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

Big News for Lighting: field-induced polymer elecroluminescent (FIPEL)

I just read about this on Popular Science; essentially, it says that an old technology has finally been perfected that allows production of light panels that are tunable for intensity & color and is safer and cheaper than fluorescent AND LED.

Incredible!

Just think, 4x8 sheets of lights that work on any kind of voltage. It lasts a long time, too.

Watch this space.

 

[Aardvark]

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

New Years Update (sorry I am so late):

Wow, I find it hard to believe, but I guess it looks like I almost abandoned my grow journal - two months! I apologize for keeping anyone in suspense (which I doubt), but I need to wrap this one up soon and start my new one - which is already underway and I'll post a link to it here right after this post - I already took the pictures (see below later on).

Here's the current crop, the last plant to finish is the lonely one on the right:

Here are some close-ups:

What's been going on:
I had two very old plants that have been flowering for over 5 months! I had trimmed the buds off progressively as they matured, but all of the buds kept putting out new growth without any indication of stopping; look at the close-up shots; you can see the new pistils look fresh & green - I think its because it still has nutrients available in its root structure; that will probably change next week after it finishes the flush.

Anyway, I waited until the cloudy trichomes turned to amber and the last one should come down in a few days after the flush is done. That's the great thing about my 3-container system - I can isolate the nutrient solution between all three, or have them run 1, two or 3 together, depending on the valve control settings.

I have been growing some seeds that were the last of the Dutch Indica beans I had left from Sannie's, as well as a good assortment of seeds that I made last summer when I mixed the best of the best breeds and phenotypes. Almost all of them sprouted very nicely and thrived in the temporary sprouting soil mix.

After the seedlings were big enough to want more room for their roots, I pulled them from the soil, rinsed off the roots with fresh RO water and slitted some new Super Starter Plugs, laid the seedlings' roots down the center and inserted them in the 2" Net Cups - each trimmed for maximum room for root growth and planted back in the AeroCloner to keep vegetating until they get 12" high.

I did have some issues in that I believe it was a Calcium/Magnesium deficiency (see pictures), which I was able to quickly eliminate by adding the CaliMag concentrate. It lasted about two weeks before the spots disappeared from new growth; the fan leaves for 2 or 3 levels were affected.

One of the attributes I bred into the strain I am growing was for rapid growth, which I am getting from the oldest plants - they have all grown 3 times their original height when they were switched over to 12/12, some 5 weeks ago, so I hope they don't get much taller - that is a big hassle when the plants won't grow evenly.

Here are the pictures that I took since Thanksgiving - in order - I hope you like them; there will be many more hopefully as I get some clones going in a few days and the flowers start puffing up. Time to get the CO2 bottle filled! I am also going to try CannaJuice if I can collect enough leaves.

Cheers!
This shows the only issue I have seen so far - I think it was a Calcium/Magnesium deficiency:

They have cleared up now after adding some supplements.

I do have one really weird plant that looks like nothing I have ever seen before - see for yourself:

And here is my routine for replanting the seedlings:

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Aardvark]

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

Hey peeps, sorry I've been gone for so long; my garden is in it's second wind and I am just starting to harvest the plants that went into flower right at Christmas. I started them when they were about a foot tall between Christmas and New Years. I took one shorty down today; I see a few more will go another 2-3 weeks and I already have a batch of seedlings started.

I have been taking pictures all along and just need to reduce their size and upload them - which is the main reason I have been slacking off because I find it is more than a little awkward and time-consuming. So coming up in my next post is going to be a long string of annotated pictures taking you from Christmas to April --- really, I promise! Later today!

 

[KingJohnC]

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

glad your grow turned out well. you had a lot of problems when you brought outdoor plants inside, i would not do that again myself i learned a lesson as well that way.

 

[Aardvark]

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

OK, I am finally back online; my computer died about 3 weeks ago and I managed to rack up over 500 messages in my e-mail and I am still recovering files.

I did find them and have also harvested this batch, so I will definitely start a new thread after I finish this one up this weekend. There are hundreds of pics to sort through, reduce in size and post here in the library, then post here.

How I plan on doing this is to have a few more posts with:

All pictures and descriptions that describe the 3 month's flowering growth

My successful first attempt at Air Layering

Some stupid mistakes ("over-cooked" my great-looking clones)

Trimming the Girls at harvest time, drying & curing

Collecting all of the sugar trim & small branches, grinding & drying

Using some new (and expensive!) laboratory vacuum filter systems to extract Honey!

Did I surprise you with that last one? I ordered 2 kinds of glass systems (300ml & 1000ml capacity each) from an Indian glass company - even "free" samples cost me $265 for shipping! I also got a truly free disposable plastic model with built-in filter. This has a 300ml capacity for the weed.

The glass units have "fritted" filters, which allows the solution to osmose (under vacuum) through the pores of the glass and into a collection flask; one model uses a cheaper rubber stopper to connect filter to flask and the other uses a ground glass interface, but they both use the same fritted filter; I will insert a coffee filter on top of it to make cleaning easier.

The disposable unit has a poly-paper filter with half the sized pores (45 microns) of the glass units (92 microns); I need to determine whether these will successfully pass the dissolved THC & CBD for recovery, how efficient each type is and how much vacuum is required.

I will use an identical amount of mixed trim & trash buds to test each type (plastic or glass) in the 300ml size; I hope the disposable unit works because of the cost factors. If it works well, I will be putting together kits to sell here - I can become a real sponsor!

BTW, I will be using 200-proof grain alcohol for the solvent rather than Butane; this is for the sake of keeping it safe, but the system can also use Butane, Ether, or any other non-toxic, filtered solvent you can safely handle and dispose of. I decided on pure GA because if I want to keep some of the Honey in a dissolved state for future use & making alcohol-based extracts, the GA will be perfect for both. From what I have seen, once the Honey gets to the point of hardening into amber glass it is harder to work with.

Hell, everything is a first for me here, so please don't laugh too harshly at me!

Get ready for pictures!

 

[Sky Rocket]

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

Awwww shit lets see some pics. Btw you have been gone for a hot minute.

 

[Aardvark]

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

Finally! Believe it or not, this is the fourth time I have tried to finish this thread - the last time, it crashed because I tried to load too many pictures. This time, I am going to write my notes offline so I don't have to remember what the fuck I wrote before. I am essentially trying to complete the last of my #1.5 grow, which came about - as you have already seen before in the thread - that #1 was kind of messed up but like the Phoenix, rose from the ashes of defeat with some very tasty nugs.

I will post below in order what has been happening since the last post, with brief descriptions where necessary. I hope you enjoy the show and that I will be able to put up a decent #2 grow for everyone, which is already happening — almost time to make the switch to 12/12, actually and I have some decisions to make that I know you peeps will be able to help me with.

Progress from last post until now:
This is how I had set things up to root the seedlings and cuttings; the clones did extremely well, with prolific roots. Unfortunately, as I hear happens quite often to many, I was distracted at the wrong time and waited two days too long before replanting them or just changing the nutrient solution, and they died of root rot. It worked out fine, though because the experiment I did with Air Layering worked almost perfectly and they are thriving. I even have lots of Indica-dominant seedlings growing that I want to replant outdoors very soon to make room in the tent for the permanent residents. So I have more than enough to fill the tent on grow #2.

Here's how I got there.

One of the #1 stragglers; just waiting for the trichomes to mature.

Moved it over for better light exposure.

I had a couple late-bloomers pop up male; I wanted to keep some, but the cycles were too far apart and I don't have separate flowering areas, so I deferred until next time. The seeds I "made" in grow #1 turned out pretty good so far - I was going for a faster/bigger Indica dominant that grows like a Sativa - and it appears to have worked so far, judging from my rapidly-growing plants, including a potential Mother that I also might end up growing out LST style. Pictures to come at the end of this thread depicting what's happening for the new grow #2 of course.

I trimmed it up to the top, hoping I would be able to keep it, but it did not work out.

This is one of 2 or 3 strangely-growing plants (ruderalis?) that I grew from seeds that never grew any taller after the switch to 12/12. In addition, the leaves were stringy, like overcooked beans. The buds never developed, just some flowers. They looked like bonsai christmas trees. SInce they were of Dutch heritage, I decided they would be ground into bits en masse and dedicated to the extracts project - another first that I am desperately procrastinating on. Stay tuned.

My First-Time Ever "Air-Layering"

One of the Mother potential plants - the fast-growing Indica - was chosen to make some clones by Air-Layering, which is essentially making the plant grow roots around its trunk/branch no matter whether it is in the vegetative of flowering stage. It takes a full month to be sure, but I've seen it go faster. What I did was evaluate the locations, trim fan leaves to make it easier to work it and scraped the top layers off of the base of each stem, treated it with a gel-type cloning hormone and clamped a super starter plug around it that had been treated with a cloning hormone as well. I then wrapped a small plastic ziplock bag around the plug and used black duct tape to seal up the joints and block out the light. Finally, I pierced drain holes in each site and cut open watering/breathing holes, where I was able to water each site once daily with a 2ml dropper. After 3 weeks, I started snooping around for signs of roots and ruined one when I opened it up too soon. I waited another 10 days to make damn sure I had roots this time. But it did work, and even though the Mother plant had not fully transitioned from flowering back to vegetating, after anther 4 weeks they have all now done so and are growing out nicely. But that goes into my next journal #2.

Here are some shots of the flowering tent. One of the strange plants is in this one.

This is one of the first successful Air-Layering clones. They took several weeks to get through the root-generation, and a few more to complete the transition from flowering to vegetative growth. These plants are all about 20" tall now. I practiced patience and remained vigilant in my surveillance for bugs & such. I use Safer's organic, general-purpose garden spray or the 3-in-1 concentrate with pyrethrins, which are good for the critters I've seen so far - except for caterpillars, which take something else.

This plant was a Dutch Madonna strain and it turned out to be the nicest-looking plant overall, wit a cola bigger than my fist - my best so far, and mostly by accident, as I tried to kill my plants so many times it seems. In the end I was blessed with much more than I needed and have plenty left over to experiment with extraction techniques in my next thread.

Another shot of one of the strange, stunted plants.

More flowers.

Picture limits - look for the following post.

 

[Aardvark]

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

Continued ...

You will notice the leaves starting to turn yellow; this is from my having flushed the system with a very weak nutrient strength - less than 400PPM/TDS. I wanted to make sure the plants ate up all of the extra nutrients to keep the snap-crackle-pop to a minimum. It worked!

In the plastic bottles are the leavings - all of the sugar trim, B buds and otherwise bad-looking but good-smoking material, plus the few strange mutant plants - it all joins the leftovers from making Kief, and I have even added the Kief which I felt was too rough to keep for smoking, being too "green". It was my first attempt! At least I have not wasted anything - it will all go into the extracts ... coming up soon.

Nice-looking bud material, destined for the extracts.

Ground-up crazy plant.

Separated by Plant; I ended up getting mold starting in only one bag and quickly killed it by sticking it in the oven at 212 degrees (F) for 10 minutes - made the buds rock-hard and the mold just blew off the surface. The weed is a on-hit wonder, melting my face if I take too much (which is a third bong hit). That heat treatment must have Decarbed it perfectly. The rest of the weed cured nicely, although I have yet to perfect the art of getting the light-green color to stay in the buds. It all fades to darker tones - but as long as it stays this strong, why complain?

Fuckin A! Gotta keep up my strength! Freschetta rising crust with my added goodies - lean roast beef & 3 different extra cheeses.

Future extract material.

This is the setup for Grow #2 that you can think about:
I have one bushy female that I could use for a Mother, but I could also grow her out in a LST fashion – something I have never done myself yet – but the plant has already been growing sideways for 2 weeks and it is – despite the cracked branch/stem joint (my bad; it’ll heal), it looks like it could yield 12 or more colas if done right. We already know how I fuck up new things ‘cuz I gotta learn. So its either LST or stand it up right and grow it out, crowding the other plants in the tent, or I could trim it for some perfect clone cuttings. Since it is already vegging nicely (look at those roots, mon!), the cuttings should sprout healthy roots quickly.

This is it for tonight; I'll show you a bit more tomorrow, but first, here are some quick pictures of some of the laboratory glass I have acquired over the past few months; I am not finished collecting yet, but there a a couple more methods I want to be able to try with my accumulated cannabis.

This is a self-contained, disposable vacuum filter. Only comes in one filter size (45 microns), which might work if the solution is fine enough.

This is a glass vacuum filter. The cannabis is loaded in the to chamber - this shows a 300ml unit; I also have 1000ml units. The aluminum clamp shown holds the upper & lower glass pieces together; a filter/gasket may be used, but the lower half is equipped with a "fritted" glass filter, a permanently-fused glass "foam" that is equivalent to a 90-micron filter. This unit features a rubber stopper as the interface between the filter and the lower collection flask, which is connected to a vacuum/suction source. The cannabis is wetted with a solvent (Butane, ethanol, vodka, etc.) and the vacuum pulls the now-dissolved THC through the filters into the collection flask. Usually the solvent solution is recycled through the cannabis twice or more; after retrieving as much as possible, the solvent is now removed by whatever means are available and appropriate to the solvent you are using and the environment you are in.

I can also involve sources of vacuum, controlled heat and ventilation. There are also ready-made machines that perform these functions semi-automatically - just set the temperature, vacuum level and time. More on this in my subsequent threads.

This is the 1000ml unit mounted on the glass/glass collection flask. These are precision-ground glass interfaces that because of their design, do not leak under vacuum, yet they safely and gently "pop" the top off to vent when pressure is applied. That is why this setup would not be optimum for using pressurized filtered butane unless absolute control over the vacuum and supply sources is maintained.

The last method I will try (as soon as I find my old unit) is relatively easy, as it uses an off-the-shelf whipped cream dispenser powered by N2O whippets of nitrous oxide.

WARNING: DO NOT USE A GAS STOVE OR OPEN FLAME AROUND SOLVENTS. You are creating invisible, flammable gases in this process. If you can uses a vacuum source, make sure it vents to a safe area.

You could probably Google it and find out more before I am able to make another post. Using two whippet cartridges, add your cannabis to the stainless bottle, along with your solvent, seal it up, add two whippets and then immerse in 212 degree (F) water, agitating slightly for 10 minutes. Off-gas the nitrous (have fun, but don't hurt yourself!) and filter the solution into a Pyrex cake pan. Heat it over 120 water and the solvent will evaporate quickly at certain temperature points, depending on the solvent.

What you have leftover should be clear and colored like light maple syrup. It will harden and scraping it and folding it will induce small air bubble into it, causing it to become cloudy. The bad thing is that the oxygen will immediately begin to break down the compounds. This is why a vacuum source is so valuable because it sucks all the bubbles out of solution leftover from the evaporating solvent - sort of like a SCUBA diver gets the bends and is cured by manipulating partial pressures of the atmosphere.

OK, I did it! One more post here tomorrow (?) to wrap it up, then to create the new thread which will start with the current grow (#2), some LST, some outdoor seedlings and clones as well as indoor clones - for the long run. As soon as I get that started, I will do the extract operation using 3 different methods.

Did you know that you cannot purchase pure ethanol just anywhere? 200-proof grain alcohol is illegal in some states, including here in New England where it is illegal in MA, NH and ME, but not VT. I want to use a pure solvent but not butane because of my glass setup, but I have to go to Vermont to buy it at a liquor store, probably. Maybe I'll get my brother in law to get some at his college for me - he's a professor.

Thanks for watching the show!

 

[Aardvark]

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

Hello again! As promised, I am showing you the current setup to Grow #2.

First, the top side of the Mother/LST candidate. I described it above, but it is a hybrid I bred myself from a strong Indica strain "Madonna", crossed with a Sativa-dominant "Sannie's Jack" - bred to hopefully be extremely strong (22% THC according to the website in Holland) AND fast-growing. It looks like it worked so far, because I now have a great, strong Indica-dominant strain that grows tall like a Sativa and bushy like an Indica.

I can try to LST it in place, taking up 1/3 of the tent in its own grow box, or take lots of great cuttings to vegg some roots and then switch to 12/12 with the other clones that are almost ready. I have decided to take a couple of cuttings tomorrow no matter what so I can keep the strain going; I must quickly decide whether to take all of the plant for clones or grow it out. The decision time is upon me.


Enjoy the pics and look for a new grow thread soon.

 

[Aardvark]

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

I just purchased a 1000 Watt iPower Ballast & HPS bulb for a great price on Woot! - only $140 for the dimmable ballast AND the bulb, and I purchased a 6" vented reflector for $75 more. The nice thing about Woot! is that no matter how many items you purchase in a day, the shipping only costs $5 - for everything!

This is the garden after separating the shorter plants that need to keep vegging, as well as the seedlings, which are going outdoors - I might keep one or two inside to start flowering, though - I just started the lights on a 12/12 schedule this week

These are the plants (air-layed clones & seedlings) that need to vegg a few more inches, and most of them will go outside.

This is the ballast I just bought today from Woot!

Fully Dimmable!

The 1000 Watt bulb

I haven't been able to get myself any grain alcohol to make my extracts yet and am considering going with N-Butane instead since I can get it locally in a professional tank setup. If I can buy a pharmaceutical evaporator at a surplus auction, it will make it extremely simple no matter what solvent I use; check out this machine:

It is fully automated from what I see. Once the solvent has been run through the cannabis, fill the small bottles and place them in the tray (16 places). This is a spinning table - a centrifuge. that spins the bottles - the bottoms swing outwards, placing centrifugal force against the liquid, which is trying to expand due to the vacuum & temperature changes - the spinning force keeps the liquid compressed and expels the evaporated solvent.

So all I do is close the lid, turn on the vacuum pump and set the heater (uses heat lamps) to the temperature the solvent changes state from liquid to gas. After this process, the liquid is reduced to a thick honey-like consistency, which is basically all of the THC & CBD from the plant material. So I hope I can score this evaporator. The last one I saw on a similar auction two weeks ago went for over $500, which is too much for my budget. Even if I can't score this machine, I will still be doing the extraction - just a bit more simply and affordable.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[KingJohnC]

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

you could also use everclear 190-proof alcohol as your solvent readily available in the united states of America. it is commonly used for spray tinctures for cannabis.

 

[Aardvark]

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

I thought everclear was 200-proof grain alcohol, but that's OK. I can drive up to Vermont and get a couple liters of grain alcohol.

Thanks!

 

[Aardvark]

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

Fuck! My brother in-law just got back from Vermont but they would not sell Everclear to him - he is a 70+ year old college professor and the liquor store said that you have to be a state resident and fill out a form in order to purchase Everclear from a liquor store!

That means I will have to the extraction it with 151 proof, which makes it harder to dry out the extra water content under vacuum. Or go for the Butane method, which isn't really what my glass setup is made for. More decisions.

Here is my garden with the 1000-Watt HPS setup at about 6 weeks flowering (I dimmed it down to 60% for the picture); the left grow box is all one plant that I did a half-assed LST on by simply laying it over on it's side and letting the branches grow up like colas - it worked pretty well without putting much stress on the plant. The only downside is that it isn't as neat & organized as a real LST approach, but I didn't want to go through a "bonsai" grow where I needed to constantly bend, train & trim the plants because it slows down the grow so much.

The center box is six plants that are kind of scrawny and on the right is 5 plants. I did this because I wanted some genetic diversity in the crop so I could have a variety of medicines available, but I think just growing a single plant per grow space is the better approach. My next grow will be one plant per box.

Check out the size of the trunk on the LST plant - it is 3-4 times the size of the straight-up plants. Keep in mind that these all vegged for the same amount of time, give or take a week. Remember that big bunch of roots? It was this very plant; it is too heavy for me to lift the cover to inspect & photograph the roots, so we'll have to wait until after harvest to see what they look like.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Aardvark]

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

Please close this journal.

 

[kimmy]

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

Where you been ?

 

[Richard Richardson]

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

Thanks for sharing your grow with us, Aardvark.

I'm moving this to Completed Journals now.

Have you started a new grow you would like to share with us?

If so, please feel free to start a new journal here:
Journals in Progress

In the future, whenever you complete a journal, please use the Report Post feature found at the bottom left of every post, so we can be alerted to move it for you.

Hope all is well in your world.

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