The Skunklab - DWC Stealth Cabinet and 4X4 Tent

huge, immediate difference with the 15a in-wall AC rigged somalia style in the doorway.

add one of these to the gotta get asap list. one in-wall AC, installed stat.

hell yeah

and wrapping a rubber band around the tubing a couple of times does the trick for leak deflection. simple!

now thats a macgyver job

bumping the clone drip feeding up by twice as much. two minutes, twice per day. things too dry, and two minutes gives a better chance to clear a stubborn dripper.

so we're at 40-50ml per day total, per plant.

Increased watering was bringing the red 6" pots to about 1/2" of standing water in the bottom. that's no fun. added about a hand and a half of hydroton to the bottom of each pot, then sat the net pots atop that. this should help soak up most of the drainage as well as promote roots on the bottom to suck up the rest.

refueled the cab with 50ml each sensi bloom a & b, and whatever was left in the bottom of that bottle of overdrive. probably 60ml-ish. final feeding. i didn't top off yesterday, and in 48 hours it had consumed over 4gal, making a staggering drop from 650 to 480ppm. such a crazy drop that either the meter was incorrect (power out for a few minutes today, very possible), or that not topping off every day actually forcefeeds plants. perhaps further investigation is warranted. my money is on the incorrect meter reading.




have seen the final scrawny bits down below in the cab go brown and nasty which usually means harvest time is near. last time in the cab, the blue dream did this bigtime (6 plants in cab that time vs 2 now), and I kinda jumped the gun and chopped right away. I still don't know if that chop was early, or way late. Maybe I'm way late again this time? Tops of good colas are all still very bright white haired, trichs all look clear to me. i don't have the best eye for trichs yet though.

ive chopped three small stalks down in the bottom like the pics above. i don't see anymore that should do this, maybe one. none of the one's i've chopped would have amounted to anything, and all should have been removed post-stretch.

and 1x 1000w + 1x 600w + 3x 6" fans + T5 + couple of 100w CFLs + couple of meters, etc + 19" flat panel + couple more small fans + large standing fan will not overload a 20amp circuit.

just don't add a 300w led.

HA!

looking through the cabinet today i find little turds! something's crapping on my plants!
sure enough, chopsticked out a fat caterpillar from one of the larger stalks, and cut off a smaller one where i found an even fatter one. No other signs of them around the cab, only in the front left.

i had seen a few bits of white hairs "fallen" off and wondered wtf. now i know. they like to eat the leaf tips of buds, leaving the hairs behind.

numerous posts on here describe caterpillars laying eggs on stems. far as i know, that makes no sense. caterpillars do not lay eggs. the little brown things that roll around like tiny turds are indeed tiny turds, not eggs. they do sometimes stick to stems or leaves or whatever and dry there. shit does that.

all in all, hardly any damage at all. if it weren't for the overload of caterpillar crap everywhere i wouldn't even know these little fuckers were around at all.

i say that now. we'll see when i harvest. it wouldn't surprise me to find more, but shouldn't be too crazy. maybe another 2 or 3 small ones at the most. ha! famous last words..

That sucks man! no wonder I run a sealed room =D

yeah this is definitely a danger in my room, especially spring/summer when i just open it up to the outside for mass fresh (hopefully cool) air.

Still, no big deal. Unless I go out there tonight and find a bunch more turds. There really wasn't any real damage. So long as there aren't a dozen more. Again, caterpillars don't lay eggs, moths do. From what I can tell, the most likely moth culprits here lay only single eggs, no more than a few at a time. These hatch and the caterpillars are supposed to hibernate until spring, hence why no mass egg laying, they are built to survive. However, it's always spring or summer in the cab, so they didn't sleep, instead heading out to chew shit up. So in short, I don't expect to find a shitload of these things around. If you've got a bad caterpillar problem then it's a bad moth problem you need to address. Not going to sweat this. Two caterpillars in three or four cycles is a fine ratio by me.

Here's how we do it though. We genetically modify these caterpillars to grow alongside our flowering plants, then eat the leaves at just the right time so that we don't have to trim anything. Bonus would be to make them digest trichs separately, leaving little smokable hash turds.
Science!

And I sure as hell learned something here. I know exactly how to spot caterpillar damage now, these fuckers won't have so long to hang out undetected next time.

quick note for future reference -

sauce for the clones and colosseum plants is 1gal RO: 12ml cal/mag, 16ml each sensi grow a & b, 10ml liquid karma.
i will run occasional feedings with tea, but i won't leave tea in the standing bucket. tea will run through as i drain and dump weekly.

no new signs of bugs. still wouldn't surprise me to find more.

using clues found in a previous journal, have determined cabinet is now in flower week 11. triple checked this, certainly didn't think it had been so long. still, the plants dont lie. getting frostier every day, just starting to look finished soon. will plan on chop next weekend.
took a nice sized test cut tonight. great size but i think it will be crap. no smell, no sticky. cut was from one of the darker areas down below, out of both the top and bottom lights.
stoney baloney and mr. chu agree, the tops will be much, much tastier.

You are using a scope right? I think those nugs means it's been too long or maybe it's too hot. My BD didn't do that at all and it is definitely at it's absolute pinnacle of potency. I'm bringing some with me next week, you are going to shit your pants... twice.

Dude, I can't keep up with all your updates, I'm too damn busy now!!

no need to keep up with most of the crap i post here. i just leave data and notes here for myself to come back to later. if it helps anyone else, great. like my last journal. had to get clues there to figure this grow in week 11!

It's very similar to that last duffy BD grow, difference being the tops (and bottoms now. CFLs down there made the bottoms gorgeous. better looking than the tops, but tiny.) are much, much denser, stickier, and stinkier. And they have gotten this way in the last 10 days, getting more so every day.

I think this could very well be a little off due to high temps, but the good parts don't look like they've gone long at all. They look like they are just now getting ready. Hell, trichs have gone from fully clear to 100% cloudy in the last week. I've heard HS doesn't always go amber trichs when ready, so can't rely on the usual clues. HS, in this instance anyway, really seems like a sativa that likes to go long. I definitely don't see this being ready at 8 weeks like I've heard others say. Maybe just the environment. These will go to the end of week 11, and if they keep improving, I don't mind taking them 12.

I added a random splash of resinator and a half gallon of tea last night. The tea was in part an experiement, er is. Last time these ladies got tea I didn't top off for 48 hours and the ppm dropped by half, down to under 400. I want to see if this can be done again, and if so, great way to start a flush. Flush begins tomorrow either way, maybe even really late tonight. Tea also was loaded down with extra molasses for some extra sweetness. Always have to be very careful with this in dwc, I don't like to do this but I think HS might really dig the added carbs. Looking to see if it makes any change in the smell, etc.

One thing I've noticed about HS is, kinda like SFV and other OGs, it doesn't like to grow giant fat colas. All of the tops in there will break down into buds a little more elongated than sfv, with a nice spear shape. This is what I've always seen when smoking HS in the past, so no surprise now. Again, these spears have really taken shape and started looking good in the last week to ten days.

and wow. just noticed ph shot up to 6.6 after the tea etc last night. let's adjust that like .. now.

hey here's a question for those of you silly enough to be paying attention, the old jr. carrot patrol way of watching for harvest time. back in the day it was always "watch for the hairs to turn about 50% orange". yeah sounds like a game of telephone after someone learned about trichs, but still, with my grow showing 100% cloudy trichs and going long like this, does this old method provide any sort of useful rule of thumb?

i believe that most times bud ripe for the picking will usually have 30-80% orange pistils. It is a good guideline of how long the plant has been flowering but obv not nearly as accurate as the trich microscope check. Each pistil is only white as long as it is in its receptive stage (when it can accept male pollen and fertilize that calyx.) Once its window of time passes, it turns red/gold/orange. As more bud grows and develops, new pistils will shoot out. The plant keeps sending out new pistils as long as it can and staggered rather than all at once to have the best possible chance of carrying its genetics on

That's excellent knowledge right there. Thank you! We're at 30-40% orange on the good parts, so I think one week of flush and we'll be chop chopin.

Flushing now. Will refill with tap and final phase.

Hindu Skunk - Flower Day 72 - In the 600w cabinet

Hairs are a guideline for somebody who doesn't have an eye for trichs without a scope and can't afford one. However it holds some value for a good portion of strains. But I've grown 2 strains now (out of 9 varieties I have flowered in my own grow room) were ready to harvest by trichs with 90% or more white hairs. The White Berry, and the AK47 was actually 100% blonde. Perfect trichs, unbelievable smoke! Our SFV OG is just red as fuck all over with a few new pistils always growing for nearly its entire flower period.

And I personally have grown nugs on the SFV fatter than a 22oz bottle of beer. Fatter than 1L nutrient bottles.... not that I'm bragging or anything, lol.