Citizen Bubba's law abiding grow box

[Bubbagineer]

I think they'll appreciate that. It'll give them something to grow towards.

Thanks Chef, I think it's workin out. They are still squatty, but definitely starting to grow vertical also.

I have a question I hope you guys can help me with. My original plan for the cab was to follow advice that I got from Ed Rosenthal's book on determining the sex of plants in veg stage. My intent was to start with 6 sprouts in 1 gallon pots. When they were large enough, I planned to take cuttings and put them in cups of water and induce flowering on the cuttings in a separate box - Rosenthal says they will indicate within 10 days or so. Then cull the males and transplant 3 females to 5 gal fabric pots (and keep mothers of any extra Snow Goddess females that I don't flower for later CBD pheno search) Does this method work? I don't want to waste time foolin with it if it doesn't...

I also have a time constraint. I need to be harvested and cured by the 3rd week of July. Working backwards and being conservative with the flowering schedule, I figure I need to start the main cab on flower cycle by 4/1. Do you think these plants will be big enough in 2 weeks time to take the cuttings?



I'm not worried about exceeding my 6 plant limit, I have another adult in the house that gets six plants from A64. So, still law abiding

 

[Kramer Chids]

Those are looking great, Bubba.

 

[Bubbagineer]

Thanks Kramer. It's a pretty noob question I know. I just can't see how these will get big enough to be able to use Rosenthals method in my time line. I'm seriously considering replanting to 5 (5) gal pots (they'll fit already checked) and getting a 400W dimmable HPS in there and we'll see who's a girl and who ain't ain't and go from there. First grow, keep it simple yeah?

 

[chef c]

Well, it will be close. I honestly don't think the branches will b ready by then. But there is a chance that you could mainline them. Look in subcools forum for the MAINLINE thread. Or you can pm cold army soldier. Look for his thread here in the CO patient section. Its called "down the rabbit hole w cas" and get at him from there. He would know more than me about this amazing technique. Basically clip the top of the plant and grow out your bottom four branches into 8, 16, 32 massive heads. Nugbuckets, the author of the mainline thread may also get back to you if you try him. If none of that looks aappealing to you, you could always wait as long as possible and pull the trigger on all of them then chop the males (or gather pollen then chop) and go big that way. Let us know what u think.

 

[Bubbagineer]

Wow, thanks chef. I'm off to do some reading and I appreciate the help.


I got home tonight from hell (Salt Lake City - sorry if ya'll are fans of SLC.... I'm not lol). Anyway, I checked on my sprouts and the cab smelled like weed when I opened it up. I think the Dank#5, if its a girl, is going to stink to high heaven and they're finally starting to get some height.


I've done a fair amount of reading on the topping vs. fimming methods, and had planned to fim mine and then train the branches nice and wide. According to most of the books I've read, the time is now, after the 3rd node, but the plants just seem too small. Looking forward to reading the threads you mention for guidance.


These same books also all mention a young plant sometimes showing a pre flower after the 3rd or 4th set of nodes, so I took some close ups of the D5, but I don't see anything, but I may not understand what I'm lookin for/at. The LED was still on so the colors are kind of funky.
p

 

[Bubbagineer]

Ha! That Mainline thread is awesome. Here it is for anyone interested. I may try to go this route, but for this first grow, I was just going to fim the next node to hopefully get 4 or 6 branches and keep them trained out from the middle with mater cages. My bigger question is if I stay with the LED or go to a 400W HPS, but I think I know the answer to that and will be shopping for one next week. I figure the LED will do a good job in the veg/mother cabinet that I'm building in the next couple of weeks. Same basic design, but will be 2'x3'x6'.

https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-old-school-organics/542308-main-lining-thread.html

 

[Kramer Chids]

Those Snow Goddess plants sure do have some FAT leaves.

 

[chef c]

Hps is thr route u wanna go. And are u set on that small of a space? Id rewlly try and consider a bigger space... if your limited I understand space issues but just think about a 4x4x6 you'll thank yourself in the long run trust.

 

[Bubbagineer]

Hps is thr route u wanna go. And are u set on that small of a space? Id rewlly try and consider a bigger space... if your limited I understand space issues but just think about a 4x4x6 you'll thank yourself in the long run trust.

Thanks again. Long term, I plan to frame in a small room in the basement to be a grow room, but until then I plan to add another cab for mothers and clones... I think the first cab (4x2x6) will grow enough for my personal consumption.. I'm a lightweight on smoke, though a fiend with edibles lol.

 

[Bubbagineer]

"Does that thang got a Hemi in it?" Nope, that's just Bubba catching a clue and putting the duct silencer outside of the cab. Now I have room for the 2 additional 240W LEDs I'm gonna go pick up tomorrow. I want to go HPS, but I'm scared that I'll burn my house down lol I realize tht I'm somewhat neurotic ... I just travel too much to feel safe with leaving that kind of power in a cabinet. So, we'll get to see if these LEDs work or don't. Only change to plan is I'm going to have 3 of them in the cab, one for each plant in flower.

And if you are curious as to the odd plumbing sticking out of my reservoir... one thing y'all should know is that Bubba's nature generally leans to the side of laziness. I've been having to climb a step ladder and crane my head over the lip of the reservoir on top of the cabinet to check the water level. Much too much effort. So, I built a Bubba-style level-indicating sight glass. It's currently calibrated at 5 gallons. My plan is when the level gets down to 3 gallons, I will open a 5 gallon bottle of RO/DI water, dump it into the 5 gallon bucket at ground elevation and then pump the full 5 gallons up in one go.

I've thought about running some copper to the res and putting in an RO/DI with a float valve, I even have a sewer drain line I could y into with the reject water nearby, but at 25 cents/gal I think I will just see how well my current method works. Unfortunately, while I was away, I had a Blumat "semi-runout". I think I just set that one too high after having to bleed the air the other day. Anyway, didn't make too much mess, could have runout the whole res... the cab is designed to hold the water if that ever happens.... am still convinced they are the cat's meow. This was operator error.


Generally speaking, can anyone tell me how long a branch needs to be before taking a cutting? Some of my branches have multiple nodes, but they're only 2" long. Bubba's bonsai weed grow, not really what I was shooting for, but at least they're green. 4 weeks and 2 days from soaking seeds. Pics for y'all.

 

[Kramer Chids]

That level check is awesome, Bubba. Everything looks really healthy too, I really like the super fat leaves of the Snow Goddess.

 

[Bubbagineer]

That level check is awesome, Bubba. Everything looks really healthy too, I really like the super fat leaves of the Snow Goddess.

Thanks Kramer. I hate Mondays and was only able to bring myself to work a 1/2 day, then I went shopping First to Greenwerkz for some of the R4 (more on that in the other thread), then to HTG for two more 240W LEDs. That gives me about 400W (actual at the plug) over a 7 sqft area => 56W/sqft

If that won't grow three plants with a decent yield then I'll have some LEDs on eBay and will start insulating my 10x12 shed (DIY from a free pile of 2x10x12 planks) and put some 1kw lights in there. If that shed burns down while I'm out of town, it's no big loss.

Heres the cab with the 2 new lights added... I never said I was overly bright... Just stubborn

 

[Kramer Chids]

BOOM! That is awesome, Bubba. Your girls aren't going to help but grow huge.

 

[420circuit]

Thanks Kramer. I hate Mondays and was only able to bring myself to work a 1/2 day, then I went shopping First to Greenwerkz for some of the R4 (more on that in the other thread), then to HTG for two more 240W LEDs. That gives me about 400W (actual at the plug) over a 7 sqft area => 56W/sqft

If that won't grow three plants with a decent yield then I'll have some LEDs on eBay and will start insulating my 10x12 shed (DIY from a free pile of 2x10x12 planks) and put some 1kw lights in there. If that shed burns down while I'm out of town, it's no big loss.

Heres the cab with the 2 new lights added... I never said I was overly bright... Just stubborn

Awesome Bubba, OK you got my attention with those LEDs, this is an excellent test of the technology. Here's to hopin' that they can create the same sort of results as HPS, OR BETTER! C'mon photons, do your magic!

 

[Bubbagineer]

Thanks guys. I expect to receive the rough edge of the wife's tongue when the credit card bill shows up lol. J/k they weren't that costly. Watch all of em be males now though. I want to take cuttings and force them to flower to see which are gurls so I can go ahead get them in the 5 gal air pots so they can stretch their legs, but don't know if the branches are big enough yet. On one of the Snow Goddess plants, the branches at the bottom node are maybe 3 inches with 3 nodes. Think this is too small to cut?

With a sexy butt like this surely it's a chick...

 

[chef c]

Naw i don't think so, but I have heard that a cutting from a plant less than sixty days old may not represent the mother to the full..

 

[Bubbagineer]

Naw i don't think so, but I have heard that a cutting from a plant less than sixty days old may not represent the mother to the full..

Thanks for the insight Chef, all I've got is book learnin to go by. In that case, there is no good reason for not transplanting them into 5 gallon pots this weekend and veg all 5 till they are ready to start flowering. It's gonna get crowded though (I hope). I now understand your comment on a 4x4 space. Noob arrogance I had it all figured out lol

 

[chef c]

I was thinking about this today... what if u take clones, keep those flower the bigger plants and trash the cuts that you don't like once the mothers have flowered? I'm sure you've thought of this but Ya kno... just putting it out there..

 

[Kramer Chids]

Chef, you are all smart and stuff.

What are your thoughts on harvesting, revegging, and then cutting clones from there?

 

[Bubbagineer]

I was thinking about this today... what if u take clones, keep those flower the bigger plants and trash the cuts that you don't like once the mothers have flowered? I'm sure you've thought of this but Ya kno... just putting it out there..

Chef, thanks much for your help, and I think this is where I'm headed if I follow what you're saying. Are you saying to just flower all five and keep cuts of the better females? If so then that is indeed where I'm headed, if not, sorry for being dense

Rosenthal's book led me to believe that by week 8 from soaking seeds that I could have cuts taken and have forced the cuts to indicate sex. If this worked, then I planned to pick the 3 best (knock on wood that there even are any females in the bunch) and transplant them to 5 gallon pots and then continue to veg for a few more weeks before flowering. Oh well, so much for that book... thats the one nugget of info from it that I thought would make the cab grow feasible.

I can fit (5) 5 gal pots w/blumats in the cab, but it will be crowded, and my plants seem to have wide asses. I'm going to have to go with fem seeds in the future so I can start the grow in a 5al pot, but I would really like to find and keep the CBD rich pheno of the SN if I can.

Can't resist leaving a pic or two. The Dank#5 continues to squat on the pot (if its a girl, gonna name her gutbomb) but the snow goddess is getting somewhat vertical... Nice shade of green anyway.