DESTROYER on Ice - 250CMH Freezer Grow

[FreezerBoy]

I figure why pay $50 for an enhanced blue hps bulb when a regular one is $14 and a blue cfl is like $5!

I fell for that trick when I bought my first light setup. The 150 ballast could accept a 170watt AgroSun. One day the Agro failed and I picked up a standard 150 for $30 less and the garden never noticed the difference. There's a definite improvement with CMH in veg. Much more compact and dense; I'm happy paying for that. I've just been curious what a switch in flowering might do.

The largest buds I had were from the seedling, and all the clones are as similar as they can get under the different lighting arrangements.

This gets to the next question. My clones root mass and yields were markedly smaller than the donors. I'm thinking I should start from seed again and top the plant (which I normally don't do but, did here) for testing.

 

[Sticky Scissors]

Yo FB! The improvements to the freezer are lookin great! How is your new homemade oder filter workin for ya? I sure hope you find the up hi you've been huntin for...quit scratchin your head wonderin I'll shoot ya a PM once I get my post count up my brother in Thunk!

Sticky

 

[hoosierdaddy]

Seems the stretch leaves after the seed run as well on the more sativa plants for sure.
ANother factor in the dial-in procedure I spose.

Ya know, I have not used my CMH for veg at all. Only for flowering.
I have been so impressed with the efficiency of small CFL's for veg and moms, that I haven't even considered HID for the greening.
I am also quite pleased with my harvests using the CMH. Although, the full on sativas do not seem to respond to it as those with more indica do. Albeit I have very little track record with the thing so far.
I also can't take away from the fact that I also use an additional 150hps.
I have seriously been thinking of building a hybrid 400cmhx400hps arrangement.
I should probably do back to backs with the cmh then the hps, but I have so many projects going, I need to set the lights and concentrate on other things.

 

[FreezerBoy]

How is your new homemade oder filter workin for ya?

Perfect, so far. Knock on wood I'll be harvesting around the 20th. It's been working for two weeks. One more week (because I've got pads for another) means I'm filtered through the 27th so, I'll be golden.

I have been so impressed with the efficiency of small CFL's for veg and moms, that I haven't even considered HID for the greening.

While it's an unfair comparison (Wilma from seed under 250 CMH from beginning and W3 being a cloned clone with the first half of her life under 150 HPS) Wilma's roots were 3-4 times the size of W3's. I'm using two 23 watt CFLs to keep Jo's clone going. After 3 months, she's got little more than a baseball's worth of roots in an SWC/bubbler. What can I say? It was NGBs root porn that started me down this road to begin with.

I'm just wondering if HPS towards the end would put an end to this ....



In favor of this.

 

[Deft]

Have you thought about changing the NPK up a little? I'm always hearing that too much N does that in sativas.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Ya' know, I meant to change to a 1:3 ratio and I plumb forgot ...

 

[one Q]

not sure if it was mentioned but have you read the r'evival sativa growers thread?'

In this thread it points out that you should cut N out completly and let them just live off of PK nutes. This makes the whole plant mature at the same time. Plus cuts out most of the stretch.

This thread makes a good read for understanding how to grow Sativas. It also mentioned not feeding high N during stretch like for Indicas. Then goes into keeping her root bound for sog, but thats not what YOU want. Either way. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=66603

and to get your juices flowing... This is cut from post 3 of that thread.

But alot of sativas are from places there is no real winter to speak of. Some places near the equator plants live for years. Most have no genetic background to be prepared for the concept of finishing for a frost. What determines finishing time for tropical sativas is nutrients. When they are in the wild there is no frost that forces them to try to make seeds. But if they run out of nutes they will die and so will their seeds. So when they start feeling nutrients running out in the ecosystem full of other nutrient thieves they know they need to put all energy into bud production for seeds and not growing more stem and leaves.

By keeping feeding your sativa N as fan leaves die during flower you are accidentally telling your plant that their ecosystem is thriving and they should compete to outgrow other canopy. Stem and leaves in other words which also extends the plants flower time dramatically. New growers often accidentally flower plants for nine months and stuff confused why new growth keeps coming out. Wondering when its going to end. This not only effects flower time but also the high. All those clear trichs aren't ready and produce anxious headache type stone mixed into your euphoric sativa.

 

[FreezerBoy]

One, you're my new best friend.

Those revival threads are HUGE! That you'd hand pick the two most relevant paragraphs and deliver them to my door ... The explanation sounds spot on to me. My Thunks certainly had no interest in finishing after 17-23 weeks of 12/12. What the heck, I'm harvesting in a few weeks. Time to flush and feed straight water till the end.

Thanks again. Today's tokes are in your honor.

 

[mrred]

just giving them staight water will reduce thc content i think you might only want to do that the last few days as a trade off for the better taste I'd just try to give them as little N as possible

 

[FreezerBoy]

just giving them staight water will reduce thc content i think

Really? Hmmmm. Taste isn't a concern, being a water cure kinda guy, Lower THC would be bad ... I still have 5-6 hours before sunrise in the cab. Maybe a mild 1:4 mix is in order ...

 

[mrred]

you use gh flova nutes? maybe only se the bloom and a tiny bit of gro and no mico?

 

[one Q]

Freeze, my Man!

Listen, if your going to grow pure or mosly pure sativas, you need GHFlora not Nova. You need to be able to strictly control how much N your Sati's get. This can be done best with the standard Lucas.

From here to the end, if you feed just FloraBoom you should be good. Or KoolBloom. I think that just some FB would be fine, the added Mg and S will keep things ripening. You may even get a final boost in blooms this late.

You did a fine job in that THUNK, but now you have the knowledge! Just read the first page of that thread and your gold um green. Your next sativa run should be alot easier and FASTER! lol.

Start low, ofcourse. You will want to feed some N to fill that screen. Then once your blooming and formation starts, just plain old FloraBloom. Every once ina while add some Floralicious or LKarma for small N feedings but use sparingly. Do this and youll be able to tell when you feed her N as shell stretch a bit and the buds will look funny.

Need to stop typing. Again read my sig so Im not taken out of context.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Wow, you guys are really watching out for me.

I'm using the flora series. I "invented" the Lucas Formula on my own about 12 years ago. Long before I heard of Lucas or the internet. I realized there was no way to approximate the Rosenthal/Frank N-P-K formulas with FloraGrow in the mix.

I just forgot to make use of it ... D'oh!

I wish there were a 4 bottle series. One for N, one for P, one for K and one for trace elements.

 

[Deft]

One Q you sumed up what I should have said lol, instead of that vauge no N thing. Look how dark the leaves are on the destroyer, looks like they have all the N they need so like the ultimate sativa revival thread says they'll just keep going and never really finish. Looking at other peoples threads on well done sativas, they always look pale from low n and have big buds seemingly because of it.

Gotta starve them! If it were me, I'd experiment with almost entirely the red bloom bottle and a little of the micro (the high N in the micro scares me for pure sats) for the immobile elements like the metals. But thats just me, and I don't know all that much yet.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I guess I kinda forgot about it.

Wilma was such a light feeder while (EC meter-wise) Jo was Audry Jr's twin. FEED ME! FEED ME NOW! Just flushed the res and filled with an 0.5-1.5 solution. I think I'll knock an hour off the "day" as well.

Ordered my BionicCam the other day. Bought "Slings and Arrows," too, so I qualified for free shipping. Free is good, right? Woo hoo!

 

[NiteTiger]

Heya Freezer, I thought I was signed in on your thread.

Got that fixed now though

 

[TylerDurden]

Hey FreezerBoy, Ive been lurkin but havnt posted here in a while so I thought Id drop by. one Q nice quote, thats a very interesting thread with some good info for growing sativa's. Things aren't lookin too bad Freezer, I hope the smoke turns out to be some good shit. Looks like one crazy sativa. I cant wait till I can just focus on growing sativa's and getting the most out of them. They're so damn interesting Hope you had a good Christmas and happy new year bro.

Mr. Durden

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

One Q I agree with alot you have said except the quaote about Sativas. I believe they are mainly talking about Landrace sativas that have grown in that environment for generations. Freezer's is not a landrace so nutes telling it when to finish probably would not apply.

If we are talking about destroyer, keep in mind it took them 7 years something to develop it. Developed in indoor gardens not on the equator. Surely the strain has adapted by now.

 

[spaceghost22]

Geez, what a pain! But in the name of good smoke I suppose nothing could be too much, agreed? Very nice so far Freeze, I'm watching!!! I hope you get that strain locked in!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Heya Freezer, I thought I was signed in on your thread.

Got that fixed now though

Aw, crap! I've been spotted! Run away ....

Things aren't lookin too bad Freezer

Po Freezer got's too much weed. Po, po Freezer.

it took them 7 years something to develop it. Developed in indoor gardens not on the equator. Surely the strain has adapted by now.

Interesting point. But, 7 vs 10,000 (20,000?). That's a lot of instinct to wipe out (as if I knew what those instincts were.) Lower N requirements in sativa's, and Destroyer in particular, aren't exactly news to me. I think I at least deserve an Honorable Mention in this years Doofus Awards. Thank you ... thank you ...

Geez, what a pain!

Beat me! Whip me! Make me write bad checks! ...sorry ...