Magic Cannabus upgrades. 400W CMH + 256W F32T8. Organic perpetual love fest

[magiccannabus]

Thanks to Ganja_hasi for the name change of the thread.

Going on day 3 of operating. So far the heat is manageable. I think the heat has actually decreased from the bulb. I don't know if this is related to the burn-in period or what. It just seemed to get hotter initially than it does now.

Everything is now on a timer, shutting off at 8am, and turning back on at 2pm. I'm not sure how long I should veg them in here before I switch them over. I strongly suspect that between the side-lighting and the CMH bulb, I'm going to get some wild vegetative growth, but then almost no stretch in flower. I base this on previous experience. When I had a 250W HPS and 384W of T-8 side-lights. During that grow, I had maybe 20% stretch into flower. It was incredible how little they stretched out. There were a LOT of things in that grow that were inferior to what I have running now.

My soil bin was almost depleted to fill the chamber. I've been working on getting new soil cooking. I've begun inflating my coir(GH CocoTek) with AACT. This works fast and really gets that biology started. I religiously avoid chlorinated water, and keep chlorine removal chemicals on hand if I need them in an emergency(I usually just let the water sit till the chlorine is gone, we don't have chloramine here). Once I have about 4 gallons of the coir inflated, I do roughly the following mix:

4 gallons coir
1/2 gallons composted manure
1/2 gallons sphagnum peat
1 tablespoon per gallon Espoma Bio-Tone Starter Plus (diverse and has beneficials)
1 tablespoon per gallon Espoma Flower Tone (diverse, but old bag without Bio-Tone)
1 tablespoon per gallon Jobe's Organics Knock Out rose food(has updated Bio-Zome)
1 tablespoon per gallon Jobe's Organics Vegetables and Tomatoes food(has different Bio-Zome)
2 tablespoons per gallon Espoma Pelletized Dolomite Lime(pelletized kinda sucks, but it's what they sell around here, and I really don't want to grind it all up.
1/2 tablespoons per gallon pelletized garden gypsum.
1/2 tablespoons per gallon of bone meal

I take about two buckets of that and mix it with a 40 pound bag of decent topsoil(contains beneficials that are hard to get in tea, like nematodes). That's probably about 3 gallons total. I add in about 3 gallons of perlite and 5-6 cups of vermiculite. I treat the soil bin with AACT when I add water to it. I keep the soil at a slightly moist humidity, not allowing it to get wet and stagnant, but not allowing it to dry up and die either. I have added a couple handfuls of cheap, untreated kitty litter. I use a very cheap scoopable litter, which is natural white clay. Very cheap and it doesn't take much.

The soil I just used was a little different, but the other things it contained can't be replaced. I had mushroom substrate cakes from cubensis growing I did, rock dust, and left over substrates from previous grows. Otherwise it was pretty much the same mix as this, minus the topsoil part.... Either way the stuff in the chamber right now will end up recycled back into the bins as I harvest. That will give this current mix over 2 months to cook. The current soil cooked for several months before use, and about a half gallon of it was still left to mix in with the new batch(as bio-starter).

If anyone has advice/constructive criticisms of my soil mix and my methods, please let me know. Thanks for those who have stopped by and PM'd me!

 

[wildgrow]

Wow! Lookin good! Have you grown the pineapple before? My friends did best untopped w/ minimal pruning. The clones dont seem to be able to produce as much. Better taken a little early than late at all. Potent flavor/ odor.
Nice job on the closet and that air system really sucks! *wink cheers

 

[magiccannabus]

Actually I haven't grown any of these before. I have my own seeds, and some seeds I got years ago from Esbe(sadly those are getting really old and I have 1-2 seeds per strain), but I decided mostly to germ these lines to make sure the guy I got them from could have clones. I have a couple that are from other sources; The "Shiva", the Jamaican(not in there yet, ran out of soil), and the "Equinsu Ocha" are plants from my seeds(lost the tags, but it's probably a Trainwreck X Sour D., but I am really not sure.

 

[Anti]

This looks like it should be fun.

 

[magiccannabus]

Here's some shots that are new as of 4/10/2012. They've been in there a few days now I think. They seem to be adjusting, but definitely showing a bit of stress. I just gave them fresh AACT(a fungal brew). I'm hoping as they start to root into the good soil, they will straighten out a bit. I'm really hoping to get a clone or two of each in the next week or two, and then it's 12/12 from there on out.

I'm mixing up new soil too, and treating it with AACT regularly. I have some old soil mixed in with it, but mostly it's about 30% new coir(GH CocoTek), about 15% mix of perlite and vermiculite(mostly perlite), about 30% quality topsoil, 5% peat moss, 5% clay, and the remainder a mix of organic composted manure and granular fertilizers(plus the old soil). I just gave it a fungal tea(I hope). I've never brewed a tea like that before though. It smelled really good, I mean like so good I wanted to drink it(I didn't though). Not sure why.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

General picture of the chamber:


the two on the top edge of the picture are Northern Lights. They've drooped a bit moving to the new medium, but seem to be improving now that I gave them the tea.



Here is Critical Mass 33 Fem showing some issues:



Here is "Equinsu Ocha" showing some issues. It showed these in the old chamber and planter though:



Here is a top shot of Shiva(I think?):



I'm hoping as they root into the grow bags and that good aged soil, they will straighten out. Any advice is always welcome though.

 

[magiccannabus]

Here is how they are doing today. I'm starting to see new growth. I lowered the light down, but it's still a couple feet above the plants. I think it's a lot more light than they need for the vegging I want to do anyway. I am hoping they will gain some height here, maybe stretch just a little bit since they are so dense. I'm hoping for a few solid colas from the top of each plant, because as it is right now I would have at least 33 primary colas from this chamber. If that happens I will be quite happy with it. I want to get lots of tops, and maximize that overhead light, and fill out the sides with my side lights.

Anyway here's the photos:

4/12/2012

 

[Nonphixion]

Wow, I love this grow, I'm definitely following!!

 

[magiccannabus]

Just for amusement, I thought I would post some pictures of how I got started growing many years ago. I think it was in 2005....

I had been told fluorescents could grow pot, so I used the first one I had available. I had no idea how inadequate it was until I asked on OG.



Then I got wise and realized it needed to be closer and more intense, so I tried rigging up the biggest cfl I could find(45W).



Here I finally got a serious light put together. It had a 45W CFL at each end. If only I had done about a hundred other things right on that grow....



After that I started trying overhead shop lights, which didn't provide enough density, and then a 400W MH high bay, which I could not keep cool. Then the idea dawned on me to use vertical shop lights. I also discovered organic gardening, and totally fell in love with it. From that point on, the only real serious enemy I faced was heat. Ultimately though, it was people that forced me to quit growing for a while. Lots of drama I wasn't really part of and did not want to be drawn into. These days I keep to myself, and am just trying to focus on doing thing right without distractions. I'm still digging through trash for a living right now, but I think I finally have something pretty solid going for the near future.

 

[magiccannabus]

Just some updated pictures. All of them are really starting to show healthy, vigorous new growth, but critical mass 33 fem is showing some yellow banding on the leaf edges. It's the plant on the second to the left on the top of the group shot.

Anyway, here's the pictures:

 

[Hüsker Dü]

They´re looking good mcb


HD

 

[m3th0ds909]

Interesting grow man, that coco mix plus the tea are probably going to get those nugs nice and stinky!

Did you ever figure out what was making those leaves turn yellow?

 

[magiccannabus]

I'm hoping for good things from the coco. I've grown a 4.2 foot tall plant with only a gallon of coco, and now I have 2.75 gallons. Very exciting!

Part of me wonders if the deficiencies are from the previous planter, which was a mere 52oz container. When I get the new veg chamber built I won't be making such a big transplant anymore. I intend to make something intermediate. My transplant system leads to really dense roots, but if I let it go to long like this time, I get root bound. I'm really hoping they are just still recovering from that. The banding problems I am getting are classic mag and potassium deficiencies, but they have plenty of both of those thing so it's very confusing.

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks again for the feedback! Any suggestions on how much longer I should veg? I have realistically about 4 feet of grow space from the soil. I've never flowered without side lights, but I understand most people get at least a doubling of their plants when flowering. Mine have typically only stretched about 30%. The most stretch I've ever had was 45%. I want to get 12/12 started soon though. I'm increasingly in need of this to start producing. The only bud we can get right now is either super expensive or not good(and still too expensive). I'm disabled and our home does not make much money, so getting our medication is frustrating. I'm looking forward to freedom from all that crap. I have a slew of conditions that cannabis actually helps with, but my state isn't medical and doesn't recognize my health as more important than senseless prohibition. Enough ranting though

 

[magiccannabus]

Here's some new shots. They seem to be improving, and they are definitely getting bigger. I have cuttings in my bubble cloner(I'll get pics of that soon) and/or rooted clones of everything in the flowering chamber. Hope that means 12/12 soon!

 

[killerweed31]

HEALTHY GREEN AS HELL GROWER, GREAT JOB!!

 

[magiccannabus]

4/20/2012 shots from the flowering cabinet. I should get some pics of my new bubble cloner I built too since I didn't have an ideal setup for pucks. I have several of the strains rooted, but I may take a couple more cuttings before I flip to 12/12. We'll see what cuttings turn out. The cloner has 15 sites on it, so I can't take too many at a time.

Anyway here's an overhead shot of the cabinet, and all the new growth. I managed to lower the light another 6 inches. The plants are really growing up at the tops now, and I'm starting to see more preflowers.



Here is a side view of the canopy. I've moved the plants around a bit. I'm rotating each plant in place about once a day, but I also have been rotating the outside plants counter-clockwise. The ones in the middle are shorter than the outer plants, so I am hoping that they will stretch more(since they won't have side-light). I'm really not sure how I'm going to manage so much bud packed in so little space, but there's a lot of tops there and I want to try to grow as many out as I can.



These bushy plants often create a lot of buds inside the canopy, so they don't get anywhere near as much light. They're "popcorn buds" or whatever you want to call them. How many of you remove these, and when do you do it? Do you cut out the nodes before you even flower? Do you let it go 30 days of 12/12? How do you typically handle the low-producing bud sites? I know it's early to ask, but I'm curious...

 

[magiccannabus]

They are hitting a growth spurt, perhaps even a growth rampage lol The Blue Hash X Northern Skunk(NL X SK#1) wants to stretch. I'm seriously considering spraying them with Bonide Blossom Set Spray(contains Kinetin, which inhibits stretch among other things). I think if I just spray the very top nodes I'll get best results. I don't use the stuff a lot, but it's been very helpful in the past.

Anyway here are the pics:





The soil has been settling a bit. I may need to top off the bags a bit. Here's a pic:



I don't have an adequate picture of it yet, but there are little root ends starting to come out of the sides of the bags. I'm really excited about the possibility that they will air prune. I'm also glad to see them rooting. I was worried that such a large up-potting would take a long time to root out. So far in veg, the CMH is amazing. Now that I am growing 18/6, not 24/0, I can definitely see increased stretch. I'm easing them toward 12/12.

 

[B.C.]

Looking good Magic! You know when ya flip em they're really gonna pack that space in and prolly double in size. Not having run these before ya might wanna think about flipping em now, jus to be on the safe side.

You can start out with 3 inches all around each one of them and by the time they set bud, and stop stretching, there's no room between them. lol

Im sure yul figure it out. I jus know you don't want the cannopy too tight at the beginning of flower, it chokes em out and cuts into the yeild.

Yer doin a great job! can't wait ta see how they turn out for ya!

Best of luck! Take care... BC

 

[magiccannabus]

I think you're right, I am going to switch as soon as I can. I started work on the new door, but I have so many projects going on right now that things like that take 5 times longer than they should.

I'm pretty sure they're going to crowd each other really bad. I am toying with the idea of selective defoliation. I am not sure how else to make this work out foliage-wise. The high wattage per square foot hopefully will help too. As it is, I'm probably going to put the middle two plants up on bricks or something to make them closer to even with the others.

Thanks for the kind words, I'll post updates soon announcing my switch to 12/12!

 

[stealthcabber]

wait till like the third week of flower, when you can see the bud structure starting. Then like B.C. said you will know, bottom 30% of the plant roughly