Oh baby!!
Here's a well-deserved and hard-won
HYENA'S GROW HOUSE update!
IT IS ON BABY!! Yes, the Hyena Grow House phase 1 is operational! The final trip up, with my babies, well, I didn't know quite what to expect since I don't give my pot plants very many car rides. I decided to put four in a container and we just packed 'em in and up we rolled.
The nearly-three-hour drive is all freeway and I'm a 59-year-old in a minivan so I'm not really sweating that there might be some kind of interdiction unless I get in a wreck. However I didn't smoke during the drive just as a common-sense precaution and I had forgotten how hard it is for me to go three hours without a doobie...I resolved to get a better handle on my smoking. I need to be healthy and most importantly alive to finish this and run it for three years!
So when we arrived the girls all lined up in the main hallway, ready for their new digs.
Now the task of washing 160 liters of Hydroton clay balls...WTF? Why is there
always another annoying and time-consuming step to every freaking thing? I thought about time-saving methods and finally just decided the master bathroom has a huge tub...let's use it...so here's a picture of me washing my balls...
I almost got in there and rolled around...almost.
I haven't been too sure about one aspect of my plan, the choice of Perlite for starting my babies...some of you have mentioned the shit floats and that might not be the best thing in an ebb-and-flow system. However, my choice of 1-gallon paint strainers was designed to keep the Perlite from moving around even after being added to the larger 5-gallon grow sites.
I must say I rate my new method of starting plants, untried until now, as a 10! Using standard 1-gallon nursery pots with all the ag inside a nylon mesh bag, has worked exactly as I envisioned! It allowed the babies to be started cleanly without the root damage possible with shifting clay balls...the Perlite 1-gallon mass stays surprisingly together even when lifted out of the container and the (literally amazing) root balls on these plants testifies to the suitability of the environment.
It's even hard for me to believe that only 31 days ago these were seeds just hitting a cup of water for the first time! This is the best I've ever done with the first 30 and I've had some real winners, I will NEVER start my plants any other way again!
However, I
still didn't know if the idea would unravel completely so now was a possible big redo moment...would the bags of smaller, floaty aggregate work in a surrounding envelope of clay balls?
The answer, to my delight, is YES!
The bag allows me to handle the plants with ease, and drop them cleanly into a clay ball environment where it still completely contains the Perlite. A small amount of clay balls over the top and voila, Houston we have a liftoff! I anxiously ran the first flood cycle, dying to see if the water level would flood little white bits everywhere but no such thing happened at all...the water level only comes up to within 3 inches of the very top, so there's never a floating ag situation, plus the Perlite stays home just fine as the flooding takes just over 11 minutes, very slow and gentle and doesn't disturb anything. I was so glad to see everything looking perfect as I flooded and drained the whole 12-pot system several times. I am so happy I didn't have to re-engineer anything! Too tired to think of any more things!
So FINALLY, 31 days after the beans hit the Dixie cup...here is Phase One in all its glory!
Actually the most crucial operation of all was the final one, the correct setting of the TIMERS...
I had worried a lot about this, because one power hiccup and my stuff ain't working, maybe for days, while I'm away (remember my goal is to only have to visit once a week, which is a high bar as you all know) and I have had scary visions of going in there and everybody's dead.
I had to time several flood and drain cycles to dial in the exact working number and it's 11 minutes fill and 22 minutes drain. But again, what about power and the timers?
As I stood there in the million-year-old classic state of a human looking at a problem and thinking, I suddenly realized I didn't actually even have the problem...I was looking at the timers and noticed they were both synchronized...but one wasn't plugged in! Eureka! These must have a battery backup inside! A little ashamed I didn't know this already, I nevertheless relaxed in the knowledge that even a short power outage won't throw my watering machine off one bit. I methodically set the timers, did all the final little arranging of everything so they were all optimally lit, then carefully zipped closed my 10x10 deluxe grow environment for the first glorious time!
Of course, there was another annoyingly complicated finishing task which was the final light-tightening of the entire tent. This AgroMax tent is a very nice thing, extremely well thought out and it has an opening for ventilation practically everywhere, all of which now had to be sealed. The velcro flaps that cover the holes had to be applied carefully to make the seals as light-tight as possible and they are actually VERY light tight. I think they'll do fine but I resolved to further seal them all with an extra layer of Gorilla tape around the edges of each and did several before I left. I'll finish that next week since this only really matters once we flip to 12/12 which won't be for a couple more weeks I suppose...never grew these strains before so who knows how long to veg them but as usual I'll use my best judgment and probably go too long, like always...
Here's the last view I got through the little observation window built into the tent...
Sooooo cute, don't you think?
So, there it is. Phase one up and running. If I go back there in four days and the place is still standing I'll know we're on this long, strange trip to stay. We'll all find out together this weekend!
Til then, I get to rest for a few days with nothing to do but play some golf, work in our yard...and recover. And dream of a forest of cannabis. Who knows who I'll meet once that forest is a reality?
I might stock up on beef jerky just to be safe. See ya!
Peace, Hyena