1k Pot of Gold Perpetual SOG: A show for my peeps

Hellooooooo ICMag!
Hope you're all doing well! I sure am. My setup is moving along quite nicely now, and I'm getting ready to fill my flowering tent in the next week or two, which is exciting!


I figure I'll chronicle my escapades here because it'll give me a way to learn from myself very effectively.
I've always been the type that wants to take good notes, but don't always do it for one reason or another. Hopefully this will be a fun way to keep good records and maybe help someone else, too! If not, just check in once and a while to see what's up and throw in your

Enough blabbing, on with the show...

Strain: Pot of Gold
Vegging: 600W PSMH sometimes with 96w fluoro fixture for moms.
Flowering: 1kW HPS considering side lighting. Using 2'x3' mortar mixing trays from the hardware store for flowering. I'll be harvesting one tray every 5 weeks (POG is a 10 week strain) and there will be no down time in the flowering tent. Lucas formula with FloraNova is being used on a current tray, but for the 6" cube tray which is depicted below, I'll be running the rest of my PBP Bloom at Lucasish specs. I just have what's left of a jug and I don't want to trash it!

On October 4, I took about 40 cuttings and put them in my bubble cloner setup. (Life Rafts Bubble Cloner)


At about 6 days, about 75% had rooted. They all ended up throwing out roots in the end! I'm now a bubble cloning fool! It's the way to go if you want lots of clones in a small area, without having to buy any medium really except pool noodles to make gazillions of pucks out of.


Yesterday, I soaked all my 6" rockwool cubes (don't breathe in the dust when they are dry! I did, it sucks for a couple days...) in a 1/4 strength solution of Pure Blend Pro Grow and BioBizz Root Juice, pH-ed to something like 5.6.
Today most of the clones looked like this,

so I decided to transplant them.



I coil the roots into the holes of the 6" rockwool cubes, and gently press down on the puck to make sure the clone is seated on the bottom. This way, there is pretty much a full mass of roots underneath the puck, with lots of root area contacting the rockwool cube. Hopefully they'll get their roots into the cubes quickly, the incubation period is a PITA right now without drippers!


All transplanted...


In the Veg/Mom/Clone Room:

Now they are incubating. Since I have no drippers, I have to keep a mix of nutrients around and squirt the root area with my syringe every couple hours to avoid wilting. This lasts maybe 24 hours based on what happened a few weeks ago, and is the PITA part of my system, everything else is pretty hands off, which is the way I like it! I'll be getting a bunch of drippers once I get my first harvest, but for now I just baby them manually. I have to leave for a good chunk of time tomorrow, though, which is a little scary to me... They'll be fine.
The trays sit on top of those awesome yellow/black storage bins. I drilled a couple holes in the lid, so the tray sits on top and drains straight back into it without any plumbing there. Just a really simple flood & drain vegging system. And no, I don't worry about res temps with it being in the room. F&D is very forgiving of that, I've found. I even keep my reservoirs in the flowering tent. Actually the temperature differential between the canopy and under the trays/tables is huge, so I think the water is around 70 (in this cool season, anyway)

Getting the big picture:


There are three soil mothers, one DWCish mom that I just started, the leftover clones, and 14 transplanted clones packed in there!
600w Pulse Start Metal Halide is used in this room. Small 140cfm CanFan is extracting. I'm using an old carbon filter for the hell of it. Basically this room is a closet extended into the room using 1"x2" boards and Panda Film. I think the veg area is 3'x4'.

What to do with these??

Oh, if it were outdoor season I'd throw them out there... 2010 should be a fun year... Just started hunting around for my swamp plots... I think I have found some very promising locations.

So that's that for the veg room. I will take them up to about 6-7" (and hopefully 35 days after planting the first tray) before I drop them into the flower tent. I'll post some pictures of that soon. I dropped 30 POG in a tray on October 1, and I'll post pictures of those soon.

Peace out

Looking good bro, nice and clean. Super roots on them clones, I am picking up some Root Juice thanks to your recommendation, thanks for that tip earlier. Ready for the show, got my seat right up front!

very clean. sounds ideal

do you have any experience with traditional mh's? and if you do which one do you prefer?

Nope, but what I do know that you may be missing is that they are not supposed to be replacements for MH bulbs. The PSMH bulbs come in different Kelvin ratings which allow you to cater the spectrum to the stage of growth the plant is in. They were designed to be used with the high frequencies that new electronic ballasts work with... Do a forum search for SunPulse or PSMH or something. There is an ongoing thread. I am interested in doing controlled experiments with these bulbs. I know that there are customers at my local hydro store that are doing it, so I'll chime in when the results are in!

Shots from the flowering tent on October 11

Shots from the flowering tent on October 11

I don't remember when this pic was taken, but it was at transplant into the 4" cubes that are now flowering.


After vegging to about 6", which I have no pictures of, I threw them into a new 2'x3' without the air pruning rig attached and under a 1k.

Day 1 flowering was October 1

Shots from October 11:
Sorry for the mean HPS orange



Note the crazy hot spot in over the middle 4 plants. This hotspot has made itself very apparent at this point. (Can you tell I'm not used to 1ks yet? LOL)
As you can see, I used zip ties to train the outside plants outward a little. It helps with the crowding...
I am running 5 plants per square foot in that tray. I have now realized that 5 plants per square foot is too much if I veg them out to 6". I once ran (24) 4" cubes which is 6 plants/sq. ft. with less veg time and I was happy, so I'm just trying out new things, experimenting... That's why I'm running 6" rockwool this time. I'll veg to about 6" again in these, but I'll do a bit less pruning... And speaking of pruning...

Here are some under canopy shots:



I prune my plants until 14 days flowering. I find that no matter how much lower stuff I prune at the beginning, there is always a bit that I realize will be low producing up til about the 2 week mark. Big proponent of pruning here...

Pics from today coming right up!

October 16 Flowering Tent Shots

October 16 Flowering Tent Shots

I'll just throw up some shots of the canopy, etc. Note the crazy hot spot in the center! If only I could move the plants around!! The 4" rockwool is sitting on rockwool slabs, and the roots have anchored the plants to where they will be up til chop! Well, when I rotate the table and put the other tray on it, the hotspot won't be in the same location over that canopy...







Hope you've enjoyed the shots.
Peace!~

Diggin' it. Especially the screen you've used to keep your cubes from staying wet.

Have you used this system before? I'd be a little worried about roots dangling into the puddle left in the tray, causing rot.

Good luck with everything.

I'm thinkin' of making the jump over to a SOG set up in the near future and been wanting to grab a chair for one of these.

Nice set up! Cant wait for it to really get goin'.

I really like your setup, especially that floating raft cloner (thanks for the link, *edit, gave you K+).

Great SOG setup, I'll subscribe to this thread for sure.

Reallly nice work you are doing there IAO

Keep them growing

maybe a light diffuser like the super spreader might help get rid of that hot spot

NIce. I'll be watching this one. I am hoping to pop some POG beans in Jan looking for a nice male..

love your cloning technique to, i've never seen anyone do that before.

Air Pruning and Super Spreader

Air Pruning and Super Spreader

Thanks for the big ups! I never get to hear that while following rule #1 (broken now in a way, I suppose)

MarquisBlack said:

Especially the screen you've used to keep your cubes from staying wet.

Have you used this system before? I'd be a little worried about roots dangling into the puddle left in the tray, causing rot.

Click to expand...

Yep, actually man I think you might have misunderstood the purpose of the screen. It's for air pruning the roots during veg. What it does is allow the vertical roots that grow beyond the cube to dry out and die, forcing the roots to grow laterally and more evenly and fully fill the rockwool cube. This way the cube is full of roots by the time you throw it in flowering and less roots grow beyond and below the cube onto the F&D tray, which is not the happiest place for roots to be.
I allow my air pruning tray to drain fully so that the roots don't dangle into water. They just dangle in open air and die off. Kinda like those magic pots or whatever they're called. (actually that setup, my first time, allowed the screen to sag and push down on the center of the tray, which kept it from draining properly. Kinda f-ed the whole thing up for a couple plants. Oh well!)
Also, actually I am noticing that my roots that have grown out of the cubes in flowering and sit on the tray stay alive and happy if they are in standing water. See I think there is enough O2 in the water between floods that it allows them to live, especially given the fact that the plant has other roots all throughout rockwool that keep the whole shebang alive.
I was thinking about doing a tutorial on setting up an air pruning veg system for SOG applications, but I am probably not going to bother air pruning these 6" cubes, so it might not happen for a while/at all.
It's a simple concept though:
Attach screen ~1.5" above tray, drill tray sides, zip tie into place. Place a few spacers under the screen because it WILL sag if not. Try to give a steep slope angle to allow full drainage, then veg as usual. You will have to set your flood depth a bit higher than usual, too. I like to flood as high up on the cubes as I can to avoid salts buildup near the top of the cube. (click for cool thread about rockwool and pH testing)

opt1c said:

maybe a light diffuser like the super spreader might help get rid of that hot spot

Click to expand...

Man it's funny you mention that because I have been looking into those. I was thinking about grabbing an Adjust-A-Wing and a Super Spreader, but I don't feel fully confident about them yet. Scares me a little to put something under my bulb lol, but I have heard some amazing things! Good footprint even when very close to canopy and cool to touch with a 1k I mean HELL YEA!
You have any good links for me to check out regarding that? I'll have to do some forum searching.

Adios!

By the way: all of the transplants are looking happy and don't need as much TLC at about 18 hrs since transplant, so I think I waited long enough for the roots to be ready. Last time I transplanted the majority too early, and they were a PITA to maintain for a day or so. Then I planted 6 more a couple days later that had been in the bubble cloner with veg nutes and they were almost effortless. Just gotta make sure they are ready before transplanting them into the unfamiliar habitat of shredded rock glass shit, I suppose.
Now I've gotta get this DWC mom (and the others) kickin' so that I'll have another batch of clones in a couple weeks! Yikes!

ItsAllOver said:

Yep, actually man I think you might have misunderstood the purpose of the screen. It's for air pruning the roots during veg. What it does is allow the vertical roots that grow beyond the cube to dry out and die, forcing the roots to grow laterally and more evenly and fully fill the rockwool cube.

Click to expand...

Ohhhh... Crafty...

October 22 flowering pics - October 23 vegging pics

October 22 flowering pics - October 23 vegging pics

Here are some shots of my flowering plants as of yesterday, October 22
Everything is looking good, but those plants in the hot spot are getting blasted by light. I am going to bite the bullet and let them get burned a bit now, because soon I'll be rotating the tray 90 degrees to allow the second tray to be slid in. These plants will no longer be in the hot spot. Because they are so tall, I will be rotating the tray 180 degrees every week until the end of flowering to make sure the side plants on both sides get lit. Otherwise the tall ones would shade the outside plants. ERGH! (I learned how to easily thumbnail my images! YAY!)

Plants at day 22:








I don't thinking I'll be running a 1kW anymore, because I don't like this hot spot business. I think I can get much better light coverage with two 600W setups. I think that the benefits will not come simply from the increased total wattage, but that the more even coverage would be the real winner here. Also, 600W bulbs apparently are the most efficient based on lumens/watt. My grow tent is about 5'x5', so I have the space to run more lights, so I'm going back to the lights I've run in the past soon... I am working my ass off these days to maintain the bills, etc. let alone expansions of my garden.

And here are some pics of the veg tent:




That DWC mom (1 mo since transplant) has just had roots drop into the nutrient solution, and is growing at an extreme pace. This is the way to keep your working moms. I'm thinking about keeping a couple moms in soil for longevity, because they basically can be kept in stasis and will never die, whereas a power outage can crush my entire supply of meds if I rely on a DWC mother plant.

So yea I'm getting very pumped right now about my garden. I'm almost to the point where the flowering tent will be full, and I'll get to learn whether or not this staggered business makes any sense. I like to be able to cater light height to the growth stage, which is impossible with a staggered setup in one grow area.
I'm thinking I might just skip a harvest and switch to having all flowering in a given tent at the same stage. Then I'll expand to having two tents, each running 1200W flip-flopped and on a 5wk perpetual schedule. It will suck to miss a harvest to get started, but that's really the only option. If I had the $$ I would buy the equipment and set it up now. Not feasible today.

Hope all of you are well!

nice grow man, and good idea on the future plans!

Ive got a 4.6x4.6 and I currently have a 400 and 600hps.. im swappin out the 400 for another 600 to have 1200 watts in there.
To accomplish 2lbs with a good strain and 1200 watts how many clones do u think i need(10 days or less veg)? 25-30?

cant wait to see some more pics man!

My boy routinely gets ~2 lbs with a 1kW in 4x4 hydrohut. He runs 6" rockwool cubes, 32 per 4x4 tray. Says they end up 18-24 inches tall. I think he vegges 10 daysish which is about 8 inches. He trims up to week 2-3 like me for pretty much the lollipop effect. Only difference is that I run higher density and smaller size at flip. I'm trying the 6" cube deal to see how that goes.
I'd bet u can get the weight you're looking for with the right strain. POG is great for quantity/quality, but there are many others out there.
Keep it real. More shots when there's anything cool to look at. They are starting to frost up more than I'm used to this early on. Even some on the fan leaves! That's awesome!

Nice i`m looking forward to see how frosty ur POG has gotten

opt1c said:

maybe a light diffuser like the super spreader might help get rid of that hot spot

Click to expand...

I was just thinking the same thing. Your stuff is looking great.

Peace,