Platinum Kush 4'x4' grow - 1000w dual arc

Oh hi, everybody. I've chosen to finally put on a grow show, now that i'm done experimenting and ready to "go big" for reals. I'm open to reasonable questions about this journal, as i'm really doing this for you, the reader. I'm hoping you can learn. If anything, what not to do. With that said, i'm very much open for suggestions and/or constructive critism.

First thing's first. I am a valid Prop 215 card holder in California and am a firm believer in compassionate care. I will be medicating myself, and 6 others. Unless told otherwise, i am very sure that i have done my homework right, and i have a fully legal operation here.

With that out of the way, being that this is my first ever post on this forum, i'm feeling a little obligated to tell you that this isn't my first grow. I've been reading forums, and books, interweb pages, and have watched my fair share of grow videos. so i've been experimenting with different techniques for almost 2 years now. This is, however, my first grow that isn't of a perpetual nature (yet, at least). i'm going to be trying to fit 4 plants per square foot into a 4x4 Aerojet tray. My goal is to yield no less than 1 gram per watt, hopefully more. that means less than half an ounce of bud per plant with 64 sites. Hopefully i'm not just creating more trouble for myself with trimming, or numbers. Especially since I'm also going to be trying practically the whole Yellow Bottle line of "Yield Boosters" for this inaugural harvest in the AeroJet thing. Which brings me to another objective. i want the world to see whether or not using gnarly additives, and snake oils really do boost yeilds. i can't do a side by side until i score another garden exactly like this one. so until then i'll just have to wait until the next harvest to find out once and for all.

Unfortunately the life of this party has not yet arrived. I'm expecting a call any moment. Now you know what i've been doing to kill the time.

In the interim, here are a few photos i took about a week ago. I plan on getting in-depth with everything in later posts to this journal, so ask away!

I call this "the nursery" since mom's and cuts end up here. fresh air is provided by a HoneyWell HEPPA + ION input using the power of positive pressure to keep bugs out instead of an output.


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Doubles as a clone station too


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This is one of the plants from the fogger.


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Here's the whole rack at a glance


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That top rack is for plants that go in the outside garden. squashes, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, peppers. all sorts of goodness. But that's not why we're here.


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In the next post i'll be summarizing "the plan". Stay tuned.

Basically i'm letting the cuttings root in the humidity dome. then i put them into the fogger to develop roots. i keep them in the fogger until they show nutrient deficiencies. at the first sign i put them into the bubbler until they've recovered, and have grown to a decent size. at that point they go into flowering.

Vegetative
-------------------
Propogation
+ Humidity Dome
+ Fogger
- Underbed storage container
- reptiFogger

Vegetative (bubbler)
+ Underbed storage container
- Air pump
- Air stone

Flowering
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Grow Lab 145


1000w DualArc
1000w Sunlight Dual Switchable Ballast
Magnum XXXL Reflector 8'' flange


4'x4' Botanicare Aerojet w/40gal reservoir


(2) Vortex 6'' in-line fans
(1) Carbon filter (preferably 2)

Base Nutrients:
-------------------
Bada Bang - 8mL/g
Bada Bloom - 16mL/g
Silica
Hygrozyme
SM-90

I am a HUGE fan of the Lucas Method. i sort of stumbled onto it on accident a ways back while searching for feeding schedules and have never gone back since. If you haven't read into yet, I'd highly suggest reading the several pages worth of Lucas' wisdom. just google "Ask Lucas". It's not just about the nutrients. it's about how to treat your plants as well. If you're on a nute budget, it's your first grow, or you're simply wanting to push the limits. JUST Micro, and JUST Bloom really IS enough to bring a plant into full ripened maturity. i, on the other hand, am known to go against the grain. i'm using Plant Life Products in place of General Hydroponics because of the slightly larger amounts of Nitrogen. I think. I wasn't able to find, exactly, what goes into this stuff. but i input values as best i could with pH's nutrient calculator and it all seemed to work out. Also because it was free. Plants are lovin' it --- so i guess we're good. Silica is there to help with drought tolerance and stiffer stems to help hold up the buds. Hygrozyme to help eat any rot, and SM-90 for a first line of defense pest control, as well as wetting agent. Smells good too.

I consider this to be the ass bare minimum to growing stinky, healthy buds that can stand up to the light you give them. Anything more and you could just be potentially wasting your moneys. I've come to the conclusion that I'm into that. So here goes all the fun additives that i'm going to try with this grow.

Additives:
-------------------------
Yellow Bottle
+ Pre
+ Ultra
+ Phat
+ Final
+ Ooze
+ Sweet
Fulvic Acid
FossilFuel
GreatWhite Mycorizae

Believe me. I bought all this stuff at stupidly low prices during a vendor day. I would NEVER. EVER. condone paying full price, unless you just had money to burn. which is exactly why they're damn expensive. If you're like me, and you actually work for a paycheck. Then i'd suggest keeping an eye on this journal to see whether it's worth it or not.

I must be the most impatient person in the universe. I even pulled the trigger on this journal too early. But i have a perfectly good explanation. Today was supposed to finally be the day that the 4'x4' tray arrived. You see, what is now approaching a month ago i put together the funds to start this project. I got together what i felt was going to be the most ROI. One thing i was totally not prepared for, was a custom order. but alas, i'm a fool to think that it was something they would have in the store. Especially when the picture has the usual 1 plant per square foot in the photo on the home page:
http://www.americanagritech.com/systems/garden-systems/aeroponic/4-x-4-aerojet

I'm starting to remember why i always just built these things myself. Self gratification aside, i was also thinking of resell-ability. So there you have it. If i'm not going to be doing it myself, then it better damn well be done the way i want it, at least. But I digress.

Today was gardening day. To minimize damage I have learned to save major tasks like cloning, and moving plants to a comfortable cycle of days. For me, every 4 days does the trick. That basically means that out of 4 weeks, there are 2 gardening days a week, except for 1 week. I like to think of it as a break. This was a strategy that has worked well for remote grow operations, as well. Although i am really stoked that i can keep up with this particular grow every day.

Also, since i'm not busy filling reservoirs, and moving plants into the grow tent, it seems like a great opportunity to spruce up the first couple of posts. It looks like i've been getting a fair amount of views. Thank you for stopping by!

This gardening day I get to finally talk about the flowering room! I chose Platinum Kush because i prefer that hashy flavor in my smoke. At the moment I'm smoking OG Kush from another one of my grows. I decided to go with a GrowLab 145 which is 4' 9'' x 4' 9'' so naturally I'm going to fill that up with a 4'x4' table! Both the GrowLab and the AeroJet finally arrived after a month so that's had my hands full for the past few days. I'm really just stoked to finally be under way. the count down to harvest day begins!

This is the first time I've ever had the patience to save up and buy everything from a hydro store. I'm more of a hands on sort of person, but let me tell you. It is very much worth the money spent to just buy everything from a catalog. i have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on bullshit like storage containers, and plumbing materials. tools, and lots of messes. although i have my favorites from various outlets, you just can't beat this drainage.




Not to mention setup was dead simple. I needed some help with getting the tent setup but i'd say that took no more than 10 mins! It was just a big cluster fuck of canvas and what appeared to be sun shade on the other side.



getting the table setup on the other hand took a little while longer. There was some snafus with putting together the bench since the welder welded sloppily, but all in all. everything fit... sort of. during the planning phase i had only measured the table and not the reservoir underneath it. fortunately it worked out that i could let everything drain into the port hole. my only concern is light getting into the res.



for the nutrients i tossed in:

* 8ml/gal - Bada Bang
* 16ml/gal - Bada Bloom
* 1ml/gal - Silica
* 2ml/gal - SM-90
* 5ml/gal - Sweet
* 5ml/gal - Ultra
* 6ml/gal - Hygrozyme

After getting the light all setup, i immediately realized just how much of a heat factory a 1000w lamp is! It's not like it was a surprise but i was a fool to think input from outside alone was going to be good enough. This sucks, because I've already sunk a bunch of cash into a bunk mini-split air conditioner last season. It's fully charged, and everything. it just never turned on after hooking it up to the sub-panel. I'm really hoping to get that fixed sooner than later. If anyone's an AC expert i'd love to hear from you.

At the moment i'm using a 6'' inline fan as exhaust to create negative pressure since the only vents are on the bottom. It seems to be around 10 degrees warmer inside of the tent than outside, so i figure it's just a matter of getting the room down to 65 degrees. Come July, September, October that's going to be a lot easier said than done.

In the interim, until the AC is fixed I have no choice but to get that hot air out! The room that the tent is in is only 9'x6' but fortunately has a crawl space above it, along with a crawl space entry. The solution will be to build a 5 sided enclosure with a hole on one side to put a 6'' inline fan through. Later on i plan to attach a small carbon filter. Just because.

Interestingly enough my biggest issue at the moment is actually taking photos. Check it out.



I can't help but think this is common. but i can't seem to find anything on the subject.

So that's that. I need to go finish up that crawl space exhaust.

I'm really bummed about the lack of photos that i've been able to provide. these 3 all aren't even worth looking at. but it's the best i can get.





So this gardening day came a day late as i've been busy getting my outdoor garden planted before a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.

I really don't have much to report. No news is going to be good news with this grow. As you can see, so far, they're stretching very nicely. I'm having second thoughts on the need for a screen. I'm hoping to grow top colas, and nothing more so i'm going to keep an eye on the growth. They seem to know exactly what i want. I haven't seen any side branching. just flower sites growing and growing. One thing i can use is air movement. The canopy doubled in height in one week. in another couple of days the fans on the table will only be pushing air through the stalks. they're intended purpose, mind you. I just need to get those clippy fans that oscillate.

At any rate. Due to this success i'm going to proceed with filling up the rest of the spaces in the table. I'm really enjoying these nutes. Still getting used to all of the additives fucking my pH, but i suppose all that is just to keep you guessing in hopes that if something goes wrong you'll go buy more nutes. Rest assured. I know. if anything goes wrong it's going to be environmental reasons.

I'm averaging about 83 degrees during the "daylight" hours, and 75 during the "nighttime" so i'm hoping the lack of fluctuation isn't going to be too harmful. Humidity fluctuates from 45% to 30% which is within desirable range. Reservoir is about to start growing happiness as i noticed it's temperatures rose to about 76 degrees last night, and tonight. an old school trick is to freeze water bottles full of salty water (the salt water gets colder than freezing) so i have a couple of those in the freezer now.

by next gardening day i'm hoping for pistils. in the interim. i'm going to have to figure out how to take photos of these things. i see lots of visits, just no replies. that's okay. not much action yet, anyways.

I'm going to go get a head count, and cut down some more clones. Have a blast!

Looks like its going to be a fun grow. Looking forward to following this thread

Hey geezluiz1, and everyone else. Thanks for hanging out.

I promise. this whole -- updating once a week thing will not become a habit. I've been ridiculously busy lately with work, and getting ready for a vacation next weekend. Needless to say, shit's been getting neglected. I let a pump fail for 2 days! On Tuesday I checked in on the plants, and thought to myself "hrm... wonder when the pump will kick on". like usual. it turned on. but i didn't think to listen for a damn spray! it just goes downhill from there. i knew i had a 400gph around that i planned to use as backup. But never bothered to go find it. Soo by the time i figured out something was wrong i ended up having to use a 250gph, instead. These girls hate me.





When this sort of stuff happens, i really have no idea how to fix it. So i'm looking for feedback, if anyone's out there willing to put in their word.

Since i didn't have much more than a trickle i decided just to keep the pump on, hoping to hydrate what was left of the root zone. It didn't even reach the cup, so it was a race against time. For the record.

FAIL


This is a shitty pump. I figured, since it came with an out of the box solution, it would be of the highest quality. not so much. Just one and a half weeks! It's not even like there was any sediment. Just regular old water with a respectably high EC <3

So anyways. Went back to the good ol' trusty Ecoplus line. opting to go with the 633gph.

FTW



From the beginning i added Hydrogen Peroxide, and extra Hygrozyme to eat the root rot. Been wondering if i should be focusing on anything nutrient wise. I've been keeping an eye on the pH and it's been steady around 5.8 since even before the incident, so it's just a matter of waiting for recovery. To help my own healing process I went ahead and added in 14 or 15 more plants (i really just don't count anymore) because i knew i'd need to see healthy plants as reassurance, in case i forgot.







Also decided to separate the sad looking plants from the, well, sad - but not as sad looking plants.






Environment hasn't been much of a problem. Humidity has been noticeably low at about 25% to 30% and the temps have been 82 during the "day" and around 65 to 70 at "night". The exhaust has really helped. Check it out.









I also got the lid on the resevoir like it should be, in favor of using the ever so cleverly designed holes for the drainage and feed tubes.



It's a really tight squeeze, but let it be known. This GrowLab 145 fits the AeroJet 4x4 PERFECTLY. I'd still recommend anything you build yourself, however. I mean. this is really cool and all. But when i move I'm not looking forward to transporting this huge fucking table. And we all know someday that will happen, being that i rent. But if you have a permanent place to put this thing. Go for it. It's an extremely wise investment. And, in my experience, with the 1000w super HPS dual arc crazy bulb inside the Magnum XXXL. I have never seen growth so fast. Just be sure to ditch the pump that it comes with. I'm pretty sure it's just defective. But i don't fuck with that. I've had several EcoPlus pumps and none of them have failed on me. geeze. I never though i'd get all religious about a pump. but i know you know what i'm talking about. there's no room for failure when it comes to your medicine.

So. Here's a couple more photos. I really have no clue what to do about those photos in the flower box. It must just be the bulb. i have no trouble photographing my 600w lamps

what ever happened to your grow?