Beercup Sativas - 250W HPS + cfls

[3dDream]

I just completed a grow with some sativa crosses and I really liked the results. This grow will take things a bit further by aggressively training sativas 12/12 from seed. No rope is needed since I will be pinching and bending my way until I see pistils. This grow is a bit of an experiments so things could go wrong. I will have a couple clones in the cab just in case.

Sativa in a cup: This is from my last grow. She was vegged too long, but I did get her to bush.





My space is 21" X 23 X 4'. I have a 250W hps and also use a couple 42W cfls for side lighting. I really think transpiration is key to a good grow so I have a 300+ cfm inline fan. My cab has an intake at the base and I pull the air through my cooltube and exhaust out the top though my can33 filter. I also keep a fan at the top of the cab blowing air down on the plants. I use coco and beercups the hole way through and feed by bottom feeding with trays and smartvalves. My setup does not waste nutes, but I do need to frequently flush my gals because of salts. I feed using pureblend pro, calmag, liquid karma, sweet, and hydroplex. This pretty much a botanicare grow except I do add bio-cat beneficial micros.






I just put (16) highland oaxacan and (6) ace panama in rapid rooters to germinate. I am only going to grow 3-8 of these plants and will select base on what I see in the seedlings. The oaxacan beans are a bit of a mistery, but I have grown them before and the qualities did match the descriptions I found online. They are supposedly from a line from the late 70's. These seed came from a hermy plant two generations ago. Sounds messy huh? I found 4 females and 1 male my first run of them and did not see any hermies. Then again I rarely see hermies.

More to come!

 

[Sobekobe]

All that from beer cups? niiiiiiiice!

 

[3dDream]

Sobekobe - Thanks! Beercups rule! It's really the feeding style. The valve floods the tray an inch every time it dries out. These little cups can go through a gallon a day out of my rez. I would not try this w/o automated waterings or bottom feeding. Who wants to hand water a beercup? The main reason I started growing in cups is because I wanted variety out of my little space. When I feel crazy I can run 16 cups. I only did 8 last grow. I might do 6 this time. I am growing a bit shorter and wider than in the past. I used to get 4+ foot sativas straight out of a cup. My light only penetrate a foot so my goal is to keep my ladies shorties.

 

[grow1620]

wow I really need to switch to coco. As soon as I saw how big your plants are compared to the size of the containers, I said to myself "it must be coco!"

looking good man, I need to get me some of that

 

[kidkannabis]

This is amazing 3dDream! Beercup sativas indeed! Im very interested in your setup. I'm planning to change to coco with a E&F setup. Do you mind a few questions?... Well here they go anyways. You say you flood the tray an inch everytime it dries out meaning you check to see if it dries out and then re-flood? Or is it automated to flood everyday on a timer? I'll have more questions later as I work this out. Kudos.

 

[pHaroaH]

3dDream it seems that we share similar interests. I am very interested in exploring strains from this region myself; Oaxaca, Panama, and Columbia as well.

 

[b00m]

Sativas in beercups, tagged for sure. Awesome work so far 3dDream, can't wait to see what happens next.
Happy Gardening All.
Peace.

 

[#1cheesebuds]

oooo yah I am gunna watch.

 

[Fuzz420]

Nice beer cup sativas. Im running a couple sativas in beer cups in my pc.

 

[ArcticBlast]

awesome grow dude! even though i'm not a fan of the title

ArcticBlast

 

[Castelvetro]

pretty dam impressive growth in a beer cup, im impressed.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Smaller containers are the way to go. I've been saying this to anyone who'll listen for years.

BTW, this plants mix is mostly non organics like sand, gravel, kitty litter and perlite with only a touch of non nutritive organics (peatmoss and N-Rich) and some compost. No coco.

 

[Castelvetro]

hey greens, wow what a amazing plant! give me them ratios of sand,litter etc that u use. i like your thinking.

 

[jackywhite]

how much did you get off your beercup sativa when you harvested?

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Thanks Castelvetro. It's important to remember that the biggest factor in yield is genetics and that plant is bred by me, so it has 'em. On soilmixes, I just mix up every batch 'by ear' so they vary a bit, plus I recycle all my soilmix which means old nutrients are contributing to who knows what degree.

My basic recipe if I were to make it from scratch; I start with about a 50/50 mix of non nutritive organics and non organics and add small amounts of nutritive organics and some perlite 'till it feels and smells right.
For NNutO's I use kellogs N-Rich, peatmoss and coco.
For NonO's I use (clean) coarse builders sand, washed gravel, unscented kitty litter, crushed red lava and pumice.
For NutO's I use...damn, anything. Ok, first my compost and some yard dirt under the pile with clay innit, then bloodmeal, bonemeal, kelpmeal, jersey greensand, alfalfa meal, bat guano, seabird guano and worm castings.
To that total mix I add Perlite (A NonO) at different rates depending on what stage plant I'm growing. Seedlings get about a quarter perlite and no NutO's. Vegging plants probably get about a fifth perlite, and last repot before flowering gets less perlite still with more sand and NonO's added. Those ratios of perlite are probably less than most people would be comfortable with, but they could easily be ratio-ed up for other watering styles.

 

[3dDream]

grow1620 - Switch! For the love of all that is green, switch! Thanks for the comment.

kidkannabis -

You say you flood the tray an inch everytime it dries out meaning you check to see if it dries out and then re-flood?

The valve floods automatically when it dries out. I don't have to do anything other than re-fill the rez. Plants get as much as they can drink.

pHaroaH - Nice to see you. How are columbians?

b00m, Castelvetro, & #1cheesebuds- Thanks. I am glad to have you here.

Fuzz420 - Your grow looks super stealthy.

ArcticBlast - Thanks. Don't make me regret my over-reacting.


Mr. Greengenes - Hot damn that looks great. How much light?


jackywhite - The first pic in this thread has a plant that gave me 16g just from the tops. That is dry stemless bud. I have to imagine that she is very close to, if not more than, an ounce. I cut the tops 2 weeks ago and the bottom half has been plumping up in the cab. Once I dry it I'll know for sure. I have to say that most time I do not get this much off one cup. I will say that a few cups is more than enough weed for a guy to smoke and share.

UPDATE:

The 5 on the left are panama and the rest are HOGs. I ended up w/ 5 panama and 13 hog. I am gonna let them grow a bit more before I select what to sex. I might run the reddish stemmed HOGS, but I want to see how the leaves turn out before I decide. I think thin leaves are a good thing.


Right now they are getting baby food - per gallon:

3.5ml pbp grow
2.5 liquid karma
2.5 calmag
0.5ml sweet
+micros

 

[3dDream]

Update: I was able to cull a few HOGS. I don't want more than 12 in the cab and I want to get those numbers down to 4-8.

A couple interesting things:

Pan3 and HOG4 are nearly identical. This makes me feel better about the origins of the seeds. If they look similar then the must have a similar background. Right?

Pan2 is a Siamese twin. I have see twin sprouts, but this is a first. There is only one set of primordial leaves.

Panama spouts will lay flat and horizontal when they grow too tall. I have seen other seedlings do this when I expose them to wind, but it is interesting that panama is doing it on her own. The did it because I moved the light.

 

[catman]

Nice man! I was inspired by posters here at ICMAG to give 16oz party cups a shot. I use soil that is half FF Ocean Forrest and half Sunshine mix #2. I'm going to be trying out this paint I will apply to the inside of the cups that will automatically trim the roots of the plant. This should really improve things in soil, but I don't think it'd matter much with coco since I'm sure the limited root mass is of no concern.

I flowered at approximately the same heights I did my previous run with 2L bottles and they stretched less. Some are topped and no more than 10'' have above the soil line. I should just switch over to coco, but I have a years worth of soil left to use hehe.

 

[3dDream]

I should just switch over to coco, but I have a years worth of soil left to use hehe.

Use the dirt for houseplants and tomatoes. Just joke'in.

I'm going to be trying out this paint I will apply to the inside of the cups that will automatically trim the roots of the plant.

I've tried root control fabric and wicking material. I don't get root at the bottom because I bottom feed. Root don't like sitting in water. The only downside is that I have to flush mid flower.

 

[Researcher]

Have you tried revegging any of your beer cup plants? I read where MrGreengenes has his yield increase with revegging. They sure get bushier when he revegges.