1085 Watts of Peasant Lighting - Feels Good Man

[Michael Huntherz]

I know it isn't an efficient set-up, but it is what I've scrounged together, and I'm not ashamed of the results. My electricity is almost embarrassingly cheap, so that's cool.
This is my second personal grow for personal stash, I don't sling shit at all.


8x 54W T5s running a mix of bulbs.
2x 150W 2700k CFLs
2x 60W 2700k CFLs
2x 137W White Mars Volta err Hydro LEDs (Two 60x5W epileds)

Using Blumats and Soil.

Running Fox Farm Nutrients in an unconventional fashion.

I chopped the Purple Wreck on Monday, didn't get the yield I hoped for but it is nice and frosty and smells dank as hell.

I'm going to post a chronological summary of the last three months, then update the harvest as I chop the final three. Here's a teaser pic from this morning. The little Dark Devil Auto in the front-left of the tent just moved in after the Purple Wreck came down. I have three more plants coming in behind it when I harvest the rest of the big girls.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Grow Journal
A Grow Log or Glog.
Or maybe Grog? What about Grlog? That’s too hard to say.
GroJo!
Plantings
July 17th 2015
Strains:

• 1 Fem. Barney’s Blue Cheese
• 1 Fem. Heavyweight Fruit Punch
• 1 Bagseed Purple Wreck Clone from my original mother.

Germination Method:

• Peat pellets overnight between paper plates. (I just plant in final medium now)
• Planted the pellets in starter coir cups with Espoma seed starter mix morning of July 18th in the 7" tall vented starter tray.
• Ambient heat from T5 fixture in the closet.

Growing Medium:

Soil!

I made a little mix with 2:1 FFOF/FFLW about 4 quarts of perlite, and just-shy-of 1/3 cup of Dolomite Lime.

Total batch is about 2.5 sq.ft.

I have four 5-gallon square Smart Pots (later changed to round 5gal Smart Pots.)

Nutrients

• Fox Farm Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom trio at about 1/4 strength and half the frequency unless I see a reason to bring it up.

Journal Entry
July 19th, 2015
Seeds: Waiting for germination is like fishing. You can always hope it is about to work out perfectly, but sometimes it just doesn’t. But this time everything is coming up roses. Well, not roses, but yeah, good;

• Germination has occurred as of the afternoon of July 19th. Taproots are out and look healthy.

Journal Entry
July 25th, 2015
Today I planted the Feminized Paradise Seeds Delahaze, aka Dé La Haze by absolutely no one. It is my most Sativa-dominant seed. I’m going to grow her slow and do a lot of LST after topping her a couple times. May clone her out and do a sea of green, we shall see. I’m excited by this free seed.
Pics are from about July 30th.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

August 2015 Journal Entries:
Journal Entry
August 18th, 2015
Planted some more seeds, moved four plants into flower. I’m tired, Mike Huntherz.

Journal Entry
August 19th, 2015
I want to stop planting seeds, but I’m having too much fun. These plants are going to have to veg for a while. Thankfully they are Sativa-dominant and will need some extra vegetative growth.

• CBD Crew CBD Medi Haze from seed
• Paradise Nebula from seed
• Paradise Original White Widow

Journal Entry
August 22nd, 2015
All the new beans have popped, I’m a little worried about the MediHaze, she is lagging behind a bit. Taproot is out, but seed hull is still covering the cotyledons and it hasn’t stood up yet. Fingers crossed, those are expensive seeds, and I need the CBD in my life. I can’t wait to see what a CBD-rich strain does for my digestive problems. I’ve had some trouble cloning the Delahaze for some reason, and she’s more hacked up than I’d like for flipping to flower right now. The BBC is horny as fuck and wants to produce some buds, the lighting change seems to have triggered some pre-flowering on her and the Fruit Punch. The stalks are getting fat but everyone is staying pretty short so far. I have a feeling Delahaze will stretch like a mofo, she has a much stretchier sativa-like structure to her than the others.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Journal Entry
September 13, 2015

The CBD Medi Haze did not survive, the cotyledons never turned green, and it fell over on August 22nd, dead or dying, same day as my last journal post. I planted another one on that day and it didn’t germ until September 8th. It is not looking right, the leaves are all wacky, but I’m just being patient. It isn’t producing new growth after the first pair of real post cotyledon leaves, I hope the roots are growing well, because it looks fucky. All my other seedlings have vegged up instantly, node after node, so I’m not sure what the shit is going down up in this bitch.

Everyone else is doing great, and I planted a Dark Devil seed, oh I don’t know a week back maybe. (Actually a week last night since she hit the dirt) I think I heat stressed the first pair of leaves by getting the T5 to close to it. Apparently a T5 can burn seedlings from a few inches away, though the nearly one month old Widow and Nebula were almost up against it with no problem. The Dark Devil is doing fine despite it, but those leaves were permanently canoed and a bit crisp in texture so I very carefully trimmed them away with the groovy German bonsai snips.

I have clones of all the stuff in flower, and three clones of the Delahaze. I need to get rid of some of those, but I’m afraid to lose some spectacular phenotype that doesn’t show its magic until the end of flower. I should at least get rid of the extra Hazes soon.

The Widow and Nebula are vegging like crazy weird heads of lettuce, I did some FIMing, topping, and super-cropping to them already, I’m planning to veg them for two months, hopefully the auto will be done by then.

I’m gonna need more lights.

More beans on the way!
Ordered from Herbie’s Pick’n’Mix site;

• Elemental Honey Bananas: 2 Feminized
• Rare Dankness Scott’s OG: 2 Feminized
• Cream of the Crop Purple Paralysis: 2 Feminized
• Devil’s Harvest Strawberry Sour Diesel: 2 Feminized
• HSO Blue Dream: 3 pack.

• Freebies
  
  • 1 X SamSara Holy Grail 69 Feminized Seed
  • 2 X Delicious Cheese Candy Feminized Seeds
  • 3 X SamSara Green Love Potion Feminized Seeds
  • 10 X Afghani Regular Seeds

I hope I get them without trouble, then I’ll stop for a while, I really will…I hope. I’m not affecting anyone but myself, and then it is a positive change for me! I shouldn’t have to be worried, but I do worry. Goddamn crying shame, really. This is the precise sort of situation the 4th Amendment to our Constitution is supposed to protect against, but our people have failed in protecting that right, and it is all but lost. I assert it is my Constitutional right on those grounds to grow plants for my own use in my own home, particularly when I have physical ailments that preclude regular participation in society without it. The whole thing is so maddening.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Pics are on the way!

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Skipping ahead, here we are, a couple shots of a harvested Purple Wreck bud, and some other views.

 

[SnaFuu]

Ahhh yes. Just how Edison envisioned it.

Lights everywhere

 

[LoRd MeGaTR0N31]

I gotta say the buds look very good for it not being HPS/MH. How long did you let them go before chop? Looks like they could of went 2.5 more weeks easy... Thats just my Opinion.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

I gotta say the buds look very good for it not being HPS/MH. How long did you let them go before chop? Looks like they could of went 2.5 more weeks easy... Thats just my Opinion.

I haven't chopped them yet, just the Purple Wreck which for whatever reason was way ahead of the others, maybe because it was a clone and the rest are from seed? They all started 12/12 at the same time, but I chopped it at about 8 weeks. I don't understand why but it was ready, she stopped pushing white hairs, went cloudy, started going amber and the calyxes swelled up like crazy, so I chopped her. I'm midway through week eight now.

The Barney's Blue Cheese (shorty in the rear right corner) will come down in about a week, Delahaze and Fruit Punch in about two.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[LoRd MeGaTR0N31]

I haven't chopped them yet, just the Purple Wreck which for whatever reason was way ahead of the others, maybe because it was a clone and the rest are from seed? They all started 12/12 at the same time, but I chopped it at about 8 weeks. I don't understand why but it was ready, she stopped pushing white hairs, went cloudy, started going amber and the calyxes swelled up like crazy, so I chopped her. I'm midway through week eight now.

The Barney's Blue Cheese (shorty in the rear right corner) will come down in about a week, Delahaze and Fruit Punch in about two.

Thanks for the kind words.

My clones tend to flower faster than the ones from seed. I think the reason behind that is the clone was already matured and sexed. My ladies from seeds produce way more than the ones from clones tho. I think thats because of the tap root from the ladies from seeds.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

My clones tend to flower faster than the ones from seed. I think the reason behind that is the clone was already matured and sexed.

I actually took this one from the mother when pretty deep into flower due to necessity (long story) - glad to hear you noticed the same thing I saw. I'm pretty new at growing. I noticed the Wreck clone didn't put out as much as I expected, still OK, but all the others will yield more, methinks.

 

[LoRd MeGaTR0N31]

I actually took this one from the mother when pretty deep into flower due to necessity (long story) - glad to hear you noticed the same thing I saw. I'm pretty new at growing. I noticed the Wreck clone didn't put out as much as I expected, still OK, but all the others will yield more, methinks.

With clones I've learned its best to put them in wide containers thats not so deep and seeds in a more narrow and deep pot. Clones yield better when the roots can grow wide instead of down.

 

[BobCajun]

Looks like a mixture of fluorescent and LED works very well. The bottom right pic in post #3 is one of the most resinous buds I've ever seen. That thing is caked up. Must have been potent as hell.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Looks like a mixture of fluorescent and LED works very well. The bottom right pic in post #3 is one of the most resinous buds I've ever seen. That thing is caked up. Must have been potent as hell.

Thanks Bob! I have a second harvest from a clone of the plant that bud was from, it is drying right now and I have high hopes for it. It is quite potent, indeed, and I am proud of that pic. I got it from a bag seed as Purple Wreck, and was able to trace it back to the grower who was kind enough to talk to me and confirmed it is Reserva Privada Purple Wreck, which are hard beans to find these days. Unfortunately I killed my only clone, like a jerk, and so the harvest I did Monday will be the last of her. I'm bummed, but there are so many great strains to grow I will never get to all the ones I'm interested in anyway.

 

[BobCajun]

Thanks Bob! I have a second harvest from a clone of the plant that bud was from, it is drying right now and I have high hopes for it. It is quite potent, indeed, and I am proud of that pic. I got it from a bag seed as Purple Wreck, and was able to trace it back to the grower who was kind enough to talk to me and confirmed it is Reserva Privada Purple Wreck, which are hard beans to find these days. Unfortunately I killed my only clone, like a jerk, and so the harvest I did Monday will be the last of her. I'm bummed, but there are so many great strains to grow I will never get to all the ones I'm interested in anyway.

The Granny Wreck pics also looked very encrusted. What size is the grow space, 4x4 or what? Is that orange T5s or just warm white?

My first grow was with ordinary 4' fluorescents, nixture of warm and cool. I made a pretty solid layer of them, like four per foot making it 40w per square foot, and for a reflector I layed sheets of aluminum foil right on top of them and presed it down betwen them so it was actually covering the glass on the whole upper half of the tubes, no air space at all. Probably not a particularly efficient way to do it but it worked. The light from the upper half of the tube never exited the top at all. It bounced right back through the bottom half. They weren't in fixtures, I just twist tied them to two pieces of metal shelving support, one at each end of the tubes, you know the metal strips you attach to the wall and they have little slots in them to insert the shelf supports? I just put the twist ties up through one slot, over and around the tube and down through another slot and twisted the ends together on the underside. Then I ran wires from the ballasts to the bulb prongs and stuck the wires right onto the prongs by twisting them around them. I didn't want to have to buy the little sockets. I got really solid buds from Skunk #1 plants. The branches flopped right down.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

The Granny Wreck pics also looked very encrusted. What size is the grow space, 4x4 or what? Is that orange T5s or just warm white?

My first grow was with ordinary 4' fluorescents, nixture of warm and cool. I made a pretty solid layer of them, like four per foot making it 40w per square foot, and for a reflector I layed sheets of aluminum foil right on top of them and presed it down betwen them so it was actually covering the glass on the whole upper half of the tubes, no air space at all. Probably not a particularly efficient way to do it but it worked. The light from the upper half of the tube never exited the top at all. It bounced right back through the bottom half. They weren't in fixtures, I just twist tied them to two pieces of metal shelving support, one at each end of the tubes, you know the metal strips you attach to the wall and they have little slots in them to insert the shelf supports? I just put the twist ties up through one slot, over and around the tube and down through another slot and twisted the ends together on the underside. Then I ran wires from the ballasts to the bulb prongs and stuck the wires right onto the prongs by twisting them around them. I didn't want to have to buy the little sockets. I got really solid buds from Skunk #1 plants. The branches flopped right down.

Wow, crafty, lol. I just bought cheap Vivagrow fixtures on eBay, they come with bulbs.

The fluoros are a mix of 6500k, 3000k, and the purplish ones are something called "UltraWave" by WavePoint. I've read a lot of shit-talk about Wave Point on the Saltwater aquaria fora, but haven't seen any real data so I gave them a shot because I like their spectrum graph (which could be bullshit, of course) - I can't say I'm displeased with them at all, they don't seem to be holding me back, for what that's worth. I am pretty happy with the outcome so far.

Yes, that's a 4'x4' tent.

The Granny Wreck is the same plant as that crusty bud pic you liked. It really was a nice pheno, but she's gone now because I stupidly killed my only clone. Just jarred up her final harvest yesterday. Not a huge yielder, this time I got about 65g at 60-62% RH, but pretty damn frosty.

 

[BobCajun]

Wow, crafty, lol. I just bought cheap Vivagrow fixtures on eBay, they come with bulbs.

The fluoros are a mix of 6500k, 3000k, and the purplish ones are something called "UltraWave" by WavePoint. I've read a lot of shit-talk about Wave Point on the Saltwater aquaria fora, but haven't seen any real data so I gave them a shot because I like their spectrum graph (which could be bullshit, of course) - I can't say I'm displeased with them at all, they don't seem to be holding me back, for what that's worth. I am pretty happy with the outcome so far.

Yes, that's a 4'x4' tent.

The Granny Wreck is the same plant as that crusty bud pic you liked. It really was a nice pheno, but she's gone now because I stupidly killed my only clone. Just jarred up her final harvest yesterday. Not a huge yielder, this time I got about 65g at 60-62% RH, but pretty damn frosty.

Oh well, I'm sure you'll find another one that's as resinous and also a big producer. The important thing is; the lights are working.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

I have a fair number of quality beans sitting here, and I'm thinking this Delahaze is a big winner; at least a week more to go on her and she's blowing my mind. This cola is 14" long and almost the girth of a quart jar.

 

[Michael Huntherz]

Well, for a first attempt at multiple plants, second solo grow I've ever done, I'm happy. I got 306 grams dry weight, here's the breakdown:

Purple Wreck
Harvested October 12-16 2015
69.7g dry weight

Barney's Blue Cheese
Harvested October 19-20
77.1g dry weight

Fruit Punch
Harvested October 24th
67.6g dry?!
- a surprise loser, looks great, but weighs very little.

Delahaze
Harvested October 25th
91.6g dry weight

306 grams exactly? Cool.
I haven't even fucked up the cure on it yet!
Lights running at a re-measured/corrected 983 Watts total dissipation which = .31129 grams per watt, which ain't great, but our electric is cheap, it works for me. 11.3oz. will keep me good and elevated for a bit.