1st time journal: 6 plants, rdwc, 1000w, lemon skunk

Spittn4cash said:

Wow..nice bushes! that grow room is pretty badass.

Keep it green!

-Cash

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Thanks, appreciate the encouragement.

Built a scrog screen today, measured wrong of course, but it will still fit ok it seems. Might be wishful thinking that they get big enough for the screen soon, but guess I will see. Not quite sure how I am going to deal with the plants in the back, they are pretty difficult to reach.

Also a few pics of my feeble attempt at LST. I topped a few of them as well finally.

doubletake said:

Looking really good in there now supper clean keeps getting better and better you going to have some nice monsters when you kick them over to flower keep up the good work.

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Thanks doubletake, I sure hope so. Not sure when to switch to flower though. Soon I hope.

You can switch to flower anytime you want, seriously they are plenty big enough, they will almost triple i size during flower. The first two weeks after going 12 x 12 they will stretch like crazy and if you want to scrog you will need to do it everyday during that period.

Watch you will be amazed, you are already addicted to growing you just don't know it yet. Keep up the great work!

BleedsGreen said:

You can switch to flower anytime you want, seriously they are plenty big enough, they will almost triple i size during flower. The first two weeks after going 12 x 12 they will stretch like crazy and if you want to scrog you will need to do it everyday during that period.

Watch you will be amazed, you are already addicted to growing you just don't know it yet. Keep up the great work!

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Thanks, good to know, first time through this I wasn't sure how much they were going to grow through flower. I kept thinking most of the growth comes the last week or so veg, but glad I am wrong. I think I'll veg for about another week.

You're right, I already am completely addicted.

I just realized a complication when I was going to attach the scrog screen to the frame with wood screws:

Once the plants start growing through the screen, I am not sure the best way to remove the net pot with plant in it when I clean out the buckets at res changes. Is it best to just cut the strings off completely, move the plant/net pot out for cleaning the bucket, then re-attach a new string when done? I like to thoroughly clean out the buckets when I drain and change nutrients, not sure how I am going to do this if the plants start growing through the screen soon.

I cant think of a way you will be able to do that if you screen em.

BleedsGreen said:

I cant think of a way you will be able to do that if you screen em.

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I hope it's possible to just cut each string off every res change so I can move the plants to a temporary home on the veg side. Then tie each string again before they go back. I guess I'm not going to be doing weekly res changes anymore. Probably drain/clean/refill and re attach new strings every 2-3 weeks at the most since it seems like it's going to be very tedious from here on out.

I had ALOT of gunk in the bottom of the buckets when I cleaned a few days ago. This is what it looked like:



Best investment I made so far was a $21 shop vac bucket top thing from Lowe's. It sucks the system bone dry when I clean it out, including the 6ft+ runs of 3/4" poly tubing. The suction attachment fits snug on each bulkhead connection in the igloo ice chest/control and pulls just about every drop of water out. The last 2" of gross looking water/nutrients at the bottom of the buckets really bummed me out and was virtually impossible to remove before buying this bucket top shop vac.

Back to the gunk: There isn't as much stuff floating around anymore since I stopped using the roots Excelurator product. One of the very smart hydro shop guys explained there was a bad batch of the Roots Excelurator, showed me that it was too thick and had a metallic/rusty smell to it. Way too much solid organic material in the bad batch. Mine was clearly bad and they exchanged it. I think this was the primary cause of all the gunk.

Questions for anyone that has done a scrog: would it be ideal to be able to raise the scrog screen higher as they grow? To do this, I need to relocate the 8" intake for the light a little higher, so it's a little time consuming. Don't want to spend hours working on it if the screen should be permanently placed and never moved.

I was thinking of making a shelf with more "L" brackets so every 2 weeks or so I could raise the screen. Hard to find info about the screen height and raising as they grow or removing strings for cleaning the buckets out.

I think you need to do a little more research on SOG as my understanding is you weave the plant through the screen which in turn would mean to me very little raise in light needed as you try to keep all growth horizontal. The buds will sprout up vertical from the plant that is basically weaved into the screen.

Thanks, I've read quite a few posts here on it and think I have a good understanding of the concept.

I just didn't expect that much "weaving" through the net, I expected it to sort of keep the tops even by kind of using the strings to just press tops down and allowing the side shoots to get higher and even. Not as much weaving over and under, but since I've never done this, I clearly don't know how it will work exactly. It probably won't turn out as clean as I imagine with each top just run horizontally under the string (not weaved) and then each shoot poking evenly straight up into each 3" x 3" string grid hole.


If you're saying the growth gets sort of wild once I switch to 12/12, and I am going to have to do quite a bit of "over and under and back over" weaving of the tops through the strings, then any raising of the screen or removal of strings is probably a bad idea.

Exactly! Do you have a height issue? If not I wouldn't worry about the screen. You will want to get them some type of support before the buds start getting heavy.

What if you LST the plants instead of scrog? That'll keep a nice even canopy..you'll still need to figure out something for plant support though...

Edit: I see you've LST'd a couple of them. that looks good..would you be able to drill a small hole in the top of the bucket and put a hook there? it'll hold much better than tape

Spittn4cash said:

What if you LST the plants instead of scrog? That'll keep a nice even canopy..you'll still need to figure out something for plant support though...

Edit: I see you've LST'd a couple of them. that looks good..would you be able to drill a small hole in the top of the bucket and put a hook there? it'll hold much better than tape

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I like your thinking, that's probably the best solution. Drill small holes in the buckets for the hooks to just LST, then raise the screen up to be used as flower support. The duct tape with string LST seems to work for now, but it kind of bugs me and feels sloppy. Was a little apprehensive to drill into the netpots for the hooks, but I guess that shouldn't be a problem.

I went a little crazy with LST'ing them more tonight, but as long as the stem doesn't break I guess it won't hurt/stunt growth much (I hope). Kind of experimenting with it for the time being, will post pics tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by Spittn4cash, appreciate your suggestions.

PH seems to be a tad on the low side, usually around 5.4 the last couple days. I adjust it with PH up, get it to around 5.6-5.8 in the control cooler, then it slowly drops down to 5.4 about 8 hours later. Not sure if this is a problem yet or if it's normal for ph to slowly go down, first time ph actually went down instead of slowly climbing to 5.9 - 6.1.

PPM still at 600 (1.2 EC) after 4 days.

Going to ditch the scrog screen, and just LST for awhile. Will probably raise the screen frame a foot or two, cut out half of the strings and use what's left for flowering support when they get larger. Want the skunks to get a little bigger before switching to 12/12. The bagseeds look good to me, very bushy and looks like it will have quite a few tops. Just praying they don't all 3 turn out to be male.

Here is some of my attempted LST. Everything has been topped once so far (using FIM).

lemon skunks:



bagseeds:



Overview:

I said to myself I was going to stop posting pics so much, and slow it down to once a week. Maybe it's because I'm getting closer to flowering, but have a burning desire to post another round of photos from today.

It seems interesting to me that all 6 have had identical conditions and the bagseeds seem to be thriving whereas the dna genetics skunks don't seem quite as healthy. Could it have something to do with them being feminized seeds as opposed to regular? Not sure what it is about the environment that prevented the skunks from taking off like the bagseeds did.

Plan is to switch to 12/12 within one week. The bagseeds look like they are ready. Praying the skunks catch up a little bit so it will be an even canopy.



Probably don't need to label them anymore, bagseeds = bigger bushes, skunks = scrawnier and smaller.




Quick question, when switching over to 12/12 do I need time it so that I change out the nutrients on the same day? Not sure how critical it is to have them start on the bloom feed schedule at the exact same day they go over to 12/12.

Need to build a bubble cloner this week.

EDIT: The shiny spots on the leaves is from the foliar feeding I started doing every 5 days. Started using this foliar feed called Heavy 16 at the advice of a hydroshop guy when I was having nitrogen/mg deficiency about 2 weeks ago. Helped a a great deal, saw an improvement in 24 hours. I raise the 1000w MH hood, turn it down to 50% (500W) and give 2 quick mist sprays to each plant, wait about 30 minutes then crank light back to 1000w. Takes about 1oz water with 1ml of the foliar mix. Anyways, the heavy 16 foliar feed leaves some oil on the leaves and is normal I guess.

booort said:

Quick question, when switching over to 12/12 do I need time it so that I change out the nutrients on the same day? Not sure how critical it is to have them start on the bloom feed schedule at the exact same day they go over to 12/12.

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No you don't need to time the change with the lights, it just a helpful point of reference.

Any day now it's got to be time to switch over to 12/12. Bagseeds look great to me, very bushy, lots of branches, and just look overall healthy. 2 of the skunks look to be doing ok, with some lst and fim they developed a few branches and I did what training I could to try to get the tops even.



Ph has been stable at 5.6-5.9, ppm about 650-700. I have been having to top off with 1-3 gallons per day of nutes.

Bought a container and another air pump to make the bubble cloner. Could not find any foam (something like a swimming pool noodle) that seems to be a common method of holding the clone in place in the holes I make in the lid of the container. I think I am going to try to cut smaller holes at 1.25 inch diameter (have a hole saw for that size already) and hold them in place with either a rockwool cube, or cut out a circle of the reflective bubble wrap and place a slit in it. Concerned the rockwool might get too wet from the bubbles splashing up and this could be bad causing possible rot of the stem? Will try to hit up walmart to look for some foam to hold them in place, but might be stuck with using the bubble wrap or rock wool cubes.



Plan is to take 2 clones of each and pick the best ones. The struggling and scrawny skunk plant in the rear of the room I see no point in taking a clone of assuming it will grow like it's mother did.



Crappy light trap made from two 8" elbows:


Nearly sliced my finger off trying to put this together. Completely half assed, but seems to work. Airflow is definitely reduced now, but temperature is the same (maybe AC unit is working harder now). Can barely make out a feint glow of light coming from the end of the duct with the filter attached (hidden in the home depot box), but that is when I am outside the room and the light is reflected from the 1000w MH. I'd assume a couple 60 watt incandescent bulbs outside the room in the basement would not reflect nearly as much light as the 1000w MH in the room, so I think it should be ok. Right? Sure hope so cause working with metal duct elbows isn't fun.

When switching over to 12/12, my plan was to change the time they come on and off all at once one day. Instead of running 8:00am to 2:00am, they would start at 10:00am to 10:00pm. Should I gradually start changing this over the coming days, or is it ok to change it over all at once without them getting "shocked" or something? For example, I could change the timer by 1 hour each day, or just switch the whole thing over to 12/12 at once.

Swapped bulb to 1000w hps, changed nutes and took 10 clones. Scrog screen attached with strings to be able to raise it if needed. Have to learn why my screen won't work the hard way, worst case I cut all the strings and yank it out.

Humidity was over 60 for the first time over night. Wondering if there is a cheap dehumidifier I can place in the sealed flower room.

All the feminized skunks are showing sex, and I think I am seeing signs of female on 2 of the bagseeds. The biggest plant in the back is unknown sex still.

Built a cheap bubble cloner. Learning process and wouldn't be too devastated if none of the clones make it, I have several other strains of seeds I ordered that I am anxious to sprout soon.

booort said:

Swapped bulb to 1000w hps, changed nutes and took 10 clones. Scrog screen attached with strings to be able to raise it if needed. Have to learn why my screen won't work the hard way, worst case I cut all the strings and yank it out.

Humidity was over 60 for the first time over night. Wondering if there is a cheap dehumidifier I can place in the sealed flower room.

All the feminized skunks are showing sex, and I think I am seeing signs of female on 2 of the bagseeds. The biggest plant in the back is unknown sex still.

Built a cheap bubble cloner. Learning process and wouldn't be too devastated if none of the clones make it, I have several other strains of seeds I ordered that I am anxious to sprout soon.

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Your workmanship is beautiful!

agree, great work, and good luck

Thanks for the compliments, and thanks for stopping by nick88.

No prob, love seeing set-ups like that.. It's great for when building 1, saves a whole lot of time by not having to go in and change different things. It's all right there, done and ready to go.