1400w scrog: Bluezilla & Kolossus

[elchupacabra 670]

1400w Bluezilla + Kolossus Grow

 

First things first:

 

(Warning: my updates will likely be only 2 to 3 times per month, and I do tend to write more than I need to)

 

Hardware:

 

2 x 400w Philips mag HPS ballast

1 x 400w Apollo 400w Bulb

1 x 400w Eye Hortilux HPS 400w Bulb*

2 x reflector

 

1 x 600w Gavita 600e Digistar

1 x 600w Gavita 600w HPS bulb*

 

A/C 24 hours @ 24°C (outside temperature is around 30-35°C)

temperature at plant tops: ~28-31°C

 

Veg: 15/9

Flo: 12/12

 

DWC with lots of airflow

15L buckets, some 2" net pots, some with 3", some with 6"

 

Nutes:

 

GH-Flora 3 part OR Advanced Nutrients 3 part (the old one) - I have both, together in enough quantities for the duration of this grow. I have found that interchanging them, as long as I am using all 3 of them, has no negative effects. (I am not talking about mixing GH and AN together, but rather one week of topping up with GH and the next week with AN.)

 

Additives:

 

Cannazym/Sensizym - throughout the cycle

PK 13/14 - when necessary

Superthrive - a couple sprays during the early stages

 

pH - 5.6-6.0

ppm - 400-450 during veg, we will see how she likes it during flowering. she was super content with 500-550 last time around, and that's what I will aim for.

 

*Until November 9th, the 600w bulb being used is a Philips Greenpower 600w, and the 400w Bulb being used is a Philips 400w Son-T bulb. The hortilux and gavita bulb are on the way from 'Murica.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

BZ#1

 

 

 

After finding a keeper of FOTH's BZ (Bluezilla : New Blue Diesel x Shackzilla), shown above, I decided it was time for me to do a bigger grow with a single uniform phenotype. Towards the end of September, I cut 2 plants of BZ#1 up into clones.

 

Extra info: BZ#1 is (I think) a 50/50 pheno with both sat and indica tendencies. The nugs are dense (but not like the rocks of some indica that I picked up in Cali once) and coated. the fan leaves and stems are coated as well. The smell is skunky, cheesy, pungent, and diesel-ish. The smoke tastes like very high quality charas, very hashy taste. The high is a combination of in the head and in the hamstrings - your head will be rolling along but your hamstrings will not feel like going anywhere. It seemed to have blue tendencies in some of the lower nugs, but I don't think that my temperatures will be conducive to colours. It is not like a killing fields which I've heard colours in almost any temperature.

 

 

within 5 days, the first tangible roots had shown (not just white bumps, but strands), and within 10 days they were dying to be put under a real light instead of a t5. they were granted their wish at the end of the month:

 

here they are, 2 days into their new homes, on the first of october:

 

here, we have 9 clones around a 400w (which will be shortly replaced by a 600w).

 

 

The one on the right, in line with the bulb and in contact with the screen, is a BZ#0 - a much, much more sativa leaning pheno of the same parents, extremely stretchy and 2 weeks longer flowering. That is why the other buckets have 2 clones per bucket and this has it's own. It is the smallest to start, but will rapidly take up more than it's fair share of space...

 

This screen is 38" wide - 1m - and 40" tall - about 1 m.

 

here, we have a total of 5 clones under a 400w with a standard reflector, nothing fancy. Two in 1 bucket with 2" net pots, and 3 in one bucket in one 6" net pot. The reason the pots are all over the place is because I planned on something different initially and then changed the plan a couple times before settling on this one.

 

 

 

I have always been an advocate of vertical bare bulb growing - purely due to the heat in my country. if i lived in finland, perhaps I'd be an advocate of horizontal bulb orientation. But whatever it is, making assumptions with 0 experience and ambiguous evidence is not something I like to do. Hence, I decided to do the following: one vertical grow around a 600w bulb in an area of 1.5 x 1 m, and a horizontal grow right next to it under 2 x 400w with reflectors. It's not a good experiment, as there is no control, and the sample size is limited, and there are many variables that are not controlled, like uneven reflectivity and passive lighting from neighbouring lamps. but it should give me some idea of how these two systems work and how they differ.

 

There is only 1 x 400w in the picture. the second will be placed adjacent to it, with a DIY reflector I made from a sheet of reflective material (possibly the same thing used in reflectors; i found it lying around at a hardware store and took it) that I kind of bent into a reflector shape.

 

I also received this beautiful piece of hardware that i bought from Germany on the 1st;

 

 

she was set up immediately, but was not used till about a week later; I did not want to burn the young clones.

 

as you can see, the dial is kind of wonky and points in the wrong direction; the pointer is off by about 180°. I didn't even ask Gavita what was wrong, I figured it's some kind of manufacturing defect, could not find any others like it online...it seems to work normal though, it is pulling a hair over 600w/h so I think the functioning is fine.

 

now, less words and more pictures:

 

the 7th of oct, still going 400w on the vertical:

 

 

 

starting to see the differences between vert and horizontal and their effects on the plant

 

10th of october, really starting to grow:

 

 

 

(the new plants in the background are also BZ#1; the 2 buckets furthest back were removed later to make room for the Kolossi.)

 

15th of Oct

 

 

 

20th of Oct

 

 

 

The screen has been put in place.

 

Below, we see Kolossi, a week old or so. There were supposed to be 20, but just after sowing them I was forced to do some travel for work and when i came back 4 days later, there were only 15 that had survived. Due to some other unrelated shit, 2 more of them died as well, and I have 13 Kolossi.

 

 

25th October:

 

 

 

 

 

the time to flip will come before November. It will be early for the Kolossi but I'm really only growing them to find a keeper or two, and they do not need to be at full size (I think) to do that. As soon as they're large enough they will be cloned. they are smaller than they should be as they have been a lot farther from the light than they should be. That problem should be solved soon.

 

Basically, we have one scrog under a 400w, one scrog around a 600w, and one kolossal clusterfuck under another 400w.

 

I hope to be cut and cleaned up by the end of January, ready to roll again.

 

Best Vibes to All

 

El Chupa

[chucha 1,121]

nice i grab a seat

[Roodni 226]

Looking epic dude! The nug looks tasty too

[saxo 12,616]

[starinhazy 2,938]

This looks really interesting. Cant wait for the action scenes....

 

Build'em up big

[elchupacabra 670]

Thanks for all the positive sentiments.

 

I'd like to add that if anyone has any advice that they wish someone had told them before they did their first SCROG, send them my way. I've heard this and that, from him and her, and therefore, believe almost none of it, as neither him nor her were members of opengrow

[elchupacabra 670]

update: after one (possibly pointless) transitional day of 14/10, today, the plants were shifted to 12/12. 9-10 weeks from now will be the harvest for most of what i've got in there. hope it all goes as planned.

 

stay safe folks

 

Best Vibes

 

El Chupa

[rsa420 128]

very nice indeed, I will be following this

[bigun 6,521]

looks good indeed. I don't think you need advice. I am pulling up a soft cushioned chair to watch this.

[elchupacabra 670]

looks good indeed. I don't think you need advice. I am pulling up a soft cushioned chair to watch this.

 

very nice indeed, I will be following this

 

Thanks for stepping in fellow gardeners. I hope to live up to your expectations

[elchupacabra 670]

Hi guys,

 

Sorry it's been a while. Problems with my phone cable, and lots of work. Nonetheless, I tried to take out as much time as possible to do the trimming and the scrogging. It's not the best that a scrog can be but it's not bad. I think I should have vegged the horizontal scrog for 5 weeks instead of 4, and the vertical scrog has lots of room for improvement. I need to start with identically sized clones, and I need to make sure that the bulb is in the geometric centre of the circular screen around it. Otherwise, some sides get more light and grow more vigourously than others. Lessons for the next run. As for these snapshots - these were taken today on the 23rd of November - almost a month after flip (27/10). The stretch is just about finishing up, the next watering will probably be the one for the PK 13/14.

 

Onto the pictures.

 

First, the 600w VScrog:

 

 

Below, I like how this PVC pipe of the structure perfectly blocks out the light bulb so my pics don't look like they have a solar entity in the centre : )

 

 

This is what I think is the hidden winner of this Scrog: My super stretchy foxtailing pheno of NBZ - visible here in the left half of the picture, the only plant with one full bucket for itself. She has successfully taken up the space of 2 of the other phenos despite having 4-5 days less of veg!

 

 

Here's a so-so picture of her from the front:

 

 

 

If I get 250-300g off of this V Scrog I will be happy. I mentioned, I think with 1-2 weeks more veg and even sized clones to begin with this screen can totally be filled out. Yield will depend on bud density. Efficiency will depend on how much the pheno stretches (e.g., my super stretchy NBZ#0, with airier but larger buds and more stretch, vs the NBZ#1 keeper pheno, with less stretch, but far, far, far more bud density.

 

Last picture I got before lights out today - the frosting ceremony is well underway!

 

 

anyways.

 

Onto the 400w Scrog:

 

 

The end of the screen at the bottom of this picture was supposed to be filled entirely; it is not, as shown below. However, I see that when the light is on, there is very little light overall that is reaching this end of the screen.

 

 

In retrospect, with this cut, an extra week of veg may not have been a bad idea, as well as continuing the scrogging for perhaps 15 days of flowering instead of 20.

 

 

200-250 g off of this and I will be happy for this run.

 

Are my expectations too high? :-/

 

Moving on...

 

Not to be forgotten - the Kolossi seedlings.

 

Here is a group shot of the full horizontal part of this grow (NBZ scrog + Kolossi) :

(Obviously, the scrog side is much more filled out. Not sure if it's clear in this picture, but the area where the two lights seem to overlap is where the real juicy, thick, dense, vigorous growth is. i can't fucking wait to cut these colas that are in the middle.)

 

 

As for the Kolossi girls, I didn't have enough time to really get good close up pictures.

 

That being said, I tried to follow some advice I saw in a long thread on ICmag a long time ago that supposedly influences or increases the number of female plants. There were very specific instructions, including but not limited to maintaining the following conditions consistently during weeks 3-4 of the plant's life:

• 60%+ r/h
  
• 12-15 hrs of lights on during veg
  
• warmer days than nights
  
• keeping temperature/nutrient related stress to a minimum
  

and other things. I dont' know how accurate this is, or if it has been tested with various strains, various combinations and permutations of the given variables, with a control, etc. So I cannot scientifically rule out coincidence as of yet, or even scientifically attribute any results to these factors. However, I did wind up with 2 males out of 12 plants. And none of the big, juicy girls were the males. I will be trying this again with some amount of control and changing individual variables to see how effective it actually is.

 

 

I have my favourites, of course. They all have a lot of variation as far as the structure of individual plants go, but the smell of all of them seems to be similar (identical, maybe) in terms of the base note. They all have a very spicy smell, a stark contrast to the fruity, fuel, lemony combination that the NBZ throws out.

 

Clones will be taken tomorrow. Including a couple clones of NBZ#0 and NBZ#1. It's late to be cloning, but I simply completely spaced out as far as that went, and cloning in flowering just takes an extra couple days. hell, my plants are usually more than happy to clone under 12/12 in 5-6 days.

 

 

As for diagnostics:

 

My PPMs are all at 450. I will be upping it to 500 as the plants are looking a shade lighter green than I'd like; again, i'd rather err on the side of deficiency than excess.

Will be adding PK 13/14 before the end of the month. Water is pH'd to 5.5-5.8, never crosses 6.0 at the very rare extreme end.

 

Apart from that:

1. My Eye Hortilux 400w HPS bulb arrived safe and sound, and was fitted in. The Gavita 600w bulb arrived in fragmented shards of glass. The hortilux came with far, far superior packaging though. Lesson learnt. So for now, i'm stuck with my Philips Greenmaster 600w.
   
2. Got 2 pairs of rope hangers. My job of raising and lowering lights has become so much easier, this is a COMPLETE game changer.
   
3. Received my new enzyme replacement - Sensizym instead of Cannazym. It recommends 2ml/L instead of Cannazym's 2.5ml/L. So far I've used it twice at 100% recommended dosage - no problems.
   

 

I also received my pack of 10 glass filter tips.

 

Really makes for a nice smoke, and I don't have to waste the last bit that winds up near the roach now. (Is the filter tip called a roach in other countries as well, or is that just an indian thing?)

 

I'd really like if it came in a slightly smaller diameter option as well though - these ones are the size of a standard cigarette filter, and I dont always want to smoke spliffs that fat. But it's flawless; I don't get any particles in my mouth when smoking.

 

Big shout out to all my opengrow buddies. Countrymen and countrywomen alike - keep it safe!

 

Best Vibes

 

El Chupa

[FoolOnTheHill 3,031]

Nice,

you made a lot of progres.

Keep it up!

[saxo 12,616]

....indeed! nice cage & scrog

happy looking greens there,chuba !!

[elchupacabra 670]

Nice,

you made a lot of progres.

Keep it up!

 

Thanks FotH.

You have my gratitude, Master.

 

....indeed! nice cage & scrog

happy looking greens there,chuba !!

 

Cheers mate, I'm certainly trying to keep em happy in there

[elchupacabra 670]

Upped PPM's today from 400-450 to 530.

 

Water is about at 80ppm, and when added to 60L of water, 10ml each of Advanced Nutrients GMB (10ml Grow, 10ml Micro, 10ml Bloom) increases the ppm by 130. Added 30ml of each and the water was up to 480 ppm. 15ml of Canna PK 13/14 and the PPM went up to 535 ppm. Interesting, because the back of the Canna PK label says to add 15ml for every 10 litres. That sounds like far too much for a reservoir feeding Cannabis.

 

pH'd to 5.7

 

So now, about 4 weeks into flowering, we have started the PK 13/14. I did not empty the DWC buckets of the previous nutrient solution. The buckets were about 40-60% empty, so everything was just topped up with the 535 ppm solution. Next grow I plan to have a central reservoir with a recirculating DWC. I want to do that for another one or two grows before I move on to attempt something like a 'heath robinson' kind of setup. I want a good collection of 2 or ideally 3 excellent mother plants, one indica, and the other two sativa leaning hybrids. Then i will run 3 vertical scrogs or half pipe scrogs depending on the circumstances at the time.

 

As of right now, vertical and horizontal seem to have their own ups and downs. If i'm not mistaken, the plants underneath a horizontally oriented bulb should be receiving a higher umol/s/m^2 right? because the plants are receiving the light from one side of the bulb as well as the reflected light from the other side? We will have to see how the yields look.and then I will have to run a legit comparison between vertical and horizontal. Will get a 600 DE gavita setup, and in conjunction with my current 600w vertical, I will do a set of 2 SOGs - one with 2 strains under 600w vert and one with the same strains under 600w DE. Same veg, same everything, except for bulb orientation!

[elchupacabra 670]

27/11 pictures

 

 

At the end of week 4, and on to week 5 the 27th is the first day of the P/K regimen. It looks like the vertical plants are a bit ahead of the horizontal ones. this is probably because they got a 10 day headstart on their horizontal counterparts.

 

 

the buds underneath the overlap of both of the 400w lights in the horizontal are frostier than the rest.

 

 

Today on the 30th, I am making some adjustments to the feeding. I started everything (apart from kolossi) on pk. I feel as though the vertical plants are responding better. I think this is simply because they're a little older and had crossed that stage of maturity a plant needs to reach to flower...i think? i dont know.

 

I also found that the plant grows best with about 600 ppm at this stage of flowering. I tried 600 on two plants and saw the swlling in a day.I also tried 800, but the tips of the leaves started to show signs of burn so i turned it back to 600. So from tomorrow's feed, I will top up with 600 ppm. More info stay tuned folks. Have a good toke

 

Best Vibes

El Chupa

[elchupacabra 670]

nice ballest, how is it going. why you waste money on the extra expesive insulation?

 

why not use something more cost effective and more reflective?

 

please tell me if there's something you think I could use that's more reflective!! This isn't particularly expensive, but it's cheaper than the alternatives. I could use aluminium foil, but it would keep tearing. I could put wooden walls and paint them but then i'd need to screw a wall fan onto the wall, because the oscillating standing fan will not go through the wood obviously. I do not have a wall fan and I have a standing one already. Mylar is not available in non-industrial quantities. It would work out more expensive for me. i'm really at my limits here, and any suggestions would be great.

 

The term for the panda wrap material is 'polyfilm' in india. i'm trying to find one who will give me what i need without giving me enough to cover a greenhouse

[Nightmara 398]

Both scrogs looking good. They could've stretched a bit more on the colossium vertical one but you know next time! Scrog techniques yield surprisingly good i'm sure that you will hit your targets.

What is bluezilla again? It sounds delicious

[FoolOnTheHill 3,031]

please tell me if there's something you think I could use that's more reflective!!

 

You could have a look at "reflex white" paint

 

What is bluezilla again?

 

Shackzilla X NewBlueDiesel.

[agreenpassion 6,930]

 

 

please tell me if there's something you think I could use that's more reflective!! This isn't particularly expensive, but it's cheaper than the alternatives. I could use aluminium foil, but it would keep tearing. I could put wooden walls and paint them but then i'd need to screw a wall fan onto the wall, because the oscillating standing fan will not go through the wood obviously. I do not have a wall fan and I have a standing one already. Mylar is not available in non-industrial quantities. It would work out more expensive for me. i'm really at my limits here, and any suggestions would be great.

 

The term for the panda wrap material is 'polyfilm' in india. i'm trying to find one who will give me what i need without giving me enough to cover a greenhouse

I live in the USA- what about using simple flat white paint as a reflective material? That's the cheapest and cleanest option I can think of. Are there products available through Amazon where you are located? If yes is the answer then online can be another method of sourcing orca or panda or whatever you actually want.

 

-Passion

 

wow, so stoned it took me an hour to write that lol--herijuana x jackberry baby

[elchupacabra 670]

You could have a look at "reflex white" paint

 

looking for an equivalent here. a lot of these things are only available in industrial quantities. panda film, ducting, mylar, etc. It makes me really get innovative with it, hence the car reflector. however, it is coated with mylar and it's pretty bloody reflective! any reason why this wouldn't be a good idea? (apart from the flammability...) I hope to get mylar in 2016 with a friend coming from europe.

[elchupacabra 670]

I live in the USA- what about using simple flat white paint as a reflective material? That's the cheapest and cleanest option I can think of. Are there products available through Amazon where you are located? If yes is the answer then online can be another method of sourcing orca or panda or whatever you actually want.

 

-Passion

 

wow, so stoned it took me an hour to write that lol--herijuana x jackberry baby

 

I've got flat white paint on the walls, but right now my grow is not filling up the entire room, so the grow isn't actually wall to wall. and since I just built a frame inside which to do the grow, the cheapest and most effective way to get reflection of light close to the plant is by using this stuff wherever possible.

 

it's actually quite reflective, it is way more reflective than aluminium foil and certainly matches or betters the reflectivity inside my grow tent (one my friend bought online that is coated with your standard reflective grow tent material).

 

 

i thought i had seeds of jackberry x herijuana, turns out their jackberry x heribei, but i'm interested nonetheless. they will have to be popped in a couple days. My next grow has to be done and cleaned out by the middle of april at the most, so the faster finishers will be appreciated. i mean, if i can start flowering on feb 1st and be done by march 30th, nothing like it. april and may are our hottest months and i don't want to be growing in that time. Might as well give the air conditioner a rest for a couple months as well.

i'd rather wait for the rains to start in june, when the temperatures come down to 28±3 and it rains. it gets humid but the ac keeps it 60 in the day and a little more at night. sativas won't mind it much usually.

 

i'll be keeping mother plants during april and may though. and they will get big. and i will start june off with a nice SOG.

 

Both scrogs looking good. They could've stretched a bit more on the colossium vertical one but you know next time! Scrog techniques yield surprisingly good i'm sure that you will hit your targets.

What is bluezilla again? It sounds delicious

 

Thanks Nightmara. I also agree, the vertical could have filled out much more. I overestimated the stretch and under-vegged the plants. Like you said, it's about implementing it next time.

 

Bluezilla, as FoTH mentioned, is Shackzilla x New Blue Diesel. I've only successfully grown 3 beans so far out of 3 that i popped this year. And I got 3 very different, lovely phenotypes. I'm looking to find more, but that will have to wait till the post-summer grow next year.

[Burning Bush Seeds 319]

I use car reflectors too but only limited. You can buy survival blankets that you can make curtains of. They reflect as much as anything out there plus allow you to see through the walls and into your grow without moving them. Imo survival/thermal blankets are awesome for grows. Some are made of mylar

[Burning Bush Seeds 319]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004356WLY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1449809148&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=survival+blanket&dpPl=1&dpID=41vA6WR-IiL&ref=plSrch

 

4 pack of 84" x "56" 5 bucks

[agreenpassion 6,930]

It's usually easiest if you build a sectioned off area off of a corner of a room. That way your cab is almost half built. In the USA at Home Repair stores like Home Depot/Lowe's http://shop.parkerbs.com/ekmps/shops/parkerbs/images/PIR-Thermal-Laminated-Insulation-Board-2400-x-1200-x-100mm-11191-p.jpg the have wall panel insulation in 4' X 8' sections. It works great as a structure to section off areas in rooms and is convenient for cutting holes in or applying a reflective material to help section off a larger area. Just build a frame using 2' X 4' and 1' X 2' lumber to size, doorway, ventilation and wiring access through the panels and you've got a homemade kinda inexpensive cab that you customize as you prefer. I triple check light-proofing and tape off any indicator lights (ac, dehumidifier, heater etc.)

 

and it can be taken down in just a few minutes by pulling a few screws... right back to how it was before