The Flower Farm - my garden chronicles

[FlowerFarmer]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Here are some recent shots.

TheDank23,

Pictures didnt show it at the moment as I was using them to finish up my blueberries which are prone to rot. I had 5 16" pedestal fans on them and thankfully this garden I didn't find a spec of bud rot. The wind works.

I've got a few pedestals in this room as well as a few wall mounts. I also have a number of vortex floor fans below the canopy. Between this and the wind from my split ac, deheuy, and 10" max scrubber it's got the room swaying around nicely.

_tessarecting,
I'm not 100% sure at the moment, but they are currently set at 1000w and are not burning. Little bit of leaf canoe from heat, but my temp gauges say around high 70s most of the room. We did experience oddly warm winter so far so there have been some spikes here and there. If I had to guess I'd say these are 30"-36" away from the lamps.

DE lights are definitely possible in 8' ceilings. I have my lights pinned at the ceiling. Plants are on trays sitting on 1 gallon pots so they aren't even on the floor. These were way overvegged, but I've done a lot of weaving to keep the canopy under control Properly managed I know several people running DEs in 8' ceilings and doing good.

Yields are yet to be seen. I'm concerned the nanolux might come with inferior lamps. I've heard some reports locally that people weren't seeing an increase in yield with the nanolux like they were with the gavitas. Inferior bulb issue? The EYEs still look brighter/nicer to me compared to these Nanolux DE lamps (maxpar lamps I believe?) Time will tell. If these don't out yield my hortilux I'd like to try again with new lamps (ushio DE, but I hear EYE is dropping a DE lamp soon).

Otherwise it's back to electronic ballasts, adjust a wings and hortilux/ushios for me.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Plants have been feeding hard under the DEs. I keep yellowing (as if I'm flushing) in the intense zones under the DEs. I've hit from 1.8 - 2.0 EC at times.. mostly around 1.6 EC or so. The paling/yellowing continues.

I've got my DEs spaced on 4' centers.. should be 5'.. my ends are suffering due to lack of light.

My 8k hortilux are dimmed to 600w from here on out.. too intense.. I'm bleaching tops. I can see one is worse then the others. That's the one thing that has always bothered me with EYE lamps. They never seem to look the same.. same age.. I've got one that looks a lot more blue.. causing bleaching. It appears more intense then the others.


Big mistake last week.. back corner of 8k section I had to just toss my trellis on as I couldn't access the backside. I never secured it along the back wall to the pvc frame. They toppled recently and drug down nearly a 4k lane. I stood it up best I could but the canopy is extremely discombobulated now.. lots of stuff pinned awkwardly under the trellis... things fell down into the abyss. 2 trays look a mess now. Fuck..

Sucks.. this grow was going pretty good so far. I'm glad it's a larger one.

Last run here and I'm done. Going to shut this down and just run 6k DE at home...built properly with dedicated veg, co2, ac, dehuey.. Time to build my dream room right from the get go this time... Too much work trying to run this remote.. I want more of my life back and less stress, bills, associated with a remote/distant grow.... I thought I wanted it (to be safe for me and my lady)... tried it.. didn't like it, tried it again.. it's not for me.. Going to grow at home and try to make it fun again..and DIALED! I'm ultimately at less risk in my own basement then trying to do this big thing remotely in a dedicated spot.

There wasn't any point in finishing the automation here just to tear down.. been hand watering the DE side once per day.. been plugging a pump in and feeding the 8k side.

Good things on the horizon.. 2-3 weeks to go here. I hope everyone likes Glue. Glue for days over here..

Day 47 Flower

 

[sturgeongeneral]

How high above the canopy are you running those de??

 

[jewcebox]

that canopy looks awesome!

i cant run my aircooled DE's that close to my plants without burning em lol so thats alot of light for them nuggies.

well done that room looks dialed

 

[zeet]

Great thread FF, thanks for sharing the good times!

 

[smurfin'herb]

looks great!

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Been procrastinating hard on giving these girls the axe. I should have been chopping away all week, but I pushed it off and accomplished some other much needed chores.. Here we are at 69 Days Flower.

Going to try to beast through the weekend to get as much stripped and hanging as possible with mainly myself and hopefully one other person at times. The rest I'll have to keep working at late night hours after my 9-5. Not looking forward to it, but I'm excited to get it all done and dismantled to focus more intently on something smaller... at least for now so that I can breath and catch up with myself.

 

[_tessarecting]

Lovely pics, excellent canopy, all stacked, nice work FlowerFarmer!

 

[Vanilla Phoenix]

Dude, I feel for ya. I hate trimming what tiny little bit I have to. Just lookin at what you got, working a 9 to 5, I'm feeling freakon overwhelmed! To me, trimming is like going to the gym.....you basically have to force yourself to go, but once you are there and after, you are glad you went. Hahahaha.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Luckily, I've actually got a Greenbroz dry trimmer. Once they are chopped, de-faned, and hung for a bit they'll be de-boned and ran through the Greenbroz. The machine works extremely well when ran at the right time (moisture content) in my opinion on dense larger nugs. The smalls I've still yet to master. I need to get a moisture meter and really fine tune things. The nice thing about this machine is that you are in control of the time and any downward pressure you apply with the brush.

Too dry and the buds can really get polished down and stemmy.. a kiefed/tumbled look. Too moist and it simply doesn't break away the trim necessary and can also tug the bud downward into the rotating disks.... It's critical to run at the right moisture level. I've been giving things a super brief time in the trimmer and movin it a bit rougher. The quality is there so nobody has really seemed to mind in my current situation. It's not perfect and I'm sorry for that, but I'd be screwed without it. My problem is that without more hands the drying/trimming process gets broken up into a lot of different time tables and steps to manage.

My one issue with it is that it can actually cause buds to explode occasionally..lol. I'm not sure if it's a cleanliness issue or what (or too dry?), but every now and again the plastic arm that rotates around the disks will pinch a bud between the wall and itself and will ricochet the bud into bits. Initially I thought it was due to this small indentation causing it, but I've actually witnessed on the smooth wall during a rotation.

It's all about the prep (removing any stem whatsoever) and moisture levels... strain as well. My problem is that if I don't de-fan it at the chop and just hang the plant/branches whole with leaves, it ends up being a larger hassle for me and I end up with smalls, etc that ultimately overdry & don't run well - never get ran. This machine does not like petioles. It seems extra tedious to me to deal with once dry... I need a de-fanning crew and I'd be set, but ultimately it's best to keep it to as few as necessary.

My DE side wont be so bad. I've done a lot of plucking of leaves here and there as I've neared harvest. They are pretty well flushed at this point as well. The 8k over yonder though wasn't stripped/thinned as aggressively and that combined with my back corner toppling I've got some larf amongst them. I've also got his really weird shit going on right in front of my split AC... bleached out scraggly shit that grew out of the side of a decent cola structure. lol... I'll try to get a shot of it when I get to it.

I'll detail some more stuff later on the trimmer w/ dry shot pics as I handle this glue. It's gonna be a while though on a final yield report. I'm really curious how these 6 DEs did. Their side was pretty smooth sailing.. maybe some hot days, but overall pretty easy even though I hand (wand)-watered it.

 

[HL45]

Looking good! I've been pondering the Greenbroze trimmer myself after seeing dim give it awesome reviews. Seems like the more dense indica strains are the ones that will go through the trimmer the best? How long does it take for the trimmer to go through a pound?

 

[dimebag_]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Here are some recent shots.

TheDank23,

Pictures didnt show it at the moment as I was using them to finish up my blueberries which are prone to rot. I had 5 16" pedestal fans on them and thankfully this garden I didn't find a spec of bud rot. The wind works.

I've got a few pedestals in this room as well as a few wall mounts. I also have a number of vortex floor fans below the canopy. Between this and the wind from my split ac, deheuy, and 10" max scrubber it's got the room swaying around nicely.

_tessarecting,
I'm not 100% sure at the moment, but they are currently set at 1000w and are not burning. Little bit of leaf canoe from heat, but my temp gauges say around high 70s most of the room. We did experience oddly warm winter so far so there have been some spikes here and there. If I had to guess I'd say these are 30"-36" away from the lamps.

DE lights are definitely possible in 8' ceilings. I have my lights pinned at the ceiling. Plants are on trays sitting on 1 gallon pots so they aren't even on the floor. These were way overvegged, but I've done a lot of weaving to keep the canopy under control Properly managed I know several people running DEs in 8' ceilings and doing good.

Yields are yet to be seen. I'm concerned the nanolux might come with inferior lamps. I've heard some reports locally that people weren't seeing an increase in yield with the nanolux like they were with the gavitas. Inferior bulb issue? The EYEs still look brighter/nicer to me compared to these Nanolux DE lamps (maxpar lamps I believe?) Time will tell. If these don't out yield my hortilux I'd like to try again with new lamps (ushio DE, but I hear EYE is dropping a DE lamp soon).

Otherwise it's back to electronic ballasts, adjust a wings and hortilux/ushios for me.

Flowerfarmer-wassup man-sweet grow u got goin…

was just curious how much ac you were running to cool all those 14 lights?? Also when you say you ran the de's @ 1000W, does that mean that they were turned down from full power (1150 or whatever top wattage is)or are they maxed at 1000W? Also your trays look like they're on the floor or almost on the floor no?

I wanna try de's with my 8 foot ceilings but my trays are on cinder blocks which are like 16" standing on their end plus a 2x4 or two- so my trays are prob more like 19-20" off the ground cuz my resis are underneath them. Would be a real tight squeeze but doable I think if I keep plants short.

BTW is it looking like the de's outperformed the hps for ya in yield or quality or both, or too early yet to know? thx bud

db-

 

[Chunkypigs]

dank glue dude! curious what kind of difference in yield those DE give you.

 

[Desert Hydro]

what ever happened to FF?

 

[Anothermeduser]

Did you ever figure a way to cycle your pump, you can buy a heavy duty cycle stat that can handle the amps on 120 but they are pricy, you can use a light style relay to do it as well, wire it up for the 120 on the switch power and 240 switching on, just a relay, designed to handle a electrical load not just lights

 

[Goats]

as i read through this thread, i was thinking "how the fuck does he tend these rooms and work a 9-5?" i'm impressed you were able to do that as long as you did.

everything looks great. hope you get a trim buddy or two.