Green Smokes Micro SOG

[Green Smoke]

Not bad Green Smoke! Know that your helping future growers too, thanks for giving back .

How tall would you say your plants matured to with all time 12/12? I'm considering this for a very mic-grow. Its too bad they're not getting large enough for your opp, hope you get perpetual growth worked out nicely man

Not too big at all, maybe 5 inches max. Here it is when I chopped it.


As you have read, I have had alot of problems with lock out and it no doubt has contributed to how small it turned out. I expected alot more stretch early on, but it never happend.

 

[Green Smoke]

Hey GS, I'm moving forward with my pc grow. I currently have 8 plants going and we're 2 weeks in.
As far as your watering goes, If anything I've been under feeding, 1/4 cups of water every 2 days. I decided to do regular low dosage feedings of my FF Grow Big nutes, mixed with molasses and I'm slowing upping the nutes (started with it being about 10% strenght).
I know you said you dunk your plants, you mean this literally? sometimes I feed a touch more water mix but I add a few oz's until I start getting a bit of runoff of the water.
2 weeks in and the only issue i've had aside from 2 seeds, 1 pot and the transplanted plant's stubby but looking strong.
Should I be submerging my plants especially since my containers are only a touch larger than yours?

I dunk, but I have a dozen holes in the bottom of my 12oz containers, and about a dozen more in the sides. They drain like crazy.

Oh and just so you know I will be trying your method along with a light lst in the 32oz container to see what works better in the pc.

Thanks for the credit, but it's not my method. This way of growing is generaly refered to around here as the DrBud method. His thread Compact SOG with CFL's is what got me started. I also refer to Thundurkel's 252w Fluoro Frenzy and Anti's MicroStealth Cab Design (Dr. Bud Method).

Oh and you're definately someone who can answer this question for me.
How the fuck do I pick out a mother???
The way you find out the sex of a plant is usually 2 weeks into flowering no? Should I put 2-3 plants on the side and crop them as potential bonsai moms and hope 1-2 turn out as girls?
Or do I take clipps off my currently batches(when they're ready), label them and see which ones are girls from the original plants and then grow the clipping to be a mother? I'm utterly stuck trying to figure out how to start a bonsai mom, the tutorials just explain when to cut and how small you can effectively keep them.

I just planted 4 seeds and grew them a couple weeks. Then I cloned each one (again using DrBuds method) into a 16oz beer cup marking all containers so I knew which clone came from which mom. The clones in the beer cups became the potential mothers and I kept them in the mother chamber. The clones went into the flower chamber and were veg'ed until they showed new growth. Then I switched them to 12/12 and waited about 2 weeks. When they showed their sex, I removed any males and their corresponding mother and kept growing. Bonzai mons can be pretty much butchered down to almost nothing and they will come back. When they get too old, or if I get lazy and not trim it regularly, I just start a new one and trash the old one.

 

[Green Smoke]

For those of you who have shown an interest in my humble set up, I thank you. I won't be posting much for awhile because, frankly, there's nothing to report. I'm still dealing with whatever is causing my lock out issues. I will most likely trash everything, disinfect the cab, and start anew with different soil and maybe even new nutes. My Flora Nova nutes are at least a year old and I've read in here that that can be bad. My garden may have gone bad on me, but not before I proved to myself that DrBud's method works in my tiny nightstand.

On the brighter side, I finaly got a jobso I now have something to do other than stare at my sickly plants. Look for me in a month or two, I'll be giving it another go.

 

[mad librettist]

looking forward to it!

and congrats on the job.

 

[ScrubNinja]

So the rest of your mix that isn't perlite, is essentially dirt? If so, I think the problem is that you're using a hydroponic nutrient. Put simply, hydro nutes are designed for inert mediums and soil is not inert.

 

[Green Smoke]

It's basic store bought compost. I've read on these forums that Flora Nova can be used in soil. I'm thinking it was Hydro-Soil who said it, but I'm not sure. He does warn that you need to back off and feed straight water every 3-4 feedings or nutes build up in the soil. There's a good chance I did that. There's a pretty long thread about using Flora Nova in soil, search for Flora Nova and you'll find it. It worked for a whole run, I think it just got old.

 

[VerdantGreen]

.....
I skipped watering for 6 days so all you overwatered people please chill, it's not overwatered.

hi Green Smoke, if you can skip watering for 6 days with a pot that small then i would say it most likely was overwatered beforehand - and without wanting to state the obvious, the plant wouldnt suddenly look healthy in a few of days of less water.

you dunk the whole pot in water in order to water it?

unless you have a very porous soil with equal sized granules surely that will ruin your soil structure - the perlite will try to float etc and it is very likely that your soil will be too wet unless your plants are already well established in the pots.

sounds like you dont like suggestions of overwatering, but thats what the problem looks like to me too.

cheers,

V.

 

[Green Smoke]

If it had happend from the start I might agree with you and MJ. But it didn't. I grew several healthy plants before this happend. I didn't say that they didn't suffer from being without water for 6 days, they did. It's just that what you guys see in the pics is not drooping, it's curling. The leaves curl and then become crisp, they don't droop like an overwatered plant does. Then the signs of lock out come, starting with yellowing at the edges of leaves and the stems turn red. The plant doesn't die, if I was over watering wouldn't the plant eventualy die? I haven't killed a plant yet.

Soil grain sizes and porosity is something I can speak about, my profession is geotechnical engineering. I'm confident that I'm getting both drainage and air. Getting air to the roots is essential to the DrBud method.

My dislike of over watering opinions comes from reading all this over watering crap from those who don't use or understand the DrBud method. I know you guys are only trying to help, I appoligise for being stand offish.

Cheers to you Verdant.

 

[VerdantGreen]

hi again Green Smoke. you say that you used this method a few times before successfully but those times you vegged the plants for a couple of weeks yes? and this time you went straight to 12/12. im pretty sure this is what made the difference - because with indica dom strains - which yours looks like - they tend to stop all root growth pretty soon after you start to flower them. so this problem plant's roots have very likely not become as established in their pot as your previous ones and your regular 'dunk' watering method has led to the soil being too wet because there just arent the roots there to drink the water fast enough.
im no expert in Dr Bud's method but i know that everyone's situation is different. yes it's hard to overwater an established plant in such a small pot, but i think your flowering an indica so early has led to the plant not being properly established. this can also happen if you try to up-pot indicas during flowering - the roots dont grow and you end up with a load of wet anaerobic soil that has few roots in it.

hope that makes sense.

V.

 

[Green Smoke]

I see what you are saying about the roots. That could be a factor, but this condition is also happening to the mother plants. I'm begining to think it's some kind of a bacterial or fungal problem. Or poisioning from using old nutes. That's why I think I'm just going to punt and start over.

 

[mad librettist]

I seriously considered dr. bud's awesome method after reading about it way back.

How about using the same medium he uses?

 

[yosun]

verdant thanks for the tip about up potting with indicas,i made that mistake i think last winter,i am using 32 ounce powerade bottles this year,and i am vegging a little longer,i think more roots will let them eat more once they are rootfull during flower,lol,at least i hope so green i love your cab,and your bending technique!

 

[Green Smoke]

I have reconfigured my nightstand by removing the mother chamber, lowering the floor a bit, opening up the intake, and replacing my coil cfl's with Pl-l's.

What once looked like this


now looks like this.

So, now it's strictly a flower cab. The question I have for you all is, what is the best way to exhaust it. I was never truely happy with the way I was doing it before, and I can't do that again because the Pl-l's reach right to the back of the cab. I also need a place for the ballast. Lend me your suggestions if you will.

 

[immaculate]

Is there any way you can run the exhaust in the top middle of the back of the cab (between the lights)? Keep exhaust high..run it on the sides if you can...near one of the corners...just get that heat from those lights away! where exactly are the pll's locateD?

 

[ScrubNinja]

way to go

way to go

I take it there will be no carbon filter? Hmmm. Well, the best design I think, would be a slit above the bases of the bulbs that sucks air over them. I guess this isn't possible. All I can suggest is put the fan/s close as possible to the bases as they generate the most heat. I don't feel like any kind of consensus has been arrived at to the best way of cooling them, apart from focusing the exhaust point on the bases. I'd throw the ballasts on the back externally.

 

[Green Smoke]

Yea, no scrubber, I live alone. I was thinking of putting 2 or 3 mini blowers on the back, but I doubt they would have the oomph to move the ammount of air necessary to keep things acceptably cool.

 

[High Country]

That's a different way to grow, very interesting. I like SOG's and a micro one, well that's just fascinating. Good on yah, Green Smoke.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Well, here's what came to mind after a fresh bowl

Cut the slit in the roof above the bases, then use some kind of box sitting on top, covering the area of the slit, then put a fan on the back of the box. This way you get the perfect exhaust layout. Imagine if it was a computer you used for the box - it looks normal to be sitting there, and explains any noise nicely. But you could use anything.

 

[Green Smoke]

Been dreading the idea of cutting the top, but alas, you are right. If only this thing was a few inches taller, I could leave some room above the lights.

I'm working a sketchup of your idea.

 

[Green Smoke]

Is this the gist of what you're saying? Instead of slots I just blew out a big hole since it's covered. The box doesn't look like a cpu, but I could make it anything. I just wanted you to see the fan placement.