After many delays the plant babies

[IanHale]

I'm still not 100% sure but I think I may have saved the branch.

[alltatup]

Excellent save, Ian!!

[IanHale]

The tape is gonna stay on until I'm sure it has healed. I'm hoping to see a nice knot scar over the break.

But it is looking good so far

[alltatup]

I broke a branch weeks and weeks ago, taped it up and never removed the tape.

[IanHale]

Better pics of my set up

[IanHale]

Ive zip tied my air pumps to each container. I have digital water thermometers on the way, one for each tank.

I'm also working on my own style of copper coil immersion coolers to rig up a system that cools the water but doesn't mix the coolant water with the nutes.

[IanHale]

I'm connecting up my lights to each other and to the carbon filter in the ventilation and exhaust system. I've installed the 400w MH bulb into the 3rd light and hung it where I need it to be.

I have 5 reservoir bins filled with water that needs to be ph'd and nutes added then I'm putting each girl into her own resevoir when I do the res change in a hour or so.

ill take another pic of the fully engaged grow room with all the lights and stuff going.

[alltatup]

Your plants look great; you're gonna get a shit ton of weed if you put each one in her own res!!

[IanHale]

Two different angles of the set up.

Each plant now has it's own approx 1/2m^2 to fill out. If all goes reasonably well I'm hoping for 2-300 grams per plant (more on successive grows)

All the girls are happily in their own tanks. With better cut lids (the circle cutter used for drywall worked perfectly for snug netpot fit).

i kept the lids with 6 holes. My second grow is already planned out. But my third I was thinking trying a seA of green with 20 6-7 week flowering plants and go 12/12 after only 14 days of veg. And during that time set up a separate tent just for vegging and keep the big room set up for flowering.

[alltatup]

Is that plant in the background getting as much light as the ones in front?

Here's my experience with a fast switch to flowering: It took the plants another 3 weeks to really start showing pistils. I switched them after 3 weeks, and they were all growing very vigorously or I wouldn't have. But it seemed to take significantly longer to see pre-flowers on them. HOWEVER, all that being said, it did keep them shorter, which was what I wanted for my small grow box.

[IanHale]

The one that is by itself has a 400w MH/Hps for itself. When I took the picture it wasn't fully on yet.

I'm also building two small light bars for 4 28w LED bulbs to go on each side of the 400w lamp for additional light for PM2

[IanHale]

I forgot to mention:

When I was putting them into their new lids I had to pull the feeder hoses and CB1 had almost filled the the tube completely. Made me glad I cut overly long sections of tubing. It had grown a good 12-14" of roots down inside.

I also had to spend some time gently untangling the roots from multiple plants. The longest roots were over 18" long from the bottom of the net pots.

Gave each mass a good sniffing to ensure no rot and put them to bed.

[IanHale]

First full day in their own tanks.

theyre showing a little bit of heat stress and I just handled their roots....so it is not unexpected.

started LST and also PM2 (with the no longer broken arm) has the 4th just starting to show on the break side, was out to the 4th with the 5th starting to open on the unbroken side. Finished the manifold pruning of the 2nd node except I kept the topside growth tip.

the rest of the gang had the 3rd node open with the 4th starting to emerge.

GENTLY bent the sides down just below the 3rd nodes using the twist ties that came with all the pumps and reflective duct tape. Applied pressure to the middle section of the ties so that the hook end would unbend before the plant arm broke.

a little foliar burn on two leafs tips, they got splashed a little with nutrient water. BN2 will recover.

The 400w light and ballast raised my average temp but lowered my RH. I'm considering a second 400CFM fan and relocating the ballasts outside the room and run the power cables through the wall. That should reduce some of the heat in the room.

[IanHale]

Reorganized the grow room.

Relocated ballasts to a shelf outside the actual room. Cut a hole in the inner and outer drywall and fed the power leads to the lamps. Sealed the cut in the Mylar curtain with reflective tape.

The 400w light is disappointing. I made a U shape with my reservoirs and raised the lights a little bit to encourage a little bit of stretch and to share the 2 600w lights with PM2 which is parked under the 400.

I broke down and bought a 3rd 600w ipower MH/HPS lamp.

Resevoir temps are still running high and I'm gonna be using frozen water bottles to bring the temps down until I can figure out a diy copper coil immersion cooler and pumping system.

Next water change I'm replacing the clear air hoses with the opaque dripline.

[alltatup]

WOW, Ian, it looks great in there, and the plants look explosive in their own tubs!!!

[IanHale]

Thank you! I pulled all the plants of out of the room, pulled the table I had under them out. It allowed me more flexibility in placement. I'm gonna cut some pieces to raise the tanks off the concrete individually instead on the table as a group

Next small project tonight is to create reflective "covers" out of cardboard and the Mylar stuff I have on the walls to reflect more of the light back to the plants and to keep the reservoirs from heating up

I'm thinking I may have to get a second exhaust fan once my 3rd 600w light arrives in 2-5 business days. Found a 440 cfm fan used but near new for $45.

One fun bit fact is that a close friend lives in CO and works several different farms and he was impressed as hell with my setup and I may have convinced him to try top-fed DWC himself.

[IanHale]

Manifolds are now complete.

water temps are still high. Trying to engineer an inexpensive solution that was work for 5 reservoirs.

In the meantime I cut lid covers with holes for the plants to reflect the light off the tops of the tanks. They will eventually be removed when I lollipop the plants

[Aloner]

Looking real good! Definitely going to try the Nebula Manifold™ on my next grow.

[IanHale]

Before I relocated the ballasts outside the room, the temps were spiking around 93-94 degrees as was the air temperature.

Air temps with lights on 84-88 at 45-54 RH now. Water temps are matching air temps. I'm dropping frozen water bottles in right before the lights go out.

Lights out air temps drop down to 77-80.

I'm hoping that by lowering them down to the concrete and covering the lids will reduce the temps in the tanks.

On the plus side I watched some neat YouTube vids about how to make copper coils without kinks and learned something new.

[IanHale]

Did some more research and learned that copper tubing is not to be used in acidic environments like nutrient tanks. So the idea to make my own copper immersion coils is still good, just not for this application.

Stainless steel maybe...but that is harder to work by hand.

[IanHale]

Same plant in the previous picture 24 hours after completing the manifold giving the plant 8 main colas

[IanHale]

Oops wrong picture this is the same plant as the previous one. These are both (the immediately above this one) the big Nugs 1 (this one) and 2 (above)

[IanHale]

Daaaaaaaaaamn

[Aloner]

Nice growth dude

[IanHale]

BN1 same plant as above 48 hours later

[IanHale]

So I'm toying with defoliation and removing the lower fan leaves but leaving all bud sites.

then I realize I have the perfect set up to mess around and learn. CB1&2 and BN1&2. Equally vigorous pairs of plants.

Much like the leaning seedling experiment (it stood back up on its own) this will allow to document the difference in early defoliation.

some before and after pics coming soon

[IanHale]

Day 29:

manifolds are all doing well.

pics in order CB1&2 BN1&2 CB2 and BN2 after removing exactly 12 fan leaves from each plant, all from the inner 4 colas. I left the fans on the outer 4 for now until their growth picks up.

the next week of veg will be interesting.

res change in 24 hours

[IanHale]

Day 31:

Redid the LST on the colas long enough to bend and flatten out. Manifolds are thick and strong. Serious veg time now to make them big and tall.

i made my own little tweaks to Nebula's manifold, each plant has 10 colas. I kept the top side cola's and cleaned the bottom node on all the plants. Each plant has a slight variant on how the middle two colas are trained flat.

pics in order CB1 side, BN1 top & side, CB1 top

[alltatup]

They look so awesome!!! Great job, Ian!!! And they're growing so much!!

[IanHale]

Thanks man.
I've been stressing due to high temps in the room due to the 400w un-ducted light....BUT my 3rd 600w just arrived today and I'm gonna swap em out after work tonight. Having it hooked into the exhaust will lower overall temps in the room. I also acquired a 2nd 440 cfm fan just in case.

The next couple weeks I just need to keep the tips bent down and let em grow and then flip the switch to flower.

The break on PM2 has healed fully, but the growth is stunted on that side. The electrical tape bandage came off after receiving many a misting. Pics will be posted after work. I think she also suffered a little bit under the way too hot 400w by herself. I think she will do better under the new 600w.

Someone who owes me close to a grand is paying me back soon so I'll be able to afford chillers for the next grow. Although fall into winter I shouldn't have to worry too much about res temps.

I'm looking forward to these girls getting all big and bushy

[alltatup]

Man, I wish someone owed me a grand!!! Sounds like a good plan. It IS stressful when it gets too hot in the grow room. I stressed and stressed until I got my chiller for my big grow box and that took care of all the root issues I was having.

Glad to hear that the branch healed!! She's a good girl!! ;-}

[IanHale]

You can see the break and the difference in growth

[alltatup]

Wow, you two really did well together!! Excellent save.

[IanHale]

I take that as high praise. Aside from one terrible closet grow decades ago I haven't done any work with plants.

I just taped it up and made a prop. The plant did the rest.

[alltatup]

I know what you mean, but the way I see it, we are in a relationship with each plant. I really feel that. You were a good doctor to her.