9lb Hammer, Osmocote, & Hempy

I want to share my current grow. I've got a small space and grow just for myself. This should be short and hopefully sweet, because I'm at day 28 of flower now, but I want to share the whole grow. I strive to grow with the least amount of effort, with low overhead, and still maintain the quality I need for medication.

This is my first time growing TGA breeders pack seeds, So hopefully they will preform as well as their cost.

A little background, I have an 11'x4' area sectioned off in my garage, in this area I have a 4'x4' area for flower and I have a 4'x1.5'x3' tall veg box.

Lights,,,, I don't use HPS I grow with white light.

Nutes: Osmocote Plus & Osmocote 14-14-14
Suppliments: Cal/Mag, Floralicious Plus, PH down, & Superthrive during veg.

Medium and Method: 2gal hempy buckets, with about 1/3 soil and the rest perlite.

Please feel free to post questions or comments.

Here we go, planted seed directly into cups of perlite diluted Happy Frog soil. 12/3/14
I had been starting seed right after taking the veg plants out of box that were ready to flip, but this time I started the seeds 3 wks prior because the plants weren't getting as large as I wanted to send into flower.





4 days later all have sprouted



They stayed in the cups for a month which was a wk longer than I usually wait and by that time the spouts had used up all the food in the soil. During the cup phase I water with straight RO water ph 7.0
12/19


12/26

1/3/15 Veg transplant time from cup to 2.5 quart container. Again I used Happy Frog cut with 1/3 fine perlite, just so they drain better and it reduces the chance of over watering. I sprinkle in 1 tsp of OC+ and 3 different levels, (real low, middle and right near the top) so a total of 1tbsp OC+ per plant. This is enough food to keep em going strong for at least 9 wks if necessary. Water now is 50/50 RO & Tap with 1ml/gal cal/mag, 8 drops of Floralicious Plus and 2 to 3 drops Superthrive. ph adjusted to near 6.5 (1ml/gal ph down)

1/4


1/12

Time for a haircut (topping). 1/15

Here they are a couple weeks later, They have fully recovered from the topping, and I should have topped them again at this point but didn't. Just another example of my perfect 20-20 Hindsight.

Nice looking rig

Sent from my SM-G900V using Rollitup mobile app

Another 3 wks go by. The flower area is now empty and all the hermie pollen from the last round has been cleaned up.2/22/15
Time to speed things up plants are coming out of the T-8 powered veg box and will start out under a single 400W CMH bulb for a few days then I'll power up a second 400W CMH. My hood has 3 bulbs in it. The 2 400's on the outside and a 1000W Solis Tek 4K MH in the center. Right now because my outdoors night temps are still down in the 30's or less I run the hood open to help heat the room, in May I'll have to put the glass back on and run another fan.

So building these 2gal hempy buckets I start with re-cycled perlite to 1" above the drain hole and place the first tbsp of OC+. From here up to an inch below the top of the transplant soil core I fill with more perlite and 3 tbsp of OC 14-14-14. Now it's a 2" soil cap and in the middle of this I placed the 2nd tbsp of OC+. Total of 5 tbsp of control release ferts, cost $0.68, smoking sticky bud priceless. lol

Watering changes at the start of the hempy. It's a change from a soil grow to a passive hydro grow. Main difference is dropping the ph of the feed water.

Water; 50/50 RO Tap. Cal/Mag 2ml, 8 drops Floralicious +, 2ml ph down. (ph 6.0 - 6.2) this is the ph range I'll shoot for but I'll take anything 5.8 to 6.3.





Clone cuts to keep the phenos going till I figure which one I like best.

Photos 5 days later, just after the first watering. Yes I waited 5 days to water again. It was another 4 days to the second. I like to have a dry rez in my hempy before I water again. With CRF's, nutes are released with watering, so I want to use up as much of the rez as possible before watering again so I don't build up any nute salts. Plus it pushes the plants to set roots into the rez. On day 3 of these 5 days I added the 2nd 400W and started flower 11.5/12.5. I've found that plants will show sex much quicker if the hrs of light are dropped below the even 12/12

Day 5 of flower, plants have shown sex, one male threw ball after just one shortened light cycle.
Last group photo of all 5.





I should've mentioned earlier, the plants were 18" tall when I flipped the lights.

Day 9 its time to separate the boys and girls. They have grown 10" in the past 12 days, and are starting to lean already, so I'll install support hoops now. Watering is now every 3rd day. Plants are healthy and happy at this point. Trimmed up some lower branches.

Day 14 First 2 weeks in the books and the stretch continues.

Day 21 Stretch is just about finished, they are pushing 39" a little more than double the start height. A couple days back I switched the light from the dual 400's to the 1000w Solis Tek 4K. And I transplanted the clones from cups to veg pots with 1 tbsp OC+.



The 3 girls still look very happy even with the wide temp swings they're getting this time of the yr, but it's really no different than outdoor temps here in the summer. Upper 80's down to low 60's

Day 28 (yesterday) finally caught up. During this past wk I had to raise my hood to where it's hung directly to the hook, it can't go any higher. I pollinated select lower branches of all three, and got rid of the males, even the one I had in the veg box, even under 18/6 lighting it made banana's and dropped pollen while planted in a solo cup. You can see the pollen husks stuck to the resin on couple of buds. For over a wk I've been watering every other day. The buckets are running at full speed and they are very happy, with that being said during yesterdays watering I started a P K boost. I added 1/4 tsp to each gallon. I'll watch em close to make sure I don't get any harsh tip burn. I should have mentioned earlier, when I water I run a full gal through each bucket, which gives me a 20 to 25% run-off. I like large run-offs and when there are no nutes in the water there's no financial harm.

wow...awesome thread Watts....I'm subbed for sure

Subbed man. I'm inthe early stages of pheno searching for my sincity regular sinmints. Do you personally think vegging under a 250/400 watter over t5's would have made your hammers grow quicker?

sky rocket said:

Subbed man. I'm inthe early stages of pheno searching for my sincity regular sinmints. Do you personally think vegging under a 250/400 watter over t5's would have made your hammers grow quicker?

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I'm sure that increased wattage would give a lot better growth rate. But when I'm dealing with clones the T8's work perfect to keep them from outgrowing the veg box. I like to have 18 to 20" plants when I go into flower, so I don't outgrow the flower area. I did try and run a 4 bulb T5 fixture but I had a hell of a time with the extra heat. Ended up running just 2 of the 4 bulbs, at that point I just went back to the T8

The weather here as been unseasonably warm for over a wk now. I've still have the glass off but have turned on the hood exhaust fan. I'm still getting temps in the low 90's at the canopy. The girls haven't freaked out yet, so I'll just keep on going.

After the first first P-K boost I saw a little leaf twist, so I stopped, a will wait for a few waterings.

Week 5 update, day 35. Plants look really good. The 9lb seems to be a light feeder, with few needs, it's an easy strain to grow, and it is extra frosty. It has a very aromatic scent, hope the final product meets the expectations.

Yesterday I added another P-K boost. Instead of Cha-Ching I used a lite 1/4 tsp of of powdered Kool-Bloom, everything looks okay tonight, so I'll add again skipping a watering.

I've added a couple of close ups this time, all photos are under the 1000W

Looking good. Them girls are frosting up.

Very nice Watt. nice grow.