Taking T8 to the extreme

[magiccannabus]

North #1 has started day 1 of 12/12 on 6/10/2009! She's currently in a 52 ounce convenience store cup. When she starts to stretch I'll move her to an 8 inch plastic pot.

I'm also starting to see flowers on the new Trainwreck X Colombian Gold clone. I think she's been in there a couple weeks but I'd have to check my own diary to figure it out for sure and I am feeling lazy

Anyway, my big plants are on day 73 of flowering. Light leak is fixed, and they seem to be hitting a new wave of budding. The calyxes still haven't swollen that much, but new flowers are sprouting out of the apex of each floral bract. Once swelling really kicks in the spaces between them should fill in. At least that is my hope, to gain some density. I had really hoped this would go faster. I'm waiting at least another week to chop the big one though. Purple Haze is still in the back under 10/14 lighting and doesn't seem to be any closer to finishing yet. In the last week I will flip her back to 12/12 again to give her enough light when she's developing those resins.

 

[magiccannabus]

Day 75, still not done. There seems to be calyxes swelling at random on the "Indica" Trainwreck X Sour Diesel, but it's just here and there, nothing across the board. She's spawning new pistils like mad right now though. I think this means she's trying to finish up. The light leak probably upset her and held her back. The buds are big and fluffy right now though, they don't weigh much at all. I am hoping they gain some density soon. They're definitely getting larger though. The Trainwreck X Colombian Gold is the opposite basically. The buds aren't huge, but they're a good density. The calyxes are definitely swelling on her, but she's got no amber anywhere at all yet. She's also throwing off new pistils. The "Sativa" Trainwreck X Sour Diesel is still the most finished, but still not really done. She has much denser buds than her sister though. There's not a lot left to her now except the main cola. We've been smoking early buds off her. I didn't want it to be that way, but we have serious medical issues that weed helps, and I am way beyond broke right now. Definitely feeling frustrated at the delay. I seriously need this to finish soon. I'm really looking forward to North #1 though, as I at least know it will be quality and finish fast.

 

[Dopeboy668]

WOW is all can say. I had no idea you could get bud like those from shoplights. Makes me wanna strip my basement of lights and make a cab. lol. Keep up the awsome work man.

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks for the feedback. I feel really frustrated today though. I went on vacation for 3 days and came back to a dead Purple Haze, a dying Colombian Gold X Trainwreck (the new clone), and a lot of stressed looking leaves. I did a lot to prepare for the trip, but when we were gone the heat skyrocketed, it was really bad around here and it just burned the Purple Haze up, since it's in the back with no real ventilation. The bud off it is wispy and not strong.

The good news I suppose is that North #1 and the two Trainwreck X Sour Diesels seem to be extremely heat resistant. It may have spiked 110 or more in there, and they're looking totally fine top to bottom. These three plants have proven incredibly heat resistant.

The damage to the TW X CG clone is so severe that I stuck a full size replacement in today, though I haven't removed it. I'm waiting to see how it recovers. I'd say the top 30% of the plant is fried completely. What do you guys think? Should I cull it? I'm thinking yield is fucked. I will get pictures of the sad state of affairs soon. I'm so financially fucked right now though, between the light leak and now this heat wave, I'm worried I'm going to have to give this up. I'm going to sell some stuff and hopefully raise enough cash to keep afloat till I can get my garden to produce a full healthy crop of something.

 

[organictastic]

Very nice grow man. Cant believe how big that trainwreck x sour D is..

 

[ScrubNinja]

Damn, man. Times are tight. I hope you can stay afloat, bro. Do what it takes cos you've got a good thing going there!

 

[stealthcabber]

awsome gotta love t8/t12 very good job!

 

[magiccannabus]

On Sunday, coming back from Vacation I found Purple Haze totally dead, and the newest Colombian Gold X Trainwreck dying(and now dead). Soil went rancid for some reason, not sure why yet. North #1 was stressed but survived. All the others looked unphased. Really a depressing setback on a grow that's already suffered a lot of setbacks. Anyway, I'm on day 89 now of 12/12(I think), and they're still not really done yet. Yesterday, I harvested the "Sativa" TW X SD. It wasn't really totally done, but it was popping bananas like crazy. It was time for it to leave the flowering chamber for sure.

Anyway, if I can hang in here for a couple more months, maybe I'll have something to show for my efforts.

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

Hang in there bro! Some strains are just near impossible to grow indoors, but you're putting up a valiant effort.

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks everyone. I'm starting to think a lot of it may be the strain issue combined with my unusual lack of money, the coming of summer, and just a bit of bad luck. I'm going to try to get a job here and at least make enough to start project 2! Project 2 will have all the same vertical lights, more floor space, and if I can get it to work, I'll have a 250W HPS in the top. I'm now convinced that the side lighting is awesome, but something was just missing with them alone. I'm hoping the combination does all I think it will. I have to just put these stupid ballasts and bulbs together in some sort of housing, and then devise a hood of some kind. Also, with the little bit extra floor space, I can use 10 inch pots for my final phase of flower. The current box is just barely too small. I wish I had accounted for that when I designed it. I know I've done fairly well with 8 inch pots, but they just don't support enough weight.

 

[neongreen]

Thats not bad going man, though I think you would get better results with better plant/light positioning, especially in the case of the Trainwreck X Sour Diesels. Would have been perfect if it was not so tall, or you could raise the lights.

I did it in a slightly different way - 8x 5 foot T8s (something like 500W total or 58W each I think) in one big bank which I kept right up against the canopy. A few posts down on this thread I have some pics of the setup with some pure sat bagseed plants: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=36181&page=205

Looking forward to seeing how yours turn out. Nice grow!

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks man. I agree totally on the idea that it could be positioned better. I've learned a lot from this attempt though. Next cab is definitely going to have more light up in the top. I don't want to lose all that awesome side light though. Gonna have the best of both worlds if I can. I think the light relative to the space was also too much. I could have made the cab larger without hurting performance. I have a huge closet in the back that is going to be converted soon for cabinet 2.0. Since I am doing perpetual, I'm just going to build that cab and then move everything over at the last minute.

 

[magiccannabus]

7/5/2009, just started Esbe's C99 x Deep Chunk in the flowering chamber. Took two clones of it, and I now have 5 rooted clones of North #1 planted and out of the cloner. Been a bit bad about picture updates, but I've been sort of upset with the growing process. The light leak really screwed me up. It's gone though, and now North #1 is showing tiny little pistils all over her branch tips. It looks really cute lol

The heat seems to have made stems more fragile. I've snapped the tops on a couple of them, but only one was bad. I lost about 4 inches of growth on the top of C99 X DC, but now it has two big main branches at the top, which have in turn been topped. I'm gonna try to pack a lot of tops on this one. Been too much empty space near the top.

 

[neongreen]

Don't let it get to you. Everyone has their ups n downs. The plants usually recover quickly. Give them a light sea weed foliar if they have been stressed. That always helps :smile:

I had to remove a foot of new growth off one of mine a week or two back. Hated doing it, but I should have topped much sooner. No point crying over spilled milk though!

 

[catman]

*sends good vibes magic's way*

I popped some Princess Diesel x C99 beans the other day. The C99 seems to be one of "thee" strains for anxiety so I hope it serves us both well. Hopefully you get a fast flowerin pheno too!

 

[Work2much]

Checking back in. I really like the vertical fluoro setups, there just cool as hell.

C99 x DC, nice strain, it'll be interesting to see what side the plant leans on. DC genes seem to over power a lot of traits.

Good call on the 250 overhead.

Good luck.

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks guys. I am excited to see how both North #1 and C99 X DC do as they are both C99-based strains mixed with other amazing stuff. I'd say the lineage on North #1 is more prestigious, but the smoke test will tell for sure. Right now C99 X DC is in better shape as it didn't get beat up by the heat so bad like North #1 did. Oh well. I have 5 rooted clones of North #1 and will soon have 2 of C99 X DC. I have two of Esbe's Bangi Haze X Purpurea Ticinensis also going in the veg side, but they have not clearly shown gender yet. I am starting to suspect one will be male and one will be female. Either way, these represent much more known genetics and much more known quality than my first strains in this cabinet.

 

[magiccannabus]

I forgot to log that I put another Sour Diesel X Trainwreck in to flower. I think I started it on July 10th, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. Either way it'll give me a rough idea when I started it.

 

[magiccannabus]

I've been extremely busy lately, but things are still going on. I'm building a new cabinet in the back that will hold six 2.5 gallon pots, but could hold 5 gallon buckets if I want too. I'm going to build a rim around it that will hold the tubes up off the ground a bit, and help shade the bottoms of the pots more than in my current setup. It will also help keep light from spilling out the cold air intakes. The cabinet will feature more space, larger headroom, the same 512W of fluoro tubes plus a 250W sodium overhead. I still have to finish building the ballast though. I got it for really cheap, but it was in pieces and no instructions. I figured out how to wire it all though and have tested it. So now I just need to put together a housing, which is mostly done. I've just also been very busy with regular work, trying to make ends meet here since the first grow had so many problems.

I switched to a new soil mix, hopefully it's not too hot. It contains 50% coco coir, 25% Pro-Mix(or peat moss), 18.75% mushroom compost, 6.25% Scott's composted manure and humus.

Or in parts that's:

8 parts coco coir
4 parts Pro-Mix/peat
3 parts mushroom compost
1 part composted manure and humus.

I also amended it as follows:

2 tsp per gallon of Espoma Flower-Tone
1 tbsp per gallon of dolomite lime
1 tbsp per gallon of bone meal

Any feedback on this mix would be great. It seems extremely rich, so I know there's some serious feeding power in there. I just hope it's not too much. I just know I need to push the performance more here. I didn't use any blood meal this time though because I've had some over-nitrogen problems that I think it caused. Should I be using it?

On another note, I found out one Bangi Haze X Purpurea T. was a male. I suspect the other is too. I also got a mystery sprout in one of my pots, but it doesn't seem to be surviving the transplant, which is ok since i have no idea where it came from or what strain it may be.

I planted two clones of C99 X Deep Chunk today. The mother is already in flower for about a week, but the cuttings have been sitting in coir pucks in the cloner. They rooted EXTREMELY well, best time and root mass I've seen when cloning with pucks. They're in the new soil mix, so we'll see how that goes I guess. I definitely can't say enough positive about coir pucks though. I love them, but the store I got them from only carries them in the spring apparently.....

North #1 is showing a lot of defined buds now. Not sure what day she's on, but she's definitely starting to really bloom now. She's still short though, but with a lot of bud sites. The 5 clones of her are doing great in the veg cab, and oddly seem to be vegging much faster than she did. I don't know why, but their vertical growth is at least 3 times as fast as their mother. Maybe maturity has made her veg better?

The clone of Trainwreck X Colombian Gold that is in flower is now starting to really bud up too. It's a bit behind North #1, but it's still doing pretty good. I'm going to run out of bud here soon though so I'm sort of bummed out that there's going to be a dry time here for a while Once the new cabinet is going strong though, I plan to never let that happen again.

 

[simple green]

Good luck...sorry to hear you lost the purp haze...

Any idea what caused it?

Keep it green bro...