# Pitchin' da tent



## TentFarmer (Jun 27, 2008)

Hello folks,

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a magical tent that produced copius amounts of smoke.  Or at least I hope it will.....

Inside the tent....

4'x4' and 7' tall tent.
3'6"x3'6" Eb'n Flow system w/ 40 g res
600 watt HPS with HiLUX GRO bulb
Air is sucked through a charcoal filter, through the light and out the top
Using the Pure Blend Pro series of nuits from Botanicare

Started with high quality bag seed.  Sprouted 9 plants, grew them in the system untill I decided my choice 3 plants.  Took clones of each of the 3 plants and imediately flowered the mothers.  Since all were female I moved 12 cuttings to the tent and put them under 24 hour light for one week.  I topped all of my clones twice so each is supporting 4 beatiful branches.  

My ladies are a little over a week into flowering now and I think they're looking good.  But honestly after all the thought that went into this, I'm just psyched to have anything growing.  

Give em a peak and any thoughts, coments, concerns, or  anything else of the sort will be greatly appreciated.  Oh, and sorry for the late start on the journal.  Yet I figure I'm not the first to just be too damn lazy to sit and type.

Thansk again


----------



## DLtoker (Jun 27, 2008)

Gorgeous!!!!  GL with that man as it looks very promising. :hubba:


----------



## FLA Funk (Jun 27, 2008)

Thats a nice sized grow TF, props. What was the herb like that you got the seeds from?


----------



## lyfr (Jun 27, 2008)

very nice set-up.  very productive i'd bet:hubba:   if you start feelin like someone's watchin ya...its me


----------



## That crazy vancouver guy (Jun 27, 2008)

aniticipating a nice crop   

good luck, man! :aok:


----------



## slowmo77 (Jun 28, 2008)

looking good. good luck


----------



## TentFarmer (Jun 28, 2008)

FLA Funk said:
			
		

> Thats a nice sized grow TF, props. What was the herb like that you got the seeds from?



..... well it does fail me.  Where I live, if somone gives the bag of smoke a name, your going to get taxed like no tomorrow.  Yet I never save seeds unless I was impressed by the bag.  Considering my place is already smelling a little skunky, I'm going to have to rethink my smell control for this grow.  

I've got a few fan leaves looking less than perfect.  I'll try to get the photos loaded tonight.  The ladies are in lights off at the moment so I'll just have to wait.

Thank you all for your comments.


----------



## PeaceKiller (Jun 28, 2008)

Looks awesome TF, wow, I can't wait to see how well this turns out .
I'm assuming this isn't your first grow.

Be well.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jun 28, 2008)

I tried growing years ago in a 2'x2'x2' plywood box with florecent lights.  They were pretty but ultimately useless.  Other then that I've only grown the plants in this grow journal.  But I may have read a few (dozen) journals on this site and others before starting again.  

I hope you are all right about the looks of this grow.  Like I said before, after all the anticipation, I would probably be estatic to have a tent full of mutated hermies (although 12 beautiful budding females wouldn't upset me either).

I hear week four is where it really gets good.  :watchplant:

Thanks again everyone


----------



## PeaceKiller (Jun 28, 2008)

Ahh. Yeah, you really seem like you know what your doing, and hydro too. Good job.

Yea, week 4 should be beautiful. I can't wait myself. I just looked at my first grow journal and wish I could fast forward, lol. But it'll come before you know it.

As for the hermies, I hear ya with the bag seed. They can be unpredictable because more than likely came from a plant that went hermie during the grow. Kinda like mine did in my first grow, but luckily towards the end. I feel like such a fool for letting it get past me. Thankfully I only found about 8 seeds (nice ones too) in the 2 ounces I harvested. However I won't grow em because the unpredictabally.
TF, just make sure you check thoroughly and often throughout the grow on the ladies just in case. It may be difficult due to the crowdedness, especially later on your gonna have one heck of a sweeeet jungle, I just learned the hard way. But fortunatly only lost the plant then went herm.

Good luck


----------



## FLA Funk (Jun 28, 2008)

TentFarmer said:
			
		

> Where I live, if somone gives the bag of smoke a name, your going to get taxed like no tomorrow.



Same here brotha! Most a the time its just some bogus name given to some really good bud, middle men will do anything to pitch thier product ya dig. Yeah I only save the best of the best as well since I can't buy quality genetics . Just gotta stumble across em and hold on. Peace.


----------



## parkingjoe (Jun 29, 2008)

hey tent you have done an amazing job topping those babies as they look great man.

so our comments well i can only say superb dude keep up the great work and i have a chair pulled up for this grow.

pkj


----------



## parkingjoe (Jun 29, 2008)

leach is that what you americans call flushing!!!

if so last 10 - 14 days of flowering so when colour starts to change pistil wise start to flush

pkj


----------



## TentFarmer (Jun 29, 2008)

but they're getting thick.  In the past two night's I've had to spread them out because they are getting so thick.  Is there ever a healthy time to trim a plant in flowering?  I take off my nutrient burned fan leaves after they're not the majority of the exposed leaves but figured trimming for size was kinda counter productive to the master plan.   anyone with personal experience on the topic?

So far I just "super crop" the branches breaking away from the pack. Seems to slow them down for a day or two, enough for the rest to catch up.      

I've got a few nuit burns going on right now but I expected to after moving to 80% strength nuit.  I'm going to back it off a bit next tank flush but I didn't burn them nearly as bad as I did their mothers.  Kinda cruel if you think about it, 12 identical cloned sisters hidden in a tent while I "experiment" on them.  

Well enough bad mojo, heres some more pics of my little guini plants.

as for the last pic.... my guess is it's just a sign from the future.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 2, 2008)

So its bath night for my ladies.  Change the water in the res.  Flush the roots.  Fresh nuits. And  my favorite part, playing pot-tetris while I rearrange the plants trying to get my best light usage.  I'm not sure if being able to rearrange my plants all the time is a good or bad thing.  It's been great for them, but I find myself doing the plant shuffel almost every night.   

I've got a little bit of leaf curl, but only on the plant directly in front of the fan.  Moved the fan up 6" and haven't noticed any new curl.

They're really starting to get covered in white hairs.  The amount of development they do in one day is just absolutly amazing to me.  

So at just finishing their 2nd week, how do they look?  Good, bad, average?


----------



## Runbyhemp (Jul 3, 2008)

> And my favorite part, playing pot-tetris while I rearrange the plants trying to get my best light usage



I know exactly where you're coming from


----------



## someguy (Jul 3, 2008)

looking good brrrrrooooooo. seems to me you got everything goin good


----------



## PuffTheMagicDragon (Jul 3, 2008)

did you top these plants?


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 4, 2008)

Yes, ***three*** times each.  All at the clone stage. Probably should have let them root better first but I wanted to keep em short.  Worked well for the most part, but was also my first time cloning.  So that added some adventure to the mix.

I cut branches into little pieces so I could get more clones.  So I would sometimes have just two or even a few times just one node with leaves on them.  Once the new sprouts took off I waited until they each would start their 2nd node, and cut it off then.  Most of my plants had 4 tops before ever getting out of the covered tray.

All of my plants have 4 main tops.  Right before I switched to flower I removed any over ambitious sprouts so it was down to 4 tops again, and then put into flowering.  Nothing has been removed since.  A few of the plants have shot up extra sprouts since I switched to flower, but they're the taller ones on the outside of the tray.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 5, 2008)

Well... sorry girls but I enjoy a good "cat fight" once and a while. But enough is  enough.  My ladies were looking great but were getting no light nor circulation to the bottom 1/2 of the plant.

I bound them up with some string around the 4 main stems and pulled the fan leaves to the outside.  The insides of the plant are left with all the little buds forming at the nodes.

Since I have 12 identical plants to play with I've been trying different techniques on differnt plants.  Learn as much as possible you know?  The plants that I left alone, are dramaticaly farther in their progress.  The other plants that I experimented on are several days behind.

Figured the string would be low stress, and hopefully improve their overall enviroment.  I was happy to bring the plants closer to the lights again.  Well enough stoned rambling, thanks for tuning in.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 7, 2008)

So the ladies are growing like.... weeds.  I'm more than a little concerned about ventalation and light.  I'm considering chopping 3 of my plants so I can work in a 3x3 pattern vs the 3x4 pattern they're in now.  I have 4 plants that are further behind the others but one of them I'm partial to due to it's # of forming buds.

So what do you guys think?  Do I chop 3 plants so the others get more light/air?  Or am I just worried over nothing and keep the course?  Your suggestions are desperately desired.

Also, what is my ideal humidity level.  I was in the 40's but now I'm pushing 52-55 and not sure when I'm in danger of "bud rot".

Peace


----------



## allgrownup (Jul 8, 2008)

Instead of discarding a 1/3 of your plants........I would discard the lower 1/3 of ALL of your plants.


ya dig?


keep the cola's...ditch the lower lighter less dense buds.  also, better circulation means less chance of infestation.  otherwise...you looking fine man. stop frett'n.  

:bong1:


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 8, 2008)

Well, kinda wish I would have talked to you an hour ago.... and I only sent 1/4 of them to a better place.  I had 4 plants stretching on me pretty fierce.  I'll probably look into a hood thats a little less focused.  

They're looking pretty darn happy right now.  I'll post some pics next res change.

Thanks for the advise (and damn my impatience).


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 9, 2008)

So I found some little brown spots on the bottom leaves of a few of the plants.  

Cleaned out res, scrubbed everything up, rinsed the roots, and put in new water and nuits.  I guess the girls were a little thirsty.  Apparently drank 10 gallons in 6 days.  I'll have to pay better attention.

Seems to be no love loss in the tent for cutting down their sisters. 

Plants are looking better than ever.


----------



## honeybear (Jul 9, 2008)

lookin very sexy


----------



## El Hefe (Jul 9, 2008)

Tent guy your doin g great, your attention to detail, clean grow tent, and organization are awesome strong points good job on that. You shouldn't worry the brown spots as thats very common on lower leafs which brings me to my next point, TRIM YOUR PLANTS BRO! your over all yeild will not be effected as the plant will still produce the same amount of buds, however the buds grow on the lower half of the plant will be fluffy un compact, and pretty much worthless. As for your nute burn you had going on earlier, make sure the water you are using in your res is R/o as 1420 is a very low number to encounter sucha problem. MY best guess is that the stress was caused by whatever chemicals your local water supply is treated with and starting out with water at 0ppms will allow you to add more nutes which will make your plants happier. Good luck hope this advice helps.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 9, 2008)

Thanks honey, thank Hefe.

I'm going to take your advice.... although the thought of if scares the hell out of me.  Is it a matter of how much light they receive or just the bottom half of the plant?  I just want to make sure I'm not trimming too much/little off.

Thanks again


----------



## El Hefe (Jul 9, 2008)

Yeah its the light factor, without crazy amounts of side lightling the lower buds just can't dense up enough to make it worth the while of growing them out completly plus with the extra space between your grow medium and where the foliage starts allows for better air circulation helping to elimanate pest and other nasty issue that can arise with out air movement, I know it kills to do it the first time or so but in the end you'll be a happier higher grower peace!


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 9, 2008)

Well I did some trimming and some plucking and damn they're sticky.  They're trimmed up to about the 1/2 way point on the plant.  I probably should have done this a week ago or so...  

I'll let the go for a few more days before I post more pics.

Thanks for the advice (although I feel like I just cut my sisters leg off).


----------



## allgrownup (Jul 10, 2008)

the lower 1/3 is good rule of thumb.  never trim more than a third at any given time.

whether it be all from the bottom or from all over.  do not overstress your plants.

it also helps the plant direct all its energy where it needs it most, the cola's.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 10, 2008)

So here's a cool little update....

I was checking the ph a few minutes ago when the little bottle blew up all over me.  Apparently the bottle was a little clogged and squeezing a little harder wasn't the right choice.  Thankfully Litmus liquid isn't deadly, not to mention I now know at least 50% of my face has a ph around 5.5.  Pretty cool stuff....

Couple weeks ago durring a res change I pulled out my electric water heater.  I didn't unplug it and although it was above the noted temp it shorted out.  It made a noise, I picked it up and got a low voltage shock.  Dropped it back in my tray when I saw it starting to steam/smoke.  Grabbed it by the chord and laid it on the ground.  Unplugged it and suddenly the metal heat element shot off the plastic piece it was fastened into the ground and back up into the arch of my foot.

So when they say be safe out there, its not just from other people.

Watch yourselves too

Be safe


----------



## someguy (Jul 10, 2008)

i start just water with prediction. i dont want hear craklin when i smoke, so i start early


----------



## parkingjoe (Jul 12, 2008)

hi tent havnt you ever had problems with roots breaking of of the pots bottoms causing any problems etc.

ps they are looking great man well done.

pkj


----------



## allgrownup (Jul 12, 2008)

another thing to consider when deciding between pots and rockwoo cubes is  water retention.  hydroton does not hold much moisture so you need to flood regularly.  rockwool on the other hand will hold enough to elimate 2/3 the flooding needed.  Also if you have pump failer you likely to buy a days worth of time or more.  not likely with hydroton.  having said that, i loved growing in hydroton in my DWC and have only recently started using rockwool in my flood tray.  i'm still figuring it out.  i think the coco mat is the solution for the roots so far. 

i think its also important to have airstones in the res along with a smaller pumb submerged just tipped over circulating nutes.

:48:


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 12, 2008)

parkingjoe said:
			
		

> hi tent havnt you ever had problems with roots breaking of of the pots bottoms causing any problems etc.



When I transplanted the clones from the dome to the pots, they grew through the bottom of the pots within a week.  Grabbed the scissors and trimed them up.  I've never had them even peek out since.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 12, 2008)

allgrownup said:
			
		

> another thing to consider when deciding between pots and rockwoo cubes is  water retention.  hydroton does not hold much moisture so you need to flood regularly.  rockwool on the other hand will hold enough to elimate 2/3 the flooding needed.  Also if you have pump failer you likely to buy a days worth of time or more.  not likely with hydroton.  having said that, i loved growing in hydroton in my DWC and have only recently started using rockwool in my flood tray.  i'm still figuring it out.  i think the coco mat is the solution for the roots so far.
> 
> i think its also important to have airstones in the res along with a smaller pumb submerged just tipped over circulating nutes.
> 
> :48:



I like the fact that the rocks don't decompose, they float if they get out of the container, and I enjoy watching my plants drink every four hours while I sit and provide my own recipie for co2 enrichment.  The store that I bought my supplies at has a similar setup in it.  The guy was trying out different medias that require 1 3 or 5 floods daily.   I wasn't horribly impressed by his plants.   He even had plants that were over watered.  I figure that if I flood once daily that they only get the water and nutrients provided to it in that flood.   However if I'm feeding every 4 hours and they're not over watered nor nutrient burned, then they have access to as much as they want.

I have a little water pump attached in the bottom of my res mixing up the nuits.  I also have an airstone that helps keep it churning.  I used to have a heater in there but as I posted before, I traded it in for a bruised foot.  Figuring my temps shouldn't drop too low in July.  I was told that as long as I saw ripples in my res, then I shouldn't have issues with algea or anything else.  So far this has held true.

Well arn't I being long winded.

Peace


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 12, 2008)

Forgot what my whole reason was for logging on.  Wanted to show the girls off again.  

Ohh yeah... I trimmed up the bottom buds as suggested and afterwards realized I had a lot of trimmed buds going to waste.  So instead of drying them out I opted to pull out all the little white hairs and throw them into a bowl.....  Previously I was trying to keep my hopes realistic about the quality of bag seed, but now, now I think I know the truth.  Good times are coming...

enjoy


----------



## parkingjoe (Jul 12, 2008)

ya shouldnt trim off roots but looking at ya plants they aint having any probs budding up so ya doing summat right man.

looking great btw

keep up the good work tent

lol

pkj


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 12, 2008)

Roots were trimmed once about a month ago.  Was curious about them after posting earlier so lifted one up to see about a thousand little roots peaking out the hole but no more than a 1/4 inch.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 16, 2008)

Well today my ladies are officially 4 weeks into 12/12.  Last night I changed the water/nuits in the res and changed over to the "bloom for soil" fert.  They're getting nice and plump.

First photo is before the lights came on today.  

I guess I need to pick up some sort of magnifying device.  Would a good magnifying glass do or do I need to go full blown microscope?

I also dropped the dime for an ozone generator.  My place just plain stinks (so wonderfully) these days.  Hopefully this can make a difference.

Thanks for the support everyone.

Enjoy


----------



## FLA Funk (Jul 16, 2008)

Wow TF your ladies look awesome! Keep it up bro.


----------



## allgrownup (Jul 16, 2008)

excellent bro....time for a bud blaster.


----------



## El Hefe (Jul 18, 2008)

Looking rad tent what strain are they of again?  cant wait till they swell up a bit!


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 19, 2008)

El Hefe said:
			
		

> Looking rad tent what strain are they of again? cant wait till they swell up a bit!


 
Some of the finest bag seed I could get my hands on.


Also...

I'm looking for suggestions as to when to flush.  Any thoughts?


----------



## allgrownup (Jul 23, 2008)

flush your last 5-7 days should be fine.


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 24, 2008)

Changed the water.  Noticed that the 3rd step fertalizer in the package I'm using doesn't leave nearly as much salt/stuff behind.  Although I still didn't think to top off my water in the past week and I used 10 gallons.   Unfortunately thats 25% of my water.

Only one plant seems to mind.  4th picture.  It's quite yellow even though the picture doesn't show it very well.  Although it has some of the coolest looking flowers in the tent.  Far fewer hairs but the individual buds are huge for its size (picture 5).

I think the back 3 plants are one strain and the front 6 are another.  Simply by looks and smell.  I'm considering ordering seeds but I'm ridiculously happy how these plants are turning out.  Also considering trying to regen a few of the plants.  Take some clones off them and dial the system in a little more.

Questions comments concerns, always welcome.

Enjoy


----------



## Runbyhemp (Jul 24, 2008)

Starting to look nice now, tentfarmer :aok:


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 31, 2008)

Well I wanted to share the ladies with all of you.  So I took a body and a bust shot of all my plants.  The first six I suspect are the same strain (very similar characteristics and the smell is the same).  The last 3 I also feel are the same, however I don't know why #7 is so much further ahead of 8 and 9 but the scent is the same.

#7 is already turning amber and I'm looking into flushing her soon.  The rest are still a little behind.

Suggestions, comments and questions are always appreciated.

Peace


----------



## TentFarmer (Jul 31, 2008)

Too many pics for one post.  

Enjoy


----------



## andy52 (Jul 31, 2008)

looks good


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 1, 2008)

I'm starting to have a few of the trich's turn amber on plant # 7.  I am thinking about putting it in a bucket of my leaching water.  Keep it from taking a bath with the rest of the girls.

Any thoughts?  Not sure if 1-2 waterings a day is that detrimental when in the final stages and only using what is essentially sugar water.  Also not sure if sitting in leach water 24/7 would be better than my other option.  

I guess I could put its basket on something to elevate it and have a small pump do a drip system every 4 hours....

Any thoughts?


----------



## Runbyhemp (Aug 2, 2008)

Nice grow tentfarmer :aok:


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 2, 2008)

Thank you  very much


----------



## allgrownup (Aug 2, 2008)

Looks good man.

I know many people who would cut about now just to get a headstart on the next crop.  at this stage its pretty much personal preference for what your trying to accomplish.  If i still see a lot of pistil/bud development and what not i would let them go a bit more.  if not much new development, and trichs are turning....just start flooding with plain water.

then harvest plants based on trichs over the week and you wont have the typicall boring sticky back breaking labor of sitting in the same spot for hours and hours trying to tackel em all  hahahahahahha  

time to pick ups some grande mason jars man  :hubba:  take the xtra time to cure em.  makes all the difference.


----------



## parkingjoe (Aug 2, 2008)

awesome tent well done dude im so envioussss

pkj


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 3, 2008)

Decided to take some advice and cleaned out the res and put in my leaching/flushing solution.  2 of the plants are a a week behind so I plan to rig up a quicky drip system.  I've got an extra small pump that would normally be stiring up my res but since no nuits, no need to mix.  

If my system works I'll share a photo or two.  If it fails, I'll never mention it again.

Thanks again everyone


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 3, 2008)

Thought about it, and just not going to worry about the 2 that are behind.  They'll do the best they can and I'll smoke them none the less.


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 3, 2008)

Thought about it, and just not going to worry about the 2 that are behind.  They'll do the best they can and I'll smoke them none the less.


----------



## someguy (Aug 3, 2008)

whoa, lookin very good brrrrroooooo


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 5, 2008)

So last night (and into this morning) I harvested 2 of my plants.  Tonight a few more will get the axe.  And I must say that I was nervous that I wouldn't be getting a lot of yield from these shorty plants but.... I see the error of my ways.   I'm trimming up the leaves and letting the buds hang from the stem otherwise I would post a wet weight.  

Quick question though.  My buds are fairly dense.  Should I expece alot of shrinkage or will they dry close to the same size they are now.  I know wet weight is dramatically different than dry but what about wet girth vs. dry?

I'll post up some photos once I get tonights ladies trimmed.  

Thanks for the help and for stopping by.


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 6, 2008)

This is 7 of them cut and manicured.  Some of the plants were over achievers and sported quite a few supplemental buds despite early trimming.  Those buds  were trimmed off and hanging separate.  No clue on weight at the moment.  

2 plants are still growing.  They're still a few weeks behind so I'm swapping them back to nuits.  They really blew up the past few weeks.  I'm looking forward to seeing 2 plants sharing 600 watts.  They should perk up a bit.


----------



## andy52 (Aug 6, 2008)

looks good farmer.


----------



## allgrownup (Aug 9, 2008)

excellent job man.  thats a good haul.  i'd guess they'll be about 1/7 of the wet weight when dry.  let them dry to the point the stem will make a "crack" sound when bent.  completely environment driven not time. so i cant tell ya when that will be.  temps, humidity, etc.  keep them out of sunlight as much as possible tho when drying.

then after this time 4-8 days in dry heat  put them into big mason jars or in some form of seal'd somethin.  open the container a few times a day to let breathe for 5-15 min.  then after a couple weeks or so just open once a day.  after a month or so you can just leave seald.  if cure'd properly, it will keep a very long time and have a great aroma, flavor, and be a real smoooooooooth smoke.

hmmmm..now i'm feenden for some of that sweet smooooooth myself.

L8r


----------



## Timmyjg6 (Aug 9, 2008)

Wow, nice thread. But have you considered shredded rockwool instead of hydroton...?


----------



## N1XONâ¢ (Aug 10, 2008)

nice grow man cant w8 to see what u got out of this grow


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 13, 2008)

Timmyjg6 said:
			
		

> Wow, nice thread. But have you considered shredded rockwool instead of hydroton...?



I have but I like the air my roots get due to the hydroton.  I've been told that rockwool, while delivering plenty of moisture, can deny the roots the air it needs.  Since this is my first grow I can't really say one way or the other but... this was pretty simple.  

Next grow I want to cycle in some suplimental nuits.  Do a better job of triming earlier on.  And stake them up asap.  

I've had them "brown bagged" for a few days now, they're about ready for jars.  I'll post their weight at that point.

Thanks for the support everyone.


----------



## TentFarmer (Aug 14, 2008)

Well,  7 of my 9 plants have been harvested, hung, brown bagged, and now jarred.  I don't have a digital scale, just a spring style that I use for measuring my beer ingredients with.

My 7 plants yielded just under a half pound.  

The 2 plants that are still going should easily yield 2-3 oz between the two of them as they're freaking huge!!!

I should have them chopped in the next week or so.  I want to let these go a little more mature then the rest did.  Everything I have now has an awesome head buzz but sometimes you just want to be glued to your chair.  

Well I'm off to go enjoy some partially cured beautiful buds.  

I'll check in when the other two plants check out.

Peace


----------

