Dual Areoponic Cabinet, Ceramic Metal Halide

[cutman]

your to kind brother, thanks. that bud was one of the smaller ones. the texas sun is a scorcher, but it makes good buds. im hoping to see much bigger bud on out side lady. pic up a 40 gl res the other day. need to figure out were to put it. looks like im going to half to raise my tubs so they can drain back into res. witch suks because i lose height of growing aera.

 

[cruzer101]

The well should be sealed or have taller sides now that I think about it.
Also the feed into the res should not be under water or it will siphon it back out.

Well, Its something to think about.

 

[cruzer101]

9-11-09

Temps 90 res 68°
PPMs 380
PH 5.2

Topped off with nutes bringing res to 600PPM Ph to 5.8 TW looking great, WW just starting to fill out.
I think I will stick to one strain from now on. I like the idea of variety but I don't need it and I prefer for them
all to finish at the same time and I know I am going to have to cut the widow short.

I changed out the floro cab res today. got them on flower nutes. They been on 12/12 lighting for almost
a week now. I left veg nutes in there for the first week because I did that before and got more plant
mass so I did it again. Added the screen for them just in case they get out of hand.

Temps 85 root zone 81°
PPMs 720
PH 5.5

I am hitting them hard to start then I will back off to 500PPM I set PH low because that rockwool and high temps
will increase the Ph in the res by tomorrow. Its been warming up.

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[cruzer101]

9-12-09

Temps 89 res 70°
PPMs 400
PH 5.5

Res was down a couple gallons, Its been hot. I topped off with 2gallons of water with nutes, my guess would about 700ppm
But it didn't change the res PPM. I added more nutes and still the same 400PPM.

Dam batteries were low. I replaced them and calibrated it, 1200PPMS!

I cooled it down with about a gallon but it is still at 1000PPMs I really don't want
to toss the nutes out so I set PH to 6.0 and gonna let them get a shot.
They are pretty healthy, I don't think it will hurt them much.

Well, Looks like this CHM is working better then my HPS did.
I still think I would be better off front to back light placement instead of side to side.
Plants were getting tall even with training so i cut out the nitrogen by holding off on the grow nutes last couple changes and adding that bloombastic stuff. Now they seem to have settled down. Time to fatten up girls.

I figure I got about four weeks till flush. Next round the light will be front to back and I will have a screen to tie to.
I think I will have to remove some of this leaf, As it is, I think I got a bit to much foliage.

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[phreakygoat]

its gonna be awesome seeing them eat the strong feeding. they are so healthy, but even a slight nute burn can still be a very good sign of pushing them to their limits. wait, 1000ppm is heavy in aero right?

also, how are the buds comparing between the strains?

 

[cruzer101]

Na, not really.

I seen journals where peeps run 1300 to 1600 as an average ppm at this point.
The only other grower I know of that runs a low nute load is Earl.

In the past, in hydroton, all my grows were getting stressed in late flower so I decided to try a complete grow at half strength. Results were I had less stress, flushed faster, tasted great, smoother smoke, joints didn't run and and great high.

But this was all done in hydroton. Now I am trying aero. From what I have seen it looks to me aero system is more efficient and I could go full strength if I wanted to but I ask myself why?

I have read up quite a bit about the application of nutrients. Not everyone agrees.
I must admit I feel nutrient manufactures want to sell there product and want you to use as much as possible. It only makes sense. So I look for non biased information.

It is my belief that plants can only use so much, how much depends on the strain. So if you supply more then it needs it just doesn't use them. It cant. Its like trying to eat on a full stomach. When I see people refer to over nuteing a plant I believe its one of two things. First is the plant can not use the available nutrients for several reasons mainly because the pH is off. Or the amounts are incorrect and one is like over powering the other, you only have so much H2o to transfer it with.

I could be wrong but thats what I think at this point. I learn new stuff every day.
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[cruzer101]

I would like some input from you guys here.

I am looking at this grow and comparing it to others and I see much more foliage.
This may be the results of my new light or the aero. I don't know.

What I can tell you is I see many more buds that I think could use more light.
Or am I wrong, is it the leaf that feeds the stalk that feeds the bud.

Years ago I had an outdoor grow of about 6 plants. I tried an experiment.
They were about two feet tall. On one plant I removed all the leaf, stripped
it down to the stalk and stems.

That plant grew the biggest fattest colas I ever had so it makes me think.

I would like your opinion on the removal of about 25% of the fan leaves.
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[cutman]

dude i got screwed. man we have rain all week end some was very hard, had a bad feeling so i went to check on my ladys out side, and my 10' got top heavy and broke, no split were she was topped, she gone man full of pre buds. im so pissed i cant see strate.

 

[tom__420]

I would like some input from you guys here.

I am looking at this grow and comparing it to others and I see much more foliage.
This may be the results of my new light or the aero. I don't know.

What I can tell you is I see many more buds that I think could use more light.
Or am I wrong, is it the leaf that feeds the stalk that feeds the bud.

Years ago I had an outdoor grow of about 6 plants. I tried an experiment.
They were about two feet tall. On one plant I removed all the leaf, stripped
it down to the stalk and stems.

That plant grew the biggest fattest colas I ever had so it makes me think.

I would like your opinion on the removal of about 25% of the fan leaves.
​

I sometimes remove a few fan leaves here and there but I try to avoid removing 25% of them. In my eyes that would do more harm than good because as you said the leaves feed the plant by collecting the light for photosynthesis. I would say to just remove a few but no more than 15%

 

[cruzer101]

dude i got screwed. man we have rain all week end some was very hard, had a bad feeling so i went to check on my ladys out side, and my 10' got top heavy and broke, no split were she was topped, she gone man full of pre buds. im so pissed i cant see strate.

Oh no,

Sorry to hear that. Any way you can get some 12 foot 2x4s and make a tee pee and tie her up, Get a thin rope or twine and tie that bitch back together! Start below the break and Wind it around and around up the stalk and up the stems.

That is what I would try.

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[cruzer101]

I sometimes remove a few fan leaves here and there but I try to avoid removing 25% of them. In my eyes that would do more harm than good because as you said the leaves feed the plant by collecting the light for photosynthesis. I would say to just remove a few but no more than 15%

Thanks Tom.
Its just that I see so much foliage blocking the lower buds. Maybe I am just not used to it because I was always stressing my ladies and losing leaf to those dam spider mites.

OK one vote no. (with an option)
Anyone else?
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[phreakygoat]

Thanks Tom.
Its just that I see so much foliage blocking the lower buds. Maybe I am just not used to it because I was always stressing my ladies and losing leaf to those dam spider mites.

OK one vote no. (with an option)
Anyone else?
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I have always taken leaves off to bring the light to the inner area... I think that you'll be fine due to the stellar health of them. 15% does sound safe and not overboard, but even less than that will still get you far more penetration. you have more than enough foliage to compensate, so do it without guilt.

oh yeah, thanks for the knowledge above. It all makes more sense now.

 

[cruzer101]

I have always taken leaves off to bring the light to the inner area... I think that you'll be fine due to the stellar health of them. 15% does sound safe and not overboard, but even less than that will still get you far more penetration. you have more than enough foliage to compensate, so do it without guilt.

oh yeah, thanks for the knowledge above. It all makes more sense now.

Thanks Goat,

This is good. It's made me think about it instead of jumping in with both feet and doing something I may regret.
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OK, thats two No's (again with option)

Anyone else got an opinion?
I feel I have to do something soon.

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[Integra21]

when i cut off leaves, i always do the ones on the bottom of the plants that dont get light anyway. I figure why cut leaves that are closer to the lights and absorbing more lumens by default, so that the lower ones can absorb less light than the higher ones were. You can see pretty clearly how I trim my layers in the pics I just put up in my journal, and you also get to see my crazy rootball.

 

[cruzer101]

Cool, I will check it out now.

 

[cruzer101]

I didn't see what you meant by the layer, In regards to thinning out the fan leaves.

Nice shot of that root ball. Mine look very similar. Most root shots I see the roots are all white and mine look just like yours. So thats a good thing cause you did well on your last grow.

Thanks Integra,
I will take that as a no.


Anyone else?
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[cruzer101]

9-13-09

Temps 80 res 62°
PPMs 1130 PH 5.6

Dam PPMs went up and ph went down. I adjusted PH to 5.8 gonna ride it out.
I got some great shots of the canopy today before dark. I dont mind them getting
a little light in there dark cycle at this point.

Left Canopy

Right Canopy

Buds are starting to thicken up. These are close ups of Train Wreck.
White Widow didn't focus but doesn't matter they are all wispy anyway, these are nice.

Gettin fat man.

Heres a shot from below so you can see what I am talking about.

See the right side? I need to at least thin that out.
You can see the leaf down lower that dont get enough light.
Its a lighter green. But its green so I have kept it.


Oh yea,

My clones were not growing very fast I moved them closer to the light yesterday and started giving them more water.
Then I realized, I have them plugged into the same timmer as the T5. They were only getting 12 hours light. oops.

Note to self, Put that on your list of things not to do.

It was a little over a week so that will slow them down. I got them under the leds now, 18/6 keep them there for a week or two.

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[Earl]

Looks like it time to start reducing the nute load.

 

[LoudBlunts]

i cosign with earl, i would definitely downgrade the N thas forsure. kill it

 

[LoudBlunts]

and yea, i would thin it out


some people say dont pluck fan leaves


fuck that, i pluck mine if need be, especially for light to reach buds, or if fans get too damn big. i've had some fan leaves get the size of my head if not bigger and i gotta big head lol


its up to you, but i would definitely thin it out.

its always a good idea to prune 1/3 anyway in small spaces. ventilation and air flow through is always key. as you've noticed and just mentioned, your light isnt getting down there anyway, and you can divert/use the energy