Banjo's 250w NGB Style Hashberry Automated Drip Air-Pot Grow

[banjobrain]

Hello all,

This is my first attempt at a successful grow.

Strain: Hashberry seed & bagseed
Medium: Air-Pots and soil
Lighting: 250 Watt AgroStar Metal Halide Conversion/High Pressure Sodium
Nutrients: General Hydroponics Flora Nova Series


After a few days and some careful consideration - I have decided to give this another go. My cab is back up and running and I have germinated some seeds. I chose to germinate some Hashberry seed along with some bag seed that I had. Initially, I was going to do a test run with the bagseed alone. So...I dropped 10 seeds into gro-dan starter mini blocks. Prior to dropping the seeds into the cubes - I gave them a dip in a weak (about 1/3 strength) solution of Flora Nova Grow.

However, after a day of looking at these blocks and thinking, I decided that I would move forward and germinate some additional seed that I had. I had two strains and a safari mix from Mandala leftover from my order last year, so I decided to germinate the Hashberry. I would prefer to grow Satori, but I will wait until my system gets dialed in before growing my strain of choice. Hashberry seemed like a better choice for another "first" attempt.

I am glad I made the decision to do so, because only 4 of the bagseed germinated. On the other hand, 9 out of 10 Mandala seeds germinated. I had the same germination rate on my previous grow (which I had to unfortunately abort). So...whatever happens with the bagseed will be a special surprise. We'll see what happens!

These babies have been coming along for a few days now, just growing up in the living room, no additional light. Now that they have begun to show their first set of true leaves, I decided to put them under CFLs. The plants are only several inches from 6 x 15w, which was sufficient and worked well to get them started last time. I'll have to monitor their water, as they are just plain cubes in there...

In addition, I have a seedling heat mat in the cab, underneath my sliding shelf. Earlier today, with no air circulation in the cab, temps got up to 88 degrees, so I placed a small 4" fan blowing over the lamps and now the temperature is maintaining at a constant 82 - which I'm a little happier about. Plus, the fan will start making those little guys tough. I'll get pics up soon, but right now I can't find my damn camera.

So here's my plan for this grow:

1. Germ seeds in gro-dan cubes
2. Transplant to soil, growing in Air-Pots
3. Veg plants / determine sex / cull males
4. Take one hashberry mother (and one bagseed mother for shits and grins)
5. Bring remaining plants to flower and harvest utilizing the Oasis Automatic Drip Watering System
6. Enjoy the fruits of my labor
7. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It's taken a great deal of reading through these forums to come up with this plan and at the current moment, I have three people to thank for assisting me to getting where I am today. NOKUY provided me with some great insight with the construction of my cab. I used his design with some slight modifications. If you're looking to build a solid cab, please check out his thread here. Also, K.J has been one that was with me throughout my first grow. He has had several successful grows and introduced the idea of using the Air-Pot for a soil grow. After much searching, I was able to find a dealer in the US that sold them. I recently ordered a bunch of them and they should be here this week. Sam The Caveman has been around and provided me with some comments that got the gears grinding, and he is responsible for "planting the seed" about using a drip system. In addition, after I get a couple mother plants established, I will probably use his hempy trough method of growing. I like it alot!

In addition to those guys above, there have been many, many others as well - and you are certainly not forgotten. I am limited by space here, otherwise I would certainly give you some props - but believe me, ya'll have received my rep!

Hopefully, this grow will not be aborted like my first grow. I am settled down, recently promoted and just entered into a year long lease at my comfy little apartment. I hope you enjoy the show and that with the help from all of you will be able to share the fruits of my labor (via nice photos) with you very soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Directrix]

can't wait

 

[:-(]

Hey Banjo, your setup sounds nice. Lookin forward to the show

 

[banjobrain]

Hey Banjo, your setup sounds nice. Lookin forward to the show

If I keep up this boo-shit, there ain't gonna be a show! I came home from work today, my cab was way warm and my Hashberry seeds were all but toast! The bagseed junk seedlings however...they actually surprised me, they were dry, but doing fine and 2 more actually sprouted!

Probably due to the fact that I blasted those little guys with too much light, too quickly and blew too much air around in there. The bag seed was in cubes, but sitting inside a tupperware container...Less air movement, less evaporation. The Hashberry seed, however, just sitting on plates inside the cab - just bare gro-dan cubes.

I should have known better.

I gave the cubes a good soak and the plants a light misting...hopefully they'll survive. If they do, it'll be a miracle - because a couple of them simply look like shit. But, no sense in crying over spilled milk, right? The sun will still rise in the east tomorrow. I'll chalk it up as a learning experience. If they all die, then perhaps I stick with the bagseed only grow and maybe throw in the safari mix - and it'll be a test run - hell, I've only got 5 seeds from the safari mix anyways...

We'll see...

 

[:-(]

2-3 CFL's 26w should be sufficient for veg. I all but burned up my seedlings also, but I'm using 150w HPS.

Good luck!

 

[banjobrain]

Well...we'll see how tomorrow goes. Took it down to 4x15w and raised the lamps a little bit. Placed all seeds in uncovered tupperware and I may put an open ziploc over them to provide a little bit of a dome, but not enough to cause them to damp off (hopefully).

Lamp hours are going to be cut dramatically as well. I think there may be hope. A small amount of hope, but it's there...

 

[banjobrain]

I think there may be hope. A small amount of hope, but it's there...

Well, I cut the lights to 3x15w, rearranged a couple things and when I got home - things were looking up. Temps dialed in at 70 degrees, and the ziploc bag "domes" worked well. The bags were gallon bags propped up with bent coat hangers, but that's what DIY is all about, right?

At least 4 of the Hashberry seedlings popped back up. The rest had just germed and were even more delicate than the others. I still can't tell at this point. More will be revealed tomorrow morning. For now, I just need to leave them be and let nature take it's course. Edit (02/13/10) - The Hashberry seedlings are making a slow recovery, but the key word is recovery. I managed to bring back at least 4. There is a strong possibility that 5 will make it and potentially 6 if mother nature stays on my side. The sixth plant, however is struggling, but it's going to make it. Either way, I'll have at least 4 Hashberry seedlings to start with the bagseed.

The bagseed is doing great. 6 have germed and are growing, well - like weeds. Pun totally intended. I couldn't resist. But I'm sure you've never read that before, right? Oh well...at least I crack myself up - hopefully one other person out there will read this and get a chuckle out of bad humor.

Well, my Oasis Indoor Automatic Drip Watering System just arrived...so I'm going to go tinker with that. Edit (02/13/10) - The unit is interesting. I'm not sure how it will work, but I think is should suit my needs. It is a simple battery operated solenoid valve. For the the amount of time that I'm looking to utilize it, 5 days at a time max - it should work just fine. In addition, I can mix nutes in there and place an airstone inside of it with the addition of a small 1/8" hole in the lid. You'll be sure to see how it works out throughout this grow.

Where the hell is the reflector that I ordered??? The damn Easy Cool reflector that I originally bought is just too damn big, but something I'm going to keep for use in the next rendition of a cab. Edit (02/13/10) - I ordered the damn cab and it's still not here, 11 days after the fact. Attempts to communicate with Growco Garden Supply have not been successful. This will probably be the first and last time I do business with them. Hopefully I will receive a response next week. Hopefully it will arrive, or else I'm out a hundred bucks!

Oh well, until next time! More posts when I have something worthwhile to report and hopefully some pics, as well.

 

[banjobrain]

So...we have something to finally report. After 18 days and some frustration, this is where we're at:

Upon opening the cabinet today...Things are looking better. Overall, there are 12 plants here...9 plants that are healthy. The three inside the "ziploc" domes are wee itty bitty survivors of the "big fry"



Closer inspection...in this mix, there are 6 bagseed babies and 6 hashberry babies. I managed to bring some but not all back to life. Lessons learned and how to better care for/manage my seedlings.
The ziploc dome plants should be ok.



The plants and the ziploc domes



The healthiest 9, the 3 smallest here are hashberry...



That's about all the update for now...posting these pictures was hell. I'm retarded. Anyways, I'll edit later.

 

[BorkBorkBork]

Tagged to get in from the start. Good luck with your grow!

 

[banjobrain]

Quick update: The Air-Pots just arrived today. Unfortunately, I had to get the seedlings into soil, so last week, they went into Solo plastic cups.

Plants experienced a good bit of growth over the past few days. Obviously, the healthy plants shot the most growth. Three hashberry seedlings are still struggling along, but they are putting out a second set of leaves...they'll be fine - I'm just impatient.

Today, I lowered my CFLs a little bit and have all six bulbs going and will be increasing the duration of light by a couple hours beginning today. I have currently been running at about 70 degrees with the heat mat below my sliding drawer (as seen in the photos above), but I decided that since I'm home for the next two days, I'll place the majority of the slower growing/struggling plants on a seedling heat mat today and continually monitor my temps throughout the day.

Hopefully, this will force a bit of growth and dry them out a bit before a good soak. If time allows, I will set up the Oasis Automatic Drip Watering System and do a test run, beginning Monday for 5 days. Last week, I left for 3 days and left the plants just "sitting" in some water - which seemed ok.

I'd prefer not to do this, but if I can soak these bitches for a couple days and then let them dry...I may do that also. Perhaps if I experiment with letting them soak in just a little bit of water, the soil will absorb any water over the course of a couple days and then sit dry while the plants begin to dry out.

Regardless of the route I choose - it's a new endeavor for me and a learning experience all across the board. Either way, I shouldn't kill any plants, as they are reaching a point where they are a bit more stable now.

Looking forward to this process, now that my babies are reaching a point where there are some measurable results with their growth. More updates and photos tomorrow!

 

[banjobrain]

Ok...quick update. Been out of town all last week and am getting ready to go out of town until Friday. Plants are growing VERY well and responded tremendously to increased temps.

And another shot...

Over the past couple days, I have experimented with a small space heater in there to get temps around 76-77 degrees. In addition, the plants are even starting to get a little stanky. Might need to work on a carbon scrubber next weekend, but the smell is not that bad at all.

Upon arriving home last Thursday - the plants were semi-dry and I didn't water them until Saturday. Gave a little drink (water only) and let them rock in the warm room all day. 6 bagseed plants growing well, 3 hashberry catching up and the other 3 hashberry are finally starting to make progress. One of the bagseed plants is HUGE and dwarfs the others.

I have some pics to post, but can't get to it right now. Perhaps later this week.

This week will be exciting - but I also have some concerns. This will be the first week left alone for over 5 days. Progress with the drip system was limited, so I will perform the same method as last week, which worked well. I have all 12 plants sitting in a tub, my soil mix is heavy on perlite so I'm not overly concerned about soggy feet...I am watering from the bottom up, filling up the tub about 3/8" above the drainholes of the cups with a 1/3 strength GH FloraNova nute mix. This amount of water should last them 2-3 days and then they should start drying out, ready for more by next Saturday. I may increase the sitting water a bit as I have added a fan, increased the hours of light to almost 20-4 and increased the temps. All of this equals increased growth, increased water intake and increased evaporation.

Not overly concerned about it, this is merely a test run of different operations. The plants may stress a bit, but it's all good. I will be very surpised if more than one makes dies (one hashberry is struggling, kind of surprised it's made it this long!

Either way, hopefully we'll have good news to report next weekend with more pics!

 

[:-(]

Lookin good! Seems like it takes about a month for plants to really take off from seed. Just my amateur experience.

 

[aasin527]

watch the huge one, could turn out to be male. good luck

 

[banjobrain]

Well...bad news upon arrival at 7:00pm Friday night. Can you say dry???? My room was running warm when I entered (82 deg) and upon opening the cab I saw some crispy critters!

Uh oh...sheeeeeeit. Better take a closer look.

God damn it. Looks like my "plan" didn't work out so well. Like an idiot, I forgot to add some additional water prior to leaving and I left the little fan running, too. I ended up putting the heater on a timer, but after leaving last Sunday - I was thinking about that and realized that the heater is an oil filled space heater. Even if it's off during the night hours, it will still emit heat. I should have put it at 12/12 or something...better yet, I should have just purchased a small heater better suited for the small room! Here's the result...

Well, the funny thing is though, the bagseed plants were the ones that declined the fastest and the hashberry plants had grown quite well.

Three of the hashberry plants, though very dry, look GREAT! The other two, though considerably smaller have improved. The little runt of the litter just hangs in there...it's not giving up by any stretch of the imagination.

Here's a shot of the best one of the hashberry plants...

Gotta be happy about something, right? So...what did we learn? Plants with this soil mix need one of several things if left alone for 5 days:

• More standing water if left to "sit" and water to evaporate
• Lower room temperatures
• Less air circulation (perhaps)
• Slightly more peat in soil mix
• Get off my ass and utilize the god damn irrigation system I bought!

In addition to that, I had made an attempt to germ 3 Big Bud x White Widow seeds in an experiment. I placed them in gro-dan blocks and let them sit. Those friggin things sprouted all right and stretched like a MOTHER! And I'm talking like 6 inches of stretch with some yellow cots and 1st set leaves pushing out.

So, we'll see what happens. I planted them in DEEP in soil with a little root-tone. With gentle, progressive light, we'll see how they do. Like I said, this is all an experimental grow and I'm seeing what works and what doesn't.

I recently received an order from Seedbay in preparation for the next grow. I picked up the following seeds:

1 x GRS10F The Church
1 x MOS Cinderella 99 BX1
1 x THSF A-Train
2 x FMX-WHITE WIDOW x BIG BUD

I've got a good selection for next grow...but before I even start thinking about that, we'll see how things are looking tomorrow after the crispy critters have gotten some water. I may have fried the big dog, but I think the others will be ok for the most part.

Until next time!

 

[banjobrain]

watch the huge one, could turn out to be male. good luck

Yeah...we won't really have to worry about that too much - that poor sumbitch fried real good this past week and was the crispiest of the bunch. I performed surgery and it's in recovery right now. So, we'll see what happens with that plant.

Should be interesting. I'll post photos of recovery and trimmed plants tomorrow.

 

[strictlybongz]

82 degrees should not be hot enough to wipe everything out from less than 12 hours of being away. if you know this is typical for you wouldnt it make sense to pot up earlier?

 

[banjobrain]

82 degrees should not be hot enough to wipe everything out from less than 12 hours of being away. if you know this is typical for you wouldnt it make sense to pot up earlier?

You are absolutely right. 82 degrees isn't hot enough to wipe everything out from less than 12 hours of being away. At the risk of sounding very snarky here, I must point out that I was gone for more than 12 hours.

From last Sunday until when I arrived home Friday night was more like +120 hours. In addition, I didn't know that this was typical as I made temperature adjustments and then left town. I understand that this wasn't a smart move, but I prefaced everything by mentioning that this is all for the sake of learning.

Further reading of your small quote leads me to believe you may be strictly referencing my wickedly stretched seedlings, but I don't know. I'm not sure, as you really didn't say much about anything. But I don't want to jump to conclusions. All I can conclude is this, I am very aware that I could have done some things differently.

However, this run is all about seeing how far I can push the limits and what stresses the plants will be able to accommodate. It's all about learning, friend. Please re-read my posts and provide some additional detail when you reply to them.

Thank you

 

[banjobrain]

4 days of 250w MH

4 days of 250w MH

On 03/07/10, I took out my CFLs and replaced them with a 250w MH. It's safe to say that the space heater is not necessary any longer. The ballast heats the room up quite nicely...



At that time, I was able to check on my White Widow x Big Bud seeds that had germed and stretched for 5 days in a heated room. I planted them EXTREMELY deep and hoped for the best. Upon planting, the cots and 1st true leaves were a sickly yellow color. I was certain they were going to die.

After gentle re-introduction to the light, they responded very quickly and turned green. Check it out below, they are doing great!





Over the next couple of days, the heat and other conditions of which I am not aware of (or overly concerned about) caused some of the lower leaves to discolor and lose vigor. I kept them on for a while until they started to decline. Tonight, I gave most of the plants a trim (bottom set of leaves mostly) and below is the pile I came up with.



Here's a couple of group shots of the whole bunch after the trim

 

[banjobrain]

Close up photos of the top performing plants!

Close up photos of the top performing plants!

Ok...finally starting to see some real progress and smell some real stank with these plants!

Below is Bagseed 1, or B1



Followed by Bagseed 2, or B2, which just had 2 sets of withered fan leaves trimmed off of it.



And a close up of B2



B2 from the top down



B2 up close and personal




B5



B5 from the top down



B5 from the side - and perhaps my favorite picture so far!



B5 close up - do I have a lady here? I'm wondering if I can even determine sex at this point...



AND another close up of B5



Hashberry Dead 1 / HD1 - previously thought dead with no chance of survival. I cooked this sucker and it has risen!



HD1 close up



Hashberry 1 / H1 - a sick little baby, I think I dosed a weak and sick plant



H1 from the top down...what's up with that? Live and learn!



Last, but not least...H3!



H3 close up




Woah. Posting all these photos is pretty intense. I better take a break and sit back and look at them...and stuff.

 

[Work2much]

The plants seem over/under watered and droopy. Especially the first few pics of the larger plants.

Good job overall.

I hope the HB smokes well for you, I've heard good things.