What's new
  • As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.
  • ICMag and The Vault are running a NEW contest in October! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

2000W 8x20gal Pots

Well that was a clever thread title. Haha.

I have been growing for a bit over a year and have been in a 4x4 tent with a single 1000w all along. For veg, I made a table and put a plastic concrete tub on top, and am running 495w of PLL's over it. My total room space is 11.5x11.5 and there is a storage space (visible in the back of these pictures, the painted OSB) that takes up roughly 42x30" or so. The door to the room is directly behind where I was standing with my camera.

We did a bit of remodeling after the last crop finished, and I will get pictures of that up in the next couple of weeks after its all cleaned up and the plants move over. Now there is a pandafilm wall allowing 2 plants wide in the veg side, and 3 plants x 5 plants in the flower side. Obviously I need to access things, so it'll be 2x4 in the flower, and the lighting is 2x2000w HPS in Blockbuster hoods, and 1x1000w MH reasonably undersized hood IMO. It will be replaced with a Blockbuster before I run ducting - so pretty soon. Things are (barely) starting to warm up.

In the past, I ran 6 plants in the 4x4 with a 1000w HPS, in 5 gallon pots running Roots Organics soil and full line of nutrients. Now, I am trying out PureKnowledge's soil mix, and I decided to go with 20gal AirPots. These are base-less pots designed to be ran on soil for potatoes, but I picked up some massive 25" drip trays on which the pots sit. Due to space, I will be running 4 plants at a time in veg, and alternating harvests by roughly 5 weeks, which brings me to strand. Currently I am running a ~68 day plant that is a hybrid of California Orange x Skywalker. It tastes great, looks great, and gets you nice and high, but yield has always been kind of lacking. In the ballpark of 2oz/5gal, which is pretty bad. I’ve ran some other plants that pulled over double that. This next run will once again be COS as that is what I had, the next run will also be COS plus one local strain called AmFlame being that is what I have in 3gal pots right now. The future runs will be a combination of ATF, Blackberry Kush, and a couple others. I am really looking forward to getting the ATF and kushes in flower and seeing how they do.

The time frame for the plants has been a little messed up. They’ve been in pots for a long ass time, but I had to keep cutting them back to keep them small cuz I wasn’t ready to uppot. In the future I am estimating about 83 days leading up to 12/12, right now we’ll be looking at about a total of 107 days. I am planning to flip on 3/16, and at the same time up pot the next batch to 20’s and more of PK’s awesome soil mix. The plants really like it! I am going to be giving them some EWC teas soon too.

On to pics…
2/23/13
picture.php

3/1/13
picture.php
 
I did mention that I am using PK's mix, but I figured I would post up the mix for you all.
Soil recipe from PK, the Blazeoneup mix, heavily modified under the advice of BurnOne

1 x Bag of Ocean Forest
1 x Bag of Canna Coco
1 X Bag of Happy Frog
1/2 Bag Chunky Perlite
30# Earth worm castings
6 cup pulverized dolomite lime 2-1 Cal/mag ratio
6 cups Bone Meal
3 cups Blood Meal
3 Cups Azomite
3 cups Greensand
3 cups Kelp Meal
So far, they love it. I should have some pics for you guys either tonight or Friday, and will be performing some supercropping under the guidance of DrFever.
 

LEDNewbie

Active member
Veteran
I will be watching. Good luck bud!!!:tiphat:

If the doc is going to help you with supercropping your in great hands!!! He's a great teacher!!!
 
B

BIGBADBAZ

hey i would like to wish you all the best with you grow and hope it turns out pucka....
as alwayz nuff respect........
 
3/8
picture.php

Supercropped:
picture.php


3/15
picture.php


Some branches didn't like the supercrop. I think I'm doing it wrong. The Doc will tell us tho!
picture.php


They're going into flower on 3/22-23. Have a couple of light leaks to deal with, and hanging of the hoods 3/21-22. Stoked!

Next round will be a new selection of genetics too. Well, some of the same, but throwing in ATF. And then the round to replace these 4 (8 total, 4 at a time, offset ~5wks) will be all new. A couple kush's, ATF, and some others. Stoked.
 

DrFever

Active member
Veteran
I think they look great when you crop ..... you have a top shoot growing and below it about 1 inch or 2 you have a new shoot forming pinch below top shoot and next and your good to go not sure if you actually cropped actual stem ????? all i do with stems is tie them and work them around pot

Crop then let plants do there thing for 4 - 5 days crop new growth and so on also good idea last week of veg untie plants and let them grow up....
And in flowering ... thru there stretch phase fist 5 - 8 days crop all tops again for the last time
then let them buck second week start cleaning lower leafs of plants and all little bud sites that are forming real low clean 1/3 of all lower plant and keep cleaning thru out flower as them little sucker buds will want to come back
 
Yeah I think I went after a few stems that were a little larger than they should have been. I'm thinking of using something (THHN) to support those until they recover. And I'll try to do all the other tops, too. Thanks Doc!
 

citifield

Member
2000W 8x20gal Pots

Looking good in the grow buddy good lick with it. Nice screen name to My twin daughters have twin baby dolls named Romulus and Remus.
 

Fly by Night

Like a Wing
Veteran
Lookin very nice in here homie. Typically I use about 30gal of medium per 1k hps, kind of like your 6x5gal buckets. It'll be interesting to see how this works out

All the best
 
Sorry for the lack of updates! I should have snapped pics last Friday, even if I didn't post up. I hate being sick, I move slow, sleep a lot, etc. No fun. And I've been busy with other stuff all week during the days...

I have almost finished my room 'remodel'. The plan (I should find my floorplan picture...) was to separate into 2 sections as I said before. I finished up the divider wall of panda film and light checked it tonight. Came out pretty nicely. My buddy and I hung the flower hoods Saturday, and ran ducting, which I got buttoned up Sunday. I decided it would be a good idea to swap out veg hoods before things got ducted and under way, so, I did that. Now I have 1 Blockbuster in veg and 2 in flower, all equipped with 1k's - Hortilux MH and HPS. One of the flower hoods is not yet powered up, it should be in about a month with another group of ladies under it. The veg hood is what is remaining in the room, and that is because the veg table for smaller plants is not ready to go, because I haven't put in enough time. Tomorrow the old table is coming out and getting taken apart, the veg area is getting fully bleached (all except its walls have been done so far), panda applied around the walls, and the new Blockbuster ducts hung. Hopefully things outside of the room will go quickly tomorrow so I can also have time to transplant, because the ladies are in the tubes and burning themselves right now. I think a few of them will get topped after they settle into the 20's, which will once again be ran with PK's mix, as listed in the first post.

I have had a little bug infestation over the past few weeks. It seemed like things were entirely under control at the end of last round - 0 bugs for about 2 weeks I believe, maybe more like 3. Well, bugs have been back for a few weeks now, and BTi has not been cutting it. I soil drenched with Azamax (4oz/5gal water) last watering 4 days ago (for the big ones, little ones needed some in between) and today I watered with 5oz/5gal. I also released two Pyrethrum bombs yesterday. I foliar sprayed with 0.5oz/qt, so I spent quite a bit of time tossing the branches around and the good news is I found no living bugs, but plenty on the floor in some spaces. Swept and bleached, and caulked a seam along the edge of the slab/PT board (sloppppy form work, its pretty bad, a home done job that predated my residence by a lot) where I think some critters are definitely getting in.

Based on the findings of dead bugs all over, I figured it was safe to flip to flower. Worst case, I have to Imid them - 67-70 day strain, I'm safe there. I would love to get input on what these bugs may be, I think they are just fungus gnats based on comparing with others pictures, but its weird that they are thriving with the BTi in the water.
picture.php

picture.php

picture.php

And then 2 pictures of the girls in the flower room. I'll get some tomorrow with the HPS off.
picture.php

picture.php


Enough stoned rambling about the build and plants. I'd love anyone's feedback re bugs, and thanks for tagging along.
 

Treetroit City

Moderately Super
Veteran
Any updates? Did you get rid of the gnats for good? I think they can become resistant to bti myself although I have no hard proof other than a room full of gnats despite using Microbe Lift BMC(bti) at ridiculous levels, like 1000 times the recommended dose.

Azamaz seemed to knock em down pretty good.

The bti did work for about a few months and then not so much. Thinking I'll keep some imid on hand
 
Well I have been really busy with other stuff + lazy.

Got the veg plants transplanted this past Saturday, with a planned flip date of 4/30. We did the tarp mixing, doing two batches (40 and 35 gal each, based on what we needed - Also had some leftover from last time which was thrown into the 40gal). Worked out nicely, much easier than doing it with the 40gal tub and 20gal mix per go. I wish we had a bigger tarp, I just used one that was sitting out and now its poopy so it is my operations tarp lol...

I apparently took horrid pictures in the dark flower room. They looked a lot better on my cameras LCD! Damn. I guess the 11w overhead bulbs were fucking with the light meter... No flash = fail! Sorry about this guys.
picture.php


New veg plants
picture.php
Any updates? Did you get rid of the gnats for good? I think they can become resistant to bti myself although I have no hard proof other than a room full of gnats despite using Microbe Lift BMC(bti) at ridiculous levels, like 1000 times the recommended dose.

Azamaz seemed to knock em down pretty good.

The bti did work for about a few months and then not so much. Thinking I'll keep some imid on hand
I think I won. I have seen ONE in the last 5 days. I am going to Pyrethrum bomb it again tomorrow, and Azamax spray the veg plants too I think. We'll see. I have been using Microbe Lift BMC at very high doses based on what it says on the bottle. Or, had, I haven't given it to them in 2wks based on what was/wasn't happening. Prior I was using gnatrol.
 

LEDNewbie

Active member
Veteran
Looking good brother!!! :woohoo: Let me know how it goes with those pots.... I was looking at those at one time and then "TheHerbalizor" quoted saying he stopped using them cause he found bugs would just hide out in all the cracks and crevices those pots have to offer. He then went to Smart Pots and never looked back.

As for gnats, fucking hate them!!! :laughing: I bought 2 products. Really expensive but supposedly they are the absolute bomb when it comes to bug prevention. First one is called Aptus Bio Shark "Soil Attack"... All natural, you apply as a soil drench once every 21 days and apparently it keeps all soil born pests away. If you already have pests you use the stronger dosage and it will get rid of them. Owner of the American distributor told me they did a test where they applied this product every 2 weeks for a month in veg. It kept gnats away for 5 months after that!!! Dutch Touch on these forums swears by it and applies it every 21 days.

Next is Aptus Bio Shark "Dislike"... Again all natural, think its 5 essential oils blended together. This product is sprayed on plants once a week as a preventative at the lower dose and can be used at a higher dose if pests are already present. Again Dutch Touch swears by it and told me that if you use it once a week mites won't even come near your plants!

Each bottle is $80!!!:moon: Bottle is small but it is super concentrated like everything Aptus makes. If it works its worth its weight in gold to me!

I plan on brewing OG Bio War Tea and doing a soil drench and foliar feed with it once a week. Then 2 days later spraying plants with the "Dislike"..... Then every 21 days from day 1 of veg I will apply the "Soil Attack" with the nutes. I want all my bug issues gone forever!!!:laughing:
 
I am learning tons about white balance for shooting in different lighting! Flower:veg 'door' was open, so veg looks funny, as does flower! Today I'll re-shoot with the 'door' closed...

First, a pic from veg, 4/12/2013:
picture.php


Flower, before defoliation, 4/12/2013:
picture.php

picture.php


after:
picture.php

picture.php


Also, I should comment, I still have fungus gnats. Or rather, I saw one on Monday and re-Pyrethrin bombed on Wed and haven't seen any since. Annoying! And they are definitely gnats not root aphids.
 
Ya what the hell Romulus!?!?! Your worse than I am!!!! Update your shit already!!!! You get rid of your fungus gnats yet? You try the bio shark like I suggested?

You know I had a big fungus gnat problem last grow, an that was in the winter time!!! Now it's summer time, I'm using a medium that's always wet, and knock on wood, zero fungus gnats so far!!! I really think the combo of OG Biowar Tea and Bio Shark are what's making this happen for me.
Man, I've been busy! I was doing some home network upgrades and didn't have access to my storage drive for the older pictures, and I see the last date I took pics was 4/29 anyway. I will have to snap some new ones tomrorow, the 4 big flower ladies are now staked up. They're now at day 45 and have gotten a bit bigger. They were also supposed to have been joined by another 4, 2 weeks ago, and the 3gal airpots being moved up to 20's... We've had some delays that are out of my control entirely. As soon as things are ready to go, they will, I'm very much looking forwrd getting it in full swing. Worst case, the big ass veg plants will get moved over in about 3 weeks, and these will be chopped. I may run the next plants under the full 2k flower and let them expand a bit more, if I do not get to run 8 plants in the immediate future.

4/16 - day 21
picture.php

picture.php


4/25 - day 30
picture.php

picture.php


4/29 - day 34
picture.php


The fungus gnats. I've been letting things dry out more and it seems mostly fine. I saw a couple early last week, but then it got hot. Last summer they went away for about 8 months I think. I really should do more to prevent them...

Also, an aside, all these new pics were taken with light balance adjustment. Its not perfect but its pretty damn good. I want to see how the P&S does... I've been so busy... Frick.
 

LyryC

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Nice grow sir!

PK's soil mix sure is doin its magic!

beautiful plants/garden

i'll be lurking :good:
 

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top