The Joy Of Growing - SweetSue Goes Perpetual

I'm having one of those days when things click smoothly into place. Don't you just love those times? :laughtwo: I arrived back at my building at a quarter to noon and the LED panel hadn't arrived yet, so I decided to sit on the stoop and wait. After ten minutes I decided another minute and I'd give up and just run back down the 40 steps to retrieve it when it finally got here. Just as I stood up the truck rounded the corner.

First off, thank goodness they pack carefully, because the back of that FedX truck frightened me. No securement of the packages at all. While retrieving the panel from that truck my other expected delivery pulled up to the curb. A fortuitous chain of events. Now, a nice buzz and let's get busy! :slide:

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Absolutely MedFarmer. Now, to figure out how to make it all work to my best advantage. :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
PeeJay said:
Innovation is fun and all and Ziggy is doing well. But if I was a kit newbie I would try to emulate a traditionalist with an amazing track record who consistantly pumps out amazing produce from a 4x4 space like clowns pouring out of a minature VW Beetle. Graytail?
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LOL! :laughtwo: I'm in the process of stuffing the clowncar again. :slide: This time I have twice the light and chubbier clowns!
 
Graytail said:
LOL! :laughtwo: I'm in the process of stuffing the clowncar again. :slide: This time I have twice the light and chubbier clowns!
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Well, I'll take membership in that club any day. I'd be honored. :slide:
 
Starting

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Potential

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Chillin'

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More to come
 
SweetSue said:
Well guys, this was interesting breakfast conversation. Time to get myself home and get busy.

PeeJay, we need to take this SWICK conversation to the thread. Any chance I could get you to repost your thoughts there? I'd like to get the discussion going.
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Sue, I think that your SWICK thread is a great tutorial where people who lack the confidence to treat each plant as an individual can learn about a "one size fits all" watering strategy that is far superior to chronically over-watering plants from the top down. It would be inappropriate for me to be a naysayer in your well constructed thread, especially since I'm only spouting theory and intuition and have no direct experience growing in SWICK. This is a far better place to discuss the subject since this journal is visited by many of the best growers on the site who have years more experience than I do.

In order to be more confident of the SWICK strategy I would need to see some side-by-side examples by several people with varying degrees of bias and do some SWICKing myself.

I will draw an analogy, however, that you may find useful. I have been an avid skier for most of my life. Different skis are better in different conditions. If you want to have the best skis for various conditions you need more than one pair of skis. You need some long fat rockered skis for bombing open powder fields. You need some shorter fatties with more sidecut for powder in the trees. Something that is wide and stiff for manky crud. Something narrow for icy conditions...

SWICK is the "all mountain ski" of cannabis watering. It will do just ok in any condition but the band where it truly shines is very narrow indeed. Plants are individuals from both genetic and epigenetic standpoints. In general terms we can say that, for example sativas are adapted to hotter conditions than indicas, less variation in light duration, early season conditions that are relatively dry, and wetter later seasons. Then there are other variables that express themselves regionally and in response to environmental conditions (epigenetics.)

In order to grow artisan quality cannabis you sort of have to develop an intuition about things like watering to meet each plant's individual needs. The same goes for feeding. Returning to the ski analogy, you assess the conditions and choose the right ski. If the conditions change, you change skis. You can't do a high quality job of watering by measuring the same amount of water out for each pot of the same size when the plants are different strains, sizes, or even phenotypes... The same is true of feeding. Like we talked about the other day if you build a "everything but the kitchen sink soil" there is little leeway for making strain/pheno adjustments.

My general observations looking at SWICK plants is that lack the super enthusiasic look of plants hitting on all cylinders. They tend to look a little flabby and over watered. Maybe I'm just biased... But, I also know that if you study soil much you know that most of the microbial activity is going on in the first few inches of soil, and that what is on top washes down when water moves downwards in the medium. Water is the solvent. I see little point in trying to develop a healthy soil biology and then screwing it up by watering the plant in a way that is quite contrary to the way the plants have evolved feeding for eons. The quality of weed grown in a well run, sensible soil program will always beat hydro. Hydro may beat it in yield but it won't beat it in quality.

SWICK is a strange hybrid of hydro and soil. It is like making a special hempy medium. I am not sold on it. It is not nearly as new as you may think it is. The reason it is not commonly practiced is because, well, there are better ways to skin the cat. The single biggest reason to avoid it if you are serious about soil growing is that it is an "all mountain ski" that does nothing to help you learn to respect and treat your plants as individuals and respond to their unique needs. Is it better than overwatering from the top down in poorly drained soil? You bet your bippy it is! Is it better than learning how to water your plants by observation and using a little common sense? No way! It does not mimic the natural conditions that the plants evolved in. It does not promote healthy soil biology. Sure you never have to look at the plants and say, "that one needs water" but the convenience comes at a price.

That is my opinion, for what it's worth. I think it may be viable for those who are not tuned into their plants or who are looking for quick and easy, but it is not the road to highest quality and inhibits the learning experience.
 
Thought I'd show the last 3 plants I harvested and what the roots looked like.

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PeeJay,

With all due respect, (real respect, I am not just shining you on,) some of us do not have an intuitional connection flowing with our plants.
My father grew house plants. He specialized in orchids. He had a grubby little greenhouse where he tossed pots of orchids not in bloom. He had a dining room and living room full of blooming orchids. The greenhouse had no heat or fans. He grew mostly in clay dirt from our backyard.

Among the orchid society he was well respected and eventually became a certified orchid judge. As far as I can tell, his entire method was to walk through a room or the greenhouse and 'notice' that a plant needed watering or should be brought inside or outside based on where it was in it's flowering cycle. I believe he spent about 4 minutes a day caring for over a hundred orchids in a dozen varieties.

My dad was in tune with plants. I am not in tune with plants. I can learn and apply technology, but I can't hear their needs.
I intend to get better at watering the young uns by having wet and dry swick cycles.
I struggle mightily at applied watering.
I respect what you say, but bunny slope skis are the right type for my watering ability - at this time.

Here is a recent photo of a SWICK raised bud at 7 weeks of flower. I am anxious to see how she smokes.

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It has been a long, frustrating year since my first harvest. SWICK and CC Soil has saved my grow.
Not all of us can be MichelAngelo, but I still want to carve and garden :)
 
Right on Rado! That is exactly why I don't want to go post confusing stuff in the SWICK thread. It is an excellent tutorial on a functional if less than ideal watering method. I just want to encourage those who take the easy road to also spend some time on skills development.
 
Daily Update: Perpetual Tent - Week 8

I started out by emptying the tent. Although I was going to end up with a very similar setup, I decided that a good cleaning wasn't going to hurt anything. I emptied the SWICK tray and swept up all the loose perlite on the floor and gave everything a thorough wipe down.

Then I went to work transplanting Auto Destroyer. I filled the pot with fresh soil, leaving a pot-sized hole that got dusted with Roots!

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Auto Destroyer's roots were scored with a sharp knife and dusted with more Roots! before being set in place and firmed in. I tried to get a picture of that process, but it takes me two hands to get this done and it dropped right into place with a sigh of relief. I swear, you could almost hear it. :laughtwo:

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I wanted to do this as a soak, to be sure everything got nicely hydrated. I mixed up 1.5 gallons of water with the light Transplant dilution, poured some of it over the top to start the process and dumped the rest into the container and let the pot suck it up.

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After I noticed it wasn't drinking anymore I lifted the pot out and set it on the old SWICK tray on a couple risers to drip while I went to work rehanging the lights and moving everything back into the tent. I pulled the T8s out for now until I figure out just exactly how I intend to set this rotational grow up. I've begun to consider doing germination and the first three weeks in the Tiny Closet and working it out so the rest of it stays right there on the shelves. The T8s can go up top and I can decide what lighting I need for the last stage, which can move to the bottom shelf. That way the rest of the floor space can be used for the bigger pots.

Environment is under control. Neat. :cheesygrinsmiley: This always makes me very happy. Oh, I never sent her a picture of this setup installed. It was enough for her that it made me dance with joy, but she should see it. I know, I'll send her a link to the journal. Sometimes I'm so computer naive it's almost comical. :battingeyelashes:

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One last peek in before I close it up. The Cheese Candy is now to the back and Auto Destroyer is right inside the door. Both of them have intoxicating odors that make working around them a heady experience. I kept leaning in for a sniff. LOL! I got everyone up to even heights, finally.

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I'm pretty pleased with today's results. Now it's all clean and ready to begin again.

Short and sweet today guys. Not much more to see. Now I begin the process of planning the small pot perpetual before I even think of starting seeds. It was the lack of advance planning that got me in trouble at every step. Understanding the dynamics of what was going on in my life, it was still a sad thing to witness, and I thank you all for being so gracious.

I'm going to plot this out in detail for myself and make a couple reference cards for drenches and foliars. Get documentation firmed up and finish getting the lighting worked out. I'm going to have a plan before I start this next cycle. No more surprises.

I don't know about you, but I'm having a magnificent day. Woke up this morning feeling ready to get back to life. An amazing difference from just a couple days ago. Part of my nature is to push things to quick resolution. The trick is not to overlook the things that absolutely must be attended to. For me that means writing it out and driving myself to confront things head on. It's been an awesome process that took a lot of late nights to get through, but I've managed to silence a number of personal demons attached to Dale's death. Not completely done by a long shot, but I have resolved the ones giving me the most grief.

The trick turned out to be forgiveness, pure and simple. That's where it always ends up. One of my mantras is

"Since you know you have to get to forgiveness eventually, why not get there now and save yourself a lot of grief?"

I tell myself that a lot, unfortunately. :straightface: Forgiveness is an art, and I've been studying it most of my adult life.

So let's make the world a better place today by our joyful expressions. This community is particularly adept at joy, I've discovered. Makes me proud to be counted as one of you. :Love:

:Namaste:
 
Now, I think some Greek yogurt and graham cracker and a decent replenishment of my continuing buzz. I start the morning with those 6 "cannabis fragment" hits and every few hours chase it with three or four more to stay nicely tuned in all day. An amazing strain. Just amazing.
 
PeeJay, I want to thank you for your contributions here concerning the SWICK, and I agree with your decision to keep this discussion here. I believe I will develop an attitude with the thread to encourage the mastery of the wet/dry cycle. Your observation about the plants looking overwatered made me remember a recent conversation where that was pointed out to me by another talented grower. I can see now what he was referring to.

I chose the SWICK because I was one of those less-than-talented growers with a pressing need for meds that left me little room for failure, so in that respect it served me well. I was able to give him the medication he deserved in his last days. As I become more familiar with the art of cultivation I'm learning to be more responsive to the individual plant. Having people like yourself willing to make us think about the process and apply our intuitive senses makes that journey from novice gardener to someone who cultivates an easier path to follow.

I harvested some incredible cannabis from those SWICK grows, so there really is a value to having it in the tool box. I can now see the value in moving past it once you've decided you want to continue, provided you can develop the skills necessary to keep from killing plants with poor watering practices. If you can't, and there will always be those who struggle with it, the SWICK can save your grow.

I like the way you make us think PeeJay. So good to have you back and active.
 
Nice transplant Sue! She won't skip a beat. If you think of it lift that pot up about 6" and drop it, thunk, to settle the interface - sort of like you would with a pan of cake batter to break big air bubbles before popping it in the oven.

Yeah, SWICK has it's place. I'm going to do a mini update in a moment and you will laugh and maybe even cast rotten fruits and vegetables in my general direction. :rofl:
 
cajuncelt said:
Scoring the roots...
That's new to me. What, where, how?
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Nice job on the transplanting! Looked right on.
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Cajun, scoring the roots is a routine horticultural technique to stimulate the roots before you up can from one size pot to another....for instance I go from veg in 1 gallon to flower in 7 gallon...before putting the one gallon plant in the new 7 gallon pot, take a sharp knife or box cutter with razor blade and cut the root ball from top to bottom on 4 sides of the root ball.....it allows the roots to spread out into its new environment and release the roots from being "bound" in the 1 gallon pot.....
 
I'm so glad you all approved of my transplanting job. :cheesygrinsmiley: There was that point when you get ready to release the plant from the pot where I thought I had to look like a deer in the headlights! :rofl: I read a lot of journals, many of them HB kit grows, so I've seen it happen many times. For the life of me I couldn't find a single example to reference before doing this initial transplant.

I need to get a sharp blade for that.

Hahaha! I just remembered that Dale's bonsai tools are bundled under my work surface next to the tent and includes a blade for this very purpose! LOL!! That's a good thing. Next time I have a professional-quality tool to do the job. Thank you Dale Francis. :kisstwo:

On my way home from dinner. I seem to have lost the ability to cook. Or is it I'm avoiding the issue of having to cook for one? I have no reference for that since college. Geez, who eats like you did in college when you're in your 60s? I need to get some ideas for meals lined up. I'll run out of funds before the end of the month if I keep this up.

It's been kinda nice though. :battingeyelashes: Maybe a couple more days of free fall. Just a couple.
 
Sue,

As you are arranging your room for a perpetual grow, it is a good time to think about how your growing style effects space and the number of growing zones.

The a non-perpetual grow is what "The Grow Book: How it all works" by by Wing Tech describes as a 1-light,
I will call a non-perpetual grow, 1-zone: veg 30+ days, flower 60 days. Repeat.
Harvest every 90+ days.


The simplest perpetual grow is a 2-zone: veg 60 days, flower 60 days/veg new 60 days, flower 60 days/veg new 60 days. Repeat.
Harvest every 60 days, 120 days each


If you like to grow faster, 3-zone: Veg 30 days, flower 1 60 days, flower 2 60 days - veg goes into alternate flower 1 or flower 2 every 30 days
Harvest every 30 days, 90 days each

I personally grow with a 4-zone: Veg 1 30 days, veg 2 30 days, flower 1 60 days, flower 2 60 days - veg 2 goes into alternate flower 1 or flower 2 every 30 days
Harvest every 30 days, 120 days each

(Except I veg for 70 days. Harvest every 35 days, 140 days each - At least that's the plan !)


So basically you probably want to chose between 90 days to havest or 120 days to harvest to know how to arrange your plants and lights.
 
I have this weird thing going on in that I want to maintain the small pot perpetual under the 11/13 schedule, which runs through three stations, - one month under CFLs, one month under T8s and finish under LEDs. I'm going to try to keep them on the shelves, using the tiny closet to do the first month. I'll also use the tiny closet for the veg stage of anything I'm running under a traditional system that won't see the tent until we hit flip.

The closet will accommodate germinating and early veg for both systems and veg stage for the photo flowering plants that aren't part of the tiny pot grows. I only plan to do two of this at most, one for each 7 gallon. I'm still working out the scheduling for that. I'm still trying to figure out how to grow, for that matter. :laughtwo:

Look at that. I'm expanding again, and in the back of my head is this little voice saying

"Won't we need more lights?"

Hahaha! It never stops. Before you're done there are grow spaces all through your house aren't there? Oh, this is too funny. :rofl:
 
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