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LED vertical scrog

This set up is hard for new people as well as some older people to do. It is because most wont take the effort to trim heavily in the start. They fear that they will loose a large amount of yield.

I am all for high yield but quality matters more to me. To a extent I will go for quality as long as it does not destroy the yield. The other benefit is that harvest is a lot faster because of the larger buds.

Bud most people just dont trust themselves to do the heavy pruning.

I wish you luck if you try it.

They are afraid to defoliate because some people heard it from someone who said against this and that. We have put a man on the moon and they still doubt defoliation.
 

Ichabod Crane

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They are afraid to defoliate because some people heard it from someone who said against this and that. We have put a man on the moon and they still doubt defoliation.
I dont like to defoliate during flower. Because I have had the little piece of stem get trapped in the bud and rot on me. But that is latter in flower after the buds are growing.

I will defoliate in the last week to speed up harvest. A little every day. Not so much at one time that it slows the plant down though.

My goal is to not have to do much in flower but a occasional bit of work now and then. Usually it is just moving a stem out of a shaded area or to fill a empty spot. Sometimes the cola will start to grow behind some of the leave that I left and needs to be pulled back into the light.

But I never know how much time I will have during flower so I try to reduce any work I may have to do during flower. So this means a heavy pruning in the beginning.
 

Ichabod Crane

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Kind of tired today. I was up till 2:30 ordering power cords for lights. Why does China have to be so different in time.
 

unclefishstick

Fancy Janitor
ICMag Donor
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i think they all wear croc dundees...must have sticky soles...no doubt from walking through spilled beer and koala poop...or any of the the 3000 poisonous critters that live there
 

swapmeet

Active member
i think they all wear croc dundees...must have sticky soles...no doubt from walking through spilled beer and koala poop...or any of the the 3000 poisonous critters that live there

On behalf of all my Australian brothers and sisters out there, I take offense to that..... It's kangaroo poop. :moon:
 

Ichabod Crane

Well-known member
Veteran
Today is day 12 of flower. I still have about 2 weeks of stretch. I installed a wire today to judge growth and to tell when stretch is over. If you look close you can see the white wire. Sorry I installed it and noticed it blends in with the panda film.

 

Ichabod Crane

Well-known member
Veteran
Yesterday I posted this picture.



Today 24 hours later I took this picture.



That is my 24 hour growth rate on day 13 of flower. If you look close you can see how many nodes grew in the last day. There is a leaf off to the left that is easy to spot in both pictures which will make it easier to count if you would like to. If you are wondering the green screen is 2 inches by 4 inches.

I also took this picture of one of the leaves I saved from when I removed the extra bud sites on the first day of flower. It looks rough. You can really see the problems I was having with my nutes.



Here is one of the newer leaves that grew since the first day of flower. It is a new leaf fully grown sometime in the last 13 days. This was not a saved leaf at the tip or it was a very small leaf. If you look to the right you can see one of the bud sites that was saved. So this could have been two really tight bud sites that were to close to separate to remove the second bud site. AT any rate the leaf looks really good compared to the one above.

 

Ichabod Crane

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It has been about 46 hours since I placed the wire as a judge of stretch. Here is where the plant has grown to. Some of the stretch has been the stem elongating. But still looks like some good bud development.



The clones I took on the 23rd are rooting out. Here is a picture from tonight which is day 9. These are 5 of the Detroit Blueberry. The 6th one I broke the stem on by accident. It did have roots on it. But I broke the stem yesterday.



They still are not ready for cups yet. Here is what I like the roots to look like when I put them in a cup. Nice roots like this will fill the cup quickly. I am giving them some nutes. A little everyday.

 

Ichabod Crane

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Last night I moved a few colas around. I spent just a minute or two doing so. I think it took more time to get the photo's.

This picture shows a cola that is behind a branch. I moved it to the front of the branch so it would form correctly and not smashed. Plus it will be closer to the light.



This picture has a few things going on. First is a couple suckers that had to be removed. The are on the left side of the picture on the branch going straight across the picture. Look closely at the bud size on these two compared to the others. They are tiny and will not develop into decent sized buds. So I trimmed those off.

The second is the three colas on the far right of the picture. They are crowded and will also lead to some small buds. So I moved two over to the left where I removed the suckers. I can not go further to the right since the next plant is right there.



These are the things I look for when I water. It is better to do a few minutes here and there as needed. I tried to make it so I dont have to do much in flower when I tie my plants to the screens in the beginning of flower. But plants do what they want so I end up fixing a little here and there.
 

Ichabod Crane

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Today is day 15 of flower. Here is the picture from the first day of flower.



And here is today day 15 of flower.



The canopy is pretty flat. I have not had to tie anything back since I did it last week. Here is a picture looking down the canopy. You can see there is not much sticking out.



And lastly is a picture of how far the lights are from the plants. Because these plants are well established I can get the light this close. If they did not have a heavy amount of roots they would be fried. But since I took so much foliage they have more roots than they need and can feed the top what it needs to keep chugging along.

 

Ichabod Crane

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Today I put three of the Detroit Blueberry clones in cups. Here they are from yesterday.



That was day 9 from when I took the cutting. Here are the three that I cupped. I think they are the three clones on the left in the above picture.



I like to use the clear cups so I can see the root development. I can also judge if they are getting to much water. You can see I drilled two holes in the bottom of the cup. I also wrote the strain of the clone and the date it was started.

Here is a clone ready to be potted. It has nice roots that have not yet had time to spiral. This is why I like to wait till the plug has a lot of roots before I put it in the cup. The more roots on the plug the faster the cup will fill with out spiraling around the cup.

 

Ichabod Crane

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Here is my day 4 stretch picture. It doesn't look like it has put on any buds. I count 4 so far.



I broke out the Par meter today and took a few readings. This will give a better idea of what kind of light I am working with. These readings are all at about 18 inches from the front of the light.

The first is a reading at back of the room next to the wall. It is 10 inches to the side of the last light.



The next reading is in the front of the room. The door is rolled up. I am sure it would be a little higher when the door to the room is down. It is 12 inches from the side of the front light.



The next reading is directly in front of the front light.



The last reading is in the middle of the room just a inch or two to the side of the center light.




These are pretty strong numbers. And this is with my weaker lights. The 192 watt lights and not the 245 watt lights. A total of about 965 watts when warming up. I measured the other day and it was 960 watts when they had been running for about 4 hours.

This is why I had so much problems with my nutes. The intensity of the light just magnified any problem. At least that is what I believe happened. Unless anyone can offer something else I am going to assume that for now.
 

Ichabod Crane

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Since I want to test the new ferts and I know fungus gnats are having a effect also I bought some rove beetles. Rove beetles eat fungus gnats. They are also know as Dalotia Atheta.

I bought 100 of them. I set up a breeder so I don't have to keep buying them. They don't cost a lot. Less than the postage. Since they have to be sent overnight it cost a bit.

Here is a link to the breeder set up directions.

https://cerestrust.org/wp-content/uploads/MSU-Rearing-Dalotia-coriaria.pdf

This is what the container that they come in looks like.



Just a simple spice container.

To build the breeder container you don't need a lot. First is some screen. I just used some paint strainer bag. I got these in the paint section at Home Depot.



Next you will need a 1/2 gallon plastic container. I got one a little bigger. It is twice the size that the directions in the link calls for. I choose one with a locking lid.

I drilled some holes in the top. They are about 1/2 inch in diameter.



Instead of gluing the screen to the lid I just stuck it under the lid. Since I got a locking lid it will hold the screen in place. I cut the stretchy band at the top off so the screen will lay flat. Mine looks like this with the screen in place.



In the above picture you can see I have the breeding media in the chamber. It is pretty easy to mix up.

Here is what you need inside the chamber.



I used coco coir and vermiculite. 50% of each. The link tells you to mix up a liter of this and add 2/3 cups water. I thought that was a little dry so I added a little more.

To feed the rove beetles you need chicken food. Crumbles work best. But I didn't have them so I ground up some pellets. You need 1 table spoon per week per liter.

Mix the water, coco, vermiculite, and chicken food together and put it in the chamber. That is it the breeding chamber is ready.

They say to add 30-60 adult beetles per liter to get a good start. When you get them the beetles will be at the top of the container. And they fly so roll the container around to spread them out in the shipping container before you dump them in the breeder.

That is it. Stupid simple to control fungus gnats. Or other pests like white fly, or root aphids. Every so often you just take the breeder to where you need the rove beetles and open the lid. These 3-4 mm beetles will fly out and land in the pots. Then close the lid and put them back in the shade.

You will need to make sure they have food in the breeder and it stays moist.

There is more info on how to feed them or different media for them at the link. It is only a couple pages long.
 

Ichabod Crane

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Woho! I passed 200K in rep. Midget horse strippers are on their way to party. At least I think that is what you get.
 
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