Basic 150 Watt HPS micro setup

[DrZin978]

Looking great, thanks for asking!

Not much new stuff to report, just slowly but surely thinning out the fan leaves beneath the net. I'm anticipating about five more weeks of flowering, blooming, and flushing (bloom and flush in the last two weeks or so).

Check out some photos I took this morning:



I can't wait to see how much each of these buds ends up weighing!

 

[DrZin978]

So here's another update for this week:

I installed a filter today to get the stank out. I went with a "Phat" filter. I made a manifold to fit it into my existing fan-vent-hole out of some shiny foam insulation board, and a 4" vent flange from the hydroponics store. Then I connected the manifold to the filter with a section of 4" duct and some hose clamps. Finally I snugged the filter in place with some loop eyelet screws and a cargo strap.

check it out:



The plant, meanwhile, is still thriving. I've been sparingly trimming out fan leaves that block out budsites and pulling dead leaves off. Check out some more photos:




Anyways, I'm really happy with how this is turning out. Hopefully I can harvest in like 4 weeks, and then have some good smoke in 5 or so (it takes a week to cure for smoking, right?)

 

[dddaver]

Yep, I go 7 days, to the day. Small branches should snap, not bend.

 

[DrZin978]

7 Days it is.

Right now I'm on my final week- I began a ten day flush a few days ago. She hit a calcium deficiency a few weeks before that; rust spots started appearing on two central branches, but I quickly changed up my mix and added more 'Micro' (the FloraSeries component with calcium) to the nutrients. Then I stepped it up further to the Lucas Method for the last week of nutrients. I think this at least contained the defficiency. It makes my buds look less pretty but otherwise they're okay- very plump and fragrant and sticky. Check out some Photos I took the other day:



I'm feeling good about this, I'm in the home stretch!

 

[DrZin978]

My buds have been harvested as of Christmas Eve. I'm going to post a big update with pictures of the plant before harvest, the harvest process, and the finished product when I conduct the weigh in at the end of the week of drying. Stay Tuned til then!

 

[Canna_Gnome]

really nice man! great grow

 

[DrZin978]

Thanks Gnome!

Here is my final harvest report:

For the final Ten days I did a flush. I used a mix with FloraKleen for the first six or seven days, and then straight water with a dash of lemon juice for the last few. Here's what she looked like right before and right after I cut the stem and removed the screen of green:



After trimming, we hung the buds up to dry for nearly a week (in a low humidity environment they dried fast).



They taste great- like earthy and cinnamon flavors. They are also really really fluffy. The total yield was almost three ounces!



Smoking my first homegrown buds has been a watershed moment for me. I'm now planning on making some expansions and improvements... More on that later.

Otherwise, I'm really grateful for all the help and feedback I have had from you guys along the way. Can't thank you all enough. Happy New Years, and Happy Growing!

 

[Deftoner]

congrats on the harvest!

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

1) damn the nay sayers, you go right ahead and snip the shit outta those fan leaves, the on ly thing defoliation ever led to was bigger bidsites on lower foliage; allows you to leave those lower budsites at the bottom so that when you chop the top and let the lower budsites rock out for a lil longer

2)happy farm is myccoorhaze (?) and humus, its the ocean forrest that has all the hot stuff, so go ahead and water feed with nutes, if you want add the ocean forest for another run then you can, all you would need to do is pH the water and add some lime to buffer things out.

3)don't ever even think of putting a higher wattage light than the 150, anything outside of that wattage you gonna come back to the fire department at your spot.

4) you understand the principles behind trial and error so your always gonna be good with your grows, eventually you understand that its not so much trial and error as it is living and learning

grow strong!

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

Thanks Gnome!

Here is my final harvest report:

For the final Ten days I did a flush. I used a mix with FloraKleen for the first six or seven days, and then straight water with a dash of lemon juice for the last few. Here's what she looked like right before and right after I cut the stem and removed the screen of green:

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=49072&pictureid=1183350&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=49072&pictureid=1183351&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

After trimming, we hung the buds up to dry for nearly a week (in a low humidity environment they dried fast).

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=49072&pictureid=1183352&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

They taste great- like earthy and cinnamon flavors. They are also really really fluffy. The total yield was almost three ounces!

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=50611&pictureid=1183353&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

Smoking my first homegrown buds has been a watershed moment for me. I'm now planning on making some expansions and improvements... More on that later.

Otherwise, I'm really grateful for all the help and feedback I have had from you guys along the way. Can't thank you all enough. Happy New Years, and Happy Growing!

explain please . . .

 

[Chiefbig]

Congrats on your first harvest DrZin!! Nice set up and those buds look super sweet.

 

[Garhart]

Nice effort ! IF the cat hair gets to be a problem, the disposable AC filters work well for that sort of thing.

 

[DrZin978]

Thanks guys!

 

[DrZin978]

explain please . . .

Friend in deed- I use lemon juice to pH balance my water. I also have heard of people flushing with a little bit of honey mixed in for flavor or something, so I wanted to see if it would change the flavor at all to add it at the end of the flowering period.

Otherwise, do you think a 400 Watt light would be too big for a 18"x36" cabinet? I was not going to put a 400W light in my existing 18"x18" closet. I think it would be pushing it in a new double sized closet, but I was going to have a really strong inline fan and a cool tube reflector to make sure temperatures stay reasonable. I also was going to use a remote digital ballast to further help with temps. What do you think does this sound workable?

 

[Canna_Gnome]

Nice harvest DrZin. looks very tasty indeed!
Keep it Green
C.G

 

[touchofgrey]

Otherwise, do you think a 400 Watt light would be too big for a 18"x36" cabinet?

That works out to 89 watts/SF. The law of diminishing returns kicks in above about 50 watts/SF. You can put it in, fight the heat and not get much increase in yield. IMO a 250 would be better. Another thing to consider is the shape of the space. A long rectangle is harder to light uniformly than a square. Your best coverage would be with the bulb oriented across the short axis bc the bulb output is greater from the sides than from the front and back.

 

[DrZin978]

Thanks Touch- definitely some stuff to think about there. I really was just trying to work with the space I have here in my spare room. right now I have about 18 inches of it segmented off so guests can't see what's going on there. I could move this partition out a foot or so...

... I really do want to use a 400 W light, but I guess I'll have to make a bigger box. What do you think would be good dimensions for this? Going with the 50 Watts/square foot rule of thumb I guess I should be shooting for eight square feet with a 400W light. With this in mind I think I'll up my dimensions to around 3.5 feet by 2 feet. I'd go to 4 feet wide, but then I'd have the same long rectangle proportions, not to mention I don't have the room. Also, my current box is at a little bit higher than 50 Watts/square foot so I'd like to keep things semi consistent.

Thanks for the input!

 

[DrZin978]

I'm not sure how well one of these would work:
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-HTG--400w-Small-Bubble-Boy-Tent-kit

but I'm thinking I might mimic its dimensions with a 2 by 3 foot box. I'm not sure I'd be able to fit anything larger than this. What do you guys think? Too small still?

 

[Sativa Dragon]

Have you thought about a tent, like maybe four by four, something you can grow into.

Peace

 

[DrZin978]

I've considered tents, but I like building my own structures. They're better adapted to my purposes, and usually cheaper. Plus an optimally sized chamber focuses the light back in better, and provided the temperature is controlled and airflow optimized, my theory is that they work better.

I do appreciate the idea of further expansion, but I don't anticipate having more than three plants.. this is only for personal, medicinal use after all. I'd love to get bigger with it down the road if/when laws change, though!