horizontal room. So, until I move to a larger house I'm just going to stick with what works for me.

I was hoping my news beans would arrive today. No wonder the postal service is broke. According to the tracking log they've been through the town I live in twice. They came through San Fran to a sorting facility. Then they went to another sorting facility. Both times going through my town. I just worry about the cold. Supposed to be 6 F. tonight. Hope they are alright.

My Holy Grail Kush mother is getting rather large. She's been in a 5 gallon Hempy for over a month. Not sure what to do about her. I know I'll be taking 36 clones off of her this week. But she is such a beast, around 2' x 3' x 5' above the ground. I have some clones in the veg tent because I had run out of vermiculite. I may save one for a new strain mother and flower the big girl. Only problem is that I don't have room because she nearly doubles in the stretch. I guess I'll just play it by ear after the new strains are established.

 

[josh223]

Update coming after supper. Until then, can anyone offer an opinion to this question I just posted in FAQ?

Last night I had one pipe burst and three freeze. No big deal, all fixed with proper improvements in place. I did all the repairs during the dark period. I had to unplug the timer for a second to rearrange some stuff. In my haste I plugged the light cord into a receptacle instead of the timer.

In a nutshell my lights came on five hours early. Should I change the dark period to coincide with todays error (I.E, should I now set my lights to come on at 2:00 P.M. or keep them coming on at 7:00)?

I'm sitting on a potentiel lb. of top shelf and really don't want herms.

 

[mrbubbles87]

Thank you CA215. It took forever but I finally got the signature straightened out. Thank you mrbubbles87 for the heater suggestion. I picked up a small 750/1500 watt ceramic heater. The basement is roughly 10' x 10' so it should be enough. My biggest fear is having the breaker trip. P.O.S. old house. It was built in the '30's with no insulation. The receptacle in the basement is on the same circuit as our living room. The breaker tripped the other night. With adding the heater I'll have to kill all the lights except the HPS. I have the knowledge and room in the panel box to add a dedicated circuit. Only thing holding me back is the panel box is located on the exterior of the house. I'll have to cut the sheetrock from the backside to gain access. I built custom homes, remodels, additions, and did a fair amount of commercial work. I've never seen anything quite like this house. As an example, picture our shower: old cast iron tub, single pane wood-shashed window...the landlord glued vinyl flooring to the walls as a back splash. You can imagine the beauty. I forgot to mention that I'm growing in the Hempy Seo of Green style. This has worked well for me and am going to continue using it. Everyone wants to grow efficiently. I don't go off of the old grams/watt to judge my personal performance. Instead I look at how many grams I can pull per square foot. I don't have the height nor footage to grow trees. I guess that's why this style appeals to me so much. Four 2 liter bottles take up an 8.5" x 8.5" area. 15 grams dry/plant and things add up pretty fast. Another reason that I like this style is the direct clone to flower aspect. In first indoor grow those heavy sativas took 89 days. No root bound issues. With faster flowering strains, the 2 liter seems the perfect size. The last time around I used some 3.g gallon trash cans as containers. I believe I veged for two weeks. I couldn't let them go any longer because height restrictions. Post harvest examination showed that the roots did not fill the containers. I know I could have done training, but that defeats the purpose of SOG. Instead of height limits I would have run out of horizontal room. So, until I move to a larger house I'm just going to stick with what works for me. I was hoping my news beans would arrive today. No wonder the postal service is broke. According to the tracking log they've been through the town I live in twice. They came through San Fran to a sorting facility. Then they went to another sorting facility. Both times going through my town. I just worry about the cold. Supposed to be 6 F. tonight. Hope they are alright. My Holy Grail Kush mother is getting rather large. She's been in a 5 gallon Hempy for over a month. Not sure what to do about her. I know I'll be taking 36 clones off of her this week. But she is such a beast, around 2' x 3' x 5' above the ground. I have some clones in the veg tent because I had run out of vermiculite. I may save one for a new strain mother and flower the big girl. Only problem is that I don't have room because she nearly doubles in the stretch. I guess I'll just play it by ear after the new strains are established.

Your house sounds a lot like mine. Ours is a 1950's rental that the previous homeowner remodeled himself. He didn't do a bad job but he sure wasn't an electrician. He put the shower right over a window so the shower wall is hollow and has a small crack at the top where light still comes in. This is the main upstairs bathroom lol. My circuit is maxed out too. I have an extensive cord that I can run to the other side of the basement but I'm holding off to install a dedicated breaker. Electrical wiring isn't cheap!

I'm mainly playing around with different size SOG's now. I just elevate the plants to create an even canopy seems how they're all diff strains and ages. In the future I want to grow monsters but I love variety and that means smaller plants. Plus I need a larger veg tent first. So far I've been growing medium size 3 gal LST. Averaging about 1-1/2 to 2oz per plant. I have one experimental single cola plant which is my prototype for my next SOG which will be a combination of 2L soda bottles and 1gal Hawaiian punch bottles in soil.

Over 2oz per 8.5x8.5in sq?! I'd be happy with that

As far as your light problem I've had a few accidents myself and I wouldn't worry about it. Just stick to your schedule. I've read case studies where they literally tortured plants with light stress and it still took forever for them to hermie. Most strains should be stable enough to make it to hell and back these days. It's not impossible though. I had some hermie on me before. I blame that on either genetics or stress induced from over feeding.

Looking forward to see how these turn out for ya. Would love to see some of the big girl too

 

[geturgrowon]

im in! for the big hAul~~!~~

 

[josh223]

My apologies for not updating last night. The night before we had a pipe break INSIDE our house, three more frozen, and the shower drain P-Trap freeze. I was pretty tired by the time everything was repaired. Good news is that I ran a dedicated 20 Amp circuit for the flowering tent. Now I have 2200 watts of current draw at my disposal.

I decided to just go back to the old light schedule. If they herm then so be it. Last night I put three more clones into the flowering tent. One is a stunted run. May be culled in a weeks time. With the addition of the heater it is currently 72 F inside the flowering tent with lights off and 18 F outside. I wonder if the leaf stress from the cold will go away...

I received my new beans yesterday. As soon as I get done with this I'll be germinating the Royal Purple Kush, Blue Blood, and BC God bud.

I have, I think 9 viable clones in the cloner that are going to be transplanted and held in veg for a while. Horrible...25% success rate. And the ones that are in there don't have the best root system, hence the decision to hold them in veg for a while.

On to the pics:

Mother plant Holy grail Kush

 

[mrbubbles87]

We must've ordered seeds a few days apart lol. I've also got blue blood and received the same freebies as you. Def looking forward to seeing how your god bud turns out too.

That momma is a beast. Is that straight perlite?

Also, I noticed you don't light proof your 2L bottles. Any adverse affects? I went through a whole roll of duct tape light proofing mine cuz everyone says it has to be lightproof lol.

Nice shotgun Do you hunt pheasant?

 

[josh223]

We must've ordered seeds a few days apart lol. I've also got blue blood and received the same freebies as you. Def looking forward to seeing how your god bud turns out too.

That momma is a beast. Is that straight perlite?

Also, I noticed you don't light proof your 2L bottles. Any adverse affects? I went through a whole roll of duct tape light proofing mine cuz everyone says it has to be lightproof lol.

Nice shotgun Do you hunt pheasant?

Yeah, Relaxed Lester also put in a recent order. I'm curious how three our three different Northern Lights x Skunk #1's will turn out. I'm not going to work with that strain for a while though. I'm more excited about the purchased strains.

The mother plant was initially in Miracle-Gro seed starting mix. Then she lived in a 50% mix of 75% perlite 25% vermiculite mixed with 50% Miracle-Gro moisture control potting soil. Ugg...I guess that would 50% Miracle-Gro, 37.5% perlite, and 12.5% vermiculite. She lived in that mix until I was sure all the slow release fertilizer had been used up. Her last home is the 5 gallon Hempy filled with 75% perlite and 25% vermiculite.

I was really pleased with the results from my last Northern Light Blue Mother. Her final home was a 5 gallon container with Miracle-Grow Moisture control potting soil. No way to really flush in that situation. Bud quality, taste wise, was way of from the Hempys.

I have a knack for taking bad pics, but every 2 Liter has had up to the bottom of the label spray painted matte black. I first learned about the Hempy SOG technique from fellow member KoolKat's journals. I believe, somewhere in all the expansive pages, he got away from light-blocking the containers. The theory was once the bottles are packed tight not enough light is present to promote algae growth. I decided not to risk it and spray painted. Still, I've never seen algae, even in the tops of the bottles.

 

[CajunCelt]

Love the hempys. I use the exact same method for clones. Cool to see soda bottles in someone else's tent.

 

[josh223]

Thank you kindly cajuncelt. I feel that the Hempy's don't garner the respect that the deserve. I honestly don't think I'll stop using them. One day, when we move into a better home, I'm going to really go overboard with them.

 

[josh223]

Double post.

Reading through R L's journal reminded me to check on y germinating beans. Wow, less than 48 hours and all three have popped. I hope that's an indication of good things to come.

So, I've never done it before, but I put the seeds into Hempys. Should work out. The plants just grow so much faster in hydro compared to soil, at least at my house. I used 18 ounce solo cups as containers. Getting excited already.

 

[CajunCelt]

Double post.

Reading through R L's journal reminded me to check on y germinating beans. Wow, less than 48 hours and all three have popped. I hope that's an indication of good things to come.

So, I've never done it before, but I put the seeds into Hempys. Should work out. The plants just grow so much faster in hydro compared to soil, at least at my house. I used 18 ounce solo cups as containers. Getting excited already.

I tried that on my BB grow. The problem was that the roots took a long time to reach the bottom. They made it, but that was the last time I did hempys for germinating. You may have great succesd though. Good luck!

 

[josh223]

Took way too long to upload pics tonight. I'm just going to post the pics and leave the descriptions for another conversation.

Enjoy.

Walking into the "dungeon".

New 20 AMP circuit and non ghetto ducting.

The rest of the ladies getting their stretch on.