New Grower Vapor's 2nd Grow and the Tale of the Auto White Cheese (and a few photo strains)

[Son of Hobbes]

buddro,

I have a 5x5 tent and has the plastic corners, hanging the scrubber and filter can be done. Here is what I did for added supports.

My tent came with 3 roof supports to cross above top. I added another 4 more.

At hardware store they have the adjustable curtain rods. I then pulled them open and used them on top of the supports that tent came with. My ceiling looks like a checker pattern and where all x's meet I zip tied. These rods were $4.99 for 2 and helps my tent support and spots for mounting tremendously.

Pic two you can see better just wrap the L shaped leg around bar support extend to other side. I chose to put the curtain rods on top of the main support rods. After everything is tied together you would be surprised. I have 22inch filter 6in vortex, 2-600w, and 3 circ fans all hanging from ceiling and I feel I could add more safely. Easy, quick, and cheap fix.

They make them in two packs which is convenient for most tents.
24"-48, and 48" -84

http://www.lowes.com/pd_86612-73-24-...roduct_price|0

Hope this helps

I have the three support rods up top as well. I never thought of using the curtain rods before; but I actually have some at home here and by golly they do have those same hook ends. After seeing your setup, I guess you proved me wrong on hanging it from the top haha! I'm still a little leary about it though; but I'll give it some serious thought; it would be nice to free up the space. Aside from space reasons; are there any other benefits of having my exhaust/scrubber at the top of the tent instead of the bottom?

hereb4,

I run a similar set-up in my tent...but..the can fan is outside the tent...in a large plastic box filled with insulation...the box has holes cut out for the fan inlet and outlet....the carbon filter is mounted on the exhaust side of the fan....fan sucks from the tent ,then blows hot stinky air through the carbon filter....this way the fan and filter sit on the floor outside the tent...nothing heavy hanging above the plants, or taking up space beside them...
this is the quietest set-up I have found too...

That's an interesting idea; but seems like it relies on having the space outside the tent as well. So if I'm envisioning this right; you have your flex duct from inside the tent going outside one of the tent's port holes, into a sealed box (minus the two X" openings), where your fan is sucking in the air from the tent and blasting it through the filter? Could you reverse the fan/filter so instead the filter is first; with the fan drawing air up through the filter and blasting it out? I've read some articles on whether the fan should be sucking or blowing air through the filter; what do you think about it (based on your experiences?)

I'll fiddle with the fan and scrubber a little and see if I can make it fit better in the tent; but I'm pretty content with it at the moment. If the drawback of having fresh clean air exhausting out is giving up 1 plant site; it seems like a pittance to pay for some peace of mind! Thanks for the feedback fellas; I'm feeling armed and dangerous with all this new found knowledge :hot:

 

[Son of Hobbes]

My seed order came!

Feminized Auto Strains and Bean Count:
White Label Seed Company "Skunk Auto": x20 (taking a gamble on these. they were pretty damn cheap in price compared to other strains.)
Nirvana Seeds "Northern Lights Auto" x5
Nirvana Seeds Bubblicious Auto x1
Sativa Seeds "Jock Horror" x1
G13 Labs "Auto Northern Lights x Auto Sweet Tooth" x1
G13 Labs "Auto AK" x6
Auto Seeds "Trans Siberian" x3
Freedom of Seeds "White Goblin" x3
Freedom of Seeds "Jack Auto" x2
DNA Genetics "60 Day Wonder" x6
Dinafem "White Widow Auto" x11

For a total of 59 feminized auto seeds.

Here are all the photo strains I got as freebies!

Reserva Privada "OG Kush" x2
Reserva Privada "Kandy Kush" x1
Reserva Privada "Sour Kush AKA Headbank" x1
Reserva Privada "The OG #18" x1
DNA Genetics "Cannalope Kush" x2
World of Seeds "Strawberry Blue" x2
Dinafem "Moby Dick" x2
HSO "Trainwreck" x2
G13 Labs "Northern Lights x Jack Herer" x1
G13 Labs "Sour Diesel x Chronic" x1
G13 Labs "Sour Diesel x White Widow" x1

For a total of 16 freebie photo strains!

I'm tabling the photo strains for down the road; so it's all auto's on this next grow! Now to decide what to germ... hmmm decisions decisions

I've also got my new grow tent set up (3 ft by 20 inches x 5 ft.) I absolutely love it. My Mrs. loves it. It's what I should have gotten instead of the 4 ft x 4 ft in all honesty. But a learning mistake, and now I have two nice size tents The new tent is just the perfect size, could easily 6 plants in it and still plenty of room for height with the 400W light going in it. I'm considering venting it into my big tent; and letting the scrubber do it's work, rather than implementing it's own ventilation system. For now though; the new tent is going to serve as the home for my current grow's photo strains; the Critical Jack Herer, the Pineapple Express, and the Blue Widow. Going to throw them in there very soon and switch to 12/12 with the 400W HPS. Should be more than enough for just the 3 plants, and then I can let them flower til past christmas/January if necessary. Can't wait for that blue widow, she's sooooooo stinky already and it's just stems! Flowering those on the 400W will free up that 1000W for the larger group of auto's that's coming its way very soon!

 

[buddro]

Sounds like an awesome new setup!! And wowwzers what a seed order, wanna share . With needing that much seed you should think of making a seed run on your favorite strains.

@Vapor "Aside from space reasons; are there any other benefits of having my exhaust/scrubber at the top of the tent instead of the bottom?"

I like it at the top of my tent cause my passive vents are at the bottom. This keeps the suction of hot air at the top of then tent while fully drawing cooler air from bottom. In my mind and this might not be theory but I think of it as, when the filter is above the light and cold is down low. You are creating sort of a thermocline.

Grab a couple cheap thermos and stick one on top of tent and one on bottom or plant surface level and play around with moving the exhuast. When I raised mine up top. Total tent temps went down 2 degrees for me and surface level 3-4 degrees. Made a big difference on the air being able to be drawn bottom to top thru tent instead of sucking in fresh air from bottom and right in and out of tent cause scrubber is so close. Just my . Play with the idea you will find a sweet spot!! All and all nice setup look forward to the grow of some wonderful strains you have listed.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Day 45 - I moved the 3 photo strains (Critical Jack Herer, Blue Widow, Pineapple Express) to the smaller grown tent now and they are starting their 12/12 light cycle under a 400W HPS. The Blue Widow and Pineapple Express are so bushy; going to LST them down to create a more horizontal canopy. The Critical Jack Herer was a wimpy plant for a long time; but it's really filled out the diameter of the 5 gallon bucket. Really curious to see what kind of buds form on it due to how it grew. Wondering if I stunted it somehow or if it's just a weak bean. It's chugging along though; if it yields anything it's better than nothing! I only have a small box fan in the smaller tent right now; I have on order another 400 CFM fan, a 240 CFM fan, and another carbon scrubber. I'm paranoid about smell, would rather go overkill than get sloppy. They will all be here by Wednesday of this week. I put a quart jar of ONA (Odor Neutralizing Agent) in the small tent and it actually is doing VERY well on sucking up the smell on those 3 photo strains (and they REEK, even in veg, we're talking a coffee skunk smell if you scrape your fingernail along the base stalk.)

In the big tent, I have one my one and only super lonely Auto White Cheese. I took more string and tied it down some more; than main stalk is practically horizontal but I don't feel like it's at any critical angle or danger of snapping or being too stressed. If you've ever bent pipe before; it seems plants are very similar; you don't just necessarily make a 45 or 90 degree bend, you gradually pull it down. I'm sure that cola will be aiming straight up at the light again; but now I have 1000W just blasting down on a practically flat square of stinky cheese goodness. I have the lights about 9" from the tops; I put my hand above them and it's a warm but not overbearing or hot by any means. I'm going to monitor it over the next 8 hours and see if I notice any curling or burning; I'm trying to find my sweet spot. The cheese won't be lonely for long though; my new autoflowers are germinating and several have already popped and under a 125W CFL (this will be my 3rd grow, started in it's own most epic of threads!) I'm also mounting an ONA mist nebulizer sprayer into my big tent to further combat the smell and future sea of plants. It has a timer on it so I'll set it for hour interval sprays to help with the scrubber. The scrubber already does a great job. But I'm paranoid about smell.

The Auto White Cheese has some bad nute splash burn on the leaves; I've been using a water can with a rain spout on it; so it comes out in a shower. I invested in a long handle thin spout can; so I can sneak into the pots and water without hitting the leaves. The buds sure are growing though; I can see where a big cola is starting to form up. I hope the flowers don't grow around my string I'm using to tie things down, I tried to hold them at the nodes where there is no flowering growth.

I think I may invest in some fan controllers after all; it's supposed to get very cold from here on out (30's and 40's for a high), so I dont' want to cold blast out my grow tent with brisk fall air. Not to mention the noise with two 400 CFM fans is going to add up; the one isn't bad; but there is a nice gentle hum around the tents haha

I took a few pics of the Auto White Cheese; I'm waiting to kick on the lights on the photo's to get a few pics of them. Should have a photo update tonight!

 

[Springa]

Damn good post! Informative and precise. Nute splash happens! Well at least to me now you. I started using a small spout water jug from Wally world.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Day 57 -

Sorry for the lack of updates; been a busy few weeks. Cannot find camera. It's floating around my basement somewhere. It will show up soon. Shouldn't have plucked Auto White Cheese buds so early

The Auto White Cheese took a pretty good beating the past few weeks. I tried getting my 1000W HPS a lot closer to the top of the plant than I should have. I low stress trained it down to a pretty flat canopy; but I was eager to blast the plant with golden light goodness and I was only thinking about the temperature in the tent; not the heat generated close to the tops. In turn; a lot of my upper fan leaves toasted up pretty crispy and I had some pistils on one top bud look a bit crunchy. I moved the light up higher and that stopped the crisping; but by then I noticed almost all of my fan leaves were turning yellow. I thought I had a deficiency of some kind; so I started looking on the forums. I really should have taken pictures for diagnosis; but alas I did not; which could have lead to this turning out badly. However, the buds were still forming and every day they were getting fatter and fatter and crystallized. I think I definitely stunted the plant; I've seen others on the forum and mine looks like a flippin' bonsai tree compared to some others. Over the last week, ALL of the fan leaves have yellowed and fallen off. It's just buds and sugar leaves now. The small leaves on the buds are starting to yellow out; does that mean it's close to end of life? I checked the trichomes a few days ago and they still looked clear. I should check them again.

It's been incredibly dry in the area; so I've been clipping off popcorn buds and vaporizing them. Has done the trick in a pinch. Unfortunately; that bad habit started a few days ago; and I'm just about out of popcorn.

On the bright side; the top buds that still remain are getting pretty dang plump and they look super tasty. Once I find my camera I'll do a risque photo shoot!

Here's something curious though... on the stems and leaves and buds of the Auto White Cheese... they are all turning PURPLE!!! It's very apparent on the stems; but still noticeable on the sugar leaves and buds. Anyone have any idea why this is happening? Or does White Cheese just turn purple? I'm going to have Purple Cheese if it keeps it up!

On another note; I have my three photo strains in my smaller tent (Blue Widow, Pineapple Express, and Critical Jack Herer), and they are throwing out preflowers like teenagers at a concert where you throw your hands up in the air. I was stupid stupid stupid with the Blue Widow; I low stressed train some of the stems down using a piece of chicken wire underneath the pot. It was all fine and dandy until I moved the pot one day (not even sure what I was doing), and when I put the pot back into the tent; the wire shifted; so my semi-tight string job became a REALLY tight tie down; actually splitting the stem and the node on the main stalk. It's not 100% separated and it seems like the wound has kind of turned "woody", so not sure if I can ever try to tape it back up and heal it. The leaves on the stem are looking like they are dying a little. Should I remove this stem all together at the node? Would this be worth trying to save as a clone? I have to train down the Critical Jack Herer. This was my "wimpy" little seedling at the start, and now she's PISSED. She's going to produce some BUDS; I can just feel it.

I also started my 3rd Grow Diary; which will be posted soon enough with my completely all auto strains extravaganza. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I really hope I can get a few pics up to show you guys the white cheese purpling out on me!

 

[Springa]

Nice post. Sounds like the fan leaves are doing what they naturally do. Low N will turn em yellow and need of Cal/mag will splash some purple on as well. The strain may be a factor as well. I had purple stems on the Trans Siberiean. She slowed the purple down after two feedings of Cal/Mag. My fan leaves turned yellow then the sugar leaves started to turn purple. I have foxtailing all over the main cola. The yellow can be trimmed of. I kinda like the purple on the foxtails. I trim so close to the bud it hardly matters.

Some folks just let em go yellow and die this late in the game.

 

[Muddy]

While some strains do show purple stems as a result of their genetics but often when the purple stems are happening in conjunction with yellowing leaves it indicates either a P deficiency of nutrient lockout caused by the pH being off. The pH is the more likely candidate. Have you been pHing your nutrient solution and checking your run off? If so, what are your readings?

 

[Springa]

While some strains do show purple stems as a result of their genetics but often when the purple stems are happening in conjunction with yellowing leaves it indicates either a P deficiency of nutrient lockout caused by the pH being off. The pH is the more likely candidate. Have you been pHing your nutrient solution and checking your run off? If so, what are your readings?[/QU

I did not know this was attributed to a P defec. Good info. Too late for me to try now cause my girls are in their final 2 weeks but Ill rum into with my 2 week old autos soon.

 

[Muddy]

That's why some plants grown outdoors will turn purple in the fall. As the temperature of the soil gets colder it inhibits the plants ability to take up P, so the stems and eventually the leaves, turn purple. Same if the pH is out of range, P uptake is inhibited.