Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero-DWC

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Aardvark

That looks to me to be bud rot on your plant. The cobweb looking stuff is it ... if left untreated it can quickly take your whole crop.

Hey Buckshot, that was the only plant showing the white stuff - it was outside and no, the white stuff is highly-concentrated Trichomes - I used my 30x microscope to be sure. I think the camera flash may have reflected off the shiny Trichomes; I have only seen this kind of concentrated THC in a picture once a long time ago. But you think it is bud rot?

It sure made me high as a kite when I scraped it off my shears after trimming.

 

[Buckshot]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Caterpillar Update:

This is "I think" is bud rot. Don't smoke it.

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

OK, I thought you were talking about the white buds.

Yes, when I inspected the plants for the caterpillars, I found these dead flowers in random places where their base stem had been chewed on and sucked dry, as well as I think where their eggs had hatched from. They had started to mold and I plucked each one off, leaving room for airflow and there were never any more than a single flower affected, so I don't believe it will spread from those points.

Do think these are fair assumptions?

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Cross-posted from Buckshot's journal about my inquiring about rogue "virgin birth" seeds on otherwise healthy all-female flowering plants:

Yea, that's probably how I remember this, but it was so long ago that I had forgotten it until seeing it for myself in my first grow. It was so long ago I can't even be sure that I did read about it; hell, the way the mind works and being so susceptible to manipulation, I am just going to say that I saw it for myself for the first time this season and it was consistent in some ways.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, either - so I am really sorry, Buckshot - I was just hoping you might know how to refer to this "virgin birth" because you seem to be such a wealth of valuable information and have a long-running journal with a lot of great contributors that I hoped someone else woud be able to add their experience to the mix and we could all learn something new.

Essentially, these occur where the female pistillate forms and the two hairs pop out; however, sometimes they turn brown and get hard, having a seed inside. It has consistently happened right under the main cola, and sometimes repeats down the trunk by one or more nodes.I have not tried to germinate any yet and that is the next step. I am unsure whether these will be viable because the ones I pulled today were tan mono-colored, rather than the healthy tiger striped pattern I am used to seeing. Wouldn't it be neat if I had a phenotype that produced a few feminized, auto-flowering seeds with each plant?

Anyway, I am going to carry this over to my journal, so if anyone knows what this condition is called, please enlighten us.

Buckshot, thanks for being the gracious host! I am looking out for that potential bud rot problem, thanks to you. I was looking for brown-colored dead buds - not the white fuzzy kind and am treating it with H202.

Here are the pictures I posted over on Buckshot's journal - I feel so bad about hijacking it!

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero: Bad News Again

Well, this grow has again gone downhill. I have been feeling poorly for the past 10 days, with a painful back with complimentary nausea. My garden suffered a devastating attack of spider mites - immediately after I had been concentrating on those pesky caterpillars. I had never known about spider mites but learned quickly enough and got some SNS-217. I will see if it will kill the mites, but for many of my cloned females it was too late.

A few days ago I discovered that my hydro pump had run all night w/o a break, but the plants looked dehydrated - the mites had flourished I guess. I was also seeing gnats and the roots were looking too dark, so I decided then and there to install my new grow boxes - the originals were leaking badly. I installed all three new boxes, all w/valves at each drain and supply (so I can isolate them in the future) and transplanted the girls, but they have suffered badly.

The mature plants in the pots have been spared from the hydro problem, but are still ripe with spider mites; I sprayed them up & down w/SNS-217 yesterday and so far this evening, I think the mites are still living, so a second treatment will probably be necessary in a few days. An amazing thing that I discovered today was a plump ladybug munching away - I wish there were a hundred more, but then I would have a different problem - 100 ladybugs in my house!

So, I am resigned to the fact that most of my clones are a lost cause - there aren't any green leaves left for the plants to eat with, so I am planning on cutting them down in a few days, breaking off the useless dried up leaves and putting the little buds in a paper bag to cure, then a sealed jar, etc. If any of it looks like it won't be worth curing for smoke, then I will definitely recycle it into a batch of dry ice hash.

I am going to start a new batch of seeds, find the females, make some clones and do it all over again. It is depressing to think that I am three months away from being able to start a new crop, but I don't know anywhere I can get clones and don't even think I would want to experiment with yet more strains because I certainly have enough to keep me busy.

Here are a few pictures of the new setup; the mature plants in the middle will be OK, but only a few of the clones have enough green leaves to keep growing, although they may be stunted. I sure have done some stupid things in this grow, so I hope it means my next effort will be relatively clean due to all the hard lesons learned this time.

My next update will be in a week after determining what is viable or not.

 

[Buckshot]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero: Bad News Again

What is your preferred method of determining the time of harvest?
... Without referring to a farmer's almanac, of course.

A cannabis plants medicinal properties change as it grows older. You have to know your ladies. You are already cloning and keeping them going so soon you will know them. Take a branch at whatever time and leave the rest, cure both early and late and try them against each other.

Here are the pictures I posted over on Buckshot's journal - I feel so bad about hijacking it!

Don't feel bad at all!!! Anybody can post as they wish in my journal (within reason! )

Well, this grow has again gone downhill.

Wow! that is a bummer, sorry you had so much trouble. I hope you have killed those buggers and wish you luck going forth

You have such pretty plants, I hope you can save some clones

Good Luck

 

[kimmy]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Hello Aardvark,
You told me to check out your journal over in Android's thread last week. I just finished with the whole thing. I had to take it a few pages a day on top of the ones I am subbed to. You very first page was rather impressive. Lots of pics and you wasted no time in getting your hydro set up,-nice ! I was very disappointed to see how you ended up on the last page. Damn spider-mites !!

I got my sprayers that we were talking about. They are the little 7-11 gpm blue ones like you posted a few pages back. I like the looks of the other ones that you said you found a good deal on. Can you post the links on here or in a PM. Thanks in advance. I will stay subbed here to watch your progress as I plan on switching to hydro soon. Even though I plan on going with a Stinkbud type aero, I might make a copy of yours for a few mums in the veg room.

I worked on the aerocloner yesterday and hope to finish it today. All that is left to do is cut the holes in the lid. The rest is ready and spraying. I can hardly wait to use it ! TTYL

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

YAY! Massachusetts approves MMJ!

Yes, I live in both Maine and Massachusetts, and now I won't have to sweat it when in MA. The system works sometimes.

Hey Kimmy, thanks for being so studious about reading - no, digesting my grow journal. I even gave you some Rep! I will PM you with the supplier info, too. I am unfamiliar with the "Stinkbud" type aero you mentioned - what is that about? I hope you take some pictures of your work because I love to see how creative people can be by combining the lessons learned from other people - that's the way I do it. That, and a hell of a lot of mistakes.

I have harvested two of the mature plants because it was time - plus, I had accidentally broken the cola from one that was really ready anyway. I trimmed the buds off and chopped up the loose ones for the coming batch of dry ice hash and was able to retrieve a half-dozen "virgin birth" seeds from under a few of the buds. Virgin birth seeds are named by yours truly for the seeds that turn up under the flowers without being pollenated. I think it is a survival instinct thing and would like to know more about this phenomena because I think it is pretty cool when you think about it. Shit, they could even be "feminized" for all I know.

The other three are the best of the best, with two of them having very nice, hard cola-buds that are good-sized as well. The older clones that had been damaged by the spider mites (and survived) will also yield nice, albeit smaller versions af those hard buds. There are two plants that are growing well enough that I think reducing them to clones mothers would be best because of their too-tall stretched height. I'd rather take some cuttings and start them over at 8"-12".

I also sprouted some Indica-dominant seeds into super starter plugs and will be growing them simultaneously with any clones that I will take. If I can get a job I will be able to pay for another tent setup to expand the hydro system by another 6 grow boxes in a 5' x 5' tent. Then I could have a serious rotating/perpetual grow with dedicated mothers.

I wanted to post some pictures for your review, but there is something haywire with the website and will have to pile them on a little later when it is resolved.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[kimmy]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Hey Kimmy, thanks for being so studious about reading - no, digesting my grow journal. I even gave you some Rep!

It was my pleasure. Thanks for the reps. I went back and repped your first post. You got this journal off to a good start with that one. White roots on the first post is a good sign that it will be a good read. Lots of quality pics I might add. I may have questions about your settup later....

I am unfamiliar with the "Stinkbud" type aero you mentioned - what is that about?
Stinkbud was a guy that made plans for a home-made aero system that is very much like the General Hydroponics Aeroflow system. It is made using fence posts and PVC pipes for the framing. Stinkbud had a following on other websites and they called themselves Stinkbuddies. They even had their own site for a long while. It is pretty well archived here:

hXXp://web.archive.org/web/20110207235334/新利18luck网站-18luck新利手机版-18luck新利app

A guy named ACGrow-Brain brought the concept to this site here:
Harvest a pound every three weeks! The Stinkbud way

Read the first few pages at least and tell me what you think!

I hope you take some pictures of your work because I love to see how creative people can be by combining the lessons learned from other people - that's the way I do it. That, and a hell of a lot of mistakes.

You are so right! Inovation at its best. We all change things to suit our particular needs.

I wanted to post some pictures for your review, but there is something haywire with the website and will have to pile them on a little later when it is resolved.

Thanks for stopping by!
I am subbed and will check them out later..

Cheers

 

[Buckshot]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

YAY! Massachusetts approves MMJ!

Yes, I live in both Maine and Massachusetts, and now I won't have to sweat it when in MA. The system works sometimes.

I am happy for you!!

Is the Mass. laws the same as Me ? Very restrictive!!

Two states have legalized!! WooHoo!!! NOW we are talking!!

It is too bad Obama has stated he and his administration are against it

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

I just thought of a new catch-phrase after hearing about the legalization of Weed for recreational use in two states:


Let My People Grow!

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Hey Peeps!

I am FINALLY getting some potential job interest - after being out of work since August 2011 - and I'll be working over 1.5 hours away if I get the contract, so I don't think I could bear the commute every day with my chronic pain. I will have to rent an apartment down there and come home on weekends to tend my garden and visit my mom in the nursing home.

Do you have any experience in "unattended gardening"? My pumps, lights & CO2 run on cheap timers; the CO2 doesn't last very long in a 16 pound tank, so I think I must be wasting it. It may just be time to invest in an "automatic" grow room controller. I have done a lot of research in this area and my priorities are reliability, ease of use and reliability. Even though the timers are analog, I believe the C.A.P. Xtreme Greenhouse Controller (XGC1-e) is going to give me the best capability in an "all my eggs in one basket" system.

I just cannot ignore the great price being offered on this unit; for only $420 (Hah!), I can get a refurbished unit w/5-year warranty, which is less than half the price of a new unit. Since it will handle the hydro pump cycle timing with even better adjustability than I currently have, regulate temperature and humidity, plus manage the CO2 levels (while not wasting it by delayed cycling of the fans). I can't think of anything else I would need for my flowering tent.

Does anyone have any experience with the C.A.P. Xtreme controller?

I will have to abandon my grow tent during the week, depending entirely upon the timers, electric power grid and the winter weather. The garden could go from green & thriving on Sunday, to dead & shriveled by the time I make it back on Friday - pretty scary.

I would appreciate anone sharing their own experience in this kind of situation, because if you've read my previous entries, I could really use the help when confronted with something new like this.

 

[kimmy]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

I have thought about things like this and I don't like to "put all my eggs in one basket". My lights are on individual Sun Leaves digital timers with battery back-up. They make different models and mine are the higher watt ones. They are real good in price though. I have a line voltage baseboard heater type thermostat controlling a milk-house heater that only runs if temps fall during the day(lights out). I have exhaust and intake fans on a separate thermostat that is ran through a relay. If I had CO2, the timer for it could be ran to the other side of the relay to power it up when the fans are off.

When I go aero, I plan on getting an adjustable cycle timer that will be fed from a battery back up system made for large computer systems. I will run a power strip out of the timer. To the power strip I will run a line for each pump through a GFCI so that if one trips the others will be isolated.

Since you are going to be away for long periods on a regular basis, you might want to spend a few extra dollars and check out a grotronix system. It is PC based and controls external modules for everything including CO2 and cameras that can be controlled by your smart phone or another PC from far away. You could look in on them to make sure that they are not,"dead & shriveled by the time I make it back on Friday" That system looks so cool, but it is way overkill for someone like me....

 

[kimmy]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

The grotronix also sends you messages if you want it to regarding the grow if for some reason something in there fails. I am paranoid and would want the PC controlling the op to be a laptop on a battery backup as well. If the power went down the laptop would still have a few hours to stay up even if the backup system had depleted its battery.

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

The grotronix also sends you messages if you want it to regarding the grow if for some reason something in there fails. I am paranoid and would want the PC controlling the op to be a laptop on a battery backup as well. If the power went down the laptop would still have a few hours to stay up even if the backup system had depleted its battery.

I will check it out this weekend; thanks for sharing the information. I have checked several avenues of automation and am feeling some regret that I got out of that business many years ago. I used to be a project manager for an energy-management company in the DC area; the system worked on modems (see wikipedia for this arcane technology) and controlled all of the schools in Montgomery county, MD, as well as half the office buildings in downtown DC. At the time, I could program the system to respond to any number of environmental conditions and I was able to control every aspect, both automatically and with manual intervention.

It was a very simple system architecture and I really enjoyed the amount of automation it was capable of, especially in standalone situations. This kind of technology is still available, although buying an 8-channel relay control board, serial controller and the various sensors required are a bit pricey these days, and they are usually based on the newer "Arduino" technology, something I have never picked up because I turned into a dinosaur. The sensors required for a complete stand-alone system are not cheap. I saw an aquarium environmental control system a couple months back that looked promising, but it was not economically competitive with a real garden system.

 

[Buckshot]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

I would appreciate anone sharing their own experience in this kind of situation, because if you've read my previous entries, I could really use the help when confronted with something new like this.

Congratulations! It is tough to get work in these times. There are many ways to control your grow "from away" and have redundant power. It is all based on how much you want to spend.

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Congratulations! It is tough to get work in these times. There are many ways to control your grow "from away" and have redundant power. It is all based on how much you want to spend.

Hey Buckshot, thanks for the congrats, although it is a bit premature; the contract has not yet materialized yet, but the client that had previously rejected me because my rate was too high changed their mind and asked whether I was still available - the best sign I have seen in a long while.

I have been up all night making dry ice hash - another first for me - and have not had a chance to check out the Growtronix website yet, but the good news is that I recovered a lot of nice-looking and smoking dry ice hash. Pictures will be uploaded imminently.

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's 1st Grow: Night of the Dry Ice Hash

Welcome Back, My Friends!

Thank you in advance for returning to my first grow journal. I am very pleased at this point, even though this grow has gone through its share of disappointments lately. Everyone has been a great help in technical and moral support and I hope I can return the favor and spread the love in return.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dry Ice Hash Night:
I finally did it, on a whim - it was Friday night, I was in the neighborhood and they closed in 30 minutes, so I picked up 10 pounds of dry ice locally - they cut a block from a big chunk with a sawzall into a 13 pound block that cost me $16, based on a 10-pound piece. I had already bought (from an Amazon Vendor months ago) an 8-bag set of silk screen hash-recovery bags in the 1-gallon size and they worked very well - and I only had to use two of them - although I could have probably gotten away with only one.

I also got from an Amazon vendor a small "Pollen" hand press made in India; although it worked most of the time I don't like it very much because the aluminum threads are galling and getting stuck. It needs to have better threads or anti-seize compound, which I don't want in my hash!

The raw material I am using is comprised of sugar trim plus all of the buds harvested from the damaged plants that had been salvaged that were not anything special to look at, the buds from the seed-mothers and the buds from mature plants from outdoors. Essentially, any buds that were (IMHO) too loose to retain as good-looking smoke material. Some of the buds were larger but still loose, so they were all chopped up so they would dry out faster, even though that doesn't matter a bit when using the dry ice method because all of the water content instantly changes state from solid to vapor - "freeze-drying" is great for this.

The majority of the dead plant's buds were popcorn-sized. Keeping loose buds for smoke is not anything I would want to be proud of or show off, given that I have two remaining mature plants featuring very nice-looking and compact bud/colas that will satisfy my desire for premium "A" buds, as well as several surviving plants from the clones I started two months ago.

I have not tried to smoke any of this because it is all still 4 weeks away from being cured properly, but when I tried a match-head sized hit of the resin I scraped off my clippers, I was high for a solid two hours, similar to a good clean hash high, which BTW is my favorite method of smoking. Am I a picky asshole for being so picky about what I keep for smoke? Maybe anal-retentive sounds better.

I decided to run the stuff through my Ninja blender in the hope that the finer material would give up the Trichomes more quickly - I didn't like the idea of manually shaking the bags for too long 'cause of my bad back. In this case, there was a fair amount of dust left in the blender - maybe Trichomes, maybe powdered leaves, so I tried my best to squeegee it out into the bags.

It was very sticky stuff and remember, this is all in the realm of doing this for the first time. I have two containers of this mixture; this tub weighed 43.03 grams and it had been sitting in a paper bag in a dark cupboard for about a week and would probably make a humidity gauge say 50%. The other tub is probably half of that; I decided to save a little, just in case I somehow ruined the first batch.

The raw buds go directly from the blender into the first bag, layering shaved and chipped dry ice with the blended buds from the blender into first the red, 160-Micron silk screen. I shook it by hand over a glass storm window (yes I cleaned it first) for about five minutes between breaks and scooped up the results into separate piles. The first pile was perfectly blonde, being the highest quality. The other piles each got slightly darker as I went on, especially when I switched to the orange 120-Micron bag. The yield weighed 14.88 grams, which is a 34% recovery rate - that seems damn good to me because I never would have thought that a bud's weight was 1/3 Trichomes. The larger-screen-sized bag would have let a little of the vegetable matter through and that's why it was a bit darker, but I doubt it is a significant amount added. The recovered weight # will be skewed by the fact that all of the remaining moisture was extracted, too.

The great thing is that I only did a bit more than 1/2 of the stash so far because being my first time, did not want to screw up everything at one sitting. Since I was so happy with my yield and quality, I went ahead and "processed" the other tub this morning. It was not that much raw material as last night's, but the yield was just as successful. Although I did not weigh all of it before processing, I am very happy with every aspect of this project - except that I broke the storm window when cleaning it because the frame separated and the glass fell out in the tub (Dohhh!).

I took all of the remaining dry ice I had left and put it into the sealed grow tent to boost the CO2 PPM. Overall, the only minor problems I had were the aforementioned broken glass, the sticky threads on the press, a very fine dusting of Trichomes gets everywhere it seems and finally, I did not have suitable containers to store the good stuff. No drama, no problems.

Overall, I would definitely say that this stage of my Weed education was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy! The 120-Micron bag lets in too much vegetable matter, so when using it, the raw material should be dried & cured completely unless you want your hash to taste & smell like alfalfa. Otherwise, the 160-Micron bag keeps out the green stuff. I suppose that a 180-Micron size would be very discriminating and produce very clean hash, but for my tastes, it would be unnecessary. Maybe I'll see what it produces in the future.

Piles of Trichomes, anyone? PLEASE let me know what you think. I would especially like to know anything you know about preserving this precious stuff. I am looking into "Decarboxylation" to see whether I should be doing this to some or all of the stuff; I had hoped that by compressing it, it would help it last longer before going "stale".

I also want to adapt my portable sabre saw to hold a one-gallon bucket in a "shaker" assembly; I need to do some welding and determine whether which plane to shake it on (up/down or back & forth). This could also be done with a sawz-all. The alternative is to buy an electric flower sifter and change the stock 90-Micron screen to 160 or higher.

BTW, all of this was grown with a minimum of fan leaves - defoliation works!

WARNING: Lots of Images Below: Piles of Smiles - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did in making it:

 

[BudTester420]

Holy sh*t, that's awesome bro. Great work.

 

[Aardvark]

Re: Aardvark's New Grow 12 Hybrid Dutch Strains - Seed-SoG-Tent - 600W CFL Hydro-Aero

Hey thanks for your interest and compliments. Don't forget to "Like" or "Subscribe" if you want updates like this one.