Bonzai: a DWC closet grow story

Hello my friends, hello,
In times past I have given life to many cannabis plants. And yes some plant have past on before they have done their dutiful duty of producing flowers. Some fell comically some fell tragically but all taught lessons.
This time though the notes will not just be scribbled down in a notebook like some ill fated ledger kept only to be turned into evidence. No, this time I plan on putting everything on to the anonymous internet and being a photographer I plan on posting super stony studio pics.
Here with you. Enjoy!

Day 1 (Tuesday May 27th 2014)
Today I started to germinate 2 seeds one being big bang autoflower from green house seed co and the other a northern lights blue auto flower that i forgot where I got from but throwing it in anyway.

and I realize i said super cool pot photos but seeds are very lack luster and I promise some pretty macros when i see some root pop.

Good luck to you and your grow.

May 29 2014

Germ awareness day

They call it the old paper towel method because of the tried and true way a paper towel, although preferably new, moist with water in a ziploc will sprout seeds in just a few day. In my case it did it in 2 and i just tossed it into the closet that it will call home like refugee until I kill it, With love,

In the process of photographing these lil' rascals I lost track of who's whom. Just having grown a big bang strain (greenhouse seeds) I might end up noticing later in life. Such the life of an estranged child.

I plan transplanting these in to some well saturated coco plugs and after a few days there in a heated grow chamber they'll meet their ultimate pot, being two old Gatorade 5gal coolers. I chosen these coolers because in the past I've met the dreaded pythium or root rot or.... hydra.
Everytime I've come across it nothing stops it. Well at least when the reservoir is warm. Which it quickly becomes in a closet with (apparently) less than favorable airflow. With that I came to putting a frozen gallon bottle twice a day, which put a damper in a lot of my travel plans. So hopefully this route will give me at least 3 days (optimistically) before I call my one friend whim has no friends and he can take care of the plants and not tell anybody. Of course obtaining another one of these coolers is cumbersome living in NYC. So if you see a suspicious man with one of these on the train or on a bike, you were right to think he must be up to something.

June 1 2014

Sprout Me Up With Your Love

After a night of soaking coco, carefully I placed the seeds with their tap root out like a narwhals tusk. As a heating pad set to 84 degrees turning their scientific and sterile environment into a warm womb that is meticulously cleaned. So far in this stage I have sust been giving them enough pH balanced water to keep them moist but not enough to allow puddling in the tray.

As with most photogenic girls they love the camera and I could swear in the time-lapse above they grew quicker because they know they're being filmed, as if they want to strut. I had to play around with the intervelometer attached to my camera because they grew quicker than expected.

Once I get some root peeking out from the coco I'll transfer them into their DWC homes. Until then I've more sterilization to do.

june 3rd 2014

It is one hot NYC day the temps in the clonebox got up to 100 degree for a moment and my seedlings were looking weak. I immediately transferred them to their main container (Gatorade cooler) and the reservoir temp is stable just below 70 degrees (with out any frozen water bottle as of yet). The closet temp is still in the low 90's I'd like to get it a few degrees cooler because this is just the heat from 2, albeit quite large, CFL's. I was planning on using my 400w HPS at some point but the summer is only going to get hotter in NYC. I do have an A/C unit i've'nt put in my window yet. and I've been playing around with where my 2 fans flow but 93 degrees seems to be where I hang.



As for the DWC's their ppm's are around 200ppm this is the first nuits(fox farm) they'll be receiving and just for safetys sake I put in a lil bit of Great White Shark beneficial bacteria

June 4th 2014

My time lapse isn't working at the moment however the plants have grown a bit since last night.

At around 11p last night I threw in a frozen water bottle and this morning water temp is around 63 degrees.

The PPM has increased to about 250ppm in each tank. I'm not sure why, it could because the Great White Shark beneficial bacteria has replicated (doing it's job) or the air stones that I forgot to sterilize have introduced pithyum into the rez. I doubt this however as the water temp has been nice and cool and no light leaks into the reservoir.

Expect fun photos soon

June 5th 2014

So the ppm in my system has now increased to 300ppm... anyone have a guess as to why? one of the plants is getting a lil tip burn, so I was going to drain out some of the rez (via gatorade dispenser) and add fresh pH balanced water.

feedback?

June 6th 2014

Well my camera is definitely busted... So new pics might be a bit until canon sends it back with my previous history with them.

But on the plant side of things the lil girls are growing and the PPM's are stabil around 250 now. I guess bene-bacteria is dying off... or eating shit... But the lil bit of tip burn has subsided, but it is good to know one needs less nuits, at least at the moment.

The reservoirs stay in the cold sweet spot for almost two days so, that's great because I have to travel every so often for work and have a friend watch the,... and in the past he just watched them die, but at least he was here to see it...

But the grow is going and going good thus far.

June 8th 2014

Okay so a lil help is needed...


The plants ARE growing one is doing quite great and the other not so hot.... at first it had a lil tip burn when I gave it the seedling formula.. I'm guessing it needs less nuits so I diluted more water into it... it IS growing just at a stunted pace next to her sister.

My question is; Does anyone out there see any red flags or think the size and burn could be something other than nuit burn or transplant shock?

June 25th 2014

Well after traveling for two weeks and change I am finally back in the city. While I was away I had my friend drop by and change out frozen water bottles. He only needed to do it every 2-3 days or so thanks to the Gatorade coolers.

As far as other plant maintenance went I just had him watch the ppm's and greenness of the leaves and had him just top off water when needed, keeping the plants in their early phase nuits telling him if it dips below 200ppm upgrade to the following weeks nuit regimen, but wasn't necessary so today I did it today.


Red here seems to be a lil bit of a runt or slow grower so I boosted its nuits to 350ppm on my week one fox farm setup. But for a slow grower it seems uber healthy.



Orange here has some great growth and its roots are amazing under the water I used fox farms week 1 regimen at around 430ppm since it's a lil bit of a bigger gal. It has some spots but I think it was just from light being a lil too close...almost every-time my pal watches my plants their always a lil off but I assume he's not giving them the extra love I normally do.

But with all the "work" I was doing in Amsterdam I'm in just the right mood to inspire some love and growth...

July 3rd 2014

Time to flourish!
The feeding cycle is still only in it's 1st week regimen and these two girls are taking off! I'm pushing on moving on to the 2nd week feeding regimen, but not allowing it to pass 14 days, so I can get a reading on when these plants actually need more. The plants are actually 5 weeks old from seedling, and I was out of town for two weeks I had a friend closely monitoring the PPM to make sure they didn't fall too sharp. Upon my arrival I noticed the plants were a lil lighter shade of green so I started there vegetative feeding cycle.

The red container is the runt of the two and if you look closely above was starting to show pistols very early. I figure it was due to insufficient light spectrum (coming from my 2x500w equivalent CFL's) So I've also supplemented a 400w HPS light really giving them a lot of lumens, but BEWARE my taller plant was starting to curl because the light was(n't really that)close to the plant. Luckily it being summer I've my A/C in the window and the closet temp hovers around 85.. I wish I could cool it another 5-10 degrees but we'll see what happens.



Big orange has defied my attempts to LST it. My method is a piece of tape on a leave and anchor it to the container, but I must get better tape than scotch. Because this powerhouse plant will not be tame from my futile mortal efforts.

The roots in both plants are uber-white and hairy and healthy while all I have to do is top off and change the frozen water bottle every 2-3 days. The Gatorade coolers were definitely a sound decision.


The PPM's today are: Orange @ 400ppm & Red @ 300ppm
They're taking up the nuits well, I add about a half a gallon of water to every 2-3 days and will probably change out to week two later tomorrow or the weekend, depending on PPM. Guess I'm just waiting to go down maybe another 50ppm each which is probably ridiculous,

But what do YOU think?

I think your looking good, I believe you should keep doing what your doing. I can't stress this next point enough though Spray them with neem. I didn't and now I have little friends, not many but once you get one its almost impossible to eliminate them entirely.

July 7th 2014

The heat of the city


(pic: Big Bang Auto & Northern Lights Blue #5)

Soon the mercury will rise as tall as the skyscrapers. It's summer and the evening thunderstorms are flashy and the city has pop up water stations so idiots don't die. This time of year brings fun in the sun but worry in the closet. Heat brings problems when you're trying to make an ecosystem in a closet. So to combat this I've put the A/C in the window and it will hopefully continue to blow out cold air until winter. Even still though the coolest temp I can achieve in the closet it low 80's. Another thing I'll have to worry about soon is rolling blackouts and brown outs. While rare where I live juxtaposed near a fire station and power plant I should be okay but my reliance on the holes in the wall is concerning me.



(pic: big bang auto)

As far as things in the now go I think they couldn't be better! Today I changed out the water reservoirs and upped the nutrients to the week 2 regimen. Since I have two very different plants growing (size wise) I've adjusted to each ones personalities. The plant in the orange container (I believe this to be the "big bang auto" from greenhouse seeds) Is getting nice and bushy so much so that I've lolli-popped a bit (cut the lower branches) and as it has been undergoing Low Stress Training for a few days some lower nodes have stretched out and they have been Super-Cropped (twist and bent until fibers in the branch break or snap). So the Big Bang is doing just that so this week I filled the reservoir with 4 1/2 gallons of water and put the nuits at around 500ppm with the pH balanced at around 6.0


(Pic: Big Bang Auto)

(Pic: Northern Lights Blue #5)

The plant in the red container (which for all future purposes will be referred to as the "Northern Lights Blue #5") is still being a bit of a temperamental pre tween girl. It's the runt still looking a lot more immature than Big Bang and it's been preflowering. At first I thought it was due to improper light spectrum so a supplemented the 400w HPS which seems to have curbed the preflower as I don't see it in progression. And it is looking healthy just a lil shorty. Because of it's pygmy nature this weeks reservoir change I only upped the nutrients up to 380ppm. The water pH was set to around 6.5-7.0 mostly because I don't have an eye dropper so only a lil pH down went in and I decided upon less being more so I didn't have to dump all the fresh water out.


(Pic: Northern Lights Blue #5)

Anyone think I should throw in a lil more pH down? Reasoning being that roots will take up nuits more efficiently at a pH around 5.5-6.0 so the runt will probably grow faster. Amm'i right?


(pic: Clones from Big Bang)

Also, when I was lolli-popping the big bang The usable nodes I snipped, I'm trying to make into clones I know cloning an auto fem is ridiculous but I figure if NLB#5 is a lil-shortay-runt might as well throw in a 3rd or 4th clone. I think my closet could fit 4 plants, most definitely 3. So I've taken 3 clones and put them in a dome with heating pad near my window. It's been a day and a half since I initially did it and they're not looking good. Not sure what the problem could be, besides cloning be a hard thing to get the hang of. Plus, I've the clones getting direct sunlight part of the morning which could be frying my lil closeted girls. The heat pad I have set to 91 degrees, which I'm not sure if that's too hot, So we'll see what happens with them.

Anyone see anything wrong with what I'm doing?

July 14, 2014

Upgrade to week 3

This week the girls are starting to pre bud like tweens. So to help them in their growth I've replaced the water with some fresh pH balanced (around 5.5) water and stepped up their nutrient intake to FoxFarms week 3 regimen.

(NLB#5 Above. Didn't care to do super fancy photos today)

Both of the plants are preflowering but the Northern Lights Blue #5 even though it's still the runt of the litter is going through it's pre flower phase right into full fledged flowering. Even though it is still really juvenile looking. The buds are starting to form in some big clusters.


(NLB#5)

With NLB#5 I've been LST and I did a super crop on the main-stem. It was a "free seed" special I got when I originally ordered the Big Bang pack, It is an autoflower so I'm assuming it's stature is because of its genetics not because of nurture. Even though the root mass as well is smaller compared to BB. But we'll see how it does this week with growth, and I'll tryt and take some fancy (mmhaps macro) shots this week of the girl and her lil buds. With the week 3 nuits she's at 425ppm this week.


(big bang)

Big Bang this week is always doing just that. It is growin and won't stop showin'. A true canna-bush at this point. The LST and super-cropping I've been doing has really been effective. I wait for a node to get to a certain length then I super-crop, as I'm constantly LST the main stem (which I didn't get a chance to super crop because it got too massive too quickly and I didn't want to snap anything. But She's a beautiful bush that's starting to show pistols and everyday there is more. This plant is an auto as well so I'm curious to see how big it gets. This week when I stepped up it's week 3 the ppm is just shy of 600ppm.

(Big Bang)

The roots are massive and gorgeously white on BB.

Today I'm also beginning a new lighting tactic as these girls go into flower, Every few days I increase the dark cycle by an hour (a half hour on each end) until I'm planning to reach about 13 on 11 off. So for today it was at 18 on 6 off now at 17on 7 off. Trying to replicate how the sun gradually shifts. It probably doesn't matter too much but I'm trying it out.

Also my clones seem to be dead except for 1, but I'll save that for another update

Any thoughts or comments?

I feel your pain regarding heat issues.

Your plants look green and healthy, and I hope they give you a great harvest.

Positive vibes to you.

July 26th 2014

Need a Bigger Closet!


(NLB#5)

So I'ven't updated in a while was sick so it kinda took a back seat. Plus I finally have my camera back so I was excited to use it and my new lens.


(big bang)

I last change the nutrients on the 21st. Big Bang is a monster taking a lot of the available space in my closet but it is going kola krazy! I'ven't counted all of them but she is gonna be a producer, So when I last changed her over to the week 4 foxfarm nuit regimen that I altered a lil bit I brought it's ppm up to 750ppm. Today its ppm is about 500ppm so it has been sucking up everything like a beast. It's quite a thirsty bitch too needing have a gallon top of every 1-2 days. granted I'm kinda new with autoflowers but this one is a big one. Next week I'll post pics of the root masses because this one has a lot of beautiful white roots. So proud! She also got a trimming and additional lollipopping because it is getting so massive it blocks itself out. I also stopped LST'ing it becasue the other koals were getting taller than the main so i figured its better to try and fill the bush out.


(Big Bang)


(NLB#5)

The Northern lights is coming in just fine. It is well into it's flower phase so last week instead of bumping it up to the week 4 regimen I skipped it and went right to week 5 @ 550ppm and this week around 490ppm. This plant is a slow grower though on top with its greenery and below with its roots. The roots are still coming in nice and white but it soaks up about a half gallon every two days...maybe a lil under. She too was lollipopped but not much because it doesn't have that much to offer. So it's got about 4 kolas altogether including the big main one. Probably would have been a good strain to grow as a spear but I didn't know it was such a shorty.


(Big Bang Clone)

And out of the 3 clones I took from big bang's 1st lollipopping only 1 made it to root. So last week or so I transferred it to DWC but an old 5gal black bucket with little insulation. Of course i got visited by pithyium as I was watching the ppm daily and it was increasing. So I quickly ran out and got a 3rd Gatorade cooler and re-did it's cutting phase nuits.

(Big Bang Clone)

Thusly she's doing much better. Can't wait to see how big she gets with her nig sister in there.... I've got to throw out more Cloths!

Until next time!

wow thats hot for dro


congrats on not getting root rot man lol if I knew how to rep you I would!

huh? my temps are hot? or are you slangin? rep me?

August 4 2014

Away game


(the closet)

Well going out of town tomorrow for a full week, So I've changed out the nuits in all the plants so the person i've taking care of the plants dosn't have to do anything than change the water bottle ever few days and top off. I was/am in a rush so I didn't take fancy photos... next week


(big bang)

Big bang is dong just swell it is a big bush in that small closet. This strain would be great if I had a little more room to cultivate it. Because of this I have trimmed its inner nodes and branches heavily this week. Basically I would work my way from the bottom up and snip any really small growth then I would examine each branch and any thing I thought was gonna make small bud I snipped. At this stage it was easy because the kolas I'm pretty sure are going to produce, have thick stems, so anything skinny was cut.


(cut big bang)

On the plus side I just got a cold press juicer and used these trimmings for hemp juice which I think I heard is amazing for you. Taste like wheatgrass, which taste like grass grass. So also big bang is on week 6 foxfarm nuits at 520ppm. It also has some burns in the leaf I'm not sure if I should be concerned aboiut. You can see it in the Close up image. LET ME KNOW IF YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS AND IT"S BAD. thanks


(Northern Lights #5)

NL5 this week is still just thickening up It's probably gotten a little taller but Big Bang was taking a lot of space so it was har to seperate parts over hanging over other parts. The leaves have had a strange muttleing not sure if is because I skipped it a week forward in its development. I think it's nothing and is going strong But I just spayed them down with water becasue I am worried that I havent spayed them at all and they're "pours" are clogged with dust. They seem to like the water.


(NL5)

Norther Lights was moved up to it's week 7 nuits @ 450ppm


(lil'big bang)

The clone of big bang is doing phenomenal I think she'll be bigger than her mother. Why is it bad to clone an auto-fem seed again?
She was moved up to week 2 @ 500ppm. Should see if we get tip burn this week but I think she'll take it.

So hopefully the caretaker, takes care of my plants. He did last time so I'm not too worried. Time before that I had him watch my plants when I was out of town and he watched em...die.

But these bitches are vivaciously veracious so life will find a way.

Clones are EXACTLY the same age as the sprouted seed that produced it, autos flower with age not light cycle