1toke's dual 400 HPS closet grow #6

[Guest]

and continued....












Okay, now on to the new plants, first the Sage














Then the Swt#3 older sprouts
















To be continued.....

 

[mosess187]

hey now what size tubs are those? you looking good over there never the less! keep her growing!!

 

[Guest]

Continued.....

Mosess187 I use 35 gal tubs sometimes, depends on the strain. The Neville's Haze can use the whole tub for one plant and reach 20 feet if I let it. The smaller strains seem to do better by letting them get a little rootbound then pot up to a larger pot. Those go from beer cups to quart pots, then gal pots, and 3 gal pots and finally 5 gal pots.

Okay, where were we - the Sweet Tooth younger sprouts in veg, starting with 2 weeks and 1 week


















And one week






That's about it for now - more as it happens.

 

[ehonda187]

Hey 1toke!! Nice lookin project you got going. That sage is stout as hell.

 

[Guest]

Hey 1toke!! Nice lookin project you got going. That sage is stout as hell.

Hey there ehonda! Good to see ya strollin in the garden!

Yeah, I'm impressed with both the Sage and Sweet Tooth #3 growth stages, both stocky and fat as hell - nothin like the old Neville's!

The growth rate is phenominal, in both the pots and/or large tubs. They've only had straight water for a month, then flipped and fed a good dose of N heavy nutes. Not too shabby for month old's. And with 100% germ rate on the crosses too, great genetics to work with for sure.

Haven't been able to get a Johnny Blaze goin tho - wonder if I took them too soon and the beans are immature. I'll get another batch soakin & see what we can add to the flower closets!

See ya in chat.

 

[chuckyoufarley]

looking very busy 1TOKE you sure ya got time for the cup LOL
keep it green an girlie budda they all look very healthy

 

[Guest]

No worries bro! Always time fer the cup.

Now, while tinkerin, I put together an aero cloner with mist heads ordered from a local landscape supplier (fog misters). I pulled out the box of junk pvc plumbing shit and another tub collecting dust, and this is what I came up with:


The lid fits down on the lip, and I drilled 1/4 holes evenly spaced - then I got to thinking about those plugs or rings to hold the cuts and was wondering why that box of shipping peanuts couldn't be put to use? I punched a hole in them and slit with the box knife - and voila - nice soft foam cushions to stop the cuts from dropping down.

I'll get more pics up once I get it full of cuts.

 

[Guest]

1Toke -

Some peanuts are now made of corn & other materials that just melt as soon as they get wet - make sure you have the stryofoam type for this!

Slices of foam tube pipe insulation work well to hold the cuts, too; that's what I use. The 1/2" size is perfect for cloning; they fit into 3/4" holes nicely. Split the slice of insulation open at the slit and coil it tightly around the stem of the cutting.

Annac just tried to start a bunch of fresh seeds and said it took them about 6-8 days to come up. I just started some fresh seeds for a test grow, myself. I put them in the fridge for about 9 days with a bunch of rice to absorb moisture. They popped in about 2-1/2 days, so I don't think they need a lot of drying, but they do need some.

 

[Guest]

Hi ambre!

Yeah, the Mrs Toke brought up that point - she was under the impression that our packing peanuts were bio-degradeable. After checking we made sure they are recycled styrofoam. Good point. I like the pipe foam insulation, didn't think of that - us tinkerers usually grab anything that's handy, and I got a bag of peanuts laying around and figured "What the hey."

I noticed that with the beans too - mine sat for a few weeks I think, but not sure if the humidor tubes are truely airtight, I just assumed they would be. I didn't so anything special with them, they sat out in the air for a week or so and then into the humidor tubes for storage. Out of the Sweet Tooth and Sage beans I hit 100% germ, the Johnny Blaze beans will crack but fail when I plant them - been about 3 weeks now, time to soak another batch and retry.

 

[Guest]

Just a quick update while I'm on. I got the 360' mist nozzles and got to tinkerin with the aero cloner, big dissapointment there.

Discovered that a 360 gpm pump doesn't have enough ooomph....and wasted a few hours messing with tubing and getting sprayed, then checked the bubble cloner status and decided I better stick with it - the gifted clones have roots now. Time will be better spent on what went wrong and what worked.

I've got a good stock of RapidRooters to fall back on and have a feel for what works best in the bubble cloner. Beyond nominal temps and huge amounts of fine bubbles, the amount of stem seems to be a big part of the success equation. I noticed, that after adjusting water level to about an inch from the lid and sliding the clone stems in just until they are touching the surface, that roots shot out at the points that I scraped after recutting underwater and in the mist zone - not under the surface. (Note that after the 45' cut end sealed itself it doesn't seem to matter if it gets above the water surface). BTW I reworked the cloner, retiring the old 6-pack cooler and replacing with a tupperware shoe-box and lid. I'm thinking that the ratio of the res and air wands falls into the success zone by cutting res size by 3. Smaller rez-higher oxidation level and the right size to control res temps by assuming room temp. Seems the bigger tubs were hard to keep constant parameters due to the water volume.

I'm figurin less is better in this case. And it never hurts one to return to the basic growing theories and recheck your actions. New razor blade, healthy cuts, underwater cutting and scarifying, good hygiene all contribute to your success rate.

 

[Guest]

Got this week's update off the camera.

Let's start with the rebuilt bubble cloner:






And moving on to baccas' sage:







Nice trifoliar ^^^^




Another shot of the trifoliar ^^^^







2 of 5 Sage are girls so far (one suspect, shown in pic), and the sensi has flowered, nice female - no signs yet on the sweet tooth.

To be continued......

 

[Guest]

Continued update....

Next is the Sweet Tooth in flower (lemon is for size reference):
















And the Sweet Tooth sprouts at 2 weeks:








And the Sweet Tooth sprouts at 1 week:








To be continued......

 

[Guest]

Continued......more pics, first the sensi.
















And finally the Trainwreck - almost ready to give up cuts:




That's it for this week, see ya in chat .....

 

[Guest]

Cloners & Cloning

Cloners & Cloning

1Toke-

Looking great as always! I envy your grow space, sigh. Someday....

I have had the best luck with the shoebox-size cloners, myself.

I use one of the Walmart 20-60 gal air pumps per box and I make my air "stones" out of soaker hose. Unmodified soaker hose puts out a nice fine mist; for deeper or larger containers, I use an ice pick or something similar to punch larger holes about every inch. The larger holes will continue putting out air for a long time; the straight soaker hose will plug up after a while and need to be flexed to open the holes again. 50' of 1/4" soaker hose is a lot cheaper than airstones!

New razor blade, healthy cuts, underwater cutting and scarifying, good hygiene all contribute to your success rate.

Yep, all true. I wash everything with a bleach solution, rinse it clean, and then sterilize it with alcohol right before using it. I also agree that underwater cutting and scarifying are major keys to success along with the high DO levels and water temps.

I like your observation about roots coming from the scarification areas. I've never seen roots grow from under water. As a matter of fact, I keep all the stems about 1/2" above the water level in my cloner. I've observed that I have less problems with rot or damping-off when the stems aren't in the water, especially for varieties that take time to root. The splashing from bursting bubbles keeps them nice & wet. I have occasionally had roots grow out the bottom of the stem when I keep the stems above water; one is just starting to grow now.

It's amazing how much difference water temps can make. In warm weather with water temps in the low 80's, I get roots in about 3-4 days on most varieties; now in winter it is taking 8-10 days with the water temps at 70-72. I finally put a heating pad and towel under my cloning bubblers to bring the temps back up and now I'm getting roots in 3-4 days again.

Out of curiosity, do you have trouble getting the Johnny Blaze's to root? I have two varieties that are 50% Blueberry at the moment (the JB's and a Blueberry/C99 cross), and both take 2-3 times longer to root than anything else. I know Lifesaver is part Blueberry but not much; it roots quickly.

Have you flowered the Trainwreck before? If so, how does the stretch compare to the JB's? I just got a pack of selfed TW seeds and I'm thinking that might be a variety to hold on to until I have a larger grow space.

The stretch has about stopped on my JB's (30 days into flowering). I estimate that, if I hadn't trained them out sideways, they would be about 30" tall or so. That's definitely manageable in a SCROG; if I let them veg a bit longer, I could probably do with half the number of plants and get the same canopy coverage.

 

[Guest]

Mornin Ambre.

"...and I make my air "stones" out of soaker hose. ..."
I was wonderin' if soaker hose would work, have you tried any larger than 1/4"? Gonna grab some next time out, thanks, we'll give it a shot- air wands plug too quick and sanding/scraping don't unclog them. The flexible air diffuser hoses are nice but a 24" hose around here runs about $9.

"...I keep all the stems about 1/2" above the water level in my cloner...."
Do you have any probs with the angle cut being out of water? I've been leery of getting them above the surface until after they've scarred shut, air doesn't get into the stem?

"...water temps in the low 80's, I get roots in about 3-4 days..."
I've been trying to get a good handle on the res temps, everyone takes temps either from the res or the mist (in aero) and I couldn't find any data on bubble cloner res temps, so it's been all trial & error. Mine seems to perform best at 76 deg F. I have a 3 level heating pad fished out of the dumpster and used that in tests, when I built the propagation cabinet out of an old oak computer printer stand I tested temps on both shelves. After adding the 18w (20 gal fish tank light fixture) floro on the top shelf and the mini-floro desk lamp head on the bottom shelf for the cloner I found the ballasts raised cabinet temps about 4 deg above room temp - we keep our room temps around 72, so it falls in at around 76, where most of my successes seem to be. I'm confident enough now to get some wreck cuts in and see what happens.

"...do you have trouble getting the Johnny Blaze's to root..."
"...take 2-3 times longer to root than anything else..."
Johnny Blaze takes forever to germ, root or reveg, just about everything takes forever, but once it starts it takes off like banshees at midnight. Stretch under 400w was about the same as the wreck, but more organized! Whereas the wreck is viney and all over the place, the Blaze could be trained. Stretch was more acceptable under 1000w, less than Neville's but more than most - 8" nodes were common. I found that if I flipped them at 2 weeks and flowered under 1000w they came close to Neville's Haze in appearance - 3-6" nodes. Love the blueberry flavor and still got some of the old school buzz. Both pretty much look like Thai shrubs IMO. I trained mine to a 4' canopy level, but with only 6-8 square feet to work with decided to top at every foot of growth and trim for light penetration. I topped at 12" and again at 24" during veg, then flipped them and let them go, supercropping wherever I could. That made me build the two new flower units, so I could have a dedicated cabinet for the Neville's and Blaze with 7' vertical to work with. Wish I had the room to SOG them, they would do great with a 12 square foot canopy!

Great to see ya stop by, thanks for the added tips! Once we get all this dialed in I can settle down with a bowl and watch the fun.

See ya in chat.

 

[KingRalph]

yo 1toke, everything looks great man. nice lil aero cloner ya put together too hehe. and that wreck, almost ready? lol mutilate er already! peace n green thumbs man

 

[Guest]

Hey KingRalph.

Yeah I tore that bitch apart. 20 cuts into the cloner.

Quick update is in order I guess, binned a Sage male and a Swt#3 male before they could do their dirty deed. Still watchin the Sensi - pre flowers sure look male, but only one ball at each node? Not gonna panic until I see the yellow petals!

So that makes 10 swt#3 (3 in flower) and 4 Sage in flower. Goin on the 2nd week of flower. Will get pics up later tonight, nothin much until they start buddin.

The Trainwreck was in flower when I got it, it had about 5 tiny little nugs on it when I revegged it. Well as I was takin cuts, those nug remains started fallin off and I tossed them on the tray. Mrs. Toke and I sampled it in a bowl last night, and those that were in chat saw the results.

If the finished buds are half as good as our sample we're gonna be happy campers! I was pleasantly surprised by the mellow spicy taste reminescent of Sage but sweeter and a little easier on the throat. But the buzz was outstanding - the best I've sampled this year.

See ya in chat.

 

[chuckyoufarley]

were your fingers stoned on the weeds too, it looked it the way you were tyipgn lol

 

[Guest]

Hey chuck - yeah they were feelin no pain.

Quick update while I'm on - got a nice suprprise today from our generous friends out west - 7 healthy lookin clones; 2 Schrom, 2 Killer Queen and 3 ECSD.

Big collective THANK YOU to the babbas and much
:kitty: :kitty:

Will get pics up of the filled cloner today after lights on.

 

[Guest]

Okay - got pics I promised.
First the new arrivals are all tucked into their comfy cloner







Then the Sage about a week into flower, 2 females - one is a quad foliar


And the Sweet Tooth #3 2 weeks into flower




Next the Trainwreck


And the Sensi


And I'm running out of room in my gallery, gonna have to start deleting earlier pics.
So, just a few pics of the Swt#3 3 weekers








And just a few of the 2 week swt#3






That's it for now - more as it happens.

See ya in chat.