Tbone's Slow Grow Show of Perpetual Madness

Hi Everybody!

I have been around and seen some things, promised to start a thread, you know the usual...

My show is pretty small... I run in two smaller boxes lit entirely with LED (Flower), and mostly LED with a few CFLs (Veg/Mom/Clone/Not Photo Period Flower). I run a perpetual setup with a plant or two flipping every week or two depending on how much is in the flower box, and what I have going on. This little setup has kept me in buds and whatnot pretty well, while only producing between 1.5-2.5oz (strain, plant count dependent) a month. I have had a few real winners, a few losers, and mostly a good time.

I run a custom soil mix, that I have been bottom watering for about a month and change. It is a pretty complete soil from a macro and micro nutrient perspective; with a mix of guano's, EWC, Azomite, Crab shell Meal, Dolomite Lime, Perlite, and rockwool cubes for aeration. I have used this same mix (roundabout) for going on 5+ years. It seems to work pretty well, although the rockwool cubes and the bottom watering are more of a new addition. I tend to treat this a bit like a ROLS bit and if the pot has only gone one or two rounds, I will direct plant my new clones in the pot after I have cut off the stem of the old plant.

I also run homemade fabric pots, which facilitate the bottom watering much better than the plastic pots I had been using. I sew them out of black felt, and have no real expectations that I would make them last any longer than one run.

My watering is with a minimally nuted mixture. In flower I use: Protekt, Mammoth P, Snow Storm Ultra, a bit of the GO Bio Bud, Mucha-Stash (calmag) and a really light Crystal Burst. In veg I run: Protekt, Mammoth P, and a very light GO Grow.

Everything seems to be happy as of late, and I will be getting some more pictures up, but for now here we go!


Veg/Mom/Clone/Not Photo Period Flower ^^


Plants in the bathtub getting ready for a jack up, defo, and preventative maintenance spray.


OG Bud...



Feel free to share, ask questions, yadda yadda yadda.

Cool.

How big are the boxes? How many watts? What strains do you run? From clone or seed?

Slow and low, that's the tempo.

Fabric pots are the way to go these days.

Hey Folks!! I must say I am glad to see you stop by!

blynx said:

How big are the boxes? How many watts? What strains do you run? From clone or seed?

Click to expand...

Veg:
An old Toshiba Perception phone system case from the 80's.

Nice, right ??!?!?

Plants, and tubs...

I was a total steal, as we were pitching it at work, and is a total tank!
It was my first box and was patterned after many of the PC grows I have seen here on the mag.
The grow space is around 14" deep x 20" wide x 30" tall (on the tall side).
She is powered by 4 9.5 watt LEDs and 2 ~13 watt CFLs (mostly because I am lazy and like the mixd spectrums)
There are two pancake exhaust filters with about 2.5" of carbon being driven by 1 - 12 volt, 1.35 amp, PC fans each.
I keep two other PC fans running inside to move the air around.
All of the fans run through a speed controller off of a PC power supply that is hard wired to a switch.

Flower:
A hand made plywood box...

Outside

Inside
18" deep x 30" wide x 28" high
Running 14 9.5 watt LEDs, she is bright...
This is actually like my fourth box and was built out of sheer need to grow, not so I had stuff to smoke, but so I had plants to tend to...
There is a 4" carbon filter on the inside, a 4" "wind god" fan running on a speed controller, with another 4" filter on the exhaust.
There has been no stink coming from this one...
There is a big tote that I whacked down in the bottom that I flood.

The whole flooding/Bottom watering is new...
It started as a need to leave them for a week, and has turned into more of an experiment in not hand watering ever again...

I run from both clone and seed. I run a tiny little two site bubble cloner in the veg box.
I just started a Blue Cheese (Dinafem?), a Tijuana (Blimburn), an Auto Pineapple Express (G13), and an Auto Original Amnesia (Dinafem)
I am currently running a few different OG x OG #18 beans, and Alice [Purple Dream (GDP) x Lemon Stomper (Hazeman)], UltraSour (THSeeds), and a White Widow (Can't remember...)

I tend to make cuts, run what I like for a bit, maybe make a cross, maybe move on...
I grow for me and Mrs. Tbone and to enjoy the plants, so I get to play with stuff and not worry about it much.

My seed collection is massive, and I will be listing it eventually... I mostly am obsessed with buying stuff I like, and then buying a bunch of stuff I have only heard of to get a pile of freebies.

ReikoX said:

Slow and low, that's the tempo.

Click to expand...

Glad to see you sir!

Soulrebel239 said:

Fabric pots are the way to go these days.

Click to expand...

Got the idea from Mr. Sparkle, and ran with it. His pots are WAY nicer, but I am only out $8 and I have enough fabric for a year or two.

More Pics, Just cause:

1 OG x OG #18

1 OG x OG #18, different shot...

1 OG x OG #18, whole plant

2 OG x OG #18 nug shot

Alice nug shot

Nice job Tbone. I can see how you pull that much, those ladies look nice and stacked.

Do you use anything for insulation/noise dampening? With the fans posted w/screws on the side, does that cause any humming/outside noise? Have you had to change out the carbon filter? In the 2nd pic in first post, is that the OG Bud in the bottom right by your finger? Have you been making your own crosses when males pop from seed? Last one... what's been the strain you've kept around the longest since starting that you just can't let go? Can't wait to see more.

Dr 4 four said:

Nice job Tbone. I can see how you pull that much, those ladies look nice and stacked.

Do you use anything for insulation/noise dampening? With the fans posted w/screws on the side, does that cause any humming/outside noise? Have you had to change out the carbon filter? In the 2nd pic in first post, is that the OG Bud in the bottom right by your finger? Have you been making your own crosses when males pop from seed? Last one... what's been the strain you've kept around the longest since starting that you just can't let go? Can't wait to see more.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words! The plants are doing well, and I really think the LEDS make a lot of the difference. They pump out the light in that tiny space.

The perception is lined with the shiney insulation, but I honestly believe it does more harm than good as far as keeping the heat inside. The flower box does not have any lining other than the white laminate that I used as a reflective material.

The flower box has a 195 CFM 4" fan on the back. It runs on a speed controller turned way down, but it still makes a fair bit of noise. I have the box oriented in the corner of the room, with the fan behind it, and the outside filter underneath. There is a pillow on top everything that pretty much kills the hum. The internal fans are actually hung from hooks. I usually put an eyehook in the fan, and hang them. This creates enough of an air gap on the back side of the fan to move some air around. The perception is actually a little louder, as the filters are a new addition. Originally it had 3 - 120MM fans in the back, and was quite quiet, but since I am now in an apartment it needed the stink killer. I had to change from the other fans to some higher output ones to drive the filters. Even vegging plants have a pretty distinct smell. There is a hum to both boxes, but it is no louder than a bathroom fan for them both combined.

I believe the one you are referring to is actually The 2 OG x The OG #18, but the pictures are a bit off on the timescale. The "OG Bud" is a bit misleading, as it is just a bud of OG, from GDP. I only really have a crappy pic of the whole OG plant. I have one last one I am going to flower out before I move on to the OG x OG #18.
Crappy Whole Plant Pic:



The crossing is a bit of a long story. I had started a couple seeds of Purple Dream by GDP. One of them was a male, that had a trident structure and smelled amazing. His sister was quite the yielder and I figured I would make a F1. I also hit; Moby Dick, Lemon Stomper, 2 different pheno's of Sweet Cheese, Purple Chem, and maybe one more that I am not remembering. This lead to me becoming totally addicted to making my own crosses, as these crosses all came out fire. Not too long after that I had to break my setup down an move in with my parents for a bit while I went through my divorce. This sucked on a lot of levels, least of which was the fact that I had to move home at 29 after moving out at 18... I had to give all of my flowering plants, vegging plants, and mom's to a close friend of mine. I also had him hold onto my seed collection. He popped almost all of my DNA or Reserva P. seeds, as well as a pair of OG seeds from GDP. One of the OGs was a boy, so he made a bunch of crosses with the pollen. I got seeds from every one of the crosses he made. There was also a power outage driven hermi of Silver LA. Basically a bunch of crazy crosses all around! I have been avoiding the regular seeds while I am still living in an apartment, as I have found I need more space to really breed.

The longest kept strain would have been Moby Dick. It was one of the first seeds I ever popped and the friend I mentioned above only recently lost his mom to weirdness... A strong honorable mention is Power Africa by seedsman. I had a durban leaning selection of this strain for the same period. The last PA came down last November from the outdoor season. I WILL be buying PA again. Moby on the otherhand; the PD x Moby cross has yielded some pretty crazy phenos so I haven't found a need to replace the whale.

Nice grow dude!

GeesenCacti said:

Nice grow dude!

Click to expand...

Thanks! Glad to see another joiner.



I will be throwing a good update out in another day or two...

I have been fighting with the whole watering setup. I need to get the arduino wrapped up and get the watering running based on wetness rather than straight up time. I have started running my pumps for the timed period when I notice there is a general dryness, but I feel like it needs to be dialed in a bit.

I have been moving plants around in a bid to try and keep some things drier than others in the perception, as a pot with a pair of autos is staying too wet for my and their liking. The seeds I planted in the cups, as per my previous seed starting protocol, are much happier... Lesson learned there.

Pictures in the next post...

Here is the cutting of the OG x The OG# 18 #2 (O.C. [Orange Cup as it was in an orange cup initially...])

Pre Trim. The background was really noisy...


Whacked down nugs in a bin:


Trimmed Nugs:


Skeleton:


As you can see, I do a bit of tying, a bit of smashing, a bit of literal tying the plant in knots, and quite a bit of topping in veg.

Everything gets vegged for around 5 weeks, totally depending on how everything is growing and whatnot. I tend to just let things flow, as I always have two clones in the cloner, and generally a seed plant or two making their way through. I never seem to want for plants to flip.

The plant above yielded approximately 18 - 20 grams, with a decent bit of trim in the trim jar. I have been collecting my trim for about 9 months now, and I have almost a liter and a half jar full. I will run that into bubble hash in the coming week or two, as the jar is getting a bit full.

Hope April has found you all well!

Here is a general state of the nation update:

Veg Box:


Everything is happy again, after I realized I had to deal with a PH issue... I haven't had to use a meter or PH down in so long it was kind of odd. Basically everything I was running out start out about 6.5ish and end up north of 8 after a couple days of sitting in the rez. I wasn't PH adjusting anything, as when I was hand watering it wouldn't sit long enough to be an issue, but now that I am timing everything and mixing once a week it became an issue.

It didn't effect much too badly, but it certainly would have if I had let it go for another week or two...

Babies:
Blue Cheese on the left, Tijuana on the right:


Moms and such:


Getting a bit spindly... They stayed too wet for a couple days...

Flower Box:


UltraSour in the box:

Ultrasour out of the box:


UltraSour out of the box - 2/3:


UltraSour Under the Scope:



She will be coming down tonight.

Have a good one, and I will see ya around

Hey folks. Sorry I am late... Work has been hectic and things are getting all spring like around here.

Made some hash:


After the 10th round or so with these bags, it is time to retire them...I have tried every trick I could find on the mag to keep them clean and flowing, but this time the purple bag simply did not want to drain. It took well over an hour to get all of the water out, and that was with quite a bit of coaxing...

The veg box is getting a bit too full, so I will be doing a bit of staggered flipping in the next few weeks to load up the flower box.

It is getting full because I have been popping some of my abundant seed stash. This is one of 2 Cherry OG babies that are rolling along.


Speaking of seeds:

Had to feed the seed monster...

I have found that if you time things right, and pay with bitcoins, you can load up on ~20 strains for less than $125 to your door.

Here is the list this order:
Bought:
Humboldt Seed Organization Pineapple Skunk
Rare Dankness Seeds Star Killer
Seedsman Seeds Power Africa
Ace Seeds Zamaldelica
G13 Labs Seeds Double Black
Free:
Bomb Seeds THC Bomb
Emerald Triangle Seeds Royal Purple Kush
Bomb Seeds Cherry Bomb
Emerald Triangle Seeds Cherry OG
Dutch Passion Seeds Glueberry O.G.
Bomb Seeds Bubble Bomb
Dinafem Seeds Critical Cheese
BlimBurn Seeds Granddaddy Purple
Humboldt Seed Organization Blue Dream CBD
Dinafem Seeds Original Amnesia
G13 Labs Seeds AUTO Pineapple Express
G13 Labs Seeds Blueberry Gum
Reserva Privada Sour Diesel
G13 Labs Seeds Blue OG
Humboldt Seed Organization Black D.O.G.

Well. That is all for now, as I have hit my 5 pic limit.

See you folks around the mag.

Can't forget a couple flower box shots.



I will be taking down the little OG that is in the cup up front early next week (I realized you can't see it... ). I didn't date the cup, and I didn't put it on the calendar, so I have no idea when I flipped it...


I am also working on a way to separate plants that are nearly done from the feed, mostly by elevating them off the floor, so I can flush them properly. We will see how it goes.

wow what a nice grow dude. Those flowers look great.

Thanks Cheese!

I am proud to show off my modest little grow, and I have been lurking around here long enough to feel pretty honored when folks who have been doing this much longer than me stop by and comment.

I see folks doing it much bigger, but for now that is only a dream for me. Just wait until I can unleash some of these ladies under the sun!

Your post about the seeds has me thinking... That is probably the safest way to get seeds in the US. Awesome looking setups, I hope when I get mine done they aspire to look as good as yours! I'll be having one big setup, and several small ones.

And those Ultra Sour... woah.
What's the smoke like on that?

Jelly: I have been buying from the tude for years. I have never had an issue receiving anything. It isn't that I dislike the other seed vendors, I just have always used them...

The Ultrasour is a thumper for sure. It leans hard to the indica side, and is a real good buzz for pain, sleep, and just straight chillin. The one in those pics didn't get flushed as well as I would like, hence the change to try to flush them better. I just like my smoke to be hella smooth.

looking chunky