Skybound
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since I did one of these. I've been growing perpetually for about 2 years and am phasing out of OG Kush and running 2 strains listed in the title. The Kush tastes and smokes great, but the yields are very low and I simply need more from my efforts. I just put the Triple Cheese into bloom 2 days ago and will get some pics uploaded this evening. The Pineapple Chunk I just put two of my 3 seeds into a wet paper towel to begin germination, and I do hope they are as vigorous as the TC was, because that was without a doubt the fastest germinated seed I've ever had. I've tried to grow PC a couple times in the past years, but I had bad luck getting seeds to open, so fingers crossed (again).
As it is now, I have 2 4x4 spaces for bloom and a 2x4 space for veg. I am near complete in my build of a 3rd 4x4 space and will soon move my veg to a 2x6 space which will be more conducive to produce aged veg plants for bloom every 3 weeks give or take. My current turnaround now is every 5 weeks, and the 3rd space will shorten that significantly.
I'm growing under Vero29 80CRI (D) COBs. 6 COBs per fixture, and each is driven by a Meanwell HLG-480H C2100B driver. This is way too much driver for my needs, but not fully grasping the abilities of COBs at the time of purchase, I wanted to get more than I'll need rather than find out the hard way that I didn't get enough. I used to use 600 watt HPS, and was fairly consistent with getting more than a pound per plant (not with Kush), but the summer months were brutal and dealing with the extra heat forced me to step down the output to 50% or 75% at the most. So I got into LEDs because I was convinced the COBs perform better than the blurples, but didn't emit the heat like HID does. I've since learned that my driver can overdrive my COBs which resulted in some wicked foxtailing of my buds, but I've learned the optimal drive range for my gear and rooms and only drive to 60% of power till mid way through stretch, then I dial the potentiometer back to about 50-55% power for the rest of the grow. Doing that diminishes my penetration slightly, but it also improves the efficiency of the COBs and also keeps from foxtailing.
Prior to building the 3rd fixture, I harvested 2 COBs from one of my other fixtures with hopes of slowly building the 3rd fixture to save on investment cost, so 2 COBs sat unused for a while and I used only a 4 COB fixture for one of the bloom rooms and just finished a few days ago. I learned that 4 Veros can survive on such a large driver, and I can successfully get through a grow, but I believe I may have driven each more than I previously though. In one of the pics, you'll notice some burn marks on a chip and also the reflector mount got baked and it became brittle and shattered. I've since 3D printed a new base, and added the 2 COBs back in as I found a small loan to build my 3rd fixture. I made a boo boo building #3 in that when soldering the wires on, I mistakenly used 14ga wire which is too thick and rigid, and that resulted in tearing off one of the solder pads. I connected all the wiring and tested the fixture and it lit up, but I'll go ahead and pickup 2 replacement COBs for when each of these 2 problems shorts out. As of now, the burnt chip is over the Triple Cheese and the lifted solder pad chip is on fixture #3 awaiting the completion of that room, so I may be able to replace it before I have a plant ready to into bloom.
I have one remaining OG Kush half way through bloom, then it's all Barney's Farm for at least the rest of winter. I hope the Cheese has nice yields, but if not, I'm confident the Pineapple Chunk will do very well, assuming I can get either of 2 out of their shell. If they fail as well, I also have plenty of other strains on hand, but the 2 on top of my wish list are Barney's Ayahuasca Purple and Dr. Krippling's Incredible Bulk. All in all, I believe I'm in pretty good shape to get more weight from my grow.
My nutrients consist of a growing list of various nutrient salts that I use to make my own concentrates. I've recently learned how to use a free app called Hydro Buddy, and with it, I can plot out the desired NPK and other micros to produce a final product that yields near exact levels of each. This will enable me to readjust my feed chart to produce a perfect feed regimen. I also created a thread that explains where to download the free app, and how to use it to mix dry nutes, as well as how to input the numbers from wet nutes, so the user can review the levels of a certain brand of nutrients. I demoed using Gen Hydro's Flora series and supplements. My custom feed charts all have the same strength of TDS, and as my meter uses a 0.5 conversion factor, it generally reads about 700 ppm. I only need to dilute early veg, but once I have a lot of roots, I give them full strength and leave it there throughout the rest of the grow.
Edit - The final photo is a theory test. When taking clones, I try to locate stock that still has paired branching. Previous experience has shown me that plants from seed, once sexually matured will predominantly grow alternating nodes. When that happens, paired node don't grow anymore, so future topping sessions doesn't divide the auxin equally across the top as there will always be a highest top. My theory is that the brnaches that grow out of the underside of the lowest branches will always produce shoots with paired nodes. I'll find out for sure when my 4 sets of paired node clones is ready to produce clones of their own.
As it is now, I have 2 4x4 spaces for bloom and a 2x4 space for veg. I am near complete in my build of a 3rd 4x4 space and will soon move my veg to a 2x6 space which will be more conducive to produce aged veg plants for bloom every 3 weeks give or take. My current turnaround now is every 5 weeks, and the 3rd space will shorten that significantly.
I'm growing under Vero29 80CRI (D) COBs. 6 COBs per fixture, and each is driven by a Meanwell HLG-480H C2100B driver. This is way too much driver for my needs, but not fully grasping the abilities of COBs at the time of purchase, I wanted to get more than I'll need rather than find out the hard way that I didn't get enough. I used to use 600 watt HPS, and was fairly consistent with getting more than a pound per plant (not with Kush), but the summer months were brutal and dealing with the extra heat forced me to step down the output to 50% or 75% at the most. So I got into LEDs because I was convinced the COBs perform better than the blurples, but didn't emit the heat like HID does. I've since learned that my driver can overdrive my COBs which resulted in some wicked foxtailing of my buds, but I've learned the optimal drive range for my gear and rooms and only drive to 60% of power till mid way through stretch, then I dial the potentiometer back to about 50-55% power for the rest of the grow. Doing that diminishes my penetration slightly, but it also improves the efficiency of the COBs and also keeps from foxtailing.
Prior to building the 3rd fixture, I harvested 2 COBs from one of my other fixtures with hopes of slowly building the 3rd fixture to save on investment cost, so 2 COBs sat unused for a while and I used only a 4 COB fixture for one of the bloom rooms and just finished a few days ago. I learned that 4 Veros can survive on such a large driver, and I can successfully get through a grow, but I believe I may have driven each more than I previously though. In one of the pics, you'll notice some burn marks on a chip and also the reflector mount got baked and it became brittle and shattered. I've since 3D printed a new base, and added the 2 COBs back in as I found a small loan to build my 3rd fixture. I made a boo boo building #3 in that when soldering the wires on, I mistakenly used 14ga wire which is too thick and rigid, and that resulted in tearing off one of the solder pads. I connected all the wiring and tested the fixture and it lit up, but I'll go ahead and pickup 2 replacement COBs for when each of these 2 problems shorts out. As of now, the burnt chip is over the Triple Cheese and the lifted solder pad chip is on fixture #3 awaiting the completion of that room, so I may be able to replace it before I have a plant ready to into bloom.
I have one remaining OG Kush half way through bloom, then it's all Barney's Farm for at least the rest of winter. I hope the Cheese has nice yields, but if not, I'm confident the Pineapple Chunk will do very well, assuming I can get either of 2 out of their shell. If they fail as well, I also have plenty of other strains on hand, but the 2 on top of my wish list are Barney's Ayahuasca Purple and Dr. Krippling's Incredible Bulk. All in all, I believe I'm in pretty good shape to get more weight from my grow.
My nutrients consist of a growing list of various nutrient salts that I use to make my own concentrates. I've recently learned how to use a free app called Hydro Buddy, and with it, I can plot out the desired NPK and other micros to produce a final product that yields near exact levels of each. This will enable me to readjust my feed chart to produce a perfect feed regimen. I also created a thread that explains where to download the free app, and how to use it to mix dry nutes, as well as how to input the numbers from wet nutes, so the user can review the levels of a certain brand of nutrients. I demoed using Gen Hydro's Flora series and supplements. My custom feed charts all have the same strength of TDS, and as my meter uses a 0.5 conversion factor, it generally reads about 700 ppm. I only need to dilute early veg, but once I have a lot of roots, I give them full strength and leave it there throughout the rest of the grow.
Edit - The final photo is a theory test. When taking clones, I try to locate stock that still has paired branching. Previous experience has shown me that plants from seed, once sexually matured will predominantly grow alternating nodes. When that happens, paired node don't grow anymore, so future topping sessions doesn't divide the auxin equally across the top as there will always be a highest top. My theory is that the brnaches that grow out of the underside of the lowest branches will always produce shoots with paired nodes. I'll find out for sure when my 4 sets of paired node clones is ready to produce clones of their own.
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