KJ's T5/CFL 1st Time Grow

[KarlJay]

Working on the new to me A/C system. This A/C unit is HUGE! I built a block and tackle system to reduce the pull to 25% of the weight of the A/C unit. Mounted three pull points and two pulleys to the roof then added supports to those pull points down to load bearing walls.

Now that problem is that when the A/C is fully lifted, I'm about 4" short of height I need. So I'm building a platform to set the A/C on, then going to tip it into the area it's rest in.

Real PITA... but this will cool down a house almost twice the size of mine. It'll also free up more amps on the 110 lines because this runs on 220.

Got the vents, ducts, manifold taps, just need to get the unit in place and vent outside setup.

 

[KarlJay]

Full watering today for both 1st and 2nd grows. 1st grow got an extra strong dose of molasses, the 2nd grow got their 1st taste of nutes. Kinda strange, they looked very healthy but I needed to start the nutes sooner or later.

I moved the last of the HPS lights into the flowering room. Got the ceiling bars in place, might have to make them a bit longer later, but now they seem to be doing the job.

The plants from the 2nd grow are actually taller now than the med sized ones from the 1st grow.

I just couldn't hold the 2nd grow in veg any longer, the 1st grow is staying in flower much longer than I expected.

Seeing roots on some of the 3rd grow, about 1/2" long.

Kinda funny, the clones have roots where I DIDN'T scrape the skin. I expected the roots to come out where I scraped the skin, but saw a few roots forming where the foam puck was, so I moved them down 1/2" to get the root into the water.

Still no fan in the clone closet and they seem to be having a struggle. They've perked up a bit since I put them in the clone closet, compared to the open grow. Might be the lack of fresh air because of no fan. I'll be fixing that soon, but just glad to see roots kicking in.

 

[KarlJay]

____A_M_B_E_R___ !!!

Did a quick spot check on a leaf tip and I found AMBER !!!

Probably near 5 to 10% but it's exciting to see that many on a 3/8" sample leaf.

This was just one plant and a quick check because it 'looked different' today.

Harvest should start in a few days.

I'm running 4X600 lights and I mixed the colors 3 HPS, 1 MH in the center of the grow where the more mature plants are.

The MH really makes the plants look different.

The reason for the light mix is that I heard it improves the quality.

Bought some canning jars, I'm going with different sizes from 1/2 pint up so that I can keep smaller batches just in case mold kicks in, I'll be able to salvage what's not damaged.

I'll also buy a drying rack and still plan on a selective harvest.

On a different note: I noticed a problem with the new clones. The very bottom of the clones are not rooting and I'm getting roots up higher where I didn't scrape the skin. I used a razor blade to scrape and slice each clone, the same razor blade.

The bottom tips on some are looking dark, I'm thinking I should cut off the tips and move the plants lower so the roots will have more space. I'm not even seeing nubs at the bottom.

Scraping the skin at the bottom worked last time, so I don't know what went wrong.

 

[CA215]

Is it just the leaf tips that you're seeing amber? What about crevices on the bigger buds? I need to get some better scopes today ill work on that, see if I can spot these horrid bananas .. I've also heard that the MH/HPS combo does well during flower, any way you could pick out the "more MH" for a picture compared to the "more HPS"? Good idea with the jars! Im starting to notice I may need more aswell. You looking into the hangable spring loaded "herb drying racks"? Mine seems to be doing the job quite well, good investment. Was looking into making a cardboard box with a pc fan, figure i'd fork out 30 bucks and get something I can use for years

 

[KarlJay]

The amber came from a single spot check. It was so close to lights out, that I didn't have time to do a real check. It's kind of a pain to get to the more mature plants because I have 27 mature plants in that room and the lights are right at 'head banging' level, so I kinda have to be careful. Not to mention that most of the plants are wide and I've already knocked off one tiny bud.

I'll be doing a full check very soon and will have pics, just glad to see some amber!

I don't know how much difference the MH will make at this point. I've heard you want more MH at the last week and I *think* I'm closer than that on some plants. So I don't think I'll be able to do much of a compare. I might be better to run all 4 as HPS and use the CLFs high K to get the extra spectrum (really don't have a clue).

The elec system is doing fine with the 4 lights and full on A/C, so today I hope to have big centeral A/C in place and I'll be able to axe the small window A/C. That'll allow me to run one more light. I think 5X600W lights should be great for that size room (9X11)

I'll post some pics of the trichs very soon, gotta rent a lift to install the A/C.

 

[CA215]

Kinda figured that was the case those things are pretty massive! I've heard you could run the MH for the first couple weeks to reduce stress? Might be something to mess around with. Wooooo that's a lot of watts! Sounds like you have everything planned out KJ can't wait to see the new setup all worked out!

 

[KarlJay]

Got the Jumbo A/C in the attic! Genie Lift 8... Cool Tool Put the beast on the forks, cranked it up, pushed it off... DONE!

Now I have to fab up the exhaust vents, manifold, and drain pan, then I can connect the ducts and I'll have very powerful central air.

After that, I'll be able to remove the baby window A/C and chill down the whole house.

Had the other guy come by today. We took out one of the most mature plants and had a close look. He saw about 10% and will report his findings to the other guy semi-involved.

He took the two samples from Saturday and we'll see how those stack up. I think the samples were dry enough to smoke, but not cured.

 

[KarlJay]

Got the word back from the samples, he said it's A1 and I should chop it down. So I'll be getting a drying rack and I'll probably be cutting down in the next few days.

This is great news because the other guy he brought those samples to has been doing this for 25 years.

I'm going to make a special effort to record all the weights and take pics of the plants and what I harvest, so maybe I'll have more insight to what yield I can expect.

 

[KarlJay]

Took a look at the clones, noticed 2 problems:

1. the tips were black, almost all of them. Very few roots were growing out of the area where I had shaved and split the clones.

The processes I was using was to cut scrape and split about 1/2" of the bottom. I used a straight edge razor to do all but the cut from the mother plant.

2. some of the roots grew thru the holding puck. Now I'll either cut the puck around the roots or cut those roots. Probably cut the puck as close as I can with a fresh sharp razor... looks like 3 or 4 grew thru the pucks.

I used generic pucks so I don't know if this is the problem or not, some are more dense than the others (used two brands because one store was out of stock)

Notice how the tip is all black? Also NO ROOTS at the tip... won't be doing the scraping or slicing again!

I cut off all the black tips.

Looks like they are ready for soil in a few days.

I'll probably wait to take the next batch, I kept 10 plants from flowering so that I can space out the harvest dates. I think around 1 harvest per month would be best.

 

[CA215]

That stem looks like it is rotting, what kind of water are you using in your cloner KJ? Any additives?

 

[mountaingoat]

Looks a bit necrotic that stem. But the roots looks pretty healthy

 

[mcloadie]

Took a look at the clones, noticed 2 problems:

1. the tips were black, almost all of them. Very few roots were growing out of the area where I had shaved and split the clones.

The processes I was using was to cut scrape and split about 1/2" of the bottom. I used a straight edge razor to do all but the cut from the mother plant.

2. some of the roots grew thru the holding puck. Now I'll either cut the puck around the roots or cut those roots. Probably cut the puck as close as I can with a fresh sharp razor... looks like 3 or 4 grew thru the pucks.

I used generic pucks so I don't know if this is the problem or not, some are more dense than the others (used two brands because one store was out of stock)

Notice how the tip is all black? Also NO ROOTS at the tip... won't be doing the scraping or slicing again!

I cut off all the black tips.

Looks like they are ready for soil in a few days.

I'll probably wait to take the next batch, I kept 10 plants from flowering so that I can space out the harvest dates. I think around 1 harvest per month would be best.

you scraped off the portion of the stem that contains the cells necessary to convert to root production.

 

[KarlJay]

So I should scrape less?

Do you guys scrape at all?

Based on this outcome, I really question the need to scrape at all.

Some of the roots were clear near the black part, every one had mostly white healthy roots. Every one has the black part cut off.

As far as the water goes, it was just PH'd tap water, then I added a touch of GH Micro a few days ago because I wasn't seeing roots, now I'm seeing MUCH more roots.

 

[mcloadie]

So I should scrape less?

Do you guys scrape at all?

Based on this outcome, I really question the need to scrape at all.

Some of the roots were clear near the black part, every one had mostly white healthy roots. Every one has the black part cut off.

As far as the water goes, it was just PH'd tap water, then I added a touch of GH Micro a few days ago because I wasn't seeing roots, now I'm seeing MUCH more roots.

No need to scrape!

 

[mountaingoat]

Agreed with mr MC

 

[KarlJay]

Update: Grow 3 is in soil. I noticed about 5 of the plants had roots growing thru the foam pucks. I also noticed that every one that every one of them was the spongy pucks. When I went to buy pucks, the store only had a few in stock, so I bought them and the rest from another store. The 2nd store's pucks were spongier than the first one's.

I'll probably have to get the better pucks.

I'll wait about 2 weeks or so to take the next set of clones, this should space the time about right.

1st grow: I pulled two of the most mature plants and checked for amber again. Decided to hold off a while longer, still saw some clear, but did find a lot more amber, probably close to 10%. So it should only be a few more days.

Watered again using Molasses and KoolBloom.

The 2nd grow that was put into the flower room has started to develop hairs on the bud sites, not seeing any problems with them.

I'll post some pics of the new plants soon.

 

[KarlJay]

Update: got grow 3 into soil. Dodged a major bullet... I was tired and the clones were in soil but I didn't setup the lights. So, I put them on the floor of the flowering room. 1/2 hour later, 7 of them were bent over! Took them out, setup the veg lights and they all recovered.

Pulled out 2 from the 1st grow and checked for amber. I'm pretty sure the harvest will start tomorrow! I was a bit surprised that some of what I thought were less mature, had MORE amber than those I thought were more mature. I'm seeing plenty of amber on several plants.

I'm planning on several pics so I can get a ballpark of the yield per plant.

Grow 2 is 16 in flower and 10 held for cloning soon. Of the 16 in flower several are now taller than the med sized from grow 1 and are getting nearly as tall as the tallest from grow 1.

I should be able to pull more clones in about 1.5 weeks from grow 2, that should put me on a 1 month cycle between grow 3 and 4. That should work well for putting the last 10 from grow 2 into flowering, so grow 2 would have about 1 month split in flowering.

Total time for 1st grow in flowering to harvest looks like 9 to 9.5 weeks (I'll have to go back and check)

Still working on the Jumbo A/C, got the manifold built, just need to cut the duct holes and mount it.

Here's some pics:

That shinny alum box to the left is the homemade A/C manifold.

I'll post some trich and harvest pics soon. Also, Grow 3 is 27 plants, more taken from the bushy/branchy plants. Mixed between Mr NiceGuy and Rascal OG.

 

[mountaingoat]

That room is to die for! and look at those purdy roots! Reps!

 

[KarlJay]

That room is to die for! and look at those purdy roots! Reps!

Thank Goat!

 

[KarlJay]

TIMBER !!!

Did a final trich check and some were getting VERY amber, probably near the 25/30% mark.

I got 6 plants about 2/3's done. I'm doing a selective harvest. Cut down the top 2/3 of the plant and leave the rest. Move them together and lower the lights and let them mature more.

Ran into a few problems:
I bought a 6 tier drying rack and it's overfull already. This is probably 40~50% of the total for grow 1. Grow 1 is 11 plants but 1 is only 10" tall.

I didn't think I would need more drying room, but I haven't see the girls in the back for a while, they got a bit FAT!!!! and those side branches really added up.

2nd problem, I have no way to weigh these. I'd like to get a ballpark of the weight, but all I got is a pocket scale.

I'll buy probably 2 more drying racks or figure out what else I can use. maybe boxes and string / clips.

I think at least 2 more are ready to harvest, but I'm spot checking each plant before I harvest.

I was a bit surprised that the taller ones were much more amber than I thought, it's like they passed up the shorter ones.

Pics: