The Shack's AeroGrow

[krakennkenji]

i'll probably get some photos up later of the kids, they seem to be taking to the nutrients VERY well, new growth coming in on the 3 rooted clones looks healthy. also the other 3 appear to be shooting out some MICRO roots, tiny little white nubs here and there. their leaves are looking a little rough so i return the "alien incubator cups" and sprayed each one to add some humidity to the party. i might be looking at 100% rooted!! (although 50% won't be as strong as the other )

i'll also say this, the rooted clones, they uh... haha they grow funny!! the leaves are twisting and growing all sorts of crazy ways. but i guess your limbs would like kinda funny if they were on the verge of death and suddenly your heart started working again and it had to make sense of your practically dead limbs.

i guess i'm going to HAVE to put pics up later for this to make sense. haha

Alright, well probably this is not why the leaves are growing in all twisty 'n stuff, but I'm gonna post this link to a Plant Moisture Stress post anyway, just in case. I was reading it the other day and realize now that this is probably what one of my plants (the one that just died, actually) was dealing with early on in its life. It had weird twisty leaves and the tips were kind of "cupping" in.

 

[Shackleford.R]

Thanks for the post KrackRock. I checked it out, there is definitely some stress going on. I'm pretty sure its primarily N-deficiency, I went with seedling instead of full strength nutrients. When I do a res change in a few days I'll be upping the Grow/Veg nutrients, maybe delaying the schedule a bit. Really want the leaf structure to be strong before I add transition nutrients.

On with the dirty photos...

Had my girl help me name them...

Say hello to Lisa..

and Olivia..

and finally Baby Taco..

if you study the pictures well enough, you'll notice some hairs. i think that could be causing the majority of the stress. Laura (their mom) went into flower about 4 or 5 days before the cuttings came from her. then they were subjected to rooting and 24 hour light (and still are, havent found my missing timer yet). should have that worked out by next res change, and plan to give them the 18/6 treatment.

 

[Shackleford.R]

Alright so the last piece of this grow was timing the lights. Tonight i found what i needed! A power strip with a built in timer! I attached an image, found it at the pet store haha.

The four WHITE outlets are constant power, and running the air pump for the stones.
The YELLOW/BLUE outlets are controlled by the timer.

Thats where it stops being simple...

When the BLUE outlets are ON, the YELLOW outlets are OFF
likewise
When the YELLOW outlets are ON, the BLUE outlets are OFF

So currently just have the lights on the BLUE outlets... not sure if there is anything to plug in alternating to that??
The lights are going to run 18/6 for the remainder of the week, and then i plan to res change on schedule to 50/50 transition nutrients, and the end of that week 24 hours dark followed by 12/12 with full strength bloom!


my brother keeps teasing i should add a black light.. i know its ridiculous but it does look cool haha all jokes aside... and PLEASE hold back your laughter...

Black lights during the dark cycle... your thoughts?!

with this timer, a black light during exactly the dark cycle is possible.. so that is now our discussion.. do share EVERYONE!

 

["SICC"]

that power strip is legit man, haha i like baby taco too

haha krackrock, why do you call him that

never really heard of a blacc light during the dark period, tho i have heard of the 24 hours being un necessary, and some people do it, so who kno's haha, maybe the magical Gypsy has an answer,

 

[DocBrown]

I would say no to the black light. I've always read, complete darkness on 12/12 and personally I think it will just create unnecessary heat.

 

[purpdaddy]

they need complete darkness during the lights off period..Use the blacklight or UVB light during the lights on time in 12/12...Low kelvin and high lumen.I was gonna use one ,,but i already have temp. probs and those bulbs produce alotta heat..So if heat is your problem then this bulb will worsten the situation.

 

[Shackleford.R]

hmm... i think thats what the big argument comes down to about black light. because essentially it isn't light, its just UV... something like that?! i've heard someone more knowledgeable than myself discuss black lights, and broke it down in such a way that black light doesnt effect the dark cycle, because it doesn't create light in the way that standard bulbs do, being that they're on different parts of the light spectrum.

haha i know its probably ridiculous, but i'd like to have an actual discussion about it, people always just shut down the idea...

and about krack rock... why not? hahaha

 

[lurkmaster]

Alright so the last piece of this grow was timing the lights. Tonight i found what i needed! A power strip with a built in timer! I attached an image, found it at the pet store haha.

The four WHITE outlets are constant power, and running the air pump for the stones.
The YELLOW/BLUE outlets are controlled by the timer.

Thats where it stops being simple...

When the BLUE outlets are ON, the YELLOW outlets are OFF
likewise
When the YELLOW outlets are ON, the BLUE outlets are OFF

So currently just have the lights on the BLUE outlets... not sure if there is anything to plug in alternating to that??
The lights are going to run 18/6 for the remainder of the week, and then i plan to res change on schedule to 50/50 transition nutrients, and the end of that week 24 hours dark followed by 12/12 with full strength bloom!


my brother keeps teasing i should add a black light.. i know its ridiculous but it does look cool haha all jokes aside... and PLEASE hold back your laughter...

Black lights during the dark cycle... your thoughts?!

with this timer, a black light during exactly the dark cycle is possible.. so that is now our discussion.. do share EVERYONE!

Thats a sweet timer/power strip wow.


And, I personally wouldn't fuck with something like dark periods unless I truly didn't give a fuck about the outcome I just wanted to know what it did, it will probably just herm your plants or keep them from going into flowering.


I see that you have taken the SOG-Style approach with your clones, any particular reason why?


I like to do my clone pruning after they root, because alot of times a handful of fan leaves die off in the rooting process so I like to have as much as possible to work with in the meantime, just my preference though.

 

[DocBrown]

Nice power strip/timer... I'm gonna go to Petco and pick me up one of those.

 

[Shackleford.R]

Thats a sweet timer/power strip wow.


And, I personally wouldn't fuck with something like dark periods unless I truly didn't give a fuck about the outcome I just wanted to know what it did, it will probably just herm your plants or keep them from going into flowering.


I see that you have taken the SOG-Style approach with your clones, any particular reason why?


I like to do my clone pruning after they root, because alot of times a handful of fan leaves die off in the rooting process so I like to have as much as possible to work with in the meantime, just my preference though.

hmm... i didn't realize i was taking a SOG-style approach with my clones.. haha. Check out their mama in my other grow (link in the sig) there were some lower branches that i planned on taking off because they were just going to rob nutrients from the upper branches that were getting the light (im talking about branches off the mama, that these girls came from). so i took the branches and had enough for 6 "top" style clones. thats just the way i did it. this was basically an experiment, wanted to see if i could get a cutting to root. honestly, i'm happy with the outcome. probably going to start 12/12 in about a week.

also... i said before i had a 50% success rate.. looks like my calculations were a little off.. try about uh... 100% thats right!! i checked today, and the 3 that had yet to root, have now rooted!!! they struggled a little at first i guess but they have caught up and are now rooting as we speak!! looks like my little AG SOG is going to have an AWESOME harvest!!!

the other reason i'm going about this method, is i want to go for as long as possible without raising the hood. if start with tops, i feel i'm guaranteed certain things...

#1 FAT colas wtih minimal veg.. the clones started as tops, so no need to veg forever to get good growth

#2 i liked the amount of leaf i had to clone with, size:leaf ratio was fairly equal

#3 never done it before, and uh.. thats just what i did haha

after this week, looks like a week of transition nutrients and 18/6 then 24 hours dark and 12/12 with full bloom nutrients!!! HOLLA!!


already thinking against the black light during the dark cycle... unless someone, somewhere knows something about it.

 

[Shackleford.R]

Nice power strip/timer... I'm gonna go to Petco and pick me up one of those.

shop around!! when i came home and googled for a pic of it i found this also!!
DUAL timer power strip as well as this one DIGITAL timer power strip these are actually reptile cage products, for running lamps, fans, and i dont know what else goes into a reptile cage...

good luck

 

[lurkmaster]

Ah, I see.

Just because there is one stem doesn't necessarily mean its going to be one big bud, it would make sense if it worked that way but thats not always the case.

You might just have a bunch of spaced out airy buds on one stalk instead of 10 stalks.

The purpose behind removing lower branching is to keep the plant from becoming a bush and branching out, because in a SOG you don't want bushy plants you want lots of skinny ones.



I don't know who created this 'big fan leaf chopping' theory but its beyond stupid.

First off, you can get as many budsites as you are willing to veg.

Secondly, how do you think the plant gets light energy?

From the fan leaves.

It doesn't matter where the light comes from, its the fact that the PLANT is getting light.

Say you have a big fan leaf and some secondary node shooting up from below it.

How much stem and other shit is on that new node? How much PURE leaf matter is on the big fan leaf?

The plant is going to get more light if you just leave the big fan leaf, some of it will even shine down into the other node.

Yea the secondary nodes that are 'in the dark' don't look as pretty as the other buds, but they are going to be the EXACT same after you dry them out if you cut the fan leaves or not.


If you follow the 'big fan leaf chopping' theory then if I cut one of your limbs off, it should help you get to the store faster because your OTHER body parts have more room!!! That doesn't directly stop you from going to the store (making bud) but it was pointless to cut your leg off in the first place and it definitely took you longer.

Bottom line....
You can chop the fan leaves off and get away with it, but you are much better off just leaving them.

If you flush your plants for 2 weeks and you already chopped all the fan leaves off its just going to take those excess nutrients from the stuff that is left which is going to be your buds and the fanleaves adjacent to them instead of the big leaves that you are going to be pulling off at the end anyway that don't matter.



P.S. Sorry if I sounded rude, just trying to get my point across.

 

[Shackleford.R]

YOU ASSHOLE!! STFU AND DIE!! haha just kidding man. you made your point.. im kinda mixing up my two grows the way i'm discussing them...

My OTHER grow.. is essentially an overgrown scrog... and the lower branches were inhibiting airflow etc. and literally were just wastes of space... the thing is a fucking tree and could stand to lose those lower limbs that became....

The CLONES in THIS grow... i figured out what you meant by the SOG in the AG... the clones appear to have had the lower limbs removed, i can see what you're referring to the nodes along the main stalks of the clones. to be honest, i just didnt consider those as important. every image i have seen of a clone just shows a few top leaves to capture some light, and give up its nutrients to the developing of roots... so i didnt intentionally start a SOG... honestly this may end up looking more SCRoG like without the screen... i want to keep these things LOW! so i'll probably be topping them left an right and end up with a big blanket. the grow is setup with SEVERE height restrictions probably only two more clicks on the AG hood.. THATS IT! so i started with tops so i wouldn't have to veg like crazy to get some energy stored for flower....

this rant is hitting the point of not making sense. haha.

keep up the input though lurk, always looking to learn, and looks like you have knowledge to share.

 

[lurkmaster]

Yea I gotcha man, wasn't trying to rip you for experimenting, just making sure you knew some of the logic behind it.

Removing lower branching, training, topping is all 100% fine and dandy, but never the lone fan leaves, theres no reason to.

There are a million and one ways to grow, but there are a limited number of botanical principles that should be followed.

Its always a good idea to sit down and think about stuff before you blindly believe it.

If it just doesn't make sense, then its probably a load of shit.



Being skeptical wont hurt anything but taking incorrect action will.

 

[Shackleford.R]

oh yeah of course!! is that what you were trying to say?!!? haha just playing man.. i hold that personal belief as well..

by the way, to further clarify... i didnt "prune" the clones before rooting... i just trimmed what i had to for them to fit well in the AG and have some airflow around the leaves..

 

[lurkmaster]

oh yeah of course!! is that what you were trying to say?!!? haha just playing man.. i hold that personal belief as well..

by the way, to further clarify... i didnt "prune" the clones before rooting... i just trimmed what i had to for them to fit well in the AG and have some airflow around the leaves..

Yea I made some assumptions beyond what actually happened..

Read a post about chopping fan leaves leaves for lower nodes somewhere in this thread and decided to throw down an informational lecture, lol.

 

[DocBrown]

shop around!! when i came home and googled for a pic of it i found this also!!
DUAL timer power strip as well as this one DIGITAL timer power strip these are actually reptile cage products, for running lamps, fans, and i dont know what else goes into a reptile cage...

good luck

Yeah, google was the first thing I did after reading your post. I shopped around and there is only a $5 difference if you buy at the store. I checked Petco online and they have them. I think I'm gonna go with the dual analog timer. There has been 2 separate occasions where my digital timer has reset itself (pissed me off) Luckily the first time I woke up at 4am (when the lights come on) and was able to manually turn them on but the second time I didn't even notice till 3 hours later

 

[Shackleford.R]

Yeah, google was the first thing I did after reading your post. I shopped around and there is only a $5 difference if you buy at the store. I checked Petco online and they have them. I think I'm gonna go with the dual analog timer. There has been 2 separate occasions where my digital timer has reset itself (pissed me off) Luckily the first time I woke up at 4am (when the lights come on) and was able to manually turn them on but the second time I didn't even notice till 3 hours later

SAME shit happened to me! i am now utterly ANTI digi timers. mine was connected to the pump in my other grow and it failed... for 3 days... before i noticed... plants almost DIED!! yeah, go analog/manual for sure!!

 

[Shackleford.R]

so i went to the pet store again today... different one this time, found the dual timer power strip... and a bigger airpump for the stones... this thing is out of control!! i may have gone overkill on the pump. is there such a thing as too many bubbles?!

 

[DocBrown]

They didn't have the dual analog timer at Petco so I got the single analog one and I must say I'm very pleased with it. Not only does it have 2 more outlets then my old power strip it also takes up the same amount of space in my cab. I did some cable management and it looks a lot nicer in there, it also helps that I don't have a bulky digital timer sticking out.

Good looking out bro.