MrAwder's Basement Grow 3.0

[MrAwder]

Thanks Ozzie!

Just a few more shots from an AK I took down last night (~64 days). I'm impressed by the cola size considering the overall number of nice tops. Pictured is about 2/3 of the good tops. Some more not pictured, this was just my "work" pile. I'm guessing 3.5oz from this beast.





The DSD was put in the jar last night. Came out to just over 60 grams which is about what I expected. Week or two in the jar and I'll put together some dried pics and a smoke report.

 

[MrAwder]

Here are some shots of the next 6 to be rotated in. 2 - Deathstar, 2 - DSD#1 and 2 - DSD#3. The current DSD I just finished was #4 (numbered from the original 5 seeds I popped). The Deathstar has been vegging out for a while now and is quite bushy. I cleaned a lot off the bottom and removed all growth about 1/2 way up each main lateral. Can hardly tell. The DSD#3 were from clones taken during flower so they were in a semi-reveg state for a bit. I am not sure how much of the growth difference between #1 and #3 can be attributed to that, but #1 looks much more promising for vert.

Further pruning and shaping will be done over the next week before they go into flower. They were just transplanted into 2 gal smartpots last night. My current shaping strategy is to remove approx. the lower 1/3 of all growth to start. Then on the biggest (lowest) remaining laterals remove all growth up to 2/3 of the branch length. As I move up the plant and the lateral branches get smaller I remove less. This leaves me with a nice open plant that is easy to "flatten" against the screens and really seems to make a difference when it comes to final bud size and weight. IMO, you can really take a lot of plant material off (in the right places) before you will be doing more harm than good. Plus I'd rather lose 5% yield and save myself hours of trimming at the end working with bigger buds. Even after a few runs of experimenting with such pruning and shaping I still find it nerve wracking to remove what could one day turn into beautiful buds.

Death Star



DSD#1



DSD#3

 

[MrAwder]

I just noticed that from the angle of those pics it is hard to tell, but honestly the bottom 1/2's of those plants are basically bare.


Anyway, on to some more trim shots. Worked over the smaller Afghani Mango last night while watching some Thursday night football. This is one of 2 main colas from this plant. It is *not* the one pictured earlier next to the solo cup, but from the same plant. I think that one was slightly bigger but was at the bottom of the pile when I went to snap some pics.




EDIT: Note the hollow stem from one of the other branches poking out. This entire plant was hollow stemmed. *very* hollow stemmed compared to other pics I have seen. Interesting.



Both AM plants showed some moderate fox-tailing this time. I personally like the look of foxtailed buds, but a pain to trim. Plus, I think once these dry out a bit they will shrink up.

Overall this plant still remains a winner time after time. However, I know I am not hitting her potential yet. I think the key here is topping earlier to establish 4 hardy main tops and remove everything else. Shoot for 4 - forearm sized spears. It will be a few months before she is back in the chamber though. Need to decide on 4-6 for the next-next round and take clones. Probably going to do another 1/2 monocrop like I did with the Candy. Devote one half of the chamber to 4-6 of a single strain. Choices are: SLH, Midas, AK, Deathstar, Candy, AM, DSD. Leaning towards the SLH as it's been a minute since I ran her.

 

[otis33]

I'm interested go see how the dsd 1 turns out. all mine were almost identical in all ways, shook stayed pretty stout and were very slow veggers. when the night time temps are low three things really turn some pretty colors of people and gold. if I had a stretchy one like your dsd that had similar end product, I'd be more apt to hang on to her. your grow is looking solid, peace

 

[MrAwder]

Last of Harvest

Last of Harvest

Finished trimming last night. Will have final dry weights in a week or so. Round 3 has been put into flower. Round 2 is about 1/2 way complete.

Round 2 - Candy





Round 3 (clockwise from front - 2xDSD#3, 2xDSD#1, 2xDeathstar)



Midas





Excited to get the Midas back into the chamber. I was a on a tighter schedule this time so took her at 70 days, but I think she could go 80-85 and I have some ideas on how to improve stacking/yield when shaping her.

 

[MrAwder]

Wanted to drop in for a quick update on final yield.

DSD#4: 60g
AK plant 1: 111g
AK plant 2: 99g
AM plant 1: 51g
AM plant 2: 77g
Midas: 112g

Total: 510g = 18.2oz

This is pretty much where I had hoped to be. With time and dial-age I'm hoping I can be pulling 20+ out every 4 weeks.

The Candy (round 2) is about day 50. Have some updates on those soon. Round 3 is still stretching. Picked up a 2x2 tent, humidifier, scrubber and controller to build a dedicated drying tent.

Smoke reports will probably trickle in over the next few weeks. Need to get a camera and let things cure up a bit.

 

[Junior Capsula]

Is that TH's Deathstar? If you stacked the lights and crowded the plants closer do you think it would've made a difference?

 

[MrAwder]

This is clone-only deathstar.

Stacking the lights is a waste for my available height. My plants only grow 2-4ft of canopy and a single 600 positioned correctly works fine. I would not crowd the plants any closer, that was the problem with my original table design and the heat stress (even with air movement and good external temps) was too much.

 

[Libeccio]

fantastic thread and setup mr! i will go vertical too someday... keep up the great work...

 

[MrAwder]

Thanks Libeccio!

Quick update. Pics taken last night at day 55 flower for the Candy, day 14 flower for round 3.

Trying to let the Candy go 70 days. Cold temps at night are leading to some lockout/discoloration already, though the calyxes continue to stack. Picking up a space heater sometime this week.

Lost my last round of clones. Accidentally over-filled the res of the aero-cloner and the misters were covered by water. Led to basically stagnant water and stem rot. Refilled it and praying that I can get a clone of Candy even though it is this late in flower. Took 5 small under-developed branches to try. I don't have a mom of Candy right now so if that fails I will need to try and reveg one of these...

Round 3. Front 2xDSD#3, Left 2xDSD#1, Back 2xDeathstar



The deathstar is staying short and not lending itself well to this vert setup. I need to be able to veg them taller. Both DSD are stretching a bit more than DSD#4 but overall very similar leaf structure and node spacing.

Deathstar Canopy. Very dense even after removing a lot of secondary growth.



Candy. Smells like a skittles factory in here.

 

[MrAwder]

Got a new phone, messing with the camera. Still a phone camera but definitely an improvement.

DSD#4 nug (different settings)

 

[MrAwder]

Drying Ten

Drying Ten

Put together the drying tent last night. Just need to hook up some 4" ducting which I forgot to pick up from the store.



That's a humidifier and space heater on the bottom and a 4" TD-100 fan and humidity controller up top. The fan is plugged into the "dehumidify" plug of the controller so it only runs when the humidity builds up too much. I still need another small circulation fan. I need the humidifier to keep things in that 60% RH range for a nice slow dry. With the winter weather coming it's so dry here I'm waking up with bloody noses. Even hung on the branch I've seen shit dry out in 3-4 days. I want to get it up to 10 days. The space heater is because this is in an unfinished basement. Gets quite cold so I'll be using that set to the lowest setting. If it gets too warm even at that, I'll re-evaluate using the heater.

Not too exciting of a picture. Give me a few days and I'll have another shot of it filled up Candy is at 65 days today and can realistically come down anytime. Shooting for 70 but due to my schedule will probably need to start trimming this weekend.

Round 3 stretch has finished. Fan leaf removal starts tonight.

 

[MrAwder]

Got a few pics tonight. Started fan removal on round 3 and trained the dominant branches to the screen. I screwed up big time on the deathstar. Barely any stretch so the canopy is way below the DSD to the left of it. Working on a solution. In the future I am going to have be more drastic in my shaping/training of the deathstar to get my target canopy. Also, seeing them side-by-side, I cannot get the idea of a deathstar x candy cross out of my head. Might need to start looking into making colloidal silver.

Candy



DSD #1



Deathstar



DSD #3 (front 2, staked instead of screened)



Another shot of the left corner (DSD#1, Deathstar)




Next up on my list of ventures is attempting to make some RSO (rick simpson oil, aka phoenix tears). Probably start with processing 4-8oz so I can get the person the first batch by thanksgiving. Very curious to see how this turns out. A little hesitant to convert so much bud to oil all at once for questionable results... but the reward far outweighs the risk. I will be documenting the process and *hopefully* some anecdotal results.

Last bit of news: picked up 3 packs of Bubba S1's from VerdantGreen. Been following his grows since my cab days and am very excited to run these and get a good Bubba representation in my garden.

 

[soursmoker]

looking great in here bro... just wanted to pop in!

 

[StayFoolish22]

Just finished reading the thread, Hell ya brotha.

Really dig your setup and how clean everything came out.

A little preparation saves a lot of headache.

 

[MrAwder]

Thanks for stopping by Sour.

Foolish - thanks. Took a lot of work and I still have an ever growing list of improvements, but it's nice to hear the positive feedback and remember what I started with!

Preparation and buying the right tool (or material) for the job THE FIRST TIME. It's taken a long time to figure out (and sometimes I still forget) but shortcuts just end up creating more work. Whether you can't find the right drill bit or you think you can save $$ on some material, it usually turns out for the worse. Not saying I don't look for a bargain and come up with creative solutions... but just as often you're better off to walk away and come back prepared to do the job right (instead of twice... or even three times). Sorry to ramble... just looking over old pics and remembering some of the times I wanted to bang my head against a wall.

 

[wildgrow]

I started following way back when you were asking for ideas overall. Somehow I lost track of it.

I put myself through the cliff notes version and I gotta say you did a hell of a nice build. Pulling some really nice numbers on these plants.

Are you still holding the SLH?

 

[MrAwder]

Still holding SLH. Next round (#4) will be some more Midas and DSD, then probably a half-crop of SLH (4-6 plants). I was considering taking a break from perpetual to just monocrop the whole thing once, but I really like this 5 week staggered harvest I got going on. Either way SLH is overdue and will most likely be in round #5. Once my sativa stash uis built up, on to the bubba hunt.

Thanks for stopping in

 

[MrAwder]

Candy Harvest

Candy Harvest

Harvested this weekend. Candy is a breeze to trim and made my way through 2 plants Friday night and 2 Saturday night. Everything is hanging in the new drying tent which is sitting at a damn near perfect 71F and 55% RH. I will snap a pic of the inside tonight. Got one the other day but just realized it came out crappy when I went to upload.

The first work pile. Roughly 1 plant.



Close up of an average bud. Last time I grew this I thought this was as big as the buds could get on this cut.




Got my light mover this weekend. Ran out at like 8pm on Saturday night to pickup some pulleys from the hardware store. Got everything setup and looks like it will work really well. Took some tweaking to get both lamps properly positioned at each end of the "run". Going to get a video of it running and see if I can turn it into a GIF for uploading. Don't want to link to Youtube video.

 

[MrAwder]

light mover

light mover

Light mover in action. Shitty GIF but did not want to put it on youtube 30 seconds of travel and a 30 second pause at each end.



Pic of how it is rigged up. 2 pulleys and some paracord. Did not end up using the hooks you see. Zipties were easier to get the pulleys centered.


Drying tent filled up. Just the right amount of room.


Closeup



Going to be a little bit before anything too interesting starts happening in flower. Will try to get some smoke reports from the last run up soon.