2017, Pstarsr, Hydro Grow, Cabinet, CFL & LED Mix, Bag Seed

[Pstarsr]

2017 - Pstarsr - Hydro Grow - Cabinet - CFL & LED Mix - Bag Seed

It's been a flurry of activity this week it feels like. Again I'm running Ito space limitations. I was not happy how close it was getting to the CFL, I already burnt one fan leaf yesterday as it grew too close. So i out my lights in "full up" the LEDs can't go anymore up, the CFL "chandelier " thingy of course gave me trouble and I had to rig up a suspension rig with the ratchet pulleys I removed from the LEDs when I put them full up. Oh well, here's where it's gona sit for the next 3 weeks in flower. Hopefully stretch is over

Top of tub to top of plant is 17" right now

 

[Gauge Steel]

P,
Couple things GS for your headspace issues. First thing.. you can get a much thinner Rez. With just two plants you could get a 1.5-2 gallon Rez. It doesn't need to be any taller than about 4-5 inches tall. That's what I used for the first 7 weeks. The drawback is your spreading a thinner coating of water over a set dimension of space, so it heats and cools faster.
Your a great wood worker. Make a supplemental box the exact same dimension with an interior lip on the top side. Cut the bottom out of your current box and just slide it on top of the new box and you just made 3-4 feet of extra box. Hell make it double wide and make a clone chamber to the side. You got the skills.
Gauge.

 

[Pstarsr]

P,
Couple things GS for your headspace issues. First thing.. you can get a much thinner Rez. With just two plants you could get a 1.5-2 gallon Rez. It doesn't need to be any taller than about 4-5 inches tall. That's what I used for the first 7 weeks. The drawback is your spreading a thinner coating of water over a set dimension of space, so it heats and cools faster.
Your a great wood worker. Make a supplemental box the exact same dimension with an interior lip on the top side. Cut the bottom out of your current box and just slide it on top of the new box and you just made 3-4 feet of extra box. Hell make it double wide and make a clone chamber to the side. You got the skills.
Gauge.

I was just discussing that with another grower buddy. I might extend up and down, like might cut a sunroof for more height, and a "basement".
Thing to consider is the vent fan location, if I try to gain height above the fan, it will always be hot there as its creating a pocket for the hot air to get trapped. It might need a fan move also. And at that point, probably just build a new box.

The Rez, is only 1.5 gal. And I get the fact that with only one plant running I might be running thin nute solution for the area. I might track down a small Rez, maybe just a single bucket style.

I really wanted at least two plants going in here, but it's not like this plant isn't taking over the whole space. Since I don't have a seperate veg chamber I can't become "perpetual" so I have downtime between harvests. And run dry on meds, and have to supplement locally, which I would rather not do at this stage in my life.

Im constantly thinking of ways to get this into a self sustaining system, for both my use and the space. Really want to get better lights in here, maybe a Mars 48 reflector or something similar. But always hesitant about minimum heights for higher watts ( and led focal length etc ). Once I grow too tall, it's kind of a death song. I have to do something otherwise they cook. And the best flowers are the tops.

I think the next step is real seeds, feminized. so I stop having the delay for male/ female discovery. I'd like to LST and train as soon as possible, it helps with height constraints

And thanks for the compliment on the woodwork ( I'm not a carpenter by trade so thanks )

Whatever direction I go, I will document it in a journal that's for sure

 

[Gauge Steel]

We have the same box dimensions. Next grow I am going to get another Mars 48 reflector and fit it in sideways to my other. I will supposedly gain another 100 ish wattage. It's all French to me. All I know is I'm getting pretty decent bud formation with one now. Here is what my Growzilla looks like and it's two pieces.

They just add a piece of 1/2 "x 5" piece of plywood to the inside that acts as an inside collar or sleeve so the top and bottom slide together.
Hope this helps.
Gauge

 

[Pstarsr]

I was thinking about stacking like the growzilla, thanks for the info. Yea the Mars is doing pretty well for you, I'd like to try it.

 

[cbdstealth]

I really wanted at least two plants going in here, but it's not like this plant isn't taking over the whole space. Since I don't have a seperate veg chamber I can't become "perpetual" so I have downtime between harvests. And run dry on meds, and have to supplement locally, which I would rather not do at this stage in my life.

I think someone mentioned this earlier but you may want to look into taking cuttings. I just did them on my first grow and they turned out OK. I wasn't planning on it but the plant was dealing so well with the confined space I felt I had to try.

Supposedly branches lower down on the plant have a higher level of the hormone that enables them to form roots (I haven't verified this). I cut some branches just above the lowest branches while doing some defoliation right before flower and threw them in some plastic cups using Brita filtered tap water and vermiculite. The cups had holes in the bottom and sat in a shallow dish (maybe 3/4") of water and the vermiculite wicked water up from the dish so it never really dried up. I also watered from the top once a day just a little bit (maybe 1/8-1/4 cup). Cuttings don't need a lot of light so I rooted them using a single 6500k CFL at 24/0 in a cardboard bankers box. Nice thing about the cardboard box is I could cut a hole in the lid to position the CFL wherever I wanted.

Maybe just beginners luck but both cuttings took after about 7-10 days, then I gave them very mild nutes like 1/10th strength and transferred them to soil just after 2 weeks. Just after I transferred to soil I thought I had damaged the roots and they were both dying but surprisingly they both made it.

I don't know how cuttings would perform once you are in flower but you could try with one or two of the smaller branches, anything 6" long should be good.

Prepare a cup of wet vermiculite. Cut the branch from the plant and immediately submerge the cutting in a bowl of cold water. Then keeping any parts you cut/scrape under the water cut maybe an inch of the cut end at a 45 degree angle. *Lightly* scrap the flesh near the cut area (keep all of this under water) and cut (again underwater) any of the leaves 2-3" up the stalk. Finally, very quickly transfer the cutting from underwater to the cup of prepped wet vermiculite. Push the cut end 2-3" into the vermiculite, make sure any leaves cut off have the exposed ends in the vermiculite, push the vermiculite around the stem so any space made by pushing the cutting in is closed up. Now the cutting is ready and you want to give it indirect light for the next 7-10 days and keep the vermiculite moist.

They key in my opinion is when taking the cuttings to re-cut and scrape them entirely under water. Any time a cut portion is exposed to air it can form a gas embolism (air-blockage) which prevent the cut area from taking in more moisture and prevents the cutting from forming roots. I learned the cutting underwater thing from trying to make store bought flowers last as long as possible.

...I think I talk too much...

 

[Pstarsr]

2017 - Pstarsr - Hydro Grow - Cabinet - CFL & LED Mix - Bag Seed

Nute change, plant is 20" on the left. I had to tie down the branches on the right as they are still moving slowing up. Start of week 4

But lots of hairs filing in

 

[Pstarsr]

Good lord I'm running out of room! Argh. Constantly playing "push pull and move around"

Oh well, things still look good in there. They have only stretched about .5" this week. But still hope it stops all together soon.

This grow has gotten complicated, I have like two different "light areas" it seems. Probably because my CFL thing is blocking the other LED, I might have to lose that near the end of this cycle for more room. But it's gona suffer with less watts . Live and learn

 

[cbdstealth]

The space limitation is a tough one. Is there any way you can get the CFL "down into" the plant, or turn it the CFLs sideways? From my research the tough thing with CFLs is most of the light comes out of the sides so without having them sideways or using a reflector there can be a lot of lost light? Also, usable light starts droping off pretty quick so the CFLs need to be as close as possible (less than 6 inches, check the "Inverse Square Law of Light").

I understand it's kind of hard to make an adjustment like that this late in the grow and I'm sorry if I'm stating stuff you already know.

In my grow I have used mesh to pull the branches down into a shape similar to a bowl and my CFLs sit in the middle of the plant with branches growing around them. I have some parts (buds and leaves) maybe an inch from the CFL and they still don't get burnt.

 

[Pstarsr]

Not any room to move under the plant. I did more extensive training on other grows so I know what you mean. I was trying something different with this one. Just didn't expect the stretch to go for so long.

Right now the CFL is less than an inch from the plant. And yes I'm aware the CFL/ led have different distances for light intensity. Making due with what I got. Hopefully it doesn't screw me over this late in the game. Although I could remove the CFL thingie all together.

 

[Gauge Steel]

Keep working it P! I had a girlfriend like that before. She needed lots of attention. It was well worth it where it counted and I am sure your girl will be too. Have a great weekend and thanks for your help.
Gauge

 

[Pstarsr]

2017 - Pstarsr - Hydro Grow - Cabinet - CFL & LED Mix - Bag Seed

Nute change, hair cut. And some pics

This should be week 5 start. Couple weeks left

 

[cbdstealth]

She's looking good and healthy. It seems like the earlier "light drop" didn't have any long term side effects. Good to see.

 

[Gauge Steel]

Plant looks healthy. No burn or nuttin.!

 

[Pstarsr]

She's looking good and healthy. It seems like the earlier "light drop" didn't have any long term side effects. Good to see.

The branches that broke seems to "knuckle" and heal. So yea that's good.

I'm burning the tips of leafs when they get too close to the CFL, so I just trim it off.

I'm starting to get ancy for harvest!

 

[Pstarsr]

 

[Pstarsr]

Ending week 6, starting week 7 tomorrow ( I had previously thought it was week 5)

I have one more week of nutes, tapered down slightly. Then week 8 will be flush. It's getting stinky in there, and I had to adjust the lights for a bit more room

 

[Pstarsr]

Some natural light pictures while I exchanged nutes and did some trimming

 

[DesertStoner9]

Re: 2017 - Pstarsr - Hydro Grow - Cabinet - CFL & LED Mix - Bag Seed

Looking beautiful! They look really frosty.
Does it have a strong smell?

 

[Pstarsr]

Re: 2017 - Pstarsr - Hydro Grow - Cabinet - CFL & LED Mix - Bag Seed

Looking beautiful! They look really frosty.
Does it have a strong smell?

Yea it's a bit stinky, smells like citrus/ skunk. Not horrible, and I don't filter for smell as it's never over powering.

The trichomes are really starting to fill in and cover the flower.

Excited for harvest