HID Grow - Revenge of the Kittens

[Green Utopia]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Great plants! Fantastic shots of the comparison between both grows! I couldn't agree more how much the learning up here is the #1 best thing for my plants. New lights, nutes, fans, mediums, pots, trays,UV this, HID that, LEDs - they all are worth about 1/100th what the knowledge gained from one journal up here will give you.

And as BB pointed out - nice mylar. I actually use those kinds of things as a gauge of grows. That kind of clean installation demonstrates forethought and planning and attention to detail in execution and it shows in the plants!



+Reps

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens



Thanks for stopping by guys! It's a good feeling to be able to share my grow with others and hopefully help someone else along the way just as they have helped me.

BB, Mylar is super cheap, I think I got 100ft of it for around $20. It's very easy to install, but I would recommend getting the 2mil thick stuff, its a lot easier to work with. I just cut it to size and taped it on my box, I can't express enough how easy it is. You just have to be careful with it as it wrinkles easily, and then the light reflection isn't as good. The mylar reflects 95% of the light back, so it really brightens the area and makes use of the available light. My box is a bit crowded right now with the 4 in flower, and without the mylar, there is no way my plants would be getting enough light on the outside of them. The Mylar helps bring that light back and direct it straight to the lower side buds. It's definitely worth the small investment. It also makes looking at the plants bearable, as you can look directly at the HID bulb and not have it blind you.. It's actually really cool. Here's a pic I took when I had the MH in there, through the mylar.

Weaver, thanks for the camera tip. I'm loving learning all the new stuff that my camera does.. I've had it for a couple years now, and haven't really had too much time to explore the settings on it. I can take some decent shots, but I know I have much more to learn.

Papa, thanks for the kind words man. I totally agree the learning here is #1. That's how I managed to get a harvest off my first grow. Who thought 2 small shop lights would yield any bud at all? haha

 

[3lions]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

I noticed the soil is a bit raped to put it nicely

How do you know this Crimson m8?

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

How do you know this Crimson m8?

just based on how it looks compared to how it did when I first planted them. All the watering compacted it a lot. The soil doesn't look as rich as it did. I'm sure it is still fine, but it's just a matter of personal preference.. I know when I first planted them, after about 2-3 weeks they started to show signs of nute deficiencies, so I just figured they had used most of the available soil nutrients. I have a feeling when I pull these, the roots will take up 95% or more of the available pot space. Just based on that, some fresh soil for the roots to seek out when I start flowering can only be beneficial to the plant. It's not a necessity at all, as the plants are doing great, but it's just a way I am thinking I can improve on my grows.

From the way I've seen them grow, they like to fill up the containers very quickly, so having a 2 gallon root ball being able to reach out to fresh stuff only seems beneficial for the plant. I think this is why people advise to transplant before flowering.

I'm sure if I just transplanted into 5 gallon containers, it would have been not as big of a difference, but having a plant bigger than 3' in a 3 gallon container is going against the rule of 1' per gallon..

Taking this into consideration, I forget who it was, but they had huge plants in small containers without any issues, so It definitely isn't mission critical, but I will definitely give it a try next time around just to see if I get any positive results from it

 

[3lions]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Thanks man.. yeahh I have a lot of posts etc about it can be fine to grow large plants in small containers. Also that people kill off the roots etc as they go into flowering stage.

I have just transplanted into 11l pots affter 3 weeks veg and wondering if they will take me all the way through basically. An American gallon is less than a European one so I think by rough estimates that my 11l equates to about 2.5 US gallon. What confuses me a little is that the roots are usually full after 2 weeks so how can they take another 2 months flowering in the same pots.

Stepping up pot size yet again seems like it is going to use a hell of a lot of soil, nutes, water etc etc so I would definately prefer not to.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

yeah exactly, I don't want to use any more resources than I have to, so anywhere I can save soil and nutes I would love to give a try. That's exactly why I went with 3 gal pots rather than the 5 gal buckets I had last time. I used so much soil filling 6 of those, and then 4 of them were males and ended up being a huge waste of soil.

I read recently (I think it was Roseman) cut half or more of the root mass without shocking the plant at all. I will state this, when I cut Zena (My only male this round) at week 4, his roots had taken up about 60-70% of the available soil space, at that was at around 16" tall. I'm sure the 3 footers I have are more roots than soil now, but they don't seem to care at all.

I figure going from 2 gal to 3 gal pots, you're not really using much more soil than if you would go straight into the 3 gal pots, but it would help control the root growth more than anything, giving it its space when we see fit.

 

[3lions]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Maybe, tho they might just fill that extra space just as quickly the way my roots have been going in this grow haha

A lot of people actually start killing off the roots with chemicals, makes me wonder if there is actually any forward development of the root system at all during the flowering stage

 

[BassBong]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

I want to try the 3 gallon myself. The 5 takes up so much room. I could fit another couple plants. I have a few plants flowering right now in maybe 1/2 or 1 gallon pots and are not showing sign of any root binding. I think a small upgrade will be enought to get them by for the next few weeks as they will never fill the 5 gal with roots at this point. It will be interesting to see.

 

[CFL man]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Wow, HID is the real deal! Impressive setup and good looking plants!
Everything is looking really great! Also got to get myself some mylar, it looks good and is effective.
Don't let any kittens near it

 

[GMT1975A]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

(stumbling in with a bong in one hand) I'm here!! Dahhh. I just now noticed the 3rd grow link tonight. Damn, I got Moby Dicked! Plants are looking great brother, glad ya got the 600 instead of the 400. Plants are gonna repay ya for it. Two at a time under the 600 and you should see 4-8 ozs per plant easy enough. Keep em green!

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

I want to try the 3 gallon myself. The 5 takes up so much room. I could fit another couple plants. I have a few plants flowering right now in maybe 1/2 or 1 gallon pots and are not showing sign of any root binding. I think a small upgrade will be enought to get them by for the next few weeks as they will never fill the 5 gal with roots at this point. It will be interesting to see.

Yeah definitely go for the 3 gallon, there's no point in having extra space you don't need. After 2 plants, you've already gotten enough soil for another freebie. On my first grow, I had 5 gal buckets for all 6 plants and I had a hell of a time getting them all to fit in my space. I found I couldn't really position the plants where I wanted them.. They pretty much all fit to one configuration and thats it.

I would watch transplanting during flower, the plant doesn't like to be shocked at that point.. That being said, if you're extremely careful, you can put them in their new home without them even really noticing.

Wow, HID is the real deal! Impressive setup and good looking plants!
Everything is looking really great! Also got to get myself some mylar, it looks good and is effective.
Don't let any kittens near it

Yeah dude, it is the real deal.. Just comparing this grow to my first, the only thing I've done different is the light, soil, and nutes. I know the soil and nutes alone wouldn't have grown plants this big.. The main thing is the light.

(stumbling in with a bong in one hand) I'm here!! Dahhh. I just now noticed the 3rd grow link tonight. Damn, I got Moby Dicked! Plants are looking great brother, glad ya got the 600 instead of the 400. Plants are gonna repay ya for it. Two at a time under the 600 and you should see 4-8 ozs per plant easy enough. Keep em green!

Good to have you in here bro. I'm definitely happy I got the 600.. I'm already seeing the benefits of a 1000 watter, but at this point I don't really need it, not to mention the increase in my electric bill lol. The 600 is only running me an extra $40 a month when its on 24/0. My electric co doesn't charge different rates for peak hours or anything, so it's a standard ~$0.80kw/h

Next go around, I might not let them get so big.. Although I do love having monsters in the garden

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Here's a little pic update, and as promised, a little bit of bud porn.

I messed with the settings on my camera a bit and broke out the tripod, they turned out really well for the most part. I have to mess with the focus a bit on the group shots, but other than that it's all good.

Nothing much to update about the plants. They will get fed again tonight, and they're really starting to fill in nicely. I'll let the pics do the talking.

The Sativa is showing what looks to be a Phosphorus deficiency in the leaves with reddish veins.. Not sure if its actually a deficiency or if it's just genetic.. It gets nutes every other day, and the stuff I'm using is I think rated at 4-12-4 and I'm giving it to them at full strength.

25 days flowering

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

and thanks to those who gave my journal a 5 star rating

 

[CFL man]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

Wow, if they look so good right now, what will they look in a few weeks?!
Really good stuff!

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

I know dude! I can't wait to see them around harvest time.. 2 more days is their halfway point in flower.

I have a bit of possible bad news.. I was checking on them yesterday and I wanted to do some pruning to get some foliage out of the way so the buds can get more light.. Well, upon examining the pumpkin plant, I noticed some HUGE balls.. I freaked out for a second as I thought the ball plague was over a while ago since all the buds are swelling and getting frosty.. I had picked off a couple of immature balls when she first went into flower, and nothing had come back for a week or 2 so I stopped checking it so closely.. Well, one of the male flowers had actually opened and had 3 bananas hanging from it. Fortunately none of them had broken open and they were all still intact.. I'm hoping there were no more than 3. I checked all the buds on every plant, and there are no signs of seed development, but then again, it is a little early for that to happen so I just need to keep my fingers crossed.

I took the plant out of the room to upstairs and performed surgery. I carefully removed all the balls, and the one open flower. I managed to get the flower in a little bag without breaking the sacs open. Once in the bag, I closed it and crushed it, there was indeed pollen in there, but fortunately, none of it spilled before I got it sealed. (At least I hope it didn't).

I did some major pruning of the old fan leaves as this plant is growing so dense, it's really hard to see the main stem, and there were 2 node areas where the balls were forming, but only on the main stem. I looked over all the other flowers with a flashlight at least 5 times to make sure I didn't miss any. After that, I washed my hands and arms, changed my clothes, and put her back in the grow room.

Luckily I have had my fan blowing on my light, so the tall ones get airflow, but it completely misses the little runt.. I'm guessing it is a very low chance that the airflow could have circulated pollen around, and I didn't see any other open flowers or anything..

I was freaking out for a good hour but I think everything is under control now. I should have killed that plant when I had the chance, but it's getting really frosty fat buds, so it's worth something at least. Only time will tell if it ruined my crop but I think I'm good.. Even if one of the sacs dropped, I highly doubt it would shed enough pollen to have a serious impact on all the plants and cause seeds everywhere.. If anything, I would guess the lower buds around that plant might be pollinated, which is fine.. I'm getting a bit low on seeds anyway.

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

and I was just informed that possible spidermites are upstairs in my house.. I'm getting armed and dangerous tonight and I'm going to attack them before they attack my garden.

 

[IrishBoy]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

there looking good brother. i like the one on the far left she is fat for only 25 days, keep up the good work

for the spider mites use a no pest strip, its always worked for me. their no much els you can use like flora mites since u so far into flowering.

 

[Siscokid]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

(stumbling in with a bong in one hand) I'm here!! Dahhh. I just now noticed the 3rd grow link tonight. Damn, I got Moby Dicked! Plants are looking great brother, glad ya got the 600 instead of the 400. Plants are gonna repay ya for it. Two at a time under the 600 and you should see 4-8 ozs per plant easy enough. Keep em green!

LOL GMT you're tha man! great entrance..

I know dude! I can't wait to see them around harvest time.. 2 more days is their halfway point in flower.

I was freaking out for a good hour but I think everything is under control now. I should have killed that plant when I had the chance, but it's getting really frosty fat buds, so it's worth something at least. Only time will tell if it ruined my crop but I think I'm good.. Even if one of the sacs dropped, I highly doubt it would shed enough pollen to have a serious impact on all the plants and cause seeds everywhere.. If anything, I would guess the lower buds around that plant might be pollinated, which is fine.. I'm getting a bit low on seeds anyway.

always look at the sunnyside my friend..

Great job and here is another 5 star from Siscokid

 

[Steve McStoferson]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

there looking good brother. i like the one on the far left she is fat for only 25 days, keep up the good work

for the spider mites use a no pest strip, its always worked for me. their no much els you can use like flora mites since u so far into flowering.

thanks dude! That plant is getting fatter and fatter by the day.. It's cola is 12" long right now, completely solid.. There is a small inch gap and then about 5" of bud below that.. I hope it joins together, it will be a monster bud by the time it's done. We're almost at the half way point so I'm sure it will happen.

I'm not sure what the thing about the mites. My girl told me she found a bunch of them upstairs and she took action and since then they haven't shown themselves. I inspected the plants and there aren't any signs of bugs, so I'm probably safe and just freaking out for no reason. I'm gonna get some of the strips to have on hand just in case

LOL GMT you're tha man! great entrance..


always look at the sunnyside my friend..

Great job and here is another 5 star from Siscokid

lol, GMT did have the greatest entrance. So good I had to snatch the bong off him Thanks for the rating bro!

 

[Spike69]

Re: CriMson's HID Grow- Revenge of the Kittens

very nice K2