# Results of my latest experiment with troughs



## Hackerman (Aug 8, 2014)

Geeze, this stuff takes a long time to mature. 14 weeks into flower and I harvested today.

I did a pre-harvest last week. I usually do it that way. Sativa has such a long window of maturity that I pull most of the lower branches and some of the smaller buds off a week before harvest. Plus, it makes a 10 or 12 hour job a little easier.

I did a diary. I'll post it later after the final drying and weighing is done. 

Well over a pound in this harvest. Probably close to 2 pounds. About double my usual harvest when using 16ea - 2 gallon buckets. I had about 40 plants in 5 troughs in a 4'x4' room with a single 1000w light. Got about 20 very nice colas, all over a foot long. One weighed almost 6 ounces, wet. Should be a couple ounces, dry. 4 grocery bags of buds and enough shake and skiff to try out the new washing machine. LMAO

First pic is the pre-harvest from last week. This stuff comes off a little green but it dries to a beautiful dark red (second and third pic). I took this down from the hangers today and put it in jars to start curing it. The last 2 pics are the final harvest that I took today.

Pretty sweet for a guy who does it all wrong.  

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## MR1 (Aug 8, 2014)

Right on Hackerman, what's on the menu for your next grow.


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## Hackerman (Aug 8, 2014)

Well, I just cleaned out the flower room and put the 2 OG Kush mother plants in.

Then, the clones from the 2 mothers are coming along. I figure about the time the 2 mother plants are done, it will be time to send in the clones. 

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## MR1 (Aug 8, 2014)

Sounds good, I just sprouted an OG Kush fem seed I have had for a long time.


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## Greenthumb808 (Aug 9, 2014)

Your buds look dank! I want to be able to grow dank like you do soon! &#55357;&#56397;


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## mrnice (Aug 9, 2014)

Hackerman you sure like you are on top of your game.
Mrnice


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## Rosebud (Aug 9, 2014)

Congrats on a nice harvest... Very nice...enjoy.


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## Hackerman (Aug 10, 2014)

I bought one of those drying racks. Pretty neat for the small stuff. I still let the larger colas hang but the popcorn dries nice and even on these. I think I like them better than the paper bags I have always used.

Geesh, this one bud is as big as my light hood. LOL 

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## St_Nick (Aug 15, 2014)

Now that is a nice Bud!  Congrats on a great harvest.  I' imagine they must have been very crowded, 40 plants in a 4x4 space but they appear to have done very well.


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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

It wasn't real crowded the way I do it. Kind of a reverse SCROG where I push everything to the side and let the colas grow higher than the light.

I got about 25 giant colas from almost 40 plants. The others were big but not like these. There are always some plants than do better in a harsh environment like this. The toughest and strongest grow the biggest. Just like nature. LOL

Here are a couple shots right before harvest.

The last shot is right after the first harvest. I always go in and clean up the lower branches and popcorn. I come back for the tops a few days later. Help break up the task a little. That pic shows a good example of how the plants are all pushed to the outside of the circle. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

The really incredible part is that these plants were tortured and beaten their entire lives. LOL

First off the main room was busy with some plants that were taking too long to mature so these plants had to stay in the cloning closet WAYYYYYY past when they should have been transplanted.

Look at how bad these babies look. Skinny, stretched, root bound and over-crowded. You can't see it real well but they are all grown into the light and the tops are all burned and crispy. Pretty sad. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

Then, I discovered the concept of the grow tent. What an awesome idea, Plus, it gave me a little larger place to put these plants while the other crop finished maturing.

Since I was tight for space and had more clones than would fit in my maximum capacity of 16 buckets with 1 plant per bucket, I decided to try the trough idea.

One trough holds 7 gallons of dirt.  I put anywhere from 6 plants to 12 plants per trough (6 in one, 8 in the next, 10 in the next, 12 in the next).

In a trough with only 6 or 7 plants, this equates to one gallon per plant. Not bad. I usually grow in 2 gallon buckets with about 1 gallon of dirt in each. And I can usually only fit 16 buckets in my space (4x4).

So, instead of 16 buckets with 16 gallons of dirt and 16 plants, this experiment provided me with 35 gallons of dirt in 5 troughs and almost 40 plants in the same space.

Sounded like a winner to me. Certainly worth a try. So, I transplanted them into the troughs and set them in the tent under a 400w MH waiting for the other crop to mature. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

Finally, I harvested the old crop and cleaned up the flower room. I did some upgrades to the grow room and didn't really have time to tweak it all and dial it in so these plants were about to suffer even more torture very shortly. LOL

They look pretty happy right now considering their environment, growing up. Street children of the pot world. LOL

However, this strain of Sativa will add a foot or more in height after inducing flowering so I knew I was in trouble. These plants were already too tall. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

Second pic shows the number of plants.

About 6 or 7 plants are still in their 4" cloning pots. I'll get them transplanted today or tomorrow..... right. LMAO

After only 1 week in the flower room, look how nice...... 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

After 3 weeks, the area beneath the canopy begins to suffer but it just keeps on growing.

Tiny buds are everywhere.

And, look at that last picture. Anyone who says you can't tell a male from a female without flowers has never grown the same strain for 4 decades. LOL I could tell with my eyes closed that this was going to be a hermie. Long stretchy arms. And, the branches shoot OUT sideways instead of UP. I used to sex my plants this way and was right 90% of the time. I knew I would have to watch this one.

Look, how sad. Some of the plants are still in their original 4" cloning pots. LOL Tortures of the damned. Tortures of the damned. LOL Hard to believe that those tiny little stems are going to feed a 4+ oz plant. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

By week 4, the buds are getting huge. Look at that hermie in the lower right of the second picture. Tell me it doesn't look different than all the others. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

By week 5, the little bastard did his deed and I found a bud with some nice seeds.

The way these plants hermie, you never see the nanners. They are buried deep inside the buds and they usually only pollinate the bud that they are on. Even the bud right next to it is unfertilized.

This is what I always have (and never will again) referred to as "Hermied Perfectly". This would provide me with just enough seeds for another crop when I come home from vacation. So, all is good.

The plants are getting a little too close to the new 1000w light and I am getting a lot of light bleaching and leaf burn. Still trying to dial in this room. LOL

By this time, I have pushed the plants aside and the lower buds beneath the canopy are starting to reach for the light and put on size. This is where the 1000w light really performed over the 400w. The lower buds were huge this harvest.

Pushing the plants aside also helped with the light bleaching and leaf burn. The area under the canopy is still pretty green.

Look how sad. Some of the plants are still in their 4" cloning pots. LMAO That one is nothing but a dried up root ball. LOL Tortures of the damned. LMAO 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

Skip to week 8. It takes forever for this strain to mature. The main colas are about as big as they are going to get but the other buds continue to add size.

Because of the heat stress, a few more plants hermied. I still don't see any exposed nanners anywhere but I do find the odd bud that has been fertilized. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

Jump to week 13. Geeeeeze, still waiting for amber trics. This one the one major problem I always had with this strain. 16 week maturity.

Most of the fan leaves and larger leaves are browning and falling off. Even the larger leaves in the buds are browning up.

The buds are all about as big as they are going to get but they keep adding trics. 

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## Hackerman (Aug 15, 2014)

The rest is history.

Unfortunately, this crop hermied worse than any other crop I have grown. I usually get less than 30 or 40 seeds from an entire harvest of a pound or more. I will have hundreds of seeds from this harvest.

Fortunately, non of the large colas were affected but the lower buds were almost all seeded. Still never found a real hermie with open nanners but as I was cleaning up some buds, I found plenty of them hidden inside. No big deal because I wanted to experiment with different extraction procedures so I will have about a half pound to experiment with. Still got a pound of good sensi colas so I'm not complaining.

And, I made some awesome hash today with the seeded popcorn and skiff. 

Truly a rags (overstretched skinny clones) to riches (beautiful giant buds) to rags (hermies) to riches (hash) story. And, one with a happy ending.

The End 

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## ziggyross (Aug 17, 2014)

Holy crap those are some nice looking buds.


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