AKGramma's Perpetual Grow

[TheMadDabber]

I recently found a colony of centipedes in my potted palm plant. They would swarm to the surface when I watered so they wouldn't drown, then disappear right back into the soil when the water soaked in. Well that creeped me out even more than mites, cause they can live ANYWHERE in the house. So I sacrificed the palm plant, which was dying anyway, and moved the whole pot and plant outside to freeze.

I gained some floor space in the living room, plus freed up a plastic crate to use in the grow to set baby plants on.

Ever since I started growing cannabis, I have neglected the houseplants till they all died off.

BTW, the soil will get dumped in the yard so I don't bring in any centipede eggs in the spring.

Amen. Aphids in my dang ghost pepper plant. It's been frozen solid a good month or so now

Idk centipeds are.... YUCK! I'd do the same.

It's almost time for me to start my outdoor crops in the tub! I have big plans for my garden this year. I tried growing all the wrong crops last year .. Made for good compost I suppose!

I just noticed the cactus on my dads window sill by the kitchen sink was dead.
It feels like it was there for twenty years.

Question is: how many of those years was it dead?

 

[PhobosAnomaly]

Question is: how many of those years was it dead?

I'm thinking at most seven, and at least two.
It was for sure dead, two weekends ago.

 

[AKgramma]

I inspected, trimmed out and treated all my other ladies in the big unit. They needed their skirts trimmed, since those branchlets and min-buds will never develop this far into flower.

This time around I treated with insecticidal soap, followed by a spray-down of plain water on the buds themselves. Might confuse the mite reproductive cycle, who probably have gotten used to Neem.

To my Neem solution, I add a tsp of Dawn liquid soap per gallon, to aid in surface dispersal.

In the smaller shelving unit, the four AK47 X Duran Poison seedlings are growing fast. Trip is still 1/3 larger than its siblings, but with three tops, it WILL be larger. This strain will remain isolated until the seeding project is completed. Yes, I am forever the optimist that I'll have both genders.

My stash of Bubblelicious seeds came by accident from my second grow. I am sure I harvested them too soon, as only a few seeds have tan covers. None of them are spotted, but that might be a strain-specific thing. I think I will have to sprout a whole bunch of them, and grow them out to produce a more mature set of seeds. Maybe by the time they need more space, the Autos will be harvested. Since I'm going for seed and not buds, I can plant several to a pot and let them mingle.

 

[AKgramma]

I harvested another Jock Horror Auto. She went all amber after I sprayed her down. I got a little over 10g wet, just buds and a few tiny sugar leaves. I got one nug from the tip. Was only 1-3/4 inch long. The rest were minibuds and may or may not be smoked or ground up.

The trim went in the drying bin for herbs.

I'm starting to see room in the veg unit! Yeah!

 

[AKgramma]

The Jock Horror Auto dry weight was only 6.75 g at 60% RH. I'm going to have to read up on how to get the big buds again, since I only got the one 1-3/4 inch cola and a small handful of small buds out of a lady I grew in a 3-gallon bin that was fed every week with a healthy nute mix, and a good fluffy, home-mixed soil.

Back to the books. I'm obviously not doing something right, when I compare my harvest with others who are also growing in soil, indoors, with similar lighting or just CFLs. :-(

 

[TorturedSoul]

I think it's safe to assume that you know how close to keep CFL bulbs to plants.

What are your average lights-on temperatures? Too cool, and growth slows to a crawl (or even stops). IF I remember correctly, the same holds true if the day:night temperature differential is too great.

Although it wouldn't surprise me greatly if your temperatures are higher than mine, lol.

 

[AKgramma]

I think it's safe to assume that you know how close to keep CFL bulbs to plants.

What are your average lights-on temperatures? Too cool, and growth slows to a crawl (or even stops). IF I remember correctly, the same holds true if the day:night temperature differential is too great.

Although it wouldn't surprise me greatly if your temperatures are higher than mine, lol.

Lights on has always been 80 F. Lights off has always been around 75, except when I used to have a separate grow room and could open the window to let the temp get down to 70 F. I use lotsa fans to circulate the air and the door to my room is always open some to allow for whole-house circulation. Not a whole lot you can do with a single-wide trailer. LOL!

Lights in each unit are: two Mars 300 LED panels and 5 - 6 pairs of 23 W CFLs, mixed daylight and soft white. So, I'm running about 400 from-the-socket Watts in each unit.

 

[AKgramma]

I wonder if I should start using 5 gallon bins instead of 3 gallon. Large plants will mean fewer plants. The kitchen bins do get taller as the volume goes up, and I only have 72" height to work with. So far the strains I've been growing have stayed around 24 - 36 inches tall when FIMmed as babies.

Then, again, I could dig out the old 5 gallon storage bins which are a good foot shorter than trash bins. They take up more floor space, but the ladies will have room to spread out instead of up.

The thought here is that I'll get larger buds and maybe even colas with a bigger root system.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Lights on has always been 80 F. Lights off has always been around 75, except when I used to have a separate grow room and could open the window to let the temp get down to 70 F. I use lotsa fans to circulate the air and the door to my room is always open some to allow for whole-house circulation. Not a whole lot you can do with a single-wide trailer. LOL!

Lights in each unit are: two Mars 300 LED panels and 5 - 6 pairs of 23 W CFLs, mixed daylight and soft white. So, I'm running about 400 from-the-socket Watts in each unit.

Your temperatures are most definitely warmer than mine (can I move into a spare room in order to warm up, lol). The other day, I closed my grow space off as much as possible and ran the light for hours (less than 18, but most of the day). IIRC, I managed to get the temperature in there up to 62°F - and then I turned off the light and opened the space up so that I could get some of that heat into my bedroom. Within an hour, the temperature was back to around 50°F.

But, from late Spring through mid- to late-Autumn, I can get it up to 102°F, easily .

I wonder if I should start using 5 gallon bins instead of 3 gallon.

Are your plants getting rootbound in three-gallon containers? Are they running out of nutrients before the grow is finished (perhaps growing with some kind of method that depends on having nutrients in the soil to begin with instead of one that allows you to feed the plants over time)?

If this isn't your plants' limiting factor, then I don't see where it'd do much good. Going from three- to five-gallon containers would mean the weight will be that much more - which could be significant if you have to move the containers around regularly.

My first guess was temperature, BUT the differential looks fine and your lights-on temperature, while low for the average strain receiving the maximum amount of light that it is capable of processing, is likely also fine for the amount of light that the plants are receiving.

Larger buds do not always equate to a larger yield. I've seen a few "giant fruit/vegetable" grows, and the growers always seemed to remove all the fruit/vegetables/flowers except the ONE that they were planning on entering into a contest. A 20-pound tomato might look awesome, but I'd rather have 50 one-pound ones, lol. It's been a long time since I tried to grow large buds (and they weren't huge, since every one of them was shorter than from my elbow to fingertips). Then I got onto a "scrog kick." Later, I realized that even a small bud is too large to fit into my bowl after I grind it up .

It might be that, if you kept the same amount of light but decreased the size of the space, you'd end up getting a higher yield per plant (and denser buds). But even if that's the case, it wouldn't guarantee that you'd end up with a higher gross yield per watt. It might be that, if you were to make such a thing, that you'd end up feeling that you were spending less effort growing - but the opposite might end up being true, too, IDK.

You could try adding more light (and more intense light), getting a few rabbits, and placing their cages high up in the grow space. They'll add CO₂ (although, depending on your ventilation, it might leave almost as fast as it was produced). And, since all they do is eat, poop, and make more rabbits, you would have a potential source of fertilizer (after it was well composted, I assume) and meat. I've never eaten "caged" rabbit because it's too easy to just go outside and get one, lol, but they'd probably be okay.

 

[AKgramma]

Your temperatures are most definitely warmer than mine (can I move into a spare room in order to warm up, lol). The other day, I closed my grow space off as much as possible and ran the light for hours (less than 18, but most of the day). IIRC, I managed to get the temperature in there up to 62°F - and then I turned off the light and opened the space up so that I could get some of that heat into my bedroom. Within an hour, the temperature was back to around 50°F.

But, from late Spring through mid- to late-Autumn, I can get it up to 102°F, easily .



Are your plants getting rootbound in three-gallon containers? Are they running out of nutrients before the grow is finished (perhaps growing with some kind of method that depends on having nutrients in the soil to begin with instead of one that allows you to feed the plants over time)?

If this isn't your plants' limiting factor, then I don't see where it'd do much good. Going from three- to five-gallon containers would mean the weight will be that much more - which could be significant if you have to move the containers around regularly.

My first guess was temperature, BUT the differential looks fine and your lights-on temperature, while low for the average strain receiving the maximum amount of light that it is capable of processing, is likely also fine for the amount of light that the plants are receiving.

Larger buds do not always equate to a larger yield. I've seen a few "giant fruit/vegetable" grows, and the growers always seemed to remove all the fruit/vegetables/flowers except the ONE that they were planning on entering into a contest. A 20-pound tomato might look awesome, but I'd rather have 50 one-pound ones, lol. It's been a long time since I tried to grow large buds (and they weren't huge, since every one of them was shorter than from my elbow to fingertips). Then I got onto a "scrog kick." Later, I realized that even a small bud is too large to fit into my bowl after I grind it up .

It might be that, if you kept the same amount of light but decreased the size of the space, you'd end up getting a higher yield per plant (and denser buds). But even if that's the case, it wouldn't guarantee that you'd end up with a higher gross yield per watt. It might be that, if you were to make such a thing, that you'd end up feeling that you were spending less effort growing - but the opposite might end up being true, too, IDK.

You could try adding more light (and more intense light), getting a few rabbits, and placing their cages high up in the grow space. They'll add CO₂ (although, depending on your ventilation, it might leave almost as fast as it was produced). And, since all they do is eat, poop, and make more rabbits, you would have a potential source of fertilizer (after it was well composted, I assume) and meat. I've never eaten "caged" rabbit because it's too easy to just go outside and get one, lol, but they'd probably be okay.

Adding more lights will raise the temps too much, and my electrical bill, which is already over $200 a month. There is no payback for the $ I put out.

I have so little space now, that I would have to cut back to growing only one strain at a time and retire the extra flowering unit. That would save me $40 a month. I keep trying to get there, but I keep acquiring plants from family. How can I say "no" when they are going to kill the extra babies?????

I use a 16/8 light schedule to save that extra 2 hours a day. Gaslight is iffy. It tends to force the male plants to pollen-making early, and I've had a couple ladies go to flower under gaslight, too. Since it's not predictable, at least in my experience, I'll stay with 16/8, and for the non-Autos, switch to 12/12, gradually reducing the daylight to 10/14.

My plants don't use the whole 3 gallons of root space, unless I grow a strain that is especially vigorous or bred for outdoors. I've only had one plant, the Autoberry I grew a year ago, hit bottom and circle around. The clones root's are loosely fibrous without the taproot and without a thick stem.

I think if I plan to keep one of the AK 48 clones going past 6 months, I could up-pot her, feed her a lot, and hope to see her stems and leaves buff up. But IDK about a 5th generation clone. They seem to get more frail each generation. Maybe a sprouted mother from my own stash of seeds might show some promise. I really don't have the room for more than 6 - 5 gallon bins, so I would have to wait till the autos are harvested to try sprouting some of my Bubblelicious seeds.

I am sure that rabbit option was a joke. One cat is more than enough pets for me to take care of. And the smell........ I prefer cannabis to rabbit food and poop.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Adding more lights will raise the temps too much, and my electrical bill, which is already over $200 a month. There is no payback for the $ I put out.

I confess that I never considered too much heat being a possibility at this time of year. At one point, I ran two flowering setups, alternating so that one was always on and one was always off. Partly for temerature reasons, and partly because I didn't want to blow a breaker (that was an apartment that wasn't nearly 100 years old, lol, so it had circuit breakers instead of fuses). I also managed to forget that a lot of things just plain cost more up there in Alaska, and that you most likely pay more than I do for electricity (I think my rate is somewhere around 12½ to 13½ cents per kilowatt-hour, but it's been a while since I checked the rate on my bill. When my electricity bill tops $55/month I start getting nervous. With a 30-amp total capacity, I'd have to go to extremes to end up with a $200/mo. bill. And then I'd probably be out trying to dig up buried coins or something to pay for it .

I have so little space now, that I would have to cut back to growing only one strain at a time and retire the extra flowering unit.

Oh, NO! Single-strain grows are much easier (IMHO). But variety is very nice.

That would save me $40 a month.

Whew. That must make the option somewhat compelling?

How can I say "no" when they are going to kill the extra babies?????

I could head to the web-based translator and let you know how to say it in five or ten additional languages if you like .

To me, "extra" implies that someone is already growing a particular strain and that, therefore, it won't be lost if I don't grow it personally. I don't know if that's what you mean, exactly. But if so, maybe it would help to pretend that the people have started 85 of the same variety of half-runner bean plants (or pick any random vegetable/fruit/etc. plant), making sure that they tried germinating/sprouting enough that they'd be sure to end up with exactly the number that they actually want - and that any extra "sprouts" (of whatever size) really are extras. And with that in mind, they could serve some purpose in a compost pile, or perhaps even as part of a salad. IDK.

I use a 16/8 light schedule to save that extra 2 hours a day.

I'm not sure exactly how that would affect growth. I'm assuming that you'd end up with plants that were smaller (at the same physical age), but I suppose it could depend on exactly how much light they're receiving overall in a day's time. I didn't really learn about DLI, daylight integral, I think it's called, until last year, and how the amount of light per day is a thing. But - IF I understand the term - I think it means that plant A can receive the same amount of light-energy as plant B, only by receivng more light for a shorter amount of time each day, and the growth rates would be comparable (assuming identical strain/phenotype). Not really certain, though.

Gaslight is iffy. It tends to force the male plants to pollen-making early

Interesting - and potentially useful information for me in the future (thanks).

I'll stay with 16/8, and for the non-Autos, switch to 12/12, gradually reducing the daylight to 10/14.

I've been griping to myself about only having one space to grow in, because I'd kind of like to grow and flower both types in the same space. But I saw where someone, Rifleman, I think, ended up cutting their Dark Devil auto's light period from 18:6 to 12:12, and still ended up with a decent-sized plant. So I may start a photoperiodic plant before I have harvested all the auto-flos

wering strains.

My plants don't use the whole 3 gallons of root space

In that case, can't see a benefit from increasing the container size. There might be some, but it doesn't strike me as being likely.

I am sure that rabbit option was a joke. One cat is more than enough pets for me to take care of. And the smell........ I prefer cannabis to rabbit food and poop.

Call it 80% joke. I used to eat rabbit a lot growing up, but less so now. I've always liked it, but I cannot really imagine keeping meat animals indoors. And my only experience with tame/domestic/PET rabbits was allowing one to sit on my lap while it ate. Note to the city-slickers, lol: Do NOT do this!!! "Something is wrong with this rabbit, it's CRAPPING ON ME!!!" And, while I was flipping out, it finished defecating - and proceeded to eat that. Ignorant teenager :rolleyes3 , didn't know how the things consumed/processed food.

Every time I think about rabbits, I remember the day that Pop said to me out of the blue, "C'mon, let's go for a walk." ("WHY?!?" thought this dumb, dumb (then) teenager, already halfway burnt by that point in time, not really understanding that, yes, our parents will one day pass on, and before we will (if they are lucky).) So we walked down the hill in the backyard, across the gravel alley - where he casually bent over and picked up a few rocks and stuck them into his pocket - and through the field, into the woods. And he said, "Quiet," IDK, five or more times before stopping me and quietly motioning me to stand still, just before he walked a ways further and then basically touched a deer on the hindquarters, scaring it (and me ). Then he motioned me on and walked some more. Then he looked at me and asked, "Feel like rabbit for supper?" Thinking he was about to send me back for a firearm, I nodded. He said, "Watch this," and threw a rock at one, knocking it out. Or maybe killing it, I don't really remember. I do remember that he did that twice more, ending up with two rabbits from three ROCK THROWS. Then he grabbed them, maybe rung their necks, maybe he didn't need to. I was kind of busy trying to pick my jaw up off the ground, if you know what I mean. That was when I knew that "You know, not long before I met your mother, I got offered a chance to go pitch in the minors by a scout for St. Louis" wasn't a tall tale. I asked him why he didn't go, thinking surely it would have been a lot more fun living the life, doing something he enjoyed for (eventually) a lot more money than he was making working himself to death (when there was work) in our stupid little depressed town - and he just looked at me. Wasn't until he was told he might have a couple weeks left and he seemed to be dealing with it like someone had only told him he'd have to work late the next night or something, telling us kids that he supposed he'd raised a couple good sons and stuff and that he figured we'd be okay... right up until he looked at Mom and started crying and told her that he wasn't ready to leave her. Then I guess I understood what that look really meant.

Parents. I guess we really don't know until it's late, sometimes too late.

IDK. Rambling. Apologies. Need more sleep.

 

[AKgramma]

Great post, TS! I always like your tips, tales of your experience, and your ramblings!

I'm interested in the daylight interval. Now as it applies to the wildly variable daylength here in Alaska, it makes sense. We get enormous veggies because of the long days in the summer.

Since indoors is an artificial environment, I might be able to up the veg to 18/6, and find a way to totally block the light of their turning on at 7AM and turning off at 1AM in my bedroom. Because they share my room, I chose the 16/8 as being the closest schedule to my own need for sleep.

I am NOT going to upgrade to yet more expensive lighting for a crop that doesn't pay for itself, then have to deal with the extra heat. I want to keep air movement passive, and cheap. The LED panels were a huge uptick in penetration, and each panel is equivalent to 6 23W CFLs. But I still use the CFL's, so I think I'm using over 500 actual Watts in a 3' x 3" unit. That is approx 55.6 watts/sq ft.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Great post, TS! I always like your tips, tales of your experience, and your ramblings!

I'm glad of that. Because I just awoke with some vague memory of posting in your thread when I was almost literally falling asleep at the keyboard. Tended to the other threads I had open in browser tabs, shut the computer down, and made to to the spot I sleep on. A few hours later, of course, I'm wide awake.

I'm interested in the daylight interval. Now as it applies to the wildly variable daylength here in Alaska, it makes sense. We get enormous veggies because of the long days in the summer.

It might be daylight integral. Abbreviated as DLI - maybe it was originally day-length something? IDK. Icemud brought the term to my attention. Plants, including cannabis, require a certain amount of light-energy per day. Went a long way towards explaining (in my mind, at least) how some grows that I've seen which had less than the traditionally accepted lighting amounts managed to produce some decent looking bud from auto-flowering plants. Less light at any one time, but ~50% more of it per day.

Since indoors is an artificial environment, I might be able to up the veg to 18/6

Giving you larger plants, or the same size plants in slightly less time? I wonder if this would cause your electricity usage to increase appreciably? I know you'd use more per day - but if you used it for less days... Hmm... Hmm?

and find a way to totally block the light of their turning on at 7AM and turning off at 1AM in my bedroom.

That's what caused me to start growing auto-flowering strains not too long ago. That, curiosity as to whether or not such things had really improved since I tried growing the two that Sensi Seeds sold years ago in the corners of my vegetative space, and Sue's glowing reports of Dark Devil Auto, lol.

Because they share my room

Been there, done that. I Learned it's easier to ignore HPS light when attempting to sleep than purple light :rolleyes3 .

Neither can be ignored, though, really. Especially not by a person who has to completely cover his eyes to have even a hope of sleeping if someone has a candle lit in the next town over *literary exaggeration* .

I am NOT going to upgrade to yet more expensive lighting for a crop that doesn't pay for itself

Me, too, err, either. Combination of won't and can't.

then have to deal with the extra heat.

Too bad you couldn't hook an extraction device up from your grow space to your furnace ducting. Then that extra heat wouldn't necessarily be considered to be extra (this time of year).

I want to keep air movement passive

I worry about doing that for my own grows. In general, because I and my cat are the source of CO₂ for my grows, and we don't spend much time in there. Papa Cat (RiP, little buddy) spent all kinds of time in there, king of the jungle. Died in there, as a matter of fact.

Also, at least this time of year, my day:night temperature differential... there's no way it's not going to be rather high. I have worries that, when the lights go out and the bottom falls out of the thermometer, the moisture in the air will reach its saturation point, the relative humidity will shoot up to 100%, and I'll start having mold issues, possibly even heavy condensation on the walls. I used to have a chart showing RH at a given temperature, how much moisture content that equated to, and the change to the relative humidity / how much moisture content that equated to at various lower temperatures - and also the "dew point" at which such a level of moisture content would cause the water vapor to start running down the walls. It was a more significant thing than I had assumed up until I saw the chart, that's for sure. (Later, I tried heating this house with a couple kerosene heaters, with the added humidity (and other bad things) that they caused, carried them outside to shut them off without completely gassing myself, bringing them back in after they'd cooled, and going to sleep. I woke up a the next day a few times

The LED panels were a huge uptick in penetration, and each panel is equivalent to 6 23W CFLs. But I still use the CFL's, so I think I'm using over 500 actual Watts in a 3' x 3" unit. That is approx 55.6 watts/sq ft.

And that's definitely above the minimum requirements for growing a crop (and this is obvious, for the obvious reasons ). A little low for the more sativa-leaning hybrids, but you'll have that.

Life is an endless sequence of compromises. We just have to find the route that's most acceptable to us, on an individual basis, I guess. Hardly ever optimum, lol, but hopefully not too far from it.

 

[AKgramma]

I don't recall my ladies maturing any earlier when I used 18/6 in the separate grow room. I'll have to live with sharing my BR with the grow. I have gotten used to waking up momentarily when the lights come on (the top of the units are open, allowing the light to shine off the ceiling, and vent heat) and then going back to sleep, once my eyeballs and brain adjust and ignore the light.

As expensive as electricity is here, I don't think there will be any savings by trying to go more light per day, hoping for a quicker harvest. Soon, we'll not plug in the cars anymore, and that will have a bigger effect on the bill. I'm guessing close to $40 for the two cars. Also less household lighting (all of it is on CFL's).

The trailer I live in is small enough for me to equalize the indoor temp throughout with fans and windows. In Summer, when we get really up there, like 80 F, I open windows for cross ventilation, and still manage to keep the place livable for us non-plant life forms. (High Temp is relative depending where you live)

Oh, speaking of CFL's!!!! Fred Meyer quit carrying CFL's here! They have opted for bulbs outfitted with LEDs.

I wonder if I size them the same way as CFL's: from the draw from the wall socket. Any ideas here? Are CFL's on their way out everywhere? I notice that the LED bulbs are all frosted, which may decrease their output.

Eventually, when I run out of CFL's, I may have to go to shop lights/T-something or other bulbs) mounted on the sides of the units, to supplement the Mars 300's. Gotta use the coolest bulbs I can to prevent overheating and possible fire.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Oh, speaking of CFL's!!!! Fred Meyer quit carrying CFL's here! They have opted for bulbs outfitted with LEDs.

Same trend here, although there are still CFLs in the local market at this time. But more and more LED bulbs, and less CFLs. My main gripe with CFL lighting is when I turn on the overhead light (such as in my kitchen) and it provides almost as much illumination as two half-dead fireflies in a jar until it warms up sufficiently. That, and the things aren't terribly robust (translation: I am a klutz).

I wonder if I size them the same way as CFL's: from the draw from the wall socket. Any ideas here? Are CFL's on their way out everywhere? I notice that the LED bulbs are all frosted, which may decrease their output.

Yes, to the latter. As to sizing, I don't know and have been wondering the same thing. Mom got two in some sort of local hardware-themed department store's promotion, and gave me one to try. It is still in its package, somewhere. I'll have to look at the box to see what its wattage is. Several of my overhead fixtures are much older than I am, and require "long-neck" bulbs. I installed my last incandescent bulb of that type last year. I don't know what I will do in the future, in terms of illuminating my living space.

Eventually, when I run out of CFL's, I may have to go to shop lights/T-something or other bulbs

I looked for "regular" 40-watt 4' fluorescent tubes a while back, and couldn't find ANY locally. They're all 32-watt ones around here. Better stock up now, lol(/grumble).

Gotta use the coolest bulbs I can to prevent overheating and possible fire.

Another forum member (Icemud) used logic last year to explain to me why a watt's worth of one type of light produced the same amount of heat than a watt's worth of light of another type. It took me a little while to admit to it , but I have come to believe what he stated. I was only thinking in terms of efficiency - that a less efficient lighting device must produce more waste heat. Yes -but the photons produced (energy) DO interact with the universe when they strike matter, which means that the waste-heat produced by having less than 100% efficiency (as all things we build do)... is only half the story. That's the simple, short form of what he stated, basically.

However, if a particular light source is inherently more efficient, we might have less heat simply because we end up using less (bulbs/watts), I suppose. Such as the person that exchanges his/her 600-odd watts' worth of CFLs for a 400-watt HPS because he/she is tired of adjusting the little buggers every day to ensure that they're only 1" away from the plants' chloroplasts (or for whatever other reason) and ends up producing the same amount come harvest time.

The residential LED bulb that I was given has the plastic covering over it, which I'd try removing (cutting off, somehow) if I decided to use it for horticultural purposes, because such things attenuate way too much of the light output. That's the main reason mine is still in its package - I cannot find my Dremel tool. That, and as I get older, I seem to be breaking almost as many things through dropping/slipping/etc. as I once did by rough handling. Oh, if only we had the old person's wisdom and the young person's body at the same time.

 

[AKgramma]

Time to vote in the contests.

Go here and vote: 420 Contests

 

[AKgramma]

I have two really young White Widow clones that I will attempt to mainline, following the inspiration of Greendayz' journal at GrEeNdAyZ - DIY CFL - White Widow - Indoor Soil - No Tent - Winter '17

I just pinched out the central tip at the 4th node, while they are still in the solo cups. nothing as pretty as the named journal, but we'll see how they grow.

 

[420]

Please pardon the intrusion.

Since many of you stay in the grow room with blinders on, we have to spread the word somehow.
Mobile App: Photo Uploading Issue & Website Upgrades

 

[AKgramma]

Since my bins are rectangular, I'm going to mainline a rectangular scaffold instead of a square one. The difference is that at stage 1, where you pinch out the centra stem, you let the two chosen branches grow out to 4 nodes, then trim out nodes 1 and 3. This gives you 8 tips. You have to tie the arms of the scaffold so they are horizontal, and maybe LST any remaining arms that get ahead of the others.

I'm setting up the two bins to transplant the clones, as their root tips are peeking out of the holes in the bottom of the solo cups. The first pruning really encouraged the first two branches to grow. In just a couple days, they are showing well, and the central stems have thickened up nicely. Up to now they have been under a 14W CFL at my PC. Time to move them to the next level.

Looks like White Widow is a vigorous, sturdy strain.

 

[PhobosAnomaly]

Re-subbing.