Glowing pride at my first crop

[Kimba]

Joy. After 18 weeks and close to two thousand dollars investment I did it. I luckily considering the problems I encountered pulled close to nine ounces after drying. See? You kids grow one plant in the garage and take photo's of rubbish. I would love to photo the leaves on my latest SOG as they are the biggest I have ever seen. Like 20 centimenters long and 4 centimeter wide each of the five fingers. It has trippled (more even) over the last two weeks on Coco Canna and Canna Zym and Bio-Bugs with Evolution Solution's Leaf Feed. It frustrates me to see photo's of leafy heads (all of thirty grams! Wow not) almost mature male flowers (how could you leave it that long? Males will be decapatated, shot, throw out then burnt on sight if not earlier when ever discovered) and other childish rubbish. This is my life and some silly game we play hidden from Mum and Dad. Males can be recognized a lot earlier than the previous photo.

 

600 Watt HiD $234

2 1 meter f/d tables $160

lot's of hardie pope pipe with drippers $64

three timers $149.85

two water pumps $99.98

two air pumps $99.98

aluminum frame with panda plastic $150

2 solution containers $25

4 flouro lights $29 (I scavenged a shade)

4 oscilating fans $110

2 intake fans $60

1 outake fan $80

hose with water filter $54

bucket $2

watering can $8

hand sprayer $2

thermometer $25

PH meter $230

EC meter $79.95

Canna Coco $70

Canna Coco Solution $38

Canna Zym $35

Bio-Bugs` $26.50

PH-Down $9.95

PH-Buffers $9.99

Pruning siscors $13.95

 

 

I use the HiD room for flowering and have the seedlings and clones under the flouro's. Everything is on a drip that drains back to the one of the two containers. One container for solution the other for tap water to evaporate the cholrine out ready for use.

 

All that from two Shiva clones under a 600 watt HiD. I copied my friends flood and drain set up and did almost everything he said. I used expanded clay as the substrata in squat pots. The solution was Canna Vega with Canna Zym at first using PH-Down to keep my PH at about 5.9 to 6.4 in a sixty litre container with bubblers. I also sprayed the plants with Leaf Feed and later Flower Feed every four days.

The first problem was over feeding. Canna recommends 240 ml in sixty litres. I later discovered that after two weeks on forty mls they settled nicely onto 60 mls. That’s one ml per litre. Canna Zym could be used in the recommended amounts with no harm.

I forgot to mention I used Ryshatonic on the seedlings but only once as it was very expensive.

So the plants settled and grew. Week six I put them onto flower and switched to ½ then full strength Flores of 60 mls.

The second problem was Spider mites on the fourth week of flowering. The plants had made an tentative recovery from the nutrient burn then the infestation. After borrowing my friends magnifying glass I entered a world of microscopic horrors living the high life on me plants leafs. After reading and web searching I realized the problem had three possible solutions. 1) Sterilization (not an option as the garden was already infected, involves using sterile clean solutions, sealed environment, UV lights etc.) 2) Bio-infestation. Getting lady bugs out of the garden or pray mantises. Mite predators can be bought at hydro shops. Great idea though my garden (two plants!) was horribly infected. Even introducing predators now I would be forced to wait several weeks before they got the upper hand over the mite infections. The plan was to introduce the predators when my garden was large enough to support a stable population.

So option 3. The Miticide. As much as I regretted introducing insect ides into the system I had little choice. So I spray twice separated by four days as advised (later I read the bottle that said to wait a week!). Both plants well into flowering at this stage chose this drama to lose all their veg leaves. So to my horror both plants appeared to die with 60% of their leaves dropping. It wasn’t until I noticed the increase in growth of the flower leaves that my panic sub sided.

I must mention that despite advise to the contrary I serenpitously removed all the dead and sick leaves with pruning scissors at this time.

So my plants recovered and growth slowed. 5 weeks 6 7..Then another problem. The plants once again drooped and started losing leaves. I thought by physically killing the Scarid flies I could control their population. They were every where, Millions of the fuckers. My seedlings started to die. The scarid fly larvae had eaten their roots. As I thought at the time I was close to harvest (having used PK 13 14 two weeks earlier) I did NOT want to introduce another foul insecticide to the system. So I read up about Bio-Bugs. After infecting my solution with the bugs the flies dropped in the thousands. I started pouring the solution over the clay at watering time and in a week the flies though not gone, where no longer a problem.

The plants slowly recovered for the third time. During weeks 9 and ten the plants settled and no longer lost leaves. It wasn’t until week twelve I putted the plants into PH-5.9 water with no solution for three days then no water for the last two days on 10 hours light. The crop was great.

So after all that I changed my system to Coco Canna with 3mls to 1 litre sol and ½ spoon of bio-bugs. I still use leaf spray and have been shocked by the growth rate of my plants over that last week. This new drip system was child’s play with Hardie Pope to set up. Advice flush pipes when new.

Things I learnt.

 

Coco Canna is heaps better than expanded clay.

Never use the recommended amount of Canna Vega or Flores.

You don’t have to water when the lights are off (i.e. at night)

You can leave the lights on 24 hours during veg.

Bio-Bugs is the best way to control scarid fly, nematodes by promoting healthy root growth and I shall use it forever (or at least until Canna sell Trychaderma moulds in Australia).

The amount of work involved with two plants!

Keep your bugs in the fridge. Soon as you open the bug container you expose them to water and they start to live and breed. The fridge greatly reduces this cycle. I was advised to use the whole container on the infected plants, I didn't but it's was all gone in four weeks.

 

Is Canna better? I asked the man and was told he abandoned it because of the Scarid flies. But that was ten years ago. Has Bio-Bugs made it an option now?

Edited May 8, 2003 by Kimba

[Tom]

Well, at least it wasn't a boring experience for you, I flush for two weeks and then give the plants 48 hrs of darkness before harvest, I also keep a "Catch" brand moth killer in my grow room, it deals with the insects before they get established. Check this topic for more details and a picture.

 

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[Kimba]

As I had attempted to respond to query and was denied access I'm vetoing this site.

[Tom]

As I had attempted to respond to query and was denied access I'm vetoing this site.

Err, you did manage to respond or you would not have been able to post that message.

[wassily]

Sorry, was that 9 oz dried out of a 600watt setup?

man that's not that much for that big a setup.

Stinky Pete gets about 17oz from his 600, 4 plants

supercropping.

[white_cluster]

Hey Kimba,

 

You sound like a real dickhead mate.

 

you've got 2 1mx1m trays under 600w, no wonder you only got 9 piddly little ounces. You just paid $2000 to realize you can't grow for shit, thats sad.

[Tom]

I used to average just under 16oz from a single 430w Son-T-Agro and I could replace my current grow set-up (now with 2 x 430w) for around $600.

 

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[white_cluster]

fuck me dead, 16oz from 400w is a nice harvest. I only average 12oz and thought I was way up there in the big 400w yields.

[Guest elefunk_delivers]

Sheeesh not much at all 9 oz's i pulled that off one plant.....

a few months back...

 

Ele

[Buster]

Kimba,

 

You have started your post by attempting to refer to members here in a derogertry tone before anyone has even had the chance to comment, why?

 

All you've done is get on other members nerves and made your self look pretty foolish for spending $2000 and only getting 9 oz from a hydro set up under a 600 light.

 

If you had stopped for a moment and thought about asking members advise instead of flaming them then you may have been sitting on another 5 oz and still have a fat wallet.

 

Who looks childish now?

 

 

Buster.

Edited May 12, 2003 by Buster