welcome to the rabbit burrow!

[Neekz]

Deep reflector = convection oven... Maybe go bare bulb, DIY parabolic reflector with 2 80mm's mounted on the top exhausting up n out... IMO for micro HPS bare-bulb cool-tube is the only way to go... More vertical height above the light source can also better help the heat exchange/dissipate from the canopy on up. I say though, you seem to be containing the 250w in your space better then some I have seen... I think your mold problem's might be a little strain influenced (Despite sativa's supposedly being more mold resistant, any bud that dense is at risk...)... Good growin' ...

 

[NKOTS]

thx for all and each of your pieces of advice, pals

here's what pink rabit did so far:

1. positioned the fan i already had but it was blowing bottom up, now it is at the bud level and increased airflow considerably.

2. inserted a few bamboo sticks and attached the buds to them in order to make sure each flower is separated from its neighbours and has some free space around

3. lowered the high-placed pot a little bit. the flowers have larger distance to the bulb which is negative in terms of light penetration. but on the other hand they don't suffer from extensive heat (hope this is less inviting for the mold too!)

besides, there is now much more space in the bud area since i removed infected flowers. situation seems to be under control and i see no new mold signs.
i keep my pink paws crossed for the end of the problem
let's stay focused though


i learned that the hood needs reconstruction already for some time, because it has been acting like an oven

i will either rebuild it for the next run or replace it with a CoolTube, as discussed before.

stay relaxed, my friends and thx a lot for your interest and guidance

 

[hazydreams]

Brother Nkots,

Good luck with the battle on mold and a cooltube will work wonders for you! Im always lurking this thread. Wheres the photos!

 

[kiwi_growa]

thx for all and each of your pieces of advice, pals

here's what pink rabit did so far/U]

1. positioned the fan i already had but it was blowing bottom up, now it is at the bud level and increased airflow considerably.

2. inserted a few bamboo sticks and attached the buds to them in order to make sure each flower is separated from its neighbours and has some free space around

3. lowered the high-placed pot a little bit. the flowers have larger distance to the bulb which is negative in terms of light penetration. but on the other hand they don't suffer from extensive heat (hope this is less inviting for the mold too!)

besides, there is now much more space in the bud area since i removed infected flowers. situation seems to be under control and i see no new mold signs.
i keep my pink paws crossed for the end of the problem
let's stay focused though


i learned that the hood needs reconstruction already for some time, because it has been acting like an oven

i will either rebuild it for the next run or replace it with a CoolTube, as discussed before.

stay relaxed, my friends and thx a lot for your interest and guidance

Heya man! My 400 watt HPS came with a very similar reflector, it was originally designed to hang in a warehouse among other 400watt hps lights. I trialed it and i know exacly what you mean about "learning that the hood needs reconstruction already for some time because it has been acting like an oven", I quickly took it out and just have the socket and bulb now and the heat is not a problem at all. I would definitly rebuild it rather than modify it. I tried putting a fan on the back of mine(behind the socket) to pull the hot air up and out and it melted the fan. Those kinds of reflectors suck at this purpose, build a new one that allows you to have a fan position away from where the heat rises so that the fan doesn't melt because this is a HUGE fire hazard. I was very lucky i was at home....You wanna have the air cooled horizontally past the bulb, not vertically otherwise it'll probably melt the fan.


Glad to hear you're getting the heat issue under control. Really sorry about the mold man, i am positive that what you've done with the bamboo to allow more airflow around the buds will prevent this though.

Keep up the good work rabbit

 

[manwithastick]

damn

 

[5th]

Warren this is Houston, have you considered vert bare bulb....over.

 

[manwithastick]

Warren this is Houston, have you considered vert bare bulb....over.

and some reflective material on the sides would do you good

u cant get stuff like that almost for free, bag of chips ex. lol

 

[NKOTS]

hello there

hazydreams, kiwi_growa, manwithastick, 5th thanks for your advice and concern on heat and mold. all your opinions will be taken into consideration when i reconstruct the warren.

problem is... i have yet another issue - far more serious. the operation in the warren is ruined in fact. at least the ChemdogDD-x-SD ibl. The HotMix girls are almost all axed by now, i chop the buds one by one, step by step - while they're still smokable
i will get back to this sad story soon...

meanwhile the clone chamber.
it has been providing me with new cuttings every now and then and i must say this setup works just fine (and it is almost maintenance-free):

regrettably, this is the only cab with no issues, as you'll see in next posts.

 

[NKOTS]

time for the burrow.

CD-x-SD ibl is 79 days into 12/12.
she started flowering in more less 15th day of 12/12 so she may be in her 64th day of bloom.

at first glance all is good (but notice the brownish bud in the back):

 

[NKOTS]

and here is the problematic bud:

doesn't look like mold, besides in this cab there is low humidity and good airflow.

so maybe heat? the bud does get close to the bulbs (but others are even closer!). maybe some kind of hot spot in between the CFLs - any ideas?

 

[canna woop!]

Yeah looks like my plant, except the whole thing burnt and died. Good thing I cloned her. In my case it was a bad foliar application dry soil and high temps.

 

[5th]

Thats definately because of heat my friend.

In my vert tubes I lost the biggest buds because of this and they looked identical to yours. (their weight caused them to lean into the bulb and I didn't get to them in time to prop them up)

I would use thread and your already installed eyehooks.

Re: post #229's first picture, and lightly bend over the two cola's on the right. Find some space in there somewhere to bend over the burnt one aswell.

The good news is the rest of it is looking just fine.

 

[NKOTS]

ok, thx for the advise. i was a bit worried this is yet another pest or virus or whatever this may be...

now, let's have a look at the rabbit warren.

as said, the situation here is severe, and this can be seen at first glance:

even though the Hot Mix girls are doing good.
i.e. the rest that is left from them as most of the colas were chopped in fear for more mold.
they are 89 days into 12/12, meaning ca. 75 days into bloom.

below is one of the last buds standing - notice it turned into a foxtail-monster too (like the other one from the same plant):

but the ChemdogDD-x-SourDiesel ibl lady is almost dead due to two critters that inhabited the warren: SPIDER MITES and FUNGUS GNATS.

while the latter are no big deal, the mites have turned the lady into a ruin in 4 or 5 days (sice last time i had a peek).

here is a closeup of the leaves. they look devastated:

you can even see the web and little fuckers here and there. the scale of infestation is huge, the lady is doomed.



in the last pic above you can see the fungus gnat below the leaf.

so my next steps are:

1. chop down the Hot Mix and enjoy while she is still relatively untouched

2. chop down the CD-x-SD even though she is like halfway into bloom

3. flood the cab with considerable dose of chemicals to get rid of the pests



my Q to you guys is: should pink rabbit ditch the half-ready buds of CD-x-SD or still harvest them?
will flowers infested by spider mites be smokeable at all?

and last but not least: will the spider mites further feed on chopped bud? spraying them with chemicals is ruled out as i would then smoke that shit lol.
the buds will be hanging and drying but many of the the mites will stay in the flowers. is it detrimental for the buds or will the critters leave them as soon as they notice the plant is dead?

 

[NKOTS]

but every cloud has a silver lining, right? ;]
i will share some positive stuff with you too.


remember this chap? we called it the monster-bud



here is a part of the monster a few weeks later:

peace out!

 

[hush]

I can smell it from here!

 

[RosettaStoned]

Sorry to hear about the mites. I would say make the half ready stuff into hash or hash oil if you have the materials. Iso hash is relatively easy to make and iso alcohol is easy to obtain. That one burnt bud looks like it just touched the lights somehow, I had a spot like that on a couple of my buds before and it was just from touching the bare bulbs.

 

[5th]

Just my opinion...as I haven't the experience. (only had mites once)

1) Even if the mites didn't stick around to chew on those tasty pieces of weed...their eggs would be left behind...and I personally try to refrain from injesting larva...regardless of stage lol.

2) Probly my sociopathic personality...but I'm a "scortched earth policy" kinda guy. I'm sure one can combat a mite infestation...but I'd rather just remove and destroy.

Monster bud looks fucking tasty.

 

[#1cheesebuds]

I have dealt with spider many times before.

so heres what I would do. I would harvest the spider might buds and give a quick rinse to every bud from that plant. then FIRST SHAKE THE WATER OFF AND hang em to dry. and check the buds at least once every day to make sure the mites aren't there.

when I did this method it worked good. I would always make sure the buds r nice and dry after all that them jar them up. but still checking on them to make sure the mites still aren't there and most of the time they were all gone.

next I wouldn't harvest the buds that are only half way into flowering. the rest of the buds on that plant will continue grow. u'll regret it if u harvest early. as I have done it befor as I ended up being sad for doing it cuz the buds weren't half as good as they could have been.

and lastly I would wipe the cab that is all bugged out with bleach. no bug in the world can survive bleach. both the inside and outside.

I have a question fo ya. is the other cab in the same room at the one that is all bugged out. cuz if so I would move it very soon cut the mites can travel to the other cab in no time.

all this is what I would do if it was me.

hope this helps.

 

[NKOTS]

hi folks, thanks for your comments.
cheesebuds, these are some really helpful counsels. i did as instructed, chopped the remaining HotMix buds and rinsed them well, shaked them well and hung for drying.

same happenned to lion part of the ChemdogDD-x-SourDiesel ibl. sadly it was only halfway into bloom but i think inline with 5th here... remove & destroy.
possibly i could get rid of the mites eventually but due to scarce resources (mainly time) i cannot get it done properly
so that girl was harvested too early and i am still unsure how to proceed with her, maybe it will be good stock to test oil extraction techniques? any recommendations here, folks?

regrettably, this lady will not reveal her full power to me but her sister still sits in the burrow so this experience is not lost yet

speaking of the burrow - it is located in a different place away from the warren and there is no risk of infestation.

the warren will now be reconstructed a bit and bleached out thoroughly before the next operation. the clones are more than ready to land in there but pink rabbit just does not have enough time for all of this. maybe in a few weeks. right now i want to focus on the burrow and finish the CD-x-SD by the book


cheese, one more Q: do you mean 'rinse the buds every day, then dry and jar them' or rinse once and then dry and jar?

 

[#1cheesebuds]

no no. I just rinse once then hang to dry but if I see any more mites i'll rinse again.
all while not keeping the drying flowers too wet don't wanna get mold.

I too have to do a hella good bleach cleaning to my grow spot right after my next harvest which is in the next some odd days. I like to do a bleach cleaning after each grow just to make sure there aren't any leftover mites in there.

ps: glad I could help. any time.