Papaya, Hindu Kush Aerotub Journal

mcdandc said:

You really have a 'Green Thumb', have you posted on your cloning method? Must be great to actually 'need' to thin out the grow.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence. I don't usually need to thin it out as I usually grow from cuttings. However, I trusted my last batch of clones to a freind who let me down and let them die. Now I need to start all over again and I'm sure I'll have more than my fair share of males.

As far as the clones go I do nothing special. I take the cutting, cut it a second time at a 45 degree angle under water, scrape the bottom 1" of the stem with my razor, dip it in honey and put it in my spray system with a covered dome. Then I put them under a 150w CFL for 18 hrs a day, and wait 8-10 days. Even though the stems are being sprayed I also mist the leaves daily with RO water.

Day 32 and this beautiful Papaya right up front has just shown HER preflowers. What more can I say? I feel like a new Dad.

they look very healthy. well done!

beautiful looking plant, cant wait to see that thing flower

Duece.

Thanks email468, uberpea. I was surprised....usually the big beautiful ones turn out to be male. Naturally I was elated when I saw the fem pre-flowers on that Papaya. Lights set to 12/12 today and last 3 cuttings moved from clone machine to veg area. I fully expect that I'll have problems with plant height considering how big I let them get before going to 12/12, but this will be one of the last time from beans. I'll just deal with it. Next posting I'll let you know just how many out of the 10 turned out to be fems.

Stay tuned

Nice plants...they definitely look gorgeous. I also ordered papaya and hindu kush from nirvana, and with any luck they'll turn out half as good as yours. Being my first grow ever, I'm starting out with papaya from seeds. I germed 7 and got six to pop. I just started 2 days ago and all are looking well so far as they have all sprouted. I've got a similar setup with the hydro kit; I ordered the stealth hydro bubbleponics. It surely is not as nice of a setup as yours, but you definitely gave me a nice goal to shoot for. Thanks a lot!

I was wondering, with the two different strains you have, being papaya and hindu kush, could you grow say 2 papaya plants and 2 kush in the same aerotub(if you were working on a smaller scale)? or would you have to put them in different tubs?

GoofyBoots334 said:

I was wondering, with the two different strains you have, being papaya and hindu kush, could you grow say 2 papaya plants and 2 kush in the same aerotub(if you were working on a smaller scale)? or would you have to put them in different tubs?

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Both of these would do fine in the same system.

Day 38 here and nothing much new to report. Tubs have been under 12/12 for 5 days. Still haven't been able to identify any preflowers other that the one Papaya I spotted 5 days ago. Clones are doing well as are the future Chrystal Moms.

hahah nice problem to have...those plants look outstanding can u leave your hydro system alone for say 12 hours a day 5 days a week ? or do u have to adjust things and be more hands on? and can u yeild more in hydro system than soil ? thanks and great job on them plants so far..i havent even seen a dead leaf on a single plant ..amazing

Corso312 said:

hahah nice problem to have...those plants look outstanding can u leave your hydro system alone for say 12 hours a day 5 days a week ? or do u have to adjust things and be more hands on? and can u yeild more in hydro system than soil ? thanks and great job on them plants so far..i havent even seen a dead leaf on a single plant ..amazing

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I check and adjust my PH levels once a day and change the nutrients once a week. As the plants get bigger I may need to top off the tubs once during the week. The time required to maintain the system isn't too bad and would be a lot less if I wasn't mixing nutrients for, and tending to 3 different (tubs, clones, Moms) systems. Other than that the majority of time and expense comes with the initial set up....gathering materials, wiring lights, timers, thermostats....running exhaust and fresh air ductwork....building the tubs, etc.

45 days old and a lot of changes since the last post.

Finally we're seeing preflowers after 10 days of flowering and luck is with us. The 4 biggest plants in the tubs are female which is a nice change.

After identifying them as female I selected the 8 healthiest cuttings (4 Papaya and 4 Hindu Kush) from the 18 taken and the others were thrown away. I then selected the 2 nicest plants from the 8 and those 2 will be the new Mom's. Those were put in to two hydrofarm drip systems bring the total count to 4 mothers...(2 Chrystal, 1 Papaya and 1 Hindu Kush). The aerotub in the clone/mom closet came out (due to space limitations) and the lid was switched from one with (20) 2" netpots to one with (6) 3" netpots which is identical to the 2 other tubs. The remaining 6 plants (3 Papaya and 3 Hindu Kush) went in to that aerotub and under the 12/12 lights right away. I added a 600w HPS to the (2) existing 400's over the tubs and put the newest tub on a rack beneath the added 600w. By putting it on a rack (well, rolling cart) it allowed me to keep the new 600w light high enough that the light will benefit the big Papaya's and Kush's as well as provide light for the rooted cuttings. I realize that I should have veg'd the cuttings a little longer but I am running out of space and quantity is not as important at this point as getting two healthy Mom's going. If I have a small yield from the remaining cuttings...... no big deal. Next time I won't need to take a boatload of cuttings to ensure enough fems and I can veg them longer.

I still have 3 small plants in the main tubs that aren't showing sex yet. Regardless, they'll probably come out since the big fems are hogging all the light which is OK with me.

I know this is confusing so I'll I'll post again tonight with more pictures that will give you a little better idea.

they're looking good! i'll bet they love that new light.

Ok...some better pictures as promised.

Pic 1: Day 45 on the Papaya and Hindu Kush.

Pic 2: 20 Day old cuttings put right in to Flower

Pic 3: Future Mom's. 2 drip systems on left are Chrystal that were taken from last grow and taken from a mother 5 weeks in to flowering. This should answer the question as to whether you can take cuttings from a flowering fem. It took a while to revert to veg but as you can see they're doing nicely. 2 drip systems on right are the 2 (1 Papaya, 1 Kush) 20 day old cuttings selected to be future Moms.

Day 48-49 here. Are you getting tired of pictures of vegging plants? I sure am. Not too much longer...they've been under 12/12 for 13 days. Most upper nodes are showing flowers.

Finally weeded out the last of the males and if you look at the pic below you'll see the tops of the tubs where the net pots sit. The tub on the left (Papaya) started out with 5 beans and 2 were female. The tub on the right (Hindu Kush) started out with 5 beans also and ended up with 4 females.

It shouldn't be too much longer until I can post bud shots.

The future Moms inside the cabinet are doing well also.

Pic1- Tub Top showing final results on sex.
Pic 2- Papaya and Kush at 49 days
Pic 3- Too bad we don't smoke leaves!
Pic 4- The future Moms ( Chrystal, Papaya, Kush)

very nice. I really dig those PVC frames you have on top of the bins.

too bad we don't smoke leaves indeed!

very nice set-up - clean and professional!

Looking great man, thanks for the update! keep it up

Hey all......4 Weeks in to flower. This is what happens when you start with beans and allow them to veg until you see preflowers. I started with 10 seeds, ended up with 5 fems and they're overgrowing one another. What a pain in the ass! I spend more time clipping off fan leaves and tying these things over. Even though both strains are 75% Indica these plants have tripled in size making it hard to deal with if you have 8' ceilings. It's also a great waste of light. Although I expect a decent yield, I can't wait to flower the clones from these when they're 12" tall so I don't need to go through this bullshit again. I should have a shitload of buds though.

Hey man havent seen you in awhile, hope you had a nice 420.
The plants look great! cant wait to see harvest

Duece.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I figured it was getting tiring looking at the same thing. Now that we have some buds I'll give an update.

Hopefully, for those newbies the pictures below will confirm that growing from beans is entirely different than from cuttings. The plants have become unmanageable due to their size and it was because I started from beans and had to wait until they were about 18" tall before I saw preflowers. Once they get that big and they're switched to 12/12 there still is a phenomenal amount of growth left in them. My lighting is as high as it can go and due to the limited grow area (5x6) the plants have been trained as much as possible. There was NO WAY to do a Scrog with the limited space and huge branches. Although I have lots of huge colas the rest of the plant is just about useless do to the limited light.....and remember I'm running 1400w of HPS in the 5x6 area. The cuttings that will replace these came from a mother that was in preflower. NOW I'll be able to go to 12/12 at 6-8" tall and wont have the huge plants 4 feet of wasted space.

The calendar says about 10 days away from harvest although the buds/trichs say 2-3 weeks. There doesn't appear to be a dig difference between the Papaya and the HK but only smoking will tell.

Took 20 cuttings off the Mom's in the closet (not shown) yesterday and hope to move those right under the HPS when these are finished.

PH needs daily adjusting (as expected). For the newbies you can expect to lower the ph daily when the plants are in the veg state (using ph down) and once they go to flower you'll be adjusting it up daily. Each crop is a learning experience, and each time I learn what I "should have done" with this one. Due to the efficiency of my aero systems I suspect I should have backed off on the nitrogen rich additives ( or reduced the PPM) a little sooner. I have huge buds but am not satisfied with the size or number of the trichs....but again...only smoking will tell. I plan on starting a 2 week flush in about 4-5 days. That may be a little soon but I'm always suprised at how fast the buds ripen......maybe it isn't 3 weeks.