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The hobby grow aka the torture chamber...Vertical/3x3/400w/Coco, goal = 450g/cycle...

jd4083

Active member
Veteran
I've been out of commission for quite some time now for security reasons, but even though I've called it quits on the larger-scale gardens, I still need a head stash...right? Growing's in my blood and I find it difficult to imagine imagine a life without this plant, so better for me to mitigate the risks and stick to something real small instead of trying to go "cold turkey," as it were. In any case, here's the important stuff:

-Strain is a local cross of the Afghani #1 (male, smells just like the "coffee pheno" we have around...I have pics of that particular strain in its final form on this forum somewhere, as an fyi) and the local rendition of NL#5...from what I have seen, it is perhaps the largest yielding strain I have ever personally put eyes on in my entire life. The person who gifted me the cut told me that knowing what I know and given my growing style, I should be "flabbergasted" (yes, they used that word) with anything less than a quap per plant with this strain. He's not the type to use hyperbole, so I'm excited to see what I can pull off with this tiny little space.

As for next run, I haven't quite decided...however, Mosca's C-99 BX1 is looking like a solid choice for my purposes. I typically like to mono-crop (that is, run one particular strain/phenotype in a given area in order to maximize uniformity and therefore yield and overall quality), but I will likely be expanding the space to include an additional 400w so I can run some of my favorite longer-flowering sativa-dom stuff...more on that later. ;)

-400w Hortilux for flower, bare bulb, hanging straight down the middle of the plants vertically. It's cold enough for the bulb to operate without a fan pointing up at it as I typically would for a vertical setup, but come spring/summertime I will need to throw that back in there. Plants are vegged for 3 weeks from rooted clone before flip...for most varieties, I almost always wait until I see pre-flowers indicating sexual maturity regardless of whether that takes 3 weeks or 5 weeks. Obviously this takes considerably longer than normal from seed rather than clone.

-Medium is Sunshine Pro Just Coir, fed with nothing but tap water and Canna A + B at 15ml/gal. I also hit nearly everything with a moderate to heavy dose of Rhizotonic (20ml/gal - 50ml/gal) up to two or three times between feedings until the 3rd week, but that's all.

-The grow is located in a ~3' x 3' master shower in one of my homes with the exhaust plumbed into the dryer exhaust located nearby.

-The goal here is maximum yield with respect to quality and the ability to tear everything down and dispose of it within 10 to 15 minutes. Doing so required a bit of jury-rigging (seen in the pictures later), but as they say...better safe than sorry.

-As the title states, I am looking to get at least a pound per cycle with 4 plants in 3 gallon pots. Veg will be 3 weeks from rooted clone (as mentioned above), up to 4 weeks depending on whatever strain I choose to throw in there in the future. In the interest of full disclosure, the plants currently in the space vegged for about 5 weeks before going to the 12/12 cycle on 12/12/2011 (clever, I know :laughing: ), so I would expect to reach my mark even easier this first go-round.

-As this is a "torture chamber" grow (and if you know me at all, you know I'm fond of those :tiphat:) I have subjected most of these plants to some rough shit in order to test the stability of the genetics and satisfy my morbid curiosity. Every plant was FIMed, and each one was trained and/or supercropped in a slightly different way so that I could observe the minute differences in the end result. Additionally, I defoliate very heavily, especially after they were nearing the end of the stretch...but more on that here in a little while.

I will add more to this as I go, and I will upload some photos in just a couple of hours when the lights come on. As of today (12/24), plants have been flipped for 12 days. I expect to flower for another 7 to 8 weeks, perhaps more, although my friend claims they can be taken far earlier...we'll see. To be clear, my goal for yield here is no less than 100 grams per plant, although I am hoping for up to 150g+ if all goes to spec. Although I only have 3 plants flowering in the space currently, it really requires 4 plants to maximize efficiency, so I recently threw a highland mexi cross in there that I had running from seed to sex it. If it's female, it'll stay, and if it's male and I think it's worth a shit, I'll segregate it to another room until I can take the pollen.


More to come...very soon.
 

jd4083

Active member
Veteran
I'll have to label these later...been a long day...happy holidays everybody...


First up, a few pics of the girls in their natural habitat. See what I mean about jury rigging? Ignore the cheap hygrometer/thermometer, thing hasn't worked for the better part of a month and I'm too lazy to replace it. The temp, however, actually is accurate...getting a bit cold in there for the ladies, may have to throw a small space heater in there with 'em to play it safe.

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Here's the first lady...as you can see, this one has only been moderately defoliated and then supercropped quite aggressively throughout its life up until the first week of flower or so, but I have done very little training as I wanted to wait until stretch was totally over to tie everything down. This can be an issue at times (doing it so late in the game, that is), but thankfully the structure of this plant should make that easy this go-round.

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#2...this one was defoliated the heaviest, way up the main branches. I will also aggressively defoliate the flowers on this one, as I'm curious to see what that will do especially with this strain. Notice that this one and the preceding plant have considerably more developed budsites compared to the third one (below), which has not been defoliated since the flip at all and has a ton of bud sites being blocked by the light on account of all of the big fans that are still attached...as these are all the same pheno (obviously, as they're from clone), that may be food for thought...

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And here is girl #3...this one has not been defoliated since a couple of weeks before they were flipped, and is suffering a bit as a result of it. As you can see from a couple of the pics, this one loses a few large fans to bulb burns every time she is rotated simply because of how unruly the plant is with all of the fans attached and no training as of yet. This current grow doubles as a layman's experiment to test the benefits of defoliation with this new strain, this plant being the "control" so to speak. I have not decided whether I should defoliate it after the stretch or continue the "experiment" and allow it to flower without being messed with. I think it is very clear that yield will suffer because of the structure of the plant and how large the main fans are, and it would be an awful big waste to let this one go without at least a bit of cleaning up and tying down. Decisions, decisions...

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jd4083

Active member
Veteran
I'm digging this cross...great structure and internode spacing for a vertical grow but with very little stretch...1.5x, maybe close to 2x when all is said and done. Based on what I've seen from my friend's garden and how it looks at the moment I'm pretty confident that I'll meet my qp/plant goal this time around and feel like with early training and normal defoliation along with a good screen to anchor them to I could probably push 5-6 zips a piece. Not to count my chickens before they hatch, of course. :tiphat:
 
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jd4083

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Veteran
Hope everyone had a good (and safe) New Year's...here's some text to go along with the photos...

General notes: 2 of the 3 got a bit dry and were real close to locking out, but I caught 'em in time...still, they look a bit rough in these pics. Watered to ~20% runoff after the photos and they have sprung back already.

I'm quite impressed with how frosty these already are at less than 2 weeks from the flip (and technically only about a week into "actual flowering")...not to mention the size of the flowers. I guess my buddy wasn't bullshitting about the yield...we'll find out soon enough....


Here are some updated shots of the one that I had done very little defoliation and training with and was thinking about leaving like that...well, I decided against it. Just couldn't justify the marked loss in yield that my inaction would have resulted in with this plant. Just don't have the wattage or the plant number currently to take any chances, I need to make sure I meet or exceed my goal.


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Look closely and you can see evidence of wrongdoing hanging out of my pup's mouth... :laughing:

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Remember that bit about how this is a "torture chamber"? Well....I wasn't kidding. :p Sometimes I get a little heavy-handed, and since my training was a bit late this run, I nearly lost a couple of gnarly branches in the process. Interestingly enough, the branch in this photo is the largest and most developed out of every branch on every plant. Amazing how these bastards spring back...

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More to come soon... :wave:
 

jd4083

Active member
Veteran
How tall do you think you'll run them to achieve the yield you're looking to get?

Not 100% sure yet. I've got a lot of vertical space but am limited in the horizontal plane, so we'll see where it goes I reckon. Haven't measured any of the three but the tallest is probably just under 3 feet tall from the top of the pot. :tiphat:

Good luck i'll be watching this one

:thank you: I'll try not to disappoint.
 

jd4083

Active member
Veteran
No pics for now, figure I'll wait another few days for the 1 month mark before I bore ya'll with a slew of photos again. However, came to the realization after a couple of days trying to place the scent that this plant absolutely reeks of watermelon. There are sharp, pungent, skunky undertones (no doubt from the Afghan) but the major smell when rubbing a flower is distinctly watermelon. Reminds me a lot of the smell you get from a lot of highland mexican varieties, especially the Oaxacan...the fresh minty/almost fruity smell. thought it was interesting anyways...more to come soon
 

jd4083

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Hey, meant to ask before...if any mod happens to come across this thread, would you mind moving this to the vertical forum? I originally intended to place it there and had a bit of a cannabis-induced brain fart...much obliged...
 

jd4083

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Veteran
@ 4 weeks...

@ 4 weeks...

not too shabby considering how little time I've spent on them the last week...the "other girl" aka the wifey has been taking up a good bit... haha

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jd4083

Active member
Veteran
Thoughts @ the start of week #5...


1.) I over-vegged the shit out of these without really intending to. I feel like I will very quickly reach the point of diminishing returns once these fill in a bit more. Some of these branches are bigger in circumference than a Sharpie, a bit unnecessary for this rinky-dink little 400w.

2.) Digging this strain so far. Takes everything I throw at it...good bad and the ugly...and fucking laughs about it. Great "torture chamber" genetics for a test run like this for sure. Stretch was very manageable and I have the feeling that if I were to run these again (which may end up happening), if I got on the training a bit earlier these would have an ideal structure for a small bulb vert, or the 800w vert that this will be after I chop these ladies down. throwing another 400w in the second these come down, a CMH from Advanced Tech...(Phillips brand if I recall)...then I get to figure out how I'm going to frame that shower out to comfortably and securely accommodate an additional 4-3 gal pots full of coco.

3.) Still smelling nothing but fresh watermelons...quite a nice scent, actually. Interesting, as I've never come across anything quite this distinctly melon-esque at any point up until now, and I've worked pretty extensively with the strains in this cross. Definitely had some similar smells from the NL#5 (my favorite was the minty pheno I had for a long time, reminded me a lot of the smell my favorite H.O.G. pheno had), but nothing quite this strong in one category. Haven't really smelled any skunky funk peaking through yet either, nor have I caught a whiff of the extremely strong coffee odor and flavor from the male in the cross. Would be curious to know what the other phenos were like when this one in particular was selected, bet it was quite an interesting array.

4.) I think I'm still on track for an avg. of 100-150g per plant, and my total goal for yield is still at least 1/4lb avg. per plant, so looking for 12 ounces total. Going to push at least 2 of the 3 as late as I can to compare yields (and quality, of course) but I believe I may chop one of these down right around 8 weeks, depending on how it's looking...need a slightly early cut for my own head, can't be getting melted into my couch, too much to do.

More to come soon... :tiphat: more photos at week 5
 
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jd4083

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Will be taking some photos at the end of week 5 tonight when the lights come on...humidity has been pretty steadily at 60-65% this last week or so and it's only going to get worse, so I'm clearly going to need to throw a dehuey in there... time to go dig my old one out. Guess I wasn't really thinking about the implications of growing in a shower in regards to RH. Oh well, still early enough that it won't be an issue, and despite the high humidity these ladies are absurdly greasy and absolutely covered in trichs.
 

jd4083

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Veteran
General notes at day 35...

1.) Lockout (or rather, salt buildup) issues continue to loom. I have been a bit negligent these last few days once again and the girls are starting to pay for it. They're still pumping out calyxes and resin but I think it's clear from the bright purple stems and curling leaves that I need to be a lot more careful about making sure the coco stays plenty well soaked. Also may be seeing the start of a nitrogen issue as the bud-to-calyx ratio and appearance of the colas seems to have changed considerably overnight (reminds me of ECSD, may be visible in one of the pics, very dark, glossy, curled-down leaves), and I'm pretty sure that isn't the genetics, although I will check with my buddy tomorrow to be sure.

2.) Humidity has gone from average of 65% in the last week to 37% and holding as of right now. Gonna try my best to knock it down another 10% in the next couple of days with an additional dehuey or some skillful repositioning (or both).

3.) Temps remaining steady at 63-66 degrees lights off, 74-76 degrees lights on. Haven't had any more gnarly bud-bulb-burning action recently, so other than the damage I have already caused, we're looking good in all other regards.

4.) More to come later, the girl is giving me death stares from the couch and I think it's time to get off of the computer. Oh, and the pics are kinda out of order once again, sorry folks.

Until next time...

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jd4083

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Veteran
Oh, and one more small victory...RH was holding at around 65% up until last night, threw the dehuey in there, and now it has held steady at 20% on the dot overnight. Very happy to see that...almost might need to worry about it getting TOO dry now...good problem to have though, especially given the circumstances... :tiphat: Thinking that the high RH may have had something to do with the issue that I first thought was a nitrogen toxicity problem...we'll see in a couple of days.
 
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jd4083

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Veteran
Here are some similar "time lapse" photo sequences of the other two girls from days 12/19/28/35.....taking photos on a weekly basis has always helped me with training and just in general as well...good to have another "perspective" other than just your own two eyes to identify problem areas and the like. :tiphat: hope everyone is well this afternoon...

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Hey JD, those are filling out nicely! also good news about getting your RH down, and in good timing. :wahey:

I really like the vert grows very efficient use of space
 

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