The Many Strains Of Life - Perpetual Grow

[ibrokeit]

Hi, I am back to try a better journal. This has been going on for a couple months and has been pretty much chaos so far, but I am learning. Been thru several soils bought locally and most have been pure shit, but I have found one that I can actually grow in. Before you hammer me on what's the best/worst soil to use understand that I want to use something I can purchase locally and not have the odd conversation as to why I order dirt when the mail man delivers. So here we go...........
3- 4x4 grow tents are being used, and I have another that I will be hanging bud in after chopping.
T1 has a 4x4 t5 8 bulb light with veg bulbs. It will soon become the nursery for new plants and clones

T2 will become a flower house and has 3- 300w (130w actual)led's and 3-double bulb cfl's. I don't have a great explanation for adding the cfl's other than I had them and figured more light should be a good thing. I have no idea if they are helping much so any input ???

T3 has and will continue to be a flower room and has a 1000x HPS. So far I have managed to royally f-up 2 pretty girls in there. Had some spider mites, sprayed a soap to kill them, but did not wash them off later and I guess the soap coating prevented the leaves from doing their thing? they look horrible, but buds are doing decent and will be ready to chop in +/- 2 weeks.

 

[ibrokeit]

Here is what I have growing right now=
1 Pakistan valley and 1 dream machine are close to chop
1 Shark shock wont bud? she's been in there for 3 weeks and NO buds?
1 Critical mass a few days into flower
1 Dark devil auto close to finish 1-2 weeks
1 LSD auto. horrible results so far, and the last time I grew it was a lot better.
1 WW auto .HORRIBLE, I have done nothing right....but she isn't dead for some reason
1 Skunk haze had a slow start, seems to be doing better.

started working on clones, a few Pakistan valley and dream machine were first, not great results so far.
Bought a $40 seed starter kit with heat mat, Critical mass clones rooted super fast, so I planted them all and in different containers to experiment with.

Next round from seeds are sprouting now, and I am pumped
1-Jordan of the Islands Blue GOD
1-Strain hunters Money Maker
1-Purple Bud
1-Red Afro
just pulled 2 more seeds to germinate also
1-heavyweight Fast & Vast auto
1-black caramel cream auto.

I feel that running a couple of autos back to back will help keep me stocked at all times.

I have about a dozen other strains and will be running a few each round to zero in on what I like the best

 

[ibrokeit]

dark devil

critical mass

 

[ibrokeit]

This is what I have to feed them. right now I am using fox farms and give all the plants in full flower a few ml of the an overdrive

 

[Nismo12]

Good luck bud! Hope you have everything straightened out.

 

[Fuzznutter]

Subbing in.

I can't wait until my Dark Devils are actually dark like yours. Mine are both showing hints of purple but nothing impressive yet.

 

[ibrokeit]

Fuzz, mine are not quite that dark, the LEDs still were shining on them a bit. I will get a pic under a regular fluorescent and one with no lights and just camera flash to try to get you a real look at the colors. Mind sharing a pic of yours? The LSD is almost black, but she is a puny thing and may make 5g.

 

[Fuzznutter]

Do I mind sharing a pic? Pft. Of course not! Just for you I took a brand new picture of the darkest Dark Devil with only a single fluorescent and an OttLite bulb on to try and get the truest color.

This is DD1 and she's getting darker...slowly... Her sister DD2 showed the first signs of purple but still only has the barest hint of color. She's not as vigorous a grower though. Maybe in time.

Edit: Forgot to mention she's on day 47 today.

 

[ibrokeit]

Sweet looking plant. Even if my girl does not turn much more, that smell alone will be worth it! I have one more bean in that strain and I will drop it as soon as this girl is chopped.
Maybe you folks can help me make some decisions? Here is where I am at, and what I want to accomplish= I have 3 tents and a viable way to clone, so I want to use 1 tent to veg and the other 2 tents to flower and them being roughly 2 weeks apart to keep crops coming sooner (2 weeksish) ya, I made that word up? So in most cases 4 weeks veg should be good? Take clones at 2.5 to 3 weeks and start rooting. Would 400w led actual be enough to run a 4x4 tent? The 1000w HPS is great but man that power bill $$$.
I will phase out strains I don't like, try a new one , and run 2 autos every time I chop the last 2 autos. My goal is not to grow a lot of bud, but good strains and enough for me and a few friends that are sick (cancer, chromes, anxiety, and 1 is just an asshole and it chills them out).

 

[Fuzznutter]

It's hard to say on the schedule without knowing the strains. It sounds like you're basically assuming an 8 week flower period. Personally, I've rarely had a plant finish in 8 weeks, but I usually run hybrids or sativa-dominant plants. I'd assume at least a 10 week flower period to give yourself some wiggle room and not force you to rush the harvest. Probably 12 weeks if the plants are sativa dominant.

Are you planning to top or train the vegging plants at all?

A 1000-watt HPS in a 4x4 tent seems like overkill to me. I can't even imagine trying to keep the temps under control. This is my first grow with LEDs so I don't feel qualified to say what may or may not be enough with them. However, when I first got mine I read to replace your lights watt for watt. I was running a 400-watt HPS so I replaced it with 400 actual-watts of LEDs. Each light is advertised as 360 watts, but it actually pulls only 200 watts from the wall. I bought 2 of them for each of my closets, which are roughly 2x5 feet, but I have a fan in the corner of each that takes up a foot. Only the autos are currently in flower but so far so good. *Fingers crossed*

 

[ibrokeit]

I will do some topping and training with a few, but some will be cleaned up to a few branches and main and hopefully finish faster from clone/seed. Good strains for my "private" stash will get the most time and love is my thoughts. Yes, I feel 1000w was overkill, but I had a crap set up before and the flower room was larger, and I have a 600w bulb now , but didn't know if it would stress the girls with a change midstream. temps are decent, I run the light at night and temps in the actual room get about 50, so with a vent fan pulling and a window fan circulating it gets around 85f. I imagine in the summer it would be 300000kelvin
So figure in another 1-2 weeks should put me at 3-4 weeks between some being done.........I'm good with that, heck I don't smoke much anyways so I should be golden.

 

[AlleyC]

Dude, having a complete tent setup seems such a blessing. Please refrain from NOT posting more setup pictures

 

[AlleyC]

Also, try Smart pots if you can find them at your local stores or order some if you can, they are cheap, easy to arrange in squares and best of all, roots have it really easier getting that oxygen they need!

 

[ibrokeit]

LOL, I ordered just 2 tents, a good sale on the pair, and the company accidently sent me 4. We negotiated a cheaper price for the other 2 to benefit us both And since I had been working with a few types of lights, I had enough to run 3 tents easy, and nice to have another to dry in.
I tried some fabric pots during the summer, they worked pretty good, so I may get a few more once I figure out what I am doing.

 

[ibrokeit]

the paki valley front left, dream machine back left, critical mass front right a few days in flower, shark shock rear right

6 new girls

 

[Fuzznutter]

I will do some topping and training with a few, but some will be cleaned up to a few branches and main and hopefully finish faster from clone/seed. Good strains for my "private" stash will get the most time and love is my thoughts. Yes, I feel 1000w was overkill, but I had a crap set up before and the flower room was larger, and I have a 600w bulb now , but didn't know if it would stress the girls with a change midstream. temps are decent, I run the light at night and temps in the actual room get about 50, so with a vent fan pulling and a window fan circulating it gets around 85f. I imagine in the summer it would be 300000kelvin
So figure in another 1-2 weeks should put me at 3-4 weeks between some being done.........I'm good with that, heck I don't smoke much anyways so I should be golden.

With topping and training in soil, you'll probably want more than 4 weeks of veg. The extra flowering time will give the vegging plants more time to mature. It all works out.

What a lucky deal with those tents! Color me jealous.

 

[ibrokeit]

Ya, the bonus tent was perfect. So 5-7 weeks veg? I don't mind a few more weeks on some, I guess If I added another auto in the mix half way thru the life of another could be a decent buffer.
Did a quick clean up on 2 girls tonight, not impressive to what most grows look like on here but I think it will smoke.

paki valley

Dream Machine

sitting in their home

 

[Fuzznutter]

The buds are starting to get big. How exciting!

I think 5 to 7 weeks would be better than 4 in soil. You can get some nice sized plants and lotsa buds.

 

[ibrokeit]

I have clones of those 2, but kinda thinking they will have to be great smoke or I will pull the plug on them.....millions of leaves on those buds

 

[ibrokeit]

DD

lsd