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Arty Grows: Rainbow Stone & Citrus Noir
2 strain from The Autoflower Portal
It has been a while since my last grow as I only grow for myself and my family and my missus.2 strain from The Autoflower Portal
I'm a vaper and only then in the evening after the day's work and chores are done and any time I chooses on weekends and holidays.
This means a crop can last me a good while and I am able to take a break inbetween grows and in the hot months of the summer.
I have always been an ardent supporter of Auto's and LED's, growing my first auto when "The Joint doctor" released "Lowryder Auto" to the world.My actual flip to LED was a few years later as LED light took a little longer to get to the stage where they were growing good buds and because they were not cheap.
At the time i was a member of another forum but I have been visiting AFN since there were only 20 members.
I used to love coming to AFN for information on auto's and noticed that these forward think growers were up for trying not only these new type of genetic strain which would flower regardless of the light cycle. Not only that a fair few of these pioneering growers were also using LED lights, especially from a company called "Grow northern" Who were making MS004 and MS0006 at the time.
I was a lurker for a number of years and would go back to my other forum and spread the good news about auto's and LED grow lights.
In the end the draw was too great , with so many new auto's and LED lights getting better and better and so like a moth to light I transitioned to AFN permanently.
It has was one of the best decisions I've made, no longer having to battle LED and Auto trolls who constantly denigrated them in favour of HID and photoperiods.
I love the kind friendly nature of AFN and the awesome staff and members here, who are always willing to lend a hand to those who need it and often resulting in firm friendships.
I wanted to share this as there are always new people, who don't know me and how I became a member here and also because there are people who do know me but don't have the backstory i have just shared.
The two strains I will be growing are from "The autoflower Portal" and have been bred by the breeder called "Stone" a wonderful, generous & kindhearted man.
Strain 1. Rainbow Stone
In the process of developing Black Stone and creating sixth generation feminised seeds, a sweet candy raspberry/bubblegum Moonstone F3 was reversed and matched with chosen lime/liquorice/musky Black Stone F5 and Rainbow Stone was born. Rainbow Stone brings out the best of both parents – stunning colours, connoisseurs flavours and broad range of medical benefits.
Small compact plants, with black edged leaves.
Strain 2 - Citrus Noir
Citrus Noir is a sativa dominant autoflowering hybrid, created by crossing a fruity Sour Lemon F4 with a musky, berry and grapey Black Topaz. Citrus Noir carries the desirable rich trichome production from the parents. Pheno variation, the most expressed is the typical hybrid with well developed satellite branches, the other one is more compact with dominant main cola. There is a black leaf phenotype as well.
Lights for the veg period.
For veg I will be using a DIY build 4 x CBX3590 COB grow light form "Grow Northern" now trading as "Horticulture Lighting Group" the makers of the "Quantum Board LED"
I will be using this light in the veg period because of the high amount of blue compared to my SanLight S4W's which have a better flower spectrum hand down.
The Cree CBX3590 COB chips used are 3500 Kelvin and when looking at the graph below, you will have to imagine the line between the 3000 Kelvin and the 4000 Kelvin.
These lights are passively cooled (ie have no fans) and are ideal for stealth growing.
The 4 x CBX3590 set up I built has a 300W max output and is dimmable.
Lights for the flowering period
For the flowering period i will be using "SanLight S4W's" of which I have three units.
2 x S4W's are sufficient for my grow space (60 cm x 100 cm) although I can alway add the third if I need a light boost towards the end of flowering.
The S4W's use premium Osram diodes (LED's) and are passively cooled (ie have no fans) which is great for stealth growing.
I will be using the SanLight S4W's for the flowering period due to their superior flowering spectrum and shown in the graph below.
Each S4W is 140w with 3 light totaling 420W if all 3 are used at the same time.
I am a stealth grower and run a silent cab, so passively cooled lights are must for a silent cab.
Another factor for having a silent cab is silencing the intake and extraction fans.3
To do this I first bought some of the quietest fans on the market "The soler and palau td silent" fans.
I bought over sized fans For several reasons as follows
- The larger size had a lower Db
- Larger fans can be run at a slower speed with the correct fan speed controller which don't cause hum.
- TD silent have two speeds on board low and high. i use low for intake and high for out take so as to have some negative pressure.
- The fans a cross flow, rather than centrifugal which have ab it more suck to them. So the larger fan are able to move more air without straining the motor, which cam make fans noisier.
The fans were wrapped in two different silencing materials I had to hand. the first was a huge roll of bubble wrap.I wrapped the bubble wrap around the fan and then sealed it in the box.
The second material was from a spare Duvet(comforter) I had, so I stripped out the hollow fibre filling and again wrapped around the fan and sealed it in the box.
At this stage it was experiment but low and behold, both silencing materials did a great job!
Next was silencing the ducting. for this i used an insulated ducting called "Phonic Trap" and used hollow fibre like i had used for one of the silenced fan enclosures.
"Phonic Trap" is a great product for two reasons 1. it does a great job of muffling sound 2. it isn't full of glass fibre (which I detest).
I used 6" Phonic Trap ducting for the 6" diameter fans and then put a second layer over that using 8" ducting. Doubling up the ducting worked a treat.
However there is always gonna be the whoooshing noise that comes out the the end of the ducting!
So I bought a 6" flexible silencer for the end of the ducting and around the ducting i put some 8" Phonic trap and then put some 10" Phonic trap around that.
Now the silence was silenced!
Finally for the cab i put up some mylar coated bubble wrap on every surface of my wooden cab to stop condensation on the walls to reduce heat signature.
So that's the silenced cab.
Grow Medium
Coco - either Canna pro or Cococoinz (small compressed coco pucks 10 = 1 liter)
Mixed 4 to 1 with either Perlite or Growstones GS-2 (expanded glass gravel) which has an even higher air holding capacity than perlite.
I hand water and use DTW - Drain To waste. generally allowing for 20%-30% run off.
Run off is removed with a wet/dry shop vacuum.
Nutrient will be described as I go along, at the moment I'm being a bit cheap as i have bits and pieces of different nutes which need to be used up.
Although I was eyeing up the "Dutch Pro Coco HW Auto" range and it was a good price too!
Now for some pic of the "Rainbow Stone" Seedlings of which all three have shown their heads.
These pics are in my Micro Cab - DIY PC Full ATX Server Tower PC Case
I was going to do 2 Rainbow Stones and 2 Citrus Noir but I have 3 Rainbow Stones and only one of the two Citrus Noir has germed, so that is what I will grow.
The seeds were soaked for 24 hours in a shot glass, on a temperature controlled propagator at 24C.
Then placed between moist folded tissue in a plastic film wrapped tub, again on the temp controlled heated propagator at 24C.
Once the tap root was between 5mm and 10 mm they were placed into Rootit horticultural sponges and put into mini propagator domes and back on the heated propagator.
Once the cotyledon leaves showed and they started to reach for thelight they went into my micro cab , which has 1 x CBX3590 DIY built LED light. max power from this driver is 50W and it is dimmable.
The micro cab is the ideal location for bringing on seedlings before they go in to the main cab!
@St. Tom @TheMongol @Mossy @Waira @blue @Rebel @Son of Hobbes @trailanimal @iWumbo @trailanimal
I'm sure I'm missing other members who asked to be tagged, I will add more tags tomorrow as I am really beat right now.
Peace and smoke to everyone
and thanks for dropping by my thread
stay classy AFN
Arty
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looking forward to this portal grow.
