Smurfs turf; When life gives you lemons....

[smurfin'herb]

Yep no food for this guy! Plants come first. Ive got ramen noodles and cereal in the cupboard. Thats all you need to survive

Yes thats my only fridge, yes its on, and yes they were rooted. I had them in there for like 2 weeks. I was worried about it messing with the light cycle of the plants, but they didnt seem to bat an eye in complete dark about 50F during that time. I just put them in there because they had been rooted for a week, and i wasnt ready to use them. It halted growth, and reduced watering requirements. It literally like putting them in cryo. I bet you could go 3-4 weeks easy like that. Its possibly even a good method for the eradication of some pests.

I use ful-power at 10ml/gal every time I feed. Quality product at reasonable price imo. Theres not too much of that going on these days.

With Nitrozime i would start at the lower end of the rec. dosage, and go from there. I hit mine at about 3 days into flower in room 2, one application. That even canopy is the result of my pruning, and using this product. I really didnt notice a difference between the high and low rates. Same effect. It seemed to make the flowers set quicker, and not stretch nearly as much. Im sure the cropping i did prevented stretch as well. N-zyme also tends to make the plants grow what i call "hormonal branches" which most of the time are just sucker branches (usually very green) that are growing in an irregular pattern as compared to the control structure. They like to clog up the interior. I notice this type of growth with stuff like superthrive, thrive alive ect.. Vitamin/hormone supplements. Just a heads up man.

Weekly foliar? hmmm. Depends on what stage of growth your in and what your goal to achieve with it is. Im guessing just for general health? Theres many options, and honestly i mix up diff stuff for foliar all the time and get great results. I do have a few bases that are the foundation of my mixes though.
-Yucca s./quillaja s.
-Fulvic acid
-Humic acid
-Silica

I will at times i add one of these as of late...
Nitrozyme
Maxicrop seaweed liquid
Floralicious plus
Microbe life Photosynthesis Plus

For bugs and pest prevention I use...
Neem oil (considering a comparison to pure azadirachtin)
Dr. Bronners lavender liquid soap

Neem oil is systemic for about 30 days when applied to the roots. I dont like to do it unless i have to though. Even though its not toxic to beneficial microbes and insects, i still feel like it can have a smothering effect similar to molasses. This is why i may switch to pure Azadirachtin for soil drench. Neem oil breaks down rather quickly on the leaf surfaces under UV light, so if you are foliar spraying, i would say every 3-5 days or twice a week, especially if you know you have some critters. The lavender soap really overpowers the oily/nutty smell of neem, and the Borg HATE it!

Ph is always between 6.0 and 6.5 (unless otherwise indicated by product). If lower, adjust with potassium silicate (agsil16/Protekt). If higher id use citric acid, lemon juice.
If you have to use ph up or down solutions in foliar mixes, DO NOT use the concentrated ones like advanced, hesi ect... Go with something more like GH up and down, much more dilluted.

Try doing the base, and adding floralicious plus. Compensate for the additonal humic in it by adding a bit less of your main source. Believe it or not, humic can burn plants. If you get it right, they will be reaching for the sky my friend.

 

[smurfin'herb]

Update. Room 1 is in the sweating/curing process. Its been super dry lately so trying to get the humidity up during drying was a task. I used a simple version of D9's diy humidifier working in conjunction with an ultrasonic humidifier. Its hard to bring a big room thats 20%rh all the way to 55-60%, and keep it there. At least with what i got to work with. I put a poly wall up between the rooms, and Im sure some of the negative pressure from room 2 was still pulling some moisture from room 1 via cracks.
Im sorry for the poor pic quality of the bud. It doesnt look like much compared to half the pics you see on the net (as far as resin content), but dont let looks fool you.

Room 1


Room 2 is recovering nicely from my BCZ screw up. Pretty much back to normal now. They are starting to senesce a bit. The night temps have been in the mid 60's, and im feeding rather low, so this doesnt surprise me. Same thing happened with room 1 right around this time. I bumped thier food up 1.5-1.6ec for two days, and added a second dehuey for heat. This is in attemps to delay the yellow/purpling, and increase resin content. Two birds, one stone. It should help a little bit. Humidity is staying about 30-35% day, and 35-40% at night. Just how i like it in late flower.

Room 2 Day 61


And did i mention its cold...? These fans take it, and ask for more.

 

[McKush]

great thread smufin! love how evenly you manage the canopy, must be difficult to get to the ones in the middle though. You snake in from the bottom of the middle row where you do not have the feed tubes i reckon?

 

[smurfin'herb]

Welcome McKush. I dont have to enter the grow the whole time. Its automated on a drip system. From time to time a branch on the outer edges may fall down a bit, but i just tape 2 skinny bamboo stakes together and use that to reach across the room and correct the problem. When everything is done correctly, there shouldnt be any need to get into the crop. Ever since i did away with walkways, my yields went up significantly. Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Kiloz]

From time to time a branch on the outer edges may fall down a bit, but i just tape 2 skinny bamboo stakes together and use that to reach across the room and correct the problem.

Crazy with the frost on that fan, most be cold!
Great read this thread

 

[smurfin'herb]

Thanks Kiloz. Thats mostly ice, not frost. You can see where the air is escaping from my shitty tape job around the diameter of the fan.

Pulling in cold winter air with an 8" fan, beats the crap out of the purchase and running costs of an air conditioner for 12 lights. Use mother nature to your advantage as much as possible. The dry air is a negative byproduct, but if you fill a room up like i do, you wont have to worry about it. If your aiming for over 60%rh, that may be difficult to achieve with this method, at least during the day. Back in the day for veg rooms in winter, i would buy ultrasonic mister pucks that came with a buoy cradle. Drop it in a 30 gallon tote of r/o, and connect it to your humidity controller. Room fans will do the rest.

 

[smurfin'herb]

Last update for Room 1. Results.

Well, I didnt beat my personal best of 10lb 3oz., but came pretty darn close. Room 1 total was 9lb 13oz, and some change. Using 3,600 watts that turned out to 1.2gpw. Im still satisfied, and with the boost of quality, I would consider this one a win. Ill take a little yield loss for a significant increase in quality any day of the week. My customers will appreciate it as well.

Room 2 is just chillin. 65-68F, 30%Rh, 0.5ec, 6.3-6.5ph. Still about 10-11 days to go.

 

[Miraculous Meds]

1.2 is nothing to scoff at brother. Impressive. Ur in the top 90% of this trade. Well done!

why are u running the temp and rh so low?

 

[Kiloz]

1.2 is real good man, congratulations and have fun

 

[FlowerFarmer]

A few oz shy of 10lb from a modest 3600w setup!!!... That is amazing dude! Congrats! Is that typical of that room/wattage or is the Lemon that impressive of a yielder?

How do you typically do with other strains?

We run 3600w sealed/co2 in a space much smaller then that and are only getting about 5-6lb per run. Might have to tear our poly walls down and spread out a bit. We are using 3x3 trays with medium adjust a wings.

 

[smurfin'herb]

Thanks fellas.

@Miraculous- I like the lower temps day and night, in late late flower. Heres why, and some may disagree, but to each his own.
Cold temps bring out more colors, and i feel like it makes the bud just that much better. Tepenes are pretty volatile, and evap easily with heat. Even at room temp. At the end of the plants life, they are not producing as many terps as they were while aggressively growing. If I walk into my rooms and get blasted in the face by dank weed smell, the temps are getting turned down. Im trying to preserve as many terps as possible by keeping temps 68-70F or lower in late flower.

The humidity is kept low in late flower. The idea is to create stress on the plants and make them produce more resin because of it. I also feed with 55f water, and let the plants dry out to nothing (but not wilting) before feeding again during the last 10-14 days. As well as 2 days of dark before harvesting. I have even gone to the point of driving screws thru the stalk bases in the past. I find crunching it with a pair of pliers works just as good on small plants.

Does it all make a difference? I honestly have never really done a legit side by side to compare. All i know is that my stuff comes out top notch every time, so im gonna keep doing it the way i do it. At least for now. If someone told me that i couldnt do these techniques to a crop, i wouldnt lose much sleep over it. If that says anything.

@Farmer- This is not an uncommon yield for this cut if its done decently. Can be tricky though. Ive had it for 8 years, so im pretty familiar with how to make her work for me.
I can count on 1.5lb per 600watt pretty much every time. If i get more, its just a bonus. 2lbs from a 1000watt seems easily achievable, but i dont grow with 1000's.
Ive said before this is a very efficient strain. You can back off the lights and actually get more yield and better quality than having them close. Since it uses light so efficiently, it allows me to expand the growing area. As you know, I like the 37.5 wpsf, (600watt/4x4 area), but this grow may have even been as low as 32.5 wpsf with all the branches leaning off to the sides, thus taking up more area. Between those ranges is where you find me usually.

How do i do with other strains? Heres some reasonable estimates, although they can be exceeded. This is what i can pretty much count on, even with minor screw ups/sub par conditions.

In coco... per 600watt
-Lemon G 1.3-1.5lbs
-Dstar- 1.0-1.2lbs
-IBG- 1lb
-Ecsd 1lb
-p98Bub- 0.75-1lb

My last dstar run produced 8 from room 1. Thats above average.
Theres no doubt in my mind that the lemon G can do closer to 2lbs/600watt given the right setup (sealed, Co2, hydro). Ive seen it damn near done without the co2, in bucket systems. The buddy i had set up was easily, for sure getting 1.75lb/600watt. I miss the old days. Buckets of lemons will be part of my next project. Maybe that should be the title. I need to show the world just how ridiculous it can get with strain. I could slap myself for not taking pics of it back in the day. We were killllllling it!!! The quality just wasnt there though. Maybe i can do better these days.

Thanks again for the kind words everyone.

 

[Herbal Wisdom]

Sweet garden!

 

[Miraculous Meds]

Nice post. I hadn't put much thought into the high temps in relation to terpene loss. But it does seem to make good sense. I was just thinking of the loss of yield by reducing the temps and humidity, but it sounds like ur happy making that sacrifice for the quality u achieved. Ur still getting great yields anyway.

Ive tried crucifying a ssh cut I used to have. Its a process of driving wood stakes through the stalk in a cross formation. That plant really stretched its bracts and calyx's. Yield and quality were still comparable, so I drew no real conclusions from it. It was maybe more resinous but I couldn't confirm.

That d star cut ran horizontal scrog for me, couldn't break over the gpw. But doing vert could hit 1.5. And I think the ability for 2 was achievable. I sure would like to have that lemon g cut. Sucks as I was just able to get a few small bags here and there of it. And im pretty sure the friend I got the d star cut from could have sourced the lemon g back then.
Lemon g is the strain that I could smoke a joint to the very end and it still tasted the same as when u first lit it up. AAA tasting smoke!

 

[smurfin'herb]

@Meds- It truly is a very tasty variety, all the way down to the last lemon drop. The wax from this stuff is no different.

DUDE, dont even get me thinking about doing this variety in vert setup. Slobber and droool on my computer! It would be so ridiculous that you couldnt even pick your jaw up to laugh. I keep trying to get Farmer to do it in his ppk room. I think im going to try a setup like that in the future, so im sure it will be done either way. Excited for what the future holds.

Thanks for everyone stopping by so far. During my long hiatus from IC, i will admit that i got a bit lazy and half-assed. Its nice to have people judging/watching you. It helps keep me on top of my game like I used to be.

 

[amannamedtruth]

Looking fire dude.

 

[wiggleworm1980]

Great run!!!!! Got a few questions, sorry if I missed the answers.
Venting with no glass no I assume you're not running co2? Also what's your training method? Top? Supercrop?

 

[smurfin'herb]

Yep venting the hoods with no glass. I have a trunk duct going down the center that each light vents into. Its mainly used for summertime when i have the lenses on the hoods. I just left the hoods hooked up this time, and removed the lenses. The airflow isnt significant enough to cool the bulbs down to a point where they arent working as efficiently as they should. Yet it just enough to help me keep a more consistent canopy temp. For example, Instead of being 80f directly under the hoods and 75f between the gaps, it brings those numbers closer together. Eventually i will go to gavita de's. Im hoping that by having a smaller reflector, it wont hold as much heat as some of the more common "box style" hoods. We shall see. If not, it would be small sacrifice to make for such a quality piece of equip.

I prune by topping, waiting, then supercropping.

 

[smurfin'herb]

Apologies for the long break. I have a lot of stuff going on at the moment, as this isnt my only party. Sometimes I really wish there were a 2nd and 3rd version of me. To make decisions, do research, run crops, order and pick up stuff, trimming ect... Theres just not enough time in one day to get done what i need to get done anymore. Ive got a life on top of this, and its getting tough to maintain alone.

Now that my bitching is over, Room 2 was taken down @82 days. I feel like the colder temps made it go just a bit longer. The foxtails really popped out this time, and i honestly believe all this had something to do with the biocozyme as well. Its whatever, most of the quality was preserved since i flushed that stuff out. Only a few random colas were slightly affected, and still only about 20% loss in resin content and aroma in those specific buds. Everything else is superb! I weigh all my plants after chop with everything including fans and stalk (Not the medium) You bet i keep tabs. Average this run was right around 700grams per plant. The ranges were between roughly 650 and 800 grams if anyone cares. More for my own knowledge.

Here they are in the last week or so.

Ladies, you may take your bow...

 

[smurfin'herb]

Thanks for tuning in.

 

[TPFTFW]

Sweet..

When life gives ya lemons...