GiGaBaNE's 3rd & Final Journal - At Least Until I Change Country

Awesome GiGa! You are my hero! You are also a mad scientist and I love it!

Mad, MAD you say?!?! Hes not mad hes completely insane... hes completely GigaBane!
 
....my ultimate goal as far as perpetual goes is to work out a 25 hour working week (5 per day mon-fri) and work out how many seedlings/clones to start and veg plants to defoliate and flowered plants to harvest in that 5 hour day. at this point in time, i believe 2 plants per day will see me very comfortable at your 20g estimate.

It does indeed help to have a plan and a calendar to do perpetual.
Mine goes like this...

Sunday:
1. Harvest_8 week olds and hang them on a line.
2. Move_plants from veg room to flower room to replace those harvested ones.
3. Transplant_13 day old cuttings from cups to 2L bottles to replace those veggers that just got moved.
4. Clean_empty 2L bottles and 3oz cups for the next go round.
5. Vacuum_up any mess.

Monday:
1. Take cuttings_to replace those that were moved up the day before.
2. Trim_lower 1/3 of all plants.
3. Defoliate_plants in flower room that had just turned 21 days old the day before.
4. Vacuum mess and both rooms completely.

Tuesday:
1. Clean pH meter.
2. Clean cup for pH meter.
3. Refill cup with fresh storage/calibration solution.
4. Check calibration on pH meter.

Friday:
1. Manicure_Buds from plants harvested on Sunday.
2. Jar_Buds.
3. ENJOY_BUDS !!!!!

Sunday:
Repeat....

At the top of every page of my calendar I have my once a month chores written down:
1. Clean HPS Lenses and bulbs.
2. Clean Fluorescent tubes.
3. Clean a fan.
 
do you mean Royal Gold Tupur?
if so then its specifically designed for drip to waste systems, meaning it loses hydration pretty damn quickly as does coco in general.
you can use it like soil if you want, i would reccomend trying to ignore the usual watering systems and get a nice big drip tray and bottom feed once per day (you will have to get the timing down yourself depending on absortion rates and moisture level of the medium)

you might want to make an empty plant pot of the stuff and soak it and see how long it takes to dry.

just remember that its inert so your gonna have to take care of every single nutrient in your feed every time.

its not that coco is MORE susceptible to gnats. if a gnat finds your plant its gonna make a home whether its soil or coco, its just that they love it. having the top inch of the coco dry is suppose to help a lot in prevention. open yeast co2 bottles will attract and trap adults, so you may want to have one perma running near your plants as bait.

transplant should be easy enough, just try to be carefull of snapping roots when you try to seperate from a few rebel coco strands, lol.


actually, you can mix your mix with perlite or vermiculite to change the watering frequency, but i dont know what tupur has in it already, im thinking pure coco mixes well with perlite and vermi

Thanks so much Giga, I decided that a bit more research is in order before I go changing up a not broken system, and your post helped me decide that. The next will be only my second ever solo grow andI feel I would like to really try and get one system dialed before I hop to another. I have absolutely no doubt as to my ability to make it work, just would like to know soil more intimately first. You wont believe this but when I went back to the hydro store dude did not even know it was a coir soilless mix and uses it himself. So no more advice from the hydro store!! :thanks: giga and DonP, will rep if it allows the pair of ya kick arse!!


:peace:
 
the only difference between a 2ltr dwc hempie and a 2ltr dwc hempie is just the res, with the dwc hempie i make my res the size of a 2ltr bottle i just cut the thinner part of that the lid is attatched to, so id say its 3/4 of a 2ltr bottle for the res, the roots make it to the bottom of this and a bit of room around the sides, with the 2ltr none dwc i just fill some pop bottles with soil and grow like that, it covers the same space, i just wanted to try the difference

today i have planted a purple widow and an auto purple, i told herbie after my last order that the auto purple was not up to souvenir quality, and he sent me another one with this order, cant beat herbie he is a top bloke
 
I am definitely going Herbie's next time, I used blankety blank last time, only because I had not quite joined these forums yet and they had fantastic service killer prices and it got here from England in about five days. They seemed to have real good reviews and that is why I went with them I was satisfied so far the beans are bwing readied for life as we speak. If anyone is concerned with who blankety blank is, please PM me I do not think I can speak about another site here that is not a sponsor and I do not wanna make 420girl infract me as I have not messed up yet!! Thanks for the good word on Herbies.
Shizz

:peace:
 
yep, cant beat herbies on price or service, he replaces any faulty seeds, so i had a dodgy nirvana blue mystic, now it sprouted and had chewed up yellow and green leaves, it only grew its 2nd set of true leaves and started flowering, the plants of the same age where over 1ft tall, then i found out many other growers have had the same problem with that strain from nirvana, i contacted herbie and told me to give him the order number of that seed when i place my next order and he will throw me in a couple more free seeds, he has now removed that strain from sale, i thought it was me but when i found out a lot of growers are having problems with that same strain i thought id let him know so he could stop selling that batch, so he has,

he has always responded to msgs very quick, all his seeds have sprouted, i have not had 1 that did not sprout, i have a high female ratio with regular seeds, i had one seed that was damaged when it arrived, i contacted herbie and again he replaced it with my next order, his prices are low, even if you only buy 1 seed then you will always get 3 free seeds, 2 of these will be regular seeds and the other will be a fem or fem auto, so you cant go wrong really with herbies, the free seeds are not just cheap seeds either so its not like he is giving away the cheapest seeds he has
 
since i went offline i had nothing to do or think about except how i want to be a super grower and have a system thats perfect.

hypothetically should i be a consumer and retailer there are aspects from different types of gardening that are benefitcial.
Hydro/dwc offer some of the fastest natural growth availible all else being equal.
soil based growing offers more nutrient level stability
organic is significant in ability to not burn your plants and has the whole 'good karma' thing going for it
hi-brix has great pest and illness resistance, improved smoking qualities and from a retailers perspective, added weight to the buds.

now having got back online i see that im not the first to approach this angle, but this is no suprise as almost no idea is unique, what counts is the drive for change and new heights.

ok so here is the new pot usage.
you could pretty much use any pots, but i find air pot structure the best to help with airation and root auto pruning in the soil area.
The water in the bottom is provided however you want except as a top feed through the soil.
the bottom is just plain drinking water and does not need PH or ppm checking at all.
the plant is treat as a soil plant for all intents and purposes.
organic feeding is probably best in liquid form. you pour in enough to feed the plant, but make sure your feed does not drip down into the water res.
you may need to lightly spray the top of the soil regularly to prevent dry out, but the soil should get just enough water siphoning up to never need watering.
this soil could be mineralised, innoculated and mycorrizah as per normal soil/organic/hi-brix.

i need to test but i suspect you could just plant seeds in fully enriched soil and not need to feed again untill maybe start of flower.
watering could be automated with a normal water tank ballcock as the plants are likely to drink too fast for stagnation.

if this goes as intended, running costs are a bubbler and your lighting and organic compost if you need more than you can self produce.

The transition medium is something like coir or loose weave cloth...basically anything that will help prevent the soil mess from dripping into the res.

I will be using 2l bottles for this style growing, drilled with many holes for air/water and half submerged in a pool of water that i can swap out and clean as i see fit.

ideally you want a storage crate with lid that is a couple inches shorter than your pot so you can just drop your pot down the holes until they hit the floor, this also gives us plants that can be removed from the res and placed on the floor just fine when cleaning the rez as the roots remain contained inside the 2l bottle, any straglers should be trimmed.



Organic_Hydro.bmp


It is my intention to grow out the crops i have and grow only 1 strain for now in mass production.

first test of this system will be when i can get a HiD and my seeds (still havnt been paid yet =/ )
 
Your ingenuity amazes me. I love the ideas and would love to see them in action.
 
as soon as i can. i have good feelings about money coming my way in the next week or two. getting seeds,HiD light and a bubbler, if i pick up some gravel and organic compost too i should be able to get a grow of 20 on pretty soon.

im going to use cut up peat pots (left overs from my very first grow)as my transition medium, i cant see much dirt getting past that, lol.
 
Hello Giga,
I'm glad to see you made it back. I was over in the defoliation thread when I noticed your new link in your sig. I am flattered to say the least.:bigblush::thanks: Did you just do that today ? I assume your clone troubles are over then !!? You will love that HID. That makes a huge difference even before they start setting buds ! The good thing about,"growing only 1 strain for now in mass production" is that the canopy stays even and the feeding/nutrient requirements stay the same too.
 
not sure about my clone troubles being over. i have a tray of clones that are just sat there not really dying or living, lol
i mentioned running an experiment before i dissapeared. well im still waiting for roots to pop out the bottom of any of my clones atm, but i can say that my experimentals definatly look healthier than any of the other clones.

this time i tried something a little different. rather than cutting a branch away from the trunk and angle cutting and scraping and all that jazz, i just chopped the trunk itself so i had part of the trunk still attatched to the 'cutting', i used about 1.5 cm of trunk and sliced it in half vertically then buried the lot.

as i say im still waiting for roots to grow out the bottom (its the only way i can tell without disturbing them, but my trunk clones definatly look greener and more healthy than any other cutting, all else equal. they are definatly a little more nute starvation/water deprivation resistant than the rest, and i suspect they will give a much faster establishment of many roots than will the little cut end of a cutting normally.

i suspect that done by yourself with rooting hormone you will be most pleased with the result compared to a standard cutting.


as to the single strain growing, yes it will definatly be easier to manage, and a lot faster to learn what im doing.
i think trying to give all my plants a 'one fits all' aproach to feeding is harming my ability to get everything dialed in. im mizing autos and regs, indica and sativa, short and tall plants. they all need slightly different ratios and timings.

when i have a room full of the same plant, i can start experimenting by pulling one aside and and grow it at ph 6 instead of 6.3 and another at 6.5 e.t.c and start to compare notes untill i have the right ph and nute mix for THAT strain..

i dont really care what im growing at this point in the game as long as i can produce lots and fast.
im trying really hard to get this cloning thing down, but truth be told im probably going to scrap cloning all together and go seed farm.

i know cloning comes in handy and its a great art...but its just too damn slow for my liking. the amount of time they have been sat in those pots, a cracked seedling would probably be 10 times bigger by now. and the amount of seeds spawned from a single mating pair far outstrips the rate of clone production for the same cubic footage.

im trying to crack some seeds now but they seem really slow to open (compared to my normal germinations), nevertheless i saw a little bit of tap root on each and have buried them in perlite that im keeping moist, i didnt want to keep them in a cup of water for more than a few days in case they drown.

im a bit worried that my perlite isnt suitable, this particular bag must have been crushed as it has more powder than granuals and when watered it sorta sets like a weak cement, im worried this is causing a mantle on top that might be a little too tough for the seeds to break through.

we will know in a couple of days =)
 
oh i would just like to add to anyone reading this, even tho im stalled on my clones, its NOT because of the cloning method, that is definatly approved. its definatly all about me, i dont sterilise my tools (been using the same scissors to prune my plants since day one..i do occasionally wipe them :rofl:
im not using any rooting hormones at all (tho next time i will try honey).
im not paying enough attention to them, ive mised a watering here and there and starved them till they were yellow and necrotic(was trying to starve for root growth and time just passed, lol)

not sure what temprature is best for cloning but my clones are being done at around 82-86f and humidity of around 45% because thats what my grow room is at.
 
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