What up RIU, it is fukkin' good to be back. A lot has happened during the site remodel and resulting server downtime. So let's review..
First topic: I will soon be the designated caregiver (med provider) for an inlaw of mine that recently found out they have a malignant tumor on his lung. Good quality RSO around here is ~$100/g. Since I'm growning a few high CBD clones (The Remedy and Sour Tsunami #3), I will veg them out and take clones early on, and then will designate 15 plant sites for him and him alone. My current *rookie* grow (the Spc. Kush, Pineapple Chunk, Ice, G-13 & Holland's Hope) started with 11 plants and 9 made it to harvest. The two that didn't make it were both PC. One which went up and dead on me almost overnight - still don't know why, and the other was a runt to say the least, so I pulled her. With new motivation (in the form of being a designated provider), I am steppin' up my game a bit. I will be growing a total of 30 plants (15 per patient is currently the law in my state).
Second topic: Due to space constraints and just various shit I learned during this first grow, I will be migrating to hydro instead of soil. Basically, as it stands right now, every time I water my plants I have to take them out of the room, bring them in the house, water them, and carry em back out to the grow room. It blows. I also don't have walkaround space for treating pests, which means - remove from room, spray room, spray plants, return plants to room - you get it. I love soil growing, and will miss it. I have had GREAT results and that's not just my own opinion. A dispensary told me in so many words that they can't keep my stuff in. Apparently patients snatched up the most recent two oz. I provided in less than 3 hours
and said "your bud is legendary already, people want it the second we have it." So that gave me a pretty big head lol, but also worries me that my quality may suffer a bit when I transition to hydro.
Third topic: The new hydro setup I've chosen... I've decided to go with StinkBud's Aero/NFT Hybrid setup. It's the same systems he uses for his 1 lb. harvest every 21 days. I did the math on what the supplies will cost for construction of the flowering units, and they should come out to be around $135/each. I'll run two 6 site flower systems and three six site (modified from SB's plan) veg units (totaling 30 plants). The goal being to harvest 6 plants every 4.5 weeks after everything is in motion. I'll post up some pics of the plans soon.
Last topic: I picked up a 5' x 5' x 7' tent on the cheap, I moved the clones outta the closet and gave em a 435 CFM hurricaine fan for exhaust, passive intake for now. Will be ditching the fluro's shortly and putting it a 400W HPS I have layin around. To be honest I'll probably use the fluros and the 400W, that way I will still have the blue spectrum as well.
Welp, that's it for the moment. I'll be posting up some pictures later on (next day or two) of the tent, new cuttings - OH YEAH, I'm doing a test with a couple cloning root enhancers, more on that later.... Both G-13 plants and Holland's Hope plants are still flowering. I have 2 ice plants and the one special kush finishing up the lower branches still as well. Still plenty to harvest