Planning Dr.Bud Grow Closet, seeking some input.

[Squeeky]

UPDATE: Sorry it has been awhile, been to busy reading to post. Well my veg/mom cab is going great. Currently running 4 42W 6500k CFLS with a 120mm pc fan keeping temps from 75-85 throughout the day which I am comfortable with.

Since I killed my clones learning mistake I started some peat pellets a few weeks ago and now have 12 seedlings going strong which have been transplanted form peat pellets to party cups with 3 part FFOF and 1 part Perlite. The seemed to have taken to the cups nicely as growth as continued well.

Today will be the second watering from initially placing in cups. Last time I used just ph water, and I plan to continue until I top for clones on 8 of them. I would like to move 4 directly to flowering cab in roughly a week.

Would there be any issue with starting the 4 in which I plan to flower with Dr.Buds nute solution? Also I've been watering from the top. Since I only have 5 holes in my party cups is that ample drainage to start dunking or should I wait until I have clones in pop bottles to dunk.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

another thing to keep in mind is that you could try to "remote ballast" your cfl's so that the ballast (hot part) is outside the growing area.

There are actually some pretty cool CFLs that are already setup for remote ballast. Wicked cool ones that work GREAT!

Check out the 21" long 55w CFLs. (No wasted light as it's a flat loop of tube)


You'll find that you need fewer lumens/sq ft than suggested for standard coiled CFLs.

Here's a link to
3000K 55w 4-pin CFLs For Flower

and

5600K 55W 4-pin CFLs For Vegging

Apparently they're very popular over in europe. Looking to make them more widely used here in the states.

 

[Squeeky]

UPDATE: Currently I have topped 6 of the plants and there Y's are about and inch. Since I am new to cloning I want to wait till about 2". My other 6 are awaiting my lazy ass to finish the flower cab. Almost everything is done but carbon filters I'm planning 3x Blue-adept 80mm fan stacks. They are 37cfm so I figured with the obstruction of the carbon I should get upper 70s I hope that is enough as I am running 6 26w 2700K bulbs.

I do have one question I realize this isn't the hospital forums, but I have several of my topped planets which were only fed ph water have very crispy lower leaves. They also have a different shade of green splotches. The top of the planets seem uneffected. Now this may just normal death of the lower leaves as it grow by I have no history in gardening.

 

[Squeeky]

Last night 8 of my babies spent the night together in the dark. I choose to use active carbon sheets 2'layers as my lightproof passive intake, seemed to work well. They are sitting under 6 26watt soft white cfls. I will be switching out out of them with a 2% UVB bulb and running it 12/12 as well. Their sizes ranged from 4-6.5" so that should help me dial in assume several are female. All are on 5th or 6th node so I hope to see sex in a little over a week. Then I should have my clones in from the now 5 mothers whom have given me 2 clones a piece sitting in 100%perlite Dr.Bud solution they will get the lid removed for the first time tonight.

Being my first grow I had a friend with experience come look. He was not only surprised by the boxes and cfl solution, but also the health and look of my bagseed. This made me very excited.

My biggest goal is getting cloning down as I have access to orange bud and sweet lav. I killed them before it I could probably only pull off one more cutting from a friend.

 

[FreezerBoy]

don't put fans at intake. place them at final exhaust point. if 1 fan doesn't exhaust air fast enough, don't stack another fan on top of it, make a whole new exhaust hole so that u now have truly twice the exhaust.

The choke point isn't exhaust, it's intake. Unless your intake is 4 times the exhaust, better to cut another passive intake. This will both increase airflow AND reduce fan noise.

 

[Connoisseur300]

The choke point isn't exhaust, it's intake. Unless your intake is 4 times the exhaust, better to cut another passive intake. This will both increase airflow AND reduce fan noise.

Very good and accurate advise.

 

[Squeeky]

Looks like they had a nice nights rest. Everything seemed to be fine today. I think they consume less water at night as I have been watering ever other day and it was not needed yet. Going to add a tsp of molasses to Dr.buds nutes as I've been reading the threads on it and it looks very promising. Mixing it and a UVB bulb should really help resin production.

Squeeky

 

[Squeeky]

Last night was feeding time for my babies. When I came home 3 of them couldn't even hold themselves up. After a quick dip in the pool, they were beginning to perk up even before I put them back in the cabinet.

As far as my clones in perlite I have started to see yellowing around the edges of leaves so I would assume I may actually get some rooted clones this time around. The 5 planets I took the clones from have been topped, and the two clones came from that split. I'm not not exactly sure where I should take the next cuts from any advice?

 

[Squeeky]

I forgot to ask, I've had problems keeping the lower leaves out of the nutes when I'm dunking. It seems to hurt the leaf as it will turn crispy and get water spots. Now this doesn't seem to hurt planet growth so I doubt it is anything to worry about I just wanted to check.

Squeeky

 

[CaptainStoner]

Stacked fans are great because you may still only get the same CFM as one but you will get vastly greater pressure from them to suck or blow through your carbon filter.

But do put the shroud of another fan with the motor and blades cut out between them, maximises pressure and airflow

 

[Squeeky]

Today is day 6 in flowering although very healthy still no signs of pre-flowers. Planets are roughly 10-12in tall and on their 7-8node. My clones in perlite had yellowed around the edges hopefully that means roots are a coming. I'm going to try again at a aero cloner attempt. Dr.Bud's method is nothing if you can't get cloning down. I may try coco soon.

 

[Squeeky]

Last night I believe I was able to do some sexing. Of the 7 plants I'm know 80% sure that I've found 2 males and I know 1 is female it's rather hairy. I'm still having issues with cloning so I'll kill all the males but one and keep trying to find a cloning tech that works for me. Once they wake up for the day I'll attempt to sex a few more.

Squeeky

 

[Squeeky]

Well tonight I attempted to take some clones for the third time. My last cuts didn't make it in perlite. Could it be my hormone, I'm using schultz take root from wal-mart. I wouldn't mind spending the $20 for clonex if I knew it would make a difference. Tonight i built the vermiculite ice cube tube cloner found on the site as well. At least with this one I can't overwater/underwater and no need to control humidity just used ph water. I'll wait till next saturday to check for roots that will be 9 days and everyone has been getting roots in 7-10 in that thread. Wish me luck. I couldn't check the flower cab as it was already bed time.

 

[Squeeky]

Yesterday I killed a male and found another female. Currently have 3 with white hairs and 3 to be determined.

I do have one HUGE issue, after getting a magnifying glass I have mites Checked my veg cab and clones, they got them too.

I sprayed with organicide last night and will check them when lights come back. I have heard mixed reviews on no pest strips. Would this be an issue in a micro grow? I've also read many "bombing" with them. Placing them in the cab for a couple hours without ventilation. Doing this 3 days in a row. Would this be recommended.

 

[Squeeky]

UPDATE Summary:

This is my first ever grow and to be honest I'm really surprised how well things are going. Dr.Buds method is very easy to maintain as long as you have the time to water. I can only imagine the time needed when I have 18 in the flower cab. I think I'll find a multiple pot watering method by then. I'm now running 6 40W 2700k in flower, 3 27W in veg (was running 4 but growth was faster then needed)

Of the first 12 seeds I sprouted I moved 7 into flowering at heights from 4-6", 5 stayed back and were topped.

It took me three attempts at cloning before really getting the swing of things, not to mention roots. Now I'm sure all these methods work but I attempted a DIY bubbler cloner {failed}, 100% perlite {failed}, Vermic/IceCube tray {100% roots in 11 days}. At that time I was using schultz rooting hormone. Last week I purchased a bottle of clonex and I hear its much better. I hope to transplant at 7 days in order to keep a weekly cycle.

The 5 ladies have nice size flowers and the hairs are crazy. They are roughly 20-22" including cup, they have about an additional 4-6 inches to grow. I'm affraid they may be too tall. How far into flowering does the stretch usually slow down? This came from really poor quality bag, I just wanted to see in under proper conditions I could make a change. Plus wanted to get my feet wet before strain growing.

Tonight I moved 4 of the clones, from two different plants into the flowering cab, the other 4 I have need to veg a little more.

I also took 6 cuttings from two different mothers, as well as two cuts from 3 of the ladies. If clonex is a good as they say I'll wait a few extra days and clone a known female and make one of those the mom from now on.

Feel free to ask questions, sorry I can't post pics

 

[Squeeky]

Just an FYI, I cut down my first plant about a week ago, WOW now I know why you flush a plant. This one tasted like ASS! Now granted it's bagseed and I'm not expecting much, but hell I got high off it. My total weight for the 18" high plant was an amazing 1.6g, at least I'm getting practice.

I have the other 4 that are now 10 weeks 2 days, these are the wrong strain for SOGing, but I can't order seeds so I'll wait around for some good genetics to come my way. Considering I get nuggets about twice a year, looks like to schwagg for awhile. However I can say I grew it and I don't have to pick out seeds

I have a feel the other plants will net me about 3-4g a piece, which I am happy with. I soon realized that having 3 mom plants of the same strain is stupid, considering I don't more through my clones fast enough. I will limit myself to 2 happy moms, and try some different bag seeds in attempt to find a better mother. If anyone wants to donate some seeds this way feel free

I also watered the first time tonight with FloraNova series. WOW is this easy, I mixed roughly 1/4tsp to 3/4gallon, figured since a new fert, I would add slowly. Gave the GROW to some of the babbies in VEG (on 3rd node) and some BLOOM to the bottles I was not flushing.

I also watered form the bottom for the first time, siphoned slowly and then siphoned back out. CAKEWALK, compared to dunking each one seperately, I will be buying some kitty litter soon, in order to do 6 at a time.

My cab will hold 4 kitty litter containers, figure I will eventually finda strain that will let me go 8wks harvest. So every two week I can add 6 clones. This would give me a really easy nute schedule.

Container #1 - 1/4 tsp bloom /p gal
Container #2 - 1/2 tsp bloom /p gal
Container #3 - 3/4 tsp bloom /p gal
Container #4 - ph water 1tsp blackstrap

Does that sound right?

I plan to feed every watering, and mixing nutes in 1/2 gallon sizes in order to avoid wasted nutes.

I am also looking to switch to PL-L bulbs (thanks Hydro-soil) in order to increase useful lumens and decrease wattage. If I run 4 55w PL-L (220w total), that gives me 19200 lumens, with most of them usefull as I would use a backside reflector. Where as now I use a total of 240w and only get 15600, and who knows how much is lost in the coils.

in order to save some power I may only run 3 55w in flower, and 2-3 in veg. That way I can remote the ballast and decrease my heat as well. In the long run I plan to build a NGB style cab that runs on all PL-L that is very quite due to the low heat and limited fans.

Squeeky

 

[Squeeky]

P.S.

I have had the other 4 plants flushing with ph only water for about 2 weeks now, but the leaves are still very green, do I just keep flushing till the N level decrease or should I chop now. I don't mind waiting as I have smoke for another 2 weeks, figure continue to flush for another week then chop 1-2 down while continuing to flush the others.

This way I can compare taste/high etc and know with this strain which week is best.

Squeeky