My plan is for a 4 ft x 4 ft x 6.5 ft grow tent.
1 tent for start to finish from seed.
1 600 watt MH and 1 400 watt cmh for veg.
1 600 watt HPS and 1 400 watt cmh for flower.
4 inch can fan/filter
1 each 6 inch air cooled hood and cool tube
16 inch oscillating fan
5 gal landscaping pots
Pro-Mix MX
Osmocote Plus
SSU during the last 6 weeks of flower
Seeds:
Acapulco Gold seeds. The seeds are from a hippy grower near Acapulco Mexico who has had the strain in cut form since the mid-sixties which puts it in the correct time frame for an original cut. I met this guy while backpacking the area and smoked a bit with him. It's by far the best smoke I've had the pleasure of sampling in more than 15 years of smoking. Therefore I am pretty sure I am getting close to the original genetics. He used colloidal silver to produce some seeds and I managed to attain several samples. AG is a sativa dominant hybrid and therefore will take quite a while to flower indoor. From my talks with the Breeder, it can take as long as 24 weeks indoors after the 12/12 flip using a traditional veg/bloom schedule of 18/06 or more veg and 12/12 bloom. That's close to 30 weeks for a indoor grow. OUCH!
Here is the part where advice would be most appreciated, although the critique of the grow room will help with design and will help too.
I may have of a way of shortening that time to around 16 weeks total.
This is important because of my location. It's incredibly hot here and the winter is the only time I can grow due to heat issues.
The plan: Stage Light schedule
Week 0: Germination 12/12
Week 1: Seedling 12/12
Week 2: Mild growth 12.5/11.5
Week 3: Growth 13/11
Week 4: Growth 13/11
Week 5: Growth 13.5/10.5
Week 6: Growth 13.5/10.5
At the end of week 6 I would switch bulbs to the 600 watt HPS and leave the CMH bulb as is.
Week 07: Stretch 13/11
Week 08: Stretch 12.5/11.5
Week 09: Bloom 12/12
Week 10: Bloom 12/12
Week 11: Bloom 12/12
Week 12-week 16 would be on a schedule decreasing in 30 minute increments down to a 10/14 schedule.
My theory is that I can fool the plant into thinking the seasons are passing faster by just following the schedule of the sun at the parent location in a faster version. What would take 3 weeks will be shortened 1 week in my "equator simulator". I will mimic the humidity, ranging it from 70% during early lights on to 99% during the "early afternoon" period back down to 50% just before lights off to duplicate environment. Temperature and light will be treated in a similar fashion and schedule using a light wheel and a thermostat inside the tent to control AC unit in order to best simulate what is available at the parent location. CO2 will be kept at 900 ppm. (This is the only alteration to the plants natural environment where CO2 levels max out at about 450 ppm.)
Other environmental factors include location:
I am growing in a semi-insulated garage that currently reaches 100 degrees in the day without the AC unit running. I can keep the tent interior with lights on at temperatures ranging from a max of 94 and a low of 72 during lights off with humidity ranging from 99% down to 45%. I know this sounds like a high range but for my needs it is fine. I will assume that the plant has some natural resistance to mold since I am merely mimicking the natural environment of the plant?
How would I set up the ventilation on the lights and still keep them on the light wheel? No matter how I imagine it, I would either have to forget ventilation, which would drive my need for the AC beyond what the AC is capable of or I would have to forget the light wheel. A rail is not possible due to the 4 x 4 footprint combined with the use of 1 air-cooled and 1 cool-tube for the hoods. As you can see, even with the use of my AC, temps are barely kept identical to their natural environment, so the AC is go/no go issue since without it I am looking at temps hitting as much as 120 degrees.
Will I sacrifice quality by trying to shorten the grow time almost in half? Has anyone tried following the light schedule of the sun for a strain with a known origin? If so how did it turn out? I have spent a lot of time chasing this strain and only have a limited number of seeds. 20 to be exact. I had to agree not to clone the strain as to secure its rarity before I could even get these. I really don't want to ruin a plant I will only get one shot at, but it is not possible to grow it for a full 30 weeks here. The temps would be out of my control with my lights on in the summer.
Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated
I can add pictures when i get around to taking them but I hope I have explained my idea enough to at least give a sense of what I am attempting.
Thanks for looking and reading a wall of text.
1 tent for start to finish from seed.
1 600 watt MH and 1 400 watt cmh for veg.
1 600 watt HPS and 1 400 watt cmh for flower.
4 inch can fan/filter
1 each 6 inch air cooled hood and cool tube
16 inch oscillating fan
5 gal landscaping pots
Pro-Mix MX
Osmocote Plus
SSU during the last 6 weeks of flower
Seeds:
Acapulco Gold seeds. The seeds are from a hippy grower near Acapulco Mexico who has had the strain in cut form since the mid-sixties which puts it in the correct time frame for an original cut. I met this guy while backpacking the area and smoked a bit with him. It's by far the best smoke I've had the pleasure of sampling in more than 15 years of smoking. Therefore I am pretty sure I am getting close to the original genetics. He used colloidal silver to produce some seeds and I managed to attain several samples. AG is a sativa dominant hybrid and therefore will take quite a while to flower indoor. From my talks with the Breeder, it can take as long as 24 weeks indoors after the 12/12 flip using a traditional veg/bloom schedule of 18/06 or more veg and 12/12 bloom. That's close to 30 weeks for a indoor grow. OUCH!
Here is the part where advice would be most appreciated, although the critique of the grow room will help with design and will help too.
I may have of a way of shortening that time to around 16 weeks total.
This is important because of my location. It's incredibly hot here and the winter is the only time I can grow due to heat issues.
The plan: Stage Light schedule
Week 0: Germination 12/12
Week 1: Seedling 12/12
Week 2: Mild growth 12.5/11.5
Week 3: Growth 13/11
Week 4: Growth 13/11
Week 5: Growth 13.5/10.5
Week 6: Growth 13.5/10.5
At the end of week 6 I would switch bulbs to the 600 watt HPS and leave the CMH bulb as is.
Week 07: Stretch 13/11
Week 08: Stretch 12.5/11.5
Week 09: Bloom 12/12
Week 10: Bloom 12/12
Week 11: Bloom 12/12
Week 12-week 16 would be on a schedule decreasing in 30 minute increments down to a 10/14 schedule.
My theory is that I can fool the plant into thinking the seasons are passing faster by just following the schedule of the sun at the parent location in a faster version. What would take 3 weeks will be shortened 1 week in my "equator simulator". I will mimic the humidity, ranging it from 70% during early lights on to 99% during the "early afternoon" period back down to 50% just before lights off to duplicate environment. Temperature and light will be treated in a similar fashion and schedule using a light wheel and a thermostat inside the tent to control AC unit in order to best simulate what is available at the parent location. CO2 will be kept at 900 ppm. (This is the only alteration to the plants natural environment where CO2 levels max out at about 450 ppm.)
Other environmental factors include location:
I am growing in a semi-insulated garage that currently reaches 100 degrees in the day without the AC unit running. I can keep the tent interior with lights on at temperatures ranging from a max of 94 and a low of 72 during lights off with humidity ranging from 99% down to 45%. I know this sounds like a high range but for my needs it is fine. I will assume that the plant has some natural resistance to mold since I am merely mimicking the natural environment of the plant?
How would I set up the ventilation on the lights and still keep them on the light wheel? No matter how I imagine it, I would either have to forget ventilation, which would drive my need for the AC beyond what the AC is capable of or I would have to forget the light wheel. A rail is not possible due to the 4 x 4 footprint combined with the use of 1 air-cooled and 1 cool-tube for the hoods. As you can see, even with the use of my AC, temps are barely kept identical to their natural environment, so the AC is go/no go issue since without it I am looking at temps hitting as much as 120 degrees.
Will I sacrifice quality by trying to shorten the grow time almost in half? Has anyone tried following the light schedule of the sun for a strain with a known origin? If so how did it turn out? I have spent a lot of time chasing this strain and only have a limited number of seeds. 20 to be exact. I had to agree not to clone the strain as to secure its rarity before I could even get these. I really don't want to ruin a plant I will only get one shot at, but it is not possible to grow it for a full 30 weeks here. The temps would be out of my control with my lights on in the summer.
Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated
I can add pictures when i get around to taking them but I hope I have explained my idea enough to at least give a sense of what I am attempting.
Thanks for looking and reading a wall of text.
