DarkStar Project - Advanced Growing

[Mr Smith]

Pic on 10/12

And this is a pic on 10/15

I took the time to try and take pics of a preflower from each darkstar mum. It was difficult and I had the remove some leaf that got in the way.
Darkstar mum 1

Darkstar mum 2

 

[Mr Smith]

We are almost to the good stuff. Sorry but vegging a mum is kinda boring, even with the beating I gave them but they come back strong real fast.

 

[Mr Smith]

On 10/16 I decided to start the clones. This round I will be using the botanical powercloner 45. I like powercloners because of how simple it makes the cloning process. I need a good number of clones and I need the clippings to have a strong root structure in 2 weeks and once its setup I don't want to have to do much else but wait for them to root. If you don't have a cloner and you don't want to by a ready made system here is a link to a very decent diy cloner made by 420fied.DIY 50 site aero cloner for under $100.00
This is how I clone. I set up the cloner and fill it with 7 gallons of water. I used rodi water but that was because I had no tap water that has been sitting for over 24 hours. I add my nutes which was 150ml of clonex cloning solution. This put my ppm to 600. I then added 2.5ml per gal of dynagro protek. Afterwards I set my ph to 5.5 and rechecked after the machine's been running for 15 minutes. You can use any cloning or rooting solution except for olivia's. Olivia's clogs misters and should only be used with a medium like rockwool and is nogood for powercloners.
After the nutes and ph has been set I turn the machine completely off. and get ready to take my clippings from the mums.

I take a 2by4 and measure and mark it. This is my cutting board. I take my clipping with scissors and then I use my cutting board and a clean razor to thin it and make my bottom cut. The bottom cut can be angled or straight but has to be a clean cut. I cut my clipping between 3 and 4 inches. 3 inches works great.

I very lightly and I must stress lightly scrape the bottom stem wall with the razor and put it in my cloning gel. You have to use a cloning gel, cloning powder is for when putting clones into medium and does nothing in a powercloner. I just leave the clipping in the cloning gel container until I have enough clippings to fill a row. Then I load the clippings into the machine with it still turned off. I won't turn on the machine until it full of clippings. This gives clipping more time to absorb the gel. I am using root tech cloning gel but clonex and other products also work well.

As soon as the machine is loaded I turn it on and wait for the roots doing a ph check every few days. I set my floro tube light high, about 20 to 24 inches from the clippings to help promote rooting. The room temp is staying in the 70's. My lights are on 24/7 to keep room temp up and the pumps for the powercloner also run 24/7. During the summer months I run my lights 18/6 for power and heat issues. After the machine has been running for a few hours the nute was temp will rise but don't let that woory you as long as room temp is fine. You have a air pump thats pumping fresh air into the system and the warm water temp seems to speed the rooting procees.
10/16 pic

The left side has clipping from darkstar 2 the right has darkstar 1.
I need 36 clones to run in the aeroflo 36

 

[Mr Smith]

Pics of 10/23 roots are now visible enough for pics. I sometimes see signs of roots at 4 day but at 7 days roots start to show on almost all the clippings.

This is the only clipping that did not root and the bottom stem start to become soft and mushy so I removed it. Its ok I have more than enough clones.

Pic of mums 10/23

 

[Mr Smith]

10/25 just 2 days later and the roots a growing fast.

 

[Mr Smith]

10/28 and the clones are ready.

Now we are ready for the fun part of journals. The next part will be a sog of 36 darkstar clones in a areoflo 36 and a 1000w hps light. I am going straight into flowermode. I will be doing the grow with Blue Planet 3 part nutes with bpn bluewater booster.

 

[GodSpeed]

The growth on your mothers extreme getting well bushy, looks like there brutal training has done them good!

I am goging to be cloning in the next few weeks using a diy cloner, your tutorial will be very usfull tool to my success if you dont mind id like to blog it for future refrence to myself and any others that would like to learn your method on successfull cloning.

Oviously if you was to disagree to this i would simply just save it to a word document for my own refrence.

Mr smith everything is moving along swiftly

 

[1234a5678b]

Subscribed. This looks very interesting.

 

[OG13]

I'm in too, looks like fun.

 

[4twenty4all]

Let me get this right....You use a humidity dome with your cloner? Have you noticed a larger percentage success rate because of it or have you always done it? I ask because I have a ez-cloner 60 and 120 site and had poor results. My success rate was about 60 - 70 % but I never used a dome with it. I went back to root cubes and am back to about 98% or so. Your roots are beautiful and white!

 

[Mr Smith]

Let me get this right....You use a humidity dome with your cloner? Have you noticed a larger percentage success rate because of it or have you always done it? I ask because I have a ez-cloner 60 and 120 site and had poor results. My success rate was about 60 - 70 % but I never used a dome with it. I went back to root cubes and am back to about 98% or so. Your roots are beautiful and white!

I own and use a botanical powercloner 45 with humidity dome and a ez cloner 60. I have used them side by side and the powercloner shows and gives roots about two days faster but the ez cloner will have as large and if not larger roots after a 14 days in the cloner. I have always had a high percentage rate of good rooting and would only lose between 1 and 5 clippings total. The way I clone is the same way the dude that makes the ez cloner does it, I looked it up. I do very well and have no complaints with either machines. The powercloner costs more and uses a removable lip seal(sucks) and the stopper on the side needed to be siliconed because of leakage but has the best humidity dome I have come across. The ez cloner is cheaper and better made but doesn't use a humidity dome. I have no ideal how much you clone but a 120 and a 60 means 180 clippings to me and thats alot. Maybe your mum wasn't large enough to take the best clippings? Maybe your room temp stays to high? Maybe you do things differently and gives lower results? Too many maybes, we can talk about it and try to come up with a conclusion or stick with cloning in mediums. I have been gardening for 8 years and I started cloning the first year and never really stopped so I might be able to help. The problem could also be from how you clean the machine. Most people use bleach and that is fine but it leaves a residue and takes alot too rinse off. If you do clean with a detergent like bleach or soap make sure to rinse thoroughly then run the machine with water a day or atleast hours before you load it and change the water again. If cloner can be cleaned right after rooted clones are removed, just use water and a clearing solution like florakleen or sledgehammer and wipe it down real good with papertowels after the rinse. Roots tend to grow faster with this cleaning method and I only use detergents when I let the machines sit dirty for too long.
I seem to clean more often than anything else I do in the grow room. I'm a fucking maid for plants lol constantly cleaning and pampering and feeding til they are a bunch of fat ass bitches then I kill them by cutting their stalks and strip them and hang them out to dry. Maybe I am more like a plant serial killer than a made cause I also lock them up in small rooms and collect pics of their lives and deaths.

 

[4twenty4all]

I own and use a botanical powercloner 45 with humidity dome and a ez cloner 60. I have used them side by side and the powercloner shows and gives roots about two days faster but the ez cloner will have as large and if not larger roots after a 14 days in the cloner. I have always had a high percentage rate of good rooting and would only lose between 1 and 5 clippings total. The way I clone is the same way the dude that makes the ez cloner does it, I looked it up. I do very well and have no complaints with either machines. The powercloner costs more and uses a removable lip seal(sucks) and the stopper on the side needed to be siliconed because of leakage but has the best humidity dome I have come across. The ez cloner is cheaper and better made but doesn't use a humidity dome. I have no ideal how much you clone but a 120 and a 60 means 180 clippings to me and thats alot. Maybe your mum wasn't large enough to take the best clippings? Maybe your room temp stays to high? Maybe you do things differently and gives lower results? Too many maybes, we can talk about it and try to come up with a conclusion or stick with cloning in mediums. I have been gardening for 8 years and I started cloning the first year and never really stopped so I might be able to help. The problem could also be from how you clean the machine. Most people use bleach and that is fine but it leaves a residue and takes alot too rinse off. If you do clean with a detergent like bleach or soap make sure to rinse thoroughly then run the machine with water a day or atleast hours before you load it and change the water again. If cloner can be cleaned right after rooted clones are removed, just use water and a clearing solution like florakleen or sledgehammer and wipe it down real good with papertowels after the rinse. Roots tend to grow faster with this cleaning method and I only use detergents when I let the machines sit dirty for too long.
I seem to clean more often than anything else I do in the grow room. I'm a fucking maid for plants lol constantly cleaning and pampering and feeding til they are a bunch of fat ass bitches then I kill them by cutting their stalks and strip them and hang them out to dry. Maybe I am more like a plant serial killer than a made cause I also lock them up in small rooms and collect pics of their lives and deaths.

Thanks for the nice reply....

I had a pretty nice size operation going until zoning changed and now I am back to personal growing for now ;-) I had many mothers and only took about 10 - 15 cuttings from each plant about every 3 weeks so I don't think it was a mother issue. I did use bleach to clean the container and pumps and ran pumps with about 1/8th cup/gal of bleach for 10 minutes or so. Then I would run it with plain water for about 10 - 15 minutes and then would change it out with plain water again and start cloning. Always the same problem though, never had above 80% success on it. I do get almost every cutting rooted when using rockwool, soil, or root plugs so that's what I'm back to.

I may try to use one of them again in the future and take your advice about the cleaning and rinsing. Maybe I didn't rinse it long enough??? Hmm..... I know how you feel about being a maid to them ;-) I like the serial killer comparison ;-)

 

[onegramperwat]

I own and use a botanical powercloner 45 with humidity dome and a ez cloner 60. I have used them side by side and the powercloner shows and gives roots about two days faster but the ez cloner will have as large and if not larger roots after a 14 days in the cloner. I have always had a high percentage rate of good rooting and would only lose between 1 and 5 clippings total. The way I clone is the same way the dude that makes the ez cloner does it, I looked it up. I do very well and have no complaints with either machines. The powercloner costs more and uses a removable lip seal(sucks) and the stopper on the side needed to be siliconed because of leakage but has the best humidity dome I have come across. The ez cloner is cheaper and better made but doesn't use a humidity dome. I have no ideal how much you clone but a 120 and a 60 means 180 clippings to me and thats alot. Maybe your mum wasn't large enough to take the best clippings? Maybe your room temp stays to high? Maybe you do things differently and gives lower results? Too many maybes, we can talk about it and try to come up with a conclusion or stick with cloning in mediums. I have been gardening for 8 years and I started cloning the first year and never really stopped so I might be able to help. The problem could also be from how you clean the machine. Most people use bleach and that is fine but it leaves a residue and takes alot too rinse off. If you do clean with a detergent like bleach or soap make sure to rinse thoroughly then run the machine with water a day or atleast hours before you load it and change the water again. If cloner can be cleaned right after rooted clones are removed, just use water and a clearing solution like florakleen or sledgehammer and wipe it down real good with papertowels after the rinse. Roots tend to grow faster with this cleaning method and I only use detergents when I let the machines sit dirty for too long.
I seem to clean more often than anything else I do in the grow room. I'm a fucking maid for plants lol constantly cleaning and pampering and feeding til they are a bunch of fat ass bitches then I kill them by cutting their stalks and strip them and hang them out to dry. Maybe I am more like a plant serial killer than a made cause I also lock them up in small rooms and collect pics of their lives and deaths.

You are one sick serial killer. Get them all nice and fat, then slaughter. Who does that? Oh yeah stoners

 

[Mr Smith]

We can touch base with cloning at any time. There will be more cloning with both cloners in the near future of this journal.
Its time to move on to the next step of the journal.
10/29 I load the aeroflo 36. I am using a 1000w hps and I have the light up over 3 feet from the plants. I will lower the light next week. The air exchange is simple, a 6 inch vortec inline fan connected to a phat filter for exhaust, and two 6 inch passive intakes. This is a slightly negative pressure room.

For this part of the grow I am changing to blue planet nutes 3 part and I will use the blue booster later in the grow. The nutes were offered to me for free if I just paid shipping but I decided to just buy the nutes outright because the dude's a wonderful sponsor and I could always use a good merchant on my side.

Since this is a new nute for me I decided to do a ppm test. I used a measuring bucket and filled it with 3 gallons of rodi water. I followed the directions on the label for transition phase and got 1050 to 1100ppm. Those are good numbers but I wish to start at around 900ppm because my clones are so young. I added 30 gallons of water, followed the directions and added my 3part nutes then added enough water until my ppm read 950.

These are the clones I did not need and had to discard.

 

[Mr Smith]

10/30 1st day in flower.

Let me take the time as to how I use the aeroflo unit. After the system was broken down and cleaned using dish detergent and bleach, sponge and brush with handle, because I didn't do a good cleaning job when I put it away. I pour straight bleach into the laser lines and let them soak then I use a pump and a bucket and run the laserjet lines in the shower for 15 minutes making sure not clogs are in the lines. I then reassemble and fill the machine all the way up with water from tap and let it run for 24 hours or more. After that, I drain the system, check and wipe the reservoir for any old roots I might of missed, then refill with water I plan to run with the clones. This extra run of water makes sure I remove or dilute any soap or bleach residues that may hamper the growing process and knock loose any solid contaminates like dried roots you might miss during the cleaning phase. After the system is running again I rotate the jets to 90degree and set the waterheight to the bottom of the potnet at the other end of the machine. The pot net at the front of the machine will be submerge by a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch. This gives the roots a chance to bush out from the plant and the first week I run the pump 24/7. Within 3 to 5 days I lower the height to the bottom of the potnets at the front of the machine, after a week I lower the height about a 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom of the potnet and set the pump to run for 12 hours while the light is on and 2times for 15 minutes while lights are off. This allows the water to cool down when light is off and lets the roots develope its heavy drinkers. After the second week it depends on it I am in veg or in flower. Veg I lower another inch, flower I set the height to 1 inch from the bottom then leave alone. You can play and deviate or change the water height to your liking and the plants will grow fine except if you keep the waterheight up too high for too long the roots will bush under the plant and the center mass doesn't get enough oxygen and water movement and will develop slime that can cause rapid ph drop. I ran the system and played with different heights with different grows and found this out. As for going too low, it depends on the size of the plants, you can really fill these tubes up with roots. 1/2 inch is about the lowest I go but I prefer a inch with smaller plants. After the grow is done I break down and rinse the root matter out of the system, reassemble and fill halfway with water and a cup or 2 of clearing solution(florakleen) and run for 1 to 2 hours, drain, refill and reload with the next batch of clones. As for filters, the 60 had a metal screen so I use a toothbrush. The spongy filters I clean with plain water and squeazing it repeatedly, detergents or bleach can damage these type of filters.

Day 3 in flower

 

[GodSpeed]

Hey mr smith things are looking proper nice how many cuttings are you going to be adding I see you have 36 there will you be adding another 2 lots of 36 to fill your sog?

 

[Mr Smith]

This part of the grow is as seen, 36 clones, areoflo 36 4foot by 4foot and 1 1000w light.

Pic of mums 11/02

 

[Mr Smith]

11/04 Day 5 in flower

First pruning, severe.

Not much left.

Think I went too far? LOL I was ripped when I trimmed.

 

[onegramperwat]

Is the trim job to stop stretch? I always work in garden while medicated. I fubar all the time. Is this a one cola per plant grow?

 

[Mr Smith]

Yup. I am looking for a 15 to 20 inch tall single cola per plant. Hoping for 15 grams plus per plant. I would need a ounce per plant to be in the 1 gram per watt grow but I would be happy with 15 grams or more.
Decreasing stretch? You might say that. Chopping the fanleaves and laterals will shorten the stretch between nodes or at lateral branching sites. There won't be room for lateral branching once these girls really flower and I need deep light penetration to make the girls into long thick bud sticks. At least thats what I am going for.