LadyLargely
Member
Hey there micro growers, I've got something that should be right up your alley!
Its a low-profile all-organic all-floro grow. Mixed genetics from un-feminized seeds, a quick run down from left to right:
White Widow #1, Mutt Weed #1, Sheerah!,Dutch Mystery #2, White Widow #2
And a quick slide-show of overall progress:
Its been 32 days since I stuck the seeds in the wet towel. I just flipped the switch to send them into flower.
Now, if you studied the pictures carefully and/or have seen any of my other posts you know that I'm not actually a real-life micro gardener. I used to be. I've graduated from my old cabinet to a brand-new grow-room. All of the grow-kit that I'm using is from my old grow. Building my new room cost so much money and time that I didn't have any left over for some sweet new grow kit, so I'm stuck using the old stuff.
However, I think this grow is still very relevant to you guys. The gear is very compact. It used to fit in a cabinet that was 56 inches wide, 18 inches deep and only 24 inches tall. Very, very compact for the yields it is capable of. That, and I figure none of you guys can resist watching a good-ole ScrOG fill up with frosty nugs!
Some details:
As you could see from my first image, I'm running an old-timey 4 foot T12/T8 fixture. All you serious micro kids seem to have moved on to the fancy new PL-L type floros. They seem to preform very nicely, but I'm a cheapskate and so the prices of PL-L lamps and fixtures are just too much for me. So I'm stuck with a more old-skool setup, but that's OK because you can teach an old dog new tricks:
First, I use foil-tape reflectors. This is a trick I picked up way back on the Overgrow forums. They can drastically up the light delivery of traditional floro tubes, just make sure to leave an inch or two on the ends with no tape.
And then I use an overdriven ballast configuration. Two 4-lamp T12/T8 ballasts are wired in parallel rather than series. Instead of running 8 tubes they run 4 overdriven tubes together! This gives you added output and massively improved penetrating power: something floros are always woefully poor at. This comes at the cost of increased running temperature of the tubes, shorter tube life and a slight loss in efficiency. However, the ballasts actually run cooler than normal because the load presented to them is of a lower resistance than normal (4 gas-filled tubes are easier to push electricity through than 8) and therefore tend to live a bit longer in this configuration.
The results of all this is a 344 watt T12/T8 lamp for less than 100 dollars. It has 4 overdriven sockets that run T12s and 2 normally-driven sockets that run T8s. Through veg I ran 6500K T12s and 5000K T8s. I just pulled the switch to go to flower today. That means I've swapped out the T12s for some General Electric Plant & Aquariums. The 5000K T8s will stay for the first couple weeks of flower. After buds start to show and trics appear they will be swapped out for a pair of T8 5% UV-B lizard lamps.
The plants are growing out of 4 gallon OBBTs. OBBTs, for the uninitiated, are a new form of organic hydro that stands for Organic Bubble Bath Tub. They use a coco moss-based medium over a lava-rock filled bath that has air constantly injected into it a-la DWC. The results are a very high-performance all-organic grow medium that is so easy to run it is basically maintinence-free. All I've done to the plants you see in these pictures is water them. Twice. Two waterings got me all the way through veg, thats it. No feeding, no checking the TDS of the water, no babysitting the pH, no worries about E.C. measurements, no concerns reguarding the state of the micro-life, no thoughts about root rot or pathogens, no nothing.
If this interests you (and I suspect that by now it does), the issues of how best to construct and run an OBBT have pretty much completely taken over the organic hydro forums. There are many gardeners now trying out and attempting to improve the technique. Wander on over to the organic hydro section or just hit the "OBBT grow show" link in my sig to take you to my own guide on the process.
So, the grow medium is very low-maintinence, but my chosen training method is about as high-maintinence as they come. I'm doing ScrOG, duh, but its a little different than is typical. You may have noticed my plants look a little too big to have just hit the switch. In a normal screen-training scenario they would prolly grow to large and stretchy at this point. However, I run what I call 'true ScrOG', as this was how the method was done way back when it was introduced. I actually 'weave' the plants into the screen which basically requires a hexagonal mesh instead of a square one. Completing a weave step takes 3 holes in the screen. A growth tip comes up through the first, you poke it down into the second and it grows back out the third. Like so:
This goes hand-in-hand with supercropping. In order to get the stems to bend in such a way without breaking them you have to first take them between to fingers and gently crush them while twisting. The pholem gives way and lets you put the growth tip wherever you want without damaging it permanently. This weaving technique allows you unpresidented nug density. It isn't uncommon for me to get two or even three buds from a single hole in my screen. You can veg plants longer and get them bigger in a smaller space this way. Combine this with overdriven floros and you would be amazed at the quantity of high-quality bud that can be had from a mind-bendingly small space. It is not for the impatient or feint of heart, you have to be willing to spend a good 20-30 minutes with your girls every day through the second half of veg and well into flower. Leave them alone for more than a day or two and they will break out of the screen and mash themselves into the lamps. Not good.
Happily, I am fully prepared for this level of micro-management. It isn't for everyone, but if you love the ganjas then I think it is one of the most rewarding grow methods out there. Sit back and light a fat one my micro-gardening friends, this is gonna be one hell of a show!
Its a low-profile all-organic all-floro grow. Mixed genetics from un-feminized seeds, a quick run down from left to right:
White Widow #1, Mutt Weed #1, Sheerah!,Dutch Mystery #2, White Widow #2
And a quick slide-show of overall progress:
Its been 32 days since I stuck the seeds in the wet towel. I just flipped the switch to send them into flower.
Now, if you studied the pictures carefully and/or have seen any of my other posts you know that I'm not actually a real-life micro gardener. I used to be. I've graduated from my old cabinet to a brand-new grow-room. All of the grow-kit that I'm using is from my old grow. Building my new room cost so much money and time that I didn't have any left over for some sweet new grow kit, so I'm stuck using the old stuff.
However, I think this grow is still very relevant to you guys. The gear is very compact. It used to fit in a cabinet that was 56 inches wide, 18 inches deep and only 24 inches tall. Very, very compact for the yields it is capable of. That, and I figure none of you guys can resist watching a good-ole ScrOG fill up with frosty nugs!
Some details:
As you could see from my first image, I'm running an old-timey 4 foot T12/T8 fixture. All you serious micro kids seem to have moved on to the fancy new PL-L type floros. They seem to preform very nicely, but I'm a cheapskate and so the prices of PL-L lamps and fixtures are just too much for me. So I'm stuck with a more old-skool setup, but that's OK because you can teach an old dog new tricks:
First, I use foil-tape reflectors. This is a trick I picked up way back on the Overgrow forums. They can drastically up the light delivery of traditional floro tubes, just make sure to leave an inch or two on the ends with no tape.
And then I use an overdriven ballast configuration. Two 4-lamp T12/T8 ballasts are wired in parallel rather than series. Instead of running 8 tubes they run 4 overdriven tubes together! This gives you added output and massively improved penetrating power: something floros are always woefully poor at. This comes at the cost of increased running temperature of the tubes, shorter tube life and a slight loss in efficiency. However, the ballasts actually run cooler than normal because the load presented to them is of a lower resistance than normal (4 gas-filled tubes are easier to push electricity through than 8) and therefore tend to live a bit longer in this configuration.
The results of all this is a 344 watt T12/T8 lamp for less than 100 dollars. It has 4 overdriven sockets that run T12s and 2 normally-driven sockets that run T8s. Through veg I ran 6500K T12s and 5000K T8s. I just pulled the switch to go to flower today. That means I've swapped out the T12s for some General Electric Plant & Aquariums. The 5000K T8s will stay for the first couple weeks of flower. After buds start to show and trics appear they will be swapped out for a pair of T8 5% UV-B lizard lamps.
The plants are growing out of 4 gallon OBBTs. OBBTs, for the uninitiated, are a new form of organic hydro that stands for Organic Bubble Bath Tub. They use a coco moss-based medium over a lava-rock filled bath that has air constantly injected into it a-la DWC. The results are a very high-performance all-organic grow medium that is so easy to run it is basically maintinence-free. All I've done to the plants you see in these pictures is water them. Twice. Two waterings got me all the way through veg, thats it. No feeding, no checking the TDS of the water, no babysitting the pH, no worries about E.C. measurements, no concerns reguarding the state of the micro-life, no thoughts about root rot or pathogens, no nothing.
If this interests you (and I suspect that by now it does), the issues of how best to construct and run an OBBT have pretty much completely taken over the organic hydro forums. There are many gardeners now trying out and attempting to improve the technique. Wander on over to the organic hydro section or just hit the "OBBT grow show" link in my sig to take you to my own guide on the process.
So, the grow medium is very low-maintinence, but my chosen training method is about as high-maintinence as they come. I'm doing ScrOG, duh, but its a little different than is typical. You may have noticed my plants look a little too big to have just hit the switch. In a normal screen-training scenario they would prolly grow to large and stretchy at this point. However, I run what I call 'true ScrOG', as this was how the method was done way back when it was introduced. I actually 'weave' the plants into the screen which basically requires a hexagonal mesh instead of a square one. Completing a weave step takes 3 holes in the screen. A growth tip comes up through the first, you poke it down into the second and it grows back out the third. Like so:
This goes hand-in-hand with supercropping. In order to get the stems to bend in such a way without breaking them you have to first take them between to fingers and gently crush them while twisting. The pholem gives way and lets you put the growth tip wherever you want without damaging it permanently. This weaving technique allows you unpresidented nug density. It isn't uncommon for me to get two or even three buds from a single hole in my screen. You can veg plants longer and get them bigger in a smaller space this way. Combine this with overdriven floros and you would be amazed at the quantity of high-quality bud that can be had from a mind-bendingly small space. It is not for the impatient or feint of heart, you have to be willing to spend a good 20-30 minutes with your girls every day through the second half of veg and well into flower. Leave them alone for more than a day or two and they will break out of the screen and mash themselves into the lamps. Not good.
Happily, I am fully prepared for this level of micro-management. It isn't for everyone, but if you love the ganjas then I think it is one of the most rewarding grow methods out there. Sit back and light a fat one my micro-gardening friends, this is gonna be one hell of a show!
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