600W 4x4 Coco Jack Flash & Lemon Skunk run

So I think my last run was in March of 2012 - Gets awfully hot up there in the summer, I'm not sure if I'll try to run anything in to June or not. Anyway, I lost all of my plants again as a result of summer heat (OGKxChocolope and ECSD). I still miss the ECSD - had her with me for like 5 years and everyone including myself loved her. I always run coco with blumats & maxibloom KISS formula for past several years.

Previous Runs (I only run Coco!):
850w Master Kush - ECSD - LA Confidential, Feb '10
850w ECSD - LA Confidential, Apr '10
600w Master Kush - ECSD - LA Confidential - Sour Grapes, Oct '10
1200w ECSD - Sour Grapes Vertical Hoopty Madness, Feb '11
600w OGKxChocolope - ECSD (and detailed setup pix), Mar '12
(and of course a few runs here and there that weren't documented - I've made some changes to the setup but most of the details in last link are still how I roll)

So moving on, got some cuts from a friend in October and let em veg enormously, took a bunch of cuts off those, threw three bushes in the oven on the 13th of December, meaning today is their 49th day in flower. I'm sure the Jack Flash would like to go to 70 or something days but I'm trying to take em all down at once and start up a new run of SIX that same day. Based on the group shot, 4 would probably have been a good number for full coverage but we'll see how six works out. I used my ghetto bamboo stake + plastic screen panels again this run but will be using Marlo style PVC props as pictured. I think my math was kinda screwy, six 2 ft wide x 3 ft tall screens are going to be a challenge to throw in a 4x4 tent hah. Haven't even blazed in like 4 months, just a brain fart.

I'll update this thread with a few more pics of this run and harvest weights, this thread is mainly to document the upcoming run in ~2 weeks. Excited to have a better screen setup though, my current upper buds are leaning so far in and the screens are so wobbly that the lower bud sites are shaded.

1st. lookin good . i miss my blumats.

Thanks man. I'd be dead without the blumats. I actually didn't find them (had "cleaned" a few months ago and they disappeared) until about maybe 3 weeks ago. Had been hand watering and slacking, they drooped a few times Now I can just do as I used to, and since my reservoir has a hose off of it with valve, fill up watering can and hit veg plants. EZ since I run the same nute from start to finish and try to hand water my 2 or 3 kool bloom blasts for my flowering girls.

Just ordered 2 x 600w dimmable/switchable digital ballasts and a Win100 plug-in thermostat. We'll see if I can't step it up for my run that should go mid feb to mid april. I can hear my stupid magnetic ballast buzzing away right now and it's driving me nuts. I actually have two 600w magnetics, a 250w MH, and two or three 150w HPS. Gonna be a heavy ass box that I store all my old gear in haha. Might see if a friend wants it for cheap. Anyway, excited to join the digital bandwagon and I guess if heat is too much I can figure out a way to pull cool air in to the flowering tent only during lights on. Love winter And I guess I can also dim both the bulbs too.

Hey VA, thanks for sharing! I have really been enjoying your threads. I had a few questions for you if you do not mind. First off how are your temperatures with the bare bulb in the 4x4 tent? Have you had any light bleaching? I did not see any in your pictures. Do you think you could get both you 600's in there bare? Also in your previous thread you said your first bloom boost was at day 30, do you skip the boost at day 15? Thanks again!

So you just had the three plants in there? How much u pull of em?

TOKA - I can't remember the last time I ran just three and I have a ton of wasted space around the plants (4 would have been perfect if I had 4 this size) - I will post harvest #s when done but I think the lemon skunk is gonna drag it down.

TuckerJ - I kinda spaced on the first kool bloom boost. There are plenty of people just running maxibloom from start to finish without kool bloom so I'm not sweating it too much. No light bleaching ever to my knowledge, it's not really something I look for as I know many people are running their plants as close to the light as possible, which with adequate cooling is much closer than I'm running. Temp is like maybe 6 degrees above ambient and I try to keep the entire room the tent is in at 70-72. It's gonna be tough with two 600's but I have my extraction fan on low and I plan to get a little fancier with outdoor air being brought in once I get my digital thermostat (WIN100 model). I'm also going to hopefully have plants a little further back from the light for this next run to try and fit six in there, if anything I think I'll have a better chance of an improved harvest eliminating upper buds shading the lower parts of the plant via new screens.

Day 55 Update
Jack Flashes are insane, the amount of good colas I got is really surprising and unfortunately I think the Lemon Skunk is gonna drag the entire harvest down, it's just punier. It may be a training and pruning issue as this is the first time I've run either plant. I have less lemon skunks ready to flower anyway so I'll have maybe 4 jacks and 2 lemon skunks in the future.

Really trying to take this round down ASAP and started with 1/3rd strength nutes today to ween em off. I never get down to pure water it seems anyway, due to timing, and I don't want to shock the plants with straight water. I've never had any of the common issues associated with a crappy flush so it should be good. Based on the latest pics I'm thinking everyone needs closer to two weeks but I've timed out my upcoming grow to the cooler outdoor temperatures and need to get on it stat! I hate this 5 picture upload limit dangit!

Sorry for a boring text only update. I'll take some pics for my upcoming update (which will include harvest pics - scheduled to take em down on Monday, 61 days)

I made some bizarre bottom lamp holder out of PVC pipe similar to what Ichebod Crane did (yea I can't fuckin spell that). It's pretty nifty, zip tied the ever loving shit out of it because I couldn't manage to find any of my drill bits :| This was just a test run to see what temps are at.

I got my LUX brand WIN100 model digital thermostat. Bee's knees fellows. Took out the four screws holding it together and saw that the temperature sensor (only two inches long) connects to circuit board with spade connectors. MONEY. Took an old lamp cord and wired that sucker up so I have 5 feet between probe and unit. Why the hell didn't they do this from the factory!? It's still dead accurate, a few beer brewing guys did the same thing.

OK moving on, my two cheapo $115 Apollo Horticulture ballasts are KICKING ASS. I've never seen my bulbs so bright, and with two of em - holy shit. Threw the thermostat thing in there too, so right now i'm listening to the sweet music of my intake fan pulling in outdoor air to keep things civil. The thermostat says it's 77*, but my 5 year old crapola $10 walmart thermometer with remote probe says it's 82* on the other side of tent, suspended in the leaves of another plant. I trust the new thermostat personally, but either way - those temps are totally doable at 1200w in a 4x4 and I should be able to rock it for another 70 days before night time temps are too high in summer.

Anyway, Monday - chop pics. After I chop and before I trim, I'll probably rearrange upstairs and throw new plants in, I want this shit seamless-every day counts when spring and summer is coming.

nice racks

those photos are dead sexy, i wish i could take photos that looked that good. They look like pro photos taken to sell seeds.
at risk of being a bit contraversial, whats your take / history on blumats?
im looking for people that have had nothing but success to help me fine tune mine.

Thanks Avinash, can't wait to put em to use I have no freaking idea how i'm going to train plants in to the screen since I already transplanted my next round several days ago and the plants are over 2 feet tall... Overveg much? Hah.

Dave, thanks man - I take like 100 pics every time I do a shoot and only get a few keepers, hands start shaking a lot too hah. Cameras aren't even that great, a newish Canon that was like $150 (now probably $100, was about a year ago) and the last round of pics was taken with a many year old Fuji that's really only great because it has a ridiculous optical zoom (obviously not used for my shoots, really better at outdoor scenery shootin'). Just press the macro flower button on your cam and turn flash on and go to town.

Blumats - I'd never grow without em. I was worried that they were toast after sitting dry for over a year in a closet, I hadn't rinsed them when I put em in to storage and I kinda figured the previous nutrients had maybe clogged the cone or whatever but that wasn't the case (I'm not even sure if that happens, it was just a worry of mine).

I haven't had any runaways this round - the initial setup I just put all the blumats in a big pot of water and let them soak (under water). Then i open the caps and let them fill underwater until bubbles stop coming up, screw cap back on, good to go. I water til I have minor runoff and then bore a hole in my coco to jam the blumat into.

I then connect everything and turn the knobs on the blumats until they have a clinging drip, and then usually the SLIGHTEST bit tighter since I don't want my pots to be 100% waterlogged all the time like they are after watering to runoff. Check em every few days, look at the top of the coco/medium to see if it's damp, I prefer it when the top coco is maybe 75% dark, meaning they're not entirely soaked. Works perfect.

nice, grow.