Red Dragon & Magic Bud - First CFL grow using "Buds for Less" light set-up

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

I'll let you know once the water has been wicked away and I have fed the Dragon.

I am keenly watching your plant drowning exercise - this hobby is so interesting ... especially when Riddleme opens our eyes.

 

[rastadred22]

yep! i was thinkin bout how i wanna try somethin new..ouotside the box...so i stubbled over his ditty again and got the idea to attempt this during the extended night period..it has been workin great the smell!?! omg! lol u can def c the difference within minutes to drowning her! cant wait to try!

 

[Danielsgb]

I'm sub'd. Looks good. That RiddleMe never ceases to amaze me.
Daniels

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

2nd October 2010 (Day 24 from seed packet)

I have just realised that my “diary” up to this point has had the wrong month … the headings all show August when they should show September, and it is now October … I think, time is an abstract concept anyway. Strange thing is I haven’t smoked for over 5 years so I can’t blame it on being stoned.

Anyway, the Dragon has been sucking the water out of the soil for nearly 3 days and could probably go another day (or two) before needing the second part of the raindance, but impatience is a powerful motivator.

I mixed up a ¼ strength feed, adjusted the pH to 6.5 and slowly poured about ¼ litre (250ml) into the pot (avoiding the pot edge as I wanted the nutrient to soak into the soil rather than just run out). It took 250ml before the first trickle appeared, so my young Dragon wicked away 250ml in a bit under 3 days.

I was planning on stretching the plant a bit before topping her and taking the top as a clone. After thinking about this for a while I decided that I didn’t want to remove such a large amount of productive plant matter while the plant is still so young. Hacking away several nodes worth of plant stem and productive leaf area just to take a clone seemed to be a good way to lose a few days worth of growth at a critical stage of the plants life.
I can easily take multiple clones later when the plant is large enough to not miss the few small branches that I will take.
So … having decided not to take a clone as part of the plant topping, I carefully removed the top of the plant, leaving around 2 inches of stem with at least 5 pairs of nodes. The bottom 2 pairs of nodes are already small branches with a couple of sets of leaves – this thing is going to be incredibly bushy and hopefully will be ready to be fitted with the SCROG screen in about a weeks time.
The plan is to maybe wait till the screen is half full before switching to 12/12 and letting it continue to fill once I have switched. I am aiming for a 2 foot diameter SCROG grow.

Not a lot of difference in the photos, the last one is today’s photo and shows the tip removed.

 

[rastadred22]

i topped my plant at 5 nodes to ge the 4main colas...from the unclebens topping technique ditty it works great and my 4main colas are growing away

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

I already have 8 good shoots, the bottom 4 have more than one set of leaves - if I get 4 leaders I will be happy but as it is going under a SCROG screen, I will be happy with as many as the plant wishes to give me.
The more leaders, the quicker the screen fills and the quicker I hit the 12/12 switch.

 

[rastadred22]

did u check out that ditty though? im sure if u wur to top u would get ur 4 main colas and from there u can fim or top again and then the prolonged vege will give u alot of secondary growth to fill the screen with as well alot of people hwo scrog use those techmniques check em out

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

I am just reluctant to remove vigorous growing plant material.
When the branches get bigger I may remove all but 4 (or 6) to use as clones and train the rest under the SCROG screen. I can certainly see where too many branches will cause overcrowding in the center of the screen - better with 4 or 6 branches to train out like spokes on a wheel.

My Kessil H150 Magenta LED arrived today, all ready for the flowering stage (Note to self: do NOT look directly into a focussed LED beam ... again)

 

[MasterHemp]

hey looking great god, always like watching a grow with a good plan
what is this raindance/plant drowning exercise you speak of, like misting or something?

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

The "raindance" is Riddleme's "I make it Rain" technique.
Basically you flush your plant with plain water pH adjusted to about 5.6 (the pH of rain). Flush with 2 to 3 times the pots volume in water.
This removes any nutrient build-up and the low pH stops the plant from uptaking any nutes at all.
The plant realises it has a problem, too much water and no nutes - so it rapidly "wicks" away the water in the pot (producing huge numbers of feeder roots).
When the top couple of inches of the pot are dry, then you add nutes (starting at 1/4 strength and increasing until you find the optimum nute concentration).
When you add nutes, do it slowly and just until a little trickle appears from the drain holes. The pot is then full of nutes, the plant is more than ready to suck em up (having been starved) and the plant has an incredible number of feeder roots just waiting for the nutes.
The result is that the plant grows incredibly fast.
You just keep repeating the process, although it is best not to do it during the veg stage (unless you want vigorous veg growth like I do for my scrog) and it is best to avoid doing it during the initial 12/12 stretch phase (they grow fast enough without help).
The process is mainly for the flowering stage when you will get huge buds as a result.

The plant drowning is a way to start the curing process while the plant is still growing, it cuts down the time it takes to produce well cured buds.

I haven't tried the technique yet and haven't really got my head around the plants chemical processes involved, I would recommend that you ask RiddleMe or rastadred22 for more specific details. RiddleMe is the teacher and rastadred22 has just drowned some plants and should be able to give the hands-on information about his experience.

 

[MasterHemp]

hmmm sounds interesting, might need to look into it

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

My molasses turned up today - I think that I have enough to last me forever - 4 litres of the stuff for $7.95 plus $10.00 postage.
Fresh from Bundaberg (Aussies know the place) - was destined to become the devils drink - Bundy Rum, turns a normal law abiding person into a violent thug.

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

I posted this in another thread but and it really should be in this thread as well ...

It's all about LED's, in particular the LED that I have just bought (Kessil H150 - Magenta) ...

[youtube]Mu8qZL5Wp4s[/youtube]

Holy Crap! $300 for a 36w unit? That's gonna be a hard sell. Great video though

Yea, it is a bit on the expensive side although you can get them for around $250.00.
They don't have a huge footprint (about 2 foot dia at optimum height) but they are supposed to have great light penetration and the light is all focussed into a small area and none is wasted.
As these have been developed specifically for the horticulture market, and are not generic LED's that have a million uses, they should be exactly what the plants need to grow.
I have a feeling that as the costs of electricity continue to soar, LED's will become more advanced and start to replace the old technology.

Coincidentally, my grow space will allow roughly a 2 foot diameter scrog and by keeping this type of light at the optimum height I should be able to get maximum benefit from every photon of light, with a few satelite CFL's to illuminate the edges of the grow (if needed). I bought one of the Magenta H150 lights to try it out.

If I run my grow without any supplementary CFL side lighting, I will be growing using just 34W of power - in fact I might just do that and see what my yield per watt turns out to be - could be interesting.

 

[Serapis]

Looking forward to this. Sub'ed

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

Looking forward to this. Sub'ed

Me too

Welcome aboard Serapis, your input will definitely be appreciated.

 

[MasterHemp]

very nice grumpy, im actually quite interested to see what results that led will get you, is this your first time using leds?

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

It's definitely my first time with LED's and my first grow in many years - I haven't even had a toke for 5 years.

I can't wait to fire up the LED.

 

[fictionalgrower]

I can't wait to see what your LED does. I will be watching.

 

[Grumpy Old Dreamer]

My postman (actually a woman) just delivered a package with another free T-Shirt, plus 5 x Barneys Farm feminised L.S.D. seeds, 5 x Barneys Farm feminised Pineapple Chunk seeds and 5 freebie "Thai/Haze x Skunk" regular seeds, add these to my Red Dragon fem seeds and the Magic Bud fem seeds, and I am done buying seeds for a while. Should allow me to create a few interesting crosses as well as maintaining a stock of self pollinated fem seeds.

My new fan and ducting should be arriving this week sometime, then it's just a matter of waiting for the Red Dragon to be ready to switch to 12/12 and then this thread starts being informative ... instead of just me rambling on.

 

[rastadred22]

nice! been wanting that barneys lsd! havent heared much about it but def. sparked my interest..cant wait to watch u grow those beans