Bababooey's 600w+400w grow, Coco, 2 gallon Smartpots, Maxibloom, Calmag.

[Bababooey]

I've posted a grow log (long since abandoned) and a mushroom log but since then have mostly posted pics just on the midwest grower's thread in my sig. But I've been refining my growing technique and decided now is the time to try a proper grow log.

The situation: A 3x3 tent with a 400w MH in a horizontal hood and a 4x4 tent with a 600w HPS hanging vertically.

Medium: Coco amended with perlite and vermiculate. I use the compressed bricks from GH; for each brick I'd say I add in at least 12 cups of perlite and 3 cups of vermiculite. That mix gives me just about 6 gallons of medium, which is enough to fill 3...

Containers: 2 gallon Smartpots, those pots made out of strong fabric which airprunes your roots. This feature plus the coco will sustain large plants, 3-4 footers, so long as they are properly...

Irrigation: Tropf-Blumats, the Patio and Deck kit. The blumats are austrian made gravity fed driplines controlled by ceramic cones buried in the medium. The cones sense the dryness of the surrounding medium and when it gets dry, they open up the driplines to let water through. When the medium is saturated, they close up and the driplines stop.

This is the second time I'm running these blumats and they work well if you dont have complications. My last harvest I had blumats in 3 gallon plastic containers of my coco mix, and I removed some rootballs after letting them dry for weeks. The bottom of each rootball was a brown, spongy mass in the exact shape of the container. I took that as a sign of pretty good root growth, as well as coco's amazing ability to retain water.

Nutes: .7 to 1 tsp Maxibloom, 3-5ml Calmag per gallon of water. Ph down to 5.5 to 6.0.
My water is Chicago tap water. I've read the water report and it has mild alkalinity, about 100 ppm. It's ok to use for growing but i think it might raise ph over time; with Coco, which is hydro, I need to ph down to 6 or below for best results. Nute lockout occurs at ph 6.5 or above. Ime.

Also, I've found out that coco likes to hold onto calcium; i thought my chicago tap water would add extra calcium but I was having slow growth/lockout issues until I started using a Calmag additive. I'm using Botanicare's calmag but I'm sure any of them would have worked for me.

The Maxi has cal and mag in it and Ive heard of growers using it successfully without any additives in coco. I may try to phase it out down the road but for now the plants really like the regimen so why fix something that isnt broke?

So the Maxi and calmag are my base nutes. My last res I mixed 14 gallons of tap with 9tsp of MaxiB, 9tsp of Calmag, ph downed to 5.5. The EC on my Milwaukee pen came out to 1.5, which is about 750ppm.

This feeding regimen is on the light side. I supplement feedings every 3-4 days. I mix up a gallon jug of whatever amendments (bloom boosters, silicon, etc) or other ferts that I think it needs and usually give each plant 1-2 cups of the mix.

This is pic of the flowering tent. Because of the angle its hard to tell but theres 7 plants in there. Some of them, especially the one in the back, show ph lockout and calmag deficiency and will never really fully recover unless i veg them out a long time. They should still produce some bud though, just not as much as they should have.

This is a pic of the veg tent, which has not suffered from the ph and calmag issues and are growing very well.

 

[freedom4ever]

Nice looking setup.

 

[AbbieDoobie]

Hey there, Bababooey, fellow mushie grower. How's it goin'? Good to see you growin' the dank as well. I got a Homebox S with 5 plants at 3 weeks 12/12. Seeds from MeltingPOT. Got an album with pics, if you're interested in taking a peek. Peace.

~Abbie

 

[Bababooey]

Thanks Freedom. It's not the nicest or cleanest setup, but hopefully it'll serve me well.

Hey Abbie, I remember you from the mushie forum. Im actually planning on doing another mushie run, this time using pf tek (brf cakes). Hopefully I'll be setting up another thread soon to document it. If I remember correctly, you got some pretty good yields from the BRF cakes?
I took a look at your albums, the genetics sound good (SDxAK, ECSDxOGK?). Never heard of Melting Pot seeds, hopefully they turn out dank.
Do you do just the one grow a year?

Here is a pic of the res in between the two tents. Behind it is a window blocked out with panda film. The res is a 14 (15?) gallon rubbermaid container. It should actually be higher off the ground for more water pressure but the blumats still seem to work just fine. A full res lasts me about a week so leaving town for a few days isnt a problem with this setup.

 

[AbbieDoobie]

Hey Abbie, I remember you from the mushie forum. Im actually planning on doing another mushie run, this time using pf tek (brf cakes). Hopefully I'll be setting up another thread soon to document it. If I remember correctly, you got some pretty good yields from the BRF cakes?
I took a look at your albums, the genetics sound good (SDxAK, ECSDxOGK?). Never heard of Melting Pot seeds, hopefully they turn out dank.
Do you do just the one grow a year?

BRF cakes is all I ever did and worked well. I'm thinking of doing the Penis Envy again, but waiting until the summer and growing them outside. The outdoor Penis Envy was the best shrooms I've ever had. So peaceful and easy going, never a bad trip, never a hangover. Spores from The Hawks Eye. Unfortunately, there is no Mushroom Forum here anymore. There is The Shroomery, which is where I might post pics if I end up doing a shroom run.

MeltingPOT is a good friend of mine and a member here. Here's a thread of that ECSDxSFVOG strain, aka 'Coastal Collision':

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=151262

Check out the last few pages to see what people are doing with that strain. I have one plant that is so beautiful looking. And, yes, I only do the one grow a year during the late fall / winter / early spring. I grow in a Homebox tent in a professionally wired outdoor 10x14 shed. I keep a small space heater in my tent to keep it warm. Sounds crazy, but it works. This is my 6th year of doing it this way.

And we are both midwesterners, too, as I've seen you post in the Midwest Growers thread. And a Breaking Bad fan, too, as you've posted a great deal in that thread I started, too. We got a lot in common.

Take care,

~Abbie

 

[amannamedtruth]

Wha oh. Comin along nicely babs.

 

[sackoweed]

baBaboO
Howzit brother..?? Just peeping the show, so far so good all is looking nice and healthy.. I will be in & out peeping your bishes.. peace n pufs

sacKO

 

[KosmoKramer]

Wassup. Nice setup. Been thinking of trying out those Bluemats and coc myself. Peeps sure seem to be having good results. DWC works great, but after a few years its getting old changing gallons and gallons of nutes each week.

Any way you can post a detailed water analysist, if you have one. Wink wink

 

[bobblehead]

Looks like you're off to a good start babs...

 

[smoke1sun]

Lookin good as usual!!!!!

 

[Bababooey]

Abbie, yes, you created the Breaking Bad thread. I remember now. I recently found out that BB isnt coming back til July. It usually comes back around now (or March?) so now my jonesing will have to be prolonged. I hope this season lives up to my expectations.
Must be cool to have an outdoor patch of mushrooms. I threw some of my spent WBS/coco substrate under a bush, and they actually grew some small mushrooms a month or two later, but a snail ruined them. When I was researching mushroom growing, I scanned some of the outdoor tutorials. Don't you use woodchips or something like that in outdoor beds?
Its weird that I can still get to my mushie thread but theyve taken out that subforum from hobbies and interests. Too bad, that thread drew a lot of interest, and I learned a lot...
When I saw that space heater in your tent I almost laughed because I have the exact same one, or I did until it broke (its been knocked over a bunch of times). So you only grow in the winter cause the shed doesnt have AC and it would look weird to air condition your shed during the summer? Makes sense. I have a buddy that has a ramshackle shed he says he wants to grow in, but I always tell him he'll have heat problems during the summer. Well, if he only grows in the winter...
The pics of the CC look extremely frosty, and people are saying the potency is high as well. I grew the JLP SDOG (sour diesel and og kush) and it looked similar and had a strong high, leaning towards indica. I have other strains now but it received favorable reviews when I had it.

Kosmo, if you google chicago water report the chicago dept of water mgmt should be the first hit, and will lead you to a pdf of the water report. The last one posted was from 2009, which is kinda bs but maybe theyll post a new one soon. The report is 2-3 pages long and lists a whole bunch of elements but the ones I looked at were total alkalinity, measured in ppm of caco3, which i guess is calcium carbonate. The report distinguishes between the north side and south side water plants but the variation is not great between the two.
I ran DWC buckets and tubs for a year or so and when they work they work very well. I understand not wanting to deal with hoses and pumps and buckets and spillage. I still have to fill a bucket but now its just 3 buckets once a week to fill a res.
The blumats can have their issues too; you have to watch for hose kinks, and adjust them sometimes, and its hard to work around plants with all these lines on the ground, etc. But its not bad once you get used to them.

Thanks everyone else for the kind words, I hope to continue to entertain you.

This is a pic of the outside of the flowering tent, showing the outtake. I have flexduct sucking air from the top of the tent, through a fan sitting on top of a big carbon filter. I know it would be better to have the air going through the filter first and then out the fan, but this way i can have this giant fan/filter combo outside the tent, leaving more room for plants inside.
On the floor next to it you see the 600w digi ballast.

 

[AbbieDoobie]

That's the same way my fan/filter are setup, except I have it enclosed in a plastic trashcan (with a hole cut in the side near the bottom) for extra sound baffling. I bought a furnace filter at Home DePot and put it inside my CAN33 filter to help filter dust, etc. I also use a Speedster to slow down my 4" Vortex, and use an interval timer so that cold air is not constantly coming into the tent. Contrary to popular belief, cannabis does not require air constantly blowing across it. Currently I'm only bringing in air 1.5 minutes every 15 minutes, and that's it. And look at my plants. And I exhaust right back into the interior of the shed. The shed has enough cracks in the door, etc. to bring in enough fresh air for my five plants.

Yes, I used to grow during early fall and late spring which were a lot warmer, and employed a portable a/c which exhausted through a hole I cut into the side of my shed. I was able to pull off two grows a year with that setup. After that a/c quit, I sealed up the hole and just decided to stick to one grow and switch to a one-hitter instead of the volcano.

For mushies, I am planning on getting some rubbermaid tubs with holes cut in the bottom. Layer straw, soil, manure, etc. with crumbled up brf cakes and see what happens. I can stick these behind the shed, no problem, where there is minimal sunlight and a privacy fence. I'm planning on also getting greenhouse shade cloth to cover the tubs to aid in reducing sunlight, as mushies enjoy just a little bit of light and definitely not direct sunlight. It gets around 100% humidity around here during summer, so that is a definite plus. My mushie harvest outside last time was just a pure accident, as I just gave up on doing it indoors (as nothing was happening) and just dumped the whole mess behind the shed. About a month later, pinning, and then shrooms. We'll see if I can repeat this again this year.

Best of luck on your grow. Peace.

~Abbie

 

[Bababooey]

I was wondering if your setup, with fans going, was quiet and smell-less(?) enough that someone could be right next to the shed and not suspect a thing. With a trashcan as a baffle, i bet it is. Thats a good idea, ill have to remember that.
Maybe i should buy a filter for my can fan. Theres always little bits and pieces that get into the fan's 'squirrel cage'. Do you have to trim it when u put it on?
I leave my fans on to run when the lights are on, but ive often wondered if im not wind-burning my plants, especially the ones closest to the fans. So far they seem to be ok but maybe giving them a break from the wind would be less stressful to them?
Yeah, those portable ac units are expensive and arent as efficient as window units. Do you miss using your 'cano? I have one that i barely use. I guess i might start using it more when i have more herb; a 'cano bag is nice when you want to ease into your high...

I like your mushie plan, it sounds like you could have a very good return. Ill have to stick to indoors for now. Pm me a link if you do log your mushie grow, thats something id like to see...

Pic of the intake to the flowering tent. A four inch squirrel cage fan blowing air through 4 inch flexduct into the bottom of the tent. I have an extra 400w hps magnetic ballast and a hood. I suppose I could get a 3rd, small tent but im running out of room as it is. I used to have it hanging with the 600w to get a total of 1k in the flowering tent but now im just hanging the 600 vertical; the efficiency is better and its cooler as well.

 

[farmdalefurr]

pulling up a seat for this one........for one im diggin your setup and two i gotta support my illini. i also run 1000w coco setup

 

[AbbieDoobie]

Before the trashcan method, yes, you could stand next to the shed and hear the fan. Now, it's 'run silent, run deep.' The Speedster slowing it way down also helps tremendously. Seriously, the thing purrs like a kitten.

As far as smell, yes, when I go into the shed, I smell a faint odor. As they start to put on weight, and smell increases, I turn the interval timer 'off time' down to 10 minutes and then finally 5 minutes. Never had a smell issue 'outside the shed' using this method. Plus, as I gradually reduce the 'off time', the ambient temps outside the tent increase as spring approaches, so things work out pretty well. I have a remote temperature sensor in the tent and the monitor read last night that my range was between 65 and 76 degrees. Not bad, eh? Humidity was 53%. If I water the soil a lot, then my humidity goes way up, so I can't really soak my plants. As they put on weight, I reduce the amount of water, and this helps reduce humidity as harvest approaches so mold doesn't become an issue. And it reduces drying time, as the plant tissue doesn't contain as much moisture. I go 'water only' last two weeks, also. I'm using FFOF soil and Liquid Karma for my water.

I keep my shed extremely clean, only issues I've had were ants one time, which a plant-friendly spray along the floor of the tent and around the outside of it took care of that. Never had PM, mites, or any issue out there in these past 6 years. I've never encountered another person here that grows the way I do. My only concern is melted snow on my shed roof, but I've driven around town and seen melting on other shed roofs, so I'm not sweating that. Plus, my home looks like a very nice suburban home w/ wife and 2 kids in college, no one else hardly ever comes by, all looks normal for the most part. And, I tell NO ONE. Best rule of all.

The furnace filter is inside the interior of my CAN33 filter, as it only comes with a filter on the outside. This way, no dust enters my CAN filter to clog it up or mess with the carbon inside it. I don't have a filter for the intake of my fan, but that's not a bad idea. Those fan blades over time will start to get coated with dust, I may clean it up after this run, and then look into that for the next one. And, yes, I trim the furnace filter to the right size before securing it inside my CAN33 with a little duct tape.

I don't really miss my volcano, because I never really got a real powerful stone from it. Also, it uses up too much weed. I'm only gonna pull maybe 7 or 8 ounces, so to last a full year on that, I'm going to do little one-hits here and there, trying to limit myself to a 1/4 oz. every two weeks, which is about standard for me now. So, that works out to around 6 oz. a year, which matches pretty close to my yearly harvest amount.

And, definitely, I'll provide you a link to my mushie pics if I put any up on the shroomery. I'm still debating if I'm even going to do a mushie run. Those fuckers mess with my head quite a bit, so we'll see. But, they are fun sometimes. Just, not all the time. Peace.

~Abbie

 

[Bababooey]

Farmdale, i would like to own a 1k light someday. The light coming off those things must be tremendous.

Sounds like you have your setup pretty well dialed in, AB. Must be nice. Stealthy as well.
Ive never tried FFOF, heard good things about it. Are you strictly organic? I try to use some organic amendments to get that enhanced taste profile. Not exactly the same thing, but i think it helps. It doesnt hurt, at least.
Im going to have to try the filter on the fan. I never thought about dust being blown into the carbon filter, but it makes sense.

The cano is a different sort of high than smoking, but 2-3 dense bags will rip me nicely. Using it is supposed to save weed, but yeah, u need to load quite a bit of it to get some thick vapors. And after several bags the vapor isnt as thick. An eight a week isnt a bad rate of consumption. For a lightweight it might be a lot, but for a stoner with tolerance thats on the low side.
Im not a huge fan of the shrooms myself, this batch is pretty much for others. I might save a dose or three for myself but i honestly have no desire to shroom, at the present.

Here is a pic of a Killing Kush from S annies S eeds in the flowering tent. It suffered from calmag def and ph lockout and so the leaves are a little shriveled and droopy, but it should still give me at least an ounce. Excuse the white spots on the leaves, thats potassium bicarbonate. I sprayed Greencure on them and thats how it dried. I guess i should wash it off with water...
You will note the blumat drip irrigation system. Its working well for the most part but lately i get an occasional overflow. One happened last night; i caught it before it overflowed the tray. I dont think i adjusted it recently so i dont know why it would overflow; the hose wasnt kinked either. This is somewhat worrisome.

 

[Bababooey]

Pic of a Lady Cane from S annies S eeds. G13xSSH. If its half as good as it should be, ill be stoked. Note the yellow pest strip staked to the coco. Those things are easy to knock over, and catch more coco than bugs, but i think they help keep the gnat population down.

 

[Bababooey]

Shot of a Sour Turbo (from S annies S eeds), a Sour Diesel backcross/incross. I scrogged it about 5 days ago and theyve bounced back well. They have these little round scrog screens in the Home Depots around here, in the garden section.
To the left is a Grand Daddy Purple, a clone from Harborside dispensary in Oakland CA. Dense, trichome covered nugs, with a potent, long lasting mixed high that isnt incapacitating unless you overdo it. My best weed to date.
Behind the Sour Turbo is another pheno of Sour Turbo. In the middle, hardly to be seen, is a K2 (a widow strain) and a Blockhead, courtesy of Philcuisine.

 

[Bababooey]

Pic of the GDP in the veg tent. I scrogged this one today as well; obviously this pic was taken earlier.

 

[Bababooey]

In the middle, hardly to be seen by the older plants on either side, is a Blockhead (closest) and K2 (farthest) from Philcuisine. I fimmed them over a week ago, and theyre responding well. Theyre almost as tall as the older plants, just not as bushy.
Im psyched about the Blockhead, which I read can have a trippy high and good yields.