400w Querkle Grow

[treklane]

had a good read through that link.i see what u mean.will stick to my 5.5.5 for sure now. i respect that u dont want to tell me wrong thing.ev1 has varyed opinions on that link but has very good info in it.............
gonna try to up load pics this week buddie so u can have a look 4 yourself.... really happy looks like im on track i just dont want to over feed so im goin to play it cool
on this grow and maybe change tact on next.iv been searching links for info on tempeture fluctuation in grow room. im around 21 degrees lights on and 16.9 lights off approx
room is in a shed and with winter comming i want to mantain this heat. any tips or links would be very welcome psyte........
thanks man

 

[psyte]

Yeah there are A LOT of different opinions and people will argue all day about this stuff. The important thing is to research and experiment a lot and find out what works for you. And a lot of times you just have to do what you think is right and wait and see if it works. Cannabis is a weed though and it's pretty damn hard to kill. I put my first plant through hell but it's getting close to harvest and it should actually yield pretty good. I could have done a lot better, but I also learned a lot and that's even more important. It's hard at first because each plant seems so valuable cause we know how much this stuff costs on the street.

That temperature thing could be difficult depending on how cold it gets out there and how well your shed is insulated. I haven't researched anything like that at all since my grow is in a small room inside my house so it should still stay fairly warm in the winter. My guess is that over the winter you'll probably need a space heater (or full size heater depending on how big the area is) and probably a humidifier (since the heater will dry out the air). Depending on your ventilation setup, you may also be able to reduce the speed of your exhaust fans and let the lights warm up the area a bit more so you only have to use the heater during lights off. I wish I had more for you on that one, but it's just not something I've had to deal with.

 

[treklane]

im sure you will have a mega harvest man...........ur putting in a lot of effort and if your plants are as good as ur journal they will be unreal............
iv researched many sites on my temp issues but 99 per cent of time people have probs with there room been 2 hot. iv like u said backed off ex fan and chilled out my tower fan also.2 weeks ago i bought a space heater and when i got it was only using it in small dozes but winter in my end of world [uk] comes in quick and at present im using it full on
to mantain those readings.heater is a small one so will have to up grade.
when i built g room it was mid summer and i was not thinking of winter etc........... i see by ur g room pics ur using tents im thinking maybe next grow to kinda copy ur set up......
have ample space in house but love strong tasting weeed like cheese strain etc.........as im a newbe i hope u dont mind asking what might sound like a silly q but are these cabon filters very effective in your experince. i was worried that if i set up in house visitors etc would smell it........ not worried in shed as its a good distance from house neighbours etc.............

 

[alotaball]

I know you didnt ask me .. but carbon filters work VERY well if you purchase a quality one rated for your flow .. and replace it when needed... I have 2000 watts of flower exhausting out of my spare room window.. all summer we had bbq's 5 ft from my exhaust .. not one person noticed any odor... My wife does childcare in her spare time and no one has ever noticed.. Also we had a babyshower for 9 hours.. people over for football.. lol you get the point. What im saying is .. its amazing just how well it will work if set up properly .. Plus controlling your grow room temps is SOOO much easier in a insulated room compared to a shed

 

[treklane]

hi alotaball
thanks for feedback............. i can with hindsight fully understand now that in these cold months tent option would ave being better option. but wife does not smoke or drink
lol straight up.and i did not want her on my case.lol.......
i went mad when i bought extractor 155 euro i was told it was good enough for 1000 watt grow i think my self its to big..... for my 3 plants
the tents look like the proper job. have a fairly big spare room so i will put some serious thought into it before next grow.
i hope i can mantain temps in current room for now as plants are flyin it.lovely green all the way.
just worried that il hit a prob........dont care about power consuption using heaters etc just want a result as its 1st indoor grow.
looks like u had no problems in the house with tent saw them online they look the part.......... which is nice to hear. still with the help ofev1 one here i fell like im picking up some thing new every day and the plan is to learn from my mistakes lol......... its not easy mate............
cheers

 

[psyte]

Luckily for me the wife smokes more than I do so I get to do pretty much whatever I want with the grow.

On the carbon filters, I hear a good quality filter can handle even the stinkiest of strains.
I'm using a carbon filter (venting into the attic), but it's a pretty cheap one. I do catch a whiff of blue cheese outside on really calm days (usually in very strange places that I wouldn't expect) but I think I have it mounted incorrectly and that may be all that's causing the problem. I have it mounted upright, hanging from the ceiling, and I think that's leaving a small gap in the carbon at the top of the filter. I plan on mounting it on it's side this weekend and will see if that helps.

I like growing in tents. I could have saved some money just partitioning the room, but I like how each tent is it's own separate environment that you can customize how you want (as long as you can afford it). Plus it's an easy way to have a veg and flower area in the same room so you can set up a perpetual harvest. A lot of tents are kind of expensive, but the ones I got from LED Wholesalers were only about $100 each. The only thing about their tents is they are not completely light proof. If you have a tent for veg and a tent for flower, it's no problem cause the little bit of light that gets out is blocked by the other tent, but you couldn't set up a room where you have veg in a tent and flower outside of the tent (or other way around) because too much light will leak into and out of the tent. I wouldn't buy anything else from LED Wholesalers though, all their other products are junk.

 

[psyte]

I haven't updated this in a while and a lot has happened. Let's get caught up...


11/01/11

Watered all with 1tsp/gal 20-20-20. The nutes so far have been high in N and low in P and K, so gave them a bit of a boost. New growth is very green and looking great.

Clones:
Watered all with .25tsp/gal 20-20-20.
#1 looks so so.
#2 still slowly growing and looking good. I did knock it over pretty bad today so hopefully I didn't totally fuck it up.
#3 appears to be starting new growth.
#4 is just fucked. All wilted and shrively. I have no idea why I'm still keeping this one. Just curious to see what happens I guess.


11/03/11

I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but this is when I was able to confirm the sexes of the plants beyond a doubt:
#1&2 are female
#3&4 are male


11/04/11

Watered #1 & 2 with 1tsp/gal 30-10-10.
Watered #4 with 1.5tsp/gal 30-10-10. I decided to keep this male for a bit to experiment on. I want to first find out how far I can push the nutes before burning. I tend to get more deficiency problems because I'm afraid of giving too much. I want to find where the line for "too much" actually is with this strain. I pruned off the two bottom nodes on this plant also so it won't take up as much space.


#4 with bottom two nodes removed.

Put #3 (Male) to flower so I can try to get some pollen. I moved the plant to the basement to keep it as quarantined from the others as possible and started a 36 hr dark period. I made a setup in the basement using an old fluro fixture that has three 20w T12 bulbs (fourth is burnt out). For the dark period, I am covering the plant with a large box that has all cracks sealed with duct tape.
Watered #3 with 1tsp/gal 30-10-10. I intended to give it 20-20-20 but I was watering a lot of plants and mixed it up. Will be 20-20-20 from here on out as long as it looks good.



Clones:
Destroyed #4 today cause I'm sick of looking at it's sorry ass. No sign of roots at all. I have no idea how it managed to stay alive as long as it did.




11/06/11

Watered #1 & 2 with 1tsp/gal 30-10-10.
Watered #4 with 1.5 tsp/gal 30-10-10.

Took #3 (Male) out of dark and put under fluros this morning. Looking good. Grew a couple inches during 36hr dark.

Pic of the entire veg tent today:

Top row, left to right: Querkle #3, #1, #2, Blue Cheese mom
Bottom row is each plant's respective clone.



Closeup of clones. All showing new growth.



Closeups of the ladies. First two pics are #1, second two are #2.


11/07/11

Clones:
Roots!!! By god there are actually roots on #1 & 3! These two are also putting out good new growth slowly. Funny thing is that I always thought #2 would root way before the rest. Hopefully that drop a couple days ago didn't fuck it up too bad.
In conclusion, the cloning method I used on this group SUCKS. Way too much hassle considering it took 23 days to get roots on 50% of the clones.


11/08/11

Watered #4 with 1.5 tsp/gal 30-10-10.
This plant is getting big. Not sure if it was the node trimming or high does fert that caused it, but it's looking good. As an interesting side note, this plant no longer wilts with watering like the others do. Not sure what to make of that. Since it hasn't burned after 3 feedings of 1.5tsp/gal, it looks like it's time to up it to 2tsp next time.

Repotted #1 & 2 from 1 gal containers to 3 gal grow bags. We're getting close to going to flower and they will need bigger pots. Still waiting for my blue cheese in flower to finish so I will have room for these (taking longer than the breeder claims, big surprise there ).
Soil mix used was 3:1 FFOF/Perlite. Forgot to mix in the lime, so I top dressed each with 2tbsp (since they each got about 2 more gallons of soil). This isn't ideal, but I'm glad I at least noticed at some point. Watered both thoroughly with plain tap after repot.
It was very hard to repot into these bags as they are not much wider around than the 1 gal pots. If I use bags again in the future I think doing the first repot straight to 3gal bags and skipping the 1 gal container would be much easier.
Root growth looks good and fairly even with a bit more at the bottom. Doesn't look like the type of root growth overwatering would cause, so that reassures me I wasn't overdoing it.


Rootball on #1 and #2


Pics of repotted plants in veg tent and a closeup of the clones showing more new growth (both taken 11/9, day after repot)

 

[psyte]

Built my aero cloner yesterday.

Total cost of all parts was only $42. Besides bubbleponics in tupperware I can't think of any cheaper way than this. The pump only uses 10w so electricity cost is minimal. No clone gel or any other consumables required. No humidity dome needing constant spraying and venting maintenance. I sure as hell hope this works as well as people say it does.

I used flexible PVC tubing (I believe it's used for air compressor tubing) because it connects directly to the pump without an adapter, can form a circle (perfect for a bucket) and takes a lot less time to assemble than I would imagine the standard PVC ones with all the elbows and joints you see in all the DIY Aero Cloner threads. It's very thick tubing, they have thinner tubing, but there would probably be problems screwing the mister heads into it.

I didn't use the cut off net pots because the neoprene inserts are really difficult to fit in them and would probably squeeze the stems. I cut the holes 1 7/8" so the inserts fit in tightly enough to hold, but they should not be so tight they pinch off the stems. I read you can drill a hole in the center of the neoprene where it is scored to open it a bit more, so I may do that.

A couple things I would change would be to use 180degree mister heads as half the spray just hits the bucket. This would also increase the pressure and work better with the lower GPH pump I'm using. Also, the one problem with the flex tubing is that it comes in rolls and is basically impossible to straighten out (I tried running a bamboo stake through it to hold it straight while I warmed it with a heat gun but even that didn't work) so the piece connecting the pump to the rest of the tubing has to be very short. This makes it so there are only very fine drops that would reach the ends of the cuttings. I don't think this will be a problem but I may put the pump on some kind of platform so I can raise it a bit.

I'm excited to try this thing out.

 

[treklane]

well done psyte very interesting post as always i can imagine the effort u put in is huge makes great reading im following closely.
really interested in ur blue cheese.looks brill [as does ur whole project]
mine are ok i think been feeding 5.5.5 and no burn or problems yet.........will start to add some bloom in the next week or so [week 4 of flower] and c what happens
at the min there showing signs of flower and now just about starting to smell a little. cant wait.
nice post on ur dome for clones being researching a bit and getting curious about this tech.........
keep up good work

 

[psyte]

Thank you, trek. I appreciate the comments and I'm glad you're enjoying following along with the grow.

I think that's a good plan to wait until a month into flower to use the bloom nutes. That's what I plan on doing too.

I should have some free time today so I'll see if I can put together some pics and info on my blue cheese plants for you and post it here.

I will also update about the aero cloner in the next day or two. I got impatient to try it out and took some blue cheese cuts to test. It's only been 12 hrs but I'm really impressed so far and will explain why when I post about it. In the meantime, if you're interested, here's some good threads about how to build and use an aero cloner:
http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/444974-lets-build-clone-machine-*step-step*.html
http://www.growery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/249470/fpart/all/vc/1
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=40055

And this place sells them for not much more than it would cost to build it:
http://www.clonebucket.com/categories/Cloning-%7B47%7D-Seed-Starting/CloneBuckets/

 

[psyte]

Ok trek, as promised here's some stuff from my Blue Cheese grow...

These are the original 2 clones from a local dispensary. Pics were taken 4 days after I got them and repotted them from 16oz cups to 1gal containers:





Here they are 24 days after I got them. First one was about to go to flower, second one was kept as a mother.





Here's the first round of clones I took. Planted in Rapid Rooters.





Here's the one I put to flower, 5 days in. Did a lot of LST on the plant the night before this was taken since I was worried it would get too tall for my tent. Had a thread on that:
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/461315-too-big-flower.html





20 days into flower. Took pic with HPS off to show color better.





Here we are 25 days into flower. Notice how yellow it has gotten in just 5 days. When I said it went to shit real quick I wasn't kidding. I have a thread on the entire ordeal also:
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/470792-23-days-yellowing-fan-leaves.html
It's a lengthy thread but the conclusion in the end was N deficiency.





Clones a few days after repotting (these were the ones in the Rapid Rooters).





Plant in flower at 29 days. Started getting a handle on the deficiency. Got the smaller growth looking nice and green again, but almost all the fans are too far gone and continued on their decline.





The 1 gal container has the best of the Rapid Rooter clones, which will be kept as as the new mom (I thoroughly neglected the old one and ended up destroying it). I topped it and used the cutting as a new clone (in the cup I'm holding here). This clone went straight into 1:3 FFOF/Perlite.





Flower tent at max capacity. The original one I put to flower is in the back, there's a bag seed plant (which is kicking ass) front left. Front right are the 2 other Rapid Rooter clones that I kept. This was taken on their first day in the tent.





One of the colas on the first plant put to flower. 43 days of 12/12 the day this was taken. This was about 3 weeks ago. I realized I don't have any more recent closeups of this plant so I will have to take some new pics.





The two Rapid Rooter clones on day 13 of 12/12.





Four new clones taken. Planted in perlite.





The two Rapid Rooter clones on day 20 of 12/12.





One of the RR clones on day 24.





This is the 1:3 FFOF/Perlite clone (2nd gen clone). 12 days since showing roots. Growing slowly in this stuff but very healthy.





One of the Perlite clones. I broke up the perlite a few days ago. Since I have the aero cloner I decided to just take and repot the best perlite clone in FFOF and dump the rest. These were done more as an experiment than to keep the plants. These actually rooted quicker than my other two attempts. This is at 15 days since taking the cut. A day after replanting in 16oz cup I can see roots down the side of the cup.





And now some early harvest pics. The first plant in flower is at 68 days of 12/12 today. The trichomes are mostly cloudy with a chance of never fucking finishing. We're running out so it was better to take some from this plant early than pay $10/g for the stuff. I cut a branch off 4 days ago that weighed in at 29.5g wet after being trimmed (first pic). Second pic is from this morning after finishing a quick dry and cure. Got 7g dry.



Since the 7g will last us a week on strict rations (I wish this damn plant would finish), I cut a couple branches of popcorn last night (first pic). Got 30g wet after trim (second pic). And just to mix it up and try something fun, I decided to do a water cure on this batch (third pic). Water cure takes a week so this should be ready by the time we run out of the first early cut. Hopefully by then the entire plant will be harvested and drying.





Since I didn't have any current pics of the ones in flower, I'll see if I can take some today or tomorrow.

 

[psyte]

Nothing but problems with the post timeouts on this site. Fucked up the attachements on that last post. Gonna try to fix it.

 

[psyte]

Ok attachments should be fixed now.

 

[treklane]

hi pyste
what a nice post ur chesse is kicking. iv heard its a diff beginer strain but u should be proud...............
dont know what to expect my self yet entering 4th week lovely white hairs starting to take over all ends.stuck to 5.5.5 but will add bloom nutes by end pf week.
thanks for ur pics for a starter u are putting in massive effort...... i feel thats what im aiming at...........will stay tuned in very well done

 

[blizake54]

nice looking journal man im sub'd

 

[psyte]

hi pyste
what a nice post ur chesse is kicking. iv heard its a diff beginer strain but u should be proud...............
dont know what to expect my self yet entering 4th week lovely white hairs starting to take over all ends.stuck to 5.5.5 but will add bloom nutes by end pf week.
thanks for ur pics for a starter u are putting in massive effort...... i feel thats what im aiming at...........will stay tuned in very well done

Thanks bro. Yeah I'm still struggling with getting the blue cheese tuned in but it's well worth it. I just harvested most of that first plant over the weekend and it should yield really good. It took 10 weeks since switching to 12/12. Sounds like my new ones in flower are about where yours are. They're about 5 weeks right now. I'm having trouble with the big fan leaves getting some spotting, but I'm not too worried about it. Seems like even with issues this strain yeilds very well and going by the early sample I took, it's gonna be some really good stuff.

nice looking journal man im sub'd

Thank you.

 

[psyte]

Been really busy so I'm not sure if I'll have time to make a detailed post about the aero cloner, but let's just say it's working amazing so far and I don't think I'll be going back to any other type of cloning.

 

[blizake54]

i am also using t5s for veg and my 400w system/tent should be here in about a week or 2 im using a 4 bulb system. so ill be looking at your grows to see if mine does near it ;p i honestly dunno what im saying though kinda high >.>

 

[psyte]

Nice. I'm always interested in grows with the same setup. Let me know if you start a journal.

 

[phxfire]

Subscribed...

How do you like that Querkle??