HighTechRasta's 1000W China LED COCO 4x3 2in1 Tent Perpetual SCROG With BruceBanner & Bagseed

[HighTechRasta]

Ok, catch up time with the pics and upgrades info

I often get a little ahead of myself, but in a good way
so I took these pics half way through stuff...

The new light is in.

Full length front shot

Shot from above new light, because a shot from below is just silly
got a little 4in fan saddling the heatsink there...

A view of the scrog. Loving the growth rate under this 480w (just like a QB but not HLG)
Wouldn't know they got a heavy haircut yesterday! They're too busy growing to react, Love it!

Close up of the performer in the back, also the possible male in question...
Now over to the Veggy side of the tent

Full length shot, nice spiderman/blurple combo going there eh...
I put both of my 100w(36w) ChinaLEDs up top, for 70w at the wall
put the displaced 1000w(186w) ChinaLED at the bottom, for 186w at the wall there
Start at the top, Veg at the bottom, then next door to Bloom
Getting really close to where I want to be for setup

Up top on the Spiderman level, we have our Purple Nuken bagseed,

I just love this Blurple Saturation, I count 8 branches and 2 tops!
Not bad for only 5.5 inches tall, long live blurple LEDs for starting under!

Down below in the true Blurple Zone, we have the unknown 5yr bagseed, looking pretty Sativa

Some kinda growth mess under there! I LST'd it and it went nuts!
This one's going outside when the weather's ready
Be interesting to see how it develops with the 50 branches in there!
Now, on to some work efforts...

 

[HighTechRasta]

This is the point I was at when it occurred to me to take pics...

Sorry about the colour peeps, here I'm working on the stand
for the 2x2 flood tray I picked up @ 8:30am today
When working with the PVC stuff to DIY these type of things
I highly suggest you don't glue the connections if you can
get away with doing this to tighten the connection...

1 or 2 pieces of electrical tape put on like this before assembling
will tighten the connections and still allow you to pull it apart for changes or re-use
Prosper!

Took me a while to get there on the plans. You might remember a few posts back, I mentioned that my SCROG
frame came in like 1-1/4in short both ways, well, turns out it was the play in the tongue on my tape measure!
This little tape measure has a solid tongue, re-measured the connectors and got it dialed.

All buttoned up

Tray drain hole drilled

And this is what we're aiming for inside the tent
Condensate pump to send drain back to rez
I made some adjustment to the height,
now I'll measure and cut the leg extensions for the SCROG frame.
to be continued...

 

[HighTechRasta]

Updated pics of the possible male or hermy...

Other sites that look about to be female...?

 

[Lowrider72]

Hermie, get it out before they open and pollenate the rest.
No matter what it pollenates, will hermie.
Worth saving the others.

note.. Just a tip mate, ANY light leak from veg area to flower area will hermie plants, is thats an open bottomed divider.
Most probably the bagseed, thats why we all order seeds. .
Bagseed is hit and miss.
LR72

 

[HighTechRasta]

Hermie, get it out before they open and pollenate the rest.
No matter what it pollenates, will hermie.
Worth saving the others.
LR72

Thanks LW72, glad to have your eye in here...
Pulling it immediately!

 

[Lowrider72]

Sorry to have to tell ya that, it sucks.
Better a few good sensi females that take a chance on a hermi and seed the rest.
Even the seeds will hermie, making them a waste of time.

I like your LED set up, real popular now.
10 years ago I told people to save their money.... These days, the tech is there and they are pretty awesome results Im seeing.... Will look in every now and then.
Oh! Just check the others and foliar spray or spray some water on them, keeps any pollen down, if one opened you didnt notice.

 

[HighTechRasta]

note.. Just a tip mate, ANY light leak from veg area to flower area will hermie plants, is thats an open bottomed divider.
Most probably the bagseed, thats why we all order seeds. .
Bagseed is hit and miss.
LR72

Is Hermy a common thing with bagseed, yes it was a bagseed...
The divider is not open, it's sealed with black velcro,
which I was not confident with and went over the seals and seems with foil tape
then had to beef that up because of the suction force on that side of the tent
then yesterday, started running duct tape along the same seal seam from the other side
really not happy with the design of the wall in the middle, it never fit right,
I tried it both ways and inverted and settled with what gave the best lineup on the velcro
and then DIY it with foil and duct tape from there....

How much light leak does it take?
Thanks again..

 

[Lowrider72]

Thats fine mate, you only learn by asking.
Bagseed, hence the name, hermie seed that escaped notice in sensi.
They have a very high rate of all doing the same.... Ditch the Bagseeds... Imo.

Light leaks, ok if very weak light.... Not so great with strong grow light.
Penetration on LED is pretty good so it is intense light.
Sounds stupid, sit in flower area.... Lights off, veg area on, let your eyes adjust and hunt them leaks...
If it becomes a problem, go two tents, link the ducting between them, is what I do.

LR72

 

[Skybound]

Sorry to have to tell ya that, it sucks.
Better a few good sensi females that take a chance on a hermi and seed the rest.
Even the seeds will hermie, making them a waste of time.

I like your LED set up, real popular now.
10 years ago I told people to save their money.... These days, the tech is there and they are pretty awesome results Im seeing.... Will look in every now and then.
Oh! Just check the others and foliar spray or spray some water on them, keeps any pollen down, if one opened you didnt notice.

I switched from 600w HIDs to COBs, because I hadn't (at the time) located good info about QBs, but even still, my 6 COB fixtures have been wiping the floor with my Eye Hortilux bulbs, while creating a lot less heat and using less wall watts. Each fixture cost me about $500 to build and I built 3. I avg 1-LB/plant/fixture very consistently. In fact, anything less than a pound and I'm having a panic attack, lol. Great spectrums, extremely intense white light that has a very good amount of red in there @3000k. Because of passive heat sinks and the power ratings, I can only push the COBs to about 75% of the total output safely. Anything more and I run the risk of smoking the COBs while also stressing the tops. If you're considering switching from HID, the time is definitely NOW. You can get into some really decent Chinese brands for a little more than half the price of the good Cree or QB stuff and LED lighting does not need to be replaced for several years, so no bulb swapping.

All feminized seeds have an inherent predisposition to hermie due to the very nature of how feminized pollen is created. Granted, in most cases, stable growing habits are back crossed into the genetics and the predisposition to hermie is almost bred back out by experienced breeders. Bag seed on the other hand were created the same way, except that they are the derivative of self pollination in an uncontrolled environment, so stability is not bred back into those. I've been growing only fem stock for my entire growing career which is better than a half decade and only created bagseed once that I know of, and I never saved those beans produced because I did not want to keep that lack of stability around.

FWIW, I don't glue any of my PVC fittings, not even in the plumbing (for the grow) lol. Just press fit into the tapered fittings that I reconstitute about every 6 months or so. My plumbing only consists of a direct line from the RO reservoir directly to any of 3 sites, so the system is never loaded up with pressure and while the RO pump is running, there will always be an open path for the RO to flow to. I made my own hydro halos using the same concept out of PVC pipe and 45º elbows.

 

[HighTechRasta]

All feminized seeds have an inherent predisposition to hermie due to the very nature of how feminized pollen is created. Granted, in most cases, stable growing habits are back crossed into the genetics and the predisposition to hermie is almost bred back out by experienced breeders. Bag seed on the other hand were created the same way, except that they are the derivative of self pollination in an uncontrolled environment, so stability is not bred back into those. I've been growing only fem stock for my entire growing career which is better than a half decade and only created bagseed once that I know of...

Don't mean to fight ya on this Bro
I've taken a spanking on this subject
and this is what the Pro science types say

When self pollinating a female, for seeds, through human manipulation
using silver solution of one kind or another, you are not creating a hermie.
What you are doing is creating a male flower by suppressing Florigen/female hormones.
The whole while, there is only female genetics present, hence feminized seed.

For anything to come out of that process hermie, a recessive hermie gene
had to have already been present in the genetics. Essentially you we're doomed
before you began, the self pollinating had nothing to do with it.

It's my understanding that, stress can cause this to happen.
Worst enemy being dark period interruptions, aka light leaks...

"As little as 0.03 footcandles (FC) [which is indeed the amount of light of a full moon] of red light interrupting the dark period will inhibit the anthesis of hemp. A long night thus becomes two short nights separated by an extremely short day, such as 1 minute of illumination."

Light leaks delay the transition and flowering, they do not necessarily cause hermies (an irregular light schedule is much more effective to create hermies). Florigen builds up during the dark period in the leaves of the entire plant. For a small light leak to cause problems it would have to of lit most of the plant or florigen would have built up and won, which makes it no longer being a very small light leak. One must also consider that LEDs are very powerful and focused,
which makes a pinhole a problem in a multi room tent with thin separation walls held in with velcro.

Although the plants look pretty good, they went through some major stress in the way of Ph swinging
up

These are the points I'm stuck on so far. I do keep asking for opinion though,
nothing like the words of those who have actually experienced it.
It's like this:
A person is kidnapped and blindfolded in a trunk
Can't see, but you're taking mental notes of the trip
The driver stops, you escape and find a cell phone in the car
You run a short way and hide and call for help
You have no idea where you are
But you know where you started and how you got there
Left, rough road for a while, right, smooth road, right, left, etc...

You might not be able to accurately describe where you are
But you have the details of how you got there
The single most important ingredient in this forum!

 

[HighTechRasta]

Post Extradition pics of the presumed Male offender...

Survey Says...

 

[HighTechRasta]

So, while reclaiming the top dressing of stones from that plant
I notice there is root hairs coming up from the coco
holding the stones down! WTF...

I dig out all the rocks with a plastic spoon and see this pattern..

Roots on one side...

Not on the other side...

Root trying to escape the pot on that side too.

Well, in my fighting with and getting ahead of myself with the drip system
I've made a huge oversight and mistake! The pics above were the screaming
proof of my mistake and the results of it in an extreme way.

I was not happy with the look of the drippers that came with my kit.
I didn't like the look of the restriction built into the nipple...

I was like, no way enough water's gonna get through there, even if it did, it would clog in like a day!
But I tried, I did this with them..

But was not satisfied, so I looked at the drippers that I got in an extra kit I bought
for the extra tubing and goodies to work with. Also, it looked like it was just as restrictive
but in a different way that was adjustable...

I did the same thing with them...

Still not satisfied, I opened these fully to attempt full unrestricted flow
It wasn't bad, but I was now not happy with the sucky 2 spot watering!

So, I made my own drip rings with a bunch of T connectors.
5 Ts per ring, 1 in and 4 out, I thought it was brilliant,
now the water could really flow!

Well, turns out that all that time I was spending trying to get even water
to each pot with the new inline shut off valves, I was not getting it evenly
inside the pots! The pics are awesome example of how that turns out...

 

[HighTechRasta]

So, I look into this whole drippy situation and learn that....

It's based on back pressure! The restriction is what makes the lines
load fully and then you get a pretty even pressure at the drippers,
only requiring slight valve adjustment on the leading lines to get it perfect.

Still, there's the clogging issue. Now, the adjustable ones should not
really clog and you can take the cap right off to flush out a clog
but I don't want to be trying to reach in and fiddle with these things...
So I upgrade my existing rings with DIY drip nipples. I cut 16 x 1in pieces
of tube, melt one closed, melt 2 holes along each one and install them
on the Ts in my rings...

It's now working awesome!
That much closer to my personal setup Nirvana.

 

[HighTechRasta]

Doh... Forgot to post some pics of the flood tray in on tray frame,
scrog raised 6in to compensate, kids back in and happy.
No condensate return pump yet, the Zon decided to deliver my
"add on item" of tubing tomorrow. Got the drain pan there,
Ph came out @ 6.1 PPM560

Very happy with the results so far, for a 3x3 space.
Hope to get the pump in tomorrow, pics will follow...

 

[Skybound]

hence feminized seed.

I didn't mean to imply that I spent more than a few minutes actually reading up on the topic that's never (sorry, once) plagued my years of growing, much like my continued lack of willingness to research the very common topic of spider mites (aka The Borg) that also plagues other growers, many of whom express their troubles in their journals, of which I am subscribed. So I do pick up semi-useful bits of knowledge here and there whether it is or ever will be relevant in my grow(s) down the road. One such useful (maybe useless?) bit of info is feminized pollen and I think this may be the difference between our understanding. It's my understanding the when a female plant is stressed to the point where she grows pollen sacks, the pollen is then feminized pollen and is used to produce fem seeds, but if used on the same plant it originated from, the seeds will have a heightened predisposition to hermie in mildly stressful conditions that other stable genetics would be able to deal with w/o growing nuts.

But like I said, I don't care so much about this topic that I would read much deeper into it than the wives tales I just shared. I believe that topic to be vast and extensive and I already have many other topics that I regularly research and don't want to put more on my plate. Maybe if I one day consider breeding I may, but as of now, it has been my expressed intention to shut my grow down hopefully be the end of this year and focus on other endeavors in life, but who knows, that too can change so I will keep an open mind I guess.

I do wish to ask you though, if you have spent much effort researching this topic, why were you asking for input about preflowers?

 

[Skybound]

Very happy with the results so far, for a 3x3 space.
Hope to get the pump in tomorrow, pics will follow...

If by chance you're using Active Aqua 160 or 400 GPH pumps and have access to a 3D printer, I designed mods for those models that makes them function like sump pumps in that they'll slurp up damn near every last bit of water save for maybe a fluid ounce or two. I find this so very helpful when draining my tanks each week and not having to mix the new feed with a gallon or two of the old feed.

ActiveAqua_AAPW160 Mod by Skybound420

 

[HighTechRasta]

I do wish to ask you though, if you have spent much effort researching this topic, why were you asking for input about preflowers?

These are the points I'm stuck on so far. I do keep asking for opinion though,
nothing like the words of those who have actually experienced it.

 

[HighTechRasta]

If by chance you're using Active Aqua 160 or 400 GPH pumps and have access to a 3D printer, I designed mods for those models that makes them function like sump pumps in that they'll slurp up damn near every last bit of water save for maybe a fluid ounce or two. I find this so very helpful when draining my tanks each week and not having to mix the new feed with a gallon or two of the old feed.

ActiveAqua_AAPW160 Mod by Skybound420

OMG, I love it. I do have a 3D printer, actually have 3!
I do have a need for a mini sump, and will get an ActiveAqua160 now.

The pump that's going in tomorrow is a condensate pump
I already have it, I posted about it, I just don't have the hose yet.
It's an automatic little pump in it's own tiny res with a float switch
made to send off condensation from a furnace with A/C
I drain into it right under the tray and it sends the runoff back to big res.
This is a recirculating setup and I will not be changing the res
I've been dumping the runoff back in the res manually for a week
I'm using a magical product that has the res looking great,
Flying Skull's Z9, Z7 for you in the USA.

 

[HighTechRasta]

Now, going to install my original tiny drip system
on the Veggy side of the tent, hope that'll get me the
Bloom Boom Room ready plants I want in 4-6 weeks of Veg.
Pics will follow...

 

[Lowrider72]

Nice Rasta,
I use drip clean in my coco but it was designed for drip lines just like yours, adds to nutes. Too easy.
Space is looking good too, all coming together.
Girls look happy too.