The reason for this journal's name is because anything I do in here with any degree of success is because of the awesome growers who have done the hard work before me: Irish Boy, SS, DocBud, VerdantGreen, Rumpleforeskin and others whose grows I've followed and learned from -- as Isaac Newton stated: "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.". You guys are my giants.
I thank you all from the bottom of heart for helping all those who ask here, and for being an inspiration to us novices.
My previous grows have been with DWC, using LED lighting units from "her", but after seeing the magnificent yields of GLH, Irish Boy and others, I purchased two of the new Spectra LED 300's from Michael. those will be used to light my 3' x 5' x 7' tent, while I use an old 126w HGL unit for maintaining a mom or two and for rooting clones and/or popping beans.
I scored a nice block of coco from a pal of mine, and I've spent the last few weeks hydrating it and rinsing it by putting it in my 3 gallon hempy buckets, and slow flowing softened tap water through it all, periodically checking the color of the effluent in a small tumbler (the larger tumblers were being used for Sailor Jerry and Dr. Pepper!).
I also have a couple of other types of coco yet to fart around with, blocks from Botanicare and then the coco "Boss" (I think also from Botanicare) self-contained 1 gallon plastic things. For this grow, I'm going to use 4-8 rooted clones from my mom SAGE (*story on her health and recent clone developments below*), and some beans I have ordered from The Attitude:
Those, plus the freebies (Blue Widow, Super Skunk, PE and Cali Hash Plant) and 3 bagseed beans I have from some very nice middies should provide plenty of variety and future breeding stock! This grow is about experimentation and learning; I've done nothing but hydro and LEDs in all my grows, so that's nothing new -- just going from DWC to Hempy/Coco and new LED units will be the big changes.
I prepared my coco by slow rinsing it in 3 gallon buckets (hempy drilled) in the laundry room sink with softened water, and also cycling some in a hydrofarm drip ring unit with RO/DI from the store. After it was running off fairly clear, I drained it pretty thoroughly and the mixed it in a 3:1 ratio with perlite. This will be mixed with OC+, 28 gm. to each gallon of coco.
I have 3 x one gallon mini totes and 2 x 3 gallon buckets all pre-drilled and ready for the media -- I might try growing one cutting in the recirculating drip hydrofarm using just coco and Flora Nova Grow/Bloom, just for giggles. I know my days of DWC are past, and if the hempy/coco/OC+ method produces quality meds for myself an my patients, I'm satisfied.
I will be watering with RO/DI from my local store, and adding CaMg+ to that at the rate of 5ml/gal. As you can see, I've taking all my ideas from the grows from "The Giants" before me!
Now the subplot - my poor SAGE mom: I've neglected the hell out of her, barely topped off her water/nutes, pruned her aggressively and done all the things one *shouldn't* do to a mom. The clones I've all snipped from her have died, for a tiny bit of neglect on my part. The inner lip of the Botanicare cloner top had algae growing in it, contributing to all my clones getting rot on the stems. I spent all afternoon cleaning the beejezus out of it (hot water/soap, then hot water/bleach and finally a hot water rinse), the pumps, netcups and neoprene disks. I then pruned and cleaned out all the dead/decaying and very yellowed leaves, stems and stalks, and gave her a fresh pure water root rinse after a root pruning, and fresh mixed nutes.
I know, I need a beating for being such a poor father
She's now downstairs next to the big tent, in her own 2' x 2' x 5' tent, where I hope she'll recover and get healthy soon. I also picked up a 25 plug "Rapid Rooter" or "Rabid Rewter" or something, didn't come with a plastic humidity dome, so I didn't open it up yet. I'm hoping a kickass cleaning on the Botanicare cloner and a healthy mom will result in rooted clones soon.
If any of you have suggestions, ideas and in general want to heckle me, this is the place. I'll have some pix of the preliminaries soon.
I thank you all from the bottom of heart for helping all those who ask here, and for being an inspiration to us novices.
My previous grows have been with DWC, using LED lighting units from "her", but after seeing the magnificent yields of GLH, Irish Boy and others, I purchased two of the new Spectra LED 300's from Michael. those will be used to light my 3' x 5' x 7' tent, while I use an old 126w HGL unit for maintaining a mom or two and for rooting clones and/or popping beans.
I scored a nice block of coco from a pal of mine, and I've spent the last few weeks hydrating it and rinsing it by putting it in my 3 gallon hempy buckets, and slow flowing softened tap water through it all, periodically checking the color of the effluent in a small tumbler (the larger tumblers were being used for Sailor Jerry and Dr. Pepper!).
I also have a couple of other types of coco yet to fart around with, blocks from Botanicare and then the coco "Boss" (I think also from Botanicare) self-contained 1 gallon plastic things. For this grow, I'm going to use 4-8 rooted clones from my mom SAGE (*story on her health and recent clone developments below*), and some beans I have ordered from The Attitude:
- Next Generation Dynamite (Regular seeds)
- Female Seeds Grapefruit ® (Feminized)
- TH Seeds A-Train (Feminized)
- Dinafem Seeds Sweet Deep Grapefruit (Feminized)
Those, plus the freebies (Blue Widow, Super Skunk, PE and Cali Hash Plant) and 3 bagseed beans I have from some very nice middies should provide plenty of variety and future breeding stock! This grow is about experimentation and learning; I've done nothing but hydro and LEDs in all my grows, so that's nothing new -- just going from DWC to Hempy/Coco and new LED units will be the big changes.
I prepared my coco by slow rinsing it in 3 gallon buckets (hempy drilled) in the laundry room sink with softened water, and also cycling some in a hydrofarm drip ring unit with RO/DI from the store. After it was running off fairly clear, I drained it pretty thoroughly and the mixed it in a 3:1 ratio with perlite. This will be mixed with OC+, 28 gm. to each gallon of coco.
I have 3 x one gallon mini totes and 2 x 3 gallon buckets all pre-drilled and ready for the media -- I might try growing one cutting in the recirculating drip hydrofarm using just coco and Flora Nova Grow/Bloom, just for giggles. I know my days of DWC are past, and if the hempy/coco/OC+ method produces quality meds for myself an my patients, I'm satisfied.
I will be watering with RO/DI from my local store, and adding CaMg+ to that at the rate of 5ml/gal. As you can see, I've taking all my ideas from the grows from "The Giants" before me!
Now the subplot - my poor SAGE mom: I've neglected the hell out of her, barely topped off her water/nutes, pruned her aggressively and done all the things one *shouldn't* do to a mom. The clones I've all snipped from her have died, for a tiny bit of neglect on my part. The inner lip of the Botanicare cloner top had algae growing in it, contributing to all my clones getting rot on the stems. I spent all afternoon cleaning the beejezus out of it (hot water/soap, then hot water/bleach and finally a hot water rinse), the pumps, netcups and neoprene disks. I then pruned and cleaned out all the dead/decaying and very yellowed leaves, stems and stalks, and gave her a fresh pure water root rinse after a root pruning, and fresh mixed nutes.
I know, I need a beating for being such a poor father
She's now downstairs next to the big tent, in her own 2' x 2' x 5' tent, where I hope she'll recover and get healthy soon. I also picked up a 25 plug "Rapid Rooter" or "Rabid Rewter" or something, didn't come with a plastic humidity dome, so I didn't open it up yet. I'm hoping a kickass cleaning on the Botanicare cloner and a healthy mom will result in rooted clones soon.
If any of you have suggestions, ideas and in general want to heckle me, this is the place. I'll have some pix of the preliminaries soon.
Enjoy the show!
So I am keeping her as un-infested as possible with bi-weekly sprays.
Michael said that I was getting the new models -- it's been 15 days now since my order; I'm starting to get antsy since I have beans on the way too, and no backup lights.
