Giovanni831 — Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

[Giovanni831]

Mendocino Lavender - 28 days flower...

Here are the last of my clones for a little while. Waiting on seeds from Singleseed. I got some "Church" from Greenhouse Seeds. We are headed into our wet season, so I want something that I am sure wont get mold or mildew..

I was going to put this into a larger pot eventually, but going to leave it here to see if these go all the way without any issues. If not it will go in the garbage. No sense in keeping a sickly plant for a mother.

 

[Giovanni831]

Great looking harvest!
The buds are mouth watering,thick/dense they apear...gorgeous!!!

Thank you. I can say that these are my best yet. They actually have really good flavor and is stoney as shit. The only problem is that they arent really strong smelling. Which is a problem with this strain because they arent strong smelling to start with. I am anxious to get to the next harvest. That shit stinks to high heaven at 4wks.

The other thing that I am stoked about is the way it burns. It burns so clean that the ashes arent even gray. They are white and fine like talcum powder. I think that I got a good system going. Not bad, three grows to get it down. =)

 

[HashAssassin]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

What was the total dry weight of the last harvest?

 

[Giovanni831]

What was the total dry weight of the last harvest?

Just over a half pound when all the way dry.

 

[Kotton Mouthe]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Gio,
where did u go man? hope all is good bro...

 

[HashAssassin]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Yeah, where are you? I just harvested 13+ oz.

 

[Giovanni831]

I am sincerely apologetic for my recent extended hiatus. I have been remodeling, learning, experimenting, and getting prepared to go back to school. Change of career path. Going from tech industry to UC Berkeley Ag program.

I will be back later in the week with pics from the last harvest as well as the one that is going down tomorrow or the next day.

 

[Kotton Mouthe]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Gio,
Glad to hear all is well man, Its cool you have found something u want to learn. I know how that goes. Excited for the pic update u mentioned. Are these gonna be the hindu kush or the OG's? hope we get some pics of grow room. Have a good one. Did u ever get your homemade trimmer finished?

 

[Sky Rocket]

Came very late to the party. Good stuff man.

 

[HashAssassin]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Can't wait to see the updates.u

 

[Giovanni831]

So, ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for my extended hiatus from the forum. I was preoccupied with learning to grow properly and work out all of the issues that I was having with nute lockouts, pests, PM, and pretty much any other issue that you could possibly come across while growing our favorite plant.

I think that I have established what the culprits were as far as the issues that I was having. First was that I was doing the DIY aeroFlo, and to be honest, I was having alot of issues with the roots. That method of growing necessitates close attention to the water temps. I reluctantly went back to the aero/dwc type home made systems. After the switch, I can say that it was a great choice. My roots got healthier. Additionally, I am not having the drastic fluctuations in PH, and EC/PPM.

Another thing that I did was to do a lot of research on nutrient uptake and basic plant biology. In the course of doing so I realized that another issue that I was having was with trying to use a mixture of nutes from different companies.

I was using the GH FloraDuo feeding schedule, but with the addition of Sugar Daddy, Protekt, Hygrozyme, and mycorrhizae (MykosWP). I had originally stopped using the Mykos as I felt it was unnecessary because I was using the Hygrozyme. BAD IDEA. The issue is that mycorrhizae is an essential part of soil growing and is one of the only beneficial bacteria that actually helps to establish an immune system for the plant. So needless to say I went and bought some more.

Another problem that I had was fungus gnats. I tried everything to get rid of the little bastards, but made it alot harder than it needed to be. I had originally threw some nemotodes in there to eat the gnats. After that I had a small issue with PM, so I put some Actinovate in there. I was not aware that the Actinovate kills nemotodes, so the gnats came back. I bought some goGnats and threw it in there. I think that it is a better idea to top feed that crap, because it gummed up my res. It also made the plants smell like cedar oil. Good thing is was 4 weeks from harvest, because it took me a week to flush that crap out. Word of advise... When using an oil based pesticides/fungicides in hydro, use them sparingly. I think it is a better idea to cut off your pumps, and top feed a little of the solution to coat the roots. Also do it prior to your flush, that way you can get out all the residual crap. Trust me, you dont want to fight with that crap.

I attribute most of this to the system that I was using. I believe that the pump was to low pressure for that method. Thus causing the fungus, gnat, and res temp issues. Since switching out the systems, I am dealing with way less pests, ph issues, and hot water. I only have to throw a frozen water bottle in there around noon (5 hrs into lights on) and another one about an hour before I put them to bed. Way better than before. It got to the point were I wasnt able to leave the house for more than a few hours, which is bullshit. Hydro shouldnt be that labor intensive.

Another problem that I rectified, was the use of SugarDaddy and MagiCal with the whole GH line. Tecnaflora doesnt use alot of actual sweeter in SugarDaddy. There is a tiny bit of cane sugar, but mostly it is Magnesium and Sulfer. Both of which are in higher numbers in the GH Dry Koolbloom. It was partially responsible for lockout. Another thing that helped lock everything out was a misdiagnosis of Ca deficiency. I was adding the max amount of MagiCal which lead to a Phosphorus and Potassium lockout. I switched to GO CaMg+ and have allieviated that issue. With the organics you dont run into lockout situations like you do with salt based nutes. I have returned to FlorNectar as a sweetener, but am anxiously waiting for GH to release the Raw and Coconut flavors. The only one that I have right now is the fruit infusion, which works okay with a purple strain. I will go get the PineappleRush for the upcoming Pineapple Chunk grow. I figured that was the only one that makes sense. Not too sure what to use with the Papaya, probably just raw. I also considered using the coconut for the Pineapple Chunk. Thought it might end up with a Pina Colada flavor, but Im still not sure how that will translate in terms of taste.

Yet, one more issue that I had was the fact that I ran out of PH up and was using Protekt to raise the PH. Silica is a major component in healthy plant development, but too much of it will lock EVERYTHING out. I was in excess of Si to the amount of 3 times the max recommended dosage. So suffice it to say that I went and bought so PHup.

I can say that with using the whole GH line I feel like a brand whore, but it works. I wasnt aware of how much emphasis GH puts into making sure that the nutes work in a synergistic way.

Since making these changes, which were halfway through a grow, I was able to bring my yeilds from avg .9 oz/ plant to about 1.3oz/plant. I will be chopping down the current girls in almost 2 weeks and am anxious to see what the results are. I realize that I was still working out problems in my oldest current grow, so I dont anticipate the numbers to be too much higher. I can say though, that this is the first one that I havent had to deal with premature browing of the pistils. They were all going brown about 3 weeks before harvest and then about a week before I would have new growth. This time they are actually staying white =).

So I wanted to let everyone know that I am back now. I am processing a few images of what I currently have going on. Since working out these issues I have eliminated lack of smell, lack of flavor, and oil production. Ph issues, and fungus. So again, I apologize for being MIA, but thought it was a good idea to figure out what I am doing before coming on here again. I was spending too much time asking others for advice, that was often utter bullshit, and more time figuring out how to make my girls happy.

I think the fact that I remodeled the room to allow for a 10x12 flower room, adding more ventilation, and buying a larger dehumidifier definately helped. I also double up to 12 plants since we went and got my girl and pops a card. Last thing I am trying to do is deal with someone knocking on the door to find me over the limits.

 

[Giovanni831]

So here are the images that were promised....

Mendocino Lavender #3(43days flowering)....

A night time shot, just because I think it looks pretty cool...

Here is what I thought was going to be the last of the Mendo Lav, but it looks as though I will have to do one more before the seedlings will be ready.

Here are the seedlings that Im talking about. The two on the left are Pineapple Chunk, and the two on the right are Papaya. I accidentally let the rockwool dry out on me last weekend. We had a family emergency and I was gone all day. I think only one of the Papaya suffered, so I am not too torn up about it. It looks like it will pull through anyway. I dropped them into this system on Sunday, and they look like they are okay. The ones I want are the PC. I tried some of it a few months ago, and loved it.

 

[Sky Rocket]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Looking good man. Glad you fixed your issues. With nutes I like to keep it simple. I'm a newbie myself so I listen to the ametueurs or pro; once you get a few grows under your belt then start experimenting with other nutes and additives to see if it makes a difference. Good luck man

 

[Kotton Mouthe]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Gio, man almost gave up on your thread, glad I didn't. Gladto aee you got your iasues worked out man. Plants are looking good my friend. wondering if you ever of your trimmer built. Well hope to see more post now u have everything unkinked.

 

[420]

Re: Giovanni831 – Aeroponic / CFL Constant Grows

Is this grow still alive?

If so, please update us with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read the photo gallery tutorial:
Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

I am moving this to abandoned journals until we get updates.

Thanks and hope all is well in your world!

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine!

 

[Giovanni831]

so I managed to neglect this thread long enough to get it moved to abandoned status. in the spirit of new found info and techniques, I will be beginning a new thread in the next few days. sorry about that boys and girls. in all fairness, I changed lighting so it wouldn't fall under cfl anymore anyway

 

[Greenie]

So Gio, did you stick with the GH line for all nutes? And what are your thoughts on the best lights .. what worked best for you? And what are you using for the "side lighting"?