Hi everyone!
Here is my official entry ticket for my upcoming grow. The grow-off will be incorporated into my “assembly” line grow which is currently tracked in my ongoing grow journal. I currently cycle in a new set of plants in every six weeks - either from cloning or seeds. The purpose of the assembly line is to quickly establish a variety of sativa and indica strains with various effects, medical or otherwise. This grow-off will be the fourth wave of the assembly line grow.
Material list:
Many of the materials I have noted below are here on my Amazon list. I put some commentary for each item. Give it a look over and a like if you want.
Strain:
Fem Chronic Widow from ILGM, order 339087. Four seeds will be initially germinated for the grow-off
Germination Technique:
The seeds will be placed in 6.5pH tap water (180ppm) for a 24-hour soak before being moved into individual solo-cups. Heat mats will be used through the early vegetative phase.
Medium and Vessels:
Roots Organics, an amended coco-based soil-less medium, will be used for the entire grow. The solo-cups used for the post-soak planting will be sliced four times down the side and halfway through the bottom of the cup. The slices at the top of the cup will be taped to hold the whole thing together. This facilitates drainage and ease of transplant. When roots are detected in the solo-cup, the plants will be transplanted into a 5-gallon fabric pot. Milk crates will be used in late flowering to facilitate drainage.
Lighting:
Various lighting will be used depending on the life-cycle phase. All watts recorded here are wall draw.
Seedling Phase: a 45W (wall draw) Unifun LED lamp will be used for the first two to three weeks out of the grow. This light has red, blue, UV, and IR LEDs. I find the young plants respond nicely to this low-cost, low-wattage light and do not stretch.
Vegetative Phase: an HLG 304 quantum board with 4000k range, run on a 150w/1050A Meanwell driver, will be used for the next three to four weeks of the grow.
Early Flower: a 280w 1500Wchip “blurple” LED will be used for the first five to six week of the 12/12 lighting cycle
Late Flower: two HLG 288V2 quantum boards with 3000k range, run on a 240W/2100A Meanwell driver, will finish off the ladies in flower. Depending on the circumstances, the 280W blurple may supplement this phase as well.
Indoor Grow Room:
During the seedling, vegetative and early flowering stages, the plants will reside in a 24x24x48" tent. If the plants outgrow the tent during early flowering, they will be moved to a temporary spot within the late flowering rooms. I may upgrade to an 80" tall tent during this grow, if the budget allows for it, to avoid this. Once the plants move to late flowering, they will be relocated into a “mylar’d” converted shower that is about 33x47x78" Each grow room has a 120CFM exhaust. A dehumidifier and three fans will be used in the flowering room, as needed, to keep humidity at 40-50RH and adequate airflow moving around the plants. I will attempt to keep temps between 70-80 degrees using a thermostat. In winter, only a heater is needed to keep temps over 70.
Expected length of grow and lighting cycles:
ILGM says CW needs about 65 days of flowering. I am therefore expecting about 18 weeks of growing - a two-week seedling phase at 24/0, a four-week vegetative phase at 18/6, a two-week transitional phase at 12/12, and a ten-week flowering phase at 12/12.
Watering techniques:
5.8pH will be used for water and nutrient solutions. Once the plants are established in the 5-gallon pot, watering will generally occur every other day to significant runoff. During the seedling and early vegetative phase, I will water at my discretion to avoid over-watering. Generally, I reduce the frequency here, but still water to runoff. While in grow tents, the plants are moved to a bathtub for watering. In the flowering room, the plants sit on milk crates to facilitate drainage.
Run-off pH and maintenance technique:
Run-off will be monitored to be in the Roots Organics recommended range of 5.8 to 6.3. PPMs will be maintained under 2000, which is the runoff of fresh Roots Organics soil.
Nutrient usage and technique:
I am using Flower Power ILGM nutrients. For grow and flower nutrients, I will use 1/4 to 1/3 dosage of the posted schedule - adjusting based on the run-off ppms being high or low. I typically don’t need to use the seedling nutrients because the Roots Organics is amended. For foliage spray and boost, I will use the full recommended dosage.
Training and topping practice:
Two plants will be topped at the fifth node. Two will be fim’d at the fifth node. The best plant will be chosen as the final contestant the onset of 12/12 cycle. Minimal training will be completed after to fan out the cola sites. No scrog will be utilized.
Harvesting/Drying/Curing technique:
The plant will be harvested based on trichomes - mostly cloudy with a chance of amber. Once harvested, the plants will be cleaned in a peroxide solution, rinsed in water, and cut into reasonably sized branches that fit in large paper grocery bags. Fan leaves will be removed and the buds will be manicured to removed sugar leaves. The trimmed and manicured branches will go into the bags, about a row and a half of branches per bag, for about a week, or until smaller branches snap from dryness. Once dry, the buds will be removed from the branches and placed in 1 qt jars and burped for two weeks, or until satisfactorily aromatic, and then closed up until use with 62% bovedas.
Smoking Analysis:
My wife 's the true judge of my grow quality and she isn’t shy. I’ll include her feedback. We both are fans of the water bong. It’s due for a cleaning.
January 27, 2019
It started with a thousand points of light…
OK, maybe not a 1000 points, but how about 528 squares of light! Today, was a big day in the assembly line and my grow-off effort. The grow light for the middle phase of the line was built. Using materials that included four QB134 3K V2 boards, an HLG-240H-C1750A driver, three four foot angle bars, #6 nuts&bolts, 18gauge wire, wago connectors, and power cord, I built a customer light for a 2x4x5 grow tent. Here’s some pictures of the effort and final product
Power & Light
!
Tools and materials
Measuring off the boards
Cutting the frame - about 3.125" were cut off the end. This centers each board over each foot of the four-foot length of the tent. Two 11.875" pieces were cut for both connecting the board frame and mounting the driver. The ends are sharp and need to be sanded a bit. If you are starting to think my house is messy, it is.
Drilling the frame - I didn’t do such a great job here. They say measure twice, cut once, and I failed to follow that. My holes didn’t quite line up well, but I was able to get things together.
Mounting and wiring - I mounted the boards on the screws such that the screws go down through the board. This way, if I need to set the light on the ground, the screws suspend the QB boards above the ground.
Let there be light! - I am pleased with the final product, which will be used for a late veg/early flower. This light gets me a nice canopy of light, over 800ppfd, that should set my plants up for success until they move into the third phase of the assembly line grow. Here are the specifics of my ppfd assumption:
A 2x4 footprint is about 0.75 square meters. The HLG website doesn’t have umole per joule data for the QB132 V2, so I am going to assume 2.5, which I think it conservative. At 61 watts per board, the ppfd is:
(61watts x 4boards x 2.5umol/j)/0.75sq meters=813 umole/second/sq meter.
The Drop
I dropped 4 Chronic Widow Fems today in 6.5pH’d tap water. They were dropped about a week behind schedule as I have been away from home for about a week on a system emergency.
I prepped four solo cups. I like to slice my solo cups down the side and almost to the middle of the bottom. This has a couple of advantages. First, it allows for great drainage. Second, it gives me a little peek inside so I can see when the plant roots reach the side. Last, it allows for easy removal from the cup - I just remove the tape, carefully pull down the sides, and slide the soil into its next container without disrupting the roots too much.
Last, but not least, they were filled up with Roots Organics Original potting soil and heavily watered with 5.8pH’d tap water. They will sit on a heat mat overnight for tomorrow’s planting.
January 29, 2019 Update
Seed Progress
Last night, I assessed the four seeds to make a decision on whether or not I would plant them in solo cups. There were no signs of tails on any of them. Today, three had distinct tails showing and the fourth looked like some white was poking out. The solo cups, which are sitting on a heat mat, were slightly dry, so I lightly watered the Roots Organics original potting soil with some 5.8 pH’d water to the slightest runoff.
Each seed was planted and tonight they rest quietly under the canopy of my Maui Wowie clones on their heat mat.
Next Steps
I need to set-up the 2x2x4 tent for the fledglings for when they make it out of the soil. There is no change to plan at the moment - they will go under a 45W blurple for about two weeks on 24/0.
Pictures
Tails, plantings, and new homes
February 5
Two of my chronic widows are established. One is struggling to push out of the ground. I loosened the soil. Maybe it will work out, maybe not. The fourth has no signs of life. I’ll cross my fingers. All four needed a dose of 5.8 pH water.
February 10
Update
Well, it seems official. I only went 2 for 4 on successful germination. Of the two that didn’t make it, one sprouted roots but never made it above ground and was stuck in its shell. The other one never made it out of the seed. Next time, I am going to investigate the use of peroxide to help soften the shells. Others seem to have had success with this.
The remaining two plants are healthy. One was transplanted to a 5 gallon contained with recently watered Root Organics Original potting soil at 5.8pH. The plants roots had reached the edges. I did not have enough soil for the second plant, so she will stay in the solo cup until tomorrow when I pick up a few more bags. The second plant was dry and watered slightly with 5.8pH water.
The QB304 V1 4K lamp was put into action today about 16 inches over the top of the ladies. I’ll need to watch this carefully as others have had issues with QBs too close to seedlings.
Next Steps
Tomorrow I will transplant the second plant. Next weekend, they will transition from 24/0 to 18/6. I am still two weeks from considering a nutrient dosage.
What is changing from my original plan?
After researching the Aurora website that sells the Roots Organics Original potting soil I use, I bought some Oreganism, which is a microorganism supplement. I am thinking next weekend, when the plants are more established in their new containers, I will begin the regimen according to the websites recommendation.
I am also trying a lung concept out. A grow tent contains a humidifier and a small space heater. The humidifier runs on low constantly. It is insanely low humidity in my house right now with the cold winter weather. The space heater plugs into a thermostat with a probe in the seedling tent and kicks in at 70 and off at 74. I have a controller for the humidifier on it’s way.
Pictures
February 14
Quick Update and Picture
Both plants are in their final 5 gallon pots and really soaking up the QB304 V1 4K board. Compared to the pics from 5 days ago, I think they’ve taken off. The lamp is at full power on a 1050a driver and about one foot above the plant tops. There no signs of any light burn.
February 18th
#freebtb
Update
The 5th node is making it’s way out of the tops of my Chronic Widows. Today, they were watered to slight runoff with 5.8 pH’d water. I made a solution today of 2T of Oregonism, a microorganism supplement, in a quart of that water. This is something new I am trying and each plant got about a cup and a half of the solution post-watering. I need a humidifier running full time to get the the RH over 50%.
What’s up next
In the next day or two, I will top one plant at the fifth node and FIM the other. The plants were supposed to go on 18/6 today, but the timer I got this weekend from Amazon didn’t work. So that is something that needs to be taken care of in short order this week.
What’s changing
My plan was to move these two Chronic Widow plants to the second stage tent under 4-QB132 V2 3K lamps at six weeks, and then to the final room under 2-QB288 V2 3K and a 1500w blurple at twelve weeks. However, I am going to skip the 2x4 tent and go directly to the QB288 room. I want to see what QB134s can do for flowering the Maui Wowies in there now. I’ll also keep the WPM infection with those MWs isolated there. Once the Gold Leafs currently under those QB288s are harvested, I’ll do a thorough bleaching there to eradicate the WPM. Then I’ll bring in the Chronic Widows with a new start in a clean environment for hopefully a WPM-free life.
Pictures
