Harvest a Pound Every Three Weeks!

[repvip]

DP those pics are amazing! Wow.. very impressive. How tall is the tallest?

I would plant some other seeds to see if you get a different phenotype of the strains you are growing.. or maybe just 1. Of course keep clones of the ones you have now..

For example. I have 4 blue cheese plants in dirt as mothers, flowering, and three of them are about the same, but 1 is significantly larger than the others, much desner buds. Blue cheese is a cross between blueberry and skunk #1 background.. this larger bud plant has more of the skunk phenotype and is taking longer to mature, but it's the pheno I wanted!

... the sad part is I took clones from all 4--but I didn't label them!! Now I want only the one plant as a mother... I have more clones, but I can't tell which mother they are from. I might have to try to regenerate. Lesson learned

 

[DragonPhoenix]

DP those pics are amazing! Wow.. very impressive. How tall is the tallest?

Well I have a Fruit of the Gods with is (Skunk#1 x NL 5) that is between 5 and 6'. I had to start tieing the tops down and that the sativa in the front of the middle system in the left post. In the back on that same left post is a Thai Super Skunk (another sativa which was free seed from an order) that is the same height. They would have been MUCH taller if I had space but I don't have room to grow 10' plants so I tied them down. I've got a Dutch Passion Skywalker (Dutch Passion Blueberry x Dutch Passion Mazar) and Dutch Passion Strawberry Cough that are each about 4' tall and the Barney's Farm Sweet Tooth is about 3' tall. I'm going to work on evening the canopy out between the plants but these were all started from seed and I'll actually be able to do that once I'm working from only clones.

I would plant some other seeds to see if you get a different phenotype of the strains you are growing.. or maybe just 1. Of course keep clones of the ones you have now..

For example. I have 4 blue cheese plants in dirt as mothers, flowering, and three of them are about the same, but 1 is significantly larger than the others, much desner buds. Blue cheese is a cross between blueberry and skunk #1 background.. this larger bud plant has more of the skunk phenotype and is taking longer to mature, but it's the pheno I wanted!

... the sad part is I took clones from all 4--but I didn't label them!! Now I want only the one plant as a mother... I have more clones, but I can't tell which mother they are from. I might have to try to regenerate. Lesson learned

Oh yeah I got pretty anal when it came to labelling everything and tracking everything in the garden. On each neoprene collar I do this. I'll just take a picture and show ya.

So what I do is write down the strain with a color code and the date the clone was taken or in the case of seed the day it was put into the aero system. You'll see FOG 3 in the one picture. This means Fruit of The Gods and this is the THIRD plant. The mother plant was marked accordingly and hopefully I can just narrow it down to which type I like the best and then not clone the others.

I also keep a calendar of what needs to be done on what days for the room - changing water, harvesting, start of flush, etc. and mark every res with the date it was changed and the next scheduled change. Removes all guesswork like "oh crap when did I last change this?".

I'm trying to keep up as much as I can but again I'm just learning like everybody else.

DP

 

[sweeteyez113]

damn your guys pics look great im a first timers and my system should be here monday. any tips? i have no idea wHAT DO WITH THE WATER

 

[DragonPhoenix]

damn your guys pics look great im a first timers and my system should be here monday. any tips? i have no idea wHAT DO WITH THE WATER

What I'm doing right now is just double checking my water from the tap by using my pH/ppm meter to see if I can use it instead of Reverse Osmosis water. I filled up a cup of water and it measured 250ppm. I'm going to leave it out for 48 hours and measure the ppm again and see if it drops. If it drops below 200ppm I may just end up using it instead of RO water for the sake of convenience. My RO system takes my water from 250ppm down to 10ppm.

DP

 

[outlawcustombikes]

What I'm doing right now is just double checking my water from the tap by using my pH/ppm meter to see if I can use it instead of Reverse Osmosis water. I filled up a cup of water and it measured 250ppm. I'm going to leave it out for 48 hours and measure the ppm again and see if it drops. If it drops below 200ppm I may just end up using it instead of RO water for the sake of convenience. My RO system takes my water from 250ppm down to 10ppm.

DP

If you do use unfiltered tap water at 250ppm post your results....I still can't get anything to root in my water (250-300ppm ) I've given up after a half dozen attempts to get things going. As soon as I get my tax return I'm buying a RO system.
~Outlaw~

 

[repvip]

If you do use unfiltered tap water at 250ppm post your results....I still can't get anything to root in my water (250-300ppm ) I've given up after a half dozen attempts to get things going. As soon as I get my tax return I'm buying a RO system.
~Outlaw~

Tap water here is usually low 300's, between 300-350--haven't had any problems with rooting. What type of setup were you using for your clones? My last batch of clones was taking longer than usual, 7 days no roots, then I realized the rez temp was wayyyy low. Got the temp up to 70ish and had quite a few clones pop roots the next day or two.

You could try cloning with bottled water first before you go all out on the RO!

 

[free2believe]

Thanks so much for the post and also the drawings of how to do it!

 

[genfranco]

If you do use unfiltered tap water at 250ppm post your results....I still can't get anything to root in my water (250-300ppm ) I've given up after a half dozen attempts to get things going. As soon as I get my tax return I'm buying a RO system.
~Outlaw~

I lucked out on this one... My tap is 190 PPM...so it works fine.

I used to lug RO water from the stores in those 5 gallon jugs.... nice little work out for me....lol

Safeway had the best ro water... sometimes down to 0 or 1 ppm...winco's was about 12....and chinese refill places was the worst coming in at 175....wtf??? do those system even clean anything?

tap water ranges...so if you havent tested it with a quality ppm reader you will not know. Also try and using half hot and half cold water when using the sink.... I have seen improvements in the PPM... it must be cause of the hot water heater.... Just dont get it too hot.

 

[coonamatango]

IMPORTANT EDIT - I just realized a reason for some slow growth in the garden may be that it gets pretty cold at night in my room - down into the 50s. CRAP now I have to figure out a heater on a thermostat IN the bloom room. Anyone have experience with this? Some sort of space heater maybe?


put your lights on at night, easier to control temp fluctuations with lights on at night off during day. Over here electricity is cheaper during the off peak hours of 6pm-6pm too! bonus all round

 

[andyman]

IMPORTANT EDIT - I just realized a reason for some slow growth in the garden may be that it gets pretty cold at night in my room - down into the 50s. CRAP now I have to figure out a heater on a thermostat IN the bloom room. Anyone have experience with this? Some sort of space heater maybe?


put your lights on at night, easier to control temp fluctuations with lights on at night off during day. Over here electricity is cheaper during the off peak hours of 6pm-6pm too! bonus all round

the electric company doesnt know when you run shit. they read the meter and check how many kilowatt hours you use a month. not per day or hour. just the amount of juice you use a month. then they watch to see if its close the next year for that month. I have to call my readings in every month cause they wont come by my high tech security system. (4 pitbulls that are the biggest babys) anyway if say last years januarys bill is way lower than this years January bill than they might wonder whats up.

 

[havefungodumb]

would a 214gph pump work for the smaller clone system well?

 

[andyman]

would a 214gph pump work for the smaller clone system well?

a 190 gph worked fine for my 10 spray head cloner. had 100% sucsess rate so far

 

[bugs181]

Okay, so where to start? This is my first grow, and so far im proud of my results. Im starting from seed but iv improvised enough that it shouldnt matter as these will be the mother plants.

I just wanted to thankyou and everyone else for all the information and guides. Its been of GREAT help.

What i'll be growing isnt for my personal use, its for someone I know that has cancer.
My mother has also been diagnosed with pre-cell cancer, and cancer runs in my family. My great grandmother, grandmother, and grandfather, have all died of cancer, and now my mother going on 50 will most likely be added to the list as she's too old to do many of the treatments.

I really need to make her life easier as when my grand mother had cancer her insides were gettin eatin alive and she looked like a twig and puked everything she digested... I dont want this for my mother (I wont be able to handle it.)

Im really desperate for this help. I give my mother a hug and tell her everyday about how much I love her, so I beleive that I deserve at least a little more information.

Thanks in advance... So here we go.

Theres just a few concerns I have and need to get them straight before I continue. Excuse my ignorance and my noobified questions.

Question #1: You said you run your lights at night, so does that mean you have your lights (that go from 1 minute on, 5 minutes off) OFF during the day time?

Question #2:
Quote: Moving on to the flower room When the time comes I just pull them up out of the containers and move them into the flower room.

How do I know when this time comes? What do I have to look for? Am I looking for something plant specific?

Question #3:
I know theres been alot of talk about lighting. Well since this is my VERY FIRST GROW, id like to know what the best light would be in general, for all of the systems. (EXE: cloner, veg, and flower room).

I noticed that 1000w HPS goes from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and can't afford this kind of money for my first setup. Perhaps after a harvest or two I can afford this, but not right now. What would be a cheap solution that would give my plants a decent amount of lighting required for growing?

I know with nature, you cant really skim off the top and expect much, but I just need to get by with a light thats roughly $100 to $200 with decent lighting till I can afford something else.

Question #4:
After the cloner, off to veg system
The plants are under a 250W MH light set to 18/6.
What does this mean? The lights are set to 18/6 ?

Question #5:
Another question, just basicly technicality. You mention weeks, are these 5 day weeks or 7 day weeks?

Once again, I appreciate ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK! I will definately be sure to pass on the love, I just wish my grow goes good so I can give my mother something I couldnt give my grandmother and grandfather. Again, thankyou.

Subscribed + Rated Excellent

 

[andyman]

The 1 min on /5 min off timer is for the pumps. You bring from veg to flower depending on what height you want. As long as the roots are there enough

 

[funtogrow]

Question #1: You said you run your lights at night, so does that mean you have your lights (that go from 1 minute on, 5 minutes off) OFF during the day time?

The lights are ran at night to keep the temp down. The 1on 5off is for your pumps and that is constant 24/7

Question #2:
Quote: Moving on to the flower room When the time comes I just pull them up out of the containers and move them into the flower room.

How do I know when this time comes? What do I have to look for? Am I looking for something plant specific?

Here we root the plants in the cloner for 3 weeks then we move to the veg unit for 3 weeks then its off to flower. Also after you move the plants to the veg unit you take clones off them.

Question #3:
I know theres been alot of talk about lighting. Well since this is my VERY FIRST GROW, id like to know what the best light would be in general, for all of the systems. (EXE: cloner, veg, and flower room).

I noticed that 1000w HPS goes from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and can't afford this kind of money for my first setup. Perhaps after a harvest or two I can afford this, but not right now. What would be a cheap solution that would give my plants a decent amount of lighting required for growing?

I know with nature, you cant really skim off the top and expect much, but I just need to get by with a light thats roughly $100 to $200 with decent lighting till I can afford something else.

The cloner you can folos, veg folos or mh "me i just use folos and it works fine" and for flower hps.
http://www.htgsupply.com/growlightsubcategories.asp?categoryID=1 good prices and quick shipping.

Question #4:
After the cloner, off to veg system
The plants are under a 250W MH light set to 18/6.
What does this mean? The lights are set to 18/6 ?

18/6 means 18 hours of the lights on and 6 hours off.

Question #5:
Another question, just basicly technicality. You mention weeks, are these 5 day weeks or 7 day weeks?

7 day weeks.

good luck and srry about all the famley

 

[StinkBud]

Question #1: You said you run your lights at night, so does that mean you have your lights (that go from 1 minute on, 5 minutes off) OFF during the day time?

I run my flower room lights at night for a number of reasons. It is always cooler at night. Security is another concern.

Don't confuse the lights running at 12 hours on and 12 hours off with the hydro pump. The water pump is what runs 1 minute on and 5 minutes off.

Question #2:
Quote: Moving on to the flower room When the time comes I just pull them up out of the containers and move them into the flower room.

How do I know when this time comes? What do I have to look for? Am I looking for something plant specific?

Every time I harvest I move the veg plants into flower. So it is totally dependent on when the space opens up in the flower room.

Question #3:
I know theres been alot of talk about lighting. Well since this is my VERY FIRST GROW, id like to know what the best light would be in general, for all of the systems. (EXE: cloner, veg, and flower room).

I noticed that 1000w HPS goes from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and can't afford this kind of money for my first setup. Perhaps after a harvest or two I can afford this, but not right now. What would be a cheap solution that would give my plants a decent amount of lighting required for growing?

I know with nature, you cant really skim off the top and expect much, but I just need to get by with a light thats roughly $100 to $200 with decent lighting till I can afford something else.

Just use some cheap shop lights that you get at Walmart for $7. Use the cool white Fluorescent bulbs. You can use these for at least the first 6-8 weeks. Then you have no choice but to buy an HPS light.

HPS lights consist of a reflector, ballast and bulb. A reflector will cost you $100-150. The ballast is around $200 and a bulb will set you back $40-100 depending on the brand.

You will have this light forever so don't scrimp on your flower lights!!!!There is no sense using Aeroponics if you don't have the light to support the growth.

Don't forget just one gallon of nutrients costs close to $50 and you will need 4 gallons to get started. You also need a PPM meter and PH meter. It's not cheap to get started.

Question #4:
After the cloner, off to veg system
The plants are under a 250W MH light set to 18/6.
What does this mean? The lights are set to 18/6 ?

18 hours on and 6 hours off.

Question #5:
Another question, just basicly technicality. You mention weeks, are these 5 day weeks or 7 day weeks?

As far as I know the plants don't take the weekends off so it would be a 7 day week.

Good luck bro!

 

[greenacres]

Is 18/6 to save energy ? vs leaving veg at 24/0

 

[DragonPhoenix]

Is 18/6 to save energy ? vs leaving veg at 24/0

If you run veg 24/0 your plants are going to be WAY too big before you put them into bloom in a perpetual harvest every 3w. Trust me on this one...Stink will tell you the same thing and so will Dirthawker.

DP

 

[andyman]

Is 18/6 to save energy ? vs leaving veg at 24/0

Besides the growth rate like DragonPhoenix said it also gives time for the plants to sleep and repair cells. Imagine staying up 24/7 unless youve got meth you would were down quick. plants need rest too.

 

[westmich]

the electric company doesnt know when you run shit. they read the meter and check how many kilowatt hours you use a month. not per day or hour. just the amount of juice you use a month. then they watch to see if its close the next year for that month. I have to call my readings in every month cause they wont come by my high tech security system. (4 pitbulls that are the biggest babys) anyway if say last years januarys bill is way lower than this years January bill than they might wonder whats up.

unless you have a smart meter - you pay based on demand and can watch your electric use/cost in real time - I'm sure we'll have one before the end of the first Obama administration