Bubblegrower's Perpetual "Budget Grow" Journal

[Royal Smoke]

i think im gonna hold on to them for the moment..... but ya never know.... my mind changes often

 

i wanna put 4 air-cooled 600w in there instead..... we will see. next months project

 

 

I'm picking up my 3rd 600 for the flower room any day now......

 

Can you explain why the change to 600's?

 

or do you just want to be like me?

 

 

the lemoncake are doing very well.

 

i will be taking clones to sex them today. they are already 16" tall and vegging very very fast.

 

by the time i get the clones rooted and sexed, i should have some real good sized plants going into flower.... probably around 30" i presume.... maybe a bit taller.

 

 

 

Man..... You got a bigger head start than I thought!

 

[Grow Thread]

i move quick i gotta keep up with my plants that move twice as quick as me.

 

the l.c. seems to really like the bubbles and the humidity/temps. they doing VERY well

 

actually, the reason for the change to 4-600's isn't 100% official yet.... i have been doing some math just now while watching egypt on CNN.

 

the reason for doing this is heat mostly. it got pretty warm in there last summer (my first summer here) and i thought i could get away with it..... i actually had 1 air cooled and 1 umbrella in there for awhile and did ok.........

 

another reason is plant access. having 2-1k's side by side in a smaller room like that is fine and dandy, but if i leave space for a walkway i am totally wasting a bunch of light. right now it is pretty much a solid 48sqft of plants, only accessible from one side..... not the best set-up in the world. now because we run in the systems that we do, it's totally fine to have larger blocks of plants like this IMO...... but i like to get more personal

 

this way i could break the room into 4 quadrants, and have a small "sidewalk" in the shape of a plus sign to get to everything with more ease.

 

another thought was to just pull one of the 1k's out and keep it smaller in there since i use that room for the grow journals and more plants = tougher pictures.

 

ehhhhhh like i said.... it's still all up in the air

[welj31]

Ok BG As I stated in the past I had asked a couple breeders I know to run some test for me and now the test results are in.

 

In the testing a grower/breeder ran three different systems.

System one was a 5 gallon bucket with a 400gph pump and 2- 360deg misters.

System two was a 5 gallon bucket with one ¼ inch air line and one 4 inch air stone hooked to a small air pump.

System three was a 5 gallon bucket with only a floating fogger.

 

All clones were of same size, age, strain, and mother plant.

All nutes were set at 600ppm then moved to 1200ppm and on up to 1800ppm.

Lighting, O2, and air movement were all equal.

All testing was verified with digital instruments.

 

System 3 was the big surprise. We noticed root nubs in 48 hours. How ever once roots had started to form the growth rate slowed to a craw. I suspect this is due in part to a rise in nute temps. At one point it was over 92deg.

 

System 1 was about 3 days behind system 3.

System 2 was 4 days behind on root development.

 

 

Veg cycle

 

In just a matter of 5 days system 2 was gaining speed. On day 7 it passed the other systems. By day 14 we stopped the test as the results were clear. System 2 (bubble bucket) had far surpassed the other systems and there was no chance of them catching up.

We repeated this test several times with diff strains and even put a fast growing strain against a slower one in system 2. Each time the results were very close to the same.

 

 

Flowering

 

Well it just seemed silly to waste two plants in slower systems. So they got a reprieve and went into other ongoing testing.

 

Thanks John

[Grow Thread]

thanks for the die-hard info john!!

 

i have said it a million times before i grow why i do for a reason

 

i have tried them all before. nft, drip, aero, ebb, stinkbuds, and bubbles really truly are the way to go for me!!

 

you are probably right about system #3 dang near boiled her. for real

 

i made a post in the past, but i cannot seem to find it right now so i will lightly touch on why i choose bubbles over any other way to grow.

 

first, hydro is faster than soil if done right. no arguing.... if you have ever grown hydro, you know im right

 

ebb-n-flow IMO was the beginning of the bubblebucket. once the idea came about to go hydro/soilless someone grabbed the idea of flooding the roots, and then draining the water/nutes back out to let them get air. the ebb-n-flow has evolved into bubblebuckets. there is no need to pump the water back out and let the roots get air..... we pump air right at the roots 24hrs a day.

 

aero-stinkbuddy is a nice system, but seriously lacks in plant support. big thick stems and a lot of roots grabbing onto something is beneficial. let the plant hold up the weight..... and it will grow the weight.... not so much so if you have to support the plant from a very early age.

 

drippers wash crap from the top of the hydroton down into the rez....... and sprayers clog too easily.

 

nft just keeps the roots all jacked up. not much different than planting in soil in a small pot. the roots keep hitting walls everywhere they go. also, the plant stability problem thing. also, a pump failure in nft and you crop is lost in a matter of a few hours..... depending on temps/humidity and all that..... could be 8-12 hours..... but still.

 

the underwater current stuff is a no-no as well. having a ton of current running through large ports between buckets is going to tear your roots apart and put way too much stress on them.

 

DWC or RDWC is the way to go. plenty of air 24/7.... water and nutes 24/7.... there is never a minute of downtime in growth.

[welj31]

thanks for the die-hard info john!!

 

i have said it a million times before i grow why i do for a reason

 

i have tried them all before. nft, drip, aero, ebb, stinkbuds, and bubbles really truly are the way to go for me!!

 

you are probably right about system #3 dang near boiled her. for real

 

i made a post in the past, but i cannot seem to find it right now so i will lightly touch on why i choose bubbles over any other way to grow.

 

first, hydro is faster than soil if done right. no arguing.... if you have ever grown hydro, you know im right

 

ebb-n-flow IMO was the beginning of the bubblebucket. once the idea came about to go hydro/soilless someone grabbed the idea of flooding the roots, and then draining the water/nutes back out to let them get air. the ebb-n-flow has evolved into bubblebuckets. there is no need to pump the water back out and let the roots get air..... we pump air right at the roots 24hrs a day.

 

aero-stinkbuddy is a nice system, but seriously lacks in plant support. big thick stems and a lot of roots grabbing onto something is beneficial. let the plant hold up the weight..... and it will grow the weight.... not so much so if you have to support the plant from a very early age.

 

drippers wash crap from the top of the hydroton down into the rez....... and sprayers clog too easily.

 

nft just keeps the roots all jacked up. not much different than planting in soil in a small pot. the roots keep hitting walls everywhere they go. also, the plant stability problem thing. also, a pump failure in nft and you crop is lost in a matter of a few hours..... depending on temps/humidity and all that..... could be 8-12 hours..... but still.

 

the underwater current stuff is a no-no as well. having a ton of current running through large ports between buckets is going to tear your roots apart and put way too much stress on them.

 

DWC or RDWC is the way to go. plenty of air 24/7.... water and nutes 24/7.... there is never a minute of downtime in growth.

I agree with it all.

One thing I noticed when using no substrait such as pebbles is that the roots all hang together which in turn reduces the surface area of the root. Does little good to have 6 foot of root when there all intertwined. Seems the substrait provides a medium for the roots to spread out and cove more area. I also have noted when roots are too tight nutes seem to build up on them a lot. Whereas with pebbles they stay cleaner looking. Thanks again BG for all the help and info. You da Man

[Grow Thread]

I agree with it all.

One thing I noticed when using no substrait such as pebbles is that the roots all hang together which in turn reduces the surface area of the root. Does little good to have 6 foot of root when there all intertwined. Seems the substrait provides a medium for the roots to spread out and cove more area. I also have noted when roots are too tight nutes seem to build up on them a lot. Whereas with pebbles they stay cleaner looking. Thanks again BG for all the help and info. You da Man

 

great point about the roots becoming twine instead of having the chance to spread out and lazily float upon the airy water

 

as always, thanks for the kind words

[G3LLO]

Ok this is funny this 600 topic came up.... I run 4 600 a/c and they yield is nice (previously ran 2 1000's) I cover more space with the 600 but I use the yield master II hoods and I think I either need to get bigger hoods, put 125w floro's in between the lights, or add another 600... These hoods are 22 1/2 inches and my room is 14 foot long, I was even thinking of switching back to 1000's.... I don't know but I need to do something about the light between the hoods.... Heres what it looks like now.

 

[Grow Thread]

looks nice..... very clean. loving all the white

 

my space in the little flower room is much smaller than yours. mine is basically an 8 x 10 room with an unusable corner. right now i am only using about a 6 x 8 area of it..... at most.

 

i wanna go wall to wall and have a walkway down the middle both ways........ if i do it.

 

basically cutting the room into 4 sections.... each one about 3.5 x 3.5 or 4 x 4.

 

since i run many strains and keep the little room "fairly" perpetual it would be a big help having 4 separate areas instead of just the 2.........

 

but as stated.... everything still up in the air for the little room.

[G3LLO]

What should I do about the space between the lights. I am at about 8 foot of reflector(s) and 14 foot of length. Right now the lights aren't over laying, don't get me wrong there is light but when I used the light meter it got pretty disappointing

[Grow Thread]

regardless of reflector i go by footprint on the floor. i would never take a 600w past 16sqft or basically a 4 x 4 area.

 

so having 4 lamps in a 14' stretch is just fine... you should have PLENTY of wash from each light to fill in the gaps.

 

basically, if i had a long stretch like yours, i would be lighting a 4 x 16 area with 4-600's...... i think you are doing a little better than that and should be just fine

[G3LLO]

Well that makes me feel a little better, the area is 5x14 it just seems like the footprint stops right at the edge of the reflector.

[Grow Thread]

BC Big Bud going into flower today.

 

these seeds were gifted to me..... thats the best kind

 

 

 

they are in transition right now......... i am getting the bottoms cleaned up a bit and flushing them out..... then onto the flower room by 7pm

 

thanks tarzan.

[Grow Thread]

only the cream of the crop make it around here soldiers. you need to be ready to die for your patients at a moments notice. i have selected you from this class as "TOP GUNS"

congratulations to the chosen 8 out of 12 blubonic clones. godspeed to the graduates of this weeks clone school.

[Royal Smoke]

What should I do about the space between the lights. I am at about 8 foot of reflector(s) and 14 foot of length. Right now the lights aren't over laying, don't get me wrong there is light but when I used the light meter it got pretty disappointing

 

a couple light movers, maybe?

[Royal Smoke]

regardless of reflector i go by footprint on the floor. i would never take a 600w past 16sqft or basically a 4 x 4 area.

 

so having 4 lamps in a 14' stretch is just fine... you should have PLENTY of wash from each light to fill in the gaps.

 

basically, if i had a long stretch like yours, i would be lighting a 4 x 16 area with 4-600's...... i think you are doing a little better than that and should be just fine

 

 

Hey BG, you've seen the pictures of those 2 Monsters I've got right?

 

I've got them both under (1) 600 now, but I'm going to have 10 other plants in the room within the next few days. 10 plants, 2 monsters, 3 600 watt lights.

 

I need more light for those Monsters, don't I?

[Grow Thread]

It depends on how much floor space they take up..... and lightmovers isn't the answer for G3LLO you didn't read it all. He has PLENTY of coverage.

 

Get your plants moved in, or hypothetically move them in and configure your footprint.... then look at your lighting....

 

3 -600w lights will cover 48sqft sufficiently.

[Royal Smoke]

and lightmovers isn't the answer for G3LLO you didn't read it all. He has PLENTY of coverage.

 

DOH!

 

 

Get your plants moved in, or hypothetically move them in and configure your footprint.... then look at your lighting....

 

3 -600w lights will cover 48sqft sufficiently.

 

I'm going to have to start using math like you....

 

 

I think I'm going to measure my space today!

[Grow Thread]

DOH!

 

 

 

 

I'm going to have to start using math like you....

 

 

I think I'm going to measure my space today!

 

this is one of the most common questions i get asked in pm and it kills me everytime

 

"what kind of light to you suggest for your bubblebuckets"

 

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

yeah its ALL about the space you are lighting...... not the soil/hydro/strain/amount of plants/method of growing.... blah blah....

 

its about the footprint that you need to light.

[Grow Thread]

the blubonic bush:

 

 

 

 

[Grow Thread]

30" trainwreck hitting the flower room today

 

[Bisharoo]

[kak1963]

hey bro how ya doing? been looking at your grow looking good but ill have to read it all threw pretty long lol later man! kak1963 ps im gonna have to follow that trainwreck as im a big fan of the wreck mixes how long have ya been doing her?

[Grow Thread]

hey bro how ya doing? been looking at your grow looking good but ill have to read it all threw pretty long lol later man! kak1963 ps im gonna have to follow that trainwreck as im a big fan of the wreck mixes how long have ya been doing her?

i could go back and date them for sure, but they are like a month from seed. definitely going to be tree status. i just flipped the lights on them tonight.

 

they will be going into a 24 hour flush here in about 5 days and then they will get plain water and bushmaster for 5 days and then its back to regular lucas nutes. should make for a couple nice plants. i wish i would have topped them earlier though.... they really shot up and got real lanky over the last week or so.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

also, the BC BigBud went into flower 6 nights ago and today i have 3 of 4 confirmed females. nice.

the lemoncake are monsters. pure and simple.......... just a couple inches shorter than the tw but much more dense in node structure.... i am going to supercrop them tomorrow i think. they have already been topped once.

[kak1963]

very cool i dont know if ya seen my grows at GP or not but i just put up my cole train in my gallery very nice plant im checking into finding a nice train wreck pheno as i have some planes for one just a proven female.thanks bro ill be pulling up a chair for this one for sure! kak1963

[Royal Smoke]

very cool i dont know if ya seen my grows at GP or not but i just put up my cole train in my gallery very nice plant im checking into finding a nice train wreck pheno as i have some planes for one just a proven female.thanks bro ill be pulling up a chair for this one for sure! kak1963

 

Kaks got a Beautiful garden. You all should check it out over at GP.....

 

Thanks for coming back to the site fellow Michigander!