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Seeking Critique on Vert Colosseum SOG concept.

Anti

Anti

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Veteran
Everything is in jars but I still have to finish manicuring about half of it. (23 full mason jars.) I had to get it in jars to keep it from over-drying. I had a bit of a family emergency that is keeping me tied up for a couple of days. As soon as I get the manicure finished I'll weigh it and post the final weights.
 
Anti

Anti

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Veteran
*** FINAL WEIGHTS ***

*** FINAL WEIGHTS ***

FINAL WEIGHTS​

Ok.

I don't quite know what to say about these results....

Final weight after a week in jars with all stems and trim removed:
 470.2g (16.49 oz) (1.03 lbs)

(Average of 6.71g per plant... not even half of my CFL cab per plant average.)

I'm .... flabbergasted. These nugs lost so much weight when they dried. I knew they weren't as fat and juicy as my CFL nugs, but I thought that it was possible that they were denser. But it's actually the opposite. These buds are a lot airier than my CFL cab nugs. They smell great and smoke great and get you high but it just doesn't have the density or bag appeal that I was expecting.

I'm going to ask HGO to take my sticky away at least until I get the kinks sorted and my GPW up to an acceptable level.

I am trying to treat this failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

I have learned that coco is not nearly as forgiving of ph fluctuation as light mix. I'm also thinking that I should've been watering more often.

Gonna get the table fixed in the next few days and we'll get another run going through soon and see what we can do to improve on this.

After the week I've had, the one thing that kept me going was hope that my final weights were going to make things ok, and now they've only made things worse. 0.58 gpw is NOWHERE close to where I thought I would be. But those are the honest numbers.

I'm looking for any and all advice as to why things turned out this way.

Sorry to let you guys down.
 
Anti

Anti

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Veteran
Current ideas for possible upgrades:

  • Adding yo-yo light mover so that existing lights travel up and down a foot or so.
  • Adding 600w HPS in the center of cab OR Replacing the 400w bulbs with 600w bulbs
  • Getting E&F fittings remounted and eliminating leaks so that table can be flooded for next round
  • Buy an actual PH pen (suggestions wanted!)
  • Shorten table by 6" or so to allow more headroom for top tier.
 
L

LouDog420

Sorry you're not satisfied, but .58 gpw for a new system on the first run is nothing to frown at my man! I'm sure your attitude will help your yield out next round ;)

Kinda curious how far off the individual plant averages were between your CFL buds and the mini colli...


In the meantime, I say bigger pots to fill the extra space where you're using empty pots as spacers. Getting that and your watering system worked out, you'll be rocking and rolling anti :tiphat:

Cheers brother, keep on dialin' :wave:
 
G

greenmatter

don't kick yourself in the ass so hard brother ...... that was a kick ass grow from planning to fiskars! first run with a new system aint gonna be your opus. dial ......

smoke some of that and tell us about the next run !!!!
 
HushemFlupskluk

HushemFlupskluk

Member
Hey man!

Congrats on the result. To bad you are a bit dissapointed but IMO it is a nice result.

Be carefull with the light moving plans please. Perhaps static bulbs setup will take the danger of the moving parts away.

On the PH pen I would like to notify that a good dirt has a ph-buffer. In my place I could use water from the drain (ph ~7). However that buffer does not last forever.

Good luck with working on the improvements and environmental thingies!
 
prowler

prowler

Member
Look m8...Obviously you're a bit disappointed with the figures but in no way should this thread be un-stickied. We're all confident that with next round you'll pump the figures up and this is the most important reason there is stickies - dream, execute, be disappointed, learn, tweak, win. This way you can catch the whole process that will get you where you want to be and flourishing topic in here takes care of your worries. You've documented it all to here and in future you just have to take a peek what you did back then.

So stop whining - roll your sleeves and get back to work! Next one...Man you're going to kill it!

Good luck m8!
 
StealthDragon

StealthDragon

Recovering UO addict.
Veteran
I still think it's an awesome run, cabinet, design, thread..etc.

I'd just run hps next time...I'd do that before upping to 600w or a 3rd bulb.

...also the best yields I've had in coco were when I water alot...sometimes twice a day...not even really allowing the top layer to dry. Ironically it was also my first coco plant, so I spent much more time on it.

Keep yer head up bud, I'm sure this hasn't lessened anyone's opinion of you.


* oh and on the ph meter- I use super cheapo milwakee yellow ones...30$ If you keep em clean and calibrated they work great. I actually just pulled 2 out of storage (dry) after 8+ months and after cleaning and recalibrating they're still accurate.
 
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B

B. Self Reliant

Sorry you didn't yield what you thought you would. For the record though, I think this was a very successful grow! It's a new setup, you needed your genetics to behave slightly differently than you did in your CFL cab, and you were using coco, so there were a lot of new variables you were working with.

Coco shows mistakes very quickly, but it also bounces back quickly. Ph control is a must with coco. I have two different Ph meters. One is hand held & one mounts on the wall and has probes that constantly hang in the water. They're both made by Hanna, but the wall mount model is much,much better. The probe needs to sit in the water for a bit (preferably over night) to get a solid reading, so the wand shaped one is kid of a joke since you just dip it for a second then read it. Anyways, that should help quite a bit, especially if you get the ebb & flow system going.

Also container size. I use the deep-pots that are meant for trees too. I don't know how much you've played around with the different sizes, but in my own experiments the size/shape of the containers I chose made a huge difference. Even when only increasing or decreasing a small amount. Maybe try and go a size larger? I understand that using a smaller container is one way to control the end height of the plants, but that way can also limit your potential. Maybe regulate the size of the plants by meticulously dictating veg time instead. It's harder but the plants will use that extra medium to their advantage!

Again, overall I think your grow was a smashing success. Thanks for sharing & I hope your next round goes as you plan!
 
sublimesmoker

sublimesmoker

Member
Im with everybody else anti, load that bitch back up, get it flooding and draining proper, fill all the gaps with plants or larger containers and start this awsome show back up for us and show us what it can do.
 
bobblehead

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
yeah bro what are you talking about un-stickied? It's like going vert... You don't revert.
What you have to do now, is come back even stronger on the next run. You should try to be the second guy with 2 threads stickied. ;)

On my first version of bobblepods, I pulled .5gpw for the first harvest. It wasn't until I came back on the third try, with some major modifications, that I hit 1gpw. After 1gpw, the sky is the limit.

Anti said:

I have learned that coco is not nearly as forgiving of ph fluctuation as light mix. I'm also thinking that I should've been watering more often.

Gonna get the table fixed in the next few days and we'll get another run going through soon and see what we can do to improve on this.

After the week I've had, the one thing that kept me going was hope that my final weights were going to make things ok, and now they've only made things worse. 0.58 gpw is NOWHERE close to where I thought I would be. But those are the honest numbers.

I'm looking for any and all advice as to why things turned out this way.

Sorry to let you guys down.​
Click to expand...


By no means was this grow a failure. Every harvest is a successful harvest. Every grow you do that doesn't land you in police custody, is a successful grow.

Now, that being said... Yeah, you have to water constantly in coco. I know you're setting up for a flood table... but would you consider running drip lines to each and every pot, and run drain to waste? Your plants will thank you, I promise. HGO and I both water our coco plants several times during lights on, and stop a few hours before lights off. They don't need water at night. At night they release it.

I would redo the lower tier... and make it the same size as the top... Maybe work on that while the next round is already flowering, idk how long it takes you to build a tier. Those plants don't need you to bring them to the light, they need to be put as far away from the light as possible, so they can grow into it. Then you have a bunch of top colas where your root zone used to be.

Don't play around with light movers... If you designed your room right, you don't need them. Period. Tree growing is another story.​
 
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Marlo

Marlo

Seedsweeper
ICMag Donor
Veteran
bobblehead said:
Every harvest is a successful harvest. Every grow you do that doesn't land you in police custody, is a successful grow.
Click to expand...

Amen to that!



.58 is not bad at all for a 1st run with a new system. Your CFL nugs came from a cab that you had dialed in, so its not a fair comparison. Not to mention, you're the pioneer of this setup. No history of other growers using this setup to take notes from. With the 1st run experience under your belt, and all the suggestions your getting, I'm pretty sure your gpw will improve by abt 25% or more with each grow. You'll be +1 gpw in no time.


As for suggestions, the same thing happened to me with my 1st vert grows. Larf everywhere. The biggest changes I made was to lower plant #'s. 4oow light intensity is only but so much. I cut down my plant #'s and gave some of the girls a bit of elbow room. I found the congestion to be counterproductive. (my grow was far more congested than yours tho) I started trimming and training more liberally and things improved. Keeping the buds in the sweet spot is very important, and the sweet spot for a 4oo is pretty small.
Was there a noticeable difference in the buds that were closer to the bulbs? Was there more larf in the corners?


I can tell you tho...everything changed once I put the 600's in. 50% more light intensity in the same space made all the difference. And although I also was also well below my expected results, these are still the chunkiest fattest nugs I've ever had. 1 gpw is not easy to achieve, regardless of what we might read on these boards :).

Staying tuned for the 2nd run! Good luck bro


:tiphat:
 
B

B. Self Reliant

Marlo said:
.58 is not bad at all for a 1st run with a new system. Your CFL nugs came from a cab that you had dialed in, so its not a fair comparison. . . . . . everything changed once I put the 600's in. 50% more light intensity in the same space made all the difference.
Click to expand...

Gospel. First rounds are such poor indicators of what a garden is capable of.

And 600's are a game changer, so if you switch out to 600's you'll see huge improvements but also have new challenges to sort out.
 
Crusader Rabbit

Crusader Rabbit

Active member
Veteran
This thread is an encyclopedia of innovation and creative design, not to mention a wonderful reflection upon the cooperative efforts of this community. It should not be un-stickied. It is the important first chapter in micro colosseum design.


bobblehead said:
HGO and I both water our coco plants several times during lights off, and stop a few hours before lights on. They don't need water at night. At night they release it.
Click to expand...


Bobble, did you mean to say "... several times during lights on and stop a few hours before lights off."?
 
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