Indoor Down on Muddy's farm

[Noods]

Shame on them cops, Muddy! Looks like they cheated you out of some real fine and well grown auto-buds. :no:
Oh well, sharing some Easy Ryder with you in honor of your very first Lowryders' untimely sacrifice.. :smokebuds:

 

[Muddy]

Long time no see Noods. Glad you stopped in. The cops were kind of cool in a way. I was joking with them, told them I hadn't even had a chance to sample it yet. They said if any fell on the ground they wouldn't bother to pick them up. When their back were turned I did manage to grab a couple buds and hide them behind a tomato plant. So at least I got to sample it.

 

[pher2]

Looked like they were some fine plants Muddy! Too bad about getting busted. :no: Whatevever came from all that?

EDIT: didnt see your last post before i posted...very cool that you still got to sample the buds! :thumbs:

 

[GCase]

Long time no see Noods. Glad you stopped in. The cops were kind of cool in a way. I was joking with them, told them I hadn't even had a chance to sample it yet. They said if any fell on the ground they wouldn't bother to pick them up. When their back were turned I did manage to grab a couple buds and hide them behind a tomato plant. So at least I got to sample it.

Yes, I remember this on cn and n news. A satellite analysis spotted those plants and a posse was hastily formed. An eradication team then chopped the non-indigenous genetically altered cannabis. The cannabis was placed in sealed containment and secreted to a secret HAZMAT area for disposal.

"no"

 

[Muddy]

Too bad about getting busted. :no: Whatevever came from all that?

Absolutely nothing became of it. I was never charged or indicted. They didn't even bother putting anything in evidence bags, just threw it in the trunk of the cruiser. Had they indicted me, I could have challenged it on the evidence chain of custody.

Yes, I remember this on cn and n news. A satellite analysis spotted those plants and a posse was hastily formed. An eradication team then chopped the non-indigenous genetically altered cannabis. The cannabis was placed in sealed containment and secreted to a secret HAZMAT area for disposal.

"no"

 

[Muddy]

Wow, can't believe I haven't updated my home thread since last November. Very sad on my part. Hoping I can keep up better moving forward.

So what's been going on down on the farm? I had a few less than desirable auto grows in my outdoor box through the spring and early summer. The problem was my grow medium. My local supplier stopped carrying Pro Mix HP, so I used some BX instead. Even with an additional 15 - 20% perlite it still wasn't drying out fast enough, sometimes taking over 2 weeks. As a result I couldn't keep them on a good feeding schedule and the plants really suffered. I had some Black Dragons, Sour Diesel Haze, Afghan Kush, Mohan Ram, Sweet Special, Sweet Coffee and White Sirius that yielded far less than what I'm used to. At least the potency was good. As an alternative to Pro Mix I tried some Bonnie Professional Potting mix. Same ingredients as Pro Mix minus the myco, sphagnum peat moss, perlite, lime and a wetting agent. I'm on my first full auto grow with it and so far the results look very good. I've shut down the outdoor box for the summer and have moved to my smaller indoor spot. I've got four 20 day old plants in it right now, a Sweet Trainwreck, Sweet Black Jack, a Spanish Diesel and a Pakistani Ryder, all looking very nice. I like that the starting pH of the Bonnie is 6.7 instead of the 7.0 of Pro Mix. With the lower starting pH I no longer need to add any aluminum sulfate to lower the pH. Feeding at 6.3 is keeping the soil pH right at 6.4.

I've also got my 3rd hydro grow going. Running some Lemon Kush from Female Seeds this time. They are on day 46 and looking very good. I also added some photo soil plants into the hydro room. These are being lit with some UNO T5 XHOs. So far I'm very impressed with them. At 110 watts per bulb, they are giving good penetration and good node spacing. They are in preflower and looking very nice. Unfortunately the new T5s are running a bit hotter than I anticipated. As a result, temps were hitting the low 90s and the hydro plants were suffering. When I designed the room I had planned on using all LEDs and sized my heat pump accordingly. As things stand now, I'm going to need to get a larger one if I want to continue running a closed environment. I've had to vent externally, which means no CO2. No point in running the burner if it's only going to get sucked out of the room. I had also bought some T5s to side light the LEDs. Again, because of the increased heat I can't install them yet.

I also just completed a modified SCROG for the hydro room. I built frames and stapled some cattle fencing to it. Two layers spaced 18" apart. I've not tied the branches down, instead am just redirecting the branches to spread them out and get more light to the lower buds. The frames are attached to some 4 x 4 uprights, two on each end. Each rack can be removed by taking off 4 bolts. I had tried using some cages I built from the same fencing, which is 48" high. The cages were a PITA to take on and off, plus if I put them on when they were really needed, I couldn't lower the lights enough. I think this will work out much better. One rack goes on when the plants are smaller, and the second once they get bigger. I'll get some pictures up so everyone can see the setup. I think it's going to work very well.

That's all the news for now. Hopefully I won't go another 9 months before the next update. Woops

 

[Muddy]

Got some photos of what's going on in the hydro room, including some pictures as promised of the SCROG. The frames are built from some rough sawn poplar that I had, ripped down to 3" wide. I laid some cattle fencing on the frame and stapled it down. The uprights are 4 x 4s to which I attached pieces of 2 x 4. The top of these have hanger bolts inserted. If you're not familiar with hanger bolts, they have wood threads on one side and machine threads on the other. The frame was drilled so that it slides over the hanger bolts. I then placed fender washers over the hanger bolts and threaded on the nuts. It's a two level system, so only 8 nuts holding the whole thing together. This will make it very easy to take it apart after the grow and reassemble it for the next.



I can see already that I have them a bit too high by about 3-4". No biggie though. Only 3 screws holding each block to the 4 x 4 so it will be easy to reposition them before the next grow.

I've added some lights to the room and have some photos going in 15 gallon pots. Mostly seeds I had left over from my last outdoor photo grow. Blackskull Pineapplegum, Barney's Night Shade, WoS Pakistan Valley, WoS Amnesia, Female Seeds Ice and their Lemon Kush. The lights are UNO T5 XHOs, 4 bulb fixtures, 110 watts per bulb. So far I'm very pleased with them. Penetration is about 2'. Node spacing looks good. They are being fed AN Canna pH Perfect, Silica Blast, Humic Acid, and several AN supplements. They are just finishing up pre flower. Here's how they are looking:



Lastly, a couple pictures of the Lemon Kush in the hydro. After the disaster I had with the Barney's Pineapple Chunk, I'm very pleased with how these are doing. They are about two weeks behind the soil plants but were switched to 12/12 at the same time. Less veg time seems to be key. Node spacing is very good, not near as stretched as the first two grows. They are all about 26" tall and just starting to pre flower. They are growing like mad and consuming 5 gallons of nutrient solution a day. They are on the House and Garden Aqua Flakes base nutrients and a combo of H & G and AN supplements.