Perpetual Short Bus: A Crop Circle Story

It's been so long since I kept up my old journal I had to say "Fuck it" and start a new one. In case you're wondering what a Crop Circle is, it looks like this:





And it eventually makes lots of these:







If you want to get your Crop Circle on, check out the original, very educational thread by Hobbes. Hobbes is crazy, brilliant, and entertaining on top of growing ridiculous weed with minimal resources and labor. Here's the link:

The Academy

One of the best threads on here, in my own humble opinion. And there's credit where it's due.
I run seperate veg and flower chambers and harvest every 2 to 3 weeks. I post harvest pics in the harvest journal in my signature. I'm converting systems at the moment, from a SOG-ish kind of thing to the Hobbes SystemCrop Circle. I'll be on here posting plant pics, bud pics, rambling about random shit, etc... Feel free to join in. Gardening is my relaxation time, so please keep it friendly and all that jazz. Welcome to my journal!

Awww yeah Bus!

Feel honored. After 2+ years lurking around RIU, this is only the 2nd thread that I've ever subscribed to, and will post comments on.

Can't wait to see what you come up with brother. Cheers to happy growing!

By the way, those clear bottles you used to grow out the 1'/1'ers in your other thread, are those 20oz. or liter bottles? Did you start the clones in there and just grow 'em out and top 'em from there, 1 bottle all the way from clone to ready for flowering?

LOL crop circles i like that. whats your setup bro?

I'm currently running 9 strains in veg, 4 of which are in different states of flower as well. The strains I've grown to completion are, in order of preferrence:

Jack the Ripper By TGA. Awesome. Straight up happy sativa high, all day long.
Super Skunk Sensi Seeds. Sticky and suprisingly sweet for a skunk, plus it finishes in 6-7 weeks.
Sour Grape Pot for the pot snob. Tastes like fruit and diesel ice cream, looks like a sugar bomb. The buds grow a little loose and fluffy for my taste, but still worth keeping around.
OG Kush Still waiting to harvest this one. Another week or so and I'll be there. Grows well, but stretches a lot for a supposed pure indica.
Granddaddy Purps A great smoke, but kind of a laggy strain to veg. In particular,I've noticed the root growth on this strain is very slow. Also popular with mites. I'm vegging a bucket now for a final "impress-me-or-die" run.
Casey Jones Amazing smoke, too much work to train, plus my mother plant for this strain got mites twice. Got rid of it, and subsequently the strain.
Blue Cheese is the plant from The Crying Game. Herms bad. I literally threw my BC and all her devil spawn off a cliff.

I've also got quite a few strains in veg, but can't say much about em til I see the final results. These include all of the above but Casey and BC, plus:

Northern Lights
NYC Diesel
Purple Cadillac
Mountain Bastard - This is my own "creation," sort of. I have a friend in Northern Cali who pulls off some massive outdoor. Mountain Bastard is the offspring of 1 of his 3 strains (which were Lavender, Train Wreck, and Razzleberry) plus some other mountain grower's unchopped male, grown from seeds I found in last year's trim bag. Legit mystery bud! It's an obvious Indica dom with giant mapley leaves. I just finished sexing the 3 seedlings I popped, 2 were girls and 1 got tossed. The 2 girls are vegging into moms now, so in a couple months I should be more knowledgable on this one.

Pics of the veg chamber tomorrow.

Saladman AKA Mixed Greens said:

Awww yeah Bus!

Feel honored. After 2+ years lurking around RIU, this is only the 2nd thread that I've ever subscribed to, and will post comments on.

Can't wait to see what you come up with brother. Cheers to happy growing!

By the way, those clear bottles you used to grow out the 1'/1'ers in your other thread, are those 20oz. or liter bottles? Did you start the clones in there and just grow 'em out and top 'em from there, 1 bottle all the way from clone to ready for flowering?

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Thanks and welcome Saladman! I do feel honored. They were 1 liter bottles, and the 3 JRs I grew in there look like they'll yield... about a 1/4 oz each. Not enough rootspace. I gave up vegging in those too, as they were tough to get the plants out of for transplant. Right now I'm going from 10 oz root pruning cups a la Hobbes to 5" pots with some root pruning features. I really like the little cups, and I'm looking for 32 oz cups for stage 2 at the moment. I think that'll be the trick. Glad you're tuned in, man.

GuerrillaGreenery said:

LOL crop circles i like that. whats your setup bro?

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Good to meet you Guerrilla! I'm currently running a 600w Hortilux in a 4x4 tent with a Vortex fan. I'm planning to expand to 8x4 with the same light, a light mover, and a floor designed to circulate air without interior fans. I'm trying to replicate Hobbes' set-up from the Academy thread linked in my first post.

zup brotha...glad to see you start another thread up...ill be following along like the last one.about to start a couple crop circles myself...just gotta make room next to my dwc..already got them started in some party cups......and +rep for giving credit to others when its needed...been seeing wayyyy to many people copy and pasting on here lately..ripping off others material...just for a few +rep's...subbed up...and taking my normal spot...on the back of the short bus...i see you got new rims...ha

djruiner said:

zup brotha...glad to see you start another thread up...ill be following along like the last one.about to start a couple crop circles myself...just gotta make room next to my dwc..already got them started in some party cups......and +rep for giving credit to others when its needed...been seeing wayyyy to many people copy and pasting on here lately..ripping off others material...just for a few +rep's...subbed up...and taking my normal spot...on the back of the short bus...i see you got new rims...ha

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What up Ruiner! Welcome aboard man, good to see ya! I like the new sig. The circles really have impressed me in their efficiency, I'm just happy I stumbled on the original thread. And as long as the topic came up...
Yeah, if it wasn't my idea, I'm the first to say so. I figure anybody I've learned from has hooked me up, so they're a friend, or at least someone I feel deserves my respect. Plus stealing ideas specifically to look cool is really, really douchey. Like, John Edward the Psychic Douche douchey. At that point, the plagiarizer has not only ripped off the plagiarizee, they've also admitted the plagiarizee is much smarter and cooler than them in real life. It's about as close to placing someone else's balls in your mouth as you can get online, and that's saying something nowadays. Anyway, ramble ramble, rabble rabble... that's one of those things, ya know?
Always good to see the regulars on the Bus.

Thanks and welcome Saladman! I do feel honored.

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Aw dude, I was fuckin' witcha. If there's anything to feel honored about, it's that we get to be a part of the CCOB revolution! You should have just done your journal in the Hobbes thread, you know he's gonna want mad pictures & observations, suggestions, opinions....Now it's just double work for you!

Seriously though, make sure you post alot of pics over there, your pics are kickass and they really do show off the technique well, they'll be a great addition to the thread. That's some smart thinking, taking them out of the grow room for the photo session. Why don't more people do that?

They were 1 liter bottles, and the 3 JRs I grew in there look like they'll yield... about a 1/4 oz each. Not enough rootspace. I gave up vegging in those too, as they were tough to get the plants out of for transplant. Right now I'm going from 10 oz root pruning cups a la Hobbes to 5" pots with some root pruning features. I really like the little cups, and I'm looking for 32 oz cups for stage 2 at the moment. I think that'll be the trick.

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Interesting...I'm a bit confused though - When you say stage 2 you're talking about veg, right? Stage 1 clone rooting, Stage 2 veg and stage 3 flowering, yes?

So does that mean that you should be able to do your whole veg in 32oz. cups? The thing that has me confused is that 32oz. is roughly 1 liter (I had to google it ) so I'm wondering why the cups will work better than the 1 liters's. I was thinking 2 liter bottles should do the job, except for the messy transfer that you noted.

Hmmm...I'm medicated and probably just confusing myself. Do you have 4 stages?

Glad you're tuned in, man.

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Fuh sheezy.

stealing ideas specifically to look cool is really, really douchey. Like, John Edward the Psychic Douche douchey.

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So does that mean that you should be able to do your whole veg in 32oz. cups? The thing that has me confused is that 32oz. is roughly 1 liter (I had to google it ) so I'm wondering why the cups will work better than the 1 liters's. I was thinking 2 liter bottles should do the job, except for the messy transfer that you noted

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i pretty much do the same thing...just with party cups....the roots grow much better if started in a smaller pot..takes less watering...so they get fed more often.and in big containers it can take a week or more to dry up...where as in party cups/32 oz cups...they dry out faster...which is what causes your roots to grow,they start searching for water.i keep my soil grows in party cups till about 2 weeks before i flower...or right as they flower if im going 12/12.hell...ive got one growing now in a party cup/dwc...i was going to keep it in the party cup till harvest...i had it in my box with my dwc...sitting in a empty net cup...about 2 days later i noticed roots was shooting out the bottom of the cup...like it knew water was below it...and it was 2 weeks into flower and never had roots coming out...now ive got 3 foot of roots coming out the bottom...and a root ball inside the cup...its the damnest thing ive ever seen...dammit...now im rambling on...ill shut up now...no more hijacking tonight...sorry SB

S'all good Ruiner. I'd love to see a pic of that freaky octopus plant.
Salad, I'll try to clarify my process, which is pretty similar to Hobbes' (not a coincidence):

Phase 1: Clones While I've had success with Hobbes' soil cloning method, I've kinda stuck with my tried-and-true rockwool method as I had better success and was already set up for that. My clones come from mom plants and generally root in about a week, sometimes a little more. Something I've noticed... clones with thicker stems root faster.
Phase 2: Root-Pruning Party Cups Mini-RP Buckets. Once rooted, my clones become "veglings" and spend 2-4 weeks in the root-pruning cups. This is where I top, usually as soon as I see roots in the cup. Once the topped vegling has bounced back from topping and developed 2 nice main stalks, it's eligible for promotion.
Phase 3: Further Root Development: I've heard repeatedly that putting your plants through multiple container sizes in veg encourages a fat, dense rootball once the plant hits the final container. Salad, this is the phase I mistakenly called "phase 2" earlier. It's phase 2 of veg, but we'll use the schedule here for referrence, this one is accurate cuz I haven't smoked yet today. -packs fat bowl of Jack the Ripper, lights up- Aahh, better. This is the point where I'm looking for bigger cups instead of the 1 liter bottles I used to use. The cups work better not only for ease of transplant, but also cuz I can use a cup with holes for roots to pass through, inside a cover cup with no holes. The roots are much more likely to exit the cup and make themselves accessable for pruning if there is an airtight cover locking in a 100% humidity zone. The biggest reason I went to 5 inch pots over 1 liter bottles was the ability to use a cover pot to encourage the roots to exit. The 1 liter bottles encouraged massive root development if you ventilated them well, but no lateral root branching as the root tips remained in the bottle. The 5 inch pots are ok, but the drainage holes in the cover pots kinda screw the process up. Gonna hit Bevmo later and see what they got for big party cups. Oh yeah, and FYI, plants spend about 2 weeks in this phase, sometimes more, until they're big enough to train around the rim of a 5 gallon bucket.
Phase 4: Crop Circle 2 plants are taken from phase three and transplanted into the bucket, where they are trained around the rim of the bucket using twist ties through holes in the rim. The buckets themselves are definitely modified, see The Academy thread linked in post #1 for details. After training, the plants veg this way for a week to 3 weeks, really depending on strain. My OG Kush only takes a week, because it gows very quickly and I know it's going to stretch more than I want it to. GDP takes weeks, but comes out with tightly stacked nodes that hardly stretch at all. Basically, I veg in this phase until I see branch length that will support my yield expectations. Each branch becomes a cola in flower.

That's my whole veg process. After that, they go into flower where they require very little attention outside of watering, rotating, and occasional root-pruning. I usually retrain once during flower to even the canopy. I try to focus hard on veg because once done, your plant is set up for it's yield and your options for modifying the plant physically are very limited. I'm currently vegging under a 250w HPS, with plans of going to a CMH soon.

S'all good Ruiner. I'd love to see a pic of that freaky octopus plant

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alrighty....just keep in mind..she is still in recovery...i had major ph issues in my res when the plant starting growing into it....i had nothing but tap water in it..just had it running before i planned on putting plants into it..making sure i had no leaks..and the pumps was doing their job...so it sat overnight in a ph of 7.2....it kinda fried it...took most of its fan leaves in the process..but i got that all taken care of...good nutes...proper ph...and now she is budding away
this is before she starting growing into the dwc

this is after the roots hit the water and it got all jacked up by the ph

and this is her right now...she would be doing much better if she kept her fan leaves

Yeah, I did that same thing the first (and only) time I tried hydro. The ppm of tapwater here is like 400, and I threw the plants in before I even had a meter for ppm. Duh... still, it looks like she bounced back alright to me!

Short Bus said:

Yeah, I did that same thing the first (and only) time I tried hydro. The ppm of tapwater here is like 400, and I threw the plants in before I even had a meter for ppm. Duh... still, it looks like she bounced back alright to me!

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never intended to even keep her to begin with...i started 3 party cups as a test run to test a new soil mix..had planned on chopping it before it even went into flower...but she looked to damn good to chop...so hell..if i pull 10-15 grams off her ill be happy

Here's my main reason for preferring a 2 container system. The high humidity space coaxes the roots out of the cup so I can prune them, causing thickening and lateral branching inside the cup. By the time you transplant em, the roots are ready to explode. Example:



Here's a pic of the roots on a phase 3 plant on it's way into a bucket. This was in a 5 inch prop pot. I added holes, but it didn't work the way I was hoping. Still, you can see how much root growth happened in the 2 weeks since this plant was in a 10 oz cup.



The moral is... prune your roots, up your numbers.

thats awesome bro...gonna give it a try...im gonna go start poking holes now

Here's how I spent my afternoon yesterday, drill in hand, making more of the cheapest yield increaser out there. Before anyone pipes in about Air-Pots and all that, let me say, I'm familiar, they're great, I'd destroy em in short order and have to buy more. Plus, I like making shit. Turn on the music, spark up a bowl, fire up the power tools... that's a good afternoon. Anyway, a root pruning bucket is something I picked up from Hobbes in his legendary thread. One bucket, full of holes and lined with Weedblock (a cheap landscaping material) sits inside another, solid bucket, once again with the intention of luring the root tips outside the bucket for pruning. Here's your basic tool list:



That's a 1/4", a 1" and a 2" drill bit, respectively, plus the important safety tools on the right. Use the 1" bit to put holes in the base:



The 2 inch bit is used on the sides:



And the 1/4" is used to make holes for tie-downs to be attached around the rim.



After drilling, I line the bottom and then the sides with Weedblock, and secure the side lining with ties. I usually use plastic garbage bag ties, but these bread ties work in a pinch.





Add 2 of these, planted in on an angle.



Train around the rim using the ties, and return to veg until the branches look cola-sized. Blam! Crop Circle of Bud, plus root pruning bucket to further up your yield.

Awesome tutorial. Plus rep. Great idea. Might have to try this some time

Excellent work as always Bus ,

Lemme ask you something though...

For the life of me, I can't remember Hobbes ever mentioning keeping the girls in veg after transplanting and training. I always thought it was :
1. veg to 2' (or 1' if using two girls)
2. transplant to 5 gallon containers
3. CCOB train
4. Straight to flower

Did you come up with the idea to continue vegging after training, or did I completely miss such an important step in the big thread? I wonder, because wouldn't keeping them in veg after training give you too much height?

Happy Turkey Day BTW! Hope you're already puffin' & munchin'!

lotsOweed said:

Awesome tutorial. Plus rep. Great idea. Might have to try this some time

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Thank you! I got the idea from the thread linked in the first post of my journal. There's some finished product shots in that one that are unbelievable. Welcome aboard!

Saladman AKA Mixed Greens said:

Excellent work as always Bus ,

Lemme ask you something though...

For the life of me, I can't remember Hobbes ever mentioning keeping the girls in veg after transplanting and training. I always thought it was :
1. veg to 2' (or 1' if using two girls)
2. transplant to 5 gallon containers
3. CCOB train
4. Straight to flower

Did you come up with the idea to continue vegging after training, or did I completely miss such an important step in the big thread? I wonder, because wouldn't keeping them in veg after training give you too much height?

Happy Turkey Day BTW! Hope you're already puffin' & munchin'!

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Happy Turkey Day back atcha! Today, I'm smoking chronic... and a turkey! I always cook my bird outdoors, so the oven is freed up for important things, like pie and stuffing. I thought the same thing for a while about post-training veg time. I ended up asking Hobbes when I was prepping my third bucket if he vegged after training and he said yes, sometime he even vegges the plants in the bucket before training and he usually goes 1-2 weeks after training to develop branches and roots. I'm pretty sure that if you blinked and missed that exchange you'd never get that info in the thread. I think it's one of the things he wants to change in the first post. I threw my first 2 buckets straight into flower after training, and while they're doing well, the ones I vegged are doing phenomenally, looking like they'll throw multiple foot-long colas. Oh boy, oh boy!