Perpetual Joy

Hello to all the good folks at RIU! Thanks for all the good reading! I haven't had to post many questions because I can always find the answer just reading these forums.

I have about 2 years experience and have learned quite a bit through trial & error so hopefully this will be useful to others as well.

Setup:

Walk-in closet w a dryer duct, which is VERY important since it ducts out to the roof; I have no odor issues.

1 3x3x6.5 flower tent. 600 w HPS
1 2x4x5 veg tent 400 w HPS
cloning area above veg tent w 150w CFL

Soil Grow. I am hesitant to go hydro. There seems to be less margin for error. As far as soil, I just get what's in the hardware store. Nothing fancy. I try not to get anything w too many nutes in it. I haven't had any issues w drainage or root problems.

As far as nutes go, I use Fox Farm. I also feed the plants some mollasses the last few weeks. During transplants, I add some Great White mycorrhizae, but that's about it...

As far as strains are concerned...you learn. I look for short, stocky plants that flower early. Indicas!!!! I have had great success with Aurora Indica and AK48. I have been cloning one of each for a few grows. Very nice plants.

I've had less success with sativas. They grow tall, have fluffier buds and take longer to finish. I've tried Nirvana SuperSkunk (not so hot and long flower time) DNA Gen Cannalope Haze (too tall and 13 week flower time, but pretty good shit, sweet tasting). I got a freebie of Super Silver Haze from Dinafem which is now in flower (pics to come)

I also didn't like Nirvana's Northern Lights. Not terrible, mind you...easy to grow and clone...but nothing that makes you say WOW

I am currently trying for the 1st time Barney's Vanilla Kush, Barney's Pinapple Chunk and Kannabia's Faraona.

So we currently have Super Silver Haze, BF VK, BF PC, Faraona, Nirvana's AK48 & Aurora Indica

dukeofprunes said:

Hello to all the good folks at RIU! Thanks for all the good reading! I haven't had to post many questions because I can always find the answer just reading these forums.

I have about 2 years experience and have learned quite a bit through trial & error so hopefully this will be useful to others as well.

Setup:

Walk-in closet w a dryer duct, which is VERY important since it ducts out to the roof; I have no odor issues.

1 3x3x6.5 flower tent. 600 w HPS
1 2x4x5 veg tent 400 w HPS
cloning area above veg tent w 150w CFL

Soil Grow. I am hesitant to go hydro. There seems to be less margin for error. As far as soil, I just get what's in the hardware store. Nothing fancy. I try not to get anything w too many nutes in it. I haven't had any issues w drainage or root problems.

As far as nutes go, I use Fox Farm. I also feed the plants some mollasses the last few weeks. During transplants, I add some Great White mycorrhizae, but that's about it...

Click to expand...

Subbed ...

The clones are above the veg tent (i'll cover my cloning method later). I am using cool tubes and one inline fan PER tent and Y duct to the dryer duct to get rid of any odor and HEAT!!! Luckily, it's cooling off now in this part of the world, but I battled heat issues all summer...and I'm considering converting to LEDs. But I'll get to that later as well. I have the ducting sucking hot air out of the tent and through the cooltubes out to the the Y duct. This way I use one fan for the tent and the tubes. You can also see I have 9 plants of varying stages of flower in my flower tent.

When it comes to cloning, I keep it simple. Humidity domes are a pain. Takes up too much space. I just cut small holes in clear dixie cup...fill with soil. Poke a hole, drop some purple goo in the hole and get the clones ready. I'm a stoner, so I always screw up and mislabel at least one clone every time, but I try to stay on top of it. I use a new razor, cut the clone at an angle, dip it in the purple goo and stick it in the hole. I get a paperclip and twist it and use it as a mini stake to hold the clone up...just stick it in the soil. It REALLY helps. Then I cut the tips off the leaves (to have the plant focus on root growth??) I then get another clear plastic cup, and tape to the bottom one for a small individual humidity dome. They take a bit longer (btween 2-3 weeks) but it works well. I mist the top of the dome regularly and do not remove the cover for the 1st week unless I see something wrong.

I'm the Duke of Prunes, but I got carried away. I fimmed too many times and Im getting lotsa small buds. My final pot is only a 3 gallon. I have 9 plants in flower so I can pull one about once a week. Nice top nugs (though not huge) but the canopy doesnt let much light down to the lower budsites. In the future I'll be doing one fim about 3 weeks before I flower. This way the canopy is smaller and the light penetrates better to the bottom and I get 2 really fat colas. Always going back to the drawing board!!!!

Since this is a perpetual journal...I should put a pic of the MOST exciting thing that happened today!!! I just harvested my 1st Faraona plant. It looks great. It finished in 54 days. about 20% amber, 60% cloudy. I really didnt flush much thinking it would go a little longer. Stopped feeding it on day 45 and have just been watering with mollasses. Not a great yielder, but I only vegged it for 3 weeks. The buds are rock hard and FROSTY!! I'm glad I made two clones of it...sure looks like a keeper to me! I still have to dry, cure and sample before the I can say for certain. That being said, the plant looks pretty good to me.

here's a few more pics of the clones and the plants in veg. Please feel free to ask any questions or offer any suggestions. the time between the 1st & 2nd veg pics is about a month, though I moved the plants around a few times.

Hey DP,
Nice start
Everything looks good, only thing - How come you don't use perlite ...?

Now let's get into the hassles. First and foremost are heat...and spider mites!!!! A 600 w HPS generates a great deal of heat. Even with a box fan, aircooled tube and inline fan, the temps get mighty hot in the summer. I try to keep the tents unzipped as much as possible, but that makes me lose light. I had to run my AC 24/7 the entire summer. My electric was really high. I'm considering LED's in the future...certainly before spring. I like the area51. I figure 2 for my 3x3 flower and one plus side cfls for my 2x4 veg. But I'm still researching. I like the idea two smaller lights in my flower tent right next to each other instead of one monster.

As far as the mites, as a noob I thought it was a cal/mg deficiency at first when i saw little specks on the fan leaves. LOL!!! I have defeated them several times only to have them come back. I think they may come through the walls...or from my cat. Though he is NEVER allowed in my bedroom, let alone my grow closet.

I clean my closet weekly, remove all the plants, shopvac it, wipe with bleach wipes. I turn on the shower and hold the plants upside down and let the water hit the underbelly of the plants. Then I spray w azamax, then with water. In the meantime, I spray the closet w Dr Doom, then put the plants back in. Works for a few weeks. I never get to the point where webs are formed, but I still have to deal with it. I never mess w a plant 4 weeks or more in flower. I just remove what I can w water and a sponge and hope the plant stays strong. Im thinking predator mites are my next step. I heard they have to get to you asap or they all die. Overnight is a MUST. I tried ladybugs, but they suck. As soon as the light goes on they fly towards it and kill themselves. I want to avoid chemical sprays or even hot pepper sprays late in flower. Any suggestions?

Hey Stevieh! Thanks for the likes...and the question. There is SOME perlite in SOME the soil, but not much. Do I have to mix it in by hand? I really havent had any moisture retention or drainage issues as far as I can tell...what are the benefits?

this AK48 looks LOVELY!!! Day 52. Just looking at the trichomes w a microscope. I'm thinking I should wait another week. But it looks GOOD!!

I also would like to quickly talk about my experience with seedbanks. Nirvana is OK, not too expensive and I had mixed results. Love the AK48 and Aurora Indica. Didn't care for Northern Lights and especially Super Skunk. I also got some of their Bubbleliscious, which one pheno was SICK. But the clone died. I re-order them and NONE germinated...but I probably messed up.

I have been using attitude and they are great. Fast, stealthy, wide assortment. I like to order and get the t-shirt to aid in stealth. Got two good freebies. The Kannabia Faraona looks SICK!!! I'm hoping Barney's Vanilla Kush and Pineapple Chunk are as good as advertised. So far so good...

I failed to mention a few other crucial things. Now that's it's fall, my temps are around 78 with the light on and 70 with it off. I was getting temps in the upper 80's in the summer and it sucked!!! The humidity is low...around 30%. I have a spray bottle w tap water and I spray the lower leaves to keep them cool and raise the humidity.

Also, I try to keep my girls well fed. I try to slowly feed them more and more until i see the beginning of nute burn. I push the envelope as much as I can. I give it some plain water first to loosen it up and flush out any salt buildup...then water w nutes. Seems ok to me. The girls look happy. I try to add a little more N during the 1st 2 weeks of flower to compensate for any stretch. Before I started adding a little extra grow solution to my early flowering plants' nute solution, I was getting some pretty serious yellowing as the plants started to stretch.

Hi,

The benefits are what you said of perlite..... Helps air get to the roots and with drainage.

I never used it in my first grow but someone said to me about using it, so I looked for it and it was really cheap so I used it on my next ones, I just mix I in bye hand , to be honest the only difference I see is the pool of water on top when you water disappears faster.
Nothing Else apart from making the soil look nicer lol.

So it's not a must

Stevieh said:

Hi,

The benefits are what you said of perlite..... Helps air get to the roots and with drainage.

I never used it in my first grow but someone said to me about using it, so I looked for it and it was really cheap so I used it on my next ones, I just mix I in bye hand , to be honest the only difference I see is the pool of water on top when you water disappears faster.
Nothing Else apart from making the soil look nicer lol.

So it's not a must

Click to expand...

I haven't had any drainage or moisture rentention issues...at least not YET. I used to use Fox Farm Soil...but it's WAY expensive!!! The cheaper stuff works jut fine.

I am using Cheap B&q stuff as well with 58% peat and it's fine .....

i took another look at this AK48 w a microscope. looks ready!!! Now I'll keep it in total darkness for 36 hours under a garbage can. Not necessarily because i believe that it increases resin production, but to keep those delicate terpenes from evaporating. The HID kills them. I want a full flavor, stinky bud...and i feel it just stinks more if u leave it in darkness for a while before you harvest. Any thoughts? I saved the clippings from the faraona and will add the cuttings from this little ak48. After the next plant is ready (my aurora indica looks close to done) I will make some bubble hash....and scrape up some scissor hash. I like the scissor hash best. It's even better than wax in my opinion!!!! Now that I removed a plant from flower, I moved a veg plant to flower. Another AK48!!!

Never tried keeping them in the dark but it's on my "To do" list ....

Stevieh said:

Never tried keeping them in the dark but it's on my "To do" list ....

Click to expand...

I really can't tell if that increases resin production, but I know the bud smells better. I jut put it under a plastic trash can for 24hrs (after the 12hr darkness cycle). Plants smell great. Clearly, the flavors come out through curing, but in my personal trials the buds left in darkness have a stronger smell.

I also just ordered predator mites from planet natural!!! $50 including shipping. We shall see if the wipe out the spider mites!!!