greenthumbnewb
Member
love the setup..aero is the shit
IGT's 2000w+ Perpetual Hydro Garden
- Thread starter ItsGrowTime
- Start date
Texasdrodown
Member
I just read through the entire thread! Very nice read. I'm sure somone mentioned it already in a pm or somthing but it seems like your cloner being clear would allow lots of light into the root zone. Also your clones looked pretty cramped that coupled with just slightly elevated temps might have played a role in your hit and miss ratio with the cloning process. Your got way more skill and at what your doing but I just wanted to throw that out there that being said you've done some amazing stuff here and IMO you should stick with what you know as your bread and butter and work on you new stuff on a scaled down size that way if you tank it your not out as much. Hope I'm not over stepping my place. Mad props love the thread
Hi Texas, thanks for your thoughts. I've since got the cloning thing mastered. Boil it down to "too hot and/or too wet" as the causes of my issues. Once I got past that, cloning has been a breeze. This new crop I had more rooted clones than I could use! That's a good problem to have considering my past clone failures. I've also got the brown algae slime issue beat too.
Anyway, time for a once-in-a-blue-moon update on my garden. Last crop was successful but since I was using unproven seeds I had a lot of pheno variety from the NLxSkunk#1 cross. Now, Ive got a complete garden full of my bread n' butter NL5xBigBud. First time with a completely full room...only took me like 3 years to get here lol. Im in the process of getting a CO2 setup running too. Here's some pics.
Room full of 36 happy plants.
Day 20 of flower. Looking very happy. It's HPS coloring that I tried to tweak but didn't do a good job.
Some are topped, some are not. Average plant height around 22" or so.
Looking damn good! I will update this grow later on in flower (for real this time lol). Should be pretty impressive. Im shooting for no less than 4.5 lbs. The CO2 will help.
Stay safe all!
IGT
Anyway, time for a once-in-a-blue-moon update on my garden. Last crop was successful but since I was using unproven seeds I had a lot of pheno variety from the NLxSkunk#1 cross. Now, Ive got a complete garden full of my bread n' butter NL5xBigBud. First time with a completely full room...only took me like 3 years to get here lol. Im in the process of getting a CO2 setup running too. Here's some pics.
Room full of 36 happy plants.
Day 20 of flower. Looking very happy. It's HPS coloring that I tried to tweak but didn't do a good job.
Some are topped, some are not. Average plant height around 22" or so.
Looking damn good! I will update this grow later on in flower (for real this time lol). Should be pretty impressive. Im shooting for no less than 4.5 lbs. The CO2 will help.
Stay safe all!
IGT
duddde im drooling here.
ive been browsing these forums for years and have yet to come across this post..
least that i can remember
anyways , cant wait to see more work from you..
p.s buy a super nice camera!!!
i wanna see your babes in high def!
ive been browsing these forums for years and have yet to come across this post..
least that i can remember
anyways , cant wait to see more work from you..
p.s buy a super nice camera!!!
i wanna see your babes in high def!
Texasdrodown
Member
So does that mean you've gone back to the cloner or are you still using the pucks?what type of co2 gen are you gonna set up?
@sneakin - Thanks. A new camera? Hmm maybe. I've always found better uses for $200 than a camera (like CO2! or another AC! or a Dehumidifier!) but Ive got most of that now. I guess a camera wouldn't be too bad an investment. Keep checking back.
@Texas - Actually I was able to have a lot of success using BOTH bubbler and Rapid Rooter techniques. I ditched the clear bubbler and tried *******'s (EDIT: WTF is that about? L0UGREW's) bubble cloning method (search it...it's so simple it's absurd, but goddamn it works!). Essentially my bubble cloning issues came from either getting the slime algae on fresh roots (which is now alleviated by adding beneficial bacteria to the cloner water first) or from just having my water temps too high. I was 78-80 when I should have been low to mid 70's. Too hot. My Rapid Rooter failures came from being too wet. Turns out that RR's are perfectly wet right out of the bag and should NOT be pre-treated with anything. Just stick the clone in, after proper prep with cloning gel, put it in the tray with the humidity dome on, under a weak CFL. Fuzzy roots popped in 7 days flat. If I had to pick one or the other I'd stick with the bubbler. Much faster root growth than the RR's. Ill probably just use both in the future to ensure some backup clones.
Im going with a CAP regulator (REG-1, which I have in hand) and the CAP PPM-3 controller (ordering on Monday). I had to hash it out with CAP a bit to make sure my digi ballasts wouldn't RF interfere with the PPM-3. They said it does happen but it's very rare and odds are I won't have a problem. The CO2 hose will be mounted to the back of an oscillating fan at plant top height. Once I source out a reasonably priced CO2 bottle supplier I should have it up and running. Probably a week or so, right when the stretch stops and the buds start packing on.
@fireman - Same strain as before littered throughout my grow threads. I guess I used to just call it NLxBB but it's really NL#5xBigBud (Nirvana). I've kept this same pheno going the entire time I've been growing (nearly 3 years) and she continues to produce so why fix what isn't broken? It's just the first time Ive been able to fill my whole room up with them.
@TBug - naaa, not really sealed but it's close enough for gov't work. Im going to change the lights to intake and exhaust outside of the room. But it's still not really sealed. Best I can do though. A multi-pass carbon filter and 4" Vortex is sitting in a box waiting for me to get around to installing it for in-room odor control. Smell isn't an issue yet but it will be shortly! The trellis screens are Pico's PVC trellis design. Just basic PVC hanging from string from the ceiling with plastic 4"x4" trellis netting from the hydro shop secured with zip ties. It works great and it's a fast setup and take down.
At this point I have 2 5000btu window ACs and a 45pt dehumidifier in there. Yes, my power bills are substantially higher than they used to be! I've gotten them pretty much dialed to the point where they all turn on and off as needed and temps stay 80ish and 50%rh. As it cools off (or warms up like past summer) I can make small tweaks to the settings to keep the room in the sweet spot.
Thanks for swinging by guys.
@Texas - Actually I was able to have a lot of success using BOTH bubbler and Rapid Rooter techniques. I ditched the clear bubbler and tried *******'s (EDIT: WTF is that about? L0UGREW's) bubble cloning method (search it...it's so simple it's absurd, but goddamn it works!). Essentially my bubble cloning issues came from either getting the slime algae on fresh roots (which is now alleviated by adding beneficial bacteria to the cloner water first) or from just having my water temps too high. I was 78-80 when I should have been low to mid 70's. Too hot. My Rapid Rooter failures came from being too wet. Turns out that RR's are perfectly wet right out of the bag and should NOT be pre-treated with anything. Just stick the clone in, after proper prep with cloning gel, put it in the tray with the humidity dome on, under a weak CFL. Fuzzy roots popped in 7 days flat. If I had to pick one or the other I'd stick with the bubbler. Much faster root growth than the RR's. Ill probably just use both in the future to ensure some backup clones.
Im going with a CAP regulator (REG-1, which I have in hand) and the CAP PPM-3 controller (ordering on Monday). I had to hash it out with CAP a bit to make sure my digi ballasts wouldn't RF interfere with the PPM-3. They said it does happen but it's very rare and odds are I won't have a problem. The CO2 hose will be mounted to the back of an oscillating fan at plant top height. Once I source out a reasonably priced CO2 bottle supplier I should have it up and running. Probably a week or so, right when the stretch stops and the buds start packing on.
@fireman - Same strain as before littered throughout my grow threads. I guess I used to just call it NLxBB but it's really NL#5xBigBud (Nirvana). I've kept this same pheno going the entire time I've been growing (nearly 3 years) and she continues to produce so why fix what isn't broken? It's just the first time Ive been able to fill my whole room up with them.
@TBug - naaa, not really sealed but it's close enough for gov't work. Im going to change the lights to intake and exhaust outside of the room. But it's still not really sealed. Best I can do though. A multi-pass carbon filter and 4" Vortex is sitting in a box waiting for me to get around to installing it for in-room odor control. Smell isn't an issue yet but it will be shortly! The trellis screens are Pico's PVC trellis design. Just basic PVC hanging from string from the ceiling with plastic 4"x4" trellis netting from the hydro shop secured with zip ties. It works great and it's a fast setup and take down.
At this point I have 2 5000btu window ACs and a 45pt dehumidifier in there. Yes, my power bills are substantially higher than they used to be! I've gotten them pretty much dialed to the point where they all turn on and off as needed and temps stay 80ish and 50%rh. As it cools off (or warms up like past summer) I can make small tweaks to the settings to keep the room in the sweet spot.
Thanks for swinging by guys.
Texasdrodown
Member
If your looking to buy a cam I picked up a nikon D90 takes some awsome pics you should look into it they're spendy but the pics are solid even at 5 frames a second and it also does HD video. If you wouldn't mind I'm setting up a room room right now that is similar to yours I'd like to post pics of.
I don't mind BUT why not start a thread for your room? Im sure everyone would check it out. You won't get much input if you post them in this thread. Just start a thread in the forum and copy the link here.
mikeross
Member
Wow great yields for a couple 600's... I love using 600's as well.
Not sure if I read this right but you sometimes top your plans in the middle of flower, 12/12, if they start getting to tall?
I thought most top during veg? What are the ill effects topping in the middle of flowering?
Not sure if I read this right but you sometimes top your plans in the middle of flower, 12/12, if they start getting to tall?
I thought most top during veg? What are the ill effects topping in the middle of flowering?
Hi mike,
It's not a couple 600w, it's four 600w. Big difference.
Yeah I do top during flower to keep plant height down and try to even out the canopy. I have limited ceiling height to work with. I think the effectiveness of this method depends entirely on the strain/pheno and your experience with it. Ive grown this one so much (probably 13 crops) that I know exactly what will happen when I do certain pruning methods. Some growers do top in veg and that may work for them. It's best to play around with your strain and see what happens. I know with my strain, topping in veg or early flower does NOT keep plants shorter. I top the biggest ones around day 17 of flower and I can reliably tell you that after topping, the vertical growth will only go another 8" or so. The side branches come up hard and fast and fill everything out. The untopped plants will catch up pretty close and even out the canopy. Your comment does remind me that I did top a single plant this crop VERY early just to see what it would do. I do like the results so far, though plant height will be the same as usual. I've got three fill size top colas coming up on that one plant. She should make for some nice pics in a few weeks.
No pics but a quick garden update.
CO2 setup is running but it's just on a timer right now. The CAP PPM-3 will be here saturday and will get plugged in immediately. My odor control is in place and working well. I did end up with a little more stretch than I wanted so some are a bit taller than I was hoping. I used too much Floranova Grow in my initial res mix. It was about 60/40 FN Bloom to FN Grow, when it should be 80/20. The Cal-Mag that I add makes up for the lesser N. Plus I had a "Doh!" moment and added too much Liquid Karma a bit too soon. The combo of too much N and kelp early means too much stretch. I'll pay more attention next time! Other than that things are looking great.
Now that my equipment and environment are almost dialed, future attention will be on maximizing the canopy through minor training and better trim techniques. I tend to leave too many lower sites and my canopy could be a little more even overall. Of course I still have a lot left to attend to on the current crop so maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself just yet...
It's not a couple 600w, it's four 600w. Big difference.
Yeah I do top during flower to keep plant height down and try to even out the canopy. I have limited ceiling height to work with. I think the effectiveness of this method depends entirely on the strain/pheno and your experience with it. Ive grown this one so much (probably 13 crops) that I know exactly what will happen when I do certain pruning methods. Some growers do top in veg and that may work for them. It's best to play around with your strain and see what happens. I know with my strain, topping in veg or early flower does NOT keep plants shorter. I top the biggest ones around day 17 of flower and I can reliably tell you that after topping, the vertical growth will only go another 8" or so. The side branches come up hard and fast and fill everything out. The untopped plants will catch up pretty close and even out the canopy. Your comment does remind me that I did top a single plant this crop VERY early just to see what it would do. I do like the results so far, though plant height will be the same as usual. I've got three fill size top colas coming up on that one plant. She should make for some nice pics in a few weeks.
No pics but a quick garden update.
CO2 setup is running but it's just on a timer right now. The CAP PPM-3 will be here saturday and will get plugged in immediately. My odor control is in place and working well. I did end up with a little more stretch than I wanted so some are a bit taller than I was hoping. I used too much Floranova Grow in my initial res mix. It was about 60/40 FN Bloom to FN Grow, when it should be 80/20. The Cal-Mag that I add makes up for the lesser N. Plus I had a "Doh!" moment and added too much Liquid Karma a bit too soon. The combo of too much N and kelp early means too much stretch. I'll pay more attention next time! Other than that things are looking great.
Now that my equipment and environment are almost dialed, future attention will be on maximizing the canopy through minor training and better trim techniques. I tend to leave too many lower sites and my canopy could be a little more even overall. Of course I still have a lot left to attend to on the current crop so maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself just yet...
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Day 32 of flower update. I took the time to figure out IC's "new" pic interface and yeah it's easier to upload. I was doing it the hard way.
Anyway, CO2 is up and running now. Since my room isn't completely sealed Ill be going through some bottles but Im cool with that. There's not much I can do at this point and the benefits gained outweigh the expense. I can still keep it 1400-1550 reliably with the CAP PPM-3 controller. The regulator is just open more than optimal. I have no idea how long a bottle will last me but I doubt more than a week. Temps swinging between 81 and 85 with rh 55-60%. Now that it's getting colder I adjusted my ACs way down. They mostly run on fan mode now.
CAP REG-1 regulator. I kinda wish I had bought the two bottle version now.
PPM-3 controller at 1530ppm
Ladies! I can already see the difference CO2 makes in speeding development and size. Im just kicking myself for letting some of them (particular left side) get too tall. Some light bleaching is already happening. I can't raise the lights any further. Ill fix that next time.
Right side. Lights can go higher so I put larger plants over there. Many of them are topped.
Jungley. Smells great too. Odor control is working but can still smell the plants close up. Once in awhile Ill catch a whiff of them but that's rare.
That's pretty advanced bud formation for what Im used to with this pheno. Gotta be the CO2 in action. Stretch is done but they don't start packing on bud until 36 or 37.
Still finding better ways to spend $200 than a camera lol.
Res water is around 1000ppm at 5.8ph. A little warm but Im swapping some frozen bottles and I use beneficial bacteria to protect roots from any rot. I guess Ill have to get used to it since the CO2 needs higher room temps. That means higher water temps.
Ill update again in a week or so. Be safe all.
Anyway, CO2 is up and running now. Since my room isn't completely sealed Ill be going through some bottles but Im cool with that. There's not much I can do at this point and the benefits gained outweigh the expense. I can still keep it 1400-1550 reliably with the CAP PPM-3 controller. The regulator is just open more than optimal. I have no idea how long a bottle will last me but I doubt more than a week. Temps swinging between 81 and 85 with rh 55-60%. Now that it's getting colder I adjusted my ACs way down. They mostly run on fan mode now.
CAP REG-1 regulator. I kinda wish I had bought the two bottle version now.
PPM-3 controller at 1530ppm
Ladies! I can already see the difference CO2 makes in speeding development and size. Im just kicking myself for letting some of them (particular left side) get too tall. Some light bleaching is already happening. I can't raise the lights any further. Ill fix that next time.
Right side. Lights can go higher so I put larger plants over there. Many of them are topped.
Jungley. Smells great too. Odor control is working but can still smell the plants close up. Once in awhile Ill catch a whiff of them but that's rare.
That's pretty advanced bud formation for what Im used to with this pheno. Gotta be the CO2 in action. Stretch is done but they don't start packing on bud until 36 or 37.
Still finding better ways to spend $200 than a camera lol.
Res water is around 1000ppm at 5.8ph. A little warm but Im swapping some frozen bottles and I use beneficial bacteria to protect roots from any rot. I guess Ill have to get used to it since the CO2 needs higher room temps. That means higher water temps.
Ill update again in a week or so. Be safe all.
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So you take a small, spare room in your place. Nothing huge. Just "big enough" for what you want to do. You have a vision. It all starts right then.
You spend a few years building out and dialing in a hydro system. You also build out and dial in a completely contained environment. You learn how to manipulate plants. You learn how to work with one particular strain phenotype. You learn the best lighting. You learn how to spend a bunch of money in hopes your investment pays itself off. Then finally you learn how to use CO2.
And this is what you get by day 47 of flower!
I am lovin' me some CO2 baby! It's amazing! I can't believe my plants are only day 47 right now. They're fuckin huge and they're just getting started! This is only the right side of the room.
Again, a few plants got a bit taller than I'd like so Im getting some light bleaching. It's not affecting things much. You can't see it in this pic anyway.
An "experiment" plant. I topped it like 4 days into flower to see what she'd do, instead of my usual later topping. She's rewarding me with threee large main colas.
So yeah, Im not sure I can do much better than this in my room? Can I call myself a grower yet?
Ill drop a few more pics before harvest so check back in a week and a half. Stay safe all.
You spend a few years building out and dialing in a hydro system. You also build out and dial in a completely contained environment. You learn how to manipulate plants. You learn how to work with one particular strain phenotype. You learn the best lighting. You learn how to spend a bunch of money in hopes your investment pays itself off. Then finally you learn how to use CO2.
And this is what you get by day 47 of flower!
I am lovin' me some CO2 baby! It's amazing! I can't believe my plants are only day 47 right now. They're fuckin huge and they're just getting started! This is only the right side of the room.
Again, a few plants got a bit taller than I'd like so Im getting some light bleaching. It's not affecting things much. You can't see it in this pic anyway.
An "experiment" plant. I topped it like 4 days into flower to see what she'd do, instead of my usual later topping. She's rewarding me with threee large main colas.
So yeah, Im not sure I can do much better than this in my room? Can I call myself a grower yet?
Ill drop a few more pics before harvest so check back in a week and a half. Stay safe all.
SkilledGrower
Member
Great lookin plants. Your time and effort has definatly paid off. The finished product should be killer!
Happy Black Friday everyone! I'm thinking about buying a new flat screen tv today if the crowds aren't too crazy and a good price is to be found. How does 50" sound? Oh yeah...plants....right......
So harvest got well underway before I even thought to take some pics. Sorry. They ended up beautifully tho! CO2 kicks ass. Do it the right way from the start and you'll enjoy the benefits. So instead of full garden pics I thought I'd show how my plant trim manipulation during flower works. I remember someone asking about why I top in flower before? I saved these plants for nearly last to show the differences. Plant heights vary from 30 to 36" tall.
Here's an untopped plant. No manipulation other than the bottom 2 or 3 nodes removed during early flower. The side branches don't come up much and the plant focuses on huge main cola. Is that a donkey dick or what?
Here's a plant that was topped about 5 days into flower. It split into three main colas. All large but not as dense as the head bud above. Great yield tho!
Btw today is day 70 and they've been sorta flushing since mid 50's. They're done.
Here's what happens when I top a fast growing plant around day 17 of flower. The side branches come up hard and the top splits into multiple smaller tops. This is the highest yield of the three.
Not bad eh? Im estimating Ill make my 4.5 pound goal. Next crop is already rooted and vegging under 400w MH. Be safe all!
So harvest got well underway before I even thought to take some pics. Sorry. They ended up beautifully tho! CO2 kicks ass. Do it the right way from the start and you'll enjoy the benefits. So instead of full garden pics I thought I'd show how my plant trim manipulation during flower works. I remember someone asking about why I top in flower before? I saved these plants for nearly last to show the differences. Plant heights vary from 30 to 36" tall.
Here's an untopped plant. No manipulation other than the bottom 2 or 3 nodes removed during early flower. The side branches don't come up much and the plant focuses on huge main cola. Is that a donkey dick or what?
Here's a plant that was topped about 5 days into flower. It split into three main colas. All large but not as dense as the head bud above. Great yield tho!
Btw today is day 70 and they've been sorta flushing since mid 50's. They're done.
Here's what happens when I top a fast growing plant around day 17 of flower. The side branches come up hard and the top splits into multiple smaller tops. This is the highest yield of the three.
Not bad eh? Im estimating Ill make my 4.5 pound goal. Next crop is already rooted and vegging under 400w MH
. Be safe all!
New crop is starting first day of flower tomorrow. Another 36 plants ready to take off.
Last crop ended up being 4lb 10oz so I broke my goal! Im shooting for 5lbs on this next one! I don't think I can yield any more than that in my room.
Last crop ended up being 4lb 10oz so I broke my goal! Im shooting for 5lbs on this next one! I don't think I can yield any more than that in my room.
inspiring grow/journal!
thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Red.
thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Red.
