Jozo-Sha's 4/20 Journal

[Jozo-sha]

What a perfect day to start a new journal!


- JZ

 

[Jozo-sha]

So plans are afoot for what I hope is a semi-perpetual grow, as now that I've delved into several methods and tried a few techniques, I'm pretty settled in for what I want to be the long haul. Here's where I'm at, and where I want to go. Mind you all, should you visit, I'm taking a new approach here, and not trying so much to entertain, but have a place for my notes and thoughts and (hopefully) elicit some feedback that will make growing even more fun and rewarding than it already is for me.

Where I'm at:

• The 'mother keeper' tent is compact, easy for me to setup/breakdown, even came with its own carrying bag! It's 22.5" x 51.5" x 48.5" (external dimensions), for a floor area of roughly 7.5 ft². I'm particularly fond of the clear plastic 'window' it has, for peering in on the girls without the hassles of unzipping the whole works.
• The 'Easy2Grow' wicking hydroponic system is so simple, any stoner could use it. Basically, attach water line to valve and reservoir, add media to pots, fill reservoir and done. I have 3 x 2-pot units, fed with a single 12.7 US gallon reservoir. The individual pots are 2.2 US gallons each.
• My media of choice is coco coir. I've used both the expanded Botanicare blocks as well as bagged Canna. I prefer the block myself, cheaper and easier to store. I can hydrate what I need, as I need. I still have a bag of Grodan Grow-Cubes, but I'm not so sure I'll even use them.
• Tried and true OC+ for my base nutrient. Fill my cupped hand with a tiny mountain of prills, mix it with 16 scoops of coir and everything is ready. Now that I've proved I can actually do this, I'll add Snow Storm Ultra once I start flowering, maybe some other things as time passes. Baby steps with nutes and adjuncts - too much of something can be a bad thing for our plants.
• I've used several different brands of LED Units, but for this particular part of the setup, I'm using two Advanced LED DS-200 units. Core coverage is advertised at 2.5' x 3' , so I should be easily pushing the 50W/ft² mark. The GSL-300 Pro-Bloom will become a mainstay in my clone/mom/germinating tent. The Brand-X LED I used in my previous grow has been donated to a patient who is learning to grow.

Where I wish to go:

• I need to build a semi-permanently mounted PVC scrog frame. I looked at SteveHMan's method, but was just wondering about some type of 'stops' to set the height of the frame above the tops of the Easy2Grow pots. I'm guessing 8" to 10" would suffice for my needs. My first frame was painstakingly assembled with very tiny eye screws for the masons line to run through. Not doing that bit of engineering this time, so I'm open to suggestions for the actual screen material as well.
• Mounting the LED units is stymieing me right now, mainly due to the limited vertical space in the tent and the stern warnings about bleaching the hell out of the plants. I'm envisioning 2" to 3" of headroom above the DS-200's, which leaves roughly 24" between the scrog and the units. I'm thinking this might not cut it.
• What cycle/method to use is of concern, given that I can't afford tons of veg time, both because I want a faster turnaround, but also due to space limitations. 12/12 from rooted clones is sounding appealing, but I'm not certain a screen would get filled sufficiently. I suppose that would be strain dependent as well. I will need to get another tent of some kind to make 'semi-perpetual' a reality.

I'm sure this is a far-from-complete list, but it's a work in progress. I've several strains to choose from, both in seed and clone source. Currently, I have a rooted cut of Orange Bud and Cali Kush, a fistful of auto-flowering Afghani beans(my last grow), and many others. The only guaranteed females I have are the rooted cuts. This is where a second tent will be useful, so I can cull out the guys and do clones - I only want females in the system, as un-entrenching a male from under a screen, and replacing the media could be a royal pain in the arse.

Enough blabbing for this night. Sleep well, fellow souls.




- JZ

 

[Evo-Rat-93]

 

[jimm14]

If you are limited on space search out a single cola strain, My friend gave my some clones of his ''White berry'' They will only stay around 1.5ft tall with single large cola untopped 7 weeks flowering time. Great for sog and you wouldn't need the screen. Having a screen inplace will hamper you making your grow perpetual.

Other then that good luck all seems ready to go!

 

[Jozo-sha]

If you are limited on space search out a single cola strain, My friend gave my some clones of his ''White berry'' They will only stay around 1.5ft tall with single large cola untopped 7 weeks flowering time. Great for sog and you wouldn't need the screen. Having a screen inplace will hamper you making your grow perpetual.

Other then that good luck all seems ready to go!

Thanks for your reply jimm! I really think a scrog will be the way to go for this tent and my hydro setup, as a single cola strain would limit me (roughly) to 6 colas, since I only have 6 pots for plants, right?

I still bounce around different ideas, and maybe it just ends up that I do 6 plants at a time, chop, rinse and repeat. Sure, longer time between chops, but I think I can pull much more meds from a scrog in my tent than not. And then I looked at the 2 liter bottles in my kitchen. And I wonder if I can cram 2 or 3 into the square holes in the top on my hydro unit (where the pots would go)..a wicking 2 liter SOG.....

Or a scrog screen that only covers 4 of the 6 pots so I'd have two for...errr...something.





- JZ

 

[Deege420]

you can always LST I love this type of training. creates crazy growth out of side shoots! take a look at mine. Id say get it to about the size of mine and let her flower! you would have many main colas and it will be a monster!!!

 

[Deege420]

you can always scrog the LST too!!

 

[Jozo-sha]

you can always LST I love this type of training. creates crazy growth out of side shoots! take a look at mine. Id say get it to about the size of mine and let her flower! you would have many main colas and it will be a monster!!!

you can always scrog the LST too!!

Yeah, now that I think about it, there's holes on the pots where one would place stakes for holding up plants, I could use those perhaps for LSTing (honestly, I'm terrified of that, but have 'supercropped' the girls that are flowering right now!). I'm only growing for myself (I've no patients except myself), so I have a 12 plant limit. 6 scrogged should keep me afloat!

Thanks for coming by, Evo-Rat! The more the merrier, I always say!

The clones that went from Aero to the coco/OC+ are having a bit of a transition, the orange bud is doing better than the cali kush; I also think I over watered 'em a bit. I don't know why, but I seem to have much better luck germinating from seed than cuts, with a slight edge to my own clones vs. acquired clones. I've got a boat load of seeds to choose from, even those wonderful auto-flowers that I bred (100+ seeds!). Maybe I'll do a bunch of runs of the auto afghani to dial in the system and tweak up any finishing adjuncts to the OC+( You know, like SSU, some Voodoo Juice, maybe a Dr. Earth's Bud and Bloom tea top watering, stuff to fatten up the flowers). They went from seed to chop in around 8 weeks - these were the tall phenotype that I crossed, so I'm sure the kids will be taller. The good thing was that they flowered up fast as hell, so I think they'd lend themselves to scrogging. Did I mention I have over 100 of these beans?

Say what you want about auto-flowers, they're here to stay, and if you do a periodic seed run, you'll never want for smoke. Plus no 12/12 hassles! Hmmmm...maybe I'll do that for a bit.





- JZ

 

[Deege420]

let me tell you something about LST. this is MY FIRST GROW and look at how it came out. its super easy and I can help you out with anything you need. the results happen SO FAST! just look at my journal for real. you might change your mind. Im def gonna LST a GOOD majority of my plants!

 

[Jozo-sha]

Reading it now friend! +reps

 

[HomeMedGrower]

Jozo, I'm subbed for this one.

I think that you can get the 200's closer with no problems of bleaching. The only place I would be concerned is where you would get the third off effect. I have my 200 A LOT closer right now to a flowering auto and have not seen any problems yet.

 

[SpiriTHC]

Awesome ! Lookin forward for the journal!
Subbed!

 

[Jozo-sha]

Jozo, I'm subbed for this one.

I think that you can get the 200's closer with no problems of bleaching. The only place I would be concerned is where you would get the third off effect. I have my 200 A LOT closer right now to a flowering auto and have not seen any problems yet.

Thanks for that HMG; that will make difference in configuring up things in the tent. I had a late night revelation about hanging those DS-200's... something about big 'S' hooks or something - more on that below...

Awesome ! Lookin forward for the journal!
Subbed!

Thank you for coming by, SpiriTHC! Like I said, this is going to be a place to really journal, and hopefully get some good feedback to improve my simple grow.

The mother keeper tent has 2 sets of parallel bars on the top (2 each running length and depth-wise) so I think I get get larger sized 'S' hooks, and run one hook through the brass mount (they look like the brass ones on this), and the other end over the support bar. I think this will really work - the top of the units will be about 1.5"-2" below the top of the tent and with relocating the 6" fan to the side of the tent, should get plenty of flow to keep the tent temps down.

More blathering from me later, as I'm at work right now.





- JZ

 

[Jozo-sha]

The project moves on, at a steady pace. Mostly waiting for the current occupants of the tent to finish flowering and get the hell out! I have two rooted clones, Orange Bud and Cali Kush, and since the Brazilian Amazonia was looking so sexy, I took a cut off her, too - that's in a rapid rooter (yeah, I used cloning gel), nested in a bed of coir, on top of a few OC+ prills and more coco..all in, yeah, a Red Solo Cup. I cut a 2 liter bottle in half, rinsed well, left cap on. A KISS humidity dome.

Added some 'Voodoo Juice' to my reservoir - looks like 98% water and a boatload of soil organisms. Confirmed coco safe! I may drop in some Snowstorm Ultra now that they're in full flower now. As I said, no journal on them girls, just the odd progress report, as they're hindering my scrog setup.

Pulling more RODI tonight; the bigger plants sure can drink it up.





- JZ

 

[jimm14]

I keep 1-3 plants per pot and use a combo of topping and lst, you can get as many tops as you want, I dont like the screens because once it's grown in. It's there for good. no moving or swaping plants round. unless you have a screen per pot

you dont need to snap the plant just bend it over and tie it down, all the side shoots will grow faster then the top, even better when topped and make into a candelabra looking plant. if it's tied to the pot you can move it easy to. I use foam covered plant ties hooked under the pot.

 

[Jozo-sha]

As the saying goes, '..to each, his own.' I'm just cruising how I feel, and scrog is how I feel.





- JZ

 

[GrowGSL]

Wish ya the best!

 

[HomeMedGrower]

Hey JZ, how's things going?

 

[Jozo-sha]

Things are looking fine. I'll upload some photos tomorrow or so; the Amazonia is about 3 weeks out from a chop, the blackwater isn't - really straggly for some reason. The orange bud and cali kush cuts are now full blown girls, and are now in the tent.

I replaced the GS300 with a pair of DS200's, added a 4" inline fan and carbon filter, as the neighbors reported 'cat-piss'

Like I said, I'll throw up some pix in a day or three.





- JZ

 

[MissBud]

Very happy that I caught this one at a good time!


Your work just gets better and better JZ, I am very excited to see this unfold!! =)

I hope everything is going great with your health and family