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life and times of 32 coco slabs/top 44

B

British_Bulldog

Lookin' good gm,

I look forward to seeing how they turn out,

Keep up the good work m8,

Peace
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
Top44 has some vigorous growth, nice looking plants. Whenever I have grown from seed the males are always the first to show themselves.

Are you recirculating this run or dtw?

yeah same here with the males and seeds. at this point i have recognized 3 males out of the 8 seedlings and we are 16 days into 12/12 so i hope the rest are females, will have to wait and see though, as no female flowers are showing yet on seedlings, even though the speedy top44/victory clones are already well into flowering.

yes im recirculating the nutrient solution, i have this system well down so it's no problem for me. in fact it saves me the hassle of pumping off the return, while making my tank last longer too :)


British_Bulldog said:
Lookin' good gm,

I look forward to seeing how they turn out,

Keep up the good work m8,

Peace

thanks man, i appreciate the visit. yeah hope they grow some nice donkey dicks. nice thing about this strain is the speed. not so nice is the pm that comes with them :) mind you so far so good with the pm my treatments seem to have stopped it in it's tracks so far.

cya soon m8

:wave:
 

~Shhh~

JETS
Veteran
Cheers GM, info always appreciated... Do you intend to recirc for the whole run... I remember you used to switch at some point during bloom IIRC.

Also can you say a little about your air circulation and extraction, using any dehumidifier etc. As much as poss... I guess you have said alot in older threads, and probably doing pretty much the same but if you don't mind :D then a wee update would be great. I am probably going to move back to slabs as they last a bit and are easier to dispose of compared to loads of coco in pots. Also getting a larger tent (200cm-W x 200cm-L) thinking of maybe 3 x 600's and some space to play about with. So would appreciate the pointers.

On another note, my SD IBL's had a real bad male to female ratio something like 8-2. The 2 girls I got were spectacular but I recall quite a few peeps getting high male ratio's back then with the SD IBL and a few with the V3 as well.

Need some SD back myself and am assessing the current options bean wise to find a good mother as that is some stellar herb as rez likes to say :)
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
Cheers GM, info always appreciated... Do you intend to recirc for the whole run... I remember you used to switch at some point during bloom IIRC.

i only switch for flushing, specially back in the day when i had my nute shy WW and needed to do maintenance flushes a lot. but now i only switch to run to waste for the end flush as these top44/victory don't give a damn how high the ec is in the return it seems :)

Also can you say a little about your air circulation and extraction, using any dehumidifier etc. As much as poss... I guess you have said alot in older threads, and probably doing pretty much the same but if you don't mind :D then a wee update would be great. I am probably going to move back to slabs as they last a bit and are easier to dispose of compared to loads of coco in pots. Also getting a larger tent (200cm-W x 200cm-L) thinking of maybe 3 x 600's and some space to play about with. So would appreciate the pointers.

i have a 850qm/h exhaust dimmed to about 30% hooked to a 1000qm/h scrubber, the intake is passive but same diameter as the exhaust. i have 1 cheapo oscillating fan for air movement. in winter i had a heater running when needed, but that's it. i have been considering a dehumidifier for a while now, specially since i have been getting clones with fing pm on them.
the main thing with slabs is to have automated watering, else they are a huge pain to water lol.

On another note, my SD IBL's had a real bad male to female ratio something like 8-2. The 2 girls I got were spectacular but I recall quite a few peeps getting high male ratio's back then with the SD IBL and a few with the V3 as well.

Need some SD back myself and am assessing the current options bean wise to find a good mother as that is some stellar herb as rez likes to say :)

that's interesting, i know i got normal ratios with the sdv3 but was unlucky with both the casey jones and the sour diesel ibl. bu in the end i didn't plant all the seeds at once and then messed up some as far as i remember.

but yes that Sour Diesel is some awesome herb, i also need to get some new seeds from Rez. i'm tempted by those Chem d crosses i saw posted the other day on seedbay.

i'll take some pics tonight to document the progress, got 3 males now, saving the fastest bloomer to cross with the top44 on some lower buds just for fun. had to cut up some plastic gloves and make condoms for the male flowers i left on the plant to ripen.

:wave:
 

Grimr3efer

Member
Dude I am a slab guy myself. They kick ass. Nice setup you got there. I run a stairstep sog with individual 5 gal resiviors with mine. I swear my plants love this stuff.
 

Grimr3efer

Member
Dude I am a slab guy myself. They kick ass. Nice setup you got there. I run a stairstep sog with individual 5 gal resiviors with mine. I swear my plants love this stuff.
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
hey Grimr3efer,

good of you to drop in. yeah the coco really is a very convenient medium on all fronts. i mean i'm doing round 7 on those same slabs, that's pretty awesome if you ask me.


wow nice one EddieShoestring,

good to see some old timers dropping by too. as for this setup, it's pretty basic i will admit. i got cheap transformers, cheapest ec and ph pen, no air cooling on the lights no dehumidifier. just the very basic coco slab setup. with plenty fresh air.


any way here are some pics from day 17 of 12/12, it's looking like my SDxCJ, CJxSD bag seed seedlings are showing good ratios, looks like 5 females 3 males and 1 tinny drowned unknown.

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third male
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first male, with nearly all flowers cut off, and bags over the rest. i had to bend them over so the pollen drops in the bags not out the end.
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my scrubber and cheapo air hose, i do have a nice controller for the power of the exhaust, which keeps the noise down nice.
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second male, after letting my cats go crazy on it
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top right, you can see the last plant to show sex from the 8 seedlings that are prospering
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trying some bondage on this girl, got to stop her shadowing her neighbors too much
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3 ladies and 1 man (if you ignore the t44 lol)
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the man who will be allowed to breed checking his domain and waiting for the day of release :jump:
picture.php
 

~Shhh~

JETS
Veteran
Hey GM, u seem very excited that the male is about to skeet skeet :D lol, is there something you are not telling us :rolleyes: lmao!! Just kidding bro.

Top44 is budding up real quickly is this an 8 weeker gaius? Thanks for the extra pic of scrubber.... helps visualize the layout better. You are getting nice M/F ratio's with those beans, I don't think you'll need to be looking at any other work apart from your own crosses right now... They have the ability to become legends in their own right considering the parents!

Are you exhausting heat straight out of the window? Doesn't this not cause any smoke hitting cool air? Also looks like your pulling air in from outside too?? I was doing the same, but not throwing hot air back out of window, just out of tent into surround room, and my humidity skyrocketed in the last few weeks to 75% had to get the dehumidifier in, but I think I will need something more powerful in the upgraded tent. Only issue with dehumidifying is the bloody heat they cause, better using AC really as it also acts as a dehumidifier. Anyway, I am wafflin' on in your thread man, excuse me... Speak 2 ya soon :)
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
haha yes it is exciting, i have learned the value of seeds more in recent years. and messing around with a few plants like that is fun, specially considering the possibilities. we will see, in the end i'll probably end up growing clones and not using the seeds i make, but they sure are nice for back up. i'll for sure have to try out the cross with t44, hm maybe i should use more then 1 dady, just to increase the odds that both cj phenos and sd phenos get crossed to the t44, hm this is complicated lol.

yes i exhaust the scrubbed air out the window, placing the exhaust port near the top of window, further down i have another port for the intake on the same window, both are 250mm diameter. the exhaust causes a vacuum/under pressure in the room, this sucks in the fresh air from outside through the intake duct. that's why the exhaust ventilator is quite big for the size grow, i always over size my exhaust and scrubber ventilation setup and run it dimmed. no the warm air never reacts visibly with the cold air, don't ask me why, i was worried a bit too about it, specially in winter. i guess by the time it gets outside it cools down a bit.

you should always exhaust your air directly outside, you can use the air from the apartment or house for the intake no problem, but even that i prefer to take it from outside where its cool and fresh except in summer. but i have to admit my rh reaches 75% too at certain times during the day in the last weeks of flowering. what i have found is that scrubbers are much more efficient when they are as high up as possible and hanging horizontally. the same setup with a scrubber on a stool in the corner vertically had about 2 to 3 deg higher temp with same amount of power on exhaust, jfyi.
 
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gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
I Hate the Fucking Borg

I Hate the Fucking Borg

bad news, i sighted some borg trying to colonize my grow. so far only the advance scouts are there, but if i don't wipe them out now, i'll end up with dieing leaves and webbed buds by harvest time. as i'm looking forward to making bubble hash and because i hate the borg i have decided to attack with unconventional weapons. my local grow store has a nerve gas on sale against pests, it is called dichlorvos spray in German and according to the grow shop it doesn't enter the plants. it just gasses up the area and kills the insects on contact. only a 3 day waiting time, apparently. the cool thing is how easy it is to use, i just walked out backwards spraying this stuff over the grow and counting to 10. you are supposed to turn the air system off for 3 hours so it can really work. as i have never used anything so easy and fast to apply i thought it worth a mention. apparently i will have to repeat the treatment in 5 to 7 days to get any newly hatched mites too. then on day 21 of 12/12 i'll do my last prophylactic spray of fenicure in the hopes of once and for all keeping that pm at bay till harvest. there is still no visible pm, but i know how sneaky that stuff is so that 1 more spray is wise, possibly essential. i might have to try the hydrogen peroxide mix too if it comes back in the last weeks of 12/12. we will see, you'll know both the ups and downs :)

btw, i have let the pump off for 2 days so far, i'll probably turn it back to auto tonight or tomorrow. i find it can give the ladies a nice boost if you starve them once in a while, make them use whats there.

running my ec at 1.8 for now will probably go to 1.9 with next tank fill tonight, but i'll only make 1.6 with a+b nutes and the rest i'll make up with pk13/14 for the first pk boost.

ok that's about all the details that come to mind up to now.

:wave:
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
Get a Hotbox sulphume,,, The bst pice of kit I have.. Stops spidermites and budrot...

yeah the sulfur burner is good against pm but it does leave a funky taste if you run it in the last 4 weeks. from everything i have read and been told, the bubble hash also tastes funny from rooms with sulfur burners.

never heard of them helping against mites though? how does it do that? i'm gonne see if i can find more info on this hotbox sulphume, is it a sulfur burner?

:wave:
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
hm interesting, thanks for the idea cannaboy. here is some info i found with a quick search. i never knew sulfur could stop pests too, live and learn eh? anyway here's the copy paste about the hotbox

Hotbox Sulphume Product Details:
Market leader! The Hotbox Sulphume is the best sulphur vaporizer available for the home hydroponic grower.

The Hotbox sulphume sulphur vaporizer is small unit designed for the home hydroponics grower. This system of vaporizing sulphur is used by commercial crop growers to control pest infestations and to prevent them from happening in the future.

Spider mites and other insects are a common problem for many hydroponic growers the Hotbox sulphur vaporizer solves the problem. We strongly recommend using the Hotbox Sulphume as an effective way to treat pest infestations. Alternatively the sulphur vaporizing unit can be used continuously as a preventive measure to keep insect pests away.

The Hotbox Sulphume sulphur vaporizer is supplied wired ready to use. sulphur can be purchased seperately in 2kg bags.

Each Hotbox Sulphume unit is suitable for treating growing areas between 2 - 100m3. Vaporizes approximately 1 gram of sulphur per hour when in use.

No dangerous chemicals are released rather than burning sulphur the Hotbox sulphume unit vaporizes sulphur so it is 100% safe to use while your plants are in the grow room or green house.

Avoid using the sulphur vaporizer in late flower or final 2-3 weeks of plants development to avoid any residue being left on your final produce.

Size - 13cm diameter - 18cm height
power consumption - 120 watts
 

~Shhh~

JETS
Veteran
Fucking borg! :mad: Glad to hear that you spotted them early though. Product your using sounds good, there was a smoke bomb supposedly cool for plants but killer to mites that used to be sold over here.... Never got to use it fortunately, it's since not been stocked anymore so maybe it wasn't so non toxic for plant's/ human after all :eek:
 

cannaboy

Member
Sulpher vapour is 100% safe and changes the leaf surface ph which after 4 days kills the breading cycles.. They don't eat and its like the hollocaust pretty cool..

I could have sold spidermites at 1 point.. There terrified of going near my beloved room again,,

Honestly I eradicated a massive room full of them...NO spraying required It would have took me a week to spray half a room... I just kick back and Blaze fat 1's all day now,,,,
 
wow....nice to see another slab grow GM...sorry about ya troubles..it does also appear that most biggish growers use the sulpher burner....gotta be the easiest solution, especially if you haven't got access to all the space ...kill them borg bro....cant wait for the next update

peace subscribed
 
B

British_Bulldog

Hi gm,

I like the updates m8 - the girls look good and healthy: keep up the good work :yes:

About your venting, you say you use a fan speed controller to reduce the noise: a few things you could do to improve it - if you can, remove the bend in the ducting just after the fan; that's causing a lot more noise as the air hits the bend, as well as reducing airflow considerably. (I think you could get 20-25%+ extra air speed by removing the bend.)

Using just half a metre to a metre of acoustic ducting just after the fan will lower air noise levels a fair bit too ;)

You can also stand the filter and fan on polystyrene slats or bubble wrap rolls instead of wood; that will reduce vibration a lot, or even better hang them from the ceiling joists with elasticated rope or build a wooden frame around them and hang within the frame.

Wrapping the fan in about 5m of bubble wrap will reduce noise too, as at the moment it's naked :p

(I think noise/vibration could be reduced by 25%+)

Better still would be to box the fan, wrap it in cling film and fill the box with expanding foam, then hang the box.

With those mods in place, which would cost next to nothing if you're on a budget (re: cheap equipment you mentioned earlier), you could up the fan level more and get more venting to the girls, and therefore get a bigger and better harvest.

All the best

Peace
 
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B

British_Bulldog

bad news, i sighted some borg trying to colonize my grow.

.....

btw, i have let the pump off for 2 days so far, i'll probably turn it back to auto tonight or tomorrow. i find it can give the ladies a nice boost if you starve them once in a while, make them use whats there.

Btw, sorry to hear about your borg attack and I hope you get it sorted asap.

About the pump, I know what you mean about boosting them; drying them out like that will encourage more root growth as they search for more moisture, and give them a break from the salty feed.

When they've developed enough of a root mass and are in flower, what they really like is the break from the feed, and they don't need to be forced to root more to boost up.

Drying out like that will cause salts to build up more than usual and by giving them a regular flush of water every 5-7 days, for about a day or two, they will still get the break from the feed and still get boosted.

If you're not already doing it, then why not give it a go and you'll see what I mean ;)
(You could also give them a dose of CannaZym when they're on their break from the feed, which will help too).


Peace
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
~Shhh~ said:
Fucking borg! Glad to hear that you spotted them early though. Product your using sounds good, there was a smoke bomb supposedly cool for plants but killer to mites that used to be sold over here.... Never got to use it fortunately, it's since not been stocked anymore so maybe it wasn't so non toxic for plant's/ human after all

yeah they are a pain normally, but i must say this spray is a real treat to use, it's so fast and when i checked the next day, all i could see was dead mites with a scope. so i'm quite happy with that so far, i will have to repeat the treatment to get the ones that hatched after the spray. i remember those smoke bomb things.


cannaboy said:
Sulpher vapour is 100% safe and changes the leaf surface ph which after 4 days kills the breading cycles.. They don't eat and its like the hollocaust pretty cool..

I could have sold spidermites at 1 point.. There terrified of going near my beloved room again,,

Honestly I eradicated a massive room full of them...NO spraying required It would have took me a week to spray half a room... I just kick back and Blaze fat 1's all day now,,,,

yeah i read about the difference between burning sulfur and vaporizing it. hehe spraying is a lot of work, specially f the plants are dense.


John goodman said:
wow....nice to see another slab grow GM...sorry about ya troubles..it does also appear that most biggish growers use the sulpher burner....gotta be the easiest solution, especially if you haven't got access to all the space ...kill them borg bro....cant wait for the next update

peace subscribed

good of you to join the fun...
yeah it's been so long since i posted a grow that i thought why not. i'm not a big grower only takes me 30 mins or or to spray each side of the table. i don't like the idea of the sulfur burner, if anything the sulfur vaporizer sounds interesting, but for now i will just use the tools i already have.


British_Bulldog said:
Hi gm,

I like the updates m8 - the girls look good and healthy: keep up the good work

About your venting, you say you use a fan speed controller to reduce the noise: a few things you could do to improve it - if you can, remove the bend in the ducting just after the fan; that's causing a lot more noise as the air hits the bend, as well as reducing airflow considerably. (I think you could get 20-25%+ extra air speed by removing the bend.)

Using just half a metre to a metre of acoustic ducting just after the fan will lower air noise levels a fair bit too

You can also stand the filter and fan on polystyrene slats or bubble wrap rolls instead of wood; that will reduce vibration a lot, or even better hang them from the ceiling joists with elasticated rope or build a wooden frame around them and hang within the frame.

Wrapping the fan in about 5m of bubble wrap will reduce noise too, as at the moment it's naked :p

(I think noise/vibration could be reduced by 25%+)

Better still would be to box the fan, wrap it in cling film and fill the box with expanding foam, then hang the box.

With those mods in place, which would cost next to nothing if you're on a budget (re: cheap equipment you mentioned earlier), you could up the fan level more and get more venting to the girls, and therefore get a bigger and better harvest.

All the best

Peace

i actually have the fan plugged into a power controller which can slow the power down from setting 1 to 5, then i have the cheapo climate controller plugged in that. together this system means my ventilation is whisper quite and if i need more power like for trimming or in summer all i do is give it more. i used to always use insulated ducting and even a muffler after the vent. but this time i was doing it on a minimalist basis while still making sure it stays quite enough to be un noticeable for anyone on the street or in the flats bellow. in the end it turns out i actually had a bunch of insulated ducting in the atic, just forgot about it. as for the bend it is needed as the windo is there and the ducting has to go over it. this place was set up as a temp grow, its been up for 4 runs and will be moved after this round. my ceiling is made of styrofoam, so have to put beams up to hang anything, so instead i made a wooden structure to hold the scrubber up near the ceiling. if it was more permanent i would certainly wrap the venti in some foam and switch to the insulated ducting, but not much point now. also there is no vibration from the scrubber or the venti, the only noise is a slight whisper of air in the room and the quietly purring ventilator.

Btw, sorry to hear about your borg attack and I hope you get it sorted asap.

About the pump, I know what you mean about boosting them; drying them out like that will encourage more root growth as they search for more moisture, and give them a break from the salty feed.

When they've developed enough of a root mass and are in flower, what they really like is the break from the feed, and they don't need to be forced to root more to boost up.

Drying out like that will cause salts to build up more than usual and by giving them a regular flush of water every 5-7 days, for about a day or two, they will still get the break from the feed and still get boosted.

If you're not already doing it, then why not give it a go and you'll see what I mean
(You could also give them a dose of CannaZym when they're on their break from the feed, which will help too).


Peace

yes i discovered the positive effect of doing that a couple of times during flowering. as the coco slabs have now been use for the 7th round im using zym the whole time in my tank sometimes even dose and a half. i only do maintenance flushes, will never leave it running with plain water if it's not the end flush. i find it shocks my plants. i will flush and right after the flush put them back on auto feeding with nutrient solution. but for now the salt levels in my slabs are minimal, those plants are taking the 1.8 ec like its lemonade. very true though about the salt levels, you got to watch out if you let the coco dry out, know when you are doing it and how salty it will make it lol. mind you they generally react well to the added concentrations and i don't leave the pump off longer then 3 days so it doesn't get too dry.

wow long post lol. typical long winded me, thanks for all the good information and peace to you also.
 
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