Vlad's Colombian Gold Grow - Aeroponic - LED - DIY Reloaded

VladimirPutin

New Member
Hello comrades,
here we are again, launching the new grow. This time I have proper tools, specifically REAL hydroponic nutritive supplement from a hydrofarm dealer I found online. Also I use antichlorine drops for fish tanks as an added measure of safety with tap water. The little plant is the same one from my last grow #2 that failed because the fake hydro solution would burn the roots and so they did not want to drop down and the plant atrophied but kept living, just not really growing. Shortly after the switch one week ago, we have lush white roots that go down into the bucket like champs. The strain is unknown from bag seed of colombian gold, acapulco gold and white rhino from the guerilla grows that a comrade has. This is a legal grow in south america where a little law called -personal dose- allows for one to have his few plants but there is no legal market for buying or selling, just personal consumption. How about that... Good enough for me.

No PH pen, I could only find chinese no name brand crap, granted everything is from PRC now I still didnt want to waste on something that could crap out or be ineffective at taking readings. The water here is not so bad, PH 6.5 without any treatment and once the nutrients are added, the PH should go down to target area.

This is a low pressure aeroponic system, using a waterfall to promote an environment of 100% humidity. The bucket is 20 litres spray painted black. Spray paint blows, some light scratches will take the paint off so I will be careful about that, maybe cover it with some tape for protection. No light leaks in the root system. I have space for one more plant but we will see if I will add another in 2 weeks.
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:thumb:
 
The plant has some ugly bottom leaves, as mentioned before this was a -rescue- plant that I salvaged from a failing grow using bad nutrients. Now she is growing full speed and I do not plan on picking any leaves off yet, I will let those drop naturally. Also in the bottom of the bucket is a spaghetti strainer covering the water pump. I saw the impeller suck in some roots and chop them up like a blender, so the strainer will prevent that from happening again, LOL!

Thanks for following comrades.
Vladimir Putin
 
update, I added a timer to the water pump. As I recall, letting the pump run 24/7 raised the temps substantially. Now the pump is on 30 minutes and off 15 minutes, constant cycle. so far the plant looks happy, the roots smell great and the leaves are perky.

VP
 
Matticuss, Don't forget about cloning. I was thinking about popping a couple more seeds for more plants but then I realized this one smells like sweet skunks already and figured it will probably be a Female so I will cut 2 clones from her before sending her to 12/12. I can expect at least another 3 weeks before I take the clones, I would like to Flux like UltraDan but I think I will stick to some regular LST and get a nice bush from this one.
 
Subscribed VladimirPutin.
 
Thanks for the subs fellahs. Just adjusted the aeroponic waterfall pump timer to 15 on and 15 off, because 30 on was heating the reservoir and I didn't like that. Threw some ice in there and will tell you how the temps are tomorrow. If anyone wants to know how to make your own bad ass brewery for pennies on the dollar, I might start a thread in off topics forum about that next week. My brewery product is a fermented fruity punch that reaches 30 proof easily in about 10 days. IN south america there is just an abundance of delicious fruit that I would be a fool not to do this. And if one is growing cannabis, a micro brewery is not anywhere near as hard as hydroponics, lol
 
What, making your own booze sounds like an awesome skill to possess.

Indeed. If this grow continues well I will make time to do a thread about it on offtopic forum then and forward you fellas the link.
In other news, the temperature of the res seems stable at 63 F since the submersible pump was dialed in to 15 minutes on 15 minutes off. any higher and the temps would go over 70 F. I think I will keep this as a one plant show, but take the clones for subsequent future grows. From experience, if the plant exudes pleasant sweet odors at 4 weeks, it's usually a female. I hope that will be the case yet again because I don't feel like adding more equipment for more plants right now just to be sure.

VP
 
Status report.
So my 20 litre reservoir was sitting on my desk in front of a window provisionally. I noticed that during daylight the water would reach tepid levels and I knew I had to find a new home for the black bucket, as solar radiation loves to heat up black things. Moved it to the floor under my desk and BAM! nice temps again. I enjoy simple solutions to simple problems. Anyway, leaves are perky, no claw and no signs of "over watering" in my aero setup. Roots have a fresh and pleasant odor. I hope her reservoir water only needs a changing once every 14 days. No PH pen as of yet, I will forego that important instrument as long as there are no developing issues. Feeding using recommended dose, no crazy stuff. She seems to be growing full speed ahead. Pics coming in a couple of hours.
 
lookin good there vlad, yeah im a big fan of making my own hooch too. Instead of beer though I make moonshine and i only do 2 runs a year.

Nice. Yes I say why pay taxes to the gubbenment when they will just use it on a massive war budget instead of something sweet like free medical healthcare. Plus, homemade hooch tastes much better, I let mine age in secondary fermentation a few weeks and it tastes phenomenal.

Here's the plant update for today. She still smells nice so I am hoping to confirm it's a female. Leaves are perky and roots smell nice so the DIY aeroponic project is smooth sailing so far! I even went as far as rubbing the roots a little to notice any slimy texture and there was none! I'm still shell shocked from my last deep water culture grow that sucked. It could have failed because I did not use proper nutrients that last time. As I have noted, the plant's natural defenses are much stronger with a proper diet, and I have no fear of pythium so far.

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Hey Vlad, Im really interested in learning how to make your fruit wine, hope there is a tutorial coming soon.
Have you considered if your system will be able to support the weight of a larger plant? I had a 5 gal bucket with a 3" netpot along with clay pellets. During the last couple weeks I had to constantly monitor the plant, because it would fall to the side due to the weight of the canopy. That plant seems to have a deficiency I am not familiar with. May be magnesium deficiency? It looks a little different to me.
Regards
 
Hey Vlad, Im really interested in learning how to make your fruit wine, hope there is a tutorial coming soon.
Have you considered if your system will be able to support the weight of a larger plant? I had a 5 gal bucket with a 3" netpot along with clay pellets. During the last couple weeks I had to constantly monitor the plant, because it would fall to the side due to the weight of the canopy. That plant seems to have a deficiency I am not familiar with. May be magnesium deficiency? It looks a little different to me.
Regards

Yup I am going to share with you guys the tutorial on how to do your own fermented fruit punch that can get up to 30 proof in just 2 weeks fermenting time with simple ingredients and the cost is about $1 for each 3 litres, if you find farmer's market fruit at best price. I have to post it in off topic area and then post the link here. Look out liver! This plant was a "rescue" job, she was growing in another aeroponic bucket but her food was actually for soil which doesn't work at all for hydro and so she was starting to show lots of deficiencies and plus because her roots would not descend, they kept burning and looked tiny and pathetic. Then miraculously I found a vendor online in my area selling nutes for hydro, very good stuff too and not costly at all. The plant has been on the hydrofarm 3 part mix for 1 week so far and she has improved quantities, most notably the roots started descending in mass and overall health bounced back. Let's sit back another week and see how things develop. The new leaves are coming in beautifully, however I will point out that I kept an LED lamp only 2 inches away and that bleached the leaves, however now they are coming in green since the light was moved back. Thanks for telling me about the canopy issues, last time I did a grow on this bucket I used some solid core copper wire #16 cut into sections and I hooked them onto the branches and the bucket lid which aided in LST training PLUS anchored the canopy.

Vlad
 
Good to hear you were able to find better nutrients. Nutrient quality means a lot in hydroponic systems!

you got that right!! even the dreaded root rot seems to be kept at bay by a well fed plant with healthy immune systems.
here's a sneak peak of my fermenting station. The glass bottle up front is 5 litres and has a DIY airlock on top to keep the oxygen out but lets carbon dioxide bubble out through the tube into the water. It is the primary fermentation vessel where things stay for 3 to 5 days before being 'racked' or siphoned off into another clean vessel, leaving the yeast and spent fruit at the bottom. The 2 plastic bottles in the back are 3 litres each and each one has a date on it of when they initiated secondary fermentation which can last at least a week but can go on as long as a few months if you wish, the flavor sky rockets during 2ndary fermentation period and also the alcohol level will reach its max point. The gloves on the plastic bottles allow the carbon dioxide to vent safely so fermentation can continue while keeping oxygen out. apparently anaerobic environment is what we want for best flavor and success of the operation. This method is risk free meaning there is no way to make anything toxic by doing it, I.E. no methanol. Don't let the rubber gloves and recycled bottles scare you, you could spend money and get proper vessels if you wanted, but as long as you keep everything clean you can do it my way and make bomb punch that your family would be amazed with, like mine is!! I will do a step by step after this weekend, I'm having a 2 day party. In 2 of the bottles I used raw unprocessed sugar cane juice called Panela which is super abundant and cheap in south america. However after the test of using the raw sugarcane I've concluded that refined sugar tastes much better and is much more transparent, where as raw is overpowering and masks much of the fruity essences.

Vlad
 
That looks so good, reminds me of chicha de maiz, an alcoholic beverage made with fermented corn. God I loved getting wasted with chicha!!!
 
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