Shiva's Sneaky Grow Lab of Goodness

[Shiva Blaster]

Hey everyone, welcome to my impromptu journal!

I'm new to IC but I love the site, and thought I'd share my garden with everyone. I'm already blown away by all the great knowledge and info here, and I'm hoping to meet fellow enthusiastic growers so I hope you all join in and enjoy the ride. Any and all comments and questions welcome!

About me: I am a personal medical grow and have been growing for almost 3 years now. I am currently on my 4th grow, which has evolved from a simple tent in my basement to what it is today, my own little 1200 W grow lab

I am currently mid-grow, but have various pics that I took of my space and the earlier stages of my grow, so I'll start uploading pics to get everyone up to speed.

My Room

- 4' x 10' secret basement grow lab with hidden entrance
- 2 x 600W air-cooled lights with digital ballasts
- 440 CFM exhaust fan
- Mountain Air carbon filter
- 220 CFM intake fan as well as passive intakes
- speed controller to dial in fan for optimum temps/quiet

My little lab is a room within a room that I built in my previously partially-finished basement. I shortened my basement workshop on 2 sides by framing walls and insulating them with dense sound-proofing insulation. I drywalled thefake wall, and added an entrance through a narrow passageway accessed through a hidden door built into the side of the closet.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

As shown above, I veg under a single 600W hood using a Solar Max MH conversion bulb and dimmable digital ballast. I vegged 4 plants for 7 weeks under the single light, and then I added the second 600W hood and swapped in Hortilux EYE HPS bulbs for a total of 1200 W during flower.

I switched around my setup a bit this round and turned my lights the other way and put them very close together, almost touching. The goal way to create an intense 3.5' x 6' light footprint for 4 plants.....having the lights so close together and oriented with the bulbs in parallel rather than in series so that both hoods would shine on all 4 plants and providing great side lighting. Pics of this flower set-up will be posted later on.

Genetics

Next Generation Seeds - Afghani Kush
Delicious Seeds - Fruity Chronic Juice (White Widow x Chronic)
Sweet Seeds - Jack 47 (Jack Herer x AK47)
DNA - Kandy Kush (OG Kush x Trainwreck)

Medium and Nutrients

I grow in a soil-less mix of ProMix HP with an added 25% perlite and a little added dolomite lime. For nutrients, I use the GH Flora Series which I supplement with Rapid Root, Cal/Mg, Silicate and then both liquid and dry KoolBloom during flower. I've been working with the Promix since the beginning and have it pretty dialed in now. I feed and water in the 6.0-6.2 range and all is well.

I am using 5 gallon fabric Smartpots for the first time on this grow, I've only used plastic pots in the past. I really love them and will never go back. I noticed much quicker and healthier root development, and much faster growth as a result. Pots also dry out much faster making over-watering pretty much impossible, allowing more oxygen to the roots, and allowing for more regular feedings and the ability to make quicker adjustments.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I didn't take many regular shots during veg, but I'll post what I do have.....comments on which strain is which can be found in the picture comments. Here are some shots of the seedling stage, approx 2 weeks old:

 

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And here they are about a week later after getting transplanted into their 5 gallon smart pots:

 

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Some more shots later in veg:

 

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[Shiva Blaster]

I didn't take any pics for the last month of veg as I was pretty busy. The FCJ and the Jack 47 are nutrient whores dealt with some minor MAd def, but got them turned around nicely in time for flower. I topped and pinched all plants multiple times with the goal of relatively short, extremely wide and bushy plants with multiple tops forming and even canopy.

Here's some shots after 7 weeks of vegging, topping and training, just before they are put into flower. To give you an idea of size, all plants were approx 18-22" tall and all plants were wider than they were tall with as many as 20+ tops.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

 

[Shiva Blaster]

At this point in the grow, I got really busy and didn't take any pictures. I added the second light and hood, switched to Hortilux Eye HPS bulbs, and transitioned over to my bloom feeding regimen.

Conditions have been steady throughout the grow, 75-77 with lights on, and 63-65 at night.


The good news for all of you, is that you can skip past the boring stretch phase straight to some bud porn! I took a bunch of shots today, which is exactly 5 weeks into flower. All 4 plants are looking fantastic and I'm really excited for what each of them holds in store. They are are 3' tall and are insanely bushy with a ton of tops.

Here's an overview of my room at day 35 of flower:

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Now that it's half way through flower, I'll give some pics, details, and impressions of each of the 4 strains that I am running.

DNA - Kandy Kush

This is the first time I've dabbled with any OG Kush crosses, I finally caved and figured I'd see what all the fuss is about. The Kandy Kush was a bit of a pain of the ass in Veg and acted like a typical Kush from what I've read. Very slow, growing massive fat dark leaves with next to no side-branching for the first 6" of growth. I had to really get aggressive with the topping and LST, which it took to with flying colors as this is now my widest plant my far. This baby exploded when put into 12/12 with tons of secondary are tertiary branching with long internode spacing.......the classic 'OG stretch'. I'm glad I was aggressive with my topping and supercropping as I've read many accounts of people ending up with 6 foot Kandy Kush monsters.

Now that we are 5 weeks in, she is really starting to fill out and her buds are stacking at an enormous rate. She smells the most subtle of any of the 4 plants at this point......a very musty smell, kind of like dirty socks in a cellar. Still a long ways to go, and I can already notice the smell intensifying and getting more complex by the day. Very nice trichome development for this stage of growth.

My pheno seems very true to it's heritage, very OG-like with some of the Trainwreck structure. The branching is abundant, but the branches themselves are thin and weak, and some buds are already starting to lean over.....I'm sure there will be bud-flopping like the Trainwreck and I'll have to do some staking or use yo-yos.

Here's the pics of the Kandy Kush:

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Sweet Seeds - Jack 47

This plant is probably the most interesting looking of the bunch.....it has the most sativa-like structure (not surprising given the lineage) in that it has very skinny sativa leaves and grew very wispy and branchy at first. On the other hand, this plant stayed the shortest of all the plants.

This plant produced less tops than the others, but they are already massive and super dense. This is definitely the stinkiest of my plants, it has has a very skunky, fuelly, acrid smell since very early in flower.

This strain will likely go the longest of the 4, I'm estimating about 11 weeks with the above Kandy Kush going 10.

Here are some picks of the Jack 47....massive buds for only 5 weeks!

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Next Generation Seeds - Afghani Kush

This is by far the most impressive plant that I've has the pleasure of growing to date. Right from the get-go it was the most vigorous of the 4 plants, and practically grows itself with zero fuss. The structure of this plant is nothing short of perfect....I only had to top it once, this thing is a branching machine! Nice short internode length and perfect symmetry. I couldn't believe how fast this plant grew, I supercropped it a few times so that it wouldn't take over the room. It now has 26 colas and a stem that measures 2" across at the base! It already has great bud development, with long 6-8" colas that are just starting to fill out and fatten up.

The resin production on this plant is INSANE. It started pumping out the resin earlier than I have ever seen, at the start of week 2, and hasn't slowed down. The creases of the bud leaves are just caked with thick ridges of frost while the trichome development had pushed well out onto the plentiful fan leaves...this Afghani Kush is going to be a bubble hash-making monster.

The smell of this plant is what really has me excited. It has this rich, creamy, mocha-type smell with a strong orange zing to it.....absolutely mouth-watering! This plant also looks to be my biggest yielder by a fair margine at this point, so I'm crossing my finger and hope she just explodes and fattens up like crazy over the next 4 weeks as I'm guessing this is a 9 week strain.

Here are some pics:

 

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And look at this frost already for week 5!

 

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And last but not least:

Delicious Seeds - Fruity Chronic Juice

This plant has really come a long way. It was a total bitch to grew in veg, I could never keep it happy or figure out what the hell it wanted. Spotty leaves, slowed growth, and just a pain in the ass. I finally got it turned around before the flip, and she really took off. Very short and stocky plant, but tons of very strong side branching which shot right up after topping. Insanely fat indica leaves.....too fat, in that they pretty much block any light from penetrating below the dense canopy. This plant developed 18 tops after a couple of toppings though, and they are really chunking up nicely......this looks to be the purest indica selection of the bunch, and is forming the hardest, heaviest nugs.

The smell of this plant is very mild still, but gives off a skunky sweetness that is very pleasant. This plant is really showing it's White Widow as it is also piling on some pretty insane resin development for this stage of flower.....the rock hard buds just glisten under the light. With the fat, very dark green leaves as a background, these buds make for an impressive sight:

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I found a few pistils starting to turn color already on the FCJ, and it's already starting to put on it's fall colors.....will almost definitely be the first plant ready in my garden. I'm going to estimate 8.5 weeks, but the trichs will ultimately tell the story.

 

[Shiva Blaster]

Man, all that typing and I can hear the crickets chirping!

 

[Kiloz]

pictures!

 

[Shiva Blaster]

I attached a ton! Are they not showing up?

 

[Kiloz]

nope

 

[Shiva Blaster]

How about now....they were marked as private in my album. I'm new to the site and still trying to work out the kinks....much harder to post pics here than other sites.