Vortex's Lab: 4x4 Secondary Garden & Experimental Thread

I'm turrible. I forgot to mention Sixx yesterday.

She's fine. Beyond fine, really. She's not as close as the crack baby, but there may be a few cloudy hitting here and there. Her estimate is a week later than the crack baby, so makes sense.

I like how she is growing though. She's short and solid. The yield won't be through the roof, but she will do well given her size comparatively. She has some very nice, thick flowers on her. She would make an excellent plant for a grow with low head height available. She's in a 7gal fabric pot and I don't think from the bottom of the pot to the tip top of her tallest point is more than about 2ft. The plant itself is pretty short. If she were in a 5gal, it would work really well.

Someone could get away with 4 of these girls in a 1x4 cabinet grow pretty easily. I could probably fit 16 of her in my 4x4. Now it would be really tight between pots, and 9 would work better, but just for reference to how she's growing. She's not much past the edges of her pot, and turned up really well when I let her. She didn't stretch a ton, and has been a really nice plant to grow.

They've all done pretty well, all things considered. Obviously Lemmy is trying to be an attention whore, but in the right setup would be a killer plant. I could see her in her own 3x3 and rocking it. Hey, wait! I happen to have a 3x3! If she turns out, I may do another one (at some point) on her own in the 3x3. Got the setup already rigged up, so that's that.

It's because of her (and the others, but definitely her) that I began digging into the whole "delayed flowering" thing with autos. Obviously they are going to flower on their own. However considering the training attention she received, along with all the small defoliation maintenance, an auto that vegged for 2 months? Wow. Blue/Six/Crack Baby went close to 6 weeks, with the Chica just over 4 weeks. She didn't get near the defol attention the others did, so it stands to reckon she moved along a little quicker. It all worked out though, as she was a hair later start than the other 3.

I'm not saying this is gospel, but it is something I'm going to be experimenting with on the autos for a bit. some of it may be genetics, but maybe not. I am quite intrigued by the concept, and looking forward to seeing if it pans out. It kind of defeats the purpose of an auto (being quicker), but you can also go 12/12 from seed/clone and get similar results. That extra light during flower can't hurt anything though (other than your wallet a tick. :D)


No idea what's happening this morning. I've been trying to stay out of the garden area completely until the RDWC turns on at 11. Well, I slip down a couple minutes before to make sure the lights are kicking on. But it kind of blocks the day a bit as early morning was a good time to slip in and get a couple minor things done, and do an early check.
 
Did a non-open watering around noon, in 2 parts. 90 seconds at noon, and 90 more seconds 30 minutes later. Non-open meaning it was lazy time and all 5 plants were watered via pump/drip. This happens every other day, and on opposite days just Lemmy and her 3gal pot get hand watered. (Via long stick funnel contraption, designed for Christmas trees. :D)

Waited until 2:30ish to suck up any runoff.


Snow melt outside is making it humid out there. In turn that gets passively sucked into the house, which means the dehumidifier runs and runs and runs. I have it set for 45%, and it's at least doing the job. I may have to set it to 40%, but I bet if I went outside and looked at the meter it's already spinning like a top. :rolleyes:

Anyway, it's caused the humidity in the Lab to bump up to 55%, which I'm not onboard with. So I've bumped the exhaust fan up a notch to help. Going to let things run a while longer then check to see if there is progress.
 
Checked earlier and we’re down to 49%. Acceptable.

Dehumidifier is running like crazy, but it is what it is.
 
Still holding on the RH. Temp is 78F-80F, and RH is running 48%-49%.

Had a minor issue with one of the lights Saturday night. I was in the garden doing some general space tinkering and took a peek in the tent to make sure I didn't miss any runoff from the watering a little earlier in the day. (I didn't.)

I noticed one of the lights was flickering. Almost a strobe type effect. It would do so for a couple seconds, then go back to normal. Few seconds later, rinse and repeat.

Needless to say I panicked a bit, so I took a chance on our wonder BudgetLED rep maybe perusing around the boards.

Needless to say, luck was on my side. Upon advice and talking me off the ledge, I pulled the light from the tent, unmounted the driver, and just set it on top of the heatsink. Problem solved and has been fine for the past 36 hours.

I want to thank @Budget LED for being so awesome. Being mid to late flower and something like that, I was in a bit of a panic for sure. Justin walked me through it, all is well, and I could not be more thankful for that.

So a big THANK YOU to @Budget LED again, and for taking the time on a Saturday night to answer a question and help correct it before something went wrong. :D

The lights kick ass. The people kick ass. The support kicks ass. Maybe they should start a new product line called "Kick Ass" or something? :rofl:



Oh, the girls? They're fine. I have to watch Lemmy kinda close. She's getting into that 10"-12" under the light range in a couple spots. Might have to supercrop or try and spread her down a tick. Can't really raise the lights, unless I put the Chica and Blue on a riser to keep them close to the lights. Honestly, that's probably my best bet. Who would have thought little long to pop Lemmy would have turned out to be such a plant in just a 3gal container?

Anyway, I think I've talked myself into what I need to do just typing it out. Sounds funny to have 7gal pots on risers while the 3gal sits on the floor. :rofl:
 
Still holding on the RH. Temp is 78F-80F, and RH is running 48%-49%.

Had a minor issue with one of the lights Saturday night. I was in the garden doing some general space tinkering and took a peek in the tent to make sure I didn't miss any runoff from the watering a little earlier in the day. (I didn't.)

I noticed one of the lights was flickering. Almost a strobe type effect. It would do so for a couple seconds, then go back to normal. Few seconds later, rinse and repeat.

Needless to say I panicked a bit, so I took a chance on our wonder BudgetLED rep maybe perusing around the boards.

Needless to say, luck was on my side. Upon advice and talking me off the ledge, I pulled the light from the tent, unmounted the driver, and just set it on top of the heatsink. Problem solved and has been fine for the past 36 hours.

I want to thank @Budget LED for being so awesome. Being mid to late flower and something like that, I was in a bit of a panic for sure. Justin walked me through it, all is well, and I could not be more thankful for that.

So a big THANK YOU to @Budget LED again, and for taking the time on a Saturday night to answer a question and help correct it before something went wrong. :D

The lights kick ass. The people kick ass. The support kicks ass. Maybe they should start a new product line called "Kick Ass" or something? :rofl:



Oh, the girls? They're fine. I have to watch Lemmy kinda close. She's getting into that 10"-12" under the light range in a couple spots. Might have to supercrop or try and spread her down a tick. Can't really raise the lights, unless I put the Chica and Blue on a riser to keep them close to the lights. Honestly, that's probably my best bet. Who would have thought little long to pop Lemmy would have turned out to be such a plant in just a 3gal container?

Anyway, I think I've talked myself into what I need to do just typing it out. Sounds funny to have 7gal pots on risers while the 3gal sits on the floor. :rofl:

I mentioned on another post awhile back, the last thing we want is a customer being down mid flower.

Thanks for the kind words and feedback.
 
I mentioned on another post awhile back, the last thing we want is a customer being down mid flower.

Thanks for the kind words and feedback.


And thank YOU, Justin, for not just being a sponsor, but an active (and fun) member as well! I really do love these lights, and they're doing some fantastic work! When it's time for more lights, I know exactly where I'm going! Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and head straight to y'all.
 
And thank YOU, Justin, for not just being a sponsor, but an active (and fun) member as well! I really do love these lights, and they're doing some fantastic work! When it's time for more lights, I know exactly where I'm going! Do not pass go, do not collect $200, and head straight to y'all.

Thanks! I am a grower too. I learn from you all more than you know.
 
Thanks! I am a grower too. I learn from you all more than you know.


It's pretty amazing what we learn from each other! Your mention of jiffy pellets the other day gave me pause, and I restarted new clones and went back to basics. They're doing pretty well!
 
Put the Chica and Blue on little risers to move them up about 7" off the floor. Makes them more even with Lemmy after her stretch. Also did the same for Six and the crack baby. That let me move the lights up for Lemmy to keep her from getting crispy, but also still give plenty of watts to the rest of the girls.

Gave Lem a little underbrush cleanup, and removed a few fans as well. It killed me to clip some budding branches, but they would have been scruff anyway.

All in all I think we're in a little better shape this evening that this morning, so that's good.
 
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There's Lemmy in all her whatever you wanna call it. :rofl:

Quite the space and attention hog. Those flowers swell up and keep building and we may get a little bit from her. :D





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Six, out in the room yesterday.




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And in the tent today.






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Then there's the Chica. That cooler air at night is giving her some color.




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And then there's the crack baby. Damn she has some fat calyxes on here. Like pea sized. She's in her final push, and on chop watch. She's not there yet, but she is fast approaching. There is an odd amber trich on her buds here and there, so won't be long.


As for the rest, you can see they're starting to also get close. All (except Lemmy) are starting to consume nutes from their leaves in that last stage of goodness.

Somehow I didn't manage to get a shot of Blue, but she's swinging right along and getting some nice fat flowers. No wonder Farside was able to squeeze so much from this strain. At some point I would love to run a pair of these on their own and see what I can do with them.
 
It's pretty amazing what we learn from each other! Your mention of jiffy pellets the other day gave me pause, and I restarted new clones and went back to basics. They're doing pretty well!

Yea it is my go to method recently. I will be giving the bubbler cloner another shot here soon too. Keep up the great work. Love your content.
 
Yea it is my go to method recently. I will be giving the bubbler cloner another shot here soon too. Keep up the great work. Love your content.


Thanks Justin!

I'm not the greatest journal writer, but I do enjoy sharing what's happening in the garden.

While I'm not getting my hopes up just quite yet, if that Lemon Drop fattens up those flowers she will be a really good score. All sitting in the middle of two KILLER light rigs. :D
 
Well, it's about time to figure out a plan for drying.

My initial plan is kind of kaput. I was going to use the Dev Lab (4x3) for drying, but the humidity in there isn't great at 45%-50%. I could put the humidifier on the small side, but then that feeds right into the Lab. Sucking in 65%RH air wouldn't be a good thing with plants in flower.

I've got a 4" fan/filter/ducting sitting in my amazon cart, but haven't clicked the button yet. Would pair that with some kind of rubbermaid cabinet/box on the cheap from Home Depot/Menards/Lowes, etc.

I hate to blow that on a temp-ish setup if I don't need to do that though.


Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
 
So I had a thought, but not sure about it.

I have one of these:

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It's about 4ft tall, give or take.


Not pretty by any means, but it is on hand, so there's that.


I could also pick up one of these for about $45:


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It's 4.5ft wide, 1.5ft deep, and 2ft tall.




Overall for either would be to put a carbon filter in the bottom, hole in the side.





Not real sure what to do here, unless I add a separate exhaust to the 4x3 and go from there. :(
 
Damn. I guess I'm having a moment this morning. Ugh.

I was thinking I needed to be in the 60%-65% range for drying. 50% should be fine, and I can manage that. Guess I had the 62% humidity packs in my head. Oh well. The clones should be ready to plant in a few days, so I can put them on the floor of the 3x3 part, then use the smaller side for hanging/drying. Should be alright.


That aside, I'd like to build a dedicated drying space. Then when the 4x3 isn't available, it won't be a problem.
 
Damn. I guess I'm having a moment this morning. Ugh.

I was thinking I needed to be in the 60%-65% range for drying. 50% should be fine, and I can manage that. Guess I had the 62% humidity packs in my head. Oh well. The clones should be ready to plant in a few days, so I can put them on the floor of the 3x3 part, then use the smaller side for hanging/drying. Should be alright.


That aside, I'd like to build a dedicated drying space. Then when the 4x3 isn't available, it won't be a problem.
Ok you corrected yourself before I could respond. Yes from what I have read you need to be around 50% RH for drying and 58% to 65% for curing. I think I am in luck because my indoors maintains an RH of around 48% to 50%.
 
Yeah. Had a “moment” going over my checklist this morning.

The room is just about right so no worries there. It might be a % or two under 50, but certainly not the doom and gloom I was thinking at first.

I would still like to have dedicated drying space with room for multiple plants. That is kind of a side use for the 4x3, but probably best to isolate drying into dedicated space.

That way if need be I can set environmental params without worrying about cause/effect.
 
Took a look at the crack baby just now. She's getting close. Really close. It may be this weekend, or could be a week. Either way, the hour glass is almost out of sand.

Tried to get a pic, but things weren't cooperating and they turned out shit. I'll try again later or tomorrow.
 
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