Utopian Submarine - 2000W, Indoor, Perpetual

Aberration said:
You might try cracking seeds in a wet paper towel. A lot of folks do it that way, and you can see when the taproot emerges without causing any damage.

It sounds like you have it all in hand though.

:peace:
Click to expand...

Yeah - you are 100% right. From now on I'll go back to that way. Given the startup nature of the room, I was experimenting. And the damn directions from Grodan say to pop it right in there. But screw 'em - we know better. I had nothing but worry over those sprouts and I've NEVER worried about sprouts before. Granted part of that is cause I'm only doing so few and right now I need them all to count to get the ball rolling.

From now on its soak til they sink, wet paper towel w/tap water in the dark til I see tap root, then into the cube with the root growing down. That's all there is to it. It should not be complicated.
 
:popcorn: im watchin dude, nice set up
 
Thanks. Welcome aboard. That's fantastic results you got there. I saw the one closeup, and it somehow doesn't do the top justice like the mid shot does. That was one hell of a plant. Here's hoping I can get close to those results.
 
Hey Hey WP! Just caught up on yer journal. I must say I am impressed with all your automation efforts. Very cool stuff. More interesting still...THE LADIES of course!! Love the plants. I am also growing AK-47s I hope our plants do well. I am interested in your seedlings as well. How R they doing? Keep the awesome updates flowing. Stay Green.

L8ER
 
So I think things have gone well with my first cloning attempt - 5/5 successful roots, I think some could have gone better and faster. Definitely one that I can't believe made it. The bottom rotted black, I cut it off, more rooting gel, stuffed it back in - and it looks like the damn thing is gonna make it. Really happy with results all in all. I only took one of each the first time not because I expected all to make it, but because I figured all my first would die, and I'd take 2 more from each plant the next week.

So now I really am running out of room and its decision time in the Forum. Would you believe after having solved the drainage problem, and conquered the rockwool in Veg - I am thinking I will just go to net pots of clay for Veg. I can get 2 more plants in there and all the plants will actually have a little more room.

So, without further ado - let me introduce the girls:

The future Moms L-R:
AK47, Kali-Mist, Dog Hair - this is also the order I took them - you can see by the roots how much my technique improved in just the first three.
IMG_0002_16_JPG_800.jpg


2 Other Dog Hair from when I didn't think the first would make it. The one on the right is the one that rotted and may yet actually make it.
IMG_0015_12_JPG_800.jpg


Praise Jah my Veg overfloweth :ganjamon: 2x AK47, 6x NYCD, 2 moms
IMG_0023_11_JPG_800.jpg


And last but not least...
Under the scrog at nite:
IMG_0029_11_JPG_800.jpg

and finally above the scrog what have we here?
IMG_0031_10_JPG_800.jpg
 
Grooster said:
Hey Hey WP! Just caught up on yer journal. I must say I am impressed with all your automation efforts. Very cool stuff. More interesting still...THE LADIES of course!! Love the plants. I am also growing AK-47s I hope our plants do well. I am interested in your seedlings as well. How R they doing? Keep the awesome updates flowing. Stay Green.

L8ER
Click to expand...

Nice to see ya to see ya nice. Checked out your journal earlier - lovely. As far as the AK goes - this is the second time in 6 months I ve grown it from seed. These seeds were from my last grow - the odd 4 that came from 18oz. It is very easy to grow, gobbles up the nutes, and I think there are two basic phenos to the AK47 - both good. Some like one much more than the other. One is taller and hairier with a lighter high - but still nice. Enjoy.

The seedlings are doing well. 5/6 healthy ones. Gonna throw 1 more in to soak this afternoon. It takes some will power to hold on to the remaining seed, instead of planting it. But I will force myself to wait for clones so I can save the seed for emergency. I'll take pics later when the lights are on. Boring pics though - just seedlings, but I am still soooo excited for those.
 
Good Pics Update

OK. I've been neglect in the eye-candy. Here are some better pics of stuff. I have spotted lots of little probs that are visible in the pics, and most have been addressed, but if you see anything that looks like it could be made better or more healthy, please let me know.

The New Girls on the Block
IMG_0022_JPG_800.jpg

the tap root - they are all the same
IMG_0023_JPG_800.jpg


The Kali-Mist Clone
IMG_0034_JPG_800.jpg


A view of the Veg Area
IMG_0024_JPG_800.jpg


Another shot of the veg CFLs - 250Cool,125Warm,125Cool,125Warm,125Cool
IMG_0029_JPG_800.jpg


The Ak-47 Mom Clone now 17 days old tucked in the Veg area
IMG_0041_JPG_800.jpg


The Scrog - coming along ok
IMG_0006_JPG_800.jpg


Returning from the jungle, the farmer parts the scrog and emerges...
IMG_0007_JPG_800.jpg

IMG_0009_JPG_800.jpg


Lousy camera work - nice little bud.
IMG_0052_JPG_800.jpg
 
You got it going on there Whiskey Papa! Stuff is all looking real good. I keep meaning to start a ScroG but never get around to it. Some day! :bong:

:peace:
 
LabRat said:
You got it going on there Whiskey Papa! Stuff is all looking real good. I keep meaning to start a ScroG but never get around to it. Some day! :bong:

:peace:
Click to expand...

Thanks! I bet if you did a scrog you would really like it. Its simple. And very sorta Zen activity. If I were a bud or a branch - where would I like to grow. Then you just help them in there. And with your style setup it would be nice. But you do have to enjoy placing the growth for while. I like that part, lets you know the part has in fact grown when you have to move it to the next spot.

Which is also why I don't trim the lower stuff too early. The plant grows everywhere as far as I can tell. Eventually there will be a double canopy at the top, and by then the bottom leaves will have started to yellow on their own, they pull off easily in your hand. It equates to a few handfuls of leaves every day for a few weeks until they look like a fresh shaved poodle.

I think we'll have the screen filled in 7-10 days then be working on the second layer above it. These plants were definitely the victims of the testing and construction phase of this project, but I'm thinking I should do ok from 3 plants. Will basically fill a little over a sq meter. Optimum yield from these plants is about 350-450g/m2 so we'll see how close we can get. I don't think I'll get the high end, but might get the low end of that. I didn't veg them big enough to really maximize 3 plants I don't think.

Wow - that was longer than I meant.
 
Wasn't that long and I'm a fast reader anyway.

When you say second layer do you mean you just start overlapping the previous tied down branches? I've got two of my KaliMist babies sprouted and the 3rd starting to push up. One more seed popped so I should have 4 but I'll likely start them in dirt and clone for sex. Then I was thinking a tub with one 5" pot in the center and scrog one plant. If I top the plant 3 times I can have 8 main branches and these girls grow tall if you let them so with an extended veg period I should be able to fill a screen with one plant.

Sound like a plan?

:peace:
 
WP's philosophy on SCROG

OK - now you've done it...

My first thought when working the scrog is to remember the idea is to get as many bud sites to prime light as possible. My experience has been that the plant always tricks me and is putting more through all the way till about 2 or 3 weeks from harvest. Just when I think another branch couldn't possibly make it through the canopy I find one I wish I'd helped in there 4 weeks earlier.

I find that its important to put an entire leaf set through a given square in the screen. If I put even just one leaf on the other side of a line then the plant treats that as if its blocked and tries to grow around it. When it does that it is fighting itself with one leaf hanging up and I see very noticeable slowing of the vertical growth at that point. The potency of that bud will be the same but the plant stops spreading there and the size of the bud will be relative to how well formed the branch is when it hits that point.

So, in answer to your question, I continue to feed the branches along the underside of the screen until I've either filled out the entire screen, or it looks like growth has slowed dramatically. Usually somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 way through flower. When I feed them under, they seem to just keep growing the same speed and every node along the branch becomes a new growth right up at the underside of the screen.

Eventually the plant will fill in so much that you won't be able to put an entire branch through a single hole in the screen, or the screen is filled, or growth has slowed, and you want to let the plant focus on resin and buds.

So at that point you end up with a solid layer of large fan leaves right under the screen. Above the screen are all the nice little sprouts. And just like a 3 week veg plant has those big leaves in a tiny pot, those sprouts will get their layer of fan leaves. And by the time you harvest - that layer will be substantial. So I think of it as really a double canopy. And just like a rain-forest - everything below the second level of canopy is starved of light - so by the end you can see right through.

Long answer to your question, but I loves me some scrog. Forces me to think like a plant.
 
I've been in triple-canopy rain forests where you can walk between the trees on the branches they grow together so thick. As long as the plant has leaves to the sun at the top and roots to nutrients at the bottom - the in between is for nothing other than transporting water and nutrients and holding up the top - no leaves needed.
 
LabRat said:
Wasn't that long and I'm a fast reader anyway.

When you say second layer do you mean you just start overlapping the previous tied down branches? I've got two of my KaliMist babies sprouted and the 3rd starting to push up. One more seed popped so I should have 4 but I'll likely start them in dirt and clone for sex. Then I was thinking a tub with one 5" pot in the center and scrog one plant. If I top the plant 3 times I can have 8 main branches and these girls grow tall if you let them so with an extended veg period I should be able to fill a screen with one plant.

Sound like a plan?

:peace:
Click to expand...

I didn't really answer your question before regards to topping. I don't top when I scrog. I let the plant grow as friggin big as it can get au natural. Just make sure you don't hang up a given branch by snagging a leaf and the damn thing will grow horizontally as well as it does vertically. And if theres even light it will grow everywhere. So you end up with all those branches the old fashioned way. Not sure if mine is really an awesome example but none of those plants was topped and the only training was the tall one got tied to itself to keep it from getting too close to the light while waiting for the others to catch up.

Some folks say topping distributes hormones differently in the plant so you lose some juice in the main cola for the multiple smaller ones. Some say it has no effect. I don't know which to believe. But I know if I don't top - I'll still end up with multiple juicy tops - not the donkey dick bud you'd see on a huge plant, but I usually get about 6"-8" colas maybe a really big one being up to 10"-11". And remember - those are growing up above the canopy of fan leaves trapped under the scrog. And then I get a bud about 2-4" long at almost every other site above the canopy. And finally a bunch of popcorn buds below the screen - great for hash or bubble bag.

This was my last scrog. The wire was too small and it made it very noticeable where I had been able to feed them correctly or not. That was the one I learned once and for all. But there are 5 colas there - the longest two were about 10" long and the others about 6", then all those other buds are about 3-5".
scrog_8_09.jpg
 
Re: WP's philosophy on SCROG

Whiskey Papa said:
OK - now you've done it...

<snip>

Long answer to your question, but I loves me some scrog. Forces me to think like a plant.
Click to expand...

Good stuff WP! :cheertwo:

I'll be cutting and pasting that into my growing grow tips file. I was under the impression that you would weave the branches through the screen until it was about half full then 12/12 them and keep weaving as the plant goes thru stretch.

My biggest hold back was the hassle of trying to fix the screen over the tub when I like to move my tubs around. This grow I made some dollies for the tubs and I can just attach my frame for a screen to the dollie. I figure to make the screen 4-6" longer and wider than the tub and about 1 ft above the top. It will mean a different way to nute change but I'm not doing that anyhow so no big deal. lol

The old gears are spinning now. Thanks much for the great info. I'd rep ya but it won't let me so I'll have to spread the love and get back to you.

C'ya. :peace:
 
LOL I love the shot of you parting the jungle!! Good luck in there, may be some savages lurking about. Head Hunters mebbe?? Keep it up brother.

L8ER
 
Back
Top Bottom