SH Bubbleponics grow, 400w MH/HPS, 3 Sour Diesel, 3Northern Lights

The day has finally arrived, it's time to switch from veg to flowering stage.

So, I drained the res, mixed up some bloom nutes (I'm using Advanced) and refilled the res. I mixed up a 1/2 dose of nutes for the first day. I want to see how the plants react to the new nutes. Reading the bottle it says to use 1.84 tsp/gal of water of both parts A & B for an 800 ppm concentration. I'm using the 8 gal res. with 6 gal of water so 1.84 x 6 = 11.04 tsp. 3 tsp = 1 tbs. so 3 2/3 tbs of each part per res change. But I'm going with 1/2 dose for the first day so I'm adding just about 2 tbs of each part for today's change. If everything is copacetic tomorrow I'll add the rest.

As to the nutrient content of the nutes I'm using. Parts A and B combine for an analysis of 5.8-6.1-8.8 (NPK). This seems to be a moderate amount of the P & K while maintaining a level of N to keep the plant healthy through flowering. today I've used a half dose so I should be in the neighborhood of a 400 ppm concentration, tomorrow I'll add the other half to get me to a concentration of ~800. This should be a good starting point. I did buy some Big Bud additive which has an analysis of 0-2-4. I'm thinking I'll add it in a week or two (I'm still reading), this will bring my nutes to a 5.8-8.1-12.8, again, maintaining the N throughout flowering but raising the P & K even higher. That should be a good balance of what the plants will need through flowering. I'm crossing my fingers hoping this is right, but from what I've read I feel pretty confident. I'll walk into the nutes concentrations carefully, even the big guys burn them from time to time.

I then switched the bulb from the MH to the HPS. I raised it about a foot to see how much additional heat this one generates, if any at all. Talk about different color! I remember when I was a kid seeing these lights for the first time, that orange glow brings back memories! This bulb puts out 51,000 lumens, about 15,000 more than the MH so I'm curious about the heat. But so far I see no real difference. I'm leaving the light on for now to check out operation prior to turning it off.

So, here's some pics, wanted to document the way they are today. The have grown about 4" in the last week after fimming, that's after an 8" growth spurt the week before. Check out those roots! some are 1/8" thick, they are fire hoses! And the shear mass, they are taking up the entire bottom of the res, must be 6" thick on the bottom. I swear only 5 1/2 gals of water now fills the res to the 6 gal line! And they are drinking 2 gals a day.

This is getting good! And now, for a glass of wine and the fruit of someone else's labor, this G-13 is great!

very impressive

ghostridermike said:

very impressive

Click to expand...

Not bad for a rookie I'd say.

And now, a question to throw out there.

I'm thinking of taking cuttings right from these plants and clone them for my next grow. Both the places I get clones from are out and I won't be able to get any for a week any way. What do you think about cutting say six of the lower branches, two strains, three from each of the two best, then get those started.

This grow pretty much started out as cuttings, I ripped the peat pellets off them and there went most of the roots too. It cost me time, but apparently not that much.

What are the opinions out there?

Seeds. Fryman. F-1 Hybrid Seeds

ghostridermike said:

Seeds. Fryman. F-1 Hybrid Seeds

Click to expand...

That's a week to 10 days out too. I have those old seeds that I used to grow, they never failed me before. But my neighbor just bought a bunch too, I should probably talk to him.

The one thing about clones though, they are all female and right now I need a lot of female companionship! I've heard people talk of stressing from cutting even leaves, a clone could be pretty hurtful.

id go for it,ive never had a clone die on me...cloning makes a grow interesting,i have a 6 purp/sourD clones goin now,i make tiny clones ...no bigger than 2in,put them in rockwool in a wine glass with a little rooting gel &water,cover with cut 2litre bottle ..i get full roots 1,2 weeks...its easy too,an free kinda

ROBBIE313 said:

id go for it,ive never had a clone die on me...cloning makes a grow interesting,i have a 6 purp/sourD clones goin now,i make tiny clones ...no bigger than 2in,put them in rockwool in a wine glass with a little rooting gel &water,cover with cut 2litre bottle ..i get full roots 1,2 weeks...its easy too,an free kinda

Click to expand...

How about putting them into the bubbleponics res? It's almost how I did the last one.

OMG THOSE ROOTS....NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

c5rftw said:

OMG THOSE ROOTS....NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

I couldn't believe it myself when I first looked. I can't see the air stones at all!

It's almost like the plants dropped hoses down to the water and spread out from there.

Okay, here's one quick observation. Having changed from the MH lamp to the HPS lamp I was concerned about the heat due to the fact that the HPS puts out 51,000 lumens as opposed to the Mh and ~36,000 lumens.

Bottom line, the heat is less. The energy consumed is more efficiently used to produce lumens in the HPS lamp, ~104 lumens/watt, vs the MH which produces ~90 lumens/watt. I should have noticed that the improved output is from efficiency, waste is quite often observed as heat, a more efficient lamp will produce less heat.

FryingPanFlyer said:

Okay, here's one quick observation. Having changed from the MH lamp to the HPS lamp I was concerned about the heat due to the fact that the HPS puts out 51,000 lumens as opposed to the Mh and ~36,000 lumens.

Bottom line, the heat is less. The energy consumed is more efficiently used to produce lumens in the HPS lamp, ~104 lumens/watt, vs the MH which produces ~90 lumens/watt. I should have noticed that the improved output is from efficiency, waste is quite often observed as heat, a more efficient lamp will produce less heat.

Click to expand...

Right on man. You have taken a big step by switching to flowering. Before you know it, you will have white pistils everywhere. As for the cloning, I say go for it. I don't think the mother will care too much.

Well, so far so good. I made the nute switch yesterday and everything looks fine. I only used a half dose of nutes, I'll add the rest later before the lights go out.

I'll also be taking some clones so I'm reading up in the bible before I do anything. I need to pick up some rooting gel, then I'll be set.

So for now I'll kick back and watch the Bronco game, they're kicking a little but today.

FryingPanFlyer said:

How about putting them into the bubbleponics res? It's almost how I did the last one.

Click to expand...

yea that would work even better,just cover them W/2 litre bottles an spray em once a day an they'll be good to go

ROBBIE313 said:

yea that would work even better,just cover them W/2 litre bottles an spray em once a day an they'll be good to go

Click to expand...

Great, then that's the direction I'll head. I took the cuttings this afternoon and have them sitting in water just like I do house plants. I'll pick up some gel tomorrow and get them in the res. I don't have the 2 L bottles so I'll have to come up with something else.

Thanks for the note, you confirmed what I was thinking.

As you know I'm into the flowering stage now, I've gone to 12/12 lighting. You may not remember that I'm growing in my garage. My garage is insulated and heated, but I'm wondering just how much heat I have to pay for now that I have this 400w heater hanging in one corner.

It was working great during veg. 24/0 was providing plenty of heat to keep the room int the low to mid 70's. Now that I've gone to the HPs lamp which not only puts out less heat, but now is only on for 12 hours. I've got the heater in the garage set to 60 degrees and it seems to be holding pretty good.

So, as they say, timing is everything. Right now I'm running the light from 2:30 am to 2:30 pm. That gives me plenty of time during the day to do what ever I need, change the res, add nutes, whatever. But, the start time of 2:30 am gives me direct heat at the coldest part of the day, hopefully this will take me through the worst of the night, it's always coldest before the dawn! And heat me up enough to get me through the night without too much more supplemental heat in the form of garage area heating.

When the light is on the room is averaging about 74 deg, now with the light off the temp is at 59 deg. Now is when you need that max/min recording thermometer. I've read that you want about a 10 to 15 degree spread between day and night temps during flower. I think I'm averaging a little cool, but it does give me a nice big, hopefully just the right amount of stressful spread that works best for flowering.

I added the rest of the nutes to get me to a 800 ppm, I of course, haven't looked in on them, but with the way they've been drinking and stretching lately they are looking for all the food they can get, I'm betting they are just fine. While looking for low branches to cut for cloning, Cervantes recommends these branches as they have the newest hormones and can change their use to rooting more quickly than a higher, older branch would be able, it was evident the plants are very, very healthy, no evidence of any type of leaf problem.

All of the plants have shown a lot of stretching already. The lower branches have already reached for the roof of the canopy to get what light they can. I think I'm going to get a lot of budding, though not many lower buds, the tops are too dense for much light to reach the lower buds, each plant seems to have several what I'd call main colas getting ready to bust out, that fimming seems to have brought out the best in my plants. The sour diesel at the front left is a monster, it has pushed the two northern lights in the front row to the right. But the nl in the front middle is one strong and healthy plant.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back with more later.

I have to admit, I'm kind of melting right now. I went to the vapor caves in the town next to where I live. The indians used to use them hundreds of years ago.

These caves are amazing, naturally heated, they stay about 115 degrees all year long, they get hotter during run off when the springs get higher. They're natural steam caves, amazingly curative. I've got a punch pass, try to make it at least once a week. These things are the absolute best for a hang over. I try to get there every Sunday afternoon, I sleep like a log and get a fresh start on the week.

FryingPanFlyer said:

I have to admit, I'm kind of melting right now. I went to the vapor caves in the town next to where I live. The indians used to use them hundreds of years ago.

These caves are amazing, naturally heated, they stay about 115 degrees all year long, they get hotter during run off when the springs get higher. They're natural steam caves, amazingly curative. I've got a punch pass, try to make it at least once a week. These things are the absolute best for a hang over. I try to get there every Sunday afternoon, I sleep like a log and get a fresh start on the week.

Click to expand...

That sounds awesome. I wish there was something like that where I live.

Lt Shiny Sides said:

That sounds awesome. I wish there was something like that where I live.

Click to expand...

And right next to the caves is the hot springs pool, the largest naturally heated pool in the world. One pool remains a constant 92 and the other is 102 year round. Natural hot springs are a kick!

Can I make a suggestion to consider?

If you start 12/12 and run the lights at night time, say like 7:30 pm to 7:30 am, they will run the coldest part of the night and help heat the grow area during the coldest part of the day. That way the heater won't have to work as much.