Beginning of a Garden Update 23 December 2023
There’s gonna be a lot of rambling in here, just a warning.
I’ve got the tent all kitted out. I ordered the Hydrofarm Megagarden picked up a new, low-profile pump.that’ll let me use all the 9 gallons the small reservoir has to offer me. I’ve got all the hardware I’ll need to use it - 25’ of braided line and fittings, quick-connect for my sink (so I can control the temperature of the fill water). I’ll sit the whole thing on some foam to elevate it and make it easier to drain when I exchange the reservoir contents. Waiting on some wicking mat material for the veg-side. I’ll cross that bridge as I get there over the next few weeks. I’d like to have a small reservoir wicking into the veg trays for my moms.
Long story not exactly short I spent about an hour at the hydro shop talking to the guys about the plan and the 2x2 flower chamber. They shared the opinion of most here that phenohunting in a 2x2 with a tiny table isn’t realistic. I’ve decided I want to try anyway. Perhaps, likely even, that ambition will shortly bite me in the ass. But I’m ready for it, and will proceed anyway. I find solace in knowing I can readily accomodate 1-2 plants with the same setup. For whatever combination of reasons I’m used to my crazy ideas working. I constantly fear Dunning-Kruger is behind most of them
My half-witted logic tells me there is little harm in SOG’ing many plants and picking the best ones. Will the expression be different when I take that clone outside? Sure. But it seems to me that picking the best inside probably isn’t going to hurt me outside. Picking something easy to trim, nice look, smell and effects I can’t see wildly backfiring outside. I mean, for the last two summers there has been NO selection really, just whatever I get from the bean. Almost random, although I picked the vigorous ones last summer. But - if it does, fail that is, I’ll post it. As I am wetting these seeds I worry perhaps a solid humbling is forthcoming. So it may be.
I’ve decided to attempt to pop some of my crosses made last year. The 907 Blue Genes Mom crossed to pollen I received: Shiskaberry (@SHSC-1 ) and AKBB NL#1 (@Klyphman)
Decided to do 18 beans total, assuming 50% make it through to flower (females) and I can fit all these somewhere for a few weeks. I’m also guessing some of them won’t pop, who the fuck knows maybe none of them pop. I’m running a few less-ripe beans just to see what happens. Dash of H2O2 and warm water on the towels.
A note to myself about the seed prep: Dried branches to crisp, sifted seeds, non-sealed ziploc for a month or two, sealed and tossed in chest freezer for a few days. Came out yesterday and thawed in drawer until now.
6x 907 Blue Genes x Shiskaberry (2 left):
I wish I had more of the Shiskaberry cross but bud rot crushed that branch outside. 8 total collected seeds that I’m SURE are the Shiska. There’s several seeds I found trimming but they are bastards this plant got quite a few male donors.
12x 907 Blue Genes x NL#1 (11 left if they are good I’ll send 'em to @Klyphman):
Ready to go:
Into the veg chamber. I stuck them under the tray, the heatmat is off because it’s about 80F in there when it’s running. You can see the veg-side ventilation control adjacent to the veg exh fan on the far side. It’s always on and constant speed. Near side you can see my environmental monitor, I really like these Inkbird WiFi thermometers/hygrometers. I had used them to monitor my shed/dry box all the way out in the shed, now they are all in or around the tent. I’ll probably buy another set, they’re less than $15 each.
I adjusted the lights essentially to the “ceiling” and turned them to 400ppfd at the height of the tray. Anyway that warms things up nicely. I’ve been playing with fan speeds attempting to get an idea of where I want to be and run things once I have plants in there. Just getting a feel for things.
I assume I want high 70s-low 80s when lights are on and 65-70 when they are off. We’re flirting with that now. I have the primary ventilation nominally running at 2 and it kicks to 6 when the main flower chamber gets to 77. I’m liking the ACI Controller 69 Pro. I picked up another outlet to run my water pump with a splitter. I think I can run all my switched outlets from 1 port (Flower light, veg light, flood pump), which leaves me with a spare port if I need it. Exhaust fan is port 1, outlets will be port 2 and 3, and my fancy circulation fan will be port 4.
Cheers guys, hope your holiday weekends are fantastic!