INPUT! Need more input!

[hempyftw]

[youtubeif]Pj-qBUWOYfE[/youtubeif]

Thought Id show off my new grow to a wider audience. I've been updating in the Rookie aeroflo grow-together thread. Wasn't getting that much feedback though, I think most lurk.

About me
I thoroughly enjoy watching this beautiful plant grow. I became a ganja smoker at the age of 12. I instantly knew me and marry would come to have a very intimate relationship. I had tried tobacco prior, and completely decided it just wasn't for me! At that point I started researching online. I spent literally days of time reading before I ever popped a seed or saw a real life plant even.

Fast forward 7-8 years and I popped my first seed and had my own secret closet grow through most of college. I set up a veg tent in the room I slept in and a bloom room in the closet with a 600 watt hps. I literally shared my tiny living space with the plant for over 4 years! Got to check on them 24/7 though, just made me love them more.

Post college- For the last year I have grown in 100 sq ft.+ 4k watt flower room. I also have a dedicated mom/clone/veg room that is 100 sq ft or so with 2 600's and some cfl's for cloning. I'm hoping to set up a flip flop with relays and get another 4k going on the other side of the basement in a vert aero bare bulb setup. I'll have to talk about this another time though I suppose.

Grow style
I originally started out in hempy's which treated me well, just got tired of hand watering! I moved on to homemade ebb and flow trays for awhile, which I still keep moms in. I am now playing around with DIY low pressure aero/nft tubes. I plan to eventually go vertical and utilize the full potential of the bulb. I would also like to go HP or it least get a better spray pattern out of my nozzles, and get some bigger containers for true aero roots to form. These will be things to come though.

I started using GH flora series nutes, and haven't stopped yet. Just recently started playing with kool bloom. I used lucas for awhile, but I feel that I got more deficiencies than with the suggested ratios. I just start out with 1/4 str and work my way up.

Here is one of the lp aero systems I built.

Let's put some plants in that thing! 1 week of veg

3rd week of veg, quick flip the switch!

3rd week of flower.

End of week 6 flower, hope to go 8 total.

 

[hempyftw]

More of week 6.

More of week 6.

I'm not gonna leave ya hanging with just 1 good flowering shot!

End of week 6.

 

[hempyftw]

Cloning.

Cloning.

All I do for clones is strip a few lower nodes off a clone, and set it in the aero cloner. I add a chlorine solution daily. Before I added the chlorine daily, I would eventually end up with root rot and damping off. I've killed hundreds of clones in aero cloners, keep them clean and at around 70*F if possible. Heat and broken down organic matter will cause root rot to form quickly, this causes all plants to cease to root and eventually die. Been there done that, learn from my mistakes.

To make the chlorine solution, go to a local hardware store/big box store and buy a $10 1 lb bag of pool shock. This is a life time supply of chlorine to kill the nastiness that will stop your plants from rooting. Mix 1gram of shock/1 gallon of water in a milk jug. This is now your chlorine solution, add this diluted solution at 1 fl oz/5 gal of cloner reservoir.

I don't weigh my shock out anymore, and I downsized to a 1/2 gallon jug. I also don't measure it when I pour it into the cloner, I do it daily so I just put a splash in. So I'm running a chlorine solution 2-5 times stronger then I suggest above. That is just the proven level that most agree works. Your plants can deal with a whole lot more.

My DIY aero cloner, which works better then my ebay one. Go figure.

I do realize the lid is not light proof, which is why I bought another lid/container and painted the lid so it would be light proof. However after now having pulled out 3 or 4 rounds of clones in a row, I don't feel it's necessary to drill holes in the other one just yet lol.

Ebay cloner

 

[hempyftw]

Veg shots!

Veg shots!

VEG

After they have rooted, I put them in a diy lp aero tube. I just recently upgraded the lighting over this to a 600 mh instead of 125 watts of cfl. Plants were wilting when I brought them from the cfl's to under the 1k hps. So I hope this 600 will help stop that shock and let them fill and stretch more in flower.

You can see I re-vegged some plants, I was having cloning problems mid summer, so I re-vegged the next harvest. Took forever to get them growing again!

Typical clone after vegging for a week or so

 

[hempyftw]

Moms and early flowering

Moms and early flowering

Mothers
I've been running the same strain for over 4 years now. Space bomb by subcool. I really need to get something else, just not so easy around here. I could just order some seeds, but it takes so long to grow a mom out from seeds lol. I think this is a pretty low yielding strain unfortunately, it least in my hands! These moms are going on 2 years old or so, ready for a trim and retirement!

Root bound? What do you mean root bound? Roots have completely covered the bottom of the tray.

Beg. of flower
This set is 3 weeks behind the flowering ladies uptop. It didn't get vegged nearly as long, and they got shocked going from cfl's to hps. I also started this system on a pump that was way over-sized and ended up heating up the water and killing the roots. So they look great for what they've been through!

And another set 3 weeks behind them. Just finishing their first week in flower. They just recently perked back up from the shock from cfl to hps. I think I was loosing a week+ of flower time because of this shift. Can't wait to bring the new ones down that should already be adapted to the higher lvl of light.

 

[hempyftw]

MMMMhmmm

MMMMhmmm

Last group shot before harvest

Cola

Up close and personal

Full harvest

Jarred and hash.

 

[hempyftw]

hmmmm

hmmmm

Dry ice hash - Lowest grade was pressed

up close

Bubble hash

Bubble snake!

 

[hempyftw]

Mmmhmmm

Mmmhmmm

End of week 7.

This is what happens when you "defoliate" while baked, drunk, and not paying attention!

 

[hempyftw]

More.

More.

Some more end of week 7 flower shots.

 

[Mister_D]

Love your setup hempy What are your day/night temps/humidity like? Res temps? Chiller? Pump size/model?

 

[hempyftw]

Love your setup hempy What are your day/night temps/humidity like? Res temps? Chiller? Pump size/model?

Woot! First visitor to speak up. Thanks for the kind words.

In the winter the temps have been awesome. In the veg/mom area they hover 72-76 at canopy level lights on. I keep the house at 65 though, and the water rez temps stay at about 65, sometimes creep up to 68 or so. I leave one 600 on the veg plants 24/7 so the temps only drop to 72-68 when the 2nd one shuts off. Humidity in the veg room is pretty low, stays around 30% or so. It seems like aero plant's can deal with low humidity well. I have a humidifier, Never thought about using it in there. - Thanks for getting me thinking.

An because you got me in the room, I'll show ya what I just popped. Local noob grower had a blue dream hermie on him. Grabbed some seeds out of the buds, we shall see what happens. Hope they don't hermie on me!

Veg plants are very happy! 600 mh > 125 cfl's

I don't have a chiller yet, but I think before summer hits, I will be getting one. One of my buddies gave me an idea though, I could just plug up all the ac ducting except for the two grow rooms. I really can't put any more electricity pull in the veg room. I could also relocate the veg room to the basement come summer.

 

[hempyftw]

Second part answer

Second part answer

Two part answer! Silly photo limit....

The cloner and mom ebb and flow pump are 325 gph tetra pumps. The veg system and one flowering unit are tetra 500 gph or something like that. One flowering unit has 750 gph pump, last one has a 325 gph. I would really like to upgrade these pumps and get a better spray pattern out of my misters. The flowering unit on the 325 is a joke, water comes out like a small stream. That unit is more so NFT hehe. The 750 get's a better mist, but still it could be much better.

I undersize my pumps because they run 24/7. One time I hooked up a 1500 gph pump and it heated my water up to 85+. It had a great spray, but I should have run it on a timer, not 24/7.

The flowering room has been getting unfortunately cold recently! Lights off temp/humidity.

During lights on it will come up to 62-64. I could let the heat from the hoods stay down there, but the plants don't seem to mind. Even once summer hits, it will stay mid to low 70's in the flowering room/basement. I keep humidity set at 48% because there are plants at each stage of flowering down there. I do notice that bugs hate the cold! They can't seem to reproduce for shit when it's in the mid to low 60's.

Shot of some girls while I was down there! Beginning of week 4 for them.

 

[Anti]

Looks good in here. I know how you feel running the same plants for years and years. Where I live, getting seeds is nearly impossible. (Though that will change soon.)

Not much to share as I've never run an aero setup. But I like what you're doing.

 

[hempyftw]

Looks good in here. I know how you feel running the same plants for years and years. Where I live, getting seeds is nearly impossible. (Though that will change soon.)

Not much to share as I've never run an aero setup. But I like what you're doing.

Thanks!

Ya it was good to do starting out. I got to know this strain in and out. I'll be able to notice what deficiencies look like or if I"m under feeding now, when I get some new gear.

I've really wanted to start mixing it up though. The space bomb is a great high, but lacks much taste/weight. There are so many varieties out there as well. It's kind of hard for me to just choose one hehe. Not to mention, when getting seeds, it can be a pheno hunt. Might not even get a good phenotype.

Hope it changes for you! Stealth shipping is always an option.

Mehhh, You don't need aero experience to show me a thing or two!

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Anti]

Stealth shipping is always an option.

I ordered some of Rez's gear from Seedbay before Rez disappeared but my package disappeared in the mail. I didn't even get a letter from customs that my package was destroyed. I decided I would wait until I had a more secure way of ordering. Still waiting, unfortunately.

I know tons of people who've gotten tons of orders off the bay, so I'm not blaming IC/seedbay/boo. Just too paranoid to try again. =)

 

[montroller]

This looks like an amazing setup! I do have a question about the screen you added in the 3rd week of flower. Did you train them into the screen like a scrog or is it just a support trellis for the top colas? Also how necessary do you think the screen is, I am trying to decide if I should add one to my grow room.

 

[noyd666]

i followed stink buds aero long time back ,seem to have some really good grows and gear that he made, wonder if he is still operating? looks good.

 

[hempyftw]

hmmmm

hmmmm

Bummer!

I've only ordered seeds one time. It was about 6 years ago or so. Half the seeds arrived fine in breeder packs. The other half arrived with the dreaded green tape. It was a funny disclaimer inside the envelope. Pre written with like a huge column of illegal things that could have been in there. Some of the stuff on the list- steroids, pcp, cocaine, and sure enough cannabis seeds. Big check mark by cannabis seeds. It goes on to say they won't take any further legal action, blah, blah, blah - don't do this again!

I always wondered how they could let one envelop through and miss the other one. They both were filled with breeder packs. Both from the same address, to the same location. I was happy to get half my beans though!

If your ordering to a safe address with nothing illegal, an it's in the U.S.... I would say your good to go. They might not make it through, but nothing but some money lost if they don't. Just my .02 from my experience.

Montroller- Thanks . I over vegged that batch and knew that they would be getting too close to the light. So I threw that screen on there to bend some of them under it. I usually LST the branches to keep the canopy level even. An if I do it early enough and don't over veg, I usually don't need the net.

I also knew - that because that batch is so tall, it would need some support for the top colas. So it also supports them and keeps them up in the light. Again though, if I don't overveg I usually get by without the screen. I don't think I"ll add one to the batch right behind them.

So I do use it for both of the reasons you listed . If I really wanted to get the most out of it for scrogging I would add it in veg though. I really used it this round to try and get those unruly bastards to stay low.

I think it really just depends. If used early enough you can scrog the shit out of plants to get a perfect even canopy. Which helps in the yield department. And if you have over stretched plants that can't support some weight, they will benefit from the screen as well. It will let them stay in the intense light and fatten up without falling over.

I really over vegged that set though. I had a ton of under buds that aren't getting any light. We will see if it was worth it or not, trimming is gonna be a biatch!

I'm sure that makes it as clear as mud, what you should do.

noyd666- His thread was one of the first one's I saw with systems like this! He made his own forum for awhile. Then once he wrote his "book" he closed the forum down, and now just offers the book on his site. His thread was awesome though, I learned a bunch from him. Thanks for stopping by

 

[hempyftw]

The next batchs.

The next batchs.

My moms were in dire need of a haircut, but I had no room for them.

I have the opposite of a cloning problem going on!

I saw someone say this not to long ago but it fits perfectly, so I'm going to say it too!

I feel like I'm in scary movie, an one day the plant is gonna over grow, kick my ass and roll ME up in a joint!

Or one day I'm gonna walk in on them, to find that they grew over to a gun, and got it to hold me hostage.

What do you do when your cloners are full.

Vegging plants are full and overgrowing the area.

This is what I decided to do! I added some chlorine to the water to keep it sanitized. Gotta harvest and move everyone before they get a shot at rooting.

Maybe it's just time to get some more lights for them?

 

[farmhouse cat]

Those are some healthy cuttings man!

I hate when that happends... need more cloners!!! I have 4 cloners in use and 3-4 others laying around collecting dust.

also..

Tell me about your 4k vert room idea?