Gas Tank Hank
Active Member
Gas Tank Hank here. I’ve been growing for about 3 years, all legal. Started with a Blueberry clone that i got at a clone giveaway. Cloned and grew the strain for the first 2.5 years, trying to learn and improve on it. Wasn’t achieving the desired smell/taste/potency but had great looking plants. Turns out genetics play a hell of a role. Got some random feminized OG Kush and Jack Herer seeds from a buddy, grew em out once, and they reeked, especially the OG. Tossed the vegging Blueberry after that, sorry Blues.
During the next OG and Jack veg, I had a mold issue on the last remaining outdoor Blueberry, tried to salvage some buds, and ended up molding all my indoor plants in the process. Damn you Blues, guess she got the last laugh. Tossed all 3 plants, and was pissed. Threw both of my tents away, just didn’t want to risk mold comin back. Took a year off from growing, but here we are.
On to this grow, I popped my last two OG Kush and one of me last Jack Herer seeds. I also found a seed in a recent batch of outrageously dank Blueberry Chemdawg (no relation to my Blue) with strong chem smells. This is my first bagseed grow, I’ll refer to her as Chemberry. If she grows up to be anything like her ma, she may dethrone OG and become the dankest plant in the tent. I’m a Chem guy, all my favorite stains are all Chem related: Chemdawg, OG Kush, and Sour Diesel. I’ll get a Sour D goin someday.
Anyways, the grow isn’t going exactly as planned. I was planning on doing a side by side OG Kush grow with soil in one, coco the other, but the OG in coco turned out to be a mutant, ended up growing an attached double fan leaf off the first set which prevented any new growth. Then I came across a few Chemberry bagseeds, and couldn’t help but pop one. I gave the mutant a shot, but after two weeks it became clear she couldn’t produce any new growth, so I pulled her and put in one of my two Jack Herers. Plants are all about 1.5-2 weeks apart now, not ideal, but whatever.
The Setup/Regiment:
Enclosures:
During the next OG and Jack veg, I had a mold issue on the last remaining outdoor Blueberry, tried to salvage some buds, and ended up molding all my indoor plants in the process. Damn you Blues, guess she got the last laugh. Tossed all 3 plants, and was pissed. Threw both of my tents away, just didn’t want to risk mold comin back. Took a year off from growing, but here we are.
On to this grow, I popped my last two OG Kush and one of me last Jack Herer seeds. I also found a seed in a recent batch of outrageously dank Blueberry Chemdawg (no relation to my Blue) with strong chem smells. This is my first bagseed grow, I’ll refer to her as Chemberry. If she grows up to be anything like her ma, she may dethrone OG and become the dankest plant in the tent. I’m a Chem guy, all my favorite stains are all Chem related: Chemdawg, OG Kush, and Sour Diesel. I’ll get a Sour D goin someday.
Anyways, the grow isn’t going exactly as planned. I was planning on doing a side by side OG Kush grow with soil in one, coco the other, but the OG in coco turned out to be a mutant, ended up growing an attached double fan leaf off the first set which prevented any new growth. Then I came across a few Chemberry bagseeds, and couldn’t help but pop one. I gave the mutant a shot, but after two weeks it became clear she couldn’t produce any new growth, so I pulled her and put in one of my two Jack Herers. Plants are all about 1.5-2 weeks apart now, not ideal, but whatever.
The Setup/Regiment:
Enclosures:
- Clone/Seedling/Early Veg Tent: 12”x24”x53” (2 in 1 tent)
- Veg/Early Flower Tent: 24”x24”x53” (same 2 in 1 tent)
- Flower Tent: 20”x36”x63”
- Clone/Seedling: 32W Agrosun
- Veg: 600W LED at half strength (veg switch - blue and whites only)
- Flower: 600W LED at full strength, somethin like 275W actual (may upgrade to 315W CHM soon)
- I run my clone/seed lights at about 4-6” to reduce stretch, and have had good results
- I start LEDs when seedlings get 1-2 real leaves, start light at about 36” and bring em down to 12-15” slowly (usually have em there by 2 weeks after they first go under)
- 4” 190 CFM Fan hooked up to 4” ducting, w/ duct splitter that connects the exhaust fan to both tents
- Run that baby all day long
- Exhaust fan always runs out the ceiling
- I leave one tent hole open in the bottom back of the tent, and it gives plenty fresh air, no need for intake fan for tents these small.
- I may add a small circulating fan to each tent, but i think they are getting plenty
- OG Kush: Fox Farms Ocean Forest 60% x Green Tree Premium Coco 40%
- Chemberry: CannaCoco 70% x Perlite 30%
- Jack Herer: Fox Farms Ocean Forest 100%
- Tap water all day. My tap runs at about 175ppm w/ a PH of 7.5
- I PH to 6.5 for soil and 5.8-6.2 for coco. I’m new to Coco, but am having better results at 6.2 than the recommended 5.8.
- I find that nutrients typically lower PH. If they don’t lower enough, or lower too much, i adjust w/ GH PH up/down. I use PH down on plain tap
- I don’t do anything special with my water, i figure my garden hose has kept many gardens happy over the years w/ tap
- When starting out I was using Botaincare Pure Blend Pro line, and had great results, although i burned em pretty good the first few times - learned the hard way, in soil, i truly believe less is better. Not sure id say that for Coco.
- I switched to Advanced Nutrients Sensi A & B, and honestly had the same great results, I couldn’t tell a difference in taste, smell, size.......it was all the same. I was so convinced that if I dialed everything perfect than the Blueberry would all of a sudden become dank, I think a plant can only get danker through breeding. The plant, for the most part, is gonna taste like the one it was cloned from.
- I’ve recently gotten my hands on the GH Flora series, I’ve heard nothing but great things and can’t wait to experiment.
- Other than the potential lighting change, this remains the only open ended part of the journal, not sure which ones to use. To be honest, I really don’t think it matters. But like the many on this forum, i love to nerd out on the nutrients. I’d say that any Cannabis specific base nutrients with NPK and a sufficient micro nutrient mix at the correct ratio, PH and PPM will produce beautiful, healthy, plants. I haven’t explored into non-Cannabis specific nutrients
- I use veg base nutes for veg and flower base nutes for flower. I use bloom boosters, i dont know how effective they are, but I’ve used em for every grow with great results, who knows, maybe I’m just throwing money away. In the past I’ve used Botaincare Hydroplex and Advanced Nutrients Big Bud, had great results with each. I’ve got Liquid Karma too, idk if it does anything, but I’ve heard good things and have used it for a while. I add like 100-150ppm to my plain tap water bottle for most waters.
- I typically switch from veg to bloom nutes 1-2 weeks before flower (if i’m even feeding at that point)
- Soil: i run 6.5 PH’d tap to start and don’t add nutrients until I see the bottom leaves start to fade to a lighter shade of green, or if i see some dark spots, or any deficiencies on foliage. I find that the Ocean Forest will give ya a good 3-4 weeks minimum every transplant (with a big transplant before flower, i bet you could get away with no nutes in it, although it may leave high Nitrogen levels during late flowering). The stuff is hot, it reads from like 1,600-2,500ppm out the gate, but has never burned a clone or seedling of mine. When i start nutes, I start low, like 500ppm, then add from there if I don’t see results. It takes at least 3-4 days to see any meaningful turnarounds in most cases, sometimes i’ve seen fairly instantaneous turnarounds, so far its happened for nitrogen deficient, and rootbound plants. I use veg base nutes for veg and flower base nutes for flower. I typically don’t go to high in PPM during veg, maybe like 500-750ppm. I get up to like 1,500ppm max for flower, but that will burn a good amount of strains, i just increase slowly every week until they show the slightest tip burn, then back the hell off and give plain water the next few times. I follow the manufacturer recommended ratios, but don’t follow amounts, i use my PPM meter for that. Base nutes, liquid karma, and tap make up all my PPM for veg and the majority of my PPM in flower, w/ extra 150-300 PPM in bloom boosters.
- For Coco, I’m learning as I go. I tried the recommended 0ppm for first two weeks, but had to feed after the plant showed obvious deficiencies. I tried 250ppm and it did nothing, I upped to 550ppm and it fixed it. Coco is not soil folks. Next time I’m preloading it with 500ppm base veg nutes. I find that the coco wants to maintain a consistent environment, and it eats the nutes as they come, so gotta keep feedin the same thing to assure what is eaten is resupplied at the correct ratios. They go pale quick.
- Soil: wait until it’s dry, about a knuckle length before watering. I rarely ever use nutes two waterings in a row. I water until runoff. I’ve overwatered, and I’ve let em get so damn dry all the leaves wilt completely down. I find that they react quickly to water, leaves show response within the hour. A completely wilted plant will stand strong an hour or so after watering. I’ve even let seedlings and baby rooted clones get bone dry for a few days by accident, all survived and did fine.
- Coco: was having some trouble, better now, but still cautious. I started the waterings just like soil. Now I’m up to every day. Accidentally over saturated her, the coco doesn’t dry too quick, need her a little bigger. Trying different things, right now doing light waterings every day, then every 2-4 days i water until runoff to rebalance nutes, kinda like a rez change in hydro. I want to water to runoff every time, but I don’t have big enough roots, seems like it’s the best way to maintain consistent root environment.
- 4” Clay start
- Transplant to 1 gallon cloth when the plant looks about the same size as the pot.
- Finish in 3 or 5 gallon cloth, transplant at flip to 12-12
- Soil: never had luck with runoff readings or trusted them, after running Coco I’m beginning to trust them. Soil always comes out high to me, often higher than input waterings, even when the plant shows deficiencies. One of the hardest things about soil for me, a thing that makes it less scientific, and is mainly the reason I’m trying coco, is that it’s real hard in soil to dial ratios and understand what the plant is actually eating. I’ve had deficiencies for certain things while gettin burns for others, with extremely high runoff PPM readings. It can be confusing and frustrating as all hell. My PPMs high, the plants eating something, idk what.
- Coco: it ran at like 180 PPM, crazy. I add nutes, PH goes up, and runoff PPM goes down. I was kinda skeptical of runoff readings until this. Every time i water until runoff i know i’m effectively performing the equivalent of a res change, i may not know exactly what ratios the plant eats at, but i know there is consistency in what is available for the plant’s roots, and I know I’m responsible for all the nutes, so no chance of the plant eating through something it really likes and running out.
- Veg 18-6 until clone and flip to flower, looks like about 35 days from seed breaking ground. Shorter veg than usual because my flower tent’s empty, got nothing to wait on.
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