hi all, I have been kinda quiet over the past few months due to my legal situation. everything is now resolved so I can speak about it. my grow got ratted out and busted by my supposed best friend, who helped with a move. bottom line is I got him involved in some politics, like a fool, and he turned on me and kicked my legs out from under me. cops show up with a warrant and next thing you know they're snapping pictures and hauling shit off in boxes. hard but important lesson learned.
thankfully the police in this town are nothing like what I am accustomed to dealing with. they didnt tear my house up or get violent, they were polite and respectful of my property. me and one cop had a great conversation out there on the front porch while I waited, and it turns out the investigator is actually a really good guy too. i plead it down to a misdemeanor and got a month in jail. no snitching of course, just no priors, and this state thankfully isnt nearly as harsh on MJ as where i just came from.
now I'm out and working on the medical grow thing. trying to find a patient or two in this state, but its hard when you cant legally plant til you have one patient, thus you cannot legally have product available for a new patient. also the cops took most of my shit. the fucked up thing was I had just the prior day unpacked a lot of that stuff and put it in the grow room, and the stuff that wasnt unpacked yet wasnt found or confiscated. there was a bunch of equipment that wasnt even hooked up, just neatly unpacked and stacked in the grow room. if I had just waited an extra day to unpack I'd still have most of everything.
I still have my 8" Vortex fans, 10'x10' grow tent, a new 1k HPS bulb, a run of the mill 400w HPS ballast and fixture, and some PH meters, but everything else is gone. thankfully I have gotten some funding and have just replaced my equipment. I am running four Lumatek digital ballasts w/ two HPS and two MH bulbs. while in jail I spent a lot of time thinking up grow room ideas and I have planned a new grow that will rival my last.
the last involved four HPS bulbs hanging vertically in a square, with plants hanging around the perimeter. this is what I consider a next generation "stadium" style grow. yield was nothing impressive, but this was simply because of the experimental nature of the design. as time went on I improved the setup more and more (and became a better grower) and yield increased correspondingly. there is reason to believe that due to this system's greater efficiency, > 1g/W yield should be be possible and even easy. I haven't hit that yet but I think the next design will exceed it.
the good thing about my method is that since the plants hang from above, instead of resting on a shelf, it is easy to adjust each plant's height to ensure it's receiving the maximum amount of light possible. unlike a horizontal grow, in this setup the plant is hanging *next to* the light, and receives a full blast of light all along its stalk. also, since each plant is illuminated by multiple lights, very little of the plant is in shade. the result is a plant that is basically a full, thick bud from top to bottom, not just a single main cola at the top and a few other weak ass colas below. good news for those who are limited by plant count. each plant is much more able to reach its optimum potential, and there is more efficient use of space and light. this setup also makes growing mixed strains (sativa/indica hybrid F1s for example) and various different strains together with the same lights very easy. since each plant can be raised or lowered independently, every plant is assured of receiving the maximum possible light, with minimum stretch, without shading or being shaded by others.
the next grow will be an evolution of this design, and i have thought up several good ways to improve the efficiency. keep an eye out, i will be starting a grow thread in the next week or two. you can go back and find my previous grow thread for pics (https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=157492) but i'll warn you, i had a lot of difficulty taking good pictures of this tent with this camera, due to its narrow perspective, HPS light (it doesnt look nearly as yellow and hard to discern detail IRL), and not to mention the progress I made in growing skills in general since the pics were taken. (the first harvested bud is pretty much schwag due to being harvested early, but the later shit looks far better.) at any rate you can get an idea of what the layout kinda looks like. the next version will be much improved!
CLIFF'S NOTES: I got ratted out by my best friend cause I involved him in some bullshit politics. hard lesson learned. my old grow was a new type of vertical grow, and I have since refined the idea and am in the process of building a new grow room (legal medical grow this time) to rival the old one. stay tuned.
thankfully the police in this town are nothing like what I am accustomed to dealing with. they didnt tear my house up or get violent, they were polite and respectful of my property. me and one cop had a great conversation out there on the front porch while I waited, and it turns out the investigator is actually a really good guy too. i plead it down to a misdemeanor and got a month in jail. no snitching of course, just no priors, and this state thankfully isnt nearly as harsh on MJ as where i just came from.
now I'm out and working on the medical grow thing. trying to find a patient or two in this state, but its hard when you cant legally plant til you have one patient, thus you cannot legally have product available for a new patient. also the cops took most of my shit. the fucked up thing was I had just the prior day unpacked a lot of that stuff and put it in the grow room, and the stuff that wasnt unpacked yet wasnt found or confiscated. there was a bunch of equipment that wasnt even hooked up, just neatly unpacked and stacked in the grow room. if I had just waited an extra day to unpack I'd still have most of everything.
I still have my 8" Vortex fans, 10'x10' grow tent, a new 1k HPS bulb, a run of the mill 400w HPS ballast and fixture, and some PH meters, but everything else is gone. thankfully I have gotten some funding and have just replaced my equipment. I am running four Lumatek digital ballasts w/ two HPS and two MH bulbs. while in jail I spent a lot of time thinking up grow room ideas and I have planned a new grow that will rival my last.
the last involved four HPS bulbs hanging vertically in a square, with plants hanging around the perimeter. this is what I consider a next generation "stadium" style grow. yield was nothing impressive, but this was simply because of the experimental nature of the design. as time went on I improved the setup more and more (and became a better grower) and yield increased correspondingly. there is reason to believe that due to this system's greater efficiency, > 1g/W yield should be be possible and even easy. I haven't hit that yet but I think the next design will exceed it.
the good thing about my method is that since the plants hang from above, instead of resting on a shelf, it is easy to adjust each plant's height to ensure it's receiving the maximum amount of light possible. unlike a horizontal grow, in this setup the plant is hanging *next to* the light, and receives a full blast of light all along its stalk. also, since each plant is illuminated by multiple lights, very little of the plant is in shade. the result is a plant that is basically a full, thick bud from top to bottom, not just a single main cola at the top and a few other weak ass colas below. good news for those who are limited by plant count. each plant is much more able to reach its optimum potential, and there is more efficient use of space and light. this setup also makes growing mixed strains (sativa/indica hybrid F1s for example) and various different strains together with the same lights very easy. since each plant can be raised or lowered independently, every plant is assured of receiving the maximum possible light, with minimum stretch, without shading or being shaded by others.
the next grow will be an evolution of this design, and i have thought up several good ways to improve the efficiency. keep an eye out, i will be starting a grow thread in the next week or two. you can go back and find my previous grow thread for pics (https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=157492) but i'll warn you, i had a lot of difficulty taking good pictures of this tent with this camera, due to its narrow perspective, HPS light (it doesnt look nearly as yellow and hard to discern detail IRL), and not to mention the progress I made in growing skills in general since the pics were taken. (the first harvested bud is pretty much schwag due to being harvested early, but the later shit looks far better.) at any rate you can get an idea of what the layout kinda looks like. the next version will be much improved!
CLIFF'S NOTES: I got ratted out by my best friend cause I involved him in some bullshit politics. hard lesson learned. my old grow was a new type of vertical grow, and I have since refined the idea and am in the process of building a new grow room (legal medical grow this time) to rival the old one. stay tuned.
