Dual PC Stealth Grow -- Aurora Indica & Mazar x Afgan

Grats on successful delivery of the beans!

OK, so topping.. I'd top as soon as you can (leaving 2 viable nodes, of course). Regarding the 12/12 versus veg, though.. here's the thing. If you're going to have 2 server class towers (which I thought was the plan), you will want to veg. Indicas a little longer. I'm finding with the server tower, though, that you can safely do some sativa genetics 12/12 from seed. My one sativa, while an absolute beast, is manageable in there. I find myself wishing, on the other hand, that my smaller Citral that's in there now had been veg'd a bit. And, hell.. the Top44 could have used a TON more veg. Maybe even a month longer than it got. Citral and Top44 are known for being exceptionally tiny Indicas, though.. like Ruderalis small. Your 2 strains are usually bigger, so you'll be better off than me, I think. Personally, I'm contemplating switching to 12/12 on both cases. The issue there is that I cannot re-veg. anything that way, which I'm really contemplating. Time will tell. Some days, I want to chop my plants and move onto other genetics, but then I start looking at them and kinda get attached. Sounds idiotic, but I do.

Again, regarding topping, dontcopnone is 100% right. There's no limit. Most of the larger plants you see on here have been topped numerous times. The plant gets older, it gets used to supporting all that extra vegetation and gets monstrously wide. I can't wait to see what happens with my topped honies. I've got a feminized Twilight that's topped and waiting, too. My unknown indica clone is supercropped, lst'd and will be topped a couple times prior to hitting the flower tower, too. Right now, it has 3 top colas. It will go in at the same time as the Citral, likely with 6+ colas and the big Citral with 8. If that Citral is a female, I will have a MONSTROUS yield. Food for thought. The more tactics you employ, or familiarize yourself with, the better, I guess. I'm barely more than a n00b, myself, but I like to bite off a lot so I can learn. I think that, with all those tops, I may have to scrog, too. We'll see.

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

How is everyone doing tonight. I have been patiently waiting for my PC confirmation to arrive thus far in vain. The sales representative said early this week, so today is the last day before something has to be shipped. This is fine, due to the fact that I have found cheaper model with the same dimensions. However, plan B will not fit under my desk with my current desktop there too. So the grow will continue, but my 'perfect' set up under my desk will not precede. More in updates, I have finally completely read ER's journal (sad to hear your wrapping it up) and it has raised a few questions such as:

When do you consider it flowering? When viewing ER's journal I saw that he had been in 12.12 for a few days but the day he saw the 'hair' he stated it was day 1 of flowering. Is this how you consider you are in flowering or is it just when you put it in the 12.12 cycle?

Wondering if I have chosen the 'best' cycle. I have been thinking about using one unit as a veg chamber and the other as a flower tower. I believe that this would allow me to top and lst longer along with getting more overall light. The cons I foresee are that with larger plants I might not be able to fit more than two or three in the flower tower. This means any males would deeply cut into my harvest.

*both towers as 12.12 flower towers* Perpetual yields a few pros and cons. The pros would be that since I might have to go with a different case, the case and perpetual would allow me to send back my current bulbs to get just 8x 50w flowering bulbs. Also, it cuts out many weeks of vegging and males won't effect the harvest quite as harshly. However, the cons are that even with 2 flowering female plants in each unit I could only expect to see at most 2 oz of dry every 3 weeks. Also, I would have no way of vegging, becoming seed independant, or be able to 'force-sex'.

I was also thinking about having one unit as a perpetual and the other unit for larger harvests. The perpetual would basically just supplement the harvest (or at least my personal box). This would allow me to breed for seeds, force-sex the 'main' plants, and if anything needed vegging could be tossed into the 2nd unit if not flowering.

I have a lot to think about, but I wish to welcome your guys opinions.

ER, I really think topping would be worth it. Can you top in a 12.12 from seed? It seems that we are in roughly the same position so please let me know what you do with your PCs.

How long do you have to wait before you can top the second time? Is it like two nodes, topping, two nodes, topping in that order? Time is important to me, but yield is too. If I can top in a 12.12 I might ScroG too. Please keep me updated on how everything in your grow is going.

DCN, thank you sir. I am very happy that on my birthday I'll be smoking the product of these tiny babies.

Many questions. I can't say what the best cycle is, really. I'm wavering on that, myself, to be honest. I think I will probably keep them split, as I have them. It allows for more flexibility and.. here's something I never put in my journal.. you can grow ryders in the veg case! 18/6 is perfect for ryders. So.. my plan for the future is to do as you've seen me doing.. veg and toss new ones in flower as I get room. The veg. case will allow me to do a little veggin', topping, re-vegging. It's too valuable, from my perspective. More and more, though, I'm abandoning the idea of cloning, in favor of seeds. If you haven't done so already, check Attitude Seedbank. The selection is unreal and they ship freebies! Crappy freebies, but free is free, right? I suggest attitude because they have a VAST assortment of great feminised seeds that would alleviate your male concerns. Their prices are great and they are stealth as hell. Especially peep their prices on Barney's Farm and Greenhouse seeds! Plus, they sell Nirvana, too. My next order from them will be lsd and G13xHaze from Barneys, a feminised indoor mix from Greenhouse, AK48, from Nirvana and maybe a ryder from Sensi. Sensi rocks.. I'd imagine even ryders from them would be great.

So.. 12/12 from seed topping.. as I understand it, the rule of thumb is that you don't want to top anywhere beyond 2-3 weeks when you're 12/12 from seed, otherwise you may sacrifice yield.

"Flowering" is generally fist day of hairs. Some people say it's when you see real flowers.. like clustered calyxes with hairs. I say hairs are enough.

Also.. force-sexing is not proven. Don't take it as gospel. I have one plant it "worked" for and one plant to go, but more Top44 and Citral seeds to continue testing with.

Regarding 2nd topping, all you want is one node after your 1st top, as each side of that node will become a new top. I will try to get a close-up of the main knuckle of my big citral for you. It becomes a serious bush, though.. hard to see anything. After my next snip, it's gonna be crazy in there.

Oh.. and regarding my grow, I started a 'bonsai shots' grow journal, which I'll link in my sig shortly. The purpose of it is to just show hot plants as I see 'em in my cases. It's sort of a continuation on my thread, but more focused and FAR more brief.

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Jumping into the updates, my 'skyscrapper' towers were in fact discontinued thus I ordered a different atx model. The Heavy Chin (9x20x20) which will allow me to grow into 4x42-55W bulbs for more lighting, however, I only gained 1in wide and deep but lost 2in high.

In good news I was able to get a glue gun, glue stix, and all my socket-outlet converters from a local hardware store for under $25. I found my old medium, nutes, and peat cups from my last (1st but uncompleted) grow.

Now all I need to complete my grow now is:
4xPower Supply Cords
2xCellphone Power Cords
2xHomemade Carbon Filters
1xWindsheild Reflector

I am currently assuming that I can find two cellphone power cords, but for the rest of the supplies I will have to venture off to wal-mart for.

Sounds good, glad to see that things are coming together for you. Just wait until you've got something growing. I have taken to eating my morning cereal in front of my girls. On my weekends I've taken to sitting on the floor near them reading, occasionally disturbing them to get a whiff of the goodness

Edit: Forgot to mention - I also highly recommend Attitude. I've got some DNA Kushberry & Barney's Farm G13 Haze to grow after my G13 Labs Purple Lady & White Widow finish. I'm glad I had some freebies to throw in for my first grow - made some mistakes that I'd rather not have made with the good seeds I actually paid for. All the seeds, even the freebies looked great when they arrived, super fast and discreet. The Barney's and DNA seeds came in original breeder packaging too.

i my ladies(hopefully ALL!) just started and im known to play them a little guitar for 5 or 6 ....days in a row (^_^)

Haha, that's cool LimitedTimer! Once they get going it really is fascinating watching the buds plump up.

yah in the mean time..ill watch ya'lls

I just checked out your journal - I remember that waiting game, thinking man when they gonna start GROWIN'. That was mid-april, now I'm checking out buds that are packing on more hairs and crystals every day!

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

As my plant due date nears I have gathered a few more items while shopping at Wal-mart the other day. I nabbed a few temp gauges, some active carbon, and a sewing needle and thread.

This leads me to my first question of the night. I am going to be making the $3 home made carbon filters (instructions found here at RIU), but I was unable to find the scotch brite towels they refer to. As I pondered around walmart I wondered if 'Sham-Wows' could be used for the same purpose. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

I am pleased to inform everyone that I have not recieved a refund email for the new cases I purchases. So, I am really excited about that and hope they come in on Wed or Thurs. Once they come in I will be putting up pictures of the building process and after product pics.

I am still missing a few peices to the pc growing puzzle such as: nutes, power cords, 2x cell phone cords, environmental controlls, mylar/reflective substance, something to hold my active carbon, and 2xtimers.

As for the nutes, I think I have decided on FoxFarm, so if anyone has any experience with these products please help me when the time comes

I will be picking up the power cords as soon as I get my cases in. The cell phone cords will come, if I have faith . I must ask, though, should I not cheap out on the power cords? I was wondering about joulez, and what would be a good number to get if they matter.

Also, I have a few questions about the environmental controls. I am thinking about ordering some ph test strips, because I dont really have the money for a $100+ electric tester. If anyone has any cheaper versions or maybe a better way to do this I am all ears. This question, also, goes for nute testing. What is the best and cheapest way to get this done correctly?

I am pretty sure I am going to order my timers, nutes, and mylar online within the next few days. Just gotta make sure everything is in order and I am getting what I truely want. The floor is open to all opinions.

"The Life Cycle"

I have finally chosen the cycles that will be best for me. In one unit I will be running a 5 plant perpetual suggest to me by v12 in a pm convo. I will be seeding and harvesting a plant every 15-20 days. This is a genius idea and will allow me to harvest my 1st plant on Aug. 24ish, and my 2nd plant on Sept. 6ish (two days before my b-day). I am really hoping that both are female, but if I do mess up on the 1st one, I'll still have one to smoke on my b-day. *thanks a ton for this suggestion, v12*

As for the second unit, it will be a full double duty tower. It will run 4 plants with one and a half months worth of vegging which will allow me to learn to top. Hopefully, this is enough time to top each plant twice (please let me know if it is not). These plants will be LST'd also and should harvest near Sept. 30th.

*all times allowing three weeks to enter flowering*

I have chosen these cycles so that I can have a regual cycle of high quality weed that will be supplemented by roughly 3 'large' harvests/year.

The only, mistaken, cons are since I did not get feminized seeds the males will cut into my amount for the first few grows. I will be upgrading to feminized right after I cut my 1st plant. I have already chosen the next strains.

I, also, believe that this will be a great way to start off. There will be trials and turbulence in both the perpetual and full-scale, but I think that both ways will teach me skills that will help me in the long run. Having both towers helps with limits, too. I can smoke the perpetual weed, while, topping the vegging weed several times, and when I am running feminized seeds I think I will be less stressed about the amount I am trying to pull. But until then who says you can't have fun with cookies

Welp, that about wraps it up for tonight. I am excited to hear all the replies and opinions. Good Nite.

-X

P.S. I have been thinking about working my way into individual hydros for my full tower unit. I figue if I get 4 1 ltr pots and connect them all to one resivior that it should be possible. Any thoughts? I really know nothing about hydro, so this will be in the future, like probably this coming x-mas. Nite, Nite.

Hey Xander

Sounds like it's all coming together nicely. Can't wait to see everything assembled and working.
I get by with the ph drops test kits from the pet store, but CerebralVibrator on here uses a narrow band version of the same thing which I hadn't seen before and looks both easy and accurate. His thread is in the Indoors section and is titled The 3 In A Bed Thread.

Something to ponder on the hydro setup for you. I went away from the standard fish tank pumps as they are quite noisy and kick out a bit of heat. I ended up with some Hydor Ario pumps which are totally silent and fit snug into my 1 litre pots. May be worth a look if you fancy going hydro at some point.

All sounds good. You seem to be an overly-meticulous planner, like myself. What are your next strains.. curious. V and I have talked a little about neat strains. Nefertiti sounds extremely badass. Also.. Warlock, from Magus. Those 2 are on my list. The G13 Haze is still key, though.

So.. Hydro thoughts.. Hempy Cups (Buckets) is easiest, but no clue if it's really doable.. YET. I'll try a hempy soon and let you know what I think. Also, you could arrange a cup wick system. The pump and res. could easily be out of the case, if you use the black hydro hose. I think that most of the 'dro heads think DWC for PC case because it's what's advertised. Me.. I'm tryin' me some Hempy cups.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Much appreciated!

v12, I think I will have to run cheap ph test strips too, untill I get more money for a nice tester. How do you test for your nutes though?

I'll try and check out what CV is using when I get home tonight.

As for the 1ltr hydro things, I would love to see this. I really want to work my way up to hydro eventually. Like I said before I know very little about hydro, but I am really interested and want to learn eventually. Please send some pics if ya got any

ER, "overly-meticulous planner", my girlfriend laughed at that =). Although, I must say I have been putting a lot of time in to planning and invisioning this grow. I just hope that everything pays off and goes over smooth

As for my next strains, I fibbed a little bit. I have the next strains in mind, but I have more than two in mind right now. Thus, I will slowly mark some off the list as the days go by. Currently, Purple Lady, G13xHaze (barney's ), White Berry, and Master Kush are on the list. I did cross out Genie of the Lamp, and Blueberry X AK-47 (lowlife) off the list last night. I will say that I am favoring Purple Lady and G13xHaze the most, but it'll slow down my purpetual to roughly every 20 days for each seed and harvest. Not bad, though, for such strong beautiful sativas.

Please let me know how your hempy cups go. I will eventually work hydro into my full-scale tower and if goes well maybe my purpetual tower. I do need to ask what DWC is. I have tried searching it, but everyone just uses DWC with no definition lol.

Thanks again for all the feedback guys. Your making this grow not only fun and interesting, but giving me hope that I will actually do it correctly

Also, I have been asking around if this drying and curing process would be acceptable:

Drying: Place buds in brown paper bag and place them in a pc unit next to the exhaust fans with maybe something placed over them so that light does not get in. Open and ruffle them around twice a day (checking for mold and shit), then after they are crisp jar cure them. So far everyone has said this would be fine, but I just wanna hear your opinions.

Thanks again guys,

-X

I have a meter for the nutes. At a pinch I guess there will be suggested feeding schedules on individual hydro nute brands. You are taking a flyer on having clean water though and that isn't often the case.

Deep Water Culture

I'll take some pics of the pump & setup & do a gallery when I get a mo. I started a plant last week in a hempy cos I'm really intrigued by them so I'll post up one of that too.
I'll have a peek at those strains when I get a chance but be careful with strong sativas. A bit in the genes is good but indicas are better suited to the purpose.

I've considered something similar for drying but never bothered. I always figured the space would be better served if it had soil or a bud in it

that drying method would shut down one of your towers ..no?

i'd go with the hanging them up method imo , keep on growin while you keep on drying

that is if this isnt a one time deal which i assume from you planing will definatly turn into a full blown hobby an hour after you plan your first (^_^)

I'm drying on a plate.

V.. the G13 Haze is supposedly a rather small sativa, according to Barney's. Without looking, 80:20, Sativa:Indica, I think. And this coming from the guy who did a Jack Herer in his case?? Jack's one of the grandest out there!

The Jack was a bit of a cheat ER as it had a few indicas bred in there too, making it mostly indica. The 2 G13 Haze grows I've seen were anything but small. I'd say at 6 weeks of veg the plants I saw would have already outgrown a pc case. IIRC they were an 11 week flowering strain and if you add another 4 weeks veg & preflower that would require almost 4 months inside the case as a minimum. Remember that sativas can often treble in size during flowering too.
I'll wait for you to try it first

HAHAHAH!! Fair enough. I'll be doing a Thai Super Skunk the second I get back from big vaca. 14 week flower!!

Funny you should mention that strain - I'll be popping G13 Haze from Barney's and DNA Kushberry soon. I'll see if it outgrows my dr60.