Introducing FreeMind 2012 - Dutch Passion Blueberry/Dinafem PowerKush CocoaTube/Hempy

[FreeMind]

What strain is it? Dutch Passion Blueberry + Dinafem PowerKush
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Hybrid
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Both
If in Veg... For how long? Till Clones are rooted, healthy and 2 new sets of leaves
If in Flower stage... For how long? 7-9 Weeks expected
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soiless/Hydro (I use cocoa hempys and CocoaTubes, my own creation)
If soil... what is in your mix? 75% Cocoa 25% Perlite
If soil... What size pot? 4" Cocoa Tubes and 5G Buckets for Bloom
Size of light? 345W T5HO 6 Bulb Veg lighting, 92W of CFL for cloning, 1000W HPS for flowering
Is it aircooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? Varies, 60s - low 90s
RH of Room/cab? 40%-60%
PH of media or res? 4.8-7.0
Any Pests ? None so far
How often are you watering? 2x during daylight hours during bloom
Type and strength of ferts used? AN Sensi Grow A+B, GH Lucas Formula, 50%
# Plants - 40 Maximum Bloom (32 in CocoaTubes, 8 moms in between each tube)

Welcome 420 members to my first public grow.

I have been a lurker for awhile now and decided my setup is good enough to not be embarrassed to show it, no seriously I feel overwhelmed by some of the awesome and inspiring things you members are doing...I come before you all with a humble heart...

My goal here is to harvest enough medicine with enough variety during the winter months to hold me over during the rest of the year. We get hot summers here and my grow area would roast the blooming plants around that 1kW like an oven in those months...

Why I started growing...well...I came to the realization that I was throwing my money away to dealers who were never reliable and live off of my hard earned tax dollars...when instead I can support local business and have a therapeutic and spiritual experience producing my own medicine. Since my state does not provide dispensaries, I am stuck with the moral decision. I choose liberty!

I grow for BPD, which also comes with a slew of anxiety, mania and insomnia. MMJ has saved my life, and part of my experiences will be sure to do God's ganja gift great justice.

First let's start with a lil photo show...

My current arsenal...

Veg Area (Shelf for clone/veg, floor for moms)

Now I start by selecting strains (This round is Dutch Passion Blueberry and Dinafem Power Kush)

Then I grow them to a clonable state (usually 4-6 weeks) and start clipping every 8 days.

This is required to make it perpetual!

Next three pics are of Veg area progress over a few weeks...

9/15

9/16

9/20

9/27

I mostly prune how the plants tell me to...I use a combination of LST, SC and FIM.

I usually defoliate first, then LST then FIM followed by more LST.

As for the clones, I let them run natural unless they get unruly during flower.

More updates to come, I will update this week when more happens.


I look forward to you all stopping by. Next post will show my grow setup in more detail.

 

[FreeMind]

Re: Introducing FreeMind 2012 - Dutch Passion Blueberry/Dinafem Powerkush CocoaTube/H

Next picture show..my grow setup!

My distribution secured to the bloom room ceiling

My dark, unfilled Bloom room with a shot of the CocoaTubes

Water delivery to tubes and 5G Buckets (moms are in 5G, clones are in CocoaTubes)

I have grown in DWC, LP aero, HP aero (I still use HPA for cloning/clone vegging).

That being said, I have also lost plants due to res temp issues, pumps malfunctioning, power failures (aero was the biggest offender there). I loved the growth on pure hydro setups, but needed some safeguards against power outages and pump failures.

My solution was the CocoaTube.

The CocoaTube is pretty much a 4" PVC Tube with 4 sites for clones drilled in. I actually am testing two different methods of plant anchoring...one which the netpot can sit on a a piece of PVC siliconed into place, where the other one just has a 3/4" hole drilled out to place the clone.

Since this is a fairly new concept to me, I wanted to scientifically prove one way better than the other and use it exclusively.

You will find I am a bit obsessive with some things in that way..but I digress...

Now that you are caught up on the method, let me go over my perpetual cycle for the winter.

6 New Mom seeds are started and grown to cloning state. (4-6 weeks)
Each mom gives up 2 clones every 8 days.
There is room for 4 sets (8 day cycles) of clones like this, with room for expansion if i can find another HPA setup within my budget. Money has been tight lately =(
Every 8 days, 4 of the healthiest 4-week old clones will go into the CocoaTube, and then straight to bloom.
Typically, small clones are 6", larger ones can reach 10-12"
This means I have 6 moms, 6 new clones, 6 rooting clones and 8 vegging clones when at full capacity
This produces 4-32 day old clones every week to the bloom room (x 8 tubes = 32 clones in CocoaTubes)
When the moms reach critical mass (outgrow the 3.5G bucket and hit the T5), they go into bloom
I also ensure I heavily LST the moms to ensure maximum clone output and eventual bud production in the end.

So 32 clones in CocoaTubes + 8 moms blooming = 40 total blooming plants.

That should in theory produce at least 2oz of dried medicine every 8 days.

I also like to switch strains once I get enough clones to fill the bloom room once (getting there on this grow!)


Tomorrow I will update with recent bloom pics and progress.

Stay tuned, and I hope you pull up a chair and some popcorn for this ride, it's going to get interesting from here!

 

[FreeMind]

Re: Introducing FreeMind 2012 - Dutch Passion Blueberry/Dinafem Powerkush CocoaTube/H

Update for 10/7 - 10/9

10/7

Bloom Date was 10/3
BB1 and BB2 vegged for 57 Days, BB3 vegged for 46 Days
They vegged in Cocoa/Hempys (3.5G Buckets), then were transferred to 5G Cocoa/Hempys for bloom.
They were under T5HO 4' 6 bulb for the majority of that time


Days Bloom: 4
As of today - No puberty showing yet.
I am hoping no issues with the sex, being that they had a rough beginning with some higher temps and humidity issues.

BB1, 2, and 3 are the moms in bloom with some of their babies in the CocoTubes...like a cute little family.

BB1 on the right, BB2 on the left, BB3 in the middle.

Vertical SCROG shot of "The Web", BB1 2 and 3 and some of their clones.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10/9 Update

Days Bloom: 7

Very nice to see those pistils pop! (BB1 grew up first)

A few group shots of the blooming Dutch Passion Blueberry x 3 moms (5G Cocoa/Hempy) and their clones (CocoaTubes)

Shots of the AeroRail veg progress (left side just popped root hairs this week)

That bitch in AeroRail Site #DII didn't make it...probably because I forgot to trim away the excess plastic cage from the netpot.
I have to do that because I originally was using them with the full on netpots...then noticed a major design oversight of having to literally rip the roots out of the netpot for transfer, and sometimes the high pressure aero spray would be blocked by the damn net pot and kill the baby trying to root...just like it did here.
Once I have time and money, I'll replace them all and outfit them for HPA again.

Proof that cutting away the netpot does work.
Root porn - thats High Pressure Aero baby!
Clone is 22 Days old

FloaterCloner... so yeah, I had a "medicated moment" and drilled the lid with the wrong size hole saw...my solution..."FloaterCloner"...you know you dig it...and it works surprisingly well.
Sterilite container, drill holes in lid (too big if you want to rock it like me ), let the neoprene float on the top of the water, and run a airstone in the bottom...kinda DWCish...and the water level can get kinda low with no worries.

Dinafem PowerKush mom veg progress - These were started 9/3 (Day 30 Veg)
Just watered them, so they be droopy mon!

Tomorrow is an "8th day" of the cycle, so I will be busy working in the rooms.

I will journal the progress once I upgrade the grow room and put in some more clones.

By then, they should be getting nice and hairy!

New member here, I seek Comments, Questions and Blurts!

 

[FreeMind]

FreeMind 2012 and BPN- Dutch Passion Blueberry/Dinafem Powerkush CocoaTube/H

10/12 Update -->

<legend>
DPBB = Dutch Passion BlueBerry
DFPK = Dinafem Power Kush
</legend>

DPBB1,2,3 +2 CocoaTubes of Clones (8 total) - Days Bloom: 9
2 CocoaTubess of Clones (8 total) - Days Bloom: 1

DFPK1+2 - Days VEG: 33

Things went well with the defoliation and training the tops to the vertical SCROG. I would basically call this LSTing them vertically.
The resulting plant response produces more tops than I could ever have achieved horizontally in my grow area, and they all hit the 1kW'er anywhere from 24"-12" away, pretty nice sweet spot. This also allows me to trim fan leaves exclusively, hopefully resulting in more branching and bud sites.

Take a look at the results...

Birds Eye View of the tops training to the VSCROG

The bloom room is almost half full, 4/8 CocoaTubes, 3/8 Moms...the reflector will come off on the next 8thDayCycle.

I also defoliated the Dinafem Power Kush's, it was time.

I usually defoliate pretty heavy, because I LST a lot and want the plant to grow as many tops as possible, and defoliating helps those tops develop into main branches instead of small sucklings.
This is done to ensure I have enough main branches to fill the void where the 1kW'er is shining in the center of the VSCROG.

Defoliated DFPK1, next to waiting to be defoliated PK2 (dinafem power kush)

I find it interesting to see how quick the new growth starts when using the defoliation method...

Plant DFPK1 responding to Defoliation after only 24 hours have passed...

DFPK2 Defoliation response

OH YEAH!

Look what arrived:

Thanks Corey from Blue Planet Nutrients...I am flushing both my grows with RO water now, and will be using your BPN product line for the remainder of the Winter Perpetual Cycle. I hear nothing but great things, so I had to see the results for myself!

It's going to be a joy seeing how it performs in the various setups I have running at once.

I will be using it in two reservoirs, and I am open to suggestions here folks!

My plan is as follows, which will fit into my regular schedule.

VEG RES:
This one feeds the High Pressure Aero Cloner/Vegger on the shelf. This is also used to manually feed the moms every two days via 1/2" line and a regulator valve, or as needed.

BLOOM RES:
This one feeds the distribution ring on the ceiling of the bloom room. It is a 1/2" black poly line with (12) 1/2" tees for 12 sites (6 Cocoa Tubes, 6 5G Moms) to feed off of, each of which are outfitted with their own 1/2" regulator for water control. The other 4 sites are fed plain RO water for flush during the last two 8DayCycles they run in the bloom room.

My thought process is to ensure they have water, above all. So if their water need is greater and the buckets start to get light, I have a buffer of a few days to notice it and increase the water flow via the regulator valves. This is only a maintenance feed of about 30 seconds at the beginning of the bloom 12 hour cycle, and at the end of the bloom 12 hour cycle.

I usually feed to overflow every 3 days to prevent drying the roots out, so when I do this I up the nutrients to closer to full strength, then feed them to overflow, then add back RO Water to replace the water used to feed them. This usually keeps the nutrient solution at 50%, based on my math.

Corey , or anyone who might have experience in a method similar used, what is your view on my proposed nutrient regime to use in this manner?

I was thinking using the "Growth" Application table for the VEG RES, and using the "Bloom" Application table for the BLOOM RES. I think I would add in liquid blue in the bloom res every 3 days when feeding the bloomers to saturation to ensure the freshest nutes, and add in fresh nutes the same way in the VEG RES when manually pump feeding the moms (DFPK1 + 2 for this grow, Dutch Passion BlueBerry Moms are already blooming, only some clones are left)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am a new member and seeking some kind of feedback, reps or comments.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Re: Introducing FreeMind 2012 - Dutch Passion Blueberry/Dinafem PowerKush CocoaTube/H

How did this grow turn out?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info!

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read the photo gallery tutorial:
Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Thanks and hope all is well in your world.

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine.