9 Plant 1000W Aeroponic Caramelicious From Seed

[mybigself]

Hey, MBS!

Beautiful plants, very cool set-up. I use a similar rig, but with 5" PVC fence posts instead of 6" pipe, and fewer plant sites. A few suggestions:

First: algae needs light to grow. I was worried about my plants roots getting too much light (even though I use a smaller 400W light), so I covered the tops of my fence posts with black electrical tape. There are no doubt more elegant ways of blocking the light, but I tend to go with what I got. Even though I changed out the nutrients only once during my grow (my first with hydro), between veg and flower cycles, when I took my system apart after harvest, there was no algae anywhere save a small amount in the clear tubing that feeds the manifold that distributes water to the plants.

Second: I'm not so sure of the wisdom in removing fan leaves. Fan leaves are the light converters of your plants. Plants generally want as much light as they can handle, and if there's too much to handle, they'll let you know. In short, the more light they get, the more nutrients they can use for growth, and therefor, more growth. There may be something I don't know on this subject, and I'd be thankful for any additional data or even opinions.

That being said, I am envious of your grow. I over-fertilized my first hydro grow, and although I ended up with a pretty good harvest of some wonderful Kali, it's probably half of what I would have gotten had I paid as much attention as you are.

And some questions: I know little of SCROG. Can you refer me to some good, informative posts, articles, books, etc? Also: what pump cycle timing did you end up with? Anybody want to chime in on that one?

Peace,
Ruckatruck

ok so i have no clue how to multi quote so i'll answer in order of your post.

here goes,

RE:FIRST-hey you might want to try AC reflective tape. it's opaque a very reflective. so any light that might make it's way through will reflect back up through the canapy. i feel any little details as small as they mat be will be appreciated by your plants.
Wow dude! i change my rez every 1 to 2 weeks depending on what they tell me. i figure if i keep the water fresh it will keep unwanted solids from building up and allow the plants to easily take up as much nutes as they wish thus increasing yield.


RE:SECOND-my idea in heavy prunning of fan leaves is to allow more light to hit the inner middle of the plants so as to create more growth from the center outward. i keep the exterior fan leaves in tact and prune any inward growing
fan leaves.
lets say a stem has three leaves, two growing left and right and the third growing towards the center, I'll take the third one off to allow more light to penetrate and stimulate center growth. I'll show you in a pic.
be advised i am only doing this till i see substantial new growth then I just let them go as i can't get to center growth for pruning once SCROG screen is set in place.


AND LASTLY-hey man I did the same thing and other mistakes as well, thats why i have four plants in my ICU as I like to call it. i'll show you in pics. they're just as old and half the size. live and learn brother.lol

as for SCROG it's my first and i just googled it and read a shit-ton of posts. anything i could find. never bought a book on it.


SCROG PUMP CYCLE is 1min on 5min off
ICU CYCLE is 15min on 30min off but it's a combo of sprayers/aero and DWC
they seem to like it fine.

i guess i have alot of experiments going on at once but how else to learn.
this used to be all about yield as it' still is but now i'm getting alot more technical and taking notes studying the plants and learning they can take a whole lot of stress and bounce back as long as you catch any problems in time.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

pics will be in next post gotta upload

MBS

 

[mybigself]

ok guys so I'll begin with this pic as it is the oldest.

you might be wondering "WDF" happened. well this is one of my ICU patience/experiment. it showed sex early plus it was stunted due to heavy stress so i decided to play as it's a male. i prunned the living shit out of it to see what would happen.

so before:

AFTER:

it's recovering nicely after having all fan leaves removed. it actually looks healthier than it did before the pruning. don't have pics but it was sickly looking.

Next are a few pics from the ICU ward. after two months of veg they're all about 9 to 11 inches. notice the thin stalk compared to the stalk in the SCROG room. (SCROG is thicker than it looks my finger is closer to the camera.)

here is an overall look of the ICU patience. under 400w MH 400ppm now under 12/12

 

[mybigself]

Hey RUCKATRUCK! I wanted to show you the results of the prunning technic I'm tring out.
so here goes. hope you can tell from the pix.
first off here is an overall of the SCROG. I'm down to five plants out of nine.
they've been veggin for eight weeks and should be larger but I almost killed them about a half dozen times,lol. so stress has slowed growth rate dramatically. none the less they're looking good.
BTW 4'x5' plastic scrog net. very easy to lift net and tuck plants.

in this next pic you'll see a young SCROG plant to be. you'll also notice a large fan leaf in the middle area of the plant. this is what i remove all the way though the middle. top to bottom till it's time for the screen at about 15inches i then pinch and bend the stems so plants are at 12inches as that is the hight of my screen. this wiil change with my next SCROG as i figured that the screen should be more at 10 inches. Anyway:

So these next two pix are after lots of fan leaf prunning. I have my hand in there so you can get an idea of how dense the middle has become.
These have all been either FIMMED or TOPPED just once. I say both as some of the ones i tried to FIM ended up TOPPED and there is a diffrence in how the plants are growing comparing one tecknique to the other. I'm looking forward to difference in yield if any.

This is FIMMED measures 18"x18" the other "one" is @ 16"x16" looks like there might be more bud sites although they are smaller and slower growing i think due to recovery time as FIM is supposed to create more stems and it did. TOPPING created only two additional stems so maybe less recovery time.

This is TOPPED measures 23"x23" the other two TOPPED are @ 20"x20"

and here is a look at plant width from below

hope some of you guys enjoy this post as i am trying to learn and hopfully some will learn from my experience.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

MBS

 

[Ruckatruck]

Yeah, that was my first hydro crop, and I did a whole lot of things wrong. I will be replacing the nutrients with fresh every week or two, and am certainly watching the nutes on my new crop closely. I'm going with Advanced Nutrients Sensi A and B as well as Voodoo Juice (expensive!!) and B-52. Its what they call their "hobbyist" package, along with Big Bud and Overdrive later on during the bud cycle. Got eleven plants in my machine, spaced a bit closer than the recommended 12 inches, but I'm growing a mostly Sativa strain (Kali Mist) and it grows tall and thin, with thin fan leaves. Very cerebral stuff.

My last crop, even though I screwed it up horribly, still netted me about 6 ounces of bud. So don't be discouraged by your mistakes; you'll doubtless make more, as do we all, and you will learn from them. Even the worst I've grown is better than the best I've bought. And that crappy little six-ounce grow is worth a ton more than I spent to produce it.

Peace,
Ruckatruck

 

[mybigself]

Hey RUCK, you are so right. regardless of yield although this 4x5 should produce an ok amount the next grow will go better as knowledge builds with experience.

as for the nutes???holy wallet damage!!! i picked up conasour A+B for flower. not sure what more i would need for flower stage but dam. as for veg i went with DR.GREENLOVE's Botanicare recomendation and recipe.
i was using FF and the bat guano was building up everywhere. brown sut buildup where ever you looked and solids building up at the bottom of both my rez's. i was looking at getting sprayers clogged up in no time. now i can see straight through to the bottom of my rez even with Hubolt's root stimulater which is chocolate brown.
I think for soil FF or non sprayer systems FF would work just fine not to knock there products. Diff strokes for Diff folks, you know.

how many plants for the 6oz??

i'm gonna have to clone straight from this scrog as soon as they all show sex although the biggest plant showed early signs of female i'm still not 100% sure as it's my first and would hate to clone a ton of males as i have read in the clonning machine post i followed you to. which by the way is very cool so I'll be building one very soon. you can bet your panties on that one.

Ok, well gonna smoke and head out with wife for some shopping.

MBS

 

[mybigself]

Alright so I decided to lower the scrog net as it was at 12". i cut the legs down and i'm at 10" which is where i wanted to be. it made a huge difference. at first the legs would not touch the ground. Yeah! these girls are strong. they held the net up till i bent and spread stems apart now the net is looking full.

I can't believe only 5 plants could fill a 4x5 net...

Before:

After:

the lights have been swicthed 12/12 and all five are females. Nice!! plus two out of four in the AERO/DWC, ICU are girls those went 12/12 two weeks ago.

So out of ten seeds, 1 died, 2 males and 7 girls. pretty dam good.

MBS

 

[Propa Gator]

the lights have been swicthed 12/12 and all five are females

Flower Power

 

[mybigself]

YES!!!! FLOWER POWER! YOU GOT IT GATOR!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! PUFF (CAUGH, CAUGH)OH BOY THAT HURRT. WHY AM I WRITTING IN ALL capitals. wow! my friends out door smels like Concord grapes. mmmmm.

 

[funnystyle]

damnit MBS youre makn me wana do sumn like this man...i mean from the getgo... but this shit just blew my mind.
+reps again if i could...

 

[herbsnbuds]

Pass the dutchie over here my friend. Sweet setup you got going on. Would like to try this on one of my next grows. Only time will tell but awesome setup none-the-less.

 

[mybigself]

damnit MBS youre makn me wana do sumn like this man...i mean from the getgo... but this shit just blew my mind.
+reps again if i could...

LOL!!! thanx bro. i been workin hard at it as it's my first grow although i have a veggie garden in the back yard. i also tried a plant inbetween my tomatoes and it grew up to be a 3 1/2 foot male. bummer. anyway i think you can put togethe a mini version of this set up in your tent and keep the rez outside the tent. this will allow for better temp control as this was my problem the weather cooled down now rez is 68 to 70F. dude you could scrog in your tent from wall to wall. that would be sick.

MBS
9 Plant 1000W Aeroponic Caramelicious From Seed

 

[mybigself]

Pass the dutchie over here my friend. Sweet setup you got going on. Would like to try this on one of my next grows. Only time will tell but awesome setup none-the-less.

Herbs you got some nice grow goin on yourself mane. you know i'll be followin you all the way.

glad to meet you bro hope you stick around

MBS

 

[herbsnbuds]

Will do bro. Want to definitely see how this turns out.

 

[herbsnbuds]

OK so I just went back to the beginning of this thread and saw the engineering marvel you've created. It is truly astounding... and they call us "stoners" when really what we are "higher learned".

I'm sure to stick around for this one.

Anyone know if ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) is a safe alternative to PVC (polyvinyl chloride)? Its black and it would let in less light to the roots... right?

 

[Ruckatruck]

Hey RUCK, you are so right. regardless of yield although this 4x5 should produce an ok amount the next grow will go better as knowledge builds with experience.

as for the nutes???holy wallet damage!!! i picked up conasour A+B for flower. not sure what more i would need for flower stage but dam. as for veg i went with DR.GREENLOVE's Botanicare recomendation and recipe.
i was using FF and the bat guano was building up everywhere. brown sut buildup where ever you looked and solids building up at the bottom of both my rez's. i was looking at getting sprayers clogged up in no time. now i can see straight through to the bottom of my rez even with Hubolt's root stimulater which is chocolate brown.
I think for soil FF or non sprayer systems FF would work just fine not to knock there products. Diff strokes for Diff folks, you know.

how many plants for the 6oz??

i'm gonna have to clone straight from this scrog as soon as they all show sex although the biggest plant showed early signs of female i'm still not 100% sure as it's my first and would hate to clone a ton of males as i have read in the clonning machine post i followed you to. which by the way is very cool so I'll be building one very soon. you can bet your panties on that one.

Ok, well gonna smoke and head out with wife for some shopping.

MBS

MBS,

Yeah, shopping's always better after a little cerebral preparation.

I actually ended up with about 8 ounces. I started with 10 plants (clones), but only about 7 of them got big enough to yield any good weight. I let the small ones live (out of kindness, I suppose) and I got a small box of fluffy stuff from them. Some of the plants looked like hell at harvest, due to over-nuting, but I like all of the bud. Perhaps I'm just easy to please.

Peace,
Ruckatruck

My new crop is getting the additional nutes, and is flourishing.

 

[MOTAvation]

Sup mybigself, great job on your ladies.Wish i could of got on board with you from the beggining. Oh and that male ICU patience, turned out pretty bushy.
Nice set up too.

 

[mybigself]

OK so I just went back to the beginning of this thread and saw the engineering marvel you've created. It is truly astounding... and they call us "stoners" when really what we are "higher learned".

I'm sure to stick around for this one.

Anyone know if ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) is a safe alternative to PVC (polyvinyl chloride)? Its black and it would let in less light to the roots... right?

hey what is that stuff sounds interesting. i think i need to go a tad biger with my set up so i might look into that dude. are you gonna try it out?

yo did you see those bugs on Funny's grow! damb i think he needs to spray straight peroxide

what do think

MBS

MBS

 

[mybigself]

Sup mybigself, great job on your ladies.Wish i could of got on board with you from the beggining. Oh and that male ICU patience, turned out pretty bushy.
Nice set up too.

Hey MOTA,

i had to dump both males off on the side of the highway. it sucked.
when i jumped back into my truck my wife was like "are you sad? cause you
look it" she new even tho they're males i still raised them and wish i had a place for them. i'm just not ready for a boy yet but i will in the future as i would like to produce my own strain.

anyway, hope you chill around here. nice to have peeps appreciating the grow.

Welcome,

MBS

 

[mybigself]

Ok yall,

so today i ran some wire to the Now official veg room with a T5 floro and plugged her in. it's looking ok with 14 clones 2 of which will be kept as moms.

i soaked the cuttings in that brown Humbolt root stimulator mixed with water
then Olivias rooting gel. i also wounded or made a small secondary cut 1/2 inch above the bottom of the cutting to stimulate root growth, then set all of the cuttings in 2" rockwool in 3inch net pots and covered with Hydroton. pics will follow tomorrow when i get back from laboratory around 3 pm east. i left two og the cuttings outside the dome as an experiment. want to see which roots first if at all.

Just as a side note. i put a plant out in my garden this year to see if Aero to soil transplant would work (bag seed) and it turned purple once the night temps dropped bellow 60F i saw a post where someone said the cold/temps do not effect the plants color. they where talking about purple strains saying it's all genetics.

i guess not as my bag seed was just really cheap bag seed. I just get upset when peeps talk out of there asses. Uhg!

MBS

 

[herbsnbuds]

hey what is that stuff sounds interesting. i think i need to go a tad biger with my set up so i might look into that dude. are you gonna try it out?

yo did you see those bugs on Funny's grow! damb i think he needs to spray straight peroxide

what do think

MBS

MBS

ABS is used for non-pressure applications and unfortunately only comes in max of 4" diameter. PVC duct tubing come in 10" but the stuff isn't cheap. $18.40 per foot. I figured 4 4' pipes with 4 or 5 sites each would have been perfect but that's like $300 and may not be worth it unless you're growing commercially. 6" PVC is I guess the economical way to go.

10" (10.75" OD) PVC Duct | U.S. Plastic Corp.

As far as Funny's bug problem...

I like the peroxide idea, but I just think it won't be enough to kill everything. He needs a 1/4 concentrated dose of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and pray it evaporates before doing any damage to the plant. That's what I would do. I'd rather sacrifice a few plants then have a infestation. But that's just me.