The beginning of a perpetual grow.

ok so I am waiting for my grow-supplies money to come in so I am starting a few bagseeds. I have one which was sour diesel, some kush, and some random dro seeds.

I don't really have a box (I actually do but I dont feel like putting it back together) so I'm just growing on top of my dresser in my closet. I'm running CFL's with bother grow and flower bulbs. At the moment I have:
Three 26w 6500k 1625LM
Two 26w 2700k 1650LM
One 55w 2700k 3800LM
One 23w 3000k 1200LM (Flood Par-38 )

Total watts: 208
Total Lumens: 13,175

Pretty good for seedlings, I'm going to add more as time goes, but I'm going to upgrade to 105w CFLs
I'm going with the K.I.S.S. method and use maxibloom+calmag in coco coir all the way through. I probably won't flower until I have my tent but I'm going to train and make some clones.

So yeah Ill throw up some pics in a little bit.

ok so I am germinating using the 2 saucers and papertowel method. For the last 1 1/2 days the seeds didn't do anything, and then I realized that it was too cold for the seeds to germinate so I put a heating pad under the saucers on low today at noon and since then the Sour Diesel seed has popped. I'm going to put it in coco tomorrow probably.

Some pictures:


I know the lamp lights aren't helping that much but They are just to help promote a full spectrum growth. Im going to put a 105w bulb vertically in the middle from an electrical strip and then get clamp lights for all around the plant(s)

well the sour diesel and 7 dro seeds popped fully and were put in coco with about a 1/2" of hydrotone on the bottom for drainage. I was really hoping for 5 seeds but I got blessed i guess lol, so I said why not and put 3 seeds in one cup. The 5 cups in the pan (see pic) were sowed on the fourth and the triclopse was sowed today on the fifth. One of the seeds has popped up and is growing fast (D1) and another 2 are showing green and about to break completely through the dirt (D2 & D3).
They are getting plain tap water untill about a week and then I'm going to start the maxibloom + calmag.

So as of right now, we have:
SD (Sour diesel)
D1 Dro bagseed
D2 Dro bagseed
D3 Dro Bagseed
D4 Dro bagseed
Triclopse 3 bagseeds in one cup :O

well today i peeped in on them and almost all of them have popped. Only two of the triclopse hasn't popped.
Pics:

You're going to run into problems if you continue to use catch pans under your pots. If you have to use water catchers be sure your plantpots (cups) are elevated above the water in the catch pan(s).

Hello, out of curiosity, how many plants do you think you'll end up with once you have the perpetual grow and how often will the cycle of moving them from veg to flowering be? I ask because I'm looking into starting a perpetual grow now but I'm having a hard time coming up with those two numbers. I was thinking I'd like to get where I'm moving 2 plants every 2 weeks. But depending on flowering times (by my estimation) that would be 8 to 10 plants in flowering once it capped out. Plus 4 clones and a mother in the veg box at all times. Does that sound right? Basically I see 2 clones would be 0-2 weeks, 2 clones would be 2-4 weeks (I don't really want to veg longer than that because size restrictions but I figured frequency would make up for that) and then the rest in flowering would be tiered so that ideally every 2 weeks I'm harvesting. Sorry for the long post, I just feeling like I'm missing/forgetting something. Thanks in advance for any and all help!

BeardedBandit said:

Hello, out of curiosity, how many plants do you think you'll end up with once you have the perpetual grow and how often will the cycle of moving them from veg to flowering be? I ask because I'm looking into starting a perpetual grow now but I'm having a hard time coming up with those two numbers. I was thinking I'd like to get where I'm moving 2 plants every 2 weeks. But depending on flowering times (by my estimation) that would be 8 to 10 plants in flowering once it capped out. Plus 4 clones and a mother in the veg box at all times. Does that sound right? Basically I see 2 clones would be 0-2 weeks, 2 clones would be 2-4 weeks (I don't really want to veg longer than that because size restrictions but I figured frequency would make up for that) and then the rest in flowering would be tiered so that ideally every 2 weeks I'm harvesting. Sorry for the long post, I just feeling like I'm missing/forgetting something. Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Click to expand...

I grow perpetual. I go straight from clone to flower. I harvest 8 plants every 21 days, and that same day go in 8 new clones. I have three cycles going at all times. I wrote a small Perl application that sets out what days I need to do what. This is the exact schedule I'm currently been running:

2013-08-21: Cut clones
2013-09-06: Put clones into flower
2013-09-11: Cut clones
2013-09-27: Put clones into flower
2013-10-02: Cut clones
2013-10-18: Put clones into flower
2013-10-23: Cut clones
2013-11-08: HARVEST!!
2013-11-08: Put clones into flower
2013-11-13: Cut clones
2013-11-29: HARVEST!!
2013-11-29: Put clones into flower
2013-12-04: Cut clones
2013-12-20: HARVEST!!
2013-12-20: Put clones into flower
2013-12-25: Cut clones
2014-01-10: HARVEST!!
2014-01-10: Put clones into flower
2014-01-15: Cut clones
2014-01-31: HARVEST!!
2014-01-31: Put clones into flower
2014-02-21: HARVEST!!
2014-03-14: HARVEST!!
2014-04-04: HARVEST!!

The 21 day cycle fits perfectly into a 9 week flower (63 days). My next harvest of 8 plants is in 4 days.

Feel free to follow through my 12/12 from seed thread in my sig for more details. I finalize and get things going after the first couple of pages.

-spek

I put them in a plastic pan.
I plan on harvesting one per week and put one in per week
I accidentally knocked over triclopse and one taproot fell out. I put it back in but idk if its going to grow. I'm going to grow all of these untill the sour diesel shows its sex and then either give away or kill the others. I got some purp shake for cheap today so im hoping for a seed

Awesome! Thanks for the help Spek I'll definitely read your thread sir. I can't really do that many plants but I can scale it down to fit my space.


SDF: I'm very interested in seeing your grow on here. So if you plan on harvesting and moving one per week, what do you think your plant count would be total between all stages? Say it was a 9 week flowering time, that's at least 9 you'll have in flowering before you can harvest the oldest one. How many would you keep vegetating to insure the perpetual-ness?

sdf said:

I put them in a plastic pan.
I plan on harvesting one per week and put one in per week
I accidentally knocked over triclopse and one taproot fell out. I put it back in but idk if its going to grow. I'm going to grow all of these untill the sour diesel shows its sex and then either give away or kill the others. I got some purp shake for cheap today so im hoping for a seed

Click to expand...

So you'll effectively have 9-10 plants in flower at all time?

I would find that hard to manage to be honest. You'd have to use different nute strengths for many different plants, and then do a harvest/dry/cure constantly. One batch won't be cured before the next one is done, which means you'll have to use different jars for all the different cures.

Each to their own, but it feels like a lot more work than necessary. Personally, I'd do three plants every three weeks, than one every week.

-spek

BeardedBandit said:

Awesome! Thanks for the help Spek I'll definitely read your thread sir. I can't really do that many plants but I can scale it down to fit my space.


SDF: I'm very interested in seeing your grow on here. So if you plan on harvesting and moving one per week, what do you think your plant count would be total between all stages? Say it was a 9 week flowering time, that's at least 9 you'll have in flowering before you can harvest the oldest one. How many would you keep vegetating to insure the perpetual-ness?

Click to expand...

If your space is tight, go straight from clone to flower tent. That's how I run mine. I have a tiny mom/clone area, and a larger flower tent. No veg business. If you want to veg, you'll need a larger vegetation area, obviously.

However, the benefit to that, is you won't need mom plants kicking around. Just take your next batch of clones off of the vegging plants right before they go into flower.

-spek

Thats why I've been thinking about the aspect of a perpetual grow, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do what I was thinking. The strain I'm going to eventually do is Selene by Sannie (http://www.sanniesshop.com/selene-cannabis-seeds.html) which is 9-10 weeks so I would need about a 5x5 area to have 10 plants at once plus about a 4x4 for veg. I may just do a 4x4 wall of green grow with about a 3 month veg time and a small 12/12 tent for head stash

I was thinking of doing a manline vertical grow for this one. I'm thinking of topping it 3 times for a total of 8 tops and LST'ing it into a circle and have a 125w cfl in the middle of the circle of colas. Then I would have a few 105w cfls on the outside for side lighting. To keep the buds from getting bleached I plan on having the circle about 6-8 inches wide. Im hoping to yield about 2-3 Ozs

Be careful when using CalMag with tapwater. It usually has quite a bit in it already. Best to have a TDS meter.

ok so just a quick update. Because I was using unPHed water, some of my plants started to get twisting leaves and slight discoloration. A little PH- fixed that:

One of my Dro plants (D1) decided she wanted more so she sprouted her root out of the bottom of the cup. I was thinking of letting it dry out a lot and then pulling the whole thing out and tucking the root in, either that our cutting it. What do you guys suggest?

Heres all the babys:

And here is the final container for the lucky winner:


So yeah thanks guys

Subbed. Looking forward to this. I hope the grow goes well dude.

thank you, and me too lol. I got atleast one other sour deisel seed, I still have to break down the other bag

ok so quick update. all the plants except for D2 are burned from the non ph'ed water as you can see. I acidenyally knocked over triclopse while taking pictures so i took one of the roots befoew fixing it
pix:
Sour Diesel on the bottom and D1 at the top

D4:

D2 at the bottom (so pretty) and D3 at the top

Triclopse before getting knocked over and then right after the fall:

spek9 said:

So you'll effectively have 9-10 plants in flower at all time?

I would find that hard to manage to be honest. You'd have to use different nute strengths for many different plants, and then do a harvest/dry/cure constantly. One batch won't be cured before the next one is done, which means you'll have to use different jars for all the different cures.

Each to their own, but it feels like a lot more work than necessary. Personally, I'd do three plants every three weeks, than one every week.

-spek

Click to expand...

That's a bit too much work for me. I grow one big harvest a year.

it is a lot of work but it can also be a good supplemental income selling to dispensaries. I didn't feel like taking pictures so I made a video but it didn't come out good so I will update with pics tomorrow. They will get their first feeding tomorrow so hopefully by Wednesday they will be reaching for the lights. I think I may be watering too much but I'm not sure so I have been watering less.