Dual Areoponic Cabinet, Ceramic Metal Halide

[Integra21]

Hey cruzer,
cudos on trying the CMH. Looks like a really cool bulb. But have you ever considered a Son Agro? They have a mixed output adding some blue light to the red yellow and orange and has almost twice the lumens of a CMH. CMH looks like 30,000-36,000 lumens and Sno Agro is 53,000-55,000 in a 400w size. Just curious. Obviously the CMH is working great, just a thought for next grow to get some extra weight on top of what I'm sure will be a great harvest weight this run.

 

[cruzer101]

Hey Buddy, Glad to have found you! looking forward to following.

Your DIY chiller has already saved my seedlings!!

I am about to add a seedling heating mat to the set up to try and get the rootzone up in temp. Right now the cab sits at 68 - 70.

Thanks again for your GREAT documentation.

Hey bud,

Glad to be of some help. I get ideas all the time but not all of them work, I have found many ways things don't happen. lol

Good to have you aboard, Yea that root zone temp is important. More then I ever knew. I had a grow where there was just no way I could cool the canopy and they were suffering. I was able to cool the root system and they perked right up. It's the same for seedlings root system. They are more delicate and need temps between 75 and 84°
Important, don't go over 84° they cant handle it.

Be careful, those seedling heat mats will get the temps higher.
I use a towel on top of it and then still prop it up above it with sticks or something.

Heres a pic to give you an idea,

I shoot for 80° Once they get a few sets of leaves I try and keep the root temp within 10° of the canopy. This decreases spacing between inter nodes. keeps them short and fat.
I cover that in my led/t5/400w journal. link below.
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[cruzer101]

Hey cruzer,
cudos on trying the CMH. Looks like a really cool bulb. But have you ever considered a Son Agro? They have a mixed output adding some blue light to the red yellow and orange and has almost twice the lumens of a CMH. CMH looks like 30,000-36,000 lumens and Sno Agro is 53,000-55,000 in a 400w size. Just curious. Obviously the CMH is working great, just a thought for next grow to get some extra weight on top of what I'm sure will be a great harvest weight this run.

Yes I did, You know your shit dude. Thats the bulb I was going to replace mine with until I saw the Ceramic Metal Halide. As a matter of fact, I have a Son agro 1000w bulb/cool tube and ballast stored in my shed.

I just don't have the room to use it and I cant see putting it in a 4x2 cabinet. I am sure it would work, the problem would be height again.

Yea, this bulb has 38000 lumen's and is less then the Son Agro. But what it does have is a high amount of the UV spectrum the Son doesn't. Thats why I thought I would give it a shot. I never planned on vegging with it but I could do that too.

So if it works out I get a good harvest and I am able to help others do the same. If not? well I guess you know what bulb I will replace it with.

LOL thanks for the input.
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[cruzer101]

Hey guys,

Got some root porn for ya,

Look at those tits!

I think that Dutch Masters Zone has lightened up there color a little bit.

.
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[7uckytoker]

WOW!!!!!!! I JUST READ PAGE FOR PAGE.... this grow is going along so F'N well man congrats. And beautiful outdoors too!!! Like wow. Im thinkin of doin a similar setup except it will be a DWC. 1 mother/7 clones/veg and then 7 in flowering. and just swap out every 8-9 weeks. Anyways +REP and Scribbzzz

 

[cruzer101]

Hey Toker,

Thanks for stopping by and the complements on my grows.
I messed up pretty good the first time around or two but I think I got it down now.

Good luck on your grow and if you start a journal post a link here so we
can check it out and help if ya need it.


BTW the way you give rep is to click on the scales in the upper right of the post.
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[cruzer101]

Hey guys,

I was messing around today and found a pic of our prez smoking a cigarette.
Then I changed it just a little bit and got a laugh. Thought I would share.

LOL
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[cutman]

lol funny hes smoking hydro grown in his stelf cabent

 

[cruzer101]

I always thought The Cabinet was the Vice President and like the heads of executive departments.
Now we know whats really in there. LOL

How's the build going man.
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[cruzer101]

9-21-09

Temps 88 res 68°
PPM's 660
PH 5.2

The Ph keeps dropping on this new res, Brought it back to 6.0
Plants didn't use much water and its been warm. I hope this settles down.

Floro res is 600PPM I have changed water cycle to 4 hours on when lights on and one hour before lights out.
I go through more water but the ppms have remained the same so I got that dialed in. Topped off with water today.

Girls are 2.5 weeks into flower and slowing down some.

The Purple Kush is way ahead of the others, well the widow and the Kush are about the same age but PK is in bloom
where WW is just starting. I did a bit of training but I think its about time to let them go.

These are the Train Wreck

I think by increasing watering time while they stretch helps increase mass.


OK

Got some real Bud Shots today.

These girls are in week 6 of flower.
Train Wreck looks done but could always use more mass. Widow is just now filling out.

Right angle shot, Thats my Train Track.
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.

 

[phreakygoat]

ridiculous as always!
oh yeah that kush loves to bud like crazy, it'll finish structurally growing and then... just... sit... until the trichs turn.
could be a 10wk budding cycle till the full purple pheno shows.

 

[cruzer101]

Ten Weeks huh,

Then this would be a good match for widow. To grow together.
Kush in the center and widow on the sides. Hum.

We will see how it goes.
If I deside I need the two weeks Maybe I will just have a floro kush cab.

 

[cruzer101]

Just checked on the ph and it is holding at 6.0 so we are good to go on that. This may have been the last res change. I will add nutes to keep it around 600 PPM.

This weekend I will change lighting to 11/13 and final weeks will be 10/14
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[snow4aaron]

Just checked on the ph and it is holding at 6.0 so we are good to go on that. This may have been the last res change. I will add nutes to keep it around 600 PPM.

This weekend I will change lighting to 11/13 and final weeks will be 10/14
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Hey Cruzer,
Does the 11/13 and 10/14 imitate natural light cycles?

 

[cruzer101]

Yea man,
Thats the idea. Then I'm going 48 hours dark. Thats not natural but it has been proven to increase trichomes production too.

I tried flipping to 10/14 the last week of my last grow and I like the results.
Second time I grew the strain (WW) and it seems like the smoke stays fresh longer.
About the same high though, a bit more of a body rush, maybe a bit longer lasting.

I am going to try the 11/13 then 10/14 to ease them into it.
Gotta try all the tricks when I am working with such a small space.
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[BooMeR242]

thats interesting i was wondering about doin a diff photoperiod before too and how itd affect the growth. i figured most like to give the most light possible to increase growth and buds but u can get sum beter quality smoke with higher thc and cbd levels with less yield in theory. when u do less light are u sacrificing yield? jw. not sure if itd be measurably less tho

 

[phreakygoat]

are you gonna flush the plants before harvest?

 

[cruzer101]

thats interesting i was wondering about doin a diff photoperiod before too and how itd affect the growth. i figured most like to give the most light possible to increase growth and buds but u can get sum beter quality smoke with higher thc and cbd levels with less yield in theory. when u do less light are u sacrificing yield? jw. not sure if itd be measurably less tho

No man, size is done. at this point I am killing it. I am doing it slowly cause the widow could use another week.
THC production happens in the dark. All I am doing is helping it along.
In my case the TW has finished before the widow by a week or so. There wont be any problem just leaving it there.
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[cruzer101]

are you gonna flush the plants before harvest/

Sure man, ya think I forgot? LOL

I guess I didn't mention it. I plan on keeping the PPMs around 600 for the rest of this week. The next week I will add just water and take off about 30% of the fan leaf, this will use up whats left in the res, the final week I will remove more fan leaf leaving just the leaves up top, Flush with water in the res until I get below 100 PPM then back off water cycle to half, pull the rest of the fan leaf and turn off the light.

Thats the plan Stan.
Sounds like a good finish to me. Wha da ya think?
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[phreakygoat]

Ah, very nice! I didn't want to assume that aero needed a flush (for best results), but in retrospect thats retarded haha.
i also think that the late removal of fan leaves will be a beneficial stress on the plants, as will the final darkness. I once left a finished plant in the dark for a week and a half. KILLER stuff!

odd question: during the flush could you get away with using sugar or molasses in your system? unsanitary?