Dual Stacked Doughnut - First Attempt

[FireDub]

I originally posted a little about this in otis33's thread but decided to start my own rather than hijacking that one.

After an unsuccessful attempt at a dual stacked setup using only organic inputs I decided to take a step back and do some serious research. For this round I am using coco in two gallon pots and feeding mostly daily with Grat3fulh3ad's 6/9 method and nothing else.

The stacked doughnut setup I basically stole from otis33 and love the simplicity. I was originally going to construct some sort of shelving system but this milk crate idea is way better! I did have to purchase them for $4 a piece but it was well worth the ease of setup.

I am in a roughly 6'x8'x7' room and with an ~750 cfm 8" outtake and a ~450 cfm 6" intake. I intially tried to stack two 1000w HPS bulbs but couldn't keep my heat down so went with a 600w below and a 1000w above, just like otis33 did on his setup.

I have 8 plants in on the floor and 10 in milk crates on the outer circle. The strains are as follows:

4 x Blackberry Kush
1 x Fruity Chronic Juice
7 x O.G. Kush
2 x Super Lemon Haze
1 x Trinity
3 x Trainwreck

I would at some point like to run a mono-crop but wanna see which strains are going to perform the best.

I have been in flower now for about a week and am a little worried that the plants will get too big. But live and learn.

 

[FireDub]

The two stacked plants in the center front of the room can be pulled out in order to water the lower level circle. I also had to cut access holes in the back of the deer netting of the outer circle to facilitate hand watering. I think next time I will use some sort of automated watering system. I like the idea of hand watering but it takes awhile with 18 plants in coco.
I also turn the 600w off to water and maintain the lower level plants.
Thanks for looking and please let me know if you have any suggestions. I am not easily offended so let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!

 

[FireDub]

Edit:
This post title should really be called Stacked Doughnut since I only have one doughnut setup.
Also in the first actual paragraph of the first post the first sentence should read "After an unsuccessful attempt at a dual doughnut setup (not stacked)"...

Thanks for your patience; I'll get this posting thing down soon enough.

 

[Buddler]

Looks good,did you put the stretchy strains on the outside and kushes on floor ? if they get too tall you can tie them over to the screen,or put on floor prune out lower parts happy plants nice work so far ..Bud

 

[FireDub]

Hey bud,

Thanks for the reply and advice. I put the shorter plants on the floor and the taller ones in the outer circle; really without regards to strain. The O.G. appears to be mostly sativa and the blackberry is pretty stretchy; so I don't really have any 'super' indicas. I had some LA confidentials, medicine women, and a sour diesel that I put into a room that my partner is maintaining with horizontal lighting. They just didn't seem like they would perform well in the vscrog.

I started tying some of the lower branches on the top level forward to the lower screen like you suggested. And I further pulled the lower level plants back; they were growing a bit close to the light.
Although I didn't want to prune much until after stretch but I just cut some lower level branches off to make it easier to water. I will do a prune after stretch on the branches that can't get enough light and on the sucker buds. At least that seems to be the best time to prune after reading some stuff on Marlo's thread and from other experienced growers on this forum.

I know I started training a bit late but I think everything should be OK. I just hadn't figured the setup out until the plants had vegged a bit more that I had planned. Next time I will veg them into the screen a bit better.

Thanks for looking and I will post more pics once the plants are showing some good flowers.

 

[jean.koll]

hi nice setup
i always defoliated after stretch if it was so much overgrown. blumats works perfect on coco.
how big is the inner circle?

 

[Buddler]

Fire dub I know the slh and trainwreck well they will stretch lots ,I ve Had to tie them over a few times or they would grow into my lights lol .Like your set up bro looking forward to watching your grow . You can train during stretch get those tops pointing at lites then prune out shaded areas after . Bud

 

[FireDub]

Hey jean,

I will definately defoliate and prune after stretch.
The inner circle is about 1' across in the front to roughly 3' in the rear. So some of the front flowers are 6" from the light. My high temp is 83-84 deg this close to the 600w. I would like to see temps a little below that but can't really condense the branches much further at this point.
My outer circle is ~3'-5' in diameter so the flowers furthest away from the 1000w light are ~2.5' away.

 

[420ish]

good luck!

 

[who dat is]

I'll be keeping tabs on this, really cool setup!

 

[FireDub]

Bud,

Initially I was focused on pulling the tops of the outer circle plants back and tying to the outer deer netting. But I liked your suggestion and started feeding some through the inner circle and bending some toward the light. I tried to show this in one of these pictures, but it can be tough taking photos in such a small space. The photo of the inner circle I just though looked cool. Rather than putting the plants directly on the concrete floor I cut up pieces of Styrofoam insulation which seems to provide good drainage and keeps plants from getting too cold in the winter.

 

[jean.koll]

6 inch is really close. the problem i had.. buds dried out in the last days of flower. to prevent i am going to install a wire screen next week.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

You can clip some of the branches that are in the back of the plant anytime. They are just a draw on the plant because light does not penetrate that far in most cases. Start with any branches that are 1/4 or less the diameter of the branch they come from. Don't take to many till you know what the strain will do. But from the looks of your grow there are plenty in the back that can go.

 

[FireDub]

Hey Ichabod,

Thanks for the input. I've envied your PVC setups for some time now. I just don't know if I have the ingenuity to pull of something like that.

I had considered taking those branches off but wasn't sure if I should wait till stretch is done or not. I will heed your advice and start taking the small diameter ones off tonight. Thaks!

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Go slow and only take the stuff that is shaded. If your plant slows down on how much nutes it takes in a day you are going to fast.

 

[FireDub]

Will do. Thanks!

 

[FireDub]

Thanks Jean,

I'll keep an eye on the buds and temps. Once I clean out some of the useless branches in back I may be able to tie the tops near the light back a little.

 

[Buddler]

Must be time for a update bumpity bump.

 

[DabOnDabs]

Sweetness. That shit is gonna be crowded come nug time. Just the way we like it

 

[FireDub]

Thanks for the bump and kind words. Stretch is finished now and pruning is nearly complete. Been busy with other work and slacking a little on this. I will finish pruning tomorrow or the next day and post pics.