GG7's Indoor/Outdoor Grows!

[Goldengoose7]

Hi gang!

I used the word "Grows" in my journal's title because I have several different strains growing at the same time, with all of them at various stages of development. One is just wrapping up, another has just been put under 12/12, a crop of seedlings just barely out of diapers is in the Veg Room and a few assorted clones are quickly nearing outdoor deployment.

This time of year, I split my growing locations between indoors and outdoors. The flowering is all done inside in my permanent "Bloom Room", but the vegging is split between my closet veg room and our back deck. I live up in the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains, so the climate is just perfect for growing excellent cannabis during our lovely but SHORT growing season. The threat of frost lingers into late May/early June and often returns in late September, so I try to take advantage of the sunny and HOT mountain spring/summer while it lasts!

We also grow a host of food crops in the back yard ranging from Tomatoes to Jalapeno Peppers. During the winter my grow rooms will often be a host to not only cannabis, but overwintering mother plants for these food crops as well.

I guess the best way to get things started would be to give you a tour of the grow rooms and the gear I use in them!

Lets start with what I like to call my "Bloom Room". This room is basically a guest bathroom converted into a permanent 12/12 flowering room consisting of two light stations that can handle up to four 30" to 50" tall plants at once or over half a dozen smaller ones. I usually focus on two to four larger plants at a time under the main station and leave the second smaller station for sexing seedlings and stuff like that. I grow for only myself, so my production is on a very small scale, but it works great for me!

The primary light station is in the bathtub/shower and consists of a 20,000 lumen Hydrofarm Designer Series 4' x 4 Tube T5 fixture with Plantmax 2700k bloom bulbs. Having the plants in the tub makes watering a snap! We have a filter screen in the drain to prevent dirt from clogging up the plumbing!

Also at this station is a 8000 lumen side-fill composed of a Sun Systems 125/250 watt CFL fixture with a Feliz 125 watt - 2700k CFL Bloom Bulb.

Here is a shot of the main station with the Sun Systems side-fill out of the way. On the rim of the tub we have yet another side fill in the form of a four foot single tube Hydrofarm T5 fixture taken from a Jump-Start kit and fitted with another Plantmax 2700k bloom bulb. In the tub are our Purple Urkle clones that just went into the Bloom Room yesterday for their 8 week metamorphosis!

To the right of the tub we have our second light station composed of a Hydrofarm Designer Series 2 foot x 4 Tube T5 fixture with two 6500k bulbs and two 2700k bulbs. We use this station for sexing seed raised plants or to begin flowering a new plant a few weeks before the tub becomes available. It can get a bit tight in here when everything is in use, but such is life when you have limited indoor grow space! You gotta use what you have as efficiently as possible!

For timers I use the Intermatic "IM620CL 15 Amp Digital Appliance Timer" with 2 grounded plugs per timer. These things are great for running lights, fans or anything electrical in quantity. Because these are designed to run washing machines, air conditioners and the like, they don't even break a sweat running large daisy chains of T5 grow lights and fans. I use one timer for all the lights in this room and another to run the three Holmes brand 9" clip-on fans we use for air circulation. The light timer is of course set to 12/12 and the fan timer is running in the unit's convenient RANDOM mode which brings the fans on and off randomly throughout the day and night. Kind of like nature does with the wind!

For access to the room after lights out, I have a green CFL fitted to the bathroom's overhead light fixture which allows me to see in the dark without effecting the flowering plants.

So... That is the Bloom Room! In my next post I will give you a quick tour of my indoor Seedling&Clone room, including our brand new TurboKlone T48 clone machine.

Stay tuned!

 

[THsea]

You know I'm staying tuned!

I love the tub situation! That's the single best idea for taking care of run off!

We gotta talk lights in PM's in about a month or so... You're using what I want to use! T5's baby!

 

[Goldengoose7]

You know I'm staying tuned!

I love the tub situation! That's the single best idea for taking care of run off!

We gotta talk lights in PM's in about a month or so... You're using what I want to use! T5's baby!

Cool! Thanks man! Glad you like the journal so far!

The tub definitely makes a GREAT grow location if you have a bathroom to spare. I just realized that I need to take a shot of the 4x6 I am using above the tub to hold the Pro-Grips light hangers that suspend the T5 fixture above the plants! Will do that tomorrow when the lights are back on in there.

No problem on chatting about the lights when you are ready. I don't have the space or the $$ for the high output high heat producing grow lights some guys can use, so thank God for T5s! If it were not for those, I wouldn't be able to do this inside!

I'll post my next installment tomorrow!

Thanks again for checking in!

 

[Goldengoose7]

PART II: The Veg/Grow Room

Now we move on to the other indoor growing area of the house.

This grow room is housed in a converted bedroom closet with sliding mirrored doors. The space measures 9 feet long by just over 2 feet deep. The main light station is composed of a 4 foot x 6 tube Hydrofarm Designer Series T5 fixture with 6500k blue grow lights. The fixture is suspended from a shelf using Pro-Grip hangers. We are currently tending some recently germinated seedlings and newly acquired clones, so the fixture is positioned very close to the floor of the closet right now. The fixture can be raised or lowered as needed with enough range to accommodate full grown mother plants of up to 65" tall.

All the various growing pots are housed in common aluminum broiler trays containing 1-3 common kitchen sponges to soak up the run-off from watering. This simple system works very well.

To the right of the main light station we have a second light station composed of a Hydrofarm 125/250 watt CFL fixture with a 125 watt 6500k grow bulb. Below that is our latest piece of growing equipment... A Turbo Klone 48 site cloning machine.

Maintaining a consistent water temperature of 72 degrees F is crucial for successful rooting with a cloner and monitoring this temperature is very important. Since we didn't want to be forced to shut down and open up the unit all the time to check the water temp, we used a spare Polder remote oven temperature probe kit with the temp sensor installed inside the T48's water reservoir. This gives us a constant realtime readout of the water temp inside the cloner while the machine is running, with no need to open the cloner up to check the temp!

The waterproof sensor is held in place with two plastic closepins epoxied to the side of the tub. The back end of the sensor was wrapped in electrical tape and duct tape to provide a better grip for the close pins. The temp sensor cable is then routed out of the unit along the same molded channel as the water pump's power cord and then plugged into the digital temperature display base. The base is then placed on the top of the CFL fixture using its magnetic base.

This Polder temp probe model comes equipped with a temperature alert feature that allows you to set a specific temperature which if met or surpassed will trigger a loud audible alarm that will continue until the user turns it off. We have our alert set between 73 and 74 degrees depending on the ambient room temp of the closet grow room. This water temp is just outside of the optimum rooting temperature for cannabis cuttings.

When the cloner is not in use, it doubles as a stand for handling the overflow of the main light station, or for older/younger plants that are the wrong height for the current position of the 4 x 6 T5 fixture.

As with the Bloom Room, we use several Intermatic IM DT620CL Appliance Timers to run the lights and the ventilation fans.

The lights are on a 18/6 schedule and the fans are running in Random mode throughout the day and night.

So... that completes our tour of the Veg/Grow Room. The next section will focus on the various strains we are currently growing.

Hope you will check back often to see what we are up to!

 

[Goldengoose7]

PART III: Our various strains from indoors to outdoors

As I said in my introduction, during the summer months, I try to get my plants outside as quickly as possible to take advantage of the clean mountain air and strong high altitude sunlight. Here are some photos of the various strains we have going on starting inside and then moving outside...

Blueberry Clones:


These two Blueberry clones were purchased from our local collective the last week of April when they were just over 4 inches tall. Here they are five weeks later just about to go outside as the last threat of frost passed.

Outside at weeks 7 and 8 and now living in their permanent 5 gallon pots!

Plant #2 was topped about a week before this photo was taken.

More outdoor shots of the two original Blueberry clones taken last week.

Plant #2's growing tip under humidity dome taken today.

The top is just now starting to root so the humidity dome can be removed for several hours each day without the plant wilting too badly. It is a lot tougher to root a large cutting like this, but it can be done if you are careful and patient. This was the last cutting we did before the arrival of the Turbo Klone T48.

The plan is to take half a dozen cuttings from the untopped Plant #1 and run them through the T48. Plant #2 is destined for the Bloom Room in the second light station once the plant hits 30" tall. They are currently at 17" so it will be a few more weeks yet. The Blueberry strain grows a lot slower vertically than some of the other strains we grow such as Purple Urkle and Blue Cheese, but the plants are VERY thick and bushy which is great for taking cuttings.

Stay tuned for more photos of our other strains soon!

 

[THsea]

You know, I remember hearing that Blueberry grows kind of slow too.. If you check out the OldMedMan's grow, he must have a really special phenotype, cause that sucker is HUGE! The closest plant in his grow is a Frisian Dew, and it is about 6" shorter I think he said... Then again, his are from seed. Maybe clones grow slower?

Great post! I love all the pictures!

 

[papatater]

Great lookin plants and grow sure wanna see them gals get big under that cali sun hope you dont mind me taggin along

 

[Goldengoose7]

Great lookin plants and grow sure wanna see them gals get big under that cali sun hope you dont mind me taggin along

Thanks Papa! Got lots going on with plants at all different stages. Just put my two oldest Northern Lights seedlings out back! Posting a page on them right after this!

 

[Goldengoose7]

Northern Lights

Ah yes! The strain developed by those botanical wizards at The University of Washington in Seattle. A friend of mine scored a bud of this stuff a few years ago after I had screwed up my knee. This was the first time that I noticed how good of a pain killer Cannabis Indica was! Almost as good as my prescription pain killers! After I got my doctor's Cannabis recommendation and signed up with the local collective, Northern Lights was a strain I would always asked about, but one that they were never able to bring in. So, a few months ago I decided to order some seeds off the web.

I ordered twelve Northern Lights seeds and twelve White Rhino seeds from one of the more well known Dutch seed stores. Unfortunately, when I planted them a few weeks ago, only a few ever germinated. None of the White Rhino seeds ever germinated and of the NL seeds that did sprout over half of them were deformed in some way. I suspect that the seeds passed through an X-Ray scanner or Microwave beam somewhere along their long journey from Holland. That radiation either killed them outright, or screwed up their DNA enough to cause mutations.. The online source I purchased these from was kind enough to give me a full refund.

I kept tending to the sprouts that looked normal or close to normal and picked out all but two of the deformed ones. I figured I would keep these two alive to see what kind of bizzare forms they assume as they grow older.

Check these things out!

A few fortunate seeds managed to avoid whatever Death Ray befell their siblings and those are growing into nice looking plants!

The survivors:

I've got a couple more that were much later to geminate even though all these seeds were planted at the same time. You have to wonder if we are going to see any females come out of this little experiment. I'm not getting my hopes up, but since I basically got these for free, I am willing to raise them up to the point we can find out.

 

[Goldengoose7]

You know, I remember hearing that Blueberry grows kind of slow too.. If you check out the OldMedMan's grow, he must have a really special phenotype, cause that sucker is HUGE! The closest plant in his grow is a Frisian Dew, and it is about 6" shorter I think he said... Then again, his are from seed. Maybe clones grow slower?

Great post! I love all the pictures!

Cool! Glad you are enjoying the "Picture Show". I've never really spent much time photographing my grows before, so having this site as a vehicle for some visual documentation of my work is turning out to be a lot of fun!

Oh! And thanks for the lead TH! I will head over and check out his grow after I post this. I would agree with your supposition that clones are slower growers than seeds. Until recently I have done very little with clones mainly due to how dismal my success rates were with my own attempts. I'm optimistic that the T48 will turn that around this season! I definitely have a lot of strains here that I would love to propagate through the winter and into next season!

Since I have always grown a lot of different strains at the same time, it never ceases to amaze me how different each strain is compared to another. I don't think I have ever seen a plant species with such diversity in all aspects, from physical appearance to flower type, to the speed at which the various strains grow over the course of a few months.

 

[THsea]

I bet you will like OMM's thread, he is a really nice guy. Taught me everything I know about growing! Even introduced me to this wonderful site!

 

[Goldengoose7]

I bet you will like OMM's thread, he is a really nice guy. Taught me everything I know about growing! Even introduced me to this wonderful site!

Definitely! He had a lot of good and useful info over there!

Here are a few more photos of the Northern Lights seedlings as they all got moved outside today to veg until it is time to sex them in the Bloom Room!

Second to last sprout of the seeds that were planted over 14 days ago. All these photos were taken today. 06/21/11

Oldest seedling

Second oldest seedling

Third oldest seedling

 

[Goldengoose7]

Blueberry Top Cutting Goes Into Soil

Transplanted the Blueberry Growing Tip from original Plant #2 into soil today. Decided to go with a conventional 1 gallon nursery pot as opposed to one of the 6" peat pots. Starting to have second thoughts about using those for the midsize soil containers because they break down too easily when watered daily.

Blueberry Growing Tip planted into 1 gallon conventional soil container 6/22/11

This top cutting appears to have enough root development now that it no longer requires a humidity dome. Having soil surrounding the Rockwool cube should cut down on the need to hydrate the foilage with a spray bottle. Outside temp today is approaching 90 degree F, so this will be a good test! Keeping this and the four second generation Purple Urkle clones out of direct sunlight until they adjust to outdoor living.

Everything from the Clone/Veg Room has been moved outdoors now. Cleaned up the grow room and turned off the lights for now. Will continue to bring the GDP clones back in under the lights at night for another week or so until they get big enough for transplanting into 5 gallon soil containers. At that time, they will remain outdoors until the end of summer.

Four Second Generation Urkle Clones Moved Outside Too

1 TBSP of Epsom Salts added to 1 gallon of water seems to be helping with the leaf yellowing. Looks like a magnesium deficiency was the culprit!

 

[papatater]

Plants are really lookin good cant wait to see how big that blueberry gets that's gonna be next on my list sounds like your only going to have a few months to veg then you bring them in the house to flower i bet you check them over with a fine tooth comb don't want to bring any bugs inside this sounds like a fun grow thxs for sharing it with us

 

[Goldengoose7]

Plants are really lookin good cant wait to see how big that blueberry gets that's gonna be next on my list sounds like your only going to have a few months to veg then you bring them in the house to flower i bet you check them over with a fine tooth comb don't want to bring any bugs inside this sounds like a fun grow thxs for sharing it with us

You're welcome Papa!

Actually, I wil be putting one of the two Blueberry plants into the Bloom Room within the next week to 10 days. For flowering here I basically go by the height of the plant more than veg time. When the plant reaches 36 inches total from the bottom of the pot to the top of the plant, I have to put them under 12/12. Since they still grow in height for another week or so after they get under the bloom lights, I try to get them to level off at around 40 to 50 inches tall from ground to tip.

The Purple Urkles are really going to town in the Bloom Room! Still growing in height a bit but seriously branching OUT horizontally. So much so that today I decided to swap my two 4 foot fixtures around and put the wider 6 tube panel over the tub in the Bloom Room and move the 4 tube panel into my closet veg room area. I figured that since all the clones and seedlings are now outside, I could use the 6 tube for flowering a lot more.

Fortunately I had some extra 3000k tubes so that I can have all bloom bulbs in the 6 tube fixture. I have thought about doing this for awhile, but I needed to wait until I had all the veg plants out and nothing serious going on with the plants under the 12/12.

To fill things out a bit in the Bloom Room I also ordered some 40 watt CFL bulbs and four of those clamp on shop lights with the metal reflectors that I can clamp to the T5 panel edges and fill a little more to the lower branches that may start extending beyond the coverage of the T5 panels.

I'll post some photos of that new stuff next week when the bulbs and fixtures arrive. I got 6 bulbs that put out 2600 lumens a piece and four clamp on fixtures for $80.00 delivered.

 

[papatater]

Sounds like a plan i bet them purple urkle are gonna stretch they will be full of buds that blueberry to cant wait to see them filled out

 

[Goldengoose7]

Sounds like a plan i bet them purple urkle are gonna stretch they will be full of buds that blueberry to cant wait to see them filled out

Stretch is right Papatater!

I just took a closer look at the situation in the Bloom Room and measured the plants again...

GULP! It is starting to look like they are going to "stretch" a little more than I had anticipated. These are my first Urkles, so without any previous experience with this strain, I didn't realize how VERTICAL these things can start heading! I've only got about 7 inches of rope left on my Pro-Grips before my T5 panel is as high as it goes!

Wondering what would be the best thing to do if they start touching the lights? Top them, tie them down? I'm definitely open to suggestions.

I've settled on a week from today to start my first cloning session with the T48, so I could take the tops off them and add them to the cloner along with the Blueberry cuttings. What do you guys think?

Decisions, Decisions.

 

[THsea]

I think you can super-crop them. I think that is what OMM told me he would do if his plants got to close to the lights. Here is a thread on it.
What is Supercropping?

It kind of looks like it is done on vegetative plants... However, I've witnessed some plants that broke under their own weight in flower like this, and once tied they grew laterally and the "break" healed.

 

[Goldengoose7]

I think you can super-crop them. I think that is what OMM told me he would do if his plants got to close to the lights. Here is a thread on it.
What is Supercropping?

It kind of looks like it is done on vegetative plants... However, I've witnessed some plants that broke under their own weight in flower like this, and once tied they grew laterally and the "break" healed.

Thanks for the suggestion and that link! I much prefer plants that grow OUT more than UP! In the case of these Urkles, they seem to be doing BOTH but the main stem is a bit on the thin side and the overall appearance of the plants are not as stout as I usually prefer. They look more like males than females to me right now.

The Blueberry clones are looking better and better to me in comparison. I think a better plan will be to flower BOTH Blueberry clones in the tub under the main light station and use the recently rooted top cutting as the eventual Blueberry mother plant later.

UPDATE:

I have pulled the Urkles out and topped both of them. Kept the tops, did the whole cloning routine on them and will keep them in Rockwool until next week when I fire up the Turbo Klone for my Blueberry cloning session. Will put these two Urkle tops in there too and see how they do. They are a lot larger than your typical cutting, but the Blueberry top finally rooted without the benefit of a cloning machine, so I am optimistic.

I decided to cut back the Urkle plants considerably from where they were in the most recent photos. Like I said, they were just getting way too willowy to suit my taste and I was getting increasingly concerned that they would not be able to support the weight of the buds on such wimpy, THIN branches. Hopefully, they will grow back out a bit more stout than before and if not, I can just use them for mother plants and just focus on flowering the clones I have already taken from them a few weeks ago. Those will be ready for the Bloom Room in about 3 weeks or so, give or take.

Any suggestions going forward on how to get a Cannabis plant that tends towards a tall and wispy physique to take on more of a short bushy look? Is the "Supercrop" method the only way to go?

Thanks again for your input TH and I welcome any additional input and suggestions in the meantime!

Cheers.

 

[THsea]

Glad to help buddy! Supercropping isn't your only option.. There are two other techniques I believe.. called LST (low stress training) and of course topping ("fim"ing).. Though I think topping is supposed to be for vegetative state?? I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir on those techniques though!

The only other thing I can think of is... Well, my buddy the OldMedMan uses it... I think its called Bushmaster...? It's a chemical to stop vertical growth. Makes the plants "bush out". From what I have read it can be a little hard on your plants... However, if the OMM uses it without trouble, it must be pretty good...

Oh, and about your plants with thin stems.. If I remember correctly, there is another thing the OMM uses (all my information comes from him! ) Silica Blast.. There are other companies that make Silica supplements, but the main point of me mentioning this is that its supposed to help with making more robust stems.

If you want more specific information on feeding cycles, I wouldn't mind asking OMM for you... Or you can always send him a PM now that your over 50 posts! Or just post in his thread. He's one cool old dude.