DIY Ebb & Flow - I'm learning!

[TalonToker]

To me they're lookin nice and frosty for their maturity! Your going to have a lot of work to do come harvest time with that many plants lol. Better do something now about the smell because 9 plants will indeed produce a much stronger aroma than just one....Especially if you have a fan blowing on them at all. lol Keep the hubby happy so you can keep doing your thing.

Sorry your out of smoke, that sucks. I'll take a hit for ya. Since I started growing a little less than 6 years ago I haven't bought the finished product, only seeds. I just do without after I smoke it all, and that does happen all too often. It sucks, but at least you know when you will have more, unlike how it can sometimes be when you buy it from the black market. I guess you can probably go to a dispensary though, can't you? If that were the case for me, I probably would go and buy some.

Keep em green, I'm lovin your thread.

 

[Belle of Buds]

Hey TalonToker... good to see you still come around. Looks like this thread is mostly just you and me.

My girls are making me proud. They are frosting up nicely for their age, I think... and yes, harvest is going to be some work, but I've taken 3 days off work bumped up against a weekend so I can take 'em down and trim them up. I learned on my very first grow not to try and do it all at once. My first grow was 9 plants and I harvested about 180 grams dry...not a record breaking haul, but it was my first free weed and THAT made it priceless.

What I do now is take down one plant and trim her up. If I still have time and energy, I'll take down another. I figure it won't hurt those other plants to continue growing and developing for a few more days. I expect to take 5-6 days to completely chop everyone. Also, I am thinking of changing tactics on my trim. I generally trim pretty aggressively, but I think I'm going to leave the leaves on the buds until the drying process is complete. It will make it take longer to dry and I think that will improve taste and possibly potency. I've read where others have reported overall improved quality by doing it this way. I may do half and half to see if there is any significant difference. Might take a little and try water curing as well. I'm really excited about having so much done at once. I've been doing a perpetual grow that hasn't gone very well (due to external circumstances) and I've only been harvesting 10-12 grams per plant at a time. Very poor results. And it's always only been enough to make it to the next plant... barely.

My needs are really minimal. I tend to smoke every single day when I've got it, but a couple of small bowls a day is really all I need. I have a nice little pipe that I made out of household items with a small bowl pack on it. I fill that in the morning, take a couple of hits, work till lunchtime then take a couple more... then I usually repack for the ride home from work and that will carry me through till bedtime. I stay slightly buzzed all day, every day.

I technically can't go to the dispensaries up here because they are an all or nothing setup. Either you designate them as your caregiver or your grow your own, but you can't do both. It cool though. I get almost as much enjoyment out of watching my girls grow and knowing what they will become, as I do consuming the produce. And I have an adult son who shows up with a bud or two for Momma every now and then. Matter of fact, I'm expecting some Lemon Skunk this evening. It will probably only be about a gram, but that's good for a couple of days for me.

 

[TalonToker]

Heck yes, they are frosting up nicely, very nicely for their age. That often doesn't even start until into the 5th week. Your girls have a sweet head start. Imagine how white they will be when ripe. lol You're going to have some sticky stuff to trim. I don't blame you for planning on drying before trimming. I always trim right away, but that's just me. Trimming just one decent sized plant by yourself is indeed a lot of work, so I think you have a great idea on taking them down one at a time. You're going to have a sore cutting hand when it's done. lol At least you will have some good medicine to help on that. It's way too early to tell, but if you keep up the great work I would be surprised if you get less than 60g per plant. I would not be surprised if you got 75g or even more per lady.

I know about choosing a care giver, but did not know about not being able to grow if you choose a dispensary. That really sucks. My state (Oklahoma) is behind the times, so I haven't had the joy of going through that process yet. Hope your son comes through for you with some of that lemon skunk. I've never had it that I know of, but it sounds mighty tasty.

How is your eye? I hope for a positive report, now.....

Keep at it Belle, they're all looking great and it's the home stretch now. I have already learned quite a bit and I'll be watching 'till the end.

 

[Sir.Ganga]

I may reconsider the drip ring. I am very low maintenance and expect everything around me to be also... so far, the flood and drain has proven about as low maintenance as anything I've tried to date.

Bella nice girlies and set up...CUDO'S. I know what you mean about low maintenance, have you thought about rockwool slabs and cubes as a medium for your system? I went to it a couple of years ago and never looked back. No more hoses, tubes, drippers...nothing. I flood once a day now and that's it! It really has made it a no brainer to water my girls.

 

[Belle of Buds]

Bella nice girlies and set up...CUDO'S. I know what you mean about low maintenance, have you thought about rockwool slabs and cubes as a medium for your system? I went to it a couple of years ago and never looked back. No more hoses, tubes, drippers...nothing. I flood once a day now and that's it! It really has made it a no brainer to water my girls.

I have thought about the rockwool slabs, but right now, I've got what looks like a lifetime supply of chunky perlite. The bag I have is 4 feet tall by 2feet square and what I used to support this grow barely touched the supply. I'm gonna be growing in chunky perlite for awhile. Good thing I like it!

I am going to ditch the hydroton for future grows, though and try all perlite for the next one.

Speaking of the next grow. I had a friend loan me a very nice T5 lamp and I'm thinking of getting a jump on the next grow by setting up a veg station. What I can't decide is how to set it up. I want to be able to move the growing plants into the ebb & flow table when the current grow is done but I don't want to construct anything elaborate to start these new plants in. Any ideas?

 

[Sir.Ganga]

Depending on how long you plan to veg will also come into your decision. I run a perpetual grow and harvest a tray/table each week so tray size is important to me as they need to be mobile enough to move from one room to another. I also see you use net pots another option is to run a Rubbermaid with holes the size of your net pots and do a dwc set up. If they are not in their too long they will establish roots but not all get tangled together. This would also get you a start on a good beard of roots before you flower and you might gain a week or so on your next crop.

 

[Belle of Buds]

Depending on how long you plan to veg will also come into your decision. I run a perpetual grow and harvest a tray/table each week so tray size is important to me as they need to be mobile enough to move from one room to another. I also see you use net pots another option is to run a Rubbermaid with holes the size of your net pots and do a dwc set up. If they are not in their too long they will establish roots but not all get tangled together. This would also get you a start on a good beard of roots before you flower and you might gain a week or so on your next crop.

I like the second option. I think that's what I'm gonna do. I have a nice set up for the light and a rubbermaid DWC would be just about right. That way I can lift the netpots out and move them to the flood tray when I'm ready.

 

[Belle of Buds]

Okay, I totally admit that up until now, I have not really and truly given my best to this grow. Finances have dictated what I was able to do (and that is still the case), but I have decided that it is time to nail it down. Up until now I have been using nutes which were freebies at various Hydro shops and Cannabis expos. Which means that I have been very inconsistent in their diet. Last night was the clencher for me.

I did a res change (like I do every Sunday evening) and then started looking for nutes. My DynaBloom had "chunks" in the bottom, there was only about 1/2 enough of either Bud Candy or Sweet and the other stuff I use to eliminate the chlorine and the other c word that I forgot, used to be clear but has gone cloudy. In short, I've been feeding my ladies "food bank" quality foods. And they have thrived despite me, not because of me.

So tonight I started over. I emptied the res as much as possible with the pump then took the shop vac to clean it out completely. Then I scrubbed the res clean, clean, clean. This time when I filled it up, I ran the table twice with just plain water, emptied it out and filled it fresh again before adding the nutes.

I added fresh nutes, straight from the hydro shop. I am also trying Humboldt Crystal Burst for the rest of this grow. It says to start using it after they develop flowers so this should be an okay time to start. So my ladies have fresh clean water, fresh nutes in proper proportions and it will be their best meal yet. I can hardly wait to come home from work tomorrow and see what they thought of their new mixture.

 

[Dudefunk]

nice grow i have been following so you guys are not alone. Hope those girls like the steak dinner over the food bank )

 

[Belle of Buds]

Evening everybody. Well, it's the middle of the grow and I thought I'd share some more pics. These were taken on Day 30

First up, here's the whole gang:




Here a Poison lady up close:



And a Bubba 76 lady:



And here's the kicker... I swear I've been watching all the ladies pretty closely, but just tonight, I noticed this TWO HEADED terminal cola. Not sure when she split...

 

[Belle of Buds]

nice grow i have been following so you guys are not alone. Hope those girls like the steak dinner over the food bank )

Glad to know you're following! Speak up every now and then. I'd love to see pics of other folks buds. Come on, lets see some bud porn!

 

[Belle of Buds]

Alright, I just had to go back into the tent and get another look at the two headed bud. I don't know when she split or why... maybe she was just so happy with the new diet that she's beside herself...

 

[overgrowcannabis]

Nice ive never seen a two headed bud .

 

[Belle of Buds]

Nice ive never seen a two headed bud .

Me neither. Can't wait to see what she does over the next 4 weeks.

 

[Belle of Buds]

I tried and failed with the drippers. Salts are your enemy with drippers, easily clogged and as with ventillation, your water/feed will always find the easiest route. when your drippers / nozzles get a slight blockage, the flow stops on that drippper and pushes through an easier route. You may succeed but I failed on that one. Before anyone jumps all over me, I had a 1 bar sump pump pushin through and it still failed me. F&D is the proverbial dogs IMHO. I don't understand why you lot over yonder pond like regular seeds.... why not fems. Why not clones? I aint bought seeds for 2-3 years. Got pics for ya by the way just can't find my USB lead to rip pics from my phone... tmz.

I've been thinking more on this and I've decided to forgo the drippers. When I did the deep scrub of the res yesterday, I realized that there is a lot of crap that can get in the water and that is bound to cause trouble. My water is very hard (and I seriously need to get an r/o filter cuz my pH outta the tap today was 10.3) and I'm sure I'd fight a drip ring on a daily basis.

So far, there is absolutely nothing about my setup that causes me to want to rethink my grow. I think I'm onto something here. I gonna back off the quantity of plants for the next grow and aim for more per plant. I think I'm going to do only two plants. Or maybe four, but certainly not 12. This has been wicked fun so far, watching them survive in the space, but I want to be able to appreciate the individual plants and give them space to grow.

 

[flowamasta]

I love skunk weed

Going sweet as Belle

 

[TalonToker]

Those buds are just exploding!! I can't believe how fast they are growing!

Loving the porn, Belle.

 

[Belle of Buds]

Ya know... I've been thinking. When I first got excited about the idea of growing weed, it was because I had a hydro plan. I was all excited about DWC and thought that was the thing for me. I tried it, it worked really well, but it was very hard on me. My set up was difficult to work with, making res changes absolute back-breaking work. I hated it and didn't do it as well as I could have, but I got a couple of ounces per plant. And I loved my plants. I would sit and stare at them for hours on end and I took thousands of photographs. I couldn't wait to go online and share my photos with others.

Then, when that grow was done, I decided to try coco for something easier. I had an organic recipe mixed up and I used it. I started a perpetual grow. Things went okay for awhile, but I wasn't happy with my grow. I didn't like my plants and I found hand watering a bunch of pots to be very difficult, time consuming and monotonous. I had to store water in gallon jugs and treat each gallon with ph down and nutes. I got lazy about it. I no longer took pictures because my plants weren't pretty and I dropped out of my online community because I didn't want to see their lovely plants when mine were pathetic. Then I got spider mites. That was it. I ended the perpetual grow and shut down my operation.

But one day, I thought of how to build an ebb & flow table for very little investment and I had all the hydro pumps and stuff from before...I superscrubbed the tent and made sure the spider mites were eradicated, set up my new grow... and I am happy again! I am supposed to grow hydro. I have my set up dialed in so that res changes are easy, res cleaning is easy, my nutes are simple, and perlite is bug free! And my plants are the prettiest they have ever been. I am snapping pictures again, sharing online, and loving my grow.

I just had that epiphany while smokin' on some Grape God and thought I'd share...

Nite y'all.


Bubba 76 - Day 33 Flowering

 

[bazookajoe]

Looking superb Belle, glad to see ur passion for the beloved plant resurected from the painful, spider mite pits I think you've found ur hydroponic niche! Keep them beautiful buds growin!

 

[TalonToker]

Isn't it great when things come together? Your making it look easy, too. I'm glad you're enjoying taking pics again because you are taking some fine ones. The bud in that last pic is gorgeous!