Five assorted clones in a shed

Okay, here we go again.

Last year was a failure. I had lots of plants going and they were in great condition but then my water line froze. I should have run another hose from the house to the back shed but I didn't think of it. When the plants started showing signs of dehydration, I attempted to use water from my hot tub, which I got rid of the chlorine from but not whatever else was in there, and that water killed all my plants.

That shed was too far away. That shed had too many plants. Not for space but just for paying attention to. My foot hurt last year, more than usual, and I procrastinated dragging myself out there. That shed was too far away to have any automation relayed back to me without going into extreme tech measures which I was avoiding.

This year I'll throw a 150-ft ethernet cable back there. But I won't be using it this year for most of the effort. It's just too far for me to walk to when the weather is yucky. I'm old.

I have lots of reasons or excuses for last year's failure. Let's see if I can fix it this year.

First of all, get mail order clones, not seeds. I can't get clones locally but I can have them shipped for 40 bucks apiece. That saves me 4 weeks of fragile nursery time and early vegetative mode. Well worth it.

Risks of clones are disease or parasites. Keep a close eye.

I got the following. It took 4 days from the order and was shipped overnight as promised. Described in order of picture like clockwork, starting in the upper right.

Key lime pie: indica/sativa hybrid strain bred from Durban Poison, OG Kush and Cherry Pie. Perfectly happy looking.

DJ Blueberry: 80% indica. Cross of purple thai and Afghan. Showed up a bit tall but very happy looking. I expect indica to be short and bushy but lack of light can make it tall. Very happy with this one.

Orange Cookies: indica hybrid crossing Girl Scout Cookies with Orange Juice. This one looks sad. Showed up with lots of leaf burn. I'll give it a couple of weeks before I complain to see if the new growth is good or bad.

Pineapple Express: sativa-dominant crossing Trainwreck with Hawaiian strains. I failed on Maui Wowie last year. Let's see what happens here. I expect to have to do a serious tie down with this one.

Super silver Haze: 80% sativa Cross of Northern Lights, Haze and Skunk #1. I've been looking for this for 15 years. I saw it in High Times and really wanted it. I never came across it. Finally. This is very tight and bushy looking. Unexpected for sativa dominant. Looks very good. I suspect this one got a lot of light to start off with.

Grow environment is a small shed. About 6x6. Sloping roof. Washington state. Rarely freezes, rarely gets hot. Attached to the front of my house. 15 steps down and five steps to the door. Never gets any sun. Doors open to enclosed overhang space.

I use mylar backed bubble wrap insulation. I cover the walls and ceiling with multiple layers of it. I use a lot of double-sided carpet tape and T-Rex tape.

The hose is right there. It has a filter good for 8,000 gallons to handle chlorine, chloramine, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's the best water in the house.

Inside the shed I have several baker’s racks shelving units. They have varying heights due to the fact of the sloping roof. They're wrapped and covered with multiple layers of the mylar bubble wrap. They have perfect temperature and air flow control.

The floor of the shed is left bare. I want to be able to hose it down if I have to. There are some vents left open on the upper sides of the shed.

The shed has a single high amp (sideways blade) 120 v line coming into some very convenient power distribution strips with individual switches for every outlet monitored by something that shows me the what the draw is at all times. I can easily run multiple lines from additional dedicated circuits. I don't see needing them though. My max pull will be around 1,000 w when flowering. I love winter growing, no AC required.

The main power strip goes through a GFCI intermediate cord for safety. Nothing touches the floor and nothing electrical is in any path of water flow possibility.

... More in next post because this one got too big ...

... Continued ...

The shed is very close to high signal strength mesh Wi-Fi.

I have lots of LED lights. Everything is UL listed and rated for greenhouse usage and allows for water spray but there will never be water spray in here.

I have two lights hanging, one from the ceiling and one from the top rack of one of the baker's racks. I have them turned to 75% in vegetative mode at about 12 in. If I see any leaf burn I'll turn them down or move them further. I have a baker's rack reorganization in my future.

These lights draw 240 w a piece at full power. They have switches for red flowering and UV. I also have additional light bar lights and can put enough watts of whatever wave length I want at any moment. I have more than enough lights running and available in backup.

The lights are on a 20/4 schedule. I give 4 hours of darkness for rest.

These lights generate a bit of heat but not a lot. I have a temperature controller that handles a tall oil filled radiator (set to low with a fan blowing on it, the gentlest safest heat I could come up with) and a set of cooling input fans that brings cold air into the bottom quickly. The radiator itself is on a small shelf underneath some of the plants. That's why it's a bit tight on height there. Nothing touches the floor.

Temperature varies between 73 and 78.

The humidity is too low by default. I have a bucket filled with water bubbling next to the radiator on the shelf. I used to do that to get rid of the chlorine but now I have the filter. I still do it because it increases the humidity a bit and then it varies between 50 and 60% which is what I want. I have a humidity controller that I could use to turn it off and on (along with an ultrasonic humidifier) but it's been unnecessary so far and I try to limit complexity.

I have temperature and humidity remote monitoring inside the tent, inside the shed, and outside. It never swings beyond the extremes I have mentioned, and the shed itself is a great intermediate buffer zone.

I have a small reciprocating fan moving in the tight space, and I have lots more waiting to be put in along with tower fans as the space opens up. The fan is attached to the light controller so the plants get a rest during the 4-Hour dark time.

When the plants showed up I transplanted them into 3 gallon fabric bags using sungrow number 4 dirt and a couple of inches of plastic fish pond filter balls for drainage. I covered the top with diatomaceous earth to catch anything that might want to try to burrow through. I used a tiny bit of nutrients and a few other additives but at very low concentration. I'll build the nutrients depending on tolerance. I usually try to get to a bit of leaf burn and then back off. It takes a couple of weeks for each adjustment though.

I'll top them after they've settled in for a couple of weeks. Then I'll top them again in another couple of weeks. I might supercrop, but I've broken too many plants in the past to be comfortable with that. Maybe I'll get a FIM or maybe I won't.

The ones that need it will get bamboo poles for support and tie down. I'm comfortable with LST. I'll attempt to keep them at the same height, maxing out at about 4 ft while being as bushy as possible, but if not I will raise the base of individual plants to keep them at the same height so the light will hit them at the same level. I will not tie them together and I will not tie them in place. I will always be able to move them to water them and inspect them.

I might go crazy with the side lights depending on how good the side buds are versus how poor the top light penetration is. But that's for flowering so it won't happen during this vegetation stage.

I'll adjust the shelves and lights as necessary for the next couple of months. When it outgrows the shelves, I'll rip them down and just leave enough to keep the plants raised off the floor.

I'll transplant them into tall 7 gallon bags. Everybody will get 5-ft bamboo poles and tie down into the 7 gallon bags. If I really have to, I'll support the buds by hanging strings from the ceiling, but I prefer to keep it based on the bamboo poles on the bag so I can move things.

I'll double up the insulation (everything that wrapped the shelves will now go on the walls and ceiling), add a few more lights and fans, and give it another month of vegetative mode. The lights should be generating enough heat that I would not need the heater except during the 4 hours rest at night and then during flowering nights.

I will take some clones if possible. I'm allowed a total of 15 plants. These plants are already clones and every clone generation has a possibility for failure. I will have two additional grow areas for mothers and early flowers. Those will be in the large back shed, but I won't have the same level of attention required versus the ones growing nearby. As soon as I establish the clones I will flower five of them to see what's coming.

I will use UV but I'm not sure how much. It will be based on how the additional flowering clones handle it. If it doesn't kill them, I will use more and more until it does or until I hit max. I don't know if I'll learn enough on this pass to use it successfully on the large plants and I will err on the side of using less or none.

I have multiple cameras running. They are cheap but seemingly high quality. The images are great in both high and low light and they catch motion and analyze it for content. They give me just the right amount of notifications.

One inside the grow space, one watching the door of the shed, walkway, driveway and street, and one at the front door. I get notifications of movement and specific objects on the latter two.

I put the grow space on my phone which then goes to my projector which then goes to my big screen and then I sit back and watch my pot plants waving in the wind to the sound of the bubbling bucket.

I do not need to go downstairs except to water. I might automate that but I doubt it. I like Hands-On time as well and I need to inspect for bugs and disease occasionally. Once it starts flowering I want to be able to smell it.

Okay, we are a week in to vegetation. Let's see what happens.