One of the greatest things about growing is that its not just about growing the plant, but growing the grower as well.
Think about your own personal journey. I’m sure like me you smile at the thought of your first grow, and even more thinking of the taste of that first hit from that first bud that YOU grew. You’ve come a long way baby! - even if you are just starting your second go round.
Once you get the bug, there is an inevitable force of evolution in both plants and planter. Scouring the net for information, wild ass engineering projects, and Casa DePot shopping expeditions drive the learning process towards better results.
And so it goes.
Let the Madness Begin!
I’ve never been a yield first kind of guy. For me its about finding unique individuals and then forming strategies to maximize their performance. Most extra large buds suffer from many problems - potency comes to mind first. Followed by bud rot and bag appeal.
So it was with some surprise that I found a plant that makes giant buds of top shelf quality. I’ve looked at hundreds of individuals over the years and this is the first giant that has all the qualities I desire, and more importantly, can be grown within the parameters of my methods. Doing the post chop math, I was even more amazed to see that it would be theoretically possible to do a 5lb run.
A pretty crazy number I’ve never come close to before. There is only so much light to go around and its almost heretical to think about trying to pull it off.
All I know is that the mere thought gave me the biggest shit eatin grin I’ve had in years!
Here’s the Plant:
It’s phenotype number 4 of Galactic Grape from Carpe Diem Seeds. To learn more and see more pix of this plant, follow the “Galactic Grape” link in my sig below.
Here’s the Methodology:
I’m going to flower 18 topped, pruned and trained clones in an AeroFlo 36. A 1,000 watt Hortilux HPS on a light rail will max out a 5’ by 6’ footprint. To learn more about the methods I use, please follow the “Grand Doggy Purps + AeroFlo Tips n Trix” link in my sig below.
Here’s the Challenge:
Produce 5 pounds of trimmed, dried bud from a run of Galactic Grape using every trick I know under a single 1,000 watt bulb. This works out to a GPW of 2.25.
Here’s the Plan:
I will start out at Day 0 bloom and take us through weekly updates for 70 days to chop. I will document with pix as well as publishing my daily data sheets as we go.
Caveats:
I’ve never done this before. The closest I’ve come is near 4 pounds at 60 oz with a GPW of around 1.75. In addition, I would normally do a shakedown run before committing a plant I’ve only grown once in test to a production run. But hey, this is supposed to be a challenge!
The unit will get a small amount of indirect splash light from other units in the room.
I may fail. At this moment in time I give myself 50/50 odds of meeting this goal. I didn’t get to this place in my journey without crashing and burning more than once.
---
I feel so fortunate to have found this plant that I thought doing this challenge would be a worthy tribute. I haven’t seen many grows that come close to these performance numbers, and certainly none as well documented as I intend to produce. I decided to do this as a grow-a-long to give me the extra incentive and pressure to do every little thing it will take to pull this off. I started this thread in the hydro forum because doing something like this could only be accomplished using hydro/aero. Method specific techniques and discussions should make it interesting for the hydro-head crew.
In the spirit of my personal challenge, I invite you to come along with me and explore the limits of mega growth.
-AK
Think about your own personal journey. I’m sure like me you smile at the thought of your first grow, and even more thinking of the taste of that first hit from that first bud that YOU grew. You’ve come a long way baby! - even if you are just starting your second go round.
Once you get the bug, there is an inevitable force of evolution in both plants and planter. Scouring the net for information, wild ass engineering projects, and Casa DePot shopping expeditions drive the learning process towards better results.
And so it goes.
Let the Madness Begin!
I’ve never been a yield first kind of guy. For me its about finding unique individuals and then forming strategies to maximize their performance. Most extra large buds suffer from many problems - potency comes to mind first. Followed by bud rot and bag appeal.
So it was with some surprise that I found a plant that makes giant buds of top shelf quality. I’ve looked at hundreds of individuals over the years and this is the first giant that has all the qualities I desire, and more importantly, can be grown within the parameters of my methods. Doing the post chop math, I was even more amazed to see that it would be theoretically possible to do a 5lb run.
A pretty crazy number I’ve never come close to before. There is only so much light to go around and its almost heretical to think about trying to pull it off.
All I know is that the mere thought gave me the biggest shit eatin grin I’ve had in years!
Here’s the Plant:
It’s phenotype number 4 of Galactic Grape from Carpe Diem Seeds. To learn more and see more pix of this plant, follow the “Galactic Grape” link in my sig below.
Here’s the Methodology:
I’m going to flower 18 topped, pruned and trained clones in an AeroFlo 36. A 1,000 watt Hortilux HPS on a light rail will max out a 5’ by 6’ footprint. To learn more about the methods I use, please follow the “Grand Doggy Purps + AeroFlo Tips n Trix” link in my sig below.
Here’s the Challenge:
Produce 5 pounds of trimmed, dried bud from a run of Galactic Grape using every trick I know under a single 1,000 watt bulb. This works out to a GPW of 2.25.
Here’s the Plan:
I will start out at Day 0 bloom and take us through weekly updates for 70 days to chop. I will document with pix as well as publishing my daily data sheets as we go.
Caveats:
I’ve never done this before. The closest I’ve come is near 4 pounds at 60 oz with a GPW of around 1.75. In addition, I would normally do a shakedown run before committing a plant I’ve only grown once in test to a production run. But hey, this is supposed to be a challenge!
The unit will get a small amount of indirect splash light from other units in the room.
I may fail. At this moment in time I give myself 50/50 odds of meeting this goal. I didn’t get to this place in my journey without crashing and burning more than once.
---
I feel so fortunate to have found this plant that I thought doing this challenge would be a worthy tribute. I haven’t seen many grows that come close to these performance numbers, and certainly none as well documented as I intend to produce. I decided to do this as a grow-a-long to give me the extra incentive and pressure to do every little thing it will take to pull this off. I started this thread in the hydro forum because doing something like this could only be accomplished using hydro/aero. Method specific techniques and discussions should make it interesting for the hydro-head crew.
In the spirit of my personal challenge, I invite you to come along with me and explore the limits of mega growth.
-AK
shot:
