JoJo's Hempy SCROG Bucket C99 Grow Journal - 2015

[jojo677]

It's decided! I don't really feel like waiting until tomorrow (7 day flush) to chop the breeding girls, so I'm going to do it tonight. I'm also going to try Doc Bud's bud wash for the first time! I'm hoping it won't affect the seeds, but I don't see why it would...

I'll post an update later tonight, as it's time to feed anyway.

Stay classy!

 

[jojo677]

Update (21 days flower, 76 days old):

Well there's not a lot new with big Hempy, but I did feed both of them today. They're drinking more water now, which could be because flowering is picking up, or because it's been warmer the last few days.

I need to re-arrange the 2 LEDs so that the SCROG get some more light. I figured I'd have to get a few CFLs for the little Hempy anyway, so I'd rather just pay a bit more in electricity each month and use the additional LED. It should give me better yields on the big Hempy too!

I'll throw a few pictures of the clone in here too. I haven't watered since I planted her, but she seems fine. I'll probably give her a light feeding tomorrow, I just ran out of time today.

3 Day Comparison:

As for the breeding girls, I went ahead with the bud wash. Since the plants were so small, I didn't use 5 gallon buckets... I used 32oz cups! I followed Doc Bud's recipe, except the second cup with lemon juice/baking soda had hot water from the faucet. That was the cup that took most of the gnats/crap out of them! The main reason I did it was because of the flour from pollinating them and the gnat infestation.

Hopefully once I get rid of this ProMix, the gnats will go with it. I don't think they can live in the Hempy mix, but I've been wrong before.

I weighed the buds before washing, with the sugar leaves and stems, and got the following:

Northern Lights: 57.2g
C99: 58.6g

Not bad for being in pretty bad conditions, not being vegged long, and having gnats eat at their roots their entire life. I may get a few grams + seeds from each plant. I'll let them hang, maybe trim them in a day or two, and dry them for a few days.

You can see the difference in appearance in the last 2 pictures. C99 is in the back/screen and NL is in the front.

That was a long night, time for some sleep! Hope you are all doing well!

 

[HunterHunt]

I may be wrong but doesnt perlite need to be watered daily like rockwool?

 

[Tead]

I don't think they can live in the Hempy mix, but I've been wrong before.

Well... I don't have them, and I totally leave water in my drain pans between feedings.... cuz I'm lazy.

I may be wrong but doesnt perlite need to be watered daily like rockwool?

Not at all. Even with just perlite the hempy buckets will remain quite moist. I was surprised by how evenly moist the perlite will stay for many days. With temp spikes near 100f (sometimes over!), I've gone 3 days without watering. I've seen folks in cooler environments go for 5 days without watering.

 

[mussh]

I may be wrong but doesnt perlite need to be watered daily like rockwool?

the hempy bucket has a res that holds water also.

gnats are very weak fliers. get a small fan and aim it at the top of your pot. get a couple fly strips. the gnats will get blown out of the bucket and not have the flying strength to make it back in. they will eventually get stuck on the paper. your problem will disappear.
fantastic looking flowers harvested jojo!

 

[Weaselcracker]

I could also hang up my other LED side-by-side, but then I may have heat issues... I'll probably make a decision this weekend!

I need to re-arrange the 2 LEDs so that the SCROG get some more light.

Knowing the details of what's going on journals is difficult sometimes so excuse my confusion. Are you saying you are planning on sticking another light up? If you can do that, and deal with the heat issue somehow, you would thank yourself down the road. It sucks having a whole bunch of buds that are 'almost there'.

 

[jojo677]

I may be wrong but doesnt perlite need to be watered daily like rockwool?

Hey Hunter! I've also read that you should water daily until the roots hit the reservoir, but the clone seems fine so far... I dug into the medium an inch or two last night and it was still moist, so the perlite/vermiculite is "wicking" the moisture up it seems.

Well... I don't have them, and I totally leave water in my drain pans between feedings.... cuz I'm lazy.

gnats are very weak fliers. get a small fan and aim it at the top of your pot. get a couple fly strips. the gnats will get blown out of the bucket and not have the flying strength to make it back in. they will eventually get stuck on the paper. your problem will disappear.
fantastic looking flowers harvested jojo!

I checked today, and I only saw one gnat in the grow room! I emptied the ProMix containers, and that's where they've been living... Since all my containers in the grow room have Hempy mix now, hopefully I don't have any more problems! It also seems that they are attracted to the water left in pans/cups as I find a lot of dead ones in there. If they continue, I'll take the advice on putting up the fan.

Knowing the details of what's going on journals is difficult sometimes so excuse my confusion. Are you saying you are planning on sticking another light up? If you can do that, and deal with the heat issue somehow, you would thank yourself down the road. It sucks having a whole bunch of buds that are 'almost there'.

Sorry Weasel, your confusion is very well founded! I was battling with 2 issues when I talked about the additional light and didn't make myself very clear.

1. I have A LOT of budsites, but only 185W of light. I kind of want to add more to increase yield.
2. I have my smaller Hempy flowering at the same time, and I have to provide light for it, so instead of getting another smaller light or CFLs, I figured I'd use half of my 2nd 185W LED and let the other half cover the SCROG.

So, I think I'll re-arrange the lights so the SCROG gets 1.5 lights (288W), and the small Hempy gets 0.5 lights (93W). Hopefully I didn't muddy the waters more!

Thanks for sticking around guys! If I get any seeds from this experiment, maybe my next grow will be my NL99 (NL x C99)!

 

[Ruthy]

Hey JoJo the SCROG is crazy full
I just read about the grams/watt good information to know thanks Weasel.

It will be interesting to see how it all comes out with the trimming.
I have been looking at mine and thinking of doing the same but have read that it's possible to harvest the top buds and continue flowering the lower buds. I know you can't do that but the way mine are looking I might leave them and try it.

 

[jojo677]

Thanks Ruthy, it's good to see you around again. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm not too worried about the yield on these breeding plants, as long as I get some viable seeds. I'm still curious as to what I'll get under these fluorescent fixtures though.

It's definitely possible to harvest the buds at different times, and this way you can harvest each bud at whatever maturity level (trichome color) you'd like to get the high you're looking for. I let the breeding girls go several days longer (66 days total) than my previous harvests, so they'll help me decide on when to harvest big Hempy too!

 

[jojo677]

Update (24 days flower, 79 days old):

The two big changes over the last few days:

1. No more gnats! As I suspected, they don't have anywhere to live anymore, so they all died off. Now I need to clean the grow room..

2. The LEDs have been re-arranged. I did this the other night, and now the big Hempy gets about 1.5 of the lights, and the little Hempy gets the remainder. I think this change will be well worth it, and it's been cooler the last few days, so heat hasn't been an issue.

I've noticed on both plants that several of the lower fan leaves being sucked dry and dying, which tells me that either they weren't getting enough food, or they still needed some nitrogen to get through the last of the stretch. If it continues, I'll up the nutrients a bit. I'm still following the schedule, and don't have any nute burn, so they could probably take a bit more. No more calcium issues since the added cal/mag either!

I won't do a 3 day comparison today, since there isn't much new.. Oh and that tube/white thing you see in the middle of the SCROG? That's the "feeding tube". I put a funnel on the top and water through that. Super easy!

It's nice not having much tucking to do anymore!

The clone (I need a new name, maybe "baby Hempy"?) is doing well too. There's a bit of growth in the last few days, and I still haven't watered/fed it again (6 days). I'll give it a half gallon tomorrow, since the nutrients get upped a bit per the schedule. It's still looking a bit pale, so it probably needs the extra nitrogen.

Hang in there!

 

[jojo677]

P.S. - I started picking at one of the breeding girls that is hanging, and found a few viable looking seeds. Hopefully they had enough time to mature!

 

[Weaselcracker]

I like the feeding tube, now if you had one of those I.V bags from the hospital hooked up you could fill it and hang it up on the wall for feedings.
Actually, convenient but a bit morbid I guess. Geez! Nevermind. What am I thinking... a good idea though with the tube. Even with a long necked watering can I'm still aiming down into a dark jungle and actually have no idea if I'm hitting the pot or not most of the time.

 

[jojo677]

Thanks weasel, I like the IV idea! I actually have plans to do something kind of along those lines. I have all the stuff to build a WiFi enabled pump to water the bucket if I'm going to be away for several days. I'll be able to go to a web page and click the "water" button whenever I feel it needs it.

Eventually I'll also have temp/humidity readouts and options for the humidifier, vent fan control, and a heater. That's further down the line, but it's coming together!

I used to have to remove all my plants to water them, so this Hempy bucket with the drain spigot is a BIG LEAP for me.

 

[PTSD 4 ME]

Damn great job so far man. Awesome looking scrog bucket.

 

[Weaselcracker]

JoJo will you post a little more sometime on whatever you've got planned for automation? I'm interested in what Skybound is doing with his automation thread. I just have had my hands full making it all work as it is- some delusion of mine that I'll get it all dialed in perfectly and then throw some fancy frills in afterwards.

 

[jojo677]

Damn great job so far man. Awesome looking scrog bucket.

Thanks bud, they're coming right along, huh?

JoJo will you post a little more sometime on whatever you've got planned for automation? I'm interested in what Skybound is doing with his automation thread. I just have had my hands full making it all work as it is- some delusion of mine that I'll get it all dialed in perfectly and then throw some fancy frills in afterwards.

Definitely. I just checked out Skybound's blog and it looks really interesting. He's going the same route (an arduino) as I will be. The thing that's taking him a long time is that he has to learn all the programming and web development, and I have experience with most of it (though a little rusty). I'm just lazy... I just made a WiFi temperature/humidity sensor that I can monitor from the web, and I'll put it in the growroom shortly. I also had a controller I built last winter to run a humidifier, heater, and the exhaust fan to optimize levels. It worked really well, but I don't need it during the summer. I also want to make all the options available to modify from the web/a smartphone app.

I originally made that controller to monitor and regulate all those things during the winter, but it would be so nice to be on vacation for a week and not have to ask someone to water them. Using this beautifully easy Hempy method, I would just need to fill a bucket filled with water/nutrients, and a web-enabled pump would be ready to pump water for X seconds whenever I want. Though the mix might not be ideal for growth if it is longer than a week, this would work for most situations. This way I don't have to make a machine to fill a container with water, mix in specific amounts of nutrients, and then try to adjust the pH - difficult!

I'll post about the little gadget(s) I've made later, as I think you'll see one of them on the SCROG soon!

 

[jojo677]

...some delusion of mine that I'll get it all dialed in perfectly and then throw some fancy frills in afterwards.

I completely hear you there. I like spending time with these girls, so I'm sure I'll find a reason even if/when I make an automated environment, and I'm sure you're the same way! When I switched to Hempy, it took care of tons of problems, so now I have to find other reasons to spend time with them!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Hmmm. This hempy is sounded very tempting. I'm glad you and Skybound have crossed paths, I hope you guys hurry up and invent something I'll be your first customer. yeah it would be so nice to go away for a few weeks. The way things have been going, I'd have to put on a week long training course just to show someone how to tend my plants.

 

[jojo677]

I'll see what I can do. I'll also do some more looking around, as I'd think there has to be SOMETHING out there. Though I'm pretty cheap and I like making things myself... But not all can do that, and I'd like to share whatever I come up with!

 

[jojo677]

Update (27 days flower, 82 days old):

Well, not too much more is new with big Hempy. I can't tell and discernible bud growth, but then again, I see them every day. I was going to give straight water today, but bottom leaves are still dying, so I upped to week 5 nutes! Still no nute burn... Instead of a 3 day comparison, I'll do a 9 day comparison.

9 Day Comparison:

As for the breeding girlies, the seeds have been harvested! Not as many as I had expected, but I did get some from each plant. The most came from the Northern Lights, and I got a total of 54 seeds combined. As for the yield, I got the following from buds:

Northern Lights: 10.94g
C99: 10.14g

Not horrible, but I can do better!

I sealed the seeds in bags with some rice to act as a desiccant.