White Shark: Harvest Time Nears!

[Rangi]

Hi folks,

This weekend, I'm transitioning all my grow journals over to this Forum and look forward to becoming an active member ... growing and learning with all of you

This is the tail end for these White Sharks in my Producer have been flushing for the past 7-8 days. Trichomes (pic below from several days ago) are almost all cloudy with a few more amber showing up continually (my goal is almost all cloudy with ~10% amber.

I'll check them again at the end of their day today, and may start a pre-harvest period of 24-48 hrs dark, during which I'll turn the temps down in the grow chamber and in the rez.

As with all my journals, I'll post updates through to their cure, if possible.

Always thrilled to receive any feedback!

[uncledoug]

Rangi Welcome, looking forward to seeing your posts. Great looking grow room you have.

[kingfish]

Welcome aboard Rangi. Love your grow. Can't wait for the result.

[Rangi]

uncledougkingfish
Thanks very much for the welcomes. Looking forward to being part of this community.

[Cronk]

Rangi that is a really impressive grow. I'm not sure what's going on but i'm glad you showed up. I'll be following your grows, totally interested in what you're doing. Will you post final yields?

[Rangi]

Pre-Harvest Chilling in the Dark

• I began flushing 10 days ago:
  • 2 x 3-day flushes with Flawless Finish
  • 1 x 4-day flush with RO only
  • 1 x 2-day flush with RO only (for dark chill period)
• Over the past week:
  • Gradually lengthened their nights from 12 to 14 hours
  • Gradually dropped air temp by ~2^oF. Also tried to increased day-night temp differential slightly
  • Gradually dropped rez temp from 68 to 65
• This is my first time harvesting White Shark, so I've been watching trichomes carefully over the past 2 weeks.
  • My goal was to cut when they're mostly cloudy with 10% amber.
  • Yesterday, they seemed mostly cloudy (averaging across the plants ... wasn't a huge amount of variation; buds all got about the same light I think) and a few amber here and there
  • They have ripened very nicely over this past stretch, and seemed to flush really well. Lots of yellowing, but getting very close to not much green left!
  • So, taking all that together, decided yesterday at the end of their day period to start a period of dark chilling
• For about the next 40 hours (nothing special about 40 ... just that this will place me into late morning tomorrow to start cutting and trimming, which works out well because I have to take my dogs to the vet first thing! lol):
  • lights out
  • air temp dropped to 69-70, which gives me an RH under 50% (if I drop it lower, the RH rises and I don't feel comfortable over 50)
  • rez temp dropped to lowest possible
    • this is interesting (to me!) ... I have only been able to get it down to about 55^oF (which, actually, I think is low enough to produce the stress/shock response that some say is desirable at the end??)
    • with my cooling system (I'll post a separate thread on that ... a story in itself, written by a NON-plumber!), I have cold water circulating (under thermostatic control) through stainless steel coils in my rez.
    • The last (and only other) time I harvested with these coils installed, I drained the res then dumped in 6-8 bags of ice. The ice melted very slowly bc of the cooling coils, and a temp of less than 45 was held for the first 24 hrs then up to 50-55 for the final 24 hrs.
    • This time, I decided to just change out the res to new RO and turn the thermostat down and see what temp I can get. Seems like 55 (circulating water temp is ~45)

• Pics were taken in the 24 hrs prior to dark period start

[Rangi]

alltatup Thanks very much! This was the first bud I've grown that is really good. REALLY good! lol Yield was low -- but only if measured in weight. I learned so much during this grow, and that has to count for something!

Ohhhhh ... root rot! Quite familiar with it!! When my boxes first arrived (this time last year) I set them all up in a 10' x 12' room ... 2 pros, 1 bb & 1 ms! What a squeeze. And as you can imagine - and as I should have done in advance - managing heat in that small space with 4 boxes cranked up with a battle I did not win easily! I saw the chiller solution on the BCNL forum, but wanted a solution that didn't require purchasing 3 chillers. Seemed inefficient. So I stumbled across some random post out in hyperspace about using a stainless steel coil in the rez, through which cold water is flowed to cool the solution. I also moved all the boxes to my spacious (and unused - since the last brat moved out 10 yrs ago!) basement.

Already long story, made as short as possible ... ...
- I have a chiller that cools tap water in a 25 gal Coleman Marine Cooler. That cold water then is circulated out to each box and back.
- At each box (other than MS), there are 2 cooling zones - grow chamber and nute rez.
- Flow of the cold water from the Coleman to each of the 6 zones is controlled by an Inkbird controller - thermometer measures temp (either air or water), and if above the temp I have "set" it activates a solenoid valve to open and allow the cold water to flow. Once the temp is back in range, the valve closes.
- To cool each rez, the cold water flows through stainless steel coils (2 in each pro; 1 in the bb) that are mostly submerged in the nute solution. Got this idea from beer kegging! Have never done it, but apparently at one point in the process hot liquid needs to be cooled quickly. So a SS "immersion coil" - through which cold water is flowed - is submerged in the hot liquid. So I thought ... hmmmmm! And it works
- To cool the grow chamber, cold water flows though a Gaming PC Radiator that I attached to the air intake! I guess hardcore PC gamers need to keep those electronics cool, so they've designed some super efficient liquid cooling systems. Best part of this was that the BCNL box fan IS a PC fan ... exactly 4" ... so this radiator I bought to attach to the outside of the box had the screw holes and everything already perfectly lined up!!. When the temp rises above the set point in the grow chamber, cold water starts flowing through the fins of the radiator through which the fresh air is being drawn into the box.
- And ... I also have a 7th "zone" ... the cold water flows to an 8" IceBox attached to an 8" S-Line Vortex fan ... The IceBox is a radiator (Hydrofarm now markets them) and can be attached to reflectors in grow rooms for cooling air. So I thought .... hmmmm ... lol! I've been able to eliminate the portable AC unit needed to manage the ambient environment. All from 1 chiller.

Trust me, I had LOTS and LOTS of glitches and hair-pulling frustrations to get this all "flowing" properly! I'm not a handyman. But I am curious. And like to tinker and experiment. And learn. blah blah blah. lol. Seriously though, this is just one example of so very many where growing weed has pushed me outside my comfort zone. Clearly not just growing the bud; I'm growing myself too. I like it.

[alltatup]

Rangi I know just how you feel. July 21 will be my two year anniversary growing, and I have learned so much!! I worship cannabis now--humans' plant best friend. Like dogs!! I'd love to see some pics of your setup and yes, moving the whole shebang to the basement sounds like a good move!!!

[Rangi]

@allatup, just fyi, I plan to post a few "DIY" type threads .... hopefully some info there that someone can use - regardless of whether it's a box grow or not. It'll probably be a week or two tho, but definitely sooner rather than later

[Rangi]

Rangi that is a really impressive grow. I'm not sure what's going on but i'm glad you showed up. I'll be following your grows, totally interested in what you're doing. Will you post final yields?

Thanks very much. I'm really excited. This is the FIRST grow for me (only been at it 1 year) where I've got some really top shelf bud And even this grow was a nail-biter having to overcome wpm for the first time, root issues (fairly familiar with those lol), and nute lockout mid-flower. But, we pushed through and got (almost ... no counting chickens before they're hatched!) to the finish line.

I'll be posting right through harvest, dry, cure and, yup, final yields. Thanks so much for your interest and support. Look forward to any and all input

[D.A.A.S.69]

Rangi ,nice set-up, and beautiful plants and buds.
Nice journal! !
Your doing a great job.
And welcome to GWE.

[Rangi]

T

Rangi ,nice set-up, and beautiful plants and buds.
Nice journal! !
Your doing a great job.
And welcome to GWE.

D.A.A.S.69 , thanks very much. Really appreciate your welcome. I've only been here a few days and I can't believe the number of folks who have reached out. Great feeling!

In the last forum I was active in, I gradually built up a bit of confidence to start helping others with challenges they were facing, rather than only being a consumer of help!! lol. Most of what I was able to offer was regarding mods I had made to my boxes, etc versus plant issues directly. I mention this, as a newcomer here, because I really do value a sense of community with people helping each other out. And if I'm not responding to someone who has a problem, it's because I don't feel confident in the quality of any advice I might give for that particular issue. So, I'd rather keep my mouth shut than point someone down the wrong path. That said, I do find here and there that there are problems I can recognize and perhaps comment on, and when I feel reasonably sure, I'll happily do so. I like it to be a 2-way street, because I sure need all the help I can get!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Rangi, I've been growing for over 50years, and I can tell, that you already know more than I do !!
You are constantly learning, or you are backing up.
You jump right in, anytime you want too,
And HappyGrowing

[alltatup]

Spot on: share, give and take, pat on back and receive pat on back!!

[DankwingDuck]

These are not very large plants are they . They look very nice . How tall would you say they are and average diameter .how old are they. I’m going to follow this I am looking forward to seeing the out come .

[Rangi]

These are not very large plants are they . They look very nice . How tall would you say they are and average diameter .how old are they. I’m going to follow this I am looking forward to seeing the out come .

Hey! You callin' my plants small??!! lolol

You're absolutely right! And that's something I'm going to try to address with this next crop that's currently veg'ing. Each grow to date, I've run into some problem right before/after transition to 12/12 that have resulted in stunting. Some of those issues were likely related to root zone health. And some possible related to my efforts at training/defoliation (attempting to follow the guides found on GWE). I may also have been using T5s (below the canopy) too early which may have slowed the stretch??

In any event, they're shorter than they should be, for sure, meaning yield is lower than what it could be! Not acceptable! lol

The total available vertical space in these boxes is ~34" from the rez lid to the glass dividing the grow and light chambers. Most growers flip at about 10". I'd say these are about 20" tall, the main colas are about the length of my pH meter (see pic above) and about 1.5x the diameter of the meter. In the future, I'll measure rather than provide these benchmarks! lol

Re age:

• They were cut and rooted in 1" rockwool by the LP in Feb
• I received them in March
• Veg'd them for longer than I would have liked (i'll have to look back to check, but about 6 weeks ... which included a flip to 12/12 and then back again to 18/6 upon receiving some advice that they should be given a bit more time in veg ... may have caused just a bit of stress/stunting too!)
• Flowered them for 8+ weeks; it'll be 9+ weeks since flip to 12/12

I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome too!

[Rangi]

D.A.A.S.69 Please don't mistake the "gift to gab" for any solid knowledge base Seriously, though, thanks for your support. I can't believe how much I've grown as a person over the past year since growing my own meds. Quite a journey.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Rangi, you are right again, my friend. It is quite a journey, But it's a FUN journey, there is nothing better, than smoking your own homegrown dynamite. lol
Plus, you don't have to waste your money, on the dogsh-t, that they try to sell you on the streets. You are growing some real killer MJ.
Have fun !

[Rangi]

You got it!

[DankwingDuck]

They look nice though . It’s all top bud so your quality will be on point . For the space you have a bunch is small plants is perfect imo . Once I get these training technique down I plan on doing 1 plant per 4x4 . But I’m going to spend a few more grows working on it . My goal is 1 plant 1 600w light 1 pound . . I may go up to 1000w later . My Balis can go 600 or 1000. Do three plants at a time . In early veg 3 in late veg and 3 in bloom and In late bloom . . And keep my flow like at . Got to have goals right . I’m sticking with this Special kush for now till I really dial it in . Then I’m going to plant another widow or an sour diesel later down the road .

I really like your grow thought . Shows that anyone can grow in and size space . You don’t need a full room , or a tent to grow some good meds for yourself .

Its like a little sog set up . It’s really cool.

I hope you do do a per plant and total weight .

Or at least and biggest bud weight . I’m really interested to see what these little guy got in um.

[Rangi]

They look nice though . It’s all top bud so your quality will be on point . For the space you have a bunch is small plants is perfect imo . Once I get these training technique down I plan on doing 1 plant per 4x4 . But I’m going to spend a few more grows working on it . My goal is 1 plant 1 600w light 1 pound . . I may go up to 1000w later . My Balis can go 600 or 1000. Do three plants at a time . In early veg 3 in late veg and 3 in bloom and In late bloom . . And keep my flow like at . Got to have goals right . I’m sticking with this Special kush for now till I really dial it in . Then I’m going to plant another widow or an sour diesel later down the road .

I really like your grow thought . Shows that anyone can grow in and size space . You don’t need a full room , or a tent to grow some good meds for yourself .

Its like a little sog set up . It’s really cool.

I hope you do do a per plant and total weight .

Or at least and biggest bud weight . I’m really interested to see what these little guy got in um.

I'll try to give as much data as possible. The box is a 4' x 2' space with 2 x 400W. I have 10 plants in this grow (out of 18 'potential' positions). I've seen pics of a guy grow 1 plant in a Bloombox (3' x 2'; 1 x 400W) and get > 1 pound of highest quality Malawi. He's a guru!!

I should get over a pound for sure from this grow. And there's zero popcorn. Allllll sweeeeeet buddd!!!

[DankwingDuck]

That’s what I’m trianing my plants to do . Flat blanket of buds. It’s taking a little time to veg but it’s nice and flat and looking pretty good .

[Rangi]

Harvest Day!!

Got up at 2 am, did my cloning from 3-5, then rewarded myself with the grand "reveal" after 40 hours of chillin' in the dark ....



Chopped and hung in the box ... keeps all that delicious aroma contained! lol



Errands to get done this morning, then I'll start trimming this afternoon.

Who wants to estimate trim time?? (solo project; Fiskars only)