1st Grow, RainForest 318, 400W HID, Chronic Haze, Yumbolt47, California Dream

Bolivar said:
It grows plants well, I'll say that. I'm going to be trying to get 6 plants to harvest next grow, so we'll see how that goes. I just let these 4 go and they filled the tent. I won't do that again, because there isn't much room left to get to all sides without turning the whole system around. Plus, I didn't really do any pruning or training, other than a couple of stretchy stems that were trained sideways early in the grow.

The system grows roots really well. I can't wait to see the total mass after harvest. It looks like more roots than water now, just peeking into the top. The spray worked great 24/7 the whole time (since Oct) and there weren't any problems with the system at all. The one change I'd make would be to put a clear level indicator hose instead of the blue-tinted one they use. When it's in shadow I have to stick a little flashlight behind it to be sure I'm seeing the water level.
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Thanx for the answer bro. I just talked to a guy with the RF66 and said it was a good system too. Didn't you consider a fload and drain table too. :peace:
 
cocoJoe said:
Thanx for the answer bro. I just talked to a guy with the RF66 and said it was a good system too. Didn't you consider a fload and drain table too. :peace:
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I was also considering one of the Aeroflo2 systems when I got the RainForest. Now I'm tentatively planning to get an Ebb & Gro and a larger tent the grow after next. Next grow is to find out about some different strains while hopefully nailing down some more technique questions.
 
Those aeroflo systems are so good, they are worth it. You could always save money but the quality and performance makes it worth it and knowing there shouldnt be a failure with it. Those systems kick ass. I don't think you would want to do seeds but for clones you will see better results than your RF. Are you going to build your own ebb and flow? It will be so nice not having to grow out of the rez.
 
dogstick said:
Those aeroflo systems are so good, they are worth it. You could always save money but the quality and performance makes it worth it and knowing there shouldnt be a failure with it. Those systems kick ass. I don't think you would want to do seeds but for clones you will see better results than your RF. Are you going to build your own ebb and flow? It will be so nice not having to grow out of the rez.
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The Ebb and Gro I'm looking at is a brand name. 12 pots, res, controller.
Yes there are possible problems with roots in the res using the RainForest. I'm going to pay more attention to that next grow. First, I need to take a look at what's in there now, and that'll have to wait for harvest I think. I'm ready for this one to be over with.
 
Yea I think to play it safe you you don't want the water higher than the pvc that connects in the middle of the system or else you run chance of working your roots via pump. So res is max 17 gallons with full fill at 15 gallons and getting under the pvc during flowering leaves about 14 gallons, leaving me 2.8 gallons per plant. I guess that aint that bad but I think all aspects point to using this sytem for starting. Loving the fact you don't need a dome.
Have you looked into getting the different caps for it, just curious how much they are?
 
dogstick said:
Yea I think to play it safe you you don't want the water higher than the pvc that connects in the middle of the system or else you run chance of working your roots via pump. So res is max 17 gallons with full fill at 15 gallons and getting under the pvc during flowering leaves about 14 gallons, leaving me 2.8 gallons per plant. I guess that aint that bad but I think all aspects point to using this sytem for starting. Loving the fact you don't need a dome.
Have you looked into getting the different caps for it, just curious how much they are?
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I saw some replacement tops somewhere and they were around $60 if I remember correctly. I was going to get the 66 originally, but chose the 318 just to get some cups further out toward the edge. The smaller pots don't make much difference, I don't think, since I can't imagine growing larger plants than I've got in the 3" pots. Right now I'm trying to decide whether to try 6 or just 4 plants again next. Success will depend on how the 12/12 from the beginning is going to affect plant size. We'll see.
 
Damn, haven't updated really since the 15th...

Gonna condense things a bit.

Jan 16 - Added 11ml KoolBloom, 20ml Flora Nectar.

Jan 17 - Added 10ml Cal-Mag

Jan 19 - Added 11ml Micro, 22ml FloraBloom, 6ml Floralicious Bloom, 11ml Flora Blend, 11ml KoolBloom, 20ml Flora Nectar.

Jan 20 - Reinstalled airstone.

Jan 21 - Tied up a couple of sagging stems from CD2.

Jan 23 - Clipped a broken branch off back plant, which I thought was same as front plant (Chronic Haze), but looks so much different that it must be Yumboldt47. And they may be switched, so I don't know which is which. Will find out on a later grow, I guess. Pretty orange hairs and a definite fruity smell.

Jan 24 - Added 10ml Cal-Mag, 10ml Flora Nectar.

Jan 27 - Trimmed off more ugly tops off CD1. Added 20ml Flora Nectar.

Jan 28 - Added 12ml Micro, 20ml Flora Bloom, 12ml Floralicious Bloom.

Jan 29 - Cut all but one branch of CD1. Just wasn't going anywhere, and looked ugly. Tied the back plant to the chopped trunk of CD1 so it won't fall over. Lots of skinny stretched branches because it was being shaded by the CD. Took the main tops off CD2, because they were getting ugly as well from heat damage (I think), but they're a lot fuller and heavier than CD1.

Jan 30 - Added 10ml Kool Bloom.

Jan 31 - Added 10ml Kool Bloom.

Will post some pics later, not sure what would be interesting.

I'm ready for this crap to be over...
 
You like that flora nectar? I was looking into that and will most likely use it the next go around, that or Sweet. Good fot the transition huh. Lucky you close to harvest. I am with you, way pumped on the next go around. Have to shoot for a total even canopy thats for sure. Are you going to harvest them all at the same time?
 
dogstick said:
You like that flora nectar? I was looking into that and will most likely use it the next go around, that or Sweet. Good fot the transition huh. Lucky you close to harvest. I am with you, way pumped on the next go around. Have to shoot for a total even canopy thats for sure. Are you going to harvest them all at the same time?
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I've pretty much harvested the Cali Dream that looked so funky. The other 3 will be flushed at the same time, but I'll go on a plant by plant basis for harvesting. I'm just watching trichs still. I really do hope to start flushing in the next couple of days.

I don't know about the Flora Nectar yet. Will have to see if it made a taste/smell difference after drying and curing. Smells pretty good in the bottle though.
 
Sorry for the delay, been busy. (And testing the early cuts...)

Feb 1 - Ran out of CO2; pretty good timing. Added 10ml Flora Bloom, 6ml Kool Bloom, and 6ml Flora Nectar in 2 gallons adjusted tap water.

Feb 2 - No news is good news.

Feb 3 - 0830: Drained and filled with 9 gal tap and 50ml Flora Kleen.
2100: Drained and filled with tap only.

Feb 4 - 0830: Drained and filled with adjusted RO and 50ml Flora Nectar.
2130: Realized I forgot to turn the RF spray back on 13 hrs ago...

Feb 5 - 0800: Temps, RH, pH all good. Added 2 gal adjusted RO.

Still very few amber trichs.
 
Finally dumped a bunch of pics from the camera.

Here's the Chronic Haze top I sampled on 1/15, after drying:
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Here's the CD top I took on 1/18. You can see how ugly it is.
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Getting close to winding this journal up. A bit more trimming and a lot of drying is all that's left. I'll weigh the various results as they finish drying.

Here's a cola I took this morning from the Chronic Haze in front:

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It weighed 4.2 oz. fresh and wet, so it'll be an ounce after drying, I guess.

Got one more main cola and stem to cut, doubt if I'll leave it in one piece. We'll see if it's worth taking pics of...
 
Dried weights turned out to be the following:

Cali Dream #1: 2.5 oz

Cali Dream #2: 1.6 oz

Chronic Haze #1: 5.2 oz

Chronic Haze #2: 1.5 oz

I rounded up for the oz. weights, plus I figure I smoked an ounce between Dec and now, so close to 12 oz for the 4 plants, which is about 4 times what I had hoped for. Big surprise is the Cali Dreams, which I thought were really light, maybe because they were cooked by the HPS the last half of the grow, turned out to be the densest. By volume, it's noticeably heavier than the Chronic Haze.

Smoke so far is all about the same, i.e. it takes one bowlful (small bubbler) to get me nice n high for a couple of hours. I've been watching bad movies while smoking the last month to sort of test how good the effects are... Preliminary results are excellent.

Life is good.
 
I was thinking about getting a RainForest 318, from what I can tell from the pictures you just had about 6 plants going right? Would it be better to just get a 66?

Is it possible to be able to get 18 plants from seed to flowering?
 
terwen said:
I was thinking about getting a RainForest 318, from what I can tell from the pictures you just had about 6 plants going right? Would it be better to just get a 66?

Is it possible to be able to get 18 plants from seed to flowering?
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I started with 6 plants, lost 2, ended up with 4. The grow I'm about to start will only have 3. There's room on the RainForest for more I guess, but my tent is just 5' x 5' and there wasn't enough room to get in and inspect the whole plants. I paid the price for that when my Cali Dreams both went hermie and pollinated themselves before I noticed it.

It doesn't matter whether you get a 66 or 318, the cup size doesn't matter, it's the area that each plant needs to produce that matters when deciding how many plants to run. I'm specifically going to try and make these next 3 plants put most of their effort into a main cola, keeping the plant footprint as narrow as possible. I'll be using 12/12 lighting from the beginning, and doing whatever training is necessary to keep the plants away from each other.

The reason I got a 318 instead of the 66 is that I could get the plants closer to the outside edge of the RF, giving them that much more room overall.

You could certainly put 18 plants at once in it, but you'd have to do something with them before they got to flower, because there just isn't room for that many plants to grow to maturity. I'll probably end up using the RF for experimenting with different strains and/or growing methods, and just make a bigger room for an Ebb & Gro to do my regular growing.
 
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