Greenislands journal 09

[greenisland]

Ok, ready for some more picture updates? I tried to show how the plants were trimeed up in these photos. So heres the pics of the trim job.

This is a nosebleed plant in the 3.5 gallon bucket growing happy, and loving its new haircut!

And heres a nosebleed plant surrounded by 3 blue cheese plants.

Ok, and heres a picture of the light setup (that I changed around). You can see the middle light is now a MH. Hoping the plants like the idea, well see. Its kind of an experiment to see what happens and if it works well. You can also see the Co2 generator in one of these pics.

So you wanna here a funny story, I hadnt overflowed water with this ebb and gro set before today.But of course since we talked about it here it had to happen soon and of course today the pumping hose popped just all of a sudden on top of the reservior. And What do you know, everything was ok because all my lines were off the ground. Yeah!! In this picture you can see that I have disconnected stuff, dried up the water, and made placemats for the individual pots, like Mr Smith had talked abt earlier. Thanks for the idea MrSmith!. Now all the buckets empty all the way so theres no standing water in them. Hmm, I need to get those few loose hydroton balls, just noticed them, I LIKE IT CLEAN! lol

Ok now here is pics of the electric lines being held off the ground for safety. SAFETY IS GOOD!!! Theres also drip loops in the chords before they plug in to anything so even if water does manage to get on the chord it wont run down into the power sockets. Earlier I stated that the 50 amp "in line" was 2 ft off the ground, well I just took a picture and I realize its much lower than that, but it is still off the ground enough to be safe, and it was done right so as not to start any fires!. The GFI breaker is on the main panel that powers the breaker box thats in this picture. I do that just so everthing is GFI protected right at the source. (where the 50 amp line connects to the main house panel). I also added several gfi outlets by the buckets for other appliances (there not all gfi protected yet though, however I am working towards it).

Oh and here are my wonderful Quantum electronic 600watt ballasts

Hope everyone likes the pics. Stay tuned and you will see the whole grow from start to finish and experience it all right along with me!. And a special thanks to MrSmith for all his help. Thanks for veiwing everybody.

 

[KannabisKid]

I have to commend you my friend. Phenomenal setup and a beautiful jungle. +reps. My hat's off to you. Very clean. And Nosebleed is one helluva beautiful lady.

 

[greenisland]

thanks for the comment Kannabis kid. Much appreciated.

 

[Ms.Fox]

Nice! Lookin good!

 

[greenisland]

My god. Looking at these pictures I see every little spec of dirt or anything thats out of place and its driving me crazy! You see that dead leaf in the 12th picture? (one with the reservior). I do! And it needs to be picked up, uuuggghhhh. Time to clean again. Medicine deserves a clean place to grow!!

 

[Mr Smith]

Don't forget the rag in the corner and the loose clay pellets on the floor. Nice set up. I will be trying to get my ebb n gro going next month. I want to get the vacation out of the way first. I like what I see and I am glad to meet ya in the forums greenisland. Please record your heights of your plants and final weights so we can compare numbers.

 

[greenisland]

Yeah, the rag was cleaning up the water that I talked about previously. And I already said in a previous message that the hydroton balls were there (and they are now cleaned up). lol, Mr smith you always have questions or comments about stuff I talked about in previous messages. lol

 

[greenisland]

So to aswer MrSmiths other question about the height. Most of them are 3ft tall (from the ground, including the bucket) ther are a few however that are 2ft 9in. My goal is to make them as uniform as possible. Right now their pretty much all between 2'9" and 3'1". Im hoping however that the way that I have them situated will even them up even more before they really start forming buds. The shortest plants are in the middle so they receive a little more light than the taller ones, in the hope that they will stretch a little more. However with the Halide being in the middle. Now it is entirely possible that it will work the exact opposite as I had planned because the halide tends to make plants short and bushy, where as the Sodium bulbs make the inter-nodes stretch and get lengthy. I guess well have to see, like I said this is kind of an experimental light setup and I have never done it quite like this before. I used a couple of 1000watt (hps to mh) conversion bulbs and the GWS I grew under those just loved the color spectrum (more than just MH or HPS alone). So Im trying to simulate that color spectrum to the best of my ability with just using a hps(enhanced spectrum) bulb in 2 hoods and a mh in the middle hood. Hopefully they love it!! Well, time to medicate myself guys (and girls). I'll be checking back later tonight to see if there are any more questions and/or comments. Thanks for everyone's help. Especially Mr Smith, lol, he seems to be just about as picky as I am with things. lol And being picky is a good way to make excellent medicine!!! Thank you for reading, everybody!

 

[Mr Smith]

Need the height you started flowering measured from medium to top of plant. Then the finishing height plus I would like to know if you have to tie down the hightest part of the plant. I am picky with other peoples grows. I can be sometimes lazy with my own to tell ya the truth. Its a freakin job and I would rather just smoke pot lol. I try to keep everything routine, I have a goal now. I want your numbers to compare with a few of mine. Its not a contest, its sharing and pulling info brother. You can learn alot watching another person's grow.

 

[HazeSeeker]

Your garden is beautiful! reps for sure if I can...
I have a question for you my friend ...is that el. ballast quiet=?
Im planing to get one ...but I need it to be ....silent.

 

[Mr Smith]

Fans even the inline ones still make noise from airmovement and you always need fans for a indoor grow. Those are digis so yes they are completely silent. The bulb can make a few weird noises when first turned on but it aint that loud and goes away in under a minute.

 

[HazeSeeker]

Thx Mr Smith ...I know about the fans mine are working on 11db , and bulb can make some noise but that doesent mind ... So with el ballast 0db noise? cool i have to get one of those ...

 

[greenisland]

Yeah, they are almost completally silent. These particular E ballasts have two small fans, one on each side of the ballast. The thing is that these ballast dont actually have the fans running constantly (like a lot of other E-ballasts) On these ballasts the fan only runs when the ballasts get hot, the fans are temperature activated (which is a first for E-ballasts as far as I know), and my ballasts rarely ever have the fan go on cause the ballasts always stay cool. And when turned down to 50% the fan will almost never go on.(I do have an extra fan blowing cool air on them constantly though, which isnt a bad idea for any row of ballasts). These quantums are much... much, quieter than a magnetic core ballast ( you actually have to put your ear up to the fan to hear the ballast at all), and their adjustable from 100% power to 75% power to just 50% power. So from just one of these 600 watt ballasts you can simulate a 300watt hps/mh or a 450watt hps/mh, or just run it at 100% and get your full 600 watts of power, and you dont have to change bulbs! The same 600watt bulb works through all the settings, which is just plain awesome! Not to mention the ballasts cost about the same amount as a Lumatec. Ive heard good and bad things about Lumatec, but Ive seen lumatecs get so hot that the resin their filled with actually leaks out the sides, yikes! Thats hot! Lumateks dont have fans either which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I also had Lumatecs blow bulbs, overheat and fail... as well as just stop working period for no reason at all. I haven't tried the newer purple Lumatecs however, Im unsure if they are better or not but Ive been told they are. Luckily Lumatecs warranty is pretty good.(5 yrs I think) And I ran lots of Lumateks in my day, and put them through hell, so I was bound to have a couple mishaps/breakdowns a long the way. But I think Im a quantum ballast guy for life now. Undoubtedly they are "by far" the best ballasts I have ever used thus far, simply because of the dimming feature and the durability, oh and price too, which is completely reasonable for such a great product. I try to make sure I always get the best products I can find so Im not always replacing broken things, and these seem so far to be the best ballasts Ive found. And they run 15% cooler than other E-ballasts too, or atleast thats what they advertise... and it seems to be true. Not to mention that I have yet to have one fail on me (which is huge!), I believe the warranty on the quantum ballasts is 3 years too, just in case something does go wrong. Oh yeah and with the quantums you get both 120 and 240 volt chords in the box! Also awesome! I have only had them (10 total)for about 9 months now,... pretty new in other words. So Ill make sure I keep everyone posted on how they hold up over the years. Ok now I sound like a sales man. LOL.... Well anyhow, They are lovely ballasts, truly made for us indoor gardeners I feel. But yeah, to answer your question, they do make a very, very almost unnoticeable sound when the fan is on (like I said you have to put your ear up to it to hear it). Actually I couldnt even tell by listening to them that they were on, lol. Cause I was changing bulbs the other day and tried to hear which ones were on, and it was very very difficult without actually checking to see if the light is on or if the chord is plugged in..(which is what I ultimately ended up doing, lol.). Hope this helps man, if you have any more questions about anything let me know, Id be happy to answer any questions anybody has. Thx for reading my journal everyone!!

 

[greenisland]

Damn, Ive only been invovled in this forum for abt a month, and already have 110+ posts! Yeah!! Ive got new pictures and measurements of the girls going up later tonight. Stay posted everyone, bud porn time is almost here again!!

 

[Tunes420]

super great set up and killer lights...i might look into price on one of those 600 watt air cooled jobs you got there ...very nice....works great too!

 

[vincent308]

very nice room great job!!!

 

[HazeSeeker]

 

[greenisland]

Ok, ya ready for the new pics?? Well ready or not here they come!
First of all the girls have gone NUTS since the last photo session. They grew about 2-3 inches a day under the new light setup, so since the last pics were taken like 3 days ago, they have grown about a ft taller!! Seriously! I had no idea they were goin to BOOM like that in these pots or I probably would have kept the garden at 8 plants rather than 10 cause its already to crowded for my liking. Anyhow in this first set of pics you can see the tape measure I used to demonstrate their heigt, the tape measure is exactly set at 4ft tall.(including handle).

Ok now heres just an overall garden pic.

And now some close ups of the calyx formation, just getting started.

And heres a pic showing how big the stems are, these girls got some big ol necks! lol.... And of course there are a few more stray hydroton balls rolling around AGAIN!! man... I keep picking them up then what do you know, their back on the ground the next day, geeez. lol. I guess I would rather have that problem than a pest problem.

And heres a couple pics of some new equipment I picked up for cheap. This stuff is going into a new room for some kind of sushi leaf??? I dunno, I just build em. lol
I picked up 3 of these SunSystem cool sun XL's and 2 of the 8" MaxFans. Got the reflectors for $420 as opposed to 190 each and got the maxfans at 215 ea. as opposed to 289 ea (I think). Anyhow, they are both great products. And the fans I use in this room were those maxfan's but I used different reflectors. The reflectors used in my room were made by hydrofarm not sunsystem but they are very close to the same product (and actually suprisingly the Hydrofarm is MORE expensive than the Sun System, wow, that never happens. lol)

And for those of you who dont know this already, I am trying to get my girl to do a photo shoot with the plants this weekend, soooo, hopefully on mon or tues I will have some classy nudes (or almost nude) with plants for everyone to see. Im keeping my fingers crossed she goes for it. lol. Hers to HOPING! Thx for checking in with my grow everyone!! And stay posted for all the fun that will be up and coming!!

 

[greenisland]

So I was reading past posts Ive made and came across this one. I wanted to post it on this thread too so that maybe everyone reading it will have a better idea of who I am am why I do what I do. lol, ... I fealt like I expressed myself well here, lol.(sounds so gay) Anyhow, here it is, my wild ranting as to why I use Advanced Nutrients.

Why I Use Advanced Nutrients

"Yeah, I rock Advanced Nutrients too. I like them... but I also like GH. If I had to choose I would choose Advanced just because of the political position they take. The hydroponics world is certainly a bastard industry, meaning most hydro nutrient companies like to pretend that there product isn't being used for growing marijuana (even though they know that 50% of there sales [or more] come from pot growers like you and I). Where as Advanced Nutrients has embraced the fact that their customers use their product for growing MJ. They have gotten a lot of grief for this too, and for that reason alone I use Advanced and will continue too. Advanced gives back to the marijuana culture, even if you pay a little more for the nutes I feel like your getting more than just the nutes when you purchase their product. I always feel like I'm helping support their ideas and moral decisions and that's something I care about a lot. I donate donate donate, write to politicians left and right, go to the rally's and marches and when I go to the hydro store I buy Advanced Nutrients and I'm proud of ALL of that."
Advanced Nutrients

Im whole hardetly against breaking the law and thats why I dont. Luckily I live in CA. But If you feel like the law is unjust you have every right to try and change those unjust laws, and thats why I do all the things I do(write, march, etc), so people who are in less fortunate states can have the same right we do here in CA. And thats to provide medicine to the sick! They NEED this medicine PERIOD! You should never have to tell someone that they have to live in pain for the rest of their life because the cure is illegal. Hopefully other states change their laws soon so we DONT have to tell people this.

....So thats it.... Im done ranting....sorry. lol, So if you want to read the whole thread its only 1 page long (so far) and you can link to it here. Advanced Nutrients Thanks again for reading everybody!

 

[DownOver]

G'day there,

Your pictures and the way you have your journal set out is awesome. The room setup you have and the growth you are getting are testament to your skills. No wonder you are the plant of the month winner!!!!!