Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures & Photos From The Garden - 2012

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

First in!

Cool, thanks a lot for subbing Bassman! Really glad to have you along - you get a special recliner next to the Silver Surfer and the remote.

 

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

So does anyone have any good suggestions on threads to look at for pruning and what is UBT?

I'm no expert at defoliating/pruning, but I can give you some good links/info when I get time tomorrow. Did the UBT info help - let me know if you have ?'s on any of that...

 

[Xlr8]

Ugh, I was medicated and gave my clones the veg mix for the SLH instead of their mild Clonex solution. 770 ppm worth. Could be worse, I guess - its not scorching hot, but maybe for yet to root clones...

I just re-wet the rapid rooters with it, but I'm hoping I didn't fry them. They're about 9 days old, and I expect them to pop roots through the rooters any day. Am I screwed? We'll see I guess!

Sumbitchdamnitallanywayhuh?

 

[jandre2k3]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Sorry it took me so long to get here, bad day yesterday, and over exerted myself today finishing up the Cardboard Box. Yay! It's done! Boo! I hurt. Anyway, I'm here now, as promised. Looking forward to many random thoughts and great pics when you can.

 

[jandre2k3]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Ugh, I was medicated and gave my clones the veg mix for the SLH instead of their mild Clonex solution. 770 ppm worth. Could be worse, I guess - its not scorching hot, but maybe for yet to root clones...

I just re-wet the rapid rooters with it, but I'm hoping I didn't fry them. They're about 9 days old, and I expect them to pop roots through the rooters any day. Am I screwed? We'll see I guess!

Sumbitchdamnitallanywayhuh?

LOL! I did that with the batch of clones going into the first cardboard test, they pulled through with flying colors! But I also poured off the excess, and ran clear water over them for about 10 sec to dilute the solution.

 

[jandre2k3]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Some photos of the current generation, now in the tent:

February 1st:

Why didn't I see this before? Passive air cooler for the res! Nice idea!

 

[420GodsTrichome]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Ugh, I was medicated and gave my clones the veg mix for the SLH instead of their mild Clonex solution. 770 ppm worth. Could be worse, I guess - its not scorching hot, but maybe for yet to root clones...

I just re-wet the rapid rooters with it, but I'm hoping I didn't fry them. They're about 9 days old, and I expect them to pop roots through the rooters any day. Am I screwed? We'll see I guess!

Sumbitchdamnitallanywayhuh?

I SPILLED strait FF Grow, half a bottle!! on my seedling tray that was half clones and half seedling one time. They ALL survived, lol....miracle I guess?

 

[OG13]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Ugh, I was medicated and gave my clones the veg mix for the SLH instead of their mild Clonex solution. 770 ppm worth. Could be worse, I guess - its not scorching hot, but maybe for yet to root clones...

I just re-wet the rapid rooters with it, but I'm hoping I didn't fry them. They're about 9 days old, and I expect them to pop roots through the rooters any day. Am I screwed? We'll see I guess!

Sumbitchdamnitallanywayhuh?

Hope you gave them a plain water rinse to "flush" them. You never know, they may be fine, it is just weed after all. I'm in too, sorry it took me 15 hours to get here, but I've been flat on my back due to muscle spasm.

 

[OldMedMan]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Hope you gave them a plain water rinse to "flush" them. You never know, they may be fine, it is just weed after all. I'm in too, sorry it took me 15 hours to get here, but I've been flat on my back due to muscle spasm.

Sorry to hear that OG13. Must be going around for some of us. Last two nights haven't been my best either. At least we can console each other. I do hope you feel better. You have it tough enough already.

 

[Xlr8]

plants look great. i'll stick around to see how the drip system works out. wasn't sure how big plants could get in such small systems. what are they 1 gallon each ?

Hi Thinkerr -

First off --

It's not really a small system, if you are talking about the Flo N Gro with the blue buckets. There are only a small # of plant sites, but each one has a 4 gallon outer bucket, with a 3 gallon inner net pot. Honestly, you could grow plants several feet tall in it if you had the space. It doesn't have drippers - the buckets have periodic flood and drain cycles. Check out the grow I did prior to this (link in my signature) they got a little bigger than I was really aiming for, but it worked out well. It's a bit long, but I think there is recap around pg 89 or so... Thanks for dropping in - hope you stick around.

 

[Xlr8]

Sorry it took me so long to get here, bad day yesterday, and over exerted myself today finishing up the Cardboard Box. Yay! It's done! Boo! I hurt. Anyway, I'm here now, as promised. Looking forward to many random thoughts and great pics when you can.

Hi Jandre -

Glad you're here - I'll have to check out your latest corrugated engineering efforts.

Why didn't I see this before? Passive air cooler for the res! Nice idea!

No res in the tent actually, just a controller/brain unit that runs the flood cycles. I did move the tent air intake so that fresh air comes from bottom of one side, and filter is at top of the other. Fresh air is pulled through the plants before its filtered and exits. It definitely IS a bit cooler near the intake, as it's pulling nice cool air from crawl space under house now.

 

[Xlr8]

Hope you gave them a plain water rinse to "flush" them. You never know, they may be fine, it is just weed after all. I'm in too, sorry it took me 15 hours to get here, but I've been flat on my back due to muscle spasm.

I tried, we'll see.

Glad you're here. 15 hours is quick! Sorry to hear about spasms, though. Hope you feel better soon my friend!

 

[Xlr8]

Sorry to hear that OG13. Must be going around for some of us. Last two nights haven't been my best either. At least we can console each other. I do hope you feel better. You have it tough enough already.

Aw man, hope you feel better, too. I had a rare good day most of yesterday, but these have been too few. Hope you both feel better soon!

 

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

I SPILLED strait FF Grow, half a bottle!! on my seedling tray that was half clones and half seedling one time. They ALL survived, lol....miracle I guess?

Yikes!

 

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

So does anyone have any good suggestions on threads to look at for pruning and what is UBT?

Let me know if you have questions on the UBT post I made.

For pruning/defoliating:

The idea is to remove fan leaves to open up better light for the plants. Basically, I just "snap" the leaves off carefully or use a small scissors for pruning. If a leaf doesn't snap off easily, don't yank it. Grab the scissors (you don't want to injure the plant further). Also, sometime there are lower branches that don't make it up to the canopy that are better being removed. Don't worry, the other branches and budsites will compensate with greater swell/size as a result of less competition for resources.

Defoliating/pruning can also be used as a way to manipulate the plant - by defoliating fan leaves or pruning branches on the main stem, you can slow upward growth/stretch - for example. This can be applied to other grow shoots that you wish to manipulate.

There are many many opinions on defoliating to open up more light. Fan leaves store energy for the plant, energy that it can use to build buds, heal itself, etc. However, there is more than ample evidence from many growers now, that points to more direct light on the area where the buds are, makes them bigger. Light energy is far more important than nutrients in determining a plants size or bud size. That's why a plant outside can get soooo big, the sun is one hell of a HID lamp.

Here's my take - In a hydro situation especially, I'd think with good soil too, the plants have an enormous amount of access to the nutrition they need. The stored energy in the fan leaves, while important, is a buffer that isn't needed as long as they can continually access the "buffet" of nutrients and they are healthy.

I've seen and had nice grows with little to no defoliation, but you do end up with a fair amount of "popcorn" buds that are better used for hash or edibles. I've seen and had nice results from selectively defoliating and removing "most of the leaves. Heck, there are some amazing grows here where there is hardly a leaf on the plant (check out 420fied's journal when you get a chance).

You don't want to prune or defoliate unhealthy plants, you'll just put them under more stress - this is important to note.

For me, right now I like to remove as many leaves as needed to open light to the lower levels - last grow this was quite a bit. I'll continue to experiment until I find what I like best - but it's a bit dependant on growing style, space limitations, time, etc. as far as what works best for others.

Timing? You can do a little at a time with out causing much stress (pull a fan here and there each day), or... there is a method that is popular right now where you would defoliate pretty heavy at about 21 and 45 days of bloom. 21 days is typically about the end of the "stretch" period, and 45 days gives you a little boost as they put on their final bulk. I did this last time, plus a little "here and there". I haven't defoliated in veg before, and overall I'm just now starting to get into defoliating more recently.

One last thing - I've played around with tucking leaves, too, and you can accomplish surprising things just by tucking leaves. Tucking leaves is the key to a good harvest with Autoflower plants (which shouldn't be pruned/defoliated due to their limited lifespan and lack of a true "veg" cycle). I tuck leaves, top, and defoliate/prune now.

When you get time, check out this journal by Mr Smith - it has some of the best nuggets you'll find about defoliating, cloning, maintaining a mother... Just a fantastic thread on advanced growing and plant manipulation from a really skilled grower:

DarkStar Project - Advanced Growing

Here's the Lavender plant from my last grow - I removed almost all of the major fan leaves and left mostly what wasn't part of a bud. I kept some "outside" fans, but not too many (this was at about 6-7 weeks I think?) The "second-tier" buds on her were about the size of golfballs, and dense - the main colas (4) were about the size of Beer cans (it was UBT'd) :

 

[HomeMedGrower]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Thanks HMG - I agree, it's one I'm especially interested in. It just placed 2nd in Cannabis cup, too - (hybrid division I think?) . Really glad to have you along!
QUOTE]

I think that Cali Connection has a lot of good strains out right now. I'll be doing the Chem4 soon.

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Good post there X,

I am loving this defoliation gig. I did mine in veg, and flower. I stripped the hell out of them in veg. But I didnt bend them enough. Yet it's still going to be a very nice yield.

My next grow is seedlings, Master Kush that just popped. I will defoliate the hell out of them and bend like no tomorrow.

 

[420GodsTrichome]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Tried to +rep ya, but seems I must spread it first!!

 

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Tried to +rep ya, but seems I must spread it first!!

Thanks for the love, brotha!

 

[Xlr8]

Re: Xlr8's Hydroponic Adventures and Photos from the Garden - 2012

Cloning - Success!

Until recently, I've never really had the space to have a separate veg area or room for cloning - so I grew everything from seed. However, I made a very small veg/cloning area a few weeks ago and it gives me some new things to play around with.

As mentioned, I had decided to try to clone the tops I took when I UBT'd my plants about 10-11 days ago now. 2 of them (Jack the Ripper B, and OG Kush) were a bit small, and I lost them (I expected they might not make it).

The other 4 look like they'll make it (Pandora's Box A&B, Deadhead OG, and Jack The Ripper A). The Deadhead OG, was poppin' roots through the rapid rooters last night, and I transplanted it into a 1 gal. Smartpot with coco coir - and (she?) seems happy as punch today. I'm guessing the others won't be far behind - they are showing signs of growth in the rooters and look really healthy, but no roots through the rooters yet.

Anyway, I feel like a "newbie" again with the cloning bit. I was pretty excited to see healthy roots on the Deadhead cutting yesterday. She? seems to like her new coir home - so far so good.

Speaking of the Deadhead OG, She is really muscling up since I started tying her down - her lateral branches are getting as think as the main trunk and she(he?) has reacted to being tied down really nicely and should be a nice bush if I can keep the training up. What a great looking plant - hoping it's a she, though a male might be fun too.

Oh, and I was going to post some pics with this post, but had an issue posting photos - they seemed to disappear after uploading and never made it to the gallery...? Anyone know if this is a site issue?