MOD Godberry in Ebb and Flow

[sativa_cyborg13]

Through much consideration and research, I began my second grow on Nov 8, 2008. I had ordered 10 Mist of Destruction Godberry seeds(not femininized), and began germinating them in a moist paper towel. The water used to moisten the towel was set at the proper ph. I had been extremely interested in the ebb and flow systems that I had seen and decided that I would like to give that a try. With the good input of a good friend, and all that I had learned through extensive research on the IC, I began to tear down and restructure my stealth cab for this new system and new grow.

After designing and remodeling my cab, I began researching various posts about ebb and flow in even more greater detail, and reading the basic water chemistry. I also decided to change my nutrients to the General Hydroponics. Someone had also introduced me to the lucas formula, as well as the recommended ppm for each stage of the plants life. I am utilizing both of those items of reference quite frequently. On Nov 11, 2008, still no tap root. I moved the seeds to a ph balanced cup of water which was placed under a cfl,to try another way of germination. By Nov 13,2008, tap roots were showing on all of the seeds. At which time, I put the seeds in rockwool and wet them with water set at a ph of 5.6.
This post will be updated frequently untill it is up to date.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

continued

continued

By Nov 16,2008, most of the rockwool cubes had roots sprouting out of the bottoms of them. All of the seedlings looked healthy and were growing quite rapidly for being raised under cfls. I had cycled my system quite frequently, as well as added an air pump to the rez. I cant say if it was a great decision, but there have been no negative effects from it. All but 3 of the seedlings were approximately 1" tall at this point. On Nov 17,2008, seedlings were introduced into my system. Nutes were added and the ratio is as follows:
2 gallons of water
1 ml of GH micro
2 ml of GH bloom
6.5 ml of Hygrozyme
10 ml of hydrogen peroxide
PPM was at 349
Ph was at 5.9
My system was flooding the table every 2 hours for 15 min.
Temp was(and has remained constantly) 78F
Relative Humidity was(and has remained constantly) 35.
Only 7 out of 10 of the seeds survived.
These are some early pics of the seedlings.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

On 11-20-08 I changed the watering cycle to once every 2 hours for 15min. My fan leaves were drooping. Was not, and have not been having the ph issues that I was having with my first grow. The ph has sat pretty constant this entire grow. The nutes which I have switched to have also been a lot more effective. Over all, the General Hydroponics has been worth the money. By 12-3-08, I needed to increase my waterings and noticed an algae growth on the hydroton. Made a post about it and found out that it was not a detrimental problem. It was also said that when the canopy got bigger, it would not be an issue. But I took the advice and made a concoction to spray over the hydroton a couple of times a day to take care of algae. That spray consisted of 1 gal of water, 2 ml of hydrogen peroxide, and 10 ml of hygrozyme. It was very effective, and I occasionally still spray the hydroton for fun. Since then, I topped the plants to encourage new bud sites, as well as trimmed some fan leaves.

Here are some more pics from about that time.












Sorry if this diary seems very dry. I wanted to get to the point and make it clear of what I have done, in case anyone sees something I have done wrong. I went to a 12/12 light cycle on 12-16-08. My ppm is currently at 936, and all the plants look to be doing fine. My submersible pump took a shit on me last night, but I made a run to the harbor freight this morning and picked up a new one. My old pump pushed 66 gallons of h2o per hour. My new one pumps 190 gallons of water per hour. I feel good about that upgrade, and it only cost me a little more than my original one. I have tried to get a co2 set up going using wine yeast, but i havent gotten right yet. I am getting ready to add koolbloom tomorrow at my next water change. The plants are currently using about 4 gallons of water a week, which I do not mind. So things are going a lot better than my first grow, and I am pleased. I have also been extremely picky about this run. I was going to switch my light to a 150watt hps, but this cab was not designed for that just yet, and with much protest from a grower friend of mine, I am going to finish with the cfls that I have, and start working on the design for my next cab. To be completely honest, I do enjoy cab growing, but I need more space to do what I have envisioned. The electrical system in the house, and the severe lack of space do prohibit that right now. So till then, I will make do with what I have. Updated pics will be up soon. Any questions, comments, ideas, and criticism always welcome.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

Just a side note. The growth,yet again this week, was fantastic. On the door of my cab is a vent for the passive intake, and I used tooo thick of pantyhose to cover it, so i just took it off for a while. It was just an open hole. I bend the plants every morning and evening so that the new growth gets a good amount of light. But everyday I came home, there were fan leaves sticking out of that open vent hole. It may seem dumb, but it made me laugh every time. I am very pleased with ebb and flow, this strain, and the nutes. Just sucks because I want to go bigger, and right now, the situation just wont allow. But I am still happy every time I open my cab to check everything. Sorry if I double talked any of this. Till next time. I have been using someone elses digital camera, and I am going to buy my own tonight so I can have more pics more frequently. Hope you have all enjoyed this grow so far, because I know I have. Also, I am really stoned right now.

 

[MoleMcHenry]

Lookin good sativa cyborg! I just recently started doing ebb and flow and understand how there can be bumps in the road sometimes.

You might want to think about increasing time between floods, as 2 hours seems pretty often. I was overwatering at every 3 hours with hydroton. But you know your plants best.

I also think you are smart to keep your ppms on the low side. Underfeeding is much easier a problem to fix than overfeeding.

Keep up the updates!
Mole

 

[kuhdoffi]

keep the flood level below hydroton or add more hydroton, so that when you flood no water is seen then u wont have any algae.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

MoleMcHenry: Thanks for the visit. I feel pretty confident about my flood schedule. I have read many different theories, and have seen beautiful grows with many different ways of flooding. But yes, these plants seem to be thriving on the current schedule, so I am going to stay with it. Perhaps next grow I will try a different schedule to see if there are different results. Thanks for the input. Do you know if there is any advantage to using lava rock?
kuhdoffi: Appreciate the visit. Yeah, I made a post about my algae problem, and got great feedback. My problem has subsided due to the canopy shading the hydroton and the recipe for the spray which I used/use. I also plan on raising the medium level for the next grow so that the water does not crest over the top. Thanks for the input.
Diary will be updated soon.
Live long and prosper

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

UPDATE

UPDATE

Not much to say here. Went to get a camera, unfortunately with the holiday, they were all out of what I wanted. I mean everywhere. Fuck it. I can wait. I didnt raise my light yesterday like I had planned. I was hoping it would be alright till today. Unfortunately, I had family events to do this evening and didnt get to tend to my plants till a couple of min. ago. No real damage was done, but too close for my comfort. I did a rez change and raised my ppm from 946 to 1200. We can only see how that is going to go. I think that it should be fine. The chart I have been following up untill this point has been okay, so I'll go with it. On a different note, I read in high times about putting a fresh fan leaf in with the current stash to keep it fresh. So a couple of days ago I gave that theory a test. Today, I was kind of stressed out, and my girlfriend suggested smoking a bong. Oh man, that Godberry fan leaf made that stash of midi s taste fanfuckingtastic. What an awesome idea. So long story short, my plants are going wild. Unruly really. But that is also okay, I want them to grow wild and produce to the best of the environment provided. I really wish that I could get a glimpse of the roots, but in my ebb and flow system, that is just not practical. Guess I will just have to wait untill the end to see the progress. On a good note, the stems of my plants are thick and the fan leaves are looking great. My color blindness limits me of seeing some differences in colour of leaves due to various problems, but my girlfriend has also taken interest and is helping me see. Tomorrow I will pick up a different bulb for flowering. I also added KOOL BLOOM which a grower friend of mine uses. I have seen great results from it, so I will give it a try. Not much to say other than that. I will get new pics up when I can, so please bare with me. As always, questions, comments, criticism, and encouragement always welcome. In a time where the problems of my everyday life, as well as society are great in number, it is always nice to come home to my dog, my girl, and my plants.

-Sativa Cyborg 13

 

[B420]

I'm back my friend. Looks good and way better than before so far. Can't wait to see them as they look currently.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

UPDATE and Happy Holidays

UPDATE and Happy Holidays

B420 good to hear from you again. Great to have you back. Thanks for visiting. Well the newest update:
Really wish that I had scrog screened these plants. They are still out of control and growing rampantly.It has been twelve days since I have started my 12/12 light cycle. I am seeing small buds forming on most of the plants. I have tied some of the plants to mikeys hand grenade beer bottles to open the area so that smaller budsites are getting more light. It is almost like lst but not quite. 53 days till harvest and I am excited. I had ordered newer, better equipment for checking the ph and ppm. I had the extra money and just wanted better meters. The plants are still using great amounts of the nute recipe, which I am alright with. I have been doing a lot of trimming underneath the canopy. I had to laugh because the plant I named after my girlfriend is a lot like her. The plant does not like to cooperate with being tied down, and is growing a lot taller than the rest. (My girlfriend is quite a bit taller than I am.) I hope to have new pics up soon. My ppm is currently up to approximately 1200. I also started adding kool bloom by gh not too long after going to 12/12. So far I am happy with it. The plants are really smelly as well, but my carbon filter seems to do a decent job. But man, when you open up that cab, the smell just engulfs you. Unfortunately, I am running into the problem which I was hoping I could avoid. The space issue is a pain, but I am trying to work through it. When I get some pics up, you'll see what I mean. All of the stems are nice and fat, though. Till next time.......

-Sativa Cyborg 13

As always, encourage, critism, questions, ect, ect always welcome.

 

[B420]

Any updates coming soon?

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

Update SOOOOON

Update SOOOOON

Update coming soon. Got distracted by holidays and the semester just started.
The website changed, so I need to figure out how to upload new pics and time to figure out how to do that. Should be by Sat.

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

Update....fkn finally

Update....fkn finally

It is amusing skimming old posts and being able to tell that I was drunk or extremely high or a mixture of the two. So, it has been awhile. I apologize for the delay. Finally got my pics uploaded, and stole a second of free time.
When I left my last real post, the ppm was 1200 and I had recently switched my light cycle to 12/12. Not really too much to say about the early flowering stage. The plants continued to grow and damn near reached the top of the inside of the cab. I started to notice the different sexes sometime after that.
I later found out that out of the 10 seeds I got, on 7 germ'ed, 5 were males. What a surprise to find out that I had only two females. The males were much bigger, and grew like wildfire. I held on to 2 of them untill I thought that pollination had occured. A grower friend and I helped that process happen. At the end of December, I cut 3 of the 5 males down and added my scrog screen. I also boosted my ppm up to 1500. Just found out I dont have my pics uploaded properly. Please bear with me a second......

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

I cut down all but the two biggest males at the beginning of January and added my scrog. I left two males so that I could get seeds. Started working on my next light setup in all of the spare time that I don't have. The plants ran stable for a long time. I cut down the other two males after a while and held my plants ppm steady at 1500. My dog has saddle bags for carrying poop bags, muzzle, beer, small weights, ect, ect. She usually has them on during our walks.
So I cut up the male plants finely, loaded up the dogs saddle bags, and we took a very early morning walk and tossed the plants into the dumpsters of nearby apartment complex.
I decided to go to atleast a 150watt hps for the next grow in a different cab.
I have been working on collecting pieces for it and the deconstruction here and there. Then this last Thursday, I find out that my girlfriend is moving across the country in May. So I got extremely drunk extremely early. The great news is, that a lot of my limitations for growing are gone. I am putting more money into better equiptment and slowly designing the next grow setup which will be located in her closet. I cant wait to get that going.......

 

[sativa_cyborg13]

The pics which I just posted are not current. But I am 1 week from harvest....