Budlovski's First LED & Bubble Bucket Grow

[Sir Budlovski]

And this is the update for SC
She was and is going well, I think she is a little over the heat and may possibly be building up to being root bound so I might repot her very soon.
I've been inbetween keeping her tied down and some days releasing the ties for a day or overnight.I think I will need to water her again shortly today she's looking a lil droopy/miserable.
Here's a pic from a few days ago one I took for you Tassie haha

This pic is of her yesterday.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Well stuff since I'm at it here's today's pics.
Swear BS is stretching an inch a day, got my faith back in her now.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Here's another update
Once again not dated however I will be sorting the numbering again shortly.
My SC got quiet the defol last night after going over to LAs fluxing page, however I think I may have removed some shoots I should have left but that's apart of learning.
BS has stretched hugely now, she's about 3times the size she was when she started flowering that's made me happy bad note is I should of had her closer to the light earlier to try shorten the node spacing, not much I could do though since I'm now still waiting on my yoyo hangers that I should have ordered before using my LED but atleast I know what to expect and should be fully prepared for when I do my round of autos next up

Here's some pictures anyways, first up SC after trim, second BS with her stretching.

 

[Jack Dabs]

looking great Bud, glad you getting advice from LA, you are well on your way to having a fluxing beast.

Sorry i have been so quiet, been a crazy couple of weeks. The BS should be awesome,glad she is going ballistic on you and sounds like your next auto run will be finely tuned for a bumper crop. Have you always used that LED or did you move from HPS?

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Have you always used that LED or did you move from HPS?

Hey JD
Thanks for your words and don't stress we all hit busy times preventing us from living on 420 haha
I've never used a HID like HPS I've had a few mates use them and between issues they have mentioned and from what I've seen on this site I steered clear of them.
I always used CFL for my grows easy to get and cheap to buy but after my last indoor harvest I wanted more and especially after seeing a mate's HPS grow I definately wanted more so I was an inch away from ordering a 600watt hps/MH setup until I had a last minute thought on summer heat and Mrs mentioned electricity cost which gave me the last minute decision to source out these LEDs.
Hard for me to compare with not using HID before but I'm very happy I order these lights since even CFLs had high temps in my tent let alone a HID that would cook my tent haha my LED although there has been some hot days is pretty easy to keep a steady temp and since I have 3 I will be able to use 2 for my winter months for heat maybe even all three if they'll fit which is unlikely.


UPDATE!!
I have organized myself and worked out the dates and ages now so..
SC (Strawberry cough) is now 75 days old
BS (Bloody Skunk) is now 33 days old and day 11 since flowering.

I'm happy with SCs progress lately especially with how rough I've treated her the last week, I gave her a repot did some of the extra trimming that was needed and now she's well on her way to becoming a great, as they say DFW project hopefully I can hold up my end since LA can help out greatly

BS is also travelling along quite nicely apart from my last watering I think I overfed her a tad and I was away and. Came back to some brown leaf patches on some lower leaves but Ive given her plain water the today and yesterday to try dilute it out which I'm not sure how its gone but she's not looking like dying anyways just a little annoying since she's an auto so any problems can cause less yeild so I hope that doesn't happen. I think she's slowed on stretching now. She's looking likes she's going to be pretty much a single cola plant but she does have another 2 off shoot branches down low but I don't think they will make proper colas.
Still waiting for my adjustable light hangers. And added 2 cfls near BS for a lil extra light down low while there is cooler weather and ill rotate bs to even out the plants light intake.
Thanks for having a read all and here's some pics to perv at
(hopefully you can see the purple in BS' bud sites.

SC (DAY 75)

BS (day 33/11 flower)

 

[Jack Dabs]

Looking amazing bud, love how you used the pot to put her diagonally, great use of space, she really is looking good. LA will be an immense help to you and after this grow you should have it down. Incredible how things often work out for the best and great reward for your perseverance. She is going to be a monster!!!!

Can def see the purple in the BS almost looks like reddish purple. I assume she will start off purple and deepen to that sinister looking red colour according to the genetics. Does indeed look like a single cola plant,hope she gets super dense for you.

Glad the LED's are working for you and if they doing their job without temp issues, it was a wise move and of course Mrs Bud is quite right on the electric bill, would imagine a 600w would cost quite a few extra dollars that would add up over time,esp with auto grows and 16 hrs every day. I would love to get one, easy to forget now that temps have been great but my grow in the summer was an absolute pain in the arse, not to mention it made out bedroom uncomfirtably hot.

 

[Light Addict]

Hey my friend!
OK, you asked about auto training on flux central
I thought I'd pop over here and explain my old ways lol. I ran solely auto for a few years when they were fairly new out. Back then they were pretty unstable and quite a bugger to do anything with, especially without causing the dreaded H!
So I persevered and found my way of training them for big yields

So simply put you must do everything perfectly right early on with autos! I used to run the larger auto, or super autos as they were called. Give em a nice size pot right from the start! I also used to drown em with light from many close cfls at the start.
Anyway my process is basically the same as my first training method with photos! You top the plant on a micro scale after about the 6th node. (this is personal choice and plant structure dependent)
All I do is tuck fans behind the growing tips of limbs as early on as is possible. Then I keep all the limbs on the horizontal, also I span the limbs out using my tether points to spin the plant slightly on its access. This just stops limbs repeating position and shadowing the ones below!
I just train all limbs constantly out flat, tucking all fans out of the way. This promotes all the nodes along to shoot for the canopy, Now just before your plant stalls in growth you let the ends of all limbs build vert to match the canopy made by the inner nodes along the limbs. Then I just literally manipulate all growth points to give all bud sites equal spacing and level

Once Im back from Spannabis I'm starting a new thread on how to train auto anyhow and will document it all in detail for everyone!
With the big girls you can hit big numbers

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Hey LA thanks for stopping by
Sorry I asked it there, I just love getting knowledge on training methods since I love to keep busy with the girls with training them
That's awesome, I'm glad someone has given it a proper go and experimented.

Well id be to late with my current one, but next grow I haave another 2 bloody skunks to grow so I might train one and leaave the other and compare, I also have a lot of spare cfls still with my LED so I should be good at thatt point where I'm ready to start.
That's a great detailed amount of info mate and I'm grateful ill be able to check this out when its time, then again you might have that new thread going aswell so I'm going to be even happier with my next full auto grow being able to do some training still

I am really looking forward to your auto training thread that will be great and I'm sure that you will have a great time at spannabis but I also hope its great and you can take a lot from it

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Hey all just a few more pics as an update
The purple has spread from the calyxes to the leaves on BS now its making me happy when I look at her, she's also getting quiet the slinky smelly to her now as expected I guess.
I like this plant since it doesn't have to be grown in cooler temps to change colour, in fact she has been in higher then optimum temps and still going purple
I may sound abit over the top about the purple but its my first different coloured plant so quiet excited about her
Also I split my SC yesterday doing some more training work on her so I patched her up and today she's still growing so happy as about that

BS

SC

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Hey all, hope everyone's days are going better then mine
Feeling quite crappy today and dissapointed in myself in a way.
Today I had the Mrs wake me up complaining to me about the electricity bill we received today, our whole house runs electric and no gas so that doesn't help but I kinda copped it about my growing and have been told that the plants after this lot will have to come to a Holt , atleast until I can find some sort of other work of some kind.
So I've been told I need to hurry things up and sell what I can and go from what happens after.
So now I'm going to have to abandon my fluxing experience with my strawberry cough, something I was really liking, not happy about, not only that but now BS will have to finish up with 12/12 which I'm sure will affect her yeild.

No matter how much I've explained it probably has a lot to do with her leaving the AC on all day and night, running a big tv and our fridge which is new seems to be a pig, nope its the plants sigh.

I'm hoping now that between SC, BS and my 4 remaining outdoors that I will be able to even things up and get things back where I wanted.
Another thing that frustrates me is that there will probably only be an ounce or one batch of oil made up, atleast I will be able to experiment and see how it works for the young fella I'm giving it too.

Hopefully there will be some work around ill enjoy I can get into rather then the same old deadly jobs I've had to put up with.

Anyways been abit of a rant, ill have some pics up later tonight when I go to check on things and put them on their new 12/12 cycle.
Well 12/12 may have to wait a few days for SC to get vertical but anyways.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Well here's some updated pics
BS is going to take longer then the 8 week seed to harvest as stated with her info that doesn't stress me just thought of mention it.
SC not much difference just still growing along and and putting those side shoots out I left going.
I'm thinking that after the inspection here ill put in another one of my LED lights just to add some watts and light coverage should be abit cooler by then aswell, I have added another cfl that's 2 now for low side lighting mainly for BS.
Anyways here's some pics.

Bloody Skunk

Strawberry Cough

 

[Jack Dabs]

Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! That is not cool Bud and frankly we need to sort this out. I understand that money may be tight and yes your girls are costing you but no way in hell should it be that much to cause a fuss, believe me I know we are on a very tight budget and i have checked the amounts of electric usage from my grow and it's not that much, plus i am using HPS. So if missus Bud is not coming round we need to think of ways to keep you going.

You mentioned AC, I assume that if for the house and not the tent? If it is for the tent, can you not use frozen coke bottles of water to keep things cool, loads of guys on here make do for their "ghetto" grows.

Is there no way you can get one of those smart meters that shows you where your electric expenses are coming from? Electricity usually cheaper at night but if I remember your lights are on at night anyway but a call to electric company may be worthwhile to get an idea, maybe check your meter before and after lights on and then work out how much running costs are so you can see how much you need to make up.

I know it goes over to the realm of ''selling'' but can you not sell excess bud to some friends at ''cost price'' in order to recoup your electric expenses even if they are negligable just to appease the missus?

Plus you are making oil for a family member is there no way he can contribute to the running costs - it is partly for his meds?

Do you not have a play station or something like that you would be willing to sell toput towards the running costs?

Mate if all else fails set up a anonymous donation website and ask your mates here to contribute a fivver to your project, I would be happy to send a few bucks your way.

Maybe sell some extra seeds you have lying around?

These are just off the top of my head ideas, sure we can come up with more if we give it some thought...

Best of luck mate and the BS is looking amazing, huge developments since your last update, your SC is going to be a monster flux, maybe she is pissed cause its taken so long, once she sees massive progress she may change her tune if she smokes which I assume she does. All else fails, time to file for divorce haha - kidding (sort of)

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Yeah I know what you mean mate, might just leave things how they are now, but I'm might just pump all 3 of my leds in my tent to hopefully pump out as much yeild as I possibly can.
Yeah its for the house my tents been alright and I've just allowed the tent to do what it does, the AC is for the house and although I can deal with most temps pretty well for her it has to be a perfect climate inside all the time, I'm sure its a pig of a thing with electricity aswell but even though she listens and understands that she won't change her ways with it.
Yeah I have my lights on during the off peak times as much as I can so I'm sure it really isn't costing as much as she thinks, like you mentioned I'm going to get the bill out and try work out the actual costs.
Well that was my plan all along to sell a lot of it since I don't really smoke any of it anymore, timing didn't really work out cause I was hoping to have had a harvest by now in the beginning to pay this bill but yeah she doesn't seem to think its going to be enough to make back enough, I know it can and will.
Yeah problem with the family member is they are very young, still in school and don't have money and his mum and my dad have already helped me out with a lot of money in recent times to get some things in order.
Haha I got rid of most things I didn't need before the grow so I'm outta luck there haaha
I like your donation idea, its just not for me I couldn't ask for more then the company and help people have given me here, there's a lot of better cases of prefer people to send their money too, what's happening is a lot on me and being unmotivated and not having a job.
Thanks for your ideas mate I appreciate them and a few of them may actually help out
Unfortunately there nope she doesn't smoke so that's where all this gets trickier and harder she doesn't really listen or care when it comes to my indoor plants apart from the herbs and autos because they're quicker.
She just wants to always have big monstrous pounders like our first one that she can see there's a lot of money coming from and with free light. I hopefully get my license back soon and we plan on moving out of town so that might help things a lot having some space and ability to get big ones going that will be able to help dramatically with costs.

That reminds me, on a terrible note, out of my 4 outdoor girls I'm quiet sure only one is female. I had to rip out the biggest one it was definately male, just my luck.
Then papaya and the other smaller one I think are bothmale aswell, since the female one is already miles ahead in showing hairs and bud formation. Safe to say I was quiet Shotty after yesterday then finding f++king balls on em all outdoor.
The one that's fem was originally OD3 I think hopefully she can still get quite abit of yeild.
Thinking if BS hurries along I can probably sneak another auto in with SC since she will still take awhile to finish flower, then ill definately have all 3 LEDs going with added CFLS and hopefully pump out some bud, if Mrs bud says anything ill just tell her I may aswell finish the grow out properly aha
I do have some AN nutes and few seeds I can probably get rid off but it won't be enough, one of the biggest things is I need to quit smoking cigarettes cost to much on both health and money, however stressful environment and times has me struggling with that.

 

[PlanetJ]

You can simply calculate her the cost of the grow .. add the wattage, time it runs, and convert to kilowatt, and multiply by kW/h rates that apply. You could also veg under GLR .. that only uses 13 hours of light, one of which in the middle of the night cycle.

Anyways, you can calculate the cost of the grow .. might save you (or not )

 

[Jack Dabs]

You gone AWOL Bud?? hope all is well your side.

Waiting patiently for an update here.

 

[Johnny 5spot8]

I like using the tops of 2-liter bottles for clones and seedlings. Keep the cap on initially when you want it super humid and take it off after a few days when you don't need it quite so humid.

If you want to save money on electricity here's an easy way to save a few bucks. On you fridge there's a condenser with cooling fins under the fridge. These get covered with dust and need to be vacuumed out, or dusted perhaps. After you do this your fridge will work so much better it will freeze some of your liquids in the fridge so adjust the settings to be a bit warmer to prevent this. Not only do you save money from your fridge working less, but you save $ on the air conditioning not having to get rid of as much heat generated by the fridge. Also, turn your heat up in the house one degree. No one notices one degree...

If you're growing just in coco and perlite it's still considered a soil-less grow and your hydro nutes will work just the same. You'll just need to add a little cal-mag due to coco eating it up. I'm guess the specialized coco nutes you bought have extra calcium already though.

Growing in coco you may want to consider a hempy bucket. It's just a 5 gallon bucket with a hole drilled in the side 2 inches above the bottom to allow drainage. The 2 inch water reservoir in the bottom means you only have to water every 2 or 3 days depending on the plant. Also you don't need to aerate it and root rot isn't a problem. Google hempy bucket if you want to know more.

I don't think dolomite lime is useful in a hydro grow like this. It's not water soluble, and I'm guessing organisms in the soil are needed to break down the limestone to make the calcium usable to the plant.

Best of luck to you

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Hey all been away due to no internet once again,
Good to see you here planet J and johnny and thanks for your input

Planet J I was actually thinking of doing what you mentioned but got abit lost with what I was doing so thanks for your little formula there ill have to give it a go at some stage soon mate, as for the GLR I think ill definately look into that in the future only reason I stayed away from it this time around was because I knew I was going to get an auto going.

Hey jack, ill be doing an update shortly if not it will be. Up very soon

Hey there johnny, yeah the coke bottles whichever end you use is definately one of the best diy humidity domes I've used.
As for the fridge I'm going to have to have a look at the fins but I don't think they're to bad its a pretty new fridge but like you mentioned the other day I went and adjusted the freezer and fridge temps on it so hopefully that helps some even slightly, its good these new fridges have digital thermometers now to you can get it set nicely.
Definately a good little tip you gave there though, I hope others will be able to see it if they need.
Yeah my nutes and coco are all buffered, coco has a buffer and added bene bacteria and nutes have extra cal/mag which makes things easy. I do have other AN nutes which were for my bubble bucket originally but ill likely sell them to someone to get some money back since I hardly used them.
I've done abit of reading on the hempys but it seems to be quite the mission to get them or have them available in Australia so ill get looking but atm my normal pots are good and cost less money that I don't have to buy new things atm.
As for the dolomite I havnt had to bother with it, with my nutes but I just figured thaat dolomite powder might be abit more soluble and the beneficials that come with the coco. Might help that but not really fussed atm since I havnt had to worry about that issue yet.
Thanks for your input here mate well appreciated.

Anyways just thought Id say that either way after this grow ill be shut down for a little while, however I should be able to get going again, we found a few thing to save money on like outside flood lights that get left on, fridge temps, ac adjustments and less use due to cooler weather coming in.
Also got proper internet sorted out so we won't be spending as much money on our phones and we should save 1-200 on that alone.
I've also heard about a few jobs I should be able to go to and enjoy which would be good.
Winter I'm going to use a diy tealight heater I saw on the internet awhile ago which should help prevent us from having to turn heater on.
Just thought I'd mention aswell, I put another one of my leds in the tent, since I have stop for abit so hoping that will increase yeild looks like it should its bright in there now.
Even not using my exhaust fan as much with cooler weather should save a few $ aswell.
Safe to say I'm feeling a little better about it all. I just hope things with yeild and selling it works out well enough for Mrs to see I won't only just be paying bill with it.

Just if anyone's interested, is like to know people's thoughts/experiences with 12/12 from seed with photos?
I've been given that abit of thought aswell as the GLR.
I've got a lot of reg photo seeds sitting around I figured wouldn't hurt to use on a 12/12 from seed schedule.

Thanks for your stopping by giving input and support on the issues and ill treat you all with an update shortly

 

[PlanetJ]

Hey all been away due to no internet once again,
Good to see you here planet J and johnny and thanks for your input

Planet J I was actually thinking of doing what you mentioned but got abit lost with what I was doing so thanks for your little formula there ill have to give it a go at some stage soon mate, as for the GLR I think ill definately look into that in the future only reason I stayed away from it this time around was because I knew I was going to get an auto going. ...

What you do is this:

Take the wattage of every piece of equipment, multiply by the numbers of hours it runs a day, and write down.
Add this all up.
Convert number from watts to kilowatts (move decimal delimiter 3 positions left, round @ 2)
Multiply by kW/h cost and the result will be the cost per day.

You need to mind that in veg it will cost more .. you can just about ignore this with GLR, not with 18/6.
If you grow with a LED with 2 settings, you'll need to calculate both.

Winter I'm going to use a diy tealight heater I saw on the internet awhile ago which should help prevent us from having to turn heater on.

Only works if you live in a poststamp and is not more efficient then just burning tea-lights. I'm not sure how DIY you are .. research 'rocket mass heater' if you are the DIY type a guy It works very very well on nearly no resources. You can run it literally on stuff you pick up by the sides of a trail.

12/12 on photoperiod seedlings ? That would yield you a bud a plant I'd say ... no experience with it tho .. cant be good .. if that was a typo, and you meant auto's .. I have 0 experience with those. Sorry.

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Here's my UPDATE
Bloody skunk is in her 7th week and SC is into her 13th week and 9th day of flower.
SC hasn't stretch to much but definately vs and isn't showing any white hairs but she is showing definate female signs.
Bloody skunk is smelling lovely, her buds are real dense, some pistols are starting to to turn amber and most of her trichomes seem to be mostly clear still, so I think she might still have some time ahead of her, gave her another feed today, she was abit droopy so she needed a water and feed.
BS is so purple/red coloured its awesome especially on the under sides of leaves and almost all bud is purple can't wait to harvest.

Anyways time for some pics,
Here's SC

And BS
Whole plant

Main cola , and main cola through mag glass

And the main cola in normal light

 

[Sir Budlovski]

What you do is this:

Take the wattage of every piece of equipment, multiply by the numbers of hours it runs a day, and write down.
Add this all up.
Convert number from watts to kilowatts (move decimal delimiter 3 positions left, round @ 2)
Multiply by kW/h cost and the result will be the cost per day.

You need to mind that in veg it will cost more .. you can just about ignore this with GLR, not with 18/6.
If you grow with a LED with 2 settings, you'll need to calculate both.



Only works if you live in a poststamp and is not more efficient then just burning tea-lights. I'm not sure how DIY you are .. research 'rocket mass heater' if you are the DIY type a guy It works very very well on nearly no resources. You can run it literally on stuff you pick up by the sides of a trail.

12/12 on photoperiod seedlings ? That would yield you a bud a plant I'd say ... no experience with it tho .. cant be good .. if that was a typo, and you meant auto's .. I have 0 experience with those. Sorry.

Thanks again mate, that's exactly what I needed to know, that will help heaps.
My led only was the one setting so that's easier.

Yeah I had a feeling it would be a little dodgy, plus our house is quiet open so its not really worth it. So ill get on the research soon and look up that one you just brought up.end of the day I love winter and the cold and am happy to just rug up but ill take it as it comes, things will just be easier when I move from here and get into a house that has a proper heating system or fireplace and a house which I'm not suspicious on the electricity system.

Yeah I meant photos, I know what you mean I never thought it would work well have seen a few grows where people seem to have alright results which is strange, I'm not a fan of 12/12 on autos but I may have to on a couple at some stage since 18/6 is a mission on cost until I'm working anyways