20,000 Watt Medical Grow Op Construction

Wolverine97 said:

I know, but so were several of the peeps who've been raided in recent years. Hopefully he just got tired of maintaining his journal...

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Much like you guys I'm sure, I've been following this thread since the beginning. It really just sounded like, especially towards the end, that he was completely burnt out with the grow and trying to keep up with the picture updates and questions on here daily. A bad case of mites will do that to somebody. I'm sure he's all good and hopefully will come back here and fill us in on what's been going down one day. Cheers.

I hope everything is going ok. If you still have SM issues, a friend of mine recommended going to a bridal store, and buying a big batch of real butterflies. If you release them in your grow room, they'll eat all the spider mites.

We hope everything is going ok with your new batch.

Hope all is well!

Warmly,
Dankog

I'm back. Sorry for the LONG delay in posting. NDO hit it on the money. I was overworked and too stressed to keep up with the posting. I am NOT in the joint. The grow is still up and rocking better than ever. We made some major changes that I'll go into later with a new batch of pics. The last couple months Helper D has been running the grow while I tended to my other business. Now that the mites are gone and I'm caught up with my day job, I plan to get you guys caught up on what has been going on with the grow.

In a nutshell, I was not happy with the yield we were getting. Trying to keep our plant numbers down was really holding us back. So, we signed up quite a few new patients and went back to growing the way I always have...lots of small plants. We are now trying to strike a balance between maximum yield and minimum legal risk. Our lawyer advises us to grow no more than 10 plants for every patient (several of our patients have 99 plant recs). Our current "sweet spot" is around 2 sq ft/plant. 1 sq ft/plant gives a little better yield, but not enough to justify twice the plant numbers. While I'd rather not discuss actual yields, I will say we have more than doubled our output.

Smaller plants also gave us more options for growing styles. I have always liked rockwool, but the large plants we used to grow don't do well in it. Now we're back to rockwool and loving it. At first we used 4 inch blocks transplanted into 2 gallon pots filled with rockwool croutons. This worked quite well. In an effort to save some transplant time, I ran 20 plants in 4 inch blocks transplanted onto 6 inch Hugo blocks. These performed just as well as the 2 gallon pots with WAY less labor. From now on all plants will be done this way. We still hand water once per day.

We gave up on the Lavander x Afgahni x Purple Kush strain. It required way too much pruning, was a bitch to trim, and the mites LOVED it. I'll miss the plant because it was great smoke that everyone loved. The Bubba is still our mainstay, but we have 2 new ladies in the mix. One is a new Bubba from a breeder friend. He bred the Bubba with an OG Kush and then back crossed it with the Bubba 3 times. The flavor is better than the old Bubba, and the high is fantastic. The other strain is Tahoe OG x Chemdog. Right now we only have 3 small cuts we are growing into mothers. I watched them grow in a friends op and sampled the finished product. This is the plant I've been searching for my whole life. It may just be the perfect OG. It roots in 7-10 days, finishes in 60, and yields great for an OG. The smell and flavor are classic OG Kush without the slow growth and small yields that plague so many great OG's. At first my friend refused to give me some cuts. Can't say I blame him. But, I wanted them so bad that I made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

So, how did we get rid of the mites from hell? We started over. I threw away every plant in bloom and sterilized the room. They were just too established. When we stopped spraying to allow our predator mites to do their job, the mite population exploded. By the time we realized the predators were not going to work it was too late. It hurt to trash what would have been over 10lbs, but there was no other way. We are now 100% mite free. To keep it that way we are dipping the plants in Spectracide With Insect Control. This stuff is great. I have always used the old Spectracide for PM control. The new formula adds an insectacide. We dip once when the plants establish in the 4 inch block and again prior to going into bloom. We then spray one time at week 2 of bloom. That's it. The Spectracide does not stunt the plants at all, and takes care of bugs and PM in one spray. Spraying the media also prevents fungus gnats. I even tested it by spraying a branch on a plant in week 4 of bloom. None of the pistils burned and that branch finished just like the rest. Fortunately, spraying in week 2 has been doing the job. I really don't like to spray a plant showing pistils.

All in all, things are good in the op. I'll take some pics for you guys. Now I have to go and check out your grows.

whats up CG glad all is well and your not in the slammer, also glad things are doing great in the op. looking forward to the pics.

fing awsome CG glad your back and not somewhere else

*standing ovation*

man tossing 10lbs doesnt sound fun!

what kind of nutes r u using now?

CG is back!
Glad you got to take a break, it's good for your health to avoid some stress now and again.

10lbs is a lot to us, but for someone on a scale like yours it's just produce..
I know it's for patients who could really use it, but no need to beat yourself up for it.
It's much better to be clean then sorry.

Please get us some pictures of your Media, I'm curious as to how all this transplanting and different medium combinations work out.

How tall are your plants before and after flower?

Thanks gang for the support. Yes it's very tough to toss all that green. I had to be convinced by another grower that it was the only way. You guys should have seen the look on Helper D's face when I said "Throw away every plant in this room today". Speaking of Helper D, he has an assistant...Helper G. G has worked for me on and off for 12 years. She's a very hard worker and all hell with a pair of shears. The 2 of them make a kick ass team.

I'm still using Cutting Edge 3 part nutes. Over the last 20 years I've tried several nute combos and always come back to Cutting Edge or GH. These simple, effective, and cheap nutes allow us to concebtrate on more important issues...like atmosphere and canopy shape. I think people waste alot of time and money playing with all the nutes they see advertised. I know I did. In addition to the CE 3 part, I add CE Mag Amp (for some xtra Mg and Sulfur) and Botanicare Cal Mag (I always add this when using RO water). That's it. We run veg at 1100 ppm and bloom between 1300 and 1500 ppm. PH is between 5.5 and 6.2. Every Sunday we flush heavily with pure RO water. We feed with a transition mix in bloom until the foilage turns dark green (about 2-3 weeks). This indicates plenty of N within the plant. Then, we switch to pure bloom mix. Week 7 I reduce the ppm to 500. Week 8 is all flush with pure RO.

The plants are approx. 14 inches tall when we bloom them. They finish around 24 inches. All plants are topped one time. I plan to run a test tray with un-topped plants spaced very close. We remove 1 or 2 large fan leaves when the plant goes into bloom...usually from the upper middle of plant. After the stretch, and when pistils are showing, I remove a few more. We never remove leaves on the outside of the plant. We only try to allow light down into the center of the plant. Around week 6 I start removing several fan leaves. With the buds getting dense, I like to get more circulation through the foilage by removing leaves. By the time we harvest, there are very few fan leaves left. This helps to ward off PM and other molds and mildews. It's also less work trimming.

At harvest we remove all the buds from the stems. They are perfectly trimmed and placed into a round mesh hanging drying rack. (the kind you buy). The drying shack is kept at 50% RH and around 75 degrees. When the buds are crisp on the outside, yet moist in the middle, they are placed in a paper bag overnight. Then, another day in the rack, and another night in the bag. After that, they are turkey bagged. If they are too wet, we dump them out for an hour in the drying shack...then back in the bag overnight. We are using Caliber 3 humidity gauges that fit inside the turkey bags. 55% is perfect for immediate sale, and 50% for long term storage. Having a gauge to tell you when they are ready is great. It allows us perfect consistancy. The entire process takes about 10 days...but can be done in 7.

Well that's good to hear. I'm always leery of anyone offering something for free over the internet, especially in this field... Glad you're back.

Good to see you got back to production and back to basics. Rockwool and 3 part FTW

Woo Hoo!!! CG is back!!! What happened with the inductive lighting....I've been dying to know. Did you just scrap 'em???

Can't wait to see the new rockwool set up....so I'm guessing they're in flood tables?

Endless,
I still have the inductive lighting. I, too, am interested in what it can do. It just got to a point where I had to get the grow 100% in order before trying different stuff. Our collective took a big cash hit with the mites and the startover. I am truly sorry to the guy who was kind enough to send me the lights for testing. We're now in a position to try some different stuff, and the inductive lighting is #1 on the list. Once we run two full crops through with the new style, expansion plans will be put into effect. The whole op was designed to be doubled in size. Our veg and clone room is big enough to support 3 of our bloom rooms. I have visions of another 400 sq ft bloom room lit with 100% inductive lighting. We're considering setting up a tent to see what a few big inductive lights can do. I was hesitant to try inductive lighting before when we were growing large plants. Now that we're growing small plants, light penetration is not so much an issue. If anyone has some links to some bigger inductive grows, I'd love to have a look. Helper D just wants us to get 20 more 1000 watt HPS and 10 more tons of air conditioning. Who knows...he may be right.

The plants are not on a flood table. They are on sloped tables covered with corrugated plastic that drains into a rain gutter that is pumped to the sink drain. All plants are hand watered once per day and heavily flushed with pure RO water once per week. I tried ebb and flow with rockwool 20 years ago and was not happy with the results. With the larger grows, drain to waste makes more sense to me. I don't like to have to maintain solution for a week or more. Also, have you guys ever seen what happens if a drain fails on an ebb and flow system and standing water soaks the roots overnight? It's a fucking nightmare. Plus, by hand watering every plant is looked at every day. With automated systems growers tend to get lazy (I do, anyway) and not visit the grow everyday.

So, it looks like we'll be voting on whether or not to legalize recreational pot use once again here in Cali. Let's all read the proposed law very carefully before we vote one way or another.

Glad your back cg.

Can't believe the laughganis are gone

I'm growin tahoe og also. Jedi kush also (deathstar x sfv og). Gonna be throwin em into flower in a few weeks here.

So glad ur back man.

Wood,
Great to hear from you, my man! Please, keep me updated on your Tahoe grow. I'm really curious to see how they respond in different enviro's. It's such a dainty little plant. In veg my Bubbas the same age look like they could swallow my Tahoes whole. Shoot me some pics of what you got going.

Yes, the Laughganis are gone. I layed some cuts on a friend before we trashed the last moms. So, the genetics are still available. It's my favorite med smoke still. I have a few ounces of buds and over an ounce of Kief from the last Laughgahni harvest for personal use. It's really all I smoke. I imagine we'll bring in a plant or 2 this winter for personal stash for me and some friends that prefer it. Ironically, my grower and weed broker friends who have access to tons of great smoke prefer the Laughgahni for personal stash above most strains. But, the buying public still wants that OG/Kush/Bubba line. Wierd, eh? The Laughgahni was never the most powerful, but had a quality to the high that was different than most weed out there. If it wasn't such a pain to grow and trim, I'd be dedicating 50% of my op to it. But, the Bubbas are just so much easier and command a better price overall.

Gotta give the ppl what they want man. Id love to try the laughgani sometime, if I'm ever in cali ill hit you up.

I love my tahoes tho. Ill send ya some pics later bud.

So glad ur back

Here's a 4 week Bubba Mother. She's one of 5 large mothers we decided to bloom out as a part of going to way smaller plants.



This stuff is a lifesaver. Prevents and kills PM, as well as killing spider mites and fungus gnats. It's the only effective chemical I've tried that does not burn pistils if sprayed in bloom.

The pics below show the new settup:
Pic 1. The 5 mothers we decided to bloom out. Future mothers will be smaller.
Pic 2. 50 Bubbas 10 days into blooming on an 8 x 8 tray under 4 - 1000 watt lights.
Pic 3. Closeup of a top from the 4 week blooming Bubba mother.
Pic 4. Top view of blooming Bubbas.
Pic 5. 50 Bubbas blooming.
Pic 6. 25 Bubbas in veg ready to be placed on Hugo Block.
Pic 7. Nice even canopy of the 50 bloomers
Pic 8. One of the 50 Bubbas pulled out for pick. Planted in rockwool croutons on 2 gal pot.
Pic 9. Future mothers: 3 old Bubba, 1 new Bubba, 3 Tahoe x Chemdog.
Pic 10. 50 rooted clones which will be vegged and take the place of the 5 mothers in bloom in 4 week.
Pic 11. Corner of 50 tray and 5 moms in bloom.
Pic 12. Bubba moms 4 weeks into bloom. These will yield around 1 lb/plant.

Sorry I had to do the pics this way. The simple uploader wasn't working so I had to upload as a group. Enjoy.

beautiful rooms, impressive as always CG. im pretty interested in the inductive lighting, been looking into them for a little while now and havent really been able to find a good side by side grow journal so far, maybe i will just bite the bullet, grab one and try it out.

keep up the great work and happy growing.

Looks beautiful, how old are the Mothers?
How do you not risk a fire with that clone box setup?

Can you put something next to the 50 tray for size? Like a bottle of wine or a basketball or something simple?

Amazing job, the fact that you all manage each and every one of those plants is intense. Keep at it!

dam CG going back to what you know has paid off in a big way!!