av8or's PPK - First Grow

[420ish]

strength is there.the taste was ok but that was with no cure . it was only a small test plant.31/2 oz off a small test plant is pretty good though.the guy i got it from is only growing that now.he had a nice collection of elites and gave them all up.covered in trichs and easy to trim!

 

[av8or]

Pictures don't show relative size that well in confined spaces so I thought I'd snap a few with me in them. I'm 5'9" for reference. The two J1 s on each side of me are in weeks 3-4 of flower. The Sour urkle in the other picture is on day 44 and getting fatter daily.

 

[Miraculous Meds]

Alright! Nice progress. Ur gonna be in a jungle of giant colas before long. U have came far my friend.

 

[McKush]

nice buddage Avie!

 

[av8or]

Thanks guys! The garden is coming right along. I think this thread is about ready to finish up. I want to crop one last plant first. The Sour Urkel that's about to come down is the first plant I grew with the entire system somewhat dialed in. she was the first hydro rooted clone (instead of soil) that I used so that obviously helped a ton.

Two to three weeks longer and I'll have to start my next thread....something that reads: Av8or attempts warehouse grow (or something along those lines)

That being said...I'm off to look at new properties to do this on!

On a side note, I was going to cull this terrible looking strawberry cough a while back but I had a site available to I went ahead and finished her. Sure glad I did...only 7 zips but damn is she doesn't smell and smoke amazing. Getting lucky again!

 

[Snook]

Thanks guys! The garden is coming right along. I think this thread is about ready to finish up. I want to crop one last plant first. The Sour Urkel that's about to come down is the first plant I grew with the entire system somewhat dialed in. she was the first hydro rooted clone (instead of soil) that I used so that obviously helped a ton.

Two to three weeks longer and I'll have to start my next thread....something that reads: Av8or attempts warehouse grow (or something along those lines)

That being said...I'm off to look at new properties to do this on!

On a side note, I was going to cull this terrible looking strawberry cough a while back but I had a site available to I went ahead and finished her. Sure glad I did...only 7 zips but damn is she doesn't smell and smoke amazing. Getting lucky again!

Head stash!

 

[av8or]

Ok, here it is...my last post for this thread. It's been six months since I began this new adventure and I think it's time to start another thread that isn't titled, "First Grow."

This Sour Urkel has gone through hell and back while I learned how to grow. She weighed in at 424.6 grams. As one of eight plants in a room of 3900 watts, it works out to an arbitrary .87 gpw (if I'm doing my math right). I'm disappointed that I didn't hit a full pound but every plant behind her in the que is even larger.

Thanks do D9 and crew for all the help. I definitely couldn't have done it without you guys.

 

[McKush]

good run Av8or, best of luck on your future grows!

 

[Miraculous Meds]

Yep cant exactly call u a newb anymore. Great work here, u r an inspiration to any new grower to how fast u can pick up and grow quality herb. Looks like u will be needing to expand ur drying area before long!

 

[av8or]

Thanks, guys.

MM - newer, bigger space is already in the works. More to follow soon!

 

[twist1uc]

I was curious of your thoughts on the mainlining?

Was it difficult to initially decipher where to cut? What to cut?

I know you don't have other grows to compare to, but what are your thoughts regarding your harvest?

 

[av8or]

I was curious of your thoughts on the mainlining?

Was it difficult to initially decipher where to cut? What to cut?

I know you don't have other grows to compare to, but what are your thoughts regarding your harvest?

I really like mainlining. I did split a couple stems early on learning how much extra stem to leave on when I topped. In Oregon I have to keep any "immature plants" below 12" as not to count against my 6 plant state limit. Mainlining allowed me to build a wider plant with more vegetation than a typical rooted clone at 12". D9 has mentioned that topping a plant too early can really stunt it's growth and I'll have to agree. So mainlining successfully seems to be a matter of timing. I wait to top initially until I absolutely have to. I like to get the cuttings growing vigorously before topping. I have found that topping just the top node off where the stem is smallest has caused me the fewest splitting issues later on as the stems get larger. Plus, only topping a tiny bit of foliage seems not to slow the growth at all. After the manifold starts to take shape, I clean off all the bottom growth beneath the splits. I leave them on longer than Nugbuckets or Nedula Haze recommends because it seems to stunt growth less. of all the plants in my room, the three I didn't mainline look terrible and are falling all over themselves. Mainlining allows me to use trellis netting really easily, which the plants seems to love so far. It's really even sized plant in a confined space, which is really helpful as they flower out next to vertical bulbs. The yield on the mainlined plants is 1/3 to 1/2 greater by virtue of so many evenly sized top colas. Genetics is key here, too. Plants that don't have large stems and/or grow golf balls instead of baseball bats typically don't fair as well.

Does that answer your question? I'm going to keep developing this to create the best shaped plant for each growing space, so it may not be best in other setups. For mine, vertical lighting surrounding a plant with overhead lighting to come, a mainlined plant offers a nice wide plant with an even canopy which yields equal sized colas in mass quanities.

 

[BigNev]

been on the fence about running a PPPk in my new build. After reading he whole post I "think" I got a grasp on this. how much room-sq footage -should be figured for the 40 qt, 3 gal combos? Also the corner lights, are they flip flopped every 6 hrs or run constant?

av8or- nice job.

 

[av8or]

been on the fence about running a PPPk in my new build. After reading he whole post I "think" I got a grasp on this. how much room-sq footage -should be figured for the 40 qt, 3 gal combos? Also the corner lights, are they flip flopped every 6 hrs or run constant?

av8or- nice job.

BigNev, welcome aboard! You'll be glad you went ppk. How many plants are you running? How much electricity you working with? My corner lights are not flopped. They're on for all 12 hours. My room only splits 3900 watts between 7 lights and 8 plants. I just pulled down a 15 ounce plant using a 7 gallon plant but I'm severely deficient in lighting and space to support what the 7 gallon tubs can do. With the 3 gallon, I believe the other ppk'ers are pulling a pound out of them no problem. So the answer to your question depends on how many plants and how large you want them. I like pounders and larger, myself, as it works with my state laws best (given my space).

 

[BigNev]

How many plants are you running? How much electricity you working with? now around 50 wanting to downsize. Power- 70 amp service

flower room upto 12x8 8' walls 9.5' valted ceiling. Was thinking (1) 4 site, stacked 1k's center flip flop and 600's in the corners-room seems big, 10x10 or 8x8would work better I think. (2) 6 site standered x-pattern 2 1k's center 6 600's on edges. room would be perpetual on 8wk cycle, clones and veg in another room upto 6x12. Veg time would be @ 6 weeks taking clones from plants getting flipped to flower.

 

[Snook]

where do I go to read about 'mainlining'..
I know what it meant back in the day but we don't do that here.

 

[av8or]

How many plants are you running? How much electricity you working with? now around 50 wanting to downsize. Power- 70 amp service

flower room upto 12x8 8' walls 9.5' valted ceiling. Was thinking (1) 4 site, stacked 1k's center flip flop and 600's in the corners-room seems big, 10x10 or 8x8would work better I think. (2) 6 site standered x-pattern 2 1k's center 6 600's on edges. room would be perpetual on 8wk cycle, clones and veg in another room upto 6x12. Veg time would be @ 6 weeks taking clones from plants getting flipped to flower.

I have 12 plants, four of which are in veg. Every eight days I harvest a plant and replace it with one from the veg room. My room is 17x10 with 600's (essentially) doing an X pattern around the eight flowering ppk sites. My goal is to be pumping out a one pound plant each time so I require a little more lighting and a little more space. I'm not the best one to give advice on room design, but if you're trying to grow trees, you should definitely consider a wider space, especially if you're going to drop vertical bulbs in an X pattern. You'll run out of lateral room really quick. Go check out Flower Farmer's latest grow. He demonstrates how to cube out every last inch of space in a room. If you aren't worried about plant numbers, you have so many other, likely more feasible, options than growing trees. But that's just my two cents.

 

[av8or]

where do I go to read about 'mainlining'..
I know what it meant back in the day but we don't do that here.

Ha! Yeah, it doesn't mean that this time. I found mainlining on a separate forum but if you search the internets for "Nugbuckets mainlining" I bet you'll find what you need. Also, a gal called Nebula Haze put together some helpful tutorials and videos of the process. You might search that, as well.

Basic concept is to top symmetrically as to create a "manifold" of stems that are equally distributing nectar and ambrosia to the plant.

 

[twist1uc]

I really like mainlining. I did split a couple stems early on learning how much extra stem to leave on when I topped. In Oregon I have to keep any "immature plants" below 12" as not to count against my 6 plant state limit. Mainlining allowed me to build a wider plant with more vegetation than a typical rooted clone at 12". D9 has mentioned that topping a plant too early can really stunt it's growth and I'll have to agree. So mainlining successfully seems to be a matter of timing. I wait to top initially until I absolutely have to. I like to get the cuttings growing vigorously before topping. I have found that topping just the top node off where the stem is smallest has caused me the fewest splitting issues later on as the stems get larger. Plus, only topping a tiny bit of foliage seems not to slow the growth at all. After the manifold starts to take shape, I clean off all the bottom growth beneath the splits. I leave them on longer than Nugbuckets or Nedula Haze recommends because it seems to stunt growth less. of all the plants in my room, the three I didn't mainline look terrible and are falling all over themselves. Mainlining allows me to use trellis netting really easily, which the plants seems to love so far. It's really even sized plant in a confined space, which is really helpful as they flower out next to vertical bulbs. The yield on the mainlined plants is 1/3 to 1/2 greater by virtue of so many evenly sized top colas. Genetics is key here, too. Plants that don't have large stems and/or grow golf balls instead of baseball bats typically don't fair as well.

Does that answer your question? I'm going to keep developing this to create the best shaped plant for each growing space, so it may not be best in other setups. For mine, vertical lighting surrounding a plant with overhead lighting to come, a mainlined plant offers a nice wide plant with an even canopy which yields equal sized colas in mass quanities.

Nice! Do you still have 'bushes'? Or do you have just the eight main colas? Did it seem to take any more time to grow a plant out?

You say that you split some stems.... what do you mean? Like, when you are bending them to conform to the manifold shape?

 

[av8or]

Nice! Do you still have 'bushes'? Or do you have just the eight main colas? Did it seem to take any more time to grow a plant out?

You say that you split some stems.... what do you mean? Like, when you are bending them to conform to the manifold shape?

Yes and no, regarding bushes. I'll go take a couple pics and let you decide. I've noticed that the ppk / vertical lighting grows laterals so fast and strong that the would-be main colas turn into mini plants of their own. So they end up being really bushy.

It does take more time but I took advantage of my local laws and did all my pruning while the plant was below 12" so it didn't count against my limit. Because of this, it was arbitrary how long it took to get a 12" tall 8 cola plant. Even still, the delay was minimal. I would try it out a time or two and check the time/yield ratio against your usual runs. So much of plant training depends on your space and lighting. The way you are setting up, though, mainlining would absolutely kill it.

Pics to follow...