1st Grow - Ebb-N-Grow : Afghan Kush, White Widow, Bag Seed!

Niiiice set up. Lookin professionale. The ladies are exploding in between updates :goodjob::popcorn:

:bravo::bravo:
 
noreastfog said:
Hey SF, Glad you are doing this. :nicethread: Looks great, your room looks perfect for 12 pots. I wish mine were a little larger, not a problem yet mind you. I would love to have four sides of access.
I don't want this to sound wrong, but it's somehow comforting to see that you "had issues" and recovered (and well). I accept that I will make mistakes, it's nice to know they aren't always terminal.
Very curious to see the final results with the STG. Correct me if I'm wrong but they are single use? How much did they cost?
How tall are you going to veg?
:popcorn:
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Sweet questions. All very relevant. Funny you mention about the mistakes. I just mentioned to a buddy that I don't see people mention much about the mistakes they make, and he replied, "why would they". It got me thinking a little and I decided I would post everything up here, the good and the bad, because there definitely will be some "bad" stuff.

I'm already thinking (rethinking) that the seeds I purchased of White Widow aren't fem seeds. I had the cart before the horse, one day I just decided to purchase seeds before even having any grow plans or knowledge. I didn't know the difference between fem seed and regular seeds. So now I'm thinking how am I ever going to finish these suckers, in a public forum that I decided to publish. I'm just counting on you guys to get me through. Literally.

And on to your serious questions.

I have a larger room I can move into. Not this grow, I'm too far along to redesign everything. I think not being able to get to all sides of the plants might be detrimental, especially after reading Slo's items he modified.

STG so far has been great once I got past the hiccups and contained the Algae. They are a little more pricey, people have (bitc*ed) about, I think it was about $93.00 for 12 inserts (they sell by 6 each). They are one use only. I guess the only thing I can say more on this is you just have to weigh items like Slo mentioned below, setup and cleanup with Hydroton. I've got a terrible back this last year, and I just couldn't deal with lugging the Hydroton around. And it'll be a real pleasure to be able to discard them in mere seconds as opposed to several hours with Hydroton.

When to flower, when to flower...humm. Well I've been discussing this with Mr. PitViper and his recommendation, based on my ceiling and light height, to go between 12-24 inches. I'll post another picture below, but I'm betting I'm at that higher height with most of the guys now. I'm just waiting on the replacement ballast and the HPS bulb to arrive. I really need to do a nute/res change it's been about a week and the plants have consumed about 10 gallons of water. I was trying to coordinate the two, but it might not happen. So to answer your question, ASAP.

Thanks again for keeping me on my toes!

slosmokin said:
I am also totally excited to see how the STG goes. I am sick and tired of cleaning hydroton, and this is only my second run LOL. About the algae growth, can it get cleaned off? I guess now that no light is getting to it (because of your amazing growth in the last few days.) it shouldn't be a problem. How does the STG feel during flood? I have heard it turns a bit mushy, have you noticed?
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Excellent Slo. Algae stopped when I raised the inserts higher than the flood on the buckets. Pit and I discussed using H2O2 on the tops of the inserts, just a spray, but as soon as I raised them the Algae growth stopped and pretty much "died" out. Coupled with the plant canopy, no light down there and it became a non-issue. I just didn't know any better when I started.

The inserts feel solid during flood stages, I haven't gone and lifted an insert out of the bucket. I will after we harvest though and I'll take pictures of course. When I lift the bucket out of the outer bucket, I'm seeing great root growth so it's definitely getting through the insert.

I'm committed at this point with the STG, so if you guys hang in another 6-8 weeks we'll all see the results, good or bad.

SF

PS. Slo, here's a White Widow for you!
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Thanks guys!
 
Question for you guys!

To Prune or Not, and When?

What's everyone's take on the pruning? Is it critical that you do it at one stage as opposed to another (Veg vs. Flower).

Asking because I'd like to change over to Flower, but didn't know if the prune needs to be complete and give the plant a chance to repair?

Sign me.
Clueless
 
StinkFinger said:
Question for you guys!

To Prune or Not, and When?

What's everyone's take on the pruning? Is it critical that you do it at one stage as opposed to another (Veg vs. Flower).

Asking because I'd like to change over to Flower, but didn't know if the prune needs to be complete and give the plant a chance to repair?

Sign me.
Clueless
Click to expand...

I'd say yes and no. Its ok to trim about 1/4-1/3 of the foliage with no ill results. But I wouldn't trim much more than that. In all honesty, if you clean the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the plant(wont get light anyway, and will improve airflow) and take some clones 1-2 weeks before bloom you probably wont have to touch another leaf for the rest of the bloom unless you plan to lollipop or something. Cloning usually suffices as a trim job for me. Idk just my experiences tho :smokin:

Im definitly tuned in for this one :popcorn:
 
DroJo said:
I'd say yes and no. Its ok to trim about 1/4-1/3 of the foliage with no ill results. But I wouldn't trim much more than that. In all honesty, if you clean the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the plant(wont get light anyway, and will improve airflow) and take some clones 1-2 weeks before bloom you probably wont have to touch another leaf for the rest of the bloom unless you plan to lollipop or something. Cloning usually suffices as a trim job for me. Idk just my experiences tho :smokin:

Im definitly tuned in for this one :popcorn:
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Awesome advice Dro! Thanks again for coming along!

Ok, side topic. Medicinal Delivery Devices! :slide:

Have you guys seen/tried this? I can honestly say it's the best I've used in XX years. I know they're a sponsor and there's a thread going with info and reviews. Just wanted to show this piece of "artwork" off.


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Comments if you've got em.

SF
 
Hi Everyone.

So I'm giving myself an atta-boy. Last night was pretty productive, most of the time I just feel like vegging in front of the TV on the couch, ;-)

I know everyone likes bud "porn" so I thought I'd include a few shots of my 1st Ever Grow. I think I mentioned that I picked up a General Hydro EcoGrower unit for my "experiment", basically bag seed I was growing. But REALLY good bag seed! I couldn't see waiting for another grow with this unit, so about 30 days of starting with the EcoGrower, I picked up and started the Ebb-n-Grow. These are just about done, and I'm thinking of using this setup to try some LowRyder Auto Flower seeds. It was a battle with everything, mostly Hermies.

400w HPS
Room Size: 3'6"x8'x6'

EcoGrower Day 60 Flower
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Don't know what they are (strain) or any other info, sorry!

I'm preparing a post to let you know what's going on with the main Ebb-n-Grow setup (the productive work last night).

Coming Soon!
SF
 
The Butcher said:
The Butchers here w/ the steak, now lets start this BBQ!! Pass the Bong..Oh wait I Have it..LOL..I love my meds..Nice set up SF. + rep if and when Ican. Posted up. And congrats on the new Pipe.
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LOL!

Thanks Butch!!!

I'm really glad, and honored you're here!

Respectfully,
SF

PS. Pipe will be waiting for you (one day)
 
Noatec said:
Sup Stink,
I've heard great things about the SuperLemonHZ.
I'll be soakin in all the experience as I prep for grow 2.
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I think SLH Pit mentioned that it's been his favorite so far. I got 1 freebie seed (with purchase) in this picture. Guess I'll have to order some more to let this run in the ebb-n-grow next round. The lowryder's I ordered for the small room. Just don't have the ceiling height.
 
That eco is rockin bro. And you've got some promising genetics comin up too. Good to be you ;):cheertwo:
 
Another update.

So until I hear otherwise, I'm going to continue to be verbose with the posts and updates. It's just a good reference for me and who knows it might just be something somebody else might encounter.

NEF recently asked about when I'm going to change cycles to flowering. Last night I decided it's really close to being time. The magnetic ballast arrived today, as well as the HPS lamp (pics in near future). I decided to do a nute change and change the "soup" to the Transition recipe. Here's what was performed.

So I'm not real familar how most people drain the res on their CAP system but here's what I've been using.

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Pump purchased from home depot, garden hose attachment, some tubing, a hangar and some duct tape. Basically I just drop the "utensil" into the barrel and it pumps the reservoir dry.

While the res is draining, I take some run-off measurements, just to see what effect time does to the PPM and PH of the nutes.

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Then I begin the process of filling up the res and while the water is being added, I begin adding the nutes. I use the drill with mixer attachment to do a great mixing job and get a more immediate reading of the nute strength. While close, but not quite to my filling level (approx 40 gals), I add my PH Down solution.

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A final mix with the drill, I replace the 2 power-head pumps that live in the res, and buckle everything back up and then I take some measurements.

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At this point, I can add a little more water if necessary to get all the levels proper. I took a temperature measurement for you to see.

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Obviouslly the water is way to cold, so I turn off several cycles on the CAP timer. About 8 hours and the water temperature rises to about 65 and the watering cycle is resumed.

Tonight when I did a quick check, the PH had fallen to 5.6, a little to low for me, I added 5 gallons of tap water and it brought it back up to 5.8. A little lower on the nute strength, but I can live with this. The plants will talk!

As a side note, it looks like the first tank of CO2 I have is just about dry, it lasted about a week with 24/0 lighting schedule. At this rate, I'll be purchasing a propane generator, as someone suggested not too long ago. He warned me, ;-)

Anyway, I'll grab another picture tomorrow before I darken the room for 30 hours to start the flowering, and hopefully the fun begins!

Thanks all!
SF
 
DroJo said:
That eco is rockin bro. And you've got some promising genetics comin up too. Good to be you ;):cheertwo:
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Soon to be chopped Dro. 1st grow ever, bet it's a great feeling to smoke your own bud? Might be some hermies in that batch, but they still look good!

Thanks for watchin' out man!
SF
 
Today's Update

So just some pictures for you today. It's getting difficult to show the entire grow area (due to the density) of the plants.

Also, as mentioned, I've got to get these guys into the flower stage, I'm really concerned at this point that I won't have the height necessary to bring these guys to maturity.

Question.
Does anyone know if it's true that you can use your MH the first two weeks of flowering to "manage" vertical growth? Then switch to HPS to finish it out?

Overview


Left Side


Right Side


Tops of Plants


Clone "Experiment" Taken from EcoGrow


That's all she wrote. I'm out.

Have a great day!

SF
 
I do pretty much the same thing as far as calculating for less volume. This way when the water evaps over the next fews days my PPM's dont reach toxic levels. Looking good.


StinkFinger said:
I believe the final addition to getting my journal caught up with present day is the inclusion below of my feeding/"soup" mixture I've been following. I'm using a 30 gallon input for the calculator, but I'm actually putting in closer to 40 gallons in the reservoir, I find that provides me a little "padding" and it's been pretty darn close when the mixture is complete. (Currently using the Aggressive Growth column)

Nutes_CAP.JPG


And that should do it. I just installed a light mover last night, so perhaps I'll get a couple of shots of that. I've also spread out the buckets in the room so they have more room for air circulation. I pruned one of the plants last night. First pruning ever! I don't think I over did it, just concentrated on the lower portion of the plant. If my back can handle it, I'm going to try and finish pruning the rest perhaps tonight.
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