First time SOG grow

[earlsw9]

I have already built my grow room and ordered seeds, but would like some constructive criticism on my grow room as well as on my choice of seeds. I have built a 3 foot wide by 4 foot tall and 6 foot long grow box. I am planning to do a SOG grow using only florescent and led lights. Here are the seeds that I ordered to grow as mother plants, 1 Chocolate Kush, 1 Blue Mystic, 1 Berry Bomb, 1 Bubblegummer and also received 1 free El Alquimista and 1 free Supersonic Cristal Storm. Would love it if someone could let me know which ones will work better for a SOG and which ones will be better to grow outdoors.

 

[xx440kushxx]

I know the sativas do better for sog because of the long branches but that's about it. You get your seeds yet?

 

[earlsw9]

I have one bag seed growing right now, still waitin for the seeds that I ordered to show up. Here are some pics of the one I have growing, its at 2 weeks right now. I had some stretching issues in the beginning due to lighting issues, but i have it controlled now. Doesn't bother me though because I am using this one for some R and D. I'm gonna do some LST on the lower branches, but leave the top for some supper cropping techniques. that and I have never done any cloning before so I would rather have my trial and error be on bag seed and not seeds that i'm paying 8-10 bucks a piece for.

 

[SativaMe@420]

The point of SOG is to keep the plants short, one cola per plant between 20"-30" when finished, ideally no side branching (no wasted energy on popcorn buds), this not only allows you to grow more plants in a given space but you also harvest more times per year so in the long run you end up with more yield, a win, win IMHO. The best strains for SOG growing would be plants that stay short with limited stretch, produce fat colas and finish in the shortest amount of time, this would typically be Indica/Indica dominant strains, sativa/sativa dominant strains tend to grow tall and stretch during flowering, this is why their typically grown outdoors, however with with enough vertical height & good lighting they can do very well indoors. So, you mentioned you built your grow room, what kind of setup will you be running? Can you share some pics? What kind of soil are you using for that seedling, I don't see any perlite? The more information you can share with us the better we can help you, good luck and keep us posted.

 

[calicat]

From your lineup the best candidate for SOG is El Alquimista which is Samsara's version of Serious Seeds the Chronic. I just chopped mine down and if you do yours right im sure your be happy like I am and more so once I finally trim and cure it. Don't do outdoor so dont have any feedback for ya. best of Luck with your decision.

 

[oceangreen]

I would try to get an hps in there. Stick to basic strain. DNA kush berry and white widow and nirvana ppp do well in sog.

What system r u running?

 

[earlsw9]

Here is my setup, no where near fully ready to go yet but hey your never done modifying things anyways right?.

This is where I am going to do my SOG. I plan on using 2 400w HPS bulbs one for each 3x3 area.

This is my cabinet for the mother plants to stay in veg in. It is 3' deep, 4' wide and 6' tall. I still have to line it with mylar and I am going to put one 4' by 2 bulb florescent standing upright in each corner as well as 6 2' florescents on a pulley system to raise them as the mothers grow.

Once I am ready to start cloning, I will be growing the clones in veg in this cabinet which is basically 2 feet longer than my SOG cabinet and only 3' tall. Which will also be lined with mylar wrap, and have 2' flor lights spaced 1' apart on a pulley system with 2 lights on each set of pulleys being i will have clones always at different heights.

All of my controls, ballasts, water pump for a sprayer setup that I am trying to configure and anything else I need will all go here, under the cabinet for the mother plans.

That is what I have setup so far. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, comments or criticism on what I have so far would be greatly appreciated.


This is the one plant I have growing from bag seed right now at roughly 2 weeks in veg. Along with how i have it growing.

 

[earlsw9]

Here is todays pic, the twist tie is for LST. I am hoping to keep it low and actually grow it almost all the way around the top of the pot before putting it into flower. That way I can do low stress training on part of the plant, and use some supper cropping techniques as well. I am hoping to use this plant to the best of my ability to not only learn the best technique for my application, but also to see which part of the plant shows better results.

 

[earlsw9]

She was a little droopy last night, which I believe was due to over watering. But she was perked right back up this morning. Does anyone have any suggestions on nutes? I am growing in a custom blend of cow manure, dirt from my neighbors corn field, sand and a small amount of very fine crushed stone.

 

[SativaMe@420]

If your planning to use 400W HPS & and you have Magnetic ballasts (Philips MasterColor CMH Lamps wont run on digital ballasts) then I would highly recommend you check out the Philips MasterColor CMH Retro White lamps: Only $35 Here--> (http://www.advancedtechlighting.com/cdmed18.htm) These CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) lamps produce the fullest spectrum of any HID lamp, they produce more blue than MH and more red than HPS, one bulb can be used for both Veg & Flower, best of both worlds, their hands down the best HID bulb for growing, look up SCOTTYBALLS "Pineapple Express G13 Lab's Seed to Harvest" thread and see what he says about them, if you get them I guarantee you won't regret it, however if your not sure about them just get one and compare the results, once you see how well they work you'll swear by them. As for the nutes, if you don't want to spend a fortune I would recommend Earth Juice Sugar Peak, this is what my go to guy at the hydro shop recommends if your on a limited budget, however it doesn't produce cheap results, if your not planning to veg longer than 2wks then just skip the vegetative formula and get the Sugar Peak Flower, Sugar Peak Grand Finale & Earth Juice Catalyst, the Catalyst is VERY important so don't forget it, the EJ Sugar Peak line produces fantastic results and at a very reasonable price, Sugar Peak has PH stabilizers so if your using soil and hand watering you don't have to adjust the PH, this makes things a lot easier, just mix, wait an hour, water and your done.

 

[earlsw9]

If your planning to use 400W HPS & and you have Magnetic ballasts (Philips MasterColor CMH Lamps wont run on digital ballasts) then I would highly recommend you check out the Philips MasterColor CMH Retro White lamps: Only $35 Here--> (http://www.advancedtechlighting.com/cdmed18.htm) These CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) lamps produce the fullest spectrum of any HID lamp, they produce more blue than MH and more red than HPS, one bulb can be used for both Veg & Flower, best of both worlds, their hands down the best HID bulb for growing, look up SCOTTYBALLS "Pineapple Express G13 Lab's Seed to Harvest" thread and see what he says about them, if you get them I guarantee you won't regret it, however if your not sure about them just get one and compare the results, once you see how well they work you'll swear by them. As for the nutes, if you don't want to spend a fortune I would recommend Earth Juice Sugar Peak, this is what my go to guy at the hydro shop recommends if your on a limited budget, however it doesn't produce cheap results, if your not planning to veg longer than 2wks then just skip the vegetative formula and get the Sugar Peak Flower, Sugar Peak Grand Finale & Earth Juice Catalyst, the Catalyst is VERY important so don't forget it, the EJ Sugar Peak line produces fantastic results and at a very reasonable price, Sugar Peak has PH stabilizers so if your using soil and hand watering you don't have to adjust the PH, this makes things a lot easier, just mix, wait an hour, water and your done.

Well right now I am building my second flowering box, because my end plan is to have 2 flower boxes in a perpetual cycle, 4 weeks total veg time from cutting , then 8 weeks of flower. One box will be ready to harvest, the other box will be at 4 weeks, totally clean out and wipe down the box then 24 hrs later move another 40 clones in to start flowering. I can fit 40 7" pots in the box almost perfectly. My ultimate goal is to be able to harvest 5 lbs a month, yes I know I have high hopes, lol, but you have set goals to reach for right?

 

[earlsw9]

Finally got some time to sit down and draw this all out on paper so I could figure what else I needed to get before my beans get here(which according to the tracking is tomorrow) so that way I am basically all set up and don't have to rush to get anything finished. All my exhaust is 6 inch other than my carbon filters. I am stepping the filters down to only 4 inch. Please let me know if all of this will work to keep the temp and odor under control.
View attachment 2420228

 

[earlsw9]

My beans have arrived The germination process has begun.

 

[earlsw9]

Have been doing some serious thinking, but I really would appreciate some outside input. I consider myself to be a damn good electrician, but have never dealt with ballasts other than to replace them on florescent lights. Instead of buying 2 separate magnetic ballasts, would it work to just buy 2 400w ballast kits and wire them directly? I have a separate area where all of my electronics and controls will be, so as long as I can keep them cool, I shouldn't have to buy the complete ballast setup, right? I shouldn't have to pay out the ass to buy a complete unit when I can just buy the guts and just do all my own connections.

 

[cannabisbible]

Have been doing some serious thinking, but I really would appreciate some outside input. I consider myself to be a damn good electrician, but have never dealt with ballasts other than to replace them on florescent lights. Instead of buying 2 separate magnetic ballasts, would it work to just buy 2 400w ballast kits and wire them directly? I have a separate area where all of my electronics and controls will be, so as long as I can keep them cool, I shouldn't have to buy the complete ballast setup, right? I shouldn't have to pay out the ass to buy a complete unit when I can just buy the guts and just do all my own connections.

There are probably many reasons not to take that approach to basically creating your own 800 watt ballast. The main reason I buy good ballasts from the grow store (or online) is when they burn out or stop working for some weird reason I'm usually well within warrantee for an exchange. Example: We bought 7 Quantam 1000w digi ballasts for a grow, went to plug them all in and 3 didn't work no matter what we did. Took them back and exchanged them. 8 months down the road 1 of them burnt out on us at the start of the day, luckily we were well within the 3 year warrantee at the time and got the replacement overnighted. (we had a magnetic backup just in case) But other than that it would probably be more work than it's worth building your own ballast like that.

 

[earlsw9]

Im not looking for the warranty, Im simply looking for the most inexpensive way to get started right now. I have totally built my whole setup from the ground up from scratch, and if I can get going for starters with 2 40 dollar ballast kits and then move up from there, it will work for now. I just wanted to make sure that I could get the same out put and results from building it, as I can get from spending 150 bucks a piece on 2 ballasts.

 

[earlsw9]

here is my alienog cross at 26 days into veg

 

[earlsw9]

Finally got the majority of everything done for my room. Finished the exhaust except for finishing up my DIY carbon filters. All 6 of my seeds popped a foot in less than 36 hours but after 3 days, only 5 of them have popped. Here are a couple updated pics.

 

[earlsw9]

Here is my alienog cross at 4 weeks into veg, shes been on 12/12 for 5 days so I could see if she was a female (first pic). looks like a girl to me whada you think?

 

[earlsw9]

Here is an update on my grow. I am at 2 weeks into flower with my ladies, and I am at 8 weeks on my 10 week auto flower. I am using Jungle Juice Micro and Bloom for flower. I also have 10 clones going in my homemade aerator. I am hoping that the leaves start turning on my auto by mid week, i'm getting anxious to see how she tastes. Below is a pic of my girls from 3 weeks ago when I put them on 12/12, and a couple of pics of my Chocolate Kush. I also have a Blue Mystic, a BubbleGummer, a Supersonic Cristal Storm Auto an El Alquistma and a seed that I got out of a bag of decent homegrown.